Strawberry Shortcake

This is more of a rewrite of a post from my old blog, so all of the photos are old. So why am I posting it? Cuz it's another use for the basic white cake recipe I posted the other day. :)

No ingredient photo, sorry. Not sure where along the line that photo got separated from the pack, but it's gone now, no use dwelling on it, right?

You'll need 1-2 lbs of fresh strawberries, about a cup of sugar (maybe more, maybe less), a tub of cool whip (or you really could whip up some fresh whipped cream, not real necessary, though), and a package of cream cheese. Oh, and a cake of some kind. The basic white cake recipe I linked to above works AWESOME for this. But you could just as easily use a frozen pound cake, or an angel food cake from your market's bakery, or I GUESS you could use some of those really nasty tasting little sponge cake cups that markets always seem to have on a shelf right next to the fresh strawberries. (Have you ever eaten one of those things? Gag. I'll eat the strawberries by themselves with a spoon first, thanks.)

Yummmmmm! Start by rinsing your strawberries. Cut off the tops and slice them up however you want. I normally slice them into quarter segments.

Then sprinkle them with about a cup of sugar and mix it all up. More or less, depending on how sweet your berries are and how sweet you like them to be. Yeah, you'll have to actually taste one to know. Cooking is so unpleasant, isn't it? ;)

Put the bowl of sugared strawberries into the fridge for a couple hours. This is a very necessary step. Why? Because you are macerating the strawberries. That sugar is not only going to make the berries sweet, but it is going to pull SOOOOOO much juice out of them and make a yummy 'sauce' for them, too! :D And yup, the photo of the finished strawberries apparently ran off with the ingredients photo. Oh well.

Meanwhile, bake your cake and make your cream. Put the whipped cream and the cream cheese in a large bowl and mix them up until smooth and totally combined. You can do this by hand or use a mixer...doesn't really matter. Hand mixing is better for your arm muscles, though! ;)

I really miss my red spoonula...I think it disappeared with the rest of the photos for this post. Its blue and green brothers are still in my drawer, though....*tears*

When you're ready to serve, put a slice of cake on a plate, and top with a few spoonfuls of the strawberries. Make sure to include lots of the juice to soak into the cake!

Put your cream mixture into a Ziploc bag and trim off a corner and pipe some of it over the strawberries.

Top with a few more strawberries, and make sure to spoon lots of the juice over the whole thing.

NOMMMMMMMMM!

Apple Cinnamon Cake

This is the first of what I'm sure will be half a dozen follow ups to my basic white cake recipe post.

Grease your pan with margarine (or butter, I guess). Peel, core and thinly slice 3 medium apples--any kind you like. Layer half the apples on the bottom of your baking dish. Sprinkle about 1/4-1/2 cup (yeah, I don't measure...just be generous) of brown sugar over the apples. Add about 1-2 tbsp of ground cinnamon to the dry ingredients in the cake batter. You could also toss in some nutmeg or ginger or heck, even pumpkin pie spice would rock. Layer the rest of the apples on top of the cake batter, and again, sprinkle with 1/4-1/2 cup of brown sugar.

Bake as directed.

Basic White Cake

Pretty basic recipe for white cake. I didn't write it, and I don't remember where I got it, honestly. I've been using it for about 6 years now, though, and it rocks. :) It's amazingly light, yet substantial. It's sooooooo utterly moist (although if I recall correctly, I edited the recipe to include milk, because the original was almost the texture of cornbread). You can alter it in any number of ways, and it's always perfect.

Sorry, no photos, as I haven't made it plain in a couple months. I'll post some follow-ups to this recipe in the next few days with a few other ideas that work well with this recipe. :)

What you need:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine (I really think the original called for butter? But I use Country Crock for almost everything, so....)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (add more if you'd like. I never measure, so I'm sure I always do. LOL!)
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease and flour an 8x8" or 9x9" baking pan, I use a Pyrex.

Cream the sugar and margarine together. Add the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Combine the two mixtures, and then mix in the milk till combined.

Pour into the pan, and bake for 30-45 mins, or until a toothpick inserted half way between the edge and the center comes out dry.

*Edited to add: I found photos that I posted on my old blog when I posted Strawberry Shortcake the first time!*

BBQ Meatballs

One of my all-time favorite things! Sooooo yummy & SOOOOOOOOO easy!!!!

A sudden craving for these came over me this morning, so I just had to make them for lunch today. :)

It's basically the same recipe I'd use for meatloaf (only for meatloaf I'd use a mixture of ground meats) or salisbury steak, only shaped into meatballs. :)

What you'll need:

Hamburger--About 2 pounds, but you could use more if you wanted to make more; seasoned bread crumbs; salt & pepper; one medium onion (feel free to use any color you have); 3 cloves of fresh garlic; one egg; ground cinnamon; Montreal Steak Seasoning by McCormick.

Not present for picture day: Soy & BBQ sauces. My bad!

Throw the hamburger into a bowl and grate the onion with a box grater directly into the hamburger (you want all the juice, etc., too). Make garlic paste and add it to the bowl as well. Add a palmful of grill seasoning, the egg, a dash of cinnamon, about 2 tbsp of soy sauce and about a cup of the bread crumbs to the bowl. Mix it all up with your hands, but don't over-mix it, as it'll make the meat tough.

Turn the meat out onto a cutting board (or counter, whatever), and divide it evenly in half repeatedly until you have 32 equal portions (you could absolutely make them larger or smaller, these will be about 2-3 bites each). Roll the portions into balls.

Heat up a skillet (I used a non-stick skillet, but it really doesn't matter too much) over medium heat and plop a few in the pan--do NOT over crowd the pan!! I do batches of about 6. Brown one side, flip, brown the other, flip, brown another, etc. I usually only do 3 sides. You're going to bake them, so don't worry about cooking them through, just make them a little crunchy on the outside. Remove the meatballs to some paper towels to drain the grease, and throw another batch in the pan. When the grease drains, move the meatballs to a foil-lined baking pan. Trust me...line your pan with foil. Your husband will thank me later when you make him do the dishes. ;)

When you get all of the meatballs browned, top them with your favorite BBQ sauce. Use whatever you like, really. I'm usually a fan of home-made sauces, but I really love Sweet Baby Rays for this.

Bake at about 375-400 degrees for about an hour. They will be all sorts of ooey gooey yummy when you pull them out.

Yes, as you can probably tell, they were too good to keep people's hands off them, so I wound up taking photos after plates were dished. haha!

Serve over rice, with tooth picks as an appetizer, on hoagie rolls with swiss cheese, etc. NOM!

Garlic Paste

This is one of my favorite things to make just to have on hand. I used to buy garlic paste in a resealable tube, but then I saw someone on Food Network doing this about 7 or 8 yrs ago (I really want to say it was Rachael Ray?), so I tried it once, and I've been doing this ever since.

All you need is fresh garlic and coarse salt (nothing finer than kosher salt).

Just peel the garlic and cut the ends off (you probably don't have to cut the root ends off, but I always do). Then just keep mincing it till it's as small as you can get it.

Here's where the magic happens: Add a pinch of salt, right on top of the minced garlic. Run your knife through it some more. Lay your knife flat on top of the garlic and press down on the knife with your palm while moving it across the pile of garlic. I really hope that made sense? Just smash the ever-loving heck out of it. The salt will help smash it up like you wouldn't believe. If you feel you need to add more salt, feel free. A small pinch of salt will help tear up about 5 cloves of garlic, so that's a pretty good guideline. :)

Just keep going till it looks like this:

Click to see larger.

You can keep going if you want it even MORE fine, but this is usually fine enough for my purposes.

Throw it into ANYTHING you want to put garlic in--AWESOME in mashed potatoes! Just remember, it has some salt in it, so make sure you add it BEFORE you put any salt in your dish, and taste it before adding any additional salt. :)

My Favorite Blankie

So, I have this blanket. Affectionately known as "my pink blanket". My dad's aunt made it for me when I was 3 or 4, and it's been my favorite ever since. It's a hand-stitched lightweight linen quilt. Or, well, it was. Now, 25 yrs later, it's not much more than a rag, but it's still my favorite blankie. :)

The problem is, however, that my husband and my children ALSO love it. It's a favorite throughout the whole house. I almost never get to use it. It even went on deployment with my husband in 2003. And most other times his ship went out, for that matter. I brought it downstairs the other night to curl up with on the couch while my husband worked a late shift. The next day, I had my feet wrapped in it and my 5 year old demanded I pick my feet up and then flat-out stole it from me! That is how much it is loved around here.

Problem is, it's falling apart. Duh. But, every time I wash it, I find pieces of it in my lint trap. :( I really should have it professionally cleaned and put it away for safe keeping. But ya know what? I'd just miss it too much. Call me sentimental, but I can't bring myself to do it.

Tater Tot Casserole...or something kinda like it!

So, I need to go grocery shopping. Like, pretty bad. I had planned to go today, but I kept one of my kids home from school, and I have this hang up. I do NOT like to take kids or my husband with me. I spend way too much money when I take them, and it is SOOOOO much less stressful without them. haha! Bottom line: I didn't make it to the store today. Oh well.

I was fishing through my kitchen for something for dinner. My thought process went something like this: Hmmm...hamburger, steaks, pork cutlets, chicken breasts...all still frozen. Hrm. Out of rice....crud. Out of pasta, but I suppose I could make some quick home made pasta using Pastor Ryan's recipe/method. (Ok, OT...but his blog rocks, and I've never made ANY of his recipes that didn't totally rock, too.) But, I'm REALLY not in the mood to clean up that kind of mess tonight. *sigh* *looks around some more* Oh, there's Rice a Roni in my cupboard. WHY is there Rice a Roni in my cupboard? Where the heck did THAT come from? Yeah, not in the mood for Rice a Roni. Ummmmmm...

Ok, so you get the idea. My thought process wasn't real cohesive tonight. This is what I came up with...I took some photos, but no ingredient photos since I threw it together without much of a plan.

So my 'cooking' tonight went something like this:

"Suppose I ought to defrost SOMETHING. Hmm...Hamburger." (Hamburger into the microwave.)
"Ooh! Hot Rotel! Great!" (Rotel into the bowl!)
"Ooh! Southwest mix frozen veggies!!" (Veggies into the bowl!)

Hmmm...this could be awesome on tortilla chips...

"hmmm...I suppose if I make something spicy, the husband is gonna complain if there's no cheese." (shreds cheddar cheese.)

*BEEEEEEEP* (Puts still-half-frozen hamburger into a skillet to brown.)
"I should add some beef-ish flavor to that rotel veggie mix." (Tosses in a bullion cube.)
*drains & rinses now browned hamburger*
"Hmmm...should probably season the hamburger." (Tosses in a few tsp of Katherine's Taco Seasoning and about half a cup of water)
"Hmmm...should probably just mix it all together and serve it over rice or something." (Mixes the hamburger mixture with the Rotel/veggie mixture in the skillet, lets it boil a few mins.)

"Oh, I forgot. No rice. Great." *Fishes through the kitchen again*
*Remembers bag of tater tots that has been in freezer for the last 6 weeks.*
*Turns oven up to...well, where ever it landed...450, maybe?*
"Hmm I suppose I could cook this all together. OH! We can call it Tater Tot Casserole!!!!!!" (insert somewhat proud feeling here!) (Pours veggie/hamburger mix into the bottom of a foil-lined 9x13 baking pan.)
"Oh yeah, cheese for the husband." (Sprinkles a handful of cheddar over the meat/veggie mix. Tops with tater tots and presses them down into the hamburger/veggie mix to soak up the liquid during baking.)
*Throws the now exceedingly heavy tray into the oven.*
*Goes about her regularly-scheduled whatever it is she does.*
*Forgets about dinner.*

Almost an hour later....

"OH CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPP!!!" *Runs to the kitchen, pulls pan out of the oven...PERFECTION!* *WHEW!*
*Sprinkles with a bit of cheese because my husband will whine I didn't use any if he can't SEE it...*
*Cranks the oven to Broil and throws the pan back in for about 3 mins till cheese is bubbly.*

*Serves*

Ok, not in any way, shape or form healthy....but it was good, used up a bunch of stuff that had been sitting in my house since we moved in last month...and no one complained about it! That, my friends, is the very definition of a successful meal in my house!