Good morning, all! I hope everybody is doing well on
this beautiful Sunday morning. Snow on the ground
here and very cold, but the sun is shining. Thanks
to Jill and Wayne for the praline suggestions. I
stirred the pralines pretty constantly when it was
boiling, and although the family thinks they're fine,
I think they're a bit on the grainy side, just as
suggested.

I'm baking a HUGE cake right now. I bought a 12"
round pan a week ago at the cake store that was going
out of business and I am just now putting it to use.
I'm getting some experience with the Hershey's
Perfectly Chocolate cake, so I did it. I increased
the recipe by 50%, and that is just the first! I'm
waiting right now for it to cool a bit and then I'll
go for round two. That will be a total of three
times bigger than what I usually make! I didn't have
the flower nail to put in the center to conduct heat,
and I was nervous about that. After 25 minutes the
cake was still way wet, so I put it back for another
10 minutes. Going like this, it took 55 minutes to
bake.

I'm hoping to slice the two layers in two and end up
with a four layer cake. After the next layer gets
comes out of the oven, I'm going into town to rent a
cement mixer to make the icing.

Michael

On 23 Jan 2005 08:50:14 -0800, "Michael" >
wrote:

>Good morning, all! I hope everybody is doing well on
>this beautiful Sunday morning. Snow on the ground
>here and very cold, but the sun is shining. Thanks
>to Jill and Wayne for the praline suggestions. I
>stirred the pralines pretty constantly when it was
>boiling, and although the family thinks they're fine,
>I think they're a bit on the grainy side, just as
>suggested.
>
>I'm baking a HUGE cake right now. I bought a 12"

I'm watching what I eat (with the help of http://209.48.219.53).
Lunch is a quick, light soup of (canned, low sodium) chicken broth,
brown rice, and (frozen) mixed vegetables. I'll have a pear later in
the afternoon. Homemade pizza on the menu for supper and steamed
asparagus for a vegetable.

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

Michael wrote:
> Good morning, all! I hope everybody is doing well on
> this beautiful Sunday morning. Snow on the ground
> here and very cold, but the sun is shining. Thanks
> to Jill and Wayne for the praline suggestions. I
> stirred the pralines pretty constantly when it was
> boiling, and although the family thinks they're fine,
> I think they're a bit on the grainy side, just as
> suggested.
>
> Michael

You are welcome for the suggestions (I dated a Cajun for a number of years)
and you make very pretty cakes, Michael. I'm about to prepare a pot of
cream of broccoli soup which will feed me for a couple of days. The recipe
is this (you can use frozen spinach rather than broccoli):

16 oz. frozen broccoli, thawed
6 Tbs. butter
1/4 c. finely chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic
5 Tbs. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
dash or two of ground pepper
dash ground nutmeg
2 c. milk
1 can chicken broth

Steam the broccoli until tender; drain well. In a deep pot, saute the onion
and garlic in the butter, then stir in the flour until blended. Add the
milk and cook until smooth. Add the milk and chicken broth. Season with
salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. Heat through. Serve with a nice hot
crusty bread.

Jill

"Michael" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Good morning, all! I hope everybody is doing well on
> this beautiful Sunday morning. Snow on the ground
> here and very cold, but the sun is shining. Thanks
> to Jill and Wayne for the praline suggestions. I
> stirred the pralines pretty constantly when it was
> boiling, and although the family thinks they're fine,
> I think they're a bit on the grainy side, just as
> suggested.
>
> I'm baking a HUGE cake right now. I bought a 12"
> round pan a week ago at the cake store that was going
> out of business and I am just now putting it to use.
> I'm getting some experience with the Hershey's
> Perfectly Chocolate cake, so I did it. I increased
> the recipe by 50%, and that is just the first! I'm
> waiting right now for it to cool a bit and then I'll
> go for round two. That will be a total of three
> times bigger than what I usually make! I didn't have
> the flower nail to put in the center to conduct heat,
> and I was nervous about that. After 25 minutes the
> cake was still way wet, so I put it back for another
> 10 minutes. Going like this, it took 55 minutes to
> bake.
>
> I'm hoping to slice the two layers in two and end up
> with a four layer cake. After the next layer gets
> comes out of the oven, I'm going into town to rent a
> cement mixer to make the icing.
>
> Michael
>
Is there a military base near you? FBS, a cook in the Navy, says they use
cement mixers to make smashed taters. Maybe you can borrow one if you bring
cookie back a piece of cake.
-Ginny

Michael wrote:
> Good morning, all! I hope everybody is doing well on
> this beautiful Sunday morning. Snow on the ground
> here and very cold, but the sun is shining. Thanks
> to Jill and Wayne for the praline suggestions. I
> stirred the pralines pretty constantly when it was
> boiling, and although the family thinks they're fine,
> I think they're a bit on the grainy side, just as
> suggested.
>
> I'm baking a HUGE cake right now. I bought a 12"
> round pan a week ago at the cake store that was going
> out of business and I am just now putting it to use.
> I'm getting some experience with the Hershey's
> Perfectly Chocolate cake, so I did it. I increased
> the recipe by 50%, and that is just the first! I'm
> waiting right now for it to cool a bit and then I'll
> go for round two. That will be a total of three
> times bigger than what I usually make! I didn't have
> the flower nail to put in the center to conduct heat,
> and I was nervous about that. After 25 minutes the
> cake was still way wet, so I put it back for another
> 10 minutes. Going like this, it took 55 minutes to
> bake.
>
> I'm hoping to slice the two layers in two and end up
> with a four layer cake. After the next layer gets
> comes out of the oven, I'm going into town to rent a
> cement mixer to make the icing.
>
> Michael
>

Sounds like you're having a good day! As for here, finally got the
driveway and walks cleared. After doing the ribs on the WSM yesterday
I'm bein' a bum and just doing an old fashioned pot roast today. Good
comfort food for the games and pretty low maintenance.

<Go Steelers!> (Hopefully anyhow)

--
Steve

Ever wonder about those people who spend $2.00 apiece on those little
bottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backwards...

eggs and bacon for brunch. runny over toast with some dill sauce. yum.


Michael wrote in message
. com>...
>Good morning, all! I hope everybody is doing well on
>this beautiful Sunday morning. Snow on the ground
>here and very cold, but the sun is shining. Thanks
>to Jill and Wayne for the praline suggestions. I
>stirred the pralines pretty constantly when it was
>boiling, and although the family thinks they're fine,
>I think they're a bit on the grainy side, just as
>suggested.
>
>I'm baking a HUGE cake right now. I bought a 12"
>round pan a week ago at the cake store that was going
>out of business and I am just now putting it to use.
>I'm getting some experience with the Hershey's
>Perfectly Chocolate cake, so I did it. I increased
>the recipe by 50%, and that is just the first! I'm
>waiting right now for it to cool a bit and then I'll
>go for round two. That will be a total of three
>times bigger than what I usually make! I didn't have
>the flower nail to put in the center to conduct heat,
>and I was nervous about that. After 25 minutes the
>cake was still way wet, so I put it back for another
>10 minutes. Going like this, it took 55 minutes to
>bake.
>
>I'm hoping to slice the two layers in two and end up
>with a four layer cake. After the next layer gets
>comes out of the oven, I'm going into town to rent a
>cement mixer to make the icing.
>
>Michael
>
>




----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! >100,000 Newsgroups
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In article >,
"jmcquown" > wrote:

> I'm about to prepare a pot of
> cream of broccoli soup which will feed me for a couple of days.

Hmmmm. Cream of broccoli soup! I have broccoli, cream, milk, onions,
chicken stock.... hmmmmm.

Priscilla

--
"It is very, very dangerous to treat any human, lowest
of the low even, with contempt and arrogant whatever.
The Lord takes this kind of treatment very, very personal."
- QBaal in newsgroup alt.religion.christian.episcopal

Michael wrote:

> Good morning, all! I hope everybody is doing well on
> this beautiful Sunday morning. Snow on the ground
> here and very cold, but the sun is shining. Thanks
> to Jill and Wayne for the praline suggestions. I
> stirred the pralines pretty constantly when it was
> boiling, and although the family thinks they're fine,
> I think they're a bit on the grainy side, just as
> suggested.
> I'm baking a HUGE cake right now.

I remember cake... Saw Giana L. make stuffed shells on TV last week,
sounded like a fun shape of food and I always wind up breaking the
lasagna shells. The filling uses a little mint which sounds weird to me,
but I tasted the filling and the mint lends a perky little freshness or
something. Course I didn't have any pancetta (and too far to drive to
the specialty market) so I used bacon. Pork is good. And fresh basil &
mint is gone for a month or two so I used half as much dried. Chocolate
mint was all I had. The flat leafed parsley is pretty hardy; I went out
and cut some. The daffodils are poking up already. I'll assemble all the
stuff and refrigerate it until Ol'Whiskerface wakes up. Hope this stuff
tastes as good as it looks after substituting half the ingredients out.
Bottle of New Mexico red wine with. I mentioned I was waiting for New
Mexico to produce a red wine I like - they said NM has been producing
wine for 400 years. A sip of wine helps the foot slide down easier.
Edrena

In article . com>,
"Michael" > wrote:

> I'm hoping to slice the two layers in two and end up
> with a four layer cake. After the next layer gets
> comes out of the oven, I'm going into town to rent a
> cement mixer to make the icing.
>
> Michael
>

Oooooh, I want to hear about how it went when you moved half of the 12"
round off the other half for filling. And how you got it back on in one
piece.

Get a sacrificial terrycloth bath towel and cut it into long strips the
height of the pan (1-1/2 or 2 inches, probably). You want a long
strip, well wet and squeezed out, to wrap around the pan before you fill
it and put it in the oven. You'll probably have to pin the terry
strips together with a straight pin (vertically placed). This will slow
down the baking at the edges of the cake and will eliminate any hump in
the middle.
--
-Barb, <www.jamlady.eboard.com> Trip Report and pics added 1-13-05
"I read recipes the way I read science fiction: I get to the end and
say,'Well, that's not going to happen.'" - Comedian Rita Rudner,
performance at New York, New York, January 10, 2005.

"Michael" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Good morning, all! I hope everybody is doing well on
> this beautiful Sunday morning. Snow on the ground
> here and very cold, but the sun is shining. Thanks
> to Jill and Wayne for the praline suggestions. I
> stirred the pralines pretty constantly when it was
> boiling, and although the family thinks they're fine,
> I think they're a bit on the grainy side, just as
> suggested.

You could always send your portion this way....they'd go well with the
chocolate caramel cake I'm making!
>
> I'm baking a HUGE cake right now. I bought a 12"
> round pan a week ago at the cake store that was going
> out of business and I am just now putting it to use.
> I'm getting some experience with the Hershey's
> Perfectly Chocolate cake, so I did it. I increased
> the recipe by 50%, and that is just the first! I'm
> waiting right now for it to cool a bit and then I'll
> go for round two. That will be a total of three
> times bigger than what I usually make! I didn't have
> the flower nail to put in the center to conduct heat,
> and I was nervous about that. After 25 minutes the
> cake was still way wet, so I put it back for another
> 10 minutes. Going like this, it took 55 minutes to
> bake.
>
> I'm hoping to slice the two layers in two and end up
> with a four layer cake. After the next layer gets
> comes out of the oven, I'm going into town to rent a
> cement mixer to make the icing.
>
> Michael


Wow, big cake! I hope you're having plenty of company to help eat it?
I love the Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate cake. If you like that one, you'll
also like the Black Magic cake and/or the Deep Dark Chocolate cake. What
icing are you making for this one? Last summer I made it with a chocolate
mousse filling and used that to ice it as well, then poured a thin layer of
ganache over that. Last time though, I used a cream cheese icing. It was
chocolate that time, but I have also made it with orange oil instead of
chocolate, and that is divine.

Let us know how it turns out!

Me, I went to the farmer's market a little while ago and found some
strawberries that were not only red, but sweet and juicy! I was utterly
amazed. So, tonight my daughter and I will be having strawberries with
freshly whipped cream on the flourless chocolate cake I made this morning.
Dinner is field greens with cucumber and tomatoes dressed with a light
citrus pepper vinaigrette (just evoo, lemon juice, blood orange juice, a bit
of balsamic, 1 clove garlic, lots of fresh ground pepper), a beautiful New
York strip that I picked up at Iowa Meat Farms, some corn my aunt canned
last summer, and a roasted artichoke with lemon-garlic-basil sauce. (Mayo
whirred in the blender with fresh basil, 2 cloves garlic, and the juice of
1/2 lemon).
I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

kimberly
>

wow that sounds good i love strawberries and it is hard to find good
ones

On 23 Jan 2005 08:50:14 -0800, "Michael" > wrote:

>After the next layer gets
>comes out of the oven, I'm going into town to rent a
>cement mixer to make the icing.

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!

Carol
--
"Years ago my mother used to say to me... She'd say,
'In this world Elwood, you must be oh-so smart or oh-so pleasant.'
Well, for years I was smart.... I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."

*James Stewart* in the 1950 movie, _Harvey_

On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 18:13:04 GMT, Priscilla Ballou >
wrote:

>In article >,
> "jmcquown" > wrote:
>
>> I'm about to prepare a pot of
>> cream of broccoli soup which will feed me for a couple of days.
>
>Hmmmm. Cream of broccoli soup! I have broccoli, cream, milk, onions,
>chicken stock.... hmmmmm.

I WISH YOU TWO WOULD STOP TALKING DIRTY! *grin* I'm fresh out of milk,
onions, and chicken stock - and can't get out of the driveway. I'll have
to live vicariously through you, I guess.

Carol
--
"Years ago my mother used to say to me... She'd say,
'In this world Elwood, you must be oh-so smart or oh-so pleasant.'
Well, for years I was smart.... I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."

*James Stewart* in the 1950 movie, _Harvey_

On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 12:34:56 -0600, Melba's Jammin'
> wrote:

>In article . com>,
>"Michael" > wrote:
>
>> I'm hoping to slice the two layers in two and end up
>> with a four layer cake. After the next layer gets
>> comes out of the oven, I'm going into town to rent a
>> cement mixer to make the icing.
>>
>> Michael
>
>Oooooh, I want to hear about how it went when you moved half of the 12"
>round off the other half for filling. And how you got it back on in one
>piece.

I'll bet he has one of those pizza peels and will gently slide slice after
slice on top, using that.

Carol
--
"Years ago my mother used to say to me... She'd say,
'In this world Elwood, you must be oh-so smart or oh-so pleasant.'
Well, for years I was smart.... I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."

*James Stewart* in the 1950 movie, _Harvey_

In article >,
wrote:

> On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 12:34:56 -0600, Melba's Jammin'
> > wrote:
>
> >In article . com>,
> >"Michael" > wrote:
> >
> >> I'm hoping to slice the two layers in two and end up
> >> with a four layer cake. After the next layer gets
> >> comes out of the oven, I'm going into town to rent a
> >> cement mixer to make the icing.
> >>
> >> Michael
> >
> >Oooooh, I want to hear about how it went when you moved half of the 12"
> >round off the other half for filling. And how you got it back on in one
> >piece.
>
> I'll bet he has one of those pizza peels and will gently slide slice after
> slice on top, using that.
>
> Carol

I want a movie. He's gotta get it onto the peel first. It's getting
the sliced cake apart and intact that's got me curious.
--
-Barb, <www.jamlady.eboard.com> 2005 Pirohy Marathon pics added 1-23-05.
"I read recipes the way I read science fiction: I get to the end and
say,'Well, that's not going to happen.'" - Comedian Rita Rudner,
performance at New York, New York, January 10, 2005.

On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 17:13:33 -0600, Melba's Jammin'
> wrote:

>In article >,
wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 12:34:56 -0600, Melba's Jammin'
>> > wrote:
>>
>> >Oooooh, I want to hear about how it went when you moved half of the 12"
>> >round off the other half for filling. And how you got it back on in one
>> >piece.
>>
>> I'll bet he has one of those pizza peels and will gently slide slice after
>> slice on top, using that.
>
>I want a movie. He's gotta get it onto the peel first. It's getting
>the sliced cake apart and intact that's got me curious.

Know what he should have done? Poured half the cake batter into the pan,
squooshed a piece of wax paper onto the first layer of batter, then poured
on the rest.

Sheesh! If I drank, I'd cut myself off right about now.

Carol
--
"Years ago my mother used to say to me... She'd say,
'In this world Elwood, you must be oh-so smart or oh-so pleasant.'
Well, for years I was smart.... I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."

*James Stewart* in the 1950 movie, _Harvey_

In article >,
wrote:

> On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 17:13:33 -0600, Melba's Jammin'
> > wrote:
>
> >In article >,
> wrote:
> >
> >> On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 12:34:56 -0600, Melba's Jammin'
> >> > wrote:
> >>
> >> >Oooooh, I want to hear about how it went when you moved half of
> >> >the 12" round off the other half for filling. And how you got it
> >> >back on in one piece.
> >>
> >> I'll bet he has one of those pizza peels and will gently slide
> >> slice after slice on top, using that.

> >I want a movie. He's gotta get it onto the peel first. It's getting
> >the sliced cake apart and intact that's got me curious.

> Know what he should have done? Poured half the cake batter into the
> pan, squooshed a piece of wax paper onto the first layer of batter,
> then poured on the rest.

> Sheesh! If I drank, I'd cut myself off right about now.
>
> Carol

And you'd be two drinks too late. <grin>
--
-Barb, <www.jamlady.eboard.com> 2005 Pirohy Marathon pics added 1-23-05.
"I read recipes the way I read science fiction: I get to the end and
say,'Well, that's not going to happen.'" - Comedian Rita Rudner,
performance at New York, New York, January 10, 2005.

The Joneses wrote:

> Michael wrote:
> I remember cake... Saw Giada make stuffed shells on TV last week,
> sounded like a fun shape of food and I always wind up breaking the
> lasagna shells. The filling uses a little mint which sounds weird to me,
> but I tasted the filling and the mint lends a perky little freshness or
> something. Course I didn't have any pancetta (and too far to drive to
> the specialty market) so I used bacon. Pork is good. And fresh basil &
> mint is gone for a month or two so I used half as much dried. Chocolate
> mint was all I had. The flat leafed parsley is pretty hardy; I went out
> and cut some.

Well, it was edible and tasty but not something I'd do again. It might've
been my fooling with the recipe. It was way too mild for us, we wanted more
herbs, more flavors, etc. I found myself pining for hot italian sausage in
the gravy instead of bacon. Or something. Lots more herbs, twice as much. I
won't make it again. It was pretty tho.
Edrena

Priscilla Ballou wrote:
> In article >,
> "jmcquown" > wrote:
>
>> I'm about to prepare a pot of
>> cream of broccoli soup which will feed me for a couple of days.
>
> Hmmmm. Cream of broccoli soup! I have broccoli, cream, milk, onions,
> chicken stock.... hmmmmm.
>
> Priscilla

It was so good I wound up eating three bowls of it! I also added some
grated cheese - Vermont white cheddar; so I guess it was broccoli cheese
soup

Jill

Ginny asked:

Is there a military base near you?

*************
There is indeed! I work at Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center,
about 15 miles outside of Bloomington.

Michael

Barb wrote:

Oooooh, I want to hear about how it went when you moved half of the 12"

round off the other half for filling. And how you got it back on in one

piece.

***************
Haha! I didn't have the nerve to do it, Barb, so it turned into just
an
ordinary two-level cake. The layers came out about 2 1/2" thick, and
I didn't think I could split that in half. Thank you for the advice on
how
to get the job done, though! Much appreciated.

Michael

Kimberly wrote:

Wow, big cake! I hope you're having plenty of company to help eat it?
I love the Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate cake. If you like that one,
you'll
also like the Black Magic cake and/or the Deep Dark Chocolate cake.
What
icing are you making for this one?

******************
I called the icing "cocoa crunch." It was supposed to be just the
Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Icing, but after I poured the cocoa in
on top of the butter, I decided I needed to melt the butter down a
bit. I microwaved the cocoa along with the butter and a lot of it
hardened up into little chunks that 4 hours of hand-beating (alright,
maybe not quite that long) failed to break up. Cocoa crunch. Gotta
love it.

And thank you for the suggestions on the other cakes. I'll look
around for recipes for them.

Michael

In article >,
"jmcquown" > wrote:

> Priscilla Ballou wrote:
> > In article >,
> > "jmcquown" > wrote:
> >
> >> I'm about to prepare a pot of
> >> cream of broccoli soup which will feed me for a couple of days.
> >
> > Hmmmm. Cream of broccoli soup! I have broccoli, cream, milk, onions,
> > chicken stock.... hmmmmm.
> >
> > Priscilla
>
> It was so good I wound up eating three bowls of it! I also added some
> grated cheese - Vermont white cheddar; so I guess it was broccoli cheese
> soup

Ooooohhh... you're inspiring me. I've got a snow day to cook in.

Priscilla

--
"It is very, very dangerous to treat any human, lowest
of the low even, with contempt and arrogant whatever.
The Lord takes this kind of treatment very, very personal."
- QBaal in newsgroup alt.religion.christian.episcopal

"Michael" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Kimberly wrote:
>
> Wow, big cake! I hope you're having plenty of company to help eat it?
> I love the Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate cake. If you like that one,
> you'll
> also like the Black Magic cake and/or the Deep Dark Chocolate cake.
> What
> icing are you making for this one?
>
> ******************
> I called the icing "cocoa crunch." It was supposed to be just the
> Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Icing, but after I poured the cocoa in
> on top of the butter, I decided I needed to melt the butter down a
> bit. I microwaved the cocoa along with the butter and a lot of it
> hardened up into little chunks that 4 hours of hand-beating (alright,
> maybe not quite that long) failed to break up. Cocoa crunch. Gotta
> love it.
>
> And thank you for the suggestions on the other cakes. I'll look
> around for recipes for them.
>
> Michael

Michael,

The mousse filling/frosting was just made by melting chocolate with a little
bit of cream, allowing to cool a little bit, then folding into whipped
cream. Easy, silky, rich and yummy!
For the cream cheese frosting you need 8 ounces of cream cheese, 1/2 stick
of butter (both softened at room temp), 3-5 cups of powdered sugar, and 1-3
tbsp milk. The variation comes in how soft or stiff you want the icing. To
make it chocolate, melt the butter in the microwave *then* whisk in 1/2 cup
of cocoa. Add to the cream cheese and powdered sugar with 1 tbsp milk. Add
more sugar or milk to adjust consistency.
To make it orange, leave out the chocolate, and don't melt the butter. Just
combine the ingredients, adding orange juice in place of milk, and 1/2 tsp
orange oil OR 1 tsp ornage extract. You can also add fine orange peel as
well.

hope this helps!
kimberly

>