Posting Soon!

This is a post to tell you I promise to post something good soon!  Life has been just a tad too crazy to put my thoughts together. 

Swamp Party Cake

 

Saturday night we went to a swamp party (I didn't know what it was either) and our assignment was to bring a desert that had something to do with living in a swamp.  Our host and hostess were supplying the jambalaya, okra with shrimp and she crab soup (one of my great weaknesses). 

Michael's assignment was to get our outfits (lots of camouflage), mine was the desert so off to the thrift store he went and I to the Internet.  About the only thing I could find was this swamp cake.  The original recipe called for green jello but not being an ambrosia kind of gal I substituted vanilla pudding with green food coloring.  It actually tasted good (other than the gummy snakes which I just couldn't bring myself to eat).

So the next time you need to go to a swamp party here's your desert recipe!

Swamp Cake

1 box deviled food cake mix, baked in a 13 x 9 baking dish according to the directions on the box
2 boxes vanilla pudding (please use the instant and not the cook and serve I bought by mistake) made according to the directions
Enough green food coloring to turn the above jello a noxious shade of green
1 container Cool-Whip (I don't think this has been in my house in a long time)
1 pkg Oreo type cookies, crumble about 1/2 the package
A pack of gummy worms or snakes or something equally yucky

After the cake has cooled cut out the middle of the cake about 2/3 of the way down leaving a border of approximately 1 inch. Add the green food to the cooled down pudding.  Put down a layer of the whipped topping in the area you just hollowed out and than pour in the pudding.  Cover the remaining cake with lots of whipped topping and than carefully jam the crushed cookies all over the whipped topping.  Artistically drape the worms about the cake and... Viola! 

100% Whole Wheat Bread

 

 

Baking bread can be very intimidating if it is something you did not grow up doing and I am one of those people.  I have always been someone who could care less about bread, it just never excited me (unless it was kaiser rolls with tons of butter on them).  This was probably because I grew up in the world of white bread.  Now there is nothing wrong with white bread (or at least before they started adding all sorts of not healthy for you stuff to it) but its just boring!

I started working on baking bread a few years ago and the toughest part was the kneading and not having bread dough stuck to everything (especially the little hairs on my arms).  Some of my endeavors have been kind of successful, others have been major fails but that is a part of baking.

I had printed this recipe up earlier this year and put it in our binder o recipes.  Looking for something to keep myself occupied yesterday I stumbled across it and the next thing you know it was well on its way.  I sincerely feel the flour you use makes a serious difference when you bake and for this recipe I used King Arthur brand whole wheat flour.  If you are thinking of baking bread give this one a try!

Classic 100% Whole Wheat Bread from King Arthur Flour

1 to 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water* 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/4 cup honey, molasses, or maple syrup 3 1/2 cups King Arthur Premium 100% Whole Wheat Flour 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast, or 1 packet active dry yeast dissolved in 2 tablespoons of the water in the recipe 1/4 cup Baker's Special Dry Milk or nonfat dried milk 1 1/4 teaspoons salt *Use the greater amount in winter or in a dry climate; the lesser amount in summer or a humid climate. 8 to 10 ounces lukewarm water* 1 3/4 ounces vegetable oil 3 ounces honey, molasses, or maple syrup 14 ounces King Arthur Premium 100% Whole Wheat Flour 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast, or 1 packet active dry yeast dissolved in 2 tablespoons of the water in the recipe 1 ounce Baker's Special Dry Milk or nonfat dried milk 1 1/4 teaspoons salt *Use the greater amount in winter or in a dry climate; the lesser amount in summer or a humid climate. 227 to 283g lukewarm water* 50g vegetable oil 85g honey, molasses, or maple syrup 397g King Arthur Premium 100% Whole Wheat Flour 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast, or 1 packet active dry yeast dissolved in 2 tablespoons of the water in the recipe 28g Baker's Special Dry Milk or nonfat dried milk 1 1/4 teaspoons salt *Use the greater amount in winter or in a dry climate; the lesser amount in summer or a humid climate. Directions 1) In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients and stir till the dough starts to leave the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased surface, oil your hands, and knead it for 6 to 8 minutes, or until it begins to become smooth and supple. (You may also knead this dough in an electric mixer or food processor, or in a bread machine programmed for "dough" or "manual.") Note: This dough should be soft, yet still firm enough to knead. Adjust its consistency with additional water or flour, if necessary. 2) Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl or large measuring cup, cover it, and allow the dough to rise till puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk, about 1 to 2 hours, depending on the warmth of your kitchen. 3) Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled work surface, and shape it into an 8" log. Place the log in a lightly greased 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan, cover the pan loosely with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the bread to rise for about 1 to 2 hours, or till the center has crowned about 1" above the rim of the pan. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F. 4) Bake the bread for 35 to 40 minutes, tenting it lightly with aluminum foil after 20 minutes to prevent over-browning. The finished loaf will register 190°F on an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center. 5) Remove the bread from the oven, and turn it out of the pan onto a rack to cool. If desired, rub the crust with a stick of butter; this will yield a soft, flavorful crust. Cool completely before slicing. Store the bread in a plastic bag at room temperature. Yield: 1 loaf. I did not have any dry or dried milk and the recipe still turned out great.  I store my flour in the refrigerator so that cuts down on the amount of flour used in my bread (this is kind of an experimentation thing).  Michael said that this is the tastiest bread I have made yet!

Dairy Free Chocolate Cake

The week before last I told you about a vegan chocolate cake I had made and promised to publish so you too could enjoy this!  The recipe I saved, the frosting recipe was not so fortunate.  The shame of that is that the frosting may be the absolute best I have ever tried.  That said, I will endeavor to find the recipe again (hopefully sooner than later since I had hoped to make it tonight again).

The picture is of the same cake made with whipped cream and strawberries, even if you forget to put sugar into the whipped cream it still tastes pretty good and we managed to eat the entire cake!

Chocolate Wacky Depression Cake  from Savory Sweet Life

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup cocoa powder

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 cup water

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium mixing bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together by hand. Add all the wet ingredients until well combined. Pour into a 8×8 pan which has been prepared with non stick spray.

 

Bake for 30 until done. Allow to completely cool before serving. Cake is even better if eaten the next day. Enjoy!

 

I cut the cake in half to make two layers, the first time I made it the filling was this fantastic preserve that I buy at work.  It is Mackays 100% Natural Fruit Blueberry and Blackcurrant preserve, it makes a great filling for a cake. The original icing recipe follows!  It is from the same website as the cake...


Shiny Chocolate Icing

1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ cup cocoa*
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup water or nondairy milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix sugars, cornstarch, salt, and cocoa in a medium sauce pan. Whisk in the coconut milk. Stirring constantly, heat over medium until it gets thick and starts to boil. Continue stirring and boil for 1-2 minutes or until very thick. Remove from heat and stir in oil and vanilla. Allow to cool to room temperature, then spread over the top of your cooled cake.

My Body Shape

Yesterday Michael and I went for a nice walk downtown, the weather was wonderful and we wondered in and out of some of the shops.  One store we visited was Chico's were I saw some outfits that were so nicely put together!  For work I wear jeans, a solid shirt in one of the approved colors and either flats or sneakers (pretty boring I know but we can get pretty dirty loading furniture or moving furniture or just plain old doing stuff).

I have decided it is time to mix things up a bit when I am not at work!  Last week I started exercising and need to add some upper body workouts to what I have going in order to get rid of this little pouch that has developed on my stomach (why does it never go any place else?). 

Then next comes the wardrobe do over...so to the Internet I went.  For some reason I thought it would be as easy as looking up recipes and it is not.  I found one site that looked interesting and it prompted me to take a body shape test so that they could tell me what to wear.  After signing up (which was not easy) through the survey I went.  I measured and answered some rather bizarre questions than the moment of truth...my body shape.  I know what it is not but no way was I prepared to be told that my shape is...A Ruler, that's right, my body is the shape of a ruler!  Straight up and down...there has got to be a better name than that!

O-Ku

An assortment of raw sushi

Michael's dinner which was Scallop shushi and Kobi Beef sushi

Last night we went to a wonderful Asian fusion restaraunt downtown. the name of this fantastic place is O-Ku  and the food was fantastic!  Now that we understand the menu and the serving sizes (which are huge) we will enjoy it even more next time!  I was shocked by how affordable this meal was especially for sushi....

One thing about sushi is that is doesn't all come raw, there are many cooked choices (I don't mind raw fish but am not crazy about the texture) and this restaraunt has a number of great entree's (I had a seafood udami dish with scallops, shrimp, mussels and clams in a great spicy sauce and had some of the leftovers for lunch today).

Homemade Chicken Stock and stuff

It's been a hectic week and I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted!  We had a corporate visit at work and you probably can imagine or you actually know what you have to do to get ready!  But enough of that, let me catch you up on whats been going on.

The venison chili took second at the cook-off!  Much better than when I entered a black bean and turkey chili at Michael's office, we took next to last place (and there were 15 entries that time).  By the time I got to the oyster roast there was none left so I guess it was okay.  First place went to a pumpkin chili, sounds interesting!  I ate more than my fill of oysters...but wish I had eaten more!

There has been tons of cooking going on here from baked stuffed shells to a vegan chocolate cake with icing (I promise I will absolutely post both the recipes) filled with blackberry and black currant preserves.   So much for the diet!

Tonight we are supplying the snacks for after church.  There is a Saturday night service at 6 at our church, very casual, kids are encouraged to attend and make as much noise as kids make and it is lay led.  What that means is that a member of the congregation not only does the readings but also gives the homily after the gospel is read.  It is so different from the formal service on Sunday with the organist and the choir and is a wonderful way to end the week.  Afterwards we all get together and have some snacks, wine and just catch up with one another.  Tonight we are bringing curried egg salad sandwiches, chicken salad wraps (with green onions, apples and grapes in the salad) black bean salsa and madeleines with whipped cream and sliced strawberries.  Thankfully I got off work at 12 so I can finish up making everything and still have plenty of time to goof off!

Yesterday I made chicken stock.  If you have never made stock, it is actually ridiculously easy!  I hold onto the chicken carcass when ever we have a whole chicken and use that!  Here's the recipe...

Homemade Chicken Stock

1 chicken carcass
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
8 cups of water (or so)

Put everything into a large stock pot, bring to a boil, turn to medium low and let cook for a few hours (mine usually goes for 3 to 4 hours).  Pour through a strainer and there you go, you have stock.  I put mine in zip lock bags with about cups in each.