Show and Tell Cake Post!

So it wasn't a Saturday Night, but it was Saturday Afternoon, when I enlisted the help of Kathy and the girls for some birthday cake goodness.

Mmmmmm, cake.

The birthday girl being two and not yet a "fan" of anything more particular than what was already in front of her, I thought about making a cake based on one of her pajama sets. So here we are at pink whales. Bwaha.

Pilsbury choco cake on the inside, homemade buttercream icing (Wilton recipe) on the outside, with some premade fondant from that Duff's Ace of Cakes line. Hey, the tub said it tasted great, so I was curious.

Was happy to find that the gel coloring did blend in pretty well with the white fondant after Colin microwaved it and mashed it up for a bit. He also cut out the whale on the side there. Kathy did most of the crowd control by keeping the girls out of trouble while still in the thick of things, and still managed to cover the cake in white icing while doing it. Yay, Kathy!

The fondant was really pliable after it got nuked, but because for some reason I thought it was a great idea to make the center whale out of only the stuff, we had to stick it in the freezer after it got formed to keep the tail from drooping. That center whale is indeed, nothing but fondant.

The little spike next to whale on top is Derek's addition, while Colin cut out the whales, and Kathy did the little fish cutouts. I did the blue icing, at least. >.>

So was the fondant good? Good enough, I guess. The extra leftover from last night disappeared over the course of a few hours (Derek is prime suspect in that), while the whale's tail (still pretty pliable after sitting overnight) was single-handedly devoured by the birthday girl shortly after lunch. She's been the happiest camper nearly all day.

Mmmmm, cake.

Surprise! It's a post!

Last week, Shae and the girls stopped by to visit, and we had onigiri (and a grilled cheese sandwich for Omi). Me being lazy about email, I didn't catch Shae's after-note, in which she asked a bit about that lunch, until today.

Onigiri's really simple, in the sense that it's like a sandwich. The rice serves as filler and container for other fillings and flavors, and it's nice and portable. I learned about it at an onigiri party my Japanese prof held back in college, and we still make them, since it's pretty easy.

Onigiri
(riceballs)

Rice (short/medium grain packs a bit better, but you can use long grain if you want)
Filling: cooked meat, veggies, or whatever you think would taste good with rice
Salt/spices

1. Cook the rice. You don't need a special cooker for this, just a pot to cook it in. We have a cooker, so my measurements may be off, but generally to cook rice, for each cup of rice, you add one extra half-cup of water, so:

r = amount of rice (cups)
w = r + 0.5 (cup)

If you're using a pot, you put the rice and water in it, let it come to a boil, then lower heat to simmer, cover it, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Or until it's cooked, because that's what we're going for. >.>

2. Prep the filling. The filling I'm talking about is what you'd put in the rice ball as if it were something with a tasty center, but you can just mash everything together if you don't want to encounter one mash of filling all at once. Shredded or sliced pieces of meat are good for this - I've used canned fish and chopped-up deli meat, but you can experiment. Sauce might also make things tastier, but don't use too much, or the rice ball won't hold together.

3. Shape the rice. Fill a bowl of water and wet your hands with it. Sprinkle your hands with salt, or another spice you want on the rice ball, then pick up a handful of rice. The rice is hot. This is important. Please take care. Hot rice is easier to shape into what you want, but yes - it *is* hot. The water is so you don't have rice sticking to your hands, so use it as much as you need to.

Pack the rice together, then, if you're putting in filling, make a little bowl in the rice with your finger, and fill it with the filling. Add a little more rice to cover it up, then pack the rice together as much as possible. When it sticks together on its own, you've got yourself a riceball!

We like to add nori (seaweed) strips to the onigiri, but some people aren't fond of it, and even though it's common to see onigiri with it, it's not required - eat what you want, y'know.


Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Yes, I know, simple again, but I never learned how to make them nicely until we went to Derek's parents' home. So. There.

2 slices of bread
1 slice of cheese
butter

Butter the bread, then sandwich the cheese between the bread, with the butter side out. Heat up a pan to medium heat, then grill the sandwich until both sides are toasty-brown and the cheese is melted.

Yay!

Here's a recipe that I came across at Recipezaar* when looking for a way to dress up Ramen noodles (which I have been craving since a couple of my coworkers started eating them for lunch at work). Anyway, it's quick, easy, and actually has a pleasant blend of tastes. (Obviously you can vary what you add to get different flavors).

*Recipezaar = my favorite recipe site (besides this one, of course!), because you can sort by ingredient, including ones you want to use, and excluding those you don't have on hand.

TUNA RAMEN DINNER

* 1 (6 ounce) can tuna in oil (I used tuna in water, but added a bit of oil to the pan -JG)
* 1 (3 ounce) packet ramen noodles, any flavor (I used chicken -JG)
* 1/2 cup frozen mixed vegetables (I used carrots and peas. If I make it again, I'll probably add in a full cup - the peas have a very nice favor against the tuna -JG)

1. heat a nonstick frying pan to about medium heat, and fry the tuna until hot and slightly crispy. You can use tuna in water, but it sticks less if you use tuna in oil.
2. At the same time, cook the ramen on the stove top and add the veggies to the pot as well.
3. Drain the ramen and veggies and add them to the frying pan with the tuna and continue to cook until the noodles become slightly sticky.
4. Pour the seasoning packet over the whole thing and mix.
5. Enjoy!

Pockets

To make a pizza pocket:

Mix bisquick according to recipe for biscuits on back of box. (or use any other biscuit recipe you like)
Roll out the biscuits very flat.
Place on top of half of the biscuits pizza ingredients (e.g. sauce, cheese, pepperoni, pepper).
Place second half of biscuits on top, pinch sides together.
Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes until they look like done biscuits.

Tonight, we made taco pockets. We had leftover taco meat mozzarella cheese, and spinach to put in them. Yeah, I guess that's kind of weird. But yummy.

The other great thing is that you can make a bunch and freeze the leftovers and reheat them later in the toaster oven. Much cheaper and yummier than a store bought hot pocket.

And they can be packed for picnics.

I'm thinking I should make some peanut butter and jelly pockets for lunches sometime.

As you wish...

Heather posted a princess bride meme, asking blog readers to post there favorite line from the princess bride.

Mine is:

"He's only mostly dead!"

Now let's see yours.



Lots going on lately.

I've made 8 jars of applesauce.

I finished reading little house on the prairie to the children.

And I am so exhausted!

Banana Muffins

So, this recipe is a modified version of one I found on the all recipes site (I think):
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
dash of salt
3 bananas, mashed (it will work with fewer bananas)
3/4 c sugar (the recipe calls for white, I've used a combination of white and brown)
1 egg
1/3 cup oil
cinnamon to taste

Preheat oven 375 F
Mix wet ingredients == bananas, sugar, oil
Mix dry ingredients == everything else
Mix wet into dry

Put into greased muffin tins and bake 18-20 minutes

In addition to experimenting with different types of sugar and quantity of bananas and cinnamon, I've also added a little bit of flax seed with the flour, or this last time I used half wheat flour and half white flour.

I baked!

Yes, believe it or not, I have been using some of the recipes on this blog!
Here, let me pause for a moment while you faint.

Tonight I tried jg's chili recipe (slightly modified) and the black bean brownie recipe. I have yet to try either, but they both look good, or at least like what they are supposed to be. I'll have to write another post as to my cooking skills.

Just before Labor Day I tried making the no-bake cookies. I think initially I managed to heat up the liquid for too long, because it didn't properly saturate the oats. So I added some extra water. At first the cookies still seemed gloppy. So I heated the mixture again until the consistency seemed better. They turned out alright, very sweet.

I've also used the bread recipe twice.

In addition to the post as to my recent cooking adventure, I will have to put my recipe for banana bread/muffins on here soon.