Baking Banana Bread 167/365

One of my goals this summer is to teach the kids to cook some things. Today lessons began with letting J. bake Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. She did all the work, read the recipe, made sure we had the ingredients, measured and mixed everything. I helped getting the equipment together and the oven set and supervised. She even was responsible for cleaning up afterwards. She did a great job and the bread was SOOOOOOOOO yummy!

You can get the recipe for yourself over at three pugs & a baby!







Finished result - so yummy!



Later on - fun in the pool

100/365 Gardening and bread

My square foot garden us up and filled. Already planted some tomatoes - can't wait for them to grow!



Seedlings are going great too!





Parsley and herbs are doing well



How about this calabaza? Anyone want one???????????



I made homemade bread tonight. You can find the recipe here.





We put the finishing touches on the night stand today with a minor mistake. Upon moving it into the bedroom - it was dinged against a drawer. Unfortunately, that area needs to be redone, so final picture will be up tomorrow.

59/365 BBQ Meatballs and Mac 'n cheese

Tonight we were in need of some comfort food - so I made The Pioneer Woman's BBQ meatballs and homemade mac 'n cheese.

From The Pioneer Woman's recipe

Also made a quick library run

351/365 Cookie time!

I made little plates of cookies for my coworkers this year. Here is the collection of recipes I used for this years cookies.

The Candy Cane Blossoms came from Hershey's site.

Candy Cane Blossoms

48 HERSHEY'S KISSES Brand Candy Cane Mint Candies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons milk

Red or green sugar crystals, granulated sugar or powdered sugar

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Remove wrappers from candies.

2. Beat butter, granulated sugar, egg and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; add alternately with milk to butter mixture, beating until well blended.

3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in red sugar, granulated sugar, powdered sugar or a combination of any of the sugars. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and cookie is set. Remove from oven; cool 2 to 3 minutes. Press a candy piece into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 4 dozen cookies.

The Muddy Buddy recipe can be found here.

Jam Thumbprint Cookies

Have a bowl of ice water ready. When reshaping the thumbprint after the cookie has caked for ten minutes, dip your finger in the ice water for several seconds and dry before reshaping: this will help your finger cool.

¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon table salt

½ cup whole blanched almonds, finely ground

1 large egg white, lightly beaten

½ cup jam or preserves

Preheat oven to 325. Have ready two parchment-lined baking sheets. In an electric mixture fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and ½ cup sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg yolk and vanilla; beat well. Whisk together flour and salt, and add to mixture, beating on low until combined.

Combine almonds with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Form dough into 1-inch balls, and dip in egg white, then in almond/sugar mixture. Make a deep indentation in the center of each ball with your finger or bottom of a thick wooden spoon. Transfer to prepared baking street.

Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven, and press down the centers again. Rotate sheets, and back until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes more. Remove from oven, and place on a wire rack to cool slightly. Fill centers with about 1 teaspoon of jam.

Triple Chocolate Cherry Cookies

Makes 3 1/2 dozen

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon instant coffee powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into chunks

4 ounces white chocolate, cut into chunks

1 cup dried cherries

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, coffee powder, and vanilla until blended. At low speed, beat in flour mixture just until combined. Stir in semisweet chocolate, white chocolate, and dried cherries.

3. Drop dough by heaping teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart, onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes per batch, until tops are just firm. Cool on cookie sheets 2 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks and cool completely.

330/365 Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We celebrated with family, fun and LOTS of food. The day began with a delicious breakfast and ended with yummy pies. In the middle we had great appetizer, LOTS of turkey and good time.

The morning began early. We needed to get the birds out of the brine and get breakfast in the oven before the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade began. The birds (yes, plural) soaked in Alton Brown's (recipe found here). We did two birds, one 19 lbs and one 11 lbs. The big bird was roasted, the smaller one was fried. We also did nearly a dozen turkey legs that were smoked on the grill.

The Wonder Cat was THRILLED to have my family here. He adores my parents and doesn't quiet understand that they don't live here. He loves the attention he gets while they are here and spends weeks looking for them after they leave.

Our breakfast was The Pioneer Woman's Blueberry Baked French Toast - so good! Recipe can be found here.

Then it was time for the bird to get hot.

Some of my cute Thanksgiving towels

We had plenty of appetizers to snack on all day while the birds were cooking away

Mom grabbing a pickle

Matt is still dreaming about the salami

Owen kept himself out of trouble by nesting into the grill cover we stuffed under a table. He made his own little Wonder Cat burrito

The table set up

The food!

The Wonder Cat enjoying an after dinner drink.

301/365 Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies today and they were delicious! I was inspired by this recipe, but I omitted the nuts and added about another cup of chocolate chips. I also mixed up the chocolate chips - milk and semi-sweet. They turned out great.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookie Recipe

This chocolate chip pumpkin cookie recipe is a family favorite. The spice of the pumpkin blends great with the chocolate chips.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/4 teaspoon allspice

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon nutmeg

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter, softened

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 1 (15 ounce) canned pumpkin

• 2 large eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Vanilla Glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar

• 1 tablespoon milk

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Hardware

• Whisk

• Large bowl

• Medium bowl

• Cookie sheets

• Mixer

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Step 2: Grease cookie sheets; set aside.

Step 3: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Step 4: In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer.

Step 5: Beat in pumpkin, eggs and vanilla extract.

Step 6: Gradually beat in flour, scraping down sides as needed.

Step 7: Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Step 8: Drop by rounded tablespoon onto prepared cookie sheets.

Step 9: Bake 15-20 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned.

Cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes before transferring to cooling surface.

Vanilla Glaze: Step 1: In a small bowl, beat together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. Step 2: Drizzle or spread glaze over cooled cookies. Makes about 36 cookies.

249/365 Breakfast and Lake Louisa

With my parents in town, we celebrated with a wonderful homemade breakfast! Matthew made homemade biscuits and fried up some bacon while mom and I got some melons and blueberries ready.

We enjoyed our breakfast on my patio garden. It doesn't look half bad in this picture.

Lots of bacon

The biscuits. You can find the recipe here.

The completed plate

While we enjoyed our breakfast the kitties chilled out. Owen stretched out all his muscules

And Colors just sat looking pretty.

Afterwards, we headed out to Lake Louisa State Park. It's a huge park in our area that my parents haven't been to yet. The day was hot, but the views were great.

The board walk that takes you to the beach on Lake Louisa

Mom looking at the lake. A bunch of people were enjoying the day with picnics, but unfortunately swimming is not allowed this season due to a low water level last year.

I have no idea what this is! It's an orange moth like creature about the size of my pinkie finger.

Not sure what this is either. Maybe a salamader?

Anyways - back to the lake.

Mom and Dad enjoying the view

Both Mom and Dad

Sunflare through the trees

Sun and trees

The park has many lakes - this is Lake Dixie

And this is who was hanging out in Lake Dixie!