Engineering Corelle

I'm back at school now, moved into my apartment and classes start Monday.  We embark on the cooking adventure of fending for ourselves on Monday!  

On an unrelated side note, this is a video I found on Youtube about how Corelle is made!  I think its really neat, and I'm personally a fan of that type of dishes for their lightness and durability.

Double Chocolate Cake

Yesterday was just one of those days where I felt like making some kind of dessert.  I had no idea as to what to make, but I knew I wanted some kind of dessert.  After randomly deciding on cake (then picking chocolate because chocolate cake is the best) we settled on this recipe for Double Chocolate Cake from Betty Crocker (because it was the only one that I had all the ingredients for and didn't have to melt any chocolate...) I was wary because this one didn't involve a recipe for frosting to go on top, but it was decided that the chocolate chips on top were probably a substitute for frosting.

Double Chocolate Cake

from Betty Crocker's Cookbook (6th edition)

1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup packed brown sugar or granulated sugar (I used brown)

1/4 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vinegar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350F

Mix flour, brown sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt with fork in ungreased square pan, 8x8x2 inches.

Mix in remaining ingredients except chocolate chips.

Sprinkle chocolate chips over batter

Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean 35-40 minutes

Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired

This is a super-easy recipe to make, and only requires the pan and a fork (practically no dishes, yay!)

I couldn't find our 8x8 pan, so I used a 9x9 and increased the amount of chocolate chips (more surface area = more chocolate chips), while decreasing the baking time to 33 minutes, which was perfect. 

I would definitely make this cake again, even at school, because it was just so easy and turned out yummy.  However, for next time, B suggested mixing the chocolate chips in and adding chocolate frosting on top, which I agree would probably taste even better.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

I've been trying to decide if I need/want a blender for my apartment next year, so I thought I would try the one we have at home to see if it was something I would do at school.  (The only things I know how to make in the blender are milkshakes and smoothies, any ideas for other things that need a blender?)  At school I used to buy the Strawberry Banana flavored Naked smoothies (which are delicious, but expensive), so I thought I would try to make my own smoothie.

I kind of made up the recipe as I went along, just throwing things in

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

1 cup frozen strawberries

1 banana, sliced in to chunks

1/3ish cup of vanilla yogurt

1/2 cup of milk

Put everything in blender and blend until smooth

I put about half of it into my new favorite purple cup, which I found at Marc's for $1.99 (the same one at Target is $10!) and took it to work.  That cup is awesome because, a) it's purple! b) it's insulated and c) it's easy to clean (not to mention a popular trend around here).  I saved the other half in a covered tupperware cup in the fridge, and took it the next today.  By the next day, it was a funny brownish pink color, but it tasted just fine, so I'm chalking the brownish pink to the fact that bananas turn brown when exposed to air...

And about the blender for next year, the jury is still out.

Best Bread Machine Bread

So a few weeks back, I bought a bread machine (at a garage sale for $10 of course!) and today I decided to take it on a trial run to: a) make sure that it worked, b) figure out how to work it, and c) decide if it is worth it to bring to school with me.

My bread maker

So I decided to make bread.

my bread (after cutting a slice to try)

Which I started by reading the manual I got when I bought it, which was hunky-dory except that it only has one recipe in it and the recipe called for buttermilk which I didn't have... So I turned to the trusty internet, and found this recipe on Allrecipes.com after a Google search for "bread machine recipe".   Its called "Best Bread Machine Bread" and while I'm not sure if it really is the best, I think its pretty good.  (I mistimed it and it was just finished baking as I had to leave for work, so I didn't have time to let it set for 30 minutes before cutting it, but it still tasted warm and homemade.

Best Bread Machine Bread

Makes 1-1/2 pound loaf

From Allrecipes.com

• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 (.25 ounce) package bread machine yeast
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 
  
• Place the water, sugar and yeast in the pan of the bread machine. Let the yeast dissolve and foam for 10 minutes. Add the oil, flour and salt to the yeast. Select Basic or White Bread setting, and press Start.

My conclusion: yum! It was super easy to make the bread, basically just throwing everything into the bucket (just don't try and save time by dropping the salt in the oil, that doesn't really work because salt won't dissolve in oil...) and pressing start.  Assuming that I have space (both in the car and in my apartment) I totally want to bring my bread maker.

Craigslist Corelle

According to me, Craigslist is practically a full time garage sale. I found a full set of Country Cottage dishes (4 dinner plates, 4 bowls, 4 salad plates, and 4 mugs) for sale for $15.  I was trying to find Corelle for $0.50 each, but offered $10 for the set, the seller responded $12, and we settled on $11.

Its not the pattern I originally liked, but for about a third of the price of a new set at Meijer, (ugh, I just looked on the Corelle website, and they normally sell it for $39.99, but now its on sale for $19.99), I can deal. 

Funnel Cake

The traditional summer fair food of funnel cake! I decided to make funnel cake after seeing people with them at the fireworks downtown (well, and the fact that we have a baby deep fryer at home...)

They were surprisingly easy to make, and turned out really well; tasting just like the ones you get at the fair.

Mine turned out rectangular like that because that's the shape of the fryer, but I promise they tasted delicious

I used the instructions from thekitchn.com, but we halved the recipe because it was supposed to make four 12 inch cakes, and our fryer is only (maybe) 4in x 6in.  I also used a pastry bag with the tip cut to the approximate size, but it was difficult to fill, and I'm thinking a Ziploc bag would work better next time.

Thursday Garage Sales

Today was the first day I've ever been to a garage sale on a Thursday.  It seems like most sales happen Saturday, with some Friday, and a few on Sunday.  I was the only customer at the two sales I stopped at, so it seems like most people don't go to garage sales on Thursdays either... (Then again, it could have been the time, I went in the afternoon between 2 and 3)

Now, I've just started (read about 3 weeks) going to garage sales on a regular basis, but I find them lots of fun.  I guess they combine two things I like: shopping, but not spending money.  The downside is that they are more time consuming then buying something in the store or online, because you never know what you are going to find. I'm trying to stock my apartment for next year, and am looking specifically for Corelle dishes, and that means stopping at lots of sales.  

I read about the first sale in the classified section of the local paper, and looked up directions on Google Maps.  It was in a subdivision pretty close to where I live.  However, I don't have a very good sense of direction, and don't have very good luck navigating subdivisions.  And you guessed it, I got lost on the way back trying to get out. But once I found a street I knew, I found a sign for a yard sale that was also going on Thursday, so I followed those signs, and ended up in the same subdivision at another sale! I didn't end up buying anything at either of those sales (but did find my way home!)