Campfire Cupcakes

by penji1

Campfire Cupcakes

Every night up at camp we had a bedtime treat and one night we made these, they are awesome!  Found this idea online in a couple of different ways so I just modified it to make it easy.

6 oranges

box of muffin mix (I used Betty Crocker chocolate chip) plus ingredients needed to make muffins

Cut oranges in half and scoop out fruit, cleaning rind as much as possible without ripping or poking holes in it.  Prepare muffin mix according to package directions.  Scoop batter into each orange rind half, filling about 2/3 full.  Wrap loosely in foil, allowing room for expansion as the muffin will rise as it cooks.  Place foil wrapped orange in the embers of the fire and cook for about 3 – 6 minutes depending on how hot the embers are.  Open carefully and let cool a minute before eating.  Eating muffin with a spoon seems to work best.

Chicken Salad with Walnuts and Grapes

by penji1

We had this for lunch one day on croissants.  I made one batch with the nuts and grapes and one batch without to accommodate everyone’s taste buds!  Found this recipe online somewhere.

2 cups diced chicken (I used a can of Costco chicken)

1/3 – 1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons sour cream

1 cup seedless green grapes, sliced in half

3 green onions, with some green, thinly sliced (left these out for the girls)

1 celery stalk, thinly sliced

1/2 cup walnut pieces

1/4 teaspoon salt

dash of pepper

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon honey

Combine chicken with mayo, sour cream, grapes, onions, celery, nuts, salt, pepper and lemon juice.  Stir in honey and more mayo if needed.  Serve on salad greens or croissants.

Pizza in a Pot

by penji1

pizza in a pot

So I’ve been at Girls Camp all week as the cook so I thought I’d blog about what I made for them.  We made this up at camp but it would make a great, fun one pot meal at home too.  I found the recipe somewhere online while searching for camping food.

1 pound hamburger

1/4 pound Italian sausage or pepperoni

1 onion

1/2 red pepper (I left this out when making it for the girls)

1 can sliced mushrooms, undrained (also left this out)

1 (5 1/2 oz) can tomato paste

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 – 2 teaspoons oregano

1 cup pasta

Mozzarella cheese

1 loaf French bread

(I also added some garlic to this, about 1 clove pressed)

Brown hamburger and then drain fat.  Add onions and red pepper and stir fry until almost done.  Add mushrooms, sausage or pepperoni, tomato paste, salt, pepper, oregano, pasta and garlic.  Add enough water to just cover.  Cook covered over low heat until pasta is tender.  When done, cover the entire top with Mozzarella.  Cover again, turn off burner and let sit 5 – 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Spoon out servings onto slices of French bread.

(I did it a little differently then as described above.  After adding all the ingredients (except pepperoni) and cooking until the pasta was done, I spooned out servings onto the slices of French bread and then topped each individual slice with cheese and then with the pepperoni and I put it back on the grill and warmed it up so that the cheese melted slightly.  I also cut the loaves of bread in half lengthwise and then sliced them so that it looked more like French bread pizza.  And to make it easier up there at camp, I precooked the hamburger and onion and froze it.)

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

by penji1

I’m getting ready to go to Girls Camp on Tuesday where I will be the cook.  I just made 3 batches of these muffins for the girls for their Saturday morning sack breakfast for the bus ride home.  I’m going to put them in the freezer and have my friend Teresa bring them up on Friday night when she comes up for dinner.  These are easy to make, taste yummy and freeze really well.  I’m pretty sure I got this recipe from “101 Things to do with a Cake mix” by Stephanie Ashcraft.

1 chocolate fudge cake mix (I used Devil’s Food this time)

1 small box chocolate instant pudding mix (for those of you who live near me and grocery shop at Maceys, in the baking aisle they have a grocery cart full of Nelsons brand chocolate pudding mix on sale 10 boxes for $1, only .10 a box!  great deal and when you use them in a recipe like this, who cares what brand the mix is!)

3/4 cup water

3 eggs

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup oil

1/4 teaspoon almond extract (I usually leave this out because I want the straight up chocolate taste)

3/4 cup chocolate chips, frozen (I don’t usually bother to freeze mine)

Heat oven to 350.  Grease pan or use paper muffin liners.  Mix together all ingredients except chips until smooth then stir in chips.  Fill cups 3/4 full.  Bake 23 – 33 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cake Mix Bar Cookies – Chocolate Reese’s Pieces Bars

by penji1

This recipe comes from “101 Things To Do With A Cake Mix” by Stephanie Ashcraft which I highly recommend.  She has done a bunch of the “101 Things To Do With” cookbooks for various things such as salads, potatoes, tortillas, zucchini, etc.  The great thing about this recipe is you can use any flavor of cake mix and any kind of mix in and make a different treat every time using the basic recipe.  I make these a lot!  These were requested by Bob’s Sunday School class.

1 cake mix, any flavor (I used a Milk Chocolate one this time)

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1 – 1 1/2 cups mix ins (I used Reese’s Pieces this time)

Heat oven to 350.  Mix cake mix, eggs and oil.  (The batter will be really thick.)  Stir in mix ins.  Press dough into a greased 13 x 9″ pan.  Bake 15 – 20 minutes.

Broccoli Salad

by penji1

This is a combination of two different but similar broccoli salad recipes that I got from two friends, Kathleen and Gina.  I just combined them into one recipe and then choose the ingredients I want to use.  You can buy a big bag of precut broccoli at Costco for like $4 which makes this recipe so much easier and faster to make.

1 large bunch (4 – 5 cups) broccoli (I used about 6 cups this time)

1/2 red onion, chopped

1/2 – 1 cup sunflower seeds (I used 1 cup)

1/2 cup raisins (I hate raisins!)

1/2 cup mushrooms (I also hate mushrooms!)

1/2 pound (8 – 10 slices) bacon, cooked until crisp and crumbly (I just used one of those packages of precooked bacon)

1 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar or plain vinegar (I used red wine)

2 tablespoons – 1/4 cup sugar (I used 2 tablespoons)

Cut broccoli into small, bite size pieces.  Mix onion and sunflower seeds with broccoli.  Combine mayo, vinegar and sugar.  Mix with broccoli mixture.  Crumble bacon over salad just before serving.  (I just mixed the bacon in with everything else.)

Corn and Black Bean Pasta Salad

by penji1

Pillsbury Pasta salad especially for Bob for the week (or a couple of days anyway) while I am at work.

8 oz (2 1/2 cups) uncooked tiny bow tie pasta (tripolini) (I used wagon wheel, it seemed more manly than tiny bow ties and I used a 17.6 oz package)

2 cups frozen corn (I used a can of corn)

1/2 cup Italian dressing

1/4 cup tomato sauce (I used more of both the dressing and the tomato sauce since I used more pasta, like double each or more)

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro (nope!)

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed

2 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped (I used grape tomatoes instead)

Cook pasta according to package directions, adding corn during last minute of cooking time (no need to do this if you used the canned corn like I did).  Drain and rinse with cold water to cool.  Combine dressing, tomato sauce, cilantro and chili powder; whisk until well blended.  Combine past, corn, beans, tomatoes and dressing.  Toss gently to coat.

Barbie Doll Cake/Basic Buttercream Icing

by penji1

 

 

And so here is Kate’s Barbie Doll cake.  I baked the cake and Courtney decorated it.  I think it’s pretty good for a first shot at a doll cake.  Here’s how we did it (the cake recipe is from Pampered Chef as well as the Batter Bowl that it is cooked in):

Barbie Doll Cake

1 boxed cake mix (18 – 19 oz), any flavor

2 – 4 cups icing

food coloring

Heat oven to 350.  Prepare cake mix according to package directions.  Spray Classic Batter Bowl with Pam (I used the baking kind, the one with flour, just to be sure).  Pour batter into prepared Batter Bowl.  Bake 55 – 65 minutes or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool 15 minutes on cooling rack, invert and cool completely before decorating.  Follow same directions and make a second Batter Bowl cake.  Trim 2″ from the bottom of one cake to serve as the base of the skirt; place cut side up on cake platter.  Set second Batter Bowl cake on top of 2″ base.  With the Corer or a knife, hollow out a small round opening in top center of cake and insert Barbie doll wrapped in plastic wrap.  Decorate doll skirt and bodice of doll with tinted icing.  (Here’s what I did because I was in a hurry and didn’t have two Batter Bowls to cook 2 separate cakes,  I made one Batter Bowl cake and then made 2 round 9″ cake layers.  I used one of the 9″ rounds and set the Batter Bowl cake on top of it.  You can trim it so the edges match exactly or let it be wider and make the skirt of the dress wider, it’s up to you.  The first layer we trimmed but it fell apart so when we used the second layer we decided to leave it intact so that it wouldn’t fall apart like the first.)

Here’s the icing recipe I used which is my favorite homemade icing recipe:

Basic Buttercream Icing

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (use vegetable shortening for white icing)

1/2 cup milk or 1 cup heavy whipping cream, room temperature

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla or any other desired flavoring

2 pounds powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients on low until smooth.  If stiffer icing is needed, add more sugar,  This is enough icing to cover (and fill, if needed) a 9 x 13″ cake or two 9″ layers or a doll cake!

Better Than Almost Anything Cake

by penji1

 

My sister in law Anna (Bob’s youngest sister) and her family are coming to dinner tonight.  They live in California and we don’t get to see them very often but they are in Utah for a family reunion with her husband Nathan’s family and are coming over tonight for a visit with us.  Today is her son Wyett’s 17th birthday so I made him this cake for his birthday.  It is her daughter Kate’s 6th birthday on Thursday and so we are celebrating her birthday too and Courtney is putting the finishing touches on the Barbie cake that we made for her so I’ll be posting that recipe and pictures soon.

This is one of my all time favorite cakes.  I don’t make it very often because I tend to eat a lot of it when it is in the house.  It’s a Betty Crocker recipe.

1 box German chocolate cake mix

1 1/3 cups water

1/2 cup oil

3 eggs

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (16 – 17 oz) jar caramel, butterscotch or fudge topping (I used butterscotch this time)

1 (8 oz) container Cool Whip, thawed

1 (8 oz) bar toffee chips or bits (I just crunched up Heath Bars with my Food Chopper)

Heat oven to 350.  Grease bottom only of 13 x 9″ pan.  Make cake mix as directed.  Pour into pan and bake 30 -35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool 15 minutes.  Poke top of cake every 1/2″ with handle of wooden spoon.  Drizzle milk over top of cake and let stand until milk is absorbed into cake.  Drizzle with topping.  (I combine the milk and topping and pour it over the cake at the same time.)  Run knife around side of pan to loosen cake.  Cover and refrigerate 2 hours or until chilled.  Spread Cool Whip over cake and sprinkle with toffee bits.    Store covered in fridge.

Streusel Coffee Cake

by penji1

I wanted to make coffee cake this morning but didn’t have the time to make Courtney’s favorite (the Sour Cream or Yogurt Coffee Cake listed under Breakfast Breads) so I saw my box of Bisquick in the cupboard and figured there had to be a coffee cake recipe using Bisquick.  I went online to http://www.bisquick.com and found this recipe.  Coffee Cake in about 30 minutes.  It is really good, dense and yummy.

cinnamon streusel:  (I doubled this because it just didn’t look like enough)

1/3 cup Bisquick

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons firm butter (I softened it a bit in the microwave to make it easier to mix together)

coffee cake:

2 cups Bisquick

2/3 cup milk or water (I used milk)

2 tablespoons sugar

1 egg

1.  Heat oven to 375.  Grease 9″ round cake pan.  Stir streusel ingredients together until crumbly.

2.  Mix coffee cake ingredients until blended.  Spread in pan.  Sprinkle with streusel.

3.  Bake 18 – 22 minutes or until golden brown.