A new knee deserves chocolate cake

Since I am recovering from knee replacement surgery my mom has come to stay with me during the last couple of weeks of..well...my recovery... Well I needed a few things from the grocery store and armed with one of those electric carts and mom we took on the challenge.  Have you ever driven one of those electric shopping carts?  They are crazy... I was running over all sorts of things..mainly endcaps.. but I digress... And since I couldn't drive very well I went really slow thru the store... well mainly the cake aisle... really slow in the cake aisle.  Which is where we found the  new Duncan Hines Perfect Size cakes.. which happened to be bogo at Publix... hey win win... chocolate cake and buy one get one free??? why yes thank you, I believe that I will take one for Free.
Fast forward to later that afternoon... I evidently inherited my sweet tooth (aka my love for all things chocolate) from my mom, she decides to make the Perfect Size cake.  Anticipation abounds.. she said it was not very hard to make at all.  You still have to use all of the things you use to make a regular size cake...no time saver there.  It comes with it's own pan to cook it in... that is pretty cool. The frosting is a powdered mix you have to add butter and water to... and once again mom said it was pretty easy to make.
Faster fast forwarding... Ok so now supper has been eaten and the dishes have been done... tv watching commences... oh and the I really need a piece of chocolate cake and a scoop of ice cream gene kicks in... so me n mom get a piece of the cake and a scoop of ice cream... and once again anticipation abounds.
So I get a nice big bite of cake and just the right amount of ice cream on my spoon...oh how the mouth watering sequence starts...and 3..2..1... oh my it is the best...wait...wait...what??? What is this????  It is the most dry cake I have ever.. I mean...EVER.... eaten.  And the frosting... totally disgusting... I truly wonder if they even tested it before they started manufacturing it. The chocolate taste in the frosting was so artificial tasting, you really want to scrape it off and make your stand by frosting (which in my case most of the time is the canned type, since there is an opened can with spoon impressions in it in my fridge most of the time!!) Oh what am I saying.. throw the cake away and just eat the canned frosting..it would be so much better!
So friends I just wanted to give you a little heads up and save yo'self $3.50 for a small cake. If you only want a slice of cake do yourself a favor, stop by the bakery and buy a slice of cake.. you won't be disappointed like you would be if you made this Perfect Size cake.
Oh and on the new knee front..hopefully I will be back to making videos in the next week or so.. I miss cooking for y'all.
Hope to see you on youtube soon my friends.

Joanie

Here a cookie...there a cookie

Well I needed to make some cookies for my husband to take to work with him in his lunch. But I needed to make them like two days ago. I scoured my cookbooks and my recipe cards for something quick and easy to make. No luck, well there were several that I could have chosen but I probably would have ended up eating all of them before he got home. I have visions of peanut butter cookies dancing in my head. Thank goodness for my friend Dee. She had given me her recipe for droop cookies just a few weeks ago.  Now I am not a fan of drop cookies, no not by a long shot, BUT my Jaybob, that is another story. He absolutely, positively loves a drop cookie. And hey I needed some brownie points (cuz I ran into some guys hitch and scratched my car... yeah another story for another time) and well I am not above bribing my baby!!! So I whipped up a batch of these easy cookies and having never made anything like this before, I will say they were really easy to make. A couple of helpful hints to make the process go more smoothly..
1) Have all of your ingredients measured out and ready to go before you start to cook
2) Have both of your baking sheets lined with waxed paper and ready to go
3) Go.. lol
So if you need some bribery ammo.. here ya go.

What you'll need:

1/2 c. butter
2 c. sugar
1/2 c. milk
4 tbl. cocoa
1/2 c. smooth peanut butter
2 tsp. vanilla
3-3 1/2 c. oats

What you'll do:

Add first 4 ingredients to saucepan (use one large enough that you can add the oats to), over medium heat till all ingredients are combined and butter is melted.
Turn up the heat and bring mixture to a boil and hold for 1 minute.
Remove from heat.
Add peanut butter, stir until it's melted.
Add vanilla.
Mix in the oats (you may need to add more than 3 cups to make it a drop consistency).
Using a spoon (well I used two one to drop and one to assist the drop spoon) drop mixture onto waxed paper.
Let cool and set.

I have no idea how long these will keep.. all I know is they didn't last long enough for Jaybob to take some in his lunch all week.. smh!! Boy loves his cookies!

Enjoy!
Joanie

Today's Adventure.. Ms. Kaye's Pasta Salad

Ms. Kaye's Pasta Salad

So while I have been wanting to do this project for such a long time, being off from work for a bit has been the catalyst that I have been needing.
A little backstory..just to get you caught up...

My husband (aka Jaybob, and no, not his real name) and I moved out of the city in December last year, and into our house in January.  When we lived in the city it was so very easy to go out to eat.  No matter if I had made a menu, shopped for the week, and even laid out the meat for supper.  If after I got home from work and didn't "feel" like cooking...we went out to eat---and this was all of the time!! Now don't get me wrong.. I cook.. well sometimes, if I feel like it, and it's gloomy outside, and it's not a weekend or a Monday or Thursday or.. ok ok I cook every once in a while.  This was especially true while we were remodelling our house.  Any excuse not to fire up that stove!!

Ok so now here we are, at least 30 minutes from a restaurant ( well the small town 20 minutes from us really doesn't have a big choice of places to eat).. and by the time Jaybob gets home from work and we could even get to a restaurant it would be 8pm.. naw.. that is way to late for me to eat. So what did I decide to do?  Hold on to your hats kids,,, Cook... yep you heard right... COOK.  So I started.. I know how to fix a couple of things, not a huge variety (like I like to eat anyway). And that lands us where I am today.. starting a youtube channel, and a blog. Oh wait, cannot forget the facebook page and instagram and... you know the drill.

Why Burnt Toast??? Because I burn stuff all the time.. so much in fact that the alarm company knows that around 5:30 or so if we have a fire alarm,, I am cooking.. true story!! And Adventures in Cooking... well it is always some type of adventure whenever it involves myself or my sweetie Jaybob.. bless his heart.. he just shakes his head at me and grabs hold of my hand and comes along!!

So today on my youtube channel you will find me making Ms. Kaye's Pasta Salad.  It is such a quick and easy summertime salad, you will find yourself making a big batch and taking it with you for lunch.. add some grilled chicken and presto... easy peasy lunch!   Watch the video here:

Here is the recipe..

You'll need:

1 16 oz. box bowtie pasta
1 cup chopped cucumbers
1 cup chopped cherry tomatoes
Italian dressing
I added chopped kalamata olives and garbanzo beans to mine.. soooo yummy!

What you'll need to do:

Cook the pasta according to directions on the box, making sure not to overcook it.
While the pasta is cooking, chop cucumbers, tomatoes and any other vegetable you wish to add.
When pasta is finished, drain and rinse under cold water (stopping the noodles from further cooking and becoming mushy--and no one likes mushy pasta salad!!).  Drain pasta and then dump in a large bowl (I know such technical terms).. add your cut up veggies and pour some of the dressing over the top of mixture.  Mix and add more dressing if you like,, just make it to the consistency that you prefer.  Take a taste and see if you need to add any salt (I never need to since the dressing has all the salt that I need).  Cover and store in the fridge.

So now as I sit here while supper is cooking, I wonder,,, where will my next food adventure take us?