Excuses for Cake

I don’t make cake that often.  Only for special occasions, and sometimes not even then.  But yesterday warranted a cake.  First, because it was Memorial Day.  Second, because we were with family who would help us eat it so that I wouldn’t have yummy cake left over pleading for me to eat the rest of it.  And third, ’cause I was craving this cake.

Margarita cake is one of my summertime favorites.  It tastes better than a real Margarita!  Ok, I’ve never had a real one, but I just know it does!  It’s easy and always gets rave reviews!  It has a salty pretzel crust, sweet limey cake, and a layer of whip cream and lime zest to top it off. 

Recipe in Betty Crocker’s Cake Mix Magazine (April 2004).  Another variation, Strawberry Margarita Cake.

There was a little flaw in my plan because I came home with half a cake.  Reasons . . .

• Not as many family members as I thought there would be.  Dad, Tracy, Juan, Magdis – you all missed out on some good food and great fun!
• Dinner was just too yummy and filling that we couldn’t fit in more cake .  De-lish, Mom!

Cake for breakfast?  I’m not apposed!

Adventure in Food

For the longest time I was leery of trying sushi.  Seaweed . . . raw fish . . . just didn’t sound like something I’d be brave enough to try.  Especially because I DO NOT like fish.  Then, I started hearing about sushi everywhere.  Sushi bars are going up all over.  Restaurants are adding it to the menu.  Even the grocery store I go to has a sushi bar.  I watched for months as people flocked to that sushi bar and put neat little boxes into their cart.  My thoughts, “Just because it seems everybody’s doing sushi, doesn’t mean I need to.”

Then I was talking to some of my friends who do sushi.  I told them of my distaste for fish, and they shot down that excuse by telling me that there are different varieties that are made without fish.  California roll and Crunchy roll – using crab and shrimp.  They assured me that it was really good and encouraged me to try it.  So for about a month I struggled with the sushi decision.  Every time I would pass the counter at the grocery store, I would look at it and then pass by.

But not yesterday.  I made the decision to be adventurous.  The lady at the counter literally dropped her jaw when I said I had never tried it before.  She recovered fairly well, and helped me find what I was looking for.  So for lunch our whole family tried sushi. 

I am not the kind of mother who lets her kids eat peanut butter and jelly for every meal because they don’t like what I made.  I want my kids try different things.  They always have to take a taste.  If it isn’t making them gag, they can eat the rest of what I gave them.  If it is too abhorrent, then at least they tried. 

I set a pretty little crunchy roll in front of them and my husband.  They all looked a little worried.  My husband said, “Ladies first!”  Translated means . . . you be the guinea pig!  So I took the first bite, and I liked it!  Noah then tried it, horrible faces and disgust (but he doesn’t even like white rice, so no surprise there).  Landon – “it’s ok.”  Joel ate the first bite, finished the first roll and ate another.  Wow!  Joel is really not big into Asian fair.  He said, “It’s not bad, but I don’t think I’d ask for it for dinner.”  I ate the rest for lunch.  It was a tasty treat.

So there, we can all say that we have tried sushi.

Shortbread

I am a sucker for shortbread.  I love the simple taste and the texture.  So can you guess what the boys and I baked?

My favorite recipe for shortbread is out of my mom’s old loose leaf recipe notebook.  I don’t know where it came from, but it is the best.  I can’t make it very often, though.  Look at how much butter is in it!  No wonder it’s so good!  When the boys saw the ingredients, they decided we should add some mini chocolate chips.

Old Fashioned Shortbread

1 cup butter, softened (THAT’S TWO STICKS!)

3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

Beat butter at medium speed with electric mixer; gradually add powdered sugar and cornstarch, beating until light and fluffy.  Stir in flour.  (Mix in chocolate chips if desired.)

Firmly press dough into a slightly greased and floured 9 inch cookie mold or round cake pan.  Bake at 325 for 35 minutes or until golden brown.  Invert cookie from pan.  Cool on wire rack then cut into wedges.

Poppies

Poppies!

Poppies will make them sleep . . . sleep.

- Wicked Witch of the West (from the Wizard of Oz)

 

Well, I don’t know about that, but we did learn about poppies in school this week.  We learned about the Opium Wars between China/England.  We LOVE our history curriculum!  It takes a classical approach, meaning that it is chronological.  Start at the beginning, and go through to the end.  Great idea!  Supposed to be sarcastic!  It’s much more interesting and understandable that way.

So, since we studied about opium, which is made from poppy flowers, the activity for today is to make lemon poppy seed cake.  YUM!  Noah is worried that we will be eating opium, but I reassured him that the seeds contain NO OPIUM!  This cake is DRUG FREE!!!!

Here are several favorite recipes using poppy seeds . . .

Lemon poppy seed cake

Poppy seed fruit salad

Lemon poppy seed shortbread - use the lemon zest and poppy seed mix-in’s

 

Chocolaty Goodness

I guess I am starting to gear up for summer vacation.  Only two more weeks and we’re done with school!  Yipee!  I have been remembering all the quick easy snacks we like to do during the summer.  Most of them include chocolate, cause we are chocoholics around here. 

So, here’s another favorite . . . cinnamon chocolate pudding.

1 package (6 serving) of instant chocolate pudding

3 cups cold milk

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Stir with a whisk for two minutes, spoon into bowls, and refrigerate.  This is an easy one to keep on hand.  I like to keep it for a rainy day, or when they are bored out of their mind.  Instant activity!  Pardon the pun.  Think Aztec chocolate flavor.

We also like to make cinnamon tortilla crisps to go along with the pudding – I just didn’t have any tortillas yesterday.

2 tsp cinnamon

3 Tbsp sugar

4 tortillas

2 Tbsp melted butter

Preheat oven to 400.  Combine cinnamon and sugar.  Brush tortillas with melted butter.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Turn over and repeat on other side.  Cut tortillas into 4ths or 8ths.  (The kids can cut them with a pizza roller if they aren’t ready to use knives.)  Place on baking sheet in a sigle layer and bake 8-9 minutes or until crisp.

Also, we sometimes dip strawberries in the pudding.  Chocolate and strawberries = perfect pair!

 

Playing With Peanut Butter

Sounds gross, but it’s really good!

A few years ago, I came across a recipe for edible playdough.  I work with preschoolers, and that sounded like fun.  The boys helped me make the first batch and it was such a hit that we continue to make this as a treat at our house.  (Gone are the days of playing with it.  They just want to eat it!)

I try to keep the ingredients on hand, and it paid off yesterday.  Landon went to work with Joel the whole day.  My car has been in the shop, so Noah and I stayed home.  We did some work around the house, watched some Dick Van Dyke, and then made some “peanut butter balls”.

1/2 c peanut butter

3/4 c powdered milk

3/4 c powdered sugar

1/2 c corn syrup

mini chocolate chips

It’s that simple!  Stir everything together and shape into balls.  Store in the refridge. 

Change It Up

I love to cook, but not for breakfast.  One reason is that I like to sleep as long as possible in the morning.  If I don’t have to wake up half an hour early to make muffins or pancakes, I won’t!  Also, with homeschooling, I don’t want to have to do dishes before school starts.  That puts a damper on my day.  I’d rather do something we can do straight out of the fridge, freezer, or box.  I also use paper plates as much as possible so we can just throw away the mess.  No dishes involved. 

The kids like Nutella on good bread, fruit, yogurt, smoothies,and oatmeal breakfast cookies.  Noah likes Z-bars and Landon likes a protein Chai drink.  Once a month, I get chocolate chip muffins at the H-E-B bakery and occasionally we get donuts, cause sometimes junk food for breakfast is just the thing we want.  We do frozen pancakes every now and then also.  Breakfast our way.

I do not like to cook for lunch either.  Probably because I am ravenously hungry by the time lunch comes around that I don’t want to wait for something to cook.  Lunch.  I get so tired of lunch!  Lunch is where I need a change.  We usually do sandwiches.  Boring!!!!  I knew we ate the same things for lunch every week, and that I was kind of tired of it, and that the boys probably were too, but I didn’t really do anything about it until my husband said something about it. 

This is the first year that he has ever been home for lunch.  His job change has him home now.  So after several weeks of sandwiches, he made a comment that he was tired of sandwiches.  Now, my husband is the nicest man, and he said it in the nicest way and just in passing.  But I heard it, and finally it registered that I needed to do something about it. 

We have now done egg salad sandwiches (10 minutes – Noah peels the eggs), BLT’s (10 minutes), grilled nachos (5 minutes on the grill), wraps (5 minutes), and yesterday we had a yummy antipasto salad (10 minutes) from the May issue of Everyday Food.  Landon through the whole meal kept saying, “This is really good!  We should have this more often!”  My family is rejoicing.  I get it now!  I can be creative and not have to spend lots of time in the kitchen to make a good lunch.  There are quick, easy recipes out there waiting for me to try.

If you have lunch ideas, I’d love to hear them!  Just leave them as a comment – that way everone reading will benefit!  The stipulation is that they must be QUICK and EASY!

Do You Lychee?

Our conference is over.  There will be rest for the weary now.  I tell you, this one took it out of me.  OK, it wasn’t just the conference that wore me out, but all the other stuff that was going on at the same time . . . finishing our last Bible study class (and the gifts that go with that), homeschooling, practicing with Noah (we played offertory last night – our first duet together), and taking care of the nursery.  Not to mention just being a wife and mother.

 

So how was Madagascar fruit salad?  YUMMY!  Even the adults came over and did our “craft”.  At first I shooed them away with a “it’s for the children” excuse.  But when the children had all made their salad, I welcomed the adults.  I think I spent the most time explaining what a lychee fruit is. 

If you have never tried lychee fruit, put it on your shopping list.  (You can find them canned in the Asian section.)  It is a small round white fruit originally grown in China, but is now grown throughout the world – including Madagascar.  To me, the taste is kind of flowery.  I had tried it many years ago in the form of a lychee gummy (a small piece of lychee inside a gummy/jello-like treat).  It was good, but I had forgotten about it until this recipe called for it.  Now that I have tried it again, I remember how much I like it. 

Almost everyone was brave enough to try it, and most liked it.  We only had one gagging incident.  One little boy’s mom wanted him to try it, and the texture was too much for him – they are kind of chewy.  Good thing we had a trash can handy.  Ha!  We finished almost all the fruit!  There was only enough for Landon and I to have a small taste for breakfast.

So, now I am on the hunt for lychee gummies.  Oh, and also I was told about a tea with lychee gummies floating around in it.  Sounds different, but I want to try. 

Go ahead, be adventurous!  Try it!

Skinny Beverage

A few years ago, we went to Cancun for a family vacation.  Aaahhhhh!  Such good memories.

One of the things I brought back with me was a new appreciation for flavored water.  I’m not talking about those artificially flavored waters that taste like chemicals.  YUCK!  I’m talking about naturally flavored water.

Each day by the pool, they would have fresh fruit out for us and ice cold waters flavored with an assortment of fruits and vegetables.  VEGETABLES?  Yes, vegetables.  Our favorite was the cucumber water!

Here’s how . . .

Fill a pitcher half full of ice.

Peel and slice half a cucumber and put on top of ice.

Fill pitcher with water.

Stir and let sit for ten minutes (at least).

Pour in a tall glass with lots of ice.

Enjoy!

There are several variations.  Instead of the cucumbers, substitute the following:  sliced strawberries and kiwi, anise (I didn’t care for this one, but if you like anise, go for it!), lime, or oranges (my second favorite).  You can leave the fruit or veggies in the pitcher and keep refreshing the water all day for a never empty pitcher.

This will make you WANT to drink water.  And, not only is this a great beverage, it is also sugar-free, fat-free, and on any diet! 

On To Other Things

Don’t you just love the mailman?  Well, if he brings me nothing but bills I don’t care for him too much – or if he comes really late.  I guess I’m kind of fickle, but for the most part I like him.  Last week I loved him though.

He brought me this beautiful fabric,

this new magazine,

and a letter from my nieces in Ohio.

I love my new fabric!  It’s so springy/summery and has inspired me with some ideas.  It was a little lighter than it looked online, but that’s ok.  I got a half a yard of each color, and 2 yards of the pink/orange.  Plenty to play with.

The new Food Magazine has great stuff in it.  Last week I made the Basic Risotto (oh, yum!), Proscuitto-Wrapped Chicken, and Chicken Gumbo (minus the okra).  This week I am going to make the tostadas, rice, and penne.  I love new cookbooks!

I made a pointy kitty (free pattern!) for my niece’s birthday a few weeks ago.  She wrote me a thank you letter all by herself.  She just turned five, so this was a major accomplishment.  She really liked her kitty, and mom says she carries it around with her.  Yea!  I love it when my handmade gifts are appreciated, specially with my nieces.  With me not having girls, sometimes I’m not sure whether they will like it.  I didn’t have to worry about this one though.  Even her two bigger sisters liked it.  They also wrote a letter requesting me to make them a stuffed animal for their birthdays.  You got it girls! 

You did good last week!  Thank you Mr. Mailman!