October in Kentucky…
Posted in Home, Photography | Tagged Home, Nature, Persimmons, Photography, Walnut, Wordless Wednesday |
I am a huge chocoholic, but sometimes a simple white cake is a wonderful thing. I spotted this not long after I started my Pinterest addiction, but hadn’t taken the time to make it until recently. The photo of this cake is what first caught my eye. The delicate white frosting with the creamy custard center were just too good to pass up thanks to Life’s Simple Measures.
Well, mine turned out really good except for that gorgeous custardy layer. No matter how long I cooked and stirred and stirred and cooked, that stuff would not thicken. Ugh, how frustrating! All was not lost though…I just used some of the frosting to fill the cake and it was really tasty.
For The Cake:
1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened
1-1/2 c. sugar
2 cups self-rising flour
1 cups milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 egg whites
For The Frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter, very soft
8 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cups milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare two 9” round cake pans. Cream butter with an electric mixer on medium until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy which will take about 3 minutes.
Combine the milk and vanilla extract. Add the flour to the butter/sugar mixture in 3 parts alternating with the milk/vanilla mixture.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites on high until soft peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the cake batter, stirring slowly until no white streaks show.
Divide the batter evenly in the cake pans. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pans for about 10 minutes and then turn out to cool completely.
For the frosting: combine the butter, 4 cups of powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the remaining powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until the frosting is thick enough to spread easily.
Frost the cake, slice and enjoy!
Posted in Cooking | Tagged Baking, Cake, White Out Cake | 4 Comments »
Welcome to another special edition of Book Beginnings where I give you the first line or two of a book and my opinion about it. Rose City Reader is our gracious host so please hop on over to her blog to check out her selection and others as well.
Back in the summer, I had the opportunity to read and review “even if I am.” because of a giveaway hosted by Rose City. After that, I was in contact with the author’s publicist and she asked if I would like to read and review a new mystery she was promoting. I jumped at the chance and she sent “Public Trust” by JM Mitchell my way. Here is the first line:
“ “Please, promise me they won’t let it burn,” the woman said.”
What’s burning? Well, you will just have to read the book to find out. Overall, this was an enjoyable read, but it did start out a little slow for me. Once I got past the first 75 pages or so, the story picked up speed and made me want to find out what happened at the end. There were a few little hiccups for me: the author is well acquainted with National Parks and their inner workings so some of the terminology was a little lost on me and there is part of the story that is missing. The author keeps alluding to Jack’s backstory in Montana but never tells us what it is. I want to know!
Posted in Books | Tagged Book Beginnings, Books, JM Mitchell, Public Trust | 2 Comments »
I guess this will qualify as a “travel” edition even though we only travelled 45 minutes, but I wanted to tell you about a local (for us) landmark that is worth checking out. C & I live about 45 minutes from Mammoth Cave National Park and, even though we both had been to the park, neither of us could remember being in the cave itself.
Every year for the last 16 years, C’s dad has a group of Mexicans that work (legally) on the farm for him during tobacco season. One gentleman has been coming to Kentucky for all of those 16 years and others for many years as well. They had asked to go see Mammoth Cave so when R took them, he asked if we wanted to go, too. I am so glad we went. I took photos for the workers so their families could see them and the cave.
I was surprised at the beauty of the cave itself. Of course, the grounds are scenic. The park is covered in forests with the Green River running through it, but I wasn’t expecting the scope and magnitude of the cavern.
We took the 2 hour Historical Tour and had a wonderful time. Here we enter into the only natural opening used by the National Park employees:
The guide tells all sorts of interesting stories along the way. After walking down these stairs, you come into a large open area about 150 feet tall. There are hollow tulip poplar logs running on one side and these were used during the War of 1812 to mine saltpeter for gunpowder.
The guide also told us about the “historical graffiti” that is on the walls of the cave in several areas. All of this writing dates back before 1941 when the area became a national park. After that, writing was considered a federal offense. Here are two examples of the graffiti:
The second photo shows an example of “smoke writing”. It was so cool! Next we crossed “The Bottomless Pit” which is about 150 feet deep. It was discovered by a slave names Stephen Bishop that worked at the cave. He laid a log across the pit to cross over. Mr. Bishop is credited for exploring and discovering much of Mammoth Cave.
Next we went through “Fat Man’s Misery” which is a series of twists and turns that are very narrow and low. Thankfully, none of our group had any trouble navigating the misery! Here’s proof C is no fat man! Ha, ha, ha!
The last big attraction on this tour was Mammoth Dome, also discovered by Stephen Bishop. It is an large open area with beautiful coloring in the rocks. Here is C & I at the Dome: 
As we all left the cave, there was one little bat hanging upside down…spooky! I am not sure why this seems so spooky since we see bats all of the time flying around the house at dusk catching bugs, but it was a little spooky!
It is required that each visitor walk across a soapy mat after leaving the cave to prevent what is known as White Nose Syndrome that can damage the bat populations.
We had a wonderful time at Mammoth Cave and want to go back to see more of it. If you have the chance to go, don’t hesitate! You will learn a lot and see some beautiful sights, but remember to take a light jacket with you. The cave is always around a cool 54 degrees.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Mammoth Cave National Park, Thoughtful Thursday, Travel | 4 Comments »
Welcome to Fall, Y’all! The temperatures sure have cooled off here in Central Kentucky and we had our first real frost possibility last night. Cooler temperatures always make me want to cook more if that’s possible. Before we get to what went on around here over the weekend and this week’s menu plan, I have a little weather predicting to do for you.
A co-worker of C’s uses Edmodo which is an online community for educators. C uses this, too, and follows this particular co-worker on there. He found this link to a Louisville television station and its report on the Old Farmer’s Almanac folklore of predicting winter weather using a persimmon seed on her feed. Since we have an abundances of persimmons behind our house, C & I decided to give it a try. Here is the premise: slice a persimmon seed in half (not an easy thing to do…watch those fingers) and look at the membrane inside. If it is shaped like a spoon there will be a lot of snow this winter. If it is shaped like a knife, the winter will be very cold and windy. A fork is what you want because it means a nice and mild winter. Guess which one we got on all 3 seeds we checked?
Yep, they are all spoons! The one on the top right MIGHT be a fork, but I think it is a spoon. I am not the biggest fan of winter weather so this really was not what I wanted to see. In a few months, we will see how accurate those seeds are.
Now back to our regular programming. Not much cooking went on around here this weekend. Saturday I spent most of the day with my co-workers shopping on the Roller Coaster Yard Sale. I found a few bargains like a wooden china cabinet/hutch that is in really good shape and only needs sanding and either staining or painting. It was a steal at only $60 and will look great in our upstairs hallway. I also found some random 8×10” photo frames that I am going to paint to use upstairs as well. I bought 8 frames for a total of $7.50. The design of the frame was not all that important since I will make them cohesive by painting them the same color, white for the green bedroom and black or silver for the purple one.
The one thing I did not accomplish last week was grocery shopping. Oh, well. We are still in good shape so I think I will postpone that until next week. One more thing, the honey butter pork loin did not get made in favor of shredded pork bbq made with cherry barbecue sauce I got at Huber’s Orchard & Winery. That story will be coming soon.
Leftover shredded bbq with oven fries
Grilled hamburgers with oven fries
Sausage bake with fresh fruit
Honey Butter Pork Loin Meatloaf (had a change of taste) with fries
Pizza night
Oreo truffle brownies (ran out of time) (new)
Please join me at I’m An Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.
Posted in Menu Planning | Tagged I'm An Organizing Junkie, Menu Plan Monday, Menu Planning, Old Farmer's Almanac, Persimmon seeds, Roller Coaster Yard Sale | 2 Comments »
Back in the summer, C’s family held a reunion and it was a potluck meal. Since it was so so hot, I wanted to fix a cake that was moist and refreshing, but not heavy. When I found this lemonade cake recipe at Feeding My Temple on one of the link parties I participate in, I knew it was the one I wanted to try.
This is a scratch made, super-moist cake infused with lemonade concentrate with the most delicious lemonade butter cream frosting. I could have eaten the frosting by itself! In fact, I may have eaten just a little on the side, but you won’t tell, will you? If you have a potluck to attend, give this recipe a try. I think it will be a great success.
For the cake:
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cup frozen concentrated lemonade, thawed
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup buttermilk (I used the dehydrated buttermilk mixed with the dry ingredients and added water where the recipe called for buttermilk.)
For the frosting:
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup frozen concentrated lemonade, thawed
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×13” baking pan with non-stick spray. Sift the dry ingredients together and set aside.
Beat the softened butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each. Then add the lemonade concentrate and vanilla.
Add the flour mixture and buttermilk (or water) in portions, starting and ending with the flour mix. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
When the cake has cooled, prepared the frosting by beating the butter and one cup of the powdered sugar together. Then add the lemonade concentrate and vanilla. Finish with the final cup of powdered sugar and beat until smooth and creamy. Spread it on the cooled cake and enjoy! 
Posted in Cooking | Tagged Baking, Cooking, Feeding My Temple, lemonade cake, potluck | 10 Comments »
It’s Friday so that means it is time for another bookish post. Please join me over at Rose City Reader for Book Beginnings. Today’s first lines comes from a genre that I usually don’t read…non-fiction, but I made an exception. I enjoy watching or reading about Great Britain so when I saw a new biography about Queen Elizabeth II at my local library, I snatched it up.
This has been a very enlightening read about the British monarchy and what it was like growing up in that spotlight. I know that I never would want to have to endure or my children to endure that kind of scrutiny.
Here are the first lines of “Elizabeth The Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch” by Sarah Bedell Smith:
“At the end of the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on April 29, 2011, the radiant couple turned before walking down the aisle at Westminster Abbey and stood before his grandparents, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. The newlyweds were celebrated for their romantic love match, and for the young prince’s determination to marry his soul mate despite her being a “commoner” – having neither royal nor aristocratic origins. The bride and groom gave a low curtsy and neck bow to the Queen, who looked sturdy and stoic at age eighty-five. She signaled her approval with an almost imperceptible nod.”
Sturdy and stoic are usually good adjectives to describe the Queen that the public sees, but this book takes you behind the scenes and shows you more of the real woman.
Posted in Books | Tagged Book Beginnings, Books, Elizabeth The Queen The Life of a Modern Monarch, Sally Bedell Smith | 8 Comments »
During the hot weather this summer, I craved some cool crunchy salad recipes. I found this on Pinterest and the original recipe is from Family Fun Magazine. I didn’t have any Granny Smith apples so I used carrots in place of them. This slaw is really good, but the dressing needs a little something. I think I will add a little kosher salt and more Greek yogurt next time and see if that will amp up the flavor.
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
8 ounces coleslaw mix (I had a head of fresh cabbage from my co-worker’s garden so I used that.)
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup red seedless grapes, halved
Combine the first 6 ingredients to make the dressing.
Shred your cabbage or use pre-shredded mix and combine that with the carrots, celery and grapes. Pour the dressing over the veggie/fruit mixture and toss to completely cover. The color of this slaw is really vibrant and pretty. It just needs a little more flavor.
Posted in Cooking | Tagged citrus, cole slaw, Cooking | 4 Comments »
Picture Perfect Cooking 