Red Velvet love

While I have been on my diet Jon has been left to fend for himself. I haven't completely neglected him I do buy him food at the store, I am just not preparing dinner for the both of right now. Before I go to the store I always ask him what he wants. He usually doesn't have any specific requests, so I buy what I think looks good if I could eat it.

I was baking zucchini bread the other day, because we received a huge haul of large zucchinis. While doing so Jon asked where his treats were. I asked him if he wanted some cookies, and he said no, that he wanted a cake. Mind you baking is so much harder when you can't get the taste the batter or finished product. Jon was my zucchini bread taster since I was using a recipe I hadn't used before. He said it turned out great! More on this zucchini adventure in the future.

We have had a busy week and Jon seemed a little stressed so while he was at dinner with his family I set out to make him a cake. Granted I could have gone to the store to buy a cake mix. Instead I decided to make my favorite cake recipe - Red Velvet with Vanilla Creme frosting. I usually use this recipe for cupcakes, not cake as it's originally intended. But it was cake he wanted and it was cake I made.

A three layer Red Velvet cake.

ps. I love the Vanilla Creme frosting more than anything in the world! It's light, creamy and what I think is the perfect pairing to go with this cake.

Both the cake and frosting recipes are from a Magnolia Bakery cookbook. You can also find the recipes here:

Cake
Frosting

Continuation of July 14th post

On July 14, 2008 I posted a pic of canning jars and said to stay tuned. As usual with my life I made a slight change of plans. My original plan of attempting to make homemade raspberry jam (first atttempt) stayed the same, but I found new jars I thought were cuter.

Here is the final product -

The jam turned out great, in my opinion. I do have a few extra jars I would love to share with anyone who might be interested. Just let me know!

Recipe: A la Bekah Pasta

While reading through one of my favorite blogs the other day I got the idea to make a pasta dish from scratch, minus the actual pasta of course. For lack of a better name I am calling it A la Bekah Pasta. For this recipe you will need the following

• Olive oil
• Butter
• Garlic
• White Onion
  
• Mushrooms (fresh not canned)
• Zucchini
• Chicken Broth
  
• Heavy Cream
• Plain Tomato Sauce
• 1 lb pasta of your choice
• Fresh Parsley
• Salt
• Pepper

To start you are going to need a large saucepan/skillet. Chop a small to medium white onion. Pick your size depending on your desire of onion in your dish. Now mince two cloves of garlic. Place your saucepan on medium heat and add 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter. Once the butter has melted a little, add the onions and garlic, letting them cook and stirring occasionally.

While that is cooking rinse off your fresh mushrooms. I used about 2 cups when I made my dish. Now put the mushrooms aside for a minute. We'll come back to them. Since we are near the sink, fill your pot for the pasta and put it on the stove to boil.

Taking a small to medium zucchini begin to slice it into pieces. I cut my pieces a little thicker because I then cut them into quarters. Once you have finishing cutting, gather your mushrooms and put it all into the saucepan. You are going to let these cook for a few minutes to soften them up. However, keep in mind that there are several other steps in this process, so if you like your veggies more firm than tender you aren't going to want to let them cook for long.

Add 1/2 cup of Chicken Broth. I used the vegetarian variety. Your creation should look something like this:

Find your trusty can opener and open an 8 oz can of plain tomato sauce, then add that to the saucepan. I hope you read my ingredient list at the top and noticed the heavy cream. It really makes a difference. Add 1 cup of heavy cream.

Stir.

Still with me?

By now your pasta water should be boiling or close to. Add your pasta to the water. While your pasta is cooking you are going to let the saucepan simmer, without a lid. You are also going to want to add any of your seasonings at this point. I threw some fresh parsley, pinch of salt, and fresh ground pepper into mine. The following day I thought some red pepper flakes might be nice for some heat. I'll have to try it nice time.

Funny thing... While I was making this dish I realized I didn't have any pasta when it came to the point of adding it to the water. Yeah, silly me. I had to leave everything on the stove and run to the store for pasta. I know, I know.. don't worry I made sure Jon was around to monitor the stove so I didn't burn down the house.

Ok, back to the recipe. Once your pasta is done cooking, drain it. I then just put the pasta into a serving dish and added the sauce over the top. After some quick stirring, ensuring not to break the pasta, it looked like this:

We added some grated parmesan cheese to the top of our servings and enjoyed. voila!

Stay Tuned...

to see what happens.

Krappy Cheese

Ode to the Kraft Single...

Oh Kraft single how I love your convenience of being pre-sliced and packaged.
You are absolutely delightful on my fried egg sandwich!

I am not quite sure what you are made of.
Although the package shows a glass of milk and says that you are indeed cheese.

I have other cheeses in my refrigerator
but your color and texture don't come close when compared.

However, I am still a fan!

Toasty Goodness

This weekend Jon and I happened to find ourselves up in Park City, and being there I requested to go to the kitchen store in the outlet mall. I started with only having the thought of getting another plastic spatula. This being because I have recently found that the one I own is almost always dirty whenever I need it.

But once in the store all havoc broke loose. Me in a kitchen store - good thing my bank account only held limited funds.

For quite some time my kitchen has been the home to lovely broken toaster. Granted it still toasts very nicely, but the lever has to be held down with one of those sweet, industrial orange and black clamps. Also, you must always be aware of whatever is in the toaster so it doesn't get burnt. Oh, how I have burnt many an english muffin.

It was just my luck, they had a double toaster on sale for the lovely price of $29.99. This is much less than was spent on the now broken toaster, and the new one does double the toasting at the same time!

While there Jon also found and pointed out to me a scone pan.
I did manage to muster up enough strength to not fall victim to the temptation of purchasing this pan. Although, if you are ever looking to buy me a gift I would love to have one of these!

Although the visit to the kitchen store started just for a new spatula, I have to be proud of myself since I didn't leave with the whole store in tow. Just a new spatula, toaster, and a pie crust ring that prevents your pie crusts from getting burnt in the oven.