Salmon and Egg on Toast

Salmon and Egg on Toast

Ingredients

• leftover grilled salmon (that was rubbed with EVOO, chopped dill, garlic, and salt+pepper)*
• prepared salad (that includes baby arugula, tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions)
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon EVOO
• salt and pepper
• 1 slice of toasted sandwich bread

Directions
In an effort to use up leftovers, stack the ingredients on top of each other, beginning with the toast.  Shred the salmon so that the fish is broken up and add onto your toast.  Add a layer of salad and an over-easy egg.  Yummmm.


*Salmon may also be baked in the oven.  Prepare the seasoning to your liking and bake in a "foiled tent" for 20 minutes at 400 degrees F.  

Monkey Bread

This is a party hit that is served as a "finger dessert."  Sugary, cinnamon-y, yumminess. :)

Monkey Bread

Original recipe from JoCooks

Ingredients:

• 3 cans Pillsbury biscuits (10 in each can)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 sticks butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

 

2. Cut each biscuit into quarters.

3. In a big Ziploc bag, add a cup of sugar, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and mix it well. Add the biscuit pieces to the bag. Close the Ziploc bag and shake until each piece is fully coated in the cinnamon sugar.

4. Put the cinnamon sugar coated pieces of biscuits in a bundt pan.

 

5. In a sauce pan melt the butter and add the brown sugar to it. Once the butter is melted and the sugar fully dissolved, pour it over the biscuit pieces.

6. Bake this for about 45 minutes, or until the top is dark brown.

Crepes

These crepes can be used as a base for whatever you want to fill them with.  For my first crepe-making experience, I include fresh strawberries and whipped cream in my final product.  Of course, crepes are made with other fruits, cheeses, meats, etc.  Use your imagination...bon appétit!


Basic Crepes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• pinch of salt
• 3/4 milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tablespoon melted butter, cooled
• 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• dash of cinnamon
• cooking spray
• choice of filling: strawberries and homemade whipped cream (shown)

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugars, cinnamon, and salt.  Add the milk, egg, butter, and vanilla.  Whisk until combined.
2. Refrigerate in an airtight container for at least 1 hour or up to 1 day.
3. Spray a skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium-low heat.  Ladle a third of the mixture into the pan in a circular motion...the mixture will begin to cook immediately.
4. Cook for 2 minutes.  Using a spatula, loosen the edges and quickly flip the crepe.  Cook for another 1-2 minutes.  Repeat with the rest of the crepe mixture.

Serve with your choice of fillings.  If you're using fruit, you should try it with my Homemade Whipped Cream! 

Whipped Cream

I am never buying store-bought whipped cream again.

Whipped Cream
makes about 1.5 cups

Ingredients

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons confectioners sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Put a clean, medium, glass bowl in the freezer.  The bowl NEEDS to be very cold while mixing.
2. Using an electric mixer, add the cream into the bowl and begin mixing.  When the cream begins to thicken, add the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time.  Pause mixing to add the vanilla extract.
3. Keep mixing until you reach the desired consistency. 

Hershey's Pretzels

These tiny treats are perfect for parties, whether you're the hostess or the guest.  Everyone loves them, and everyone should know how to make them!








Hershey's Pretzels

Ingredients

• Hershey's Hugs
• Snyder's Snap Pretzels
• milk chocolate m&m candies

Directions

1. Preheat oven 300 degrees F.
2. Line pretzels on a baking sheet and place an unwrapped Hershey's Hug on each pretzel.
3. Bake for 6-7 minutes.
4. Remove pretzels from oven and immediately press an m&m candy into the center of each Hershey's Hug.
5. Let treats cool to room temperature.  They taste best after being refrigerated! 

Banana-Craisin Bread Pudding

 

I love bread pudding, but I rarely have it.  I was excited to try Martha Stewart's recipe for bread pudding that included bananas and raisins.  This dessert was not overwhelmingly sweet...to sweeten it up, you can try using light brown sugar instead of the granulated.  Of course, I used Craisins instead of raisins because I have a bottomless bag of them from BJ's.  Loved it!

Banana-Craisin Bread Pudding
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Banana-Raisin Bread Pudding

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
• 1 1/4 cups 2% milk
• 8 slices of sandwich bread, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 large banana, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 1/4 cup Craisins
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• hot water
• vanilla ice cream (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray three ramekins with baking spray; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, vanilla, salt, and sugar until combined; whisk in milk.  Add bread, banana slices, and raisins.  Toss gently to combine.  Set aside for 10 minutes to let bread absorb the liquid.  Stir occasionally.  
3. Transfer mixture to prepared ramekins.  Sprinkle a mixture of 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon on top of the three mixtures.  Place ramekins on a shallow baking pan.  Add hot water to the bottom of the pan to help the process.  >>
4. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of each comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes.  Let cool 10 minutes before serving.  Serve with vanilla ice cream if desired.  >>

Simple Vanilla Icing

NE is playing NY today.  Time to bake treats in honor of my Patriots...Using my sugar cookie recipe, I created cookies that were easy to decorate with vanilla icing and colored sugar.  The icing was especially easy to make with my new immersion blender and whisk attachment. :)  Go Pats!

Simple Vanilla Icing
makes 1 cup  

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons milk

Mix ingredients together with the immersion blender (or another electric mixer).  Add more sugar for a thicker frosting or more milk for something less stiff.





Suggestion: Try this with Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies or Shaped Sugar Cookies!

Mini Cheesecakes

The perfect miniature dessert: creamy cheesecake filling with a graham cracker crust

Graham Cracker Crust

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Mix these ingredients altogether in a food processor and press into the bottom of cupcake liners (up 1/4 the length of the liners). Using a teaspoon helps the process.


Cheesecake Filling

Ingredients

• 2 (8 ounce) packages reduced fat cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 (21 ounce) can cherry or blueberry pie filling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Using an electric mixer, combine the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, and lemon juice. Fill each miniature muffin liner with this mixture, almost to the top. Bake for 15-17 minutes and top with the pie filling of your choice. This recipe makes 24 mini cheesecakes.

Peach Cobbler

I never buy peaches, and they are almost never in my kitchen.  However, as fate would have it, they were given to me while on vacation about a month ago.  I remembered seeing an episode of Paula's Home Cooking with Paula Deen in which she makes this incredible-looking peach cobbler.  Of course I had to try it; this was a rare opportunity!  I followed Paula's recipe, even watching the video a few times to learn her strategies.  I had to buy the self-rising flour, but everything else was already handy.  I used a round ceramic bowl instead of one like Paula's, and it still worked out well.  The end result was very good, but I think it needed a little more cinnamon, and brown sugar would also provide a little kick to it.  This would be a good recipe for apples, too.

Peach Cobbler
Paula Deen's recipe can be found HERE (courtesy of Food Network).  Paula's antics at the 2:12 time on the video are also hilarious...she's too much sometimes!

Ingredients

• 4 cups peeled, sliced peaches
• 2 cups sugar, divided
• 1/2 cup water
• 8 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/2 cups reduced fat milk
• ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine the peaches, 1 cup sugar, and water in a saucepan and mix well.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat.
3. Put the butter in a baking dish and place in the preheating oven to melt.
4. Mix remaining 1 cup sugar, flour, and milk slowly to prevent clumping.  Pour mixture over melted butter.  Do not stir!  Spoon fruit on top, gently pour in syrup.  Sprimple top with ground cinnamon.  Batter will rise to the top during baking.
5. Bake for 30-45 minutes, until golden brown.

Carrot and Bunny Cupcakes

When you use a box of cake mix to make cupcakes, the least you can do is add a little creativity with the decorations.  Therefore, to acknowledge Easter, I made a batch of Carrot Cake Cupcakes with marshmellow bunnies on the top.  They were a hit!  However, marshmellows do not taste very good with carrot cake; so many people opted to eat them separately or just throw them away.  No worries, though; the bunnies were just for show. :)

Carrot and Bunny Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 box of Carrot Cake mix
• 1 can of Orange Soda
• 1 container of cream cheese frosting
• 18 large marshmallows (for the ears)
• 18 large marshmallows (for the faces)
• 32 miniature chocolate chips (for the eyes)
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon (for the noses)
• 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts (optional)
• Muffin tins

I use a can of soda when baking with boxes of cake mix; so my first step was to mix the can of Orange Soda with my carrot cake mix.  Then, I placed my muffin tins in a 12-spot mini-muffin tray.  Fill each cup a little more than 3/4 of the way up the muffin tin.  Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for the time stated on the box.  When the muffins have baked and cooled, frost the cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting.  Next, cut 18 of your large marshmallows in the middle of the cylinder to create 2 round faces.  Continue until all the cupcakes have a round face on them.  Next, take the rest of you large marshmallows and cut them diagonally to create the ears.  Place the point side of the ears into the frosting.  I found it easiest to keep the ears in place by making sure that the stick parts of the marshmallow can be squeezed together at the top.  Next, use the mini chocolate chips to create two dark eyes for the bunnies.  With a toothpick, use the teaspoon of ground cinnamon to carefully dust noses on each of the bunnies.  For contrast, add chopped walnuts around each of the bunnies.

Kingdom of Trifles

  

My favorite dessert to make (as well as being the easiest) is the Trifle Bowl.  The ingredients are so, so simple, and it always comes out delicious!!

I have made a number of different kinds, but there are basic ingredients for all: cake, pudding, and whipped cream.  A trifle makes for a tasty treat that looks good when it is fully intact; however, it will start to look like a hot mess once people start digging in.  Not to worry, though, I've never served one where the bowl wasn't emptied after 15 minutes.  The recipe is as follows:

Trifle Bowl

Ingredients

1. 1 box of cake mix*
2. 1 12oz. can of soda (optional)
3. 2 packages of instant JELL-O pudding
4. Four cups of 2% milk
5. Light Cool-Whip*
6. "something extra special" for texture

*Of course, you can always make cake from scratch or whip your own cream...but I've found that when making a trifle, it doesn't really matter because the taste is still great; so save your time and get the store-bought stuff!

Directions

The baking of the cake should always be the first step because the cake needs time to cool before assembly.  I like to use a can of soda when making cake mixes because it makes me feel like I am making a healthier decision to skip the cup of oil.  For chocolate or red velvet cakes, I use Diet Coke; for golden or white cake, use Sprite; and for carrot cake, use Sprite or orange soda.  Only one can is necessary to mix and bake the cake.  The soda substitutes for the eggs, oil, and water that you normally use for cake boxes.  However, you should still use the same baking time in the preheated oven (at 350 degrees Fahrenheit).  I like to use the 9" x 13" pan because it's easier for me to cube the cake later on.

Once the cake has been baked and cooled, you can make the instant pudding.  Four cups of 2% milk to make the 2 packages of pudding.  Mix well, and let it settle for 5-8 minutes.  

Try to acquire a glass or plastic trifle bowl.  Trifle bowls are pretty cheap at places like the Christmas Tree Shop (around $7), and they help you create a great presentation.  Before layering your trifle, cut the cake into even squares in the pan. The first layer is cake, followed by a layer of pudding.  Next, layer the light Cool Whip, and repeat.

The "something extra special" for texture depends on your "theme" for the trifle.  For my Red Velvet Trifle (picture above), I toasted sliced almonds in my toaster oven on the Toast- 2 setting.  I also chose French Vanilla flavored pudding.  I always add my "something extra special" after the Cool Whip.  Here, I put my almonds before continuing with another layer of cake.  For the final layer, you should always end with your whipped cream.  For the Red Velvet Trifle, the top layer included sliced almonds and chocolate shavings...yummm.

The special something for my Chocolate and Banana Trifle included banana slices between the layers and blocks of chocolate with the slices on the top.  Also delicious.

The special something for my White Chocolate Funfetti Trifle included chocolate chips.