Posted in Baking, Food Pics, Recipes, tagged Cake, Chocolate Frosting, Cream Cheese, Fluffy, Recipe on September 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s a light and fluffy Chocolate Frosting family recipe that D. and pup like to use when their sweet teeth kick in… It’s nice and sweet (but not too sweet). And yes, it’s fluffy. Good fluffy…
Use a mixer to blend all ingredients together. Spread frosting onto cake. Sprinkle mini chocolate chips over top, if desired. Enjoy!
Posted in Baking, Food Pics, Recipes, tagged Baking, Banana Bread, Bread, Recipe on September 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I discovered four quite-ripe bananas on Saturday, and decided that it was a good time to make some banana bread. I had one recipe that uses vegetable oil, but I wanted to stay away from that. So, I looked at several different recipes, and as I am sometimes inclined to do, I combined elements and came up with my own. The bread came out very moist (definitely a requirement) and the bananas added the perfect amount of banana to it. I also like having some nuts in there… walnuts this time. And as a bonus, I was able to mix everything together with a potato masher… fun!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a potato masher, mash the bananas with the melted butter in a large bowl. Mix in remaining ingredients, mashing together throughout. Once the flour is added, a wooden spoon works a bit better to stir together. Pour the mixture into a lightly greased loaf pan. Bake for approximately 1 hour… a bit longer if needed. Cool. Enjoy!
Posted in Baking, Food Pics, Recipes, tagged Chocolate, Cocoa Powder, Cream Cheese, Crepes, Recipe on August 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
These crepes were D.’s idea… 1) Because he is the main sweets-eater in the house, and 2) because it was something that we could make with pup and she would like them too. Pup did a great job making the crepe batter, D. cooked the crepes, and I did the clean-up. We made one batch earlier, but those came out too sweet for me. This time, the sweetness was just right and the cocoa powder in the crepe batter complemented that very nicely. We used a cream cheese filling, because that’s what we like. It also chills very nicely in the fridge. It’s been said that the crepes themselves will freeze well, but we haven’t gotten quite that far yet…
Filling:
Blend all ingredients together with mixer and set aside.
Crepes:
1. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Using a mixer, slowly add the milk and eggs, blending until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly-oiled skillet over medium-high heat. Pour approximately 1/2 – 3/4 cup of the batter into the skillet and tilt so batter covers the surface. Cook for about 2 minutes or until the bottom is light brown. Using a spatula, flip the crepe to cook the other side for about 1 minute more. Stack crepes and let cool.
3. Put approximately 1/3 cup of the filling onto each crepe and gently roll together. Top with whipped cream, fresh fruit, chocolate sauce and/or powdered sugar. Eat cool or chilled. They are very good as a cold dessert on a warm summer day.
I’m also looking forward to trying these crepes with more of a dinner filling, such as sauteed veggies or a sun-dried tomato cream cheese mixture. I’ll probably omit the cocoa powder for those though. 
Posted in Baking, Life on June 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
We went over to Granny’s house tonight, because she made her first-ever batch of blueberry dumplings. Oh my, were they delicious! Now, she is famous for her apple ones, and we have been mentioning blueberries for a little while now. They were mentioned again this past weekend, so last night, voila, she called to say that she had tried some with blueberries. Oh my goodness… they are delicious!! Flaky, yet doughy… juicy, yet syrupy… sweet, yet not too much so… with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top!
Needless to say, we’ve got a date with her on Saturday. We’re going to learn how she makes them now. Yum, yum, and big yum! And this is coming from a person who is not a big sweets fan (although I do love blueberries, so that helps). As we were eating and talking food, we got the idea that the dough can really be used for actual dinners too, such as a ham and cheese filling, a shepherd’s pie type of filling, etc. I think this is going to be a very fun day in the kitchen. D. has been wanting to get her dumpling recipe from her for years, so he can start playing with it in various ways. And now, that time has come… I’ll have my camera and notebook on hand…
Posted in Baking, Food Pics, Recipes, tagged Biscuits on March 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This was my first attempt at making biscuits, ever. And I do believe that they came out very nice and biscuity… moist and doughy on the inside with a nice crunch and crispness on the outside. I will be using this recipe quite frequently, as the biscuits were also very simple and quick to bake. And I will be playing around with different flavors and ingredients to these – adding sun-dried tomatoes is but one idea that I have… I just need to remember to have buttermilk on hand more often!
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil/grease a cookie sheet.
2. In large bowl, combine flour through red pepper flakes. Next, mix in chives, cheese and buttermilk. Stir until a dough forms. Scoop dough into 1-2 Tbsp-sized balls and place onto cookie sheet. Lightly brush the tops with melted butter. Bake for 15 minutes.
I varied the recipe a little bit from this one. Actually, we had the show on in the background one Sunday morning and they looked particularly yummy and easy. They most definitely are… especially warm with a dollop of butter or even a sliver of goat cheese. Yum…
Here they are in all their doughy glory:
And here is our complete dinner, with Goat Cheese Scrambled Eggs… very good!
Posted in Baking, Cooking, Food Pics, tagged Chocolate, Fudge, Walnuts on February 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This was the first of D.’s foray into the world of fudge… Which was an early Sunday morning venture. And it came out quite good! So good that the one-who-doesn’t-eat-nuts, ate this fudge with nuts in it, and then they made her own batch (albeit, without nuts). He’ll be making some more for a dinner outing this Sunday also. Although I’m far from a sweets-person, I did find this fudge very creamy and quite enjoyable.
I’ll have to get the “exact” recipe from him at a later date, but it took about ten minutes to make and then an hour or two in the fridge to harden. Quite simple… He used Chocolate Chips, Sweetened Condensed Milk, Butter and Chopped Walnuts. Everything was melted together and combined in a pseudo-double-boiler consisting of a saucepan and a glass bowl on the stovetop. This weekend he’s going to try adding White Chocolate Chips and swirling those onto the top of the fudge. Should make for a very pretty picture.
Posted in Baking, Food Pics, tagged Cookies, Sugar Cookies on January 3, 2009 | 1 Comment »
D. decided to make these for me tonight for the Colts vs. Chargers Playoff game. Isn’t he sweet? They are a variation of his Sugar Cookies… this time with blue food coloring and almond extract. They taste almond-y and yummy, and they are soft and delicious. They taste really good to me… I don’t know if it’s because the Colts name is attached to them, or because this particular recipe is extra good. I’d say this recipe is extra tasty, plus it’s nice to have the name on them too.
Amusingly, the blue cookie dough reminded us both of play-doh. And I don’t know if it was the almond extract or the visual of the dough, but it seemed to smell like play-doh also. Quite fun… Go Colts!
Posted in Baking, Food Pics, Recipes, tagged Chocolate, Cookies, Sugar Cookies on December 11, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Well, these are White Chocolate Sugar Cookies… D. has been playing with the recipe and thinking of other things to put in them, such as White Chocolate-Raspberry chips or Peppermint Icing on top. I, personally, didn’t taste a lot of the white chocolate in this batch, though D. said he did. Of course, sweetness and sugar can sometimes overwhelm my sensitive taste buds.
I’m sure we’ll be seeing more cookies in the near future. Actually, I know we will, because my nine dozen cookie exchange at work is one week from tomorrow! I think we’ll be making some Dark Chocolate ones along with some White Chocolate ones. Drat… I keep meaning to ask my co-worker, who doesn’t eat chocolate, if she eats white chocolate. I should try to remember that for tomorrow…
Here’s the recipe that we’ve starting using and adjusting… We got it from D.’s dad, who made these cookies when D. was a lad. 
I’m not sure where it comes from originally, so we’ll call it a family hand-me-down…
1. In a large bowl, microwave chocolate and butter on high for approximately 2 minutes or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is fully melted and combined.
2. Stir 1 cup sugar into the melted chocolate until well-blended. Stir in egg and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Chill dough for approximately 30 minutes. Shape into 1″ balls and roll in extra sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes or until set. Remove and cool.
Posted in Baking, Food Pics, tagged Chocolate, Cookies, Sugar Cookies on December 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This is the recipe that D.’s Dad used to make when he was a kid, and he says they taste just like he remembers. We did a test run this evening… And D. did all the rolling and balling up and sugaring while I finished the laundry. We did mix up the batter together though. I have a cookie exchange at work, so this will be the recipe I’m using. Somehow, I agreed to make nine dozen cookies! This batch did make three dozen, so three batches it will be. In a week and a half, we’ll be at this again!
Posted in Baking, Recipes, tagged Pumpkin Cheesecake, Recipe on October 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Basically, I do believe he blended it all together with a hand mixer, and then filled 2 ready-made pie crusts. Cooked in the oven at 350 degrees for perhaps 30 minutes or so. It’s really quite delicious! And amazingly simple as well. He brought one of the cheesecakes into his work and they loved it. I’m thinking of having him make one for me to bring into my work soon too…
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