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Mushroom Patties - Comfort Food

2012-01-16T19:50:00.000-08:00

I've been abandoning my blogs so I snapped a few pics the other night while cooking dinner. Both Hunter and I love this recipe...Mom would make it when we were little and Dad was out of town (he is not a mushroom fan). I suggest you serve it over mashed potatoes....

I wish I had spent more time perfecting the pictures but the recipe is still worth sharing. It is great if you want heavy, comfort food...and if you like mushrooms!

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef (I use 7% fat)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can sliced mushrooms

1 can whole mushrooms

water

I usually mold 6 patties from the meat in a nonstick pan with a lid. Stick your thumb in the center of each patty. This is a tip I learned on beloved pinterest. It keeps them from "poofing" and helps them cook evenly. I cook the patties on medium heat under the lid until they are cooked evenly. I flip them once during cooking. Drain the grease.

Then you simply add a can of soup and a half cup of water with the mushrooms.

Simmer on low for another 30 or so minutes. You can cook it more or less but I find at least 30 minutes works out perfectly. Then serve on mashed potatoes (and add a green veggie) and you are set ENJOY!

Crockpot Pork Tenderloin Recipe

2011-11-21T11:48:00.001-08:00

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for SO many things. One of which is having Julie an email away to frantically ask for a crock pot suggestion for a White Plume Thanksgiving lunch I helped organize. I, too, recommend this recipe from Allrecipes.com. It passed with flying colors. There were no leftovers.

Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin using Onion Soup Mix

1 pork tenderloin

1 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix

1 cup water

3/4 cup red wine

3 tablespoons minced garlic

3 tablespoons soy sauce

freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions
Place pork tenderloin in a slow cooker with the contents of the soup packet (2 come in a package that looks blue and orange). Pour water, wine, and soy sauce over the top, turning the pork to coat. Carefully spread garlic over the pork, leaving as much on top of the roast during cooking as possible. Sprinkle with pepper, cover, and cook on low setting for 4 hours.

(I cooked mine on low for an hour and then moved it to the high setting for the final 3 hours. I am glad I did so. It was done and perfectly tender. I also poked it with a fork a few time so the juices could enter the pork.)

I leave you with a picture of my 'art project' for the centerpiece, a Thanksgiving tree. It came together quite nicely.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!

Cooking up a storm

2011-09-05T14:37:00.000-07:00

Life is crazy...but somehow I've found time to cook (thanks to pinterest motivation)!

Avocado and Grilled Corn Salad

This one I plan to keep. It is a great summer salad but I think I will play around with the dressing.

http://pinterest.com/pin/78306310/

Lemon orzo w/ grape tomato & asparagus

*Not my pic - I forgot to take one.

This recipe grew on me. It is different and I will certainly try it again!

Lemon Ice Box Pie/Sweet Home Viewing Party

2011-08-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

Burlap tablecloths, mason jar glasses, candleholders, daisies, paper plates, sweet tea, lemon ice box, and cobbler!

I have been a busy bee fitting in summer events while the summer disappears before my eyes. School finished last week. My friend and coworker's brother (Tribble) is on the CMT "bachelorette-style TV" show Sweet Home Alabama. Seems like an excuse for a party to me! What better for a summertime party than a summertime theme....and summertime desserts?

I wanted to try lemon ice box pie. I know, it goes against my "dessert should have chocolate in it" belief. I ended up making two pies and a classic peach cobbler (leftovers are certainly headed to work).

I tried my grandmother's (Maw's) recipe and Emeril's recipe. They are two very different pies. I thought I would like Emeril's but I liked Maw's recipe better. It is a little more work but light and fluffy...how I think a lemon ice box should be. My meringue on top didn't do as I hoped. Water got in the egg whites. I know, big mistake. But I went with it. Here are the recipes if you are interested!

Maw's Lemon Ice Box Pie:

I don't have a pie plate...so a quiche dish had to do!

Emeril's Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
1 (14-ounce) can condensed milk
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoons lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 prepared graham cracker crust (I used Maw's recipe above)

Directions

Combine the cream cheese, milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla in a large bowl. Mix on medium speed until smooth. Pour into the pie crust. Refrigerate overnight.

I will leave you with a few fun party pictures. United Way campaign starts in the morning and I have guests and a company meeting to prepare for!

Lanterns out front - Sarah enjoys. :)

Special guest...the Kirbster!

Yes, those are Ball jars. Just like the show. :)

Amusement.

The crew...we don't get together enough!

Meatballs and Mixers

2011-07-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

I finally used my mixer today. I didn't really take many good pictures so I apologize. I just wanted to document this occasion. I realize you can do meatballs by hand but why when I have an excuse to use my mixer!?

I already had taken off the attachment. Oops

Yummy recipe from Julie. Made them and froze them for dinners.

Again, slacking on photography!

In case you need a good meatball recipe:

In stead of frying Julie (and I) bake them in the oven 350 for 20 minutes. It is perfect!

Hot and Hot - Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes

2011-07-16T07:20:00.000-07:00

Hot and Hot Fish Club's Molten Chocolate Laval Cake

Alright folks, I was lazy again. There is no way to copy and paste the recipe from what I found online, so I took another picture. This whole cookbook looks fabulous and highly recommended by Lance and Julie. I want it myself. I've STILL never been to Hot and Hot. That is ridiculous. After this recipe, I want to go.

Best part about these ingredients, they are likely in your panty. And also great, the batter can be kept chilled and covered in the frig up to a week ahead of time!

Melt the chocolate and the butter in a double boiler.

You will need at least a half dozen. 3 eggs and 3 yolks.

This is when a mixer comes in handy (STILL HAVENT USED MINE). You want to beat the sugar and eggs until they have doubled in size and are light yellow.

While that was happening we buttered and sugared the ramekins. You will want to be sure not to skip this step. You will invert the cakes and want them to fall out effortlessly.

I had to take this picture. 72 ox bag. The Smiths don't play around.

Stir the two batters together. By now you have taken the chocolate mixer off the stove and let cool a bit.

We tried all size ramekins. I suggest these are too small. We found it was a science to figure out the right size and the right temperature/length of time to cook the cakes. These were too small.

We certainly didn't mind sampling in the meantime.

These were the larger ramekins and our favorite!

I tried Lance's magic trick to keep the Henry happy. :)

The final result. Before Sugar. We filled the ramekins half full and baked at 400 degrees and suggest 13.5 minutes in a convection oven. I tell you, it is an exact science. Practice ahead of time.

How beautiful!?

These would be wonderful to make ahead of time for a party because they can be prepared ahead of time and, if the timing is perfected, are simple. I think this is a recipe we will certainly try again!

The magic trick worked. This guy was out like a light and took a second to wake! He is certainly used to the noise of us screaming and the mixer. :)

Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream - Wendy's Frosty Style!

2011-07-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream - Wendy's Frosty

Do you like Wendy's frosties? If you do, you will want this recipe. This is a proven recipe Mom has made for MANY Scarbrough family reunions (including this weekend). It is extra enjoyable when it is hot outside (so make it this weekend).

I've been meaning to post this recipe for some time now. I took these pictures over Memorial Day and ended up making ice cream again the Friday before the 4th weekend for work. It was "jeans day" so I suggested ice cream. It was a good excuse for a work party...

The recipe:

-2 cans sweetened condensed milk (I use one regular and one fat free.)
-1 qt chocolate milk (I normally use Publix 1% because it comes in pint size...but not shown in pic)
-12 oz coolwhip (I use light.)
-1/4 c. chocolate syrup
-Rock salt
-ICE (you will need all the ice in your frig and possibly more...i always buy a bag)

Simply mix all ingredients in the container...

Rock salt is important. The more you use, the quicker it will freeze.

The after product...

White Plume break room mini celebration...

P.S. This shows you don't need a fancy ice cream maker. I love mine (thanks Mom...or Easter Bunny...or Santa). You can get one similar here.

Julia Child's Spinach Souffle

2011-07-04T15:57:00.000-07:00

Julia - I do not think your books are suited for me. This is why I waited until I was with Catherine to attempt a recipe.

I think we succeeded! Evidence...

I think I will stick to the basics for now, though. Below are our steps along the way:

Spinach and scallions...

Making the sauce...

Separating the eggs...

Swiss cheese...the more the merrier...

Adding yolks to the sauce...

Egg whites...the main ingredient....

Mixing it all before we...

Slowly folded in egg whites...

More egg whites...

Lining the pan with cheese and butter...Catherine noted to butter in the upwards direction to encourage it to rise...

Catherine also showed me another trick. By scraping the edge of the pan with your finger, it will rise upward more than outward.

Impatiently waiting...30 minutes FINALLY. Yes, we got to eat at 10. It was a long day and a late start!

Example of patiently waiting...

And the result!

Catherine just came back from France a couple weeks ago so this was perfect. We thought about macaroons but for some reason they scare me. I think I will eventually get over it...

Happy 4th from the ATL - this and that

2011-07-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th from the ATL. I finally made it to the outlets....and broke my first item in a store. Welcome to the Williams Sonoma outlet, Shelley. Hopefully they will allow me back and hopefully Catherine will go back with me. (It was a cake plate and I about died.) I did leave there with a few items to make it up to them.

I have been wanting some of this vanilla since cooking with Lance and Julie. I finally got some! (Note: They get the paste and not the extract so they can get the vanilla specs.)

This is a cake tester. How did I not know about this? And how have I gone so long without one? Catherine uses one and swears by it. I figured with the amount of cakes I bake...

(cookies in the background to come in a later post...)

I have this next item in Catherine's bread machine as I type. A woman who is a HUGE Williams Sonoma fan swears by their bread mixes. She stopped us in the isle and gave us an "all-you-need-to-know-about-the-outlet" speech. (Did I look overwhelmed?)

All you do is add a little oil and water to the bread mix. Homemade bread in a few hours. And it was only a few dollars (on super sale). To me, worth a try.

More posts/recipe documentations to follow. I am getting behind. But wanted to say...

HAPPY 4th!

Lou's Petit Fours

2011-06-25T16:22:00.000-07:00

Lou's Petit Fours...

Today's adventure...petit fours. It was a challenge from Katharyn and one Julie and I eagerly accepted. The recipe comes from a woman in Jackson, Mississippi named Lou. These are Katharyn's favorite petit fours and we decided, with the amount of showers we throw, it could be a good recipe to master. Although we didn't master it this first time, I feel like next time we will succeed.

(Julie did this part before our arrival because the cake has to freeze. You want to allow time for that.) Mix 1 box of white cake mix according to directions on box. We used Duncan Hines. Julie added a little almond flavoring and it took on the taste of a wedding cake so be sure to add 1/4 teaspoon of almond flavoring. Bake 17 to 25 minutes at 350 in 10 1/2 x 15 1/2 jelly roll pan. Cake should be done, but not brown on top. (Baking time depends on your oven.)

Remove the cake from oven to cooling rack. Immediately cover cake with wax paper, pat lightly to adhere was paper to top of cake.

Let cake stand for 5 minutes and remove wax paper from cake to remove crumb crust. Continue to cool cake on rack for 10 to 15 minutes. Place new layer of wax paper on cake; lay cooling rack upside down on cake (over paper) and turn cake out of pan. Very carefully brush crumbs from bottom of cake.

Freeze cake until firm.

Henry channeling his innermost Lou...

Once frozen, frost cake with thin layer of buttercream icing. Ours is entirely too thick....

While still frozen, trim 1/8" from cake with long serrated knife* and cut cake into 1 1/2" squares. Frost with quick fondant, let dry 10 minutes and decorate.

*Rinse crumbs and frosting from knife between each cutting with hot water.

Lou's Buttercream Frosting

(for top of cake before trimming and cutting)

1 cup solid shortening

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon clear vanilla (to keep icing white)

1 teaspoon butter flavoring

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons of water

2 lb powdered sugar, sifted

In stand mixer, whip shortening and salt until ligh. Combine flavoring and water in a measuring cup. Add sugar and water mixture alternately to the shortening on low speed. Beat well until mixed.

Lou's Quick Fondant Icing

7/8 cup skim milk

3 tablespoon solid shortening

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon clear vanilla

1 teaspoon butter extract

2 lb powdered sugar, sifted

Combine skim milk, shortening and salt in double boiler. Make certain water does not reach bottom of pan. Heat until shortening mixture is melted.

Pregnant Kat = cuteness.

Remove from heat. With hand mixer, add vanilla, butter extract and sifted sugar to heated mixture in double broiler.

Place cooling rack over wax paper to catch drips. Pick up one cake square on end of large angled spatula. Hold over double broiler, pour 1/2 cup of icing over cake, making sure to cover all sides. Rake excess icing off large spatula with a small angled spatula back into double broiler. Ease petit four onto cooling rack.

Should frosting become too thick: add 1 teaspoon of hot milk and stir. Never return to heat. If still too thick, continue adding 1 teaspoon of hot milk, stirring until you get the right consistency.

Hints:

-Layer buttercream on the top VERY lightly or you will end up with too thick icing.

-Skim milk is necessary. Ours never hardened and we think this is due to our 2% substitution.

-We ran out of icing. You need to thin out the icing. Thin = better.

Cookies with Cara (Chocolate Fudge Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies)

2011-06-24T17:27:00.000-07:00

The title has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? I found a recipe online about a week ago. The minute I read it, I knew I would be a fan. I've been following the Picky Palate blog for awhile but never attempted a recipe, until now. I am glad I did. It will be put in the archives.

Might I recommend one of my favorite cookies to date: Picky Palate's Chocolate Fudge Peanut Butter Cookie Stuffed Cookies

This is normally how I cook...reading off my laptop. My how things have changed? One of these days I am going to get a protective cover for my little keyboard. It gets covered with flour from time to time....

Note her beautifully stacked dough balls.

And here is a picture of ours...Cara stayed for the night passing through town. To our defense it was late and we were catching up over lost time. We were distracted!

Visitors get put to work at the Scarbrough house. :)

We might have made the cookies a little large...

I would recommend making sure the peanut butter is flattened so you get chocolate AND peanut butter in every bite.

The finished product

They taste fabulous. Click on this link for better instructions. It was so great to catch up with a long lost friend and bake...two of my favorite things! My office reaped the rewards today and from what I've heard...they got a BIG "thumbs up!"

Come back soon, Cara. I promise I will do the dishes next time!

Baked Alaska

2011-05-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

BAKED ALASKA

We're baaack!

For several reasons, it was a "no-brainer" when Julie suggested we attempt a Baked Alaska. What is Baked Alaska? I had to look it up myself. Thank you Wikkipedia.

Baked Alaska: a dessert made of ice cream placed in a pie dish lined with slices of sponge cake and topped with meringue. The entire dessert is then placed in an extremely hot oven for just long enough to firm the meringue. The meringue is an effective insulator, and the short cooking time prevents the heat from getting through to the ice cream.

We had to create a few shortcuts and found a perfect recipe to allow us to do this is one sitting. In our shortcut recipe you can make individual Baked Alaskas which is easily done using flat cookies. This allows you to make and bake however many you need.

Julie just so happened to have her WONDERFUL chocolate chip cookies at her house. (However, there is a recipe associated with the recipe above that looks absolutely wonderful.)

Savannah watched on as usual. (The more things change, the more they stay the same!)

We scooped coffee ice cream onto the cookies and placed them in the freezer for 30 minutes to solidify.

We have another guest appearance. Actually, it is less of a guest appearance and more of an addition. For the first time...presenting HENRY!

Henry's Dad has recently graduated from law school and is the proud owner of an iPad which makes our recipe referral much easier.

For the meringue you will need plenty of eggs. It called for 4 egg whites. It made PLENTY of meringue for 4 cookies.

Beat until stiff, gradually adding 1/2 cup of sugar. (They will become shiny...)

Put meringue into a piping bag with a wide tip of your choice and pipe around the frozen ice cream. You need to eliminate any holes or you will find yourself with an ice cream volcano.

We piped it around the bottom as well to keep the ice cream sealed in the meringue.

Place in the freezer again for at least 15 minutes and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Somebody seems excited!

Bake for 5 minutes...which we found to be the perfect time.

Serve and enjoy immediately. It really was wonderful...and a fun, easy project. Like Julie pointed out, it could be great to create with kids. Henry might have been a little young to enjoy it. One day...

Hope everyone has a good Memorial Day!
(Ironically this day last year I was at the beach with Henry's parents....little did we know what the year would bring...)

Last but not least:
THANK YOU to our soldiers who continue to put their lives on the line for our country and for those who have lost their lives in doing so.

Tomato (tuh-mey-toh, tuh-mah-toh)

2011-05-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

Straight from my garden...I mean...pot.

(My special guest is in the background dying to make an appearance. I have a foster pup for a week. Long story but cross your fingers. I know it will all work out for the best!)

Katharyn's Baby Shower Cake

2011-04-29T12:56:00.000-07:00

Consider this a picture post. The icing job above is not my best work. I transported many items to work for the shower, and, in the process, wasn't careful with the cake. Also, next time I will be sure to have extra icing to line the bottom. You live and learn. And I live and blog to remember these things. :)

I tried a new recipe - an Ina Garten recipe, Beatty's Chocolate Cake. With 1,062 reviews and 5 stars on the Food Network site, how can one go wrong?!

I followed the recipe exactly except I omitted the egg yolk in the icing. (I was not about to feed a pregnant woman raw egg. It can certainly be omitted.) Coffee is the secret ingredient and, like in the reviews, even people who don't like coffee raved about the cake. Super moist. SUPER rich.

This is my cake topper. I can thank google images for the inspiration. The miniature clothespins are easy to find at Michaels. I sketched out the basic designs myself.

Of course you will recognize the "Mother Daughter Tea" punch. Katharyn's favorite.

My lovely coworker/co-hostesses surrounding the mom-to-be....

On a side note: I often say how blessed and lucky I am. It is true. This week made me realize how everything can change in a matter of minutes and how quickly it all can be taken away. Thanks to all my friends and family who checked on me and I ask you continue to keep the storm victims in your thoughts and prayers. My heart goes out to those suffering and mourning the lost of loved ones. No words on a blog can possibly describe how I feel....

Chocolate

2011-04-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

My first piece of chocolate in MONTHS (and finals are OVER)...

Don't you worry, Dove. Sweets. I am baaaaack.

3 Pictures Tell So Much

2011-04-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

1. This is how I bake without Lance and Julie. I make a MESS. I always have. I am not sure why.

Note: This is only one side of my kitchen.

2. This is a glimpse into one side of my baking cabinet (yes, that is a tub of lard). It is official I am a baker...

3. ... not a cook! (Don't get too worried. I have been eating out. A LOT.)

Southern Biscuits and Gravy (OMG)

2011-04-02T18:28:00.001-07:00

Southern Biscuits and Gravy - Alton Brown Style

Tonight we decided to start labeling our favorite recipes. This recipe qualifies. Keep reading. And try this recipe. You won't be sorry. It doesn't take long and is worth it.

We wouldn't change the recipe one bit (but if you did have less sausage, that would work). You start by making the biscuits. The list of ingredients for the biscuits are below. While they are baking for 20 minutes, you can complete the sausage gravy.

Southern Biscuits

Ingredients

2 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons shortening

1 cup buttermilk, chilled

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Combine the ingredients in a large bowl. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.)

Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. ("Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first, but hey, that's life," straight from Alton Brown.)

Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.

....onto the Gravy.....

Sawmill Gravy

Ingredients:

1 pound bulk breakfast sausage (we determined this could be less)

1/4 c flour

2 cups milk

Salt and pepper

Here I am hard at work cooking sausage in a cast iron skillet. When done, remove sausage from pan and pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat. We barely had 2 T so we added a little butter.

Whisk away. Whisk flour into the fat and cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and whisk in milk a little at a time.

Return to medium-high heat and stir occasionally while the gravy comes to a simmer and thickens. (Be sure to scrape up any brown bits that might be stuck to the bottom of the pan, that's where the flavor is.) Check seasoning, add crumbled sausage and serve over our WONDERFUL biscuits.

Wallah - the final result. This was the best recipe we have done in some time. We will be doing it again!

Mac and Cheese

2011-03-26T21:08:00.000-07:00

Tonight just and I aim to perfect a "Southern Classic"...Mac N Cheese. We scoured over many recipes and chose the two below. I think most can agree...it is hard to mess up mac n cheese. It depends on your preference and what you are serving at your meal. If we had to choose, I think we would prefer recipe 1. This time we split the recipes in half. And you can, too. It might be something we continue to do in the future.

Recipe 1: Mac and Cheese Edna Lewis Adaption
2 cups elbow macaroni
Salt
2 1/2 cups extra sharp cheddar cheese (cubed)

2 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

2/3 cup sour cream

2 eggs - lightly beaten

1/3 cup grated onion

1 1/2 cups half and half

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

2 1/2 cups grated extra sharp cheddar cheese

It is hard to tell below but the cubed cheese along with the macaroni gives it an extra cheesy goodness. This sharp cheddar from Cabot (Costco) was the way to go!

Nutmeg. Labeled "for use in macaroni and cheese and quiche." Who knew? Ok, I believe Julie and Lance knew (but not me).

We read some reviews saying it was "soupy."

And though it appears to be...

It really was perfect...

The key is letting it sit for 10 or so minutes. It congeals. Does this look amazing or what? By this time the kitchen smelled fabulous!

Recipe 2: Ina Garten Mac and Cheese

Kosher salt
Vegetable oil
1 pound elbow macaroni or cavatappi
1 quart milk
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
12 ounces Gruyere, grated (4 cups)
8 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (2 cups)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 pound fresh tomatoes (4 small) - PEELED ;)
1 1/2 cups fresh white bread crumbs (5 slices, crusts removed)

Julie and Lance don't just do bread crumbs. They made their own bread (the day before) and made crumbs from that. Things are homemade at the Smith Kitchen.

I do like the presentation of this mac and cheese. The tomatoes are a great twist. Due to some tomato plants Julie found at Costo this week, you may be seeing more tomato recipes soon!

Topped with bread crumbs...also another nice touch!

Walla...

Result:

We enjoyed both recipes. Both were so different. I personally liked the first one (and I think that was overall consensus) but Julie made a great point. When put with the right menu, the second one could certainly be ideal. The first recipe is cheaper due to the Gruyere cheese you have to purchase for the second recipe.

If you have a recipe particularly dear to your heart, let us know. We are still open to new recipes. We may be eating mac and cheese for a few days, however. Thanks to Julie and her salad I didn't feel TOO bad about eating it for dinner!

Happy π (PI) Day

2011-03-14T08:47:00.000-07:00

HAPPY PI DAY!

Today, we celebrate Pi Day. Yes, it is 3.14 aka March 14th. My office is special. We are geeks...and proud of it.

Shelly was super creative, as usual!

Notice the green for St. Patty's Day thrown in?

Oh, and that is my quiche in the back...it is spinach so it is green!

Sarah's decorative cookie pie!

In case you were wondering, no, I didn't make a legit pie this year. I gave up sweets for lent. I know, might sound crazy but I thought this year would be easier than the rest (been busy and distracted so my appetite disappears). But this day made it a challenge!

However, I DID participate by baking a quiche. It was my first attempt and I did not record it. It was disaster...partly because I was on a 3 way call (trying to remember to mute during parts of it) and partly because I have a broken blender that was gushing raw egg.

I want to try again...so stay tuned!

Operation O'Carrs

2011-03-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

What do you get when you add:

-hours of internet searching

-2 return trips to my house

-one additional trip to the grocery store (thanks Lance!)

-lots and lots of chicken

-"sweetness"

-lots of herb deliberation

-too many pecans

-LOTS of taste testing

and

-delirious singing of Camp Anawanna and reminiscing theme songs and other 90's tunes

.....Operation O'Carrs

I truly believe my mother didn't know of another Birmingham restaurant for years after I moved here. I don't want to think of how many lbs of their chicken salad I've consumed. I've had lots of great memories at O'Carrs. Julie and I went on a quest to recreate the chicken salad. And while I don't think we matched it exactly, we got pretty darn close.

Our journey started after my MIS class and their parenting class 5:00 Saturday night. So, needless to say, it had been a long day for us all!

I bought a tub of the chicken salad so we could analyze what was inside. It was confirmed that dill (weed as carol and I call it) is the herb of choice.

There was no doubt the chicken salad had to be processed in the food processor (not sooo appetizing). We are not sure how they got to that point so we boiled our chicken in some salt and paprika.

It most definitely contains grapes. That was easy...

Note: The container to the left is the store purchased and to the right is our creation.

Looking good...

If we did stumble upon a killer recipe, we could make a killer profit.

Our final guestimation:

Julie and Shelley's Take on O'Carr's Chicken Salad

2 c. boiled chicken, chopped in processor

1tsp dill

1/4 c. grapes

1/8 c. chopped pecans

4 pinches paprika

2 oz cream cheese

3 T mayo

1 tsp honey

2 pinches salt

And while we didn't have fancy fruit, we did have fancy THEMED (aren't I good) crackers?

Walla...

This is Lance's taste test. HILARIOUS. The above plate had 2 of our recipes on it, along with the original. By that time we had eaten SO MUCH of it, we knew. After what I eat in the frig...I will probably NOT be eating any chicken salad for awhile (and darn if I don't have another O'Carrs Groupon waiting to be used)!

It is ALWAYS a fun time and great adventures cooking/baking at the Smith house!

Switching gears from sweets....

2011-03-05T14:21:00.000-08:00

Julie and I are cooking tonight...so stay tuned. I got a rotisserie chicken from Publix. I thought I would go ahead and get the meat off to be prepared for tonight.

I have this sitting in front of me and I am telling myself "You are a big girl, Shelley."

If you know me, you know why.

Southern Living's Coconut Almond Creme Cake

2011-02-26T08:01:00.000-08:00

Introducing the...

Coconut-Almond Creme Cake

(Southern Living)

Julie and Lance started baking through the Top 10 Southern Living Layered Cakes awhile ago, and this was one they had left to tackle. (Mom, I wish you were here to help us eat this cake!!)

Synopsis about the cake: It is very moist (which we loved) but was more of a yellow cake and didn't have the strong coconut cake flavor we were hoping for. It is a great cake if you are not an expert cake decorator. It took us less than 5 minutes to decorate with the icing and toppings. It does take awhile to bake. Do not be confused by the estimated time on the original recipe. You also have a separate recipe for the layers and for the icing. The recipe for the coconut mixture in the layers is supposed to chill for 8 hours. That is not reflected in the recipe! I am not going to list the recipe due to the amount of ingredients. Click the Southern Living link at the top for details.

We did find a wonderful ingredient we think is the secret for a good pina colada!

This recipe is not for the faint of heart or diet. Yes, you are seeing 2 sticks of cream cheese and 5 stick of butter. With that being said, know the cake is HUGE.

Once we saw the filling part of the recipe was supposed to chill for 8 hours, we hopped on that first. It was strange with corn starch, whipping cream, sour cream, sugar, coconut, etc.

Of course we had an observer. She was sad she was not a taste tester like Lance, although she made a good run for my cake plate once. :)

Julie has a handy little trick when lining cake pans with parchment paper (recommended so the cake doesn't stick)!

This cake also makes your house smell wonderful because of the toasted coconut!

Here we are mixing the batter...finally. We were becoming a little impatient!

Sweet Mom and Baby Henry (who will be here in a short couple months)!

Finally when it went into the oven we had an amazing hamburger. Lance likes to keep his skills for the grill....and it was worth it!

Back to the cake...and a lot of it!

Hamburger?

Cream cheese icing....you cannot beat! (except with a mixer)

Digging into the decorative part... a little unsure!

I am naturally messy when creating. Look at my art room and you can tell!

BUSTED.

The finished product....I personally think it looks better in person!

It is a lot of cake and is impossible to cut a small piece...

Enjoy...off to go rate it on their website!

Mug Brownie

2011-02-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

Beware: This recipe can be dangerous to your diet.

I am not sure why I haven't thought of this before OR how I didn't know a recipe like this existed. I haven't had the chance to do major baking lately so I thought maybe this could tide you over till then. It takes a whopping 5 minutes, TOPS. Last night I tried 2 separate recipes but this recipe was the winner, hands down.

Mug Brownie

Ingredients:
4 T Sugar
4 T Flour
2 T Cocoa powder

2 T Vegetable Oil

2 T Water

Dash of salt

Simply mix in your dry ingredients and stir with a fork. Then mix in your wet ingredients. Cook it in the microwave for one minute and WALLAH.

I never said this recipe gets an "A" for presentation...it does get an "A" for the wonderful, fudgy taste! This is perfect for one of those days you have a chocolate craving. Yuuum.

Holiday and Herbed Chicken Parmesan

2011-01-03T06:58:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am back. I did bake over the holidays but I was a slacker and didn't document my ventures. I made cinnamon rolls and decided I like regular icing and not the cream cheese. Normally I like cream cheese in everything. I think the cream cheese is too strong and overtakes the cinnamon!

Also, I cooked Herbed Chicken Parmesan last night from Cooking Light. This recipe was rated 5 stars out of 141 reviews. (Has to be good, right?) We added so much cheese I am sure it was no longer "light" but oooh soooo good. (Can't take credit for this picture...it is off their site).

THE Club - Sweet Orange Rolls

2010-11-26T16:58:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to attempt sweet orange rolls since David and I first visited THE Club in Birmingham for brunch. (If you haven't been, they are DELICIOUS. When googling for the recipe I learned they were the inspiration for Sister Shubert's orange rolls.) I figured I might as well experiment this holiday when I am home with the family. I didn't follow the recipe exactly but I will tell you what I did and didn't do and what I would recommend.

THE Club Sweet Orange Rolls*

1/4 ounce dry yeast (1 package...I used rapid yeast and in this cold snap, it worked!)

1/4 c warm water - about 125 degrees (I got the water as warm as ours would get)

1/3 c butter, melted

1 cup sour cream

1/4 c sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

3 1/2 c all-purpose flour

1/2 c sugar

1 c flaked coconut

2 T butter

Orange Glaze

1 c. confectioners' sugar

1 T grated orange rind (I omitted)

1 T orange juice (used more like 2 since I eliminated the orange rind)

*Adapted from food.com

Directions:

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large mixing bowl. How can something so great (like bread) come from something... so yeasty?

Mix in the next 5 ingredients (everything but the flour). Then gradually mix in the flour.

Many thanks to Matt Fields, photographer extraordinaire.

Place mixed dough in a well-greased bowl. Aka, butter. It works best. Turn it over so the entire ball of dough is greased.

Since the temperature dropped 30 degrees overnight, I no longer had the pleasure of letting it rise in the attic. Instead I opted for the oven method. I turned it on 200 for a few minutes, and then cracked the door. I let it rise in the warm oven for 2 hours.

This is the result. I used rapid rise yeast...and I do believe it was more rapid than past attempts.

This is to remind you of the before:

Mix the next 3 ingredients in a bowl. This is where it gets hairy. I did not have a zester nor did I have oranges that wanted to be zested. (They had smooth peels.) So I took to real orange extract. THANK GOSH Mom had some. I definitely would not have any at my house. I put in 1/8 of a tablespoon. I went on the light side because it smelled so potent. Here is my zesting attmept gone bad. I tried everything.

I honestly think real zest isn't necessary. Honestly, the thought of an orange peel to me is gross. The recipe called for coconut. I was not sure how I felt about that so I made one batch with and one without. The recipe makes 2 pans. Mom likes the coconut. I like the one without. I think the ones without still taste very similar to THE Club sweet orange rolls. Maybe the sour cream is what makes them stand out?

Below is the first rectangle rolled. The second one looked better but my hands were too gross to touch the camera!

Place them in a baking pan. Do not worry if they look small, they will rise.

And after 30 minutes in the oven they will eventually look like this.

The recipe says 250 degrees for 15-20 minutes. That is bogus. I honestly cannot tell you how long I cooked them but it was likely twice that. I watched them like a hawk and ended up turning the oven to 300 at one point.

As for the icing, I did not follow exact measurements obviously since I went with the 'no zest' route. I used real orange juice from the orange, though. That has to count for something. I probably used more than 1 T...more like 2.

...And the result wasn't too shabby. I have to say, they taste pretty darn good and similar to THE Club rolls.

I will always be partial to the Julie/Shelley cinnamon rolls, though. (Julie - I missed you. I needed 2 more hands!) :) Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

PW's Cinnamon Bread

2010-09-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

I owe my loyal blog followers an apology (IF there are any of you left). Julie and I have wonderful intentions of baking through Southern Living's list of top 10 cakes. But until then, I highly suggest Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Bread.

I failed to document the whole process because it lasted, on a "school night," till 12:30 pm. Even so, it was highly worth it and my 3rd (successful) attempt at bread baking. I was able to make this with a hand mixer and some elbow grease.

We eventually used it for french toast. David claimed it made the "best french toast he had ever eaten." That is a bold claim. I will leave you with a a few pictures...

Pralines (prä-lēns vs. prā-lēns)

2010-07-12T12:23:00.000-07:00

A group of us had a discussion Memorial Day weekend about the pronunciation of these wonderful candies. Since then, they have been stuck in my head. I call them praw-leens. I was the only one in the car who pronounced them that way. Turns out, that is not surprising since, according to Wikkipedia, most of Alabama and Georgia pronounce them pray-leens. What do you call them?

Julie and I (once again) tried 2 recipes. One is Paula Dean's recipe and the other I found on Food Network added by a member. They were fairly different so we tried to get a tasting of two methods. You will find out Paula did not disappoint.

Recipe 1: Paula Dean's Pralines

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons dark corn syrup

1 cup evaporated milk

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups pecan halves

(I had to add this picture because it was too appropriate. Lance and Julie were gifted this cookbook on their wedding. How appropriate?!)

We used a Le Creuset dish which worked extremely well. The recipe calls for a heavy 2-quart saucepan. We buttered the sides of the dish and emptied the sugar, salt, and corn syrup, milk, and butter into the pan.

Stir mixture constantly over medium heat with a wooden spoon* until the sugars have dissolved and mixture comes to a boil.

*We found it interesting they insisted we use a wooden spoon. So what did we do? We googled it. Pay a visit to this site if you would like to learn more. The wooden spoon worked well for us!

Continue to cook to a 'soft ball' stage, approximately 236 degrees F on a candy thermometer. My candy thermometer worked AMAZING. It is from Williams Sonoma and I highly recommend it. It will be used many times to come. THANK YOU JULIE AND LANCE!

COLD WATER TEST: At this point, you can do a cold water test. You drip the praline mixture into a cold glass of water. The ball of candy will flatten when you take it out of the water. It worked out for us...on the first try!

Remove from heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes. After those minutes stir in the vanilla and pecans. We learned 10 minutes should be the max. You should have everything laid out and ready to rock. The mixture is the smoothest when it is right out of the dish. As it hardens it becomes crumbly. Work fast...2 people helps. We suggest using a tablespoon to scoop it out and another to scrape it off the spoon. Otherwise you may lick your fingers due to pain and then end up with a burned tongue as well (ahhem). :)

The mixture yields about 18 pralines when they are made a tablespoon size. We even toyed with the idea of using pecan pieces because the large size of the halved pecans made the lumps of candy larger than we thought necessary.

Recipe 2: Food Network Contributed

I am adding this on here for 'kicks." The Paula recipe was by far our favorite. It was more creamy and tasted better to us both. I am not a huge candy person (unless we are talking chocolate) but the Paula Deen recipe was marvelous even to me! This one, however, had wonderful ratings so it may be prefered by some. And as Julie pointed out, the ingredients are ones you are most likely to have 'on hand' at any given moment. You would have to purchse ingredients for the Paula Deen recipe.

This recipe uses half and half which I learned is the same as the recipes that call for 'light cream.' There are recipes that use heavy cream as well. I am so stuck on the first recipe I may never venture out beyond it.

Ingredients:

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cups half-and-half

1/3 stick butter

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups whole pecans

Combine all ingredients except the pecans in a heavy saucepan. Over medium heat stir mixture until it comes to a boil. Turn heat down to medium-low and continue to stir. Spoon mixture up on sides of pan to melt any sugar that hasn't melted. (It didn't get dark until the very end so be patient!)

Cook until mixture reaches 238 to 241 degrees F on a candy thermometer or soft ball stage. Stir in the pecans. Remove from heat. Stir until the mixture begins to thicken and becomes creamy and cloudy. Drop onto parchment paper, buttered pan or buttered marble slab, using a spoon or ice cream scoop. Let cool.

The finished results. (I am sad I didn't get the focus correct. My new lense came in today so we will have to do something again soon to test it!)

Fudge

2010-03-04T16:05:00.000-08:00

This time, Julie and I tackled fudge. She found 3 wonderful recipes to try: creamy chocolate fudge, peanut butter fudge, and chocolate mint fudge. Instead of going step-by-step through all the recipes I will list the ones we did (with pictures, of course) and tell you what we learned/would do differently.

We began with the recipe we thought to be the easiest. It turns out none were difficult (if you have patience over the stove stirring the chocolate. If Julie wasn't there I would have surely become distracted.) The Smiths have what I remember to be a 5 lb bag of chocolate chips from Costco. I am embarrassed to say I couldnt keep that in my house. It would be the death of me. I think I need a Costco membership...one day.

Onto the recipes...

Creamy Chocolate Fudge

Ingredients:

1 (7 oz) jar marshmallow crème
1 ½ cups white sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 cup semi sweet chips
¼ cup butter
2/3 cup evaporated milk
2 cups chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1) Line an 8 x 8 dish with aluminum foil.
2) Boil over medium heat: marshmallow, sugar, milk, butter, and salt. Bring to full boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
3) Remove from heat, add chips. Stir until smooth. Add vanilla and chill until firm.

This would be my pick for a 'go-to' chocolate fudge recipe. It was SO SIMPLE. You cannot go wrong. VERY fudgey and creamy. The alumninum foil worked well. Each recipe had a different suggestion. Whereas the alumnium foil was not terrible, it could stick to the chocolate or make it appear wrinkle and for that reason I would recommend wax paper.

Peanut Butter Fudge

Ingredients:
4 cups white sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow creme
12 ounces peanut butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:
1) Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish, set aside.
2) In a saucepan, combine sugar, milk, and butter. Bring to a boil, and cook 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the marshmallow creme and peanut butter. Gradually stir in the flour. Spread into the prepared pan, and let cool.

This was my personal favorite. We did make an alteration. The peanut butter needed a chocolate layer on top so we used the recipe from the Chocolate Mint Fudge recipe below as a top layer. It transformed into a homemade Reeses Cup. I would highly recommend this recipe. The consistency has more of a sugar texture and less of a creamy texture. It is likely due to the flour. It was the only recipe that contained flour. I DO think you need to "let cool" in the frig. It eventually ended up in the frige and set MUCH better after sitting in the fridge for a night.

Chocolate Mint Fudge
Ingredients:
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 ounces)
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk, divided
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 ounces white candy coating
2-3 teaspoons peppermint extract (TOO MUCH IN OUR OPINION)
3 drops green food coloring (I would add 5)

Directions:
1) In a heavy saucepan, melt chocolate chips with 1 cup milk.
2) Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla.
3) Spread half into a waxed paper-lined 8-in. square pan; (I personally prefer to line the pan with foil and grease the foil with butter) chill for 10 minutes or until firm.
4) Meanwhile, in a heavy saucepan over low heat, cook and stir candy coating with remaining milk until coating is melted and mixture is smooth.
5) Stir in peppermint extract and food coloring.
6) Spread over bottom layer; chill for 10 minutes or until firm.
7) Warm remaining chocolate mixture if necessary; spread over mint layer.
8) Chill for 2 hours or until firm.
9) Remove from pan; cut into 1-in. squares.

This is similar to candy and less like the fudge we imagined. I think we all agreed the mint was strong even using just 2 drops. It did look pretty on the plate and would be great for St. Patty's Day. I even like mint and chocolate but this was probably my least favorite.

Us with our POUNDS and POUNDS of fudge (don't worry...we didn't eat it all ourselves)!

We tried to be good. Julie even bought these to snack on. We remembered...after the fact...

This picture sums up what we felt towards sampling by the end of the night. No more!

Did someone say Fudge?

A different kind of 'Bachelor Party'

2010-03-01T21:20:00.000-08:00

When I finished the GMAT on Saturday I knew exactly what I wanted to do....cook and bake. I have an excellent fudge post coming. Julie and I hit the kitchen again Sunday night. But for now I must share the party pics from the "themed" Bachelor Party. Oh yes I did.

The girls were greated at the door by Jake himself!

Thanks to Julie and Lance for the silver plate wedding momento. It came in handy for the theme!

Here is a shot of the spread. Wait, we are missing something.

PLANES. Oh, that is better!

Enough said.

I tried Bakerella's red velvet recipe she posted this past week. (Oh, and I realized I spelled her name wrong AFTER the fact. Oops.)

This is a sample of the next blog post to come!

...and cheesy it was (as well as frustrating...but do we expect anything else).

Corn and Shrimp Chowder...my favorite soup

2010-02-14T16:04:00.000-08:00

Creamy (and SO EASY) Corn and Shrimp Chowder

This is MY FAVORITE recipe. I make it sometimes weekly. The only problem is I can't stop eating it - so it goes fast. Bridget brought this to a potluck at work years ago and I knew I had to have it. So thank you B!

Ingredients:

1/2 stick butter

1 medium onion

1 bunch of green onions

1 T of Zatarain's shrimp and crab boil (I use dry so it will last longer in my pantry http://www.zatarains.com/Products/Seafood-Boils/Crawfish-Shrimp-and-Crab-Boil-Bag.aspx)

.75 lbs of frozen salad shrimp (I use 1/2 of the big Publix frozen 1.5 lbs bags by the butcher)

1 can cream of potato soup

1 can cream corn

1 can whole kernel corn (drained)

1 pint half and half

Melt the butter in a pot. Saute both types of onions in the butter. Add shrimp boil. Stir. Add shrimp and cook until pink. Simply add the remaining ingredients and cook until warm.

I never use exact measurements by now...this recipe is almost impossible get wrong. (I LOVE Zatarains so sometimes I go overboard.) I will try to come back and do step by step instructions next time I cook it for dinner!

Cinnamon Rolls with Julie and Shelley - Two blondes make a right :)

2010-01-31T18:43:00.000-08:00

Julie and I baked again this Saturday night. This time...cinnamon rolls! Cinnamon roles are something I've wanted to try to bake for awhile. Julie had the brilliant idea of trying out two recipes. We did one in the bread machine and one by hand. They both turned out well, which you will find out below. Forewarning...I might've been a little trigger happy. We had too many great pictures. For every 1 you see, there are 3 you are missing! It's been the first time cooking with Julie that I've had my Canon Rebel. I had a problem with it for the past week or so Lance helped me solve. Let's just chalk it up to user error (mine). The theme of the night...two blondes make a right!

Here are the ingredients (minus the cinnamon and optional pecans) needed to make cinnamon roles. The flour is bread flour. Cinnamon roles really are inexpensive and in these alumninum tins, make great gifts.

Here you will find my dough when mixed. You will see how small it is before rising. I felt as if the bread machine dough rose more than mine. Sure enough, they both rose in the end.

This is the dough out of the bread machine. Please note Julie's happiness in this picture. She was saying over and over, "This dough makes me soooo happy." And she was right. After all, who else would do this on a Saturday night? (Besides Cinnabon, right Alex..haha)

The first recipe said to spread the melted butter on the dough and then top with this cinnamon toping. We thought this was too much toping. Instead, we found out you can really could use more. This cinnamon mixture method ended up being the method of choice. Read on to find out the other and why...

This was the fun part. It is all taking shape. Julie is a pro...

We only fit 7 in a pan. We ended up having 2 left so you want to probably aim for 8 rolls per pan. Both recipes make 2 pans. One for you and one for a friend. Or in my case, one for my coworkers (who will be happy on a Monday morning)!

Here you can see me rolling out the second batch of dough. The first dough we referred to as the 'bread machine pudding dough' since it included a pack of jello pudding (interesing...I know). The one I am working with in this picture rose on its own and, even though didn't rise as much as the pudding bread machine dough, was just as yummy.

The second recipe called for the softened butter to be mixed in with the topping mix... Above I mentioned we like the melted butter spread on first, and the topping layered on top. We think this keeps the cinnamon overflow from happening (and unfortuantely spilling in the oven). You want to keep the cinnamon goodness in the roll and it worked better layering.

I am including this picture to demonstrate the cutting technique Julie taught me. I wanted to start slicing from one side. But by doing that, I would have lost count and likely had uneven pieces. Instead, she had me cut once in the center. And then split the two halves. That way you have a better gauge on how big your slices need to be. Make sense? The pieces end up perfectly uniform.

Here we are trying to be patient...all 3 of us!

The results were well worth the wait!

Of course we sampled...

And there were others that REALLY wanted to!

Here we are with our finished product! Like I said, each recipe makes two circular tins. The recipe below is a combined version which brings out the best in both recipes. We practically took the icing portion of one recipe and the roll part of the other!

Julie and Shelley's Cinnamon Rolls:

Dough:

1/4 cup warm water

1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 cup warm milk
1 egg, room temperature
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups bread flour
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

Cinnamon swirl:
1/4 cup butter, softened (for spreading separate)
1 cup brown sugar
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Icing:
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
In the pan of your bread machine, combine water, melted butter, vanilla pudding, warm milk, egg, 1 tablespoon sugar, salt, bread flour and yeast. Set machine to Dough cycle; press Start. When Dough cycle has finished, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 17x10 inch rectangle. Spread with softened butter. In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over dough. Roll up dough, beginning with long side. Slice into 16 one inch slices and place in 9x13 buttered pan. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes. While rolls bake, stir together cream cheese, softened butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and milk. Remove rolls from oven and top with frosting.

Better than chocolate

2010-01-25T16:36:00.000-08:00

I know. I can't believe I said it either. I think I've decided this is my favorite cookie. I didn't have time to step by step tonight. (The Bachelor at a friend's house...I know...priorities.) BUT I did take time to take pictures with my fun camera. I've learned a thing or two. Well, besides the second photo. It takes me back to my nearsightedness days.

And for the recipe. Mom, I copied and pasted it from you:

Oatmeal Crispies

1 c. shortening
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. granulated sugar
2 well beaten eggs
2 t. vanilla
1 ½ c. flour (all purpose)
1 t. salt
1 t. soda
3 c. quick cooking oatmeal
½ c. chopped pecans (optional)

Cream shortening & sugar, add eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet (sprayed with Pam) and bake at 350 degrees approximately 10 min.

Happy Bday to Lynn

2010-01-19T15:12:00.000-08:00

We were able to celebrate Lynn's bday this weekend while she was in town. Of course, I made a cake!

Looks like I need to do some more Christmas baking/cooking...

2009-12-20T15:08:00.000-08:00

thanks to Ash (my new apron!)

EDIBLE INK CARTRIDGES?!

2009-12-16T13:16:00.000-08:00

Did anyone know they existed? Because I sure didn't. I DO have a Canon printer. Hmmmmmmm. http://www.kopykake.com/

great websites

2009-12-09T07:27:00.000-08:00

So last night I found these and emailed them to myself so I would not forget about them. First is good for a laugh and the second is great for ideas!

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/ (I hope none of my creations end up on there...)
http://cupcakeenvy.com/ (These are AMAZING and too beautiful to eat!)

Reindeer Pops: Julie and Shelley Round 2

2009-11-29T18:18:00.000-08:00

We are at it again! Julie and I tackled Bakerella's reindeer pops today and it was MUCH easier this time around. It took us an hour and a half...also much quicker than last time. I made the cake while at home for the holidays. Aren't they cute? If you weren't in the holiday spirit...you must be now!

THIS was the secret ingredient. The melts tasted and smelled like Andes Mints! It was the perfect mix for the devils food chocolate cake. AND it added a little Christmas touch.

Here we are posed with the WHOLE group. (Sorry for looking rough...I went running and jumped in the shower before Julie came.) We had to self timer it. We had our supervisor (Savannah the dog) but Lance didn't join is this time around! :)

Until next time...

Bakearella's Cupcake Pops: Julie and Shelley in the kitchen

2009-11-22T09:57:00.000-08:00

Bakerella makes these look easy, guys. I know Julie agrees with me. Julie and I both like playing in the kitchen (she is 10x more of a chef than I am). We've talked numerous times about getting together to make something fun and themed. We began ambitiously wanting our cupcake pops to turn out fall-like (maybe even turkeys). They ended up with more of a birthday theme!

You will notice we have GREAT photographs of this adventure. THANK YOU LANCE, aka chaeffur, oops-we-forgot-the-wax-paper errand runner, taste tester and photographer extraordinaire! I am pretty sure next time this is mentioned he will find his way hunting somewhere far far away.

And we cannot leave out our supervisor from the stairs so she could get a good view:

And now, cake pops.

1. Bake a cake and let it cool. I've tried making cake balls with the cake a bit warm. You will end up with a mushy mess. I made these cakes the morning of. I really think chocolate cake tastes best with the cream cheese icing. We did a chocolate and a vanilla cake. (I cooked the vanilla to start with leaving out an egg...doubted myself and went back and did chocolate once I had 3 eggs.)

2. Crumble the cake into tiny crumbs. She mentions a food processor but we did just find with our fingers. Keep in mind if you do this with red velvet (which is SO GOOD) you will end up with red fingers if you dont use gloves!

3. Make your cream cheese icing OR grab your store bought package. We used one container and one homemade and they worked exactly the same. Homemade icing is SIMPLE. Here are the ingredients. 1/2 stick of melted butter, softened cream cheese and 1 lb of confectioners suger (or one box). I noticed the store bought has trans fat so for that reason I feel better making my own (even though I am sure it is just as terrible for you)!

4. Mix a little less than a container of cream cheese until the mixture becomes moldable. I forgot to upload this picture. :)

5. These are our very first balls we rolled. You have to get the size right for your cookie cutter. You want them to be large enough to spill over the top but if you get them TOO large they will fall off in your chocolate bark later on. We suggest them be about an inch and a half if you are making our Wilton cookie cutter found at Hobby Lobby:

6. It is important you get them in the freezer for 20 or so minutes. They are MUCH easier to mold if they are cold and not as mushy! We had several trays going at once and swapped them out. We also tried NOT covering them in alumninum foil. They just don't cool as fast. So we suggest you cover them in foil. Then keep yourself busy for a few minutes. Like playing with this. Here is the cute couple while we wait.

7. Take them out of the freezer and shape them using the flower mold. This will create the bottom of the cupcakes to where they are scalloped like. You want enough poof out of the top so when you dip the top, it is equivalent to the bottom proportionately.

7. Take your chocolate bark and put it in a double boiler or zap it in the microwave for 30 second intervals. We learned you can poach the stuff on the double boiler and it ruins the chocolate so I am not opposed to the microwave method! If you do it on the stove. Be patient. We are not. Not at this point 2 hours after we started:

8.Dip the cupcake bottom in the mixture and turn upside down.

Note: You want to stick the popsickle sticks in while wet otherwise it is IMPOSSIBLE!

9. Let sit for about 15 minutes to harden and then do the tops. Add a little bit of vegetable oil for shine and consistency. It makes it more liquid and spreads much better.

It took us awhile to develop a technique. This was our first one. Needless to say, we got better.

This is what happened to the rejects. You don't want to do this too often. These guys are RICH and you will start feeling sick. (Not that I am speaking from experience :)...)

We learned MANY lessons along the way. A few I can think of:

-Practice makes perfect. You need to do these once before you do them for a party. I don't suggest baking 2 cakes, however, for practice. That is, UNLESS you have 4 hours to devote to them on a Saturday evening/night and want around 75 cake pops. (White Plume, expect a surprise on Monday.)

-Don't wait till the week of the actually holiday to buy your holiday themed sprinkles. Thanksgiving might have been 5 days away but the stores have moved onto Christmas. It was amazing to me. These are some of our purchases we needed in order to pull this off:

-Roll your initial balls large. The bigger the better. You want enough "poof" of the top of the cupcake to make it proportionate.

-Alumninum foil really does help the balls freeze faster in the freezer so we suggest you cover them up.

-Making the tops lighter in color creates more contrast and we liked those better.

(Julie, did I forget anything?)

Eleanor's Baptism Cake

2009-11-14T22:15:00.001-08:00

I was able to make the layers work but it wasn't easy. I shaved off a good bit of the cake and learned that the weight of the cross extremeties caused it to crack. But it was nothing a little cream cheese icing couldn't fix. Sorry this one is blurry. This takes me back to the days when I didn't have my contacts in!)

Here are some shots of the details.

I love this picture because it makes the cake look huge!

So huge, in fact, it didn't occur to me that it might not make it in the frig. It did.....just BARELY!

And NOW time for bed!!

Roasted Cherry Tomato Rigatoni

2009-11-10T07:55:00.000-08:00

This is my absolute favorite pasta....I've been cooking this recipe every other week for a couple months now (that is no exaggeration). Those who know me well, know I HAD an aversion to tomatoes. That is no more. This recipe consists mostly of tomatoes. It's fresh and healthy so when I eat tons of it, I don't feel AS bad.

I wanted to give it (the recipe) justice with pictures and last night I think I did. Did I mention I did this along with the cake decorating? I started when I got home from work and I didn't quit untill 8:30!

Because I am being lazy, here is the recipe straight from my note cards (in the cute little recipe holder given to me by Ashley):

First, rinse off the 2 pints of cherry tomatoes. (I LOVE my collapsible colander...best $8 I ever spent.)

Slice them in half, lenthwise.

Prep your medium onion.

The recipe calls to finely chop. This is code for food processor in my kitchen.

In a skillet on medium heat, add about 4 splashes of olive oil. Add onions and sautee till translucent.

Turn the heat down (to low) and add garlic, allowing it to cook until fragrant and not brown.

Add tomatoes...isn't it pretty?

Season with salt and pepper. Add dried herbs and sugar. Cook down the tomatoes over low heat, stirring occasionally, for ~45 minutes.

Wallah!

Bring a large pot of water to boil, add salt and pasta. Top with fresh basil if you want (which I never have...I tried to grow my own but the bugs ate more of it than I did).

I strongly suggest topping it with the pecorino cheese and mozerella! This picture doesn't give it justice.

ENJOY and let me know how you like it!

Cake Decorating Round 2

2009-11-10T07:39:00.000-08:00

My best friend's baby girl gets baptized this weekend and I wanted soooo bad to try out my cake decorating skills again. It's been awhile since I took the class and I know "practice makes perfect." I haven't done one bit of practicing since the class ended. SO, here is what I came up with...

I brought this to work today for my coworkers to test out. Of all days to bring the cake to work with me, I picked today. We have hurrican Ida above us dumping buckets of rain with wind. I guess you can say it made the day a little bit better to have sweets in the kitchen. The cake is red velvet and the icing is the cream cheese icing Mom makes (tinted pink). I think consensus is to stick with that! The flower icing wasn't the correct consistency so I will work on that again for this weekend. More to come!

Tips and Tricks

2009-11-09T07:37:00.001-08:00

So one of my friends sent me this today. I definitely want to test some of these hints and tricks out. AND so I don't lose them or forget about them. I am posting them on here.

Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating.

Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease Away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, Cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert.
Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples.
Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm... This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

No More Mosquitoes, place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper.
The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... At DA! ... Static is gone.

Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean... (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material . I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. Well ... the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free ... that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box . well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at l east e very six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share!

Note: I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water and a nylon brush and I had it done in 30 seconds Then when I rinsed it . the water ran right thru the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all! That repairman knew what he was talking about!

Seriously...

2009-10-18T15:21:00.001-07:00

How freakin cute is this? I got the chill bumps.

http://www.bakerella.com/wedding-cake-pops/

Rebel Krispy

2009-10-11T19:03:00.000-07:00

So I was at the Ole Miss game this past weekend. After seeing this Emily tells me I MUST check out Cake Boss, Ace of Cakes, and more of those cake decorating shows. I agree. He is made of fondant and rice krispies!!!!!! This was his 2nd trip to the Grove. Due to the humidity he began to melt but I think we can help him hold up. He is just too neat!

Wow. That's all. Wow.

2009-09-13T18:39:00.000-07:00

I forgot my camera at the Art Walk in Bham this weekend but I must share with you the ODDEST thing I have seen yet. A series of 7 rotting cupcakes in little cases on the wall...

Um, not what I necessarily call "art." Cupcakes are for eating, people...

Cake Decorating Graduate

2009-08-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

For the very last class I opted to go with the Duncan Hines Extra Moist Marble cake mix. I had no time to spare after a weekend of friends and showers. I also opted to use the Wilton icing recipe in a chocolate flavor. The cake actually rose more evenly than ever before when using BOTH strips.

Here is a view of my work station in the classroom. This is only 1/10th of the mess I made in class last night. Notice the little sweet pea flower towards the bottom of the picture on the practice board. I loved those but I couldn't really picture them on my cake. So you won't see any more of those for now. (And no, I wasn't the only one taking pictures in class.)

Here is a close-up of my first roses. I know one day I will look back at these and laugh.

Here is my attempt to do a cluster of roses. I had a few difficulties last night. My icing was TOO SOFT. For weeks I've battled with it being too hard. The roses wouldnt harden when I would try to transport them. I could have used a freezer in this case. Unfortunately, I did not have that luxury last night. Oh, and I lost about 2 to the floor.

But I managed.

The inside...

I couldn't resist. I figured I need to try it to see if it was good enough to make again. Notice the clump of icing on my plate.... I still don't REALLY like icing. I know, but I just took a class.

If judging how good the cake is by how fast it disappears in the office, this is the winner!

Pleased as Punch: Part 2

2009-08-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, I must admit. I forgot to take a picture of the slushy consistency (as it was found at one point on the floorboard of my car). I even planned to take a picture of Julie's cute punch and water dispenser set-up. I got distracted. So instead here is a picture of the spread at the shower with miss party planner herself, Julie. Seriously. We are all trying to convince her to quit the whole dentistry plan and go into catering. I think she could be the next big Food Network star.

We had quite a bit of punch left. Note to self: make half as much next time. Even with 20 people (some of which ditched the punch glasses for large glasses ;)), we still had half left over. We did add another ingredient or two and it served up a great afternoon cocktail after guests were gone. Is there such thing as a punch belini? We think so.

"Pleased as Punch"

2009-08-21T09:21:00.001-07:00

No, it's not a baked goods recipe. It's not even a cooking recipe. It's a punch recipe (and one that I've volunteered to make for a shower this weekend). Among my friends this punch is called the "Mother/Daughter Tea Punch" because I made it in college for my sorority's mother/daughter tea. We always hoped for leftovers. Thankfully it is a HUGE recipe because whatever you make normally disappears. You can see from the list of ingredients it is easily halved.

Mother/Daughter Tea Punch (for lack of a better name...I don't have one)

2 cans 42 oz concentrated pineapple juice
2 cans 42 oz concentrated orange juice
2 small packages of unsweetened cherry koolaid
lemon juice to taste (1/4 cup or so)
12 cups water
4 cups of sugar

It's simple. You pour all the ingredients into the bowl and mix with a slotted spoon. I actually split this recipe when making the punch because I do not own a container large enough to make it all.

I thought this looked nifty, so I took a picture. When I dumped the koolaid into the concentrate it swirled around on its own to create this:

(Not the most appetizing picture but pretty darn nifty...)

You can see it also made this huge bowl of punch as well. I put both containers in the freezer to leave overnight.

You will want to take it out a good 12 hours before the shower. That is the hard part. Put a reminder in your phone if you need help remembering. That is what I do.

It's best when it has a good slush to it. Slushy pics to follow!

Piece of Cake

2009-08-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, remember when I said I was going to refuse to do clowns? I lied. The sweet woman across from me was very insistant upon offering me one of her clown heads...so here you go. There is a lot going on this week but it was good to take a break and think of nothing but cake for a couple hours. :)

Red Velvet Cake...doesn't like me.

2009-08-12T20:37:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, I like it...a lot.

I have problems with uneven baking. I've suspected it when baking cookies in the past. I think this confirms the problem:

I bought bake even strips for this very purpose. Believe it or not, I used them. Does anyone have any recommendations?

P.S. Red velvet stains. EVERYTHING it touches.

Crisco Creation...

2009-08-10T19:24:00.000-07:00

The book lesson plan was to do a rainbow. Um, people really don't do rainbow cakes anymore. I think Wilton needs to update their handbook. Next week we are to lean how to do gigantic sit-up clowns and roses. You can decorate your cake with either. You can guess which I will choose.

This is my creation. I dedicated it to my office (WPT) since I hope they will be the ones consuming this tomorrow. I have smelled so much icing I really don't think I can touch it. Sad, but fortunate, since this weekend is my beach trip. I may change my mind when I see the dark chocolate fudge inside, however!

Oh, and don't judge the WPT letters. I threw that on to fill in space. I didn't follow the 'technique.' I do think that is the icing tip I will be using on cupcakes from here on out. I am excited about that...

I cut a slice because I have noticed something. Nobody wants to be the first to cut into a cake. That and I wanted to see the layers. I had never sucessfully layered a cake.

Just as I took this picture, it hit the ground. I had it balanced on the server. I DID salvage just enough to sneak a taste. YUM

Class Preparation

2009-08-09T18:39:00.000-07:00

It takes this:

To create this:

This is much harder than I thought! I feel pretty satisfied with my first try at the cake. I can tell you what. I am going to be sick of the clean-up. Mom can attest for the MESS the Wilton icing recipe makes. Let's just say Wilton has to own stock in Crisco....

Birthday Cupcakes for the Bday Girl

2009-08-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

Michelle had her big 2-7 this week. We celebrated Tuesday night. Since I was in cake decorating class till late Monday night I didn't get to do anything "fancy" for her bday cupcakes. Sad...

But then there's the option to go with the classic yellow cake mix with chocolate icing (I tried dark chocolate....yum). Store bought. My personal favorite. I also put sprinles in the batter. That's always a fun surprise.

Note to self. Don't buy white liners for cupcakes. They don't stay white. They turn a dirty yellow. Sad.
Of course, they were still yummy. Happy bday Michelle!!

Class is in Session

2009-08-03T19:59:00.000-07:00

Tonight was my first night taking 'Course 1: Discover Cake Decorating' by Wilton. It was a long class lasting 2 hours. It was closer to 2.5 hours by the time we all left the cake isle. I learned more than I ever imagined and it's yet to be "hands on!" Just think what I will learn next week! THIS will make for some interesting blogging. It is late, and I have yet to accomplish anything tonight so I will leave you with this...

5 random things I learned from class:

1. The icing you buy from the store will never harden. So we must use the recipe given to us. Not sure how I feel about that. I like store container icing. (I think I owe some of that to you, LP-G).

2. Crisco has changed their recipe lately so Wilton had to change theirs. It HAD transfat in it. Not anymore. (Wow, so that banana bread I used to make WASN'T so healty after all.)

3. You can spend a FORTUNE on cake decorating nick nacks. My favorite item today was the Wilton Cake Leveler. You better believe I bought one. From now on I will be torting.

4. To get true white in icing you have to buy clear vanilla. It is artificially flavored.

5. Monday is the perfect time to take the class. You have all weekend to prepare because you must come equipped with a cake and variations of icing. I got lucky - I hadn't even thought of that!

Disappearing Brownies

2009-07-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

After this morning, I verified this recipe is a. blog material and b. lives up to its name. It is not necessarily your typical brownie. It does, however, disappear. It did from my office kitchen by 10:00...am. I got comments such as "this is the best brownie I've EVER had" and "it's ooey gooey goodness."

I owe a big thanks to Catherine and the Jones family for this recipe. In fact, I do believe her Mom wrote me this recipe awhile back. It wasn't until we were together this weekend that I ate a brownie and KNEW I must bake it for myself. And soon.

So last night that is what I did...

Disappearing Brownies

1/2 c. butterscotch pieces
1/4 c. butter
3/4 c. all purpose flour
1/3 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c. miniature marshmellows
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate pieces
1/4 chopped nuts (optional of course)

Grease a 9 inch square pan. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. (When doing this the first time I found out the hard way I had monkey bread juice in the bottom of the oven that would take some TLC.)

In a double broiler, over medium heat, melt butterscotch pieces with butter. Stir constantly and pay close attention. (Those that know me know I like to leave pots unattended...!)

Remove from heat and cool to luke warm. Add flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, egg and vanilla. Mix well.

Once cooled, fold in marshmellows, nuts, and chocolate pieces. If it is not cool, it will all create a gooey mess. This happened to me. It still tastes fabulous but the consistency is almost too gooey. I found the chocolate pieces I just love. I had never seen these before.

Spread the mixture in the pan....

Bake 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes...

Do not overbake. The center will be jiggly but becomes firm on cooling.

This blog took entirely too long to write. I blame a little distraction called....

(totally worth it!!!!!)

Monkey Bread

2009-07-11T12:58:00.000-07:00

Monkey Bread

Non-stick cooking spray
4 packages refrigerated, butter-flavored biscuits
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 T maple syrup

This is, by far, the best recipe for Monkey Bread - in my opinion, of course. I am not sure where the recipe came from (probably mom or the internet) but it is impossible to mess up. There are some recipes with homemade dough but this particular one uses refrigerated dough. This recipe is so easy, that I woke up early before work in order to bring it to the baby shower on Friday. Monkey bread is always best when it is warm. Yuuuum.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. You will need an angle food cake pan or a bundt pan. I love bundt pans, myself! It looks beautiful on my new, white cake plate!

2. Take 1/2 c. sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon and mix in a bowl. Break each biscuit into 3-4 pieces, roll into the bowl of sugar/cinnamon mix, and place into the pan. I actually like the biscuit pieces larger rather than smaller. They pull apart easier and it takes less time to roll them in the sugar/cinnamon mix. This is the longest step, really.

3. Melt 1/2 cup butter in the microwave. Stir in another cup sugar, tsp. cinnamon and a tablespoon of syrup. The original recipe calls for a teaspoon of syrup but I would rather have too much of this mixture than not enough.

4. Pour the mixture over the biscuit pieces in the bundt pan. Make sure to pour it through the cracks! I used 5 cans of smaller sizes biscuits and it worked fine EXCEPT for the overspill of the syrup in my oven. Darn, I forgot about that mess until now.

5. Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Let it sit for about 5 minutes before you remove the cake from the pan.

You are done! It should look like this.

Before:

After:

(Don't you just love these decorations for a baby shower at my office? The flowers are from a coworker's yard and they are put in baby bottles!)

Are you as curious as I am about WHY it is called Monkey Bread? I googled it. Like I do everything. To find out more: click here.

Blueberry Pound Cake

2009-07-06T16:22:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th everyone! For the weekend at the lake (with my best friend's fam) I brought along something I have been dying to make since berries came in season....blueberry pound cake. It was a good excuse. The Downings seemed to enjoy it too. I normally have a rule; fruit and dessert do not mix. But on certain occasions I go against that rule. So, if you are like me, give this a try. It is goodness. PLUS, it is a piece of cake. Literally. (Sorry, I had to.)

Blueberry Pound Cake

1 box butter cake mix
1 pkg instant vanilla pudding
3 eggs
1/3 c. oil
8 oz cream cheese
2 cups blueberries

To start:

Let the cream cheese and eggs sit off to the side and become room temperature. Set the oven to preheat at 350 degrees.

Mix the cake mix and pudding mix. Gradually beat in eggs, oil and cream cheese. (The cream cheese is MUCH easier to beat in once you have it room temp.)

Grab the berries. Give them a good wash. Yes, there were two brands of berries and you KNOW which one I picked!

Mix the berries in with a spatula. I would not suggest using a beater. The blueberries burst and your cake turns out looking like a smurf.

Pour it in a bundt pan and bake 350 for an hour. (I actually reduced my heat to 325 since I had a dark pan and left it in about 10 minutes longer. I should have taken it out on time. It was a little brown in my oven...)

Enjoy! I forgot to take a finished picture. I was distracted by packing so you will have to look at the ones I snapped at the lake!

I like to sprinkle the top with confectioners sugar. Make sure you let it completely cool before you do so or it melts. I also learned if it becomes extra hot in the car from direct sun, the condensation will cause it to melt the sugar as well. :) Lesson learned!

Rotel Chicken Casserole!

2009-06-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't have a 'go-to' dish...one you know is impossible to screw up and one you can never get sick of?! Mine is chicken rotel casserole. It just SOUNDS good, doesn't it? If we are friends and I have cooked for you, chances are you have eaten it. On many occasions. Well, here is how to make it. SO EASY. (Girls coming to potluck tomorrow night...this is what we are having!)

Ro-tel Chicken Casserole - from Mom (who knows where she got it)

4 chicken breasts
1 lb Velveta cheese (yes, I use the 2% and it works well)
10 oz of spaghetti
1/2 stick butter (lowfat margerine is what i prefer and you can go with less)
1 can Ro-tel tomatoes
1 can cream of chicken soup

Preheat the oven to 350.

Begin by boiling your chicken in plenty of water. I struggle with cooking tender chicken. Mine almost always turns to rubber. Does anyone have a secret in making it tender? I even bought is fresh today. The recipe calls for 4 chicken breasts. Sometimes I use the tenders. (Mom taught me those cook faster and she is correct. Less cutting as well.) I used about 3 fresh chicken breasts and cut off a LOT of it. (I am picky when cooking meat.) It says to cube it. I shred it. It is a texture thing...Place the chicken aside for now.

Add about 10 ounces of pasta noodles into the chicken broth from the chicken you just boiled. Spaghetti noodles work well. So does linguini. Today was spaghetti. (You can add lib on this. The recipe calls for 7 ounces but I almost always use more..especially if you are feeding a group or want to freeze some.)

I know, this isn't the good FOR you part but it is the GOOD part. Melt the cheese and butter in the microwave or a large saucepan. (You need to act fast on the next steps. Working with melted velveeta can be tough.)

Add soup, Ro-tel and chicken. I like the spicier Ro-tel when making it for myself. (You can't go too spicey if you ask me.) Any flavor will work. I also drain the Ro-tel. You don't have to drain it well but it has been "runny" before when I didn't. I used a soup can size today. A larger can may be added if you are a Ro-tel fan.

Drain spaghetti and mix well. Put in 9x11 casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Don't eat too much!!

Cute Cakes

2009-06-29T19:11:00.000-07:00

I REALLY wanted to share with you this cute theme for a cake. I wish I had a birthday to cook for soon. I was wandering through the bookstore (when I should have been studying) and came upon this picture in Ultimate Cake Mix Book. This is a picture of a cake made of two round cake pans. It is topped with a whole lot of icing in order to make it look like a cupcake. Candy melts make the sprinkles. Construction paper finishes it off! GREAT IDEA!

I'll be honest. I cooked a quiche yesterday. Not only did I cook it but I took pictures and even posted it (only to remove it later). I am not sure about the quiche. The verdict is not out yet. I will let you know. I found the cutest quiche pan so I am on a quiche kick.

Why this?

2009-06-25T22:06:00.000-07:00

It all started with a convincing argument by a good college friend/now coworker. Honestly, it didn't take much. I had this blog on my mind for some time now. I don't 'do' fancy recipes. Southern food, casseroles, and desserts (especially consisting of chocolate) are my specialty. I often take these test runs to the kitchen at work or to the showers/events we have at the office. I've gotten some of my best recipes from there.

After a solid day debating a blog title (thanks AS and KKL) I confirmed I made the right choice tonight when my Jersey friend indeed confirmed that "they" (meaning jersey) call pecans PEE CANS. Hence the name of the title and how I say it, pecän. Who knows where this blog will take me. I hope not to abandon my true love for painting and the blog that comes with it. But I figure this is a great way to keep up with my recipe adventures and share some of my lessons and favorite recipes along the way!

I will leave you this classic movie clip. Thank you, KKL!