My Other Love

is food. I love to cook. I love to bake. The creativity factor gives me nearly the same satisfaction level as quilting does. One of my daughter's friends decided he was going to open a restaurant someday and he wanted me to cook, LOL.

Anyway, yesterday I spent the bulk of my day baking. We're visiting with friends this evening and we take turns...one time it will be at my house, then I make dinner, she does dessert. The next time we'll meet at their house, she'll make dinner and I make the dessert.

When it's our turn, we usually make 2 or 3 dessert items. Combining the families, there are 14 of us with different tastes, plus it's just fun!

I tend to bake extra so we have some left around here for the week, my husband takes a lunch to work every day and I like to include something home baked whenever possible.

To the left is my sourcream cheesecake. This recipe has spoiled me for any other kind of cheesecake, including that found in nice restaurants. Sometimes I make my own graham cracker crust, but I find I really like the storebought ones as well. When I buy the crust, the filling will fill two of them as opposed to the one 9 inch springform pan cake I get otherwise.

A favorite of both families is frosted brownies. These are made nearly every time because if someone doesn't like the other choices, they always like these. I'm almost embarrassed to say (after going on about how much I love to bake) that these are made from a box mix (2 actually) but they are so good! When I bring these places no one knows they are from a box unless I tell them.

My friend's husband's favorite is pineapple upside down cake. I have a wonderful recipe for this that is moist and delicious. The big secret is saving the pineapple juice from the can of rings and using it for the water in the cake (a bit of water has to be added to make the full amount needed). This adds a moistness and an extra hint of pineapple flavor that really makes the cake. I also add extra cherries dotted around the cake...who doesn't like cherries?

I bake cookies nearly every week, in triple batches or they never last around here, with my husband dipping into the cookie jar each time he's in the kitchen and my kids' parade of friends in and out of our house. I ringed the cake with cookies for an easy way to bring a few and to fill out the edges of the platter.

In addition to my baking yesterday, I was able to squeeze in a little over 5 hours of quilting time. I used this time to baste the next quilt to go into the frame as well as quilting at the frame.

Today I'm "free" until we leave at 5:00. I have a bit of finishing cleanup in the kitchen from yesterday's baking and should do a couple of loads of laundry, but without dinner to make here, I should get some quilting time in for sure. I plan to bring a bit of hand applique tonight, my friend is a quilter, too, and we usually have handwork with us when we visit and play cards. Our husband's have raised card shuffling to an art and we can usually get some stitching time in while they shuffle and talk!

Happy Quilting!