Too Hot To Cook

With the temperatures well over 100 degrees for over a month it has been difficult, to say the least, to keep the house cool.  My little home is cooled by window units and unfortunately running the stove counteracts any cooling the air conditioner manages to accomplish.  

We/I have had to really get inventive in order to eat and still manage to keep the house cool enough to be bearable.  There are always good crock pot ideas.  Jimmy and I found a NuWave portable type oven/cooker kinda thing at a garage sale.  The lady said that it worked perfectly and would cook without heating up the kitchen.  OH Happy Day, was my first thought, solid, unsoggy, non-bean meal!  So we bought it and brought it home.  In my opinion it has been a god-send.  It cooks the whole meal (veggies and meat) at the same time and usually within or around 30 minutes AND without heating the kitchen.  Love the taste of the food - it is like roasting. 

Perfect, I can still cook and have a variety of food to provide dinner for my dear husband upon his return from his long day at work.  The problem, and not that he has complained, was that I have not been able to bake anything in quite a long time.  I am having withdrawals. 

While having a bowl of Choc-Chunks, the delicious part of a nutritious breakfast, a thought came to my mind.  These would make a great base for rice krispies treats.   (man I am really missing emoticons right now)

Anyway.... I used the cheap chocolate rice krispies from Wal-Mart as the base, bought some marshmallow fluff and off to the kitchen i was to see if I could at least make something sweet without heating up the whole house to the unbearable point.  

I put 6 cups of the cereal in a large bowl (which turned out to be a little too much I think), greased a small rectangle pan, put 1/2 a stick of butter in a pot and started it to melt.  Then I added the marshmallow to heat and mix.  After heating add a teaspoon of vanilla.  Pour this mixture over the krispies and stir.  (It was at this point that I began to think 6 cups may be too much.  Next time I will try 5 cups)  Mix the marshmallow mixture into the cereal until all the cereal is coated and then press the mixture into the pan.  It needs to be pressed tightly into the pan so that it stays together.  With 6 cups it was still a little crumbly.  I am hoping with 5 cups it will hold together much better.  I will see anyway.

Just as I had imagined, the end product was delicious!  Husband was most happy to have something sweet to finish off dinner.  He really loved them, as did I.  Can't wait to try them again with the modified recipe.

I think I will use my new NuWave Oven thing and see if by chance I could actually bake in it.  *I think I feel another blog coming on*  :)

The Evolution of a Cake

The day has finally arrived to make the Easter Cake.  The cake has been baked, leveled, sliced in layers and iced. But, that is just the beginning. :)

I have the idea to make this an Easter basket.  The white icing is just the base layer, or crumb layer.  The crumb layer of icing is to hold the crumbs in place so that they do not appear on the outer layer of icing.  This layer of icing is usually thin and is allowed to set for about an hour til it is air dried.  Does not look like much at this stage, but it gets better. 

The basket-weave pattern is used to ice the side of the cake.  This gives the appearance of the basket.  It takes a little more time than just "throwing" icing on a cake with a knife, but not as much time as you would think and the results are really nice. 

You can not have an Easter basket without the grass!  Icing colored green and using a ribbon tip the grass has been put "in" the basket. 

The gum paste handle completes the look for the basket.  Chocolate Eggs added, sugar flowers and butterflies add eye appeal. 

In preparation for Easter

Today I will make the cake I plan to make for Easter.  The White Chocolate Whisper Cake is totally a favorite, but it has been hard to find an icing that compliments it properly.  We have tried just about every combination for an icing that I know and nothing seems to taste just right.  It was easier to leave it uniced and eat it plain.  Well I have an idea that I am going to try and if it does not work, then I will have to make a different cake for Easter. As I was melting the chocolate for the cake I had the idea to use the same chocolate for the icing.  So, I melted more chocolate, added butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and started mixing.  The icing actually tastes really good, the test comes when the cake and icing are put together.  Poor Jimmy has to be my test dummy for this experiment.  I know he will hate the job, but someone has to do it. 

(time lapses)

Yay,  Jimmy says that the cake and icing are "probably the best I have ever tasted". :)  I have to admit after tasting it I really like the combination.  It will not be so "scary" to try it for Easter.  Now to see what Rachel has to say about it. 

Sorry Rach---- no cake tops this time. 

Manicotti MAN I GOTTA be crazy!

Feeling full of energy and industrious this morning I decided to make manicotti.  Italian food has always been my favorite and I have been wanting some really good lasagne lately soooooo......  Hey, I had all the ingredients except the manicotti noodles.  How hard can that be, right?  The kids and I had made our own noodles years ago, right?  The big difference this time was that I did not have the luxury of little helpers (or any helpers for that matter).  But I put that thought aside and decided that I could do this, I had the time.  

So, after Jimmy left for work this morning (at 6:00) I took the ingredients out of the fridge so that the could soften.  I sat down to enjoy my coffee and dig out my recipes.  After all the ingredients had time to soften it was time to begin.  I started at 9:00 this morning and was done by 2:00 this afternoon.  

I started my spaghetti sauce recipe and let it simmer while I made the pasta.  The sauce is a mixture of tomato paste, water, oregano, basil, salt, a little sugar and a bay leaf.  It simmers to thicken and yum and I am hungry already, but still have a while to go before it is ready to eat.  While the pasta was "resting" it was time to put the stuffing together.  Simple concoction of cream cheese, ricotta, and mozzarella cheese, and an egg along with some spices.  

After rolling out the pasta dough in the pasta machine it was cut into lengths and the stuffing was rolled inside.  Four pans later!!! Manicotti is covered with sauce, sprinkled with cheese and ready to bake.  If I had had my wits about me I would have made lasagne, it would have been so much easier.  The noodles could have been larger and it would have been a whole heck of a lot less work putting it all together.  BUUTTTT NOOOO!  I started the morning out with manicotti on the mind and manicotti it was going to be.  

If I had had some help it could have been easier, rolling out the pasta dough alone is rather cumbersome and difficult for someone that does not do it very often.  Fortunately for me it is done and ready to bake.  I am quite proud of my accomplishment and can not wait for Jimmy to head home for dinner of manicotti and homemade rolls.   


OH!  Susie, that is Chocolate Dumpling for dessert in the background.  :)

One Egg, One Cup of Milk and a Sweet Tooth

Put that title to music and you could be singing the blues!  But I am about to set out on an experiment adventure to turn the blues into a jazz remix.

Well, I tweaked the recipe for the White Chocolate Whisper cake.  I left out the eggs, baking powder and (sadly) the white chocolate (only because I STILL do not have any!).  Added 4 ounces of applesauce in place of the eggs.   Increased the flour to 4 cups, cut the milk to 1/2 cup and added 1/2 teaspoon of almond -with only 1 teaspoon of vanilla.  Rolled the cookies into balls and rolled them in sugar.  Viola!  Just my luck my nephew came over and was able to test the cookies for me.  Half a cookie jar later I am told that they were not any good and he would gladly take the rest of them off my hands. :)   I would have taken a picture of them, but with only 2-3 left it would not make a very appetizing picture.  Poor Jimmy... if I hurry up and eat the rest of them, he will never even know what he missed.  hehehehe.... luckily I saved some of the dough and can make another pan and my dear hubby will be able to have his dessert after our supper of "Clean Out The Fridge Stew". 

These need to be cooked on a greased cookie sheet.  Otherwise they will scorch on the bottom.   

Easter Suggestions

Easter will be here before you know it.  Time to have the family and friends over for some Easter fun.  We usually get together the Saturday before and visit, hunt eggs, play games and EAT!  This year I would like to create a cake, but am having a hard time coming up with an idea or theme.  Seems I have the desire to create something, but the creativity is missing this time.  Anyone have any suggestions on a theme for a cake for Easter??

White Chocolate Whisper Cake

**If you even think you might need to try this yourself... go ahead and take a stick of butter out of the fridge and let it soften!~~

Many years ago I was give the Cake Bible, which is a great compilation of recipes and great ideas for cake baking.  One of the kids favorites has been the White Chocolate Whisper Cake.  It truly has a very special, unique taste that comes from the melted white chocolate that is added to the batter at the last minute.  

I have had a desire for this cake for several weeks so I thought today would be a good day to put one together.  After getting my taste buds all set for the chocolaty taste of this cake I realized I had used the white chocolate for something else and had forgotten to replace it!!!  So, I just substituted the white chocolate for some milk chocolate.  This changed the flavor of the batter only slightly.  I am about to taste the actual cake and see if it is worth repeating.  

***Well, the texture is still light and fluffy.  The color is the color of spice cake, yet the flavor has a hint of chocolate. Not bad, but I think the original is still my favorite.  So, to make the original best:

Melt 6 ounces of white chocolate in a double boiler.  Can use white chocolate chips. 

combine together 2 large eggs, 1/4 cup of milk, and 1 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.

In your mixing bowl combine 3 cups of flour, slightly heaping cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon and 1 1/2 teaspoon of  baking powder, and 3/4 teaspoon of salt. After this is mixed add that softened butter that I reminded you take out earlier and 3/4 cup of milk.  Mix this well.  Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture in three batches.  Otherwise there could be a big mess on the counter. :)  Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the melted white chocolate.  Mix to incorporate.  

Fill the prepared cake pans about 1/2 full and bake at 350 for 24 - 30 minutes.  A toothpick will come out clean when inserted into the center.  

I have not found a suitable icing for this cake yet.  Everything I have tried only takes away from the flavor of this cake.  We usually eat it without icing.