Baked Potato Soup

It rained a couple of inches today in Salt Lake so it seemed like a good day to play around with a Baked Potato Soup recipe...

1 cup chopped onion
3 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
16 oz of chicken broth
1 lb potatoes, cubed into 1/2 inch pieces (2 large baking potatoes of 4 small ones)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 few dashes of Franks Hot Sauce
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 cup half & half

Toppings:  Shredded cheddar cheese, chopped chives, sour cream, bacon bits

Chop potatoes, and onion.  Sautee onion in butter, in a stock pot, until translucent and browning. Add flour and stir into a paste.  Slowly add chicken broth while stirring continuously.  Add potatoes and all seasonings.  Simmer approximately 20 minutes until potatoes soften, stir occasionally.  Pour in half & half and stir until bubbling.  Remove from heat.  Serve with garnishing of choice.

Better Than Sex Cake

My sister requested Better Than Sex Cake for her birthday and due to poor planning and believing in keeping the Sabbath Day holy by not shopping on Sunday I ended up scavenging to make it all from scratch.  And probably to no ones surprise if you like to cook, it was absolutely better.

The basics:
Chocolate Cake mix (and cooked)
1 can sweetened condensed milk (poke holes in warm cooked cake and poor over)
Caramel topping (drizzle over warmed hole-poked cake, then put in refrigerator to cool)
Whipped topping (spread on top of cooled cake, you can use coolwhip)
Health Bar (crunch bars or use health bits and sprinkle on whipped topping, also drizzle more caramel and refrigerate until served)

What I ended up making:

Chocolate Cake 

 

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup hot water

 

 

Stir together dry ingredients. Incorporate in eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla.  Stir in hot water, this will make a very thin mix.  Pour into greased 9x13 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes until cake bounces back at a touch, or toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool for 5 minutes and then poke holes in cake with a wooden spoon handle.  Pour over can of sweetened condensed milk and some of the caramel and refrigerate.

 

 

Caramel Sauce

 

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup brown sugar


Stir together in pot on medium heat and constantly stir.  Heat until mixture reaches 200 degrees on candy thermometer (bring to boil and boil approximately 2 minutes). 

 

Whipped Topping

 

1 small container whipping cream

1/3 cup powdered sugar

 

Whip cream and powdered sugar with a hand mixer until peaks can form.

 

 

Homemade Toffee

 

(you only need 1/2 of this recipe to top the cake, recipe yields 1 lb toffee)

 



1 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips

 

Combine butter, sugar, and salt in heavy saucepan.  Stir continually over medium heat until butter melts, and mixture turns a dark amber color (285 degrees on a candy thermometer).

 

Pour onto cookie sheet covered in Aluminum Foil and sprayed with cooking spray.  Sprinkle chocolate chips over mixture and spread into a thin layer.  Allow toffee to cool and set (30-60 minutes) and then break into small pieces.  Sprinkle on top of cake.  Drizzle more caramel.

 

 

 



French Toast Sticks.

I don't know why I had never thought of making these.  They are super easy, delish, and fun.

4 slices of bread
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
cinnamon and sugar mixture

Cut bread into thirds.
Beat together eggs, milk, and vanilla.

Heat and butter a griddle.
Soak bread in egg mixture to coat both sides.

Cook on hot pan, about a minute per side.















Toss in cinnamon and sugar mixture and drizzle with syrup.















Yum.

Homemade Waffles

I love waffles.  So much so that I bought a Belgium Waffle maker, like the kind they have in Hotels.  This waffle recipe is from my roommate Anne.  I love the flavor, and while it isn't quite fluffy enough to make those giant Belgium waffles it still works in that particular waffle maker as well as any regular one.

 

Anne's Waffles:

2 eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk (I used 2%)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Beat together eggs, milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Make a well in the flour mixture.
Pour in wet ingredients and whisk all together, there will be lumps, don't over mix.
Pour in waffle iron and enjoy!

Anne makes a lot of really good waffles, here are some other recipes:

 

Coconut Rice Waffles with Mangoes and Lime Cream:

Waffles:
2 eggs
1 can(13.5 oz) coconut milk, well shaken
1/4 cup canola or coconut oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup cooked rice

Whisk together eggs, coconut milk, oil, and vanilla.
In a separate bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and rice.  Make a well and whisk in wet ingredients.  Cook and serve with toppings.

Toppings:
2-3 ripe mangoes, sliced and diced as desired to top
Lime Cream

Lime Cream:
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp. lime zest
2 tsp. lime juice

Whip together heavy cream and sour cream for 3-4 minutes.  Add powdered sugar, lime juice, and lime zest and blend.

Sour Cream Orange Waffles:

Orange Cream sauce:
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp orange zest
2 Tbsp Orange Juice (fresh)
1 1/2 Tbsp honey (orange blossom honey is best)

Mix all ingredients together until smooth.  Can warm up.

Waffles:
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 Tbsp. Orange zest
2 Tbsp. Orange juice (fresh)
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
2 Tbsp. white sugar
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Whisk together eggs, milk, sour cream, butter, orange zest, orange juice, and vanilla.
In a separate bowl stir together flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Make a well and whisk in wet ingredients.  Cook and serve with Orange Cream sauce.

Lemon-Ricotta Waffles with Blueberry Citrus Syrup

Waffles:
2 eggs, seperated
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup ricotta
2 Tbsp. lemon zest
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Whisk egg yolks, buttermilk, and butter.  Add ricotta, lemon zest, lemon juice.  In a separate bowl beat egg whites and sugar into soft peaks.  In a separate bowl mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, nutmeg.  Mix all ingredients together and cook. 

Berry Citrus Syrup:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
6 strips of lemon peel

Stir all ingredients over stove top until bubbly  and thickened.  Remove lemon peel before serving on waffles.

Goonies Birthday Party

I love themed parties and I love the movie Goonies so it seemed like a fun idea to have a Goonies themed birthday this year.  After looking at pinterest I decided this party was going to be a snap and it was.  Here are some details.

Banners:

Goonies Font from dafont.com.  I cut the banner with the Silouhette using the Goonies font, then glued the letters on white cardstock and mounted on brown.  I just taped the letters to a piece of twine.

Pirate flag from Zurchers party supply.

Goonies Tags from HotTaTasFaktory on Etsy.  Super cute and made a fun additional banner.

One-Eyed Willy:
The skeleton is one I picked up last year at Costco for Halloween, he has come in really handy.  I tied a scrap of cloth on his head as a scarf.  I bought the eye patch at Zurchers and then made the jewel eye like One-Eyed Willy has in the movie with scrapbook sticky embellishments.

Cake:

I got the cake topping frosting sheet from the NM Sugar Shack on Etsy.  These printed frosting sheets are edible, store for a long time, and are easy to apply.  Be aware that it took 24 hours before the frosting sheet blended in with the cake like it was supposed to, not the "several hours" advertised.

 I bought the dynamite candles from Party Swizzle and they were my favorite purchase for this party.  They are packaged so cute, and sparkled when lit.  A couple of them kept relighting and just looked cool for this party, especially because the Goonies think the dynamite sticks they find are just candles.

 

 

The cake was a delicious White cake with Raspberry filling we ordered from Harmon's Bakery, a local here in Utah.

Goonies details:
Data's "Pinchers of Peril" were some chatter teeth I bought on Amazon.

 

Statue of David was a mini garden pick I bought on Amazon then I tied a tag around the middle that said, "That's my mom's favorite piece."  Since it was a tiny garden pick we decided to use it as an additional cake topper.

An "it's wet ain't it?  Drink it!" sign for the water.

Baby Ruth candy bars as thank you for coming favors.

Rocky Road ice cream to serve with the cake.

Pirate's Booty as a salty snack, bought at Costco.  Sign next to it that quotes "bobby traps....that's what I said, booty traps" from the movie.

"Rich Stuff" was a mix of hard candies in colorful wrappers like jewels, some shiny pirate coins and jewelry I picked up at Zurchers, and Hershy's Treasures.

Fratelli's wanted poster found via pinterest.

Goonies map I bought on ebay.

Chunk's Truffles in honor of the truffle shuffle are just oreo truffles.

Additional ideas:
Additional party food as needed that would fit the theme would be Domino's pizza and spray cans of whipped cream.

While we just watched the movie at my party some game ideas would be a matching game with a picture of a character and a quote by that character, a photo booth with One-eyed Willy and a sloth mask you can find online.  A treasure hunt of some sort.  A trivia game.

Decorations that I wanted and couldn't find for a reasonable price or had time to make was the key they find on Chester Copperpot's body.

Seahawks Superbowl Sunday...

Some quick Superbowl ideas:

Team colors popcorn from Our Best Bites.

Crockpot ribs from Your Homebased Mom.

As a Seahawks fan I had to grab some skittles and make my own Seattle Skittles mix *short story of this tradition is on the Our Best Bites link above*  I used the Wildberry Skittles since they have blue and green.  Plus the left over pink, red, and purple skittles are perfect for Valentine's Day which is rapidly approaching.  I found a 12th man logo online and embellished it with a green sticky gem from my scrapbook stash.  I used mini versions of the logos to make cupcake toppers for the green and blue cupcakes I grabbed from Costco.

Pies!

For Thanksgiving we tried a couple new pies this year (okay more than a couple but I made 2 so those recipes are below):

Cranberry Apple Pie:

1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 apples (I used Fugi) peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
2 cups fresh cranberries
zest of 1 orange

Pie crust of choice (2 layers)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a bowl toss apples, cranberries, zest.  In a smaller bowl mix together sugar, flour, and salt.  Toss sugar mixture with apple mixture. 

 

Prepare pie crust, lay into pie pan and prick a few hole in the bottom with a fork.  Dump in apples.  Top with additional pie crust layer.  For fun I used a leaf cookie cutter to make a bunch of pie crust leaves for my top pie crust.

For extra looks I brushed top crust with egg white wash (One egg white beat with a tablespoon of water) and sprinkled with Sugar in the raw (large sugar crystals).

Bake for 20 minutes at 425 degrees, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 40-50 more minutes.  After 20 minutes at 350 degrees my pie rim was browning so I covered the edges with aluminum foil to prevent burning.  Bake until apples soft when poked with a fork and crust baked and browned.

Mini Peach Pies:

These pies are total cheater pies.  I used Pillsbury premade pie crust and canned peach pie filling.  1 box of crust and 1 large can of filling makes 12 cupcake sized pies.

I rolled the crust out a bit and used a cup mouth to cut the bottom crust.  Then I pressed that crust into the cupcake tin and filled with peach pie filling.  I used a round biscuit cutter for the top crust and used a small heart cookie cutter to cut out the bottom.  for a few top crusts I used four of the cut out hearts to form a little flower on top instead of a round crust.  I layered the top crust on, brush with egg white wash, and sprinkled with sugar in the raw.  Baked at 350 degrees for 30-50 minutes, just watched for browning. These are super good warmed with some vanilla ice cream.