Apple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

If you love carrot cake, you will LOVE this cake. Heck, even if you don’t like carrot cake, you will love this cake.

If I remember correctly, this recipe came from one of my mom’s best friends. Her name is not Jill, but she must have gotten it from someone named Jill because the recipe is called “Jill’s Apple Cake”. Whatever it’s called, make it today. You will not regret it!

JILL’S APPLE CAKE

Cake: 4 c. diced apples (I use Granny Smith)
2 c. sugar
½ c. cooking oil
2 beaten eggs
2 t. vanilla
1 c. nuts, chopped (I use walnuts)
1 c. flaked coconut
2 c. flour
2 t. baking soda
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. salt

Frosting: 1 stick butter, softened
1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
2 t. vanilla
1 box powder sugar

In a large bowl, combine apples and sugar. Set aside. In another bowl, combine oil, eggs, vanilla, nuts, and coconut. Add to apple mix. Combine remaining ingredients and add to apple mix. Stir to combine. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes in 9 x 13 inch pan. Mix frosting ingredients and spread over cooled cake. Take a bite and try to avoid devouring the whole cake instantly!

NOTE: My hubby is not a big frosting fan so he loves this cake, but thinks there is too much frosting. Next time, I’ll probably only make 2/3 or 1/2 the frosting recipe. It is by far the best cream cheese frosting recipe I’ve ever used, though.

Thanks for the delicious cake recipe, Jill – whoever you are!

Tomorrow I’m going to link this up to Tutorial Tuesday

Pumpkin Bread with Crumb Topping

I’m still trying to use up the canned pumpkin I had leftover from when I made the Pumpkin-Ginger Waffles a little bit ago. A quick internet search turned up this delicious recipe from The Hungry Housewife. One batch made enough for one loaf pan (for small group time at church) and 10 regular size muffins.

PUMPKIN BREAD WITH CRUMB TOPPING
by The Hungry Housewife

INGREDIENTS:
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup white sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
½ tablespoon vanilla
3 eggs
1 can (15 oz) Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup buttermilk
½ to 1 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease TWO 8 x 3 3/4 x 2 pans (those disposable foil ones at the store). Cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, alternating with the buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour. Fold in the pumpkin and toasted walnuts. Equally pour into the pans and top with crumb mixture (recipe below). Bake for 50-60 minutes, until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

CRUMB TOPPING

¼ cup white sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ cup cold butter, cubed
½ cup oatmeal
½ cup walnuts

In a medium bowl, combine 1st five ingredients with a pastry blender or 2 forks, so it resembles, well "crumbles". Mix in oatmeal and walnuts.

Of course I had to try them as soon as they were fresh from the oven:

Yummy!

Now, I just need to find another recipe to use up the last little bit of my pumpkin (who would think one large can of pumpkin would spread so far?)…

Pumpkin-Ginger Waffles

If there is one breakfast you must make this fall, it is Pumpkin-Ginger Waffles.

I found the recipe a couple weeks ago as I was going through my 50+ magazines to be recycled and knew I had to try it. I figured when I couldn’t sleep past 4:30am this past Sunday it would be the perfect time to surprise my hubby with some homemade breakfast.

I topped mine with pure maple syrup, a dollop of whipped cream and chopped pecans. They were delicious and definitely made the “make again” list.

PUMPKIN-GINGER WAFFLES
Makes: 10 waffles (1/4 cup batter each)

1-1/4 cup flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

Combine first six ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk eggs (avoid having one roll onto the floor and causing a big mess), buttermilk, pumpkin, sugar and vanilla. Combine with flour mixture. Stir in butter but do not overmix. Let sit for about 5 minutes while your waffle iron heats. Make waffles using about 1/4 cup batter per waffle. Keep warm in 200 degree oven, if desired. Top with syrup, whipped cream and chopped pecans. Enjoy your delicious fall breakfast!

I’m linkin’ up to Tutorial Tuesday at Hope Studios. Go check out other great projects and recipes!

Butter Pecan Turtle Cookie Bars

Today was another birthday at work. I love using the guys at work as my guinea pigs so today was a new recipe – Butter Pecan Turtle Cookie Bars.

I came across this recipe as I was flipping through the cookbook my mom made me for Christmas a few years ago. I don’t remember her ever making these growing up so I don’t know where she got the recipe from, but they sounded delicious.

The guys at work were not disappointed in the least and quickly devoured the pan. In fact, hubby stole a few pieces before I even brought them this morning. Of course the pregnant lady is the one who got blamed for sneaking the pieces prior to morning break!

BUTTER PECAN TURTLE COOKIE BARS
Makes about 3 dozen (Yeah, right!)

CRUST:
2 c. flour
1 c. brown sugar
½ c. butter, softened
1 c. pecan halves

CARAMEL:
2/3 c. butter
½ c. brown sugar

TOPPING:
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl combine all crust ingredients except pecans. Beat at medium speed until well mixed and fine (2-3 minutes). Firmly press on bottom of 9 x 13 pan. Place nuts evenly over crust.

In 1 qt. sauce pan combine the butter and brown sugar for the caramel. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until entire surface begins to boil. Boil one minute, stirring constantly. Pour evenly over pecans.

Bake 18-22 minutes or until entire caramel layer is bubbly. Remove from oven. Immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips. Cool completely.

NOTE: Chocolate chips never firmed back up for me which made it a little difficult to cut clean bars and prevented them from being stacked on a plate like brownies. I will make these again, but may try to make the caramel layer a little thicker…how I do that without adding more butter who knows. Any ideas?

I’m linking up a day late to Hope Studios Tutorial Tuesday.

Sweet Corn Tamale Cakes

  
Every time hubby & I go to The Cheesecake Factory we order the Sweet Corn Tamale Cakes as an appetizer. They are delicious and I had to find the recipe to make them at home. A quick internet search produced a similar sounding recipe on recipezarr.com. Tonight was the night to try them out and they are G-O-O-D!

Last night I quickly whipped up the sauces in the food processor (very few dishes to clean) and tonight I made the corn cakes after work. They were met with rave reviews from hubby and the in-laws. While they don’t taste exactly like the ones we get at the restaurant, they are a very good substitute and much friendlier on our wallet.

Here is the recipe if you care to make your own. It looks like more work and ingredients than it really is…you probably have most of them on hand already.

SWEET CORN TAMALE CAKES (Cheesecake Factory copycat)
Serves: 4

Salsa Verde
2 tomatillos, sliced
4 oz. can diced mild green chilies, drained
1 green onion, chopped
2 T fresh cilantro, minced
1 1/4 t sugar
1/4 t ground cumin
1/4 t salt
1 pinch ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients together in food processor or blender and chill.

Tomato Salsa
1 medium tomato, sliced
1 T minced onion
1 T fresh cilantro, minced
1/4 t lime juice
1/2 small jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 dash salt
1 dash ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients together in food processor or blender and chill.

Southwestern Sauce
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 t white vinegar
1 t water
3/4 t sugar
1/2 t chili powder
1/4 t paprika
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 pinch onion powder
1 dash salt
1 dash garlic powder

Mix all ingredients together and chill.

Corn Cakes
1 1/2 cups frozen sweet corn (slightly thawed)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3 T sugar
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup corn meal/flour
2 T all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coarsely puree 1 cup of corn in food processor. Add softened butter, sugar and salt. Blend well. Add corn meal and flour and blend well. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup corn. Scoop about 1/2 cup of mixture and form it into a patty and place on greased cookie sheet. Continue until you’ve used all the dough (I got about 4 patties with a little left over). Bake for 25 minutes or until the bottoms start to brown. Flip the cakes and cook for another 5 minutes or until browned (note: they will spread a lot in the oven so don’t place them too close together).

Garnish & Assembly
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 avocado, diced (we used 2/3 because we love avocado)
2 T fresh cilantro, chopped (I forgot this)
Salsa Verde (from above)
Tomato Salsa (from above)
Southwestern Sauce (from above)

Place some salsa verde on a plate. Top with one of the corn cakes. Spread sour cream on top of the cake. Top with diced avocado and tomato salsa. Drizzle southwestern sauce on top and garnish with cilantro. Enjoy!

Stars & Stripes

Centsational Girl is hosting a Stars & Stripes party and I’m joining in with some red, white and blue decor and a recipe of my own.

I decorated the mantle in red, white and blue for the months of June & July. I’m going to switch it to beachy stuff in August because that’s when we take our annual vacation to the shore.

The “Liberty” sign and large stars I picked up last year at The Christmas Tree Shop. I picked up the berries there this winter on clearance when I was doing my Valentine’s mantlescape.

The flags I got 3/$1 at Target. The small stars I started to paint Memorial Day weekend 2009 and never got around to finishing them. Oh well.

The red, white and blue star garland I picked up at Michael’s for $1 each.

I look forward to the day when I won’t have the dark, dated stone in the background of all my mantlescapes, but they still make me happy for now.

Now for a delicious recipe…

Every year around 4th of July my mom made “Berries & Cream”. This is the perfect summer dessert in my opinion.  She would normally use strawberries and blueberries, but you could use raspberries or blackberries too. I normally just use what’s on sale. When I made it last year, hubby commented that he liked it, but it’d be better with some cake too, so you could easily add a layer of pound cake or angel food cake in if the cream and berries isn’t enough for you.

BERRIES ‘N CRÈME
Serves 6

1 3 oz. pkg. cream cheese
½ c. powder sugar
½ T. almond flavoring
1 c. heaving whipping cream
3 cups berries, washed and dried well

In deep bowl beat together cream cheese, sugar, and almond flavoring until smooth. Still beating, gradually pour in cream in a steady stream (mixture should be consistency of stiffly whipped cream at all times). Layer with berries.

Hope you all have a great 4th of July! We’re doing the same we’ve done for the past couple years…getting up early to deliver hay bales for a soap box derby a couple hours north of where we live. Then I’m sure it will be home for naps and I’m going to pack a romantic picnic dinner for hubby & I to enjoy while we have our own private bonfire and shoot off old fireworks I found in a closet (hopefully we don’t hurt ourselves) on our new farm. Should be lots of fun!

Whoopie Pies

Growing up, our neighborhood would have a garage sale very summer. My brother, sister and I did our part to fatten up the neighborhood by hosting a lemonade stand where we’d sell drinks and our mom’s homemade whoopie pies. My mom only made these around garage sale time, so they were always a special treat. We loved them even more when they were freshly chilled from the freezer.

I haven’t had whoopie pies for about 5 years and I figured they’d be a perfect treat to bring for a birthday at work a few weeks ago. I don’t know if it’s the fact that my sweet-tooth flew out the window when our lil’ turkey showed up or what, but they were much sweeter than I remembered them being as a kid. While they were still good, I no longer craved one after another. Hubby wasn’t a big fan at all (which I wasn’t surprised…it’s not his type of dessert), but the guys at work devoured them in no time so they must still be delicious.

Here is the recipe if you care to make some of your own whoopie pies:

CAKES:
1 c. sugar
½ c. cocoa
½ c. shortening
1 egg
½ c. sour milk (1-1/2 t. vinegar and milk to equal half cup)
1 t. soda
½ c. HOT water
¼ t. salt
2 c. flour
1 t. vanilla

FILLING:
3 T. milk
1 egg white
1-1/2 t. vanilla
1-1/2 T. flour
3 c. powder sugar, divided
1-1/2 c. shortening

Preheat oven to 350. Cream together sugar, cocoa, shortening and egg. Add remaining cake ingredients. Drop by teaspoonful onto lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake about 10 minutes. Let cool. Meanwhile make filling. Mix milk, egg white, vanilla, flour, and 1-1/2 c. powder sugar until combined. Add 1-1/2 c. shortening and remaining 1-1/2 c. powder sugar. Blend until smooth. Sandwich filling between two pies.

Burned a Hole in my Shirt

This past Saturday we hosted about 30 people from the group we lead at church each Sunday for a bbq, hayride and bonfire. We’re known as the “Movers and Shakers” – we’re the first to arrive and last to leave because we’re responsible for unloading all the sound, stage, lighting, etc. that we need each week, moving it into the theater, setting it up, running wire and then tearing it all down and packing it away in the trailer at the end of the service. We figured our group was in need of some fun.

I received many compliments on the invitations I designed so that’s always encouraging. I tried to keep with the color scheme of teal, olive, orange and pinkish-red. It was hard in some spots, but overall it worked.

I made a banner to hang outside using scrapbook paper and ribbon. I cut 4 sheets of 12x12 paper in half and then cut each half into 3 triangles. I then used my sewing machine to attach the triangles to a long piece of ribbon, leaving extra at the beginning and end to hang. So easy and affordable. I’ll definitely be using this method for many banners in the future.

So guests knew where to park, I made a painted “PARKING” onto poster board using black acrylic paint. To jazz it up a little, I used teal and green glitter to outline every other letter. I then attached a bunch of balloons to make it more noticeable from the road.

To make it easy for everyone to grab everything they’d need to enjoy the delicious food everyone contributed, I wrapped up plastic forks, knives and spoons with a napkin in individual bundles. I then secured each bundle with a strip of paper (that matched the paper I used in the banner) and a piece of tape. This way people didn’t have to worry about forgetting to grab a spoon or knife.

To hid the mismatched labels on the condiment jars, I wrapped more scrapbook paper around them and then handwrote the contents on the paper. I continued with the color theme outside by placing teal and olive “mason” jars designed to hold tea lights on a orange with white polka dot plastic runner on top of a white plastic table cloth. To keep the bugs at bay, we placed tiki torches filled with citronella around the patio.

I was expecting people to bring drinks to share (I mentioned on the invite that we’d provide hamburgers, hotdogs, buns, condiments and utensils and asked everyone to bring something to share), but just in case I picked up a pack of bottled water and made up a batch of punch. Good thing I did because while we had many delicious side dishes and desserts, no one brought a single drink to share. The punch recipe was a huge success, though, and I must have given out the recipe to every woman in attendance!

COLADA COOLER
(recipe courtesy of my mom)

2 cans frozen white grape juice, thawed
3 cans of frozen pina colada mix
6 cups cold water
3 liters 7-up
lemon and lime slices for garnish

Mix first three ingredients together. Add soda right before serving. Garnish with lemon and lime slices. Be ready to make more in less than 10 minutes!

It was a very fun party. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures once everyone arrived, so I’ll have to wait to get copies of those. The only casualty of the night was a small hole I burned in the back of one of my $2 Old Navy tank tops when I got too close to the fire and an ash flew onto my back.

Looking forward to our next hayride and bonfire with the youth leadership from our church on July 9th. Don’t have to do anything for that one besides have a clean house and stuff to make s’mores.

A Craving for Corn Dogs

source

I haven't had too many cravings so far...more like aversions. Desserts? Not my favorite thing right now, especially chocolate.

But, a few weeks ago I got a serious hankerin’ for corn dogs. I was really hoping I could satisfy my craving this past Saturday at our town's annual "fair", but while I was successful in finding my funnel cake (which unfortunately didn't taste that great due to the aforementioned dessert aversion) there was not a single corn dog vendor to be found. Bummer :(

However, I was cruising Tasty Kitchen the other day and low and behold a reader posted a recipe for Homemade Corn Dogs. I must try these! They look so good and they'll be much better for me and baby than buying a whole box of frozen ones from Sam's Club.

Definitely adding the ingredients to my grocery list for tonight.

Chicken Spaghetti

Photo courtesy of The Pioneer Woman

When we were visiting our friends in Kentucky a few weekends ago I offered to make Sunday dinner because they were speaking in church Saturday night and at all the services Sunday morning so I knew they'd be tired when they got home. Thankfully my friend is a kindred spirit and she too had The Pioneer Woman's cookbook. I knew exactly what recipe I wanted to make...Chicken Spaghetti.

It was a little more time consuming than I hoped (largely due to cooking the fryer chicken and getting the meat off the bones) but it was so worth it. It was delicious!

I'm definitely going to make it again, but next time I'll probably just use boneless, skinless chicken breasts because they cook faster and are less work.

Pioneer Woman does a great job showing the step-by-step of the recipe on her blog so I won't repeat it here. She also has a handy link to print the recipe out at the bottom of her blog post. Click here for the recipe.

Pizza Dough Recipe (courtesy of The Pioneer Woman)

I had a request for The Pioneer Woman's pizza dough recipe. The one I used is the one found in her cookbook. I don't know if it's different from the one on her website or not. Here are the directions from the book [notes in brackets are from me]:

PIZZA CRUST (makes 2 pizza crusts)

1-1/2 cups warm water
1 tsp (or 1/2 packet) active dry yeast
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

1. Pour 1-1/2 cups warm water into a bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the water. [Set aside.]
2. Combine the flour and salt in a mixing bowl.
3. With an electric mixer on low speed, drizzle in the olive oil until just incorporated.
4. Gently stir the water/yeast mixture and drizzle it into the flour/oil mixture. Mix until the dough forms a ball. You can also mix by hand until the dough comes together. [You may need to add a little extra flour until your dough isn't sticky.]
6. Drizzle a little olive oil into a clean bowl. Toss the ball of dough in the bowl and turn over to coat in oil.
7. Cover the bowl with a moist kitchen towel and set in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours, or cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for up to 2 days.

NOTE: The other half of the dough may be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerated up to 3 days before use, or frozen for up to 6 months. [I did the refrigerator method and the crust got better the longer it sat in the fridge. Just bring to room temp before you use it.]

No-Frost Cupcakes

Monday night I was craving chocolate and cheesecake so I combined the two and made my mom's "No-Frost Cupcakes". She didn't have much luck making them in Colorado because of the altitude, but I had no problem with them here on the East Coast.

They definitely hit the spot! And, I have enough of the cream cheese filling left to make a tray of brownies later in the week. Hubby LOVES brownies with cream cheese.

NO-FROST CUPCAKES
(I got 16 cupcakes with half the filling leftover for another use)

FILLING:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/3 c. sugar
1/8 t. salt
6 oz. chocolate chips

CUPCAKES:
½ t. salt
¼ c. cocoa
1-1/2 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 c. sugar
1/3 c. oil
1 c. water
1 T. vinegar
1 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Blend all the filling ingredients together, except the chocolate chips, until well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and set aside. In a large bowl sift together ½ t. salt, cocoa, flour and baking soda; set aside. In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, oil, water, vinegar, and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients. Place cupcake liners in pan and fill about 1/3 full. Press 1 t. of cream cheese mixture into center. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.

Don't Forget the Sour Cream!

This past Sunday our pastor and his wife had us over for dinner. She cooked a delicious meal of steak with carmelized onions and a gruyere' cheese sauce, salad with walnuts, craisins and prosciutto, and olive bread. It was so tasty!

Their children are so sweet and we loved having the opportunity to get to know our pastor and his wife on a deeper level. We're also really looking forward to the new invitation to be on the leadership team. It's a great group of people and we can't wait for more time fellowshiping and serving together.

Our contribution to the dinner was dessert. I was told they loved chocolate and that fruit was a bonus. Not having a ton of free time, I recalled a box mix cake recipe I made a couple years ago that was super moist and was served with berries. Perfect!

The cake tasted really good, but it was a little drier than I had remembered. When hubby and I were talking about this in the car on the way home, he asked me what was in it and I started listing off the ingredients only to realize I had completely forgotten to add the sour cream! That totally explains why it wasn't as moist as I remembered. So, if you decide to make this cake, please make sure to add the sour cream.

TRIPLE CHOCOLATE BLISS CAKE
(recipe courtesy of Kraft Foods)

CAKE:
1 box chocolate cake mix (not the kind with pudding in the mix)
1 box (4 serving size) chocolate instant pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water
8 oz. sour cream

TOPPING:
3 cups cool whip, thawed (I just used one 8 oz. tub...not quite three cups, but plenty)
8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
Assorted berries

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a Bundt pan. Mix all the ingredients for the cake together (don't forget the sour cream!) on low until moistened, about 30 sec. Mix on medium speed for two minutes. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour. Let cool in pan for 10-15 minutes and then invert on to rack to finish cooling.

In microwave safe bowl, combine cool whip and chocolate chips. Microwave on high about 1 minute and then stir together until chocolate is melted. Pour over cake (I didn't use the full amount that it made). Garnish with berries and enjoy!

Chocolate Mint Brownies

Today is my boss’s birthday and being that it’s the month of St. Patrick’s Day, I figured it fitting to have a “green” type of dessert.

I remembered times visiting my grandma around Christmas and the delicious brownies she’d make with a green mint layer. I thought these would be perfect. Sure enough…the boss devoured three within 5 minutes! I’m keeping how many calories he consumed to myself, though. Wouldn’t want to spoil his birthday.

CHOCOLATE MINT BROWNIES
Makes: 5-6 dozen (I have no clue how because I only got 28)

BROWNIES:
1 cup flour
1 stick butter, softened
½ t salt
4 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 can (16 oz) Hershey syrup
1 c sugar

FILLING:
2 c powdered sugar
1 stick butter, softened
1 T water
½ t mint (or peppermint) extract
3 drops green food coloring

TOPPING:
1 package (10 oz) mint chocolate chips (see “Notes”)
1 stick butter

Combine the first 7 ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Beat at medium speed for 3 minutes. Pour batter into a greased 13 x 9 pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes (top of brownies will still appear wet).

Combine filling ingredients in a medium mixing bowl: beat until creamy. Spread over cooled brownies. Refrigerate until set.

For topping, melt chocolate chips and butter over low heat in a small saucepan. Let cool for 30 minutes or until lukewarm, stirring occasionally. Spread over filling. Chill thoroughly before cutting. Store in the refrigerator.

NOTES: If you can’t find mint chocolate chips, simply add ½ t mint or peppermint extract to the plain chocolate chips. The topping called for 9 T of butter, but I only used 8. Also, I used “Promise” butter sticks and based the below calorie number on that.

According to my grandma, these get more moist by the day and they’re the greatest brownie you’ll ever eat. I haven’t had one yet today…I’m waiting until I get home with hubby…but I liked the spatula after making each layer last night and it sure was yummy!

CALORIES: When cut into 28 pieces, each serving contains about 255 calories.

Cream Puffs

Tonight hubby and I are having dinner at the house of some new friends from church. We're super excited to have the opportunity to really connect with other young Christian couples in our area.

We are bringing the customary hostess gift of wine (that's what it is in this part of the country...what do you normally bring for a hostess gift?) and also some dessert.

I didn't feel like running out to the store last night, so I decided to use what I had on hand and came up with the idea to make my mom's cream puffs. I haven't had these babies for a long time and remember them being so good. Hopefully they'll taste just as delicious as they look.

Though they look fancy, cream puffs are super easy to make. If you haven't ever made them, try them now...you won't be disappointed.

ALMOND CREAM PUFFS

Makes about 12 puffs

PUFFS:
1 c. water
½ c. butter or margarine (I use Promise)
¼ t. salt
1 c. all-purpose flour
4 eggs

FILLING:
1 pkg. vanilla instant pudding
1-1/4 c. milk (I use skim)
1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped (I only had a tub of light Cool Whip on hand)
1 t. almond extract

GLAZE:
1 c. semisweet chocolate chips
2 T. butter
1 T. milk
1 T. light corn syrup (this is what gives it a nice glossy sheen)

Preheat oven to 400. In saucepan over medium heat, heat water, butter and salt until butter melts and mixture boils. Remove from heat. With wooden spoon, vigorously stir in flour all at once until mixture forms a ball and leaves side of saucepan. Add eggs to flour mixture, one at a time, beating (or stirring hard) after each addition until mixture is smooth and satiny. Cool slightly. Drop by heaping tablespoon (I used an ice cream scoop) onto lightly greased and floured cookie sheet. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until puffed and golden. Cool on wire rack.

Prepare pudding using 1¼ c. milk. Fold in one cup of heavy whipping cream, whipped (or 2/3 tub of cool whip), and 1 t. almond extract. Fill puffs once they are cooled.

In microwave melt chocolate chips with butter (about 30 seconds and then stir and reheat in 10 second intervals if necessary). Add milk and corn syrup; stir until smooth. Drizzle over filled puffs.

Store in fridge until ready to serve.
 

NOTE: Instead of using chocolate, you could just cover them with sifted powder sugar, or put the sugar on top of the choclate once it hardens before serving. I had left over chocolate and dipped a banana in it and froze it for a future treat.

 

February Birthdays

We had two birthdays at work this week. Last year I brought in one cake for both guys. This year I brought in something smaller on each of their separate days.

This year I’m not always doing cake, but whatever dessert floats my boat at the time. Due to a serious lack of sleep Saturday night, I made it easy on myself Sunday and made Blondie Bars for the Monday birthday.

For the other birthday I made a new cookie recipe my mom sent me in 2008. It actually came from my brother’s friend’s mom when my brother was making cookies for his girlfriend. Follow that? My mom thought it was just so cute how Brock & his friend where exchanging recipes.

Growing up, every Valentine’s Day we’d make the same heart-shaped cookies with pink frosting and a conversation heart on top and then drive around to deliver them to all our friends. Supposedly this new recipe is a better version of that one.

I waited to make them until now because I’m a tightwad and didn’t want to spend $3 on a bag of conversation hearts so I waited until they went on sale after the holiday hubby also wanted to bring some to deliver to the lady’s who work in the Mayor’s office at town hall and the meeting around Valentine’s Day was cancelled due to a snowstorm and the next one was last night. I’m all about killing two birds with one stone.

So, yes, the birthday boy at work was a little embarrassed today when I showed up with cookies that said “heart throb” and “sugar lips” and “I want you”, but I think he quickly got over it when he tasted how delicious they were.

I know it’s a little late for this year, but here’s the recipe for next year:

VALENTINE’S DAY COOKIES

1/2 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
2 well beaten eggs
2 T. light cream
1 T. vanilla
3 1/2 c. cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

Stir together flour and baking powder.  In separate bowl cream together shortening, eggs, sugar, cream and vanilla. Add sifted ingredients to creamed mixture.  Shape into ball, wrap in saran wrap and chill overnight.

Dust board or counter top with enough powder sugar to keep dough from sticking.  Roll out until dough is about 1/2 inch thick. Dip cookie cutter in powder sugar before cutting each cookie (to keep from sticking).  Place cookies on lightly greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes or until slightly golden brown on the outside. Cool completely before icing.

For Icing combine the following:
1 lb. powder sugar
1/4 lb. butter (1 stick), softened
1/8 t. salt
1 t. vanilla
3-4 T. milk (mixing in one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency)
food coloring (optional)

NOTE: I should have stopped after 3 T of milk, but silly me kept going. I think that’s why my frosting has the white swirls in it. I found the best way to ice the cookies was to hold them by the side and dip them in the frosting. Then kind of shake them to get it to settle down smoothly and put the sprinkles or conversation hearts on right way. Let sit out on the counter a few hours until the frosting hardens and then store covered.

Bananas Foster

When my brother & his girlfriend were visiting, hubby made us a delicious treat of one of his favorite desserts of all times – bananas foster. (Obviously this was before we started our FBD experiment!)

The handsome chef playing with fire after adding all the rum to his bananas.

He used some puff pastry dough that I had in the freezer and cut it into rectangles before baking. When they were done, we split them in half, placed a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and then topped with the delicious bananas foster. It was heaven on a plate.

 

The only thing hubby said he’d do differently next time would be to add a little less rum because it was a little strong tasting.

BANANAS FOSTER
from Southern Living

1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 bananas, quartered
1/3 cup banana liqueur (if you don’t have, recipe says to double the rum)
1/3 cup dark rum
1 pint vanilla ice cream

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add brown sugar and next 3 ingredients. Cook, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes or until bananas are tender. Remove from heat. Pour rum into a small long-handled saucepan; heat just until warm. Remove from heat. Ignite with a long match and pour over bananas. Baste bananas with sauce until flames die down. Server over ice cream. Serves: 4

NOTE: We didn’t have banana liqueur and so we had to double the rum. I think next time I’ll make sure to get the banana liqueur.

Insider Recipes

Earlier this week a friend of mine sent me a digital cookbook containing the BEST recipes. This book is full of recipes for various items from a variety of restaurants, recipes to make your own name brand condiments or candy bars, and much more.

I already know what recipe I’m going to be trying out for my birthday…Outback’s Alice Springs Chicken. I order this every time we go to Outback and it is so good. I’m anxious to see if this recipe really is as good as the original. Of course, I’ll have to wait two weeks to celebrate my birthday so that I’m finished with my Flat Belly Diet experiment.

I’m also going to have to try the recipe for Butterfingers.

Of course I couldn’t keep all these recipes to myself. If you want the book, click here to open up a .pdf file containing over 450 pages of delicious “insider” recipes. It may take a little bit to open, but it should work. If not, e-mail me at brieblogs (at) optonline (dot) net and I’ll send you the file as an attachment.

Nothing like a little temptation

Today is the first day of my experiment to cure my GI issues on my own with the side benefit of my size 4 pants once again fitting like they should. If you want to read more about that, visit my other blog called My Journey to a Size 4.

And, what better way to start a “diet”/exercise regime than tempting oneself with a delicious Lemon Poppy seed Cake with Lemon Curd Sauce?

Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to eat the cake today, I was tearing the cupboards apart calmly looking through all the cupboards to see if I had any cupcake liners so I could make cupcakes instead of one cake. I didn’t think the birthday boy at work would like it too much if I brought his cake in with a giant slice missing already!

My search for cupcake liners was unsuccessful, but I was successful in convincing hubby to take me out to Chili’s after I picked him up from his meeting at 9pm for some Kickin’ Jack Nachos, frozen strawberry margarita, and a Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie. I really didn’t have to twist his harm too hard, though!

This morning I quickly realized the error of eating all these items past 9pm when I awoke to a stomach three times its normal size. Lovely! What a great time to have to take my measurements!

Anyway…back to the cake.

Today someone at work was turning 60 and thus a cake was in order. The only thing in my cupboards was a box of white cake mix. Can you say B.O.R.I.N.G?

Here’s what I did to jazz it up:

LEMON POPPYSEED CAKE

To 1 box white cake mix (mixed according to directions on box) add 1 palmful of poppy seeds, Lemon extract (or lemon juice) to taste, and the freshly grated zest from 1 lemon. Mix together and bake according to box directions.

I ran out of time to make the lemon sauce last night because I was gorging myself at Chili’s picking up some important books from the library so I made it this morning with hopes it would taste okay without being able to sample it.

The recipe I used came from my Southern Living cookbook.

LEMON SAUCE
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (I just used the spirals I made the night before)
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (I used the stuff from the bottle)

Stir together first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan until smooth. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium  heat 5 minutes or until thickened (and it turns into a translucent gel consistency). Remove from heat and stir in butter, zest and lemon juice. Serve warm or cold. Yield: 1-1/2 cups.

P.S. My apologies for not being able to show you the sauce drizzled nicely over a slice of cake. But, my buttocks and thighs will be thanking me in a couple weeks that I didn’t indulge in this cake!

Mexi-Chicken Soup

My mother-in-law’s birthday was this past Sunday but we were busy at parties celebrating my husbands new mayor position so we didn’t celebrate until last night. She’s been sick with a cold and all she wanted was soup.

I did a take on the regular old chicken soup and made one of my mom’s recipes. Hubby is not a big fan of this soup because he doesn’t like brothy soups. I’m normally not a fan of brothy soups myself, but I like this one. To try to accommodate him, I add extra corn and beans to the mix to make it a little more hearty.

If you’re short on time or money, this is a healthy, flavorful and affordable soup.

MEXI-CHICKEN SOUP

3 cans (13-3/4 oz. each) chicken broth
1 can (15-1/4 oz.) whole kernel corn, undrained (2 cans for heartier soup)
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 can (15 oz.) red kidney beans, rinsed and drained (2 cans for heartier soup)
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken tenderloins cut into pieces
dash crushed red pepper
tortilla chips
cheese and sour cream to garnish

Cook chicken in skillet over medium to medium-high heat until lightly browned. In large saucepan, combine chicken broth, corn, diced tomatoes, beans, and red pepper. Add chicken and bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Cook 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand for about 15 minutes. Put chips in soup bowls and top with soup garnished with sour cream and grated cheese. Serves 8.