Lazy day

Today is laundry day. And baking day....surprizingly. I was nuking my breakfast (the patty) hamburger, when I spotted this green paper tucked in with a bunch of perscription receipts next to the micro. So I pulled it out and then I remembered this recipe I found in a library book years ago, and I've been dragging it around ever since. It wasn't even a cook book. It was being used as a marker in a murder mystery. So I decided to make it. Either keep the recipe or throw it away. Well it's a keeper. The recipe was written on a page of someone's day timer.

Lazy Daisy Cake

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 pinch of salt

2 tbsp butter

1/2 c milk

Beat eggs till light and fluffy, add sugar beat well. Bring butter & milk to a boil. Add sifted flour salt and baking powder to egg mixture. Mix well. Then add boiled milk and butter to egg & flour mixture. Mix well. Pour into 8X8 pan (i used 6x12) bake at 350 till lightly browned and springs back about 20-25 min.

Topping

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c flaked coconut

1/2 c chopped nuts

3 tbsp butter

2 tbsp whip cream

Melt butter, add brown sugar and cream. Let bubble a few minutes. Then add coconut and nuts to cooked mixture, spread on warm cake. Put on broil. Stand there and watch it till it bubbles up all over and turns a golden brown.

yummmm and so fast, really a no brainer. As with all recipes I didn't exactly follow to the letter, and it still turned out excellent. For starters I didn't feel like getting the mixer down from the cupboard, to much work. Then I couldn't find my hand mixer. Found the beaters, and the cord, but not the machine. So I just dumped the sugar and egg into the food processor attachment that came with my plunge blender and just whipped it up into a sludge. Didn't have any coconut, but I did have a hunk of creamed coconut. So I grated that up into the batter. I copied the recipe exactly as I found it on the paper. So the next time I feel the need for a piece of cake, I will definately use this again.

Last night my hasband decided that he needed some prawns for dinner. Last week I bought a huge supply of them for family and friends from the wholesaler. I do this once a year in February. It just happened that my freezer is somewhat empty so that's a good thing. Because it's full of prawns and mussels right now. And the freezer is in the garage. Last friday I brought the load home and managed to get it all in the freezer. That night my husband went to work and didn't close the garage door (it faces out towards the alley) and it's a lucky thing the light bulb was out that's attached to the door opener. Because the garage was open for the whole weekend. My neighbour knocked on my door at around 8 pm on sunday night and let me know. Meanwhile we were parking on the street for some reason all weekend. So in a panic I ran out and envisioned all my tools - gone, all my gardening equipment - gone. And most of all the hundreds of dollars of prawns in the freezer-gone. But everything was happily where it should have been. I gotta say I live in a great neighbourhood. No one comes around here except the people that live here. NOt like the last place that's for sure. The last place I never had to take my empties to the recycler myself because I would just leave it outside by the dumpster and by the time I brought the other bag down, the first one dissapeared.

Usually when I grill prawns I just marinate them in some bottle of italian salad dressing that I've doctored up. But didn't have any yesterday so I had to actually think of a marinade. So I remember copying the recipes over to my program (I copy all the recipes from most cook books into mastercook) from barefoot contessa's bunch of books that I picked up at the library.

And they turned out lip smacking. Although I used my George Foreman Grill, not a barbeque grill (haven't used the barbeque in the year since I bought my foreman grill)

Grilled Herb Shrimp

3 cloves garlic crushed

1 small onion small dice

1/4 c minced parsley

1/4 c minced basil

1 tsp dry mustard

2 tsp dijon mustard

2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 c olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

2 lbs shrimp

Well as usual I had to improvise.

I didn't have any parsley or basil. But I did have some pesto, so I added about 1/2 tsp (mine is really thick) and used only 1/2 an onion. I only have 1/2 a lemon, so I also used the lemon peel with the rasp. I gotta say though use a sieve when reaming the lemon. My little ity bitty 1/2 lemon had a surprising amount of seeds. And since I used the pesto, I should have only maybe used 1 garlic clove. And I added a splash of balsamic vinegar. I only had about 5 tiger prawns (not a big fan) and It's a good thing, because I was really suffering from the garlic. My husband was breathing all over me all night. Not a pleasant sleep.Next time I'll marinate them overnight in this mix. They probably would have been even better if allowed to absorb more of the flavour. They cooked really fast, about 3 minutes. So make sure everything else is ready to serve. I just made some spagetti and ceasar salad. It was a very garlic evening.

The butter chicken I made last sunday, well I was taking it to work for lunch on monday, tuesday and wednesday. By wednesday it was tamed right down and especially good. I made kraft dinner with it on sunday and when I stored it in the fridge I just dumped the whole chicken mess on top of the macaroni and put it away. The next day the macaroni absorbed all the liquid and then I just sliced of 1/3 and put it into a sandwich container to nuke at work. That was a really good recipe.

Empty Nester

Well I'm an empty nester again. She's gone to Vancouver. She left on the worst possible day, so much snow. On the other side of the mountains it apparently stopped snowing and was fine, but I still called her every 1/2 hour or so. Single girl driving alone , not familiar with the roads, I was nuts until she got there. I'm surprised she made it in one piece, really I am. I was expecting her to call for help half way. I even ran to the bank and put some money in her account just in case.

But on the other front...

I have two baby quilts to make by easter, I've been madly organizing. I've got one for sure that's a girl, the other is still a mystery. I've made quilt tops over the years, and never quilted them, so I have a few I could choose from. I ventured into a quilt fabric store yesterday, woooow. The prices sure have gone up and the selection is amazing. I had to replace a foot off my machine (don't know what happened to it) one day I was hemming a skirt and the next week I was sewing a blouse and "where is the regular foot?" I muddled along with a less than ideal foot but I had to replace it eventually because it was just a pain in the neck. Considering the foot was the thin hemmer one, the blouse turned out quit good. Anyho I had to wait for a perscription at the local "stupid store" so I wandered over to the magazine section, (first mistake) and picked up a quilting one. So I came home and dug out all my bins of fabric, and all my bins of mag's and books. So that's when I decided that I had to replace the foot.

Since the spare room is vacated now, I decided that it would make an ideal sewing room so I spent a few hours moving beds out and sewing tables , machines, ironing boards etc inc. It's going to be nice to have an ironing board upstairs. I really hated trudging down to iron in the morning, I usually just pick something else instead. Lazy Lazy.

I made this one about 5 yrs ago, when I was bored in my store. I always thought it would make a good baby quilt, but never gave it to anyone. Although a few babies have been born since.

I quess I just wanted to keep it around.

This one was made about a month after the hearts. Again, bored.

also I have a Yorkie/maltese which looks alot like this little guy before she gets to the groomer.

And I rather enjoy making scrap quilts.

and then about 12 years ago I made this one.

But it's more a single bed size rather than a crib size. It started out as a wall hanging and I just got carried away and eventually stopped when it became bed size. But again I never finished it, just pieced it. That's the only part I enjoy. And the shopping for fabric part.

So I'm all set. I just have to quilt the darn things now. I really hate the actual quilting of them. I made a few actually quilting "by hand", even went so far as making my own stand and all. Bending over them for months and months at a time. Never again. Now it's machine quilting or nothing, But I hate it, so much work. so much puckering, and ripping out, and doing over. Ugh. Not something I look forward to.

I've got a double shower planned for easter, maybe they'll just get a picture of the quilts. My son is planning on being here for easter, and my extended family will all be here, so I figured it's a good time to have a shower, even though it's a little early. Both are due end of june beginning of july. I figure One will be late and the other will be early. Just my luck Because they live about 500 miles away from each other. And Me, I'll be here, there or somewhere in between.

It's been decided that I pay for the cribs, HAVE YOU SEEN THE PRICE OF THESE? It's kind of cute listening to the two of them (brother and sister) discussing the merits of this or that crib. I quess they're kind of lucky that they are both so close on due dates with each other. How often does that happen between siblings.

The youngest one probably feels left out, that's probably why she left town. Although she said she was up for some sort of adventure. Making up with an old boyfriend and moving in. I've been missing a few things since she left. Like all my pasta. She took the whole basket. I couldn't believe it. It's as though there are no stores in Vancouver. A few of my cook books have disappeared. She even took her sword, so I figure she'll be awhile. A few years ago she bought dishes and a set of pots and pans, and lots of towel etc., but they haven't been used. So I think she's looking forward to using all her stuff, finally. She figures her boyfriend probably hasn't got anything other than a can opener and a microwave. Guys!

I made the butter chicken again today, I'm obsessed with this recipe. Trying to cool the spice down a bit. It was better today, last time I couldn't eat it, spiccccccy.

I'm hoping it'll be better tommorrow for lunch.

I finally bought some garam masala, instead of improvising. But it's still hot. I left out the chipolte chili this time. Didn't help. Maybe next time I'll tone the curry paste down.

My husband liked it, even though curry is a bad word to him. So that's something.

I gotta go and refill my wine glass.