Blog

February 14, 2011 - Easy Moist Pudding Cake & Frosting – Any Flavor!

Sometimes cake mixes are just easier. With the right directions and tips, you can make any cake mix into a delicious and moist cake. You can even use those cheap generic cake mixes for this and it will be dense, moist and delicious! Ignore directions on the box. How to make Easy Moist Pudding Cake:...
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February 13, 2011 - Valentine Sweets

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day! Any sweet treats planned for your sweetie or kids or grandkids? Did you know? Over $1 Billion is spent on chocolate on Valentines’ Day. That. is. a. lot. of. chocolate. I contributed my $8 and made five pounds of Chocolate Covered Cherry Fudge. Delightful sounding, isn’t it? Valentine’s Day is a...
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February 12, 2011 - More Strawberries!

Another strawberry dessert, from my mother–getting in practice for next year’s harvest! This strawberry cake truly is the most delicious and moist strawberry cake I have ever eaten! This is not exactly a “scratch” cake because you do use a cake mix, but you add other ingredients and don’t use the recipe on the box–I...
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February 10, 2011 - A Deliciously Easy Breakfast

I was getting into a breakfast rut. I know it’s the most important meal of the day, yada, yada, yada…but I was getting so bored! I’ve been eying Kelly in TX’s Apple Skillet, named by her daughter, since she posted the recipe two weeks ago. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Wednesday or a Saturday,...
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February 9, 2011 - Falling in Love with Bread Again

When I was a kid, my aunt bought me Betty Crocker’s Breads—a tiny 76-page cookbook filled with all sorts of beautiful looking bread recipes. I spent hours looking at the color photos, reading the recipes and planning when and what I’d make from the book. That one little book literally opened my world to the...
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February 7, 2011 - Dehydrating The Pantry

I really wanted a dehydrator for Christmas and my Santa knew. Well, I admit, I made sure he knew. My Santa caught on pretty good and under the tree was MY DEHYDRATOR. Let the fun begin! I tried apples with a little cinnamon–sooo tasty. I tried bananas, too. Both are very good, with or without...
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February 6, 2011 - Dreaming of Summer

I call this Bavarian Jello because that is what I heard it called when I was a kid. It’s flavoured jelly powder (Jello) mixed with whipped cream. And. It’s. Delicious. This is a quick, easy, frugal yet fancy dessert. I make it a lot in the summer in the heat but also now, when strawberries...
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February 4, 2011 - A Chocolate Fix

Sometimes you just have to have chocolate. You know what I’m talking about-–you can have apple pie, snickerdoodles and peanut brittle staring you in the face and you are not even tempted. There are times when it’s simply chocolate or nothing–and for those times, you start with an empty mug. Put 3 Tablespoons of butter...
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February 3, 2011 - Retro Grahams

January turned out to be better than I expected. Sure we’ve been down with this bruiser of a chest then head cold since the end of last year. We missed our New Year’s celebration which I’m reminded of every time I open the refrigerator and reach for the orange juice instead of the champagne. The...
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February 2, 2011 - Winning Super Bowl Party Menu

Just a few days left before the kick-off for Super Bowl XLV when the Green Bay Packers meet the Pittsburgh Steelers at Cowboy Stadium in Texas. Where are you going to be? It has been estimated that only 3 out of 5 people who watch the Super Bowl are actually watching it and enjoying the...
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February 1, 2011 - Homemade Breakfast Fast-Food

My oldest son is in University and lives in the city. Of course he comes home on a regular basis, to drop off his laundry and to “shop” in my pantry and freezers. Today’s students don’t want to suffer, but want to drive an almost new car, have the fanciest phone there is, etc. He...
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January 31, 2011 - Garbanzo Beans Cooked Up

Aren’t these the prettiest little things? Green garbanzo beans! Usually I have to grow these to get them green, but recently I found them at the store. YAY! Indeed, I found these at my local Walmart, which makes me think I am a little behind the times. If Walmart carries them, they must already be...
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January 30, 2011 - They Taste Like Walnuts

When someone told me that impatiens glandulifera seeds taste just like walnuts, I said, “Really, really? Hmmmm….I will have to see that for myself!” and so I have! They do taste like walnuts–they do, they do! I am so excited about this discovery! I can grow my own nuts. Well, sort of. I put some...
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January 28, 2011 - Creamy Blend of Coffee and Milk

Have you had one of these? Are you one of those that pay $2.50 a bottle because they are just so good? You can make your own Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino for 36 cents per bottle (or less)! My niece stopped by one day drinking one, so I tried it, then tried it again. Oh. My....
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January 27, 2011 - Re-Creating My Childhood Ice Cream Cone Cupcake

When I was a kid, my mom would bake cupcakes in ice cream cones as a special treat. That was back when cupcake pans didn’t come in all sorts of amazing shapes and having a cupcake in an ice cream cone was a novelty. It was also back when bringing homemade treats to school was...
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January 26, 2011 - Chili–So Many Flavors

We planted some of our late season crops in our market garden late fall. I had the job of riding the water wheel planter and placing the new plants on the arm of the machine so it could plant them in the ground. Midway through our work, my husband yells from the tractor, “A bowl...
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January 25, 2011 - Mustard Greens?

OK, so I now have this fabulously large kitchen. I have a pantry full of home-canned goods and I am slap in the middle of winter. This is part of last year’s canning exploits. Some has been eaten, some is elsewhere. Not too shabby for a half-season garden! Well, winter down here, although cold this...
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January 24, 2011 - When Good Cakes Go Bad

My brother-in-law wanted a pineapple upside down cake for his birthday–a cake which I have never tried to make. It…uh….didn’t go so great. I am not sure what happened, but it was awful. I even used fresh pineapple. It was tasty, but dense. It was sort of like eating a sticky neutron star…or a pineapple-y...
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January 23, 2011 - Have You Heard the One About . . .

the Exploding Pyrex? No? Well, read on. Pyrex® Some viral emails describe spontaneous ‘explosions’ of Pyrex® bakeware. The consumer advocate website, ConsumerAffairs.com, claims to have culled more than 300 ‘exploding’ Pyrex stories from Internet users around the country. Consumer Reports conducted extensive tests with Pyrex and Anchor Hocking glass bakeware in its own testing laboratory....
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January 21, 2011 - Wheat Challah Bread (sort of)

This bread was so warm and good–it was gone before dinner was served. I found the original recipe at Bakingdom. Sugarbear’s instructions are always prettier than mine. I have blog envy. Still, I would bet her camera is much nicer than my little underwater Canon. And it looks like she bakes in the morning, instead...
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January 20, 2011 - Oh, No! Beans!

In a December post, Jim in Colorado shared a recipe for An Unusual Fudge. He also shared the poetry of Beans, beans, the magical fruit… I always thought it was Beans, beans, a work of art. The more you eat the more you… The more you need to read this post! We keep reading and...
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January 19, 2011 - How I Got in Touch with My German Heritage

Or The Story of How To Cook A Pig’s Head ***WARNING*** This post contains graphic pictures of a pig’s head, both raw and cooked, as well as in various states of dis-assembly. If you are squeamish, you can find just the Greutzwurst recipe itself here, minus the pictures and the need of a pig’s head....
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