Food In Many Forms

I finally brought some of my cook books from home when I came back from winter break, and the Pioneer Woman Cooks was first on my list. Just out of sheer luck, one of my friends mentioned he loved pineapple upside down cake, so when I found this recipe, I had to make it for him.  Unlike Ree Drummond, I don't happen to own a cast iron skillet, so I had to adapt a little and transfer my caramelized pineapple into a cake pan, and drizzle the buttery brown sugar on top. On the plus side, I didn't have to pour the entire half-stick of butter in. The cake portion was super moist and the pineapple looked great (even though they stuck to the bottom of the pan at first).  Ingredients: 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 3 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 2 cups granulated sugar 1 1/2 stick  (3/4 cup) butter 1 1/2 cups milk 2 large eggs 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract One 20 oz can sliced pineapple, 2 Tablespoons juice reserved 1 1/2 cups ...

One of my good friends is a chocolate fiend and we thought this would satisfy her craving because of the 4 ounces of chocolate that goes into it (about 1 Hershey's chocolate bar ). However, the resulting taste was more like a coffee cake than a birthday cake. I don't recommend shaving the chocolate by hand with a cheese grater - it was very messy!! But Wiki Answers says the best methods are with a potato peeler or a melon baller: Vegetable or Potato Peeler - Hold the chocolate with a paper towel and pass the vegetable peeler over the narrowest side of the chocolate block. The chocolate will curl up like wood shavings. Melon Ball Scoop - Position the bar of chocolate on a parchment paper covered pan and hold it down with a paper towel. Scrape the melon ball scoop across the surface of the chocolate. You will get curved shavings. OLD WORLD CHOCOLATE SPICE CAKE WITH CITRON A tempting tube cake with a rather heavy crumb. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Hav...

You guessed it, these are all the same item rearranged into a cake stand, a party platter, a dessert tray and a punch bowl! How can you not love it?!?

It's been a while since I posted. Two big food holidays have passed and much food has been made. There were carrot cake cupcakes ... There was a cake for Thanksgiving... And some mini holiday fruit pies... As well as a "College" Thanksgiving... ...and two pre-Christmas dinners with friends... One of my roommates gave me a HUGE Martha Stewart Cookbook for Christmas, and Christmas Eve Dinner consisted of her glazed carrots and striped sea bass...I still have to upload those... At first I was unsure how much I could really use Martha's book because a lot of recipes seemed unapproachable, but now that I have tried two of them...Glazed Carrots with Whole Spices and Rosemary: and Roasted Sea Bass: The carrots are definitely going to be repeated, and the Sea Bass was pretty good too - although the fennel and white wine did little to add to the flavor. I think the cookbook is just right of amount of challenge to help me learn new things. I have said before how I am a fan of ...