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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Holy Moly!!!!!

I am making the most divine treat in the history of the world! And it's on THIS page because it's FULL of unhealthy goodness. When JD and I were in Sedona, the bed and breakfast place served these delightful squares and JD about keeled over and DIED out of pure blissfulness. So I tracked down the recipe and am making them this very second as a surprise for our date tonight. I can't WAIT to pull them out. They have a crust that I just put into the oven and the dough was the best dough I've EVER tasted. Even better than cookie dough. Seriously.

I like to rename special recipes and have dubbed this one:

Rosemary Sedona Squares

Crust:
1 cup butter
2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 T chopped fresh rosemary

Filling:
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
5 T flour
2 T chopped fresh rosemary
Zest of 1 hardy skinned medium orange
Juice from about 1/2 an orange (about 1/2 cup)

Cut in butter to the rest of the crust ingredients and press into a 9x13 inch pan. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. DO NOT LET THE TOP BROWN. Cool 5 minutes. Beat together remaining ingredients and pour over pastry. Bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes until top has started to brown and puff up. Remove from oven. When cool, cut into squares. Garnish with orange zest and rosemary.

From: Lodge at Sedona

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Layer Cake Tips

Now that I've added a layer cake, check out smittenkitchen's layer cake tips.

Best Yellow Layer Cake

The author of this recipe claims it to be THE yellow birthday cake to turn to- no weird ingredients, not preservatives (like cake mixes), and is pretty simple.

Yield: Two 9-inch round, 2-inch tall cake layers, and, in theory, 22 to 24 cupcakes, two 8-inch squares or a 9×13 single-layer cake

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line with circles of parchment paper, then butter parchment. (Alternately, you can use a cooking spray, either with just butter or butter and flour to speed this process up.)

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just Incorporated.
Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan. Invert onto rack and discard parchment, then cool completely, about 1 hour.

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
Only cooking note: Be sure that your sour cream is at room temperature before you make the frosting.

Makes 5 cups of frosting, or enough to frost and fill a two layer 9-inch cake

15 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 1/4 cups sour cream, at room temperature
1/4 to 1/2 cup light corn syrup
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place chocolate in the top of a double-boiler or in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Stir until the chocolate is melted. (Alternately, you can melt the chocolate in a microwave for 30 seconds, stirring well, and then heating in 15 second increments, stirring between each, until the chocolate is melted.) Remove from heat and let chocolate cool until tepid.

Whisk together the sour cream, 1/4 cup of the corn syrup and vanilla extract until combined. Add the tepid chocolate slowly and stir quickly until the mixture is uniform. Taste for sweetness, and if needed, add additional corn syrup in one tablespoon increments until desired level of sweetness is achieved.

Let cool in the refrigerator until the frosting is a spreadable consistency. This should not take more than 30 minutes. Should the frosting become too thick or stiff, just leave it out until it softens again.

From: smittenkitchen.com

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Ridiculously Delicious Pasta Salad

1 12 oz. pkg. bowtie pasta
1 can olives, sliced
¼ to ½ red onion, sliced
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
½ to 1 bag baby spinach
1 red pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 bunch broccoli florets
8 oz. swiss cheese, shredded
½ to 2/3 cup craisins
1 ½ cups cooked, shredded chicken breast
1 bottle poppy seed dressing or 1 recipe of poppy seed dressing

Cook pasta and drain. Run under cold water; drain again. Add remaining ingredients and toss with dressing. Chill. Makes about 15 to 20 servings.

Poppy Seed Dressing:
1 ½ tablespoons poppy seed
¾ cup red wine vinegar
1 ½ cups oil
¾ cup sugar
1 ½ tablespoons grated onion
1 ½ teaspoons salt
¾ teaspoons dry mustard

From: Amanda Wilkinson

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Blueberry Boy Bait

What a name! Here's the recipe's history:
"Like any recipe with a great name, this also has a great story, which was that in 1954, a 15-year-old girl stole the show (but only won second prize) in the junior division of an early Pillbury Bake-Off with a variation of this recipe, named, she said, after the effect it had on boys."

Ingredients:
2 cups plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs1 cup whole milk (though buttermilk, which was all I had on hand, worked just great)1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, do not defrost first as it tends to muddle in the batter)

Topping:
1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (do not defrost)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 13 by 9-inch baking pan. Whisk two cups flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. With electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium-high speed until fluffy, about two minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just incorporated and scraping down bowl. Reduce speed to medium and beat in one-third of flour mixture until incorporated; beat in half of milk. Beat in half of remaining flour mixture, then remaining milk, and finally remaining flour mixture. Toss blueberries with remaining one teaspoon flour. Using rubber spatula, gently fold in blueberries. Spread batter into prepared pan.

For the topping: Scatter blueberries over top of batter. Stir sugar and cinnamon together in small bowl and sprinkle over batter. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool in pan 20 minutes, then turn out and place on serving platter (topping side up). Serve warm or at room temperature. (Cake can be stored in airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.)

From: smittenkitchen.com

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Berry Cobbler

6 cups fresh or frozen berries
1/2 c plus 4 T sugar
1 T lemon juice
Zest of half of lemon
2 c flour
1/2 t salt
1 T baking powder
1/4 c Crisco
4 T butter
1 egg
1/2 c milk
Vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 425. Combine berries, 1/2 c sugar, lemon juice, and zest. Stir until combined and set aside.

In a separate bowl, pour flour, salt, baking powder, and 1 T sugar. Add shortening and butter and work mixture together with pastry blender until mix is coarse. Measure 1/2 c milk, add an egg, and mix together. Pour in into flour mixture stirring as you go. Mixture should be smooth and not dry, but not overly sticky.

Take clumps of dough and place them on top of the berries. Lightly flatten dough with your fingertips. Sprinkle with 2-3 T of sugar and bake until golden for 30 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

From: pioneerwoman.com

BBQ Meatballs

I doubled the sauce and put them on hoagies. YUM!

Meatballs:
1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
3/4 c oats
1 c milk
3 T very minced onion
1 1/2 t salt
plenty of ground black pepper
flour

Sauce:
1 c ketchup
2 T sugar
3 T vinegar
2 T Worcestershire
4-6 T onion
Dash of Tabasco

Preheat oven to 350. Combine all meatball ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Roll into medium-small balls and place on a cookie sheet. Place sheet in freezer for 5 minutes.

Remove from freezer and immediately dredge in flour.

In a skillet over medium heat brown the meatballs in canola oil until just brown. Place in baking dish. Combine all sauce ingredients and then pour evenly over the top of the meatballs. Now just pop 'em in the oven for about 45 minutes.

From: pioneerwoman.com

Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies

Made these for the 4th and boy were they good!

Fresh jalapenos 2-3 inches in size
Cream cheese (softened)
Thin, regular bacon sliced in thirds
Toothpicks

Cut jalapenos in half, length-wise. With a spoon, remove the seeds and white membrane (the source of the heat). Smear cream cheese into each half of jalapeno. Wrap jalapeno with bacon and secure with inserting a toothpick through the center.

Bake on a pan with a rack in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. You don't want the bacon to shrink so much it starts to squeeze the jalapeno. If the bacon isn't brown enough after 20 minutes, turn on the broiler for a couple minutes to finish it off.

From:pioneerwoman.com