I LOVE PURSES

I just love purses, especially if you can eat them.... (Now don't pay attention to the background). My sister Michelle has been taking cake decorating classes, so we decided to have a bake-off and decorate these cakes.

Have a wonderful day!

Irma :)

Let Them Eat Coffee Cake!

Today was baking day. I made our favorite coffee cake. It asks for Smucker's Cherry Preserves but I have not been able to find it at our local supermarket so I substituted Smucker's Raspberry Seedless Preserves. I'm sure you could use any other type of preserves and it would taste just a good. Cherry Swirl Coffee Cake

1 1/4 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup Crisco All Vegetable Shortening
1 package (1/4 ounce active dry yeast
3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cu Smucker's Cherry Preserves
1 cup powdered sugar
Milk
1/3 cup sliced almonds ( I used chopped pecans)

Heat 1/14 cups milk, salt, granulated sugar, and shortening in small saucepan just to boiling; cool to lukewarm. Stir in yeast; transfer mixture to medium bowl. Add one cup of the flour to milk mixture; beat well. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Stir in enough remaining flour to make a thick batter; beat until smooth. Let rise, covered, in warm place, free from drafts, until doubled in bulk, about one hour. Stir batter down. Pour batter into two greased 9" round cake pans; let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about one hour. Make a swirl design on top of batter with a floured spoon; fill grooves with preserves, using 1/4 cup for each coffee cake. Heat oven to 375F. Bake coffee cakes until golden, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from pans. cool on wire racks. Fill grooves with remaining preserves. Mix powdered sugar, with enough milk to make thin glaze consistency; drizzle over warm coffee cakes. Sprinkle with almonds.

Hope your give it a try.

Hugs :)

Irma

2 PART POST: PART 1- I'M NO RACHAEL RAY and PART 2-DID YOU SAY BLACKBIRDS?

PART ONE OF POST:

Today I tried a new recipe (using that expensive spice "cardamon" I previously mentioned). I made Chicken Shawarma with Grilled Vegetable Couscous Salad.
I saw this recipe made on Rachael Ray on the Food Network show. On TV the recipe really looks soooo good and hey, it only took her 30 minutes to complete the main dish with a side. Now that sounds great because I don't want to be in the kitchen for over 30 minutes cooking. Right? Well, I will never be a Rachael Ray. I started preparing this dish and side dish at 4:00 PM.
Slathering the paste like spice mixture as called for on the recipe onto the chicken breasts. I then put the chicken on the grill.

While the chicken is grilling, I started to saute the onions and bell pepper with lemon juice and garlic.

I then grilled the eggplant and zucchini which was brushed with EVOO (as Rachael would say) salt and pepper.

I also cooked the couscous, which this is the first time I tried it. Sorry how the pic looks as I took it at night time and the light was not that great. I did not finish cooking until 6:00PM, yes, it took me 2 hrs to complete Rachael's 30 min meal. Needless to say, I will not be making this again. The chicken is then sliced and put into the pita pockets with the grilled onions and peppers and a dollop of greek yogurt, but I used sour cream with lemon juice instead. The grilled veggies were put on top of the couscous.

SECOND PART OF TODAYS POST:

Yesterday was DH 61st birthday. If you are ever in Houston you need to stop by the "Flying Saucer Pie Company". They have the most fabulous pies. During the Thanksgiving Holidays there usually is a line out the door. My MIL and SIL called and said they were coming over and when they arrived they had two pie boxes with them. Goody! Goody!

The first pie box held a cheese cake pie with strawberries on top and whipped cream. Wow! we are hitting this first.

Ok, now this is where it gets interesting. We open the second pie box and what do we see?

My first thought was that nursery rhyme something about "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie, when the pie was opened the birds began to sing". I could just picture the birds singing and flying out of the pie. Well, what really happened is that it takes about 1 hr. from my MIL's house in Houston to our house here in Orchard. They got hungry and wanted to taste the blackberry pie and since they were given spoons with the pie, well, I guess you know what happened next.

Well, we had a good laugh after we saw the pie and then we ate some of the Banana Split Cake I made for his birthday and of course tasted the pies my MIL and SIL brought. This cake is so addicting and it seems to taste even better the next day (if there is any left, ha! ha!).

BANANA SPLIT CAKE

2 cups Cinnamon graham cracker crumbs

1 stick butter

2 8oz. pkg. cream cheese, room temperature

1 box powdered sugar

5 medium bananas

1 cup chopped pecans

1 can crushed pineapple, drained

1 large container cool whip

chocolate syrup

1 jar cherries

Melt butter and combine with the Cinnamon graham crumbs in 9 x 13 pan. Pat down for crust. In a medium bowl using hand mixer, combine cream cheese and powdered sugar. Then pour on top of graham crust. Slice bananas on top. Then spread the crushed pineapple on top of the bananas. Then spread the cool whip covering the bananas. Place cherries on top, drizzle chocolate syrup all over and sprinkle with pecans. Best if refrigerated overnight.

Hope you try this out, its really good.

Hugs :)

Irma

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day. My day was great! Just stayed home and relaxed. My middle son came over and spent the afternoon with us. My oldest called to wish me Happy Mother's Day, he is in the Navy and could not make it home. My youngest son grilled chicken this time and it turned out great, did not get burned like Easter time when I tried to grill it, Middle Son remembered this incident and brought some brisket just in case (I think he was trying to be funny or maybe he just wanted to make sure we had something to eat in case it happened again, He! He!). We had Hummingbird Cake with cream cheese frosting for dessert. Very addicting. Here's the receipe for Hummingbird Cake:

3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 eggs beaten
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 can 8 oz. crushed pineapple with juice
1 cup chopped pecans
2 cups ripe mashed bananas
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon together into a mixing bowl. Add eggs and oil to dry ingredients. Stir until ingredients are moistened. Stir in vanilla, pineapple and 1 cup pecans. Stir in the bananas. Spoon the batter into 3 well greased and floured 9 inch round cake pans. (I used 2 pans which were a oval). Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes then turn onto cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.

Crean Cheese Frosting:
2-8oz. pkgs. cream cheese room temperature
1 cup butter room temperature
2 pounds sifted confectioners sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Combine cream cheese and butter, cream until smooth. Add powndered sugar, beating with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla. Frost the top layers, stack and then frost sides. Enjoy!

Below are pictures of the sterling silver ring I won at Across The Pond Designs by Casey. Thanks for having such a nice giveway. I need to practice taking pictures, these came out a little blurry. The ring is gorgeous, I love it. Sorry for the bad photos.

Looky! Looky! These are the first of some peppers from our pepper plants. Its an assortment of banana peppers, cayenne, and jalapenos. Hedwig seems to be doing a great job. He has managed to keep the birds and squirrels away. Nacho is on call waiting to be backup just in case.