Tag: food

Let’s See If That Dump Cake Recipe Book Really Delivers…

I’m dubious, but I bought this book at the drugstore. Have you seen the late-night infomercial with the lady mixing up delicious cakes in minutes, no… SECONDS flat! “As Seen On T.V.” stuff… I know you are wondering about it, too, don’t deny it… we all are on the verge of purchasing a case of Left Handed Turnip Twaddlers, just like Opus the Penguin.*

I was game enough to plunk down ten bucks at CVS- no dealing with shipping, handling or over-the-phone credit card purchases. For less than the cost of a movie I will entertain myself for a couple hours with either surprisingly delicious cake results, or, even more fun, surprisingly ridiculous, disastrous, experiments.

It’s a win-win around here!

Three ingredients go into the greased 9″x13″ pan- Berries, Chocolate Cake Mix, and a Stick of Butter
Step One: 3 cups of strawberries go into a greased 9″ x 13″ baking pan.
Step Two: Evenly sprinkle the chocolate cake mix on top of the berries.
Step Three: Lay one sliced stick of butter on top, trying to cover as much of the cake as possible.
Finished cake has some spots with dry cake mix...
45 minutes at 350 and here it is. Finished cake has some spots with dry cake mix…
But, it tasted pretty good.
…but, it tasted pretty good. This wasn’t too bad, honestly. I wouldn’t make it for company… but I’m going to give it another try with one of the apple cake recipes

*Can I get a shout out from anyone who recognized the Bloom County reference?

Ever Have Corn Casserole?

I never did, until Friday evening… the only reason I was able to try this stuff is that I took a new friend up on her offer to get together. When you tag the mother of The Boyfriend on Facebook, it can result in all the moms and dads hanging out to share favorite family dishes while they dish about their kids. Ha!

I brought the pulled pork and cookies- she shared cookies, caprese salad and this casserole. Her cookies were better than mine AND we found a new side to serve. I count that as a winning day.

This is Jan’s dish that her family always wants at their gatherings- Corn Casserole. I have never even heard of it, and like many family favorites around the world, it has only a few simple ingredients. I dug around on Pinterest this morning to find a version and landed on this one: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/59250551321439494/ that linked to KeyIngredient.com

Corn Casserole:

1 8 oz box of Jiffy Corn Bread mix
1 15 oz can of creamed corn
1 15 oz can of regular corn, with canning juice
1 8 oz carton of sour cream
1 4 oz stick of butter, melted

(other variations add a little bit of sugar, various amounts of shredded cheddar, or an egg or two)

Combine all ingredients, pour into a buttered casserole dish, bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

From KeyIngredient.com click for the link!
From KeyIngredient.com click for the link!

That’s it! Really. And it was unbelievably good. I know just what my father would do to this recipe- he’d break out five different peppers from Bells to Chipotles. My mom would add sugar. Then double it.

How Do I Like My Mother’s Day? With Two Pies.

It is Mother’s Day today, and along with sleeping in and French Toast and Bacon made by the Husband for brunch, we tried two different pies for dinner. Julian Pie Company‘s Chicken Pot Pie and Claim Jumper’s Peach Pie. I can’t think of a better gift for me the mom than to cook for me and make an easy bake, easy clean-up dinner.

Julian Pie Co. Chicken Pot Pie- pure yum.
Julian Pie Co. Chicken Pot Pie- pure yum.

The pot pie was FABULOUS. All four of us decided that every time we go past the Julian Pie Company and pick up an apple pie, that the dinner pie WILL be bought, too. The whole family liked this dinner- the crust was super tender and flakey, the vegetable to meat to gravy ratios were all in great balance, and the flavor of the whole pie was delicious.

Better than "Meh"
Better than “Meh”

The Claim Jumper Lattice Peach Pie was just what you would expect from a frozen pie, but on the better side of average. I had no expectations from this freezer section selection, but honestly? The crust was flaky and crisp and even though the filling was really sweet, it wasn’t bad- not a home made fresh peach pie by a long shot, but not the usual sub-standard grocery store ilk.

So, there you have it. Cook for your moms, clean up your dishes, and the next time you want a really good but still ready made pie for dessert for Mother’s Day, get to the store before they sell out of all the Julian Pie Company Apple Pies.

Taste Testing Korean Snacks with a Couple of Ringers! (Part TWO)

Part Two of our taste-testing extravaganza focused on the sweet treats and drinks while the K-pop was playing in the background…
IMG_6528Banana Kick- Can you imagine your basic cheese puffs, with NO cheese or powder, but with banana flavor instead? Comments included “Holy crap, it’s a banana cheese puff!” and “ Weird, but cool; tastes less banana-y than they smell.” We dug these things.

IMG_6525Corn Silk Tea- Joseph was so happy that we didn’t like this as much as he did. This was clearly one of his favorite home foods. Corn Silk Tea is a very mild tea that, very oddly, I thought tasted like tea plus the milk left over from a bowl of Cap’n Crunch. Yeah, I know, like I said- odd… but not in a bad way. I can totally see why this would be a favorite if you grew up drinking it- kind of like how most other world cultures can’t stand our root beer, but we Americans LOVE it.

IMG_6537Custard Cream Cakes- Joseph and The Boyfriend said that these are Korean Twinkies. Honestly, the comparison is a bit insulting. These are WAY better than Twinkies.

IMG_6538Matdongsan- One of the snacks that the boys were most excited to eat and have us try. To quote them: “Tastes like Korea.” I thought these were really good, peanut butter cookie meets cracker-y wafer-ish treat stick.

IMG_65572% by Lotte (Peach Flavored)– Oh, man! This was great! 2% is a non-carbonated soft drink that is not overwhelmingly sweet. We all liked it. “Ooo, right in the Childhood,” was The Boyfriend’s comment. We totally should have gotten more of this in different flavors. Get this- you can buy Lotte’s 2% Peach from Amazon, if you are so inclined.

IMG_6541Jolly Pong- almost exactly the same thing as the American honey puffed wheat cereal Sugar Crisps (now called Golden Crisp to not sound so sugar laden) or Honey Smacks (does that cereal even exist any more) . But more delicate. Really good!

We still have the frozen treat to try, and another aloe flavored soft drink, some various ramen and a couple more sweet snacks to try… Looks like Joseph will have to ask for an extension on his student Visa? We can hope. Have a great summer with your family, Joseph, and we wish you all the luck in the world when you start university next fall. New York doesn’t know how lucky it is to be getting you, I hope you take Manhattan by storm! We should make Willy do this with Chinese snacks next year, shouldn’t we- maybe between the Fall play’s Saturday performances? Ha, look out, Willy, you are next!

Taste Testing Korean Snacks with a Couple of Ringers! (Part One)

The Girl attends a school with kids from all corners of the globe. Actually, pretty much all schools in the greater Southern California area fit this description. For tonight’s new adventure, tasting Korean snack foods, we conscripted two great kids (I can call 18-year-olds “kids” since I have 30 years on them).IMG_6519 (1)

  • Joseph, from South Korea, classmate and friend of The Girl for several years, our native expert
  • The Boyfriend, who lived in Asia for four years, and totally on board with steering us toward his favorites

I bought five packages of snacks last week. It took the boys all of TWO seconds to take me up on my offer to drive back to our local H Mart to make sure we covered all of their favorites. Now we were up to over twenty, savory and sweet- not counting the soft drinks and ice cream the boys were excited for us to try.

The Summaries
The kids were fried after Week #1 of A.P. Exams, so we kept K-Pop going on Pandora and snacked away for three hours and came up with the following:

IMG_6527“Shrimp Crackers” from the boys: “Aaaaahhh!!! What did they do to our favorite childhood snack?!? Wait! By the 3rd bite it is starting to taste right.” We newbies thought they were pretty good.

IMG_6530“O!Karto” Italian Gratin flavor… we dug ’em. The favorite of The Boyfriend. good!

IMG_6532“Crab Chips” Meh. Unanimous. Tasted better than they smelled.

IMG_6534“Onion Rings” Like wheat based Funyons. Good, but not as good as King Funyuns.

IMG_6536“Tako Snacks” Thought I would slip octopus flavored chips past my son. The Boy resisted. Although they tasted better than they smelled, all these rated was another “meh.”

IMG_6539“Gg-Ggol-Corn” Joseph says this is his best attempt at Anglo spelling of Korean… A whole lot like Bugles, but WAY less salty. Very good!

Next post- Sweet snacks and beverages!! Holy cow, this was fun!