Ding Dong Cake

A cake for Ding Dongs? Well, I mean we are pretty goofy, so one might refer to us as Ding Dongs. But no. This is not a cake just for weirdos. It's a cake fore everyone, that tastes like a Ding Dong. I found this awesome ding dong cake recipe from Just a Pinch Recipe Club.

On the outside it seems like an ordinary chocolatey cake...

But then when you cut into it....

layers of creamy filling!  

Ooooo!  It's the Clark Kent/Superman of cakes.  Able to bound single buildings in a tall leap.  Um...wait.

Never mind.

The filling is made up of the combined goodness of butter, powdered sugar, cream cheese and Cool Whip. Yeah. Sigh. It's pretty awful.  And by awful, I mean awful good.

You will find yourself with an insane amount of cream filling. Go ahead and heap it on the cake.  I thought I had heaped it on, but if you check out the picture above, that bottom layer seems a bit skimpy.

I took the extra filling mixture and blended it with the frosting.  This made the frosting really gooey.  I was  afraid it was going to ooze right on off the cake.  It never did, but I could tell it was really thinking about it. I did yell at it and told it to behaver itself.  So you just might want to try that, for safety's sake.

Even with a thick layer of frosting on the exterior of the cake, I had a hefty amount of leftover frosting. I may or may not have eaten the leftovers smeared on graham crackers.  I have no witnesses to this except the cats.  I've bribed them with kitty treats, so they aren't talking.

Incidentally, this was the cake I was going to make for my bloggy birthday, but then Easter got in the way with all it's Easter Basket goodness.  I made it for when my father-in-law came to visit.  I think he was expecting this cake instead.  Of course he didn't come out and tell me that beforehand, which would have been helpful.  I'm pretty sure this was an OK consolation prize.  He didn't seem to have any trouble eating the ginormous slice my husband plunked down in front of him.


Ding Dong Cake from Just a Pinch Recipe Club
1 box devils food cake mix
8 oz cream cheese softened
3 c powdered sugar
1 stick butter softened
8 oz cool whip
1 tub milk chocolate icing (or dark chocolate like I did if that's your thang)

Prepare and bake cake as directed on box. (2 round cake pans)

Filling: Mix and cream the butter and cream cheese. Add powdered sugar and fold in cool whip.

After cake is completely cooled split layers and spread filling on each layer and stack, do not spread filling all the way to the edge of the cake, the weight of the cake will press it out to the edge once you are finished, this keeps the filling from mixing with the icing. You will be able to put a thick layer of filling between the layers. Don’t be stingy.

If you have any filling left over you can mix it with the icing. Ice entire cake with the chocolate icing. Store cake and it's leftovers in the fridge.

"Fast Food" at Home

I saw this recipe for Warm bean dip over at Life as a Lofthouse back in February. I'd been drooling over it ever since, and hoping I'd get invited to some sort of gathering in which it would be appropriate to bring to share. Alas, no such invitation came.

For Mother's and Father's Day, Mrblocko and I each get to have the meal of our choosing on our respective parenting holidays, no matter how crazy it might seem.  I asked Mrblocko if it would be too weird for us to have this appetizer for dinner, as our main course, on Mother's Day. His reply was, "No, but only if we put shredded chicken in it."

What a stellar idea. So, Mrblocko grilled up two chicken breasts with our burgers on Saturday. I had him use some sort of hickory flavored grill seasoning so the chicken would have a smokey flavor.

Oh man.  This dip was THA. BOMB.  I used homemade taco seasoning, and half the amount of suggested cheese.  The only thing that could have made it better would have been some olives, and maybe a side of guacamole.

I figured olives might be pushing it.  Blockette, in the past, has turned her nose up at refried beans.  I told her it was Mother's Day, so she shouldn't complain about dinner, but that it was sort of like the bean dip she eats with carrots. I even cut up some carrots for her to dip in it.  Her reaction was, "Wow! This dip is soooo good. I love it.  It's like nachos, but even better."  Very high praise in deed.  I even ate the dip with carrots.  I don't know why, but it tasted really good that way.  (Mrblocko, don't knock it 'til you try it.)

If we had gone out to some place like Taco Bell.  I would have ordered something similar to this.  Only this tasted a million times better than anything you can get at Taco Bell.  The ingredients cost me around $8, including carrots, chips and a salad.  Aaaaand, if you notice, we only ate around a third of the dip.

This is why we hardly ever eat out.  Where could you go out to eat and feed three people for $8, with enough leftovers to feed all three of you for a whole other meal?  Plus, did I mention this TASTES better?  Oh, and I got to eat this in my PJ's on the comfort of my couch. Oh, sure, I or my husband, could go out and bring the food back home and then I could eat it on the couch, but it's a good 10-15 min drive to the nearest fast food place. By the time the food would get back home it would be cold.  Cold fast food is disgusting.  I don't know about you, but I'm not into congealed fat.  Doesn't float my boat.

As I'm a dessert obsessed girl, and so is my daughter, we couldn't forget about our after dinner treat.  I wanted to stick with that fast food vibe so I made some slushies/icees like the ones you might find at Sonic.

I had seen this idea for homemade icees over at Real Mom Kitchen.  All you do is stick pop your ice cream maker.  (Yeah, super hard work involved there!) I used Cherry Dr. Pepper for ours.  I was surprised how red the slushy was.  It looks like the normal brown pop color in the 2 liter bottle.  I only made a liter of pop into icees.  We weren't super hungry after dinner, as the bean dip was so filling.  Because I only used half the bottle of pop, the total cost of our slushy was a mere $.50.  I'm guessing what I made would be about the same size as a large icee, and we all know, a large squishy costs more than $.50 at the Kwik E Mart.

Oh sure, I DID have to do dishes. There weren't very many though, and I saved them for the next day.  (I don't do dishes on Mother's Day.)  It probably took me 15 minutes, max.  I think the money I saved more than made up for any output of effort made cleaning up the kitchen.

A Million Times Better Than Taco Bell Bean Dip Nachos adapted from Life as a Lofthouse

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened (I used the low fat kind)

1 cup low fat sour cream

2 cans (16 ounces, each) Or 1 (30oz) can low sodium refried beans (or make your own for even lower sodium)

1 packet taco seasoning (3T homemade salt free taco seasoning)

two cooked and shredded chicken breasts

1 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

1 cups monterey jack cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together cream cheese and sour cream in a large bowl. Mix in refried beans until combined. Stir in taco seasoning. Stir in chicken. Spray a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray. Spread mixture evenly into the bottom of the baking dish. Sprinkle the top with both cheeses. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until cheese in melted and slightly browned. Serve with tortilla chips and carrots.

Homemade Icees from Real Mom Kitchen
4 1/2 cups of chilled soda pop (or more if your ice cream maker is larger than 1 1/2 qt)

Place soda in your 1 1/2 qt ice cream maker and freeze accordingly for 20 minutes. Serve in 4 glasses.

Garden Update

Things have been going wild in the garden.  Here's a picture of the Salvia and Sage competing for who can take over the garden completely.  The bumble and honey bees are loving all the little flowers though. 

Maybe, just maybe, we'll have some strawberries bigger than a pea this year. They usually have green baby strawberries like this around mid July. Grow little berries! And critters stay away!

I planted some purple Irises this fall, and they are already blooming like crazy.  Irises are one of my favorite flowers.  We had some at our old house and I loved them. I don't know why I waited so long to plant some here. It's not like we're been living here six years or anything!

Speaking of our old house...we drove past it this weekend. It was the first time I'd seen it since we moved out. The current owners painted the trim this super ugly ultra bright blue and ripped out the side garden!!! I was so angry. Mrblocko had to remind me that the people who lived there could do that, because it was THEIR house and THEIR garden. I told Mrblocko I could be angry if I wanted cause the current owners were dumb, and that side garden with the flagstone walk way was awesome. Why don't people know beautiousness when they see it?!

Ok, Rant off.

Back to the garden for the house that we actually live in right now.

For Mother's Day I told Mrblocko I wanted a raised garden.  I found this little 4x4 foot kit at Home Depot that seemed easy enough to assemble.  It was designed for non handy folks like us I think. 

I wanted to get the dirt at Menards because I thought it would be cheaper, plus I had this $10 rebate card, and we had a bag of cement to return that we wound up not needing for the fence.  Dirt wound up being on sale!  AWESOME!

Blockette's school had a plant fundraiser and the plants arrived on Thurs.  From her school I bought 3 different tomato plants (Roma, better boy, and grape), and 2 pepper plants (Sweet and bell).  I knew that those 5 plants probably wouldn't fill up the tiny garden, so I thought we would look at Menards, since we were there already, just to see what they had.  Their plants were on sale too!  They had packages of  6 plants 2/$3.  That's a great deal around here for plants.  If you buy them from the greenhouse, they usually run about $3 a piece!

So I went a bit hog wild and got a pack of cauliflower, kohlrabi, and broccoli. 

The plant packages didn't say how big they were going to be, so I planted 3 kohrabi, 3 cauliflower and 6 broccoli in my little garden.  I'm hoping I didn't plant them too close. 

I decided, instead of just chucking the remaining kohrabi and cauliflower plants, to plant them in my side garden.  The side garden only gets about 3 hours of sun a day, so we will see if that is enough for these little guys. 

Hopefully, the neighbors won't mind the garden.  We put it in the front yard. I'm hoping it won't look too tacky.  Our back yard is full shade, all day so there was no hope for any kind of veggie garden thriving back there.  The spot where we planted the raised bed gets morning shade, but sun the rest of the day.  Hopefully that won't be too much sun.

If this garden does well, we will buy another raised garden kit this fall or spring. The kits can be combined to configure the raised bed in whatever dimensions you want.  The plan is to just make the existing bed longer.  We have enough room in the front on the side to make the garden 4 feet wide by 12 feet long.  I figured it would be best to start out small so I don't get overwhelmed.

Oh, we also planted a blonde raspberry bush sort of near the fence.  This area gets enough sun for lilies to grow, but we will see if it is enough for a raspberry bush.  I don't even know if the darn thing will grow or not. It was in the plant section of Mejiers marked half off.  The "bush" is essentially two sticks poking up out of the ground.  I'm not holding out much hope for them. 

The directions on the package said to plant them as soon as it starts to get warm.  On a normal year, now would be the perfect time to plant, but with our crazy weather, the bushes should have been planted in March.  I guess that's why they were so inexpensive.  IF they do somehow grow, it will be about two years before the bushes will bear fruit.

Wish me luck!

Rainbow Headband

I've had this rainbow head band from fabric scraps from Sugar Bee Crafts as a work in progress for almost two months.  

Which, if you think about it, is pretty ridiculous.  

The headband is only a series of skinny strips of fabric made into little tiny braids that get attached to two hair binders.  So simple and no need for such crazy procrastination!

Here's what it looks like on.  Blockette was nice enough to take a picture of me.  

Please ignore my dirty grungy hair.  I'm just tryin' to keep it real here.  

The headband is really wide and great for keeping back different layers, say if you were growing out your bangs, which I'm not.  My bangs are as long as the rest of my mangy hair.  

But if I was, It would be super useful.

I think the headband looks much cuter on Blockette

 

Although, the headband is a bit too big for her.  

 We solved that problem by twisting the braids around each other.  

There you have it, two great ways to wear one fun headband.   Yay headbands!

Happy Mother's Day!

For everyone who is and has a mom!



Because I said so!

French Onion Soup Burger

I found this recipe for Campbell's French Onion Soup Burgers in some magazine I got for free in the mail.  When Mrblocko saw the torn page on the counter I think he inhaled 99% of the air in the room. 

"When are you gonna make that?!!!  That looks awesome."

Heh.

See, I don't think he read the recipe.  In fact I know he didn't.  He thought the condensed French Onion Soup went inside the burger. Nope.  You sear the burgers and then sort of saute them in the undiluted soup.

The burger was about as anti-climatic as this picture is.

Mark this recipe down as another one where I have set my expectations too high.

I think my main problem with these burgers was that there was no actual onion flavor in the burgers.  The only way to get any onion flavors was to keep dipping the burger in the sauce. Which is what we did.

The other problem I had with this burger was that it used canned soup. Yeah yeah yeah.  I know.  Duh. Duh. Double Duh. This should be a no brainer, but acting like I have no brains is my specialty so go figure. 

I keep forgetting how much of a processed funky aftertaste canned soup has.  I use it so rarely. When I do, it's usually mixed into a casserole where the other ingredients mask that weird chemical flavor.  (If you have a lot of processed or canned foods in your diet, this won't be an issue for you.  I never noticed the odd aftertaste until I stopped eating them for a few months.)  This recipe has two ingredients, soup and meat; so there is nowhere for the processed taste to hide.


Cambell's French Onion Soup Burgers from Cambell's Kitchen
1 pound ground beef
1 can (10 1/2 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed French Onion Soup
4 slices cheese (I used swiss)
4 hamburger buns

Shape the beef into 4 (1/2-inch-thick) burgers. Heat a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the burgers and cook until well browned on both sides. Remove the burgers from the skillet. Pour off any fat.

Stir the soup in the skillet and heat to a boil. Return the burgers to the skillet. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until the burgers are cooked through. Top the burgers with the cheese and cook until the cheese is melted. Serve the burgers on the buns with the soup mixture for dipping.

Thankful Thurs #19

1. Blockette is a really good kid.

2. Her wipe out was pretty minor as far as wipe outs go.

3. Her boo boos are healing nicely.

4. She scored two goals at her soccer game.

5. Super moon viewing.

6. The glass jar of taco seasoning that fell almost behind the fridge didn't crack or break. (Neither did the non plastic plate, bowl and cup I dropped right after that.)

7. The swing set.

8. The free concert from Blockette every time she goes on her swings.

9. The fence.

10. Blockette's creativity.  Blockette has to write sentences of her spelling words.  One of this week's words is "flawless."  She wrote the following sentence "Candace is a Flawless Girl." I think you kind of have to watch the cartoon Phineas and Ferb to get the humor. Here's a clip from the show to give you an idea what "Flawless Girl" is.