Apple Dumplings

Pin It I think by now, you all know how much I love dessert. So when I found this recipe, I just had to make it. The ingredients seem strange, but I guarantee it is delicious. You can't tell at all that there is Mountain Dew in the sauce. I think it would probably work just as well if you use any type of citrus soda, diet or regular. This is one of those simple recipes that you can bring to a potluck, and everyone will think you slaved all day. Your secret is safe with me ;) I hope you'll try this, I know you'll love it!

Apple Dumplings

Ingredients:

2 Granny Smith apples

2 cans refrigerated crescent roll dough

1 1/2 cup sugar (I like to use half brown/half white)

1 cup butter

1 tsp cinnamon

1 12 oz can Mountain Dew (I used diet)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Peel and core apples. Cut each apple into 8 slices. Unroll the crescent roll dough, and roll each apple slice in one dough triangle. Pinch together the edges to make a bundle. Grease a baking dish, and line up the little bundles. Combine sugar, butter and cinnamon in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until sugar is melted and mixture is smooth. Pour this over the apple bundles. Pour the Mountain Dew over everything. Bake at 350 F for 35 to 45 minutes, until top is golden brown and crispy. Enjoy with fresh whipped cream or ice cream.

Tres Leches Cake

Pin It Tres Leches cake is a sweet and delicious cake. It is made with, as you may have guessed, three milks. There are many recipes out there for this wonderful treat, most of which involve making the cake portion from scratch. That is wonderful, but in this recipe, I wanted to keep things simple. I purchased a box cake mix, and went from there. This is proof that you can make a stellar dessert, which will impress family and friends, without a lot of slave labor :)

Tres Leches Cake

Ingredients:

1 box cake mix, prepared following package directions.
1 cup half-and-half
1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
sugar

Preparation:

Allow baked cake to cool for 30 minutes. Using a sharp knife, poke holes all over top of cake. (Literally all over. You don't want any surface area not covered by holes. This is how the milks soak into the cake) Let cake cool completely. Mix the half-and-half, condensed milk, and evaporated milk with a whisk. Pour over the cake, making sure to cover the whole surface of the cake. This is the hard part: cover and put cake in fridge for 8 hours, or over night. I promise it's worth it! An hour before serving, whip heavy cream and vanilla (using stand mixer or beaters) to stiff peaks, adding sugar for taste. (I added 4 Tbsp, as this doesn't need to be overly sweet. The cake is plenty sweet on it's own). Smooth whipped cream over surface of cake. Chill until ready to serve. Enjoy!

Poppy Seed Chicken

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Poppy seed chicken is the perfect comfort food. It is creamy and savory with a crunchy, buttery topping. This recipe is also incredibly easy to make, and a great way to use up left over chicken. Fantastic served with a green salad and corn-on-the-cob.

Poppy Seed Chicken

Ingredients:

5 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups crushed buttery round crackers
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1/2 cup butter, melted

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350. Place chicken chunks in 9x9 square baking dish. Mix together the sour cream and the soup. Pour over chicken. Combine crushed crackers, poppy seeds, and butter. Sprinkle over chicken and sauce. Bake for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Yummus Hummus!!

Pin It Hummus is a Middle Eastern dip typically made from chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice. The recipe I make does not include the tahini, as it it both expensive and hard to find. It still tastes delicious! This particular recipe is very easy, and can be made using either dried (I did this, it takes longer) or canned chickpeas. You can use hummus as a spread on pita, dip veggies in it, or even chips! (I like it on tortilla chips)

Yummus Hummus!

Ingredients:

1-15 oz can chickpeas (drained, with 1/4 cup liquid reserved)**
1 clove garlic
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
olive oil

Preparation:

Place chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, cumin, pepper, and salt in a food processor. Blend together until smooth, adding reserved liquid. Add olive oil as needed to achieve desired consistency. Enjoy!

**If you are using dried chickpeas, follow package directions for soaking and cooking. Reserve 1/4 cup of cooking liquid to add to mixture while processing. Prepare hummus as directed above.

Spiced Strawberry Shortcake

Pin It I love strawberry shortcake passionately. It is a fresh and simple dessert, and very easy to make. And if you do it right, it looks beautiful as well. My mom has made this terrific dessert for as long as I can remember, and it is perfect how she makes it. But knowing me, I just had to change it up. Adding a few simple spices really enhances the strawberries, and will impress your guests!

Spiced Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients:

2 lbs fresh strawberries
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
sugar to taste
store bought angel food cake

Preparation:

Cut green ends off of strawberries, preserving as much fruit as possible. Slice berries up any way you like (after I gut off the green, I lay them flat on that end and slice downward). Dump these into a bowl. Sprinkle sugars and spices over berries, and mix well. This will need to sit for at least a couple hours, and up to 5 or 6 hours max. Don't be worried if the berry/sugar mix seems too dry, when they sit, the juice comes out making a nice sauce. Put this bowl in the fridge, covered, until you are ready to assemble the dessert. Stir occasionally (every half-hour or so).

Once everybody's dinner has settled, get the strawberries and cream out of the fridge, and get the sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla ready to go. Pour the cream, vanilla, and cinnamon into a mixing bowl (or your Kitchenaid mixing bowl), and start whipping it up! Start slowly, and increase speed as the cream thickens. Your goal is to have relatively stiff peaks.Add sugar a tablespoon at a time as you mix, tasting it after it is mixed in. You want it to be sweet, but not too sweet, as the strawberries have a lot of sugar. Once the cream is whipped and sufficiently sweet, you are ready for assembly!

Slice the angel food cake into generous slices, and lay sideways on individual plates. Scoop a mound of strawberries on top of the cake. Drizzle some of the sauce from the bottom of the bowl on top. Top this off with a cloud of freshly whipped cream, and another slice of strawberry. Drizzle a little more of that yummy sauce around the edge of the plate, and voila! You have made an easy, inexpensive, and very impressive dessert!

Enjoy!

** I was just sitting here thinking (here comes trouble!), and I decided you could easily do this as a trifle as well. Just chop the cake into chunks instead of slices, and layer the cake chunks, strawberries, and whipped cream into a pretty glass bowl. This would be excellent at summer barbecues!

Multi-Colored Mini Almond Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting and Coconut

Pin It We didn't have any dessert in the house, so I had to come up with a recipe to indulge my raging sweet tooth. Using the ingredients I already had in my kitchen, I came up with this beauty. It is multicolored because I knew my 3 year old would LOVE it! I suppose you could make it without adding any colors, but what fun would that be? Enjoy this recipe, it's *almost* like a tropical vacation!

Multi-Colored Mini Almond Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting and Coconut

Cake Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar

6 tablespoons butter, softened

2 teaspoons almond extract

2 large eggs

2 large egg whites

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 cups buttermilk**

Cooking spray
Food coloring

Frosting Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Food coloring

Topping:

Coconut (I colored mine with food coloring)

1/2 cup lemon curd (usually found next to the jelly/peanut butter in grocery stores)

*If you don't have buttermilk, you can substitute with 1 1/4 cups milk mixed with just over 1 tbsp lemon juice. Just let the milk/lemon juice combination sit for 5 minutes before using.

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare cake, place first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 5 minutes).

Add eggs and egg whites, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda; stir well with a whisk.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat well after each addition. Divide batter into two smaller bowls. Add different colors of food coloring to each one until you have achieved the desired color. 

Spoon batter into mini muffin pans coated with cooking spray, alternating colors in each cup. Sharply tap pan once on counter to remove air bubbles.

Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan.

Cool completely on wire rack.

Frosting Preparation:

Place the butter in a large bowl and blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Stop the maching and add the powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons milk and almond extract. Blend with mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute more. If frosting seems too thick, add one more tablespoon of milk and blend until smooth. Add food coloring until desired color.



Frost cupcakes with a smooth edge spatula, and then dip the tops in a bowl of coconut. Top with a dollop of lemon curd.

Five Spice Chicken, Crock-Pot Style

Pin It Ever since I made that Five Spice Crock-Pot Roast, I have been trying to come up with another recipe using the same spice. With some minor changes, I adapted it to chicken, and I think it is going to be amazing! (It's cooking as I type). For me, the combination of tangy vinegar, sweet brown sugar, rich sesame oil, and flavorful five spice is just irresistible. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I enjoyed creating it!

Five Spice Crock-Pot Chicken

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts (about 1 - 1 1/2 lb)
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp Chinese five spice
1 tsp sesame oil
3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Place all ingredients except chicken in crock-pot. Whisk together well, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Add chicken. Cook on low heat for 5-6 hours, or on low heat for 2 1/2-3 hours. Serve with rice.

Bread Pudding with Chocolate Chips and Butterscotch Sauce

Pin It My friend and coworker Melissa asked me for a recipe for bread pudding (when she came home from the market and found her loaf of bread smashed). I searched through my arsenal of cookbooks, and I do believe I have found a winner! It is from the Better Homes and Garden Limited 14th Edition New Cookbook (2008), and it is marked as a "Favorite". It is filled with all the good things that make up a wonderful bread pudding! The warm flavors of nutmeg and cinnamon combine with rich vanilla to make a delectable (and practical!) dessert. There isn't anything in this recipe that is unusual, you probably have everything on hand. I added 60% Cocoa chocolate chips in place of the raisins, and it is fabulous! I would recommend not using a 9x13 pan, as the bread pudding will be too thin. I think an 8x8 would work well. Hope you enjoy!

Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

4 cups dried white or cinnamon swirl bread cubes (6-7 slices)
1/3 cup raisins or dried cranberries or chocolate chips (optional)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Butterscotch Sauce (recipe below)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 1 1/2 qt casserole; set aside. In a large bowl, combine bread crumbs and raisins (or chocolate chips). In a separate bowl, combine eggs, milk, melted butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. Stir into bread mixture. Pour into prepared casserole. Bake, uncovered, for 50-55 minutes, or until puffed out and a knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool slightly. Serve with Butterscotch Sauce.

Butterscotch Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup half-and-half or light cream
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Preparation:

In a medium saucepan, combine butter, half-and-half and sugars. Cook and stir over medium heat for 5 to 8 minutes, or until mixture is slightly thickened and just comes to a full boil. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla. Serve warm over bread pudding.

Five Spice Crock-Pot Roast

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I love Asian food. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Cantonese, Vietnamese... you get the point. I am forever trying to find ways to infuse my cooking with those wonderful flavors. Tonight, I decided to try out a new spice I picked up on whim: Chinese 5 Spice. I found it in the ethnic food department of my local market. The one I picked up is made of cinnamon, star anise, fennel, ginger, cloves, white pepper, and licorice root. (I know that's more than 5 spices, but that's what the jar says!) It is very potent, and recommended to be used sparingly. I hope you will take a journey with me to try out this new recipe!

Five Spice Crock-Pot Roast

Ingredients:

2-3 lb beef roast (I used a rump roast)
3/4 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 cup water
3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp Chinese 5 spice
salt and pepper

Preparation:

Season all sides of roast with salt and pepper. Place roast in crock-pot. In a medium pan, combine vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, water, and Chinese 5 Spice. Bring to a boil, and then lower heat to simmer. Stir often, until brown sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool slightly (5-10 minutes), then pour over roast. Cook on low for 5-6 hours, or on high for 2.5-3 hours. Serve with rice and a green vegetable. Enjoy!!

Comeback Sauce

Pin It I heard about Comeback Sauce on, you guessed it, Pinterest. Apparently, this sauce is so good, you'll keep "comin' back" for more. It's kind of a dip, kind of a dressing, and all kinds of delicious. It was originally created at a Greek restaurant, called The Rotisserie, in Jackson, MS. I went hunting for an awesome recipe, and found that just about every recipe I found was the same (or darn close to it). The base is mayonnaise and chili sauce with a few extras thrown in. It opens itself up to a bit of experimentation, so if you're feeling creative, try some different spice combos! The recipe that tastes good to me is this one:

Comeback Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup mayonnaise (NOT salad dressing! I used Hellman's Real Mayonnaise)
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup chili sauce
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1/4 teaspoon Frank's Red Hot sauce

1/4 cup olive oil

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
juice of one lemon

1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients well and store in refrigerator for 8 hours, or overnight. It tastes MUCH better if the flavors can blend together. Use as a dip for veggies, salad dressing, with meat, or with pretty much anything!

I doubled the recipe, and it made 2 full pint jars

Blender Salsa!!

Pin It I enjoy chips and salsa. A lot. Particularly the type of salsa that you get from Mexican restaurants. I have found a recipe that is very similar to that delicious sauce. Find the original recipe here. It is all full of tomatoes, cilantro, jalapenos and lime. YUM! And it's nice and smooth, so you can load up your chip without worrying about chunks (I don't like chunky salsa). Mmmm, salsa....

Blender Salsa

Ingredients:

1- 14 oz can diced tomatoes (I actually used roasted fresh tomatoes with olive oil and salt)
1- 10 oz can orginal Rotel
1/2 small onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed
1/2-1 jalapeno, seeded or not (depends on how spicy you like it)
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
small to medium size handful of cilantro, washed
juice of 1 lime

Preparation:

Put all the ingredients in the base of a food processor or good blender and pulse to combine for 30 seconds or so until all the ingredients are finely chopped and salsa is desired consistency. Taste for seasoning and adjust to taste. Serve with chips or over tacos.

I doubled this recipe, and it made 4 pint jars. I stuck one in the fridge, and the other 3 in the freezer for later. 

Monkey Bread

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When I heard about Monkey Bread, I knew I had to find a recipe for it. Caramelly rolls made from fridge biscuits? Yes, ma'am! As I hunted around the InterWeb, I found The Pioneer Woman. I guess a lot of people really like her recipes, so I thought I would give it a try. This recipe isn't actually hers, but a friend of hers. I guess I will try one of her own in the future. Anyways... I made a few changes to the recipe I found, but you can find the original here. 

Monkey Bread

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
2 sticks of butter (1 cup)
Bundt Cake Pan (be sure it's a one piece pan, if it's two pieces, you will have burnt sugar and butter all over the bottom of the oven!)
2-3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cans of Buttermilk Biscuits (the non-flaky ones)
1 cup Sugar

3/4 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Preparation:

Preheat that oven to 350. Open up the cans of biscuits and cut each biscuit into quarters. Next, combine the 1 cup of regular sugar with 2-3 teaspoons of cinnamon in a one gallon ziploc bag. 3 teaspoons makes for a very cinamonny bread, so it's up to you on how much to use. Drop all of the biscuit quarters into the cinnamon-sugar mix, along with the nuts. Once all the biscuit quarters and the nuts are in the bag, seal it and give it a vigorous shake. This will get all those pieces nicely coated with the cinnamon-sugar. You might have some excess sugar left over and that’s okay. Spread these nuggets and nuts out evenly in your Bundt pan. Next, melt the two sticks of butter together with 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Stir together over a medium-high heat until the butter and brown sugar are fully combined. Once the brown sugar butter has become one color, you can pour it over the biscuits. Bake this for about 30-40 minutes until the crust is a deep brown on top. Allow this to cool for about 15-30 minutes before turning it over onto a plate. If it doesn’t slide right down onto the plate, give it a few taps until it comes out. Serve warm.

Beer Bread (knockoff of another very popular beer bread)

Pin It Just about everyone I know has been to or hosted a sales/catalog party where there are lots of food samples. I have been to many, and hosted many. Almost every time the little booklets are passed around to purchase the full size version, I usually gasp at how expensive the stuff is! So, I went on a hunt to locate a (cheaper) knockoff of that delicious Beer Bread. Many different sites list the exact same recipe, so I can't give any real credit, since I have no idea who came up with this recipe.

Beer Bread (knockoff of another very popular beer bread recipe)

Ingredients:

3 cups self-rising flour**
1/2 cup granulated sugar
12 ounces beer (or really any carbonated beverage, like soda)
2 tablespoons melted butter

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix all ingredients except melted butter together-stirring just until blended. Pour into greased bread loaf pan. Spread melted butter over the top of the bread during the last 10 minutes of baking. Bake at 350°F for 1 hour.


** If you don't have self-rising flour, that's fine. It can easily be made with the following recipe:
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Mix well. You will need to triple this for the Beer Bread recipe.

Chocolate Mousse

Pin It My husband got this recipe for me from a friend of his. The measurements are European, but American measuring cups have markings for mL, so it is easy to make. For the chocolate, I used semi-sweet baking chocolate, which I found in the baking aisle at the grocery store. The sugar is listed as caster sugar, which is basically superfine sugar. You can grind up regular white sugar in a food processor to make it finer. If you do this, make sure to measure after you grind it up. I have made this recipe with regular sugar, and it tasted just fine. So, if you skip that step, it's no big deal.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:

400 grams dark chocolate
8 Tbsp caster sugar
8 eggs
500 mL heavy cream

Preparation:

Separate egg whites from yolks. Mix egg yolks with sugar in a small bowl. Beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Beat egg whites until stiff. Melt chocolate in microwave, stirring every 30 seconds or so, until smooth. Let chocolate cool slightly. Mix chocolate with egg yolk/sugar mixture. In a large bowl, fold together whipped cream and chocolate mixture. Once mixed, fold in egg white fluff until well mixed. Refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.

Potato Leek Soup (with a twist)

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I have made potato and leek soup before, and found it to be pretty bland. So I found a basic recipe and twisted it around to make it delicious! Hope you enjoy :)



Potato Leek Soup (with a twist)

Ingredients:

5 Cups strong chicken broth (throw an extra bouillon cube in if you are making it with them, the potatoes soak up so much salt that it's OK if it is strong broth)**
2-3 Leeks
1 Medium Onion
5-6 garlic cloves
3/4 Cup butter
1/2-3/4 Cup dry white or pink wine (DO NOT USE FRUITY WINE! But if all you have in the fridge is a pink table wine, that will work! It did for me... ;)
3 Jumbo Russet potatoes (maybe 5-6 regular sized? It's OK if it isn't exact here)
3-4 Stalks celery
3/4-1 Cup Carrots (sticks/chips/chopped, any way will work)
2 Bay leaves
1/4-1/2 Evaporated milk (or heavy cream, if you're feeling decadent!)
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Get the broth going in a big pot, over medium heat (especially if you are making your own). Trim most of the green off of the leeks, and cut the white lengthwise to rinse out any sand. Slice into about 1/8-1/4" wide pieces. Chop the onion into similar sized pieces. Finely chop or crush the garlic. Melt most of the butter in a medium frying pan over medium heat (reserve about 1/4 Cup), and put the onions, leeks and garlic in with it. Keep the veggies going until pretty soft, starting to brown just a little. Deglaze the pan with the wine (pour into the pan with the veggies and stir/scrape up any tasty bits that may have stuck to the bottom). Let the veggies cook in here for a couple minutes. Dump this into the pot with the broth, and toss in the bay leaves. Dice the potato into 1/2" cubes (leave the skin on, it's SO tasty!). Scoop half of the remaining butter into the frying pan, and lightly saute the cubed potatoes. Toss the potatoes into the soup. Dice up the celery and carrots (carrot sticks: cut in half, carrot chips: leave whole). Scoop the remaining butter into the frying pan, and lightly saute them together. Toss those into the pot with the soup. Let this cook down for 30-60 minutes, until the vegetables are as soft as you want them to be. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Just before serving, mix in the evaporated milk. Some people like to use a stick blender at this point to puree the soup, but not me. It's up to you.

Delicious hearty meal, great served with fresh-baked rolls!!

**If you want to go totally vegetarian on this, you can substitute vegetable broth for chicken broth, I'm sure it would be just as tasty :)

This may seem like a lot of chopping and sauteing, but I promise it is worth it! And really, with the measurements, go with your gut. If you like more onions, go ahead. No milk? Just fine. And if there is any extra veggies you think might be tasty, toss 'em in! I have added zucchini and yellow squash. I think other "root type" vegetables would be excellent, also. The only "hard number" in this recipe is probably the broth, and only so that there is enough liquid for the solids pieces.