Let me begin by saying that although this is a recipe for Milky Way Cake, I took a baker's liberty and used Snickers instead.  My 11 year old suggested Three Muskateers as another substitute candy bar.  Whatever the candy bar, this cake will be a big hit for all who have the pleasure of trying it. With enough frosting, anything can look good.  When I made this cake, without knowing I had made a terrible error (I'll explain later), the cake over rose in the oven, and lacked overall structure.  Although a seemingly fatal flaw, it received nothing but praise from many taste testers (a group of teens and tweens are great for trying such a tasty, sugary treat). When the cake went in the oven, all was well.  The batter was smooth and creamy.  It seemed as if it would be the perfect cake. It wasn't until I was typing up the recipe that I realized my mistake.  Yesterday when I served the cake, and the structure of the crumb just wasn't there, my assumption

While working in our back gardens yesterday, I noticed that the rhubarb looked plentiful.  Certain that I had seen a rhubarb dessert among the many recipes in Lala's box, I found the perfect one to try.  You see, today is my nephews' birthday.  The twins are six, which is exciting and hard to believe.  What better way to celebrate from afar than with their Grandpa's favorite spring produce?  Andy's father can't get enough Rhubarb.  You'll be hard pressed to find rhubarb any other time of year (seasonal produce is the best!!!), and so we have to take advantage of the moment.  Since we all live in different states, we rely on technology to bring us together for singing happy birthday.  At the twins house, everyone gathers in the kitchen in person and via FaceTime.  We all sing together, and watch them eat every last crumb of cake.  This year, my kids will get to join in with Rhubarb Cake, and since I'm making it in two loaf pans instead of one large cake

Two casseroles in one week!  My kiddos are on cloud 9, and I'm thankful for the ease of dinner prep this week.  The weather has warmed up and I'm spending most of my free time working in the yard.  Hostas, day lilies, and numerous other perennials need to be split, weeds pulled, the lawn mowed (again!), and we've taken on an ambitious fix-the-backyard project complete with a fence, paver borders around the flower and berry beds, and are trying to grow grass in the places designated as lawn.  All this while working (for money), baking and cooking Lala's recipes (for fun, although money would be nice, too), and parenting.  It's the end of the school year and the kids schedules have gone haywire with concerts, recitals, and programs so the parenting bit is off the charts right now.  Juggling everyone's schedules is exhausting, and I'm looking forward to the reprieve summer brings. Since it's warmer out, and we don't have air conditioning, my

They sure did like their cottage cheese in the early to mid 20th Century.  Holy buckets o'curd!  This is (unintentionally, I promise!) the third recipe in a row to use the stuff.  I had to buy more since my husband kindly finished what remained in the last container. It's been a few years since I last ate cottage cheese.  The whole no dairy thing rules it out.  And I have yet to find a dairy free substitute.  If it's anything like the plasticky/nutty/doesn't really melt "cheese" that is available, I'll pass.  What I do remember about cottage cheese is that I had a favorite way to eat it: with chopped chives.  Creamy and savory (in my mind, these words are said in a very drawn out fashion, as if you can taste the words themselves and they are the most amazing thing you've ever tried).  Of course, I can just go to my back garden and pull off some greenery from the chives that have reemerged with the warmer weather.  Chewing on a blade of chive gives

Yesterday I made the oh-so lovely Cottage Pan Cakes and still have plenty of cottage cheese in the fridge.  I thought it would make the most sense to use the blender again since it's clean but still on the counter.  Much like yesterday, this Cottage Cheese Dressing came together in a snap.  You simply place the ingredients in the blender and you have dressing 10 seconds later.   I should note that I slightly changed the recipe to allow for ingredients I already had in the kitchen (this is a common thing I do when cooking).  I swapped a shallot for the garlic, and omitted the radishes as I didn't have any on hand.  I considered adding jarred horse radish (leftover from Passover) but wasn't sure what my family would think.  I also don't have any Hungarian Paprika on hand, but do have a jar of  Penzey's Smoked Spanish Paprika .  Andy (that's my husband, he has a name) thought the dressing tasted like it had bacon bits in it, and I think this Paprika was the c

As I've mentioned before, my family is known for their generations-old buttermilk pancake recipe.  This is NOT that recipe.  The batter for Cottage Pancakes is smooth, rich, and thick.  It comes together in no time at all, and makes for very light pancakes. When Lala would make me pancakes, and I really don't remember her making them for me beyond the age of 6, she would start out making drop size pancakes and they would gradually get larger from there.  As a young girl, this was one of my favorite moments with Lala, I would be at the kitchen table, we'd chat while she was at the stove.   To make this recipe, you'll first want to gather all your ingredients.  While your butter melts (stove top or microwave, your choice), add all the other ingredients to your blender.  Once the butter is melted, place the cap on your blender, and slowly pour the butter through the opening of the lid while the blender mixes everything together.  Once blended smooth, you'r

Thanks to my KitchenAid stand mixer, the cookie dough for these light and fluffy treats came together easily.  I added the ingredients to the mixing bowl in the same order as they were written on the original recipe.   These cookies have a great structure as seen in the photo above.  Mary Berry would be very proud. The backside of this paper features a Corn Bread recipe that I can't wait to try. For the sake of time, and because I REALLY want you to have your hands on this recipe, I'm going to leave you with a friendly reminder to visit  Caught Red Threaded , leave a comment in the thread below to let me know how this turned out when you made it (and photos are always welcome!), and follow Caught Red Threaded on   Facebook  and  Instagram  for exclusive offers and ideas.  If you want to receive this and other blog entries, be sure to click Subscribe in the top right corner of this page.

Saturday mornings are all about cartoons and made-from-scratch awesome breakfasts.  At least that's how we do Saturday mornings before 9am when the hustle and bustle of the day/weekend really begins.  If the monotony of waffles and pancakes has you down, then you should make these Banana Oatmeal Cookies.  They're really dessert but I disguised them as breakfast simply by serving them before noon.  They have all the same ingredients as many breakfasts at our house, just in a different form.   When making these cookies, I followed the instructions as they're written with a couple exceptions:  Instead of cutting shortening into the dry ingredients, I placed the shortening into the bowl of my KitchenAid mixer.  To that I blended egg the mashed banana.  Next, I added the dry ingredients, followed by the oatmeal, and chocolate chips instead of nuts at the end. I also only made one tray of cookies (a dozen).  I wanted to experiment with this recipe to find out if it