Easy Butter Icing

To go with the cake made from scratch, I wanted icing made from scratch as well. So I sent my mother a message and asked for her butter icing recipe, as I knew she always used it when I was a kid, but I couldn't remember how to make it. She gave it to me, and as you can see in the picture for the cake recipe, I used it.

I think it's the easiest icing recipe out there. Seriously.

Mix 1 teaspoon butter (or margarine) and 1 big tablespoon icing sugar until smooth. Then keep adding icing sugar until you have the desired amount.
Add a drop of milk (or cream or canned milk) and beat until smooth.
If you want to make it chocolate, add cocoa at this point. Start with 1 tablespoon, add more if desired (I used 2 tablespoons). If you don't want to make it chocolate, you can use food coloring to make it any color you want.

Trina's Easy Dark Chocolate Cake

This recipe comes from my good friend Trina Bond. Her new recipe blog can be found here: Trina's Food Adventures. This is actually the only recipe she has on the blog so far, and if her other recipes are as good as this, I'll be stalking her blog forever, ha ha. The icing recipe will be in the next post.

1/2 cup cocoa

milk (see note below)

4 tablespoons Crisco or butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a 1 cup measure, put cocoa powder; add a small amount of hot water and stir until cocoa dissolves. Fill remainder of measuring cup with milk to bring the measurement to 1 cup total.

Combine flour, salt and baking soda, mixing will. Set aside.

Beat shortening or butter and sugar, add egg yolk, beating for one minute. Stir in vanilla and remaining ingredients. Mix for one minute.

Turn batter into a buttered brownie or cake pan which has been lightly dusted with cocoa (shake out any excess cocoa).

Bake for about 40 minutes or until cake tests done.

Notes: I don't know how much hot water I used...I just put in enough to make the cocoa smooth and wet. Also, in my oven it only took 30 minutes for the cake to cook, so make sure to check the cake before the 40 minute mark, particularly if you have an oven that runs a bit hot.

Adventures in Baby-Led Weaning Part 3

I've been slack on the updates regarding the baby-led weaning, but we've been having fun with it. I try not to give him too much, just giving small tastes of different things every once in awhile. We've discovered that he loves arrowroot cookies, ham and bacon and bread (toasted or otherwise) provided it doesn't have crust. He'll eat carrot and mashed potato as well. He does not like tomato or banana. And of course, he loves chocolate pudding.

After eating some mashed potato at my parents' house last night:

Enjoying his very first taste of chocolate pudding, courtesy of Nannie, who thought it would be fun to let him try it. He *loved* it. We gave it to him on a regular spoon first, and when I took the spoon from him so we could give him the rest on his baby spoon, he actually cried.

Eating some ham tonight in his seat while Daddy and I ate supper. I love this seat so much. It straps onto a kitchen chair, is stable and secure and allows me to eat without having him in my lap. He loves the seat too, and was perfectly content to be sitting in it at the table with us while we ate.

Even though he doesn't like banana, I'm going to try giving him a bit of banana bread tomorrow morning and see if he likes it that way.

He's pretty good at coughing if food gets too far back in his throat. I will be happy when he learns to not put so much in his mouth at once though...when does that happen?

And that's it for this update. So far, the baby-led weaning is going well, and very enjoyable.

Garlic Broiled Chicken

I went looking on www.allrecipes.com for "chicken thighs" and this is one of the recipes that came up. I tried it because we had everything it called for already and seemed simple enough. It was, and it was absolutely delicious. Although I will say that Alex's favorite part was the caramelized mixture from the pan, ha ha! 

1/3 cup butter or margarine
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons dried parsley
4 chicken thighs, skinned

Preheat oven broiler and grease a baking pan.
In a microwave safe bowl, mix the butter, garlic, soy sauce, pepper and parsley. Cook 2 minutes on high in the microwave, or until butter is melted.
Arrange chicken on the baking pan, and coat with the mixture, reserving some of the mixture for basting.
Broil chicken 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until juices run clear, turning every 5 minutes and basting with the remaining mixture.

Marinaded Beef Kabobs

So I had a package of stew meat, but didn't want to make a stew. So I found a recipe for a marinade on www.allrecipes.com and made shish kabobs instead. First, I'll give you the recipe for the marinade and then tell you everything I did.

1 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup prepared mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons coarsely cracked black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine above ingredients. Mix well and then add cubed beef. Seal the bag and marinate in the fridge for 4-24 hours.

A couple of notes before I continue:

1. Use the low sodium soy sauce
2. Cut the amount of mustard in half
3. If you can find low sodium Worcestershire sauce, use it

I'm saying this because while we found it absolutely delicious, we did think it was a bit salty (and I used low sodium soy sauce) and a bit too mustardy. And as a note, I marinaded our meat for 20 hours.

Now, for the kabobs!

It's actually pretty simple. Cut your favorite veggies up and alternate them on skewers with the marinated beef. Broil on high for about 10 minutes, turning once during cooking. If you want (we didn't do this), use the left over marinade to baste the skewers at the half-way mark of cooking as well.

I will say this: I don't like making kabobs. I didn't cut the veggies up properly and they kept freaking breaking as I was trying to put them on the skewers. About drove me crazy. So don't make my mistake and ensure when you chop your veggies, you do it right so they don't break in half when you skewer them.

We served these with regular white minute rice and it was absolutely fantastic (aside from the bit too salty and mustardy for our tastes).

Alex's Stuffed Potato Skins

Alex made these to go with the curry pork chops in the last post, and they were absolutely amazing. We ate them all, which is kind of scary.

5 potatoes
5 strips of bacon, cooked and chopped
5 garlic clove pieces, minced
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Bake potatoes in oven. Cut them length-wise after they're done and scoop out the potato inside. Place skins in a baking dish and set aside. Combine the potato, bacon, garlic, margarine and milk, mash really well, until smooth. Spoon the mixture into the potato skins. Cover with shredded cheese. Broil on high for 5 minutes or on low for 8 minutes.

Curry Pork Chops

Alex wanted curry pork again, but I didn't want to do what I did before (see the Pineapple Pork Curry recipe) so I made up a new recipe. This was absolutely amazing. Definitely spicier than the previous curry recipe, but still not too spicy at all. We loved it and will definitely make it again. Just wish we had made more, ha ha!

3 pork chops
1/2 onion, sliced
2 cups water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons curry powder
2 heaping teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ginger

Put pork chops in a baking dish. Lay onions on top. Set aside. In a bowl, mix water, cornstarch, curry, chili powder and ginger. Pour over the pork chops and onions. Bake in a 425 oven for 45 minutes (or until pork chops are fully cooked.

Ranch Chicken

This is a recipe that Alex made up a couple of years ago and tonight I made it for the first time. It's very simple and absolutely delicious.

Chicken (your choice...he's made it with breasts, I made it tonight with thighs)
Potatoes, diced (as many as you want)
2 tablespoons margarine
Ranch dressing

Put chicken and diced potatoes in a baking dish. Drop the margarine on top (don't smear it out or anything). Cover everything with ranch dressing. Cover with tin foil and bake in a 400 oven for 1 hour. Every 20 minutes, take it out and stir/mix it. If it gets really greasy/oily from the margarine, drain the margarine out at the second stirring session. At the end of the hour, remove the tin foil and place under broiler for 3 minutes.

"Sweet and Sour" Pork Chops

This is my own version of a sweet and sour pork chop recipe and Alex and I both love it. It's incredibly simple to make, which is key for me given that Charlie doesn't like to let me have more than five minutes to prepare supper, ha ha.

3-4 regular pork chops
2 tablespoons mustard
3 tablespoons brown sugar

Place pork chops in a baking dish. In a small bowl, mix mustard and brown sugar until it's a smooth mixture. You may have to play with the amounts to make it as sweet or as sour as you prefer it. Spoon the sauce over the pork chops and smooth it out so the pork chops are completely covered. Cover with tin foil and bake in a 425 oven for 45 minutes to an hour.

The picture in this post shows the chops before they've been baked (obviously).

Adventures in Baby-Led Weaning Part 2

I decided, since Charlie is going to be six months old on Sunday, that a few days wasn't going to make any difference. So tonight, at supper time, we officially started baby-led weaning.

This was Charlie sitting in his bumbo on the kitchen table at my parents' house, just before supper tonight. He loves sitting with everybody at the table and gets quite upset if we don't let him.

I gave him a carrot and it took him awhile to decide to put it in his mouth (because he was watching Grampie eat the fish we were having and I think he wanted that instead!) but he eventually did, and actually took a bite off it. Dad tried to get a picture of him with the carrot in his mouth but this was the best he could do.

 Grampie decided to let him try some mashed potatoes too. I didn't mind, and Charlie ate some (he took it off Dad's fingers and put it in his mouth). He got more of it on him than he did in his mouth, but that's what this is all about, right?

After supper, I let him try a little bit of my raspberry jello as well. No pictures of that since it wasn't really much to talk about. All in all, with the faces he made, we're not sure he liked anything he tried, but I know he ate some, and the main thing is he's trying it and getting a feel for the textures and tastes of different foods. After all, food before one is just for fun, and he's still getting everything he needs from my breastmilk.

Pineapple Pork Curry

I made this curry recipe up on my own, and it's very mild. If you like a more spicy/hot curry, you may want to add other spices to it to give it the kick you want. I would suggest making it this way and then modifying it to suit your own tastes. Personally, I loved it. Alex really liked it but said it wasn't as spicy as he'd prefer.

2 large pork chops, cut into small bite sized pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large can of pineapple tidbits, plus juice
2 cups water
2-3 tablespoons curry powder
2-3 tablespoons corn starch

Mix all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on low for 4 hours. Serve with rice (I used instant rice because it's all we had, but it would be really good with basmati rice too, of course). Alex and I each had a good sized serving (1/2 cup rice plus the curry plus carrots), and I was able to make 3 lunches for Alex (1/2 cup rice plus curry) for work with the leftovers. So it makes a fair bit.

Fluffy Carrot Muffins

Once again, this recipe was found on www.allrecipes.com. They turned out amazing, although I need to remember not to use the amount of salt recipes call for because I did find them too salty. Alex and I both loved them, and I will definitely be making them again.

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups grated carrot

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a muffin tin (or line with baking cups).
Sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Beat the eggs and sugar until frothy and lightened in color. Stir in the oil, vanilla and carrot; fold into the flour mixture. Pour the batter into the muffin tins.
Bake in the preheated oven until toothpick inserted in center of muffins comes out clean, 15-20 minutes.
Remove to cool on wire racks.
Makes 12 muffins.

Becca's Italian Chicken

I'm naming this "Becca's Italian Chicken" because my mother also has an Italian Chicken recipe and I'm going to post it here at some point as well, I think.

Chicken (I used half of a whole cut up chicken), skin removed
Pasta (your choice and however much you want)
Vegetables (I used frozen peas/carrots, but you could use other kinds)
Italian Dressing

Put chicken in a baking dish and baste with some of the Italian dressing. Coat the chicken and even pour some dressing in for the chicken to bake in it. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes or until chicken juices run clear.

Meanwhile, cook pasta and vegetables. Mix together and stir in Italian dressing. When serving, put pieces of chicken on top. Can be served hot or cold.