Kitchen Chaos

This is what my 11 year old daughter made for youth fair. So you could do this. What is a daquoise? it is a meringue cake (usually the meringue has nuts but this one doesn't) that usually frosted somewhat like a normal cake. This one has a white chocolate and dark chocolate buttercream that goes between the layers of meringue and then is topped by a ganache. uh-huh. The buttercream is not the typical birthday cake buttercream that is just butter and powdered sugar, in fact the dark chocolate has a bit of the bitter taste of dark chocolate (enough so that my kids didn't like it without the meringue). Anyway, it is wonderful! but it is also incredibly time consuming. This is something to make for a big anniversary dinner, not a I-feel-like-having-chocolate Thursday. The first step is to make a meringue. And here is the cast of characters that play in the meringue: And yes, buy the 18 pack because you will only have 2 eggs left - and a freezer full of yolks. Unless you ...

After making 4 batches of brownies this week, you would think I would have some pictures but you would be wrong. I forgot to take any and now . . . They are all gone. Every single one. While we like them, I didn’t know that they would be such a big hit. We made 2 batches for the 4-H meeting with no leftovers. Several commented that they enjoyed them and wanted the recipe. I made 2 more batches for my Bible study class this morning and several more asked for the recipe. One of the ladies in the class was delighted that it was a snack she could enjoy (she is gluten-intolerant as well). We also had one of the preschool teachers look for us because there was a little boy who was gluten-free dairy-free and had no snack and they wanted something for him. These are unbelievably good and no weird ingredients. . . Ok, let me rephrase that, no ingredients you won’t find in a normal grocery store. But one of the ingredients is decidedly weird for brownies. Are you ready for it? ...

Yes, it is December. Yes, it is cold. But this is east Texas and our idea of cold is in the 40's so the idea of making ice cream isn't completely ridiculous. Or is it? Wait! Don't answer that. The ice cream did turn out pretty good. It has potential anyway. I was drooling over the strawberry coconut and peach coconut and so I picked up a bag of frozen blackberries (that is what Daisy wanted even though she didn't know what project I had in mind). The blackberries just didn't interact with the coconut milk well. They were like two shy junior high kids at a dance, they were both there but neither was very noticeable. Hubby suggested peaches because the coconut and peach would play well. He also suggested raspberries because it would contrast nicely with the coconut. Junior was annoyed that I put in all the seeds. He didn't seem to care that it was God who put in the seeds (and they were a little annoying). I wonder how almond milk would do with t...

Because I am trying to lose weight I started craving tapioca pudding. Mmmmmm tapioca . Unfortunately, I had less tapioca than I thought. So I got to thinking . . . and a close second is bread rice pudding. Bread pudding is not gluten free so went with the rice pudding.

This yummy sounding recipe came from a very good friend of the family. Her daughter and I were more like sisters growing up. Junior is going to make this for Christmas dinner because . . . it sounds good and it looks fairly simple. Plus I like them being able to take part in the preparations.