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Crazy like a fox, I am…
By Betsy Richter | 11:54 amYes, it’s time for another self-congratulatory post after revealing my dubious dating history to you all over the last few days.
So – on tonight’s menu? Homemade chicken soup, from my very own chicken stock, no less. And for dessert? Homemade cake.
Yes, I’m a single working mother. Yes, I get up at o-dark-thirty to start working from home each day. And despite all of that, I get out, I have a social life, and I manage to post voluminously to this here blog.
How can I do this, you ask? No, the answer doesn’t come from that infamous Saturday Night Live commercial – “I take speed!” Instead, let’s take a closer look at the components of tonight’s dinner…
The soup? That’s genuine. We had rotisserie chicken for dinner Sunday night, and I tossed the carcass in my crockpot (with a frozen friend from an earlier rotisserie chicken) all night Sunday night to make the stock. Monday morning? Turned it off at 5 am, cooled it down, strained it, and put it in the refrigerator for tonight. Monday night? Made a double batch of noodles for pasta on the premise that I’d use them for soup. Tonight? Add sliced baby carrots, some celery, the leftover chicken itself from Sunday, and simmer for a bit. Add noodles close to serving, and = voila! Mom’s famous homemade soup.
But did I really bake a cake last night as well? Weeeellll…let’s take a closer look at that cake, shall we? (Terry, I should warn you now that you’ll not be pleased with the outcome…)
See, you should know that Drama Mama? She loooooves The Dollar Store. And she loooooooves baking with Mom. And she looooooves sweet things. So when she saw the box of Pillsbury Springtime Funfetti cake mix, well, we just had to buy it.
Me? I’m allergic to cake mixes (or just snobby as hell, take your pick.) But the will of this small child was not to be denied – so I threw it in the basket, along with some Chocolate Fudge canned frosting she picked out. Grand total? Two dollars.
Then, I made the mistake of talking last night about what we could do to soup that cake up – specifically, we could turn it into a Jello Cake. What in the world is a Jello Cake, you might ask? Weeeelll…you make your splendiferous cake…you poke it full of holes…and then you pour Jello over it & refrigerate the whole thing overnight.
Of course, it caught her imagination. Which is why I kept her amused last night making said cake…adding the red and blue Funfetti sprinkles to the batter…and then preparing it last night for the (gah – hold on to this one) watermelon jello she insisted we use for the thing. And her brother got into the act as well – both kids fiercely stabbed that cake to death with toothpicks.
So, let’s review. We made a yellow cake with sprinkles & watermelon jello that’s going to be topped by chocolate fudge frosting. Two out of the three of us don’t really care for cake much – let alone one made with the above combination of tasty-goodness.
But! On the other hand? It cost me all of two dollars (plus three eggs, 1/4 cup of oil, and a package of Jello I think I’ve had for years) And what did it buy me? Enough time to craft last night’s blog post, for starters. Time where the children were taking their aggressions out on a poor defenseless cake, instead of each other.
See? Crazy like a fox, I am…
Topics: Chef Whims | 5 Comments »
April 5th, 2005 at 12:45 pm
You RAWK! However, I gotta tell you I’m not at all turned on by that jello-cake thingy. Ewwww. But if it makes the kidlets happy, yeehaw!
April 5th, 2005 at 4:53 pm
If you really want to be self-congratulatory, next time try making the Jell-o from scratch with your stash of chicken carcasses. Just boil them down to goo and you’ve got the main ingredient in Jell-o.
April 6th, 2005 at 9:10 pm
that noise you hear? the one that sounds like the pumping action that the dog does right before he hurls on the bed/rug/sofa? not. the. dog.
July 4th, 2006 at 9:07 am
[...] And I kept that anti-Jell-O stance through the years, even though I got drawn back into reclaiming my roots as the now-designated official Thanksgiving Green Bean Casserole bringer. Sure, I briefly caved to my own daughter’s desire to make a Jell-O Poke cake . Thankfully, the thing was howlingly, horribly inedible (the ants wouldn’t even touch it) – which successfully deterred any other requests for Jell-O based dishes in our household. [...]
November 21st, 2006 at 2:26 pm
[...] I don’t serve Jello – much to my children’s dismay. In fact, my daughter came home from her father’s one year after attending a big extended family after-Thanksgiving party all excited about the culinary bounty that had been spread before her, potluck style. “Mom! Have you ever heard of Jello? You can use it to make salads with oranges and mini marshmallows! And you can top it with Cool Whip!” (I have since been enticed into cooking with Jello – with disasterous results.) [...]