Cake Mix Bar Cookies – M & M

by penji1

Here’s another variation on the cake mix bar cookie.  Reese’s Pieces is already on here and so here’s an M & M one, same basic recipe but with different candy, both from “101 Things To Do With A Cake Mix” by Stephanie Ashcraft.  These were for Bob’s Sunday School class.  Quick and easy, perfect for those times when a kid forgets to tell you until the last minute that he/she needs to take a treat somewhere.

1 cake mix (I used a yellow one for these bars)

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1 cup M & M’s (You can use more or less, it’s up to you.  I used the red and green Christmas M & M’s that I got for 50% off after Christmas!)

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix cake mix, eggs and oil.  Stir in M & M’s.  Mixture will be stiff.  Press dough into greased 9 x 13″ pan.  Bake 15 – 20 minutes.

Rocky Road Chocolate Muffins

by penji1

I got a new cookbook at Costco called “1 Mix, 100 Muffins” by Susanna Tee.  As you can probably tell from the title, there is 1 basic muffin recipe and then 100 different variations from that basic mix.  This is #56 and it’s for the Sunday School classes tomorrow.

heaping 1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

heaping 1/2 cup sugar

heaping 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup white mini marshmallows, cut in half (I’ve found that the easiest way to cut marshmallows is to take  your kitchen shears and spray them with Pam and then cut away!)

2 eggs

1 cup milk

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

1  Preheat oven to 400.   (I have dark colored muffin pans so I always go 25 degrees less so that they don’t burn on the bottom.)  Grease or line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.  Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.  Stir in sugar, chocolate chips and marshmallows.

2  Lightly beat eggs in a separate bowl, then beat in milk and oil or butter.  Make a well in center of dry ingredients and pour in liquid ingredients.  Stir gently until just combined; do not overmix.

3  Spoon (or scoop) batter into prepared pan.  Bake 20 minutes, until risen and firm to the touch.

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

(Recipe said it makes 12 muffins so I doubled it since I needed more and ended up with 36 muffins.)

March of the Penguins Cupcakes

by penji1

The penguins have been out fishing all day and now are on their way home in a line, moving past icebergs and more fish.  The last penguin in line has the bucket of fish that they’ve caught.  Happy Birthday Kindra!  This decorating idea comes from the “Hello, Cupcake!” cookbook; it’s not hard to do but it is a little time consuming.  Gathering all the needed ingredients was a little time consuming as well so I’ll tell you where I found some of the hard to find ingredients and maybe that will help save you some time.

Makes 7 penguins, 4 icebergs and 1 fish bucket

12 vanilla cupcakes (see previous post), 11 baked in white paper liners and 1 baked in a silver foil liner (I just did mine in the regular liners)

Penguins:

4 plain mini doughnuts (found these in the bakery section at Target)

1 (16 oz) can vanilla frosting

7 plain doughnut holes (also found in the Target bakery)

1 (16 oz) can dark chocolate frosting

black food coloring (found this at Zurchers party supply)

4 large marshmallows

7 thin chocolate cookies (Famous Chocolate Wafers) (couldn’t find these after looking in about 3 stores so I just used Keebler round mint cookies)

7 yellow fruit chews (Starbursts, Laffy Taffys)

14 mini chocolate chips

Icebergs and Bucket:

1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup blue and white rock candy, plus more for garnish (Zurchers happened to have rock candy suckers so I bought a couple of those and just broke them up while taking the candy off the stick)

small colored fish candies (the ones in their pictures looked hard like sweet tarts but I couldn’t find those so I ended up using multi colored Swedish fish)

1 strand black licorice lace

Penguins:

1  Cut mini doughnuts in half crosswise.  Spoon 2 tablespoons of vanilla frosting into small ziploc bag, press out excess air, seal and set aside.  Spread vanilla frosting on 7 of cupcakes and place mini doughnut half, cut side down, on top.  Spread more vanilla frosting on top of mini doughnut and place doughnut hole on top.  Spread more vanilla frosting up sides of doughnut holes to fill gap as smoothly as possible.  Place cupcakes in freezer 10 minutes, until slightly frozen.

2  Tint dark chocolate frosting with black food coloring.  Microwave in 1 – 2 cup microwavable measuring cup, stirring frequently, until it is texture of lightly whipped cream, about 35 seconds.  Holding 1 chilled cupcake by its paper bottom, dip it into black frosting just up to liner.  Hold cupcake above surface and allow excess frosting to drip off (be patient here and let this happen otherwise you end up with runny, messy looking penguins).  Turn right side up and let stand.  Repeat with remaining 6 cupcakes.

3  Using clean scissors (I sprayed mine with Pam before cutting), cut 1/8″ off both flat ends of each marshmallow.  Trim 1/4″ off 1 side of 7 of marshmallow circles to create straight edge.  Press 1 cut marshmallow piece onto black frosting on each cupcake, straight edge next to paper liner, to make penguin’s belly.

4  Using a serrated knife, make 2 parallel cuts in each chocolate cookie 1/2″ in from opposite sides.  The 2 curved outside pieces will form the penguins wings.  (I just cut the Keeble cookies carefully in half.)  Trim 1/4″ from end of each wing.  Press trimmed end of cookie into frosting just below penguin’s head, 1 on each side, securing them with dot of black frosting.

5  Cut 4 of yellow fruit chews in half on diagonal to form triangular beaks.  For each penguin, place cut side of 1 of triangles onto the black frosted doughnut hole, pressing gently to secure.  Cut and shape remaining 3 1/2 fruit chews into 14 three toed feet.  (I didn’t bother with the feet.)  Snip 1/8″ corner from bag of vanilla frosting.  Pipe white dots for eyes and add mini chocolate chips, pointed end in.  Pipe a small white highlight on each eye (didn’t bother with this either).

Icebergs and Bucket:

1  Spread remaining vanilla frosting on top of remaining 5 cupcakes and press shredded coconut into the frosting.  (I dumped the coconut on a paper plate and pressed the top of each cupcake into the coconut.)  Arrange the rock candy on top of 4 of cupcakes in paper liners to make ice.

2  Add fish candies and licorice lace to remaining cupcake in foil liner.  Attach other end of licorice lace to one of penguins.  (I put frosting on the back of each fish to secure it to the bucket and tied the lace around the base of the cupcake and then tucked the other end under the penguin’s arm.)

3  Arrange penguin cupcakes in a curved line on a serving platter.  Place 2 fruit chew feet in front of each penguin.  Place iceberg cupcakes around penguins and sprinkle serving platter with fish candy and rock candy.  Tuck a fish candy under wing of 1 of penguins.  (I took a box and cut the lid off then lined the bottom with blue scrapbook paper and set up my penguins inside that.)

Vanilla Cupcakes

by penji1

Here’s a sneak peek at how these vanilla cupcakes got decorated!  The decorating instructions can be found in the next post.

Yesterday was Kindra’s birthday (who is a good friend of my daughter Courtney) and Courtney asked if I would make a birthday cake for her and then I asked if I could make cupcakes because Bob gave me a new cookbook, “Hello, Cupcake!” by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson for Christmas and I wanted to try it out and Cort said that cupcakes would be fine.  So we asked Kindra what flavor she wanted and she said vanilla and this was the recipe for vanilla cupcakes in the new cookbook.  Can’t tell you how these taste because we sent them all over to Kindra’s for her birthday but they smelled great and they were a little denser than normal which is good for decorating.

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1  Preheat oven to 350.  Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.  (I only got 23 cupcakes from the recipe.)

2  Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl.  Combine milk, oil and vanilla in a 2 cup measuring cup or small bowl.

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

4  Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.  Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture alternately with milk mixture in batches, beginning and ending with flour and beating just until blended.

5  Spoon half the batter into a ziploc bag.  Snip a 1/4″ corner from bag and fill liners 2/3 full.  Repeat with remaining batter.  (I just used my large scoop, you could also use an ice cream scoop.)  Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 15 – 20 minutes.  Remove cupcakes from pan, place on wire rack and let cool completely.

Ham Bone Soup

by penji1

The Christmas ham that we bought for Christmas dinner after the fact is almost gone so I googled “Ham Bone Soup” and this recipe came up from allrecipes.com and all the reviews were good so I thought I’d give it a try and it was good and easy!

1 ham bone with some meat

1 onion, diced

1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes with juice (I ended up using 2 cans)

1 (15.25 oz) can kidney beans (it didn’t say with juice or without so I just dumped the whole can with juice into the pot)

3 potatoes, cubed

1 green bell pepper, seeded and cubed (didn’t have one so left it out)

4 cups water (instead of the 4 cups water and bouillon cubes, I used 3 cans of chicken broth)

6 cubes chicken bouillon

I also added the following which were not in the original recipe but were suggested in the reviews:

2 cloved pressed garlic

2 stalks celery

Here are some other add ins suggested in the reviews:

sliced carrots

1 can pinto beans

peas

green beans

pasta

1  Place ham bone, onion, tomatoes, kidney beans, potatoes and green pepper (and whatever else you want to add) into a large crock pot.  Dissolve the bouillon cubes in water and pour into slow cooker (or just add cans of chicken broth).

2  Cover and cook on high until warm then reduce heat to low and continue to cook 5 – 6 hours.  (I did this but it looked like the potatoes and onions weren’t getting done so I kicked it back up to high.)

A note from me – when the soup was done, I took the ham bone out (which was really meaty) and pulled all the ham off of it (it came right off after cooking for so long) and chopped it up and dumped it back in the soup.

Creamy Pasta Shells with Broccoli and Ham

by penji1

This recipe comes from All You magazine and all I can say is, YUM!

1 pound small pasta shells, penne or bow ties

4 cups small broccoli florets (from about 1 medium head of broccoli)

2 tablespoons butter

1 small onion, finely chopped

4 oz cooked ham, chopped

3/4 cup heavy cream, warmed (for a lower calorie version, use evaporated milk in place of the heavy cream)

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

optional add ins – shredded carrots and diced red bell pepper (add to recipe with onion)

1  Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.  Add pasta and cook until al dente, 8 – 10 minutes.  Add broccoli for last 2 – 3 minutes of cooking time.  Drain and return to pot.

2  While pasta is cooking, melt butter over medium heat in a large skillet.  Add onion and saute until softened, about 3 minutes.  Add ham and cook, stirring, 2 minutes longer.  Stir in cream, bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 3 – 5 minutes.

3  Scrape cream mixture into pot with pasta and broccoli.  Add cheese and toss to combine.  Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Mini Maple Chocolate Chip Pancake Muffins

by penji1

Courtney loves chocolate chip pancakes so when I saw this recipe I knew I had to make them for her.  The recipe is from http://www.bakerella.com.  They are quick and easy to make and really do have the taste and texture of a chocolate chip pancake.

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

2/3 cup buttermilk (didn’t have any so made my own by adding just over 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar to the milk and letting it sit for about 5 minutes, you can also use lemon juice instead of the vinegar)

1 egg

2 tablespoons pure maple syrup (Santa put some real maple syrup in my stocking especially for baking but even using the real thing didn’t make these muffins very mapley so I would double the amount of maple syrup next time)

2 tablespoons melted butter

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

1  Preheat oven to 350.

2  Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl and mix together with a whisk.

3  In a separate bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter just until combined.

4  Add wet ingredients to dry and stir with a spoon until combined.

5  Stir in chocolate chips.  Reserve a few chips to sprinkle on top.

6  Using small scoop, scoop batter into each well of mini muffin pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray (I like to use the Pam for baking with my mini muffin pan).

7  Bake for 8 – 9 minutes.  Cool slightly then remove from pan.

8  Serve with butter and more maple syrup, if desired.

Recipe said that it makes 24 mini muffins but I got about 40.

New England Style Baked Beans

by penji1

Over the years these have become a Christmas Eve tradition at our house but because we were leaving the day after Christmas, I didn’t make them on Christmas Eve so I decided to make them today.  Christmas Eve is really about the only time we have them.  This recipe came with a crock pot I bought once a long time ago.  So good!

1 1/2 pounds (3 cups) dry navy beans

1 pound ham, cubed

1 medium onion, chopped

1 1/2 cups ketchup

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 1/2 cups water

1 tablespoon dry mustard powder

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 teaspoon salt

Cover beans with 3 times their volume of salted water in a large stockpot and bring to a boil.  Boil for 10 minutes.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours or until beans are tender.  Drain beans and put in crock pot.  Add ham and onion.  (I was using already cooked ham so I didn’t add it until the last 30 – 60 minutes of cooking time.)  Combine remaining ingredients in a separate bowl then add to crock pot and mix well.  Cook on low 10 – 12 hours or on high  – 6 hours, stirring occasionally.

Delicious Ham and Potato Soup

by penji1

Hello all, it’s good to be back!  I haven’t posted in awhile, for a variety of reasons.  I didn’t make a huge Christmas dinner this year because we had to leave the day after Christmas to attend my niece’s wedding in California and I didn’t want to make the big dinner and then have to throw it all away so we had takeout from Outback Steakhouse on Christmas Eve for our Christmas dinner while we watched “Muppet Christmas Carol”.  We’re back now and will have both the Christmas Eve traditional dinner and the big Christmas dinner sometime this week.  Bob bought a ham today for the dinner and also some bread bowls so we made some ham and potato soup which truly is delicious and pretty easy to make.  The recipe came from allrecipes.com.

3 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes (we left the skins on and used about 4 cups)

1/3 cup diced celery

1/3 cup finely chopped onion (used about 1 cup)

3/4 cup diced cooked ham (I think we ended up using about 2 cups)

3 1/4 cups water (I added an additional cup)

2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper (I used 1/2 teaspoon)

5 tablespoons butter

5 tablespoons flour

2 cups milk (I used skim and it came out great)

1  Combine potatoes, celery, onion, ham and water in a large stockpot.  Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, about 10 – 15 minutes.  Stir in bouillon, salt and pepper.

2  In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium low heat.  Whisk in four and cook, stirring occasionally until thick, about 1 minute.  Slowly stir in milk as not to allow lumps to form until all of the milk has been added.  Continue stirring over medium low heat until thick, 4 – 5 minutes.

3  Stir in milk mixture into stockpot and cook until soup is heated through.

Debbi’s Deadly Chocolate Muffins

by penji1

I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!  I get to bake and bake and bake!  These are some more baked goods for neighbor gifts.  The recipe comes from the “Mrs Fields I Love Chocolate! Cookbook”.

12 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used chocolate chips)

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter

1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup sifted cake flour (I used all purpose flour)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided

1/4 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts (I left the nuts out)

1/4 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly oil the top surface of a 12 cup muffin tin.  (If you’re using a nonstick muffin pan then you probably don’t need to do this.)  Line the cups with paper liners.

In a double boiler, melt the chopped semisweet chocolate with the butter and stir until smooth.  (I melted them together in a saucepan.)  Remove from the heat and stir in the sour cream.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until light and pale, about 5 minutes.  Beat in the chocolate mixture and vanilla.  Add the flour mixture and then stir in 1 cup of semisweet chips.

Scoop batter evenly into prepared muffin cups.  Top with remaining 1/4 cup semisweet chips, nuts and white chocolate chips.  Bake 20 – 25 minutes or until centers are set.

Set muffin pans on wire rack to cool for 15 minutes then remove muffins to cool completely.

The recipe said that it would make 12 muffins so I doubled it because I wanted to make more and got about 40 muffins.