Saturday, April 2, 2011

Cake Pops

Have you ever heard of The Cake Doctor cook book? I love this book but have not used it in a while. Today I pulled out the book to make cake pops. These are so simple to make.
1 yellow cake mix
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 stick butter
¼ cup honey
2 large eggs
Colored sprinkles
1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Mix all ingredients, it will seem rather thick but that is normal. Mix one minute and scrape down sides and mix another minute
3. Pour sprinkles into bowl.
4. Make round 2 inch balls (do you really need to say round and ball in the same sentence, I used the medium pampered chef scoop)
5. Roll each ball in sprinkles
6. Bake for 8-12 minutes
7. As soon as they are pulled from the oven, push a craft stick right into the middle and let cool off.
These are great for kids. It is days like this that I wish I could have made a cute little bouquet of flowers. In my case I am taking them to church tomorrow.


Boo Boo Friend

I got a minute to watch The Doctors this week. I learn so much from that show but it is in the middle of our school day. Anyways, they said a easy way to make a ice pack is to fill a ziploc with dish soap. It does not get super hard but stays chilled. I could not wait to try it.
Grace was a good sport, she even stuck her bottom lip out without me asking. I am curious what happens if I let it defrost all the way.

What do you do for ice packs? How do you cure a boo boo in your house?
Pamela

Cupcakes


Once a month we make cupcakes for the Airmen. This month I wanted to make the hot cocoa cupcakes I see all over blog world. I quickly realized that I did not know how to make the marshmallows stick to the icing. So my amazing husband thought the heat gun would work and it did. This heat has a funny story. I use to make cards and loved it. I loved embossing cards. That was until my heat gun broke. My hero decided to replace it with one that had "more power". This thing could strip wallpaper. Actually, it was probably made to strip wallpaper. I did not get a picture of the final product for some reason.
When I ran out of marshmallows I decided to decorate the rest of them with the leftover oreo's from my oreo fudge.



Monkey Bread




1. Four pack of biscuits, cut into quarters.
2. Dip the pieces into cinnamon/sugar
3. Spray the pan with Pam (haha, not me)
4. Pour the pieces of biscuit into a Bundt pan
5. Pour melted butter over pan
6. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes. So easy and so easy to keep on hand.



Smores pie

Smore’s Pie

This is the easiest recipe ever. I found the graham cracker crust for 29 cents and wish I would have bought a bunch more.
In the crust layer marshmallows and chocolate chips, bake at 250 for about 10 minutes. SO yummy! I realized this is a easy thing to make when you have a drop in visitor.


Oatmeal Chocolate Chip


I love making cookies. I love cookbooks even more. I think my favorite cookbooks are church cookbooks. The ones where everyone sends in their favorite recipe.
The other day I wanted oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I went to my MOPS cookbook that is probably 10 years old. I love this cookbook because it has recipes from my favorite people.
These cookies are amazing because they are soft and yummy with a little crunch.
Chocolate chip or Raisin Oatmeal cookies
Pre-heat oven to 350
1.5 cups all purpose flour 1c light brown sugar
1 t salt 1 t vanilla
1 t baking soda 2 eggs
1 c shortening 2 c old fashioned oatmeal
½ c sugar 12 oz choc. Chips or raisins
Combine flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside. Beat together shortening, sugar and vanilla until creamy. Add eggs until light and fluffy. Slowly add in flour mixture and oats. Stir in chocolate chips or raisins. Drop by teaspoons onto baking sheet.
bake 8-10 minutes


Giant Cupcake

This week I am going to show you something a little different than a recipe. My husband has asked me for a year to buy a large cupcake pan. I have said no way am I spending $20 on a pan I will rarely use.
I am surprised I have not gotten one for every holiday that has passed. A couple of weeks ago I was in Marshall’s and happen to find one. I picked it up and saw a $5.99 price tag. I decided right then that I would buy it.
I was a little disappointed in the size. I think I assumed it would be the size of a 2 round cakes but it is a little smaller. Not complaining, I just thought it would be bigger. The first one I made was chocolate and chocolate. This time I made one for my husband and used the filler insert. I made a strawberry cake with strawberry filling as the middle. I am really looking forward to decorating it with my 8 and 9 year olds at Heritage Girls this week.
I used one cake mix, half a can of frosting and one box of strawberry pudding; it only used half the box of pudding. We want to try ice cream the next time. Have you used one of these specialty cake pans? I saw one today that looked like a donut. That one looked fun.



Apple Dumplings



I saw this recipe on a blog but when I clicked on the link I saved it would not open. She did say she found it on Pioneer Woman.
Apple Dumplings

2 granny smith apples,
2 cans crescent rolls
2 sticks butter, I used margarine
1 ½ cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Cinnamon, to taste
1 can mountain dew, can you guess why I chose this recipe
Peel and core apples. Cut each apple into slices each. Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll. Place in a 9 x 13 buttered pan.
Melt butter, add sugar and combine. Add vanilla, stir, and over apples. Pour Mountain Dew over the pan, trying hard not to drink it before you need it. Sprinkle cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes
The apples come out almost like a sauce. It is amazing.


Grilled Pizza





Recently my husband bought this thing that we call the BEAST. One of the first things we wanted to try was grilled pizza. I found several ways to make grilled pizza. My husband found this way.
Make your basic pizza dough, my favorite pizza dough recipe is here.
Assemble pizza as normal.
Take 2 soda cans and lay on the pizza grate and then put your pizza pan on top of them.
Close the lid and bake until done. I think it took about ten minutes.
Have you tried making grilled pizza and if so how did you do it?


Oreo Pancakes



This is the simplist recipe you will ever find. I saw the idea on another blog. Then I simplified. First mix a batch of pancakes. I personally love Krusteaz pancakes from Sam's but any homemade recipe would work. Then before you put it on the griddle add in some crushed oreos. I made a double recipe of pancakes and added about a cup of crushed oreos. I think it could have used a little more oreos. The flavor of my pancakes did not change. But it had a crunch to it that was fun. This made the kids feel like they had a special breakfast. I think this would be a great pancake to keep on hand to eat on the road without worry mess.


Honey Bun Cake


Oh me oh my, this is a good recipe and oh me oh my, it is yummy! It came from an old MOPS cookbook. Have you heard of MOPS? I miss being able to be in MOPS. Okay that is a story for another day. So the recipe is easy.
1 yellow cake mix
4 eggs
2/3 cup oil
8 ounce sour cream
1/3 cup water
½ cup brown sugar
1tsp cinnamon
2/3 pecans (I did not use, if you know where I can buy these without using a year’s paycheck let me know)
GLAZE:
1 cup sifted powder sugar
½ t vanilla
1. Preheat oven (oh man, I just realized I forgot to tell you how to cook something on my other blog) 350 degrees
2. Combine first 5 ingredients
3. In a separate bowl combine brown sugar and cinnamon
4. Pour half cake batter into pan, sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top, repeat
5. Use a small knife and swirl ingredients together.
6. Bake 30-35 minutes
7. Make glaze while cooking and pour on cake as soon as it comes out of the oven.



Oven Omellete

I found this recipe on Lynne’s Kitchen Adventures. She posted it a couple of years ago and somehow I had the privilege of finding it.
I instantly thought this would be something I cooked regularly. It has ingredients I always had on hand. It looks amazing and would be great to take to a breakfast or to take someone for a meal. Can you imagine this instead of a bowl of scrambled eggs?
The directions are so simple.
1. Pull out your bar pan (mine is of course pampered chef) and lay parchment paper over it, making sure to cover the short sides with a couple extra inches. Grease the parchment paper.
2. Whisk together 1 cup milk and ¼ cup cornstarch. Add 10 eggs, 1 TBSP mustard (I skipped this part), 1 teaspoon salt, and teaspoon pepper (oops, skipped this part too); whisk until to combine. Pour into pan, making sure that the parchment lays (or is it lies) down in every corner. Sprinkle meat over top. I used about ¾ cup bacon and ham
3. Bake until edges of omelet are done, 15-18 minutes at 350 degrees. Sprinkle with 1 and ½ cup cheese; bake2 to4 more minutes or until cheese has melted.
4. As soon as you pull it out, pick up one of the short sides of the parchment paper and begin to roll it as tightly as you can.