Mushrooms

I was happy to see that the mushroom growers had reformulated the common white mushroom sold in supermarkets so that, according to the label, they are "now with 100% Vitamin D."

Really.

The label did say that.

How to make a star-shaped cake

To make a star-shaped cake without using a star-shaped cake pan, you need two round cake pans. Mine were both 9-in. pans, but it would probably work better if one was an 8-inch pan and the other was 9-inches.
Cut a pentagon shape on one of the circles (the smaller one, if you have a smaller one). Use a ruler to make all the sides the same length.
Cut six pie shapes from the other round cake. I used a protractor to get them all the same size.
Trim off the rounded edge on the pie shapes and then put them together along the flat sides of the pentagon shape. This photo still has the rounded edges on the pie shapes since I was actually doing a differently shaped cake. The frosting will hide all the seams quite nicely.
This was the cake I was trying to make--Ft. McHenry of Star-Spangled Banner fame--before it got frosted. As you can see, this is a variation of a star-shaped cake.

In praise of peanut butter

Let us all sing songs in praise of peanut butter. Besides being the almost perfect food (unless you are allergic to peanuts, of course), peanut butter is a very good cleaner for some sticky items. Actually it is probably the peanut oil that is the cleaner, but we are more likely to have jars of peanut butter than peanut oil sitting around the house. So let's just talk about the cleaning properties of peanut butter. If you have a glass object with a sticky mess left on it from a sales sticker or a label, you can rub peanut butter on it and it will remove the sticky mess. Then you just wash the item in hot, soapy water, or put it in the dishwasher. Peanut butter will remove tar and other nasty sticky things from hands and other items. When we went camping recently, one child said, "What's this, Mommy?" and showed me hands and arms covered with pine gum or pine sap. I washed him with soap and water, but he was still sticky. "Use peanut butter," said Daddy. I didn't have any peanut butter, but I did have a leftover peanut butter sandwich. I opened the sandwich, rubbed it all over the little boy's arms and hands, washed him all off, and the pine gum was gone. What is even better, is that the peanut butter used in cleaning can be old, generic, rancid, non-organic, and cheap. We keep a jar of this stuff under the kitchen sink just to be used for cleaning.

Slow cooker tip

(Note: I'm sure everyone knows this, but I must have missed the class/email/blog post/etc. where it was published.)

Before you put any of the ingredients into your slow cooker (crock pot), lightly spray the inside with a cooking spray, such as Pam. Then, when you are done with cooking and have removed the leftovers, the slow cooker will come clean with minimal effort.

I have cooked food in it all day, served the meal, let the dirty dish sit on the counter for at least three hours without any rinsing or soaking, and then washed it completely clean with some hot, soapy water and a dishcloth and plastic scrubber. Before I discovered this, I dreaded having to scrub and soak and scrub the slow cooker. I often would let it sit all night filled with soapy water with the hope that it would somehow magically come clean the next day: it wouldn't and I was back to more scrubbing.

Monthly menu recipes

It appears that I'm not the only person suffering through menu "block." So, over the next few weeks I'll try and post some recipes that I have tried and that worked for us. Some of them may come from the cookbook and have just been rediscovered. Here's the first one:

Pulled pork sandwiches
3 lbs. boneless pork loin or boneless pork chops (about 6 thick chops)
1 package McCormick slow cooker "pulled pork" seasoning

Follow the instructions on the seasoning package to cook the meat (it involves mixing cider vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar, and the seasoning). I started with frozen pork chops and cooked the meat in the slow cooker for about 8 hours. After the meat is cooked, pull out any fat that hadn't already been cut off the meat previously. Shred the meat using two forks. Mix back in with the sauce, adding about 1/2 cup of water if necessary. Serve on buns. I used the Hamburger Bun recipe since I had some time while I was waiting for the electrician and the drywall guy. I will probably see if I can find another source or recipe for a seasoning (Penzey's?) so I don't have to rely on a package.

Hamburger Buns
1 Tb. yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup milk, scalded and cooled (or 1/3 cup powdered milk and hot water to make 1 cup)
1/2 cup margarine or butter, melted
2 Tb. sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
4-3/4 cups flour (can use 1 cup whole wheat flour)
Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water. Combine milk, butter, sugar, salt, eggs, and half of flour. Beat for 2 minutes. Beat in remaining flour and knead until smooth and elastic. Cover and rise to double in bulk. Punch down and form 2-inch balls. Place on greased cookie sheets. Press flat with hand. Let rise almost double (30 minutes). You can brush the tops with 1 egg and 1 tsp. water (or egg yolk and milk) combined to make a wash. Sprinkle with sesame, celery, caraway, poppy seeds, or dried onion flakes. Bake 15 minutes at 375°. Cool about 5 minutes and turn out on rack. Can freeze finished buns.

Monthly menu

I'm still working on the menu for the month of May and have a few gaps that need to be filled. I need some new ideas for main dishes for dinner. Do you have a recipe you discovered in the last year that you now make almost every month or so? Please help.

Breakfast ideas?

In order for me to have time to exercise (from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m.), Kirk has been fixing breakfasts most days. So, here's the typical breakfasts for Monday through Friday: cold cereal, oatmeal, cold cereal, oatmeal, cold cereal. Then, if we are busy on Saturday and have early morning meetings and church on Sunday, it might be cold cereal two more days. I should note that the cereal is Shredded Wheat, Chex, or Cheerios, so it is pretty healthy considering everything. Occasionally, Kirk might do French toast or cinnamon toast. The problem is that none of the children like or will eat cold cereal, so I usually have yogurt or toast as an option when they get up. If I have time or don't have my exercise class then, of course, we get more variety with muffins, pancakes, or waffles. I was wondering if you have any ideas for "instant" breakfasts that I could bring into the mix.

Two tips

These were two tips that Mom probably told everyone. She read them on another blog.

1. Make all the sandwiches for sack lunches for a week or two and then freeze them. Becky says this works when they do it. PB&J works fine, as does some meat and cheese, if you aren't too fussy about frozen/thawed cheese.
2. Take all the clothes from one child and wash them in one load. You can use a cold water wash if there is anything that will bleed. Then you don't have to sort and wash and then sort again. I've sort of tried this with some children's clothing and it does make it easier. I remember this used to be called a "throw up load" when we were growing up (as in, after the kid throws up, you take everything and wash it all together).

Perfect Cookies

I recently started to read a book on the search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. I saw two suggestions that were interesting: (1) if you want to have a cooked, but soft, cookie, substitute about 2 Tb. of corn syrup for 2 Tb. of the sugar; (2) you can reduce the amount of shortening by 1/5. I tried this in a chocolate chip cookie and didn't notice too much of a change, probably because I used a recipe that included oat flour and that always does different things to cookies. Then I tried it with a standard peanut butter cookie. For the 1 cup of fat, I used 1/2 cup butter and 1/3 cup shortening. I substituted the corn syrup for part of the white sugar. I baked the cookies for 11 minutes and could have gone a bit longer. Now, even a day later, the cookies are still crisp around the edges and soft inside. These cookies always went hard on me by the time they cooled. If you try these techniques, what happens to your cookies? Is is different close to sea level versus a high altitude?