Happy With Myself?

What's in Your Pantry?

I just got off the phone with Ginger (link to the right) and reluctantly gave up going shopping with her. To clean my house. Ahem. Now I'm blogging for the second time today. I may give up blogging for Lent next spring.

Anyway, in our conversation I mentioned in passing (possibly for trying to lure her over) that I had nine pounds of chocolate chips in my pantry. Who does not have nine pounds of chocolate chips in their pantry? Allow me to explain. First of all, I am a chocolate freak. Most people know this. Blairs have chocolate running in their bloodstream. I make this chocolate cake called Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake. Very tasty (if I do say so myself). This cake requires 3 cups of chocolate chips. So, I always have two bags of chocolate chips in my pantry because I make this cake for just about every get together I have at my house or to take to someone else's house. Well, I had three bags of Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (wipe your mouth) in my pantry because they are the absolute best chocolate chips. Then I went to Sam's. ooooh, I love Sam's and sometimes I get a little bit carried away there. It's like a grown-up playground and they have YUMMY pizza. Anyhoo... I went down the baking aisle and NOTICED that the Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chips were 8.50 for a big bag (not sure pounds- maybe 4) and the Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (which they don't always carry) were 3.50 (or something like that) for 3.5 pounds. WOAH. Fate stepped in. Or fate dipped in chocolate stepped in. I even felt a wave of adrenaline hit me as I picked up the bag and felt its cold, lumpy packaging. I picked up 3 bags initially, but put back one, remembering that I had three bags at home in my pantry (9 pounds of chocolate is okay to have in your pantry, but definitely not 12... that's crazy). I never thought that this was irrational (okay, maybe a small part of me did because I did NOT want Quinn to see that I had bought that many chocolate chips) until I was talking to Ginger and I realized that there was actually NINE POUNDS of chocolate in the pantry. Hmmm. I also like there to be lots of cereal in the pantry. Not sure why.

So here's the recipe for my Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake (okay it's really Southern Living's recipe) that I know from memory:

1 box Devil's Food with pudding in the mix
1 5.9 ounce box of instant chocolate pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup oil
3 cups chocolate chips, divided
1/2 cup whipping cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour bundt cake. Mix 1st five ingredients in a bowl until well blended. Stir in two cups of chocolate chips. Pour into prepared bundt pan and bake for 50 to 55 minutes. Toothpick will not come clean, but cake is done when you push on top of cake lightly and it bounces back.
Allow cake to cool for 10 minutes in pan and then let cool on wire rack for one hour. On low heat stir together remaining chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of whipping cream until it's chocolaty smooth. (Don't worry, you can lick the saucepan). Let ganoche (that's what the icing is called) cool for 10 minutes and then drizzle over cake. Allow to sit so the ganoche can harden. Enjoy.

PS. Quinn doesn't really like musicals. He was being sarcastic. I think it's funny though that people thought he really did like musicals and was secretly enjoying the fact that it was annoying him that people thought that he did. Heh, heh. I love musicals... dipped in chocolate. Yum.