Caterpillar Cake

Need a simple, cute idea for a cake? Try making a caterpillar cake!

I volunteered to donate a cake for a prize at a fundraising event. Being spring, a caterpillar cake seemed appropriate. You can make it any flavor you like. I chose to make a lemon cake since it would be easy to change yellow lemon frosting into green caterpillar frosting. Here's how it's done.

1. Bake a bundt cake from any standard cake mix or homemade recipe you like.

2. When the cake has cooled completely, cut it into three equal sections. You may need to trim some off of the bottom (what was the top before it was turned out of the pan) so that it will rest stably on the serving tray. Place the three sections end to end to create an S-curve.

3. Color a regular can of frosting (or frosting recipe) whatever color you'd like your caterpillar to be. Mine was green. Frost the entire cake leaving the two cut ends unfrosted. 

4. Use toothpicks to secure a Hostess Snowball to each end of the bundt cake.

5. Decorate the cake with various candies to create eyes, feet, spots, antennae, etc. For my cake, I used two miniature marshmallows smooshed flat with chocolate chips in the center as eyes. I used Hot Tamales candies for feet, gummy peach rings for spots, licorice for antennae, and pink sugar for a stripe down its back. Finally, I added a few Peeps to make the cake a little more Spring-y.

Dream Interpretation

Thursday morning, I called into a local radio program and was selected to talk to their special guest, a dream interpreter. My dream was this:

I was at a birthday event for my son. It seemed to be a family dinner at a restaurant. My parents, my aunt, and some of The Boy's father's family were there. The dream started with me getting angry with my father for upsetting my son on his birthday. I went to grab my wallet and cell phone so I could storm off. My found my things missing. I was sure where I had set them down, and now both were gone.

I searched all over. I went back over all the spots in the restaurant I had been looked outside, inside. Gone. Just then, a waiter walked over, holding up my purple, leather wallet. It was tattered, stretched, torn. Looked like it had been the rope in a tug-of-war. All of the cards and money were missing. Of course. Thoughts of all the problems and troubles this was going to cause were running through my mind when I spotted my cell phone just outside the back door of the restaurant. I rushed over. It was just my cellphone cover. My phone was gone. All my pictures, my text messages; my email accounts are accessible through my phone.

I woke up.

The dream expert interpreted it like this:

The cell phone is a symbol of communication. If it is missing, then the dream is trying to show a miscommunication that is going on in my life. This is true. Although, it probably holds true for most people. Currently, there are a couple of job situations that have communication issues at their core. Those things had been weighing on my mind when I went to bed that night.

Then she said, most people think a wallet symbolizes money and finances, but really it symbolizes identity. We keep our identification in our wallets and someone can steal our identity if they have our wallet. So in my dream, the miscommunication problems are attacking my identity. My reputation or character is being falsely identified. True in one of the cases at work.

Finally, the dream was set in a restaurant. A restaurant symbolizes hungry to be resolved. So, my dream is about my strong desire to resolve this issue at work in which I feel I am being misrepresented. Very true. Interestingly enough, the evening after the dream, there was a meeting specifically to resolve this situation at work.

Hmmmm.....

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lion

March has been a lion of a month. Most of it is work related. At the beginning of the month, I had several late nights of work, conferences, trainings, meetings, paperwork to do, deadlines to meet, budgets to manage. Now that the month is closing, shouldn't it be a lamb? But no, I still have meetings, trainings, late evenings, deadlines, paperwork to do and budgets to manage. Where is my easy ending? Maybe it's the beginning of the April. Spring Break :)

The Empty Nest Experiment

Tonight is a true night of empty nest experimentation. The Boy is away at a sleepover. The house is very quiet. I'm not quite sure how I will ever get used to this. It feels very cavernous.

For my entire adult life, I have had my son with me. I don't really know how to be alone. In some ways it will be adventurous finding myself, learning new hobbies, developing new routines. But in most ways, it just sounds lonely and creepy and boring. I'm a little afraid I will kill all my nights zoned out in front of the TV, gaining weight, and letting everything around my deteriorate. If I live up to my hopes and expectations, I'll start a new hobby (scrap booking), read more books, and get back into a healthier eating and exercising routine. I can have my crafting supplies out all over the table and not have to worry about others disturbing it. I can read books in bed at night and on weekends. I won't feel the need to make a full dinner every night and supply The Boy's ice cream habit that I find very hard to resist. Plus, I can move my exercise bike back into the living room so I can watch TV while exercising without feeling self-conscious while troops of teenagers march through my house. Fingers crossed. We'll see.

In the meantime, while I try to relearn how to live my life, I am very thankful to have several little souls around the house. It does feel better to have some loving, loyal, fluffy creatures to keep me company. Meet my brood.

Maxwell

Abigail

Moo

Moroccan Eggs

I came across this recipe on Food 52 (http://www.food52.com/recipes/534_moroccan_merguez_ragout_with_poached_eggs). The photo alone looked worth eating. Yummy! I love spicy Moroccan flavors. I love eggs. And I love experimental cooking. So last night a friend and I tackled this recipe. My adaptations are written in my recipe below. I don't have access to an Arabic grocery store, so we improvised the best we could. I think (having never tasted the authentic dish) we created something pretty tasty.

Here's my pic. Not nearly as beautiful as the one on Food 52. Maybe I need to practice my photography.

Moroccan Churizo Ragout with Poached Eggs
(and homemade spice mixes)

First we created the spice mixes called for in the recipe.

Ras el Hanout
1 pod cardamon
1 tsp ground dried ginger
1 small piece of nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 or 4 allspice seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground mixed pepper
1/2 ground cayenne

All placed in an electric coffee grinder reserved for blending spices and whirled around until powdery.

Harissa
4 dried hot chilies, the skinny red ones that are about three inches long
1/2 tsp salt (Although I thought it was a little salty. Next time I will use less salt.)
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp caraway seeds
1/2 tsp ground cumin
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil

The first five ingredients are placed in the aforementioned electric coffee grinder and whirled around until powdery. Add this to a small bowl with the garlic and olive oil and smash it with a spoon until blended. (Or use a mortar and pestle if you have one, I do not so I used the bowl and spoon method.)

Ragout
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 pound churizo sausage
1 tbsp ras el hanout
1 tsp paprika (The recipe called for Spanish sweet smoked paprika. I had plain paprika so that's what I used.)
2 15oz cans fire-roasted tomatoes, diced
8 large eggs
1/2 cilantro chopped
2 tbsp harissa

Saute the onions in the olive oil until translucent and slightly golden brown. I used my enambled cast iron deep-dish skillet for this recipe and it worked great. When the onions are translucent add the garlic. Let it cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes stirring occassionally.

Add the churizo in small chunks. It will melt down pretty quickly. When the sausage is mostly cooked, add the ras el hanout, paprika, and cans of tomatoes. Cook until the mixture has thickened, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Gently crack the eggs right over the tomatoe ragout evenly spaced throughout the pan. Place a lid on the dish and let cook. I'm not sure how long it should take. I checked mine after about three minutes and they were still very underdone. I came back three more minutes later and the yolks were almost solid. Overdone. You want the whites cooked and the yolks still runny.

Serve. Sprinkle each plate with cilantro and harissa. Serve with crusty bread.

I also served the Mediterranean Kale in gave the recipe for in a previous post. It went very well.

Springtime Chicken Soup

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a bit of a foodie, both in the high-end gourmet restaurant foodie sort and the experiment with a wide variety of cooking at home foodie sort. This certainly contributes of my extra pounds I've mentioned previously. I don't have the energy or willpower to keep up an exercise routine, so my love of food is a definite problem. One of these days I will work on that... the exercise regime, not the love of good food.

So this evenings meal is a simple, lovely, light chicken soup. Perfect for spring weather. It has a bit of an Asian flare to it. It's also filling enough to be dinner.

Springtime Chicken Soup


1 red bell pepper, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 cup julienned carrots
1/2 medium-sized yellow onion, also cut into bite-sized pieces 
1 tablespoon canola oil
4 cups chicken stock
Large slices of fresh ginger to taste (I used two 1 inch in diameter slices, but didn't think it was gingery enough. Next time I will double that.)
Lemongrass to taste (Again, I will double what I used today next time. I used about 1 tablespoon of pre-ground lemongrass, not fresh. Fresh would be better, I'm sure. The store just didn't have any.)
2 cups water
1 small bundle Udon noodles
2 cups cooked diced or shredded chicken
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/2 cup diced green onions
1 peeled, seeded, and diced tomato


Lightly saute the bell pepper, carrots, and onion in the oil for about three minutes. Add the four cups of chicken stock, ginger, and lemongrass. Simmer for ten minutes. Add water as needed. If the soup doesn't have the desired amount of liquid, add more. Add Udon noodles, cook until done. Add chicken, cilantro, green onions and tomato. Cook another couple of minutes until heated through. And VOILA! Delicious springtime soup. Serve with a little bread or some egg rolls. Good stuff.

Fabulous Veggie Recipes

I've discovered two fantastic veggie recipes lately. Neither of them are completely my own. The recipes here are my adaptations.


Lemon-garlic Kale
adapted from Allrecipes.com recipe "Mediterranean Kale"


I have tried to like kale. I know dark leafy greens are good for you. Mostly I have gotten kale to be palatable. This recipe is actually good. I could eat this kale every week. I'm already planning to get more on my next grocery shopping trip.


One bunch of kale
1 or 2 cups of broth
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce


Trim all of the stems from the kale. I find them too tough and stringy. Chop the kale into bite-sized pieces. In a large flat-bottomed pan, heat the broth to a simmer. Braise the kale in the broth until it is as tender as you would like it. I placed the lid on the pan to keep in as much of the moisture as possible while it cooked. Meanwhile mix the remaining ingredients together. When the kale has reached desired texture, remove it from the heat. Toss the dressing in with the kale and Voila! Yummy, healthy dark leafy greens.




Roasted Butternut Squash with Feta, Dried Cherries, and Nuts
adapted from "The I <3 Trader Joe's Around the World Cookbook"


I love butternut squash. The more ways to cook it the better. This is definitely the best recipe I've ever had.


1 pound butternut squash; peeled, seeded and cubed; or just get the pre-prepped kind in a bag
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
pinch of sage
salt and pepper
1/2 cup chopped nut; almond, pecan, walnut, pine nut... whatever kind you like. I think I used pecans
1/4 cup dried cherries, dried cranberries would work too
1/4 cup feta cheese (The original recipe called for blue cheese. I don't like blue cheese but feta substituted very well. Any kind of goat cheese would work great.)


Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the butternut squash and red onions with the olive oil, sage, salt, and pepper. Spread out in a roasting pan or jelly roll baking sheet. Roast until tender. I find that butternut squash takes 20 to 30 minutes. I like mine quite tender. Sprinkle nuts over the top and roast for 5 more minutes. Put squash in whatever serving dish you want to use and toss in dried cherries and feta cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Oh so good and tasty. It doesn't exactly sound like ingredients that will work, but trust me, it does.

Weekend Lesson in Productivity

My normal work week is so draining by the time the weekend rolls around I want to be in my easy chair, in my PJs, with my Hulu and my laptop. I want to drink sweet English Breakfast tea and bake chocolate goodies. I read recipes, cookbooks, and foodie blogs like they are novels. I watch reruns of Bones and Law and Order. Before I know it the weekend is over and I wonder what happened to both of the days because they blur together into one long hibernation.

This weekend was accidentally productive. I've been uncharacteristically energetic on weekends recently. Very recently. This weekend I just kept getting up from my hibernation recliner and doing stuff.

"Ugh, this kitchen is a mess. I need to get these dishes in the dishwasher.... and wash up the few that need to be done by hand.... and wipe down the counters.... the stove top is dirty... so is the microwave.... and the frig, oven, and dishwasher doors."

"I have absolutely no work clothes left. Four loads of laundry will get me through the next couple of weeks."

"I just vacuumed this carpet last weekend and it's a wreck again already. I have a friend coming over for dinner. I need to vacuum the house.... I might as well clean the bathroom too. Always my mom's rule for house guests: make sure the house is picked up and the bathroom is clean. That's all guests will notice."

"Tri-tip dinner with steam mixed veggies, sauteed kale, mashed potatoes, homemade chocolate pound cake." (I did still manage to stick to my bake-chocolate-goodies routine.)

"I can't just let the two teenage boys I hired to work on my yard do all the work by themselves while I recline and watch TV. That just feels sluggish. Plus my friend is fixing my fence. I should get out there and participate. Weed the front flower beds, rake and pull all the dead plants from the winter, sweep the sidewalks and driveway, clean-up after the fence painting, kill the gophers that are eating my rose bushes I keep replacing."

"Promised to take The Boy to get a tux for the prom which entails driving him and his two friends to town, getting lunch, dropping by the video game store. And great, the tux shop is closed... New plan: new dress shirt and tie, black slacks,... $37 at Kohls. Hot dog! Getting off cheap with this prom."

Now that I look back on the weekend.... Holy cow. How in the world did I manage to get my house clean, laundry done, my yard clean, my fence fixed, prom shopping done, and cooked a nice dinner? I even slipped in a nap, pizza, and a caught up on some of my TV programs. Maybe I need to consider a new weekend routine, a more productive, involved, accomplished weekend. Because at the end of it, I didn't look back and think, "Hey where'd my two days go!" This time I look back and think, "Hot damn, I got a lot of stuff done!"