Let them eat cake - okay Let ME eat cake!

Alright - for the record.  I am gluten, wheat and lactose intolerant.  If I freakin hear from my daughter that she feels bad for me as she happily munches a Panera Asiago Cheese bagel loaded with cream cheese again - I'm gonna punch someone because - I WANT ONEEEEEEEEEEE!  so that said - okay shouted.  Here is something that with a touch of lactaid - I can love - savor - hord - crave and yupppppp enjoy!

The cake that ends all cakes!

Chocolate Volcano Cake
Preheat to 375
here it is in all of it's simplicity - and lest you doubt me - make it just once and try - just try to not NOT eat more than you want to.  It's that good and that tempting and THAT FREAKIN good.  It will be your demise - I warned you and don't say I didn't. 

In a Micro safe bowl -  1 and just a hair over one half stick of butter.  Don't even try anything other than butter because the baking authority will pull you over and take your best bowl and pin.  Just sayin.  Mix in over half a bag of semi sweet chips.  Milk chocolate is for those who don't know better.  If you have the money spend it - it will be good.  If you don't - it will still be good.  I've done it and it's all good.  Melty melty in micro for like a min.  More is not good.

Stir like mad.  mix in 1 1/2 cup sugar.  stir like mad

now mix in an egg.  mix like mad.  again.  and again and again and again until you've added individually 5 eggs.    now add 1 TBS (you read that right) flour.  This is why I can eat this!

Here is the beauty part ( okay that was a really dumb play my ex and I saw in '89 in Milwaukee - but that's another show) grease a 8" metal pan and line with parchment.  Just do it or you will again be sorry.  AND then butter that too.  Put the batter in this pan and bake for 23 min.  Check for jiggly - you want a bit but not too much 2 min more is okay.

This is the volcano part.  Let cool.  YES YOU HAVE TO.  It will fill your kitchen with this siren song of "omg - do me right here in this chocolate perfume" but wait - okay don't have the sex - let the cake wait and just enjoy that later instead of a cigarette.  Chocolate is so much better than tobacco!

Cool and flip 2 times.  You really want the top to be the top and this cake is more fragile than Britney Spears - care must be taken!  This is oooooozy goooey cake and it will spill it's super sweet guts to you so enjoy.  It will freeze crazy well so wrap and enjoy but reheat 24 hours in advance and then enjoy.  I'd be lying if I said I have not made 5 of these in the last week.  Wish I was but - ugh.  I'm not.  my son ate a whole one.  I could too if given the chance.  It's cooling - watch me !!!!!!!!!!!

Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! skirt challenge

Number 1 skirt.  This is just a basic circle skirt with a tie instead of a zip or other closure.  It's awesome for swing dancing :D  EXCEPT it's really boring.  Soooooooooooooo I'm going to dye or paint it or add something fantastically sparkly!  Thanks Marigold for the idea to do skirts this summer!  Now on to skirt number 2!

3.1415 pi or in this case PIE

Very often a dish is more than just the sum of it's parts.  Flavors meld - textures complement and the whole thing just works.  This is the pie I have been thinking about making for weeks.  I have a deep down love affair with Key West.  My hubby is from Miami (as close to the Keys as anyone I know) and then there's the whole Hemingway thing.  I just love it.  I wanna not own socks!  So Key Lime Pie has been on my mind for a long time.  Yesterday all of the pieces just fell into place.  Okay so that's not true I had to go to the store and buy the ingredients but the crazy international market I shop at had KEY LIMES ON SALE!!!!  Helllllooooo sign from the cosmos to make this pie!

I rarely follow anyone's direct instructions and this pie is no exception.  I didn't want that slimy topping I've had on some key lime pies I've had in the past so I combined my love of meringue topped pie with my dislike of wasting anything (you need egg yolks for the pie) and voila!

So here's how I pulled it off.  

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees

1 Graham Cracker Crust
5 eggs at room temp.  Carefully separate the whites from the yolks.  Put the Whites in the mixing bowl of your mixer.  Remember it must be metal or glass and completely clear of all grease or fat.  Utensils must be wood or metal as well for the whites or atleast not plastic and grease free.

1 can of Sweetened Condensed Milk  Put in a mixing bowl with the 5 yolks and mix together.

3/4 cup fresh squeezed Key Lime Juice.  Does it matter if it's not real key lime juice?  Dunno haven't tried.  Since these little suckers are so small I cut them in half and used my garlic press into a bowl.  If you get seeds or pulp no sweat just strain later.  Put the juice in with the milk and yolks and beat like crazy.  Pour into the crust.

Make your Meringue!  Turn your mixer on slow for the first little bit and then high until your whites puff up and get almost stiff.  Add in about a cup of powered sugar and beat like mad til they are stiff but not dry.  You want them to stand up but not be rock hard.  Spread meringue over the pie and make sure you spread it to and even a little over the edges.  Then bake for about 15 minutes - just watch your meringue since it burns very easily.  Top with some slices of limes around the edges and enjoy.  I need to make something out of the rest of the limes . . . . hmmmmmm lime and rum sound yummmmyy!  Enjoy!

Yummy things oh so yummy things

Lest you think me bipolar - okay well if you do fine some of my favorite people are - but I'm trying to shake the blues thing I got going on.  What better way to dispel a dark cloud than with cupcakey goodness?  I can't think of anything happier than a sweet little cupcake - unless perhaps it's an amigurumi one with fangs but that's another show. 

This is not my idea, but since I really didn't have a better one, I just submit for your approval -  :http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/angel-lush-cupcakes-115431.aspx?cm_mmc=eml-_-rbe-_-20100518-_-1002

Peanut Butter Bread and Angst

The feeling swirling around my brain was like waking up on a bus and not knowing where it had stopped.  The useless - "now what" crush of where to go and what to do that rushes in and makes it's home in my head and refuses to give up residency.  That dull standing looking around for the familiar and not seeing it anywhere - in anything.

I WAS home however.  That was what made it all the more maddening.  Another day feeling useless and tired and really really sad.  Thankfully it has since passed and I know that focusing on taking my head out of my ass and trying to drop the me-centered myopic focus has helped immensely.  However I'd be wrong in thinking that this feeling is truly gone - It's one those things that lurks in my head waiting for a choice rainy day to pounce.  And all of the workouts in the world won't change it.

What really is funny is that I hold onto this hope that somehow some great idea or scheme is going to come along and save me from this useless feeling.  I would love to test that theory out by actually attaining said great idea or paying gig that leaves me fulfilled as well as my bank account flush - but truly I can't say this has that much to do with cash flow.  Oh a bit yes it does - pulling my own weight and such - but there's more.  It's a searching that I'm clearly doing.  That ubiquitous "looking for home."  Testing, questioning, mulling, "is this finally it?"  Can I settle in - or not.  Can I unpack the boxes - literally and figuratively?  I'm still not certain.  And that is what makes me think this ride isn't over yet.  I just hope there are snacks on the bus.


Peanut butter bread with honey cinnamon butter

I have a bread maker so this is sort of a cheat recipe but it's my blog so there :D
1 1/2cups very warm water
1/2cup Peanut butter - I use chunky - suit yourself
1/2cup honey
4cups bread flour
pinch of salt
1 package yeast I use rapid rise but either is fine since this is not a rapid bread
set it to GO and in about 4 hours you've got bread
Let IT SIT - DON'T hack into it instantly.  Really I know you want to but let it sit for at least 20 minutes.

Honey Butter
1 stick room temp butter
1/2c honey
dash of cinnamon
Mix
It's really good together.

Enjoy with any existential angst you may be having.  It helps.

A Skirt - a skirt - my kingdom for a skirt . . . .

okay that's too freakin melodramatic but I'm in - a skirt a week for the summer.  Done.  I'd even go so far as to not wear pants for a month.  Here it's so hot I'm in for a skirty kind of summer.  It's creepy hot and it's early May - yup.  It's a special kind of hot that a skirt will be good for.  Thanks Marigold http://hideousdreadfulstinky.blogspot.com/2010/05/summer-of-no-pants-skirt-sewing.html

and the folks at TheAntiCraft.com! www.theanticraft.com

It's Times Like These

I am a one way motorway
I�m the one that drives away
Then follows you back home
I am a street light shining
I�m a wild light blinding bright
Burning off alone

It�s times like these you learn to live again
It�s times like these you give and give again
It�s times like these you learn to love again
It�s times like these time and time again

I am a new day rising
I�m a brand new sky
To hang the stars upon tonight
I am a little divided
Do I stay or run away
And leave it all behind?

It�s times like these you learn to live again
It�s times like these you give and give again
It�s times like these you learn to love again
It�s times like these time and time again