Happy Birthday Brady....

  My son Brady was turning 8 & I asked him what kind of cake he would like for his birthday....he of course said Yoshi. So without avail I searched hi & low for a yoshi cake pan....even the cake specialty shop in town did not have one!  Now I knew I was in trouble.  Then all at once the idea popped into my head ~ I found a picture of yoshi on the internet, went to my local print shop with printed picture of yoshi & my huge honkin' cake pan in tote....I said with a pretty please & a smile if they could help me fit the yoshi into the cake pan as big as possible. The guy came over with his handy dandy wheel thing to size things & figured out how much the pic needed to be blown up.....ba da bing...ba da boom...I had a big yoshi:)   I was so thrilled I had to go show my husband right away.  I first had just planned to cut around the yoshi & use the extra cake for "1-up" mushrooms but as I laid the "laminated" yoshi on the cake I just did not think it would work like I planned. So instead I frosted the cake first....laid down the yoshi & with my niece Carissas idea on utilizing tooth picks....I traced around yoshi, peeled him off & got to decorating.
  Being a bit nervous seeing this was my "1st cake without just slapping frosting on it" got to work......here's how it turned out.....

So proud of myself & Brady loved it!

Celery what??

That is what I hear the most this time of year from the produce people at my local grocery store when I ask them when they are getting their seasonal delivery of Celeriac......

You know.....the knobly root that tastes & smells very similar to celery.....except a bit bigger.

So the grocery store finally received it so I figured I better grab & get some frozen for winter soup use.

So basically I just cut in half - cut those halves into slices & just cut around to remove the skin.

After that is done I just cut into bite size pieces & get them ready for the blanching process.

They will get blanched for 4 minutes & immediately get put into an ice water bath to stop them from cooking & getting all mushy....

My rule of thumb is to let them in the ice bath as long as they were blanched...

After they are done I remove them using my awesome spider & dry them using paper towel...

Then I just pack them in a good quality freezer bag - label - date & freeze flat.

Very tasty in soups....you could also roast them in some olive oil - choice of spices in a 400 degree oven 25-30 min or until fork tender.....

Yummo!!!!