Death By Chocolate Cake

This last week was my sister's Birthday and her request for dessert with this Death by Chocolate Cake. This recipe is from my co-worker Susan and my family has loved it ever since. 

The recipe does call for sour cream so I normally can't eat it. Sometime our local Save Mart will carry the IMO sour cream substitute and then I can enjoy this cake too. 

Ingredients:

1 chocolate cake mix

1 small pudding package

1/2 C vegetable oil

1/2 C water

1 C sour cream 

4 eggs 

12 oz. chocolate chips

2 cans of chocolate frosting 

Here's what to do: 

Start off by mixing the oil, water, sour cream, and eggs together. 

Then add the cake mix and pudding package, the mixture will be very thick. 

Finally, mix in the chocolate chips. 

You can either bake in two round cake pans or one big pan like below. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes let cool then frost. The recipe calls for two cans of chocolate frosting, but only if your making it with the two cake pans. Since I made this in one large pan I only needed one can of frosting. 

I don't have a picture of the cake frosted because it turned out ugly, let's just say I decorated it very late and spelt a word wrong. :) So you can see it from a distance! 

After cake and ice cream we all went outside for a good game of Cornhole (bean bag toss). My Papa loved the name of the game! 

He loves Kate! 

Zucchini Lasagna

A co-worker brought a bunch of Zucchini to share so I grabbed a couple and thought I'd try some Zucchini Lasagna. 

I've never made lasagna before so I went searching for a recipe and came across this one.... 

Zucchini Lasagna (w/ dairy) 

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups zucchini, sliced 1/4 inch thick ( about 2 medium)

• 1/2 lb lean ground beef ( I use 1 lb.)

• 1/4 cup onions, chopped

• 2 small tomatoes, cut up

• 1 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste

• 1 garlic cloves, minced

• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil

• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

• 1/4 cup water

• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

• 1 eggs

• 3/4 cup low fat cottage cheese ( or low fat or fat free ricotta)

• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded ( I use 8 oz. divided)

• 1 teaspoon flour

Directions

1. Cook zucchini until tender, drain and set aside. Fry meat and onions until meat is brown and onions are tender; drain fat. Add next 8 ingredients and bring to a boil.

2. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered 10 minutes or until reduced to 2 cups

3. In small bowl slightly beat egg

4. Add cottage cheese, half of shredded cheese and flour.

5. In (1 1/2-qt.) baking-roasting pan arrange half of the meat mixture. Top with half of the zucchini and all the cottage cheese mixture. Top with remaining meat and zucchini

6. Bake uncovered at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes

7. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake 10 minutes longer.

8. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

And here's how I changed it up a little to be lactose free and fewer steps. I made the lasagna in a pie dish because its all I could find. My local Save Mart now carries a Cottage Cheese that is lactose-free. I love all the new products that are coming out Lactose Free!! 

Zucchini Lasagna (lactose free) 

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups zucchini, pealed 

• 1/2 lb lean ground beef ( I used 1 lb.)

• 1/4 cup onions, chopped

• 1 jar of marinara sauce 

• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

• 1 eggs

• 3/4 cup lactose-free cottage cheese 

• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded

• 1 teaspoon flour

Here's what to do: 

1. Cook the meat and onions until meat is brown and onions are tender; drain fat. Add the marinara sauce and bring to a boil.

2. Reduce heat; simmer or until reduced
3. Peel the zucchini into strips (I used a vegetable peeler. The smaller the zucchini the better)

4. In small bowl slightly beat egg

5. Add cottage cheese, half of shredded cheese and flour.

6. In (1 1/2-qt. or any dish you have) baking-roasting pan arrange a layer of each of the following; zucchini strips, meat mixture, zucchini strips, cottage cheese mixture, meat mixture, zucchini mixture and top off with a layer of parmesan cheese.

7. Bake covered at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes

8. Uncover and bake 10 minutes longer or broiler for 4-5 minutes.

9. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!!

Chasing Bees & Chocolate Chip Cookies

this past week was a traumatic week for my dog. about 4am she woke me up by constantly rubbing her face. at first i told her to go away but then she didn't so i figured something was wrong. when i turned the light on to see her face looked like this..... 

her nose was swelling. all i could find was children's benadryl which really wouldn't do much for her.... 

at 6am i got up and went to work (her face continued to swell) knowing my mom could check on her later in the day and the vet didn't open till 8am. I was able to get her in to see the vet at 11am and thankfully my brother-in-law was off work already so he could help me (she doesn't like other dogs at the vet) and i was sooooo thankful that he was there to calm her down. 

this was her on our way to the vet. poor thing her face just kept swelling.

it always amazes me how much she weighs, 149lbs. bad part the vet called her fat. 

the vet said she must have gotten stung by a bee and gave her an injection of steroids and sent me home with a prescription if it didn't go down by 4pm. 

i got home from work around for 4pm and her face was huge so she got a couple more doses of steroids and it finally went down. 

so she's all better and i think it scared me more then it hurt her. 

i love to always have some type of baked goodies in the house and what's better then homemade chocolate chip cookies plus i wanted to try my new cookie scoop from Pampered Chef that i got from my step sister a few weeks ago. 

i love this cookie scoop. it made all my cookies perfect size. 

this recipe made a HUGE batch of cookies so i took some to work, my family, and the lake so they didn't last long at all. they are pretty much the best chocolate chip cookie ever. 

here's the recipe, and make sure you share with others

enjoy!! 

Kate on a gofer hunt & breakfast

while I was in the kitchen making breakfast, 

Kate had some fun in the backyard getting dirty. 

She was on a gofer hunt. 

biscuits with cinnamon apples and carmel sauce 

I made a package mix of biscuits. Then placed them on a cookie sheet side by side.

Then I sliced an apple and tossed it in cinnamon and sugar. 

Once the apples were covered in cinnamon and sugar I laid them on top of the biscuits and 

baked according to the biscuit package. 

Once the biscuits cool a little I drizzled the whole thing with carmel sauce. 

They were delicious!!!!

a day at the park

a few weeks ago 'the kids' (our good family friend's kids) were hanging out with me and my mother for the day. when they were on their way to our house, JJ (the son) saw that there were bounce houses at our local park. so we HAD to go bounce! 

here are some pictures i captured!

RJ (2 yrs), me, JJ (5 yrs) 

JJ loved to slide down then run to the camera to see his face! 

sweet RJ

this made for a perfect saturday at the park!  

jones-salmon bridal shower

a few weeks ago i had the privilege to throw a bridal shower and bachelorette party in ONE day! let me tell you, this took some planning on my part. i LOVE to plan and be apart of throwing parties but i also like to be very organized and have the day go smooth. 

i had great help from the bride, her family, my family and one of the other bridesmaids. 

myself and another bridesmaid were in charge of the food table. there were about 35 women and children invited and the shower started at 10:30am so we needed brunch food. thankfully several family friends of the bride offered to help make food for the day. 

menu: chinese chicken salad, fruit salad, blueberry muffin, lemon poppy seed muffin,
chocolate chip muffins, pasta salad and mini pigs in a blanket. 

cupcakes i made, well my mother made.  :)
i did make the little toothpicks with bows on them

a polka dot banner i made

we added my teal window as a backdrop to the food table, it added color.
the brides family owns a window company so this was perfect 

natalie made the following things for the dessert table. 

adorable cake

'sweet love' natalie makes these and sells them (check her out)

yummy cake pops (so i hear) 

i made a delicious pasta salad, if i do say myself. however, i can't take credit for the recipe. 

i got it from my good friend. bonus: its dairy-free :) 

all the guests addressed an envelope,
save the bride some time on her thank you's 

one of the games we played! everyone received plastic bangles.
i found them at walmart 12 bangles for a dollar. score!

brides mother, bride, mother-in-law

a few of the ladies at the shower

the bride to be and myself

i found this adorable little hanger on etsy.com for the bride

i'd like to thank everyone that helped throw this shower.

it was absolutely beautiful and just what the bride wanted.