Sunday, December 12, 2010

Such a busy time of year.

Aside from getting the house ready for showings with realtors, I'm trying to get ready for Christmas.  Unfortunately that hasn't included too much baking lately.  I did pick up some stuff to get shortbread made and that's my plan for this week so I'm hoping to get some posting done on that and have some nice pictures.

We did manage to get out this morning and find our Christmas tree.  We go to the same u-cut every year and we love it.  I would buy it if we could afford it since the owners want to retire but a new house is a little more urgent than a tree lot so I'll have to wait until we win the lottery some day. 

The kids all took turns cutting the tree and they dragged it out of the woods to the truck.  Then we had a little lunch and some hot chocolate right there in the tree lot.  It was great!  I can't wait until we have our decorating party. We're thinking of having an ugly sweater party so that should be a lot of fun.

So I hope you are all having a great holiday season, whatever holiday you might be celebrating.  And if you're not celebrating any particular holiday I hope you're enjoying winter and baking up something yummy!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Pics of my "coffee cake"

Sitting at the table having a little snack this afternoon  and Mackenzie was wondering about the cake I made.  After I told her all about it she says "So it's really a coffee cake."  I guess so.

    Here's a picture of it, with some cuts and some pieces just torn off.  It's better the day after too!


   And a picture of a batch of rice crispie cookies Zoe helped me with the other day. They didn't last too long either.
This one I just thought was too cute.  I left some shopping bags in the living room and the kids figured they made good chairs for watching tv!





 

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

My twist on things.

I've imposed a diet on the family this week, and it's only because I'm so unhappy with my own weight.  Of course, I'm craving something sweet to have with a cup of tea, so I started to do a batch of my grandmothers cookies minus the chocolate chips.  Then I thought 'hey I have some wheat germ in the cupboard' and I toasted some of that and added it in.  It needed a little something extra so I threw in a spoonful of instant coffee. Zoe keeps telling me (Thanks to the host of Best Recipes Ever) that fat is flavor, but right now we're cutting down on fat so I needed to find something else for a flavor boost.

At this point, I hadn't actually looked at the original recipe and I added too much milk so I had to add extra flour and it ended up being a cake instead of a batch of cookies.But that's ok because it's not too bad.

No picture since the camera is stowed away along with most other things in the house (realtor showing this evening) but maybe tomorrow I'll have a chance to snap a picture before it's all gone.

In the mean time, here's the recipe for you all to try out.

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp - 1 tbsp instant coffee (depending on how much you want it to taste like coffee)
1/3-1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
Mix all this together and set aside.

Cream together 1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
add 1 egg and 1 can evaporated milk.   I think you could probably use about 3/4 cup of regular milk as well but evaporated milk was all I had on hand tonight.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated.  When I did it it was like a banana bread consistency.  Bake at 375F for 30 minutes.  Check it with a tooth pick or cake tester to make sure it's done.

I lined the bottom of a round pan with parchment paper and it popped right out no problem.  You can let it cool completely but I cut it after a few minutes. 

I hope some of you try it and let me know how you like it.  My kids seemed pretty happy with it.