It was so much fun to make up a recipe today for our friends coming over tonight from church. I have always wanted to try this and I figured before my first heart attack or before all the butter and cream cheese went to my head and caused dementia, I needed to do this. Just finished putting the final touches on it and I can’t wait until we cut it tonight. Randy and I have set a new world record this week for us. Do not ask me why, but we have not had dessert in 4 nights. I do not count the Hershey with Almonds bar I ate last night as dessert. and..he doesn’t count scraping out the last of the Blue Bell Pumpkin Spice Ice cream out of the container as dessert. Those are just things that we eat to clean up the freezer and cabinets.
So tonight, we have real dessert. If we like it as much as i think we will, it will certainly go on our dessert buffet table for Christmas. Hum…after I just wrote that last sentence I started to remember all the desserts I have said that about over the years. It might be time to buy a larger buffet table. But here is the recipe for the cake which we will unveil tonight to our study group of 12…if there is any left over, Randy and I will finish it off tomorrow night until we make a real dessert….remember, leftovers do not count as real dessert….yes, I live in an fantasy world!
Duncan Hines Devils Food Chocolate cake mix, made according to directions on box for 2- 9″ round cake layers. (I added 1 teas almond extract to batter)
Bake as directed and cool.
For the cream cheese layer:
1 (9′) round cake pan sprayed with Pam
1 8 oz softened cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teas vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream
Mix all ingredients until well combined. Pour cream cheese mixture into the prepared 9″ pan and bake at 350 until cheesecake is done…about 20-25 minutes or until knife comes out clean in the middle. Cool and then remove from pan onto a piece of waxed paper.
Frosting:
2 sticks (1 cup) softened unsalted butter
3/4 cup cocoa
2 teas vanilla
enough whipping cream or milk to make mixture spreadable (about 1/3 cup, but add by tablespoons until it is of right consistency after doing the 1/3 cup)
5 cups powdered sugar
Melt butter with cocoa. Stir to combine and add powdered sugar and beat until smooth with the milk or whipping cream. Add the vanilla and mix until all is smooth and fluffy.
Place one layer of the chocolate cake on serving platter. Using 2/3 cup of the frosting, frost the top of this layer. Place cream cheese layer on top and frost it with another 1/3 of the frosting. Place 2ned layer of the chocolate cake on top of cheesecake layer. Frost sides and top of cake with remaining frosting.
Decorate with Chocolate Covered Cherries and chocolate chips.
Today was the last Wednesday that some precious lady’s met in our home for Bible Study. The study was a 6 week study and since it was Fall, I tried to bake something pumpkin each Wednesday. Today I knew that these pumpkin scones would make the perfect treat for our last study. Served with butter and apricot jam, they were a hit. My sweet Shannon, who had sent me packets of flavored sugar a few weeks back, had sent multiple flavors of sugar. So today, before baking I sprinkled on the Salted Caramel and that added to the already delicious flavor.
This evening I was wanting to make something that I had never made before. We ended up with this really great Italian dinner. Even Peter Pumpkin sat there saying, “this is really good and I even like the asparagus”. Will wonders never cease. He is not a huge fan of mushrooms or asparagus and so for him to ask for seconds made me so proud. It was so easy and actually a great dish for serving company during the holidays. Plus…it was pretty. A dear friend of mine, Reny gave me this dish years ago and it is still one of my favorites to serve Italian food.
For years, my mom used to come over on Halloween to bring popcorn balls and caramel apples for our kids before they left to go Trick or Treating. Of course, I usually had half of them eaten by the time they kids got home. This year, I decided to make popcorn balls. I remember thinking that when my kids are grown and have kids of their own, I will have all the time in the world to continue the tradition of making caramel apples and popcorn balls. Well, I have to admit it has taken me….well, lets put it this way, our oldest grandchild is 17 today and this is the first year I have made popcorn balls. The sad thing is, Jaden will already be gone with his friends to head to downtown Phoenix to go to a Haunted House. Well, I hope when he gets down there with his friends, he will think to himself, “oh man, what am I doing here, I could be home having a popcorn ball that my Nana made me?” That will show the little whipper snapper. Who knows, it might be another 17 years before I attempt making them again. Maybe Jaden’s kids will enjoy them. Surely I will have more time then to make Halloween treats. Before I post the recipe, I have a concern that I need to share. A concern and a question. If any of you out there are missing a teaspoon, would you please private message me. Don’t embarrass me by commenting on here that you wondered what happened to that 8th spoon that goes with your dinnerware. It happened yesterday at church, of all places.
Legally it is Fall. That means that I can crave cornbread dressing from this point on without the guilt. In summer, I feel so guilty telling people that I just have to have some dressing, when everyone is walking around with an ice cream cone in their hands or nibbling on crisp lettuce. But now….now, I can stand up and announce, “hi, my name is Trudy and I am a dressingaholic”. I think I could eat it every other day, in-between the hamburgers and pizza that I crave.
It is still 100 outside, but I cannot wait any longer to begin making pumpkin everything. So today I went looking for a new different recipe for some pumpkin bread and found this one. It sounded so good with the brown sugar streusel that I began to read her blog and knew that this one would be a winner. Since I’m making it for some ladies who I sit with on Tuesday mornings at church, what better way to study Genesis that with a pumpkin muffin? You would love the aroma that is coming out of our kitchen right now. You might just forget that it is hot outside for a few minutes when you smell the pumpkin, cinnamon and cloves drawing you in the door. Taken from the blog called, Friends.Food.Famiy
A few weeks ago I saw these wonderful looking apple pie cups on Facebook and knew right then that I had to have one. As I didn’t have fresh apples in the house and it was still so hot outside that the thought of going outside at 3 p.m. was not enticing. But I did have a can of apple pie filling and a Betty Crocker Oatmeal Cookie packet. So I marched to the kitchen and began to build this great little cup of deliciousness. Having to admit that I did not make the oatmeal cookies from scratch (like I saw on FB), nor using fresh apples, (like I saw on FB), this became a challenge to get a finished product that would certainly be something that I would not apologize for serving, since I was using shortcuts. I have made them twice since Friday. They are that good. A couple that we share baked goods quite frequently, was the first recipeants of these little gems. The wife never got to even taste them as her hubby ate them. So am taking her one today. They will be our dessert tonight at our kids house. Along with ice cream and caramel topping them off.
It was a shock to me to find that I had never posted my Spaghetti & meatball recipe. It is one of our most requested dinners from family and friends alike. When I lived in Corpus Christ for years, there was a neighbor, Cam, who was Italian from New York and she gave me so many of her recipes that to this day, her meatballs, pecan pie, sour cream pound cake, and so many other of our desserts are still most treasured.
