Yellow Cake & Honey-Vanilla-Cinnamon Buttercream

Yes, what a mouthful. A delicious mouthful. Or so I'm told. I didn't get a slice of this cake, which saddens me. No one thought to save me a piece. But that's okay. 'Cause at the same time, I was making turnovers and got to reap those benefits.

Since moving into our house, I've spent a lot more time baking and actually enjoying baking. I mean, baking has never been a chore, but when you have a tiny kitchen that's extra crowded when the dog decides he wants to be underfoot, it can be difficult. Now with all of the room we have, I can spread out and not feel like I'm going to lose my mind the next time I elbow my pre-measured cup of flour onto the floor.

Part of the enjoyment I have experienced has to do with making things from scratch. Sure, box cake mix is delicious. It's simple and always moist. They're hard to mess up. However, there is nothing more satisfying than a well-made cake from scratch. That being said, when The Fellow™ asks me to make things for his work pot lucks or just 'cause, for work, I'm happy to dive right in and make something I know everyone will enjoy. In the past I've made cupcakes and cake and cookies and they've always gone over well. This time around, I again wanted to make cake and try a recipe for a yellow cake that I hadn't used before. Supposedly a tried-and-true recipe, but something I had never tried before. White and chocolate, yes. Not yellow. The frosting is another tried-and-true that I've used based on the food blog Love and Olive Oil, and just mixed up some flavors that I figured were complimentary. I always use her cinnamon rum buttercream recipe, but considering I was out of rum, I fell back on something else.

Turns out everyone loved it. Always nice to hear. :)

Vegetable Medley

Two weekends ago, I went to my favorite tapas place with my best friend and a new friend. Every time the BFF and I go to this place (Tablas Woodstone Taverna in Mill Creek), we have to try something new. We get our regular food items -- patatas bravas and shrimp croquettas -- but there's always something new. This time around, it was smoked chorizo with paprika on crostinis, sauteed mushrooms with garlic, and a Mother's Day special, asparagus wrapped in serrano ham. Oh. my. gods. The mushrooms and asparagus were my absolute favorites. I've never had asparagus so perfect.

The last time I had asparagus, I was in 8th or 9th grade and I was in home ec. Our teacher was a big fan of Julia Childs and felt that every single thing you cooked, you had to taste. Obviously that's not a Julia Childs' school of thought, but this teacher had no qualms about forcing certain students in to making their own mayonnaise and tasting a giant heaping ladle-full. So glad Lance got stuck with the mayo-making instead of me. I was dreading that day on the syllabus. Anyway. Asparagus. Jenna and I were kitchen partners. We got stuck having to make asparagus. Truth be told, neither one of us really even knew what asparagus was. But lo and behold, when it came time to make a dish, we had no clue what we were doing, how you cooked it, and with what you paired it. We ended up baking it in the oven with copious amounts of salt and butter and egads it was a mess. Soggy, floppy asparagus that only the very desperate would want to eat. Somehow we passed that section with flying colors -- I guess it was more about attempting and tasting versus succeeding. But after that, I never wanted to eat asparagus again.

Cut to the tapas place. It was time to put on my big girl pants and trying something that I hated so much many years before. It was perfection. I wish it was an item on their menu all the time. Maybe it was a huge success and it will be. Who knows. We'll see the next time I'm up there.

So asparagus aside (sort of), I wanted to make a vegetable medley to take into work with me. My co-worker and I used to indulge in carrots, celery, broccoli, and cauliflower with a sour cream based dip to fill us up between breakfast and lunch, which usually resulted in us not even eating lunch because we were so fully and satisfied. I've been wanting to do that again, but I can't bring myself to eat dip. I crave that sour cream dip, but knowing how not-good it is for me, I refrain. Restraint has become my middle name most days and I'm very proud of myself. TANGENT.

I was walking through my local whole foods type store this afternoon and decided I'd throw together zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and onions. Something was missing, though. It didn't seem like enough. It didn't seem adventurous, using plain old every day vegetables we always had at home. Then there it was:  a beautiful display of asparagus for $3.99 a pound. NO CLUE if that's a good price, but they were firm and they looked delicious. Just think of the possibilities!

This was my possibility.

Mac and Cheese, the Awesome Way

I think it's really weird when I hear that people don't like macaroni and cheese. And not for reasons like they ate it too much as a kid. We all have things that were forced upon us for various reasons when we were younger that we prefer not to eat these days. But mac and cheese? Come on! Pure comfort food. That is, if you're not lactose intolerant. Don't even try to convince me that fake mac and cheese is good. I won't have that here in my blog. Cheese is only cheese when it's made with dairy. That's final! *crosses arms*

Anyway, back to the idea that certain people don't like mac and cheese. Some people say it's a texture thing. Others say it's a flavor thing. Well...

I don't know what's wrong with them, but to each their own I suppose?

The Fellow™ and I were in love with Kirkland Signature's macaroni and cheese. Something about it made it taste so much better than Kraft (or Kraft dinner for you northerners...) or Velveeta or any other brand out there. But I've gotten to a point in my life where I'm capable of making a lot of the foods we buy in boxes with all those extra pockets of sodium and preservatives and chemicals that we don't need. So once our Kirkland stock of mac and cheese ran out, I insisted we no longer replenish it. I could make mac and cheese from (mostly) scratch - because let's face it, I'm not making the noodles... yet - and it doesn't take all that long to do so. The taste is divine and I doubt you'll ever accomplish such a smooth texture with a box brand.

Pita Pizzas

A favorite from my childhood with a slightly different twist.

I have no idea where my dad "came up with" the idea for the original version of this meal. When mom wasn't around (because she didn't care for this one too much), dad would cut up pita bread into chip-sized bites and covered with cheese and pepperoni. He'd bake them in the oven until the edges were near-burnt and I'd smother the finished product in Contadina pizza sauce. It was heaven. I looked forward to my mom working late or being back east with family. That meant dad and I could have our mini pizzas.

I've made said mini pizzas several times in the past and they're just as good as I remember them. However, in the last year, I've become slightly more cognizant of my waist line, and while I don't deprive myself of delicious, unhealthy things, I do cut them down to a minimum, or try to "fix" them to make them healthier. While most pizza isn't ever going to be healthy, I can sure try.

Slightly healthier pita bread, lower carb and sugar tomato sauce, lower fat cheese, and just a fewer amount of pepperoni, because let's be honest:  I hate turkey pepperoni. I think it tastes funny and shouldn't be allowed to be called pepperoni to start. But that's just me. Obviously you can fix these up any way you like -- sans meat, more vegetables like bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, etc., but I like to keep things simple a lot of nights during the week and cutting up more stuff is just more work and I'm lazy Monday through Thursday. :)

Chunky Hashbrowns

When we'd make breakfast as a family back home, dad would fry up the potatoes. We would sometimes default to store bought shredded hashbrowns, because it was easier and required less attention-paid, but nothing beats fresh potatoes fried to perfection. Perfection for me has changed over the years. I used to want everything fried to near burnt. I only cared for food if it was crispy. As I got a little older, I realized that crispy sometimes negated flavor. So now I'm happy to have food that's tender, a bit crispy, and delicious. The crispiness is just an added benefit.

Over the last few years, I've tried to perfect this recipe. It started off poorly. Tough potatoes saturated in oil and not very crispy. Any salt or pepper added to it just ended up tasting like vegetable oil. Not fantastic. This time around, I was happy with the outcome. Russet and Yukon potatoes, doused in olive oil, mixed with garlic and onion, to be a happy addition to a breakfast scramble. You don't need to know how to pan fry sausage or cook eggs, so here's what I can offer you in regards to potatoes. Delicious, salty, soft and crisp breakfast potatoes.

Freeze Dried Foods, round two

I wanted to talk a little more about Thrive - the product by Shelf Reliance that is all freeze dried or powdered foods.

Previously, I've mentioned their green and red bell peppers that I bought in March.

After perusing their website, I decided to tackle two more products:  sour cream and mushrooms. These are items that I thought would be the very best to try out, considering the average household wastes more sour cream than they use, and mushrooms, well, The Fellow™ doesn't like them (read:  hates them with a fiery passion), so I don't have to pull my usual open up a can of mushrooms, forget to put them away after I only use half the can, and let them sit out overnight -- or several nights if I don't set foot in the kitchen the following day -- and waste them as well.

So let's discuss the sour cream.

I was so happy to find this product. Not just this product line, but the actual powdered sour cream. Over the years, I've come to love sour cream on my Mexican-esque foods. Nothing makes a meal better than a little sour cream. But when you've only got two people in the house that can actually eat sour cream (read:  the dog is a people, too, and he can't have it), even the smallest of sour cream containers is still too big. We don't use sour cream for much else, so by the time our sour cream centric meal has come and gone, the container ends up spoiling before we use it. Or, on the rare occasion that it can be used again before spoilage occurs, it gets shoved to the back of the fridge to hide behind something tall, so I just assume we have none and do without.

Now, the sour cream powder itself is good in the container, unopened, for 10 years if using optimal storage conditions; whatever those are. Let's be honest - we're buying these things to use now, not somewhere far down the line. Once opened and the oxygen absorber is thrown away, it is good for 12 months. Or best used within 12 months. However you'd like to read the can. The directions are for a cup of sour cream, and a serving size is considered 1/4 cup, with a whopping 180 calories, 14 grams of fat, and 6g of carbs. Sounds like real sour cream to me!

During my test trial, I made about 3 Tablespoons of sour cream. We don't use a lot (and that's why we end up throwing away so much) and because of this, trying to find the right balance of powder to water and the right consistency was tricky. I ended up at about 3 Tablespoons of sour cream and 3 Tablespoons of water. At that point, the white mixture looked and felt gritty. A little off-putting to be honest. I stuck it in the fridge while I was waiting for the rest of our dinner to cook, and that seemed to make it even thinner. Maybe my mind was just messing with me. I don't know.

The taste was very different, but definitely in a good way. It's almost like very fresh sour cream; fresh off the farm. It was smooth, creamy, and sweet. Not sugary sweet like a yogurt, mind you, but just dairy sweet. The can itself states that "the texture will not be consistent with that of regular sour cream, it is ideal for baking". So while apparently not ideal for uses like ours, it's still usable! I would definitely recommend it, especially considering we didn't even feel the grit while we were eating it mixed in with the rest of the food. That would have been the deal breaker.

And now for the mushrooms:

Mushrooms and I have a love/hate relationship. I hated them growing up. When mom made spaghetti, I'd always demand a smaller pan of sauce be made for me that only had Ragu and meat in it. No mushrooms, no onions, no bell peppers... I was a demanding child because I was so picky. When we would get Pizza Hut pizza, mom and dad sometimes got mushrooms on theirs. Sometimes I'd eat theirs when my brother and I had exhausted our own. I won't lie that I really liked Pizza Hut's mushrooms. For years, I went back and forth between liking them and hating them. But somehow, in the last, oh I don't know, year or so, I've fallen madly in love with them and I want them to be in everything I eat. Well, just about everything. I imagine popsicles with mushrooms would taste as disgusting as it sounds.

However, this love affair could not be. The Fellow™ doesn't like mushrooms. In the least. What was a girl to do? Buy freeze dried, of course!

The can is good for 25 years if unopened and kept in optimal blah blah blah and opened, they last for up to 2 years. Upon opening the can, I was greeted with a flurry of mushroom dust. It sounds like it should be some magical drug, but it's really not. Again, the rehydration directions suggest turning 1 cup of freeze dried mushrooms into real mushrooms by letting them soak for 1-3 minutes. Considering I'm one person and I'm usually not having straight mushrooms for dinner, I do more like 1/4 of a cup -- slightly more if I get some of the larger pieces -- and then put in just enough water to cover them.

The texture of these rehydrated mushrooms is very similar to real mushrooms. That firm, yet slippery exterior, light dirt brown color, ability to squeak on your teeth; y'know, the usual. On their own, they taste different than the mushrooms I'm used to, i.e. any number of brands of canned stems and pieces, but again, it's not necessarily a bad difference. If plopped on top of a salad or on top of a Mexican dish, they're sort of bland. When cooked with a meal, in its juices/gravies/etc, it absorbs the flavors and come alive like real mushrooms should. I would recommend using them solely in the latter form, as soggy, floppy product just isn't as good.

And because I can:  taco salad with rehydrated red and green bell peppers, rehydrated mushrooms, sour cream powder, and instant refried beans.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm kinda in love.

Hamburger Helper Italian Lasagna

I know, I know. How hard is it to follow directions on the box? And what sort of uncreative mind posts Hamburger Helper to their food blog? I do, thank you very much. Because this just isn't any Hamburger Helper, it's my Hamburger Helper, with my patented twist.

Some background information on me and my torrid love affair with Hamburger Helper:  I grew up eating this stuff. Honestly, who didn't? It was reasonably affordable and as I've said before, beef was extra affordable in Hawaii. I still cannot explain why. Anyway... there were only a few flavors that far back, and you better believe that we overused them time and time again.

As I got older, it wasn't much of a staple in our diets. There was no need for it.

As I got even older, I realized just how bad it is for you. What with its huge amounts of sodium, lots of sugar, and whatever preservative type things they add into it to make it last forever. I finally swore off Hamburger Helper a few years ago, however, a few days ago, a box of Italian Lasagna spoke to me...


Driving home from work, I got this craving for something bad-for-me. I'm trying ridiculously hard to make us eat better at home. The main reason I've hit a weight plateau is because we're constantly eating out. When I start complaining that we're going out too much, you know it's a whole hell of a lot. I actually turned down pizza last night! Anyway, back to the whole bad-for-me craving:  as easy as it would be to say "Let's just do McDonald's tonight", I knew that I could have my cake and eat it, too. Making that box of Hamburger Helper I bought on a whim the other day with a few changes sounded like the perfect, easy meal after having a day from hell.

As much as I like beef, I wanted chicken. I've been really digging the chicken lasagna I make. Plus, infinite amounts healthier than beef. But not only would this healthier Hamburger Helper include chicken, it needed a whole bucket of shredded spinach. I love Love LOVE spinach in my lasagna now. Besides, we could all use a little more green in our diets, am I right?

I was way excited to get home and make it, and I'm insanely happy with this meal. Though I have to say, I was a little put off by the bright orange color the mix turns everything. Don't fear people! It's delicious!