Average Jane

Why Average Jane Is Not A Professional Baker

Last night my friend LuAnn came over so I could help her make a successful Pumpkin Cake Roll to take to her family Thanksgiving dinner. She'd made one before, but ended up turning it into a layer cake when it cracked to pieces. Everyone loved it because it was still delicious, but she was hesitant to try it again.

Here's the thing: this cake always cracks, at least for me.The key is to minimize the cracking and try to confine it to the part that's rolled inside and less visible.

Here is where I wish I'd taken a bunch of photos, but I'll try to draw you some word pictures. (That sentence is way too "Simple Jack" for my liking, but it's early in the morning and I'm tired, so I'm leaving it.)

LuAnn had carefully measured all of the cake ingredients and arrived ready to just mix everything together. It wasn't long before we had spicy, pumpkin-y cake batter.

The cake went into the oven and it smelled wonderful. I'd greased and floured the pan within an inch of its life and when the 15 minutes were up, I went to turn it onto the powdered sugar-covered towel.

The cake stuck to the pan. The middle of the cake separated from the edges and crashed into an untidy pile of cake pieces. Crap.

I piled the failed cake into a bowl, figuring it would make an excellent trifle with cream cheese pudding, whipped cream and some spiced rum.

Fortunately I had all the ingredients we needed to make another cake. This time I extra, extra greased and floured the pan. When the cake was finished baking, I took a thin spatula and carefully loosened the edges all the way around. You know, the way I should have the first time around.

The cake came out perfectly. I rolled it in the new powdered sugar-covered towel and we let it cool while we made the filling and further killed time watching "Heroes."

Unrolling time came and - look at my surprise face! - the cake cracked a bit. LuAnn spread the cream cheese filling and I stepped in to roll it back up. It wasn't too bad. There was only one exterior crack and it was low enough that it wasn't terribly obvious. I was happy to consider it a success.

I decided not to make one for myself right now because we're going to have pumpkin pie with Thanksgiving dinner and that's plenty for four people. However, I am looking forward to making trifle with the disaster cake...

Another Dessert Recipe from Average Jane

While we're on the subject of torte recipes, here's another one we used to have all the time when I was growing up. This one actually is a torte, in that there's a baked, cake-like component. It's really quite good.

Walnut Torte

6 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup chopped walnuts
2/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
Red currant jelly
1 pint Cool Whip or whipped cream

Beat egg whites until stiff and gradually add sugar and baking powder. When mixture looks like meringue, fold in graham cracker crumbs and walnuts. Grease pie pan and bake in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 30 minutes. The top will be somewhat cracked. Cool and spread with a layer of currant jelly, then top with Cool Whip or whipped cream.

* * *

When I was a kid, we had red currant jelly all the time and there was even a Smucker's variety. These days it's a little harder to come by, but I've noticed that Target carries it. I like it because it's more tart and tangy than a lot of other jellies. It makes a great PB&J, too.

Thanksgiving Cooking Help from Average Jane

A few years ago, I gathered all of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes into a single PDF and shared it with my readers. This year I have updated the booklet, fixed the most egregious typos, changed the format, and added an introduction. If you could use a basic Thanksgiving dinner how-to with a few little extras, please feel free to download it and use whatever recipes would be handiest for you.

Here's the download link: Average Jane's Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes

The booklet contains scratch recipes for two appetizers, the turkey and dressing, green bean casserole (fancy or standard), cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin cake roll with cream cheese filling. Many of these recipes are already on the blog, but I've filled in the gaps with other information you'll need to make a complete dinner.

I'm sharing the booklet under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works license, which means you are free to share it as long as you attribute it to me (I'd prefer a link back) and do not sell or alter it in any way.

I'll be making Thanksgiving dinner at my house this year and I'll probably make pretty much all of these recipes. I've already purchased the turkey and I'm looking forward to getting together with one of my friends tomorrow night to make pumpkin cake rolls.

What are your Thanksgiving plans?

You can still enter to win a SnapGifts card! Contest closes at midnight on Wednesday, November 25th.

Average Jane's Caturday Feature: Velvet

Velvet doesn't have a cool name like the rest of our cats because we foolishly thought she might be accustomed to her shelter name when we got her. I think she knows it now, but we missed our chance to change it when we brought her home a couple of years ago.

She's our "middle cat" downstairs - the buffer between young Xena and elderly Velcro. Our vet thinks she's about 8 or 9 years old and she's obviously had a hard life, but she seems to be enjoying living with us.

When we adopted her, we were told that she had belonged to a family that decided they didn't want a cat anymore once they got a dog. So they just stopped letting her into their house and she wandered the neighborhood forlornly, scavenging food wherever she could and picking up a host of parasites and scars. Finally a sympathetic neighbor took her to the shelter, where she remained for more than seven months before we came along.

Now she lives a life of leisure and pampering like the rest of our cats. She and Xena have a blast chasing each other all over the house and although they never cuddle, I've seen them nuzzle from time to time.

When Velvet first came home with us, she was not a fan of being picked up or held for any length of time, but she's gotten more amenable to all kinds of attention since then. Now she'll regularly sit on my lap or follow me around asking for attention.

The negative attention she gets comes from her dogged attempts to steal Velcro's canned food. I have to guard Velcro whenever she's eating lest Velvet sneak in and push her aside. Given Velvet's background, I don't blame her for wanting to make sure she gets whatever food she can, but it's a little annoying to have to be the cat food police twice a day.

She only has one nickname, "Velveeta," but we use her actual name most of the time. It's already confusing enough to have two cats whose names begin with "Vel-".

Velvet is a sweet girl and I'm so glad we're able to give her life's story a happily ever after.

Another Average Jane Giveaway

First of all, I'd like to congratulate Natalie, who won the GiveCard from last week's drawing. She says, "I would donate to Guide Dogs for the Blind... my mom is on her second dog from them, for 15 years she has been able to "see" with the dogs. Amazing."

This week's giveaway is a gift card from SnapGifts. If you live in Boston, Chicago, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York or San Francisco, you can get a gift card to one of your favorite local businesses. For people in other metropolitan areas, they offer gift cards from national brands.

Some cards are available to be e-mailed immediately; most are traditional plastic gift cards that are mailed to the purchaser or recipient. It's a new company, so some of the markets have limited gift card options, but there's lots of potential for additional local restaurants and stores to join in.

The entrepreneur who started SnapGifts is a friend of mine, and I'm delighted that the company is providing me with a $25 SnapGifts card at no charge to give away to one lucky winner.

To enter, just comment on this post and tell me which company's gift card you would choose if you won. Deadline to enter: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at midnight. I've been looking over the Kansas City and Lawrence, Kansas lists and I can say I would have a seriously difficult time choosing from all of the great restaurants and shops.

Average Jane's Bathroom Windowsill Still Life

One of the most charming things my cleaning lady does is to take anything tiny that I've left on the bathroom counter and line it up on the narrow windowsill.

Do I have any mixed feelings about hiring someone to clean my house? Absolutely not! It costs me $50 per visit, she comes every other week, and it's worth every penny. I still need to deep clean semi-annually yearly a few times per decade, but just having someone clean the bathrooms, floors, countertops and ceiling fan blades regularly is well worth the expense.

A Short Post from Average Jane

I had appropriated a good idea for a post today, but then I realized that it's too dark to take the photos I wanted to use. Thus, it'll have to wait for tomorrow or maybe even the weekend.

In other news, I was interviewed as part of the reader interview series at J-Walk Blog yesterday, which more than tripled my traffic for a day, so hooray!

If anyone is still wandering over from there, I recommend all of the recipes in my right-hand sidebar. Everything else here is just a potpourri of whatever I was thinking when I sat down at the computer that day - six years' worth, so it really adds up.

In an update to one of my weekend posts, TaraCuda and Imaginary_Mark brought home their new kittens last night! Now I just need to help Me distribute her six kittens. So if you're in the market for a nice, fresh kitteh, they're within a week or two of being ready to go. Just say the word and I'll get you in touch with her.

Oh, and don't forget to enter to win a $25 GiveCard gift card. Just comment on this post.

Average Jane Makes Dessert

I haven't made this lately, but it's a recipe that my sister and I both remember fondly from childhood. Judging by the ingredients, I'm imagining it made its debut either in a magazine ad or a branded cookbook. For something that relies heavily on packaged goods, it's quite tasty - a good mixture of sweet cream, savory pecans and tart cherries.

For some reason, my mom's old recipe file was just chock-full of desserts with the word "torte" in their names, none of which actually fit the definition of a torte. Maybe it was some kind of early 1960s trend. Who knows? Anyway, this is one of them:

Cherry Torte

1 can tart red pie cherries (drained)
1 can sweetened condensed milk (such as Eagle Brand)
1/2 pint Cool Whip
1 cup chopped pecans
Juice and pulp of one lemon
1/2 stick butter
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

Melt butter, add to graham cracker crumbs and mix well. Press crumb mixture into bottom and sides of a standard pie pan, saving about a tablespoonful for garnish. Mix together lemon juice and pulp and cherries. Add sweetened condensed milk, Cool Whip and pecans and stir gently to combine. Pour mixture into pie crust and garnish with crumb mixture. Chill for several hours.

Average Jane Interviews Natalie from The Bobby Pin

I'm taking part in Neil Kramer's Citizen of the Month Great Interview Experiment 2009 and my interview subject is Natalie from The Bobby Pin. It was fun reading through her archives and coming up with some questions for her.

1. What's your favorite thing about being married? The security. Coming home everyday to my best friend and waking up next to him. That feeling -- it is magic, comfort and fun all and the same time and it holds me over when days are hard.
   
2. What's one activity you enjoy that your husband just doesn't get? Twitter! But I signed him up for Facebook a few years ago and now he's the champion of Tetris. So it's only a matter of time.
   
3. You write about marketing quite a bit. Have you considering starting a work-oriented blog? Yes and no - great answer right? I am transitioning my marketing thoughts to Posterous to have a professional presence online, but The Bobby Pin is my main focus.
   
4. How is your New Year's Resolution list coming along? Great in some areas, horrible in others. I think it helped to be concrete this year. I have excelled in at least one area of each of the categories, which is good for me. I have cooked a lot this year and improved my domestic skills. Professionally, I have definitely thickened up the Rolodex this year and it is with people I consider friends, not just contacts. Spiritually, I have gone to the temple almost monthly since July. That is a good thing.
   
5. If you had to give up Facebook, Twitter or blogging, which would you choose and why? Facebook. I don't care who's doing what on Mafia Wars or Farmville. With blogging I get to connect with someone's thoughts -- even if it is my friends who just post baby pictures. Blogging is more a window into someone's life. And I've met so many great people through Twitter that while I think I could give it up, I don't want to.
   
6. Does being in PR affect your response to receiving PR pitches for your blog? I think I vet through the spam more. I am fairly liberal with giveaways and stuff but a lot of the link requests or crappy product review pitches I just roll my eyes at.
   
7. What's your favorite recipe to prepare for company or to bring to a party? I am almost always trying something new. I read a lot of food blogs so I will star a recipe and when an event comes up I will choose something from my folder and enjoy the moment. Right now though my favorite "wow" factor recipe is lava cakes. I stumbled upon the recipe when I was reading GOOP (you know Gwyneth Paltrow's venture into the online world that no one quite gets) and it is really simple, but definitely awesome. Who doesn't like a lava cake?
   
8. What do you envision your life being like in five years? I wish I knew. I applied for an MBA program that I'd start in January.  So hopefully in 5 years I have an MBA. I know that my puppy will be getting gray and probably won't be much of a puppy anymore and my husband will be getting established in his law career. But as for me? I am kind of clueless. I know that kids are in our future and I do want them. So hopefully we have a kid, and I am working at a job I am happy at. I would like to think that is my own consulting firm, but I am not sure.

Thanks so much for answering my nosy questions, Natalie! I'm looking forward to continuing to read your blog from here on out.

When my interviewer sends me questions and eventually publishes my answers, I'll be sure to share the URL.

Also, there's still plenty of time to enter to win a $25 GiveCard. Just comment here.

Average Jane Has Fun

I've packed an amazing amount of activity into the last couple of days.

On Friday evening, I got the opportunity to see the new Andy Warhol exhibit at Kansas City's Union Station at no charge. It was organized as a blogger meetup/tweetup and attended by Spyder and her husband Kanga, Queen of Quirky, May and her fiance, A Librarian, (jeff)isageek and his wife MsGigglebox, XO, TaraCuda, ITChickie and I feel like I'm forgetting someone else. I'll add them if I remember later.

Unfortunately the "tweetup" portion of the activity was curtailed by the complete lack of cell phone signals in the bowels of the concrete building.

I'm not particularly knowledgeable about art, so I found the exhibit to be an eye-opening look at the breadth of Warhol's styles, media and subject matter. In other words, there was a lot more than just soup cans and Marilyn Monroe.

The exhibit runs through January 10th, so go see it if you get the chance. On Friday evenings after 5, admission includes a drink ticket - bonus!

After we had our drinks, most of the group headed out to dinner together and ended up at New Peking in Westport. We had a nice time sharing entrees and chatting about all kinds of deep subjects.

Once dinner was over, I stopped home to drop off my garlicky leftovers and went to a bar to meet up with my band's bass player and see my old rhythm guitarist play with his current band, Red Eyed Bob.

The late Friday night didn't slow me down on Saturday. At 8 a.m. I took Trillian to the vet for a round of shots since it has now been a year since we got her. After that I went and volunteered at an animal adoption event at Petco, and was thrilled that TaraCuda and Imaginary_Mark fell in love with two of the kittens and have applied to adopt them.

Later in the afternoon, I went to an introductory capoeira workshop put on by Grupo Axé Capoeira (including blogger Second Bill Thoughts) at The Zen Zone in Lee's Summit. Capoeira an amazing blend of dance and martial arts, and talk about a full-body workout! 

To say that I have a lot of problems with coordination is a vast understatement; I don't know if it's because I'm left-handed or for some other reason. So, I struggled with learning each basic move (and I wasn't the only one), although I learned I can still do a cartwheel, but I'm only good at them going right, not left. Once I got the hang of some of the moves, I could almost feel new neural pathways developing.

All in all, it was such satisfying exercise, both weight-bearing and aerobic, that I find myself very interested in getting involved in the discipline and starting regular classes. It would take some serious adjustments to my schedule, but I'm definitely going to consider it.

I spent the rest of evening at TaraCuda's birthday carbfest, where I had my very first experience playing Rock Band. I only sang this time, but I think that the drums looked fun and I'll definitely try them next time.

How's your weekend going so far?