Pumpkin Cookies and Frosting

Now I got this recipe back in college from my room-mate Valerie. They are sooo moist, soft and flavorful! This is a must during the Fall season...and when I need a little holiday feel during the rest of the year. I was browsing through my pantry the other day and saw a can of pumpkin and thought it needed to be put to work. The outcome? YUMMINESS.

Cookie Recipe:
2 cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Butter
1 Egg
1 Cup Pumpkin
1 tsp Vanilla

Frosting Recipe:
2 Tbs Butter
4 Tbs Milk
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Cup Powder Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2.Cream butter, sugar, egg and vanilla -- sift dry ingredients and slowly add to the creamed ingredients.

4. Spoon onto baking sheet (greased, or layered with parchment paper)

5. Bake for 10-12 mins (don't over cook! Watch the cookies!!)

6. Transfer to wire rack -- top with frosting when cooled.

Wow, that was simple, eh? Go enjoy....in moderation!!

Strawberry Shortcakes and homemade Whipped Cream

Mmmm you know summer is here when you start craving strawberry shortcakes! We go through a lot of strawberries in our house and this one particular day I felt like making some yummy shortcake. I flipped open my Better Homes and Garden cook book and found just the thing. It was delicious! The cake was fluffy and sweet - perfect when served warm with a nice scoop of sliced strawberries and whipped cream on top....Mmmmm I want one right now!
It was a simple recipe and you just plopped the batter onto a cookie sheet and baked. Of course they won't look like your processed little shortcakes you buy in the packets at Wal-Mart...these are much better!

Recipe:
1.5 Cups all purpose Flour
1/4 cup Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1/3 cup cold Butter
1 Egg
1/2 cup Dairy sour cream
2 Tbs Milk

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Lightly grease a baking sheet (or use parchment paper!); set aside. In a medium bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a small bowl combine egg, sour cream, and milk. Add flour mixture, stirring with a fork until moistened.

2. drop dough into eight mounds onto baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 mins or until golden (dont over cook! Start low, like 11 mins... keep watch) --- Transfer to wire rack, let cool.

Serve with strawberries and Whipped Cream. ....Now, you can use the store bought whipped cream, or...make your own!! It's fast and easy - and tastes great!

Recipe for Whipped Cream:

In a chilled mixing bowl add 1 cup of whipping cream, 2 Tbs sugar, and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form (or, for about 10 mins by hand with a whisk) That's it. Now go and enjoy! YUM!.... sit outside and eat...it makes it all that much more pleasurable.

Lots O'Meat Lasagna

Oh Paula Deen, you are my fatty southern food cooker. I love you! I wanted to make a lasagna one night, because I figured it would have ingredients Carter might eat and enjoy - so I found this recipe by Paula Deen. She is an excellent cook, but not a healthy one. Oh well...it's good to have a pound of meat on your ribs (or 2, or 6...)! So, yes the lasagna was a success and Carter and Don both loved it. The best thing about the dish was that it lasted a LONG time...I mean, long time. - and made for great Tupperware lunches for Don to take to school. This is not your typical Lasagna, in that it has a variety of meat wedged all so fatly within it. I believe "portions" are the key to eating such things as this... enjoy!! :D

Recipe:

• 1 1/2 pounds ground chuck
• 1 pound ground Italian sausage
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons ground oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground basil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano
• 2 (15-ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 1/2 cups small curd cottage cheese
• 1 (5-ounce) package grated Parmigianno-Reggiano
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley leaves
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 9 oven-ready lasagna noodles
• 2 (8-ounce) packages shredded mozzarella
• (haha, uhmmm yeah. A lot of good stuff, eh?)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large saucepan, combine ground chuck, sausage onion and garlic. Cook over medium heat until meat is browned and crumbled; drain. Return meat to pan and add oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce and paste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 30 to 45 minutes.

2. In a small bowl, combine cottage cheese, Parmesan, parsley, and eggs.

Spoon 1/4 of sauce into bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking pan. Place 3 uncooked lasagna noodles on top of sauce. Do not overlap noodles. Spread 1/3 of cottage cheese mixture over noodles, top with 1/4 of sauce and 1/3 mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers, ending with sauce, reserving 1/3 of mozzarella cheese.

3. Bake 45 minutes. Top with remaining cheese and bake 15 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

Whew! You're done my friend! Now go enjoy your efforts! Just remember, portions are key to eating dishes like this! Give yourself about a closed fist size - then load your plate with a nice salad, veggie and or fruit. This should be made and eaten on occasion.

Nun's Puffs

So you're probably thinking, what in the world in a *Nun's Puffs* haha...I was too! I was making dinner one night (see below post, Swiss Steak) and wanted to make a bread - but knew I did not have time to make a yeast bread and do the whole process of rising, etc, etc... so I searched through one of my cook books for a bread recipe that was quick. I saw these and thought, hmmm that looks interesting! I am glad it included a picture (which normally sell me to make the recipes in the first place, it's hard to make something when you don't know what it is supposed to look like afterward!) The prep time listed was about 25 mins, and the bake around 30. Sounds good to me! Better than a few hours! So that is where my Nun's Puff adventure started...and since I am posting all these extremely late I have since made this recipe about 6 or 7 more times! Yes, it is that good. They remind me of a puffy crepe, or kind of a German Pancake type taste. You make it on the stove, has very few ingredients, and you cook them in a muffin tray! Served hot with honey...or strawberries and whip cream. My husband can't get enough of them! I honestly think they are good, but I can only eat about 1. Just not my thing.

Recipe:
1/2 Cup butter
1 Cup Milk
3/4 cup all-purpose Flour
4 eggs
1 Tbs Sugar
Honey (optional - but recommended!)

1. Preheat oven to 375F. 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 doe snot separate, Remove from heat; cool for 5 mins. (I actually take the pan off the heat and add the flour and stir until it forms a ball)\

2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 min with a wooden spoon after each addition or until smooth. Divide dough evenly among the muffin cups. --filling the cups about 2/3 full. Sprinkle with sugar ((which we have never done, but I am sure tastes great! - trying to reduce sugar for us)

3. Bake about 30 mins or until golden brown and puffy. remove from pan. Serve immediately - serve with honey!! ...also, I never went the full 30 mins. Normally 23-25 mins is good.
Enjoy!

Previous post had the Swiss Steaks I made with the Nun's Puffs. :)

Swiss Steak

Mmmhmm my husband loved this! The flavors were SO good, and the meat extremely tender! It was easy to cook and did not require any foreign ingredients/spices! I love when I can just open up a recipe and find that I have all the ingredients already...love that! :)

Recipe:

• 1 lb boneless beef round steak (cut 3/4" thick if needed)
• 1 Tbs All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 Tbs Cooking Oil
• 1 (14.5oz) can dice tomatoes with basil/garlic/and oregano - undrained
• 1 small Onion, sliced and separated into rings
• 1/2 cup sliced celery
• 1/2 cup sliced carrot

1. Trim fat from meat. Cut meat into four serving-size pieces. Combine flour, salt, and pepper. With a notched side of a meat mallet, pound flour mixture into meat. (*note: I do not have a meat pounder (gasp!) - but what I do that works well is I take a knife and jab the meat a few times, than place the meat and ingredients into a large sealed plastic bag and shake around and coat real well, pounding in with my hand and squishing, etc...)

2. In a large skillet brown meat on both sides in hot oil. Drain off fat. Add undrained tomatoes, onion, celery and carrot. bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, about 1 and a quarter hours or until meat is tender.

3. Hey, guess what. No step 3. You're done! Yes, it was that easy. Nice job~ I served mine with mashed potatoes, green beans and Nun's Puffs! (see recipe post for Nun's puffs)

Homemade Soft Pretzels

These were actually really good! When Don and I first got married we would go to Sam's Club every so often, and to treat myself to the "bulk shopping" adventure I would get a huge soft warm pretzel from the food court. Mmmmm I love big chewy pretzels! Sadly, these are not as good as Sam's Club...but hey, what can ya do? :)

Recipe:

1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 package active dry yeast
22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil, for pan
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pretzel salt

Combine the water, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.

In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

"The Chewy" Chocolate Chip Cookie

I love to peruse the different recipes and reviews on sites such as foodnetwork.com and found this one. "The Chewy" as it was titled was by chef Alton Brown. I had all the ingredients, and there were many many positive reviews. Now I feel I already have my favorite Chocolate Chip recipe, but I wanted to try other variations to see where they stood. Well these stood flat, literally. They were "chewy", but aren't most cookies? My husband and I like the large, fluffy comforting type cookies. These were not it. My husband of course ate them, because he will eat anything, and I shared one with Carter. Instead of bagging them up and having Don take them to school the next day to pawn off on fellow students I felt embarrassed to even have "outsiders" eat my work. ((outsiders that is, those who were not living in my house)) So instead I bagged them up and sucked the air out and threw them in the far back corner of the freezer. I figured they were still edible and might come in handy if a cookie attack every occurred for Don or I...or Don...or Don.... Did I say Don? :)
To my surprise these little frozen yummies came in handy! They tasted better after being frozen and were a nice addition to a little bowl of vanilla ice cream, or just a random snack attack. Of course...it did not take long for my freezer cookies to end up in the belly of cookie monster husband. ...and where does he get off blaming me for his newly found chunkiness? Hmmmm

Verdict: Good...but on to other recipes.

Recipe:
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium sausepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

Pour the melted butter in the bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes.

DON'T OVER COOK!...yuck