Chocolate Bowls

It's hard to believe that I am thinking about food at this moment... considering the fact that I ate so much today that I feel like I might explode. But, nonetheless, I have some down time now that everyone is in a food stupor to post something I've been meaning to share for a few months now.

I absolutely adore making these cute little chocolate bowls. They are so easy and fun and they never cease to amaze. Because I always make and consume them within the same day, I don't worry about tempering the chocolate. I just try to be sure that I do not let my chocolate get too hot in my double boiler. The risk there is that too high a temperature can cause the chocolate to end up not hardening at all. Not a good thing, obviously.

Melt enough semi-sweet chocolate in a bowl over some lightly simmering water. Prepare a sheet pan with some parchment, wax paper, or a Silpat. The first step is to make a small puddle of chocolate that will become the base of your bowl. Keep the puddle somewhat small, you don't want it oozing all over the place!

Then inflate some small balloons. I use the size that you typically use to make water balloons. Obviously, you can make your bowls whatever size you want, but if you want to make small bowls, you want to use small balloons. Under-inflated balloons tend not to have a smooth bottom on them, which can deform your bowl. Dip the balloon into the chocolate. I usually dip a couple of times to make sure I have a good, solid coat. Too thin a coat becomes a nightmare when you go to remove the balloons later. You can dip the balloons with one even motion for a straight edged bowl...

Or dip them at an angle four to five times around the balloon to form a scalloped edge that is very pretty.

Place the dipped balloon into the puddle you previously poured. Usually, they stand on their own fairly well, but if you get a troublesome one, just hold it for a minute or two until the chocolate firms up a bit. (It's best to work with chocolate in a somewhat cool room).

When making bowls, always do a few extra because it is not unheard of for one or two to break one while removing the balloon. Place the tray in the refrigerator to harden for 30-60 minutes. To remove the balloon, be ready to work quickly! If the chocolate softens just a little too much, I find it makes removing the balloon more challenging. Take a straight pin and - pinching the top of the balloon - carefully poke a hole in it. Slowly let the air out. As the balloon deflates, you can start to peel it away from the bowl. Deflating the balloon too rapidly will usually result in a broken bowl, so go easy! Once the balloons are removed, chances are you'll want to keep them in the refrigerator. If you'd rather have bowls that are more shelf stable and can be made ahead of time, you can do that, you'll just have to be sure to temper the chocolate then. Serve with ice cream or mouse... or anything that goes well with chocolate and is served in a bowl!

Christmas Ribbon Jello Salad

This jello salad appeared on our Christmas dinner table every year growing up- and for good reason. Its delicious, festive, and easy to put together. I've probably made it for the last 9 Christmases in my own home since I've been married. Its definitely a great tradition.

courtesy google images

Christmas Ribbon Jello Salad

Becky Jewkes

1 3-oz. pkg. Lemon Jello

1 small can crushed pineapple, drained

1 3-oz. pkg. Lime Jello

1 3-oz. pkg. red Jello (I use raspberry)

1 3-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

1 cup fresh whipped cream + some for topping

Bottom Layer: Dissolve lime jello according to package directions. Pour into a 9X13 dish and set until firm.

Middle Layer: Dissolve lemon jello according to package directions. Let set until partially firm. Mix whipped cream, cream cheese, and pineapple and fold into the lemon jello. Carefully pour over first layer and set until firm.

Top layer: Dissolve red jello according to package directions. Carefully pour on top of the middle layer. Set until firm.

Top jello salad with thin layer of fresh whipped cream.

So Pretty!

I've posted a few times already about making these cute little jelly candies. I originally posted about the lemon ones, but recently posted about making them in orange and lime as well. Well, I finally had an opportunity to make all three in the same time frame so that I could photograph them together. How cute they turned out! Yellow, and orange, and green, oh my!

Sweet Fruit Muffin

Photo from Tasty Sensations blog

Super yummy!  I made these with a mixed frozen fruit from Costco...super good and nutritious feeling!

Sweet Fruit Muffins

Recipe from tastysensations.blogspot.com

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 tsp. pure almond extract
2 c. fresh blueberries - rinsed, drained and patted dry
1 c. chopped strawberries
2 tablespoons white sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray the top of a muffin pan with non-stick coating, and line with paper liners.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, 1 1/4 cups sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix together 1 3/4 cup of the flour and baking powder. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk and almond extract, mixing just until incorporated. Crush 1/4 of the blueberries and stawberries, and stir into the batter. Mix the rest of the whole blueberries and chopped strawberries with the remaining 1/4 cup of the flour, and fold into the batter. Scoop into muffin cups. Sprinkle tops lightly with sugar. Makes a dozen very large muffins, or 24 mini muffins + 6 large muffins.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until golden brown, and tops spring back when lightly tapped (about 18-20 minutes for mini muffins)

Nantucket Cranberry and Blackberry Pie

                                       
                                                            picture courtesy of pioneerwomancooks.com


I wonder what the precentage of recipes on here are desserts? What does that say about us Jewkes women? We LOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVEEEEEE sweets. However, ladies...the sweets are not lovin me back. So....come New Years lets get some low-cal, low fat stuff on here, alrighty? :) Anyway...this recipe is adapted from Pioneer Woman. Nuff said. Her's was just a cranberry pie but my sister-in-law Jen -who turned me on to the recipe- added blackberries and I LURV it. Its called a pie but its a lot like a cobbler. Its perfect for the holidays because it acutally uses cranberries which I never know what to do with but always feel like I should. Y'know?


NANTUCKET CRANBERRY AND BLACKBERRY PIE

■Butter, For Greasing
■1 bag of cranberries and one large container of blackberries
■1.5 cups Pecans, Chopped (measure, Then Chop)
■1 1/3 cups Sugar
■2 cup Flour
■2 cup Sugar
■2 stick Unsalted Butter, melted
■4 whole Eggs, Lightly Beaten
■2 teaspoon Pure Almond Extract
■1/2 teaspoon Salt
■Florida Crystals Demarara Sugar For Sprinkling (brand is important here: use florida crystals brand!)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Generously butter two cake pans or pie pans. Wash berries and add cranberries and blackberries to the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle on chopped pecans, then sprinkle on 2/3 cup sugar on each pie.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, 2 cups sugar, melted butter, eggs, almond extract, and salt. Stir gently to combine.

Pour batter slowly over the top in large "ribbons" in order to evenly cover the surface. Spread gently if necessary.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. 10 minutes before removing from oven, sprinkle surface with demarara sugar for a little extra crunch.

Cut into wedges and serve with ice cream or freshly whipped cream.

no-boil macaroni and cheese

Photo from plainchicken.com

I loved this recipe because I could cook it without boiling the noodles.  Super easy!

No-Boil Macaroni and Cheese  

Recipe from plainchicken.com
serves 8

1 (16 oz) pkg elbow macaroni
1 cup milk (I used 1%)
2 cups chicken broth
4 cups shredded cheese - I used a cheddar jack blend
8 oz softened cream cheese, cubed (I used light)
2 tsp onion salt
1 tsp dry mustard
fresh ground pepper
1/2 c flour

In a large bowl, stir together the macaroni, milk and chicken broth. Add the remaining ingredients and mix together using a large wooden spoon. Pour into a very large, deep casserole dish. *Make sure all the pasta is covered.  It won't cook if it isn't in the liquid mixture.  I just pressed the noodles down in the pan until they were all covered.*  

Bake uncovered in an oven preheated to 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until pasta is fully cooked. Turn oven broiler on for the last two minutes of cooking time to brown up the top part of the mac and cheese. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Pumpkin Pie

Everyone has their favorite pumpkin pie recipe, I guess... unless you always get yours from the store. As a scratch cooker, obviously, I can't condone such actions. ;-) I am, however, a serious pumpkin pie snob. Pretty much, unless I've made it, I usually don't eat it.

I have a number of problems with most of the pumpkin pie out there, not the least of which is that canned pumpkin tastes, well, like canned pumpkin. It's the same reason I don't eat canned peas or green beans. Canning vegetables just changes their flavor and texture in a way I can't enjoy. I also often find other's pie too sweet. I don't like it savory, mind you, but I don't want it to be syrupy either. This started out as the recipe from the back of a can of Libby's pumpkin, I think. Then my mom tweaked it, and then I tweaked it even more. I really like the balance. I use the frozen pumpkin puree I put up every fall. The frozen, not canned, puree gives this pie a fresh flavor that can't be beat. To me, it's the perfect pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin Pie
Yield: one 9-inch pie

2 eggs
1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (preferably not canned)
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp dry ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1 1/2 cups evaporated milk (one 12 oz. can) or light cream

Prepare a 9-inch pie shell. If you want to be sure your pie shell does not get gummy (see note 2 below), blind bake it first in a 425° F oven for 10-15 minutes lined with a little foil and weighted down with pie weights or beans. Let pie shell cool completely before filling. Preheat the oven to 425° F. In a bowl, lightly beat eggs. Add the remaining ingredients and stir gently to mix. If you mix too aggressively, you will end up with foam on the top of your pie. It doesn't taste bad, your pie just won't be as pretty. Pour the filling into a prepared pie shell. Bake at 425 F for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350° F and bake for another 45 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Serve well chilled.

NOTE 1: I also like to make this as a custard, where I simply make the filling and bake it in a dish without a crust. Use a 9x9 inch glass/porcelain baking dish or similar. Otherwise, make exactly the same as for a pie. It's a great, easy, treat to make year round!

NOTE 2: The picture above shows a pie crust that I did not blind bake first. I was in a hurry, so I skipped that step. See how the crust looks like it has two layers? The inside layer here was chewy and not flaky at all like the outside half. The pie still tastes good, but the crust is not quite as delicious. I strongly recommend blind baking first, if you have the time and patience. If you do go this route, be prepared to lightly cover the edge crust with foil as it may begin to darken too much toward the end of the baking period.

Gingerbread Cutouts

I've been in serious cookie making mode lately. Last week I made an army of these cute little guys for a "cookie caper" on base, where volunteers bring in homemade cookies and then they are packaged and distributed to airmen. (I also made a double batch of my sugar cookie holly cutouts.) What I love about gingerbread men is that the cookie is not overly sweet and has a nice spiciness to it. I often make and give them as gifts. They can be packaged in such cute ways and everyone loves to receive them!

The dough is very easy to mix. Probably the hardest part is grating the ginger, but a microplane makes short work of the task. Just be sure that the fresh ginger is ground into a paste; you want it to mix evenly into the dough. Mix the wet ingredients together first.

Then mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl before adding the flour mixture to the wet mixture. I've tried a lot of gingerbread cookie recipes, and I love the combination of spices in this one.

Form the dough into a log and wrap in plastic wrap, letting it firm up in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Once it has firmed up, cut the dough into four or five large slices and roll one disk out at a time. Roll it fairly thin, about one eighth of an inch is best. Use a gingerbread cutter to make figures. Bake on a greased cookie sheet or a parchment lined pan. For best flavor, bake until the cookies are nicely browned. I've found if they are under cooked, the flavor is a bit lackluster.

Once they are baked and completely cooled, pipe decorations in royal icing (I use the recipe on the package of Wilton meringue powder). Let the cookies sit out for at least a few hours until the icing is dried hard. Then package them up! They keep fairly well in an air tight container. I like to maximize my time, so I always do the same decoration on them, but you can certainly get creative! You can use a variety of colors and small candy decorations if you want. Make your gingerbread army however you see fit!

Gingerbread Cutouts
Yield: approx. 70 3-inch cutouts

3/4 cup brown sugar, firm packed
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1/4 cup molasses
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
3 1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Beat the sugar and butter together until smooth. Add eggs, molasses, and fresh ginger. Mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl, mix the remaining ingredients. Stir well. Add slowly to the wet ingredients, stirring until well mixed. Shape dough into a log and wrap in plastic. Chill for at least one hour. Slice log into four or five disks. Roll out one disk at a time. Roll fairly thin, about 1/8 of an inch. Place on greased or parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake at 350° F for about ten minutes, or until nicely browned. Cool completely before decorating with royal icing.

Cinnamon and White Chocolate Caramel Apple

You guys...seriously. I just need to emphasize that this is one of the BEST desserts I have EVER had. Its amazing. I don't like green apples, don't love white chocolate and don't love cinnamon. Let me just say that the marriage of these flavors is intoxicating. Am I making myself clear? You may think you don't want these apples- YOU DO! I also wanna add that I did not take a pic of my apples b/c whenever I take pics of my food it never looks that good. So...I found this one which is....decent. Mine are prettier because I use demarara sugar (see pic above) and its very coarse and gorgeous!
             I keep on saying mine. I need to give credit where credit is due. I got this recipe from my amazing and talented cousin- Katie. And I have probably eaten 12 of these apples in the past couple weeks. I LOVE finding excuses to make them so I can eat them. I shouldn't admit that. Before I go any further though there is one thing that is absolutely imperative with making these: YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW ALL OF THESE TIPS/INSTRUCTIONS for them to turn out. Trust me. Me being impatient, I tried to cut out a few and they were ugly and the caramel was crispy not soft, etc. etc. If you have had problems with caramel apples before (as I have) if you follow these tips you won't! They will be gorgeous. And you MUST MUST MUST buy the coarse sugar. The texture and flavor MAKES these. Ok, do I sound crazy yet? Good. Because I am crazy over these apples. Moving on....

CINNAMON AND WHITE CHOCOLATE CARAMEL APPLES
INGREDIENTS
-One bag of Kraft caramels (Wal-mart sells the "chips" instead of the squares specifically for baking. They are awesome.
-5 medium granny smith green apples
-Popsicle sticks
-One package of white chocolate for candy making ("almond bark", "quick candy", whatever the store has)
-1 cup of demarara sugar (FLORIDA Crystals brand-- very important!...others brands taste different)
-1 t cinnamon
-1/4 t vegetable shortening

DIRECTIONS (listen up folks...do NOT stray from these directions!)
1. Wash and DRY your COLD refrigerated green apples. Insert sticks and make sure they are firmly in, tugging slightly. Make sure apples are fully dried before moving on to step 2.
2. Prepare your "space". Get out cookie sheet or some flat surfaced item (tray for example) that will fit in your freezer. That's right, your freezer. Spray surface with pam.
2. Melt caramels as directed on package. (I used microwave method and its great. Just be sure to NOT to overcook and stir every thirty seconds after the initial 1 minute. The stirring will often times melt remaining small chunks of caramel and you might not even need to put it back in.)
3. You need to work somewhat fast here. That's why we already prepared the tray/cookie sheet. Dip apples into caramel making swirling motion with your wrists. Lift up and let excess caramel drip for a few seconds and then take rubber spatula and scrape caramel off the bottom of the apple. Put on tray and immediately place in freezer. Do not wait until all the apples are dipped to place in freezer. I did this and that ruined it. Those first initial seconds are crucial to the caramel setting evenly around apple. Con't with the other apples  and carry each one to freezer and place on tray one at a time after dipping. Katie's little tip here was to have a sliced green apple spread out on a plate in slivers and she drizzled remaining caramel over those. Don't waste ya'll!
4. Prepare your cinnamon sugar in a bowl. Mix 1 c demarara sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon sugar. Leave the spoon accessible b/c you will use this to sprinkle sugar on top. Set a paper plate beside the bowl with sugar in it.
5. Melt the package of white chocolate in microwave. Add 1/4 t of veggie shortening for workability (its too thick without it. you can also use veggie oil but I prefer shortening). Cook in microwave at 30 second intervals. Chocolate gets hot spots in the microwave so this is super important. Stir white chocolate every 30 seconds. A lot of times stirring will melt the remaining small chunks of chocolate making it unnecessary to put back into the microwave.  Again, work fast here. Get the first apple you dipped off the tray (do NOT take tray out of freezer). Dip in DO NOT OVERCOOK. It just needs to be smooth.
           Go to the freezer and remove the first apple that you dipped with caramel. Dip in white chocolate let it excess drip for a few second and then scrape bottom with rubber spatula then hold apple over paper plate and using a spoon, sprinkle cinnamon sugar over apple generously. Do not dip in sugar. It doesn't work. This a very messy step and some white chocolate will drip off. That's why we are holding the apple over the plate and NOT the bowl with the sugar in it. Then run the apple back to the freezer and return it to the tray. Get the next apple and con't these steps until apples are covered in chocolate and cinnamon sugar.
6. Take remaining white chocolate and drizzle over the slivered apples then top with cinnamon sugar. Again, this is just to use all the ingredients and not to waste.
7. Let apples set-up in freezer for about ten minutes. Then transfer to fridge. These apples need to be stored in a fridge. If they are left out at room temp for a long period (we're talking hours here, not minutes) of time the caramel will slip off. But before you cut them, let them drop in temp a little. I usually let them sit out for about 10-20 minutes before I cut them. If you cut them too cold, the chocolate chips off in big pieces.

Now....Enjoy the most delicious apples you have ever eaten. And just so ya know, I had to make these three times before I got all the steps right and actually followed the directions and made the apples correctly. The tips work but don't be discouraged there is a HUGE learning curve to this process.

Pumpkin Cream Trifle

Mom sent me this recipe- they made it for Thanksgiving dinner. It sounds delicious and looks amazing. You can't go wrong with pumpkin and cream cheese.

Pumpkin Cream Trifle

1st Layer:

1 pkg. spice cake

1 small pkg. instant vanilla pudding

1 c. canned pumpkin

1/2 c. vegetable oil

1/2 c. water

3 large eggs

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place all ingredients in a large bowl and blend with electric mixer on low for one minute. Scrape down bowl and blend at medium for two minutes. Spray 9X13 pan and pour batter into it. Bake for 32-39 minutes, or until cake tests done. Cool completely. When ready to assemble trifle, cut into 1-inch cubes.

Second Layer:

1 large pkg. instant cheesecake flavored instant pudding

2 cups cold milk

2 cups freshly whipped cream (unsweetened)

1 bag Heath Toffee bits (by chocolate chips in grocery store)

Combine pudding with milk and blend with whisk until it starts to thicken. Fold in whipped cream.

To assemble the trifle: Place 1/3 of cake into large bowl, followed by 1/3 cream mixture and then 1/3 toffee bits. Repeat two more times. Refrigerate.

Orange Dust Cookies

Hi Everyone!
Today's recipe is one of my favorite Mexican cookies! Polvorones de Naranja! Orange Dust Cookies. These delicious cookies are hard in a good way, they are very crunchy but as soon as you bite into them, they melt in your mouth, that's why they are call "Dust". These are a must Try if you are a cookie lover!

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 a stick butter
zest 1 orange plus
3 tablespoons the orange juice
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon orange extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Mix flour and salt together, set aside.

In an electric mixer at medium high speed, cream the vegetable shortening and the butter, blend until fluffy and creamy for about 4-5 minutes.

Reduce the speed to medium low, and slowly add the sugar, blend for about 1-2 minutes or until the sugar is well combined with the rest of the ingredients.

Reduce the speed to the lowest, add the egg yolk, vanilla, orange extract, orange zest and the orange juice, blend for 2 more minutes.

Scrape down the sides, and slowly add in the flour mixture blend on low until well combine. Do NOT over mix.

On a floured surface roll out the dough to a thickness of 1 inch and start cutting your cookies with a cookie cutter.

Bake at 400ºfor about 18-20 minutes or until slightly brown. Transfer to a rack to cool, then sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

A few more thoughts on tempering...

In the first few months after starting this blog, I posted a whole series on making chocolates. In my Tempering Chocolate 101 post, I discussed the technique involved in making sure your chocolate cools in the right crystalline form. Improper crystallization results in the development of an unappealing fat "bloom" in the final product. The amount of bloom shown here is excessive, and is the amount I typically see - for instance - with the chocolate that is leftover after dipping truffles that gets collected and thrown in the back of the pantry for eight months. It also can happen with a chocolate bar that is left in a car on a hot day and then eaten a week later. While it doesn't look appropriate when making chocolate confections, I do think it's pretty in its own, strange way. It may have something to do with my geology background regarding the crystallization of minerals, but I find fat bloom in chocolate fascinating.

Unfortunately, it's not very fascinating when it happens to the results of my hard work. I try very hard to be sure my chocolate is in temper before I dip a batch of truffles. I made a batch the other day for the first time in a while. I tried some new things; I tried to perfect some old things. In the end, I decided I had a few additional thoughts to add regarding tempering:

• Tempering is a pain in the butt. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. So I often catch myself pushing the envelope of what I deem acceptable when testing whether my chocolate is in temper. Tempering is a pain, but it's even more of a pain when you jump the gun and coat a bunch of truffles with chocolate that dries with horrible looking streaks, or - even worse - won't properly harden at all. In the end, it's always better to be safe than sorry. If you have to go through the procedure again to ensure a good temper, do it!
• I have found that I don't usually have great luck getting proper temper using the seed method (see my other post for a refresher). It's been three times in a row now of tempering chocolate when I try to do the seed method first, am not satisfied, and then go through the longer but very straight-forward seed-free method. In the future, I may just start with that method. Again, it takes longer, but you can be doing other things for the vast majority of the time.
• Although I described a series of things to look for to determine the level of temper in your chocolate, the frustrating thing is that you often can't be totally sure you got it right until the next day. Sometimes, it all looks right, but by the next day, those darn streaks have shown up! The moral here is that I never make truffles the same day or day before I expect to give them away. I like to be able to make sure that fat bloom doesn't show up after the fact!
• In my previous post, I only discussed dark chocolate. If you want to use milk chocolate or white chocolate, you still have to temper them, but they require slightly lower temperatures. As a guideline, use temperatures 2-3 degrees less than what you use for dark chocolate. Speaking of white chocolate... it's pretty darn hard to find real white chocolate these days. Virtually all white chips sold in stores today are not chocolate at all. You have to look closely. If it doesn't actually say "white chocolate" and have cocoa butter in the ingredient list, you are using a totally different beast. White "chips", such as Ghirardelli or Nestle, do not need to be tempered (but they don't really taste that good either). Real white chocolate must be tempered to ensure proper set up, gloss, and shininess. Baker's brand white chocolate blocks are the only real white chocolate I've seen around in a long, long time.
• Remember that chocolate can build up heat very rapidly. Be sure to heat it slowly. If you get impatient and crank the heat up too much, there will be too much residual heat and even once you remove the chocolate from the heat source, chances are it will continue heating another 5-10 degrees. So go slow and easy. Patience is key.
• Lastly, you really do get what you pay for. The cost of chocolate is typically proportional to how pure it is. Cheap brands have more sugar and other fillers in them and can be more challenging to work with. Most confectioneries use couverture when dipping truffles because it has more cocoa butter and is easier to work with and has a nicer mouth feel. Unfortunately, it's really expensive. I've had very good luck using Ghirardelli's 60% cacao chips and find it to be a nice middle ground compromise.

Five Star Berry Cobbler

I am frequently in the mood for cobbler. Over the years I have tried many recipes. All have been a little disappointing. On a funny note I remember I made one about two years and my dad teased me that it should have been called "essence of blackberry cobbler" b/c it hardly had any fruit in it. :) This one is called five star for a reason folks. Its from allrecipes.com and its rated five stars- literally. YUM! Everyone loved it. Oh, and one other thing is that cobbler looks gorgeous and looks like you spent a lot of time making it but we all know that cobbler is a cinch! I made a few changes. I doubled the crust on top, added coarse sugar, used frozen blackberries instead of fresh and the original recipe throws in a cast iron skillet with some complicated steps. Go ahead if you have one.

Five Star Berry Cobbler from allrecipes.com adapted by Claire
• 2 cup all-purpose flour

• 2 cups white sugar, divided and coarse sugar to taste
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoons cold butter
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 4 cups fresh or frozen blackberries (any berries will work...or fruit for that matter. THAW a little if using frozen berries)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
2. In a large bowl mix the flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in 1/2 cup boiling water just until mixture is evenly moist.
3. In a separate bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in cold water. Mix in remaining 1 cup sugar, lemon juice, and blackberries. Transfer to frying pan and bring to a boil on stove top, stirring frequently. Transfer to 8x8 or 9x9 ungreased pan. Drop dough on the top of fruit mixture by spoonfuls. Sprinkle coarse sugar (demerara sugar is YUM) Place on the foil lined baking sheet.
4. Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until dough is golden brown. (mine took slightly longer..maybe 30")

Serve with ice cream- DUH!

Pumpkin Spice Brake

                                                                     picture courtesy

I am not a huge fan of pumpkin bread (but its growing on me- no pun intended haha!). However, I LOVE LOVE LOVE spice cake. And the simplicity of this recipe caught my eye as well. This is a combination of a bread and a cake, thus the name "brake". Adapted from bloggingitswhatsfordinner.blogspot.com.

PUMPKIN SPICE BRAKE

1 box of spice cake (I used Duncan Hines)

1/2 cup oil
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
3 eggs
1/2 cup water
Demerara cinnamon sugar (see below!)

Combine demerara sugar  (see pic)and cinnamon to taste (about 1/4 c. sugar to 1/4 t. cinnamon). You can use regular sugar but this sugar is worth the investment- its amazing! I will be posting more recipes featuring this sugar later! You can find it next to the other sugars in the baking isle. The brand is florida crystals.

Preheat oven to 350. Spray two to three bread pans. I used three pans and the bread was about 2-3 inches thick. Combine all ingredients in a bowl using a hand mixer except for water and cinnamon sugar mixture. Then add water.
Pour 1/6 batter into one pan, sprinkle some cinnamon sugar, then add 1/6 more batter. Then cover with cinnamon sugar. Repeat two more times to make three loaves. Cook for 40 minutes. Eat hot and spread each piece with butter.

Chili Potato Burritos

Photo from tasteandtell blog

Before you mark these off--listen!  These are really good and practically vegan, if you leave the cheese off.  These were a HUGE surprise.  They sound weird, but they are really, really good.

Chili Potato Burritos

Recipe from tasteandtell blog

makes 8 burritos
4 baking potatoes, peeled and chopped
milk and butter
1 cup shredded colby-jack cheese
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
8 (6-inch) flour tortillas
1 cup red enchilada sauce

Put the potatoes in a large pot of water and bring it to a boil.  Cook until tender but still firm.  Drain and mash, adding a bit of milk and butter.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the mashed potatoes, 3/4 cup of the cheese, chili powder, cumin, and garlic.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Mix in about 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce.

Spoon evenly into tortillas and roll up.  If you are going to freeze them, this is the point where you would wrap them for freezing.  If you are eating them right away, place them in a baking dish and spread the remaining enchilada sauce on top.  Top with the remaining cheese.

Bake in a 350F oven until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 15 minutes.