Christmas Cocoa

For my coworkers I made hot cocoa mix. It smelt so good while mixing!!!

From The Pampered Chef

1 cup sugar

1 cup non-dairy powdered coffee creamer

1 cup nonfat dry powdered milk

1 cup milk chocolate morsels

2/3 cup unsweetenend cocoa powder

marshmellows

Combine sugar, coffee creamer, powdered milk, chocolate morsels, and cocoa powder.

For each giftable serving, place 1/3 cup cocoa mix in a cellophane bag, top with marshmellows

Seal bag and tie with bow.

Serving Directions: To prepare, place cocoa mix into cup. Add 1 1/4 cups hot milk. Stir until well blended.

The Sweet 100

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten
.3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

1. Red Velvet Cake
2. Princess Torte
3. Whoopie Pie
4. Apple Pie either topped or baked with sharp cheddar
5. Beignet
6. Baklava
7. Black and White Cookie
8. Seven Layer Bars
9. Fried Fruit pie (sometimes called hand pies)
10. Kringle
11. Just-fried (still hot) doughnut
12. Scone with clotte cream
13. Betty, Grunt, Slump, Buckle or Pandowdy
14. Halvah
15. Macaroons
16. Banana Pudding with nilla wafers
17. Bubble tea (with tapioca “pearls”
18. Dixie Cup
19. Rice Krispie treats
20. Alfajores
21. Blondies
22. Croquembouche
23. Girl Scout cookies
24. Moon cake
25. Candy Apple
26. Baked Alaska
27. Brooklyn Egg Cream
28. Nanaimo bar
29. Baba au rhum
30. King Cake
31. Sachertorte
32. Pavolva
33. Tres Leches Cake
34. Trifle
35. Shoofly Pie
36. Key Lime Pie (made with real key lime)
37. Panna Cotta
38. New York Cheesecake
39. Napoleon/mille-fueille
40. Russian Tea Cake/Mexican Wedding Cake
41. Anzac Biscuits
42. Pizzelle
43. Kolache
44. Buckeyes
45. Malasadas
46. Moon Pie
47. Dutch Baby
48. Boston Cream Pie
49. Homemade chocolate chip cookies
50. Pralines
51. Gooey Butter Cake
52. Rusks
53. Daifuku
54. Green tea cake or cookies
55. Cupcakes from a cupcake shop
56. Creme Brulee
57. Some sort of deep fried fair food (twinkie, candy bar, cupcake)
58. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting
59. Jelly Roll
60. Pop Tarts
61. Charlotte Russe
62. An “upside down” dessert (Pineapple upside down cake or Tarte Tatin)
63. Hummingbird Cake
64. Jell-O from a mold
65. Black forest cake
66. Mock Apple Pie (Ritz Cracker Pie)
67. Kulfi
68. Linzer torte
69. Churro
70. Stollen
71. Angel Food Cake
72. Mincemeat pie
73. Concha
74. Opera Cake
75. Sfogliatelle / Lobster tail
76. Pain au chocolat
77. A piece of Gingerbread House
78. Cassata
79. Cannoli
80. Rainbow cookies
81. Religieuse
82. petits fours
83. Chocolate Souffle
84. Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake)
85. Rugelach
86. Hamenstashen
87. Homemade marshmallows
88. Rigo Janci
89. Pie or cake made with candy bar flavors (Snickers pie, Reeses pie, etc)
90. Divinity
91. Coke or Cola cake
92. Gateau Basque
93. S’mores
94. Figgy Pudding
95. Bananas foster or other flaming dessert
96. Joe Froggers
97. Sables
98.Millionaire’s Shortbread
99. Animal crackers
100. Basbousa

Thanksgiving Staples

So we all know it isn't Thanksgiving without the turkey, but that goes for pecan pie and green bean casserole too!!!

Pecan Pie, Karo Syrup
1 cup Karo Light corn syrup
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tsbp. butter, melted
1tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups pecans
1 unbaked pie crust

Preheat oven to 350. Stir the first 5 ingredients thoroughly using a spoon. Mix in pecans. Pour into pie crust. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, cool for 2 hours. Pie is done with center springs back when tapped.

Green Bean Casserole, Campbells Soup

2 cans Campbell's condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 cup milk
2 tsp. soy sauce
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
8 cups cooked green beans ( I used french cut)
2 2/3 cups French's fried onions

Stir soup, milk, soy sauce, pepper, beans, and 1 1/3 cups onions in 3 qt. casserole.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, stir. Top with remaining onions. Bake for 5 minutes more.

White Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies

I had just enough pumpkin leftover for these cookies!! Pretty much the same idea as the bars, but in a yummy cookie!!!

From jennyscooking.blogspot.com

1/2 cup margarine
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup white chocolate chips

Cream the margarine and sugar together with a hand mixer until light and fluffly.
Beat in the egg, pumpkin, and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.
Add teh dry ingredients to the wet ones an dmixt togher well. Fold in the chips.
Drop teaspoons of the cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned

Pumpkin Spice Bars

Just in time for Thanksgiving!! These bars turned out so moist! The only problem was the white chocolate, it would not squeeze out properly and ended up becoming globs, as seen above. Luckily the taste is wonderful!

Pumpkin Spice Bars from 52 Cookies

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons crystallized ginger (finely chopped)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup canned pumpkin (not pie filling)

1/2 cup cooking oil

1/2 cup white chocolate ( I used morsels)

1 teaspoon shortening

Preheat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl stir together the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and salt. In another mixing bowl, beat the eggs sllightly. Stir in the pumpkin and oil. Stir into the flour mixture.

Spread the batter into an ungreased baking pan. Bake until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, 15-20 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack.

For the topping, in a small, heavy duty plastic bag combine the white chocolate and shortening. Seal the bag just above the ingredients, then set the sealed bag in a bowl of warm water utnil the contents are melted. Gently knead them together. Snip 1/4 inch from one corner of the bag. Squeeze from teh bag over the bars in a crisscross design. Cut before the topping is completely set.

Crunchy herbed chicken

This wasn't as crunchy as the name would suggest, but it was still pretty good!

From Real Simple

4 slices white bread, toasted ( I ony used 3 and still had leftover bread crumbs)

1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley (I had dried and didn't use that much, just dumped some in until it looked right)

1 clove garlic, chopped

Salt and black pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup Dijon mustand

4 6-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts ( I used tenders because that's what we like)

Heat oven to 400. In a food processor, pulse the bread, parsley, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper until coarse crumbs form. Add the oil and pulse to combine. Transfer to a plate

Spread the mustard over the chicken and dip the pieces in the bread crumb mixture, pressing gently to help it adhere

Place on a baking sheet and bake until golden and cooked through, 18 to 20 minutes

My helpers!!!

Thanksgiving/Fall Cake

The only cake decorating class I have ever taken is staring up at the counter while my mom make my birthday cake. I am just one of those people that decides to do something and I do it. So I did some research online, watched cake shows and voila I made a cake from scratch!!!

Madeira Sponge Cake From Debbie Brown's Hot Cakes

1 2/3 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 cup Caster sugar

7 large eggs

3 1/2 cup self-raising flour

1 2/3 cup plain flour

Preheat oven to 325

Sift the self-raising and plain flours together in a bowl

Soften the butter and place in a bowl with the caster sugar, beat until the mixture is pale and fluffy

Add the eggs to the mixture one at a time with a sponnful of the flour, beating well after each addition. Add a few drops of vanilla

Using a spatula, fold the remaining flour into the mixture

Spoon the mixture into the tine, then make a dip in the top with the back of a spoon

Bake for an hour and a half or until a skewer intered in the center comes out clean

I used the Wilton Buttercream to do the crum coat

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter softened
1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cupsconfectioner's sugar

2 tablespoons milk

In a large bowl cream shortening and butter with electric mixer

add vanilla

Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beathing well on medium speed, scrape sides and bottom of bowl often

When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry, add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy

For my first time using fondant, I think I did pretty well. I liked using it, it is really easy, but it smells and does not taste good. I added some vanilla to it to help with that, but store bought fondant is not for taste. Next time I will try using marshmellow fondant to see if the taste is any better. So here it is the debut of my first cake...drum roll please....(hey I think it at least looks better than some of those store bought cakes...)