Paczki Love

 We tried out a local bakery for paczki's this Shrove Tuesday. I thought they did a good job on them! It was funny to see the owner walk out with a tray of paczki. She was flour dusted from her neck to her toes. But, she had a big smile on her face.

Soffits Be Gone

 We decided to get rid of the soffits. What's next we don't know. Here are a few pictures of the process. Moving the conduit was a bear for Randy! He found a wasps nest up there too!

Wilton Roll Out Cookies

 I made roll out cookies for Valentine's Day. I was bound and determined to use that new cutter I had bought. I also bought meringue royal icing mix to try on the top of the cutouts. I have always just used a simple icing of confectioners sugar, water and corn syrup. I wanted to try an icing that would dry hard and not have to worry about layering and smearing occurring with the finished product. I made the icing too thick and it was hard to decorate with. Live and learn through your mistakes. Here they are. It was a half batch since it was just the two of us. They were delicious!

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Whole Wheat Sourdough English Muffins

 I used Betty Crockers recipe. I added some sourdough starter that I always have around. I used an old waffle iron to bake them. I have made several batches of these tasty beauties and the waffle iron continues to perform. When I tried using my All Clad waffle iron it caused it to overheat and stop working. Randy took it apart and pushed stuff around and got it working again. Needless to say I will not be using the All Clad waffle iron to make sourdough muffins anymore. Thank goodness for old fashioned non safety features of the ancient waffle iron.

Bean There Done That Lasagna

 Today I assembled a bean/mushroom/tomato sauce combination that I had in my freezer with a can of tomatoes/onions/garlic mixture I cooked on the stove top in the style of lasagna sauce. This is my new attempt to not abandon the bad recipe I found for mushroom chili. When I realized that the recipe wasn't going to be anything like chili but more of a sauce I decided not to spice it up with heavy chili flavor and consider what I would use it for instead. I originally thought it would be a good spaghetti sauce served over polenta. The problem with that is that Randy wouldn't help me eat that up. There was enough sauce for quite a few days of lone eating. More days than I cared for. So I just froze the mess to consider future options. I did actually make a small corn meal mush dish that I enjoyed the sauce on. But enough is enough. It was very flavorful with the pound of mushrooms in it.

My bean lasagna used up the mushroom and stovetop sauce I told Randy the beans were the protein. Of course there is also ricotta cheese, mozzarella and parmesan to boost the protein content. I want him to be prepared for the beans in the lasagna since that is a novel experience for us.

Here it is! As you can see we haven't tried it yet. I'll let you know soon.

September bounty 2021

 

Coffee Cake

 2 cups flour

2 t. baking powder

2 cups sugar

Mix together.

Mix in 2 or 4 cup container:

2 eggs

2t. vanilla

1/2 cup oil

Fill up container to 2 cup mark with milk

1 stick of butter, powdered sugar and cinnamon

Beat everything together until smooth.

Grease a 9X13 pan. Bake for 20-30 minutes. Check with toothpick for doneness at 20 minutes. Do not overbake.

When the cake comes out of the oven take a stick of butter and rub it over the cake until it melts. Soften stick on top of the oven while cake is baking. Sprinkle powdered sugar and ground cinnamon over the top.

Serve warm or cold.

Bake at 350 F. for 35 minutes.

Recipe from Lori Minger of Caseys Food.