No-Bake Cookies We’re doing a special themed Friday links this week. For much of the country it’s going to be another hot weekend, so here’s our round-up of cookies that you can make without turning on the oven. And for those of you not sweltering this summer, just think of them as incredibly fast and easy cookie recipes: Chocolate Oatmeal No-Bake Cookies from One More Moore Peanut Butter Buckeyes from Real Simple No-Bake Oatmeal Blueberry Cookies from A Whisk and a Prayer No-Bake Chewy Cookies and Cream Bars from Picky Palate Swag Bars from MyRecipes.com Enjoy! Garlic Cheddar Biscuits (a la "Red Lobster") Recipe TGIF, friends. Hope that you all have had a lovely week, and that a relaxing weekend lies ahead. I’m looking forward to some friend’s-birthday-celebrating, farmers-marketing, coffee-(friends)-dating, cake-baking, church-enjoying, and sleeping-inning here in my little corner of the world this weekend. OH, and the thing I’m perhaps most excited about — choir-directing. Did I mention on here that I’m leading an Easter choir at my church?! I’m kind of over the moon about it. Anyway, warm wishes coming your way for a good weekend ahead. Read more Ever since my friends and I met for a tapas happy hour at our neighborhood Spanish restaurant a few weeks ago, I’ve had sangria on my mind. So of course, when I found myself in the fruit section at the market this week trying to decide what kind of sangria to make for our weekly neighbor night, I immediately thought of sangria. …oh good grief, why had I never thought of this before? Sangria with All The Colors. The only reasonable solution, of course. ;)
fhhgtf Two-Ingredient Lemon Bars This simple, two-ingredient lemon bar is a nostalgic recipe for me. A friends mother had made these lemon bars for a birthday party, and my mom asked for the recipe. I remember my mom telling me that it was easy enough for me to make - it was one of the first recipes I remember making mostly on my own. As a result, every time I make these bars, I recall every detail of the birthday party from the games we played and the weather to the park where it was held. While I don't expect, you to get all nostalgic putting together this easy recipe, it is one of the easiest bar recipes I have ever found. Mix them together by hand until moist. Tonight I actually tried one with some left over fruit salsa from Our Best Bites, and it was amazingly delicious.
Cruft: Lasagna Cupcakes When Intelligentsia Coffee opened in Pasadena recently, I was intrigued the lasagna cupcakes they served. The cupcakes are made by Heirloom LA, a catering business. About the size of a muffin, a single lasagna cupcake was a delicious meal. After seeing how much my daughter enjoyed them (she ate my entire cupcake and I had to order a second one), I decided I had to try making them at home. After a bit of research, here is my method. The ingredients are fairly simple. Spray or wipe the cupcake tin with olive oil for prevent sticking and add a little flavor. Once you filled in the first layer, gently press another wrapper in, forming another cup. Once you've placed the second wrapper, repeat the filling as you see fit. A bit of Mozzarella cheese on top of it all. I baked them for 20 minutes at 375° F and then come out perfectly browned. If you remembered to use olive oil, they should slide out easily with top crispy and the wrapper moist and tender. The small cupcake size works well for us.
Deer Rolo TURTLES. (Not the bastard holiday M&M kind) | {So Wonderful, So Marvelous} I make these Rolo Turtle Candies every year, usually multiple times, but always at Christmas. They're a huge favorite with our peeps and they are SUPER easy to make. There is also a bastardized version made with a holiday m&m, but if I ditched the pecans, I'd have an angry mob on my hands. Don't let anyone talk you into making those. Without further ado, here is the recipe: 1. The key here is to put them pretty evenly spaced in rows, it will make the pecan step MUCH easier. 2. 3. 4. **There have been some fantastic reader comments about toasting the pecan first for a few minutes in the oven. 5. 6. I store in the fridge to keep them longer, but remove them an hour or so before eating so the caramel softens up a bit. Oh, and one last thing, a REALLY helpful hint...
Perfect Buttercream | stetted You know the scene – you’re at a party, and it’s time for the cake to be served. The cake sure looks beautiful, but the frosting … well, you never can tell with frosting. On the cake it all kind of looks the same. The flavor is a mystery. Will it send you running for your toothbrush with its sweetness? Both can ruin a good cake and cause people to doubt the skills of the cake baker. Last week I was roped into asked to coordinate last-minute baby shower for one of our temps whose last day was Friday. Megan’s Perfect Buttercream makes enough to fill and frost a 9-inch two-layer cake 2 sticks (8 ounces total) butter, softened 6 cups sifted powdered sugar 4 tablespoons milk (I use whole) 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon almond extract Dump everything into a large bowl (preferably stand mixer bowl with whisk attachment). * Tip – the trick to getting smooth frosted cakes is to frequently scrap off excess frosting and dip your spreader into a cup of warm water, then continue spreading.
g Menus, Methods and Musings: Desserts: Salted Caramel Cheesecake (Updated with A Note on Salt) N.B. It was brought to my attention that if this recipe is made with regular salt, it is WAY too salty. I always use kosher salt. Don't use table salt or this will be truly inedible. My apologies to anyone who may have tried it already without that caveat! Here it is at last. I made this for Thanksgiving in 2010. I could have taken numerous pictures of my friends eating it, but when the dust settled, once again, I was left with no model. So, rather than make you wait until November for this recipe, when I might actually be able to get a decent picture of it, I’m giving it to you now and you can make it for Thanksgiving and Christmas and your husband’s birthday and your anniversary. Salted Caramel Cheesecake Serves 2 Ha ha! For the crust About 15 graham crackers 3 tablespoons granulated sugar 1 stick unsalted butter, melted 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt (note: I reduced this from 2 teaspoons. 1. 2. 3. For the cheesecake 3 8oz packages cream cheese, at room temperature 3 teaspoons kosher salt 1. 2.
Penne a la Betsy! | The Pioneer Woman Cooks Ah, is there anything sweeter on earth than having your punk-arse little sister visit? Mine’s visiting this week, which means I’ve totally regressed back to childhood and the water’s great! We’ve sipped wine, laughed until we’ve experienced stress incontinence, and cooked until our fingers are pruney and falling off our hands. And our tummies are plump and full. Marlboro Man had to go out of town for a couple of days, so one of the things Betsy and I made was our favorite pasta dish of all time. Betsy graduated from college, lived in various big cities, and now resides in Austin, Texas with her tech-nerd husband, Matt, where she spends her days cooking all the food snob dishes I so unselfishly taught her to make so many years ago. Come along with Betsy and me as we make one of our favorites: Penne a la Betsy, as I like to call it. The Cast of Characters: Shrimp, Penne (or other short pasta), butter, olive oil, onion, garlic, tomato sauce, heavy cream, parsley, basil, salt, and pepper.
As THE Chocolate Cola cake I was just introduced to the southern delicacy that is Chocolate Cola cake (aka coca-cola cake) while visiting Charleston, SC early this spring. It was a spiritual experience. It is all that is good and that I hold dear. I’d marry it if I wasn’t already married… seriously. amazing stuff. I loved the piece I had (pictured above) at Jestine’s so much, that I bought and carried a small one home (via airplanes and much hassle) to my husband to share so he could know the glory of it. then I scoured the internet for a good recipe… but none seemed right. Then I was using my home-made binder ‘o recipes from various magazines over the years and I discovered that years ago I cut out a recipe for this very cake… and the recipe listed looked exactly like the cake I wanted to replicate. Naturally, when we had our first BBQ of the season I simply HAD to make one. preheat oven to 350, and grease up (I like Crisco) a 9×13 (or so) pan. now take off heat and add that to the flour mix & whisk until combined.