Stuck Inside - Bake Cinnabons!

18" of snow - oh bother. Make minestrone.

Another 4" of snow - good grief! Stay in pjs and read blog posts. I read this one, by Anna, and got all inspired to bake cinnamon rolls. I haven't made homemade cinnamon rolls in five years but somehow it seemed the perfect thing to do. I mean, if you're stuck indoors you may as well bake something gooey, right?

So I went here and found this recipe. One of the appliances I brought to the apartment is my bread machine. They've come down in price so much from the first ones - you can likely find a decent one for under $50 and they're well worth the money for how easily you can whip up a loaf of bread. Or homemade cinnamon roll dough. They take all the work out of it. Rolling them up and slicing them into these fat circles is not only easy, it's fun - it'll make you feel like a domestic diva!



From when the obsession with something gooey thought struck me, to this - under three hours.



I took a plate of two rolls, steaming hot from the oven, to the older couple who lives next door to us. At 5:30 in the evening, he answered his door, looking like an aged, portly Dick Van Dyke, in blue flannel pajamas. That just made me smile. I told him, 'these are for dessert or tomorrow's breakfast. They're fresh from the oven.' He said, 'how about now?' Absotootly, as my grandson, Landon would say. Absotootly! Eat 'em up.

Then I ran back inside, and grabbed one for little ole me! With a cocoa/leftover coffee combo that involved whipped cream and caramel syrup drizzled over the entire concoction.



So sad, I didn't have white frosting, so I had to get by with coconut pecan - dabs of coconut pecan icing slathered on the top so it melted and ran down into the circles on top of the rolls. So sad.

Bake some, for the neighbors, for yourself. Even if it's not snowing like there's no tomorrow.

Deep Abiding Love for all Things Coconut

If you don't share the feeling then move on, but if you do you're gonna love these. They were actually called Apricot Balls but that's just not good enough - I'd call them Apricot Macaroons instead.

2 cups flaked coconut, firmly packed
1 cup dried apricots, chopped
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/8 tsp salt

Combine ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix Well. Shape into 3/4 inch balls. Bake at 325 on parchment paper (dont skip this step or you'll have a sticky mess!) for 15 minutes or til golden. Makes about 4 dozen. (I got three out of it.)

If you're feeling generous you can share them; if not, hide them in your nightstand drawer... They would be pretty in those little holiday-decorated paper cups.

Popcorn Cake

I've made popcorn balls, and rice krispy treats but I've never made this: Popcorn cake. It's a bit like the two treats rolled into one and cute as can be.

If you're looking for something to tuck into a Christmas box, or take to a party give this a whirl. I made several, keeping one for us to nibble on during all the Christmas movies.

Popcorn Cake

20 cups popped popcorn (I used two bags of microwave butter version - kettle corn might be fun to use too)
1/2 cup butter or margarine
10 oz. pkg marshmallows - mini or regular
1 cup candy coated chocolate mini baking bits (I used reeces pieces)
1/2 cup peanuts

Place popped corn in large bowl. Melt butter and marshmallows in the top of a double boiler. (I used a microwave). Pour melted mixture over popcorn. Stir in remaining ingredients. Press into a buttered angel food or bundt pan. Cool completely. Invert cake onto a serving plate and remove pan. Makes 12 to 16 servings (or two, depending on who's eating it!)

This Chicken Stew Deserves a Name!

I invented this tonight, from the leftovers of a rotisserie chicken that was hiding in the back of the fridge. It was sooooo good I decided to write down the recipe so I could make it again. Here it is:

No Name Yet Chicken Soup/Stew

½ a rotisserie chicken, shredded (remove skin)

1 regular can diced tomatoes, include juice

1 can sweet corn, drained

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 soup can of water

1 cup cooked wild rice

1 tsp chipotle seasoning

pinch of garlic

pinch of salt

pinch of black pepper

Place all ingredients in crockpot and set on low for 6 hours. The two of us ate this to the last drop, but it could easily be doubled, using the whole rotisserie chicken and it would feed a family of 4 – 6, especially if some were smaller children (who likely eat less than my hungry husband did.)

After we’d each had a hearty bowl, he asked, “Bev, do you want any more?” and immediately proceeded to scrape the last drop of it into his bowl.

I topped mine with salsa; he did not. I’m pretty sure my bowl was better than his. I served it with dinner rolls, one for me, two for him. Yummy! I'd show you a photo, but we ate the evidence.

They're Loaded with Calories, Honest Injun!

On this blog I always, always tell the truth. I don't tell E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G., and you can be thankful for that, because some things are just TMI. But what I do tell is true as the day is long.

So the truth is that my husband tells me I'm expensive. To which I reply it was never my goal to be cheap, or possibly even affordable, but rather worth every cent it costs him to have me along for the ride. Then he tells whoever is listening that I married him for his money, and I reply that he didn't have any. I married him because he was hot fire good lookin'. Which always makes him blush and drop the subject of my expensiveness.

The truth about these pumpkin bars is that they are fattening. And worth every calorie. When I was making them this morning I considered the lite version, substituting apple sauce for the oil, and using an extra egg white instead of all the eggs, but you know, life is short and I could get hit by a bus this afternoon, so I stuck with the original.

I strongly suggest you do the same.

Because they ARE fattening, I suggest you cut them into slices, and immediately give away about half of them. It's very easy to convince yourself they are a suitable choice for breakfast or lunch or dinner or because you're sad or happy or reading a book or whatever. So give some away, and enjoy the daylights out of the ones you do eat.
These are going to my daughter's house - she isn't really in love with baking but her husband and my grandson love all baked goods.

A sidenote - I rarely, rarely make frosting. Those little white tubs in the baking aisle are right up my alley, but this frosting? Make it. I'm not even a real icing girl, but this is fabulous. Melts in your mouth, and leaves it happier for the experience.

So here you go - Bev's Pumpkin Bars (because I don't remember whose recipe I copied):

1 cup oil 2 cups sugar

2 cups pumpkin 4 eggs

2 cups flour 2 tsp baking pwder

1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cloves 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Cream together oil, sugar, pumpkin and eggs. (Just do it and don't think about it too much.) Sift together other ingredients and add to creamed mixture. Mix well. Pour into a sprayed 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. Test for doneness. When completely cool, frost with cream cheese frosting.

Frosting:
1- 8 oz pkg cream cheese 1 tsp milk

1 stick butter 2 tsp vanilla

1 box powdered sugar 1/2 tsp salt

Cream together cream cheese, butter, milk, vanilla & salt. Add powdered sugar. Mix til smooth and slather on. (Note - I don't know how much a 'box' of powdered sugar has in it. I just poured from the bag til it looked the right consistency.)

And because this blog is honest injun': I immediately scooped up TWO bars, and ate them right smack in the middle of the day, because I wanted to.

P.S. Throw a handful of chopped nuts on the top if you'd like. What's a few more calories?

Fall Yumminess - Is that a Word?

Have you had the pleasure of meeting Deb, at Homespun Living? She lives in New York State and has the most wonderful blog, so if you haven't visited her yet, make sure you do. Right after you bake this:

Then cut yourself a (large) slice, click on the link and plan to spend a bit of time treating yourself to all she offers. There's knitting, chickens, country life, sewing, giving new life to home furnishings, gardening and yummy recipes. You can find the recipe for the cake here: Ann Brettingen's Swedish Apple Cake.

Wonderful stuff - her blog - and her Swedish Apple Cake. I altered the recipe a bit when I baked it- tossing the apple slices in cinnamon sugar, and I also drizzling melted white icing over the entire thing right after it came out of the oven. (I generally keep a tub of white frosting in my fridge - you just never know when something is going to scream its name!) The cake was good enough we called it Sunday lunch!

Bake this - NOW!

I'm still catching my breath from being in Colorado for twelve days, albeit glorious ones :-)

We flew in yesterday, and after getting a reasonable amount of sleep, I climbed out of bed, got dressed and headed to the yarn store to take a class on "finishing". That's techno talk for sewing knit stuff together so it doesn't look like something the cat dragged in.

At the class, a woman who works at the store while working undercover as an angel in disguise, presented us with a platter of this. Still warm from the oven.

When you might doubt whether there's a God in the heavens, or maybe you're just a bit road weary from double digit days away from home, you're presented with a platter of warm wonderfulness by someone who had to get up and go to work, but took the time to bake for ladies who had the day off and chose to spend part of it at a yarn store.

This sweet woman told me there is a King Arthur Flour website, and on that website are wonderful recipes in tons of categories. She told me there are quick breads, pumpkin breads, then there's Emmy's Pumpkin Bread.

Warm, moist, with just the right amount of chocolate thrown in. She suggested adding a pinch of the spices you'd throw in a pumpkin pie (cloves, cinnamon, etc.) It makes two loaves, one for your family, and one to slice up, put on a platter and bless someone else with.

Bake it, eat some of it, and maybe by then I'll be back to share all the wonderful things we did on our trip. I'd like to show you photos of elk mating in the wild in Estes Park, Colorado, but I couldn't get the camera to focus fast enough. (Is there a ladylike way to say they're pretty quick?) Whether it's your loss or there was another angel in disguise on duty that day - hard to say - you decide.

Best Menu Website E.V.E.R.

Seriously. I don't know how I found it but it's fabulous. You can pay to join but it has tons of free stuff, including weekly menus, with archives that go back several years and have the recipes and grocery lists to match.

Go here. Now.

You're welcome.

Girly Brunch

Remember back when I had a packing party, and was desperate nice enough to invite a group of friends to spend the day sweating and packing with me?

Well, it's time to thank them - so we're having a girly brunch this week at my place. Good I didn't invite too many to help pack, we only own a handful of chairs and the 'dining room' is less than spacious. Carol, Cathy, Robin and Karen will be showing up Thursday morning and here's what I'm planning to feed them:

french toast bake
frittata with carmelized onions
melon slices
roasted potatoes
coffee
mimosas

I say 'calories be damned' - it sounds a bit Scarlet O'Hara and very southern, which sort of tickles me. Sometimes you just need butter and calories and oozing goodness to speak love to people. Going out to eat with girlfriends is for proper cobb salad, 'at my place' morning brunches, that just won't do!

I found a recipe using day old french bread (from my bread machine) in Allrecipes. If you'd like to try it to, here it is:

12 day-old French bread 5 eggs 2 1/2 cups milk 1 cup packed brown sugar, divided 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 cup chopped pecans 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1.

Arrange bread in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. In a bowl, combine the eggs, milk, 3/4 cup brown sugar, vanilla and nutmeg; pour over bread. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.

2.

Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Sprinkle pecans over egg mixture. Combine butter and remaining sugar; drizzle over the top. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees F for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with blueberries. Bake 10 minutes longer or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Maybe you just want to celebrate the end of summer, or making it through the first week back at school? Speak the universal love language - food fresh from the oven, calories blissfully ignored Scarlet O'Hara style!

Oh My - Julia Child's Chocolate Almond Cake!

Voila - I found it! The chocolate cake featured in the movie, Julie and Julia. It's actually a yellow cake with chocolate frosting then the sides are smothered in sliced almonds. The cake that looks so good, in the movie they don't wait for forks but just start tearing pieces off and shoving them in their mouths as soon as it comes out of the oven.

And our family is lucky enough to have TWO, count 'em, TWO excuses to bake this cake birthdays next week.

Absolutely I'm baking this cake.

You should too, because life is short, and summer is almost over, and there's always something to celebrate, and if by chance there's not, then bake it and don't tell anyone. Hide it behind a kitchen cupboard door or maybe you could hide it in the dryer? and pull it out as needed. Medicinal purposes - chocolate cake smothered with sliced almonds - just what the doctor ordered!

BTW, I heart this kitchen.

We'll be redoing the lakehouse kitchen in about a year, and maybe, just maybe this is something to think about - a kitchen with a heart, designed for cooking rather than show. If I make enough of these cakes between now and then Don just might be onboard with me. Who wouldn't want to eat in this kitchen?

Thank you, Julia, for being so passionate about something, and passing it on.I heart you too.

Julia's Beef Bourguignon - let's try it!

I'm wondering how many of you have seen the movie, "Julie and Julia", just out last week. Based on the crowd when I went mid-week, I'd say a handful. Based on when I went AGAIN yesterday, I'd say many.

Yep, I went twice. Wednesday was with six other women, after we'd met for a supper Julia would not have approved of (Panera's), but the evening was delightful. The theater had maybe fifty people, and seriously, only one was male. Sunday was a different story, with the theater filling up to within three rows of the front, and there were about a dozen brave men who accompanied their wives.

Smart men. One of those men was my husband, who just before the movie had complained, 'there just aren't any good, really good movies out there anymore.' After the movie ended he said, 'now that was a GOOD movie. We should buy it when it comes out.' Which means he's willing to watch it twice, which is what I'd just done. Twice within five days. Which means I get to see it three times, or more.

The second viewing was better than the first. I was able to sit back and really enjoy things I'd missed the first time around. As usual Meryl Streep was phenomenal. How that woman BECOMES the part she's playing just baffles me. Meryl Streep has children in their late teen years and I often wonder if they realize how brilliant she is or if they're typical of that age, finding their mom a bit embarrassing (thinking Mama Mia here.)

I don't do most things halfway. I generally jump in with both feet, and this time is no exception. I'd seen the trailer for the movie several weeks ago, and immediately went to the library. I felt I'd won the lottery, scoring a copy of her autobiography that the movie is based (half) on, "My Life In France", and several of her cookbooks. After I brought them all home and spent some time browsing through them, I decided I was being greedy and returned a few, but kept "My Life in France" and "Baking with Julia". In a month or so when the Julia fever has died down some, I'll go back and check out a few more. I'm dying to check and see if I have any of her cookbooks at the lake. I'm thinking, hoping there's maybe one on my shelf.

If you haven't seen the movie, go. There are a few offensive words, and a few scenes that would not be appropriate for younger audiences. Our audience didn't have anyone anywhere near 'young' in it, either time. There were many duos and as I listened to them it was clear it was a mother and daughter, or two sisters, or a bookclub or such. We found the audience very ecclectic, with a big span in age, wheelchairs and walkers abounding but that may have been the time slot we chose (Sunday afternoon matinee.)

So how good was the movie? At the end of the Sunday showing, they clapped. The audience clapped. How often does that happen?

I'm not ready to go take cooking classes in French cuisine, but I am going to make Julia's Beef Bourguignon. (Click here for her recipe.) It's one of three pivotal recipes in the movie, and I thought I'd attempt that rather than boning a duck or killing a lobster. (We actually did that once, for an anniversary when we couldn't find a sitter. We bought two lobsters, brought them home and let them have races across the kitchen floor before plopping them into the pot. Our kids were pretty little at the time and were fascinated by the whole affair.) The recipe is labeled as 'difficult' but reading through it, it didn't really sound so to me, just a bit time consuming. The season is about to change, stews and such cozy comfort food will be just the thing, and I plan to make it and have somebody over to share it with us. With a good bottle of wine, and a toast to Julia and friends and good food.

If you haven't seen the movie - go. At least once. Even if you don't love cooking. Julia had many life lessons to share that we'd all be better people for mimicing. I won't give the movie away, but her acceptance of whatever life dished up, embracing her situation and surroundings, zest for life, love of people.... the list goes on and on.

P.S. There's a chocolate cake featured in the movie, I'm not even a big chocolate fan, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to get that recipe too. Santa may just have to get me a copy of that cookbook if I don't already own it. And some elastic waist pants to go with...

Easy Decision!

Which do you think looks more enticing?





Me too! (The slathered butter may have pushed me over the edge on this one!)

Don was taking one of these granola bars for breakfast every morning, and not that they're bad, but they're just not 'cozy' and breakfast should be cozy, if nothing else, don't you think?

These? Cozy, and yummy and good for him, and likely easier on the pocketbook too. Took me about 10 minutes to throw together, 15 minutes in the oven, and one minute to test :-)

Oat Bran Apple Muffins

Mix ingredients for Topping:
2 T brown sugar
1 T whole wheat flour
1 tsp butter, melted
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Set aside.

In medium mixing bowl stir together:
3/4 cup oat bran
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup whole bran cereal (think raisin bran)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Mix together next three ingredients:
1 beaten egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup oil

Add to dry ingredients. Stir til moist, then add:
1 small apple, peeled and finely chopped. (I also added some craisins here for good measure.) Spoon batter into 12 prepared muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. (I used large 6 large muffin cups because when I want a muffin, I want a muffin!). Sprinkle 1 tsp of the topping mixture over each cup. Bake in a 400 degree oven about 15 minutes or til lightly browned. Cool on wire rack for about 5 minutes. Serve warm. Slathering with butter is optional, but highly recommended.

Cover and store any leftovers in fridge for up to 3 days. Makes 12 or 6. These can also be frozen for up to 3 months. Before serving, wrap frozen muffins in foil and reheat in 300 degree oven for 15 minutes or til warm. (Recipe taken from BH&G Complete Book of Baking)

Goodness from a Teensy Little Kitchen

The kitchen here is about 10 x 10, if you include all the cabinets. Walk-around space is probably 5' x 5' at best. It's been a long time since I've worked in a kitchen so small.

I find it somewhat charming. We'll see if I feel that way in about six months. It feels somewhere inbetween our last home and a camper setup.

The mood to cook has hit me, so I rearranged the counters yesterday. I'm loving that it doesn't have to be 'staged'. I can leave my big, always in the way, kitchenaid mixer right out there for God and everybody to see. That mixer was several months of allowance so it's nice to have it handy. When we were staging the house, it had to be tucked away because it took up too much counter space.

Here's what my little cooking space looks like:

The condo is actually very bright and cheery, but I'm not much of a photographer, so alas a dim photo.

There you go - some sunshine! It has everything I need to cook, and is a snap to clean.
Here you have our coffee bar, tucked in right next to the laundry closet. I went from a laundry room that was 6' x 20' to this teensy little closet. That makes me smile too. It's big enough and actually very handy. I come out every morning, after Don has left for work, to my coffee cup sitting out waiting for me. Who wouldn't love that?

We had dinner guests this past weekend, which included a certain almost 3 year old. He gets a stuffed bunny at his seat. You'll notice the salad bowls don't match. That's because I only kept dishes we'll give to Goodwill when we move to Texas next spring. I had three matching yellow and one white, but friends and family don't mind, or notice, such things.

I made this recipe yesterday, to go with dinner, and to take to a girlfriend get-together. It started with 'country bread' basted with olive oil and grilled in the oven, then cut into bite sized pieces. I used some 'barely past their prime' sub buns.

Four ripe tomatoes, and I should have gone to the farmer's market. These four tomatoes cost over $6.00. That's crazy in July! (Note my huge kitchen sink...)

Here's what the cookbook's version looked like.


Here's mine - I added a tub of bleu cheese, because almost any salad is better with it I think. Breath - not so good, but then I was going to be with friends, and as long as they all eat it too it doesn't matter a bit.Here's the recipe, if you have dining plans with friends. I think I'll make it again soon, (with tomatoes from the farmer's market this time). It would go well with grilled chicken breasts or some broiled fish. Either would be so healthy, you could add a scrumptious dessert guilt free!

Tomato and Grilled Bread Salad
1/2lb country bread, cut into thick slices
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp olive oil
3 large tomatoes, diced (about 4 cups)
1 cucumber, peeled and diced (about 2 cups)
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh basil, torn into bite sized pieces
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
coarse salt and fresh ground pepper

Heat a grill to medium. Brush the bread slices on both sides with the 2 Tbsp oil. Grill til lightly charred on both sides, 3 to 4 minutes. Let bread cool slightly, then cut into large cubes. In a large bowl, toss the bread cubes with the diced tomatoes, cucumber and basil. Drizzle with the vinegar and the remaining 1/4 cup of oil. Season with salt and pepper. Toss to combine, and serve. A very nice summer salad to serve to family and friends, even if all your salad bowls don't match!

Monday - Planning for the Week Ahead

I've been home 5 days now, so I'm beginning to feel like I've caught my breath. My back is almost healed, and I've just about caught up on rest. So it's time to get busy, just a bit.

One of my favorite things to do on a Sunday afternoon is plan for the week ahead. I came home in the mood to cook and bake and clean and straighten, probably from being away so long. At least I don't rememer getting hit in the head! I couldn't find my old menu template on my computer so I went online, googled menu planners and several good ones came up.

This is a good one. This one is a dandy too. I chose this one. I loved the blank template, but better than the template is the fact that it is a five page document, with two pages being the week's menus, and the next three tabs are main dish, side dish, etc. The tabs past the blank menu planner have meal suggestions, and you can copy and paste them into your menu template. I don't mind cooking, I just don't love figuring out what to cook. A planner with ideas for main dish, etc. makes it much easier for me. Once I know we're having enchiladas with spanish rice and watermelon, I enjoy finding the recipe for enchiladas, or digging out my old one.

This particular planner was also in a format that allowed me to change text, so I switched one of the 'sidedish' notes to say "source'. That's where I make note of the cookbook the recipe came from. It also allowed me to save it to my computer and printed out nicely. There's a column with space for making your grocery list, so one piece of paper rather than two, or trying to find the envelope I jotted my list down on!

Hopefully one of the three links will make planning this week's cooking easier for you too. Because I've got packages to mail, a few phone calls to make, bathrooms to wipe down and a bit of laundry, I'm thinking of using this recipe from Allrecipes.com for crock pot enchiladas, taking the easy way out to start this week off. I'll likely switch shredded chicken for the beef, and add a can of black beans to up the fiber content - filling but not so fattening. They should be good with some diced tomatoes and salsa. Happy Monday everyone!

Chock Full 'O Goodness.....

I bought a bread machine about a month ago, but the house has been staged enough that I haven't really been able to use it much. (It takes up half the counter and that's a big no-no in staging a house.) We haven't had showings the past few days so I pulled it out to give it a workout.

Two loaves of sandwich white (using all purpose flour) came out nice, without much fussing over measuring the ingredients. Good bread for sandwiches, hearty enough to hold chicken salad or to make some grilled cheese. The french, using bread flour, turned out well too.

Honestly, I had low expectations when I saw a recipe for quick bread. I'm a big fan of banana or zucchini or pumpkin bread. A good quick bread should be moist and weigh enough to double as a door stop. I didn't expect a bread machine version to stack up very well against one baked in an oven.

It was a nice surprise to wake up this morning and be found wrong.

Here's the recipe:

Chock Full o' Chocolate Walnut-Zucchini Bread

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate pieces
2 cups all-purpose flour, divided (hold out 2 Tbsp)
3 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp grated orange zest
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground allspice
2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (about 2 mdm)

In small bowl combine walnuts and chocolate pieces. Add 2 tsp flour, toss well and set aside. Spray bread pan and kneading blade with nonstick cooking spray. Attach kneading blade in the bread pan.

Place ingredients into the bread pan in the following order (important!): eggs, oil, remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cinnamon, orange zest, salt and allspice. Add zucchini and then the floured walnuts and chocolate pieces along with any flour remaining in the bowl.

Insert bread pan into breadmaker and close lid. Bake, using the quickbread program selection. When baking cycle is complete, let bread cool completely before removing from baking pan.

I didn't have enough zucchini so I used 1 cup zucchini, and substituted 3 mashed bananas. This bread came out moist and a beautiful chocolate color. It had enough body to hold together, much like you'd expect a quick bread baked in the oven to be.

I can't wait to try the oatmeal date bread recipe the little booklet provided. I have visions of my freezer, packed full of these loaves, waiting for someone to stop by for coffee or tea. I even think I might be able to give my sister's recipe for Amy Grant's grandmother's banana bread recipe a whirl too... wonder if it would come out nice? A bread machine baking away on the counter in the summer doesn't seem to heat up the kitchen too much.

By the way, does anyone else hate that our brochures now have several different languages printed in them, and I speak one? A pair of scissors took care of that very quickly.

Much Better!

I made this yesterday, better late than never.



Cherry cobbler, a 9 x 13 pan for two to enjoy...



That's a lot of cobbler, no time to waste!

So we jumped right in, adding a scoop of Bunny Tracks on the side, and pausing for just a minute to enjoy watching the hot cobbler melt the ice cream into a soft lump.

Then we cleaned our bowls. Guess what I'm having for breakfast this morning?

Easiest Appetizer Ever, in the Whole World

I can hardly believe Spring arrived a month ago -time, it's flyin' by! The quality of fruit in the grocery stores is improving daily.

Using that fruit, this is possibly the easiest appetizer in the world.

Here's the recipe:

Mix half a tub of cool whip with one tub of lemon yogurt.

Surround it with fresh fruit and a box of toothpicks.


Devour.

You can share it with friends if you'd like.

But you don't have to. (If you choose to be greedy, skip the toothpicks and just dive in!)

Egg Salad Sandwiches

So what to do with all those Easter Eggs? I'm not sure I loved egg salad sandwiches when I was growing up, but I do now.

Ingredients:

8 eggs, boiled and cooled
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 tablespoons prepared Dijon-style mustard
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 red onion, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Peel eggs, rinse in water to remove all shells. Ignore blue, pink and yellow colors on eggs. They won't show up! Chop eggs somewhat. In a large bowl, combine the egg, mayonnaise, mustard, dill, paprika, onion and salt and pepper. Mash well with a fork or wooden spoon.

Serve on toasted bread, with a dill pickle, chips and tomato soup on the side. Yummy!

Honest to Goodness Cooks and Fakers

I read this post, about killer tater tot casserole, by Paula Deene via Boomama, and she mentioned that she didn't know what browning sauce was, so she left it out.

It's not at all unusual for me to read a recipe and have no clue what an ingredient is, or a technique, and just running across either of them usually tells me to steer clear because I'm out of my league. Best to stick with chili dogs, or tuna casserole, or crockpot pot roast where I recognize the ingredients and can handle 'open can' or 'boil weiners'. Actually making a prime rib, or anything with phyllo dough, or something where I have to check the freshness of fish eyes, well it's just never gonna happen in my kitchen.

I can cook - I do cook, evidenced by the fact that my family didn't starve to death yet. I even like to cook, I just don't C.O.O.K. like Boomama does. If I have to ask at the grocery what something is or where it is, it's not for me. Chili dog sauce and weiners are pretty easy to find, as are cans of tunafish. They're close to the jars of Ragu and instant mashed potatoes if I remember right.

So it truly shocked me to know something about cooking that Boomama didn't. For a few minutes I got all hotty totty and was impressed with little ole me, til I was slapped right between the eyes with the why.

My homemade gravy is lousy enough that it needs this ingredient to turn it a color that is palatable enough folks will eat it, versus that murky tan color I come up with when I attempt to make homemade gravy once or twice a year.

Obviously the only reason Boomama doesn't know what it is - she can C.O.O.K. circles around me. I like it when God does that, humbles me right back, safe and sound, into the little corner where I belong, that corner full of people who buy those jars of gravy at Thanksgiving and Christmas, hide it at the back of the pantry shelf, and sneak it out while they're 'cooking', so nobody will know the truth.

Faker, that's me. Woman in aisle 9 with the 'browning sauce' hidden at the bottom of her cart. Here I am. I swear if I'd gone Baptist about 40 years ago I might not have such a sad cooking story.

When I die and go to heaven, if we eat then I'm all about signing up to eat at Sophie's place, and she's totally going to be cooking there - the way she talks about cooking, it's clearly a spiritual gift of hers. No more chili dogs or tuna casserole for me once I make it past the pearly gates. I'm standing in line, even waiting for her if she didn't beat me there, for at least one dish of anything she makes that has bacon as an ingredient or frying as the technique.

Slavin' Over a Hot Fire:

Doesn't Bed, Bath and Beyond have the greatest 'stuff'. It's mostly stuff, but once you see it you just can't live without it.

Like these:


For a total outlay of $8.00 my broccoli won't taste like onions. And my onions won't taste like broccoli. Unless I make Broccoli Salad, of course. Someone managed to make onions look cute! I've had these for a few weeks and absolutely love them.