What I'm listening to: Jewish music with a punch(as in BAM!!)--Matisyahu--"Youth". If you are adventurous, check out this guy on Amazon.com. Usually, you can hear samples of music there, that's why I like it. LOVE THIS CD--amazing, edifying, funky!!

Coffee Cake

I doctored up some Bisquick and made a pretty tasty coffee cake this morning. This is the family size recipe, doubled.

4 cups Bisquick
1 1/3 cups milk
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs

about 3/4 cup jam
about 3/4 tsp almond extract

Streusal topping
2/3 cup Bisquick
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 slightly softened butter
1/3 cup sliced almonds

Heat oven to 375. Stir coffee cake ingredients until blended. Spread dough in greased 13 x 9 pan. Mix jam and almond extract. Spread on top. (Spreads easier if you microwave the jam just a bit). Stir together streusel topping; sprinkle over batter. Bake about 30 minutes, or till knife inserted in center comes out clean.

April is springtastic!!!

Saturday night, Chris and I went out to dinner to celebrate our 13th anniversary. We went to this Argentine restaurant I had read a good review about. I wanted to try something different. I was actually so disappointed by how noisy and small and crowded it was (and the review did warn me), that Chris was nervous. But once my meal came, I was transformed! I hope I never forget how amazing it tasted. It was a skirt steak that was a long strip, threaded curvily like a snake onto a metal skewer and mesquite grilled. It came with a large, juicy prawn, and a chorizo sausage(didn't like that). It was served on polenta, which was fine textured, a little spicy, smoky, cheesy? and dressed with some kind of fresh diced tomato topping/salsa. They gave us a free dessert, which was a piping hot chocolate lava cake with a scoop of possibly homemade vanilla ice cream. I was painfully full when I left, but very happy. I even had leftovers!

A bumper sticker I saw recently: Lord, please help me to be the person my cat thinks I am. Har har!!

I am so digging the spring and the fresh air and flowers and blossoms and hardly having any hay fever symptoms!

Eye roller: So many ads now, for even food, furniture, clothes, feature people with mp3 players to show how up-to-date/modern/savvy/cool/relevant/youthful they are. I am slow to jump on most bandwagons, and this annoys me (so I secretly want an Ipod, and don't have one. So what!)

Coloring Easter eggs seems more boring every year. The vinegar water colors are so pale. What if I want bright dark red? Maybe I will paint the ones I hardboiled with bright acrylic paints, hide them in the yard when the girls get home from school, and then make egg salad sandwiches with them. Not looking forward to the onslaught of sugar this weekend. I'm not even buying any sugar nums, but the kids will be getting them. And everyone will get more cavities and become hyper, and I'll eat more than I wanted to. Yeah, like I'm still lifting weights. I wish I was able to keep that up. I should be. I believe in it. It's not the easiest thing getting 6 people to a warehouse (Chris' work) once a week and trying to concentrate, stay motivated, and keep everybody safe and happy. Argh! Still doing treadmill at 12:00 when my favorite show comes on, whenever I can. Medical transcription gets neglected so much. It's also pretty hard sometimes. I believe I am so tired, I am rambling quite a bit and becoming boring. Good night, or good morning, as the case may be for you, dear reader.

Recipe for the Precious

Southern Red Velvet Cake
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 1 oz bottle red food coloring
1 tsp white distilled vinegar (my cider vinegar worked fine, I thought)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 (9 by 1 1/2-inch round) cake pans.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In another
large bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla.
Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined and a smooth batter is
formed. Divide the cake batter evenly among the prepared cake pans. Place the pans in the
oven evenly spaced apart. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through the cooking(weird, huh?), until the cake pulls away from the side of the pans, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Remove the cakes from the oven and run a knife around the edges to loosen them from the sides of the pans. One at a time, invert the cakes onto a plate and then re-invert them onto a cooling rack, rounded-sides up. Let cool completely. Put layers together with a layer of frosting between. Frost top and sides. Place whole pecans around top and crushed pecans on side of cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 lb cream cheese, softened
4 cups sifted confectioner's sugar
1 cup soft unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Combine cream cheese, butter, and sugar till smooth. Add vanilla, and beat at high till fluffy. Store in fridge till somewhat stiff, before using. May be stored in fridge for 3 days.

I see yellow....and red!

Jessie is reclining in front of our new and improved living room color. The cake is the humdinger I made for company last night--southern red velvet cake with a whole bottle of red food coloring and cream cheese frosting. It is ALL GONE!!! Wah!!!