Observations on a Recipe

I was looking for a recipe today and found this one:

Apple Walnut Coffee Cake

2 cups Bisquick
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, divided
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 cup milk
1 cup chunky applesauce

Grease 8" square MICROWAVE dish. (Microwave was what made me stop and take a second look!)

Mix together brown sugar and 1/4 cup walnuts, set aside. In a separate bowl, blend baking mix, 1/4 cup walnuts, cinnamon, milk and applesauce. Beat 30 seconds. Spread into prepared dish. Sprinkle with brown sugar mixture. Microwave on high 6-9 minutes. Cake is done when top springs back when touched lightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the dish.


I was looking for a recipe to use some peaches that were overripe so I decided to "adjust" this one. First I didn't have a square dish so I used a round sort of deep one. Second I didn't measure the brown sugar or walnuts, just dumped some in a bowl and stirred. Then I measured the Bisquick but when I looked at the expiration date on the box I swear I think it said March 2006. Maybe not. But just in case I added a spoon of baking powder. Then I dumped some cinnamon in - just like on television I put some in the palm of my hand and called it good. I didn't have any applesauce but I knew it needed something so I put in about 1/4 cup oil - didn't measure that either. And without the applesauce it needed more milk so I just poured some in. I cut up the peaches I had and stirred. Then I noticed it had no sugar in the cake part so I added a half cup of Splenda. And a dab more milk. I didn't want to get out my mixer so I just stirred really good and dumped it into the baking dish. I sprinkled the brown sugar mix on top, added a few pats of butter (I know it didn't call for it but who could leave butter off the top?). I put it in the microwave for 8 minutes. Exactly. It's a little dry so next time I'll add some applesauce. But with Cool Whip it's wonderful. I stood there looking at my creation when it hit me.....I'VE TURNED INTO MY MOTHER! She never measured. She never used the right ingredients. Sometimes her stuff was wonderful. Sometimes, not so much. Oh my. When did that happen?

Soda Cracker Candy

Girls ... and Guys if there are any of you out there reading this, you must try this recipe! It tastes like Heath bars, no kidding. And if you don't like Heath bars, well then you must be unAmerican and we need to talk. I'm just sayin'!

Soda Cracker Candy

1 cup margerine or butter
1 cup sugar
12 oz. Chocolate Chips
12 oz. Pecans chopped
enough saltines to cover the bottom of a jelly roll pan

Preheat oven to 400. (does anybody know how to put a little degree symbol on this because I sure can't find the darn thing!) Combine butter and sugar, boil for 3 minutes and pour over crackers. I spread it out a little after pouring. Bake in oven for 6 minutes and remove. Turn oven off! Spread the butter mixture a little more, quickly because it will harden. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top and put the pan back in the oven but leave the door open. Remember the oven is off! Watch and when the chips look glassy take it out and spread the chocolate. Sprinkle nuts on top and refrigerate in the pan for several hours till good and cold. Loosen edges with a table knife and break apart with your hands. Keep pieces in the fridge in a closed container.

This is the easiest and fastest recipe ever and so delicious! You'll thank me, really you will.

The Best Laid Plans

Let me just preface this post by saying my husband is out of town. Now, I don't know what you do when your husband is gone for several days but I have a routine I rarely change when he's going to be out for the week. The first day I run all my errands and buy whatever groceries I need to make it through the week without cooking. I do the laundry, pick up the house and balance my checkbook. (That's so I'll be reminded that shopping is not a good thing just because he's gone.) The rest of the week I stay home and sew, or I visit friends and sew, or I go to a movie and eat all the popcorn by myself, or I sit in the swing by the lake and read quilting magazines, or I read a book from start to finish without stopping. But I don't cook and I don't clean and I don't do laundry again until he gets home.

Today I fully intended to follow my normal plan. And it started out really good. The Bug Man came at 8:00 to do our annual termite inspection (my husband made that early morning appointment knowing he wouldn't be here, can you believe it?) so I got up early, showered and dressed. And really, the day does go better when I do that instead of hanging out in my pajamas till noon. It's hot here - in the low 90s every day with little to no chance of rain so I sure didn't want to be cooking every day and have my stove on heating up the kitchen. With that in mind I planned meals that required no cooking. My Daddy used to make a dish he called Peco de Gaya that I just love so those were the first ingredients on my grocery list. My husband is one of those redneck southerners who thinks you must have meat at every meal so I always take advantage of his absence by eating several meals of vegetables.

These are the Peco de Gaya ingredients:

2 avocados

1 tomato

2 or 3 stalks celery

2 or 3 green onions

jalapeno peppers

1 lemon

olive oil

tortillas (whatever kind you like)

Chop the veggies (hold the tomato over the bowl while cutting so all the juice runs into the bowl. Add the juice from the lemon and a little olive oil (of course I don't know how much! I don't really know how many veggies either cause it's a matter of taste and see), salt and pepper and stir gently till mixed. I added a little fresh cilantro today 'cause I they had some really nice herbs today at the market. Let this marinate in the fridge for a couple of hours. Put a spoon full in the middle of a warm tortilla, roll up and eat. Yum!!

The first glitch in my plans, besides having to be up and dressed at 8:00, was the avocados. Those babies were $1.38 apiece! Have you ever? They were nice, just the right stage of ripeness and a good medium size, but good heavens - $1.38 apiece! That quick trip to the grocery store to get just a couple of things ended up costing $134. 49 - and I had coupons! I could quote several other prices that were rediculous but you're buying the same stuff I am so you know.

I had decided to make chicken salad, too, so I bought a rottisserie chicken. I figured if it was already cooked I wouldn't be heating up my kitchen - good thinking, right? Wrong on two counts. First, when I got home and opened up that chicken it was cooked all right, cooked to death. I was not happy. But I was stuck be cause you can't very well take a cooked chicken back and because it's a good 20 minute drive to the grocery one way and the price of gasoline meant it wasn't worth it. Second problem: I'm one of those lucky folks who have an extra refrigerator in the garage. Trust me on this, I'd give up my dishwasher, my good black dress or my first born child (sorry, Tammy) before I'd give up that fridge. I went out to put the extra gallon of milk in it only to realize there was a large piece of ham there that I had forgotten about and which absolutely had to be cooked right now. So much for not heating up the kitchen. I put it on to boil and spent the next 3 or 4 hours making 15 bean soup.

By the time that was done (and ready to go in the second fridge!) I had 3 loads of clothes to fold and my checkbook still wasn't balanced. Not only that but I had sewn not one stitch. :( But things started looking up when I checked the mail - not one but two new quilt magazines! I fixed a chai latte and took my magazines out to the swing by the lake to relax (see picture below) and listen to the birds. It seems that they have started building a new house one block over. Sound carries on the lake. Tomorrow has to be better....right?