Picture Perfect Cooking

I do not bake cookies very often.  I have always had more luck with cakes than cookies for some reason.  But every once in a while, a cookie recipe will really stick with me.  This is one of them.  This was featured on the “Martha Stewart Living” television show on April 13, 1998.  It was supposedly her daughter’s favorite and  I can see why.  This is the best of both worlds with the soft chewy peanut butter cookie with a few chocolate chips thrown in for good measure.

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.  With an electric mixer, cream butter with the 2 sugars.

Add peanut butter, eggs, and vanilla.

Sift together flour and baking soda.  Stop mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Add dry ingredients at low speed.

Stir in chocolate chips.  Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto a prepared cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-13 minutes per batch.

Would anyone care for a cold glass of milk to go along with these?

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I LOVE pasta!  C isn’t as enthusiastic as I am about it, so I usually fix it for my family.  I was off from work on Thursday and, unusually, did not have a thousand things to do, so I made lunch for them.

This recipe is one of my favorites.  It is easy and delicious comfort food.  You can adjust any of the ingredients you like because I rarely measure anything when I make this!

16 oz. box of rotini pasta (I also use spaghetti and angel hair.)

26 oz. jar tomato basil pasta sauce (use any kind you like)

1 lb. ground beef

2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Fill your largest pot with water and bring to a boil.  Dump in pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes.

Brown the ground beef and drain off the fat.

Preheat the oven to 375 while these are cooking.  Spray a 13×9” baking dish with non-stick spray.  Drain the pasta and put back into the pot.  I do this so I don’t mess up another bowl.

Add the cooked beef, sauce and 1 1/2 cups of cheese and stir to combine.

You can warm this and eat it just like it is, but I like it baked.  Pour the entire amount into the sprayed baking dish and top with the remaining cheese.  Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the cheese is completely melted and the whole thing is hot.  Yummy!

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I found this recipe on another blog that I read, www.bumblebeeblog.com.  The post on October 18, 2008 that contained this recipe told a story about her mom and how she made interesting meals on a small budget.  The writer told how her mother would always have homemade desserts for the family and this was one of their favorites.  It may become one of my family’s favorites as well.  It is easy and really, really good.  Give it a try!  As the Bumblebee Blog writer said, if you have never tried to make a cake from scratch, this would be a good starting place.

For the cake:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 cup mini marshmallows

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream together sugar and butter with a mixer.  Mix flour, baking powder, soda, and salt in a bowl.  Since I used powdered buttermilk, I also added the powder in with these dry ingredients. There is a conversion chart on the container.  Add egg, vanilla, and water (in place of buttermilk) to the sugar/butter mixture.  Gradually add the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.  Fold in the marshmallows and chips by hand.

Spread batter in a greased 13×9” baking dish.  The batter will be thick.  Bake for 40-45 minutes or until tester comes out clean.  Cool for 10-15 minutes before topping.

FOR TOPPING:

1 cup sugar

1/3 can evaporated milk

1/2 cup (1 stick butter)

6 oz chocolate chips

Bring sugar, milk and butter to a boil.  Remove from heat and stir in chips until they are melted.  Pour over the cake and allow to set up.  ENJOY!!

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I love trying new desserts!  I have a few go-to recipes that I will make over and over again, but if I find something interesting I am going to try it.  I found this recipe last March on Leslie Land’s blog, http://leslieland.com/blog/fast-cookies/.  Ms. Land is a garden writer for newspapers and magazines.  She calls these Split Second Cookies aka Lightening Cookies because it only takes a short time to make them.

I made mine with homemade (by my mom and grandmother) peach and blackberry preserves, but you can use any flavor you like.  The cookies by themselves would make wonderful butter cookies, but the fruit filling really adds to them.  Here is a little word of warning:  I made my cookies too thin and they would break when you tried to eat them.  Only roll them out about 1 inch thick, no less.

2 scant cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

2/3 cup sugar

3/4 cup very soft butter

1 beaten egg

2 tsp vanilla

1/3-1/2 cup fruit preserves

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Put dry ingredients in a shallow mixing bowl and stir to combine. Using a wooden spoon, work in the butter, egg and vanilla just until you have a cohesive dough.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 4 parts. Shape each into a log about 13 inches long and a scant inch thick.

Place logs well apart on a ungreased baking sheet.  I used a Silpat baking mat.  Use the handle of a wooden spoon to press a deep trough down the center of each log.

Fill the troughs with preserves, mounding them slightly.  Bake until light gold, 15-18 minutes.  Remove logs from pan and slice while warm.  The cookies will firm up as they cool.

There are a couple of other versions that Ms. Land has on her website that I haven’t had time to try yet, but they look delicious as well!

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My workplace likes to eat!  We will find just about any excuse for potluck lunches, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, The Kentucky Derby.  You name the holiday and we have had potluck at one time or another.  This recipe was given to me back in 1996 by a lady that worked in another office.  She has since retired, but someone always tries to bring these in her place.

These rolls are full of hot cheesy goodness!  I like to serve them with a pasta salad on the side.  Talk about carb overload.

1 container of flat dinner rolls

1 cup shredded cheese

1 pkg sliced sandwich ham

1 stick butter

1 tsp dried onion flakes

1 1/2 tsp dried mustard

1/2 tsp worcestshire sauce

1 tbsp poppy seeds (These are optional.  I usually don’t add them.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  If the rolls you buy come in their own foil pan use that.  If not, use a 13×9” baking dish and spray the bottom with a little non-stick spray.  Slice rolls in half in book form.

Place 2 layers of ham and a layer of cheese on the bottom half of the rolls.  Replace top layer of the rolls and slice through ham and cheese to form small sandwiches.

Melt butter.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.  Pour over the rolls.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.  I cover the pan with aluminum foil to keep the tops of the rolls from overcooking.  Reslice the rolls after baking and enjoy!!

“Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Kerrygold.”

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In a previous post, I mentioned that Good Eats was my favorite show on the Food Network.  The host, Alton Brown, always makes the recipes interesting and entertaining as well as informative.  There were several of his recipes that I wanted to try, but one thing was holding me back…a food scale!  In most of his baked goods recipes, he measures by weight instead of volume.  Well, problem be gone!

C’s parents gave me a food scale for my birthday, so here is my first attempt at one of Mister Brown’s cake recipes.  He calls this “Gold Cake”, because it is a homemade version of “yellow cake”.  Don’t be fooled, the texture of this cake is much lighter than a box mix.  Instead of two 9 inch cakes, I decided to make cupcakes.  The cooking time is the same and the recipe will make 24 cupcakes.

The chocolate frosting recipe was one that I already had.  It is Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Frosting.  I used 3 different decorator’s tips to frost these just for fun. 

For the cupcakes:

3/4 cup butter flavored vegetable shortening

300 grams sugar (1 1/4 cup)

300 grams sifted cake flour (2 1/2 cups)

14 grams baking powder (3 tsp)

1/4 tsp salt

8 egg yolks, beaten

3/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare cupcake pan with liners (or use two 9 inch cake pans, greased).  Cream together the shortening and the sugar.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Slowly alternate adding the egg yolks and milk with the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.  Add vanilla and mix well.

Scoop about 1/3 cup of batter into each cupcake liner.  Bake for 18-20 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:

1/2 cup butter

2/3 cup cocoa powder

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup milk

Melt butter and stir in cocoa.  Alternately add sugar and milk, beating on medium speed until the frosting reaches spreading consistency.  Add a little more milk or sugar to change the consistency if necessary.

I used a decorator’s tip on a zip top bag to frost these.  The first tip is a number 199.  Here’s what it can do.  Remember, decorating is really NOT my strong suit.  I like to do it for fun.

Then I switched to a number 29.

The final tip was number 5.

Yum!  I can’t wait to dig in to these. 

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This is a great summertime dessert!  The fresh citrus taste of the mandarin oranges in the cake work great with the cool creamy pineapple topping.  It also makes a great pot-luck dessert.  There are usually no leftovers!

1 box yellow cake mix

1/2 cup vegetable oil

11 oz mandarin oranges, undrained

4 eggs

20 oz crushed pineapple, undrained

4 serving size vanilla instant pudding mix

1 cup Cool Whip

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease the bottom only of a 13×9” baking dish.  In a large bowl, beat cake mix, oil, oranges (with juice), and eggs with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds.  Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.  Pour into pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool completely, about 1 hour.

To make the pineapple frosting, stir together pineapple (with juice) and dry pudding mix.  Gently fold in the whipped topping, then spread on the cake.  Store in the refrigerator.

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Last Saturday night, I had no idea what to fix for supper.  I didn’t want take out, but the cupboard was pretty bare at home.  That afternoon I was catching up on a little blog reading and found this recipe.  Thank you, www.mybakingaddiction.com!  You saved C & I from a boring supper.  Just about every time I cook pancakes, I burn the first one, but not with these beauties.  Every one of them were perfect!  I even had a few left over for breakfast the next morning.

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tbsp white sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg, beaten

1 cup milk (I used 2%)

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 ripe bananas, mashed

2 shakes of cinnamon (or a little more if you like)

1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine flour, white sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

In a separate bowl, mix together egg, milk, oil, vanilla and bananas.

For some reason, this part of the batter looked a little gross to me, but don’t worry.  It all turns out great in the end.

Stir flour mixture into banana mixture; batter will be slightly lumpy.  As Alton Brown says, we are using the muffin method.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat.  I was lucky enough to receive an electric griddle for Christmas a couple of years ago.  Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/3 cup for each pancake.

Cook until pancakes are golden brown on both sides and serve hot.  Oh, and add as much butter and syrup as you can stand!

Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Le Creuset

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C & I love to eat at The Great Steak and Potato Company.  This is my first effort to make a steak sandwich similar to theirs.  My recipe was based on one from the Alton Brown show “Good Eats” on the Food Network which is my favorite show on that channel.  Mister Brown’s recipe Chain of Bull Cheese Steaks looked so good, I tried the recipe.

I could not find the exact cut of beef that he used, so sirloin was used as a substitute.  The steak should have been pounded thinner, but the taste was still pretty good for a first try.  C said that it was really good for a first try.  The fries were my own concoction, and one of C’s favorites.  I have to tell on myself…the recipe said to toss the meat with the olive oil before putting it in the hot pan.  You will see below.  Forgetting that olive oil has a very low smoke point, I poured the oil in the pan while it was heating.  I set off 2 smoke detectors with this, so I told C that I was going to name these “Two Alarm Steak Sandwiches”!  Ha, ha! Remember, this is not the exact Alton Brown recipe.  His was used for a basic guidelines, so this will be different.

Let’s make the sandwiches first.

For 2 sandwiches:

appr. 1/2 lb sirloin steak (the package I bought had .62 lbs which was fine)

1 tsp olive oil

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

2 hoagie rolls

4 slices provolone cheese

Remove the beef from the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before cooking.  Preheat a skillet over high heat.  Lightly pound the steak until it is an even thickness throughout, the thinner the better.

Toss the meat with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper to your taste.

Once the pan is hot, place the steak in the pan and sear on both sides until cooked through, approximately 3-4 minutes per side.  Remove the steak from the pan and wrap in aluminum foil to rest for 5-10 minutes.

Slice the beef into small pieces and divide evenly between the 2 hoagie rolls.  Pour any juice from the meat onto the hoagie as well.  Top the meat with cheese and wrap in aluminum foil.  Place in a warm oven for about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.  My oven was still warm from cooking the oven-baked fries.

Seasoned Oven-Baked Fries

3 Idaho potatoes

2 tsp vegetable oil

1/4 tsp seasoning salt

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Cut potatoes into 1/2 inch sticks and place in a bowl.  Add oil, seasoning salt, salt & pepper to the potatoes and toss to coat.

Spread potatoes on an aluminum foil covered baking sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes, stir fries, and bake for 10 more minutes.  Broil for 2 additional minutes to get a crunchy fry.  Serve with steak sandwiches and enjoy!

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For chocaholics like me, I’m not sure if there is any better smell than this cake when it is baking.  It is like you have stepped into a chocolate dream!  This is one easy, awesome chocolate cake recipe.  ENJOY!!!

1 stick butter, softened

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 lb. can chocolate syrup

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 13×9” glass baking dish with the butter wrapper.  Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy.  Add eggs one at a time.

Pour in the chocolate syrup and vanilla.  Then add the flour and baking powder.

Pour in the prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes.

FROSTING:

1 stick butter, softened

6 tbsp milk

4 tsp cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla

1 lb powdered sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

Put all ingredients into a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer.

YYYYYUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYY!

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