Organizing Measuring Cups and Spoons

Organizing Measuring Cups and Spoons

I loved this idea over at  infarrantlycreative.com to organize all your baking measuring devices in a space saving (and time saving) way.  The better part of this project is that she does this with free paint sticks from Home Depot and cheap hardware, so it is very easy to accomplish with a bit of time and planning.  Now, if only I had time to spare...

Halloween Ideas : Pumpkin Party Cooler

: Pumpkin Party Cooler :

Isn't that a great idea for storing your Halloween drinks?  I love Halloween.  It is my absolute favorite holiday.  I think this could also be awesome if you paint the pumpkin black or lightly carve the pumpkin (not all the way through)  Anyways, for the details of this project you will have to go here:

http://www.marthastewart.com/268772/pumpkin-party-cooler?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/pumpkins#slide_19

...yes... that does say Martha Stewart.  Problem?? You have to give her credit, she does seem to have an idea for everything.   Somewhere on that site I am sure I have seen something on making your own halloween labels for things like bottles that could go well here too... The sky is really the limit.  Oh, and there is a tutorial on making a pumpkin into the candy bowl too.

I know this is not a recipe, but hey, everyone can use a good idea to display the wonderful baked goods you bring into the world, so why not save money buying expensive cake and cupcake stands when display ideas are all around you.  Here is a post at www.howdoesshe.com that gives great ideas on making your own easy to assemble and disassemble cupcake stand, which also looks impressive.  Once you get the idea, you will see displays all around you, I know I did...

Tiered Cupcake Platter

Spice age chart

I believe this image came from the McCormick website, it has been a while, but it seems like a good thing to remember. There are tips on using spices at the website too.  

http://www.mccormick.com/

Amazing jello shot tips

I found the most amazing website ever for helping create amazing jello shots! 

They have sections on everything from recipes to presentation, and even floating things like gummie bears in them... although that may be a choke hazard for already inebriated people... but it looks neat.  If you have party plans in your future this seems like a good place to start.

DIY Homemade Pedialyte Recipe

With the summer heat approaching for many of us, and illness a constant possibility for us people with children, I thought it was a great idea to re post this information from the website CraftGossip :) Here you will find a recipe to Homemade pedialyte with simple ingredients you may have lying around the house.

Convienence food is always a good thing to have around.  Having made it yourself is always better too, because then you know what is in the food you eat, and you can usually save a lot of money doing it yourself.  Remember that you are paying for someone else to prepare and package your food when you buy something that is ready to go.  Eliminating steps can eliminate dollar signs.  Here are a few freezer articles I found when I was searching 'freeze ahead biscuits'

Basic Buttery Biscuits

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001023773

*uses baking mix, like Bisquick or the likes, but sounds convenient... think I will add cheese though.

Make Ahead Cooking and Freezer Recipes

http://www.kitchenlink.com/rcpmenus.html
This is a site of numerous freezer recipes, the idea of 'spinach balls' intrigues me.  There are recipes for all sorts of different foods, and tips on freezing and thawing foods, like food safety, preventing freezer burn and even thawing a beloved cheesecake that has been made ahead

Couponing thoughts

Have you ever seen that show, Extreme Couponing?  I have... and knowing I am here in Canada saddened me a little.  I love Canada, but the thing is, we have limits to our coupons now that make it so you can't do the same things those people did, like get food for free or even get some money back.  I can remember things like that happening when I was a child, but now every coupon is a 'one per use, can not be doubled, do not use with other offers' kind of coupon... making it hard to get the same kind of deals.

Sure, coupons are still worth it if you find ones for stuff you need already, so with that, I will post a link to an article telling how to best make use of Canadian coupons.  There are plenty of great tips, and the whole site is great for finding freebies, great coupons and deals.  Great food doesn't have to mean that you have to spend a mint to get it.  Sometimes being frugal and ingenuous can get you just as much for less.

Extreme Canadian Couponing

Something is better than nothing...

I hate to be that blogger that takes an unexpected break, but it seems like it happened already... it has been a while.  I do plan to have lots more in the future, however at this time life seems too hectic to focus all my energy here for the time being, so I will write what I can, and in the mean time, here is an article I came upon that may interest some of you. 

I look at it and think about how if I want to treat my husband to bacon... this may be the way to do it.  This is all about how to perfectly cook bacon... and I was actually a little surprised that it involves baking.  Go figure, but it sounds logical in the end.  Click here:  Perfectly cooked bacon

Banana Cake with Caramel Buttercream Frosting

Okay, so I am playing a bit of catch up since my son's 1st birthday (on August 15th)  which was also my aunt's birthday as well.  As such, I spent that whole week before baking two cakes, my son's cake, pictured above, is the one I will post now, and I will post about my aunt's cake later.  By the way, this tasted amazing, and they all were amazed I baked and decorated it myself.  

...And I will add if you do not know what the theme of this cake is... it's the '1 up' mushroom from Super Mario, complete with coins around the sides.  I figured this fit, what with him being 1 up and all ;)

The Banana Cake:

I made three batches of this cake in a square silicone cake pan, I think it is about 8 x 8, but I am not going to go measure it, I am sure it would turn out in any pan.  Each layer turned out only to be about an inch or two high, and the cake was more impressive with three layers, however if you do not want that much cake then just prepare the amount of cake you want.  

This cake freezes well, and I froze each layer after removing the edges and skimming the bottoms off the cakes, to remove that harder, flour-y layer.  I wrapped each (cooled) cake layer in plastic wrap, then put in large freezer bags and sucked the air out with a straw, like a vaccum seal, sort of (thanks to Kendra at New Life On A Homestead for the straw tip!)  The cake is easier to ice and decorate when frozen too, as a bonus.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of unsalted butter

3/4 cup of brown sugar

2 lage eggs

3  tbsp yoghurt

3 large banana, mashed

1 cup self raising flour, sifted  (after doing the recipe, I recommend the tip below instead of self raising flour)
If you are using plain flour, use 8 oz plain/cake flour with 1tsp baking powder and 1tsp baking soda


Directions:

1, Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius (the original says 180, but you have to watch because my first layer got a bit dark, and the first baby cupcake was burnt crispy)
2. Cream butter & sugar till light and fluffy
3. Add eggs, one at a time and beat well
4. Add yoghurt and banana mix till well blend
5. Fold in flour to mixture and pour into a greased baking pan
6. Bake at 160C for 40 min - 1 hr or till golden brown and skewer comes out clean

Original of this recipe comes from here:
Quick and Easy Treats From Zu's Kitchen



Caramel Buttercream Frosting

For the three layers of cake I had, a double batch of this was just about perfect.

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup caramel topping (look for ice cream sundae topping stuff)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 (16 oz.) package of powdered sugar (2 cups, and sifting is a good idea for the best frosting)

1 - 3 Tbsp. milk  (2 was perfect for me)

Beat the first four ingredients together at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.

Gradually add powdered sugar alternately with 1 tbsp milk, beating at low speed until blended and smooth after each addition.  Beat in extra milk if needed to achieve the right consistency.

Original recipe for frosting found here:  My Recipes

*** If you are not freezing your layers of cake, or are afraid of that crumby crust, take a small amount of your finished frosting and 'water' it down a bit with milk, and use to do a crumb coat before frosting outer cake.  Let your crumb coat set, or better yet, give it 10 - 15 min in the freezer before applying your outer layer of frosting.
Use a hot, but dry spatula or cake knife to smooth icing.  Heat it by sticking it in a glass or pot of hot to boiling water, then wipe dry with a cloth or paper towel, being careful not to leave 'fuzzies'. 
To make the mushroom or something similar for the top of your cake, draw or print a template picture and outline with heavy black marker.  Lay out a piece of parchment paper on top of your template, then use slightly cooled chocolate melts in a piping bag, or a sandwich bag with a tiny hole cut in the bottom corner to trace and fill your design, allowing time for each colour to cool between.  Be cautious using the fridge for the chocolate, as it is temperamental and can discolour.  Chocolate melts help, not being real chocolate, but the darker colours may still change if cooled wrong.  Be very careful in removing your image, and avoid picking delicate designs, or else you will want to switch to royal icing, and I am not an expert at that.

Sanity savers for people with lil peoples

Someone commented to me a while back about the more clever of my baby solutions, and I thought since it is food related enough, I may as well share it here.

I am not the kind of person who really worries that much about a messy baby.  They are meant to have fun with food, so they will enjoy it more as they get older, and maybe not be such a picky eater along the way.  However, to keep that mind set, sometimes I use a few measures to help make the mess less.

My top tip is shelf liner.  Yea, that vinyl crud we stick on the bottom of cupboards and forget about, it is cheap and usually hidden somewhere in your house, I got mine for free when my boss was cleaning out a storage area, and asked if I wanted it.

We just happen to have the kind of table that splits apart in the middle, and the booster seat sits at the middle point where the crack is... and food was getting crammed between.  The little man likes to try and eat everything, so placemats are out of the question, and plates fly and smash when he gets hold of them, so the solution for me was to put a chunk of shelf liner right on the table, covering the crack and wrapped down to cover the edge.

I place all his food directly on it, and wipe it clean.  No dishes to clean, not cracks to de-gunk, and if it gets stained or starts to pull up I replace it with a new sheet.  Easy.

Next tip?  Dollar store table cloths or old picnic table cloths, or vinyl shower curtains.  Why?  You use it like a painter's drop cloth under high chairs or booster seats to catch the mess.  Afterwards, you just shake it off, and if messy the dollar store ones are easily replaced, and picnic table cloths wipe clean, and shower curtains can be wiped or even gently washed in the washing machine (hang dry of course)

Now, high chairs and booster seats can be taken outside in nice weather and hose sprayed, then sun dried for a nice, quick clean with the added bonus that the sun kills germs.  In winter or bad weather, just lug them in the shower and let them drip dry, then set on the table cloth a fore mentioned to catch any hidden water as it finishes drying.  This way you don't have to spend enormous amounts of time wiping down every nook and cranny, and get a better clean usually.

If you are worried about clothes, then feed baby naked.  Diapers are changable and babies hose down pretty good too ;)  Hope this helps.

Chow for the Chubster: using up infant cereal

Although I have not had any infant cereal in the house for quite a while, I thought I would look into recipes that use it up, as it tends to get wasted and well, babies don't really like it.  There are many ways to get iron into your baby, but infant cereal is an easy way, so why not have some fun with it if you have it.

 Always supervise children when eating any finger foods

BABY OATMEAL CEREAL COOKIES
2 c. flour
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 1/2-3 c. baby oatmeal cereal
2 eggs
1 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. oil
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix eggs, sugars, oil and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Bake at 350 degrees about 15 minutes.

 You can use the infant cereal to thicken your smoothies, for you or the baby.  Added vitamins never hurt a smoothie.

The plainer varieties can be used in meatloaf and meatballs instead of bread crumbs.  It's best to buy plain anyways, because a few spoons of baby food or applesauce tastes much better for baby anyways, and adds real fruit in the mix, instead of fake powdered fruit.  On the same note, you could use it to top macaroni and cheese casseroles, and you could use the fruity ones with a bit of butter and brown sugar to top your muffin recipes.

Dip chicken strips in plain yogurt and then roll or shake in plain cereal and bake them.  Makes a good chicken finger for toddlers.

Teething Biscuit Recipes - Egg-less Baby Cereal Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup dry infant rice cereal with bananas (or other flavored or
unflavored infant cereal)
3 tablespoons cooking oil
ice water

Directions:
Preheat oven 425F
Mix flour and cereal.
Gradually stir in oil. Mix a little ice water at a time (start with 1/4 cup) until dough begins to form a ball and pull away from the bowl.
Roll out to the thickness of a cracker on a floured surface and cut into desired shapes.
Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet 10-12 min. or until lightly brown. Cool completely.

Store in an airtight container. (you may want to try 1/2 plain and 1/2 flavored baby cereal as the taste when using full flavored baby cereal is very strong.)

Orange and date muffins

250 ml pure orange juice
1/2 cup of finely chopped dates
1 egg(you can us 2 egg yolk only if there are egg allergies in family)
3tbs canola oil
3tbs honey(you can use sugar instead)
1 cup flour
2 cups fortified baby cereal(I found rice made the dough tougher, so I prefered oatmeal)
2tsp baking powder
2ml of salt

-mix wet ingredients together
-mix all dry in a seperate bowl, then pour wet mixture with dry until just blended.
-in greased muffin tins, add then bake at 200C(400F) for about 15 mins.
should make about 24 muffins. They can be kept for 4 days in the fridge or up to 3months in the freezer.

If you find the mixture to dry, you can add a bit more liquid.

Cereal Pancakes

1 egg
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp oil
3/4 cup dry infant cereal
1/4 cup flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda.

In a med bowl, beat egg; add rest of ingredients and mix. Pour 1/2 cup batter onto hot, greased skillet for each pancake. Turn pancakes as soon as they are puffed and full of bubbles. Cook other side until golden brown. Makes 6-9 pancakes.

Baby Cereal Cookies

1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups infant cereal
3 TBsp whole milk.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet or spray with nonstick spray. Lightly cream molasses and butter. Mix in egg and vanilla. In a seperate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and cereal. Add to the butter mixture. Blend. Add milk. Drop on the cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake 10-12 minutes.

 There.  No more waste.  The recipes I found mostly on the internet in various forums, and there are plenty more if you 'Google' or 'Swagbucks' them.

Food Ideas Of Interest...

Hmm.. I thought I would post a few links about things you can do with food.

New tricks for your coffee:
http://www.browniepointsblog.com/2009/05/10/new-tricks-for-your-coffee/

Utilizing Leftovers:
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/utilizingleftovers/Utilizing_Leftovers.htm

List of foods that are better to buy generic:
http://www.momsbudget.com/groceries/genericgrocerylist.html

(This one isn't really that much about food but has a lot of frugal tips that are great!)
Tips for the Truly Frugal:
http://www.frugaltimes.com/frugaltips.html


Hopefully someone can find some use out of these links :)

Hot Toddy for a cold

Contrary to popular belief, a hot toddy does not cure a cold, however, many people do swear by it as a non-drug alternative to cough medicine.  I even read about some people who have had their doctors recommend the recipe to their adult patients instead of cold and flu medications. 

The hot toddy originates in Scotland, and originally calls for whiskey, hot water and sugar.  Most modern recipes have adapted the sugar to be honey.  This is a recipe I kludged together from a bunch I read while looking it up, as I am still avoiding most medications until my son is completely weaned.  The odd alcoholic drink when given enough time between feeds (baby is asleep right now)  is fine. 

If you can't (or don't want to) have alcohol, don't worry, because the alcohol is more of a relaxant, maybe a little bit antiseptic, but not that important.  It's the hot water and honey that soothe the throat, with the honey's vitamins and immune boosters helping, and the vitamin C from the lemon that help alleviate the cold.  It isn't mandatory, but some recommend having a hot shower or bath to ease the congestion right after this drink.


Ingredients:

2 oz. of Whiskey, any kind (if you don't have whiskey... or had bad quality whiskey like I did, it is fine to sub in brandy for whiskey.)
1 tablespoon of honey
1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice (I used the stuff in the squeeze bottle, when using fresh you may want to up it to half a cup as the squeeze juice is more concentrated and bitter)
250 ml of hot water, almost boiling.
1 green tea bag (adds antioxidants that help fight the cold.)
1 fresh slice of lemon.

Directions:

In a mug, mix the whiskey, honey and lemon juice, leaving the spoon in the mug.  Put the tea bag in the measuring cup and pour hot water over it.  Let steep for 3-5 minutes.  Stir with honey spoon and remove bag, then pour tea into the mug and stir mixture together.  Add the slice of lemon and drink.  It tasted different to me, but not too bad, and this is coming from someone who is not a big fan of whiskey or brandy.  (the exception with brandy is in eggnog, but that is a different story)

Free food

Since tomorrow is my birthday I feel that it is appropriate to speak of all the good freebies and discounts I took advantage of this year just for being born.  You should always check for free sign ups at your favorite food and drink locations, because it makes the week of your birthday full of free treats.

*Starbucks.  I registered one of my many free gift cards I have received from redeeming my Swagbucks and as a reward I got a free any size and type of drink voucher, in the mail (snail mail, but I prefer tangible coupons anyways).  I chose a Venti White Chocolate Mocha.  IMMD.

*Baskin Robins.  Joined their fan club and received an e-mail coupon for a free scoop of ice cream.  While I enjoyed my free ice cream, I got the tiny spoons of sampling for free for my little man to try.  Free ice cream for me and my baby.  Sweet.  I had Chocolate Mousse Royale.

*Boston Pizza.  I am going there tonight for birthday dinner.  I got a free e-mail voucher for free gourmet pasta or dessert.  Not sure yet which I will choose.  :)

*Red Lobster.  Probably won't end up using it in the end, but it is $5 off any dinner menu item. 

*Dairy Queen.  Have an e-mail coupon for a free Blizzard sitting in my virtual mailbox.

*Orange Julius.  Free print out coupon for a 16 oz. Julius fruit drink.

The best part of free stuff for your birthday is that they also don't expect that you will actually go on your birthday, so you can sign up for them all, and most have a week or two to redeem them, so enjoy the free ride where you can, and of course, let me know if you find anymore sweet freebies for birthdays, I have a son and a husband who have birthdays too.

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

 Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

 I tried this as my last Christmas cheesecake (the year before that was eggnog cheesecake, yum) and I fell in love with the pumpkin cheesecake.  I already could eat pumpkin pie every month of the year, and now if I wasn't so lazy I know I would be gorging on this beauty more often. 

Ingredients:

For filling:

• 3 (250 g) packages PHILADELPHIA Brick Cream Cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar, divided
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 dash ground cloves

For crust:

• 1 1/2 cups crushed graham crackers
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• about 1 teaspoon or so of pumpkin pie spice
• a dash or two of cinnamon and nutmeg if you fancy

Directions

1. Combine cookie crumbs,spice and butter. Press onto bottom of 9 inch springform pan.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes before filling, or bake at 375 degrees F for 8-10 minutes or until crust is lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack before filling. 
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Beat cream cheese, 1/2 cup of the sugar and vanilla with electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. 
4. Remove 1 cup plain batter; place in small bowl. 
5. Stir remaining 1/4 cup sugar, pumpkin and spices into remaining batter. Spoon pumpkin batter into crust; top with spoonfuls of reserved plain batter. Cut through batters with knife several times for marble effect. 
6. Bake 45 minutes or until centre is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Cut into 12 slices. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.

Original recipe found at: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/philadelphia-pumpkin-swirl-cheesecake/Detail.aspx

Cheesecake tips can be found at this link (there are a lot and it does help to read them)
http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Perfect-Cheesecakes/Detail.aspx 
water baths and pre-whipping already room temperature cheese can save your cheesecake :)

Coffee*Love : changing up the same old brew

Coffee.  Many of us love it.  I will take some time to rant and rave about my new grind and brew coffee maker in some other post, after I have got the hang of the programming thing... I don't care to elaborate in this post.  However, I do care to share some wonderful ideas I have found in my online recipe collecting fashion, as I have now just lost every link I had when my hard drive decided to bite the dust a week ago.  I guess I have an excuse now to search more recipes and earn more swagbucks towards my next free Starbucks cards.  Life goes on.

Tips on brewing the best coffee:

I worked at a Timmies for just over five and a half years, did all the training in every position except for management (I was a supervisor though, yay me :) so I feel I have sufficient knowledge in the coffee department.  I also have much drinking experience from the many coffee facilities in and around my fine city.
For the best coffee you need :

1. the best water you can get.  If you drink only filtered water because of the taste, then use tap water for coffee hoping a magic cure for that taste exists in the coffee, I am afraid you are wrong.  Coffee is 98% water, so if you don't like the taste of the water, your coffee will not be the best either.

2.  fresh coffee.  At Timmies they use the opened grinds immediately and throw the coffee every 20 minutes (in theory... there are always a few bad apples)  I am not saying you need to do that, but having the freshest ground coffee, kept in air-tight conditions, away from moisture, NOT in the freezer, (though if you absolutely must, you should divide it into coffee pot sized portions so that it doesn't go back and forth from freezer to counter, it causes the coffee to coagulate the oils that make it so pretty.)  and coffee starts to fade from its best after about two weeks, so try and buy what you need and not the costco bulk bag (unless you go through it, I do love costco... just costco efficiently)

3.  Preheat your cups and carafe.  To save you a google if you don't know what a carafe is, its the coffee pot.  just fill them with hot water before brewing and discard the water, and if your coffee maker has a cup warmer, all the better, but if not, the cups can get a hot water bath too, or steam from a steam nozzle.  This keeps the coffee hot longer, and helps the aroma develop. 

Now here is a link to some 'new tricks for your coffee'.  It's the little things like adding a cinnamon stick to your grounds or re-thinking your sweetening.

http://www.browniepointsblog.com/2009/05/10/new-tricks-for-your-coffee/

 As always, I could go on about coffee forever, but it is getting late, so this will be all for now.

Tip of the moment

Let us always remember, cooking is an art and baking is a science.  Sure, I prefer baking to cooking personally, but when playing with recipes it is always good to keep in mind that if you are cooking, as long as you have a basic idea of how tastes go together and what you like, you can substitute and change pretty much everything.  When it comes to baking, however, changing a recipe takes knowledge of what the substitutions will do to your recipe.  Baking is all about chemical reactions with things like baking soda ... okay I may have watched too much Magic school bus and Bill Nye the science guy as a child... but it is true.  Let me just say that cooking is a free-for-all and when it comes to baking you really do need to measure those ingredients.  I still remember my first muffins I baked, with the lumps of baking soda dryly exploding in my mouth every so often... I was pretty young then... but lesson learned I suppose