New Recipe

So this week I decided to choose Penne Alla Betsy on page 188. I've always thought this one sounded good minus the shrimp. I'm not a shrimp fan so I hope it tastes ok with chicken instead! Hope you all like it.

Jacki and Nika’s Review of Prune Cake

We made this yesterday for dessert and  all agreed this cake wasn’t good……it was VERY good!   Everyone, even the kids, liked it.  Isabelle woke up this morning and proclaimed she wanted scrambled eggs and a piece of cake for breakfast.  I followed the recipe as directed except I didn’t have any allspice so I substituted just a bit of cloves – maybe 1/8th tsp.  After reading Leslee’s review I cooked the prunes longer – probably about 12 minutes and then mashed them well with a potato masher.  A good alternative for cooking the prunes and mashing is to just buy baby food prunes for those that don’t want any chunks or hassle.  For the icing, I recommend using a saucepan that is big enough to accommodate a frothing, bubbling up mixture because the baking soda causes it to foam up quite a bit.  I used a little smaller saucepan that I thought would be plenty big but I ended up dumping it in the bigger one because it kept boiling over.  I am not sure what the reason for using baking soda in the icing is – tasted plenty delicious though.  We didn’t have any vanilla ice cream but that would be wonderful with the cake.  We did use a little whipped cream and that was tasty too. 

Isabelle was my helper and she was quite intrigued by the sifter – she had never used one before.

Yum!   Delicious.

Eggs in a Hole and Prune Cake

I made the eggs in a hole a few weeks ago for dinner one night when Sean wasn’t going to be home until late.  It was easy and delicious! Everybody had great ideas of what to do with the extra bread…I think I just ate it plain though!

So last night I made the prune cake but I knew Sean would not be a fan of it.  I sneakily made it when he was in the other room.  I tried to pass up the prunes but they ended up a little chunky which was kind of a give away.  The cake part itself was really good and with the prunes and icing it was very sweet! We tried a few bites last night and it was really good! This morning a served it for breakfast with some eggs.  Knox liked it but the it was not received well by Sean or Summer.  He quickly discovered what was it in and wasn’t to excited about it! If you have more adventurous eaters I am sure this will be fine at your house.  I think if I would have pureed or really mashed up the prunes it would have been better.  I was considering making this with bananas too which I think would have been really good and a little safer! I only made half a pan and did make it gluten free.

Rutter Review....Eggs in a Hole

Breakfast for dinner....ALWAYS a favorite!!!! This was an amazing recipe and soooooooo easy. It was also a huge hit. We will definitely use this recipe again.

BONUS!!!! As we were cutting out the holes in our bread, I was trying to think of what we could use the little crust less circles for. It hit me....French Toast!!! I took the middles of the bread home and made french toast out of them for Brandon and I the next morning. They were so good, cute, and quick. Brandon loved them as well. So....save those little circle of bread and make French Toast!!!!

I look angry in this pic. Promise I WAS NOT!!! LOL. Think I may have been in mid sentence, thought, dazed, or something. LOL!!!!

Dinner is served!!!!!

YUUUUUUMMMMMMYYYYYY!!!!!!

Recipe for this Week...Sorry a little late!!!

Sorry for the delay.....I completely forgot to post yesterday!!!! Alright, I have chosen the Prune Cake. I forgot my recipe book at home, and can't remember the page number or the technical name. The recipe is more toward the front in the breakfast section I believe. I'll post the page number as soon as I get home tonight.

Also, I don't recall us making this if we have please let me know. I'll make another selection.

HAPPY COOKING!!!!

Jacki and Nika’s Review of Eggs – in- a- Hole

Nika and kids are here visiting and we made these yesterday morning for breakfast.  They were a big hit with everyone!  I followed the recipe as directed except after the first one I started to put the egg in the hole right after I put the bread in the pan instead of waiting the 1 minute.  Also it was important to add a little more butter after turning it to get the other side to brown well.  A very easy recipe and one I will make again.

I made the first one for Isabelle and she helped cut the hole in the bread.

cooking up nicely.

Max wanted to help as well and get in on the fun.

Belle’s finished product – she loved it.

For the adults I used some French bread which was absolutely delicious.  I thought it might be a little tough for the little kids to chew so I just made theirs on regular bread.

I hope you all get a chance to try out this recipe. 

Brisket, grits, and cake

I caught up on a couple of recipes this week. First we made the brisket and grits. Oh my gosh, the brisket was awesome. Loved by all, including the kids. Everybody ate a ton! I did it in the crock pot as well and the brisket was so tender it just fell apart when I was trying to put it on a serving plate. I would definitely make it again.

I made the grits to go with it. My husband and I really liked them, especially my husband. The kids wouldn't touch them. They had a great cheesy flavor--I just used extra sharp cheddar. It was a nice change from the usual side dish.

The cake was a huge hit in this house. I loved it, but I don't think I can make it again. Something about it was addictive and I couldn't leave it alone. I am pretty sure that you don't burn enough calories in spin class to eat two huge pieces of this cake in one day... Anyway, just kidding. I am sure I will make it again. It would be great to take on a picnic, BBQ or whatever.

Leslee’s Chocolate Sheet Cake

I made this last night for dessert.  It sounded so good, so I substituted in some rice flour and xanthium gum to make it gluten free.  The cake was pretty easy to make and cooked up quickly.  I wasn’t paying too much attention to the recipe and the part about pouring the frosting on when the cake was still hot so I just did it after it cooled.  Seemed to work just fine.  It was delicious, especially with a little ice cream! We all loved it!

Rutter Sugar Cookies!!!!!

After reading posts, Audrey and I decided not to add as much oil to the mixture. We used like 3/4ths less than what the recipe called for. The cookies turned out tasting good, a little cakey, but good. If I would have pressed them out thinner I think we would have liked them more. I will next time cut the oil in half and see how the cookies turn out. I just can't stand imagine putting that much oil along with the butter in the dough. Guess we will see what happens next time.

New Recipe: Week of 5/15

Okay, let's do Egg-in-the-Hole for this week.  Page 46.  I've actually fixed this several times.  We really like it.

Sheet Cake

This is Nika posting, even if it does say Jacki at the bottom (she is here too though). In the past the sheet cakes I have had are dry and not that impressive. This one, however, was great. I wanted to give this a try, but since we are right in the middle of packing and moving I didn't have enough butter to do the whole thing so I just made half. That was a good choice because its just me and my mom here so we really don't need all that cake. I have been watching my neighbor's two preschool aged kids in the mornings so we had a full house making this one and even then it still turned out fine with all the "help". The cake was easy to make, except part way through I forgot that I was only making half the recipe, but I got back on track and it turned out just fine. I used the "homemade" buttermilk recipe which I always do since I rarely buy buttermilk and made my cocoa powder scoops nice and big. I cooked the cake in a 9x13 pyrex (since it was only half a batch) for 20 minutes and it was perfect. Then I just poured the icing over the top and topped it with chopped walnuts on one half and chopped toasted pinenuts on the other (just to use up what was in my freezer). I LOVED this cake. It cooked up so nicely and was not dry at all. In the picture it may look like its gooey, but that is just the frosting running over the edge of the cake. Even though it is 7:30 in the morning I just tasted a little more to make sure it was still good and don't worry, it was.

Recipe for Week of May 8th

For this week I picked the Chocolate Sheet Cake on pages 218-220. Looks yummy! And I have some buttermilk I need to use up :)

Pot Roast and Oatmeal Crispies

Sorry, I got a bit behind! I actually made the Oatmeal Crispies and Pot Roast the weeks we were supposed to...I just never got around to posting.

The oatmeal crispies were so good! A lot better than I thought they were going to be. I dunno, in the picture on-line I didn't think they looked that great. Anyway, I made the cookies exactly as she said, but in half the dough I added chocolate chips. I loved just being able to slice the cookie dough. I don't have a picture of the cookies, but they were a hit. I don't normally add nuts to cookies because I didn't think I was a fan, but I loved the taste of the pecans in these cookies.

The Pot Roast was also a huge hit all around here. I made it exactly as the recipe says, with the fresh herbs and everything. I loved the carrots and onions. The meat was so tender and moist. And then it made great french dip sandwiches the next day! The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the little pine needles of the rosemary that were all over the vegetables and in the sauce. It looks so pretty, and the flavor was wonderful, but next time I might use dried rosemary instead of fresh.

Sorry this post is so late...

Kim's Brisket

So, I have been pretty behind on the recipes, but we did make this one yesterday and it was DELICIOUS!! I made the sauce exactly how she said but did it in the crock pot instead, it worked better with our church time. It was a major success. My kids were downing it and they are picky eaters. It was juicy, soft, and SO flavorful!! We made mashed potatoes and poured the leftover sauce from the brisket on them, YUM!!! Everyone should make this, it is so easy and worth it.

Leslee’s Brisket, Grits and Sugar Cookies

Tonight we enjoyed the Brisket and Grits for dinner.  They were AMAZING! I am not sure why but I loved them both! I thought the meat was probably some of the best I have ever eaten.  The grits were a fun change from potatoes or rice and also delicious. 

I made a few changes with the meat.  Beef consume has wheat in it so I just decided to use Beef Stock instead.  I probably used 2 or more cups of it, until the brisket was mostly covered.  I added the rest of the ingredients except liquid smoke and marinated the meat overnight in the crockpot dish things.  Today I cooked the brisket all day on low in the crockpot (about 10 hrs).  There was a lot of fat that I scrapped of it but the rest shredded up nicely.  The meat itself was very tender and moist and the juice made it even better.

I made half the recipe for the grits and followed the directions except used less butter.  I sprinkled more sharp cheddar on top after it was baked.

All in all a delicious meal that we all really liked!

When I saw Tarin’s review on the sugar cookies I decided to give them a shot to see if my results were the same.  I just made half a batch which was still plenty! Tarin commented on the amount of wet ingredients there were so I put in probably half the oil with the butter and then added an extra tablespoon or so of flour.  This helped the dough to become a good consistency and then I chilled it for several hours in the fridge. The dough was pretty stiff when I put it on the cookie sheet and seemed to hold up pretty well.  Sean and Knox both liked these cookies. PW did mention that they weren’t typical sugar cookies but they seemed okay. 

Tarin's take on the "Sugar Cookies"

Okay, let me say that I haven't felt completely let down by this cookbook until now. I love sugar cookies. Everyone loves sugar cookies, these were 1) not sugar cookies and 2) I don't think the dough even counted as a cookie dough based on how it mixed up.

I was really surprised to see so much oil added to the wet ingredients, I wasn't really excited by the flavor of the dough, all it tasted like was canola oil and cream of tartar (the dough is supposed to be the best part!), and I was especially concerned when the batter looked like buttercream frosting--even after sitting in the fridge for 2 hours. I'll I could think was that these cookies were going to melt.

Well needless to say my concerns were valid. This is what I pulled out of the oven 13 minutes later.

Since I had only put one batch in I scooped the rest of the dough into the bowl again and added 3/4-1 cup of flour and tried again.

This attempt held together a little bit better, but I was still really disappointed in the whole thing. They tasted okay, but nothing like I thought they would according to her description or picture. In fact all the oils made them pretty greasy. I guess I'll be sticking with my Martha recipe for sugar cookies from now on.

Jacki’s Review of Brisket and Cheese Grits

I was finally able to make these two recipes yesterday for dinner and they were both very tasty.  First the brisket – I bought a small one since there are only two of us here (2.5 lbs).  I wish I would have bought a little bigger brisket for more leftovers!  Anyway, I halved the marinade recipe and let the meat marinate for 24 hrs.  I didn’t have liquid smoke so I used 1 tsp. of smoky paprika instead.  I was tempted to cook it in the crock pot but wanted to test the cooking time so I went ahead and cooked it in the oven.  It took a lot longer than the 40 min. per pound – I ended up cooking it for about 65 minutes per pound.  It was still might tasty before then, it just didn’t wasn’t fork shreddable.  Next time I think I will cook it in the crock pot and see what results I get.  Regardless – the meat had a very good flavor.  Next came the grits.  I followed the recipe as directed except I cut it in half and used Monterey Jack cheese.  I thought they were quite tasty except I wasn’t sure if they were supposed to be porridge like or more solid.  I let them sit for 10 minutes after taking them out of the oven and they did get a little more solid.  Maybe I was supposed to bake them longer – I baked them for 30 minutes.
I have never made grits before so this was a totally new experience for me.  It isn’t something I would automatically think of making as a side dish but I thought these went well with the brisket.  Rich wasn’t a fan though.  Next time I would use a little less garlic and a little more cheese – probably sharp cheddar.

Sorry this is late...

I decided to choose the Angel Sugar cookie recipe from page 236. I just felt like desserts, big suprise!