Almost no Dessert

I was given the assignment for Relief Society (I'm a member of the board) to make a dessert in the crock pot for RS homemaking Wednesday night. I have several Gooseberry Patch recipe books that have just slow cooker recipes. Every one of those books have dessert recipes. Again as always I wanted to wow the people I was cooking for so I looked and looked to see what would be the best sounding thing. Most of the recipes that I was thinking of required 3 eggs, oops, we only had 2 eggs and I didn't have the time to go out to get any.

So I looked again and I found a Carmel pie that the only 2 ingredients were 2 cans of condensed milk and 1 Graham Cracker pie crust. I thought that sounds pretty easy, but wait I don't have a pie crust so I will make one. Than I realized that 1 pie probably couldn't feed all of the women that would be coming. What do you do with that problem? Of course make bars instead of a pie---make the crust thinner and longer and place it in a large pan--problem solved.

The recipe said to coat the slow cooker with cooking spray--we didn't have that so I used Crisco. Than it said to cook on low for 4 hours and very 15 mins stir---opps, they didn't tell me to not get any on the sides and to make sure the bottom was being stirred fairly well--what happened? Well pretty much a mess ensued. The sides of the crock pot had a crust of burnt condensed milk on it that took a sharp knife and very hot water to take it off.

In the middle of the recipe I did notice the dark crust and the smell couldn't escape my husbands astute nose. The middle of the pan was good still, I just now couldn't stir any where near the edges, because I knew if I did the burnt part would get into the recipe and than it would ruin the whole recipe. I didn't have enough time to cook up a different recipe.

While the recipe was cooking, I tasted it to see if it tasted like Carmel---nope so I put about 2 Tsp of  Rogers Golden Syrup (a product only found and sold in Canada---similar to corn syrup).

The crust I ended up making was for one pie but I was able to stretch it into a cake pan just fine. I got the recipe from my Red Betty Crocker recipe book. It's one of my most reliable recipe books

Easy Pie Crust

by Betty Crocker

1 1/3 c Wheat flour

1/3 c oil

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tsp water

Mix the 1st 3 ingredients together like any pie crust and than slowly sprinkle the water in as you are stirring. Place in a cake pan and push down evenly. Poke fork all around the crust to make holes. Cook for 4-5 mins at 350 degrees

I was still concerned that the recipe wasn't going to taste enough like Carmel or sweet enough. When the crust came out of the over to cool, I sprinkled a light layer of brown sugar over it to melt. When the Carmel was done I carefully took it out of the slow cooker making sure I didn't have any of the burnt part. I placed the Carmel in the cooled crust.

I had my husband borrow a cup of chocolate chips from my sister-in-law (she lives right around the corner and she is very kind). He came home with more than a cup of chocolate chips, probably 2 cups and a bar of homemade soap.

I sprinkled 1/2 cup of chips on top of the hot Carmel and let them melt. After awhile the chips melted and I took a knife and spread them around the Carmel so it looked kind of like light layer of frosting. I allowed the "bars" to cool on the counter. I placed them in the fridge to get nice and cold. Just before the meeting I asked if Dan wanted to try my recipe he said without any hesitation "yes"---well the recipe past the husband test and my taste test---incredible sweet, sticky and yummy!!! One of my other sister-in-laws came by, as I was getting ready to leave, with some eggs that she bought from the Hutterite's. I told Dan give her some of the dessert and she said it tasted good but she would like it again with a shortbread crust instead.

After the meeting I had some leftovers so I brought some of them to my friend---she liked the crust that I had made, but she doesn't like shortbread.

Lessons learned?

1) have in mind what recipe you are going to use for an event a number of days before

2) Mom's wisdom "don't try a new recipe for the first time for company, just in case it doesn't work"

3) Give yourself enough time for the recipe just in case something goes wrong and you have to make something else

4) When condensed milk is cooked in the crock pot it becomes yummy Carmel---but it can burn and become very difficult to clean up after

Lesson Learned

Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful for all our blessings, including a home that provides me shelter from the elements. When we moved from Buffalo, we moved from a two story house with a full basement, 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 full kitchens and a two car garage. We now live in a  12 foot by 60 foot trailer. When we left Buffalo we sold or gave away 80% of our belongings. We brought only what we could jam into a 17 foot trailer.

Life in a small trailor can get cramped, especially if you like to play in the kitchen and use all kinds of dishes while cooking. Every time you want to do something you have to move a couple of things to get to what you are looking for---I am sure it would look like a chaotic dance to someone watching me, hmmm, or maybe a comedy.

I have been unemployed since our move to Canada, due to my non resident status. So what do i do with my time? I have three callings at church; Visiting Teacher, Relief Society Board Member, and Primary Teacher (9 and 10 year olds--good group of kids). I also do volunteer work in Lethbridge; Quilts for Canada Society, LDS Employment Center, and YWCA Woman's Shelter.

Along with these activities, I am attempting to become more domesticated. I mean doing more house work---yuck!!! The best part of house work is that I get to cook and bake. Today's adventures in the kitchen started to a very full sink of dishes, a hungry husband and I was hungry too.

The menu consisted of poached eggs and home fries. I have mastered the poached egg but not the cleaning out the pan afterwards. This time remnants of egg stuck to the bottom and sides of the pan---I couldn't get them off for the life of me. I tried every thing that we had--finally what worked was using my finger nails---yuck, no wonder I don't like house work.

A couple of nights ago I boiled some potatoes to use the next day in a potatoe salad that didn't get made. So this morning I remembered the boiled potatoes sitting in the refrigerator. Yummy, yummy!!! They made perfect home fries, nice and brown and crisp. The best part of this dish was that my husband really enjoyed it.

So like every day I washed the night befores dishes and this morning dishes after Dan left for work. Today was the big day that I would choose with Dan's help what dish I would make and bring to the "get to know you", relief society activity. This would be my first RS activity since we moved to our new community so it was pretty important to me to make a good impression. In my mind I had to make some thing that would be one of a kind and taste so fabulous that every one would be impressed with my cooking prowess. It was also the first time I would be meeting the sister in charge of the  of RS board which I'm a part of---no stress at all.

Remember rule one to "fascinating womanhood"(I haven't actually read the whole book) 1- always look impeckably beautiful. 2 - cook so well that every one wants a copy of your recipe.

So Tuesday was spent thumbing through cook books that have beautiful pictures of food that any and every one would druel over. I still needed to choose "the ONE". I finally found the recipe---oh yeah, peach strudel coffee cake. I would bake it in a glass pan to really show case the beauty of the master piece.

My mom used to tell me that "baking is like a chemistry lab and if you follow the directions of the recipe and place every thing in the right propotions than every thing should work out." She really stressed that cakes were one of those very difficult recipes where you needed to adhear to exact measurements. Today I decided to be creative and make the recipe mine, not just the cookbooks authors---what would they say at the activity'.....hmmmmm----in my imaginiation "oh you're so creative." "Hmmm, oh my heck this is ambrosia" "You re-invented this recipe---boy I wish I was that creative, sigh" "Oh please can you give me the recipe"

So off I went with an idea in my head. Change the white flour to half wheat and half corn meal---oh yeah. Than instead of using 2 fresh, firm peaches use two of the ones that I recently froze---oh yeah than I could really look domestic. So what happened?

When peaches thaw they are a bit, should I say soggy? Well the recipe was supposed to be done in 45 minutes in the oven. It took over 1 hour and 30 min when I finally gave up and took the pan out of the oven, knowing fully well that it wasn't fully cooked and would never be fully cooked, in my life time without causing a fire of some sort.

In the end I decided to make muffins--doughnut muffins--very simple, but they would have to do, hey my husband likes them so if no one liked them at the RS activity at least I knew they would be eaten at home.

Lesson learned---listen to mom, don't try to change a recipe that is supposed to be a cake, well it's ok to change a couple of ingredients I guess---maybe it wasn't a lesson that I learned after all---more adventures to follow and the recipe that I finally settled on.

Doughnut Muffins

This is recipe that I finally settled on for a Relief Society activity. My husband and I really have enjoyed these easy to make muffins. They kind of remind me of mini plain fried doughnuts. This recipe is healthier than the doughnuts though.

 At the RS activity the ladies really enjoyed the muffins, some took extras home for their families

2 cups wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup and 1/8 cup milk (if you are using white flour, you will only need 3/4 cup of flour)
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup cinnamon-sugar mixture

Grease muffin pans. Preheat oven 400 degrees

Mix first four ingredients together. Set aside

Beat sugar and shortening and add eggs and vanilla--beat well. Set aside

Stir dry and wet ingredients together. Add all milk and mix well

Bake for 17 minutes

Brush tops of muffins with melted butter and spinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Serves about 12