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Happy Birthday To Me and To You: Mom’s Boston Cream Pie two ways

11 Aug

Boston Cream Pie is my all-time favorite kind of birthday cake.

ORIGINALLY POSTED AUGUST 10, 2012

August 11 is my birthday!

If I could choose any kind of birthday cake in the whole world, I’d choose Boston Cream Pie every single time.

In fact, I’m a lucky girl. I do get to choose my birthday cake every single year.

My parents have a tradition of letting us choose our birthday meals, which includes the cake of our choice. You may remember back in March when I posted about Don’s birthday cake of choice: lemon cake, which is great, but it’s not Boston Cream Pie by any means, and that’s *my* favorite.

For as long as I can remember, my mom used a recipe for a “quick” Boston Cream Pie, which uses a cake mix, pudding mix, and a decadent chocolate frosting. Then, in 2006 my mom happened upon a “from scratch” recipe for a Buttermilk Cake which she uses for her Boston Cream Pie, in a magazine that Hallmark used to put out.

I like them both.

So, as my gift to you for my birthday, I’m giving you both recipes. They’re both good and there are times when you really just need a quick recipe versus times when you can go all out. I personally have never made the from scratch recipe, but I’ve eaten it.

Delicious.

Treat yourself to either one on your next birthday. You’ll be glad you did!

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QUICK BOSTON CREAM PIE

INGREDIENTS

One box yellow cake mix, baked according to the directions for round layers

FOR THE CENTER

one package vanilla instant pudding

1 1/2 cups milk (not two cups)

Mix and chill until solid.

FOR THE FROSTING

2 one ounce squares unsweetened chocolate, melted, or six tablespoons baking cocoa

2 tablespoons margarine or butter

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4-5 tablespoons hot water
DIRECTIONS

When cakes are cooled, spread filling on one layer, top with the second layer.

In small bowl, mix together all frosting ingredients except for hot water.

Add hot water one tablespoon at a time until desired spreading consistency has been reached.

Spread frosting immediately.

Top with cherries and/or sprinkles, if desired.

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HALLMARK’S BASIC BUTTERMILK CAKE FOR BOSTON CREAM PIE

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 and 1/2 sticks) softened

1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs at room temperature

2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup of buttermilk at room temperature

1 and 1/2 tsp. vanilla
DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter layer cake pans and line with parchment or waxed paper. Butter the paper.

Beat the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl with electric mixer for five minutes at medium speed until light and fluffy.

Beat in eggs one at a time. Scrape the sides of the bowl and beaters and beat well to incorporate.

Sift the flour with the baking soda and baking powder.

Add one quarter of the butter mixture to the butter-egg mixture then add vanilla and one third of the buttermilk.

Repeat, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and scraping well after each addition.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and spread to edges with spatula.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool in pans on rack for five minutes.

Turn pans onto rack, remove parchment or waxed paper and cool completely before filling and frosting.

**Use the same frosting and filling as above.**

**Photo credit: Marianne Tandon**

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Peanut Butter Nutella Swirl Cookies from Erica’s Sweet Tooth

28 Jul
Erica's cookies were a perfect addition to our Concert on the Beach dessert menu!

Erica’s cookies were a perfect addition to our Concert on the Beach dessert menu!

Each summer there are several traditions that we look forward to, and the summer isn’t complete unless we’ve participated in these traditions.

One such tradition is the annual Concert on the Beach: an ocean-side philharmonic orchestra concert. Part of the lure of this event, other than the stunning scenery and amazing musical performance, is the fact that it’s been taking place for almost 40 years and of those almost 40 years I’ve been to almost all of them, and my children have never missed one in their lives yet. When we lived out of state, we traveled home for this concert, it means that much to us.

Another lure of this event is the fact that we attend the concert (which is free) with a lot of our family and friends. It’s hugely attended by thousands of people and you bump into people all night long. “Everyone” goes to the Concert on the Beach.

Each summer as the date of the concert gets closer, we begin to plan our menu. Everyone brings a little something until we have compiled a huge potluck dinner spread which we’ll eat on the beach. As the sun sets and the moon appears, we transition from dinner to dessert, and each year I am “on” for bringing a dessert, as it’s my favorite part of the meal. Each year I try to think of something special, something unique, and something new to try out as my dessert contribution for the concert.

This year I had come across a recipe from the blog, “Erica’s Sweet Tooth,” a recipe for Peanut Butter Nutella Swirl Cookies.

Really, Peanut Butter and Nutella in a cookie?? What’s not to love? I decided to give these cookies a try for the concert. And, having faith in a good ingredient combination, I doubled the recipe. I’m so glad I did! These cookies were awesome!! I am putting Erica’s recipe below, just as she has it on her blog. You can see my cookies pictured above. They look amazing right??

I did substitute I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter for the unsalted butter, but otherwise my ingredients were the same as she has them here.

Our view of the sunset and Super Moon from our seats in the sand as we watched the Concert on the Beach this year.

Our view of the sunset and Super Moon from our seats in the sand as we watched the Concert on the Beach this year.

PEANUT BUTTER NUTELLA SWIRL COOKIES FROM ERICA’S SWEET TOOTH

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup Nutella

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together butter, peanut butter, and sugars until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

Add in the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. With mixer on low, slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the butter mixture until just combined.

Microwave Nutella for 20 seconds and then drizzle over the dough. Fold in Nutella with a spatula until well-distributed throughout the dough.

Chill the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes and then roll small balls by hand.

Place about an inch apart on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and use a fork to press down the balls slightly.

Bake until the edges are lightly browned, about 8-10 minutes.

Allow cookies to cool on the pan for 2 minutes, and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

The view of the audience behind us. People listening and enjoying as far as the eye can see, in all directions.

The view of the audience behind us. People listening and enjoying as far as the eye can see, in all directions.

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Fun Friday: So Many Strawberries!

4 Jul
What to do with more than ten pounds of strawberries?

What to do with more than ten pounds of strawberries?

We went strawberry picking!!

I had not been strawberry picking since I was a child. Each year it seems, we’d miss the season between the end of school and the start of summer. This year, when a friend posted her picture of her strawberries on Facebook, I decided that I was going to go that same week. I knew my kids would love it and I knew there was lots that I could do with fresh-picked strawberries.

We went on a beautiful, picture-perfect day. There were just a few clouds in the sky, the sun was bright and the temperature was an even 75 degrees; not too hot, not too cold. We couldn’t have asked for a better day.

Within an hour we had picked a basket full of strawberries. I was beyond excited!

As we drove home, I began to consider that full basket of berries that was sitting in the back of my car. I could smell them.

I started to think of all the things I wanted to do with all those berries. I knew that although it seemed like there would be a never-ending supply, I’d have to be strategic and prioritize because eventually they’d run out. I also knew that the berries were fresh and “ready,” which meant they’d turn quickly. I only had a day, two at most, to make use of them.

Right off the bat when I got home, I sliced the berries and put sugar and orange juice on them for strawberry shortcake. I used this recipe from Taste of Home for my biscuits and my berries, but I did add more sugar to my biscuits after taking a quick taste of the batter. I like mine sweet! That would be our dessert for that very night.

This recipe from Caramel Potatoes was so delicious!

This recipe from Caramel Potatoes was so delicious!

Next, I started prepping a dessert recipe I’d seen just days before, on the Caramel Potatoes blog for Strawberry Crumble Pie. I get their email every day and the recipe for the pie looked right up my alley. I happened to have a pie crust in the freezer and I now had plenty of berries.

The pie chilled overnight and we cut into it the next night for dessert. It was amazing!

From there, I needed to think ahead. I knew that part of my goal was to have plenty of berries on hand frozen for smoothies, since that’s something we use a lot of all year long. I had no idea the best way to freeze them, so I Googled how to freeze fresh-picked strawberries and found simple instructions for freezing both whole and sliced from Taste of Home, once again. I decided to do both. The whole would be for smoothies, and the sliced would be for a future strawberry compote, maybe even on July 4th for our breakfast!

The following day I picked one more recipe that I wanted to make as I tried to stretch my berries just a little further: my mother in law’s recipe for Strawberry Bread, one which has always been a favorite of mine. I love that it makes two breads, and we usually freeze one and eat one. This time I put chocolate chips in the one we ate that day and left them out of the one we froze.

There are so many things you can do with strawberries, and the summertime is the very best time to do them. Although picking season is just about done for strawberries, eating season can be all year long between using frozen and fresh, if you can find them. Now that we’ve frozen some, we’ll have the taste of summer once again in the fall or winter, if we can hold off that long!

If you’re looking for additional strawberry recipes, you can find several more here on my blog, just by searching Strawberries in the search bar. There are recipes for desserts, breakfasts, shakes and even a strawberry salad!

And then, before we know it, it’ll be blueberry picking season!

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Fun Friday: Peach Cobbler from GirlsGoGames.com

20 Jun
After a long, hard day, this was a great dessert to come home to, thanks to Liz.

After a long, hard day, this was a great dessert to come home to!

This was a long, tough school year. Lots of hard work, lots of time and schedule commitments. Oftentimes our kids, just like lots of other people’s kids, could be found on some device or other during their downtime, if they happened to have any. They’d make Video Star videos to their favorite songs, play a game or chat with friends.

I was surprised however, when one day my daughter approached me asking if she could make a recipe from GirlsGoGames.com. I didn’t even realize Girls Go Games had recipes. I wasn’t even sure if they were real, doable recipes or not, but when I took a look, they were. The site listed tons and tons of recipe ideas, complete with ingredients and directions.

I immediately said yes, we definitely could do that. We chose a peach cobbler, an easy recipe which used canned peaches, even though I’m sure you could substitute fresh if you had them. It wasn’t quite peach season here yet, so we were going with the canned option.

Having the ingredients here at the house, now that was another story. It turned out that we were low on lots of stuff and and there wasn’t one recipe on that particular day, that we had everything for. We had to put our baking plans on hold temporarily until I picked up a few things we needed.

Sunday turned into Monday, and Tuesday and Wednesday, and you know how the days fly by.

“Mom, WHEN can we make my recipe from Girls Go Games????” she asked.

I didn’t really have an answer. There wasn’t time to do it when I was home, at least not for a few more nights until the next weekend arrived.

However, one night while I was out, I got a text from home. The text contained a photo of a bubbling peach cobbler coming right out of the oven at that very moment, courtesy of my daughter and my husband, who helped her make it that night.

“I’m on my way home!” I wrote back, as I thanked him profusely for taking over the cooking project for me.

SUCH a good dad.

I arrived home, just in time to be handed a pretty plate of cobbler with vanilla ice cream on top.

It was amazing. So delicious, I was shocked. I couldn’t believe such a great recipe that was kid-friendly could come from an online kids’ game site. It was definitely a keeper.

My kids work hard and they play hard, and I don’t mind giving them down time ever. I think they need it as much as I do. They read a lot but they’re also on their devices a lot too. It was nice to know, at least this time around, that it wasn’t just mindless time spent staring at a screen. Although I don’t mind them having that kind of down time on occasion too, it was great to see that their screen time turned into a delicious treat for all of us.

I’ve linked over to the recipe twice in this post. If you have a daughter who likes games and likes to cook, you can have them check out the site, and maybe one day you’ll come home to a yummy dessert at your house too!

Hot and bubbly, this recipe was definitely a keeper!

Hot and bubbly, this recipe was definitely a keeper!

 

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Fun Friday: In honor of National Chocolate Chip Day…Chocolate Chip Fruit Pizza

16 May
fruit pizza

This was such a great recipe, it got all thumbs up, all the way around!

This week I received an email message from a fellow cast member from last week’s Listen To Your Mother. The message was letting me know that today was going to be National Chocolate Chip Day!

I do believe that every day should be National Chocolate Chip Day and at my house, I celebrate on almost a daily basis.

Conveniently enough, I’d just tried out a new recipe from Skinnytaste, one of my favorite blogs for lowfat recipes. I’d received it in my inbox earlier this week and knew it was a “must try” recipe for sure.

The recipe was for a fruit pizza, and it looked so refreshing. We had some unusually hot weather on Sunday and Monday and I knew that Monday afternoon the kids would be looking for a nice cool snack when they came home Monday afternoon.

When I looked at the recipe for the fruit pizza, I had everything for it except for white chocolate chips. I decided that instead, I would use my semisweet chocolate chips, making the crust a chocolate chip cookie crust. It was perfect! I had a good mix of fruit, although slightly different options than she used on hers: I used blackberries, strawberries, blueberries and kiwi. I actually had more than enough, so that I ended up doing a side dish of all the extra fruit and they ate that as much as they ate the fruit pizza. I love seeing my kids eating so much fresh fruit, especially this time of year when the weather is warm and the delicious fruits are plentiful.

I am posting the recipe here just as it appears on the Skinnytaste blog. I do hope you’ll visit the blog however, I always find great things there. In fact, just last night I made one of her chicken recipes, and my daughter said, “I just love when you make this chicken!” So do check the Skinnytaste blog out!

Here’s the Skinnytaste Fruit Pizza recipe. I have just two minor modifications other than the semisweet chocolate chips vs. white chocolate chips: I bake with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, and I used nonfat plain yogurt instead of applesauce. Other than that, I followed her recipe as is. Everyone loved it, and it made a great after school snack recipe. I had enough that it lasted us for two days. I’d definitely make this again!

Fruit Pizza
Skinnytaste.com
Servings: 30 • Size: 1 bar  • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 4 pts
Calories: 140 • Fat: 5 g • Carb: 24 g • Fiber: 1 g • Protein: 2 g • Sugar: 17 g
Sodium: 72 mg • Cholesterol: 10 mg

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups all purpose unbleached flour (Gold Medal)
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar, unpacked
  • 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
  • 2 large egg whites
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2/3 cup white chocolate chips or chopped white chocolate

For the Frosting:

  • 8 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

To Assemble:

  • 1 large mango, diced
  • 3 diced kiwis
  • 1 cup sliced strawberries
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1 cup raspberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Lightly spray a 9 x 13 x 1.375 inch non-stick baking pan (quarter sheet pan) with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and stir to blend.

In another bowl, whisk the sugars with the butter, egg whites, applesauce and vanilla until light and fluffy.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients with a spatula in two additions until the batter is very well blended. If the batter looks more “crumbly” than smooth, add just a drop of water at a time (ONLY if needed) until it smooths out. Fold in the white chocolate chips.

Spread the batter onto the baking pan using the back of a measuring cup to smooth evenly.

Bake 14 to 16 minutes, until the edges are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Don’t over-bake or your bars will be dry. Let it cool completely on wire rack.

Meanwhile, prepare the frosting; in a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until well-blended.

Cut the bars into 15 large squares (5 cuts by 3 cuts with the knife). Then cut each square in half diagonally to create triangles. Spread the frosting in a thin, even layer over the surface of the cookie, leaving a small margin around the edges. Layer the fresh fruit over the frosting. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

 

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Monday Musings: Got M&M’s?

28 Apr

If you have M&Ms and a messy house, host an M&M Cleanup!

ORIGINALLY POSTED OCTOBER 27, 2011:

As I look around my living room at this very moment, I see laundry in two big piles waiting to be folded, leftover birthday party paraphernalia on the table, today’s pajamas from someone on the floor (those might even be yesterday’s now that I think about it) and I think to myself, “We need an M&M Cleanup!”

The M&M Cleanup is my husband’s invention, I must give him all the credit on this one. He started it when our kids were little as a way to entice them to clean up quickly with a little chocolate for motivation. Because it’s chocolate related, it still works even when they’re big. In fact, if you offered me an M&M right now (I prefer Peanut M&Ms,) I might just clean it all up myself.

Let me tell you a little bit more about it.

First and most importantly: You don’t need to have M&Ms to do this. You could use Skittles, fruit snacks, my personal fave-chocolate chips- or whatever you think is extra special, would motivate your child best and you’re comfortable rewarding them with. In fact, mini M&Ms work just as well as full size. Other than Halloween and maybe Easter, our kids don’t get M&Ms on a regular basis, so if we have them on hand, they work well because they don’t get them often. Conveniently, Santa always leaves them in the stockings and the Easter Bunny usually leaves them in the baskets, so we often get restocked around the holidays.

Second: We only save the M&M Cleanup for big messes, and only periodically do we use it. Otherwise, it’d lose its motivating factor. If you do it all the time, it’s not special. If our downstairs playroom is a huge, overwhelming mess after a multi-kid play date, for example, rather than yell and demand over and over that they clean up, and them whine that it’s too much or they don’t want to, or my favorite, “That’s not mine, I didn’t put that there,” we just announce an M&M Cleanup and they literally run to the mess and start cleaning up.

How it works: You can do it a variety of ways. Sometimes it’s one M&M or chocolate chip for each “thing” they pick up and put away, or for each trip they take from the living room to the bedroom for example, to put something away. Or, you could do an M&M per handful so that they’re not picking up a tiny scrap of paper and getting an M&M for each one. Really, the details and logistics are up to you. And, once that’s determined, how many rewards they get is up to them and how hard they work. If everyone works equally as hard (and in our house that is NOT always the case,) you can give a final little handful to all when the job is done just to make sure it’s fair all around and that no one who worked just as hard, is neglected for being a little bit slower, or whatever the case may be.

Most importantly: Make sure you are the one holding the M&Ms. This allows you most importantly to treat yourself as they clean up. I’m sure you worked just as hard about your day, without reward, so now’s the time. Secondly, this allows you to make sure no one is digging into the reward without doing their job first, or that no one is sneaking any more than what’s due them (such as the one for you and three for me routine.)

Although you can’t use this all the time and nothing is 100% foolproof when it comes to working with kids, The M&M Cleanup has worked wonders for us. It leaves us all smiling at the end and feeling rewarded for our hard work, and everyone needs that every once in a while!

 

Photo credit:

M&M image for the public use:

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Fun Friday: Dump Cake for April Fools Day or any day!

4 Apr
This was a quick and easy dessert!

This was a quick and easy dessert!

In a recent What’s for Dinner Wednesday post, I mentioned that the stir fry recipe I was trying out reminded me of a cake recipe I’d once heard of called Dump Cake, because like that cake recipe, the stir fry recipe was one where you just dumped a whole bunch of ingredients in and cooked them.

That reference in my post got me thinking about Dump Cake recipes. I couldn’t remember having had one myself and I wasn’t even sure where I’d heard about Dump Cake, but I knew I had somehow, from somewhere. So of course I turned to Google and searched the term Dump Cake to see what kinds of recipes would come up and to see if Dump Cake was something I’d like to try making. As I looked, I found that they varied slightly in the types of ingredients that could go in them. Some had canned fruits, some had fresh. Some had butter: one stick or two, and some had a can of soda. They all used a yellow cake mix and all called for an optional addition of chopped walnuts.

I decided to find one somewhere in the middle. I had a can of crushed pineapple already and a yellow cake mix. I did not want to go the soda route, so I knew I’d be using butter (we use I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter), but I didn’t want to use a lot. Ultimately, I chose a recipe that used a can of crushed pineapple, a can of cherry pie filling, one stick of butter and a cake mix. I did not choose to use the walnuts.

The recipe I chose was from Allrecipes.com, and it claimed to be “as easy as dumping ingredients in a pan,” and it sure was. There were enough steps for everyone to have a turn helping to make the cake. We were using this as part of this year’s April Fools Day dinner, our first ever, and the girls and I were in cahoots, creating a fun meal for their dad. Part of the fun was having a “cake” for dinner and this Dump Cake for dessert.

The “cake” for dinner was going to be heart-shaped and as it turned out, our Dump Cake turned pink, so it was a very funny meal to be eating in April.

The recipe, as it appears on Allrecipes.com is below. It truly is as easy as they say, and it was really tasty too! We had ours with a simple squirt of whipped cream, but I’m sure it’d be delicious with ice cream on top too. I’m also sure that any variety of fresh fruits would be good as well. The only thing I was unsure of was whether or not to spray my pan with non-stick spray, and I opted to do so, rather than risk the cake not coming out of the dish.

Next time you’re looking for a fun cake to make, remember my April Fools Dinner and try a Dump Cake!

DUMP CAKE BY ALLRECIPES.COM

A few ingredients were all we needed!

A few ingredients were all we needed!

INGREDIENTS

 Original recipe makes 1 – 9×13 inch cake

  • 1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling
  • 1 (15 ounce) can crushed pineapple
  • 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
  • 8 ounces chopped walnuts
  • 1/2 cup butter

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a 9×13 inch pan mix cherries and pineapple. Sprinkle dry cake mix over pineapple, and cherry mixture stir until just combined. Then sprinkle walnuts over top. Drizzle top with melted butter or margarine.
  2. Bake in a 350 degree F (175 degree C) oven for 35 or 40 minutes or until golden brown. 

    "Cake" for dinner and Dump Cake for dessert for April Fools Day!

    “Cake” for dinner and Dump Cake for dessert for April Fools Day!

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Fun Friday: War Cake

7 Mar
I love when books contain recipes that go along with the story. This was a great one!

I love when books contain recipes that go along with the story. This was a great one!

My kids and I are huge readers, and when it comes to history, all five of us, my husband included, are big fans. We all love to cook and bake, so when my daughter found a historical fiction book about the life and times of a girl during World War II, she was excited to read it.

“My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck” is part of the Dear America series of books.

At the end of the book there was a recipe for War Cake, something that was spoken about throughout the story.

She was so excited! We had to make it.

I looked at the ingredients and we had them all. Well, we had almost all of them. The recipe called for walnuts and I don’t love them so we don’t often have them here.

I came up with a great substitution though: chocolate chips! Everything goes well with chocolate chips.

This was an excellent book and the recipe inside was a bonus!

This was an excellent book and the recipe inside was a bonus!

We decided that on Sunday afternoon this would be a great recipe for her to make. Looking at it further, I realized that it was ultimately pretty healthy too, as far as cakes and desserts go.

Due to the fact that ingredients were hard to come by during World War II, this cake is made with brown sugar rather than white, no eggs, no milk, and only a little butter. My daughter learned in the story that white sugar was used to make gunpowder during the war and therefore, was almost impossible to come by. Although the character in the story is fiction, the events are based on true historical events during WWII and are based on the author, Mary Pope Osborne’s own parents’ experiences as well. Mary Pope Osborne is also the author of the popular Magic Treehouse series of books.

I know that my daughter will be returning this book to the library this weekend during our weekly Saturday visit and she’ll be on the lookout for another Dear America story to read, since she devoured this one.

Almost literally.

Until then, here’s the recipe for Mary Pope Osborne’s War Cake.

Enjoy!

War Cake

By Mary Pope Osborne

INGREDIENTS

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup water

1 cup raisins

2 T. margarine (I used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter)

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1 and 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 c. chopped walnuts (I used chocolate chips instead)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8×4″ baking pan (we used 8×8).

Place the brown sugar, water, raisins, margarine, cinnamon, and cloves in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil.

Turn down heat and cook gently for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool until mixture is lukewarm.

Sift together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.

Add flour mixture to the cooled sugar mixture, beating until the batter is smooth.

Stir in the walnuts (or if desired, chocolate chips).

Spread evenly in the baking pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan 10 minutes, then turn onto a rack to cool completely.

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Fun Friday: Valentine’s Day Edition

14 Feb
Valentine's M&Ms made these cookies extra special!

Valentine’s M&Ms made these cookies extra special!

It’s a Friday, and it’s Valentine’s Day! I love when special days fall on a Friday or a weekend day. It makes them all the more enjoyable.

I got a sweet treat myself this week, when my kids who give out Valentine’s Day cards both decided to hand make them and to do it with absolutely no direction from me. For years we made them together and the last couple of years I’ve had to buy them. I just couldn’t pull it all off. It warmed my heart to come home from a meeting earlier this week and see that they were making them.

In addition to Valentine’s Day, we’ve also had a snow day this week, which has provided an extra opportunity for Valentine’s treats, and school vacation is coming up next week, which even though we don’t go anywhere special, is still a fun week off.

Earlier this week, we were having a friend over for one of the kids after school so I decided that in between my morning and afternoon work schedules, I’d make a quick little Valentine’s treat to greet them when they got home.

It called for only three ingredients and one of them was Valentine’s- themed M&Ms. The recipe didn’t use the entire bag, so I used them instead of chocolate chips in the cookies you see above when we had the snow day, and that’ll make a great treat today in the kids’ lunchboxes.

The after school treat was a three ingredient Skinny Dark Kisses treat which a friend posted on Facebook, shared from the Skinny Kitchen site. I can tell it’s going to be a site that I visit often! I hope you’ll check it out.

The recipe is shown below, just as they have it on their site. It was easy, other than unwrapping all of the Hershey Kisses, and a word of warning: they say you need to cool them for two hours, or put them in the fridge to speed up that time. I had a 1:30 story to cover, so I made them on my lunch break at 12:30, left in time for my story, and when I came home with the kids after 3, it had been just enough time for them to cool and be ready to eat!

The recipe below makes 25, but I made slightly more than that since I had a bigger tray. I was able to make 45 and I still had half a bag of M&Ms leftover and a quarter of a bag of Hershey Kisses left as well.

A cute Valentine's treat, you won't be able to eat just one!

A cute Valentine’s treat, you won’t be able to eat just one!

Another word of warning: you can just eat one. They’re slightly addicting!

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Prep Time: 15 minutes total (for 25 of them)
Bake Time: 5 minutes
Set Time: 2 hours for chocolate to firm up or 1 hour in refrigerator


Ingredients



25 Special Dark Hershey’s kisses, un-wrapped

25 mini pretzels

25 dark chocolate M&M’s available in bags of Valentine’s Day colors or use a regular bag


Instructions



1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or foil.

2. Place pretzels on cookiesheet. Top each pretzel with one unwrapped chocolate kiss.

3. Bake 4 to 5 minutes or until chocolate begins to soften, but not melt. Remove from oven; top each with 1 M&M. Be sure to press it down a bit to set into the chocolate kiss.

4. Cool completely. This takes about 2 hours. To cool quickly, refrigerate until chocolate is firm.

Makes 25 total

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Fun Friday: Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars

7 Feb
This was an after school snack that was quick to make and disappeared just as fast!

This was an after school snack that was quick to make and disappeared just as fast!

As you know, we love a good after school snack at our house! It holds us over from when we get home from school, through homework and after school activity time, until dinner, which can sometimes be pushing 7:00.

This recipe is just a slight modification from a site that I follow, Skinny Ms. I love their site and I have featured many of their recipes in the past. They always get rave reviews from my house and this one was no different.

Of course, my main modification is the fact that I had to add chocolate chips to my version of these bars. I couldn’t help it. They just wouldn’t be the same without them!

Below is their recipe with my modifications noted in parentheses.

Please visit their site and check out all their great recipes! You’ll want to follow them too!

My Version of the Skinny Ms. Peanut Butter and Honey Oat Bars

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup honey

1 tablespoon coconut oil (I used canola)

1/3 cup peanut butter

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

2 cups oats

1/2 cup chopped honey roasted peanuts (this is where I substituted 1/2 cup chocolate chips instead)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 300 F

Line an 8 x 8 pan with parchment paper, making sure the parchment paper hangs over the sides.

(I did not have parchment paper so I did not line my pan with it.)

In a microwave safe bowl, add honey, coconut oil (canola oil) and peanut butter. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir until mixture gets runny and peanut butter completely melted in. You may have to heat for another 20 seconds or so. Mix in vanilla extract and cinnamon.

Add oats and peanuts, mix until everything is combined and the mixture is completely coated with honey and peanut butter mixture.

Pour mixture into prepared pan and press down with a back of a spoon; bake in the oven for 20 -25 minutes until lightly brown.

Once you take the bars out of the oven, press down with the back of a spoon to insure the oats are pressed firmly together. Let the oat bars cool slightly and carefully take out bars by grabbing onto the parchment paper and cut into 16 slices. Let bars cool completely and harden at room temperature.

Store bars in an air tight container in the refrigerator.

Makes 16 bars.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1/3 cup peanut butter
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, ground
  • 2 cups oats (I used Gluten Free Oats)
  • 1/2 cup chopped honey roasted peanuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 F

Line an 8 x 8 pan with parchment paper, making sure the parchment paper hangs over the sides.

In a microwave safe bowl, add honey, coconut oil and peanut butter. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir until mixture gets runny and peanut butter completely melted in. You may have to heat for another 20 seconds or so. Mix in vanilla extract and cinnamon.

Add oats and peanuts, mix until everything is combined and the mixture is completely coated with honey and peanut butter mixture.

Pour mixture into prepared pan and press down with a back of a spoon; bake in the oven for 20 -25 minutes until lightly brown.

Once you take the bars out of the oven, press down with the back of a spoon to insure the oats are pressed firmly together. Let the oat bars cool slightly and carefully take out bars by grabbing onto the parchment paper and cut into 16 slices. Let bars cool completely and harden at room temperature.

Store bars in an air tight container in the refrigerator.

Makes 16 bars.

Read more at http://skinnyms.com/peanut-butter-and-honey-oat-bars/#gfP0EJKu3Sr2DuA5.99

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1/3 cup peanut butter
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, ground
  • 2 cups oats (I used Gluten Free Oats)
  • 1/2 cup chopped honey roasted peanuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 F

Line an 8 x 8 pan with parchment paper, making sure the parchment paper hangs over the sides.

In a microwave safe bowl, add honey, coconut oil and peanut butter. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir until mixture gets runny and peanut butter completely melted in. You may have to heat for another 20 seconds or so. Mix in vanilla extract and cinnamon.

Add oats and peanuts, mix until everything is combined and the mixture is completely coated with honey and peanut butter mixture.

Pour mixture into prepared pan and press down with a back of a spoon; bake in the oven for 20 -25 minutes until lightly brown.

Once you take the bars out of the oven, press down with the back of a spoon to insure the oats are pressed firmly together. Let the oat bars cool slightly and carefully take out bars by grabbing onto the parchment paper and cut into 16 slices. Let bars cool completely and harden at room temperature.

Store bars in an air tight container in the refrigerator.

Makes 16 bars.

Read more at http://skinnyms.com/peanut-butter-and-honey-oat-bars/#gfP0EJKu3Sr2DuA5.99

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