Just one more...

I love Cooking Light magazine and made this cake for my friend Megan's baby shower a couple of years ago. It was so easy and so good! I had to make Karl one this last weekend for when I was gone at Christmas and I was surprised there was any left when I got back! I've never actually made the Mocha Cream frosting that goes on it... I ran out of time at the shower and just put cool whip on it and it was great although I'm sure the Mocha Cream is wonderful!

One Bowl Chocolate Mocha Cream Cake
(Cooking Light magazine, January 2006)
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=printerFriendly&recipe_id=1141976

Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour (about 9 ounces)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup hot strong brewed coffee
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
Cooking spray

Mocha Cream:
1/4 cup boiling water
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
1 (7-ounce) jar marshmallow creme
1 (8-ounce) container frozen light whipped topping, thawed
1/3 cup light chocolate syrup (such as Hershey's Lite Syrup)

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare cake, lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 6 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl. Add mayonnaise and oil; beat with a mixer at low speed until well blended. Slowly add brewed coffee and vanilla; beat with a mixer at low speed 1 minute or until well blended. Stir in chocolate; pour batter into a 13 x 9-inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

To prepare mocha cream, combine water and coffee granules in a large bowl; stir until granules dissolve. Add marshmallow creme; beat with a mixer at low speed until smooth. Fold in whipped topping. Spread mocha cream over top of cake; drizzle with chocolate syrup. Chill until ready to serve.

Yield: 16 servingsCALORIES 315 (23% from fat); FAT 8.1g (sat 3.2g,mono 2.6g,poly 1.9g); PROTEIN 2.6g; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 46mg; SODIUM 390mg; FIBER 1.8g; IRON 1.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 60g

Speaking of Recipes...

My Aunt Sherrie made this a few Christmases ago and it's been at every Christmas since! I make it for potlucks at work and get-togethers with my girlfriends and it usually gets rave reviews and people ask for the recipe!

Creamy Whipped Brie with Mer's Cranberry Salsa
(Seattle Times, 12/18/02, Salsa recipe from Merrilee Wong)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=134597540&slug=brie18&date=20021218

Salsa:
2 cups fresh cranberries
3 medium green onions, finely chopped
1 small red (or green) jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced (I recommend using gloves or plastic bags over your hands when chopping the jalapeno. The first time I made it, it stayed on my hands for days and that's not the best thing when you wear contacts!!)
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
1½ tablespoons lemon juice
1½ tablespoons peeled and finely minced fresh gingerroot

Whipped brie:
¾ pound brie cheese, room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Crackers

1. To prepare the salsa: Pulse the cranberries in a food processor until very finely chopped. Transfer to a bowl.
2. Stir in the green onions, jalapeño, sugar, salt, cilantro, lemon juice and ginger (I just put all this in the food processor after doing the cranberries and I process it all together. It ends up looking like a runny pesto. To save time you can use the jarred ginger.). Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours. Stir occasionally.
3. To prepare the whipped brie: Remove the rind from the brie and put the cheese into a food processor with the cream cheese, pepper and lemon zest. Process until very smooth. Transfer to a serving bowl. Cover and refrigerate. (This can be made 24 hours in advance.) Bring to room temperature 1 hour before serving. Serve with crackers and the salsa on the side.

I made a pie!

I took a pie recipe with me and I think it turned out pretty well for my first pie attempt:

It's a recipe Mrs. Bunn used last Thanksgiving and I have been wanting to try it ever since. It even got the Karl stamp of approval.

Here is the recipe if anyone is interested. It's cranberries, but it's not too tart or too sweet... very refreshing and so yummy and something different than the usual pumpkin/pecan/apple. It is out of a cookbook but I don't have the name of it.

Cranberry Orange Pie

3 1/2 cups fresh cranberries (about 1 pkg.)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, preferably unbleached
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoons minced or grated orange zest
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 egg, lightly beaten, with 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream for glazing
Granulated sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 450

Combine first seven ingredients in large bowl and pour into cooled pie shell (I cheated and used the pillsbury pie crusts, just make sure you grease the pie dish). Cut the remaining pastry circle (rolled to 1/16" thick) into strips, 1/2" wide. Moisten the edges of the pie shell with the beaten egg and criss-cross the dough strips to form a lattice design over the cranberries. Press the edges of the top and bottom crusts together; pinch off any excess dough and smooth the edges with your fingers. Brush the top of the pastry with egg glaze and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 10 minutes then reduce heat to 350 and bake until the crust is golden brown and the juices are bubbly, about 45 minutes longer.

Makes one 9" pie; serves 6-8

Christmas 2007!

I went up to Hood Canal to visit with some of my family which was fun, I don't get up there as much as I'd like to so it was good to see everyone. And it snowed on Christmas day and stuck a little bit which was perfect. There are no small children in the family at the moment so I was wishing there were some kids running around. It would have been so fun to see their excitement about Christmas and the snow. Maybe Karl and I will have to think about solving that issue soon :o)

Here's a picture of the house in the snow. It was snowing at that moment but you can't really tell.

Starve a Fever, Send Flowers to a Cold

I was sick a couple of weeks ago and felt miserable but really had to go in to work. So just before lunch time the receptionist tells me to come up front and this is what was there:

Karl had delivered some flowers to cheer me up! Boys are so sweet sometimes!

Rule No. 1 - Do not disturb the gamer!

Karl got this "Do Not Disturb" sign (in one of his gaming magazines I think) so he attached it to the back of his head the next time he was playing. Boys are so silly sometimes!

Most Boring Blog Ever!

Sorry Leah N., I know you like the updates :o) I'm actually procrastinating right now because I'm trying to write up our Christmas letter and I don't feel like anything that interesting has happened this year (hence no blog posts since April). Way back in March I had the idea to write down a few things every month so that when it came time to do this I'd remember things to share with our friends and family, but I never did it, I thought for sure I'd remember. I'll be starting that list in January!

Thanksgiving was good. My mom and Michael came down to Oregon and we went out to Lincoln City. They were celebrating their anniversary that weekend as well. The weather was gorgeous and we had a good time but it was a little odd doing something different on a holiday. The hotel restaurant was serving Thanksgiving dinner but none of us thought it looked that good, so now I've been craving it ever since. That's too big of a meal to cook for the two of us so I'm thinking we'll have to go to Marie Callendar's soon so I can get my Thanksgiving "fix". Here are a few pictures from the coast: