Month: January 2012

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Sweet Potato Pound Cake

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If you are like any typical mom who has trouble getting veggies down your little darling’s throats, try this cake. It is full of sweet potatoes, but they will never know it. So when you are spending the afternoon with a grandchild or trying to figure out what to have for dinner that is good for the family, try this cake. Never mind that it has cream cheese, sugar and eggs included. Just focus on the sweet potatoes that are in it and don’t worry about the other stuff. The good will outweigh the bad, ha…..This is from the Nov, 2011 Southern Living…Goes great with a Chai Latte for an afternoon snack…

1 (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 1/2 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes

3 cups flour

2 teas baking powder

1 teas baking soda

1/4 teas salt

1 teas ground cinnamon

1 teas vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Beat cream cheese and butter at medium speed with a mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears. Add sweet potatoes and beat well.

Stir together flour, next 3 ingredients and cinnamon in a bowl. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Spoon batter into a greased and floured 10″ tube pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 10 min or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

You can bake this cake in 2 greased and floured 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 ” loaf pans instead. Bake and cool but your baking time will be less. Test for doneness after about 40 min…..

Breads

Angel Biscuits

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The Christmas tree is put away and the Egg Nog is gone. We have turned one of our Christmas trees into a Valentine Tree and am already looking through new issues of Southern Lady or Taste of Home for recipes that my “Valentine” will love coming home and sitting down to gaze upon.(well, actually we graze more than we gaze). This recipe for Angel Biscuits will go perfectly with breakfast or dinners and you will be able to turn any husband into an “Angel” when he takes one bite of these. They are simple and delicious.

Makes about 2 dz. The addition of yeast will guarantee fluffy biscuits every time. Do NOT let the word “yeast” scare you off.

1 envelope active dry yeast (1/4 oz)

1/4 cup warm water (just be sure it is barely warm, certainly not really warm as this kills the yeast)

2 tables sugar (do not use sugar substitute as the yeast needs the real stuff to activate)

1 tables baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup shortening, cut into pieces and 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pieces

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400. Combine yeast and warm water in a 1 cup glass measuring cup; let stand 5 min.

Meanwhile, whisk together flour and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl; cut in shortening and butter with a pastry blender until crumbly.

Combine yeast mixture and buttermilk and add to flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead about 1 min.

Roll dough to 1/2 ” thickness. Cut with a 2 in round cutter or into 2 ” squares. Place on ungreased baking sheet.

Bake at 400 for 12 to 15 min or until golden brown.

Daily Thoughts

Return to Chocolate

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I know, I know, a couple of days ago, I said that I was going to go green at least on the blog home page, but I just couldn’t do it. Everytime I looked at the stark green page, all I could think about was how it just didn’t look like my blog, so came back to the chocolate themed look. Made me want to cook more than the green. Sorry guys, guess I’m more into chocolate than “going green”. But I promise I will try harder to recycle and turn the lights out when leaving the kitchen.

Daily Thoughts

Trader Joe’s Store

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Most of the visitors to my blog are probably from Texas and I wanted to share something that you will be enjoying very soon, if you have not already. I hear from friends in Dallas that they are putting a Trader Joes at Park and Preston with two more stores located on Greenville and Ft Worth. If you have never experienced one of these stores, can I just tell you that you are in for a wonderful surprise! I have learned to appreciate the store for what it is and that is this: it is a small store that is so reasonable on prices and has a great collection of foods from all over the world. They are truly top notch and every thing that we have tried from there has been very good. They have lots of prepared frozen foods, which are really great and I have already served many of these new dishes for get togethers here at the house, which is rare for me to do. I usually home make what I serve, but the foods that I have had rave reviews are these:

The Gingerbread mix, which is seasonal, so you will have to wait until the holidays next year to probably find this.

Trader Joe  Jo-Joe’s, which is an oreo cookie with a peppermint filling. I bought these and got addicted to them immediately.Next year when they come back to the store I am going to make a cake with these delightful little gems with them chopped up in the batter and then the pink peppermint crumbs sprinkled on top.  This year, I dipped this cookie in melted chocolate just to give it an extra punch of chocolate. Their chocolate hazelnut biscotti is awesome!

Their line of frozen entrees are truly as good as what you would find in resturants.

I hope I have encouraged you to try them as soon as they open there in Dallas. You will not be sorry. See, California has sent you In and Out Burger and now….Trader Joe’s…….If we could just get Sister Schubert rolls and Diet Cherry Dr Pepper out here now, life would be grand. We do now have Dillards and Hobby Lobby, so I am a happy camper.

 

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Very Lemony Cookies

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It will take me months to finish trying all the new recipes from the Paula Deen Christmas magazine, but these cookies were right up there at the top of new recipes that I just had to make. The older I get, the more I am enjoying other flavors other than chocolate. 

1 cup butter flavor all vegetable shortening

1/2 cup sugar

1 tables lemon zest

1/2 teas salt

2 egg yolks

3 cups flour

2 tables heavy whipping cream

1 teas lemon extract

1 teas vanilla extract

Lemon Glaze

Garnish: Candied Lemon Zest *Optional

In a medium bowl, beat shortening and sugar at medium speed with mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 min. Add zest and salt; beating until combined. Add yolks, one at a time; beating well after each.

Gradually add flour, beating at low speed until mixture is combined. Ad Continue reading “Very Lemony Cookies” →

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Going Green

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Since some of you have totally gone all “green” (yes, this applies to my son-in-law) I thought I would change my blog screen to “green” to show that even though I am a little slow in learning to turn off lights, recycle or go without air conditioning, I can at least “go green” on my computer screen. So until I find a February Valentines theme, this blog will be “going green”…..Also, I love change, and thought maybe ya’ll would like a little change in color on your phone or computer also…..

 

Cakes

Vanilla Caramel Cake

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Get to the store as soon as you can and buy a jar of Smucker’s Hot Caramel Topping and go home and make this cake. It is sooooo good. The jar of caramel goes into the cake and when I saw this recipe from Southern Lady over the holidays, I knew that as soon as I got home, it would be the first recipe I posted.

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 (12 oz) jar caramel topping

1 teas vanilla

6 large eggs

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teas baking powder

1 teas baking soda

1/4 teas salt

1 cup sour cream

Vanilla Frosting* recipe follows

Preheat oven to 350. Spray 3 (9 inch) round cake pans with Pam baking spray with flour.

In a large bowl, combine butter, sugar and caramel topping. Beat at medium speed with a mixer until creamy. Add vanilla, beating to combine. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Spoon batter into prepared pans and bake for 18-20 min or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans on wire racks.

Spread frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake.

Vanilla Frosting

1 cup butter, softened

2 (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scrape out seeds, reserving them to mix into frosting.

1/2 teas vanilla extract

5 cups powdered sugar

In a large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed until smooth. Add vanilla bean seeds and vanilla extract, beating until well combined. Gradually beat in powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

This recipe will work beautifully as a cake or cupcakes…..Sprinkle white sparkles on top to decorate.

 

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Happy New Years to You

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Well, today is the beginning of a new year and as I’m sure most of you, like me, are excited to be in your kitchens cooking up foods for family coming over to watch the Rose Parade, the Bowl games and ringing in the new year. Doesn’t 2012 just sound so much better than 2011? Maybe because it’s an even number, or maybe it is because the number 12 is mentioned so many times in the Bible. We just returned from church where we gave thanks for the blessings from the past year and now look forward to the many new opportunities that the Lord will bring to us in this new year. 

We will be experiencing the Rose Parade from our front porch this year with one of our son’s, Jamin who came out here to meet some friends that have never been to the Rose Parade. So today, I am looking through new Paula Deen magazines and Southern Living to find a couple of new recipes to make for all of the friends who will be here tomorrow after walking up and down the street looking at the floats. This will be a new experience for us this year. Last year, we had spent our first night in our new home, had an air mattress and two sports chairs that we sat in watching the floats line up in front of our house. Last year, we didn’t know a soul here and spent the New Years by ourselves, which was fine, but those of you who know me know that the more people around us, the more I love it. So this year, after spending NYE with some new friends and getting to introduce them to Jamin, we are excited to know that a few new friends have told us that they will be walking down to our house tomorrow morning to grab a cup of cider and a piece of gingerbread. This is what I live for….having people come over and share food and friendship…..God has been so good to us and so faithful to lead us to people who are already so dear to both Randy and I. So tomorrow, I will be posting a couple of new recipes that we will be making tonight….Happy New Years and look for us on TV tomorrow, we will be the ones handing out coffee and hot biscuits to new friends who find their way past the floats to our new abode……