What a mess

I was geared up yesterday to spend the day in the kitchen baking and canning. First things first though, I had been dying to make the ginger tea cake that I found on the bake it pretty website, go visit them, they have some way cool stuff. It looked sooo good, and I love all things ginger. In the directions it says not to over fill pans, whatever type of pan you are using, but gives no heads up to how much is actually to much. Of course, I over filled my pans, and made the biggest freakin mess in my brand new very clean oven. UGH! REALLY! I hate to clean, and especially an oven. So, next time I will fill my pans just under half full, and put a pan under it while it's cooking, for those just in case moments. But the Ginger Tea Cake........YUMMY! So I high jacked the recipe, and their picture of it, cuz thats how I do it, and because my cake wasn't pretty enough to actually take pictures of...LOL!

Ginger Tea Bread
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:

2 3/4 C. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1tsp. baking soda
4 tsp. ground ginger (don’t skimp)
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. cloves
1 C. softened butter
1 C. sugar (white or brown)
2 eggs
1 C. molasses
1 C. boiling water

Sift together all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice, ground cloves.) In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat until fluffy. Add sifted dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix well. Dump in the boiling water and molasses and stir just until the batter is smooth and even. Pour batter into well greased loaf or mini-loaf pans, or use disposable loaf liners for easy gifting. Do not over-fill! Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes for full-sized loaves, less for mini loaves. Let cool completely before slicing.

*The loaves puff up then deflate quite a bit, but don’t let that scare you. Also, the outer top will be crusty at first. After the loaves cools, put into a zip lock bag for a few hours (or overnight) and it will all become soft and gooey. I think it’s even better the next day after the spices really mellow together!

Also, last night I baked my very first batch of cinnamon rolls for the Horseshoe. They were so very pretty, each and everyone was uniform in size and shape, just like a professional had done them. HA HA! But boy oh boy is it really a process from start to finish. I'm not so sure that I will be able to bake and cook on the same shift. We'll see. Officially I start work next week. I did however get to canning my salsa, and man oh man did it just look wonderful. It was a little on the HOT side for me, but, it always is.
Today I am grateful for my STONE HOUSE that I live in. YES, I said it. It stays cool in the summer, and holds the heat in when it's cold out. Despite it's way too small size, and NO closets, someday, it will be all ours (MINE), and hopefully won't make me depressed any longer.