scrabble never tasted so good.

the past few days have been a whirlwind of chaos, food obsessions, kindred spirits, & loud talkers (with a few low talkers thrown in the mix! time to go watch that seinfeld episode again)...alas with the current snowstorm/blizzard/day off from steaming milk&feeding the public's caffeine addiction, I am excited to post the adventures I have embarked on...
Even though we threw a fabulous belated birthay dinner extravaganza party just a few short weeks ago, I wanted more! I had an urge to cook again, but this time only invited a handful of people, down from 33 to maybe 12, attempting to pass it off as a quiet scrabble gathering, but alas that was not to be the case...I don't think it ever will be...so in preparation, because I am a firm believer in having too much food rather than not enough, as soon as I arrived home from work Friday night, I started my fast & furious turn to th dark side...goat cheese brownies were to be my first devious task....I had seen a glimpse of them on an episode of Bobby Flay's throwdown...he lost to this seemingly scary confection, & I just had to know how good they really could be...I have a deep rooted affinity for goat cheese& chocolate is always a dealmaker, so it seemed to me to be the perfect fit/match....I followed the recipe, which I procured from www.fattoadfarm.com...i set to work, double boiling the chocolate, & mixing the dry ingredients...but the super awesome exciting part came when I rocked out with the goat cheese...usually when i do baked goods, I don't always use electric mixer, I oftentimes mix by hand, but with the texture of the goat cheese I broke out my electric mixer..the goat cheese blended perfectly with the sugar&vanilla, & I just knew the finished product would be ridiculous...which means crazy good by the way...i layered the chocolate & goat cheese delicately in the pan, & made sure to put my finishing touches of swirls on the top...as they went into the heated abyss, I moved onto my empanada filling....again, empanadas are the perfect foodie item to have at all casual get togethers, they are filling, easy to make & satisfying to feverishly consume...
this time I changed up the filling...I still made 40 (for some reason the magic number of empanadas to prepare)...I buy 2 different doughs, yellow & white, so I can color coordinate the fillings, one for meat filling, the other for the very lovely vegetarians in my life...for the meat, besides the requisite garlic, onions, spanish olives, ground beef, & myriad of yummy spices, I added diced red potatoes...and for the meatless ones, instead of just cheese, I added garlic,onions, olives & yet agin potatoes...the potatoes added a nice texture to both & i was very pleased with the results...the next night when i served them i was satisfied & sooo happy when i was told these were the best empanadas I had ever made...
as for the goat cheese brownies, when I presented them to my fabulous guests, there was a great deal of skepticism as to how they would actually taste...i was ready to win them over, I knew that once they had their first taste, they would immediately cross over to my side & never go back...& then it happened...then skeptics marvelled at how the smooth & sweetly tart goat cheese complemented the chocolate, reminicent of cheesecake...one bit was not enough, & soon crumb covered hands were reaching out for seconds & thirds, some of my friends were scooping up fallen morsels of goat cheese from the plate to consume...I would say mission accomplished.
as for scrabble, that never came to fruition...we did play lunch money, which was an experience in it of itself...the scrabble board was laid out at some point, where we spelled out messages best not repeated on my cooking blog. just another fantastic night of good people & good eats...there really is no better way to spend life.