Crazy Cake Recipe

What kind of cake uses no eggs,vinegar and is made in the pan it's baked in?  Why, it's a crazy cake.

As a little girl I used to help my mom make this cake. It isn't overly sweet, very moist and continues to be a favorite.

Crazy Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Get 13x9 pan. Do not grease.

Some of the ingredients including the secret ingredient, vinegar

Sift together:

3 cups flour

2 tsp soda

2 cups sugar

1 tsp salt

1/3 cup cocoa

Add:

3/4 cup salad oil

2 tsp vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups water

Blend with a fork. Do not beat.

Bake 45-40 minutes

Dump everything into one pan (I didn't sift but should have according to the recipe)

Mix completely with a fork

Bake and enjoy

Chocolate-Orange Silk Mousse Recipe

One of my favorite cookbooks is The Essential Eating Well Cookbook. I'm always finding tasty recipes to try out for dinner.  Back in the dessert section is a page buckled from water and other things dropped on it for a Chocolate-Orange Silk Mousse.  This is wonderful and lower in calories than your typical mousse.

1 12.3 oz pkg of reduced-fat silken tofu (1.5 cups)
3 oz good quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened) finely chopped
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup boiling water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp freshly grated orange zest
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
2/3 cup chocolate wafer crumbs

1. Puree tofu in a food processor (I use my blender), scraping down the sides, until completely smooth
2. Combine chocolate and cocoa in a medium bowl. Add boiling water and stir with a wooden spoon until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Stir in vanilla and orange zest. Mix in confectioners' sugar, a little at a time, until smooth. Add the chocolate mixture to the processor; puree until smooth and well blended, scraping down the sides as needed.
3. Spool some crumbs into bottom of 5 parfait glasses. Add 1/4 cup of mousse, then layer with crumbs, more mousse and more crumbs. (I actually skip the crumbs all together and just spoon in the mousse.)
4. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Makes 5 servings, 1/2 cup each. 266 calories

Happy Running (and eating)!

Cleaning My Running Bottles

Although I've occasionally run my yellow running Amphipod bottles through the dishwasher, they developed a thin layer of gray muck which I can only assume is mold. I used to only put water  in my water bottles but lately I love the Nuun tablets and adding the sugar mixture to my bottles then letting them sit closed for a week is creating a micro-organism environment.   Not sure what type of bad things I'm growing or what comes from that but I figured it's time to really clean them.

After a quick search on the web and turning down the option of using some bleach in the bottles (seriously?  I'm going to drink out of it again and don't trust my rinsing abilities) I opted for the solution to use lentils or dry rice, baking soda, hot water and dish soap.  In each bottle I put 2 tsp of lentils, 1/2 tsp of baking soda and filled it half full with hot, almost boiling, water and a drop of dishsoap and secured the lid.  Then shake away.  If you haven't secured the lid tight enough or left the top open, air and bubbles escape.  I recommend working over a kitchen sink. After shaking for a bit I opened up the top to release the built up air and shot water and soap across the kitchen.  After you've shaken the bottles to your hearts desire.  Rinse thoroughly.

The gray layer inside the bottle is gone and they smell cleaner.  I do still have tiny grey spots in the tops and think I'll go soak those in baking soda, hot water and soap solution from the water bottles.

Recipe for cleaning running bottles. For each 8oz running bottle (I use the yellow Ampipod brand) add:
2 tsp lentils or dry rice
1/2 - 1 tsp of baking soda
Hot Water- fill bottle 1/2 way
Drop of dish soap

Cover and Shake, Shake, Shake your bootie.
Put your caps into a bowl. Empty the cleaning solution from the bottles into the bowl with the caps and let soak.
Rinse well

Happy Running!

Homemade Pesto

Wanting to see how green my thumb was, I planted a tomato plant along with basil, cantaloupe and zucchini all from seeds this year. Last year I tried unsuccessfully to plant chives and a couple other herbs but forgetting to water left empty dirt where the seeds were planted. This year I was more diligent with watering and was ecstatic when green sprouts poked up through the dirt.

So far my experiment is going well and last night I made fresh, homemade pesto.  The recipe I found on the web called for basil leaves, olive oil, garlic, Parmesan cheese and pine nuts.  

Can you tell I shop frequently at Costco?

 Put it all in the blender and blend away.

Pesto ravoli with White Merlot in my new Ragnar wine glass.

Thanks to Simply Recipes for the great recipe.  

Fresh Basil Pesto Recipe

• Prep time: 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
• 3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

METHOD

1 Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.

2 Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Serve with pasta, or over baked potatoes, or spread over toasted baguette slices.

Yield: Makes 1 cup.

Shrimp and Grits and Green Tomato Gravy

Do you hear that southern twang in the title? Can you believe that I, a non-southern belle, made a dish from the South?  Recently I took a vacation with girlfriends in Charleston, South Carolina and every night John asked me if I was going to come back and make him shrimp and grits with green tomato gravy.   Considering I don't eat shrimp and I only tolerate grits to be nice, the answer has always been NO.
Not, I'll think about it
Not maybe tomorrow
But NO

He finally wore me down and when we had company (who only eats hamburgers and no veggies at all) I decided to make the recipe and earn good girlfriend points. Scouring the internet for green tomato gravy was challenging. There's lots of tomato sauce or salsa recipes or fried green tomato but green tomato gravy wasn't easy to come by. Finally I found from  cdkitchen a recipe

Green Tomato Gravy
2 baseball size green tomatoes - coarsely chopped
1/4 cup garlic, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 tablespoons butter
2 cups of chicken broth
Emeril's Essence - to taste
sugar- to taste
cornstarch mixed with a little broth - to thicken

Directions:
Saute onion in 1 tbsp butter until soft. Add garlic and 1 tbsp of butter and saute 1 min. Add tomatoes and remaining butter and saute about 3 minutes. Add all ingredients except for cornstarch mixture and simmer until soft, but not mushy. Add cornstarch to thicken.

Notice the first ingredient in the list...green tomato.  When I go to the grocery store I have only ever seen red tomato's. I have never once seen green tomato's so I turned to two gardening women at work. The first lady told me I meant tomatillo's, that those were green. No, I assured her I mean green tomatoes. The second lady had unripe tomato's on her plant and brought me two.

The next challenge was the shrimp for which I headed to Costco. In the frozen section was a gigantic bag of shrimp, which wouldn't work. A special event had prawns sitting on ice and I eyeballed them skeptically. Are they devined?  How do you take off the shells?  The lady showed me and I told her I would buy them if she gave me a pair of gloves too.  Truly disgusted with my purchase, I headed out with 8 prawns sitting in ice in a plastic bag.

With knife in hand and two green tomatoes on a cutting board John asked me what I was doing.  What am I doing? What have you been nagging for? Prepare to be impressed I replied and showed him the shelled shrimp where earlier in the day I had squimishly pulled the shells with the little legs off and took the garbage straight outside.

I managed to cook the meal AND the shrimp successfully and when John said it was good, I knew that I had earned DOUBLE good girlfriend points and I should NEVER have to cook again (hopeful wishing).

Fall Harvest Muffins Recipe

I really enjoy turning on the oven and baking cookies, muffins, breads and then licking the bowl, of course.  A friend gave me this recipe and these muffins have apples, carrots, dried cranberrries and nuts all baked into yummy, healthy goodness. I changed the recipe making them healthier and made notation of what I changed.  These are great for breakfast or post snack run too and since it makes 18 you don't have to worry about muffin math and "someone" eating all the muffins. They supposedly freeze great too...if they last that long.

Fall Harvest Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I substituted whole wheat flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup uncooked quick OR old fashioned oatmeal
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2  teaspoon salt
• 2 medium (2 cups) applies, peeled, cored, cut into 1/2 inch squares (I used 2 apples and with my food chopper chopped the heck out of these and didn't measure)
• 3 medium (1 1/2 cups) carrots, grated (could also substitute zucchini but I didn't try this)
• 3/4 cup dried cherries,coarsely  chopped (I used dried cranberries, Craisens, instead.)
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 Applesauce
• 1/2 cup melted butter ( 1 substituted applesauce for the butter making a total of 1 cup applesauce)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Heat over to 350 degrees.  Place paper baking cups into 18 muffin pan cups or spray with no-stick cooking spray.

Combine flour, sugar, oatmeal, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in large bowl.  Add apples, carrots, dried cherries and nuts; stir until well mixed.

Beat eggs in medium bowl with wire whisk. Stir in melted butter, applesauce adn vanilla.  Add egg mixture to flour mixture; stir until just moistened.

Evenly divide batter among muffin cups. Bake for 18 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 min; remove to cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe for Decadent French Toast

This has absolutely nothing to do with running and isn't even remotely healthy. It's a recipe for decadent french toast that's prepared the night before and baked in the morning. The caramel on the french toast and the strawberry creme cheese make this a very yummy breakfast. It takes 45 minutes to bake so while its in the oven, go out for a run and pre-burn some of the calories you'll be consuming.

18 slices of regular white bread or 12 slices of Texas toast

1 small container strawberry cream cheese

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 tbsp corn syrup

6 eggs

2 cups milk

2tsp vanilla

Strawberries

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 tbsp sugar

Whipped Cream

The night before: Spread a thin layer of cream cheese between layers of bread (3 if regular, 2 if Texas toast). Set aside. On low-medium heat combine brown sugar, butter and corn syrup. Stir often, until mixture comes together and begins to bubble. Immediately pour into a Pam sprayed 9x13pan and spread with a wooden spoon to ensure even coverage. Set sandwiches on top, side by side, filling the 9x13pan.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs, add milk and vanilla, mixing well after each addition. Pour egg mixture over top making sure there are no dry spots especially corners. Cover with plastic and place in fridge overnight.

In the morning: Wake up cheery with a smile and give your loved one a cup of tea or coffee. Preheat oven to 350. Bake for 45 minutes or until tops are toasted but not burned. Slice Strawberries, add lemon juice and sugar and stir until coated. Remove 9x13 pan from oven and cut outline of sandwiches with a knife so they are easy to remove. Immediately invert each sandwich back into its own plate so the caramel is on the top...yes, the top is on the bottom. This must be done quickly as the caramel will stick to the pan as it cools. Add strawberries, whipped cream and enjoy.