Cheesecake-o-rama
October 12, 2009 at 8:04 pm | In baking, food, knitting | Leave a CommentThings are the same here – work, cook, sleep, etc, etc.
The butternut squash soup from the Sheepish Little Blog (Knitscape) has been THE SOUP for a few weeks now – sad to see they are giving it up.
Pumpkin Cheesecake and Banana Cheesecake were some of the cheesecake experiments here – both were a bit mushy, but good. Both were based on the “Mary’s outstanding chocolate cheesecake” without the chocolate. For the pumpkin I added 1 cup of fresh pumpkin and 2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice and used half brown sugar instead of all white sugar. The banana one had one ripe banana that was pulverized in the blender with the sugar. I also put a little cinnamon in the topping (a la bananas foster)
Both pairs of slippers have been felted and sent to their new owners. Spring Green Ice Queen is finished…
Little Monkey is growing up…
Pound cake and socks (mostly) with no pictures :(
July 30, 2009 at 7:53 pm | In baking, food, knitting | Leave a CommentWell, that title describes what I’ve been doing with my “free” time lately.
I’ve been working on finding a good pound cake recipe since the horrible disaster a few weeks ago. I tried the Pound cake recipe (with fresh blackberries) from the next to latest Martha Stewart Living – it was HORRIBLE! too salty! I should have known adding 1 tablespoon of salt was too much, but I reasoned that it was ‘course’ salt AND it was for 2 loaves…. ICK!
Last night was a better trial – Cream cheese pound cake from Bakerella. I made one blackberry and one chocolate chip. The pans overflowed in the oven badly, but the cake turned out ok. Not the dense pound-like texture, but good cake.
I also tried making Blueberry Boy Bait from Smitten Kitchen except with Ranier cherries. It was ok, but didn’t look like the pictures. I had to use dark brown sugar and I don’t think I beat the sugar and butter long enough.
As for crafting…
I am done with the lace scarf. It needs blocking and pictures. I am working on the Cookie A socks and a ‘vanilla’ 3×2rib sock (both at the gusset increases). There will be pictures next post…. 
Hamburgers from scratch
July 13, 2009 at 6:32 pm | In baking, crochet, family, food, knitting | Leave a CommentThe Bug and I helped Uncle G make hamburgers from scratch (grind meat, bake buns, make ketchup, relish, and mustard) as inspired by an article in Gourmet magazine. They were very good, especially those that were more coursely ground.
I’ve also made a few dishcloths…
This last one didn’t handle the ‘up-sizing’ as well as the other blocks.
I’ve also made progress on the lace scarf (a la Meghan-Jasmin’s Lace Throwdown)…no pix just yet.
The blackberries are going full-ahead, so we also made blackberry crisp using this recipe from Alton Brown. I made a double batch in a 9×13 pan and just used all the ‘crumble’ part. We used gingersnaps for the cookies. It was yummy!
Banana split chess bars
July 6, 2009 at 8:46 pm | In baking | Leave a CommentWe’ve had a lot of experimenting with recipes going on around here…
I modified a chess bar recipe to use up some bananas and cherries that we had lying around.
The original recipe came from the net: http://www.beaumontinn.com/recipe_chessbar.htm
Beaumont Inn’s Famous Chess Bars - modified
1 Yellow Cake Mix
1 Egg
1 Stick of Butter
1 banana (mashed)
20-30 cherries pitted
8 oz. Cream Cheese
2 eggs
1 pound of confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)
Mix egg into cake mix. Melt butter, add to egg mixture. Add mashed banana. Stir until becomes a ball. Pat into greased 12×15 flat pan. Distribute cherries on top of this layer. Put cream cheese in mixer bowl. Beat until smooth. Add 2 eggs and confectioner sugar. Mix until smooth. Pour on top of cherries and cake and bake 30-35 minutes or until light golden brown in color. Bake at 350 degrees.
Cool completely before cutting.
Rating: delicious!
Summer, finally…
June 12, 2009 at 9:11 pm | In baking, food, gardening, knitting | Leave a CommentMy last class for the summer was today – whew! It has been a whirlwind of classes… only grades left to assign and calculate.
We’ve gotten some green beans out of the garden and the squash are doing some serious blooming. The blackberries are formed their nice little green orbs. The CSA boxes are started to have more variety than just lettuces – I get tired of lettuce easily and have been looking forward to the changes.
CSA box: week 5 contained carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, eggs, sirloin steak, red romaine (or swiss chard?), radishes, butter lettuce, peas
We used everything but a bit of the butter lettuce which is still in the fridge. I made cabbage au gratin (new recipe) from the UK extension office using 1/2 head of cabbage and some green onions added in – this one is a keeper! We steamed the cauliflower and the peas. DH loved the peas. I gave away the radishes and we froze the steaks. I made a spinach provolone frittata (new recipe) from the Mixing Bowl site using several eggs. It was rated good by me, but not by DH. I also used some of the eggs to make a chocolate cheesecake for a friend’s birthday.
CSA box: week 6 contained peaches, radishes, green onions, white onion, basil, mint, dill, swiss chard (or red romaine?), eggs, chicken breast, peas, red potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash
I made a skillet fried chicken breast to use up the chicken (rating = ok). We steamed the peas (again a hit according to DH) tonight. I used the last carrot from the last box, along with the big onion, the basil, and our own oregano to make pasta prima vera tonight.
I have been working slowly on the sock from the Cookie A book. It is a nice, but complex pattern (Bex), but I modified it by going toe up and may leave the large diamond areas to just adorn the cuff/leg area.
Cooking and the veggie box… with a little baking
May 30, 2009 at 6:21 pm | In baking | Leave a CommentThere has been lots of cooking going on around here lately. Mostly, it has been inspired by the Community-supported-agriculture (CSA) box that we get every Wednesday. I consider it a personal challenge to use everything. Ours (Avalon Acres) has a box with a meat share – which is what we get.
Box 1:
strawberries, radishes, several types of lettuce, spinach, green onions, pork chops, eggs
spinach alfredo pizza made with the spinach from box 1:
Box 2
bok choy, lettuce, ‘cheddar cheese’ cauliflower, radishes, strawberries, ‘purple’ green onions, hamburger, eggs
Box 3
radishes, spring greens, lettuce, strawberries, lettuce, broccoli, a whole chicken (which we brined and smoked), eggs
Box 4:
white radishes, red potatoes, lettuce, garlic sprouty-things, green onions, broccoli (a bit of purple broccoli), ham steaks, eggs
Ham Fried Rice made with ham and green onions from the box:
The challenges so far have been to use the radishes (we gave them away) and the eggs (I’ve been making lots of cheesecakes and giving them away).
Besides the cheesecakes – yes, that is plural and the count for this month is 4, we made “crash bandicoot‘ cupcakes for a newly seven year old boy. Unfortunately, they turned out a bit more like cute little bears (the antithesis of what 7 year old boys like).
<Picture is linked to source>
Miss Bug’s contribution looks amazingly like a katamari, which is what we gave him last year for his B-day…
ha ha h ah ah ahhha ha ha ha!
New year goals
January 9, 2009 at 8:51 pm | In baking, knitting, recipe | Leave a CommentI do like to reflect on the past and think about things I want to change around the new year – not exactly resolutions, but things I want to work on.
Be healthier – Cook more at home , eat out less, try new recipes, drink less pop/soda, eat more vegetables and fruits, exercise more regularly
Parenting – be more consistent with Bug, be more patient with Bug, set boundaries
Personal – take more time to relax and enjoy life, strengthen my dancing technique, knit/crochet a few things for me (hat and scarf)
Family – do more family-oriented activities, visit or call out-of-town family more often
This seems like a lot now that I have it written down…
I tried a few new things this week.
Spoon dolls from the Usborne Activity Book
According to Bug, they are the “princesses who don’t do anything.” If you have a veggie-tale fan, you will recognize it as a spin off of the ‘Pirates who don’t do anything.’
I made a new recipe given to me at work.
Double chocolate chip biscotti
2 c flour
1/2 c cocoa powder
1 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
6 T butter, softened
2 eggs
1 c chocolate chips
1 c nuts
Beat butter and sugar together and add eggs, beat. Mix flour, soda, salt, and cocoa and add to butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Form into 2 logs and flatten to about 1 inch (rectangle shape). Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes. Cool 5 minutes and cut into 1 inch slices. Place on side and bake 8-10 minutes longer.
I’ve been working on my teal/gray socks in the pointelle pattern.
But most of my craft time has been spent working on my dad’s “john deere” clogs. One more bottom, sewing, and felting to go.
Making candy
December 14, 2008 at 9:54 pm | In baking | Leave a CommentI love to cook with other people, especially my friend J from high school/college. We get together each year to make candy to give away to family and friends. This weekend was that weekend…
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- sugared cinnamon pecans
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- truffles and buckeyes
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- chocolate fudge
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- peanut brittle
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- coconut bonbons
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- assorted
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- 7 layer bars
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- mock heath bars
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- no bake cookies
We made:
2 batches of truffles
3 batches of fudge (2 chocolate, 1 peanut butter)
2 batches of peanut brittle
1 batch of sugared cinnamon pecans
3 batches of mock heath bars
1 batch of no bake cookies
1 batch of buckeyes
lots of haystacks (too many batches to count)
s’more cookie bars
7 layer bars
Whew, it was a good time! Bug was even good the whole time.
Back from Virginia with lots of pictures
June 29, 2008 at 6:34 pm | In baking, family | Leave a CommentMy family teases me that they don’t ever have to carry a camera as long as I’m around – I take a lot of pictures. I’m going to space this out a bit so I don’t have such a terribly long picture-filled post.
We arrived in Virginia about 10 hours after we started. The maps said 8, so I added 4 for Bug-travel time. So, we made great time at 10 hours! My other family had arrived the day before (Saturday). We visited and Bug played with her cousins for a bit and then went to bed. The first day in Virginia we went to Morris Orchard to pick blueberries. The orchard also had jams and jellies and was very child-friendly. I had never been to pick them and it was very easy to get Bug into it.
Bug took a liking to riding in Aunt M.’s car and was desperate all week to have a spot in that car.
The afternoon was spent playing outside and included a walk where all the small kids fell asleep in their strollers.
The evening ended with a water balloon fight and candy corn fangs all around.
M had a wonderful fresh blueberry recipe using a yellow cake mix that was WONDERFUL! I will post the recipe when I get a copy from her. It resembles this recipe called ‘dump cake’, but uses 2-4 cups of fresh blueberries instead of the pie filling.
Ingredients:
20 ounces crushed pineapple in juice — undrain
1 can cherry pie filling
1 package yellow cake mix
1 cup pecans — chopped
1/2 cup margarine
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Dump pineapple with juice into ungreased 9×13″ pan. Spread evenly. Dump in pie filling. Spread evenly. Sprinkle cake mix evenly over cherry layer. Sprinkle pecans over cake mix. Dot with margarine. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until set. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Making up for last year
June 17, 2008 at 8:41 pm | In baking, gardening | Leave a CommentThe blackberries are going gang-busters! Last year the late freeze left us with about 5-6 blackberries total. This year there are more on a single site than that. Look at this…
A couple have a hint of blush – so it won’t be long!
I bought some blackberries at the Nashville farmer’s market last Saturday and made a cobbler for MIL, who loves cobbler. This was an awesome recipe from ‘Country Baking’ (perhaps this book?) found at All about Food - the blackberry mixture is thick and stays separate from the dough which remains on the top. We used 1/2 splenda because FIL is diabetic. The recipe is below – I forgot to take a picture 
, but is was YUMMY!
* Exported from MasterCook *
Blackberry Cobbler
Recipe By : COUNTRY BAKING
Serving Size : 8 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
4 cups fresh blackberries or raspberries
1 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter or margarine -- melted
1 egg
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spread blackberries in ungreased 2
qt casserole. Reserve 1 teaspoon of the sugar. Mix remaining
sugar, the cornstarch and lemon juice.
Drizzle cornstarch mixture over blackberries; stir gently.
Mix flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl.
Stir in milk, margarine and egg.
Spread batter evenly over blackberries, sealing edge.
Sprinkle with reserved sugar
Bake 30-35 minutes or until topping is golden brown
. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
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