Hurricane Cake--Apple and Cream Cheese Bundt Cake

I hope everyone on the East Coast is safe from our visitor Irene.  What a week many of us had with an earthquake and then a Hurricane.  Unfortunately for me, school did not start today due to power outages....this mommy has had a long enough summer vacation.

I have nick named this cake hurricane cake because when I look at the middle it makes me think of the radars we kept looking at on Fri and Saturday waiting Irene's arrival.   Also the kids said when you look down at it it looks like the eye of the hurricane. I made this cake on Friday night in anticipation of losing power.

If you get Southern Living or see it on the shelves this is the mouthwatering cake on the cover.  So why apple cake in August.  Well instead of stocking up on water and batteries on Thursday we went Peach and apple picking.  Figured you don't have to refrigerate them and hoping the orchard would be empty.

Look at these large clusters

Unlike many baking recipes that include apples, this one uses Gala Apples.  Lucky for me that was one of the varieties available.

The cake is pretty easy to make and wow with 1 1/2 pounds of apple in the recipe, it is a heavy cake.  It took only 3 medium sized apples to make 3 cups of diced apples. The kitchen smelled amazing with all the spices of fall.

Adding cream cheese layer

Since I got a late start on baking, a whole different story.  Spent 4 hrs in the ER with my middle son getting stiches in his foot.  I think everyone with a small ailment went to the ER in fear of it getting worse during the storm.

I allowed the cake to cool and then waited until the morning to make the glaze.  I have never made a glaze on the stove top but it created a wonderful carmel flavored topping.

The cake is very rich so cut it thin.  You can always provide seconds instead of wasting large pieces.  Although we ate it for dessert I think it makes an excellent morning cake with coffee.  The directions do not mention anything about storage but I recommend refrigerating it.

Happy baking to you all.

Here is the link to the Southern LIving RECIPE

How far would you go to protect your family-Faithful Place--Book Review

While mystery is not my go to genre when I get a chance to read a book, Faithful Place by Tana French  might have changed my mind.  This compelling and twisting plot filled book makes it hard to put down.   My husband is reading it now and feels the same way.  (He rarely reads books for pleasure)  Check out my BLOGHER Bookclub review HERE:

Blueberry Zucchini Bread

As a follow up to What happened to my garden, I am now getting fully developed zucchini.  Not sure what changed as I went out of town and came home to a very large one my husband picked while I was gone.  Ever since our return we have had several growing at a time.  Our weather has cooled off so that may have made a difference.

So now what do you do with the extras. You can only eat sauteed zucchini every so often.  Here a combination I really have never thought to put together but I had a large zucchini from the market (this was before my trip) and we were getting ready to go out of town.  I googled Zucchini recipes and found one for Blueberry Zucchini bread.  Also having a good supply of frozen blueberries I thought I would give it a try.

The bread is a wonderful breakfast bread that tastes wonderful with a slather of cream cheese on top.  I definitely think the addition of a crumb topping makes for a more decadent bread.  I really have not come across a bread that tastes like zucchini as many of the other flavors easily mask the vegetable.  Having young kids anyway I can hide a vegetable into a food I am all over it.

The recipe makes 2 large loaves or 4 mini loaves, so I froze the one we were not eating.  I was a little worried about the crumb topping after it was defrosted but it was still delicious.  I would recommend storing it in the fridge to maintain its freshness.

For another healthy and kid friendly way to use up the abundance of summer squash try Triple Chocolate Zucchini Bread.

Blueberry Zucchini Bread --Adapted from allrecipes.com

• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup vegetable oil  half oil  and half applesauce
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 3/4  cups white sugar
•  1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2-3 cups shredded zucchini
• 3 cups all-purpose flour or substitute 1 cup of whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
• 1 pint fresh blueberries

Crumb topping

1. 2/3 cup of flour
2. 1/2 cup of brown sugar
3. 1/2 cup of white sugar
4. 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
5. 1 stick of softened butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 4 mini-loaf pans or 2 large loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil (applesauce) , vanilla, and sugars. Fold in the zucchini. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and nutmeg, cinnamon. Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to the prepared loaf pans.  
3. Mix together crumb topping with hands and sprinkle over the loaves
4. Bake 50 minutes for mini pans and 1 hr -1 hr 20mins for large loaves, or until a knife inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Our house after the Virginia Earthquake

A part of me feels I should not even joke about this but I took these pictures after our 5.9 scaled earthquake in Virginia. The epicenter only 30 miles from our home....

Funny thing is the house looked like this before the quake...

Now I can't really use the expression that the house looks like a earthquake hit.

Hope all are well and safe.

Chuck E Cheese Pizza Review

Wow the kids and I had a two and a half week break from home as we visited NYC and Chicago.  I also took that time off of Blogging and finding it challenging to get back into things.  However, when I got home I received my pass to review Chuck E Cheese pizza.  Now just coming back from the pizza capitals of the country, I remained a little skeptical.

Chuck E Cheese has come up with a new pizza recipe and wanted bloggers to go visit and review it for them.  They are using freshly made crusts, not frozen, zesty pizza sauce, a variety of toppings and crispier crusts.  (details found on the tables there as well as on their website).

The kids have only one more week of vacation and it was a gloomy day so I decided to surprise them and take them to Chuck E Cheese.  (Game tokens were included in our pass so the motivation was mixed!!)

We ordered our large pizza, half sausage/half cheese.  The kids played some of the games while we waited and about 20 mins later our hot pizza arrived at our table.

New Pizza recipe

I like how the pizza is sliced into 12 small slices as many kids don't finish the entire piece.  My kids were hungry so they each ate 3 slices.  They said it did not compare to the places we visited in Chicago and NYC but it was better than Papa John's.

Now it was mom's turn to try this pizza.  To be honest I had not stepped foot into a Chuck E Cheese since I was little.  For some reason I have not had to take any kids to parties there, carpools are amazing.  I only remembered the flat and sausage speckled pizza of the 80's.

To my surprise the pizza was not all that bad.  The crust was not soggy and the crust did not taste pre-made.  The cheese was a little greasy so I still had to splat it with my napkin but I had to do that in NYC too.
I ate off the cheese side but for testing purposes I tried a piece of Sausage.  It was ok but really you are feeding a bunch of game frenzied children who really don't care too much about the taste of the pizza.

I thought I would just take a bite and leave the rest but I ate 2 slices and was satisfied.  It could use a little more sauce in my opinion and a little less cheese.  I think that might vary by who is making the pizza.

Doesn't this say fun!! NO VEGGIES!!

You can always get coupons for Chuck E Cheese's too in the mail flyers and online.  Plus they offer tokens for good grades.  Had I known that before we went  I would have brought our report cards.  So if the kids are bored and you want to spend an hour doing something different give Chuck E Cheese's a try.

For more press on the new recipe read this digitial press release...

My first HouseParty Event

I was intrigued when I found the website www.houseparty.com.  I love to entertain and what a great way to try new products and share with my friends.  After several months I was finally accepted to be a host for one of their events.  A Thai BBQ Party sponsored by Thai Kitchen.

I was going to be visiting my parents during the event so it would be different than what I expected. Just because I knew I would have more children there than if I was doing a party at home.

My package of goodies was awaiting me when I arrived at my parents house.  A big box of sauces from Thai Kitchen.  It felt like Christmas my children were thrilled to help me open this heavy box.   I had already searched their website for recipe ideas and made up this menu for the event.

On the menu:

Mango Salsa and chips
Lettuce wraps
Chicken Satay
Coconut Rice
Flank steak with Pineapple and mango salsa
Mixed Green salad with Chili Vinegar dressing
Coconut Cupcakes
Strawberry Smoothies

I only needed to purchase a few perishable items and the party was ready to begin.  All these recipes are truly easy given the sauces provided. My main concern was the spicy flavors and the kids.

To make it a little festive I used a floral table cloth we used at one of my wedding events and I bought some flowers to show case on the table.  My mom happened to have some origami activity books so I was able to have an activity for the kids.

Dinner was quick and easy to make despite the number of dishes on the menu.  I made the salsas and started marinating the chicken earlier in the day.
What a surprise they ate most everything without a fuss.  The lettuce wraps were a big hit.  They came back for seconds.

This was truly a fun experience and hope I will get picked again to find out about new products.  I will definitely be making some of these things again.   My mom is the lucky one that gets to keep all the extra sauces as I cannot transport them home but I know my husband is going to want to try some of the things I made.

Remember the coconut cake I recently made, I made them into cupcakes and used some of the coconut milk given to me.

Here is my party page for this event with more pictures : http://www.houseparty.com/party/528328