Apple Pie Cake

My tree is full of apples. I'm not sure what kind they are because the former owners said it was a volunteer. It just came up! The apples are good baking and eating apples. So I am looking at apple recipes I've copied down over the years and I'm trying some of them.

The first one I tried is called Apple Pie Cake. I think it turned out yummy.

I am not a pie maker. I've never mastered pie crust because I don't really like pie crust. I do like apple pie however. It's one of the few pies I do like. The apple-cinnamony goodness soaks into the crust and makes it edible.

I've only made one apple pie in my whole life however.

This recipe does taste very similar to apple pie but you can whip it up in a few minutes. No pie crust to master! The ingredients are simple and usually on hand. I am sure you can use white flour if you don't have whole wheat. If you want to make it and you live in my neighborhood.... call me. I can spare 1/2 C. I usually have some in my freezer.

Apple Pie Cake

1 egg

3/4 C brown sugar

4-5 apples, peel, core, chop (mine weren't chopped really fine, I'd say roughly chopped)

1/2 C Whole wheat flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat egg, add sugar and vanilla - Add apples. MIx well. Add flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and mix well.

Pour into a greased pie plate.

Bake 25-30 min. Cool 10 min. slice.

It was a little sticky and didn't come out super clean but clean enough. It's not as pretty as a pie but it tastes very similar.

Let me know if you try it and like it.

PINEAPPLE TERIYAKI BEEF ROAST

PINEAPPLE TERIYAKI BEEF ROAST

2 1/2- 3 lbs Beef Rump Roast; cut into 5-6 slices,

1 (16 ounce) can crushed pineapple in juice, do not drain

1 cup water

1 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

4-6 cloves garlic, pressed

1 tablespoon cornstarch

white or brown rice, cooked ( we used 3 C Rice + 6 C water)

Directions:

Add the pineapple with juice, water, soy sauce, sugar, & spices to a crock-pot. Stir to melt the sugar then add in the beef cubes. Cover with a lid then cook on high for 6 hours. Take 2 forks and shred meat up. If does not shred easily, cook a bit longer. When shreds easily. Remove meat to serving dish and cover to keep warm. Pour juices into shallow pan and bring to boil. Mix Cornstarch with 2 tbsp of warm water then stir into the sauce. When thickened, pour into bowl for serving. Another way to thicken the sauce is to mix cornstarch and water and pour into crockpot with meat and juices. Recover crockpot & cook for another 20-30 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Serve over rice.

Served family of 7 with some leftover

The original recipe said to cube beef but I didn't want to take the time so I just cut it into several big slices. I planned to shred it when it was cooked anyway. I adjusted the recipe to make more sauce b/c we like a lot of sauce for our rice. If you don't then you should probably half the sauce. The whole liked this recipe. Yea! I wished I'd taken a picture. It looked so pretty on the plate. We served it with fresh grean beans from the garden sauteed in butter and garlic salt. mmmmmmmmmm

Valentine Faux Pas

I made my traditional Valentine's day breakfast again this year. The food is never the same, I do whatever sounds good in the weeks leading up. Sometimes it's simple, sometimes it's more involved.

what is the same is that I use glass dishes, candles and try to be "fancy".

Valentines Breakfast 2o11 menu:

Breakfast casserole (not one of those bread ones!)

Mandarin oranges

Sausage

cranberry/pomegranate juice

Orange juice

cinnamon/sugar mini muffins

Breakfast Casserole:

20-24 oz frozen hash browns (I added some from another bag, so I did more like 32 oz)

1/4 c butter

3 c sausage, bacon, or ham, cooked (I did ham)

3 c shredded cheese (I used colby Jack)

1/2 c half and half

6 eggs (I used 8 eggs)

1/2 tsp seasoning salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Spray 9 x 13 dish with non stick cooking spray. Add has browns, brush with butter and brown in oven for 20-25 minutes. Layer sausage bacon or ham and cheese over cooked hash browns. Beat together cream, eggs, salt and pepper and pour mixture over casserole. Return to oven and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes uncovered.

(I cooked it at 400º the first 30 minutes and then lowered it to 350º after I added the eggs)

Rachel does not like eggs and I didn't know how strong the egg flavor would be in the casserole so I made her a little one without eggs. She LOVED it, ate the whole thing, and made another one Monday after school and writing up the altered recipe for her recipe book.

I fried up sausage links, making half of them into these hearts from my favorite friend "Family fun Magazine" That's an uncooked fettucini noodle skewering the halves together and the arrow parts are made of what else? cheese!

I had an Amish friendship bread start that needed to be made up that day so I turned part of it into mini muffins.

The breakfast casserole was such a big hit it may turn into an annual thing.

I found an idea for scratch & win valentines on this blog; "Let me count the ways" They were so easy.

I made all mine for Macey's ice cream cones. The scratch off spots said "small", "medium" and "king kong". I put the sizes all in different orders on the cards and used silly little rhymes that had something to do with ice cream.

"I scream, you scream, then we make up. That's the best part"

"I scream you're the coolest kid on the block"

"You're a twist of every good thing!"

"Rose are red, violets are blue

vanilla is sweet and so are you",

and so on....

I told them all before they scratched off their heart, "this is all in fun. There is no complaining. You get what you get and if you complain or scratch off more than one, you get nothing!"

They were all good sports and made it fun. Mark and Rachel got King Kongs and the rest got medium. I'm glad nobody got the small all by themselves. That would have been sad. We went that night after Mark got home from work to get our ice cream.

My faux pas moment came in my other valentines.....

I had a little sweet for all my sweethearts.

For Rachel & Carly I had valentine Junior Mints

For Jacob, Samantha & Mason I had valentine Airheads

For Mark, I had Townhouse crackers and squeeze cheese.

Again, I had to write a silly little rhyme for each of them.

For the big girls I had written "you were MINT to be my daughter. Please be Mine for eternity"

For the little 3 I had written "I'm no airhead, I'm lucky to have you for a son/daughter. Please be mine for eternity"

For Marks, I had written "In a Townhouse or in a tent, loving you is Easy Cheesy. Please be mine for 19 more years." We had been talking some the past week about how our 19th anniversary was coming up in April and so I was thinking in terms of we had spent 19 years together already and wanted to have that much more.

He looked at his and then looked over at the kids valentines whereupon I had asked them to "be mine for eternity" and started teasing me about only wanting 19 more years with him to which Carly quipped

"Maybe 19 more years with you IS an eternity to her"

On my lunch hour I called him and said "I just called to say I love you" and he said "good, cuz we only have 18 more years!"

I don't think I'm ever going to live this down....

I did try to make it up to him that afternoon by

sending him a singing valentine.

One of the local high schools hires out their Senior choir to sing to your valentine so at 3:30 he's sitting at his desk and in walks about 8 girls in red dresses and ask for Mark. When he indicates he is indeed the man they're looking for they make a semi-circle around him and start singing "Falling for you". I came in right after they left and he was laughing and said "I don't get embarrassed but I got embarrassed!"

I would really like to have him around longer than 19 years......

I think I could handle eternity with him.

(I wonder if there are suitcases to put away in heaven....)

He makes me laugh when I'm mad

He's generally the first one to apologize after a disagreement

He makes me feel safe

He pushes me to think differently about things.

He makes me laugh.

Shoyu Chicken

Shoyu chicken (pronounced "show you chicken" )

This recipe is from my friend Heather. When she announces that she is making "shoyu chicken" for dinner her husband can not resist saying "show you what!?" .... every time....... She says it never gets old.

1 whole chicken cut up or 2-3 lbs leg and thigh meat

sauce: 1 C soy sauce

1 C italian dressing

1/2 C sugar

boil sauce ingredients in pan til sugar dissolves. add chicken pieces. Reduce heat, cover, simmer 15 minutes, turn chicken over, simmer 15 minutes, turn chicken over, simmer 15 minutes, turn chicken over, simmer 15 minutes. serve over rice.

This is SO good. This recipe has doubled the sauce because I like a lot of sauce. The original recipe calls for 1/2 C soy, 1/2 C Italian and 1 C sugar. The sugar has been cut down in the doubled batch and that's the only way I've made it upon recommendation from my friend Heather. I used a whole chicken and cut the breasts in small strips. If you make this with white meat only it will not be as flavorful but if you are a white meat fanatic definitely cut it into smaller stips so they soak up the flavor. I wouldn't recommend using a light or fat free italian dressing. You need the oil in the dressing.

If you try it. let me know what you think!

P.S. I serve this with rice. I can't believe I forgot to add that. Next time I thought I'd slice up some carrot coins to add to the simmering sauce.

Pot Pie for Jena & for David who doesn't know he likes it yet...

chop 1 onion (unless your Jena who's allergic), 3 ribs of celery and julienne (or grate) one pound of carrots (approx. 6-8). Sauté these vegies in a couple tablespoons of butter. Sprinkle liberally with garlic salt.

When they are limp and a bit caramelized, sprinkle on 1/2 C of flour. Stir well to blend in. Start adding 2 C of chicken broth approx. 1/2 C at a time. Add slowly and stir well after each addition before adding more so it will thicken instead of clumping. When broth is added, stir in 1 C of milk slowly, stirring well as you add. If seems too thick add more broth or milk. I am mostly guessing at my measurements. I never measure with this recipe...

Add about 6 med. potatoes. Dice them on the small side so they'll cook quickly. Add 1 to 2 C cooked chicken and 1/2 a bag of frozen peas. Simmer til potatoes are mostly done. Add 1/2 to 1 C cheese and stir til it melts. Now pour it into your baking pans. This amount for me fills a 13 x 9 pan and an 11 x 7 pan. Now its' time to add the crust. I don't make a bottom crust, just a top crust.

Parmesan Pie Crust

I got this recipe from a magazine. Tore it out at a doctor's office probably. I still feel a tad bit guilty about that but I have used it so much. I really should write it down because it's getting a little tattered. I didn't use the filling recipe but it's simpler than mine so if you want a simpler filling Jena I'll send it to you.

1 1/2 C flour

1 1/2 C potato flakes

1/2 C parmesan cheese (just the kind in the can is fine.)

2/3 C butter/margarine

1/2 C cold water

combine flour, potato flakes & cheese. Cut butter in with a pastry blender. When it resembles coarse crumbs add cold water a little at a time, sprinkling it in and toss with a fork. I usually need to add just a little more to get it to hold together. I reach in and start handling the dough. I squeeze it to see it if will hold together in a ball. If I have a lot of crumbly pieces I sprinkle in more water until it will all hold together.

I rip out 2 large pieces of saran wrap and put the 2/3 of the ball of dough between them. This is for the 13 x 9 pan. Repeat with final 1/3 for 2nd pan. I flatten it with my hand and start rolling it out. You need to get it really thin because it will puff up some when it bakes. When it looks about the right size you just take off the top layer of saran wrap and flip the dough over the pan and then peel off the 2nd layer of saran wrap. cut off excess and make it pretty if you want...

I don't worry about pretty with this as the gravy bubbles up some. I just try to get it to the edges and if I don't quite make it I cut off a piece of the excess and make it fit in any holes. Cut a few slits in the top and bake 25-30 minutes at 400 degrees.

Yum! Let me know if you try it and what you think. It is different and might not be for everyone. Jacob doesn't like any of it. Mason doesn't like the crust. The rest of us love it.

Thanks for reminding me about Chicken Pot Pie Amy! I hadn't made it in a while.

taking squash too far... even for me.

I've been accused of being a little crazy with the squash in my time. I used to steam and puree banana squash and make squash waffles for Carly and Rachel when they were little. I added cinnamon, nutmeg and applesauce. They weren't terrible. I ate them too. Just trying to be a good mommy you know, trying to get their 5-a day in. I ran across a new squash recipe the other day. I just wanted my brothers and sisters to know that this is taking squash too far.... even for me....

I am a firm believer that squash should Never be served in any form of smoothie. And that includes all those pumpkin pie shakes that pop up at this time of year. Cold pumpkin pie I can drink? no thank you.

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These butternut squash ice pops taste just like the classic Thanksgiving pumpkin pie.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 lbs. butternut squash
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup

• 2/3 cup light cream
• 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

X

Instructions

1. To make a batch, cut a butternut squash into quarters and scoop out the seeds.

2. Boil, bake, or microwave the squash until it's soft. Let the squash cool a bit before scooping its flesh into a medium-size bowl.

3. Add pure maple syrup, light cream, and pumpkin pie spice to the bowl. Use a potato masher to mush the squash and blend all of the ingredients.

4. Spoon the mixture into ice pop molds (we were able to fill 10), add sticks, and freeze for at least 6 hours before serving.

Never Fail Fudge Frosting

FOUND IN:

Never Fail Fudge Frosting

1/2 C salted butter

1 C white sugar

1/3 C cream

1/2 C chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla extract

place butter, sugar, cream in md. size pan. bring to boil, stirring constantly. Turn down heat to md. and cook for 2 minutes.

add choc. chips, stir them in, remove pan from heat.

stir in vanilla.

pour frosting on cake and spread out quickly w/spatula. if you’re pouring it on a warm or cold cake, just grab the pan and tip it so the frosting covers the whole top.

if you want this frosting to cool in a big hurry so that you can cut the cake, just slip it in the fridge uncovered for 30 min or so.

Snow cone syrup

If you like these....

and happen to have a handy ice shaver at home or an Auntie Christy who will send you one......

Ours looks like this...

And think the little bottles of snow cone syrup at Walmart or wherever you shop are ridiculously expensive--

I have a recipe for you.

Snow Cone Syrup

1 1/2 C water

1 1/2 C sugar

Bring to a boil and boil one minute.

Then Add:

1 package Kool-Aid

I have made mangoberry, ice blue raspberry lemonade and pink lemonade. All big hits with my kids. Mark needed something stronger so I added 2 packets of pink lemonade to the recipe instead of 1 packet and then it was just right for him.

Way cheaper.

cold.

icy.

yum.

yum.

Karla NEEDS pudding

I grabbed my Betty Crocker cookbook and flipped to desserts.

Vanilla pudding

(I started out doubling this and it wasn't working.  I suggest you don't double it...  I split it up into two pans and it worked out.  )

1/3 C sugar

2 T cornstarch

1/8 tsp salt

2 C milk

2 large egg yolks, slightly beaten

2 T butter or margarine, softened

2 tsp vanilla

1. Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt in 2 qt saucepan.  gradually stir in milk.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils.  Boil and stir 1 minute.  (This takes a while)

2. Gradually stir at least half of hot mixture into egg yolks, then stir back into pan.  Boil and stir one minute.  Remove from heat.  STir in butter and vanilla.

3. Pour pudding into dessert dishes.  Cover and refrigerate about 1 hour or until chilled.  

Makes 4 servings

Red Bean & Rice

So I was looking for something new and easy to do with smoked sausage 

(If you've never tried it the lower fat Turkey Kielbasa is really good)  I found this recipe on allrecipes.com which is a great site for new recipes.  I have found several keepers on that site when I've looked at a piece of meat and been bored with my regular recipes.  You can put "smoked sausage" in the search box and recipes will start coming up with that ingredient.  The thing I really like about the site are the comments by people who have tried the recipe.  They often make really helpful suggestions like "It was good but a little on the bland side so I added more garlic".  This is the recipe for "Red Beans and Rice" that I tried this week. I adjusted it a little to make it go far enough for my family so the recipe I'm posting is different than you'll find on the site.  This fed 7 people.

Red Beans and Rice

1 package smoked sausage, sliced in rounds

1 onion, diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 tsp garlic

2 8 oz cans of tomato sauce

2 15 oz cans of Kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 tsp oregano

6 C water

3 C white rice

1. Bring water to a boil.  Add rice.  Let boil hard one minute, lower heat to low. cover with lid and cook on low for 20 minutes.

2.  Place sliced sausage in large skillet.  Fry on medium high til browned nicely, about 5 min.If you use a regular sausage instead of a lower fat one there's quite a bit of grease in the pan.  I took a paper towel and blotted up most of the oil.  Then and add diced onion and pepper & garlic.  Sautee til soft.  Add tomato sauce and beans & oregano and simmer for 20 min.

3. Serve red beans & sausage over rice. (or next to rice if your ages 5-10)

Really liked it:

Mark, Jamie, Carly, Mason

Thought it was ok but ate it...

Samantha and Rachel

Didn't like it AT ALL

Jacob (big surprise eh?)

A little holiday desperation turns out to be a good thing.

My Easter menu was:

Ham

Rainbow Jello

Easter Rolls

Christy's glazed carrots

strawberry bottom pie

baked potatoes

I became disenchanted with the idea of baked potatoes on sunday morning... A little last minute for menu changes.... I KNOW!

I couldn't do mashed potatoes with no gravy...

Mark had suggested on Saturday twice baked potatoes~ but with working on the rolls, pies and jello I knew I would not have time or energy leftover for twicebaked potatoes. ....

He then suggested scalloped potatoes but the answer for me was the same... time, energy...making a white sauce, blah blah blah.. layering...

Carly suggested funeral potatoes but nobody likes them but the adults and Carly......

I had settled for baked but that just seemed to boring for a holiday dinner.....

what to do?????

I decided on a whim to make something up.....

I have a recipe called "speedy spuds" I copied from my college roommate, Sharla, back in Harmony house, Rexburg Idaho. In that recipe you melt 1/4 C butter/margarine in a 13x9 pan. Next, you fill that pan up with sliced potatoes, skin on. You sprinkle them with season salt and stir them up to get the potatoes evenly coated and put them in the oven at 400 degrees. You have to stir them every 20 min or so and they take an hour or so to get done. I knew I couldn't do that because I would be at church and couldn't stir them every 20 min. I didn't want to cook them when I got home because we didn't want to wait that long to eat.... hmmmm... I saw 2 little unused boxes of cream in the fridge.... I got an idea......

I call them "Desperation Easter Potatoes"

I scrubbed and sliced 12 medium potatoes.

I put them in a large roasting pan (like a lasagna pan, bigger than 13x9)

I sprinkled them with season salt and poured one pint of cream over it all.

I knew I was taking a chance with my holiday dinner by trying something completely new and untried, Something fiendishly easy and quick.

but seriously folks, how WRONG could it be with a pint of cream in the equation?

I mixed it all up and covered them with foil and set the time bake setting on the oven.

I cooked them for 2 hrs at 350 degrees, stirred them up after church and let them cook for 30 more minutes so 2 1/2 hrs total. They were SOOOOO good. Some were well done and crunchy, all were tender and yummy. Everyone loved them and they will probably be our Easter potatoes every year. They go really well with ham.

It was lovely to sit down to a dinner that everyone loved. I got NO looks, NO groans, No sad sulking and staring at dinner plates, NO hubby grumbling about trying out a new recipe on him. In fact all I got were compliments after compliments. Jacob even admitted the carrots weren't terrible. That's something.

Cooking with Kei: Pani Po Po

Kei (say it with me "K-E") is my niece. She is a freshman in college in Oregon. This girl is an amazing cross country track star. She runs 50-70 miles a week and goes through ALOT of tennis-shoes. At least 2 days a week she runs 12 miles for her training run. That's a half marathon. I am so amazed every time she talks about her training schedule. Just listening to her is enough to get me winded.

She came to visit us along with some of her other family for her spring break.

She grew up in Hawaii where Mark's sister lives with her family. Laurie went to college at BYU-Hawaii, married a local Hawaiian boy, and has never looked back. I went to BYU-Hawaii after I graduated from BYU-Idaho, formerly known as Ricks college. I had just met Mark the summer before. Mark drove me to LAX when I left California.

When I touched down in Hawaii, his sister Laurie picked me up from the airport with her hubby, Hank. She greeted me in true Hawaiian fashion, with a lei placed around my neck and a kiss on each cheek. They let me, a stranger who was falling in love with her brother, stay in their home until I got a dorm room which ended up being about a week or two. They took me snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. Laurie took me to her Aerobics class. They loved me from day one without any reservation and I fell in love with them & their 1 yr old daughter, Kei.

During my 4 months in Hawaii, I had a great time, had lots of great experiences but the most important one was getting to know, really know, Laurie and Hank and little Kei. Without that time they would have always been Mark's long-distance relations in Hawaii. What I would have missed. We've had to get to know the kids long-distance, watching them grow up in pictures and letters and phone calls but we had a strong foundation to build on.

Now that Kei is on the mainland for college we've had the blessing of having her visit twice. It's been so fun. She is planning on coming to Utah next year for school and we are very excited for her to be closer in just a few short months.

On her most recent visit I asked her to teach me how to cook Pani Po Po.

I had never tasted Pani Po Po but I had heard about it for years and years from my mother in law and heard Laurie talking about making it for this event and that event. I HAD to try it.

Here we go!

The most important ingredient in Pani Po Po is Coconut milk. It's expensive! $2.99 a can. Kei says it's only 79 cents on the island. There it's a staple, here it's a novelty.

Kei is the oldest cousin on Mark's side of our family... Carly is the oldest cousin on my side.

You need to butter the pan to prevent sticking!

Pinch off pieces of dough and roll them in your hands to form shape of a ball.  You can use frozen roll dough or make your own. I used a favorite dough I use for cinnamon rolls. (The recipe will be at the bottom)

Beautiful. Let rolls rise about 20-30 minutes in draft-free place. I like to set my oven to warm for 10 minutes and then turn it off and slip rolls inside. When I do this my rising time is less, more like 15 min.

Kei is left-handed. Opening cans with our "right-handed" can opener was very difficult and Uncle Mark took GREAT pleasure in teasing her as she tried. (Did you even know opening cans was difficult for the left-handed? I had no idea...)

Whisk together:

2 Cans coconut milk

1 C sugar

6 T cornstarch

1 C water

in a saucepan. You will not want to make this too early or you will have to keep stirring it or the cornstarch will cause it to get clumpy and it won't turn out right.

Pour half the sauce over risen rolls. After our rolls had risen they were all touching so Kei took a knife and gently separated them so the sauce could get between them and to the bottom.

This is what it looked like before baking....

don't forget to keep stirring remaining sauce periodically while rolls are baking

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. Check bottoms for doughiness. It takes a little longer for these rolls to cook than plain rolls. Then put saucepan full of remaining sauce on stovetop. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook til thickened. It should resemble a gravy. Pour over baked rolls while warm.

If after you pull one or two out and start eating, you find that they are still a little doughy, you can put them back into the oven for 5-10 minutes. That..um... sort of happened to us. They still turned out great though.

Look at these happy faces!

you know they were good warm but I liked them better cold the next day. Kei advises you keep them in the refrigerator if they last more than a couple of hours as the coconut milk will go bad if it sits out for a long time.

My Cinnamon Roll dough recipe:

#1. mix 1/2 C warm water, 4 1/2 tsp yeast & 2 T sugar

Set aside and let work till yeast is foamy.

#2. MIx 2 C cold milk, 1/2 cup oil, 1 egg and 1 small pkg. instant vanilla pudding.

#3. Mix yeast and pudding mixes together.

#4. add 1 tsp salt and approx. 8 cups flour. Add 3 C flour, mix well & then add flour 1 cup at a time until you have a stiff dough. (It will be a little sticky but not too bad)

Oil a bowl and place dough inside. Place bowl in 1-2 inches of hot water in sink with towel covering and let rise 1 hour or until doubled. Punch down and form into rolls/cinnamon rolls/whatever! When I make cinnamon rolls and regular rolls I usually just let them sit about 10 minutes and then bake 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees. This recipe doesn't have to rise for an hour after forming rolls and it always turns out great.

For Karla: Lemon tarts=happiness

Tart shells:

1 C butter 1/2 C powdered sugar 2 C flour

Cream butter and sugar, add flour and mix well.  Shape into 1 inch balls and place in mini muffin tins.  Use tart shaper, dipped in flour each time, to press ball into shell shape.  I dip the tart shaper in flour, press down and wiggle from side to side to try to get the dough to come evenly up the sides.  It will stick if you don't use the flour.  Bake at 350 degrees for 17-20 minutes.  Cool for 20 minutes and carefully remove from pans.  Makes approx. 3 dozen shells.

Lemon filling:

#1.  Beat 3 egg yolks.  Set aside

#2. Combine in heavy pan:  1 C sugar, 1/4 C cornstarch, 1/2 tsp salt & 2/3 C cold water:  Mix til smooth.

#3. Add 2/3 C boiling water to #2 mixture.  Turn heat onto high and cook, stirring constantly, til clear and thick.  Cook 3 more min.

#4. Add egg yolks and stir continually

#5. Add 1 T butter, 1/4 C lemon juice (that is usually the juice from one good sized lemon), 1 tsp lemon extract:  Cook and stir one minute.  

Pour immediately into tart shells.  

For best results: You will want to make these pretty close to the time you'll be serving them.  They need to be refrigerated if you're keeping them longer than a couple hours out.  The tart shells get a little soft but they're still good.

I make these every Thanksgiving for my family and often at Christmas time too.  My mom and my sister, Christy use this filling to make Lemon Meringue pie which is my Dad's favorite.  I don't really like the meringue and I don't really like pie crust so I never did... that is until I found this shortbread tart recipe.  It really, really, REALLY makes me happy.  

Snappy Rolls

Looking for a quick bread with dinner that tastes great???? Have I got the answer for you! Again from The Domestic Diva's Party Cookbook I give you.......

(I modified just a bit as it called for self-rising flour... who has self-rising flour on hand all the time? not I)

Snappy Rolls

2 C flour

1 tsp salt

3 tsp baking powder

4 Tablespoons Mayonnaise

1 cup milk

1 tsp sugar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine all ingredients together in a medium bowl and mix well. spoon into 12 lightly greased muffin cups. bake 16-18 min. Tip: best served warm.

Jamie's tips:

I baked them at 400 degrees and they came out so well done (burnt according to Mark but not to the rest of the family) I tried them at 12-13 min. the next time and they turned out better. They tasted just as good on day 2 after being toasted in the toaster oven. I know the mayo sounds weird but they taste like a combination of rolls/baking powder biscuits. You'd never know the mayo was there. They are so fast and easy. Seriously, for me, 15-20 minutes from thought to table.

I made just 1 dozen the first time and the kids begged me to make a double batch the next time as they all wanted MORE MORE MORE!!!! Mark was a little down on them the first time grumbling that he liked baking powder biscuits better but after the 2nd & 3rd batches he started saying "they're growing on me" a complement every domestic diva dreams of hearing from her prince! Thanks babe....

Brownie Tarts: A good thing

I made these for Valentine's day for my family. It was a recipe I found in "The Domestic Diva's Party Handbook". A gift from my mother, the original domestic Diva! Stop rolling your eyes mom!

I actually bought a pan at Target to make Valentine's treats. It was a molded mini cake pan that had 6 cavities about the size of a jumbo muffin. They had heart designs on the bottom of the cups that were supposed to come out molded on top of your little cakes. I then started to worry about if the design would actually come out? Would I find myself at midnight making extra batches because part of the design stuck to the pan. wah! Then Domestic Diva that I am.... I got out my little pink cookbook and ran across this wonderful recipe and took that pan right back to Target and exchanged it for a pretty lemon yellow bathroom rug! Random I know, but warm toes in my bathroom is such a happier thought than cake sticking in my pans at midnight.

***Boca kid trivia* New Carly expression: "what the random!")***

One less pan cluttering up my cupboards and I already have all the equipment I need to make these little "tarts" and they are so EASY and they look fabulous and they taste fabulous so fancy heart design mini cakes..... Bah humbug to you!

Oh and the filling tastes like the chocolate mousse I used to love at the Sizzler salad bar. I don't know if they still have it as I haven't been for a while.

******Random Jamie Trivia: I worked at "The sizzler" for 2 summers in between college. I once poured hot coffee on a patron and yes, I broke a few plates but I got good tips from the single marines! If they came in a pack, you were assured a fabulous tip and a few phone numbers. (I even dated one...) If they were on a date.... fuhgeddaboutit, you got Nuthin'!*****

So if you have a special occasion and want an easy, beautiful dessert or just a massive chocolate craving that can not be denied.... here you go. My family loved them. I want to experiment with white cake and vanilla pudding to see how they turn out.

Brownie Tarts

1 package chocolate fudge cake mix (I used a devil's food)

1/2 c buter, melted (I used margarine)

1 egg

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans w/cooking spray. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Scoop batter into muffin cups until 2/3's full. ( The dough will be very dry and stiff. I actually rolled the dough into balls that seemed the right size to fill the pan 2/3's full and that worked well)

Bake 10-12 min or until the edges are set (10 min. worked for me) Remove pans from oven and press tops of brownies with a tart shaper or the plastic lid of a soda pop bottle to make indentations. Cool in pan 15 in. Gently remove from pan. Cups will be firm. Pipe or spoon filling into formed cups. Store tightly covered in fridge. Yield 36 tarts

Chocolate Mousse Filling:

1 small package instant chocolate pudding

1 Cup half and half

1 container (8 oz) cool whip, thawed

Mix pudding with half and half. Fold in whipped topping.

Best served when chilled. May decorate with a slice of fresh strawberry, a raspberry or chocolate sprinkles on top.

Jamie's tip: I made my tart shells a couple days ahead and froze them. I pulled them out on Saturday and piped in the filling and I topped them with hearts I had made from melting chocolate chips and putting them in a ziploc bag w/the edge snipped off and piping them onto a piece of waxed paper on a cookie sheet.

in an effort to unslump

I got some good suggestions after yesterday's pathetic post.  It's good to have good friends with good advice and you know... I think the first step to unslumping is recognizing the slump and admitting that, in fact, you are a slumpee.  After hearing about Julie's 18 hr workdays it's a little embarrassing to be slumping at all.

I really think the slump is "sick family hangover".  For the last couple of weeks we've all been fighting congestion, coughing, etc.  We're all in the "mostly over it" stage with a little leftover coughing.  I believe working at the school is making me sick.  I have been sick 3 times in 3 months.  And not just a little sick.   Sick enough to lose my voice twice (November & December) and this time it was all in my head.  I was pretty sure last Thursday it might explode.  I never get sick this often.  I've been using a lot more germX at school since Christmas but since I got sick again the only thing it might be doing is drying out my hands.  

Yesterday after admitting my lackluster ways I decided to "DO" something rather than lay around.  I did some cooking that was not required in my role as wife/mother.  I cooked something with coconut and nuts that not everyone likes.  he he.  COCONUT! Thats how you know you'll get more than one to yourself moms, add coconut.  

It wasn't technically a treat although I really, really enjoy them.  They might even be classified as "healthy" with whole wheat flour and apples, carrots, raisins, walnuts and COCONUT.  Mark got me a wheat grinder last Christmas and I checked out King Arthur's whole grain baking cookbook from the library a while ago to expand my ideas on whole wheat flour cooking.  

If you can get your hands on some Whole wheat flour try them. They're yummy!

Morning Glory Muffins

1/2 C raisins, soften in hot water (I don't like biting into raisins in my muffins but I like the taste so I cover them with water, heat them to boiling, shut off the heat, drain most of the water and grind them up in my mini chopper to a raisin puree)

2 C Whole wheat flour

1 C brown sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

3 eggs

2/3 C oil (made the 1st time like this but yesterday added 1/3 C oil and 1/3 C  Vanilla yogurt & I think they tasted better)

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

2 C peeled grated carrot ( I used the finer grate on my grater & really like that)

1 large granny smith apple, peeled, cored, grated.

1/2 C coconut

1/4 C orange juice

1/2 C walnuts or almonds

Mix it all together.  350 degres.  13-15 minutes.  The recipe says one dozen but I got 1 dozen regular and 2 dozen mini muffins.  

Come on over, stay a while... just steer clear of the puking girl on the couch

We had a house-full tonight.  We sent out an invitation this morning for grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles to come hang out with us tonight.  It was very short notice but we actually had some that were able to make it.  We had an Aunt from Las Vegas, an Uncle and a Grandma from Toquerville (southern Utah), A great grandma from Wyoming, A great grandma from Whittier,California, An Aunt from Yucca Valley, California and A grandma from Sky Valley,California. 

Jacob is working on his bear trail in cub scouts and his faith in God requirements.  One of the Faith in God req. is to say opening and closing prayers and share his feelings on prayer.  A separate requirement he needs is to share a family story.   We decided to kill 2 birds with one stone.  

We sent out an email this morning requesting family stories about their experiences with prayer.  We were so grateful for those that had the time to reply.  I printed up their stories, gathered their pictures and we gathered for Family night.

After the song and opening prayer I told everyone that we had special visitors coming to visit tonight.  I had 3 candles lit on the entertainment center, a headlamp and a flashlight.  I turned out all the lights and asked for volunteers to come read stories.  The volunteer would wear the headlamp and read the family story while I shone a flashlight on a photo of the author of the story.  

We read stories about prayer that took a long time to answer.  We read stories about prayers that have not been answered yet but the prayers continue to be offered in faith while the individual looks for opportunities for growth while continuing to endure.  We read stories of prayers that were not answered in the way the individual hoped yet the individual was given special experiences to understand it was in the hands of their Father and Heaven and he would help them through their disappointments and support them in their pain. We also read stories of answered prayers that were immediate and miraculous and exactly what the individual asked for.  It's good to understand the many ways our prayers may be answered and it's vital to know that they will be answered.  

Jacob concluded by sharing his testimony of prayer and we ate treacle scones with whipped cream for dessert that were made by Jacob (another bear requirement!)

I loved hearing everyone's stories and feeling close to them and bringing their testimonies into our living room.  Thanks for coming!

It was a great evening........

Except of course for Rachel who is seriously puking up her guts tonight.  For her, it was terrible.  She was just sick 11 days ago over New years eve/day.  WHY? WHY? WHY?  We just paused our stories for the puking and then resumed after I washed out the bowl and wiped her face and sterilized my hands.  It is now 10:18 and she's been puking since about 6pm every 2o minutes or so.  If you feel so inclined we wouldn't mind if you said a prayer for her.  

Treacle Scones (England)

8 servings

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

  1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

  2 and 1/2 Tablespoons butter (cut into in small cubes)

1/2 cup milk

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 Tablespoon treacle (molasses)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees,

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cream of tartar, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. Cut in the butter - work it in with a pastry blender til it resembles small crumbs.

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, blend the milk, sugar and treacle. Cook and stir until sugar and treacle are completely dissolved.

Remove from heat and slowly stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir til all is combined.  knead the dough a couple times til dough is smooth.  Pat out on a greased cookie sheet into a 1/2 inch thick circle.  Cut in 8ths.

Bake for 11-13 minutes in the center of the oven. Check them at 11 minutes - if the bottoms are golden brown, take them out of the oven to prevent scorching.

Allow scones to cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

We like them with whipped cream. yum!