Tag: baking

Baking day

I haven’t been in the mood to cook all week. We’ve been eating on leftovers and sandwiches for dinner most nights. My best intentions from Monday’s menu planning have been for naught.  Today, however, I feel a little different – thinking about what to cook for dinner and I’ve tossed out the “plan” from Monday and moving on to cooking something that inspires me.

So, today I am baking.

First up was the baked oatmeal I love and that I make WLS-friendly so I can have it for breakfast. That’s cooling on the counter now. (minus a square I’ve already nibbled for my breakfast)

Next up is my beef with egg noodles & gravy. That will be supper. I’ll be getting it into the crock pot soon.

I’m also going to bake some bread.Bread photo from Delicious! Delicious!

Trying to decide between my recipe for Portuguese Sweet Bread or a new recipe I found for Oatmeal Bread. The Portuguese Sweet Bread never survives for more than a few minutes after it comes out of the oven. The kids and SuperMan LOVE it.  The Oatmeal bread sounds yummy (and healthy) so I’m not sure which one I will make.

Do you make homemade bread?  I love doing it and it’s one of my favorite fall traditions.  It’s so easy if you have a bread machine – and so much better for you than the store-bought breads with all their preservatives and additives.

And, it makes the house smell so good. Add that smell to the crock-pot smells, and who WOULDN’T want to come home for supper?

I’m off to channel my inner Betty Crocker…

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You should bake this

I have it on good authority (my mom) that this is one of the best cakes you will ever bake.  She has just baked it and called me to tell me to bake it right away.  I have one in the oven, because, as we all know, I’m a very obedient daughter.  Of course I hung up the phone and started mixing! Mama said to!

I’m baking 2 small loaf cakes because I’m taking one to a friend who just had surgery. Everyone knows cake is the best medicine when you are recovering from surgery.  That, and my great-grandma’s sausage-rice casserole.  That’ll cure anything that’s wrong with you.

Brown sugar cake

Now that I've baked the cake and had a teensy-tiny sample, I can tell you it is soooo good. There's a rich, buttery taste to it.  I am thinking it would be great served on a cool fall morning with some tea or coffee.

Next time I make it I may add some diced apple and/or cinnamon.

But it is definitely worth a try.

Brown Sugar Cake

  • 1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
  • 1 pkg.  (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
  • 4 Eggs
  • 2/3 cup  BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream
  • 2/3 cup Water
  • 1/2 cup  Oil
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 cup  chopped PLANTERS Pecans
  • 2 tsp. Powdered sugar
  1.  HEAT oven to 350ºF.
  2. BEAT first 6 ingredients with mixer 3 min. or until well blended. Add brown sugar and nuts; mix well.
  3. POUR into 12-cup fluted tube pan or 10-inch tube pan sprayed with cooking spray.
  4. BAKE 1 hour or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan 15 min. Loosen cake from sides of pan; invert onto wire rack. Remove pan; cool cake completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar just before serving.

I also added about 2-3 tablespoons of cinnamon sugar to the cake pan after I’d sprayed it with non-stick spray and before I poured the cake in. Next time, I may get crazy and add some to the cake, too.

*Click on the cake name to get a printable copy of the recipe. 🙂

Oh, and I'll be sitting over there in the corner in a diabetic coma after my little taste. If you need me, just nudge me.

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What’s for dinner?

What’s for dinner at your house tonight?

I have been trying to come up with something creative, appetizing and quick/easy for us tonight. My attention has been a little distracted the past week with a little person who is under the weather (hence the less-frequent-than-normal posts, too.)Pizza poppers baked close up

I just stumbled across this recipe for Stuffed Pizza Bites on a blog I follow: Our Best Bites (have you heard of them? If not, you should check them out – they have a lot of yummy recipes.

I’ll post some pictures and let you know how the munchkins and SuperMan like it tonight.

More Cookies, Anyone?

I thought I would share another family cookie recipe with you all… If I am going to gain a zillion pounds from all the baking I will be doing this holiday season, I figure you should join me in the fun!

I have had a cookie swap party at my house for the past five years (this is the first year I had a virtual one, though, did you join us?)

This recipe is one that was made by one of the ladies at my 2005 cookie swap.  They are yummy delicious and so light and crispy.  I hope you enjoy them.

I experimented tonight and made them with some instant Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal instead of plain quick cooking oats.  I also added 1/2 tsp of almond extract. Everything tastes better with almond extract.

Oh.my.goodness. SO, so yummy.

 
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Can you see how thin and crispy they are? And yet, the little apple bits are chewy and sweet in there.

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Just so you know, if you happen to break one as you are pulling it off of the foil, you must consume the evidence.

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Here's the recipe. I have to go get the rest out of the oven now. They are calling to me…

Oatmeal Lace Cookies

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp four
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup quick-cooking oatmeal

Cream butter and sugar.  Add egg and vanilla. Add flour, salt, and oatmeal, mixing well.  Drop by teaspoons onto foil-lined pans.  Bake at 350F for 5-8 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool before removing from foil.

*foil is important – parchment paper won't give them the brown crispiness. They just get chewy and beige. Oh, and they spread; a lot. So be sure you give them plenty of room to grow.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen. (unless you break a few)

Every Baker has her (bad) day…

I have been craving a pound cake lately.  One in particular – my great-grandmother’s lemon pound cake.

Last night, I remarked to my husband that I couldn’t understand why my overwhelming desire to have a slice of pound cake hadn’t caused a cake to materialize on my kitchen counter.  He looked at me like I’d lost my mind and gently suggested maybe I should just make one. (duh)

So, that’s what I did this afternoon… at the same time I helped one kid with her homework, waited on the other princess perched on the couch “feeling wotten” and watching cartoons… and answered emails, IM’s and kept up with what was going on in the world of work.

I guess, then, that it should’ve come as no surprise when my cake was a little onery when it came out of the oven. I mean it’s not like it had my undivided attention while it was being created.  Heck, I’m not even sure it had much of my attention at all. I have made this recipe so many times I think I could make it in my sleep.

We were dashing out the door to go to Girl Scouts when I thought I’d better at least turn the cake out of it’s pan.  It didn’t release right away so I left it upside down on the cake plate and off we went.

Three hours later when we finally returned home…. the cake hadn’t budged.  In case you didn’t realize this already, this was a bad sign. Uh, oh.  Time to dig out the plastic spatula of doom and prise the cake from the pan.  (I really hate doing that because I’m always afraid I’m going to ruin the cake  – ruin? hah!)

I prodded.

I poked.

I shimmied.

(the cake)

I shook.

I pounded.

Nothing.

sigh.

I got a chopstick out and ran it around the insides of the pan.  Flipped the cake again.  I heard that soft “whump” you hear when the cake falls.  Okay. Now we’re gettin’ somewhere.

But the pan still felt heavy…

What the heck?

I turned the pan over.

ACK!

Half of my cake was still in the pan! OH. MY. GOODNESS!!!!

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I don’t think I can remember the last time this has happened.  FOREVER.  And that is saying something considering I probably bake 2-3 cakes a month at least.

My darling, sweet, loving husband asks, “Did you remember to spray the pan, honey?” smirk, smirk, chuckle, chuckle.  <grrrr>

IMGP1465“YES, I did.”  And I’m sure I did. I remember the can of spray oil giving out its last gasps as I greased the pan.

I have no clue what happened. Maybe I let it sit too long. Maybe not long enough. Maybe not enough oil.  Who knows?
But I do know one thing for sure.  I’m really, really, really glad that this wasn’t a cake I was making to give to someone.

It’s one ugly cake.  Seriously ugly.

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But, on the bright side?  It tastes awesome.

Here’s the recipe if you want to give it a try. Once you do, you will be spoiled for all other pound cakes.

Grandma Achord’s Lemon Pound Cake

3 cups white sugar                         1 cup sour cream

2 sticks butter                                  1/4 tsp baking soda

6 eggs                                                   3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp vanilla extract                       1 tsp lemon extract

1 tsp almond extract

Cream sugar and butter. Add sour cream and extracts.  Add eggs, one at a time. Add flour and baking soda slowly. Beat only long enough to get flour mixed in well.

Pour into greased tube or bundt pan and bake at 325 for 1 hour 20 min.

We usually don’t ever get around to it because we gobble up the cake so quickly, but Grandma always made a glaze by mixing a few teaspoons of lemon juice with some powdered sugar (about 2 cups) and drizzled it over the cake.

Portugese Sweet Bread

 

I made some bread this weekend.  I found a recipe for Portugese Sweet Bread. It sounded too good to resist.  

I had planned to show you pictures of it after it came out of the bread machine.

There was one small problem.

My family gobbled it up. (the nerve!)

Before photos could be taken.  (next time I will take the pictures first)

But, if you like making bread at home, I would highly suggest you give this recipe a try. It rivals some of the “high end” breads at the grocery store in flavor and texture.  And the best part is, you know exactly what is in it. No chemicals, no artificial flavors or preservatives.  My kids NEVER eat my homemade bread.  They devoured this one and told everyone we saw today how good “mommy’s bread” was.

So, take it from my kids. It’s worth trying out.

Recipe can be found on AllRecipes.com