Pasta Salad with Zippy Dressing

by penji1

This should be called “I’m in the mood for pasta so let’s see what’s in the fridge that will work” because that’s what I did so this is pasta plus whatever was in the fridge topped with a dressing that sounded good in theory and then actually tasted good when put together.

1 pound pasta of your choice

1 stalk celery, sliced

2 carrots, thinly sliced

3 – 4 mini cucumbers, cut into bite size pieces

1/2 – 1 cup sugar snap peas, cut into bite size pieces

1/2 – 1 cup broccoli, cut into bite size pieces

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

juice from 1 lemon

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and rinse with cold water.  Pour in large bowl, add all vegetables and toss.  In a separate small bowl, combine olive oil, vinegar and lemon juice with whisk then pour over pasta and stir to combine.

Southwestern Soup

by penji1

This is a Taste of Home recipe from the October/November 2008 magazine.

3 cups water

4 (8 oz each) cans tomato sauce

2 (16 oz each) cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed

2 (14 1/2 oz each) cans chicken broth

2 cups frozen corn

2 cups salsa

2 teaspoons dried minced onion

1 – 2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 – 2 teaspoons dried basil

2 cups (8 oz) shredded cheddar cheese

tortilla chips

In a large pot, combine all ingredients except cheese and chips.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, simmer, uncovered, for 10 – 15 minutes or until heated through.  Sprinkle individual servings with cheese and chips.

50th Wedding Anniversary White Fondant Cake with White Fondant Flowers

by penji1

The blog has been quiet this past week and that’s because we were in California for Bob’s parent’s 50th wedding anniversary party and then a week long family vacation at the beach!  Bob’s sister Mary made the cake for the party (bottom layer was white and top two layers were butter pecan) and then Courtney and I decorated it with fondant.  Cort made all those flowers which came out awesome and the bride and groom topper is their original topper from their original cake!  It looked good and tasted great!  Happy 50th to Bob’s parents!

Mint Chocolate Chip Muffins

by penji1

Apparently I’m on a muffin kick today so here is #20 from the “1 Mix, 100 Muffins” cookbook.

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

heaping 1/2 cup superfine sugar (I only had regular)

1 cup chocolate chips

2 eggs

1 cup milk (I used half and half because I had some in my fridge that I needed to use up)

6 tablespoons sunflower oil or melted, cooled butter (I used butter)

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

1 – 2 drops green food coloring (optional)

powdered sugar, for dusting

1  Preheat oven to 400 or 375 for dark colored pans.  Grease a muffin pan or line with paper liners.  Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in large bowl.  Stir in sugar and chocolate chips.

2  Lightly beat eggs in a separate bowl, then beat in milk, oil or butter, peppermint extract and food coloring to color the mixture a very subtle shade of green.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in beaten liquid ingredients.  Stir gently until just combined, do not overmix.

3  Scoop batter into pan.  Bake for about 20 minutes, until well risen and firm to the touch.

4  Let muffins cool in pans 5 minutes before removing to cool completely.  Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Yield:  18 muffins

Triple Chocolate Chip Muffins

by penji1

This is #13 from Susanna Tee’s cookbook, “1 Mix, 100 Muffins”.  I just ate two and they were delicious!

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

heaping 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

heaping 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

heaping 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips

heaping 1/4 cup white chocolate chips

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

6 tablespoons sunflower oil or melted, cooled butter (I used butter)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1  Preheat oven to 400 (or 375 if your muffin pans are dark like mine).  Grease a 12 cup muffin pan or line with 12 muffin paper liners.  Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.  Stir in brown sugar and chocolate chips.

2  Lightly beat eggs in another large bowl, then beat in sour cream, oil or butter and vanilla.  Make a well in the center for the dry ingredients and pour in liquid beaten ingredients.  Stir gently until just combined; do not overmix.

3  Scoop batter into prepared pan.  Bake for about 20 minutes, until well risen, golden brown and firm to the touch.

4  Let muffins cool in pan 5 minutes before removing to cool completely.

The recipe said that it made 12 muffins but I ended up with 18.

Bunny Puffs

by penji1

I wish you could have all been here when I took these out of the oven so that you could have heard my hysterical laughter!  My son Zach put it best as he walked by, took one look at the so called “Bunny Puffs” and said, very dryly, “they look like goat puffs” and sadly, he was right!  The picture above is from the Pillsbury website, the picture below is a picture of my goat puffs but I think the one on the left looks like a dog and the one on the right looks like a mutant bunny but only if you squint!  Anyway, they taste great and if you can figure out how to make them look like bunnies, please share the secret with me!  🙂

1 (8 oz) can Pillsbury refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

8 miniature chocolate covered peanut  butter cup candies, unwrapped (mini Reeses)

8 white miniature marshmallows, cut in half

4 pink miniature marshmallows, cut in half (didn’t have these for the noses so used chocolate chips)

16 blue miniature candy coated semi sweet chocolate baking bits (mini M & M’s)

1  Heat oven to 375.  Line large cookie sheet with parchment paper, spray paper with cooking spray (you don’t need to spray the parchment paper with cooking spray).

2  Unroll dough and separate into 8 triangles.  Place 1 peanut butter cup in center of 1 triangle.  Gently stretch corners closest to and farthest from cup together at top of cup, pinching edges together to seal around cup.  Pull up third corner, firmly pinch edges to seal.  Place on cookie sheet, twist 2 longest tips of dough to make ears.  If desired, bend down longer ear.  Repeat with remaining dough triangles and peanut butter cups, shaping and trimming dough as needed for desired shape.

3  Bake 8 – 9 minutes or until puffs begin to brown.  Place 2 white miniature marshmallows halves (for eyes ) and 1 pink marshmallow half on center of each for bunny nose.  Bake 1 – 2 minutes longer or until puffs are golden brown and marshmallows are slightly puffed.

4  For eyes, immediately place 2 blue baking bits on white miniature marshmallows for pupil, remove puffs to cooling racks.

Ham and Parmesan Rolls

by penji1

This is a Rhodes Rolls recipe from RhodesBread.com and it is delicious and a great way to use up some of that leftover Easter ham!

12 Rhodes Dinner Rolls, thawed but still cold

2/3 cup diced ham

2/3 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 – 2 tablespoons butter

Place the ham, cheese and salt in a medium sized mixing bowl and stir thoroughly to combine.  With a pair of scissors (I just used a knife), cut 1 roll into small pieces (I cut each roll into 4 pieces) and drop into ham mixture.  Stir to coat all pieces in the mixture.  Repeat with remaining rolls, stirring thoroughly after each roll.  Once all rolls are cut, knead the mixture with your hands to thoroughly combine the dough with the ham mixture.  Divide the mixture into 8 large or 12 smaller pieces and form each piece into a ball.  Place on a sprayed baking sheet (I used a muffin pan) and cover with sprayed plastic wrap.  Let rise until double in size.  Remove wrap and bake at 350 15 – 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Brush with melted butter while still warm.

A note from me, I had a hard time getting the mixture to stay together when trying to mix the cut up dough with the ham and cheese so what I did was take 4 pieces of the dough and place them into each muffin cup and then top each with a generous spoonful of the ham and cheese mixture.  This seemed to work pretty well.

Corn and Zucchini Medley

by penji1

After eating the French Toast Bake and ham yesterday for brunch, no one was really ready for a big Easter dinner so we made it tonight instead.  We had ham, the mashed potatoes that I put on top of the Shepherd’s Pie (recipe on blog already), this Corn and Zucchini Melody and Ham and Parmesan Rolls (recipe to follow) and later we are going to have Bunny Puffs for dessert (recipe also to follow).  This recipe comes from allrecipes.com and it is so good (of course anything cooked in bacon drippings is bound to be good!).

4 slices bacon (I used about 6)

2 cups chopped zucchini (I used about 2 1/2 – 3 cups)

1 1/2 cups fresh corn kernels (I used frozen and about 2 1/2 cups)

1 small onion, chopped (I used a medium size one)

1 pinch pepper

1/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (it so flavorful without the cheese that I didn’t even put it on)

1  Place bacon in a large, deep skillet.  Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown.  Reserve 1 tablespoon of drippings.  Drain bacon, chop and set aside.

2  Heat the bacon drippings in the skillet over medium heat.  Saute the zucchini, corn and onion until tender but still crisp, about 10 minutes.  Season with pepper.  Spoon vegetables in bowl and sprinkle with chopped bacon and shredded cheese.

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Baked French Toast Casserole with Maple Syrup

by penji1

We had this for Easter Brunch right after church along with some ham, yummy!!!  This is a great recipe for the weekend as you put it together the night before and let it sit in the fridge overnight.  It was really good, even though we had some oven mishaps along the way.  I have a double oven and I started this out in the bottom, bigger oven and when I opened it to check on the casserole the element starting sparking and caught on fire and then died, bummer!  So I moved it up to the top, smaller oven but it was too close to the top element there so it started to burn and I had to take it out again and cover the top with foil and then, finally, it was fine.  The recipe came in an email from The Food Network and is a Paula Deen recipe.  I highly recommend it!  I plan on making it again soon.

1 loaf French bread (13 – 16 oz) (I bought a fresh loaf of French bread in my local grocery store’s bakery which was really soft so I think the next time I make this I will either get the loaf of French bread the day before so that it is a little harder or else I’ll just go with a more firm kind of bread like brioche or whatever)

8 eggs

2 cups half and half

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

dash salt

Praline Topping (see below for recipe)

maple syrup

Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1″ each.  Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9 x 13″ baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping slices as necessary.  In a large bowl, combine eggs, half and half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a rotary beater or whisk until blended but not too bubbly.  (I used a whisk and the next time I make this I will whisk all the eggs together and then add all the other ingredients and whisk them into the eggs.  I had some egg yolks not get whisked together with everything else.)  Pour mixture over bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly.  Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 350.  Prepare Praline Topping.

2 sticks butter (I only used 1 and it was fine also the recipe doesn’t say so but you need to melt the butter)

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans (I used walnuts)

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and blend well.

Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread and bake for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden.  Serve with maple syrup.

Easter Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes

by penji1

Treats for Bob’s Sunday School class and my Sunday School class!  The cupcake recipe comes from the “Hello, Cupcake!” cookbook by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.  I just made up the decorations as I went along because, to be honest, after the graduation cupcakes and Melody’s fondant birthday cake, I was a little tired and burned out so these were just decorated on the fly.

2 1/2 cups flour

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

1  Preheat oven to 350.  Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

2  Whisk together flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

3  In a mixing bowl, on medium speed, beat cream cheese, butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

4  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture alternately with milk in batches, beginning and ending with flour and beating just until blended.  Stir in lemon peel.

5  Scoop batter into liners.  Bake until golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 15 – 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool completely.

For decorating, I used all the leftover frosting I had from the graduation cupcakes and the fondant cake so some of it was canned and some was homemade.  For the nest cupcakes, I dumped a bunch of coconut in a bowl and put about 10 drops of green food coloring in there and mixed it with a spoon until the coconut was green then I frosted the cupcakes and gently rolled them around the bowl until they were covered in coconut.  I found the liners and picks at the dollar store.