Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Cinnamon Roll Wordless Wednesday


I asked my daughter for her cinnamon roll recipe, she sent me the ingredient list with no instructions.
The other two filling options look interesting.

I made these up for Christmas.


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Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas. Under my tree I a couple of cook books from my daughter-in-law. I look forward to trying out recipes from the Pioneer Woman. Just looking over the recipes, it breaks it down step by step and has photos. I have already found an old favorite in ow of the books, that is the toffee squares. She calls the recipe Spreads because you spread the cookie batter in the pan and after the bars come out of the oven you immediately put the chocolate on top and spread it out once it is melted. I am ready to try this recipe out and compare it to the vintage Better Crocker recipe.

Saturday, December 21, 2019

Linda's Chocolate Cake

What can I say about Linda and this delicious chocolate cake she had become known for. She had served as choir director at our church until she had been diagnosed with lung cancer a few years ago. She had fought hard and always had a positive attitude. She had recently lost this battle and is going to be greatly missed. I hope I can have a positive spirit like she had whenever I am face with an impossible situation.

So back to this cake.

She had been know to be a good cook. She had baked many cakes in her lifetime for special occasions.  Everyone's favorite was this chocolate cake. Unfortunately I could not enjoy this cake to the fullest because I am allergic to chocolate.  I can tolerate low amounts of chocolate, but for me this is definitely a Death by Chocolate Cake (it would not actually kill me, but I was feeling miserable after I at this cake at the funeral) The cake was served at the funeral and the recipe printed out for everyone. So here it is:

Cake recipe:

3 cups of flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup packed cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups water
2 Tbs white vinegar
1 cup oil

Mix dry ingredients together. add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and beat with a mixer for two minutes. bake at 325 degrees for 35 minutes in 9x13 pan that is spray greased.

Fudge frosting:

1/3 cup sweetened condense milk
1 cup sugar
5 Tbs butter
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Bring the condensed milk, sugar, and butter to a boil in a heave sauce pan and boil for 1.5 minutes. Add the chocolate chips. Stir until chips are melted and frosting is smooth. Let cool slightly then frost the cake.

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

One Pumpkin Recipe Lead to Another

 Previously I did a Pumpkin post and in it I mention I was likely going to make Dreamy Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie, and I did! It is not the best picture. However it is still very tasty.
In the process of making the pie I had leftover pumpkin and sweetened condense milk. That lead to Pumpkin Ice Cream. I found a recipe on Pinterest and can be found here. It was really good on top of some Rice Krispy Treats my husband made earlier.

However I had some leftover evaporated milk that went into macaroni and cheese.

The cycle can never end.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Pumpkin!

 We could not let the season for pumpkin go by without doing a pumpkin post.

First we have Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. The recipe for these cookies are found right on Nestle's site. There are very good. I came across this recipe while looking at other recipes there. The link for there cookies can be found here.

I got the pumpkin puree and the chocolate chips from Trader Joe's.

With the leftover pumpkin I had from the making the cookies, I used to make Pumpkin Pancakes.

I found the recipe on Pinterest, which is what I usually do now when looking for a recipe.


It did taste like a pumpkin pie in a pancake. I ended up making only a half a batch because I only had half of the pumpkin the recipe called for. Which is o.k. because I will be the only one eating these pancakes. No one else with touch pumpkin unless it is in that traditional pumpkin pie.

Because the only other pumpkin anyone really wants is pumpkin pie, I tend to not do a lot of pumpkin post, but here are some like pumpkins recipes that I did in the past that are likely to made again:


I initially did a post about this back in Aug 2011. My son made this pie for school back in 2008. It is so good. He had asked to make it again this year.


I did this post in Oct 2014. I created it based off the Dreamy Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie, except it has a cream cheese layer on the bottom. This is really good too. I am likely going to be making this dessert again.


Wednesday, November 06, 2019

2 Minute Chocolate Chip Cookie

I have seen the 2 Minute, 2 Hour, and 2 Day cookie video put out by Tasty and found it interesting. When I make chocolate chip cookies I follow the Toll House recipe. The one found on the back of the Nestle Chocolate Chip Bag. You could not go wrong with the Nestle Tool House Cookie Recipe.

The cookie I was interested in was the 2 Minute recipe. After all, I don't want to make a whole batch of cookies when I only need one (or two).

I ended up cutting the recipe in half. If you made the whole recipe, you would need an 8 inch plate.

So how did it taste? It was good enough to satisfy a chocolate chip cookie craving. My cookie stuck to the plate. It might of been because it needed to cook a little long, but I did not want to overcook it either. I ended up eating mine with a spoon.

So you can find the two minute recipe here.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Baklava

When I was looking through my freezer, I had discover some left over phyllo dough left over from a previous recipe that my husband did. I was initially thinking looking for a cookie recipe, but then I thought of baklava. Looked a Pinterest for a Baklava recipe and found this one. I have never worked with phyllo dough and did not know what to expect. It is really thin and fragile. I had mine break a few times. In the long run I did not think that it really mattered. I went through more butter that the recipe called for. I ended up using more butter than the recipe called for. I also wish I had more nuts. I nearly did not have enough walnuts for this recipe.  Overall, it did not disappoint. It was everything that I expected. Very tasty. I do plan on making it again.

So to give credit where credit is due, I did get this off the Sugar and Soul web site.

Traditional Baklava



This easy and Classic Baklava recipe is loaded with layers of cinnamon, nuts, and butter and saturated in a simple honey syrup! Everyone will love this sweet and sticky dessert!


Prep Time30 mins
Cook Time50 mins
Cooling Time1 hr
Total Time1 hr 20 mins


Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Greek
Keyword: baklava

Servings: 36 people

Calories: 169kcal


Ingredients

  • 1 (16 ounce) package Phyllo Dough thawed
  • 1 lb finely chopped pecans or walnuts
  • 1 cup unsalted butter
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup honey

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  • Add the nuts and cinnamon to a medium bowl and mix together, set aside.
  • Unroll both tubes of phyllo dough on a clean surface, cover loosely with saran wrap and a damp dishcloth so the dough doesn't try out. 
  • Melt the butter in the microwave on 30-second intervals. Use a pastry brush to brush butter onto the bottom and sides of a 9x13-inch baking pan. Line the dough up with the length of the pan and feel free to cut off any excess at the end, usually, there's an extra inch or so that can be removed.
  • Add two sheets of phyllo dough to the buttered pan, and use the pastry brush to brush melted butter over the entire surface area of the dough, repeat until you have 8 layered sheets total.
  • Evenly sprinkle the top of the buttered 8th sheet with 2 to 3 tablespoons of the nut mixture.
  • Lay another two sheets on top and brush with butter and then add nuts again. Repeat the dough, butter, nuts layers until you have just 8 sheets left, adding those two at a time and only brushing with butter.
  • Using a really sharp knife, cut 4 rows down the length of the pan and then cut diagonally all the way down and across the pan for a traditional baklava prep. You may also cut into squares.
  • Bake for 50 minutes until baklava is golden and crisp on top.
  • With 30 minutes left to bake, begin making the syrup by adding the water and sugar to a small pot and bringing to a boil over medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved.
  • Add the vanilla and honey and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Remove the baklava from the oven and immediately pour the sauce over the entire pan, let set and cool.

Notes

Adapted from All My Recipes. Baklava does freeze well.Chopped Pistachios can also be used.

Nutrition

Calories: 169kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 14mg | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 55mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 170IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 11mg | Iron: 0.3mg


Friday, October 18, 2019

Right and Left Twix

My son bought a bag of mini Twix.  I have them in a bowl underneath my crocheted ghosts and pumpkins. this way we are not tempted to eat them all too soon.




Friday, October 11, 2019

Triple Decker Brownie

I had made this dessert with my grandchildren. I have been wanting to make this dessert for a while. Anyone who has bought a Food Network Magazine know that every issue come with a small insert that contains 50 recipes. (it has been a while since I bought a Food Network magazine, I am assuming that is still the case.) So what this recipe is a chocolate brownie on the bottom layer, a layer of chocolate sandwich cookies (Oreos), and a blonde brownie layer on top. Because this a lot of batter, it take a long time to bake, about 50 minutes. I found it rather overwhelmingly rich, thus very delicious.




So the recipe comes out of 50 Bar Cookie Recipes insert , and available online (at least at the time of this post) and can be found here. You will have to scroll through the different bar recipes to find the triple decker recipe. However, the recipe will tell you make the classic brownie recipe and the classic blonde layer. So you have to look at three separate recipes to make this one.

So if some point in the future if the link goes away, it is just a brownie layer, an Oreo layer, and a blondie layer. Bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick comes out clean.


Friday, September 27, 2019

Road Trip

I am just sharing a road trip photo from a few months ago. It takes finesse to fill up a car load of people and their luggage.


Saturday, September 21, 2019

Nice Cream

If you don't know what nice cream is, it is a frozen treat made with just bananas and maybe with other fruit. It is usually made by freezing banana chunks and other fruit at putting it in a food processor or emersion blender until smooth.


I have an attachment for my Kitchen Aid to make ice cream, so what I did blended three bananas, some peanut butter, and little bit of milk. I don't know why I added the milk, it is likely not necessary.  I refrigerated the mixture before making it into ice cream.

I get it, it was delicious! There is no added sugar to this. You can have a creamy sweet dessert and be good for you too. It is like having cake (or ice cream) and eating it too.

Friday, August 30, 2019

You Tube Inspred Dessert.

Well, this dessert really did not turn out as I expected. It did not turn out that I took some liberties with this pudding. I was inspired to make a chocolate pudding dish after watching a Tasty You Tube video. So the premise of the video is to take marshmallows and make it into a fancy dessert. So the final dessert is a chocolate mouse, with cream, raspberries (I think), a marshmallow cookie, which involves melting the marshmallow, spreading it out and them baking it until it is golden brown, and topped off with some gold leaf to really make it fancy.

What I did was take equal weight amount of marshmallow (a bag of marshmallows) and half-and-half and melted over low heal and added a large semi-sweet chocolate bar. I took the remaining half-and-half and mixed in a small box of instant chocolate pudding (why not, I had it on hand). First mistake. I did not have enough half and half to completely dissolve the pudding. I should of added enough milk to make it the required 2 cups needed to make the pudding. To put it all together I mixed in the marshmallow and pudding mixture and folded in a small tub of Cool Whip.

Because the instant pudding did not dissolve completely, I had chunks if instant pudding mix. It also really turned out sweet. I should of used unsweetened chocolate. It needed something to cut back on the overwhelming sweetness, like whipped cream or fruit.

This dessert reminded me that I am not really a fan of marshmallows. I could still taste them in this dessert. My husband liked it, my son thought it was just o.k. Overall it was interesting to try, but I would not want to make this again.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Tex Mex Chili


Every Saturday I usually will make dinner. I usually don't know what I am making until the day of, but I had scoped out a chili recipe last week. I had come across the recipe among my many cook books. My coffee table is littered (yes it is definitely cluttered) with cook books and food magazines, especially the Food Network magazines. I will usually go through these books and magazines to  find something to cook. So I found this recipe through a fund raising cook book. This particular book was put out by the Lied Center for Performing Arts in Lincoln, NE. I am not sure how I came across this cook book. I have inherited several cook books over the years. So as far as this chill recipe, I am not going to say that this is the best chili recipe ever, but it is tasty. I was intrigued because it has a packet on Ranch dressing in it. I am not sure if it added anything to in.

 It has:

2 pounds of ground beef
a medium onion
15 ounce chili beans, undrained
16 ounce can of whole kernel corn, drained (the only canned item that is drained)
3 16 ounce cans of stewed tomatoes, undrained
4 ounce can of green chilies, undrained
1 package of Ranch dressing mix
Package taco seasoning mix
46 ounce can tomato juice

So you just brown the ground beef and onion and combine all the other ingredients and cook slowly over 8 hours. Top it with your favorite toppings. I added sour cream and cheese to mine.

The only really downside is that this recipe make a lot and there are only three of us living at home. So I now have tons of left overs in my freezer. Next time I will make this for a pot luck or when I know I will have more people around to eat it.

I also made flat bread to go with the chili. In the past we have made cinnamon rolls to go with the chili. I guess it is a common tradition in Nebraska to have cinnamon rolls with the chili. I am not originally from Nebraska, so I really did not understand the concept. I guess it was common in the that chili and cinnamon rolls were served in schools. If I am wrong just say so in the comments.

Sunday, August 11, 2019

Homemade Spagetti Dinner




 There is nothing more comforting than spaghetti.  So every Saturday I usually make a meal for my husband and. Both usually work on Saturdays and do appreciate when I make a home cooked meal for them. I was inspired to make spaghetti when I saw a box of toasted ravioli in the freezer.

Along with the toasted ravioli, I made home made pasta, homemade bread, and added fresh spinach, tomato, and garlic to an existing can of sauce.
I got a bread pasta maker and a bread machine one year for Christmas. I don't remember what year it was, but it was well over 10 years now.  The recipe for making the pasta is 1 1/2 cups of flour, 2 eggs, and some salt. Sometimes I might add about 1 T of olive oil. If you have seen some of the cooking shows out there, you might know that make well with the flour (right on the counter top) and you put the eggs in that well. You stir the in the well and slowing adding in the flour. Eventually you start kneading the dough. You knead the ball until it is smooth.  If the dough was a little dry like mine was, you gradually add a little water until it forms a ball. Pasta dough is not like bread dough, It is much firmer and harder to knead. Let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes. it will be much easier to make it in the pasta machine


There is a bread recipe right on my machine, so I followed that recipe to make the bread.

What almost always happens when I make a meal is that I have plenty left over. I will take those left overs and divide them up into containers and freeze for later meals. Usually lunches for work.

So I have a question for you all to consider. Does leftovers = meal prep?

Let me know in the comments.


Friday, August 02, 2019

Box Pudding Ice Cream

In case you did not know, I have an ice cream attachment for my kitchen aid. I had a couple boxes of instant pudding and was wondering if there was an ice cream recipe using instant pudding. So I went to Pinterest to look for a recipe.

Of course there was a recipe.

All this recipe has is a box of pudding (small box) and a quart of half and half. Easy.

So first of all, you have to like the flavor of your pudding. It might sound ridiculous, but to enjoy this ice cream, you have to enjoy the flavor of your pudding.

It is also best to eat this right after it is just churned, or soft serve. It got too hard for me after it was completely frozen. Of course, I always found ice cream right from the ice cream machine the best.

Friday, July 26, 2019

Wisconsin Trip for Black and White Weekend

I am originally from Wisconsin. My husband , my youngest son, and myself traveled to Wisconsin the first week in July.
This first photo is a field right next to my family home where I grew up.

The remaining photos are from a trip to House on the Rock.






Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Caprese Salad Inspired Chicken

I was looking through my photos to find food photos to blog about.

I found one of my husbands creation. Chicken with an Italian flair. I believe he was trying to incorporate Caprese Salad in with chicken.  A Caprese Salad is usually a simple Italian dish with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, olive oil, and seasonings.

I do love Caprese Salad, I have had this salad at restaurants and made a home. So I was excited that my husband had made chicken incorporating this salad.

So the problem...

I don't have a recipe. I took pictures of this chicken, but forgot to ask my husband for a recipe.

Instant lose.



Wednesday, June 05, 2019

Cinnamon Cookies

Today I made Cinnamon Cookies out of a cookie book I got while I was in Germany. Where I work they are celebrating diversity. There is a pot luck that encouraged to bring an international dish or a dish that is traditional to you. I thought about making chocolate chip cookies because it was a cookie that make throughout my entire life. But I decided to make a cookie I never made before. So I pulled put the German cookie book and found a recipe that was easy enough to make and that I had all the ingredients. The cinnamon sugar cookie did not had a lot of sugar and a ton of butter. So in the end it tasted like a baked pie crust with cinnamon and sugar. So it was pretty good. I like baked pie crust with cinnamon and sugar. I may make this again.


 So you can see below, I had to weigh all my ingredients.