Birthday cake ala box

I'm behind on updating this blog. I'm a horrible wretched person, I know. April 10th was the BirdDaddy's birthday. As you can see, he's the big 2-9. He says he's old. If he'd old, then I'm old. I'm a month older than he is! I refuse to be old. Despite the gray hair that has begun to sprout up on our head, we are not old!

So what did we do for his big day? We sat around and played video games, watched movies, and pigged out on awesome food. What else is there to do when there's nasty, dark clouds looming in the distance and a soggy ground? We couldn't take the Birdies outside to play. We couldn't even sit out on the balcony without getting wet. And lets not forget the cold! Where did all of this cold come from?! We had eighty degree weather that over night became frigid! Sometimes I have to agree with BirdDaddy, Illinois is nothing but a corn desert. Its just insane!

The day before BD's B-Day, I set about making his cake. He's pretty easy to bake for. He loves his yellow cake with chocolate frosting. What's best, is he doesn't like anything fussy. So, it was box mix for the win! Cheating I know, but its what he likes. There's not much to really say about making a cake from a box. Its simple, the directions are on the box, and there's very little chance of messing it up. So instead of a recipe for a cake, I'm giving you a tip I've found through the lovely Amanda at i am baker: How to make a level cake.

Like Amanda, I tore up an old ratty towel. I wasn't going to spend all kinds of money I don't have on something I could make at home. All you do, is cut two (if you're using two pans) 1 - 2 inch strip off of an old towel. Wet them, but make sure they're not soaking wet, and tie them around your pans. Put them in the oven and you're done.



See don't they look pretty and flat? They were great! And they came away from the pan so easily. This, was the best cake I have ever made. Then again, I may be biased. BirdDaddy didn't seem to mind. He was happy with his cake. Now, if only he would have allowed us to sing 'Happy Birthday' to him.

Easy pie!

I found a recipe little over a month ago for Baked Cherry Pies at Heather's Dish and I had to try it. I went out a week later and I bought everything I'd need to make them. I used black cherries instead of regular cherries and it was sweet! Oh my gosh, I hadn't had anything that awesome in ages! After those were gone, I made mini peach pies. Those, did not turn out quite so well. The peaches were still firm and it didn't taste very pie like.

After that small failure, I tried them again, this time with frozen blueberries. The dough on the bottom of the pie-pocket was almost raw and goopey, and I was a little disappointed. But, they were still gone in a matter of an hour. My aunt was there, and she wanted the recipe so she could try them when she got home.

A week later, I got a called from her, telling me how she'd modified the recipe. Instead of fresh fruit, she used the canned pie filling. She flattened them out a little more, and egg washed the dough on both inside and out to help keep the dough closed. So, my happy little self had to go and try it this way. I bought a can of sugar free cherry pie filling, egg washed the dough, and mmm they are great! And they stayed closed! That is what's best of all.

My picture sucks. No matter how many times I took it I ended up shaking.

So, for the version of this wonderful and awesome mini pie recipe I made, all you will need is:

• 1 can fruit pie filling of choice
• 1 can (Grands or generic equivalent) biscuits
• 1 egg
• sugar for sprinkling on top
• small amount of flour for dusting counter top/rolling pin

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Sprinkle counter with flour and roll out biscuits to a 1/4 inch thickness (or if you want to be daring, try to get it thinner, it'll give you more area to work with!)
3. Beat 1 egg to use as a wash
4. Brush wash along edge of dough
5. Scoop 1 - 2 tbsp of pie filling into center of biscuit
6. Fold dough in half and crimp edge shut with fork
7. Place on baking sheet and brush tops and edges with egg wash
8. Sprinkle tops with sugar
9. Bake in oven for 30 minutes
10. Cool for a few (or ten) minutes
11. Enjoy!

Serve with ice cream or eat alone. Its good either way. =)

Chocolate Chip Biscuits

Here we go, my first post on here pertaining to a recipe! I'm excited, how about you?

The last week or so, my household has been dealing with a strange sort of flu bug that's kept us all incapable of doing much of anything. We're slowly starting to feel better, and with my birthday coming up this weekend, I wanted to start treating myself.

Three weeks ago, I was searching the web for biscuits. I know that those in the UK call cookies 'biscuits', and I wanted to find out what they would then call actual biscuits. During this search for an answer I never got, I found this recipe for chocolate chip breakfast biscuits and I had to try it right away. They were great! My birdies loved them. My husband liked them. And, last but not least, I couldn't stop eating them! So, I saved the recipe to use again and have had the craving for these things niggling at the back of my taste buds ever since.

We finally got to the store and bought stuff that we needed, so I was now able to make them again. I've done everything the same as I did last time, except this time I rolled them out instead of doing scoops. I still ended up with 1 1/2 dozen of them, so I was pretty stoked about that as well.

• 3 c. flour
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 1 1/2 T. baking powder
• 3/4 t. salt
• 1/2 c. butter
• 1-2 c. chocolate chips
• 1/2-1 c. milk

1. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut butter into the flour mixture until crumbly. Stir in chocolate chips.

2. Add the milk, a little at a time, just until dough comes together. If you accidentally add too much milk and the dough becomes sticky, just add a little more flour.

3. Roll out dough and cut, or just drop 1/4 c. portions onto a baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until fully cooked and lightly browned on top.

Don't they just look delicious? Let me tell you, they are absolutely yummy. Just out of the oven, the chocolate is ooey and gooey. They won't last long, that's for sure.

Okay, I hope you've enjoyed my first post on here. Thank you for stopping by.

Greetings and Salutations!

Hello there! I had just started to write this blog over on Wordpress but I wasn't happy over there. So, I came over here. I'm much more pleased with my blog being here. Not that Wordpress isn't awesome, its just not for me.

So, this blog is going to be about what I make for my family. What we like, what we hate, what we'd like to make again. If anyone is interested in following me through this adventure, you are more than welcome to do so. I hope you enjoy what you find here. And maybe, you'll find something that inspires you as well!