Alphabet Soup

Rum.  Vanilla.  Cake.  What's not to like?  This week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection was made by Wendy of Pink Stripes .  And what a good selection it was! I was able to mix these babies up yesterday while my baby was napping.  Trust me, this is monumental around here.  And while I have a love-affair with my Kitchen Aid mixer, I do like that these cakes are easily mixed up by hand.  I thought about halving the recipe, but really, this is a cake that is just screaming to be shared with friends.  Or maybe eaten in one sitting...no, no, no, definitely shared!  I did follow the recipe as written, using vanilla extract instead of the vanilla beans.  And I used half & half instead of the cream.  No particular reason, that's just what I had on hand!  If you like rum, then this is the cake for you!  If you don't like rum, well...there are actually variations listed with the recipe where you can leave the rum out.  Myself?  I like the rum flavor!  The texture of the c

Scones.  I love them.  I don't think I ever actually tried one until I was in college.  I've mentioned before that they are fun and easy to make.  Really, they are!  And when I saw a recipe for chocolate chip mini scones in my King Arthur Flour catalog, I knew I had to try them.  The original recipe is actually called " Scone Nibbles " because you are supposed to cut the baked scones in half once again, making tiny bite-sized pieces.  I skipped that last step, because they are just the right size in my opinion.  Otherwise, I actually follwed the recipe as written.  The recipe also calls for coating them in a glaze after they cool.  This not only adds an extra sweetness (but not too much!) but it also helps keeps the scones fresh for a longer time.  However, you probably won't have to worry about that, because they are so good they seem to disappear!  My family devoured the ones I made.  I also got inspired by Ree, the Pioneer Woman , to make some mini vanilla

It may be hard to notice, but I've been playing around with my blog again.  I'm trying to learn how to use the features of Blogger a little better, and in the process hoping to make visiting my blog a better experience for everyone!  I've even created a new Welcome Page for the blog.  Go...check it out...let me know what you think! If you have any tips, tricks, or suggestions please let me know, either in the comments or by emailing me at alphabet.soup at live dot com.  Also, if you notice that anything on my blog has gotten all out of whack, let me know that too!

Tuesday night, it took me two hours to prepare supper. And I've been complaining about it ever since! "Why did it take me two hours? It shouldn't have taken two hours! It's crazy..." My apologies to Christi and D for going on and on about it, lol. At first glance, it shouldn't have taken that long. Yes, D was getting home late that night. Yes, I had a two-year-old sous chef helping me. But I was just making chicken strips and oven fries. Both of those are rather easy to fix. Oh wait...that's right...I did decide to fix a new recipe -- cheesy garlic swirly rolls. Oh yeah...and then there was the new cookie recipe I just had to try...maybe that's why it took two hours. The chicken strips and oven fries were done at about the same time. Which just happened to be the time that the bread was going in the oven, due to poor planning on my part, apparently. By the time the bread was done, I had to stick the chicken back in the oven to heat it back up (hey, at

Well, after a longer-than-planned hiatus, I am hopefully back in the swing of things. Luckily, this week's TWD pick was rather easy! Cathy of The Tortefeasor chose Tender Shortcakes . Perfect for summertime, if you ask me! These were quick and easy to put together, being essentially a sweet biscuit, and biscuits are something I make frequently. I halved the recipe, and still came out with 8 shortcakes. Dorie must make hers quite large, because the full recipe was supposed to make 10! Hmmm...then again, maybe I should have made mine larger...this way, I could say I only ate one, instead of two. I may have to rethink my strategy next time! Anyway, I probably could have added another spoonful of cream to my dough as it seemed a tad on the crumbly side. However, the end result was just fine - light, tender, sweet, and oh so delicious! Sadly, I did not have any extra cream to whip up to serve with them, so I just had plain strawberries with mine. D stood over the sink and ate his plai

Back in December of 2008, right after I started blogging, I posted about my recipe & cookbook collection . Well, needless to say I've only added to it since then. I've decided that I really need to start pulling more recipes from all those cookbooks and cooking magazines because they are just sitting on shelves and in boxes taking up space. My goal is to *eek* pare them down over the summer. Well, at least the magazines! I've started with a recipe from the most recent issue of Taste of Home's Simple & Delicious. It is a recipe for BBQ ribs in the crockpot. Oddly enough, the post from Dec '08 that I mentioned above also had a recipe for BBQ ribs in the crockpot...and this was not planned! This recipe went over fairly well with my guys. It's just a simple, easy recipe with a rather mild (but good) flavor. You could easily mix up the sauce ingredients the night before to make preparation in the morning even easier. Although the recipe calls for a

Back in March, I was blessed with a wonderful "Girls' Weekend" by my absolute best friend. She thought I needed a break before the baby made his arrival...and she was right!! Christi also wanted to tackle the Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls . See, we had given each other the Pioneer Woman cookbook for Christmas, and these cinnamon rolls were tempting both of us. However, the recipe makes a very large batch, and well...Christi wanted some backup before tackling them by herself. The morning started out with Starbucks. Actually, that's not true. The morning started out with a crazy trip to IHOP, which was conveniently located right by our hotel. Did I mention that I even got to stay in a hotel for my "mama needs a break" weekend? Good stuff, I'm tellin' ya! Anyway, I got the insane idea that we should run to IHOP for a quick breakfast before starting our baking day. Um, quick? Not so much. Oh well, we were having a great time no matter what!! Then w