English Toffee

Good Wednesday morning! I hope you're enjoying your week! Tomorrow ENDS January - can you believe it? Wasn't last week Christmas? :D

Today's recipe is one that I usually only make at Christmas, but I highly recommend it - it's inexpensive to make, relatively, and if your love likes toffee, this one is sure to please. And gain you points - I always split this into two batches. You can hide one in the freezer, if you want.... :D Kenn LOVES this toffee!

The base recipe is from Christmas-cookies.com. Here's how I change it!

The main toffee, I do NOTHING to - I will tell you to stir forever and watch that thermometer! It goes from good to burnt in no time at all!!!!

I use a Silpat (actually, a knock-off) to pour my candy onto; I also, as I mentioned, split the batch into two ROUNDS. It's easy, and I think it's easier to handle that way.

After it cools for about 5 minutes, I pour about 1/2 cup of semisweet (or MILK!) chocolate chips on top of each round, and let them sit for about 3 minutes until they're easy to spread. I spread them around, and just let the candy sit for a few hours until it's completely cooled. Then, if I'm going to be serving it soon, I break one of the rounds apart.

If I'm not, then they stack - with waxed paper in between! - in a gallon plastic bag in the fridge until I want them. :) If you want to freeze them and don't want the chocolate to whiten (like mine in the picture!), you can do the chocolate as in the recipe whenever you want, or melt the chips in the microwave.

Easy! Inexpensive! Loved by millions! :D What else could you ask for?!? :D

OK, I'm outta here. Have a WONDERFUL day! Be BLESSED!

Basic Biscuits

Good Monday Morning! Did you have a good weekend? Did you try anything new? :D

Today, I'm sharing with you a basic biscuit recipe from Old Fashioned Living.

I have to tell you: this is a BASIC recipe. I needed something to make for our show a few weeks ago - biscuits played a starring role in the first five minutes! - and thought these would be great. I mean, the name of the website kind of said to me, "There's nothing like homemade, old-fashioned!" Right? :D

If you need a basic, easy biscuit recipe, then this is it. But it's not a big batch by any stretch of the imagination - I like my biscuit a little higher than these turned out to be. But it's not a BAD recipe, either! If you're looking for something to be a vehicle for something else - honey, homemade jam - then this works just fine.

I didn't change a thing. :) Just so you know! I'm not going to make this recipe again; this is one that is no different than anything I've tried already. I'm looking for SPECIAL. :D

Have a wonderful day! Be BLESSED!!

Cherry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Happy Friday!!!! How has your week been? Can you believe it's the last Friday of January already?!?!? One-twelfth of the year is GONE almost! :D Time does fly - faster the older I get. :D

So, this is the last review from what I served Saturday for my hostess club Stampin' Up! get-together. It's a cherry cream cheese coffee cake from - guess who! - Taste of Home. :D

OK. I did three tweaks, one kinda big and the other two are tiny. :) The big one is I didn't use almond extract in the crust, I used vanilla. I just don't particularly care for almond extract - I don't use it in my sugar cookies or icings, and just don't tend to use it, period. I know that lots of people think the cherry and almond go together, but to my palate, the almond extract is overpowering. So there. :D

The two little ones are that I used Splenda-sweetened cherry pie filling, and the almonds I used were sliced, not slivered. :D Oooooh. LOL

This is definitely a YES, PLEASE! It's not too sweet - there's a total of a cup of sugar in the whole thing! - so it's really nice for a breakfast treat. It didn't take as long to make as I thought, either. The crust part IS very sticky, however; I tried spreading it into the springform with my hands, and ended up deciding that an offset spatula was going to be my best friend with this one. :D

I'm kind of wondering why this wouldn't work in a 13x9 if you don't have a springform. It might not come out as "pretty" when you slice it, but I couldn't get it off the bottom of the springform as a whole, either. Also, I might use my largest springform pan the next time I make this, and maybe double the fillings. It's a lot of crust - but it's GOOD. I just tend to like filling better. :D I also think I'll try blueberry instead of cherry - or maybe half and half!

I know this was a hit! I also know I'm going to make this on the beach as a keep-in-the-fridge, go-to quick breakfast when we have guests. So, if you make it, let me know what you think! :)

Have a WONDERFUL weekend! Try something new! :) Be BLESSED!

Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Happy Wednesday! I hope you're having a wonderful week!

This recipe is one of the three dishes I served Saturday for my Stampin' Up! party Saturday; it's Blueberry Breakfast Cake from Alexandra's Kitchen.

This is a recipe I pinned because my parents are from Maine, and blueberries are superfruits there AND in the health world. :D So it's got to be good for you, right?!??! :D

I did this one exactly like it's written, except I doubled it. :D I wanted to make sure I had enough of it; the original recipe's for a 9" square.

This was simple but good. (So it receives a YES, PLEASE!)  My mom said she liked that it wasn't totally blueberry taste, that the cake stood up for itself. :) Which says a lot, because there were 4 cups of blueberries in that 13x9. :D I highly recommend always using fresh lemon zest in anything that calls for it. Just so you know. :D

People went back for seconds. It was moist, and I'm glad I got up that morning to make it - it was best fresh and warm from the oven. but it's still good later, too. :D

OK, I'm outta here! Have a WONDERFUL day! Be BLESSED!

Pancake Sausage Bites

Good Monday Morning!

Did you have a great weekend? I hope so! I hope it was filled with love and laughter, peace and joy. :) Maybe friends and/or family, or some coveted alone time.

Anyway! Today's share isn't so much a recipe as it is a method. These are pancake & sausage bites, brought to you by Gwaltney's website.

Now, let me tell you about the ones here to the right side of your screen, then I'll fill you in on what I did. I'm not going to rate these, because once you've got the idea the end result's up to YOU! :D

Mom was looking for something to take to their Sunday school class; every fifth Sunday of the month, they have a pitch-in breakfast. We batted ideas back and forth, and then I remembered that I'd Pinned this idea onto my breakfast board to try. So we talked about it, and she decided to do them. She made mini muffins, and used pancake mix and turkey sausage crumbles. When I asked her how they'd gone over, she told me that she thought people had mostly used them as an excuse to eat the homemade jam she took to top them with. And I had to agree: they needed something. I'd tasted one before they left the house, and while they tasted like pancakes and sausage, they weren't FLAVORFUL.

So I thought about it. :D

I made these last week. And here's what I did.

First, I cooked my sausage a few days before I made these; I wanted it to be the same temperature as the batter, and I knew I could probably end up freezing some of the crumbles for later use. (Which I did.) Drained it onto paper towels, where it sat until it was completely cooled. I stored it in a zippered baggie in the fridge until I made these.

Next, the pancake mix I used is a "just add water!" type. Instead of only water, I replaced part of the liquid with sugar-free maple syrup, then baked them off.

The flavor was BETTER, but still not strong. So I made some maple butter; Kenn likes Mrs. Buttersworth, so I mixed about a quarter cup of it with about the same amount of softened butter. If I was going to make this again, I'd double the ingredients, make it in my mixer so it completely incorporated, and roll it and chill it again for presentation's sake. :D But it was GOOD butter. :D

I'll probably make these again. Kenn liked them. I had them for breakfast several times last week; they reheated in the microwave very well, and the butter obviously stored well in the fridge! :)

Let me know if you experiment with them, too. If I had kids, this would be something I'd make and maybe freeze a big batch of; they'd be simple out-the-door breakfasts for those crazy school days, and I've never met a kid who didn't like pancakes and sausage, OR eating with their hands! :D (This could easily be made vegetarian, too!)

OK, I'm outta here. Have a WONDERFUL day!!! Try something new! :D

"Raspberry" Blintz Casserole

Good Friday Morning! How are you today? Have you had a great week? Got fantastic plans for this weekend? Going to try something new?!? :D

Here's one of the things we tried this week: Raspberry Blintz Casserole from Recipe.com.

First, those of you who are observant will notice that this is definitely NOT raspberry! :D Although the recipe calls for using them, Kenn couldn't find ANY in the frozen section. And so I used what I had - blueberries we'd purchased and frozen earlier this year.

Now, then. The casserole itself is the recipe I used - and I halved it. I think I've mentioned how we try not to have too much hanging around at one time? Yeah. :) This fell in that category - and if Kenn didn't like it, I didn't want to have to figure out what to do with all that casserole. So I baked it in a two-quart casserole dish - which I *think* is a 7"x11", but I'm too lazy to go measure it. :D

Anyway. The casserole gets a YES, PLEASE! My dad got a taste, and decided he needed to have it sometime soon. :D It uses orange, instead of lemon, which gives it a stronger but sweeter taste.

I cannot recommend that you make the raspberry sauce, however; there are NO measurements whatsoever on it. So please come up with another sauce recipe before you try this casserole! I can tell you what I did - and I should have doubled the sauce!

I used a glass measuring cup and thawed 1 cup of berries, then gave them a whirl in the food processor (since it's already out for the casserole recipe!). I heated them in a saucepan, and added 1 heaping teaspoon of corn starch before they got warm - it mixes in MUCH better if your ingredients are cold! I added about 2 tablespoons of additional orange juice I had left from squeezing my orange for the casserole. I should have added about that much water, too, so it wouldn't thicken up quite so much when it sat. :)

That's it! Pretty easy, and it was yummy. I liked the edges of this one better than the middle, just because there was some texture variation there. :) It's very soft, light, and yummy!

OK, I'm outta here. Have a WONDERFUL weekend! Let me know what YOU try new! Be BLESSED!!!!

Lemon Lover's Cookies

It's WEDNESDAY! :D Are you having a good week?

Today's review is for another Taste of Home recipe, this time for Lemon Lover's Cookies.

Yes, they're very, very lemony. And if that were all that was required of a good cookie recipe, then I'd give this one a different review! :D I'm saying NO, THANK YOU to these cookies.

Why? Because they broke if you looked at them the wrong way! They shattered coming off the cookie sheet; they crumpled when you moved them - and heaven forbid you should try to pick one up to frost it!

No, the taste was good, but it wasn't worth the frustration and waste. I broke about a fifth of the number of cookies I made. Yes, it was that bad! (Can you tell I was frustrated? I made these for my cookie exchange on the 21st of last month, and it's still irking me. LOL!)

OK, I'm outta here! Have a WONDERFUL day, and let me know if you're trying something new! Be BLESSED!

Pumpkin Fudge

Good Monday! :D How are you today? Did you have a good weekend? Did you try anything new?

It was busy around here, but I took a few pictures of a couple of new things. :) Today's not a share-one-of-those days. :D It's share-some-more-recipes-from-the-open-house day!

This one is for pumpkin fudge, from Better Homes & Gardens.

I didn't tweak anything on this recipe. I educated my family on the different chips that are available during the holidays - but we don't live in a very adventurous area, so we don't see them too often. We did, however, manage to locate a bag of cinnamon chips.

They were yummy, and integral to making this recipe work. It was really good; people who like pumpkin really enjoyed it! Many people told me they'd never heard of pumpkin fudge; I used to purchase it at the Fourth Street Fair in Richmond, IN, where I grew up. :) It's nice to have a recipe for it, so I don't have to search for it so hard! LOL

I'd love to hear if you try this some time. Heck, I'd love to hear when you try ANYTHING I post! :D Have a WONDERFUL day; try and stay warm and dry, wherever you are, and BE BLESSED!

Colossal Caramel Apple Trifle

It's FRIDAY!!!! :D Have you had a good week? Did you get everything done that you wanted? Do you have big plans to relax this weekend, or anything FUN!??! :D We're wrapping up our show this weekend - it seems our weekends are busier than most of our weekdays.... :D

Anyway! Today's recipe is yet another TASTE OF HOME recipe, this time for Colossal Caramel Apple Trifle. And for another recipe for basic crepes from allrecipes.com. That one's for my own idea, which you'll get for FREE! :D

First, let me say: when the original recipe says, "Colossal", that is what it means!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's made for church potlucks, and it would feed fifty people!

We got the ingredients to make the WHOLE thing, then I spent some time studying the recipe.

First modification: we didn't want to make it in a big trifle bowl - let alone a punch bowl! - because we need portion control around here. So I decided to make them in individual trifle bowls.

For the cake layers, I made a yellow cake in a jelly roll pan; when I was ready to assemble the trifle, I used one of the trifle dishes to cut out the cake circles, and then even cut them in half lengthwise - it was a lot of cake for those dishes! We used sugar-free pudding, and lower-sugar apple pie filling.

Because we were using the individual trifle dishes, I could only fit one layering of the trifle in. But that was enough!

This is not a light, fluffy dessert, people. It's very filling - and very good! And very, very sweet. I'm keeping this recipe, but in a "good recipe to have" file, not my favorites. I can't imagine making this for anything BUT a ptch-in again, and even then, I'd probably still half the original recipe. It's a LOT of trifle!

I had SO MUCH of the layering stuff left! I got struck with an idea, however: we do a make-your-own-crepe breakfast on Christmas Morning. (We make the crepes ahead, and just warm them up that morning.) Why not put the ingredients out, so we could make a crepe with the pudding and apples as filling?

So that's what I did - mostly so I could show you! :D I put a spoonful of the spiced pudding down on the crepe, then the apples. I didn't add the caramel, because apples already don't do nice things to my blood sugar, and I didn't need the extra problem! :) It was good - but again, VERY filling.

So, there you have it, people. I actually took the concept and created two new dishes. LOL!

Have a wonderful weekend! Try something new! And let me know you're reading this, because I'm feeling like I'm whistling in the dark. :D BE BLESSED!!!

Soft Pretzel Bites

Good Wednesday afternoon! :) Are you having a good week? Enjoying this first full week of January? It's amazing to me how quickly time flies. We'll be leaving for our family reunion and Oregon before I can blink! :D

Today's recipe review is of Soft Pretzel Bites from Two Peas& Their Pod.

Now, a little history about me and soft pretzels: when I was a little girl, my mom and I would walk to the mall together. One of the things that always happened was that we would get a treat - either ice cream or a soft pretzel. And yellow mustard is a must with a soft pretzel.

So, I didn't make the cheese sauce that is also posted on their blog with these as a dip. I knew I'd want mustard.

These are a YES, PLEASE. They're time-consuming, but very yummy. I put more salt on them than I liked, but that's because I couldn't see the salt on the egg wash too easily. Next time, I'll know better.

And there will be a next time, because I only cooked off HALF of this dough! I put the bites onto two pizza pans to bake; they need to not touch. And that made a LOT of pretzel bites!

I also adjusted the baking time on my second sheet.The first came out a bit crunchy on the bottoms. It's unusual, because our oven usually bakes a little cooler than most recipes call for. So know you might want to keep an eye on them a bit earlier than the recipe says. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly! I bet the sweet version would be good, too - and I THINK I might substitute a teaspoon of the water with a teaspoon or so of vanilla extract if I was going to do them. :D

OK, I'm outta here! Have a WONDERFUL day, my friend. BE BLESSED!

Eggs Benedict Casserole

Good Monday Morning!

Did you have a good weekend? GOODNESS, yesterday was BUSY. I was wiped OUT when we finally got home, but I persevered and put this casserole in the fridge for today's breakfast.

And I'm glad I did. It's a definite YES, PLEASE!

It's Eggs Benedict Casserole, once again from the TASTE OF HOME website.

 I cut the recipe in half, and cooked it in a 7"x11" casserole dish; even if Mom and Dad decided to join us, that was six servings and plenty for us. Mom took a taste, but they decided to stick with their regular healthy breakfast. :D

Although, for me, this is about as healthy as it is good! One serving, according to the website's nutritional information, has only 16 grams of carbs - half of my maximum for breakfast! Hooray! :D

Putting the casserole together the night before makes this an easy, elegant breakfast - Kenn stirred the Hollandaise for me, so I didn't have to do everything. Add some fresh fruit, and this is a wonderful guest breakfast! I think it'll get served in Oregon if we have guests. :D

When I asked Kenn if he wanted me to freeze the rest - which it would, beautifully! - or leave it out, he said it was good and he'd eat some more tomorrow morning. :D It's definitely a winner! Hooray!!!!!

OK, I'm outta here. :D We're putting away Christmas stuff today, and I really, REALLY need to stamp. :D Have a WONDERFUL day! Be BLESSED!

Cinnamon Apple Walnut Pancakes

Good Friday Morning! How are you today? Have you had a good week?

Kenn and I are doing a show in Lebanon; if you want info, PLEASE ask me! Anyway. I decided we should treat ourselves to a good breakfast today. (And yes, that means my cooking and Kenn whisking his away to work. <sigh> :D ) So, I chose these pancakes from CinnamonSpice & Everything Nice .

Now, first thing you'll notice on my photo is that I forgot to put on the walnuts. Oops! It would have been nice for the crunch, but I'm having a tooth issue, so it's probably best I forgot. :D

I'm definitely giving these a YES, PLEASE! They're really light pancakes, which surprised me. I would recommend letting the batter sit for 5 - 10 minutes before cooking them, because the cinnamon took a bit to bloom. Kenn thought they were a bit bland; by the time I cooked and ate mine, they were nice and flavored.

In case you didn't know, you don't have to worry about having real buttermilk. This recipe calls for 1 cup; all you have to do is pour in enough milk for a SCANT cup, then top it off with lemon juice. Let it sit while you work on the dry ingredients, then proceed. Viola! Buttermilk! :D

I follow this blog; she's got great ideas and wonderful recipes. Just so you know. :)

Have a WONDERFUL weekend! Treat yourself to something new! :) BE BLESSED!

You asked for it! Lemon Fudge

Good afternoon! Did you have a good New Year's celebration? We went and spend a couple of hours with friends, then came home. Kenn was in bed and I was on the computer when the new year came. Big, fat, hairy deal, as my homey, Garfield the Cat, would say. :D

ANYWAY. I have had SO many requests for this fudge that I decided I'd better post it. There is no link; I found it in one of TASTE OF HOME®'s many holiday books, CHRISTMAS COOKIES & CANDIES. (There are LOADS of these books, in all shapes and sizes!) As with any cookbook, some are wonderful recipes, and some not-so-much. :D This one, however, is a definite winner. I've been making it for several years now. The first year, I wasn't sure how "thick" it had to get, so it was a bit runny. Now that I know it means THICK, it comes out perfectly. :D

Here's the recipe, ALL credit to TASTE OF HOME.

Lemon Fudge
1-1/2 teaspoon + 1/2 cup butter, divided
1 package cook & serve lemon pudding mix (4-serving package)
1/2 cup milk
3-3/4 cups confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon lemon extract

Line a 9" pan with foil. Grease the foil with the 1-1/2 teaspoons of butter; set aside.

In a large heavy saucepan, combine the pudding mix, milk, and remaining butter. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened. Remove from heat; beat in confectioner's sugar and extract. Pour/spread into prepared pan; refrigerate until set.

Makes 1-1/2 pounds

That's how I wrote down the recipe, and how I do it. I don't THINK I changed anything when I wrote it into my book.... :D

Seriously. Make this fudge. It's a beautiful taste on a candy tray, not to mention a great color. Make it for Easter, even! You're going to be asked for the recipe, I can almost guarantee. :D I find that men, especially, love this fudge - but this year, everyone is raving about it. It's funny how it changes from year to year, what people eat the most of! :D

Have a WONDERFUL day! Be blessed, my friend!