Hello Hazel!!!

5/3/2010
So, I decided I needed to start a blog. Not because there are too few. Not because I have something especially interesting or new to say. Simply because I want to be a more productive homemaker and hope that blogging will hold me more accountable.
I promise, to myself basically, that I will make something everyday. Ok, definition of to make: cook or bake (something new) , craft, sew, crochet, etc. And I give myself permission to skip somedays, but I must have a really good reason that I will post. Thus, the being held accountable part.
So, here's the thing.... I'm not an avid gardner, but I'm growing my first garden. I'm not a chef, but I like cooking from scratch for my family. I'm not an efficient crocheter (is that even a word), but I did crochet washcloths for christmas. I can sew but I'm certainly no seamstress. That's the point. I want to learn how to be more efficient in all of these things and all things crafty.
On the list of handy homemaker abilities, baker is in the top three things I am not. With that said, today I baked my first cake from scratch. I found the recipe in Sothern Living and had to try it (recipe below). So I bought my first bundt pan at a yard sale on Saturday for $.50, and dove in today. I must say, it's the best cake I've ever eaten! That may be partly because of the love and effort that went into it, but never the less it was so yummy, I named it. Hazel. My daughter, Brielle, says the bundt pan looks like a crown. And there's the explanation of the blog name.

Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake ("Hazel")
2/3 cup chopped pecans (I used walnuts, because I had them)
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 Tbsp. sugar

2 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar (I just saw it calls for dark brown sugar, oops)
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbs vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 (12 oz) pkg semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350. Stir together first 3 ingredients in small bowl using a fork. Sprinkle in greased floured 12 cup Bundt pan
(Sidenote- flouring a bundt pan is hard. It gets everywhere. Something I will hopefully get better at.)
2. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Beat Butter, brown sugar, sugar, and vanilla at medium speed with stand mixer 3-5 minutes or until fluffy. (I'm not sure mine got fluffy, that's a term I don't really understand in baking) Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended (tip learned from mom growing up, crack your eggs in a seperate bowl in case one is bad. That way you don't ruin your whole mix. Plus, it was easier to dump it in the running mixer)
Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed until blended after each addition, stopping to scrape bowl as needed. (Notice, stopping. I didn't do that and almost ripped my spatula and hand in half. Amputation via kitchenaid stand mixer would be embarassing)
Add chocolate chips. Spoon batter into pan.
4. Bake at 350 for 50 to 55 minutes or until a wooden pick (I used a butterknife) inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack, and cool completely - about 1 hour. (the hardest hour of your life!! It smells sooo good!)

To my throngs of readers, enjoy!