• 23Oct

    The unofficial name of these cookies is “On-My-God-I-Can’t-Believe-How-Good-These Taste-Are-They-Really-Made-From-A-Boxed-Cake-Mix Cookies”.

    I was in a real predicament yesterday. My son’s school is having a bake sale on Saturday to raise money for Aid In Milan, a charity that helps people in need in our city. I was going to bake two loaves of sourdough bread for them, but unfortunately, something nasty got into my starter and infected it. I figured better safe than sorry and threw it all out, but that means I have to get the starter going again from scratch. Without the starter, I couldn’t make the sourdough bread. And worse, we’re out of shortening, butter and margarine (or at least in the quantities needed for baking). So what was I going to do?

    I’ve seen recipes for making brownies out of a cake mix, so I wondered if it was possible to make cookies out of boxed cake mix. As you may have guessed by now, it is possible. :)

    This recipe (below the break) made 50 small cookies, after the obligatory tasting during the baking of them. It could easily be adapted to use with just about any cake mix out there. I’m considering trying it with a spice cake recipe and using pumpkin puree instead of oil, and sending those to my kids’ classes for their Hallowe’en parties. You can find the original recipe at AllHomeMadeCookies.com (it’s Cake Mix Cookie #2).

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  • 22Oct

    Eggs every morning for breakfast tends to get boring rather quickly in our house. I’m always looking for inspiration and ideas to liven things up. This morning, when I was thinking about what I needed to put together my daughter’s lunch, an idea came to me. The kids love waffles. They also love Monte Cristo sandwiches. Why not combine the two?

    I did, and they loved it.

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  • 19Oct




    Welcome to another attempt at Menu Plan Monday. I did make a menu for last week, but just forgot to post it. Naughty me.

    Saturday Breakfast: cereal
    Saturday Lunch: pizza
    Saturday Supper: Tick Tock Oma’s Szekely Goulash, baked potatoes

    Sunday Breakfast: Cowboy Coffee Cake
    Sunday Lunch: self-serve
    Sunday Supper: Death Chili

    Monday Breakfast: Chocolate Waffles
    Monday Lunch: Ari – hot lunch at school, Don – leftover chili, tangerine, fruit gummies, Lisa – pasta and salad
    Monday Supper: spaghetti and meatballs, salad

    Tuesday Breakfast: scrambled eggs & toast
    Tuesday Lunch: Ari – hot lunch; Don – hot lunch at school; Lisa – pasta and salad
    Tuesday Supper: Apple Onion Pork Stew (I’ll post the link once I’ve added it to the blog)

    Wednesday Breakfast: hash browns and scrambled eggs
    Wednesday Lunch: Ari – bagged lunch; Don – bagged lunch; Lisa – sandwich & veggies
    Wednesday Supper: Grilled Cheese & Chicken Waffles (using turkey smoked sausage instead of chicken)

    Thursday Breakfast: scrambled eggs and toast
    Thursday Lunch: Ari – sandwich; Don – hot lunch; Lisa – pasta & salad
    Thursday Supper: french bread pizzas

    Friday Breakfast: cereal
    Friday Lunch: Ari – sandwich; Don – sandwich
    Friday Supper: breakfast for supper

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  • 19Oct

    My kids love waffles of all kinds. Recently, I’ve been making them on a Sunday for breakfast, then slapping the extras between pieces of waxed paper and putting them in the freezer for a quick hot breakfast for the kids.

    I discovered Alton Brown’s recipe for Chocolate Waffles when I was searching for something else (isn’t that always the way things go?). I’ve made then several times now, and my kids just love them. They’ve had them with the standard butter and syrup and with peanut butter, and they prefer them with peanut butter.

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  • 06Oct

    My obsession with baking took over again today, and I just finished baking the Pear and Pecan Bread from the 1997 printing of The Joy of Cooking. The page the recipe is on is splatter with stuff and the spine is broken at that spot because it’s on the same page as the most commonly referred to recipe in that book – banana bread. In fact, that page is in danger of falling out, so I’d better find some tape to repair it soon.

    I made a double batch, and both loaves turned out beautifully. I can hardly wait to hear what Matt and the kids have to say about it!

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