I named this cake the Coconut Cloud Cake. The icing is very light and not killer sweet. It is covering an over-the-top Chocolate Fudge Cake.
Good Evening Everyone! I hope that you had a very productive day and that all is well in your home.
I kinda created this cake today while trying to put together something for our card game as it was my turn for the refreshments this week.
I began with a chocolate fudge cake mix, but I bumped up the ingredients. And, after this cake, I will always do this. It made the cake so very moist and light.
When it said water, I used milk. And, when it said oil, I used butter. It is well worth the time and expense to make these substitutions. I baked this in an oiled bunt pan at 350 for 33 minutes. It was a very liquidy-looking batter so don’t worry!
I had a stick of butter out on the counter getting room temp. And I had a can of coconut milk and my homemade coconut extract.
I also had 3 cups of powdered sugar.
I put the softened butter in the mixing bowl and added the powdered sugar a cup at a time. I put in 2 TBSP of coconut extract to help it mix together.
On the coconut milk, I ended up with 5 TBSP of it. But I added them one at a time and checked that the frosting would not get too runny to stay on the cake. I also tossed in 2 handfuls of shredded coconut from a bag of coconut.
This cake looks and tastes as if it came from a fairy wonderland and I will be making this one again. So, I do hope that you might try this one, it is really indescribably good! Thanks for stopping by and always feel welcome to share my recipes and stop in again. Connie B.
Good morning all! It is very early Saturday morning as I write this post.
I hope that your day goes well and that all of your wishes come true.
I began cooking my ribeye steak like this, many years ago. And it is fast and easy.
I season my steak the night before with accent and garlic powder and then keep it in a covered container in the refrigerator until I am ready to cook it.
I preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
I use my favorite little cast iron frying pan with a little bit of olive oil in it. Maybe 2 TBSP. I just brown the steak on each side, about 3 minutes each side, on a high heat setting.
Then I slide the cast iron frying pan into the oven and set a timer for 5 minutes. If you like it rarer then check on it earlier than 5 minutes. On this steak, I messed up and cooked it for 8 minutes so it turned out to done for me but it was still a good steak. I prefer the 5 minute time and way less done.
I had some dehydrated mushrooms, so I used a big handful and rehydrated them in 1/4th cup of water in a little pan on the stove. When the water boiled out, I tossed in some butter and garlic powder and took off the stove. This left them crispy like and that is how I like my mushrooms on a steak. I microwaved a large baking potato by poking holes in it and covering it with a wet paper towel. I think it may have been 9 minutes but check it at 6 minutes.
When the baked potato is cooked like this in a microwave with a wet papertowel on it. It will be moist and flaky just like the restaurant baked potato. I learned this tip years ago.
If you have not tried your steak this way, I do hope that you will give this a try! It is really tasty this way.
Thank you for stopping by and feel welcome to come back for any of my recipes. They are here to be shared with you and others, also. I will post on Tuesday and Saturday. Connie B.
Chicken livers, you either love them or you hate them!
Hello to everyone on this North Florida, very rainy day. I wish the very best for you and yours.
I wanted to share my fried chicken liver recipe today with you. As I love to have them once in a while.
You will need these items.
Chicken livers (rinsed) in a sieve and flavored with your spices. I use accent and calenders greek seasoning and garlic powder. Let this sit in a covered container in the refrigerator for overnight to take season.
Kentucky Kernel Chicken Seasoning Box (Walmart)
2 eggs in a cup of milk (whisked)
1 cup of self-rising flour (Mix with 1 cup of Kentucky Kernel Seasoning) on a large plate. This makes the seasoning stretch for more meals.
Cast iron skillet with 2 inches of hot melted grease. You will need to keep working with the temperature of the grease by cooking on #5 and lowering it to #4 at times, so the grease does not burn.
A splatter screen (Dollar Tree) This is a must so that you don’t get popped by hot grease and severely burned. Ask me how I know this! I also put a paper towel over the screen while the livers are frying. Arrange it so it does not catch on fire!
Last of all have a platter prepared with paper towels on it for the cooked livers. And you need a big long fork.
Begin by having the grease on very low. Add some chicken livers to the egg-milk mixture and next to the flour mixtures and back quickly into the milk mixture and back to the flour mixture again. (Double Dipping).
Put these on a clean dry plate, until you have done all of the livers, like 3 at a time. If any dry flour mixture is left-over then drag the livers through it. Get the grease hot on #5 now and fry a batch of livers for 5 minutes on one side and 5 minutes on the other side. Then take them out and place them on the platter. Remember to rotate the heat down to 4 and then up to 5. Do the other batch and then you are done. These are cooked slow and easy and they are the best!
I hope that you try this recipe! I, thank you for stopping by, and hope to see you again (on my Blog) which is here. Connie B.
I do my recipe post on Tuesday and Saturday. Until the next one, have an awesome day!
Good morning, to everyone on this gently raining, North Florida day. It will be a nice day for the farmers and crops so That makes a good day for me as well. I hope that your’s is nice also.
Please forgive my grainy photo as somehow my phone camera is going out on me. I will have to try to get a new one. This picture does not do the squash the beautiful yellow color that it really is.
Onward to the recipe of how to can squash as a lady requested from me yesterday. I told her that I would post it today. So here we go!
It is really important to wash and scrub the squash with a vegetable brush so that you get all of the tiny bits of sand off of the squash! Nothing like a bite of sand grit between your teeth! So do this well.
Have your pressure canner pot on a very low setting as you are prepping the squash. You just want the water warm! Fill about 2 or 3 inches for depth. Your lowest marking inside the pot is the sweet spot for canning
Have all of your jars and lids washed and clean with hot soapy water before you even begin any part of this pressure canning adventure! Also, have napkins and a tiny dish of vinegar ready for cleaning the jar rims after you have filled the jars with squash and very hot water. A chopstick to de-bubble each filled jar before cleaning the rim and putting on the seal and then the ban. A large mouth funnel is needed, also.
Also, have a large pot of water and have it ready with boiling water so that you can slice up the squash into (THICK CHUNKS) and drop the squash into the water for about 2 minutes. Use a big slotted spoon to remove the squash to a big bowl. Have a large soup ladle, handy for you will need it!
So now that everything is ready to start, put a folded kitchen towel near the stove and on the counter. Have your jar lifter tool beside it, with a heavy-duty pot holder (just in case) you might need it to help you in removing the extremely hot jars from the canner.
Most of the work involved in canning is to get everything that you will need set up and ready to go.
To begin, I use quart jars and use the soup ladle to half-fill 2 of the jars with some of the boiling water. As I am ready to fill each jar with the two-minute blanched hot squash, I empty a hot water jar into an empty one. This keeps everything at a hot temperature!
So after using the funnel to fill the squash into the jars, use some of the blanching liquid from the boiled squash to finish filling up your jars. Leave a 1-inch head-space in the jar. Next, use the chopstick to de-bubble a jar and then use a vinegar napkin to wipe the rim of the jar and put the seal on now and next comes the band that is finger-tight so air can escape while in the canning process! Do not crank down extremely tight!
By now you have finished filling your jars and the pressure canner water is hot, so you can add the filled jars to your pressure canner. Usually, 6 quarts to a 23 quart-sized canner. Or (8-pints).
Put the lid on the pressure cooker and (leave the jiggle-thingie) the weight, OFF. Have the stover burner temp on number 7 (med-high) and wait until you have seen the steam coming out of the pressure gauge pipe hole for 5 to 10 minutes and then put the weight on the pot lid.
Let the pressure build up to 10 lbs of pressure ( for my area) check your area for canning altitude. When 10 lbs are reached, then you start the timer for 40 minutes for either quart or also pint jars. Also, turn the dial down to #4 to try to hold at the 10 lb setting. Now you just have to keep watch about every 15 minutes to see that the gauge stays at 10 or 11 but never lower than 10 lbs. I rotate between 3 and 4 with my stove dial setting to keep it near the 10 or 11 lbs of pressure.
This is the MOST IMPORTANT STEP in pressure canning! After the timer goes off. Turn off the stove and walk away, until the pressure gauge reads ZERO pressure. ONLY then can you open the pot!
There is still hot steam inside the pot so open the lid facing away from you, slowly and with potholders Use your jar lifter and a thick potholder to remove the hot jars to the towel on the counter. Go and sit down now and listen to the ping of the jars as each seal.
The next morning just take off the bands on the jars and use soapy water to gently clean up the canned jars and rinse. Dry and label with the name and date. These will keep for 5 years but they don’t last that long with me. I aim for 3 years for the date to be outdated on the canned foods that I prepare.
I am SORRY that this is so long of a post! But as I can not see you in person to help you learn all about how to safely enjoy learning to pressure can so that you will not have to be afraid of it. Then I like to tell you the why and when and how of this type of canning. It is supreme and lets you store food for a very long time as long as you follow the cleanliness and safety steps for you canning adventures of a life-time.
I do want to say that I am sorry for the well-known canners, for this long post. Happy canning for our newbies!!!
Thank you so very much for stopping by today. I post on Tue and Sat. But this was a special request today! Connie B.
I hope that today is good for you and yours. I know that for me, it will be good however it is to be.
I wanted to show you my canned blackberries as they are so beautiful to look at their awesome color and they will be pretty good in any fashion that I decide to use them. I, just know!
I have always loved blackberries and used to go and pick them each year. But, these had to come from the store in very small, three-dollar packs. Six packs to be exact for these three jars which is $18 for my 3 jars of goodness me oh my. So it was very pricy to me, but I have some for this year so I am happy.
So onward to the canning recipe, we go.
Hopefully, you get to pick these beautiful babies. I use the pint jars as that is equal to a can of pie filling in the stores. I also use the water-bath canning method for these.
Go through all the berries and pick off the leaves or stems, if any. Then use a colander/sieve to rinse the berries.
Put your blackberries into the jars.
Start out your water bath canner on low-medium heat, with enough water to cover the jars. Also, start a large pot that is 1/4 to 1/2 full of water. Depends on how many pints of berries that you have in the jars! Bring to a boil and then turn off. Pour in 1/2 to 3/4th cup of sugar and stir in.
Add the light- sugar-syrup to the blackberries in the jars. Debubble each jar and wipe the rim of the jar with vinegar on a napkin. Put the seal on the top and then the band. Just finger tight with the band. A little tight but not lug-nut tight!
Now that you have your hot and your water hot (the water-bath canner). You may put the jars in. Put the lid on and when it is at a rolling boil, then start the timer for 20 minutes.
When the timer goes off then you can take the jars, out carefully. Have a folded kitchen towel near the stove for these jars to rest on. Listen for the pings as the jars seal. Then next morning you can wash the jars gently in soapy water and rinse. Take the bands off of the seals.
Always date and label, what is in your jars. I used very light syrup as you can always add more sugar, later if you choose to. But with very light syrup, I feel that I can make many different recipes with these canned blackberries.
Thank you for stopping by today. You are always welcome to stop in again if you find the time. Connie B.
Good Day to all! I am coming to you from this North Florida, hot and very humid day. The small breeze makes it a much better day.
I have had a hankering for some good old speckled butterbeans so I picked these up at Save A Lot, this morning. I am sure that most of you, know how to cook these, but this recipe is for the ones that don’t.
I, just got home from the store so I took a photo of the 12 0z package of bacon along with the 28 oz bag of frozen butterbeans so I could get this post ready for today.
Just, chop up the bacon into small pieces and fry it up.
Put the frozen butterbeans in a large pot and just cover the beans with water. Add in, the salt and pepper that you wish to use.
Now, this pot of butterbeans needs the main seasoning to make them supreme. And that is the bacon grease and the fried bacon pieces. It will take about 6 TBSP of bacon grease, which should be about all of it. (I am guessing here) as it has been a while since I have cooked up some butterbeans.
Cook these on medium-high heat for 50 to 60 minutes, with a lid on the pot. Keep checking to see that they do not lose all the water. They shouldn’t if covered. But you do not want to scotch them.
I hope that you do try this recipe and enjoy it!
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and visit today! Do come back for more recipes as I post on Tuesday and Saturday.
I hope that your day is as glorious as the red in these jars of cherries. They have been put up with, the unlimited choice of many recipes.
I have been, patiently waiting for cherries to come in season and then patiently waiting for the price to come down to an affordable price. So, when that day came, I bought five bags of beautiful cherries for around five-and-change for each bag. So for around twenty seven dollars for 20 cups of cherries is a great deal to me.
I will not lie to you! It was a whole lot of work and extremely messy, while making sure to not get any of the juice on my carpet.
I used my little cherry-wood table and lined it with rolled up dish towels. I did not have a pitter so I was the pitter with a small little knife.
I watched a movie at a time as I pitted cherries for 2 days. Call up your friends for a cherry pitting, time.
I also went through the cherries, double checking for the few pits that I had missed. By a small handful at a time. The cherries were kept in the refrigerator, over-night so I took them out early the next morning to warm up to room temperature.
But, I finally made it through and then things started to go pretty fast, in the water-bath canning process.
I made up a side pot of 8 cups water with 1 1/2 c of sugar and got this medium warm. Then I used a spoon to funnel the cherries into 8 pint jars. It took 2 cups of cherries for each jar which was perfect for later recipes.
I put a cup of cherries into each of 3 freezer baggies. And along the way, I had all the cherries, you can eat for 2 days. So, 20 cups is about right and there was not any waste as these cherries were prime.
I had went to #save-a-lot to buy these cherries on sale.
Back to the canning, when my jars were filled with the cherries and very light, sugar-water. I, cleaned the jar rims and finger tightened the bands onto each jar. (If you are new to canning) take a look at one of my canning catagories for step by step) instructions for water-bath canning for these cherries. Or lots of canning.
Put the jars in the water-bath canner (that you have had heating up on medium for the last 30 minutes). Make sure the jars are covered by water by 2 inches over the top of the jars. Put the lid on the pot. Turn on the stove burner on high and once it is a rolling boil then set the timer for 25 minutes.
The reason that I used very little sugar for the syrup is that you can always add more sugar later and also use corn-starch in cold water to add to the boiling syrup and cherries to make your own canned cherry pie filling or you could just have the cherries as the fruit for ice-cream or cherry-fudge. There are end-less possibilities!
Thank you for stopping by today! Always feel Welcome to stop in for a while, as you are always Welcome. Thank You. ConnieB
Good morning everyone on this rain-fresh, North Florida morning. The birds are singing, loudly this morning so I know that they are happy! I wish the very same for you this day. Happiness and singing.
This is a brownie cheesecake pie that I made. It looks like blueberry pie, but that is all chocolate brownie that you see, with my attempt at decorating swirls across the top.
This pie does take time to prepare and it will feed a Family reunion with just a sliver of a slice, as it is so very rich and chocolatey. It ranks right up there with tiramisu in the Olive Garden.
Ok, here is the recipe.
Pretzel Crust 4 c pretzels
1/3 c sugar and 1/2 cup of melted and unsalted butter.
Put these ingredients into a food processor and crush thoroughly. Butter a glass deep-dish pie pan and mash the crust mixture into the pan.
Bake the crust at 350 degrees for 10 minutes (only).
Brownie recipe part
4 large eggs and 1 1/2 c sugar and 1 c unsalted butter at room temp. Whip it up in the mixing bowl. Add 3 tsp of vanilla extract.
1 1/2 c self-rising flour with 10 TBSP cocoa powder. Hand whisk together in a medium bowl. Add 1 tsp of salt.
Time to add in the flour mixture and have chocolate flying around in the air. Just add a little at a time and do the best that you can on a lower speed of the mixer.
Spoon this luscious brownie batter into the pie crust and set it aside for a few minutes.
Cheese-cake like topping recipe
8 oz softened cream cheese
1 c of powdered sugar (sifted).
Milk by the spoon, until this, is spreadable. Not too thin! But not too thick or it will not spread over the brownie mixture!
Beat all this together in the mixing bowl.
Place the pie on a large pizza pan as it will flow over the sides( if you use 2 eggs). Pour the cheesecake-like mixture over the top of the brownie batter.
Attempt to create swirls and drag-thru lines.
Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees and then turn off the oven and let sit in the oven with the door ajar for 30 minutes so it won’t crack. But as you see, it looks cracked anyway with the swirl attempt.
This pie is chocolate heaven! But it is so very rich, that I am not kidding, you will need a ton of people to share this pie with!
Caution, cut in thin slices!
Hope that you will try this recipe and share it with lots of good friends or family or even better yet, a homeless shelter so that they could have a chocolate experience that might bring them some joy.
PS, the finished pie was so UGLY that I chose to show you the middle of the pie!
So, I give you flowers for an apology!
Thank you for stopping by today! I will post another item on Saturday.
Remember the days of hearing the singing ice-cream truck, coming from streets away! I, do remember those sweet and long lost days of chasing the ice-cream truck down, with my brothers along with our handfuls of change.
All of those things are gone now, along with all my brothers. But, I shall always have those memories of sweet and long-ago days. So when I make ice cream, I always think of them!
Since this truck is pink, I will do a strawberry ice cream recipe. And I hope that you find joy in this day as we all search for.
To start out with this recipe, you will need an electric ice cream churn. The now-a-day upgraded churn in these future years that we find ourselves in, oh where. is the exit door at?
16 oz container of fresh strawberries or frozen berries. A 5-oz can of evaporated milk or a half of a can of the 12 oz size and a 14-oz can of sweetened condensed milk.
1 1/2 cups of whole milk
2 TBSP sugar and 2TBSP lemon juice and 1/4 tsp of salt
Whisk all the milks and the sugar in a large bowl until blended.
Cover and freeze for 30 minutes.
Use a food processor for the berries, lemon juice, and salt, until smooth.
Stir in the milk mixture. Now you just pour everything into the 1-quart ice cream crock bowl and start the electric churn and run according to the instructions for your electric ice cream maker. (20 minutes) I believe.
Now, just put the churn with the ice cream in it in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Transfer the ice cream to a covered container and re-freeze for 2 hours and then you are ready for a treat.
This is an old candy recipe with my little twist added to it.
Good morning everyone! It’s a beautiful day in North Florida, this morning. I hope you have an awesome day!
I was thinking about old candy recipes this morning and I thought about this one. It’s kinda like Lays Chips. I bet, you can’t eat, just one!
This recipe makes a ton so be prepared to share with friends!
Box of Bakers Chocolate (8 squares, shaved up)
3 cups of powdered sugar and 1/2 stick of melted butter
1 -1/2 TBSP coconut oil 1/3 cup of Gulf wax or honey wax (shaved up)
1 1/2 cup peanut butter (your choice)
Mix the powdered sugar and peanut butter with the coconut extract in a mixer bowl. Add the melted butter and if you need to, add in water by the tablespoon, just so that mixture is not too dry. ( Note, when I made this I forgot to add the 1/2 stick of melted butter) and they were the bomb! So, you could leave it out!
Have a cookie sheet covered with buttered wax paper, ready. Put the bowl of peanut butter mixture into the freezer for 45 minutes to get firm.
Take out and roll into balls and put back in the freezer for later. Time to have a double boiler little pan on the stove now.
Put the shaved chocolate along with the coconut oil and shaved wax and slowly melt until well melted.
Get some toothpicks ready and a new cookie sheet pan that has butted wax paper on it. Put a toothpick in each ball of peanut butter goodness and swirl around in the melted chocolate. Place on the cookie sheet and back into the freezer for 30 minutes, until you are ready to store these in cookie tins. Keep cold.
I hope that you try this one. It’s a good one if I must say so. Thank you for your time today to stop by and visit me! Connie B.
