Suzanne McDaniel
Melissa
mommyinaprilx2
Filed under: Thrify Thursday
And oh MY are they GOOD!!!
So, first gather your ingredients. This recipe didn’t make very many so I ended up doubling the recipe. This COULD have been because the kids lost my rolling pin and I didn’t realize that until I started making them.. so I had to MUSH the dough with my hands.. which led to it being quite a bit thicker than otherwise I’m guessing.
Recipe
For Pie Crust
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 tbsp. cold water
For Filling
Jam (your choice) (I ended up using just the strawberry and it’s yummy)
For Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
milk to thin
Sprinkles
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Add shortening and butter and blend with a fork, pastry cutter, or your hands. Blend until mixture is fairly coarse. Add water, 1 tbsp. at a time, gently mixing dough after each addiction until dough forms a ball.
2. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll into a square/rectangle. To about 1/8 thickness. Cut out long strips about 2 inches wide and 3 inches long. Repeat until dough runs out.
3. Take one pie crust rectangle and lace 1 tsp. of jam on top. Cover with another piece of pie crust and crimp all four edges. Repeat with the rest of dough. Place Pop-tarts on a baking sheet with parchment paper, and bake for 7-8 minutes. (mine took much longer to cook.. I just kept resetting the timer and checking them until they started to lightly brown)
4. While pop-tarts are baking, make glaze. Place powdered sugar in a bowl. Pour milk slowing until it has a consistancy of really thick syrup. 1/2 a tbsp. to 1 tbsp. might be enough.
5. Once pop-tarts are done and cooled, top with glaze. Sprinkle and decorate with colorful sprinkle
and enjoy! Yum!
Filed under: Cupcakes
Sometime back I saw a photo of colorful cupcakes on someones blog. I decided to do my own version of the cakes today. All you need is a butter or yellow cake mix and the ingredients to make it along with 3-4 different colors of food coloring. I used green, yellow, blue and red color.
Make the cake mix and then seperate it out into 4 different bowls. Add a different color to each bowl and then stir it up. Prepare the pan you will be using. I used butterfly and a teddy bear mini cake pans. Add a spoonful of each color or of 2 colors to each butterfly or cupcake liner.
Here are a few pictures that may help clarify anything that I’ve made sound confusing!
Here are the bowls of colored cake batter:
Adding the batter to the cake pan:
Fresh from the oven:
Transfer to a plate or platter and frost however you wish.
Filed under: Friday Favorites
Apple Cinnamon Pound Cake
(Photo is without icing and makes it obvious that mine didn’t come out of the pan the greatest! Oh well, it tasted good!)
Original Recipe came from the Tasty Kitchen website.
Cake:
8 oz cream cheese
3 sticks of butter
3 1/4 cups sugar, divided
6 eggs
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon vanilla
4 apples (peeled and chopped)
1/3 cup cinnamon
Icing:
8 oz cream cheese
1 stick butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 325.
To make the cake: in a mixer, cream together the cream cheese and butter. Add 3 cups of sugar and mix. Add the eggs and then the flour. Add the vanilla and mix until creamy with no lumps.
Peel and chop apples into bite size chunks. Toss apples in a bowl with the cinnamon and remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. Fold the coated apples into the cake batter, but do not stir more that 5 times.
Pour into 2 greased loaf pans or a greased and floured bundt pan. Bake for about 45 minutes for a loaf pan or 75 minutes for a bunt pan.
While cake is baking, prepare the cream cheese icing. Cream together the cream cheese and butter. Slowly mix in the powdered sugar. Add in the vanilla and mix well. Ice the cake once cooled.
The cook time may be off. The original recipe said to cook the loaf pans for 45 minutes at 300. I cooked my loaves at 300 for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Adjust to what you think would be best and keep an eye on it.
Filed under: Friday Favorites
My new favorite Hamburger Bun recipe. This makes PERFECT hamburger buns. SO good and quite easy as well.
Ingredients
- 2 cups warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 2 (.25 ounce) packages instant yeast (I used two tablespoons regular yeast)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 6 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed
Directions
- In a large bowl, stir together the milk, margarine, warm water, sugar and yeast. Let stand for about 5 minutes.
- Mix in the salt, and gradually stir in the flour until you have a soft dough. Divide into 25 pieces, and form into balls. Place on baking sheets so they are 2 to 3 inches apart. Let rise for 20 minutes. (or just let them rise longe rif you use regular yeast like me)
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake the rolls for 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool slightly, then split them in half horizontally to fill with your favorite burgers.
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 tablespoon minced onion
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder (okay to be honest I probably used 1 tablespoon)
- 1.5 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
- 3/4 cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar brown sugar (I probably used 3)
- salt to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
Directions
- In a medium skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef with minced onion, then drain off liquids
- Stir in the garlic powder, mustard, ketchup, and brown sugar; mix thoroughly. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
It was delicious!
Filed under: Tempting Thursday
This cheesecake is my favorite. We got the recipe from the Taste of Home magazine several years back and it’s about the only cheesecake that I will make. I don’t use the original topping though because I’d rather have a fruit topping! (As you can tell from looking at the girls, in the picture, we’ve been making it for a while. Blueberry topping was used in the picture.)
Ingredients
2-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 40 squares)
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, melted
FILLING:
3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs, separated
Directions
In a small bowl, combine the cracker crumbs, sugar and cinnamon; stir in butter. Press onto the bottom and 2 in. up the sides of a greased 9-in. springform pan. Bake at 350° for 5 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Reduce heat to 325°.
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add egg yolks; beat on low just until combined.
In a small bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form; fold into cream cheese mixture. Pour over crust.
Bake for 1 hour or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate until completely cooled.
After cooled top with fruit topping of your choice. My favorites are either blueberry or strawberry pie filling! Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Filed under: Too Easy Tuesday
I finally gave into temptation tonight and made these cookies that I’ve been wanting for ages! I did cheat though…I used a cookie mix to speed things up. They still tasted great!
1 peanut butter cookie mix
1 egg
1 Tbls water
3 Tbls vegtable oil
10-15 Reese’s, or as many as you want
Mix together ingredients to make the cookies. Unwrap the Reese’s and cut each candy piece into 4 pieces. Mix the candy into the cookie mix. (It helps to stack your Reese’s in pyramids! 
)
Place by tsp full onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes before removing from cookie sheet.
Enjoy!
Filed under: Fantastic Flops Friday
I decided to make up a cake recipe today. It is extremely easy and tastes great but when it came out of the pan I had a flop for sure! I suggest making this in a cake pan rather than a bundt pan like I used!
1 butter or yellow cake mix
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 handful chocolate chips
1 handful white chocolate chips
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Make the cake mix according to the box directions. Pour into a greased cake pan.
In a bowl combine the brown sugar and cinnamon. Add in the chocolate and white chocolate chips. Pour the brown sugar/chocolate chip mix evenly onto the top of the cake batter. With a knife gently swirl it into the cake batter.
Cook at 350* until toothpick entered in center comes out clean.
Let cool for 10 minutes and drizzle with glaze.
Glaze: Combine powdered sugar and milk until it is the consistency that you desire.
Filed under: Gadget Wednesday
Our mom bought a waffle cone maker and we tried it out for Sunday lunch. It was a hit! No recipes today, just pictures.
Filed under: Make It Monday
1 roll Pillsbury refrigerated sugar cookies, well chilled
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 lb. fresh strawberries
1 box (4-serving size) vanilla instant pudding
1 cup milk
3/4 cup cool whip or whipping cream
10 whole strawberries, if desired
Heat oven to 350. Line 2 (9-inch) round cake pans with foil so edges extend over the sides of the pan and spray foil with cooking spray. Cut cookie dough in half. Press half of the dough in the bottom of each pan. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of sugar. Bake 20 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.
Use foil to lift cookie layers from pans and place on racks. Cool completely, around 20 minutes.
Slice 1 lb. strawberries and set aside. In a bowl, beat pudding and milk with whisk about 2 minutes or until thickened. In another small bowl with electric mixer, beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form. (Or use cool whip and skip this step!) Fold whipped cream into pudding mix. Reserve 1/2 cup for garnish.
Remove foil from cookie layers. Place 1 layer on serving plate. Spread half of the pudding mixture over cookie and layer with strawberries. Place second layer on top of strawberries and top with remaining pudding mixture and strawberries.
Spoon reserved pudding mixture onto center of shortcake. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. Cut into wedges to serve. Top each with a whole strawberry, if desired.
This is delicious!! Enjoy!
