It is so wonderful to be unpacked and feeling like we are ready and able to resume somewhat of a routine again after living among boxes for a couple of months (actually from April- July 12th when movers came), then living in a hotel for 2 weeks before we were able to move into our new place! We are grateful to be living in a place which we feel God lead us and provided for us!
Our usual tradition when moving into a new house was to make our first meal (when pots and pans were unpacked), chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, green beans and cherry pie! BUT….because I couldn’t find my Geritol, which is still packed away in a few of the boxes that are still sealed and packed, this time was a little different! On the day that I had told Randy “ok, tonight I’m going to cook our first meal in our new place since I have most of the kitchen things unpacked enough to have everything I need to cook”, we’ll…let’s just say that by 6:00 pm, all I could think about was, “shoot, I told him I’d cook tonight, but there is no way I can make chicken fried steak, I just can’t do that, I guess I’m not as young as I was 4 yrs ago when I actually did cook our traditional meal a few days after moving in”!
So our new “tradition” of our first meal became a few slices of garlic French bread I had bought a few days before and stuck in the freezer, because when I bought it, I had every intention of making homemade spaghetti and meatballs with salad and garlic bread for a nice dinner the night after having our normal traditional first meal of chicken fried steak! My goodness, my grandiose intentions were what they were when I was 50 (several moves ago), not 74!!!
So thank goodness I had A tomato and some mozzarella cheese in the fridge! Cutting about 6-7 thin slices of the bread, I found the olive oil, used the back of a spoon since I had not found the pastry brush yet, and quickly oiled the bread, placed a slice of tomato on each slice, sprinkled some Italian seasoning, cut a slice of the fresh mozzarella to place on top of the tomato and bam….placed it in the oven until the cheese melted! Ladies and gentlemen, because we were both so tired of putting away and making piles of “treasures” from 110 boxes to be given away, this was one of the best impromptu meals we have had in a long time! We were exhausted, hungry and thankful we didn’t have to go out in the 99 degrees to buy dinner! And by now you are wondering why is the title to this extremely long narrative of her first meal titled Gaanache, when all she has talked about is garlic toast a 3 yr old could make and being tired? Well it is titled Ganache because ever since July 11th, (which was my birthday and I wanted, (but because movers came the next day so I didn’t have time to make) my favorite cake which is a white almond flavored cake with white frosting covered with chocolate ganache! There…see I have finally brought you to the ending of why And what I’m suppose to be writing! And maybe when you make this most marvelous cake you, as you take your first bite, you can also think about this….
Women’s minds are like a bowl of spaghetti, “one thought takes them to a dozen different thoughts.”
And that is why it took me approximately 1000 words to give you the simple recipe for the ganache that covers the top of this delectably cake!
Make a Duncan Hines Vanilla cake mix according to directions but add 1 teaspoons of almond extract to the batter before baking, using two 9” cake pans. When cool, frost with white frosting using Almond extract instead of vanilla! Pour ganache over the top layer after frosting with the vanilla frosting.
Ganache
1 cup heavy whipping cream
12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 teas vanilla extract
Heat cream in a heavy small saucepan until bubbles form around the edge but not boiling. Remove from heat and add the chocolate chips! Stir until chips are melted and add extract! Cool for about 30 minutes but not until it is too thick to pour over top of cake. And there you have it… the end of the story!
Chocolate Castles 