Category: BLOG 365

CRANBERRY POUND CAKE ~ BLOG 365.3

CRANBERRY POUND CAKE

CAKE
187 grams cake flour-sifted (1 1/2 cups plus 3 Tablespoons) before sifting
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups small cranberries (fresh or thawed) SEE NOTES
140 grams (5 oz.) white chocolate, grated fine
1 tablespoon flour
115 grams (1/2 cup) unsalted butter-softened at room temperature
300 grams sugar ( 1 and 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
3 LARGE eggs
1 teaspoon PURE vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons browned butter

  • Preheat convection oven to 325°.
  • Butter and flour 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pan and line it with parchment paper.
  • Combine cake flour, baking powder and salt and sift it three times, set aside.
  • In a small sauce pan over medium heat salted butter until it’s nice amber color, remove the foam and set aside to cool.
  • Whisk the egg with vanilla extract and set aside.
  • Cream the unsalted butter on medium speed until it’s creamy.
  • Slowly add sugar and continue beating until it’s creamy.
  • Add heavy cream and mascarpone, beating on medium speed JUST until combined.
  • Lower speed and gradually add dry ingredients alternately with the eggs.
  • Toss cranberries with flour and finely grated white chocolate.
  • Fold chocolate cranberry mixture into the batter.
  • Pour the batter into prepared loaf pan, smooth the top.
  • Gently tap the pan on countertop to remove the air bubbles.
  • With a butter knife draw a line down the center of the pound cake.
  • Pour browned butter into the line.
  • Loosely tent pan with foil and bake 30 minutes.
  • Remove foil and bake another 30 minutes until the top of the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If you don’t have convection air oven, baking time will probably take longer.
  • Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove it from the pan and COMPLETELY cool on the rack before icing.

ICING
56 grams (1/4 cup) unsalted butter-softened
112 grams (4 ounces) cream cheese-softened
1 1/2 + cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon PURE vanilla extract
handful dried cranberries
2 tablespoons QUALITY rum or alcohol of choice

  • While cake is chilling soak cranberries in a quality rum.
  • Drain cranberries well.
  • Cream together softened butter and cream cheese until smooth.
  • Slowly powdered sugar and beat until smooth,.
  • Add vanilla extract.
  • Spread on top of the cake.
  • Sprinkle cranberries randomly on cake.
  • Chill cake until the icing is set.

NOTES

  • If you don’t have convection air oven raise the temperature to 350° and you will have to rotate the pan half way through the baking time.
  • Using smaller cranberries gives you a better disbursement throughout the cake.
  • If you are using frozen cranberries, thaw them first, rinse with cold water until the water is clear, drain the cranberries and dry well.
  • Small WILD blueberries substitute wonderfully!

HAPPY HOMEMAKER MONDAY with MENU PLANS week 1 of 2023 ~ BLOG 365.2

Be sure to join us for Happy Homemaker Monday and link up with our host, Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. 

I found these memes over the weekend and they really spoke to me. I couldn’t decide on just one so used both 😀 This is who I am striving to be.

It’s gray, cloudy and foggy – another typical Pacific North West winter week full of bone chilling “wet” cold with highs in the 40’s (barely) and lows in the 30’s (definitely) 😀 It will be another week of my layered turtlenecks and flannels with Levis and UGGs.

Starting 2023 with an open mind, grateful heart and positive attitude while hoping and praying for the best possible outcome, but still staying alert for the possible worst.

Not sure why I even do this category sometimes. This meal never really changes, but I have hopes that someday it will. I’ve been trying a few sips of coffee and tolerating it pretty well most days. I’m having a handful of Honey Nut Cheerios with it. While I’m not allergic to gluten, I am going to try going gluten free for the month of January in hopes that it may help alleviate some issues.

THIS WEEK’S TO DO LIST, PROJECTS & APPOINTMENTS
  • LAUNDRY & CLEANING I have the standard bedding and towels for a Monday morning and a bit of ironing to do on some blouses.
  • GROCERIES & ERRANDS I’m scheduled for a tetanus booster on Wednesday and a pedicure on Thursday so will work any needed groceries and such into going into town for those appointments. I’m hoping the replacement parts come in for the warranty work on the car so we can get it dropped off. The parts were ordered before Christmas and then lost in last week’s ice storm so the wait for them began all over again.
  • PAPERWORK, PHONE CALLS, PROJECTS & TRAVELS This is one of those weeks that is not worth the effort to try and call anyone because of the holiday. I’ll have the patience to wait until next week.
  • RECIPE RESEARCH & MENU PLANNING I started a new menu planner and have meals planned through the 15th, but am trying to only plan a couple weeks at a time. I have a dozen or so recipes that have been sitting in a pile next to my computer that need to be input into blog posts. I’ll use these to help get me started on Sandra’s new challenge of BLOG 365. So look soon for Molasses Snaps, Chocolate Snaps, Tomato Chicken Pasta, Panettone, Marry Me Chicken Made Simple, Char Sui Pork, Dutch Hash, Timeless Classic Sugar Cookies and Charred Carrots with APPLE BROWN BUTTER VINAIGRETTE, Cranberry Pound Cake, Apple Balsamic Chicken and Deconstructed Cabbage Rolls. 

WHAT’S ON THE DVR/TV
  • CABLE The Rose parade is set to tape so we can watch it commercial free, Yellowstone, 1923, The Worst Cooks, Kid’s Baking Championship – I still have a couple Christmas movies to watch. We’ve also been watching a lot of TCM old movies (classics made many years before I was born, but that I had always heard of) during the holidays – The Caine Mutiny, The Best Years of Our Life, The Good Old Summertime and then for New Years we watched the Thin Man series of movies The Thin Man, After the Thin Man, Another Thin Man, The Song of the Thin Man, The Thin Man Goes Home and The Shadow of the Thin Man). I’d seen their clues in the crosswords, but never read the stories or seen the movies.

I FINALLY finished book #2 of The Wild Widows series by Marie force and began the Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. My friend gave me 4 other new titles yesterday that I’m going to research for later.
1/2 MONDAY
1/3 TUESDAY
1/4 WEDNESDAY
1/5 THURSDAY
1/6 FRIDAY
1/7 SATURDAY
1/8 SUNDAY
DINNER
 PAN SEARED CHICKEN, CHARRED CARROTS with APPLE BROWN BUTTER VINAIGRETTE
 SALSA VERDE CHICKEN SOUP & TWISTY ROLLS (I’m making SPLIT PEA SOUP & CORN BREAD earlier in the day for them to serve at the bar at the Eagles.
 C.O.R.N. CLEAN OUT FRIDGE NIGHT
 HAMBURGER STEAKS with CREAMED HASHED POTATOES
 DECONSTRUCTED CABBAGE ROLLS & BUTTERED CARROTS
 APPLE BALSAMIC CHICKEN & SOUTHERN CORNBREAD DRESSING
 RISOTTO CARBONARA
DESSERT
CRANBERRY POUND CAKE
 
 

Saturday was cold, but we had a few hours of beautiful sunshine. We had lunch at our favorite Tavern and then went to feed the peacocks with all the stale food we had amassed. I LOVE this old Memorial Park and LOVE the beautiful peacocks. I also LOVE all the old buildings and have been trying to get a decent picture of this old cattle loader for quite some time.

Here’s a rare picture with me actually in it. My friend Niki and I had just finished wrapping all the packages for the Eagle’s adopted family we delivered just before Christmas. Being blonde I always look a bit washed out and LOL I always forget to take off my glasses 😀

The munchkins were here last night and we had a lot of fun! Allie in particular fell in love with the kittens all over again. If her dad would have allowed her, Ash and Fluffy would have gone home with her. 😀 She did get these great pictures of them. There’s a little glass reflection from the door, but not too bad.

I’ve already put a piece in the donation pile 😀

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023 ~ YEARLY LIST ~ The word is RESILIENT PROGRESS! ~ BLOG 365.1

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Last year I joined up with Jean over at Chit Chat with Jean to do a year long accomplishment list for 2022 and a word for the year. I wondered if I would be successful? I’m impressed that I did REALLY well and I’m looking forward to doing this all over again in 2023. I fell back FINALLY into my more organized ways. The minimalizing lifestyle helped tremendously!!
I recently took one of those silly Facebook games and it said my word was RESILIENCE, but I like PROGRESS better. Or better yet, both words for RESILIENT PROGRESS! Then I saw this meme and decided to add BALANCE! I truly believe all three words work hand in hand to make life easier and happier.

My list for 2023 is:

  • Do a Happy Homemaker Monday post each and every week and link up with Sandra over at Diary Of A Stay At Home Mom. This keeps me more on track and organized about my home life. Doing Happy Homemaker Monday so extensively helps keep me on track as it summarizes the past week and lays out a fairly concise plan for this week. I have also decided the join Sandra over at Diary Of A Stay At Home Mom for her Blog 365 challenge. A blog post every single day of 2023!  Sometimes the post might be a full one but other times it might simply be a picture.I may not always get the logo in, but I will get the post done!
  • Do a devotional every day.
  • Follow a nightly skincare regime.
  • Complete 4 quilts – at least 1 for each quarter. This year is starting off right with these 2 Christmas beauties being bound. I have several others that are 90% done, but need bindings and I’m hoping to get to them soon.
  • Make a better effort to reach out and connect with friends and family more regularly.
  • Learn YOGA or Pilates or both!
  • Take at least a 2 mile walk daily. While I USUALLY get this done in just my daily routine, it is something I need to be more conscious of accomplishing.
  • Continue to downsize and declutter EVERYTHING. This is a serious work in progress that has taken ALL 2022, BUT IS GOING REALLY WELL and will be done by March when we are planning a HUGE garage sale.
  • Clean out photo files that date back 13 years! I’m working on it, but it’s really hard. This is a serious work in progress that will ALWAYS take ALL year, EVERY YEAR, mainly because I keep taking pictures 😀
  • Create Shutterfly photo albums for 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016.
  • Do more drawing and painting – at least one per every other month.
  • Focus on rewriting more recipes to work for only 2 people with NO leftovers. This is a work in progress, but doing REALLY well so far. It has been seriously complicated by the increase in grocery prices 🙁
  • Volunteer at least once a month for a community project. Since I’ve gotten more involved in the Eagles this is a category I accomplish regularly.
  • Do a date weekend once a month – exploring a new place we’ve never been before.
  • Clean out old files and recycle or destroy old papers. This is still an ongoing work in progress, but I’ve made seriously good progress in 2022 and will finish through the winter and spring.
  • Eat at least 1 piece of fruit daily.
  • I’m all about leading a positive life and carrying the Christmas spirit year round. There is no better way to do that than to do at least 1 random act of kindness every time I leave the house.
  • Read 36 books. Hoping for double this year over last year! 36 was a realistic goal and I actually reached 59 which makes me REALLY happy!  Here’s a list of the books I have in queue – a baker’s dozen+ to get this year started. When I’ve actually read them I’ll change their number to red. 1) A Fire Sparkling by Juliane Maclean 2) The Honey Bus by Meredith May 3) When It Falls Apart by Catherine Bybee 4) The Brighter the Light by Mary Ellen Taylor 5) The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman 6) The Woman with Two Shadows by Sarah James 7) The Silent Woman by Minka Kent 8) Waking Kate by Sarah Addison Allen 9) Real Bad Things by Kelly J. Ford 10) The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach by Pam Jenoff 11) The D’Angelos by Catherine Bybee 12) Brewed Book #1 in the Cozy Coffee Shop series by Heather Sage 13) Cauldrons Call by Kristen Proby 14) The Resistance Girl by Mandy Robotham 15) Someone to Hold Wild Widows #2 by Marie Force. 16) State of Shock, First Family #4 by Marie Force
  • I’ve added a “SEASONAL” list too. I started with fall that you can see here. And a simple winter list is here.

  • Finish indexing the recipes on my Food blog, Savory Kitchen Table. This is a serious work in progress and hold over from 2022 that WILL take ALL year.
  • Finish indexing the recipes on my Life blog, Chasing MY Life. When I merged my old blogspot blogs into this single blog it duplicated many things and added an “ALL” category that I am having to eliminate one by one so it’s taking a LONG time. This is a serious work in progress and roll over from 2022 that WILL take ALL year.

PINEAPPLE SOUR CREAM PUDDING CAKE ~ BLOG 365.120

This cake is PERFECTLY moist EVERY time and requires no icing unless you want a dusting of powdered sugar.
BANANA PINEAPPLE SOUR CREAM PUDDING CAKE
8 ounce can crushed pineapple in juice (DO NOT DRAIN)
1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
18 ounce yellow cake mix
7 ounce package Jell-O INSTANT banana pudding mix
4  LARGE eggs
1 cup FULL FAT sour cream
1⁄4 cup oil

  • In a small bowl, combine pineapple and the baking soda; mix well.
  • 
In a large mixing bowl, combine remaining ingredients; stir in pineapple.
  • Blend, then beat at medium speed with an electric mixer for 2 minutes.
  • Pour into a greased and floured 10-inch Spring Form, Bundt or tube pan.
  • Bake at 350° for 50-55 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.
  • Cool in pan about 15 minutes.
  • Remove from pan and finish cooling on wire rack.
  • 
Dust with powdered sugar

NOTE:

  • The beauty of this recipe is that the flavor combos are endless and only based on your imagination. So far I’ve tried Lemon, Cheesecake and Pistachio with great success.
  • If you use the 3.5 ounce packages you can mix flavors also. Pistachio and cheesecake mixed together are YUMMY!

Originally posted March 31, 2018 / Updated April 18, 2023

HOMEMADE REFRIED BEANS

REFRIED BEANS
2 1/2 cups pinto beans
1 small onion, chopped fine
4 tablespoons bacon grease
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 cup sour cream
1 cup cheddar/ Monterey Jack grated cheese
Cotija cheese, optional
Jalapenos, optional

  • Rinse beans and pick out any bad ones.
  • In a small stock pot cover the beans with about 3 inches of water. If there are still any bad beans in there they will float to the top.
  • Bring them to a boil, lower heat and simmer 2 hours or until skins break.
  • Drain.
  • In a heavy skillet (cast iron works best), melt the bacon grease and butter.
  • Saute’ onion until translucent.
  • Add beans and stir well.
  • Smash beans continuously until desired texture is reached.
  • Transfer beans into a large mixing bowl.
  • Use hand mixer and beat smooth.
  • Add sour cream, salt, pepper and red pepper.
  • Beat smooth again.
  • Transfer into a 9×9 casserole and top with cheese, if desired.
  • Bake 20 minutes at 350°.
  • Garnish with Cotija cheese and jalapenos if desired.

WHAT WILL THEY THINK OF NEXT?

Who would have ever thought these people would be put out of business?  I had to laugh out loud when I drove by this corner this morning.  I wish this picture did it justice.  The mannequin is bike chained to the light pole and there appears to be a motor mounted in her stomach that keeps the sign rotating.

latest fad

What is WWW Wednesdays?

I found this over at Renee’s and thought I’d join in.

It’s a new (to me) reading meme hosted by Should Be Reading. To participate, we are asked to answer three questions: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? What do you think you’ll read next? I also thought this was pretty straight forward so here goes…

What am I currently reading?

Product Description: Women across America laughed, cried, and reconnected with their friends after reading Kristin Hannah’s smash hit, Firefly Lane. Now, in True Colors, she explores the poignant, powerful, complex world of sisters… The Grey sisters had only each other when their mother died years ago. Their stern, unyielding father gave them almost no attention. Winona, the oldest, needs her father’s approval most of all. An overweight dreamer, she never felt at home on the sprawling horse ranch that had been in her family for three generations. Aurora, the middle, is the peacemaker. Vivi Ann, the youngest, is the undisputed star of the family. Everything comes easily to Vivi Ann, her father’s love most of all. But when Vivi Ann makes a fateful decision to follow her heart, rather than take the route of a dutiful daughter, events are set in motion that will test the love and loyalties of the Grey sisters. They will be pitted against each other in ways none could have imagined. Secrets will be revealed, and a terrible, shocking crime will shatter both the family and their beloved town. With breathtaking pace and penetrating insight, Kristin Hannah’s True Colors is a novel about sisters, vengeance, jealousy, betrayal—and ultimately, what it truly means to be a family.

What did I just finish reading?

From Publishers Weekly: Hilderbrand’s sixth novel heaps on the trauma as a substitute for realistic connection in this heady mix of beach house, cancer, affair and mom lit. Connecticut housewife Vicki, diagnosed with lung cancer, has packed up her two kids for a chemo-commuting summer at the family’s Nantucket cabin; sister Brenda, a newly minted high-powered assistant professor, has just been fired for having an affair with one of her students; Vicki’s best friend, Melanie, newly pregnant, has discovered her husband is cheating. The three hit the tarmac of the tiny island airport, where they run into home-for-the-summer Middlebury senior Josh Flynn, who has a summer job there that he hates. Hardened cliché Brenda pines for her stereotypically weathered Australian lover. Melanie is a chronic complainer until she romances grim aspiring writer Josh, whom she has run into again and brought on as the house babysitter. (Josh thinks his old girlfriend should “locate her center” and “operate from a place of security.”) Of the three women, only the suffering, stubborn Vicki, who keeps a list of “Things That No Longer Mattered” and cries when she can’t seduce her visiting husband, draws readerly sympathy. There are some tender moments in Hilderbrand’s latest beacher, but others are as irritating as sand in your swimsuit.

Product Description: Three women arrive at the local airport, observed by Josh, a Nantucket native home from college for the summer. Burdened with small children, unwieldy straw hats, and some obvious emotional issues, the women–two sisters and one friend–make their way to the sisters’ tiny cottage, inherited from an aunt. They’re all trying to escape from something: Melanie, after seven failed in-vitro attempts, learned her husband was having an affair, and then discovered she’s pregnant; Brenda embarked on a passionate affair with an older student that got her fired from her prestigious job as a professor in New York; and her sister Vicki, mother to two small boys, has been diagnosed with lung cancer. Soon Josh is part of the chaotic household, acting as babysitter, confidant, and, eventually, lover.

What do I think I’ll be reading next?

Product Description: From the author of A Month of Summer, an inspiring new novel in the Blue Sky Hill series about one woman’s effect on a struggling Dallas neighborhood. With her adopted son missing and the rest of her family increasingly estranged, Sandra Kaye Darden is drawn to the little pink house where her Uncle Poppy once provided security. What begins for Sandra as a simple painting project, meant to prepare the house for sale, becomes a secret venture that eventually changes everything.

Cass Blue is having trouble keeping food on the table since she ditched foster care. When Sandra Kaye shows up with lunch one day, Cass has no way of knowing that the meeting will lead to the creation of a place of refuge that could reunite a divided community.

In this moving story of second chances, two unlikely allies realize their ability to make a difference…and the power of what becomes known as the Summer Kitchen to nourish the soul.

Stop over and visit MizB to see what others in the blog land are reading!

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