Stir Until Smooth

Stir then soak

Let this stir you up. Then soak it up.

Save the best for last

I know how they feel.

When I eat a Reece's Cup I always eat around the edge and save the precious circle of chocolate peanut butter for last.

Same with Cinnamon Rolls. Eat the edges first and the center is to be savored.

Looks like cows feel the same about their hay.

Warm up with Apple Cake

It's cold here in Oklahoma. Reaaaally cold for me right now because my heater broke in my office. I'd love to be at home in my warm house making apple cake, scrubbing the corners of my kithen floors with a tooth brush, watching old movies and/or playing Corinne Bailey Ray Put Your Records On loud as possible. However I am not home, I am here in this little office working away. So I am reposting this recipe because it makes me a little warmer thinking about the luxery of being home in the middle of the day cooking and creating. 

If your home today and you just so happen to have Granny Smith apples, brown sugar and some butter, put this together and let me know how it turns out.

Don't forget to turn up Corinne she makes everything just right.

Apple Cake
1 Cup Flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup soft butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups chopped peeled apples
1 cup chopped nuts
Mix dry ingredients together. Cream butter, sugar, and egg. Add to dry ingredients. Then add apples and nuts. Batter is very thick. Spread in the bottom of a 9x9 square baking pan. (If you double this recipe it will fill a 9x13 baking pan.)
Bake in oven 350 degrees until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. About 30 minutes.
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
In sauce pan melt butter slowly being careful not to burn. Once melted adds sugars and whipping cream. Heat and stir constantly until sugar has dissolved into butter. Remove from heat, add Vanilla.
When cake comes out of oven pour this mixture over the top of the cake. Let set a few minutes before serving. Good if served warm or cold.

When it bubbles like this on the corners you MUST IMMEDIATELY get a fork and take a bite!

Chocolate Bread Pudding

My memories of Bread Pudding are of my Grandma Vaughn. She would make bread pudding in a bread loaf pan. At 9 years old I was not crazy about it. She would give me slices and thanking her I would pretend to like it, however once her back was turned I would throw it out to the dogs. Once in March she had put green food coloring in it (St. Patrick's Day) and gave me slice after slice. I hid them under my pillow. When she turned down my bed that night she found 4 slices of green Bread Pudding with a small bite out of each of them. She was not happy with me.

Then about a year ago, maybe more, I seen a recipe for Bread Pudding on The Pioneer Woman Blog. Ick! Bread Pudding?!! She promised it was the best in the world. I thought, "Why not?"
So I made it.
Then proceed to eat way too much of it.
With a fork.
Straight from the pan.

Next is my fondness of baking things using the recipes on the back of products. Like the cookie recipes on the side of cake mixes or the chocolate cake on the back of Hershey's Chocolate. So last night at the grocery store I came across a bottle of Karo Brown Sugar Syrup. The bottle had a little recipe tag hanging from the top, tempting me to purchse and bake!

Chocolate Bread Pudding

1 cup Karo with real Brown Sugar
2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups Half and Half (I used whipping cream)
6 cups bread cubed, crust removed.

Microwave Karo on high for 1 1/2 minutes. Stir in chocolate chips and cinnamon. Whisk eggs and Half and Half together and add to chocolate mixture, stir until smooth. The syrup and egg mixture will try to seperate but make it as smooth as possible. Next add bread cubes, stir to coat and let soak for 20 minutes. Bake for 1 hour on 350.

I did not realize how hard it is to take pictures of brown food. It was hard to make it look appealing and I only had about 10 minutes before I had to leave for work (that was 20 minutes ago). So this is the best I could do. It's good bread pudding. If you like bread pudding anyway you'll love this.

Fun Monday

Pamela over at The Dust Will Wait is hosting Fun Monday. Fun Monday started a few years ago, Peter and I thought that it might be fun to see the view from people's front doors. Partially because I'm nosey, and partially because I'm very interested in other people's lives. (also known as nosey)

(It's 10 pm on Sunday night when I'm typing this post and my fun light burned out about 2 hours ago. I'm sleepy but I will PREVAIL!)

The assignment:
The subject: Show me in pictures or tell me in words what defines the place where you live.

One of the things my little town is known for is the Price Tower Arts Center. Frank Lloyd Wright designed this and was inspired by a tree of all things.

Every now and then there is an art exhibit you can walk through. Really amazing awe inspiring art that causes you to pause and take a moment to enjoy. My rugrats and I hate such art exhibits several times. Once I remember was everything to do with a ship. Abstract art, oil paintings, old parts of ships were on display. My son at the time was around 8 and he just loved. We always make note of the build board that advertises the new art on display but I'm sorry to say almost never take time to enjoy the exhibit.

A few years ago I was participating in a photo scavenger hunt type of thing and took pictures of The Price Tower as part of that assignment. Here are a few of my favorites.

The two little black spots are birds.

  

The current exhibition is Fallingwater en Perspectiva.

Maybe we will make the time to enjoy it while it is here.

If you like dark chocolate.....

This is so funny! This commercial plays 24 hours a day 7 days a week on channel 99 on direct tv. I found it yesterday and at first thought it was so dumb, but then so dumb that a few minutes later I was singing, "Sweet touch of love".

My son has requested this scent of Axe. We'll see how it works. I will be on hand to monitor the situation.

Gingerbread Brownies

Perfect cold weather treat! I made them with question as to if my family would like them or not. I had to fight to get a few for a photograph! They ate them right up!

Found on page 336 from The Best of Hometown Cooking. I like this cookbook. It is filled with simple easy to fix recipes from kitchens all over the United States.

Gingerbread Brownies

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup molasses
2 eggs
Powdered sugar for dusting

Now lets get to it!

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and cloves. (Be sure to smell the cloves and note the cozy feeling it will give you. Report back here.) In another bowl put together melted butter, molasses and eggs, stir this up to combine and then add it to the flour mixture. Stir this! DO NOT BEAT. The batter will be very thick.  Spread the batter in a 13x9x2 pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Time yourself. If you over bake, it will take away the chewy brownie part that I love the best. (You'll love it too I'm sure.)

Let cool. Dust with powdered sugar and viola!

Paula Dean Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Paula Dean is one of my favorite Food Network stars. Her food is full of "butta" and who can get too much butter? Really? Honestly?

I have a few of her cookbooks and came across this recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cake that uses Cornmeal. My memories of Pineapple Upside Down Cake are of my Mom. She made them at Easter for our HUGE family get togethers. (Seriously, HUGE Family! 16 aunts and uncles and a zillion cousins) I remember my Mom, more than once, making a pineapple upside down cake. Hers was a sheet cake and I would sneak away the maraschino  cherries. After it was cooked I didn't like the taste of it. To me it looked like "old people food". What caught me was the magic transformation and the clever way of putting the pretty stuff on the bottom of the pan which in the end turned out to be on top.

So this cake recipe from Paula Dean was the perfect size for my family of 4. It wasn't a sheet cake size to feed 40 old people. It was the perfect size for us. 2 old people and 2 younger people. Okay so yes, now I am eating "old people food" but lets not talk about exactly what that means.

Instead lets talk about this....

Pineapple Upside-Down Cornmeal Cake

Ingredients:
3/4 cup whole milk
1 cup coarse ground cornmeal
4 ounces unsalted butter
1 cup dark brown sugar pronounced "shuga"
6 slices canned pineapple in heavy syrup
6 maraschino cherries
1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted
3 tablespoons juice from canned pineapple
3 whole eggs
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil

I add three or four big heaping spoons full of crushed Pineapple to the batter. I couldn't find pineapple rings in heavy syrup, only crushed pineapple in heavy syrup.

Now lets get to it...

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a microwave-proof dish, bring the milk to a boil. Remove the milk from the microwave and add the cornmeal. Stir and let soak at room temperature for 30 minutes. Set aside. Melt the butter in a 10-inch round cake pan placed in the warm oven. Once the butter has melted, add the brown sugar and stir until blended.
Next place 1 slice of pineapple in the center of the pan. Place the other 5 slices around the center slice in a circle. Place the cherries in the centers of the pineapple slices and sprinkle the nuts evenly over the fruit and drizzle pineapple juice over top.

   

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium mixing bowl and whisk to combine. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the sugar to the eggs and whisk to combine. Add the canola oil and whisk. Add the cornmeal and milk mixture to the egg mixture and whisk to combine. Add this to the flour and stir just until combined, don't stir it too much. Pour the batter over the fruit and bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 30 minutes. Invert the cake and serve

See that brown goodness around the edges? That part is mine!

Great Gouloush

Goulash is something you make when the weather turns colder. When mums are being planted and apple cake is baked.

Goulash was my favorite dish when I was growing up. If I remember right it was the first dish my Mom let me fix by myself. Some people in my family (baby sister) did not like vegetables (and still doesn't even at the ripe age of 25) so even tho it was good, there wasn't any onions, peppers or mushrooms involved in it. There could have been a time when my Mom snuck in something like that but I can't image it went over very well.

Sometimes I make great goulash. Sometimes it' just "okay". This time I kept track of everything I put in so I would be able to make great goulash again. This is the first time I have added Brown Sugar to Goulash. My friend Milly said that you should add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar to anything with a sauce or meat cooking. It's the bomb diggity Goulash!

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds hamburger
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 cups water
• 1 (29-ounce) can tomato sauce
• 2 (15-ounce) cans diced tomato's
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons Oregano
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon seasoned salt
• 2 cups dried elbow macaroni

Now put it all together....

In a Dutch oven, saute the ground beef over medium-high heat, until no pink remains. Break up meat while sauteing. I like to use this handy tool from Pampered Chef.

It's WONDERFUL!  It will break up hamburger, or if you find an onion you missed it will chop it up too. Okay now add the onions, bell peppers and garlic to the pot and saute until they are tender about 5 minutes. Add 2 cups water, along with the tomato sauce, tomatoes, Oregano, pepper flakes, brown sugar, soy sauce,  and seasoned salt. Stir well. Place a lid on the pot and allow this to cook for 20 to 25 minutes.

Add the elbow macaroni, stir well, return the lid to the pot, and simmer for about 20 minutes. Turn off the heat, and allow the mixture to sit about 30 minutes more before serving.

This is good to make in advance because it warms up perfectly and tastes better every time.

Apple Cake

It's cold here in Oklahoma. Reaaaally cold for me right now because my heater broke in my office. I'd love to be at home in my warm house making apple cake, scrubbing the corners of my kithen floors with a tooth brush, watching old movies and/or playing Corinne Bailey Ray Put Your Records On loud as possible. However I am not home, I am here in this little office working away. So I am reposting this recipe because it makes me a little warmer thinking about the luxery of being home in the middle of the day cooking and creating. 

If your home today and you just so happen to have Granny Smith apples, brown sugar and some butter, put this together and let me know how it turns out.

Don't forget to turn up Corinne she makes everything just right.

Apple Cake
1 Cup Flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup soft butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups chopped peeled apples
1 cup chopped nuts
Mix dry ingredients together. Cream butter, sugar, and egg. Add to dry ingredients. Then add apples and nuts. Batter is very thick. Spread in the bottom of a 9x9 square baking pan. (If you double this recipe it will fill a 9x13 baking pan.)
Bake in oven 350 degrees until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. About 30 minutes.
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
In sauce pan melt butter slowly being careful not to burn. Once melted adds sugars and whipping cream. Heat and stir constantly until sugar has dissolved into butter. Remove from heat, add Vanilla.
When cake comes out of oven pour this mixture over the top of the cake. Let set a few minutes before serving. Good if served warm or cold.

When it bubbles like this on the corners you MUST IMMEDIATELY get a fork and take a bite!