Blueberry Cheesecake

Dad is the cheesecake man. He makes really fantastic cheesecakes that are ginormous. And that means they are really, really big. Since I don't get to see him very often, he made a huge effort to make every yummy treat he knew how to make.

It resulted in 4 cheesecakes and a key lime pie in a week. I gained 5 pounds. Mom and Hali counted the desserts in the fridge one night: 5 choices. Obviously I had one of each. Every night. Someone please save me from myself. Nobody should be so committed to dessert. (But it is really good.)

If you know Dad, give him a call. He is the cheesecake man. If you don't know him you will have to make your own cheesecake. Several other flavors will be coming soon.

Blueberry Cheese Cake

Crust

For 10 inch springform pan For 9 inch springform pan

1 ½ cups vanilla wafer crumbs 1 cup vanilla wafer crumbs

¾ cup flaked coconut – toasted ½ cup flaked coconut – toasted

3/8 cup finely chopped walnuts ¼ cup finely chopped walnuts

3 T sugar 1/8 cup sugar

½ cup butter – melted 6 T butter – melted (a little less butter works ok) Combine 1st 4 ingredients in bowl – stir in butter Press onto bottom an 1 in up sides of springform pan Refrigerate for 15 min.

Cook Sauce

2 ½ cups blueberries

¼ cup sugar (combine sugar and cornstarch before adding) (little less sugar)

3 t cornstarch

1 T water

1 T lemon juice

Cook until it thickens.

Filling

3 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese – softened

1 (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Beat cream cheese and condensed milk till combined. Add eggs and vanilla; beat till combined Pour ½ in to crust. Add ½ of blueberry sauce. Add rest of filling. Swirl in the rest of blueberry sauce. Place pan on baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 50 to 60 min or until center is nearly set Cool for 10 min. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen. Refrigerate overnight

Monkey Bread Monkeys

Cienna promised to show me how to make monkey bread. I remembered it as a gooey, sticky, caramelized treat when I was a kid. Could it possibly be as good now?

Apparently these kids think so. They must be the monkey bread monkeys. I thought it was great, too.

Monkey Bread

In glass pie pan or bundt cake pan, mix:

2 T butter

1 T water

1/3 C brown sugar

If you are over 40 years old, add chopped nuts.

Heat in microwave 30 seconds, or until butter melts (optional)

Cut refrigerator biscuits into quarters. Add to sugar mixture and stir to coat. Push away from center and put a glass in the center.

Cook in the microwave 3 1/2 minutes or bake in the oven 10 minutes at 400 degrees. If you are using the bundt cake pan you have to bake it. Flip onto a plate and serve immediately. Double recipe if you are serving more than 6 people.

Strawberry Daiquiri

When we woke up 2 hours later than we had planned on Saturday morning, Kevin called the strawberry farm to ask if we could come later in the day. They stayed open until 1:00, so we drove to the farm and picked a flat of berries before coming home and devouring half of them. Then we realized that they would be gone soon if we didn't stop eating and start cooking.

Of course, freezer jam was on the 'absolutely must' list. If you are in need of a little jam, send me an email or a comment and I'll put you on the Christmas list. Or the 4th of July list. It lasts a year in the freezer, and we have been looking for things to give people that are consumables and not super-de-duper unhealthy. Not that jam can be classified as healthy....

I can't give you a recipe for freezer jam because all brands of pectin are slightly different so you have to use the recipe on the box. Get the 'low sugar' pectin.

The jam was setting and the berries were still looking at me when we started getting ready for a party. I suddenly realized that I hadn't had a strawberry daiquiri since 11th grade, when I ordered one on a date. It was sweet and cold and tasted just like summer should. Of course, it was a virgin one, and it was exactly the taste I wanted to sip all night.

I found a recipe and proceeded to change the amounts and ingredients. You know how I once said that I always make a recipe exactly according to the directions the first time? Well, I've been paying attention since then, and I haven't made a recipe exactly as written in over a year. Oh, well. I guess no recipe is safe in my hands.

The original called for lemon juice and white sugar, but I don't like lemon and I had a bottle of maple syrup in the fridge that was starting to crystallize. If you use regular sugar, mix it with the other juices and blend it for a bit before adding the ice to make sure it dissolves. The orange juice is so good that I highly doubt anyone will ever want to use lemon juice ever again.

Strawberry Daiquiri

1/4-1/3 C maple syrup (start with 1/4 C and add more if you want it to be sweeter)

4 ounces frozen strawberries

1/8 C lime juice

1/2 C orange juice

3 cups ice

spiced rum such as Captain Morgan (optional)

Mix everything except the rum in the blender until it is slushy and there are no ice chunks.Pour into a glass and top with a fresh strawberry and serve with a straw and an umbrella.

If you want this to be a little more like a sorbet, put it in the freezer and get it out every half hour to blend it again with the stick blender until it is frozen. That way it will stay scoopable but still icy instead of freezing into one large ice block.

If you plan to add the rum, use closer to 1/3 or 1/2 C of maple syrup and let each person add their own rum so they can choose how strong to make it.

Bye, bye, strawberry hulls.

Strawberry Topped Brownies

Are you scared of sweetened condensed milk? If so run far, far away. And hand me your brownie before you scamper off.

The brownie itself is nothing special. It is made with a brownie mix - any box will do. Add one more egg than it calls for to make it a little extra cakey. You can make them in a pan or in cupcake papers. This time I made regular cupcakes and mini cupcakes because I wanted less messy individual servings.

Then. Get. Ready. To. Be. Delighted. The frosting is what makes these brownies delicious. It is sweet and tangy and shouldn't be eaten by the spoonful, although it is tempting. Someone please come hide all my spoons because they are just BEGGING me to get a heap of this sticky sweet ambrosia and eat the rest of the bowl.

Brownie Topping

1 Can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 C cold water

1 pkg instant pudding (vanilla, white chocolate, or cheesecake)

4 oz whipped topping, thawed

1 pint fresh strawberries

Mix the sweetened condensed milk and cold water, then beat in the pudding. Chill for 5 minutes and add the whipped topping. Spread on cooled brownies and top with sliced strawberries. Serve within a couple of hours. The strawberries start to get icky after too long.

Mmmm...tempting dessert or tantalizing husband.....delicious dessert or deliciously sweet hubby....can I have both?

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

We started making ice cream at 8:45 on a work night. Halfway through grating the chocolate chips, Katie had had enough and she went to play a game on the computer. Kevin came in to help grate the chocolate and left the kitchen in a chocolate massacre. There were melty chocolate shavings covering every flat surface in a 10 foot radius. I started to analyze if he did more harm than good, but then figured that he grated all of it in less than 3 minutes, plus it was already done, so I should count my blessings and give him a big ole' kiss.

After the ice cream was in the freezer I sat down with the laptop to check Facebook. There it was on Katie's status: "I'm so bored."

WHAT THE HECK!??! I'm staying up late for HER ice cream, and she sneaks off to write about how bored she is. What gives?

Then she made up for it, plus some, with this sweet note on my windshield:

(And she laughed the whole time she helped me write this post. Here is a refresher on the nickname Megasaurous Wrecks.)

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

2 1/2 C milk

2 3/4 C sugar

1 t salt

2 1/2 C half and half

1 1/2 t vanilla extract

6 C whipping cream

12 oz (2 C) grated semisweet chocolate

2 t peppermint extract (or less - it was pretty strong)

1 1/2 green food coloring

Scald milk until bubbles form around edge of pan. Remove from heat. Add sugar and salt. Stir until dissolved. Stir in half and half, vanilla, and whipping cream, peppermint extract, and green food coloring.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Freeze in ice cream freezer.

While ice cream is freezing, melt the chocolate and spread it thinly on the back of a cookie sheet. Put the pan in the freezer for 10 minutes, then use a metal spatula to scrape off the chocolate, which will break in thin, rough chunks.

When ice cream is frozen, after removing dasher, immediately stir in chocolate chips.

Sour Cream Pumpkin Coffee Cake

I am so done making desserts for a while. The first step for me is to remove the "sweets" blogs from the list that I follow and sign up for a few healthy ones instead. But this coffee cake is extraordinarily yummy, so it is totally worth the break in etiquette.

The first time I really paid attention to coffee cake was during seminary. Connie made this awesome coffee cake and I recently asked her for the recipe only to realize with horror that it was a combination of nothing but sugar and Crisco. So I found this recipe instead.

For some reason I have been on a pumpkin streak. Last year in November I really stocked up on canned pumpkin. I wanted to make sure I could find it during the year, and I was positive that I would eat pies and smoothies and all kinds of fantastic creations all year. Not so much. This month is the first time I have delved into pumpkin since last Thanksgiving.

Sour Cream Pumpkin Coffee Cake By Libby’s Pumpkin
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sour cream
1 3/4 cup (16 ounce can) solid pack pumpkin
1 slightly beaten egg
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Streusel (recipe below)

Cream butter, 3/4 cup sugar and vanilla in mixing bowl. Add 3 eggs, beating well. Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture alternately with sour cream.

Combine pumpkin, beaten egg, 1/3 cup sugar and pie spice. Spoon half of batter into 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish, spread to corners. Sprinkle half of the Streusel over batter. Spread pumpkin mixture over Streusel. Carefully spread remaining batter over pumpkin mixture. Spread remaining Streusel over top. Bake at 325 degrees F for 50 to 60 minutes or until a wooden pick comes out clean.

Streusel
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup rolled oats or quick oats or chopped nuts
Combine brown sugar, butter and cinnamon until blended. Stir in oats. Take one big bite just to make sure it is OK.

Gingerbread Cake

Ginger. Ha a more delicious word ever been invented?

Shockingly, Kevin does not like ginger. I found this out the hard way. We were walking around Minnehaha Falls, and we stopped in the snack shop for ice cream. Harper was with us, and we couldn't all go inside, so I went in alone.

Inside the gift shop I was confronted with an issue. Kevin wanted cookies and cream, and one of the other ice cream flavors was ginger. Great. We had the flavors figured out. Two cups with one scoop each was $1 more than two scoops in the same cup. What is a cheapskate to do?

I got both scoops in the same cup. Ginger was on the top and the flavor infiltrated the cookies and cream. Kevin was very, very cranky because he couldn't eat his cookies and cream, and he didn't want to go back inside and get another cup. Ahhh... It took several months, but we finally moved past the ginger escapade.

In spite of all the trouble it has caused, ginger will always hold a special place with my taste buds. This cake was dense, rich, and completely satisfying of my craving.

Gingerbread Cake

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C butter, softened

1 egg

1 C molasses (I used half black strap, half regular)

2 1/2 C whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

1 t ground ginger (I used 1/2 t ground ginger and 1 t grated fresh ginger)

1/2 t ground cloves

1/2 t salt

1 C hot water

Grease a 9 inch square pan. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, and mix in the molasses. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Blend into the creamed mixture. Stir in the hot water. Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees, until a knife inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan before serving.

Honey Peach Ice Cream

I've been dreaming about it - FANTASIZING about it - for months. I reminisced about Texas peaches, and how Hali and I bought some from a roadside stand. It was heaven on earth. If I could live my life in Texas, eating peaches and making ice cream, it would be a thoroughly fulfilling life. Well....at least if Kevin was there, eating everything with me.

The peaches weren't from Texas, but the ice cream was still delicious. Ahhhh.....who says the way to a woman's heart isn't through her stomach?

Honey Peach Ice Cream

4 large ripe peaches, peeled and coarsely chopped

1/4 C honey

1 C whole milk

1 C cream

3 large egg yolks

1/2 C sugar

2 t vanilla

Put 2 peaches in a small saucepan with the honey. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the peaches are soft but not mushy (10 minutes.) Blend with a hand blender then set the puree aside while you make the custard.

Bring the milk and cream to a boil in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. In a medium bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar until well blended and slightly thickened. While whisking, stir 1/3 of the hot milk which will temper the eggs so they don't curdle. Continue whisking and pour in the rest of the milk mixture.

Put the milk/cream/egg mixture into a pan over medium heat until the custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon. If you run your finger down the bowl of the spoon, the custard should not run into the track. It should reach 170 degrees, but not go over 180 degrees.

Remove from pan and pour into a 2 quart glass measuring cup. Stir in vanilla and peach puree. Refrigerate until chilled then churn into ice cream according to your ice cream freezer's directions.

Finely dice the remaining 2 peaches. Just before the ice cream is thickened, add the peaches and churn to blend. Remove from the ice cream freezer and pack into a bowl. Freeze for 2 hours until it is firm enough to scoop.

Dreamy Rose Pavlova

Many, many years ago in a land far, far away Grandma Grabbert got a recipe for pavlova from New Zealand. Although it was labor-intensive, she made it religiously for every major holiday. After I left for college she even made it just for me when I got back.

The only problem was that I hated pavlova. I used every means possible to escape the pavlova trap. Then last year, after an avalanche of once disdained foods became palatable to me, I tried pavlova again. It was wonderful. Grandma Grabbert uses strawberries and kiwis to decorate it. This recipe calls for rose petals and raspberries, but we had peaches, strawberries, and blueberries, so that is what we used. If you use rose petals, be sure they were grown without piesticides and were intended for human consumption.

The best thing about this pavlova is that Mom made the whole thing while I lounged on the couch. She is such a good mom, and I am such a bad daughter. Do you love me anyways, Mom?

Dreamy Rose Pavlova
4 egg whites
1 1/4 C sugar
2 t cornstarch
1 t red or white wine vinegar
1 t vanilla extract
1 1/4 C heavy cream
2 t rosewater
2 1/2 C chopped fruit
edible rose petals to decorate

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Make sure the bowl you use to whisk the eggs is spotlessly clean and grease-free. Add egg whites and whisk until they stand in peaks.

Mix together the sugar and cornstarch, then add the egg whites in 2 or 3 batches, whisking all the time to achieve a beautiful, glossy white meringue mixture. Finally, stir in the wine vinegar and vanilla extract.

Spoon the mixture onto the parchment paper, gently spreading it out into a circle 8-9 inches in diameter. Place in a preheated oven, 350 degrees, turn the heat down to 300 degrees, and bake for 1 1/4 hours, or until crisp. Let it cool in the oven if it isn't so brown that it will burn.

Whip the heavy cream until it forms soft peaks, then whisk in the rosewater. Heap this on top of the pavlova and cover with the fruit and rose petals if you are using them. Serve as soon as possible, though it can wait up to 24 hours.

Dutch Babies with Rhubarb Sauce

You know it's bad when you start eating babies. I mean....that's about as bad as it could possibly get. But here we are serving Dutch Babies to dinner guests. Just for future reference, I have absolutely no hard feelings for anyone who is Dutch. If they didn't have such tender, succulent babies I would leave them alone.

Dad cut a bunch of rhubarb from their yard and brought it out to us. When he does something, he goes all out and he ended up bringing a WHOLE grocery bag full of rhubarb stems. We had no choice but to get into the kitchen and make something with it.

Dutch Babies

1/3 C milk

1/3 C flour

2 large eggs

1 T butter, melted

1/4 t baking powder

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a muffin pan in the oven to warm it while blending the ingredients. Blend all ingredients until batter is smooth. Put batter into 12 muffin cups. Bake for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 6 minutes, or until puffed and golden, and centers are firm.

While the dutch babies are cooking, hull and halve 1 pint of strawberries and chop 2 ripe peaches. Drizzle 2 T of honey over the fruit and toss to coat.

Remove hot Dutch Babies from baking cups to small plates. Top with rhubarb sauce and fruit. Sprinkle toasted almonds on top of the fruit and serve immediately.

Rhubarb Sauce

1/2 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
3 cups thinly sliced rhubarb

Bring water and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the rhubarb, turn heat to low, cover, and simmer until rhubarb is soft, 10 to 15 minutes. Mash and chill in the refrigerator, about one hour.

Chocolate Cherry Biscotti

Apparently, there were a lot of unhappy blog readers when I made the almond biscotti instead of the chocolate ones. In order to correct the error of my ways [well, at least in this case] I have ponied up the effort to make another batch of biscotti. Now I desperately need somebody to come eat some of this biscotti before I eat the entire batch.

Kevin ate one and he didn't mention if he liked it or not. All he said was, "This is really chocolaty!" If you kinda, sorta like chocolate, don't attempt this recipe. If you are a tried and true chocolate lover, this is the recipe for you.

Somehow, I get the feeling that when it said, "sprinkle each log with a little sugar" this isn't what it had in mind.

This was supposed to be the top picture, but that chair looks really silly. Doh! I don't care if the chair is there or not. I still want to eat the biscotti and drink the milk. 'Cause if you don't have some milk handy, you will wish you did.


This was another optional photo. The grass is finally green, so I really wanted it to be this picture, but it took all the richness out of the biscotti. It is such a dark chocolate that it is almost black.

Chocolate Biscotti
2 C flour
1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1 t salt
3/4 stick butter, room temperature
1 C sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 t vanilla extract
3/4 C chocolate chips or chunks, chopped
1/3 C dried cherries, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and put the rack in the center. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.


Whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.

In a large bowl with a hand mixer (or a stand mixer with a cookie paddle) mix the butter and sugar at a medium speed for 3 minutes, until very smooth. Add the eggs and beat, scraping down the sides of the bowl, for 2 more minutes until it is light, smooth, and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract.Reduce the speed to low. Mix in the dry ingredients in 3 batches until just combined. It will be sticky and ball up around the beaters. Toss in the dried fruit and chocolate chunks until just blended.

Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a rectangle about 12 inches long, 4 inches wide, and 1 inch tall. Don't worry about making it completely even. Sprinkle each log with a little sugar.

Bake for 25 minutes, until they are just slightly firm. Transfer the baking sheet to a rack and cool the logs for 20 minutes on the baking sheet. Leave the oven on.

Carefully move the logs with a spatula to a cutting board and cut into 3/4 inch slices with a bread knife. Stand the biscotti up on the parchment paper, with the bottom of the log still on the bottom, and a little room between each slice. Bake for another 10 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool to room temperature.

Watermelon Strawberry Slushies

In Vegan Soul Kitchen, Bryant Terry mentions that he used to avoid watermelon because of the racial stereotypes associated with it. That was a surprise to me. The first time I heard about that stereotype was when the mayor in California resigned over the cartoon about the Easter egg hunt using watermelons instead of eggs this year at the White House.

Now I wonder why I was born white. If there ever was a watermelon lover, it is me. Kevin makes fun of me for eating half a watermelon in one sitting. When I buy a watermelon, Kevin will buy an extra one if he feels like eating some because he knows that there isn't enough in one melon for me and anyone else.

At first glance, I took issue with adding honey to the wonderfully sweet watermelon. But who am I to criticize a fellow watermelon lover? The slushies are wonderful with the honey, and I will never again doubt anything Bryant suggests.

Watermelon Strawberry Slushies

8 cups of watermelon juice (blend seeded watermelon cubes until you get the right amount)

2 cups frozen strawberries

2 T lime juice

1/8 C honey

berries or mint for garnish

Fill two large ice cube trays with the watermelon juice and freeze until solid. Mix the watermelon ice cubes, the rest of the watermelon juice, and the rest of the ingredients and blend with a hand blender. If you are using a regular blender you may need to blend in 2 batches.

Lenox Almond Biscotti

I've never been to New York City and have absolutely no intention of ever changing that. This recipe came from the restaurant Lenox, which I am sure is way out of my budget even if I did go to New York. There is a chocolate biscotti recipe that I almost made instead of this one, but this recipe had a picture in the cookbook Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, so it was the one that I tried first. By the way, that cookbook is 472 pages of nothing but desserts. Oh my. . . .it just might be the death of me.

Speaking of cookbooks, I currently have 5 checked out from the library at the moment and have about 20 recipes tagged. It's gonna be a bus weekend.

When shaping the logs, they can be shaped roughly, but this is the basic shape.

Yummm. . . .I could hardly stand to wait until they came out of the oven. They are almondy and delicious.

Lenox Almond Biscotti

1 1/2 C flour

1 1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1/2 C cornmeal

1 stick butter, room temperature

1 C sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 t almond extract

3/4 C sliced almonds

1/3 C dried fruit

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and put the rack in the center. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add the cornmeal and whisk again.

In a large bowl with a hand mixer (or a stand mixer with a cookie paddle) mix at a medium speed for 3 minutes, until very smooth. Add the eggs and beat, scraping down the sides of the bowl, for 2 more minutes until it is light, smooth, and creamy. Beat in the almond extract.

Reduce the speed to low and mix in dry ingredients until just combined. It will be sticky and ball up around the beaters. Toss in the dried fruit and almonds until just blended.

Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a rectangle about 12 inches long, 2 inches wide, and 1 inch tall. Don't worry about making it completely even.

Bake for 15 minutes, until they are lightly golden but still soft and springy to the touch. Transfer the baking sheet to a rack and cool the logs for 30 minutes on the baking sheet.

Carefully move the logs with a spatula to a cutting board and cut into 3/4 inch slices with a bread knife. Stand the biscotti up on the parchment paper, with the bottom of the log still on the bottom, and a little room between each slice.

Bake for another 15 minutes, until they are golden and firm. Transfer to racks and cool to room temperature.

Sweet Potato Pecan Balls

Sweet potatoes. Was there ever a more perfect food? Aldi's has run out of bags, which were $1.50 for 3 pounds, so I am stuck with buying them at Rainbow. Even at twice the price, this makes a cheap dessert.

They are also really easy. I know the directions are a bit long, but the whole process takes less than 10 minutes, half of which is nuking the tater. Another great thing about them is that I get to use my Silpat mats, which Santa brought and have been woefully under utilized.

Hey - where did that 9th ball come from? Either it is a really big rascal or else I can't count . . .


Sweet Potato Pecan Balls
1 medium sweet potato - scrubbed
2 T butter
8 pecan halves, chopped (about 2 T)
up to 1 T sugar or honey (I didn't use any)
1 t ground cinnamon
salt to taste

Preheat the broiler. Wrap the potato in a paper towel and microwave at full power for 5 minutes, until soft to the touch. Slice open and scoop out the pulp with a spoon.While still hot, mix in the butter. Add the pecans, sugar, and cinnamon. Mix thoroughly and form into 8 balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.

Place on a baking sheet and put it about 4 inches under the broiler. Broil until slightly crusty, 2-3 minutes. Turn the balls over and broil for 2 more minutes. Sprinkle with salt and serve.

Popcorn S'mores

The first 3 years of our marriage left our popcorn air popper sad and lonely. Kevin didn't like air popped popcorn, and I never thought about using it. Then, one fateful day, I decided to make some popcorn and really loaded it up on butter and salt. Do you know how they say that people are mostly water, and if you took all of it away you would be just a little dirt? That doesn't hold true for Kevin. He is 80% salt, and the only thing keeping the salt in one piece is the little bit of water. When food is so salty that I can't even eat it, he will add extra salt to his plate. Eeek.

That was when Kevin discovered that he liked air popped popcorn. In fact, he liked it enough to ask for some more the next weekend. It has progressed to the point that if the word "popcorn" is mentioned in conversation, Kevin will automatically stand up, go to the kitchen, and start popping popcorn. It is almost like he has been hypnotized to respond to that word.

Then 101cookbooks.com had a recipe for chili lime popcorn, and we made it and it was excellent. We got the book and now we need to start trying new recipes for popcorn.

Of course, my first recipe is a sweet one. I have been salivating over the popcorn smores for several weeks. Every day I would remind myself to buy some Golden Grahams on the way home, and every day I would forget. On Friday night I finally got some, and immediately upon entering the house, I started to make the smores. Of course, Kevin edged in first (because I had said the P word) and made a batch of buttery popcorn to go with the sweet bars.

I was planning to drizzle chocolate on top of the bars, but there is already chocolate inside, so I left it off of the top.

Popcorn S'Mores

4 quarts air popped popcorn

1/2 stick butter

1/2 t vanilla

5 cups mini marshmallows

1 cup Golden Grahams

1 cup chocolate chips

Melt the butter and then mix in the marshmallows and melt them. Stir it up with 1/2 t of vanilla. Mix in the popcorn and Golden Grahams, and then the chocolate chips. Press into a 9X13 pan and let cool before cutting into bars.

Banana Bread

We had a miserable time making banana bread when were first married. We tried fancy recipes but it is hard to get excited about a recipe with 37 ingredients, so finally Kevin broke down and called his mom. She gave him a very simple recipe: tons of butter, two tons of sugar, 4 tons of flour, 2 eggs, and 3 bananas. Now I know why Monica was always so adamant about NOT buttering banana bread.

A month ago I saw a recipe on one of my favorite blogs: A Greener Tea. (Click on the name to go to the site.) You have to check out the recipe on her blog just to see the note her darling kids left for her. What sweet angels. This whole blog is about embracing your age. It is for women 35 and older, but I figure, what the heck, I can't wait until I'm 40 so I qualify in spirit if not yet in age.

This recipe has a bunch of strange ingredients: flax seed, wheat germ, and wheat bran. Hali says that we can't digest flax seed, so don't bother putting it in stuff. Too bad, Hali. Sadly, I only had to improvise on one ingredient. I had no wheat bran, but, on an even more sad note, I did have bran flakes, so I ground those up and used them instead.

It is a sign of a defeated woman to have bran flakes in her food storage. Especially when it is in the section that actually gets used.

Kevin saw some flax in the bottom of the bread loaf pan, and asked if flax was in the banana bread. That is a deal breaker for him. I told him there was some ground flax but the muffins didn't have any whole pieces on the bottom, and you couldn't even taste them. It wasn't good enough - now he won't even try them. Good! Now there's more for me. I'll let you tomorrow if there is too much fiber.....

Isn't this weird? The muffin on the left was the first batch, and I mixed the dry ingredients, then the wet, then folded them together. The one on the right came together by throwing everything into a bowl and mixing it up. The one on the right has noticeably less texture. And I didn't use a blur effect in PhotoShop. I did use some of The Pioneer Woman's PhotoShop actions, but only "Boost" to brighten the image a bit. Both mixing methods taste the same.

** Special Note ** If you are new to the Pioneer Woman, do not look at her Chicken, Bacon and Cheese Sandwich while at work, or you will be accused of looking at food porn. This is especially true if you are salivating over her food right before lunch.

Banana Bread with goofy ingredients
3 bananas, mashed
½ C yogurt
1 t baking soda
1 egg
1 t vanilla
2 T oil
1/2 C dark brown sugar
1 ½ C whole wheat flour
1 t baking powder
¼ C ground flax seed
¼ C wheat germ
¼ C wheat bran

Mix everything together and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes, or until golden brown.

Butterscotch Bread Pudding

Joe, the chef at the cafeteria, makes caramel bread pudding that everyone raves about. I have studiously avoided it because....well.....I had a bad experience with bread pudding when I was a teenager.

I was at a friends house, and his mom served bread pudding that took 'pudding' literally. It was mushy and bland and I barely choked it down, smiling with every bite. Somehow I was able to be polite at other people's houses even though I was a complete punk at home. My mom must be a saint to have put up with me.

So I have been completely flabbergasted when people at work would go buy some bread pudding and then thoroughly enjoy every bite. Surely they weren't being polite - they never make an effort to be polite any other time. What was this fascination with bread pudding?

Finally, I gave in and tried a piece. It wasn't the slimy glob I remembered, but firm and sweet and deliciously caramel. Since I think it costs too much to buy food from the cafeteria every day, Kevin and I decided to try a bread pudding recipe for our Valentine's Day dessert.

Here's the cast of characters. OK. So bread pudding isn't the most healthy dessert ever. It's even worse when it serves as breakfast, like it did this morning. This version has less calories than some by substituting applesauce for half the butter and skim milk for the cream. We tried to find butterscotch chips with no hydrogenated oils, but our searching was fruitless so we just gave in and bought the ones that were available.

Here's the slimy mess before it goes into the oven. It looks strange but smells pretty darn good.


Oooohhh...and here they are right out of the oven.

How sweet. Kevin shared his heart with me.

Butterscotch Bread Pudding
1 loaf cinnamon raisin bread, torn into small pieces
4 cups skim milk
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup applesauce
3 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup butterscotch chips

Melt the butter and butterscotch chips in a large bowl. Stir in all the other ingredients except the bread. When the sauce has an even consistency, stir in the torn bread pieces. Bake in a 9X13 greased pan at 350 degrees for between 1 hour and 1 hour 20 minutes, depending on how solid you like it. I like a less gooey, more french toast like texture so I baked it towards the end of the time spectrum. Enjoy it warm or cold. Or, have a piece warm and another piece cold.