What Shall We Bake Today?

Food 1 Minute

Today’s offering is a very festive one…Red Velvet Cake!

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened

1-1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

2 bottles (1 ounce each) red food coloring

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-1/4 cups cake flour

2 tablespoons baking cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350°. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in food coloring, vinegar and vanilla. In another bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition.

Pour into 2 greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Cool layers 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Frost as desired.

ENJOY!

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Published by pat frederick

Published

106 thoughts on “What Shall We Bake Today?”

    2. Morning, Pat! So sorry hubby is having a hard time getting over it. Yuck, yuck, yuck to the snow!!! I’ve got 22 and clear skies so far…at least I’m seeing a lot of stars anyway.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Morning Filly!
        his issues are more with this triggering his asthma…
        he sleeps fine in on the sofa (sitting up) but when he lays down in bed, that’s when the trouble starts. I’ve been trying to talk him into a recliner–he loves the one at my mom’s but he says no.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. You can tell him from me with first-hand experience – having your head (and, ideally, your chest) elevated makes a VERY big difference, hence, why I sleep most nights in my recliner. You should see the electric one my Mom has….I admit it: I WANT that chair!

          Liked by 1 person

            2. Yep! Mom’s has those, too. That’s where I slept (when she wasn’t in it) when I went to take care of her when she had COVID. It was wonderful!!! That was the one that my cousin in Canada sent her the money to buy but IDR how much it was – a good chunk of change, I’ll say that – I’d guess close to $1K.

              Liked by 2 people

          2. we have a sleep number bed that allows us to change the firmness of the bed plus elevate the head or feet. last night we tried elevating the head but neither of us felt comfortable all night. tonight we’re going sleep on our chairs because he was napping yesterday watching football.

            Liked by 1 person

        3. Another option (if you can’t convince him on the recliner) is to elevate the head of your bed, which is what I want to do with mine. I’ll probably just use a 4″ X 4″ post that is long enough to fit the width of the frame….one of these days. In the meantime, my recliner works and I have another one as back-up that was my Dad’s from waaaay back in the 1970’s. It’s not nearly as comfortable, tho.

          Liked by 1 person

  4. Julie Kelly 🇺🇸
    @julie_kelly2
    20h • 4 tweets • 3 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
    New: Last night, Jack Smith filed a motion objecting to Trump’s demands for vast amounts of evidence from various agencies including DHS and J6 committee.

    I will post some highlights…

    It appears DOJ is part of the scandal of the missing Secret Service texts. As I reported a few days ago, thousands of texts between 2 dozen Secret Service officials/agents including the director and Robert Engel–the agent Trump allegedly attacked on J6 according to Cassidy Hutchinson–were deleted at the end of Jan 2021.

    USSS claimed the purge was caused by a pre-planned reset of devices–and it happened after House Dems notified exec branch to preserve records related to Jan 6.

    J6 committee subpoenaed the texts only to be told they were not recoverable. Now it looks like DOJ had actual phones but still could not find the deleted messages?

    This is insane–no one can possibly believe this given the invasive tools the govt has and has used in this investigation.

    This is in addition to Biden’s DHS refusing to give House GOP numerous transcribed interviews with Secret Service officials–also apparently the one with Engel.

    WHAT IS THE SECRET SERVICE HIDING?
    Image
    Well, this is some stunning logic right here.

    Law enforcement and those officials duty-bound to secure the Capitol (Sergeant-at-arms for Pelosi and McConnell to name a few) are not to blame for what happened but Donald Trump–who is not responsible–is? Image
    DOJ continues to conceal info related to extensive use of undercover police from numerous agencies and deployment of FBI informants before and on Jan 6.

    Defendants cannot get access to this crucial evidence (see @FreeStateWill) as govt refuses to account for these assets. Image
    In a separate thread, I will revisit FISC report on abuse related to Jan 6.

    Trump on the left, Smith on the right.

    FBI abused FISA database but Smith argues it’s irrelevant to Trump’s case. Mmmmkay

    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1733854343265157284.html

    Liked by 1 person

    1. In case anyone’s interested….

      “The government of Argentina, within the framework of a federal system, is a presidential representative democratic republic. The President of Argentina is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the President. Legislative power is vested in the National Congress. The Judiciary is independent from the Executive and from the Legislature, and is vested in the Supreme Court and the lower national tribunals.”

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Argentina

      https://vamospanish.com/magazine/argentina/argentina-politics/understanding-the-argentina-election-process-a-detailed-guide/

      Liked by 2 people

  6. Like

    1. “California Facing Record $68 Billion Deficit, Potential ‘Fiscal Budget Emergency’: Legislative Analyst”

      “Because of a “severe revenue decline,” California is facing a $68 billion budget deficit that could accumulate to more than $155 billion over the next five years, according to the most updated projection released Dec. 7 by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.

      A spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested some of the state’s approximately $24 billion held in reserves could be used to address the growing deficit—an idea analysts agree will be necessary.

      “The Governor has maintained strict fiscal responsibility since taking office, building up the state’s reserves to historic levels reaching the maximum allowed by the state constitution to be put in reserves and paying down debts—putting California in a strong position to deal with budget shortfalls,” Erin Mellon, communications director for Mr. Newsom’s office, told The Epoch Times by email Dec. 7.

      Budget problems arose after income tax collections dropped 25 percent in the fiscal year 2022–2023—which ended June 30—compared to the year before, according to the report by the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

      Moreover, tax receipts typically due in April were delayed until October this year due to federal and state exemptions granted after winter storms impacted the state, which made it difficult for state officials to determine the scale of the deficit earlier to define budget priorities accordingly.” — The Epoch Times

      Like

  10. “Ousted UPenn President Liz Magill Lands New Gig At Hamas Institute Of Technology”
    EDUCATION · Dec 10, 2023 · BabylonBee.com

    GAZA — A day after being forced out of the University of Pennsylvania, Liz Magill has been announced as the new President of the Hamas Institute of Technology.

    “Experience leading premier universities and comfort with Jewish genocide is a rare combination, and Ms. Magill has it in spades,” said Haitham Hawajri, a university board member. “We are proud to welcome Ms. Magill as the President who will lead H.I.T. from the river to the sea.”

    According to H.I.T., the university had been without a president since a recent paragliding accident claimed his life. The board initiated an extensive search, eventually narrowing down the candidates to the presidents of Harvard, M.I.T., and Penn. “We were so torn after watching their Congressional testimony,” said Hawajri. “Each made such beautiful equivocations for the mass murder of Jews. We really wrestled over who to go with, but ultimately Ms. Magill’s condescending smirk while talking about genocide won us over.”

    At publishing time, H.I.T. had announced they were close to announcing Claudine Gay as the new Dean of Student Affairs.”

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Liked by 2 people

    1. I don’t want to see any kind of incarceration of the Lion (with all these gag orders). After all, Epstein didn’t kill himself!

      Liked by 2 people


  14. Liked by 1 person

  17. who cares WHAT chinese nationals want? rhonda is correct on this—they should not be allowed to buy property near military installations or infrastructure like ports. this is basic common sense. and chinese nationals could be illegals–how are getting $$ to buy properties? and who would the real owners be? the ccp
    FTA
    More than two dozen states have either passed or proposed limits on Chinese property ownership, but Florida’s law is one of the most restrictive. The American Civil Liberties Union has challenged the law as discriminatory on behalf of a group of Chinese immigrants, and the US Department of Justice has said it’s unconstitutional. The law has complicated the buying and selling of homes by individuals, on top of its effects on investors and builders.
    Major real estate investors are worried about repercussions. Executives at Carlyle Group are concerned that the law will hurt its ability to raise money from investors from China in the future, people familiar with the firm’s thinking said. Representatives for Carlyle Group declined to comment.
    Since 2018, Griffin had tapped into his $36 billion fortune to become one of DeSantis’s biggest donors, yet ties between the two men have strained. Griffin didn’t donate to DeSantis’ presidential campaign. And, as DeSantis lost ground in the polls, Griffin and other business leaders, like JPMorgan Chase CEO James Dimon, have hinted at shifting their support to former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Trump meanwhile has maintained a double-digit lead.
    Off Limits
    Griffin saw Florida’s anti-China law as an affront, as it would have barred Chinese citizens from buying property within 20 miles (32 kilometers) of military facilities or infrastructure such as ports or power substations. That would have put almost all of South Florida, where Griffin moved his business from Illinois, off limits.

    https://archive.is/8aI7z

    Liked by 1 person

  18. so a composite figure based on 2 white males and one white female becomes one black woman? netflix gets accused of race swapping
    FTA
    According to Screenrant, the decision to erase the real investigators and substitute in a fictional character was “..for the sake of their story,” and that the creators of the show “…needed to ensure that the hero of the television series had one singular face, and that is where Aduba as Edie came in.”

    In an interview with Tudum, Aduba said: “The world of Edie Flowers, who is a fictitious person — but is a composite of a number of investigators, runs alongside the very real Richard Sackler. Having those points of intersection where the two worlds come together was incredibly impactful and powerful.”

    The investigators Aduba’s character represents, who played a groundbreaking role in the case against Purdue Pharma, include Assistant U.S. Attorneys Owen Foster and Michael Drescher in addition to other staff members at the Vermont U.S. Attorney’s office.

    https://www.thepublica.com/netflix-accused-of-race-swapping-after-replacing-investigators-who-took-down-purdue-pharma-during-opioid-crisis-with-a-fictional-black-woman/

    Liked by 1 person

      1. itis supposedly based on a true story about the investigators who took down Purdue Pharma during the oxycontin crisis. only the team of investigators were white and there were 3 of them. but netflix decided one black super hero woman was a good substitute.

        Liked by 1 person

  28. interesting perspective

    Ted
    Ted
    December 11, 2023 11:41 am

    Keep an eye on Taylor Swift with the 2024 elections coming soon. She’s going to urge her social media followers to vote for anyone but Trump so she can get the rights back to her music. Google it.

    Like

    1. OK – so she signed away the rights to her first 6 albums to get a cash advance to get started but she retained publishing rights somehow and THAT person has resold those ownership rights. I fail to see where Trump could do anything about that whole situation….

      Liked by 1 person


  29. NF: I have no idea what kind of plane this is but it’s cool!

    “Angry alien…”

    “Tracks on Mars…”

    “Tempting fate…”

    Liked by 1 person

  33. 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸
    @mrddmia
    Biden Special Counsel Jack Smith made an extraordinary request:

    He asked the Supreme Court to bypass the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, skip the normal Supreme
    Court briefing and argument timelines, and immediately decide whether Trump enjoys presidential immunity.

    This is a legal Hail Mary by Jack Smith.

    He’s desperate to keep an unreasonably (unconstitutionally) expedited March trial date.

    After waiting 30 months to bring these unprecedented and political charges.

    And not giving the defendant adequate time to get through 13 million pages of documents.

    Nor enough time to prepare for hundreds of potential witnesses.

    While Trump’s sitting through an extensive (bogus) New York civil fraud trial right now to bankrupt him.

    Knowing Jack Smith’s March trial will force Trump to sit in a DC courtroom for months.

    Instead of being on the campaign trail.

    To secure a guilty verdict from a DC jury pool that voted 95% against Trump.

    And a conviction from DC Obama Judge Tanya Chutkan who is hellbent on imprisoning Trump before the election.

    During this time, Trump must sit through 3 other back-to-back (even overlapping) criminal trials—including another by Jack Smith.

    To throw him in prison for 700 years.

    There is no reason Jack Smith’s DC trial can’t wait until after the election.

    This is blatant election interference.

    Liked by 1 person

  34. “Jack Smith’s Rush to Judgment: Odds the Supreme Court will review one of four counts pending against Trump–with implications for another–just spiked. What does this mean for the special counsel and looming trial date?”
    JULIE KELLY
    DEC 11, 2023

    Artwork by Ruben Cueto

    EXCERPT: “Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a motion over the weekend urging the district court to preserve the current schedule leading up to Donald Trump’s criminal trial scheduled to begin on March 4 in Washington.

    Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is handling Smith’s four-count indictment against Trump related to the events of January 6 and efforts to “overturn” the 2020 election, earlier this month denied the former president’s motion to dismiss the case on executive immunity grounds. Trump’s counsel immediately appealed her ruling and asked Chutkan to suspend existing deadlines as the appeal moves through the process, possibly landing at the U.S. Supreme Court. (More on that in a moment.)

    After successfully demanding an accelerated trial schedule—unlike most Jan 6 cases, which take more than a year between indictment and trial, Chutkan set only a seven-month window—Smith is doing everything he can to get a conviction before Trump wins the Republican presidential nomination this summer. “[In] light of the public’s strong interest in a prompt trial, the Government will seek to ensure that trial proceeds as scheduled. This means that, while the appeal is pending…the Government will continue to shoulder its own burden,” Smith wrote in his weekend motion.

    Smith’s burden, however, just got a bit heavier for a number of reasons. First, there is a strong likelihood the Supreme Court will review one of four charges included in Smith’s indictment with ramifications for a second count.

    Race Against the Clock

    Some quick background: The DOJ has charged more than 300 J6ers with 1512(c)(2), obstruction of an official proceeding. Congress passed the statute in 2002 as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the wake of the Enron accounting scandal. But some J6 defendants fought the charge arguing the law requires some element of tampering with evidence or witness. (More details here.)

    In April, a three-judge panel of the D.C. appellate court issued a muddled ruling—one judge described it as “splintered”—that essentially resulted in three different opinions as to the DOJ’s interpretation of the statute. The defendants then took the matter to the Supreme Court.

    But despite the law’s uncertain legal ground, Smith included 1512(c)(2) in Trump’s indictment handed down last August claiming the then-president “attempted to, and did, corruptly obstruct and impede an official proceeding, that is, the certification of the electoral vote.” Smith might live to regret it…..”

    https://www.declassified.live/p/jack-smiths-rush-to-judgment

    Liked by 1 person

    1. the President’s team proffered that he was already tried for insurrection and acquitted–so double jeopardy applies…I think they have a point. how can he be guilty of insurrection if the very people who, he supposedly committed it against did not agree

      Liked by 1 person

  37. Liked by 1 person

  38. “Harvard board set to meet Monday as calls for Claudine Gay to resign grow amid antisemitism, plagiarism claims”

    NationalPulse: “Calls for the resignation of Harvard President Claudine Gay have grown in recent days after she was questioned during a congressional hearing over mounting antisemitism on the Cambridge campus, and the board that could decide Gay’s fate is set to meet on Monday. Reports also emerged on Sunday that Gay may be guilty of plagiarism in her PhD dissertation.

    The Harvard Corporation is due to meet on Monday, and they could hear arguments both in favor and against Gay’s continuance as the president of the storied school that has produced so many American presidents and thought leaders. While the meeting has long been on the calendar, they are expected to discuss Gay, the hearing, and her fate. Penny Pritzker, former commerce secretary under Obama and member of the prominent Pritzker family, chairs the Harvard Corporation.

    The New York Times reports that “more than 500 members of the Harvard faculty had signed a petition urging ‘in the strongest possible terms’ to ‘resist political pressures that are at odds with Harvard’s commitment to academic freedom.'”

    The petition also tells the Harvard Corporation to “resist political pressures that are at odds with Harvard’s commitment to academic freedom, including calls for the removal of President Claudine Gay.” The Board of Overseers met on Sunday.

    Notable alum Alan Dershowitz penned a scathing rebuke of the university president on Monday, saying that she, along with the other two university heads who were grilled by Rep Elise Stefanik nearly a week ago, “articulated and enforced a double standard of free speech to the detriment of Jewish students.”

    UPenn president Liz Magill has already stepped down, after she failed to unequivocally condemn the calls for Jewish genocide on the Philadelphia campus. Dershowitz said after Gay is gone, the MIT president, Sally Kornbluth, is next.

    All three women claimed that antisemitic speech and chants calling for violence against Jews were protected by free speech considerations, but that rang hollow to anyone who was paying attention. All three of these universities have claimed that “misgendering” and refusing to protect “preferred pronouns” is tantamount to hate speech over recent years.

    “America watched in disbelief as these three sat before a Congressional committee this week and declined to call for the disciplining of demonstrators on their campuses, who chant for the mass murder of Jews,” Dershowitz wrote in The Daily Mail.

    It was during that hearing that Stefanik called for Gay to resign as well, after Gay said “calling for the genocide of Jews” is only in violation of the “Harvard Code of Conduct” if the context warrants it. “…[I]t depends on the context,” Gay said. She later apologized via the school newspaper.

    “These university leaders failed a basic test of moral clarity when they couldn’t bring themselves to uphold the same standard for Jewish students that they would for any other group on campus,” Dershowitz said.

    The revelations that Gay had plagiarised portions of her PhD dissertation came from Christopher Rufo and Chris Brunet, and were upheld by faculty sources who spoke to Bob Ackman, a Jewish donor to Harvard who stopped funding the school after massive antisemitic protests erupted on campus and were seemingly endorsed by Gay and others.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Add this on and she’ll be gone within days, betcha!!!

      Harvard President Accused of Plagiarism: Claudine Gay’s Dissertation Contains Unattributed Text Lifted from Other Works

      IGOR CHUDOV
      DEC 11, 2023

      “A big scandal is unfolding. An internet reporter, Christopher Rufo, looked closely at the doctoral dissertation of Claudine Gay, the 30th President of Harvard University. He found passages of text lifted from other manuscripts but not properly attributed to the original authors. Harvard has strict policies regarding plagiarism:….”

      https://www.igor-chudov.com/p/harvard-president-accused-of-plagiarism

      Liked by 1 person

  39. SCOTUS relists 3 J6 cases…
    FTA
    Three petitions arising from January 6 Capitol riot prosecutions have been relisted by the Supreme Court, raising questions about how justice might rule, why a decision is being delayed and whether good news for former President Donald Trump could be on the horizon.

    The court released a new order list on Monday that included the relisting of three different appeals brought by defendants Edward Lang, Garret Miller and Joseph Fischer, who are challenging the Justice Department’s reading of the felony “obstruction of an official proceeding.” The justices opted to take no action on the matter, and push the matter until the new year instead.

    https://www.newsweek.com/mystery-surrounds-supreme-court-decision-capitol-riot-case-1851325

    Liked by 1 person

  40. Another warm day for December – still 51 even tho the sun is going down. No sign of Wheezer yet today….have a good night! Hope y’all can get some good sleep tonight!

    Liked by 1 person

  41. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Liked by 1 person

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