It’s epically delicious….

Posted by elizabethclements in feeding, food, kids, teenager March 2, 2011

Cake. It brings people together.

This one….will bring nations together. I bring you Swiss-wiss-wiss Chocolate-late-late Cake-ake-ake!!!!

Here’s the lineup. The recipe (which will be provided below) called for a box of Swiss Chocolate cake mix. I couldn’t find any, so I chose German. I hope the Swiss aren’t offended.

First I grab my gigantanormous mixing bowl and throw cake type stuff into it.

The recipe calls for a cup of oil. A CUP

Once the oil, eggs and buttermilk are added, the mixture is VERY wet. Have no fear. That’s where the packet of Nilla Puddin comes in.

See, I’ll make it allllll better.

Just whip that sucker into submission!

Butter and flour some pans.

Pour batter

While the cakes are in the oven, hand grate the chocolate. Don’t throw it in a food processor and pass it off. Hand grate it. The zester gives the chocolate nice little curls.

It also takes a LONG time and the chocolate began to melt, so I switched to my trusty box grater.

No nice curlies, but it did lead to my needing these:

Skin did not wind up in the cake, just so you know.

For the frosting, cream together softened cream cheese, granulated sugar and powdered sugar.

Dump in the chocolate shavings. Then a 16 ounce container of whipped topping to get this:

Set the frosting in the fridge. Meanwhile…

Pull out the cakes and let cool…completely. Please don’t be impatient like me. (I wasn’t today.)

Then frost to perfection.

Serve to Birthday Boy…

and be deemed the Coolest Mom Ever. Finis.

Recipe

Swiss Chocolate Cake

(featured in the Caney Fork Electric Cooperative 2010 Holiday Cookbook)

Cake:

1 box Swiss Chocolate cake mix

1 small box of vanilla instant pudding

3 eggs

1 cup oil

1 & 1/2 cups buttermilk

Frosting

1 8oz pkg of cream cheese softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup powdered sugar

1 16oz container of frozen whipped topping

4 chocolate candy bars grated ( I used 2 & 1/2 BIG candy bars)

1 chocolate truffle for top of cake

Cake: Combine all ingredients for cake. Pour into three 9 inch round cake pans (I used two)

Bake at 350 F for 25-30 minutes

Frosting: Combine all ingredients for frosting and mix well. Spread GENEROUS amounts between baked cake layer, then

finish frosting sides and top of cake . Store in refrigerator.

If you bake this cake, please tell me how you liked it!!!

>All in a good nights work…

Posted by elizabethclements in crafting, feeding, food February 23, 2011

Yesterday I went into town. It’s not as much of an ordeal for me as it used to be in Pe Ell. My drive takes about 3 minutes if I stay in Rainsville, 10 if I go down the mountain to Fort Payne. I went down the mountain. To Wally World. (I LIVE for IT) 😦

I knew going in that I wanted to make something quick for dinner. I also knew that I wanted to do a “quick” project for the boys room. The dinner I brainstormed and called into existence was English Muffin Mini Pizza’s complete with mini turkey pepperoni. (So CUTE!)

They’re so tiny!!!

Though the tiny pepperonis won my heart, the dinner was only so-so. The sauce I had in the pantry was super bland. My mozzarella cheese had gotten slimy and had to be tossed. Cheddar only on pizza is a little lacking for me. Oh well.
While the kids watched Narnia. I began to work on my “project”. I want some cute bunting for the boys room. I say want, because, even after all the work I did, I still want some nicely done bunting for the boys room. After seeing several blog posts that had some super fun, super cute bunting I decided to give it a go.

I had the fabric. Check out how Walmart sells fabric now.

Sorry about the blur, I was excited. This is the fat quarter bundle. They also have fabrics grouped my project, one yard cuts, two yard cuts, fabric type. All in this neat little package. No more waiting at a cutting counter. King size quilts are not really in my repertoire at this point, so this works for me. It’s hard to tell, but the theme is dragons, stars, castles and groovy.

I won’t even dare to put up a tutorial on this project because I wanted to go off off off grid after doing it. Like, live in a cave and rock back and forth for hours. I was so irritated. I followed the instructions of another blog that said to cut out all of the triangles, then go around the edge with pinking sheers.

Okay, can I just say that whoever invented pinking sheers should be horse whipped? My triangles became wavy pointy things that hardly resembled anything with three sides. The site also instructed me to cut holes in the tops of the triangles to thread my string through. Uh-huh. This made them floppy and they looked awful. I ended up just folding down a small strip and gluing it in with fabric glue.. Another roadblock was the castle print fabric. It had been cut in the wrong direction. (Not by me!) So I had to make those triangles much smaller to be going in the right direction.

Anyway, here is how it turned out:

It’ll do. Until the kids are out of the dragon phase.

At least the Smoking Cowboy is happy.

>I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire

Posted by elizabethclements in Alabama Move, feeding, keeping up with the Jones's January 26, 2011

>My title is a nod to one of the most wonderful set of crooners I know. The Ink Spots. If you’ve never been introduced, consider this your introduction. From the first moment I heard them on the Shawshank Redemption soundtrack, I was transported. I call it my “laundry hangin music”.

In my early twenties I had a vision (the future I wanted) of me on a sunny afternoons. Hanging my laundry on the line. A slight breeze blowing my gossamer gown, my sunlit hair tickling my lower back and shoulders. An open window would carry music on the breeze. The Ink Spots, Ella, Billie, Count Basie, The Duke… While this was going on, the man I love would come around the corner and see me basking in the sun. Doing my wifely duties. He would come up behind me,throw his arms around my waist, kiss my sunburned shoulders and…whew….is it hot in here?

Speaking of heat. Let me take the opportunity to introduce you to…

Satan’s Stove.

No joke. This stove would try the patience of Job.

Oh wait I have a much better view:

Now that is more like it.

Before The Move, we asked what kind of appliances were already here. We had a stove at the the other house. It had a burner that did not work. I made do. The oven and the other three burners worked well. It was a glass top. I felt a little meh about it. I like the idea of the glass top. Not the care and upkeep. I digress.

My husband asked his step mom about the situation. She assured us there was a stove. He asked what kind it was and her response was “Well, it works.” Red Flag! Needless to say we said goodbye to our stove and hello to Stovie-Charrer of Doom.

Oh it works. It works well! The oven stays in a constant preheat mode . I have to figure out how long it would take most things to cook on broil, and which rack position will be the least damaging to the food. One of the burners works okay, but heats one half bright red, the other, sullen black. The others either don’t come on, or won’t shut off. That brings us to the best part:

Notice, three knobs for four burners. When the knob disappeared, I had the darndest time getting the burner to turn off. It was warm to the touch for several hours. I finally gave up, then came back and it was cold. The smallish knob is for the oven. It is quite prone to throwing parts onto the floor. Spontaneously.

Yeah.

One afternoon I was making bread. The loaves have to go into a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes, then bump it down to 350 for 30 more minutes. With Stovie, that means 350 for the first 10 minutes, then 250 for the final bake. I left the kitchen for the 10 minutes to take a thisquick shower. I could hear my son saying “What the heck?” then he knocked on the bathroom door.

“What temperature did you have the stove on?” I smelled something burning.

“350 like I was supposed to!”

“Well it was at 500 and your bread is burned.”

“WHAT????? I set that thing at 350!!!!!”

The result was raw on the bottom, charred on the top bread. My beautiful dough, molested by this agent of the evil one. I started to think we had a ghost.

Here is another example: