Honey Whole Wheat Bread

12 servings
1 bread
13 min 10 min prep

1 cup water, plus
1 tablespoon water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon shortening
1 1/2 teaspoons shortening
1 tablespoon dry milk
1 teaspoon fast rising yeast
Select whole wheat or basic/white setting, and medium crust.
Remove baked bread from machine and cool on wire rack.

Dark Chocolate Zucchini Cake

2 1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. cocoa

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 c. soft butter

2 c. sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp. grated orange rind

2 c. coard grated zucchini

1/2 c. milk

Combine first 6 ingredients in bowl; set aside. Combine butter and suagar in bowl. Beat until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating to mix well. Stir in vanilla, orange rind and zucchini. Alternately add dry ingredients and milk to butter mixture; mix well between each addition. Pour batter into greased and floured tube pan or bundt pan. Bake 50 to 60 minutes at 350°F. Cool 5 minutes on rake. Remove from pan, cool completely. Dust with icing sugar.

Notes: This recipe does call for 1 cup of nuts which I omit because of allergies. This recipe is awesome and turns out so nice. It has a little bit of a crunchy crust and then once I stored it for a bit it was so moist and good. It's a wonderfully nice chocolate cake.

Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary!!!

Yesterday was my BBF's wedding anniversary, 4 years I think. I made this but haven't given it to her and her hubby yet. I was going to tell her to pick it up on her way home from work but she wasn't in when I was in there, wasn't done at that time anyway because I was going to finish after the kids were in bed. But I ended up in bed pretty early last night anyway.

It was my first try at the basket weave but I think it looks alright. So H, you'll have to pick it up later on your way home, I'll keep it in the fridge until then. Love you, hope you had a wonderful night!

Pork Chops with Peaches

I've made this recipe twice now and I really liked it a lot. Seen here with some fresh green beans from the garden.

Pork Chops with Peaches

4 pork chops
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. ginger
1 large onion, sliced
1 cup water
2 tbs. soya sauce
1/4 c. cider vinegar
1 tbs. cornstarch, dissolved in cold water
2 fresh peaches, peeled & sliced

Brown pork chops in hot pan. Sprinkle sugar and ginger over chops, top with onion slices and cover with water, soya sauce and vinegar. Cover tightly and simmer for 35 minutes, turning chops once. Thicken sauce with cornstarch mixture, add peaches and heat until warm.

Serves 4.

This is from my The Complete Harrowsmith Cookbook. It was really very good, I bought a bunch of peaches and was trying to find ways to use them up. It was tastey and I did have a lot of sauce left over but I only cooked 3 chops.

Bailey's Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Serving Size : 12

-----CRUST-----

1 tbs. butter

2 cups Graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup Sugar

1/2 cup Butter -- melted

-----FILLING-----

2 1/4 (36oz) pounds Cream cheese -- room temp.

1 2/3 cups Sugar

5 Eggs -- room temperature

1 cup Bailey's Irish Cream

1 tablespoon Vanilla extract

1 cup Semisweet chocolate chips

-----Garnish-----

1 cup Chilled whipping cream

1 tablespoons Confectioner's Sugar

1 to 2oz. semisweet chocolate

For Crust: Preheat oven to 325°F. Coat a 10 inch springform pan with 1 Tbs Butter. Combine crumbs and sugar in pan. Stir in butter. Press mixture i nto bottom and 1 inch up the sides of the pan. Bake until light brown, usually about 7 minutes. Maintain oven temperature at 325°F.

For Filling: Beat cream cheese until smooth with and electric mixer. Gradually add sugar, then eggs one at a time, then Bailey's and finally the vanilla. Sprinkle half of the chocolate chips over crust. Spoon in filling. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips. Bake until cake is puffed, springy in the center and golden brown, about 1 hour & 20 minutes. Cool cake completely in refrigerator.

For Cream: Beat cream, sugar powder until peaks form. Spread mixture over cooled cake. Garnish with chocolate curls.

Notes: I used 5 250kg packages of Cream cheese. I actually melted chocolate and make the chocolate curls. I made this cheese cake for a fundraiser and it didn't even make it to the table. I'm very proud.

Mother's Day Cake

I made a cake for Mother's Day. My mom was having a party. So I made cake with French Vanilla Cake mix and Buttercream frosting.

1/2 cup butter

3 cups icing cugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2-3 tbs. milk

Cream all together until a nice smooth consistency.

I did this but the peach color I made very airy somehow, too much milk I think and it didn't go on the cake very well and then when I was making little flowers the icing was getting mushy from the heat from my hands, so I was doing a lot of fridge breaks. I tried my had at the top flowers for the first time ever, I definitely have to work with cooler icing to do that part. I also love the Wilton icing colors. I used 3 of the pastel colors.

I also need to practice with my new cake decoating tips I got at a yard sale. I got about 70 tips, some of them are doubles and some are no name brand but there were 3 nails and half dozen coupers so I'm pretty satisfied for the $20 I spent. Now I need to make a list of which tips I have, so I don't buy doubles if I do buy any in the future and figure out what designs they are. I'll have to go to the Wilton site and print what each looks like or something. It was a pretty simple cake but I used some instructions online to make is stable using dowelings and cardboard under each cake. I'm pretty happy with it, keep in mind I feel asleep the night I was going to work on it after the kids were in bed so I started first thing in the morning baking the top and bottom and then decorating with three children in my ear all day and bothering me. They seem to all get so needy when I want to do something. So maybe next time I'll do a better job of icing. I found the blue icing I made a lot nicer in consistency and nicer to work with and I feel it went on much better than the peach.

So here it is.