Great-Grandma's Favorite Bundt Cake

This cake is our family's favorite, and I thought that this year I would share it with our friends and co-workers. The thought of making 20+ cakes seemed crazy but I figured out a way to package them perfectly. In a jar. I made the cake normally and then filled each jar about half full. Baked them in the oven and they turned out fantastically! Then I put the sealing lids on them and waited for the "pings" (they took a while to come but it was so great to hear them.)

The cake is normally in a Bundt pan, but this did the trick. Here is the normal recipe for the cake. If you feel adventurous you can try the jars. Happy Baking!

(If you are reading this and thinking, "Where is my cake in a jar?," then you are probably not very good friends with me or live too far for me to hand deliver it. Most likely the latter.)

1 pkg. chocolate cake mix (the more chocolate the better)

1 pkg instant chocolate pudding

1/2 C. white sugar

1 C. sour cream

3/4 C. vegetable oil

3/4 C. water

4 eggs

1-2 C. chocolate chips

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 bottle caramel ice cream topping

1 C. chopped pecans or toffee chips (depends on your preference)

1-2 C. Chocolate chips

1/4 C. cream

Combine the first 8 ingredients until well mixed and moistened. Pour into your favorite Bundt pan and bake in oven 350 degrees for 55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and pour can of milk and caramel sauce over cake. Allow to completely cool. Remove from pan onto serving plate/platter. Melt the last cup of chocolate chips with the cream. Drizzle generously over cake and then sprinkle pecans or toffee chips over cake.
Very moist, delicious cake. Enjoy!

Yield: 12 to 16 servings (depending on how many chocolate lovers are there)

Leave a comment if you made it or or will make it. Thanks!

April Fool's

Dinner: Cupcakes (meatloaf and mashed potatoes, Buttered noodles (julienned Zucchini), and Sunny side up Egg (Pureed cottage cheese and a peach), Surprise Colored Milk

Dessert: Sushi (rice crispy treats, fruit roll ups and dried fruit)

It starts early...

So we have this tradition at family night. Right after we discuss all the things we are doing in the week we have Thomas stand and report about how school is going. Lucy also has to report about her day/week. We have started recording them because we hear the funniest things in their reports. Here is a little excerpt of Lucy's report.

Luckily the family night lesson was about babies and so we were able to answer her question and transition into the lesson pretty smoothly. Anyway, we love our kids so much and we just love doing family night. The kids look forward to it and they also like having responsibilities in F.H.E.

I think the only draw back (if you can call it a draw back) is that I try to make new and different desserts for the treat. The problem is that we have so many leftovers that it turns out to be my Tuesday morning breakfast. Like, last night I made these pumpkin bars, oh they are so good. I highly recommend them, just make sure you have lots of people to help you eat them.

Need an idea for Dinner tonight?

This recipe is my own invention and it went over very well with the little critics.

Thomas: "Mama, this is the best chicken I have ever had."

Lucy: "I love it, I mean, I like it." (which is good enough for me, she ate it.)

It's really simple to make and I made it with all things I had on hand. Here it is:

Kitchen Sink Chicken

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts

1 small bag of bacon bits (real bacon) or 6-8 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped
1 onion, sauteed
2 slices of ham, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 cup of cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tsp chopped garlic
2 Tbsp corn starch
pepper to taste

Directions:
Place the chicken in a baking dish and set aside. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and make sure the corn starch evenly coats everything. Place the mixture over the chicken. Place dish in the oven and bake at 350* for about an hour or until the chicken is no longer pink.

That is it. I like it served over mashed potatoes with a side of veggies. The next time I think I am going to add fresh mushrooms to the mix. We like it, and the next time we have guests I am making it for them. So if you try it, tell me what you think.

Cinnamon Rolls in 20 Minutes!

I know it sounds crazy and I feel so stupid for not thinking about it sooner. At the store you know those canned cinnamon rolls that taste so processed? (I know them so well because I would make a batch every time we would show the house to make the house smell good.) Well, those rolls are just a biscuit with cinnamon, sugar and icing. So I just made my favorite biscuits and shaped them into cinnamon rolls and voila--cinnamon rolls. The kids got a kick out of eating cinnamon rolls for breakfast and I was able to make them with wheat flour and I snuck in some flax seed. So next time you don't know what to have for breakfast, try cinnamon rolls in no time. Yum!

Pan Dulces

Being the mother of 3 little kids I have seen a lot of Sesame Street episodes. On Sesame Street there is a movie clip of a girl going into her Tio’s (uncle’s) bakery to make pan dulces. Ever since seeing that clip I have wanted to try pan dulces (sweet bread). Well, I have an RSS feed of Allrecipies.com and yesterday pan dulces was the recipe for the day. So I made some bread yesterday and pan dulces is so yummy. I read that you are supposed to eat it with coffee but since I don’t drink coffee I just had it by itself. It stands alone as a yummy treat. I couldn’t keep the kids away from it. This morning they are all gone. So if you are in the mood to try something new here is the recipe. Also, here are some reviews of the recipe. The good thing about this recipe is that you will most likely already have the ingredients. Enjoy.

Our Picky Eater!

As a mother of toddlers, I am constantly worried that the kiddos aren’t getting enough proper nutrition. I was told by a far off source that if a child is lacking protein, carbs, and/or vitamins they will crave and eat those foods to fill that void. Boy is that off. Needless to say I have a picky eater, a VERY picky eater. Every meal we would put veggies and fruit on the lunch and dinner plate and every meal they would go untouched (unless they floated in the drink.) I tried not to make too big of a deal out of it, thinking that someday she would get curious about the “other” side of the plate. But when I found out that she was becoming deficient and it was affecting her health, I knew I had to take immediate action. So here are some tools that I have used to help solve my dilemma.

“Deceptively Delicious” book—it’s a recipe book by Jessica Seinfeld teaching mothers to sneak in veggies and fruit into everyday “kids” foods. I still serve the green beans with the spaghetti and meatballs but I don’t stress out that they don’t get eaten. The spaghetti is now fortified with wheat pasta, cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes and spinach. I LOVE trying the new recipes and inventing my own with the added veggies. In all honesty, the food tastes good and we are finding it fills us up a lot faster than before (we are getting added veggies, too).

“Eat this Not that” book—this book is comparing the pre-prepared items in the grocery store. It is teaching the consumer (me) that just because it looks or says that the food is healthy doesn’t mean that it is (and it tells you why so you can make an informed decision). So now I am taking this book to the store with me and every time I buy a premade dinner, bread or juice. I then consult my new healthy food reference and make the best possible choice. I love it because it brings a new challenge to the food shopping trip and I can still get my chocolate and sugar fixes (and not feel guilty.)

The Snack Boxes—we bought a small Tupperware for each of the kids. We let them decorate it and color them. I then put the boxes in the fridge filled with good choice snacks. Now when the kids want a snack they can go into their box and grab which ever suits their fancy. Each snack is the proper portion size and since I control what goes in there I only put the best in there. I only fill them up once a week so once it’s gone, it’s gone. So when snack time rolls around I am not scouring the cupboards and then settle for fruit snacks or the eighth cookie that day.

I am still in the beginning stages of this uphill battle but I thought I would share some of the things that I have found that works. Do you have a picky eater? Do you have any advice? Let me know what you think?

Banana Butternut Squash Muffins

Yum and Double yum!!!! This was a hit at my house. I have been scouring the Internet to find butternut squash recipes for more than just soup. Did you know that you can take just about any pumpkin recipe and subsitue butternut squash? So that is what I have been doing. This recipe organally called for pumpkin but I swapped it. So try it, it is worth it!  

Banana Butternut Squash Muffins

INGREDIENTS:

2 ripe bananas, mashed 2 eggs 1/3 cup vegetable oil 1 1/3 cups butternut squash puree 1 cup white sugar

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 3/4 cup raisins or chocolate chips(optional but make them yummy!)

DIRECTIONS:Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a muffin tin or line it with cupcake papers. In a large bowl, stir together the mashed banana, eggs, oil, squash, and sugar. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pie spice and cinnamon, stir into the banana mixture until just combined. Fold in the raisins and walnuts if desired. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Add powder sugar frosting if desired. For the Powder sugar frosting, mix about ½ cup of powder sugar with about 1 tsp to 1TBSP of milk.

Canning: a new found passion!

I know that I am new to the game, but I absolutely love canning. I use to think it was old-fashioned and pointless--why can something when you can buy it? With our extremely large garden we have found ourselves not eating our tomatoes fast enough. So I made salsa, Yum!!! I would say that I made up a really fancy salsa, but really it is just the recipe in the Better Home and Garden Cookbook.  I love a good cookbook, especially one that makes me look good! Not only did I make salsa but I made some more crab apple jelly, as if I didn't already have enough.  So now I am looking to tackle something else, maybe I will can butternut squash soup. Who knows? Any pointers?

Popcorn Balls

I just made the yummiest Halloween treat. I know that Halloween is a month and an half away but I got a craving. Theses popcorn balls are the perfect balance of sweet and salty plus they are super easy to make. Try them out, it's good. 

INGREDIENTS:

1 bag of microwave popcorn Some candy corn and peanuts

6 tablespoons butter 5 cups miniature marshmallows

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Set aside.
2.	Pop the popcorn in the microwave. Put popcorn in prepared pan. Add some candy corn and peanuts.
3.	Melt butter In a medium saucepan over low heat. Stir in marshmallows and cook until melted, stirring constantly. Pour marshmallow mixture over popcorn and mix with spoon to coat evenly.
4.	Let mixture cool slightly. Smear butter on your hands or spray with non-stick cooking spray. Mix popcorn with your hands so that it is evenly coated.
5.	Form popcorn into 8-12 balls.

 

I’m very Self Reliant!

We got a GINORMAS crabapple crop this year. Last year the blossoms froze so we didn’t get any apples. But this year, look out! 

Lucy loved picking the apples!

We filled our five gallon bucket and only found three worms. 

I made six quarts of crab apple jelly.

 The picture doesn't do the color justice. It's a deep red but in the light it almost has an orange color to it, it's really pretty! I changed the recipe a bit, it’s more like spiced apple jelly.  The jelly tastes like Christmas- if Christmas has a flavor. The last time I made it I gave away most of it. Big mistake! So if you want to come over for homemade bread and jelly just give me a call.

Ingredients:

Fresh crabapples

Water

White Sugar

Cinnamon stick or Spice Sachet

1.    1.  Remove leaves and blossom ends from crabapples and rinse well. If you soak them in water the worms float right to the top. Place them in a large stainless steel or other non-reactive pot or saucepan. Add enough water to be able to see, but no so much that the crabapples are floating. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. The apples should soften and change color. I like to boil them in an old pillowcase, because it will save you time later.

2.    2.  Strain the apples and juice through 2 or 3 layers of cheese cloth. Do not press. Discard pulp.

3.   3.   Pour one cup of juice to every one cup of sugar back into the pan. Bring to a simmer, and watch carefully because it could boil over. It happened TWICE to me. Skim off any foam that comes to the top. Add cinnamon stick or sachet. Continue cooking at a low boil until the temperature reaches 220 to 222 degrees F (108 to 110 C). Remove from heat.

4.    4.  Pour the jelly into sterile small decorative jars leaving 1/4 inch head space. Process the jars in a hot water bath to seal.

For the Spice Sachet: I sewed a little pocket with some fabric scraps. I then put in about 1-2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon, some ground cloves, ground nutmeg, and some pumpkin spice. (Basically whatever I could find in my spice cabinet.) I sewed up the pocket, making sure that the stitch was really tight. 

Steak Kabobs

My friend,Ashlee Hyer made this recipe for my family when I was in the hospital and James has been begging me to get the recipe from her. I got it and made it last night and it is so yummy we didn’t have any leftovers:( The best part of it was I had almost all of the ingredients already. So now I feel like I have to share it with everyone. Please try them out, they are out of this world. Enjoy!



Steak Kabobs
Marinate beef chunks for about an hour in:
¼ c. A1 sauce
1TB. Vegetable oil or sesame oil
2 cloves of garlic crushed
2 tsp ground ginger (or 1 tsp fresh)
¼ tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp sesame seeds
Pan fry the meat in the marinade until cooked then put meat on skewers with: green pepper, red pepper, onion, pineapple, mushrooms, and or mango. Place in oven at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked. Serve with rice and sauce.
Sauce:
¾ c. orange juice
¼ c. honey
the juice of one lime
1 Tb. Soy sauce
1 tsp garlic
½ tsp black pepper
Cook in a sauce pan until reduced. If you are impatient you can thicken it with a tablespoon of cornstarch.