Satisfying My Sweet Tooth

6 Layer Cake

2009-08-28T08:11:00.000-06:00

This was so much fun to make and even more fun to see the reaction on my friend's face when she cut into it!
A six layer funfetti cake. I baked a small amount of batter into 6 small pie tins, let them cool, and layered them with an orange flavored and colored buttercream frosting. So fun! Would love to do more layers next time!

Easy Tomato Cheese Salad

2009-08-23T15:20:00.004-06:00

Something quick and delicious to do with all of the beautiful cherry tomatoes from your garden.

Slice the tomatoes about 1/4 inch thick
Slice some mozzarella cheese sticks the same width
Add some chopped fresh basil
Mix with Balsamic vinagerette

Serve immediately!

Tuesdays With Dorie: Brownie Buttons

2009-08-11T02:00:00.000-06:00

I pretty much have been craving brownies for about 2 weeks now and have been holding off for this recipe!

Dorie says to add orange or lemon peel to the brownie, but I thought I would try something different. I smashed up a couple of sweet raspberries to it, dipped the cooked and cooled brownie in white chocolate and added a beautiful raspberry to the top. Absolutely amazing! They were so fun because they were small enough that I didn't feel guilty, but still rich enough that it satisfied my craving. The brownie was moist and decadent.

Definitely a perfect pick of the week by Jayma of Two Scientists Experimenting in the Kitchen. Check out her blog for the recipe and don't forget the blogroll for the other TWD bakers!

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

2009-08-09T21:53:00.005-06:00

One of my favorite thing I made for my cousin's wedding reception in June was Chicken Salad Croissant Sandwiches. Yum! My friend had a "healthier" recipe that I used and although I was nervous about it at first, it was delicious. I got so many compliments on these sandwiches and of course using Costco croissants makes them even better.

Here's the link to my friend's blog to get the recipe.

I am hoping to get photos of the other food from the photographer soon. I was so busy preparing and plating and wasn't able to take any pictures myself, but trust me, the food was awesome!

Lemon Ginger Sandwich Cookies

2009-07-28T22:11:00.004-06:00

No such luck with TWD vanilla ice cream today. I didn't get my ice cream maker into the freezer in time, didn't have enough cream, ran out of eggs, and I don't eat ice cream anyway.

I found these sandwich cookies at Costco not too long ago and even though they were really good, they still had that store-bought taste, so I decided to make some of my own that were better and homemade! I used the packaged gingerbread cookie mix from Betty Crocker and added an extra egg to make them chewier. I just love those packaged mixes! For the frosting, I did 1/3 C softened butter, 2 T milk, and enough powdered sugar to get the consistency where it just holds shape. I added some yellow food coloring and some lemon extract with some grated lemon peel and it was delish! When the cookies are completely cooled, frost one side and top it with another cookie. Store airtight if you have any left to store!

Cheese Tortellini Salad

2009-07-21T17:07:00.004-06:00

Sorry, no TWD today. Between catering my cousin's wedding, cooking for a group of up to 45 at Girl's Camp for a whole week and getting ready to leave on a family vacation tomorrow, I've been swamped! So, here's another colorful summer salad that you must put on your "to make" list!

I made this salad for a bridal shower and also for camp last week, which is why the background of these pictures is in the neck of the woods! Even most of the teenage girls liked it though. It is more of a main course as long as you serve it with some good rolls.

Cheese Tortellini Salad

1 lb cheese tortellini, cooked al dente
1 lb bacon, cooked and chopped in small pieces
1 lb chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
2 15 oz cans mandarin oranges, drained
1 bag baby spinach

Mix all together in large serving bowl.

dressing:
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C red wine vinegar
1/4 C olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika
1 T grated onion
1 T toasted sesame seeds

toast seeds until fragrant in fying pan over medium low heat. In small saucepan bring sugar and vinegar to boil. Remove from heat when sugar has dissolved and add remaining ingredients. Dressing can be made a day or two in advance and served already mixed in or separate. Bring to room temp and mix well before serving.

Be sure to check out the amazing dessert from TWD today though. Susan of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy chose Raspberry Blanc-Manger and you would not believe how beautiful hers looks!

Summer Berry Salad

2009-07-10T15:00:00.002-06:00

I made this beautiful salad for my cousin's wedding that I catered a few weeks ago and have made it several times since for various parties and BBQs we have been going to. It is SO easy and refreshing, not to mention beautiful with all of the different colors. It is such a sweet salad I could almost eat it for dessert!

Summer Berry Salad

6 C spinach leaves
1/2 lb sliced strawberries
1 pint blueberries
1 pint raspberries
2 C candied pecans (see recipe below)
Brianna's Blush Wine Vinaigrette to taste

I was eating these pecans by the handful they are so good! And my house smelled amazing while they were cooking too. You might want to make a second recipe just for snacking!

Candied Pecans

1 egg white, whipped until frothy
1/2 C sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 C pecan halves

Mix everything together and spread on a foil lined and buttered cookie sheet. Bake at 300 for 30 minutes. Serve completely cooled and store in an airtight container.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Katherine Hepburn Brownies

2009-07-07T08:00:00.000-06:00

These are some rich, chocolaty brownies that I loved! They were fudge-like and very decadent. Very good pick this week by Lisa, of Surviving Oz.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise

2009-06-23T08:00:00.003-06:00

Totally got the dates mixed up and made this recipe instead of Honey Peach Ice Cream, which was a totally bummer. Now I have my post all ready for next week though!

This weeks recipe was chosen by Andrea, of Andrea in the Kitchen. What a nightmare this was to make. I almost didn't do it just because of the fact that the meringue had to cook for 3 hours! I can't even remember the last time I spent 3 solid waking hours in my house at one time! No joke, I put it in the oven before I left for work, my husband rotated the trays for me before he left for work, and then my babysitter had to take it out when it was done. Two out of 3 meringues stuck to the pan so I had to cut the one I did have into thirds. My white chocolate whipping cream mixture never thickened so I had to add powdered sugar to it, my broiler wouldn't light for the pineapple, and then my coconut burnt while I was browning it. I think those are the only major disasters I had though.

It was very pretty and very sweet and tropical. Probably will never make it again, but I'm glad I rose to the challenge and got the experience.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Parisian Apple Tartlet

2009-06-09T22:46:00.003-06:00

This week, Jessica, of My Baking Heart, chose to do these cute little tartlets. The recipe says to make them with apples, but she also suggests playing around with some other fruits that are in season, so I did some with granny smith apples, peaches, and nectarines. All were pretty good, but would have been better a little later in the summer when the fruits will be better.

I used the Pillsbury pastry dough that was already shaped into little circles so I didn't have to worry about cutting the sheets up. Probably could have found better tasting puff pastry, but what a time saver!

Can't wait for the fruit to be better so I can try again! I love summer fruit desserts!

Popcorn Addiction

2009-06-05T16:23:00.004-06:00

I have all of a sudden become addicted to gourmet popcorn and it's way too easy to make.

Microwave your favorite kind of popcorn or use a popper. Put into a microwavable bowl and add toppings. Microwave until melted. Stir, and spread over wax paper to harden.

Here are some of my favorite combinations:

-white chocolate chips, add cinnamon and sugar after melted

-dark chocolate chips and crushed Andes mints

-chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and butterscotch chips

I would love to hear some of your favorite combinations for me to try as well!

PS Congratulations to my good friend, Steph, of Stephanie's Kitchen, who delivered her baby girl yesterday. All is well with both of them!

A New Twist on an Old Favorite

2009-06-02T08:00:00.000-06:00

My mint brownies have become very popular among friends and family. I am constantly asked to make them for every event and I am always happy to do so, but this time they were a little more special.

My Aunt Lynn is by far the #1 fan of these brownies so I knew for her birthday I would make them for her. This time I used my mini cheesecake pan from Williams Sonoma that I just LOVE! They are a little pricey, but SO worth it! I highly recommend getting at least one! Everything just looks so much cuter baked in them. And of course I had to make Aunt Lynn her own personal brownie too!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Lynn! Thank you for being you!

Tuesdays With Dore: Chipster topped Brownies

2009-05-26T19:44:00.003-06:00

I don't think my chipster stopped brownies were supposed to turn out the way they did. The cookie part cooked on top of the brownie part with like an inch of space in between the two. Did that make any sense? I had, like, a huge whole throughout the entire pan!

If I wasn't so perplexed at the site of the whole thing I would have done something cool with it, like fill it with whipped cream or chocolate mousse, but I was too busy wondering how the heck that happened.

Don't make any mistake about it though, it was completely amazing. Probably the most unhealthy recipe I have ever made. I had to go change into my fat pants half way through making it. I used Andes mints instead of chocolate chips and it was perfect. The brownie was the most amazing thing I have ever tasted too. I couldn't cut it nicely because it just broke into pieces, but it was worth it.

This recipe chosen by Beth of Supplicious.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Mango Bread

2009-05-19T06:00:00.002-06:00

Just when I get going again with my baking and blogging, life takes some unexpected turns and throws me off for awhile. My mom was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. How a young, healthy, active non-smoker like my mom gets lung cancer is beyond me, and how it can spread to her spine, hips, femurs, neck, and brain before she even has any symptoms of being sick is even more crazy to me. She only went to the doctor in the first place because she had some back pain that wouldn't go away. Anyway, we aren't going down without a fight. She started radiation to 4 spots on her back last week, will start chemo next week, and then will do radiation on her brain the 1st of June. We have a long road ahead of us, but for now, here's some Mango Bread to celebrate some warm weather here in Utah finally.
I found the sweetest and juiciest mangos I have ever had to make this bread. I had a hard time not eating all of the mango before putting it in the batter for the bread. It was a pretty good and very easy, summery bread, but not one of my favorites. I think if I make it again, I would use less cinnamon and more mango.

For my bread I used craisins instead of golden raisins. And then after the bread had baked and cooled, I brushed on about 2 T of melted butter and covered the top with cinnamon and sugar. That definitely added a nice crust to it.

A nice pick this week from Kelly, of Baking with the Boys.

on a side note...for anyone living in Gilbert, AZ, vote for Jenn Daniels today for Town Council!!! She is my sister and I love her! She has worked so hard and has such a passion for the city and it's potential. Vote for Jenn!

Kneaders Cream Cheese Lemon Truffle Pie

2009-05-03T08:00:00.001-06:00

If you ever get to take a trip to Utah, put Kneaders on your must stop list. It is a cute little place with amazing bread, pastries, breakfasts, and sandwiches. I found this recipe of one of their pies a few years ago and make it every Easter and usually once or twice more throughout the year. It is rich and creamy and lemony and absolutely to die for!

Kneaders' Cream Cheese Lemon Truffle Pie

Baked 9” pie shell
½ cup water
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
Zest of ½ lemon
1 ½ Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons butter
1 cup vanilla chocolate chips or coins
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese
1 cup whipped cream sweetened with powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon toasted almonds

Toast almonds on a parchment covered cookie sheet at 350 degrees until golden brown. Set aside to cool.
Put water, sugar, lemon zest in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
In a large mixing bowl, mix egg and corn starch.
Slowly add hot water to egg mixture in the bowl, and then pour entire mixture back into the pan. Stirring continually, heat until thickened.
Remove from the heat. Add lemon juice and butter. Stir until mixture has cooled to 100 degrees.

Pour ½ of the hot filling in a bowl. This will be used as the second layer of the pie. Add vanilla chips to the filling remaining in the pan. Stir until chips are melted. In a second bowl, place softened cream cheese. Add the hot vanilla chip mixture to the cream cheese and beat together. Spread this mixture in the bottom of the pie shell.
Spread the remaining lemon filling on top. Chill for two hours.

Top with sweetened whipped cream and garnish with toasted almonds. Makes 1 pie. Keep refrigerated until time to serve.

Thursday Food Review: Buitoni

2009-04-30T08:00:00.000-06:00

I'm adding a fun new element to my blog! Every Thursday I will do a new food review. I have been getting so many fun things to try in the mail, mostly from being part of the Foodbuzz Tastemasters Program, and am looking forward to sharing them all with you.

Today I'm sharing the Buitoni Mushroom Ravioli. WOW! This ravioli comes fresh in the cheese aisle of your grocery store. The flavor is absolutely fantastic. My neighbor, Steph, from Stephanie's Kitchen, and I both got the package in the mail the same day with this pasta and were discussing what kind of sauce would go well with it. We both agreed on a white sauce, probably alfredo, but then when I was getting ready to cook the pasta, I read on the package that it said the flavor is strong enough that you only need to add a little bit of olive oil to serve with. They were right. Any other sauce would be too much and take away from the intense cheese and mushroom. I will definitely be buying these in the future!

I served the ravioli with some french green beans sauteed in a little bit of olive oil. I gave them a few shots of balsamic vinegar spritzer and added some feta. If I had goat cheese I would have added that, but the feta was really good too. This was a great side and an amazing meal! Definitely add this one to your menu next week!

Tuesdays With Dorie: choclate cream tart

2009-04-28T20:45:00.002-06:00

I know what you are thinking...this doesn't look like chocolate cream tart. Well, you aren't crazy! Due to the fact that I couldn't bear to have such a dessert around the house tempting me, and I ran out of time like usual, I did some major modification. I made the chocolate shortbread crust and then topped it with lowfat strawberry yogurt and fresh strawberries. Not as good as it looks, but not a horrible little treat.

This weeks recipe was chosen by Kim of Scrumptious Photography. You really do need to check out her blog. Her tart looks SO good and all of her food photography is absolutely amazing! She is very talented! I'm totally impressed!

Tuesdays With Dorie: 4 Star Chocolate Bread Pudding

2009-04-21T20:44:00.003-06:00

I missed last week's Tuesdays With Dorie and was going to pass on this weeks too until I saw it was bread pudding.

Dorie's 4 Star Chocolate Bread Pudding was chosen by Lauren, of Upper East Side Chronicle. You can get the recipe from her blog or from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours cookbook.

I couldn't just make the recipe as it says though. I always have to make my own version of it. So, this time, I halved the recipe so I wouldn't eat it all to start with. I used whole wheat bread! Probably a major "no-no" for bread pudding, but it was "healthier" and still amazing. I used dark chocolate instead of bittersweet and I added caramel bits (those aren't nuts) to the pudding right after it came out of the oven. After I took it out of the oven, I went and ran a few miles because I could feel myself expanding just looking at it. Let me just tell you, the one bite I had when I got back was worth every drop of sweat, every sharp pain from my shin splints, and every mosquito bite I got. As if I could only keep to one bite! Absolutely rich and delicious bread pudding!

Another great recipe from Dorie!

Pretzel Jell-O!

2009-04-15T08:00:00.000-06:00

Don't knock it until you try it! Since I live in the jell-o capital of the world, it was time to add a jell-o recipe to my recipe box. This pretzel jello is more like a dessert than a side dish or salad though. You have the sweet and salty pretzel crust, cream cheese and cool whip middle, and strawberry jello with blended strawberries mixed in for the top. People are always surprised at how amazing this treat really is!

Pretzel Jello

1 3/4 C chopped pretzels
3 T sugar
3/4 C melted butter

mix together, press into a 9x13 pan, and bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes, or until firm. Cool completely.

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 C sugar
8 oz Cool Whip

Blend cream cheese and sugar together. Fold in cool whip. Spread over pretzel crust when completely cooled. You need to be sure to seal all the edges with the cream cheese mixture.

6 oz pkg strawberry jell-o
1 C hot water
1 C cold water
16 oz frozen strawberries, mostly thawed.

Blend the strawberries and 1 C cold water until pureed. Dissolve jell-o in 1 C hot water. Mix with strawberries. Let cool, but not set, before pouring over cream cheese layer.

Keep in fridge until jell-o is set.

Coconut Cream Macaroons

2009-04-12T20:11:00.005-06:00

Happy Easter! I hope everyone ate as much as I did and will share all of their yummy recipes! I made these cookies yesterday for our annual egg hunt with some good family friends. They are a coconut lover's dream cookie!

As you know from many previous posts, I love to find fun seasonal candy to bake with. I found these Coconut Cream Hershey Kisses and had the willpower to stop eating them long enough to make the cookie recipe on the back of the bag. Basically they are coconut macaroons with one of these kisses to top them off after they are done baking.

Hurry out and buy a bag, or better yet, run to the store first thing in the morning and get them 1/2 off! I'll be there getting a few bags for my freezer!

Tuesdays With Dorie: Banana Cream Pie

2009-04-07T12:00:00.001-06:00

I seriously need to work on my pie making skills. My crust tasted great, but it was far from pretty. My custard was a little too thick, and I just wasn't in the mood for banana cream pie. Even still, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I mean, I did end up eating a whole piece of the pie!

This recipe was chosen by Amy from Sing For Your Supper. I'm glad I got to practice, but I have a long way too go.

I ate my piece...now what do I do with the rest of it???

Molasses Crinkles and Snickerdoodles

2009-04-05T21:08:00.005-06:00

When I asked my husband what kind of cookies he wanted for our Sunday afternoon treat, I didn't really want him to actually say he wanted...I wanted him to say what I wanted, of course! So, he said snickerdoodles and I wanted molasses crinkles just like my Grandpa Chris used to make them. I don't know why he couldn't read my mind and go with it, but he never caught those brain waves I was sending him so I made him his snickerdoodles...and then made my molasses crinkles. I have to say, they made a very nice duo too! Both had such great flavor and texture and when you make them small, like I always do, I was able to eat plenty of both!

I have to tell a little story about my Grandpa Chris. He's not my "real" grandpa, which is why I called him Grandpa Chris. My grandma married him after my real grandpa passed away. But, he is by far, one of the most amazing people I have ever met for so many reasons. He made each granddaughter a beautiful hope chest when we graduated high school. He was an amazing wood-worker and wood-carver. He also was a master cookie maker. My favorites were these little shortbread cookies called Grandma's Nutty Fingers that he would shape by hand all exactly the same. My first year at college he would send me boxes of his homemade cookies in the mail. I loved getting his packages. During that same year, he had some minor surgery done and the antibiotics the doctor put him on after caused him to go completely blind. He was such a trooper though. He was in his 80's and decided to go to a school for the blind so he could learn to get around in his new condition, but it was hard for him and he decided he would rather listen to books on tape than have to try and get around at all. He listened to over 600 books on tape over the next 5 years before he died. Mostly about history and religion. He was probably the smartest man I know. I feel so blessed to have known him.

Molasses Crinkles (my grandpa's recipe, not sure where it came from exactly)

3/4 C shortening
1 C dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 C molasses
2 1/4 C flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon

Cream shortening and sugar together. Add egg and molasses.
Combine flour, salt, and spices. Add to sugar mixture and mix well. Chill dough for 30 minutes. Roll dough into balls and roll the tops of the balls in sugar. Place on a cookie sheet 2 inches apart and sprinkle with a couple of drops of water. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Watch closely to not over-bake.

Snickerdoodles (recipe from Better Homes and Gardens)

Don't think I can post the recipe because of publishing rights, but go here to get it!

So, for now, I would like to thank my husband for not reading my mind and doing something I wanted him to do without telling him what it was I wanted. These were some good cookies!

Lemon Berry Smoothies

2009-04-02T08:00:00.000-06:00

Trying to create something sweet enough to satisfy me, but so I wouldn't feel any guilt after eating it, I came up with a lemon berry smoothie. It is simple and one of the more healthy desserts I have made, but still very refreshing.

It is perfect timing for a smoothie too. Tuesday was my BFF's birthday! I would have posted this then if it wasn't for Tuesdays With Dorie. But, we have been best friends since we were 12! I'm not super old or anything, but that's a long time! The reason why a smoothie is significant is because the first job we ever had was working together at a cute little bread and smoothie shop called Whole Grain. Smoothies were our favorite and I can remember more than one occasion that she would show up at my house when I was having a bad day or for no reason at all, with smoothie in hand. She is always so thoughtful! I have so many wonderful memories of growing up with her. I know we will be friends forever.

This smoothie doesn't even compare to the ones we had loaded with ice cream, especially when we had them with the good cookies or scones that we sold too, but still good nonetheless. Happy Birthday, La! I love you!

Lemon Berry Smoothie

1 1/2 C berries of your choice
1/4 C sugar
1/4 C fresh lemon juice
1 C water
2 C ice cubes

Blend together until all ice pieces remaining can be sipped through a straw.

I can't wait for summer fruits and veggies! Guess I should let spring come first though, right?!

Tuesdays With Dorie: Coconut Butter Thins

2009-03-31T03:00:00.001-06:00

These cookies were fabulous! They had the texture of shortbread with so many different flavors involved. They had lime ( or in my case I used lemon) coriander, coconut, and macadamia nut. They each added something wonderful to the cookie and with all the butter in there, they were just perfect for what I needed tonight. Apparently Dorie almost left these out of her cookbook, but I'm so grateful to her that she didn't!

Thanks to Jayne of the Barefoot Kitchen Witch for her good pick this week!

Lemon Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust

2009-03-28T21:28:00.001-06:00

This is just as the name says it is...

Lemon cheesecake with gingersnap crust. Everyone has their favorite cheesecake recipes, and if you don't you need to get Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours cookbook and make her tall and creamy cheesecake. It is by far the best I have ever had...ever! Just add some freshly grated lemon peel and about a tsp of lemon extract to the mix and you have delicious lemon cheesecake.

I used the swedish ginger thins for the crust and just added a little sugar and melted butter. Again, follow your favorite graham cracker crust recipe, but substitute gingersnap crumbs for graham cracker crumbs.
This was a light and spring-ish little dessert. I made them single serving size, of course, because they are so cute and easy to serve and eat. I feel my lemon cravings come back...stay tuned for more!

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

2009-03-26T21:22:00.000-06:00

First of all, if anyone has any tips on photographing soups, I would love to hear them. I just can't seem to get my pictures to look nearly as good as the soup tastes!
Second of all, I know soup season is almost over, but I had to get this last one in. Besides, if you live in Utah you know that the weather is still so unpredictable. It was in the 70s last Saturday and then we woke up to snow Sunday and Monday, so we were still able to enjoy soup, but hopefully for the last time for awhile.

I have been hooked on this soup ever since our neighbors had us over for dinner on Halloween and made it for us. She was nice enough to share the recipe and I've made it several times since. I'm not sure where the recipe came from originally, but like I always do, I have changed it slightly.
Cream Chicken Noodle Soup

4 large chicken breasts
4 T chicken bouillon
10 C water
1 large onion, finely chopped
10-14 oz egg noodles ( I get the homemade kind from Costco. It takes a little longer to cook, but they keep their shape and texture really well)
1 C chopped carrots
1 C chopped celery
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 C milk
1 C sour cream

In large pot, boil the water with the chicken, chicken bouillon, onion, carrots, and celery for 1 hour or until chicken is cooked thoroughly.

Remove chicken and add egg noodles. Boil until tender. Meanwhile, shred cooked chicken.

Add soup, milk, and chicken to pot and cook until warm. Add sour cream and heat through, but do not boil. Add more soup or sour cream to get desired thickness.

This recipe makes a lot, so share with your friends, coworkers, and neighbors. They won't believe you made it!

Tuesdays With Dorie: Blueberry Crumb Cake

2009-03-24T21:13:00.004-06:00

Sihan of Befuddlement chose to do Dorie's Blueberry Crumb Cake this week which was perfect because when we woke up Sunday morning, my hubby said he wanted coffee cake for breakfast. I didn't have any fresh blueberries on hand, but I did have a bag of mixed berries from Costco that are delicious so I used those instead. It was so colorful and delicious and was probably one of the slightly more healthy recipes we have done so far. We had a yummy breakfast Sunday morning. Many thanks to Sihan and Dorie!

Tuesdays With Dorie: French Yogurt Cake

2009-03-18T15:33:00.002-06:00

Tuesday came and went and I was so forgetful posting my cake wasn't the thing I had forgotten to do yesterday.

This week's recipe was chosen by Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction and it was a French Yogurt Cake with a Lemon Marmalade Glaze. Sounds like a good dose of medicine for my Spring Fever, but I couldn't find any lemon marmalade. It still did me some good though because I topped the cake with whipped cream and raspberries. The recipe calls for either 1/2 C chopped almonds, or an additional 1/2 C flour, and I chose to use the almonds. Next time I would do flour though. This was a good, light dessert and overall I really enjoyed it.

Green and Gold Oat Bars

2009-03-15T09:29:00.003-06:00

St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays to bake for. Not because I'm Irish, because I'm not, and not because green and gold were my high school colors (Go Wolves!), but because it's the birthday of one of my favorite Aunts! She is so spunky and spontaneous and so much fun to be around. She had 5 crazy boys before she finally got her girly girl but has more energy than anyone I know. She is a great friend and always supportive and willing to help me with anything. Not to mention she LOVES to eat treats with me! Happy Birthday, Aunt Patty! I love you so much!
This festive and easy recipe is adapted from the M&M Oat Bars from Taste of Home. I work with some really fun girls at church and the cute 17 year old twins (M&M) brought this recipe to our little recipe swap we had because it's their favorite treat. I was really excited to make it this weekend and can't wait to share them with the group this afternoon.

After Valentine's Day I bought some bags of only green m&Ms on clearance so I could do something fun with them on St. Patty's Day and was so glad I did when I was getting ready to make these. It makes them that much more fun!

Green & Gold Oat Bars

1/2 C butter
1 C brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 C oats
1 14 oz package of caramels
3 T water
1 C mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 C green m&ms

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar and beat until fluffly. Beat in egg and vanilla.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl and add to sugar mixture. Stir in oats.

Press mixture into a greased 8x11 glass baking dish and bake at 350 for about 12 minutes.

Melt the caramels and water, and stir until very smooth. Spread over entire crust. Sprinkle chocolate chips and m&ms over the caramel and press gently so that stick well. Let stand at least 5 minutes before cutting.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Fruit Granola Bars

2009-03-12T21:35:00.005-06:00

I have tried a lot of granola bars over the years and homemade or store bought, these are the best I have ever had! It's mostly Ina Garten's recipe from the barefoot contessa back to basics cookbook. It's my #1 cookbook right now. If you like her and don't have this book already, go get it! So many amazing recipes! But, in typical fashion as I always do, I modified it a little bit. I substituted raisins for the dates and added cinnamon chips. I think the cinnamon chips are what really made them. There is the hint of cinnamon in the granola and it sweetened them up just enough. Oh, so good!

The granola bars were crunchy and were delcious plain, but I can't wait to have some with milk for breakfast tomorrow and then mixed in with my yogurt for my mid-morning snack at work! The most amazing part, is that they are healthy, and my 5 year old would NOT stop eating them all day today!

Fruit Granola Bars

2 C oats
1 C chopped almonds
1 C shredded coconut
1/2 C wheat bran
3 T unsalted butter
2/3 C honey
1/4 C brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C raisins
1/2 C craisins
1/2 C chopped dried apricots
1/2 C cinnamon chips

Mix oats, almonds, and coconut together on a cookie sheet with raised sides and cook at 350 stirring occasionly for about 12 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Transfer the mixture into a large mixing bowl and add wheat bran.

In a small saucepan, melt honey, butter, and brown sugar together. Add vanilla and salt. Stir together and pour over oat mixture. Add dried fruit and cinnamon chips and mix well. Pour mixture into cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and press evenly.

Bake at 300 for 25 minutes. Cool slightly before cutting into bars, or cool completely to break into odd sized pieces. Serve at room temperature.

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry White Chocolate Frosting

2009-03-08T08:00:00.000-06:00

Light and fluffy strawberry cupcakes plus strawberry and white chocolate frosting equals delicious! I had two for dinner last night and one for breakfast this morning! I just can't say enough about these though. While in Arizona for Thanksgiving last fall my sister and I got a dozen different cupcakes from Sprinkles and the only one I really loved was the strawberry one. I adapted a recipe I found trying to imitate Sprinkles famous cupcakes and I like mine a lot better! Plus, I've never had better frosting than this one and I created the recipe myself. It wasn't rocket science or anything since you just use a buttercream base, but it is SO creamy and rich and just so good!
Strawberry Cupcakes

1 C pureed ripe strawberries (about 10 large strawberries total)
1 1/2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 C heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C unsalted butter, softened
1 C sugar
1 egg
2 egg whites

whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl and set aside. In small bowl, mix together cream, vanilla, and 2/3 C strawberry puree. (Don't discard the rest, you use it in the frosting!)

cream butter until light and fluffy and gradually add sugar. Mix until well combined. Add egg and egg whites one at a time and continue to beat until just combined.

Add half of the flour mixer to butter mixture, all of the strawberry mixture, and the rest of the flour mixture, mixing well in between additions.

Divide batter among cupcake cups and bake at 350 for 20-22 minutes.

Strawberry White Chocolate Frosting

3 squares white baking chocolate
2 T (or more) heavy cream
2 C (or more) of powdered sugar
1/3 C strawberry puree
3 T butter, melted

Melt white chocolate squares with cream in the microwave until just melted. Be careful to just put it in for 20-30 seconds at a time and stir well in between heating sessions.

Add powdered sugar, melted butter, and strawberry puree (whatever is leftover even if it's more than 1/3 C) and mix well. Add more powdered sugar and cream to get the desired texture of frosting you want.

Try not to eat these all in one sitting!

Mint Chocolate is back!

2009-03-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

I think my World Peace Cookies from Tuesdays With Dorie sent me packing for my mint chocolate trip again. I made a mint oreo chocolate cake for my husband on his birthday that was to die for with some vanilla bean ice cream.

I made the chocolate truffle filling that I used on my cake for my International Progressing Dinner that I made for 24, 24, 24 back in October and just added the crushed mint oreos to it. Absolutely fantastic!

I have made this with a cream cheese frosting, which was amazing too, but this time I made a normal buttercream frosting with 1/3 C softened butter, 2 C powdered sugar and enough milk to make the desired texture, but instead of milk this time, I used irish cream and then added lots of crushed mint oreos to it. I didn't want to waste the leftover frosting so I made homemade oreos and stuck the frosting in the middle. A few years ago my BFF's little sister made the cutest little homemade oreos that were the smallest things I have ever seen for a baby shower favor. They were so tasty and so cute and ever since then I always make my homemade oreos miniature. These are actually just about 1 inch in diameter. I guess I feel like I can eat more if they are smaller!

The homemade oreos are made with 1 box of devils chocolate cake mix, 3/4 C shortening, and 2 eggs. Mix well, roll into balls and flatten slightly before baking at 350. The size you choose to make will determine the cook time. I cook my tiny ones for 3-5 minutes. You will just have to watch them closely.

Tuesdays With Dorie: The Cake That Got Her Fired!

2009-03-03T18:00:00.004-07:00

It was so interesting to read Dorie's story about this cake. She was actually fired from a job for making it and it's delicious! Kind of reminded me of Ratatouille and I LOVE that movie, by the way.

Anyway, I had to make a few variations to this cake to make it work. I used almonds for my ground nut. And since I don't have alcohol in my house I couldn't cook the prunes in it and lite it on fire. Yes, that's right, I did say prunes. I'm convinced it is what makes the cake so moist. You can't even taste them! I tried to add some almond extract and lite that on fire, but it didn't work. I would have loved to see that in action though!

Anyway, this cake was incredible. It was so rich and almost like fudge and I ate way too much of it so I cut it up and gave it away to all of the neighbors. It filled my calorie need for the week though, I'm sure of it!

And this is what happened when I went upstairs for a few minutes and left my two year old unattended...

bite size pb cookies

2009-02-27T20:14:00.000-07:00

I found these adorable miniature peanut butter cups at Trader Joe's during my trip to AZ for Thanksgiving and couldn't resist buying them, but I haven't been able to think of anything too creative to do with them.

aren't they just so cute?!

So, I made my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe, and wrapped just enough dough around each little cup to cover them completely and baked them.

Honestly, these little cookies were just barely bigger than a quarter and I couldn't stop popping them into my mouth! Peanut butter and chocolate just go together like oreos and milk. I just can't get enough!

Tuesdays With Dorie: Caramel Crunch Bars

2009-02-24T20:05:00.003-07:00

As I browse through Dorie Greenspan's cookbook, "From My Home To Yours", the picture of these cookie bars always caught my eye so I was excited to be making them. I love that she makes ice cream sandwiches with hers. I, however, was not so ambitious. (can you tell by my lack of posts that I'm barely surviving around here?!) They were pretty darn good by themselves though and were a hit with my aunt and cousins that I shared them with.

By the way, the recipe calls for ground coffee and since I don't drink coffee and didn't want to buy some to use a tsp, I substituted cocoa powder. Check out the blog of our host for this week, Whitney of What’s left on the table for the recipe, as well as the other Dorie bakers on the blogroll.

Tuesdays With Dorie: World Peace Cookies

2009-02-03T20:17:00.003-07:00

I would like to thank Tuesdays With Dorie for keeping me baking during such a busy time of life. It is one of the only things I get to do that brings me satisfaction and without it I don't think I would be so dedicated to exercise, nor would I be able to bribe my kids as much and see their smiling faces as they eat so much junk food. I'm sure my co-workers like me a lot more too because they are my official plate cleaners. I hope I still have some people reading my blog even though I have been so inconsistent the past few months.

I guess these are called World Peace Cookies because someone told Dorie that eating enough of these each day will "ensure planetary peace and happiness", but I loved them no matter what! The recipe was chosen this week by Jess from Cookbook Habit. Find the recipe on her blog.

The recipe called for mini chocolate chips, but since I didn't have any, I put some mint chocolate chips in my pampered chef chopper and added those to the dough. After I rolled the dough into the logs to be refrigerated, I rolled them in chocolate sprinkles. This added such nice texture to the cookie and kind of gave the edges a more finished look too.

These are definitely worth baking, and the best part is that there are no eggs in the dough, so grab your spoons, pass the bowl around, and dig in!

Foodbuzz Tastemakers...This is a good one!

2009-01-27T17:50:00.004-07:00

I love being a part of the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program. I can't even describe how much fun it is to get a package in the mail of some new yummy food to try. I know, I need to get out more, huh! But really, it's such a fun little treat.

This month I was so excited to get to try Quaker's new True Delight granola bars. These are like, gourmet granola bars too. They come in 3 flavors including...are you ready for this... Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond, Honey Roasted Cashew Mixed Berry, and Toasted Coconut Banana Macadamia Nut. I know, those are a lot of flavors packed into a little granola bar, but they were all amazing.

I decided to bring my samples into work where I could cut them up and let everyone have a little sample to see what they thought. Afterward I wasn't so pleased that I had shared though. These granola bars had such an intense flavor to them. You could taste berry or banana in every bite. They were fresh and chewy and the best part is that they taste so much better than the original granola bars but have about the same number of calories. Seriously, I can not emphasize enough have good the flavor was in these.

Look for them now at your local grocery store. They are a little more expensive than the original, but worth every penny.

Are you ready for some football?

2009-01-27T17:36:00.002-07:00

There is nothing I like more than a party with good food. I love having parties and I love preparing for parties. I especially like eating at parties, so I'm sharing some of my all time favorite party food recipes that are all extremely simple but always a hit.

BACON WRAPPED LITTLE SMOKIES WITH BROWN SUGAR

That's exactly what they are. Get some bacon, cut it in thirds and wrap a piece around a little smokie sausage. Hold it together with a toothpick. Line them up on a foil lined tray and dump at least 1 pound of brown sugar over all of them. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. The brown sugar will caramelize and you will get some goodness. Take them off of the foil while they are still warm so they don't stick and serve them warm. Be sure to get one quick because they go fast!

BACON RANCH DIP 16 oz sour cream
1 ranch dip packet
1/4 C bacon bits
1/2 C shredded cheddar cheese

mix together and serve with chips and veggies. It's even better the next day so make the dip ahead!

7 LAYER DIP

I love how everyone makes their own version of the 7 layer dip. Here's how I do mine:
2 cans refried beans
1 C gaucamole
8 oz sour cream mixed with 1 packet of taco seasoning
2 C shredded cheese ( use the mexi-blend and I like a lot of it!)
1 can sliced olives
2 roma tomatoes
1/4 C green onions
a little more shredded cheese on top

Layer in 9x13 pan and serve with tortilla chips.

I'm pretty sure I know who is playing in the super bowl this year, but I really don't care who wins. All I know is that we will be eating good and having fun with some friends and I love any excuse for a party!

My First Wedding!

2009-01-17T10:26:00.004-07:00

I have been too busy to bake or post anything for the past week or so because I have been very busy getting ready for my first wedding! My friend got married last night and I was lucky enough to make the wedding cake all by myself! After lots of baking, filling, stacking, frosting, more stacking, and more frosting, along with some stressing, I ended up completely satisfied with my cake.

The cake was a 3-tired hexagon cake. It was chocolate cake and the bottom and top layers had a chocolate truffle filling. The middle layer had a white chocolate truffle filling with a layer of fresh raspberries. The bride wanted a chocolate buttercream frosting and ribbon around each tier. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, I will have to do a whole tutorial post on just the ribbon portion. It was a challenge but I finally got it!

I had a lot of fun doing this cake and learned SO much! I am excited to start taking some classes so I can learn some good tips and techniques and learn how to use fondant and other fun things. I am almost ready to do another one!

I also found out when I got there that I would kind of be in charge of the catering part. But that was a lot of fun too. We had 3 different chocolate fountains going with dark chocolate, white chocolate, and milk chocolate. To dip in we had platters of marshmallows, pretzels, sugar cookies, strawberries, apples, pineapple, and bananas. It was beautiful and delicious!

Thank goodness for these girlies who stepped in to help me! We all work together at a local Technical college, so we already are good at helping each other out. We all kind of decided we should quit working where we are and start our own catering business. How fun would that be?! I honestly couldn't have done it without them though! Thanks guys!

Tuesdays With Dorie: French Pear Tart

2009-01-06T22:24:00.003-07:00

The good news is...I found my camera! It was hidden in the pocket of my snow jacket and had been there since Christmas Day when I was outside taking pictures of a few of the neighborhood dads driving 4-wheelers down the street with kids being dragged behind on sleds hanging on for dear life and having a blast doing it. The bad news is...I found my camera! I was hoping to use this as an excuse to buy the really nice one I want, but I guess I'll keep saving my pennies for another day.

Today's recipe was chosen by Dorie Greenspan herself. I loved making the tart, mostly because I was excited to put the tart pans to use that my mom got me for Christmas! Thanks, mom! I had no idea they would come in handy so quickly! Isn't it beautiful though?!

As usual, I'm barely qualifying as midnight is quickly approaching and my bedtime has come and gone, but I can go to bed with my house smelling absolutely amazing while the tart is cooling and waiting for me to have a big slice for breakfast! I'll let you know how it tastes, although I'm pretty positive it will be devoured the second I walk into work with it. That is, if I don't fall and drop it in the snow on the way in. Is it ever going to stop snowing???

Alright, I'm way too tired and starting to ramble. Great recipe today! Check out the blogroll to see my fellow TWD bakers!

Apple Toffee Dip

2009-01-02T08:10:00.001-07:00

Still no camera, but I will try later today. Here is a must try recipe for a fun dip for your apples. This stuff is delicious!

Apple Toffee Dip

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 C marshmallow cream
1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 C granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 bag toffee pieces

Mix all together except toffee pieces until creamy. Fold in toffee pieces. Serve with sliced apples.

Happy New Year!

Tuesdays With Dorie: Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

2009-01-02T08:00:00.003-07:00

I didn't post this on time because somewhere, sometime, over the crazy past two weeks, we lost our camera! I think it's a perfect excuse to get the nice camera that I really want, but for now we are going to have to do without. What is a food blog without pictures to show how good the food looks?! Well, I will try to describe it until I can at least borrow my neighbor's camera to take a few pictures. (please Steph, I'll share a bite!)

This is easily the best cheesecake I have ever eaten, and I've eaten a lot of cheesecakes including about 1 piece a week from The Cheesecake Factory when I was pregnant with my first! Yes, I'm still trying to lose that weight 5 years later.

But this cheesecake is so creamy and smooth and has such a rich flavor. Dorie says to beat the batter until it's satiny, and then you cook it for 1 1/2 hours in a water bath and then let it rest in the water bath in the hot oven for another hour. I just made the plain cheesecake, but I am so excited to try different flavors next time.

Definitely a great choice this week by Anne of Anne Strawberry! Here is the link to the TWD Blogroll.

Fish Tacos

2008-12-18T20:18:00.000-07:00

If you don't like fish or fish tacos, don't bother continuing to read. There is just no convincing a person these are good. You either like them or you don't, and I really do! I'm big into coupons and seeing how much money I can save each grocery trip so I was really excited when I found fish shaped breaded fish sticks at buy one get one free. I thought for sure I could convince my kids they were chicken nuggets and get them to eat some variety, but I was proven wrong very quickly. I had to find something to do with these and I did.

Here's what you do:

Bake the fish sticks as indicated on the package
Heat some corn tortillas in a skillet for about 15 seconds on each side on medium high heat when the fish is done cooking.
Put two fish sticks on the tortilla and top with desired amount of coleslaw mix.

For the coleslaw mix:
1 T vanilla yogurt
1 T mayonnaise
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp garlic salt
limes to squeeze fresh on the taco
1/2 cabbage, sliced thin

Makes 6 tacos

Tuesdays With Dorie: Buttery Jam Cookies

2008-12-16T20:01:00.004-07:00

Baking so much this time of year has really gotten to me. I'm just not into the sweets as much, but I have to say that these cookies were a nice break from all the chocolate that has been going around. I chose raspberry jam for my cookies and they were great warm, right out of the oven. I added a light glaze of powdered sugar, milk, and more raspberry jam. They were amazing, but I wouldn't recommend adding jam to a glaze because they were way too sticky. They were gone in no time though. When I left for work there were about a dozen on the counter and when I got home, there wasn't a single crumb left. I will be making these again and I can't wait to try different jams!

Don't forget to check out the TWD blogroll and thanks to Heather of Randomosity and the Girl for choosing the simple and quick recipe this week! It's just what I needed!

English Toffee and a gift from Organica

2008-12-11T16:50:00.004-07:00

First of all, I was SO excited to get home from work today to find a turquoise box that had arrived from Organica Deluxe with some cookies for me to sample.
I was so excited that I automatically ripped open the package and took a bite before I could even take a picture of it. I didn't need to read what kind of cookie it was either because as soon as I opened the box I could smell the sweet ginger. These cookies were amazing. Every ingredient down to the molasses is organic which makes it seem healthy too! These babies were so soft and almost melted in your mouth. Organica does some fun gifts and they have more than just food too (their baby blankets are adorable!) so check out their website to find a yummy and unique gift for friends and family this holiday season! They are even offering free shipping until Dec 15 so hurry and order!

Thank to the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program for introducing me to this awesome company!

Now on to my world famous English toffee. Well, let's be honest. It's not world famous yet and it's not "mine" either. My mom has been making this recipe every year for as long as I can remember and our family and friends always look forward to it. Every year I try to make it and once in awhile I get a batch that can compare to hers. This was one of those batches.

It was perfectly crunchy instead of chewy or crumbly. The butter didn't separate from the rest of it and it didn't burn. I have had many other outcomes from trying to make toffee as well.

Here's the recipe:

2 C sugar
1 C water
1 lb butter (4 cubes)
4 large chocolate Hershey's bars
almonds (optional)

Heat sugar and water in a heavy saucepan on high heat until it boils and reaches the thread stage on your candy thermometer. Do not even stir it during this stage. Just let it do it's thing. While it's getting there, get a cookie sheet with raised edges ready by rubbing the entire thing with butter to grease it up. Get a bowl of ice water close by to test your candy, and fill a near by bathtub with a few inches of cold water. Strange, I know. You might want to get a cold drink and short sleeves on too because it gets really hot standing there stirring.

Once it gets to the thread stage, add the 4 cubes of butter (don't think about it, just do it!) one at a time, stirring constantly in a figure 8 motion with a wooden spoon until each cube is completely melted before adding another. You don't want the temperature to get low while doing this part. Stir constantly until it reaches the hard crack stage, or 300 degrees, on your thermometer. Drop some candy into the bowl of ice water and bite into it when cool to make sure you get the right crack from your toffee.

When it's gotten to where you like it, pour the candy into your prepared cookie sheet and using hot pads, shake the cookie sheet to spread the candy as you walk to the bathtub. Don't forget to shake as you go. (that is a little joke for my mom. She would tell us that as we followed her to the bathroom every time she makes it.) Put the cookie pan in the bathtub to float on top of the water. Let sit for about 10 minutes until completely cooled and removed from bathtub. Honestly, that whole bathtub step is probably not totally necessary, but that is how my mom has always done it and her toffee always comes out perfect!

Loosen the toffee from the pan so you can pick it up all in once piece. Frost one side with 2 melted Hershey's bars and frost the other with the remaining 2 when the first side has hardened. My mom likes to add whole almonds to the candy before it hardens and then crushed almonds on top of the chocolate, but I'm a no nut kind of girl, so I leave that out. It's an option for you though.

Good luck!

Tuesdays With Dorie: Sugar Cookies

2008-12-09T00:01:00.001-07:00

I know, boring right? Sugar cookies? Come on now! I tried to make it as fun and different as I possible could in the extra 3 minutes I had today, but my brain and my body are giving up on me. My kids sure loved them though. I just have to say that I've never met a sugar cookie recipe I get along with.

No, these cookies aren't wet. I used the Wilton Color Flow mix, which I just love. You just add a little of the mix to powdered sugar and some water and this is what happens. Some day I will do a whole post just on this stuff because you can do so much fun stuff with it. Today I added peppermint extract and piled 3 different sized cookies on top of each other for something a little fun.

These are especially for my 5 year old daughter. She wanted more and more sprinkles so I rolled the dough into balls and rolled them in as many sprinkles as I could get to stick to the dough. Festive, don't you think?!

These ones were really fun. I rolled the dough into balls and rolled them in candy canes that have been through my food processor. They were perfectly pepperminty and cute too!

Dorie's sugar cookies were pretty good, but I think I'll stick to my Betty Crocker packaged mix the next time I do sugar cookies. She just never fails me with her sugar cookies! Thanks to Thanks to Ulrike at Kuchenlatein.

Don't forget to check out the blogroll and buy Dorie's book for her recipe.

MIA

2008-12-02T23:06:00.006-07:00

This is what happens when I leave town for a week. I had 3 posts set to show up on my blog while I was away, but they didn't, so now I'm playing a super quick catch up. Unfortunately I had to start working full time again today. I was lucky to be able to be home with my 3 kids for the past 4 months, but now it's back to work for me. Hopefully my baking habit doesn't suffer too much because of it though.

So here is what I have been up to in my kitchen:

Chocolate Cranberry Cupcakes- this was supposed to be for the Iron Cupcake Challenge, but since it didn't post, I missed out on that one. Whoops! Basically, I made my Surprise Cupcakes, but added 1/2 cup cranberry sauce to the cream cheese filling (I made the cranberry sauce using the fresh cranberries, sugar, and water following the recipe on the back of the cranberry bag) and another 1/2 C to a very rich buttercream frosting. I topped it off with some sprinkles of cranberry rimming sugar that I found on clearance at Target after Halloween. Absolutely AMAZING! I would say it was probably one of the best cupcakes I have ever had, and I just sampled 6 different cupcakes from Sprinkles while I was in AZ for Thanksgiving. My cranberry cupcake was totally moist and the frosting was so fresh tasting. I recommend eating them chilled.

Next was the caramel cake for Daring Bakers. For some reason when I read the recipe at the first of the month, I thought it was for a chocolate caramel cake so that is what I had my heart set on all month. When I made it for my mother in law's birthday I added 1/4 C of cocoa to the batter to satisfy me. This cake was dense and rich and moist and I loved it, but still way too much work for a cake. I have had plenty of very good cakes that didn't involve so many steps. I absolutely loved the frosting though and licked that bowl clean.

Check out the Daring Bakers blogroll for the rest of the details. Sorry I'm so late with this!

Last but not least is Tuesdays With Dorie. I missed last week. I feel awful. I should have been more prepared and done my recipe ahead of time, but because it was for Twofer Pie which sounded perfect for Thanksgiving dessert, I waited, but forgot to bring my recipe with me. I'm still going to make it sometime because I was really really excited about it.

I just finished this week's recipe for Linzer Sables and I still have 30 minutes of it still being Tuesday, so technically it's on time! It was a lovely little sandwich cookie perfect for the holidays with all of the great spices in the dough. You can fill them with jam or chocolate and if you can believe it I filled them with my leftover cranberry sauce. Yum! Cranberry is just a flavor I don't think I can get sick of.
See the TWD blogroll for all the beautiful cookies my fellow Dorie bakers have made. Thanks Dennis from Living the Life for choosing the recipe. See his blog for the recipe or go get the cookbook. Are you sick of my saying that yet, because I'm kind of sick of writing it every week.

That's all for now. I'll get on top of things now that I'm caught up with laundry and everything else that comes with skipping town for a week. I've even started my holiday baking and can't wait to share when I've been making. I have such lucky neighbors!

some dang good pumpkin recipes

2008-11-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

I don't know where this recipe came from originally, but it's so amazing! I first had it at a friend's house last year and I make it frequently now. This time I made it with my mini bundt pan. The plan was to put two of them together and make it look like the shape of a pumpkin. I frosted it with a maple frosting and had really good intentions of making it all cute and stuff, but it didn't happen. It still tasted amazing though. I love the pumpkin bread and maple frosting combo for sure! It was really good with a powdered sugar dusting as well though.

Best Ever Pumpkin Bread

1 1/3 C vegetable oil
5 eggs
15 oz can pumpkin
---beat well---
2 C flour
2 C sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
3 oz vanilla pudding mix
---add to pumpkin mixture---

Bake at 350 for 1 hour in a greased loaf pan.

I also made some good pumpkin fudge truffles. Basically, pumpkin fudge rolled in balled and dipped in chocolate. I normally don't like the pumpkin and chocolate chip mixture much, but these were actually pretty good!
Pumpkin Fudge

3 C sugar
3/4 C melted butter
2/3 C evaporated milk
1/2 C canned pumpkin
2 T corn syrup
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 12 oz package white chocolate chips
1 7 oz jar marshmallow creme
1 C chopped pecans, toasted
1 tsp vanilla extract

Stir together sugar, butterm milk, pumpkin, corn syrup and pumpkin pie spice in a sauce pan over medium high heat, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil. Continue to cook until you get to the soft ball stage, about 12 minutes.

Remove pan from heat, stir in remaining ingredients until well blended. Pour into a foil lined greased 9 inch square pan. Let stand 2 hours or until completely cool.

If you want to make truffles out of it, roll it into balls before completely hardened and let harden on wax paper on a cookie sheet. Melt 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and pour into a deep mug. Dip fudge balls in chocolate and let harden back on the wax paper.

Chili and Cornbread

2008-11-18T07:54:00.004-07:00

I don't have enough photography skills to take pictures that would justify how good this meal is. I'm actually quite embarrassed by the pictures so you'll just have to take my word. I crave this chili and especially the cornbread and it hits the spot like no other food does in the cold winter months. I usually make the chili in a crock pot a few days before I'm actually ready to eat it. The flavor just gets better with time. It makes a lot too so we eat what we want the one night and freeze the rest. You can just imagine what my freezer looks like right now. I have about 12 quart sized bags of frozen soups and chili now.

Chili

2 lb cooked ground beef
2 cans kidney beans
4 large onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
1 quart tomatoes
2 quarts tomato or vegetable juice
1 T cumin
1 T salt
3/4 tsp curry
cayenne pepper to taste; I'm not a fan at all of spicy food so I barely put any in for me.

Put it all in a crockpot and cooke until warmed through. Remove bay leaves before serving.
I'm not kidding when I tell you that this is the most moist and sweet cornbread you will ever eat. You really need to try it and you will never go back to any other cornbread!

Buttermilk Cornbread

1/2 C butter
2/3 C sugar
2 eggs
1 C buttermilk
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 C cornmeal
1 C flour
1/2 tsp salt

Melt butter. Stir in sugar and eggs and beat well. Combine buttermilk and baking soda then stir into butter mixture. Add cornmeal, flour, and salt. Stir until well mixed. Bake in greased 8x8 pan at 400 for 30 minutes and lightly browned on top.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Rice Pudding

2008-11-18T07:39:00.003-07:00

What? It's Tuesday already? I almost forgot to post today's recipe. Before making this recipe, I really didn't like rice pudding, but it was good for me to make it since my husband likes it and it's a tradition in his family to have it on Christmas. Even though I don't like it, I had a lot of fun making it! We have this little place close by called Pudding on the Rice, and it's like an ice cream parlor with all different kinds of rice pudding instead of ice cream, so I made my rice pudding based on that place.

I made chocolate and vanilla just like the recipe called for, but then I also made mint chocolate by adding a little peppermint extract to the chocolate, butterscotch rice pudding by melting some butterscotch chips into the plain pudding, and cinnamon rice pudding by melting cinnamon chips into the pudding. We had a fun little tasting party with some friends. The mint chocolate and cinnamon were my favorite and it actually tasted really good. Maybe I'm not a hater afterall!

Good choice of recipe from Isabelle of Les gourmandises d’Isa! Check out her blog for the recipe or go get "Baking From My Home To Yours" by Dorie Greenspan. Just a note, her blog is mostly in French, but there is some English and you can use the translator on the right hand side of her blog too. Don't forget to check out the blogroll as always!

Mint Chocolate

2008-11-14T12:54:00.005-07:00

I heard the average person gains at least 5 pounds from Halloween to Christmas. Ummm, I'm going to have to say that I'm just not average. I'm pretty sure I gain a lot more than that each year and this one will be no exception!

I'm totally feeling the mint chocolate already this holiday season. Here are some of the fun products I have found in stores:

(to be fair, I couldn't find a picture online anywhere of these so I stole this pic from this fun blog)
These can be found at Walmart!

Only at TJ's which we don't have in Utah (poor me!) but I'm going to AZ for Thanksgiving and am totally going to stock up!

Can get these Fudge Mint Oreos pretty much anywhere

I got my mint miniatures at Walgreens because there was a $1 off coupon. The trouble is that I'm going to have to go back for more because I have eaten the whole bag by myself in a matter of 4 days. NO JOKE!

I haven't tried these ones yet, but I can't wait! I have so many memories of going to Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco growing up and I LOVE their chocolate! Sorry about the small pictures. Hopefully they enlarge okay if you click on them.

I can't wait to use these to make lots of Holiday treats like mint oreo truffles and milkshakes and lots more that I will surprise you with. For now, I'm going to go make my cream mint brownies that you may recall from brownie week. I've been craving them all week!

What fun limited edition treats have you found this Holiday Season?

Tuesdays With Dorie: Kugelhopf

2008-11-11T00:01:00.003-07:00

Yolanda of The All-Purpose Girl chose the Kugelhopf recipe this week. I have to be honest and say that I was really not a fan at all, but I'm glad I tried it anyway. It was a little dry and just not much flavor even with all the butter that you drown it in. I couldn't even think of any way to add more calories. I just wasn't feeling it this week with the recipe.

I guess it smelled pretty good though because I had a visitor at my back door when it was baking.

What do you mean is that really a peacock? Don't you have wild peacocks running around your neighborhood?

Back to the Kugelhopf...I even tried to make french toast out of it the next morning and it still didn't do anything for me.

I am sure there will be recipes that I love and some that I can do without and that's why this is such a great group to be a part of. Someone else gets to choose things for me to bake that I wouldn't otherwise pick myself. For the full recipe go to Yolanda's blog, or buy the book. You know the drill by now. Be sure to check the TWD blogroll and see the other opinions of Kugelhopf.

Saturday Soup Day

2008-11-09T21:08:00.005-07:00

What a better way to spend my Saturday than to be in the kitchen! My husband was absent all day due to it being football season, so as winter is quickly approaching I was busy getting prepared. I made 3 different kinds of soup, bagged them in quart size ziplock bags, and now they are patiently awaiting consumption in my freezer.

I highly recommend doing this, but here are some quick tips.
-make sure the soup is completely cooled to room temperature before bagging. This will prevent condensation and frost from forming.
-label and date the bags
-lay them flat to freeze. The last thing you want is mishapen frozen soup that becomes awkward to fit in your freezer.

Minestrone Soup

1 lb ground beef
1 C chopped onions
1 C sliced carrots
1 C cubed potatoes
1/2 C sliced celery
1 can tomatoes
1 1/2 quarts water
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp basil
1 T salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 beef bouillon cube
1 C macaroni or bowtie pasta

Brown ground beef in sauce pan and drain oil. Add onion and cook until the onion becomes transparent. Add all other ingredients. Simmer for 45 minutes. Add pasta of choice and cook for 15 minutes more.

makes 2 1/2 quarts

I highly recommend serving with my mom's Buttermilk Cornbread. That recipe will come soon!

Creamy Potato Soup

4-5 celery stalks, diced
1 C butter
3-4 carrots, diced
1 1/2 C flour
2 qt water
2 T chicken bouillon (or 5 cubes)
1 medium onion, diced
3-4 potatoes, cubed
2 C shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Put celery, potatoes, carrots, and onions in saucepan and add enough water to barely cover them. Boil about 20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. In another pan, boil the 2 qts of water and add bouillon. Melt butter in a small bowl and add flour to thicken. Add butter/flour mixture to bouillon water and whisk until creamy. Add cheese and mix well. Add cooked vegetables with the water and simmer 10-15 minutes.

makes 3 quarts

Vegetable Cheese Chowder

1 10 oz package frozen broccoli or cauliflower
1/2 C shredded carrot
1/2 C water
2 C milk
1/3 C flour
1/8 tsp pepper
1 14 oz can chicken broth
1 C shredded American cheese
1 C shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 T parsley

Combine vegetables and water in saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, cover and simmer for about 4 minutes or until veggies are crisp-tender.

Whisk together milk, flour, and pepper in separate bowl. Add to saucepan and stir in broth. Cook until thick, stirring frequently. Add cheeses and parsley. Cook and stir over low heat until cheese is melted and heated through.

makes 2 quarts

***a little note about defrosting the soup when you are ready to eat it...microwave for 2 minutes with the bag slightly open so the steam can escape, or let it sit on your counter for an hour or so just until it's defrosted enough that you can get it into a saucepan and heat the rest of the way on the stove.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Rugelach

2008-11-04T09:05:00.000-07:00

I know what you are thinking...what the heck is Rugelach? That's what my first thought was anyway. Rugelach is a cream cheese pastry dough brushed with a warm marmalade and filled with nuts and raisins before rolling it up and baking it like a croissant. Well, that didn't sound at all like something I wanted to waste calories on, so as usual, I made some changes.

I brushed the dough with warm applesauce, sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar, and filled it with some caramel bits and white chocolate coursely chopped. It was absolutely to die for and I wasted all my calories on them until they were gone!

It's really important to chill the dough like the recipe calls for. I was too anxious with one of my batches and it just melted all over the place. Patience is a virtue! Be sure to use a liner on your pan regardless because it just makes the clean up that much easier.
This recipe was chosen by Piggy of Piggy's Cooking Journal. You can find the recipe on her blog or in Baking, From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I recommend just buying the book. There are SO many good recipes so it's totally worth it!

Check out the TWD blogroll to see what other bakers did with their Rugelach!

Also, let me just throw in my two cents right now...don't forget to vote today!!! What an important election and awesome opportunity we have to express our opinions with our vote!

Daring Bakers: Pizza Party

2008-10-29T00:01:00.001-06:00

Wow! An overloading of cooking and posting is going on my house lately. I'm exhausted! But, nevertheless, I couldn't wait to share my Daring Baker's Pizza Party. This month, Rosa, of Rosa's Yummy Yums chose a recipe from “The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread” by Peter Reinhart. You can get the recipe from her blog. The recipe called for 4 1/2 C flour and I just couldn't bring myself to do it, so I did half whole wheat. It made a lot of dough too so I had to have some friends over for a make-your-own-pizza night and let everyone build their own personal pizzas. The kids had just as much fun doing it as the adults did so everyone was happy.

We had so much fun! We had a variety of sauces including tomato sauce, BBQ sauce, pesto, and ranch dressing. We had a whole bunch of toppings too like mozzarella cheese, goat cheese, Parmesan cheese, olives, tomatoes, pine-nuts, bacon, caramelized onions, mushrooms, pepperoni, sausage, and more! Our friends brought salad and bread-sticks from Olive Garden so we couldn't have asked for a better meal!

My personal pizza had BBQ sauce, lots of mozzarella cheese, crumbled bacon, pine-nuts, and goat cheese and it totally hit the spot!

Now on to better things...

To keep with the theme of the dinner party, I made a dessert pizza with a sugar cookie crust baked right on the pizza stone, 8 oz strawberry cream cheese blended with a jar of marshmallow cream for the "sauce", and topped it with lots of beautiful strawberries, mandarin oranges, and kiwi. I can't even tell you how refreshing and delicious this fruit pizza was. I could eat the whole thing right now! I took lots of pictures too, but I will spare from having to look at all 30 of them since you aren't even getting a bite of this beauty!

Okay, stop drooling and plan your own Pizza Party! Who doesn't love pizza?

Tuesdays With Dorie: Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes

2008-10-27T18:37:00.005-06:00

This was my favorite Tuesday With Dorie so far because it's my favorite...lots of chocolate! It was a great choice by Clara of I Heart Food 4 Thought!

I think I'm the only one who didn't do a Halloween themed cake, but I still had lots of fun adding variety to mine. All the batter made 3 of the cutest mini bundt cakes. I just got the mini bundt cake pan and this was the perfect opportunity to use it. One cake was filled with white chocolate chips, one with peanut butter chips, and my favorite had some peppermint extract added to the batter along with some mint chocolate chips. The cake was super moist and delicious. The glaze was incredible and I loved the little crunch of the chocolate sprinkles on top. I really can't wait to make this recipe again very soon!
Happy Birthday to my good friend, Jen, today! If you weren't all the way across the country from me, I would love to share this cake with you! Love you lots and hope you have a great day!

Also, Tanya, from Sunday Baker is celebrating her first blog-a-versary! To celebrate she is doing some really good giveaways, recipes, discussions, and other fun things so be sure to check it out. Mention in your comment that I sent you so I can get an extra entry in the giveaway! Thanks and congratulations, Tanya!

Don't forget to check out the other Tuesdays With Dorie Bakers on the blogroll!

24, 24, 24: An International Progressive Dinner

2008-10-26T00:01:00.006-06:00

A typical Progressive Dinner is an event where a group of people travel from one house to another having a different course of a meal at each house. At our progressive dinner, instead of traveling from house to house, we took a trip around the world to experience each course in a different country.

We started our travels in China where we enjoyed some Crab Rangoons with sweet and sour sauce. This appetizer is actually an American Chinese dish, but it was named after Rangoon, which is the former capital city of Burma. These were delicious! The crab filling was very tasty and the sweet and sour sauce was a very nice complement. They were a hit!

CRAB RANGOONS

Ingredients:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
8 ounces fresh crab meat or canned crab meat, drained and flaked
1 teaspoon red onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon light soy sauce
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 green onion, finely sliced
1 large clove garlic, smashed, peeled, and finely minced
1 package won ton wrappers
1 small bowl water
Oil for deep-frying, as needed

Preparation:

Combine the cream cheese and crab meat. Mix in the remaining six filling ingredients (up to the wonton wrappers) one at a time.

On a flat surface, lay out a won ton wrapper in front of you so that it forms 2 triangles (not a square).

Add 1 teaspoon of filling to the middle, and spread it out toward the left and right points of the wrapper so that it forms a log or rectangular shape (otherwise the wrapper may break in the middle during deep-frying).

Fold over the edges of the wrapper to make a triangle. Wet the edges with water and press together to seal.

Keep the completed Crab Rangoon covered with a damp towel or paper towel to keep them from drying out while preparing the remainder.

Heat wok and add oil for deep-frying. When oil is ready (the temperature should be between 360 - 375 degrees), carefully slide in the Crab Rangoon, taking care not to overcrowd the wok. Deep-fry until they are golden brown, about 3 minutes, turning once. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain. Serve hot with Sweet and Sour Sauce.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

¾ C vinegar

2/3 C sugar

2 T ketchup

1 T Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp salt

2 tsp cornstarch

4 tsp water

Boil vinegar, sugar, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and salt together stirring constantly.

Mix cornstarch and water together and add to saucepan stirring frequently until desired consistency.

The second leg of our journey took us to Spain for a bowl of warm Creamy Almond Soup with homemade croutons. This soup had a very strong almond flavor. The croutons were a nice addition to it.

CREAMY ALMOND SOUP

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup blanched almonds (3 oz)
2 cups 1/2-inch bread cubes (from a baguette)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Heat oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté almonds, stirring constantly, until golden, about 4 minutes. Transfer almonds with a slotted spoon to a blender. Add bread cubes, parsley, and garlic, to oil in skillet and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until golden, about 2 minutes. Transfer about one fourth of crouton mixture to a small bowl for garnish, then transfer remainder to blender. Add broth to blender and purée mixture until smooth.

Transfer purée to a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan and stir in water. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in salt and serve soup topped with croutons.

Note: Blanched almonds are simply almonds without their skin. If you are anything like me, you are probably thinking that can not be an easy task, but it really is and here is how you do it:

Put your almonds in a bowl and pour boiling water over them until they are just covered. Let them sit for 1 1/2 minutes, but no longer as they will lose their crispness. Drain and rinse with cold water. Drain and rinse again with cold water. The skins should be lose now and you will be able to peel it off.

The next stop was in Greece to have Horiatiki; a traditional Greek salad centered around feta cheese and typically does not include lettuce. This was a very beautiful and colorful salad and the dressing was very popular with it.

Horiatiki

Ingredients:

4 ounces feta cheese
1 cucumber
1 red/green bell pepper
5 tomatoes
Black Olives - handful
1 large red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tsp dried oregano
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Red Wine vinegar
Olive oil

Assemble feta cheese and vegetables in a large bowl. Sprinkle with the oregano, salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar and serve.

After our short stay in Greece, we made a quick stop on France to pick up some fresh French Bread.

2 Hour French Bread

1 ½ C warm water

1 package dry yeast

1 T sugar

1 T oil

1 ½ tsp salt

4 C flour

2 T butter

sesame seeds (optional)

Combine water and yeast in glass or plastic bowl. Stir well with wooden spoon until yeast is dissolved. Add sugar, oil, and salt and stir well. Stir in flour and mix well. Cover and rise for 10 minutes. Stir down with spoon, cover and repeat process 6 times.

Form loaf by rolling into rectangle and then into a long loaf. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Slash diagonally 4-5 times with sharp serrated knife. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

We continued on to India to try a vegetable curry dish. I am normally not a fan of curry dishes, but this flavor was so mild that I actually enjoyed it. It was so easy to cook it in a slow cooker too so that made it very appealing.

VEGETABLE CURRY

Ingredients:

3 potatoes, chopped
1 cauliflower, chopped
1 1/2 cups green peas
3 tomatoes, chopped
3/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp curry
1 cup water

Place all ingredients in a crock pot or slow cooker. Cook on low for 5 to 6 hours.

Next we were off to Italy for Lobster Ravioli in a lemon butter sauce. This was absolutely amazing. It was a close tie between this and the crab rangoons as to what my favorite part of the meal was. These just tasted so fresh. The lobster filling was just perfect and the sauce just made all the flavors come together. Not exactly the healthiest thing on the menu, but so delicious!

Lobster Ravioli

Lobster Stuffing

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 Tbsp. Butter
1 ½ lbs. precooked lobster, chopped
2 leeks, white portion, chopped
½ tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Ground White Pepper
1 lb. Ricotta cheese
1 Egg
1/4 C. Heavy Cream
1 Tbsp. Fresh Basil, chopped fine
½ Tbsp. Fresh Thyme, chopped fine

Place olive oil and butter in a saute pan. Warm. Add lobster, leeks, salt, and pepper. Cook for 4 minutes. Remove ½ of lobster and set aside. In a bowl combine ricotta cheese, egg, cream, basil and thyme, and mix together. Combine cooled lobster mixture and leek mixture.

Filling the ravioli

1 pkg won ton/ravioli wrappers

Brush each won ton/ravioli wrapper with beaten egg. Place 1 tablespoon mound of lobster mixture in center of wrapper and place second wrapper on top. Seal edges well with fingertips. Keep covered with moist cloth or paper towel.

Lemon Butter Sauce

2 ½ C. Butter
½ Tbsp. Garlic chopped
½ tsp. Saffron - you can substitute with tumeric
1/4 tsp. Ground White Pepper
Juice from ½ lemon
1 C. Heavy Cream
½ lb. Cooked Lobster

Melt butter in a saute pan. Add garlic, saffron, and pepper. Saute for 2 minutes. Add lemon juice and cream. Cook until well mixed. Add cooked lobster mixture and cook for 1 minute.

Serve by cooking ravioli for about 2 -3 minutes in a pot of boiling salted water. Remove from water and drain. Cover with sauce.

The final stop on our trip around the world was in Ireland for a rich Chocolate Irish Cream Truffle Cake. This cake was extremely rich and dark. The mint flavor was very mild, but the truffle layers in the middle were to die for. In fact, I can't wait to make actual truffles out of it for the holidays!

Chocolate Irish Cream Truffle Cake

Cake instructions:
12 1 oz. squares unsweetened chocolate
1 c. plus butter or margarine, room temperature
1-1/2 c. Irish Cream (I used coffee creamer, but you can use an alcoholic Irish Cream as well)
1 c. milk
3 lg. eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2-2/3 c. all-purpose flour
2 c. sugar
1-1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease three 9-inch round cake pans.

In a heavy 4-quart saucepan over low heat, heat 12 squares unsweetened chocolate, 1 cup of butter, Irish Cream and milk, stirring frequently, until melted and smooth. Remove from heat; cool slightly.

In a large bowl, with electric mixer on medium speed, beat eggs and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in warm chocolate mixture. Add flour, sugar, baking soda and salt; continue beating until batter is smooth and well blended.

Pour batter evenly into 3 cake pans. Bake at 325F for 25 to 30 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; invert cakes onto wire racks and cool completely. When cool, slice off rounded top to make it flat for frosting.

Truffle filling instructions:
4 1-oz. squares unsweetened chocolate
2-1/2 c. confectioners sugar
6 tbsp. butter, room temperature
1/4 c. Irish Cream

In a heavy 2-quart saucepan over low heat, heat 4 squares of unsweetened chocolate, stirring frequently, until melted; cool slightly. Stir in confectioners sugar, butter and 1/4 cup Irish Cream until mixture is smooth and blended. (Mixture will be thick so you may have to finish mixing it with an electric mixer).

Glaze instructions:
8 1-oz. squares semi-sweet baking chocolate
1/2 c. Irish Cream

In a 2-quart heavy saucepan, over low heat, heat semi-sweet chocolate and Irish Cream, stirring frequently, until melted, smooth and slightly thickened; keep warm.

Assembly instructions:
Semi-sweet chocolate mini chips for garnish

Place 1 layer of cake on a 12 inch cake plate. With a metal spatula, spread bottom cake layer with 1/2 of the truffle mixture. Top with middle layer, pressing down gently but firmly. Spread with the other half of the truffle mixture; top with top cake layer; pressing down gently but firmly.

Over the assembled cake, pour prepared warm glaze. With metal spatula, spread glaze to completely cover top and sides of cake. Sprinkle chocolate chips around the top edge and around the bottom of the cake.

Here are the cute girls we had to help us serve the food and even run a little daycare for everyone's kids. We had 4 couples come on our journey and 12 kids between us!

What a great night we had! We learned a lot about each place we traveled. We had great conversation and great company along the way. The food was fantastic and we've already decided where our next International Progressive Dinner is going to take us!

A big thank you to Foodbuzz for sponsoring this fun night! Check out the 24, 24, 24 link to see how the other participants spent their evening! Thank you to our friends who joined us for the evening and to our great helpers we had as well!

Fall Pies, Award Tag, and a Special Announcment

2008-10-23T00:01:00.002-06:00

Stay tuned for this long post. At the end there will be a special announcement, but don't skip to the end just because I said that. The beginning and middle are pretty good too!

Got this great idea to make these cute little leaf apple pies from Family Fun magazine. They put peanut butter and chocolate chips in theirs, but I was excited to use the apples I got from the local farmer's market in them.

The recipe is pretty basic. Use the Pillsbury roll out pie crusts and use a cookie cutter for whatever shape you would like. Spread your filling of choice in the middle and brush the edges with egg white to help seal shut. Use another cut out pie crust for the top and press the edges together gently. Brush the top with egg white to help it brown and sprinkle with raw or course sugar. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or until brown.

The particular cookie cutter I used only allowed for about 2 tablespoons of filling and there was only enough pie crust in the package to make 6 little pies, so reduce the amount of filling you make, or buy a lot of pie crusts!

I tried pumpkin pie filling too with a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter, but I definitely liked apple a lot better.

Prudy, from Prudence Pennywise, tagged me with a Kreativ Blogger award and lucky 7 trivia and now it's my turn to make 7 other people as happy as I was when she gave it to me. I have to say that I feel the same way as she did that most people just won't find my life interesting at all, so feel free to skip to the Special Announcement, as that is very exciting for me.

7 Things I Did Before
1. Work in Student Services at a local technical college
2. Got my Nurse Assistant License
3. Was a nanny to an adorable little girl for about the first 8 years of her life
4. Was a college student at Utah State University
5. Worked at a scrapbook store back when I had time to scrapbook
6. Volunteered at an elementary school cafeteria
7. Worked at Whole Grain, a bakery with the best cinnamon rolls, scones, breads, and cookies

7 Things I Do Now
1. Take care of my three kids ages 5, 2, and 5 months
2. Go to the gym Monday through Friday at 5:45 am without fail
3. Bake...a lot!
4. Talk to both of my sisters on the phone at least once a day, one is in AZ and one is in Southern Utah
5. Work with the youth in my church
6. Run my vinyl lettering business (let me know if anyone needs vinyl lettering!)
7. ALWAYS entertain a house full of neighborhood kids

7 Things I Want To Do
1. Finish my nursing degree
2. Travel all over the world with my family
3. Win some recipe contests
4. Have a reunion with my girlfriends from Utah State
5. Lose the rest of my baby weight (that actually might happen if it wasn't for #3 in the previous section)
6. Be a contestant on Wheel of Fortune
7. Become a really good photographer

7 Things That Attract Me About the Opposite Sex
1. The way he treats his mom
2. He is so good with kids and they just love him
3. He is an extremely hard worker both in and out of the home
4. He is always making me laugh
5. He is spontaneous and always up for whatever
6. He loves playing games with me
7. He will drop whatever he's doing for me
(this was the easiest section to fill out; I could even keep on going)

7 Favorite Foods
1. Spoon Me and Red Mango yogurt
2. bread and butter
3. German pancakes with lemon juice and powdered sugar
4. french fries
5. all fresh fruit
6. Slushies from Sonic and their ice when I'm pregnant
7. pizza
(okay I lied, maybe this was the easiest one and I could definitely go on for a long time)

7 Things I Say Most Often
1. No no, Tallan!
2. Brooklyn, no!
3. Use your words
4. No hitting, pushing, throwing, or kicking
5. Go bug dad for a minute
6. What does crying get you? Nothing!
7. I love you

7 Tags and Awards
1. Cake Wrecks - This blog seriously makes me laugh SO hard. It features professional cakes that I might have actually done better myself!
2. Candy at The Courageous Cook - I love her Courageous Comments and her Football Fridays
3. Tina from Carrots N Cake - She cooks such meals that are healthy and still appetizing
4. Melody at My Sweet and Saucy - This was the first food blog I ever saw and I am constantly amazed at the talent she has with everything she does. Plus, she has her own business and teaches classes that I wish I could take as well!
5. Avesta from Check It Out - this girl is good! Her food is so beautiful and she cooks such a good variety of foods too
6. 3B's - good recipes, good books, and she loves baseball. Such a well rounded woman
7. Clumbsy Cookie - she is like a cookie scientist! I learn so much from her blog!

You guys are all great! Don't forget to do the tag, pick up your award, and pass is on!

Now what you've all hung in there this long for. Something I am very excited to share with everyone. If you haven't heard yet, Foodbuzz has started a new 24, 24, 24 event where they feature 24 meals in 24 hours, featuring 24 blogs and guess what?! I submitted my meal proposal and have been chosen to participate this month! I have to keep my meal a secret, but I'm doing it this Saturday along with the 23 others from around the world that were chosen this month. We will all be posting about our meal on Sunday so be sure to come back and see what we've done! You won't want to miss it!

Watch the little video of the meals that were done last month.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Pumpkin Muffins

2008-10-21T00:01:00.005-06:00

Going perfectly with my previous post of Halloween Treats, we made Pumpkin Muffins for Tuesdays with Dorie this week. This week's recipe was chosen by Kelly of Sounding My Barbaric Gulp.

As beautiful as the pictures of Dorie's muffins were in the cookbook, I had to make a few changes. Dorrie's were just way too healthy. She added nuts and raisins and topped them off with sunflower seeds. Sorry, just not the right combo for me. I had to make them a little more unhealthy in order for me to enjoy them.

First off, I did do half white flour and half whole wheat flour. That is how I justify adding the extra calories later. My secret ingredient in these pumpkin muffins were cinnamon chips. That's right, not chocolate, but cinnamon! The muffin itself was a little bland. Didn't taste too much like pumpkin to me so maybe next time I'll add more pumpkin, but for now the cinnamon chips added all the right flavor to make them wonderful! I added just 1 cup of the cinnamon chips and it made 5 dozen mini muffins bakes for 8-10 minutes. Next time, I'll do them full size. But, I also had to do a little cinnamon drizzle on the top. To do that I melted the rest of the bag of cinnamon chips with about a tsp of shortening and just drizzled them over the top from a zip lock bag with the corner cut out.

I just love this time of year where we can start cooking with fall flavor. Pumpkin, squash, soup, and more! After Thanksgiving it gets really dangerous though when chocolate comes into play full force! Enjoy the muffins!

Halloween Food Fun!

2008-10-19T08:06:00.006-06:00

I was so lucky to have my mom and sister come visit this past weekend. The kids got lots of playing in and we got to do some shopping and baking. The problem was that I didn't get to my blog for what seems like forever! I was excited to get to my computer this morning and share the fun things I've been doing!

First are my Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispie Treats. I first tried making pumpkin rice krispie treats with pumpkin puree and that was a disaster. The krispies were soggy instead of krunchy! So, take my word and don't try it. I kept trying things and found a winner!

Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispy Treats
recipe by Becky

3 T butter or margarine
40 regular mallows or 4 C mini mallows
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
6 C rice krispie cereal
1 pkg pumpkin spice Hershey kisses (I hear they are only sold at Target and I had to go to two before finding a store that wasn't sold out yet)

Melt butter or margarine in large saucepan with mallows. Add pumpkin pie spice and mix well. Add rice krispies. Spread in greased cookie sheet with greased spatula and let cool. Frost with melted Hersey Kisses. Cut into 1 1/2 inch squares when cool.

Candy Corn Hershey Kiss Cookies

I can hardly take too much credit for these because they weren't that difficult or anything. But they sure are cute and tasted really good too! I sure was having fun with all the seasonal Hershey Kisses though. I look forward to the new flavors each holiday!
Candy Corn Hershey Kiss Cookies
recipe by Becky

Start with your favorite sugar cookie dough. I used the Betty Crocker pouch mix where you just add egg and butter because I got a really good deal on them and love those sugar cookies. I did add 2 T extra flour though to they weren't as flat after cooking them.

1 bag of Candy Corn Hershey Kisses (found mine at Walmart and haven't seen them anywhere else!)

Bake sugar cookies as you like them.

Unwrap all kisses and melt 10 of them when cookies have about a minute left before they are done baking. Put melted kisses in frosting decorating bag with about a size 4 tip or a plastic bag cutting a small corner off and drizzle across tops of baked sugar cookies.

Place one kiss in the center of each cookie and let cool to room temp. You really have to work quickly so that the cookie doesn't cool too much before you get the kiss on top.

Spooky Cheesecake Pops

Okay, these were the biggest mess, but so worth every sprinkle on my floor and glob of chocolate on my counter. I had so much fun making these for a Halloween party we went to. When we got there though, I had to make a name-card for them that was creative and Halloween-ish, and I really couldn't come up with anything at all except Spooky Cheesecake Pops. I know, I'm totally lame!

I know I talk a lot of my good friend, Steph, from Stephanie's Kitchen, but really I don't know where I would by in my little baking world without her. She made these for a Daring Baker's Challenge a few months ago and I happened to be throwing a baby shower at the same time, so she donated them to me and they were such a hit. I was so excited when I found a good enough excuse to make them myself for this Halloween Party!
You can find the recipe here on her blog. And yes, I know, her's look a lot more professional than mine, but hey, I tried!
Here are some fun variations I did though...

White chocolate dipped covered in Orange Creamsicle flavored crunchies. Found them at Target with the Halloween stuff and they were SO yummy!

I also melted dark chocolate and added orange extract to it before dipping. It tasted like those chocolate oranges you have to whack at Christmas time!

Other than that I just did milk chocolate with lots of different fun Halloween sprinkles.

A good tip: I melted the chocolate to dip in mugs so I could easily dip the pops and coat the whole cheese cake with no problem. The chocolate hardens pretty quick though so be sure to work quickly with your sprinkles or whatever topping you choose to use.
You really have to take the time to make these for your next Halloween party. They were such a hit and I can't wait to make them again for Thanksgiving and Christmas parties with all sorts of variations!

Tuesdays With Dorie: Biscotti

2008-10-14T00:01:00.004-06:00

Happy Tuesday!

This week we made Lenox Almond Biscotti for Tuesdays with Dorie, courtesy of Gretchen of Canela & Comino. I have never been a fan of biscotti because I don't get the point of a hard crunchy cookie that usually doesn't have any chocolate in it. What a waste of calories! I'm more of a chewy and gooey kind of cookie girl. But maybe it's the time of year, or maybe I'm secretly a little burned out with chocolate after brownie week, (don't worry, I'll recover by tomorrow for sure) but I think I fell in love with my pumpkin spice biscotti. I had it for breakfast this morning dipped in my caramel hot chocolate. It warmed me right up after being outside in the 36 degree weather. Yes, 36 degrees is what my car said at 7:30 this am. At least the snow melted from yesterday's storm. I'm still a little new to Utah weather, but isn't it a little early for this??? I swear fall only lasted like, 3 days! Back to my biscotti...this was some seriously good stuff. I also made chocolate craisin biscotti and it was pretty good, but I'm not going to miss it when it's gone like I will my pumpkin spice ones.

I had a little bit of a hard time with the form of the biscotti though. The recipe tells you to bake the dough in a loaf, let it cool, slice it, and then bake it again, only this time when you bake the slices, you have them standing up like a marching band. Mine started out in great formation, but then you know how in the movies when someone in the first row of the marching band stops suddenly and then no one is paying attention so they all bump into him and everyone falls over with their big tubas and drums and stuff, well that's kind of what happened to my biscotti once they got in the oven. They all fell over on top of each other, so they don't look exactly like most biscotti you might find, but don't judge a book by it's cover. It's the taste of them that counts.

Remember: For the full recipe of Dorie's Lenox Almond Biscotti, you'll have to get the cookbook. Believe me, it's worth it. It's the Dorie Greenspan Baking From My Home to Yours. (see amazon's link on the right side of my site for more info) You can also get it from Gretchen's Blog. But here's how I did my own renditions:

Pumkpin Spice Biscotti

Add 1 tsp pumpkin spice to flour mixture before adding wet ingredients

Chocolate Craisin Biscotti

Add 1 T cocoa to flour mixture
Add 1/3 C craisins to dough

I chose to reduce the almond extract to 1/2 tsp and omit sliced almonds altogether for both recipes

I'm definitely looking forward to another round of pumpkin spice biscotti and caramel hot chocolate tonight before I crawl into bed. Happy dunking!

Don't forget to check out the other Tuesdays With Dorie bakers on the blogroll.

ps. a special happy birthday to my good friend, Laina! You know how sometimes you have friends that no matter how much time has passed, or how different the paths of life have taken you, you will always have that tight friendship? She is one of those friends of mine. Love you, Lai! Hope you have a great day!

Giveaway Winner and Lemon Chicken

2008-10-13T00:01:00.005-06:00

We had so much fun for brownie week last week and I've had a great weekend of not making or eating brownies. I'm almost recharged to get going again!

According to Random.org's Integer Generator, the winner of the cookbook giveaway is...

Here is a list of more of my favorite brownie recipes from some other foodies:

Brownie Caramel Cheesecake from Yummy Dinners

Easiest Brownies in the World from My Kitchen Cafe

Frosted Marshmallow Brownies, and Strawberry Cheesecake Swirled Blondies from Baking Blonde

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownie Cups from Picky Palate

Chocolate Caramel Brownies from Stephanie's Kitchen

Chocolate Toffee Brownie Bites from Two Peas and Their Pod

Mint Chocolate Crunch Brownies from Vanilla Sugar

On to the Lemon Chicken. I got inspired watching a friend cook dinner for her family a few days ago and came up with this lemon chicken idea. Growing up there was the best little family owned Chinese restaurant converted from an old house that I would frequent often for their lemon chicken. It was just perfect. Not too sweet, not too sour, and not at all spicy. After I got married and my husband and I went back to the Bay Area I tried to take him because Chinese food is his favorite. I was raving about this chicken and my mouth was watering and my heart racing with excitement as we were getting closer. We pulled into the quaint little parking lot only to find out the restaurant had burnt down just a few weeks earlier! Isn't that so sad?! I have tried lemon chicken at almost every other Chinese restaurant I have been to and am always disappointed but now I think I have recreated the memory of this little burnt down restaurant with this dish and I am really excited about it.

Lemon Chicken

4 chicken breast OR 12 chicken tenders cut in bite size pieces
2 eggs
1 C flour
salt and pepper to taste
2 T chopped green onion
cooking oil

Heat oil in frying pan for frying at about 375 or medium-high heat. You will need enough oil that is is about 1/2 inch deep at the bottom of your pan.

Whisk eggs in small bowl and set aside.

Combine flour, salt and pepper, and green onion in bowl and set aside.

Dip chicken in egg wash and then in flour mixture. Fry in oil until browned and chicken is cooked through, flipping half way.

Lemon Sauce (adapted from the A Pinch of Salt Lake cookbook)

1/4 C sugar
2 T cornstarch
1 C chicken broth or 1 chicken bouillon cube dissolved in 1 C boiling water
2 T soy sauce
1/3 C lemon juice
1/4 C sliced green onions
red pepper flakes optional if you like a little kick with your meal

In a small saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, and broth. Cook until opaque (you can see through it). Add soy sauce and lemon juice and keep warm until ready to use.

Drizzle sauce over cooked chicken and sprinkle onions over top. Serve with steamed rice.

side note: I didn't use all the sauce. Just use as much as you would like!

Brownie Week, Day 5

2008-10-10T00:01:00.001-06:00

Today is the last day of brownie week here on my blog. I really appreciate all the fun comments and suggestions. I hope we have found a brownie for everyone to enjoy.

Today's brownie features caramel, which was one of the most requested brownie this week! And no, those aren't nuts on top, they are little Kraft caramel bits. Aren't they adorable?!
Chocolate Fudge Brownie with Caramel Icing

1 1/3 C flour
3/4 C cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 C butter
1/2 C brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 C Kraft Caramel Bits, plus some to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 325. Grease a 9x13 inch pan. As you can see from the picture, it doesn't make a real thick brownie, so use a smaller pan and adjust cooking time if you are making the brownie without the icing on top.

Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl

Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla in separate bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Add dry ingredients and 1 C caramel bits and mix until well incorporated. The batter will be very thick. Spread in in prepared pan.

Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick entered in center comes out with moist crumbs attached.

Let cool completely

Caramel Icing

1/2 C butter or margarine
1 C packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 C milk
3 C powdered sugar

Melt butter or margarine in sauce pan. Stir in brown sugar and salt. Bring to a hard boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in milk. Return to boil for 1 minute. Cook until lukewarm. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add more milk or powdered sugar to get the desired consistency.

Melt 1 C chocolate chips and drizzle over icing. Sprinkle with caramel bits.

BROWNIE TIP: A lot of people have asked how I cut my brownies. The secret is to cut them with a very sharp knife right after they have chilled in the fridge for 2-3 hours. You get a nice clean cut that way and it does not dry the brownie out in the fridge. It also helps tremendously to line your pan with foil before baking so you can take the whole brownie out in one piece and cut it on a cutting board.

I hope you have enjoyed Brownie Week as much as I have. Please come back and visit my blog often and I would love to see any posts you do on these brownies or any variation of them. Don't forget to enter the giveaway on Monday's post if you haven't already and come back on Monday to see if you've won!

COMING SOON: lots of exercise and some healthy cooking

Brownie Week, Day 4

2008-10-09T00:01:00.002-06:00

Day 4 already?! I don't think my jeans are ready for this week to be up just yet! But, skip breakfast and lunch, and probably dinner too because here is another good brownie. Save all your calories for dessert today!

Cookies and Cream Brownie

Bake your favorite brownie recipe-either from a box or from scratch

Get your favorite homemade or store bought cream cheese frosting and mix in about 10 oreos that have taken a whirl through your food processor. (it's late and the only word I could think of was "whirl", sorry)

Here's a good cream cheese frosting recipe in case you don't have one:
3 oz cream cheese
2 T butter or margarine
2 T milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 lb powdered sugar

Add all ingredients except powdered sugar and mix well. Gradually mix in powdered sugar and add more milk as needed to get the consistency you like.

Frost your completely cooled brownies and refrigerate until firm

Melt 1/2 C butter with 6 oz chocolate chips and add another 4-5 crushed oreos. Spread over oreo cream cheese frosting and refrigerate until firm.

Keep cool in fridge until ready to slice and serve.

Don't forget you have until Friday at midnight to enter to win my cookbook giveaway. Just leave a message on Monday's post telling my about your dream brownie! Hopefully by tomorrow we will have covered almost everybody's requests! Thank you!

Brownie Week, Day 3

2008-10-08T00:01:00.003-06:00

Okay, these were my favorite brownies of the whole week. I made a double recipe for a baby shower and a family party, and I still had so many leftover, which I was really excited about. The problem was that I kept eating them and after giving lots away to friends and neighbors, I finally had to throw them out because I couldn't contain myself to just 2 a day. It was bad! Some people might know these as the famous BYU brownie, but these are so much better. These are a rich chocolate brownie with a mint frosting and chocolate topping. Are you noticing a theme with these brownies this week? It's like eating a giant Andes mint! I'm not kidding though, these things are evil! So many of you said that a mint brownie would be your favorite and here it is!
Cream Mint Brownies

1 C sugar
1 1/2 C butter, softened and divided
4 eggs
16 oz canned chocolate syrup
1 C flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 C powdered sugar
1 T milk
1 tsp peppermint extract
2-3 drops green food coloring
6 oz chocolate chips

Combine sugar and 1/2 C butter; blend in eggs, chocolate syrup, flour, and baking powder. Pour batter into a greased 9x13 pan or jelly roll pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Place in refrigerator until cool. Blend in another 1/2 C butter and powdered sugar in a mixing bowl. Add milk, peppermint extract, and food coloring. Mix well and spread over chocolate brownie layer. Refrigerate until firm. Melt chocolate chips and remaining 1/2 C butter and stir until well mixed. Pour over mint layer and refrigerate until firm. Cut into squares and keep in fridge until served.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for the Cookies, Brownies, and More cookbook. Leave a comment on Monday's brownie post telling me what your dream brownie would be made of by Friday, October 10th at 11:59pm. I will post the winner on Monday, October 13th. Good luck!

Brownie Week, Day 2 and Tuesdays With Dorie

2008-10-07T00:01:00.002-06:00

FIRST-The Brownie for Day 2: White Chocolate Blondies with Lemon and White Chocolate. That is an incredibly long name for a brownie, I know. I used the blondie recipe found in the Cookies, Brownies, and Bars cookbook that I'm giving away. (Be sure to leave a comment on Monday's post with what your dream brownie is to be entered to win!) I put a layer of the lightest lemon frosting over the blondie and topped it off with white chocolate. I cut these beauties into just 1 inch squares because they are so rich. The combination of the lemon and white chocolate is just heavenly!

White Chocolate Blondies with Lemon and White Chocolate Frosting

*start with your favorite blondie recipe (couldn't post the one I used for publisher rights stuff) and add 6 oz white chocolate chips before cooking.

Lemon Frosting

1/2 C butter, softened
2 C powdered sugar

Mix well

Add:
1 tsp lemon extract
1 T milk
2-3 drops of yellow food coloring (optional)

Blend until light and fluffy. Pour over blondies that are completely cool and refrigerate until firm

Topping
1/2 C melted butter
6 oz white chocolate chips

Melt together and spread over lemon filling. Top with lemon zest for garnish. Refridgerate until firm. Cut into 1 inch squares and keep in fridge until served.

TIP: Don't forget to cover your pan completely in foil before baking but be sure to spray that with cooking oil before pouring brownie mix in it. It makes it so easy to take out of the pan to cut the brownies afterward.

SECOND: Tuesdays With Dorie. This is my first Tuesday cooking with Dorie and it was absolutely perfect because the recipe was Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake. I know, perfect, right?! It was a fun new recipe to try and you can find it on pages 264 and 265 in the Baking from my home to yours cookbook by Dorie Greenspan.

The brownie rose a TON in the oven and then the middle fell. According to the recipe, I shouldn't be alarmed by that happening, except that the outside edges were way overcooked by the time the middle was cooked through. I cut those burnt sides off the level the cake and it all worked out just fine though. Also, I have a hard time cooking with nuts, especially when they aren't ground to fine pieces, so even though the topping called for whole peanuts smothered in caramel sauce and it looked beautiful, I just couldn't do it. Instead I covered the whole cake in about 2 cups of sweetened coconut, sprinkled it with about 1/2 cup of chopped semi-sweet chocolate chips and popped it back into the warm oven to melt the chocolate a little bit. Then I melted 10 kraft caramels in about 2 tsp of milk and drizzled that over the top. This cake was SO good! I had to cut it to take some pictures and just wanted to taste one bite so I could write about it, but within about 30 seconds the whole piece was completely devoured. I hate it when I do that! I will definitely be making this again though!

Brownie Week, Day 1, and a GIVEAWAY!

2008-10-06T00:01:00.001-06:00

Yeah! It's Brownie Week and my first GIVEAWAY here at Satisfying My Sweet Tooth!
I am so excited about sharing this fun week with you!

And for the first brownie of the week: Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Bars! You just can't go wrong with the peanut butter and chocolate combination. It's been one of my favorites as long as I can remember. Reeses' Peanut Butter Cups were my favorite growing up and the one thing I would trade any other candy for at Halloween time and then of course M&Ms started making the peanut butter m&ms and I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I tried those. Genius! Now, I found this brownie recipe and I'm in love all over again! A fudgy chocolate brownie with peanut butter chips, a layer of rich peanut butter filling, and then a solid chocolate layer on top. Absolutely amazing!

CHOCOLATE-PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE BARS

1 box Triple Chocolate Brownie Mix
1/2 C peanut butter chips
1/2 C dry roasted peanuts, chopped (optional)

Peanut Butter Filling

3/4 C creamy peanut butter
1 C marshmallow cream
6 T butter, softened
3/4 powdered sugar

Chocolate Glaze

6 oz bittersweet baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
5 T butter
1 T light corn syrup

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9 inch square pan with foil, letting foil extend above pan on opposite sides. Coat foil with nonstick spray.

Prepare brownie mix as package directs for fudgy brownies. Stir in peanut butter chips and peanuts. Spread evenly in prepared pan.

Bake 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs attached. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

FILLING: beat peanut butter, marshmallow cream and butter in medium bowl until well blended. Reduce speed to low and add powdered sugar. Beat until blended. Spread evenly over brownie.

GLAZE: microwave chocolate and butter, stirring at 30 second intervals until melted and smooth. Cool slightly before stirring in corn syrup. Spread evenly over filling. Refrigerate 1 hour until filling is firm and glaze sets.

Lift foil by ends onto a cutting board and cut 6 rows lengthwise and across. Store in fridge to keep firm.
Yeah! It's my first giveaway! I'm giving away this awesome cook book from Williams Sonoma! Leave a comment on this post telling me what your dream brownie would be made of. Be sure to comment by Friday, October 10th at 11:59 pm. I will post the winner on Monday, October 13th.

Good luck!

Brownie Week and a Giveaway

2008-10-05T18:55:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow starts Brownie week and a giveaway!
Be sure to come back and check it out!

Creamy Squash Soup

2008-10-02T16:09:00.007-06:00

Dear Paula Dean,

Thank you for creating and sharing this amazing recipe for squash soup. It is surprisingly healthy compared to your other creations that I am familiar with. My original plan was to make a lot of soup to freeze for me to eat while being stuck inside in my pj's all day long during the winter months. Those months are long and cold and depressing for me and now, thanks to this awesome recipe, I no longer have any soup to eat, for I have devoured it all before even getting it to the freezer. It was so creamy and flavorful and I am sure I got at least 2 of my veggie servings for the day while eating it. This recipe will forever stay in my recipe box and I will look forward to making it every year when my good friend and neighbor gets an overload of squash in her garden. (thank you SO much, Steph!)

Thanks again,

Squash Soup Forever

Creamy Squash Soup

2 pounds squash, halved, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 1/2 C diced onion
1 1/2 C carrots, peeled and diced
3 cans chicken broth
1/2 tsp salt
2 T butter
1/2 C light or heavy cream (this could be omitted and it still tastes amazing)

In a medium saucepan, combine squash, onion, carrots, broth and salt. Simmer, uncovered, until squash is very tender, about 40 minutes. Puree soup in a blender or food processor with the butter. Whisk cream into soup.

Paula's recipe suggests serving with sour cream, but I was scared to ruin it with that. Instead, I drizzled a little more cream and sprinkled some crushed toasted walnuts.

COMING TO MY BLOG NEXT WEEK: It's brownie week with a new delicious brownie recipe each day and a give-away to celebrate all those calories! Here's a preview...don't miss it!

Apple Spice Cake

2008-10-01T12:33:00.004-06:00

So, it must really be fall because I have been craving anything with apples in it. This little recipe I created yesterday was inspired by the best ever caramel apples. You know, the ones that start with a perfectly crisp apple that are dipped in caramel, then in white chocolate, and then rolled all over in cinnamon and sugar. The best ones are from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. And, although the cake tasted really good, it wasn't what I was going for as far as tasting like those apples. It cured my apple craving for the day, but I'm still going to have to play around with it and come up with something a little closer to my RMCF apples. This was definitely the most moist cake I have ever made and it wasn't one I could just cut a piece of and eat it while hanging over my kitchen sink like I usually do. I had to actually eat like a civilized person with a fork and plate because it was kind of messy. I know the pictures don't make it look all that appealing, but trust me, it was SO good!

Apple Spice Cake

CAKE

1 C flour

1 C whole wheat flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp cloves

¼ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp ginger

1 ½ C sugar

1 C oats

½ C butter, softened

2 eggs

½ C buttermilk

Mix flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, sugar, and oats. Reserve 1 ½ C crumbly mixture for topping. To the remaining mixture, add butter, eggs, and buttermilk. Pour into greased 9 x 13 pan and bake for 20 minutes at 350.

FILLING

3 C chopped apples

4 T melted butter

1 C chopped walnuts

1 C brown sugar

mix all together and spread on top of cooked cake mixture

TOPPING

remaining crumb mixture

2 T melted butter

mix well and sprinkle on top of apple filling

Bake for 20 minutes at 350 or until toothpick comes out mostly clean

DRIZZLE

6 oz white chocolate, melted

20 caramels, melted and mixed with 1 T milk

When cake is cool, drizzle melted caramel and white chocolate over the top. Cut into squares and enjoy!

Editor's Note: It's taken me way too long to do this post and I'm giving up, but blogger is acting REALLY weird right now and giving me all sorts of error messages when I'm trying to publish the post. Sorry if this recipe makes no sense, but I'm done trying to figure it out for now.

Daring Bakers Challenge

2008-09-27T09:10:00.003-06:00

My first Daring Bakers Challenge is completed! Yeah for me! It was definitely different than what I am used to, so it was a good challenge and a good learning experience. This challenge was brought to us by Natalie from Gluten A Go Go and Shel, of Musings From the Fishbowl and they chose a vegan and/or gluten free recipe for us. We were challenged to make Lavash Crackers from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice, and then we had to come up with a salsa, dip, or relish for the crackers...Vegan style, of course! There are so many variations of what you could do with this challenge so be sure to see what other Daring Bakers did with it this month!

The crackers were kind of fun to do. After the dough had risen and I rolled it out super thin and then baked it as a sheet before breaking them into bite size pieces. And because I can only think about desserts I covered the crackers in cinnamon and sugar before baking them and made an awesome caramel sauce to dip them in. My finished product had a fun little photo shoot too!

The recipe for the Lavash Crackers can be found here.

Vegan Caramel Sauce

2 C granulated sugar
3/4 C soy milk, rice milk, or other non dairy milk of choice
3/4 C sucanat (this is a dark, rough sugar that still has a lot of the molasses left in it; almost comparable to brown sugar)
1/3 C maple syrup or brown rice syrup
1 T water
1 T arrowroot (this is a starch, or thickening agent; 2 tsp arrowroot=1 T cornstarch)
2 T vegan margarine
1 tsp vanilla

In a small saucepan, place the soy milk, Sucanat, and maple syrup and whisk well to combine. Cook over medium heat, while whisking occasionally for 3 minutes. In a small bowl, combine arrowroot and water and then whisk the mixture into the saucepan. Cooke the mixture, while whisking constantly and additional 2-3 minutes or until it thickens. (Cornstarch will thicken at a higher temperature than the arrowroot will) Remove the saucepan from heat and whisk in remaining ingredients. Ready to serve, or store in airtight container in the refridgerator and reheat as needed.

I don't think I'll ever make this again, but I was very grateful for the experience to learn as much as I did.

Thanks for the challenge!

Mom's Birthday Cake

2008-09-21T17:00:00.003-06:00

My good friend and neighbor, Steph, (some of you may know her from Stephanie's Kitchen, and if you don't yet, you need to get to know her, or at least her blog. She is awesome!) gave me this recipe to try to make a special birthday cake for my mom. This was a very involved recipe and the only reason I would spend so much time on a cake is for my mom. I heart my mom! She's number one! Plus, my two sisters and I dragged our kids all the way to Panguitch, Utah (aka middle of NOWHERE) to celebrate with my mom there. You are so worth it, mom!

Here's the recipe for the White Chocolate Truffle and Choclate Fudge Layer Cake from epicurious.com

Look at the ooey gooey filling! Def need a glass a milk to wash this one down! It was rich!

I substituted chocolate circles for the stars like the recipe called for. I'm on a circle kick right now and I had plans to make it extra fancy, but ran out of time. The circles were probably my favorite part, but keep them in the refridge until you are ready to serve the cake because they do get kinda melty. I had quite a few left over though and made sure to save some of the frosting too so I could eat them together for my midnight snack. I could almost taste each little calorie with each bite!

Lemon Pudding Souffle

2008-09-16T14:02:00.004-06:00

I tried a souffle! I know, scary right?! It wasn't too bad at all! It raised all pretty and didn't even sink in the middle. I did have to go buy me a cute little souffle dish, but that was half of the fun. So, the top of this pudding souffle was very light and spongy textured. At first bite I thought I almost could have eaten half of it all by myself, but then I got down the pudding part, and yum! It was sweet and sour and rich and lemony and just so good! It was to die for still warm from the oven, but I have to admit that I ate some for breakfast the next morning and it was almost as good all chilled from the fridge. I got the recipe from Family Fun magazine. In case you aren't familiar, it's this great little magazine that comes with craft ideas, recipes, and all sorts of fun things for families with kids. We love it in my household! So when I saw the recipe in there, I thought, how hard could it be?!

Click HERE for the recipe!

I topped it off with some powdered sugar because there's no such thing as too much sugar in my house!

This definitely is a good starter souffle though. It helped me get over my fear and now I can't wait to try mini souffles, because I always say that everything tastes better when it's cute and little, and I am ready to make my own versions too like dark chocolate souffle with fresh strawberries, and caramel souffle with baked apples! My mouth is already watering! Yum!

Here it is...

2008-09-08T12:37:00.004-06:00

I have definitely been baking the days away, but haven't gotten around to posting all of my fantastic creations for awhile now.

Here is one that is very near and dear to my heart though. I made this recipe for the first time not quite a year ago and continue to make it for almost every dinner party we have because it's always such a huge hit. Everyone is always asking for the recipe, and I hesitate a little to give it out because it's just that good. I feel like I want to be the only one who gets credit for it, I guess. People seriously make noises when they are eating it it's that good! But, the time has come to share it, so here is the ultimate best recipe you will ever find for sweet pork.

Becky's Sweet Pork

carnitas fried pork from Costco (see picture at bottom)
1-2 cans chicken broth
1 C packed brown sugar
1 T minced garlic
1/4 C minced onion (I actually use the dried stuff, but fresh works well too)
1 tsp cumin

cook pork as per directions on package
shred pork and put in large saucepan or crock pot.

Add all other ingredients and simmer for at least 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally. As for the chicken broth, I use 1 C when making chimichungas, or 2 C when making salads because I like it with a little more juice then.

For the chimichungas: take an uncooked tortilla (also from Costco) and put about 1/2 C of the hot meat filling in it. Fold the two sides over and roll, keeping it closed with a toothpick to fry it...that's right...you deep fry it in about 1 inch of oil so it gets all crispy and crunchy! Yum! Turn it when the bottom is brown to cook both sides. Top with all the toppings you want: lettuce, cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, salsa, olives, green onions, etc. I like to serve them with some homemade spanish rice (recipe another time) and black beans.

For the salad: (sorry, no picture), cook the tortilla as per directions on package, and layer the hot meat filling and everything else on top including your rice and beans and a lot more lettuce than with the chimichungas. It's just a little healthier with the same amazingly good taste though.

Here is the pork and tortillas you get from Costco. They are in the refrigerated cases that are open and counter height. I have been told by some friends and family that their Costco doesn't carry the pork, so good luck! If you don't find it, just slow cook some pork and shred it on your own.

Whole Wheat Cookin'

2008-08-28T09:48:00.006-06:00

I've made a new resolution to not bake every day anymore because it's really gotten out of control. All my waking up every morning at 5:30 am to go work my butt off at the gym was doing me no good when I just come home and load up on butter, sugar, and chocolate! So, I'm going to try to just bake once a week...or maybe twice. But for now, I've been trying some more healthy recipes that I'm actually really excited about!

I have to admit I was very proud of my beautiful, delicious, and mostly healthy pizza we had last night. I used the CPK Honey-Wheat Pizza Dough recipe and then loaded it with the goods. I had to take a picture before I cooked it just in case while it was in the oven my kids escaped out the front door and before I could catch up with them, ran to the back of the house, and then back to the front again and had me running circles for a few minutes before I could catch them. Don't worry, I saved it and it was perfect!

California Pizza Kitchen Honey-Wheat Dough
(makes 2 individual size pizzas)

1 tsp yeast
1/2 C plus 1 tsp warm water
1 C flour
1/2 C whole wheat flour
5 tsp honey
1 tsp salt
1 T extra virgin olive oil plus 1 tsp for coating

Mix yeast and water and set aside. Mix all other ingredients in large glass bowl. Make a well in the middle to add yeast mixture. Use a wooden spoon to combine. Once initial mixing is done, lightly oil your hands and knead for about 5 minutes before forming into a ball.

Lightly oil the dough ball and your glass bowl. Place dough ball inside bowl and cover with plastic wrap so it's air tight. Let rise until double in size, about 2 hours. Punch down, reseal bowl, and let rise again. You can refrigerate it over night, but I didn't plan that far ahead.

Divide dough into two even pieces and shape on a lightly floured board or counter. (I used cornmeal instead of flour) Top with toppings of your choice and bake at 500 degrees for about 8-10 minutes on a preheated pizza stone.

These were my toppings in the following order:

pesto
mozzarella cheese
crumbled bacon
pine nuts
carmelized onions
goat cheese
tomatoes
more mozzarella and goat cheese

My whole wheat cinnamon rolls turned out to be more of a dessert than breakfast because I started out healthy, but kept adding more and more goodness to them. They were so light and sweet even without a glaze, but I did have to add one anyway. The juice from the berries just dripped all over the place without making it soggy though. My mouth it watering just looking at the pictures! I can't wait to make these again!

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls with Mixed Berry Filling

3 C white flour
2 C whole wheat flour
1/3 C sugar
1 tsp salt
2 pkg dry yeast
1 C milk
1/2 C water
1/2 C butter
2 eggs

Filling:
1 C chopped berries (I used the frozen mix from Costco that has raspberries, blueberries, and marionberries)
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C chopped pecans or walnuts
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 C butter, melted

Combine 2 1/2 C white flour and whole wheat flour in large bowl. Add sugar, salt, and yeast. Combine milk, water, and butter in pan. Heat until very warm. Gradually add to dry ingredients. Add eggs and flour. Let rise to double.

Combine all ingredients for filling.

Roll out to large rectangle (about the size of a cookie sheet) and spread filling over the entire thing. Roll up lengthwise and cut into 1 inch slices. Bake in 9x13 casserole dish at 375 for 25-30 minutes. Makes 15 rolls. Best served warm.

Top with glaze of powdered sugar, milk, and lemon juice, if you are like me and have to add more sugar to everything.

Vegetables!

2008-08-26T16:14:00.004-06:00

If I use vegetables to make cupcakes does that make them healthy? If I eat 5 of them, can I count them as my "5-a-day"? I don't see why not!

A friend of mine gave me these recipes for Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes and for Carrot Cake that I couldn't wait to try, especially because the zucchini in my garden is still very plentiful and I have to be honest and say that my neighbors are probably as sick of zucchini bread as I am. This was a good way to mix it up a little bit.

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

1 1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 C butter, melted
3/4 C vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C buttermilk
2 C grated zucchini (squeeze all the water out of it too)
1 C mini chocolate chips
2 C flour (I made an effort to make it a little more healthy and substituted
1 C flour for 1 C whole wheat flour)
1 C cocoa
1 tsp allspice (I didn't have any of this so I added a little cloves and nutmeg
and called it good)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda

In a medium bowl, mix together sugar, butter, and oil. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in vanilla, buttermilk, zucchini, and chocolate chips.

In a separate bowl, sift together all dry ingredients. Add to zucchini mixture and mix well.

Separate into greased muffin tins. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes for minis and 20 for regular size.

(Warning: this makes A LOT! It made 8 dozen mini muffins, so you may want to half the recipe if you aren't planning on making them for an event or giving them away to neighbors like I always have to do)

Ruth's Carrot Cake

1 C corn or canola oil
1 1/4 C honey
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 C flour
1 C whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 T cinnamon (be generous)
3 C grated carrots
1 C chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
1 C raisins (optional)

Heat oven to 325. Mix oil and honey well. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Sift flour and other dry ingredients. Add to oil and honey mixture and mix until just blended. Fold in grated carrots (and nuts and/or raisins). Bake in 2 greased and floured 8x8 baking pans for 30-35 minutes.

I made cupcakes, of course, and I baked them for 15 minutes. It makes 3 dozen normal size cupcakes...again, a lot!

These were amazing though, and actually healthy for the most part. I didn't add any frosting to them either, although it was really tempting to slap on a huge glob of cream cheese frosting. I was trying to be healthy though! I honestly ate 2 right out of the oven and 3 the next morning for breakfast!

I can't even get my kids to stop eating both of these yummy cupcakes. I'm actually not trying to stop them either because I like the fact that they are getting some vegetables of their own free will and choice. One less battle I have to fight today!

O Henry Bars

2008-08-21T09:52:00.005-06:00

This is one of my favorite treats because they are so easy and I love anything with peanut butter and chocolate, but it always makes SO much! It was perfect to share at a camp-out last weekend with our church in the beautiful mountains of Utah. I definitely don't recommend camping with your 4 year old, 1 year old, and 3 month old though. What a night! I was up all night making sure the baby wasn't too cold, the 1 year old was in my sleeping bag with me so he stayed warm, and my 4 year old cried from 2:30am-3:30am because she was thirsty. I finally gave in and got my shoes and flashlight to get her a water bottle from our car, trying not to wake everyone else up. About 3 minutes after she had a drink, you guessed it...she had to go to the bathroom! The campsite was really nice and had flushing toilets, but they were quite a little hike down a hill on a little path surrounded by trees and bushes and of course I had to walk through other people's campsites as well. I had never even been down to the bathrooms, but those were pretty much the instructions my husband gave me. I grabbed Brooklyn by the hand and we started our trek. We didn't get too far when I heard a BIG animal in the bushes not too far from us. Now, I'm not a good camper to begin with. I hate dirt and bugs and am terrified of bears, so this was a struggle for me to be there anyway. I didn't even want to see whatever it was I heard, so I grabbed Brooklyn and ran back to our tent. That's when I woke up my husband and told him he needed to take her to the bathroom in the bushes right outside our tent, and he did. So, after a cold and sleepless night, we decided to wait until the kids were a little older before trying that again. But, we sure did have some good treats! (p.s. I found out the next morning that a few weeks ago they had to move from that same spot because of bear problems! I'm glad I didn't come face to face with one in the middle of the night!)

After that long story, here's the recipe...

O Henry Bars

2 C Karo Syrup
2 C sugar
1 C peanut butter (creamy or chunky both work great)
6 C rice krispies

Frosting
1 bag chocolate chips
1 bag butterscotch chips

Boil Karo Syrup and sugar for 2 minutes stirring constantly. Remove from heat and mix in peanut butter until melted. Add rice krispies and mix well. Spread on cookie sheet with raised edges. Let cool completely.

Melt chocolate chips and butterscotch chips together. Spread over cooled krispie mixture. Let chill until frosting solidifies.

Butter Pecan Shortbread Minis with Caramel Icing

2008-08-14T14:42:00.004-06:00

Yum! Can I just say that I was eating these so fast that I almost didn't have any left to take a picture?! I was really in the mood for some shortbread but have been thinking for days on what to do with it exactly. Today I didn't want to wait any longer and just started going with it. And yes, I was singing the shortbread song in my head as I was kneading the dough. ("mama loves shortnin' mama loves shortnin', mama loves bakin' shortnin' bread") I'm not even sure if those are the right words, but those were the ones running through my mind. Anyway, as soon as I could smell them cooking throughout my whole house, caramel popped into my head and I ran with it. My only complaint with this recipe is that it didn't make enough!

Butter Pecan Shortbread
1 1/2 C flour
3 T packed brown sugar
1/2 C butter, softened
1/4 C chopped pecans
1/4 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325; spray mini muffin tin with cooking spray.

Mix flour and brown sugar with fork; cut in butter with pastry blender or fork. Add pecans and vanilla and knead until well mixed and smooth.

Divide dough between mini muffin tin and press down with finger tips. Cook for 20 minutes.

Caramel Icing
3 T butter
1/2 C packed brown sugar
dash of salt
1/2 C milk
1 1/2 C powdered sugar

Melt butter in medium saucepan on stove. Add brown sugar and dash of salt. Boil for 2 minutes stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add milk. Return to boil for about 1 minute. Let cool to lukewarm and add powdered sugar. Add more milk as needed for the consistency you would like.

Holding the base of the cookie, dip the top it into the icing and roll a little to make sure the whole top is covered. Place on wire rack to cool completely.

(makes 24 mini cookies)

Someday, I really am going to start baking healthy. But, I had a really good workout this morning, so I'm justifying my baking as usual.

This is my daughter, Brooklyn. She is going to be 5 next month! She wanted to be in the kitchen with me so I kept her busy making a fruit loop necklace, which she was so proud of she wanted me to take her picture with it! Cute, huh!

Tres Leches Cake

2008-08-10T20:36:00.005-06:00

So it was our friend's birthday this past week and his request for a birthday cake was Tres Leches, or three milk cake. I had never tried to make Tres Leches let alone eaten it before, so it was a new challenge but lots of fun.

I did some research on the internet and found quite a few very different recipes. I pulled a little from each one that I liked and came up with my own very successful recipe. The cake was incredibly moist, but not soggy. It had a very rich flavor to it and I really liked the cinnamon I added too. It was a hit at the birthday party and that was the goal. If you ever need a recipe for Tres Leches, here is a good one!

Tres Leches Cake

1 1/4 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 C sugar plus 2 T sugar
1/3 C oil
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla plus 2 tsp vanilla
1 C plus 1/2 C milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 C plus 1 1/2 C heavy whipping cream
1/8 tsp salt
cinnamon for sprinkling

combine flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl. In medium bowl, combine oil, sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla. Add eggs to sugar mixture one at a time, mixing well after adding each egg. Add 1/2 C milk and mix well. Add flour mixture and mix well.

pour batter into two 8 inch round cake pans that have been sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 325 for 30 minutes or until cooked completely and inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Let cake cook until room temperature and then turn them over onto a cookie sheet with raised edges. Prick all over cake with fork and cool completely in refrigerator.

Whisk 1 C milk, 1 can sweetened condensed milk, and 1 C heavy cream together. Slowly pour over cooled cake. Refrigerate for one hour, occasionally spooning milk mixture over cake as it spills off.

In a separate bowl, mix 1 1/2 C heavy cream, 2 tsp vanilla, and 2 T sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Frsst top of one of the cakes and sprinkle with cinnamon. Put the other cake on top and frost top and sides. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon.

(sorry I don't have a pictures of what the inside looked like...I thought that might be a little weird to bring it to the party already cut up, or to start taking pictures of it while I was there. I'll have to get over my phobia, I guess!)

Choco-Blonde Brownies

2008-08-06T14:31:00.005-06:00

I know I have a new post almost every day, but I really just get so excited about food, especially since I started this little blog of mine.

So today, my 4 year old asked if we could make m&m cookies. I got so excited that she wanted to bake with me, but I thought cookies would be a little boring, so why not jazz it up a little bit. The recipe on the m&m baking bits bag was for rainbow blondies, but I wanted to go even a little beyond that, so I modified it just a bit and the result was definitely blog-worthy. I did a layer of chocolate brownies, and a layer of m&m blondies with more m&ms on top. So rich and delicious!

Choco-Blonde Brownies
1 C butter
1 1/2 C packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 C flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 T cocoa powder

Grease 9x13 baking dish and preheat oven to 350.

Combine butter and sugar and blend well. Add eggs, vanilla, flour, and baking soda and mix well. Pour half of the batter into a separate bowl and add cocoa powder. To the other bowl, mix 1/2 bag of mini baking m&m's.

Spread chocolate batter on bottom of pan and blonde batter with m&ms on top of that. Sprinkle with more m&ms.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until cooked all the way through. Cool, cut, serve, eat! Yum!

Now I just have to get them out of my house before I eat them all.

Lemon Ricotta Muffins

2008-08-05T10:44:00.005-06:00

I made this recipe a few years ago for a breakfast gathering and lost the recipe, but I just found it again and because I'm on this lemon kick I couldn't wait to make them! These muffins are so lite and flavorful with the blend of lemon and almond. They are perfect for a summertime brunch! Yum! Of course I like to make them mini because small things are always cuter and then you can eat more than one and feel okay about it.
Lemon Ricotta Muffins
Recipe courtesy of Giada Dr Laurentiis

2 C flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C sugar plus some for sprinkling on tops of muffins
1/2 C butter, room temp
1 T grated lemon zest
1 C ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 T fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/3 C thinly sliced almonds (I opted out of these this time, but it's good either way)

Line muffin tins with liners or spray with nonstick spray. Preheat oven to 350.

Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl to blend well. In separate bowl, beat 1 C sugar, butter, and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Beat in the ricotta, egg, lemon juice, and almost extract. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended.

Divide batter among muffin cups. Sprinkle the sliced almonds and then the sugar on top of each one. Bake for 20 minutes for regular sized cups and 10 minutes for minis.

Makes 12 regular size, or 30 mini muffins.