Chocolate "Crazy" Cake

This recipe is for a dark chocolate from-scratch cake that goes together FAST and is the best cake we've ever made. We use it for everything from birthdays to weddings to sending a friend some cheer in the mail. Borrowed with my own variations, from the Doubleday Cookbook

NO SUBSTITUTIONS!! This cake will age incredibly well, even becoming moister as it ages, but only if you use REAL butter! (This also works on box cakes!) you can make "sour" milk by putting a tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice in a cup of milk for a few minutes. Or use up old milk that has turned (the cake doesn't care).

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare one 9x13 or 2, 8" or 9" round or square pans by greasing and flouring the bottom or line bottom with greased wax paper (crumbs will stick to the paper)!

Put the ingredients in the bowl in the order listed, without mixing until as directed. Then beat only 2 minutes.

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup sour milk or buttermilk

3/4 C unsifted cocoa

1 cup butter, partially melted

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups + 2 Tablespoons unbleached flour
(or 3 cups cake flour)

Mix until *just* blended, batter will be very thick! Then while mixing slowly, add

1 cup hot coffee
(If you don't like coffee, don't let this make you nervous. I LOATHE coffee, but you will never taste it in the finished cake. It does NOT taste like Mocha.)

Blend for 2 minutes, pour into pans, bake 30 minutes or until cakes shrink slightly from sides of pan and test done with a skewer stuck in the middle (crumbs ok, batter = not done). Cool 15 minutes in pans, turn out and frost as desired

Sour Cream Pecan Pancakes

We made these for lunch today, & I had a request for the recipe. Once again, I'm putting up the small version, for a family of 4 or less. To feed more people, just use the quantities in parentheses to double the recipe.

We used lowfat sour cream, and substituted 1/3 of the flour with buckwheat flour, to add fiber. Also I tossed in a tiny handful (1 Tablespoon or less) of crushed pecans while each pancake cooked.

Calorie count for a 5" pancake without syrup: 80 plain, 120 with pecans. Add 33cal. per teaspoon for butter, syrup calorie count as listed on bottle.

1 cup lowfat sour cream (2 cups)

1 large egg (2)

1 Tablespoon sugar (2 T)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (1 T)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda (1 t)

1/4 t salt (1/2 t)

1/4 t cinnamon (1/2 t)

1/8 t nutmeg (1/4 t)

3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (1 1/2 cups)

Beat everything in order with a wire whisk. If necessary, thin batter with lowfat milk, skim milk, or even water. Heat non-stick or cast-iron griddle to medium-hot, until a drop of water sizzles on the griddle. Pour 1/3 cup mix, spread it around a little with a spatula, and if you like sprinkle with pecans (or chocolate chips). Cook until pancake bubbles and looks a little dry around the edges. Flip quickly, let cook about a minute more. Serve with butter and syrup or top with fruit compote!

Special Request Pot Pie Recipe

Ok, I actually make food for an army, so I'm gonna try to simplify this down to what a couple or your average family of 4 might eat, instead of the mamma-jamma version I make to feed what is anywhere from 7 to 12 ppl at my house for dinner on a regular basis.

A few notes: I had leftover roast pork and a few roast-in-jacket potatoes. You could use a handful of any chopped meat you have on hand. You could microwave-bake a decent size potato, let it cool and chop it up. I usually make my own gravy, because I am good like that. But a can of gravy from the store will do too.

Unlike baking, which is a formula based on acids and bases and leavening and should be followed fairly closely, good cooking is mostly being flexible. Because the recipe is flexible, calorie count is approximate. We figured around 298 calories per serving (1 1/4 cups)

Pot Pie
about 8 oz. pre-cooked and chunked up meat of some kind
2 small cans or one jar of gravy, any flavor
1 nuked good-sized potato, chopped into 1/2" cubes
1 10-oz. box of frozen mixed vegetables

Chuck all of this into a square or round 9" cake pan or pie pan. Salt & pepper surface to taste. Dampen edge of pan with water so crust will stick.

Crust
Don't panic over crust. It's easy and you won't ever want to buy one of those tasteless cardboard store-bought frozen crusts again. Or maybe you will, in a pinch, but don't we all do that?
(No, I don't. LOL)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cold shortening or lard or even butter, but NOT low-cal margarine-type spread, which will make your crust soggy & gross
1 teaspoon salt

then 1/4 Cup ice cold water

Using a pastry blender, which is an essential kitchen tool with u-shaped wires attached at either end to a wooden handle (or two table knives held together if you lack a pastry blender), cut cold shortening into the flour using a press-down-and-flick-wrist-sideways motion (with blender, or up-and-down motion with knives), repeatedly until the mixture looks like coarse-ground meal or like small aquarium gravel.

Pour ice water into the center and mix it in with a fork until *just* blended. Don't over mix! Very lightly dust countertop and rolling pin with flour, lay crust on counter, dust it lightly with flour too, and roll out, rolling from center outward in every direction. Fold lightly into quarters and place on top of pot pie. Unfold and seal down edges, folding extra in and pinching with fingers. Cut steam vents in top with a knife.

If you don't have a rolling pin, you can use a large vegetable can, a relatively straight-sided soda bottle, or even a roll of frozen breakfast sausage!

Bake the pot pie at 400 degrees F for about 25 minutes. Serve with green salad or sliced tomatoes!

A Cake, Two Cakes, and a Shrug

Ok, so that title is actually a little out of order, but it's funnier that way.

For my birthday on Saturday (1/23), Richard and I drove down to Dalton GA to pick up a carpet. While we were down there we stopped at a Thrift store that was run by a mission. In the lobby they had a table of what R calls "used" baked goods. There was a sign on the wall, "Only ONE Cake Per Family." Well, we're a family, right? Sure enough, there were little birthday cakes. I got a free birthday cake on my birthday! I picked one with red roses.

Ok, now rewind [makes vinyl-record-rewinding sounds] to Monday last. It wasn't anybody in our family's birthday, but Tony had MLK day off work, so we decided to celebrate Artemas' 18th birthday a little early. I made this amazing, Amazing Fudge Tunnel Cake. Des was going to bring down a turkey to bake. Well Des and Tony ended up getting here at 7:30 PM with no turkey (it never did thaw) but with bags full of heat-n-eat hot wings, chicken tenders, french fries and stuff. So we pigged out on all that, and ate cake, which was good. We didn't get a pic of the cake, because in transferring it to a platter, Artemas dropped it. It looked like a truck ran over it. Still tasted great, though! Although I decided the recipe could use some tweaking...

Wednesday on Artemas' actual birthday we went to Dalton to order the original carpet mentioned above. The car broke down, it rained, we ended up being late to get the kids back to youth group, with $50 worth of pizzas he didn't get to share with his group. And no cake, because we weren't home since 8AM for mom to make one.

So, Thursday I made another Amazing Fudge Tunnel Cake, a la nikki, which was delicious. So here is the recipe! Enjoy!

Moist ingredients:
1+1/2 cups butter, softened
1+3/4 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
(or 1/2 tsp flavored extract like almond)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Dump all the moist ingredients in a bowl and mix on medium-high speed for 3 minutes. Mixture will look like a fluffy pudding or mousse. While this is beating, in a separate bowl put the

Dry ingredients:
2 cups powdered sugar
2 cups flour
2 cups finely ground pecans or almonds
3/4 cup cocoa powder

Dump all this about 1/3 at a time into the moist ingredients and mix thoroughly. Batter will look very thick and almost oily (that's ok!). Spoon batter into a greased & floured Bundt or Angelfood cake pan. Bake for 1 hour at 350 F. Let cool in pan at least 15 minutes, loosen cake gently around the edges with a table knife, put cake plate on top of pan and invert pan to turn cake out.

For the glaze you will need about 1/2 a jar or recipe of chocolate frosting, softened in the microwave for a minute or two or set in a bowl of warm water to thin. Pour loosely over top of cake.

A Shrug
So you know at Christmas time I was working on a wonderful, lace-back shrug in deep grape purple Australian wool. Michele in Maine sent me more of the beautiful yarn and I took the project on the road with me to FL when we went for the AMTC convention. The night before my birthday, I finished it. You can see the project with complete notes, including the lace I 'invented,' at this Ravelry link.

Even though I made the described compensation in the pattern for "large bust,"the shrug did not even meet in front by a good 12inches. I guess the girls are bigger than I thought! It fit Veronica beautifully, I could shawl-pin it in front and it looked cute on her, but she didn't like it. (Pictures were taken before ribbing was blocked.)

Then some beautiful, encouraging knitters on Twitter edified me by reminding me that a 'shrug' is back and shoulders only! I should block set the ribbing and just wear it! So I did and I like it very well!

Hearty Country Muffins and Gatlinburg

We had these for breakfast this morning. They are not only delicious, they are really very healthy for you! This recipe will make about 16 muffins, but they freeze really well!

Hearty Country Muffins
1 can(14-16 oz) pie apples
or fat-free fried apples, chopped up
1/3 cup butter, softened or melted
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
Beat these together thoroughly.

2 small or 1 large carrot, grated fine
1/2 cup raisins
2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Stir these in. Then take another 1/2 cup of flour, toss 1/2 cup chopped pecans or sliced almonds in it, and GENTLY stir it in the mix until barely blended.

Grease muffin cups or use paper liners or Baker's Joy. Spoon cups 2/3 full of mix. Bake in preheated 400 degree F oven for 14 minutes.

~^*^~ ~^*^~ ~^*^~


Yesterday we went to Gatlinburg. We visited with my parents in a time-share condo they have there, then went downtown to walk around.

It has rained here for 8 days and the forecast was for rain the rest of the week too, but it stopped about 3 in the afternoon. Everything was still damp but at least we didn't get wet!

We walked the Mountain Mall, where Artemas and Diantha posed in this nostalgic picture-op.


The street corner at River Road and Parkway had this nicely-decorated Outhouse. the kids wanted their pictures taken in it. Don't ask what's with Diantha's attitude. With her are Beverly and Josiah.

Artemas looks like he has had enough and passed out. Veronica was feeling kinda puny yesterday for some reason, so she stayed back at the condo for a little nap.

We didn't go walking today. Instead I went to the range, where I shot as well with just my left hand as I did with my right hand only or both hands in rapid fire. Then I shot a couple mags with the 22 long rifle, with which I apparently can't hit the broad side of a barn. It doesn't help for me to need to hold it on my right side to shoot, but I am cross-eye dominant. I can't sight it with my left eye. Oops..

Artemas wanted me to share a pic of him, loving a Mountain Dew slushie, with the internet. Would you run out and buy a Mtn. Dew slushie on the basis of this picture?
Maybe I should see if Pepsico would hire him...

Since we didn't walk today, I didn't get a pic of the Dr. Pepper Hoodie anomaly.
However, I do have a pic of a cakewreck to share, which I am going to also submit to Cakewrecks blog. For want of anything else to call it, the kids and I have dubbed it The Leprosy Cake. YUM.

We Came, We Saw, We Tackled

Today being Tackle-it Tuesday, I had plans. Big plans. But my oldest son, being the thoughtful kinda guy he is, decided the night before that he was WAY too tired to do the dishes. This is what I woke up to this morning.

Yes folks, that is ONE day's worth of dishes in the Ross household. Not even a day's worth, since the dishwasher from 1974 is 2/3 full. I might add that I also have deep-bowl sinks.

So the first thing I got to tackle this morning, was the kitchen. Forty-five minutes later, I had done all the big dishes by hand and put them away, all but the one cast-iron skillet. Filled the rest of the dishwasher and run it. Cleaned both sinks and the countertop. Filled a sink with soapy water to soak small bits that could wait for the next dishwasher load. Cleaned the burner supports and stove top. It looked like this.

(By the way, yes, my cabinet doors are missing, because I am whitewashing the oak. Ditto the lower cabinets, where I tested only one drawerfront. And the ugly B/W tile countertops are little by little being replaced by stylish travertine tile. Stay tuned.)

Beverly and I made homemade Sour Cream Blueberry Muffins (recipe at end of post). While I was putting the muffins in the oven, she picked up the stirring spatula, licked it, and said, "Mmmm! Dish-us!" Cute.

The next Tackle-it that greeted me was the sight of the rest of the unfolded laundry from yesterday. I might say, most of the laundry from yesterday, since I got a late start on my Monday Laundry Madness. After this pic I actually added 2 more loads to fold, which were out by the dryer.

At some point, I had to stop folding and run after car and motorcycle parts that were ordered last week and finally came in. We also went to a big-box warehouse for olive oil for Richard's soaps and ate a pizza while there. When we got home, Artemas spread a slice of Meat Lover's pizza with marshmallow and Raisinettes, for a snack. Disgusting! What a teenage boy won't eat is a short list, I'll tell ya.

So after dinner and a nice ride in the car, I finished folding the clothes. Once again, relief. Here is Beverly, "helping." Some lot of help too. I do have a load of stored baby clothes to wash for the big yard sale Des and I are going to have the Fri. and Sat. after July 4th weekend. But other than that, no more laundry for the week. Yee-haw!

I have a pic to show. I did a couple new yarns in the last couple days, for my My7kids Recycled Yarns. One of them sold in less than 24 hours, and I have recreated it and relisted it. Here is a B's Eye View of the other one, being reskeined to mix the colors.


One last Tackle-it! I am in a Mini Quilt Swap that is due in a couple weeks. The lady I am assigned to likes wild animal prints and Africana, also traditional quilt patterns and Kaleidoscope. The Kaleidoscope block is rather challenging because of the many pieces that meet in the center. I have cut the pattern down to a 4" finished block. On the left here are my fabric selections this morning.

On the right, are the fabrics tonight, cut into 300 little bitty pieces, which will make a 20" square "field" for the quilt top. The wavy-lined piece will be a little border around the quilt. I haven't decided yet what piece the backing will be, though I have two in the running.

Alright, muffins! These are SO good! And blueberries are in season in most of the USA right now, so take advantage of them!

Recipe makes 12 decent sized standard muffins, or 6-8 Jumbo muffins, or about 18 mini muffins. They freeze well, too, so if you are single or your family is small, make a batch anyway. Freeze them, get one out in the morning for a morning-commute breakfast that will make your fellow mass-transit travelers absolutely jealous! MUCH better than any overpriced thing out of the case at Starbucks... and a great way to economize, too!

Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease muffin pans or use paper cups. Make sure rack is in the top 1/3 of the oven.

Sour Cream Blueberry Muffins

1 Cup Sour Cream (we use Lowfat) (Yogurt would do too)
2 large chicken eggs or 1 duck egg
1/3 cup (5.6 T) butter
1 cup sugar
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2 Cups unbleached flour, divided (1 Cup + 1 Cup)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
~~~~
1 Pint fresh or frozen blueberries or 1/2 cup dried blueberries

Mix all the sloppy moist ingredients and sugar in a large bowl until they are homogenous and pale yellow. Add 1 Cup of the flour, the baking powder and soda, and salt and stir in. Toss the other 1 Cup of flour with the blueberries, add to the batter, and gently stir until barely mixed in. Spoon into prepared muffin cups (2/3 full) and bake 16 minutes for Jumbo, 12 minutes for standard, or 10 minutes for mini muffins. So easy and tasty! Enjoy!

General Tso's Eggs Benedict au Ross

Beverly likes to be up at 8:30. Nikki, who likes to stay up until 2 AM, does NOT. That has nothing to do with anything else, it's just information.

General Tso's Sauce
This is so easy you will wonder why you ever would buy some in a jar. If you use your own beef or chicken stock it will be preservative-free (I used store bought, for shame)

1 Cup beef or chicken broth or stock
2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce (your favorite)
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons Honey
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 Tablespoon water

Heat all ingredients down through ginger, in a small non-stick saucepan. When hot, add the cornstarch dissolved in water to thicken. Remove from heat and stir briskly. Serve over cooked chopped chicken pieces and stir-fry veggies (or use store-bought chicken nuggets)


Eggs Benedict au Ross
We had this for dinner. Kids requested "breakfast for supper" but this is WAY too sophisticated to be confined to breakfast anyway. But EASY! However it will help if you have some help to cook the eggs while you make the Hollandaise.

Toasted English Muffin, topped by:
Eggs cooked and folded omelet-style
Mushrooms sauteed in wine
crumbled bacon
Hollandaise

We cut the pound of bacon up, cook it in a deep saucepan, stirring occasionally. Lift the done bacon out with a slotted spoon and drain on paper toweling. Keeps well in fridge to use on salads and such too. Set aside until you need them.

Mushrooms, cut up your choice and place in a shallow saute pan with some actually good wine. Cook over high heat for a couple minutes, until the wine is gone and muxhrooms are soft and dark. Set this aside ready too.

Beat the eggs with a little water or milk and pour them onto a hot, flat skillet. Cook until nearly done. I cut the circle in half and flip them over for a few seconds. Fold each half in half again and put on an English Muffin. Top with mushrooms and crumbled bacon. Spoon Hollandaise over it and eat! YUM!

Hollandaise
This isn't some great mystery that you have to go to an upscale restaurant and pay $48 for a meal to get some. Easy and delicious! Cut recipe in half for 1 0r 2 people.

4 egg yolks (throw the whites in with the eggs for the omelets)
(or make meringues!)
2 Tablespoons water
1/2 Cup (4 Tablespoons) butter - NO substitute!
Juice of one lemon
dash of salt
dash of pepper

Beat egg yolks in a small bowl with the water until they are thick and lemon-colored. Put the bowl over some simmering water double-boiler style. While whisking, add butter 1 Tablespoon at a time. Do not add more butter until each tablespoon is blended in. Remove from heat and whisk in lemon juice, salt and pepper. Sauce is meant to be served warm (not hot or cold).

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I am carding llama fur today, and it is SO next to impossible to get all the tiny little bits of mulch and weeds out of it, since they take dust baths. Arrgghh!!!

And Beverly decided to try to wash out her own diaper! Arrrggghhh!!!

Cheesecake, Muffins, and Seeing Stars

Oh, I made a new yarn last night called Chocolate Covered Strawberries. It is a Vegan blend (Ramie and acrylic) done in chocolate brown and deep, hot pink. Lovely! Not to be outdone, today I finished spindling Raspberry Caramel Cheesecake. This one is so lusciously soft! It is hand dyed superwash merino top that I bought from knitspaz on etsy. I ended up with 140 yards of a little heavier than worsted, and it is gorgeous.. and available in my shop.


Yesterday's block was 4 Ts, and I did a terrible job. Now that I have all the blocks I needed for Sally Sweet, I am going on to Joe Morelli. In the Stephanie Plum books, he is one bad-ass vice cop but otherwise just your oversexed average Italian guy.

LoL. For some reason I see him in black and white and this grayish blue. So here ya go. Today's block was another Ohio Star, which I did without a contrast center square. Amazing how different it looks than Diantha's that she did today also! Mine is on the left and hers is on the right.

I wanted to give you another free delicious recipe!

We call these Blue Chocolate Cherry Muffins and they are the most delicious science experiment you will ever eat!

The dark cherries in the mix act as a litmus indicator. The juice turns the batter pink as long as it is acidic (from the fruit and the fatty acids in the eggs and butter)... but once you add the baking soda and baking powder, the mix changes to alkaline. The batter will turn gray, and as they bake they will turn the most wonderful (or horrible) greenish blue!

Despite the blue color, they are heavenly to eat!

A little note: you may notice that I bake with real butter. No substitute! Butter moistens baked goods as they age, oil or margarine or shortening dry baked goods as they age. Day-old cake or muffins made with butter will be moister, day-old cake or muffins with margarine will be DRY. You choose!

This recipe makes about 24 average size muffins. Take them to the office or freeze them for a quick in-hand breakfast anytime! They freeze great! But alas, at my house they don't last through lunch time.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease and flour or line 24 muffin cups.

1 14-16 oz. can dark sweet cherries, drained (reserve liquid) and chopped

2 eggs

1/3 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour, divided

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 bag dark chocolate chips

Drain cherry juice into large mixing bowl. Chop cherries and put in the bowl. Whisk in butter, eggs, and sugar. Add 1 1/2 cups flour, the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir in. Toss chocolate chips with last 1/2 cup flour and stir into the batter, stirring as little as possible to combine.


Spoon batter into muffin cups to 2/3 full. Bake for 12-15 minutes (check them at 12 minutes, they should be blue, tan around the edges and not look wet in the middle). Let cool on cooling racks (or eat them as soon as you don't scorch your tongue, LoL)


Oh and I have one more pic to show you. My 17 yos Artemas took this today, of himself and his baby sister Betsy. I added the caption and thought it was funny. Isn't he cute? And isn't she?

Who Wants A Penguin Block?

Today's block was a stupid appliqued penguin. Who needs that? But in keeping with the spirit of the block (if not the letter), I made an appliqued Snowball block of Sally Sweet, Transvestite Extraordinaire. LoL. Here is my drawing of the prototype, alongside the block in its finished state.

I started unraveling a 100% silk sweater today, for a special order. I don't know if the lady will like this yarn though. It is very strandy, like 5-6 strands of silk thread just running along together. Because of that, I have run into a snag that I can't seem to get untangled, so I quit for the day on it. I am probably going to have to try to ply it before I hand dye it. Another strike against efficiency, LoL.

I got a new roving yesterday. When it arrived it was blue, green, and brown. I have overdyed almost all the green areas with black, and I think this yarn is Joe Morelli. It has blue for the jeans he perpetually wears, black for his hair, T shirt, and attitude, and brown for his sullied reputation. This is both the top and bottom of the braid. I am not sure what this will be when spun, but I am thinking it has to be a sock yarn. YUM!

No weirdness for today. We stayed home, LoL.

Artemas is baking Pineapple Upside Down muffins. I told him each step and now he has them in the oven and they smell wonderful. Tomorrow will be breakfast-to-die-for!

Here is the recipe:
Preheat oven to 400F. Grease a dozen standard-size muffin cups (or use baking spray)
"Bottom" topping:
12-oz. can crushed pineapple
Dark Brown sugar
Maraschino Cherries, if you like
Using an 12-oz can of crushed pineapple, put an equal amount of pineapple and juice in the bottom of each muffin cup. Add about a Teaspoon (maybe a little more) of dark brown sugar to each cup with the pineapple. And if you like, put a maraschino cherry in each cup. Set aside.
Muffins:
1 Cup Sour Cream (lowfat ok) or applesauce
1/3 Cup Butter
2 Eggs
3/4 Cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Beat until thoroughly blended. Then add:
1 cup Flour (I use unbleached. If you use self-rising, eliminate the following ingredients)
1 Tablespoon Baking powder
1 teaspoon Baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Stir the dry ingredients in. Then add another 3/4 cup flour, barely stirring into dough.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, on top of pineapple. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Turn muffins out onto cooling rack while hot. Sometimes it helps if you loosen the muffins around the edge with a knife. Enjoy!