Weekend baked donuts!

A little slow on the recipe but here it is. I took a little from here and a little from there and made my own. They turned out pretty good for baked donuts. They were a little more "muffiny" than I would have liked but they served their sweet purpose.

Baked Mini Donuts

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk (I used milk with white vinegar to make buttermilk since I didn't have any on hand)

Lightly grease a mini donut pan.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together brown sugar, egg and melted butter until mixture is smooth. Beat in vanilla extract, then half of the flour mixture. Mix in the buttermilk, followed by the remaining flour. Stir only until all ingredients are combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain visible. Scoop batter into a quart or gallon-sized plastic bag and chill for 1-2 hours, or overnight.
Preheat oven to 325F and remove the bag from the refrigerator after batter has chilled.
Snip the corner off of the plastic bag and pipe batter into mini donut cavities, filling each about 2/3 full.
Bake for 9 minutes, until cake springs back when lightly pressed. (For regular-sized donuts in a larger donut pan, bake 12-15 minutes)
Turn donuts out to cool on a wire rack. Dip tops of donuts in glaze when donuts are completely cooled and decorate.
Allow glaze to set for at least 1 hour before storing.

I made three kinds of topping.

Chocolate Glaze
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon corn syrup
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon water

Microwave for 10 second bursts, stirring in-between, until melted.

Dip the donuts into the glaze and set on a rack to dry.

Vanilla Glaze
1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 tsp milk

and Cinnamon and Sugar (there were definitely the best and the most donut like)

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter (melted)

Toss the cinnamon and sugar together in a shallow dish.
Dip baked donuts in melted butter and then roll in cinnamon sugar mixture

Pretty yummy!

My January Cooking Challenge

My husband's birthday is in January. This year, it is Friday the 13th. His poor birthday often gets lost in the shuffle since it is so soon after the holidays and everyone is tired off all the food and dessert. He will be 31 this year. (It always takes him about 6 months to catch up with me. ;) Slow poke.)

I have been on a cooking spree as of late. Lots and lots and lots of new recipes thanks to Pinterest. Anywho, I asked him if there was something that I could make for him. His response, "A Wendy's Frosty Cake. Consider it a challenge."

And so it shall be.

I set out to create.

We've been making homemade "Wendy's" frostys around here since we were in grad school. The thing is that they are a little melty, like they should be, in order to use a straw to suck them up. A little kitchen experiment was needed to see if they would freeze up to allow for slicing later on. I was thinking something like the Dairy Queen ice cream cake but without the frosting layer (we are a Cool Whip free home).

I made up a chocolate cookie crust with little chocolate cookies from Trader Joe's.

I made a thick homemade fudge sauce (recipe courtesy of my momma).

I made "frosty" ice cream using fat free vanilla ice cream and coco powder and milk. (I usually make our frostys in the bender but due to the increased amount I used my mixer.)

I layered everything up, stuck it in the freezer, crossed my fingers and did a little tiny please-freeze-and-taste-good-and-don't-fall-completely-apart-and-hold-a-candle-or-two dance and went to bed for the night.

  
Editor's note: I didn't get great photos due to a tiny person hanging on my pant leg while I was cooking and the same tiny person screaming in their highchair while it was being served. It was a whirlwind of a birthday meal but the "Frosty Cake" was DELICIOUS! Really, how can you ever go wrong with homemade chocolate fudge sauce.

  

"Wendy's" Frosty Cake Recipe 

I made mine to fit in a 9x9 pan 

Easily could be doubled for thicker dessert in a 9x13

Crust layer:
3 1/2 c. Crushed chocolate cookies (I used low fat chocolate animal cookies from Trader Joe's)

6 T melted butter

1/8 cup sugar

Ice Cream Layer:

3 1/2 c. vanilla ice cream (I used fat free Breyer's)

8 T Nestle Nesquik Powder

1/2 c. skim milk

Chocolate Sauce Layer:

1/2 c semisweet chocolate chips

3 T butter

1/2 c powdered sugar

6 oz evaporated milk (3/4 c.)

1/2 t. vanilla

Crust: combine ingredients and press into 9x9 pan and set in freezer for 15-20 minutes.

Ice Cream Layer: Combine ingredients and use blender or mixer to mix until soft and combined. Layer on top of cookie crust and return to freezer. 

Chocolate Sauce: Melt chocolate chips and butter. Add powdered sugar and evaporated milk. Cook and stir 15 minutes or until slightly thickened. Stir in vanilla. Cool sauce completely and then pour over ice cream layer. Freeze until firm.

YUM!!

Where I'm From...

I am from popcorn and cranberry juice on the front porch watching a rainbow with my brother, from Crayola and Color Forms and brand new fancy pencils and little tiny erasers in a million shapes from the "teacher store".
I am from 30th Street where we rode our bikes "that one way", ran down the hill to the park and were instructed to stay out of the woods.
I am from the tomato plants, lavender, cucumbers, and snap dragons in our back yard, the crab grass that my grandma taught us to whistle with and the lilac bush that grew as my brother and I did, each year a little taller.
I am from fireworks and birthday cake in Norfolk, cookie day in December,  and a yucky shrimp platter on Christmas Eve. I am from blue eyes, from Goossen and Wolfe and Dickinson and Davenport. 
I am from the long line of strong women who do what they have to one day at a time and from morning after seven o'clock morning in the lap of a warm loving dad in an office chair.
I am from "you can be replaced with a small animal" (with a smile) and "eat your bread crusts, it will make your hair curly".
I am from liberal Christianity that is more about the journey than the destination. From Sunday mornings chasing each other up the bell tower to watch the bells ring with our ears plugged.
I’m from Cheyenne, Lincoln, Tucson, and Omaha with roots much, much deeper and longer. I am from semmels and real whipped cream, handfuls of Brach's candy and warm, summer days of picking strawberries.
From my grandmother standing on the plantar in the their front yard announcing my birth, from a head first fall off a retaining wall at a car dealership that ended in a drive-thru, a Coke-a-cola and an Easter dress that matched my owie.
I am from albums and boxes and computer drives loaded with photos and videos, boxes of dusty gymnastics medals,  and an inspiration book that is exploding at the seams. I am from an old yellow blankie that has gone everywhere I have and a family that continues to love despite one another's short comings. I am from a mom that is loving, forgiving and encouraging and from a gentle, giant-hearted dad who would give the world to me if he could. I am from the family that I hope to continue, from parents that I hope to be, and from a life that I pray I can give my little boy.


This was started from a writing exercise I found at the blog Mama's Losin' It.

Some items on my life list

- I will someday learn how to surf. I have been saving up my pennies (literally) in order to do so.

- Learn to ride a motorcycle. Oh wait! I just did that! Yay!

- I really, really want to run the Nike Women's Marathon in California some day!

- Be brave enough to have at least one more little one. I am definitely not there yet.

-  I want to run an ultra. So hard core!

- I would love to do a tandem jump out of an airplane. (My husband thinks this is crazy, he may be right.)

- Sounds crazy but someday I want to go on a date with my husband and not worry about my sweet little boy while I am gone. I don't even know if this is possible. (Wait, how am I going to go surf for a week if I can't even be gone over dinner!? Eeek. I have issues.)

- I would love to pay of my student loans before I die. At this rate, my 14 month old will be out of college before the loans from the medical center are paid off. Sigh. Well, someday...

- I want to make the perfect pan of toffee, like my grandmother used to, with chocolate on top, and no nuts.   :)

- Get back to my photography. I have a studio art minor from the University of Nebraska in photography. Time to dust off the camera.

- On the same note, I would really like to learn and play with some new photo editing software. When I was in college we were still using 35 mm. It's a whole new game.

- Some day I will get a more "extreme" haircut, but right now, I can't live without my ponytail. I have had long, all one length hair that is my natural color for a long long time. I don't do well with change. This will be a hard one.

- I have completed a half Ironman but Ironman is definitely on my list!

- I want to be able to do 50 push ups without stopping. I am at 40! Getting closer. I have no idea why this is a goal or why I picked 50 but by golly I will.

- I want to be a good mom. I want E to grow up strong and healthy and safe and smart. This is a whole separate post but this is definitely on my life list! I'm a work in progress.

This is my entry in the Just Ask Bucket List Getaway Giveaway. Just Ask offers a breast and ovarian cancer screening and is encouraging people to share 15 things that I want to enjoy in my lifetime as a reminder to be aware of my health. Want to enter? Head over to TodaysMama.com to get the details.

Yes, I may be a little crazy...

... but I'm not the only one.

As our family has stopped buying and eating artificial colors I have been reading more and more on the adverse effects.


Healthy Child Healthy World has had numerous articles on this topic. Also here, and this one I found very interesting as it discusses each of the different dyes.

For instance, did you know that Yellow #5 and Red #40 are azo dyes and they are made from coal tar? "A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives describes coal tar as a 'thick liquid or semisolid tar obtained from bituminous coal, it contains many constituents including benzene, xylenes, naphthalene, pyridine, quinonlineoline, phenol, and cresol'(Winter, 2009, P. 166)." Cancer causing agents.

One item that it is very difficult to avoid food dyes in is children's medicine. They almost all include a red dye of some sort. It's a bit ironic that I can avoid food dyes when he feels good but as soon as he's sick he gets them.

Oh, and don't misunderstand, it's fairly easy to avoid them now as he's so little. I know that as he gets older he'll eat them but maybe the solution is that these dyes should be banned from foods here in the US as they are in other countries. Even in Europe, there are warnings on the labels of foods that contain artificial colorings.

I know that my family thinks I am crazy and maybe that is true. Maybe this isn't the battle to be fighting but in the meantime, I'll be at Trader Joe's. :)

Baking Soda and Listening to Your Mother

My mom has been touting the benefits of cleaning for baking soda for several years now. I have always nodded and smiled and then reached for the Lysol or Method or whatever other cleaner was under my cupboard. I have no idea why I didn't pay more attention. You would think by 31 years old I would realize how very rarely she is wrong. Sigh. Anywho, I was scrubbing the kitchen (for her birthday party actually) and I went to get out my cleaning supplies and realized I was, for all intensive purposes, out. I have a small child and an even smaller window of opportunity for which to get anything done and so I reached for the baking soda. I was a bit skeptical but miracle of miracles, everything came clean with so much less work. In fact, I was so amazed, that I kept right on cleaning. I did the appliances and the counters and the sink and the faucets. It cleaned the gunk right off the knobs on the stove and it cleaned the stove top with so much less work than usual. Mr KT had made spaghetti the night before (YAY!) as I was working late (BOO!) and it had boiled over, it even took care of that! As I cleaned I just kept shaking my head and thinking, "self, let this be a lesson to you... Always Listen to Your Mother!"

Happy Birthday Mom!

Living like a tree

We had a doozy of a storm last night. The wind was blowing with force and the rain was coming down in sideways sheets. I was laying in my bed with the curtains open watching the the cottonwood tree branches whip around. Those trees are old and giant. As the wind blew and blew and blew I noticed something, many of the branches actually bent almost in half...without breaking. This may sound cliche but maybe we should live like trees. I will admit that change is not easy for me. I resist and resist and resist until I finally have to give in and bend in half before I break. Those branches held strong to the trunk and the leaves held strong to the branches and each tree remained in one piece but everything was moving with the wind. Each time a gust came up the tree flexed a bit and gave in gently to the force. I was fascinated. There were a few leaves and twigs in the yard this am but no big branches. The tree was changed by losing these small bits and pieces but despite the storm and all of the dancing and swirling the night before was still itself. Still whole. So maybe I should bend and sway with change. Allow the pieces that are not so strong to fall away. Just because things change does not mean that I am not my strong self that I have always been. If trees would have been built without the ability to be flexible they would not survive. Life lesson? I think so.