Carrot Cake!

It's guest blogger time again. I have a wonderful friend that I met via the Knot. Her name is also Jess!

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Hello there! My name is Jess, and I love baking! If I go a week without baking
something, it’s very unusual. I never really write about it, so this is a first for me.
My husbands birthday was the 14th, and he told me he wanted a carrot
cake....something I’ve never made before. I freaked out a little when I asked his mother
for the recipe because she told me “it’s kind of hard to make, are you sure you just don’t
want me to do it?”. Of course, I told her no, I was up to the challenge! So here we go!

Carrot Cake

2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3 large eggs
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups grated carrots
1 (8oz) can crushed pineapple, drained
1 (3 1/2 oz) can sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts

Creme Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 (3oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 (16oz) package powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanila

A couple notes -
I couldn’t find a can of sweetened flake coconut, so I bought a bag of it and just
measured it out. 3.5 oz comes out to be just about 1 cup.
I also bought whole walnuts and chopped them using my food processor. It was
cheaper than buying ones that were already chopped.
And, I forgot to get grated carrots, so I took baby carrots that I had at the house and
chopped those up in the food processor as well.

Obviously, you should make your cake first.
I find it helps to get all your ingredients out and set them in one place.

Preheat your oven to 350*
Grease&flour (or cheat and use bakers joy like I did) a 9x13 pan and set aside.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Set aside.
In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer) beat the eggs. Then add in the sugar,
vegetable oil, buttermilk, and vanilla and mix well.
It should look like this when you’re done:

Add the flour mix, and beat at a low speed until it is well blended. Make sure to scrape
the sides of your bowl a few times to get it all mixed in.
It should look along these lines:

Fold in (with a spatula or wooden spoon) the carrots, pineapple, and coconut. Fold just
enough so that is all gets mixed in well.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan,

 and pop it in the oven for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, cover your pan loosely with a sheet of aluminum foil and then bake for
10-15 more minutes. (the foil prevents the top from browning too much).
Your cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let cool, then frost with the frosting!
Mine looked like this when it was all done:

To make the frosting, mix your butter&cream cheese together with a mixer (or in your
stand mixer) until it’s nice and creamy. (If you’re using a stand mixer, don’t use the wire
whisk attachment ... it just gets stuck in all the little slots and it’s annoying.)
Then add the powdered sugar and vanilla and mix until it’s all nice and smooth. (Be
careful after adding the powdered sugar not to turn your mixer on super high, or disaster
will strike!)
The icing should look along these lines when it’s all mixed together:

Ice your already baked&cooled carrot cake, and make it look pretty like this:

Cut and enjoy!

Verdict -
According to my husband, the cake was a “winner”. He wouldn’t say much other than “it
tastes good”. So take that as you will. I don’t like carrot cake, so I didn’t personally eat
any.
I had about a cup of icing leftover. You could probably cut out the extra 3oz of cream
cheese and cut back on your powdered sugar to make less, or just really pile on the
icing on your cake. I stored mine in a container and put it in the freezer.

The cake really was pretty easy to make. It took a little bit longer to bake than I thought
it would, but I took mine out a few minutes early so that it wouldn’t get dry. It’s a nice
alternative to a regular chocolate or yellow cake.
Try making it yourself and see what you think!

Porcupine Meatballs

Hi!

I am doing a crockpot meal today!

It is called porcupine meatballs. My mother made this for us when I was growing up and I love it. The ingredients are way simple.

2lb Hamburger
7oz minute rice
Worcestershire sauce
2 cans family size tomato soup.

Easy right?

Here is how you make it.

Place the hamburger in a large bowl.

Then pour a bunch of Worcestershire sauce on it.

Then mix. You have to do this part by hand and it is icky. I really hate touching raw meat. A lot. But I so it anyways. Just be sure you take off your rings.

Then pour in the rice!

Then mix.

It feels as weird as it looks.

Then you form little balls with it.

Isn't My apron beautiful?

Place them in circles in the crock pot.

Then I added more rice.

More rice is nice.

Then I added more Worcestershire sauce for fun.

Then set it in the fridge overnight.

First thing the next morning, pour in the soup! Do not add any water. The liquids of the meat will be just fine.

Family size!

After one can

After two cans.

Then place it on low for around 8 hours or so.

Enjoy!

Here is my bowl!.

Day Zero 10/15/11

Hi, I have decided to start the Day Zero Project. I heard about it from a wonderful lady. Here is her blog. The Shapes of Life . I have written about her before. She is just that awesome. Also she has no idea I am writing this. If you stumble across this Nikki, hi?

OK so the point of that is to make a list of 101 things you want to accomplish in 1,001 days.

Sounds inspiring and fun. Let's see how this goes.

You can check out my progress via this link Monolayth.

I have not completed this list yet. Feel free to add stuff you think I should do in the comments.

Also I think I will write about it every Saturday. So yeah.

Friday check in 10/14/11

It is that time again.

I had been really bad about my eating habits and exercise habits this week. I had spent basically the entire week running errands and completely busy. Excuses right?

I made my bed and I have to sleep in it too. I gained 2lb this week. Went from 239 to 241. BUT I lost another inch off my waist! YAY. 41 inch waist measurement and 51 inch hip measurement.

I also went in to a bra shop to get myself fitted. things have been changing so much and my old bras were no longer even mildly comfortable.

I was wearing a 44G. Well they put me in a 40H. What a dramatic difference! They were so comfortable and the middle section right between the two cups. It layed flat. It has NEVER done that before. I could not be happier.

Ladies even if you think you are wearing the correct bra size. Go get fitted. You may be surprised.

Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter

Braided Sweet Bread.

Hi!

Since I have upped my exercise I have found myself more hungry than I used to be. I have decided to combat that today by baking.  Sounds silly right? It is more calories burned and I don't have to eat what I have baked. It gives me a sense of accomplishment.

I have also found that while I feel hungry more it takes less to satisfy me. Awesomeness right?

So I saw some sweetbread recipes on pintrest and decided I wanted to make bread. I did not like the recipes I found. they contained ingredients I did not have like lemon zest or way too much of what I have like 12 eggs.

I did finally find a wonderful little recipe for braided sweet bread. It looked amazing. And it looked like what I wanted. So I made it.

Here is the recipe.

• 1/4 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups warm milk
• 1 package dry yeast
• 4 tablespoons margarine, melted
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4 1/2 cups flour (use more to knead)
• 1 beaten egg

Directions:

1. Mix together water, warm milk, and yeast.
    
2. Add melted margarine, sugar, salt and flour.
    
3. Knead dough, place in bowl, cover and let rise in warm place 1 hour.
    
4. Divide dough into 6 parts.
    
5. Shape dough into 6 long pieces (length of baking sheet).
    
6. On baking sheet, braid 3 of the pieces together like you would hair, then braid remaining 3 pieces 
   together.
    
7. Cover and let raise 1 more hour.
    
8. Brush beaten egg on top and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

***

So I combined the milk into a pot with the water. I set this to warm.

While that happened I combined the sugar salt and flour.

And melted the margarine. Normally I would use Butter but it is what the recipe calls for....

In the meantime I had heated up the milk way too hot for yeast to live in. So I poured it into the mixing bowl and went and did some cleaning. When I came back it was the perfect temperature.

I then added the yeast to the milk and water mixture. I took a pic while the mixer was going.

Then I added the margarine.

Then the flour sugar& salt mixture.

This is the point where I started to forget I needed to take pictures. Sorry. Next time I make this I promise to come back and ass pictures of the steps I forgot.




It seemed a little too tacky still so I added another half cup of flour.  then I set it to rest all covered.

This is what it looked like inside the bowl.

Please forgive me I forgot to take pics after it rose and the whole braiding process.


I rolled it out and it was really easy like working with playdoh.



Here it is all braided.

I covered it and let it rise an hour.

Here it is an hour later.

Then i beat an egg. (it was naughty) and brushed it on the bread.

It's all shiney!

Then I baked it at 350 for 30 minutes.

I forgot to take a picture after it came right out of the oven.

I did frost it with some cream cheese frosting while it was still hot.

Looks good right?


***
The verdict. Was super easy to make. (I say that a lot) Smells wonderful. Tastes better.

I think next time I might add raisins or other fruit. I may even braid in some cherry pie filling.

Friday check in 10/7/11

hey, It is Friday.

So I weighed myself shortly after getting up. I was at 241. ick. I weighed myself a few minutes ago and I was back at 240. Still ick.

I am right were I was last week. My waist measurements and hip measurements are the same. I know things have been a little crazy this week. but I still managed to make it to the gym everyday. I know I was exercising less on the non-swimming days. I have been tired.

This last week was filled with me getting up early and taking kids to dr appts. Three boys leads to a busy life. I take them all on separate days so that I don't feel overwhelmed and I can give them my full attention.

Excuses right?

I will just have to work harder next week. I will get better. I will lose by next week.

I am still feeling down about this and I guess the only thing that will make me feel better is to go exercise.

Campfire cooking!

Today is a guest blogger day. We have a wonderful meal from Jessica at Points of Interest. (I wanted to add another link just to ensure it works. )

Hi!  I'm Jessica from Points of Interest.  Normally I write about hiking and traveling, but I also love to cook.  I combined them into a post on cooking simple but delicious food while camping (because hot dogs and s'mores are totally out this year) for Jess and her readers!   I'm going to make chicken foil dinners and banana boats.

Chicken foil dinners:
They're really very basic, but they take a little more effort than sticking a hot dog or brat on a stick and toasting it over the fire.  But the effort is worth it.

Start with two pieces of foil.  Get a piece of paper towel damp and put it between.  This helps keep things from burning, and helps everything cook evenly.  You could skip this step if you didn't have paper towel, but it's better if you don't.

Cut up your chicken into cubes or strips.  Peel and cut any veggies.  I like to use carrots and potatoes.  Other good ones are onions, peppers, and cherry tomatoes.  Pineapple is a tasty option too, if you have it!  Season as desired.  I used some seasoned salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a sprinkle of Italian seasoning.  Then plop everything onto the middle of your foil.

Close up your foil into a little pouch. 



Carefully set it on the campfire.  (Please pretend my grill is a fire.  October is a little chilly for camping in Minnesota!)  The best place to put it is over hot coals, not direct flames.  If you have a grill over part of your fire pit, you can put it there, but it will likely take a little longer to cook.  I put mine on the grill rack because my fire was really hot and I didn’t have time to let it burn down a bit.

(Right after I took this picture, I realized I forgot to actually season the food.  I ran back out and opened everything to season.  Oops!) Let it cook for about 15 minutes directly in the fire, 20 on the grill, then flip, and cook for 10-15 more minutes.  Use long tongs or two sticks to flip!  Be careful, it's hot in there ;)  Once you think it's done, pull it out, and very carefully open it.  Check to make sure the chicken is cooked through (no pink!), and your potatoes are soft enough.  If they are, then you are good to go.  Enjoy!

Banana boats:
These are a delicious alternative to traditional s'mores.  They're easy, they're fun, and they're just as awesomely sticky and messy as s'mores (sorry parents, you don't get out of your kids sticky fingers with these). 

CAREFULLY peel the the 1/4 of the peel along the inside of the curve down (use a knife to get it started at the top).  DO NOT DETACH YOUR PEEL. 

 

Carefully cut out the wedge of banana directly below your peeled peel.

Stuff with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows.

Replace your peel as best as you can, then wrap tightly in foil.

Put on the fire (again, the coals are the best) for about 5 minutes. 

Take out, carefully unwrap, let it cool for a couple minutes, and eat!  It's easiest to eat this one with a spoon, scooping directly out of the peel.

Looks gross, tastes delicious!   And a bit healthier than s’mores, which is bonus for me.