and now back to our regularly scheduled project!

now that we're back and done with travel for awhile, i'm back to my project...baking and cooking to my little heart's contentment (i've not been as crafty lately). i will make every attempt to keep this relatively short, but there's been lots of baking and cooking over the last few days and i, of course, feel the need to share everything! so, here i go diving right in!

the busted mason jars of chicken broth

after the disaster of broken glass and chicken broth, i have decided that plastic is a much safer bet for storing broth. i made up another batch of broth yesterday, separated the liquid from the solids, shredded the chicken to use later, and will be defatting the broth later this afternoon...storing it in plastic rubbermaid containers which i tested (to insure no more busted containers) by freezing water in one overnight. yay, me for learning my lesson!

jordan's cake, all from scratch

sunday was jordan's birthday and even though the day started with a migraine, i still wanted to make her a cake...she had been asking for one and who am i to deny my daughter what she wants! she asked for a rectangle,  green cake with pink frosting and she wanted her name on it...i chose the purple for the writing. now, having never made a cake from scratch i did choose a very easy recipe to follow which claimed to be one bowl, and maybe it would've been for anyone else...just not for me.

the 3 bowls used for the one bowl cake

the cake turned out good enough for my first attempt and i'll try the recipe again, maybe with cupcakes next time. the frosting was where i learned my lesson...i microwaved the butter to soften it, melting it some in the process. rather than tossing the melted part and softening more, i just through it all in to make up the frosting...not a good idea! the frosting came out fluffy and seemed to be the correct consistency, but the taste was off and i could smell the melted butter in it. jordan liked it though and stephen and i both ate a piece...he said he didn't like it, but i made him eat at least the piece i had given him since he needs to be trying new things whether he likes it or not. i will make my kids less picky whether they like it or not!

oatmeal quickbread

monday was a sick day for me...having awoken to a sore throat and stuffy nose. still, sickness doesn't stop me when i'm on a mission! for some reason when i'm sick i crave fresh baked bread or something along those lines...i craved gooey, yummy, time-consuming to make monky bread the last time i was sick (the time consuming part kept me from making it). so i found a recipe for oatmeal quickbread in the new baking cookbook that i had bought the day before. it was quick to put together and tastes very good all warm with some butter on it...it's been a tasty breakfast the last couple days! as per usual, i am the only one to eat it, but that suits me just fine!

i also had every intention of making myself some tomato soup only to realize that i had the wrong kind of canned tomatoes...the recipe called for crushed and i used whole (which has seeds & seeds aren't good in soup). i had already started to make the soup up so instead of throwing away all that tomato and onion mix, i decided to turn it all into marinara sauce for dinner. i had to chop and soften some garlic in a separate pan before adding it to the sauce, but other than that it was super easy to get the sauce together...i added dry spices since i didn't have anything other than fresh parsley in the house and i was not leaving to get anything else! so i made marinara out of tomato soup and it was very good and yummy!

marinara sauce and ricotta mixture

later in the day i boiled some jumbo shells and made up the ricotta cheese mixture for the stuffing. turns out that i had more shells than stuffing mix and had to save some of the shells to stuff later and freeze...after going to the store and getting more cheese. once the shells where stuffed for dinner and the pan was all prepared and covered in cheese, i popped it into the oven for the time called for. once it was cooked and cooling, i steamed some broccoli for us so that we wouldn't go into some kind of cheese induced coma from the stuffed shells! jordan was the only one who wouldn't even try the shells (i'm not ashamed to say she got sent to bed since she refused to eat dinner) while the rest of us enjoyed them very much! i was very pleased with how the recipe turned out and have now made up another batch of the stuffing mixture, stuffed the leftover shells, covered it in marinara sauce and stuck it in the freezer for dinner another night in the future! yay me for thinking ahead!

yummy, cheese covered, saucy stuffed shells

and just to show that yes, we really did have the broccoli, too!

so, now i bring this entry to an end... i must keep you coming back for more! i do have more baking to get to today (cleaning, too...yippee) and planning on making up a new crochet hook holder so that my sewing machine stops feeling so neglected! today's baking menu will be banana muffins, benne wafers, and macaroni and cheese...yesterday was oatmeal rasin cookies and homemade brownies (the recipe from the pioneer woman's cookbook). i'll blog all about the cookies and brownies tomorrow...or later tonight, if the mood to write hits me again! 

come on back soon...there'll be more pictures and project fun!