Donut Cake

Heidi and my sister-in-law Katie made this lovely donut cake for my brother, who just graduated from State Trooper “boot camp” in South Carolina. She had such a lovely idea, and it was so simple that I thought I’d share. What kid wouldn’t enjoy a birthday cake shaped like a donut??

Just bake a bundt cake and round it out a little on the top. Frost it first with chocolate icing, including the inside of the hole. The overlay vanilla frosting like icing. Sprinkle and enjoy!

Spaghetti Squash — or my very first post

Let me preface this by saying that I’m typing on a computer with keys set to the touch of a caveman. Wait… even throwing my body weight into each key stroke does not help. It seems that the only strategy is to type in a sort of slow, controlled manner, making sure that each letter appears on the screen when it should. Oterwise, the result is somthin like this–writng which maes it appear tht I am mssing sme teeh, and somebrain cell, as well.

Down to the business at hand… Spaghetti Squash.  What did the Indians call this? After all, they didn’t have spagheti. Something tells me this is a rather young plant, but whatever it’s age, it’s attraction is the way the insides peel out like spaghetti noodles. I’ve been eating it in various ways this last week. I’ve had it with butter, cinnamon and sugar; with butter and parmesan cheese; with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese; and in a sort of “goulash” dish. I can’t wait to try it as a substitute for spaghetti noodles with real meat sauce.

For anyone unfamiliar with this squash by name or appearance, it is yellow and rather football shaped (without the pointy ends and the laces). One cooks it by cutting it open lengthwise (another job for a caveman, since it’s outer shell is quite tough), removing the seeds (some people cook it with the seeds, I hear), and baking the halves face up on 42 for 30 – 40 minutes. Then, simply peel out both halves and add pretty much whatever you want. I cooked mine for 30 minutes last time, and it was still a bit crunchy.

Extra tip: Do not cook this and leave it lying about in your crawl space (a comment necessary so that I can post this under two categories).

P.S. I’ve been typing this so slowly that I think it also comes under the non-existent category of “self-control.”