Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars

I like this recipe because I usually have the ingredients on hand.   

These bars can be used for breakfast or a snack....a dessert as well.

 It suits the craving for something sweet......satisfies the craving fairly quickly, but the bars aren't overly sweet......and most importantly since you use an 8 x 8 pan there are tons of leftovers to feel guilty about later.

Short and sweet......and done.

1 ½ cup quick cooking oats

¼ cup light brown sugar-packed

½ t. kosher salt

1 t. ground cinnamon

1 t. vanilla extract

½ cup milk

1 lightly beaten large egg

Mix everything listed above together.

Add 1 large mashed banana and 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter.

Pour the mixture into a greased 8 x 8 pan spreading the mixture evenly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Cut into squares after cooling.

Top with Peanut butter if you like.

Sour Cream Sauce

I wanted some fresh berries for desert the other night and found this little sauce in Southern Living….it was perfect.   Easy to make and easy to store.

I spooned the sauce over a mix of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries…and made it even more special by serving it all in martini glasses.   Delish!!!!

Beat 1/3 cup butter, softened, and 1 cup powdered sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.  Add ½ cup sour cream, ½ teaspoon lemon juice, and ¼ teaspoon vanilla, beating until creamy.  Cover and chill until ready to serve (up to 8 hours).   Makes about 1 ¼ cups.

Banana Pudding

Rachel decided to make her boyfriend a wonderfu dessert for his birthday this past Sunday.  It was her first try with this dish...no help from mom, and it looked fantastic. 

She used my Pampered Chef batter bowl to put the pudding in.  It withstands the heat of the oven for the meringue to brown and has a tight-fitting lid to store the leftovers in the fridge.

Way to go Rachel!!!

1/3 cup All Purpose Flour

Dash Salt

2 1/2 cups 1% low-fat milk

1 (14 oz.) can fat free condensed milk

2 large egg yolks

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups sliced bananas, divided

45 vanilla wafers

4 large egg whites, room temperature

1/4 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine flour and salt in medium saucepan.  Gradually stir in low-fat and condensed milk and yolks, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 8 minutes or until thickened.

Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.

Arrange 1 cup banana slices in a 2-quart baking dish.

Spoon 1/3 pudding mixture over bananas; top with 15 vanilla wafers.  Repeat layers once; top with remaining bananas and pudding. 

Arrange remaining 15 wafers around inside edge of dish.   Gently push wafers into pudding.

Beat egg whites at high speed with an electric mixer until foamy.  Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form and sugar is dissolved (2-4 minutes).

Spread meringue over pudding, sealing to edge of dish.

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden.

Let cool at least 30 minutes.

Beignets

Pronounced .......Ben-yays

These little bits of heaven are great anytime, but we served them up last year at the end of a very long Christmas Day…..

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
7 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup shortening
1 quart vegetable oil for frying
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add sugar, salt, eggs, evaporated milk, and blend well. Mix in 4 cups of the flour and beat until smooth. Add the shortening, and then the remaining 3 cups of flour. Cover and chill for up to 24 hours.

Roll out dough 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 2 1/2 inch squares. Fry in 360 degree F (180 degrees C) hot oil. If beignets do not pop up, oil is not hot enough. Drain onto paper towels.

Shake confectioners' sugar on hot beignets. Serve warm.

Eggnog Cookies

2 ¼ cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 ¼ cup sugar

¾ cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 large egg yolks

½ cup eggnog

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Cream together sugar and butter in a large bowl.

Add vanilla, egg yolks and egg nog. Mix on medium till smooth.

Add flour mixture and mix on low till blended.

Drop by heaping teaspoons 1 ½ inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle with nutmeg.

Bake 25 minutes or until bottoms are brown.

****For frosting take 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg and 2 Tablespoons eggnog and whisk together until smooth. Spoon over cooled cookies.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 cup pumpkin puree
½ cup buttermilk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground clove

1 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat 2 12-cup muffin pans with cooking spray.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a separate, medium size mixing bowl, combine the pumpkin puree with the buttermilk and vanilla extract and mix well. In another medium size mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg, and clove and mix well. In thirds, alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture to the creamed butter, blending gently after each addition.

Using an ice cream scoop or a ¼ cup measure, divide the batter evenly among the 24 cupcake wells and bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle of each cupcake comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool the cakes on a wire rack in the pans for 15 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pans and continue to cool on the wire racks until completely cool.

Frost the cupcakes with the Cream Cheese Frosting (follow the link above for the recipe) and serve.

***Next time I may make this a one layer cake instead of cupcakes.....it would suit my family better.

This recipe courtesy of Emeril Lagasse via Good Morning America

Cream Cheese Frosting

12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 ½ pounds confectioners' sugar, sifted

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

½ cup toasted finely chopped pecans, for garnish, optional

Combine the cream cheese and butter and beat until smooth and fluffy. Add the sugar and vanilla and mix on low speed until combined. Beat on high speed until smooth and fluffy. (If frosting is too thick, thin with a bit of milk to obtain desired consistency.)

Frost cupcakes and then sprinkle with pecans, if desired.

I used this recipe to frost a few Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes.

This recipe is courtesy of Emeril Lagasse via Good Morning America

Blueberry Crunch

1 (20 oz.) can crushed pineapple

3 cups blueberries

¾ cup sugar

1 box yellow cake mix (plain)

1 cup nuts

1 stick butter

Pour pineapple in a 9 x 13 ungreased pan. Pour blueberries on pineapple. Sprinkle sugar on blueberries. Sprinkle entire box of dry cake mix over sugar. Spread nuts on top. Put pats of butter all over the top.

Bake and enjoy!

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 ¼ cup granulated sugar

6 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 bars (1.5 ounce) Godiva Dark Chocolate, melted and cooled

Preheat over to 325 degrees. Grease and lightly flour a 12 cup Bundt cake pan.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.
Beat cream cheese and butter in large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer on medium to high speed until blended.

Gradually add the sugar, beating on medium speed 15 minutes or till light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating on low to medium speed for one minute after each addition. Add vanilla extract. Gradually add flour mixture beating on low speed until just combined.

Spread half of the batter in prepared pan. Pour melted chocolate on top and pull knife through batter to marble it. Top with remaining batter.

Bake 65-75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes.

Invert on wire rack and cool completely.

While cake is cooling make the Chocolate Glaze….recipe seen below:

Chocolate Glaze for Cream Cheese Pound Cake

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 Tablespoon light corn syrup

½ Tablespoon unsalted butter

3 bars (1.5 ounce) Godiva Chocolate bar, coarsely chopped

Heat cream, corn syrup, and butter in small saucepan over medium heat to a gentle boil. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and stir gently until smooth. Cool the glaze until it starts to thicken slightly, stirring gently.
Place cake on serving plate. Drizzle with chocolate glaze.

Easter, 2009

It was a beautiful day here west of Atlanta. We churched, went out for lunch, and then I cooked a family Easter dinner. My menu included Pork Loin Roast, Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce, Wild Rice , Crescent Rolls, and homemade Peach Cobbler.

I made it easy on myself and didn’t really follow a recipe for the roast. I lightly coated it with olive oil and then used McCormick Crusting Blends. It contains spices and panco bread crumbs.

The wild rice was the same rice I had served at a dinner party….ended up with too much, so I froze it for later.

I trimmed the asparagus and steamed it. The Hollandaise was one of those Knorr mixes with a little lemon juice added to it at the end.

The crescent rolls were from Pillsbury.

Since we didn’t do Easter baskets this year…none of us need the calories and my kids are 23 and 16…I bought Lindt chocolate bunnies to put at each place setting.

The Peach Cobbler was spectacular. Here’s the recipe:

If you are using an 8 x 8 pan melt 1 stick of butter in the pan while the oven preheats to 350-degrees. Mix together 1 cup sugar with 1 cup Bisquick. Add 1 cup milk. I stir it together long enough to remove the large lumps.

Pour the sugar/flour/milk mixture into the pan on top of the butter. Open a can of pie filling such as apple, peach, etc. I used peach pie filling. Spoon the contents of the can over the flour mixture. Swirl the pie filling mixture through the sugar/flour/milk mixture.

Bake approximately 30 minutes at 350-degrees or until the crust is brown. After removing the cobbler from the oven sprinkle it with granulated sugar.

For our Easter dinner or when I want to serve more folks I use my glass 9 x 13 casserole dish. I double the amounts given above including the pie filling and the cobbler turns out great.

Loving Well Group Meeting

I recently completed a retreat weekend where the women of my church used the Loving Well curriculum by Beth Moore. It was a great study and a great weekend.

Our small group is continuing to meet to discuss the 30-day journal that is a part of the study. My house was the first meeting spot.

I served lemon glazed pound cake and decorated sugar cookies. Yum! That kind of stuff would make anyone love well. :)

Dump Cake

This recipe brings back fond memories of my mother and some of the interesting things she would cook for us back in the 1970s. This was a popular recipe in my mother’s circle of friends, and it’s one of the first things she allowed me to try by myself.

I’m one of those cooks that always has to leave a little raw cake batter aside to savor later. While you don’t mix up the cake mix in this recipe I was in love with the taste of the butter as it mixed with the cake mix. Mother’s Dump Cake always ended up with holes in it because I would look for the sections that had the highest content of butter and cake mix.

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Use an oblong cake pan (13 x 9 x 2)---Do not grease. Each of the ingredients should be distributed evenly one on top of the other.

DO NOT MIX.

Pour 1 can crushed pineapple with juice into the pan. You can also use a can of cherry pie filling as seen in the image.

Sprinkle with 1 box dry yellow cake mix.

Slice 1 ½ sticks margarine and arrange evenly on top of cake mix.

Push 1 cup pecan pieces into mix almost covering nuts.

Bake 45 minutes or till golden brown.

Dump Cake is best served warm and is great served with ice cream!

Pink Stuff

I was introduced to this recipe by my mother-in-law when she served it for holiday family dinners….particularly Easter dinner. When I asked about the name of the recipe my husband’s mother couldn’t remember and had long ago thrown away the receipe, so I simply began to call it “The Pink Stuff”. I obtained the recipe from her and I generally prepare it for my Easter dinner as well. My kids rarely eat it, my husband might take one serving, so I’m usually left to clean it up. :)

Of course, low-fat versions of Cool Whip and buttermilk can be used and pineapple with no sugar added can be used as well if you are worried about calories.

1 large peach jello
1 (10 oz.) crushed pineapple
2 t. sugar

Boil these three ingredients together until sugar dissolves. I allow it to cool a bit.

Mix together in a separate bowl---
2 c. buttermilk
1 large Cool Whip
1 c. chopped pecans

Add the peach jello mixture to the Cool Whip mixture. Stir together well and pour into serving container.

Chill until set (usually overnight).

Blackberry Dumpling Cobbler

This is basically an all purpose cobbler because you can use frozen peaches or cherries as well. This looks great served in a bowl with a dollop of whipped cream and a mint sprig.

2 (16 oz.) packages frozen blackberries
2 cups sugar, divided
¼ cup butter
3 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup milk
2 ¼ cups all-purpose baking mix
¾ cup uncooked oats

Bring blackberries, 1 1/3 cups sugar, and butter to a boil in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring gently until butter is melted and sugar dissolves; remove blackberry mixture from heat.

Beat cream cheese and remaining 2/3 cup sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy; add 2/3 cup milk, and beat until smooth. Stir in baking mix and uncooked oats.

Spread two-thirds of the cream cheese mixture (about 3 cups) onto bottom of a lightly greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish; spoon blackberry mixture evenly over cream cheese mixture.

Dollop remaining cream cheese mixture evenly over blackberry mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

12 Servings