My first Daring Baker's Challenge!

I am as extremely excited as this is my first Daring Baker Challenge. I had been watching the bakers for quite some time but just didn’t have the nerve but I was feeling brave a few months ago and joined up. I had to wait until it was my month to start and I am excited as this is a yummy item. Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting, how good does that sound? I love caramel it is one of my top ten favorite flavors and it is in my top 3 in dessert flavors. I jumped to the challenge right away as I was hoping it would work as a delish dessert for later in the month when we have a lot of family coming so I thought I better start early in case it took a few tries to get right.
I thought this cake was wonderful so moist and rich and yet light. I love the caramel sauce in it, I would have like a temp guide to know when to take it off the heat but it came out perfect. I do a lot of hard candy making so I am very familiar with sugars changes as it cooks and I really think that helped make the caramel sauce. I wish I could eat it with a spoon it is sop delish. I had some sauce leftover so I am thinking of making a caramel ice cream to use it as I think it would really add a delish flavor.

Now the browned butter frosting…… well I raved about the cake and the caramel sauce but ummmmmm ok here we go. I really hated the buttercream frosting. I normally love buttercream and use it often but ALL I taste is the butter. It is like a mouthful of butter if you are Paula deen you will love this but for me it was too much! That is shocking as I am a butter user to an extreme. I use butter for everything and so for the taste to be to strong for me shocked me. I would make this cake again and maybe use it in a trifle with whipped cream flavored with the caramel sauce or even with a regular butttercream but I ate one bite and that was it. My daughter loved it and wanted more but I had no desire to eat anymore.
Here is the caramel sauce in a glass jar to cool. You can see the spoon thru the caramely glaze.

To see the complete recipe go to http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2006/12/24/caramel-cake-the-recipe/ from Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater http://eggbeater.typepad.com/Also Hosting is (http://culinarycuriosity.blogspot.com/),Brownie of the Blondie and Brownie duo: http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com/), Jenny of Foray into Food (http://forayintofood.blogspot.com/).For the alternative bakers go to http://glutenagogo.blogspot.com/ for more help.

BTW am I the only person who thinks this would be a awesome tattoo?

Company's coming!!!!!

Oh the fear I feel as my in laws are about to descend. My MIL and FIL lives across the street so I see them all the time but all my hubby's brothers with wives and kids are coming next week. They will be here for about 3 days and so that is 20 people for 3 days cooking! I am a bit nervous as several of them REALLY hate me but the rest like me and are fine so I hope all goes well. We don't celebrate holidays so we don't plan thanksgiving but everybody is off work so here they come. I technically invited one person with wife to come and then it sorta snowballed. I am making a turkey on Fri so that we can eat turkey sandwiches for the next couple of days.

My MIL picked the turkey out it is a 25 lb monster that just barely fits in the fridge to thaw! So here is the menu-

Fri

Breakfast overnight french toast with awesome bacon from my sweet butcher

lunch will probably be light with snacks set out as

dinner is Butter basted Turkey with cranberry sauce, stuffing, brussel sprouts if I can find some, salad and creme brulee for dessert. Oh I forgot rolls and I think that is it but I may add to it as I tend to over think things

Sat
Breakfast Homemade cinnamon rolls and a cheese ham quiche in case they need a non sugar option - sometimes I forget I am diabetic, but man are these good

lunch Left over turkey in sandwiches and also some potato salad just to add a new taste

dinner is my all day pasta sauce with garlic bread made with crusty french bread that if I have time I will bake if I don't have time to make bread then hello supermarket bakery. I am debating the dessert with this so if you have an idea drop me a line and let me know.

I think I have everything I need as the stores are scary right now. I went to the big box store and parked so far I almost should walk from home, ok not quite but nearly!

Sun

Breakfast people can do as they wish

lunch will most likely be at either rib crib, several peoples fav place, or Goldie's the makers of AWSOME burgers.

dinner BYE BYE drive safe see you soon

So it shouldn't be to bad as long as I prep well as several things need to be ready to go in advance ie creme brule and cinnamon rolls and so as long as I don't go insane all will be well.

this is a true story

Son: "Where do chickens come from?"
Mom: "they hatch from eggs"
Son: "so eggs are BABY CHICKENS!!!!" said with great horror
Mom: "umm kind of yes they are" said very nervously
Son: "Well that is grossss
Mom: " Yes but the chicks never grow into babies so they never are hurt
Son: Well they sure are DEEELIcous" he said his eyes wide

This happened a few days ago and I was nervous wondering if this was the day he says "no more meat". I also didn't want him to feel that it is bad to eat meat as I want him open to idea as he is young and don't want him to feel it is mean if he likes to eat meat. He now seems obsessed knowing which animals come from eggs and which are live born. He was wondering what tiger eggs would look like. :) There is no recipe today just the thought that kids are by far the funniest animal there is.

This is fun

I got this website from erincooks.com and thought it was funny I was suprised I scored as well as I did but then again it is like the 50's in my house so.... Give it a try and see how you do!

68 As a 1930s wife, I am Superior Take the test!

New Item of the Week - Pomegranate

Yes, pomegranate, I know everyone else on the planet has eaten this for a long time but I have never had the"real" fruit. I have had the juice and love it but never had I actually had a seed. I decided this week I deserved a treat so I went for it. It very messy to cut as the juice drips out onto the counter but ohh so pretty. It was like rubies twinkling at me as I went to try a berry. I did like it but ummm it is ALL seed. I read some people spit the seed out and some people swallow them so I tried both. Spitting out each seed makes it a long process however it is tastier. Eating the seed is faster but crunchy and that is an odd texture. I am unsure how I would cook with them as I didn't care for the crunchiness. I think it would be a perfect tv time snack as it is mindless but takes time so perfect instead of a bag of chips (don't judge me - potatoes are good for you). So no recipe as I saw a recipe using them in soup and that sounds disgusting and the taste doesn't seem to me to match anything else. I am glad I tried it but at 2.50 each I doubt I will buy it on a regular basis.

I'm backkkkkkk

Well this has been a crazy week. My momma's new hip is doing great and she is getting more adapt at day to day stuff. The surgery was exactly one week ago and so now I am home!!!!! I missed the kids so much and they seem happy to have me home.

I have a very large family gathering happening next week so I am trying to get the renovations on the house done and the house clean and the prep work for cooking for 20 people all done before next wednesday! Wanna help? No really you can come(please)! Anyway, yesterday I plastered the walls in the hallway- we are going for a textured look- and today I need to do the final coat and then I can mark another item off the list of to do's. The hardest part about plastering the walls is my 3 yr old reallly reallllllly wants to help. That can be problematic. But you are wondering ummmmm, isn't this a FOOD blog. Yes, yes it is.

I needed something that would take care of itself on the stove yesterday and so I made 15 bean cajun soup with hammocks. I used a bag of 15 bean soup and just followed what the bag said to do, can of tomatoes, juice of a lemon and the seasoning that came with the beans. It was good and better then I expected but the star was the corn bread. It was perfect sweet cornbread. I am not a fan of cornbread but this I could NOT stop munching on. I got it from recipezarr and really only changed the fat to decrease it as there was a lot of oil and butter in it. My hubby always slathers it with butter no matter how much I use. I didn't use any extra butter but found it had plenty in it.

Sweet Cornbread

Ingredients
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon honey
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cups milk
Directions
Preheat oven to 350º.
In a bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Add the oil, honey, eggs, and milk.
Pour into a greased 8-inch square pan.
Bake for 35 minutes.

Instead of an 8 in pan I used a cast iron skillet- after the pan is hot add 3 Tablespoons butter and let melt. then pour the ready mix on top of the butter and it is delish. You can do the same thing with any dish you are using preheat it and drop the butter in, this gives it a wonderful crunch and also makes any pan nonstick.

I will have the menu for next week up tomorrow if anyone is curious.

Posting

Well I will be gone for about two weeks with no posting. Mommie Dearest is getting her hips replaced and I am going to help her out. I will be leaving the hubby alone with the children for 4 whole days!!!! I have never ever ever done this before so I am unsure who is more nervous, hubby or I. I am getting ready to go ie laundry, groceries etc so I have no time for cooking blog worthy posts. I hope she will like my cooking, I am a little worried but we shall see how things go. I anticipate making soups and warm comfort food that is low fat. I put a pound of butter in everything so hopefully I will do ok.

I did see this yummy soup on http://jenyu.net/blog/2008/11/08/test-drive/ and it looks so yummy I figured I would just link to it as her pictures are always amazing.

have a great week - see you soon :)

Restaurant Of The Week

Well for a long time (see previous posts) I have been a non meat eater. I had someone ask me "what type of vegetarian are you?" I replied "the kind that like bacon". So I decided that it is to complicated to prepare multi meals or find restaurants that have tasty veggie sides here in the mid west so I decided to bite the bullet or the meat as it is. :) (Man, I kill me) Anyway, Mike if you are reading this I hope you thought my answer was funny because that was what I was shooting for. I am now an eater of anything. It is nice as it opens my options when eating out but at home I am mainly still a non meat girl. So as I voyage into the world of meat I had BBQ today. I mainly ate potato wedges,onion rings and some coleslaw but I also had some ribs. I took no pictures but we ate at a place called J&l's BBQ in Pryor,OK. Hubby also had some pork that is all it is called "pork" so I have no clue what part of the pig it came from but he seemed to like it. Please notice there were no options like salad and even the baked beans were full of meat! So for a vegan ummm there is soda. For the vegetarian I think the potato and onion rings are ok but for a meat eater this place was heaven. My hubby and in laws kept sniffing the air and saying ahhhhh! I found this very funny. I also should mention that it is CHEAP! So for my restaurant review of places I go I say 1 star for niceness of place 3 stars for yummyness and 5 star (my highest rating) for price.

So I just invented the rating system it goes from 0 for dirty or gross for whatever reason I explain to 5 Stars for super awesome. I may change this as I go mainly because I doubt anyone is going to care how I rate restaurants but I hope you like this new feature as I am sure it will be back and next time I will take pictures. It was the end of a VERY long day and I just had a brain fart and forgot my camera till it was to late.

chocolate cupcakes

I needed a chocolate cupcake that was light and fluffy yet would hold its shape nicely, and this is it. I really like it and the frosting is stiff enough to hold its shape for piping. I also decided to fill the cupcakes as a surprise filling so I used simple marshmallow fluff which I had never used before but I saw a few blogs that used it as a kind of ho-ho type filling and it really tastes great with this chocolate. I also liked that it used no bowls or prep as there a number of dirty dishes now filling my sink.To get such a perfect little hole I used a apple corer and it gives me nice clean edges.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter
1 3/4 cups white sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup boiling water
1 cup milk
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Add the cocoa to the half cup boiling water and let cool for a few minutes and add milk.
In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk mixture, mixing just until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

For cupcakes still keep the oven at 350 but bake for 25 minutes and then check for doneness, depending on your oven they may require more time.

Cooked Chocolate icing

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder measure then sift
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons milk
DIRECTIONS
In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in cocoa and vanilla. Place confectioners' sugar in a large bowl. Pour in cocoa mixture. Beat well (mixture will be extremely thick). Beat in milk, a teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency is achieved.

On a side note I love using large souffle cups instead of cupcake liners as they need no pan and they create a perfect work surface for decorating. As you can see in the first picture I have a perfect flat surface for fondant decorations or pretty piping or even just to lay flat for easier transporting. I will leave them flat as I need them for a picnic lunch tomorrow and don't want to worry about messing up any decorations.

I have a cold and am crabby,enjoy!

I have been sitting here for quite some time wishing I had something clever or witty to report, some new divine recipe or anything that would interest the 7 people that read my blog. :) I signed up for nablopobo and the rules state I must post every day for november. I had hoped that it would make me want to cook or expand in the rut I have been in but ........... I am sitting here eating popcorn and not cooking a thing as I had a whatever you can find dinner. That means I ask what you can see and then you eat it so I made beer battered onion rings for hubby and daughter. She also wanted crackers with cheese so I also made that for my son. Pudding for dessert and popcorn for mom. Well it was easy but I fill like the kids should have had something more substantial but no one really seemed hungry. We all have been sick with a doozy of a cold and it is lay off season where my hubby works and as that is part of his job to let people go needless to say he wasn't in a hungry mood either. This is a long story to say popcorn is a great dinner while cruising ebay for cookie cutters and candy molds.

Please don't give up on me as tomorrow I am making chocolate cupcakes and I think they will be delish.

Btw the picture is from one of my addict websites http://icanhascheezburger.com/

trying something new

I often make suckers or candy, both hard and chocolate, but I never found the right coloring to decorate before. It is a different type of food coloring then regular gel like for baking needs. This is my first attempt at making it multicolor and no it's not the greatest but practice candy is still delish. I also learned I need to whack it on the counter harder and more when it is colored, that surprised me as I didn't think it would change the consistency. It had holes in it after it set and I demolded them and I normally don't have that problem. I did whack them several times but I guess that needs more work too. :) Oh well I enjoy a challenge so onward I go.....

to make chocolate candy

melt 1/2 you chocolate after it is smooth add the rest of your chocolate. That will temper your chocolate so the color will not"bloom" or go grey which doesn't change the taste but looks unappealing.

put it in your molds - if you want some color add the details and then pour chocolate over the top carefully so you don't smudge your design. Notice on mine that I was to aggressive on a few of them and they smudged. :( After you fill your molds tap them firmly on the counter as you don't want any bubbles because after it sets they will still be there if you don't get them out.

after tapping the bubbles out stick them in the freezer for a few minutes to set them rapidly it should only take about 5 minutes.

there you go you have yummy candy to enjoy and you can customize them to your needs;

thank you

baby shower

bake sales

company coming

fall celebrations

and the list of times they can come in handy keeps going on..................

well it is finally here

Tuesday has arrived. that means no more commercials about how the other guy is a liar, no more weird ads out of nowhere for someone i have never heard of. So I celebrate the end of the battle.

I also am celebrating getting my name changed, after 13 yrs of marriage I finally am legally name change married. I must confess I do feel different now. My name was the only part of "me" that was left and now it is gone, but that is ok because the married me is a adequate person with very sweet kids and a warm cozy house. Life is good so I guess that makes me a very fortunate person. I can't complain so on to why my house is cozy and warm ....... (nice segway no?)


The bread is rising and the oven has a Dutch Baby bubbling away to high sides and sweet tastes.

I love dutch baby because it is all the yummy of crepes or pancakes without the hassle of standing their flipping when their is laundry to do. The flat base is a great place for strawberries, peaches and cream or even a slightly roasted till soft apple with cinnamon sugar. I am a strawberry preserves kinda person that is my favorite topping.


Dutch Baby

2 Tablespoon butter
1 1/2 c milk
2 eggs
dash of salt or 1/4 teaspoon
1 cup flour
vanilla optional
nutmeg optional
1 teaspoon sugar optional
If I am using a sweet topping I tend not to add sugar to it so it isn't to sweet.

preheat oven and pan to 375 degrees

I use a heavy cast iron pan but you can use something else if you prefer. once the pan is hot put butter in pan in the oven it will melt and while it is getting hot

mix all other ingredients in a bowl. Once the pan is hot and the butter is melter pour the thin batter in the pot and put in the oven and turn the oven down to 350 degrees cook 10 minutes and then turn the oven down to 325 degrees for 20 minutes till done. add topping of your choice and dig in. yummmmmmmmmmmmm I love this meal it is one of my top 10 favorite cold weather lunches yes, not breakfast I am usually running the kids to school and they prefer cereal in the morning. So this is a yummy treat for me and my 3 yr old at lunchtime.

Oh, there goes the timer. Have a great day to all :)