Thanksgiving Pies

I made several different pies for Thanksgiving. Some of them turned out better than others. The cheddar apple really wasn't that great, but the banana cream and the pecan pie bars were a big hit. So here are the good ones! I'm posting this several months after the fact, so I hope I remember what I did. Most of the recipes are variations of ones from Sally's Baking Addiction. She has delicious stuff!

We went to the Moab Scottish Festival and one of the booths there was "the Cornish Caterer." He did a bunch of cooking demonstrations and we walked by during one of them while he was talking about Cornish Spice. He said it was a precursor to pumpkin pie spice and that it tastes incredible. So of course I had to buy some! I used it in place of the spice in the pumpkin pie I made. It was SOOO yummy! I don't know if it was the recipe or the spice, but either way it was great. The difference between pumpkin pie spice and Cornish spice is the the addition of mace and coriander seed. He said if you sprinkled it in the bottom of a pie on top of the crust it would make the pie so much better. I just substituted all the spice.

Pecan Praline Pumpkin Pie

1 pie crust (pick your favorite)
2 cups pumpkin puree (15oz can)
2 eggs
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon (I may have used Cornish spice for some or all of this, but I don't think so.)
1 tsp Cornish spice (Yes in addition to the cinnamon)
1/8 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup milk

Topping
1 c chopped pecans
1/2 c packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp honey (I might have used dark corn syrup)

Put pie crust in a 9 inch pie plate. Flute the edges, line with parchment paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Fill pie crust with pie weights - I use dry beans. Bake for 12 minutes.

Whisk together pumpkin, eggs, brown sugar, cornstarch, salt, spices, cream and milk until smooth. Pour into crust and brush edges of crust with egg wash. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes until the center is no longer jiggly. (use a pie shield if the crust is getting too brown.)

Meanwhile mix the pecans and brown sugar then drizzle with honey. Spoon on top of the cooked pie and gently push it into the top of the pie to it sticks to the filling. Bake for an additional 15 minutes. Then cool on a wire rack and cool completely- at least 3 to 4 hours. Serve with whipped cream.

French Silk Pie

1 pie crust
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces quality semi-sweet chocolate
4 eggs
1 cup sugar, divided
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Topping
1 cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

garnish: chocolate curls

Roll out pie dough and place in 9 inch pie plate. Line with parchement and pour in pie weights (or beans). Chill for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake crust for 15 minutes. Remove pie from oven. remove weights and parchment dock the pie crust with a fork. brush the edges with egg wash and bake for an additional 12-15 minutes or until golden born. Cool crust completely! - It's best to make it a day or two before and chill in fridge.

Make the filling: Whip cream until still peaks form. Then refrigerate until ready to use. Melt the chocolate in the microwave stirring every 20 seconds. Whisk the eggs and 1/2 cup of sugar in a heat proof bowl and place over a pot of simmering water. Whisk constantly until eggs mixture reaches 160 degrees. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes then slowly stir in the chocolate. Then cool for an additional 10 minutes. Beat the butter and 1/2 cup sugar until creamy at least 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat an additional 30 seconds. Slowly pour in the chocolate and egg mixture while mixing at low speed, then beat for 3 minutes. Fold in the whipped cream until combined.

Spread filling into the cooled crust. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 to 6 hours until thickened.

Make the topping by whipping the cream, sugar and vanilla until medium peaks form. Pipe onto the top of pie. I may have used stabilized whipped cream for this step - Made by adding a small amount of plain gelatin (about 1 tsp) dissolved in water (a couple of tablespoons), then melted in the microwave and poured into cream while whipping. Add the whipped topping immediately before to a few hours before serving. Garnish with chocolate curls.

Chocolate Curls
3 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 tablespoon shortening

Put chocolate and shortening in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave until the shortening is melted and hot about 30 to 45 seconds. Stir to combine. Pour the melted chocolate over the underside of a clean cookie sheet. With an offset spatula or a knife, spread the chocolate in a thin layer. Keep going until it's very, very thin. Then place cookie sheet in the freezer for a few minutes. After a few minutes, check that the chocolate is ready by pressing it with your finger tip; it should leave the slightest mark, but not an actual depression. With a somewhat sharp-edged spatula scrape the chocolate from the bottom of the pan. When the chocolate is just the right temperature, it'll curl instead of break. If it gets too soft, stick it back in the freezer for a minute. As soon as possible, transfer the curls to a cold pan or plate, and then stick them in the freezer to harden. Store in the freezer in a zip-top bag until you need them.

Banana Cream Pie

Brad loves this pie and he said it might even be better than his mom's! High praise indeed.

Crust

1 1/2 Cups Nilla Wafer Crumbs grind the cookies in a blender

1/3 Cup Sugar

4 Tbsp of butter melted

Filling

1 3.4 oz instant banana pudding

1 cup milk

4 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

3/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

2 large bananas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together the cookie crumbs, sugar and butter and press into a pie plate. Bake for 8 minutes, then cool completely. Whip the cream with powdered sugar until stiff peaks form. Whisk together the milk and pudding. In another bowl beat the softened cream cheese until smooth, add the condensed milk and beat again. Stir in the pudding then fold in the whipped cream. Thickly slice the bananas and place them in a single layer on the cooled pie crust. Top with the pudding mixture and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours or overnight if needed. Serve with fresh whipped cream.

Pecan Pie Bars

I got this recipe from a neighbor down the street, Leslie Hegseth. It is delicious! Everyone loved them and talked about them weeks later. 

Ingredients:

Crust-

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cups packed brown sugar

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

Topping-

1 stick unsalted butter

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup honey

2 tbsp heavy cream

2 cups chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 9x13 pan with foil leaving enough for a 2 inch overhang on all sides.

First make the crust by creaming together the butter and brown sugar until fluffy in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add in flour and salt and mix until crumbly. Press the crust into the foil lined pan and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.

While the crust bakes prepare the filling by combining the butter, brown sugar, honey and heavy cream in a saucepan, stirring it over medium heat. Simmer the mixture for 1 minute, then stir in the chopped nuts.

Remove the crust from the oven and immediately pour the pecan filling over the hot crust spreading it to cover the entire surface.

Return the pan to the oven and bake an additional 20 minutes.

Remove the pan and allow to cool fully in the pan. Use the foil overhang to lift the bars out and transfer to cutting board. Peel off foil and cut.

Coconut Cream Pie

This one was good too, maybe not as fabulous as the others, but better than the apple. I think I combined 2 different recipes. One from Allrecipes and one from Oh sweet Basil. Hopefully this is what I made!

Crust:

12 graham crackers

5 tablespoons melted butter

Filling:

1 can coconut cream plus enough half and half to make 3 cups. 

¾ cup sugar

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 bag shredded sweetened coconut divided (about 2 cups)

Whipped Cream:

1 cup heavy cream

¼ powdered sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.In a food processor, pulse graham crackers until crushed. Slowly drizzle in butter while processor is on. Dump mixture into pie plate and press into bottom and sides. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely.

Spread coconut on baking sheet. Toast in heated oven for about 5 to 8 minutes. Set aside 1/4 cup.

In a medium sauce pan, whisk together coconut cream, half and half, eggs, flour and salt. Mix wekk and bring to a boil over low heat stirring constantly for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat, add vanilla and stir in the coconut. Pour filling into pie crust and chill until firm, about 4 hours. When ready to serve pipe or spread with whipped cream and sprinkle with reserved toasted coconut.

Whipped Cream:

Whisk cream on a medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Add sugar and vanilla and continue beating to stiff peaks.

Razzleberry Pie

This was a decent pie. Not outstanding but a good basic pie. I think the problem was we had too many other fabulous pies!

1 Double Crust 

2 Pints Raspberries

2 Pints Blackberries

1 Pint Blueberries

1/2 - 3/4 Cup Sugar

1/4 Cup Cornaby's Ultra Gel (Yes I bought some!)

1 Egg

1/2 Teaspoon Water or milk

Turbinado Sugar 

Put bottom crust into pie plate. Slice the other half into strips and cover both with plastic wrap and place in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Add the fruit, 1/2 cup sugar and ultra gel into a saucepan and fold gently, using a rubber spatula. If berries are extra tart add more sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time. Turn the heat to medium low and cook until the berries are releasing their juices and beginning to thicken. Only stir occasionally as you don't want to break up the fruit and turn it into jam.

Add the hot fruit mixture directly into the pie crust. Place strips across the pie and then lift up one end of every other strip and lay a new strip across the other way. Now, repeat but with the other strips that were not originally lifted up. Continue until you're halfway across the pie then turn the pie around and repeat from the other side to make a lattice across the entire pie.

Whisk together the egg and water and then brush the top of the pie and immediately sprinkle with sugar.

Bake the pie for 25 minutes then drape with a piece of tin foil and continue to bake for another 20-30 minutes, or until the filling is bubbly and the crust is golden brown.

Remove from the oven and cool entirely on the counter. Let pie rest over night as the filling will set up and not run. Refrigeration can make the filling sink and pull away from the crust.

I think this may be the pie crust recipe I used: Mom's fail proof magic pie crust. At least I did for the razzleberry pie. I might have used a different recipe for the other pies, but I don't remember.

For the sake of completeness, I also made Apple Cheddar Pie. I don't think I will make it again. It was okay, but not great. Rather a disappointment because I really had high hopes for this! 

Tomato Toast with Chives and Sesame Seeds

I found this recipe last year and intended to post my variation on it then but I never got to it. I made these sandwiches for dinner last night with some fresh garden tomatoes (not from my garden 🙁) that needed to be used. And Ryan and I were both too tired to cook. We had to get up at 5 a.m. to take Adria to a bike race. In the past we have made the sandwiches with yummy artisan bread, but today we just made them with the Dave’s good seed bread we had in the freezer. I’ve made them so often that I don’t even measure the ingredients anymore. I think this make LOTS more mayo than you really need for 4 servings, so I usually cut it down.

1 tsp garlic paste
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Kosher salt
1/2 lemon (or 1 tsp lemon juice and dried lemon peel**)
4 3/4"-thick slices country-style bread, toasted
3 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp. finely chopped chives
2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Aleppo-style pepper (optional) - we use Penzeys

Extra-virgin olive oil (for drizzling) - I usually skip this part

Zest the lemon and set zest aside. Mix garlic and mayonnaise in a small bowl. Squeeze about 1 tsp. juice from lemon half into bowl. Season with kosher salt if desired. I leave it out.

Spread a generous layer of seasoned mayonnaise over toast; shingle a few tomato slices on top. Sprinkle with chives, sesame seeds, salt, black pepper, and Aleppo-style pepper. Sprinkle with lemon zest or dried lemon and drizzle with some oil.

** I don't usually have fresh lemons around, so we we use bottled lemon juice and I found this dried lemon peel in the spice section at Harmon's. It's great.

Buttermilk Syrup

We ran out of maple syrup at our house a few weeks ago. Of course the only time
we think about it is on weekend mornings when we want to eat pancakes or waffles.
This past Sunday morning I made an apple puff pancake. I liked it but it had raisins
and nuts in it so it wasn't a huge hit with the rest of the family.  They all ate it though
and only Pierce picked out the raisins. Anyway we didn't have maple syrup to serve
with it. So I made some homemade maple pancake syrup. This is not that recipe.
BUT it reminded me how much I liked this pancake syrup. Last month a few days
after Myles got home from his mission, Adria went to a breakfast and swim party for all
the girls on the mountain bike team. I agreed to help out.  The woman that hosted the
party made the best buttermilk pancake syrup. So yesterday I sent her a text and asked
for the recipe and she shared it with me! 

1 stick of butter

1 cup sugar

Melt together in a larger pot than you think you need. (When you add the baking soda
it expands.) Add

 ½ cup buttermilk

½ tsp baking soda

Stir constantly and boil 1 minute. After it's done add ½ tsp vanilla. 

Garden Fresh Salsa with Zucchini, Tomatoes and Peppers

This is another recipe from Mom. She made it last weekend for a Sunday night birthday party for Pierce. She gave us leftovers and I ate salsa for dinner last night. I had to take a picture because I know I wanted to post the recipe. Ryan shares my Google photo drive.  A few minutes after I took the picture he texted me from a stake presidency meeting saying, "don't eat all the salsa! I'm starving!" It's a great fresh salsa and it's a good way to use the extra zucchini. It makes a HUGE recipe! Mom says to cut it in fourths or plan on having lots of extras to share!

10 cups fresh tomatoes (after processing) any variety works!
7 cups fresh zucchini (after processing)
3 green peppers
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 orange pepper
1 large hot pepper
1 jalapeno
4 cloves of garlic
1 onion
1 bunch of cilantro
¾ cup vinegar
⅓ cup sugar
2 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp pepper

Do not peel any of the veggies. You need to use a very large bowl. A food processor is a must for this recipe (a blender would be okay). Put tomatoes into food processor and blend to desired consistency.
Put zucchini in food processor.  DO NOT liquify the zucchini. It should be chucky or grated.  I think Mom always grates hers.
Process the peppers and chop. They can be left a little chucky.  Put the hot pepper, jalapeno and onion in the food processor.  Chop those finely so no one gets a hot chunk.  Chop the cilantro in the food processor. Put everything in a large bowl and stir together. Add the sugar vinegar salt and pepper and mix well. Add extra salt or pepper if needed.

Marinated Cucumber, Onion and Tomato Salad

So it's been a really long time since I posted anything! But life is busy. I looked through
a bunch of my pictures last night and discovered that I have TONS of pictures of food
that I've made but never got around to sharing the recipe. Now I don't even remember
what most of them are. I'm sure they were great and maybe someday I'll make them
again.  Anyway this is a recipe that Mom made and Dad loves it! He liked it so much
that he texted me pictures. So all the photos are his. 

1 cup water (leave it out or reduce it if your tomatoes are juicy) 

½ cup white vinegar

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 tsp salt

Fresh coarse ground pepper to taste (up to 1 Tbsp if you like it really peppery.)

3 cucumbers peeled and sliced ¼ inch thick

3 tomatoes cut into wedges

1 onion sliced and separated into rings

Whisk together water, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper until smooth. Add cucumbers,
tomatoes, and onions and stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. 

This is a great fresh salad to eat on its own. Dad put his over a cheese sandwich.
There's lots of liquid leftover when all the veggies are gone and I think I've heard
that Kellie will add more veggies to the liquid and use our more than once. 

 

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This year for Easter I wanted to try making a carrot cake. I follow 3 or 4 or more cooking blogger and they ALL posted "The Best" carrot cake ever, and none of them were the same! How annoying! So I found a recipe I thought looked the best and changed it up a bit as usual. It turned out well I though. Charlotte helped me make it and we took it to Grandma Jenny's house for Olivia's birthday dinner. Everyone said it was good- except Charlotte! She didn't like it. I also learned that if you have too much baking soda in your batter, it makes the carrots turn green! They are sensitive to pH. So are blueberries, sunflowers and walnuts. (Do they turn green too??) So next time I make this I will cut down on the amount of baking soda I put in. The recipe this is closest too only had 1 and 1/4 tsp baking powder, so maybe I need to decrease that too. I'm still learning about baking soda vs baking powder and what the different types of baking powder are available. But that's a whole other story! My cake did sink in the middle a little - another sign of too much baking soda!

CAKE:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda - (Use LESS! or maybe less baking powder?)
1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 heaping teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 pound medium carrots, ends trimmed unpeeled - I ended up using 4 carrots
 1 cup sugar
 1 cup packed light brown sugar
 4 large eggs
1 cup oil (I think it should only be 3/4 c! Also a reason the cake might sink in the middle.)
3/4 cup applesauce
Pecans - Optional - I wanted to put some in the cake, but Charlotte said no! Otherwise I think I would have added 1 cup of chopped pecans.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9X13 inch baking pan with cooking spray.In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt; set aside. In a food processor fitted with large shredding disk shred the carrots.
In a large bowl beat the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and eggs on medium-high speed until thoroughly combined, about 45 seconds.Reduce the speed to medium and with the mixer running, add oil in a slow, steady stream. Increase the speed to high and mix until the batter is light in color and well emulsified, about 45 seconds to 1 minute longer. Stir in carrots the carrots and dry ingredients by hand until incorporated and no streaks of flour remain (don't over mix).
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick or skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 40 minutes.
Let the cakes cool completely before frosting.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
 8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
 5 tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature
 1 tablespoon sour cream
 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
 Toasted, chopped pecans, for garnish (optional)

Mix the cream cheese, butter, sour cream, and vanilla in a large bowl with a hand mixer until well combined, about 30 seconds. scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Add the powdered sugar and mix until very fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Frost the cake and top with toasted, chopped pecans, if desired.

Adria helped me decorate it. She used a frosting tip to put little dots all over the top of the cake and then added Easter and spring sprinkles to the top. It was very cute - but I didn't get a picture of it.

Easter Dinner- Chicken Saltimbocca and Spring Risotto

I follow WAY too many cooking blogs and get emails from too many cooking sites! I've realized I have more recipes than I have time to ever cook them! Today I had the day off work and spent it cooking! I thought today would be a good day for Easter dinner because I have to work on Saturday and then we have an extended family birthday/ Easter dinner on Sunday. This morning I made breakfast cookies and mini lemon poppy seed Bundt cakes. I will finish the cakes this weekend for Easter. I hope they are good. We haven't tried the cookies yet either- I'm hoping the kids will eat them for breakfast! Then, I started on dinner. That was out of my comfort zone. I bake. I don't cook. Luckily Ryan was around and helped me out a bunch. I really don't know how I would have done it without him there. As it was I prepped a bunch of the veggies earlier in the afternoon. I found the chicken recipe on Bon Appetit and the risotto recipe on Once Upon a Chef. I made a few changes to the chicken recipe after we found a video of someone else's Chicken Saltimbocca recipe. I think we followed the Risotto recipe fairly closely. Here's the recipes we made:

Chicken Saltimbocca with Crunchy Pea Salad
2 (8 oz) skinless, boneless chicken breasts
3 large eggs, beaten to blend
2 cups panko
¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ oz sage leaves
4 thin slices prosciutto
vegetable oil
4 green onions, very thinly sliced on a diagonal
8 oz. sugar snap peas, strings removed, thinly sliced
½ cup mint leaves, thinly sliced (I use herb scissors)
1 Lemon
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Place a chicken breasts on a cutting board. Holding a knife parallel to board and working along a long side, cut through center of breasts. Place one piece in a gallon freezer bag and gently pound as thin as possible without tearing meat about ¼" thick. Repeat with remaining cutlets.

Divide the sage leaves evenly and place them on top each each cutlet. Cover with a slice of prosciutto.

Place eggs, panko, and flour in separate shallow bowls. Dredge each cutlet in flour, shaking off excess. Dip in eggs, letting excess drip back into bowl. Coat in panko, pressing lightly to help it adhere, then shaking off excess.

Pour ¼ to ½ inch vegetable oil in a large skillet and heat over medium-high until very hot. Carefully place 1 cutlet in hot oil and cook just until bottom side is golden brown, about 2 minutes. Using tongs, carefully turn and cook until golden brown on the other side, about 2 minutes. Place on a wire rack or a paper towel covered plate. Repeat with remaining cutlet.

Zest the lemon and toss scallions, peas, mint, lemon zest and juice from 1/2 of the lemon and olive oil in a bowl. Cut the other half of the lemon into small wedges. Place chicken on a plate and top with pea salad. Serve with lemon wedges.

Spring Risotto with Asparagus & Peas

6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1 to 1 ½ bunch asparagus, preferably thin, trimmed and cut into 1-in pieces
¼ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup frozen peas
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
2 tsp garlic paste
1 ½ cups Arborio rice
½ cup white cooking wine
½ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving

Put chicken broth in a microwave proof container and heat until simmering. (It may need to be reheated if it cools.)
Meanwhile, in a large pot, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter over medium-low heat. Add the asparagus, salt, and a few grind of pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until the asparagus is tender-crisp, 2 to 4 minutes. Add the peas and continue cooking until the peas are defrosted, about 1 minute. Transfer the vegetables to a bowl and set aside.
In the same pot over medium-low heat, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Do not brown. Add the rice and cook, stirring constantly, until glossy and translucent around the edges, about 2 minutes. Add the wine and cook until completely absorbed, about 1 minute. Ladle about 1 cup of the simmering broth into the rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until absorbed. Continue adding the broth, 1 cup at a time and stirring frequently until it is absorbed, until the rice is al dente and creamy, about 25 minutes. (Be careful not to get distracted while the rice is cooking; while it doesn’t require a lot of skill, it does require you to keep a close eye on it to prevent sticking.)
Stir in the Parmigiano-Reggiano, and remaining tablespoon of butter into the risotto. Keep covered until ready to serve. Just before serving stir in the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper, if desired. Serve with extra Parmigiano-Reggiano to put on top of the rice.

Mango Avocado smoothies, Strawberry Rice Crispy Treats, Artisan Bread and Crème Brûlée

It's been awhile since I posted. I have made lots of recipes with the intent of adding them here... BUT who has the time?? So here are some of the pics and maybe a link to the recipe.

Mango Avocado Smoothie

This is from a recipe card I got in the mail from Smiths. It is pretty good, but rather tart. We added a stevia powder to it and then it was great.

1/4 ripe avocado, peeled and diced
1/2 cup fresh or frozen mango cubes
1/3 cup plain, nonfat yogurt
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 cup water
1 cup ice cubes

Combine all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Serve immediately. Serves 2. Per serving: 90 Cal, 3.5 g total fat, 0g saturated fat, 25mg sodium, 13g carbs, 2g fiber,9g sugar, 5g protein.

Soft Pretzels - We made these for the girls cooking club. They are yummy! Genna and Adria have the recipe if you want it. Or I have it somewhere on my computer too. 

Ashlee's Cowboy Salsa - I don't think I made any changes- Maybe added more cilantro and definitely the avocado!

Ryan's birthday was this past month- I wanted to try some of the other recipes from the same class where I got the Princess Torte. So I tried the Black Forest Cake- I used cherry flavor instead of kirschwasser. I don't think I will make it again- It was good enough, but not our favorite. The cherry filling is cinnamon flavored. I actually used the extra second cake that the recipe makes and the extra filling and made a second cake with chocolate frosting.

Of course I had to make Ryan's Princess Cake! It had leftovers too- So I tried making some cake balls out of it. They weren't fabulous. So while I intended to make a recipe out of them, it wasn't worth it. 

I discovered a delicious recipe from Our Best Bites for Strawberry Rice Crispy Treats. I made them a couple of times - Once for the Valentine's Day Party Adria and I had for all the girl cousins and the next door neighbors. I only made a couple of changes- Left out the almond extract (mostly because I forgot it both times!) and I put them in a 9x13 pan instead of the smaller pan. The bigger pan was a perfect size!

6 tablespoons butter
6 cups Strawberry Rice Krispies (Yes they do make these! Found them at Smiths!)
1 16oz bag mini marshmallows (about 10 cups)
1oz freeze-dried strawberries
1 teaspoon almond extract (skipped it)

Line an 8×8 (or 9×9) pan with parchment, if desired. (Use a 9x13!)
Place butter in a large pot on the stove top.  While it’s melting, place Krispie Cereal in a separate large bowl and add 1 1/2 cups marshmallows.  Use your hands to gently crush the freeze-dried berries as you add them to the bowl with the cereal.  You don’t need to pulverize them, just crush them into smaller pieces.
When butter is melted, add remainder of  marshmallow bag and stir until completely melted and smooth.  Remove from heat and add almond extract.  Use a rubber spatula to scrape out all marshmallow mixture and pour over cereal mixture.  Gently stir until cereal is completely coated and transfer mixture into pan.
Coat hands with a little butter (I use wet hands instead) and then gently press down (DON’T pack it down, gently press!) and let sit until cooled and set.  Cut into squares to serve.


Saturday White Bread is a recipe from a cookbook called Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast by Ken Forkish. It's an entire book about how to make bread! It is very educational. Maybe a little too much. I don't own it, but I do keep checking it out from the library! I have only made 1 recipe out of it- the one that takes the least amount of time- 5 hours! HA HA HA! But it is DELICIOUS! Adria has a peasant bread recipe we really like that is much faster. BUT the extra time this one takes makes is taste LOTS better! I took photos of the recipe - all four pages! And it refers to other pages as well.

For Valentine's Day I made Crème Brûlée. I used the kitchen torch I got for my birthday from Andrea - I did have to go buy the fuel for it and some crème brûlée dishes. Amazingly enough it was cheaper to buy both of those things at Smiths than at Amazon. So that was my Valentine's day gift to myself. :-) I used the recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction. I didn't make any changes. I even added the ESPRESSO POWDER! I know! What a shock. I have read about it a lot and how it is added to all chocolate cakes to make them taste better. I found some on clearance at Smith's a few weeks before I decided to make these. And then when I got the email with the recipe it seemed like the perfect time to try it out. It really does make a difference! It doesn't take like coffee at all.

5 large egg yolks
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla paste

Preheat oven to 325°F. Whisk the egg yolks and 1/2 cup  of granulated sugar together. Set aside. Bring a small pot of water to a boil.
Heat the heavy cream, espresso powder, and salt together in a medium saucepan over medium heat. As soon as it begins to simmer, remove from heat. Stir in the vanilla paste. Remove about 1/2 cup of warm heavy cream and, in a slow and steady stream, whisk into the egg yolks. Keep those egg yolks moving so they don’t scramble. In a slow and steady stream, pour and whisk the egg yolk mixture into the warm heavy cream.
Place 6 ramekins in a large baking pan - I used a half sheet baking pan. Divide custard between each, filling to the top. Carefully fill the pan with about a 1/2 inch of the hot water. The baking pan will be hot so use an oven mitt to carefully transfer the pan to the oven.
Bake until the edges are set and centers are a little jiggly- 30 to 35 min. The time depends on the depth of your ramekins. Begin checking them at 30 minutes. For a more accurate sign, they’re done when an instant read thermometer registers 170°F (Mine never seemed to get this hot- not sure why but I didn't want to over cook them and they seemed done! And I read it's really easy to over cook them!- More likely than under cooking them.)
Remove pan from the oven and, using an oven mitt, remove the ramekins from the pan. Place on a wire rack to cool for at least 1 hour. Place in the refrigerator, loosely covered, and chill for at least 4 hours and up to 2 days before topping.
Using the remaining granulated sugar, sprinkle a thin layer all over the surface of the chilled custards. Caramelize the sugar with a kitchen torch and serve immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 1 hour before serving. (Caramelized topping is best enjoyed right away.- it get's soggy later.)

I don't know why but I wanted to make a Strawberry Trifle. Probably because I thought it would be a great way to use up the rest of the extra chiffon cake I had in the freezer from Ryan's birthday cake (I had to remake that part of it because my cake kept falling - I discovered a bunch about baking powder doing this - but that's another story.) I had a recipe I got for my wedding from Kelly Kline- She was in my ward growing up. She gave us a trifle bowl with the recipe. I took the bowl back, but kept the recipe. So when I decided to make it I had to go to Walmart and buy a new trifle bowl. BUT the recipe was too big for the bowl! So I had to dump it in another bowl. I took it to Mom's house Sunday when everyone came and they all said it was great! It's an easy recipe. I did have to check a few other recipes on the internet to figure out exactly what she meant because her recipe wasn't clearly written. And I did have to make some extra cake- but it worked out great because I had extra egg whites from the crème brûlée so I made half an angel food cake.

1 Angel Food Cake or left over chiffon cake
1 package Strawberry Danish Dessert
2 pounds frozen strawberries
1 pt whipping cream
1/2 c sugar
1 t vanilla
1 large (5oz) package vanilla pudding.

Slightly thaw the strawberries so they can be cut in half or into bite size pieces. Make the Danish dessert as directed with 1 and 1/2 cups cold water. (I think that's what I used... might have been 1 and 3/4 cup). After the Danish dessert has thickened, remove from heat and stir in the strawberries. Put in fridge to cool. Prepare the pudding as directed. Whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla. Tear cake into bite size pieces and put a layer in the bottom of the bowl. Add half the strawberry mixture on top and then half the pudding and half the cream. Repeat the layers (I had to dump mine into a bowl before I repeated the layers so the strawberries ended up on the bottom and the layers a messy- but it tasted good.) The recipe suggested topping with shaved chocolate and hiding a nut somewhere in the trifle, but I didn't do that.


For Ryan's birthday (a week late) I found several recipes for dinner and then bought all the ingredients for them. I was thinking I could do the cooking too- BUT that didn't work out. Work really takes a chunk out of your day! So I only made one of the recipes and he made the rest of them. I made Quick Baked Chicken Parmesan. It turned out alright. Ryan likes the recipe he made last year for Valentines day- I think I posted it, but I'm not sure. It's a Parmesan crusted chicken with creamy bacon sauce or something like that. And it's good! This recipe is good too- but maybe not as fabulous. The kids all ate it though, so that was a win! I did learn that chicken cutlets are just chicken breast cut in half horizontally to make 2 thinner slices.