Chocolate Buttered Pecan Cake

This cake was a bit of an experiment... a very yummy experiment!

          Since I was not at work this past Sunday I was finally able to contribute to our Family Night Dinner.  Although there are so many things I want to do on the weekends when I have a chance, whipping up a quick and yummy dessert was the least I could do to help my folks feed the masses. 

Since I am not a avid cook, this beauty started with a box.  Honestly... I'm pretty sure a box cake is way better than anything I could attempt to do from scratch, frosting on the other hand is where I get to play around with it a bit. 

 Really, I just kinda went with what I had in my pantry. 

There was a thought of trying a fancy recipe off Pinterest,  

but that would have required a trip to the grocery store 

and I had a sleeping baby upstairs.

 Out came the meatloaf pan, to give it a little more

 of a "Custom Cake" feel.  

Just a pet Peeve of mine, I line the meatloaf pan 

with wax paper for two reasons

                      1. It makes it easier to lift out the cake 

                      2. It grosses me out to think there was raw meat 

                          in there before, yes I do clean my dishes but 

                          it still creeps me out.

Now the Frosting,  

this is the part that really takes the cake 

(silly I know) 

Ingredients:

                                                                1/2c. Unsalted butter

                                                                8oz Cream cheese

                                                                4oz Sour cream

                                                                2c. Powdered sugar

                                                                8oz Chopped Pecans

                                                                2 tbsp Unsalted butter

                                                                2tsp Vanilla extract

Using a large skillet melt 2tbsp of butter on medium heat and stir in your chopped pecans, it's best to let them sit for a minute to get nice and toasty.  Stir occasionally so they don't burn, this should take about 10 to 15 min.  Toasted butter pecans smell wonderful.  Once they are toasted sit them aside and let them cool down completely.

In a large bowl mix your cream cheese, sour cream, 1/2c butter and vanilla.  Once that is mixed to a creamy consistency,  sift in your sugar until the mix is fluffy.  Then mix in the cooled buttered pecans.  

Let the frosting cool in the fridge for about an hour or so, this will let the flavors settle in and help it to harden a little so it will stick to the cake and not slide off. 

Once your cake is cooled completely slather on all that amazing frosting and stick it back in the fridge until you're ready to serve! 

Yummy

*Angela*

Preserving the Harvest

I don't know about you, but I love  all the fresh produce that nature provides throughout the summer months!  It's always a little sad when you know the growing season is coming to an end as the days get shorter and the air grows cooler.  But along with that comes the wonderful days of Fall so you make do. 

One of the main goals that Hubbs and I have, is to become as self sufficient as possible, this means a nice big garden in the summer that produces enough produce to store through the winter.  

So for my birthday this year my dear sweet man got me a pressure cooker and a ton of Mason jars.

It may sound like a boring gift (way better then a vacuum, depending on the vacuum) but I was thrilled.  I have never before used a pressure cooker, not really much of a using the kitchen person, needless to say I was a bit intimidated.  

Luckily for me my neighbor girl is a Domestic Goddess and was willing to come over and give me a good canning lesson.  Seriously this woman is amazing and I strive to one day be as efficient in the kitchen as she is. Her pantry is filled to the brim with tons of canned produce that she does throughout the year, and there is always home made jams in her fridge.  Thankfully I get the extra bounty! 

Really the whole thing was pretty easy, just a little time consuming so while we waited for the HUGE pressure cooker filled up with water and cans to get to almost boiling the neighbor and myself indulged in some coffee and left over Birthday cake  =) YUM! 

Once we finished stuffing our fresh peaches in their cans and filled them up with Welches white grape juice ( great preservative)  all I had to do was put the lids on and wait for them to seal while cooling. 

I feel pretty comfortable with my canning experience so maybe next time I will venture to can more than two things of peaches.  What can I say, I started small but now I'm itching to stock the pantry with tons more gleaming cans filled with summers goodness. 

*Angela*

A little Sunshine in the Kitchen

     

For someone who loves to re-decorate and constantly change my surroundings I have to admit I am terrified to make big changes.  Ok....sometimes I'm even afraid to make small changes that I think will make a big difference like.... painting the cabinets.

In my head everything turns out just the way I want it to, however in reality that's not always the way it goes down. 

Luckily my husband is super supportive so this is how our conversations go....

Me: Hey honey, have you ever noticed how the kitchen looks kinda dark even when it's sunny out?

Hubby: Not really....why you think it looks dark? Lets turn on the lights.

Me: No..no...that's not it. I mean the cabinets look dark they suck all the light out of the room.

Hubby: Oh...

Me: I think we should paint them....white.  Well not all white just the tops.

Hubby: OK...

Me: See like in this picture!

Hubby: Oh...Ok...we can do that.

Me: Cool!

So even though we have conversations like that A LOT, they usually never happen because I end up changing my mind or getting scared.  Which I think the Hubb's was counting on... so the next day when I went to the hardware store and loaded up the back of the Dingo (Durango), he was quite surprised and a little nervous.

Not to mention I had him doing a fair amount of the work.

While I was inside priming and painting....

He was outside cutting beaded board panels for the 
sides of the cabinets.

We also sprayed all the hinges to match the 
hardware and light fixtures.

In the end I like the way it turned out!

Yes.. the dog moved so that she could get in both pictures =)

I'm thinking about painting the bottom cabinets a light sage green.

We still have to add molding to the tops of the cabinets and under cabinet lighting underneath, we have an apron front sink that I snagged from Ikea for 1/2 off we need to install (currently it resides in the back of my Jeep), we also want to knock out the pantry and add a hutch style cabinet with a hidden kegerator underneath and a double tap tower on the end of the counter top. It is a must when the Hubbs makes awesome home brew!

What can I say...a homeowners job is never really done.

* Angela *