Best Ever Chocolate Cake

Aunt Kathy Jo introduced this recipe to me last year and I almost made myself sick eating it.  I'm not a big chocolate cake fan but there's something about this one that will bring me to making one for Thanksgiving.

Best Ever
Chocolate
Sheet Cake
(from Kathy Jo)

CAKE RECIPE ½ C. Crisco 1 stick real butter 3 ½ Tbs cocoa 1 C. water ½ tsp salt 2 C. sugar 2 C. flour 1 tsp. vanilla 2 eggs ½ C. buttermilk 1 tsp. soda

ICING RECIPE 1 stick real butter 3 ½ Tbs. cocoa 1/3 C. milk 1 box powdered sugar 1 tsp. vanilla 1 C. pecans

Sauce Pan – Crisco, butter, cocoa, water, salt; bring to a boil.  Mix sugar and flour in bowl; pour the mixture in saucepan.  Add 1 tsp. vanilla, 2 eggs, ½ C buttermilk, and 1 tsp. cocoa.

 
Pour into a 9x13 greased & floured pan.  Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.  Do not overcook!

Five minutes before cake is done, mix in saucepan 1 stick butter, 3 ½ Tbs. cocoa & 1/3 C. milk.  Boil.  Add 1 box of powdered sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla & pecans. Pour over warm cake.

Crockpot Carne Guisada

What You Need

• 3 pounds beef stew meat
• 2 cans diced Rotel tomatoes with green chilies
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 diced bell pepper

What To Do

1. Place stew meat, 1/4 cup water, salt and pepper in crock-pot. Turn heat to
high and let simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

2. Drain juice from tomatoes into measuring cup. Add tomatoes, garlic and onions to crock-pot. Stir and simmer on high for 30 minutes.

3. Add cumin, oregano, and chili powder to crock-pot and stir. Blend reserved tomato juice and enough water to equal 1 1/2 cups liquid. Add to crock-pot along with flour and stir.

4. Cook on low 3-4 hours until sauce thickens.

I found this online

How do you spell DESSERT?

I remember back in school, it was my art teacher who taught me a little lesson on the difference between desert & dessert. She said you can remember that dessert has 2 S's because you always wanna come back for seconds.

After making the crockpot enchilada's me and the kids made brownies for dessert. Talon helped me crack the eggs and ZZ added the oil & water.


There was a fight for the bowl so we all got battered spoons. Ahhh the rewards for making deSSert! Yum Yum!

Crockpot Chicken Enchiladas Recipe

1 can enchilada sauce

4 chicken breasts

1 small can sliced black olives

2 dozen corn tortillas

1 chopped onion

2 cans cream-a-chicken soup

2 cups shredded cheese

What To Do

1. Cook chicken and shred.

2. Mix soup, olives and onions.

3. Cut tortillas in wedges.

4. Layer crockpot with sauce, tortillas, soup mix, chicken and cheese all the way to top, ending with cheese on top.

5. Cook on low 7-10 hours.

We called it Calf Slobber

What... you didn't call it that? LOL Growing up, I didn't care for homemade meringue, I preferred cool whip. Now, as an adult, I can at least tolerate it and I ONLY include it for the appearance. My brother-in-law repaired my car and asked for a chocolate pie in return so one chocolate pie with extra calf slobber coming up.

I feel like baking....

I just got home from teaching at The Fabric Store and decided I was gonna bake a cake for Linsey before she got home from school. I'm making a "Velvet Cake". Yes, that's minus the red food coloring LOL.

As you can see, I use clothes pins for lots of things. Talon helped me by pulling all of my pots and lids from my lower cabinet to the middle of the floor. He made some beautiful, LOUD music for me too by clanging the lids on the floor then to each other. As I got out the spatula from the drawer I remembered when my mom would bake. We called this utensil the "child cheater" because it scraped the bowl just a little too good. I made sure I saved me and T some to lick. From the look of this pic it seems he loved it!

We then waited on the cakes to cool so we could ice it. I got Talon all cleaned up then I went and precut some fabrics that I plan on using for another Lone Star. He tagged along and helped me there too.

ZZ just got home and loved her surprise. Well I'd better get ready for tonight's class back at The Fabric Store.

Lone Star Block, Bread and Thread

Yes block and not Lone Star Beer and Bob Will music. LOL I'm showing my age by knowing that song huh? I love Texas Swing music but I actually like it quiet when I'm working.

I had a VERY productive weekend. I totally cleaned the house super good so that I could take this week to focus on things that need to be stitched out. I tested my sample Lone Star quilt block that I pieced with my embroidery machine. I developed a NEW PITH technique that I'm currently working on getting patented. Yep.. I love this new invention I came up with in the hoop. Here's a lookie-lou at the unfinished top. Currently it measures about 20". I'm going to add some kind of border and I'm leaning towards piano keys. I'm stopping for the night and will take a fresh look tomorrow.

I used Thimbleberries Subtle Solids by RJR

I also made some homemade white bread today. This was my first loaf of the year and definitely not the last. I slathered mine with real whipped butter while everyone else smeared red plum and strawberry jam on theirs.

Oh.... this past Friday was like Christmas for me. I received 24 spools of embroidery thread and stabilizer from Floriani. I really like their stabilizers for the PITH method. I'm testing a new product that the have released. It's a fusible wash-away. So far I like it. I will let you know how easy it is to wash out when I get to that step.

I'm finding that writing a book can get you lots of goodies. Olfa and June Tailor are sending samples to try out. I received my fabrics from Moda and RJR and cotton thread from Superior Threads. I'm working now on getting a loaner machine from either Bernina or Brother/Baby Lock but perhaps from both so that I can test in different formats. This is all still so surreal for me. Well it's morning time here in Texas and I'm signing off and "two stepping" outta here.