Andrea Ruth White was born this morning at around 8 am.  She is 8lbs 3.4 oz and 20 inches long.  :)  I'll post pictures sometime. 

Dump Cake

  So, today I got a kindle recipe book for Dump Cakes.  Never having made a dump cake I wasn't quite sure what they were.  I made one that looked good, Rich Pumpkin Dump Cake.  It wasn't anything like a cake.  It turned out like an upside down pumpkin pie with a crumbly cookie crust.  The taste was good.  The pumpkin layer was creamy and good but there was too much crumbly crust.  If I make it again I'll only use half the cake mix called for.  I didn't have any cake mix in the house either so I found a recipe online for  cake mix.  I'll have to try it for making cake sometime, too.
  For supper I made some bbq chicken and cheese crescents.  We saw an advertisement on tv that showed them and Wes said that they looked good.  I never buy Pillsbury crescents, but for this recipe I did.  I filled the crescents with about 4 times as much chicken and cheese as it called for because I was serving them for supper instead of a snack.  They were really good tasting.  Next time I should make them with homemade croissant dough.  There was just one left for a snack for in Wes' lunch tomorrow.  I would have taken pictures but.... I couldn't find the camera.  :)
  Tomorrow is the EDA of baby A.  I'm looking forward to meeting him or her.  I'm feeling very pregnant.  Today was a very tired day.  This morning after breakfast I read Elizabeth and Lincoln a couple of stories and then I fell asleep.  Fortunately they didn't get into too much trouble.  I woke up when they were throwing books down the stairs.  :(  Other than that, today wasn't overly interesting.
  Have a good day.  Wendy

I made not nutella this morning with the kids.  It tastes good.  :)  I figured out the price and it came to about $8.00 for the recipe which yielded 4 cups.  Pretty good price since nutella would be at least that too, and this is so much better for you.  It might not be as super smooth as nutella but it is still smoother than natural peanut butter.  There are so many recipes out there but this is the one that I used.  I did substitute dark chocolate (chips) for the milk chocolate just because I never have milk chocolate on hand.  I used the blender as I don't have a food processor.  My hazelnuts (also known as filberts) were not quite brown enough but I didn't find it mattered.  My hazelnuts and almonds cost $2.00/100g, milk is $3.24/2L, chocolate is $12/kg, honey is about $4/cup, powdered milk I couldn't find the price but it wouldn't be too much.  The recipe did say that the yield was about 2 cups but I found that it was double that.  I don't know what I did differently but I definitely had 4 cups (2 pint canning jars overfull and enough for a couple slices of bread too).  Actually looking at the recipe there is no way that the yield should be only 2 cups.  There are almost 2 cups milk, the same of nuts, and chocolate.  I've made this before but I think that the recipe I used was slightly different.  It kept fine for a couple of months in the fridge, not the week that this recipe states.  I see no reason to have to eat this amount of nutella in a week.  :)  Wendy

1/3 cup (40g) whole almonds
1 1/3 cup (160g) hazelnuts
1 3/4 cup (400g) whole milk (see Notes)
7/8 cup (60g) powdered whole milk
3 tablespoons (40g) mild-flavored honey
pinch of salt
6 ounces (170g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
5 ounces (140g) milk chocolate, chopped (use one that’s at least 30% cacao solids)

1. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet, keeping the almond separate, and toast the nuts in a 350ºF (180ºC) oven, stirring a few times, for 10 to 15 minutes, until the hazelnuts are browned.

2. While they are roasting, warm the whole milk and powdered milk in a small saucepan with the honey and salt just until it starts to boil. Remove from heat.

3. In a clean, dry bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, or in a microwave oven, melt the chocolates together until smooth.

4. Once the nuts are well-toasted, remove them from oven and use a spatula to place the warm hazelnuts in a clean tea towel, then fold them inside the towel and rub them vigorously to remove any loose skins. They don’t need to be pristine; just try to get as much off as possible.

5. In a food processor, grind the warm hazelnuts and almonds until they’re as fine as possible. You may not be able to get them completely smooth, depending on your food processor. (I have a brand new one and even after five minutes, there were little bits of nuts in mine, which is normal.)

6. Add the melted chocolate and continue to process the mixture, stopping to scrape down the sides of the work bowl, as necessary.

7. Once the mixture is smooth, add the warm milk mixture and process until everything is well-combined.

(The original instructions here said to strain the paste, which I didn’t do because I don’t mind the little bits of toasted nuts, but you can.)

9. Transfer the mixture into two jars and refrigerate until ready to use.

Storage: The Chocolate-Hazelnut Paste will keep in the refrigerator for up to one week.