Best Strawberry Shortcake in the World (234:365)

That may sound presumptuous, but it's true.

Now, I know this isn't new to me, but it's new to you (and the Goose - if we are being technical today) and you NEED to know this recipe. 

I always use the recipe from my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.

Strawberry Shortcake

• shortcake
• 3-4 cups sugared sliced strawberries
• 1 cup whipping cream, whipped (add around a tsp vanilla - just eyeball it, and a few shakes of powdered sugar. I prefer mine less sweet, just do it to taste.)

To make the shortcake:

• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2/3 cup milk

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles course crumbs. Mix in egg and milk; stir just enough to moisten.

Spread dough in greased 8 inch round or square pan. Bake at 450 degrees for 15-18 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool for 5 minutes. Cut in squares and serve with strawberries and whipped cream.

OR!

This is what I do. Make 8 mounds on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown on the little bumps. Then eat up! These also make amazing biscuits, if you don't mind all the extra (calories) deliciousness inside. Enjoy!

Blueberry Banana Bread Bust (220:365)

I tried making a blueberry banana bread today which turnedinto a horrible mess. It never finished baking. I baked itfor about an hour and checked it thinking it was definitely enough. Tubs out no matter how long I baked it it was just never going to bake all the way through. 

I'm talking HOURS.

It was a gross soggy mess.

Do you know of a good blueberry banana bread recipe that will fill my void?

Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies (216:365)

I'm so over Toll House.

Their Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe makes flat and greasy cookies which are always disappointing. 

I found a recipe on the back of my Gold Medal Flour bag the other day (which I bought for $1.68 on sale and then used a coupon from the bag, a "pealy" to buy 4 bags of chocolate chips for $0.75 each!) for Chocolate Chip Cookies and hoped it was better than Toll House.

Image from here.

Well, they sure are! Less greasy, less flat and chewier. Yum!

I made 2 additions to the recipe.

I added 1 tsp Vanilla and 1 small box instant Vanilla Pudding mix.

Hope you like them as much as we do!

Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4	cup granulated sugar
3/4	cup packed brown sugar
1	cup butter or margarine, softened
1	egg
2 1/4	cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1	teaspoon baking soda
1/2	teaspoon salt
1	cup coarsely chopped nuts
1	package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)

Heat oven to 375ºF. Mix sugars, butter and egg in large bowl. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt (dough will be stiff). Stir in nuts and chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown (centers will be soft). Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet. Cool on wire rack.  (I cooked them for 11 minutes and should have done 10. I tend to overcook my cookies fearing rawness...I need to get over that fear!) Let me know if you like them too!

Chicken Noodle Soup, Wheat Bread, Honey Butter and a Lemon Tart (210:365)

I love cooking, but it sure is a lot of work when it's all from scratch! 

For dinner tonight I made Chicken Noodle soup, improvising as I went, throwing in some chopped kale to boost the health factor, and some freshly picked basil out of our AeroGarden. The soup turned out delicious.

Then I made some quick Whole Wheat Bread from The Essential Mormon Celebrations cookbook by Julie Badger Jensen. 

 Image from Everyday Food Storage

It only took 5 minutes to mix and only 40 minutes in the oven, with no rising time. I used molasses instead of honey. Here is a link to someone else who took the time to type it all up.

The bread was nice, with a definite quick bread/ chewy texture. The honey butter made it delicious.

From the same cookbook, I made some Honey Butter. The recipe calls for 1 cup softened butter, 1 cup honey, and 1 tsp vanilla. Beat for 3 minutes on high. I halved the recipe though, since I'm the only one using it and it's only good for 4 weeks in the fridge.

Then I made a heavenly Lemon Tart.

Photo from Diana's Desserts.

Find the recipe here, from another kind soul who typed up this one for you all.

I topped the tart off with homemade whipped cream. Yummmm. It was a delicious meal.

What did you have for dinner?

3 Berry Super Bowl Cobbler (206:365)

I suggested to Scott that we each pick a team to cheer for today.

I don't now anything about the players though, so I asked what their colors were.

Based on that info, I rooted for the Steelers so I could wear my cute yellow shirt.

(Looks like I've been eating too many Super Bowl snacks...)

Oh well, maybe I'll have better luck next year.

I still enjoyed my bangin' good 3 Berry Cobbler.

That took 3x the normal time to cook...not sure why, but it was worth the wait!

Happy Super Bowl to you!

Cupcakes no.23 and no.3 (178:365)

My friend Heather just had a birthday so I made yummy cupcakes for her. We ate them at church with all the Young Women after our meeting. They were really good! I can say that because they were not my recipe, but were from one of the best cupcake websites I've seen. Find it right here.

I've made cupcakes no.5 and no.9  from this site before, see them here.

I made no.23, Vanilla Cupcake with Lemon Filling. I used Trader Joe's lemon curd for the filling and my own vanilla buttercream for the frosting. Then topped them with Turbinado Sugar. Yum!








We also ate no.3, Flourless Chocolate Cake with Real Whipped Cream.
So dense, rich and delicious! I topped them all with a dusting of cocoa powder.





Are you salivating yet?

Goose's First Birthday Party! (177:365)

We had a lot of fun having a baby party today. We played with balloons (yes, I let babies play with balloons...supervised), watched Baby Einstein, ate Goldfish crackers and watched Goose poke a timid finger into her giant cupcake. 

 

It was all very cute. I love kid parties! 

Apple Dumpling Gang (176:365)

Oh man, these were soooo good. 
This is a hideous picture though. 
Sorry. 
Tasted way better than this pictures makes them look.

Apple dumplings southern style (all buttery and delicious).

So bad for you, but so good.

Super easy to make, I found the recipe here on allrecipes.com

I'm also working on a "Happy Birthday" bunting for the Goose's party tomorrow. I found great directions here.

Cookies for Santa (163:365)

Dee and I made cookies for Santa tonight.

We had fun rolling out the dough and stamping shapes.

Dee loves to make cookies and it was fun to do as a new Christmas Eve tradition.

Great Grandma Carlsen's Raspberry Jello (133:365)

Today I finished our jaunty cranberry sauce hats.

My sister, Scott and I worked on Thanksgiving too. We made a Chocolate Pecan Pie (a family favorite taken from Emeril, which he has now added an extra 1/2 cup pecans to), Pumpkin Pie, Mashed Potatoes, and our Great Grandma Carlsen's Raspberry Jello.

With thanksgiving in my heart, I share my grandma's recipe with you all.

May you hearts and tummy's be filled with gratitude, turkey and raspberry jello.

Great Grandma Carlsen's Raspberry Jello

1 large box of raspberry Jello

2 cups boiling water

1 cup cold pineapple juice (from the can of pineapple)

One 2/3 size can (not the regular size) of pineapple chunks or tidbits, drained.  --be sure to save one cup of the juice as per above. 

(I usually just buy the large sized can because you don't get enough juice even with that. You can also buy pineapple juice to make sure you have enough.)

1 cup of frozen raspberries

1 cup of whipping cream (prior to whipping)

1 Tbs powdered sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

Add Jello to boiling water and stir until dissolved.  Add pineapple juice.  Stir and chill until almost set.  In the meantime, whip the cream and combine with powdered sugar and vanilla.  Once the Jello is close to being set, fold the whipped cream into the Jello and then fold in the drained pineapple and the frozen raspberries.  Add chopped pecans to taste.  Continue chilling until firm. 

Serve and enjoy!

Missing you today grandma Carlsen.

Pumpkin Cookies (109:365)

One of the best things about Fall is all the pumpkin food!

Today I made one of the best of all, Pumpkin cookies. 

What is even better about it is that the recipe is SUPER EASY!

Mix 1 box Spice Cake Mix + 1 15 oz can Pumpkin + 1-2 cups Chocolate Chips ("optional" if you are a weirdo) + 1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (also optional, but they are much tastier with this).

Use a small ice cream scoop or a spoon that will make about a 2 TBS sized ball and fill your greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 F for 10-15 minutes.

I do mine for 15 because I am afraid of gooey insides.

That's it! So easy.

Goosey update: She is still super sick, with a continuous fever of below 100.3 F. Dee had a fever last weekend too for about 2 days, so I'm expecting Goose's to go down in the next day or so...I hope! She is such a calm and mild baby, even when sick, so luckily she hasn't had any coughing fits. As long as we keep her calm and do steam and all the other things the Dr. said to do, she is doing well and just trucking through her illness.

I must say, croup is the worst! Poor baby Goose.

Zombies, Witches, Bloody Green Hands and a Heart (107:365)

So, I don't have pictures yet, but today I made Scott and AWESOME zombie shirt for a Halloween Party we are going to tonight,



I made some stuff for my witch costume, starting with this Goodwill shirt that was $0.99
 
(I'm waiting for a picture of my costume from a friend since we didn't think to take one ourselves.)


and I made some nasty fondant stuff to go on top of my Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap crust.

 

Dee was a witch (my shadow, as some people referred to her as),

and Goose was the cutest kitty ever!

Charcoal-ate Chip Cookies (100:365)

In honor of my 100th post, I thought I'd burn my first batch of cookies today.

Yes, I've burned cookies before, but never to the point of them being inedible.

I guess that's what happens when you bake while taking a shower.

Update: I burned the second batch too.
That is what happens when you bake following the "pan cookies" time and not the regular cookie time, which is exactly 1/2 the "pan cookies" amount because you were too lazy to pull the directions back out all the way and just visually latched onto the first numbers you saw.
Brilliant.

Pumpkin Pie Cake - Oh Baby! (97:365)

Oh yeah. 

It's delicious.

The recipe is right here.

Rainbow Cake for Dee: Part 2 (73:365)

Dee's party was a smashing success!

For more on that, click here.

The cake went very well.

It looked so pretty up on it's pedestal. 

Dee LOVED it to bits.

And that's all that really matters.

After baking and cooling the cake layers, I then layered them on the cake pedestal, according to Roy G. Biv, and put a layer of frosting in between each one.

Then I frosted the outside. 

Since I'd refrigerated it for a while before decorating it, the frosting was hard and did not want to accept the skittles onto it's sweet frosting coating...have no fear, flaming torch is here! 

Yes, I used a torch to melt the frosting a bit so that I could get the skittles to stick. 

I like to think of myself as resourceful, not insane. 

Thank you.

So, then I decorated it with a skittle rainbow and a number 3.

Doesn't look like a 3. 

I know. 

I was nervous making the rainbow, so I made it too small, it ended up really tight and smushed, and then the 3 just looks weird. My friend Julie told me she thought it was all a cute rainbow umbrella.
She's very sweet.
Let's just pretend that's what it is.

The pretty insides.

The remains of the day.

Here are the steps for making this lovely cake.

1. Prepare two White cake mixes.

2. Evenly pour batter into six bowls.

3. Add food coloring until desired colors are achieved (I prefer the gel type that you can buy at a craft or specialty store, or sometimes Wally-World).

4. Bake each layer according to directions on box, only, more like for 12-15 minutes since the layers are smaller than the box says to do.

5. Let cool completely.

6. Begin to layer the cake on desired serving platter, adding a layer of frosting between each colored layer. (Baker's tip - add a thin layer of frosting between bottom cake layer and the serving platter to help stabilize the cake. Thanks mom!)

7. Frost the outside.

8. Decorate

9. Enjoy!

Rainbow Cake for Dee: Part 1 (71:365)

Dee will be 3 soon and has been asking for a rainbow cake for MONTHS. I showed her a picture of a rainbow cake here and ever since she has been talking about it, and talking about it, and talking about it...

She even tells strangers about it.

While on our summer vacation she actually picked up the phone in our hotel room and "called" the rainbow cake lady and talked to her about her cake. I later told her that I was the rainbow cake lady (since I'm the one making the cake, not some cake fairy) and that confused her a bit.

So, Phase One occurred tonight. 

Mixing colors.

And baking. 

I'll frost it tomorrow and put skittles on it on Saturday for her little party. I think I'm probably as excited about it as she is!

Blueberry Lemon Cornmeal Muffins (43:365)

I found this recipe from a website about frugal cooking. It is super versatile recipe that I altered by substituting 1 cup flour for 1 cup cornmeal. I added 1 cup or so of frozen blueberries and like a tsp of dried lemon peel. Next time I'll add more lemon peel (we can't taste it) and more blueberries. They turned out well though! Can't wait to try out more variations.

Cupcakes 5 & 9 (36:365)

I found this blog (click here) through a friend on facebook and boy, am I glad I did! Today for my creative venture I made both Cupcake 5 or Mango Cupcake with Buttercream Frosting and Coconut and Cupcake 9 or Sis's Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting.

The only change I made to Cupcake 5 was to add a little Coconut flavoring to the buttercream frosting for the Mango cupcakes.

#5


Just so you are prepared, the Chocolate frosting is SUPER THICK, like playdough thick, but still really good. I put some mini chocolate chips on top the of the Chocolate Frosting to add some texture and make the cupcakes look a little cuter.

#9


I'm taking these both to a department party for Scott's school. Hopefully they go over well and don't melt in the HOTTTT sun!

Let me know if you make any of the other cupcakes and how they turn out.

I just ordered some butane fuel for my kitchen torch so I can make a Smore Cupcake soon and torch the meringue frosting. Yahoo!
Flames + Food = Good Times for my belly

PB, Honey & Banana Muffins or Success! (2:365)

Today I was enjoying my new favorite addiction: Natural Creamy Peanut Butter and a banana. Oh man, I just can't get enough of that stuff (despite how annoying and gross it is to stir that oily separated stuff back into the goodness). I concurrently noticed a pile of spotty bananas sitting on the counter and remembered that I wanted to make some banana bread. Then, eureka!, an idea hit me. Why don't I take this opportunity to CREATE something new?
I've never tried to make up a baking recipe before because that whole concept really scares me. I know that baking, unlike cooking, is a science that can get as crazy intense as involving scales to make exact measurements. The fact that everything has to be just right to turn out has totally turned me off from being an adventurous baker. But not anymore!I must admit, I did do a little bit of research to make sure I would get correct ratios of flour, salt, baking powder, etc. Then the adventure began.

Scott came down to see what I was up to. I said, "I'm making up a recipe with honey, peanut butter and bananas." He said, "Do you know what you are doing? That sounds weird." Lucky for him those words did not discourage me.

Here is the newly created recipe for your palatable enjoyment.

PB, Honey and Banana Muffins

Wisk together:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
Make a well in the dry ingredients.

Mash up enough bananas to make 2 cups.
Add to the banana mush:
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
1/4 cup natural creamy peanut butter
Mix up the wet ingredients and pour into the well in the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined. Pour into well greased muffin tins or cupcake papers (if you are feeling lazy about cleanup and are trying to trick your toddler into thinking the muffins are cupcakes...which was mildly successful...)

Optional:
Stir in 1/2 cup chopped pecans (adds a nice texture)

Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes.

Voilà! Success! Enjoy!