Cupcakes!!

Every month, we have a birthday celebration at work.  This month (Feb) I volunteered to do the baking.  I decided on cupcakes (each is a serving!  they're cute!  and they can be eaten without knives, plates, or forks, which means less waste and dishes!) so on Friday, I fiddled around with an idea for rainbow-themed cupcakes.  I quickly realized that I couldn't fit 6 colours in one cupcake, so I settled on three: red, yellow, and blue.  I used a vanilla cupcake recipe that I love, added the food colouring, and baked them - they came out perfect!  I piped on some from-scratch chocolate frosting, added some sprinkles, and viola! Beautiful :)

After eating a few, though, I realized a few things: the colours didn't come out as bright as I had hoped.  And in mixing in the colouring, I deflated the batter, so the resulting cupcakes were quite dense.  And the chocolate frosting was nearly overpowered by the taste of the brown sugar I used.  So, back to the drawing board.  I'm glad I did a test run, but now I had to try a new recipe Tuesday night, when it counted, and this was what I had been trying to avoid with the original test run.  Oh well, nothing to do for it now!

On Monday, I read Rhonda's blog post in which she introduces the "the best moist chocolate cake recipe" she has ever tried with the following sentence: "Just so you're well aware that it's not all angels, love hearts and sweetness in my kitchen, here (below) is the beginning of the ugliest cake I've ever made."  Immediately, I was hooked!  She provided a link to the recipe, and I decided to give it a go (especially as the recipe's author had conveniently included cupcake directions too).  Jordan and I ate dinner as the cupcakes cooled, and just before bed, I iced them with a simple buttercream frosting (recipe below) and broke out the same fun sprinkles.  I tried piping the icing at first, but quickly realized that it was much too stiff (as it burst through the sides of the bag!) so I switched to simply spreading the icing with a knife.

They turned out fabulous!!  Definitely very moist, and the coffee added just a subtle flavour.  I'll definitely be making these again, though maybe not for little kids :)

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Frosts about 24 cupcakes - maybe a few more :)

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
6-8 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
1. In an electric mixing bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, or a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the butter for a few minutes until smooth and creamy.
2. Add 4c of the sugar, all the milk, and the vanilla and mix on low speed until combined.
3. Add another 2c of sugar and mix on low speed until light and fluffy.  Add remaining sugar if needed to reach desired consistency.

Store in an airtight container out of the sun or in the fridge.  It sets very quickly, so add additional decorations promptly.

Tip: to avoid filling the air with powdered sugar, place a clean tea towel over the mixing bowl.

Cookies!

Hi everyone :)

Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been enjoying some extended time off from work by being uncharacteristically lazy.

Here's what we have accomplished since I last posted:

- We measured a possible yard site for the chickens, as the current coop is unsalvageable (and unsanitary!)  Based on our calculations, we can have 36 chickens in 4 runs, or 32 chickens in 6, if we do a permanent, year-round coop with rotating runs.  Next step: plan the coop.

- We measured the 'dip' in the yard for a potential garden: 30m by 55m, which works out to about 0.4 acres.  I thought it was bigger than that!  No biggie though.  New we'll just watch in the spring and see if that area drains well enough to feasibly put in a garden.

- I rotated the bins for the worms (yes, we have worms, for vermicomposting, they work quite well although on a very small scale).  Luckily, they're nearly indestructible - feed them, ignore them for 3 weeks, come back and feed them again.  My kind of pet :)

- I did more baking - three batches of cookies!  At my work, we do a cookie swap for Christmas (instead of trying to purchase little trinkets for each other), so I did 2 dozen for my coworkers in my department, with loooooooooots left over to give to others, and for us to eat!  In my opinion, these are the best oatmeal cookies ever - I usually make them with cranberries for the fruit and white chocolate chips for myself and for others, and with just semi-sweet chocolate chips for Jordan.  The recipe is below.

- We also have Doodle for an extended playdate right now!  He and Zim are having a blast running around outside, wrestling over the toys, and chasing each other through the house.

Zim and Doodle, wrestling in the snow

Other than that, it's been a quiet Christmas.  As it was just us two here, and we're not terribly big in to Christmas, we've just been hanging out and being lazy.  Jordan has had the sled out a few times, and we let the cats go outside Christmas day - something that they've been asking for for a while.  Mander was happy to sit in the snow for about 10 minutes, but Moly was thoroughly unimpressed and wanted to go back inside after just a minute.

Clockwise from top left: Jordan on the sled - that black blur right behind him is Zim; The kids curled up on the bed after we rearranged the bedroom so we could turn on the electric heat; Measuring the garden site; Mander quite happy in the snow; Molly wants in!  She's growling by this point; Zim is perfectly fine outside, of course.

Anyway as promised, the recipe:

Awesome Oatmeal Cookies!

Ingredients:

1 1⁄2 c flour 

1 tsp baking soda 

1⁄2 tsp salt 

1⁄2 tsp cinnamon 

2 1⁄2 c old fashioned oats 

1 c unsalted butter, lightly softened 

1 c light brown sugar, packed 

1⁄2 c granulated sugar 

2 lg eggs 

1 Tbsp honey 

2 tsp pure vanilla extract 

1 1⁄3 c dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, blueberries, apples, etc.) (optional)

1 c chocolate chips (white or semi-sweet) (optional)

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

2. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper (or use non-stick cookie sheets). 

3. In medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and oats. Set aside. 

4. With an electric mixer, beat the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. 

5. Beat eggs in to the sugar mixture one at a time. 

6. Add honey and vanilla to the sugar mixture and beat until blended. 

7. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture in two batches, beating each time until well combined. 

8. Stir in the cranberries and chocolate chips. 

9. Drop heaping Tbsp of dough on to baking sheets about 2 inches apart. 

10. Bake until the centers of the cookies are soft, about 9 to 11 minutes. 

11. Let cool for five minutes on the cookie sheets, then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Roof work (and soup!)

Hi folks, Mandi here.

Last Wednesday, I cautiously crawled up on the roof to install another vent. Here's how that went:

First, I picked a spot (Dad and I had identified this area as a good place to put another vent).

The vent is just resting on the other side of the peak.

Then I did some measuring, and drew a square to cut out.

With the hole drilled - I got a little ahead of myself!

When Dad was helping me, we had his hole saw bits; with those we were able to cut a large enough hole to do a bit of investigation before using the jigsaw to cut the tin. We don't have any hole saw bits, so I used the biggest drill bit we have, and then cut a small square so I could locate the wire that powers the living room lights. When I peeled back the tin, I found the cord all right - that cut in the 2x4 is from cutting the investigation hole.

Yikes!

So I clambered down off the roof and killed the power to all the lights in the house. Back up on the roof, I managed to push and pull the wire as needed to finish cutting out the large square.

Thanks for securing that wire, builders.

Then I dry-fit the vent. Once I had an idea of where I needed to silicone, I removed the vent and laid the needed sealant. I left little gaps on either side of the centre ridge for drainage.

Gooey

Once I fit the vent back in, I replaced the roof bolts I had pulled for installation. I also added some extra screws to close the remaining gaps - we have bats in the area, and they have no qualms about living in our roof.

It's not pretty, but it's not going anywhere, either.

While I was up there, I decided to quickly tar over a few cracks in previously tarred roof 'accessories': the vent for the bathroom fan, the sewer vent for the bathroom, and the chimney for the 'furnace' (our furnace is actually a propane fireplace).

Sewer vent

Sewer vent and fan vent

That was enough excitement for the day, so I crawled off the roof for some supper, a shower, then thankfully to bed.

This past weekend, I puttered around the farm doing small bits and bobs - nothing terribly exciting or newsworthy, other than the carrot harvest. We managed to get about 3 or 4 pounds; most were small, stunted carrots (which says to me that the soil under the first layer is still compacted - I'll try adding some compost in the spring to fluff it up) but a few were a decent size.

Carrots :)

I also managed to whip up a fairly good Butternut Squash and Sausage soup for supper on Sunday. I combined two recipes, and this is what I came up with:

Butternut Squash and Sausage Soup

Ingredients:

2 lbs butternut squash (I used one large squash)
1 chopped onion
1 T butter
1 lb sausage meat (no casings - we can find sausage meat in the grocery store)
4 c chicken broth (I'd likely up it to 6 c next time; leave it at 4 c if you like a nice, thick soup)
1/4 t ground pepper
1/4 t salt
1/8 t ground cayenne pepper
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese OR 1/2 c heavy cream

Directions:
Preheat oven at 375 F
Cut the squash in half and discard the seeds. Place cut side down in a 9x13 cake pan. Surround with about 1/2" water. Bake until squash is easily pierced with a fork, about 45 min.
In a large pot, saute the onions in the butter until translucent. Add spices and sausage meat and cook until crumbly and browned.
Scoop the insides of the squash into blender or food processor. Discard peels. Add broth and cream cheese (or cream). Blend until smooth and creamy. (I did this in the food processor in batches of 1/4 of squash, 1 c broth, and 1/4 of the cream cheese.)
Add squash mixture to sausage in the pot. Heat until warm, being careful not to boil it.

Next time, I will try to remember to take pictures!

Take care everyone :)