Kinda Freaky

I saw this and thought it was freaky. I told my kids, they thought it was cool. What do you think??

This year we will experience 4 unusual dates.... 1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11, 11/11/11

NOW go figure this out.... take the last 2 digits of the year you were born plus the age you will be this year and it WILL EQUAL


.... 111 ...

Surprise Chocolate Cupcakes

I made the Surprise Devil Food cake awhile back and promised I'd show you the cupcakes when I made them. So, here they are. I forgot to take a photo of the finished cupcakes but you get the idea.

So..you'll need
Devil's Food Cake Mix prepared according to directions
1 brick of Cream Cheese~softened
1 C Sugar
1 Beaten Egg
Pinch of salt
1/2 bag mini Chocolate Chips

Mix cake mix in bowl.

Mix beaten egg, cream cheese, sugar and salt in another bowl. When mixed, add chocolate chips. To make cupcakes, pour batter half full into cupcake liners. Drop a spoonful of cream cheese mixture into center and bake according to cupcake
directions on box. Makes about 28 cupcakes. Frost with your favorite chocolate
canned frosting. YES, you know my secret..I use canned frosting on these babies;)

Ready for oven
Ready for frosting

Roasted Cauliflower Soup

I saw this recipe on Pioneer Woman awhile back and thought about making it. But, I'm not a huge fan of cooked cauliflower. I heard somewhere that if you roast cauliflower that even your toughest critic will eat it. I didn't bother giving it to my toughest critics. We all know that they don't like soup and cooked vegetables are a huge stretch so I saved myself the aggravation, made a half batch and shared with Kristen and Alanna.

I also altered a bit so I'll post the recipe the way "I" did it and if you would rather make it Pioneer Woman style, you can do that too.

Here is what you'll need:

1 head Cauliflower, cored and chopped
3 cloves Garlic minced
drizzle of Olive Oil~couple teaspoons
1 large Carrot minced or handful of baby carrots minced
1 stalk Celery minced
1/2 Medium Onion minced
3 C Chicken or Vegetable Broth
1 T Pepper
1 T Parsley ~ I only had dried
1/4 C butter
1 C Milk~I used skim because that's what I had
4 T Flour

And, here is how you'll use your ingredients.

1 head Cauliflower, cored and chopped
3 cloves Garlic minced
drizzle and toss with Olive Oil~couple teaspoons

You all know how I feel about sizes of vegetables in my soup, not too big, not too small. Cut according to the size "you" like. Put in a cake pan and roast at 450 for about 20 minutes.

While that's roasting...

1 Carrot minced
1 stalk Celery minced
1/2 Medium Onion minced

Toss into a soup pot with a teaspoon of Olive Oil. Toss around on low for a few minutes, allowing the vegetables to soften. Add 3 C Chicken or vegetable Broth and teaspoon of pepper and let it simmer until the cauliflower is done cooking. Add the cauliflower and let simmer together while you prepare the next step.

Melt 1/4 C butter in sauce pan.

Mix together
1 C Milk~I used skim because that's what I had
4 T Flour
Whisk together with the melted butter until thickened. Pour into soup. Add 1 T parsley. Heat through and serve.

Here is the chopped cauliflower
Roasted
Carrots and celery sweating it out. You'll be adding Chicken or Vegi broth next
This is what the butter, flour and milk will look like when it's ready to add to the broth and vegis. It's a bit thick, kind of like a thin milk shake. Pour this into the broth. Add a tablespoon of parsley and heat through
Yum

Pot of Water

Yep, you heard me...a POT OF WATER.

If you live in Minnesota during January, your house gets dry which doesn't do pleasant things for your skin, your throat or your nose. To get some humidity in the air I fill a soup pot with water and throw in a chopped apple and a tablespoon of cinnamon and put it on a slow simmer on the stove. Does wonders for the air AND it smells like you're cooking something yummy. My kids are no longer fooled that a dessert is in the oven;)

Gluten Free Brownies

I was looking around at other blogs and this recipe grabbed my attention. Her title was Gluten Free Black Bean Brownies from Katie at Intentionally Katie. I have a friend whose sister is Gluten Free so I'm always looking out for something for her so I thought I'd try it.

I could not believe that adding black beans and very little oil would create a decent brownie. To say I was skeptical was an understatement.

I made them quietly in the kitchen, tasted the batter, which was good and put them in the oven. I frosted them with my kids favorite cooked frosting and served to the toughest critics on the block simply stating it was a new recipe.

Claire said, "they were a little too moist but I liked them". Max asked for another one. I thought they were good but I'm more of a chewy brownie girl, these are more cake like because of the texture/moistness. People at work liked them and asked for the recipe.

I don't think I will ever tell the kids that they contain black beans, they can figure that out on their own. You also don't need to frost them if you don't want to. They tasted good without, we just like any excuse to eat fudge frosting at our house.

So, give them a try and tell me what you think.

1 can Black Beans, drained and rinsed
2 Eggs
1 T Olive Oil
2 T Apple Sauce (or 2 T more Olive Oil)~I used Apple Sauce
1/4 C Cocoa powder
pinch of Salt
1/2 t Baking Powder
1 t Vanilla
3/4 C Sugar
1/2 C Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

Put eggs, olive oil, vanilla and apple sauce in bottom of blender. Add beans and liquify, you shouldn't see any chunks. Stop and add the rest of the ingredients and I pulsed until it was all incorporated. Pour batter into greased 8x8 pan, sprinkle with chocolate chips and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until tester put in the middle comes out clean. Cool, frost and serve.

I will add that you could not serve these warm, they fell apart when trying to take them out of the pan (my kids like warm brownies with ice cream so they had to wait another 15 minutes)

Fudge Frosting

2 T Butter
2 T Milk
1 T Cocoa
Bring to a boil. Add
1 t Vanilla
3/4 C Powdered Sugar
Whisk until smooth and pour on top of brownies.


Looks like regular brownie mix to me
Ready for the oven
The kids LOVED them

2nd Place!

We just played in our final tournament of the year. We were playing for 1st place and were down 1-0 with 59 seconds left on the clock. Scramble, Scramble...puck goes in...NO GOAL. The referee had blown the whistle by mistake, yes mistake, he apologized after the game. It's the second time this year that we ended up losing a game because of a bad call.

I have taught my kids that the referee is the one who calls the game. They are human and mistakes happen. Sometimes you're on the receiving end of that bad call and it is what it is. Sucky lesson but a lesson none the less.

I am proud of them for going hard and not giving up. Here they are, very tired with their 2nd place trophy. Congratulations boys!!

Potato Soup

I think it's been awhile since I posted a crock pot soup recipe. I kind of forgot about this one and I needed something to get the chill out of my bones. It's easy and yummy so give it a try.

What you'll need:
7 medium Potatoes, peeled and cut into pieces
1 medium Onion chopped
1 large Carrot peeled and diced (or handful of baby carrots)
2 stalks celery chopped
4 C Water
4 Chicken Bouillon cubes
1 T Parley Flakes
1/2 t Pepper
1 1/4 t Salt
1 T Garlic Powder
1 can Evaporated Milk

Put all the ingredients except milk into your crock pot and cook on low 10-12 hours or high for about 4. Mash potatoes a little bit with a fork or hand masher. Add milk, heat through and serve.

I never do this but you could top with chopped chives, cheese or bacon for a nice touch.

Here is how I chop the potatoes. 6 of them I chop into chunks and 1 of them I slice into bite size pieces. I like how the different sizes give texture to potato soup.
Potato soup doesn't photograph well or should I say, "I" don't photograph it well. But here's the finished product.