Red Velvet Cake - Repost

As red velvet cake is so bright and festive, i'm posting is again for the holiday season! I frost it with a light airy, cream cheese frosting. DELISH!!!!

Whatever you're celebrating this time of year, May Your Days Be Merry And Bright!

Super Moist Red Velvet Cake
2 1/2 c. flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 c. buttermilk
1 teaspoon apple cidar vinegar
1 3/4 c. vegtable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 (1oz) bottle of red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350. Mix everything thoroughly in a bowl. Pour into 2 or 3 round cake pans. Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

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Cream cheese frosting

1 8oz pkg cream cheese
1 Tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 c. powdered sugar

Pumpkin Cake Recipe

This cake is an AWESOME fall treat. This recipe and the Red Velvet Cake recipe are my faves for the Fall/Winter season!

Pumpkin Cake Recipe

1 c. vegtable oil
3 eggs
1 (15oz) can of pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 c. sugar
2 1/2 c. flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350. Mix oil, eggs, pumpkin and vanilla. Then mix in remaining
ingriedients. Bake approximately 35 minutes.
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Cream cheese frosting

1 8oz pkg cream cheese
1 Tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 c. powdered sugar

Mix together thoroughly. Frost cooled cake.

Summer Salsa

One of my favorite things about summer is making fresh salsa. This recipe can be tweeked to meet your needs and the needs of your family.

Here is the basic fresh salsa recipe

Basic Salsa
2 cups chopped tomatoes
1/3 cup chopped yellow, green or white onion
2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 to 2 jalapeño
Salt to taste

Now that recipe is amazing and delicious as is. BUT there are some variations that really take it to the next level!

Thick Salsa
Same recipe as above + 1 6oz can of tomatoe paste

Tropical Salsa
Same recipe as above, but instead of tomatoes use fresh pineapple, peaches or mango.

Salsa Add In's

• Steam one fresh ear of corn. Cut the corn from the cob and stir it into the basic salsa.
• Drain and rinse 1 can of black beans. Add to basic salsa
• Use a combination of tomatoes and mangos or tomatoes and pineapple.
• If you like your salsa sweet, stir in a teaspoon of sugar

This recipe is only limited by your imagination!!!!

Oatmeal Raisin Spice Muffins

Last night we did breakfast for dinner. I had a few of these yummy muffins in the freezer. Once thawed, I grilled them with a tiny bit of butter. YUMMY!

1 egg
3/4 c. milk
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 c. flour
1 c. oatmeal
1/3 c. brown sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 c. raisins
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. all spice
1/4 c. chopped nuts

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease bottoms only of 12 medium muffin cups (2 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches). Beat egg, stir in milk and oil and raisins. Stir in remaining ingredients all at once just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full. Bake until golden brown about 20 minutes. Immediately remove from pan. Makes about 1 dozen.

Fried Spaghetti - a GREAT way to get rid of left overs

When I was a kid my mom used to make fried spaghetti from time to time. She used bacon grease and it was greasy, spicy and wonderful! I like the idea of this quick treat but it needed a bit of a re-do.

Listed below is the recipe that I made from my family last night. This is a quick and easy version and I didn't really measure anything. I used the leftovers that I had on hand.

In a large skillet I heated olive oil, sliced onions, thinly sliced carrots and red peppers. To get the carrots nice and even, I used a veggie peeler and sliced them lengthwise.

Once the veggies were tender I added fresh garlic, cooked (drained) spaghetti, chili powder -you could also use crushed red pepper flake (to taste) and ketchup. Sometimes I used left over jar pasta sauce. Don't add too much ketchup. Just enough to thinly coat the pasta.

I toss everything around in the pan until it is evenly heated and serve.

That's it!

The ketchup cooked into a slightly sticky, sweet and spicy sauce. My youngest ate 3 plates!

Hey it just occured to me that you could easily do this is a wok! I used an iron skillet and it worked out just fine!

Ketchup - Big Batch Recipe

I just posted the directions on how to do a big batch of ketchup size and how to fill the bottle. I just realized that I failed to post the recipe for making a big batch.

Here it is:

This recipe will give you approximately 24 oz of the red stuff.

ENJOY!

Homemade Ketchup - Big Batch!

2 - 12 oz cans Tomato Paste

1 1/3c. cup tap water

1/3 c. vinegar

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt (seasoning salt works well too)

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon chili powder

3/4 cups brown sugar

Mix and enjoy!

More about Ketchup

One of my favorite kitchen tips is making homemade ketchup. I LOVE the idea that I know what my family is eating. Plus it's easy and inexpensive.

The only of the downside of making my own is #1-it can be tricky getting it into the bottle and #2-if I'm short on time it can be a pain in the neck to find and measure out everything I need. So I have come up with a solution to solve both problems.

I have created for myself a "ketchup spice mix". Basically I mix all of the dry ingredients in a Ziploc bag ahead of time. When I need a new batch of ketchup I add the wet items and I'm good to go.

Also, I'm trying to add more pictures to this blog so I photographed the process in my kitchen this morning.

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First, I gather all of the spices that I will need to make a big batch. I usually make enough to fill a large ketchup bottle (approx 20 oz.).

Next I put the brown sugar and all of the spices to a Ziploc bag.

That's it for the first part! I label the bag of spices and store them in a cool dry place; namely my kitchen cabinet!

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Now I don't know about your house but at my house we ALWAYS need more ketchup. I have 4 sons who enjoy a squirt of the red stuff on EVERYTHING!!! So when our ketchup bottle is getting a little light I pull out my bag of ketchup spice and get to work.

To the bag of spices I add: 2 large (12 oz.) can's of tomato paste, the water and vinegar.

Next I gentle release all of the air from the Ziploc bag and seal. Squeeze to mix. Be careful not to burst open the bag.

Next lay the bag flat on the counter and squeeze the ketchup away from one corner. Use scissors to clip the tip of the bag.

Now gather the end of the bag together to form a spout.

Slide the spout down into the your empty ketchup bottle.

From the top of the bag gentle squeeze the ketchup into the bottle.

That's it!

Depending on how large a batch of ketchup you make and the size of bot bottle that you're refilling, there may be some leftovers. Place the Ziploc containing the ketchup in a container or inside of another bag and freeze.