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Do you ever have the BEST of intentions, and then something happens so that it JUST. DOESN’T. WORK. OUT.
Yeah, me too. But luckily (and by luckily I mean my husband saved the day), this story has a happy ending.
I love to bake, but I don’t love to gain weight from eating things I bake… so I generally try to experiment when giving away food. Luckily I’m a Baptist now so there’s plenty of opportunities for me to bake. I have been eyeing a Key Lime Pound Cake recipe for some time and thought that the spring BBQ at my church was a perfect chance to try it out.
How I found the recipe is kind of weird – and once you hear the story – ironic. I was looking at reviews of my bundt pan and someone mentioned how they had made a key lime pound cake in it. The reviewer talked about how nice it was and how tasty and pretty it was. My baking senses started tingling and I printed out the recipe. What I failed to do was note that the reviewer put straight up butter into the pan to get it to come out. What I also failed to do was take into consideration the 10-cup capacity and the 12-cup recipe.
Oops.
So. After the extra two cups billowed out and snuck down the side of the pan, I thought, hey, I bet I can still save this. No one will look at the bottom of the cake once I invert it onto a beautiful cake stand!
The title of this post is “Key Lime Cakeballs” – you can see where this is going, right?
I couldn’t get the cake out of the pan. It wouldn’t even budge. I started to worry and Justin (my amazing husband) said: Hey, why not just make cake balls? You can do that, right? Except I had never successfully been able to coat the cakeballs. No time like the present to learn! So he looked into the correct way to do the coating (I had not been adding shortening to my melted chocolate chips) and I figured out a way to make the balls. Somehow the cumulation of everyone in the family working together – me to bake, my father-in-law to buy chocolate chips, and my husband to think outside of the box – we ended up with some of the tastiest cake balls I’ve ever had. And since they’re picky and strange and I’ve never seen anything like it… I decided to post the recipe for you. Enjoy!
Key Lime Cakeballs
(adapted from this recipe)
Cake:
1 cup softened salted butter
1/2 cup shortening
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon key lime zest
1/4 cup fresh Key lime juice
Frosting:
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tbsp lime zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
water, as needed
Candy coating:
2 packages Nestle white chocolate chips
5 tbsp shortening
- Preheat oven to 325.
- Mix flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl, set aside.
- Mix butter and shortening in large bowl until creamy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, until just blended.
- Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture, 1/3 of the milk, and repeat until both are fully incorporated into the butter mixture.
- Stir in vanilla, key lime zest and key lime juice.
- Stick your finger in and take a taste because mmm, mmm, mmm!
- Bake at 325 until a toothpick comes out clean. If you bake it in a tube pan (which might be easiest) it will take around 1.5 hours… start testing it at around the 1 hour mark.
- Let cool about 15 minutes in pan, then dump it out and crumble it up so it will cool faster. I just put it in a huge bowl and took a sharp knife to the chunks that I had scooped out.
- While the cake is cooling prepare the frosting. Mix powdered sugar, lime juice and vanilla extract, adding water very slowly until you get sort of a runny glaze.
- Mix the glaze in with the chopped/crumbled cake until well combined.
- Create balls! I used gloves. I got a lot. Probably around 5 dozen, just depends on what size you use. Put them on parchment paper or some sort of baking mat so they don’t stick to stuff.
- Put balls in the freezer to let them firm up a bit.
- While balls are freezing, grab your double broiler (or your glass bowl over a saucepan with water in it) and dump in the chips and shortening. Mix on medium heat until everything is good and melty. Do not boil!! Once it’s melted, it’s good enough. If it starts to get firm, heat it back up until it’s thin. Trust me. Turn off the heat, but keep the pan on the hot burner if you can do so easily. I did, and I think it helped keep the chocolate coating warm.
- Take balls out of the freezer. Make sure that you have a place to put them once they are coated. Think parchment paper or baking mat. Don’t think mouth – that will only work the first dozen times, then it gets more difficult.
- Drop the balls one at a time into the warm candy coating. Here you really need to do what works for you personally… here is what I did: Drop ball in candy coating. Use spoon to cover the ball with candy coating, then pick up the ball out of the candy coating with the spoon and roll the ball onto the edge of a fork. Shake the fork twice to get excess off. Wipe the bottom of the fork off with the spoon, then set the spoon upside down on the edge of the bowl so it can drip. Carry the fork over to the parchment paper, setting the fork down on the parchment paper. Take a toothpick and slide it between the fork and the cakeball so it will gently roll the ball onto the parchment paper. This was the only way I could get the cakeball not to have one side all goopy and gross looking.
- If desired, sprinkle a touch of green sprinkles on top of the cake ball.
- Eat at least 3 and enjoy.
What do you guys think? Does it sound good? It sure tasted good!
A few months ago I started walking to work. It’s a little under 2 miles, so if I leave my house at 4:30 AM I can make it to work with plenty of time to shower and even stretch in the gym. It’s been a good setup – if I follow through with it. But it seems like something always comes up.
First I was sick. Then I slept in. Then I got a weird cyst thing on my right foot. Then I got a blister on my right foot. All of which are things that prevented me – at least a day or two each – of begging out of the jog so my hubby would drive me. A few weeks ago I went to get a mani/pedi with my cousin. Well, the lady took a chunk out of my right heel (literally – a chunk of skin – it’s going to scar). So that prevented me from walking for a few days while I gave it time to heal. Then I was too tired because of the overtime I’m getting at work. Then I get a ride so I can take my work clothes and food in to work with the intention of walking the next day.
It’s always something.
Last night Benjamin, still re-adjusting to being home after a weekend in Houston with family, did not go to bed until almost 10pm. Then he was up at 2am with a fever – so of course, so was I. To be blunt, four hours of sleep is not fun, and I didn’t get him back down to sleep until the tylenol kicked in at 4am. I’m supposed to wake up to walk to work at 4am. Do you think that happened last night? Oh, no. I went back to sleep for an hour and got what sleep I could!!
It’s always something.
I was doing really good eating healthy and going to the gym. One busy weekend where I didn’t make it a priority, and I haven’t been back since. Add to that a bad day and cake readily available at work…
It’s always something.
I find more and more in my life that the things that are important to me NEED to be my priority. When I list the things off the top of my head that are “important” to me I get this list: Faith, family, fitness, friends, finances and my “fun” stuff. Side note: I initially had “health” instead of fitness, but my OCD wanted it all to match.
After I thought about what I just wrote for a few minutes I added my career and my home to the list. Because even though I wouldn’t consider them “major priorities” they are things that are important to me – my career gives me great joy, satisfaction, and helps pay for everything I do. My home is the place I live and I want it to be a happy, relaxing place to build memories.
How in the world am I supposed to fit a reasonable amount of time for each of those things into my life without scheduling myself to death? How can I balance the “fun” stuff like playing video games with taking the time to do a bible study, or pull some weeds or do the dishes without putting myself on a schedule? How do I stop myself from letting those pesky “somethings” distract me from what is really important?
I know this is not a new problem for anyone, and I’m not the first or the last who will ask these questions. Everyone is going to have a their own way of balancing their life, just like everyone has their own priorities. I think the best I can do for now is to identify areas I need to improve on and focus on them a bit more. At the end of each day (or week, or month) I want to sit down and ask myself, “did I spend enough time with friends? Did I read my bible enough? Did I keep up with my chores and do fun things with my family?” And if any of those was lacking, I’ll make that my focus the next month.
Review, tweak, ad infinitum. Such is life.
My husband and his brothers are Irish. Every year since I’ve known them we have celebrated St. Patrick’s day in some form or another. It is always a great day filled with much fun. We can usually expect some good Irish music, corned beef and cabbage, drinking, laughing, joking, story telling and a usually a little bit of fighting. They’re the kind of Irish that are proud to be Irish for various different reasons – and it shows. They’re tough, independent, fierce individuals who care deeply and are passionate about the things important to them.
So today’s Miscellaneous Monday is in honor of Brian, who will give you the shirt off your back and work tirelessly alongside you if you need him to. And Cory, who is passionate about integrity and honor and strength of character. And Justin, who is my favorite of them all (after all, he IS my husband) who consistently shows me a dedication to the things that are important to him and integrity when it counts – when (he thinks) no one else notices.
Today is about all things Irish in preparation of March 17th. Enjoy!
Traditions!
Beauty and Bedlam – St. Patricks day tradition ideas – Some cute ideas, LOVE the penny idea. We’ll be doing that as soon as Benjamin is old enough to know not to eat them 
Food!
Guinness Corned Beef and Cabbage – A basic idea of dinner in our house on St. Patrick’s day.
Soda Bread – If you know me, you probably know how much I adore a good bread. Here you can learn way more than you ever wanted to about soda bread. And for the record, I lean towards the pure soda bread without any fruits or sweeteners.
Drink!
Tullamore Dew Irish Wiskey – If you’re drinking, this is a good choice.
Music!
– Great Big Sea! A live version, so I apologize in advance, but this is pretty much a classic Irish song. Period.
– by a band called Gaelic Storm. This song makes me giggle every time I hear it.
– This song makes me tear up and I loves it.
– My favorite Dropkick Murphy’s song, period.
I could do this for hours, so let me just name off a few more: Rocky Road to Dublin by Gaelic Storm, Star of the County Down by Mackeel, Fields of Anthenry by Dropkick Murphys, Mountain Dew by The Clancy Brothers… ok. That’s enough to get you started. Enjoy!!
Source for picture: Wikipedia
Me, in the kitchen, tasting one of the biscottis I just took out of the oven. Its delicious almond crunch is delicious.
Justin, in the game room, playing with Benjamin, the too-adorable-almost-8-month-old.
Justin: Hey, whatcha doing in there Mommy?
Me: Enjoying the fruit of my labor *crunch crunch*
Justin: oh, hey, me too.
It took me a second to get it. I love my husband!
The hour is quiet. It’s just a hare past midnight on my Friday. Yes, I know it’s Sunday night (aka Monday morning) but today is the last day of my long work week. I love working Sundays because even though I’m at work, it’s still kind of a day of rest. Criminals don’t do a lot on Sundays – and if they do, they get caught pretty quickly, which is nice. The world is quiet in calm preparation for the week ahead.
At work I have a rotating schedule every two weeks. One week I work a WHOLE LOT Monday through Sunday (64 hours) and then the next week I work Wednesday and part of Thursday (16 hours) and am off the rest of the time. While this setup leads to one exhausted Jennettiee for the long week, it also leads to a very happy Jennettiee during the short week. I love having that many days off – days I can spend up and awake with Benjamin and we can make up for the lack of time together the previous week. Days I can have lunch with my friend Leslie and watch a movie with my husband. Ahh, sweet serenity.
So today is my Friday. I have lots of plans for next week! Starting at 9:30 tomorrow morning we go back out in search of a home to raise our family in. We’ve been searching since Octoberish, and haven’t found the perfect house yet. We found several that were perfect – but for whatever reason they weren’t perfect for us. And that’s OK. It’s easy to get frustrated or feel like we have to find something now now now ! But we’re in the luxurious position of not having a time table. Sure, we’d like to find a house before the interest rates climb into the sixes, but if that’s how long it takes then we’ll be OK with that. We’re more interested in finding a good home we can love and build and grow in. A home that preferably has room for us, Justin’s brother, his parents, the dogs, the pool table, and maybe a little nook for me to have some space to myself. Maybe.
I’m also planning on baking some bread! I’m a test baker for Peter Reinhart’s new cookbook – Gluten Free, Carb Free breads. I’ve received the first few recipes and I am SO excited! This is a huge deal to me for several reasons. One, I’m a HUUUGGEEE Peter Reinhart fan. Two, I haven’t been able to eat bread lately since I’m low-carbing my way to my target weight. Three, because I haven’t been eating bread, I haven’t been baking bread. I’ve missed it a lot… bread baking makes me incredibly happy, so I’m eager to get back into it. For those of you who care, he’s ataining GF/CF by utilizing many techniques that people have already used, almond flour, flaxseed, xantham gum, etc… he’s just (hopefully, probably) doing it better and more awesomely. One of the things I really respect about him is his passion for bread, and I can’t wait to see how that translates into these healthier breads. It’s a good week to be low-carbing it at my house!
Anyways. Also planning on going to the doctor. I’ll spare you the gory details, but I’ve essentially gotten to the point that I have to get something to fight the ridiculous infection in my head. I’m pretty sure it’s sinus related, but it’s been progressively getting worse and now my ears are starting to ache too. So, after much fighting it, to the doctor I go. I’m hoping they’ll be able to suggest a solution other than antibiotics, but I’m not very hopeful.
So there are some of my plans. Ahh, to have them written down! Speak of plans, I find it funny the way our minds work. Justin can’t stand plans. If he gets a day off work, he doesn’t want to make any plans. He wants no commitments, no schedules, nothing to stress him out. I’m the opposite. I want to maximize my time to relax, so I’ll plan my relaxation around the duties and must-dos. I like to have order. That drives him crazy sometimes, but luckily I don’t force my plans on him too often. I wonder, times like this, when I’m busy planning away, which side will Benjamin take to? Will he be like his Daddy, impulsive and carefree? Or will he be like his Mommy, obsessive and detail-oriented? Time will tell. In an ideal world, just like Justin and I balance each other out, Benjamin will be a good balance of the two of us.
Anyways. I keep reading all these amazing blogs from these people who make a living doing this. Can you imagine?! I think if I was going to do that I’d have to have more focus. And be a better writer. And blog more. And since I don’t see any of those things happening anytime soon, I guess I’m just going to have to be happy writing mediocre to a few readers, knowing that in the end, the blog is more for my sake than anyone elses.
Nyah!
Last night Benjamin screamed for HOURS. NOTHING helped. It was the first time I really grieved for being unable to help him – nothing I was doing was helping, I could just hold him while he screamed. It was some crazy gas issues. I tried to martyr myself for having a cup of coffee with girlfriends yesterday evening, but everything I’ve read online says that babies sometimes just have gas issues, regardless of what Mom eats. Nevertheless, that was NOT an experience I’d like to repeat…ever. So we were up till 5 or so, finally fell asleep in the chair in the living room just in time to get woken up at 8 by contractors coming to work on the ceiling in the dining room / pool room. They’re scheduled to be here all week, and it’s a darn good thing the owners offered us half off on rent for the inconvenience because WOW WHAT AN INCONVENIENCE. Pounding and banging and power tools, oh my. AND of course they were loudest that they’ve been so far this morning, starting at 8:30 until 11. Thanks, guys. Because I totally got a good night of rest last night. Yeah.
I am thankful that we’ve been conditioning Benjamin to hear noises when he’s sleeping…. even though I could hardly sleep he was able to stay asleep through most of it. And now, at 3:30, they’re back at it! But I’ve got him napping on my legs and even though they’re 10 feet away he’s still sleeping. Thank you Jesus. Of course I’m sure part of that is just sheer exhaustion, he’s got to be tuckered out still from all that screaming. I need to be sleeping with him in case tonight is the same as last night but I still haven’t eaten today and I’ve got laundry to do. Tomorrow is our 6 week appointment with the midwife to clear me for normal life and check up on Benjamin… so if tonight is a repeat you KNOW I’ll be saying something. If I can speak coherently by that point.
Sorry I’m complaining. Other than that life is great and Benjamin is smiling and laughing a little each day (usually). It’s pretty cool.
I know that there are a billion ways to make rice krispie treats, and a billion recipes online. However, none of them were exactly like my Mom’s recipe so I recreated it by memory. I think I’ve achieved pretty close to the perfect rice krispie. It’s not Kraft, it’s not from the back of the cereal box, but it is a combination and then some. So for those of you who like these types of unhealthy food (and really, who doesn’t?) then read on!
Rice Krispie Treats
1 stick of butter
1 bag of large marshmallows
1 7 oz. jar of marshmallow creme
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract (or vanilla powder)
12 cups of rice krispies
Melt the butter SLOWLY in a large pot. I recommend using a large, nonstick spoon for the stirring. While this is going on, go ahead and measure your 12 cups of rice krispies into a bowl. Trust me, you won’t want to do this at the end!
Add the large marshmallows when the butter is almost all the way melted. Stir often.
With the spoon that is coated in butter and marshmallow, scoop out the marshmallow creme out of the jar and into the melting concoction of yummy.
Add vanilla just before the marshmallow is all melted together.
As the last tiny marshmallow melts away, take the pan off the heat and dump the 12 cups of rice krispies into the pan. Stir until all the rice krispies are coated.
Spread evenly into a well-greased 9x13x2 pan (or similar size). Now when I was a child, Mom used to coat my hands with butter so I could smash down and even out the rice krispies. Now I just give my hands a spritz with non-stick spray and pat the rice krispies down. Either way works, and one has less calories added in. If you don’t coat your hands with some sort of non-stick substance then you’ll end up with marshmallow all over your hands and you’ll be wearing most of your rice krispies.
I like to let it cool down outside of the fridge and then cut them while still somewhat malleable. Enjoy!
Everyone’s a little crazy. I thought I’d share my crazy with you!
One of my coworkers brought some Easter candy to work and since I’m not diabetic (yay!) and am pregnant (yay!) I decided I could probably manage to have a little snack pack of skittles. So I open it up and here are the contents:
6 purple skittles
4 yellow skittles
3 orange skittles
1 red skittle
1 green skittle
So! First I eat 2 purple skittles. I then have:
4 purple skittles
4 yellow skittles
3 orange skittles
1 red skittle
1 green skittle
So then I eat 1 purple skittle and 1 yellow skittle. I then have:
3 purple skittles
3 yellow skittles
3 orange skittles
1 red skittle
1 green skittle
So then I eat 2 sets of the following: 1 purple skittle, 1 yellow skittle, 1 orange skittle. I then have:
1 purple skittle
1 yellow skittle
1 orange skittle
1 red skittle
1 green skittle
Then I eat all 5 of the remaining skittles all at one time.
Ahh….. order out of chaos.
29 weeks pregnant today, woooohoooo!!
Three hour gestational diabetes testing tomorrow morning, booooo!!!!
But really, if the only major problem I have during this pregnancy is gestational diabetes then I won’t be able to complain too much.
My blood sugar on my one hour was pretty high. They want to see it under 140, and after an hour it was 165. Ouch.
I can tell you what part of the problem is. Part of the problem has been my drastic change in dietary habits. I hardly ever eat meat anymore, and if I do it’s a minor part of a meal (for instance, Italian sausage in spaghetti or ground beef in tacos or the bacon in a BLT). It wouldn’t be completely accurate to say all meat makes me sick – chicken does – I can’t even stand the smell of it. But it’s more like I have lost any desire whatsoever to partake in meat. The idea of a steak is something that I can identify that I used to enjoy, but currently would not. So I’m just about as close to vegetarian as I’ve ever been in my life.
So, I’ve been eating more veggies and fruits and grains. And if I’m completely honest with you: more fruits and grains than veggies. And what do fruits and grains do? Raise your blood sugar.
So it’s not surprising that I’m having the diabetes issue, but it is frustrating. I’ve already had issues finding food to eat, and you’re telling me the foods I have been eating I can’t?! Sheesh.
If the three hour test comes back positive then I’ll start experimenting, see what raises my blood sugar too much and what doesn’t. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get away with my 100% whole grain bagels and cream cheese, but maybe not my easy mac? We will have to see. I can’t have the glass or orange juice at the end of the day, but maybe I can have an orange with breakfast? I’m not stressing it out, except that to fail at diet control is to give up my birth at the birthing center, and I don’t want to do that. Ideally I’d like to just pass the 3 hour, but I’m 99.9% sure that I won’t.
On to other matters…
I got a TON of stuff done in Benjamin’s room. Which is to say it still looks like a complete disaster area, but I sorted through all the stuff in the closet, assembled the 9-cube closetmaid cubicals and got all the clothes that have been given to us so far in the closet. They’re organized in 2 different areas by size, which is good enough for me for now.
The thing I did that I’m the most proud of in his room actually has little to do with him and everything to do with me. You see, I sorted through my old stuffed animals. I had a huge box, and I sorted through them and I only kept a few.
Saying goodbye to some of those stuffed animals (like the teddy bear I’ve had since my first Christmas) was ridiculously hard, but wouldn’t have been possible two years ago. I’m not sure what changed, but I do have a few theories. My husband and his hatred of clutter had something to do with it. But most of all I think it was seeing my parent’s house and the massive amount of junk they had kept throughout the years. I vividly remember sitting in my parent’s master bedroom with a pile of junk around me just a week or two after they died. I remember being angry at them for having birth certificates next to the bed in the same pile as current bills. After we’d discovered two bottles containing every single tooth us 5 kids lost growing up (seriously, it was pretty gross) I swore to my sisters that the madness of hoarding would stop there.
I’m realizing more and more that I’ve been a mini-hoarder in my own ways for years. I never had it to the same extent my parents did (and they didn’t have it to an extent that would have qualified them for the crazy depressing TV show), but I have no doubt if things were different I could have gone down the same path. Every time I throw away something else that I’ve held on to for years I’m letting go of some of that hoarding mentality. The stuffed animals were a pretty big step. Probably the biggest yet.
So the stuffed animals are sorted, Benjamin and any visitor children to my home have a makeshift toy box, I’m making great leaps and bounds in my crazy and I’m slowly but surely making my house a home fit for a baby. My belly is getting rounder and my ankles aren’t swollen yet. Life is good.
So this morning, the day we leave for vacation (yay!) Justin and I are laying in bed. The alarm has gone off, we’re both waking up, and we’re just talking about the day ahead of us. I’m subconsciously rubbing my stomach, which I do a lot now that there is a little life named Benjamin in there.
“Geeze,” I remark. “Seems like he’s going through a growth spurt now, I swear he’s gotten bigger overnight!”
“Well,” Justin starts in, “he’s kind of like bread, if you think about it.”
“So this is his oven spring?”
“Exactly!”
“But he’s been in there for a while now, ‘baking,’ as they would say.”
“Yeah but before he wasn’t so much baking as marinating, as being turned from the basic components into something tangible.”
“So early pregnancy is where all the gluten is formed and stuff?”
“You got it!”
I realize this won’t mean much to plenty of you, but I love that my husband can talk my bread language sometimes. I love that Benjamin is in the oven spring process (which is the start of actual baking, for you non-bread-bakers). Wooo-hoo! Just over halfway there!
