It Came From Outer Space!

Jiggly, gelatinous, jaunty?  Hard to know exactly how to describe it... we were visited this week by...

THE BLOB.

It came from outer space, I swear!  Or, well, it might have come out of a saucepan that somehow found itself on the stove top in my kitchen.  The really odd thing is, this is how I was hoping it would turn out!  Yes, hard to believe that a big white gelatinous glob was actually a desirable result, but there it is.  

This was actually the first step in a frosting recipe I made this week.  Called simply "Rich Vanilla Frosting," it began by combining milk and flour in a sealed container and shaking them together.  Then I was to cook it until thickened, and chill at least 2 hours in a "small bowl."  Finally it was added to a butter, sugar, and vanilla mixture, one-fourth at a time.  

The resulting frosting was actually fairly good, tasting much more like a whipped frosting than a standard butter-cream.  I really only had a couple problems with it.   First of all, the blob didn't completely dissolve in the butter/sugar, and small pieces could be seen in the end product.  Didn't seem to affect the taste, much, so that was good!   The other issue was another problem with texture, and this was that the sugar (plain granulated) also didn't really dissolve in the butter, leaving a grainy texture to the overall recipe.  If I make this again, I will probably try a finer grain sugar, and maybe beat it longer after adding the "blobby" part.  

This frosting recipe was part of a "Buster Brown Cake" recipe I found online.  I had never heard of a Buster Brown cake, and since I was needing to make something to take to a scrapbooking night I thought I'd try a new recipe! The flavor was very good, but the texture was a little crumbly and sticky, resulting in a collapsed, crumbly mess when I took it out of the pan.  

Luckily, I had also portioned some of the batter into cupcake papers, and did manage to salvage a few for the party.  They didn't quite form normal, pretty cupcakes, either, and the frosting, while tasting good, didn't spread very smoothly.  The recipe I used showed the cupcakes with nice piped frosting, and it probably would have worked better that way, but I ran out of time.  Maybe next time. 

If you're interested in trying this unique recipe yourself, I found it at this website.

  

Branching Out

So I've decided to both widen and narrow my horizons.  This blog is feeling a little disjointed, so I am planning to open a new blog dedicated to our travels.  It is titled "A Weekend Wanderlust" and can be found here.

This will widen the number of my blogs, but narrow this one back to mostly baking and the fur-babies.

Speaking of which...

 So the other night we decided to make a campfire in our fire-pit in the back yard.  We brought hot dogs, buns, giant marshmallows, and all the makings for s'mores.  Ember was thrilled to be outside with us for once,  rather than outside by herself.  She got to eat a hot dog, and was even sitting right up next to the fire pit.  (She used to cower in the corner of the yard when we had a fire!)


I thought the fire was particularly lovely, and tried to snap some photos of it... hard to do in the dark and with the movement of the flames, but I got a couple pics.


As I mentioned above, Ember doesn't like being outside alone.  In the mornings, she knows my routine well enough to know when I'm getting ready to leave for work.  She will then put herself to "bed" (in the bathroom), preferring to be locked up all day rather than stay out in the nice big back yard.

Last night we were watching Ghostbusters, and heard an eerie sound coming from outside.  Really, I mean the hairs on my arms stood straight up, it was that chilling! Well, it was the dog. Silly pup thinks that when she hears a siren in the distance it's some other lonely dog crying out it's sorrow, and she feels the need to communicate back with it!  She only does this when she thinks she's alone, and it's funny but creepy, too.  Wish I could get it recorded- it would make a great Halloween sound effect!