Carla's Kitchen

Happy Birthday James!!

2009-06-08T11:37:00.004-06:00

Here are a few pictures of my darling husband's birthday cake! In case you didn't know - that's a Texas Tech double T and a World of Warcraft Horde symbol!

I made the decoration out of colorflow about a week before and let it dry completely before placing it on the cake.

The cake was James's personal favorite - white cake with cream cheese frosting.

The white cake recipe is VERY light and airy, as white cake should be!

This was my first attempt at cream cheese frosting for decorating, so I used the Wilton buttercream recipe and just substituted half of the shortening for cream cheese. It was much tastier than the regular wilton buttercream, but still held up really well for decorating.

White Cake

Adapted from allrecipes

2 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 egg whites
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Sift 2-3 cups of cake flour and THEN measure out your 2 3/4 cups. This is very important! Any time a recipe calls for sifted flour, make sure you sift and then measure. I got 2 3/4 cups out of about 2 cups of unsifted flour.

2. Sift together salt, baking powder, and cake flour three times. (Keep adding air baby!)

3. Cream butter with a mixer and gradually add 1 cup of sugar. Beat until light and fluffy.

4. Beat in flour mixture and milk, alternating about 1/3 of each at a time until it is all incorporated and smooth. (Don't overbeat here, you'll stir up all the gluten and make it tough)

5. In a separate mixer bowl, whip egg whites until they reach stiff peaks. Beat in remaining 1/2 cup of sugar.

6. Fold vanilla and egg whites into cake batter carefully. You want to salvage all that air you just beat into the egg whites.

7. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes for two round pans or one 9x13. (I used a 7x11 but did it in two layers).

Baby Scott and Baby Born!

2009-05-20T11:59:00.005-06:00

Last night we had a couples shower for our friends:

Kyle and Cece...and baby boy!

Jake and Felecia...and baby boy? or baby girl? Jake told us last night he felt like the moment you have a baby is one of the few huge surprises God gives us, so they're waiting to find out the sex. I don't think I could ever have the willpower!

We're so blessed to have both couples in our bible study group and as friends. We can't wait to meet their new family members.

It was a dinner shower, and the menu was all italian, so I tackled another TWD recipe that I've been dying to try - tiramisu cake. It's basically a dense vanilla cake soaked with a coffee syrup, but the best part is the whipped marscapone filling and frosting. Oh. My. Goodness.

Not my most beautiful cake (the marscapone frosting was pretty thin and I couldn't get a great smooth finish like I can with a solid buttercream), but I was very happy with the taste. When the cake came out of the oven I was worried - it didn't rise much and it was pretty dense. But after soaking it with the coffee syrup and letting the whole thing hang out in the fridge overnight I was glad it was the perfect density to stand up to the coffee syrup and to compliment the light airy frosting/filling.

I won't type out the whole recipe because I followed most of the instructions pretty explicitly. I topped with a dusting of cocoa powder (only a few hours before serving) a handful of chocolate covered espresso beans, and two little white royal icing flowers I had saved from a previous project.

Wilton Flowers

2009-05-11T07:21:00.003-06:00

I took Lessons 1-3 from Course 2 all in one day last Saturday, and yesterday I FINALLY got around to making a batch of royal icing at home to play around and make a bunch of flowers.

For the most part they turned out so cute! This was my first time to make royal icing. Make sure that everything that will touch the icing (mixing bowl, beater, spatulas, icing bags, tips, couplers) are all completely grease free. I've been warned that any spot of grease can turn the entire batch of icing into liquid. I didn't soak my tips in vinegar or anything, just washed them in hot soapy water using the tip brush to make sure they were clean all the way through the tip. I used new disposable bags, since I can never seem to get all the grease off of the permanent bags.

I split one batch of royal icing into 4 colors (pink, dark pink, yellow-orange, and white) and had plenty leftover after making a few of each flower.

Here come the flowers:

These are primroses:
The one on the left has the correct star center. The petals are basically 5 little hearts.

The pansy:

The daisy:

The violets (basically the same as apple blossoms, just a little smaller and one less petal)

The apple blossoms: We also learned mums, victorian roses, rosettes, and daffodils. I don't think I beat my royal icing quite long enough because it was a little thin and I couldn't get any of those stiffer flowers to turn out last night. I'll post pictures when I do another batch.

For the love of Triangles

2009-04-30T07:35:00.003-06:00

Happy TAKS week!

My husband LOVES math. And more than math, he LOVES triangles. His students often have to defend me when he tells them that he loves math more than he loves his wife!

I sent him to school today with two cakes for his fellow teachers, so of course they had to be triangles!
The white cake is Dorie's Perfect Party Cake prepared the same way as my earlier post.
The chocolate is Bakerella's yellow cake with peanut butter filling and chocolate buttercream.

Things I learned on this cake:
-To make a triangle cake, you can use a shallow square cake pan, cut the cake into two triangles, and then stack them to make a 2 layer cake. My plan worked perfectly!
-Red icing takes a lot of food coloring! I used wilton's "No Taste Red" which lived up to its name. Definitely use it if you need a true red icing for a CHS or a Red Raider cake!
-I made all the bold lines with the basketweave tip, which I loved! they went on very smooth and neat and I love the thick bold lines.
-If you're making an oddly shaped cake, make sure your board is big enough! I had to drag a box out of the garage to cut up and cover for the boards.

Bonus cake to anyone who solves the equation! :)

Peanut Butter Cake

2009-04-28T11:55:00.003-06:00

Last night was my final class from Wilton Course 1. We combined the final two classes, so we did figure piping, balls, shells, drop flowers, leaves, stems, and the famous Wilton rose! I'm sorry the lighting is AWFUL in these pictures!

I have had SO much fun taking these classes. If you've got a spare evening per week, I definitely recommend taking the plunge and taking the class. It's the best $17 (plus supplies....hehe!) that I've spent in a while. It would rate very well on James's infamous "fun:money ratio". (not to be confused with the fun:work ratio, also very important when deciding how to spend your free time).

James asked what my favorite part is: making the cake, making the icing, or decorating, and I couldn't pick! I have LOVED trying out flavor combinations and deciding what kind of cake/filling/icing to do. A pretty cake is worthless if it doesn't taste good! But I've also really loved learning the techniques.

Friday I start Course 2, which is mostly royal icing flowers. I can't wait!

This week my cake is a combination I made up. It's a peanut butter cake (which I didn't realize was so uncommon until I started researching for recipes!) with peanut butter filling and Wilton's chocolate buttercream frosting. I think if I made it again, I might try leaving out some of the butter. The cake was super greasy coming out of the pan, but serving it two days later it is still moist and is very tasty - but I think it's almost TOO moist, falling apart even.

Peanut Butter Cake

Recipe from Allrecipes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 eggs
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
2/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans. (I used my one 8" deep wilton pan)

Combine 1/2 cup peanut butter and 1/2 cup butter or margarine. Cream until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each one. Add cake mix alternately with the water. Stir until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 25 minutes or until cake tests done. Allow cakes to cool in pan for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Level cakes, fill, and frost.

Easy peanut butter Filling:

This is the peanut butter filling from the Million Dollar Cookies. I just made a big bowl of it, rolled it out into a circle on parchment, and placed in the middle of my cakes.

Mix 1/2 cup peanut butter with 1/2 cup powdered sugar until well combined. That's it! :)

Dorie's Perfect Party Cake

2009-04-21T12:00:00.004-06:00

My cake class was cancelled for this week, but I had been reading reviews and blog posts all week for Dorie's Perfect Party cake (Both Totally Daring Bakers and Tuesdays With Dorie baking challenge groups did it in the last year and I've always wanted to try it!) So I decided to make it anyway, and just play around with my book and the techniques I already knew to practice.
I got the base of icing SO much smoother than the first time by using the papertowel (I used parchment paper) technique! http://www.monkeysee.com/play/988-cake-decorating-a-secret-to-smoothing-icing

The cake is a white cake with a light lemon flavor, and I filled it with homemade meyer lemon curd and blueberry preserves. It is SO good. I would make it again in a heartbeat. A lot of bloggers mentioned they had trouble with Dorie's cake rising. I didn't have that problem at all, and I:

a) Used Dorie's recommended Swan's Down cake flour

b) used all room temp ingredients (eggs, buttermilk, butter)

c) I baked in one 3" deep pan instead of 2 1" pans. My cake teacher recommended this, and I've loved that all my layers on my cakes have the exact same edge because they came off of one cake. And with the wilton leveler, leveling and cutting layers is a snap!

Here are the recipes copied and pasted for the lemon curd and cake. I used meyer lemon for both the zest in the cake and the juice & zest in the curd. Meyers are a cross between a mandarin orange and a lemon, so they're sweeter and you can actually even eat the rind!

Lemon Curd

INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

DIRECTIONS
In the top of a double boiler, beat eggs and sugar. Stir in lemon juice, butter and lemon peel. Cook over simmering water for 15 minutes or until thickened.

Dorie's Perfect Party Cake

(Here is the full recipe. I made the cake part in my one pan, and then used wilton icing and filled with the curd & preserves so I didn't make her buttercream. But I wanted you t have all of her instructions, she's so thorough!)

Perfect Party Cake
From Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking: From My Home to Yours”
Makes 12 to 14 servings

For the Cake
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves, stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
About 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9-x-2-inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make The Cake: Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter and, working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs, beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated. Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the tough – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unmold them and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up. (The cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.)

To Make the Buttercream: Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or other large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream. Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6 to 10 minutes. During this time, the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again. On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. You should have a shiny, smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.
To Assemble the Cake: Using a sharp, serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half. Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper. Spread it with one third of the preserves. Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream. Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with the third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream left over). Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top. Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Serving: The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but it’s best to let it set for a couple of hours in a cool room. Serve it at room temperature with anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing: The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to 2 days.

Cake Time!

2009-04-14T08:20:00.003-06:00

Last night was my second cake class, but the first time to really get my hands dirty!

I was so excited when I got a coupon for 30% off total purchase, so I went to Michaels and got all of my cake loot! I even got this super cute bag (that's supposed to be for scrapbooking) to keep it all in!I went over to Natalie's house (we're taking the class together!) on Sunday night and we made, thinned, and colored all of our icing and filled and iced the base of our cakes. We had a great time, but it was definitely harder than we thought!

Last night we learned stars, dots, printing, piping gel, and basic cake covering techniques.

Cake wrecks here I come!! :)

This is my first ever cake, so don't be too hard on me! I did a dot border on the bottom and the top and then printed my name with a star outline, and then did a heart (which I used a cookie cutter to imprint and then trace) and then filled it with stars.

I did a Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate cake with a fudge filling and it was pretty good! I just had a piece for breakfast :)

Happy Easter!

2009-04-14T07:36:00.003-06:00

We had a great Easter on Sunday!
Both sides of the family came over and we had a brunch in the afternoon. I had so much fun planning and cooking it! I really love that both of our families live close and we can have everyone come over for lunch. We missed my brother (in CO) and my sister (in Germany) so we'll have to do it again when they are in town!

Here is the table setting, pretty simple but I just loved how those cheap little grocery store daisies looked when I cut them short and put them in short water glasses.

Here is the spread! We had:

-Fresh Berries
-Veggie Tray
-Bacon Cheddar Frittatta
-Spinach Quiche
-Ham and bacon
-Roasted Asparagus
-3 crostinis: Chicken, Chicken Cordon Bleu, and Caprese
-Crescent rolls
-Baked Potato Salad
-Garden Salad
-And of course cupcake bites!

Thanks to my mom for the yummy quiche (with homemade pie crust!) and the gorgeous salad.
And thanks to my mother in law for supplying all the drinks! She even brought diet cherry seven up which is my FAVORITE! :)
Hope everyone else had a great Easter as well! The Lord has blessed us in so many ways, and I think looking at that giant table of food and then looking around and seeing how great my husband and our families are really made me feel that. Most of all, He blessed us with salvation, and that's what Easter is really all about. So Thank You Jesus, for being the Lamb, for giving more than we could ever fathom giving, so we could have everything. We aren't worthy, but you were. Amen! :)

Up next...cake-a-palooza!

Wilton Course 1, Class 1

2009-04-07T12:06:00.003-06:00

Last night I started my first Wilton cake decorating course!

I've planned to do this forever, my mom even took these classes when we were little and she made the most amazing, beautiful birthday cakes for us. I'm taking it with my friend Natalie, and I've already learned a lot even though we didn't even touch a cake last night!

On night one we went through the basics of decorating, supplies, etc. Our teacher is this fabulously eccentric woman who has been decorating for years.

I bought the book & basic supply kit before we started the class. It includes a couple of bags, all the tips needed for the class, a spatula, brush, couplers, and a practice board.

I also bought a can of merengue powder to make icing and some colors that I used last week on my cupcake bites.

The extras that I'm going to purchase for the class (but aren't things you HAVE to purchase)

-a 3 inch deep round cake pan. I've always used 2 1nch deep pans, but our teacher recommended this one, and it's fairly inexpensive, especially with a coupon!

-a cake leveler. Less than $5, and I'm OVER using a serrated knife

-cardboard cake circles to transport my cakes

-a cake carrier. I have to bring my cakes to work with me, and I think this is a worthwhile investment!

-extra bags and couplers. The kit comes with 2 of each, but since I want like 4 colors of icing for my first cake, I'm going to grab a few more.

Next week, I vow to post pictures of my cake no matter how terrible it looks!

I love that I have an excuse to make an entire cake, so I'm thinking of exciting cake+filling combos.

I'm thinking either lemon cake w/fruit filling or chocolate cake with a mocha filling.

Cupcake Bites

2009-04-06T07:58:00.004-06:00

(I apologize in advance for the photos. I didn't have my camera so I took these with my phone!)

I've wanted to make these for a while, but until I saw them in person I didn't know I would absolute die and go to cute heaven. Even James (who rolls his eyes at my ooohing and ahhing over tiny little things!) thought they were pretty much the cutest thing ever! And they taste GREAT! I used white cake, white cream cheese frosting, and white chocolate bark w/gel food coloring.

I've read about cake balls and cake pops a la bakerella for a while, and then Pioneer Woman laid out some great instructions. I tried both methods, but the mold method by far worked better, and looked so darn cute with the perfectly molded little ridges.

One tip - use the candy bark or candy melts. I used semi sweet chocolate chips for part of it and it was super soft. Even in the molds, when I had to hold the chocolate bottom to dip the top it started to smear in my hands.

I'm not even going to post a recipe, but here are links:

The FABULOUS Bakerella

The FABULOUS Pioneer Woman

Fresh Corn Risotto

2009-04-02T14:48:00.002-06:00

Hello strangers!
I am SO ready for summer food. Tomatos with fresh basil, strawberries, summer corn on the grill, yum!
I broke down and bought some fresh corn this past week even though I could tell by the color of the stalks that it's not REALLY summer yet. I was looking for something a little different to serve with braised bbq ribs, and this was really good! The creamy texture of the corn is a stark contrast the pop of the corn kernels as you eat it. And, let's face it, I've never met a risotto I didn't like!

By the way, if you're not into corn, stop where I added it and you have a basic risotto recipe below that you can add anything to!

Summer Corn Risotto
Recipe by me!

-1 cup arborio rice (short, fat rice. I can usually find it at nicer grocery stores in the bulk section. It's getting easier to find as risotto gets more popular)
-1/2 cup white wine, warmed up in the microwave or saucepan (if you want to leave this out just use an extra 1/2 cup of chicken stock. Risotto is 3:1 liquid:rice ratio)
-2 1/2 cups chicken stock or broth
-1 cup corn kernels cut from fresh corn ears (or canned if you must!)
-1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
-1 clove garlic, minced

1. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a deep, heavy pot. Add garlic and rice and stir to coat. Cook over medium heat until garlic is fragrant and rice kernels start to appear transparent.
2. Pour chicken stock into a separate saucepan and heat until simmering. You'll want to keep it at a simmer during this whole process.
3. When rice is transparent, add warmed wine and stir until simmering. Simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed. To test, pull your spoon through the center of the rice, if a lot of liquid floods into the valley you made, keep stirring. If you're still seeing the bottom of the pot because the liquid and rice are sticking where they were pushed, it's time to add more liquid.
4. Add 1/2 cup of simmering broth to the simmering rice. Stir and heat until the liquid starts to look absorbed. (and no- you don't have to "Stir constantly" like people who want you to be afraid of cooking risotto will tell you. Stir it pretty frequently, but if you take your spoon out and go check on something else it's not going to fall apart!)
5. Do the pull test again, and when most of the liquid is absorbed, add another 1/2 cup of chicken stock. You're going to repeat this process until rice is cooked to al dente. When you think you're adding your final 1/2 cup of chicken stock, add the corn with it to heat it through.
6. To know when it's done, taste a little. It should be soft, but not mushy. I usually don't use all 3 cups of liquid, but it can depend on the weather, the rice, the heat level, a million things!
7. When rice is finished, add cheese, taste and add salt and pepper as desired.

This makes a lot. If I'm making it for the two of us as a side dish, I cut this recipe in half.

Cheesy Quinoa

2009-01-08T10:03:00.006-06:00

For Christmas, my awesome older sister (the "German Sister" as we call her, since she lives abroad and is married to German citizen) came to visit. She brought me an assortment of grains - polenta, amaranth, quinoa, and another one with a German name, which I think is something like millet.

I've started experimenting with them, but as James is very hesitant even about rice, I have to be strategic.

I've never eaten quinoa (keen-wah, not kwin-no-uh as I previously called it), but I decided to throw caution to the wind and make up a recipe as I went along. I wasn't being super risky, because basically I decided to make macaroni and cheese with quinoa instead of noodles. I don't claim this recipe to be part of a 2009 extreme body makeover weight watcher diet. But it does have more fiber and protein than velveeta shells and cheese, and James ATE IT. He actually asked me what it was, said he loved it, and got a second helping.

So you see the strategy? When I introduced him to fish, I started with potato chip crusted fish, then to a cheesy parmesan tilapia, then finally to seasoned grilled salmon. If I had tried the salmon first he never would have tasted it. And now he loves it and requests it. So I started him on a cheesy gooey buttery grain dish. We'll evolve from there. I served this with sauteed chicken tenders and green beans.

About the Cheese Sauce:

Mac and Cheese is something I struggled with for a long time with. For whatever reason, I was very roux challenged. I have to credit this article from the nest with saving me from my grainy mac and cheese days. I still use lowfat milk with no trouble, but letting the bechamel cool before adding cheese, and using a mixture of cheeses (I like gruyere - not great flavor in my opinion, but melts beautifully- and sharp cheddar - not a great melter, but so much flavor!), and heating the milk before adding has made me a Mornay sauce queen!

Cheesy Quinoa

Ingredients:

1/2 cup quinoa

1 cup low sodium chicken broth

2 tbs butter
2 tbs flour
1 cup milk

3 oz gruyere, shredded

3 oz cheddar, shredded

cayenne pepper

Directions

1. Rinse the quinoa a few times to wash away any residue from the bitter outer layer. Bring chicken broth to a boil in a small saucepan. Add quinoa and let it simmer, covered, for about 10-15 minutes until it is fluffy and the liquid is absorbed. Meanwhile, make your sauce.

2.Heat your milk in either a saucepan or the microwave. You want it warmed up, but not boiling.

3. Melt butter in a large saucepan (You're going to have to whisk up a storm, so it needs to have high sides if you're a mess like me!)over medium heat. Sprinkle in the flour and whisk until smooth. Continue to cook and whisk the roux until it darkens slightly (takes 5 minutes or more) from a buttery yellow to a caramel tan. The roux needs to cook slightly to cook out some of that raw flour flavor.

4. Add the milk slowly, whisking as you go to distribute the fat throughout the liquid. Bring to a boil and cook and whisk until it thickens. Turn off the heat, and let it sit for a minute or two, stirring a few times.

5. Add the gruyere and stir until it melts in. Then add the cheddar. It should melt, but if some of it doesn't, it will melt when added to the hot quinoa. Stir in a sprinkle of cayenne pepper.

6. Stir the sauce into the quinoa, and taste. I added a little salt and pepper at this point, but taste yours first, because the salt levels in cheeses and chicken broth vary, and you don't want to overdo it.

This recipe made probably 4 large side dish portions.

Pumpkin Bread

2009-01-03T14:55:00.008-06:00

On Christmas day, I walked into the kitchen to find this:

My sweet husband made me breakfast! Best egg sandwich I ever had, he's been hiding his cooking skills from me for all these years. From now on, he makes the mac and cheese in the house! :)

My friend Natalie bought me a really great silicone baking mold for Christmas, and I had to use it for Christmas day. Believe it or not - this is the only thing I cooked for any of our Christmas celebrations! I love the pans, and the pmpkin bread turned out really good!

Pumpkin Bread

From Allrecipes

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Downeast-Maine-Pumpkin-Bread/Detail.aspx

Shrimp Enchiladas

2009-01-01T17:16:00.005-06:00

Happy New Year!
Somewhere around Christmas I lost my camera cord...so I've got a camera full of recipes I want to share from the holidays, but I'm determined to find that cord first! My guess would be that the cats have found it and buried it in a couch cushion somewhere :)

I promised my sister and a friend of James's that I would get them my recipe for shrimp enchiladas, which I forgot to take a picture of, so here you go! This is one of my favorite recipes to make for company. It has so much flavor, and the shrimp are a nice change from your standard enchiladas.

Shrimp Enchiladas
Adapted from Annies Eats

Shrimp Enchiladas
Ingredients:
1/2 cup bell pepper, diced (I prefer to use red, orange or yellow...but green's cheaper!)
1/2 cup shallots (regular onion will work, I love the flavor of shallots though)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tbsp. butter, divided
1 pinch oregano
1 pinch black pepper
A dash of cayenne pepper
1 pinch smoked spanish paprika
1 cup cream
1 ½ tsp. all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided

milk
1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup tomatoes, diced
6 flour tortillas

Directions:

Sauce:
Melt 2 tbsp. of butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Reserve a few tablespoons of bell pepper for topping enchiladas. Add remaining peppers, garlic and ¼ cup of shallots to the skillet and sauté until crisp-tender. Add oregano, salt, cayenne powder, black pepper, and flour; blend well. Cook the butter in the flour for a few minutes until it starts to darken some in color. Add cream. Lower heat to medium and cook until slightly thickened. Add 1 cup shredded cheese and stir until melted. It will be very thick at this point. Set aside.

Shrimp:
In a skillet, melt the remaining tablespoon of butter. Add shrimp and remaining ¼ cup onion to the skillet and sauté shrimp until pink. Season the shrimp with salt and paprika. Remove shrimp from pan with a slotted spoon and chop; return to the skillet. Add 1/2 cup of the cheese sauce.

To build the enchiladas: (this gets messy!)
Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease an 8×8” baking dish.
Mix remaining cheese sauce with some milk (I eyeball this, probably somewhere from a few Tbs to 1/4 cup) to thin to a pourable sauce consistency.
Dip a tortilla into the sauce, flip to coat completely. Spoon some of the shrimp mixture onto the tortilla. Roll up tightly and place in the baking dish, seam side down. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
Top with remaining sauce, remaining cheese, and sprinkle remaining bell peppers and tomatos.
Bake for 30-35 minutes.
Serve with additional diced bell peppers and tomatos.

Pumpkin Dip

2008-12-19T12:53:00.004-06:00

It hit me this morning as I was filling my ceramic pumpkin with pumpkiny, fluffy, goodness (for James's end-of-semester-teacher-potluck) that I have never blogged one of my most frequently used fall recipes. And fall is over!

I have taken this pumpkin dip to a lot of potlucks and here's what I've learned. Find yourself a pumpkin serving dish. Or a pumpkin plate, or put a plastic pumpkin on the plate next to the bowl. Just identify it in SOME way. Because it's orange, and I've found that people are slightly scared of unidentified orange food. So I gave in and bought this pumpkin to avoid James having to stuff an bites of this stuff into everyone's mouths at a party to force them to try it.

If they try it, they'll love it! It tastes like the good part of the pumpkin pie. I usually serve it with either cinnamon graham crackers, vanilla wafers, or my personal favorite - apple slices. Yummy yum! And it couldn't be more simple for last-minute potluck appetizers!

Pumpkin Dip

Recipe from Allrecipes

1 (16 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed (Cool Whip!)
1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I use about a tsp of cinnamon, then a pinch of cloves, nutmeg, and ginger)

In a large bowl, mix together instant vanilla pudding mix, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. Fold in the thawed frozen whipped topping. Chill in the refrigerator until serving.

I like to let it sit overnight, which gives time for the pudding mix to fully dissolve, otherwise it can be slightly grainy.

C is for Cookies!

2008-12-15T11:36:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was the 2nd annual champagne & cookie swap Christmas afternoon with a group of my girlfriends and we had it at my house. My husband and coworkers were very happy about all the goodies I collected!

I love Michaels with all my heart :) I got these adorable chinese takeout containers and tied mini cookie cutters to each one for the girls to take their cookies home in!
To go with the cookies I made a couple of appetizers that taste much better than they look. (Uglyfoodblogger, are you still around? I think this may make the cut!) But they tasted so good, the girls still ate them all up! Recipes are below for BBQ pulled pork bites and pesto/sundried tomato spread.
BBQ Pulled Pork Bites

Recipe by me :) Made this one up.

1 1-2 lb pork tenderloin (or 1/2 whole pork loin, or 2lb pork butt or shoulder roast)
1 bottle of your fave bbq sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's original for me!)
1 cup water
2 packages of pillsbury crescent roll creations (the big flat sheet of crescent rolls)
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic
1-2 cups shredded cheese

For pulled pork: (this is the recipe I use to make pulled pork for sandwiches too)
Place pork in crockpot (all in one piece).
Pour 1/2-1 cup bbq suace on top, enough to cover the top of it. Pour 1 cup of wateraround the sides of the roast.
Put the lid on and cook all day on low or 4-5 hours on high.
Take pork out, and shred with two forks (it should be pretty tender and fall apart easily).
For these appetizers, I first cut the tenderloin into 1-2 inch slices, and shredded each slice to make sure the pork shreds weren't too big for the appetizers.
Mix with another 1/2-1 cup bbq sauce until it is the consistency you want.

For appetizers:
Preheat oven to 350
Roll out crescent dough sheets onto 2 cookie sheets.
Mince 1 clove of garlic and put it in a small bowl with 2 tbs of EVOO. Microwave for 30 seconds. Brush the oil and garlic onto the crescent sheets.
Bake in the 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until it starts to turn golden. Remove from the oven, and switch to your broiler.
Sprinkle cheese on each crescent sheet, all the way to the edges.
Place under broiler for a couple of minutes until the cheese melts (it won't take long! Keep an eye on it!)
Cut each sheet into 2" squares.
Place about 1 Tbs of hot pulled pork on each piece.

I'm thinking it would look better with some scallions or chives snipped on top.

Pesto/Sundried Tomato spread

Recipe - if you can even call this a recipe - is by me. Got the idea from a storebought spread I had at a church party.

Ingredients

2 oz of cream cheese (I buy 8 oz, cut it in half, then cut that piece in half like I'm opening a hamburger roll or something)

2 tablespoons of prepared pesto (my favorite is the refrigerated butoni brand)

3-4 chopped sundried tomatos (the ones in a jar, packed in oil)

Directions

Take the tomatos out of the jar and drain them for a few minutes on a paper towel to get rid of some of the oil.

Mince the tomatos into small pieces.

Spread cream cheese onto serving plate (I just place the little 2x3x1/2" pice that I cut from the block onto the plate).

Spread pesto on top of cream cheese.

Place tomatos on top of pesto.

Serve with crackers and a cheese knife to spread.

This is a perfect last minute appetizer, the jarred pesto and tomatos last forever unopened in the pantry. We always have some of the refrigerated stuff on hand for quick dinners.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-11T22:30:00.002-06:00

Merry Christmas!

Love, Reilly and Lilah

Thanksgiving Menu

2008-11-20T09:45:00.004-06:00

After many drafts, I think I've finally got the menu set for Thanksgiving. This year, we are attending a lunch thanksgiving and then I'm cooking a dinner Thanksgiving! Should be a very busy day, but I'm really looking forward to it. I'll take as many pictures as I can remember to take and hopefully post more recipes this year!

Thanksgiving 2008 Dinner Menu

Appetizers
-Parmesan Pinwheels
-Deviled Eggs (Behlen tradition!)
-Veggie tray

Dinner
-Brined Oven Roasted Turkey Breast (same recipe as last year, but I'm going to attempt Spatchcocking this year! I'll try to provide pictures of the hilarity)
-Traditional Dressing
-Creamy Herb Mashed Potatos
-Sweet Potato Souffle (seriously. best. ever. sweet potatos.)
-~~Pioneer Woman's Fresh Corn with Wild Rice~~ (Made a test run this weekend. Tasted good, but was....strange. Not going to risk it on TG.)
-Roasted Cauliflower and Green Beans
-Cranberry Applesauce
-Challah (Jewish Egg Bread. Judy Bread. Perfection)

Desserts
-Apple Pie
-Furr's German Chocolate Pie. (My husband would MUTINY if my Mother in Law didn't bring this. Seriously. I think he might just walk out on the whole thing. I made him one from scratch once, and it was close, but no Furr's. Sigh.)

Kitty time!

2008-11-11T09:36:00.008-06:00

Okay, so it's not food related, but I just couldn't resist! Meet our new babies! The black kitten is a little girl named Lilah. The grey tabby is her brother, who James has yet to choose a name for. I'm guessing it will be some variation of Texas Tech Red Raider Graham Harrell Michael Crabtree Wes Welker.

They came to us from the Lewisville Humane Society last night. If you're looking for a rescue, I highly recommend working with HSL. They have a few extra steps in the rescue process, but they are VERY thorough and make sure that you and your new pets have the best chance of staying together forever.

They adjusted really well last night, immediately used their litter box, ate their dinner, scratched the scratching post, and snuggled in their beds. They have their own bedroom for now so they don't get into too much trouble while we're at work. Tonight we may let them explore the rest of the house!

Bruschetta Orzo Salad

2008-11-10T09:26:00.005-06:00

I made this a few weeks ago for a dinner party. It was my first time to use orzo! I don't recommend making new recipes for dinner parties, but I was bound and determined to use the orzo in my pantry, and the flavors went well with the rest of my dinner so I went for it!

It turned out great, the flavors were good, the texture was great, and it was something different than the same old same old. I recently asked James to plant fresh basil over my grave the day I die. I would put it in EVERYTHING if he'd let me!

I'll warn you - the orzo should probably be done the day before, it took a while to cool. (I hate it when I get into a recipe the night I want to eat it and realize it's going to take days!)

Bruschetta Orzo Salad

recipe by: me! Made this one up from scratch

-1 cup of orzo
-1 cup cherry or grape tomatos

-2 large garlic cloves
-1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
-1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs olive oil
-1/3 cup fresh basil leaves
-1/4 cup chopped shallots (or onions)
-1/4 cup of crumbled feta

1. Cook and drain the orzo according to package directions. Toss with the 2 Tbs of olive oil and let it cool completely.
2. Heat up remaining 1/4 cup olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Toss in shallots and let them cook for a couple of minutes until softened and translucent. Toss in garlic and let it soften and flavor the oils, it will only take 30 seconds to a minute. Don't brown or burn the garlic!
3. Whisk balsamic vinegar into the oil, shallots, and garlic, and let the dressing cool completely.
4. Cut tomatos in half (If using roma tomatos, remove the guts, and dice the firm flesh)
5. Mix the cooled orzo, cooled dressing, tomatos, and feta cheese, breaking up the orzo with a fork. (all the steps to this point can be done the night before. Add the basil just before serving)
6. Chiffonade the basil by rolling up the leaves and slicing with a knife. Stir the basil into the salad.
7. Top with additional feta cheese and serve cold.

Dump Cake

2008-10-23T08:39:00.003-06:00

I have to admit I was skeptical of my husband's proclaimed love for this "cake" when we were dating in high school. He raves about some of the strangest things, but the one he asks for every birthday is his mom's famous dump cake. And after trying it, I was hooked!

After we got married, Brenda (my mother in law) graciously shared her recipe with me, and after making it, I was even more hooked! Could there be an easier dessert out there? James and I can eat an entire 9x13 of this stuff in two days, easily. 1 if we have company.

Thank you for the recipe Brenda!

Brenda's Dump Cake
Recipe shared by Brenda Behlen

1 large can of pineapple (I used the kind in juice, but you can use the syrup one too)
1 large can of cherry pie filling
1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 bag of coconut
1 stick butter

Then we dump!

1. Dump (get it!?!) the pineapple and pie filling into a greased 9x13 pan. Mix it together.
2. Dump the dry cake mix on top
3. Dump the cocnut on top of that. (I just eyeball this part, lay it on pretty thick, we do at least an inch or so covering the cake mix)
4. Slice the butter into thin pats and lay them on top of the coconut, evenly covering as much of the cake as possible.
5. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes or until the coconut starts to brown. The butter will soak down and mix into the cake mix.

This cake is great warm or cold. We usually have to fight off the urges long enough to not burn ourselves when it comes out of the oven.

Pie Crust 101

2008-10-19T07:48:00.010-06:00

My friend Kelly and I had a ball a few weeks of putting together an apple pie. As you can see a few posts down, we did have some mishaps, but she assures me she ended up with a great pie, and we each went home with a dish of homemade applesauce as well.

Here's Kelly :):

So here are the step by step instructions as I know them. Pioneer Woman I am not, so bear with me!

Place 2 sticks of cold butter into 2 1/2 cups of flour. I don't go crazy here and freeze the butter and the bowl or anything, just pull the butter straight from the fridge and drop it in. I also add a Tbs of sugar (for a sweet pie) and a tsp of salt.

Using a pastry blender (or if you're my mom and you're really good--two knives!) and cut into the butter and flour. This is "cutting the fat into the flour" that recipes call for. You'll cut one direction, than another, just keep at it, almost like a kneading motion while holind the pastry blender.

It will start to combine and look like this. We're not quite there yet!

Ahh, there they are. The small peas. When all the little butter blobs are about the size of small peas, you're there. You know all those beautiful flakes in a good pie crust? Those come from these tiny peas melting individually when it's cooked to form little buttery pockets in the crust.

Add cold water, one tablespoon at a time (again, I don't go nuts with the temp. We don't want the butter to melt, but I don't feel the need to soak the water in ice or anything). I usually add 6-8 tablespoons total. Sometimes more, sometimes less. This will depend on humidity, the water content in butter, just the overal mood of your flour? Just don't dump it all at once. You'll be sorry.

Mix the water in with your hands or the dough hook after each water addition. Pick up some of the dry mixture and form it into a ball with your hands. Pull it in two, if it crumbles completely, keep adding water. If it's starting to pull apart like dough, stop adding water! It should be somewhat dry, but not totally falling apart.

Form the dough into two discs and wrap them in plastic wrap (or...if you forgot to buy plastic wrap, in the produce bags from the apples for your pie!) and put them in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Don't skip this step!! You'll be sorry again.

When you're ready to roll it out, flour everything! The counter, the dough, the awesome rolling pin your mom bought you, anything that might touch the dough.

Roll the disc out in one direction in short little flips of the roller. You don't want to be too hard on the dough, you'll squish all those aforementioned buttery fat pockets.

Flip the dough over and turn it 90 degrees, be sure to throw a little more flour underneath it, on top of it, and on your rolling pin. Continue to roll in short little flips.

You'll repeat this process of flipping and turning the dough, and rolling it out, several times. You don't want to just leave it flat and get it all rolled out, it will be STUCK to the counter without the flipping turning action. TRUST ME. You'll be....sorry. :)

The easiest way I've found to move the dough is to fold it into fourths (I tried to show Kelly the cool way of rolling it onto your rolling pin almost ended in disaster) and then move it to the pan. It may break some, but you can just press it back together.

With the bottom crust in the pan, repeat the process to roll out the top crust. You can either seal the of the top and bottom crust with a fork, or use your thumb between your forefinger and middle finger to flute the edges.

And voila! You've made a pie. You won't be sorry!

Cooking 101

2008-10-19T07:33:00.004-06:00

I recently told someone that I think there should be an "in-between" cooking school that teaches basic techniques. Central Market has an awesome knife skills class, but it seems like the rest of their classes go over making a specific meal or type of cuisine. I'd love to take classes that centered around basic cooking skills - pastry making, sauce making, bread making, etc.

I'm lucky I have my mom, I can call her in a panic, or plan a Sunday afternoon in her kitchen for her to walk me through all the basics.

Last year, after some very failed attempts, I had my mom walk me through pie crust. A few weeks ago, I passed on the lesson to a friend of mine from work. Before I share our pie crust lesson, I wanted to do an entry sharing what my mom wrote about our afternoon together last year.

RECIPE FOR FAMILY

by Faye Beaulieu

It was never about the piecrust.

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, my daughter, now married for one year to the young man who won her heart the day she turned sixteen, called me with a request. She wanted a piecrust lesson.

Now you have to understand – this is the daughter who is not at all fazed by the prospect of working with phyllo dough. She stuffs pork chops, grills salmon, creates fruit cup containers out of citrus rind, and bakes challah. She has her own cooking blog, for crying out loud. And she wanted me to teach her how to make piecrust.

I have my high school home economics teacher to thank for this moment. I grew up in rural Mississippi. Girls took “homemaking.” Guys took “shop.” I made the requisite garments during the weeks devoted to sewing, but those lessons never took. The gathered skirt and button-front blouse hung in my closet unworn. They earned me an A in class, but I was never happy with the way they looked. To this day, I’m grateful that I learned to hem, to sew on buttons, and to replace broken zippers. Bolts of fabric in a cloth store and patterns that promise to turn that fabric into fabulous creations, however, hold no magic for me.

But cooking was another story. The weeks spent in that unit flew by. I learned to measure, to whip egg whites, to make emergency substitutions. Time actually spent in the classroom kitchen was charmed, and I looked forward eagerly to the days when it was my turn to cook. To this day I regularly pull out a couple of the recipes taken away from those classes; I’ve never found a way to improve on the Chocolate Sheet Cake and its partner icing.

One of the stock items taught every year to first-years was the daunting Caramel Pie. Not only did the unseasoned cooks-in-training face learning to caramelize sugar, but they also had to figure out how to get an acceptable shell to emerge from the flour, shortening, and salt stacked on the counter. A very patient Mrs. Scott guided hairnetted newbies through the process: cutting the shortening into the flour, adding just enough cold water to make a soft dough, and rolling out the crust. Sounds easy enough. Veterans, however, know there’s a reason the refrigerated ReadyCrusts sell as well as they do.

I agreed to the request for the Saturday afternoon piecrust lesson, and Carla and I jumped into the process, she eager to add another skill to her repertoire, I just happy to have something to share with her. I showed her how to use the pastry blender to integrate flour and shortening, how to add cold water bit by bit, how to work the resulting mass into soft dough and how to coax a smooth, even product from the dough with the aid of one of my most-treasured possessions: my thirty-year-old wooden rolling pin.

And as we worked, we talked. About husbands, about professions, about friends, about life. We relived experiences from pages of our own family history and speculated on the future. We shared dreams and exchanged opinions on everything from the imminent presidential race to hybrid cars.

And as the time passed, the pie shell moved from the counter to the baking dish, and we spent a few minutes on fluting techniques and ways to control the color of the crust as it bakes. We decided on a chicken-spinach quiche to fill the shell, and we cleaned the kitchen as it baked. She left as the sun set, her half of the quiche resting in foil on the floorboard, dinner for her and James.

It really never was about the piecrust. It was about a mother and daughter spending time together, reinforcing the structure on which family is built. And about revisiting those important moments that give us hope for the days ahead. When she opens her birthday present – a pastry blender, a collection of cookie cutters, and her own heavy wooden rolling pin – I hope the memories of our afternoon together drift up from the tissue paper as well.

I love you mom! Thanks for ALL the lessons, not just the pie crust one :)

Below is my mom, Living United!

Yummy Mistake!

2008-10-05T17:34:00.002-06:00

I had a friend come over today for pie crust 101 (more on that later). We set out to make a perfect apple pie so that she could master it and make one for her family's thanksgiving. We went over types of apples, precooking the filling vs cold filling, forming and rolling the crust, everything!

But then I got a little ADD while waiting for the filling to cook, and decided to go check my fantasy football. UGH. Apparently I got a little wrapped up in my "But I'm undefeeeeeated!!" whine, because by the time we went back to check the filling--we pretty much had applesauce.

So we went back to the store for more apples ($8 for 6 apples, inflation is killing my baking budget!). We started over on her pie, but I decided to add a little extra liquid and turn my mistake into applesauce. The result was a hearty, rustic (i.e. lumpy!) and very tasty applesauce!

I'd take a picture, but you know what applesauce looks like, and I don't want to make it into the ugly food blog hall of fame :)

Accidental Applesauce

by Carla

6-8 apples (various kinds, I used a mixture of Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp, and Fujis)

3 tbs butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

dash of ginger

dash of cloves

1/2 cup of water

1. Peel, core, and slice apples into small slices

2. Melt 3 tbs of butter in a large pan big enough to hold all the apples

3. Toss the apples in the butter until all apples are covered and glossy. Cover and cook the apples over medium heat for 10-15 minutes until they start to turn soft and fall apart. (At this point, go check your fantasy football. Question Ladanian Tomlinson's manhood. Curse your husband for his tight end advice).

4. Uncover and add in water, sugar, and spices. Stir with a spatula and break up remaining apples. Continue to simmer sauce and break up apples for another 10 minutes or so until it resembles applesauce.

I liked it with some chunks of apple left in it. If you like yours smoother, the Joy of Cooking recommends putting it in a food processer or blender.

I can't wait to use my newfound homemade applesauce to make my cranberry applesauce for thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Roll

2008-09-29T08:06:00.002-06:00

Now that we've done apple pies, what's the next thing we MUST introduce if we are truly going to usher in fall? PUMPKIN!

Last year James told me he absolutely did not like pumpkin. I made a weight watcher's recipe for pumpkin spice muffins (literally just one box spice cake mix + 1 can of pumpkin, baked into mini muffins, 1 pt each I think). He agreed to try them because they smelled so good, and his response was "There's some really yummy taste in there I can't identify" then proceeded to eat the whole pan. Fast forward a few weeks, I made a pumpkin dip (cool whip, vanilla pudding, canned pumpkin. literally ALL you can taste is pumpkin). And his response again was "There's just some really yummy taste to this!"

Uh--babe. That yummy taste is pumpkin. You like pumpkin! He then admitted that he had never tried it, and has been a pumpkin lover ever since.

I made this pumpkin roll for company Friday night, but ended up getting sick and cancelling the company. So we ate it ourselves. Just ate the last piece for breakfast actually. Yum!

Overall, good recipe. I thought it could use a little more sweetness in the cake part, but the filling was plenty sweet so I guess as long as the ratio of each bite was right it was sweet enough. After sitting and reading the joy of cooking yesterday, I've decided I also want to try this with vanilla ice cream for the filling and freezing.

Libby's Pumpkin Roll

ALL credit goes to http://www.verybestbaking.com/ As in, I copied and pasted. Even the photo.

Ingredients:

CAKE
1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
FILLING
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar (optional for decoration)

Directions:

FOR CAKE:

PREHEAT oven to 375° F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle a thin, cotton kitchen towel with powdered sugar.

COMBINE flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.

BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. (If using a dark-colored pan, begin checking for doneness at 11 minutes.) Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

FOR FILLING:

BEAT cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

COOKING TIP:Be sure to put enough powdered sugar on the towel when rolling up the cake so it will not stick.

Apple Hand Pies

2008-09-22T09:43:00.004-06:00

Happy 1st day of Fall!

I've been craving pie, but every time I make a pie we throw half of it away. Solution - super cute little hand pies!

I mixed a few regular Apple pie recipes to get to this one, thanks to Martha Stewart and the Joy of Cooking! :)

I took the picture on my phone because I left my camera somewhere this weekend, so sorry for the crappy quality!

Apple Hand Pies
Makes 8

Crust:
2 sticks (1/2 lb) of butter, chilled
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs sugar
6+ Tbs water

1. Using two forks or a dough hook (or a food processer, on my Christmas list!) cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembled small peas.
2. Add water, 1 Tbs at a time, and mix until the mixture begins to form a dough. It's ready when you can ball up the dough and it sticks together without crumbling, but it shouldn't be wet or sticky. Add water sparingly!
3. Form the dough into two flat discs, wrap with plastic, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes while you prep your filling.

Filling
4-5 large apples (I use the Alton Brown apple pie mixture - honeycrisp, granny smith, golden delicious, and braeburn)
3 Tbs butter
1 cup sugar
cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg
1 egg

1. Peel, core, and coursely chop apples into 1/2 inch cubes.
2. Melt 3 Tbs butter in a large skillet or saucepan big enough to hold all your apples.
3. Stir apples into melted butter until coated, cover, and cook on medium heat for 5-10 minutes until apples are soft on the outside but still have some crunch.
4. Mix 1 cup of sugar with cinnamon, ginger,and nutmeg to taste. I like a pretty healthy pouring of cinnamon (2 tsp maybe?) and just a small pinch of the ginger and nutmeg.
5. RESERVE 1/4 cup of the spiced sugar mixture.
6. When apples are parcooked, add remaining 3/4 cup of the sugar mixture and turn heat up to high, and cook at a rolling boil for 3-5 minutes until juices become thick and syrupy.
7. When finished, spread apple mixture onto a sheet pan and cool to room temperature.

Building the pies
1. Flour your work surface, and roll out dough to about 1/2 inch thickness.
2. Using a saucer as a guide, cut 6-8 inch circles out of the dough. You can reroll out the excess dough and get as many circles as you can, but remember pie dough gets less tender as you play with it, so go easy. I got 8 circles out of the dough above, plus a little extra that I cut out with cookie cutters to make the little top designs.
3. Spoon 2-3 Tbs of apple mixture onto half of each dough circle, leaving 1/2 inch or so around the edge to seal
4. Beat 1 egg in a separate bowl, and then brush around the edge of the dough circle.
5. Fold over the circle, making a semi-circle, and seal with the tines of the fork.
6. If you're adding cutouts to the top, just paint the back with egg, and then stick it on the top of your dough.
7. Cut 2-4 small vents in the dough for steam.
8. Brush the top of the pies with remaining egg, then sprinkle generously with reserved sugar mixture.
9. Bake at 350 until pies turn golden brown, 15-20 minutes.

WHEW! This recipe is a lot less complicated than it looks with all these steps, I promise! :)

Hello Lovely

2008-07-31T09:14:00.005-06:00

My mother ruined me for life by teaching me how to cook on a gas range. 4 years of college and 2 years of an apartment with wobbly electric ovens have been holding me back.

Meet my new darling. She came to live with us on Saturday and has performed every task I've asked of her so far. I took this picture on Tuesday night when I sighed with pleasure realizing I was using all four burners making tilapia and risotto. My husband took one look at it, shook his head, and said "You're spoiled!"

I must learn more photography skills. I tried without the flash and it didn't look so good. But tilapia looks awfully unappetizing in the flash glare. Perhaps I should not take my pictures once the sun has gone to bed.

And of course I had to take a picture of the beautiful blue flames, to prove she's the real deal!

Shrimp and Bacon Vodka Pasta

2008-07-11T21:31:00.005-06:00

It's much too late for me to come up with a clever name for this. It started out with James wanting Penne a la Betsy, but I have vodka I really needed to use, so I decided to make a Vodka sauce, which I have never even tasted. So I researched and found that all good vodka sauces start with pancetta. Being lazy and cheap, I decided to use bacon and make it up as I went along.

What resulted was a slightly sweet, slightly smokey, very flavorful vodka sauce that James liked even better than Penne a la Betsy (but isn't everything better in the variation with bacon??)

Shrimp and Bacon Vodka Pasta

1/2 lb pasta (we used spaghetti. use whatever you have)
6-8 slices of bacon (we used turkey bacon) cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 lb raw shrimp, peeled without tail

1 pinch smoked paprika

1 dash cayenne pepper

1 dash salt
1/3 cup vodka
1/2 cup half and half
1 1/2 cups prepared tomato sauce

1. Boil pasta per directions

2. Fry bacon over medium heat in a skillet until it starts to get crispy, but not completely finished.

3. In the pan with the bacon, stir in shrimp, paprika, pepper, and salt. Cook shrimp until opaque and pink. Remove shrimp (but not the bacon!) from the pan.

4. Add vodka to bacon, bring to a boil, and let it simmer until reduced by half.

5. Add half and half and tomato sauce. I used a storebought (GASP!) spaghetti sauce. If you're using the pure plain stuff, add some seasonings here.

6. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes.

7. Combine shrimp, pasta, and sauce, and serve!

Fruit Pizza

2008-07-11T21:19:00.003-06:00

I've had fruit pizza several times and I've always hated it. I think the version I've always had was the sugar cookie crust with cream cheese "sauce" and then the fruit on top. Something about how dense it was always turned me off.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived at a friend's house recently, tried her fruit pizza and wanted seconds and thirds! It was a little lighter, with a thin crispy crust, so good! Here's the one I made, but I didn't alter her recipe at all except for the fruit, so full credit goes to my friend Tenneal.

Fruit Pizza

Recipe from Tenneal Reus

1 refrigerated ready to use pie crust

1 tsp cinnamon sugar (3/4 tsp sugar and 1/4 tsp cinnamon)

1 1/4 cups of half and half

1 pkg Jello Vanilla Instant Pudding and Pie 4oz

1 c thawed cool whip (they make it in a spray can now! That's what I used!)

2+ cups of fresh fruit, sliced

Preheat oven to 450, unroll pie crust and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake for 8 to 10 min, cool completely
Pour half and half into medium bowl and dry pudding mix, beat until well blended. Gently stir in whip cream.
Spread pudding mixture over top of pie and top with fruit, refrigerate until use
Enjoy!

Penne a la Betsy

2008-05-12T08:11:00.003-06:00

Happy Mother's Day!

We had both families over yesterday to celebrate mother's day and I used it as an excuse to make something wonderful and fattening that I've been wanting to try.

If you haven't been to Pioneer Woman's cooking blog, you're missing out. Check it out. Then buy a case of butter at Sams, because your adventure is about to begin! For Mother's Day dinner I made her famous "Penne a la Betsy," a tomato cream sauce with shrimp and penne pasta. It was a huge hit. I might try it again at a later date with half and half or something, but most likely I'll just save it for very special occasions.

This picture is from PW's site, mine got eaten too quickly and I forgot to take pictures!

Penne a la Betsy

Full credit for the recipe and the photo go to Pioneer Woman

Since there isn't a printable recipe on PW's site for this, I copied the instructions from Dinner and Dessert. Thanks!

Ingredients:

¾ pound penne pasta

3 tablespoons butter, divided

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 pound large shrimp

1 small white onion, finely chopped (I used shallot)

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ cup white wine1 (8-ounce) can plain tomato sauce

1 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped

basil leaves, to taste, chiffonaded

salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Boil water and cook pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, while water heats and pasta cooks, make the sauce. Melt 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet. Add the shrimp and cook for a few minutes, until opaque. Remove to a plate to let cool. Heat 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons olive oil in the skillet. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally.

While the onion and garlic are cooking, chop the shrimp into small, bite-sized pieces.

Add the wine (or chicken broth) to the pan and allow to reduce for a few minutes.

Stir in tomato sauce. Add the heavy cream and stir well to combine. Add shrimp back to the skillet and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add the parsley and basil and mix well.

Drain pasta and return to pot. Add the sauce to the pot and stir well to combine. Serve.

Million Dollar Peanut Butter Cookies

2008-04-19T13:34:00.003-06:00

Pillsbury holds a bake-off every year and gives away $1 million for a great new recipe using their products. This year's recipe was from Carolyn Gurtz in MD for her Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies. The recipe looked so simple, I was kind of blown away that she won. Until I made the cookies.

These were so great! It's essentially a peanut butter cookie wrapped around a smooth peanut butter filling, and nothing could make my peanut-butter-lovin' husband happier. I've been on a cookie binge since I got my baking stone, and my not-so-chocolate-lovin' husband has given mediocre reviews to my last several batches of chocolate, chocolate chip, and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. These were a HUGE hit.

The only changes I made were to omit the peanuts on the outside, and I used a break-and-bake pillsbury cookie dough with reese's pieces instead of the roll of dough.

Million Dollar Peanut Butter Cookies

Adapted from Carolyn Gurt's $1,000,000 prize-winning Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Confectioners Powdered Sugar
1 package Pillsbury® Ready To Bake® refrigerated peanut butter cookies with Reese's mini pieces, well chilled (24 cookies per package)

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 375°F. In small bowl, mix granulated sugar and cinnamon; set aside.
2. In another small bowl, stir peanut butter and powdered sugar until completely blended. Shape mixture into 24 (1-inch) balls.
3. Shape 1 cookie dough piece around 1 peanut butter ball, covering completely. Repeat with remaining dough and balls.
4. Roll each covered ball in cinnamon sugar mixture. On ungreased large cookie sheets, place balls 2 inches apart. Flatten each ball to 1/2-inch thickness with bottom of drinking glass or measuring cup.
5. Bake 7 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Store tightly covered.

Balcony Herb Garden

2008-03-22T07:54:00.010-06:00

My newest adventure, or my "babies" as James has taken to calling them are my herb plants on the balcony. I find myself wanting fresh basil ALL the time, especially as we get into summer, and I got two full plants for the same price as a small semi-fresh package from the grocery store!

The lady at the nursery where I got the seedlings had only one piece of advice "FULL sun, all the time!" So I installed this window box (from walmart) over the side of the balcony. It's really my first experience growing anything, so we'll see how long I can keep them alive! I'm watering every day. I read that you can skip a day with basil, but they instantly got wilty and sad the day I tried skipping.

So far I've got basil:

Rosemary:

Cilantro:

and some thyme that I didn't a great picture of.

Pancetta Frittata

2008-03-18T09:22:00.004-06:00

I tested the following recipe out last night because I want to make it for easter brunch. James's comment "That's one of the best flavored things you've made in a long time!" Sorry, pictures to come after I make it for Easter!

Pancetta Frittata
by me! :)

1 1/2 cups of egg beaters (or 6 eggs lightly beaten)
2 oz of deli counter pancetta, sliced thick, diced fairly small
2 oz of crumbled feta cheese
2 oz shredded cheddar cheese (I used the 2% milk sharp cheddar)
1-2 Tbs chopped fresh basil
Black pepper
8 inch oven/broiler safe skillet

In a dry 8 inch skillet, crisp up the pancetta over medium heat. It has plenty of its own fat so I didn't add any oil. The pancetta from the deli is really already cooked, so you're just browning it up and drawing out some of that salty ham goodness. This would be a good time to add some onion too, but then James wouldn't have eaten it.

Turn heat to medium low and pour all of the eggs over the pancetta. Sprinkle with the feta cheese and black pepper to taste. (I didn't need salt because the feta is so salty).

Turn on your broiler.

Let it cook on the stove for a minute or two, and when the bottom is starting to set, lift all the edges with a spatula so the uncooked egg floods underneath. Do that a couple of times until the egg is mostly set, but still fairly wet.

Sprinkle cheddar cheese and basil on top, move to oven 5 or 6 inches from the broil. Broil for 3 or 4 minutes until cheese starts to brown and everything sets.

The frittata should slide out easily onto a cutting board so you can cut it with a pizza cutter. For easter, I plan to do 12 eggs with a large shallow saute pan.

Nutrition facts for 1/4 of the frittata (not a huge serving, but we ate it with veggies, etc)

Nutrition Facts
4 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories 193.1
Total Fat 12.1 g
Saturated Fat 5.7 g
Cholesterol 27.2 mg
Sodium 595.8 mg
Potassium 321.1 mg
Total Carbohydrate 0.9 g
Dietary Fiber 0.1 g
Sugars 0.6 g
Protein 17.8 g

Confession & new recipe

2008-03-07T23:47:00.003-06:00

My name is Carla and I have a problem. I start things and then quit them. Unfinished scrapbooks, frames without pictures, halfway reorganized closets, this is my life. But I've missed food blogging so I'm posting again, although I'm fairly sure no one except me and my husband (who I force) are reading it. Guess I need to do more advertising :)

Since I've been gone I've had lots of ups and downs cooking. I made my first prime rib, my first passable bechamel sauce, and had a whole Christmas season of cookies and baked goodies. Since mid-January I've been calorie counting like a madwoman. I have a daily allowance, and that's all I get. Because of that, I'm discovering lots of healthy new recipes, and lots of great substitutions. Mostly I'm learning about portion control. Everything's bigger in Texas--including our chicken fried steaks and, therefore, our thighs.

So for now, just one new recipe. This pumpkin bread was dense, but still very soft and sweet. Perfect for a quick breakfast! And 200 calories a slice means I'm allowed to eat one.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Adapted from CookingLight.com

Ingredients
1 cups sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 large egg whites
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Dash of ground nutmeg
Dash of ground ginger
1 pinch kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Cooking spray

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in chocolate chips. It helps to dust the chocolate chips in flour so they won't sink to the bottom. (I obviously didn't!)

Spoon batter into 1 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pan coated with cooking spray. (I used 9x5 loaf pans and my slices came out pretty short and fat, almost the shape of a biscotti cookie). Bake at 350° for 40-50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack, and remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

Yields 1 loaf, which I cut into 10 servings. The suggested 16 from Cooking Light would have been really small.

With my changes, SparkRecipes calculated the following nutrition facts:

Nutritional Info
Servings Per Recipe: 1
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 2,040.6
Total Fat: 27.9 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 2,464.4 mg
Total Carbs: 433.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 21.1 g
Protein: 34.0 g

The Barefoot Contessa

2007-12-01T10:40:00.001-06:00

I met Ina Garten yesterday at Central Market. She signed my cookbook! :) I'll try to make something Ina-ish this week and post it in honor of her. See her friend who frequents the show in the background??

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-24T15:06:00.001-06:00

In the excitement of hosting my first Thanksgiving, I completely neglected to take any pictures, oops!! I worked on my menu, grocery list, and day-of schedule for several weeks, and still managed to have a few bumps in the road, but in the end we had a wonderful, tasty Thanksgiving with my husband's family.

As for the bumps in the road, here are a few things I learned:
1) Reynolds cooking bags, while BIG enough for a turkey are certainly not STRONG enough for a turkey. After putting 2 gallons of brine and an 11 lb turkey into the bag, I attempted to pick it up. Before my husband could get the words out of his mouth to tell me what a bad idea that was, my entire body and my entire kitchen were covered in garlicy brine, not to mention salmonella poisoning, as the bag busted and the turkey splashed back into the sink. I just stood there and laughed, what else can you do?? On the second attempt, we put a large glass bowl under the bag.
2) You don't need a large house with an island kitchen and a dining table that seats 20 to have a home. I've been a little house crazy lately and looking around our small apartment filled with family I realized that for now, this is our home. We have an open door policy,we want our friends and family to feel welcome any time. Come over for lunch, come over for dinner, come over for coffee and pie. We're so blessed, and so thankful, for all the wonderful people we're surrounded with.

Anyway, sap aside, here is the menu!

Roasted Turkey
Sausage Dressing
Sweet Potato Casserole
Mashed Potatos
Macaroni and Cheese
Challah
Cranberry Applesauce
Apple Pie

Roasted Turkey Brine:
Adapted from allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS
2 gallons water
1 1/2 cups kosher salt
6-8 peeled whole garlic cloves
1/4 cup whole black peppercorns
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar

DIRECTIONS
In a saucepan, boil 2 quarts of water and salt, garlic, peppercorns, worcestershire sauce, and sugar until salt and sugar are dissolved. Add remaining cold water and cool brine, then add to turkey. I used a Reynolds cooking bag set inside a really big glass bowl to contain my 11 lb turkey. Soak turkey in brine for 12-24 hours.

Roasting Turkey
I used Kidd Kraddick's brown bag turkey instructions!

INGREDIENTS
1/2 large onion, cut in large chunks
Several stalks of celery (I use the leafy inside stalks that I usually throw away for veggie trays)
1 whole head of garlic, with the top cut off
Olive Oil
Turkey

DIRECTIONS
Rinse turkey after brining, both inside and out to remove any remaining salt. Place turkey in a roasting pan on a rack breast side up and put the vegetables inside the large neck cavity. Rub the entire outside of the turkey with olive oil, be sure to get inbetween the wings and legs and the breasts. Place a probe thermometer into the turkey breast, make sure it does not touch the bone. Slide the roasting pan with the turkey inside into a brown paper grocery sack. (If the sack has a logo on it, be sure the logo is on the bottom or the ink will bleed onto your turkey.) Sprinkle water over the top of the bag so the moisture can get out. Roast at 375 degrees for approximately 15 minutes per lb, or until the thermometer reads 170 degrees. At the end, I tore the top off of the bag and allowed to the top of the turkey to brown a little more for 15 minutes.

It turned out really great! Every single scrap of turkey was eaten. There was SO much flavor from the brine and the turkey was really moist.

I put the whole carcass, with the vegetables still inside, into the crockpot to make broth after dinner.

That's all for now, I may post more of the recipes later.

Pie Crust Success!

2007-11-12T08:51:00.000-06:00

Along the road to becoming my own little Suzy Homemaker I've had a few things I count among my most proud moments. After tackling homemade bread, I decided I had to try a pie crust. I knew I could do better than what comes in the box from the store, but my first attempt was one of my biggest cooking disasters of all time. Picture a wet, gloppy mess shrunk down into the center of the pie pan. Not good!

So I called in the expert. My mom set up pie making class for me in her kitchen one Saturday and she put together the essentials I didn't have: a dough blender and a gorgeous wooden rolling pin (previous wet gloppy pie crust was rolled out with a coke can. Christmas cookies last year? A wine bottle.) She taught me how to blend the fat into the flour until I see small peas, how to roll it out without killing all the fat pockets, fold and transfer it to a plate, and flute or score the edges. After a few practices on my own, I had pretty good success last night. I decided to venture a little from my mom's recipe and use Martha Stewart's pate brisee recipe, but the technique--it's all from mom :)

Salmon Cakes

2007-11-12T08:40:00.000-06:00

We had crab cakes Saturday night at a restaurant in Austin and to my surprise, James loved them! Maybe he's not nearly as picky of an eater as I think he is. Well I had been considering making them, then I logged on to the Whats For Dinner board on the nest and someone had posted this amazing salmon cake recipe. To my delight, farm raised salmon filets were also on sale at my grocery store--bonus! These turned out great. They're worth the little bit of work they take, and I followed the recipe exactly except I added a little salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to the flour before dredging. Definitely use the panko, so crunchy and yummy!

Pan-Fried Fresh Salmon Cakes

from Flymanswife's blog, adapted from Cooks Illustrated

1 1/4 lb salmon fillets, skinned, any bones removed

1 slice high-quality white sandwich bread, such as Pepperidge Farm, crusts removed & finely chopped

1/4 cup grated onion

2 Tbsp fresh parsley leaves

2 Tbsp mayonnaise

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 large eggs

3-4 Tbsp olive oil

3/4 cup panko, or plain dry bread crumbs

Chop salmon into 1/2-inch pieces and mix with chopped bread, onion, parsley, mayonnaise, salt & lemon juice in medium bowl. Scoop a generous 1/4 cup portion and use your hands to form into a patty measuring roughly 2 1/2 inches in diameter and 3/4 inch thick. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining mixture, making 6-8 patties. Freeze the patties until the surface moisture has evaporated, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, spread the flour in a shallow dish. Beat the eggs in a second shallow dish. Spread the bread crumbs in a third. Dip the chilled salmon patties in the flour to cover and shake off the excess. Transfer to the beaten egg and with a slotted spatula, turn to coat; let the excess drip off. Transfer to the panko, shaking the dish to coat the patties completely. Return breaded patties to baking sheet.

Heat olive oil in large heavy skillet over medium-high heat until simmering, about 3 minutes. Add salmon patties and cook until medium golden brown on the bottoms. Flip cakes and cook until medium golden brown on the other side.

Transfer to a paper towel lined plate and allow to drain for a minute. Serve hot.

Honey Wheat Bread

2007-08-31T12:05:00.002-06:00

Well, I'm officially unemployed! :) For a few days anyway.
I quit my job yesterday, and my new one starts Tuesday, so I decided what's a stay-at-home-wife supposed to? Make bread! So I made a loaf of whole wheat (not 100% whole wheat, I wasn't brave enough yet!) I now have four kinds of flour in my house: whole wheat, all purpose, bread flour, and cake flour. I'm nuts!
It turned out pretty great!

Honey Wheat Bread
(Adapted from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS
1/2 (.25 ounce) package rapid rise yeast (1 1/8 tsp)
1/2 teaspoon white sugar
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/2 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons melted shortening
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
1-1/2+ cups bread flour
1 tablespoon melted butter + 1 tsp honey
A few tbs of oats (optional)
DIRECTIONS
1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1/2 cup warm water.

2. Combine milk, 1/4 cup water, shortening, honey, salt and wheat flour in stand mixer bowl. Mix in yeast mixture, and let rest 15 minutes.

3. Add white flour, and process until dough forms a ball. (I had to add an extra 1/4 cup or so of flour because the dough was still really sticky at this point)

4. Knead dough with hook for 5-10 minutes. (by hand 10 minutes)

5. Place the dough in a greased bowl, and turn to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or towel. Let dough rise for 45 minutes, or until almost doubled.

6. Punch down and pound out the bubbles. Form into a loaf, and place in a greased 9x5 inch bread pans and cover loosely with plastic wrap or towel. Let rise in a warm area until doubled; second rise should take about 30 minutes.

7. Place a small pan of water on the bottom shelf of the oven. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

8. Right before placing it into the oven, brush the top with the honey butter and sprinkle with oats (the oats are just pretty, they're totally not necessary)

9. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until tops are dark golden brown. Brush a second coat of honey butter on top while still warm. Slice when cool.

Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin

2007-08-31T11:40:00.001-06:00

I normally avoid anything with soy sauce in it, because James says he hates it. I've been wanting to try Giada De Laurentiis's Balsamic Chicken Drumettes, hoping the balsamic flavor would be strong enough to overpower the soy. Thanks to a recommendation from a friend (Thanks Sarah!) I decided to try it on the half of a pork loin I had in the back of the freezer. (Tip: Kroger has whole giant pork loins on really good sales all the time, so I buy them and cut them in half to freeze separately for two little roasts that are the perfect size for us!)

I brined the roast first, since I have a nagging fear of pork drying out. I always do this when I cook pork, and I've never had a dry pork chop or roast in my house! It makes the meat really juicy and flavorful.

Note: If brining, allow 12 hours or so for the meat to brine before putting in the marinade.

Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin

(adapted from foodtv.com)

3-4 lb whole pork loin

For Brine:

1/2 cup salt

1/2 gallon (8 cups) water

1/4 cup honey

For marinade:

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce (I used low sodium soy)

3 sprigs of rosemary

5 garlic cloves, halved

1. Dissolve salt in 1-2 cups of hot water. Add remaining cold water and honey.

2. Place pork roast in a gallon size ziploc bag, pour all of the brine over it. Seal the bag well, and place it in a shallow dish in the refrigerator for 12 hours. (2+ days is recommended for a whole pork loin).

3. Remove roast from brine, rinse (to get any remaining salt off the surface) and pat dry. Pour out brine.

4. In another gallon sized ziploc bag (I used the same one after I poured out the brine) ombine the balsamic, honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, rosemary sprigs, and garlic cloves. Shake and squeeze the contents of the bag to dissolve the honey and the brown sugar.

5. Add the roast to the bag and seal with as little air as possible.

6. Marinate for 2 hours.

7. Remove roast from marinade, do not discard the marinade.

8. Roast in a 325 degree oven for 55 minutes, or until roast reaches 160 degrees in the center.

9. Meanwhile, place the marinade in a small saucepan. Bring the marinade to a boil (in order to kill bacteria). Reduce the heat to simmer and cook over low heat until thick, about 15 minutes. Reserve.

10. In the last 10 or 15 minutes of roasting, brush reduced marinade onto pork loin. When you remove it from the oven, brush on one last coat of the glaze.

James absolutely loved this. I told him later there was soy in it and he was totally surprised! It was just as good in leftovers, and great on a cold sandwich the next day.

Baking Bonanza!

2007-08-06T21:23:00.002-06:00

Basically all I did on Sunday was bake! And here is what I ended up with:

1. One of my proudest kitchen moments: you can call it challah, braided egg bread, or as we call it at my house-- "Judy Bread." Every Thanksgiving we are blessed to visit with a family whose mother makes the most amazing bread I've ever tasted. Now, don't worry, I certainly wouldn't presume to call mine "Judy Bread", since I pulled a challah recipe from the internet, and it didn't quite live up to the fabulous standard to which we're accustomed. It was slightly less dense and less sweet than Judy's version, but that did not stop my husband and I from eating almost the entire loaf in 24 hours! It really was a great loaf of bread, and I will not hesitate to make it again.

2. BBFCCC: translation: BEST BIG FAT CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES. I've been hearing for this recipe almost as long as I've been hanging out on thenest.com cooking boards, so I had to give it a try with the new stand mixer. They turned out great! They definitely live up to everything their name says they are. I think I may prefer a crispier cookie, so I'm not going to make this my always-and-forever chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I'll definitely keep it in the box and use it every now and then.

Now for the recipes!

Challah
(adapted from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 cup hot milk
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
2-1/2 eggs (crack the last egg in a bowl, beat, and use half. save the other half for the last step before baking)
5-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 egg
2 teaspoons honey

DIRECTIONS

Proof yeast and 1/4 cup warm water in a large mixing bowl.
Combine hot milk, honey, butter, salt, and 1/4 cup water in a medium bowl. Cool to 110 degrees (lukewarm).
In small bowl, slightly beat 2.5 eggs, then add to cooled milk mixture. Add milk mixture to yeast mixture. Add 1 cup flour and beat until smooth. Slowly add remaining flour until it forms a stiff dough. Knead on a floured board for 10 minutes (5 minutes with a bread hook). Place in a large glass or plastic bowl lightly greased. Turn dough over to grease both sides. Cover and let rise in a warm, dark place until doubled in volume, approximately 60 minutes.
Punch down, cover, and let rise again until double, approximately 30 minutes.
Punch again, and form into three parts. Form each part into a 20-inch roll. Braid rolls on a large, greased cookie sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled.
Lightly beat remaining egg with 2 tsp honey and brush loaf. Bake in preheated 350 degree F (175 degrees C) oven for about 40 minutes until nicely browned.

This made one very large loaf of bread. We were going to eat half and freeze the other half, but James was up all night playing games at had almost eaten the half loaf I left out before I got up for work!

Best Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
(from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Sugar cookies

2007-08-04T17:51:00.000-06:00

I've been baking up a storm thanks to my new mixer!

First night I made a Martha Stewart blueberry muffin recipe. Pictures and a recipe won't be posted, because I learned the hard way that cornmeal is NOT good in blueberry muffins even if martha says it is.

I also made soft pretzels (recipe here) and the mixer took all the work out of the kneading.

James requested frosted sugar cookies, so my sister Caryn came over and we made both the cookies and the frosting in the mixer, and they turned out great! We had a blast. I usually use a powdered sugar/water glaze on sugar cookies, but James wanted sickly sweet frosting like they use at the grocery store.

A few sugar cookie tips:

1. Wait until dough is VERY cold to roll it out. We put it in the fridge for one hour but the dough was still a nightmare to work with. We finally put it all back in the freezer for 20 minutes or so and then it was perfect and easy. Next time I will refrigerate overnight if possible.

2. This recipe can make both thick soft cookies (my preference!) or thin crispy cookies, it all depends on how thin you roll out the dough. Rolled out at about thicker, they tasted very similar to the cakey cookies you buy in bakeries or get in a cookie bouquet.

3. It doesn't hurt to borrow your mom's rolling pin that has been grown from years of seasoning!

Best Rolled Sugar Cookies
(from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Makes about 30 cookies

Sugar Cookie Frosting
(adapted from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening
2-3 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
food coloring (optional)

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners' sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually mix in the milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes. Color with food coloring if desired.

This made more than enough frosting for all the cookies. I ended up freezing the leftovers as a single glob of each color on a cookie sheet and then putting them in a ziploc in the freezer for later. You could probably cut it in half to frost all 30 cookies.

Italian Food

2007-07-27T09:58:00.000-06:00

It's been a long time since I've updated! First, I have to thank my husband for buying me the most awesome present ever:

I will partially thank Lowes, since they misprinted an ad and they were selling them for only $150!!! It's still a lot of money, and I can't believe James bought me one. I can't wait until I get it next week!

We went to Germany and Italy a few weeks ago and had an amazing time. My sister's wedding was so beautiful. And Italy was breathtaking. The sights, the history, and most importantly -- the food!! :)
I left with a greater appreciation for prosciutto, olive oil, cheese, baked goods, and wine. Everything was so great!

Here are a few pictures of the food to tide everyone over until I can do a real update with a recipe!

Chicken Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Garlic

2007-06-29T18:15:00.000-06:00

I've heard about the magic of goat cheese, but had always been afraid to try it for myself. For our one year anniversary, my husband treated me to one his favorite places: Texas de Brazil. He loves it for the endless cuts of steak they bring as long as you'll eat, but he never told me about the amazing salad bar. It was filled with pestos, cheeses, meats, vegetables, and all manner of amazing antipasta choices. One option was goat cheese with roasted peppers. I figured if I didn't like it, I could leave it on my plate. Turns out goat cheese is amazing!

I was sad to discover it cost $1 per oz at my grocery store, but since I rarely buy anything not on sale, I went for it.

I didn't alter this one at all, it's straight from Cooking Light. James even liked it! I served it over whole wheat spaghetti and with a green salad.

Ingredients:

4 ounces goat cheese, softened

3 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil, divided

1 tablespoon minced garlic

4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1 (25.5-ounce) jar fat-free Italian herb pasta sauce

3 whole garlic cloves

3 cups hot cooked fettuccine (about 6 ounces uncooked pasta)

Preparation

Combine goat cheese, 2 tablespoons basil, and minced garlic; set aside.Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap, and pound each half to a 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Divide the cheese mixture evenly among breast halves. Roll up jelly-roll fashion. Tuck in sides; secure each roll with wooden picks.
Heat the pasta sauce and whole garlic cloves in a large skillet over medium heat; add chicken. Cover and cook 25 minutes or until chicken is done. Serve over pasta. Garnish with 1 tablespoon basil.

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 1 chicken roll, 3/4 cup pasta, and 1/2 cup sauce)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 503(15% from fat); FAT 8.3g (sat 4.7g,mono 1.9g,poly 0.7g); PROTEIN 57.2g; CHOLESTEROL 112mg; CALCIUM 137mg; SODIUM 785mg; FIBER 5.5g; IRON 3.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 48.1g

Cooking Light, SEPTEMBER 2003

Spinach Quichelets

2007-05-24T07:29:00.000-06:00

I made these little baby quiches for a work breakfast today. I grew up on this quiche, my mom made it a lot when we were little in a homemade pie crust. I remember eating the leftover crust dough baked into little pieces on a cookie sheet.

This version uses biscuits instead of pie crust, so they're much softer than a pie. Perfect for breakfast!

-3 eggs

-1 cup half and half

-1 cup mixed cheeses (I used half mozerella/provolone blend and half cheddar)

-1 10 oz package of frozen chopped spinach

-1 TBS finely chopped onion

-2-3 tubes of homestyle biscuits (1/2 biscuit per quiche, so you'll need 18 biscuits to do 3 dozen)

Instructions:

-Cook the spinach in the microwave by the package directions. Drain WELL (Ball it up and squeeze!)

-In a bowl, beat together eggs and half and half.

-Add cheese, spinach, and onion, stir to combine.

-To assemble, cut each biscuit in half, and roll it out very thin. Place each biscuit in a mini-muffin tin and put 1.5 Tbs of quiche filling inside the biscuit. Stir the filling often during assembly so all the solid ingredients don't sink to the bottom.

*It worked best for me to roll out each biscuit , stretch it across the muffin cup, and then use the teaspoon full of filling into the middle to press the dough down into the pan into a cup shape.

-Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes uncovered, then place foil on top and bake for another 10 minutes.

Yields about 3 dozen, I only made 2 dozen and then poured the rest into a ramekin and made a full size crustless quiche for dinner.

Credit goes to mom!

Happy Mothers Day!!

2007-05-15T17:44:00.000-06:00

We had both fabulous moms (along with my dad and sister) over for Mothers Day dinner. It was great to spend the evening with family and have great conversation and great food!

The menu:
-Grilled White-wine salmon
-Garlic Risotto in Parmesan Frico cups
-Mixed fruit salad in orange cups
-Grilled zuchinni

Recipes:

Grilled White Wine Salmon

Salmon Filet, cut into portion sized peices.
Olive oil
White wine (I used Smoking Loon Chardonnay)
Salt and pepper

-Several hours before cooking, prepare fish and marinade. Mix 1/4 cup of Olive oil with 3/4 cup white wine. Place fish in a baking dish skin side down and pour marinade on top.
*You can use less or more marinade depending on the amount of fish. This 1 cup marinade was perfect for a 3 lb filet arranged in a 7x11 baking dish
-Grease grill grates with cooking spray or a papertowel soaked in veg. oil. Prep the grill to medium heat.
- Arrange fish skin side down directly on the grill. Grill for 6-8 minutes, rearranging fish pieces over hot spots as needed, until it is almost cooked through.
-Flip the salmon with a flat spatula (the fish will start to flake, and tongs could cause it to fall apart)
-Grill for 3-4 minutes top side down until fish develops a nice crust.

-Slide fish onto a spatula, peel off and discard skin (after cooking, the skins slides off easily) and flip over to serve top side up.

Garlic Cheddar Risotto

Adapted from this foodnetwork.com basic risotto recipe. I added 4 cloves of roasted garlic (roasted ahead of time, use less of raw, minced) when I added the rice to the onion. Then I added 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese at the end of cooking. Otherwise I followed the recipe! Mine got a little overcooked, risotto is best when served right out of the pot, otherwise it starts to get overly soft and starchy.

Parmesan Frico Bowls

From Confections of a Foodie Bride's blog. I used two small dessert ramekins to shape the bowls, they turned out great! A really easy way to dress up plating and make something simple look super fancy!

Fruit Salad/Zuchinni

Okay, I'm not going to give you a recipe for these. For the salad, mix your favorite fruits! I split and hollowed oranges instead of using bowls for a fun touch. I used blackberries, strawberries, watermelon balls, and pears with a little orange juice squirted on top. Chill the mixture so the flavors have time to meld.

For the zuchinni, I just sprayed a little olive oil from my kitchen mister (that I took from my mom!) and sprinkled with kosher salt and pepper, and threw it on the grill.

Here's to moms, who allowed us to stand underfoot in our childhoods so we could learn a whisk from a spatula. I love you mom!

Pictured: My grandma Genie, my mother in law Brenda, and my mom Faye!

New Pot Rack!

2007-04-06T15:18:00.000-06:00

I found a new way to save a little space in my kitchen! I bought this pot rack from target.com after searching forever for one in stores. Not even Home Depot carries them! It just came in today, and I had it hung with all my pans within 30 minutes of arrival! I even hung a few measuring cups up there, a la Nigella Lawson! :)

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

2007-03-27T17:05:00.000-06:00

I'll add a picture of these when I make them later this week. I've made them several times, and they are one of my all time favorite recipes! If not the best, it is one of the best things my mom makes. All credit goes to her, for her famous chicken enchiladas!

Faye's Chicken Enchiladas

-1/2-1lb chicken breasts (3 cups cooked)
-1/2 cup onion
-1 small can green chilis
-1 can cream of chicken soup
-milk
-10-15 corn tortillas
-Shredded cheddar cheese
-1/2 cup sour cream

Instructions:
1. Boil chicken in water for 15 minutes or until cooked through. Shred the chicken, save the broth.
2. Saute 1/2 cup chopped onion in butter or olive oil until clear in large skillet
3. stir in 1 can green chilis (can use a large can if you like it spicier)
4. stir in 1 can of soup
5. fill soup can halfway with milk, add to soup mixture
6. fill soup can halfway with broth from previously cooked chicken, add to soup mixture
7. stir soup mixture in skillet until warm.
8. (THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART) Put tortillas, 3 at a time into soup mixture in skillet. Add one tortilla at a time as you build each enchilada. Use the tortilla that has been in the mixture the longest to build each enchilada, they should soak for 1-2 minutes or so, until soft but not falling apart.
9. to build each enchilada, pull a tortilla out of the skillet, add some chicken and cheese, roll up, and place seam side down in a 9x13 glass baking dish.
10. As you build tortillas and the soup mixture starts to diminish, add broth 1/2 cup at a time as needed to stretch soup mixture.
11. When the pan is full, add 1/2 cup sour cream into remaining soup mixture. Pour on top of enchiladas. Top with more shredded cheese.
12. Top with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

These can easily be prepped ahead of time and baked later. They're so good!

Sesame Chicken

2007-03-25T14:47:00.001-06:00

CNN did a story this week about how unhealthy and fattening chinese food is for you. This came as no shock to me, I've always known every yummy, greasy bite was full of fat and sodium. The story did inspire me to start looking around for recipes so I could recreate one of our favorites at home, where I could control the ingredients at least somewhat. Sesame chicken is the only thing James will eat at Chinese restaurants, and it's usually my favorite too. I combined several different recipes from allrecipes.com to come up with this final product. It's still breaded and fried, but it's a lower sodium, all white-meat version of the original.

James told me all weekend he was going to be scared of this recipe, but the skeptic came around when he tasted it: "Babe, this is actually pretty dang good, can I have a lot more?" Yay!

Sesame Chicken

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (I KNOW I said no more white flour, but I was scared to try wheat flour. I'll try it next time!)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder (a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, fennel, star anise, and white pepper)
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into chunks
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 yellow onion, cut into wedges
1/2 cup green bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
1/8 cup low sodium teriyaki sauce
1/8 cup tablespoons honey

1 Tablespoon pineapple juice

2 Tablespoons sesame seeds

1 teaspoon brown sugar

DIRECTIONS
In a large resealable plastic bag, combine flour, black pepper, five-spice powder, and red pepper flakes. Place a few pieces of chicken at a time into the bag, and shake to coat. Remove to a platter.
Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.

Place chicken into skillet, and brown on both sides, about 5 minutes.

Stir onion wedges and bell pepper slices into the skillet with the chicken; cook until slightly browned, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low.
In a separate bowl, mix honey, teriyaki, pineapple juice, brown sugar and sesame seeds. Add it to the chicken and vegetables, stir until sauce thickens.

I served it with a box of Simply Asian noodles.

3/26 Edit: I made this a second night in a row tonight, but skipped the flour and used the same amount of seasonings to season the dry raw chicken breasts pieces. Then I sauteed the chicken in a pan with a little cooking spray, and did the rest according to the recipe. It turned out great! I would cut down some on the red pepper flakes, for some reason skipping the dredging escalated the heat a lot! It's a little different, but a much lower-fat alternative that will be great for normal dinners. It passed the James test too!

No Pudge Brownies!

2007-03-15T09:30:00.000-06:00

I tried these brownies after a lot of recommendations from girls on The Nest. Instead of adding oil or water or anything, all you add to the mix is fat free vanilla yogurt. They're so good! We used plain yogurt and a tsp of vanilla extract instead of vanilla yogurt. I highly recommend these to anyone who loves a warm brownie but doesn't want all the fat from a regular recipe. My Kroger only carries the original, but I'm going to request the mocha flavor. Yum!

Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup

2007-03-04T21:20:00.000-06:00

This was my first experience with butternut squash, it turned out great! I separated this recipe into 4 individual tupperware bowls to take for work for lunch this week. Much better than the canned soup I usually take.

Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup:

3 cups peeled, diced butternut squash (about 1 small)

2 cups grated carrot

3/4 cup chopped onion

1 Tablespoon of butter

2 14 oz cans of low sodium-chicken broth

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 cup half and half

1. In a large covered saucepan cook squash, carrot, and onion in hot butter over medium heat about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add broth. Bring to boiling, reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 25-35 minutes until vegetables are tender. Cool slightly.

2. Place one-third of the squash mixture in a food processor or blender. Cover and process or blend until almost smooth. Repeat with remaining squash mixture. Return all of the pureed mixture to the saucepan. Add pepper and nutmeg, bring just to boiling. Add half and half; heat through.

This recipe is from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. They suggest garnishing with toasted pumpkin seeds.

Honey Wheat Pretzels

2007-02-27T08:41:00.001-06:00

I have been on a mission lately to purge our house of enriched white flour. I recieved a recipe from a cooking message board, www.thenest.com, for soft pretzels. I love them! But after getting to the bottom of a bag of white flour, I decided to try something new. This version has whole wheat flour and a little honey, but otherwise the recipe remains true to the original. James is usually very skeptical of my whole wheat substitutions, but he loved these!

Ingredients:

1 tsp active dry yeast
2 Tbs brown sugar
2 tsp honey
2+ cups flour - half whole wheat and half all purpose
coarse kosher salt
5 Tbs baking soda
shortening or butter

Directions:

1) In large mixing bowl mix 1 tbls HOT water and 1 tsp yeast. Mix until yeast dissolves completely.
2) Stir in 2/3 cup WARM water.
3) Stir in brown sugar and honey.
4) Slowly add 2 cups flour, stirring constantly. Contuine stirring until the mixture is smooth and does not stick to the sides of the bowl.
5) Lightly flour counter. Dip your hands into extra flour. Knead the dough until it is stretchy and smooth. (Push it down and away from you with the palms of your hands, turning the dough as you work)
6) Grease cookie sheet(s) well with butter or shortening. Sprinkle greased cookie sheet(s) with kosher salt. Preheat oven to 475.
7) Using liquid measuring cup fill a large saucepan at least 1/2 full of water. For each 1 cup of water, add 1 tbls baking soda. (I use 5 cups of water and 5 Tbs baking soda. If you've never seen an empty baking soda container, you will soon!)
8) Divide the dough into 16 equal sized pieces.
9) Using the following 4 steps shape each dough ball into a pretzel shape...1)Roll the dough into a rope 14" long and as thick as your thumb. Bend the dough into a U shape.2) Cross one end of the rope over the other one. The ropes should cross about three inches from the tips.3) Twist the crossed ends, making a full turn. Fold the ends back, towards the middle of the U.4) Open the ends slightly to form a pretzel shape. Press the ends into the dough firmly.
*note: when I get halfway through a batch I usually get tired of rolling them and shaping them out and make pretzel sticks!
10) Bring water into saucepan to a gentle boil (not to many bubbles).
11) Use pancake turner to lower each pretzel into the saucepan. Count slowly to 30. Then lift the pretzel onto the greased and salted cookie sheet (shaking off excess water back into the saucepan). Repeat until all the pretzels are done.
12) Sprinkle some kosher salt on top of the pretzels and put them in preheated oven. Bake for 8 minutes or until the pretzels are golden.

You can also top with cinnamon sugar instead of salt. If you do that, don't salt the baking sheet, or your pretzels will have salt on the bottom and sugar on the top.

ENJOY!!!!!

FULL Credit for the original recipe goes to Krashed24 on the nest's What's For Dinner board. She recommends you make a double batch from the get-go or you'll be sorry. I agree!

Introductions

2007-02-26T21:54:00.000-06:00

As a child I was the normally the only one of my siblings who stood under my mother's feet and watched her cook (although my sister is changing that lately!). In college I started to experiment a little on my own, calling my mom every night and attempting to recreate her recipes. In June, I married my high school sweetheart, James:

Over the past 9 months, I have really started to experiment with cooking. Partly because James is the most appreciative (and yet also most honest) eater a wife could ask for, and partly because I've discovered the wealth of recipes and cooking information on the internet I've really developed the "Joy of Cooking." So it all started with my mom, her chocolate chip cookies, and my burned Christmas morning pancakes.

This is my entire kitchen:

Apartment dwelling has its perks, don't get me wrong. When the toilet breaks, we call someone. We wake up in the mornings and the lawns are watered and mowed without our sweat. But don't think that I'm not designing my dream-home kitchen in my mind already! This kitchen provides its own set of adventures complete with a faulty oven thermometer and a broiler that sets off the fire alarm during every use! We're darn lucky to have everything we have. God, family and friends have all been very generous with us. I just wanted to paint a little picture of the space I choose to spend so much time in.