Son's birthday cake

We like cakes but we get tired of frosting. Beside since two of us are diabetics we really don't need the super sweet frosting that most cakes have. So a couple of years ago I stopped using frosting except for very special occasions. Instead I use pie filling and cool whip to top cakes. This year my son asked if I could make him a cake with chocolate pie filling and cool whip on top. Since I like a  challenge I decided to give it a try and see what I could come up with. Here is the finished product.

I started with one white cake mix and made it according to the directions on the box except instead of using oil that was called for I use unsweetened applesauce. I divided the batter between 3 - 8 inch pans to further cut down on the amount of calories. I bake them for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Once cooled I put a lid on one of the cakes and stuck it in the freezer for future use. I split all cake batters into 3 pans and usually freeze two and serve one. But this time I needed two. After the cakes were completely cooled I made up a box of instant chocolate pudding and divided it between the two cakes.

I then topped the cakes with cool whip and place the lids on them and popped them in the freezer to get good and cold. We had half of one of them for dessert that night and the next day the other one went with my son to a friends house the next night so they could pig out while playing video games.

He let me know that he would like to have this cake more often. Normally I make these cakes using cherry or blueberry pie fillings instead of pudding.

My son's birthday was last week and tonight I decided to pull out the third cake and top it with cherry pie filling and cool whip. The only problem was that I had forgot I used the last of the cool whip I had in the freezer when I made a cake to take to a dinner after then death of the father and husband of some friends of my son's and I. So I had to come up with another way to top the cake today. No big deal. I pulled out the vanilla ice cream and put a scoop on each slice. The men folk loved it. I will wait and find out tomorrow how good it is because I didn't want any cake tonight. :)

Here is the piece my son had tonight. Looks good doesn't it?

Green beans, Waxed Beans and Mustard Greens w/bacon

I have been so busy with the garden and life in general lately that I have not had any time to devote to this site. I am hoping to get back to doing it at least every other day. I haven't really canned much in the last month and a half until these past few days.

I have been picking green beans, waxed beans and mustard greens the past couple of weeks and getting them canned up. Here is a picture of some of what I have canned in the last few days.

A close up of the mustard greens shows you the bacon in with them. :)

                                                                               
 I like to can whole waxed beans to use in stir frys and to lightly fry in a tiny bit of olive oil, onion and garlic. YUM!

I am still getting some green beans and waxed beans but they are almost done. I am going to try a new recipe of pickling them with cauliflower, carrots and red bell peppers. I will let you know how that turns out.

To can the mustard greens I washed them several times then gave them a rough chop. Wilted them in boiling water along with the bacon. I then filled the jars, wiped the lids and processed them for 90 minutes at 10 lbs pressure.

For the green beans and waxed beans I raw packed them. I removed the ends and then snapped the green beans into 3 pieces. Same with some of the waxed beans. I filled the hot jars with the beans and then added 1 teaspoon of canning salt to each jar and filled to the one inch head space with boiling water. Wiped the rims then added the hot lids and rings. Placed them in the pressure canner and processed for 25 minutes at 10 lbs pressure. The pints were processed for 20 minutes at 10 lbs pressure. We will have plenty of green beans and waxed to eat this winter. :)

I need to plant a second crop of mustard because this was the first time I did it and didn't realize just how much it takes to fill a quart jar. :) I still have enough time to get one more crop of the mustard grown in time before winter gets here.