Back to work, but a cake before I go...

My son was baptized this weekend and in his honor, I made a cake. I am not responsible for the recipes involved, but I did put everything together. It was quite yummy, although rich. The filing can be swapped out for something a bit different, perhaps a strawberry filing, or chocolate.

1 vanilla cake mix
3 cups (more or less depending on taste) Buttercream Frosting
1/3 cup raspberry jam (seedless)
1/4 cup lemon custard

Make cake per instructions for 13x9 pan. Once the cake has cooled, remove from pan and slice cake in half like a sandwich bun. On the bottom half of the cake, spread jam and custard (warm jam for easier spreading). Take a portion of buttercream frosting and spread on top of jam and custard. Place top half of cake on bottom. Frost with the remaining buttercream to your taste.

Mmmm, Salad

I'm on vacation this week so I have time to think about something other than work. I've been thinking about cooking (and cleaning and grocery shopping and catching up on everything I haven't done in the past 3 months). So, here is my latest creation, a simple salad.

A couple of handfuls of fresh lettuce (a spring mix is the best)
A tablespoon of feta cheese
3 oz of cooked chicken (grilled, fried, baked...however you like it)
A teaspoon of olive oil
A half a teaspoon of lemon juice
Salt and Pepper to taste

Dress the lettuce with the salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice. Toss, then add the chicken and feta cheese.

Cooking to relieve my poor aching brain...

Cooking is a huge creative release for me. And because my job is so technical in nature, I desperately need that release sometimes. So, on the days when it feels like my brain is going to explode or when I'm so stressed out I can't think straight, I turn to cooking or baking or sewing to give myself a little break.

I had a pot roast and a half empty jar of spaghetti sauce sitting in the fridge that was going to go bad. From that, came this.

Pot Roast and Carrots
6 to 8 lb pot roast
2 tsp oil
1 medium yellow onion
1, 8 oz can tomato sauce
1/2 jar traditional spaghetti or marinara sauce
1 lb carrots
Salt and Pepper to taste


Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add pot roast to pan. Sear on first side 3-5 minutes, then flip to do the same on the other side. Once the roast has been seared, add onion, tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, and salt and pepper to the pan. Thin the tomato sauce with as much water as desired. The sauce will thicken as it cooks. Once the sauce has been thinned, add the carrots. Cover the pot and continue to cook for 2-3 hours, until the meat is tender. A good tip to keep the fat content down is to skim the fat from the pot with a large spoon towards the end of the cooking window. The resulting cooking liquid (grease free) can be used to make gravy for mashed potatoes.

Most of the pot roast recipes I've seen cook the roast in either the oven or a crock pot. This recipe could be cooked in either of those ways. This just seemed to work well for me.