Rain, rain, go away -- come again...

Wow, we have had Debbie in our area for several days now.  Downpours, very high wind gusts (up to 60 mph), flooding, you name it.  However, today is Wednesday, and I think Debbie decided we had had enough of her, so she took flight!  Yippee, finally.

I have been quite lazy these last couple of days.  I guess the weather had something to do with that.  LOL  But I did some card making, including a day with Fern, a very close friend of mine.  She came over to the house last Thursday and we concentrated on making some new cards.  She is quite talented and I will be showing you some of her designs as time goes on.  We actually used the Footloose papers and Complements (punch outs) to make these cards.  And, I believe, you will enjoy viewing them.  Everything that we used came from CTMH products.

Here are a couple of our creations.  Using Footloose Workshops on the Go Kit, G1036, it was really easy to make these.  The kit contained all the papers, card stock and the cutest stamp set imaginable.  Enjoy!  I also used a piece of our Baker's Twine, Paradise assortment, Z1702 and ink pads in Lagoon, Z2195; Creme Brulee, Z2167; Smoothie, Z2196 and Sweet Leaf, Z2153.  I also added a Outdoor Denim pearl for the fish eye. 

                                                           

                                                                                                                           

You can order any of these supplies by going to http://normsdarlin.ctmh.com and they will ship your order directly to you.  If you have any questions about any of my cards OR recipes, please e-mail me at normsdarlin@aol.com and I will try to answer your question as quickly as possible.

And now for my gluten free recipe.  I had a pot luck dinner to go to on Sunday, and I was told to bring a dessert.   So I decided to make a crock pot cake.  And here is the recipe, which I converted to a gluten free cake.  I hope you enjoy it because it was a huge hit at the dinner.

Triple Chocolate Crock pot Cake

1 box chocolate cake mix 

(in order to convert it to gluten free I used a Betty Crocker gluten free chocolate cake mix.)

1 box (3.9 oz) instant chocolate putting mix

1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 pint sour cream

4 eggs

3/4 C vegetable oil

1 C water

Mix all ingredients with a mixer in a large bowl.  Pour into a greased crock pot.  Cook on high 3-4 hours or low 6-8 hours.  I did 7 hours on low and it was perfect.  However, if you use a regular cake mix, I believe 6 hours on low would be perfect.   Let cool a while in the pot, then turn out onto a cooling rack.  You may have to use a knife or spatula around the edge of the cake to get it out.  Cool completely on the rack.

I then cut the cake into 2 layers, spread heated (to make it a little easier to spread) strawberry jam on the first layer, then sprinkled powdered sugar on the top of the cake.  

This cake is extremely moist and dense (I guess from the pudding mix) and is VERY RICH!   And you could change this out by using any flavor of cake mix you like.  Maybe yellow with orange marmalade between the layers, or white cake with blueberry preserves.  Use your imagination and have fun with it.

Well, have to go now.  It's almost time for bed and I still have a couple of things to do.  So sleep tight, and sweet dreams.

Hugs,

Lynn