Saturday, July 25, 2009

Nun's Puffs

"How these light, tender morsels were named is a mystery - but they are heavenly."

1/2 cup butter
1 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
4 eggs
Sugar
Honey (optional)

1. Generously grease twelve muffin cups, including the edge and around the top of each cup; set aside. In a medium saucepan melt butter; add milk. Bring to boiling. Add flour all at once, stirring vigorously. Cook and stir until mixture forms a ball that does not separate. Remove from heat; cool for 5 minutes.

2. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating for 1 minute with a wooden soon after each addition or until smooth. Divide dough evenly among muffin cups, filling cups about two-thirds full; sprinkle with sugar.

3. Bake in a 375 degree oven about 30 minutes or until golden brown and puffy. Remove from pan. If desired, serve with honey.

I have nothing more to add from what the original recipes says besides maybe next time I'll add a bacon/spinach combo to make individual breakfast souffle sort of things

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake

Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake

Shared via AddThis

I'm posting this here, so I don't forget about it. It may be the perfect cake for Charles. It includes a homemade "buttercream" frosting recipe that's dairy-free!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Get your bookmarks ready, girls, because I do I have a site for you...

I've been a fan of The Pioneer Woman for a long time. Well, since I discovered her this spring. But it's been such a wonderful few months, I feel like we're BFFs.

Seriously, this woman is amazing. Not only does she homeschool her four kids on a million acres of a working ranch with her husband ("Marlboro Man"), she keeps five blogs at the same time. Well, it's one blog, but it's divided into five sections (Confessions, Cooking, Photography, Home and Garden, and Homeschooling) which are all updated regularly... pretty much daily. With humor. And detail. And gorgeous pictures to boot.

How does this woman have time to do laundry??

Today, she topped it all. She now has an additional website, Tasty Kitchen, that features recipes from her readers. It's a gorgeous site, and I've already found tons of recipes I want to try.

Click at your own risk.

You'll fall in love with Ree.

PS She also has incredible give-aways, so watch her site for chances to win Kitchen Aid mixers, Nikon cameras, Photoshop, Amazon gift certificates... Just be prepared to compete with her 10,000 other readers. (note: that is not an exaggeration of numbers!)

Blueberry Coffeecake Scones

I am a big scone lover. They were the first thing I baked from scratch after moving out of my parents house. (Isn't it funny how you remember things like that?)

I'm having some girlfriends coming to visit from home in a couple weeks, so I knew I wanted to make a batch of scones while they're here. Since I haven't made this version before, I wanted to do a test run - and they turned out great!

The 'dough' mixture is really a thick batter (very wet & sticky). The best way to describe it is a free form coffeecake cut into wedges. So it's probably not technically a 'scone' but still good.

Makes: 8 wedges
Source: Simply Scones

Ingredients
For the Scones:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled
2 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 1/2 cups fresh or thawed, drained frozen blueberries (I used fresh)

For the crumb topping:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter, chilled

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Light butter an 11-inch diameter circle in the center of a baking sheet. (I used a baking stone)

1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes and distribute them over the flour mixture. With a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (I was lazy and just put it in the kitchen aid mixer.)

2. In a small bowl, stir together the eggs, milk, vanilla, and lemon peel. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir to combine. The dough will be sticky. Gently stir in the blueberries.

3. With lightly floured hands and board, knead a couple times (I used almost 1/2 cup of flour when kneading) and pat the dough into a 9-inch diameter circle in the center of the prepared baking sheet.

4. To prepare the topping: in a small bowl stir together the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes and distribute them over the flour mixture. With a pastry blender, cut the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the topping mixture evenly over the dough to cover. Press crumb topping lightly into the dough.

5. Cut the circle into 8 wedges (but do not separate them). Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is lightly browned and a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center of the scone comes out clean.

6. Remove the baking sheet to a wire rack and cool for 15 minutes. Using a spatula, transfer the scones to a wire rack to cool. Re-cut into wedges, if necessary. Serve warm, or cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Cheesy Potato Casserole

I'm breaking the silence! :)

This recipe is super simple and you probably have most, if not all the ingredients in you pantry. It is a large amount of food to make for a side dish, so I froze half of it.


Ingredients
1 (2 lbs.) package of hash browns, thawed (I used fresh potatoes, shredded and drained)
1 stick of butter, melted
16 oz. sour cream
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
16 oz. (4 cups) shredded cheddar cheese, divided

Directions
Preheat oven at 300 degrees.

1. Mix all ingredients together except 2 cups of cheddar cheese.
2. Place the mixture in a 9 x 13 inch pan and bake for 50 minutes.
3. Top with remaining cheddar cheese and bake for 10 minutes.

Source: cooks.com
Next to my BBQ chicken

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Silence

Well, our page appears to be dead lately. And sadly I have nothing to add to it at the moment.

Hey Kristi, where are you and what are you doing?! ;o)

I just got our mom all set up to start posting her delicious recipes, so hopefully she'll be joining us soon.