Indoor Gardening - Week Seven

Week seven and the herbs in the AeroGarden are growing like crazy...well at least some of them are anyway. The basil and parsley are beautiful. The sage looks pretty good, although the leaves seem to curl a little. The mint and chives are another story. The mint is puny and the chives are almost non existent. Maybe they will get a growth sprurt here in the next few weeks?

As the plants start to grow, their water absorbtion increases. You have to keep a close eye on the water levels and replenish twice a week.

Charlie's Afternoon Cake

Today we have a bonus creation for Chocolate With Francois. In order to try more of the wonderful recipes in Chocolate With Payard a little sooner, I will be choosing an occasional bonus creation.

Since we're approaching the holidays and because many of the creators also bake Sweet Melissa Sunday's or Martha Stewart's Cupcake Club, both of which have bakes today, this bonus bake needed to be simple. After reading through the book the simplest recipe seemed to be Charlie's Afternoon Cake. And it did not disappoint! What a simple and decadent cake this is!!!

I baked mine in a 8" round pan, instead of a 9" and it still appears to be much flatter than the cake in the cookbook. If you need a quick dessert, made with ingredients you are likely to have on hand, try this cake. Serve it with vanilla bean ice cream or creme fraiche.

Charlie's Afternoon Cake

10 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 ounces 60% (bittersweet) chocolate, chopped
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray the sides and bottom of a 9 inche round cake pan with vegetable cooking spray. Dust it with flour, shaking off the excess, and set aside.

Bring the butter to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Stir to prevent burning. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate to the pan. Stir the mixture until the chocolate is melted and smooth.

Whisk together the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until well combined. Add the flour and mix well. Add the chocolate to the batter and stir until the mixture is just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.

Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 300 degrees and bake for an additional 8 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cook completely in the pan. Unmold, and serve.

Next up for Chocolate With Francois is Flourless Chocolate Cookies!

Candied Sweet Potato Cupcakes- Martha Stewart's Cupcake Club

These cupcakes remind me of the sweet potatoes we had for Thanksgiving dinner when I was a little girl. Lots of marshmallows. Today, I actually prefer my sweet potatoes without marshmallow goo!

I stood in the kitchen for a few minutes trying to decide whether make a half or quarter of this recipe and whether to make mini cupcakes or standard size cupcakes. I just wasn't sure we would like these, so I figured we'd go with one bite mini's. As I was assembling these, I kept thinking...sweet potato??

Boy was I wrong, these are delicious. The sweet potato flavor is mild and the cupcakes are light and airy. YUMMY!!

Trying to brown the marshmallows with my torch, I almost set the kitchen on fire. So as not have to call 911, I decided to try putting the marshmallows under the broiler. All the while I kept thinking how do they stick to the top if you're browning them on top? So ladies, how do they???As I was setting up little trio's of marshmallows, it occurred to me I had a jar of fluff in the cabinet. Flame free and easy.



This month's MSC recipe was chosen by Karen at Karen's Cookies, Cakes and More. Thanks Karen for picking a recipe I would not have tried otherwise!!! You can find the links to all of the other MSC baker's here.

Butter Toffee Crunch - Sweet Melissa Sundays

Considering my sweet tooth, when I read this recipe makes 3 pounds, I decided to cut it in half. Cutting recipes in half always reminds me of grade school...converting fractions. I decided to take advantage of the internet and find a recipe converter. I found a great site that allows you to enter the entire recipe, directions and all and even print it if you like.



Cavities or no cavities, I am so sorry I didn't make the full recipe! This toffee is absolutely delicious and so easy to make. The mixture reached the 290 degree temperature much quicker than I expected. Don't take your eyes off that thermometer or you will overcook it. When you purchase toffee, you see it in those nice little triangle shapes. So how do the candy makers do that? I used the wooden end of my meat mallet and some pieces are nice shapes but others are small crumbles? Maybe the candy makers have eat all the leftovers? Kind of like that one unforgettable I Love Lucy episode?

This recipe would be great for holiday gift giving. Thanks to Kaitlin of Kait's Place for choosing such a wonderful recipe. You can find the recipe on her blog and links to all of the other Sweet Melissa baker's here.

Pear Crumble Pie

To keep them cool, I've been storing the pears that a co worker gave me in the garage. Due to an unseasonably warm weekend my storage area is a little warm, so I need to use the rest of the ripe pears.

I love crumbles! This recipe is a pie with a crumble topping. This week's Sweet Melissa Sunday's recipe was Pear & Cranberry Muffins with a Gingersnap Crumble. The crumble was my favorite part of this recipe. Perfect! I can use some of the leftover gingersnaps for the crumble for this pie.



Pear Crumble Pie

6 medium pears, peeled and sliced
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 9-inch baked pastry shell

Crumble
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter or margarine
12 gingersnap cookies, crushed
Combine flour and spices for crumb topping and cut in butter till crumbly.

Sprinkle pears iwth lemon juice. Mix sugars, flour, cinnamon and lemon peel; stir into sliced pears. Spoon into pastry shell. Sprinkle with Crumble Topping. Bake at 400♂F. for 45 min. or until pears are tender. Serve warm with whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

At Least One Green Thumb

When I lived in Kansas City, I didn't have anything growing in my house. I always said I didn't have a green thumb. Now when I stop to think about it, I just didn't take the time to have a green thumb. Tim had lots of houseplants and they're such a wonderful addition to a home. Three years ago we traveled to Mexico on a cruise. We fell in love with the beautiful bouganvilla plants we saw while traveling the countryside. That summer we purchased a bouganvilla. Summers in Nebraska can be pretty tropical! Our bouganvilla thrived. Once the temperatures began to cool, we brought it inside and wintered it inside. Much to my surprise, it survived. As the temperatures began to get warm enough, we moved it outside. The second year, we wintered it inside again. That winter it flourished inside. When summer came, we decided it had become a beautiful houseplant and kept it inside.

It goes through spells where it doesn't bloom and looses a few leaves but always comes back. The secret to growing a bouganvilla is the right amount of light, water and feeding. I did a lot of reading about what kind of food to feed it. I ran across an article on using Epsom Salt as plant fertilizer. I decided to give it a try. Once a month, I put two tablespoons of Epsom Salt in a gallon of water and feed all of our houseplants. The bouganvilla seems to really like this food.




I still won't say I am a gardener but I do think I may have one green thumb.

Apricot Chicken

My husband was telling me about an Apricot Chicken dish he remembered having a child. All he could really remember was it had apricot jelly. I decided it probably had apricot preserves. The internet is such a great thing, hard to remember life without it. I did some searching and the recipe that kept coming up was one with just three ingredients, apricot preserves, onion soup and russian dressing. How simple is that? I decided to make it even easier and use my slow cooker. I work full time and the slow cooker is my friend! There's nothing better than coming home and having dinner ready.

Apricot Chicken

1 1/2 cups russian dressing
1 envelope onion soup
1/2 cup apricot preserves
6 pieces of chicken

Combine and pour over chicken. Cook in the slow cooker 8 hours. Remove the chicken from the the slow cooker, strain the sauce and use a fat separator to drain the grease. Whisk together 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 3 tablespoons of water. In a saucepan, combine sauce and cornstarch mixture. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes or until thickened. Place chicken in serving dish, cover with sauce. Serve over rice.



My notes on this recipe: I thought this was good but a little bland. I want to experiment with the ratio of dressing to preserves. I think the addition of some herbs or spices would help as well.