Category: MISC

You asked for it ~ Coke Cake ~ Recipe #1


BEFORE & AFTER ICING

COKE CAKE
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup miniature marshmallows
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 scant tablespoons cocoa
1 Jumbo egg, beaten
1/2 cup Coca-cola
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour and sugar. Stir in marshmallows and set aside.
  • In a medium saucepan melt the butter and shortening together. Add the cocoa and coke, mixing well.
  • Pour over the flour mixture. Add the buttermilk, egg and baking soda, mixing well.
  • Pour into a greased 8×8 pan and bake 30-40 minutes or until cake center springs back.

ICING
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 tablespoons coke
2 scant tablespoons cocoa
2 cups powdered sugar

  • Bring butter, cocoa and coke to a boil.
  • When smooth, remove from heat and mix in sugar to desired consistency.
  • YUM ~ Enjoy

Hubby gave it 2 thumbs up!

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Needing to Knead is almost here…

Have you heard about the Need to Knead Bread Roundup? I wanted to do a bread round up and Joy at Joy of Desserts, another Scrumptious Sunday offered to make this great button and co-host this bread Roundup on October 15th along with the help of Barbara at Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers who has so generously offered to be our Mr. Linky person. We will roundup all types of bread recipes. We already have a number of people signed up and it promises to be great. You are all invited to participate. We would love it if you would join us, and we would love it if you would help us spread the word by putting this button in your sidebars or even writing a short post about the roundup.

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Happy Fall Y'ALL


Have I mentioned that Fall is my favorite Season?
Or that I’m a transplanted Texan?
It’s the only time of year I get to say Y’all.
I love saying Y’all.
Happy Fall Y’all!

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Seven Tastes or Scents that define Autumn for Me

From Cafe Writing:
7 tastes or Scents that define Autumn for Me:
  1. Apples! As they ripen, they fill the air with a sweet and fragrant aroma that begs to be made into apple sauce and apple cider and apple cobbler…
  2. Cinnamon! I can’t make apple sauce, apple cider or apple cobbler without cinnamon.
  3. Dew! With the early morning fog you can smell the earth as the dew sits on the recently mulched grass.
  4. Burning leaves! Here in the country many still burn their leaves and branches. It always reminds me of a campfire and toasted marshmallows.
  5. Hot Cocoa! After raking leaves and bundling branches we come in for a warm cup of cocoa.
  6. Popcorn! When the evenings cool down we tend to crave buttered popcorn as an evening snack.
  7. Wet Dog! Inevitably it either drizzles, mists or flat out rains on the dog and I have a wet towel to dry leaving the aroma lingering around the back door.

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Give Me 5 Monday ~ Birthday Memories

  1. My birthday and my engagement ring from the greatest guy in the world while on a 5 day cruise to Mexico.
  2. My bro-in-law Ray’s surprise party at Pebble Beach – HUGE success & completely a GOTCHA moment for him.
  3. My Sis-in-law Bobbie’s surprise party also at Pebble Beach – even bigger success since NO ONE pulls anything over on her. HUGE HUGE success of a GOTCHA moment.
  4. Eric’s 21st birthday ~ His birthday is Christmas day, but he wanted steaks so we had them for Christmas Eve dinner. It started snowing so we put up the deck umbrella so his dad could finish barbecuing the steaks.
  5. My mom-in-law’s 80th birthday surprise party. They live in Las Vegas and we went to spend the weekend with them, not too unusual. Everyone else did too except they stayed at hotels and as the day work on everyone showed up until the whole family was there and she realized it was a GOTCHA moment when the caterers showed up too.

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Simple Woman's Day Book


HOSTED BY PEGGY
Outside My Window… a fog is hovering over the yard. again! It’s supposed to be cool and nice here today, but I can’t see it yet.
I am thinking… how quickly Fall arrived since we had virtually no summer this year.
From the learning room… like Sandra I will use this are for myself since I don’t home school. I am learning a new quilt pattern.
I am thankful for… hubby continuing to heal and getting the fall chores done before the city’s pick up deadline.
From the kitchen… I’m developing new recipes for desserts like the Black Forest Cups and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Clusters.
I am wearing… faded blue jeans and polo shirt, my normal Monday bowling team attire.
I am creating…a mess in the family room sorting out a few boxes that have been still packed since we moved in here. They never got unpacked because of the mold problem. I am STILL doing this – what a long process.
I am going… bowling, running errands and then taking some fall pictures on the way home.
I am STILL reading… multiple cook books this week.
I am hoping… to clear a few more problems from my desk this week.
I am hearing… the trash truck move through town.
Around the house… fall decorations are going up and summer flower boxes are coming down. I’m going to try and keep the summer flowers going through the winter in the basement.
One of my favorite things… the cool crisp air of fall, my favorite season. Pulling out the slippers instead of the thongs, exchanging shorts for sweats and wrapping in a blanket to get cozy. I even dressed my Meez in fall colors and she lit the fireplace for that at home cozy feeling.
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: Finish sorting these boxes and get boxes and bags to local charity, straightening out the mess in the barn and cleaning the house top to bottom after I blow out the furnace dust.

Here are the picture thoughts I am sharing… the 2 new desserts I made

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Homemaker Mondays

I just found this site and love it. She hosts Homemaker Mondays and discusses topics like: cooking, baking, raising kids, gardening, sewing, decorating, organizing, saving money, crafts, studying scriptures, housekeeping, food storage… or anything else that has to do with making your home a better place. You can even share homemaking disasters, because we can all learn from your mistakes and it doesn’t have to be a new post!

My first submission to the meme is for Menu Planning on a budget which was previously posted here.

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Cream of Mushroom Soup or chicken mushroom or ham mushroom or …

8 + 4 tablespoons butter
8 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 box sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup sliced carrots
2 cups chicken or ham stock*
1 cup chopped chicken or ham* (optional)

In the bottom of a stock pot melt the 4 tablespoons of butter. Saute’ the mushrooms, celery, onion and carrots until tender. Add the 2 cups of stock and simmer for 30-45 minutes. Salt, pepper and paprika to taste.

In a saucepan melt the 8 tablespoons of butter. Add the flour and stir until well mixed and golden. Add milk and whipping cream slowly and alternately, stirring until smooth. Simmer over low heat until desired consistency. Add to mushroom mixture and simmer another 30 minutes.

*When using ham I like to use a Honey Baked Ham Bone to make my stock and I usually get more than a cup of ham pieces from it.

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Menu Plan Monday

Weekday breakfasts are always either toast or cereal so I don’t post those. Working from home, lunch is “whatever” so it isn’t definitive either, but weekends are usually a brunch and I will start posting those along with the dinners.

9/22 MONDAY ~ Taco Ring Salad
9/23 TUESDAY ~ Chicken Cordon Bleu & Applesauce
9/24 WEDNESDAY ~ Orange Honey Chicken & Fried Rice

9/25 THURSDAY ~ Great Grandma’s Chicken & Noodles – I’m working on a written recipe for this – I’ve made it from scratch for so long without a recipe – so it’s hard to write it down – LOL
9/26 FRIDAY ~ Chili and Beer Bread
9/27 SATURDAY ~ Heavenly Ham Hash / Chicken Enchiladas & Refried Beans
9/28 SUNDAY ~ Quiche Lorraine / Stuffed Pork Chops & Salad
SO
I do the memes: Menu Plan Monday hosted by Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie, Favorite Ingredient Friday hosted by Kathryn at Overwhelmed with Joy, Freezer Food Friday hosted by MJ at mjpuzzlemom, Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks, Tasty Thursday hosted by Pumpkin Patch, Watchin’ What We Eat hosted by Lorie at Honey I Shrank Myself and Slow Cooking Thursday hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. Doing them all make great additions to help keeping me on track and finding so new recipes!

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Sin in a Cup ~ alway only 5 minutes away DAY or NIGHT!

My mom emailed me this recipe a few days ago and I scheduled making them for today as Football treats. LOL I read on Sandra’s blog that she made them today too. So I guess that the email is really making the rounds since Sandra and I live on opposite ends of the country! The email called them Dangerous Chocolate Cake in a MUG, I call them SIN IN A CUP.

4 tablespoons cake flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
small splash of vanilla
3 tablespoons chocolate chips*

In a large coffee mug add the dry ingredients and mix well with a fork.
Add the egg and mix throughly.
Add the milk, oil and vanilla and mix again.
Add the chocolate chips.
Microwave for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.
Cake will rise above mug – don’t worry.
Allow it to cool a bit before eating.

*hubby requested peanut butter chips and loved it.
I like mine a little moister than this recipe so I drizzled caramel sauce over it before eating.
I also think next time I will add a tablespoon of crushed walnuts to each cup.

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Quilt Progress Report

I started these quilts for Katie and Lulu pre-deployment, pre-major cross country move and pre-major house problems. Part of taking back my life is getting back to the people and things that are important to me. I’ve designated Sundays, at least to start, at recovering and completing these projects. As time moves on I hope to not have to designate a specific day! Anyway for today I completed the squares for Katie and Lulu’s wall quilts (long overdue – so sorry guys, I never should have let ANYTHING get in the way). Tomorrow I’m picking up the batting and backing so I can complete these next Sunday.


Blue Gold Vein for Katie

Red Gold Vein for Lulu

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