Sour Cream Coffee Cake With Cinnamon and Sugar

This recipe makes 2 loaves and I get rave reviews when I bring it to others.  Freezes great, if you want to eat one now and freeze the other for later.  Since we only have 3 people in the house now, I have started cutting the loaves in half and freezing 1/2 loaves, so they stay fresh as we eat it and none goes to waste.



Ingredients:

Cake: 
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
For topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoon cinnamon
Directions:

Cream butter, sugar, and eggs in large bowl. Combine sour cream and vanilla. Add to butter-sugar-egg mixture.
In another bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Gradually, add flour mixture to sour cream mixture, stirring until just combined.
For topping, combine brown sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.
Put 1/2 of the dough into 2 buttered, floured loaf pans. Sprinkle 1/2 of topping over dough. Put remaining dough over toppings. Finish with remaining topping.

 Bake at 350 until toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 45 minutes.  Makes 2 loaves.

Reorganizing pantries for a more streamline look

I have been wanting to reorganize my 2 kitchen pantries for some time, and finally had an opportunity to go to IKEA and purchase some additional storage containers.   I bought several new Ikea containers, used canning jars I already had, and bought some empty spice jars from Penzy's Spices. I loved the look of the chalkboard labels, but hated the prices I was seeing.  I needed over 100 labels, since I was relabeling everything, including spices and wanted to be able to use the same labels going forward, without worry of labels being out print when I needed more.  I did some research and found that if I used black contact paper and made my own labels, I could make a ton at a very low cost.  I purchased the black contact paper at amazon for around $5, a liquid chalk pen at amazon for around $4, and a 2 1/4 inch scalloped label maker at Hobby Lobby for about $10(used a 40% coupon available online all of the time):

The first thing I did was to clear everything out of both pantries and painted the inside of my pantries a bright green.  Using a color inside the pantries make seeing what you have so much easier to see, since they "pop" against the brighter color:

My goal when putting things back in was to get rid of as many bags and boxes that made sense to get rid of and be able to really see everything I was putting back in, so we could use more of what we have.  As you will see I have a ton of stuff, because I do cook from scratch quite a bit, but have had some prepackaged items for other family members, so they could cook. Two of our kids have moved out in the last couple of years and we only have a 17 year old left, so I will be purposely whittling down all of the different types of items that our family of 5 used, such as different pastas, to just 2 or 3 types. 





I measured the inside pantry shelves and decided to have tiers on a shelf, so that we could see everything on the shelf.  On the couple of shelves I wanted to tier, I went to lowes and got the to cut 2X4s into the lengths I needed so i could stack 3 boards in the very back and 2 boards in front of that.  I went to the dollar store and got some beige contact paper and wrapped the boards in the paper.   You could also leave the boards unpainted or paint if you want. Here is peek of the tiers on one of my shelves:

I took all of my spices and went through them all.  I threw out and replaced any that were old and put all spices in either canning jars or jars from penzy's spices, so they looked more streamlined and easier to read. 

 This project took quite a few days and anytime I got tired and wanted to start stuffing things back in, I stopped, because I wanted to do it right the first time and make a system for us that we could use for a long time(like until I die..lol)  We have been using this for about 2 weeks now and wanted to see how it was working for us before I shared this and I am now happy with the results.  I love how this is working out so much, that I plan to do the same thing to our Rivah place.

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients:

2 cups split peas
2 Tablespoons canola oil
2 medium onions, finely diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 quarts chicken broth
4 carrots, peeled and diced
Ham bone with ham pieces attached
Salt to taste

Directions:

Pick over peas to remove stones and debris.  Rinse them in cold water, unless package says presort and washed.
Heat canola oil in the bottom of a soup pot.  Saute onions, celery, and garlic until translucent.  Add chicken broth, carrots, ham bone, and lentils.  Simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until lentils are very tender.  Remove ham bone and cut ham from bone and place back in pot. If soup gets too thick, thin out with a little chicken broth.  Taste and add salt if needed.  Makes 8-10 servings. 

Chocolate Coconut Candies

These are winners at dinner parties and as gifts anytime of year.  So easy, but look like you took a lot of time to make.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 3/4 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 cups(12 ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons shortening

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine confectioners' sugar, coconut, almo nds, and sweetened condensed milk.  Shape into 1 inch balls.  Refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate chips and shortening; stir until smooth.  dip balls in chocolate; allow excess to drip off.  Place on waxed paper; let stand until set.  Store in an airtight container.  These freeze great and can also be refrigerated(I prefer to leave in fridge if not serving that day).  Makes 2 1/2 dozen.