Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Honey Roasted Potatoes

2 pounds of potatoes (I use a mix of 4 sweet potatoes, 2 red potatoes, 2 gold potatoes and 2 purple potatoes)
2 TBSP olive oil or coconut oil
2 TBSP honey
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Tony's seasoning
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Preheat oven to 350

Cut the potatoes into 1 inch pieces and put in a 9X13 baking dish. In a small bowl wisk together oil, honey and lemon juice. Pour mixture over potatoes and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and Tony's seasoning and bake uncovered for about 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes until potatoes are soft.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

Shortbread Crust:
1 cup butter
2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Cheesecake:
16 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon (about 2 TBSP)
1 pint of fresh blueberries
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Preheat oven to 350

Line a 9x13 baking dish with foil, lightly grease foil. Mix butter, flour and powdered sugar together until crumbly. Press in the bottom of prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool.

Reduce oven to 325

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the cream cheese and sour cream. Beat on medium speed until smooth. Add in the sugar and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in the vanilla, salt, lemon zest and lemon juice. Fold in the blueberries gently with a spatula until evenly incorporated. Pour the mixture over the cooled crust and gently spread into an even layer. Bake for 35 minutes or until just set and the center no longer jiggles when the pan is tapped. Let cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before slicing and serving.

I made these for the first time yesterday and, OH MY GOODNESS, they're DELICIOUS! I was looking for a recipe to use up a lemon and some blueberries I had and this was a definite winner. The original recipe (found here on Annie's Eats) called for a graham cracker crust but when I went to make it I discovered that I had no graham crackers and no graham cracker crumbs in the house. That's when I went to plan B and substituted a shortbread crust. It was so good I'll never make these any other way. I'm planning on making them again twice this week, for 2 different potlucks.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Peach Pie

 Prepared pie crust
1 egg, beaten
5 cups peaches, peeled and sliced
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter
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Preheat oven to 450

Line a 9 inch pie plate with half of the pie crust. Brush with some of the beaten egg to keep the crust from becoming soggy later.
Place sliced peaches in a large bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice. Mix gently. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Pour over the peaches and mix gently. Pour peaches into pie crust and dot with butter. Cover with the remaining pie crust and fold the edges under. Flute edges. Brush the remaining egg over the top crust. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Cut several slits in the top crust.
Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for an additional 30-35 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and juice begins to bubble through the vents. If the edges brown too fast, cover them with strips of aluminum foil halfway through baking time. Cool before serving. This pie tastes better warm than hot.

Grasshopper Fantasy Fudge

3 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
5 oz evaporated milk
2 cups white chocolate chips
1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow creme
1 tsp vanilla
15-20 mint Oreos, crushed
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Line a 9x13 pan with foil.

Bring sugar butter and milk to a full rolling boil in large saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add chocolate, marshmallow creme and vanilla. Stir until melted. Stir in crushed Oreos. Pour into prepared pan and allow to cool.


Blueberry Streusel Muffins

Streusel Topping:
4 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp flour
2 tsp vegetable oil

Muffins:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1-2 cups blueberries
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Preheat oven to 350. Grease muffin tin or line with paper liners.

Prepare streusel topping by whisking sugar and flour together in a small bowl. Add oil and mix until fully incorporated and you have a sandy texture. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and milk. Add flour, baking powder and salt and stir just until combined. Stir in blueberries.

Divide batter between 12 muffin cups and sprinkle with streusel topping. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

I have been looking for a good blueberry muffin recipe and this is it! They were quite a hit in our house. Thanks again to Barabra Bakes for posting another yummy recipe!

Microwave Chocolate Almond Fudge

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
1 cup chocolate chips
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
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Line an 8x8 pan with foil, butter the foil. Combine butter, milk and chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high until butter and chocolate chips are melted (1-3 minutes). Stir in powdered sugar, vanilla and almond extract. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until smooth (2-3 minutes). Spread in prepared pan. Cover and refrigerate until firm (1-2 hours)

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

My New Favorite Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 egg
2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
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Preheat oven to 400 degrees

In an electric mixer, cream butter and powdered sugar together. Add almond extract, vanilla and egg and mix well. Slowly add in baking powder and flour. When the dough is ready most of it should be sticking to the beater. If the dough is too sticky add up to 1/4 cup more flour.
Roll out on parchment paper or on a surface that has been sprinkled with powdered sugar. Roll out to about 1/4 inch thick (or a little thicker if you like really thick, soft cookies, like we do) Cut in desired shapes then bake for 6-8 minutes, rotating the pan 180 degrees half way through baking time.

I tried out 2 new sugar cookie recipes this past weekend. This one was delicious and the other one was just ok. I found this recipe on this fun cookie decorating blog She has some really great cookie decorating ideas and tips. The original recipe calls for 2 tsp baking powder, but I found that my cookies got too puffy and didn't keep their shape very well when I used that much, so I cut it down to 1 tsp. Also she uses unsalted butter, which I never buy, so I used regular butter and just cut the salt out of the recipe. This dough is awesome, though. You don't need to refrigerate it prior to rolling it out and it's really easy to work with. These cookies taste so good, even without frosting, but I can imagine that they would be absolutely amazing with some cream cheese frosting piled on top of 'em.