My Cake was a hit.....

At 9:05 on Monday night, my son happens to mention that he needs a cake for school the next day.

No cake mix in the house, so i attemted the very first from scratch cake ever, and thanks to my m-i-l, happened to have a very easy recipe!! (and more importantly, i didn't have to run out to the store! i already had everything i needed for it right at home! :)

Then the cake, once cooked, had to be pried out of the pan.... leaving some remnants in the bottom of my once non-stick bundt cake pan.

Feeling pretty uneasy, i proceeded to make the homemade cream cheese frosting, slathering it thickly on the cake to cover up the missing remnants from the top! LOL!

A bit worried, i sent my son off to school with the cake, wondering what the outcome would be.

He comes in the door, fairly shouting, "Mom, your cake was a HIT!! the kids wanted to draw straws over the last piece, but i told them i wanted to bring it home to you!"

How sweet of him! And, it really was yummy!!

Now, i'm looking for more from-scratch cake recipes!

We scored.....

 at the Brazilian store!

Hubby really wanted some Brazilian coffee, so brother-in-law took him to this nice little store...... Where they also had Guarana..... which my hubby LOVES!

and on Friday, after the mall of America, we got to go to this really nice Brazilian steakhouse: Fogo de Chao! where we got to try the specialty of the house - Picanha.

Wonderful!

and then my sister-in-law sent us home with some hand-made, hand-painted dish cloths from her father in Brazil. A friend of the family made them!

and on the left in the foreground you see a bowl of pao de queijo, which i am told translates to bread of cheese. All i know is it's really yummy and we felt so spoiled to get to bring the breakfast leftovers home with us!

 

Getting ready to cook dinner tonight.....

and i was looking for a recipe for oven-

baked Cornflake chicken.

i ran across this in my computer and

thought i would share it with you!

~Double Coated Cornflake Chicken~

a recipe scrapbook page i made a while

back and forgot about. i don't remember

all the credits, but i do know that the

ribbon is from Linda Walton's "Saturday

in the Park" ..... i think.

And of course the background is from

Marie Stones "Little Ladybug"

And i'm also fairly certain that the

brown paper journaling box is from Linda

Walton.

No one ever told me.....

that a fire might start in my oven if i used the self-cleaning cycle!

So, this afternoon i decided that the oven needed to be cleaned and i set it to do just that. Never have done that in this oven before, and i'm sitting here minding my own business when i here a "WHOOSH" and turn around to see a lively fire burning on the bottom of my oven. The house filled with smoke and suddenly the smoke alarm started going off.

Sure do wish i had a picture, but that was not priority one at the time! At 4 degrees outside, i opened all the doors and windows and turned on every exhaust fan in the house.

It took about three hours to clear the smoke and smell from in here, but now my oven is definitely clean.

Just be warned, if you cook a cheesecake, place your springform pan on another pan before baking! i think that's what caused the mess in the oven to begin with. . . . .

My evening has been filled.....

with some pretty wondrous things!

Like this:

Thank you, Steph! for this wonderful recipe!

Homestyle Chicken Pot Pie!

and this:

Homemade Oreo Cheesecake!

and then, to top it all off, THIS:

Thank you, Steph, for the homemade potpourri!

i didn't have any cinnamon sticks, but i have LOTS of ground cinnamon, so i took the pics before i put it in the pot and made it all ugly. But boy, it sure smells good in here!

Thank you!

This topped off a wonderful day from beginning to end! More than 24 hours of pure bliss!

And we're getting close on the water!

 

Mamaw and the roast.....

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Roast.....

at the tender young age of 20, i was a new bride trying to set up house and be all those things a girl wants to be at that time in her life.
i had been on my own for a while before marrying, working nights at World Color Press, or working as a manager for the local pizza joint, never cooking at home unless it was sheer desperation and the wallet said i must.
But, newly married and wanting my friends, who also happened to be the people i worked with, to see our new place, i decided to cook a roast for the first time in my life..... first mistake.

Lesson learned: always experiment with something new before you actually cook for someone else.
So i asked my mamaw what kind of roast she cooked and how she did it, thinking that her roast was always good, leaving you wanting more. Second lesson learned: Right things down and always ask people if they have any secrets they are holding back, or get the recipe. And always refer to Lesson learned # 1.

The big day came and i put the roast on before i left for work that day, bringing everyone who wanted to join us home with me that evening. All day long i am thinking about how good that roast is going to be, waiting and ready for when i arrive home from work.

So, we all walk in the door and i go to check that wonderful roast, and i wonder why the pot is about to overflow..........??? That doesn't seem right...... Mamaw's roast never did that...... but i am still oblivious, steadily bailing the crockpot.
But not fast enough..... One of my dinner guests, of course older and more experienced than me, makes the then very obvious exclamation "Shannon, you BOILED the roast????" and slowly begins to chuckle.....

By this time i am beginning to giggle too, saying that i "did what my mamaw told me to do......"We sit down to our dinner of boiled roast (which is also tough and lighter in color than any roast i have ever seen.......LOL!) and i'm not sure what else, having a good laugh all the while. Thank God for people with a sense of humor that don't make you feel about yourself while laughing at you!

The next day i go to my Mamaw and i say "Mamaw..... i did what you told me to with that roast, but it just didn't quite turn out like yours.....................????" And i proceed to tell her what happened.......
and she answers in that musical little southern accent of hers, that i can hear in my head to this very day, and said "Weeeeeell, now....... i DO put a bay leaf in mine.........." and only a LITTLE water in the bottom of the pan to keep it moist and from sticking.

What??? Why didn't she tell me that?

Somewhere i got this notion that, since the pan was always full of these wonderful juices for gravy, i had to COVER the meat entirely with water, of course not realizing the consequence of that action. i had probably never boiled water before, unless it was to make instant mashed potatoes (which is something my broke roommates and i frequently did in order to save money and not starve in the process....LOL!)

She explained in more detail what to do, from the cut of meat to buy to the fact that you should brown the meat in a skillet before placing it in the crockpot.

So, i tried again. And, lo and behold, it DID taste like mamaw's roast this time! And ever since then, unless i have a mishap with the salt, or cook the thing till the veggies turn to absolute mush, or scorch it when i forget and leave the crockpot on high.........i make a pretty mean roast......

Thanks Mamaw!

i have a confession.....

i have a confession to make.....and that is:

i have an almost paralyzing fear of cooking for anyone other than my immediate family.

Yep, it's true.

This fear of mine is so great that even the THOUGHT of cooking for others is enough to send me into a panic attack......and the last two days i have also realized that actually doing it gives me a migraine, literally.

This fear of mine is deeply rooted: from my first marriage (yes, i was once married to someone other than my VERY LOVING, dear, sweet, knock-my-socks-off hubby), from my lack of knowledge and therefore, skill, and from this incident: Mamaw and The Roast.....

But, it seems as though God wants me stretch myself and move beyond my fear, because lately He has been putting situations before me in which i see a very practical need on the part of others, and the fact that people have been calling asking for meals to be brought in to certain members in need within our Christian circle of brothers of sisters. So, what do you say to someone calling with a real need that should be met......"No, i'm sorry. i'm too scared" ????

Yeah, right....."Pizza, anyone?" Only if i had unlimited resources maybe.

So, that really only leaves me with one option: Get over it already.

So if any of you out there have, or will be eating my cooking, and it's really bad or horrible, let's just all have a good laugh and move on. i have decided two things: Either maybe i'll get good at it, or people will just not call me for this type of service.....LOL!