On Saturday I felt a little under the weather. You know regular pregnancy stuff, nauseous,
not realizing when I’m hungry, never being full enough, always being too
full. That kind of normal everyday
sickness. To ride this wave of nausea, I
decided to read Lemon Tart by Josi S.
Kilpack, a “culinary murder mystery”.
I could not put this delicious book down.
Sadie Hoffmiller had a pretty normal life, until her
neighbor is murdered and she’s a suspect.
But Sadie, a 52 year-old widow, has a don’t-mess-with-me attitude and
decides to help solve the mystery. On
the way to solving the crime she bakes some delicious treats, which she so
graciously shares with her audiences, including recipes for Lemon Tart,
Cinnamon Ginger Cookies, Homemade Alfredo Sauce, and Sadie’s Better Brownies,
which I’m dying to make.
I overindulged in reading.
I finished the 320-page book in one day.
Lemon Tart inspired me to
include some recipes I tried last weekend in my blog post.
…
In between chapters of Lemon
Tart I made a double layer chocolate cake for my mom. I had made it a week before going to
Tri-Cities, and upon sending a picture of it to my mom, she made it very apparent
she wished at that moment she were in Rexburg to try some. I decided to make one when I was at home, but
instead of making the same cake I would experiment. And what better place to do some food
experimentations than a place where I don’t have to buy the ingredients!
Instead of using plain old Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix,
I decided to use my friends, Jackie’s, recipe for Yummy in My Tummy Chocolate
Cake. The final product turned out
fantastic—better than the cake I made in Rexburg a week earlier. That was mainly due to the fact that Jackie’s
chocolate cake recipe blended perfectly with our family’s homemade frosting
concoction (with the help of Jefferson I added the right amount of chocolate
coco instead of guessing), and Betty Crocker’s ganache. What I ended up with was my
Overindulgence on Chocolate Cake
Instead of using bunt or a regular cake pan, divide cake batter
into two 8” or 9” circle cake pans.
Cook on 325 for about 25 minutes.
*My mom taught me that if you put wax or parchment paper on
the bottom of the pan, the cakes will come out easier. You still have to spray the pan though!
Let cakes cool.
Chocolate Frosting
1 lb of powdered sugar
¼ cup softened butter (use the real stuff)
1 tsp vanilla
¼ cup milk (if you’re lactose intolerant almond milk works
perfect ;)
2 tbls coco powder
Mix all ingredients together and mix until smooth. May need to add more milk or powdered sugar
depending on how thick you want your frosting to be (I like mine thick J).
Place one cooled cake on cake stand. Frost just the top of cake. Carefully place second cake on top of first
cake. Frost the top and sides of cake.
Betty Crocker’s
Chocolate Ganache
1/3 cup whipping cream
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I like a little more in
mine)
Heat whipping cream in non-stick pan over oven. DO NOT BRING
TO BOIL!
Remove from heat and add chocolate chips, stirring them in
until they are melted.
Let stand for about 5-7 minutes.
Pour ganache in middle of cake and push to the sides of
cake, allowing some to dribble down the sides.
Top the cake with your favorite candy. Wilson suggested Gummy Bears. I declined that
idea. I’ve used chocolate mints, Reeses,
and Hershey Bars. The more chocolate the
better!
Warning: this cake may or may not
result in a chocolate induced coma.
...
As I was battling nausea, reading Lemon Tart, and making my chocolate cake, Chris and my brothers
were enjoying the sunshine on the Columbia River.
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| Someone trying to do a barrel roll |
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| How many tubes can you pull behind a boat? |
Chris was a white boy when he went out on the river and a
red one when he got back. He handled the
almost two-degree burn well . . . until the day before it started to peel. He explained the sensation on his skin as “the
most irritable itch below the surface of my skin” he has ever experienced.
Recipe for overindulgence in the sun:
SUNBLOCK! And lots of it!
Apply liberal amounts of chosen sunblock to exposed parts of
body. Do Not Eat!
…
Sunday was our last day in Tri-Cities. After church we had dinner with my
family. I had begged for mom for weeks
to make me “that one veggie thing that you and Grammie make.” She didn’t fail. I had two helpings.
On our way back to Rexburg we stopped in Hermiston to pick
up some vegetables from Grandpa’s garden.
While there my grandparents fed us.
We had some of Grandpa’s corn (and he grows the best corn on this
planet, and I’ve had Illinois corn in Illinois)
as well as “that one veggie thing that Mom and Grammie make.” I laughed to myself when I saw it sitting on
the counter, hot and bubbly, waiting for Chris and I to dig in.
Chris and I overindulged in vegetables that day. According to my learning’s that’s not a bad
thing.
“That One Veggie thing that Mom
and Grammie Make”
Cut up any vegetable in your garden into thin slices.
My mom uses:
Onions
Potatoes (preferable red)
Zucchini
Squash
Bell Peppers
Mix cut vegetables in a bowl with salt, pepper, 2 tbls Mrs.
Dash, 1 tbls Italian Seasoning (optional), and some garlic powder (optional),
and whatever other spices you want to add.
My mom adds olive oil “to help the spices slide around.”
Spread on cookie sheet.
Sprinkle with cheese (optional). Bake
in oven at 400 for about 25-30 min, or until potatoes are tender.
…
My grandparents were not shy about giving Chris and I as
many vegetables as we wanted, plus more.
When we would say that’s enough tomatoes, or enough peppers, Grammie
would continue to fill our bags with at least 3, 4, maybe 8 more vegetables. We had a box full of tomatoes, and several
bags of peppers, including bell peppers, jalapeños, banana peppers, and, as
Grandpa put it, “I-don’t-know-what-these-kind-are-but-they-are-more-mild”
peppers. I won’t even mention how many
zucchini they gave us.
I was never thrilled about fried zucchini, so when we
arrived in Rexburg I cracked open my Our
Best Bites cookbook, looking up a
recipe for zucchini bread.
I found two. One was
Chocolate Zucchini Bread, and the other, Zucchini Banana Muffins. I made both, which, combined calls for 4½
cups of shredded zucchini. We still have
a ton of zucchini left.
Here’s to overindulgence on zucchini!
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
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| Photo taken from ourbestbites.com |
Since I wouldn’t change anything in this recipe, I’ll let
Sara and Kate tell you how to make it.
Just click here for the recipe.
One-Bowl Zucchini Banana Muffins
(This recipe is not on their website L)
½ cup butter, melted
½ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons Vanilla
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I like to add a bit more)
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I like to add a bite more)
1 medium banana, mashed
1½ cups grated zucchini
1.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 muffin
cups with paper liners and set aside.
2.
Melt butter in a microwave-safe mixing
bowl. Add sugars, egg, and vanilla, and
stir to combine.
3.
Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level
with a knife. Add to mixing bowl, but do
not stir. Sprinkle baking soda,
cinnamon, and nutmeg over flour. Using a
whisk, lightly stir dry ingredients together and then use a rubber spatula to
stir just until flour mixture is incorporated into batter. Add mashed banana and zucchini and stir until
combined.
4.
Divide batter evenly into muffin cups, filling
about three-fourths full or a little fuller.
Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with only small crumbs
attached.
I may or may not have had 4 of these for breakfast.
…
Now it’s time to make some salsa! We just have to find a recipe that calls for
about seven jalapeños.
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| This picture doesn't exactly go with the blog...but I thought it was cute. |
