Monday, August 29, 2011

Coffee Cake


This is a recipe that we make every year on Christmas eve for Christmas breakfast. It's very enjoyable and the whole family will love it! :)

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
  • 3 tablespoons milk

Directions
  1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine the flour, baking soda, nutmeg and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with sour cream. pour into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish.
  2. In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, pecans and cinnamon; sprinkle over coffee cake. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
  3. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Combine confectioners' sugar and milk; drizzle over warm coffee cake.

Chocolate Chip Cookies


I used to love making the chocolate chip cookies on the back of the Nestle Toll chocolate chip bag. I ran across this recipe, and now only make it. They are so fluffy and good. It's nice to get perfect cookies every time.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter flavored shortening or butter
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips


Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter flavored shortening, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Adjust the amount of chocolate chips to your liking, then stir them in by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop dough by heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets. Clumps of dough should be about 3 inches apart.
  3. Bake for 7 minutes in the preheated oven, until brown around the edges. Let cool for 20 minutes. Eat and enjoy!

Buttermilk Pancakes

These are my go to pancakes. I have tried many different ones, and homemade is always better to me. I hope if you choose to make them, you enjoy them as much as we do.



Ingredients

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/8 cups buttermilk**
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

  1. Preheat and lightly grease a large skillet or electric griddle.
  2. Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda together in a bowl. Add the egg, buttermilk, and butter; stir together lightly, but keep it lumpy. The batter should look thick, spongy, and puffy.
  3. Drop 1/3 cup of the batter onto the cooking surface, spreading lightly with the bottom of the cup. Cook until lightly-browned on each side, 1 to 2 minutes per side.

**If you don't have buttermilk (often in our house), I mix 1/8 cup vinegar and 1 cup milk for a few minutes. Works almost the same and tastes just as good!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Mimi's Spaghetti

This is my grandmother's recipe for spaghetti that I've changed a little over the years, because I don't have the original. It's pretty close to, if not almost exactly how she used to make it.

Mimi's Spaghetti
Ingredients
1 lb ground beef or turkey
1 can diced tomatoes
8 oz noodles of your choice
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
sprinkle of salt
sprinkle of pepper
olive oil
Directions
1. Pour about a tablespoon of olive oil into a pan. Add meat and brown. Drain when browned.
2. Add tomatoes to meat. Stir.
3. Add all seasonings, and bay leaves. Taste, let simmer.
4. Boil water, add noodles and cook as directed.
5. Drain noodles.
6. Serve.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Mom's Pie Crust

This is my grandmother's pie crust. We make this in bulk every Thanksgiving, and use it for every pie that we make. Enjoy.

Ingredients


1 stick butter
1 cup flour
dash of salt
1 teaspoon sugar
ice water, about 4 Tablespoons

Directions


1. Cut up butter into flour, salt and sugar mixture until pea size balls.
2. Sprinkle ice water and use fork to mash into a ball.
3. Chill and roll.
4. Can put into pie pan and freeze.

Buttermilk Pie

This is a pie my grandfather made, and then passed down. We make it every Thanksgiving. It is so yummy, very sweet, but tasty. It makes two pies, perfect to make if you're going to someone's house, or if you're having a crowd over! We use my Grandmother's Pie Crust with this and every pie we make.

Ingredients


1/2 cup flour
3 3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, melted and mixed into flour mixture
6 eggs barely beaten
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Directions
1. Blend flour, sugar and salt.
2. Blend the eggs, vanilla and buttermilk to add to the flour mixture.
3. Fill two unbaked pie shells.
Bake in 350F oven for 45-50 minutes.

Serves 16.

Dark Chocolate Cake/Mocha Frosting

I posted a chocolate cake a little while ago. While it's tasty, it's a little dry to me. When I found this recipe, I was nervous to try it, but I went ahead. I topped it with a mocha icing. This was/is THE BEST chocolate cake recipe I've ever found and made. Seriously amazing. If you are looking for a chocolate cake, look no further. This is the one to make. You can put any icing you want on top, I was wanting mocha, but I know the buttercream would taste just as good.

Dark Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups white sugar
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup cold brewed coffee
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons vinegar

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the eggs, coffee, milk, oil and vinegar. Mix until smooth, batter will be thin. Pour into prepared pan.
  3. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

Mocha Frosting

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 4 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
  • 4 tablespoons milk
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
  • 1 cup hot water

Directions

  1. To make the Mocha Frosting: In a large bowl, combine shortening with vanilla. Blend in half of the confectioners' sugar. Blend in 2 tablespoons milk. Repeat with remaining confectioners' sugar and 2 tablespoons milk. Mix in approximately half of the cocoa.
  2. Dissolve the 1 tablespoon instant coffee into 1 cup of hot water. While still warm, pour two tablespoons of the coffee into the frosting mixture. Mix in remaining cocoa. Add coffee mixture, a tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is achieved. Fill and frost cake.

Cake Balls/Pops

This recipe is for cake balls or cake pops, whatever you feel like making and have the supplies for. Whenever I make them, I end up not having the "pop" part, but I'll include the directions. These are favorites, and easy to make. You can use whatever cake mix you want, they all taste good. You can also use whatever icing you want as well, although I usually use cream cheese. :)

Ingredients:


Cake mix (choose your flavor)
Icing
sucker sticks
Whatever ingredients are on the box to make the cake
chocolate chips
vegetable oil
 Directions:


1. Bake the cake in the way it says on the box.
2. Let the cake cool, then crumble it in a bowl.
3. Add half of the icing to the crumbled cake, and mix.
 4. Roll the cake into golf size or tablespoon sized balls.
5. Stick the balls into the fridge to cool them.
6. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time, add a tablespoon of oil to thin it. Stir.
7. Place wax paper down in your work area. Take balls out of fridge.
8. Dip one end of the sticks into the chocolate, and stick that end into the cake ball.
9. Stick back in fridge for 10 minutes.
10. Remove cake balls, and dip into the chocolate. Set on wax paper to dry. Sprinkle (if you want), your choice of sprinkles, oreo crumble, graham cracker dust.
Once they're dry, stick them in the fridge until ready to eat! :)

Friday, August 19, 2011

Taco Seasoning

I love making tacos, but I hate having to buy those little packets of taco seasoning all the time. I did a little searching and found something that seemed ok. I changed it up a little bit and tried it out. It was awesome, and I will never buy another taco seasoning packet again.



Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons chili powder
  • 5 teaspoons paprika
  • 4 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 3 teaspoons onion powder
  • 3 teaspoons salt
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

Mix together ingredients, and store in an air tight container for up to 6 months.
Use 8 teaspoons of seasoning to 1 lb of ground beef.

Cornbread Cake

While growing up, whenever my mom would say she was making cornbread, I asked for this recipe. It's so good by itself, you don't need to add butter or honey, but you can just for that extra yummyness. This is one recipe I will continue to make and enjoy. No pictures for this one, but I will take some next time I make it!



Ingredients

  • 1 cup cornmeal
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/3 cups white sugar
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 4 eggs, beaten
  • 2 1/2 cups whole milk

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
  2. Stir together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl. Pour in the vegetable oil, melted butter, honey, beaten eggs, and milk, and stir just to moisten.
  3. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, until the top of the cornbread starts to brown and show cracks.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Poblano Corn Chowder


My mom introduced me to this recipe during the Christmas holiday. It was so tasty, I made it 3 more times while it was still cold out (which wasn't long living in Texas). I am excited for cooler weather to show up so I can make this again. This will make several servings, I would say it could feed about 10, so plan for leftovers. Still good heated up the next day. :)

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 3 stalks celery, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons margarine
  • 1 fresh poblano chile pepper, seeded and diced
  • 1 quart heavy cream
  • 1 quart half-and-half cream
  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 1 tablespoon lobster base (optional)
  • 1 pinch ground dried chile de arbol
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/2 cup margarine
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 (15 ounce) can cream-style corn
  • 1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
  • 1/2 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined, and diced
  • salt to taste
  • white sugar to taste

Directions

  1. In a blender or food processor, puree the onion and celery; drain.
  2. Melt 2 tablespoons margarine in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and celery puree and the poblano chile pepper. Stirring constantly, cook about 5 minutes, until tender. Mix in heavy cream, half-and-half cream, sugar, and lobster base. Season with chile de arbol and black pepper. Stirring often, bring to a gentle boil.
  3. Melt 1/2 cup margarine in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Mix in the flour, and stir constantly until thickened. Remove from heat, and gradually mix into the large saucepan. Cook and stir until the mixture is well blended and thickened.
  4. Mix cream-style corn and whole kernel corn into the large saucepan mixture. Stir in the shrimp, and cook 2 minutes, or until opaque. Season with salt and sugar.