My First Apple Pie!

I have a confession! I am 54 years old and I have never made a fruit pie or my own pie crust.  I have made plenty of  pumpkin and pecan and even a few meringue pies but, I have always bought my pie crust.  I have been researching apple pie recipes and now I can say I have made an apple pie! It didn't turn out perfect but I will try again and I plan to make my own pie crusts for the holidays! 

My finished product!

I used Ina Garten Perfect Pie Crust Recipe it was very easy and turned out flaky and delicious.

I made Perfect Apple Pie recipe From My Tiny Kitchen, my filling was a little dry.
 Don't know why, but it was a good warm with vanilla ice cream.

I have even made these for a number of years but, again I bought my pie crust.

I will be posting this post to these Blog Parties:
Wow Us Wednesday
Foodie Friday
Skip to my Lou
Handmade Tuesdays
Treasure Box Tuesday
Sweets for a Saturday

Lemon Meringue Rice Krispie Treats

Marshmallows come in many different flavors and I  found Lemon Meringue Mallow Bursts made by Campfire at my grocery store. I thought wouldn't these make great Rice Krispie Treats and right on the back of the bag there was the recipe!

Here is the web site for the recipe:

Lemon Meringue Mallow Bursts Treats

Check out some of their other recipes. These Mallow Bursts are easy to make with children, gluten free and made in the USA!

I added vanilla frosting to my treats, to cut down on the tartness.

 I will be sharing this recipe to these blog parties:

Made by You Mondays

Frugal Friday

Foodie Friday

Full Plate Thursday

Wow Us Wednesday

For the Kids  Friday 

Gluten Free Wednesday

Allergy Free Wednesday

Dutch Oven Hello Dollies

We recently went camping and I wanted to try Hello Dollies  in my Dutch Oven. 

 It was quick to assemble, very tasty and very little clean up!

Ingredients:

6 Tblsps melted butter

1 cup crushed graham crackers

1 cup coconut

1 bag chocolate chips

1 1/4 cup broken pecans

1 (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

Lite 20-30  charcoal briquets and while you are waiting for them to turn gray assemble your dish.The bottom layer is the melted butter and graham crackers, to make assembly easier at the campsite, I prepared this at home, placed it in a baggy  and kept it in the refrigerator in our travel trailer.
Grease the inside of your Dutch Oven with oil, pat the graham cracker mixture in bottom of oven. 

Layer coconut, chocolate chips and pecans over graham crackers.

Pour sweetened condensed milk over all.

Place 10-12 coals under the oven and 10-12 on top. I baked this outside while it was really cold so I made several adjustments with the placement of the briquettes while it was cooking. I rotated the pot a quarter turn every 10 minutes and took the lid off after 20 minutes to check how it was cooking. You want your chocolate chips to melt and  the sweetened condensed milk to blend with the other ingredients.

I can not tell you how important it is to have heavy duty gloves, I received these from my daughter and 

son in law and I love them.

I placed the oven on my lid to keep the dish warm while it was served.

I will make this again while camping and am thinking of different variations. 

I will be posting this to these blog parties:

Made by You Mondays

Frugal Friday

Foodie Friday

Full Plate Thursday

Tempt my Tummy Tuesday

Recipe Sharing Monday

Wow Us Wednesday

Tickled Pink

Gluten-Free Tiramisu Cupcakes

I was needing a special dessert for two occasions, a birthday party and a bridal shower, and it had to be gluten-free. I searched the Betty Crocker website and found a gluten free Tiramisu Cupcake recipe. I made a few changes and now have a dessert that is tasty and special enough both occasions. I did not add liqueur that is traditional with Tiramisu, I was afraid it would not be gluten free. 

Cupcakes

1 box Gluten-Free Betty Crocker yellow cake mix

1/3 cup water

1/3 cup strong coffee 

2 tsp vanilla (I used McCormick Extract)

1 cup real butter  (softened)

3 eggs

Mix cake mix, water, coffee, and vanilla. Add butter and eggs. Mix well, pour into 12 cupcake liners and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted into cupcake. 

Let cool completely.

Frosting

1 pint whipping cream

8 oz cream cheese softened

1 cup powdered sugar

1/4 to 1/2 cup cocoa powder

3 tablespoons strong coffee

1-2 tablespoons milk

In a large bowl, beat whipping cream with electric mixer on high speed until stiff. Add cream cheese, coffee and powdered sugar, beat until blended. Add more cocoa and milk if needed to make it thick enough to spread. Use a piping bag  to frost cupcakes and dust with cocoa or sprinkle with chocolate shavings. 

Keep cupcakes refrigerated.

I will post this recipe too these parties:

Made by you Monday's

Wow us Wednesday

Frugal Friday

Making Mondays Marvelous

Friday Fav's

Gluten Free Wednesday

Foodie Friday

Full Plate Thursday

Sweets for a Saturday

Mouthwatering Monday

Allergy-Free Wednesday

Kitchen Sink Cookies

I named these cookies Kitchen Sink Cookies because they have everything in them but the kitchen sink. They are packed full of fiber, fruit, nuts and yes, some sweetness!

Cream together:

1 cup Shortening

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1  1/2 cup brown sugar

1  1/2 tsp vanilla

Add and mix:

3 eggs

Add and mix:

1  1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1  1/2 teaspoon salt

Add and mix:

2  3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

The next ingredients may needed to be mixed in by hand.

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup oat bran

1/2 cup wheat bran

2 cups dried cranberries

1  1/2 cup broken pecans

1  1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Make sure everything is mixed well. Place 2-3 heaping tablespoons sized dough on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes. 

I will be sharing this recipe to these blog parties:

Made by Your Monday's

Wow us Wednesday's

Frugal Friday

Weekend Wander

Foodie Friday

Full Plate Thursday

Recipe Sharing Monday

Mouthwatering Mondays

Mom's test meal Monday

Sweets for a Saturday

Creative Bloggers Party & Hop

Apricot-Almond Sugar Cookies

I came up with this recipe to enter in the Pillsbury Recipe Contest. 

I didn't win but I now have a really great cookie recipe!

Mix 1 roll  Sugar Cookie Dough with 2 Tablespoons apricot preserves and 1/8 teaspoon almond extract. Spray cookie sheet with Pam, spoon 2 Tablespoons for each cookie on to cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until golden around edges.

 Let set 3-4 minutes on cookie sheet, remove and let cool completely. 

Mix 1/2 cup vanilla frosting with 1 tablespoon apricot preserves. 

Frost cookies, place 1 teaspoon apricot preserves in center of cookie, top with slivered almonds.

I will post this recipe to these blog parties:

Sweet as Sugar Cookies

Foodie Friday

Made by You Monday's

Wow us Wednesday

Frugal Friday

Full Plate Thursday

Creative Blogger's Party and Hop

Weekend Wander

Friday Favs Party

Chocolate Sheet Cake

Along with a simple black dress every woman needs a simple chocolate sheet cake recipe! A good friend shared this recipe with me over 20 years ago and it never disappoints. It is delicious!

Mix: 2 cups flour and 2 cups sugar, set aside.
Boil: 1 stick margarine, 4 Tblsp cocoa, 3/4cup oil and 1 cup water
Pour over flour-sugar mixture and mix.
Add 2 well beaten eggs, mix.
Add 1/2 cup buttermilk, 1 tsp soda and 1 tsp vanilla, mix.
Pour into a greased jelly roll pan or a 9x13 pan.
Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

While the cake is baking prepare the icing.
Boil: 6 Tblsp milk, 4 Tblsp cocoa, 1 stick margarine.
Add 1 box sifted powered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla.
Beat until smooth, add 1 cup chopped nuts,
Pour over cake while hot.
I will be sharing this recipe on these blog parties:
Foodie Friday
Frugal Friday
Made by You Monday
Full Plate Thursday
These Chicks Cooked
Mouthwatering Mondays
What's on the Menu Wednesday
Sweets for a Saturday

Candied Potato Chips

This is such an easy recipe and very addictive! You can't eat just one!
It is gluten free, can be prepared quickly and is easy enough children can help or make by themselves.

Ingredients:
1 (13 oz) bag Wavy Lays potato chips
1 (14 oz) bag caramels
1/3 cup whipping cream
1 (11.5) bag milk chocolate chips
2 Tblsp shortening
1 cup finely chopped nuts, I used toasted pecans
Spread potato chips on cookie sheets. Melt caramels and whipping cream, in microwave or in double boiler. If in the microwave do with small amounts of time. Stir often. Drizzle over potato chips. Melt chocolate chips and shortening, using same method as caramels. Drizzle over potato chips. Before caramel and chocolate harden, sprinkle with nuts. Yummy!
I am sharing this on these blog parties:
Foodie Friday
Frugal Friday
Made by You Monday
Full Plate Thursday
These Chicks Cooked
Mouthwatering Monday
What's on the Menu Wednesday
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
Thrifty Thursday
For the Kids Friday
Fun for the Kids Friday

193 Amish Friendship Bread Recipes!

I have been making Friendship Bread for years. I bake several loaves at one time and freeze them, I love having a loaf I can thaw one out when unexpected company or a sweet tooth craving arrives. I thought I had been pretty creative in the varieties I made, until I found this website.

 http://www.friendshipbreadkitchen.com/

It has 193 Friendship Bread recipes! Recipes from Pancakes, Biscuits, Bread Machine, Cranberry, Oreos, Caramel-Apple the list goes on. There is also a Cookbook!

I hope to try several and give you a review, till then try some of your own and let me know!

I will share this post to these blog parties:

Foodie Friday

Frugal Friday

Full Plate Thursday

Made by You Monday

These Chicks Cooked

Mouthwatering Monday

What's on the Menu Wednesday

Tuesday's at the Table

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

Red Velvet Cheesecake Torte

For the last two months I have been having surgery on my hands, which makes it difficult to type and cook. My daughters, who both have blogs have generously offered to do a guest post. They both are wonderful, creative young women  and I know you will enjoy their recipes.

Hi everybody! I am so glad to be visiting from Faith And Daisies. I hope you enjoy this post as much as I enjoyed making - and eating - this cake!

You should probably know that I am not a fancy person. I like good, simple food. What I love about this recipe is that it looks fancy but it's really pretty simple to make.

I started out with a Duncan Hines red velvet cake mix but before pouring it into the pans, I added half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

I mixed that up and poured it into 2 greased cake pans and baked as directed on the box. Then I let them cool. While all that was going on, I mixed up my cheesecake mixture. This is a variation on the Cheesecake Tartlets I make, I will add the adapted recipe at the end of this post.

Once my cakes are cooled, I split them in half like this:

Then I just layered the cake and cheesecake mixture until there were four layers of cake with the cake on top and three layers of cheesecake mixture. It really helps if you allow the cheesecake to sit in the fridge for a little while before layering, it's keeps quite so much of it from coming out the edges. But that is going to happen a little so just get the edges as even as possible before frosting. Don't worry too much about any gaps in the layers though, you can just fill those in with frosting later :)

Once it is layered, stick it back in the fridge if you have some time. If not, it will be ok but it does help to frost it if it's cold. I used Duncan Hines cream cheese frosting. I have just one little word to describe this frosting:
Amazing.This is how it looked frosted. Some of the cheesecake mixture and cake crumbs got mixed in with the frosting so I came up with a plan to cover that up.

I roughly chopped up some more chocolate chips and pressed them onto the edge of the cake and put a few on top.

Here it is on the inside:

See those chocolate chips in the cake? So yummy! Be sure to stop by Faith And Daisies and say hi!

The Recipe:

Cake:
Duncan Hines Red Velvet cake mix
1 Duncan Hines Cream Cheese Frosting
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cheesecake Mixture:
12 oz. cream cheese, softened
14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
1 small container whipped cream

Bake cake mix as directed (adding 1 cup of chocolate chips to the batter before baking) in 2 cake pans. Let cool, and slice through the middle to make 4 thin layers.

Mix together cheesecake mixture and set in fridge to cool.

Once it is all cool, layer the cake and cheesecake so that there are 4 layers of cake and 3 layers of cheesecake. Set in fridge to cool. Frost with yummy frosting. Press chocolate chips onto the sides of the cake and the top. Cut into it and prepare for compliments!
Blog Parties:
Sweets for a Saturday
Foodie Friday
Mouthwatering Mondays
What's on the Menu Wednesday
Tuesdays at the Table
Full Plate Thursday
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

Weekend Warrior #2

Weekend Warrior strikes again, we had company for the weekend. So I decided to try three new recipes. What it the point of always reading blogs and never trying the recipes, right?
First is Dixie's Sky High Biscuits from Delightful Country Cookin. These biscuits were very good and made me wonder why I don't make homemade biscuits more often.

Second was Blackberry Crumb Pie from A Cook at Heart. This was oh my goodness good! 

My last recipe wasn't from a blog but from All Recipes, Cranberry Muffins. These were also good and could be made with blueberries or raspberries. I thought they were a little dry but I think I over baked them. 

All three recipes will go in my recipe binder to be made again.

Marshmallows...who knew!!

Just say the word marshmallow and you think about Smore's, Sweet Potatoes, Hot Chocolate and of course  roasted marshmallows over a campfire.  But why are they named Marshmallow? Doesn't that seem like an odd name, why not Puffs, Clouds of Goodness, you get the idea!
 I did some research and this is what I found out.

The marshmallow we know today is a modern version of a medicinal confection made from the marsh mallow  plant (Althaea Officinelis).  Since marshmallow plants grow in damp, wet areas such as marshes, the name makes sense.

According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, a marshmallow is:

1: a pink-flowered European perennial herb (Althaea officinalis) of the mallow family that is naturalized in the eastern U.S. and has a mucilaginous root sometimes used in confectionery and in medicine; 

2: a confection made from the root of the marshmallow or from corn syrup, sugar, albumen, and gelatin beaten to a light spongy consistency

Making marshmallows dates back to ancient Egypt where the sap was extracted from the marshmallow plant and mixed with nuts and honey.  In the 19th century marshmallow plant roots were cooked with egg whites and sugar. The mixture would be whipped into a foamy meringue that would harden, cut into pieces and be used for children's sore throats.  Marsh mallow sap was thought to be a cough suppressant.
Gelatin has replaced the gooey juices of the marshmallow plant. But the marsh mallow plant is still used in many medicinal ways.
I will be sharing this on these blog parties:
Gold Star Wednesday
Made by you Monday's
Full Plate Thursday's
Foodie Friday
Tuesdays at the Table
What's Cooking Wednesday
Mouthwatering Monday's

Vintage Donuts

Growing up in rural Oklahoma during  the 60's and 70's I had never heard of Daylight Donuts, Winchells or Krispy Kreme. Whenever we had a craving for donuts this is how my Mom made them.

They were made from cheap store bought biscuits.

You want to have everything ready before you start frying your biscuits, I mean donuts. You need a plate with paper towels to drain your donuts and whatever your want to dip your donuts in. We always used a mix of sugar and cinnamon and a simple glaze made with powdered sugar, milk and vanilla.

 

Open your biscuits and cut out holes from the center. These will be your donut holes. 

Your oil should be very hot but not smoking. Carefully brown each side of your donut, drain and dip. These are best served warm and with a glass of cold milk.  

A lot like Krispy Kreme, don't you think?

I will be sharing this post to these parties:
Gold Star Wednesday
Full Plate Thursday
Mouthwatering Mondays
Foodie Friday
Tuesdays at the Table
What's Cooking Wednesday
Sweets for a Saturday
Sweet Tooth Friday
This Week's Cravings
What's on the Menu Wednesday

Mini Strawberry Cake

This tasty delight is made with 4 store bought items. It can be made in about 4 minutes and take about that long to consume!  They are great if you don't have a lot of time to prepare a dessert but still want something that looks elegant! One cake is the prefect serving for one to two people.

Ingredients:

Vanilla Frosting

Strawberry Jam or Preserves

Strawberries

Shortcake

You will use two shortcakes for each cake.

Coat edges of one shortcake with jam and fill center with couple tablespoons of jam. This will be the bottom.

Coat top of another shortcake with jam, set aside. Fill bottom with as many chopped strawberries that you can. Press strawberries into jam. Put top cake on bottom layer and press down.

Frost all over and garnish with strawberries and or more jam. Refrigerate until ready to serve. We ate these the same day I made them so I don't know how well they would do overnight.

Several different fruits could be used peaches, blueberries or raspberries, just use jam to match or not.

I will be sharing this on Gold Star Wednesday,
Foodie Friday, Mouthwatering Monday's,
Full Plate Thursday's, Skip to My Lou, What's Cooking Wednesday,
 Tuesday's at the Table,
Sweets for a Saturday, Sweet Tooth Friday

Mississippi Mud Cake

This cake takes me back a lot of years! I got this recipe from a friend's mother over 30 years ago.
 I loved it then and I love it  now. It has a wonderful combination of chocolate, pecans, coconut, and marshmallow fluff!

Cake Ingredients:

2 cup sugar

1 cup butter

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 Tablespoons cocoa

1 1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup coconut

1 1/2 cup chopped pecans

 Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, (one at a time) cream well, add vanilla. Add cocoa and flour, mix. Stir in pecans and coconut. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees or until done.

While cake is warm, spread one large jar of marshmallow creme over cake. Let Cool.

Icing Ingredients:

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup condensed milk

1 box sifted powdered sugar

1/3 cup cocoa

Mix vanilla, butter and condensed milk. Add powdered sugar and cocoa. Spread over cooled cake.

I will be posting this to these Blog Parties: Gold Star Wednesday, This Week's Cravings,
Sweets for a Saturday, Foodie Friday, Sweet Tooth Friday,
Mouthwatering Mondays, It's a Keeper Thursday

Bacon and Eggs Look-a-Like

How easy of a treat to make are these, very!
These treats use three ingredients, not much time and easy enough for kids to help!

White Chocolate, stick pretzels and yellow M & M's.

Line up three pretzels sticks on wax paper.

Melt one or two sections of white chocolate.
 I melted my in the microwave.
Spoon a small amount in the middle of your pretzels.

Place your M & M in the middle of your chocolate. Put in refrigerator until firm.

I will post this to these blog parties: Gold Star Wednesday, Foodie Friday, Full Plate Thursday, Sweets for a Saturday, Sweet Tooth Friday, Made by You Monday, Tuesdays at the Table,
Friday Potluck, For the Kids Friday, Local Fun for Kids