Tag: dessert

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Food

Pampered Chef & Fruit Tarts

Elissa had a Pampered Chef party on Saturday afternoon. I’m familar with their products & yummy food because my mom has some items and had hosted a party back when I was living at home. It made me feel all grown up to go to one ya know?!

Anyways, Elissa’s house is amazing and perfect party location. She was a great hostess & had made yummy treats including the famous Buffalo Chicken Dip (aka Crack Dip). The PC lady, Maria, also made with us Mango salsa, Vegetable Cheese Pizza, & an awesome Artichoke Dip. I’ll add those receipes to this post once she emails them to us.

Elissa posted the recipe to these oh so cute & delicious cookies on her blog (she’s one of those great cooks that doesn’t measure), but I also wanted to share here. I just wish I’d taken a photo of them.

Ingredients

Sugar Cookie Dough
Lemon Curd
Raspberry Jam
Various fruit (she used diced strawberries & blueberries)

Directions

Make & bake the sugar cookies as usual. Top with a thin layer of lemon curd. Spread a thin layer of raspberry jam on top. Top off the cookies with fruit. Serve immediately. Her notes: these can’t be made ahead of time because the cookies get soggy.
I bought this mini muffin pan & the measure-all cup. I can’t wait to make mini cupcakes & muffins. We also made the artichoke dip in this same pan. My mom has the measure all cup~ its great for measuring mayo, sour cream, etc.

Categories
Food

Banana Bread Muffins

Thanks to my new twittering obsession, I found out that Alethea was making these today. She linked the recipe from allrecipes.com. Jason & I both love banana bread & we had 3 old bananas that either needed to be thrown out or turned into something yummy! I changed a few little things based on comments from other people.
Sarah’s Banana Bread Muffins
Ingredients
1 c white sugar
1 egg
1/2 c vegetable oil
3 ripe bananas
1/4 c chopped walnuts
1/2 t vanilla
pinch cinnamon
1 t baking soda
2 c flour
1/2 t salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Place muffin cups or grease muffin pan.
Mix sugar, oil & egg until creamy & light yellow. Add vanilla, mashed bananas, walnuts. Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Mix until combined & smooth. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Allrecipes said would make 12. I made 19. 🙂
Recipe said bake for 30-40 mins. I took out at 25 and I think they were perfect~ fork put into muffin came out clean.

Categories
Food

Praline Pumpkin Dessert

This recipe is an old favorite of my mom’s (so old she’d forgotten about it!). A coworker mentioned before Christmas that it was now their family’s tradition to make “Nancy’s pumpkin cake” so my mom asked her for the recipe back. 😛 I thought I’d share because its easy & festive for the fall.
Ingredients
1 15 oz can pumpkin
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 c sugar
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 box golden vanilla cake mix
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (we used more like 3/4 cup because I don’t love a lot of nuts in sweets)
3/4 c melted butter (recipe says can be little more)
Whipped Cream or topping
Directions
Heat oven to 350. Grease 9×13 pan. Beat pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, and pie spice until smooth (seems like original recipe called to do this with a whisk but notes say to use mixer b/c its easier!). Pour into pan. Sprinkle cake mix evenly on top, then sprinle pecans, then pour melted butter evenly on top of everything.
Bake for 50-60 minutes. Knife inserted in center should come out clean. Cool Slightly. Serve warm or chilled. Add whipped cream just before serving. If top completely with cool whip, store in refrigerator. We just cut pieces, microwaved then topped with cool whip individually. Enjoy!!

Categories
Food

White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

I’ve been trying to come up with cookie recipes for the two cookie exchanges I’m going to in December. I think I might have to make these as a trial before Thanksgiving to see. I loved making white chocolate cranberry sugar cookies last year around the holidays and I think adding oatmeal might be a great addition!
Cranberry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
from Good Things which she adapted from recipe on the back of Craisins

Ingredients:
3/4 c. butter, softened
2/3 c. packed dark brown sugar
a little more than 1 1/2 c. oatmeal
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 c. dried cranberries
2/3 c. white chocolate chips

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment.
-In bowl of stand mixer, combine butter and brown sugar and beat on medium high until light and fluffy in texture and color, about 3 minutes, while you gather other ingredients.
-In large bowl, combine oatmeal, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, stirring to combine.
-To butter and sugar add eggs, one at a time, beating to combine well after each addition, then add vanilla.
-Stop mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl and turn back on lowest setting.
-Add oatmeal mixture, then cranberries and white chocolate, beating just until barely combined.
-Remove bowl from stand mixer and bring over to baking sheets.
-Best way to do this is with your fingers (although messy) – pick up loose balls of dough about 2 to 2.5 inches in diameter and place onto baking sheets at least 2 inches apart (I place 11 cookies on each sheet, dividing dough into 22 cookies total).
-If you have leftover cranberries and white chocolate chips, top cookies with a couple of each.
-Place in preheated oven and bake for exactly 10 minutes.
-Remove from oven, cookies will be slightly golden around edges and middles look a bit underdone.
-Let cool 5 minutes on cookies sheets and then place on wire racks to cool completely before serving.
*I will edit her recipe instructions once I make them and add my own pictures. I don’t have a kitchenaid stand mixer so I’ll be using my electric mixer. *

Categories
Food

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

We had a chill weekend at home all day Saturday. I was attempting to sleep in when Moekitty woke me up at 8:23 to be fed! So waffles for us & kitty food for Moe and the couch it was. We watched lots of football games, took a few naps, and I got caught up on some Real Simple & O magazine reading. I’ve decided that I’m growing up; I like and feel like I relate to those magazines than the Marie Claire & Glamour I used to subscribe to. I ripped out a couple of recipes to try from both magazines, including this one.I’m looking forward to trying this recipe this week for a Chi O alum dinner club & also to give to then NCSU Chi O new member class retreat this weekend. It sounds easy & I’m thinking the pumpkin puree will make the cupcakes very moist. I’m going to double the recipe, but here’s the 24 cupcake recipe from Real Simple.

Cupcake Ingredients
1 box yellow cake mix (plus ingredients called for in the package directions)
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
15 oz can pumpkin puree

Frosting Ingredients
2 8 oz bars cream cheese, at room temperature
2 c confectioners’ sugar

24 pieces of candy corn

Directions
Heat oven to 350F. Put cupcake liners in cupcake pans. Prepare cake mix as directed, but add pumpkin pie spice & substitue the can of pumpkin puree for the water.

Divide batter amoung the muffin tins and bake until toothpick comes clean. Usually 18-22 minutes. Let cool.

Meanwhile, using the electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar until creamy. Spread frosting on top of cupcakes and top each with a piece of candy corn.

Real Simple says that the cupcakes can be made up to 2 days before hand; just store at room temperature and keep covered. Frost up to 12 hours before serving.