cake batter muddy buddies

I don't know about you but I'm a HUGE fan of cake batter anything and muddy buddies are one of those things I simply cannot make often because I'll eat the whole batch, refusing to share with the kids.  They don't like it when I refuse to share, calling me on my rule of sharing with others...

 

 

And don't you just want this all to yourself?

Enter Cake Batter Muddy Buddies.  I found this inspiration on Pinterest and since it looked easy enough I figured I'd try it out.  Here's a link to the original.  

This recipe does have loads of sugar, I didn't add any extra though.  It's easy enough to keep gluten free using a gluten free cake mix and the gluten free varieties of Chex mix.  I've heard that almond bark is gluten free. Be sure to check though.

Ingredients:
10 oz (5 squares) Almond Bark

1 TBS coconut oil or shortening (optional for thinning if needed)

5 Cups Chex cereal (I did a combination of Rice and Corn)

1 1/2 Cups yellow cake mix (I used gluten free mix)

sprinkles (go as crazy as you want)

Melt the almond bark and coconut oil together. You could microwave it in a big bowl if you wanted, however I chose to do it on the stove top in a LARGE  pasta pot. While that melts put two plastic grocery bags together, one inside the other, and pour the cake mix into the bottom of the inner bag.  After it was completely melted I poured my cereal in and used a silicone coated spoonula to coat the cereal.  Dump the coated cereal into the inner bag and close up the  bags, leaving a bit of space to shake the cereal and mix around.  Now the fun part!  Shake like you've never shaken cereal before!  I'm picturing the old commercial for Shake and Bake, a little girl with at deep southern accent, "It's shake and bake, and I  helped!!"  Dump the mixture out on a cookie sheet to cool.  Enjoy the sweet, cakey, crunchy goodness!

Fresh Frasiers!

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

I took this challenge and went flavor crazy!  I knew it needed to be gluten free so a regular cake was right out.  I found a beautiful recipe here this started it all for me!  I am in love with lime.  Lime is to die for!  On a hot day while others dream of ice cold lemonade, I dream of Brazilian Lime aid.  So really it was the Key lime frosting in this recipe that definitely caught my attention. The Coconut flour coconut cake was also a hit in my book.  It was an easy choice. 

it looks better in person!

Coconut flour has some unique properties.  It's not like wheat flour at all.  You use a smaller amount and it absorbs liquid like you would not believe.  Don't be tempted to add more water though, it doesn't acutally make the batter thinner.  Here's what it looks like: 

I know, I looks too thick to be a cake batter right?  You have to trust me on this one. It's got this velvety feel to it, I want to just stick my fingers in it and feel it. It's really cool, okay?

I had enough batter to make a cake and some cupcakes.  I figured cake for me and my honey for our 10 year anniversary and cupcakes for the kidlets so they don't feel left out. While those cooked I started the pastry cream and simple syrup.  At first I wanted the syrup to also have a lime flavor to it as well, but decided on coconut.  Since I didn't have any coconut flavoring I just put some coconut in to the sugar and water while simmering. 

coconut, water and sugar...mmm...

I failed to take into account that the coconut would absorb most of the water thus making it more of a paste than a syrup.  

The pastry cream was more fun to make.  I made a simple custard and added lime zest to add some flavor.  I then whipped up some whip cream also with lime zest and mixed the custard and whipped cream.  It was so beautiful!  The only picture of it I got was on top of the cake.  

the lime pops out!

Next to assemble this I cut the cake in half.  I also did this with the cupcakes.

I put the bottom layer in my spring form pan after I had wrapped the sides with parchment paper. Then I used a basting brush and moistened the cake with the coconut syrup.  Next I pushed some sliced raspberries up against the sides of the parchment.  I put them cut side out.  Then I spooned in some pastry cream.  I made a layer of berries again, only this time I just spread them over the cream.  Another layer of cream then the top layer of cake.  I, again, moistened the cake with the syrup, finishing with a nice thick layer of cream.  

it got big!

I did a similar thing to the cup cakes.  Sliced in half, moistened with syrup, a layer of cream, cupcake top, more syrup and a dallop of pastry cream and a raspberry on top. Sam was very excited to help with all of this. He's been begging for one all day! 

this was the boy's favorite part, well after eating them perhaps.

voila a mini frasier of sorts...

My Noodle Hands...

 Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks' July hostess.  Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine.  She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!  She also said we could experiment and come up with our own recipes and such.  I elected to make some gnocchi with  my favorite Bolognese
sauce.

seriously, how great does this look?

So this was a bigger process than I ever anticipated it would be! HOLY COW! But then, most of that was my own sillyness getting to me.  So I definately brought it on myself. I started with an easy gnocchi recipe It seemed the way to go since I can't make home made mashed potatoes to save my life.  Seriously.  It started out really easily.  I decided to double the recipe to make sure I'd have some for another night....yeah...some...try two more dinners full! This recipe made a TON! so moral of the story, don't double a recipe unless you've tried it out first! A month after making this and I still have bags of it in the freezer!

It started with instant mashed potatoes. It's all cool in a big metal bowl! I added the boiling water then let it sit to room temp because of the beautiful eggs I was putting in next. I didn't want the heat of the potatoes to scramble the eggs.

Eggs from my chickens, aren't they pretty?

 I learned fairly quickly that I didn't plan far enough in advance.  Really,  I completely forgot to think about flour needs before I began this project.  Nathan was kind enough to go to the store for me and get some flour. Gosh I love that guy. *swoon*

begin mixing...and mixing..and mixing.

 Now I thought about using the mixer for this portion of the challenge but, I remembered that it's a machine free challenge.  I now have one arm of incredible strength. This was the point when I forgot that I had doubled my recipe...so I was crazy confused as to why the dough was so loose.  It was slightly more than a soft dough.  It did not want to roll into snakes.  It did not want to do what I wanted it to do! I had to knead and knead and knead the stuff, turns out that much kneading will even out your arm strength. 

kneading, kneading, kneading and MORE kneading!

roll into a long snake.  SSSSSSSS!

cut into bite size pieces. 

This was really the fun part, rolling into ropes and cutting into bite size pieces. I just put them on a cookie sheet to sit while I worked in batches to get them rolled and cut.  It also made it easy to get them frozen.  They were already in a single layer so I just popped the cookie sheets into the freezer to freeze up then later I put them into freezer bags.  Those that didn't go into the freezer were the lucky ones who got to be eaten! Fresh pasta always cooks up faster than dried pasta.  So I dumped some into a big pot of super salty boiling water.  They sink when first dumped in and then float when they're done cooking.

all done! I'm hungry now.

 The sauce is super simple, it takes some time, but it's soo worth it! I hate buying pasta sauce any more because I know that mine just tastes so much better.  It's easy once you get the hang of it, and if you use a crock pot it takes even more guess work out of it, not that there was any.

You can't go wrong with bacon!!

I start by browning up some bacon. I pull the bacon out of the pan leaving the grease there to cook the onions and mild Italian sausage in.

can you say YUM?

after these are cooked up you can either keep them in a big sauce pot or you can transfer them to the crock pot.  I put in some tomato paste, a can of diced tomatoes, and a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes, garlic, italian seasonings and green peppers.  Let it simmer all day and then put on your pasta (in this case gnocchi!)

soo good!

Everyone loved it.  Gnocchi are a bit unusual in that they have a firmer texture than most other pastas.  They are, after all,  more of a dumpling than a noodle.  So expect some chewy-ness.  If you want you can add plenty of Parmesan cheese.  It's flavorful enough without it that I didn't, but some prefer it. 


Bolognese Sauce

1 lb ground mild Italian Sausage
8 thick cut slices bacon
1 medium onion
1 green bell pepper
1-3oz can tomato paste
1-20 oz can diced tomatoes
1 10 can fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 Tbs garlic
1 bay leaf

Brown the bacon in a deep sauce pot or skillet if transferring to crock pot.  Remove the bacon to drain while keeping the grease in the pan.  Brown the sausage and onion together in the grease.  Add the remaining ingredients if cooking in a sauce pot simmer for 1 1/2  hours on low.  If cooking in the crock pot dump the all ingredients into the crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours.  

Grandma Hermine's Chocolate Ganache

My grandmother was a truly amazing person!  She welcomed this step-grandchild as warmly as she would a blood grandchild.  She NEVER treated me any differently from the others.  She was truly the epitome of unconditional love.  She was also a rockin cook!  I'm excited to share one of hers today.  There will be more as I can experiment more and more. 

Sitting in a box somewhere here in this house of boxes, is my box of cookbooks and recipe cards.  One of them means so much to me.  No, it's not those awesome pumpkin cookies that taste just like the ones at the store during the holidays.  It's a large post card actually.  With a lady on the front.  On the back is my Grandma Hermine's Chocolate Ganache recipe, in her sweet handwriting.  I cherish this.  I can't remember the day she gave it to me but it was most definitely while I was in high school.  I make this recipe whenever I start to miss her.  So it's fairly frequently made at our house.  It's, by far, better than any store bought frosting for your cake.  It takes just a little time to prepare.

Right?  It's so glossy and pretty and down right lick-able!  I was able to take out SOO much of the sugar without compramizing the taste!  This has me so excited.  I used the enjoy life brand of semi sweet chocolate chips because they are free of soy, gluten, and regular refined sugar.  I think I may try it with cocao nibs next to see if it's the same but with even less sugar! Yet it's still rich and decadent and dreamy.  My updated recipe came out with a smoother texture when set than Grandma's does.  But it tastes the same!

Chocolate Ganache

4 TBS butter, Ghee, or coconut oil

1/4 C Stevia with inulin 

1/2 Tsp vanilla Stevia 

1 C almond milk 

1 Pkg semi sweet chocolate chips (I use enjoy life brand)

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan.  Add the stevias and milk bring to almost a boil and add the chocolate chips.  Turn the heat down LOW and stir constantly to melt the chocolate.  Once it's smooth and creamy completely remove from heat and pour over prepared cake.  Allow to set up for a few minutes before slicing. 

Grandma's recipe is quite similar
4 Tbs Butter

1 C sugar

1 C milk

1 tsp Vanilla

1 bag chocolate chips

Melt the butter in sauce pan, add sugar and milk bring to full rolling boil for one minute, stirring constantly.  remove from heat add chocolate chips and vanilla, stir constantly until smooth and creamy. Pour over prepared cake.  Allow to set before slicing

Pizza Roll-ups

Thanks to Girl's Camp last week I've learned a few things. 

1) The world will NOT come to a complete and utter stop if I go camping. (much to my dismay) 

2) A so called "omelet in a bag" is not, in fact, a real omelet.  *shudder* The theory here was to make our own omelets by throwing eggs, cheese, chives and some turkey (?) into a zip top bag and boil it in a pan of water over the fire.  Some came out okay others, not so much. All in all, I still think it gross.  Next year I'll teach our girls to make overnight oatmeal. Yeah, that will work better!

3) Despite my best preparations, Daddy will NOT use all the meals I so tirelessly prepared for him and our younger children. :( BUT I can't complain, he didn't feed them junk food all week either so I'm still happy.

4) Pizza good!  Well, okay so I realize that this is totally not following any of what I said my recipes would be free of, but since I made this for my KIDS, who don't have the same dietary restrictions I do, I'm including it.

 

Start with a pound of pizza dough.  You can make it gluten free, I chose to be super lazy and just bought some prepared pizza dough from a local pizzeria (easy!).  I rolled it out thin and tried to keep it pretty even.  I wanted it to stay all perfectly rectangular but darn it if the dough didn't have a mind of it's own! 

Ooh now it gets fun!  You get to top the dough now.  Leave off the sauce for now.  Start with the Meat mix, Don't forget to cook it first! Hopefully you just had some in your freezer from my last post.

Look at how cute those tiny pepperoni are!  What's that you say? You want a close up of those cutie little darlings? OKAY!

They're just so cute and yummy, for the kids that is. Now top with cheese.  If there are other toppings that your family loves on pizza go for it, (onion, peppers, pineapple {although I have no clue WHY}, olives, mushrooms, ham, chicken whatever you want)

 

 roll, roll, roll! Keep it tight so all the filling doesn't spill out. It'll look all lumpy and bumpy. That's okay.

See? isn't it a thing of beauty? Now the cutting begins. I use a large, non-serrated knife for this. Cut in half, then those two halves in half and finally each of those into thirds.  Any smaller and you run into pizza rolls that are too tiny and that's just sad. 

Half then half again.

Now into thirds for each section. Some of the filling falls out but you can just tuck it back in once it's on a baking sheet.

 I like to let them rest for 20 minutes, to get a little raise out of them.  Then bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.  We're par-baking them.  They'll not look done but that's okay.  This is a freezer meal remember?  After they've cooled you can easily put them in a zip top bag and then into the freezer. 

Now when you're ready to eat these things of beauty, you simply defrost them, put them on a baking sheet again and bake them for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.  NOW you get to use your pizza sauce and either dip them (my favorite) or put a scoop on top and cut it up. 

This is Yummiest served with a salad and green beans. 

I much prefer to make two of these at a time and get two meals into the freezer, it's honestly not that much more work and it saves a TON later on!  Try it!

Now to the recipe for Pizza Roll-ups:

1 pound pizza dough (home made or store bought)

1 pound bag of all purpose ground beef 

1 package of pepperoni 

2 cups mozzarella cheese, grated

any other pizza toppings you like.  

1 jar of pizza sauce (this will be used later)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease a jelly roll pan. Roll out the pizza dough like you would for cinnamon rolls. spread the cooked ground beef over the pizza dough.  Add the cheese and pepperoni over the ground beef.  Save the pizza sauce, you don't need it here.  Add any other pizza toppings (onions, olives, peppers, etc).  Roll up like a like cinnamon roll.  slice into 1 inch roll and place on greased baking sheet bake for 15 minutes, allow to cool. Place in zip top bags and freeze until ready to serve.  When ready to eat, defrost then place on baking sheet again, bake for 15 minutes at 350 again.  Serve with the sauce either next to or on top of cooked pizza roll-ups.

 

So I'm a lazy cook.

I kind of hate to say it but, I am a lazy cook.  I don't really appreciate that it can take over an hour to get dinner ready.  I want short cuts.  And I want a lot of them.  I'm perfectly willing to sacrifice a day of my life in order to accomplish quick dinners.  Enter Once A Month Cooking.  My best friend.  It makes those times when I just don't have time for dinner prep easier.  It means my kids will have nutritious dinners this next week while I'm away at girls camp.  Daddy no longer has any excuse to not feed them healthy foods.  Even he can dump things into a crock pot or put it in a baking dish and bake.  This is the guy who thinks that all he has to "cook" is pour milk on cereal.  To his credit he's not a bad chef, when the directions are very clearly outlined.  He does NOT get my way of "oh just dump some of this and a little of that and bake until it's done"
 One of the tips I got from my internet hunts was this.  All purpose ground beef mix.  At first I was thinking, are you kidding me? That is so, out there.  but in all reality, it's a HUGE time saver.