Inspiring Quote #3

With thanks to Michael over at Inspired by Charm.

"The Hunger Games", Suzanne Collins

Last weekend I finished Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games", which I'd had sitting on my "must read" pile for a few months.  Now, those of you who know my reading style, will know that there's no way I ever would have picked up a book that had the following blurb on the back:-


Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place. 

I don't read "science fiction" or "futuristic" or anything like that, but I'd heard a lot of chatter on various writers forums about "The Hunger Games", and decided to trust the taste of some of my favourite authors.  I picked up a copy from www.play.com, which is where I get most of my books - they have free delivery and their books are cheap.

It came as a huge surprise to me that once I picked this book up, I couldn't put it down.  It totally drew me in and I really enjoyed it.  There are a further two books in the series, "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay" - I'll be buying them both.

Oh, and "The Hunger Games" is currently being made into a movie that'll be released in a few weeks.  

Inspiring Quote #2

With thanks to Michael over at Inspired by Charm.

Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake Recipe

One of the many great things about living in different countries is that you get to taste a whole bunch of different foods, and one of my favourite foods is cake.

When we were living in Detroit, my friend Kris made me the most amazing chocolate cake I've ever tasted - Texas Sheet Cake.  I begged her to make it a few times whilst we were living there, and I've been making it since we moved away - it's always a huge hit.

I'm going to list the recipe as it was given to me, so get your groceries and get cooking!


Texas Sheet Cake


Mix in a large bowl

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 tea spoon salt

Bring to a boil

• 2 sticks butter
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup cocoa

Pour hot liquid over dry mixture, mix well, then add

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tea spoon baking soda

Pour into jelly roll pan and bake at 375f for 20 minutes.


Five minutes before cake is done, bring to a boil and stir

• 1 stick butter
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1/3 cup milk

Add

• 1 pound icing sugar
• 1 tea spoon vanilla
• 1 cup walnuts

Frost cake immediately upon taking from oven.


Yes, I know it's a lot of butter and sugar, but it's worth it!

I use my mixer to do all the mixing, I find it works better than doing it by hand (and it's easier, and I'm lazy, so it makes sense).  For the frosting, I put the icing sugar in the mixing bowl, and add the hot ingredients, vanilla and walnuts and mix away.  If the frosting is too stiff, add a wee bit more butter (why not, your cholesterol is already soaring just looking at the ingredients).

It makes a lot of cake.  I made it today and have eaten some with a girlfriend this afternoon, cut up a wodge to go into hubby's office tomorrow and got a good portion to go to the barn in the morning for munching with friends after my lesson.  And there's some left in the fridge.

Oh, and it uses a LOT of dishes/bowls.  Here's a shot of what I used to make it.  It's one of those "lucky I've got a dishwasher" recipes!

My Kind of Yoga

I'm working on a blog post about cake, but this should put a smile on your face whilst you wait.  This guy really is doing my kind of yoga, but instead of the cigarette, I'd have a chicken wing in my mouth.

Inspiring Quote #1

With thanks to Michael over at Inspired by Charm.

YUM! Slow Cooker Recipe

I don't know about you, but I'm a big fan of Slow Cookers/Crockpots.  I'd not ever used one until we were living in Michigan and I saw one on sale at Meijer.  I figured for $US25 I really couldn't go far wrong, so I took a chance.  Let me just say, coming home from the barn on a cold winters day, to a meal that's cooked and ready, is pretty darn fabulous.

When we relocated to Germany I packed up the US Slow Cooker and it tagged along, but you have to use it with a big power transformer and it takes up a lot of room in my limited-bench-space kitchen.  I did a bunch of looking around for a German Slow Cooker and found that they're not really used here.  Eventually I managed to source a Morphy Richards branded one, with a German power cord (yay!) from a company in the UK who happily shipped it here for me.  If you need to get your hands on one, please let me know and I'll give you the details of who I bought mine from.

On the weekend I tried Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken, a recipe I found on the Tasty Kitchen website.  If you're ever a bit lost for recipe ideas, just check out Tasty Kitchen, it's interesting, helpful and well laid out - very easy to follow - and they even have a Slow Cooker section!

The Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken was SO YUMMY and very easy, so give it a try, but I had to make a few changes so I'll list them here:-

• The recipe asks for boneless, skinless chicken thighs - we don't have them here.  I did it with Turkey inner breast fillets and they were a tiny bit dry, but still yum.  Chicken thighs would definitely have been better, but let's face it, I'm not going to buy drumsticks, skin them and bone them - I'd end up cutting my fingers off.
• It looks like there's a bunch of ingredients here, and sometimes that puts me off, but the recipe doesn't require any pre-cooking, and all you have to do is pour things from bottles or jars into measuring cups or spoons - it's not brain surgery.
• After adding the cornflour and water mix at the end, I found the sauce didn't thicken up much at all.  I ended up putting on my hot mitts and hauling out the pot and tipping all the sauce into a saucepan.  Then  I whisked in another spoon of cornflour and boiled it for about 5 minutes - it thickened up perfectly.  Easy.
• If you're making it for a family with kids, you might want to leave out the ground chilli flakes.  It's got a wee bit of a kick, and that might be too much for little kids.

Anyway, give it a try and let me know what you think.