Elementary School PB Bars

Remember in Elementary when they had peanut butter bars with chocolate frosting for the dessert during lunch?  That was my favorite day of the week.

Well this recipe comes pretty darn close to it...

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups oats
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat to 375 degrees.  Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Sift together dry ingredients and mix into peanut butter and sugar mix.

Spread into a 9x13 pan for thicker bars or a rimmed baking sheet thinner ones (like the ones in Elementary school) and bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  Allow to cool and frost with Chocolate frosting (Some people frost with 1/2 cup peanut butter before bars cool and then frost with chocolate frosting after bars cool for an extra peanut kick).

Chocolate Frosting:

5 Tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 pinch salt
3 Tbsp boiling water
1 and 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Cream butter, add in cocoa, salt, and boiling water.  Stir until smooth.  Add powdered sugar and beat until at desired consistency, adding more water or powdered sugar to make thinner or thicker.

Fresh Orange and Cranberry Muffins

I had a bag of fresh cranberries and am still on an orange eating kick and decided to make some muffins. 

I was nervous they would be too tart but they were surprisingly perfect.

Orange and Cranberry Muffins

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup fresh cranberries

1 egg

3/4-1 cup orange juice

1/4 cup veg. oil

1 tsp grated Orange rind

1.  Mix together dry ingredients.

2.  Juice 1 and 1/2 large oranges (this will come to between 3/4 and 1 cup of juice which was perfect.  3/4 cup --one orange--left the dough too thick so I ended up juicing 1/2 more orange). Set aside.

3.  Chop fresh cranberries into chunks to equal 1 cup.

4.  Stir cranberries into flour mixture.

5.  In a small bowl whisk together egg, orange juice, oil, and grated orange rind (which I grated from the oranges I juiced).

6.  Pour into flour mixture and stir until all dough is moistened.

7.  Spoon into greased muffin tin (works better than using cup liners) about 3/4 full.  Makes approx. 15 muffins.  Sprinkle with some sugar on top and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

25 Christmas challenges

Rockstar Diaries posted this wonderful list and I decided to take the challenge.  Hope you do to:

25 christmas challenges...


go out of your way-- befriend someone today that needs a friend and follow through to christmas

tell someone you love them

make a tree decoration that will remind you of Christ

in your prayers today, give thanks for every blessing without asking for anything

try to be as kind as possible to others today

try not to quarrel with family members today

do a good deed anonymously

make goals for yourself-- seal a copy in an envelope to be opened in a year

visit someone sick or lonely or sad

do volunteer work for some worthy cause

do something fun for a child or younger sibling

try to forgive someone who has wronged you, be reconciled

make a "give list" instead of a list of gifts you'd like

improve yourself in some way to please the Savior

quietly reflect and choose uplifting activities vs shopping

phone or send a card to an old friend or family member

listen to Handel's Messiah

make a christmas treat for someone else

be a calming influence today and control your temper

accept the gift of forgiveness-- pray for some weakness and ask for help in repenting of it

look at christmas lights... where does all light come from?

sing carols

do something nice for someone without their knowing it was you

be the first to say hello to people all day

ask someone to tell you about a past christmas

Pecan Pie

I made this for Thanksgiving yesterday and it was a smash hit.  So delish and so rich.  Also not that hard to make if you devote time to pay attention while making it.

2 sticks (1 cup) butter

2 cup sugar
2 cup light corn syrup
½ tsp salt

6 eggs, beaten
3 cups lightly chopped pecans
1 Tbsp. Vanilla

2 unbaked 8-inch pie shell

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium saucepan, melt the butter slowly on low heat (don't let it brown). Add sugar, corn syrup and salt. Turn the heat up to medium and stir until sugar dissolves, approx. 5 minutes. Bring to a boil and the turn down and let simmer (stirring occasionally because it foams up and is easy to boil over, even on a very low heat...so keep an eye on it!) for 10 - 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and let cool for 15 minutes. Stir occasionally while cooling. 
Roughly chop the pecans.

Mix 6 large eggs in a bowl and add vanilla. Mix with a fork. When butter/sugar mixture has cooled off a bit, slowly add egg mixture, mixing at the same time so it doesn't curdle. Mix in pecans. Pour into the pie shells and bake for 1 hour or until firm when shaken.

Harry Potter Party Food 2010-Sweet dishes

So many sweet dishes to be had. 

1.  Snitch Cake--  For Harry's birthday, Mrs. Weasley made a floating snitch cake.  While mine can't fly I thought it turned out pretty fun.  All I did was use Wilton's Sports ball cake pan.  I made a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting colored a pale yellow then dusted with gold shimmer.  For the wings I used thin skewer sticks and glued on vellum cut into a wing shape.

2.  Pumpkin Pasties--

Pie crust**
1 cup canned pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
dash of nutmeg

Combine the filling ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir well.
* For the pie crust you can use a large premade unbaked one and cut into small rounds, make your own dough, or as we have begun to do, go to a Mexican market and buy premade and cut uncooked baking empanada rounds.  These are perfect and extremely easy to use. 
Spoon equal amounts of filling into center of each round.  Fold over and seal edge with egg-white wash and crimp edge with a fork.  Cut 3 slits into top.  Brush tops with remaining egg-white wash and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 for 25-30 minutes until golden (or whatever pie dough calls for).  Cool and serve.

3.  Mad-eyes (Oreo truffles)-- Annicka made these tasty and rich little guys.  They are super good and can be decorated any which way.  We just did them as Mad-eyes in honor of his death in Harry Potter 7.

1 package Oreo cookies, finely crushed.
1 (8oz) package cream cheese
toppings of choice

Crush oreos in a ziploc bag with a rolling pin or in a food processor.  Mix together cream cheese and Oreo crumbs and form into balls.  Dip in melted chocolate or white chocolate as we did.  Refrigerate at least 1 hour until firm.  If you want to sprinkle with cookie crumbs, sprinkles, etc. do that before refrigeration.

4.  Butterbeer-- This is Kellie's wonderful recipe.  This one serves 2-4 people but it is easy to make a bunch and then just add cream soda to each serving.  When we make a big batch wekeep it warm and just pour about 1/8-1/4 cup of the creamy mix into a cup and pour over with (unheated) cream soda.


1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup butterscotch topping
2 tablespoons whipped butter (room temp)
1 1/2 cup vanilla cream soda

Combine condensed milk, butterscotch topping and butter. Heat mixture until butter has melted and incorporated into mixture. Heat cream soda and add mixture, stir thoroughly

5.  Polyjuice Potion Punch--  This is the easy Mormon sherbert punch.  I just used a carton of Raspberry sherbet with 1 L. of regular 7 up and 1 of diet 7 up. if foams and fizzles.

6.  Treacle Fudge--  This I made as more of a novelty item for a British flair to the party.  Not my personal favorite.

1/2 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 Tbsp. butter
1/3 cup treacle or molasses

In a large bowl mix milk, brown sugar, and salt.  In a saucepan melt chocolate and butter together.  Remove from heat and add molassess.  Add the chocolate mixture to the milk mixture and pour into a pan to cool.  Cut into squares and serve.

Drinking our butterbeers.

Harry Potter Party Food 2010-Savory dishes

Previous Harry Potter foods can be found here. 


Another Harry Potter movie has come and gone and here are some of the delightful foods we ate.  This post will be main dishes. 

Since it's getting cold outside I decided to make some soups/stews.  I adapted these recipes out of the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook.  These are adapted recipes to serve more people and make into a crock pot.  I highly recommend checking out the original book for some interesting and fun recipes.

Kreacher's French Onion Soup

2 large onions

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 cup white sugar

8 cups beef broth

1 tsp salt

Slice onions into thin round rings.   In a crockpot stir together beef broth, sugar, pepper, and salt.  Add onion slices seperating them into individual rings.  Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3-4 hours.  Onions should carmalize.  Top with cheesy croutons.

Croutons:  Thinly slice a baguette.  Butter and sprinkle with parmesean cheese.  Toast in the oven under the broiler for a couple of minutes keeping an eye on them so they don't burn.  Float atop soup when served.

Mrs. Weasley's Beef Stew

2 lbs chuck steak cut into 1 inch pieces

1 onion chopped

1 (14oz) can Chicken broth

1 cup water

1 cup coca-cola

2 Tbsp Tomato paste

2 tsp ground sage

salt and pepper to taste

juice of 1 lemon

6 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

4 medium sized carrots, peeled and sliced

Brown the beef in 2 Tbsp veggie oil to seal in the juice (can also brown onions at this step which I forgot to do).    Chop your vegetables.  Mix together broth, water, and coca-cola in a large crock pot (I believe mine is a 10 quart).  Add meat, tomato paste, onions, potatos, and carrots (if making this in a pot instead of crock-pot,  it says to simmer meat and seasonings for an hour first before adding veggies).  Pour over lemon juice and add sage.  Cook on high for 4-6 hours until meat is cooked through and veggies are tender.  Monitor for thickness/wetness and add flour or cornstarch as needed to thicken water, or more water if getting too dry.  I sprinkled about 1/4 cup of flour over top when there was about an hour left and stirred.  Serve with bread and season with salt and pepper to taste.  The main way I changed this dish besides using a crock pot is that the original calls for 1/4 cup of chopped prunes.  Wait, what?  Prunes in stew? Must be a British or Irish thing.

Another Savory dish I made was Snapes Stuffed Mushrooms.  I previously posted that recipe here.

Harry Potter Party-Games/crafts

For our Harry Potter party we played a few games and made some crafts.

We made Snitch Christmas ornaments inspired by the ones I found here.    Now is the time to do this as plastic gold Christmas balls are really cheap.  Basically you just hot glue some sparkly pipe cleaner to the back of the ball and form wings.

 This is an awesome Owlery garland made by the wonderful Annicka.  They were a perfect little detail that I love so much during parties.

 We made up a fishing game to win the sword of Gryffindor.  The sword was just a foam one with hot-glued jewels all over it.  The fish are just cute laminated fish (thanks Annicka) with paperclips on them and we had a magnet tied to a pole.  On the back of the fish were the numbers 1, 2, and 3 which corresponded to the different types of prizes you could chose from.

 "Don't Eat Pete" is a game where you put a piece of candy on each square.  One player leaves the room while the others decide which square is "pete".  The object of the game is to get as much candy as possible without getting pete.  If the player grabs pete everyone yells, "Don't eat Pete!"  In this case pete is Peter Pettigrew.  We have played this game many times in a wide variety including The Office, Star Wars, Dumbledore's Army, etc. 



Stuffed Mushrooms

1 lb. large mushrooms
4 Tbsp butter
4 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup finely minced ham
1 small clove garlic, finely minced (1 Tbsp preminced garlic)
2 cups coarsely chopped baby spinach
1 cup fresh bread crumbs ( I buy the ones that are dry at the store premade for stuffing)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 to 1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese


Wash and trim the end of stems from mushrooms, scoop out stem and middle of mushroom.  Chop stems and set aside. Spray a shallow 8x8 baking dish or as I perfer grease a mini cupcake pan (the mushrooms fit nicely in the little cubbies with cooking spray.  Brush each mushroom with melted butter (2 Tbsp) and place in pan.
Heat remaining 2 Tbsp of butter in a skillet. Chop green onions; combine with reserved chopped mushroom stems, ham and garlic. Add to skillet along with the spinach and sauté until tender. Add bread crumbs, salt, and pepper to vegetable mixture; stir well (To moisten the bread crumbs since I buy the ones ready for stuffing I use just a Tbsp of cream or milk).  Fill each mushroom cap with a little of the stuffing, mounding up. Sprinkle with Mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350° for about 20 minutes, until cheese is melted and mushroom caps are tender.

These are super good and can be prepared ahead and then refridgerated prior to  baking.

Some cute Thanksgiving ideas...

The Turkey Cupcakes are from Family Fun.

The nutty candles were featured on Write Click Scrapbook today.

I love thie turkey picture holder and found it featured on eighteen25 last month.

Gratitude project by Becky Higgins is linked here.

scrappy days

Some of my latest scrapbook creations...

Cinnamon Apple Bread Pudding

This is another perfect fall dish from "Our Best Bites".  Click the link for exact details and wonderful pictures.  This is my basic interpretation.

Caramel Apple Bread Pudding 
1 loaf of stale French Bread, cut into 1 inch cubes (the original recipe used 5-6 cups and stated it was about 1/2 of a loaf, but my whole loaf was about 7 cups so I went for the whole thing)
3 c. apples, peeled and chopped into small pieces ( 4 medium apples)
4 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 c. milk
1 1/2 c. heavy cream (too be healthier you could replace this with milk, but it's quite delish with the wicked heavy cream)
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. almond extract
2 tsp. pumpkin pie seasoning
1 Tbsp. butter

*If possible, cut the bread into cubes and leave it out for several hours or overnight. If not, place the bread cubes on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until the bread cubes are dried out but not toasted. 

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease or spray a 9x13" baking dish with shortening or non-stick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, toss together the bread cubes and the apple pieces. Transfer to the baking dish. In the same large bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients except for the butter. When combined, continue to whisk while pouring over the bread/apple mixture (just to make sure the spices are evenly distributed). Gently combine the bread and egg mixture, making sure each piece of bread is soaking in part of the egg and milk mixture. Allow to stand for at least 15 minutes (I covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated over night so this could be an  breakfast dish).   When the egg/milk mixture has mostly soaked into the bread, put the butter over the bread (My butter was frozen so I grated it with a cheese grater from the stick until I had used approx. 1 Tbsp.  It distributed more evenly this way.  Other wise you would just cut it into small pieces and sprinkle it on top.) and place the baking dish in the preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes or until the center is set but not dry or burned.

Remove from oven and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Cut into pieces and serve with warm Buttermilk Syrup.

I could have sworn I posted Buttermilk Syrup before but since I can't find it here it is!  This  syrup is especially delish over German pancakes with strawberries.  Really over anything!

Buttermilk Syrup

3/4 cup buttermilk (1 of those small cartons that are like 40 cents at the store is perfect)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 stick butter (no substitutions here, I just used what was left over I grated butter for the bread pudding)
2 Tbsp karo syrup
1 tsp baking soda

Choose a pot that is twice the size as you think you will need.  I used a 2 quart pot and had to be extremely careful while making not to let it spill over as this recipe foams and triples in volume while cooking.

Mix ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce to medium heat and stir for 8 minutes.  Do not look away, just diligently stir as this can boil over easily or harden if neglected.  Enjoy pouring it over anything and everything or even eat it with a spoon.

Sin-sational treat

These tasty fall treat is wickedly good.  They come from the blog "Our Best Bites" and I keep finding more and more things there I want to make!  Definitely check it out and for very detailed pictures with fantastic step-by-step instructions check out the recipe's link.  I am just posting basics here for my own records.


Cinnamon Caramel Corn

12 cups popped plain popcorn (This is 1 1/2 bags of microwave popcorn or 1/2 cup of traditional popcorn kernals).
1 cup roughly chopped pecans
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup Karo syrup
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
white chocolate chips

Pop popcorn and mix with pecans in LARGE bowl.  In a 2 quart microwave save dish stir together brown sugar and cinnamon.  Chop butter and place on top of brown sugar.  Pour over Karo Syrup.  Microwave on high for 30 seconds and stir together.  Microwave for 2 minutes and stir again.  Then microwave for 2 more minutes until bubbly.  Add in baking soda and vanilla (this will make mixture froth.  If you want to see this, then check out the actual link).  Pour mixture over popcorn and pecans, stirring constantly until all pieces are incorporated. Spread over a foil lined baking sheet (one with sides).  Bake at 250 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.  Remove a piece from oven and allow to cool.  Is it crunchy enough?  If yes then pull out of oven and transfer to a large piece of waxed paper.  If not bake another 5 minutes.  Melt white chocolate (or almond bark) in the microwave or with a double boiler.  I used 3 pieces of almond bark.  Drizzle over popcorn on waxed paper and allow to cool.  Break into pieces and serve.

Pumpkin Seeds

Tonight we carved pumpkins and I decided to save the seeds and roast them.  Super easy and delicious. 

Collect the seeds (super slimy, I feel bad for the people who get them out for a living).  Wash them well and lay them out to dry.  I only dried mine for about 15 minutes.  I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper, sprayed it with cooking spray and laid out the seeds.  I sprayed those with cooking spray and then seasoned and salted them.  I just used some Season-All.  Stirred them around and put them in the oven at 400 degrees for 45 minutes stirring every 15 minutes.  You know they are done when they are sizzling.
Cool completely.

Coconut Thai Beef Stew

This is an adaption to a recipe that was in the Deseret News yesterday Oct. 13, 2010. 

1 cup of onion chopped
5 minced cloves of garlic (or 5 Tbsp pre-minced garlic)
1 Tbsp ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp tumeric
salt and pepper

2 lbs beef steak cut into chunks
1 can (13-14 oz) lite coconut milk
1 tsp lime peel zest
2 Tbsp lime juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
bay leaves
1-2 cups baby carrots
2 cups chopped potato (I didn't do this but thought after the fact it would be a good addition)

rice or rice noodles
chopped peanuts (optional to top)
lime wedges
coconut (optional to top)

Heat some veg. oil in a skillet and sautee onions for 5 minutes.  Add in garlic and seasonings (ginger, coriander, cumin, tumeric, salt and pepper).  Cook about a minute, until fragerant and transfer to a bowel.  Sautee beef until cooked through adding more oil as needed.  Add in onion/spice/garlic mix and beef into a stock pot.  Pour in coconut milk, lime juice, lime zest, brown sugar, a few bay leaves, and carrots/potatoes.  Bring the mixture to a simmer and simmer on low heat until slightly thickened and carrots and beef is tender (approx 30 minutes).  Serve over rice and garnish with peanuts, lime, and coconut.

Awesome Halloween Printable

"Eat, Drink, and Be Scary" is my new favorite Halloween catchphrase.  For a cute FREE printable of this check out Craftily Ever After.

And Craftily Ever After did a "Keep Calm and Scary on" one as well.

Berry Peach Crumble

I had peaches and some blueberries I coun't eat fast enough so I threw together this yummy dessert.

2 cups berries (I used 1 cup blueberries and 1 cup frozen raspberries)
1 cup fresh peaches, peeled and sliced (I used 2 large White peaches)
2 Tbsp. flour
2 Tbsp. Lemon juice

2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
2/3 cup oats
1/3 cup melted butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Cook together berries, peaches, lemon juice and 2 Tbsp flour stirring constantly over medium heat in a sauce pan, until mixture boils and thickens.
* because I used raspberries this mixture was super tart so after I took it off the burner I stirred in 2 Tbsp powdered sugar.

*I read somewhere that is substituting frozen fruit for fresh to use 12 oz frozen berries per 2 cups of fresh and 8-10 oz frozen peaches to 1 cup of fresh.

Spread berries into an 8x8 pan. In a seperate bowl stir together brown sugar, flour, oats. Season with cinnamon and salt. With a fork toss mixture with melted butter to make a crumbly mixture.

Sprinkle topping over fruit. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

A tasty fall treat!

Indoor S'mores and some favorite new links.

It's bonfire season and I love some good old fashioned s'mores, but I love these even more because they come without the lingering smell of smoke when you get home.

1 12oz box Golden Graham cereal (8-9 cups)
1 12 oz bag chocolate chips (1 1/2 cups)
6 cups miniature marshmallows
5 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup karo syrup
1 tsp vanilla

Melt together 5 cups of marshmallows, the chocolate chips, butter, and karo syrup. Melt over low heat stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Pour over golden grahams cereal in large bowl. Stir until evenly coated, add in remaining 1 cup marshmallows.

Press into a greased 9x13 pan. Use a greased sheet of wax paper to press down evenly. As hard as it is, allow to cool for at least an hour before cutting for best results. Cuts into 24 bars.


Now onto some new favorite sites:

The Fat-free Vegan: Sinlessly Delicious. While I am neither vegan nor fat free there is actually some pretty tasty things and ideas on this blog.

The Creative Operation. This craft/scrapbook blog is by 2 OR nurses and boy do they have some beautiful stuff.

Scissors.Paper.Cake. This site is a visual gathering a party ideas. Total eye candy.

fun for fall and all for fun

Here are some fun fall craft/party ideas I have stumbled across and would love to use.

Martha's Pumpkin Balloon game.

Halloween Roundup at One Pretty thing has lots of different links for craft ideas.

Acorn Dough Nuts. These were in family fun and were so stinking cute I could hardly stand it!

Another Family Fun snack is to make a "salsa" of apples and use cinnamon tortilla chips to dip. Add some variety on the chips by cookie-cutting them into fall/halloween shapes before baking. Apple dip recipe is found here.

Hopefully these are a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing as we approach fall. I know I have some ideas and need to get some doughnuts stat.

Spice Pear Cake

Here is a little something I made up...

2-3 pears, peeled and chopped
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup white flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
1/3 cup applesauce
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Stir together sugar and pears and set aside. Beat egg whites with applesauce, then stir in pear mixture. Add salt, baking soda, and spices. Sift in flour.

Mix all together and pour into greased pan (I used a 8 inch bundt pan, but this would make good muffins or 1 loaf in a bread pan). Bake at 325 degrees for 30-45 minutes (depends on pan type, just bake until brown and springing to touch).

At 8 servings this recipe is 3 Weight-watchers points/serving.

Project: Scrap

It's Project Runway season again some of you may remember that I once did Project:Project a little scrap challenge each week inspired by that weeks episode of project runway. Well in the name of good creative fun I decided to do my own this season.

So for Project: Scrap Week 1-- take someone elses sketch that is SO not your style and Make It Work!

On project runway they had to take a piece of clothing of their own and pass it down to the next person to incorporate into a design. So I looked at Pencil Lines Sketches and found one that I really didn't like because it's SO not my style and designed a page incorporating that style...making it work for me.

Here is the sketch:
And here is my creation:

I don't generally like using 1 photo much less 1 that small and in a corner. I have had this photo for awhile (it's from 2007) and I love it and I also love the new Delovely line from Cosmo Cricket so this is what I came up with.

oven roasted and baked

Something I have been eating a lot of lately is Oven Roasted corn. I hated corn on the cob until about a year ago and now I have eaten it almost every day...

Stick ears of corn in the oven (husks and silk still on) and roast for 30 minutes at 375. Peel off husk, and silk comes off super easy. Season and eat eat eat!

Another quick thing I have made a lot of is talapia fish. I take some fish fillets and lay them in a greased baking dish. Seasoned with dill, paprika, and garlic salt. Cut little bits of butter over top and then squeezed in some lemon juice over it all. Baked at 350 for 20 minutes... it's pretty good and super easy.

Cashew Chicken

This is a quick version of cashew chicken that begs to be added to as desired. Good basic stuff.

2 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless-cut into small pieces
1 garlic clove or 1 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp veg oil
1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
1 cup chopped zucchini
1/2 cup cashews
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/3 cup water
1 Tbsp sugar

Stir together soy sauce, water, and sugar in small bowl and set aside.

Sautee garlic in oil and add chopped chicken. Sautee until chicken no longer pink. Add in mushrooms and zucchini and continue to stir. As veggies soften add in soy sauce mixture. Bring to a boil and cover letting cook for 2 minutes. Add Cashews and cook for a minute longer. Serve over rice.

Blueberry and Zucchini Muffins

I am trying to incorporate more fruits and veggies into my diet but I have a hard time using them before they go bad. in experiementing ways to use zucchini I found a recipe for Blueberry and Zucchini bread. Blueberries are really good right now so I thought that sounded fun. I changed it up into muffins and added some oats. They turned out really well!

2 eggs
2/3 cup veg. oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
1 and 1/3 cup shredded zucchini (1 large or 2 small)
1 and 1/2 cup flour (I used white all-purpose flour)
1 cup oats
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1-2 cups blueberries

Beat together eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in shredded zucchini. Beat in salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Stir in flour and oats. Fold in blueberries. Bake in a lined muffin tin at 350 degrees for approx. 20 minutes. Makes 24 muffins.

If made as bread loaves bake for approx. 50 minutes and allow to cool for 15-20 minutes prior to removing from greased bread pan.

Chocolate Peanut-Butter Brownies

Easy variation for brownies...

Make your favorite basic brownie (if you want them extra gooey add in 1/2 cup chocolate syrup). I just use my "go-to" Betty Crocker brand Fudge Brownie mix.

Peanut-Butter Frosting:

1/2 stick softened butter or margarine
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 TBSP milk

beat all ingredients together and frost on COOLED brownies.

Melt 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and pour over frosted layer. Allow to cool at least 30 minutes. (I talked about an easy way to melt chocolate chips here.)

Strawberry Freezer Jam

I LOVE strawberry freezer jam, but have never tried to make it. It's so easy and delicious I wish I would have made this a long time ago.

With strawberries on sale right now it was a good deal, especially because I found Pectin on sale as well. For about 5 pints it cost around $6.00 to make (minus cost of containers).

2 cups crushed strawberries (I have heard other crushed fruit is good as well but have never tried it) The strawberries should be fresh.

3-4 cups sugar
3/4 cup water
1 (1.75oz) package pectin

Crush strawberries and stir together with sugar. I said 3-4 cups because it depends on how ripe and sweet your strawberries are...mine were not that sweet (I was too impatient to wait a couple of days) so I used the 4 cups.

Let stand for 10 minutes.

Stir together Pectin and water and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute than stir into strawberry mixture. Allow to stand for 3-5 minutes than pour into jars/containers. Cover with lids and stand at room temp for 24 hours. Freeze or refridgerate as desired. Lasts at least a year in freezer and around a month in the fridge (if it lasts that long before everyone has eaten it!!).

Empanadas, baby, yeah!

So my friend Sarah married a man from Argentina named Alfredo. Last Friday Sarah and Alfredo invited Christin and I over to make some Empanada's for Alfredo's birthday and the World Soccer Cup. In all reality these are not hard at all, just time consuming. But time consuming is fun when you are visiting with good friends (and listening to Glee).

Empanadas
1 lb chicken meat
1 white onion
1 green bell pepper
1 potato
1-2 hard boiled eggs
cumin
paprika
salt
chili powder
1 lemon
2 packages of empanada dough (Fry or bake)--this is found at your local Hispanic market place. You could also home make this but that is additionally time consuming. Google for a recipe if interested.

Okay so boil up your chicken. Chicken breast off the bone is easiest but you can use any type of chicken (we used drumsticks) you just need 1 lb of meat for 2 packages (24 empanadas). Chop chicken into small pieces, reserving some chicken stock. In the mean time also boil your peeled potato whole, and make the hard boiled eggs.

Dice up the onion and green pepper. Add to pot with a little chicken stock (probably about 1/4 cup), and chopped chicken. Cook on stove top for a bit seasoning with cumin, salt, paprika, and chili powder to taste. To make spicier you could also throw in some red pepper flakes.

Place pot into a cold water bath in the sink to cool meat quickly. Chop potato into small pieces, and also hard boiled egg. When chicken has cooled add potato.

Spoon a large spoonful of meat and potato mixture and a small bit of egg into each dough round. Fold over in half and starting at one corner turn in edge every 1/2 inch overlapping previous fold (this is the trickiest part) you could also crimp edges with a fork or form like pie crust to seal the edge. Bake the baking shells for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees, or fry the fry shells (these ones are much tastier, but the baked are good too).

As you eat them try squeezing some lemon juice inside. They are SO good with the lemon juice.

Other delicious fillings to try: Dulce De Leche/cheese/strawberries, Nutella, apple pie filling with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top... How would you fill them?

A "Gleeful" Summer Salad

This was a salad that I made for the Season finale of GLEE. The happy summer colors and flavors made us all happy and it tasted delightful too.


4 cups Spinach greens
1 cup sliced strawberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 sliced and diced English Cucumber
1/4 cup bacon bits
1/8 cup Poppyseed dressing

Toss together and top with some sort of nut. I chose glazed pecans, deliciousness ensued.

(Measurements are gestimates...it really doesn't matter how much of each thing...just do it to taste.

Samoan Bars

These are a homemade version of the Girl Scout cookie...pretty darn tasty!

Cookie:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 pan. Cream together Butter and Sugar until fluffy. Mix in egg. salt, and vanilla. Stir in flour making a crumbly mixture. Press into pan and bake until light brown 20-25 minutes. Cool on wire rack in pan until completely cool.

Coconut-Caramel Center:
3 cups shredded coconut
14 oz of Caramels (I use 1 bag of Caramel bites because they melt faster)
1/4 tsp salt
3 and 1/2 TBSP milk
1 bag chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Spread coconut onto a baking sheet and toast in oven until lightly browned for about 10-15 minutes stirring every 2-5 minutes. Cool.

In a pot melt caramel with salt and milk. When smooth remove from heat and stir in coconut. Spread over cooled cookie base (This is more difficult than it looks. I spooned coconut onto base and then pressed with a greased piece of wax paper to pread evenly. Caramel is still hot so wear oven mitt when pressing with paper).

Allow to cool completely. Melt Chocolate chips (I melt Chocolate chips by putting them into a tupperware container and microwaving for 30 seconds at a time, stirring with a knife in between, until melted. Ususally takes 1 to 1.5 minutes).

Cut into bars and remove from pan. Dip the bottom of each bar into chocolate (Easiest just to turn bar over and spread on chocolate with a knife or spoon). Place on wax paper. Take remaining chocolate and drizzle over the top of bars. I cooled my bars on wax paper and a baking sheet in the freezer for 10 minutes, until the chocolate had hardened.

SO good! While they are time consuming because everything needs melted/baked, and then cooled...they are worth it!

When life gives you Lemons....

...bake Lemon Cupcakes!

I made these Lemon cupcakes and I rather liked them because they don't have an overbearing Lemon flavor.

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1-2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp grated lemon peel (I always grate fresh)
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sour cream

Cream butter and sugar, beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla, lemon peel, and lemon juice and cream together. Mix in baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Sift in flour 1 cup at a time alternating with sour cream. Mixture will be of a thicker consistency. Spoon into a muffin tin and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. When filled with about 1/4 cup per cupcake this recipe yields approx 30 cupcakes.

Lemon frosting:
2 Tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp grated lemon peel
3-5 cups powdered sugar (depending on how much frosting you intend to make)
Mix together butter, vanilla, milk, and lemon peel. Add 3 cups powdered sugar and blend. Add lemon juice and stir. If thicker consistency desired add more powdered sugar as needed. To thin add another Tbsp of milk.

Frost cupcakes when warm for a lemon glaze. Frost when completely cool for a frosting layer. (Tastes great either way!)

The Beehive Bizarre

Today I went with some friends to the Beehive Bizarre which is just a little boutique where people sell their online (usually etsy) shop stuff. It was fun to wander around and check out the latest and greatest in arts and craft (non-scrapbooking). Lots of flowers and headbands and felt were for sale and I got lots of good ideas. Some of the stuff I got as pictured above:

1. Fell instantly in love with this Vinylicious Designs book cover. Harry Potter all the way.
2. The bound book is a journal made from an old school hardback cover book. I have made ones from paperback and thought this one was really fun.
3. a pack of Vintage flashcards.
4. A cute felt and t-shirt fabric flower hair clip from Wendy and Peter.
5. Some little silk flower bobbypins...I espcially liked how they were on playing cards.
7. Some super cute magnets. The Owl and Unicorn are from Isabell's Umbrella, who had so many cute little creatures like gnomes and t-rex's as well. The little Viking I got for my sister and it's from Noddin Shop which has tons of cute and fun zombie, viking, skulls, etc...

I love supporting the little people who take so much time to be creative.

Strawberry Banana Muffins

to continue on the theme of strawberries... I mixed up these strawberry banana muffins off of various recipes and suggestions I found at allrecips.com. I had bananas and strawberries that were going bad and wasn't in the mood for a smoothie, so I thought this seems appropriate.

2 eggs, beaten
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup strawberries chopped into small pieces
1 cup mashed bananas (2 bananas)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup oil (people suggest subsitituing with applesauce, but I didn't have any)
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Mix together all dry ingredients in seperate bowl. Mix together eggs, sugar, strawberries, bananas, vanilla, and oil. Stir in dry ingredients. Bake in Muffin cups at 350 degrees for approx. 25 minutes. Makes 12-16 large muffins.

Strawberry Trifle

the season for strawberries....

Angel food cake cubed
Sliced Strawberries
Vanilla Cream

Layer ingredients in Trifle bowl, cover with coolwhip, and let sit for 30 minutes before serving.

Vanilla Cream:
1 box vanilla pudding
1/2 cup milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup coolwhip

Blend all ingredients together and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Oh Julia.

When I was a kid I didn't get up Saturday morning for the Cartoons. I got up for the Frugal Gourmet and Julia Child. I though she was a goofy druken old lady who whipped up impossible things in the kitchen and it fascinated me. At the American History Smithsonian they had an exhibit that contained Julia Childs actual kitchen.

For one of Julia's recipes click her name above to access the Julia Child Recipe Tumblr.

Seventh Hill Pizza

yum.

I really enjoyed 7th Hill Pizza a lot. This is where we went to eat our first night in Washington DC. It's off Capital Hill in the Eastern Market area. I just love firestone pizzas, I had a personal pizza called Navy Yard. It was topped with tomato, toulouse sausage, oregano, and pecorino cheese with mozerella. Super good. I loved what Mike had too. It had prosciutto and some sort of leafy greens I haven't been able to identify. Then for dessert we had what I had been waiting for...the Nutella Calzone. oh.my.deliciousness. Creamy nutella and some raspberry in a calzone. It was really really good.

Now this is no exact recipe but this one looks super delightful so I am going to include it, make it this weekend and report back how it was.

Ricotta and Nutella Calzones

Easter Pavlova

This was my first time kaing this...delicious!!! It's gooey in the center and the crust melts in your mouth, so very good.

It's simple, IF you follow the instructions.

4 egg whites at room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp corn starch

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Crumple up a piece of parchment, uncrumple and spread on baking sheet. sprinkle with some corn starch. If you don't do this it will stick and break apart when removed. I have heard you can use aluminum foil instead of parchment paper.

Beat egg whites until a stiff peak forms and still shiny. Add sugar 1 Tbsp at a time, beating throughly in between. Fold in vanilla, lemon juice, and cornstarch (don't pre mix). Scoop onto baking sheet and spread in a 9 inch circle, with edges higher than the middle. (I spread mine into 12 and it was more crust than goo and cooled faster, I enjoyed the cooling faster and like the crust so I didn't mind, but it is supposed to be taller and have more goo in the middle, when done).

Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour then turn off oven, open door a bit and cool in oven for 1 hour. It will crack a little on the outside, and be a pale pinkish brown color.

Before serving top with coolwhip and strawberries and kiwi (the traditional toppings, although any fruit will do).

Enjoy!

Cadbury Cookies

Tis the time of year when Cadbury shows up in America. I love their chocolate and Cadbury mini eggs are no exception. Camille found this recipe and we decided to check it out... Cadbury Mini egg Cookies.

The only change we made is that since we had eaten 1/2 the bag at the movies (Alice in Wonderland) last night we added a handful of white chocolate chips and a handful of butterscotch chips for fun.

enjoy!

Ace of Cakes 2

I made Bakerella's Red Velvet cake as I mentioned in part 1. Here is a picture and my opinion. This honestly wasn't my favorite cake. It was super dense and I got sick of eating it after a couple pieces. sad sad day in cake world. The frosting was phenomenol though.

On Tongue and Cheeky Brooke posted Pollyanna cupcakes. How delightful is that, I will definitely have to try this one out...when I am in the mood for cake again. It was my birthday this week and honestly I need a break. :)

Ace of Cakes

I have recently become enamoured by the idea of homemade from scratch cakes. I really like Betty Crocker cake mixes so I never really cared to make cakes from scratch, but one sunday I was thinking about the movie Pollyanna. To me Pollyanna and Anne of Green Gables are 2 of the ultimate Sunday afternoon movies. I don't know why but they are. In Pollyanna I always loved the cake the kitchen ladies were making for the fundraiser fair. It always looked so nice and pretty.


I decided to flip through my Betty Crocker cookbook until I found a cake like it and try it out. Sucess! it was just the right amount of sweet and moist. Here is my adaption:


2/3 cup butter crisco
1 & 3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla (the real stuff is oh so much better)
2 & 1/4 cup flour
2 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 & 1/4 cup milk



Heat oven to 350 degrees. grease and flour to 9in circular cake pans. Beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat for 5 minutes on a high speed (I know it seems like forever but it makes a world of difference). On a low speed alternate adding milk and dry ingredients mixture. Pour into pans and bake for 35 minutes (until toothpick comes out clean).

Frost with French Silk Frosting:

2 & 2/3 cup powdered sugar
2/3 cup softened butter
2 oz melted chocolate (I only had hershey's kisses to melt and I just made up a measurement and melted 8 kisses in a small tupperware for 30 seconds, stirred, and then an additional 30 seconds in the microwave).
3/4 cup vanilla
2 Tbsp milk


Blend all ingredients together until fluffy.

I was to busy enjoying the cake to actually show a cut piece in a picture.

So since then I have been craving more homemade from scratch cake and decided to take a cue from Bakerella and make some Red Velvet Cake. It's baking right now so I will followup with pictures and the Cream cheese frosting I made instead of Bakerella's frosting (which I am sure is delicous but I didn't have enough powdered sugar on hand for it).