I'm Still Here!

I have no good excuse and I'm not going to try to make any. I just keep forgetting to post. Well, I'm going to show you two cakes that I've done recently. They're not the best, but I'm still learning. The first one I did for a lady who wanted to thank the auto body shop that was working on her car. Yes, it's pink. That's what happens when you don't have any red icing and you try to make your own.

The next one I made last week for a lady's birthday. She loves lighthouses.

I have to make a three-layer coconut cake this week for another lady. I'm kind of relieved that it's just a simple cake like that. I want to do more character/shape cakes, but it's alot of work and I have to bake brookies for two restaurants this week.

Last weekend was E's and my 10th anniversary! Wow! I can't believe it's been 10 years already. Actually, it feels like I've been with E for all of my life, but in a good way. I'm so happy that he is a part of my life. We couldn't go away for long because of the turkeys, but we managed to get a night away and stay in Staunton. I've never been there, even though it's only about an hour away. I'm so glad we went because it is beautiful. Todd and Carrie gave us a gift certificate for one night's stay at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel for Christmas, so we used it for our anniversay. We have to go back next weekend to pick up an antique buffet that we are buying. I can't wait to get that in the house.

Anyway, I'll try my best to post more often. Have a good day!

A Good Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. My 31st to be exact. I'm feeling pretty good about it. I took off from work early just so I can do things that I wanted (or needed) to do around the house. I had many birthday wishes on Facebook, received a couple phone calls, and had Todd, Carrie, and Vera over for pizza. E was so upset that he forgot to wish me a happy birthday before he went to work. I told him not to worry about it. He didn't forget my birthday, he just forgot to say "Happy Birthday". No biggie. He brought home some nice presents to make up for it. One for sure I know he already had. The other two I think he got because he felt so bad. He's so funny. I told him that we already celebrated my birthday on Sunday with dinner at Bonefish and he bought me some new workout clothes. He didn't listen, of course.

I know I still haven't posted those pics from last month. I keep forgetting while I'm at home. I'll remember one day...hopefully. If not, oh well. Tomorrow is another day. :)

Have a great day!

Happy New Year....late.

Well, I had a really great post all ready to go a few weeks ago. E, however, came over while I got up to finish making breakfast and decided he was going to look up something on eBay. Instead of pulling up a new page, he just used the page my post was on. I haven't gotten around to re-posting it, yet. I do want to share with you all my Christmas holiday, though. I had an adventure and we did some fun things.

One thing that I didn't get any pics of, though, were the Rockettes. I took Mom to see the Rockettes' Christmas Spectacular at the John Paul Jones' Arena. We left early, thinking we had plenty of time to get there. Boy were we wrong! Traffic was backed up sooo bad that we ended up being about 10-15 minutes late. We decided to forgo the parking lot (which I paid to have a parking space) and instead parked in the nearby shopping center and walked. Good thing. We would've been later since the parking area was a mad house.

The show was nice and we had some pretty good seats. We were in the balcony, but close to the stage. I really, really wish I thought to bring my camera. I could've gotten some really good pics. One thing that really burns me, though, is that I could've had really, really close seats if I had gotten the tickets when I first tried to. I thought maybe I wouldn't go since they were a little pricey, but I later changed my mind and the seats were already gone. Oh well. I'll remember that next time.

I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year's. I will be posting our gingerbread house activity and our New York trip hopefully this weekend. I even have a few pics of Christmas day. I want to try to post more regularly this year. We'll see how that goes.

I Know......

Yeah. It's been awhile. I've thought about posting many, many times, but just never got around to it. I want to try to post every day, but I forget. I've been really busy lately. I've been baking up a storm, but I haven't been to the farmer's market since mid-October. I've been baking brookies for the restaurant, cakes for people, and cookies and other goodies for people. I've even been baking things just to try new recipes. Sadly, I haven't taken many pics. I just baked a pumpkin pie last night, so I'll have to take a pic of it before I slice into it and post it, along with the recipe, on here.

To get myself started for the month of December, here is a pic of a frog cake I baked for someone two weeks ago. It took all day to decorate it and it was really heavy. I was told to make it for 25 people, but I think I made it too big. I was going to use smaller pans but E insisted that I use a bigger pan. I have to research and find out how big to make a cake for the amount of people that it's for.

**Well, apparently the pics don't want to upload at this time. I'll have to try later....**

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween! We had a costume contest at work yesterday. I wore my trusty old Civil War re-enactment outfit. Well, one of them. It's the first time I wore it to work. I don't take the best pictures, but I'll show what I have.

I did win a prize! I won "Best Fit to Personality". Hmm... I wonder what that's really supposed to mean. I was told it's because I'm so quaint and quiet.

I had another order for a cake! Yay! This time it was a trout cake. I had so many ideas buy my tools and equipment are still limited. If I keep this up I'll be able to buy the things I need.

I wanted to do the entire cake as a trout, but I didn't have a pan big enough so I made a standard size sheet cake (two layers) and carved out the trout on another cake. I made two trouts just incase I messed up, and sure enough the first one didn't turn out like I wanted. I changed gears and came up with this. E helped out with the blue icing and cutting the trout. He won't admit it, but he liked it. :)

Monster Truck Cakes and the 70s

I've been so excited this week because I was asked to bake a birthday cake for a friend's grandson. He wanted a monster truck cake. I looked up ideas online and found some pics that I liked. The pics used cake molds, but I didn't have one so I had to make my cake by stacking loaf pan size cakes. For the wheels I used my mini bundt pan. I wanted to make the truck black, but I didn't have time to run to C'ville to pick up any supplies, so I had to make do with what I had. The truck ended up being gray. It took a lot of hours and a lot of work, but I think it turned out pretty good for my first 3-D cake:

It was supposed to be Grave Digger. I needed more supplies to be able to decorate it correctly, but I think you can tell what it is.

Last night we attended a surprise birthday party for a friend. The party was a 70s theme so E and I got dressed up. I had a black dress that was his mom's from the 60s/70s and E bought an outfit from a party store in C'ville. It turned out great!

Gotta love the afro!

Old Buildings

I love old buildings. I'd love to buy and old Victorian and fix 'er up. I found this website where a guy goes to old abandoned buildings and takes pictures. This is something I'd love to start doing. It's so neat to see things frozen in time. I wish somebody would buy the buildings, however, and fix them up instead of letting them fall apart.

Where Have I Been???

I've been busy!! That's where I've been! I've been tired, I've been busy, I've been tired, need I go on??

I can tell you that this past week I've had to bake 11 pans of Brookies for the restaurant. They've certainly been keeping my busy! I'm taking the night off from baking tonight, except I'm going to bake something for our snack day at work tomorrow. I think I might create something new. I'll let you know if I do. Oh, I do have a yummy and healthy apple cake recipe I want to share. I'll take pics tonight and post tomorrow (hopefully).

Well, let me tell you about my exciting day yesterday! I haven't tried to give blood for over 10 years now. I say "tried" because I've never been able to give a pint before. Every time my veins would collapse. We had a blood drive at work yesterday and I thought I'd give it another go. E warned me not to. He said I have low blood pressure and I shouldn't do it. I told him I would be fine and it's a good cause. He told me not to complain to him if I wasn't feeling good afterwards. Whatever! I would be fine! Plus I'd get a $5 giftcard to Qdoba!

I get to the lobby and have to fill out my info. The guy gives me my giftcard and tells me to go on out to the bus where they'll take my vitals and what not. On the bus they take my blood pressure and it was fine. It was 121/73. Pretty high for me! I'm usually around 95/60 these days. I thought that was a good sign. The tech then pricks my finger to check my iron level. She had a hard time getting much blood out and the iron level read low (First Warning!) She said I could stop now or she could get her supervisor to try on my other hand. I told her to go ahead and try. Why not??? The supervisor comes in and pricks another finger on my other hand and my iron levels were fine. Great! Good sign, right??

I go on out and they ask me which arm. I told them either one so they decide to take it from my right arm. A male tech comes to me and preps my arm. He told be to squeeze this stress thingy and hold tight. He searches my arm and then decides to look at my left arm. I repeat the steps and he searches again. He calls over the supervisor and she looks at both of my arms. She points to a spot on my right arm and told him he could try this or he could try another spot on my left arm. He decides to go with my left arm. I now have to get up and move to the other side of the bus. (Second Warning!)

He preps my left arm and sticks the needle in. Nothing comes out. (Third Warning!) The supervisor comes back and she tries to find the vein. Jackpot! We have blood! I sit there and after a couple of minutes we realize the blood has stopped. (Fourth Warning!) They take everything out and say I could stop now or they can try the other arm. I know what you are thinking. I already have the giftcard so why not stop while I'm ahead, right? Well, I really did want to try to give blood. I told them to try my right arm. I have to get back up and go back to the other side of the bus.

The supervisor takes over from here and she preps my arm again. At this time I realize E is on the bus. He comes around and watches what they do. The supervisor finally gets blood! Yay! E just shakes his head and says he'll see me later. After a few minutes, the male tech comes over and looks at my bag. The blood is flowing, but it's really, really slow (Fifth and Final Warning!!) Finally, after a tiny can of orange juice and several songs on the radio I'm finished! I have finally given a pint, a pound of my blood! Yay! Did you know that you lose a pound when you give blood??? Apparently Weight Watchers' people do!

Anyway, they ask me if I'm doing okay and I said "yeah". What are you supposed to feel like after you give blood??? Can anybody explain this to me?? After all, I've never donated before. They tell me to get up and go ahead and go back inside. No problem. I have to wait a few seconds for somebody to move out of my way and I felt a little weird, maybe lightheaded, but didn't think much of it. I went on out the bus and headed back inside the building. As soon as I got inside I felt it coming! The overwhelming feeling of passing out came over me and I rushed to have a seat in one of the chairs. I heard Annette ask if I was okay and the next thing I new Vicky was calling my name and several people were around me. Yep, I passed out. How embarrassing is that?!?!?!? I apparently went stiff just as I passed out and scared Vicky half to death. I was out for less than a minute, I believe. The supervisor nurse came in and gave me ice packs (I was sweating profusely!) and a coke. She went back out and got me several bags of cookies and pretzels. She told me to eat the pretzels right away and to keep drinking because that would bring my blood pressure and sugar back up.

After a few minutes I felt I was able to get up and go back to my office. They kept asking me if I felt okay because I didn't look okay. I was apparently completely white, but color slowly started to return to my face. I told them I felt much better and went back to my office to eat some cookies and finish of the pretzels. I called E and, well, you can guess what he had to say! He wasn't too happy with me, I told you so, yadda, yadda, yadda. I tried to explain to him that my blood pressure was up today, but he didn't want to hear it.After a few minutes I went to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. I was yellow!! I got a cup of water and went back to my office. I had to finishing printing payroll checks so I wasn't able to go to lunch right away. The supervisor nurse came back to check on my after a little bit and I told her that I felt sick and lightheaded. She said that I would probably feel better if I threw up. I had to explain to her that I cannot throw up at my own will. I have to take something to make me throw up, like ipecac. She told me to just get some lunch and drink plenty of fluids.

After the checks were done. I still wasn't feeling good. E called and said he didn't want me to drive in my condition so him mom came and got me. After I finally got something to eat I started to feel a little better, just really, really tired. I stayed on the couch for the rest of the afternoon. By the time E go home, I was feeling well to go with him to take the Brookies in and to pick up my truck.

I have to tell you. I will never, ever give blood again. All the signs were there and I chose to ignore them. I even recognized the first sign but figured I'd at least try one more time. I should've realized after the second sign, however, that I would be in for it if I continued. Oh well, lessons learned.

I hope this doesn't discourage anyone else from donating blood. I was just a little dehydrated and tired. Plus the fact that I usually have low blood pressure may have contributed to my troubles. I guess I should probably listen to E a little more often, huh? Oh, and he was extremely happy to be able to say "I told you so!"

Zucchini Crisp

My word! This is so good! E keeps asking me for it. He told me that I need to cut up and freeze the rest of the zucchinis so we could have this all winter long. I guess I better get busy!

1 large zucchini (about 1 1/2-2 lbs.), peeled, seeded and cut into chunks (like apples slices)

6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg (a little more or less to you liking)

Crumb topping:

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup flour (I use whole wheat)
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
6 tablespoons butter, (can be pretty cold from the fridge), cubed - if you use unsalted butter, add 1/8 tsp salt
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped

In a large saucepan, combine the zucchini, lemon juice, and butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray an 8x8 inch baking dish lightly with cooking spray. Set aside.

While the zucchini is cooking, make the crumb topping. Combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, and nuts. Cut in butter--works best using your hands. Keep combining by rubbing it all together until you have a crumbly texture. Set aside. (The crumb topping can be made ahead and chilled or frozen for later use.)

Remove the zucchini from the heat and stir in sugar and spices. Pour the zucchini mixture into the baking dish. Top with the crumb mixture. Bake for 25-30 minutes until topping is golden brown.

It tastes just like apple crisp! Serve it warm with vanilla ice cream for an even tastier treat. I usually eat leftovers for breakfast. :)

This picture is actually of the crisp using a pie crust for a bottom. I didn't make this, my mother-in-law did. You can use a pie crust if you like, just bake it for a few minutes before adding the zucchini and crisp topping. I forgot to take a picture of my crisp. Next time I make one I'll update the photo.

Enjoy!

What is Our Country Coming To?

E and I have been talking alot lately about the state of this country. It's pretty sad, and pretty scary. I like our President as a person, but as a leader, not quite as much. I'll be the first to admit that I didn't vote for him. It had absolutely nothing to do with the color of his skin or that he's a Democrat (I consider myself an Independent.) I didn't vote for him because I didn't believe his promises. I didn't believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. I didn't believe his "change" would be a good change. Well, so far it's not. I watch alot of news on both ABC and Fox. Many people say Fox is the "Republican news". I think it's just the news that tells all sides of the story and not just what they want us to hear.

I've been watching alot of Glenn Beck lately and this week he's got some powerful shows on. There are many questions that I'd like to ask my President and even my state leaders. I have so many "whys" and "hows" but I don't know who to ask and even if my voice will be heard. I want to stand up and fight for what I believe in, but where do I begin? I want to be able to make a difference and help bring this country back to it's roots. I want to make sure that we still have our freedom, because the way things are going now it'll be gone.

If you go to http://www.glennbeck.com/ or http://www.foxnews.com/ and look for Glenn Beck's site you'll find out about the "advisors" that surround our President. You will be surprised and shocked, to say the least, at what they believe in. There are questions that Mr. Beck has posted for us that we need to be asking our government. If we don't, if we don't stand up and demand a change, we are going to lose so much. I'm terrified of what's to come. I don't normally promote other people's opinion unless I strongly believe in what they have to say. If you are reading this blog, please check out the websites, or watch Glenn Beck's show at 5pm eastern on Fox News. You will learn so much that the other news networks just aren't reporting.

I've Been Busy

I have been so busy lately. The warm months are always busy for me because there's always so much to can. This is what I worked on last night:

We have made 19 jars of Hot Salsa, 19 jars of Medium Salsa, and 38 jars of Mild Salsa. And we're not done. I picked more tomatoes on Wednesday so I have more sitting in the basement waiting to be made into something. I told E that we could make some more Hot Salsa since hot and mild are the biggest sellers. I want to make sure I have enough tomatoes, however, to make some spaghetti sauce, possibly more chili, and maybe even some ketchup. I've heard homemade ketchup is to die for.

I don't think I'll be going to the Farmer's Market tomorrow because they are forecasting rain all morning. Fine by me. I love having a break. I think we'll probably either make more salsa or I'll just take a break and work on some gourds are give my self a pedicure. I'd love to do the pedicure, but I really, really need to get some gourds done. The Street Festival is three Saturdays away.

Our corn is finally ready, so last night we had corn on the cob with dinner. Yum!

If I have enough, I'll be canning some again this year. I canned corn for the first time last year and I'll tell ya, that was the BEST canned corn I have ever had. When you can your own veggies, it's always SOOOO much better than what you buy in the store. Here's hoping we have a good crop of corn this year!!

Peace out.

Oh What a Beautiful Morning!

I remember the Nationwide commercial that has the animals and people singing that song "Oh What a Beautiful Morning". I also remember two years ago while on a short overnight trip with Mom, Bonnie, and Dee Dee that this commercial came on while we were eating breakfast in the hotel dining area. I was lip synching the song and a man came in and busted out laughing at me. Apparently I looked quite comical. Hmph.

Anyway, I love mornings like this:

The fog in the lower distance. On mornings like this we are above the fog. Mornings like this are cool and a little crisp. Mornings like this remind me of Fall. I love Fall. It's my favorite season. Unfortunately this pic was taken two weeks ago. It's supposed to be in the upper 80s today. Not so nice.

Have a great day!

Storm Watching

A couple of weeks ago we had a storm come from the SouthEast. It is VERY unusual for a storm to come from that direction unless it a hurricane. This storm looked like it was going to be a bad one.
The clouds were so heavy.

Oh look. You can see where I work in this pic. There it is. That big massive white building at the bottom of the picture. The commute is great, but it kinda sucks living soooo close to work.

We were preparing for a pretty bad storm, but it just turned out to be heavy rain and some wind. No thunder and lightning. I was amazed at how angry the clouds looked.

Have a great day!

Corny Cornbread

E wanted cornbread with his taco salad the other night so I told him that I'd make some. While he was at the gym I looked all over for the Jiffy cornbread mix but realized I was out. Ahh! I've never made cornbread from scratch before! I found a recipe that sounded good and decided to change it up a bit. It turned out so good!

Corny Cornbread

1 1/2 cups cornmeal
2 1/2 cups milk (I used 1%)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup wheat flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 can whole kernel corn, drained (or 1-2 cups fresh corn---I used a mix of both)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a small bowl, combine corn meal and milk; let stand for 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile in a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Mix in the cornmeal mixture, eggs, and oil until smooth. Mix in the corn. Pour batter into prepared pan/s. I used two greased cast iron skillets. One large and one small. You could probably use a greased 13" x 9" pan or cornbread molds.

3. Bake for 25 - 35 minutes (depending on which pan you use. It only took my two skillets approx. 25 mins), or until knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

E loved it! I think it may have been a little more golden if I had poured some melted butter on top before baking; not quite sure. We've been eating the leftovers every day since I made it. I'm seriously thanking about heating some up for breakfast and slathering it with butter and maple syrup. It's THAT good!

Enjoy!

Update 8/14/09: I warmed a piece of the cornbread up, slathered it with butter, put a hot fried egg on top, and poured some real maple syrup over it all. YUM! Oh, I was in heaven. When E got home, I told him what I ate and he gagged! He thinks eggs and syrup are disgusting. I so disagree. It's so, so yummy!

Gnu Bars and Larabars

I've been looking for healthy, yet yummy, bars that I can take to work with me when I have a snack attack and keep in my purse. There are sooo many "healthy" bars out there, but most are full of crap (high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, etc.) and I refuse to put stuff like that in my body (if I can help it!) I read my labels VERY carefully. I came acrose Gnu Foods Flavor & Fiber bars this past weekend at The Vitamin Shoppe. I decided to give them a try along with Larabars. I have to tell you, I found two winners. TheLarabar is tasty and completely healthy (only ingredients on the Cherry Pie bar are dates, almonds, and unsweetend cherries). There's 4 grams of fiber and 190 calories (at least in the Cherry Pie bars.) I'm definitely going to make them apart of my pantry. What's better than having bars handy that are only 3 simple ingredients and that taste great?

The Gnu bars (I tried the Banana Walnut and Orange Cranberry) are very yummy. The only downside is they have a bunch of ingredients (compared to the Larabar) but they are all good ingredients. There's only 130 calories and 12 grams of fiber (in the Orange Cranberry bar). That's 48% of your daily value for fiber! Wow!

You can go to www.GnuFoods.com and www.larabar.com to check them out. And just to make it clear, I'm not getting paid in any way to write this blog. I just found two great bars that I'd thought others should know about.

Have a great day!!

Happy Independence Day!!

Have a happy and safe 4th of July! I'll try to remember to post some yummy recipes I've been cooking/baking up these last few weeks. Unfortunately remembering is my downfall.

An old pic of me and my cousin eating the brownie or cake mix left in the bowl. I still do this!

Farmer's Market

Here are some pics from the Farmer's Market last Saturday.

A selection of my jams, salsa, and hot sauce. I really need to start making more flavors. I usually have a bigger assortment than this.
Brookies and Rhubarb Coffeecake. I'll have to remember to post the recipe for the coffeecake. It is delicious and has been a hit.

Chocolate Chip Cherry Scones, Blondies, Coffee Lovers' Coffeecake, and more Brookies.

Indian Fry Bread. These are such a HUGE hit. We made them two years ago but didn't make them last year because I started waitressing again. Now that I quit, we have time to make them again.

I have one gourd bowl that I'm selling. I really, really need to do more gourd and craft work but I've been so busy. I have a table on the right hand side where I sell plants and vegetables. In the middle of the food table, I have samples in the cake dish. Samples ALWAYS gets more sales.

Sesame-Tofu Stir-Fry

I made this for dinner last night and boy was it good. Yes, I did put shrimp in it only because E wanted me to. We had it a couple of weeks ago without the shrimp and he loved it, but this time he wanted something meaty. That, and he's afraid of getting too much soy.

Sesame-Tofu Stir-Fry
adapted from Fitness Magazine

1 12-oz package extra-firm tofu, drained and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Cornstarch
1/4 cup finely chopped unsalted peanuts
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1 16-oz bag frozen stir-fry vegetables*
2/3 cup bottled stir-fry sauce
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 cups hot cooked brown rice

1. Lightly coat tofu with cornstarch. In a bowl, combine 1 Tbsp of peanuts, the sesame seeds, ginger, and red pepper. Add tofu; toss gently.

2. Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat. Add tofu mixture to skillet. Cook briefly, stirring gently, until sesame seeds are toasted and tofu begins to brown.

3. Remove tofu. Add vegetables to skillet; cook and stir until heated through. Add stir-fry sauce; cook and stir gently until mixture is bubbly. Stir in tofu; heat through. Sprinkle with remaining peanuts and the scallions. Serve over rice.

*The original recipe says to thaw vegetables. I didn't. I put mine in the wok frozen and cooked until they were thawed and heated through.

**I cooked the shrimp in the wok before I cooked the tofu.

Egg Drop Soup

Oh yummy! I love egg drop soup. I've tried making it at home before with just chicken broth and eggs and I've even used a flavor packet from the grocery store, but this recipe is the bomb. I hope you enjoy it. E and I certainly did.

Egg Drop Soup
adapted from Simply Recipes

3 eggs, lightly beaten
4 cups of chicken stock
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 Tbsp soy sauce
3 green onions or chives, chopped
1/4 tsp of pepper
3/4 cup of sliced mushrooms (I used baby portobello, but shiitake would be really good).

1. Reserve 1/2 cup of chicken stock and mix with cornstarch until dissolved.

2. Place the remaining chicken stock, ginger, soy sauce, green onions, mushrooms, and pepper in a pot and bring to a boil. Add the cornstarch mixture and stir. Reduce heat to a simmer.

3. Slowly pour in the beaten eggs while stirring the soup. The egg will spread out into ribbons. Turn off the heat and garnish with a few more chopped onions or chives. Serve immediately.

This was even really good re-heated the next day. It's a definite keeper! I ate mine with a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. This would be great with an egg roll.

Farmer's Market Treats

Last Saturday was our first day at our new venue. We moved to the back parking lot instead of the park. There's so much more traffic now. It only made sense to move back there. We've been wanting to for a long time but the last market master didn't want us to for some reason. We now have a new market master and he was all for it. I had a table full of delicious goodies including our Indian Fry Bread which always sells out and Praline Brookies.

I made these cake pops to sell. The tasted wonderful, but the chocolate coating started melting because it was so hot. Everyone that saw them was impressed, but I only sold 3, go figure! The recipe is very simple (Thanks Bakerella!) Just bake a cake (any flavor). Using a 13x9 sheet pan is easiest. After it has totally cooled, shred cake into a big bowl. You can use a food processor if you like. Stir in 2 cups of cake icing (any flavor) and mix well. I had to use my hands. form into balls and place on a wax paper-covered sheet pan and pop into the refrigerator until set or freezer. Once everything is nice and firm, take out balls and push sticks in them. Dip them in melted candy coating (any flavor) and let dry standing up. I turned an egg carton upside down, punched holes in it and dried the cake pops on that. Worked wonderfully.

These are Sugar and Spice Donuts I made. I threw away the recipe because I decided I wasn't going to make them again. They were okay, but I have a killer Apple Cider Donut recipe that's much better. These were actually really good the next day after I heated them in the microwave for 30 seconds. I might try another donut recipe or I'll make some scones for this weekend. I have a couple of scone recipes I'm dying to try along with one that was a really good seller last year.