Chocolate Bundt Cake

I needed a chocolate fix, boy I sure got it! I love bundt cakes! I was thinking the cakes that I've made in this pan has mostly been rum. Which is delicious! I'll have to make that soon!  

Here's the recipe. 

Flour mixture:

2 1/4 cups of flour

3/4 cups of unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Milk mixture:

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup sour cream

Butter mixture:

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cup sugar 

4 eggs 

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Butter you bundt pan. Preheat your oven to 320 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Beat butter mixture until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at time. Add vanilla. Mix the flour mixture in small bowl. Mix the milk mixture in a measuring cup. Alternating flour and milk mixture, add to butter mixture, starting and ending with flour mixture. It works best to pour half the flour mix, when it's combined add all of the milk mixture then finish with the remaining flour. Stir until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 55 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

Let cake cool completely. 

Ganache:

In a small sauce pan heat 1/2 cup of heavy cream to a simmer. In a heat proof bowl add 3 oz chocolate chopped. Pour cream over chocolate let sit for 2 minutes. Add  2 tablespoons of butter and wisk until smooth. Let it cool for a bit, whisking every once in awhile until thickened. 

Pour over cake and enjoy right away. If you can stand it, this can be covered and let set at room temperature for 1 day. 

A Little Crazy, but Clean!



Winda ready to go home after her teeth cleaning.

This last weekend was a bit of a crazy time for me.  We took Friday and Monday off - so YAY 4 day weekend!  However, we had a crazy schedule of office things to get done, a dinner and game night planned and Winda was scheduled for a teeth cleaning...so, obviously, I got sick.  I have been feeling like I was getting a sinus infection for a few weeks, just a day or two - here and there.  No biggie for me usually - they come and go and I am maybe down a day at most.  Not this time - we took Winda to the vet's on Friday morning, and by the time we got home at 3pm I was feeling pretty bad (I even took a nap, which I never do).  Since I wasn't feeling too good, and Winda was still groggy from the vet, we didn't get any of our projects done but that was okay - we still had 3 days left.  Saturday, I woke up feeling worse - it wasn't until this morning that I finally slept through the night and my face hurts a little less.  

Even though all I wanted to do was stay in bed, I wanted to get some of our things done more.  We managed to get a few things done, like getting a butcherblock counter for Eric's office from IKEA and cleaning the house up for our dinner on Sunday, but nowhere near as much as I was hoping.  On Sunday, we had my brother and sister-in-law (and her brother) over for Tacos and Margaritas - the funny thing is we planned this over a week ago and I totally spaced that Cinco de Mayo was this Monday - happy coincidence.  I was really looking forward to it since it is so rare that we all have time to hang out, so I refused to cancel it.  I'm glad I didn't - it was a lot of fun!!

One of the few things I did manage to get done was making dishwasher tablets.  I have had the stuff to make them for about a month, but I didn't want to make them until I ran out of the ones I already had, which I finally did on Saturday.  I looked around online for a recipe that used lemon juice instead of citric acid - mostly because I didn't want to buy something extra just for this project.  There are lots of different recipes, but they are all pretty much the same.  The ones I made are from here.

Dishwasher Tablets:

1 cup Borax

1 cup Washing Soda

1/4 cup Epsom Salts

Lemon Juice

Mix the borax, washing soda and epsom salts really well.  Add the lemon juice until the mixture is damp but with no extra liquid in the bowl.  I would start with around 7 or 8 tablespoons, and add as needed.  Use a tablespoon to divide the mix into an ice cube tray or to scoop onto a flat surface. 

I tried it both ways and I thought either way was fine.  I was a little concerned that the ones in the ice tray would be too compressed to dissolve correctly, so I like how the scooped ones are more crumbly (Once they dry they don't fall apart unless you try to break them up though), plus they work better for my dishwasher because they are flatter.  The cubes are tidier looking, and they come out of the tray really easily.  Let them dry overnight and then place into a container for storage.         

I have used the round ones twice already and I think they work better than some of the detergents I have tried in the past.  There was no residue on my plasticware, which is a big problem for some all-natural detergents.  I also have a rinse agent that is all-natural (I don't know the brand).  You can use vinegar, but I have heard some people say their dishes smell like vinegar so I am a little wary. 

I think one of the best things about these is the price.  I think that I spent around $12/15 for all of the items, but I will get about 144 tablets out of that.  Also, I will only need to buy more washing soda and I can make around 72 more tablets for only $4.  So (in theory) I can make enough tablets to last all year (doing 4 loads a week), for less than $20.  I have also read that you can freeze them - so I might do that when I get a large freezer - then I only have to make them once a year.

BTW - If you use the scoop option, make sure you put them up high to dry.  I was asked what kind of cookies I was making, so we definitely don't want any kids getting their hands on them!!    



Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Treats

Last week my husband told me that he would really like to have some peanut butter rice crispy treats like his mom used to make him. Did you know people made such a thing? I did not. I set out looking for a recipe, with Pinterest and Google it should be easy right? Wrong! Most of the recipes I found had chocolate on top (he didn't want that) or were made with other things instead of marshmallows (marshmallows were a must). I ended up just going with it and adding peanut butter.

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter (They are very peanut buttery so if you want more of a marshmallow taste, I would add a little less peanut butter.)
6 cups puffed rice cereal
1 1lb bag of marshmallows

It's just as simple as making rice crispy treats, just with one added ingredient.

Melt the butter in a big pot over medium-low heat. Once it is melted add in the peanut butter mixing a few times until it melted. Add in the marshmallows and stir until they are melted and mixed in. Then add the cereal, mix and then press into pan with your spoon. Let cool, cut and serve.

I lined my dish with wax paper for easy clean up.

My husband loved them and now wants me to make them more often. I hope your family enjoys them just as much!

J

ABC's 123's Let's Celebrate Teachers!

I've enjoyed selecting things for my son's teacher for Teacher Appreciation Week.  Thank goodness for Pinterest, I learn so many good tricks and ideas like I'm posting about today.

How am I going to top myself next year. I'm sure Pinterest will have more ideas!

The plate is empty for now, I will fill it with fresh baked cookies on Sunday. Then I'll wrap and tie with the ribbon and tag, which says Thanks a 'Dozen".  I made the tag for the flowers, I will get those on Sunday, which says Thanks for helping our child "Bloom!" I found the jumbo marshmallows, and snack packs of the graham crackers. There are 2 bags that I tied together with a tag saying We need "S'more" teachers like you. I put a tag on the iced cup with a lid that says Thanks a " Latte', " I still need to get a gift card from a coffee bar. The last gift is a key chain that I found and I got a charm with her last initial on it, the tag says You're the "Key" to our child's success.

Each day I will send a gift with my son to give to his teacher. I truly hope she likes it!

I hope you get some good ideas. Let us know if you have great ideas too!

Have a great weekend.

Happy May Day!

Yep - it's the first day of May, which means it's time for a new menu.  I made a bunch of changes to what we are eating (added some new recipes, took some old ones off).  I also added a (hopefully) helpful tool for myself - Weight Watchers Points.  I have been struggling with losing weight, so I signed up for WW last month.  I have used it before with a lot of success (sadly, once I stopped doing it I gained all the weight I lost back), so I was sure I would be able use it to help me lose weight this time.  Well...I'm pretty good at tracking what I eat during the day - but I am AWFUL about keeping track at night and on the weekends.  I don't want to spend a bunch of time figuring out how many points each meal is - especially if I am just throwing things together.  Also, my biggest enemy is snacking - I do it constantly!!  Even with my spotty tracking I have lost around 5 pounds - so hopefully with better tracking and the 30 min a day exercising I am forcing myself into I will lose more this month!

With that in mind, I spent a little time figuring out the points for the meals on my menu, which will help me plan what to make as well.  I removed some of the higher point meals (but not all - some things are worth the points), and I added some meals from the WW site.  The hardest part will be to stick to the serving size - some of the lower point meals are pretty small so I will double up on those, but most of them are a decent sized servings so I am going to try to stick to them.  Just to give you an idea of how many points I can eat a day - it's around 36 with the daily total and the weekly total averaged out.  Yeah - they go pretty quickly... good thing most fruit and veggies are zero points! 

Fingers crossed!!