Baking today!

I got inspired to bake something I've not tried before. One recipe I found on the back of the bag of flour and I don't know where I found the other one.  I had to run to the store to get started - of course! I needed two tablespoons of pineapple juice for the carrot cake, and since they are currently just 99 cents I bought a fresh one and just pressed out the juice I needed from a small piece of fresh sliced. Yum! The cherry bread called for maraschino cherries. The recipe didn't say to drain them, but I did.  I also used some of my cinnamon glazed pecans in each recipe and just chopped them up in my food processor for the recipes.  Do you want some of these yummies?  I know how to package and ship and will be happy to do so upon request - accompanied by money works best! Or you can make some yourself using the recipes below. Enjoy!
Special Cherry Pecan Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted	¾ cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon baking soda	1 10-ounce jar maraschino cherries,
½ teaspoon salt	drained and chopped
¾ cup granulated sugar	1 teaspoon almond extract
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon butter, divided	1 tablespoon water
2 eggs	½ cup powered sugar
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat over to 350° F. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream granulated sugar and ½ cup butter. Add eggs and beat until light and fluffy. Slowly add dry ingredients and buttermilk, alternating until well mixed. Stir in nuts, cherries, and almond extract. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan. Bake 55 - 60 minutes. Turn out onto wire rack to cool. In a small bowl, melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Add water, powdered sugar, and 1 drop almond extract. Stir well and spoon over warm bread. Makes 1 loaf.

CARROT CAKE
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 ½ cups grated carrot, about 3-4 carrots
2 tablespoons pineapple juice
½ cup chopped nuts
1 ¼ cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x9 inch-baking pan. Beat together eggs and sugar until creamy. Stir in vegetable oil until well combined. Add grated carrots, pineapple juice, and nuts. Mix well. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix well. Add flour mixture to carrot mixture; stir until just combined. Pour into greased and floured baking pan and bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Allow cake to cool, then frost with cream cheese frosting. 

Favorite Cookies

I always enjoy making these Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.  I can pretend they are a health food because of the oats and raisins.  My mom used to try and convince me to let the kids eat these cookies for breakfast.  She did weigh 200 to 300 pounds most of her life and thought this was a good idea, but I didn't. God bless her! She did know how to enjoy life! I enjoy a good breakfast and a mid-morning snack and that's when I prefer to enjoy these cookies.  My friend Ann at KYOO asked me for these cookies - while she was on the air doing Swap Shop.  It's hard to refuse a request like that.  So...since I had baked these yesterday for the Polk County Bike Club (PCBC) meeting and had cleverly bagged up a dozen just in case, I took off in my car and delivered her cookies. She threw her head back and laughed and laughed! I enjoy shipping my treats or in this case delivering them so that I can share the bounty which I've been blessed to have. If you need cookies, you can bake them yourself, or for a small fee, will send some to you too!

OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES
¾ cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon soda
1 cup raisins
3 cups oats
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix thoroughly shortening, sugars, egg, water, and vanilla. Stir in remaining ingredients.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 1 inch apart onto greased baking sheet. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until almost no imprint remains when touched with finger. Immediately remove from baking sheet. Store in tightly covered container.
Makes about 5 dozen cookies – 74 calories each.

Lemon Cake - refreshing summer or winter!

Today I'm mixing up some lemony goodness for our next Youth Group gathering. I can make this cake in advance because it freezes up so nicely for use when I'm ready. It's especially tasty if you get fresh lemons for the icing, but I'm cheating today and using ReaLemon from a bottle. Unfortunately, this is not a vegetarian friendly recipe due to the Jell-O ingredient. The smell emanating from the oven is mouth-watering! I can bake this upon request as a 9x13 we get to eat it all or two 8-inch squares for an eat now and later dessert.

LEMON CAKE

1 box Lemon Jell-O (4-serving size) – mix with one cup hot water & let cool. If you’re in a hurry set the bowl (preferably metal) in cold water. You don’t want the Jell-O to gel.
Mix together:
1 Lemon Cake Mix (don’t be too concerned about type or brand)
¾ cup Vegetable Oil
4 Eggs, slightly beaten
Add prepared Jell-O to above mixture and mix as directed on the cake-mix box.
Pour batter into greased-and-floured 13 x 9 baking dish or pan. [I use two 8-inch baking dishes so I can freeze one of them.] Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes (40 minutes for 8" pans) or until cake tests done.
Remove from oven, poke lots of holes in the cake with a fork, and immediately pour icing over the cake.
ICING:
Mix well: 6 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice and 1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar

How do you handle agitation?

We had so much fun at Youth Group on Sunday night talking about agitation and shaking jars of heavy cream. It took about 45 minutes of agitating to make butter. We had plenty of time to talk about things in life that agitate us and how we need to ask for the Lord’s help in dealing with those things. But if you think of it, bliss follows agitation like a rainbow follows rain. So for a bit of bliss…we ate fresh baked bread with butter, honey and/or jam. Also, as a result of making butter from cream, I was left with a bit more than 2 cups of buttermilk. I shouldn’t have been surprised that using real buttermilk versus the powdered version (I keep powdered on hand for this recipe) made for fluffier, tastier cookies. Nothing like the real thing for real goodness! Enjoy! I can make and ship these to you – for a fee of course. J

BUTTERMILK COOKIES

1 cup shortening 4 ½ cups flour
2 cups sugar 1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs 2 tsp. baking powder
2 cups buttermilk with 1 tsp. soda mixed in
Beat shortening and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat well. Add other ingredients and mix well. Chill 1 hour. Drop on lightly greased or non-stick cookie sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes at 350º. Cool and frost with powdered sugar icing.

Soup kind of day

I saw this recipe in the pull out called Relish in our local paper and decided I should give it a try. Today is a cool cloudy kind of day and that makes it a soup kind of day for me! I followed the directions and it's simmering on the stove now, filling the air with a mouth-drooling scent. Even JoPapaBear said it smells good and the spoon of broth he tasted was "yummy". So it seems promising.  Here's the recipe if you want to try it or if you want, come on over for lunch!

Mushroom, Beef and Barley Soup½ pound sirloin steak cut into 1 ½ inch pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced carrots
12 ounces fresh mushrooms, coarsely chopped
½ cup uncooked barley
10 ½ ounces beef broth
5 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add beef and saute until brown. Add onion and carrots; saute about 7 minutes. Add mushrooms; cook, about 8 minutes
Add barley, broth, water, salt and pepper; stir to combine. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 40 minutes or until barley is tender. Makes about 6 cups. 296 calories per cup

Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

This is a great way to use left over chicken. Other wise this recipe takes a while longer to make because you'll have to cook and chop chicken! Today, I was glad I had some chicken in the freezer ready to go. Sometimes, I chop up the meat we have left over after dinner and put it in a labeled container in the freezer. Planning ahead! I have often doubled or quadrupled this recipe depending on the crowd I expect to feed. Tonight, I followed the recipe and since it's just Papa Bear and I, we'll enjoy these enchiladas again in a couple of days.  I served refried beans, lettuce, black olives, and chips with this. And for dessert, I spread butter on flour tortillas and sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top. Using a pizza cutter, I sliced each into four triangles and then baked these for about 10 minutes at 375. Easy, crunchy dessert!

CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

　
½ cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon oil
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies
¼ cup chicken broth
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
4 oz cream cheese, cubed
6 flour tortilla (6 or 8 inch)
¼ pound Velveeta, cubed
2 tablespoons milk
½ cup chopped tomato, divided (I use salsa)
　
　Microwave onion, garlic and oil in 2-quart microwave-safe casserole on High 2 – 3 minutes or until tender, stirring after 2 minutes. Stir in chicken, chilies, broth and seasonings. Microwave on high 4 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Add cream cheese; stir until cream cheese is melted. Spoon 1/3 cup chicken mixture onto each tortilla; roll up. Place, seam side down, in 8-inch square microwave-safe baking dish. Microwave Velveeta, and ¼ cup tomato in medium microwave –safe bowl on high 2 to 3 minutes or until Velveeta is melted, stirring after each minute. Pour sauce over tortillas; top with remaining tomatoes. Microwave on high 6 to 8 minutes or until thoroughly heated, turning dish after 3 minutes.
Makes 6 servings.

Raw Apple Cake

Today, I'm baking a cake I have been craving since I was a teen. Can you believe I've had this recipe and the memory of this delicious cake for so many years and never attempted to make it? I can't eat a whole cake by myself so since this is Community Dinner night at the Methodist church, I'll have a whole room full of people to enjoy this cake and save me from myself! Victor Esser was Dad's first cousin and friend. Amazingly, Walter Lammers was also a good friend of Victor's.  What a wonderful turn of events that after Dad passed away, Mom would meet Walter at Victor and Eunice's anniversary party! So glad the ingredients in my cabinet matched the recipe - mostly. I had to chop up my candy coated pecans and substitute them instead of walnuts. This cake smells delicious! I can make this cake for you upon request. :-)
RAW APPLE CAKE(From Eunice Esser)
1 ½ cups sugar
1 stick butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 ½ cups flour
¼ tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
3 cups raw diced apples
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup raisins
1 cup candied pineapple – diced fine
1 cup coconut – diced fine
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. baking powder
Caramel icing2 ¼ cup brown sugar moistened with cream (I substituted milk)
Stir and boil until softball stage is reached. Cool. Then add
½ stick butter
Pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla
Beat until of spreading consistency. Add more cream if needed (I substituted milk)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream sugar butter and eggs. Beat until fluffy. Add vanilla. Beat in sifted flour, salt, and spices. Add diced fruit and nuts. Last add soda and baking powder. Spread evenly in greased 9x13 pan. Bake approximately 45 minutes or until done. Cool cake and then frost with caramel icing.