Monday, March 30, 2009

Springtime at Coffee Time

Deb at Creative Soul issued a spring challenge recently. She asked us to create something that reminds us of spring. There is one item in the world that says spring to me more than anything else - tulips! I adore tulips - purple ones, yellow ones, pink ones - if it's a tulip, I love it. I harbor a secret desire to live in a place where I can plant a tulip garden. My grandmother's sister had a tulip garden with many different kinds of tulips. I loved walking through that garden.

Every spring I wait impatiently for tulips to appear in the grocery stores. Last Friday my DH came home with my first bunch of purple tulips. Some of them were put into this vase and reside on my dinner table.
A few more were placed in a small vase and landed on my nightstand. They are sitting atop a small wood chest I bought a few years ago. Even the chest has tulips painted on it.
How does spring appear in your house?

Sweet P

Friday, March 27, 2009

Mmmmmm . . . Chocolate Cream Pie

Last Sunday I decided to make Chocolate Cream Pie using this recipe as the base. I eliminated the bananas and used chocolate pudding instead of banana pudding. I made the banana cream pie in January for DS's birthday and we loved it.

The chocolate cream pie was just as yummy as the banana cream pie. All of us loved it. I think I ate most of it!
Next time I'll try a different pudding flavor. I'm even thinking of making it in individual pie crusts or even serving it as a mousse. But first, I need a reason to make it. Anyone have a suggestion?

Sweet P

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Everyone Makes Mistakes

Everyone makes a cooking mistake now and then. The one I made on Sunday was a doozy. I wanted to make a Chocolate Stout cake for DH. For some unexplainable reason I decided to use an 8" square pan instead of a larger one.

This is what happens to the oven when there is too much batter in the pan.
Trust me it looks better in the photo than it did in person.
This is what the cake looked like. There was a 2 inch dip in the middle of the cake. To top it off when we did cut it open it wasn't completely cooked. So it went into the trash.
I'm hoping the dessert, whatever I decide it will be, will turn out this weekend.

What cooking mistakes have you made?
Sweet P

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Sports Fleece and Breakfast for Dinner

Not much has been happening around Coffee Time at Home. I've been spending time getting ready for the baby shower for DIL next week. That means a lot of cleaning and organizing and some painting.

In the first few months I was working at Jo-Ann I purchased three pieces of sports fleece: Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics. Until last Friday they were just floating around our bedroom. That's when I decided to sew them together. The final piece is longer than our comforter, but not quite as wide. It just fits across the top of the bed. It adds a nice touch of our sports life in the room.

Do you eat breakfast food at dinner? I like to eat quiche. My grocery store sells a half-sized quiche and when DH is traveling it's one of my favorite meals. Another breakfast meal I like is Jimmy Deans breakfast bowls. Tonight I'm thinking of making pancakes and bacon. What's your favorite breakfast food to eat for dinner?

Sweet P