Apple Crumb Bars

These apple crumb bars are good.  So good, in fact, that I brought them to my aunt and uncle's house for a party, and they were devoured so quickly that I ended up making a second batch of them right then and there.  Maybe that isn't how most people spend their time at parties, but that is exactly what I prefer to do :)

I can't say enough good things about these bars.  They're almost like apple pie, minus all the work of a pie, and minus the commitment to a whole entire slice.  This way you can hold a little bit of pie in your hand (or a lot... there may or may not have been a few double fist-ers) .  It has the perfect ratio of crust and apple filling, and they are soft, sweet, and oh so good.

Don't be scared off by the fact that there are three components to these bars (the crust, the filling, and the topping).  They really are not at all difficult and they come together pretty quickly - after all, I did make two batches of them in 2 days - including once at a party -  and didn't feel at all overwhelmed!  If you have some apples right now, I'd suggest heading out to your kitchen to make a batch.  Just don't be surprised if you take them to a party and have people hand you apples and a bag of flour ;)

Recipe:

apple crumb bars
from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:
for the base:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

for the filling:
4 medium-sized apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely diced
5 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons corn starch
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup fruit jam (once I used apple butter, the next time I used mango peach!  Both excellent)

for the topping:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Instructions:

1) To prepare the filling, in a large skillet combine the apples, sugar, and cinnamon.  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for 5-7 minutes until apples are tender but still firm.  In a small cup, whisk together cornstarch and lemon juice.  Add to the apple mixture and continue cooking, stirring constantly for 3 minutes or until thickened.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

2) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line an 8x8" baking dish with foil, leaving overhang on both sides for easy removal later.  Grease foil.

3) To make the base, in a medium bowl combine flour, sugar, and salt.  Mix well.  Cut the butter into the flour mixture using a pastry blender, two forks, or your hands, until it resembles breadcrumbs.  Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges.  Remove from the oven.  Spread fruit jam evenly on the base while it is still hot.  Top with the cooked apple mixture..

4) In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients for the topping.  Mix well until combined and crumbly.  Sprinkle over the apple layer.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool.  Using the foil, lift out to pan.  Cut into squares and serve (if desired, refrigerate before cutting to firm up a bit for easier slicing.... or do what we did at the party and just hack at it crazily the second it comes out of the oven!).

Biscuits

The same day that I made the delicious Olive Garden copycat minestrone,  I was thinking how I wish I had planned ahead enough to make some breadsticks to go with dinner.  Of course by the time I thought of it, it was way too late to work with yeast, but I had recently seen a recipe for biscuits in my mom's Country Living magazine.  Best of all, they called for self-rising flour.  I've had a bag of that stuff kicking around since I had Tracy pick me up a bag of flour when we were at the beach house in July.  She brought me self-rising and I had absolutely no idea what to do with it.  It already has all sorts of stuff mixed into it and so I never know what to add or subtract to recipes.  I'm an all-purpose, bread, whole wheat, or cake flour girl myself.  But here was a recipe promising to use up 2 cups of self-rising flour.  I was sold.

The dough is very easy to throw together, only calling for the flour, shortening, and buttermilk.  Can you believe all you need for biscuits is 3 ingredients?  Once you have the dough, you pat it out - no need for a rolling pin - and use a biscuit cutter to cut them out (AKA a cocktail glass turned upside down, in my case).  10 minutes later, you are eating biscuits.

Something strange happened to my biscuits; they didn't rise very much.  As you can see from my pictures, they sort of looked like crackers.  But that didn't even matter.  My family loved them and devoured all 12 of them before dinner was over.  I am fairly certain I saw Alex eat 3 of them.  And really, when they were that easy to make, there is not much excuse not to have them multiple times a week (at least until I run out of that flour!)

Recipe:

biscuits
from Tricia Yearwood for Country Living Magazine
yield 12 biscuits

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
2 cups self-rising flour
3/4 cup buttermilk, well shaken

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Lightly grase a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

2) Using a pastry blender or two table knives, cut shortening into flour until it resembles coarse meal. Use a fork to stir in buttermilk to make a soft dough , or until dough comes together and leaves sides of bowl.

3) Continue stirring with fork until all flour is worked into the dough.  Then turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead 3 or 4 times until smooth and manageable.

4)With your hands or a floured rolling pin, flatten dough to a thickness of 1/2 inch.  Cut dough with a 2 1/2-inch floured biscuit cutter.  Place rounds on baking sheet 1 inch apart for crisp biscuits or almost touching for softer biscuits.  Bake 8 - 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Olive Garden Minestrone Soup

Let's be honest: the best part about Olive Garden is the breadsticks.  But a very close second best thing is the minestrone soup.  Hearty, healthy, full of vegetables in a salty tomato broth... delicious (especially when you use a breadstick to sop up the last few drops!... okay I need to make the breadsticks next).  Rachael and Alex especially love Olive Garden and go there frequently; Rach rarely asks for specific recipes from me, so when she requested the OG minestrone, I agreed to check it out, especially since I love the soup as well.  I found a copycat recipe from key ingredient.com, which isn't a site I was familiar with, so I was a little nervous.  Luckily, there was no need to worry.  This soup is absolutely delicious.

It's chock full of lots of vegetables, from frozen green beans to zucchini to 2 types of beans to celery to carrots to baby spinach... and that's not all of them.  This is no thin little chicken noodle soup; this thing is a meal in and of itself, and a healthy one at that.  The broth is flavored with fresh parsley and dried basil, oregano, and thyme, so even without all the veggies, it is popping with flavor.  Add pasta shells to the mix and you have a truly excellent soup.

Rachael, queen of the OG, agreed that the soup was delicious and dubbed it the best thing I ever made; she said it was very close indeed to Olive Garden's recipe.  My whole family loved this soup; it makes a pretty big batch (8 1 1/2 cup servings) but we ate it all happily for dinner and brought it for lunches all week long.  I will be making this soup again - soon, if Rachael has any say in the matter!  If you've been looking for a go-to minestrone recipe, you've just found it.

Recipe:

Olive Garden minestrone soup
from Key Ingredient
yield 8  1 1/2 cup servings

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup minced white onion (about 1 small onion)
1/2 cup chopped zucchini
1/2 cup frozen cut Italian cut green beans
1/4 cup minced celery (about 1/2 stalk)
4 teaspoons minced garlic (about 4 cloves)
4 cups vegetable broth
2 15-ounce cans red kidney beans, drained
2 15-ounce cans small white beans or great northern beans, drained
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup carrot, shredded
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
3 cups hot water
4 cups fresh baby spinach
1/2 small shell pasta

Instructions:

1) Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a large soup pot.

2) Saute onion, celery, garlic, green beans, and zucchini in the oil for 5 minutes or until onions begin to turn translucent.

3) Add vegetable broth to pot, plus drained tomatoes, beans, carrot, hot water, and spices.

4) Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.

5) Add spinach leaves and pasta and cook for an additional 20 minutes or until desired consistency.

Expect the biscuit recipe up next!

English Muffins

What else is there to do on a rainy Saturday morning but make English muffins from scratch?  This was the thought I had a few weeks ago, and thus began my foray into making these little breads.  They weren't very hard to make, but they had some unexpected steps!

browning away!

For instance, did you ever wonder why English muffins are browned on both sides?  No, me either.  Well I can tell you now that it's because you actually brown the raw dough balls in a skillet before you even bake them!  I was shocked and a little nervous to have raw bread dough cooking in a pan, but it was kind of fun too.  The dough balls are supposed to flatten out while they cook, but mine stayed pretty puffy.  I will make sure to squash them a bit if necessary the next time around; we ended up with English muffin puffballs, but at least they still tasted great!

The problem with making these is that you never again want to buy them from a store.  Those thin little rounds of cardboard do not compare to the warm, soft, slightly sweet English muffins coming out of your oven, complete with nooks and crannies!  One note: use room temperature milk like the recipe says.  I was impatient and poured the cold milk right in there, and I think it affected the rising time of my dough.  I think I will be a good girl this time around, or maybe even slightly heat it to help the yeast boom.  Either way it is important to notice that there will be a next time for homemade English muffins.  They were beyond excellent coming out of the oven, but we enjoyed our double batch for days, toasted and spread with butter or jam, or both!  Mmmmm... I'm feeling the need to go make some now....

Recipe:

English muffins
from Annie's Eats
yield 6 English muffins

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
3/4 - 1 cup milk, at room temperature
cornmeal for sprinkling

Instructions:

1) In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the padre attachment, combine the flour, sugar, salt and yeast.  Mix in the butter and 3/4 cup of milk.  Add just enough of the remaining milk to form a dough and incorporate the dry ingredients.  Switch to the dough hook and knead on low speed, about 7-8 minutes.  Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and roll to coat.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for about an hour.

2) Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces and shape into balls.  Lay parchment paper on a baking sheet and spray or coat lightly with oil.  Sprinkle with cornmeal.  Move the dough balls to the baking sheet, spacing them evenly with room to rise.  Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise another hour.

3) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Heat a skillet on medium heat on the stovetop.  Brush the skillet lightly with oil and gently transfer the dough balls to the skillet a few at at a time.  Allow them to cook for 5-8 minutes more.  They should flatten as they cook.

4) Remove the muffins from the skillet and transfer them to a parchment- or silpat-lined baking sheet.  Bake in the preheated oven for 5-8 minutes.  Do not wait until all the muffins have been browned in the skilled before moving them to the oven; as the first batch is baking, move the second batch to the skillet.

5) Transfer the baked muffins to a cooling rack and let cool at least 30 minutes before slicing or serving.  Store in an airtight container.

Broccoli-Cheese Soup

I've been excitedly waiting to share this recipe; I am still working my way through a backlog but finally it is time to present the broccoli-cheese soup.  Now let me start by saying that I am not a huge broccoli fan, and thus I am really not a big broccoli cheddar soup fan either.  However, last year at the Big E, Kenzie and I had broccoli-cheese soup from the Vermont building (for anyone who doesn't know, the Big E is the Eastern States Exposition and is basically a giant fair in West Springfield, MA every September; the best part - for me - is the food).  We got it in a bread bowl and totally devoured it  What stood out to me was that it wasn't super thick, the broccoli hadn't totally fallen apart, and it had thin egg noodles in it.  I'm not sure what made me order it in the first place, but I have dreamed about it for a year.  You can bet that this year at the Big E, the Vermont building was my first stop.  And imagine my excitement when I got up to the counter and found the recipe on little slips of paper!!!!

To make this even more exciting, the recipe is really simple.  There are really only 3 steps, and it comes together really quickly.  I also like to tell myself that it's not as unhealthy as you might think for a broccoli cheese soup; it calls for no cream, just milk, and I used our usual 1%.  There are only 2 tablespoons of butter that the onions get sautéed in... and okay fine there is a pound of cheddar cheese  but it's not called broccoli-cheese soup for nothing :)

This soup is so, so good.  Cheesy but not too thick, studded with green broccoli and thin noodles, creamy but still thin enough to be considered broth.  Everyone loved this soup - even Amelia who doesn't like soup, and my mom who is always picky.  This is a definite make-again for the next time we have broccoli sitting in the fridge :)

Recipe:

broccoli-cheese soup
from the Vermont building at the Big E
makes 4 quarts

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup chopped onion
2 10-ounce packages chopped broccoli
6 chicken bouillon cubes
1 pound or 4 cups cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon salt
6 cups water
6 cups milk
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
4 cups fine egg noodles

Instructions:

1) Saute onions in butter for 3 minutes.  Add water and bouillon.  Bring to a boil.  When bouillon is dissolved, gradually add noodles and salt.  Boil 3 minutes uncovered.

2) Stir in broccoli and garlic powder.  Cook 4 minutes or until broccoli is tender.

3) Add milk and cheese.  Cook until cheese melts.

Cinnamon Roll Cake

I realized only after I started to type this blog post that Pat managed to make me bake him two different things for his birthday :)  He's lucky I like him.  But anyway, the day before his birthday, he requested pretzels and I baked the 30-minute soft pretzels.  Then I had a really bad cold for a couple weeks, and when I was back up and alive, I offered to make him a belated birthday cake.  Smartly he chose not to remind me that I had already baked him his birthday treat, and after a list of the items in my Pinterest dessert board, he settled on the cinnamon roll cake.

This is a cake I was happy to make, not just because Pat is an awesome cousin, but because I really like cinnamon rolls.  I've made 45-minute cinnamon rolls, regular cinnamon rolls (I even baked a batch last summer while I waited for our photographer to come do our engagement photos), and even cinnamon buns with chocolate.  But let's be honest: even the 45-minute ones are pretty time-consuming.  Cinnamon rolls are not the quickest recipe in the world, especially if you want to do them right.  So I was very intrigued by the idea of a cinnamon roll cake.  It has all the flavors of a roll, minus the lengthy process.  In fact, this is a super fast and easy cake, even considering that it has three "components."

The cake is basically just a regular vanilla cake, but then you mix up butter (okay, a lot of butter), brown sugar, flour and cinnamon and pour it on top, and swiiiiiirl it into the cake batter.  After it bakes, you pour on a glaze while it's still warm.  Doesn't that sound crazy good?  Well I think it is.  It was very rich and sweet with lots of cinnamon flavor.  I will say that it's not half as good the second day, so it's definitely something you want to make for a hungry crowd that will devour it all immediately :)  Mom of course said it was too sweet, but the birthday boy was more than happy!

Recipe:

cinnamon roll cake
from Rumbly in my Tumbly

Ingredients:
for cake:
3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup butter, melted

for topping:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon

for glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
5 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all cake ingredients together except for the butter.  Slowly stir in melted butter and pour into a greased 9x13 pan.

2) For the topping, mix all the ingredients together until well combined.  Drop evenly over the batter and swirl with a knife.  Bake for 28 - 32 minutes.

3) Mix together all glaze ingredients.  While cake is still warm, drizzle glaze on top.

Butternut Squash and Spinach Lasagna Rolls

Portion control at its best!... and yes Mom set the table with only knives...

My mother is a huge lover of lasagna rolls; I think she would be 100% happy if I served the caprese roll-ups and spinach and lasagna rolls every week (or every day, for that matter).  I like them too, but I am always intrigued to find new things to roll up inside them.  This recipe appeared on Skinny Taste, which was even better: healthy lasagna rolls!  And with butternut squash sauce instead of marinara!  Hell yeah.

The first step is to make the butternut squash sauce.  I confess that I used a ginormous squash, so I had more of it than I was supposed to, leading to a bit thicker sauce than expected.  But it was so delicious, I didn't care: squash, shallots, garlic, parmesan.... honestly that could be its own side dish and I'd be happy.

Then the rolls are stuffed with, from what I can tell, the same filling as in the spinach and lasagna rolls.  Then they are rolled up and topped with the butternut sauce and Italian blend cheese, and baked.  I doubled it, and ended up getting about 25 rolls.  We ate these babies for days, since 25 is even too much for a full house here!  The good news is, even though we ate them for lunch and dinner for literally a week, everyone loved them.  They are sweet and savory, creamy, and low fat all at once.  They definitely don't taste healthy, either.  I think you should probably make these for dinner... maybe for Meatless Monday?

Recipe:

butternut squash and spinach lasagna rolls
from Skinny Taste
yield 9 rolls
6 WW points+
227 calories
5 g. fat

Ingredients:
for the butternut parmesan sauce:
1 lb. butternut squash, peeled and diced
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 cup shallots, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh grated parmesan cheese
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

for the lasagna:
9 lasagna noodles, cooked
10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach, heated and squeezed well
15 ounce fat free ricotta cheese
1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
1 large egg
salt and fresh pepper
9 tablespoons (about 3 ounces) part skim shredded Italian blend cheese
1 tablespoon parsley, minced

Instructions:

1) Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add butternut squash and cook until soft.  Remove squash with a slotted spoon, reserve about 1 cup of the water and set aside, then blend until smooth with an immersion blender, adding 1/4 cup of the reserved liquid to thin out.

2) Meanwhile, in a large deep non-stick skillet, add the oil, sauté the shallots and garlic over medium-low heat until soft and golden, about 4-5 minutes.  Add pureed butternut squash, season with salt and fresh cracked pepper, and add a little more of the reserved water to thin out to your liking.  Stir in 2 1/2 tablespoons of the parmesan cheese and set aside.

3) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Ladle about 1/2 cup butternut squash sauce on the bottom of a 9x12 baking dish.

4) Combine spinach, ricotta, parmesan, egg, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl.

5) Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out lasagna noodles.  Make sure noodles are dry.  Take 1/3 cup of ricotta mixture and spread evenly over noodle.  Roll carefully and place seam side down onto the baking dish.  Repeat with remaining noodles.

6) Ladle about 1 cup of sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top each one with 1 tablespoon Italian cheese blend.  Put foil over baking dish and bake for 40 minutes, or until cheese melts and everything is hot and bubble.  Top with parsley and serve.

Caribbean Rice and Beans

Yep, two posts in a day.  That is what my weekends have become until I catch up on my huge backlog of recipes to share!

My sister Mackenzie gets sick often - colds, bronchitis, strep, whatever - and every time she does, she throws up.  She's the kind of person who pukes no matter the ailment.  We've always joked about how she'd deal with it once she got her teaching job, and her response was that she'd better not get sick anymore because she had no idea how to make sub plans.  Well unsurprisingly, a few weeks ago she threw up in the middle of the night (for no apparent reason; it was just the once).  She had to figure out sub plans on her own at 3 AM, and took the day off from work.  I promised to make her something bland but still tasty for the rest of us for dinner, and I thought rice and beans would be a good plan.  She could just stick with the rice if she still didn't feel well, or have the beans too since they seem like comfort food to me.

I have lots of great rice and bean recipes - particularly red beans and rice  and black beans and coconut lime rice, which is one of my all-time favorite vegetarian meals.  I decided to try a new recipe for tonight though, and did some Pinterest searching until I found Caribbean rice and beans.  To be honest, I am not sure where the "Caribbean" part comes in, because there is nothing too exotic in there.  But regardless of the name, the meal is good.  There's lots of garlic, onion, green pepper, tomato, and celery mixed with the beans.  They are spiced up with cumin, salt and pepper, and the recipe suggests topping the beans and rice with the oh-so-Caribbean mozzarella cheese.

This was a super easy and very fast meal - definitely a good one to keep in mind, since my family complains less about eating meatless when I feed them beans and rice.  I will say that I still love my black beans and coconut-lime rice better, but that recipe is also more time-consuming since you have to specially make both beans and rice.  This recipe involves making the rice, and while it cooks, whipping up the bean mixture.  You're eating within 20 minutes, and I'm sure we've all had nights when 20 minutes of time standing up is about all we can handle after a long work day!

Recipe:

Caribbean rice and beans
from Over the Big Moon

Ingredients:
1/2 cup green pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup celery, diced
1 cup onion, minced
1 can black beans, drained
1 cup tomato, chopped
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
cooked rice
1 cup mozzarella cheese

Instructions:

1) First chop your onions and garlic very small.  Place those into a saucepan.

2) Dice green pepper, celery and tomatoes.  Add celery and green pepper to onions and garlic. Drizzle with olive oil and sauté. Cook until the onions start to brown.

3) Turn to low and add drained black beans and spices.  Add tomatoes and let cook just for a few minutes so they are warm but not mushy.

4) Serve over rice and top with cheese.

Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal

Continuing on in my search of the perfect breakfast food to grab on the go, I bring you the apple cinnamon baked oatmeal.  As someone who really prefers savory breakfasts, even I have to admit that this oatmeal is pretty tremendous.  I know oatmeal may not be the most exciting- sounding food, but this is as exciting as baked oatmeal gets.  It pretty much tastes like an apple pie - and yet it's pretty healthy, and reheats really well; I made it one weekend when my family was inundated with apples, and Kenzie and I took it to work for a few mornings until it was gone - but to be honest, we ate so much the first night that there just weren't enough days that we got to enjoy this breakfast!

It comes together pretty easily: combine the dry ingredients, combine the wet, mix, add apples, and bake!  It comes out with a lovely baked oatmeal texture but seriously it tastes like a pie.

The recipe suggests serving it with different items for sprinkling on top, like raisins, dried fruit, or nuts.  Most of us felt that none of these things were needed, but my mother added walnuts to hers and was quite happy.  Feel free to sprinkle goodies on top as needed!

Recipe:

Apple cinnamon baked oatmeal
from Two Peas and their Pod
yield: serves 4-6

Ingredients:
2 cups old fashioned oats
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups skim milk
1/2 cup applesauce
1 tablespoon melted butter
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large Granny Smith apple, peered, cored and diced

optional toppings:
brown sugar
raisins
dried cranberries
chopped almonds
chopped walnuts

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.

2) In a large bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt.

3) In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, apple sauce, butter, egg whites, and vanilla.  Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and stir until combined. Gently stir in diced apples.  Pour oatmeal mixture into prepared pan.

4) Bake for 20 minutes or until oatmeal is golden brown and set.  Remove from oven and serve warm.  Add additional toppings to baked oatmeal if desired.

Honey Nut Cereal Bars

I've said before that I am pretty bad about eating breakfast on work mornings, but when I stop to have it, it's my favorite meal.  I am still trying to find the perfect thing for me to pre-make; savory breakfasts are my favorite but I've yet to find a great make-ahead savory breakfast.  In the meantime, I scrounged up this recipe and I think it is rather awesome.

First, I love Honey Nut Cheerios, and for some reason we have literally like 4 boxes of it in our cabinet at all times (no idea why).  That was a plus when I saw this on Pinterest: it's basically a granola bar made from  Honey Nut Cheerios, along with almonds.  The recipe called for unsalted almonds, but all I had was salted.  This was an excellent decision, because it gave me that sweet-and-salty thing I totally adore.  I also chose not to chop the almonds, because they just look prettier.

The Cheerios and almonds are held together by a sauce made of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and honey; I realize this probably makes it not the healthiest breakfast of all time, but it was such a sweet, tangy, spicy sauce that it made it okay that I was eating sugar and butter for breakfast.

In addition, they're simple.  There are only 3 steps, and one of them is preparing the pan!  Excellent.  I busted them out late one school night!

These little gems were all devoured within 3 days, and that says something in this house.  We were eating them as breakfast, snack, and dessert.  This will definitely be a make-again recipe!

Recipe:

honey nut cereal bars
from Everyday Food on Shine Food
yield 16 bars

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
pinch cinnamon
3 cups Cheerios
3/4 cup roasted almonds, roughly chopped (salted or unsalted)

Instructions:

1) Line an 8-inch square baking pan with 2 pieces of parchment paper.

2) Combine butter, sugar, honey, salt and cinnamon in a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Continue to boil for 1-2 minutes, then immediately remove from heat.

3) Stir in cereal and almonds.  Pour into lined pan, pressing down with a rubber spatula.  Let cool completely (about 30 minutes) and cut into 16 squares.

Raw Apple Cake

Yeah, I was pretty intrigued by this recipe's name, too.  Raw apple cake.  Raw apple cake?  What was raw?  The apples?  The cake?  How can you have a raw cake?  Or, conversely, how can you put raw apples into a cooked cake?  Mom had pinned and requested the apple cake after an apple-picking trip, so I was curious enough about these questions to give it a try.

Well now that I've made the recipe, I've figured out the raw part, and it's a bit misleading.  Nothing is raw. The apples are cooked into the cake, so they're both cooked.  But the apples aren't peeled before they're cut up and tossed into the batter.  So I think that's what they meant by raw: the skin is still on them.  I know, not quite what I was expecting either.  And my mother's only complaint was that she didn't really care for the apple skin bites, so if I made the cake again, I'd probably peel the apples, and there goes the "raw" part of the name.

The cake itself was okay.  It didn't call for any cinnamon, which I thought was weird, but the cake was still really moist and had a lot of apple taste.  I didn't have any myself, but only about half of it went before we tossed the rest, so it wasn't a huge hit over here either.  So, on to my next apple recipe (I've since made a pie that was much better received!).  What's your favorite way to bake with apples?

Recipe:

raw apple cake
from StoneGable
yield 1 bundt cake or 2 loaves

Ingredients:
3 cups apples, cored, skin on and cut into small pieces
3 cups flour
2 cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup walnuts, chopped

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, salt and baking soda.

2) In another medium bowl, whisk together the oil, eggs, and vanilla.  Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix by hand.  This batter will be very stiff, like cookie dough.

3) Add the apples and walnuts and mix in.  Spray a bundt pan or 2 loaf pans with cooking spray.  Dump the batter into the pans.  Cook for 1 hour.  Test the center to see that it is fully cooked.  Let the cake cool and then turn out onto a wire rack.

30-Minute Homemade Soft Pretzels

Pat's birthday was last month and I promised him I'd make him anything his heart desired.  I made a cake for him a week or so after the big day - that post is coming - but the day of, his request was pretzels.  Not surprising, since he also begged for them at the beach (that's when I made the soft pretzel bites).  Like me, Pat is a big time soft pretzel fan.  I had recently pinned a recipe for 30-minute homemade soft pretzels, and I was intrigued by the idea of 30-minute yeast dough.

As usual, it did take me longer than the 30 promised minutes, but I added the extra step of boiling the pretzels.  The blog I got the recipe from said it was optional, but knowing how important the boiling step is to both pretzels and bagels, I insisted on doing it.  It was still quicker than the regular process of making pretzels, though.

The end result was a delightful soft pretzel, all of which were devoured immediately.  I didn't notice much of a difference between these and the ones that rise for hours - maybe a little denser but not that noticeable.  I definitely need to buy myself some pretzel salt; I use kosher or sea salt but it kind of disappears after baking.  Nevertheless, these were puffier and softer than I'd expected for pretzels that don't take any extra rising time!  Definitely a good recipe to keep in mind when you're craving pretzels but don't feel like spending all day on them!

Recipe:

30-minute homemade soft pretzels
from Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 packet instant yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3 3/4 - 4 1/4 cups all purpose flour, plus more for the counter surface to knead
1 large egg, beaten
course sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.  Set aside.

2) Dissolve yeast in warm water,  Stir with a spoon until fairly mixed, about 1 minute.  Some clusters of yeast will remain.  Add salt and sugar; stir until fairly combined.  Slowly add 3 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time.  Mix with a wooden spoon until dough is thick.  Add 3/4 cup more flour until the dough is no longer sticky.  If it is sticky, add up to 1/2 cup more.  Poke the dough with your finger - if it bounces back, it is ready to knead.

3) Turn the dough out onto a floured surface.  Knead the dough for about 3 minutes and shape into a ball.  With a sharp knife, cut ball of dough into 1/3 cup sections.  This measurement does not have to be exact - use as much or as little dough for each pretzel as you wish; the size of the pretzel is completely up to you.

4) Roll the dough into a rope with an even diameter.  This measurement will depend on how large you want the pretzels.  Once you have your long rope, take the ends and draw them together so the dough forms a circle.  Twist the ends, then bring them towards yourself and press them down into a pretzel shape.

5) The fifth step is "optional" but not in my eyes!  Boil 9 cups of water with 2/3 cup baking soda.  Dunk the pretzels one by one into the mixture for 30 seconds.

6) In a small bowl, beat the egg and pour into a shallow bowl or pie dish.  Dunk the shaped pretzel into the egg wash (both sides).  Place on baking sheet and sprinkle with salt.

7) Bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees (mine took longer).  Turn the oven to broil and bake for 5 more minutes to brown the tops.  Watch closely to avoid burning.  Allow to cool and enjoy.  Pretzels may be stored in an airtight container or zipped top bag for up to 3 days,but they will lost their softness.  They do freeze well.

Enjoying her pretzel!

Chocolate Oatmeal Cake

More recipes from the premiere party!  I told you I made a lot of food that day :)

In addition to my oatmeal turtle bars, I thought it would be a good idea to make some sort of a cake.  I had recently pinned a bunch of sheet cakes, which would be the easiest and quickest, considering I also had about 7 other recipes to make (literally.)  One such cake was the chocolate oatmeal cake (I guess I had oatmeal on the brain).  I was intrigued because the Pinch of Yum blog called it The World's Best Chocolate Oatmeal cake.  I'm not sure how many chocolate oatmeal cakes there are in the world, but she is pretty trustworthy if she says it's the best; plus she's a teacher and the story to go with this cake was about how crazy teachers get when food shows up in the teachers' lunch room, which is so true.

The cake itself is a moist, chocolatey cake with chocolate chips for some extra chocolate action.  Personally, I think the real star of the cake is the frosting, though.  It's made by melting butter, sugar and  milk on the stove, and stirring in chocolate chips and marshmallows.  Lately all my butter creams have been crap (what's wrong with me!?) so it was nice to have a different recipe that turned out so beautifully.  It was a lot like fudge, and it hardens and gets those little cracks in it when you cut into it.  All in all, a beautiful, delicious, easy-to-make sheet cake that got rave reviews.  I will caution you that this was not a cake to make days ahead of time; by the next day, it was very dry; but on the day of baking, people were telling me it was the best chocolate cake they ever ate!

Recipe:

chocolate oatmeal cake
from Pinch of Yum

Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly beaten with fork
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 3/4 cups boiling water
1 12-ounce bag chocolate chips, divided
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 - 3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 - 3/4 cup mini marshmallows

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350.  With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars.  Add the eggs and mix well.

2) Add flour, soda, salt and cocoa and mix until just incorporated.  The batter will be very thick.

3) Add water to oatmeal and let stand for a few minutes.  Once oats are soft, add oats/water mixture to the batter and mix well.  Stir in half of the bag of chocolate chips (6 ounces).

4) Pour into a greased or buttered rectangular 9x13" cake pan.  Sprinkle the op of the cake with the rest of the bag of chocolate chips (6 ounces).

5) Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until the surface springs back lightly when touched.  Let cool completely.

6)  For the frosting, melt the butter, sugar and milk in a large saucepan over medium-low heat.  Bring to a boil and boil for 30 seconds.

7) Reduce heat to low and add chocolate chips and marshmallows.  Stir or whisk until frosting is smooth.  Pour immediately over the cooled cake.  The frosting crystallizes almost immediately as it cools to it's important to get it on the cake while it's still piping hot.  Allow the frosted cake to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Cheesesteak Soup

Kenzie, Pat and Gary at the soup bar!

I know... the title of this post is pretty shocking, for a number of reasons.  First of all, it says the word steak in it, and you know I'm not a meat-cooking type of gal.  Second of all, it says cheesesteak soup, and what the heck is that?!  Well, be shocked all you want, but also be very intrigued, because this soup was extremely popular at my movie premiere party.  I made this along with a pasta fagioli as the main dishes for the party, and while I received compliments on both, this cheesesteak soup had people going wild - particularly the men!

After our new assistant principal got her job, she took her old classroom's workers out to Joey's Bar and Grill in Worcester.  I went with Mark, and the soup of the day that night was cheesesteak soup.  One of us ordered it (not me!) and it was so good and different and exciting that it was passed around the table multiple times.  When my October Food Network Magazine came in with a cheesesteak soup recipe in it, I showed it to Kenzie and she immediately insisted I make it for the party.  Yes, it does have meat in it, but there was minimal meat touching required, and I figured: you only make your TV debut once, so it was a good time to try something new and maybe please the carnivores who were coming over for dinner.

I never ate any of the steak, obviously, but I did try the broth, and it was really, really good.  It's made from onions, carrots, garlic, chicken broth, and even some Worcestershire sauce.  Needless to say, there was also a pound of cheese (two pounds, since I doubled it!), half cheddar and half provolone.  The recipe called for celery seeds, which I couldn't find, and hot sauce which I ignored.

Besides the broth, the next best part of the soup was the croutons.  You cannot skip the croutons or your cheesesteak soup should really be renamed cheese steak soup; after all, you can't have a cheesesteak without the bread.  This recipe calls for soft hoagie rolls to be cubed, tossed with olive oil and salt and pepper, and baked. That's it, so it's very easy.  Lots of people asked what I had done to the croutons to make them so good - Nick insisted there must have been garlic powder - but that was really all I did.  The fresh croutons are definitely a must in this soup.

Don't skip the croutons!

Then of course there is the steak; the recipe says to top each bowl of soup with the steak, but since we were buffet-style here that night, I tossed it into the soup at the end.  I did not add in the chopped pepperoncini because I thought it was a bit too weird, but people did scoop some into their soup bowls so I guess they liked it!

This is not your average soup, and so it creates a lot of excitement.  Besides being so different, it's just really good; my uncles and cousins especially were big fans, and all the leftovers of my giant batch were gone in a couple days!  As far as meat soups go, this one was so popular that I just may have to make it again... for special occasions only :)

Recipe:

cheesesteak soup
from the October 2013 issue of Food Network Magazine

Ingredients:
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1/4 teaspoon celery seeds
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 soft hoagie rolls, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
8 ounces provolone cheese, shredded
1 pound shaved beef steak or roast beef
1/4 cup jarred sliced pepperoncini
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, plus more for topping

Instructions:

1)  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat.  Add the onion, carrot, celery seeds, and garlic, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens, about 3 minutes.  Add 1/3 cup flour, the Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce; cook, stirring occasionally, about 2 minutes.  Add the chicken broth, and 2 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to medium low and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.

2) Meanwhile, toss the bread cubes with 1 tablespoon olive oil on a baking sheet; season with salt and pepper.  Bake until golden and crisp, about 7 minutes.  Set aside.

3) Puree the soup in a blender or with an immersion blender until smooth.  Return to the pot and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low and simmer 5 minutes.  Toss the cheddar, provolone, and the remaining 2 tablespoons flour in a bowl; slowly whisk the cheese mixture into the soup until melted.  Return to the blender and puree until smooth.  Pour back into the pot and bring to a low boil; remove from the heat.

4) Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the beef and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the pepperoncini and parsley and season with salt and pepper.  Ladle the soup into bowls; top with the beef, croutons, and more parsley.

Oatmeal Turtle Bars

Pecan turtles always remind me of my dad; I have this memory of watching him make pecan turtles at Christmas time, with wax paper spread across the table, caramel and chocolates and nuts all over the place.  I never really liked them because I wasn't a big fan of nuts, but as I've gotten older, I've appreciated them more.  I saw a pin about oatmeal turtle bars and I was very intrigued: pecan turtles in bar form with oatmeal in there too so you can pretend they're healthy (except for the fact that it calls for 3 sticks... this is a special occasion type of dessert!).  I thought it would be a perfect dessert for our movie premiere party, so I gave them a shot.

You bake the crust first, which basically caramelizes on the bottom (brown sugar and melted butter is an amazing combination).  Then you sprinkle pecans and chocolate on top, make a quick caramel sauce, and pour that on.  Sprinkle the leftover crust dough on top, bake, and refrigerate.  Then, voila: oatmeal turtle bars!

Let me say this: I've made a lot of desserts in my day, but rarely has anything gone over so well.  These bars were devoured; I may or may not have spotted multiple people double fisting oatmeal turtle bars.  And even I ate two that night, and I'm not a sweets person.  By a day or so later, the whole pan was gone.  They're just really good: crunchy, chewy bar bottom topped with homemade caramel, chocolate, and crumbles of oatmeal.  Healthy?  Not so much.  But decadent?  Definitely.  It should be on your Thanksgiving baking list.

Recipe:

oatmeal turtle bars
from Week of Menus

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 3/4 cup rolled oats
1 3/4 sticks of unsalted butter (14 tablespoons), melted
1 1/4 cup pecans, chopped into large pieces
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

for caramel filling:
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease sides and bottom of a 9x13" glass or metal baking pan.  Line pan with parchment paper and grease.

2) In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, and brown sugar.  Add the oats and stir until everything is evenly combined.  Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and then pour in melted butter and stir until mixture is wet and combined.

3) Spread 2/3 of the mixture across the bottom of prepared pan and bake for 10-12 minutes until golden.  Remove pan from oven and sprinkle pecans and chocolate chips.  Leave oven on and make caramel sauce (do not make caramel sauce ahead of time).

4) In a medium saucepan over medium high heat, melt sugar, butter, and cinnamon together.  Bring the mixture to a boil and boil for 1 minute, stirring occasionally.  Caramel will darken.  Remove pan from heat, stir in cream and vanilla extract.  Pour caramel mixture over pecan chocolate later and use an offset spatula to spread caramel evenly.  Sprinkle remaining oatmeal mixture onto caramel and bake for 10-14 minutes more, or until top is golden brown.

5) Let bars cool in pan for 15 minutes and then place pan in the refrigerator and chill for 1 hour to firm up.  Cut and serve.  Bars can be stored, tightly wrapped, in the refrigerator or at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Caprese Bites

Get ready for this, folks: I hereby officially have my very first original recipe to share with you.  Before you send me a congratulations card in the mail, know that I have since seen very similar recipes on the internet, but I swear to you that I came up with this on my own.  Here's the story:

Our garden is insane this year (was, I should say... I think we harvested for our last time the other day :( ) and we were overrun with cherry tomatoes.  Cherry tomatoes everywhere, all the time, in every recipe.  And we gave some away.  And we threw some out when they sat out and rotted.  And there were still cherry tomatoes everywhere.  So, the night of my movie premiere party (yes I'm famous and was on the Lifetime Network), I decided to make an appetizer using some of the bountiful little tomatoes.  Since I love caprese salad, I had the idea of pairing a cherry tomato with a ball of fresh mozzarella and some basil, skewering it all together on a toothpick.  Genius, right?  I was pretty proud of myself.  I know it's a pretty simple idea and it's not like I actually cooked anything... but still.  I was happy that I came up with an idea and was able to execute it without staring at a cookbook.  I'm so rules-oriented sometimes that going away from a real recipe scares me like crazy.

Anyway, nothing scary about this appetizer.  People really devoured them, despite the fact that I had tons and tons of food for them to eat (lots more posts about the premiere party food coming up!).  In fact, Kenzie ate so many that she gave herself an acid reflux attack but said she didn't regret it for a second.

They're adorable, first of all, and so delicious; I salted and peppered them, and gave some of them a quick drizzle of olive oil and balsamic (Mom hates it) to bring out the flavors a little more.  Quick, tasty, pretty, and fun... and mine!!!

Recipe:
caprese bites
from me!!!!!!

Ingredients:
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
10 - 14 small fresh mozzarella balls, halved or cut into thirds
1 large bunch fresh basil
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil to taste
balsamic vinegar to taste, optional

Instructions:

1) Pair each tomato half with a piece of mozzarella.  Depending on the size of your basil leaf, wrap the leaf around the tomato and mozzarella, or stack the tomato and mozzarella on top.  Skewer with a toothpick.  Salt and pepper the skewers, and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste.

Sweet Potato, Black Bean, and Kale Quesadillas

While we were on vacation in Seabrook, NH this summer, Mark and I took my mom to Poco's Bow Street Cantina in Portsmouth, NH.  This is one of our favorite Mexican places that we just happened on a couple years ago, and we knew she would love it too (for the record: so would you.  You can even sit outside and look over the water when it's nice!).  We went on a day when it was swelteringly hot, so we were feeling a bit blah, and Mom was doubting our choice of restaurant when she saw how quiet and empty the place was (granted it was about 2:00 on a weekday!).  However, she immediately became a huge fan of Poco's after she ordered the fish tacos (Mark got them too and they were both thrilled with them); she has since brought my sisters there to show off her new place.  But the real story of the day was the sweet potato quesadillas that I ordered (so say I).  They were delicious: sweet but savory, creamy but healthy... all sorts of delicious mix-ups going on in those little guys.  I started immediately announcing that I would be making these at home ASAP.  Well, ASAP turned into 2 months later, but hey, at least it happened!  To be honest, the reason it took so long to make them was that Delilah kept eating the tortillas as soon as I bought them.  No joke.  We went through 2 packages that I found in my bed.  But then Nick brought me home some fresh kale from a friend at work, so I ran out and bought new tortillas and guarded them like a treasure, and so thus I bring you the sweet potato, black bean, and kale quesadilla.

Mashed sweet potato spiced with cumin, chili powder and oregano gets spread onto a tortilla and topped with kale that has been sauteed in olive oil with scallions and black beans.... cheddar cheese melts over all of it to keep the quesadilla together, and a quick stint in a hot pan lightly browns the outside of the tortilla.  Is your mouth watering yet?  If not, you may be some sort of (carnivorous) nutjob, because there is nothing not to like in these quesadillas.  Unfortunately I doubled the recipe but then ended up eating with just Kenzie and my mom (this seems to happen all the time!).  They loved them.  I had a huge stack left over, so my mom brought some over to Jeff and Heidi's (but Kenzie begged her not to bring too many because she wanted lots of leftovers!).  They were a bit tricky to heat up at work because they really crisped up the best in a toaster oven, but even microwaved, these healthy, delicious quesadillas were still amazing.  Maybe you want to try them for Meatless Monday next week??  Maybe you don't even want to wait for Monday?

Recipe:

sweet potato, black bean and kale quesadillas
from Cookie Monster Cooking

Ingredients:
3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/2 inch thick
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced (optional!)
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
3 cups chopped kale
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
8-10 large flour tortillas
2 to 2 1/2 cups freshly grated cheddar cheese
hot sauce, Greek yogurt, sour cream or salsa for serving (don't miss out on the yogurt!)

Instructions:

1) Add the sliced potatoes to a large saucepan and add enough water to cover the potatoes.  Add 1/2 teaspoon of the salt to the pot.  With the heat on high, bring the water to a boil.  Once it reaches a boil, reduce the heat to medium and simmer to about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.  Drain the potatoes and then add to a large bowl.  Use a potato masher to mash the potatoes.  Add the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, cumin, chili powder, oregano, and chipotle peppers.  Mix until well combined.

2) In a medium skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  When hot, add in the kale and green onions.  Cook for about 2-3 minutes, until the kale is bright green and tender.  Add the mixture to the bowl with the mashed sweet potatoes.  Next add in the black beans and mix well until combined.

3) Place the tortillas on a work surface.  Use a spatula to spread 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the filling on half of the tortilla.  Top with about 1/4 cup of the cheese.  Fold the empty half of the tortilla over the filling to form a semicircle.  Repeat with remaining tortillas.

4) Wipe out the skillet you used for the kale and set over medium high heat.  When hot, spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.  Place an assembled quesdadilla in the pan and cook, flipping once halfway through, until both sides are browned and the cheese is melted.  Cut into triangles and serve with hot sauce, Greek yogurt, and/or salsa.

Baguette

Sometimes I have the time to make bagels even though they take 2 days.  Sometimes I can make apple cider caramels even though they take 3 hours of stirring.  But sometimes, I just need a quick recipe.  This day was one such time; I had worked all day and came home to prepare dinner for my family, plus Anne and Kate.  I made the butternut squash pasta dish that I shared yesterday, but I wanted to add something more to the dinner.  My sisters made a salad, and I really wished I could have made some bread.  I only had about an hour, but luckily, I had recently seen a recipe for a baguette that rises for 30 minutes and bakes for 15.  I decided to give it a shot!

The recipe makes 2 baguettes, and as you may have guessed, it comes together pretty quickly.  I used my mixer with the dough hook, and the dough did seem pretty sticky at first; I had to add some extra flour, but it was okay.  As usual, my oven took longer than the recipe says and I probably had to bake it for about 25 minutes, but nevertheless I ended up with 2 lovely baguettes in just over an hour!  One of the baguettes was eaten with dinner, and Kate and Anne were very impressed that I had homemade bread for them.  The other loaf was eaten throughout the next few days, with only a small stub getting tossed days later.

So people did definitely like it.  I thought it was pretty good for a quick yeast bread; the crust is really great and crunchy, and the inside is chewy and soft - almost a little spongey, but that's probably what you get for a bread that is ready that quickly!  The recipe says to brush the breads with melted butter when they are halfway through baking; I recommend using salted butter for that.  I didn't, and the original blogger kept talking about how great and salty the butter made the crust taste.  It was certainly pretty, but not as salty as Id like!  The good news is that this bread is salty all on its own anyway - 2 teaspoons in the dough!  Now that's a kind of bread I can enjoy :)

Recipe:

baguette
from The Sisters Cafe
yield 2 baguettes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 1/2 tablespoons (2 packages) dry yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
3 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt

Instructions:

1) In a small bowl, mix the warm water with the yeast and sugar.  Let it sit for about 5 minutes - foam should form on the top.

2) In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt.  Gradually add the yeast mixture.  Mix until the dough becomes a smooth ball and knead for 5 minutes.

3) Cut dough in half and shape into 2 baguettes.  To make them smooth, roll each half of dough into a rectangle and roll up lengthwise.  Pinch the edges to seal and place on lightly greased cookie sheet or silpat with seam down.  Cover and let it rise for 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees,

4) With a very sharp serrated blade, gently make a slash down the length of each baguette.  Pour water in a cookie sheet and place it on the bottom rack of the oven.  Bake the bread for 15 minutes.  Halfway through, brush the bread with melted butter.

Cheesy Butternut Squash Cavatappi Bake

I'm starting to fall way behind on my recipes!  I have quite the backlog.  That's what happens when you've been sick with a bad cold for over 2 weeks, and then you spend a weekend at the Cape for a wedding, and then you have a week where you have to stay at work till 8:00 twice, and then you spend Friday night celebrating the fact that your fiance just passed his last MTEL!!!!!  Sorry, we're just a little excited :)  Anyway I will make up for my backlog this weekend, and it starts here with cheesy butternut squash cavatappi bake.

I've made mac and cheese with butternut squash before, and it's amazing.  Creamy and decadent without being bad for you.  So when I saw this recipe in my mom's Better Homes and Gardens magazine last month,  I was pumped.  I decided to give it a shot the night we had Anne and Kate over for dinner.  I made bread too, but that will have to wait till the next post!

This dish is just as great as we thought it would be.  I couldn't find cavatappi pasta, but I bought rotini instead.  My sisters obviously complained about the mushrooms, but I thought it added another layer of flavor (not to mention more vegetables!).  The cheese sauce is made from fontina, which is such a great cheese, fat-free milk, and only a tablespoon of butter.  Green onions and bacon finish off the dish (and okay I'll admit to leaving out the bacon; it wasn't needed).

I doubled it and made a huge casserole dish of it, and throughout the rest of the week, Mom and I devoured it.  Luckily due to the mushrooms, no one else fought us over the leftovers.  That night, besides the sisters complaining, Anne and Kate loved it, so you definitely are going to want to make sure that you make this dish if you love macaroni and cheese (and mushrooms).

Recipe:

cheesy butternut squash cavatappi bake
from Better Homes and Gardens September 2013
yield 6 servings
334 calories; 12 grams fat

Ingredients:
3 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
8 ounces dried cavatappi or other elbow pasta
1 tablespoon butter
8 ounces cremini or button mushrooms
3 green onions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup fat-free milk
6 ounces  fontina cheese, shredded (1 1/2 cups)
2 slices reduced-sodium bacon, cooked and crumbled (optional)

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly coat a 2-quart rectangular baking dish with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.

2)  In a medium microwave-safe bowl, combine squash and 2 tablespoons water; cover with vented plastic wrap.  Microwave on high for 4 minutes; stir.  Microwave, covered, about 4 minutes more or until squash is tender.  Carefully remove plastic wrap.  Mash squash; set aside.

3) Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions; drain.  In a medium saucepan, heat butter over medium-high heat.  Add mushrooms and green onions.  Cook until tender, about 5 minutes.  Sprinkle flour over mushroom mixture.  Cook and stir for 1 minute.  Add milk and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper.  Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly.  Remove from heat; stir in squash.  Add pasta.  Gently fold to combine.

4) Transfer half of the pasta mixture to the prepared baking dish.  Sprinkle with half of the cheese.  Add remaining pasta mixture and cheese.  Top with bacon, if desired.  Bake, uncovered, 20-25 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted.  Top with additional green onions.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

I made these for my mom a week or so ago as a surprise.  She had spent the day visiting my grandfather, and while they were there, my grandmother fell and hurt herself, so it was a long day for my mom.  I decided to pull up her Pinterest and find something sweet to surprise her with.  I found snickerdoodle cupcakes and decided to give them a try.

As you might expect, the cupcakes have cinnamon and sugar like a snickerdoodle cookie.  They were pretty quick to toss together.  Once they're baked, you frost them and shake some more cinnamon and sugar on the top.

However, the frosting was an issue; Martha Stewart recommended 7-minute frosting, which looked absolutely cloud-like and beautiful but is made with egg whites, 6 of them, for that matter, and I had used up my last egg in the cupcakes themselves (not to mention the fact that I get a little freaked out about eating uncooked egg whites).  So I whipped up a buttercream instead, which unfortunately was just weird.  I don't know if it was the heat (it was randomly hot that day), or if I screwed something up, but my mom described it as "wiggly."  It never looked right.  It tasted fine, but I think the texture weirded my family out, because lots of these cupcakes were tossed, unfortunately.  I am still not sure what happened, and I didn't try them, but I'd say if you give these guys a shot, go with the 7-minute frosting!

How adorable is he?

Recipe:

snickerdoodle cupcakes
from Martha Stewart
yield 28 cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, plus 1/2 teaspoon for dusting
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar, plus plus 2 tablespoons for dusting
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk
seven-minute frosting

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.  Sift together both flours, baking powder, salt, and 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon.

2) With electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.  Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low.  Add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with 2 additions of milk, and beating until combined after each.

3) Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full.  Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.  Cupcakes can be stored up to 2 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

4) To finish, combine remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 2 tablespoons sugar.  Using a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip (Ateco No. 809 or Wilton No. 1A), pipe frosting on each cupcake: hold bag over cupcake with tip just above top, and squeeze to create a dome of frosting, then release pressure and pull up to form a peak.  Using a small, fine sieve, dust peaks with cinnamon-sugar.  Cupcakes are best eaten the day they are frosted; keep at room temperature until ready to serve.

seven minute frosting:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
6 large egg whites, room temperature

Instructions:
1) Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar with the water and corn syrup in a small saucepan; clip a candy thermometer to side of the pan.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves.  Continue boiling, without stirring, until syrup reaches 230 degrees.

2) Meanwhile in the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites on medium-high speed until soft peaks form.  With mixer running, add remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, beating to combine.

3) As soon as sugar syrup reaches 230 degrees, remove from heat.  With mixer on medium-low speed, pour syrup down side of bowl in a slow, steady stream.  Raise speed to medium-high; whisk until mixture is completely cool (test by touching the bottom of the bowl) and stiff (but not dry) peaks form, about 7 minutes.  Use immediately.