Central Cooking

Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-24T19:00:00.000-06:00

Hope you all have a very merry Christmas!

Eat to the Beat: Monkey(Wrench) Bread

2011-11-21T21:30:00.000-06:00

I loved when Elly at Elly Says Opa did Eat to the Beat back in the day. As someone who loves baking and adores music it was such the perfect combo for me (prior posts here and here) . I was so sad when she stopped doing it. So, needless to say, I was beyond thrilled when Elly announced she was doing a special Eat to the Beat to celebrate her 5 year blog anniversary. I knew I had to participate, the only question was what band or song to honor with a yummy baked good.

The answer? Foo Fighters of course. Besides the fact that the band is awesome, their music is incredible, and Dave Grohl is amazing - the fact is their name is just one letter off from being FooD Fighters. Perfect, no?

I adore the Foo Fighters. Have since they came out. They are such a fun band with awesome rhythms and lyrics and they just seem like they would be so much fun to hang out with. They were also one of the first rock bands I saw in concert when they opened up for the Red Hot Chili Peppers when I saw them in concert. It was awesome.

I decided to make monkey bread in honor of the song Monkey Wrench because it is an amazing song that I love to rock out to while I’m in the kitchen and I’ve never had monkey bread before. I always think it looks really good but I’ve never had the opportunity to make it. So this was the perfect opportunity to change that fact.

This is such an easy thing to make and I think it would be so much fun to make with a kid. Shaking the bag up would be so much fun for a kid I think, I know it was for me! I danced around the kitchen and made funny faces at Doug while he was on the phone while I shook the bag to coat all the biscuit pieces with the yummy cinnamon sugar mixture.

This would be an excellent addition to a holiday brunch or a get together with friends. It is fun to eat as you can pull apart the pieces, it is really tasty, and it takes no time at all to make. Definitely a winner in my book!

So, happy birthday, Elly Says Opa! Thanks for brining back Eat to the Beat for your celebration!!

Monkey (Wrench) Bread

Source: The Pioneer Woman

3 Cans Buttermilk Biscuits (not the flaky kind)

1 Cup Sugar

2 to 3 Teaspoons Cinnamon (your preference)

2 Sticks Butter – melted

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut each biscuit into quarters.

Combine the white sugar and cinnamon together in a gallon zip bag. Shake to mix up.

Place all the biscuit pieces into the bag, close the bag tightly, and shake until all the biscuit pieces are coated in the cinnamon-sugar mixture (dancing optional).

Place the biscuit pieces evenly around a bundt pan.

Melt the sticks of butter and stir in the brown sugar until completely combined.

Pour the brown sugar – butter mixture over the biscuits.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the crust is a deep brown on top. Allow to cool 15-30 minutes and then turn the pan over a plate to remove the bread.

Pumpkin Bread

2011-11-19T20:42:00.001-06:00

This is one of my favorite recipes and I cannot believe I’ve never blogged this before. I’ve been making this for a few years now – actually from before I even had this blog. That’s how good this recipe is. This pumpkin bread is moist and flavorful. The spices in this are perfect, I think, though you could easily back the amounts off a bit or add a touch more depending on how much spice you like. Even Doug really loves this bread and he isn’t a big pumpkin fan. This would be an awesome item to make and have around over the Thanksgiving weekend. It would be a great small breakfast on Thanksgiving or a yummy treat to stuff in your face after a morning of fighting the crowds for a deal.

The one bad thing about how long I’ve been making this recipe is that I printed it off before I learned about citing. I’ve searched google reader and every blog I could think of and I cannot find the source of this anywhere. So, if you recognize this can you please let me know so I can give proper dues to the original blogger?

Pumpkin Bread

1/2 Cup Oil (vegetable or canola)

1 1/4 Cups Canned Pumpkin (not pie filling)

1 Cup Sugar

1/3 Cup Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

1 1/2 Cups and 1 Tablespoon All-Purpose Flour

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cloves

1/2 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a bread pan with non-stick spray.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.

In a separate bowl mix the oil, pumpkin, sugar, brown sugar, and eggs.

Mix the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until well mixed. Pour into the bread pan.

Bake for 40-60 minutes or until top of loaf springs back slightly from light pressure. Cool for 10-20 minutes and remove from pan.

Foodbuzz Tastemaker: Birds Eye Creamy Primavera Risotto

2011-08-21T17:46:00.001-05:00

I recently received a package of Birds Eye Creamy Primavera Risotto in the mail as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program. I was excited to try this as I’ve never had risotto but have always wanted to try it.

Even though I’ve never had the dish before I had a good idea of what to expect from all the recipes and descriptions I’ve read. This did not disappoint.

The risotto was very creamy and the vegetables had a great texture. The peas were actually my favorite part and usually frozen peas are no bueno. I also love the fact that there are no preservatives. Plus you’ve got to love a side dish that doesn’t require dirtying any dishes! I think this would go really well with a pork loin or baked chicken though honestly I ate some as a quick dinner when I was on my own one night.

I will definitely be adding this to our freezer when it comes out this fall. Thanks to Foodbuzz and Birds Eye for the opportunity to try this product.

I was given this product free from Bird Eye as part of the Food Tastemaker program however the above views are totally my own.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake

2011-08-13T12:11:00.001-05:00

Anyone else drooling yet? Because as soon as I heard the name of this cheesecake I know I was. This was actually one of the two cakes I made for Doug’s birthday (yes, I like that guy so much I made him 2 cakes) and he found the recipe himself – in a Redbook magazine sitting out in the break room at work.

This cheesecake is incredibly delicious. I knew it would be just reading the name and the ingredient list. Peanut butter? Reese’s cups? Oreo crust? How could it not be? Granted, I am a major lover of all things chocolate and peanut butter so of course I loved it. But the other 3 lucky people who got to try this loved it too. And I already know I’ll have to make at least one more of these this year – my peanut butter & chocolate loving dad was pretty sad he didn’t get any. And even though this is a little more labor intensive than any of the other cheesecakes I’ve made I’m cool with making it again – it is totally worth it.

The middle of the cheesecake.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake

From Redbook

Crust

1 1/2 Cups Oreos – broken up into crumbs

4 Tablespoons Melted Butter

Filling

4 – 8 Ounce Cream Cheese packages, at room temperature

1 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter

1 Cup Sugar

4 Eggs, Large at room temperature

1/2 Cup Sour Cream

2 Teaspoons Vanilla

3 Ounces Bittersweet Chocolate, melted

6 Regular Size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, cut into quarters

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 inch springform with cooking spray and cover the bottom of the pan with a double layer of aluminum foil.

Combine the cookie crumbs and the butter and press into the bottom of the pan and 1/2 inch up the side. Bake for 10 minutes and then let cool.

Beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Then add in the sugar until smooth. Reduce the speed of the mixer and ad the eggs 1 at a time until just incorporated. Add the sour cream and vanilla.

Remove 1 1/2 cups of the batter and put in a separate bowl. Add in the chocolate.

Add the peanut butter to the remaining batter in the first bowl and combine until smooth. Remove 1 3/4 cups of this batter to a separate bowl.

Pour the remaining batter from the first bowl over the crust. Then place the quartered peanut butter cups evenly over this layer. Then alternately drop spoonfuls of the peanut butter batter you put in a small bowl and the chocolate batter over the layer of peanut butter cups. Then use a knife to swirl the peanut butter batter and the chocolate batter together until they look marbleized.

Place the springform pan into a larger pan and place in the oven. Then pour enough hot water into the larger pan so that it is 1 inch up the sides of the springform pan.

Bake for 1 hour or until the cheesecake barely jiggles in the center when you lightly shake the pan. Then remove the springform from the bigger pan and remove the aluminum foil. Use a thin knife to run around the edge of the cake to release it from the pan. Let cool completely and then refrigerate at least 6 hours.

Sour Cream Pancakes

2011-08-06T17:00:00.001-05:00

I love pancakes. I have fond memories of having pancakes on weekend mornings growing up. Everyone would gather round the table in their pajamas to chow down on fresh pancakes and chocolate milk. Of course those pancakes always came from a box and, admittedly, the pancakes I made as a grownup did too. Until recently that is.

It is incredibly easy to make pancakes from scratch. Sadly this is something I had to learn as an adult. And these sour cream pancakes from The Pioneer Woman helped teach me that lesson. When I first got the Pioneer Woman’s cookbook these pancakes jumped out at me but I always put them off in favor of the ease that comes along with the box of pancake mix. But once I finally decided to give these a shot I realized that they really aren’t anymore complicated than my trusty mix. They only require a few more ingredients than the box of mix and have such a light flavor and texture that I no longer thing of the box when I think of pancakes. Instead I now think of these sour cream pancakes….. and then I go check to make sure I have enough syrup.

Edna Mae’s Sour Cream Pancakes

From: The Pioneer Woman Cooks Book

1 Cup Sour Cream

7 Tablespoons All Purpose Flour

2 Tablespoons Sugar

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

2 Large Eggs

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Combine and sift the dry ingredients. Combine with the sour cream.

In another bowl mix the eggs and vanilla together with a whisk. Pour the eggs/vanilla into the sour cream/dry ingredients mixture. Gently stir until all ingredients are combines

Heat a pan (griddle, cast iron skillet, or frying pan) at medium heat until really hot. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter on pan.

Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the pan. This will make about a 4 inch diameter pancake.

Cook the pancake on each side for 1 to 2 minutes. Flip when the pancake starts to bubble and the edges are starting to brown.

Serve with butter and syrup or fruit and whip cream. This makes about 8 pancakes.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bar

2011-07-24T18:24:00.001-05:00

So this recipe comes from one of my favorite blogs: Peas and Thank You. I think Mama Pea is hilarious and I’m totally jealous of her awesome looking kitchen and incredible photography skills. Not to mention her adorable daughters. And even though we aren’t vegan her recipe posts still make my mouth water.

These granola bars are her healthy makeover of Quaker granola bars. I love chewy granola bars and go through phases where I' eat them all the time. I also frequently buy them for Doug’s lunch. But I’m trying to watch our intake of HFCS and sadly my beloved granola bars include HFCS. But Mama Pea’s don’t. This makes me very happy.

Mama Pea’s bars are vegan and mine are not. This is because I can’t find vegan versions of two ingredients here. One is vegan butter. I’ve used Earth Balance before and really like it but when I went to make these bars I discovered that I was out and a trip to the store showed that they no longer carry this. Boo! The other ingredient is the chocolate chips. I’ve checked every store in town and no one has vegan chips. Double boo! And I actually got lucky with the brown rice syrup. I can’t get it here but I did finally find it at the food co-op and hour away. Oh and I also cannot find brown rice cereal here so I had to use regular rice cereal. But if you can find all these ingredients you can make these just like Mama Pea.

I thought these bars were incredible and they held up really well. I wrapped them individually in plastic wrap and stored them in a zip lock bag in the fridge since it was really humid here when I made them. They last a week no problem. Definitely give these a try. They are really tasty and come together in no time.

Crispy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

From Peas and Thank You

2 Cups Old-fashioned Oats

2 Cups (Brown) Rice Crispy Cereal

1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1 Cup Brown Rice Syrup

1 Tablespoon Margarine (vegan or regular)

1/4 Cup Sugar

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips (non-dairy optional)

Preheat over to 325 degrees, Spray an 8 x8 pan.

Combine oats, cereal, flour, and baking soda.

In a small saucepan heat brown rice syrup, margarine, sugar, vanilla, and salt slowly over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir constantly. Allow to thicken slightly and then remove from heat. Let cool slightly.

Pour the mixture from the sauce pan over the cereal and oat mixture and stir to evenly cover. Then pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Press the mixture down lightly.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes. The bars will become crispier the longer they bake.

Cool completely before cutting.

Chocolate Cheesecake

2011-04-09T17:04:00.003-05:00

This was my first attempt at a chocolate cheesecake. And I’ve now made it twice. It is so rich and delicious, Everyone who tried it loved it. It did crack a little but honestly it is so good no one complained about the imperfection.

This recipe is definitely a keeper. I think it might be incredible with some nice rip strawberries alongside on a warm evening.

Chocolate Cheesecake

From Kraft Foods

24 Oreo Cookies – crushed

1/4 Cup Melted Butter

4 – 8 Ounce Packages Cream Cheese – softened

1 Cup Sugar

2 Tablespoons Flour

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

1 Package (8 squares) Semi-Sweet Chocolate – melted and slightly cooled

4 Eggs

Preheat Oven to 325 degrees.

Mix cookie crumbs and butter and press into large springform pan that has been sprayed with no-stick spray.

Beat the cream cheese, flour, sugar, and vanilla. Once well mixed add chocolate and continue mixing. Add eggs 1 at a time mixing each one in completely on low speed. Pour into pan.

Bake for 45 minutes or until center is almost set – check with a light touch. Cool totally and refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.

Baked Maple Cinnamon Donuts

2011-03-13T12:24:00.002-05:00

I love donuts. When I was little we had an awesome donut place in my town and I used to love going there with my parents and getting right up to the big glass case filled with donuts to pick what I wanted. Sadly that place closed long ago and the only options for donuts now are at the grocery stores. So now I never pass by a Krispy Kreme when I’m on vacation (when we were on vacation in November I almost did a happy dance when we went into one and I saw the Pumpkin Spice donut – yum). Sadly the nearest location is about 2 hours away, boo.

So of course I had to jump on the homemade donut bandwagon and pick up a pan of my own. I searched for a while for the perfect recipe to break in my pan, and I’m really pleased with the one I picked. This Baked Maple Cinnamon Donut recipe from Sweet Cheeks in the Kitchen is incredible. It is easy to whip up, doesn’t take long to bake, and tastes incredible. I will definitely be making these again. And of course more donut recipes will be finding their way into my kitchen.

Baked Maple Cinnamon Donuts

Seen on Sweet Cheeks in the Kitchen

1 Cup Flour
3/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
3/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
Pinch of Salt
1 Egg (lightly beaten)
1 6 Ounce Non-fat Vanilla Yogurt
1 Tablespoon Canola Oil
2 1/2 Tablespoons Maple Syrup
1 1/2 Teaspoons Cinnamon
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons Melted Butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly spray pan with nonstick spray.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl combine the egg, yogurt, oil, and syrup.

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and fold in the wet ingredients until just combined.

Divide the batter evenly into the pan (you can pipe into the pan by putting the batter into a baggie and cut off the tip and then pipe. I got six donuts.

Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. While the donuts are cooking combine the cinnamon and sugar and melt the butter. Allow the donuts to cool for a few minutes on a cooling rack over a pan or towel. Dip each donut into the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat. Eat right away or store in an airtight container.

Whiskey Glazed Carrots

2011-01-22T14:30:00.002-06:00

So these definitely do not fall into the category of healthy New Year resolution-fitting recipes but they are definitely tasty. These are another Pioneer Woman recipe and, like pretty much everything else from her I’ve made, these are delicious. And the leftovers are worthy of fighting over who gets the last bite. Make them, now. Then just run a few more minutes on the treadmill, it is totally worth it.

Whiskey Glazed Carrots

From The Pioneer Woman Cooks

1 stick Butter, Divided Into 1 Tablespoon Segments

2 pounds Carrots, Peeled And Cut Into Thick Circles (baby carrots work too!)

½ Cup Jack Daniels Or Other Whiskey

¾ Cup Brown Sugar

½ Teaspoon Salt

Ground Pepper, to taste

Gather all your ingredients (this recipe goes fast once it gets going!). Then melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet over high heat. Add carrots in a single layer in the skillet (will do two sets) and cook 60-90 seconds.

Remove all the carrots. Add the whiskey (keep your face back! trust me!). Let cook and evaporate for 30 seconds.

Reduce the heat to medium and add the rest of the butter. Sprinkle the brown sugar in. Stir. Add the carrots. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Remove lid. Add salt and pepper. Cook until glaze is thick and carrots are done. Will take around 5 minutes. Serve immediately (but hope for leftovers!).

Honey Yeast Rolls

2010-11-28T11:16:00.002-06:00

So I can’t believe I haven’t blogged these before. I made them last year a couple of times and really thought that I had blogged them. But when I went to make my grocery list for Thanksgiving I tried to pull up the recipe to see if I needed anything and discovered that it wasn’t there.

So I went back to the original source of these insanely easy and delicious rolls, Annie’s Eats, to make my list but vowed that they would be blogged this time. They are just way too good not to be posted all over the Internet. And as proof of this fact I admit that I did not get a single picture of a roll out of the pan – they didn’t last that long! There were a few left when we were finished with our meal but they were quickly grabbed and thrown into bags because everyone wanted one for later! Plus, my mom loved these so much that she raved about “the delicious rolls Kayla made” to both of my aunts when they talked on the phone. Now that’s a sign of a good roll!

But my favorite thing about these rolls is how easy they are. They were one of the first (and still only really) yeast recipes that I’ve tried. Even last week when I made them I still got nervous when I mixed them up – but it was totally stupid because they rose so well right away. I’m pretty sure there is no way to mess these up.

And another great thing about these is that you can stop them mid-process and freeze them and they are just as delicious as when you go from start to finish.

Definitely go check out Annie’s blog for more gorgeous pictures of these rolls (and all her other amazing looking food!). And then try them, you’ll be glad you did.

Honey Yeast Rolls From Annie’s Eats

Ingredients:
2¼ Teaspoon Instant Yeast
1 Cup Water (105-115 degrees F)
¼ Cup Honey
3 Tablespoons Oil (Canola or Vegetable)
1¼ Teaspoon Salt
1 Egg, beaten lightly
4 Cups bread Flour
Vegetable No-stick Spray
2 Tablespoons Melted Butter 2 Tablespoons Honey

In a mixer combine yeast and water. Then add honey, oil, egg, and salt. Mix well.

Add 3 cups of the bread flour and mix until it comes together – it will be very sticky. Switch from the paddle to the dough hook for your mixer. On low speed slowly add the last cup of bread flour. Mix until it is completely mixed in. Continue mixing for around 8 minutes or until the dough is a smooth ball that is elastic in consistency if pulled.

Spray a large bowl with the no-stick spray. Place the ball of dough into the bowl, turn it around until covered with the spray, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Place the bowl in a warm spot and allow to rise for 2 hours or until it is double its original size.

Place the dough on a floured surface and knead for 30 seconds. Cover with a towel for 10 minutes and then punch the dough down. Shape into balls and place into a lightly greased pan (I use a 9x13). I get about 15 rolls, but I think it depends on the size you want them.*

Cover and let rise again for 20 to 30 minutes.

Preheat the over to 400 degrees. Mix together the melted butter and 2 tablespoons of honey. Cover the rolls with the honey and butter mixture. Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.

*This is where I’ve stopped the process to either freeze these or even just keep them overnight. To freeze them cover tightly with plastic wrap and place in freezer – the day before you are ready to make them place the pan in the fridge. To stop them overnight cover tightly and place in fridge. On the day you want to make these (whether you froze them or just placed in the fridge) take them out about an hour and a half before you want to bake them to allow them to come to temperature and have their final rise. Then bake per the directions.

Deviled Eggs

2010-11-19T20:39:00.002-06:00

With Thanksgiving coming up next week it seemed like the perfect time to finally blog these eggs. Deviled eggs were always a staple on the holiday table in my house growing up, but lately I’ve taken over the making of the eggs. But these eggs are different from the ones I ate growing up. If you’ve seen my egg salad recipe then this recipe will be very familiar. When I make the deviled eggs I use my mother-in-law’s recipe. These eggs are more of a sweet taste while my mom’s are a tangy, mustardy flavor. My hope is to get my mom to write down her recipe for me again so I can blog it too. It shouldn’t be a problem because we pretty much rotate deviled eggs at my parent’s house – one time I’ll make these and the next mom will make the tangy eggs. So hopefully around Christmas I can get the other recipe too.

Just like the egg salad this is really just a list of ingredients – there really isn’t any measurements here. These eggs are totally dependent on how many eggs you are making and your tastes. The Miracle Whip and mayo really just add to the consistency of your filling – adding more will make your filling more creamy but doesn’t really do much for the taste. Adding more sugar, French dressing, or pepper changes the taste. The important thing to remember is that you can always add more of an ingredient but you can’t take it away if you put in too much – so start small and add on.

Deviled Eggs From My mother-in-law

Ingredients
Eggs
Mayo
Miracle Whip
French Dressing
Pepper Sugar

Place your desired number of eggs into a pot, cover with water and place over medium-high heat for 20 minutes.*

Once eggs are done drain the water, cover with cold water, and peel the shells off. Place the eggs in the fridge for 15-20 minutes, or until cooled.

Cut your eggs in half and scoop out the yolk, place it in a bowl. To the bowl add mayo and Miracle Whip until you have reached the consistency that you like (I start with a tablespoon of each and then go from there).

Once you are happy with the consistency add the dressing (I usually start with a teaspoon), the sugar (I start with 1/2 a teaspoon), and pepper (I start with a small dash and go from there). Slowly add more of each until you are happy with the result – keeping the amounts you are adding small so you don’t add too much.

Fill your egg whites with the filling – you can spoon it in or pipe it in from a plastic bag with the tip cut off (or you could use a bag and tip like you would for frosting).

Chill for at least 30 minutes (over night is best) then serve.

*If you have another way that you like to boil your eggs then use it. The goal is just to have some hardboiled eggs.

Ranch Oyster Crackers

2010-06-13T13:22:00.005-05:00

These are a really quick and easy snack that comes together in no time flat. They are really tasty and keep really well in an airtight container. They'd be great for a get together or just a night in with a movie.

Ranch Oyster Crackers

Adapted from Delish

1 Bag Oyster Crackers*

1/3 Cup Oil (I used vegetable)

3 Tablespoons Ranch mix (or one packet)

1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Lemon Pepper

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Lightly spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray.

Put oysters in a plastic zip bag.

Pour oil into bag and shake to totally cover the crackers.

Add ranch mix, garlic powder, and lemon pepper to the bag. Shake until well-coated.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, stir after 10 minutes.

Allow to cool before eating.

Store in an airtight container.

*You can also use pretzels.

Lunch Lady Bars

2010-05-23T15:13:00.005-05:00

Show of hands: how many of you are now singing the Adam Sandler song? I know I am (I love me some Adam Sandler).

Anyway, these bars are so incredibly good. They are easy to whip up and require basic ingredients that I pretty much always have on hand. Whenever one of us has a sudden sweet or chocolate craving I can turn to these and be assured that they'll be ready to eat before we cave and give in to the awfulness that is a store-bought cookie.

These would also be a great treat to take to a party - especially a cookout on Memorial Day or the Fourth of July. They're a classic that everyone is pretty much guaranteed to love.

Lunch Lady Bars

From Yum

2 1/2 Cups Flour

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

3/4 Teaspoon Salt

1 Cup Oil (I use vegetable)

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup Sugar

2 Eggs

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

1 Cup Mini Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Combine all dry ingredients and set aside.

Mix together oil and sugars and add eggs one at a time.

Add vanilla and then gradually add dry ingredients.

Mix in 3/4 cup of chocolate chips.

Spread the mixture into a 9x13 that has been lightly sprayed with non-stick spray.

Sprinkle the rest of the chips on top and lightly push them in.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-25 minutes or until light golden brown.

Allow to cool and cut into small squares.

Macaroni and Cheese

2010-03-21T10:22:00.003-05:00

I love macaroni and cheese, although most of my life the only mac and cheese I knew came from that blue box. I actually used to not like the homemade version that I would encounter because it wasn't what I was used to. But that all changed a few years ago when I made my first attempt and this recipe has just strengthened that love. In fact, the last time I had the blue box variety I could barely eat it and just kept thinking about how fake it tasted.

This recipe is from The Pioneer Woman, it's on her Web site and in her cookbook. It is really pretty simple, in fact while I was making it I was thinking about how it really is not that much more work than the boxed variety. I definitely recommend this recipe, it's really easy and tasty and is total comfort food. One thing though is I do recommend grating your cheese yourself. Yes, it's kind of a pain but I've made this both ways and it is so much better with self-grated cheese. It's more moist and flavorful than pre-shredded and totally worth the work.

Macaroni and Cheese

From The Pioneer Woman

4 Cups Macaroni

1/2 Stick Butter (1/4 cup)

1/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour

2 1/2 Cups Milk (I used our standard 2%)

2 Teaspoons Dry Mustard, heaping

1 Egg, beaten

1 Pound Cheese, Grated

1 Teaspoon Salt*

1 Teaspoon Season Salt*

1 Teaspoon Pepper*

Cook macaroni until still firm; drain.

Beat egg. At this point I recommend having every remaining ingredient all measured out; it will make the next few steps much easier.

Melt butter in a big pot and then sprinkle in the flour and whisk constantly for 5 minutes over medium-low heat.

Add milk and mustard and whisk until smooth and then cook for another 5 minutes, still whisking constantly.

Prepare your egg by slowly adding 1/4 of the sauce to the beaten egg, stirring constantly until smooth. This keeps you from having scrambled eggs in your mac and cheese.

Add the egg to the rest of the sauce and stir constantly until smooth.

Add all but 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the cheese and stir until melted (if you want to serve immediately then add all the cheese now). Add seasonings.

Add in drained macaroni and stir until totally covered. You can serve now or...

Pour into a buttered dish (I've used a 2 quart casserole and a 9x13, both work). Top with remaining cheese.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Check out Pioneer Woman's site for additional suggested seasonings.

* PW calls for 1/2 teaspoon of these seasonings, but we think it's better with 1 teaspoon of each.

Mastering the Basics: Pizza Crust

2010-01-19T12:50:00.005-06:00

So I kind of totally dropped the ball on the Mastering the Basics posts last year, but it's ok because they're back! This time I tackled pizza dough.

We love pizza and eat it a lot around here, but usually I use store bought dough, it's part of that whole fear I used to have about using yeast. But I definitely think I've gotten over that fear! In fact I think I'd like to play around with even more dough recipes in the future, so look out for those!

This recipe is from my friend Hornedfroggy's blog and is from Gourmet Magazine. It was really easy to throw together and turned out great, I will definitely be using this recipe again and I highly recommend you give it a try!

Pizza Crust

From Gourmet Magazine and as seen on My Baking Heart

2 to 2-1/4 Cups All-purpose Flour
1/4 Ounce Package Fast-acting Yeast
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
2 Teaspoons Olive Oil
1/2 Teaspoon Salt

In a large bowl whisk together 3/4 cup of flour, yeast, sugar, and 2/3 cup hot water (130 degrees F).

Stir in the oil, 1-1/4 cups of the remaining flour, and the salt and blend the mixture until it forms a dough.

Knead the dough on a floured surface, incorporating as much of the remaining 1/4 cup flour as needed, for 5 to 10 minutes, or until it is smooth and elastic.

The dough can be used right away or it can rise once. Put the dough in an oiled bowl and turn it to coat it with the oil.

Let the dough rise, covered with plastic wrap, in a warm place for 30 minutes, or until it is double in bulk, and punch it down.Top with your favorite toppings and bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

This is just a basic sausage and cheese pizza. What's your favorite topping?

Sweet and Spicy Meatballs

2010-01-04T06:00:00.001-06:00

This is a super easy recipe that is great for parties or just a relaxing day at home when you want something different that doesn't require too much work. Doug and I actually ate these on New Year's Day and they were the perfect thing for a lazy day at home.

This is one of those recipes that is really just a list of ingredients - the amounts are really up to you, just add things until it tastes good to you and you have enough to cover your meatballs.

Sweet and Spicy Meatballs

1 Bag of Frozen Meatballs*

BBQ Sauce (your favorite brand)

Grape Jelly

Worchestire Sauce

Place meatballs in crockpot.

Pour a large amount of BBQ sauce into a separate bowl (enough so that it looks like it will cover your meatballs).

Place grape jelly into a separate bowl and microwave for a few seconds until it easily stirs smooth (I usually start with about 1/3 cup, it's easy to add more later).

Add the jelly to the sauce, then add a few dashes of worchestire. Take a small taste and adjust to your liking (more jelly for sweetness, worchestire for spice).

Pour the sauce over the meatballs, make sure they are well covered.

Cook on high for 2.5 to 3 hours or low for 5, or until warmed completely.

Goes great with French bread.

*You can use homemade meatballs also, but they won't need to cook as long.

Best of 2009

2010-01-01T16:19:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year!

One of my goals (I hate the work resolution!) is to post on here at least twice a week, so expect many more posts in 2010.

But, in the meantime, here are what I consider my best dishes of 2009.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oatmeal Pie

Hidden Candy Pie

Banana Cream Pie

M&M Cookies

2009-12-05T15:31:00.003-06:00

I love these cookies. They are so good and simple. They'd make a perfect addition to any holiday spread or goodie basket with holiday M&Ms.

These come from the amazing Katie at Good Things Catered, so you know they are guaranteed to be good. I made mine with semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of the white chocolate in Katie's recipe because Doug's not a huge white chocolate fan and they tasted really well, so it would work with whatever you choose. I think these would be awesome with mint or dark chocolate M&Ms too. These are great cookies to experiment with - so go crazy!

M&M Cookies

From Good Things Catered

2 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons All-purpose Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
12 Tablespoon (1 1/2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, melted & cooled until warm
1 Cup Brown Sugar, packed
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 Large Egg

1 Egg Yolk
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
1 Cup M&Ms
1 Cup Chocolate Chips

Adjust oven racks to upper & lower-middle positions & heat oven to 325 degrees.
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk dry ingredients together; set aside.
Mix butter & sugars until combined.
Beat in egg, yolk and vanilla until combined.
Add dry ingredients & beat at low speed just until combined.
Stir in M&Ms and chips.
Roll about a 1/2 cup dough into ball.
Bake, reversing cookie sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft & puffy (about 15 minutes for me).
Cool cookies on sheets and place on wire rack to cool.

YWPWT: Hidden Candy Pie

2009-10-27T20:18:00.007-05:00

Welcome to my second pie for You Want Pie With That?! This month's theme was Masquerade Pie and Halloween was totally my inspiration here.

This pie looks all nice and sweet and innocent with that lovely whipped cream topping. It looks like any regular cream pie.

But then you cut into it and -yowzers!- there's candy in this pie!

I wanted to come up with a super easy and fun pie to go with Halloween and the tasty treats of my youth - so this pie features M&Ms and half of a Hershey bar. Plus the layer of peanut butter filling (it sandwiches the candy) tastes just like a Reese's cup.

This pie could not be any easier to throw together - in fact I feel a little funny even calling this a recipe. But it's so yummy that no one will care how little effort you put into it!

Hidden Candy Pie

By Me

1 Pie Crust, cooked and cooled (I've yet to find a pie crust I love. Use your favorite or even a store bought - I won't tell).

3 Cups Whipped Cream (I used frozen Cool Whip - thawed of course)

3/4 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter

1 Small Bag of M&Ms

1 Regular Size Hershey Bar

Combine 2 cups of whipped cream and peanut butter until well mixed, spread half of this into the bottom of the baked and cooled pie shell.

Chop up 1/2 to 3/4 of the bag of M&Ms (however much sounds good to you) and place on top of the peanut butter cream. Chop half of the Hershey bar and layer on top of the M&Ms. Cover the candy with the rest of the peanut butter cream.

Top with a layer of plain whipped cream, 1 cup would work but Doug loves whipped cream so I made a really thick layer of it.

Chill for 30 minutes and serve.

TWD: Allspice Crumb Muffins

2009-10-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

Ok, first of all I realize that these aren't muffins. I've yet to unpack my muffin pans, so therefore these are now muffin-bars.

These are really good. I actually left the crumb topping off - partly because I read that it melts off but mostly out of laziness. These were really easy to throw together and I was really happy with how moist they turned out to be. I think these are a hit and I'll definitely be trying them in muffin form - as soon as I find my pans!

This recipe was picked by Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table - check out her blog for the recipe. And check out what the rest of the TWD bakers thought of this recipe.

Allspice Crumb Muffins from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 16-17.

TWD: Flaky Apple Turnovers

2009-09-15T08:49:00.006-05:00

These. Are. Incredible.

Seriously, we loved them. They are so good and really pretty easy to make. They take a few hours because of the dough, and that part requires a few steps, but really they could not be easier.

I really loved the dough of these. It has a really nice, unique taste and was really easy to work with.

The filling of these is a basic apple filling, which is a perfect compliment for the dough.

I will definitely be making these again!

And I have Julie of Someone's in the Kitchen to thank for picking these. Check out her blog for the recipe and check out the TWD site to see how all the bakers handled these awesome treats.

Flaky Apple Turnovers from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 316-317.

Oatmeal Pie - You Want Pie With That? : Vacation Pies

2009-09-06T15:00:00.011-05:00

Welcome to my first entry into You Want Pie With That?! YWPWT is a monthly blog event where members make a pie based on a theme picked by the member that was picked as having the best pie from a past month. I first heard about this group from my friend Hornedfroggy at My Baking Heart - aka the same person who got me to join Tuesdays with Dorie. HF told me that YWPWT is a total blast and that I'd love it, and, like always, I listened and joined in - and here we are!

This month's theme was picked by Jen at Piccante Dolce. The theme is Vacation Pies and you were supposed to whip up a pie that reminded you of your favorite vacation or one you wanted to take. Well, at first I was coming up with all kinds of fruity pies in honor of my favorite place ever - Florida. I loved vacationing there growing up and would love to live there - if I wasn't pretty sure I'd melt in about 1.345 days.

But then I started thinking about specific vacation memories from growing up and realized that most of them involved trips to see my grandparents, who used to live in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I tried to think of any pies that really stood out to me from those trips spent walking the golf course looking for lost balls with my grandfather, going to get gallons of the incredible tasting city water with my grandmother, turning into a giant prune from hours spent in the pool at their condo complex, eating big bowls of ice cream every night, and riding around the beautiful mountains with my family in my grandparent's minivan. I had a few ideas, but nothing that really stuck out at me.

So, I decided that if I couldn't come up with a pie that made me think of my own grandparents then one that made me think of my best friend's grandparents was a good substitute. I've known my best friend practically forever; her parent's moved next door to my other set of grandparents when we were pretty young and we used to spend hours playing together in her backyard - usually torturing her brother. I've spent lots of time over the years with her family - and a huge portion of them even came to our wedding (and her grandma made our flower girl's dress). So when she told me about this recipe of her grandma's that her dad loved and always asked for I knew I should give it a try. And when my friend posted the recipe on her blog recently I couldn't help but drool.

This recipe, though I've never had it before, really makes me think of happy, cozy minutes spent visiting my grandparents. It uses simple ingredients that my grandmother would have had, it's a taste my grandfather would have loved, it makes your house take on that sweet, comforting, homey smell, and it makes you think of cool fall days (which was always a great season to visit my grandparents).

So, please enjoy my first entry for You Want Pie With That? A simple, lovely pie passed down in a family that's pretty darn close to my heart and that makes me think back on vacation days spent running around Arkansas with my family.

Oatmeal Pie

Based on a family recipe from my friend Sarah

3/4 Cup Quick Cooking Oats

3/4 Cup Sugar

1 Stick of Butter, melted

2 Eggs, beaten

3/4 Cup Maple or Pancake Syrup

3/4 Cup Pecans

1- 9" Pie Shell, uncooked (store bought or homemade)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare crust.

Mix oats and syrup. Add in melted butter. Add sugar and beaten eggs, mix well. Add in pecans.

Pour into pie shell.

Bake on middle rack of oven for 30 to 45 minutes, or until cooked through.

Great with whipped cream, ice cream (which my grandfather would have loved), or on it's own.

Check out Sarah's blog for the original recipe and to see some optional ideas to tweak this great pie.

PW's Sleepin' In Omelette

2009-08-25T06:00:00.001-05:00

I was slightly afraid of this recipe.... and it's all because of the cream cheese. You see, cream cheese and I have a strained relationship. It's one of those foods that I used to be convinced that I hated. I thought it was the devil in creamy white form. Then one day I tried strawberry cream cheese, that got me over the texture - so now I'm just working on accepting it in it's natural form, mainly by using it in recipes. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to just smear it on a bagel and eat it plain ::shudder::

But this recipe seemed like a good place to try cream cheese... although I was a little skeptical. I wasn't sure what it would be like baked and mixed with eggs. And, truth be told, it wasn't bad. I liked the lite sour taste it provided throughout the dish and the texture actually worked really well with the eggs and the bread. I will definitely be more open to this once hated dairy item in the future.

I did make a few changes to this from how the Pioneer Woman does it. For the bread in this I used a bag of wheat dinner rolls that I found on the bakery clearance shelf at Wal-Mart. I could not find onion rolls anywhere and I figured this was a great place to use some already slightly stale rolls. I think they worked really well, although I think the onion rolls would have provided a little extra flavor. I also left out the chives that PW calls for, I don't really care for them. And I cut the butter back to 1 stick, I think it's plenty. And I left out the dash of cayenne because I didn't have any.

We actually ate this in waves. We both had some, and it was delicious, and then a couple hours later had a tiny bit more (we had this on a lazy weekend). And it was so incredibly good a few hours later. But then I had a little more the next day and was not too impressed, it was kind of soggy and lost it's omph. So if you're only making this for two people you might consider halving the recipe.

Sleepin' In Omlette

Adapted From The Pioneer Woman

6 Wheat Rolls

1 Cup Shredded Cheese

1 Stick of Butter

10 Eggs

2 Cups Milk

1/2 Teaspoon Dry Mustard

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

Spray a 9x13 pan. Tear rolls into pieces and place in pan, cover with shredded cheese. Cut or tear cream cheese into small chunks and place in pan. Cut the butter into small chunks and place it in the pan too. Mix everything else together and pour over the items in the pan.

Cover and put it in the fridge over night. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and bake for 25 minutes, covered. Then remove cover, crank oven to 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

TWD: Applesauce Spice Bars

2009-08-18T07:00:00.000-05:00

I'm back! I missed TWD (and baking) so much! I've got the basics put away in the kitchen and was itching to get back to baking, so these were the perfect things!

This recipe was super simple to throw together and didn't require anything I didn't have. I left these super basic: just the main ingredients and the chopped up apple, I didn't didn't make the glaze for these because 1. I'm not a big glaze/icing fan and 2. I didn't want anything getting into the simple taste of these awesome bars.

And awesome these are! I really like the simple, sweet flavor of these. They hit the spot perfectly and would make an awesome fall treat. I will definitely be making these again.

These bars were picked by Karen of Something Sweet by Karen, check out her blog for the recipe. And make sure to check out how all the TWD members handled this recipe.

Applesauce Spice Bars from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 117-118.

Crockpot Salsa Chicken

2009-07-21T18:00:00.001-05:00

I adore this dish. From the second I saw this recipe on the cooking board I frequent (it's a very popular recipe there) I knew I had to try it. Doug and I love Mexican food and salsa, chicken, and cheese are some of our favorite ingredients. Not to mention the very strong love I have for my crockpot. So this recipe was made for me.

This is probably one of the easiest recipes ever. I literally throw everything in the crockpot in about 2 minutes, turn it on, and I'm done. And if I can manage this at 6 am anyone can do it.

This also is excellent as leftovers, I think it's one of those recipes that gets better the next day, and it makes quite a bit. I love making this and having it for lunches for the next few days.

Also, I'm breaking one of my own rules here and am posting this without pictures. I swear I took one but I think maybe the camera ate it. So I figure I'll post this now and next time I make it I'll get a picture and add it.

Salsa Chicken

Adapted. I don't know where this originated, so let me know if you do!

4-6 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts - Fresh or Frozen (I buy a bag of frozen breasts from the grocery store when on sale and throw the whole bag in still frozen)

1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup

1 Cup Salsa of Choice (I use mild)

1 Packet Taco Seasoning (I have a big container of it and just sprinkle it over the chicken)

Taco Shells, Nacho Chips, or Rice to put this on and your favorite taco toppings. I put this into shells and top with Sour Cream and Shredded Cheese.

Place chicken in bottom of crockpot.

Cover with taco seasoning.

Combine soup and salsa, spread over chicken.

Cook on low for about 7 hours or until chicken is done. I usually cook this for 8+ hours while I'm at work and it's always perfect. Just make sure your chicken is fully cooked since crockpots cook differently.

Shred chicken - I use two forks to tear apart the pieces until they resemble what a BBQ pulled pork sandwich looks like. Stir to make sure the chicken is well coated in the sauce.

Eat however you like.

Tater Tot Casserole

2009-07-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

So I have two confessions with this recipe.

The first is that I'm so late in posting this that we actually ate this when it was cold out. And it was a perfect meal for a cold night. I'm sure it's probably just as good now, but I haven't made it in about 3 months (at least).

And second, I have to confess my inspiration for making this. It's the Duggar family. You probably know who they are. Parents Jim Bob and Michelle and their 18 kids (and one daughter-in-law and one grandbaby-bun-in-the-oven), who live in Arkansas. They had a number of specials on TLC and now have a regular 30 minute show (18 Kids and Counting). Plus, and this is part two of this confession, they have a book out(The Duggars: 20 and Counting), and I just read it last week.

I find the Duggars pretty interesting. I'm not totally sure why that is. I don't think I have a lot in common with them really. But I could totally see myself hanging out with some of those Duggar girls, maybe they could even give me some hair pointers. But whatever it is I get sucked into that show. As a matter of fact I got sucked into the two episodes on this past Tuesday when I was packing. Luckily Doug doesn't know who the Duggars are, because I'm pretty sure that he'd make fun of me if he did.

Anyway, it was the Duggars who inspired me to make this meal. They talk about it on one of their specials, apparently it is a very popular meal amongst the family and I can see why. It sounds really good (to me at least). So when Doug came home one day and said that a coworker had been eating tater tot casserole and it smelled good I knew I needed to make this.

I should address that, yes, this has Cream of soup in it. Like I've said before, this doesn't really bother me. We eat things with it very rarely and I always make sure to get the low sodium/fat kind. Plus I'm pretty sure there are worse things out there for you than this.

Also, this reheats incredibly well. I was really impressed with this as leftovers. And it makes a lot, so you will have leftovers! Enjoy!

Tater Tot Casserole

Inspired by the Duggar Family

1 Pound Ground Turkey

2 Small Cans Cream of Chicken Soup*

2 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese

1 Small Bag Frozen Tater Tots

Preheat oven to 35o degrees.

Brown turkey, season to preference (I usually use some garlic powder and season salt).

Combine turkey, 3/4 cup of cheese, and soup in a large bowl, stir well. Place mixture into a lightly greased 9x13 pan, spread to cover the whole pan.

Cover mixture with bag of tater tots (still frozen).

Follow directions on the tater tot bag for how long to cook.

Add remaining shredded cheese and place back into oven until cheese melts.

Let sit for a minute to cool (it gets really hot!), serve and enjoy.

*You could also do one can of Cream of Chicken and one can Cream of Mushroom or Cream of Cheese.

Some Announcements

2009-07-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

Did you have daily announcements in school? In high school we had them at the start of 7th period and the principal would always say "we're rolling into 7th period" and we always wondered why we were "rolling" into it.

Um, wow, can we say tangent? Anyway it's time for some announcements that have to do with Central Cooking.

- I'm way behind on updates. I promise I really do make more than TWD recipes, we eat real meals - I promise! So I'm hoping to get caught up with these soon and get them set to post every few days (this has something to do with another announcement too).

- There's a new (I think) baking group out there I'm thinking about joining, so be on the lookout for that.

- Central Cooking is on Twitter now (you may have noticed the addition to the side bar)! I decided to follow the lead (read - copy) some of my favorite food bloggers and create a page. So you can now follow me on there at @CentralCooking.

- I started a new all-things-not-cooking blog (you might have seen this on the side bar too). I've got some other exciting things going on in my life now (see the next announcement) and didn't want to clutter up CC with them, but still wanted to blog about them. So I created Something To Crow About (STCA). It seriously covers everything that isn't cooking, whatever random thoughts pop into my head, what I'm reading now, what I'm currently obsessed with, my workouts, it's all there. So check it out!

- And finally, the biggest news of all: we bought a house! After looking for a few months Doug and I finally found an awesome little house and had an offer in and accepted before said house had been on the market for 3 days. You can read all about house hunting, the new house, packing, and (coming soon) moving over on STCA. We close on July 24th, so really soon!

I'm sure that you all are curious about the kitchen. Well, it's awesome! After what I've been cooking in for the last almost 2 years this kitchen is fit for a queen! It's nice and open with lots of cabinets and counter space. It needs some paint but that's really it. So, after we get moved in I'll be sure to post some before and after pics (the rest of the house will be on STCA). I'm thinking that I may also do some posts about packing up a kitchen and then organizing one, because I know those are topics I've been hunting for lately.

This is also why I'm so eager to catch up on my posts. I figure I have another week of cooking in our current place and then it will be mostly sandwiches for a while (we also have a trip to Indianapolis at the end of this month, so there will be some yummy meals there). So hopefully I can get a lot of posts written up and set to post over the next couple of weeks.

So, what does this mean for Central Cooking? It means great things, that's what! I'm already dreaming of all the things I'm going to be able to make now that I didn't have the room to before, such as cinnamon rolls, bread, candy, etc. Also we will have an extra fridge/freezer and a deep freeze, so expect to see some make ahead freezer meals pop up from time to time, as well as some bulk cooking. Plus I'm already thinking of all the treats I can make for the holidays since I won't be limited on counter space and table room (there's tons of room to set up extra tables for things to cool/set up on if needed). Last Christmas I was really limited and actually had to rotate cookies around our house to find room for new batches, not anymore!

So, expect great things from Central Cooking in the future, and thanks for hanging in with me!

TWD: Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies

2009-07-07T08:00:00.001-05:00

I actually made these a while ago, which is a very good thing because we had a slight electrical issue in our kitchen at the end of last week and it threw the kitchen into shambles. So, I don't have a picture but I can attest that these are very good.

So, check out the other TWD bakers to see their yummy brownies.

This week's recipe was picked by the winner of the contest to design the new TWD logo, Lisa of Surviving Oz. Check out her site for the recipe.

Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 96-97.

Mastering the Basics: Omelettes

2009-07-02T20:30:00.000-05:00

One of my kitchen related goals for this year is to master what I consider to be cooking basics. These are things that I think make up the basis for a great kitchen repertoire and a very happy cook. I'm really late in getting started with these posts, but expect to see them over the rest of the year.

The first basic I decided to master is the omelette. I love omelettes. I order them pretty much whenever we eat breakfast out. And I'm a total purist when it comes to what I want in mine, just a couple of items is all I want, I like to still be able to taste the eggs and enjoy whatever is in the omelette. So, with as much as I love these breakfast menu mainstays, it is rather surprising, at least to myself, that I've never made one before. I mean there was even a recipe for an omelette in my cookbook for kids I had growing up. But for some reason I always went with scrambled eggs when I wanted a break from plain ole eggs.

But not anymore! Now that I've made this awesome item at home it is definitely going to become a kitchen regular at our house!

First Attempt

When I decided to make these I turned to my usual source for enlightenment, the Internet. I ended up reading a number of omelette recipes and then just going into the kitchen and throwing things in a bowl. This is my take on an omelette.

Second Attempt

Simple Omelette

3 Eggs

1 Tablespoon Water

Salt and Pepper to taste

Fillings of Choice

Mine had: a little more than 1/4 cup of Mozzarella cheese and 2 strips of bacon, crumbled

Doug's had: the same amount of Cheddar cheese and 3 strips of bacon, crumbled

Spray a skillet with nonstick spray and put over medium heat.

Whisk eggs and water until thoroughly combined, add salt and pepper.

Pour into skillet and let cook until the egg mixture is firm and not runny (some cooks swear by keeping the egg just a tiny bit runny and shiny, but I'm a bit of an egg freak and like to make sure mine are completely done).

Place toppings on one side of egg, fold other side over.

Leave alone for just a minute or two.

Carefully slide out of pan and onto a plate.

I topped Doug's with salsa, which he said was great.

TWD: Parisian Apple Tart

2009-06-09T07:00:00.001-05:00

This week's recipe was one I knew I had to make from the second I saw it. First of all, it's apples - which Doug and I both love. Second, it's an apple tart, which I've always wanted to make. Third, it is so incredibly easy to make and only required me to add one ingredient to my grocery list. And fourth (and most importantly), it was picked by one of my favorite people who just happens to run one of my favorite blogs (ever) and who also happens to be the main reason I am in TWD. So I knew this one had to be done.

And I have to say, Hornedfroggy/Jessica made an awesome pick here! This recipe comes together so quickly and tastes so incredibly good. I love how simple the ingredient list is, it's really a classic group of items, and it tastes so pure and good. I will definitely be making this again ---- actually I have already made it twice! I had a sheet of pastry left and some apples to use up, Doug didn't complain!

This was the first time I've ever used puff pastry and I was really happy to see that it's very simple to use (and I was really happy to find it here!!). I used one whole sheet and one whole apple on my first tart and thought it was really good. The second time I used one whole sheet of dough and two apples and it was really good, although just a little soggy.

So if you're looking for an easy and quick recipe that will really wow people, try this one. You will not be disappointed!

This recipe was picked by Jessica of My Baking Heart, check out her blog for the recipe (and then look at all the other incredible things she has done!) and check out all the TWD members to see how they tackled this one.

Parisian Apple Tart from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 319.

TWD: Cinnamon Squares

2009-06-02T07:00:00.000-05:00

These cinnamon squares were so good. And so incredibly easy to throw together. I was a little concerned that I had messed up the batter because it seemed incredibly runny but it baked up perfectly.

You'll notice there is no chocolate icing and (you can't really tell) but there is no chocolate in the cake. As much as I love chocolate and I love cinnamon I don't really like them together. Plus not making the icing made these even faster. I did do a lite dusting of powdered sugar on top and that made these taste even better, although I would think vanilla ice cream would make them awesome too.

This awesome recipe was picked by Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures, look there for the recipe. And see how all the TWD members handled this cake here.

Cinnamon Squares from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 210-211.

TWD: Chipster-Topped Brownies

2009-05-27T19:21:00.004-05:00

So I'm a day late and have no picture of these, so let's just write this week off as a fail for me. But I'm already making next week's and there will be pictures!

This week's recipe was Chipster- Topped Brownies. Brownies + Chocolate Chip Cookies = Yum. 'Nuff said :)

This recipe was picked by Beth at Supplicious. Check out her blog for the recipe (and a pic!).

Chipster-Topped Brownies from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 94-95.

TWD: Fresh Mango Bread (with Strawberries)

2009-05-19T07:00:00.001-05:00

I was a little hesitant about this week's recipe because I've never cut up a mango before. But luck was with me Saturday morning before I made this. We were watching Giada at Home and she demonstrated how to cut a mango, what are the odds! So, using what I learned from my fav Italian chef, I tackled this recipe feeling fairly confident... and it turned out great!

It was really easy to throw together, smelled awesome as it baked, and has a great taste. My only problem was that my mango didn't produce enough fruit for the whole recipe. I had read on the TWD site that this could happen so I got an extra mango and it still wasn't enough. So to try to keep this from getting too dry or boring I added in about a cup of diced strawberries, which taste awesome with the mangoes. I will definitely be trying this recipe again.

Kelly of Baking with the Boys picked this recipe, check out her blog for the recipe and all the awesome things she has made. And see how all the TWD bakers handled this one, it sounds like there are some interesting variations out there (I heard mention of some muffins and some bakers adding in chocolate chips).

Fresh Mango Bread from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 45.

TWD: don't worry!

2009-05-12T17:00:00.001-05:00

Don't worry, I'm still doing Tuesdays with Dorie. I just never had a chance to make this week's recipe. But I'll be back next week!
In the meantime, check out how everyone handled the Tartest Lemon Tart picked by Babette of Babette Feasts.

Pepperoni and Parmesan Pasta Salad

2009-05-10T10:30:00.006-05:00

I decided to make this pasta salad for my contribution to Mother's Day lunch.

It was so quick to throw together and the little bit I tried last night was awesome. I couldn't find the dressing that she mentions in this recipe, so I just used a bottle of Zesty Italian and it seems to work just fine. Although I would love to find that dressing, it sounds awesome.

Pepperoni and Parmesan Pasta Salad

From: Lemons and Love

INGREDIENTS

16 ounces of pasta, cooked to your preference

1 16 ounce bottle dressing

3/4 quarters of a bag of pepperoni, cut up

4 ounces shredded Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

Combine drained pasta, 3/4 of the dressing, pepperoni and Parmesan. Mix thoroughly.

Chill for 2 hours, or overnight.

Mix in the last of your dressing before serving.

Strawberry Cake

2009-05-10T10:10:00.007-05:00

Happy Mother's Day!

Today I'm having lunch with my parents and grandma to celebrate Mother's Day. I'm providing the sweet to end the meal and a side. This cake was requested by my mom after she saw Paula Deen make it on her show last weekend.

This was one of the easiest cakes I have ever made (probably cause of the cake mix). I love playing around with cake mixes (red velvet cookie, anyone?) and adding the strawberries to this is such a neat idea (plus it meant I got to use my mini Cuisinart). This cake smelled awesome while it was cooking and I adore the bright pink color.

I ended up just using a whipped vanilla frosting from a can so that it could sit out and everyone could eat it without worrying about the ingredients in butter cream. I still love these whipped frostings, this one reminded me

of marshmallow fluff.

I cannot wait to eat this cake (2 more hours!), I'm hopeful it will be amazing.

Simply Delicious Strawberry Cake

From: Paula Deen

Ingredients:

1 (18.25-ounce) box white cake mix
1 (3-ounce) box strawberry-flavored instant gelatin
1 (15-ounce) package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and pureed
4 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease pan (I used 9x13 but you could use 2 9 inch round pans).

In a large bowl, combine cake mix and gelatin. Add pureed strawberries, eggs, oil, and water; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour into prepared pan(s), and bake for 20 minutes (mine was about 27 minutes), or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pan(s) if desured, and cool completely on wire racks. Frost.

You can decorate the top with strawberries, I used red sugar crystals.

Ingredients:

Cute Monkey Cupcakes

2009-05-07T18:18:00.007-05:00

Saturday was the first birthday of Max, my bff's little boy and my unofficial nephew. I adore this kid (and his mom) so I was more than willing to help when asked. The idea for these came from my friend looking up "monkey cupcakes" (Max's nickname is monkey and that was the party theme) on photobucket and then piecing together the ideas she liked.

These were so incredibly easy to make. We used cake mixes because they are easy, fast, and kids love them. We also used frosting in a can, she bought whipped chocolate frosting and it was so incredibly easy to use. The nose/mouth of the monkey is a Vanilla Wafer with just a tiny little bit of one side cute off. The ears are 100 Calorie Nutter Butters cut in half and the eyes are upside down M&MS. Then you just use icing to make your eyes, nose and mouth (eyes and nose are black, mouth is red).

The only problem we had with these is that the ears got a little soggy. The one she saw used regular Nutter Butters for the ears, and we determined that these probably don't get soggy because they are much thicker than the 100 calorie version and have the filling. So I'd recommend either using the original NB cookie or putting the 100 cal version on closer to serving (we made these the day before).

These were a huge hit. Everyone kept asking where she got them and couldn't believe we made them. Max seemed to think they looked neat but was way too excited about his own personal smash cake to pay too much attention. Happy birthday Max!

TWD: Chocolate Bread Pudding

2009-04-21T07:00:00.002-05:00

I am in love with this recipe. It was so easy to throw together and tastes so good. I love the creamy texture of bread pudding and this one is perfect.

I ended up halving this recipe and just making an 8 inch pan. I think I could have added a little more chocolate but otherwise this had an awesome chocolate flavor.
I will definitely be making this recipe again, it's so good!

Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle picked this weeks recipe. Check out her blog and all the TWD members to see how they handled this awesome recipe.

Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 410 and 411.

Product Rave: Soy Dream Ice Cream

2009-04-19T15:41:00.005-05:00

So I've never raved about a product on here before but I decided I had to with this. About 2 years ago it became apparent that I can't eat ice cream or drink milk (thankfully I can still eat cheese and things that are baked or cooked with milk in them, strange right?). But luckily I haven't missed ice cream too much, I considered it a blessing for my diet (always look on the bright side of life you know).

But then Dairy Queen started running commercials for their new chocolate truffle blizzards... well, I used to love Blizzards (Doug and I would go get them a lot on weekends when we were dating and just eat them and talk about our weeks), and I love chocolate ice cream, and I adore chocolate truffles. The first time I saw the commercial I looked at Doug and said "wow, that's the first time I've missed ice cream." Sad, right?

So yesterday we were at the grocery store and Doug decided to get some ice cream. I'm standing there and decide to look at the Popsicles (my replacement for the creamy awesomeness of ice cream) when I happen to look up and see a shelf of Soy Dream ice cream products. I stood there for a moment in shock. I know there are brands of soy and lactose free ice cream products, but I've never been able to find them here.

Doug came over and told me I should try it, but I was nervous. I've tried soy milk and wasn't a huge fan so I was a little worried about buying it and then not liking it. But the ice cream on the labels just looked so good! So I decided to get some, but then the tough question was what kind? Ice cream sandwich or traditional ice cream? Hmm, decisions decisions. Then I saw this:

And my decision was made for me.

I tried this last night and it is so good. Rich, creamy, chocolaty, with nice sized chunks of brownies. It tastes just like regular ice cream. Even Doug tried a bite and said it was good. I definitely recommend this to anyone else who can't eat regular ice cream (or just chooses not to eat dairy products). I really think you won't be disappointed. Just wanted to share.

TWD: Banana Cream Pie

2009-04-07T07:00:00.005-05:00

I have to admit, when I first saw this recipe I was both excited and nervous. I was excited because I love banana cream pie, well anything banana, and I've never made one. But I was nervous because I've never made any type of cream pie before and was worried about the custard turning out.
I was amazed when the custard actually turned out really well. I thought for a brief minute that I had messed it up when my custard started to start to clump up, but I kept whisking like crazy and it turned out really good. I used a graham cracker crust for this instead of the regular pie crust and bought whipped cream instead of trying to make it. I knew I'd be flustered by the custard and didn't want to get overwhelmed. I will definitely try making my own whipped cream soon though.
This recipe was picked by Amy of Sing for Your Supper, check out her blog for the recipe. And check out all the TWD bakers to see how they tackled this recipe.
Banana Cream Pie from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 342 and 343.

Graham Cracker Crust

2009-04-06T19:30:00.004-05:00

This recipe will come in to play tomorrow when the new Tuesdays With Dorie recipe is posted but I figured I'd go ahead and post it now. I love graham cracker crusts, they make everything better in my opinion. So when I offered Doug the choice of graham cracker crust or traditional pie crust the other day I was really happy when he picked graham cracker.

It's very simple to make your own graham cracker crust, you just need to make sure it ends up the right consistency.

Graham Cracker Crust

Based off Southern Food Recipe

1 Packet of Graham Crackers (1 bag from a regular size box)

1/4 Cup Sugar

5 Tablespoons Butter, Melted

Melted the butter. Smash the graham crackers up into small pieces and crumbs, dump into bowl. Add sugar and mix. Add in butter and combine until the crumbs are damp. Press into 9" pie plate, including up the sides. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350F. Allow to cool before filling.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-03-28T18:41:00.005-05:00

The other day my friend Jess mentioned that she had made some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and was bummed that they turned out dry. Well after she went back to the source of the recipe she noticed that a lot of other bakers had commented with the same issue. To me there is nothing worse than a dry cookie, I was bummed for her (aren't I so empathetic?)

Then I remembered that I had made these awesome cookies and had never gotten around to blogging them. Well, for Jess' sake (and for all you other peanut butter chocolate chip cookie lovers), here is this awesome recipe.

These are seriously some of the best cookies I have ever had. Doug and I totally loved them. In fact as soon as the last one was gone Doug asked me to make more.... and I was happy to.

I found these on Stephanie Cooks (along with a lot of other really great looking recipes, check out her blog!). These are seriously so good, you won't be disappointed.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

From Stephanie Cooks

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1/2 cup chunky or smooth peanut butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 egg

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°.

Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugars until light.

Add the egg and mix until fluffy.

Blend the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together well.

Add these dry ingredients to the butter mixture.

Add the chocolate chips.

Drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls onto lightly greased baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 375°.

TWD: Blueberry Crumb Cake

2009-03-24T07:00:00.004-05:00

I was so excited to try this recipe. I love coffee cakes and I discovered last summer that I love blueberries, so I was pretty sure this would be a hit. And it totally was. This was incredibly easy to throw together and baked up perfectly. We had some after it had cooled and it was perfect and then saved some for the next night. I was afraid it would be dry the second day but it was still really good.
I used frozen berries for this as the fresh are hard to find and really expensive here and I skipped the nuts in the crumb topping. But even with frozen berries this was so good, I highly encourage you to try this.

This recipe was picked by Sihan of Befuddlement, check out the site for the recipe for this incredible treat. And check out all the TWD bloggers to see what they thought.

Blueberry Crumb Cake from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 192-193.

TWD: French Yogurt Cake With Marmalade Glaze

2009-03-17T07:00:00.004-05:00

I was incredibly excited when I saw this week's recipe. It just sounded amazing. Cakes like this are known as pantry cakes in France because they typically include ingredients that you already have on hand. This is true, the only things I had to grab from the store were the yogurt and the marmalade. I ended up with orange marmalade because I couldn't find any lemon and vanilla yogurt because I made the mistake of shopping on a Monday and the yogurt choice was really picked over.

This recipe was really easy to throw together and tasted awesome. It got a little dry the next day, so make sure you seal it up really well. I think this cake would also be great without the glaze with some nice fruit and a touch of whip cream (like this pound cake I made last year).

Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction picked this week's recipe, you can see the recipe there. Be sure to check out her blog and all the TWD members to see how they handled this recipe.

French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 224-225.

TWD: Caramel Crunch Bars

2009-02-24T07:00:00.000-06:00

These are good, very good. From the moment I saw this recipe I knew there was a good chance that I was going to like these, and I was right.

The are incredibly tasty. I thought the cookie crust was so good and the chocolate layer was the perfect compliment. I ended up using caramel bits on these as I had some in the pantry, and they added a great flavor.

I will definitely be making these again. They are a perfect dessert or snack to have around, as a little goes a long way.

Whitney of What's Left on the Table picked these. Check out her blog and the TWD bloggers to see what everyone thought of these.

Caramel Crunch Bars from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 112-113.

A Quick Chicken and Dumpling

2009-02-20T19:11:00.007-06:00

I feel I must admit this: I used to be a Jessica Simpson fan. There, I feel better now. When she first came out I ate up every song she put out. I Wanna Love You Forever? Screeched along at the top of my lungs. Where You Are? Voted for the video on TRL.... a lot.

But I outgrew my Jessica Simpson phase. You can only laugh along with stupid questions for so long, attempt to sing along to high, warbly notes so many times. So I was a little hesitant when I saw that this chicken and dumpling recipe was from her. Seriously? Ms. Is This Chicken or Fish was cooking on Ms. I Do So Many Shows I Have No Voice's show? Alrighty.

But yet it kept getting rave reviews and it did sound good, so I decided to give it a try.

And I'm so glad I did! This recipe is quick, super easy, and pretty economical. And the leftovers are incredible. I highly recommend this recipe to anyone after a tasty, comforting recipe for a cold night. I promise, it's good!

Jessica Simpson's Chicken and Dumplings

From: The Rachael Ray Show

3 Containers Crescent Rolls

1 Small Rotisserie Chicken, skin off and off the bone

1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup

1 Can Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 Cup Chicken Broth

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Roll out and separate the cans of rolls. Put a small amount of chicken in a crescent, roll up, press end into roll and place seam side down in 9 x 13 pan. Repeat until all chicken is used.

Cut up rest of rolls into strips and set aside.

Mix the 2 cans of soup and broth, pour evenly over the chicken and crescents.

Place strips over the mixture to make a crust.

Cook until top is brown and mixture is bubbly and tender, around 30 minutes.

Vegetable Soup

2009-02-04T20:29:00.008-06:00

Growing up I never really liked vegetable soup, mainly because I didn't really like vegetables. But now that I'm older, and had really good vegetable soup a few times, I actually have started to like it. And even more surprisingly, I've even started to crave it. So when Doug mentioned that it sounded good to him too I decided that it was time I try my hand at this classic dish.

I found a recipe that sounded really good on Sweet Savory Southern and decided to run with it. The only changes I made to this recipe was to double it and add a half cup of water to get the consistency that I wanted. This was because I wanted a slightly thinner consistency, but you can add as much or as little as you want to hit your perfect consistency. Doubling this gave us the perfect amount for dinner and a few days of leftovers.

This soup is perfect for a nice cold day like the ones we've been having recently, so give it a try!

Vegetable Soup

Source: Sweet Savory Southern

1/2 large white onion, finely chopped

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

8 oz beef broth

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp sugar

1/2 cup water

2 1/2-3 cups mixed vegetables I used 2 small bags of frozen peas, carrots, corn, and green beans

Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add chopped onion and cook for about 5 min. Add beef broth and canned tomatoes. Next add the mixed vegetables. Add seasonings and stir to combine. Add water to achieve desired consistency. Cover and simmer on low for about 35-45 min, stirring occasionally.

These are the directions for a single batch (except for the note about the vegetables). I doubled this.

TWD: World Peace Cookies

2009-02-03T07:00:00.001-06:00

So sorry for the lack of TWD posts, Doug and I decided that it would be fun to each spend a huge chunk of January being sick. It was so much fun, each of us taking turns either feeling horrible or trying to take care of the other one. But we're both better now and I'm really excited for this month's recipes.

I was really excited to try these cookies since they're chocolate (yum) and had some rave reviews online. I was really happy with how quickly the dough came together. When I went to cut them they crumbled a little bit but were easy to put back together. The cookies have a nice flavor but got hard very quickly, and I don't really like hard cookies so that bummed me out.

Overall these are a good cookie and I will probably try them again soon.
This recipe was picked by Jessica of cookbookhabit, make sure to check out her blog. And make sure to check out the other TWD bakers.

World Peace Cookies from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 138-139.

An Incredible Lasagna

2009-01-31T20:27:00.006-06:00

In 2007 Doug and I decided that there weren't enough events in the month of December, so to spice things up I decided to graduate college and we decided to get married, hey we didn't want anyone to be bored! So I graduated the 15th, there was one week of nothing, then Christmas (which included Christmas with both of our parents, my grandparents, and Doug's mom's family), and the following Saturday (the 29th) we got married. While some thought that we were insane and were trying to cause problems other family members got in the spirit and jumped in to help.

Two of those who jumped in to help were Doug's aunt and cousin, Donna and Rachel respectively. They helped out by insisting on bringing the meal to the family gathering at Doug's parents house (this was on Thursday, our rehearsal dinner was Friday and the wedding was Saturday). Rachel made a great chicken lasagna from her husband's family and Aunt Donna made this incredible sausage lasagna. But they were nice enough to allow us to bring the bread.

This lasagna is so good, we actually had this on New Years Day this year, it was a great way to reminisce about what had happened just over a year ago. The great thing about this lasagna is that it is fancy enough to work for a special meal (like Christmas or New Years) but yet simple enough to enjoy any time. This recipe is also great because you can make it as mild or as spicy as you'd like, just by changing the sausage.

Give this recipe a try next time you're in the mood for lasagna, you won't regret it.

Italian Sausage Lasagna

Source: Aunt Donna

2# Italian Sausage (whatever spice level you want)
1 clove (or more) garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon basil
1 1/2 tsp salt
2-6 oz cans tomato paste
2-12 oz cans tomato sauce (can use some of the Italian spiced one or with added basil/garlic)

3 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
2 Tablespoons parsley
2 eggs beaten
1 tsp salt
1# sliced mozzarella cheese
Lasagna noodles - may use oven ready

Brown and drain meat. Add next FIVE ingredients and simmer 30 minutes, stir frequently. Combine remaining ingredients EXCEPT sliced mozzarella and noodles.

Now build....
First Layer - thin layer of meat/tomato sauce
Second Layer - single layer of noodles - (but you can overlap if you want)
Third Layer - ricotta mixture (use half)
Fourth Layer - mozzarella slices (use half)

Repeat layers (but save some meat/tomato for top)

Top with meat sauce and additional Romano (or Parmesan) cheese.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

It's Awards Season!

2009-01-29T18:52:00.005-06:00

My friend Maci of My Yummy Goodness (check it out, it's awesome), being the doll that she is, sent me two awards recently. Thanks Maci!!

The Fabulous Blog Award

The Lemonade Award for having a refreshing blog

Here are the rules…

- Add the logo in your blog.

- Add a link to the person who gave you the award.

- Nominate other (refreshing…like lemonade and fabulous) blogs of your choice.

- Don’t forget to add links to those blogs in yours.

- Also leave a message for your nominees in their blogs, informing them about the award.

So here's who I'm sending these to:

Julie of Jewels in the Kitchen
TheMilkMansWife of Milk and Honey
HornedFroggy of My Baking Heart
ThatGirl of Paved With Good Intentions

These two aren't food blogs but I love them none the less
Jessica of Reading is Sexy
Jen of My Brain's Comfort Food

A Diner Meal

2009-01-17T11:23:00.010-06:00

I love diners. They are so much fun to eat at, even though they are hard to find. There is a great 50s diner in Branson, Missouri, that I've been to with my parents, but that's kind of a long drive for a diner meal. Enter this alternative meal.

As soon as I saw this recipe on delish.com I knew I had to make them. First of all, I've heard some great things about Katie Lee Joel's recipes and, second, the picture looked incredible. These were incredibly easy to make, cheap to buy all the ingredients for, and so tasty. I will definitely be making them again. A great thing about these is that you can tweak the recipe for your tastes. You can add or subtract ingredients from the burger mixture and change up the toppings so they resemble your favorite burger. That is the sign of a great recipe to me.

These fries are also incredibly easy. We've made these a few times since we first ordered them as an appetizer at Outback Steakhouse when we were trying to use up a gift card. They are incredibly decadent and overkill but they are so good. You could also switch these up buy using different types of fries (even homemade fries would be awesome here) or a different mixture of cheese (I'm thinking Mexican Blend Cheese could be great here). They are also great because you can make as much or as little as you want by increasing the amounts. These would make a great item for a Superbowl party, a game night, or even just a lazy meal at home.

Cheese and Bacon Fries

Inspired by Outback Steakhouse Appetizer

Ingredients

1 Small Bag of Frozen French Fries Type of your choice (I used spicy)

2 Cups Shredded Cheese

1 Cup Crumbled Cooked Bacon

Bake fries as directed on bag (or for your homemade fries recipe). Remove from oven and sprinkle with cheese and bacon. Return to 350 degree oven for about 8-10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Cheeseburgers

Adapted from: Katie Lee Joel as seen on delish.com

Ingredients:
1 Lb Ground Beef

1 Egg Beaten Lightly

1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder

1 Tsp Pepper

Butter

12 Slices Wheat Bread

12 Slices Cheese

Mix the ground beef, egg, garlic powder, and pepper together. Form into thin patties (mine made 6 patties) and cook in a heated skillet until done. When burgers are done remove from pan and allow to drain on paper towels.

Meanwhile butter one side of each piece of bread.

Wipe out the skillet and lay down brown, butter side down. Layer cheese, a patty, cheese and another piece of bread, butter size up.

Cook until the bread is toasted.

ETTB: Chili

2009-01-15T21:21:00.009-06:00

This is another recipe from Doug's awesome mom that he was excited for me to make and I was rather nervous to try. The way that Doug's family thinks of chili is a lot different than how my family makes chili. Their version of chili is sweet with no kick, while my mom's chili is the only thing she adds any heat to (granted it's very little heat). I love both versions though, they each fill a different craving.

This recipe gets it's sweetness from a bit of sugar, but you could easily add some heat by adding spices or using a spicy chili bean. One thing I love about this recipe is that it can be made in the slow cooker. I love to throw this on in the morning and let is cook all day. Another great thing about this recipe is that you can easily make more to accommodate a crowd or make leftovers. In our opinion chili is one of those foods that is usually better the next day. To increase this you would just add more cans of beans and add more juice to reach your preferred sauce level.

I'm entering this recipe into Elly's (of Elly Says Opa) Eat to the Beat. When I was in middle school a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go to a Foo Fighters/Red Hot Chili Peppers concert with her. At the time, I can't believe I'm admitting this, I was way more into boy bands and pop princesses then I was rock bands. But of course I wanted to seem cool so I said I'd go. Flash forward to the concert: everyone else is singing along, screaming out the names of their favorite band members. I'm sitting there going "wow, these guys are really cool. Who knew?" I'm happy to say that night started my transformation into a well rounded music fan. From then on I've been a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

This is particularly good since Doug is such a big fan of music. He loves every type of music there is (give him a type and I bet he can name at least one band in that area that he likes). He was actually pretty jealous when he learned that I had seen the peppers in concert (especially now that the band is on a break). Doug and I have definitely bonded over musicians, especially in the early years of our relationship. D is a great musician and I love to listen to him play, even though he swears up and down that he can't play chili pepper songs. Whenever I make chili I start to think about this incredible band and start to hum their songs. This time I was humming "Under the Bridge" since I've recently heard that on the radio. So, that's why I'm submitting it to Elly's awesome event.

Chili

By: Debbie, my mother-in-law

Ingredients:

2 lbs Ground Beef

1 Medium Onion

1 Can Kidney Beans

1 Can Chili Beans

2 Large Cans Tomato Juice

2 Tbsp Sugar

Direction:

Cut the onion into small pieces, brown with the ground beef.

Add beef and all other ingredients together in large pot, stock pot, or slow cooker.

Cover with lid and allow to simmer for 2-3 hours.

Great topped with crackers and a little cheese.

This makes a small to medium batch. You can play with the amounts of beans and juice to reach your preferred consistency.

TWD: Savory Corn Muffins

2009-01-13T07:00:00.000-06:00

I was really excited when I saw that this week's recipe was a savory muffin. I'm still kind of burnt out on sweets from Christmas and I have no desire to spend a lot of time on a sweet treat that I won't feel like eating.

I didn't end up making these spicy, we aren't big on spicy around here. Without the peppers these need just a bit more sugar in my opinion. I think I will try this recipe again with just a few tweaks until I find the perfect taste for us.

This recipe was picked by Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake. Check out her blog and the TWD bloggers to see how they interpreted this recipe.

Sweet and Savory Corn Muffins from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 6.

Possibly My Favorite Muffin Ever: Banana Crumb Muffins

2009-01-04T21:15:00.016-06:00

These are by far one of the best muffins I have ever had. They are moist and have such a great flavor. Doug has also declared these the best muffins and I'm pretty sure that we are both itching to run into the kitchen and have another one, even though I made them to have for breakfast this week.

I found this recipe on Annie's blog, which has never steered me wrong. This is also the same place that I read that you can freeze bananas if you won't be able to use them before the go bad. All you have to do is mash them up like you would if you were going to immediately use them, but then put them in a bag and stick them in the freezer. When you are ready to use them just microwave them for a short time and they will be perfect.

This is a simple recipe that is really easy to throw together and doesn't take long to bake. I cannot wait to have another one of these for breakfast tomorrow.

Banana Crumb Muffins

Source: Annie's Eats

For the muffins:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 bananas, mashed

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup butter, melted

For the topping:

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.

In a large bowl, mix together 1 ½ cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg, cinnamon and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

You Want What Now?

2009-01-04T20:29:00.008-06:00

First let me say that I have debated for a while now whether to post this or not, it's an incredibly simple recipe for something that doesn't look that pretty or sound that appetizing. But then I remembered the fact that it took me a while to find this recipe and that it wasn't on any of the blogs in my Google Reader (maybe there's a reason for that). So, with Doug's encouragement, I thought "why not" and here we are.

When Doug first mentioned that Shit on a Shingle (SOS) sounded good to him I kind of thought he had lost his mind. Really? A dish that military men joke about and that is the butt (haha) of many comedian's jokes sounds appealing? But then he told me about how he used to eat this with his grandpa and I understood, since there are foods I associate with both of my grandfathers (circus peanuts for one, ice cream for the other). So I agreed to make this meal for him and set about to look for a recipe. I started with my usual source, the awesome blogs I follow in GR, but had no luck. So then I turned to Google, and after lots of searching found this recipe (the first one to get Doug's approval).

I was a little anxious making this actually, since I've never made any type of gravy or cream sauce, so I was a little worried I'd mess that part up (either burn it or have it just taste like flour). But it actually came out really well. I made this just for Doug but did try a bite and it was actually pretty good. He ate it over some whole wheat toast and said it was really great. So, if you are so inclined, give this a try. It's way better than the name implies.

Shit on a Shingle (or Creamy Chipped Beef)

Source: Food Rules

4½ oz. dried beef

2 cups milk

2 tbs. butter

¼ cup flour

Salt and pepper

6 slices bread

Melt butter in pan, add dried beef. Cook 2-3 minutes to brown. Add flour and mix with dried beef . Add milk (reserve ¼ cup for later), salt & pepper. Bring to boil. Add remaining milk to thin to your desired likeness. Serve over toast or waffles.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T14:53:00.009-06:00

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! I hope everyone had an enjoyable night last night, made it home safe and sound, and that no one is too hung over this morning :)
I have some pretty grand plans for 2009, many things that I want to try that are outside my usual comfort zone. I want to try my hand at making bread, become at least almost as good as Doug on the grill, and break into different Ethnic foods that I've never tried before. See, I told you they were grand plans!
But before we get started with this I thought I'd take a little look back at some of my favorite posts from 2008 (even though I have a couple things I haven't blogged yet, but oh well). I didn't blog much until April, but from then on I had a pretty good run of blog posts, especially after I joined Tuesdays With Dorie.
So, without any more delays, here are some of my favorite posts from the year that just was.

Vegetable Pizza
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Tomato and Mozzarella Pasta al Forno
Golden Cake and Vanilla Frosting
Berry Spicy Chicken and Grilled Baby Carrots
Brown Sugar Pound Cake
Red Beans and Rice
Fruit Crumb Bars
Oatmeal Scotchies
Apple Hand Pies
Apple Spice Cookie Bars
Chicken and Bacon Quesadillas
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins
Easy Cheesy Beer Bread
Veggie Chicken Rice Casserole
Maple Sausage Breakfast Casserole
Twofer Pie
Banana Bread
Chicken Enchiladas
Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

TWD: Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

2008-12-30T07:00:00.000-06:00

When I saw that the last recipe for December was a cheesecake recipe I was both excited and nervous. I've never made a cheesecake before, even though it is something that I've always wanted to try. So I was very happy to see this recipe, because I knew it would be the kick I needed to finally make this awesome treat.

I was so inspired by this recipe and how great it sounded that we decided to make one for each of our parents for Christmas, since my dad and Doug's mom are cheesecake fans. This was so good that all of our parents absolutely raved about it. This has a nice creamy texture and a light sweet taste to it. And it's really actually very easy to make (trust me, I've made it three times now counting the one I just made for us to keep). The most time consuming aspect of this is the baking and cooling periods. This recipe also freezes really well, when we made the cakes for our parents we kept them in the freezer for a couple of days to make sure they stayed fresh and they were perfect.

I think this is a great recipe for someone who is new to cheesecakes, it's simple to follow and tastes great. I will definitely be trying more cheesecakes in different flavors in the future, so stay tuned!

This recipe was picked by Anne of AnneStrawberry, check out this great blog.

This recipe is from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 235-237.

One Year Ago Today...

2008-12-29T07:00:00.000-06:00

One year ago today we got married! Doug loves me enough that he was willing to get married in the winter (which he hates) for me. I really like winter and the holiday season and thought it would be the perfect time for a wedding... and I think I was right. We had an amazing wedding with family and friends. It was a beautiful candle light ceremony followed by a lovely reception, it was a great night for everyone. So, since this is my blog and I want to celebrate, here are a few pictures (including our awesome looking cakes!).

I Fell in to a Melting Ring of Tacos

2008-12-27T23:15:00.006-06:00

I love looking at blogs to get ideas for new, interesting dinner items to break up our usual routines. So I get really happy when I discover that one of my cooking friends has a blog going. So I was doubly happy when I saw that my friend Maci had a food blog and that it was full of incredibly yummy looking dishes. This is my first attempt at making something off her blog, but I'm sure it won't be my last.

This taco ring was so easy to make but tasted so good. I used ground turkey, which I'm still pretty new to and I like having easy places to use it (but you could totally use ground beef instead). The one issue I had with this had absolutely nothing to do with the recipe: the stupid crescent rolls didn't want to roll out right, needless to say I will be sticking to Pillsbury from now on, saving a few cents was so not worth the headache the rolls gave me.

This is an incredibly easy and tasty meal that I totally recommend for a quick, weeknight meal. It will definitely be making more appearances in our dinner rotation. And check out Maci's blog, it's great!

Taco Ring

As seen on My Yummy Goodness

Ingredients:

2 packages refrigerated, ready to bake crescent rolls (8 rolls each)

1 pound ground turkey

1 pack taco seasoning

lettuce, sour cream, salsa and cheese for topping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

To make the filling: in a skillet, brown turkey and add taco seasoning. Follow directions on seasoning packet, using slightly less water than called for.

To make the crust: open one pack of crescent rolls and separate. Lay the crescent rolls in a circle around the pan, narrow side pointing out. You want to do this so that the angled side of the crescent roll is going the same direction around the pan (i.e. if your first roll has the angled side on the right, then continue laying the rolls so that the angled side is on the right each time). When you are finished, it will look like a sun.

Open the second pack of crescent rolls and separate. Lay one crescent roll, still with the narrow end pointing out, in between two of the previous crescent rolls. Line up the bottom of this roll with the bottom of the first layer of rolls (it will be on top of the first layer). You just want to make sure that the pointy end of this one is in the middle of two pointy ends of the previous ones. Continue until all the rolls are laid out.

Using a spoon, carefully add the meat to the wide part of the crescent rolls.

Once the meat has been added, fold the narrow end of the crescent rolls over the meat.

At this point, you can tear the narrow ends and tuck the top of the crescent roll into the bottom of the roll. Using the extra ends you've torn off, cover any open spots you may have between rolls.

Bake until the crescent rolls are a light golden brown.

Lightly sprinkle with cheese (just a small amount) and return to oven until cheese is melted and toasty.

Serve with all your favorite taco toppings.

Red Velvet Cookies

2008-12-27T22:58:00.006-06:00

I love red velvet cake, so much so that it was my flavor choice for our wedding (Doug's was German Chocolate). I have never been brave enough to make one from scratch (I should add that to my list of Things I Want To Do In The Kitchen In 2009) but I usually have a mix in the cabinet. So when I volunteered to bring dessert to Doug's family's Christmas gathering and started thinking about what was in the cabinet I zoomed in on this cake mix. But I didn't want to just make a cake or even cupcakes, I've been making cookies all week and that's where my mind currently is. That's when I remembered the Funfetti Cookies I'd had once before. These cookies are incredibly easy, just cake mix, egg, and oil. So, after checking with my baking friends to make sure it was possible, I decided to make the Funfetti Cookies into Red Velvet Cookies.

I opted to not ice these because I think red velvet is pretty sweet on its own, but I did dust half of them with powdered sugar, which I think provided a nice extra kick of sweetness, but the ones I didn't dust were just as good. These seemed to be pretty popular and quite a few of them disappeared off the platter, and I have no problem eating the ones that are left. I will definitely be making these again.

Red Velvet Cookies

Based off the Funfetti Cookies recipe

1 (18.9-oz.) Package Red Velvet Cake Mix

1/3 Cup oil
2 Eggs

Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, combine cake mix, oil and eggs; stir with spoon until thoroughly moistened. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. With bottom of glass dipped in flour, flatten to 1/4-inch thickness.

Bake at 375°F. for 6 to 8 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets.

Frost or sprinkle with powdered sugar. Store in tightly covered container.

Holiday Sweets Exchange: Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

2008-12-27T21:35:00.014-06:00

The cooking board that I frequent (not sure that's a strong enough word!) had a holiday sweets recipe exchange spearheaded by one of the great members. I was really excited to do this again since I had a lot of fun making the divinity recipe I received last year. I was really, really happy with the recipe that I got this year. I love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and peanut butter cookies, so this was a a perfect recipe for me!

I've actually already made these twice because we loved them so much. I made these this past Sunday night as a special treat for Doug and I amid all the holiday baking I was doing (since that was all for gifts and we couldn't eat it) and we loved them. Then I made another batch last night to take to Doug's parent's house today for our holiday celebration with Doug's grandma and family from Alabama. These were a total success! They were gone before we had even eaten dinner. Everyone who has tried these has absolutely loved them and I love them even more because they are so easy to make. This recipe calls for a peanut butter cookie mix, which I used because I was busy enough with holiday baking, but if you have a favorite peanut butter cookie recipe I see no reason why you couldn't use that. The one thing I didn't do to these was put the mini m&m's on top, because I kept forgetting to buy them, but I think they are perfect with out them, both in taste and appearance.

These are a great cookie and I'm really excited to have this recipe in my arsenal now, Doug says that they are his current favorite, so I will definitely be making these again.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Source: WC Holiday Sweets Exchange

1 package peanut butter cookie mix
1 bag reese’s peanut butter cups
Mini m&ms

Line a mini muffin pan with mini muffin wrappers.
Prepare dough according to the cookie mix.
Roll cookie dough into small balls and place in each individual wrapper.
Bake as directed on package.
Remove from oven and place 1 peanut butter cup in each cookie.
As chocolate melts on top add the mini m&ms.
Let cool in the pan.
I use a toothpick to help pull each cookie out.
Put a couple in the freezer to try them cold.

The Meal That Made Me a Keeper

2008-12-26T20:43:00.009-06:00

Well, maybe not really, but I'm pretty sure it helped. I made these incredible enchiladas for the first time more than two years ago and they are still one of our favorite meals. I love them because, though I've been trying to work on improving my eating habits, these don't have anything in them that I have ever avoided. Doug loves them because they are a delicious Mexican food item. We both love Mexican food but do not go out for it very often anymore, for one because it can get expensive and, two, because I can make these at home.

I found this original recipe on allrecipes.com and have tweaked it slightly to make it exactly what we like. I love this recipe because it is easy and fast to throw together, relatively inexpensive, and makes incredible leftovers the next day (we usually double this to ensure a few days' worth of leftovers.) So try these, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Chicken Enchiladas

Adapted from allrecipes.com

4 cooked skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 cup sour cream
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese You can also use the Mexican cheese mix
1-2 Tablespoons Taco or Fajita Seasoning
1 (12 ounce) package flour tortillas
1 (8 ounce) jar salsa for eating

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Shred the cooked (and seasoned) chicken breast meat, and place in a large bowl. Mix in sour cream and shredded shredded cheese (retain about a 1/2 cup for topping). Place a heaping spoonful of the mixture in each tortilla, roll up, and place rolled tortillas seam-side down in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Bake for 10 minutes, remove and add remaining cheese on top.
Bake for another 8-10 minutes, or until heated through and cheese is melted.

TWD: Buttery Jam Cookies

2008-12-16T07:00:00.004-06:00

I was a little curious when I saw this recipe. I had expected these to be like a thumbprint cookie, a buttery cookie with jam in the middle. Instead these have the jam mixed into the cookies. I decided to try strawberry preserves in this and it was really good. This is a nice, light cookie. Not necessarily one that screams Christmas time, but definitely good.
Heather of Randomosity and the Girl picked this recipe, check out this great blog. And don't forget to check out the TWD blog roll to see how everyone made these.
Buttery Jam Cookies from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 80.

Banana Bread

2008-12-14T18:11:00.008-06:00

I love bananas in any form: bread, cake, muffins, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, and even just as a plain ole piece of fruit. So when my grandma had some extra bananas that were about to be too ripe to eat and she said I could have them I knew exactly what I was going to make. This has been my go-to recipe for banana bread for a couple of years now. It's actually a recipe for muffins but turns into a really nice loaf of bread. It gets a great color to it and is nice and dense with a great flavor.

The reason why I haven't blogged this before is that I don't have the original source for it. I printed it off probably two years ago, long before I started blogging or even really knew about food blogging. Therefore I didn't bother to write down where I got the recipe, I'm pretty sure that it never dawned on me that I would need to know where this came from. But this recipe is so great that I finally decided that I need (yes need) to share it with you all. There are requests for banana bread fairly frequently on the cooking board I frequent and I finally decided that I wanted to have this recipe where I could easily direct people to it. So, if this is your recipe, or you think you know where it came from, please let me know so I can give you credit. Enjoy! Edit: we have a source! One of the great girls on the cooking board found this recipe for me on the blog dinner a deux. Thanks!

Banana Muffins/Bread
From this blog
Recipe Adapted from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe

Makes 10-12 muffins or 1 Loaf

1.5 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 ripe bananas, peeled and coarsely mashed

Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium bowl to blend. Beat the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl to blend. Stir in the banana. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended.* Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups. Bake the muffins on the middle rack until the tops are golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out with no crumbs attached, about 25 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a rack and cool slightly, but eat warm. *I pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

TWD: Sugar Cookies

2008-12-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

Ok, I'll admit it: I was really excited when I saw that sugar cookies were one of the recipes for this month. I love sugar cookies but don't make them often because Doug isn't a big fan and I hate to make something just for me. I've also been on the hunt for a great sugar cookie since I moved out of my parents house and thus away from my mom's cookbooks.

This recipe is really good, but I'll probably keep up the search. I ended up just making these as a drop cookie because I didn't have the time or patience to roll them out. These had a nice taste and texture and are really very yummy. I will definitely keep this recipe around to grab when I want something quick and easy, which this one definitely is.

This week's recipe was picked by Ulrike at Kuchenlatein. Check it out!

Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 146-147.

The Sweet 100

2008-12-06T23:22:00.003-06:00

When I saw this on Joelen's blog I realized I don't have as big of a sweet tooth as I thought!

How the Sweet 100 Works:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

1. Red Velvet Cake
2. Princess Torte
3. Whoopie Pie
4. Apple Pie either topped or baked with sharp cheddar
5. Beignet
6. Baklava
7. Black and White Cookie
8. Seven Layer Bar (also known as the Magic Bar or Hello Dolly bars)
9. Fried Fruit pie (sometimes called hand pies)
10. Kringle
11. Just-fried (still hot) doughnut
12. Scone with clotted cream
13. Betty, Grunt, Slump, Buckle or Pandowdy
14. Halvah
15. Macarons
16. Banana Pudding with nilla wafers
17. Bubble tea (with tapioca “pearls”)
18. Dixie Cup
19. Rice Krispie treats
20. Alfajores
21. Blondies
22. Croquembouche
23. Girl Scout cookies
24. Moon cake
25. Candy Apple
26. Baked Alaska
27. Brooklyn Egg Cream
28. Nanaimo bar
29. Baba au rhum
30. King Cake
31. Sachertorte
32. Pavolva
33. Tres Leches Cake
34. Trifle
35. Shoofly Pie
36. Key Lime Pie (made with real key lime)
37. Panna Cotta
38. New York Cheesecake
39. Napoleon/mille-fueille
40. Russian Tea Cake/Mexican Wedding Cake
41. Anzac Biscuits
42. Pizzelle
43. Kolache
44. Buckeyes
45. Malasadas
46. Moon Pie
47. Dutch Baby
48. Boston Cream Pie
49. Homemade chocolate chip cookies
50. Pralines
51. Gooey butter cake
52. Rusks
53. Daifuku
54. Green tea cake or cookies
55. Cupcakes from a cupcake shop
56. Creme Brulee
57. Some sort of deep fried fair food (twinkie, candy bar, cupcake)
58. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting
59. Jelly Roll
60. Pop Tarts
61. Charlotte Russe
62. An “upside down” dessert (Pineapple upside down cake or Tarte Tatin)
63. Hummingbird Cake
64. Jell-O from a mold
65. Black forest cake
66. Mock Apple Pie (Ritz Cracker Pie)
67. Kulfi
68. Linzer torte
69. Churro
70. Stollen
71. Angel Food Cake
72. Mincemeat pie
73. Concha
74. Opera Cake
75. Sfogliatelle / Lobster tail
76. Pain au chocolat
77. A piece of Gingerbread House
78. Cassata
79. Cannoli
80. Rainbow cookies
81. Religieuse
82. Petits fours
83. Chocolate Souffle
84. Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake)
85. Rugelach
86. Hamenstashen
87. Homemade marshmallows
88. Rigo Janci
89. Pie or cake made with candy bar flavors (Snickers pie, Reeses pie, etc)
90. Divinity
91. Coke or Cola cake
92. Gateau Basque
93. S’mores
94. Figgy Pudding
95. Bananas foster or other flaming dessert
96. Joe Froggers
97. Sables
98. Millionaire’s Shortbread
99. Animal crackers
100. Basbousa

I've only had 24 of these. I must work on this!

A Nerve Wracking Addition to Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T16:40:00.008-06:00

Have you ever tried to make something that you've never tried or even seen before? I hate cook books that don't have pictures because I like to see what items look like so I know if mine look right. Anyone else? Now, have you ever made something that you've never tried or seen before, but that a large portion of your perspective diners not only remember but remember as a major part of their childhood? Yeah, pretty nerve wracking.

This was what I faced preparing for Thanksgiving. For some idiotic reason, that I have since forgotten, I volunteered to make the cranberry sauce for our Thanksgiving celebration using my great grandmother's recipe. My mom, aunt, and grandmother all very clearly remember this recipe, they remember not only eating it but also helping to prepare it. Needless to say I was a little stressed out. And when Doug turned to me half way through the making of the sauce, when our poor tiny Cuisinart food processor was whining in complaint and the counters were covered in fruit, and asked "does this look right?" it dawned on me that I should stop volunteering to make things........ ok, not really. But it did dawn on me that I really did not want to mess this up. Luckily it was deemed acceptable, if not quite sweet enough, and people actually did eat it, although we have a decent amount left.

This actually wasn't too hard to make, and it would be a lot easier with a larger food processor, and is really good. Although it didn't end up being the only cranberry sauce on the table, you can't take away the canned stuff without warning, I think it was a hit. And I will definitely be trying some more of my great grandmother's recipes, hopefully in slightly less stressful situations.

Grandma's Cranberry Sauce

I don't know the original source on this, it's a very old family recipe

2 Apples
2 Oranges
1 Bag of Cranberries
Sugar to taste
Grind fruit (can use a food processor); mix in bowl and add sugar to taste.

Variations: To make Jell-o salad add above ingredients to one prepared box of cranberry Jell-o and allow to chill for at least 1 hour. I didn't do this but my mom says it is good.

Bringing the Cranberries to Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T16:28:00.005-06:00

When my family has Thanksgiving you can be sure that there will be at least one pumpkin treat, if not more, and in recent years I've made sure that pecans are represented as well. So this year, when others beat me to the pumpkin and pecan items, I was at a loss for what to make. I kept finding great looking recipes, but they all featured one of the two items that were already going to be accounted for when our families gathered for our first joint family Thanksgiving at my parents' house. Then I had a flash of genius: cranberries! I was already going to be buying some for the cranberry sauce, so why not just grab an extra bag. Then I quickly remembered this awesome cranberry walnut bread recipe that I saw on Katie's blog and my dessert was born.

I think this bread was a nice alternative to the pies that were brought along to the party (and my goodness were there a lot of pies!). It was a bit of a lighter bite, with a nice fresh taste, courtesy of the orange zest and juice and cranberries. The walnuts were also a nice addition, even though I am not crazy about them. This would be a great item to bring in to a work party or a Christmas event as a nice alternative to the traditional dessert items of the season. And it's also a great item because it can be made a day or two ahead of when you need it and will be perfect, I made this Wednesday evening and it was perfect.

Cranberry Walnut Bread

From: Good Things Catered

Ingredients:

2 c. all purpose flour

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp grated orange zest

2/3 c. juice from an orange

2 eggs, lightly beaten

3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1/2 c. shelled walnuts, coarsely chopped

1 1/4 c. fresh cranberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a standard loaf pan.

In a small mixing bowl, combine orange juice, eggs, butter, and stir to combine thoroughly; set aside.

In large mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Add orange zest and stir to combine.

Add wet ingredients to well in dry ingredients and mix until just combined (don't over mix).

Fold in walnuts and cranberries and transfer mixture to prepared loaf pan.

Place into oven and bake until knife inserted into center comes out clean, about 50-55 minutes.

Remove bread from oven and cool in pan for 15 minutes.

Remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

Wrap and put away for 1 to 2 days before serving.

Happy Birthday Blog!!

2008-11-25T07:10:00.002-06:00

So today is my one year blog anniversary! I can't believe I've been doing this for a whole year. I felt rather silly at first but now I'm so proud of this blog and really love working on it. I've really been trying to make interesting things lately so that I have stuff to blog about, which has really helped the variety in my kitchen.

I've made some great friends because of this blog, through things like the recipe exchange, blog events, and TWD. I'm really loving sharing great recipes and ideas with people and am very excited to continue. This is also my 50th blog post and I'm really looking forward to the next 50!

On that note, let me know what you think. Any ideas for blog events I should join? Anything you'd like to see? What types of recipes do you like?

And finally, thank you so much for reading this. I'm seriously amazed any time someone says they've read my mind, and even more so if they've made something from it and liked it. So thank you! I do this for you and you are such a great source of encouragement. So here's to many more tasty and interesting blog posts. Cheers!

TWD: Twofer Pie

2008-11-25T07:00:00.004-06:00

So after taking last week off from TWD because it was my birthday and we had an abundance of cake I was really excited to try this pie. Basically it is a pumpkin pie with a pecan pie on top, which makes me a very happy girl. I didn't start liking pecan pie until 2 years ago when I made one for Doug and his family and discovered that I actually like it. This pie doesn't disappoint, it has a nice, creamy pumpkin layer with a crunchy, sweet pecan layer on top, so it's the best of both pie worlds. Doug has already asked me to make it again, which is a great sign.

I had to bake this longer than what the recipe called for, almost 20 more minutes actually, before the center was done. Other than that this is an incredibly easy recipe. Doug and I decided that we prefer this cold, which is how we like regular pumpkin pie. This would be great with whipped cream or even vanilla ice cream.

This recipe was picked by Vibi of La Casserole carree. Check out her blog.

Thanksgiving Twofer Pie from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 321.

The Maple-flavored Breakfast

2008-11-16T15:42:00.007-06:00

This blog is seriously lacking in breakfast items (other than muffins), I'm the first to admit this. The reason? We usually don't eat breakfast 1. at home, 2. together, or 3. sometimes at all. Monday through Friday I eat breakfast in the car on my way to work or incredibly quickly once I get to work and Saturday and Sunday usually find me eating oatmeal, another muffin, something that isn't really a breakfast food, or nothing at all. Most days of the week Doug doesn't eat breakfast, or if he does it is a poptart, something I've baked, or something that isn't really a breakfast food ( a dietitian would have a field day with us). Sometimes, if I'm feeling particularly energetic, I'll make a quick breakfast on a weekend if Doug doesn't have to go in too early, but that is pretty rare anymore. So when Doug told me that he had taken the first weekend in November off I knew I had to do something special. So when this recipe showed up in my email a few days later I knew it was meant to be.

I had never actually made a breakfast casserole before. I had tried many of them at other places, but had just never been brave enough to try one myself. This was incredibly easy, it is definitely a great starter recipe for those entering the world of breakfast casseroles. I followed this recipe exactly, using maple flavored sausage to bump up the flavor. I was a little worried actually about maple flavor (especially the syrup) with eggs (I really hate those McGriddle things at McDonald's- ick!) but this is actually really great. It took a little longer to cook than I thought it would but it ended up turning out perfectly. We had some leftover and Doug said it warmed up really well. Enjoy!

Maple Sausage Breakfast Casserole

From Serious Eats

Adapted from The Cook's Country Cookbook

- makes 6 servings -

Ingredients
6-8 frozen waffles (1/2-inch thick, not Belgian-style)

12 ounces maple breakfast sausage, crumbled

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

6 large eggs

1 1/4 cups whole or low-fat milk

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Procedure
1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375ºF. Arrange the waffles in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake until crisp, about 10 minutes per side.
2. Brown the sausage in a nonstick skillet over medium heat, breaking it apart with a spoon, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate.
3. Butter an 8-inch square baking dish. Add half of the waffles in a single layer. Add half of the sausage and 1/2 cup of the cheese. Repeat layering the waffles, sausage, and 1/2 cup more cheese. Whisk the eggs, milk, maple syrup, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl until combined. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the casserole. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and place weights on top. Refrigerate the casserole for at least 1 hour or overnight.
4. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 325ºF. Let the casserole stand at room temperature for 20 minutes. Uncover the casserole and sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup the cheese over the top. Bake until the edges and center are puffed, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes. Cut into pieces and serve.

Another Birthday Cake

2008-11-16T15:30:00.007-06:00

So I am slowly starting to get into making birthday cakes, very, very slowly. I'm not very good yet, so I've only made them for family members so far (because they have to say they like the cake no matter how bad it is, right?). This cake was actually really easy to make. I used a recipe for vanilla cupcakes from Annie's Eats, doubled it, and then used frosting from a can (hey, it was for young kids and they like what they like, right?). This cake is really light and has a good flavor to it, so I will definitely be making it again. The decorations are just gel icing, green sanding sugar, and conversation hearts turned over (don't worry, they were still fresh). The birthday girls love the cake, which made me very happy. I've also made cupcakes with this recipe and they were really good too, so give it try sometime soon.

Vanilla Cupcakes

From Annie's Eats

I doubled this recipe and baked it in a 9 x 13 cake pan at the same temperature for about 25 minutes.

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
zest of 1 lemon (optional) I omitted this
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
¼ cup milk

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners. Set pan aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides and beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest, if using.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in pan 5 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Kugelhopf

2008-11-11T07:00:00.001-06:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was a bit of a challenge for me. First of all, the recipe, which was picked by Yolanda of The All-purpose Girl, is for a yeast cake called Kugelhopf. This recipe scared me because of the fact that I have never made anything by myself with yeast. Nothing, ever. So I was very nervous that I would somehow mess this up and end up looking silly on my second week in the group. But amazingly everything with the dough went just fine. My dough rose like it was supposed to each time, much to my amazement. So when the last rise in the fridge was done I had a perfectly risen dough.

Then came the real trouble. This cake can be made in a special Kugelhopf pan or in a regular bundt pan, I planned to use a bundt pan. I have never made anything in a bundt pan, so I planned to use the one from a Kitchen Aid set I had gotten a while ago at Linens 'n Things for the first time. Well, lets just say I learned an important lesson: always check your pans before you start baking. It turns out I had a mini bundt pan, not the full size one I thought I had. Luckily I had read on the Tuesdays with Dorie site that you could make these in a muffin pan, so that's what I did. So we had Kugelhopf rolls, instead of a cake.

This recipe was actually a lot simpler than I thought it would be. It has a nice texture and a good taste to it. I think if I make it again I will use something other than raisins in it, I'm not a big fan of raisins in my baked goods. Overall though this was an easy recipe and, I think, a nice introduction to yeast.

Kugelhopf from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. Pages 61 to 63.

Caving to Peer Pressure

2008-11-04T07:00:00.000-06:00

I never really had to deal with peer pressure in high school. I think I was just so far into the world of band geeks and drama freaks that I just never noticed it. Sadly, the same is not true for me as an adult apparently. First I let myself get "talked into" (also known as commanded) reading young adult book about a girl who falls in love with a vampire. And now I have let myself be talked into joining a blog group where everyone bakes a recipe a week from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home To Yours and blogs about it on Tuesdays. The vampire book thing ended up being great (thanks for the pressure on that one!) and I think this baking thing may be ok too (thanks Jessica and Maci!).

So for those of you who don't know about this blogging group let me explain. The group is called Tuesdays with Dorie and is composed of a huge variety of food bloggers from all over who have Dorie's book. Each week a member selects one recipe and everyone bakes it and then blogs about it. They ask that you do not post the recipe to your blog to encourage more people to go buy the book and support the publishing world (and as a major book fanatic (both cookbook and other) you know I love that! I had been toying with the idea of joining this group for a while now, but was always really intimidated by the awesome things everyone was making. However, recently the group set a cut off date to join, you had to sign up by 10/31 if you wanted to be a member. So the peer pressure had been strong the last few weeks (ahem, Jessica) and I finally caved in, er I mean decided to join.

So, this is my first Tuesdays with Dorie recipe and I was both excited and nervous about it. The recipe was chosen by Piggy of Piggy's Cookin Journal (check it out!) and is for Rugelach. I have had this treat before but had never made it, so I was excited to try it. I was also slightly frightened because this is another recipe that calls for making and rolling out a dough. I survived the rolling process and they turned out pretty good. They didn't really hold their shape very well though, but they are still good. I think I am going to try to make another batch and play around with the shape until I get it to work (and goodness knows I could use the rolling practice).

So check out the other bloggers who are doing Tuesdays with Dorie and check back here on Tuesdays for the newest TWD recipe.

Recipe: Rugelach from pages 150 and 151 in Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

A Small Break From Cooking

2008-11-03T09:17:00.003-06:00

So my kitchen got a nice gift Saturday night: it got deep cleaned. I will admit that I am not the best cleaner. I tend to clean in waves, sometimes I'm in the mood to really clean and will do everything but other times I barely have the desire to wipe the counter. However, I have realized lately that I am a lot happier when the house, especially the kitchen, is clean. So when Katie at The Hyper Homemaker (also the same Katie as Good Things Catered) started a fall cleaning challenge I got the motivation I needed. So Saturday night at about 10:30, after reading Katie's blog posts, I started cleaning our kitchen.

I cleaned out, wiped out, and organized the fridge, freezer, and cabinets. I wiped the doors of all the drawers and cabinets (even the fake ones), reorganized our tiny counter tops, and organized all of dish washing tools. I had already done the pantry earlier that day when we got back from Sam's so that was good. I also scrubbed the stove top and the microwave until the were practically shiny. I was really please with what all I got accomplished, though there are still a few things I need to do in there. But I still have plenty of time for that. So thanks for the inspiration Katie and check out her blog for her daily fall cleaning posts.

Impossibly Yummy

2008-11-02T15:19:00.008-06:00

I'll admit it: I use Bisquick. I use it for pancakes, cheesy garlic biscuits, and this cheeseburger pie. Go ahead and judge if you must, I don't mind. I like Bisquick. It is a great way to make things quickly, easily, and on a budget. We buy the big box from Sam's and it lasts us quite a while. I first made this recipe when I still lived with my parents and was amazed at how easy it was. This is one of the recipes off the back of the box and, according to the Betty Crocker site, is one of the most requested recipes for the company.

This is a great item to make on a night when you want something quick and easy but still warm and filling. When I made this I actually cooked my hamburger the night before so that I could quickly mix this up and throw it in the oven when I got home. I also doubled the recipe to make two pies so that we could get a couple of lunches out of it, it really reheats very well. So, if you can handle using Bisquick (and I'm sure you can) you should give this a try, it really is great.

Impossibly Easy Cheeseburger Pie

From: Bettycrocker.com (also on the Bisquick box)

1 Pound Lean (at least 80%) Ground Beef
1 Large Onion, chopped (1 cup)
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese (4 oz)
1/2 Cup Original Bisquick® Mix
1 Cup Milk
2 Eggs

Heat oven to 400°F. Spray 9-inch glass pie plate with cooking spray.
In 10-inch skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is brown; drain. Stir in salt. Spread in pie plate. Sprinkle with cheese.
In small bowl, stir remaining ingredients with fork or wire whisk until blended. Pour into pie plate.
Bake about 25 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Like a Bat Out of Hell

2008-11-02T14:43:00.006-06:00

I think Meatloaf gets a bad rap. No, not the singer. I mean the food, that brown loaf so commonly made fun of as being a staple of horrible lunchrooms and fifties kitchens. I love meatloaf. I think that stems from the fact that we didn't have it all the time when I was growing up. My mom made meatloaf for special meals only, such as birthdays, anniversaries, good grades, etc. And yes, I do remember requesting meatloaf one or two times for my birthday meal growing up (hey, I never said I was a normal kid).

My mom's meatloaf is incredibly simple: meat, bread crumbs, eggs. Worcester sauce, and ketchup are the basic ingredients (no onions in my parent's household, much to Doug's dismay, but sometimes a little onion powder). So I based my recipe off of this, with just a few tweaks for our taste (no onions this time but I am sure I will have to give in eventually). I really recommend taking this recipe and changing it to please your tastes. Maybe you like onions in your meatloaf, maybe you hate Worcester sauce. Do whatever you want to make this taste good to you. We owe it to meatloaf to give it a chance to shed it's horrible reputation.

Meatloaf

By me (Adapted from my mom, Connie)

2 Pounds Ground Beef

2 Eggs

1 Cup Bread Crumbs

1 Teaspoon Garlic (I have a jar of minced garlic (yes, gasp!) but you could add however many cloves make you happy)

1 Teaspoon Season Salt

3 Shakes of Worcester Sauce

2 Shakes of Soy Sauce

1 Tablespoon Steak Sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray pan with non stick spray (I use a roasting pan with the tray in it).

Mix all ingredients together. Form into a log or loaf shape and put into pan.

Shake a little more Worcester sauce and steak sauce on top if desired.

Bake at 350 for about 1 hour or until completely cooked.

This can be eaten with ketchup or steak sauce if desired. I think this is even better the next day for lunch.

The Great Exchange

2008-10-27T20:13:00.004-05:00

The cooking board I frequent does a recipe exchange every few months, I did one last year around Christmas but hadn't done one since. So when the last one's roundup was posted I decided to do it. And I'm glad I did! The recipe I got is for a great veggie chicken rice casserole. It was really easy to put together and tasted great, especially today when I had some of the leftovers for lunch. This was the perfect thing for a cool, windy night like we had last night. And it is great because it makes a lot, which means a lot of leftovers, which I love. This is a simple recipe that doesn't call for any outrageous ingredients, which is a great thing. Try this one out on a cool fall evening, you won't be disappointed.

Veggie Chicken Rice Casserole

Source: allrecipes.com

2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup

1 whole cooked chicken, cut into pieces (the person who sent this to me likes to buy the rotisserie chickens from Sam's or Walmart; I used a couple chicken breasts that I had previously baked, shredded and frozen)

1 pkg. frozen mixed veggies, thawed and steamed

2 c cooked rice

2/3 c water

1/2 c crushed Ritz crackers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the soup, chicken, cooked veggies, cooked rice and water. Mix well and spread mixture in a 9x13" baking dish. Sprinkle crushed cracker crumbs on top and bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes, then serve.

Beer + Cheese = Heaven

2008-10-27T19:57:00.010-05:00

Sometimes the things that I like to eat surprise me. Like beer bread. I don't really care for beer, don't like the flavor. But I love beer bread. Maybe it is the fact that it's a bread and I love bread so much that I forget what is in it. At any rate, I was very excited when I saw this cheesy beer bread come up on Katie's Good Things Catered blog. I love cheese and bread and Doug loves cheese, bread, and beer so this was sure to be a hit in our house.

I didn't have any whole wheat flour so I just used all AP flour (but I do plan to buy some WW flour soon and will definitely be trying this again). For the beer I used Miller High Life and we ended up really liking the way this tasted. The bread is really easy to put together and stays fresh for a few days in a Tupperware container. We had this Saturday night with steaks and potatoes and carrots and then again last night with chicken casserole. I just finished the last piece a little while ago and it was just as good as the first. I will be making this again for sure and totally recommend that you give it a shot next time you want some beer bread.

Easy Cheesy Beer Bread

From: Good Things Catered

Ingredients:

2 c. all purpose flour

1 c. whole wheat flour (I used all AP)

1/3 c. packed brown sugar

4 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt1 tsp garlic powder

1 c. shredded sharp cheddar

12 oz. bottle of lager or stout (I used Miller High Life)

2 Tbsp butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare loaf pan for baking.

In large bowl, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and garlic powder.

Whisk to combine well.-Add cheese and whisk to combine.

Slowly add beer to dry ingredients and stir lightly until combined.

Knead dough lightly until it just comes together.

Place into prepared loaf pan and pour melted butter over top.

Place in oven to bake for 55-60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean.

Peanut Butter Goodness

2008-10-25T16:48:00.006-05:00

I love muffins. They are a great option for a breakfast on the go, which is really important since that is how I eat my breakfast five days a week. Because of this I am always watching for a great new muffin recipe. So when Annie posted these on Annie's Eats I was really excited. I actually rushed home and made these the same day she posted them, it has just taken me a really long time to blog them.

We liked these muffins and thought they were really good. I thought they were really big and filling, which is great. I think the next time I make these (which will be soon) I am going to add just a little more peanut butter, we both love peanut butter and thought these would be good with a little stonger flavor. But I highly recommend these, they are really great.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

From Annie's Eats

Ingredients:
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
2/3 cup brown sugar
6 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled
½ cup peanut butter
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
¾ cup chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°. Line a muffin pan with 12 paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, peanut butter, eggs and milk until smooth. Add in the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Divide batter evenly between prepared muffin tins, filling each to the top.

Bake for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

I'm a Copycat: Chicken Quesadillas like the ones at Applebees

2008-10-19T18:30:00.010-05:00

When my friend Sarah and I go shopping you can almost guarantee that we will eat lunch at Applebees. We do not have one in the towns we both live in, so the only time we can eat there is when we go 45 minutes north to shop. So last weekend we took a road trip with her daughter to buy her Halloween costume and stuff for her totally awesome Disney Princess-themed 4th birthday party. So, of course, we had to go to Applebees since we had not been there is forever. We both have our usual meal choices, so usually menus aren't needed, however this time Sarah asked if I wanted an appetizer because she was starving (chasing a 3 year-old will do that to you). So of course, not wanting the driver to starve to death, I said yes and we began the agonizing process of trying to pick something.

We ended up getting the Chicken Quesadillas, and oh my are they good. They come out on this huge platter with giant dollops of salsa, sour cream, and shredded lettuce in the center of the plate. Surrounding that are these cute, triangular shaped tortillas stuffed with chicken, pico de gallo, cheese, and bacon. They were so good that I was wishing I hadn't ordered anything else so that I could just eat these. So after shopping till we dropped that day I ran home to look for a copycat recipe on the Internet and found this one that is perfect on Recipe Czaar. It tastes almost exactly like what Applebees serves and is really great dipped in salsa and sour cream (I can loose the lettuce, it seemed out of place to me). These are a great, quick meal (especially if you precook the chicken like I did).

Let me stop here to say that these are not exactly healthy. These have a fairly high calorie count on Recipe Czaar and it is really easy to eat a lot of these. However, I think that the occasional splurge is alright, but I definitely will not be making these every night. It is possible to make them a little better though, you could use turkey bacon, whole wheat tortillas, and low fat cheese and sour cream. But as a rare meal, these are an excellent treat.

This recipe makes one quesadilla, so multiply everything by the number you want to make. I made 5 total and had some leftover.

Chicken Quesadillas Recipe (Similar to those at Applebees)
From: Recipe Czaar

1 quesadilla
2 slices lean bacon (sliced into 1/2" pieces)
2 flour tortillas (8" diameter)
softened butter (softened for lightly spreading on tortilla shells)
1 tablespoon pico de gallo
1/4 cup shredded colby-monterery jack cheese
salsa and sour cream for dipping
2 cooked chicken breasts, cut into strips I shredded mine
Slice bacon and fry until bacon starts to turn crisp but not hard and brittle.
Remove from pan, drain bacon and set aside.
Spread butter lightly on one side of the flour tortilla shell.
Place buttered side of shell down, into a non-stick fry pan that has been preheated on medium heat.
Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of bacon over entire shell, then add 1 tablespoon Pico de gallo, and 1/4 cup shredded Colby/Monterey Jack cheese over the bacon.
Add pieces of the cooked chicken.
Place the second flour shell on top of fixings, buttered side up.
Cook for about one- two minutes just long enough to heat the inside ingredients and then carefully flip the quesadilla on the other side and finish cooking.
The quesadilla should be heated through but not browned.
Remove quesadilla and place on a serving dish and cut into individual triangle serving pieces.
Serve quesadillas with your favorite guacamole sour cream, and picante sauce.

Apples Go Crunchy

2008-10-19T16:08:00.006-05:00

Yes, another apple post. I promise though, this will be the last one (at least for a while). This is another recipe from Good Things Catered and another really quick, easy, and tasty item. When I made the apple cobbler Doug and I had a discussion on the difference between crumbles, cobblers, and crisps which lead to Doug requesting something crisp like. So at once I set upon the oh so arduous task of digging through all of the awesome blogs I read (you know how much I hate this task) until I found something that looked good. And let me tell you, this recipe looked good. It also looked quick and easy, two things I love to hear on a work night (I always still want to call them school nights, lol).

So I set about the kitchen whipping this up. I love that this recipe doesn't call for any random ingredients, it merely uses the basics that I always keep in the house. I also love it because it uses oats and I love pretty much anything with oats. I definitely recommend this treat for any night when your sweet tooth is hollering for something starring apple, you won't be disappointed.

Apple Crunch

From: Good Things Catered

Ingredients:

4 large apples

1/2 c. oats

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/4 c. whole wheat flour

4 Tbsp butter, cold

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray an 8x8 baking dish with baking spray

Peel, core, and dice apples into 1/2-inch pieces-Spread apples evenly in baking dish.

In medium bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg

Cut butter into small pieces and add to dry ingredients along with the vanilla.

With pastry blender, cut butter into dry ingredients until all butter is about the size of a small pea.

Sprinkle this mixture evenly over apples.

Place baking dish in oven and bake for 55-60 minutes or until apples have cooked down and begun to caramelize.

Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

The Next Spice Girl: Apple Spice

2008-10-19T15:52:00.006-05:00

Continuing in this string of apple recipes (I told you we had a lot of apples, today I present apple spice cookie bars. These are incredibly good. As in, I could eat way too many of these at a time good. I found the recipe on Katie's Good Things Catered blog, which is where I've found a lot of the recipes currently living in my to-make pile. I've actually made these twice now and we've loved them both times. The fact that I've made them more than once should mean that I should have a better picture than this one, but I never have the mind to take a great picture when they are first done but I'm usually too busy thinking "smells good, looks good, want to eat." I hope to make them again so maybe the third time is a charm for picture taking.

These are incredible good and really simple to make. I've whipped them up in the evening after I've gotten home from work both times. They are also a great way to make your house smell good. Who needs candles when you can make apple spice cookie bars?

Apple Spice Cookie Bars

From: Good Things Catered

Ingredients:

2 c. plus 2 Tbsp all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp allspice

small pinch ground cloves

1/2 c. butter, melted

1 c. packed brown sugar

1 c. white sugar

2 eggs

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

2 apples, cored and diced (a little less than 2 c.)

cinnamon sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 9x13 pan with foil and baking spray.

In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. Whisk to combine well and set aside.-In bowl of stand mixer, combine sugars and butter and beat on medium high until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well to combine.

Add vanilla extract and beat to combine.

Turn mixer on slow and fold in flour mixture a little at a time until just combined.

Fold in apples.-Spread mixture evenly into prepared pan and sprinkle top generously with cinnamon sugar.

Place in oven and bake until cooked through, when top slightly bounces back to the touch, about 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool completely before removing from pan, cutting and serving. (bars will be very soft)

Apple Pie Goes Mini

2008-10-18T20:55:00.006-05:00

So in the quest to finish off all of the million and one apples that have taken up residence in our kitchen, I have decided to spread my wings and test my boundaries. Thus, when Annie and Chelley posted recipes in their blogs for mini hand pies I was intrigued, especially by Chelley's apple pies. I was also slightly frightened, as I have never made a pie dough in my life. I'm not sure why that is, but I've never had the desire to try to best Pillsbury. But I recently decided to try to test myself in the kitchen and this seemed like a great way to do it. So last night while Doug was at work I set about the task of preparing the dough (with Chelley having told me it would be ok over night). I was actually really surprised at how easy this was. It takes a while, but most of that is just chill time for the dough and I never once felt frazzled. I was so excited when it was all ready and it "looked like a dough!" as I told anyone who would listen.

Today I attempted rolling out the dough, which is something I do not have a lot of experience with. And let me tell you, I definitely need some practice! I had a heck of a time rolling my dough out to the same thickness each time, but I finally got it to work. I broke open my 101 cookie cutter box for the first time to use the circular cutter to make the pies, which worked perfectly. I actually had fun filling these with the apple sugar mixture and sealing them up. I felt like Alton Brown making the decorative edges, using the egg wash and adding sanding sugar to the top.

These are absolutely awesome and I totally recommend making these. They take a while but they are totally worth it.

Chelley did a great job of describing the process of making these, so check out her blog.

Apple Hand Pies

I got it from Brown Eyed Baker

She adapted from Smitten Kitchen

For the pastry:

2½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

½ cup sour cream4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

½ cup ice water
For the Filling:

2 apples, peeled, cored and diced small

1/3 cup sugar
One egg yolk beaten with 2 tablespoons water (for egg wash)

Coarse sanding sugar, for decoration

1. To make the pastry, in a bowl, combine the flour and salt. Place the butter in another bowl. Place both bowls in the freezer for 1 hour. Remove the bowls from the freezer and make a well in the center of the flour. Add the butter to the well and, using a pastry blender, cut it in until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Make another well in the center. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, lemon juice and water and add half of this mixture to the well. With your fingertips, mix in the liquid until large lumps form. Remove the large lumps and repeat with the remaining liquid and flour-butter mixture. Pat the lumps into a ball; do not overwork the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. If preparing ahead of time, the dough can be stored at this point for up to one month in the freezer.
2. Divide the refrigerated dough in half. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out one half of the dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a 4 1/2-inch-round biscuit cutter, cut seven circles out of the rolled dough. Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet, and place in the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes. Repeat the rolling, cutting, and chilling process with the remaining half of dough. (I used a 4-inch cutter-if you can call a “cutter” the tin edge of the container that holds my smaller round cutters-and managed to get 12 from each dough half, after rerolling the scraps.)
3. Mix the diced apple with the sugar, and cook over low heat for 8-10 minutes, until the apples are tender. Set aside. Prior to preparing the pies, drain any accumulated liquid from the apples.
4. Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator, and let stand at room temperature until just pliable, 2 to 3 minutes. Spoon about 1 to 2 tablespoons filling (use the smaller amount for a 4-inch circle) onto one half of each circle of dough. Quickly brush a little cold water around the circumference of the dough, and fold it in half so the other side comes down over the filling, creating a semicircle. Seal the hand pie, and make a decorative edge by pressing the edges of the dough together with the back of a fork. Repeat process with remaining dough. Place the hand pies back on the parchment-lined baking sheet, and return to the refrigerator to chill for another 30 minutes.
5. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove the chilled hand pies from the refrigerator, cut a small slit in each and lightly brush with the egg yolk wash. Sprinkle sanding sugar generously over the pies, and place pies in the oven to bake. Bake until the hand pies are golden brown and just slightly cracked, anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes, depending on how thick you rolled the dough. Remove the pies from the oven, and let stand to cool slightly before serving.

My Very First From Scratch Apple Cobbler

2008-10-04T18:37:00.009-05:00

That lovely creation up there is my very first from scratch apple cobbler. Now, I have made a few cobbler before that were very good, but they were all with the help of a mix. We live near an Amish community and have vacationed near some, so my mom and I have found many great Amish cobbler mixes over the years. However, I have been on a mission to make as many things from scratch as I can, I figure if I have the ability then why not? (Plus it has been a while since I've made it to an of the Amish stores.) So today I went hunting for a great looking apple cobbler recipe to use up some of the great apples my parents brought us from the local orchard. I also had a jar of this incredible apple cinnamon spread from a local baker that I wanted to use, and at my last job a girl who is related to the local baker brought in a cobbler made with this spread, so I knew I wanted to try that.

I looked at all the usual sites to try to find a recipe, but nothing jumped out at me. Then I remembered that back when we were in the middle of the peach frenzy I had printed out a peach cobbler recipe. So I found that recipe and started to tweak it to satisfy my apple needs. I've never really messed with a baking recipe before. No matter how often I play around in the kitchen while cooking I've always been afraid to do so while baking. In my mind there is just too big of a chance of me messing everything up, and that would make me very sad. But today I decided to be brave and make an attempt. I basically took the peach cobbler recipe and took all of the seasonings out of the recipe and replaced them with the apple cinnamon spread. Then I added some cinnamon to the topping batter before I put it on the apples. I also left off the cinnamon sugar topping that the original recipe called for. I thought it might be a bit too much, and I was going for a strong cinnamon flavor so I just added it to the topping. I was really nervous to try this but it came out great! The apples have a great cinnamon taste, not too sweet with a nice spice to them. I think I will make more of the topping next time, it did not completely cover the entire apple mixture, so I have a few gaps. But despite that fact I'm really please with my first attempt at making changes to a recipe, and I don't think I will be as worried next time.

I'm entering this into Joelen's Cobblers & Such blog event over at Joelen's Culinary Adventures. This will actually be my second time doing one of her events. Check out her blog to see all the great events she does.

Apple Cinnamon Cobbler Adapted from Kelly Cooks and Other Amazing Feats

6-8 medium sized apples of your choice - peeled, cored and sliced into thin wedges

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

3 tablespoons apple cinnamon spread

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp cinnamon

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

1/4 cup boiling water

Directions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.- In a large bowl, combine apples, cup white sugar, cup brown sugar, spread, and cornstarch.
- Toss to coat evenly, and pour into a 9 x 13 pan
- Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
- Blend in butter with your fingertips, or a pastry blender, until mixture resembles coarse meal. - Stir in water until just combined.- Remove apples from oven, and drop spoonfuls of topping over them.
- Bake until topping is golden, about 30 minutes. (Mine was only about 20 minutes)

Rated E for Excellent: aka: Someone actually reads this!

2008-09-27T16:42:00.004-05:00

I was really excited and surprised to get a comment from my fellow Illini fan Erin over at Milk & Honey telling me that she had nominated my blog for the E for Excellent Award! This is my first blog award and I am totally excited. Sometimes I start to wonder if anyone actually reads this blog (with the exception of those who I force at steak knife point... don't worry, I'm kidding). So now on to some of my favorite blogs:

First is Elly at Elly Says Opa! Elly's blog always makes me really, really hungry.

Next is Amber at Amber's Delectable Delights. This is another one that I know will always make me hungry.

Then there is Julie's blog Jewels in the Kitchen. I love, love this blog and Julie, she is one of the sweetest girls over on the cooking board I visit.

Then there is Annie at Annie's Eats. Annie's blog is where I turn when I need something to wow someone.

Next is Maci over at My Yummy Goodness. Maci is a Southern sweetheart and a fellow DMB fan, so you've gotta love her :)

Finally, I will give you Katie at Good Things Catered. This blog is responsible for my to-be-made pile doubling within the last couple of weeks, everything she makes just looks so good!

Now it is your turn:
Please find at least 10 more blogs, of any kind that you love to read. Write a post about the blogs you picked, linking back to me and to them. Once you’ve posted, return here to let me know your post done and be sure to let them know too!!! (If you don’t come up with 10, that’s fine too!)

Cornbread Heaven in Salad Form: An Eat to the Beat Entry

2008-09-27T14:48:00.011-05:00

Doug and I both share a love music, we actually met in band in high school (yeah that's right, we were band geeks). Over the years we've both played a number of different instruments (some well and some not so well; he always better than I). We love to share new songs that we've heard with each other, he loves to expose me to great old bands he enjoys, and I occasionally will force some so-so pop artist upon him. But there is one band that has a very special place in both of our minds: The Dave Matthews Band. The first time I ever rode in a car with Doug he had DMB playing and the song Crash Into Me came on. I had always loved that song and the music video (way back in the day when MTV still played videos) and we started talking about the band (he knew way more about them than I did) and how awesome they were (and shortly after the song ended we shared our first kiss). Needless to say, that became our song. The next year we went and saw DMB perform, our first concert as a couple and had a total blast. Last year when we got married we hunted for the longest time for the perfect song (our reception was at our church, so Crash Into Me was not appropriate: that whole "lift up your skirt and show your world to me" part kind of nixed it); going through lists online and through every cd we both owned before we finally went "hey what about" and then proclaimed Steady as We Go to be the winner. This past summer we went to another DMB concert (our first as a married couple) and had an incredible time. DMB concerts are a blast: they last for a very long time but you never notice it because you are having so much fun.

After the concert I went into a major DMB phase, listening to every one of their cds we owned. During this I realized that one song that I really liked wasn't played at our concert (but I later found out it was played at the first night's show). That song? Cornbread. I won't totally go into details about what this song is about (this is a family blog after all) but let's just say the Dave isn't inviting you over for a nice Sunday lunch featuring fresh baked cornbread! You can check out the lyrics here, if you want to form your own opinion on what the song is about. But it is an incredibly fun song that gets stuck in your head for days and I love it.

Now, I told you all that to lead up to this dish. Last summer Doug's cousin got married in Mobile, Alabama. It was a great wedding with an awesome reception that featured a bunch of tasty salads (among other things). And one of those salads was a Cornbread Salad that we all loved. Doug's aunt thought this was extremely funny because she said every Northerner loves that salad. Then she promptly stated that the caterer refused to give out the recipe. No problem. A few months later I received a cute community cookbook from Doug's grandmother as a gift at my bridal shower and what recipe was in the salad section? That's right, Cornbread Salad. And what's the main ingredient in Cornbread Salad? Cornbread, of course!

So, using DMB's Cornbread as my inspiration and backing track, I offer up this tasty side dish. It is relatively easy to make and very tasty to eat. And I declare it "A little bit of heaven, and a little bit of aw yeah." Try it out yourself, and check out DMB performing the song here.

I'm entering this into Eat To The Beat over at Elly Says Opa. This is a blog event that Elly created where you enter a food item that is in some way connected to a song or band, whether it is named after them or just somehow inspired. So go check out Elly's blog (and prepare to be hungry!)

Cornbread Salad

By Teresa Stanley

From Treasured Recipes By the Monticello United Methodist Church

1 (8.5 oz) package cornbread mix You could make from scratch if you wanted

1 Envelope ranch-style dressing mix I used Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

1 Cup sour cream

1 Cup mayonnaise (or Miracle Whip)

1/2 Cup green pepper, chopped

1/2 Cup sweet red pepper, chopped I didn't add this item this time

1/2 Cup onion, chopped

1 (16 oz) Can pinto beans, drained

2 Cups fresh or frozen corn

2 Cups cheddar cheese, shredded I left this out

10 Slices cooked bacon, crumbled (optional) I added this

Bake cornbread mix according to package directions and crumble. Combine ranch-style dressing mix, sour cream and mayonnaise in a small bowl. In another bowl, mix together peppers, onions, tomatoes, pinto beans, and corn. In a 3-quart salad bowl, layer half of the cornbread, half of the vegetables, half of the cheese, half of the bacon, and half of the dressing. Repeat layers with remaining ingredients. Cover and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Note: Use low or no-fat sour cream and mayonnaise to reduce the calories in this dish. The longer this dish sits, the better it tastes.

I just mixed all the ingredients together (cornbread, vegetables, and bacon) and then mixed the dressing into it, that is how we had it before. I made this the day before we ate it and it was really good.

A Quick, Budget Friendly Meal

2008-09-24T21:02:00.006-05:00

So it has been a while since I last posted. I've been fighting off a cold which has made cooking and being on the computer seem unappealing. But I am finally feeling better and am now pretty backed up on blog updates. So keep an eye out for some tasty items coming up, including my entry to Eat to the Beat and another birthday cake.

But first here is this tasty treat that Doug and I had for dinner not too long ago: nachos! I love nachos but had never made them at home before. They are so great: really easy, affordable, and you can add whatever you want to them. We kept these pretty simple but next time I may get more to put on them. One great thing about these is a last minute move by Doug. When it came time to add the water and taco seasoning to the ground beef (yes we use taco seasoning, we have a big container of it actually) instead of adding water he added beer! At first I was a little skeptical, but it added this awesome depth of flavor to the meat. It was just Budweiser that he added, though I think any beer would work as long as it wasn't one of the ones that has a different flavor to it (I'm pretty Blue Moon wouldn't work, it would taste weird). I'm not really a beer fan even, but I thought it was a great flavor.

This entry also sees the addition of a new tag for this blog. With money being so tight for many people there have been a lot of posts over on WC for budget friendly meals. So with that in mind I am creating a Budget Friendly tag, and I plan to go back eventually and add it to past items. That way I can easily point out these recipes to friends and they will be easy to find on here.

There isn't really a recipe for these nachos, just add whatever you would like to a pile of chips and you are good. You could do chicken or refried beans instead of the beef and your choice of vegetables, cheese, and toppings to make these truly yours.

What we used:

Nacho chips

Mexican Shredded Cheese

Ground beef seasoned with taco seasoning and beer

Salsa

Sour Cream

I realize that isn't the best picture, but nachos are hard to make look good for the camera :)

A Timeless Classic: Oatmeal Scotchies

2008-09-06T10:33:00.004-05:00

These are one of my favorite cookies that I really associate with fall. I'm not totally sure why that is, except for the fact that the tastes (oatmeal, cinnamon, butterscotch) all just scream fall to me. Plus I (and my mom) only really ever make them in the fall and winter. So when my yearning for fall got to be to much last week (when it was still in the 80s here) I decided to bust out the one bag of butterscotch chips I was holding in my pantry and whip up a batch of these bad boys. I always just follow the recipe on the back of the bag and they are so good. The remind me of growing up, of fall, and of the holidays (and if you get a Christmas present from me this year do not be surprised to find these cookies!). So here is the recipe for these incredible cookies, whip up a batch and bite into a great taste of fall.

Oatmeal Scotchies
Source: Nestle (find the recipe here)

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
1 2/3 cups (11-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Butterscotch Morsels

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375° F. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats and morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes for chewy cookies or 9 to 10 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Fruit Crumb Bars

2008-08-31T11:49:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago these Blueberry Crumb Bars started popping up all over my Google Reader. Turns out they were originally posted on the Smitten Kitchen blog (which is a new love of mine). After seeing these in so many blogs I decided that I had to make them, and D quickly agreed. I whipped these up one night after work and they were incredibly easy to make. They turn out moist and delicious, especially with a dollop of whipped cream on top.

These were so good in fact that I decided I needed to use this recipe with different fruit, in the name of science of course, to see if they were as good without the lovely berries. Luckily, this opportunity game faster than I thought it would. One of the women I work with has a peach tree and it was producing gorgeous, juicy peaches faster than she and her family could eat them, so she started bringing big bags of them to work. I took a couple of bags of them: we froze some, are eating some whole, and some of them became a peach crumb. I cut the peaches into thin slices, covered them in sugar and let them sit for a few minutes while I made the crumb part of this recipe. To make the peach crumb I simply followed the blueberry recipe and substituted the peaches for the berries. Both of these are incredible and I totally recommend you try these (if you haven't already). I'm hoping to get my hands on some apples soon and try this again (all in the name of science, of course).

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Source: Smitten Kitchen

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup cold butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces)

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon salt

Zest and juice of one lemon

4 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup white sugar

4 teaspoons cornstarch

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9×13 inch pan.
In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.
In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Trying My Hand at NOLA Cooking: Red Beans and Rice

2008-08-31T10:02:00.008-05:00

D and I both take our lunch to work 5 days at week, which means that the same old standbys get really old really quick. To counteract this I've been trying to make a large batch of something on Sunday that at least one of us can eat for a few days. To counteract the boring same old lunch ideas I've been trying to find recipes for new dishes that I may not have made. This recipe, for red beans and rice, was recommended by a friend of mine on the What's Cooking board. It is from the blog Culinary Infatuation (which is written by Ally) and is actually for a healthier version of this classic New Orleans dish (hence why it was also in Joelen's NOLA blog event: which has some really tasty looking dishes).

I had never even had red beans and rice before, so I was a little intimidated making it. But it turns out I had nothing to worry about. This dish was incredibly easy to make and I actually found myself having fun making it. Not to mention it made the house smell really good! I had a little bit of an issue with finding some of the ingredients, some I could not find where I do my shopping (probably has something to do with where I live). I could not find turkey sausage at my store so mine is a little less healthy because I ended up using regular sausage. I didn't buy the hot sauce (I forgot to write it on my grocery list) but D said it was good without it, and I left out the celery, I just cannot make myself like this vegetable. I did buy Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning and I'm glad I did, it is really good! We've put it on chicken as well and it is really tasty.

This made a lot, but it was really good and D said it reheated pretty well for quite a few days. I definitely recommend this recipe, either my not-quite-so-healthy version or Ally's healthier version.

Red Beans and Rice

Source: Culinary Infatuation

Ally says this makes 6 large servings, which is about what I had.

2 cups rice (I used white rice, Ally used brown rice)
2 cans dark red kidney beans drained and rinsed
1 cup bell pepper (I used green but any color will do)
1 medium onion finely diced
1 cup diced celery (I omitted)
3 garlic cloves minced
1 Tbs. canola oil (I used vegetable)
1 bay leaf
1 Tbs. fresh chopped parsley
1 link turkey smoked sausage chopped into half moons (I used regular sausage)
5 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth/stock
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 Tbs (or more to taste) Tony Chachere's creole seasoning (I stuck with 1 Tbs because I was not familiar with the taste, next time I will use a bit more)
cayenne pepper to taste

Heat a large pot over medium heat and add canola oil. Add onions, peppers and celery (The Cajun Trinity) and saute about 5 minutes. Add sausage and saute about 3 minutes more. Add rice and garlic and stir occasionally for about 3-5 minutes until rice is toasted. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. When pot comes to a boil reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer 35 minutes. Uncover and mash some of the beans with a potato masher or a large spoon so mixture gets creamy. Cook uncovered for about 10-15 more minutes. Serve with pepper sauce.

Great Morning Muffins

2008-08-30T18:26:00.003-05:00

I work about 45 minutes away from where we live, so every day I leave the house around 6:20 to get to work in time. Since I leave so early I don't have time to eat my breakfast at home (I do not want to wake up any earlier!) so I eat in the car. I quickly grew tired of pop tarts, dry cereal, and granola bars so I decided to start making a batch of muffins so that I would be able to take a couple to eat as breakfast during the week.

The first type I started with were these Sugar and Spice Muffins. I saw the recipe in my Google Reader from What's Cooking in the Orange Kitchen? and thought they looked really good. They got rave reviews over there and they did not disappoint! I thought they were really moist and had an interesting flavor. D did not really care for them, but we have different tastes on sweets, he is not a big fan of sugar cookies and shortbread while I am, I think these cookies fall into the same type of taste category. I would definitely recommend these, they are really great and I plan to make them again soon.

Sugar and Spice Muffins

Source: What's Cooking in the Orange Kitchen?

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Lightly grease 12 muffin cups.In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, beat together oil, 3/4 cup sugar, egg and milk. Stir egg mixture into flour mixture, just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

While muffins are baking, mix together 3/4 cup white sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. While muffins are still hot, dip tops in melted butter and then in cinnamon sugar mixture.

What's Cooking in the Orange Kitchen sites the original source for these as allrecipes.com.

Dinner Divas #1- Orange Mandarin Chicken

2008-08-19T17:37:00.006-05:00

So two of the girls on the food board I go to for all the really great recipes there are decided to create a really neat food blog event for those of us who are too busy for a super-strict event. They named the group Dinner Divas. I've only done one blog event so far (I'm working on another one) but I've wanted to do more, but so many of them are really structured and have strict rules. So, the girls decided (with help from a lot of people on the board) that this group will have only one rule: there are no rules. Every month 2 members will pick 2 recipes (one from the Food Network and the other from another source) and you can make however many you want (if you even want to) and you can change them however you want. This month's event had some really tasty sounding recipes but I decided to make the Orange Mandarin Chicken from Cooking Light because it sounded really good and didn't seem too hard. However, I've never made a sauce before and really thought that I had messed this up until I saw someone else blog it yesterday and I realized that my sauce was actually just about right. But, since I thought it was messed up I just ended up basting the chicken in the sauce instead of pouring it all over. I thought the sauce could have used some more orange flavor (although I did leave out the jalapeno and didn't put in as much onion, so I'm thinking that could have changed the taste). The only other change I made was to use chicken drumsticks instead of breasts because that was what I had. This was pretty good, but I think I may look for a different recipe next time. Any suggestions?

Orange Mandarin Chicken

From Cooking Light- here on allrecipes.com

Ingredients
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil (I used olive oil because that was what I had)

4 (4-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (I used drumsticks)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 (11-ounce) can mandarin oranges in light syrup, undrained

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1 tablespoon finely chopped seeded jalapeño pepper (I omitted)

1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic

1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce 2 teaspoons cornstarch

Preparation

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Add chicken to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until browned.
While chicken cooks, drain oranges in a colander over a bowl, reserving 2 tablespoons liquid. Add oranges, 2 tablespoons liquid, onions, jalapeño, and garlic to pan. Reduce heat; simmer 2 minutes. Combine broth, soy sauce, and cornstarch; add to pan. Bring to a boil; cook 1 minute or until slightly thickened.

An Outdoor Birthday Bash

2008-08-10T12:01:00.005-05:00

Last weekend D and I went camping with his parents in honor of his dad's birthday. After the (I think) success of my cake for my mom I volunteered to make the cake. Well, I found this awesome cake on one of my favorite blogs and was all set to make it, until I saw the weather forecast. Last weekend here in Illinois was forecast to be HOT and HUMID, aka: not the best environment for taking a cake with butter cream icing and chocolate candy to eat at a campground. So, fairly late in the game, I hit the blogs to see what I could find. I had an idea in my mind from a magazine I saw that had a simple cake with whipped cream and fruit, so that was what I was looking for when I went to Kayte's blog (another one of my favorites). There I found this recipe for her Brown Sugar Pound Cake and I was sold. I've never made a pound cake before, so I was a little nervous but it came out great. The only problem I had was that I don't have a tube pan so I used my large loaf pan and the cake took a while to bake because it was so thick. Luckily, it did not dry out and turned out great. I topped it with some peach halves and some French Vanilla Cool Whip (too hard to make fresh whipped cream in a camper!).

This was really good and everyone seemed to like it. It is very rich, so a little goes a long way. Enjoy!

Brown Sugar Pound Cake

From Kayte's Kitchen

2 sticks (1/2 pound) butter, softened

2 cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed

1 cup granulated sugar

6 large eggs

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup of milk (Kayte used fat free half and half)

2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 10" tube pan (I used a loaf pan). In a large bowl, or the bowl of an electric stand mixer, beat the butter until fluffy. Add the sugars and cream until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl, and then add to the butter mixture alternately with milk or half and half, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Add the vanilla. Fill prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (mine took longer). Cool cake completely, then remove from pan.

Kayte's recipe includes a rum sauce, which I didn't use. It sounds really good and I might make it next time I make this cake, the recipe is here.

To top the cake I used one large can of peaches and had one container of French Vanilla Cool Whip. You could use whatever combination you wanted, or even just eat the cake by itself.