Red Romeo Cake

Remember back however long ago when I was craving raspberry cake but was to lazy to make it and made a smoothie instead? Well, when I was over at my cousins house last week, drinking chi and watching Jane Eyre, my aunt conoodled me into  making this cake. I was planing on doing a butter cream frosting, but she had the idea of doing pudding on it instead. What a good idea! It turned out so good!

Ingredients

Cake

Lemon Cake
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pans
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs plus 3 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup milk

Raspberry Filling

1 pkg (16 ounces) frozen raspberries packed in sugar thawed
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 8-by-2-inch cake pans, tapping out excess flour. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. With mixer on low, beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time. Beat in 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Alternately beat in flour mixture and milk beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined.
Divide batter between pans; smooth tops. Bake until cakes pull away from sides of pans, 32 to 35 minutes. Let cool in pans 10 minutes. Run a knife around edges of pans and invert cakes onto a wire rack. Let cool completely. 

Drain raspberries, reserving liquid. Add enough water to liquid to equal 1 1/4 cups. In large saucepan, combine liquid, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice; mix well. Heat and stir until mixture boils and thickens. Cool completely. Stir thawed raspberries into cooled mixture. Fill cake reserve however much you have left for the top. I did the directions backwards and ended up almost doubling the filling. 

 For the top just get your box of vanilla pudding mix, cook on the stove according to the directions and chill it. Chilling it will make it easier to work with and wont make as much of a mess than if you just let it cool. it wont take to long in the freezer, just make sure it doesn't freeze. 

Leather moccasins

The other day at Michaels I found a moccasin kit. It was about 15 dollars. Me and my mom have bean looking for ones without soles because they are all around better and last just as long if not longer. This did the trick. It is easy to do do just as long as you follow the directions. They have sizes all the way up to 13. I highly recommend it if you are needing a feeling of accomplishment. I couldn't find any pictures for it, but they are with all the leather craft stuff. Super easy to find.  

Best Coffee Cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 6 tablespoons Turbinado Sugar. (If you only have brown or even white sugar you can use that but the Turbinado sugar makes a nice crunch on the bottom) 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/4 cup of honey. double that if you use sugar instead
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (If you want to and nutmeg or any other spice like ginger, add with the cinnamon) 
• 
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch square pan, your bunt pan or your buntlet panIn a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender to the size of small peas.
2. In a separate small bowl, beat the egg well, then stir in the milk and vanilla. Add the egg-milk mixture to the flour mixture all at once. Stir carefully until just blended.
3. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Drizzle top with melted butter.
4. In a small bowl mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Sprinkle on top of cake. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Raspberry Lemon Delight (smoothy)

Caution: This Beverage may make you emit strange noises of glee, never eat/drink anything else ever again, or in case you are allergic to any of the ingredients go into shock and proceed to die. But if you are Luck enough to not have any allergies pertaining to this drink, I encourage you to Consume. :)
In all seriousness, this is by far my favorite smoothie yet.

Ingredients

• 10 oz of frozen raspberries
• 1 tsp of vanilla powder (ground up vanilla beans) If you don't have this just use vanilla extract.
• 1 tbsp of honey
• 1/4 tsp of lemon zest
• a couple of drops of lemon oil, or 1tsp to 1tbsp of lemon juice. (depending on taste).
• Liquid of choice to cover berries. Milk, cow, goat, rice, almond, etc. or just water. (the one in the picture I used regular milk) I find that for in the morning water usually is the best and most refreshing especially when you are getting ready to or just finished your exercises. 

Blend, pore into a glass, and enjoy. 

Thanksgiving wishes and recipes.

This Thanksgiving as usual, my family is getting together and having lunch buffet style. Everyone brings a dish to share and we eat, play games, and usually go for a walk. This is what I made/making. (seeing how I still have stuff in the oven)

Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Cauliflower.

• Brussels sprouts, halved, cauliflower cut biteable size. 
• Enough olive oil to drizzle over
• 1 Tbsp caraway seeds 
• Salt and pepper

Spread the cabbage cousins (Brussels and Caulies) on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with the caraway seeds, and salt and pepper to taste. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes. 

Green Bean Casserole, from scratch. 

I use Alton Browns recipe, but instead of using fresh beans and blanching them, I use frozen beans and I just rinse them in hot water until they are de-thawed since they are pre-blanched. Everyone always loves it, well, except for me, (I hate mushrooms). You can find the recipe here. 

Cranberry Blueberry Smoothie. 

This was my breakfast. 

• one cup of frozen blueberries
• a small handful of cranberries
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1tsp of vanilla powder or extract. 
• enough water to cote 

Blend and enjoy. :)

Things that I'm really into right now.

source
Vintage button rings

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Anything that looks like it belongs in a Doris Day Movie. (and the store this comes from)

source
Old Phones 

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Hair and Hat pins

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Jewelry party

This weekend my mom hosted a party to benefit women in Thailand, giving them jobs, so that they don't have to work on the streets anymore. To go to their website click here, and to learn about their organization go here. We did it as a open house in my dads recording studio, so that my moms clients could come as they could and after, or before they had their hair done. We sold over $1,300 of merchandise. The cards are really neat, they have the woman who made the jewelry piece's name and age on the card. 

handmade cards, with handmade paper. 

this is one of the things that I got. 

delicious treats that I made for our guests. 

Easy leftover fried rice.

If you have leftover rice, for any reason and don't know what to do with it, try this recipe. Also if you have a bunch of veggies that need to be used then this makes good use of those also.

If you are using this as a meal double or triple the recipe.

• 1/2 a cup of rice per person
• 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of veggies per person
• 1/2 to 1 egg per person
• your favorite chinese sauce.

What my favorite is, I loke to make this for my family, and they love it. 

• 1/4 cup of peanut or sesame oil
• 4 to 6 eggs 
• 1 clove of garlic
• 4 cups of rice
• 4 carrots sliced into quarters
• 4 shallots chopped
• 3 green onions chopped (save one for topping)
• 2 celery stalks
• 1/2 a cup of whatever cabbage I have, usually nappa works best

For the sauce

• 1/4 cup of whatever oil you used before
• a 1/4 tsp of szeshwan pepper sauce
• 1/4 cup of sherry vinegar
• 1/4 cup of soy sauce or tamari sauce
• a tbs or two of hoisin sauce
• 4 tbsp of peanut butter or tahini (sesame butter) 
• 1/4 of a bunch of cilantro plus some for topping

Whisk the sauce together.

Heat the oil in a wok, and scramble the eggs, scoop them out and set them to the side. make sure the oil is still hot and add the rice, let it fry a couple of minutes before adding everything else. Put on the lid and let it cook for a bit, stirring every minute or two. When the carrots are soft, add the eggs and mix them in, then mix in the sauce and enjoy. :)

Chai Tea recipe, and Chicken Update.

Chai Recipe : Arti Sequeria

The recipe says that is yields 8 to 10 servings, but I get barley one and a half because I do mostly tea with about 1/4 cup or less of cream. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 1 (1-inch) piece cinnamon stick
• 4 green cardamom pods, smashed
• 4 whole cloves
• 1/2 star anise
• 2 quarter-sized coins fresh ginger
• 2 scant teaspoon black tea leaves (recommended: Taj Mahal) or black tea of choice (I used CHina black, its what I get in bulk at my Natural Grocers) 
• 2 teaspoons honey, or more to taste
• Whole milk or half-and-half

Directions

In a medium pan, bring the water, all of the spices and the ginger to a boil over medium heat. Turn off the heat and allow it to steep for 15 minutes.

Bring the mixture back to a boil, then add the tea. Turn the heat off, and allow it to steep for 3 to 5 minutes depending on how strong you like your tea. Stir in the honey and add milk to your liking. Strain it into a bowl or pitcher and serve!

Recipe from http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/chai-recipe/index.html 

Now its chicken time. My chickens were supposed to start laying eggs way back in August, but them with their stubbornness it took, well one of them about 3 months later. The Susex are still not laying, but Sasparilla (the austrolorp) is! She has laid 5 now! She started laying last week, 

The perfect summer to autumn late night snack.

I know its kinda late, (I forgot to post this a lonnng time ago) but I'm sure it tastes just as good in just the fall than in the summer-fall transition. After a long day of church going, chipotle eating, and some extreme babysitting that lasted longer than expected I felt like I needed to crawl into bed and go into a coma. After I had some food in my belly of course. When I came home it was dark, and a tad bit chilly, and I had raspberries waiting for me in the fridg.
This is what I made:
Chai tea

• Chai tea packet
• water
• honey
• goats milk (after about 3 days of sitting in the fridge the cream starts to settle on top, perfect for creamer.)

Raspberry awsomeness

• Raspberries
• Goat feta cheese (or some other sort of goat cheese)
• Honey to drissle over top
• Orange rind, you can use  basil, mint, pepper or some other spice that's in the chai, instead or with the orange rind. 

Serve in a pretty bowl with a dainty fork. 

Vegas and donkeys

Last weekend I took off Tuesday with my parents in our Camper van on a trip to Las Vegas to visit my cousins, on the way we went through Navajo and Hopi Lands and Sedona in Arizona. Be prepared, I went many a place, and had many a delicious treat. 

 Sedona, No 4 way stops, or stop lights, just a lot of crazy round abouts. 

 I thought it looked colorful so I took a picture. 

 This is a franchise that is only in Arizona, so yummy. 

 I had Tomato garlic Bisque soup, it had bits of sun dried tomato in it. Amazing! (Oh, and yes, that is real butter.)

 My mom had a squash soup and this turkey, cranberry, walnut stuffing sandwich. Quite delicious. 

The hoover dam, we didnt do the tour, just all the free stuff which was some nice dam fun. lol. W pretty much tried to put Dam into every sentence, but hay you've gots to. I love the winged statues, and have wanted to go see them forever!

 Wen we were in Las vegas we went to Nordstroms Cafe (it's tradition). Split a bowl of their tomato soup (another tradition). :)

 This was a chicken basil tomato thing, supper yummy. 

 Boston Cream Pie. I never had it before but I must say, it's like an american tiramisu kinda, really good. 

 On the way to Costco we went to Joe's Cactus, (I think is the name). Tones of Cacti and things for your garden, they are also an animal rescue place, with lots of animals. Their are usually goats, lots of dogs, and we saw a pig, so cute. 

 Not shure what this is, I was thinking it is a hot water solar panel. Looked neat so I took a pic. 

 Rescued, dog.

 Their were wield donkeys, but...Tame. They were so soft! We fed them apples. :)

That was part of my trip, well the part I documented. Hope you have a great week. :)

My new shoes.

My Five Finger, Vibrams!

They are the classic style, and I adore them. I got them Monday and have bean wearing them everyday since. My mom is a cosmetologist and stands for 8 hours just about every day, she got a pair a few weeks ago and slowly eased into them. now they are all she wares. She used to need to ware shoes with so much support, now her feet provide the support. The reason why I like them so much is because they make my back feel great, and they are just so fun to walk and run in. They are incredibly nice to ride my bike with. 

this weeks fixings.

French Bread

My first ever, Pumpkin Pie

Party favor that my cousin made for her baby girls 1st birthday. 

The mix made amazing chocolate chip cupcakes. (they reminded me of cho chip pancakes) 

Last night I made a turkey meatloaf and mash potatoes. 

Turkey meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

Ingredients

   for the meatloaf (meatloaf recipe from 

• Giada De Laurentiis)
• Vegetable cooking spray
• 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/4 cup chopped garlic and herb-marinated sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic, minced, optional
• 2 eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (I used goat)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound ground turkey, preferably dark meat
•        For the mashed potatoes.
• 1 bag of redskin potatoes
• 1 stick plus 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup of half and half 
• 1/4 cup of mozzarella or other white melting cheese. (I used my homemade goat cheese)
• 1/2 of a white onion chopped into little bits. 
• 1 to 2 cloves of garlic minced 
• salt and pepper to taste.
• 
  

Directions

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Spray a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, stir together the bread crumbs, parsley, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, if using, eggs, milk, feta, salt, and pepper. Add the turkey and gently stir to combine, being careful not to overwork the meat.

Carefully pack the meat mixture into the prepared pan and bake until the internal temperature registers 165 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and slice. Put on a serving platter and serve.

While the meatloaf is cooking go ahead and prep and cook your potatoes until they are the preferred doneness for mashing. drain out the water and set aside. In a skillet melt 2 tbsp of butter and saute the onions until they are almost translucent, then add the garlic and continue cooking for 2 minutes. Mash your potatoes then add the rest of the ingredients including the onions and garlic. blend with an electric hand mixer, start on low so that you don't send scalding hot potatoes into your face. serve with meatloaf. If you would like some greens on your plate, saute an onion with some garlic in butter, add some frozen green beans, cover and let cook until the beans are done.  salt and pepper as desired. 

Truck Farm!

Ok, so yes, I know, I have not bean posting like, at all, but I blame school. To make up for this, I am going to tell you about a nice little story about a guy and his lack of land. So truck farm, is a documentary type movie about a guy, with no land, but a truck. so what dose he do? he takes said truck, and puts roof garden material on the bed, for proper drainage after he drilled hols in the bottom. and then he put garden roof soil on that, and then regular soil on that. It shows some of the adventures the truck farm went on to visit comunity gardens, and even a truck farm all the way in Denver. They also went to see some hydroponic window systems, (which are super, I so want one) and they were even able to sell their produce! The movie goes into detail (ofcourse) and has some more super stuff in it, I highly recommend you see it.
Watch a short trailer (no pun intended) here.
Happy Farming!

Nifty Etsy

I was adventuring on Etsy, here are some neat things.