Staying Warm

Hey, y’all!  What did ya’ think about the outcome of Groundhog’s Day?  I know I was bummed about it.  Not that I believe a furry little rodent controls the weather (is a groundhog a rodent??), but it sure would have been a nice to have him on my side.  I hate winter!!!  I’ve been anticipating spring since December 26.  It happens that way every year for me.  I go straight from thinking, “Merry Christmas,” to, “Is is spring yet?”  I’m sick of winter coats, short days, cold weather, barren trees, and brown grass.  I need green!!!  (I also need to be able to kick my children out of the house for a while so they can burn off some energy.)
Luckily, I live in Louisiana, where, within a week’s time, we usually experience temperatures ranging from 28 to 68 degrees.  Thank goodness for those “68” days.  I try to enjoy them as much as possible.  On the cold days, I pass the time by dreaming about what I’m going to do when spring does arrive:  plant tomatoes & squash, raise some more chicks, spruce up the flowerbeds, shop for Easter dresses, take annual spring pictures of the monkeys, set up the pool, cook on the deck… I can’t wait!
Yesterday was a particularly cold one.  I’m pretty sure the mercury didn’t make it past 35 degrees.  Brrrrr!  The best way I know to stay warm on days like that is to cook up a big ol’ pot of soup.  A steamy bowl of delicious soup always does the trick, warming me up from the inside out.
I don’t know about y’all, but sometimes I get in a soup rut, bouncing back and forth between staples:  taco soup and potato soup.  But last week we feasted on a new recipe I found on Pinterest. It was so yummy and very easy to prepare, so I thought I’d be neighborly and pass the recipe link on to y’all.

It’s called 20 Minute Italian, Turkey, Bean, & Spinach Soup, and it was pinned from rachelcooks.com.
Now don’t let the the “S” word in the name scare you off.  The spinach becomes so soft and tender and soaks up the flavors of the broth.  It’s just delicious!  And if you are feeding hard-headed people who refuse to try spinach, well, they can just eat around it, because there’s not really all that much spinach in the pot.
Without a doubt, the best part about this recipe has to be the “20 Minute” part.  I am all about simple suppers lately, and this dish fits the bill.  The only actual cooking involved is browning some onion.  How hard is that?
So next time you’re feeling chilled to the bone, why don’t you try out this new recipe?  Then kick back in front of the fire and think warm, happy, spring thoughts.  It’ll be here before we know it.
Lindsey

Sour Attitude

About three weeks ago I had a crazy idea.

A really crazy idea.

I decided I needed something else to do in my “spare” time.

Like eat bread.

Fresh bread.

Homemade bread.

Sourdough bread!

For some time now, I’ve been curious about sourdough “starter.”  I’d seen it called for in recipes, but I had no idea what it was or where it came from or even what it looked like!

Hmm… time for a little research.  Thanks to the wonder that is the internet, I educated myself on the ins and outs of making sourdough starter. Then, I plunged headlong into making a starter of my very own.  (See, I told you it was a crazy idea.)

I decided I wanted to do it the most basic way possible.

Flour + Water.

That was it.

I fed my magical mixture of goo more flour and water twice a day for the next three weeks, and finally…success!  I had grown my own culture of yeast.

Let the baking begin!

I chose to begin by baking a country-style sourdough round.

With a dark, crispy crust on the outside…

…and a moist, soft, chewy texture on the inside.

What about the flavor?

Well, thanks to the slow, overnight fermentation, the taste was fabulously acidic.  Delightfully tangy, just like sourdough should be.

Yum!  I can’t wait to try more recipes with my beloved starter.  I’m thinking I’ll make rolls next.

Lindsey

P.S.  If any of my friends would like some starter, y’all know where to find me.  I’ve got plenty to share.

Wall-E Party

It’s birthday season at the Allen household again.  I admit I always look forward to planning and preparing for the monkeys’ birthday parties.  Birthday parties are the perfect excuse for me to get crafty and creative with food and decorations.  Even though things get a little crazy, and I get a little stressed on party day, I always insist on taking the party theme to the extreme.

Let’s do a quick run-through of Ty’s previous party themes.

2005 – Bon Voyage!  We were leaving on Ty’s first cruise on his first birthday.

2006 – Mexican Fiesta 

2007 – Pink Panther Party  Who says pink is just for girls?

2008 – Pirate Party

2009 – Puppy Party

2010 – Super Mario Bros.

2011 – Angry Birds

This year Ty went back and forth between several different themes before finally settling on Disney’s Wall-E.

Hmmm… Wall-E.  It’s one of Ty’s favorite movies, but how in the world does one design a party around such?  Well, if you know anything about the movie, Wall-E is set in the future, and a lot of the movie takes place in outer space.  So I decided to use space as the inspiration for the food and decorations.  I also chose to stick with shades of yellow and black since that’s what color Wall-E is.

First let me just say that this was the party that almost wasn’t.  Turns out June is not an easy time to plan a party.  All of Ty’s friends were super busy with all-star baseball games and practices.  At the last minute we cancelled, then rescheduled and downsized the party.  Next year I’ll try to have his party closer to his actual birthday.

Welcome to the party!  Here’s the decorations I put together to welcome the party guests.

Let’s begin the party at the food table.  ‘Cause, let’s face it, the kids may be preoccupied with presents and games, but the adults are only concerned with the food!  Like I said earlier, I stuck with a yellow and black color scheme, and I kept the space theme in mind when planning the dishes.

Fruit and veggie trays are pretty self-explanatory…  If you know nothing about Wall-E, the whole point of the movie was finding signs of vegetation growing on abandoned planet Earth.  EVE was the name of Wall-E’s robot-friend.

Craters…Crisp eggroll wrapper cups filled with chicken and crab salads. (Usually I would have made the salads myself, but I took the easy way out and just purchased these at the deli counter.)  I was really pleased with how the eggroll wrappers turned out.  I cut uncooked wrappers into squares, pressed them into mini muffin tins, sprayed them lightly with cooking spray, and baked them at 350 for about 7 minutes.  They turned out beautifully golden brown and crisp.  They’re the perfect vehicle for all sorts of fillings, savory or sweet.  Be sure to try these for your next party.

My Mini Moon Pies are simply Ritz Cracker and peanut butter sandwiches covered with melted chocolate.

My sweet friend Ellen supplied a yummy black-eyed pea dip for the Space-Chips.

The Meat-eors were meatballs simmered in alfredo sauce.  (Yes, I took another shortcut here and used frozen meatballs.)

We also had Flying Sausages (the Tool Man’s homemade smoked venison sausage), Trash Cubes (peanut butter krispie treats), and Rocket Fuel (lemonade).

Looks like Cassie enjoyed her meal!

Now for the cake.  Not exactly the cake I had intended to make for Ty.  I had every intention of making a replica of Wall-E, but I simply ran out of time.  Instead I went with a very artistic (and simpler)interpretation of Wall-E and EVE.  I think Ty was pleased with his cake in the end.

In the movie, Wall-E finds one lonely little plant and keeps it in a boot.

Hard to believe, but I didn’t have a single birthday candle in the house.  Instead we just lit a match and stuck it in the cake.  Hey, it worked!

My sweet little girl went straight for the icing!  This monkey loves her sugar.

Presents!  I’m hoping this Ranger Rick subscription will encourage Ty to read.  I’m afraid he inherited his lack-of-love for reading from his mom and dad. Oh, well, if we survived, so will Ty.

The youngest party-goer.  Ty loves babies.

Party favors included Flying Saucers and Milky Way candy bars.

The birthday boy with all his pals.  I think they all had a great time!

Thanks for stopping by today and letting me share with you.  Now it’s time to start working on the next party.  It’s only a month away!

Lindsey

What’s New in the Bakery

I’ve got a little pop quiz for y’all today.

Don’t worry.  It’s an easy one.

Q:  What could possibly be better than moist, delicious cake?

A:  Moist, delicious portable cake!

I’m excited to introduce y’all to the newest member of my bakery menu.

Drumroll, please………

Cake Push Ups!

Aren’t these the cutest?!

How much fun could I have with these?  Imagine the possibilities.  The flavor combinations, the color combinations.  These could be tailored for any occasion: baby, birthday, graduation, holidays, etc. etc. etc.

Who needs a fork?  All you have to do is inhale the goodness!

So, if you’d like to serve some of these little cuties at your next party, just give me a shout.  They are $30 per dozen.

Lindsey

Betty Crocker

Hey y’all. All the baking going on around here lately hasn’t left much time for any extracurricular activities, but I do have some pictures of Miss Lucy to share with you today.  Although…these pictures do have to do with baking.

First, let me just say that the monkeys have been really great when it comes to the the new bakery.  Ty and Lucy love it when I tell them I have to go make a cake.  They pack up a sack of toys, some DVD’s, and a few snacks, and off we go!  Usually they spend the majority of our time down there outside hunting for “treasures” or rolling cars down the ramp at the backdoor.

One of the first nights we spent setting up the bakery, Lucy wanted to try her hand at dishwashing.  I think she got more water on her than on the dishes, though.  The next time she wanted to wash dishes, she asked me to take her clothes off so they wouldn’t get wet.

How do you like that cute little apron and baker’s hat Lucy is wearing? She loves them! She calls the set her “makery.”  I’m pretty sure “Santa” stitched them himself from a free pattern he found at Skip to My Lou.

One of Lucy’s favorite things to help out with in the kitchen is rolling pie crusts.  After I make my crusts and trim the edges I usually let her have the scraps.  I believe she could spend hours playing with the dough.  Sometimes when I’ve finished decorating a cake I give her a piece of the leftover fondant.  She has a blast with that too, although she’s not completely satisfied unless the fondant is pink.  Such a girl!

Maybe someday Lucy will be my number one baking assistant!

Lindsey

Cute Cookies

As promised, today I’m sharing some pictures of the Easter goodies the monkeys and I baked up last week.  I admit my motivation for making these treats was strictly for commercial purposes.  I wanted to get some cookie and cake pop experience under my belt, and I figured the holiday was the perfect excuse to get baking.  I was pleased with how everything turned out, but I’ve decided that given the choice between the two, I’d rather decorate cakes than cookies.  I just feel like I get a little more bang for my buck with cake…there seems to be more of a wow factor to me.

Anyway, on to the cookies.

First is my basket of chicks.  I cut orange M&M’s in half to make the beaks.

A plateful of flower power…  Once again I added yellow M&M’s for the flower centers.

Now the cake pops…

Instead of simply making them into balls, I decided to get a little creative and fashion some carrot-shaped pops.  I made the leaves using white chocolate. 

The monkeys really had a blast helping out with the cake pops.  Lucy was in charge of dipping the sticks into the chocolate, then Ty inserted the sticks into the carrots.  Me?  I dipped the carrots into the orange candy coating.  We made quite a team!

Just wanted to thank everyone for the amazing response to my announcement about the bakery yesterday.  I didn’t know I had so many fans.  Ha ha!  Y’all are great!

Also I wanted to let everyone know that I am aware that the HOT Rock blog is not working properly.  Hopefully I can get that fixed soon so that I can start posting my latest cake pictures over there.

Lindsey

Christmas 2011–Part I

Hello, everyone.  Hope y’all had a wonderful Christmas.  I know we did!  I'm beat, though.  Besides all of the hustle and bustle and goings and comings, we have been battling bugs around here.  Little Lucy felt absolutely miserable the whole weekend.  She had an “awful” ear infection according to the doc and ran “beaver” as high as 103!  Poor baby! When she just wants to lie around with her head on your shoulder, you know she’s feeling bad. Thankfully, she was on the upswing by Monday, but it looks like she’s shared her germs with me and Ty. Yuck!

We took so many photos over the holiday.  There’s just no way I could share everything with y’all at one sitting, so I’ve decided to split it up and just take things little by little.

My monkeys love to dress up.  Ty wore this elf costume last year when he assisted Santa at the restaurant.  He pulled it back out again this year and wore it around the house for three straight days!  When he finally took it off, Lucy seized the opportunity and donned it herself.

The Tool Man said she looked like a Christmas version of Friar Tuck.

Poor baby.  You can tell from her eyes that she just wasn’t feeling well.

I spent the entire day before Christmas baking.  I made a total of 8 cakes and pies.  Some were old favorites, and some were new finds from Pinterest.  Some were for our family, and some were for others.  For the most part the sweets turned out great, but I admit there were a couple of flops, all of which were new recipes.  When will I learn to stick to the oldies-but-goodies?

A little cooking lesson for you:  I wanted to show y’all what a pie crust should look like when it’s rolled out.  You see all those light spots in the crust?  That’s butter, my friends.  Wonderful, glorious butter.  As the pie crust bakes, the water in the butter evaporates, and the resulting steam creates pockets of air that make for a flaky texture.  Just thought I’d throw in a little science for y’all this morning.

The hits:  Sweet Potato Pie, Carrot Cake, Hershey Bar Cake, Coconut Cream Pie

The Misses:  Cinnamon Roll Cake and Tres Leches Cake.  They weren’t awful, just not worth trying again.  Tres Leches cake just sort of reminded me of wet, soggy cake, and as far as the Cinnamon Roll Cake goes, my old-faithful Honey Bun Cake recipe knocks it out of the park in both taste and ease!  I’ll have to share that with y’all another day.

Christmas Eve.

Time for bed.

You know what that means.

Time to put out some cookies for Santa!

This picture makes me laugh.  Ty was in his skivvies here, so he quickly wrapped up in a blanket to avoid any embarrassing pictures.  He’s learned these pics go directly to the blog.

To be continued…

Lindsey