appetizers · Breads · Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Parmesan-Garlic Bread

If you have been following me for any length of time or know me personally, you know by now that I never stray to far from whipping cream, butter or cream cheese. Well, whenever I see a new recipe that has one or more of these ingredients, they grab my attention. This weekend we were in a book store with some friends who are visiting from California. We mozied around the store (yes, with mask on and being sure that we did not get any closer than 6 ft, or almost 6 ft, I was never very good at math, so maybe it was only 4 or 5 ft, but no one sneezed on me and I was careful not to look anyone in the eye or smile underneath the mask. Who knows who I might have been smiling at even if they didn’t know it?) Anyway, there at the end of one aisle, were these Gooseberry cookbooks on sale for $3. I use to pay about $20 for them. So I grabbed a few for myself and some friends. (and yes, if you get one from me as a present, you now know your gift only cost $3, but it is the thought that counts).
Finishing rearranging the living room this morning, I sat down with my Diet Dr Pepper to get my heart beating back to normal and thought I would glance through the new cookbook. There on page 67 was this recipe that caught my eye. I had never seen a bread recipe that included whipping cream, and whipped at that. So of course I have to tell you about it. As soon as I get to the store to buy a loaf of french bread, this will be smelling up the kitchen, and adding another inch to my…well, you know where!

1/2 pt whipping cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
9 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 loaf French bread, sliced
paprika to tastes
*I will also add dried parsley flakes to the mixture because I love the little specks of green on French bread.

Whip whipping cream until thick; blend in mayo. Add garlic and 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese; stir well. Slice French bread in half lengthwise; generously spread garlic mixture on each half. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese and paprika. Place loaf halves on an uncreased baking sheet. Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for about 15-18 min until garlic topping is turning light golden. Cut into 1″ slices. Makes about 2 dz slices.

Cakes · Daily Thoughts · Fruit · Uncategorized

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes

We have a winner folks. These cupcakes are truly decadent, light, flavorful, beautiful, sunshine in your mouth wonderful!  Everyone who has had one, (and so far that is about 50, (two different times of baking them and taking them to different places) has told me that this is their new favorite flavor of cupcake, or cake, that I have made. The first time i made it, was in a cake with cream cheese frosting for the filling and then wrapped it in whipped cream. As that is, to me, the best way to enjoy anything, (wrapped in whipping cream) these cupcakes just are so light and fluffy, that you could eat 5 of them in one sitting. I wish I could say it is because we have great will power to not do that, but the truth of the matter is, that we are in “stay at home” mode due to the CV. I don’t want to run out of eggs, or flour, which I am being told is very hard to find right now. So thankful I had bought a 10 lb bag  of flour last time I went to the store and 36 eggs. Because I make a shake pretty much every morning for breakfast with frozen blueberries I usually always have frozen blueberries in the freezer so when I began to think yesterday what I would bake, these came to mind, as the sun finally came shining through the kitchen window after about eleven days. So in honor of the beautiful sunshine, lemon blueberries were the baked good of the day.

1 Duncan Hines or Pillsbury lemon cake mix

1 small box of lemon instant pudding mix (yesterday I only had french vanilla pudding mix so used that.)

4 eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup water mixed with 1/2 cup lemon juice=1 cup liquid

1 cup frozen blueberries or pint of fresh blueberries, sprinkled with a little flour to keep them from sticking together in batter. (sprinkle about 1/8 cup or 2-3 tablespoons over the blueberries and stir flour to just coat them)

Mix all ingredients, except for blueberries for 2 minutes.  Stir in the blueberries just until they are mixed in well.  Do not stir much. Using large cookie scoop, fill cupcake liners and bake until the tops of cupcakes still have a little shine. Cupcakes continue to bake because of the hot cupcake pan, so you need to always take them out when there is still a little shine on the top and they are soft to the touch. This keeps you from making a dry cupcake.

Remove from pan and continue until all the batter is used. . This recipe makes 28 cupcakes if you use the large cookie scoop.  Cool and Frost.

Frosting

3  1/2 cups of powdered sugar

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

4 oz cream cheese, softened

Whipping cream to thin or milk if you prefer. Takes only about 1/3 cup , (but add this gradually by tablespoons so it doesn’t get to think) to get frosting to spreading consistency.  Add by tablespoon if you need a little more.

Mix all together and continue to mix until frosting is very light and fluffy. Frost cupcakes ( or cake if you have made this into a 9×13 cake). Store in refrigerator, covered.

 

Desserts · Fruit · Holiday Fare

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

Another super easy, yet so yummy pumpkin dessert. Brought to you by Jell-O!  J E L L-O

Preheat oven to 350.
1 pkg (2 layer size) Duncan Hines yellow  cake mix

4 eggs, divided

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 ( 8oz) cream cheese, softened

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin

1 pkg  (3/4 oz) pumpkin spice flavor instant pudding (if you can’t find the pumpkin spice, use French vanilla

1/3 cup cold milk

1/2 teas cinnamon

1 envelop Dream Whip Whipped Topping Mix

Line a 13×9″ pan with foil; spray with cooking spray. Blend cake mix, 1 egg and butter; press onto bottom of pan.

Beat cream cheese, brown sugar, remaining eggs, pumpkin and dry pudding mix with mixer until blended. Pour onto crust.

Bake 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Transfer pan to cooling rack; cool completely.

Mix whipped topping with milk and beat until blended. Beat on high speed until mixture forms stiff peaks. Spread onto dessert.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I cheated and used real whipping cream. Add 1/3 cup sugar with 1/2 pt of whipping cream and beat until stiff peaks form. Nothing is better than REAL whipping cream…..so easy and makes such a difference.

Serves 18

Chocolate

White Chocolate Pineapple Mousse

When looking through all my recipes, I realized that I never post any recipe that is made  white chocolate. Yes, I do know that white chocolate is really not “real” chocolate, but, it still has a fabulous flavor, especially when mixed with whipping cream.   Taken from one of my Southern Lady magazines,

1 small box (3.3 oz) of instant white chocolate pudding

1 (20 oz) can of crushed pineapple , do not drain

1 3/4 cups heavy whipping cream

1 (4 oz) bar white chocolate very finely chopped

Crushed butter cookies ( I use Keebler Shortbread)

in medium bowl combine pudding mix and pineapple. Let stand for 5 min. Add cream to pudding mixture and beat at medium-high speed with mixer until stiff peaks form. Fold in chopped white chocolate and put in individual parfait glasses or martini glasses. Sprinkle crushed cookies on top right before serving. . Place in fridge until ready to serve

Cakes · Daily Thoughts · Desserts

Friday ROAD TRIP of Christmas Countdown

Well this past week has found the Griswalds at Wallyworld, the Storage Unit and now ta da, we get to go to Big Bear, which is up in the mountains a couple of hours from our house for a Chocolate Tour. The tour takes you to 4 decorated houses with different chocolate treats at each place. Frosty and Noel will be in heaven. We have our Tums packed in our back pocket, our cell phones on silent and the GPS loaded with our destination. That just makes us sound so much cooler that “we have the map in the car”. Of course, where we are going, the GPS probably won’t work, so we do have our map tucked between the cooler filled with Energy drinks, Dr Peppers and chocolate covered pretzels, just to get us ready for our chocolate tour.

Will be so excited to return to tell you about the weekend. But have to tell you about our little experience last night. We had been invited to some friends house, (before I tell you this, don’t you really wonder how things like this always happen to us) for dinner. We had absolutely the best baked chicken I think I have ever had. She is giving me the recipe and will post it when she does. We finish dinner and she serves Pumpkin YumYums. Oh my, pumpkin layer over cream cheese layer over a buttery crust with whipped cream. To die for. Will post that when I get back also, but if you just have to make it this weekend, all it was was the 4 layer chocolate pudding dessert that people used to call Chocolate YumYums….but instead of the chocolate layer she mixed a can of pumpkin with 1-2 teas of pumpkin pie spice (depending on how much spice you like) with a small package of instant french vanilla pudding with the 1 1/2 cups cold milk. Beat the pumpkin with the pudding and spread over the cream cheese mixture which you make with 8 oz of cream cheese, 1 cup of powdered sugar and 1 cup of Cool Whip. Well, I have gone this far, I might as well give you the whole recipe. Whip up the cream cheese, sugar and Cool Whip and spread over cooled crust. The crust is made up of 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 stick of cold butter and 1 cup chopped pecans. Cut butter into flour and add chopped pecans. Spread over a 9×13 pan and bake until golden brown, about 12-14 minutes. Watch it closely. When it is cooled completely, spread CC mixture over crust. Pour pumpkin over CC layer and top with whipped cream. Put in fridge and let it sit for about 4 hours before serving. Now, back to my story.

We finished dinner and went into the den to watch a video. There were about 14 of us there. We were watching so intently (it was part of our Bible Study lesson) but I kept smelling something burning. I tried to get our hostess attention to tell her that I truly smelled something burning, but thought, well, she has the dishwasher on, I bet a plastic bowl is too near the heating element. But the smell kept getting stronger and stronger. All of a sudden one of the other guests turns around and yells, “the table is on fire”..The flames were shooting up about 4 feet into the air and we all ran for water and began to pour water on her table. So now not only does she have a burned dinning room table, but a soaked rug as well. But Frosty, being the Christmas Giver that he is with a most generous heart told her not to worry, he would buy her more candles to replace the ones that caused the fire..He is just the best!

The fire did not even dampen our night at all. We had a most enjoyable evening with precious friends and the most amazing dinner. Frosty was excited that he had got a home cooked meal, and he didn’t even have to buy the groceries. That always makes it taste better. Am headed to finish packing, will talk to you on Monday with new Christmas recipes and maybe a funny story or two. After all, when we drive to the mountains for the weekend, you know some story will come out of it.