Brrrrrrrrrrr....

It's Saturday morning and I am sitting here in my fleece pants, slippers, shirt, and robe with a fuzzy lined hood. You might say I am slightly chilly. Today's high isn't expected to break 40, 35 degrees below normal. Hooray! Of course this whole week has been crappy and my friend from Ohio is visiting. And as soon as she leaves the weather is supposed to warm up to normal. Go figure.
This weeks cooking and crafting has been simply uneventful. Wednesday morning I made the Butterquick Coffee Cake recipes on page 79 as is, no substitutions.

Mixer in action:

 

And finished product:

Now the topping didn't come out the way I am used to for coffee cake, but it was good none the less. I may suggest using a pastry cutter to blend the topping and using slightly chilled butter. I did neither and this is how it turned out.

Later that night, after a super chilly day fishing down in Sarasota I decided to make the Chili Con Carne recipe on pg 265.

 

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the finished product, but it came out too watery for my tastes. I cooked it slightly longer to try and steam off the excess water, but with no luck. I have never used green peppers before in my chili so maybe that is throwing me off. At least everyone else liked it.

Thursday warmed up a bit so my friend and I soothed ourselves with a uber good day shopping at the outlet malls in Ellenton, followed by a visit to Gamble Plantation. That night I roasted a little chicken for dinner (the rest of the dinner was pre-made items we had in the freezer that Grandma had given us).

It was soooo good! On the package it said to roast for 20 minutes per pound, uncovered, breast side up. Instead I roasted breast side down with the entire pan covered in aluminum foil for 60 minutes, then uncovered for 40 minutes. Seasoned it before with olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper. Amazing! For how cheap that whole chicken was ($0.79 per lb) we will totally do this again.

Friday was just a local shopping day (no cooking, we went to Cafe Don Jose for some excellent seafood), but during our visit to Sherry's Yesterdaze Vintage Store look what I found!!!

 

The Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book 2nd edition, circa 1956!!!!! The binding is pretty beat up and needs some repair, but none of the pages are missing or torn and I got it for $10! Here are some more pictures from the book:

Luckily there a different recipes from the one I currently have and some more "helpful tips" for being a house wife : )

Today I will be working on an cafe apron for my Grandma for Christmas, so look forward to a tutorial when I return. In the mean time, this is a variation of the apron I made for one of my friends for Christmas: