Peppermint Nutella blossoms

A while back I asked my imaginary friends on a message board what to make for a bake sale, and Sarah said I needed to make peanut butter blossoms. I used her recipe and whipped up a batch. They seemed to be a pretty big hit and I've made them three times since then (and the bakesale was only a few weeks ago!)
Well, I bought a two pack of nutella at Costco a few weeks ago, and with DH trying to lose 10 lbs, it was not a good combo. One of them had to go. So I decided to try to substitute Nutella in the Peanut butter blossom recipe. Nutella is softer than pb, so I added at 1/8 cup of cocoa powder for good measure, and omitted the vanilla.
They spread out a lot more than traditional pb blossoms, but with a candy cane kiss on top and their chocolately goodness: omg om nom nom. I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this, so I'll check the interwebs and see if I can find a recipe that holds it's traditional blossom shape a little better before I make these again.

Nutella Blossoms

2 cups Bisquick
3.4 cup Nutella
1.8 cup cocoa powder
1 can sweetened condensed milk
white sugar
kisses of your choice

mix ingredients, roll into balls and roll balls in white sugar. Bake for 10 minutes at 350. Remove from oven, let sit for 1 minute, then press unwrapped kisses into top of cookies. Remove from cookie sheet and cool.
Makes 4 dozen

Tomorrow these will be off to a friend who asked me to make her Christmas cookies. How could I say no? :)

Buttery Bread Machine Rolls

Recently, after forgetting to purchase bread for a dinner I rediscovered my good old hand me down bread machine. I didn't realize how much I'd missed it!

I'd seen the blog Grocery Cart Challenge mention these bread machine butter rolls a few times, and one day I decided that they sounded really good. I was looking for easy snacks to take to works, and Gayle makes a batch and freezes them, which I thought was a great idea.

These were really easy to make. too easy, almost. And so, so good! The only bad thing about them is that we ate almost the whole batch that night and didn't have any left to freeze. I'm pretty sure that's disgusting of us, but these are really that good! I made them again for my husband's birthday party, and everyone loved them.

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm milk (70 to 80 degrees F.)
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4 cups bread flour
• 2 eggs
  
• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions

1. In bread machine pan, put all ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer.
2. Select dough setting.
3. When cycle is completed, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface.
4. Divide dough into 24 portions.
5. Shape dough into balls.
6. Place in a greased 13 inch by 9 inch baking pan.
7. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 15 minutes
   
8. Bake at 375 degrees for 13-16 minutes or until golden brown.

Recipe originally from Recipe Zaar.

Peach Berry Pie

I promised this recipe long ago, during the summer months when peaches were aplenty. Somehow, I forgot to post it! Ooops, well, bookmark it for next summer gals, because it's a winner. I loved this pie!
I loved to make this pie with local peaches and berries from the fruit stands that dot the highway out here. Score one for country livin', y'all. The produce is awesome.

First, I make my mom's super easy pie crust, recipe here.

Then, the filling:

4 cups fresh peaches, pitted, peeled and sliced
1 cup fresh berries
3/4 cup white sugar
3 tbs all-purpose flour
1 teas ground cinnamon
2 tbs butter cut into pieces

Place peaches and berries into a colander to drain for 15 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and toss in sugar, flour and cinnamon. Pour into prepared (not cooked) pie crust and put butter pieces on top of mixture. Top with crust. Bake 45 minutes at 400.

If you want your pie crust to be super pretty you can brush it with egg white and sprinkle with course sugar. I've made this pie both with the lattice crust top and a solid crust top, and it's delicious either way!

I have no idea where I got this recipe from, I scribbled it on a sticky note ages ago, but it's very easy and definitely a summer favorite!

Pina Colada Cake

Awhile back I came across a recipe for a pina colada cake on a cooking board, but foolishly didn't save the link. When it came time to think of a dessert for Easter this was the first thing that popped into my head. I tried googling for a recipe, but everything I found called for creme of coconut (what IS that?!) or Rum, neither of which was on the original recipe that I saw. So I came up with my own.

Cake
1 box yellow cake mix
8 oz can of crushed pineapple
1/2 C. shredded coconut

Prepare cake mix according to instructions on box, mix in crushed pineapple (I drained most of the juice and saved it for later) and coconut. Bake according to directions on Box. After removing from oven pour reserved pineapple juice over cake and let soak in. Cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting I made a combination whipped cream/cream cheese frosting, and I was so happy with how it turned out. It was delicious!

Frosting (recipe modified from Allrecipes.com)
1 box cream cheese
1.5 cups whipped cream (I made the real stuff-no cool whip :)
1/2 c. coconut
1/8 teas salt
1 teas vanilla extract
1 c. white sugar (I used granulated and it wasn't gritty at all)
2 oz. crushed pineapple

Use a mixer to cream together cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add in vanilla, salt, coconut and crushed pineapple and mixed well. Fold in whipped cream.

garnish (optional)
Lots of shredded coconut (all said I used an entire bag for this cake), some toasted.
maraschino cherries

I almost didn't want to add the coconut after I frosted it because I thought it looked pretty enough already, but it had to survive an hour and a half trip in the car so I'm glad I added it, it helped it stand up to the foil wrapped around it and we got there with only minor damage :)

Berry Limeade Cupcakes

On Friday I was considering making cupcakes as an excuse to use these adorable new liners I bought, but I wasn't so sure it'd be a good idea being alone with 2 dozen cupcakes all weekend. Then my Mom called me and asked me to make a dessert for a family gathering on Saturday, perfect timing, and perfect excuse.
So I searched a few of my favorite blogs for a white cupcake (because chocolate would have hidden the designs of my cute liners. Is that superficial of me? Oh well!) and I found these amazing looking Cherry Limeade Cupcakes from Annies Eats. And the best part: I had all of the ingredients on hand except the cherry juice, but I did have frozen berries so that was an easy substitute. Score!

I am very happy with how these came out, I think they're just adorable. And, as a bonus, they were pretty easy (although very messy) to make. A tip, don't fill up the cupcake well 3/4 of the way like you would for a rounder cupcake. You want these to be sort of flat and end below the wrapper so the glaze has somewhere to go.

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes
Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
3 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. limeade concentrate
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk

For the lime syrup:
3/4 cup limeade concentrate
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the frosting:
3 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 tbsp. (or more) maraschino cherry juice (I used frozen mixed berries, pureed in the mini chopper)
red food coloring (optional)

For decorating (optional):
fresh lime slices
maraschino cherries

Directions:
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl combine the cake flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Stir together and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and beat on medium-high speed until creamed. Add in the limeade concentrate and mix to incorporate. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between additions. Add in the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix ingredients just long enough to incorporate but no longer.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans for 5-10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack over wax paper to cool completely.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, whisk together the limeade concentrate and confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl to make the lime syrup. Poke several holes in the top of each cupcake with a skewer and pour the syrup over the cupcakes, allowing it to soak in.

To make the frosting, combine the confectioners’ sugar, butter and maraschino cherry juice in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated, then increase to medium-high speed and beat until smooth. Add more maraschino cherry juice as needed to achieve desired texture. Add red food coloring if desired.

Frost cooled cupcakes. Garnish with lime slices and maraschino cherries, if desired.

Source: From Annies Eats, adapted from Baking Up Chaos

So...go make these now!

Shamrocks and gold! Cookies, that is.

Okay, so my adorable husband thought my "gold" cookies were lemons, but hey, I don't spend a lot of time around leprechaun gold so I did the best I could. This is only my third attempt at Royal Icing and I'm loving working with it more and more every time I try it.
I used my absolute favorite sugar cookie recipe from A Year in The Kitchen and the Royal icing recipe and tips from Annies Eats. I'm sure I'll never need another sugar cookie or icing recipe, as this is a most delicious combo (which usually isn't the case for highly decorated cookies).

I tried sprinkling sugar on a few, and I liked the look, but my poor arms were tired (and it was nearly 11pm) so I gave up. Those sprinkled ones went the fastest, though. People love sparkles! Also my pictures were taken at 6 am. That has nothing to with anything...I just wanted to share because the beginning of daylight savings is coming and with it comes the end of me being coherent at 6am!

Irish Soda Bread

I had a small carton of buttermilk that I needed to use and I was trying to think of something clever to make (it was originally intended for red velvet cake, but then I suffered from a case of valentine goody burn out...) Fortunately, allrecipes.com came to the rescue and I found this recipe for Irish Soda Bread, very appropriate for this month!
I've never even had Irish Soda Bread, let alone made it from scratch, so I was surprised that there was no soda in- just baking powder. But I trusted the recipe and I'm glad I did, it's delicious!

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon caraway seed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Beat eggs with buttermilk. Add the eggs and buttermilk into the flour mixture; stir in raisins.
3. Pour dough onto lightly floured board. Shape into a round loaf, adding flour if necessary. Place in a lightly greased springform pan. Sprinkle top with caraway seeds if desired.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour or until the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

I didn't have a springform pan, so I just shaped it into a round shape and baked it on a cookie sheet. I did pull it out of the oven about 20 minutes in to brush the top with butter. Mmmm. butter.

I will definitely be making this simple but tasty sweet bread again in a few weeks to go with my corned beef! (no cabbage, though! blech!)

Heart shaped cake bites

I have resisted the cake pop/ball trend for this long because I have an unnatural fear of touching food that other people are going to eat. It's weird, I know. But I came up with a way to make these that thankfully had little touching involved!


1 box cake mix (I used strawberry)
1/2 can vanilla frosting
melting chips

Bake cake as directed and allow to cool. Crumble cake (I used forks to tear it up) into a bowl and stir in frosting. Place some batter on a glass plate and press to 1/2 inch thickness under plastic wrap. Use cookie cutter to cut small shapes from batter. Freeze shapes for at least 1/2 hour. Dip in melted chips and decorate.
Easy, tasty, and with minimal food to finger contact, just the way I like it :)

Enjoy!

Conversation Heart Cookies

Because everyone is doing it! Inspired by Annie over at Annie's Eats (have I mentioned her yet? That woman has my heart. Her pictures and food are beautiful and her recipes easy to follow. Go visit her now, it wont hurt my feelings!) I decided to attempt to make conversation heart sugar cookies.
Every season I forget how much I *hate* rolling out sugar cookies, and this time I figured out why, I'm impatient! I never wait for the dough to chill. After giving up on my cookies for 6 hours, I came back to perfectly chilled dough and easy to roll cookies. Doh!

Also, this is only my second attempt ever at royal icing. The first time I absolutely hated it, and swore never to do it again. This time I sat at the table and used Annie's Tips, and had a lot more fun. I will definitely be making royal iced cookies again and again.

I used this sugar cookie recipe, from a year in the kitchen, and Annie's Royal icing recipe. These are some of the best sugar cookies I've ever tasted! The lemon really makes them special.

I'm still a little impatient when it comes to decorating and I didn't wait until the base color was fully dry before writing on them, and my base color is pretty lumpy. Oh well, live and learn! I'll work on my technique for St. Patty's day! Also, I had the hardest time thinking of sayings to write! I didn't even think of "be mine", which is pretty much the ultimate Valentines day saying. It was 11pm, I'll blame my brain delete on that!

Bacon Jalapeno Bites

I created this recipe for a New Years dinner appetizer by altering Pioneer Woman's Jalapeno bacon thingies. It's very easy, but very tasty!

12 Jalapenos
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 Cup Mozzarella cheese, finely shredded
1/2 Cup provolone cheese, finely shredded
1 lb bacon, cut into thirds
1/2 teas onion powder
1/4 teas salt

Wash and halve Jalapenos, removed seeds and membrane. Dry on towel. Mix Cheeses and seasoning until well blended. Fill each Jalapeno half with cheese mixture. Wrap with a bacon strip and secure with a toothpick. (try to make them prettier than mine, I was experimenting to see which way the bacon worked best. Turned out to be when it was wrapped around the entire pepper and secured with toothpick!) Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until bacon is browned and cheese is browned and bubbly. Drain on paper towels for a few minutes before serving.

Happy New Year!

Peanut Butter Balls (Buckeyes)

(Far Right in photo)

These have been on my Christmas rotation since I was kid. Easy and delicious!

2 Cups powdered sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 (12 oz) package chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter, softened (but not runny)
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

Combine all ingredients except for chocolate. Mix until well blended. Roll into small balls. Stick toothpicks in balls, then refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Melt chocolate chips on double broiler. Dip peanut butter balls in chocolate. remove toothpicks and store in a cool place.

(refrigerating the balls with the toothpick inside is a little tip to make dipping easier. the toothpicks stay in much better!)

Spritz Cookies

I've always been fascinated by Spritz cookies, I didn't know that they were made from a press until a few years ago. I thought it was some cookie mould that would be very time consuming...

Anyways, the Wilton press was on sale at JoAnn's last week, and I couldn't resist. I love these cookies! I can't wait to try out new variations (I saw one where a spritz was pressed on top of a round cookie-so cute!)

Basic Spritz Cookies
1 1/2 cups butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tbs milk
1 teas vanilla
1/2 teas almond extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teas baking powder
Also, the cookies pictured are my "seconds". I'd already packaged up the "firsts" to give to friends and coworkers. The cookie press is definitely worth the $6 I paid for it! :)

Russian Tea Cookies (Snowballs)

I've had these every Christmas as far back as I can remember. This recipe comes from my Grandmother, and it could not be easier (or more delicious). Now, I use margarine for these, because that's what her recipe says. Don't hate the margarine cookies, they really are awesome!

Sift together 2 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teas salt. Then add 1 cup soft margarine (not runny!) and 2 teas vanilla. Blend with pastry cutter. add in 1 cup finely chopped pecans. Roll into balls. Bake at 325 for 25 minutes.

Remove and cool for 5 minutes, then roll in powdered sugar. They keep really well if you store them in an airtight container with powdered sugar.

Chicken Garlic Artichoke pizza

For our housewarming party we were given a gift card to Williams and Sonoma, which we finally used last week. We ended up getting a big gorgeous pizza stone. Anxious to use it, we made this pizza the same night.
oh.my.gah! If you don't have a pizza stone, I recommend getting one. It made the crust crispy and delicious, far better than any pizza we've ever cooked at home!

Chicken Garlic Artichoke Pizza

Preheat your oven to 500 to get your pizza stone nice and hot!

Pizza Dough (this is the best pizza dough recipe I've found so far)

3 cups flour (any will do. We used Wheat flour)
2 and 1/4 teas. yeast (or one package)
2 tbs veggie oil
1 teas salt
1 teas sugar
1 cup warm water

Combine flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. Mix in oil and water. Let rise. Bake at 375.

Now you can let it rise, but you can also cook it right away. It's a little more dense if you don't give it time to rise though. I also like to mix the yeast in with the warm water first, it activates a little better.

Topping

White garlic sauce (we cheat and buy this in the deli of our grocery store. SOOOOO good!)
1 boneless skinless chicken breast
1 jar marinated artichoke hearts
bell pepper
mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper chicken, and fully cook on stove top. Spread sauce over rolled out pizza crust, top with mozz, chicken chunks, artichoke hearts and bell pepper. Sprinkle parm over top.

Turn oven down to 375. Sprinkle corn meal over pizza stone, and slide pizza on to stone. (I had some problems here, hence my wonky shaped pizza)
Bake for about 15 minutes, or until crust is browned.

Pecan Honey Pork

I made this for my husband when he returned from a long week of work. He said it was the best dinner I've ever made him, so I think it's a winner! Really, this could not be any easier and impressive tasting.

Awesome Honey Pecan Pork Chops from allrecipes.com


Ingredients

* 1 1/4 pounds boneless pork loin, pounded thin
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour for coating
* salt and pepper to taste
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 1/4 cup honey
* 1/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. In a shallow dish, mix together flour, salt and pepper. Dredge pork cutlets in the flour mixture.
2. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add chops, and brown both sides. Transfer to a warm plate.
3. Mix honey and pecans into the pan drippings. Heat through, stirring constantly. Pour sauce over cutlets.

You want to be careful not to burn the pork when you're browning it, because then your sauce will come out dark and ugly.
mmmmm! enjoy!

Pumpkin-Chocolate cheescake pie

Oh Yes. My horrible photography does not do this pie justice!

I made this for a family dinner on Sunday, and it was incredible. I've never attempted a cheesecake before, so this was kind of a cheater version. It was very easy, though, and I highly recommend!

From the Better Homes and Gardens All Time Favorites 2010 Cookbook

Pumpkin-Chocolate Cheesecake Pie

1 pie crust
12 oz. Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 C. granulated sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 C finely chopped semi sweet chocolate
1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
4 Eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 C. half and half

1. Preheat oven to 450. Transfer pastry shell to 9.5 or 10 inch deep dish pie pan (I used a regular one). Trim crust to 1/2 inch beyond edge of plate. Crimp edges high. Using fork, prick bottom and sides of pastry. Line pastry with double thickness of foil and bake 8 minutes. Remove foil and bake 5 to 6 minutes more until golden. cool on a wire rack. Reduce oven temp to 375.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, one egg and 1.4 C. sugar on low speed until smooth. Spread cream cheese mixture in pastry shell. Sprinkle with finely chopped chocolate.
3. In bowl, combine pumpkin, brown sugar, and pumpkin pie spice. stir in four eggs. Stir in half and half. Slowly pour pumpkin mixture over chocolate layer. To prevent over browning, cover pie edge with foil
4. Bake 60 to 65 minutes or until knife inserted in middle comes out clean. Remove foil and cool on wire rack. Refrigerate within 2 hours, top with extra chocolate for garnish if desired.

I'd recommend making this the day before, as it needs to be completely cold to taste good :)

mmmmm, pie!

Salsa Chicken

Being single during the week for the last month had me searching for simple meals. Most nights (I'm a little shamed to admit) dinner consisted of Pop Tarts or a Junior Mint milkshake.
So last night I decided to whip up something quick and easy for myself. I'd seen talk of this "Salsa chicken" and thought it sounded interesting.

1/2 c. Salsa
1 chicken breast
Taco seasoning

I sprinkled taco seasoning on the breast before tossing it in the crockpot on high and drowning it in salsa.

After it had reached the desirable temperature, I tossed it on a bed of buttery noodles. Really, not bad for a lonely Wednesday night!

Homemade Spaghetti sauce

In addition to a plethora of zucchini, this has also been the summer of tomatoes. And what a summer to choose for that, due to my tooth problems, I couldn't EAT the tomatoes. Talk about torture, I love a good tomato!

Anyways, my boss told me that I needed to "get on board with this cooking thing" and make my own tomato sauce, so I did!

First, I took my gorgeous Parker bowl (Thank you hub!) full of red and yellow tomatoes and I pureed four of the tomatoes, and chopped the other four.

Then, I tossed some garlic in olive oil in a hot pan.

Then I tossed in both the pureed tomatoes and the chopped, along with some onions and red wine vinegar (and a wee bit of sugar, there was just a little too much bite), and cooked it for about an hour.

Then, I sauteed up some squash, cooked some noddles and poured my sauce over both. Then I drowned everything in way too much feta.



mmmmm. Still, my end review is "Meh, not worth it." I prefer store bought sauce, but IDK, maybe I did something wrong. It just could've been better.

Zucchini Muffins

I hate writing the word zucchini, I always spell it wrong. I wish Dictionary.com kept track of how many times one person looked up a word, I bet I've looked up that one at least 20 times. What can I say, I'm a slow learner!

Anyways, this summer has truly been the summer of zucchini (there's that word again!) we've been given far more zucchini (gah!) than we could deep fry, so I decided to try my hand at zucchini muffins. My mom used to make a bread that I liked, but muffins are so much more portable and handy.

After a little research, I settled on this recipe from Simply recipes. The only change I made was substituting almond extract for vanilla. (I also omitted cranberries and walnuts cause I didn't have any.) I don't know how I ran out of vanilla extract, it's such a staple! And they turned out awesome!


mmm. Also, notice those muffin cups they are in? BUY THOSE. One of my least favorite kitchen chores is cleaning the muffin pan, and these little suckers have cured that for me! You don't need a muffin tin at all, you just pour your batter in the silver cups (that are lined with paper) and throw them in the oven and voila! Muffin tin-less muffins!

Best Chocolate Frosting EVER

For his birthday, Dimples requested that I make him a funfetti cake with chocolate frosting. Well, i don't know about you, but I can't make funfetti from Scratch. So, to make up for my funfetti failure, I went to allrecipes.com to try and find the most decadent chocolate frosting possible. I think I found it.

Chocolate Cream Frosting

2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup heavy cream, whipped


DIRECTIONS
Blend the melted chocolate and milk. Gradually mix in the water, vanilla, and pudding mix, and whisk until smooth. Fold in the heavy cream. Frost the cake immediately, and chill at least 30 minutes before serving.

OMG! It's seriously the easiest, bestest frosting in the world. It's very close to a mousse in both texture and flavor (I seriously could not keep my face out of the kitchenaid bowl, that's how delicious this frosting is). I was eating by the spoonful. It made way more than necessary to generously frost the cake.

Make it. You wont be sorry.