Cooking and Crafting

The cooler weather has us indoors more, and baking is back en vouge!

Kristy gave me six dozen eggs, so I thought I would make a quiche.  It's been forever since I've made one, and I really like them.  So I bought some spinach, and cut up some leftover steak we had in the fridge from earlier in the week.

It came out really tasty, but turns out the reason I haven't made one in a while is because Billy doesn't care for them. lol. of course.  I made a second one just this week, to use up the rest of the spinach, but it's just me and Emily eating on it.

I think maybe Grace and Juliet's teacher may have been subconsciously influenced by something that also came across my feed.  One night, I was super in the mood to make some brownie mix, and Grace was an awesome helper.  We filled each of the jars that we had with mix.  

Then, the next day, we got an email from their teacher that they were going to have a brownie 'bake off' in class.  Grace was thrilled.  But it was wild to me that we would both 'coincidentally' want to make brownies?  Subconscious suggestion.  

My mom requested a printer cover, so I pulled out a used shower curtain liner from the paint supply bin. 

I cut the panels, which the measuring is always the long, boring part.

All done, and stiff enough to stand up around my sewing machine!

Grace really wanted to make dead rocks for the trunk or treat.  She gave me about a week and a half notice on this, so I told her we could not, as we would need to go collect them from the landscape store, wash them, wait for them to dry, and then paint over 300.  

She was disappointed, but understood. So, she opted to make some for her class as a consolation. She made 80, so that she could give each of her classmates two, and have others to give teachers and friends in other classes.

I found a recipe to use up some canned oranges that we were given.  It's an easy recipe, and the frosting is so decadent.  It's made from whipped topping and pudding!  The girls liked it enough that Emily, Grace, and Juliet all want it as their birthday cakes next year! (recipe below)

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Cake:

1 (15.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix

1 (11 ounce) can mandarin oranges with juice

4 large eggs

¼ cup vegetable oil

Frosting:

1 (16 ounce) package frozen whipped topping, thawed

1 (3.5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

Instructions:

Gather all ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix together cake mix, mandarin oranges with juice, eggs, and oil. Pour batter into three greased and floured 8-inch round pans. Layers will be thin.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of cake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool layers on wire racks.

Make the frosting: Mix together whipped topping and instant pudding mix.

Spread frosting onto the cooled cake layers. Stack layers; frost top and sides. Refrigerate until ready to eat.

Slice and enjoy!

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I was in some kind of mood, and decided that I also wanted to make some Irish hand pies to use up some of the potatoes in the basement.  But, I had no desire to go to the store, so I made some pie crust from scratch.  It came out pretty well, considering I can't recall the last time I made pie crust!

I ate on them all week! Ground beef, onions, potatoes, and Worchester sauce in pie crust. So good.  

We found a giant cupcake pan at a rummage sale!  I told the girls that I didn't have time to make it that evening, so Emily and Grace made it.  

The cake was so good!  A very fancy flavor to it.  And the recipe calls for 5 eggs!

Emily ended up taking over the frosting duty.  It took her a long time, and she was not a fan.

We added some sprinkles, but only to half, because the only sprinkles I like are the sugar crystals.

Adding the recipe here too, just incase we want that fancy flavor again!

 The cake was good, but I think we'll be passing the pan along to the next person!

later days