When Fandoms Attack: Spicy Dark Chocolate-Coffee Cupcakes

So, about two years ago, the husband was advised, nay ordered, by a friend to play a new (well, newly discovered) video game. it was around the time that World of Warcraft died down in our household and, while I was still busy with grad school, my husband was looking for something to fill the time in the evenings and on weekends. World of Warcraft (or WoW) was a huge deal in our house until then. We were part of a guild and we ran raids and did dungeon runs together. But, just before our wedding, we decided that we needed to focus our attention on, well, our wedding, and both agreed to stop playing. We both realized that WoW wasn't holding our attention as much as it did before and a few months after we got married, we cancelled our accounts. One of our good friends had recently picked up a game called Mass Effect. It was a sci-fi space-faring RPG and apparently it grabbed our friend more than any other game before it. The husband was intrigued and borrowed a copy from another friend who had played it and finished it. The husband was, for lack of a better word, enraptured by the game. He couldn't put it down. He dove headfirst into the world of Mass Effect (or ME) fandom and joined all the fan communities on LiveJournal, even got a handle/profile on the game forums. Soon after he finished the first one, the sequel came out and I don't think I saw him for days as he consumed every bit of that game. His fandom grew and he started to write fanfiction, the sort of level-cap to any fandom. During this time, he kept suggesting that I play, too. Given the timing, I didn't really have much in the way of free time, but during one of my breaks I picked up ME1 and started playing. I loved it. I couldn't get enough of it. While my fandom never fully capped like my husband's, I was in it for the long-haul. I played through ME1 multiple times and imported all my saved games into ME2; bought the downloadable content; bought ME-themed apparel; the works. When ME3 released earlier this year, we both ordered our own copies of the Collector's Edition of ME3. While this certainly isn't the forum for expressing how we eventually felt about the trilogy's ending, suffice it to say we're still hooked. ME remains a huge deal in our household. While I might not be writing my own fanfiction, I help proofread the husband's works and I follow a few choice fanfiction authors online now. So yeah, pretty big deal.

But, La Petite Chef, how is this related to food? Oh, dear reader, everything in my life can be related to food. Sometimes I feel like Monica on Friends when she's told that the only reason she became a chef was so people would like her (that's another fandom entirely, believe me). I tell you about this Mass Effect fandom to lay the groundwork for what I did last year.

Last year was the husband's 30th birthday. One of those milestone birthdays and we went all out. I even organized with one of his best men at our wedding to come up from LA to visit and celebrate with us. We had a ton of people over at my parent's house and cooked up a huge variety of street-style Mexican tacos. We had carne asada, carnitas, grilled chicken, and even some grilled portobello mushrooms for our vegetarian friends. Accompanying these we had all the condiments: homemade guacamole, pico de gallo, salsa verde, pickled onions. Let's just say the crowd did not leave hungry that day. The thing is, the husband did all of this himself. Well, okay, I helped a lot with the prep-work, but he manned the grill, and served everything up on his birthday. He loved it. I, on the other hand, kept the dessert a secret. I only asked him what kind of cupcakes he wanted. He simply said spicy chocolate. Off to the internet I went and found a beautiful recipe for Spicy Dark Chocolate-Coffee Cupcakes with Cardamom Buttercream. I ran it by him, he approved, and I made them. What the husband didn't know was how they were going to be decorated. Little did he know, I had been making sketches of my idea a few weeks leading up to the party. I wanted it to be perfect. I researched what I wanted to draw, bought a whole mess of food colorings, pastry bags, and piping tips. I spent the night before the party at my parent's house, baking and decorating and getting everything set up. I loved every minute of it. Only thing I wish I had was a picture of the two of us holding the tray of cupcakes on his birthday. Oh well, let's just say, he was pleased.

The cupcakes and buttercream was easy enough to make, really. I find cupcakes to be easier to bake than whole cakes and for almost every special occasion in the last 3 years, I've been happy to bake cupcakes for birthdays and other events. I made 2 batches of Root Beer Float Cupcakes for my niece and nephew's 5th birthday party, as well as cupcakes for the last few birthdays for the husband. These particular cupcakes were quite delicious. The spice was a little more subdued than I was expecting; there was definitely more coffee than spice, but I don't think I would try and add MORE spice as I wouldn't want the cupcakes to end up bitter. The cardamom buttercream was an excellent complement, although I was rather sick of cardamom after making these, considering how much I had to handle the frosting during the decorating phase. My nephew, who isn't big on cupcakes at all, said they were his favorite. The reason being is that I lightly ice my cupcakes. Like my nephew, I do not like a ton of frosting or icing on my cupcakes. It's too sweet, especially when all I want is the cake. So yeah, the cupcakes, both as food and a gift, went over well. Not everyone in the crowd understood the significance, but it was my gift to my husband. While my fandom will never surpass his completely, at least he knows I'm just as much of a fan in my own way.

Valentine's in North Africa: Sautéed Quail with Paprika Sauce and Moroccan-Spiced Vegetables

Yes, I do realize that we're in mid-April and I'm now JUST getting to the Valentine's Dinner I made for Marshall and I in mid-February.  I actually have recipes from meals and dishes I made toward the end of December of last year sitting in my "Food Blog" photo folder on my hard-drive.  We'll see just how quickly I'm able to catch up.  However, lately I've just been randomly selecting meals from my photos and going from there.  I've actually wanted to post the meal I made for Valentine's Day for a while now, but honestly at this point that's not saying a whole lot...

Anyway!

I've come to realize that the medium I have become most comfortable with for expressing my love (not to mention happiness, frustration, and all the other emotions of the spectrum) is food.  I love the food, of course, but being able to make a delicious meal and cook it for the people I love is something that's become quite apparent recently.  For Valentine's Day this year, I decided to do something a little special for Marshall (and me, of course).  Getting some slight inspiration from the episode of Friends where it shows what might've happened if Monica remained fat (and Ross never got divorced, Rachel married Barry, and so on), I decided to make an entire meal Marshall and I could eat with our hands.  If you know Friends as well as I do, you'll know the reference.  If not, no worries; just be content that I am a bigger nerd than you are.  I also wanted to cook something that I had never made before.  After some thinking and some searching through Epicurious.com, I came up with the following menu:

• Sautéed Quail with Paprika Sauce
• Moroccan-Spiced Vegetables
• Moroccan Couscous, and
• [Homemade] Cardamom Ice Cream

The ice cream, of course, was to be eaten with spoons, otherwise that would've been a much bigger mess than I wanted to clean up.  I found the quail and vegetables as a recipe duo and only later found the Moroccan couscous recipe on Food Network's website (thank you, Ina Garten!). 

Since Valentine's Day fell on a Monday and I didn't want to have to fight with the hordes of couples going out to dinner that night, I offered to make dinner the night before.  We would eat in, have a good home-cooked meal, and just stay relaxed.  On that Saturday, I went ahead and made the base for the Cardamom Ice Cream.  Sitting in the fridge overnight allowed the flavors to meld and really infuse the cream.  For some reason, I believe Marshall was out during the day on Sunday, so I had time to focus on preparing the meal.  The quail was the only worrisome part of the meal, as I had never cooked with it or even bought it from the store.  I found some at my favorite bankrupt Italian market, Cosentino's, and they turned out to be just fine.  They had already been cleaned and had their backs removed, which made my job a WHOLE lot easier.

The meal, and the night as a whole, was perfect.  I enjoyed eating with my hands, even though I don't think Marshall was as keen on the experience as I was.  The couscous was a delicious last-minute choice to round out the meal.  I loved the bright and smoky paprika sauce, which blended well with the vegetables and the couscous.  The quail was delicious, too, and not as gamy as I thought it might be.  I believe we almost forgot about the ice cream.  It was beautifully creamy, silky, and spicy, without being super sweet.  Definitely a perfect ending to our meal.

This is definitely a meal for a special occasion.  I could totally see turning this into a themed event:  a big group of friends over, lots of brightly-colored throw pillows and rugs on the floor, dimmed lighting, and everyone seated on the floor around a low table enjoying some delicious food and wine...