A Marathon (Little Wife Style)

      Before I shock friends and family out of their socks, this isn't a running marathon, or even a Lord of the Rings movie marathon (although those are very common round this parts) this is the first ever baking marathon! More specifically, a Red Velvet Cake baking marathon.  It is also a competition (very sneaky on my part, I know) I want to know who has the best Red Velvet Cake. I love Red Velvet Cake, next to Angel's Food Cake, and my mother-in-la's strawberry cake, it is my absolute favorite. (I have a lot of favorites in case you hadn't noticed) But anywho, here is the line up:

On Monday I will be baking the old stand-by: Betty Crocker

On Tuesday I will be baking the new find: Pioneer Woman

On Wednesday I will be baking the family favorite: The Farm Chicks

On Thursday I will be baking the bar raiser: Martha Stewart

And on Friday I will be baking the classic, but so far untried: Country Living

     And so beginning Monday, I will bake one cake (or maybe a batch of cupcakes) every day, and getting everyone's opinion.  I would love to have some-one to bake along with me, and then we can compare notes, and have a crowd favorite.  Even if you just want to bake on cake, and make someone's day, I would love to hear from you.  Or if you are just too busy to bake, if you just want to chime in on the pictures, or even better, share your favorite recipe, that would still make my day!

Friday Night Treats

     I'm sorry that its been so long since my last post, I miss placed my camera with all my potential post pictures.  But now it is found and I have a post for you! 

     I’m up waiting on laundry so the husbandman can have clean work clothes tomorrow and thought I would share my latest kitchen project with you. These are the treats I made for my Friday night College/Young Professional bible study.  Oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies and sweetie pies!

     I am now in love with the idea of sweetie pies it is another recipe from (you guessed it) the farm chicks.  And it couldn’t be simpler.  It’s just pie crust and jam! These are made with blackberry, but the ones I made this morning were with strawberry, and I think I like the blackberry better.  I’m planning on trying apple butter next, but I’m not real sure how those will turn out…

     The oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies were not so successful and did not make it to the bible study, as they were contributed to my mom’s student’s FFA week party.  The bowl came home with several cookies still in it, so I’m pretty sure it was a flop recipe (if teenage boys won’t eat them, they’re hopeless)

     And now that I have my camera again, I’ll post pictures of my mini circle skirts later this morning (as 1. I don’t want to wake the husbandman and 2. I don’t think pictures taken at midnight would turn out all that great anyways.) Sleep well everyone!

 

PS. aren't these great little bowls? I found them in one of the upper cabinets and fell in love! My mom said they were a dollar tree find and I couldn't believe it.  Turns out they were only out of reach so that the boys wouldn't microwave them.  I think they might find a way into our boxes when the move comes.

Red Velvet Cake

 

     Saturday I was bit by the cooking bug again.  (Though I also blame the fact that I found all my mom’s old cake pans when I was cleaning out the cabinets, and rediscovered that we have all kinds of cool shapes from past birthday cakes.)

     

     Using a recipe from the Farm Chick’s blog, (I’m head over heels in love in case you can’t tell) I made this cake! And it was wonderful! It’s soft and moist, not too sweet and marbled with just a hint of chocolate.

     I have two tips for anyone who wants to make this cake (and this should be everyone, cause this cake will make your and everyone else in your house’s day.)

1.       Even though you know you have red food coloring left over from Easter eggs, you will probably need to buy more.  The recipe calls for two ounces. (Yes two).  I went to town to buy all the ingredients that we needed, and assuming I had enough, I started cooking.  Then I looked down and saw the two ounces.  I didn’t have two ounces.  I have ¾ of an ounce of liquid dye and the scrapings of the bottle of the gel dye.  Luckily, this was enough. But keep this in mind when assembling ingredients.

2.       Ice this cake cold.  Not just cool.  Both the icing and the cake have to be cold. The icing is fantastic, but make with a butter base, and will melt if you try and ice a slightly warm cake because you got tired of waiting for it to finish cooling completely.

 

     In case all this isn’t enough for you to start making this cake tonight, I don’t have a picture of the sliced cake because it went too fast…

Cooking Experiments

     I spent most of the afternoon in the kitchen.  This is nothing new, I usually spend all day in the kitchen, as it is warmer than it is in our room.  However, today I spent most of my time in the kitchen actually cooking.  don't get me wrong, I love to cook, I just hate cooking to a deadline (like dinnertime) so I love making desserts and cooking in the middle of the day so that everything has plenty of time, no one is waiting on me to finish, and I don't have to spaz out when ever anyone walks through the kitchen (just on the off chance that they might be coming to judge or nag (stress makes me a not so nice person).)

     I don't really have a full story line to share, so I thought I would just share pictures of some of the food and messes that I made.  The dish that was the biggest hit with the family is, of course, the one I don't have a picture for. So use your imagination here for a moment. I made the Cheesy Potato Soup from the Farm Chicks cookbook, and it was amazing! It was thick and creamy and delightfully cheesy. If I hadn't already recommended the book, I would throw it at people just for this one recipe.

     For all you Red Hot and Blue fans, I think I have managed to copy their famous Cinnamon Butter! I took a stick of butter (softened) and mixed in two generous spoonfuls of cinnamon sugar.  That wasn't quite right, so I added more cinnamon (a very generous dash) and then some more.  (Sorry this is so imprecise) Then I just took a fork to it and stirred the living daylights out of it.  (Basically mix butter, cinnamon, and saucer (quantities in that order) until it tastes right.)

     The husbandman makes fun/scolds me for using practically every dish in the kitchen when I cook. Sadly, this is very true.  These are just the dishes that I used to make my pie filling.  Not the whole pie, not the whole dinner, just the pie filling. However, in my defense, my parents have a dishwasher and since he's not having to wash all my dishes like he did in the old apartment (one of us cooked, the other cleaned up afterwards) I don't see what the big deal is. Having a dishwasher is a wonderful thing that I never thought I would be without.  Being without one is not nice, but that is a rant for another night.

Before

       The thing I'm proudest of though, is my pie.  (Another reason to run out and buy the Farm Chicks cookbook.)  I have made pies before, but my mom was always right there (usually making one of her own) to help me with everything.  Tonight, she was still at school, and I had to figure it out on my own.  And I did!! It turned out wonderfully (in fact my dad just come downstairs just to tell me how good it was.) The crust was simple to work with, it didn't fall apart or refuse to roll, and yet it baked up light and flakey. I have sucessfully made a pretty, tasty, fromstrach pie!  (It was a cherry pie in case anyone wondered, we still have sour cherries coming out of our ears from last fall's harvest.) 

After!

Pioneer Cooking

     We had a big snowstorm last night, and unfortunately it knocked out our power just as my mom and I were scrambling to make dinner.  I would have given up, but luckily for all our hungry bellies, my mom has a much better concept of the fact that the world does not end when you have no electricity.

     We had already started soup and biscuits (which admittedly are probably the easiest things to cook without power.) And so when the power kicked out, my mom had me press the biscuits into two greased cast iron skillets, and bring everything down to the basement. We have two woodstoves (they are our main source of heat) but the one downstairs produces a lot more heat.

    
     So we put the soup on to boil on the range itself, grabbed the oven thermometer and when the stove reached 400 degrees, we slid in the first batch of biscuits.

The flashlight was the only way we could really see how everything was cooking

     Now take in mind that we are working in the basement with no power. And our basement, like most basements, has no windows. So we are sitting in complete darkness while we wait to see if this works. Poor Danny (our lab) could not understand why we did not turn a light on and why there was food downstairs, so he sat as close as he could to me.

     I think it is amazing how quickly your eyes look for light in complete darkness. The only light to be seen was a slight glow coming from the dampers on the woodstove (it's cast iron so it's not letting any light out) and the faintest illumination from the vents that lead upstairs to the living room (which was lit by candlelight.)

     There is something in the human that needs light as much as it needs food and so it finds light in any shape or quantity as it can. There is also something quieting about the pitch darkness that so few of us see in our modern world. Anyone that knows me will tell you that without a doubt I cannot handle silence. I squirm and fret, and talk non-stop if only to keep the lack of noise at bay. But sitting in the dark with my mom and a weirded out dog, I sat in silence. I just sat and watched the little bit of light flickered on the walls, and thought about how powerful darkness is.

     If you were wondering how it all turned out, well the soup was a much bigger success than the biscuits, we didn't quite cook them long enough so they were a little gooey in the middle. The oddest part for me was the fact that the combination of cast iron skillet and wood smoke flavored them oddly. But that flavoring enriched the soup perfectly, so most of the family just crumbled them into the bowl.

     The best part about all this snow and power outage was that the husbandman and I were home. We would have starved or frozen in our apartment, or crashed in the attempt to eat out. But at my parents' it was no big deal, we just all came out of our own rooms and sat together in the warmth of the living room and ate pioneer food. I had a blast.

Afternoon Snack and a Quick Hostess Gift Tutorial

     In my house, we use a lot of butter.  Its a part of all that southern cooking, and it just makes everything taste good.  Yes, you have to work harder after you eat to get it all to balance out, but exercise is good for you anyways, right?
     One of my favorite things to do with butter is to make Cinnamon Toast.  So I'm going to share how I make it.  I think this is the best possible way to make Cinnamon Toast, I even converted the husbandman, which is not an easy thing to do.

     Put your toast on a cookie sheet.  Butter your toast, and then add cinnamon and sugar to taste.  Really about all the prep work these needs.  Turn the broiler on, and place the cookie sheet on the middle rack. While you are waiting for your toast to toast and your sugar to caramelize (yummy), and since you still have you cinnamon and sugar out, now is the time to work on a super easy and adorable concoction that makes a lovely hostess gift.

     Add about two tablespoons of cinnamon to a small mixing bowl.

Then add about six tablespoons of plain old white sugar.

Stir together, (I'm working on a smaller scale, as I'm just topping off a previous jar).  You can play with how much sugar and cinnamon to add. I just wanted enough cinnamon to make a sharp color difference between the mixture and the plain sugar.

     Find a mason jar, and check on your Cinnamon toast. Then layer the cinnamon mixture and more plain sugar in the mason jar.  I use about two tablespoons in each layer. Tap the jar lightly to get each layer to lay more or less flat.

     Pull your cinnamon toast out of the oven.  It is amazing.  The toast is crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside.  The butter has caramelized the sugar and cinnamon into a flaky and crumbling topping of deliciousness.

     Continue adding layer to your mason jar as you much on your well earned treat.  If the cinnamon sugar jar is going to be a gift, I would recommend filling it to the very, very top, so that the layers are less likely to mix together so that it is still pretty when you give it.  If it's going back into the cupboard, make as much as you like, it tastes just as good mixed together as it does in layers. For extra sprucing, cut out a circle of pretty fabric and sandwich it between the two parts of the lid (the flat lid and the screw-on ring.)

Making Butter in a Modern Kitchen

     As I said in my last post, you can make butter in a food processor.  My mom told me that it was possible but I didn't really think it would work. Everyone knows making butter is hard and time consuming, right? Even if you do it girl scout style and just shake the can instead of finding a churn, it still takes forever and makes your arms hurt.  So I tried it and nope, its not hard or painful at all. It takes all of three minutes in a food processor. And in case you still don't believe me, (I wouldn't if I hadn't tried it myself) I have proof...

 

     All you need is this (we had a bunch left over from Christmas, it was supposed to be turned into whip cream and ice cream, but that didn't happen for whatever reason)

    And one of these, and a dash of salt.  Really, that's it.

      Add the heavy whipping cream and the dash of salt to the food processor, and turn it on.  (Really, that is the hardest part)

     If you were making whipped cream, you would stop here, but don't stop yet. (Its been about 45 seconds since you started the food processor)

     About a minute later, it will look like this.  But don't stop yet.  You're almost there, I promise.

      After about another minute it will look like this.  It has gotten very thick, and has started to crumble.  Mine stopped rotating in the food processor and just kind turned over and and over rather than going around and around.

     Put it in a pretty pan and that's it. I would refridgerate it for a few hours before you put it out on the table, its very soft.

     At this point you realize that you have made butter in about three minutes, and feel super accomplished. Find a comfy chair and get back to your reading.  And when anyone asks what you did this afternoon, tell them the truth, you made butter.  They'll all be very impressed at your hard work and homey skills. No one ever needs to know how easy it was, do they?