Cakes · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Fruit · Holiday Fare

Apple-Spice Cake

My precious little hubby came home from the Nutritionist yesterday upset because he hadn’t lost the weight he had hoped. We finished dinner and found our way to our matching recliners (they are disguised as wing backs so people just walking in the living room won’t know we are old), when he proceeded to ask me what we were having for dessert. I looked at him and reminded him that he was just complaining an hour ago about not losing weight. He reminded me that that was an hour ago and he was wanting dessert. I hated to tell him that the dessert that I had made was long gone. It had been delivered to some friends and it was too late to make anything last night. He rummaged around our pantry until he found cookies.  This morning I promised him I would have dessert awaiting his arrival today. I found this recipe on the back of the Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix box and have it in the oven as we speak (actually as I post). Am adding my own frosting as I still just cannot do canned frosting. It has a can of apple pie filling in it and I did add a half teaspoon of ground ginger to the batter. The house smells divine right now and cannot wait to  try it.

1 Duncan Hines Spice Cake mix

3 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1/2 teas ground ginger

1 (18 oz) can apple pie filling (not just the canned apples, but the “pie filling” apples

Frosting  of your choice (but please don’t tell me if you use the canned, I don’t want to know that)! ha

Combine eggs, cake mix, oil and mix for 2 minutes. Add can of apples.

1 cup chopped nuts (opt) can be added if you like

Pour into a greased 9×13 baking pan and bake until knife inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool and Frost

Browned Butter Frosting

1 cup butter

1 box (16 oz) powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk (might need a little more, but add by tables as needed)

1 teas vanilla

Cook butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, 6-8 min or until butter begins to turn a golden brown. Remove pan from heat immediately and pour butter into a small bowl. Cover and chill 1 hour and butter begins to solidify. Beat butter at medium speed with mixer until fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar, alternately with milk, beginning and ending with sugar. Beat mixture at low speed until well blended. Add vanilla. Spread over cooled cake. Sprinkle with chopped pecans if desired.

Desserts · Fruit · Holiday Fare

Caramel-Apple Bread Pudding

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

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.

Uncategorized

Lemon Creme In A Glass

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

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.

Uncategorized

Peter & Penelope Pumpkin

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

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

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.

Daily Thoughts

Face Lifts & Labs

This morning I fasted. I would like to say that I did it to spend more time in prayer, but the fact is that I had to have some lab work done. I put on enough make-up so as not to scare anyone and headed out the door at 7:05 a.m. Now, I am the first to admit that I truly am one of those that need all the layers of makeup so that I hopefully hide several years of wrinkles. I had just had my roots watered and fed and so no gray was showing. When I walked into the waiting room, I thought to myself, “hum…I shouldn’t have really worried about how my hair or makeup looks, most of the people there looked like they barely had rolled out of bed, much less brushed their hair and maybe not their teeth. But I sat down to wait my turn. Giving me a chance to play Candy Crush, I was so proud that I had gotten up and was getting this behind me. When my name was called, I walked quickly into room #4 and gave my best smile to the little girl that probably just graduated last week from high school. She began to enter my info into the computer without taking her eyes off the screen, she ask me my birthday. I quickly responded, “7-11-50” She repeated after me, “7-11-15”. What???? Should I have added that second layer of foundation this morning? I quickly corrected her and said, “that is 50, not 15”. She looked at me and said, “50 not 15?”. Well, I know that I have been looking a little haggard and maybe a new wrinkle or two is forming over my mouth, but 15? Really? Is it that bad? Did she really think that I was born in 1915? That would make me 98? My goodness, surely either she isn’t good at math or has the worst eyesight ever. I am now not feeling very confident in the young whipper snapper that is going to be sticking a needle in my arm. But I stepped out in faith and allowed her to proceed. Maybe I should have been praying, during the morning fast, instead of playing Candy Crush. I survived the ordeal and quickly put in a call to a plastic surgeon to get an estimate for a face lift, while walking to the garage to retrieve my car. Oh, this story gets better.

Pulling up to the exit in the parking garage, I inform the nice gentleman that, because I had entered the garage at 7:15, the machine wasn’t on yet to spit out tickets. He said that is alright, and asked me what time I entered. I told him 7:15 and he told me I owed $1.60. As I was trying to look for the $1.60 in the very dark underground garage, he proceeded to get his phone out and show me his new bride that looked at least 20 yrs younger than he.(I found out she was 20 years younger) All I said was, “oh my, she is very pretty.” Well, I guess he either gets very lonely sitting there underground all day or doesn’t ever get to talk at home, because I sat there in my car, in the dark, hearing about how his first wife of 13 years died in his arms and how a friend of his deceased wife found him this new wife. I also heard about a man who had come to stay at their house for a few months and every thing he fixed in this man’s house and what all he learned as he watched him fix what was broken. Where were all the cars that usually are honking to get out of the garage, when you need them. He then proceeded to tell me that when he is not working there, he has a car detail business that has afforded him to be able to have 2 houses and new cars. OK…now I am dying to get out of that garage and call Randy and tell him that he needs to quit the title business and get into the garage attendant business with a car detail side business. I want 2 houses and a new car too. But Randy informed me that he is too old and to tired to start over. That reminded me to follow up with the plastic surgeon and be sure that our insurance covers a very much needed facelift, according to the little high school lab tech.  Am spending the Labor Day weekend buying all new makeup and going to get my hair cut. Hopefully by Monday I will at least pass for 80.

Have a wonderful and safe Labor day and will be back to you on Tuesday.  TKbakesalot

Chocolate · Desserts · Fruit

Strawberry Cream Pie

Taking a break from pulling all the white shorts, white capris and white shoes out of my closet until they come back out next Easter, I decided that I earned something sweet. Putting away all my linen clothes is enough to put me over the edge. So,  I sat down and began to look for something that sounded refreshing and yummy.  Since it is getting to the time that the strawberries won’t taste as sugarery and sweet, I want to make use of them before they go away for a few months. This recipe caught my eye. Just this morning pulling out my recipe for cream cheese pound cake, I ran across this same recipe in another cookbook, and lo and behold, here it is in a 2012 Southern Living also. So it must be good.

Different from a traditional strawberry pie…well, you’ll see!

3 tables cornstarch

2 tables flour

1/4 teas salt (I have always wondered, since it only calls for 1/4 teas, would we notice if I skipped it altogether?) Think I will be daring and try it without.

1 cup sugar, divided

3 cups half and half

6 egg yolks (note to self, take extra Lipitor tonight)

2 teas vanilla

1 (9oz) package chocolate wafer cookies

1/2 of a (4 oz) semisweet chocolate baking bar, chopped

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 qt fresh strawberries

1/4 red currant jelly (I have seedless raspberry, so will use that)

1 tables orange liqueur (only have raspberry liqueur so will use that)

Whisk together first 3 ingredients and 2/3 cup of the sugar in a heavy saucepan. Whisk together half and half and next 2 ingredients in a small bowl. Gradually add to cornstarch mixture, whisking constantly.

Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly for 1 minute.

Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl; cover and chill 4-24 hours.

Preheat oven to 350. Pulse wafer cookies and chopped chocolate in a food processor 8-10 times or until finely crushed. Stir together cookie crumb mixture melted butter and remaining 1/3 cup sugar; firmly press mixture on bottom and up sides of a lightly greased 9″ pie plate.

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool about 30 minutes.

After 4 hours, spoon chilled half and half mixture into crust. Cut strawberries in half and arrange around center to the outer edge of pie. Use all strawberries to top the creamed mixture.  Using a small saucepan, heat jelly 2-3 min or until melted. Brush jelly mixture gently over strawberries. Chill, uncovered, 30 minutes or until ready to serve