Menu this week

Menu for the week of December 6th to the 11th

• Sunday - Turkey and Dumplings with homemade turkey stock

• Monday - Beef Stroganoff with whole wheat noodles and broccoli on the side

• Tuesday - Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Tomato Soup, with raw veggies on the side (this is a quick dinner because Julian has his winter choir concert this night)
  

• Wednesday - Oven Fried Chicken, chili corn, green salad

• Thursday - Whole Wheat Chicken Ravioli with Tomato Sauce, Garlic Bread

• Friday - Homemade Bean and Cheese Burritos (totally a cop out quick and easy friday night dinner, I know I'm lame)
  

Is there an Ark near by?

It's been raining for DAYS. I'm serious. Not, just your run of the mill, PNW, gray drizzle either. We're talking full on, cats and dogs fallin' from the sky. OH and the puddles. They are every where. And those puddles are turning into rivers that are flooding parking lots and streets and driveways.

The power was out last night for about 3 hours. I was right in the middle of making some delicious homemade cream of broccoli soup when *cough* *sputter* *darkness* happened. Uh, hello, who turned out the lights? Apparently a large tree did when it toppled over on to some essential power lines from the GAIL force winds that appeared from nowhere.

So, the soup? We're eating it tonight.

The sweetest thing

Marty and I grew this. Yeah, that's right. We're gardeners.

New Year

I wouldn't say it was a "resolution" but I have always wanted to learn to bake cakes from scratch. Don't get me wrong, Betty Crocker has cake in a box figured out, and in a pinch for time or an occasion of laziness boxed cake is brilliant.

But, I found this recipe and really found my inner baker yelling "whoa, you should try this!" So I did. Mine, does not look like the pictures from the recipe link. And the fact that you use a pound of butter in the frosting means it is NOT good for you to consume in large quantities or to eat a piece right before you have your cholesterol checked. Capeesh?

I gathered up my ingredients and began the LONG process. Your butter and egg whites have to be room temperature so there was some waiting for that to happen.


I opted to do a raspberry filling because the crowd I was serving does not fancy cranberries. I did, however follow the recipe using raspberries instead and found it to be a soupy mess, so I drained off the liquid and salvaged them. Next time I will make the filling a little different.


Cake batter done. It was a beautiful white color.

The cakes baked up really nice. I baked them for 37 minutes, testing the centers twice. This resulting in the centers falling a bit.

To make the butter creme the egg whites and sugar have to be warmed up over a double boiler while whisking constantly. My arm fell off after about two minutes, so my wonderful husband, Marty stepped in to take over! He saved me!



After the frosting was done you assemble and frost a crumb coat. After this point we decided to take a drive and get the kids out of the house. I, foolishly, put the frosting in the fridge. I think this is what resulted in the frosting breaking down a bit.

Here is the completed cake!

I couldn't get my chocolate the curl.... I think my vegetable peeler is on it's last leg. So I shaved it with a grater. I think it still turned out nice.

It was tasty. I love butter creme because it's not like eating plain sugar. The raspberry filling was so yummy with the cake too. I will make this recipe again!

I like food.

So, I consider myself a "foodie". I LOVE food. I love to cook food, I love to eat food. I don't however like to do dishes which poses a problem sometimes. I am very fortunate to have a Husband who does dishes! So most of the time that solves my problem with dishes.

I baked a gazillion 5 dozen cookies this weekend. I inherited my Grandmothers "Cookie King" spritz machine. I mastered that cookie press yesterday and produced several dozen golden, buttery cookies! It really is a great little piece of machinery.

I also baked Martys favorite cookies... the Candy Cane cookie, which are very difficult and time consuming, but they are DELICIOUS! He is coveting the tin.

I tried a recipe for Mexican Almond cookies too, that, unfortunately was a disaster. I am going to attempt to make them again after Christmas. I tried twice and they flopped both times. I said some choice words and moved on.