Greetings and hello from the lovely planet Venus, where it’s cloudy and rains all the time. For our purposes, Venus is also known as Michigan.

For this month’s Foodbuzz 24×24 event, I hosted a Game Night — that’s with a capital G and N — and made oodles of easy-on-the-expensive-games snacks. I’m here to show you just how easy it is to have people over and serve amazing finger foods like tropical trail mix (above), asparagus frittata bites, blueberry-vanilla goat cheese on polenta dolce, cantonese roasted vegetables, and much, much more!

Err…just try not to make these foods all at once. These dishes dirtied themselves for your benefit in testing all the recipes out. I wouldn’t recommending doing this all at once!

At the end of this post you’re also getting the easiest recipe of them all: tropical trail mix.

planning board game night snacks

1. First of all, people aren’t picky. If you put out grub, they’re going to be happy. Chips and thick dips work for game night, as long as your guests aren’t clumsy Neanderthals. So do trail mixes of all kinds. Right here with step number one you’ve got savory and sweet already covered. But that’s just too easy. Keep reading if you want to get all fancy like.

2. Serve real food in bite size portions that can be skewered with a toothpick. You don’t want grubby hands mucking up your copy of Settlers of Catan hexes, do you? Well, I would, but then, I hate Settlers.

See that asparagus frittata there? It’s nice and dry and in little pieces.

3. Someone, let’s just call him He Who Shall Not Be Named, thought chocolate covered strawberries would be a good idea. After making them, Zach — er, He Who Shall Not Be Named — pointed out they were a bad idea, due to juiciness and instant garbage made by not eating the leaves. We ate the strawberries anyway, of course (duh!), but they weren’t allowed near the Dominion table.

4. All parties need an ice bucket and drink station. We can’t have the host sneaking drinks, now, can we?

“let” your guests bring food

5. Make sure your guests know you’re doing them a big favor by letting them slave away for you. They’ll be happy to bring things like really yummy seven layer dip with avocados on top instead of guacamole. Resist the urge to cackle evilly at your brilliance until you’ve ushered them out the door later.

6. Soft cookies > crunchy cookies when it comes to game night. Crunchy cookies will splatter crumbs all over your precious pieces and cards! Soft cookies hold their shape.

I was this close to making bite size cookies. But I didn’t. Instead I “let” Debi bring these cookies (as well as the dip above).

7. You can still be seasonal! This asparagus tart Linda brought, as well as the frittata bites above, have asparagus from my patch in them. Awesome!

8. Cut vegetables a bit bigger than bite size, and roast in flavory stuff. They’ll shrink to bite size and people can eat with toothpicks. See, these began bite size, so they got a bit small to be eating like that, but you know what? We soldiered on and still did!

9. Use timesavers, aka pre-made foods like hummus or polenta. Look at this. Blueberry-vanilla goat cheese. Sam’s had it in one-pound packages marked down to $4.81. I bought some prepared polenta — well, it was called something like “Billy Bob’s Corn Mush” — and cut it about one-quarter inch thick and fried it, then sprinkled some sugar on it.

OH. MY. GODS. These polenta slices were like fair food. Fair food, I tell you. And the goat cheese was just creamy, slightly sweet and slightly tangy and loads of blueberry-infused flavor smeared on top.

10. “Let” guests style your food for you. Debi arranged these strawberries, cheeses and wine. And did a great job! I might even “let” her do it as much as she wants in the future!

this is why we can’t have nice things

Bad Fang! Bad!

break out the skeezy cheeses and spicy mixes

I lied. Only one of these cheeses was skeezy. But I’m not the most adventurous cheeseophile. Linda picked them up at Whole Foods in Ann Arbor. That speckled one? That has mustard seeds in it. If you can imagine a mustard cheese, that is it. *Homer Simpson drooling noises*

There are also two goudas, a manchego, and one or two others I can’t recall.

Debi and Andy also brought this wasabi trail mix. More spiciness!

get down to business and play games

Armed with plates of relatively clean finger food and drinks of our choice, we settled in for some Serious Gaming. The cards in this game, Dominion, go through constant use and lots of shuffling, so we’ve already sleeved them in protective clear plastic.

No, I am not crazy. Every Dominion owner does this. Really. Trust me.

We got two games in, with a break in between for even more snacks, and I didn’t win either time! Take that, all you people who gang up on me saying I win all the time. I didn’t win.

list of the finger foods

Here are the finger foods I served at game night. I went overboard for purposes of this post, and recommend making one, maybe two max of the cooked items so you can spend more time relaxing instead of working and cleaning up!

• tropical trail mix
• roasted vegetables – cooked
• asparagus frittata bites – cooked
• roasted tofu cubes – cooked
• hummus and pita chips
• polenta crostini with blueberry-vanilla goat cheese — polenta was store bought but still cooked (fried)
• chocolate-covered strawberries – not a clean finger food after all!
• bread and cheese

Mini anything works too. I debated making mini pizzas, mini cookies, even quesadilla bites.

tropical trail mix recipe

Make this with unsalted nuts to keep guests’ hands clean. I’m a salt fiend and didn’t miss it. You can find unsweetened coconut flakes at natural/health food stores.

2 cups unsalted dry roasted peanuts
1 cup M&Ms
½ cup unsweetened coconut
½ cup banana chips
¼ cup Craisins^®

Crumble banana chips in hand to approximately bite-sized pieces. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl with a tight-fitting lid. Cover and store until serving.

This March was in like a lion, out like a lamb, just as it’s supposed to be, right and good. It’s a slow-brewing Easter revelation: for the past several days, we’ve had our eye on the forecast and those double digits creeping up from 40s to 50s to 70s. We’ve been talking about the weather forecast in awed, hushed tones: it’s going to be 75°F by Thursday! Maybe 80°F on Friday!

We so want to be true believers in meteorology, just this once. We’re ready, after months of snow and ice and wind and mud, to prostrate ourselves at the altar of the Mighty Blue Screen of Meteorological Prophecy.

And today, we are believers. It’s 56°F right now. We see whispers on Facebook: our Chicago friends wax poetic in their status updates about their glorious weather, and we close our eyes and smile, knowing that what’s in Chicago today will be here tomorrow.

in the hippie spirit

And since I’m in this warm hippie spirit, I’ll offer up a foodstuff so linked to hippes that it became an adjective all its own. I’m not too granola myself, but having gone to school in Ann Arbor, I’ve mingled with the granola crowd.

And let me tell you, they’re on to something. This maple granola, from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking: Delicious Recipes Using Nutritious Whole Grains, is precisely what I’ve missed in every granola I’ve had until this point: fresh, balanced, and just crunchy enough. It doesn’t make large clusters of granola; rather, maple granola is more suited for the cereal bowl. I can’t tell you quite how it is as cereal though, because it became my habit to put a bit into a custard cup and spoon it, dry.

I was really happy with this maple granola and hey, it’s low-maintenance: stir it all together, a couple hours in the oven with 2 stirs, then store in an airtight container forever. Yay!

maple granola

I made half this recipe for 8 cups. Remember, granola is infinitely customizable. Substitute your own favorite nuts and dried fruit. Go crazy. You have my permission. Speaking of permission, this recipe is reprinted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking: Delicious Recipes Using Nutritious Whole Grains…with permission!

Yield: 16 cups
Oven: 250°F
Total time: 2½ hours

7 cups (24½ ounces) old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cup (3 ounces) flaked coconut

1 cup (4 ounces) wheat germ

1 cup (5 ounces) almonds, sliced or broken up

1 cup (3¾ ounces) pecans or walnuts, chopped or broken up
1 cup (5 ounces) sunflower seeds, raw or toasted

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (11 ounces) maple syrup

¾ cup (5¼ ounces) vegetable oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup (5¼ ounces) golden raisins
1 cup (4 ounces) dried cranberries

1 cup (4½ ounces) chopped dried apricots




Preheat the oven to 250°F. Combine the oats, coconut, wheat germ, nuts, seeds and salt in a very large bowl. Mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, oil and vanilla. Pour the syrup mixture over the dry mixture, stirring and tossing till everything is very well combined; its probably easiest to do this with your hands.



Spread the granola over 2 large baking sheets with rims. Your cleanup will be much easier if you line them with parchment paper.



Bake for 2 hours, stirring the mixture after 1 hour or so. Remove the pans from the oven and let cool completely. Transfer the granola to a large bowl and mix in the dried fruit.



Store in an airtight container at room temperature.



Let me warn you, I’m slapping these in the “600 calorie death spiral” category ASAP. Nanaimo bars are sweet. Tooth-achingly, sugar coma-inducing sweet. Guess how much butter this recipe packs into an 8 x 8 pan?

Okay, you guessed two. I’ll give that to you, because it was obvious. How about this? What is that yellow, creamy middle layer 90% comprised of?

Drat, you guessed a stick of butter. And you were right.

Nanaimo bars — I keep wanting to call them Nanowrimo bars —are a Canadian invention, intended to nourish moose hunters in the frigid Yukon winters much like the Eskimos gained their needed calories from whale blubber. It’s common for moosers (as the great Yukon moose hunters call themselves) to fabricate dozens of batches of Nanaimo bars in the fall, pack them in their own dogsled, and thus haul the sweets with them throughout their winter hunting on the tundra.

quit making things up already

There were two required parts to this Daring Bakers Challenge: make your own graham crackers, preferably gluten-free, and make the Nanaimo bars. The gluten-free grahams recipe called for several specialty flours, and I didn’t look forward to a) hunting them down or b) spending $30 on flours I literally would never use again.

Instead, I made a graham cracker recipe I’ve made before: Whole wheat graham crackers from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking. As always with crackers, I had trouble rolling the dough thin enough (read: I couldn’t). However, even the crackers that came out thick and cookie-like were tasty, of course. How could they not be? Crackers are made using the same cutting-solid-fat-into-flour method as pie crust. Don’t expect homemade crackers to be similar to store-bought. They are very rich in comparison — not the kind of cracker you can eat a few dozen of easily.

Nanaimo bars are three layers: bottom is crushed grahams, cocoa, chopped nuts, coconut, butter. The butter middle layer is basically butter, with some powdered sugar and custard powder. I can only imagine those dry ingredients are added to the butter to stabilize it, because they don’t add much flavor. The top layer is melted chocolate chips with…guess. Come on, guess. Butter!

As you also may have guessed, Nanaimo bars aren’t quite my cup of tea. I found them cloyingly sweet (and I like sweets) with little going on other than chocolate and butter. The nuts, coconut, and grahams are entirely lost, and I have no idea what the custard powder is supposed to taste like because the layer it’s in simply tastes like a stick of butter.

However! Linda and Dad really liked them. Mom thought they were too dark chocolate-like. So I’m likely the weirdo here, missing out on something amazing.

whole grain graham crackers

Adapted with permission from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.

oven: 350 degrees
yield: 6 dozen 3-inch crackers
baking time: 12 to 15 minutes

1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (2 ounces) whole barley flour
1/2 cup (2-1/8 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (1-7/8 ounces) packed light or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup (1-3/4 ounces) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter, chilled
1/4 cup (2 ounces) milk
Cinnamon sugar (optional)

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut in butter until the mixture is crumbly. Alternately, use a food processor, and pulse in short bursts until butter is nearly pea-sized.

Add the milk and combine until you have a stiff dough. You may need to add a bit more or less milk depending on local humidity. Knead the dough lightly until it’s smooth. It’s okay to work with this dough a little bit, but take care to only knead until the bread is smooth — you don’t want to completely incorporate the butter; you want to be able to see bits of butter poking through.

Divide dough into 2 pieces and flatten into a rectangle. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill until firm, about an hour, or overnight. I chilled mine overnight.

Working with one piece of dough at a time, and leaving the other in the fridge, roll out the rectangle very thin on floured parchment paper, about 1/16th of an inch thick. With a sharp knife or a pizza cutter (I prefer the pizza cutter), trim the edges from the dough to form a clean rectangle about 9 x 12 inches. Save scraps to re-roll later.

Cut the dough into 3-inch squares, then cut each square in half. Prick the crackers with a fork or a dough docker. Transfer the parchment, dough and all, to a baking sheet.

Repeat with second piece of dough, saving its scraps as well. Re-roll the scraps into more crackers. The re-rolled dough bakes up surprisingly well, not much tougher at all, nearly indistinguishable from the “virgin” crackers.

Top crackers with cinnamon sugar, if desired.

Bake crackers until lightly browned, 12 to 15 minutes. I found 14 minutes worked well in my oven, and I did one pan at a time while rolling and preparing the next. Transfer crackers to a wire rack to cool.

For Nanaimo bars, place graham crackers in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin to make 1-1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs.

nanaimo bars

Bottom Layer

1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Gluten Free Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)
1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)
1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)

Middle Layer

1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (Such as Bird’s. Vanilla pudding mix may be substituted.)
2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Icing Sugar

Top Layer

4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) Unsalted Butter

Directions:

1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.

2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.

3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill. Makes 16 servings.

Each serving is 312 calories. Two bars surpasses the 600 calorie death spiral threshold.

We love seaweed, how about you?

People were confused when I told them my aunt Linda and I would be making sushi for January’s 24, 24, 24 event. “Isn’t that raw fish?” they asked, knowing I’m not a huge fan of animal foods. Technically, sushi is rice that’s been specially prepared with vinegar and a little sugar, and topped with or rolled with…something.

It could be a shaped piece of rice with a slice of lightly steamed bias-cut carrot on top, tied with a scallion. This is nigiri sushi.

It could be a fat roll of rice bound in nori (seaweed) and filled with imitation crab strips, tamago (japanese omelet), scallion, and cucumber. This is futo maki.

It could be an inside out roll, with the rice outside the seaweed, all enveloping imitation crab, avocado, and pickled beets. This is uramaki. But everyone calls it inside out roll.

It could even be dessert.

Other forms of sushi include battleship roll (gunkan), which we didn’t make, temaki, which we didn’t make, and hosomaki, or thin rolls, which we did make, but I didn’t get any closeups of. Thin rolls use half a sheet of nori and are filled with only one or two ingredients besides the sushi rice.

what’s in this post, and what isn’t

This post isn’t going to include detailed instructions for making sushi. One, I’m no expert. I just made it for the first time. Two, if I started giving instructions, I’d never stop, and this would run 2,000 words or more. What I will tell you is what’s involved, the accompaniments, how our experience went, and a few links where you can get more information if you’d like to give it a try yourself.

And a recipe for rice for dessert sushi at the end!

accompaniments and fillings we used

One thing that’s absolutely necessary is a bamboo rolling mat. We got ours for $1.99 at a Chinese grocery. Well, we also got two more in a sushi kit Linda found at Barnes and Noble. The kit contained the book Sushi with Style, which turned out to be a clearly-written, informative resource. There’s a bamboo sushi rolling mat at Amazon for $6 that includes a paddle if you have any trouble finding one.

Pickled ginger.

Pink slivers of tangy ginger, these are meant to cleans the palate between bites of sushi. Right. Philistine that I am, I slap a piece of pickled ginger right on top of every piece of sushi I eat. It’s that good.

For this experiment, I made some pickled ginger of my own. Let’s just say that the inner, woody parts of ginger are not something you want to chew on, unless you really enjoy chewing.

Wasabi.

Green, insanely hot horseradish. Sold as a paste or powder. The lady at the Chinese supermarket and the sushi book both recommend using the powder as it’s better tasting. I wouldn’t know. I won’t touch the stuff. We did make some and use it, though. It makes a good glue for pasting toppings to the rice in nigiri.

Toasted sesame seeds.

Nice for decorating the outsides of inside-out rolls. Like a dumbass, I bought the unroasted kind a while back so now I have to toast them myself. Hey, look at my shiny new pan.

Tamago.

A Japanese omelet made with, among other things, mirin, a sweet rice wine usually found near the vinegars in the store. Or the Asian section. I made one of these, too.

Vegetables.

We used cucumber, carrot, scallions, pickled beets, and avocado.

Fish, raw and cooked.

We used imitation crab and raw tuna steak. I got to keep the leftover tuna to cook up later, slapped it in a lime-ginger marinade, pan-seared it, and it was good.

Rice!

You need sushi rice, a medium-grain rice. We used brown rice because of the whole whole-grain dealy. After cooking the rice, you mix in a vinegar-sugar sauce that lightly flavors the rice and helps it stick together. I’m not going to get into all the detail, because there was all this anal-retentive dribbling of the sauce into the rice down the back of the rice paddle (yes, the paddle actually has a groove for this, it’s nuts), fanning of the rice to cool its delicate little toes, and speaking to the rice in hushed tones so as not to break its pretty little grains. However, the people at The Global Gourmet have a good how-to guide on preparing your sushi rice, and the technique for cooking brown sushi rice that I used — in a pressure cooker!

so, how did it go?

Linda arrived around noon bearing ingredients and her pressure cooker. I earned a well-deserved glower when I showed her the brand spanking new pressure cooker I had already borrowed from my friend Lori.

However, Linda’s old-school stovetop pressure cooker came in handy when the power went out just as I was about to get the rice going (it had been soaking, as instructed in the anal-retentive sushi rice instructions, for over an hour already). Twice. She took a batch of the rice to her house to cook on the gas stovetop.

Chubby gods smiled upon us and the power didn’t go out again, and we commenced work making the kitchen into a disaster zone.

As usual when we’re making something brand new to us, things were so hectic I didn’t get any nice step-by-step shots. However, I was able to sneak in a five-second breather to snap a pic of how rice looks spread on nori, ready for fillings. You’d just lay three or four ingredients lengthwise in the middle of the rice, next to one another, not on top, and use the mat to roll it all up.

Some fillings: steamed bias-cut carrot coins for nigiri, scallions, tamago.

dessert sushi?

The book offered a sushi rice recipe made with cream of coconut and rum instead of vinegar and sugar, and suggested trying dessert sushi. We didn’t have cream of coconut so I cracked open (get it? cracked? coconut?) a can of coconut milk and got some of the coconut cream that had solidified from that. We seasoned a batch of rice with it and shaped it into nigiri.

Instead of wasabi, which would be pretty damn gross with fruit, the “glue” we used was strawberry jam, boiled cider that I had in the fridge (don’t ask), or apple butter.

The fruit toppers were slices of kiwi and mango, and we topped those with flaked coconut, a slice of candied ginger, and/or coarse sparkling sugar.

sisterhood of the traveling sushi

Linda posited that we made a good $60 of sushi. This was kind of a lot for two people, so we took the show on the road, first to my sister’s.

After some trepidation, not only Jennifer, but her husband Dale, who isn’t the sushi type, tried several varieties. I was pretty shocked. The dessert sushi was a hit, as was the inside-out roll with crab, avocado, and pickled beet.

Maggie snubbed the sushi, instead making up a bowl of some soggy cereal and pretending to be shy for the camera.

Afterwards, we took some over to Mom and Dad’s, and Mom gamely tried a bit as well.

is this really something you want to do at home?

Absolutely! Don’t be frightened by our scary messy kitchen pic. That was from making like, a dozen? kinds of sushi, including both a sweet and savory rice. The actual technique isn’t that bad, nor is it very time-consuming. If you’re trying sushi for the first time, like I did, pick two or three varieties to try, and don’t stress too much over the rice. In fact, dessert nigiri might be just the ticket. You can make it up pretty quickly, it’s light on rolling technique, and looks absolutely stunning.

And on that note, I’m going to leave you with the recipe for dessert sushi rice.

rice for dessert sushi

Adapted from Sushi with Style by Ellen Brown.

2 cups hot cooked medium-grain rice
1/3 cup cream of coconut — the kind you mix sweet drinks with
2 tablespoons rum

Whisk together the cream of coconut and rum in a small bowl. Put hot rice in a medium bowl. Sprinkle cream of coconut and rum mixture over the rice, and gently mix in to avoid breaking the grains.

Once it’s mixed together, carefully turn over small sections of the rice to help it cool and allow steam to escape. The rice is ready to use once it’s cooled enough that it’s not giving off any steam.

Suggestions: shape rice into rectangular nigiri shapes, and top with sliced fresh fruit such as mango or kiwi. “Glue” fruit to the rice using jam or nut butter. Top with candied ginger, sweetened flaked coconut, or sparkling sugar (sugar will melt; do this immediately before serving).

Today is Mom’s birthday. Go Mom! I won’t tell you which birthday it is, since she’s a tad shy about that. I’m just gonna say she had me when she was very very young. Nearly criminally young. Not that she’s a criminal. I don’t think.

Got anything to confess, Mom?

Grandma used to make this, her favorite cake, for her on her birthday. Which was pretty nice of her considering she wasn’t her mom, but her mother-in-law.

Naturally I assumed it was some secret family recipe, scrawled in chickenscratch cursive on a spattered and yellowed recipe card. Lovingly tucked into a battered tin box. Like something in a soft-focus “Mom, what do you do on those not so fresh days?” commercial.

I asked Mom the other day where to find the recipe.

“It’s on the back of the Baker’s Sweet Chocolate box,” she said.

Oh. Okay, then.

the cake is a lie

It’s not handed down from German immigrants. It’s named after the guy who owned the Baker’s chocolate company. His last name was German. No, it wasn’t German. It was German. As in Bob German. Or Phil German.

I know. It’s confusing. Have some cake; you’ll feel better. And for gods’ sake, whatever you do, do not read the nutrition information at the bottom of the recipe. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

And the recipe was invented by a homemaker in 1957 and published in a Dallas newspaper. The rest, as they say, is history.

I’m going to keep calling it “German chocolate cake” though. It just makes life easier.

the cake is real. ta da.

It turned out really well. I used pecans Aunt Geri sent as packing material in the gift box a couple Christmases back. Pretty handy having relatives with pecan trees.

Mom and Sis said it was as good as Grandma made it. It’s a pretty sweet cake, not in the cool sense but in the omg diabetic coma sense. I made it as written, because for some reason my white whole wheat flour, which is my go-to flour for quick substitution, tastes stale. I think it came that way, because I got it into the freezer the moment I brought it home.

So what we have here is a very moist cake made with 4 ounces of sweet German chocolate. It’s a bit labor intensive what with the beating of the egg whites and stuff, but that’s what keeps it light as well. It’s not dense-feeling at all.

The frosting is sheer decadence. Four egg yolks, butter, sugar, evaporated milk, sweetened coconut, and chopped toasted pecans. I mean shit, this cake has everything.

Look. You don’t frost the sides. You’re not supposed to frost the sides on this cake. Trust me. You’ve had enough sugar already. I don’t need you bouncing off the walls even more.

german chocolate cake

Adapted from the Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate box. You always know you’re getting the real high-end recipes with me.

prep: I forgot. This cake takes a while.
servings: 16
oven: 350 degrees

the cake:

1 package (4 ounces) Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate
1/2 cup water
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

Line the bottoms of 3 9-inch round pans with parchment or waxed paper. Grease the sides.

In a microwave-safe bowl, nuke the chocolate and water until it melts, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir after 1 minute; it’ll probably be melted already.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Pout in melted chocolate mixture and vanilla and mix well. Add half the flour mixture and mix well, then half the buttermilk, blending that in as well. Repeat with the rest of the flour and buttermilk.

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold into the batter. Pour into the three prepared pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 15 minutes, then remove layers from pans and let them cool completely on the wire racks. You’ll probably have to run a knife or spatual around the sides of the pans to get them to remove cleanly, but it works.

Spread the coconut-pecan frosting on each layer, for three total layers of frosting. Don’t frost the sides.

the coconut-pecan frosting:

4 egg yolks
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1-1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter or margarine
7 ounces flaked sweetened coconut (about 2-2/3 cups)
1-1/2 cups pecans

Spread the pecans in a large skillet. Toast over medium-low heat about five minutes, shaking often. They’re done when they’re warm and you begin to smell pecans. Remove immediately from heat. Let cool, and chop into small pieces.

Beat the egg yolks, milk and vanilla in large saucepan with wire whisk until well blended.

Add sugar and butter; cook on medium heat for 12 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly. The original directions say to look for a “golden brown” color but it won’t be golden brown; it’ll be more of a dark french vanilla color. Remove from heat.

Add coconut and chopped pecans; mix well. Cool to room temperature, or until it seems thick enough to spread. I spread it when it was still quite warm, and it worked out fine.