Thursday, July 29, 2010

New Dessert Thursday : Dessert Pizza

I was in a baking mood today. I made the banana bread I listed below, a batch of pretzels for myself and a friend, and then new I needed to get back to my three new recipes a week plan, so I wanted a new dessert. I wanted easy. Quick. And something with fruit, because it is summer.

So, again I went to my friend, the internet. Went to one of my favorite sites, www.allrecipes.com and just typed in dessert. After I gagged at the first recipe, avocado dessert, I got on with my search. And my final choice was


Dessert Pizza


Can we say E A S Y. So easy. It was so easy I was afraid it would be tasteless. Not so. It is so good.

I did add a half pack of vanilla pudding to the cool whip. I also used all berries on mine. Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.

My grade : B +

I really do like it, but feels like it is lacking something. I would however make it again and I think for a party it is great to take.

The Banana Bread quest - again

I have been out of town for what seems like forever. So this morning I ran to the commissary on base to pick up a few things. I saw bags of really ripe bananas for super cheap so I decided it was a good day to make some bread.

I found this recipe

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I am sure this one is a keeper. In all honesty, I was worried because while it was baking it got so dark. I am not a fan of a hard crust at all. When I bit into it , I was very pleasantly surprised because it was not overly hard.



My grade : A

It is very moist and has a great flavor , but not overly sweet.

I am however, still on a quest for the BEST banana bread recipe.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

New Entree Sunday : Pasta with Tomatoes

It is new entree Sunday. This morning I asked my husband what he was in the mood for. I was wondering Italian? Mexican? Chinese? He responded Croatian. Well, since I have never even tried to make Croatian food, I decided to do Italian. So, off to the web I went . I looked up Italian recipes and found this site.

www.theitalianchef.com

After I searched the recipes and wiped the drool off my keyboard, I finally narrowed it down to this recipe.

Pasta with Tomatoes

Recipe Review grade : C+

This was easy to put together . It smelled great while cooking. It was not a bad recipe, but nothing great and grand . It was definitely edible but I am thinking I will not make it again . Neither one of us and our friend who dined with us were overly impressed. I would have guessed with all the spices it would have had a lot of flavor, but it seemed pretty bland.









To go with our dinner I knew I wanted bread, because, if we are being honest here, the best part of a good Italian meal is good bread. Good garlic bread. I have had a recipe saved for a while and decided today was a great day to make it.

Herb Garlic Rolls

My recipe review grade: A-

For a yeast recipe, super easy. They went together east and only had a rise time of an hour. For my herb I used Oregano . These were excellent. Very light in texture. The garlic butter added a lot of flavor. Will definitely make these again for sure.





Thursday, July 8, 2010

Homemade garlic bread

Today was a busy baking day.

Tonight's bread started out as what will I make for dinner? Hmmm, baked spaghetti sounds good. But we have no garlic bread. Oh, let me see what I can find online. Hmm, this one just needs italian bread. Oh, I can make that . Then came another hunt. And most italian bread took to long. So I searched more. And came up with this


Italian Bread


This was one of the easiest loaves of bread I have ever made. The recipe was easy. The only hard part was watching how much flour you add, but I seem to bake enough so I knew when to stop. Rise time was short. Not a lot of shaping. I did cook it for 4 minutes longer.

Then I took my Italian loaf and made it into this

Garlic Bread

I made my butter and let it sit for a bit to get pretty soft. I chose to do the soft version of the bread. I would say it turned out pretty good. We both ate 4 pieces. No need to waste good carbs,


Dessert Thursday : Vanilla Cupcakes

Today is new dessert Thursday. Now, to clarify, by new dessert I mean a new recipe. Some of the desserts may be plain jane to you, but sometimes boring is good.

Today I knew I wanted a new recipe, but , to be honest, I live in Georgia, it is so hot and I did not feel like going to the store. So it needed to be simple and something I could make with ingredients I had on hand. Add in my dream about owning a cupcake shop. I knew I wanted to make cupcakes. So, off to the web I went.

I landed at www.joyofbaking.com

and I chose to make

Vanilla cupcakes

These cupcakes were easy to mix up and quick to bake. I checked at 18 min and should have taken them out, but I did not. So I did an extra two minutes. They are not burnt by any means, but the outsides are a little tougher than I like.

I added a bit more (1/2 c) sugar to my frosting. I like a heavy frosting.

The end result. A light cupcake that by itself is not too sweet. So when you add in the frosting you have a nice combination. One I will make again. I could see this cupcake being good with many frostings.


Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Herb Bread

I was ready to get back to baking and ready to play with yeast again. So while be lazy at the pool I decided to bake this afternoon. I came home, surfed one of my favorite bread websites.

www.cookingbread.com

and I came across this recipe


Herb Bread recipe


It was easy to put together. My complaint would be the dough was very sticky. Next time I will add a bit more flour.Overall though the flavor was strong and I liked the herbs in it. My greatest critic, the husband, said I can make it whenever I would like too. That folks, is a thumbs up.


Starting something new

I do not know about you , but I love magazines. Cooking ones are a must buy for me . And every time I sit down and read them I tear out a ton of recipes. I have now acquired quite the stack of recipes and still have a stack of magazines (that I add to regularly) to go through.









So what I have decided to do is start going through them , one recipe at a time. I probably wont start in on it until August as July is filled with vacation and other obligations, but I may be able to do a day here and there.

Tuesdays will be a new baked good recipe. Most likely a bread or roll or something with yeast.

Thursdays will be a new dessert recipe.

Sundays will be a new entree day.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

oh heaven, on a plate


When I was a little girl we would go to a restuarant in Michigan. It was a fast food place called Mr. Fables. It is no longer in business, but they had the BEST, and I mean, BEST onion rings. Lightly battered. I have looked for a similar recipe , but never found one for full rings. I found a close, very close,second for onion straws.

The Pioneer Woman Onion Strings

I made them Friday night for dinner and then, well, we had them again tonight. Or I did. And I may have eaten one to many .

I highly recommend this recipe.