I am going to try this.

One of the news feeds on Yahoo this morning talked about this cake.

This is the famous Red Velvet Cake. I know this from my youth. One of my aunt's on my dad's side used to make it for family picnics. She made it in a 9 x 13 pan which would cause purists to gag. But it was easier to eat while sitting on the swing set at the park. I can't remember her name. I can see her face but her name eludes me.

Anyway, the author of the article states that while this cake was probably invented at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, it was adopted and perfected by "the South". The author stated that a friend of hers said there are 8 rules for making the perfect Red Velvet Cake.

1. The cake must have some cocoa, but not too much because it is not a chocolate cake.

2. The cake must have red food coloring; beet juice does not add the right kind of red. [BEET juice? I have seen recipes for this cake but I don't ever recall one that asked for beet juice. Wouldn't that leave a flavor?]

3. The cake must have cream cheese frosting. [I don't really care for cream cheese frosting, but, if I'm going to do this 'right', I best make it according to the recipe.]

4. There should be pecans. (This was news to me.) [News to me too because I've never seen photos of the cake with pecans on it.]

5. You must use high-quality ingredients, including White Lily flour, a Southern specialty flour.

6. Precise measurements and meticulous attention to detail are key for this cake; therefore, it must be made in small, easy-to handle, family-sized batches. (Mass-produced batter just doesn't cut it. Sorry, large-scale bakeries.)

7. You must use a hand-held electric mixer, not a stand mixer: Larger machines can over-mix the batter, which sometimes prevents the cake from rising properly.

8. Red velvet cake batter needs vegetable oil, not butter or shortening. Oil yields a very moist cake.

She went on to print a recipe. After reading this, of course I'm going to have to try it. 

Paula Deen’s Red Velvet Cupcakes from Food Network

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons red food coloring
• 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with cupcake papers. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 pound cream cheese, softened
• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• Chopped pecans and fresh raspberries or strawberries, for garnish

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.

Garnish with chopped pecans, fresh raspberry or strawberry, or sprinkles.

I like that these are cupcakes which I can bring to the office. Yes, there will be photographs. 

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb

It can only go up, right?

This morning.

It's a brilliant blue sky, the kind of clarity you wish would happen in the summer. Lose the haze of city life and just be this clear, please?

With clear comes cold. There's no cloud cover to keep in the heat and all this snow just reflects heat back. There's a draft in the house, very small, but there nonetheless. I guess I can't keep all the winter chill out.

And today was milk delivery day. You still can't get to the front steps. Over the warmer weekend predicted, I'll deal with that. So, I moved the milk box off the front steps and next to the mailbox. I needed, in addition to the milk and water I always get, salted butter. Oberweis is having a sale on ice cream quarts, buy 3 get 1 free. There are some days where ice cream is the only thing that matters. Vanilla, Strawberry, Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Peanut Butter. It was so hard to choose.

I brought in the ice cream and water. I thought I had blown my hair dry but not completely. The walk around the house netted frozen hair. Back out with lunch and I started up the car and then went to get the butter and the milk. The milk had frozen in the glass jar and broken. It's been a couple years since I had this happen. The butter is fine. I just rinsed it off and stuck it in the freeze, but I'll have to go get milk. I am completely out. And, wouldn't you know, the things I want to eat require milk. So, I will make a quick trip to the grocery after work and get milk...

chocolate sauce, bananas, maraschino cherries, walnuts. Yup. I'm thinking it's a sundae night. What's more appropriate on a frigid winter evening than an ice cream sundae?

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb

A Gift of Special Importance

After several years of exchanging gifts with everyone in the family, we went to a draw names gift exchange. With spouses, it was getting kind of out of hand for us. Usually, around Thanksgiving, someone would volunteer to toss everyone's name in the hat and you draw. The only rule was you weren't being assigned an immediate family member's name. Hence, I couldn't get Carole's name. Sometimes, that simply required assigning people names if the draws didn't go quite right. This year, I got my sister. But I decided to, finally, give everyone a present I have had in pieces for 5 years.

When my mother turned 70, we all got together to celebrate. We took her out for dinner and breakfast. After breakfast, she wanted a photo of all her kids and grandkids. We did a shortest to tallest photo but that didn't come out very well. Then someone hit on the idea of climbing the apple tree in the yard. This was the result.

 

I had 5x7's made for everyone and had them matted. That step sat in a bag in my home office for the next 4 years. In November, I finally finished my part of the project. I took vellum, printed everyone's birth date and glued the name and date onto the mat in line with their photo. This was then professionally framed in complimentary colored metal frames. They came out beautifully. 

Upon opening their packages, my siblings and nieces could not remember when the photo was taken. They remember it being taken but not when. 

In the 5 years since this was taken, we have acquired 3 great-grandchildren (a new one just this past Sunday), one on the way and 5 significant others. We're probably about due for another photo but getting everyone together is the problem. It's something to shoot for. I just shouldn't wait 5 years to get the result framed. 

Beverage:  Scottish Blend tea

Deb

Brrrrrrrr

This is cold, even for me.

I usually don't get cold until the air temperature gets into the teens. When you grow up in it, you become acclimatized to it and then, working outdoors as often as I used to do, I just got used to being cold and dressing appropriately.

But dump that wind chill below zero and yes, even I get cold at these temperatures. It was -5 when I got up with a wind out of the west which brought the wind chill to a lovely -25 this morning. There has been a "Wind Chill Warning" out for Chicagoland since about 6 p.m. last night and it's to continue through tomorrow. I think it even looks cold today.

I remember that bitter cold often followed a blizzard so I wasn't surprised when it was announced this was coming. I still haven't completely shoveled off the front steps and now, the bottom snow layer will be frozen. But it's supposed to be in the 40's on Sunday so I'll get to that shoveling over the weekend.

In the meantime, I am so very happy I bought window insulator kits and covered the windows. This was the west office window around 10:30 last Tuesday evening.

My old windows are like sieves sometimes. I need to recaulk them this year. The plastic gave way in the back bedroom and I could feel this river of cold air. I had to duct tape it back down to the sill. Once I did that. the furnace quit running constantly.

I listened to it kick in last night as the temperature plummeted and thought about how much less gas I was using because I have the windows covered. It took a couple of weeks to get it done, but I am so very glad I did it. Occasionally, I run my hand around the windows just to feel nothing. I like that.

Beverage:  Scottish Blend tea

Deb