Lemon Strawberry Coconut Cupcake

This post has been sitting in my draft folder for over a year. That's ridiculous. The other thing that is ridiculous is that I haven't blogged for over a year. What's the problem? I guess now that I'm retired, life has become either so busy or so boring that I don't have time to blog or I have nothing to blog about. Either way, there's a total lack of blogging going on. Here's the post that's been in the draft folder forever. 

Agnes wanted to make cupcakes a couple weeks ago. I wasn't too excited about it since I had made cupcakes for two separate events in the last 48 hours prior to that, but I didn't want to tell her no so we made more cupcakes. We had some leftover frosting from the other events' cupcakes and we used that as a jumping off point to decide what kind of cupcakes to make. After a couple of failed suggestions because I didn't have specific ingredients (limes or coconut milk) Agnes came up with lemon strawberry coconut cupcakes. We gave a plate of them away and got rave reviews, which was comforting because I was concerned with the amount of different flavors we were using. I should have taken a better picture, but again, I didn't know if they were going to work, so I only took the one picture.

Lemon Strawberry Coconut Cupcakes

I adapted Lizzy Early's lemon blackberry cupcake recipe found here.

Cupcakes

1 box white cake mix

1/3 C. oil or melted butter

3 eggs

zest of 2 lemons

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup sour cream

3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup freeze dried strawberries

Glaze
zest of half a lemon
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 2/3 cup powdered sugar

Frosting
1/2 cup butter
4 oz cream cheese
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp coconut extract
1 cup heavy cream
Toasted coconut, sliced strawberries and sanding sugar for garnish

Preheat oven to 350°F. For the cupcakes, put all the ingredients except the strawberries in a mixing bowl and blend together for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 2 minutes. Stir in the strawberries. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 17-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into baked cupcake comes out clean.
Allow cupcakes to cool. Meanwhile, stir glaze ingredients together. When cupcakes are cool to the touch, spread about 1 teaspoon of glaze over the top of the cupcake.

Frosting
Beat butter and cream cheese together in a mixing bowl for 3 minutes. Mix in coconut extract. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time and whip until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, whip cream until it holds stiff peaks. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese frosting until blended well. Frost cupcakes and top with toasted coconut. Dip strawberry slice in the lemon glaze and sprinkle with sanding sugar. Add another dollop of frosting and top with glazed strawberry.

June's Cupcakes, Light Versus Dark

I made cupcakes for Relief Society's June meeting. No surprise there. The hardest part is always deciding what flavor to make. I know some people don't like chocolate, so I when I know I'm making something chocolate, I try to offer a second choice. I was told they were both really good, and I have one person who has been waiting for me to post the recipes, so here they are. 

It gave me another reason to use my new ladder display that we (Bud, Laura and I) made last month. I'm loving that thing!

Forgive the off-balance display of the cupcakes. One container of chocolate cupcakes tipped over and were no longer presentable, so we were a little lopsided on how the remainder were arranged on the stand. None of the cupcake recipes are original, so I will just link you to where I found them. 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes, by Lizzy Mae Early (Your Cup of Cake), found here. The only thing I did differently was to drizzle some leftover peanut butter ganache over the top of the cupcake and used a regular chocolate frosting instead of the peanut butter frosting. 

Chocolate Frosting (this may or may not have been the frosting I used. Sorry if it is not!)

1 lb. powdered sugar (that's about 4 cups or so)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Beat the butter and cocoa powder in a standing mixer until mixed well. Add powdered sugar a cup at a time until you've added it all. Slowly add in the cream and beat for about five minutes until it is smooth. 

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes, again by Lizzy Mae Early, found here. 

After I made the cupcakes (I only put in the zest of one lemon instead of two, but I did use 1/4 cup lemon juice as directed), I cored out the center of the cupcakes and added a dollop of lemon curd from Leigh Anne Wilkes (Your Homebased Mom), found here. I replaced the top of the cored-out cupcake and frosted it with OBB's strawberry cream, found here, then added half of a strawberry to the top. 

That's pretty much it! If you tried one, I hope you liked it. If you didn't try one, you should have come to the Relief Society extra meeting! 

A Double Birthday Celebration

On Friday, June 3, my mom turned 85. We were supposed to have a party for my step father in May when he turned 95, but it was postponed because my mom had a 24 hour bug. Laura and I made a few desserts for the party. I baked everything and she did almost all the decorating. Her skills far and away outshine mine. 

Walt and Mom were given leis by my mom's sister, and my niece, Amy, had the very same idea, so my mom is wearing two leis! 

Here's the dessert table-

Mom was happy with how everything turned out. Here are a few close-up pictures of what we made. 

The cupcakes were supposed to be stuck into a styrofoam ball which had been glued to a clay flowerpot, but it was so warm that the cupcakes wouldn't hold onto the toothpicks, so because I didn't have enough time (traffic was miserable and it took twice as much time to drive there as it normally does) to go to plan B, which was to add frosting to the ball as a glue, I gave up on that idea and just set the cupcakes on the little table stands. 

The flowerpots are holding Rice Krispies treats. The flowers were supposed to be on a stick and standing up in the silicone pot, but I didn't put enough treats inside the pots for a base, so they wouldn't stand up. After the party, I had to fish through the trash can to find two of my little pots that had been thrown away. Yikes!

Here's the premier for the ladder stand that I made with some assistance from Bud and Laura. It had been so long since I used my scroll saw that I forgot a few key elements, but eventually we got it all to work. I'm happy with how it turned out. I bought the little stands as separate pieces from The Wood Connection, then stained and glued them together. I forgot to bring the doilies I bought to put under the large cookies. I always forget something! 

The sunflower ganache balls were a little too delicate and I had trouble keeping the petals in tact when I tried to peel away the liner. 

The sugar cookies were the hit of the party. Laura's diligence in making the flowers which went on top of the cookies had everyone in awe.

These puff pastry shells were filled with whipped cream and topped with a raspberry-chocolate chip flower. We had a different plan for these guys too, but went with a time saving option instead.

Laura made and arranged the flowers for the six layer orange-flavored cake. At the base of the cake are mini lemon tarts with homemade lemon curd. We never cut the cake. Cheryl took it home. 

The cupcakes are filled with strawberry cream. I didn't try one on the night of the party, but the couple bites of scraps I tasted earlier in the day were yummy. 

So there you have it. My mom provided the appetizers on a separate table. I think the guests who came all had an enjoyable time. I know these kids had a good time! 

Cupcake Recipe found here at McGreevycakes.com. This is a great recipe to use when you need to doctor a mix. We used half of the recipe, using one cake mix. 

Strawberry Cream Filling for the cupcakes found here. Bonus on this one is you get the recipe for cream puffs as well as ganache. Thanks OBB girls!

Swig Sugar Cookies copycat recipe found here at the Idea Room. Please try to overlook her misspelling of tartar (as in cream of). The cookies are fabulous. 

Lemon Curd found here at Your Homebased Mom.

Ultimate Bakery-style Rice Krispies Treats found here on Brown Eyed Baker who adapted it from Cookies and Cups, but this is a double recipe which makes a ton. I've done the math for you in case you want to make a single batch. 

Ultimate Bakery-style Rice Krispies Treats- slightly adapted (half recipe)

5 T. unsalted butter (71 grams)

16 oz. bag of miniature marshmallows (453 grams), divided

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

6 cups (158 grams) Rice Krispies cereal

Line a 9x9-inch pan with parchment paper; set aside. In a large pan, melt the butter, then add 8 cups (340 grams) of marshmallows. Over low heat, stir until the marshmallows are melted, then remove from heat. Add the salt and vanilla extract. Stir in the Rice Krispies cereal and stir until they are well coated. Add the remaining marshmallows and stir briefly. Don't over-mix though. Pour mixture into prepared pan and press down lightly (don't compact it). When treats are cool, cut into bars. Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 2 to 3 days. 

Happy birthday to Mom and Walt. I hope you had a fun party! 

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Chocolate Banana Cream Pie

We had some friends over last night and I served this pie. The ladies are always calorie conscientious so I offered a smaller choice to one of the ladies and a larger choice to her husband. After she finished her slice, she was eyeing her husband's pie thinking she might have to steal a couple more bites off his plate. She regretted accepting the smaller slice! The husband said he needed me to make this again in February and bring it to his house (he was referring to having me make this for his birthday. No cake for him, bring on this pie)! It's a little extra effort than this pie, but they all sure seemed to love it a lot, so I think it was worth it. I found the recipe on Pinterest which took me to this blog's post which I have adapted below. It is very similar to the custard I use for my coconut cream pie.

Chocolate Banana Cream Pie 
CRUST:
26 Oreo chocolate sandwich cookies
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
In a food processor or blender or a Ziplock bag and a rolling pin, process or crush the cookies into fine crumbs. Pour 1 1/2 cups of crumbs into a medium sized bowl, reserving the leftover crumbs. Add the melted butter to the bowl and stir together. Press the buttered crumbs into and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Place in refrigerator while making custard.
CUSTARD:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups milk (use whole or 2% milk)
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon butter
4 oz. white chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 bananas (not overly ripe, but not green either)

Pressurized whipped cream or sweetened whipped cream
Chocolate curls, if desired
Directions: In a small heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt. Add milk; stir until smooth. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat to low; cook and stir for 2 minutes longer. Remove from the heat. Slowly stir a small amount of hot filling (about 1/2 cup) into egg yolks; return all to the pan, stirring constantly. Return pan to medium heat and bring custard to a gentle boil; cook and stir 2 minutes longer. Remove from the heat; stir in the butter, the white chocolate chips and vanilla. Stir until the chips are completely melted. Cool slightly. Remove pie crust from refrigerator and slice bananas so they fit the bottom of the pie crust in a single layer. You will use about a banana and a half for this. Pour half of the custard on top of the bananas, then add reserved cookie crumbs on top of the custard. Slice the remaining banana(s) on top of this layer of custard. Place plastic wrap on top of the custard and refrigerate for about four hours. Just before serving, add whipping cream over pie and sprinkle with chocolate curls. You can garnish the plate with a little chocolate ganache if you happen to have some handy. Yield: 8 servings. 

Buckeye Cupcakes

The peanut butter obsession continues over here. I was told that this was "one of the best cupcakes I've ever had." She continued to say, "The Buckeyes were so very yummy! Perfect peanut butter frosting." So if you're looking for chocolate and peanut butter yumminess, try this out. Thanks for the glowing review, Michele!

Buckeye Cupcakes

For the buckeyes:

1/4 cup butter, melted

3/4 cups smooth peanut butter (I used Skippy)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Chocolate candy melts or other chocolate for dipping

Using a hand-held mixer or a stand mixer at low speed, stir the meted butter and peanut butter together until blended. Stir in the vanilla extract, then slowly add the powdered sugar. Beat until smooth. Roll peanut butter mixture into small balls, then freeze the balls for at least 20 minutes. I made mine ahead of time, putting the frozen balls into a Ziplock bag. Remove the balls from the freezer. Poke a toothpick into the ball and dip into melted chocolate so that the chocolate comes up to the top of the ball but doesn't cover it completely. Use a second toothpick to free the ball from the first toothpick. Use the back of a spoon (or your finger) to smooth over the hole left by the toothpick. Place buckeye on parchment paper until chocolate solidifies. Work quickly so the peanut butter balls don't get to soft. If necessary, return un-dipped balls to the freezer until firm again.  

For the cupcakes:

1 (15.25-oz) box devil's food cake mix (or other chocolate cake mix)

1 (3.4-oz) box chocolate instant pudding

3/4 cup sour cream

3/4 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup buttermilk or 1/2 cup regular milk

Preheat oven to 350°F. You'll need about 24 cupcake liners in a cupcake pan (or pans). In mixing bowl, blend together the sour cream,  vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla and buttermilk. Add cake mix and pudding, blending just until combined. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until cupcakes test clean with a toothpick. 

Cool cupcakes for 2 minutes in the pan, then remove warm cupcakes to a container that can be covered, such as a couple of 13x9-inch pans. Cover pans with plastic wrap. Doing this helps lock in the moistness of the cake. Keep cupcakes "under wraps" until they are completely cool. 

For the peanut butter frosting:

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream (or more, depending on desired consistency)

Beat together the peanut butter and butter, then add in vanilla extract and salt. Slowly add the powdered sugar, beating until well combined. Add the heavy cream (you can use milk if you want, but start with a little less than 1/4 cup and see what your consistency is before adding the entire amount). Beat until light and fluffy. 

For the ganache: (recipe is adapted from My Baking Addiction)

4 oz. semi-sweet baking chocolate, chopped finely

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

2 T honey

2 T light corn syrup

2 T vanilla (yes, that is tablespoons)

Heat the heavy cream in a saucepan just until bubbles begin to form around the side of the pan, but do not boil. Place chopped chocolate in a bowl. Pour the hot cream over chopped chocolate and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Stir the cream and chocolate together until it is combined. Add remaining ingredients. Let the ganache set up for about 15 minutes and then transfer to a Ziplock baggie. 

To assemble: 

Frost the cupcakes a few at a time (because if the frosting sits too long, you can't get the chopped peanuts to stick). I used a Wilton 2D tip. Snip off a tiny corner of the bag of ganache and drizzle the cupcake, then sprinkle with chopped peanuts. Top cupcake with a buckeye, pressing down very gently. Continue until all cupcakes are decorated, or you can take a break from the assembly process and test-taste your creation. 

You'll probably have a few buckeyes left over. That's a bonus! I think I could eat those all day long!

Lemon Cookies

While thumbing through the holiday cookbook from Six Sisters'Stuff I noticed that their recipe for red velvet cream cheese cookies and the one for gooey butter cookies were almost the same. The concept is to use a cube of butter, a package of cream cheese and a box of cake mix. I figured it wouldn't make any difference what flavor of cake mix was used, it just depended on what you were in the mood for, and I was right. I was in the mood for lemon! Depending on what flavor cake mix you use, you can add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips or other chips (but not Doritos chips because that would be gross.) 

Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened 

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (for more lemon flavor use lemon extract)

1 box lemon cake mix (ignore directions on the box)

Powdered sugar (about 1/2 cup)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the egg and the extract, and beat until combined. Add the dry cake mix in about three installments until completely moistened. 

Place powdered sugar in a shallow bowl. Roll dough into balls and dip in powdered sugar. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet, or use a Silpat liner. Bake for 10-13 minutes. I pulled mine out at 11 to 11 1/2 minutes. Remove from oven and sift additional powdered sugar over tops of cookies. Move to wire rack to cool. 

Makes about 30 cookies. 

Cheesy Enchilada Casserole

I'm not done with Six Sisters' Stuff yet! In the following picture, you are looking at a picture of leftovers. It looked better the night before, but I wasn't able to take a picture of it the first time around. Let me just say that it was yummy the first time AND the second time. Just imagine that the cheese is a lot meltier the first time. 

Cheesy Enchilada Casserole (from Six Sisters' Stuff) 
1 pound lean ground beef (90% lean) or ground turkey (I used turkey)
1 large onion, chopped 
2 1/2 cups salsa 
1 can (15 ounces) black beans or red kidney beans, rinsed and drained 
1/4 cup reduced-fat Italian salad dressing 
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium taco seasoning 
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin 
6 flour tortillas (8 inches) 
1 small can of drained corn, or about 1 1/4 cups of frozen corn (optional) 
1/2 cup to 3/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream   
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend 
1 cup shredded lettuce, if desired 
1 medium tomato, chopped, if desired
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro (or not!)

Directions
In a large skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain.
Stir in the salsa, beans, dressing, sour cream, corn, taco seasoning and cumin.
Spoon a generous layer of meat mixture on bottom of 2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle with grated cheese.
Tear up a flour or corn tortilla into pieces and place on top of meat mixture. Layer with half of the remaining meat mixture, and cheese. Repeat for one more layer, finishing with grated cheese on top.
Spray a piece of foil with non-stick cooking spray and cover casserole. Bake at 400° for 25 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. 
Let stand for 5 minutes before topping with lettuce, tomato and cilantro. Yield: 8 servings.

Chicken Spaghetti

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! If I had known this is what they were talking about all this time when they used that phrase then I would have cashed in a lot sooner. This meal (I used a weird filter and it looks rather red) was so simple to make and everyone loved it! The neat thing about it too is that you can substitute things in or out according to your preference. Another Six Sisters' Stuff win!

Chicken Spaghetti by Six Sisters' Stuff, adapted slightly

2 cups cooked chicken, cut up (I used a precooked Costco chicken)

3/4 to 1 lb. package uncooked spaghetti noodles (I used 3/4 lb.)
2 cans 98% Fat Free Cream of Mushroom (or Cream of Chicken) soup

3 cups grated cheddar cheese, divided (I used a conglomerate of cheeses that were opened in the fridge)

1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, drained (or use fresh)

1/4 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup green pepper, diced
1 t seasoned salt
Dash of cayenne pepper (optional- I didn't use it)
1 (14.5 oz) can chicken or vegetable broth

Break noodles into 2" or 3″ pieces and cook according to package directions. Place cooked noodles into a large bowl. Add chicken and toss together. Add soup, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, 2 cups of cheese, seasoned salt, and cayenne pepper. Mix all together. Add about 1 cup of the chicken broth and stir it in, then and add a little bit more if needed. You want it nice and moist, but you don’t want it to be too runny. I used the whole amount and it was fine. Lightly spray a 9×13″ glass pan with non-stick cooking spray. Pour the mixture into the pan. Top with remaining 1 cup of cheese. You could also top with bread crumbs or after it has baked for 25-30 minutes you could add french fried onions to the top. 

Bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes (or until hot and bubbly). 

Other substitutions that would be tasty would be chopped celery, mushrooms, zucchini, or whatever sounds good to you. Really, you can't go wrong. 

Avocado Chicken Enchiladas

I have a dear friend who can no longer process animal protein. We've been spending some extra time with him and to give his sweet wife a break, I've been cooking some of the dinners. While these are avocado chicken enchiladas, I just left the chicken out of a few of them so he could still eat the dinner too. 

                                          

If I keep blogging Six Sisters' Stuff recipes I'm going to have to give them their own label like I did for Our Best Bites! This starts with a homemade enchilada sauce which makes these super tasty. I spooned extra sauce over the top of this enchilada, so you aren't really seeing the cheese under there.

Avocado Chicken Enchiladas from Six Sisters' Stuff

Sauce

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 T butter

1 T all-purpose flour

1 cup chicken or vegetable stock

2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup fat-free sour cream

1 cup mild or medium salsa verde

1/2 cup chopped cilantro (obbbbbbviously, I left this out!!! Blech!)

Enchiladas

3 to 4 cups cooked chicken breasts, shredded

2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese, divided

3 avocados, peeled and chopped

8 flour tortillas

1/2 - 3/4 cup French Fried onions

Preheat oven to 375°F. In a medium saucepan, sauté garlic in butter about 1 minute on medium heat. Stir in flour and cook about 2 more minutes. Stir in broth, cumin, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream, salsa verde and cilantro (if you're using it). 

Spray a 13x9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Add about 1/2 cup sauce to the pan and spread until bottom of dish is evenly coated. 

On each tortilla, add some chicken, cheese and avocado to one end. Roll it up and place it seam-side down in pan. Pour remaining sauce over the enchiladas. Cover with 1 cup of cheese and bake uncovered about 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbling. Sprinkle the French Fried onions over the top of the casserole and bake 3-5 minutes longer until the onions are golden. 

Makes 8 servings.  

Chicken Taco Soup

This recipe can also be called Food Storage Soup, but that might scare some people away. 

                         

I know sometimes it is scary to try a new recipe. Not to worry, I've got you covered. I've kind of been going through Six Sisters' Stuff's Teal-colored book and this is another gem. 

Slow Cooker Eight-Can Taco Soup from Six Sisters' Stuff

1 can (15 oz.) black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can (15 oz.) pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 can (15 oz.) sweet corn, drained

1 can (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes

1 can (10.75 oz.) condensed cream of chicken soup (I used mushroom because I was out of chicken)

1 can (10 oz.) can green enchilada sauce

1 can (12.5 oz.) chicken breast, drained (I had leftover cooked chicken in the refrigerator, so I went with that). 

1 pkg. (1 oz.) taco seasoning 

grated cheese

avocado, sliced

Pour all ingredients into slow cooker and stir together. Cook on low heat 2-3 hours. Top with shredded cheese and serve with tortilla chips and sliced avocado, if desired. 

Note: I was in a hurry and chose not to use the slow cooker. I poured everything into a pot and brought it to a simmer, then cooked it for about ten minutes on low heat. Worked just fine! 

Slow Cooker Cranberry Pork Loin

Break out the slow cooker. You're going to want to try this soon! It's so easy and completely yum to the tum. 

                 

Six Sisters Stuff is to blame for this one. Here's the thing- I'm stuck in St. George and I only brought four cookbooks with me. Two of them are Six Sisters, and since I'm loving their "stuff" lately, that's what I'm cooking and blogging. Costco sells a two-pack of pork tenderloin, and within that two-pack are two tenderloins, so you're really dealing with four tenderloins per total package. Use two of the tenderloins (or one half of the total package you've purchased) for this recipe. 

I like to make my cranberry sauce (thank you OBB girls- I haven't forgotten you!). 

Slow Cooker Cranberry Pork Loin (Click to go to the original post at SSS)

3 lbs. boneless pork loin or tenderloin  

1 can (16 oz.) whole cranberry sauce (or click on the cranberry sauce link above to make your own)

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 T light brown sugar

1 tsp prepared yellow mustard

Place roast in a slow cooker coated with cooking spray. Combine the rest of the ingredients and pour over the roast. Cook on high 4-5 hours or on low 6-8 hours, making sure the internal temperature of the pork is 145°F. Remove roast and cover with foil while you make the sauce. 

To make the sauce, just add a little water and cornstarch to the mixture left in the crock pot. Whisk until combined. Serve with sliced pork.

I didn't thicken my sauce as I felt it was fine without the cornstarch mixture.  

There's Always Room For Jell-O

When you think of pretzel Jell-O you probably think strawberry or raspberry, right? Would you believe I had never tasted the pretzel Jell-O concoction before trying this one? True statement. Or if I've tried it, I have forgotten that I've tried it, which could be a completely true statement as well.

This recipe makes a lot (13x9-inch pan), so take it to a party, or be prepared to eat a lot of it over the next few days (which is a good alternative as well)!

                                  
Mandarin Orange Pretzel Salad (from Six Sisters' Stuff)
2 cups crushed pretzels
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup plus 3 T granulated sugar, divided
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese
1 container (8 oz.) Cool Whip (yes, I could type out nondairy whipped topping, but hey)
1 box (6 oz.) orange Jell-O
2 cups boiling water
1 can (11 oz.) mandarin oranges, undrained

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine pretzels, melted butter and 3 T. sugar. Stir together until well blended. Press into a 13x9-inch baking pan and bake 7 minutes. Cool completely.
Beat remaining (1 cup) sugar and cream cheese together until smooth (it takes a few minutes to get the sugar to stop being gritty). Fold in the thawed Cool Whip. Spread this mixture over the pretzel crust, spreading it against the sides to seal out the Jell-O mixture from seeping down to the pretzel layer, because soggy pretzels are such a disappointment.
Mix the Jell-O and boiling water and stir until the Jell-O is completely dissolved (at this point, I added about 6 ice cubes to speed the cooling process along). Add the oranges and let cool until slightly set. Pour Jell-O carefully over the cream cheese layer (I used a measuring cup as a ladle so it wouldn't splash too much). Refrigerate until firm. Cut into squares and serve.
SSS says this makes about 12 servings, but I would say those would be 12 very generous servings.

Oatmeal White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I tried using the mobile version of Blogger but the learning curve was steeper than I was willing to climb, so while I'm in St. George (which may or may not be forever) I will have to blog when I have an internet connection. I made these cookies a couple days ago and gave most of them away before they did too much damage to my resolution to not let my snack calories outnumber other meals. 

                  

These are from Six Sisters' Stuff and were delicious. I made a couple of changes (big surprise there, huh?). Here's a link to the original recipe.   

White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 cup white chocolate chips 

1/2 cup cinnamon chips 

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a bowl, beat together softened butter and both sugars. Add in eggs and vanilla extract, mixing well. Stir in the flour, baking powder and soda, the salt and cinnamon, then stir in the oats. Finally, stir in the chips. 

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a parchment-lined (or baking mat) cookie sheet. 

Bake 9-12 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and cool completely on wire rack. 

Makes about 4 1/2 dozen cookies.  

Crispy Onion Chicken

 Have you heard of Six Sisters' Stuff? I have two of their cookbooks and really love everything they do. Being in Santa Clara, I've lost my built-in cook (my daughter), so I've had to get back into the kitchen again. My sister told me she fixed this for dinner the other night, and since I had everything I needed to make it too, I gave it a try. Hello, yum!

It's super simple too! "Paint" a chicken breast with honey mustard and then press the chicken into some crushed french fried onions. I placed them onto a small cooling rack that fit inside my 9x13 inch pan to lift them up off the pan so the underside would be crispy too. I baked it for 30 minutes at 375°F. It was tasty! Here's the link to see how the Six Sisters made theirs. They use a lot more mustard than I did. 

Bliss in Every Bite

I made some cookies on Monday that are probably the most delicious chocolate peanut butter combination I have ever tasted before.

The recipe is the brain child of Lizzy Early from Your Cup of Cake. The only difference between hers and mine is that I added the extra drizzle, which is just leftover ganache that is also under the baby Reese's peanut butter cups. Lizzy suggests that you make a depression in the cookie before baking. I used the back of this measuring spoon (it's a tablespoon). 

Once the cookies are baked (and they are super fast and easy since they start with a cake mix), you fill them with a peanut butter frosting and then a peanut butter/chocolate ganache, topped with mini Reese's peanut butter cups. Not miniature Reese's, but mini Reese's. They are each about the size of my baby fingernail. As if that wasn't enough, I made this on the same day. It's from Six Sister's Stuff.

You can get the recipe for that right here.  But their recipe doesn't have that layer of peanut butter goo in it. For me, that's practically the best part of the fudge, so here's that peanut butter sauce recipe. 

Okay, the treats are ready! It's time for friends to come over. The set up in the back was for banana splits. 

Yummy! I made some hot fudge sauce and more peanut butter sauce for the splits, but I left my triple crock pot on high and the sauces overheated. We just dipped out of the very center and we survived. I thought the cookies were even better the next day. I couldn't stop eating them, so I had to give every last one of them away. 

S'morekies

A very long time ago, we tried a chocolate chip cookie/s'more cookie that was really delicious. I never blogged them and so I thought I'd better do it now so I won't forget them. These are adapted from a blog called Bakergirl.

I've decided to call these...S'more cookies, or S'morekies!

S'morekies

2/3 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup shortening (necessary to get the right amount of "melt" to the dough)

1 cup granulated sugar

2 cups packed brown sugar

4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
5 cups all purpose flour
12 oz chocolate chips (we prefer milk chocolate)
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
2 cups mini marshmallows (plus a few extras)
6 regular sized Hershey bars, cut into 24 pieces per bar
2 boxes graham crackers (I've found ones already halved, labeled as S'mores sized- perfect!)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and shortening until light and creamy (about 3-4 minutes). Add both sugars and continue to beat until fluffy, then add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.
Add the dry ingredients together and add to the butter/egg mixture. Blend slowly, just until combined. That's a lot of flour to add all at once, so watch out for exploding flour back in your face if you start your mixer up too quickly! Stir in chocolate chips (both sizes) and marshmallows (reserving the few extras).
Spread out your half-sized graham crackers onto the parchment paper. Place a golf ball sized scoop of cookie dough onto the graham cracker. Bake for 5 minutes, then remove the cookie sheet from the oven and add a couple of the reserved marshmallows and a couple of the Hershey bar pieces to each cookie. Work quickly! Return the cookies to the oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
These were devoured as soon as they were cool enough to handle. My grandchildren gave them two thumbs up as well.

Peanut Butter Sauce

When I visited Karen in Arizona in March, she fed me Dryers Butterfingers ice cream (a vanilla-based ice cream with chunks of Butterfingers and a peanut butter swirl running through it).  I was in love. Unfortunately, it was harder to find in Salt Lake than it was in Mesa, so I switched to Dryers Slow Churned Reese's peanut butter cup ice cream instead (same base and peanut butter swirl- just switch baby Reese's pb cups for the Butterfingers). Still in love! And maybe even more so because it was slow churned which meant forty fewer calories per serving. Yesterday, my husband broke out a carton of Breyer's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream and it was super yummy too! Breyer's uses a peanut butter flavored based ice cream. I think in my mind it is all about the peanut butter, and the more of it, the more I love it. So I decided to make a peanut butter ice cream sauce to pour over some vanilla ice cream, just in case my supply of specialty ice cream in the freezer disappears.

Peanut Butter Sauce
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup corn syrup
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Bring the first three ingredients to a simmer over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add heavy cream and vanilla extract. The sauce will thicken as it cools. Serve warm over ice cream (some kids like it spread on a slice of bread for lunch!).

Maraschino Cherry Cupcakes

Last month two friends of mine had a birthday on the same day. One got cupcakes...

and the other got a cake. 

They both had the same frosting but were different cakes. Today I'm blogging about the cupcakes. The cupcake is adapted from Lizzy Early over at Your Cup of Cake. 

Maraschino Cherry Cupcakes

1 box white cake mix, sifted

3 eggs

1/3 cup oil

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tsp almond emulsion (or extract if you don't have emulsion)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 small jar (10 oz) maraschino cherries, drained and chopped (reserve the cherry juice for the frosting)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pans with wrappers. Mix together the eggs, oil, buttermilk, and emulsion, then add the sifted cake mix and beat for a minute. Fill liners 3/4 full of batter and bake for 17-22 minutes or until a toothpick tests clean. 

Cherry Frosting

1 cup butter, softened

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 tsp almond emulsion (or extract)

1 tsp grenadine syrup

1 T maraschino cherry juice

5 cups powdered sugar

Beat butter and cream cheese together for 3-5 minutes. Add almond emulsion, grenadine syrup and cherry juice. Stir to combine. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Beat on medium-low speed for 10 minutes. Frost cooled cupcakes and top with sprinkles and a stemmed cherry if desired. 

I'm going to make these again but next time I will make them chocolate cherry cupcakes by filling them with a chocolate ganache in the center of the cupcake after they are baked. Then I will top them with chocolate curls and a chocolate dipped cherry. Can't wait to see how those turn out! 

*Update-I couldn't wait. I made these today and added chocolate ganache to the center of the cupcake, but didn't have time to add the chocolate curls so I just used some very slim Jimmies and topped it with the chocolate cherry. Lovely! 

The Bread of Life

Laura has asked that we start eating more "from scratch" food, so I whipped out my wheat grinder and my Blendtec mixer and got busy on some bread. I wanted to try a recipe from Six Sisters and I was glad I did! This was really good bread. It doesn't look or taste like what you think of when you hear "whole wheat." This is light and chewy and yummy, and hard to not slice off just one more piece! 

The recipe comes from here.

I changed a couple of things though. I used 12 cups of freshly ground whole wheat flour and then finished it up with about 3 cups of all-purpose flour, mostly because my wheat grinder tops out at 12 cups of flour per cycle and I don't want to have to grind a little more wheat to finish up the dough! I stop adding flour when the dough in the machine pulls away from the sides like they explain over at Six Sisters. If you don't have a machine to knead your dough for you, you want to stop adding flour when the bread is still a little sticky, but not overly sticky. I know that's hard to determine when you haven't done it before, but you are all smart people out there and I am confident you can figure it out! Or go buy a machine, which is what I did after watching a friend of mine make bread a few years ago!

The second thing I changed was I let my dough rise once in the bowl before shaping into loaves and letting them have a second shorter rise in the pans. I use 1 1/2 pounds of dough in my slightly smaller bread pans and 2 pounds of dough in my larger bread pan. It bakes at 350°F for about 30 minutes (or until it reaches 195°F on an instant read thermometer. I haven't made six loaves of bread yet from a single recipe (I've made this recipe twice in two days!) because yesterday we made what we call "Hot Spots" (dough wrapped around ham, cheese, broccoli and sometimes red pepper and bake them for about 20 minutes) and today we made hamburger buns with some of the dough. This is now my favorite bread recipe and I hope you'll try it to see if it will be your favorite one too!  

Butterfinger PB Rice Krispies Treats

For the past two years, my husband and I have been serving a mission at the local employment center for our church. Today was our last day. Again. That part is a long story, so let's just say that this time it was really, truly our last day. 

Whenever it is someone's last day, treats are brought. My friend, Kathy, brought oatmeal raisin cookies, which happen to be my husband's favorite cookies! Perfect! But I wanted a little more oomph to the treats on our last day. I went home at lunchtime and decided to use our last day as an excuse to try something out that's been nagging at me for a few weeks. These guys, right here. 

It only takes a few minutes to throw these guys together. Let me tell you how much you want these in your life. A lot! Unless you are on a sugar-free, peanut butter allergy kind of lifestyle. Then I would avoid them.

(Edited 4/23/14- I've updated this recipe to be a little more exact on the peanut butter frosting.) 

Butterfinger Peanut Butter Rice Krispies Treats (adapted from Your Cup Of Cake)

6 cups Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal

12 oz. miniature marshmallows

3/4 cup smooth peanut butter (I used Skippy)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Peanut Butter Frosting (adapted from Your Cup of Cake)

1/4 cup smooth peanut butter

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups powdered sugar

4 tsp milk 

Chocolate PB Ganache

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

1 cup milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips

Topping

crushed Butterfingers (about 1/2 cup)

Reese's Peanut Butter chips (about 1/4 cup)

Frosting-

You want to make the frosting first because the rest of this comes together so quickly. Add peanut butter and butter together in your mixing bowl. Blend for two minutes. Add vanilla extract and powdered sugar and beat for one minute, then add the milk and beat until smooth.

Treats-

Prepare a 9x13 pan by lining it with a sheet of parchment paper, allowing two of the edges to hang over the sides of the pan so you can lift the treats out before cutting them into bars. In a medium bowl, measure cereal and set aside. In a large microwaveable bowl, heat the marshmallows, vanilla and peanut butter for 30 seconds and then stir. Depending on how fresh your marshmallows are, it will need up to one minute more of heating time. Quickly add the cereal and stir to coat. Pour coated cereal into prepared pan and press to fill the pan (see photo- I like to make mine a little short of the pan size so they are thicker). 

You can either put water or butter on your hands to keep the cereal from sticking to you. Frost treats with the peanut butter frosting and either place it in the refrigerator while making the ganache or don't, depending on your preference. 

Ganache-

In a small to medium microwaveable bowl, heat the chocolate chips for 30 seconds. Stir well, and if needed, heat for an additional 30 seconds until chocolate is completely melted. Add the peanut butter to the melted chocolate and stir until smooth. This melts the peanut butter and cools the chocolate at the same time. Pour ganache over peanut butter frosting layer (this shows how thick the ganache is when adding it to the treats), 

smoothing gently so as to not disturb the frosting beneath the ganache. 

Immediately sprinkle smoothed ganache with the crushed Butterfingers and peanut butter chips. Refrigerate for about 10-20 minutes to harden the ganache a little bit. 

Remove treats from the pan by lifting up on the parchment paper overhanging the edges of the pan. Cut into bars and serve. I cut mine into 5 rows and 5 columns. 

You can even eat these for breakfast because the main ingredient is cereal!

People are starting to curse at me for bringing these to different events, but they always curse with a smile on their face and a treat on the way to their mouth!