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Experiences like no other

4 Jun

Girl Scouting has provided our girls with experiences they might not be able to get anywhere else.

I’ve just returned from a Girl Scout camping weekend. Not quite a whole weekend, but about 36 hours.

Long enough.

It was not my first time going to, participating at or working for a Girl Scout Camp. I’ve been a leader for five full years now, and as a kid I was a Girl Scout for many years. I went to camp then, I’ve worked there as an adult so my kids could go, and I’ve chaperoned camping trips for all my daughters with this weekend being the most recent one.

Of course it rained like crazy yesterday, poured actually. Again.

And in my head through much of the trip I was thinking, “I’m getting too old for this ‘job.'” I thought it as I drove half the troop down there in the rain yesterday with my co-leader driving the other half down right behind me, and I thought it as I traipsed all through the camp in the rain, and I thought it as I laid awake in our leader “cabin” until 4am listening to them laugh and giggle and tell stories.

Four A.M.

But, throughout the whirlwind weekend I also watched them in amazement, thinking and talking with my co-leader (who was a saint to spend her wedding anniversary at a rainy camp in a cabin with me rather than at home with her husband of 16 years) about how much these girls have grown and matured and changed from when we first started this troop together as Brownies, second graders, five years ago. We looked at them all, not even believing it.

We had eight really great stations to rotate through at camp yesterday which took us from first thing in the morning until the movie and campfire at the end of the night. We watched them create beautiful beaded jewelry at the jewelry-making station, being instructed in the craft by some of the leading women in the jewelry industry here in our state. We listened along with them as they learned about how to write a check and a deposit slip at the financial literacy class, from an instructor at one of the local universities. We cheered and encouraged them as they shot their bow and arrow during archery class, knowing full well that some of them were doing it for the first time. There was a science class, a tie-dye station, a dance class where they learned the moves to an upcoming flash mob taking place this summer, S’Mores, and they were laughing and smiling, and hugging, and chatting, and laughing some more, the entire day.

And night.

Did I mention they were awake in their tent til 4am?

Many of them haven’t slept too far away from home before. Many of them have never slept in a tent or cleaned a latrine (there are some benefits to being a leader and not having to do the camp “kapers” is one of them) many of them have never shot a bow and arrow or a bottle rocket or been in a flash mob before.

Being a Girl Scout has allowed our own daughters and the scouts we lead, to experience things they couldn’t experience in the normal course of their days. With us as leaders, our troop has taken field trips, had a scholarship named after our troop, done community service projects, slept inside an aquarium near the shark tank, gone behind the scenes on movie sets, at radio stations, TV shows, movie theaters, stage theaters, been on the news, in the newspaper, met the mayor, a city councilwoman, a comic book designer, learned how to collect, categorize and display postage stamps, sold cookies, cookies and more cookies-showing a business sense and dedication like you wouldn’t believe- and they’ve loved every minute of it.

And now, they’ve gone camping. Overnight.

All because I chose to be a Girl Scout leader five years ago so that my daughter could be a Girl Scout.

So as I laid in my cabin last night, chatting with my co-leader til I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer, someone I hardly knew before scouting, as we were listening to them laugh and giggle and shriek, I knew that this was the reason I was there at that moment.

Thank you Girl Scouts!

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Cookies for a Cause: The Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie that started it all

1 Jun

Baking cookies to help fight kids’ cancer might be the most worthy cause I’ve ever baked for.

Have you ever heard of Cookies for Kids’ Cancer? If you haven’t, you should check out the link and read more about it. It’s a very worthy cause: bake sales to help find a cure for kids’ cancer.

Earlier this year I did a story about a local bake sale event hosted by Heather Wirtz, the editor of the Macaroni Kids newsletter for the Cranston/Kent area. The sale raised money for the Cookies for Kids’ Cancer non-profit organization and it was hugely successful. I baked one of my favorite Christmas Cookie recipes, Brown Eyed Susans, for the bake sale.

At the event itself I was given several handouts to help me in writing my article and I met one of the family members, Bonnie Soper, who told me how her cousin Gretchen lost her son to childhood cancer several years ago. Gretchen and her husband founded Cookies for Kids Cancer as a way to fight back, and they started with a simple bake sale.

One of the handouts that was given to me was for the “Cookies for Kids’ Cancer Best Bake Sale Cookbook” and on the flip side was a recipe for Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies and it was entitled, “The Cookie That Started It All.”

Other than the baking time, which was cut off, the full recipe was there, and I decided that I wanted to try out the recipe some day, in honor of Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. I wrote the news story about Heather’s bake sale in January and it was almost June before I had the chance to try out the cookie recipe.

They were delicious and with every bite I thought of this important cause, and I knew I had to write about it. I’m so grateful and thankful every day that my family has its health. Those who know me well, know my kids are sick constantly, weekly, and it’s exhausting keeping up with it all. But they’re not terminally ill, and I keep that in mind daily as well as every week when I’m running someone to a doctor for one ailment or other. We are very, very lucky. In the big picture, they are healthy.

Caroline was a big help with these cookies, scooping and pressing the batter for each and every one.

Speaking of my kids, my daughter Caroline was a big help to me this past weekend as I made these cookies to take with us to a Memorial Day cookout. The recipe yields quite a few cookies and that’s one reason I made it. There were enough to bring and enough to leave some home as well. I made all the batter and she scooped it onto the tray and flattened them to go into the oven.

The recipe, as I said above, did not have the bake time on the card, which was an advertisement for the cookbook. But, I looked up a similar recipe in one of my cookbooks here and found that 10-12 minutes on a cookie sheet was the perfect time. The only time I went over that time was when I used a baking stone. I find that those take longer for cookies to bake than the metal trays.

I hope you’ll consider doing a Cookies for Kids’ Cancer bake sale for your organization’s next fundraiser, or that the next time you’re looking for a unique gift, you go to their site and order some Cookies for Kids’ Cancer cookies to be sent to that special someone.

And now, here is the recipe, the Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie that started it all.

This recipe makes a lot of batter so you need a good, strong mixer to mix it up.

CHOCOLATE CHIP OATMEAL COOKIES

Yield: 3-4 dozen cookies
INGREDIENTS

2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

1 large egg at room temperature

1 large egg yolk, at room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup quick cooking oats or old fashioned rolled oats

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. kosher salt (I didn’t have kosher)

3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cookies bake until lightly browned around the edges.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Place butter and sugars in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle and beat until smooth and creamy.

Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, one at a time, beating well between additions.

Place the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl; mix well and add to the butter mixture.

Beat until everything is well incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the chocolate chips and beat again.

(You can cover this and refrigerated up to one week.)

Form the dough into heaping teaspoon sized-balls and place them about two inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet. I used the smaller Pampered Chef scoop to scoop out my balls of dough.

Using your palm, gently press down.

*At this point the recipe begins to say how you can alternately roll the dough into a log, and it gets cut off here. I assume it says you can slice and bake them. The baking time is cut off as well, since this was an advertisement for the cookbook. However, I can take it from here.*

Bake 10-12 minutes on a cookie sheet, slightly longer on the baking stones, until lightly browned around the edges.

Let sit 1-2 minutes on cookie sheet to cool before removing to cool completely on wire racks.

Consider hosting a Cookies for Kids’ Cancer bake sale for your organization’s next fundraiser.

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Top 10 Worst Foods for Kids to Eat

29 May

Do we cut them out altogether or just keep eating them once in a while?

It’s been a while since I’ve seen one of these lists and shared it with you, but since we’re just coming off a holiday weekend, I thought it’d be a good time to post this.

The list came from the Livestrong website. I see several foods we eat on this list. Do you?

I wonder to myself: do I stop feeding my kids these foods or do I continue to do so in moderation?

What do you think? No more hot dogs and mac & cheese???

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TOP TEN WORST FOODS FOR KIDS TO EAT

Hot Dogs

Soda

Sticky Candy

Doughnuts

Prepacked lunch kits

Sugary breakfast cereals

Microwavable prepackaged dinners

Juice Drinks

French Fries

Toaster Pastries

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The dessert that almost wasn’t: Brownie Dessert Pizza

25 May

The final product was well-worth the journey, although at the time I was questioning it!

Ever have one of those days where nothing seems to go quite right? Well Sunday was one of those days and we almost didn’t have dessert for our dinner company because of it.

It started out that I was supposed to hit the store on my way home from our troop’s car wash at 1:00 that afternoon to pick up the stuff I needed to make the dessert: brownie mix, strawberries and cream cheese.

I forgot. I hate that.

I got all the way home and I realized I hadn’t gone to the store.

I went back out to Aldi’s at 2pm.

Strawberries: check. Brownie mix: check. Cream cheese: check.

Go home, start the recipe, which I’ve had before as a Pampered Chef recipe, but came across my desk in an email from the 24/7 Moms blog that I follow, which listed five outrageous dessert pizzas. (Of course I had to check them out!) The email directed us to Simply Healthy Cooking with Pam to get the recipe, which I did. Apparently she changed it slightly to make it healthier. (Me throwing chocolate chips into the brownie mix probably canceled out whatever she did to make it healthy.)

The recipe said to use a 15″ round pizza stone and parchment paper so that the mix won’t run off the stone and into the oven. I didn’t have a round pizza stone but I had a large rectangular stone, so I used that.

Parchment Paper: check.

Big mess in the oven: check.

Using the stone didn’t quite go as I’d planned.

About five minutes into the bake time, I smell something burning. Sure enough it’s dessert. I peek in and the brownie is literally dripping down in big, huge, chunky drips, into the oven. I quickly pull out the stone, throw the whole thing into the sink next to me and proceed to wash the brownie mix down the drain.

“Hmmm…technical difficulties with dessert,” I post on my status update on on Facebook as I decide what to do.

Don volunteers to run back out and get me another brownie mix. I take him up on that (he’s such a good guy) and off he goes.

He comes back around 3:30, and in the meantime I’ve decided to use the large bar pan that Pampered Chef sells. It’s long like my pizza stone but has low edges, which apparently I needed to keep the  batter IN the pan.

So I try again. All goes well with the baking, the brownie pizza comes out looking just fine.

Brownie Pizza, Take II

I begin making my cream cheese topping with my block of cream cheese. But now, I’m looking at my topping and looking at my very long brownie pizza and I’m thinking, “I don’t have enough topping.”

My next thought: “I have to go back to the store for more cream cheese.”

I won’t write what my next thought was after that, but it’s at this point where I decide that I should’ve just put a bag of Oreo’s on the table for dessert and called it a day.

It’s now 5:40 pm as I sneak out the door while Don showers, and our company was due in 20 minutes.

This time I ran to Price Rite and got my second block of cream cheese and came home.

The good news is, it all worked out and everyone liked the dessert except Elizabeth who picked off the cream cheese layer and put the strawberries back on top.  Whatever…

I’d definitely make it again and you can too, in fact, I highly recommend that you try it. It was incredibly delicious.

The recipe and directions are below, and now that you know my story, none of these trials and tribulations will happen to you.

See? So beautiful! Sooooo delicious and so just not my day that day!

BROWNIE DESSERT PIZZA

INGREDIENTS

1 box Ghiradelli Brownie Mix (I wonder if this was my first problem. I just bought any mix and I wonder if it yields more batter than Ghiradelli does. )

Parchment Paper

1 lg. rd. 15″ pizza stone or a round pizza sheet (you now know, I used the large bar pan.)

8 ounces cream cheese, softened (I’d grab two, just to be sure you have enough.)

1/4 cup powdered sugar (double for two blocks of cream cheese)

Handfuls of fresh strawberries, sliced or any fruit you like with chocolate  ( I also served a bowl of extra strawberries on the side so people could add more if they wanted to.)

Melted Semi-sweet Ghiradelli Chocolate Chips (I used Hershey’s syrup instead)
DIRECTIONS

Prepare the brownie mix as per the instructions on the box.

Cut the parchment paper to the shape of the pizza stone (I didn’t use parchment in the bar pan, I sprayed it with cooking spray.)

Spread the brownie mixture on the parchment paper within 1 ” of the edges. It’s important to use the parchment paper because it will help prevent the brownie mixture from seeping over the stone while in the oven cooking (we all now know how that worked out.)

Cook the brownies until the center comes out clean with a knife or toothpick (15-20 minutes).

Cool completely. Flip brownie crust over onto a cooling stone and carefully remove the parchment paper then flip the round brown crust back onto the stone or a nice plate for serving. (I did none of this and served it right in the bar pan.)

Mix the softened cream cheese with the powdered sugar well and spread on the brownie pizza base within one inch of the edge.

Layer cut strawberries around the crust and then drizzle with melted chocolate (or in my case, with Hershey’s syrup.)

Enjoy!

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Thinking outside the birthday party box

21 May

Birthday parties for kids can have a tendency to take on a life of their own.

Our family is full of rules.

We more often say no than yes, it seems, and we have a rule for everything.

We can’t help it, that’s just how we are and it works for us, at least for now. That being said, we have birthday party rules at our house. I know I’ve talked about it before, but I’ll tell again just so I can get on with my story for today.

Our rules are as follows: You can’t have a “friend party” until you are five and when you do, you can have it at the house with five kids. At six, seven, eight and nine, you can have your birthday party out of the house, with more people (within reason, and we never invite the entire class or grade, or even “all the girls”).

At ten you’re back to having it at the house with just a few people. We like the “Almost Sleepover” or “Mock Sleepover” (come in pj’s stay late, go home to bed) at ten because many people (ourselves included) do not allow their kids to sleep at someone else’s house and our kids tend to turn ten before other people’s kids are ten. At 11 and beyond they can have a sleepover if they want, with a few kids (our house is not huge and there are already five of us in it at all times, so space constraints are an issue) or we can discuss another inexpensive, small outing option if desired.

Now that you have the back story on our birthday party rules, here’s where I was going with all of that.

We have to give Alex all the credit for thinking out of the box for this party.

Our youngest daughter turned seven at the end of the month a couple of months ago. We opted to hold off on the friend party until after the Easter holidays and after school vacation, which led us to the end of April. However, way back in October, she already knew what kind of party she wanted: a cooking party and she wanted it to be at home. She planned the entire thing out herself. It would be a Hello Kitty theme. They would make homemade pizza (we do that a lot here) and decorate cupcakes (which turned into decorating donuts when we got the Babycakes Donut Maker as a Christmas gift) and decorate aprons.

We were thrilled. Birthday parties out of the house tend to be expensive: $10 per kid on the low end and as much as $17 per kid or more on the higher end, with some having a minimum of paying for ten kids whether they are there or not. Some include food, some do not. Some include invitations, some do not. However, “everyone does it” so we have tried to keep up while establishing what we feel are fair rules and reasonable budgets for our parties, and having had to say no to some party options our kids have thrown out at us as suggestions in the past.

But I can’t lie: we were jumping for joy in our heads when she explained what she wanted for her party.

The day of the party came, and she had invited seven kids to come. They all were able to come except one, so there were seven little girls plus my two older daughters who served as the helpers.

First activity: making a variety of homemade pizzas.

We bought enough dough that every pair could make one pizza (and Elizabeth helped out when the seventh friend didn’t arrive). We had two cheese and sauce pizzas, one mushroom, olive and cheese pizza, and one cheese and pepperoni pizza.

That week, I found a “20% off your whole purchase” coupon for Michael’s Crafts, so I went and got 8 aprons. I already had fabric markers here, but I bought a set just in case mine were dried out, but I didn’t need them so I returned them along with an extra apron.

I made the donuts from scratch with Caroline ahead of time, along with the chocolate frosting with Elizabeth while the kids were making their aprons, and each child was able to decorate and eat four donuts. I had purchased one Hello Kitty cake decorating kit which contained sprinkles, cupcake wrappers, candies and tooth pick decorations, and I split it for use between the family party and the friend party. I bought all my paper goods at the dollar store in time for the family party and used what was left for the friend party.

And no, I didn’t care that the paper goods weren’t Hello Kitty. Apparently no one else cared either.

Second activity: decorating aprons.

The kids had a blast.

Alex had a blast.

The moms that stayed, loved it.

We had fun, and it was an easy party. I was relaxed at the end, not exhausted and not broke. It was as much fun (maybe more so) than any party we’ve had out of the house, and best of all, she was happy.

The entire party cost us $32.

We didn’t figure that part out until the end, as we weren’t trying to keep it that low on purpose, but when the party was over and we sat back and realized all we’d been able to do at such a low price, we were amazed.

It just goes to show that even though we sometimes live in a “top this” kind of world and there’s lots of keeping up to be done, that it doesn’t always have to be that way. You can think out of the box, as Alex did back in October, and do something different and still have fun.

It may not always be this way. She may want to have her next party somewhere else, and we’re more than willing to oblige, as long as it stays within the parameters we’ve set, but for now, we’re celebrating the success of this year’s party and remembering more often than not, that it can be done.

PRICELESS.

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Speaking of hot fudge…

18 May

Homemade hot fudge. I like it hot, or cold, believe it or not.

I’m sure someone was, somewhere, right?

No seriously, I actually was speaking of hot fudge. Remember? On Monday?

No? Okay look here. Now do you remember?

So yes, when I was typing Monday’s post and talking all about ice cream and hot fudge, it reminded me that I bought the evaporated milk that I needed for my homemade hot fudge recipe the last time I was at the store, and that I did not in fact, buy any more hot fudge for the fridge because I intended to make some.

That post was just enough to inspire me (again) to get right on that and make the hot fudge. So the other night I had a meeting but while I was gone the kids were going to get to have ice cream as a special treat. The fudge is quick and easy to make so I made up a batch before I left for my meeting. The funny thing was though, when I went to actually make the fudge, we were completely out of chocolate chips.

I kid you not.

And it wasn’t me. I didn’t eat them. Well, at least I didn’t eat ALL of them.

The guilty part(ies) jumped into the car though and ran to TWO stores (the first one was out, how does that happen??) and finally came back with not one, but two bags of chocolate chips, just to be safe.

Crisis averted.

The cool thing (no pun intended here) about this hot fudge is that you can use it on ice cream or on fruit, or as a dip, or however you’d like to. But my all-time favorite thing to do with this fudge is to have it cold, one spoonful a day after my lunch. It’s just enough to give me that little bit of chocolate I crave. Every day.

Mmmm….a hot fudge sundae on a Monday night. Perfect for any night of the week!

When I came home the night of the meeting Don told me that the fudge had gotten thumbs up from everyone, so that was good. And the kids took pictures of their sundaes in my absence as well, also good so that we have some photos for this post. But the best news of all: there was plenty of fudge left for me. I had some right then and there with a banana (no ice cream, thanks) and then each day after my lunch, well, you know.

Even though I haven’t made this hot fudge in years and years, I’ve been making this same recipe since I was a kid living at home with my parents and I still have it on the exact same little square of paper from the Carnation Evaporated Milk can that it came off of that day. I wish it had a date on it, but it does not. It’s just old, that’s all I can tell you.

This recipe has been stuck to many a kitchen cabinet over the years. I believe all kitchen cabinets should be cork boards. I stick all kinds of things in them.

Well, enough talk about the recipe. Here IS the recipe:

CARNATION CHOCOLATE FUDGE SAUCE
INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups (12 ounce can) undiluted Carnation Evaporated Milk

2 cups (12 ounce package) semisweet chocolate chips

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

dash salt

DIRECTIONS

In a medium saucepan, bring evaporated milk to just a boil.

Add chocolate chips, return to a boil over medium heat stirring constantly until chocolate is melted, slightly thickened and smooth.

Remove from heat; stir in vanilla and salt.

Serve warm as dipping sauce for fresh fruit or spoon over cake or ice cream.

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Happy Mother’s Week Day 5: Mom’s Black Bottom Squares

11 May

My mom’s Black Bottom Squares were just as I’d remembered them.

You may remember back in March, when I posted about Bakerella’s Black Bottom Cupcakes. I talked about how they reminded me of my mom’s Black Bottom brownies that I remembered having a long time ago, and remembered loving. When my mom saw the Bakerella recipe she too, thought it was similar to her Black Bottom squares recipe and she passed that recipe along to me. It took me a while to have a chance to make them, but last weekend I did get that chance.

I had never made these squares before, but they were just as I remembered them, dark chocolate and delicious. I prefer them served cold because of the cream cheese. This recipe also made me want to bake some Cream Cheese Swirl or Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies too, so that’s on my list of things to do next. I kept wanting to swirl these as well, but the recipe didn’t say to, so I didn’t do it!

Here is the recipe, which my mom put a note on: “from North Kingstown Newcomers Cookbook 1979,” so when I said it reminded me of something I’d had a long time ago, that explains it. These have been around for a while in our family. The recipe is credited to Jean Bolles in the cookbook itself.

Today’s recipe will complete my gifts to you for Mother’s Week, just in time for Mother’s Day on Sunday. If you are a mom enjoy, enjoy, enjoy your day on Sunday and if you are lucky enough to be able to spend the day with your mom, be sure to enjoy every minute!

Thanks for today’s recipe Mom!

BLACK BOTTOMS

This recipe is completed in two steps: the chocolate layer and the cream cheese layer.

INGREDIENTS

For the chocolate:

1 cup water

1/3 cup oil

1 Tbsp. vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1/4 cups cocoa

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

For the cream cheese:

1 egg

1 eight ounce package of cream cheese

1/3 sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

1 six ounce pkg. chocolate chips

Before they bake…this is where I realllllly wanted to swirl that cream cheese, but I did not. Next time though, I might just do it!

DIRECTIONS

Combine water, cocoa, oil, vinegar, vanilla, flour, 1 cup sugar, baking soda, and 1/2 tsp. salt.

Pour into a well-greased 9×13 inch pan and sprinkle with a six ounce package of chocolate chips.

Beat together egg, cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar and 1/8 tsp. salt.

Spoon over chocolate chips and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

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Mother’s Week Day 4: Blueberry Cake

10 May

This cookbook has literally hundreds of recipes using blueberries.

As you know, we’re celebrating moms all week long here on The Whole Bag of Chips! Today we’re celebrating with a recipe I tried recently and immediately knew it’d be perfect for the week leading up to Mother’s Day. It’s from a cookbook we received from my parents back in 1999 when they visited Maine.

On this one particular day last month, I was in the mood for *something* but I didn’t know what. I didn’t want something chocolate, which is a little unusual, and I was scanning all the cookbooks and recipes I had until I found something that struck my fancy. I’ve used this cookbook a couple of times for muffins and crisps, but I had not done this cake before. It calls for fresh blueberries but I only had a bag of frozen, which increased the baking time but other than that, worked out great.

Caroline wanted to help me so I put her to the task of making the topping for the bread, which was listed as optional, but not to me!

This would be perfect for a brunch, a dessert for a hostess or just to have with a cup of coffee or tea. It was delicious and I’d make it again. So far I have not found a recipe in this cookbook that I would not make again! They’ve all been good.

Enjoy this recipe and enjoy the last couple of days of Mother’s Week!

Caroline was in charge of the topping, and she did a fabulous job!

INGREDIENTS

Blueberry Cake from “The Maine Wild Blueberry Cookbook”

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup margarine (I used butter)

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups blueberries (I used a pack of frozen which increased our cook time by about another 20-30 minutes.)

This made a delicious dessert on a cold, rainy day!

DIRECTIONS

Mix dry ingredients together.

Cream margarine and sugar.

Beat in egg.

Stir in milk and add dry ingredients.

Add vanilla and berries.

Bake in greased 11×7 pan at 375 for 40 minutes. (Or til knife inserted into center comes out clean.)

Thumbs up for blueberry cake!

Topping:

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. cinn

1/4 cup margarine (I used butter)

Mix to coarse crumbs and sprinkle over top before baking.

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Mother’s Week Day 2: Strawberry Bread

8 May

From me to you: Happy Mother’s Week!

Yesterday I announced that I was making this week Mother’s Week, in honor of moms everywhere. I’m continuing to honor you by showering you with a week’s worth of recipes that you can use for honoring all the moms in your life, this week and every week.

Yesterday I began with a recipe from my mom. Today I’m honoring Don’s mom, my mother-in-law, Mary Lou, with one of my favorite recipes from her: Strawberry Bread. It’s great for an afternoon cup of coffee and a snack, or to bring with you to a brunch or luncheon. I added the chocolate chips to the recipe, but it’s delicious without them too!

Thanks Mom and Happy Mother’s Week!

Mary Lou’s Strawberry Bread

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 beaten eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup strawberries (Fresh sliced or frozen-thawed and drained.)
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
approx. 1 cup chocolate chips (or however many you like!)

Mother’s Day Week is a perfect week for Mary Lou’s Strawberry Bread!

DIRECTIONS

Mix together flour, sugar, cinnamon and baking soda.

Combine eggs, oil, and berries.

Add berries to dry ingredients.

Pour into greased and floured 9×5 loaf pan.

Bake 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees.

*She wrote on the recipe that she keeps hers refrigerated but it’s not necessary, and that it freezes very well.

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Jacob’s Cookbook

27 Apr

A brownie recipe from Jacob's new cookbook

I know I’ve mentioned it in the past, but I meet some amazing people in my job at the newspaper, and I mean really amazing. So often I come home after a story, completely stunned by what I’ve just learned about the person I’ve just interviewed. Two weekends ago I had an interview that completely blew me away both as a parent and as someone who loves food and cooking.

Two weekends ago I met Jacob.

Jacob is 14. He’s an eighth grade student and he’s about to publish a cookbook as part of a project he has to do for school. The proceeds from his cookbook will benefit the local community food bank.

That in itself is amazing, but that’s not what blew me away, actually.

Here’s what did: when I interviewed Jacob I asked him where he got all of his recipes from for his cookbook.

His answer: he made them up.

Jacob has not only created a cookbook at age 14, which will benefit a worthy cause, but he created all of the recipes himself from scratch, including how much of each ingredient for each recipe. He created the cookbook page layouts, made all of the recipes, took all the photos of all the foods, and typed them all up himself.

I just about fell out of my chair.

I said to Jacob, “That. is. amazing.”

Jacob with his cookbook before it goes to print.

Jacob said he knew that, but I don’t think he REALLY knew that. I mean I don’t think I could just MAKE UP a recipe (never mind a cookbook full of them) and figure out all the stuff that has to go in it, all by myself and I am FORTY YEARS OLD-I’ve been cooking for several of his lifetimes and I couldn’t do that!!

I sat and interviewed Jacob for about 45 minutes or so, and my article about him can be seen here.

More importantly though, I have one of Jacob’s dessert recipes right HERE on my blog!  That’s right, he was kind enough to share one of his recipes with me and one with the newspaper. I am so glad that the one I have is a dessert recipe, since apparently Jacob and I both have a sweet tooth.

Here it is, Jacob’s recipe which he created himself for Orange Zest Brownies.

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“As most people know, opposites attract. Well it is the same for flavors in food. A citrus flavor will go great with a sweet and creamy flavor. That is why orange chocolate brownies are perfect! Enjoy!” -Jacob Gebhart,  Amazing Appetizers and Decadent Desserts

Easy ingredients!

INGREDIENTS

BROWNIES

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate

1/3 cup shortening (I used 1/3 cup butter instead.)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 TBSP orange zest
FROSTING

3 oz. cream cheese

1-2 TBSP milk

2 and 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

1 TBSP orange zest

The orange zest gives it a great flavor.

DIRECTIONS

BROWNIES

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray an 8×8 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Heat chocolate and shortening in a 2 quart sauce pan over low heat, stirring constantly until melted.

Remove from heat, add sugar, eggs, vanilla, mix well. Then add remaining ingredients and stir until combined.

Spread batter in prepared pan evenly.

Bake for 25 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Make sure to cool completely before cutting and frosting.

FROSTING

With an electric mixer, on medium speed, combine cream cheese and 1 TBSP of milk.

Add sugar, a little at a time, beat after each addition. (I added the last TBSP of milk halfway through as it got thick.)

Then add the orange zest and combine.

Cut cooled brownies into 9 pieces. Spread each square with orange cream frosting.

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I found the recipe very easy to follow and quick and easy to make, just how I like my recipes to be! If you’re a taster when you bake, I highly recommend tasting the batter after the sugar is added but before the eggs. SO GOOD. I also tasted the cream cheese frosting before and after the zest was added, to see just how much the zest changed the flavor, and I was amazed at what a little bit of zest can do both to the texture (it was immediately creamier) and to the taste (it did now have that hint of orange flavor in it.)

For the orange zest, I used the zest from two medium oranges and split it between the batter and the frosting. It did work out to be just about one whole tablespoon in each, I’d say.

I opted to serve my frosting “on the side” as optional because with all the different likes and don’t likes at my house,  I didn’t want anyone not to want the brownies because they had “stuff” on them.

I also took half the batch to a friend’s house one afternoon and we enjoyed them with our coffee.

Great job Jacob, thanks for sharing your recipe with me! It truly was a decadent dessert!

Anyone who is interested in purchasing Jacob’s cookbook, Amazing Appetizers and Decadent Desserts, when it’s published, please send an email to Jacob at jayg@cox.net.

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