A small appliance was a favorite gift.

Yes, I said that. Out loud, and here in print.
My favorite Christmas gift was a small appliance.

But please, please, please don't tell my Sweetie!
Sweetie and I have an agreement, well a promise...
we promised each other long, long ago
that we wouldn't gift each other with appliances, large or small.

Do you have the same promise with someone about gifts disallowed?
And do you have a recent favorite gift item from a so-called disallowed list? 

So, back to the small appliance...
at Christmas time,
a friend - J, brought some gifts for me -
way too many gifts (!) :

some great texty fabrics, pins, 

and a fun, quilty mug among other things,

and I loved them all to pieces.

J also had another gift for me, tagged 'From Santa',
supposedly that was left at her house...
though I found it curious 
that it was wrapped in the same gift paper as her gifts.

I love all of my gifts, but my favorite may just be the one
that was marked 'From Santa',
shown here:

Yes, a small appliance!, it's a casserole sized slow-cooker.
It even has it's own cord corral:

Also in that last pic is the the fun, quilty mug gift, 
now continually filled with my hot tea.

I had mentioned to J (in the summertime) after my paternal family reunion, that a second cousin had this great smaller-sized slow-cooker and if she saw one when she was out shopping to please let me know, as I think I'd like to have one now that the usual family meal size has decreased.  I never found one myself, and I sure didn't tell Sweetie that I was looking for a small appliance!  

So it was such a great surprise to receive the exact item I'd described, and so very kind that J remembered my comment from 6 months ago.  Isn't that a wonderful friend?

Both the slow-cooker and the mug have been used many times in the last handful of weeks, thanks to J!!!

In fact, right now the slow-cooker is filled with a
Chocolate Cherry Fudge Cake
(which is a recipe that I made up from a few different recipes I found on Pinterest).

Anyway, please don't tell my Sweetie 
that my favorite gift may just have been a small appliance.
I don't want to start that trend. :)

sweetness!

With all the gatherings last weekend,
I, of course, did some cooking and baking. 
I love to cook for family...because they so appreciate it!

Daughter had sent me a link to a cake recipe she thought looked & sounded good.
I gathered the supplies and created this monster of a dessert:

Chocolate Oreo Cheesecake with White Chocolate Icing

 

(I didn't take a photo of the cake when it was whole and pretty looking, but I did take these shots after the party was over and the cake was a little saggy.)

So, the cake's original recipe (link here) called for a

made from scratch chocolate cake,

a scratch cheesecake with broken, double-stuffed Oreos,

and

scratch icing made with melted white chocolate.

Oh, yeah, and dotted with mini Oreos for polka dots.

 

I mostly bake from scratch, and rarely do I not change something in a recipe.  This was no exception. 
With three different scratch recipes to make, I did change it up just a little...

I used a box cake mix for the chocolate cake part.

So what you see is a two layer, dark chocolate cake,
"filled" with a separately made, steam-baked Cheesecake with broken Oreos,
then iced with a very sweet icing of butter, whipping cream, powdered sugar AND melted white chocolate.

All of those parts of cake would have been individually GREAT...

but layer all together, with white chocolate icing between and all over?

WAY too sweet for my taste!

Sure didn't stop the family, though. 
And THAT is why it's great to cook for family-
they SO appreciate it (even if it's way too sweet)!

quilting, snow and soup

Another snow storm has passed through Central Ohio...

another 6 inches or so.  It's beautiful.

It's also nice to be able to work from home - quilting.

And cooking while I'm stitching away...
it's Soup Time!!!

 

That's kind of been my theme this Winter...

Snow and Soup.

What's better than a big pot of soup simmering as the snow falls??

I made up a batch of Beef-Barley-Vegetable soup and

some crusty bread - man does the house smell great!

(If only I had fresh cream...I'd churn up some fresh butter

just like Great-Grandma B always seemed to have on hand
when there was a snow storm blowin' in.)

HA!!
Check out my bread-baking bowls:

Can you tell from the color of my Pyrex 

which decade I received these as a wedding gift???

Makes me smile. 

Anyway,

 

Snow, quilting, cooking...
what a great way to finish up the last week of March!

Cool!

When the weather changes,

even early, before it's supposed to change...

When it's too cool for this time of year?

I just have to cook! 
Whole wheat egg noodles almost ready to cut,

 some veggies

 & some of that chicken from my brother's abundance...

will fill this:

And will fill our bellies the next few meals!

Yum!