More Saturday Baking

I know this is Monday but I was having sight issues over the wknd. So here I am now. Another Saturday and a Rudy Day wknd so I decided to try another cake for Christmas. This was Vanilla Wafer Cake. It turned out ok. It's not bad but not my favorite I don't think. I also learned that I need more butter and flour in the bundt pan b/c it fell apart tyring to come out. Didn't get any Rudy day stuff done so that's dissapointing. It was as vanilla flavored as I thought it would be.
It's also a new start Monday for me. I need to start watching my food, I have gained weight, uugg, and have been listening to Fly lady, she has a lot of good idea. First baby step is to drink more water, I know I am underhydrated so off to drink more water. Here is the recipe:
Vanilla Wafer Cake
1C butter (2 sticks)
2 c sugar
6 eggs
12 oz box of vanilla wafers crushed
1c pecans chopped
1/2c milk
1 t. vanilla extract

cream butter and sugar tog. Add eggs one at a time beating after each. Add remaining ing. Pour into greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 325 for 1 1/2 hrs. Let cool in pan before removing.

Baking on a Saturday

I like to bake however I often am quite the mess when I do bake. I make a huge mess and sometimes mess up what I am making. Today was a good example of that day. I started off w/ the idea of making a carmel apple cake. I started reading over the recipe only to realized I wrote that I needed butter but not how much. This came from a recipe I copied somwhere so no way to check. I googled it and dind't see somethign similar so i went to my back up Gooseberry Patch Country Baking cookbook. There were 2 different Apple cakes so I finally decided on which one. Apple-Oatmeal Coffee Cakes. Started measuring out ingredents and realized I dumped in double the amount of cinnamon I needed. Oops started to pull some out off the top of the flour. Looked at my recipe to see the next ing. to see that Iwas looking at the one for Walnut pumpkin bread. Oops again. I compaired the 2 and saw I also put in too much allspice. Pulled some of that out also. Thankfully I caught it before I use something else I should not have and had to start over. This time I covered up the wrong recipe so I wouldn't do that again. Baked them in 2 mini bundt pans and in a pan that makes 4 mini jack-o-lanterns cakes. you don't see the faces in the cake but I wanted mini loafs b/c if I liked it I will make more for the teachers w/ the candy corn dishrags. I am still looking for a mini loaf baking pan. Well they turned out wonderful!! I am going to make these again. Soon... Here is the recipe.

Apple-Oatmeal Coffee Cake
1C flour
3/4t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/4 t both allspice and cinnamon
1c sugar
1c quick cooking oats
1/2c oil
1 egg
1t vanilla
1c apples cored and chopped (I used granny smith)
1/3c nuts chopped (i used walnuts)

Mix tog. dry ing. Add remaining ing. Mix will be think. pour into greased 8x8 pan. Bake at 350 for 35 min.

Candycorn and peanuts

Unlike our favorite Nick Jr video where Moose sings "I don't like candy corn" one thing I love about fall is Candycorn and those little pumpkins. I especially love mixing candycorn and peanuts. Yum!!! I have to hide it so that I won't eat it all at once and so the rest of the family won't eat it also. This is my first candycorn dishrag (thanks to tezsocks' blog). Monster E wants it to be ours and since it's the first it will be. I plan to make more to give to friends and teachers. I made it in a day so hopefully I can get a few done easily. So go get some candycorn and peanuts and enjoy fall.

An unplanned Rudy Day

So Sunday Sept. 12th I had a unplanned Rudy Day. Monster E was sleeping, Hubby was sleeping, the other boys were at friends and the house was quiet. I found my Christmas card box, opened the screened door in the kitchen to enjoy the cooler weather, lit a Christmas candle and got to work. I didn't get nearly as many done as I had hoped but I got some done. It takes a while to finish eash one. I don't have the inside worked out yet but to make the background of the snowglobe I put covered the inside cover w/ a 2 sided piece of paper w/ the Christmas print facing inside. I will use a smaller piece of the same paper as a backgroud to what ever stamped text I end up using. Any way what was in each snowglobe is different and the glitter shakes around in it. It was a nice, relaxing way to spend part of the day.

Weekly Menu

Now that the boys are back in school I am back to try my hand and menu planning. I am making a list of things that everyones likes and putting them in a seperate cookbook/notebook to pull ideas from. If it is something I want to try from a cookbook I list it on a notecard under the right section then note what cookbook and page. I worked out a plan for 2 weeks (weekends not included) and will work from that. I set a meat for each day (ie Mon-Chicken, Tues-Groundbeef, Wed-Pasta) then work from there how I am going to cook it and what the sides will be. Here is what I have for this week and next.
Mon-holiday Pizza
Tue-ranch chicken w/ noodles and corn
Wed-ha cha cha
Thur-Pork Chops w/ broccoli casserole
Fri-Baked Ziti

Mon-Beef steaks w/ green beans
Tues-pretzel chicken, noodles, broccoli
Wed-meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn
Thur-pork cops w/ ?? some side to be determined
Fri-stuffed spaghetti pie

It's so much easier for me to shop and plan ahead when I make a meal plan. now to stick with it.

Happy eating

Back to School

Well it's that time of year again. Back to school. Monster will be in 1st grade and despite the fact that he has some issues being still
he is really excited. BT has decided that 4th grade will be borning.
He will be in a all boys class this year so, after she gets back from maternity leave, he will have the same teacher his big brother had in 4th and 5th grade. Big Man will be in 6th grade, he is a big Middle Schooler. He is excited about the change. Lockers, changing classes, new friends (He doesn't know any one in any of his classes). It's going to be a full year in our house.
With the start of them in school it's the start of new stuff for me as well. I can start focusing on the Holiday Grand Plan, Holiday House Work Plan and generally getting my house back after the long summer. I hope to start stocking some freezer foods also.
Here's to Fall, now where is teh cooler weather?