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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

German Macaroons

2 and 3/4 C. flaked TOASTED coconut
4 egg whites
1 C. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. almond extract

1.Preheat oven to 250*, line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl whip egg whites til' very stiff. Gradually sprinkle in sugar, cinnamon and almond on low speed. Fold in Coconut.  Spoon small tsp sized balls onto lined cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until dry and can peel away from paper. cool on wire racks and store in airtight container.
This recipe addapted off of allrecipes.com

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Easy Lasagna (with cottage cheese)

1 package lasagna noodles
1 lb. hamburger
1 1/2 jars Ragu spaghetti sauce
16 oz. small curd cottage cheese
1 1/2 lbs. mozzarella cheese (sometimes I mix cheddar in there too)
2 eggs
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
3 tsp. parsley
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. basil
1 tsp. garlic powder

Cook noodles til' according to package. Drain and rinse with cold water. Brown meat in large skillet. Add sauce, salt, pepper, basil and garlic to sauce, simmer. In small bowl combine cottage cheese, eggs, Parmesan and parsley. Layer sauce in bottom of 9 * 13, layer noodles, meat sauce, cottage cheese mixture, than cheese, doing 3 layers. Bake in 350* oven for 40 minutes.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Chewy Blonde Brownies


1/2 Cups butter or margarine melted
2 C. packed Brown Sugar
2 large Eggs
1 1/2 Cups Flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 350*. Melt margarine in bowl. Add brown sugar and then eggs. Stir in flour, salt, and baking powder. Add vanilla. Spread into a well greased and floured 9 * 13. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool, cut and enjoy.
This recipe was given to me by my bishops wife after she brought in a meal to our family when I broke my shoulder...and they did wonders to cheer me up. I hope you enjoy them as much as our family does.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Icing -hard drying

Image taken from Web
1 cup. confectioners sugar
2 tsp. milk
2 tsp. light corn syrup
Your choice of extract:
1/2 tsp. almond
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp. peppermint
1/4 tsp orange or
1/4 tsp. lemon
assorted food colorings

Mix all ingredients and than add your food coloring. You may need to add more milk 1/2 tsp at a time to get desired consistency. You don' want it too runny. While icing is wet you'll want to add your sprinkles. You can wait about 1/2 hour and than add additional colored icings to decorate without them sinking into previous icing. It takes a few hours of drying for them to be stackable. The icing will set up shiny and and beautiful, and the colors will remain bright and glossy.

Sugar Cookies II (Our favorite)

COOKIES
1 1/2 C. Butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
5 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt


ICING
1 C. confectioners sugar
2 tsp. milk
2 tsp. light corn syrup
1/2 tsp. almond extract, 1 tsp. vanilla, or 1/4 tsp. peppermint, orange or lemon extract
(blend all ingredients and than add food colorings. You might need to add 1-2 more tsp. of milk to get desired consistency. This icing dries hard and stays shiny and colors stay brilliant)

In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and chill for 1-24 hours.

Preheat oven to 400* Roll out dough on sugared or floured counter til 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Cut into shapes with cutters and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 6-8 minutes. Cool completely and than frost with icing.

THIS IS THE RECIPE WE USE FOR OUR CHRISTMAS COOKIES, YUM!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Peanut Chocolate Fudge Brownies

2 sticks butter
8 ounces plus 6 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips- DIVIDED
1/2 Cup + 1 Tbls. cocoa powder
3 Tbls. vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 1/2 Tbls. Postum powder
1 Tbl. Vanilla
1 1/4 C. Sugar
3/4 C. flour
1/2 Tbls. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 C. smooth Peanut Butter

Preheat oven to 350. spray a 9*13 inch pan

Melt butter, 1/2 pound chocolate chips, cocoa and oil in a bowl. Allow to cool slightly. In a large bowl stir eggs, postum, vanilla, sugar. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture.

In a medium bowl stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to chocolate mixture. Add remaining chocolate chips to batter. Pour into prepared pan. Spoon peanut butter over top, and cut through with a knife

Bake for 20 minutes, than rap the pan against the oven to allow air to escape, and cook for 15 minutes more. Allow to cool thoroughly, and than refrigerate, cut into bars, and keep cold. YUMMY!

Jalapeno' Chedder Dip

2 fresh Jalapeno Peppers, finely chopped
3 cups finely shredded cheddar cheese
1 Cup Mayo (you might need a few more Tbls. depending on consistency you want)
3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and serve with favorite crackers or chips

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Moist Cinnamon Breakfast Cake

1/2 C. shortening
1 C. sugar
1/2 C. cinnamon applesauce
8 oz. sour cream
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 C. brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon

Grease a 9*13 pan. Preheat oven to 350*. Cream together shortening, sugar, applesauce, eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Add in flour, baking powder, soda and salt...blend til moist. With a spatula spread half the batter into the pan. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon, sprinkle half the cinnamon mixture onto batter. Layer with remaining batter and top with cinnamon mixture. Bake for 30-35 minutes or til knife comes out clean.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Leftover Ham Casserole

4 Cups cooked sticky rice
3 cups cooked cubed ham
2 cans cr. of mushroom soup
16 oz. sour cream
1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp. Black pepper
2 tubes Ritz crackers, crushed
1 stick margarine


mix first 6 ingredients in a 9*13 pan. Melt margarine and add to crackers. sprinkle over top and bake for 35 minutes at 350*.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Marshmallow Fondant

A couple of my cakes using Marshmallow Fondant


16 ounces mini Marshmallows
2 Tbls. Water
1/2 Cup Crisco
2 lbs. Powdered Sugar
1-2 tsp. Almond or Vanilla Extract

In a large microwave bowl, melt marshmallows and water, stirring every 30 seconds. Takes about 2 minutes. Remove from microwave and add in Crisco and Artificial flavorings. If I am only doing one color this is when I would add the coloring in as well. Stir til melted. In the same bowl I add about 2/3 of the powdered sugar and blend using hands. Dump out onto clean surface and kneed in the rest of the powdered sugar. At this point you may need to add another tablespoon or two of Crisco to get the desired consistency. You want the texture to be soft and workable, not sticky and not crumbly. To store keep in airtight Ziploc bags in the refrigerator for a few weeks, if you working with it out of the fridge you can microwave it fo 10 seconds at a time to soften it up. Be careful not to over heat in microwave. I like to roll it immediately. Roll out on counter top sprinkled with cornstarch to prevent sticking to desired thickness.
Place on top of frosted cakes and tuck underneath. Use extras for making shapes. Get creative, add food colorings, and have Fun!

There is a sight that explains this in great detail, for further instruction you can visit: http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm

My friend Erica posted this on her food blog, and I tried it a couple years ago, and ever since I don't know what I'd do without my Fondant, I make it for all my cakes, I love it! Well, I love working with it, I roll it really thin, and use it that way cause I think the texture of fondant on cake is a little weird. However, it makes everything come out beautiful looking.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Cannoli

Filling
32 oz. container of Ricotta Cheese
1 1/2 - 1 3/4 C. Powdered sugar
1 Tbsl. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 C. Mini Chocolate chips

Drain as much liquid as you can out of the ricotta first; Than Beat the ricotta in Bosch with paddle attachment til smooth. Add sugar, vanilla and cinnamon; blend til fully incorporated. Fold in Chocolate chips. Place filling in a large Ziploc bag and refrigerate til your ready to fill Pastry shells. Keep unused filling in Refrigerator. (If you have time you can try and strain your ricotta through cheese cloth, though I never do this)

Shells
4 C. flour
3 Tbls butter
2 egg yolks
2 Tbls. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 C. Italian Red wine

Lard or Oil for Frying

Mix flour, sugar, and salt In bowl. cut in butter. Add egg yolks, Stir in wine, until a dough like consistency forms. If the dough feels wet and sticky add more flour, if it feels too dry add more wine. You'll need to knead the dough for probably 15 minutes to get it to form, this is a very stiff dough. Cover dough and let stand for 1/2-1 hour. Roll out the dough until super thin (this takes a lot of work, but you want it super thin to get the right blistering) than cut into 4 inch circles. wrap circles around cannoli forms. Seal dough on by brushing with egg yolk. Fry in Lard until brown (lard gives the best flavor but you may also use oil), approximately 1 minute. Lift out with tongs; Drain, and gently remove forms. Cool shells thoroughly before filling.

When your ready to fill your shells, clip a small portion off of one of the corners of the Ziploc bag. Squeeze filling into shells, and dip both ends into more mini chocolate chips or chopped nuts. You may want to sprinkle with powdered sugar. Since the cannoli cream filling will cause your cannoli shell to get soggy eventually, it is best to fill your cannoli shells no more than 4 hours before serving them.

Makes about 26 - 4" round cannoli's

Hints: Cannoli forms can be found at kitchen stores, they are metal tubes and come in 2 sizes, they are usually 1 inch in diameter. Some people use a broom stick cut to size instead of metal forms, but I've never done that either.
Mascarpone cheese can be substituded in this recipe for the ricotta,andt it will not have to be strained.

Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies

1 C. margarine
1 C. white sugar
1 C. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 Cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 C. cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1/2 Gallon Vanilla or cookies and cream ice cream, softened slightly

Pre heat oven to 375*. Blend sugars and butter in Bosch. Add vanilla and eggs; cream together til smooth. Add flour, soda, salt and cocoa powder, blend. Stir in chocolate chips. Spray cookie sheets with Pam, using a tablespoon drop 12 mounds and than flatten out as much as possible. Cook for 8 minutes. Let cool 2 minutes on counter before transferring to wire rack. Soften a 1/2 gallon of dryers vanilla or cookies and cream ice cream. Place a mound of ice cream between two cookies, wrap in Saran wrap and squeeze together to tighten the cookies. Freeze until your ready to eat them. Makes 4 dozen cookies, and 2 dozen sandwiches.

We find the the chocolate chips get hard as they freeze, but are still really yummy. You may want to try this recipe without adding the chocolate chips? Worth a try.

Easy Chocolate Lovers CheesePIE

3 packages cream cheese, softened (24 ounces total)
3/4 C. sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 2/3 C. Hershey's mini chocolate chips
2 - Oreo graham cracker crusts (6 oz. size)

TOPPING
2 Tbls. whipping cream or milk
1/3 cup chocolate chips

Heat oven to 450*. Beat cream cheese ands sugar in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Stir in 1 2/3 cups small chocolate chips; pour into crust. Bake 10 minutes. Without opening oven door, reduce temperature to 250*; continue baking 30 minutes. Remove from oven to wire rack. Cool completely. Cover; refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Place remaining 1/3 C chips and whipping cream in small bowl, microwave for 30 seconds or until melted and smooth. Spread over top of cheesepie. Refrigerate til set. Cover; refrigerate leftover cheesepie.