Mom's Strawberry Shortcake

Delicious!  If you are picturing fluffy angel food cake, this isn't the recipe for you.  This is dense and delicious, almost biscuit-like shortcake.

1 qt fresh strawberries
3/4 C-1 C sugar

Slice strawberries.  Sprinkle with sugar to taste.  Let stand 1 hour.

2 C flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 C shortening
1 C milk
Whipping cream, whipped with a touch of sugar and vanilla

Combine flour, 2 Tbsp sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Cut in shortening until mixture looks like coarse meal.  Stir in milk just until blended.  Pat into pan.  Bake at 450 for 15-20 minutes in a greased 8in round pan.  Shortcake should be golden brown.  Enjoy while still warm.

BIRTHDAY CAKE!

Happy Birthday to this little monster!  This morning Geoff looked at Isaac and said, "One year ago, your mom was going 'eeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhhh'." He thought it was funny.  He got a flat face and a "thanks, dear" in response from me.  You could hear the eye roll dripping through in my voice.

To preface this recipe, Geoff said I should title this post "Most Delicious Cake Ever".  Apparently it was delicious, chocolaty, and moist.  And for my part, I will say that for a cake it was pretty good (I'm  not a huge cake fan).  I will also warn, the batter is super, super runny.  Not a problem usually but be warned: don't try to use the spring form pan.  That would be a disaster.  Batter would flow out all over your counter.

Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Filling:

2 C sugar
1 3/4 C flour
3/4 C cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 C milk
1/2 C vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 C boiling water


Combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.  Mix thoroughly with a whisk or electric beater.  Stir in the boiling water.  The batter will be very, very, thin.


Coat 3 8-inch round pans with spray, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and spray again.  Divide batter evenly between pans.  Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes in the pan.  Dump cakes out to a wire rack to finish cooling.


Wrap cakes in plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.  If needed, level each layer.


To assemble cake, layer as follows*:
Cake
Cream Cheese filling, leaving 1/4 inch margin around the edges
Cake
Cream Cheese filling, leaving 1/4 inch margin around the edges
Cake

Frost the top and sides with chocolate buttercream.

Cream Cheese Filling

1 C cream cheese
3/4 C butter
1/2 Tbsp vanilla
6 C powdered sugar



Beat the cram cheese and butter with an electric mixer for about one minute.  Add the vanilla and beat for another minute.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the powdered sugar, about 1/2 C at a time.  Once all the sugar is added, beat on medium speed for two minutes, until fluffy.
 
 Chocolate Buttercream

1 C butter
1 3/4 C cocoa powder
6 C powdered sugar
1/2 C + 3 Tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla

Combine the powdered sugar and the cocoa. In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer for about one minute.  Reduce the speed to low and add the sugar/cocoa about 1/2 C at a time.  Halfway through this process, add the milk and vanilla.  Once all the powdered sugar/cocoa is added, beat at medium speed for about two minute, until fluffy.

*As mentioned, I only had 2 round pans so I thought I could use a spring form pan as my third pan.  This was a mistake.  A messy mistake.  Fortunately the cake spilled out all over my counter rather than all over the oven.  I was able to salvage most of the batter from the spring form pan, dividing it between my two round cake pans

Original Recipe from The Nonpareil Baker.

Now, you will have to indulge the string of photos.  He's just so cute, I have a hard time only choosing a few photos.  Plus, we all know you're actually here to see the little boy, not to see the recipes.

He was really concerned about so many people singing to him.  He didn't even notice the cake, let alone the candle.

We finally had to point out the cake to him.

And then it was all business.  No time for smiling, no time for jabbering, just constant and methodical eating of cake.

Isaac would have happily just played with the wrapped boxes.  Who needs to open them?

A big smile when he sees a car from Grandma and Grandpa.

Excuse the runny nose.  He's had a cold.

Cute boy with a "5 Little Monkeys" finger puppet from Grandma and Grandpa.

Fun blocks from Po and Ted.  And after we showed him how, he started ineptly putting blocks together.  A little engineer in the making (or as Dilbert's doctor would put it, I'm afraid he has "the knack").

Happy Halloween! - Reeses Smores Bars

I've had my eyes on this tasty treat for sometime now but was waiting for a good opportunity to make it without poisoning my husband who is allergic to peanuts.  Tragic, I know.  They were amazingly delicious, as could only be expected from such good ingredients.

1/2 C butter, softened
1/2 C  brown sugar
1/4 C sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 C graham cracker crumbs
16 peanut butter cups, regular size
1 1/2 C marshmallow fluff - good luck trying to measure this.  I just eyeballed it

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla, beat well.  With the mixer on low, stir in the flour, baking powder, salt, and graham cracker crumbs until mixed.

Press 2/3 of the dough into the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish lined with parchment paper.  Press the peanut butter cups into the dough, then spread marshmallow fluff on top.  Press the remaining dough on a non-stick surface into the shape of an 8x8 square (I used my silpat mat for baking cookies).  Flip the dough square over ontop of the marshmallow fluff and peal off of mat.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until the edges just start to brown.  Cool bars for 2 hours to set.  Lift parchment paper out of pan and cut into squares.  Enjoy!


Thanks The Sweet Life for such a delicious recipe!

And finally, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

The dragon, the princess, and her knight in shining armor.  Isaac thought the sword was sooo funnny.  I'll try to put up a video of him giggling hysterically at being poked with the sword.

Tina looking sullen wearing her Halloween pumpkin.

And finally, our Halloween tree.  I was crafty, I know this is shocking.  And ask Geoff, I was so proud of my Halloween tree.

Banana Bars

It's a toss up over whether I prefer to eat the bananas fresh or if I like them baked into things - especially things with chocolate!  So next time you buy some bananas, accidentally let some get overripe and then make these little gems.

2/3 C margarine
2/3 C sugar
2/3 C brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 C mashed banana
2 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 C chocolate chips

Cream margarine and sugars until fluffy.  Add vanilla, egg, and banana.  Stir in dry ingredients.  Add chocolate chips.  Pour into greased jelly roll pan (10x15).  Bake 25-30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Option:  Bake in a 9x13 for thicker bars.

Baby has eaten cauliflower.  He's no longer eating it because, as mentioned in the last post, we've pulled a bunch of foods out of his diet to see if some digestive problems can be fixed.  So now we have a bag of frozen cauliflower puree in the freezer.  Oh well.  We'll figure out something to do with it.  I'm thinking I'll mix it into mashed potatoes some day (but don't tell my husband).

For Baby Cauliflower just steam or boil the cauliflower in a little water until tender.  Puree with cooking water.  Add water as necessary. Freeze in ice cubes or silicon muffin tins, depending on desired size.  Isaac liked cauliflower mixed with carrots or peas.

If you're reading this blog with the intention of making baby food, hopefully these recipes are starting to sound super repetitive and you see how easy it is.  It takes 45 minutes once a week to have more than enough food and enough variety on hand for him.  And as he gets older he's eating more of what we eat so soon it should be even less time.

Lemon Blossoms

When we were in Idaho for Ben's wedding, I spent some time in the hotel with the sleeping baby.  Which means I spent some time watching the food network.  This recipe was on one of the shows and I knew we needed to try it - and it was delicious! Thank you baby for needing to go to bed and thank you cooking show for delicious food in my belly.

Mini-Muffins:
Yellow Cake Mix
4 eggs
3.5 oz box lemon pudding
3/4 C oil

Beat all ingredients together for 2-3 minutes.  Drop batter into a sprayed mini muffin pan.  Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.  Dump baked muffins out onto a wire rack to cool.

Glaze:
2 C powdered sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 Tbsp water
1 1/2 Tbsp oil
1/4 C fresh lemon juice

Whisk together all ingredients.  Dunk muffins into glaze via a fork stabbed in the bottom of the muffin so you can cover the entire muffin.  Return to wire rack to allow glaze to dry.  If desired, re-dunk muffins into the glaze (if dunking twice, double the glaze recipe).

I use the word "muffins" lightly.  But it seems wrong to call them cupcakes since that doesn't seem the right word either.  I guess that's why the cooking show named them "lemon blossoms".  I mean really, what's a blossom?

And because we are mean parents and insist upon vegetable eating, little boy got to eat his first helping of peas instead of lemon blossoms.  He was not impressed that first night, though he likes them now (after about 6 tries).

Baby Peas

Boil or steam 1 C peas with 1/2 C water for 6-8 minutes.  Throw water and peas into food processor or blender.  Blend until smooth, adding water as needed for desired consistency.  Freeze in ice cube trays.  This made 6 servings, so double it for a full ice cube tray.

Valentine Treats: Cranberry Bliss Bars

Happy Valentine's Day!  This was delicious!  Anything with cream cheese, white chocolate, and craisins is good in my book.

Blondie Layer:
3/4 C salted butter, melted
1 1/2 C brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 C flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/2 C dried cranberries
6 oz white chocolate chips

Combine butter and brown sugar.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.  Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture.  Stir in dried cranberries and chocolate chips.

Spread in a greased 9x13 pan.  Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes.  Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar

 6 ounces white baking chocolate, divided
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until combined. Melt 3 oz. of the white chocolate.  Gradually add the melted white chocolate to the cream cheese mixture; beat until blended. 

Frost brownies. Sprinkle with chopped cranberries. Melt remaining 3 oz of white chocolate and drizzle over the bars. Let the frosting set. Store in the refrigerator.

Thanks to The Girl Who Ate Everything blog for this delicious recipe!

And the little boy, because he's so cute (and so big!  3 months old and 13 lbs!)

Kicking and wacking things in his baby play gym.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Happy Birthday Jeff-Jeff (a few days ago).  In honor of your birthday we had this delicious flourless chocolate cake.  It was absolutely fantastic and we'll have to make it next time we're in the same state.

7 oz really good semisweet chocolate
3/4 C butter
1 C sugar, divided
4 eggs, separated

Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler.

Stir together 1/2 C sugar and four egg yolks.  Add to the chocolate.

Using an electric mixer, beat the four egg whites.  Slowly add the remaining 1/2 C sugar until stiff peaks form.  Fold the egg whites into the chocolate.  Pour into a greased 9-inch pan (I used a 9-inch springform).

Bake 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs on it.  Cool 30 minutes before removing from pan.  Dust with powdered sugar.

Original recipe in the parade magazine Feb 2011.

And the little boy as a treat for grandparents:

Asleep on daddy

Chewing Po's finger . . . mmm . . . delicious.

 

Christmas Goodies!

I can't believe it's almost Christmas!  Even if the house is a mess, even if there is a pile of old mail and newspaper sitting in the kitchen, even if the puppy is neglected (or at least thinks she is - she still gets her two walks a day), even if I haven't made dinner in over a week, and even if I just had a baby a month ago, I can still find time to make Christmas goodies!  And boy are they delicious this year!  Tina can attest.  In retaliation to us having a baby, she is misbehaving - including jumping on the counter and eating 15 cookies and untold numbers of pretzel turtles while we weren't around to stop her.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread, Toffee, Chocolate Chip Peppermint Cookies, and pretzel turtles!

 Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread

Cream Cheese Filling - beat all ingredients together until smooth:
8oz cream cheese
1/2 C sugar
1 Tbsp flour
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla


Bread:

Combine:
1 2/3 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg

In a separate bowl combine the following ingredients.  Beat Well:
15 oz can pumpkin
1/2 C oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 C sugar

Stir the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture until just combined.  Pour 1/4 of the batter into two greased and floured 8inch bread pans.  Spoon the cream cheese mixture on top of the batter in each of the bread pans.  Top with remaining pumpkin batter (it's ok if you don't quite have enough pumpkin batter to cover the cream cheese as you will be mixing the two layers anyways).  Using a knife inserted through the top two layers, swirl the cream cheese and top pumpkin batter together to create a marble effect.

Bake at 325 for 55-60 minutes.

Adapted from recipe posted by the Nanny Create Blog.  Thanks for a delicious recipe!

Chocolate Chip Peppermint Cookies

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 C chocolate chips
  3/4 C Andes Peppermint Crunch Chips - At first I couldn't find these so the first batch I made used chopped up Andes mints.  It turned out delicious.  The next day I went to the store and there they were in a special holiday display in front: Andes Peppermint Crunch Chips.  Despite the name "crunch" they are soft white chocolate peppermint chips.  Truth be told, Geoff and I couldn't really tell the difference between the cookies with the chopped up mints and the cookies with the Peppermint Crunch Chips.



Combine flour, baking soda, and salt.


In a seperate bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla until smooth.  Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Stir in the flour mixture.  Stir in the chocolate chips and peppermint chips.

Refrigerate dough for 24 hours (I'm a believer - the dough really improved after the 24 hours in the fridge).  Scoop cookies onto cookie sheets.  Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.


Original Recipe from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.  Thanks for the delicious recipe!

Toffee:

1 C coarsely chopped almonds or pecans, toasted, divided (to toast, spread onto a cookie sheet and bake for 4-5 minutes at 350, stirring halfway through).
1 C unsalted butter
1 C sugar
3 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp corn syrup
3/4 C semisweet chocolate chips

Line a 9x13 pan with foil, extending the foil over the edges of the pan.  Sprinkle with 1/2 of the toasted nuts.  Set aside.

Butter the sides of a heavy 2-qt saucepan.  In saucepan, melt butter.  Add sugar, water, and corn syrup.  Stir over medium-high heat until mixture boils.  Reduce heat to medium.  Continue to boil at a moderate, steady rate stirring constantly until a candy thermometer reaches 290 degrees (about 12-15 minutes).  Watch carefully after 275 because the last 15 degrees will go fast!  Immediately remove from heat and pour into prepared pan.

Let stand 5 minutes.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips.  Let stand 2 minutes.  Spread chocolate chips over candy.  Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 C toasted nuts.  When candy is firm, use foil to lift it out of the pan.  Break into pieces.  Store tightly covered.

Original Recipe from bhg.  Thanks for the delicious recipe!

And finally, some baby photos, as that's what my biggest fans (aka - my parents, babies grandparents) actually come to the blog looking for.

 

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

I love fall if only for the excuse to eat pumpkin in everything (and because it's finally becoming liveable in Houston).  The original recipe from here instructs you to freeze the cream cheese/sugar mixture in a thin log and then cut off frozen log pieces to put in the middle of the muffin mixture.  My thoughts:  I'm never going to plan far enough ahead to actually freeze the cream cheese.  I just used two spoons and plopped a spoonful of cream cheese in between two layers of muffin batter and it worked just fine.

Muffins:

3 cups flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

4 eggs

1 ¼ C oil

2 cups sugar

2 cups pumpkin puree

Filling - whip together until well combined:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened (I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese)

1 cup powdered sugar

Streusel Topping - Mix together with a pastry blender until crumbly:

½ cup sugar

¼ cup and 1 tsp. flour

4 tbsp. butter, cubed

1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

To make the muffins, combine the flour, spices, salt and baking soda. Set aside. Using an electric mixer, combine the eggs, oil, sugar and pumpkin puree.  Mix until well combined.  Add in the dry ingredients and stir together until just combined (a little lumpy is fine).

Fill each muffin well with enough muffin batter to cover the bottom.  Drop a spoonful of cream cheese into each muffin well, on top of muffin batter.  Top cream cheese with more muffin batter until tins are a little over 3/4 of the way full.  Sprinkle the streusel topping over the top of the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350.

 Makes 24+ muffins.

Again, thanks to Baked Perfection for this delicious recipe.

Frozen Yogurt

What to do with the leftover cream from the mushroom rice?  Frozen Yogurt, of course!  Super delicious and I had everything on hand to make it (not needing to go to the store is always an added bonus).

Blend together:
1/2 C cream
2 C vanilla yogurt
1/4 C sugar

Add in:
12 oz frozen berries - I used strawberries and I half way pureed them in the blender first.

Pour into ice cream maker and follow machine directions (my machine took 30 minutes).

The Length of a Banana

We are at 20 weeks, and supposedly our little apple has grown to the length of a banana from head to toe.  To celebrate, we are going to the doctor on Wednesday to see said baby in close up detail.  Perhaps the only time we want our little one to expose him/her-self.

What you don't see in this picture is Tina sitting at my feet looking at me quizzically, surely wondering why I'm not petting her.

And because all things in life must be celebrated through eating, we are also enjoying banana boats, a camping favorite, on our new grill.

Banana Boats

Slit a banana open lengthwise, but do not unpeel.  Eat a few small bites of banana (again, going lengthwise) to make room for toppings, but leave at least half the banana in the peel.  Top with anything that sounds delicious to you.  I usually do mini marshmallows and some cut up Rollo's.  Wrap the whole thing in foil and throw it in the camp fire. (We're doing these on our grill.  I've also heard of people cooking them in the oven.)  Wait 10-15 minutes until melty and delicious!

Toppings:

Mini marshmallows
Cut up candy bar (rollo's, peanut butter cups, milk chocolate bar, etc)
Chocolate sauce
Caramel sauce
Peanut Butter
Chocolate chips (or any chips - white choc, peanut butter, etc)
Nutella
Chopped nuts
Basically anything that would be a good topping on ice cream will make a good topping in banana boats.

The Size of an Apple

Things the size of an apple:  black sheep (Tina's favorite squeaky toy), a tennis ball, a large rubber ducky, and a baby 15 weeks into pregnancy.

Yes, that was an announcement (and not that we have a large rubber ducky).

So, logically I needed to make apple crisp to celebrate.

5-8 Apples, sliced

In a saucepan:
1 C Sugar
3 Tbsp Cornstarch
1 C Water
1 tsp Vanilla

First mix sugar and cornstarch together, then add the liquids.  Bring to boil, cooking until thick and clear.  Pour over apples and mix well.

Topping:
1 C Brown Sugar
1 C flour
1 C Oats
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 C butter, softened

Mix dry ingredients together, then cut in the butter.  Mixture will be crumbly.

Put a little topping in the bottom of a 9x13 pan.  Dump apples into the pan.  Cover apples with remaining topping.  Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes, until apples are soft-ish and bubbly.  Serve with ice cream.

Lava Cakes

I think Chili's has something similar to this called "Lava cakes" or something.  Honestly, though, these were glorified brownie Sundays.  I have this sweet pan that bakes individual sized treats with a dent in the top.  We've only used the pan for brownies and for ice cream cakes so far, but you could make individual shortcake or angel foodcake and top with strawberries.  Anyways, delicious!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I'm a little behind the times in posting this, as my birthday was last week.  But, Mississippi Mud Cake is delicious and needs to be posted about, no matter how many days late it is.

Mississippi Mud Cake

4 Eggs
1/3 C Cocoa
1 C Butter
2 C Sugar
1 1/2 C flour

Melt butter and add the cocoa.  Beat all other ingredients into the melted cocoa butter.  Pour into greased and floured 9x13 pan.  Bake at 350 for 35-40 min.  Top with one small jar of marshmallow cream.

Frosting:
Melt 1/2 C butter with 1/4 C cocoa.  Add 6 Tbsp milk, 1 tsp vanilla, and 4 C powdered sugar.  Mixture will be runny.  Pour over cake and allow to cool.

Story:  When I was in elementary school I entered this into the Arvada CO Harvest Festival cooking competition and won.  Clearly even the local food judges think you should try this recipe!

Blueberry Bread Pudding

3 eggs
4 C heavy whipping cream - I used 3 C cream, 1 C 1% milk and thought it was fine. You could probably even cut the ratio further.
2 C sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 1/2 C blueberries
1 pkg (10-12 oz) white baking chips
1 loaf (1 lb) French bread, cut into 1 in cubes - I used sourdough because I had some on hand and it was good, couldn't taste the sourdough really

Sauce:
1 pkg white baking chips
1 C heavy whipping cream


Combine eggs, cream, sugar, and vanilla.  Stir in blueberries and baking chips.  Stir in bread cubes.  Let stand for 20 minutes, gently mixing occasionaly, until bread is softened.

Transfer to a greased 13x9 baking dish.  Bake uncovered at 350 for 50-55 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.  Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Sauce:  Place baking chips in a small bowl.  Bring cream just barely to boil.  Pour over baking chips.  Whisk until smooth.  Serve with the bread pudding.

This was super yummy.  Some warnings, though:  1) You'll need a huge bowl for soaking all those bread cubes at the beginning.  2)  Mine boiled over a little while baking, so put something underneath to catch juices unless you want to scrub your oven (or your friends oven, in my case)  and 3)  My knife never came out clean.  So lest the bread start to burn, I pulled it out after a little over an hour of cooking.  Was still super yummy, even if a little moist.  4)  It made a huge amount of sauce.  If I did this again, I would cut the sauce in half (1/2 C cream, 1/2 pkg white chips).

 Original Recipe submitted to Simple and Delicious May 2010 Magazine by M. Haynes