Apple Sauce

   Last week I decided to make some apple sauce. So I cut up some apples and put them in the microwave for about 12 minutes until they were soft. Then I mashed them up with a potato masher and added some cinnamon. It was really good and tasted like fresh apples. I also added some blueberries to half of the apple sauce so that I would have two flavours. That one was really good as well.

   Some times I just like to make things instead of buying them, then you know what is in it and it always tastes way better. Yeah is might take you a couple minutes but in the end it it totally worth it. Anyone can make apple sauce. So why not try, even if you have some apples that are a bit older and are not crisp and fresh. Don't throw them out! Either dry them or make some fresh apple sauce. It is always a nice thing to have for breakfast. It tastes even better if you heat it up and you can always add more cinnamon or some people like cream.

Yum!

  

Enjoy!

Jalapeno Jack Scones

 I also made these scones on Thursday and were they ever good. I really like spicy things so I thought these would be good. They weren't really spicy though so I think next time I would put like 4 jalapenos in or I would not cook the jalapenos before baking them. The longer they cook for the less spicy they get so I think I might just do that next time. They were easy and fast to make and tasted really good. I like savoury scones, it is nice to have something that is savoury that is almost like a bread, but it isn't.

Definitely a good recipe!

From "Joy The Baker"

Jalapeno Pepper Jack Scones

makes 6 large scones

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons cornmeal

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes

2 large eggs

1/2 cup heavy cream (plus more for brushing the tops of the scones)

1/4 pound pepper jack cheese, cut into small cubes

2 medium jalapenos, some seeds removed, diced small

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.
Heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a small saute pan and cook diced jalapenos until softened, about 3 to 5 minutes. Let the diced peppers cool and then mix with the diced cheese. Toss mixture in 1 tablespoon of flour and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Work in the cold butter with your fingers (or a pastry blender) until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Some butter pieces will be the size of peas and the flour will be nice and crumbly.
Whisk together 2 eggs and heavy cream. Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients, fold together with a fork until almost fully incorporated. Add the jalapeno and cheese mixture to the shaggy dough and work together.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 30 seconds. Form into a disk about 8 inches around and an inch thick. Cut disk into six wedges and refrigerate for 10 minutes before baking.
When ready to bake, place chilled scones onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush with heavy cream and sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown and delicious. These are best served the day they're made. Or better when they just come out of the oven! what isn't?!?

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Banana Bread!

  


   When I saw this recipe on Joy The Baker I knew that I would love it! There is nothing I like more then a greenish banana with peanut butter on it. So when I saw a peanut butter banana loaf I knew that I had to try it... and soon. I made this bread on Thursday when my brothers came over for dinner. I always bake on Thursday so that they can take home what ever I bake. As I am not going to eat it all and both my mom and dad are on eating plans so they can't really eat anything I bake. As you know baking isn't always the healthiest thing you can eat and usually is high in fat and calories. But who really cares about calories and fat anyway! Not me! So I basically just make what ever I think tastes and looks good.

   I made these and when I took them out of the oven they smelled so good. I sliced them up and put them in a container for my brothers. They were still warm... I had to try it! Everything is always best when it comes out of the oven! SO amazing! warm peanut butter banana bread with mini peanut butter cups in it!  it was so good. I am definitely going to make this again. I think next time I would put 1 3/4 cups bananas and only 1/4 cup of the yogurt. But you might want to try it the way it is and see if you like it! Everyone has different taste buds.


Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Makes: one 9x5-inch loaf recipe

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas
1/3 cup plain or vanilla fat free yogurt
1/3 cup creamy all-natural peanut butter
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 cup chopped dry roasted peanuts


   I didn't put peanuts in all the pans that I did. I only did in some, the other ones I left plain and I also put some mini peanut butter cups in them. They were amazing! Next time I would put them in all of them. Also chocolate chips would taste good in the loaves as well. I guess it depends if you like chocolate or not. Most people do, so I would definitely suggest it.


Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x5-inch loaf pan. Setaside.
In a large bowl, whisk together flours, flaxseed meal, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon and ground allspice.
In a medium bowl, whisk together mashed bananas, yogurt, peanut butter and melted butter. Whisk in eggs and sugars. Blend mixture until no sugar lumps remain.
Pour the wet mixture into the larger bowl with the dry ingredients. Fold together with a spatula until no more flour bits remain. Fold in the chopped nuts as well. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and cake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes before running a butter knife along the edges of
the pan and inverting the bread onto a wire rack to cool completely.
This bread lasts, well wrapped at room temperature, for up to 4 days. It is also great to store, well wrapped, in the freezer.

Enjoy! It is amazing!

Mini Birthday Cake

 Yesterday was one of the women in my church's birthday... I babysit her 3 boys about once or twice a month and she is a real sweetheart. Always a blast to hang out with and talk to. She is taking sewing lessons with my mom and tonight is one of their classes. So I decided to make her a mini birthday cake as I had some icing and filling left over from the rainbow cake that I made for my future cousin in-law. All I had to do was make the cake... so thats no big deal. Last night I made enough for 4 mini cakes. They are very cute. I happen to like anything small.

   So I made some chocolate cakes last night as it is easier to ice a cake when it has been baked the day before. Today when I got home after having a great day at work and with one of my friends for lunch. I made a mini cake and decorated it.

 It is a chocolate cake with vanilla pudding filling and cream cheese icing. It is very cute and is topped with royal icing roses, rose buds, and the basket weave.

   I like mini cakes they take no time at all, about 35-40 minutes and it is finished.

   So here is the end result!

Enjoy!

If you put a banana in the oven it will turn yellow!?!

Today I was at work and my dad asked me if I wanted a banana. So I said yes of course ( I love bananas and anything to do with bananas) he said it was a bit green, but I like green bananas. So its all good. Then he showed it to me... it was REALLY green. So he told me to put it in the oven and it would turn yellow! I was not quite sure about this idea as I thought it might start on fire or burn or something. The ovens were off though so I thought I would try this brilliant idea of his...


5 Minutes later I checked on my banana... It was still hard and green so I flipped it over and shut the oven again and went back to work.


About 30 minutes later I remembered that my banana was in the oven! I suppose I should have set the timer... we do have quite a few of them in the bakery. But with my great memory I thought I would remember that there was a banana in the oven. I guess my memory is not as great as I thought it was!

So I opened up the oven and guess what?!? my banana was completely black! I was going to throw it out but I thought I might as well put it in the fridge to let it cool and see if it tasted okay once it was colder. Then I had the brillant idea to open it up and put chocolate chips in it!

The banana was so hot that it melted all the chocolate chips, so I topped it off with cream cheese icing and tried it.

It was REALLY good. I think I might do this again... it was a great experiment and almost like the ones that you put in the campfire when you are camping. Except now you can do it in your very own home and still get the same great tasting banana.

It was a good day!

I love Seahorses...

   The other day I was kinda bored as I had nothing to do! So I decided to paint something... I wasn't really sure what I should paint but I knew I wanted to do something with watercolours. When I was younger I took watercolour lessons and always found it frustrating as the paint never stays where you want it to! But now I LOVE it! you can make so many pretty and abstract looking paintings because the paint blends so well. So now I am in love with water colours again and not so much with acrylics.... But I always go through phases where I like one type of paint and then change to another one the next month. This fall I am going to take art lessons again! I am so stoked, my art teacher is SO amazing, he does anything and everything. He is so talented, I am very excited to do airbrushing again. It is one of my favourites.

   So sense I was bored I started just putting paint on paper, I started with blue and made some streaks and then put a bit of yellow... I thought it kinda looked like the sea so I thought I might put a few fish in there. Then it hit me! Why not paint a seahorse? I love seahorses so much and have always wanted to have one. Then I thought it would be kinda a waste of money as they are over a hundred dollars and I thought it might not live very long.


   So this is what I came up with! I kinda like him.... like a lot! it is SO cute <3

   Painting is one of my favorite things to do as I can just let my mind wander and put my thoughts on paper, it is fun to see what I can come up with sometimes.


   He is so cute that I just had to put 3 pictures up of him :)

Stuffed Baby Red Potatoes

These are basically like twice baked potatoes, except they are boiled and then baked. I made these a couple weeks ago for my family for dinner. They all loved them. Next time I would add a bit more salt though. Other than that they were very good, took a little bit of time but not too much.

About 24 ish small red potatoes
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup crumbled bacon
2/3 cup sour cream
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp pepper ( I would add more but depending on your taste buds)
1/8 tsp. paprika

Scrub the potatoes and place in a pot large enough to hold them. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and cook potatoes for about 15-20 minutes or until tender. But not to tender. Drain.
When cool enough to handle, cut off the tops of the potatoes, not a lot just enough for a small spoon to fit in.
Scoop out the pulp, leaving a thin shell. Place the pulp and the tops of the potatoes into a medium bowl.
In medium bowl mash the potatoes with the butter. Set aside about 2 tbsp of both the cheese and the bacon for the topping. Add the rest of the cheese and bacon, and stir in the sour cream. If you want you can also put a bit of cream cheese in. Add the salt and pepper.
Spoon mixture into all the potato shells. Top with cheese, bacon and paprika.
Place in a greased baking pan. Bake for about 20 minutes until about 160* degrees.

Eat and enjoy!

Easter Paska

Every year we have a tradition that my Auntie Rhonda makes paska for the family gathering on my mom's side. She makes the best paska ever! But I do have to say that my recipe is pretty good as well. But I am not going to give it to you as it is a secret! Sorry.

I do have many pictures of it though so I thought that I would share those with you. It is quite the process to make but it is definitely worth it. I LOVE paska so much! It is the best.

The first step: The poolish

Second: The actual dough

Kneading

... more kneading

Five strand braid, it was really fun to make 

Finished braids

The result... a yummy paska

And the finished product with lemon icing! 

I made this with one of my close friends last week, she and I both LOVE to bake so we thought we would get together for a baking day! It was a lot of fun and I love spending time with her. She is such a sweetie.

Cheese Straws

I made these the other day to go with a dinner that I made for my family. They are a nice side instead of bread, as bread does take awhile to make. So you don't have to go all out and make a yeast bread or buy some. They are good and they have cheese in them! Which of course makes them better.

Today I was with my brother and we were making some soup. He was wondering if we should add some havarit cheese to it. So I told him we should as cheese makes everything better, and he did agree to that. He couldn't think of anything that had cheese in it that didn't taste good. So you know what we did?!? we added some! and it did taste good. Mmm... how I love soup on cold and rainy days.

Plus I can't eat anything as I had all my wisdom teeth pulled out a couple days ago so basically my diet has been, yogurt, smoothies and soup! But some time soon I may be able to eat something that has some substance to it. Hopefully....

Well back to the recipe as you are probably wondering what it is by now!

About 3/4 cup all purpose flour... I think I did like 1 cup
pinch of salt
5 Tbsp butter
2/3 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 egg, beaten
poppy seeds for sprinkling (I did half with poppy seeds and half with out)

Stir together the flour and salt together in a bowl.
Add the butter to the mixture and cut in with a pastry blender, until it resembles small peas.
Add the cheese and half of the egg, mix to form a dough. It may be really crumbly... if it is just add a bit of water to make the dough stick together. 1 tsp at a time.
Wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400*
Grease a couple of cookie sheets with butter.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut into strips about 3 inches by 3/4 of an inch.
Place on the cookie sheets.
Brush the tops with the remaining egg and sprinkle on the poppy seeds.
Bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes until golden brown.
Transfer to wire wracks and cool.

Then eat them all up and enjoy!

Chicken and Artichoke Pizza

I have always wanted to make something with artichokes in it, and I found this recipe for pizza! So I thought why not.... lets try it out and see what is tastes like. The original recipe didn't have any chicken in it so I decided to put some in. It definitely made it better and I don't think that I would make it without the chicken. I made this on a sunday afternoon after church for my mom and brother, they both loved it.  I would totally make this pizza again. It took a bit long to make as I made the crust day of and it took a little while for the crust to rise as I made the dough from  scratch and did not use a pre-baked pizza crust as they suggested.

So here is the recipe that I used for the pizza dough, I have used this one quite a bit and I really like it. Simple and fast... well that is besides the rising of the dough.

Pizza Dough:


3 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. active dry yeast
2 Tbsp. olive oil
14 Tbsp. lukewarm water (you may need more... just see what the dough is like and if it is to tough then add more water :)

Stir the flour and salt together in a bowl and add the yeast.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the oil and water.
Stir well with a wooden spoon until the dough begins to come together, then knead the dough for about 5-10 minutes. Do the window test to see if the gluten has been developed and if it has then its all good. If not knead the dough a bit longer and do it again. (the window test is a basic test to see if the dough has been kneaded enough or not. You don't have to do this it is just a suggestion. Some people have never done it or they don't know what it is. If you do great! if not then don't worry about it)
It will be smooth and elastically when it is ready.
Shape into a ball and let rest is a covered bowl for about 1 hour, or until double the size.
Brush a pizza pan or a cookie sheet with oil and punch down the dough to form a circle. It also helps if you throw the dough in the air and let your finger tips stretch the dough as well. It does actually help! I know you always she it that way in the movies but it does work! if you let it rest for a couple minutes in between stretching it that will also help to get it bigger.


The Toppings:

1/2 tsp, olive oil
about 2/3 c. spaghetti or pizza sauce (you can always use a speciality one as well, I used a olive and tomato one)
2 tomatoes, sliced
lots of mushrooms! about 1 cup
half a 14 oz. can of artichoke heart, rinsed, drained and chopped
1/3 c black olives (depending if you like olives or not, they aren't my favourite but I put them on anyways)
1 chicken breast, pan fried and chopped into bite sized pieces
1 1/2 c. Mozzarella cheese, grated ..... or more if you like cheese like me!
1 1/2 tsp. fresh basil
1 1/2 tsp. fresh thyme
1 1/2 tsp. rosemary


Preheat the oven to 350*
Brush the pizza crust with the olive oil and sauce. Place the tomatoes, mushrooms, artichokes, chicken, olives and cheese on top.
Bake for about 20-30 minutes, I forget how long I baked mine for! bake until the cheese starts to bubble and then sprinkle the herbs on top of the pizza. Bake until golden brown and the cheese is all melted.
Let stand for about 5 minutes.
Cut and serve warm.... and enjoy the pizza!

Hurray I  finally made something with artichokes and I really liked it!


Every pizza can have many different toppings and you can put almost anything you want on it and it will taste good. So here is what I put on my pizza but you could always add some of your favourites or take some of the ones I have on mine out. Depending on what you like and what you don't.

Enjoy!