Saturday, June 26, 2010

Vinegar in My Wash

I finally tried it, 1/4 cup of white vinegar in the rinse cycle. My clothes feels soft and doesn't smell like vinegar. I even bought those dryer balls and now I'm softener and dryer sheet free. 

Thursday, June 24, 2010

zucchini take two

I decide to give zucchini another try. Got two place (I meant plants) from the flea market--ten times better looking than last year's plant and much cheaper, a dollar a piece. So far so good, but I could be jinxing myself by posting. Here's a pictures of the plants. I kind planted in a odd area to shield it from the varies various wild life that live in my yard.

Zuchinni take two




I've also have potted herbs and a giant weed that I have to pull out one day. If there was a sport to grow weeds, I would be in competition.

My giant weed

See how beautiful my weed grows!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

My Salsa recipe

I also made some salsa for the Saturday party and brought extras to work. People asked me for the recipe so here it is. No pictures--sorry. Most of the amounts are rough estimates as I kind do it by eye. Enjoy!

Salsa

8 plum tomatoes, cored, seeded, and diced (you can use any type of tomatoes, the plum tomatoes looked good and cheap)
1 medium onion, diced
juice of 1 lemon or 2-3 limes (watch the seeds)
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tsp dried ground chili (more or less depending how hot you like it)
1-2 fresh chilies, minced finely
(you can use whatever fresh chili you like, jalapenos, serrano, thai, add more or less depending how hot you like it)
Salt to taste

The proportion to tomatoes to onions should be 2/3 tomatoes to 1/3 onions. Mix ingredients together. The longer you let it sit, the hotter it gets.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Strawberry Layer Cake

I thought I'd share my strawberry layer cake recipe with pictures. Few people asked for the recipes and what a better what to get more people reading my blog by making them go to it for the recipe. The strawberry cake is an modified version of my banana cake/bread. I had some strawberries that I need to use and I was feeling like baking. After a little bit of research on Internet, I decide that I already had great cake/quick bread recipe that I could alter. So 2 loaves and 1 layered cake later, here's the recipe. It is delicious on it's own but with the cream cheese frosting and fresh strawberries for decoration, it makes a great presentation. Hope you enjoy it. This recipe in now in the rotation of cakes I make.

Strawberry layer cake
cooling cakes


Cream cheese frosting
Cream cheese frosting


Finish cake
Finish product

Strawberry Cake

Bake: 325ยบ
Time: 45 minutes to 1 hour

2 loaf pans or 2 9" round cake pans

2 cups of cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream, buttermilk or yogurt (I used vanilla but you can use plain)
1 cup strawberries, slice half and mash the other half (you can use frozen strawberries)
1 tsp vanilla
Additional whole fresh strawberries for decorating, if frosting cake

Sift together dry ingredients, place on the side. Cream together butter and sugar to light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time to butter/sugar mixture. Make sure egg is mixed in well. Then add dry ingredients and sour cream (or buttermilk or yogurt) to butter, sugar and egg mixture, alternating the dry and wet ending with dry. Be careful not to over mix. Mix in your strawberries and vanilla to combined. Pour into loaf pans or cake pans. Bake for 45 min.–1 hour. Cake test should come out clean. Cake should be cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
I kind of improvised after reading a few recipes and blogs. Mostly all cream cheese and not too sweet.

2 8oz. package cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup powder sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Whip cream cheese and butter together until nice and fluffy. Add powder sugar a little at a time (so your kitchen doesn't become one big powder sugar mess) till all is mixed. Add vanilla. Whip until fluffy. I didn't put this in the frig but I think it would have been better if I did to stiffen up slight. You can add more powder sugar if you like your frosting sweeter. This makes just enough frosting for a 2 layer cake.

Putting it together
I slice a few strawberries and put them between the layer on the frosting. I decorated with few whole strawberries on top. Just a simple presentation. I think it worked out well. Cake is slightly pink from the crushed strawberries. I think it serves about 12 + depending on how you slice it.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Still hot!

So I got the portable air condition. Happy! Got great sleep for about a week, then last night happen. I was hot, hot and more hot. Couldn't get comfortable all night and woke up with a terrible headache that lasted all day and I still have it. Feeling nauseated but got through the day without having to throw up. I guess that was one good thing that happen today! Who said I'm the girl with the glass half empty. Ha!

I hope I can make through the night without sweating to death. You would think I would be the skinniest thing with all the sweating I'm doing. But no, I'm just a chubby girl (okay, middle-age woman) that kind of stinks. Old sucks!

Sunday, June 6, 2010

So I got a portable air condition for the bedroom

Because I've been struggling with being incredibly hot and waking up with terrible dream of being unable to breath. I've tried sleeping on the cool wood floors but that get's painful after a while. So, I'm sure WG just wants me to stop complaining about being hot and got it for me.

I'm looking forward to sleep tonight. Nice and cool with maybe the covers on me.

Construction begins

Baby Ribby's blanket has taken much longer than it should. It is much harder than I thought to stay motivated. But I'm back with 1 more square to go.

I've decided to start the construction as I block the squares. Here's the first big square. 11 more to go.




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