Meat & Potatoes.

We celebrated our Valentine's Day over the weekend and it couldn't have been lovelier! Javi arrived with not one, not two, but three bouquets of different flowers! He gave me a traditional rose bouquet, a tropical flower arrangement, and my new found favorite, gladiolas! My gift to him was a scrumptious meal of our favorite beef tenderloin that I paired with yummy sweet potatoes and a side salad.  This meat recipe has been in our family for years and it is seriously a slice of heaven. No. Joke. It's served with a mushroom Roquefort sauce that is the absolute cherry on top!  As far as the dessert goes, that's something I must share with you another time. Yes, it's that good that it requires a whole other post!

Sweet Potato Casserole

2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
3/4 cup granulated sugar (I used less)
1/4 cup evaporated low-fat milk
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
Cooking spray
1.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1/3 cup)
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°. To prepare potatoes, place potatoes in a Dutch oven or large pot; cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until tender; drain. Cool 5 minutes.

Place potatoes in a large bowl; add granulated sugar, evaporated milk, 3 tablespoons melted butter, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and vanilla. Beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Add eggs; beat well. Pour potato mixture into a 13 x 9–inch baking pan coated with cooking spray.

To prepare topping, weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, brown sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon salt; stir with a whisk. Stir in 2 tablespoons melted butter. Sprinkle flour mixture evenly over potato mixture; arrange pecans evenly over top. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or just until golden.

Preheat broiler (remove casserole from oven).

Broil casserole 45 seconds or until topping is bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

We Have a Winner!

We are extremely excited to announce the winner of our first giveaway! Kirsten from Ruffles and Buttons is the winner of a handmade burgundy cowl.  Thanks SO SO much to everyone that entered our giveaway.  We truly wish we had a cowl to give to each and every one of you!  We hope this is the first of many giveaways so stay tuned.  Since we started blogging we have been exposed to so many wonderful people from around the world.  We love hearing from you on our blog as well as learning more about you on your own blog.  THANK YOU for everything!

Love Is In The Air.

Wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day! Hope your day is full of love, happiness, and lot's of yummy sweets!  Be sure to enter our giveaway for a handmade cowl.  We will announce the lucky winner tonight!

A Valentine's Day Greeting.

I've never been big into Valentine's Day and to be quite honest, this is the second time I actually have a special someone to celebrate with.  While there were TONS of adorable cards that I wanted to grab at the store, I thought it would be best to create something more personal and created by me!  I got the idea from an item I saw on Etsy where the designer commemorates couple's favorite road trips.  I immediately wanted to recreate it into a card to reflect the places I've been with my boyfriend.  Given we have been together for just less than two years, we sure have a lot more places to visit! I'll spare you the corny message I wrote inside the card but it went something along the lines of looking forward to traveling to new places.  With this said, I suggest you create your own card this Valentine's Day.  Whether it's for that special someone or a friend!

Don't forget to enter our giveaway!

Piece of Cake.

This past weekend our Dad turned a year older.  Don't worry Dad, I won't reveal how young you are! He is a HUGE fan of chocolate so it wasn't difficult deciding what to bake for his special day.  A few months back I had baked this chocolate cake for Alex's birthday, but I'm always wanting to try new recipes so I went with a new take on this common delight.  With a few basic ingredients for the cake and some chopped chocolate for the glaze, this recipe was a piece of cake!  It was perfectly moist and not too rich.  Everyone devoured it and went sneaking back to the cake plate to grab another slither.  Our mom's birthday arrives at the end of the month.  I'll have to whip up something equally as yummy for her!

Chocolate Cake 

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature 30 minutes
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk

For Glaze:
1/4 cup heavy cream
3 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate (not more than 60% cacao if marked), finely chopped
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
Colorful confectionary sprinkles and/or nonpareils

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter bottom and side of pan.

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.

Beat together butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to medium-low and add flour mixture and milk alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture (batter will appear curdled).

Transfer batter to cake pan and smooth top. Bake until cake begins to pull away from side of pan and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool cake in pan 5 minutes, then invert onto a rack and cool completely, about 1 hour.

While cake cools, bring cream to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, then pour over chocolate in a bowl and let stand 1 minute. Gently whisk until smooth, then stir in corn syrup. Cool completely, gently stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes (glaze will thicken).

Pour glaze onto center of cake and spread to edges with a spatula. Decorate with sprinkles and/or nonpareils.

Note: The above recipe makes one 9-inch round cake.  I doubled the recipe to make a double-layer cake.

Don't forget to enter our giveaway!