Banana Bread

We had three over ripe bananas and  it was raining outside on Saturday afternoon (when we were supposed to go to our church picnic) so I made a quick banana bread to pass the time.  I used this recipe at Food Network.  It turned out great. 

Although we were sad to miss the picnic, our region of Texas is experiencing an Extreme Drought so we were grateful.  Our current lake level is at 49% so rain even on picnic day is a good thing. 

 

Hope you had a great weekend. 

Oreo Truffles

Made Oreo truffles (aka Oreo balls) for Christmas Eve's Eve.  I had never made these before but had tried them when one of the interns in my office brought them during the summer.  OMG are these good!  I don't even want to think about the calorie count!  It's so difficult to just eat one or two or three!

I followed this recipe at Better Homes & Gardens, but the same recipe is available at many different websites. 

The recipe yielded 36 balls for me, I guess I made them a little bigger than one inch. I added red sprinkles and put them on a green dish.  They were a hit with the familia.  These were so good, I'd love to make them for different holidays with fun sprinkles. 

Another good, easy recipe to add to my file.  Try them, you will love them too!

Summer Dessert #1

This was dessert tonight, Fruit Pizza. I had not made this in well over ten years. I decided the other day that I am going to try to make a fun, semi fancy, easy- dessert at least once a week. So here is the dessert for week #1.

Nothing to this. The crust is Sugar Cookie dough. I used Betty Crocker mix that comes in a pouch, added the stick (gulp) of butter and egg. After baking it on a pizza stone, I spread on strawberry flavored cream cheese and added sliced strawberries, bananas, kiwi and dotted with a few blue berries.. Very fun, quick and impressive for my five year old.

ps: There are many variations to this just do a search on Pillsbury or Betty Crocker website. You can do frosting for the spread and add candy like M & M's or marshmellows too, I was trying to be sorta healthy so I went with fresh fruit. If you make one, add a comment and include the link to your blog. Thanks for stopping by!

Dessert Tonight

We're having a few people over for dinner tonight. I've already made the dessert. I am usually not this far ahead.

This is Super EASY!. Line up ice cream sandwiches side by side in a glass dish. Spread fudge icecream topping over sandwiches. Add another layer of sandwiches. Top with whipped cream and drizzle with fudge and caramel. Enjoy! Thanks for stopping by!

Witch Hat Treats

In keeping with the witch theme, here's another EASY recipe to try. This one is from Betty Crocker.

32 Hershey®'s Kisses® milk chocolates, unwrapped
1 package (11 1/2 ounces) fudge-striped shortbread cookies (32)
1 tube (4.25 ounces) orange or red decorating icing

Attach 1 chocolate candy to chocolate bottom of each cookie, using decorating icing.

Pipe decorating icing around base of milk chocolate candy. TaDa, how much more simple can it get?

You can access the recipe at the Betty Crocker website by clicking here.

Ghost Appetizers

Micaela is going to have a tiny little Halloween party/playdate with some of her friends. I say tiny because it's only going to be her and two other little girls. They will be here during lunch time so I've been looking for some fun foods to serve.

In keeping with Micaela's new found facination with ghosts, (she has no idea what a ghost even is, she just likes how they smile) I think this recipe from Pillsbury is going to be perfect. I love two ingredient recipes. I plant to assemble them the night before and just bake them off right before I need to serve them.

INGREDIENTS
1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese or Colby-Monterey Jack cheese blend (4 oz)
Assorted sliced olives and chiles, as desired

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 375°F. Spray large cookie sheet with cooking spray, or cover with cooking parchment paper.

On cutting board, unroll dough; separate into 8 triangles. From center of longest side to opposite point, cut each triangle in half, making 16 triangles. Shape each as needed to look like ghost shape. Arrange triangles on cookie sheet, folding narrow point under about 1/ 2 inch, to form head of ghost.

Bake about 7 minutes or until slightly puffed and just beginning to brown. Sprinkle each ghost with 1 tablespoon cheese; top with sliced olives to form mouth and eyes. Bake 2 to 3 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

You can access all the 'ghostly' details on their website by clicking here.

Blueberry Pomegranate Fruit Smoothie

I wasn't a fan of tea until recently. Now it's all we drink at home. Here's a recipe I found on the Lipton website, it's delicious!

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Brew Time: 5 minutes
Chill Time: 1 hour
Servings: 4

Ingredients:
1 cup boiling water
4 LIPTON® White Tea with Blueberry & Pomegranate Flavor Pyramid Tea Bags
2 tbsp. sugar
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 pint (2 cups) frozen nonfat vanilla yogurt


Directions:
Pour boiling water over LIPTON® White Tea with Blueberry & Pomegranate Flavor Pyramid Tea Bags; cover and brew 5 minutes. Remove Tea Bags and squeeze. Stir in sugar until dissolved; chill. In blender, process tea mixture with remaining ingredients until smooth. Serve immediately.

Great Brisket Recipe

I wanted to share a new discovery for cooking brisket, Woody's Cookin' Sauce. You can find this at your local grocery store. The jar is in the BBQ sauce section and it's about $5 a jar.

My friend Kristi's mother has used this sauce for years. I have always used a cousin's marinade recipe that called for 15 different ingredients, well this is so much easier and the taste is just as delicious.

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We've used this for our last two cookouts and it's been great. I highly recommend this. Here's the recipe from their website. I was shocked to find this is not a Texas Product.

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Jazzed up brownies

This is a version of one of the Brownie recipes I did for a freelance project last month.

The actual recipe can be found here on the Betty Crocker website.

1box (1 lb 6.5 oz) Betty Crocker® Original Supreme brownie mix
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on brownie mix box
1/2 cup Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy creamy white or vanilla frosting (from 1-lb container)
2 tablespoons star-shaped candy decors

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray or shortening. Make and bake brownies as directed on box for 13x9-inch pan, using water, oil and eggs. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

In small microwavable bowl, microwave frosting uncovered on High about 20 seconds or until drizzling consistency. Drizzle frosting over brownies; sprinkle with star decors. For brownies, cut with plastic knife into 6 rows by 4 rows. Store covered at room temperature.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Micaela and I did a little baking tonight. You know how much fun it is to bake with a 2.5 year old! We made Daddy's favorite, "Oatmeal Raisin" cookies. I have tried lots of different recipes and we like the Quaker Oats' "Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookie" recipe the best. I found the recipe on the bottom of the Quaker Oats lid and it's the only recipe I've used for the last several years. Try these out, I promise-- they will vanish!

You can access the recipe online by clicking here.

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from Quaker Oats

Ingredients:
1/2 pound (2 sticks) margarine or butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup raisins

Preparation:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.
2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Note: I add about 1 cup+ of chopped pecans.... I love pecans!

Servings: ABOUT 4 DOZEN

More Holiday Cookies...

A couple of weeks ago I received my Kraft Foods Food & Family magazine in the mail. After finally getting a chance to read it, I marked about 10 recipes to try. Last week when I had a little time, I decided to make the Mint Thins found on page 6.

Basically it's Ritz crackers dipped in mint chocolate and sprinkled with crushed peppermint candy. The simplicity of the recipe really captured my attention. I thought well, "if these taste like the Girl Scout Thin Mints, I could have Thin Mints year round" so I decided to try them out.

Makes: 3 doz.

1 pkg. (8 squares) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate
1/4 tsp. peppermint extract
1 sleeve RITZ Crackers (36 crackers)
1 peppermint candy cane (6 inch), crushed

MICROWAVE chocolate in small microwaveable bowl as directed on package. Stir until completely melted. Blend in extract.

DIP crackers in melted chocolate, completely coating crackers with chocolate. Carefully scrape off excess chocolate. Place on waxed paper-covered baking sheets; sprinkle with crushed candy.

REFRIGERATE 30 min. or until chocolate is firm.

Very simple!

Well these are pretty good but a little more time consuming than I expected. Getting the chocolate to "perfectly" cover the cracker is something I still need to perfect. When I started I had my handy little assistant Micaela helping but I quickly figured out that melted chocolate and two year olds don't mix. As you can see, mine don't look as perfect as the ones in the magazine but they did taste pretty good. I recommend crushing your peppermints in a food processor. (I used my KitchenAid Food Processor). Although the large chunks of peppermint look good on the chocolate covered cracker (see Kraft's picture), I think it's more pleasant in your mouth without the chunks--- just MHO.

After I made the chocolate batch I decided to try some with White Chocolate. I was trying to create a swirled effect with red food coloring but I got carried away swirling and ended up with pink chocolate! In the end, the pink chocolate mint thins were preferred by my in house food critique (AKA hubby).

I hope you will take the time to try these.

You can subscribe to the Kraft Food & Family magazine by clicking here.

You can access all of the recipes found in the Holiday 2007 issue by clicking here.

Thanks for stopping by, happy baking or 'dipping'!

Holiday Snowball Cookies by Nestle Toll House

These cookies are really good! We had alot of fun baking. Micaela had fun "helping", she loves to see the KitchenAid mixer in action! When she was younger she would cry while sitting in her high chair because she wanted to watch it run-- Our little story even made it on a KA employee website. Anyway, she loves to be in the kitchen and this recipe was perfect because we had to make balls out of the cookie dough. She's had alot of practice making balls because she plays with PlayDoh often. The biggest challenge was keeping her from picking out the morsels!

I used:

• KitchenAid Stand Mixer to mix the ingredients
• KitchenAid Food Processor to finely chop the pecans
• Reynolds Parchment Paper on my cookie sheets (makes cleanup a snap)

You can view the recipe online here

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 2/3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® SWIRLED™ Holiday Morsels
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts
Powdered sugar

Directions:PREHEAT oven to 375° F. BEAT butter, 3/4 cup sugar, vanilla extract and salt in large mixer bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in flour. Stir in morsels and nuts. Shape level tablespoons of dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Place on ungreased baking sheets. BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookies are set and lightly browned. Remove from oven. Sift powdered sugar over hot cookies on baking sheets. Cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Sprinkle with additional powdered sugar, if desired. Store in airtight containers.

Pictures of my little baker, below....

Spreads for Bagels...

Here's a quick and easy recipe for a Pumpkin Spread. You can make this ahead of time and serve it with bagels for your guests over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Pumpkin Spread

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Beat all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours

I love different spreads on bagels. Two other favorites are from the KitchenAid Handmixer Use & Care Guide.... Raspberry Cream Cheese Spread and Honey Walnut Cream Cheese Spread. Both are on page 15. They are always a hit at my demos!

Raspberry Spread

1 package (8 oz.) light cream cheese
3 tablespoons seedless raspberry preserves
1⁄4 teaspoon grated orange peel

Place all ingredients in small bowl. Beat on Speed 1 about 1 minute, or until smooth and creamy,
scraping bowl once or twice. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours

Honey-Walnut Spread

1 package (8 oz.) light cream cheese
2 tablespoons honey
1⁄4 cup chopped walnuts

Place cream cheese and honey in small bowl. Beat on Speed 1 about 1 minute, or until smooth and creamy, scraping bowl once or twice. Add walnuts. Beat on Speed 1 about 20 seconds, or until combined. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.

And while were on the subject of bagels. I always toast my bagels in our KitchenAid toaster. It has extra wide slots for toasting bagels, hamburger buns and TEXAS toast. It does a beautiful job toasting just one side when you use the "bagel" button. The Toaster Use & Care Guide also has some great recipes for Flavored Butters.... Honey Orange, Lemon-Thyme and Cheesy Garlic on page 17.

Pumpkin Roll 6x6

I have been in the process of making a 6x6 book with my favorite seasonal recipes since last fall. Here's the page I made (last year) for my Pumpkin Roll recipe. The first time I had some of this pumpkin roll I begged my co-worker's wife for the recipe. She kindly took me aside and said, "it's the recipe off the Libby can". So I came home and found the recipe on the Libby website and it's been a favorite ever since. You can see it by clicking HERE. I will say that it is a little time consuming but oh so worth it! Try it, I think you'll agree!

Here are the recipe details:

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INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar (optional)

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DIRECTIONS

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PREHEAT oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle towel with powdered sugar.
COMBINE flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and slat in small bowl. Beat eggs and sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.
BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.
BEAT cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake; remove towel. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

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Supplies Used for 6x6 page: More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive and Very Vanilla card stocks. Wrought Iron corner Punch (retired), both Oval Punches, both Circle Punches, More Mustard brads and Fall Whimsey stamp set (retired)

Buzzard Casserole

This is a really good casserole that I make often. A couple of years ago, I made it for my Witch Party and all of the witches in attendance love it. I can't seem to find the original normal version, so in the spirit of Halloween, here it is in all its gory! Don't let the name fool you, honestly--- it's really good.

3-D Halloween Cookies

As I mentioned before,
I've been making
the rounds with all our trade partners.
You know, this is dangerous work because every store I walk into, I want to buy something. This past week I visited several Williams Sonoma stores. All the stores had these fabulous displays showcasing their new line of 3-D cookie cutters. These are so darn cute!

The 8 pieces come in this adorable Haunted House shaped box. Included are a pumpkin, a black cat, a haunted house and a witch. And they are on sale for just $17.99! These are exclusive to Williams Sonoma, you can't find them any where else.

Click here to see their website.

Quick Apple Crisp

I've been meaning to share this recipe all month. This is one of my favorite apple recipes. I've been thinking about it since Holiday Mini Collection catalog came out with the Apple Cider Designer Paper pictured here. I love making this recipe using my KitchenAid Food Processor to slice all the apples! I can literally slice a dozen apples in less than 3 minutes. The original recipe is from Pampered Chef, I got it when I hosted my first cooking show back in 1995. I have modified it over the years. I hope you enjoy it!


Quick Apple Crisp

Ingredients:
5 Granny Smith apples
(I have used all kinds of apples, Red Delicious and Gala. Use more if you would like your servings to be taller)
1 package (9 ounces) yellow cake mix (basically a half of a box)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I use more like a full cup and typically I use pecans)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Peel, core and slice apples. (I use my food processor to do the slicing). Place apples in Deep Dish Baker. If you really like pecans, sprinkle them throughout the apples.

Combine cake mix, sugar, cinnamon, butter and nuts in a bowl. Mix until crumbly. Sprinkle mixture evenly over apples.

Bake 35-40 minutes or until apples are tender. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped topping, if desired.

Psst... Pesto anyone?

One of the perks of being a KitchenAid product specialist is getting the opportunity to try new recipes as I demonstrate the appliances. Everyone knows the KichenAid Mixer is fabulous but not many know about all the different attachmentments that are available.


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Pesto is usually made in a food processor, but you can also use the food grinder attachment for your mixer.
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This recipe is pretty easy and delicious. The best thing is that it does not call for pine nuts which can be a concern to folks with alergies. I got wonderful reviews when I demonstrated and served this at Bed, Bath & Beyond, Williams Sonoma and Dillards. Everyone loved it!

Pesto
2 cups fresh basil leaves
1 cup parsley sprigs
8 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup olive oil

Assemble food grinder using fine grinder plate and attach to mixer. Turn to speed 4 and grind basil leaves, parsley springs and garlic into mixer bowl. Add salt, pepper and parmesan cheese. Attach bowl and wire whip. Turn to speed 6 and whip 1 minute. Stop and scrap bowl. Turn to Speed 8 and gradually add olive oil in thin, steady stream whipping until absorbed.

Serve with pasta, or over baked potatoes, or spread over toasted baguette slices.

Banana Bread Anyone?

We had some very ripe bananas in our fruit bowl this afternoon. Normally I would just throw them out but since I had the evening free (no stamp club tonight) I decided to bake some Banana Bread. I tried this recipe and it was great. Very simple, not too sweet and quick.

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cup of flour

Of course I used my KitchenAid mixer to mix all the ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve. Enjoy!

St. Louis or Bust!

This weekend we are headed to St. Louis for Troy's family reunion. Troy comes from a very large family, his mother is one of seven and when everyone gets together -- it's a large crowd. There are more than thirty first cousins alone! I am excited, since most of the family members we haven't seen since the last reunion two years ago.

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We are driving, yes you read right, we are driving. Wish us a safe journey. We've got our inventory of DVD's, toys and books already packed. I know I will be spending most of the trip in the back seat keeping Micaela entertained and happy in her car seat during the 10+ hour drive.

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Once we arrive everything will be okay but until then, I am praying!

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At the reunion, Micaela, our daughter will get to spend time with her five cousins that are her age. (There was six of us pregnant in the family at the same time two years ago). All six babies were born in a ten week span. Here are five of the six babies two years ago when they were between 2-4 months old. Micaela is the second one from the left, wearing yellow.

It was a challenge to get all the babies to look the same direction, let alone smile. In the end, this was the best picture. I can't wait to see what pictures we take this weekend.

Family reunions make me think of pasta salads. So here's one of my favorite recipes from one of my best resources-- Betty Crocker. You all have a safe Labor Day weekend! I gotta get packed-- see ya next week!

Dijon Chicken and Pasta Salad

1 package Betty Crocker® Suddenly Salad®

classic pasta salad mix
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp cold water
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 cup cubed cooked chicken

Fill 3-quart saucepan 2/3 full of water. Heat to boiling. Add contents of Pasta-Vegetable pouch to boiling water. Gently boil about 12 minutes or until pasta is tender; drain. Rinse with cold water until chilled; drain.

Stir together Seasoning mix, oil, water and mustard in large bowl. Stir in pasta-vegetable mixture. Stir in chicken. Toss with Parmesan Topping. Refrigerate any remaining salad.