Cherry Blueberry Dump Cake

A dump cake is a cobbler that uses cake instead of biscuit or crumble topping. You can make your own cake mix or use box mix.

You’ll Need:

1 box of cake mix
Milk
Eggs
1 stick of butter
Fruit

Preheat the oven to 350F.

You can use any fruit you want. I use canned fruit in combination with frozen because then I don’t have to stew the fruit myself. Of course you can if you want to or even leave the fruit be, just cut it up in pieces. The cooking time will be lower with fresh, un-stewed fruit. Today I used a 21oz can of pie cherries, 15oz can of pears drained and cut into chunks, and 21oz of frozen blueberries. I dumped the cherries and blueberries into a 9×13 stoneware dish sprayed with Pam. You can use glass or a baking pan if you like. I spread the fruit until it covered the bottom. I drained and chopped up the pears then sprinkled them on top of the rest of the fruit.

In a bowl prepare the cake mix but not according to the directions! On the back of the box, cake mix usually gives you how many eggs, water and oil to add. Add the number of eggs required (usually 2 to 3). Instead of water, use equal amounts milk. Skip the oil all together. I used moist yellow cake from Duncan Heines. This called for 3 eggs, 1 and third of water and oil. I mixed the eggs, 1 and a third of milk and the cake mix together.

Dump the cake batter over the fruit and spread it until it covers the fruit. Cut the butter up into pats and lay them on top of the cake batter. Stick it in the oven for 30 minutes to an hour. After 30 minutes check it by inserting a knife into the middle. If it comes out clean, it’s done. If not, just check it ever ten minutes until it’s done.

This is sweeter than biscuit cobblers but not as sweet as crisp or crumble cobblers.

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CPGO: Step 4 – Setting Sketch

At this point I’m diverging from BiaM and You Can Write a Novel. Both mention setting briefly. Smith goes as far to suggest treating settings like a character. Instead, I’m leaving these books at the wayside for now and concentrating on the setting sketch from FDi30D.

I know where BK will be set. I’m listing the settings in yWriter and in my notes software. This is the first part of this step. Once I have the settings down for further reference, I start the setting sketch.

What I used to do is start this in my notes program in a tree view. I really don’t like this, nor do I want to use the worksheets from the book. So this time I’m looking towards yWriter to get this down. One of the features of yWriter is the ability to assign locations to scenes. Combined with scene notes I think I can pull this off.

First I write down the names of the setting in the order I think they’ll go in the novel. This could be by country, city, places within the city or times of day.

I create a chapter and a scene, naming the scene “Setting Sketch”. I add the location for that chapter by dragging it over. In the notes tab, I do the setting sketch or what I think what will happen at that setting.

The actual setting sketch details the place, time, who’s there, a summary of what happens and how many chapters I think it’s gonna take to write it out.

There are two things going on here. I’m not just getting down the where and when, but I’m also getting down the basic plot at the same time. I’m not going to go back on this part. Once it’s down I’ll reference it only once more before deleting it.

Tips for Today:

WD: I am not an Exception: That is learn the rules and follow the guidelines. There are rules on writing, submitting and publishing.

NaNo: Study your favorite authors, their voice style and content. NaNo advises practicing to write like them for awhile. This is great practice but it doesn’t belong in a finished piece.

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Lime Steak on a Bed of Olive Cream Cheese

Our kitchen is a disaster area. One of the cabinets fell off the wall. The important one, with the dishes. We’ve been living off of fast food and cold food while we try to find a replacement. Today I finally had enough and cleared off the stove so I could do some cooking.

Before this catastrophe I purchased bruschetta topping and cream cheese with some idea of doing a chicken dish with coconut. However, I bought these nice flat iron steaks and thought this would be good. Oh I was right.

2 Flat Iron (small) steaks
4oz of cream cheese
4 tbsp Bruschetta topping*
Lime Juice
Coconut Oil
True Lime

Spoon out the bruschetta topping and allow the oil to drain off a little bit. In the middle of a plate, smoosh the bruschetta topping* and cream cheese together.

Melt some coconut oil on low heat in a frying pan then turn it up to medium. Sprinkle the oil with lime juice. Butterfly (that’s cut in half by not all the way through) the steaks. Rub them with True Lime. Fry the steaks until done and place on top of the cream cheese. Eat each delicious bite with some meat and some of the cream cheese.

*The bruschetta topping is just green and black olives, pimentos, red peppers and capers in white wine vinegar and olive oil. You can easily put this all together yourself beforehand. Eating it with a spoon is good too.

And I promise to take better pictures. Cross my heart.

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Working on the Site: Child themes, Portfolio, Gallery

Fire So I’ve been working on the site. I know I said I was working on a new design. Well, then WordPress 3.0 came out and twenty-ten and well.

Okay I’m working on a child theme instead, expanding my horizons. So the site should change randomly piece by piece. Fun huh?

I’m also updating my portfolio and gallery. I’ve done some new paintings I like. So I should actually get this done this year, the update that is. So yeah. Things. So if things seem wonky, don’t worry. I’m working on it.

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Kitchen Scratch Quesadilla

So due to the broken cupboard, dishes litter our stove, freezer, and counter space. This also happens to be a week with little to no leftovers or easy heat ups. J. got us a rotisserie chicken earlier in the week, but I’m about chickened out.

So I feel hungry for something else. This is what I pulled out:

2 slices of sharp cheddar

2 slices of Dubliner cheese

Herdez Salsa Verde (the pantry shelf buckled too…but this managed to stay on the shelf.

Lemon Juice

Ms. Dash Fiesta Lime (chili powder and lime powder basically)

Whipping Cream

Tortillas, Flour

Chicken, precooked, in this case rotisserie

Shred chicken. Put cheese, chicken, a splash of lemon juice and salsa on a tortilla. Fry or nuke in the microwave. Hint: it’s better pan fried. Sprinkle Dash over the top and drizzle with whipping cream.

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This Was Not the Hat I’m Looking For

For the first time in my short knitting career, I’ve changed up a pattern. I was following a pattern from Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee when I notice the hat was for a man with the head of a basketball instead of a 10 year-old normal sized girl.

The problem was the cast-on. She says enough stitches to cover the hand. Well that’s a lot of stitches. A lot…more than two hundred. So I go back, count stitches and decrease and bit and….brim hat pattern goodness!

I think I just created a pattern. Not sure yet. Once I finish the hat, I’ll know more. This is kind of fun, you know?

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Dreamcicle Icecream

2 cups whipping cream

1 cup milk

3/4 cup sugar

1 tbsp Vanilla extract

1/2 of a lid of Orange extract

Put milk and sugar in a mixer and mix it till dissolved. Add cream and whip it till soft and foamy, not stiff. Add vanilla and orange extracts and whip for about 30 more seconds. Dump in you ice cream machine.

It’s good with chocolate, chocolate cookies, chocolate cake, chocolate syrup, chocolate anything.  But don’t add chocolate to recipe though…it’s way rich. You were warned.

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My First Yarn

So that spinning thing. I did get new spindles (pictures later!!). The gray alpaca I’m still working on. It’s stringing and rubbery and pretty. But that’s not what this picture is of.

At Hobby Lobby, I found this pack of vintage colored wool for needle felting. Six colors in two ounce balls. I figured this would make great practice wool and I started with green.

This is my thumb in the yarn. Two ounces is a small amount, obviously, but it did make for great practice. And I have a tiny center-pull ball of green wool-of-some-unknown-animal yarn. This is probably headed for a remnant blanket some day.

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Guestblogging Today

Hi all!

I have a guest blog up at http://www.ianthealy.com! Go have a look see!

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The False Betrothal by Clarice Peters

The False Betrothal is a somewhat confusing tale of falling in love because it’s convenient. Lady Alexa Eiseley gives shelter to to Leigh Winslow (who has taken his mother’s name for some reason) and nosy neighbors mistakes him for Earl Sebastian Winslow. So to save face they decide, both confirmed bachelor(ette)s, to pretend to be betrothed to each other.

Hi-jinx obviously ensue as breaking the engagement keeps getting pushed back to save the feelings of family members. Then, mainly to do something with the hinting about other characters, they have to figure out how to break a counterfeit ring.

Peters, AKA Laureen Kwock, hasn’t written a bad story. It was a fun read, all that you’d expect from a Regency Romance, except for the side plot whose solving ran to the silly side (no one could possibly be a fault because they are part of the higher classes).

So fun…if a little silly. I like stories of 19th century England and this book delivered.

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