Caring for My Chaos

I have a thing for pie. I love pies. I don't think I have met one I didn't like. Have you ever seen the movie "Michael", when the girl sings the song about pie? This recipe that I found on  Simply Recipes  is for my brother Brian. This is his favorite pie in the entire world. Our Aunt Dorothy would always make it for him when we were growing up. I think she still does sometimes. I promised him I would make him one soon to make up for the strawberry cake I destroyed for his birthday when I was about 9. I put about 3 cups of water and 2 cups of oil in by accident and it was horrible. Kind of like a Jello cake but tasted terrible and our dad made everyone eat a piece to keep me happy. So this recipe is for him! 3 1/2 cups rhubarb stalks cut into 1/2 in pieces (No leaves, these are poison. Trim ends) 2 cups strawberries sliced 3/4-1 cup sugar 2 T quick Tapioca 1/4 t salt 1 t orange zest 1 double pie crust recipe (I use the one from Better Homes and Gardens) P...

I have a love affair with bread. Especially cinnamon raisin bread.

I have made these cookies four times now and every time, they are gone within a couple days.

Do you have any idea what heavenly goodness this bowl is holding?

My Hunny's birthday is coming up this weekend! And to spoil him, I asked what kind of birthday cake he wants. I made a chocolate cake with vanilla icing for his dad's birthday on New Year's Eve. Hunny asked for Red Velvet cake with chocolate frosting and coconut on top. I don't think I've ever seen that combination, but it's his birthday so that's what I'm making! I looked up in the trusty Better Homes and Gardens for a Red Velvet recipe. I don't think I had ever had this kind of cake before I moved down south. It is one of my favorites. It's not very hard to make from scratch either. Here's the recipe from Better Homes and Gardens. 3 eggs 3/4 cup butter 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder 3/4 teaspoon salt 2 1/4 cups sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla 1 1 ounce bottle red food coloring (2 Tbsp.) 1 1/2 cups buttermilk 1 1/2 teaspoons  baking soda 1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar Let eggs and butter stand 30 m...

Doesn't that look delicious? You all know how much I love Trisha Yearwood's new cooking show. Well, this is another one of her recipes. I've been wanting to make it for about a month now, but haven't had the occasion when the whole family is here. Towards the end of the year, it's really hard to get Izzie home. Exam schedules are murder. I even made the pie crust for the first time in the food processor Hubby gave me for Christmas and if I am correct, it'll be one of the best crusts I've made! Here's the recipe- 1 stick of butter 1 cup brown sugar (I used light brown) 2 pie crusts 21 oz apple pie filling 2 teaspoons cinnamon sugar Melt butter in 9 in skillet. Reserve 1 Tablespoon for the top crust. Add brown sugar and stir until the sugar is melted. Remove from heat. Line pan with 1st crust. Fill with apple pie filling. Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. Top with second crust and take reserved butter and brush on top. I then sprinkled some sugar...

Have you ever seen these kind of cookies? They look really complicated, but are really easy! Doodle is co-president of the French Club and I giggled yesterday because Doodle informed me that her French teacher asked specifically for me to make these for a bake sale they are having! The way to make these is to first make a batch of the best sugar cookies. Follow that link to find the recipe. Then divide the dough in half, or if you want more than 2 colors, divide more. Then mix your colors into each dough portion. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour. Then on a floured surface, roll out one color to about 1/2 in thick. Then roll out the second color to about the same size and place on top of first color. Starting from one short side, roll them up. If your dough has become warm, wrap back up and refrigerate again. Then slice about 1/2 in thick slices and place on cookie sheets and bake according to the recipe. Simple as that! You can color coordinate for different...

As you know, this week is Book Fair at the elementary school and the librarian loves me to bake.

Now, I have never made this. And I have never baked in a cast iron skillet. So, this was all new to me!

Doesn't this look absolutely delicious?? It is! (I snuck a piece after it came out of the oven!)

I made the Pumpkin Roll! This is the trial run before Thanksgiving to see if it will come out well.

So, my sister in law and I were coordinating our menu for Thanksgiving yesterday. I love to bake, I prefer it to cooking actually, so I was figuring out desserts.

I know I told you all about the other day when I went on my cleaning spree. If you didn't catch it, read here.

I just finished it. I know it's by no means professional but it's pink and that's what she wanted!

I have never heard of this technique but I found this via Pinterest on Cake Journal and it's a frozen ButterCream transfer. She has a very easy to follow tutorial on how to do this. Just imagine the different pictures you could do and it would look so professional! The possibilities are endless!

First I made a fudge marble cake. Betty Crocker with milk instead of water and some vanilla thrown in. Isn't it pretty? Then I iced it with Betty Crocker vanilla icing for the base and made some buttercream icing using a rough recipe of 2/3 of a stick of butter softened 1-1 1/2 tsp vanilla 2-3 Tbsp milk 1/2-3/4 bag of powder sugar Then I tinted a little bit for the writing black and the rest blue for the border and this is what I came up with- Nothing too fancy but still "cool" to the 10 year old crowd! He really liked the little skateboards since he gets to keep and play with them after! What do you think of it? Let me know in the comments!

With Bubby's birthday party coming up, I am getting ready to make his cake. I try to do all the kids' birthday cakes. Boxed mixes are great and easy but I decided to look for ways to make them better. I knew the trick of substituting butter for the oil, but here on Lady Behind The Curtain she has 21 other ways to make them taste like homemade. Bubby wants a marble cake because he couldn't decide between chocolate or vanilla. And we are doing a skateboarder theme. I will post pics when I have the cake done!

Does this cake look amazing or what? I found this recipe on TasteBook but it's a Hershey's original recipe I believe. It's called Hershey's Decadent Dark Chocolate Cake. Dark chocolate....mmmmmm. I'm definitely torn because it's really hot today and I don't wanna heat up the house with the oven but ooooh I think this might be worth it!

I have a wonderful neighbor who has a humongous garden every year. And this year she has already sent down cucumbers, sweet peas (which only lasted 5 minutes in this house), lettuce and zucchini. Well, to thank her, I wanted to make her zucchini bread. But, I'm kinda tired of the regular zucchini bread. Then I found this recipe on Lil' Luna for Glazed Lemon Zucchini Bread. It just looks amazing! I have to go grocery shopping today anyway, I think this might get made today! I'll just have to double the recipe since I want some too!

I have done this trick but it's been a few years. Actually, my best friend told me how to do it. She got into serious cake decorating years ago and taught me some of it! But here on The Busy Bee , is a tutorial. It's quite simple but looks like you worked for hours! Use any kind of cake you like and decorate as you please!