Quilt

I finished my quilt over Christmas break. It only took me two seasons of House. Ha! :)

Patty Cake

You know the rhyme, Patty Cake, where it says to bake me a cake as fast as you can? Well that's kind of what happened today. I was left out of the loop, and no one told me we were celebrating mom's birthday a day early. So I got to baking as soon as she said she was going to take a nap. I decided to try a more "grown up" cake today. And I have to say I'm pretty proud of the results...maybe later I can get some real pictures of it up, but for now, I only have what I could get from photobooth.
I made a meringue-frosted cake with raspberry filling. I got it from Martha Stewart's website. Hopefully it tastes good!

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pans
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs, plus 3 large egg yolks (reserving whites for meringue, plus 1 additional white)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup milk
5 ounces frozen raspberries, thawed and drained (1/2 cup)

1/4 cup raspberry preserves

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with rack in center. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans; line bottoms with parchment paper. Butter paper; dust with flour; tap out excess. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
2. Using an electric mixer, in a large bowl, beat butter with 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla; beat until combined.
3. Alternately add flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat just until combined. Divide batter between prepared pans.
4. Bake cakes side by side (not touching), rotating pans halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Run a knife around edge of pans. Invert cakes onto a cooling rack; remove parchment. Cool completely, upside down. (Wrap in plastic, and store at room temperature, up to 1 day.)
5. In a small bowl, combine raspberries and preserves. On an ovenproof serving platter, place one cake layer, bottom side up; spread with raspberry mixture, leaving a 1-inch border. Top with second cake layer, bottom side up.
6. Preheat oven to 450 degrees, with rack in bottom third. Using an electric mixer, beat reserved whites with additional egg white until soft peaks form. Gradually add 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating whites until stiff. Using a spatula, frost top and sides of cake, lifting spatula occasionally to make peaks. Bake until tips of meringue brown slightly, about 2 minutes, watching carefully so they don't burn.

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Meringue-Frosted Cake with Raspberry Filling - Martha Stewart Recipes

Puppy

Charlie sings along with the piano. Its both adorable and hilarious.

Yum Yum Potato Soup

I LOVE potato soup. So does Kyle. So one night I decided I would attempt to make some. Not from a mix either. And it turned out really great! So I thought I would document my recipe here! The only thing I may do differently next time would be to add veggies, like celery or something equally green. :)

6 cups chicken broth

6 cups cubed potatoes

1/2 tsp seasoning salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 pkg cream cheese

In a large pot, bring to a boil the chicken broth, cubed potatoes, seasoning salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper. (If using veggies, now would be the time to add them as well.) Let them softly boil at medium heat until potatoes are soft and break apart easily. (You can mash them a bit to make the soup more smooth than chunky.) Reduce heat, and add cream cheese. Stir until melted completely. 

We like crumbled bacon on top. :)

Reflection

Attitude Reflects Leadership

What does this say about the condition of your heart?

Weekend

I had a great weekend thanks to this guy...

We grabbed some coffee. 

Walked through the park where I chased some geese. 

It was freezing. And wonderful. :)

 Not looking forward to school Monday.

On Break

 I played with my new babycakes machine. I made both mini cupcakes and quiche. The quiche turned out better and easier to make than I had expected. Sisters and I cooked one morning over break. We (Jenn) made cranberry lemon scones as well. Yum. :)

I believe this is the recipe we used for the scones: Found on SmittenKitchen's website (http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/11/meyer-lemon-and-fresh-cranberry-scones/)

1 1/2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest (from about 2 lemons; preferably Meyer)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar plus 3 tablespoons additional if using fresh cranberries
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries, chopped coarse, or 1 1/4 cups dried cranberries, if you insist
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup heavy cream
Accompaniment: creme fraiche or whipped cream
Preheat oven to 400°F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
With a vegetable peeler remove the zest from lemons and chop fine, reserving lemons for another use.
In a food processor pulse flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and zest until mixture resembles coarse meal and transfer to a large bowl.
In a small bowl toss together fresh cranberries and 3 tablespoons sugar and stir into flour mixture. If using dried fruit, add to flour mixture.
In another small bowl lightly beat egg and yolk and stir in cream. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until just combined.
On a well-floured surface with floured hands pat dough into a 1-inch-thick round (about 8 inches in diameter) and with a 2-inch round cutter or rim of a glass dipped in flour cut out as many rounds as possible, rerolling scraps as necessary. Arrange rounds about 1 inch apart on baking sheet and bake in middle of oven 15 to 20 minutes, or until pale golden.