Craft Project - Embellished Frames

This Christmas I made some cute photo frames using the see-thru frames and some embellishments from the scrapbooking isle. I got the idea from this cute, trendy store that I visited, but the frames were completely whack overpriced. But the idea was good.

I just used some dry-clear craft glue and a bunch of metal sayings from inspiring to travel, plopped them on there. I'm sure you could get all kinds of creative with this.

Jack's Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

So I'm reading the book Riding the Bus with My Sister and I get to this chapter where one of the bus drivers shares a few of his recipes. Reading them made me hungry. One of the recipes was for Jack's Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake. Hmmm. Sounded good. I used mayo in my pumpkin bread and it is delicious. So, on my son's birthday rolls around I decided to make it. With a bit of a twist. This is a doubled version from the book because I made a bundt cake.

Cake
4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 tsp. baking soda
2 cup mayonnaise (real stuff, not Miracle Whip)
2 cups water
2 tsp. vanilla

Oven: 350. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix mayo and water in separate bowl. Pour wet into dry and stir to mix. Add vanilla. Take a mixer and beat like you would any other cake batter (about 3 minutes on med-high). Pour into a lightly greased 13x9 cake pan or bundt. Cake pan bake for about 30 minutes, bundt about 40. Test with a toothpick to make sure it comes out clean.

Frosting
(this I did not double from the book, one made plenty so follow below)
1 8-oz pack of cream cheese, softened
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 small container whipped topping (like Cool Whip, the regular sized container)
3 T unsweetened cocoa powder

Mix cream cheese sugar and cocoa powder (I added about 2 T of heavy cream to this to get the consistency I wanted). Mix well. Fold in the whipped cream. Spread over cooled cake. Refrigerate.

It was really yummy. Best thing was NO eggs so I could lick the beaters. And lick them I happily did. The cake alone is fabulous. You could omit the frosting and dust it with some powdered sugar and have a nice, moist, sweet cake.

The Twist
For a little extra some-somethin' I took 1/2 bag of caramels and melted them in a saucepan over low heat with about 1/8 cup of heavy cream. I poured 1/2 of the cake batter into a bundt pan, then poured the melted caramel over that and topped it with the remaining cake batter. It was divine, lemme tell you.

Riding the Bus with My Sister. Good cake, good book.

Tinsletown for Firefox

Oh my. I just installed the Theme Tinsletown for Firefox. It is awesome. With the little candy cane scrollbar, lights and icons it is just perfect. Job well done.

Homemade French Fries

The other day I decided to make some homemade fries. I've never made them before in a fryer, but I do recall baking them.

ITEMS NEEDED
1 small bag Yukon Gold potatoes washed and cut into thin slices
flour (about 3c.) + seasonings (salt, pepper, about a tsp. of each: garlic powder, onion powder and paprika - or whatever taste you are looking for)
oil for frying (I used about 4/5 canola and 1/5 peanut)
something to fry them in I used a Presto Pot (those things are wonderful multi-taskers, by the way).
water and vinegar (about 1/4 cup to a bowl of water to keep the potatoes from browning and to pull some starch out of them so they are crispier)

Heat the oil to about 325. While the oil is heating cut and wash potatoes. Put potato slices in a bowl of cold vinegar water. After you've peeled all the potatoes and they've soaked in the vinegar, take some out and dry them well (I used a salad spinner). You'll have to do this in batches, eyeballing how much your fryer can hold at one time. Fry each batch for a couple minutes. You're not looking for browning here, just a quick blanching. Remove, set on paper towels to cool a bit.

After that is all done, kick your heat up to about 350-375.

Place first batch in the flour/spice mixture, coat thoroughly then remove, shaking off all excess flour (I used a mesh strainer, shaking it until all the flour came off -- hold it over the bowl with the flour in it so you can reuse the flour or you'll run out). You can do all of them or just some of them in between frying batches. When your oil is ready, go ahead and put them in. I'll guesstimate that each batch took about 5 minutes to cook/brown but as we all know cooking time varies. Remove, drain on paper towels, sprinkle with salt, toss to coat and eat when cool.

Because these were Yukon Gold they were sweet and more like home-style fries. They were crisp enough for me, but if you like a really crispy fry you might use Russets or slice them even thinner.