Winners and Losers

This month there have been some clear winners. Some of the losers have come up just a tad short and others miles off. For those that weren’t up to snuff…there was an element of rushing (trying to get two desserts out of my oven between 11 pm and 6:30 am (mid-week)) and others just didn’t fit as snugly as they should - although it didn’t stop me from eating them.

Winners:
Individual crustless cheddar, prosciutto, asparagus, mushroom quiches:
1. Filling
2. With salad, perfect for a mid-week dinner
3. EASY to make

Caramel cake (cupcakes) – both versions with slight variations made within a 72 hour period
1. Heaven
2. on
3. a
4. plate

Spinach Salad with roasted Aubergine, toasted pine nuts, grilled garlic chicken, pickled beets, feta and dried cranberries
1. Healthy
2. Perfect sweet, salty, bitter, tart combo
3. Except for setting of my smoke detector three x roasting the aubergine, EASY


Runner-up:
Chocolate brownies with fresh raspberries

I was told by one event attendee that the brownies were “the best brownies I have ever had in my entire life”. But seeing as the comment came from a professional nutritionist who eats products with sugar only once every 10 days I wasn’t sure if it was her sugar-deprived mind talking. I mean, I almost thought it could have been spoonful of fluff and she would have said the same thing. WEIRD.

2nd to last place:
Peanut chocolate caramel brownies

With a name as heavenly as this how could these have been bad? Well whatever random combination I threw together resulted in a cake like brownie – not a gooey fudgy bliss bar that I’d been hoping for. I really wanted to like them as indicated by eating 4 in a row – almost willing it, but in the end I just thought they were ok. Again, lots of friends thought they were great – but I wonder sometimes about these friends of mine…that maybe they're using the old positive reinforcement to just keep the food coming. I’m on to you guys!

Last place – relegated to el dumpster-o.
Coconut almond macaroons

Trying hard to get something made as quickly as possible and not having any time to make it to the supermarket resulted in these tasteless and gummy like cookies. Not my shining moment. Even when doused in really good dark chocolate - it was like wrapping Pamela Anderson up in Chanel.