Sick Of Potato Salad?

Give this salad a try instead! It's super tasty and great with grilled food. Makes a giant batch, nice for a potluck.


Curried Rice Salad with Artichokes

• 4 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups uncooked white rice
• 3 (6.5 ounce) jars marinated artichoke hearts, chopped
• 2 cups mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• 5 green onions, chopped
• 1 green red pepper, chopped
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley

Combine chicken stock and rice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low. Cook until tender, about 20 minutes. In a small bowl, mix together artichoke marinade, mayonnaise, and curry powder. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine artichoke hearts, green onions, bell pepper, parsley, and celery. Mix in cooked rice, then mix in reserved marinade mixture. Cover and chill overnight. Serve cold.


From allrecipes.com.

Heaven On A Plate

Coconut Poke Cake

1 white cake mix
1 can (15oz) cream of coconut (not coconut milk)
1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 container (16oz) Cool Whip
2 cups sweetened flaked coconut

Mix and bake cake as directed on package - I use a 13X9 pan because it's the easiest. Leave the oven on for toasting the coconut: place coconut in an even layer on a baking sheet and toast until golden brown (6-8 min. at 350). Set aside.

While still hot, poke the cake all over with a large fork. Mix cream of coconut and sweetened condensed milk together and pour over hot cake. It might seem like too much coconut mixture at first, but it will soak in. Cool completely in fridge.

Top cake with Cool Whip and sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Enjoy!

Hello Hello

I've been working on ATCs for a Dr. Seuss swap at SIStv, tons of fun! Yesterday I painted all the cards and left them out to dry on the kitchen counter. Shane said, "they look kinda Miami Vice. I think I had some pants like that." Which in fact he did. They looked rad with that hypercolor t-shirt.


I've been baking up a storm lately, must be the cool weather (and my relentless sweet tooth.) This is my favorite butt cake ever. Remember my Big Fat Greek Wedding? I love that scene with the bundt cake confusion. Was looking for a clip but can't find one. Youtube has failed me.

Fresh Apple Bundt Cake

Cake:
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
3 cups diced raw cooking apples
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts

Topping:
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla

Sift dry ingredients together, add the rest of the cake ingredients and mix well. Spread into a greased and floured bundt cake pan. (batter will be thick) Bake for 1 hour and 15 min. at 350.

Mix the topping ingredients together until blended. Then pour over the hot cake in pan, letting it drizzle down the sides. Let cake cool about 30 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a plate. Dust with powdered sugar if desired. Great served warm.

Ah, Saturday.

I love Saturdays. Slept in late, woke up slowly, then did a little housecleaning. Everyone pitched in so it wasn't too bad. We're having friends over for dinner so it had to be done. Now we can all chill for a while until I have to start dinner. We're having glazed pork loin, friend rice, and garlic green beans. mmmm. We'll probably drink a few beers, play a little pool, nothing too wild.

Want to see the little backpack I made for Hannah's friend yesterday? It's a quickie project, maybe 2.5 hours.



Oh, and if you want to make a super duper easy, yummy dessert - take a chocolate cake mix and stir in (with a spoon, not a mixer) 3 eggs, 1 can of cherry pie filling, and 1 tsp almond extract. Bake in a 9X13 as directed on the pkg. Frost with chocolate frosting of your choice. I call it Disappearing Cake.

Bail ME Out!

Well, it's official. The latest bailout is going forward, giving the auto makers a shitload of money the government cannot afford. Awesome. This really grates my cheese. Maybe if they had started making energy efficient cars that people want to buy instead of churning out the biggest beasts possible, maybe if they made some hard changes in the way they run their business, maybe if they were ultimately accountable for their own failure...LIKE THE REST OF US. And all the billions given to the banks with no strings - where did it even go? Things are still just as effed up, even after Citibank got bailed out twice. Shaking my head. And they called Obama a socialist, HA!

OK, enough ranting. Just couldn't help myself. On the holiday front, things are winding down a bit. Christmas break starts tomorrow, kids are excited. Last minute gifts being boxed up and mailed out today. I know it's late, and I apologize peeps.

I have baked/eaten enough sweets to last until next Christmas. Favorite of the bunch:

Peanut Clusters

• 2/3 pound vanilla flavored confectioners' coating
• 1 (11 ounce) package white chocolate chips
• 1 (12 ounce) can peanuts
• 1/2 (6 ounce) package almond toffee bits (Heath Bits O' Brickle)

Line baking sheets with waxed paper. In a double boiler heat confectioners' coating until melted, stirring constantly until smooth. Pour in white chocolate chips and stir until smooth. Stir in peanuts and almond toffee bits. Remove from heat and drop by rounded spoonfuls onto waxed paper. Cool for an hour, or until hardened.


Deckin' the halls-







Notice that Evan is wearing shorts. This was a week or so ago when it was warm and sunny and felt like September. This week has been frigid. Single digits in the morning and raging wind, little bit of snow on the ground with more expected today...winter has bitch slapped us.

Finally!

Friendship Bread Day 10/10 - Baking Day!

This is the recipe/instruction sheet that I will copy and pass out to my friends with their bags of starter. You can copy and paste it into your own document. If you've been following along, and today is your "day 10", then proceed with the baking instructions below. The bread is so worth the wait! I think I'll do an apple/cinnamon variation with vanilla pudding mix, a couple of grated apples, and some walnuts. For a really decadent version, try chocolate pudding mix, white chocolate chips, and chopped macadamia nuts. I will be giving the starter baggies to the kids' teachers tomorrow, just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday. It's nice to give a couple of slices of the baked bread with the starter so they know what to expect. Enjoy!

**************************************************************

Amish Friendship Bread

Copy these instructions before you start for when you are ready to pass the starter on to others. Do not use metal spoons or metal bowls for mixing. Do not refrigerate. As bag fills with gas from fermentation let the gas out, this is normal. Enter the dates below and cross out the days so you don’t loose track. Don’t panic if you go beyond a day or two simply pick up where you left off.

Day 1: Date: ____/____ Do nothing. This is the day you get the starter batter.
Day 2, 3, 4, 5: Mush the bag each day.
Day 6: Date: ____/____ add: 1 C flour, 1 C Sugar, 1 C milk.
Day 7, 8, 9: Mush the bag each day.
Day 10: Date: ____/____

Preheat oven to 325.

Pour the entire contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl and add 1½ C flour, 1½ C Sugar, 1½ Milk. Mix well with a wooden or plastic spoon.

Label four (4) 1 gallon zip top bags with “Day 1” and tomorrow’s date. Measure out 1 C of the batter each of the bags.

To the remaining starter batter in your bowl, add 3 eggs, 1 cup oil, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 cup milk, 2 cups flour, 1 ½ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, 2 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp salt, 1 5.1 oz box of instant vanilla pudding, and 1 1/2 C chopped walnuts (optional)

Grease 2 large loaf pans and mix up an additional ½ C sugar ½ tsp cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with this mixture. Save some for the top of the bread. Pour the batter evenly into the pans and sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture on top. Bake at 325 for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool and remove from the pan.

Keep one of the 4 gallon bags of batter for yourself and pass the other three to your friends, with a copy of these instructions.

VARIATIONS:
Banana - Omit cinnamon. Substitute banana cream pudding for vanilla. Add 2 mashed bananas.
Chocolate - Omit cinnamon and vanilla pudding from the basic recipe and add 1 - (5.1 oz) box of instant chocolate pudding, 3 tsp. cocoa and 3/4 cup chocolate chips. Bake for 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 hours.
Apple Raisin - add one cup of raisins and one small diced apple.
Lemon-Poppy Seed – Substitute lemon pudding mix for vanilla. Substitute 2-tsp. Lemon extract for vanilla. Omit cinnamon. Add 1/4 cup poppy seed.
Cranberry – Add 1 cup of dried cranberries and 1 tsp orange zest.

This batter is very versatile and can be used to make muffins or bundt cakes, just adjust the baking time accordingly.

********************************************************************

Monday Again?

Friendship Bread Day 9/10: Release any accumulated air from baggie and squish to mix several times today. Tomorrow is baking day!

Made a mini album for Evan yesterday, all about yakin'. Seeing his face light up when he looked through it reminds me why I scrapbook.

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The title letters on the cover were cut by the ever talented lpmkate. I love them! Evan did his own journaling:

Sunday

Friendship Bread Day 8/10: Release any accumulated air from baggie and squish to mix several times today. Should be getting nice and bubbly.


Scrapping on a budget: Just did another reduce, reuse, recycle ATC card swap. Love the concept of this, especially these days when le budget is nil. I cut up cereal boxes for the base of the cards - I happen to have several dozen for sale in my etsy shop all ready to go. Shameless plug I know. Anyway, then I used the edges from our dot matrix printer paper for the background, stamped the tree on newspaper, and voila! The woodgrain dymo tape is killer, and it goes with the whole theme. Thanks Linda for sending it to me! So, these little guys cost next to nothing to make.

Can't wait to get the rest of the set, especially Kate's celeb trash collage card, I freaking love those.

Off to work on my recipe cards, and maybe some "real" scrapping too. Later!

Saturday

Friendship Bread Day 7/10: Release any accumulated air from baggie and squish to mix several times today.

Cannot believe Thanksgiving is next week. I would love to make a turkey like this,

but I am not cooking. We are going to spend the day with the family in Roseville, a little road trip so let's hope the weather stays nice. We'll miss you Shad, Sharon, Dani, and Logan! Remember when you guys were out here and we had Thanksgiving at your place? So fun. Although your turkey was not nearly as sexy as this one.

TGIF!

Friendship Bread Day 6/10: Release any accumulated air from baggie and squish to mix several times today.

TGIF is right, what a week! Mad busy, pretty tuckered. Taking Hannah out to see a show tonight, a little girls' outing. It's a "holiday ice spectacular" which I think she'll enjoy, and I will try to not be too scroogy. Shannon scored us some free tickets, third row. Sweeeet.
Guns N Roses released their new album today, although the only thing GNR about it is Axl Rose. I didn't buy it (got to make that clear) but I did find a vid on youtube. Fun fact: it is the most expensive cd ever made at $10 million.



I like that song ok, but really...this one kicks it's ass.

Thurrrrsday

Friendship Bread Day 5/10

You will need:

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk

In a bowl (remember, do not metal bowls or spoons), combine flour and sugar, then mix in milk with a wooden spoon. Add this mixture to your starter in the baggie and squish to mix. Done.

Random video of the day:

Hump Day

Friendship Bread Day 4/10 - release any accumulated air from baggie and squish to mix several times today.

Had fun out on the town last night. Played shuffleboard (actually very fun and not just for geriatrics), did a little gambling in the penny machines, drank many beers, and ate a nice greasy breakfast at a truck stop on the way home at midnight. Good times indeed.

Tonight is Jordan's first orchestra concert of the year. Always cool to go and hear them play. He's also working on what sounds like an amazing ceramics project, can't wait to see the finished product.

Ok, off to work. I need aspirin.

Tuesday

Friendship Bread Day 3/10: Release any accumulated air from baggie and squish to mix several times today. You might notice that it is kind of stinky, that is perfectly normal.

Had the weirdest lunch yesterday. Shane and I went to a new taco place that an acquaintance of ours opened recently. No one working there seemed to know what was going on. Problems ordering, confusion as to how the food would find us outside, and a total lack of interest in us as customers was all very odd. When the food finally arrived, they served three meals instead of two. Finally figured out what was what but my wrap was a chicken Caesar number instead of the beef/veggie that I ordered. Did I mention it wasn't cheap? It tasted fine, but overall the experience was a downer. Good luck 'Berto, you're gonna need it!

Tonight we are going out with friends coming in from Portland. Probably will hit a buffet for dinner and then do the casino thing. Hey, it's Reno, Baby!

Manic Monday

Friendship Bread Day 2/10 - release any air from the baggie and squish to mix the contents a couple times today. It will puff up as it ferments, don't be scared.

Yesterday I went to Michaels and scored some fancy pants yarn on sale - $5.99 skiens for $2.00 each! Doesn't get much better than that. Got to head back later this week to check for more colors. Hmmm, what to make with it?

Off to work for a bit - later!

Virtual Friendship Bread

You know the bread where a friend gives you a baggie of starter and a recipe, then you work on it for 10 days before baking the yummiest bread ever? If you've never tasted it, the end result is a sweet, almost dessert-y bread. You can change it up to suit your own taste, make it chocolatey or nutty or fruity, whatever!

I'd love to give you all some starter but since it would probably explode in a stinky yeast bomb somewhere in transit, I'm just going to post directions for you to begin the cycle yourself. Follow along for 10 days and you will then be able to pass some starter along.

First Step is to make the actual starter.

1 (.25 oz) pkg active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F)
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand 10 minutes. In a large gallon-sized Ziploc bag, combine flour and sugar thoroughly before stirring in milk and yeast mixture. Use a wooden spoon or just squish it around. Set aside on the counter, keeping it always at room temperature.

*For the entire process, do not use metal bowls or utensils*

That's it for day 1/10. It's a good idea to keep a little tally sheet of some kind with your starter so you can keep track of the days.





You won't be doing anything but stirring (wooden spoon!) or squishing for the next three days, so just relax and let it do its thing. I will be posting a little daily reminder for everyone following along.

Wednesday

I've been a total blagger lately, haven't been feeling it. Been busy working, stressing, and whomping gophers. I did manage to make a couple things:


A purse for me-





A little backpack for Miss Banana-

The cooler fall weather has me ready to bake this, my all-time favorite easy peasy dessert:

GREAT PUMPKIN DESSERT
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 (12 fluid ounce) can
evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 (18.25 ounce) package
yellow cake mix
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan. In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar and spice. Mix well, and pour into a 9x13 inch pan. Sprinkle dry cake mix over the top, then drizzle with melted butter. Top with walnuts. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

Also have the urge to crochet an afghan. I love when it gets bigger and bigger and you can cuddle up in it while you're working. This is the one I'm planning to make, still working out the color combo:

As I'm typing this, McPalin are making a speech on TV. I'll be so glad when this BS is over!

Over and out.

Yell Fire!

The tomato plants are outta control, and I've been making fresh pico almost daily. The second batch was smokin' hot, so I threw in an avocado and it cooled it down right fine. So yummy, and healthy too...except for the chips, but we don't need to go there, right? You could use celery instead (LOL!)


Pico De Gallo
4 ripe tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped
1 small white onion, finely chopped
2-3 jalapenos, minced
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, finely chopped
1 TBS fresh lime juice
salt & pepper to taste


Just mix it all up and chill at least an hour. Really best the same day. I personally scarf it down in no time, so long term storage is not a problem.


*note* Chopping by hand is really best, a food processor will just pulverize everything. But, do use gloves while handling the peppers. Unless of course you want to still have fiery oils on your hands that will withstand washing and continue to burn 2 days later. I'm just saying...