2013 - Week 9

Week 9 is over already . . . wow, this year is going by so quickly. How was Week 9 for all of you?

It was unfortunately not so great for me. On Monday evening I got an accute sore throat that has continued to morph throughout the week into various stages of a cold . . . right now I'm in the "stuffed up nose so I can't breathe at night" phase, it's not enjoyable. Being sick seems to take a lot out of me too, so I was not in the mood to do anything, much less work on a task and exercise and be productive . . . this did not lead to a very good week. By Wednesday, I had zero minutes of task accomplished for the week. It was looking like it was going to be a very long week. I was still keeping up with my journals and Bible reading, but the rest was a challenge and I was struggling, so what did I do to make myself feel better? Made a cake of course :)

Mayo Cake

Let's get one thing straight here before we discuss this cake, I pretty much hate mayonnaise  Actually, anything with vinegar (except balsamic) in it, does not make my list of favorite foods. I do enjoy ranch dressing, but that does not taste like mayonnaise, so it's the exception. I think I might like mayo a bit more if I made it myself and gave it flavorings, but just out of the jar . . . yuck. Anyways, I really don't like mayonnaise  so the idea of putting it in a cake kind of scared me. But, it meant I didn't have to add any butter OR eggs to the cake (which was really strange for me . . . I am quite fond of butter, as you may know), so I decided to give it a try. The recipe I followed: Mayo Cake, from Taste of Home, was really easy and turned out great, in my opinion. It is a great recipe if you don't have a lot of ingredients on hand. It did have a little butter in it (half a stick in the frosting), but the frosting was not my favorite, so when I make the cake again, I'll try a different frosting. So, despite my aversion to mayo, I would recommend this cake . . . surprisingly, it was good.

But, I didn't stop there . . . I volunteered to bring a treat for the travelling choir who sang at my church on Sunday and also a dessert to a friend's house on Sunday night. So two more new desserts also had to be made:

1 - Chocolate Cherry Torte
I picked this recipe because I had a can of cherry pie filling and a Devil's Food cake mix sitting in my cupboard that I wanted to use up, simple as that. I got the recipe out of "The Cake Mix Bible" by Publications International, Ltd. I just took a picture of the recipe . . . I figured that was easier than typing it all out. My toasted almonds took a bit longer than 6 minutes to turn golden brown, probably closer to ten, but it was worth it. I had some left over and we put them on salad for dinner . . . yum :)

The recipe

The finished product

I won't say that it's my nicest or prettiest cake ever, but it was pretty simple and tasted good. I think it was a success.

2 - Frozen Chocolate "Souflees"

I found this recipe in a Kraft "Food & Family" magazine, but you can see it here: Frozen Chocolate Souffles. They were easy and full of store-bought materials (oreo type cookies, cool whip, pudding mix, cherries from a jar), but they were pretty tasty too. It's not the type of dessert I usually make or enjoy, but they were good, the variations are nearly endless, they looked fancy, and I think they would be really good on a summer night. Give them a try, let me know what you think :)

Photo courtesy of my lovely friend Lisa

As for the rest of my "projects", I did end up getting my exercise in (wii fit plus, wii sports resort and another fitsugar.com workout video), but I had to stay up late on Saturday night to get my five hours in for the week. I'm still working on my e-mail inbox and starting to work on my pictures too (so hopefully I'll be ready to scrapbook). This staying up late and cramming stuff in at the last minute is not how this plan was supposed to work. Hopefully next week will go better.

I had better go to bed now . . . I wish you all a wonderful week :)