Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Christmas goodies

I made all sorts of candy, coconut cake and snacks for Christmas. A new recipe I used is PUMPKIN FUDGE. I didn't tell anyone it was Pumpkin till after they'd tasted it. It's delicious, but if I'd said Pumpkin they wouldn't have even tasted. I just called it Blonde Fudge


PUMPKIN FUDGE

3 cups sugar
3/4 cup melted butter
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 Tablespoons corn syrup
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 (12-oz) package white chocolate morsels
1 (7-oz.) jar marshmallow creme
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1 teaspoon vanilla


Stir together first 6 ingredients in a 3 1/2-qt. saucepan over med. high heat, cook, stirring constantly till mixture comes to a boil. Cook, stirring constantly until a candy thermometer registers 234 (soft-ball stage).

Remove pan from heat. Stir in remaining ingredients till well blended. Pour into a greased aluminum foil-lined 9-inch square pan. (I used the new product, Renolds non-stick Pan Lining Paper, with the parchment side up. Love that and also the Reynolds non-stick foil. Saves a lot of cleaning.) Let stand 2 hours or till completely cool. Flip the fudge out onto a large cutting board and slice into small pieces with a sharp knife. I have a Henckle's 12-inch chef's knife that I use for certain chores and it works great. Sharp cuts, not raggedy.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Old Boots Recycled


White Chocolate Raspberry Cake


I get a magazine, Southern Lady from a woman at church brought back when she visits Alabama relatives. On the cover of one is a 6-layer White Chocolate Raspberry Cake. I knew I had to try this one and it turned out great. Here's the recipe:

WHITE CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY CAKE

4 (1 oz.) squares white baking chocolate
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 1/2 cups cake flour
1 TBSP. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp. vanilla
8 egg whites
1 (18-oz.) jar seedless raspberry preserves, thinned with 1 TBSP. water
1 recipe White Chocolate Frosting 

Preheat oven to 325.

Grease and flour three 8-inch cake pans; set aside

In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt white chocolate squares in microwave on high for 30-second intervals, stirring after each, until melted. Set aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and shortening at med.-high speed for 3 minutes. Gradually add sugar; beat 4 min.

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed, blending well after each addition.
Add vanilla and melted white chocolate, beating to combine. Add egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Spoon batter in prepared pans.

Bake 40-50 min. or till a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min, remove to wire racks and cool completely.

Slice cake layers in half horizontally to make 6 layers. Place 1 layer, cut side up on a cake plate; spread with 1/4 cup raspberry preserves, omitting preserves on top of last layer. Spread White Chocolate Frosting on top and sides of cake. Garnish with raspberries and chocolate curls.

WHITE CHOCOLATE FROSTING:
8 (1 oz.) squares white baking chocolate
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
8 cups confectioners' sugar
In a medium microwave-safe bowl, melt white chocolate squares and cream in microwave on high for 30-second intervals, stirring after each, until melted and smooth. Cool completely.
In a large bowl combine white chocolate mixture, butter and vanilla. Beat at med. speed until smooth. Gradually add confectioners' sugar, beating till light and fluffy.

I have my own raspberries growing and gathered enough fresh raspberries to garnish. Raspberries are really easy to grow. You might want to get plants - can even grow in your flower bed.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Summertime chores

Busy time of the year. Canning tomatoes, freezing corn, picking blueberries. Grew a different bean this year, Rattlesnake beans. They're absolutely delicious. Was able to get the seed at a local hardware/seed store in our small city that's been in business for 50-60 years and still run by the original owner. I've picked blackberries and frozen lots of the juice to make blackberry jelly. I made Zucchini Bread this morning. It's like banana bread, date nut bread, more like cake really.  Grated zucchini makes it moist. I had  grated zucchini left over and made fried zucchini patties. Into two cups zucchini grate small amount onion, add one beaten egg, 2-3 Tbsp. flour (to bind it) and 1/4 cup grated Cheddar. Have oil in iron frying pan sizzling hot, use both hands to form a patty (won't hold together completely but when it hits hot oil it will) and place in pan. Put lid on pan. When very brown on one side turn over patty. (They're fragile so don't turn them till they're well browned). Cook till browned on other side.  Place patties on a cake cooling rack over newspapers (to catch grease). The rack will keep them crisp; in a plate they'd get soggy on one side.  HINT: All fried items should be placed on a rack. Also cornbread,  as it keeps it crispy too. My cake cooling racks are indispensable in my kitchen. Granny Bett

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Angel Food Cake

I'd made banana pudding which used 4 egg yolks and had 4 whites left. Thought I'd make Angel Food cake, checked my recipe and it called for 2 1/2 cups egg whites. Do you have any idea how many egg whites it takes to make 2 1/2 cups? I'll answer that - 14 large eggs, that's how many. I had no idea!  I went ahead and made it; turned out well. Won't be making that cake again soon. I now have 10 yolks to do something with (I already had 4 whites, had to break two more eggs to get enough whites, hence the 10 yolks)

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

On The Farm

We have a registered Kikko buck goat borrowed to breed our female goats.  They all delivered one or two babies  each 6 or 8 months ago.  And now - we've kept Larry (the male goat) too long and they were bred again. We had no idea we were expecting babies. They don't look pregnant. Went to the barn this morning, there were two. This afternoon another female had two. At this rate of multiplication we could be covered up with baby goats. They sure are cute though. And you always want females; can't build a goat herd with males. The four babies so far are 3 males, one female. I'm just glad the mamas are okay and can feed them. Feeding goat babies a bottle several times a day is a real drag. I've done it and getting up in the middle of the night is no fun.   And you can't have goats contained in a pasture without an electric fence and sometimes the fence will have an electrical short and you have to walk the perimeter of the fence to find it. I walked about half of the pasture today and wouldn't you know it? I walked the total area and found the short in my last few steps. Will make that repair in the morning. Should have started walking at that point and could have saved a lot of steps.