Yummy Almond Coconut bars

I altered a recipe the other day and made these for our park day. We all thought they were pretty tasty so here is the recipe. I love how the coconut got slightly toasted and crispy. Very sweet and similar to seven layer bars.

ALMOND COCONUT BARS

Crust
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c brown sugar
3/4 c cold butter ( I used 2 T less)

Combine in food processor until it turns into course crumbs. Press firmly into a 9x13 pan then bake in a preheated 350* oven for about 15 minutes.

Layer two
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
1 tsp almond flavoring
1 c slivered, slice or chopped almonds
1 c chocolate chips ( I added some white choc chips as well)

Combine well and pour over warm crust. Generously sprinkle coconut over the mixture. I only did half the pan because not everyone around here likes coconut (crazy, I know.) I also didn't measure but do as much as you like. Bake about 25 minutes longer. Watch near the end. My edges were a little darker than I like. Cool and cut into small bars.

Pumpkin Goodies

I've been meaning to post this recipes for a while but it's just been to crazy with Christmas and all. Anyway, you gotta try these two recipes. They are really tasty.

Pumpkin Donut Muffins- SOOOO delicious! I made these a few times. It's from that little Martha Stewart magazin, Everyday Foods. I like them as mini muffins, thinking it would be better than big ones but I might eat just as much because they are bite-sized. Here's a LINK but here the recipe is as well.

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 1/4 cups pure pumpkin puree (from a 15-ounce can)
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs

SUGAR COATING
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 12 standard muffin cups. Make batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and allspice. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down bowl as needed. With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions pumpkin mixture, and beat to combine.
Spoon 1/3 cup batter into each muffin cup and bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine granulated sugar and cinnamon. Let muffins cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Working with one at a time, remove muffins from pan, brush all over with butter, then toss to coat in sugar mixture. Let muffins cool completely on a wire rack. (Store in an airtight container, up to 1 day.)

This is what happens when Scott has the one can opener we've got on a camping trip.
Pumpkin Pancakes. Yummy. These are homemade but my awesome friend, Erika bought me a box of pumpkin pancake mix from Trader Joes and they were fabulous! This is what made the pancakes even awesome-er. ("My eyes! He's too awesome!")

Apple Cider Syrup-

3/4 cup apple cider
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
2 tablespoons butter or 2 tablespoons margarine
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

In a saucepan, combine the syrup ingredients.
Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes or until slightly thickened.
Let stand for 30 minutes before serving.

So come next fall, whip these up. So yummy.

Fran's Picnic Cake

Remember how mom would make batches of this (like thirty!!) at Christmas time growing up?? I didn't realize this was such a Christmas recipe for me until I made it last night for a get together. I love it. It seems old fashioned are reminded me of being a kid at Christmas.

Everyone is a little hesitant to try it at first. Let's face it. It is a little ugly. And if you tell people there are dates in it? Well, they usually, politely decline. I never tell people there are dates in it until they eat it. So funny! Here it is. Eat it up. Just tell people it is a delicious moist picnic cake with the best topping ever!

Fran's Picnic Cake

Combine:
1 cup cut up dates
1 1/2 cup boiling water
1 tsp baking soda
Let cool to room temp.

Beat together:
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Add cooled date/water mixture to shortening mixture.

Sift together:
1 1/2 cups plus 2 Tbl Flour (weird, I know)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
Stir into wet mixture. Spread into a greased 9x13 pan. Cover with topping. Bake about 40 mins. in preheated 350* oven.

Topping:
Stir together 1 cup each of brown sugar, chocolate chips, and pecans or walnuts. sprinkle over the batter before baking.

Pumpkin Seeds

We had some freaking huge pumpkins to carve this year, plus I made a dinner-in-a-pumpkin so we had a TON of seeds to roast. I did half salty and half sweet. The sweet are SO yummy. I got the recipe from a friend of mine. Here's a LINK to the recipe but I'll put it here too.

Sugar and Spice Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds, rinsed and dried
6 tablespoons white sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Spread pumpkin seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet. Toast for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until dry and toasted. Larger seeds may take longer.
In a large bowl, stir together 2 tablespoons of white sugar, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pumpkin seeds and sprinkle the remaining sugar over them. Stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar melts, about 45 seconds. Pour seeds into the bowl with the spiced sugar and stir until coated. Allow to cool before serving. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Savory Pumpkin Seeds

Happy Halloween!

Sushi and Roux Frosting

Nancy and I went to a Sushi-Making Class in DC a while ago. I made a bunch of sushi the Sunday afterwards. Fun! I need a lot more practice but man, I made like $40 worth of sushi! No fish or anything fancy. Maybe next time. But here's the recipe for the rice.

SushiRice

2 c. Sushi Rice

2 1/2 c. water

1/3 c. Rice Vinegar

2 Tbsp Sugar

2 tsp Salt

In a sauce pot, bring the vinegar, sugar and salt to a simmer. Whisk until the sugar is dissolved. (This smells a bit icky. fyi) Cool this liquid. In a strainer, rinse the rice in cold water until the water runs mostly clear. This will take a few minutes. Place the water, rice in either a pot with a lid or in a rice cooker. Let sit for 15 minutes and then bring to a simmer. Simmer on low heat for 20-25 minutes, until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender. Or prepare in a rice cooker. Once the rice is finished cooking, turn the rice into a glass or wooden bowl. Using a wooden spoon, gently fold in the vinegar seasoning. You want to spread the rice out evenly to allow to cool without breaking the grains. If not using immediately cover with damp paper towels.

Here's are sweet Sammy on his 5th birthday. He wanted a lemon cake so, with Stephanie's suggestion, I made the Tina's awesome Lemon Bundthead cake in to 2 circular pans, did the glaze on the two cakes. I used this great frosting to cover it. I just made it a second time just yesterday. This frosting I could stick my face in and lick the bowl clean. It's SO good. It's from Pioneer Woman. Here's a link but I'll put in on here as well. She calls it "The Best Frosting I've Ever Had" but I'll call it a Roux Frosting because you cook some flour and milk for it like a gravy or macaroni and cheese.

Roux Frosting

5 Tbsp Flour

1 c. Milk

1 tsp Vanilla

1 c. butter (2 sticks)

1 c. granulated sugar (not powdered sugar)

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be very thick, thicker than cake mix, more like a brownie mix is. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. (If I’m in a hurry, I place the saucepan over ice in the sink for about 10 minutes or so until the mixture cools.) It must be completely cool before you use it in the next step. Stir in vanilla.

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. You don’t want any sugar graininess left. Then add the completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat the living daylights out of it. If it looks separated, you haven’t beaten it enough! Beat it until it all combines and resembles whipped cream.

*Some personal notes: I'm still not good at coloring any frosting. I think I'm going to try powered coloring. Also, this frosting gets firm in the refrigerator so you'll want it at room temperature when using or serving. I tried to soften some leftovers in the microwave and heated it up too much. It totally messed up the texture but still tasted good so don't heat it up.

Sister's Dinner August

Welcome to Sister's Dinner in August! We had almost all of us here! Fun Stuff. Here are the photos that I have. I must have not had my mind on picture-taking because I don't have very many and not of everyone there. Sorry! Here's a cute one. Funny faces. Check out Jane. She totally makes me laugh! Why so sad, Jane?Some of our delicious food: Nancy and Robert made West Virginia Corn Bread. (Why "West Virginia"? Hmmm, whatever. Still good.) I love corn bread. You just can't beat yummy cornbread.

West Virginia Corn Bread

pg. 67

1 c. flour

1/2 c. yellow cornmeal

1/4 c. sugar

1 stick butter, divided

1 c. buttermilk

2 eggs

1 T. baking powder

In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, cornmeal and baking powder. Add eggs and buttermilk. In a 8" skillet (ovenproof), melt butter. Pour 2/3 of the butter into the batter. Stir well and pour back into pan with remaining butter. Don't stir after it is in the pan. Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 30 minutes.

Nick and Emily made Chicken Artichoke Casserole. I love me some artichokes! Thanks, Nick.

Chicken Artichoke Casserole

pg. 120

3 lbs. chicken

2 small jars marinated artichoke hearts, drained

1/2 c. breat crumbs

2 T. butter

1/8 tsp thyme

Sauce:

1/4 c. butter

1/4 c. flour

3 c. grated mild cheddar cheese
2 c. chicken stock

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Simmer chicken until done. Cool and bone. Cut into bite-sized pieces and arrange in a large (3 quart) baking dish. Cover with artichokes.

Sauce: Combine butter and flour in a pan and heat. Greadually add chicken stock and cook slowly until thickened, stirring constantly. Add cheese and nutmeg. Pour over chicken. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and thyme. Dot with butter. Bake in a preheated 350 over for 30 minutes.

This dessert, I have to say, was my thing favorite of the night. Man, SO GOOD and I think it's so interesting that you pour boiling water OVER the whole batter layer and it creates such a delicious crispy, moist topper. YUMMY! Stephanie made it for us. I'm making this again, fo' show!

Fruit Cobbler

pg. 147

3 c. fruit (can be fresh berries, peaches, a combination of fruits or canned fruit)

Batter:

3/8 c. sugar (huh? 3/8? Steph, is this right?)

Pinch of salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 c. butter

1/2 c. flour

1/4 c. milk

Topping:

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 T. cornstarch

pinch of salt

1/2 c. boiling water.

Place the fruit in a 8X8 pan. Any fruit you choose, seasonal or canned, will do well in this recipe. Throroughly mix all of the batter ingreadients and pour (or spread) over the fruit. The batter will be quite stiff. Combine dry topping ingredients and spread evenly on top of the fruit/batter. Do not mix it in. Carefully pour the boiling water over it all. Bake in a preheated 375 over for 1 hour. If you pick your own huckleberries (yeah, cuz I do this all the time), you will want to use more sugar. Instead of 3/8 cup, try 1/2 or 2/3 cup, depending on your sweet tooth.

Not pictured: The Mandarin Salad. I think we've all made this. A salad that's always great. I think those candied almonds totally make the salad.

Mandarin Salad

pg. 29

1/4 c. sliced almonds

1 T. plus 1 tsp white sugar

Cook above together in frying pan until sugar is melted and almonds are coated and very lightly browned. Watch carefully because almonds tent to get too brown. Cool on wax paper and break apart. Can store at room temperature (but be careful of hungry kitchen thieves [that's what the recipe said, not me]).

1/4 head lettuce, torn

1/4 head romain, torn

2 stalks celery, sliced

2 green onions, chopped, tops and all

1 can (7 oz.) mandarin oranges, drained

Almonds as prepared above

Sweet and sour dressing (recipe below)

Place all salad ingredients in you serving bowl. Add dressing just before serving and top with the previously prepared almonds.

Sweet and Sour Dressing:

1/4 c. vegetable oil

2 T. white sugar

2 T. cider vinegar

1 T. parsley, finely minced

1/2 tsp salt

Dash pepper

Dash cayenne pepper

Shake all ingredients together in a bottle. Refrigerate before serving.

Here's Mom and Zac (or "Zachy" like 5 years ago...or if you are Max.) Love the hair cut, Zac!

Here's Emily dipping into what Mom made...whatever it was called because it can't be found in the bookcook...which we were supposed to get the recipes from. TOTALLY NOT from the Sister's Cookbook! Really, Mom. You can't change/alter 80% of a recipe and claim it's the same. We know you missed cream of chicken soup in Denmark, but C'mon! :) Still tasty, though. But good luck replicating it. (Jane! Yer still sad! Why? Why do you hate us? :))

Sweet cousins.

Sweet couple.

Well, I had a great time with great food and best of all, with all you guys here! You're always invited...except one of you...and you know who you are...

I love doing these dinners. They make me laugh at the food and it's a great excuse to get together with whatever family is closest. Love you guys!

Lemon Eggs/Lemon Things/Gateau Au Citron

Do we really not have this recipe on here? I wanted to make it tonight and I couldn't believe that it wasn't here. So I had to put it on.

For those of you who are not Wilbergs (which probably isn't many) this recipe is one Tina would make when she was still at home (Steph, did you make this too?). But she didn't make the recipe in a regular cake pan but in an egg shaped tin. The story that I know is that Tina couldn't find the right cake bunt-type pan nor could she find a decent muffin tin but there WAS an Easter egg shaped one. And that's why these are egg-shaped at our houses. (Is that right?)

Last year, Stephanie found one of these tins at a thrift store, bought it for me and mailed it out to me because she knew I didn't have one. Ahhhh, so sweet.They really do taste better as individual cakes. The outside texture is just better than a cut regular circle cake, especially with the lemon glaze. So here it is. Yummy. Thanks, Tina, for making us tasty treats when we were young and thanks, Mom, for having all that regular ol' boring stuff hidden away so it couldn't be found and egg shaped lemon deliciousness could be born.

French Lemon Cake or Gateau Au Citron

2 lemons
1 cup sugar
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
4 large eggs
1 ¾ cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
Juice of ½ lemon

Adjust oven rack to the center position. Butter and flour a 6-cup ring mold (7-1/2 x 3 - inch Bundt) or loaf pan (8-1/2 x 4-1/2 x 2-1/2 - inch), or two 3-3/4 cup loaf pans (7-3/8 x 3-5/8 x 2-1/4 - inch). Preheat oven to 325°F.

Remove peel (yellow part only) from lemons using a vegetable peeler; cut peel into 2 - inch pieces. With the metal blade in place, combing the lemon peel and sugar in bowl of food processor. Process until peel is finely chopped, about 60 seconds. Add butter and process until smooth, about 30 seconds. Add eggs and process until smooth, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with spatula as needed. Stir flour and baking powder together; add to work bowl. Pulse on and off only until flour just disappears. Do not over process.

Transfer batter to prepared pan or pans. Bake in preheated oven until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 50 to 55 minutes for ring mold and small loaves. Allow 10 minutes longer for the large loaf. Let cool slightly in pan. (If using the egg tin, [or I guess muffin tin...but you really WON'T do that, will you? You really must have these in egg form.] bake at 325 for 20 minutes.)

Mix together confectioners' sugar and lemon juice until blended. Remove cake from pan and place on wire rack over waxed paper. Spoon some of the glaze over the cake. Repeat as cake cools until all the glaze is used. When cool wrap in plastic wrap or foil and refrigerate.

Sister Dinner-Independence Day Style

In July we did our Sister's Cookbook Dinner on the 4th of July at Nancy and Robert's house. These strawberries are NOT from that cookbook, but from some craft blog that I frequent. Aren't they SO cute? I'm totally going to do them every year on Independence Day or for anything that requires a patriotic flare. Strawberries dipped in white chocolate then dipped in blue sugar. Yum!

We had a bunch of stuff from the Sister's Cookbook and also not from the cookbook. Nancy made the dip in the wooden bowl, Creamy Salsa Dip (pg. 5) It was very tasty and I usually have all these ingredients in my pantry. Yum!

1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. sour cream

1 1/2 c. chunky salsa

Tortilla chips

In a medium bowl, beat softened cream cheese until smooth. Stir in sour cream and salsa. Cover and refrigerate several hours. Serve with tortilla chips.

See those funny yellow balls in the front on the right? Those are Baked Cheese Balls (pg. 10). I had to try this crazy recipe. Not bad. Not worth it, though. I was hoping for more of a cheese ball that you would buy in the potato chip isle at the grocery store (or as Emily would put it, "the grocery." :)), but they were more like a cheesy mini biscuit. I had to guess what was "1 sm. jar cheese with bacon". I could only find that cheese-in-a-aerosol-can cheese. This recipe was totally not worth the $3.50 for the canned cheese but fun just to try.

1/8 lb. butter (what?! Can't you just say 1/2 a stick of butter? Who says 1/8th of a lb of butter?!)

1 sm. jar cheese with bacon (good luck finding this.)

3/4 c. flour

Mix butter with cheese. Mix in the flour. Form into balls, about 1 tablespoon of dough for each. Place balls on a cookie sheet and refrigerate several hours. Baked in a preheated 350 over for about 10 minutes and serve hot. These can be made up and kept in the freezer until you need them.

Nick is much more of a chef then I thought he was! He made the Mediterranean Tart on page 114. It was very tasty!

3 T. butter

1 onion, chopped

1 c. mushrooms, sliced

2 tomatoes, chopped

4 oz. can black olives, halved

2 T. flour

1 c. chicken broth

2 whole chicken breasts, boned, parboiled, cubed

1 lb. sausage

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 c. fresh parsley

1/2 c. grated Parmesan

1 pkg. Pepperidge Farm puff pastry (freezer section)

Brown sausage. Brown onions, mushroom and chicken in butter. Add olives and tomatoes. Add flour and broth, basil, pepper. Put above ingredients in casserole, approximately 8x12". Top with parsley and Parmesan. (At this point you can put in refrigerator to bake later.) Before baking, cover completely with puff pastry; brush with beaten egg. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, or until pastry is puffed and golden.

Here's Nanc- showing off those beautiful strawberries. Can you see the one lone cheese ball on the strawberry Jell-O? Nice.

I've made this Jell-O delight many, many times. I love it! Emily made it back when we had a thousand feet of snow fall in the DC area and couldn't share it with all of us. But she's already typed it up. RECIPE. I always laugh that this is called Strawberry Pretzel SALAD (page 31) and that it's in the "Salad" section of the cook book even though there's not one single thing that's green or salad-like in it. When did anything with Jell-O in it get to be called "salad"? Anyway, I still LOVE this dessert. You should make it too!

We had a lot of fun at this dinner! Afterwards, I drove a bunch as close as possible to the DC mall to see the fireworks there then I drove home and had a pleasantly quiet evening watching the fireworks on tv. :) That bunch came home on the metro and Scott, Jake, and Sam stopped by our closest 7-11 for a midnight slurpy or, as we all now like to call it, a sloppy. :) Good times!

Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin Eater Banana Cake

With summer, comes the piles of overripe bananas sitting on the counter that everyone refuses to eat! Today I had ten!!! Ten... Thanks to Vaughn and his over zealous trip to Sam's Club.
Anyway, I didn't want banana bread so I looked for a cake recipe. I found a few that looked good then I decided I was too lazy so I found this one instead! It uses a cake mix. (That's the cheating part.) It is good but what makes it GREAT is that I paired it with a salted caramel frosting recipe. Yum.

By the way, there is no pumpkin in the cake. Sorry. That's just how the rhyme goes, just so you knows.

Banana Cake
Mix together:
one yellow cake mix
3-4 ripe bananas (I used 4 smallish ones)
3 beaten eggs
1 C sour cream
1 tsp baking soda

Spread in greased 9x13 pan. Bake about 30-40 minutes in 350* oven.

Salted Caramel Frosting
Heat in medium sauce pan:
4 T butter
4 T milk
1/2 C brown sugar
Boil for one minute.
Then add:
a heaping 1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp vanilla
Gradually whisk in 1 C powdered sugar.

Add milk if you think it's too thick. Immediately spread over cake. My cake was still slightly warm. I think it would be pretty with a sprinkle of kosher salt on it but my kids wouldn't go for it. The whole thing is quick and easy to make.

Margaret's Norwegian Summer Cream Cake

This was Gretta's Birthday cake!

This recipe came from our lovely cousin Margaret, and it is easy, unusual and really delicious. I made this one gluten free by using rice flour and it turned out great! I wasn't sure how much fruit to put in it so I just did a layer of strawberries. We all agreed it needed more fruit but was still wonderful. I am making another one next week for a friend's birthday lunch. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Norwegian Summer Cream Cake

Cream together:
5 oz. butter
1/3 C sugar

Then add:
3 egg yolks
2/3 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 C milk

Spread batter in 9x13 pan, sprayed with oil. Then spread the meringue on top of the batter.

Meringue-Beat 3 egg whites and 2/3 c sugar until stiff and shiny.

Bake cake at 325* for about 20-25 minutes. Once cooled, cut cake in half. On the bottom half top with whipping cream and fresh fruit/berries. Carefully pick up the other side and place on top, meringue side up, of course! We then just decorated it with a few strawberries.

Puff Pancakes & Our Sisters Dinner

I hate to move down Steph's yummy chocolate bar! but here are a few recipes from our end. We don't have the Puff Pancake Recipe here so I thought I would put it on (mostly because Nancy's been hounding me to do it). Scott's our master puff pancake maker and bakes it quiet often. We love it and Scott grew up enjoying it too.

Puff Pancake
1/2 cube butter
6 eggs
1 c. milk
1/4 c. orange juice
1/2 c. sugar
1 c. flour
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 425. Melt butter in a 9x13 pan in preheating oven while mixing batter (make sure it doesn't burn, though). Pan should be hot when batter is poured. Mix and beat together (do not overbeat) all ingredients. When butter is melted, pour mixture into dish and bake 20 minutes. It will puff high so don't put it on top shelf. Serve immediately. Makes 4-6 servings.

Here are our latest creations from our Sisters Dinner. If you don't know, (which I think all of you do but for those of you not in our family) we get together about once a month and each make a recipe for the Sisters, Oregon cookbook that Grandma gave us like 5 years ago. And I just realized that Nancy has my cook book so I can't write the recipes here just yet but here's what they were:

Nick made these super yummy Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas. page 116 Very tasty!

2 chicken breasts, baked, boned and cut into cubes
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can (4 oz) green chilies, chopped
1 pt. sour cream
3 green onions, chopped
12 flour tortillas
2 c. cheddar cheese, grated

Mix together chicken, soup, sour cream and onions. Put a large spoonful of chicken mixture and a small spoonful of cheese on 1 tortilla and place in a greased baking dish. Repeat, using all the tortillas. Spread remaining chicken mixture on top of rolled up tortillas. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 15 minutes or until hot and bubbly.


Nancy made these Cowboy Coffee cakes (page 69) not to sweet but sweet enough. I think it wasn't hard, either. Right, Nanc-?

2 1/2 c. flour, sifted
2 c. brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 c. shortening
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 c. sour milk
2 eggs, beaten

To make milk turn sour, squeeze lemon or add vinegar to the milk and set aside. Mix flour, sugar, salt and shortening until crumbly. Reserve 1/2 cup of this mixture for topping. To remaining crumbs, add baking powder, baking soda and all spices; mix well. Add milk and eggs and mix well. Pour into 2 greased and floured 8x1 1/2" round pans and top with reserved crumbs. Bake in a preheated 375 oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm. Makes 2 cakes.

I made this peanut Thai sauce. (page 53)The recipe was just for the sauce and it had a very strong flavor so I didn't put a ton of it in the pasta. I should've put it all in because I did in the leftovers and it was SOOOOO good. I'll make it again for our family but you really have to like this sort of flavor.

Put into blender and process 1 minute:
1/4 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. rice wine vinegar
6 T. cold water
1 T. sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp minced, peeled fresh ginger
1 tsp minced garlic clove

Add and process 1 minute:
6 T. smooth peanut butter

Combine and drizzle into blender while on low:
3 T. peanut oil
3 T. sesame oil
1/2 tsp chili oil

Use over bow tie pasta or spaghetti. You can add snow peas if you like. Can be served hot as a main dish, or cold, as a salad. You can also use with stir-fry. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for a week, and can be frozen.

These Sisters nights are SO fun! We have a blast. Next month I'm going to make the Cheese Puffs and the Pretzel Jell-O "salad" which is really a dessert but because it has Jell-O in it, it qualifies as a salad and is in the salad section of the cookbook. Can I put Snickers and candy canes in Jell-O and call it a salad? Anyway, we have a good time. Tina, Steph and Mom, you are always invited. :)

Two BEST Recipes

Here are two of my most loved recipes of late! I have made them both several times and they always work and seem especially delicious! Just a little better than the other recipes around.

So Enjoy! (I cant say this without thinking of Tina saying this....in a quick, bossy and shut up-y way! So funny!)

Pot Roast

Thinly slice about 4 cups of onions. (my notes say 6 onions but I had less which equaled about 3-4 cups. I know this seems like a ton but they nearly desolve into tasty goodness.)

Coat 4 lb. roast with kosher salt and peper and brown all sides in 2-3 T. hot oil in large pot.

Combine:
1 cup water
2 T. vinegar
2-3 cloves crushed garlic
1-2 T. flour
1 bay leaf


Place sliced onions over the browned meat then pour liquid over meat. Cover with tight lid and simmer about 3 hours or until meat is tender and pulling apart. Check it regularly to make sure there is enough liquid so it doesnt burn. Add more water if necessary. (I always have to add water).

This makes the best gravy and is so, so simple! One of my favs!!



Big Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
From Now You're Cooking by Elaine Corn
This is my friend Debbie's recipe and they really are such addicting cookies. It is a standard Chocolate Chip Cookie but the amounts are slightly different which seems to make all the difference. I have decided it is the large amount of salt that makes them so much more than just a tole house. They really are amazing.

2 sticks butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1 1/2 baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips [I think 2 to 2 1/2 c. were plenty]

DO THIS FIRST:
1. Take the butter out of the refrigerator to soften. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, with an oven rack in the middle.
2. Get out your portable mixer, or if you have one, a big tabletop mixer.

DO THIS SECOND:
1. Put the butter, both sugars, the eggs, and the vanilla in a big mixing bowl. Beat until very creamy and smooth, about 2 minutes.
2. Using your measuting cups and spoons to make level measurements, combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
3. Add the flour mixture in three helpings to the buttery mixture. Stop the mixer for each addition and mix on low speedonly until just blended each time.
4. Stir in the chocolate chips with a big spoon. (clean up now, and arrange a place to set the cookie sheets, and get out a cooling rack for the cookies).

DO THIS THIRD:
1. Scoop the dough with an ice cream scoop onto ungresed cookie sheets. Leave two inches between cookies. Don't use black bakeware! [I dont make them this big]
2. Bake for 10 minutes. Leave the cookies on the cookie sheet for 5 mintues after you remove them from the oven.
3. Lift the cookies from the cookie sheet with a spatula to a cooling rack. When totally cool, pack them in a favorite cookie jar.

Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread by Jackie Gerland
page 57 What's Cooking In Sisters cookbook

I'm not even going to post the real recipe. It was not a hit for me. It is a yeast bread and involves letting it rise twice. The dough was so sticky I couldn't roll it in sugar so kind of put little parts in the pan and sprinkled the cinnamon sugar on it. Results were not nearly sugary enough.

This is the tried and true recipe I've had a zillion times that is so much easier (compliments of the good folks over at Pillsbury)

2 cans refrigerated biscuits
1/2c sugar
1t cinnamon
1 c brown sugar
3/4 c butter or margarine, melted
1/2 c chopped walnuts and/or raisins if desired

Heat oven to 350. Lightly grease a bundt pan with cooking spray. In large plastic bag mix white sugar and cinnamon. Cut biscuits into quarters, place in bag and shake to coat. Arrange in pan adding raisins and walnuts among biscuit pieces. In small bown, mix brown sugar and butter, pour over all. Bake 28- 32 mintues until golden brown. Cool in pan 10 minutes, turn upside down onto serving plate. Pull apart to serve; serve warm.

Sour Cream Blueberry Pie

Earlier this week, Jane (Emily's Mom) came over to my house and watched the little babies so Sam, Max and I could hit Butler Farms for some of the last blueberry picking of this season. I LOVE blueberries...well, I should say I love blueberry baked goods. I'm not one that would eat a bowlful of fresh blueberries, although Sam, Max, Jake and Zoe are.
Sam and Max were willing to be my slave laborers in picking the blueberries....but not for very long. They where pretty much done after a little while.
When they decided they were ready to leave, I told them to sit in the shade and I would finish filling our bowls.

The result of my "hard" work. I don't think we were there for more than an hour and half.
I found a blueberry pie recipe but I was more interested in a Sour Cream Blueberry pie. And this has a shortbread crust. I guess I have a major sweet tooth. I prefer sweet pies, like pecan and chocolate, rather than straight fruit pies like apple or cherry....I should just pour the sugar down my throat but this is much better and there really are a lot of blueberries in it! I found the recipes on Recipe Zaar. Here they are:

Sour Cream Blueberry Pie
Easy Shortbread Tart Crust

Delicious! I could eat it all day! Now I think today we'll be making blueberry muffins....yum....

Fun with Fondant

I recently read about Marshmallow fondant and wanted to try it! So for Gretta's birthday she picked this crazy giant cupcake pan mom had and I thought I'd try the fondant. I made the fondant the night before. It was super easy to make and made me long for my clay wedging days [how I would love a wheel and kiln!!] anyway... Here is the cake!

I think it turned out nice but I literally threw it together! I never give myself enough time for this stuff so I was working on it right before her party started. It took me about an hour but I could have used about 20 more minutes to get the lines straight on the bottom.

I had A LOT of fondant left over so the girls and I made several colors and played with it like clay to make little do dads to top cupcakes for Sasha's last day of pre-school. Here are some of the colors...

...And the girls helped knead the color in. It is pretty sticky so lots of powdered sugar and buttered hands helps.

Here is the final product. Cute, huh? Gretta did great. It was a little tricky for Sasha but I think I had the most fun. I did several after the kids were in bed and I had some quiet. Jonah made a really great monster and skull and bones but that was after these cupcakes.

Here is Sasha with one flower she made, that survived the making!
I think I made this little lady bug. The eyes and antennae are sprinkles.
And the last of the fondant was used to make this for Gretta's baptism! I think it turned out great.
Definitely try this marshmallow fondant. I really enjoyed everything about it!!

Rustic Sugar Cookie Strawberry Tarts

The other day we needed a treat. I had some leftover strawberry glaze and lots of strawberries, so I came up with these simple, tasty tarts and then I made them again the next day, they were so good.

Rustic Sugar Cookie Strawberry Tarts

1. Make your favorite sugar cookie dough. Roll into simple balls and slightly flatten on the cookie sheet. Bake according to recipe.

2. Puree a handful of strawberries with powdered sugar to make a thick glaze. Let it sit for a bit. You don't want it too liquid-y. Then combine the glaze with cream cheese to make a strawberry frosting. Add sugar to taste but I like it a little tart since the cookie is sweet.

3. Spread the strawberry frosting on the bottom, flat side of the cooled cookie. That is the little secret. They are perfect to hold this way.

4. Top with fresh sliced strawberries. No extra sugar needed!

I could eat the whole tray! Really.

new and improved raspberry cream pie

this is my perfected version of sister wooley's pie, for those of you who know her. you could also make these into bars in a 9 x 13 pan if you double everything. i haven't actually tried that, but i'm sure it would work, since the crust is just a lemon bar crust and the berries and cream part aren't baked...

crust:
1/2 c butter (cut into 8 bits)
1 c flour
1/4 c sugar
1/4 t salt

pulse it all together in a food processor (or by hand with a pastry blender thing), until all crumbly. press into pie pan. bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes, until just a little brown on the edges. let cool.

cream cheese layer:
3 oz cream cheese
1/2 c pwd. sugar
1 t vanilla
3/4 c heavy cream

whip cream until stiff. in a separate container, blend cream cheese, pwd sugar, and vanilla. fold cream cheese mixture into whipped cream. put into the baked and cooled pie crust.

berry layer:
1 c sugar
3 T cornstarch
1 c water
2 1/2 c raspberries (fresh or frozen)

mix sugar, cornstarch, water, and 1 c raspberries in saucepan. bring to a boil until thick and clear. pour over the rest of the raspberries and stir gently. spoon onto the whipped cream layer.

delicious! sorry-no picture.

Totally stole this from a site bigredkitchen.com. So easy! So good! and gluten free, right? They also suggested you could use chocolate cake mix.

One Cake mix- I used yellow
1 -15 ounce can pumpkin filling

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl mix cake mix with pumpkin filling using a hand mixer or a stand mixer. Beat on medium for 2 minutes. Pour batter into a greased 7 x 11 inch baking dish. Bake for 28 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting. Serves 8.

Apple Cider Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2 T. apple cider
1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice

In a small bowl blend all ingredients until smooth. Pour over Pumpkin Cake letting it drizzle down the sides of the cake. Let set before covering.