Shall We Bake Today?

My April calendar pic!

Just had a very loud thunder and lightening storm pass over us this dark and early a.m. You would have thought it was the 4th of July! Whew. Our spring showers have been massive this year, as it has been for a lot of our country. I am beginning to think this spring calendar picture does not say "hope", but, sort of looks like it says "nope"--not quite spring...ha! Maybe so.

This is one of my very most favorite reading, photography, and recipe books, all wrapped into one. I use it a lot and not just for cooking and baking. Sure I have made the refrigerator pickles, and covered supper beans and rice. And, can't forget the peach buckle and lemon sour cream pound cake. All delicious. But, what I really love about this book are the stories that accompany each and every recipe section.....and every recipe has a little background of it's own. The photography is magnificent. Don't you just love a good read that includes recipes and beautiful pictures?

Ohh...sorry! You can't click to look inside. That would have been nice.

So, this book is where I got the recipe for Jenna's birthday pound cake. It is so good and mails rather easily. The first few times I sent this to Jenna, I baked it in a bread pan. Worked out well. Then, I dabbled in making it into cupcakes and then this last time, a little pan cake for mailing.
Do give this a try. It is really a spring delight...the lemon and the butter makes this oh so good. The smell of it baking, is divine.
3 cups all -purpose flour
1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t baking soda

1/2t salt

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 cups sugar

6 large eggs

1 t vanilla extract

Grated zest of 2 lemons

1 cup sour cream, at room temperature



Ok...let's get started. Ready, set and GO!

Oven, 325. Butter and flour a bundt pan.



Let's get right to it and sift the flour and all dry ingredients. Set this aside.



Now, beat the butter and sugar with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy.



Add eggs in one at a time, then, the vanilla and zest.



Flour mixture time. With mixer at lowest speed, slowly, slowly and slowly add in flour mixture, alternating with adding in portions of the sour cream. Beat until smooth. Getting so yummy!



Spread evenly into pan. Bake for approximately 1 and 1/4 hour.



This cake nearly melts in your mouth, on it's own, but, you have just got to make the Lemon Syrup.

Take 1 cup of fresh lemon juice, 1/4 cup water and 2/3 cup sugar. Bring to a boil and cook until the syrup is reduced to about 1/2 cup. Cool.



Now here is a hint....if you adore very thick and tart lemon syrup, you are good to go. If you want it to be a little more sweet, up your sugar and a little more water and adjust to your liking.



Ok...almost done. The kitchen will be smelling more than wonderful at this point. So, when your cake is done, let it cool for 10 minutes. Pour 1/2 of the syrup over your cake. Then, invert onto a wire rack and brush with the remaining syrup.



Now, this recipe ends with ..."let cake cool completely". I dare you to let it cool completely..ha! It is so good hot and cold.

This cake is so fun. I have cut this recipe in half for a bread loaf size pan cake, and cupcake size pound cake. Very fun.



QUESTION... what is your favorite recipe book and why...would love to know and take a peek!

Happy baking to you all! xo



p.s. Now that the baking is done, sewing is next for me. Making a tie, and vest for my son to wear to Prom. Kids at our school are wearing more suits to Prom than tuxedo's these days...hmmm. Ok, we can do that! Show and tell, later gator.

Staying IN for Date Night

We are experiencing a wonderful and bone chilling "Arctic Snap". Yes, it does feel as cold as it sounds. It is very exciting, to say the least. So, we stayed in for Date Night and I am so glad we did.

I do love a good salad....croutons, dried cranberries, walnuts, Parmesan cheese, veggies...the works.

We are kicking off each and every Friday (weekend) this winter/New Year, with trying a fun drink with dinner. We have tried sparkling grape juice, raspberry lemonade, and last nights, Pomegranate lemonade. It was like having a dessert in a glass-ha! Very good, but, very sweet.


I was so inspired by blogging friend, Julie's, "romantic steak dinner...with hot mustard sauce", (http://circlecliffviews.blogspot.com/), that I had to do a little something about it. It was so good. I baked potato's, and made steak with onions and mushrooms.
It was divine. I must try Julie's hot mustard sauce, next time round.

And, there was dessert. Need I say more?

I have got to learn how to make this!!!

All in all, a wonderful way to celebrate a successful week and kick-off a super weekend. We are following the Australian Open, so, looking forward to watching some tennis while I sew.

What's happening in your neck of the woods this weekend? My son is doing it up right by starting his day off with scrambled eggs and layer cake---(ha)-and some early morning indoor tennis. Fantastic! xo

Happy-After-The-Holidays!

Simple Christmas beauty!

Love when my daughter brings home a large Poinsettia from work each year. It is gorgeous.

Sweet little Christmas baby. Such a little doll.

Hauling in the tree from off of our property!

HA! Loving that face.

No matter how old you are, Christmas is still full of surprise, delight, love and warmth.

Such a good time for our family...oh, with a special phone call from our daughter who is serving a mission for our church. So great!

We "still" have only had one good snowstorm this winter season. Just enough snow for tractor sledding.

Good times!

Sorry for the blurrrrrr! But, loved the chance to play tennis a few times.

Jenna held her own against the boys!

And....there had to be time for PIE! Made a graham cracker crust. Can't see it in this picture, but, the sugar sparkled in this crust. It baked up so nicely...very pretty!

Yummy first layer. 4 ounces cream cheese, 1 T sugar, 1 T milk. Mix with a wire whisk until smooth. Then, add in 1 and 1/2 cup of cool whip. Pour and spread onto crust.

Next, mix together 1 cup milk, 1 can 16 ounces canned pumpkin, 2 boxes (4 serving size) of instant vanilla pudding and pie filling, 1 t ground cinnamon, 1/2 t ground ginger, and 1/4 t ground cloves ( or I use 2 t of pumpkin spice).

Put in fridge for a good 4 hours before serving....if you can wait that long-ha! Doesn't always happen that way at our house. So delicious.

More holiday happenings and fun to come. Was such a nice 2 weeks for us all!

Happy 2011 to us all!

Fog and stuff!

Cannot remember the last time we experienced 5 straight days of FOG! Well, actually, the fog rolls in at night and greets us in the a.m. It burns off and we have been basking in 10-15 degree warmer weather than usual. As I told a friend who just received their first snowstorm...we are in t-shirt and jean weather by early afternoon. Glorious!

Been doing a little of this and that!
And, eating a little of this...pumpkin bread. Yummy!

And, getting ready to make something out of this....

Stay tuned for the results of this simple and fun little project.

And, hey! 14 days until Thanksgiving. Love this time of year. Hope you are all enjoying your week! xo

Harvest Cake!

I tasted this at our church potluck and just had to have the recipe. It is a new Fall Favorite for our family. This is a winner of a pumpkin recipe.

Time to choose. You can either use a yellow cake mix or prepare your cake from scratch. I just used a basic spice cake recipe and changed it up a bit. So, either put your dry cake mix in a bowl or the dry ingredients to a homemade cake into a bowl. VERY IMPORTANT.... Take out of your bowl, one cup of your dry cake mix and save for later. Now, another choice.....I used 3/4 cups applesauce and 1 egg. Mix well into your dry ingredients.. Or, you can use 1 egg and 1 stick of melted butter.


Spread cake mixture into the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 cake pan. Oh...because I like nuts so much, I mixed in some chopped walnuts with my cake mixture....pecans would have been good, too.



Next layer.....Mix 3 eggs, 3/4 cups milk and one large can of pumpkin...ready for pie pumpkin in the can...... not the plain pumpkin. If using the plain pumpkin, add to the pumpkin, the eggs, the milk and 2/3 cups of sugar and pumpkin spice. My store had 3 cans of ready for pie pumpkin and that was it! So, that is what I used.

Mix well and pour over cake in your pan.

So pretty. Now for the topping.

Take the one cup of your saved cake mix, and add to it 1/4 cup sugar and 2 Tablespoons of melted butter. Mix.

Sprinkle over the pumpkin.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Finish baking at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not over cook.

This is my husbands man-size portion of Pumpkin cake. HA! It is delicious hot from the oven.

This is such a crowd pleaser and did not last long at our house. Also, it packs very well in lunches, once cooled and in the fridge for a few hours.
Enjoy!

HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT!

Not really sure where the tiny and cute little shot glasses came from in our household, since we do not drink. But, look what we can do with the glasses that is oh, so fun! I saw dessert shot glasses on a restaurant menu while visiting in Nevada last month. What a great idea for just a little bit of dessert. You know how you eat a very nice meal and most of the time, you are toooo full to have a dessert? Or, you know you really should not have a dessert and add to the ole waistline, but you want one anyway? Well, here you go! Think of all the yummy delights you can fit into a little shot glass---and not over do! Love it.


So, I brought out my 26 year old Betty Crocker Cookbook (a wedding gift from days gone by) and found my favorite vanilla pudding recipe and presto! And, as luck would have it, my daughter brought back FUDGE from a trip up north. Easy to shred onto the top of the pudding.
I already had dinner cooking in the crockpot, corn from our neighbors field, and rolls I made earlier in the day. So, we ended up having a very fun and yummy Friday night dinner at our house. And, dessert was "just right" for any appetite!

P.S. A little more insight about the shot glasses. My kids use shot glasses for their Listerine mouthwash. Works great!