Cake Balls! and Red Lentil Stew

What?!?! Yes sir, I made cake balls! I've seen these things before at the post punk kitchen forum and I knew that they were going to be made one day. When I made Marc's birthday cake a few weekends ago, I had messed up the first cake. It came out overdone on the outside and fell apart when I plopped it out of the cake tin. It was still perfectly good though so I kept the pieces in the freezer for cake balls later.


I felt like a candy maker rolling smooshy cake mixture into little balls and then dipping them in chocolate. I added colorful sprinkles to entice you even more.


These little guys are dense and very rich. I had one so far and I was totally satisfied! I will be sharing them with my co-workers tomorrow. If you want to make these, follow this recipe as a guideline. It says to use a whole can of cake frosting but that was a little scary for me. I used almost half a can which worked just fine.


This was my lunch today. I've been wanting middle eastern food and was flipping through a food memoir I read a while back called "Memories of a Lost Egypt" by Colette Rossant. There is a recipe for Soeur Leila's Red Lentil Stew which sounded real good. Pureed red lentils and vegetables simmered with vermicelli noodles and sauteed onions. I added spinach for some color. I served it with olive oil-fried pieces of pita bread. The stew was thick and velvety and was so good with the fried bread and a squeeze of lemon. This one's a keeper! Recipe here. (Replace the chicken broth for veggie broth or water. Also instead of a can of tomatoes, just use 1 tomato, quartered.)