Double the Pleasure – Double the Fun!

My very beautiful, smart and talented niece, Samantha turned 21 last week. We had her birthday with family on her special day. This is the ‘ice bucket I painted for her in some of her fave colors and it was filled with 6 different fun-n-fruity wine coolers and a bunch of silver, tinsel ‘ice’. Niece was nice enough to snap this pic a few days after her b-day…the wine coolers are gone – although I’m SURE their in the fridge and not all consumed…..right Darlin’??
Then, on the weekend, a few of us ‘already-21ers’ (or should I say over 21ers…WAY over 21ers!) family members went out to have a few drinks with her to ring in this new phase of her life the right way ;-)

About mid-drink #2, we learned that my big bro and his girlfriend of many years were going to get married…..the day after next (Sunday)! They’d been talking about it a lot lately and finally decided to ‘do the deed’ and make it official. It was another fun thing to drink to that night.

The next day (Saturday), I had a free afternoon/evening and wanted to do something fun for the soon-to-be-married couple. Since they’d planned a very private affair between just the two of them, I assumed they had no wedding cake or special sweet to conclude their happy day, so I thought….mini wedding cake? And this is what I made, start to finish in my kitchen Saturday evening (and secretly left on their doorstep at 7:30 Sunday morning) ….a 6’ 1/2 inch, 4-tier wedding cake that was white with lemon curd filling and creamy vanilla icing! I scrolled their initials on the top along with a tiny heart. The cake was simple, pretty and small – a heartfelt gift from me to them to put a literal sweet ending to their wedding day.

Now – as I’ve stated before, my phone stopped sending pics a month+ ago – but with a little extra effort, I found that if I send a pic over and over (read: one million times), it WILL eventually send! Had I know that ahead of time, I’dve had more than these two pics – which are essentially the same.

Here’s one of the inside of the cake (thanks for sending me the pic, new sis-in-law!) – and it’s taught me a lesson……sliver-shave the golden brown flat bottom off the cake! How much prettier it would‘ve been if only the light, yellow of the lemon curd was showing. Oh well….best part is that my bro and now-sis-in-law said it was “soooo good!” That means everything –‘cuz if it looks good but tastes like doodoo – then, what’s the point?!

Anyhoo….I had a fun weekend celebrating my wonderful niece and baking up a very special treat.

Ice Cream Bombe is DA BOMB!

My birthday was last Wednesday. Because my little family of three lives a little ways away from everyone else in our family, we usually wait to celebrate our birthday’s on a weekend so folks don’t have to get stuck in weekday, rush hour traffic and so that when they do arrive, they can stay a while rather than having to do everything in a rushed manner in order to get back on the road towards home.

Anyhoo…..so we had about 20 people out to our house and it was a really fun time. I usually have a hard time relinquishing food items that need to be made as I like to do so much of it myself – but this year I wanted to make several fun dessert items so I turned over most every side dish to others - the hubs and I still did the meat dish (chicken wings! I could LIVE on them!) and it was great to have everyone pitch in – it was all delicious!

My original plan was to make a pavlova, a fruit pizza on a huge sugar cookie crust, an ice cream bombe and a tray of brownies. Then I got to thinking that I was really trying to spread myself – as well as my time – a little thin. And really…did we need all those things? So…I decided on the ice cream bombe. It’s something I’d never made before but had been wanting to try – then, the balance out the cold of the ice cream, I decided to make brownies. I adore my homemade stand-by, cocoa brownies but because they’re chocolate and the bombe would have ample chocolate, I made my first ever Blondies too. I don’t have pics of either…shoulda snapped one- but let me say that everyone LOVED the blondies – I made have with walnuts, have without and the whole pan had white chocolate chips. The brownies were classic, and folks liked them lot as well – and I did half walnuts with chocolate chips throughout.

So…onto the ice cream bombe! Making a bombe is easy and you can get as creative as you want or can keep it really simple. I used a large, stainless steel bowl, sprayed the inside with non-stick coking spray, then lined it with plastic wrap, leaving plenty to overhang the rim all the way around. You need your ice cream to be softened, but still super cold and not melted at all. So, put the ice cream you’re using first, I the fridge for about 15 minutes before using it while al the other ice cream flavors are still in the freezer.

Meringue Shell Crowns and Lemon Curd Recipes!

So – if you get the itch to make the meringue shells pictured yesterday – here’s all you have to do – super easy!

6 Individual Meringue Shell Crowns

Ingredients:
3 large room temp egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
¾ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 275-degrees and line a baking sheet with either parchment paper or a silpat. Dust the surface with a little corn starch.

Begin beating egg whites until frothy then add cream of tartar and continue beating on high speed. Begin adding sugar by the tablespoon full allowing mixture to beat well between each addition until all sugar is added. Pour in vanilla extract and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. When whites appear to be stiff, stop mixer and feel a pinch of the mixture between your thumb and forefinger. If it’s still a little grainy, continue beating until whites are smooth. All that sugar need to be completely dissolved. Once whites are no longer grainy – it’s ready to pipe.

Load the egg whites into a pastry/piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe crowns by piping swirled circles (begin in the center of the circle and swirl around itself working its way outward) to form a 4 to 5 inch circle. Pipe 6 crown/circle bases this way, then come back to each and pipe stars atop the outer edge of each. When done, place tray in oven and bake for 45 minutes. When timer goes off, turn the oven off and open the door, leaving it ajar for an additional 45 minutes allowing the crowns to cool completely and slowly in inside the oven. You may then move them to an airtight container or rack to set until ready to fill. See? EASY!

Ina Garten’s Lemon Curd
(this is Ina’s recipe but my own comments are noted with a * *)

Ingredients:
3 lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 pound unsalted butter, room temperature 4 extra-large eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons)
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:
Using a carrot peeler, remove the zest of 3 lemons, being careful to avoid the white pith. Put the zest in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add the sugar and pulse until the zest is very finely minced into the sugar. * * I used a microplane to zest my lemon, creating very fine shards of lemon peel – but I still combined the zest with the sugar in the food processor to blend it together well.
Cream the butter and beat in the sugar and lemon mixture. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and then add the lemon juice and salt. Mix until combined. (* * will be voluminous and light ‘whipped butter yellow’)
Pour the mixture into a 2 quart saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes), stirring constantly (* * It’ll take WAY longer than 10 minutes if you do this on low. I have my temp at a notch and a half below medium and stir the entire time – it takes a good 15 minutes or so. The mixture will go from that ‘creamy whipped butter appearance to a silky, more liquid form to finally a thicker form, say close to a pancake batter…never will it be like a super thick gel). The lemon curd will thicken at about 170 degrees F, or just below simmer. Remove from the heat and cool or refrigerate. Use as desired…..as in…EAT IT WITH A SPOON!!!!! YUM!!!!!

Meringue Shells with Lemon Curd

Hi! Nice to see you again! No – I didn’t get my phone fixed but I realized that all this time I coulda been borrowing my daughter’s phone to snap my pics! Yes, I would’ve had to endure the ‘eye rolling’ that comes along with asking “Okay, Min...I need your phone again” – but hey, at age 16, what doesn’t included eye rolling, eh?

So….I made a really fun dessert this past weekend – Meringues with lemon curd (my fave!) and fresh whipped cream and strawberries. I wish I’d have thought to take pics al the way through – but the idea didn’t come to me until these little beauties came out of the oven. Besides…my daughter might have had to miss/wait for the 300 missed calls during that time – for shame!

Anyhoo, I made a simple meringue (recipe to come tomorrow as I don’t have it in my head and I wnana make it exact, of course), and whipped the room-temperature egg whites and everything together until I had absolute stiff, snow white peaks, then put it all in a pastry bag with a big star tip and piped out individual meringues that once done, just begged to be filled with sweet scrumptiousness!Check it out…

Doesn’t that just look like a lovely, delicate yet delectable crown?! These fully baked and cooled meringues look exactly the way they did when they went into the oven –‘cept slightly off-white rather than snow. They baked for 45 minutes at 275-degrees then cooled in the oven – door ajar – for another 45. Truth be told, I thought the length of time was a it much for the temp. I might try 250 next time….and maybe 5 minutes less – just because it’d be so pretty to have these shells remain pure white.

Okay – so…I’d piped, baked and cooled – and while all this was happening, I made the filling. Lemon curd! OMG I love it so! I could live off it – it’s just that damn good. I follow Ina’s Garten’s recipe and it comes out ‘perfection each time’ (again, recipe tomorrow…promise. I just HAD to post without it today ‘cuz it’d just been too long!). I let the lemon curd chill out in the fridge for a few hours to thicken up a but more, but once I was ready to assemble….here’s what I did….

I put a couple of heaping tablespoons – maybe even 3..I said I loved it remember?! – in each meringue shell….

Then topped that with freshly whipped cream – sorry Cool Whip – you got kicked to the curb on this recipe!

Then…..I made sorta the wrong decision on this next part – but hey…live and learn, eh?

I ladled strawberries in syrup over the top. It was delicious, yes….but not nearly as pretty as it would’ve been had I just spooned on a few fresh slices of berries and maybe kiwi.....just like Mom said! Listen to your mother…at least SOME of the time!

All in all it was a fun undertaking – and really….quite easy. It’s nice to know that an elegant, eye-catching dessert can be made without tons of effort or money….just takes a little time.
Give these a try next time you wanna bump up ‘good ol’ dessert’ into something fancy-schmancy!

Recipes tomorrow!

P.S. – it’s nice to be back and thanks to all who said you missed me – right back at’cha ;-)

Fast & Easy Cinna-Minnys

Who doesn’t love a hot, gooey cinnamon roll?! My daughter and her BFF love them. Said BFF spends one night at our house just about every weekend and we really like having her. I know lots of moms/parents let kids fend for themselves as far as breakfast when a sleepover has occurred, but I’ve never felt comfortable with that. As a mom I feel like it’s my job to start their day off nicely with a hot breakfast. Not necessarily a nutritious breakfast, but a hot one that they’ll like ;-) While they enjoy pancakes, waffles, french toast and eggs/browns/bacon, by far they like hot cinnamon rolls the most. My daughter’s nickname is Minny, so, seeing as they’re her favorite, I named the tiny treat after her!. I’ve made real, yeast, homemade cinnamon rolls a few times and they are heaven – but that means having lots of cinnamon rolls around the house for days which is really bad for me! Then, I fell into the habit of buying the Pillsbury ones in the can – these are fine, but they’re far from great. So….a few months ago, not finding a can of the regular cinnamon rolls in the fridge, yet seeing a can of crescent rolls, I was able to make the most melt-in-your-mouth, fast & easy cinnamon rolls that have become the girl’s top choice for breakfast (and a side of bacon never hurts). So, still with a little help from Pillsbury, I present my Fast & Easy Cinna-Minnys! FYI – because I made these up on a whim, measurements are approximate. There is really no way to screw these up though, so check out how I make’m and then have faith in yourself to throw them together :-)

You’ll need 1 tube of Pillsbury Crescent rolls. The kind shown above is the new, one full sheet kind – but you can buy the regular rolls, just unroll them into one big sheet and press them together at the seams. Also gather some brown sugar, cinnamon and butter.

The rolls are pretty buttery tasting already, but begin by spreading a very thin layer of butter on the dough just to help the filling adhere a little better.

You can see the butter is very thin – I bet there’s only about a 1 ½ tablespoons total on there. Also, leave a good half inch unbuttered along one of the long sides to make sealing easier after rolling.

Next comes the filling – Yum! My filling is simply brown sugar and cinnamon. Again, I’ve never measured, but I’m gonna say I use about 1/3 cup (packed) or ½ cup un packed brown sugar and approx 1 ½ tablespoons of good cinnamon. Stir the two ingredients together well, in a bowl, then pour it down the middle of the buttered dough.

Then spread the filling mixture evenly from end to end and to the edge of one, buttered, long side leaving the other, unbuttered long edge free of filling.

Starting at the long side where the filling is right up to the edge, begin rolling the dough – taking care to keep the roll as snug as possible (as opposed to loose and floppy). Then, pinch and seal the dough along the unbuttered edge. Seal it well so the rolls don’t Unroll while baking.

Cut the into individual slices – about ¾ inch thickness. Using a good, serrated knife and a sawing motion makes this a snap.

Place each slice on a baking sheet. I use well-honed stoneware to bake my rolls – if you’re going to use a metal baking sheet, you’d do well to use parchment paper or a silpat as the sugary filling will be a nightmare for you, burning the rolls on the bottom and making cleaning impossible!

Yes these cinnamon rolls are smaller than the ones you pop out of a can, but you get way more and I guarantee, they taste WAY better! Put your filled baking sheet into a preheated 350-degree oven for 12 – 14 minutes. Again, I’ve only ever baked these on my stoneware, so if using a regular backing sheet, please keep eye on them – checking for doneness after ten minutes the first time you make these – then increase baking time by one or two minute intervals until light golden brown.

Mmmmm….baking is done….

Puffy, tender and all cinnamonny in the middle! See the filling that oozed? That’s why you’ll need a silpat or parchment on a metal sheet!
Now….what’s a cinnamon roll without cream cheese icing? It’s not complete – that’s what!

This is super simple…grab a bowl and dump in ¼ brick of cream cheese (nuked to make it soft), 2 or 3 teaspoons of butter, about 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar and a tiny splash of vanilla. Stir it up good with a fork or mini-whisk…..

….until velvety smooth and use an knife or small off-set spatula to smear about a half teaspoon-worth if icing on each hot cinnamon roll.

Eat’m while there hot! Soooo good! I tried to take a picture of one of the little, delicious, cinnamon treasures – but the hot filling was burning my fingers before I could get a picture worth saving! But trust me – these are dreamy, tender & flaky and full of cinnamony-brown sugar & buttery flavor. The twang of the cream cheese icing is the perfect compliment to the deep cinnamon. The best semi-homemade cinnamon rolls :-)

Fast & Easy Cinna-Minnys

Ingredients:
Rolls:
1 can/tube Pillsbury Crescent roll sheet or rolls (seams pressed to form one sheet of dough)
1 ½ tablespoons soft butter
1/3 cup (packed) or ½ cup (unpacked) light brown sugar
1 ½ tablespoons cinnamon

Icing:
¼ brick cream cheese (softened)
2 -3 teaspoons butter (softened)
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
Tiny splash vanilla

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Butter dough sheet leaving ½ inch of one long side of dough butter-free. Stir brown sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl, then pour on top of buttered dough spreading filling evenly over butter but be careful to leave unbuttered strip along that one long side filling-free. Starting at long side where filling meets the edge of the dough, roll up dough jelly-roll style, keeping roll snug and pinch & seal log along the opposite, unbuttered/unfilled long edge. Cut into ½ inch slices and place cut-side down on stoneware or silpat/parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 12-14 min or until light golden brown. Stir together all icing ingredients and smear the top of each mini-cinnamon roll with approx ½ teaspoon of cream cheese icing. Serve immediately.

Sweet 16 Cake and Super Fun Ice Cream Cups!

Have you ever loved someone so much it just about oozed from your pores? That’s how I feel about my daughter and this past weekend she reached that birthday that when she was a tiny baby, everyone talked about, “Wait till she turns 16!” Well - My one and only baby girl is 16 years old and I love her 16 times more today than I did when she was born – and I was totally nuts about her then!

I wanted to decorate her cake to celebrate her life and the person she’s become. So, after ordering a plain, white frosted ½ sheet cake from Costco (hellooooo…? $16.99 for a cake that will serve not only 22 party guests but leave a few servings of leftovers? Perfect!). I knew I wanted to get her pictures on the cake and assumed I’d have to make the wire curly-cues myself but found these too-perfect Sweet 16 photo holders at Party City where we’d bought a few other ‘16’ party items. Aren’t they just so cute!?

The fun – and hard part – was choosing the 5 pics to put into each holder. We only have about a million photos of her!

She’s always wanted one of those big, chunky ‘number’ candles too…only had to wait 16 years to get one ;-)

And – look what else I made for this super fun party….Ice Cream Cups! Don’t these just scream ‘Birthday Party’?!

They are totally edible, made of semi-sweet chocolate, then the edges were sipped into white chocolate then immediately dipped into hot pink sugar or tiny, colored balls.

I used my littlest scooper to form the ice cream balls, then set each on wax paper in a 9x13 pan and let them harden in the freezer overnight so all I had to do the day of the party was drop a ball in each cup…..

...and top each with a cherry! Now – I will admit…I took this picture in advance because I knew if I waited until party time, I’d totally forget to snap a photo. But what I ended up forgetting at they aprty – was putting on the cherries! :-( Oh well – they were still super cute and really yummy :-)

They tasted like an ice cream bar, ‘cept with more chocolate…never a bad thing! They, along with her very personalized cake helped make my babydoll’s very special birthday a little sweeter.

The ‘sweet’ for me was when she told me it was the best birthday she’d ever had. I love you Min! I'm so gald you had such a Happy Sweet 16!!!

Light & Lovely Lemon Squares

Mmmmm....I LOVE lemon! Lemon curd and sour cream lemon pie are my favorite lemon treats. I used to make these lemon bars all the time but for some reason, they'd taken a back seat for quite a few years. So, when I had my mom out for dinner recently, I pulled out the old Betty Crocker cookbook to bring them to the forefront once again - I'm SO glad I did... Yum!

I actually meant this to be a pre-Easter post but could get my photos to upload :-( I thought the light yellow color of these mellow-tarted bars would be perfect for the pastel holiday. But better late than never! If you have a passion for lemon, give these a try - with their flaky shortbread-type crust and smooth lemon middle....you won't be sorry!

Lemon Squares

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup butter – softened
¼ cup powdered sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons lemon peel/zest
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
Powdered sugar for dusting


Directions:
Heat over to 350. Mix four, butter and powdered sugar with a pastry blender until well combined and fine. Press mixture in an ungreased 8x8 or 9x9 pan building up sides ½ inch. Bake crust 20 minutes. Meanwhile, beat granulated sugar, lemon peel/zest, lemon juice, baking powder, salt and eggs with an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy – about 3 minutes. Pour over hot crust. Bake 25 – 30 minutes or until no indentation remains when touched lightly in center. Cool and dust with powdered sugar. Cut into 16 squares.

Peanut Butter & Candied Bacon Cookies!

You know...everyone's putting bacon in their sweets nowadays! This past weekend, I took the plunge. I had read that Monday was not only National Pig Day, but National Peanut Butter Lover's Day as well...so, the idea for the cookies was born! I'd recently heard about candied bacon (I guess they call it 'pig candy' in the south?!), so I wanted to try that and then add it into my fave PB cookies. The results were dang good - but you DO tend to think....'do I really need bacon in my peanut butter cookie?' For me, although tasty, the answer is 'no'. It's just....well...kind of unnecessary! Fun - but unnecessary. I DO encourage you to try these at least once...I mean...peanut butter, bacon, brown sugar, maple.... Nothing wrong there ;-)

I first candied the bacon by laying 10 slices of thick-cut bacon on a rack on a sheet pan.

I baked it for about 10 to 15 minutes at 400-degrees until it was about 1/3 'done'.

I then brushed the bacon with maple syrup.....

....just a nice even coating.....

..then each slice got a sprinkle of brown sugar! I LOVE brown sugar! After the bacon 'got the goods', I baked it for another 15 minutes or so. I watched it carefully to make sure it didn't burn but I wanted to make sure the bacon was done and wasn't floppy.

Look at this! It's like bacon jewelry! SO pretty! And yuuuuummmy!

Once the bacon was completely cool, I gave ot a chop. Not too small, not too big.

I whipped up my fave peanut butter cookie dough.......

....then folded in the bacon pieces.

I rolled 'smaller-than-a-walnut-sized' balls of dough and put them on parchment-lined baking sheets, and flattened each in the traditional criss-cross fashion with a fork.

All ready for the oven!

9 minutes on the dot and they were done to perfection. Slightly crisp on the edges, chewy in the middle.

They were really good -not over-powering bacon flavor, but the bacon flavor that was there was nicely complimented by it's candy coating.

So - all in all, a good cookie :-) Really glad I made them 'cuz ya gotta do a trendy thing now and then, eh?! This trend for me though - was a one-timer. Nice to have met you, peanut butter bacon cookie!

Peanut Butter & Candied Bacon Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup butter (or ½ cup shortening & ½ cup butter)
2 eggs
2 ½ cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

Directions:
Preheat over to 375 degrees. Mix sugars, peanut butter, butter/shortening and eggs until well combined. Add in dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Stir in chopped, candied bacon. Place just-smaller-than-walnut-sized balls on dough onto parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 8 to 9 minutes. Remove to cooling racks.



Candied Bacon
Lay 10 strips of thick-cut bacon on a rack placed on a jellyroll pan. Bake for 10 minutes in 400-degree oven, then brush with maple syrup and sprinkle with brown sugar. Return to oven for another 15 to 20 minutes, watching to make sure it doesn’t burn. Remove pan from oven and allow to cool completely. Chop into small pieces and fold into peanut butter cookie dough...