Pumpkin Pie & Cinnamon Rolls

Since I'm nice... (And better than Megan Fox), I decided to make cinnamon rolls & pumpkin pie for Aaron and I's respective offices in celebration of Thanksgiving.

For the pie recipe I used a Pumpkin Streusel recipe which I will list later on...

and for the Cinnamon Rolls I used my Grandma Lucreta's recipe (they are the bomb).

For now I will just do photos of the process. I began at 7pm and finished at 11:45p.

Good times.

EDIT***
here is the recipe:
* 1 pie crust, unbaked
* 1 can (16 ounces) pumpkin, or 2 cups puree
* 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
* 2 eggs, beaten
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* .
* Streusel Topping
* 3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
* 1/2 cup flour
* 1/4 cup firm butter
* 1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional) I DID NOT USE.

Preparation:
Heat oven to 400°, or 375 for glass pie pan

In a large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices, and salt; blend well.

Streusel topping: Combine brown sugar and flour; cut in the butter until crumbly. Set aside.

Pour pumpkin mixture into the unbaked pastry shell. Bake for 15 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 350°. Bake for 25 minutes longer. Sprinkle streusel topping over pie. Continue baking at 350° for about 15 to 20 minutes longer, or until golden brown and the filling is set.

I'm going in reverse. These are the cinnamon rolls.
drizzling the icing.
cinnamon rolls are so pretty!

Aaron is always eating.
Buttering the dough.. heh.
Finished Pumpkin Streusel..


my kitchen cart in it's glory.

strawberry cream filled birthday cake.

This is my first time making gumpaste flowers for a cake. quite fun really. Next I'm moving on to Orchids.

Here are pureed strawberries, for the strawberry cream filling

Icing colors: I would have liked the red to be a bit deeper, and the aqua a bit more aqua, less teal.. But life goes on.

I can't say I'm proud about the shape of this bottom layer. Something's gotta give with my cake pans. Or, my cake leveling abilities.
Here I added some of the gumpaste daisies.

Basically, you roll out the gumpaste, and use the little cut outs to make the shape and then shape it with thin foam pieces and wooden shaping tools. I could do this all day. It's a blast.
I really like the color scheme, the ease of the gumpaste daisies. Lopsided-ness aside, It was a nice cake.

the scone has eluded me again

Last night, after days and days of studying the scone in the cafeteria, I tried to replicate it.

The backstory is that the cafeteria at work has a delicious, to-die-for blueberry scone, among a long list of mediocre items. Those cafeteria workers are such wenches, that they won't give me the name of the bakery they purchase them from.

So, not being a scone know it all, I first just tried a basic scone. Too dry. Not nearly as delicious as the elusive cafeteria scone. It hit me that the texture of this scone was not the same as these dry tasteless things I'd had before. It seemed a bit more cakey, a bit more blueberry muffiney, but dense. So, I compared a blueberry muffin recipe to a cake recipe and a scone recipe and came up with this:

cake mix

6 TB of flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

3/4 milk

1 egg

1/2 bag of chopped frozen blueberries (thank you food processor)

Upon further analysis, this was the dumbest idea I've had in a while. But they didn't taste too bad. The consistency still isn't right.

My tasters (Rowena & Steph) have come to the conclusion that the scone I am trying to acheive is more like a biscuit than a muffin, and I do agree.

Blueberry biscuits in the shape of a scone to follow.

Labor Day Special: Cinnamon Chocolate Struesel Coffee Cake

I'm back! It's my first baking post as a married blogger. Hehe.
Being married is cool.

Anyway, I decided to embark on a recipe from a cookbook from my bridal shower.
It was pretty sweet.
Here are the details:

The ingredients
Bowl 1: Brown sugar, cocoa, cinnamon ( i had really good natural lighting for this one)
Bowl 2: Flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt
Bowl 3: Sugar & Butter
Bowl 4: Eggs

Mix Bowl 3 with Bowl 4. ( My good lighting is now gone)Before 65 minutes of baking... 1 for Lung Screening, 1 for Aaron, 1 for Matt K.
After 65 minutes of baking:



YUM

P.S. the recipe is lengthy and time consuming to type, so I won't....
BUT, if someone really wants it, email me and I'll gladly type it out for you.

I feel like chicken tonight.

Tonight, Aaron and I decided to make 'at home' Indian food. Although this is technically not baking... We did bake some pitas in the oven for approximately 8 minutes... does that count?
Above is our rice maker filled with Aaron's rice and seasoning that he likes.
Raw chicken doesn't really look appetizing. The point of the picture is the Patak's Doriaza Curry Sauce. Yum!


YUM.
Aaron found this, we seasoned the pita with it. Almost as good as Naan bread. Daniel Boulud has a wonderful restaurant DB Bistro I think it's called. Best Burger Ever.

The finished product. It was really good. I recommend that sauce. It's the best one out of all of them we've tried. I don't really like the chicken korma one.

The End. Flourless Chocolate Cake tomorrow!!!

I made Banana bread just to wear my new apron.

I got this sweet apron for a gift at my bridal shower.
It's fab.
I love it. So I made banana bread, just so I could wear it and have Aaron photograph it.

Banana Bread is-- Banana Bread- It's pretty self explanatory, so I'm not going to post the recipe..
Especially because I just got mine off of Allrecipes..
Yum..
this is how it started-- mashed bananas, cinnamon, eggs, brown sugar, butter, flour, soda, salt.

Aaron thought he'd get a better pic by having me touch my tongue to my nose, then catching the spontaneous part after.. but all he got was....
that. haha.

PORK

This is a baked pork recipe from Real Simple:

What you need:

• 1 2-pound piece boneless pork loin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• black pepper
• 1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped (I Used Cranberries because I couldn't find dried cherries in the store)
  
• 1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
• 6 slices bacon
• 1 tablespoon currant jelly
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Heat oven to 350° F. Season the pork with the allspice and 1⁄2 teaspoon pepper and place on a rimmed baking sheet.
In a small bowl, combine the cherries, parsley, and mustard. Spread evenly over the pork. Lay the bacon slices crosswise over the pork, overlapping them slightly and tucking the ends underneath.


Roast for 45 minutes.

3In a small bowl, combine the jelly and vinegar. Brush over the bacon and continue roasting until an instant-read thermometer registers 150°; F, 10 to 15 minutes more.
Let it rest for about 10 min before slicing.
Enjoy!

I think it turned out well! Anne & Aaron approve.
That's risotto in the background.

Cass' Not-so-Noodley Lasagna

Who could have known.. that this....

this...
and this...
could lead to.... THIS

I don't know if you're like me, but if you are.. you'll like this lasagna.
I always feel that there is too much noodle and not enough 'guts' in lasagna.

So, after a few stabs at lasagna that were less than satisfying, I decided to make my own recipe.
Here are the things I think make this experiment delicious:

1. Fresh Mozzarella
2. Zucchini
3. Sweet Onions
4. Sauce & guts: pasta

Here's what I used:

1 1/2 jars Fire Roasted Tomato (Newman's Own) Sauce
1 can of diced tomatoes w/ garlic
1/2 a sweet white onion
3/4 lb of fresh mozzarella cheese
8 oven ready-no boil lasagna noodles
5/6 lb of ground beef
Small container of Part-skim ricotta
Oregano
Basil
Pepper
Salt
Parmesan cheese

Mix Meat & 1 jar of sauce this will be referred to as meat&sauce.

First thing I did was put a bit of the meat&sauce into the bottom, followed by a bit of zucchini & onion, then the can of diced tomatoes (no juice).


Second thing, was add 4 noodles crossways.
I put some ricotta down on there... then most of the zucchini, some onion, some seasoning here & there.
Then I added all the meat sauce I had.
Then a few slices of mozzarella..


Next, 4 more pieces of lasagna crosswise.
Then use the 1/2 jar of sauce, 4 more dollops of ricotta, rest of zucchini, some onion..

and top it off with TONS of mozzarella.

Finish with some parmesan, pepper, oregano, basil, salt.

Bake at 375º for 40-50 minutes.
This will be your result. I did have to drain it a bit, but I think that the flavor was just right, so I wouldn't change the recipe I would just drain a bit out.




This was definitely the best lasagna I have had. Perfect combo.