Domesticated

The idea to make these cake balls has been floating around in my head for some time. I had a taste of these at a recent function and when I found the recipe, it just sparked ideas in my head. When I tried them, they were actually cake pops: the little bites were on lollipop sticks. I thought I would give it a try last night.

The process is very, very simple. 1 box of red velvet cake mix, baked according to the instructions on the box. Let the cake cool, break it into chunks and throw it in the food processor. Pulse until the cake is finely ground. Mix with 1 can of cream cheese frosting, form into balls, push a lollipop stick in them, dip them in white bark coating, and viola!

Or not.

It’s totally fun to make a complete mess on purpose. It’s totally fun to make tons of little balls of gooey cake.

My idea was to use floral foam to stand the cake pops up on while the bark coating dried. This was a good idea, but there are a couple of things I could have done different…

1. Many of the failed cake pops failed because I pushed the stick all the way through the ball of cake. When the bark coating went on, the ball got too heavy and slid to the bottom of the stick.
2. Next time, I will cover the floral foam with waxed paper before using them. The pops that slid all the way down ended up with floral foam fuzz on the bottom after the bark coating dried.
3. Of course, I didn’t read this post and the part that says, “Dip the tips of lollipop sticks into your melted candy and then insert about halfway into balls and then stick these babies in the freezer (covered) for a few minutes…” That would have helped.

I did get a few that turned out ok. I drizzled green and red chocolate over the tops of those. I took them to work to show them off (and get rid of them - like we need that many sweets in the house). They were gone by lunch.

Out of 50 original balls, I ended up with 16 good looking cake pops. That’s a 32% success rate.

Tonight, I had another bright idea. Instead of making cake pops, I would make SNOWMEN!!

Have you ever seen Calvin’s snowmen?

Mine are pretty much like that…

First I attempted to coat the balls individually and stack them up. The blob on the front right is the result of that.

Then I had the bright idea to coat a lollipop stick with the white bark and stack my “snowballs” up. That worked a little better. The bad thing about these is that as I was coating them, more and more red velvet cake broke off and the last few of my snowmen have pink dots.

I am still planning on decorating the 5 or so that turned out ok. That will have to wait until tomorrow night, though. I’m exhausted.

5 out of 14… that’s a 35% success rate. A little better.

If you have any tips on how to dip these things, I’d love to hear it. I am more than willing to practice more to get it right

On a happier note, there is a beautiful maple tree in the front yard. It’s firey orange right now and I wanted to get a picture of it before all the leaves fell off.

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1:42.46
21.11 miles
12.3 avg mph

Most of my time today was spent trying to work on my cadence. I adjusted my seat several times, but I still can’t get above 100rpms without bouncing. That’s pretty good, though. I can stick with 100 rpms.

I ran over ANOTHER snake on the greenway today. Abby 2, Snakes 0.

Saw a wooly worm, too. The winter doesn’t look too good. He was totally red.

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1:44.29
21.11 miles
12.1 avg mph

Carl went with me today. I was riding Dad’s road bike that he let me borrow, Carl was riding his hybrid bike. I wore him out.

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Check this out:

2:34:37
33.06 miles
12.8 avg mph

Oh yeah!!!

Here’s the link to the route. Where it seems like the lines end, are actually turn around points.

My legs are tired, but I’m not sore. The last 4 miles were rough, but I pushed through and made it home. It was fun!!

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00:38:35
7.17 miles
12.8 avg mph

I only had a little time to ride yesterday. I had this thing to do again, but I didn’t have to be there until noon. I had planned to go out again after the shindig, but teaching young girls wears me out

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1 whole chicken (3-4 lbs.)
1 medium carrot
1 small parsnip
1 celery stalk
1 small onion
1 head (yes, a whole head) garlic
2 lemons
1 stick butter
2 tbsb parsley
rosemary, thyme and sage

Remove the innards and rinse the chicken inside and out. Pat dry with paper towels. Place on roasting pan with rack. Chop the carrot, parsnip, celery and onion into large pieces. Peel the garlic and trim the ends. Cut one lemon in half. Squeeze half of one lemon inside the chicken and place the remainder inside the chicken cavity. Stuff the chicken with the carrot, parsnip, celery, onion and about half the garlic pieces. Tuck sprigs of rosemary, thyme and sage in between the vegetables.

Melt the butter in the microwave. Mix together with finely chopped parsley and the juice from the remaining one and a half lemons. Let cool.

Peel the rest of the garlic. Use a knife to poke holes in the skin of the chicken and into the meat. Press garlic into the meat of the chicken. Rub chicken with butter mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees until done. You want to cook the chicken until the internal temperature of the meat is about 180 degrees. For a 3 lb chicken, this will take about an hour and a half.

This works very well for Thanksgiving Turkey, too.

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1:36:20
20.03 miles
12.4 avg mph

Again, I rode 20 miles. I’m not even sore except in my hips and my neck. That’s pretty cool. The whole time I’m riding I have this big stupid grin on my face. I promise, it’s a lot of fun!

It was tough to get the 20 miles in yesterday, but once I got to mile 15, I figured what the heck! I can do it! Plus, I have all week to rest up and do it again this next weekend. Fun stuff.

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My friend Dave asked me this… and.. well…. honestly I haven’t been riding that much. It’s dark when I get up and it’s dark when I get home. This could be an issue in the coming months. Plus, It’s getting cold. I just bought a pair of biking shorts and now I need a pair of biking pants. The good thing is, in weather like it is now - low 50’s slight breeze - you can ride as hard as you can and you don’t really get all gross feeling.

Anyway, I have been riding a little bit. I can manage to get out on the weekends and on my days off. Plus, Dad let me borrow his road bike. MAN, that thing is zippy!! It’s so much fun to ride!

In the past couple of weeks, here’s what I’ve done.

Saturday 10/11 - 8 miles
Sunday 10/12 - 18.7 miles
Monday 10/13 - 16 miles (I had the day off)
Yesterday, I made a personal record:

1:39:31
20.1 miles
12.1 avg mph

I checked on the daily plate… I burned more than 1400 calories yesterday.

It’s 52 degrees outside right now. I think it’s perfect to go ride again.

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1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt

In a small bowl, lightly stir together the buttermilk, baking soda and baking powder. (It will get very fizzy). Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and shortening until well blended. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add the milk mixture and stir well with a spoon. Sift together the flour and salt until well mixed.

Divide dough into 7 sections. (I know, this is REALLY hard to do evenly.) I use a fluted quiche pan, about 9 inches in diameter, as the cutter. It ends up looking like a REALLY large cookie. Bake each cake on a cookie sheet at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes. I don’t time these things. I look for the edges to get slightly brown and the top to be dry and slightly golden.

Let each cake cool. Save the prettiest cake for the top. Lay the first cake on the serving platter and spread 1/6 of the filling over the top. Continue building the cake by alternating cakes with filling and finish with the pretty cake on top.

Filling:
1 lb dried apples
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

In a medium saucepan, cook the apples and spices in just enough water to cover about half of the apples. Cook the apples until they’re soft and mushy. You want something that resembles apple butter. Add more water during cooking if need be. I usually add some sugar too, to taste.

Honestly, since I’ve been making tons of apple butter lately, I just used that for the filling.

I will admit, this cake is time and space consuming. The results are absolutely delicious, though. This is one of those wonderful treats I remember my Mamaw making when I was very young. I was telling my brother about all the apples and apple-y treats I’ve been making and he requested that I make this cake for this weekend. (We’re going to visit for their baby shower.) I agreed, because I love my brother very much.

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4 lbs pears, peeled, cored and sliced
4 cups sugar
1 tsp orange zest
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Add pears and 1 cup of water per quart of sliced pears into a large pot. Simmer until the pears are soft. Puree in a food mill or food processor - taking care not to liquefy. Mix pureed pears, sugar, orange zest and nutmeg in the crock pot and mix well. Cook on high for 8 hours.

The same basic process as the Apple Butter. So what do you do with all this fruit butter? Why, you can it of course!

I use a hot water bath for the fruit. Use a large stock pot and fill it up enough to cover the jars you will use. Bring the water to a boil and place the empty jars inside to warm them up. Use a smaller pot and cover the jar lids. Heat them to almost boiling. Using a canning funnel, ladle the hot butter into the hot jars leaving a 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rim of the jar and fit a lid and band on top. Process in the boiling water for 10 minutes. Remove from the water and sit out to cool. The lids should pop as the jars cool, forming a tight seal. If any have not popped in 24 hours, reprocess in the water bath.

Apple butter and pear butter should last about 18 - 24 months when kept sealed and stored in a cool, dark place.

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