Not a very Lenten post.

It's a good thing that every Sunday is a celebration of Easter, because what follows is not very Lent- (or diet-!!) friendly...

I've been wanting to post all of these for ages, so I figured I'd just go ahead and put them all up at once, now that I've finally gotten around to uploading the pictures.

First is an orange cake I made for Paul's onomastico, or name day.

I started with this cake recipe, which is the best and easiest I've ever used. Instead of vanilla, I used Grand Marnier, and I added the zest from one blood orange. I topped the cake with a glaze made with the juice of the blood orange and powdered sugar. The cake came together really quickly, and was super tasty. Delightfully light and a very nice tart-sweet.

Next up are the pretzels I made as snacks during the Super Bowl.

I used the bread machine to make the dough, then Paul helped me roll and shape them into pretzels. They were boiled for a few minutes in salty water, then baked and topped with kosher salt. They were a pretty close approximation of ballpark soft pretzels--a perfect balance between soft and chewy, and really good dipped in mustard!

I also used the bread machine to make this pizza's garlic-herb crust.

The crust had fresh garlic and dried herbs (I think I just used Italian seasoning), plus a little powdered parmesan. I topped it with canned mushrooms (diced very fine), green olives (also diced very fine), some good pepperoni that we found on sale at Meijer, and mozzarella and (fresh-grated) parmesan cheeses.

Our Valentine's dinner was absolutely to die for.

The asparagus was sauteed/steamed in lemon juice, seasoned with salt and pepper, and then topped with parmesan cheese. I brushed the steaks with a tiny bit of olive oil, then seared them on each side on the stovetop and finished them in the broiler for just a minute (literally just one minute for mine, a total of 2.5 minutes for Paul's--he doesn't like his steak to keep mooing like I do). These were steaks we brought up from home after Christmas--such good meat. I roasted the new potatoes and a few whole cloves of garlic, drizzled with a little olive oil, in a foil pouch in the oven, seasoned with salt, pepper, and herbes de provence. I made an amazing pan sauce with the drippings from the steaks, a bit of red wine, and some butter. Like, so amazing that I sort of wanted to drink it.

As great as the steak, potatoes, and asparagus were, the biggest triumph of our Valentine's feast was the Irish Carbomb Cake.

(I forgot to get a picture before we cut into it -- oops.) This cake was mind blowing. Guinness in the chocolate cake batter, whiskey in the ganache filling (I used the rest of the can of Guinness instead of cream to make the ganache--whoa good), Bailey's in the buttercream frosting. It was every bit as rich and delicious as it sounds. I also had some leftover batter that I made into cupcakes in the manner Deb describes in the link, above. They're super-fun little cupcakes, with the dropped-in "shot" of whiskey ganache. I think the recipe was a rollicking success as a layer cake, too, though.