Spork or Foon?

Halloween Funfetti Cake Balls! Spooky Scary!

It's Halloween (and today I'm dressed up as Captain Obvious).

I decided to make some funfetti cake balls for a Halloween party that I was supposed to attend on Saturday night. Unfortunately, Jack got sick, and I, like the loving fiancee that I am, stayed home to take care of him and ended up watching scary movies all night. The Exorcist and The Shining, neither of which I've seen. SO SCARY. I screamed a lot. Then I watched Poltergeist right afterwards, a movie I have seen and for years I always kept my closet door closed because my cousin, Desi, told me that if you keep your closet door open, a Poltergeist was going to come into your room. Every night, until I was 26 years old, I did this. I'm not kidding.  And I'm only 29 (and 358 days) old.

To digress for just a short moment, have you ever seen this preview for The Shining, where someone makes it out to look like it's a lighthearted family comedy? It's amazing.

 

The thing that I love about these cake balls is that they are so easy to make, and are so delicious. The thing I hate about these cake balls are that they are so easy to make and are so delicious.  When I make these cake balls, I end up eating about 10-15 of them. No joke. It's really disgusting.  But I'm like, hey, they're small, so they're not too many calories.  5 cake balls later, I'm feeling naseous, but still just can't stop. And I haven't even coated them with chocolate yet. So I coat them with chocolate, let them set, and then eat another. You know, because I have to taste it when it's coated with chocolate.  But what I love so much is actually when they are in the fridge, and you eat them straight from the fridge, and you hear that "crunch" as you bite through the crisp outer chocolate layer and then get to the smooth cake layer inside.  So I need to eat one after I put it in the fridge.  10 cake balls later, I'm feeling sick, contemplating a second trip to the gym, yet still secretly want another. 

This is what happened to me yesterday. I didn't eat 10 cake balls... at least I don't think I did, but it was close. I went to bed feeling ashamed of myself. 

And what did I do the first thing when I woke up.

I ate a cake ball.

Don't judge.  I'm signed up for a spin class later. And tomorrow morning.  

The sad thing is, since I couldn't bring them to the party, I wanted to bring them to work. Well, who's got two thumbs and forgot to bring these to work?

This girl.

So now I've got 30 more little funfetti cake balls awaiting me at home. 

Spooky scary indeed. 

LOOK AT THAT! How you can you not eat 100 of these?!

Funfetti Cake Balls

1 Box of Funfetti Cake Mix

1 jar of vanilla frosting

White Chocolate Candy Melts (you can buy these at Michaels or any cake decorating store) in white, orange, green and purple

1/3 cup canola oil

2 eggs

Two 9" cake pans

Bake cakes according to directions on the box. Once baking is completed, allow to cool completely on a wire rack. 

After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.

Mix thoroughly with 3/4 can frosting. 

Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. This will be messy, but they will come together. Resist the urge to eat 5 cake balls.

Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)

Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package.

Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a fork to dip and roll in chocolate - be careful not to pierce the ball - and then tap off extra.)

Drizzle with different colored chocolate.

Top Chef Dale Talde's Iron Grilled Cheese and Filet Mignon with a Smoky Tomato Soup

First of all - I always want to add an "e" to smokey, which makes me want to add an "e" to tomato.  It's the Dan Quayle effect.

Sooo... it's been a while, huh? Life takes you in some pretty crazy directions.  I was working a job where I basically ate, slept and breathed that job (albeit, a pretty amazingly awesome job with some pretty amazingly awesome people), but I have taken a new position where I hopefully have a bit more of some work life balance and some more time to blog!

Aren't you all so excited?!?!?  More me and my long-winded posts!!!

How about I try to keep this one short, hmm?

Do you remember the episode from Top Chef All-Stars in which the cheftestants (I miss that word) had to cook using only food they found at Target (TARGET!! Or as I like to say "Tar-JAY") and Dale won by grilling a grilled cheese in which he added rib eye steak with AN IRON.

Funnily enough, in the directions for this soup, it still tells you to make this at home by grilling it with AN IRON.

Listen, as great as that sounds, I don't want my grilled cheese tasting like spray starch. Or worse, having my shirts smell like grilled cheese.

I know the photo is bad, but it's been a while since I've blogged, so I've forgotten how to set up a shot. And to be honest, I actually kind of accidentally dropped the sandwich in the soup, and when I took it out, it looked like a hot mess, so I had to just put it in and let it look like that.

Anyways...

This one is SO simple. Tomatoes, onions, garlic, smokey chipotle Tabasco sauce, some half and half. Blend. And you've got a creamy, complex soup, where the smokey chipotle and its subtle spices dance on your tongue. And don't even get me started on this sandwich. Cripsy bread, touched ever so lightly with butter, filled with ooey gooey cheese and (in my case, because I don't like ribeye), tender, juicy pieces of filet mignon are absolutely to die for. I normally don't like grilled cheese, because I don't like cheesy things ...besides my writing. BA DUM CHAAAAA.

Anyone?

Whomp, whomp.

Dale Talde's Smoky Tomato Soup and a Grilled Cheese and Filet Mignon Sandwich.

Serves 4

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 can whole peeled tomatoes (preferable San Marzano)

1/4 cup Half and Half (or you can use heavy cream)

1 tablespoon smoky chipotle Tabasco

8 oz. Filet Mignon

Cheese (any kind you like - I used fontina)

Bread (again, any kind you like, I used a whole wheat boule)

Butter to spread on bread

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Olive Oil

For the soup

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium high heat. When glistening, add chopped onion and garlic and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add whole peeled tomatoes and half and half and lower heat to medium.  Cook over medium heat for 7 minutes, add smoky Tabasco.  Carefully transfer to a blender and puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste

For the Sandwich

Season filet mignon with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a saute pan over medium high heat. Add filet mignon and cook to medium rare, about 3 minutes on each side. Remove from heat and let rest.

Butter outside of bread lightly. Slice cheese and lay on slices of bread. When readdy, slice filet mignon into thin slices and arrange on top of cheese. Assemble sandwich and cook either in panini press or on griddle until cheese is melted and bread is crispy.

Serve with soup immediately.