I was happy to oblige and prepare a red velvet cake – everyone seemed in awe of my nonchalant acceptance of the task. I googled it and found this recipe from food network.

Upon rounding up the ingredients, I discovered I would need to buy 4 (FOUR) packages of food coloring, just to get the amount of liquid red food coloring I’d need. (and it probably wouldn’t be that red)

Crazy enough, I was at an Indian market the day before, just perusing and noticed they had dry food coloring.

I high tailed it back over to the market and picked up a jar of the red food coloring and returned home to proceed.

With just a quarter of a teaspoon, my batter was already looking good:

Red Velvet Batter

and it turned out pretty good at the pot-luck, at least no one complained..

Although, Andy commented that it wasn’t the best he’s had… perhaps I need a more intimidating recipe?

Oh, that's where I left my car keys!

One flip through it and I knew what recipe (and I use the term loosely – Alton encourages people to ‘own’ their cooking, and the book’s writing reflects that): Chili. Which is the one recipe in ‘I’m Just Here for the Food’ that uses a pressure cooker, something I’ve been wanting for a while.

Isn't it adorable, with it's 'pot belly' - It's a Fagor.

And I got one today from Bed Bath and Beyond, and whipped up the recipe in it – three pounds of cheap beef, spices and such I had around the apartment, and viola!

The beans were added at the end, considering any amount of time in the pressure cooker for cooked beans would destroy them. If you’re ever curious how your local Mexican restaurant manages to get their beef tips and such so fork tender, this is it!

http://pornforchubbies.blogspot.com (Yeah, I know… the name’s a little off.) Throw that in your favorite feed reader. (What’s that? You’re not using a feed reader? Try out Google Reader!)

The other day he brought in a cake and deposited in one of the kitchens and at 9 in the morning, I thought it was a little early for a big hunk of cake, so I said to myself, “I’ll get some here in a bit, maybe after lunch.”

ha. It had already been pilfered.

So, I decided I’d make the same thing, since the recipe had appeared on the blog.

Oreo Cake, the finished product.

In making it, I called Sarah and Kelly concerning the icing. Both demanded that I share the recipe. Here ya go:

1 Devil’s Food Cake Mix w/ related ingredients

1/2 cup Sugar
8 oz Cream Cheese, room temperature
8 oz Cool Whip
1/2 package Oreo Cookies, crushed

1 container Devil’s Food Cake Icing (this is the part that got me… I don’t know what ‘Devils Food Cake Icing’ is, so I used chocolate fudge icing.)

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(1) Prepare the cake as directed in two 9″ round cake pans.
(2) Allow cake to cool completely.
(3) Cream together the cream cheese and sugar.
(4) Mix in the cool whip and cookies.
(5) Top one of the cakes with the cookie/cream cheese mixture (you should have a couple inches of filling).
(6) Place the other cake on top of the cookie/cream cheese mixture, to resemble a large Oreo cookie.
(7) Heavily frost the top [only] of the cake.

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