Summer Vegetable Tian

by penji1

summer veggie tian

Oh, Summer!  The fruits, the veggies, the gardens!  YUM!  We don’t have a huge garden but we are growing zucchini and about 4 different kinds of tomatoes and basil and I think jalapenos.  I found this recipe on a blog called “Budget Bytes” and it was extremely good.  It was gone pretty quickly, that’s usually how I can tell if something is a hit around here.

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium yellow onion

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 medium zucchini

1 medium yellow squash (I think I used 2)

1 medium potato (I think I used 3 – 4)

1 medium tomato (also about 3 – 4)

1 teaspoon dried thyme

salt and pepper

1 cup shredded cheese (I used a Mexican blend, she used an Italian blend)

1  Preheat oven to 400.  Finely dice onion and mince garlic.  Saute both in skillet with oil until softened, about 5 minutes.

2  While onion and garlic are sauteing, thinly slice all vegetables.

3  Spray 8 x 8″ square baking dish with cooking spray.  Spread onion and garlic in bottom of dish.  Place veggies vertically in dish, in alternating pattern.  Sprinkle with thyme, salt and pepper.

4  Cover dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove foil, top with cheese and bake another 15 – 20 minutes or until cheese is golden brown.

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Mermaid Mini Fondant Cake and Cupcakes

by penji1

mermaid cake/cupcakes

These little beauties were for my little great niece Hannah who was turning 2!  Courtney made the mermaid out of fondant (she did such a great job, the mermaid is so adorable!) and I made the seashells out of Wilton white candy melts then tried a little experiment and swirled in some with blue, some with pink and some with purple which came out really cute I think.  The cupcakes are Funfetti cupcakes with our favorite buttercream icing dyed blue.  The little mini cake (so cute!  we just got those tiny little cake pans at a store in Salt Lake called “Gygis”, what a great store for bakers like us!) is the White Almond Sour Cream cake recipe minus the almond with the same buttercream icing and then Duffs fondant from Michaels to cover.  I also sprinkled edible glitter dust over the cupcakes to make them sparkle and Cort added glitter dust to the “2” on the cake and also the mermaid’s tale.  I’m just in love with these!  Happy, happy 2nd Birthday to Hannah!

Here’s a closer look at the mermaid:

mermaid cake cupcakes, beef taco ring 011

Beef Taco Ring

by penji1

beef taco ring

It’s time for the next installment of “Cooking with Courtney” where I teach my newly married daughter how to cook!  Yesterday it was this Pampered Chef recipe which I’ve been making since my kids were a lot smaller because they used to really like it.  The picture above shows the basic recipe but you can dress it up with all kinds of toppings to make it look even yummier.  Haven’t heard back from her as to whether or not Jaren was a fan but how could he not be?

1 1/2 pounds hamburger

1 (1 – 1.25 oz) envelope taco seasoning mix

1 3/4 cups (7 oz) shredded cheddar cheese, divided

2 tablespoons water

1 egg white, lightly beaten

2 (8 oz each) packages crescent rolls

toppings: salsa, lettuce, onion, tomato, olives, sour cream

Heat oven to 375.  Cook hamburger.  Stir in seasoning, 1 1/2 cups cheese and water.  Arrange rolls in sunshine patter on stone (wide end of rolls towards center of pan in overlapping circular pattern with pointy ends pointing out off of stone).  Scoop filling onto large ends of rolls.  Pull tips of rolls over filling to make ring (make sure you secure the pointy end under wide end so it doesn’t come up during baking).  Brush tops with egg and then top with remaining cheese.  Bake 25 – 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Chocolate Pudding Dump Cake

by penji1

chocolate pudding dump cake

My sister in law and her kids arrived last night for a quick visit so of course there had to be treats waiting for them so I made this cake which is somewhere between a brownie and a cake and is super tasty and couldn’t be any easier to make.  The recipe comes from a blog called “Buns in my Oven”.

1 box chocolate cake mix (I used Devil’s food)

1 small package chocolate pudding mix

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Combine cake mix, pudding mix and milk and mix until combined.  Spread in a greased 9 x 13″ pan.  Top with chocolate chips and bake for 30 minutes or until edges pull away from pan.

See?  Easy!

Rock Climbing Fondant Cake

by penji1

Rock Climbing Cake

Courtney has a couple of friends, Whitney and Kyle, who both like to rock climb and who have birthdays within a few weeks of each other so last night Cort and Jaren had a birthday party for them here at our house and on Saturday Cort and I made this cake for them.  I think it came out really cute and funny.  The cake is a white cake made from the “White Almond Sour Cream” cake recipe without the almond, the frosting is our favorite buttercream and the fondant is the Pettinice chocolate fondant from Funfinity; Cort mixed in a little white fondant with the chocolate fondant to give it a swirly marble pattern.  Those rocks on there are candy rocks which I found in the bulk food section at WinCo.  (They are so tasty, I could not stop eating the leftover rocks!)  Cort made the little Whitney and Kyle figures out of fondant and their rope is a piece of black licorice.  Cute!  Happy Birthday Kyle and Whitney!

Greek Spinach Pasta Salad with Feta and Beans

by penji1

rock climbing cake, pasta salad 010

Dinner after church yesterday, such a good combination of flavors!  The recipe comes from the “Better Homes and Gardens” website.  I will definitely be making it again.

1 (5 – 6 oz) bag fresh baby spinach

1 (15 oz) can Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained

4 ounces crumbled Feta cheese

1/4 cup dried tomatoes (not oil packed), snipped (didn’t have any so left these out)

2 green onions, chopped (ditto)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel (I used the zest of 1 whole small lemon)

2 tablespoons lemon juice (I used the juice of 1 whole small lemon)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon snipped fresh oregano (I used 1 teaspoon dried)

1 tablespoon snipped fresh lemon thyme or thyme (I used 1 teaspoon dried)

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or sea salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

12 ounces dried cavatappi or farfalle pasta

shaved Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese

1  In large bowl, combine spinach, beans, cheese, tomatoes, green onions, garlic, lemon peel and juice, oil, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper.  Cover and let stand at room temperature while preparing pasta or up to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

2  Shortly before serving, cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain pasta, reserving 1/4 cup cooking water.  Toss cooked pasta and pasta water with spinach salad mixture.  Serve warm or at room temperature.  Top with cheese.

Rocky Road Cookie Pizza

by penji1

Rocky Road Cookie Pizza

Pretty sure this was my favorite of the bunch although the Sugar Cookie Fruit Pizza is a close second.  This one is a Pillsbury recipe.

1 (16.5 oz) roll refrigerated chocolate chip cookies (the chocolate chip cookie mix was cheaper so that’s what I used)

1 cup miniature marshmallows

1/2 cup salted peanuts (I used walnuts)

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup caramel topping

1  Heat oven to 350.  Grease 12″ pizza pan.  In pan, break up cookie dough.  With floured fingers, press dough evenly in bottom of pan to form crust.  Bake 12 – 17 minutes or until light golden brown.  (Here’s what I did – prepare cookie mix according to package directions.  Line pizza stone with parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray.  Spread cookie dough into 12″ circle on stone.  Bake as directed above.)

2  Sprinkle marshmallows, nuts and chocolate chips evenly over crust.  Drizzle with caramel topping.

3  Bake 8 – 10 minutes longer or until topping is melted.  Cool completely.

Cinnamon Streusel Dessert Pizza

by penji1

Cinnamon Streusel Dessert Pizza

This one was really good, you could eat it for breakfast!  It comes from a website called “Key Ingredient”.

pizza dough (you can make your own or buy some refrigerated dough at the grocery store)  (if you live near me, WinCo has some great dough in their refrigerated section near the cheese and cold cuts that can be used for a variety of things, that’s what I used for this)

1 tablespoon butter, melted

cinnamon

Streusel:

1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons shortening

2 tablespoons olive oil

Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1  Mix together streusel ingredients with fork or pastry blender.

2  To make pizza, pat dough into 12″ pizza pan sprayed with oil.  (I used my stone again, lined with parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray.)  Perforate dough with a fork to avoid bubbles, brush with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon and then top with streusel.  (The streusel was really a mess, there was either too much or it needed more liquid added to it to hold in together better.  It tasted great, but it was really crumbly and sort of a mess.)

3  Bake at 450 for 8 – 9 minutes.  Mix icing ingredients until it is of a drizzling consistency while pizza bakes.

4  Remove pizza from oven and allow to cool before icing in a circular pattern.   

Fruity Brownie Dessert Pizza

by penji1

Fruity Brownie Dessert Pizza

This one is very similar to the Sugar Cookie Fruit Pizza only with a brownie crust.  It comes from a blog called “Seeded at the Table”.  It was yummy also but not my favorite of the bunch.

1 box brownie mix (for 9 x 13″ pan) plus ingredients to make brownies

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 bananas

lemon juice

1/2 cup strawberries

1/2 cup blueberries

Cool Whip

1  Preheat oven to 350.  Grease 12″ round (rimmed) pizza pan with cooking spray.  (I used my pizza stone again, covered in parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray.  I don’t have a rimmed pizza pan so I just took my chances.  The brownie mix did overflow in one spot but I had placed cookie sheets under the stone just in case so it all worked out ok.)

2  Prepare brownies according to package directions.  Pour onto stone and spread to within a couple of inches of the edge in a circle.  Bake approximately 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

3  Cream together cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth.  Spread evenly over brownie.  Top with fruit.  (I used basically the same fruit from the other pizza – canned pineapple and mandarin oranges, grapes, strawberries and kiwi.)  Top with Cool Whip.

Sugar Cookie Fruit Pizza

by penji1

Sugar Cookie Fruit Pizza

Last night the Young Women and Young Men came over for a swimming activity at my house so I decided to have a pizza party along with the swimming, a dessert pizza party!  This one started off from a Pampered Chef recipe simply called “Dessert Pizza” which I started making and then changed a little along the way.  It was so good!

1 (18 oz) package refrigerated sugar cookie dough (the sugar cookie mix was cheaper so I went with that)

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup sugar

4 cups assorted fresh fruits such as strawberries, kiwi, bananas, peaches, grapes, blueberries or raspberries

1  Preheat oven to 350.  For crust, shape cookie dough into a ball.  Place dough in center of pizza stone, flatten slightly with palm of hand.  Using lightly floured rolling pin, roll out dough to 12″ circle, about 1/4″ thick.  Bake 18 – 20 minutes or until light golden brown; cool 10 minutes.  Carefully loosen cookie from stone and cool completely.  (So here’s what I did, first I lined the stone with a piece of parchment paper which I also sprayed with cooking spray.  Mix sugar cookie mix according to package directions, place dough on center of paper lined stone and then, with your hands, spread/push dough out on stone into a 12″ circle.  Bake as directed above.)

2  For topping, combine cream cheese and sugar and mix well.  Spread mixture evenly over cookie.  Slice up fruit and arrange on top of cookie.  (I was thinking that the fruit dip I love would be an excellent topping for this pizza so that’s what I topped it with.  You need 1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese, 1 jar of marshmallow cream and 1 cup powdered sugar.  Combine them all together and spread over cookie then top with fruit.  I used a can of pineapple rings, a can of mandarin oranges, some strawberries and grapes and a couple of kiwis.)