Lemon Glazed Coffee Cake in a Mug

We're getting into the holidays and some of you may be looking for gift ideas. Or you may be looking for a tasty treat. Either way, i think you may enjoy this one. Last year I made this recipe for a gift for my sister-in-law Sarah for a Christmas gift. We were doing a homemade gift exchange in Husbands family, and for some reason this was the only thing I could come up with. But i think the whole thing was really cute in the end. She loves the Boston Red Sox and knee high socks so I got her Red Sox socks and a Red Sox mug paired up together with a few different mixes for cakes in a mug to go with it. She didn't get her gift until a bit after Christmas...we had just bought our new home and were in the middle of the whole moving process...but she did get it eventually, and she said she loved it.

I put together a few mixes for myself to try them out before i sent them to her, and my favorite was this Lemon Glazed Coffee Cake in a Mug. The link gives you all the instructions, but i made one change to it when i made it for myself so i'll give you all the instructions here. This mix instructions makes about 8 servings, so that's why its so great for gifts. Or if you just want to make up a whole batch and then have them on hand, there's nothing wrong with that.

Ingredients:

• 1 (18.5 ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2-2/3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup powdered lemonade mix

Preparation:

Each coffee mug should hold 1-1/2 cups water.

Place dry cake mix and dry pudding mix into a large bowl and blend well with a whisk. This will be about 4 to 4 1/2 cups of dry mix and will make 8 coffee cup cake mixes. Divide mix into 8 small plastic bags (about 1/2 cup each). Place mix into a corner of each bag and tie it there with a twist tie.

Make glaze mix: in a medium bowl, combine confectioners sugar with powdered flavoring mix. Divide into 8 small plastic bags and close bag with a twist tie. Attach each glaze mix to the cake mix bags with a twist tie. Place one of each bag into each cup.

Attach the following instructions to each cup:

Generously spray inside of cup with cooking spray. Empty contents of cake mix packet in cup. In small bowl mix together 1 egg with itself. Add 1 Tbsp of egg mixture, 1 tablespoon of oil, and 1 tablespoon water to dry mix. Mix 15 seconds, carefully mixing in all dry mix. Microwave on full power for 2 minutes. While cake is cooking, place ingredients from Glaze mix into a very small container and add 1 1/2 teaspoon water. Mix well. When cake is done, pour glaze over cake in cup. Enjoy while warm.

The change I made was concerning the egg. The original recipe says to use 1 egg, but i think it tastes too eggy (yes i know, that's not a real word), and that was the best alternative for me. You could try it with the whole egg if you want and decide for yourself though.

Enjoy!

English Toffee

So I've been reading A LOT since i got my Kindle for Christmas. I've always enjoyed reading, and when i find a good book, i will re-read it more times then i can count. I used to got books from the Library and borrow from friends, but since we moved here to CA i've been seriously lacking in new books because i found our local library seriously lacking in any books, and anything that they do have that's any good has a waiting list a year long....So i started buying books online to get in the mail. I found used and new books cheap on Half.com and Amazon (you can find books for a penny + S&H) and the books i already did have were read multiple times.
But since getting the Kindle, i've discovered all kinds of new authors because of the free reads and books under $3. An author i found was Joanne Fluke, she writes murder mystery books (that are clean!), and in all of her books she includes tons of delicious recipes.
Tonight, i decided to give one of the recipes a try. Since i love to share good stuff, i figured this was worth telling you about. Husband didn't think he would like it because he thinks crackers sound weird to be in candy, but he did like it. He wants to take it with him to work tonight. And sorry about the picture being so crap, my camera needed to be charged so i used my phone.

IBBY'S METAPHYSICAL ENGLISH TOFFEE

(from Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, rack in the middle position.

16-ounce box Club Crackers* (Mine were Keebler. You'll use only one packet)

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 cup brown sugar (tightly packed)
2 cups milk chocolate chips (12-ounce bag)
2 cups chopped pecans (salted or unsalted, it really doesn't matter)

Line a 10-inch by 15-inch cookie sheet with foil. If you have a jellyroll pan, that's perfect. If you don't, turn up the edges of the foil to form sides.

Spray the foil with Pam or other nonstick cooking spray. (You want to be able to peel it off later, after the candy hardens.)

Line the pan completely with Club Crackers, salt side up. Cover the whole bottom. (You can break the crackers in pieces to make them fit if you have to.) Set the cracker-lined jellyroll pan or cookie sheet aside while you cook the toffee mixture.

You don't need a candy thermometer to make this candy :]]

Combine the butter with the brown sugar in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil over medium high heat on the stovetop, stirring constantly. Boil it for exactly five minutes, stirring it constantly. If it sputters too much, you can reduce the heat and if it starts to lose the boil, you can increase the heat. Just don't stop stirring.

Pour the mixture over the crackers as evenly as you can.

*I started by pouring the mixture in lines from top to bottom over the length of the pan. Then I turn it and pour more lines over the width of the pan. Once the whole pan is crosshatched

with the hot toffee mixture, pour any that's left where it's needed. If it doesn't cover the crackers completely, don't worry - it'll spread out a bit in the oven.

Slide the pan into the oven and bake the toffee at 350 degrees F. for 10 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle the milk chocolate chips over the top. Give the chips a minute or two to melt and then spread them out as evenly as you can with a heat-resistant spatula, a wooden paddle, or a frosting knife.
*when i pulled it out of the oven i didn't think it looked done because it was still bubbly and looked about the same consistency as it did when i put it in, but it really was fine. It hardens while the chocolate is melting on top of it.

Sprinkle the chopped pecans over the top of the chocolate and refrigerate the pan.

When the toffee has thoroughly chilled, peel it from the foil and break it into random-sized pieces.

Enjoy!!
i can't stop eating it even though i have to because my stomach is rebelling against me.

Planning Ahead

Is it terrible that i've been planning 2 weeks already what i'm going to do for Husband for Valentines Day and there is still a week before the big day? it's not like Valentines is anything significantly special to us as a couple other then the fact that it's Feb 14th, the Valentines Day holiday just like it is for everyone else. But for some reason i'm so excited its the only thing i can think of. At first i think it had a little to do with the fact that we had this impending "separation" in March when Husband would be deployed for a month with the Coast Guard. i haven't been looking forward to this idea at all, so i wanted to have special things to do with him this month before he left. His birthday is in March, so we were going to have to miss having that together again. We haven't spent any of his birthdays together ever. When we were engaged he was deployed at the end of Feb for 5 months, so we missed that birthday, and then again last year after we got married he was sent to school for 5 months at the end of Feb to North Carolina. Wow....no wonder i'm trying to make a bigger deal out of this month then i normally would. Its classic conditioning, the military is training me to be separated from husband every year at the end of February! Those guys are tricky.... ;)

But, it now looks like husband will actually NOT be getting deployed next month. What's this?? Its because they lost his military passport. He can't go to Central America without it. Apparently this losing of passports for these guys isn't unheard of though.....but how that happens is beyond me. So, while someone travels around on husbands "lost" military passport doing who knows what (hopefully not getting husband into trouble), i'll be enjoying my husband through the month of March, for his birthday, and even for a few more months then i usually get to this year. Yea! We just found out this on Monday. There's a small possibility that the missing passports will be found (it would have to show up by Monday though) and he could end up going in the end, but chances are they won't turn up in the next 2 days.

But, since i've started my Valentines Day planning already, there's no reason i shouldn't follow through. I still love my husband! This year we're watching what we spend and saving as much money as possible so we can go to the beach in a few short months, so i've been trying to come up with ideas to make it fun but still inexpensive. First off, I'm planning a pretty cake (yes, its because i've been looking for an excuse to use all my cake decorating stuff i got last year). Its the first thing i need to start on if i'm going to make everything for it. I'm thinking i'm going to make something similar to this:

I'll be making the flowers out of Gum Paste, i just need to get a small foam mate to make the petals on, and a flower cookie cutter. I'm pretty sure i know where i can find it at. I'm not going to do the chocolate frosting though. I'm making a red velvet cake because that's husbands favorite, so i'm going with a white cream cheese/marshmallow frosting, then i'll cover it with marshmallow fondant which i'll have to make (it tastes better then regular fondant).
So there's that. Next, i'll be making this for dinner:

Shrimp Scampi with Linguini

I found it on the Food Network site when i was looking for ideas and i think it'll be perfect with asparagus and spinach salad. i may even have husband cook in all up with me. Thats romantic right? I think it is. He's been helping out a lot more in the kitchen this week and i'm thinking its super great and sweet as heck.
Then for my gift for him i've decided to go with a combo: The Candy Gram! If you don't know what that is, in my case its going to be a message for my special someone with some of the words replaced by candy bar titles (with the candy in it). Its a gift/card/candy all in one! The other week i saw someone eating a Big Hunk! candy bar, and suddenly it was all i could think of. I wanted one soooo bad, but they didn't have them at our grocery store a few blocks away so i never got my fix of it :( But it got me thinking about the times i have had them and i remembered how perfect they are for candy grams. So thats where i got the idea for this gift for him this year. i know where i can get a Big Hunk! in the next town over i think so it'll be in the message for him for sure. He's my Big Hunk. Its a pretty inexpensive gift, and homemade by me. Isn't that what makes for a great special gift? Something made with love :]
i can honestly say i haven't asked for any gifts from husband for Valentines this year. All i'm hoping for is that he'll share some of his candy to be honest. Last year he got me flowers, a movie, and one of the best cards i've ever gotten in my entire life that was so sweet it still makes we tear up just thinking about it. He always manages to say the best things to me :] i love him. This year....i think he wants me to pick out my gift for him. its my own fault for helping so much with Christmas though. But i really mean it when i say i don't care if he gets me anything, so its up to him what he does.

I don't know what we'll do after dinner yet, but if i don't come up with something it'll be something like watching The Princess Bride or some other romantic movie he's willing to sit through. But i'm open to suggestions so if anyone has any good ideas please let me know!
Husband doesn't read what i write on this blog if i don't tell him i've written and my goal is to keep this all secret from him until next weekend, so if you know husband do me a favor and not tell him of my plans ;] I'll take pictures of how the whole thing really does turn out, so keep a lookout for that after the big day. Until then, i hope every one has a great Valentines Day this year!

I Have A Confession

i should be on the Worst Cooks in America show...
Have any of you watched this show? (please tell me if you do so i don't feel like a dork.) I didn't start watching the show from the beginning of the series, i just kind of happened onto it a few weeks ago and i've been hooked since. These contestants, they're terrible cooks that were sent to this show to learn from chefs every week and compete to find out who the best of the worst is.

Until i started watching this show i thought i was a decent enough cook. Nothing top quality like my friend Nathan Child (who wins National cooking comps and is a-m-a-z-i-n-g), but good enough that i wouldn't be ashamed to feed strangers occasionally, and i could feed my family without too much complaint ( i don't remember the last time husband complained about my cooking). It wasn't until i started watching this show, Worst Cooks, that i realized how little i really know! I think the only thing i am good at is making a casserole and salad. i can follow a recipe fairly well most of the time, the easy ones any way. But the things these "worst cooks" are learning is beyond my level. My comprehension. I'm terrible at spices and picking out flavors and "wilting salads", and all the different type of cooking, and they go and just throw things together without a recipe... i would fail on the show!

This is just something i've been thinking about the last few day. My solution for this is one of two options. 1) get on the show, or 2) start taking cooking classes. The second option is more realistic, but the first one would be more fun. So, i'm just going to put this out there: Nominate me for the show! tell them i'm terrible. After i learn to cook, for everyone that nominated me i will come to your home and cook for you ;) Until then, i'm just going to get by on my measly cooking talents and hope for the best.
:)
vote for me!