Happenings in Hodgensville

Happenings in Hodgensville is sharing myself with you - not reviewing a book or discussing what I am reading - but sharing what I am doing in my classroom and/or in my life. This post deals with life. Okay, cooking.

In the last month, a lot has happened:

• I have traveled to Dallas, TX to spend six days to learn and present for a chance at being  an LTF-endorsed trainer (I succeeded)
• while in Dallas, my husband saw his mom, grandmother, aunts and uncles, cousins, etc. for the first time in thirty-one years
• while in Dallas, I visited the site of JFK’s assassination
• I have read several amazing books
• I have been raising two puppies
• I have been planning for next school year, which is a month away
• I have received an amazing job opportunity that would take me out of the classroom and into classrooms of other teachers, but due to my husband starting nursing school, I have to turn the job down (tear)
• I have started cooking again - and I like it

The last bullet is what I want to share today. I know it has nothing to do with books or teaching, but for those of you who are like me and just do not enjoy it, I want to share a couple of things I have done that I have really enjoyed.

The nod goes to Pinterest as being a cooking inspiration. My husband does all of the cooking in the house, and he was fresh out of ideas. I had pinned several meals that I wanted to try, and so I took him to my board, and we did a bit of exploring.

As a result, I became inspired to get off my tush and do a bit of cooking myself. After all, with his going to nursing school and working, I will have to get back into the kitchen. Unless I want to eat fast food every night, and I can promise you that I do not.

The first one I worked through was the two-ingredient pumpkin cake. Now, I love pumpkin. And I love cake. To put these two things together in just two ingredients was tempting for me, so I gave it a try.

look at the color of the batter, beautiful

My results: yummy but a bit gummy.

Here's the link with the recipe directions. 

What I would do differently: I would definitely bake it for two more minutes than suggested. I took it out one minute early because it had a beautiful, baked look. Mistake. Keep it in there for the entire time, even if it looks done. I did the toothpick trick, and it came out clean, but it was still gummy a day later.

What I will do next time: definitely the apple cider glaze. I used whipped white icing this time because it's summer, but in the fall, with that drizzle, I'm expecting great things!

The second one I tried was for dinner this evening. It was a hit! And so simple. 

My little man helped me with this. He even whisked the corn bread mixture. Look what a great job he did.

going into the oven, coming out, and decorated by little man - as you can see, he gives it a thumbs up!

This was a tummy pleaser for my seven-year-old. 

Here's a link to the recipe directions.

What I would do differently: use smaller muffin pans. This is regular cupcake size, so I did double what the recipe suggested for filling the cups. It gave us big, beautiful corn dog muffins, but it was 75% muffin. 

What I will do next time: follow the recipe exactly for a more satisfying fill in my tummy. OR...I will keep it like it is and add in two pieces of hot dog. I will let my little man decide since he really enjoyed making this.

If you are not on Pinterest, or if you are and have avoided all the recipes because they constantly make you hungry (which is what I originally did), you are doing yourself a disservice. If you are looking for fresh ideas for any meal, definitely make Pinterest a part of that. It is free. It is interesting. And you control what you pin.

Do you have a favorite recipe that you pinned on Pinterest? Share the link below so the rest of us can enjoy it as well.

Happy pinning!