Chocolate Cake from Scratch

One of my sisters shared this Ruth Reichl chocolate cake recipe with me. I decided to try it although I am quite happy with making chocolate cake from a mix and lately adding some pudding mix to it. Well, this cake from scratch is darn good! I highly recommend it. You may have to halve the recipe as it makes two 9x13" cakes. When I halved it, it just made one 9 inch cake, go figure.

My diabetic husband M preferred the cake mix version saying it was light and moist as opposed to this more dense cake.  Daughter L and I like them both.

Alheiras Mirandela

Alheiras Mirandela

Ingredients

with onions

I am becoming notorious for raiding the 30% off products I come across at the grocery store. They can't sell it if it has gone bad after all. So I can either freeze the product or make it right away. This time I got this Alheiras Mirandela Portuguese sausage. The ingredients surprised me at home when it said it contained 'chicken, turkey, rabbit'. Then I went online and found an interesting story from Wikipedia behind this sausage.

In 1497, the Jews of Portugal were forced to either convert to Christianity or be forced to leave the country. They secretly avoided eating forbidden pork by hanging these sausages to avoid attracting the attention of the Portuguese Inquisition. Christians would hang pork sausages, so they would be noticed if they did not hang sausages.

Paint Party Friday - Cardinal

Jenn posted a lovely photo of a cardinal in a tree on her blog the other day and I painted it as an ACEO, permanent marker on canvas (2 1/2" x 3 1/2").  Happy Paint Party Friday!

Another Banana Bread Pudding

I had some tiny banana bread muffins and didn't feel like eating them or wasting them for that matter. Then I remembered I had made a banana bread pudding last summer.  It was quick and easy to whip up and tasted moist and delicious.  This time I used one less egg in the recipe.

First, you cube the banana bread and place them into a 9" x 13" pan lined with parchment paper.  Pre-heat the oven to 350F. Then you  whisk together 3 cups of milk, 3 eggs, 1 tablespoon of sugar (I used brown sugar), finally 1 teaspoon of vanilla.  Pour it onto the cubes and bake for 30 minutes.

Scribble Picnic - Hot Chocolate

Welcome to Scribble Picnic's 'Hot Chocolate' theme, graciously hosted by Michael! Here is my piece, it's an ACEO, permanent marker on canvas (2 1/2" x 3 1/2").  I read a fun fact the other day that hot chocolate is more appealing in an orange mug so what do you think?  Better still, do you own an orange mug?

Spaghetti Squash with Italian Sausage

Wanda inspired me to make spaghetti squash with Italian sausages in a recent post. She did hers in a slow cooker. I am impatient and decided to make my sausages on the stove top and my squash in the microwave. It was all very delicious as pictured above.

To make spaghetti squash in the microwave you puncture the squash in several spots with a knife then microwave for 15 minutes. Cut it in half, scoop the seeds out and use a fork to separate the squash into spaghetti like strands.

To cook the sausages on the stove top, you put them in a saute pan, cover with 1/4 cup of water and steam for 10 minutes.  When the water has evaporated, fry them on both sides for 5 minutes per side.

Finally cut the sausages into small pieces and heat them with a jar of your favourite spaghetti sauce.  Your squash and sausage meal is ready!  It's hard to stop at one bowl.

Chocolate Cake

I got a hold of this moist chocolate cake recipe and the secret is to add half a packet of pudding mix to a box of cake mix if you can believe it. Then follow the cake mix directions.  It is really moist and delicious, not to mention that I love chocolate cake.