Chris's Birthday Cake

I made a cake for Chris's birthday that encompassed all his favorite desserts. It turned out amazingly good and what it lacked in looks it made up for in tastyness. It's my Twix carmel cheese cake. It contains a gram-cracker crust with brownie, a layer of caramel, cheese cake with cut up Twix bars, and topped off with caramel and chocolate drizzled.

Recipe:

1 box brownie mix
2 eggs
1 package of wrapped caramels 14 oz
1 5oz can evaporated milk
2 8oz packages of cream cheese
12 mini Twix bars
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pie tin with gram-cracker crust

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix up brownies following instructions on the box. Pour half of mix onto gram-cracker crust. The other half of the mix can be used to make regular old brownies.

unwrap the caramels and place them in a pot with the evaporated milk.

Cut up Twix pieces into small bit size pieces.

Mix softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract. Once mixed add one egg at a time and mix. Then add in Twix pieces.

Put brownie into oven for about 10-15 minutes.
While it's cooking bring caramels to a simmer and stir frequently melting the caramels.
Pull brownies out of the oven and add a layer of caramel then add cream cheese mix on top of the caramel. Put back in oven for 40 mins.

Once cooked pull out of oven and drizzle remaining caramel on top along with some fudge if you would like. Let cake cool in fridge over night.

Enjoy!

Turkish Coffee

This afternoon I had a lovely cup of Turkish coffee. Now if I could only pair it with a nice cup of productivity then I would be set. Anyways here is a picture of the tasty cup.

Hope everyone is having a grand day filled with joy.

Kukicha review

I made some Kukicha which is a japanese green tea. Common nick name is twig tea. I got my Kukicha from The Tea Grotto. I put in 2 grams of tea for every 6 oz of water and used filtered water. I ended up steeping it in my cast iron tea pot at 70 degrees F. I tasted the tea every 30 sec. into steeping. What I found was that 1 min. 30 sec. was the perfect blend of grassy freshness without any bitterness. I continued to steep tell 2 min. 30 sec. to tast the developments in the tea. I found that any longer then 2 min. and it started to become bitter.
Dry Kukicha

Kukicha after steeping 

Color of tea. Mind you this is the color afte steeping it for 2 min. 30 sec. Which wasn't the ideal steep. 

Over all I would say It was medium soft body tea. It was grassy, fresh, kelpy, and robust. I love a good japanese green and this kukicha was very enjoyable. 

Nature Along the way

On one of my many walks I came across some interesting plants and thought I would share.
I sat down by some mushrooms to do some reading. This was my favorite one.

I was reading The Silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkien and thought this mushroom was in perfect spirit with the book. 

Not to far from the grassy mushroom covered hill I found an interesting tree that was fluffy. 

I enjoy the color of the leaves.
Not to far from the fluff tree I came across a weird flowering plant with pod like things.

It was hard to get a good picture of this one due to the wind blowing the branch back and forth. Also mind you I take these images with my phone so they are not the highest quality. 

If anyone knows the names of the fluffy tree or pod flowers let me know. 

Lazy Sunday

This morning I woke up and made some Banana Pancakes. They were delicious! I made them form this recipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/banana-pancakes-i/detail.aspx I ended up using arrow root instead of baking powder due to not having any baking powder.

I also harvested some cucumbers, spicy bells, and jalapeno peppers.

After taking great pride in my home grown veggies I sat down for some tea by candle light. 

I'm enjoying some nice black fig and lavender tea. Nothing to fancy but a favorite of mine. Today has been a good sunday.

Beautiful Matcha Bowl

This Matcha bowl is amazingly beautiful. Its striking black color in contrast with the orange is breath taking. It's currently out of stock but its from yuuki-cha.com.

Quote

"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common - this is my symphony."

-William Henry Channing

I choose this image to match the quote because of its simplicity and being what one needs to be nourished. The plate is a modist banana leaf covered with delicious wholesome indian food. Elegant and wholesome.