Bake 52: Caramelized Onion Tart with Blue Cheese and Walnuts

I was excited for this one.  It sounded Fancy-Schmancy to me.  And I like to pretend I am Fancy-Schmancy sometimes.  I figured my kids wouldn't with me on this one.  I think their taste buds are less refined than mine.  *Mine are very refined.  

Me, Being Domestic

My friend, Rachel (fine, maybe we just know each other, but I am saying she's my friend, mmmkay?) is having a photo contest on her blog.  In the rules of the contest, it states, 
"pictures of yourself doing what you do best. Or most."

Bake 52: Multigrain Bread

I was a little skeptical about this bread.  I have already found a healthy bread recipe that I love (thanks to Jenn) and I just wasn't sure this would be worth my time.  And it has white flour in it.  And isn't white flour essentially the devil (or my best friend, whatever you want to call it)?  But it is multigrain, which sounds like it should be good for you, right?  I put my skeptisism aside and got to work.  The bread is fairly easy to make if you can find the cereal the book suggests.  I am pretty sure that was more work for me than the whole rest of the process (Bob's Red Mill 7 grain hot cereal).  For some reason, I found just about everything but 7.  The store had 5, 8 and 10 grain hot cereals in that brand and I didn't see any other brands that resembled anything about grains.  I went with the 5 grain and it worked well.  I was worried about how chunky it was in the package and didn't know how the family would feel about having chunks in their bread.  We all loved it.  

Chicken-in-a-Packet (or in the crock pot)

This has been such a favorite for a long time, it deserves a post on the blog.  It's one of Tyler's favorite recipes and he always requests it when I ask him his dinner ideas for the week.  As you can tell by the name of the recipe, it actually calls for the chicken and veggies to be cooked in individual foil 'packets,' kind of like a tinfoil dinner, but in the oven.  While it was fun to cook this that way the first couple times, it gets daunting separating everything into packets.  Now that my kids are older, it might be fun to have everyone make their own instead of me having to do them all.  But before I just realized that my kids can help, I looked for easier ways to make one of our favorite dishes.  I have made this is a covered baking dish in the oven as well as the crock pot.  All three ways have produced a successful result.  Just decide which way you like best.  My kids like to have the rice with it.  Tyler and I like it either way, rice or not.  I am not sure why we still call it "Chicken in a Packet" since we don't really cook it in the packet anymore, but none-the-less, we do.

Bake 52: French Macaroon Sandwich Cookies

 Um.  I don't know.

I don't know what these are supposed to taste like.  Or be like.  I am thinking I might not be a delicate enough flower (or flour since we are cooking, ha!) to make this kind of thing.  A few of them made it through the process looking perfect, and then I would gouge them with my finger or something (as you can see in the photo).

TWD: Pecan Sticky Buns

I was excited about this recipe when I heard what we were making this week.  I got less excited when I saw how time intensive they would be (I mean, that's a long time when there isn't a speck of chocolate involved!).  I got a little less excited when I saw how much butter was involved (actually there was a part of me that was super excited about all the butter, but I have been trying to shut her up lately.)  While I was folding the dough with even more butter inside I found myself sure that these would be a flop and not worth the effort.  I really thought I would try one and my family would try one and we would throw the rest away.  I was a skeptic the whole way.

Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo

If it wasn't completely obvious before this, we are a family of pasta lovers.  This is our favorite Alfredo sauce.  It's delicious, easy and I usually have all the ingredients on hand.  I don't normally keep heavy cream on hand and this recipe doesn't require it.

The cake update

As promised, the cake update.
http://girlplusfoodcakes.blogspot.com/2012/05/8-layer-cake.html

Cinnamon Sugar Waffles with Caramel Apple Syrup

As you know I have been on a waffle kick lately.  As well as craving caramel apple everything.  Isn't that supposed to be a fall-only craving?  Who knows.  These waffles are delicious by themselves.  I might have eaten one without anything on it while I was cooking the rest.  Maybe.  

Bake 52: New York Style Crumb Cake (cupcakes)

Do you ever have those days?  Lately I have felt like I can't find my head only to discover, hours later, that it is in fact, strapped to my neck.  I've had a lot of those days lately.  So it's really not a surprise that I added an ingredient to these crumb cupcakes.  But more on that in a minute.  

This was a first time for me, making crumb cake.  

The weekend

We have had a busy weekend with family and plenty of baking. I tried to fulfill Hadlee's birthday cake requests with buttercream instead of the fondant I would normally have used. It was successful and somewhat of a failure. I will post more about it on the cakes page later in the week. I hope you guys had a great weekend and start of your week. I will be back tomorrow with our Bake 52 post. :)

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.4

Cinco de Mayo

In case you are looking for Cinco de Mayo ideas, I've put together a few recommendations.

If you haven't tried these Churros yet, you NEED to.  You will be surprised how easy they are and completely expecting how delicious they are.

Bake 52: Classic Pancakes with Strawberry Maple Syrup

 When I have a favorite recipe, I don't mind trying new ones, what if there is a better recipe I haven't tried yet?  It happens.  When I saw that Jesse had chosen these pancakes for our baking club, I was excited.  I don't mind trying new things.

TWD: Caramel Apple (Hungarian) Shortbread

I put off baking a little too long this week and when it was time to bake, I really didn't want to go to the store, so I didn't.  I am sure I could have found rhubarb at the store because I did a couple weeks ago but I already had apples and decided I would make them work.  And apples automatically = caramel, right?  That's how my brain works anyway.  

I halved the recipe and baked it in a 8x8 square pan.  I followed the advice of some of the TWD bakers and used my food processor to shred the dough once it was frozen.  I sliced 2 granny smith apples and cooked them with some sugar and a bit of cinnamon and made the caramel with sweetened condensed milk.  Some of the bakers were also suggesting baking the bottom half of the dough for about 10 minutes and then adding the filling and top half of the dough, and baking until done.  I followed that advice and probably could have baked the lower half a bit longer since it absorbed quite a bit of the caramel.  It was delicious but pretty sweet.  I know some people find offense in too-sweet desserts, but I have never minded that myself.  It did make it so I ate a bit less of it at a time, so maybe it was a good thing in the end.  

This is a super easy, yet different recipe.  You should try it.  You can buy the book or get the recipe at either of these blogs:

1smallkitchen

The not so exciting adventures of a dabbler

If you want to see what the other bakers in the group came up with, you can click HERE.