Tagged

by my friend Connie.
1. Where is your mobile phone? purse
2. Your hair? up
3. Your mother? just left
4. Your father? also just left
5. Your fave food? avocados
6. Your dream last night? my sleep was way to interrupted for that!
7. Your fave drink? milk
8. Your dream/goal? happiness
9. What room are you in? living room
10. Your hobby? scrapbooking, baking, photography, sewing, crafts....
11. Your fear? dissapointing loved ones
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? settled
13. Where you were last night? home
14. Something that you aren't? complacent
15. Muffins? cranberry-zucchinni
16. Wish List Item? cricut
17. Where did you grow up? HillSpring
18. Last thing you did? kids bedtime
19. What are you wearing? jeans
20. Your TV? off
21. Your Pets? NO thank you
22. Friends? miss some of tem
23. Your Life? good
24. Your Mood? content
25. Missing Someone? always
26. Vehicle? mini van
27. Something your not wearing? socks
28. Your fave store? consignment
29. Your fave colour? orange
30. Last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? couple days ago
32. Your best friend? Reg-o-rama
33. One place that you go to over and over? the kitchen
34. One person who emails regularly? Heather
35. Fave place to eat? depends on the day

um I tag you if you want to :)

Banana Carmel Cake

Last March I made this cake for a Book Club I was hosting at my house. It was scrump-diddly-umsious. And they told me to email them the recipe. And I never got around to it (sometimes I'm LIKE that unfortunately) I just made it again this past week. And I thought I'd finally post it and send it along to all those lovely Book club ladies who I miss and wish I could attend. Instead maybe they can eat my cake :) A little late. But better than never. Try it. I promise you'll love it!


(from the Essence of Chocolate by John Scharffenberger & Robert Steinberg)
3 cups sifted all purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/4 canola oil
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
3 ounces semi sweet chocolate chopped into chip sized chunks
1 1/2 diced ripe bananas (about 2)

Carmel
1/2 cup firmly packed lightly brown sugar
2 Tbsp whole milk
4 Tbsp unsalted butter cut into chunks

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350ºF. Butter and flour a 12-cup (10 inch) Bundt pan.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt and baking soda.
In the bowl of a mixer with the paddle attachment, combine the eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla and almond. Mix on medium speed til combined well, stopping to scrape the sides if needed. Mix in the dry ingredients, about 1/2 at a time, stopping to scrap the bowl if necessary.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in pecans and chocolate. Carefully fold in the bananas; do not over mix.

Pour into the prepared pan/ Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Meanwhile, about 5 minutes before the cake is done, combine the brown sugar, milk, and butter in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, swirling the pan occasionally as the butter and sugar melt. Once it is amber in color, remove from the heat.

Remove the cake from the oven and immediately, using a long skewer, poke holes all over the surface of the cake. Pour the hot caramel over the top, poking more holes and pushing the cake slightly away from the sides of the pan as necessary to allow the caramel to soak into the cake's top and sides. Place on a cooling rack to cool slightly.

When the cake has cooled, but is still warm to touch, unmold to a serving platter.

Serve either warm or at room temperature.

**Don't add more bananas as it will make it a gummy cake.**
And I added a chocolate ganache on top just for a little extra va-va-va-voom.


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MSBH Challenge: 33(Baking Powder Biscuits) 34 (Parker house Rolls) 35 (Cranberry Zucchini Muffins

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And there is a new family up on my photo blog if you wanna see them.
A lovely neighbor I have.

Christmas Bingo

All over the net lately I've been seeing projects that are made inspired by stores that are expensive. So I thought I'd put my touch on these types of projects. This cute game is from Anthropologie. Amazing store. Not so cheap.
Here is my take on this cute Christmas game.

My version.


Best part is I made it so you can download it and play with your kids and family too!
Just cause I love ya! There are six cards (two on each page) and then the key.
Two ways to download it.
If you have a flickr account just open them and download the largest size.
If you don't then you can try these, Click on them and they should take you to another screen where it says download these.





Download them and print them onto cardstock and cut them out.

Let me know if you download it and how it works for you!!
I'd love to hear if anyone uses it :)

There are a TON of things on Anthropologie. I would love love love to get!
But not in the budget.
So I think I'll be doing a bit more of this knock off thing.
:)
Next up something a little more challenging.....either a shirt or a necklace!

His favorite things as of late

are totally the phone and goldfish.

He cries and cries and cries to talk on (even though he doesn't really talk)The only reason he would EVER hand over a phone is cause it doesn't really work. One day I let him "talk" on it to my mom and after he cried for 10 minutes about it. Like LOUD crying. It was nuts-o! So he doesn't ever get the phone anymore!

We saved our old phones when we got new ones for him to play with cause it's more real.... but I should have saved the charger so it would still beep. I didn't think of that til AFTER I took out the garbage. And there are some things I'm just NOT willing to do for my kids. One being digging thru the garbage bin.

And
HE loooooves goldfish. Almost un-healthily. Seriously loves them.

Sorry I got distracted by those cute little toes....

what was I talking about.... right his current love affair with goldfish.


Also loves playing peek-a-boo


And if you ask him something he does this like "i don't know"


I've decided he should be a baby model. He's just so cute. But they'd probably fire him since he'll never sit still. These took a LOT of work :) Hence the phone and the goldfish so he'd sit still!! I wanted to try out my new reflector and he was the only kid home at the time. I think he did pretty good :)

A Peek Post

You can find me over here for a guest blog post today of a peek into my scrapbook room. Come check it out!

Random Bits

Today I am so very very grateful for all those who have sacrificed their lives for the freedom we enjoy. We watched the CBC ceremony today. And I cried. I am so grateful to live in such a wonderful place. Thankful to those who fought, those who gave their lives, and those who are left behind mourning the loss.

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Tanya and Colin asked Have you made them with whole wheat flour? Yes. But only do it half and half whole wheat. They don't rise well with full ww flour.

M and J Smith Family asked Where did you get your rolling pin donut cutter combo? My mom originally got it when we owned the cracker barrel cafe, a small time cafe in Hill Spring. I am pretty sure she got it from a Restaurant/ Bakery supply store. If you live in the big city (like you do Jodi) I am sure there are lots of those kinds of stores to choose from!

Mindy asked What's your baking challenge? I am making every recipe in the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook in one year. You can read more about it in this post.
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I read over this Nei Nei post. (If you don't read Nei Nei, turn your life around and start doing it!) It has been on my mind for the past few days. It is a beautiful post. Heart wrenching but also uplifting at the same time.

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And a photo from the latest photo blog post.


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Something I've been thinking about a lot lately.
I like to create.
It's a big part of me.
I grew up with it. And now my kids are too. I think just today Alden and Lucy both made about 5-6 different drawings. When we empty a box or container the first thing Alden says is "I know let's make a craft."
It is a big part of me.
I'm doing what I love in a life I love.
When I don't find time to do things that are creative I have a harder time being happy. A harder time focusing on my blessings. And playing with my kids.
That's why I like baking, cooking, scrapbooking, painting, quilting, drawing, writing, graphic design, card making, sewing, and lots of other things.
All of these things are creative to me.

President Uchtdorf (who gave the talk) said, “The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter.” He then went on to quote President Brigham Young who stated, “Progress, and improve upon and make beautiful everything around you. Cultivate the earth, and cultivate your minds. Build cities, adorn your habitations, make gardens, orchards, and vineyards, and render the earth so pleasant that when you look upon your labors you may do so with pleasure, and that angels may delight to come and visit your beautiful locations. In the mean time continually seek to adorn your minds with all the graces of the Spirit of Christ.” (General Relief Society Conference, Oct. 2008).

Donuts

Now my momma (and my grandma and me) are all those kind of bakers. You know those ones who don't exactly know the amounts of things that are put in. It's more about how the dough feels and all that. But I'll do my best in posting amounts! :)

Now this is also a BIG recipe. It makes 10 dozen donuts. So you can use it to make donuts, long johns, cinnamon buns, dinner buns, or scones. Or you can cut it in half (which I do often!)

2 liters of warm water (like warm like the bath warm)
1 pound melted margarine (or use 2 cups oil)
8 eggs
3 Tbsp Salt
3 Tbsp instant yeast (quick rising)
2 cup sugar
Flour (? a lot hahahaha)

Put your water and salt in a large bowl and stir to let the salt dissolve.
And set it aside.
In a different bowl mix the eggs and sugar until frosty.
Combine into the biggest bowl. Add 1/2 of the melted margarine (or oil).
Stir well.
Start adding flour until it gets hard to stir with a spoon. Like it isn't dry yet... but it looks lumpy with flour (does that make sense?) It's sloppy and super sticky.
Sprinkle yeast on top and stir it in.
Now start adding flour until the dough comes together and you can handle it. Knead it a bit with your hands. (If you are using a Bosch or a kitchen-aid it will start to pull away from the sides.) It should be a nice clean dough that you poke your hand into and it just leaves a dent that pops back out. (make sense?)
Turn the dough over so the smooth side is on the top. Then pour the rest of the margarine (or oil) over top and grease the sides of the bowl with it too.
Let rise in a warm spot until doubled.
Punch down once.
Let rise in a warm spot again.
Once doubled again use it.

Now to make it into donuts, you lay the dough out onto the counter squishing it with your hands until is in a rectangle shape (like you would for cinnamon buns) then cut out your donuts (I have a rolling pin that is a donut cutter outer. So I lay my dough out and then roll it over it and it cuts out constant donuts. It's cool. And it was my mom's. It takes me like 3 minutes to cut out 80 donuts (which is what I did this morning.)

Deep fry them in hot oil (I always use the stove but you could use a deep fryer).
Then drain them.
As soon as you can touch them without burning your hands, drop them into a glaze. (my glaze is just icing sugar with vanilla and some warm water til it is runny. I have no idea the amounts..... just til it looks right. hahahaha)
Then let them drain again.
Then eat them. :)

The more often you make this dough the easier it will be. It's a bit second nature to me as I used to make this dough weekly to make buns and whatever else. I did it on baking mondays. It sounds like a lot of work but it's really not.

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MSBH Challenge 25 (Banana Carmel Cake), 26 (Tart Dough), 27 (Lemon Curd), 28 (Pate A Choux), 29 (Cream puffs), 30 (Chocolate Eclairs), 31 (Vanilla Whipped Cream), 32 (Pastry Cream).

Hmm that's a lot of stuff...... but a lot of them went together. As in the lemon curd and tart became a french lemon tart. The Pate A Choux is the dough that starts cream puffs and chocolate eclairs and the vanilla whipped cream and pastry cream fill them.

And a funny side note to all this baking? I've lost a little weight lately. hahahaha. Kind of ironic eh?