Our Garden

It's been one of those weeks. We had guests over the weekend, two birthdays, and then Tink was sick Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Now the Goose is sick. I haven't gotten anything done and am seriously happy that today is Friday! This week I made my slow cooker chocolate cake and then gave in and turned on the oven to make my chocolate chip cookies because some weeks call for heavy consumption of chocolate. So, because I didn't make anything new this week and basically just subsisted on cake and cookies, I thought I would share some pictures of our organic garden.

We have a raised bed garden and we planted yellow onions, strawberries, and sweet corn. Only one of 8 strawberry plants is growing (sad), but the onions and corn are growing like gangbusters!




Look at that silk!!



I just love how fast corn grows.



We also have tomatoes. Once they reach full-size some of them will be sacrificed before they are ripe because a Southern girl has got to have her fried green tomatoes!



And a black raspberry bush. Very excited about that!!



We have a blueberry bush with one remaining blueberry. Just one...



the rest were eaten by this beast.



And this one, too!



But not this one. He is a walking heart. Sweetest baby in the world!!



Our orange tree is heavy with baby oranges. They won't ripen until January or February. This year we had soooo many oranges we didn't know what to do with them all. We decided we would prune the tree so we would have less oranges next year.



But how to you choose which pretty baby orange to kill? I can't do it. We'll be swimming in oranges again come January. :)



We have a tiny lemon tree. It was my Valentine's Day present from Bubba!



Here's another picture of our small dinosaur who thinks she is a chicken. Originally she was named Eragon, which then became Eragonsian, then Gonsie, then Donsie, and now she's just Don.



She can pretend she is a chicken if she wants...as long as she keeps leaving us a present every day.



The other one has embraced her dinosaur side and has stopped laying eggs. Maybe she's just lazy. When you look into her eyes you can see there are no lights on in there. :) :)



And last, but not least, our banana tree. We've had it for three years now and are hoping this is our year for bananas.



So that's it! Our garden. I dream about making lemon meringue pies, blueberry pie, black raspberry jam, banana pudding, orange juice, and strawberry shortcake. And then I ask Bubba, for the fifteenth time, to put some chicken wire around the blueberry bush. Dang dinosaurs!

Slow Cooker Chocolate Cake

I have to apologize right off the bat for this recipe. You definitely should not make it...because it will ruin chocolate cake for you forever! IT'S THAT GOOD. Beyond good, insanely awesome, ridiculously delicious. Chocolate cake made any other way will seem plain, unexciting, tasteless, and cold. This recipe is very easy to make and the result is out of this world. You don't even have to turn on your oven--a big bonus for those of us who have had to turn on our air conditioning already this year. And you eat it while it's still hot so it's also perfect for people, like my Montana family, who need something to warm them up since their Spring weather has not started yet.

You will need:

slow cooker
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
6T butter
2 oz (1/4c) semi-sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup white sugar
3T Dutch-processed cocoa
1T vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup milk
1 egg yolk
***************
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
1 1/2 cups hot water
****************
2 paper towels



A word on the cocoa--in this recipe you really need to use the Dutch-processed. In my grocery store it's sold right alongside the unsweetened cocoa. Hershey's Special Dark is what I use and it's perfect. Dutch-processed cocoa has been treated to neutralize the acids in cocoa and is used in baked goods that call for baking powder, like this one. If you use regular unsweetened cocoa you will end up with a slightly bitter tasting cake. It's the same price as regular cocoa.


Mix together the flour and baking powder and set aside. In a medium-sized pot melt the butter and then add the chocolate chips. Stir until melted and combined and then remove from heat. (I melt the butter first because adding cold butter to chocolate can cause it to seize. That's happened to me many, many times.)



Whisk in the 2/3 cup sugar and 3T Dutch cocoa.



Now whisk in the vanilla, salt, milk, and egg yolk. Combine thoroughly.



Whisk in the flour/baking powder mix.



Pour the batter into a greased slow cooker. I used 2T of butter and rubbed it on the bottom and halfway up the sides of my Crock Pot. You can use pan spray if you like--just make sure it is greased well.



In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the brown sugar, sugar, and cocoa.



Slowly pour in the hot water (I nuked the water in the microwave for one minute) and whisk until smooth.



Pour into the slow cooker on top of the cake batter. DO NOT STIR.



Place two paper towels (do not rip apart) across the top of the slow cooker and put on the top. The towels will keep the condensation from dripping onto your cake.



Turn the slow cooker on HIGH and leave it alone for 1 hour and 15 minutes. The cake is done when it is set and pulls away slightly from the sides of the slow cooker. Turn off the cooker, take off the top, and lift out the removable bowl. Set it aside on a hot pad and leave the cake alone for 25 minutes. It will hard not to sample, but resist!



Heaven. On. Earth. You'll never see chocolate cake the same way again. The top of the cake is moist, chocolaty, and amazing, but the bottom is fudge sauce. Fudge sauce! (My pictures came out a bit unfocused. Maybe my hands were shaking in anticipation!)



There really aren't adequate words to describe how divine this cake tastes. There were no leftovers. I asked Bubba and the girls how it tasted and I got a bunch of grunts and "mmmmmmmm's." :) No need for ice cream with this cake!!





After she finished eating Goose said, "Wow. That's the most awesome cake ever."



Enjoy!!

Eggless Chocolate Cake

If ever there was a person who loved eggs in all their beautiful forms, that person is my mother-in-law. Unfortunately, she has developed an allergy to them making it difficult for her to enjoy life's many baked goods...not to mention ruining her breakfasts. :) We are going to visit her and my father-in-law (and two sisters-in-law YAY!) for xmas this year. She and I share December birthdays and I wanted to make her a birthday cake while we were there. The egg allergy throws a distinctive wrench into that plan, though. So I thought I would try out a few eggless cake recipes until I found one that would do her birthday justice. The first one I tried is a chocolate cake with a bunch of my own changes to pump up the flavor and add more heft to the cake. Eggless cakes have a tendency to fall flat. (I also halved this recipe since the original called for a whole lot of flour and I was not sure if we would even end up liking it. Can't be wasting my King Arthur!) So, with no further ado...

You will need:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose King Arthur flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar (I only had one cup and had to substitute the half cup with brown sugar)
1/2 cup cocoa (I used Hershey's Dark)
1.5 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cups room temperature coffee (the original recipe calls for water, but...boring!)
1/5 tsp vanilla
***my additions:
1 tsp white vinegar
1/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips



I have to apologize for the ugly, hideous counter tops. They were there when we moved in and everything else was so perfect...I feel the need to apologize all the time about them! We redid the cabinets (which were a hideous dark brown fake wood) but have yet to get to the counter tops. I have been using white posterboard for pictures, but sadly, it had an accident and had to be thrown away. One day we will replace them and I can stop whining. My husband will be pleased.



I buy my white vinegar by the gallon. It's good for cleaning, better than Oxy-Clean in the washing machine, removes hard water stains on dishes, etc. (We have well water and hard water stains are a concern.)



Add the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt to a mixer and stir to combine. The recipe calls for sifting, but I don't sift.



Now add your sugar. (See those little clumps of cocoa? Probably should have sifted.) Mix.



Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and add the oil, coffee, vanilla, and vinegar.



Mix thoroughly, scraping sides, only until combined. Do not overmix. Now gently stir in your chocolate chips.



Butter and flour an 8-inch square (or round) baking pan. I would recommend using a metal pan--they are definitely better for evenly baking cakes. I used a glass pan so that you could better see the results.



Pour your cake batter into the pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. The batter smelled chocolaty and was a beautiful dark brown.



It came out of the oven puffed up and shiny. Perfect!



That puffiness is why I added the vinegar. The recipe called didn't call for eggs or baking powder and it made me nervous. Anyone who has ever made a volcano (or Red Velvet Cake) knows the power of baking soda mixed with vinegar.



After cooling for ten minutes, I turned out the cake onto a plate. One of my red xmas plates that we only use on Thanksgiving or xmas...or when I want a cake to look pretty. Red is also my mother-in-laws favorite color.



I really wanted the flavor of the cake to stand out and not be overwhelmed by frosting or ganache so I whipped up a bit of chocolate icing. Just powdered sugar mixed with a little cocoa and milk. You can make as much or as little as you like. If I end up choosing this eggless cake to make for my mother-in-law I will cover it in chocolate ganache. (I didn't exactly measure the icing ingredients, but I used two heaping 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, about 1/4 cup of cocoa, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and enough milk to make it runny.)



Cool cake completely before icing.



The verdict? This cake was really rich with an incredible deep chocolate taste. It was also surprisingly moist. I thought it would turn out dry and flat, but it was a damn near perfect chocolate cake! I will definitely make it again. Oh, and without eggs in it you can sample the batter all you want. :)




Both monkeys said that the cake was "awesome" and ate two pieces each.



Enjoy!!