Pantry-Style Tomato Beef Vegetable Soup

I have been suffering with a sore throat for a couple of days. Vegetable soup was the only thing I felt like making and eating. Additionally, I knew the tomato beef soup would be quick and easy to assemble because my pantry contained all of the ingredients that I needed.

Makes about 4-1 cup servings.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of water
• 2 beef bouillon cube
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can of whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 can of green beans, drained
• 1 piece of bacon, finely diced 
• 1 tsp basil, dried
• 1/2 tsp. parsley,dried 
• 1/2 tsp. sriracha sauce 
• 1 pkg of crushed ramen noodles, do not use the seasoning packet

Directions

1.  Put the water and bouillon cubes in a medium sauce pan
2. Add the whole can of diced tomatoes, juice and all
3. Drain the corn and green beans, put into the pan
4. Put everything except the crushed noodles into the pan and simmer until the bacon is cooked. 
5. Put the crushed ramen noodles in and let them sit for 3 minutes. 

This is a thick, veggie soup. If you like a thinner soup, add an additional cup of water and 1 more bouillon cube.

No Bake Chocolate Cheesecake Dessert with Chocolate Chip Cookie Crust

Hot summer days are here again!
I don't know about you, but I don't even want to think about turning on my oven and heating up the kitchen. Instead, I like making no bake desserts that are quick to make and require minimum time in the kitchen. 

I believe this is the perfect recipe for beginning cooks. 5 ingredients is all it takes to make an easy and elegant chocolate cheesecake dessert. Your friends will think you worked for hours!



No Bake Chocolate Cheesecake Dessert with Chocolate Chip Cookie Crust
Ingredients
2 - 3.4 oz pkg of instant cheesecake pudding mix
2 - 3.4 oz pkg of instant chocolate pudding mix
6 cups of milk
12 chocolate chip cookies, crushed to fine crumbs
4 Tbsp. of melted butter

Directions

• Blend, process, or crush 12 chocolate chip cookies into fine crumbs.
  

• Add 4 Tbsp. of melted butter to the cookie crumbs.
• Stir until mixed well. Measure out 2 Tbsp. of the cookie crumbs and set aside.
• Press the remaining cookie crumb mixture into the bottom of a 9" spring-form pan
  
• Pour 3 cups of cold milk into a bowl. Add the packages of chocolate pudding and beat for 1 minute. 
  
• Pour the pudding into the cookie crust and spread evenly.
  
• Set pudding into the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
• Pour 3 cups of cold milk into a bowl. Add the packages of cheesecake pudding and beat for 1 minute. 
  
• Pour the cheesecake pudding on top of the chocolate pudding layer. 
• Garnish with the reserved 2 Tbsp. of  crumbled chocolate chip cookie
• Chill until firm, about 2-3 hours
• Gently loosen the spring-form pan sides and lift away from the dessert.
• Slice and serve. If desired, top each slice with 1-2 Tbsp. of whipped cream, or whipped topping. 
  

Enjoy a slice of homemade happiness on a plate!

Link to Thirty Frosting Recipes

I have been following Cookies and Cups, for several years now and wanted to share this link with you. I can always use another great recipe for frosting.

30 Frosting Recipes

My First Ever 4 Tier Wedding Cake.

Tier sizes: 12 inch, 10 inch, 8 inch, and 6 inch
Yield: about 100 servings of cake

I volunteered to make a wedding cake for a friend's wedding as my wedding present to her. 
My experience with making wedding cakes is limited to 2 - two tier cakes and 2 - three tier cakes. However this is my first, four tier cake. 
Despite losing electricity for almost eight hours, baking the cake layers went somewhat smoothly until I started baking the 12 inch rounds. After throwing away 3 layers of cake due to fallen middles and falling apart,  I managed to end up with 2 usable layers of vanilla cake.
Why did I have so much trouble with the 12 inch layers? 
After thinking about it, I believe the cake mixes that I bought on sale were old and just didn't bake as well as they normally do. Even the smaller layers had one or two issues, but nothing like the large, 12 inch layers! 

Once the power was restored and the cake layers were cooling, I set about making the buttercream frosting with 10 pounds of powdered sugar, 2.5 lbs of butter, and 2.5 cups of solid, vegetable shortening, 3 Tbsp. and 1 tsp. of vanilla extract, about a quarter cup of lemon juice, and about 1.5 cups of water. 
Like Making Four Cakes of Different Sizes
When I began to work with the two inch layers, I quickly discovered that making the wedding cake was the same as making four, separate layer cakes. Each tier had two cake layers that had to have the tops leveled before they were cut in half, filled with frosting, stacked, and crumb coated with icing. THEN, each tier had a final coat of frosting applied and smoothed. 

Each sunflower was individually piped onto a square of parchment that was attached to a flower nail.

Sunflower petals and buds: Wilton #366 leaf tip

Sunflower centers: Wilton #21 open star tip

Sunflower leaves: Wilton #125 petal tip. 

Cake borders: Wilton #21 open star tip

Sunflower Tutorial

Smoothing Crusting Buttercream
The following tutorial will show you the basics of frosting a cake and then smoothing the crusted buttercream frosting with a Viva paper towel.

• For best results, wait 10 to 20 minutes after frosting your cake before you begin smoothing the frosting. 
• If your work area is warm, put the frosted cake into a refrigerator for about 10 minutes before you begin smoothing the buttercream. 

Believe me, it took several attempts before I figured this out for myself!

Spring Blooms Cake Pictures

An original, SalleeB's Kitchen design for a spring half sheet cake - blooming red bud branches, daffodils, narcissus, hyacinths, and yellow, drop flower clusters.

The daffodil and narcissus blooms are piped using Wilton petal tips #104 and #102. Use a square of parchment paper on a flower nail to shape each blossom. Put the blossoms into the freezer until you are ready to place them. 

The narcissus petals are made using the Wilton #104 tip and the ruffle was the Wilton  #102 tip. 

The green centers were formed with a #3 piping tip.

The red bud branches are made with a Wilton #10 piping tip and the blossoms are a Wilton 2D tip. 

Narcissus and daffodil leaves are formed with a Wilton #352 leaf tip

Hyacinths are made with a drop flower tip. Layer the clusters to get a rounded, 3D look. In the pictures the hyacinths shown have 3 layers of blooms. 

The cake top is textured with the end of a spatula. 

Move the spatula from side to side in about 2 inch, vertical strips, long side to long side of the cake.

Don't measure anything exactly so you can have a more random look. 

The borders are made with a #16 star tip. . 

And that is how to create a SalleeB's Kitchen Spring Blooms cake.