Welcome to Making It Count Tuesday (formally Pinning It Down), which is every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month. Originally hosted by Sarah and Pam, it’s new home in now here at RoL.

If you are new to Making it Count, you simply start with any one of those fabulous ideas you’ve found online or on Pinterest. Then, do it. Make it. Cook it. Create it. Take it from the screen, give it life and let it bless your world. When you’re done, snap a photo, write about it and share it with us.

Make your time online count!

(See past MIC posts here.)

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Easy Chocolate Cake

With Brian returning home on Friday, I wanted to make him a special dessert. He loves chocolate cake and normally I’d just use a boxed mix but I thought I’d give a homemade version a try. I was looking for a simple one layer chocolate cake recipe and found Easy Chocolate Cake at Martha Stewart.com.

Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for pan
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sour cream

(The recipe also called for a chocolate glaze but I made my own chocolate frosting instead.)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch round cake pan; line bottom with wax paper. Butter paper; dust with cocoa powder, tapping out excess; set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture alternating with sour cream, starting and ending with the flour mixture.

Spread batter into prepared pan. Tap pan firmly on countertop several times to force out large air bubbles. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven, Cool 10 minutes in pan, then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely (bottom side up).

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The batter was really thick and I wondered how it would turn out.

It looked okay in the oven but when the time was up and I poked a toothpick in it, it seemed to deflate. It became pretty flat and I could hear Ricky Ricardo’s voice saying to Fred, “Maybe you better wait and serve it as a pancake for breakfast.” I knew I was in trouble when I saw Brian look at it on the counter and then look around the kitchen for the other two or three layers that must go with it.

Photo Source: thiswastv.com

Oh we’ll, I had to make the best if it. I whipped up some chocolate frosting and crushed some walnuts for the top. When I cut into the cake I found it very dense and rich. I went back online and looked at the reviews. The reviewers said it was a dense cake and some said it didn’t rise enough. I simply told everyone it was a brownie cake (that’s exactly what it tasted like) and they didn’t care in the least how short it was. They gobbled it up.

So while I wouldn’t say my first homemade cake was a huge success, I wouldn’t say it failed either. We ended up with a tasty dessert and I suppose that’s what matters. 🙂

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Now it’s your turn.

1. Choose a tutorial, recipe, or idea that has inspired you. Do it and blog a little about it. It doesn’t have to be elaborate — we just want to see what you’ve been up to!
2. In your post, rather than linking to your Pinterest pin, link back the original idea/blogger. We want to be sure that cool idea credit is given to the proper person. 🙂
3. Link back here so others can play along. (Feel free to grab the button.)
4. Link up below. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address. And please use your own original photo (not someone else’s!) as your thumbnail image. Copyright issues, you know. 😉

You have a week to post your link, so if you can’t get things going by Tuesday, no worries, put it up when you can. We’ll be here. Have fun!

Welcome to Making It Count Tuesday, which is every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month. Originally hosted by Sarah and Pam, it’s new home in now here at RoL.

If you are new to Making it Count, you simply start with any one of those fabulous ideas you’ve found online. Then, do it. Make it. Cook it. Create it. Take it from the screen, give it life and let it bless your world. When you’re done, snap a photo, write about it and share it with us.

Make your time online count!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

My online time is limited today so this post will be short and sweet! (Savory?)

The other day I craving spaghetti and meatballs. When I’m short on time I’ll just grab a pack of frozen turkey meatballs from Trader Joe’s and a jar of ready-made sauce. But I had some extra time and felt like making the real thing so I went through my binder of online recipes I wanted to try.

I love trying new meatball recipes and I found this link on Cooking Light.com. I figured if it was also healthier for me, then it was a win-win. It is a basic meatball recipe calling for…

• 1/3  cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs (I made my own breadcrumbs and added Italian seasoning to it.)

• ¼ cup fresh chopped parsley

• ½ tsp dried basil

• 1 pound ground turkey

• 2 large egg whites

• 1 tsp olive oil

Directions

Combine first 6 ingredients in a bowl. Shape mixture into 16 (1 ½ -inch) meatballs. Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add meatballs; cook 5 minutes, browning on all sides. Add sauce. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes. Pour over cooked whole wheat spaghetti.

(Note: Here’s my question to you – how do you keep your meatballs looking round? Mine always look like a huge dice. Although, lately I haven’t been cooking meatballs on the stovetop. I stick them on a baking sheet, drizzle with a little olive oil and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.)

Anyway, I followed the recipe for the meatballs but I wanted a different sauce.

I got the recipe for a simple marinara sauce from one of my favorite cook books Food Network’s How to Boil Water. I used this book initially when I was trying to get more comfortable in the kitchen. It has many great recipes that are simple enough not to overwhelm but tasty enough to make you feel like a semi-pro in the kitchen. There are also lots of photos and how-to tips. (And with the holidays here, it would be a great gift for someone moving out on their own, a bride-to-be, someone who is tired of too much take out and wants to get more pro-active in the kitchen or anyone that just wants to brush up on their cooking skills!)

You need:

• ¼ medium onion

• 3 garlic cloves

• 2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil

• 2 tsp kosher salt

• 1  28-ounce can whole, peeled tomatoes with juices

• Sprig of fresh thyme

• Sprig of fresh basil

• Fresh ground black pepper

Here is a condensed version of the directions in the book.

Heat oil. Med-high heat. Add chopped onion, smashed garlic and 1 tsp salt. Slightly brown. Crush tomatoes. Add with juice. Boil. Lower and simmer for 15 min. Remove sprigs. S&P to taste. Pour over spaghetti. (Use whole wheat to keep with the healthier mode.)

This makes about 3 cups. I always double it because I like my spaghetti saucy. 🙂

Together these two recipes became this yummy meal.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Now it’s your turn.

1. Choose a tutorial, recipe, or idea that has inspired you. Do it and blog a little about it. It doesn’t have to be elaborate — we just want to see what you’ve been up to!
2. In your post, rather than linking to your Pinterest pin, link back the original idea/blogger. We want to be sure that cool idea credit is given to the proper person. 🙂
3. Link back here so others can play along. (Feel free to grab the button.)
4. Link up below. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address. And please use  your own original photo (not someone else’s!) as your thumbnail image. Copyright issues, you know. 😉

You have a week to post your link, so if you can’t get things going by Tuesday, no worries, put it up when you can. We’ll be here. Have fun!