Randomness

So today I'm feeling random.  I am discovering having a blog is a lot more work than I thought it would be! You have to have something interesting to say, which I'm sure I usually don't! :)  And you have to remember to take pictures of absolutely everything.   But in spite of all this, I'm going to keep chugging away at it!

Ok, so today is just a collection of shorter blurbs I haven't really had time or inclination to blog about on longer posts.  First of all, I'd like to say...

I did it!!  Finally, I succeeded in making a red velvet cake that didn't collapse, was nicely red, and actually tasted good! (ok, I thought it tasted a little bit too much like red food coloring, but none of my taste testers thought it tasted funny). I used Paula Deen's red velvet cupcake recipe, which included oil (yes I know I swore I wouldn't make another recipe with oil in it, but I figured Paula must know what she was doing) and only a teaspoon of cocoa rather than the 1-2 tablespoons other recipes had called for.  Here's the link:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/red-velvet-cupcakes-with-cream-cheese-frosting-recipe/index.html

And here's some pics...

Really pretty, if I do say so myself, when the cream cheese frosting was added and the cake layered.   I couldn't get over the feeling that there was too much red coloring flavor and not much cocoa.  So I made the recipe again, into cupcakes this time, with half the coloring and twice the cocoa.  It was still pretty red and tasted much better! 

And while on the subject of baking, I tried these "healthy brownies" the other day... and while yes the recipe does say "healthy" in the name it's really surprisingly good!  Here's the recipe: http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/healthy-makeover-brownies-recipe

And the pic:

Now the recipe calls for coffee (which I don't drink) and a lot more sugar than I would like to add to "healthy" recipes.  So I left out the coffee and cut the sugar in half, using Splenda in place of the extra sugar.  The recipe claims the calories per brownie are 95, but my version cut it down to a slender 70 calories each! 

Now I need to throw in a few notes about Splenda.  In the future, if I'm not eating these brownies all on the day they're made, I will probably use all the sugar after all.  I love Splenda in moist foods (oatmeal, hot chocolate, apple crisp or pies, etc) but when making you really need some of the chemical processes from normal sugar.  Sugar contributes to browning and moisture content, and so, lacking the full amount of sugar, these brownies dried out pretty quickly.  They also had a more cake-like texture rather than the chewy texture I  really like.  The granulated splenda is like 80% air, so it fizzes and bubbles when added to liquids, and contributes a little bit of leavening in baked goods.  Cookies and brownies will end up much more like a cake or muffin texture because of this fact.  So even when trying to cut back, it's better to go no more than 1/2 and 1/2, or less, when substituting splenda so that you maintain some of the original texture.  And no matter what they say about measuring cup-for-cup, I find that I usually want to add more Splenda than I would sugar.  

But they had a very good flavor.  

So... next random subject: Puppy Dog!  Yes, I am like a proud mommy with my little "fur-baby" so that it seems like everything she does is so smart, so cute, and picture and blog- worthy.  So first off, the other day we went shopping and picked up a new puppy...

Just kidding.  Ember didn't like being in the bag very much, but it made a cute picture.  (Don't worry, no puppies were harmed in the making of this photo)

Ember really is funny, though.  The other day I was trying to make fondant for the "Great Cake Challenge" (I really need a more creative name for that, if anyone has any suggestions!) and Ember thought she'd "help"... basically by licking up any powdered sugar that fell on the floor.  In the process she ended up covered with the sugar herself!  Silly puppy!!


Random topic #4: Weather.  So the other night we had storms roll through.  Actually, they never did make it to our house but there were tornado warnings south of us and the sky was looking very threatening... and a very strange orangey color!
  

 So it was fun to look at the cool clouds and orange sky.  It's a better color than green, unless, of course, you're planning on a tornado-chasing excursion.


Not that I would ever do such a thing....

Maybe we shouldn't mention this discussion to my dad- might bring up bad memories...

Hmmm.

ANYway, back to the subject at hand.

Another fun weather phenomenon... this morning on my way to work there were two rainbow fragments hanging in the sky! I could only get one to show up on the camera... but there were two, I swear it!!


So there are my random thoughts for today.  Hopefully later this week I'll put together a more organized post!