Cooking at night

So, I am not a morning person. Big whoop! Now that I no longer have to work at 530, 630, or 730 in the morning, does it really matter?

I usually get a second spark of energy at 8:00 at night. This night it was more at 9:00 and I decided to make a Chocolate Cake and Oatmeal Banana Pancakes. Haley and I are crazy over pancakes, and these are a healthier version, especially on a school day! I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes I just like to cook and bake in the evening!

I am sharing both recipes with you here tonight, and I really hope that you will try them. I don't share recipes often, because I rarely follow a recipe and I NEVER write it out in it's entirety, but I will try to do so here!

Chocolate Cake

2 cups flour
1 3/4 cup sugar ( I use 1 1/2) see, I never follow a recipe!
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup sour cream
1 cup cold coffee
1 egg
2/3 cup oil

Sift the dry ingredients together, add sour cream, egg, coffee, oil  and mix just until moistened. Pour into 2 round cake pans, lightly floured. Bake at 35o degrees until a toothpick inserted, comes out clean!

Now I will show you a picture, of my completed cake, with icing. However, I do not use a recipe for icing. I just mix a 1/4 cup of melted butter with some cocoa and icing sugar, vanilla and a splash or 2 of milk until I get the smooth, chocolaty icing that Haley says is great as she is dipping her fingers in!

Oatmeal Banana Pancakes

1 cup oatmeal
1 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 ripe banana
2 eggs
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup melted butter

Melt butter, add sugar and blend. Mix in the egg, yogurt, milk, vanilla, and banana. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix just until blended together.

I of course add a healthy dose of cinnamon, because I LOVE cinnamon and it is good for you!

These are great to make on the weekend, or spend an afternoon, making a double batch and then freezing them so that you have them ready to go on a school day! Yum! I top mine with bananas, just to keep with the theme, but you can top them with whatever you like! My apologies for not having a picture of these, but trust me, they are fabulous!

Enjoy.

Have a great rest of your week people!

Sunshine on my face

 

Walking in the park today, it is a warm, sunny, winter afternoon. A winter that feels more like spring. The snow at my feet is melting, the sun casting a shine so deep and so warm, causing the slush to pool around foot prints, the concrete is wet and glistening. The sunshine on my face is so welcoming on a day like today when I feel the pencil on my page won’t move across the paper fast enough. A walk may slow me down, as I start to move faster.

I love,  that in January, I can sit on a park bench and the sun is warm enough to allow me to write without gloves on. It’s a beautiful thing. I wish I brought my camera, to capture the sun, bright in its glory, with no clouds hovering; it is just all on its own. Of course I have my cell phone, but have no idea the picture quality. Well, the truth is, I don't know how to get the pictures from my phone, onto my computer! 

I can feel the heat, on the side of my face, on the curve of my neck, and I can close my eyes and see the bright white, and wait for that to change color, to a color I choose in my mind. When I open my eyes again, and look at my writing book, I realize, man this is shabby! I need to make myself a new one. So when I am done with my walk, with my little moment of peace in the park, I make my way home, to pick out some supplies!

In the end, I re covered a book that I was already writing in, I am not ready for a new one of these, and for a new journey I will embark on, I made another. A day that started out rotten can end well.

Today when Haley got home, wow, girlfriend was feeling all domestic I tell you! She had her snack, watched 15 minutes of TV and then said she didn’t want to watch the TV. Suddenly she started with a floodgate of ideas. First she told me about a cupcake club idea that she got from a book that I bought her for Christmas. She wants to start a club, bake cupcakes and sell them in the summer to make some extra money. She wants to sell them on the street like when she has a lemonade stand. I tell her it’s not such a great idea, and together we come up with a plan that she can use a portion of my table at my summer market. How can I do anything but think this is fabulous. The girl has an entrepreneurial spirit already!

The next think I know, she is in her kid’s cookbook, wanting to make an appetizer or a dessert. She settled on dessert, and made her own vanilla pudding (from a box) and when she served it, it was layered with bananas and coconut!

While I was cooking dinner, she cleaned off the dining room table, put out the place mats, made name tags for the table, set a candle in the middle. When I walked away from my dinner prep, and came back into the kitchen, she was cleaning up my mess. I took one look at her, and in that instant, I got the same feeling as I did earlier that day, closing my eyes, letting the sunshine warm my face and my neck. Now I know that some may not see the beauty in this, but with whatever Haley may be missing in smarts with having to live with a learning disability, she makes up for in compassion, love, and kindness. Some may not see it every day, but I sure do. I love that girl! I guess that is why since she was a baby, I call her My Sunshine!

Have a good week everyone, thanks for stopping by!