Pictures from my week

A few pictures from Wednesday evening and Thursday.

Yes, my 14 year old is that much taller than me. *sigh*

Pictures from the Olive Garden....Birthday Boy's choice.

My husband, daughter and Father-in-Law

Birthday Cake

A soup, that turned out too salty.

A birthday breakfast casserole, this one is worthy of a recipe post. Perhaps next week.

I hope you have had a great week.  I will see you again on Monday.

Baking, outside of my comfort zone

This morning we’re off to A Tuba Christmas in downtown Dallas.
Our son is participating this year.

Anyhoo, back to my baking issue.
I’ve got family members with food allergies.

I’m sure I am not alone.

On Christmas Eve, we will be having brunch with my Sister-in-Love and her family. Michelle and her family have recently removed gluten, dairy and soy from their diets, also known as (GFDFSF)

Meaning choices about what to bring to Christmas Eve Brunch

just

got

tricky

Thank goodness my bacon jam is (GFDFSF). I’ll be bringing it, but I also wanted to bring something sweet. Something I could leave with them, something for Christmas morning.

I remembered an e-mail I got from MyBlogSpark with Betty Crocker recipes attached. I checked out the list of Betty 10: Red Hot Holiday Trends and found a recipe for Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bread.

Score!

I had to alter the recipe a smidge, because I do not have any dairy free chocolate chips. I used dried cranberries instead.

I also found a large list of Gluten-Free recipes from Betty Crocker. A handy resource for those who are gluten-free

Gluten-free products (pre-packaged) are more expensive than their regular flour cousins. Like 3 times the price. Regular Betty Crocker cake mix was $1.49, Gluten-free cake mix was $4.49. Betty Crocker does have a coupon available on their website for .85 cents off the purchase of any Gluten-free dessert mix.

Other than changing the chocolate chips to dried cranberries, I followed the directions listed on the recipe.

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bread

The mix

I made 4 small breads. 1 for tasting (and blog purposes) the other 3 for Christmas Eve.

Ready to go into the oven.

The rice flour does not rise much, so it is important to shape the loaves before you bake them. If you don’t you’ll have ugly loaves…like I do.

they do not rise much.

The bread is moist, very moist….it is not exactly the texture we are use to from bread, but it does taste pretty good.

Sampled with cinnamon butter, because I’ve got no food allergies.

I love that there are recipes and options like this for those who are (GFDFSF).

I would like to wish you all a Happy Holiday.

Merry Christmas!

Cake in a Jar

The idea & post for cake in a jar is courtesy of a question on my Facebook page.

Making teacher or co-worker gifts that will impress (not to mention survive the trip to school/work) isn’t always easy.

Cake~ baked in a canning jar fits the bill perfectly.

Here’s what to do…..

• Cake mix…make your own or use a boxed mix.
• canning jars, half-pint or pint-sized

• Set your oven to the correct temp for your recipe.
• grease the canning jars

This is very important…..

• fill the jars ONLY half way full *if you fill them past the half way point, you’ll have a cake-eruption.*
• place the jars on a cookie sheet
• bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean
• remove the jars from the oven.

I recommend that you….

• Ice the top of the cakes

• place the lids on.
• allow the cakes to cool.
• Store them in the fridge until you are ready to send them off to school or take them to work
• re-ice the cakes before you send them off, the first icing will melt into the cake a bit.

• The jars should be stored in the refrigerator and eaten within 2 weeks.

Monday is another Slow-Cooker link-up! Let’s Get Cookin!

Frugally yours, for the Holidays.

I read a great post on Things I Can’t Say yesterday. I love reading what Shell writes, I like to think that we’d be coffee or wine friends if we lived in the same state. I think that about more than a few people, but I’m way friendly and super social in my imagination. Anyhooo…. I loved the concept.

It’s okay.

I want to say something similar, but holiday related.

It’s okay……

If more than half of my Christmas gifts are homemade this year.

I am going to spend the next few weeks posting about homemade or handmade things you can gift to friends, teachers, neighbors, and of course family.

I’d like to hear from you…..

What sort of homemade goodies should we explore? I’ve had a request for jarred cake, I’m working on that.

Any other requests?

Ideas?

Please leave a comment.

I want to hear your thoughts.

Happy Halloween!

The great things about Halloween are the fun, the friends and the candy.

And….

the Halloween parties are such fun!

Come, have a cupcake....they're calorie free...Promise.

Muahahahaha!

The good things about parties are too numerous to mention.
The bad thing about parties is the clean-up.
Yeah. Love parties, hate clean-up.

Great parties need a day of rest after them. Well, at least for me they do.

 

Sunday,  I. was.  exhausted.

Pardon me, have you seen my brain? It seems to be missing.

Also, you (meaning me)  feel pretty stupid (meaning frazzled and forgetful) when you realize that your party is almost over and you forgot to ask anyone (meaning your husband)  to take pictures.  Yeah, um….

D’oh!

Yeah, I forgot to take pictures of the party or the guests. I’ve got a few, but not many.

I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween!

 

Do you usually dress up for Halloween?  If you do, what type of costume are you wearing this year?

Making a Fun Fall Cake

I’ve got a boxed cake mix, and I’m not afraid to use it.

I had this idea, while eating a handful of candy corn, that I should make a cake that resembles a candy corn. Am I the only one who loves candy corn? Seriously, it’s pretty close to addictive. Or, maybe that’s just me. Or candy corn is evil, that’s possible right? Evil little kernels of sugar… compelling me to eat them and make cakes in their image.

Just say it’s possible, it’ll make me feel better…….

I had a box of cake mix, yes I use boxed cake mix from time to time. Let’s just say, if the sale price is good…I consider buying it. It’s great for a quick cake from time to time.

Here’s what I did.

Make the cake mix as directed, or make your own cake batter. Using a bunt pan, place 1 cup of the cake batter in the bottom of the pan.

Remove 2 cups of cake batter and add 5 drops of yellow food coloring to make your yellow batter.

Add 5 drops of yellow food coloring and 2 drops of red food coloring to the remaining batter to make orange.

Place the orange colored batter on top of the non-colored batter.

Place the yellow batter on top of the orange batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 min.

Cool, then add icing. Cut before you take a picture, you know because you want the cake more than you want a good picture.

Enjoy your candy corn-ish cake. The colors are so bright I had a hard time with the pictures, but the yellow and orange really POP!

What fun fall baking things do you do?

If you haven’t already, check out my Yoplait Smoothie giveaway!

For goodness sake, I made a Homemade Foreo!

I made an Oreo like cookie.

Honestly.

What’s better than a homemade Oreo cookie? An over-sized, soft, chewy Oreo cookie…and a foot rub, but the foot rub is totally optional.

It does not taste exactly like a Oreo, but it’s super good.

I decided to make the cookies soft and chewy instead of crisp. They are sweet and soft and fabulous.

I think they might be a tiny bit evil, as they are quite addictive.

I found the recipe here Clockwork Lemon.

I did not fiddle with the cookie recipe at all.

Shocking, I know.

I made really big cookies, ones that are so filling that one is more than enough, so I got fewer than 40 cookies. I got about 20 cookies.

Here is the ingredient list:

I found the recipe here Clockwork Lemon.

makes 40 small cookies or 20 large cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa (if using regular cocoa add an extra tsp of baking soda)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

Go. Try. Make your very own Foreos. (faux Oreos)

I’m off to take a sick child to the doctor. Hope your day is a wonderful one!

Don’t forget to enter the Swanson review and giveaway…

Where I went…Wednesday

A lot of people post “What I wore, Wednesday” or “What I ate, Wednesday”.  I’m going to tell you where I went, via the interwebs over the last week.

 

My bloggy friend Andrea wrote a beautiful tribute post and posted a caramelized onion recipe for friend she recently lost.

 

I made homemade laundry detergent via a post I found on Foodie with Family.

I also made yummy Snickerdoodle cupcakes  based on a recipe off Foodie with Family.

I’d love to win a wine tour, My bloggy friend Lori over at MommyFriend has a giveaway going on.  If you live in California you should check out the giveaway.  If you’re a parent you should check out her blog.  If you’re a mom you should absolutely check out her blog.

I don’t have pets, but if you have dogs you might like this post of Rufus’ Food and Spirits guide for dog treats.

I’ve looked at many fun canning recipes through the canning link up hosted by Allie of Forgotten Beast and myself.

Where have you been?  I’d love to hear about your interweb surfing, as long as it’s PG13.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake

I’ve got all these great recipes for cakes and cookies and breads.   All these great tasting recipes made with all-purpose flour.  I’ve wanted to convert them, but conversion can be scary.  

Will it taste the same? 

Will it taste similar?  Will it be good or blah?

I’ve had more than a few yucky conversion attempts.  A few that did not come off quite right.  I’ve had some successes.  I’m getting better and better at changing the recipes and incorporating more whole wheat flour into our diet.

This is a chocolate cake recipe I love.  It is moist, flavorful and oh so YUM!  With whole wheat the cake is still moist, flavorful and now better for you.  It does not mean that you can eat twice the cake, but it does mean the piece you eat will be better for you.  You know, better than a cake made with all-purpose flour.

So-Wheaty Chocolate Cake

Adapted from a good housekeeping recipe.

• 2 cups of whole wheat flour
• 1 cup of unsweetened cocoa
• 1 & 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla
• 1 & 1/2 cups of buttermilk
• 1/2 cup of yogurt
• 1 & 3/4 cups of sugar (I used white sugar, but you’re welcome to experiment)
• 1 & 1/2 sticks of butter (3/4 of a cup)-softened
• 3 large eggs

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F
• Spray your baking pan with baking spray  (two 9-inch pans or I used a bunt pan…because I love the bunt!)

• combine flour, cocoa, baking soda & salt (set aside)
• combine buttermilk and vanilla (set aside)
• In a large bowl combine sugar and butter, beat until well blended, add yogurt…mix, add eggs 1 at a time…mix
• Add some of the flour mixture…mix, add some of the buttermilk mixture…mix.  Alternate between the two mixtures until both are fully incorporated into the batter.
• Pour the batter into the baking pan(s)

    

• bake for 30 to 35 min (9-inch pans) and 45-50 min (bunt) or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
• Cool for 10 min in pan, remove from pan and allow to fully cool.

• Ice with your preferred icing.

Enjoy.

My husband, you know the “good sport” was worried when he read on Facebook that his chocolate cake was whole wheat.

He was sweet enough to make this shocked face picture for me even though he already knew it was a whole wheat cake.

The Husband and the tween/teen-lets loved the cake.  They had no complaints about it being made from whole wheat flour.

Day two the cake is still moist and wonderful.

I’m linking up with

Shhhh…..Secret cupcakes.

Yesterday, I talked about my love of soup and/or cake when I’m feeling less than wonderful, I was not kidding. I made cupcakes for desert Monday night.

Hee Hee. *twitch* *twitch* pardon the sugar high! *twitch* *twitch*

Sugar high after a warm, hug in a cup.

if having soup and cupcakes is wrong, I don’t want to be right….

I’ve got a confession of sorts to make, I’m sure I’ve said this before, I do NOT make everything from scratch. I use some boxed goods. I “doll up” canned goods. I am a mostly-homemade cook. A semi-homemade cook. I cheat though.

Yep. I’m a homemade cheater.

Sometimes I use boxed cake mix.

Many times I make cake from scratch, like pound cake. Other times, I find cake mix on redonkulous sale prices, prices so low that between the sale prices and coupons the cake mix is almost free. When cake mix is almost free…I buy it.

So, when I make cakes from boxed mixes I “doll up” the mixes. I add a secret ingredient.

How do I “doll up” cake mix?

Sugar free Instant pudding mix. Hush. It works, trust me.

It makes the cake moist and more flavorful.

I would never win CupCake Wars with my “dolled up” cake mix, but my family and friends enjoy my cakes and cupcakes. Let’s just say cake and cupcakes never go bad in my house.

Ever.

Plus, I’m not the sort to go on CupCake Wars anyway. I could not deal with the stress.

To make “Dolled up” cake or cupcakes

Choose your brand: pick a boxed cake mix… you choose the one you like…it’s your cake.

Add: 1 small box of sugar-free pudding mix to the dry ingredients, then follow all the cake making directions on the box.

It will be a moister cake and I bet you will enjoy it. It will taste less “from a box” made and more homemade. People will want your recipe and will think you’re brilliant.

I’m not the only one using pudding mix as a secret ingredient. My bloggy friend at Life Without Pink posted her husband’s chocolate chip cookie recipe with the same secret ingredient.

Do you have any secret ingredient recipes?