Friday, January 22, 2010

Let's talk

Ok, so here's the deal!
I have reached 10,000 HITS!
I can't believe it!
ESPECIALLY since I've only started this in September!
It's been CRAZY.
I've been baking away, sharing the wealth...sometimes!
But, mostly, i've been baking away.
The last 2 recipes I have made, and have yet to post,
well, let's be honest,
they kicked my butt!
They didn't turn out!
They were recipes that I got out of a magazine.
You know, the ones that look
OH.SO.GOOD.
and then you rip them out of the magazine
with the hopes that they will taste as good as they look.
Well...they didn't!
It kinda put me in a slump.
With that said...I think i'm taking a break.
Just a week.
I'm in the process of updating my blog...
getting it designed to be all "cutsie!"
more appealing to readers.
(just in case the treats weren't working!)
AND
I'm going to have a give away!
Something that I bought when I started this blog and that I ABSOLUTELY love!
It's just a little something from me to you...my readers.
The ones that leave me nice comments about my dessert, and pictures,
and couch in the background!
SO,
Please don't give up on me!
PLEASE!
It'll be worth it...
I may just be adding a new "COURSE"
to this little dessert blog too!
So, check back
02-01-10
Thanks for being understanding!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Cream Cheese Brownies

My Grandma Travis makes THE BEST desserts.
I don't know where she gets her recipes.
She's magic...just like most Grandma's!
I know that I don't ask questions,
i'm usually too busy savoring the delicious-ness of her cooking!
This recipe is a good one, and very high in her rotation!
Serving size is usually EXTRA LARGE!
Cream Cheese Brownies
1 box german chocolate cake mix
(cake mix made as directed on box)
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 bag chocolate chips...(use the Ghiradelli brand)
Preheat oven to 325*

Make cake mix as directed on package...you know,
eggs, oil and water.
Pour into greased jelly roll pan.
Next, combine cream cheese, egg and sugar.
Mix until smooth.
Place by small spoonfuls throughout cake mix.

Run a knife through the cake mix to make a swirl pattern.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes.

When they come out, sprinkle 1/2 bag of chocolate chips on top of warm cake.

FROSTING
1 tbsp butter
3 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
powdered sugar.
In a bowl, combine the milk and butter, and melt in the microwave.
Combine with vanilla and add powdered sugar.
Mix until it can drip off the spoon as a thick mixture.
(Don't you love Grandma's and their ability to just MAKE frosting...without a recipe?)

Drizzle white frosting over cake.
(My cake was a little too warm still, and it melted my frosting...
oh well!)

Monday, January 18, 2010

Orange Cookies

These have to be some of the most AMAZING cookies!
My sister-in-law, Roxanne's mother, makes these cookies
and will bring them to our family parties.
I think the first time I tried them I ate about 7!
They are so good...and i've decided they have 5 of the food groups in them
so they are TOTALLY healthy to eat!
One batch made 64 cookies (small ones) for me.
I would HIGHLY suggest you double them,
unless you think you will be ok when they are all gone and you want another one!
ORANGE COOKIES
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup shortening
1 egg
1 cup mashed, cooked carrots
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup coconut

First off, start cooking those carrots.
Peel and slice them and put them in a pan and cover with water.

Boil for about 10-15 minutes, or until they are soft.
When they are done, mash them completely.
Let them cool down a bit,
so they don't cook the egg when you add them to the cookie mix!
Preheat oven to 350*
Combine sugar, shortening and egg.
Mix until soft and fluffy.

Add the cooled carrots and vanilla.
Once combined, add all the dry ingredients.
Using your small scoop :), place onto parchment paper covered jelly roll pan
or a cookie sheet...whichever you have!

Bake for 12-15 minutes.
Mine took 12.

FROSTING:
Grate the peel for some orange zest.
Juice the orange into a bowl.
Add the powdered sugar until it is the right consistency.
You want it to be a thick consistency, not runny.
I think mine took about 3 cups of powdered sugar.
You want that orange goodness to stay on TOP of the cookies!
Add the orange zest!

Place cookies on a cooling rack to cool.
Before they have cooled completely, frost them.
****Use the left over parchment paper to put under the cooling rack...
that way you don't have frosting drippings all over your counter!

I DARE you to try and not snag a cookie...or two...or three.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Orange Bubble Loaf Bread

What do you do when you have 2 cases of oranges picked fresh from the tree in your Arizona friends' backyard?

You can either juice them, which I HIGHLY suggest,
but before you do that...PLEASE make this recipe!
(isn't her handwriting so neat...I loved the way she wrote!)
This recipe has SO many memories for me!
It is from my Grandma Steiner.
She passed away in 2003, and I miss her TREMENDOUSLY!
When I was younger, I would often spend the night at her house
with my other 2 cousins, Natalie and Makell, who were a year younger than me.
We would stay up all night laughing and giggling and sleeping on the red carpet floor
in the front room with my grandma's sliding glass door open
and the satin curtins blowing in the breeze.
The next day we would all man our posts and make this and wait
IM-PATIENTLY
until they had raised enough to bake.
I LOVED IT!
Orange Bubble Loaf Bread
1 bag 36 ct bread rolls (I have changed this part)
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp grated orange peel
1/4 c melted butter.
Grease a bread loaf pan, or any other pan with high sides.

First of all, you need to decide how much bubble loaf bread you are going to make.
The whole package of rolls will make a TON...which I could eat myself.
I used probably 24-28 rolls of dough for 3 pans of bubble loaf bread.
It was probably 8 rolls for each pan.
Allow for the dough to thaw.
It will be perfect if you put the frozen dough in the fridge at night for you to use in the morning.
In a small dish, melt butter.
In another small dish, combine the sugar and orange peel.
My "stations", if you will.

Cut each ball of dough in half, and then cut that half into thirds.
Roll them into a ball.

Roll that ball of dough in the butter.

Roll that ball that is coated in butter in the sugar/orange mixture.

Place in the greased pan.

Repeat until you have two levels of rolls.
Depending on how many you make,
you may need more butter and orange/sugar mixture.
Allow them to raise until 1 inch from the top.
Bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes,
then....lower the temperatue to 300*
and OPEN YOUR OVEN DOOR....
for about a minute to lower the temperature.
Cook for an additional 10 minutes.
When done, turn upside down onto serving plate to cool.
Wait for at least a minute before you devour them,
or else you
WILL BURN YOUR TOUNGE!
I really hope you enjoy these...
They are one of my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

O'Henry Bars

This is another good one that I have made recently.
Very, very good...although, I can't tell you the last time I actually
had an O'Henry Bar...so I don't know if it is like that or not.
I know that this recipe is DELICIOUS, and that's all that matters!
O'Henry Bars
1 cup corn syrup
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
4 cups rice crispies
1/2 bag butterscotch chips
1/2 bag chocolate chips
9x13 pan covered with foil, lightly sprayed with pam
In a large sauce pan, combine sugar and corn syrup and combine until sugar is dissolved.
Bring mixture to a boil.
Once boiling, remove from heat and add peanut butter.
Once peanut butter is combined, add cereal.
Spread mixture in prepared 9x13 pan.
(I took some saran wrap and covered my hand and pressed it into the pan.)

In a small bowl, combine the butterscotch and chocolate chips
and melt on low power in the microwave until melted.
Pour over cereal mixture.
Wait until set to cut.

ALSO... a little birdie told me to make sure you don't put it in the fridge.
Something about it going hard because of the cooked syrup mixture...
I'm not sure...because it didn't happen to me, but a friend of mine!
But, she did say it was still delicious!

Monday, January 11, 2010

Homemade Samoas

I saw on a web site that I was looking at that you can order girl scout cookies now.
Then I remembered this recipe...and thought...
hey, I'm not waiting for the cookies!
These are really good and they actually DO taste like the Samoas cookies!
Give it a try if you can't wait either...
Besides, am I the only one that doesn't understand why we have to order them now
and not get them for 5 more months?
Homemade Samoas
3 cups shredded coconut
14 oz bag caramels
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. milk
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
Preheat oven to 350*
The topping.
The cookie crust.
Combine sugar and butter and beat until fluffy.
Beat in the egg and vanilla.
Gradually add the flour and salt.
Pour onto greased 9x13 pan.
Press dough into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes,
until light brown.
Cool completely.
Lower oven temperature to 300*.

Spread coconut onto a jelly roll pan, that is lined with parchment paper.
(You have FINALLY bought some, right?)
Bake for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 or so,
until coconut is a golden brown.
It WILL be delicious, so please, make sure you don't eat it all.

In a large bowl, combine the milk and salt and the
unwraped (Kim) caramels.
Cook on half power for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally,
until caramels are melted and combined with milk/salt.
Once melted, add the toasted coconut.
Spread coconut/caramel goodness over the crust.
You will probably have to make little dollops all over your crust
and then spread it....possibly even using your hands.
The caramel gets stiff after it cools...

Once this has cooled, cut your pieces, whatever size you would like.
Take those pieces and spread them out on a seperate pan...
perhaps a jelly roll pan....lined with parchment paper.
Melt some chocolate chips and pipe the melted chocolate into a baggie.
Snip the edge of the baggie and drizzle the melted chocolate across the cookies.

I'm not exactally sure, but, you may want to just make this instead of ordering your cookies.
I think you may get double the cookies making them homemade for the price of one box..
that has 18 cookies in it...
HMMM..I wonder if the internet has a recipe for thin mints?
I'll let you know!

Friday, January 8, 2010

Chocolate Eclair Cake

This recipe has always been a good one around our house.
My sister makes it all the time and it is DELISH!
It really does taste like a chocolate eclair.

Chocolate Eclair Cake

2 boxes graham crackers
(the recipe calls for 1 but the brand I got...I needed more.
I think that one box of the walmart ones would be enough
because those ones seem to be bigger.)
3 1/2 cup milk
2 small pkg instant vanilla pudding
1 small tub cool whip, softened
In a lightly greased 9 x 13 pan, line with graham crackers.
Mix pudding with milk. Beat at medium speed for 3 minutes the blend in cool whip.
Pour half over crackers, then add another layer of crackers.

Then add the rest of the pudding mix and top with crackers.
****my tip for the top layer...
Instead of leaving the crackers in a *4* square, break them down to a *2* square.
It will be the perfect size for cutting, and you can kinda see where they are broken
down under the frosting, kinda like a cutting guide.
My final picture isn't that pretty,
because I didn't break down my top layer.
Oh well, it all goes to the same place...right?
OK, where was I?
Oh yes.
Crackers, pudding, crackers, pudding, broken crackers...done.
Place in the fridge for AT LEAST 2 - 3 hours before serving.
The crackers will soften and make it easy(er) to cut through.

Before serving, you need to make the frosting.
I doesn't need to cool or anything, but you can top it,
then put the whole cake back in the fridge until you are ready to eat it!
Frosting:
6 tbsp cocoa
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp. vanilla
3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp soft margarine
2 tsp karo syrup
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar.
Mix together all ingredients until smooth.
Spread over cake.
(the karo syrup makes it shiny!)
It isn't the best pictures, so I'm sorry about that...but it is SO good!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Poppy Seed Cake

I guess I'm still in a *bunt* mood!
I found this recipe in my mom's collection.
I have no memory of her making this *ever*
so I was a little curious!
Not too bad, if I do say so myself.
My husband's family enjoy it as well!
Poppy Seed Cake
1 pkg yellow cake mix
2 small pkg instant butterscotch pudding
2 oz poppy seed
4 eggs
3/4 cup oil
1 cup water
Preheat oven to 350*
Mix ingredients in a large bowl....
beat together for 4 minutes
making sure ingredients are incorporated!
Pour into a greased bunt pan
and bake for 45-50 minutes.
Let stand for 10 minutes before turning out onto serving plate.
While cooling, combine:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
and milk to make frosting.
Drizzle over cake and serve!

Monday, January 4, 2010

Lemon Cake

This little cake was given to me before christmas as a neighbor gift.
Remember my Pampered Chef friend....well, it was from her.
I had a little bit of it and then I decided to not share any with my husband!
(I'm mean...I know!)
It was so good...
but I was feeling guilty for not sharing.
So, I decided to get the recipe and make my own cake!
We had it on Christmas Eve at my mom & dad's house!
Lemon Cake
1 pkg white cake mix
1 small box instant lemon pudding
3/4 cup oil
3 eggs
1 cup sprite
(yes, you read that correctly!)
Preheat oven to 350*
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix with a mixer.
Pour into a greased bunt cake pan.
Bake for 40 minutes.
After it has cooled for a bit, turn it out onto the serving plate.
Mix 1 cup powdered sugar and 2 tbsp lemon juice.
(Maybe start with 1 tbsp and then taste it... I thought mine was too lemon-y)
(however...still VERY good!)
Drizle over the cake....a very liberal drizzle.
So good, and SO moist!
Thanks Tonya!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

I'm alive...

I promise.
I've just been enjoying the holidays
and playing with the kids...
and I went out of town for a week...
but I'll be back.
Just don't want any of you to think i've given up!
Because I haven't!
Check back on Monday for new recipes!