Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Pie Pops: Bite sized treats!

So, previously I promised a post about the pie pops. I made these for a pot-luck, where I wanted our dessert contribution (since most people were bringing desserts) to be bite sized and easy to handle.  Enter: Best Bites creations here.  I always think "small" desserts are "easy" and realize half way (or several hours in) that I AM TOTALLY WRONG.  Anyhow.
 I missed pictures of the creation part (pie crust making, apple shredding, etc) but I do have the finished product...at least the ones that didn't get "taste tested" by Zach and I prior to the pot-luck.
 Also an oversight with the "easy dessert" concept is how messy my kitchen looks. I actually take a lot of pictures like this, when I get caught up in one (or 4) cooking projects and I totally destroy my kitchen. Usually I just delete them, but not today (LUCKY DUCKS!). 
Have you been baking anything extra tasty lately?

Sunday, October 30, 2011

When did I start liking pie?

Ok. First of all, check out this super awesome sign. Seen at Apple Hill. For those of you with terrible eyes, it says "NOT A THROUGH ROAD." Below that, a man-made sign, says "YOUR GPS IS WRONG."
Anyhow, that sign just cracked us up. The lack of apples at Apple Hill, not so funny. Boo, weather.
Not that something like a lack of apples could REALLY keep Zach from getting some pie. So I made pie pops (future post, just realized I didn't write about that yet).
So we had some extra pie crust left after the pie pops, so I made Zach a personal pie in one of our Ramakins (THANK YOU MELISSA!) and then applied my fancy lattice-making (just learned) skills to the top.  I'm really not that amazing or anything, I learned it at ourbestbites.com. They should sponsor me for all the references I make to their blog!  So seriously, my first pies were a homemade crust, which was totally flaky. Since making thist first one, my mom told me to substitute half the water for vodka, which dries up during baking to aid in the flakiness.

This particular variety is strawberry apple, dreamt up and mixed by Mr. D himself. Also consumed by him. And loved by him.  I have since made more apple pie creations and developed a love for it myself. More posts on that to come. Apples and apples and more apples.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Glass block Jello

I saw this recipe quite a while ago on my favorite food blog, and I've been eager to try it. Finally, with multiple large dinners on the agenda I decided to give this a whirl. Its not fancy, its all jello, but I wanted to know how tasty it was and see if is worthy of all the big family gathering-type events that our extended family (my side) often has.

It starts with lots and lots of jello. Jiggler style, meaning 1/2 the normal amount of water.
Then cut it all up and put it in a greased glass pan. (I mean, do I really have to say instructions? I know you'll jump right over to the real recipe for the details.)

Take another picture of the jello because you are trying to be artsy and cool on your blog.

Add the last ingredient and refrigerate some more. Hope you had a lot of space in your fridge for flat containers!

MMM!! Tastes like...jello!!!

Empty Kitchen Dilemma!

Last night was a great friday evening. Zach and I walked to the Library, where I was super excited to find some travel books on Ireland for our trip this summer. From there, we dropped off our rent check and got PINKBERRY!!! I have to say, I totally scoffed at them a year or two ago when they only had Original (tart) and Pomegranate flavors...now they also have chocolate and others and the chocolate is soooooo good. And don't even think about skipping the mochi topping. If you think it looks weird, at least give it a chance.

After dinner Zach and I played some video games then he got a text from his BFF about some video games at his house and he went over there. I was desparate for some cookie dough, but we only had one egg in the house. And I really wanted to make Zach some blueberry muffins. Which recipe should I use the egg for? Not to mention, we have around 1/4 cup of milk.

So...I found my trusty recipe site and decided to opt for the muffins and deny my cookie craving. I found this one-egg recipe and had BARELY enough milk to get by. I replaced the nugmeg with lemon rind and juice. I also replaced the white sugar with brown like some readers recommended.

As I was cleaning up, I was regretting my denial of cookie dough. UNTIL I REMEMBERED!! This site, homemademamas, is really fun. And I remembered that they posted a no-egg cookie dough recipe (this is purposely for not baking!) Let me tell you, they are not kidding when they say that this stuff is GOOD!!! It was a bit annoying to pound my softened margarine into the flour and sugar, but once the mindless mixing passed and I added some more water I had perfect dough! Of course I ate a bunch -- my fill really -- before it made it to the freezer, so I had to taste-test the frozen version later.

Moral of this post: You can make your husband his muffins and have your cookie dough too! lol.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies


I've been seeing some posts here and there about the gigantic chocolate chip cookies baked around a Double Stuff Oreo. I seriously want to try that recipe out.

But in college I had a chocolate chip Oreo recipe of my own, it involved roughly chopping a bunch of oreos and throwing them into regular chocolate chip cookie dough.

I was making cookies for a photo shoot and wanted them to be small (so we could each eat a lot) so I opted for this recipe instead of the giant one.

I had no complaints! The cookies were delish.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Blueberry Oat Bars


Zach loves blueberries.

Blueberries were on super sale this week.

It was my turn to bring treats to bible study.

Starbucks blueberry oat bars are amazing.INSPIRING.


Some google searching.


Note: I subbed 1/2 cup of the flour for whole wheat. And also I left the walnuts sitting in the bag (crushed with a ladle, of course) until after the step of baking the bottom. So I sprinkled half on the top of the baked bottom and half with the top. You can't even tell!


Friday, May 14, 2010

Frosting: Better than Stroganoff

Last weekend I took a break from the obsessive couponing. I had all these women pictured over to my house! We created 11 10 fantastic frostings and 1 mishap. My goals for the morning were to spend time interacting with all these awesome ladies and know be able to test a bunch of frosting recipes at once. We had mixers running from every plug in the kitchen!!

Now the next time I make brownies, or cake, or cupcakes, or anything that needs frosting...I'll have some great go-to recipes! We dyed each one a different color so we could tell them apart later. We sampled them on graham crackers then decorated cookies and cupcakes to take home. I have the recipes in a .vsd file, as soon as I figure out how

We've already agreed that we have to repeat this idea on both salsa and spaghetti sauce.
It took a lot of organizing to figure out exactly which ingredients we would need for the recipes I planned. These are the ones I was in charge of bringing.

I also hid all of our various kitchen counter clutter and even mopped the floor!

It was CRAZY with so many people in the kitchen at once! But we all had fun!

Notice the double boiler action in this picture. Talk about complicated! Wanda's recipe called for using a handmixer for 7 minutes while double-boiler-ing the frosting. I was skeptical about the results from such a complicated recipe - but it was amazing! So light!
Here is my favorite recipe in the mix: Janelle's Chocolate Cake Frosting. MMMM.
Krista and Christina had the other very complicated recipe. Double Boiling, Kitchen-aid, and an ICE BATH!! Amazing results though!
I can't remember which one this is, but Marian tried 2 easy recipes with cool-whip and marshmallow fluff. They got devoured like the rest!
And for some of the results shots, including decorating:

The pink one is buttercream and that one was my biggest surprise. I loved it! I've always thought store-cake buttercream was awful. This one was even shortenting instead of butter! Next time I'll try butter.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Leftover February Pictures

These are the roses that Zach bought me for Valentine's Day. At first I was surprised by the yellow color, then he reminded me that the first flower he bought me (a gerbera daisy) was the same color! What a thoughtful guy. These roses were beautiful for DAYS (just grocery store variety!) and they opend up really big. I couldn't stop taking artsy pictures of them.
My friend Beth and I decorated sugar cookie pops for Valenties day. Mostly because I saw the idea on a blog and REALLY wanted to make sugar cookies on sticks. Next goal - find a more tasty frosting. (H.B.K. = Happy Birthday Kristie, roommate)
Beth's cookies were far more beautiful than mine, case in point:
Another rose picture. I actually just submitted this one to Capital One and it is going to be the picture on my credit card! Cool, huh?
Disappearing Chips! Why is that bowl empty? Oh yeah - because I made salsa! 1 part pureed bell pepper, 2 parts tomato, some garlic powder and salt...MMM, very fresh tasting. I love red bell pepper!

Friday, March 5, 2010

Janelle's Chocolate Cake



Growing up in San Leandro, a couple from our church "adopted" our family by choosing to invest in our lives, get to know us "kids" and babysit for my parents to have date nights. They lived just a few blocks away and we built essentially grandchild/grandparent relationships with them. They have been really amazing to our family.

Janelle would make this chocolate cake. One mention of "Janelle's cake" would leave ANY family member drooling. Its been at least 10 years since we had this cake, since our family moved, aged, they moved, etc. Since I've been wanting to amp up my culinary skills and because the cake is just so delicious, I've been hoping for an opportunity (excuse) to make this cake. It’s really decadent so the excuse had to be really good. And then it was my youngest brother's birthday! #18! Happy Birthday Tim! (back in February.) So I texted him, asking if he wanted the cake for his birthday. Usually he never texts me back. This time I got an immediate yes. In fact I got the "oooohhhhhhhhh" gasp from each family member when I mentioned it.

So I drove up. Tim, Amy and I were going to make the cake together. (I have forced Zach to watch the TV show Cake Boss with me. Zach had "Cake Boss" suggestions for the cake, like strawberries in the whipped cream, etc, but I rejected them. Our first time recreating the famous "Janelle Cake" had to be the original recipe.)

The exciting part of this cake is the layers. There are 4 layers of cake. Between each one is homemade whipped cream. (As you know, I am not a super pro at making this, but I'm trying.) But the frosting is truly the kicker. I've been looking at frosting recipes for a while now trying to find one I like and this one is completely different than what I’ve seen online, which explains why it is the most awesome. It uses evaporated milk, which I didn’t see much of online.

The assembly of the cake is simple. Our whipped cream was a little soft (being a newbie at whipped cream still, I'm afraid I'll make butter) and the cake layers a little thin (would have preferred to have 8inch round pans instead of 9, or maybe next time I'll have to make more cake). But, as usual the frosting held it all together for the approximately 18 hours that the cake lasted in the refrigerator. There were NO (Null. Zero. Nada.) complaints about the soft whipped cream, messy frosting, or thin cake layers.

MMM. When can I make this again??!!! I wonder if I could try a little cupcake version! Hm...

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Apples

I found a late crop of a specific apple type and whipped up some applesauce tonight. And by "whipped up," I mean "painstakingly peeled and cored 9 apples by hand" because I was too annoyed with my Pampered Chef peeler last time to get it out again. Then, I double checked my recipe, KNOWING I had 3.5 pounds of apples. The recipe (that I never follow anyhow) reads:
3-4 lbs apples
1 cup water
then a bunch of sugar and stuff that I never add because it doesn't need it. (Although I put in a giant spoonful - probably 1/4c unpacked - of brown sugar)

Despite KNOWING I had 3 pounds of apples I insisted on putting a lot closer to 2 cups of water in. As a result (and taking it off the burner when I was bored of it after 30 minutes instead of giving it a little more time) the applesauce is a little runny but at the same time, a little hearty.

I dunno. I spooned it out, 1/2 cup at a time, into a muffin tin for freezing. Once it freezes in that shape I'll stick each snack-sized treat into one giant bag. Knowing that they are exactly 1/2 cup will also aid me in using one as a oil substitute in my next brownie batch!

Also coming up this week: stuffed mushrooms, homemade chicken and spinach ravioli, pesto (for freezing...I am on a "freeze now use later" kick), and...well, tht's it. :)

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Fake Fotoshop Fun

Hi Gang!

I discovered GIMP, a free photoshop like software, and have been using it to turn photos into coloring pages. Unfortunately I am not kind enough to post each link I used to discover all of this but with a few swift google searches you can find the same and then make this:


Print and color, baby!!! Then I found another website that makes word searhes and crossword puzzules. (Hint: I'm making an activity book!!!) I heart internet!

*Edit: Those with toddlers - how much would Grandma love a picture of her and the kiddo that the kiddo COLORED? So cute.

And lastly, so I don't lose this, I got this recipe from my cousin. I can't wait to make it!

Grasshopper Pie:

22 Large Marshmellows
1/3 cup Creme de Menthe
1 (12) ounce Carton Whipping Cream, Whipped
1 (9inch) prepared Chocolate piecrust
step 1: In Large saucepan, melt marshmellows with Creme de menthe over low heat and cool.
step 2: fold cream into Marshmellow mixture.
step 3: Pour Filling into piecrust and freeze ...untill ready to serve.

That's it! Super easy. Be sure to get the Green cream de menthe so that way the color is green. And just whip the whipping cream til you get soft peaks, don't over whip or it turns out kind of lumpy! (I know from expierence. hehe) you want it nice and smooth! Enjoy!!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Excessive Grocery Supplies

Dear Self,
Please stop buying powdered sugar. You have an excessive amount of powdered sugar in your kitchen cabinet. You do not, however, have any brown sugar and are running low on flour. If you absolutely must brave the baking section of the grocery store and must make a purchase, please select one of the items you actually need. If you ever decide to make more fondant, then you can use your powdered sugar and maybe even buy more.
Sincerely,
Your kitchen cupboard

Monday, November 9, 2009

Lower fat pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Hey gang! I enjoyed making these delicious cookies yesterday so much that I posted the recipe and picture online at allrecipes.com, my most-used online recipe source. I called them "lower fat" because I modified an existing recipe to replace half the butter with applesauce, half the white sugar with brown sugar, and half the flour with whole wheat flour. They were super soft and chewy and not dry at all. DELICIOUS! No one could even tell they were (slightly) healthier than the normal kind. And by cutting out some of the overall sugar content (doubling the vanilla as a replacement for flavor) they aren't as sweet as normal cookies.

YUM. Go check out the reciple!
http://allrecipes.com/PersonalRecipe/62181101/Lower-Fat-Pumpkin-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies/Detail.aspx

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Something with pictures!

So, unlike my first pictureless post of today, I actually have some photos to share.

Have you ever caught the show Cake Boss or one of those other fancy cake decorating show? I think they are awesome - more a feat of engineering, sometimes, than baking. So I have been waiting for the right birthday to come around where I could try my hand at fondant. I had also just discovered these miniature cake pans in my cupboard which also inspired a cake obsession.

I wasn't ready to dive into the fondant decorating aisle at Michaels quite yet ($$$!!!!) so this was a DIY project. I scoured the web for fondant recipes, first being horrified by their complexity, then discovering an equally difficult marshmallow one, then finally finding something simple. Its not like I'm making a wedding cake so perfection wasn't really my goal.

Early stages of the frosting, which had to be kneaded by hand. I was wondering what I got myself into:







But, I had no choice, because the cakes were already made! The idea of these little shortcake style cakes is to put filling in the little cup area of two of them and then merge them together for a tall little cake! So cute!

After WAYYYYY more sugar than the recipe called for, the fondant started to take shape!

here it is all rolled out, ready to top the cake! I used a juice bottle for a roller. I got my ideas for decorating the cake by going to Michaels, reading the book they sell there about fondant, and then putting it back and walking out of the store. After all, this is a really tiny cake!

And here is the final product! I tore the frosting a little when we put it on top, who cares! It was a delicious cake and Bill was more touched by getting a cake than it being perfect. And yeah, I know the decorations aren't pristine, but hey - I was using a plastic knife and a chopstick.

Bill requested a strawberry-ish filling (the homemade whipped cream didn't happen - no time - but cool whip was a substitute, in a pinch) and underneath the fondant is another layer of yummy fudgy frosting, which helps the fondant stick to the cake and lay down more smoothly. (Some people complain fondant has a bad taste - like the wedding cake type - so I pilied on the fudgy frosting for good measure).

Happy Birthday Bill! This was so fun to make! Maybe I'll find some cheaper supplies on ebay!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

For the sake of crazy cookies!

I am writing this blog as I make cookies. After everything I have gone through up to this point (the first batch are nearly ready to emerge from the oven), I am PRAYING that my Martha Stewart attempts are successful.
I got this recipe from my awesome friend Alicia who I have known since going to Redwood. (9 years, if anyone is counting.) I bought all the ingredients the other day at the store. This morning I started to copy the recipe off email and realized I was missing brown sugar and peanut butter. I'm taking these to 20's retreat this weekend, so, if anyone is going to be friends with me then I better make some darn good cookies. Meeting people is already tough enough without poisoning them or noticing them spit your cookie out into the trash.

After an hour of humming and hawing about the wet weather outside I decide resolutely that I am walking the dog to 7-Eleven (quarter mile away) for PB and brown sugar. At this exact moment, it is drizzling pretty hard. But, once I make up my mind, right or wrong, I stick with it. So I walk. 7-Eleven does not have brown sugar. I wonder...should I get the PB and just substitute white sugar for brown? I decide yes. On the way back I decide I will walk to a farther destination, a nearby friend, to see if anyone is home to borrow brown sugar. (Still raining.) No one was home.

I get home and google "brown sugar substitutes" and read that you can substitute white sugar, but the white sugar is drier and won't provide as much flavor. Well, I can't go bringing dry flavorless cookies to a 20's retreat. So I decide to go to the nearest bigger store. Walgreens. Also no brown sugar there. At this point with various distractions it has been about two hours since I started on the cookie mixing. *Sheesh.* So finally I end up at Safeway.

Finally onto baking.

So these cookies are a Reese's variation on the christmas cookies where you put a Hershey Kiss on a peanut butter cookie. Same concept, but you bake the cookie in mini muffin tins and shove the Reese's peanut butter cup in the middle after baking for a little muffin looking treat.

Chocolate does not photograph well. I learned this attempting to be artsy (Lisa L. style) by snapping a "while I'm baking" picture.


These cookies are not fun. I suck at this. (I'm writing this midway through baking.) Self-portraits are a requirement though if I ever scrapbook this event since I'm already taking pictures.



Ok, just took the last ones out. I started to get better by the end.

I think I still prefer snickerdoodles. Or regular peanut butter cookies.
Update. I made another batch because I was worried about quantity. I mean seriously. Could 40 (good ones) really be enough? So the newer batch mixed like a champ, much softer than the first batch (led me to panic: Were the first ones good??!!) but I am just going to get over it, take them all, and hope they disappear.
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