Split Pea and Barley Soup….

So yesterday I decided to make split pea and barley soup. I haven’t made this soup in about twelve years. I used to love making many types of soup when I was a vegan. They were inexpensive, easy and hardly ever contained any dairy, so I didn’t have to worry about dairy substitutes. I knew the kids would be a bit hesitant about this soup, so, I decided to get River involved. I figured if she helped cook it and got all excited about it..she would love eating it! So, we went to the store and got all the ingredients and got started!

I decided to make it in the crock pot, so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it on the stove all day. River loved helping…she helped cut and dice and get everything ready! She loved putting all the ingredients into the big pot. She said everything looked and smelled delicious!

This particular soup is incredibly hardy and so easy to make. The best part is that the barley and split peas don’t have to be soaked the night before….you just throw it all into a pot and wait about two hours!

So, did everybody love it! I wish I could say yes…..but the answer is no! River took one look at it and said, “Yuck!” Same with Tuesday. The only one who ate the whole bowl was Quinn…and that was only after I promised to take him to the bookstore that evening if he ate the whole bowl! Oh well, I enjoyed it!

Surprise…Rainbow Cupcakes….

I saw these rainbow cupcakes on a couple of blogs…you can also make a layered cake. I have been wanting to make them forever! I finally got around to it yesterday. I did them secretly…so my children couldn’t see what I was up to..I wanted them to be a suprise. I didn’t want to use a boxed cake mix…so I hunted around on the internet for a good cake/cupcake recipe. I think I found a winner! These were the best tasting cupcakes!! I haven’t had a cupcake in a long time…and these cupcakes were incredible! And so easy….especially if you just make the normal recipe.

First, you have to buy the Wilton Icing colors. They come in special little containers. I got them at Michael’s..you can buy them individually or in sets. You can’t get these bright colors with any other type of food coloring. They are just so bright and vivid! A lot of fun.

Basically, you make the recipe and then divide the batter up into as many colors as you want to use….then put a little bit of food coloring into each bowl of batter. Mix well…..and then dollop them into the cupcake molds. You could also make a multi-layered cake….either each layer could be a different color or just use the same dollop method to put the batter into the two cake tins.

I also found an incredible buttercream icing recipe! I found both recipes on allrecipes.com. I love that site. I did twick both recipes a bit, according to some comments that had been made about each.

My children loved biting into them and discovering the tie-dyed effect!

Simple White Cake

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Original Recipe Yield 12 cupcakes or 1- 9×9 inch pan

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 209 | Total Fat: 8.9g | Cholesterol: 56mg

Buttercream Icing

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Directions

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, shortening, and vanilla. Blend in the sugar, one cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the milk, and continue mixing until light and fluffy. Keep icing covered until ready to decorate.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 181 | Total Fat: 9.8g | Cholesterol: 13mg

Cream of Wheat…

So, yesterday morning, it was a cold and rainy day…so River decided it was definitely a morning for Cream of Wheat…so while we were getting ready for breakfast, we spent about a half an hour singing “The Cream of Wheat” song. It was great fun..though in the video, I am the one doing most of the singing……

Then I spent about twenty minutes making the cream of wheat and adding the brown sugar and the butter and cooling it down and then putting it in front of River. And then…..

Bread Machine Addiction…..

I admit it…I love my bread machine. I think I use it every day. Sometimes twice a day! I don’t think I could live without it. It is one of those items, that if it broke, I would have to go out immediately and buy a new one! Some people tell me that using a bread machine is cheating, it isn’t really making bread. But I don’t believe that…I am still putting in all the ingredients..I’m just not doing the hard part. Most of the time, I just make the dough in the machine and then do the rest myself. Today, I made cinnamon bread, that was wayyyyy tooo gooey and then I made pizza dough.

Can you make Jewish apple cake out of three apples….

So, I’m going to my dad’s for dinner…he loves Jewish Apple Cake. We have a family recipe for it…but I don’t have it…I did have it, but I have lost it. This is one of those times when I would call my mom and have her give it to me over the phone. But I can’t do that any longer and if I called my dad and asked him he wouldn’t even know where the recipe book was. Which also makes me think that I need to get my mom’s recipe book. Shouldn’t the daughter inherit the recipe book???? I think so. The recipe uses a tube pan instead of a bundt pan….I don’t have one of those….may have to get my mom’s! Somehow I don’t think my dad will ever use it!

Anyway, I was therefore forced to go on the internet and look up a recipe. The problem is I only have 3 apples and River is napping…so it will be a Jewish Apple cake with 3 apples…we’ll see how it turns out……

I have also discovered that the recipe calls for 1/4 of a cup of orange juice..I don’t have any..so I am substituting milk. Should be interesting.

The recipe is below (I only baked it for one hour):

Mom’s (okay….not my mom’s) Apple Cake

6 apples, Mom uses McIntosh apples
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar

2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan. Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ones, then add eggs, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated.

Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples over it. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until a tester comes out clean.

This recipe was borrowed from smitten kitchen.

Here are my photos. I’ll tell you on Monday has it tasted! I had to take a photo BEFORE I took it out of the bundt pan, because I always mess that part up!

Winter Deliciousness….

It was so nice to have time yesterday to make a wonderful home cooked meal. Something is just so warm and fuzzy about home made soup in the winter. I had been dying to make my Aunt’s Tortellini soup. It is delicious. One day when we were over her house….she asked us to stay for dinner. Well, within about 30 minutes she had whipped up one of the most delicious soups I had ever had. I told her I had to have the recipe. She said there was no recipe…she had literally just invented it using the ingredients in her refrigerator. Well, I made her sit down and write down what was in it. And here it is…it is yummy and wonderful and filling…..

The recipe is:

Rose’s Tortellini and Spinach Soup

6-8 cups Water

1 Large onion, chopped

3 cloves Garlic, chopped

Bag Carrots, chopped

3 stalks Celery, chopped

2 cups Vegetable broth

Bag Fresh spinach

2 Bags Frozen tortellini

4 eggs scrambled

Begin to boil water. Turn water down to medium. Add onion and garlic. Cook 10 minutes. Add carrots, celery, vegetable broth, salt and pepper. Let cook 10 minutes.

Add spinach and tortellini…put lid on, bring water to a boil. Make sure it doesn’t boil over. Add scrambled egg. Put lid back on. Cook on low for approximately 5 more minutes.

Yum!

Of course, you can’t have a delicious meal without a delicious dessert. One of the blogs I read, and I can’t remember which one, had this cake featured and it just sounded so good, I had to make it. It is incredibly delicious.

Lazy Daisy Cake

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour (we used whole wheat flour here as it was what I had on hand)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp butter

*Preheat the oven to 350 F. degrees. Put the milk and butter in a small saucer pan on the stove to warm. Beat eggs. Stir in sugar and vanilla to the beaten eggs. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in the warmed milk and butter from the stove. Pour into a greased 9×11 cake pan and bake for 30 minutes.

While the cake is baking, make the topping…

6 tbsp butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (very packed)
1 cup coconut

Put ingredients into the small saucepan and warm until the butter is melted and mixed with the coconut and brown sugar. When the cake is done, pat the topping on and put the cake back in the oven for a few minutes to brown the coconut yumminess.