Zucchini Banana Bread - worth making

September 18, 2016

First attempt at a garden in Massachusetts yielded a few vegetables, Zucchini being one! Seems the deer / rabbits do not care for this green vegetable?

I looked for a new recipe this morning and came across this banana / zucchini bread combo. Worth making again. Good stuff.

Ingredients
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini
1 cup chopped pecans (or not)

Directions
In a bowl, beat eggs. Blend in sugar and oil. Add bananas and mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; stir into egg mixture. Stir in zucchini and pecans just until combined.
Pour into two greased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pans. Bake at 350° for 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Yield: 2 loaves.

Kathy Pitt Sugar Cookie

December 24, 2015

Kathy Pitt makes the best sugar cookies and boy do I miss them. While the ones I copy from her recipe are super good, nothing can beat the way she does it. She's got the magic baking touch. This recipe was copied from the Stampin' Up! cookbook. The only reason I keep shortening on hand is to make these cookies.

BEST EVER Sugar COOKIES

1/2 C. butter softened
1/2 C. Shortening
1-3/4 C. Sugar
3 Eggs
2 tsp. Vanilla
6-1/2 C. flour, fluff before measuring
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C. sour milk (add 2 TBS. of vinegar to 1 C. Milk)

Directions: Cream butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Continue beating for few minutes. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt thoroughly. Add to creamed mixture along with sour milk. Beat until flour is mixed well. Do not over beat. Chill in refrigerator until dough is firm.

Roll out on a floured surface, about 1/2 inch thick. Cut with cookie cutters.

Bake 350 for 10 min - cookie bottoms should be barely golden brown.

Cool and frost.

FROSTING:

8 cups powdered sugar
1 cube butter
2 tsp. vanilla
About 1 cup heavy cream

Combine all ingredients and whip the heck out of them! If the icing is
too thick, add more cream a tablespoon at a time until it is the right
consistency. Good luck! K.

Apple Pie - Seriously good ... and easy!

October 12, 2015

Scoured the web and found this apple pie recipe. So good and super easy. I made a few adjustments so I typed out the recipe below. We have so many apples from our apple picking trip, we need to use them up!

Ingredients:

1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup water
5 LARGE CAMEO apples - peeled, cored and sliced

Melt butter in a sauce pan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add white sugar, brown sugar and water; bring to a boil. Reduce temperature, and simmer 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the apples. Pour slowly so that it does not run off. Cover with crust.
Bake 15 minutes at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes.

Caramel Pecan Popcorn

September 28, 2015

When a craving comes around sometimes you need to satisfy it. I've been craving caramel pecan popcorn from the Chocolate Covered Wagon (Utah). Their caramel popcorn is so chewy and has a great flavor. After googling a few recipes I think this recipe comes close - I've altered it for my purposes below.

Ingredients:

Caramel

1 c. brown sugar
¾ c. granulated sugar
½ c. butter
1-14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1½ c. light Karo syrup or corn syrup
16 c. popped popcorn (or 4 bags of microwave butter popcorn)
2 c. pecans (halves)

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients (except popcorn & nuts) in large, heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, making sure to STIR constantly. Stir, Stir, Stir! You don't want it to scorch or burn. Keep stirring as it boils until it reaches the soft ball stage, 234 degrees on your candy thermometer. Remove from heat, and immediately pour over the popcorn. Stir until coated. Spread onto cookie sheets or wax paper. Let cool.

I cooked on medium heat till the soft ball stage and I think it came to that stage to hot to fast. Next time I will cook it much slower, lower heat and remove from heat around 220. I wanted the caramel to be softer. Still tasty but not as chewy as I wanted.

Most Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookie

May 12, 2015

Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 t. vanilla

3 cup flour

1 t baking soda

2 t hot water

1/2 t salt

2 cup chocolate chips

1 cup chopped PECANS

Cream sugars well. Add eggs and vanilla and cream again. Add flour, soda salt and water, mix well. If dough is sticky add a little flour. Spoon onto cookie sheet or parchment paper. Bake at 350 for 10 min.

These cookies are to die for. Seriously YUM. When my mom bakes you know the end result will be seriously good. She's been making these cookies for a while now. They are Andrew's favorite and she makes entire batches just for him. In fact she sent him across the country with a farewell batch!

I decided to make these for the first time with tips from my mom. They turned out perfectly. Below is the recipe. The biggest tip... cream! And extra tips from my mom via text below.

Creamy Sweet Potato Salad

October 19, 2014

I still subscribe to quite a few magazines. Print is not dead to me. I love a quick read and flipping through magazine pages. I came across this amazing potato salad recipe. It sounded so good and it was. I did alter the recipe a little as I was missing a few of the ingredients. What are peppadew peppers anyway???