Month: September 2013

Desserts · Fruit · Holiday Fare

Caramel-Apple Bread Pudding

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Peter Pumpkin told me that I can’t make anymore lemon desserts for awhile. He says that it is beginning to “sour” my attitude. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that my “sour” attitude is coming from being woke up at night a million times due to “sleep noises” coming from his side of the bed. He assures me that he doesn’t snore, so maybe it is the lemon desserts. Just in case, I am switching over to heavy sugery items that will most assuredly sweeten my mood. So here is the first of the fall desserts that I will keep in my file for Thanksgiving. I love bread pudding, any flavor, so when I saw this recipe that combined apples and caramel, it immediately needed to be posted.

1 table butter

3 small Gala Apples, peeled and chopped (about 3 cups)

25 Kraft Caramels

1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk, divided

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

4 eggs

1 teas vanilla

1/2 teas ground cinnamon

3/4 lb unsliced white bread, cut into 1″ cubes (about 8 cups)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1 cup whipped cream (sweetened with about 2 tables sugar while whipping for topping)

Heat oven to 350. Melt butter in large skillet on medium heat. Add apples and cook 5 min. or until crisp-tender, stirring frequently.

Remove from heat.

Place caramels in microwave bowl. Add 2 tables evaporated milk; set aside. Pour remaining evaporated milk into large bowl. Add sweetened condensed milk, eggs, vanilla and cinnamon; whisk until blended. Add bread and stir until liquid is absorbed. Stir in apples and cranberries. Pour into buttered 2 qt. baking dish. Place in water bath. (this is simply pouring boiling water to about 1/2 way up sides of baking dish, which you have placed in a pan with sides.

Bake 1 hour and 10 min or until knife inserted in center of pudding comes out clean.

Microwave caramels in microwave bowl on high 1 min or until completely melted. Stir every 30 sec. Drizzle over pudding and top with whipped cream.

Serves 12-14

Cakes · Desserts · Fruit

Lemon Custard Cakes

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The lemon pudding was so good that I am now craving lemon desserts. This appeared on Two Chums Blog today and I knew I would be making them this weekend.
Lemon Custard Cakes
(Modified from a Martha Stewart recipe)

Soft, room temperature butter, for custard cups

3 large eggs, separated

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Grated lemon zest from 1 lemon

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 cup whole milk (you can also use almond milk or coconut milk)

1/4 teaspoon salt

Powdered sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set a kettle of water to boil. Butter six 6-ounce custard cups (Pyrex works well). Place a dish towel in the bottom of a baking dish covering the bottom..

Separate egg yolks from the whites.
In a large bowl, whisk yolks with sugar till light. Then whisk in lemon juice,zest and milk.
Mix and beat whites until soft peaks form. (remember that room temp whites always beat up better and lighter)
Fold the beaten egg whites to lemon batter, gently with the whisk. Batter will be quite liquidy. Divide batter between 6 custard cups and place on top of the towel lined baking dish. Place on rack in oven but before closing door, pour the boiling water till water reaches 1/2 way up sides of custard cups. Bake 20-25 minutes, until puffed and lightly browned. Cool for a few minutes and then sprinkle with powdered sugar.

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Lemon Creme In A Glass

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Lemon Creme In A Glass

Two days ago, I posted the recipe for Lemon Crème Pie. Today I am having a friend over for lunch and didn’t want to make a pie crust, so after cooling the lemon crème, I spooned it in a martini glass, topped it with sweetened whipping cream, sprinkled shortbread cookie crumbs and a raspberry! A very pretty presentation and great for individual desserts. The recipe would make 6 of these if using martini glasses.

Starches

Quick Pasta Carbonara

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Using the new Philadelphia Cooking Crème, this pasta dish is really quick and really great for those nights when you are wanting comfort food without taking lots of time, but want great flavor.

Cook 1 lb of pasta (your choice) as directed on package, omitting the salt. Meanwhile, cut 8 slices of Oscar Mayer Center Cut Bacon into 1/2″ pieces; cook in a large skillet until crisp.

Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain, but reserving 3 tables drippings in the skillet. Add 4 minced garlic cloves to drippings; cook 1 minute. Add bacon, 1/2 teas pepper and 1 1/3 tubs (10 oz ea) Philadelphia Italian Herb Cooking Crème; cook and stir 3 minutes. Drain pasta reserving 1 cup cooking water. Gradually stir reserved water into sauce. Add pasta an 1/2 cup Kraft Parmesan Cheese; toss to coat. Transfer to bowl; top with additional 1/4 cup parmesan and 2 tables chopped fresh parsley. Makes 8 servings.

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Peter & Penelope Pumpkin

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Peter & Penelope Pumpkin

Learning how to upload pics to this new computer!
Can’t believe it has taken me this long to figure out this new lap top. Was use to Apple and am trying to learn Windows
It is now official, Peter & Penelope have taken over for Randy and Trudy. The recipes you will see posted over the next couple of months will be geared to fall and holidays…get those pumpkins out!

Desserts · Fruit

Lemon Creme Pie

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Last evening I was looking through Face Book and found this recipe that someone had shared. It sounds so good that I am headed to the store as soon as I post this to get the necessary ingredients to make it this afternoon. My sister-in-law called this morning to ask me if I had made it yet as she had seen that I had shared it on FB. She told me that she had eaten a lemon cream pie and it is delicious. It’s not tart like lemon meringue. So for those of you who are not on FB, I thought this was worth posting. Update! I came right home and made it. It is delicious and so creamy. I did change the recipe a little bit. Instead of the 1 cup of milk, I used 2 cups and then only used 1/2 cup sour cream. I just thought that the 1 cup didn’t sound like enough milk. But if any of you try it with the 1 cup, please let me know how you like it.

Lemon Crèam Filling

1 cup sugar

3 1/2 tables cornstarch

1 tables grated lemon zest

1/4 cup lemon juice

3 egg yolks, beaten

1 cup whole milk

1/4 cup frozen butter

1 cup sour cream

Combine sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, lemon juice, egg yolks and milk in a sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until thick. Stir in the frozen butter and cool to room temp. Stir in the 1 cup of sour cream and pour into a cooked pie crust. Top with whipping cream and white chocolate curls.

Daily Thoughts

Pumpkins and Frappe

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Fall is in the air, fa la la la la! The white shoes are put away and the matches are sitting upon the mantel, just waiting for the weather to drop below 100 so we can lite the fireplace.  In the meantime, I will perk myself up by stopping by Starbucks and guzzling down a pumpkin spice frappe. September is that month when we really don’t know what to wear or what table decorations to use. It’s still hot to where we are needing to still wear our shorts and sandals, but because we know it is September, our minds automatically just think pumpkins and pies, fireplaces and lattes. It just seems weird to walk into Hobby Lobby to see if there is any new fall decorations that I just can’t live without in shorts and sandals. If it is like the past 60 years, I’m sure that there will be some that I just cannot walk away from. So to truly get in the spirit of Fall, I turn down the air conditioning in the house and car and get out a new fall outfit, stop and buy a Pumpkin Spice Frappe (since I cannot make myself drink anything hot until it is below 50) and head to see just what new shapes and colors of pumpkins they are selling this year.  Peter Pumpkin, (Randy’s name from Sept 1 through Thanksgiving), doesn’t know it yet, but I am thinking about having a pumpkin carved to look like him. I think he will be excited to see himself sitting right outside the front door, with “welcome ya’ll” carved at the top of his face. Things like this just get him so excited about the holidays. He will be thrilled to know that this is the weekend we go to storage to find all our fall treasures.

Last year, if you remember reading (Labor Day in Big Bear) it took us 3 trips to bring home all the treasures that are stored. We have since bought a little bigger car than the two seater, so hopefully we can make it in one trip.
This time last year, we were recovering from hiking down a mountain on Labor Day. Since that time, we have learned to go to Big Bear with “imaginary illness” that would not allow us such hideous activity and also “forgetting” the required shoes it takes to hike. Because of this new wisdom of ours, we actually did a little resting yesterday, instead of participating in something that would require knee surgery or a hip replacement, we sat and watched golf or read. We are learning. We are slow, and it takes us awhile, but we now know how to get out of things we don’t like to do. Lie and fake illnesses. Works every time.
In case you are wanting to drive your adult kids crazy (more than normal), do what we do. We record a really stupid message on our answering machine. It will keep them from calling so much, because they are afraid if we aren’t home, they will have to listen once again to…
“Hello, you have reached Peter and Penelope Pumpkin. Peter is hunting pumpkins and gourds and I’m shopping for s’mores, we’ll give you a call when we walk through the door”. Trust me on this, it will drive them crazy.