Christmas for Two

So our Christmas Lunch/Dinner was stuffing, green beans, and Cheesey Potatoes. Yummy. We decided on no meat because we don't care if we have it, and we would be full off the other stuff anyway.





So, I have two recipes to share for today's blog.
1. Rhubarb Peach Pie
2. Jean's Cheesey Potato Dish (with a Cassandra spin)


Rhubarb Peach Pie
Make or Buy a Pie Crust, Pillsbury has a good one where you just add water.
For the Filling you need:

3-4 Rhubarb Stalks cut into 1/2 in pieces
6-7 Peaches sliced
3 TBS fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup flour

In separate bowl 1 egg and beaten with 1 tsp water
I squeezed 2 lemons over the chopped rhubarb

Then I added flour, nutmeg, cinnamon
Then peaches, 1 tsp of vanilla, sugars and peaches (just my own thing)
Mix and add to pie crust
Cover with 2nd part of crust, then brush the egg/water mix over top of the crust.
Slice vents into pie top.
Bake for 10 min at 450º, then 35 min at 350º
Aaron eating delicious pie.
Closeup, beauty shot.


Now onto Jean's cheesey potato recipe

Preheat Oven to 350º
One 32 oz bag of hashbrowns (frozen): Place in a greased 13X9 in pan

1 stick of margarine
1 can cream of chicken soup
12 oz of cheddar cheese (I used 8 oz of this, and 3 small swiss laughing cow packages)
8 oz sour cream (i used 4 oz this and 2 oz ranch dressing)
1/2 small chopped onion
Crumbled Bacon (optional-I didn't do this)

For topping (I didn't do this, couldn't find corn flakes)
1 stick margarine

Mix all of those together and then spread over hashbrowns and bake for 1 hour, I had to bake for 1 hour and ten min, because i wanted it a little more crusty.

Chocolate Espresso Cake with Espresso Icing

Basically, go buy a chocolate cake mix.

When you're making it, substitute softened/melted butter for oil and heat the water (for the cake mix instructions) up and dissolve 2 TB of espresso in it.

Then bake for normal time and ice with:

1/2 cup shortening
3-ish cups of powdered sugar
3 TBS of warmed water with 2 TB of espresso (cool down before adding to powdered sugar)
and 1 teasp of vanilla.


Once it's iced, sprinkle some powdered sugar on top and some chocolate chips...
or if you have them, chocolate covered espresso beans.



I'll post pics when I get home!

I'll post again soon!!!!

I'm just having a blogging about baking hiatus!

Perfect Pumpkin Struesel Muffins

Thank you Motherload Blog for showing me this LOVELY, LOVELY, perfect, perfect Pumpkin Streusel Muffins.
Please make them.
Get the recipe from the link above, make them, eat them.... love them.


Mix all ingredients for batter together

Put them in greased muffin tins... or in muffin cups..

Make the crumb topping
Put it on top.

Bake them at 350º for 23 minutes...

and ENJOY
ENJOY
ENJOY

can you tell I liked them?

18th Bday Cake

here is the photo progression of the 18th bday cake I posted about earlier....

BEST OATMEAL COOKIES EVER

Okay, so to be honest I didn't document this Oatmeal cookie adventure for one reason. I was afraid they'd turn out crappy like past attempts and I'd be embarrassed.
Of course, the time that I don't document they are perfect.

Thanks to the Cooking Sisters and Friends I have had a horrible recurring love affair with Crisco. I thought that after my teenage years of putting it in icing and all cookies I made, I'd never go there again, but i just can't stop. What can I do.. it makes the best cookies!

So here's the recipe.. and Aaron can attest these are the BEST Oatmeal COOKIES EVER! they are perfect, soft but chewy, cinnamony, oatmealy.. YUMMMMM.

• 3/4 cup Crisco Butter Shortening
• 1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  
• 1 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 cups oats (not instant)
• 1 cup raisins (optional) (not optional in my opinion).

1. COMBINE shortening, brown sugar, egg, milk and vanilla in large bowl; beat at medium speed until well blended.


2. COMBINE flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in small bowl; mix into shortening mixture at low speed until blended. Stir in oats with spoon; stir in raisins and nuts, if desired.


3. DROP rounded tablespoonfuls of dough 2 inches apart onto baking sheets.


4. BAKE 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet; transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

My brother's 18th Bday party

Here is a Mock up of the cupcake tower my mom, sister and I will be making for my brother's 18th birthday.
I'm excited about it... we're having a surprise party for him and I think it will be a hit.
Anyway, I'll post pics later.. =)

red velvet cake

Here's a recipe from a cookbook (thanks sally for that correction) my mom bought me for my birthday ... well I picked it out, she gave me the $$. ;)
There are some really excellent recipes in here that I want to try.
Here's what you need: ( I made a 1/2 recipe because I just needed a small cake)
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
3TB red food coloring
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp white vinegar


Preheat oven to 350º, prepare pans with butter or baking spray OR parchment paper

First Cream butter and sugar in bowl using mixer for about 5 minutes.
then add egg yolks and beat again for 1 min
in another bowl stir cocoa, food coloring and vanilla extract..



add both flour and cocoa to butter mixture.. alternating with small amounts of the flour mixture, then cocoa mix.
in a third bowl combine buttermilk and salt and add this to the mix, mix well
Last in a 4th bowl, combine vinegar and soda, then slowly add to mix and blend until creamy. When fully mixed, pour into pan (if using full recipe, use 2 9 in rounds)
Bake for about 30 minutes, until insert toothpick and comes out clean.



Let cool.
If you are using full recipe slice both cake rounds into layers as shown below.


After cake is completely cool, you can Ice it. The icing recipe I used is one container of cool whip, one package of cream cheese and 1/2 cup of powdered sugar. Mix together and ice between the layers.



Then cover the whole cake. Once I find some raspberries I'll put them on top! Yummy??! we shall see!

Very good Cut Out Sugar cookie recipe

I got this from the butter crisco package.... =)

It worked really well for me when I made these pumpkin cut outs on Thurs!
PREHEAT oven to 375º

Here's the recipe:
1 stick crisco butter flavored (1 cup)
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 TB milk
1 TB vanilla
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking POWDER
1/2 tsp salt

beat crisco and sugar in bowl
beat in egg, milk and vanilla extract until well blended.
IN separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt, then add flour mixture to cream mixture until well blended ( at a low speed is best as to not cover yourself in flour mixture) ;)

Can refrigerate for easier handling or take it like a champ as I did.. heh.

I just put the ball of dough between two layers of LIGHTLY floured wax paper and rolled it out to about 1/8 in thick.
then I cut it out, pulled the excess away and lifted each little pumpkin from the lightly floured wax paper, put it on the baking sheet, again covered with wax paper.. and baked for 7-ish minutes. The recipe card says 375º for 5-9 min, until edges brown.

Then I pull them off the sheet onto a cooling rack. I don't have a finished product without icing over it.. but here's what they looked like when I was done cooling icing and sprinkling:


Here's some other goodies I made:
AND here's the whole sweets spread. By the way we did have other things so as not to cause diabetic shock: pretzels, apples, cheese dip, peanut mix.

=)

BEST.... CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES.... EVER!!!!!!

I got this recipe from my friend from high school's blog!
You can find it here: http://barefoot-in-the-kitchen.blogspot.com/2008/10/ultimate-chocolate-chip-cookie.html

Let me just preface this by saying I have searched high and low for a good chocolate chip cookie recipe. I have just found one, thanks to the cooking sisters. I needed to find one with the perfect balance of chewy and crunchy... ad this is it!

Go to their site for the recipe and look below for pics!

brown sugar and butter flavored crisco..
cream together then add the rest of the stuff.
add chocolate chips and add by BIG spoonfuls 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.
MAKE SURE THEY ARE TWO inches apart!!! Otherwise you'll be in trouble.

look how delicious!