Cherry Chocolate Pudding Cake

I came home from vacation with a bunch of cherries and knew I had to do something with a few of them before I made myself sick eating them. I found a recipe for cherry chocolate pudding cake, and I had been wanting to try a pudding cake for a while. I had remembered them from when I was younger and loved the goey pudding mixed in with the cake, so I decided to give it a try. I did change the recipe a little bit to cut down on the sweetness and make a darker richer chocolate.


Ingredients:
1 and 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Sugar (1 original recipe)
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
3 tablespoons Baking Powder
¼ + 2 tbsp cup Milk
1/2 cup Unsweetened Applesauce
1 cup Cherries, fresh/frozen, pitted
1 cup Dark Brown Sugar
3 cups Hot Water

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a bowl mix together the flour, sugar, ⅓ cup cocoa powder, baking powder, milk, and applesauce. (I had to add an extra 2 tbsp of milk, try mixing without before adding it. The batter should be thick but not dry).
3. Fold in the cherries.
4. Spoon the batter into a greased and floured 9 x 13 pan (or a pan lined with parchment paper).
5. In the same bowl mix together the dark brown sugar, hot water, and ¼ cup cocoa.
6. Poor over top of the batter.
7. Bake 35 to 40 minutes (the cake will be set but not firm, you should see some pudding bubbling up on the edges.).


Reviews;
This cake got good reviews and it was even good cold the next day. However, O decided that he would like it better without the cherries, or with the cherries chopped into small pieces. I am sure I will make this again at some time.

Relaxing Eye Pillows

There is nothing that helps a person cool down or great rid of a headache quite like a cool pillow on your forehead. I love placing something cool over my eyes when I have a headache or just want to relax. I have a couple of the gel filled eye masks that I keep in the fridge, and while I love how cool they are, they are very uncomfortable to actually put on. I have a heat pad that I picked up at a craft market for my shoulder that I love. As I love it so much, but it is a little big for my head, I decided to make a smaller version to keep in the freezer so i could just pull one out when I wanted to put something on my head, or pop one in the microwave to have something warm.

I started with the free pattern provided by Amy Butler (I love the idea of a slip cover I can take off and wash!), and then made a few modifications to it to spruce it up a little. I had a bunch of solid fabric and some scraps sitting around so I decided to do a little piecing to make them more interesting and fun (why not have them look fun as well?). I do love how they turned out. The blue one is filled with flax seeds and the pink has rice in it. They were very simple to make and I had them done in no time, which is great.



I also tried tracing my old eye mast and making one of a different shape. It turned out nice as well, but the I like the removable cover of the Amy Butler pattern.

I had so much fun making them I am now thinking of making a neck wrap to match!

Lesson Learned for Making Jam

I was visiting my parents when they informed me that they had a bunch of strawberries for making jam that they had picked up that day. No problem, I can handle jam - right? Well after two batches of plain strawberry I was bored and wanted to try something new. I was already putting together an apple rhubarb crisp, and apple strawberry jam sounded great. I googled a bit and came across a few recipes, but non used commercial pectin - they used the pectin already contained in the apples. Being ambitious I decided to try my hand at making jam the old fashioned way - condense the fruit enough so the pectin already there gels it. I read the directions, I measured and I started. Then I stirred, and I waited, checked the temperature, stirred and waited some more. After an hour or more I was thinking that this had to be done - it was getting really thick, but the temperature wasn’t moving! I waited some more, and the mixture of apples and berries on the stove was slowly moving toward the consistency of apple butter, not what I was going for. Upon looking at the stove, my Dad discovered the burner had been turned down. I had been keeping the mixture hot enough to evaporate the liquid but not enough to increase the heat - ooops. Upon turning the burner back up, I quickly reached the desired temperature of 220F and moved on the fill the jars with my really thick jam. The result of my mishap is a thick and delicious concoction - somewhere between a jam and fruit butter.


I am determined to get this process right, so I will be trying more jams the old fashioned way hopefully later this summer/fall. Next up is Strawberry Cherry jam.

Lazy Daisy Cake

One of my friends used to often make this cake - Lazy Daisy Cake. I don’t know were the name came from but this cake, but who cares, it is a cute name and oh so yummy. I finally got the recipe from her (it was out of an old 4H cookbook!).

Lazy Daisy Oatmeal Cake

Ingredients:
Cake:
1 cup quick oats
1 ½ cups boiling water
½ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon

Topping
⅔ cup butter
⅔ cup brown sugar
¼ cup cream/milk
2 cups coconut

Method:
1. Combine the oats and boiling water and let soak for 20 minutes (it will turn into a nice mush).
2. In another bowl cream the butter, white sugar, brown sugar and cream together. Once it is mixed and fluffy, beat in the eggs and vanilla.
3. Mix together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon.
4. Add the flour mixtures and the rolled oats to the butter sugar alternating (1/2 the flour, ½ the rolled oats, ½ the flour, ½ the rolled oats).
5. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes.
6. As the cake bakes, cream together the butter, sugar and milk for the topping. Mix in the coconut.
7. Spread the topping on the cake and return to oven for 10 minutes.
8. Cool, serve and enjoy!

Variation:
You can make the topping with 1 cup coconut and 1 cup of chopped nuts as well if you prefer.

Reviews:
This cake is moist and delicious. I love the cinnamon in the cake mixed with the golden coconut crust on the top. Everyone who tried it like it, and for me it is a great comfort food.

A Crazy Quilt

A Crazy Quilt

Remember these brown squares from before Christmas?

Well I finally got the quilt finished for my Mother - in - law! It didn’t take nearly as long to put all the quilted squares together as I thought it would and I must say, that although I was unsure about the squares while they were in piles on the floor I do like the final product.


This is the largest quilt I have made so far, it will be on a double bed! I can’t wait to see it in its new home this summer when I go out to visit my in laws. I used the method from Crazy Shortcut Quilts. It was really easy and it would be easy to make each quilt unique.

On the back of the quilt I decided to do stripes of colors so you can flip it over if you want something a little less busy.

BBQ Pizza

I finally have a yard - after 7 years I no longer have to BBQ on a tiny camping BBQ out my living room window (seriously, this is how I did BBQ for 7 years!). Now I can comfortably stand on my deck and use my real BBQ while enjoying the outdoors. The result is that I have been doing a lot of cooking on the grill lately (which is awesome as my house doesn’t heat up from the oven). I decided to try pizza one day, and was surprised at how easy it was.

Pizza Dough
¾ cup warm water
1 ½ tsp yeast
½ tsp sugar
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tbsp oil

Toppings:
Cheese
Veggies ( I used a red pepper, green pepper and onion)
Meat (I used some fried pepperoni sausage)
Pizza sauce

Method:
1. In a bowl combine the water, yeast and sugar. Let sit for 10 minutes, the mixture should appear slightly foamy as the yeast starts to activate.
2. Add in the flour and oil, combine until it forms a ball. Cover and let rise for about an hour - the dough will about double in size.
3. After the dough has sat for about 30 minutes, start preparing the vegetables. Cut them into strips (makes them easier to work with).
4. In a vegetable basket on the BBQ cook the veggies until they are crisp tender. (about 10 minutes depending on the size of vegetable pieces.
5. When the dough is done divide into 4 equal parts (or 8 if you would like a smaller pizza). and roll out until they are about ¼ inch thick.
6. When you are ready to start the pizzas, but the dough directly on the grill and let them cook for about 5 minutes. when they are done they will easily lift off the grill and will be soft on the top, a little puffy, but firm on the bottom.
7. Remove dough from grill and assemble the toppings on the firm cooked side of the dough.
8. Return to the grill until the dough is finished cooking and the cheese has melted (about 5 to 8 more minutes).

Enjoy.
Reviews:
This is a great way to enjoy pizza in the summer - you don’t have to heat up the oven or the house as all the cooking can be done on the grill. Also the grill gives the pizza dough a bit of a different texture that I love - a little crunch on the outside with a soft yummy inside! The flavor added by BBQing is great. I will be doing this more often this summer as the weather heats up!

The bonus with the smaller pizzas is that everyone can have their own - have them put their own toppings on to make them personalized.

Gardening!

We are in the new house and I decided that I didn’t want to deal with trying to plant flowers and grow them in the planters in the back yard all summer. I will do the one in front, but other than that, I don’t want to be dealing with growing plants that don’t really do anything. I instead decided to see if I would be able to get some vegetables growing - they will look great and I should get some yummy produce if everything turns out well, so wish me luck!

I have two beds in the back yard that get various amounts of sun. In the sunniest i have planted beans, carrots, onions and garlic (which is already up a little bit - yay). In the shadier of the beds I have putting in peas and thinking of adding some lettuce as I have been told these do well in partial sun.

I also have a large deck and lots of space for pots, so I am trying out some pot bush beans (we will see how that goes), peppers, tomatoes and herbs! The herbs are doing great (I bought them already started) and some of the peppers already have flowers!

The last bed in the back i have left planted with the plants I found there - strawberries! I will be adding a couple of plants to replace those that seem to have died in the winter, but the remaining plants are already up and doing well. There is already a flower on a couple of the plants.

I am looking forward to see what I get out of the garden and being able to cook (hopefully) with some fresh veggies this summer!