Category Archives: Kitchen-Cooking & Misc

Updates: cornbread flats, basil, parsley, rose, Shelibean

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I made cornbread flats in my whoopie pie pan. We really enjoyed them. I figure I’ll make cornbread flats a lot in the future.I’m adding this photo of my cornbread flats to my ‘Different Kinds of Flats’ post.

My basil that I transplanted and brought in for the winter, is still doing okay. It’s not a deep green, but it’s still green so I’ll settle for that. I keep it in the window, but for this photo I set it where I could get a better focus. Thankfully, it’s growing slow. I’m planning on keeping it pinched back after it grows another few inches tall.

We’ve been having some nice weather during the day, but cold and even freezing weather at night. I’m amazed at how green and healthy my parsley is staying.

Every evening I cover up my little rose cutting. And every day I uncover it when it warms up enough.
I’ll do this until it gets consistantly cold, then I’ll cover it til Spring.
Meanwhile my accidental rose cutting is thriving.

This isn’t really an update, it’s more like a bonus,
Sheli-bean is so cute with our Christmas decor.

I hope all your updates are followed with happy bonuses!

 

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Different kinds of Flats

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Recently, I was in search of a pan to make individual small round flat corn bread pones. I thought in might be a nice change from my normal pone of cornbread cut in wedge slices. I shopped through all the cake pans and settle on a whoopie pie pan, it seemed the perfect one for my needs. It took me a month of shopping and watching sales before I finally ordered one.For some reason the name ‘Flats’ was going around in my mind in relation to my recipes I was planning to bake in my new pan.
I was glad to get the pan, but had no need for a batch of cornbread flats, so I made a batch of coconut flats. It’s my recipe. They have a light cakey taste.. (yes, I know they’re not flat-flat, but I still call them coconut flats anyway.)

The next batch that I made I adjusted my recipe and made pumpkin flats. The pumpkin flats have a firm-pie-like texture. They tried to stick to the pan. I got them out quickly. As they cooled, we could easily pick them up and eat them by hand.

My next batch of flats was the muffin ones. I’ve made these a couple of times. They’re a nice change from the norm.

I still haven’t made the cornbread flats, but I plan to someday. I plan to make more different kinds of flats. They’re fun to make and a different way to enjoy regular food stuff.

What do you think, am I an old silly-heart
or do you think flats is a good idea?

update 12-1-2017- Here’s a photo of my cornbread flats. I’ll probably make cornbread flats more than regular cornbread from now on.20171128_180521

related post: Chicken slow cooker pot pie and Muffin Flats

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Chicken slow cooker pot pie and Muffin Flats

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Recently I discovered a new soup on the shelf in our local grocery store.
‘Cream of Chicken with Herbs’
Most of my cooking is experimental at best, so I decided to give this new soup a try.

I mixed a the can of soup with a 3/4 can of water and a 1/2 tsp of lite salt and poured it in my slow cooker.
I cut up a couple chicken breasts  in to hearty size pieces and put them in the slow cooker and stirred them around to cover them in the soup.
I cooked them on high for a few hours.
When the chicken was fully cooked, I added fresh carrots and sweet peas.
I let it cook for another hour. Fresh carrots take a long time to cook in the slow cooker. I should have pre-cooked them in the microwave.
After the carrots were finally cooked, I added a cup of minute rice to the slow cooker.
I let it cook for about a half an hour more

I served it in a bowl with a side of muffin flats made with Jiffy muffin mix. Muffin flats is what I call the way I make my muffins now. I cook them in a whoopie pie pan. Muffin flats seem much better for us grown-ups than cupcake shaped muffins.
Yes, I realize that some folks would call them muffin tops instead of muffin flats. However, since it’s my whoopie pie pan and my oven I bake them in, in my kitchen with a batter mixed by my own hand, I can call them anything I want. 😉

The chicken slow cooker pot pie tastes quite a bit like a regular chicken pot pie without the crust.
The sweet muffin flats pair well with it.
This falls into my favorite food group of ‘comfort food’.
It’s pleasantly filling and would be great on a cold winter day.

My journey into experimental cooking with the ‘Cream of Chicken with Herbs’ soup and creating ‘Chicken slow cooker pot pie’ was a mighty tasty success.

Wishing you all success in your cooking and crafting experiments.

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Post inspired by:
2017 WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge – Experimental
“Show us your interpretation of today’s theme, “Experimental.”

 

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Snowflake Crackers sort of

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I bought these crackers because in the picture they look like snowflakes and even say ‘Snowflake’ on the box.
The cracker brand is my favorite brand.
The quality and taste are there…
However I’m Feeling a bit disillusioned…
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How about you, ever bought a food because it looked a bit special and then found that, while it tastes good, it’s a bit lacking in looks as advertised on the packaging?

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Baked Donuts

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The other night I decided to give my
new Wilton Donut cake pan a try.
I used a regular yellow box cake mix.We really enjoyed these.
We preferred them without frosting
and ate most of them that way.

Although the ones with frosting was a mighty sweet treat too.

It took 13 minutes for them to bake each time. Since I had only one pan it took over 2 hours to bake up all the batter.
As soon as I got near my pc, I ordered a couple more 6 cavity Wilton Donut pans to speed up the process next time.
I thought about getting some silicone pans, but I’ve never used them. I stuck with the trusted metal ones.

I’m curious, have you ever used silicone baking pans?
How did they do? Did you like them?

Here’s wishing you all a week of tasty treats and smiles.

 

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