All My Eggs

Living Simply and Frugally

Angel Food Cake

I have always made my angel food cake from a box mix.  Since I am usually someone that makes almost everything from scratch, I don’t know why it has taken me so long to decide to make this cake from scratch as well. My daughter just celebrated a birthday, and her request was for an angel food cake with a light whipped topping and fresh raspberries. So I decided this was the time to finally make one from scratch.

I have to say…it was yummy!

I used a recipe from “How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman (one of my favorite cookbooks!)  Of course, I never follow the directions completely, and there are some thing I will change the next time I make this, but here it is:

1c. cake flour, sifted

1 1/2c. sugar

9 egg whites

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

  • Preheat over to 325°
  • Sift together the flour and 1/2 c. of the sugar – twice
  • Beat the egg whites until foamy, then add the salt and cream of tartar.  Continue to beat until there are soft peaks (the tops of the whites will droop a little bit).  Beat in the remaining 1 c. sugar, the almond extract and the vanilla extract. Beat until the peaks are stiffer.
  • Gently fold in the flour mixture, adding a small amount at at time. (I found that if you don’t add the mixture gradually, you will end up with clumps of flour mixed into the egg whites.  You don’t want to beat down the lumps or the whites could get runny).  I used my rubber spatula to do this part.
  • Pour into a tube pan (do not grease!)
  • Bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Note:  do not over bake or the cake will be dry.
  • Invert the pan and let the cake cool for about an hour.  Then slide a knife down the sides of the pan to loosen, and remove to a plate to finish cooling.  Do not slice until the cake is completely cool.

Things I would do differently next time:  I would use fine sugar and I would use 12 egg whites.  I like my angel food cake to be a little lighter than this version was, but believe me, this cake was still yummy!

I hope you enjoy!

Cheryl

 

 

July 25, 2010 Posted by inonebasket | Food | , , , | 1 Comment

Are you a DIY’er, crafter or sewer?

If you haven’t found it already, I really want to share this magazine that I discovered earlier this year….

‘do it Yourself’ magazine.  I know it has been around for awhile, but I really didn’t look at it too closely, until this Spring issue. I started browsing, the cover had intrigued me, and I found so much good information that I had to get this issue.  Look at the type of projects that I found:

Sewing ideas,

Organizing ideas,

and projects to help you organize,

I love what they did with this egg carton, reusing/recycling materials and making something useful and cute too,

ways to decorate your walls, and they don’t just show you a picture, but give you step-by-step instructions to you about how to do these projects. The magazine is geared toward home and garden, and there are a lot of craft and sewing projects  in the magazine.

I enjoyed the articles and projects in the Spring issue so much that when I ran across the Fall issue yesterday I grabbed it right away….

And look at some of the great articles that are in this issue:

I am inspired already!

I wanted to share this magazine with you because I feel that it is a great value.  You get so much information about techniques, products and tools to use, inspiration, and help stretching the budget while improving your home (and it is only $4.99 – less if you buy it discounted at places like Walmart). There is also a website where you can access information about several projects, sign up for e-mails and ask experts questions related to your home and garden.  It is called diyideas.com. I will also add a link in my sidebar so you can come back and find it later.

I hope that some of you find this information helpful.

Thanks for stopping by!

Take care,

Cheryl


July 15, 2010 Posted by inonebasket | Home, Home Improvement, Living Green, Organizing | , , , | 3 Comments

I am moving my home over here…………….

I posted about my new home in Washington over on The Stitchin’ Chicken blog yesterday, (mainly the yard and a peak at the front of the house) but I think that I will I am going to continue my story over here at All My Eggs.  I actually started this blog to write about things at home, ways to save money, recipes, how-tos and other things that I think (or hope) others will find interesting or helpful to them.  The Stitchin’ Chicken is my place to share my sewing and crafting.  So I hope you will join me and my moving/selling/home improvement/remodeling/junk collecting, etc……………over here!

I thought that I would share a few pictures of the inside of my new home with you.  Remember that I took these while unpacking, and I have actually gotten most of the boxes emptied. I just didn’t take any of those pictures!! lol!

 

Dining Room

 

This is our dining room.  We purchased this dining room set, there is a leaf and two additional chairs, and the china closet/curio cabinet with the house.

 

Antique Buffet

 

And, this antique buffet as well!  I absolutely love it!  the items on top are just setting there, waiting for their real home!  It is hard to put things away when most of my furniture is still in Arizona.

 

Dining Light Fixture

 

I took a picture of the light fixture so that I could remember the details.  I can’t believe that it is almost 3 ft. across!  You can also see some of the detail of the recessed ceiling.

 

Front Entry

 

The front entry is almost a room itself.  I now have a wool rug in there.  It was in my living room here in Arizona!  I’ll get pictures of that when I go back up this fall.

The previous owners have all of the rooms (well almost all) painted green.  The dining area, and the office, are a deep blue/green.  I am going to leave the office in that color, but the rest of the rooms will be painted in various other colors.

 

Lead Glass Detail

[caption id="attachment_622" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="More Lead Glass Detail"][/caption]

 

I love the lead glass in the windows around the door.

 

Office

 

Here is a quick look at the office, and all of the boxes waiting to be unpacked!  This room will be my husband’s ‘den’.

 

Fireplace

 

I can’t believe that this is the only picture that I took of the stone fireplace.  I think it was hard to get to it with all of the boxes spread in front of it throughout the room!  There will be a few changes coming to this, I am thinking a wood mantel??  Something just isn’t quite right to me. I think that it needs to have some contrast to make it more interesting and a wood mantel would do that.  We are also thinking that we will put in a wood stove insert down the road.  This location  would allow us to pretty much heat the entire house. And I don’t see any other place we could put one in.  We’ll see…

 

Kitchen

 

I quick glimpse into the kitchen.  The living area, kitchen and eating nook are all one room.  The vaulted ceiling really make the space feel open and comfortable.  You can see some of my old jars on the bar here. One of the things that I like to collect.

 

Eating Nook

 

Just a quick peak at the eating nook right off of the kitchen.  It looks out to the back deck and the woods.  I am picturing a round table with some comfy chairs with cushions here…… I’ll be hitting the thrift stores and garage sales as soon as I can!

Bedroom Fireplace Tile

OK, I am going to skip a bunch of photos, I just enjoy looking at them so much!!  And skip to the tile that is around the master bedroom fireplace.  It actually presents a problem, maybe you can give me some input.  This bedroom is painted in a pink/peach color. My color is actually blue. Everything that I own is blue!  And looking at this tile, there is a lot of pink in it.  I cannot have this room pink (not a color my hubby would choose, if you know what I mean..) so, do you think a very, very pale blue/gray would work? Maybe I should just do a off-white, or creamy white color?

OK, I think that I will quit rambling on now.  I’ll save some of the pictures to show you my projects when I am working on them.

Thanks so much for letting me share my new home with you! I have lots to do and I hope that you will join me on my journey of making this house a home.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Take care,

Cheryl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 13, 2010 Posted by inonebasket | Country Living, Family, Home, Home Improvement | , , | 2 Comments

Old Fashioned Comfort -Pineapple Upsidedown Cake

For whatever reason, I have had Pineapple Upsidedown Cake on my mind lately, so I decided that this Memorial Day weekend would be a great time to make one.  The cherries and pineapple circles give it such a festive look!

 

Pineapple Upsidedown Cake

 

This is a small cake, I used a 10″ round cake pan, but just the right size when you don’t have a lot of people to feed.  Pineapple upside down cakes are a little heavier, and taste great warm with ice cream or whipped cream!

5 tbsp butter

1/2 c dark brown sugar

1 16oz can pineapple rings, drained – reserve juice

maraschino cherries (for the middle of the pineapple rings)

1 c unbleached flour, sifted

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 c pineapple juice (reserved from the rings above)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extractr

2 lg eggs

2/3 c sugar

 

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Place the butter in a 10″ round cake pan, place the pan in the oven until the butter is melted.  Remove from the oven and sprinkle the brown sugar over the butter.  Place the pineapple ring on top of the brown sugar and butter mixture.  Place one cherry in the center of each pineapple ring.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.  In another bowl, beat the eggs until lemon-colored.  Gradually sprinkle in the sugar and mix until well blended.  Add the juice, mix, then slowly add the dry, sifted ingredients.  Beat on medium speed for 1 minute, scraping the bowl until completely mixed.

Pour the batter over the top of the pineapple, spread out evenly.  Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until the center springs back when touched lightly.  The sides of the cake should be barely pulling away from the edge of the pan.

After removing the cake from the oven, place a plate over the top of the pan, and flip it over.  Leave the pan setting on the top of the plate for approximately 5 minutes. This will allow the brown sugar mixture to run down over the sides of the cake.

Remove pan, making sure that the pineapple is still in place on the top of the cake.  Let it cool  and set up before cutting.

Enjoy with some whipped cream, whipped topping or vanilla ice cream!  Takes great slightly warm!

 

 

 

June 1, 2010 Posted by inonebasket | Family, Food | , , , | 1 Comment

« Previous Entries