Rain, rain, go away

You may not have heard, but it’s been raining in the midwest for the last week. We have a little extra water.

This is the White River, about 20 minutes north of our house.Actually, this is supposed to be a cornfield, just north of the White River. Yep, not many telephone poles in the middle of rivers.This road goes past the cornfield/lake. Have you heard that you shouldn’t drive through high water?This guy did. But you still shouldn’t. My little car would not have made that.

This is from south of the river. The actual river is supposed to be between the two rows of trees towards the top of the photo. I would have taken a better photo from the bridge, but there’s a lot of traffic. And not much room to stand. I didn’t want to get squished by a semi!!This is supposed to be a soybean field, right next to our driveway. For now, our driveway is not underwater. But it won’t take much more water to get there!John says you can tell that it is going to rain when flies cluster on the sides of buildings.They were clustering on the side of our house tonight.And I checked the radar. The radar said it is going to rain, too. (I don’t trust bugs. Especially for weather prediction.)

This storm started around 10:00 tonight, and is supposed to keep going all night and into tomorrow!

Ready… set… rain!

Easter lamb cake

The Easter lamb cake was a tradition in my house growing up. My mom used to make it with a pound cake mix. Because I wanted to play in this month’s Iron Chef Challenge hosted by A Latte with Ott, A, I made a cake from scratch!

Having never made a pound cake (or any other cake, for that matter) from scratch, I searched for a recipe. My favorite, Alton Brown, had what looked like a yummy pound cake recipe, but it didn’t use baking powder. I did manage to find a cake recipe on Allrecipes.com that was supposed to be used with this lamb cake mold! Cool! (And thanks!)

First, I assembled the ingredients, including a brand-new container of Clabber Girl baking powder.

Don’t forget your lamb cake mold! You do have one of these, don’t you?



Cream together 1 cup of butter and 2 cups of sugar (I used Splenda instead of sugar).



Mix together 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

This recipe says to add 1 cup of water to the butter/sugar mixture and mix that well, then to add in the flour mixture. I tried just adding the water, and it made a mess. Really. The water didn’t combine with the butter/Splenda, and it splashed all over my counter. (Because the butter was too cold? Because it was Splenda instead of sugar? Any ideas?)

So I just added the flour mixture, and a little more water to compensate for the water that was on my counter. Then mix in 1 teaspoon vanilla.



Then, beat 4 egg whites until stiff. I had never done this before, and it was much easier than I thought it would be. Hooray for hand mixers!



Peaks! Neat!



Fold the egg whites into the batter.



Grease both halves of the lamb mold within an inch of your life.



Really. Just when you think it’s greased enough, grease it some more. I usually use butter for greasing pans, sometimes the spray stuff. For this project, I busted out the Crisco. I wanted some serious grease!



Fill your mold, but pay attention to the type of mold you have. This mold is meant to be filled on the “front” half of the lamb, and baked as a single piece. Some are meant to be baked as two halves and put together at the end.



This mold has a small vent hole in the back of the lamb’s head. (That helps me to remember which side goes up – the hole goes up so the poor lamb’s brains don’t leak out in the oven!)

I put the mold, face down, on a cookie sheet and into a 350 oF preheated oven. Bake for 45-50 minutes.



Then I did a little dance because all the dishes I used to make the cake went into the new dishwasher! After I started it, I thought to double-check that my stainless steel mixing bowls are dishwasher safe. (Phew! They are!)



After 45 minutes in the oven, I used a toothpick through the vent hole to see if the cake was done. The toothpick came out clean, so I pulled the cake. I let it cool for a few minutes before I carefully took off the back of the mold. (I had a little accident with part of the cake. Remember what I said about grease?) I didn’t think he looked quite done enough, so I gently put the mold back on, and stuck him back in the oven for another five minutes.



Five minutes later, done lamb cake! I had to use a knife to loosen the cake from the edges of the front part of the mold. I didn’t grease that part too well, I guess. Once the edges were loosened, he came right out!



Cool completely, and then start the icing!

First, put a layer of icing on your cake base so the lamb has some help standing up. (This cake should stand on its own, but this will give a bit more stability.)



I used icing from a can. I thought about making my own, but decided making the cake from scratch was enough to handle this time around.

Then I had to do a little surgery to put the lamb back together again.



Good thing I am a large animal veterinarian!



Stand the little guy up, and go to town with the icing!



I started with the back to get my technique down. I didn’t want a really “smooth” look, so it sort of looked like wool.



My mom used to dust the cake with coconut to give it some texture. We’re not big coconut eaters here, so I skipped that step.



I did dust him with sugar (the real stuff!) for some dimension, and gave him jelly bean eyes and a nose.



Add some grass for him to sit on, and some friends for him to hang out with.

Since my cats like to eat things they are not supposed to, I made sure to use the paper Easter grass, instead of the plastic stuff. Plastic stringy things are bad news for kitties. Always.

Now, if only my cake dome would fit without squishing the poor lamb’s head! Drat!



Happy Easter!



Also linked to Sweets for a Saturday at Sweet as Sugar Cookies.

 and Seaside Simplicity's Easter Party.

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This is why we can’t have nice things

This is the finale of “To Catch an Herb Predator.”

Remember when I said that cats don’t like oregano and cilantro?

That’s not true.

They are equal opportunity herb-eaters.

They just hadn’t found these particular herbs yet.

Since I made that bold statement, they found them.

I woke up the other morning to a SLAM BANG CRASH!

Oh. No.

So I took a quick inventory.

Husband in the shower, no yelling. He’s probably fine.

Leo and Martin (partners in crime), were both on the bed, waiting for me to get up to feed them. Not the cause of the trouble today.

Orleans (potting soil enthusiast) was sitting on a chair right outside the bedroom. This didn’t rule him out from the trouble-making, but did make it less likely.

And then I made it to the kitchen.

When I got there, there was a cat on the counter. (Have you figured out which one yet?)
  
She was contentedly chomping the cilantro.

I yelled so loud, Pretzel took off. (She’s lucky I didn’t catch her.)


(Have I mentioned that she is my husband’s cat? As in, she was in the picture before I was? I think there is a bit of female rivalry going on here…)

She broke my brand new blue strawberry pot.

We are not on speaking terms right now.

The fuzzy suspects

These are the suspects from the Great Herb Heist of 2011.

In no particular order…

Pretzel. 9 year old spayed female, declawed in front, approximately 7 pounds.

Pretzel may look cute and innocent, curled up in the window.


But don’t let her fool you. She can be a trouble maker when she wants to.

She is the only other female in the house, and we do not get along. This cat will jump up on the counters right in front of me. She will wait until you are watching, and then knock stuff off the counters, just to see your reaction.

Would cute, innocent Miss Pretzel eat my herbs?

Next we have the partners in crime, Martin and Leo. These two cats hang out together a lot. Especially during the day. Maybe they spend so much time sleeping so they can cause trouble at night?

This is Martin, a 6 year old neutered male, declawed in front, approximately 12 pounds.

You’ve met Martin before.

He even has his own Facebook page!

He’s a little grumpy, because he actually almost has an alibi.


You see, Martin sleeps in bed with us every night. He goes to bed when I do, and he is there in the morning when my alarm goes off. Any time I get up in the night, I need to kick him to get him off my feet.

Not to say he couldn’t sneak out and sneak back in…

Leo is the other partner, a 15 year old neutered male, declawed in front, approximately 14 pounds.

He’s our biggest boy, but has recently lost some weight. At his peak, he clocked in around 20 pounds. (Mommy wasn’t paying attention!)

He may not look it, but he is talented enough to jump on the counters.

Most of the time I just don’t think he is that motivated.

Although… Could he be rediscovering the energy of a younger cat, due to his fit, svelte new physique?

Last, but not least, Orleans. Orleans is a 13 year old neutered male, not declawed, approximately 13 pounds.

He certainly seems to be enjoying the potting soil…

Why is he trying so hard to get in that bag?

Is he licking his chops? Is that an admission of guilt?!? 

Hmmm. Looks like I still have some investigating to do…

Come back tomorrow for “How to Catch an Herb Predator.”