Dadada... Drum!

Fun cake for a long time customer of mine. This was for her son's 5th Birthday. You can see some close ups here.

TWD: Too hot!

It's just too hot to bake or cook anything. Our BBQ has refused to function, the oven moved to the neighbors where there is air-conditioning and I think even my eyeballs were sweating yesterday.

So instead I bring you a loverly photo taken by my Dad the other day... amazing something that makes me so miserable (the sun, not my dad) can be so darn pretty.

There are many beautiful Brioche Plum Tarts to be ogled over on the blog roll at Tuesday with Dorie and the recipe can be found over at Chez Us.

Bubble & Brown Baker

Am I being lured in by the purdy color of Rachel Ray's Bubble & Brown Baker?

I really feel like I NEED this....

I have the old standby clear pyrex dishes and a few retro white dishes with cute roosters (and roosters are all the rage according to the Renegade Craft Fair we went to this weekend) but I can just imagine a bubbly potato & Gruyere gratin in this will just taste so much better in one of these.

Anyone have these?

PPPR: I give up!

We were doing pretty good I thought but a few things brought me to the breaking point.

First, I don't even know if we are over or under budget but... probably over. Much akin to the feeling I get whilst balancing my checkbook I gave it up because I can only handle so much of that feeling....

Tuesday I didn't bring lunch and didn't have time to go home. Attempting to be a cheapo I had a Mt Dew, Jalapeno Cheetos and Swedish fish... all around ethnic smorgasbord for sure! Costing me roughly $5.00 that could have been spent on fast food that could have been slightly (yeah right) more healthy.

The hubby asked for bread! Bread people.... how could he need more bread! There's no room in the budget for more bread what is he thinking! I guess actually taking lunch will have that effect eh?

So by late Wednesday night at about 8pm I just wanted some blonde girl named Tiffany to bring me a burger and then take away the dishes...

Good luck to those of you that are still at it... I admit 8 days is a horrible horrible record. But there always has to be someone that quits first and that someone will be me! Ha I love being first!

TWD:Tribute Katherine Hepburn Brownies

Our host for this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie is Lisa from Surviving Oz. She created the fantastic new logo for the site. I don't know how people come up with such things... color me jealous for sure. Just look how cool it is!

Ok on to the recipe... Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies. Chock full of walnuts with a hint of cinnamon and coffee these brownies have a very distinct flavor. They contain only a bit of flour so I don't know how they are staying together so nicely without being mushy & gross like I expected. I only used 1/2 of the chopped chocolate (I know crazy talk) but I think more chocolate would have been too much because they are right on the border of too much (even more craziness). They still don't replace my favorite recipe but they are pretty tasty.

PPPR: Day 5 & 6

So yesterday I fell back on an old habit... one that will send me over my budget for sure. I was to lazy to take out anything to defrost for dinner. So off we went at 6pm to Fresh & Easy to get something for dinner. Bad bad bad! I have plenty of food to cook... why am I too lazy to take anything out! Meh...

Oh well... the honey burned some steaks and we grilled up some asparagus... good food.

Tonight, I still was too lazy to defrost so I made spaghetti & meatballs. Cool thing about that is the pre-made party meatballs from TJ's are tasty and can be tossed into sauce to defrost. A little garlic bread on the side... again good food on the cheap. No pictures though... to lazy for that ;)

Oh yeah the no-bake cookies from Day 4 were awesome! There are some still in the fridge and they are so good cold.

PPPR: Day 4

Finally an actual cooking day for me! Since I'm worried that the hoodlums around here will burn down the neighborhood were sticking close to home for the 4th of July. Right now I feel like they are throwing M80s (I think that's what they are called) over the fence its so ridiculous but I guess they are having fun....since ohhh 9am this morning.

Anyhoo... back to the food.

I marinated pork (look away Jenn!) in BBQ sauce with a little twist of OJ and sweet chili sauce to give it a little something extra. For some reason my mom never used BBQ straight up, she always put it on the stove and simmered it with extra stuff, usually a load of butter (no my mom isn't Paula Deen). Since this was normal procedure growing up I usually add something in there out of habit. Not butter though I save the butter for other things like the slow roasted corn on the cob and steamed then pan sauteed creamer potatoes on the side.

For dessert there is no-bake cookies cooling on the counter. I hope they are good because they sure have potential to be tasty. And not turning on the stove in this July heat is a blessing for sure.

I tagged this recipe last week when I saw it over on the Brown-Eyed Baker... she got it from Ezra Poundcake who got it from RecipeZaar.com ya gotta love the internet! Remember back in the day when you would watch cooking shows and you could send in a self addressed stamped envelope for the particular recipes from that show.... haha how far we have come!

TWD: Perfect Party Cake

I delayed my Tuesdays with Dorie recipe this week so that I could make the Perfect Party Cake for an actual party.

Since I was running a bit low on the necessary ingredients I decided to use some left over strawberry butter cream and a little store bought dark chocolate spread for the inside. I didn't eat a piece of this cake but got rave reviews from the entire family.









For the recipe as it was meant to be, cruz on over to and see Carol over at mix, mix....stir, stir.