Different Kinds of Therapy.

When I am feeling stressed of bah, I need to do something to shake the feeling. There are many kinds of "therapy" out there. Some folks turn to food, eating, some use retail therapy and so on.

I have several types of such therapies. There is sewing. I love the busy hum of my Baby as it zips along making nice even stitches.

I do retail therapy after a fashion. I do not like to go to malls or such, but give me a set of yards sales and thrift stores and zip away I go. (Like the yearly books sales for the Adult Literacy Council and Friends of the Library...)

Yesterday I needed some therapy. We had attended a big bbq Saturday. While I like the folks there I have nothing in common with any of them. Most drink and or smoke or discuss what they did that time they were so drunk... I quit smoking when I was 18, I only drink medicinally and have never been drunk... Most of the women have careers besides "just" being a wife and or mother. Several have been divorced and are remarried. All very nice people but similar to me as much as I resemble a jelly fish... Yesterday I was keyed up, the flora at the BBQ always messes with my allergies, add to that the smoke, and well I was having issues. I needed comfort.

My big therapy is cooking. Yesterday I made chicken and noodles. It was going to be chicken and dumplings but I decided on biscuits instead of dumplings and served it over rotini.

This was a simple meal, crock pot the chicken over night (I only use boneless skinless breast meat) With some chicken stock and lots of Mrs. Dash Herb and garlic. I used some of the seasoned chicken stock to cook with the noodles. I added peas and carrots to the chicken for about an hour. Then I did the noodles and popped in the biscuits.

What took my morning, was the making the cake. When I cook for therapy I like to try something I have never done before. This cake was it. It was more involved than anything I had ever done before, including baking bread.

Hubby saw the ingredients and was aghast... you are going to put THAT in a cake...

Here are the ingredients:

This cake, because I was trying to do it following the instructions, took 2 sauce pans and 3 mixing bowls.

The result was a moist decadent shot of espresso on a plate! I loved the process. Though I did not use the cake flour, and just used all purpose. I could have made cake flour but I just sifted the all purpose and the cake baked just fine. Also the recipe called for making a layer cake and I do not have a convenient way to store a layer cake. I instead baked a layer cake. I have a baking pan that has a lid which makes storing the cake much easier.

So once the cake was safely in the oven i began the frosting. I had only made simple whipped topping frosting. This frosting required melting butter, mixing in cream and melting in chocolate chips... PURE decadence!

I love chocolate in my coffee, now I was going to try coffee in my chocolate...

So I put the frosting in the fridge to cool. The cake came out of the over and smelled divine. 

While waiting for the frosting to cool I took the chicken out and skimmed the icky bits, you know the fatty stuff. I poured about half of the juice into a separate pan to cook the noodles. I shredded the chicken put the peas and carrots in the seasoned juice. I added a can of cream of chicken soup. added the shredded chicken back in and set the pot on high for an hour. About 30 minutes in I started the water for the noodles. Once it began boiling I added the noodles, brought it back to a boil and took it off the heat. Then I popped the biscuits in.

About 10 minutes later the noodles were ready.

The result:

The cake was delicious. However we all agree the frosting was just too much. It was wonderful in taste but soooo rich!

Sunday supper was definitely a success!

hugs y'all