Spent, Yet Filled Up

I returned from my trip to India spent and yet filled up.  

I was utterly exhausted from the 2 days of travel including riding down a fog-filled mountain to a train station, 

a look out the train door

riding on an old train for 7 hours, 

spending a few hours in Delhi- eating, shopping, riding in a rickshaw “auto”, 

savoring our last day with our friends – and then boarding a plane for the next 15 or so hours (India’s night through America’s night), 

and then a connecting flight from Newark to Nashville.  We were spent.

me and the girls

And yet, I was filled up.

Being with a family that I adore and dear friends,

having a ball with sweet, sweet girls,

exploring a far-off land,

listening, loving, taking in the tastes and sights.

Melinda buying mangoes for us

And then upon arriving home in the morning, I faced life:  piles of laundry, duties, busyness, and unfortunately some funky stomach thing.  

I had great aspirations of blogging about Indian food and non-Indian food we experienced on our trip.  My co-traveler, Matt, even suggested I devote the next month to writing about food from our trip. 

But the stomach bug, and jet lag, and re-entry has not brought the opportunities to create Indian dishes to share with you….yet.  I haven't had the stomach or the time to attempt making curry potatoes, dosas and chana paneer.

I have tried a couple of the the "non-Indian" dishes we enjoyed there: cabbage salad and the baked oatmeal that we ate at the Snader’s house in India, but my attempts weren’t yummy enough to post.  They tasted much better there and I must have done something wrong with the oatmeal, because Brent's was superb and mine was crumbly.  I will keep working on that recipe and will hopefully post it soon.

In the midst of trying to get my head back on straight and adjust to life on this side of the world, Dave had a birthday, Dave’s dad came for a few days to visit, my kids started school and I am preparing for my classes to begin in the coming days!  I was thinking about what to post first. I have been daydreaming of recipes and photos and stories intermittently while I have been tediously constructing syllabi and course assignments. 

Before it’s too far gone, I think I must share with you the treat I made for Dave’s birthday.

I made him Red Velvet Cake…of course. (If you haven't read about our Red Velvet Relationship and you want a laugh READ HERE).

I gave him the chance to opt for Coconut Cake this year, but he stuck with his regular.

He decided he really wanted it 2 days old.  It gets mushier and the frosting soaks in more after a couple of days.  So 2 day old Red Velvet was what he got.

His birthday landed on the "Meet the Teacher night", which was not that honoring to him.  So, I invited a few of his pals over for some late night snacks, cake, olympic watching and Farkle-playing. 

Farkle is one of the things I learned in India that I have brought back with me.

Have you ever played it?  It’s not an Indian game.  (You can buy it at Target.)  But my young friends, Asha and Anna taught us how to play, and the adults and children had a ball playing intense and fun-filled Farkle matches! It was a highlight of our trip and I knew my family would love the game too. It's a simple game of dice, counting, chance and strategy. A new favorite for us!

For Dave's gathering, I made:

Brazilian Limonada

Bruschetta

Guacamole with Chips & Salsa

Hanky Panky 

& Cake

I have posted about most all of these items except the Hanky Panky. 

I have to say, it’s pretty GROSS, in the yummy kind of way.

It is ugly, and fatty, and men LOVE IT (unless they are vegetarian, that is).

It’s a recipe my mom got when I was in high school from friends in Cleveland, Ohio.  They got the recipe from the Cleveland Newspaper.  Mom started making it as a party food.

It’s a meaty, cheesy bready appetizer.  It has a weird name: Hanky Panky. Scandalous, I know!

Dave looked up the definition of Hanky Panky and found that it is defined as:

1. questionable or underhanded activity

2. sexual dalliance

So, I’m not sure how this recipe fits this definition.  I guess it is a questionable activity to brown sausage, ground beef, velveeta cheese and mushrooms and pile it on rye cocktail bread. 

As I was doing some online searching for the reason for the interesting name of this recipe, I found this on about.com:

“Hanky Pankies, made with sausage, cheese, and a touch of Worchestershire sauce, have been a staple at Cleveland parties, tailgating events, and outdoor get-togethers for decades. Ask any Northeast Ohioan to name a quintessential Cleveland party food and you'll most likely hear 'Hanky Pankies.'

For an upscale variation of this sandwich, try the ones served at 87 West 2 at Crocker Park. They use chorizo and goat cheese.”

So…maybe it’s an Ohio thing.

And chorizo and goat cheese…yes! YUM!

I must try that!

Hanky Panky

1 lb. ground beef

1 lb. HOT ground pork sausage

1 lb. velveeta cheese, cubed

1 small can of sliced mushrooms, drained and chopped

1/2 tsp. oregano

1/4 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

cocktail rye bread (40ish pieces)

Brown meat.  Drain. Add cheese – stir until melted. 

Add remaining ingredients.

Spread a blob on cocktail rye.

Broil until melted and fully warmed.

 As I was making these, I kept saying, “I love you, Dave”.  I said, “this goes against what I believe in”. “Processed Cheese Product and 2 logs of meat all melded together”, “the things you do for love”. 

Of course I ate 2 of them, and they are really tasty, just not my typical fare.

  

One of the perks of this recipe is that you can make them ahead of time, freeze them on baking sheets, then pile them in Ziploc bags and pull them out to broil when you want to serve them.

I guess you do all kinds of things for love:  

like travel across the world,

or make cheesy-meaty snacks and Red Velvet cake,  

or pitch in to take care of kids to free your friend, or spouse, or daughter, or sister to go on an international trip (like my family and friends did),

or contribute financially to support a costly trip to India  (like so many friends did).

I am so grateful, so spent and so filled up.

Double-Digit Birthday Boy Celebrating!

My son is double digits! His birthday was Friday.  It’s hard to believe.  I can’t really remember life before Asher, but I certainly can’t believe I have a 10 year old, and that we are fast approaching adolescence!  I debated on whether or not to post about his birthday celebrating because I have already written about Strawberry Cake, his cake-of-choice.

But because he is my child who most likes a celebration in our family, I thought it would be fitting to share some of what we did for his day.

Our goal is to try to celebrate in a way that really honors the child, and isn’t too much work and doesn’t cost too much.  Intentional and simple is the goal.

We had a few of his friends over and had a scavenger hunt in the city. They set out into the city to FIND THE MISSING MUPPETS! (Asher loves the Muppets and loves adventure so it just made sense)! It was crazy-fun, 10 year old boy style. 

Gonzo, one of the "rescued muppets"

And they returned home for pizza, fruit kabobs and strawberry cupcakes (read HERE if you want the history of my son and strawberry cake).  This year I attempted to bring the theme into the cupcake by making these little Kermit toppers with an image I found online.  It was funny to see 24 little Kermits sticking out of pink cupcakes.

For the past few years, Asher has asked that I make a giant cookie (cookie cake) to take to his class on his day.  So, I made the requested giant cookie and we took it to his class to celebrate with his classmates.  The children were so fun and cute and excited.  One boy said, “truly, this is the best cookie I’ve ever had in my entire life!” “Wow! I’m so glad!”, I replied.  It's really the easiest thing to make.  I gave that little guy the scoop on how to make one at home.

Do you ever make a giant cookie?  They are so great because most everyone loves a chocolate chip cookie.  And what could be better than a giant one?  Well, I guess that chocolate chip cookie being topped with buttercream frosting!

I use the basic Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that’s printed on the back of the yellow chocolate chip bag.  I make one alteration, that originally my friend Melissa B. suggested.  Instead of the ¾ brown sugar, ¾ white (granulated) sugar, I usually use 1 cup brown and ½ cup granulated.  It just gives it a little more toffee-like flavor. 

As I was cutting the cookie in the classroom, I told the kids about the MATH that I was doing, trying to figure out the division of the cookie, to cut enough pieces that were the same size.  I asked them to help me think through the math.  Then I told them of the math I had used when making the cookie to change the sugar proportions and asked them to solve the fraction problem.  It was fun and his teacher was glad for proof that MATH IS USEFUL in life!

Making the cookie is so easy.  I made it in a pizza pan.  I lined it first with aluminum foil, (main reason being that my pizza pan has holes all through for even-pizza-baking, and I didn’t want gooey cookie dough oozing out of the holes).  Of course you can use a rectangular jelly-roll pan instead.

I blob the dough out with my small cookie scoop and wet my hands with water to pat the dough evenly, without it sticking to my hands.

Bake until golden.  The edges have to brown in order for the middle to be done enough.

After cooling, frost a design with buttercream frosting, making sure you put enough frosting that every slice gets a little frosting!

Asher loves green (especially lime green) so I colored the frosting lime green. I have to recommend that if you have never used food coloring gels, you need to try them.  They now come in squeeze bottles, which are really convenient and not messy.  They make all kinds of colors and I got this set last year at Michael’s Craft Store, when I was making the Dia de Los Muertos cookies and needed bright colors!  Two drops make a lime green.

We also did a couple of things to start his day that I found through PINTEREST.  (If you haven’t discovered Pinterest, I’d love to introduce you to each other).  They seemed very "Asher" and he did love them.

We put streamers all across his door, early in the morning, so that he woke to a streamer-web.  My thought was that he would bust through in the morning, as a passage of entering into his double digits of life!  To my surprise he said, “WOW! This is cool!” and got on the floor and shimmied UNDER the web on his belly, as he didn’t want to mess it up.  I didn’t see that coming! And during his party, with boys in and out of his room, they were all crawling their way in under the streamers.

We also made a sign of 10 things we love about him on his 10^th birthday on butcher paper to hang on the hall wall outside his room.  (We saw this idea on Pinterest too).  It was really fun to make and fortunately, it was not hard at all to come up with 10 qualities that we love about him.

He loves the banner.  It was fun to make a list of qualities that we love about him, that we wanted to make sure he knew were big deal qualities that we admire.

We had a couple of adult friends help out with the scavenger hunt.  When I asked Will and Rich (who drove and led one of the cars of boys on the hunt) what the highlight of their team was, Rich said, “The Banner.” And he shared that Asher had told the group of guys in the car about the "10 Things We Love About Asher" banner and the guys all responded, “Oh, that’s sweet”, “Oh, that’s great!”, "Oh we did that for our Aunt when she turned 50".  Rich and Will expected the guys to make fun of it, to give him a hard time. But rather, they thought it was cool.  This is in juxtaposition with the following events, a few minutes later, when they were hanging upside down on the monkey bars reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and drinking coke until they burped.  Perhaps this is the beauty of ten-year-old boys, I am learning.  

Strawberry Cake

I remember first having this super-moist strawberry cake at a women's retreat.  It was made in a loaf pan and sliced.  It was outstanding! (And it wasn't even adorned with frosting.)  It was delicious.  I tracked down who made it and the baker immediately wrote the recipe down on a little spiral notebook page by memory, tore the page out and handed it to me.  It quickly became a favorite.  I then started making it topped with strawberry cream cheese frosting, because why would I not.  Oh my, is it good!  Then again, what isn't good with cream cheese frosting.

And then I made them as cupcakes, because everybody loves a cupcake.  And I actually think they work better as cupcakes, because the frosting doesn't have much body to it and sometimes pours down the cake making a sloppy and not-so-perfect-looking cake.

So when it was my son's 4th birthday and I asked what kind of cake he wanted and he said, "I would like a Batman strawberry cake."  I giggled thinking about my very active, boyish boy with a pretty pink cake.  I began trying to figure out how to honor the batman theme and not compromise the yumminess of the strawberry cream cheese frosting.  I ended up making a layered cake, covered in pretty pink cream cheese frosting, topped with a Batman-occupied-Batmobile toy placed on top with a "Happy Birthday Asher" paper banner extending from the vehicle.  Somehow it worked.  It was boy enough and yummy.

He is 9 now and this remains his most requested birthday cake.  I love that.  This year was his GOLDEN birthday- turning 9 on his birthday, the 9th.  (Golden birthdays are a new concept to me...I missed mine about 30 years ago).  He requested... "a strawberry cake...of course"! Here's the cake.

This cake is also a favorite of my girls, though Lainey is now really more into red velvet cake (like father/ like daughter).

at Lainey's 4th birthday party

We had these for Lucy's 3rd birthday, last year, and my sister made these adorable ballerina toppers with paper, lollipop sticks and tulle netting.  Aren't they fun!?







A few years ago I made the strawberry cupcakes for a baby shower and my friend, Jessica, who was at the shower loved them and has been talking about them ever since.  In fact, she has been asking me since I started this blog, when I was going to post these cupcakes.  It just hasn't been the right time, I've had so many other seasonal things I've wanted to write about.  But when Jessica had a baby a couple of months ago and I took a meal to her, she requested the cupcakes and I made them to celebrate the arrival of her sweet baby girl! I took photos this time so I could finally post the process!

[The cake begins with a white cake mix.  Have you ever used the Cake Mix Doctor cookbook?  All the recipes in the book begin with a cake mix, and are then ramped up with a bunch of other ingredients.  A recipe similar to this is found in that cookbook.  The author, Anne Byrn and I agree that homemade frosting is key! ]

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

The Strawberry Cake

1 pkg. plain white cake mix

1 pkg. (3 ounces) strawberry gelatin

1 cup mashed strawberries (1½  cups whole berries)

1 cup canola oil

½ cup milk

4 large eggs

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease, and dust with flour, three 8-inch or two 9-inch cake pans (or line 2 muffin pans with cupcake liners).  

In a large mixing bowl, place cake mix, strawberry gelatin, mashed strawberries and juice, oil, milk and eggs and blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute.  Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.  Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 more minutes.  Divide batter among the pans (or muffin tins) and place in the oven.

Bake the cakes until they are light brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean – 25-28 minutes for cake – less for cupcakes (more like 18-20 minutes). Remove from oven, place on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan.  Allow them to cool completely, 30 minutes more. 

Meanwhile, prepare the frosting.

Dave's favorite part...a container of leftover frosting in the fridge 

 

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature

1 stick butter, at room temperature

4 cups (or more) confectioner’s sugar

¾ cup strawberries, mashed into ½ cup, drained well!

Combine cream cheese and butter in mixer and blend until smooth and well incorporated.  Add sugar and strawberries.  Blend together, on low, until fully incorporated.  Increase speed to medium and blend for another minute.  Add more confectioner’s sugar as needed to thicken.

Frost cooled cakes. Gobble them up! 

(Actually, if you can resist, I  think they taste better day 2, as the frosting and the cake have a chance to “marry”.)

A cake that can equally thrill and honor a 9 year old boy, a 3 year old girl and a new mom has got to be a winner!

A Cake Like My Dad

Today is my dad's 70th Birthday! Hard to believe…how could it be? He’s so young- hardly a gray hair on his head.  I am glad to celebrate him.  Our family met together to celebrate with Mexican food (his favorite), cake and gifts!  My dad is more of a food person than a dessert person, but honestly, in the home where he was raised, with my grandmother, and in the home where he lives, with my mom, he couldn’t help but appreciate and enjoy desserts.  These women are baking legends.  My dad would typically prefer a fruit cobbler to a decadent, fancy cake, but there is a birthday cake that has been his favorite for as long as I can remember.  It is an Angel Food Cake sliced into layers, filled and covered with a vanilla custard and iced with fresh whipped cream.  I asked my mom how long it has been his favorite and she said she remembers back in 1965, my great grandmother telling her that she always made this cake because it was my dad’s (her grandson’s) favorite.  So that means that for almost 50 years this has been this man’s cake-of-choice!

Which, you know, when I stop to think about it, really fits my dad.  He is consistent like that. He is strong in his convictions, constant.  He cheers for his ball teams regardless of what kind of season they are having.  He is trustworthy and honest, whether or not anyone is watching. Always dependable.

This cake is a vintage classic, yet memorable and worth repeating...obviously!   I think it makes sense that this is my dad's cake.  It's fun to think that maybe people's birthday cake of choice might very well be a reflection of the kind of person they are.  Do you think that's true for you?

I celebrate you, Dad, and honor your life of integrity, wisdom, steadiness and consistency.

You are tried and true.

Mom Eaton’s Custard-Filled Angel Food Cake

1 Angel Food Cake Mix

2 ½ cups milk

4 egg yolks, whole- beaten

1 cup sugar

½ cup flour

1 tsp. vanilla

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. gelatin, plain

milk (a little)

2 cups whipping cream, divided

sugar (a little)

1 tsp. vanilla

Bake Angel Food Cake in a tube pan according to package. (This is extremely simple.)   Cool upside down in pan.  Meanwhile, heat milk and add beaten egg yolks.  Combine sugar with flour, add to mixture.  Add vanilla and salt.  Mix and cook.  When thick, add gelatin, dissolved in a little milk.

In an electric mixer, whip 1 cup whipping cream on high until thick peaks are formed.  When custard is cool, fold into whipped cream. 

Cut Angel Food cake into 3 round layers, spreading filling between each layer and on top and sides of cake. 

Whip another cup of whipping cream.  Add a little sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla to taste.  Cover the entire cake. 

Keep refrigerated. 

Slice and serve with fresh berries or peaches.

(my mom snapped these photos while making the cake this weekend so you could see some of the process...thanks, mom!)

cooling the cake

slicing the layers (mom used an electric knife)

custard is on

with whipped cream-YUM!