Holiday

Ghost Pancakes

~ lk529 ~ 4 Comments

Today’s ghost recipe is 100% inspired from my countless hours surfing Pinterest.

Ghost pancakes!

Doing ghost pancakes is the reason I chose the ghost theme for this year’s Halloween week!

I used my go to pancake recipe. I have been using this recipe for over four years and wish I could give credit where credit is due but I don’t remember where I found it. My copy is a wrinkled piece of paper with stains of egg, melted butter, and syrup all over it. The text is going to be fading before I know it. This recipe makes 12 1/3 C portion pancakes, or 10 ghosts. Feel free to use your favorite pancake recipe or use a boxed mix.

Ghost Pancakes

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 C flour
  • 3 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/4 C milk
  • 3 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
  • 30 chocolate chips

Steps:

  1. Preheat griddle to medium-high heat. Grease with cooking spray or butter.
  2. In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
  3. In another bowl whisk together egg and milk. Whisk in cooled melted butter.
  4. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients.
  5. Pour pancake batter into a measuring cup. Pour onto hot griddle into shape of ghosts. Place three chocolate chips in the form of eyes and a mouth in the ghost’s head. Flip pancakes when batter starts to set and bubbles form in the center of the pancake. Cook until both sides are golden brown.

Ghost Pancakes

SRC: Ghost Sugar Cookies

~ lk529 ~ 36 Comments

newsrcbanner

Today’s Secret Recipe Club post kicks off a week of ghostly treats in preparation for Halloween. I knew that in my search through my assigned blog, Making Miracles, I knew I would be narrowing down my scope to something that would fit into my plan this year. If you were to look at my secret Pinterest board you’d see that I didn’t do a very good job at tunnel vision.

Making Miracles is Rebekah’s blog about “food, family, and making memories.” Her blog started eight years ago to share her experiences at being a surrogate mother. I couldn’t think of a better gift to give to someone than the gift of a child. For six years Rebekah selflessly gave 4 daughters to parents dreaming of having their own children. Making Miracles was the perfect blog title.

Rebekah’s blog has transformed over the years into a very impressive food blog. With the exception of catching her blog during SRC reveal days, I was introduced to Rebekah through the blog event #10DaysofTailgate where together with 10 other bloggers we ate our way through the end of September cheering on our favorite teams. Let me tell you, it was very tempting not to tell her that I was assigned her blog this month.

If you don’t yet know, in the Secret Recipe Club, each participating blogger is assigned a blog from another participating blogger and secretly searches their site for something to recreate. The accompanying blog post then goes live on reveal day!

So back to my recipe searching.

My secret pinterest board is filled with over 25 recipes from Rebekah’s blog, including her pizza dip from #10DaysofTailgate, her buttermilk soaked parmesan baked pork chops, and chocolate chip cookie souffle. But to fit in with my Halloween week, I narrowed it down to quesadillas (either pizza or sweet potato black bean) or sugar cookies. After finding my ghost shaped cookie cutter, I knew I’d be going the cookie route.

This cookie recipe reminded me of my grandmother’s Roll Out Christmas Cookies. Instead of frosting, I put sprinkles on the cookies before baking them. There are two reasons for doing that: 1) that’s what my Busia did and 2) I don’t like frosting on my cookies. These sugar cookies are not overly sweet and that’s what makes them addicting. Without frosting, they’re also perfect for dunking in your coffee!

I halved Rebekah’s recipe and was nervous the dough didn’t come together perfectly, but after chilling in the fridge before rolling it was perfect! Do not skip the chilling step. If the dough gets too warm it’ll stick to the board and rolling pin all too easily. This means, in between throwing the cookies in the oven, put the dough back in the fridge.

While Rebekah likes thick, chewy cookies I’m the opposite and like thin, flaky cookies. I rolled my cookies to 1/4″ thickness until very lightly golden on the edges. This half recipe yielded approximately 4 dozen cookies. The amount you get will vary depending on the size of your cookie cutter(s) and your desired cookie thickness.

Ghost Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
  • 1 C sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 C flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • sprinkles (optional)

Steps:

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add in vanilla.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
  3. Add the flour to the butter in 3 batches.
  4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in fridge at least one hour.
  5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  6. Roll dough out on a floured surface. Cut out cookies and place an an ungreased cookie sheet. Sprinkle cookies with sprinkle, if desired. Bake 7 minutes.
  7. Cool cookies on a cooling rack.

*This recipe is adapted from Rebekah at http://rebekahrose.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-best-rolled-sugar-cookies.html?m=1 *

Ghost Sugar Cookies

To see the other bloggers who participated in the Secret Recipe Club this month click here:

#BundtBakers: Stone Fruit

~ lk529 ~ 22 Comments
BundtBakers

With it being July I knew I had to take this month’s #BundtBakers theme in an All American direction. #BundtBakers is a group of bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bundts with a common ingredient or theme. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme or ingredient. This month’s theme is stone fruit and our lovely host is Felice of All That’s Left are the Crumbs.

While I can’t get enough of the smell of fresh peaches and nectarines I don’t particularly care for them. And in thinking of something that’d be great for the 4th of July I knew I had to go with cherries.

Chocolate and cherries are a classic combination. So I knew I wanted to do a chocolate cake. But how to incorporate the cherry? IMG_9243-2I decided to try following the method I use on my popular coffee cake and placing cherry pie filling in the middle of the batter. Well, just like my attempted Mimosa Bundt two months ago the fruit didn’t cooperate like I’d hoped. But this time it created a more beautiful result than I could have imagined! And it also eliminated my need to make a frosting. (For the record I planned on putting some cherry pie filling liquid into a chocolate glaze.) The cherry pie filling fell to the bottom of the bundt pan which created a “pre-made” cherry glaze for the cake. The only downfall is that my brand new star bundt pan didn’t get to shine in all its glory. Thankfully a couple of the stars remained filled with cake batter instead of cherries that I can still show it off.

All-American Chocolate Cherry Pie Cake

Ingredients:

  • 2 sticks butter
  • 1 C water
  • 1/3 C cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 C flour
  • 1 3/4 C sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 container (5.3 oz) cherry flavored Greek yogurt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heavily grease bundt pan.
  2. In a saucepan melt together butter, water, cocoa powder, and salt.
  3. In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, and baking soda.
  4. Using a hand mixer add half of the chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients. When incorporated add the remaining chocolate.
  5. Add the eggs one at a time, the yogurt, and the vanilla extract.
  6. Pour half of the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Add cherry pie filling (I did not use all of the can) and top with remaining batter.
  7. Bake 50-55 minutes, or until a knife comes out cleanly. Allow to cool in the bundt pan for at least 10 minutes before turning out.

*This recipe is adapted from Maria & Josh at http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/chocolate-sour-cream-bundt-cake/*

All-American Chocolate Cherry Pie Bundt

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com. All recipes and photographs can be found on our individual blogs, on our Pinterest board, and the #bundtbakers homepage.

And don’t forget to take a peek at what other talented bakers have baked this month:

Cherry Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake by Renee at Magnolia Days

Cherry Carrot & Banana Bundt by Kelly at Passion Kneaded

Peaches n Cream Melba Bundt Cake by Laura at Baking in Pyjamas

Roasted Cherry Kugelhopf with Cherry Bourbon Glaze by Tux at Brooklyn Homemaker

Peachy Bundt by Margaret at Tea and Scones

Plum, Chocolate, and Orange Bundt Cake by Maria at Box of Stolen Socks

Cinnamon Peach Bundt Cake by Beatriz at I Love Bundt Cakes

Cherry Almond Ginger Bundt by Jane at Jane’s Adventures in Dinner

Chocolate Avocado Bundt Cake by Terri at Love and Confections

Black Forest Bundt Cake with Cherry Ganache Topping by Teri at The Freshman Cook

Caramel Mango Bundt Cake by Bea at Secrets from my Apron

Upside-down Apricot Butter Bundt by Stacy at Food Lust People Love

Old Glory

~ lk529 ~ 5 Comments

One of my favorite things about the Fourth of July is laying out a blanket and watching the fireworks with family and friends.

Once I learned how to quilt it became a goal of mine to have at least one quilt per holiday, but the one I most wanted to complete was one to spread out underneath the fireworks.

This is the plan for Old Glory.

Old Glory

Old Glory is what is considered a sampler quilt. So you will notice that, with the exception of the stars, not one block is repeated. I wasn’t sure the mathematical side of me would be able to handle this style of quilting, but in limiting the fabric choices I was able to find a little order.

Over the next month I will share with you tutorials for most of the blocks featured in my quilt. So hop on board and expand your quilt block knowledge!

Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade

~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

With Memorial Weekend here, I thought I’d share with you one of my favorite lemonade recipes for you to make and enjoy at your holiday barbecue. I make this every year for the 4th of July along with blueberry and original flavors.

Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade

Ingredients for the simple syrup:

  • 1 C water
  • 2/3 C sugar

Ingredients for the strawberry syrup:

  • 1 heaping C quartered strawberries
  • 2 tbps sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1 tsp lemon juice

Ingredients for the lemonade:

  • 1 1/4 C fresh lemon juice
  • 4 1/2 C plain seltzer water

Steps:

  1. Make simple syrup: in a saucepan heat water and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside to cool.
  2. Make the strawberry syrup: in a blender puree all ingredients until smooth. Strain into pitcher and discards the remaining seeds/pulp.
  3. Make the lemonade: combine simple syrup, strawberry syrup and lemon juice. Keep in fridge until ready to serve. Before serving add the seltzer water.

*This recipe is adapted from Annie at http://www.annies-eats.com/2011/05/27/sparkling-strawberry-lemonade/*

Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade

Cinco de Mayo Recipe Round Up

~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

With it still being my blog’s first year I’ve never been able to do a Recipe Round Up for a holiday before. But thanks to my Mexican Mondays I have plenty of suggestions for your Cinco de Mayo celebration!

Cinco de Mayo

Featured above:

  1. Mexican Stuffed Shells
  2. Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas
  3. Three Bean Nachos
  4. Baby Baked Beef Burritos
  5. Chorizo Carbonara
  6. Protein Packed Southwestern Salad
  7. Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos
  8. Corn Pepper Salsa Chicken Quesadilla

Other favorites:

  1. Turkey Enchilada Meatloaf
  2. Chorizo Mac and Cheese
  3. Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Salad
  4. Spicy Taco Cheese Soup

And my most popular Mexican Monday recipe: Healthy Chicken Tacos

Healthy Tacos

CIC: Lemons & Peeps

~ lk529 ~ 27 Comments

CIC-header

This month’s Crazy Ingredient Challenge reveal day falls on Easter so our host Dawn of Spatulas on Parade picked the ever popular Easter candy Peeps to be paired up with Lemons!

If you’re wondering where last month’s edition of CIC was, I posted instead my first #BundtBakers recipe on March 20th.

But back to April’s CIC post. The biggest challenge with this month was using an already finished product.

Leave it to the preggo to come up with a cocktail! (Please don’t call child services, but I did taste a sip so I could validate that the recipe works!) I present to you the perfect cocktail for your Easter Sunday – Marshmallow Peeps Lemon Drop Martini. This is definitely what adults want in their Easter basket. If we can’t hunt for eggs, then we might as well sip on something fun!

An Original Recipe

Marshmallow Peeps Lemon Drop Martini

Ingredients:

  • 3 yellow peeps (any color will do, but a yellow lemon cocktail looks best)
  • 3/4 C vodka
  • 1/2 C sugar
  • 1/2 C water
  • 3/4 C lemon juice
  • sprinkles (optional)

Steps:

  1. In a jar soak peeps in vodka for at least 4 days. Remove Peeps from vodka (strain if they’ve fallen apart).
  2. In a small saucepan dissolve sugar in water over medium-high heat. Allow to cool.
  3. Place sprinkles on a flat plate. Run a slice of lemon along the rim of the martini glass and gently twist the glass in the sprinkles.
  4. In a cocktail shaker with ice combine equal parts lemon juice, simple syrup, and Peeps vodka. Pour into martini glasses.

Marshmallow Peep Lemon Drop Martini

Marshmallow Peep Lemon Drop MartiniMarshmallow Peep Lemon Drop Martini

To see the other bloggers who participated in this month’s Crazy Ingredient Challenge click on the link below.

#BundtBakers: Easter

~ lk529 ~ 26 Comments
BundtBakers

This is my second month as a member of #BundtBakers. #BundtBakers is a group of bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bundts with a common ingredient or theme. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme or ingredient. This month’s theme is Easter and our lovely host is Tara from Noshing with the Nolands.

My first bundt was one of my grandmother’s recipes. This month’s bundt is as well.

With a theme of Easter there wasn’t any question in my mind as to what I would make. Busia would always make her pound cake and bake it in a Lamb or Chick cake mold and it would always be decorated with jelly beans. My mom has the chick cake mold but unfortunately we haven’t been able to find the lamb. I might just have to order a Spring Lamb 3-D Cake Mold off of Amazon. The first year I made this recipe we were having a group of friends over for Easter and I thought it’d be fun to serve cupcakes, and I decorated them with jelly beans to create a cute spring landscape.

2011 Easter Cupcake Landscape
2011 Easter Cupcake Landscape

As I think is the norm for pound cake I made the recipe in a loaf pan. But I always had problems with the top cracking, and I have issues when it comes to frosting cakes so it was never pretty.

2012 Loaf Pan Pound Cake
2012 Easter Pound Cake

Given that this blogging group is called #BundtBakers, this year I used my bundt pan to make my most beautiful Easter cake yet! Because the top of the cake becomes the bottom of the cake I didn’t need to worry about frosting uneven cake. The mold of the cake pan created a beautiful smooth surface that even my novice frosting abilities could handle. I decorated the cake in “Easter egg” style striping with jelly beans.

2014 Easter Pound Bundt
2014 Easter Bundt

Easter Pound Cake

Ingredients:Original Recipe

  • 5 eggs, at room temperature
  • 2 sticks butter, at room temperature
  • 1 2/3 C sugar
  • 1 tbsp lemon extract
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • 2 C cake flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease cake pan.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer beat eggs and butter until smooth. Add in eggs one at a time until incorporated. Add in the sugar. Once combined add the lemon and almond extracts. Add the salt and flour in batches until batter is smooth. Pour into greased cake pan and bake 50-55 minutes, until a knife comes out clean.
  3. Allow cake to cool before frosting with cream cheese frosting. (Recipe below)

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

  • 5 tbsp butter, at room temperature
  • 5 tbsp cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 3 – 3 1/2 C powdered sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • milk, as needed

Steps:

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer beat together butter and cream cheese until combined.
  2. Add sugar a few tablespoons at a time. Also, add vanilla 1/2 tsp at at time. Once all vanilla and 3 C of sugar have been added taste the frosting. Add more sugar to taste. Only add milk if needed to balance flavors or smooth out the icing. (I used very little more than 3 C of sugar and needed no milk.)

Easter Bundt Cake

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, send an email to Stacy at foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com or ask to join our private Facebook group. This is a purely administrative group. All recipes and photographs can be found on our individual blogs or on our Pinterest board.

And don’t forget to take a peek at what other talented bakers have baked this month:

Strawberry Poppy Seed Cake by Renee at Magnolia Days

Babka with Bittersweet Chocolate Chunks by Laura at The Spiced Life

Bursting-with-Berries Lemon Curd Bundt Cake by Felice at All That is Left is The Crumbs

Lemon Coconut Bundt Cake by Kathya at Basic N Delicious

Easter Bunny Bundt by Jane at Jane’s Adventures in Dinner

Bunny Nest Carrot Mini Bundts by Stacy at Food Lust People Love

Colorful Spring Bundt Cake by Varada at Varada’s Kitchen

Mini Lemon Spring Bundts by Tara at Noshing With The Nolands

Pineapple Pale Ale Bundt Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze by Melanie at Melanie Makes

Carrot Tea Cake by Veronica at My Catholic Kitchen

Hot Cross Mini Bundts by Kelly at Passion Kneaded

Easter Egg Cake by Margaret at Tea and Scones

Lemon and Elderflower Bundt Cake by Maria at Box of Stolen Socks

Strawberry Lemon Bundt Cake by Lauren From Gate to Plate

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. 

Irish Bread Braid

~ lk529 ~ 7 Comments

SPD13

I never really celebrated St. Patrick’s Day until moving to the panhandle and becoming best friends with Kate. St. Patrick’s Day 2011 coincided with Auburn’s Spring Break and we had Kate and her now husband Josh over for a simple dinner and game night – individual meatloaves and mashed potatoes. That event began a four year tradition. In 2012 Kate and Josh were now living here and we went to their apartment for Ruben Egg Rolls, Shepherd’s Pie, and a yogurt parfait with angel food cake and mango. (Lesson learned – do not dye vanilla pudding green, it will mess with your mind and fool your taste buds.) I hosted in 2013 and served an Irish bread braid, individual meatloaves, and colcannon. Kate brought over a beautiful rainbow cake too!

This year marks our fourth, and probably final (as we’re moving this summer), St. Patrick’s Day together. It’s Kate’s turn to host and we’re combining our favorites – the Irish bread braid, Ruben egg rolls, Shepherd’s pie with shamrock rolls, and for dessert maple shortbread cookies and chocolate chip ice cream. It’s a big menu for four people, but we’re going all out this year!

St. Patrick's Day 2014

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it – my crescent rolls were very easily tear-able and no matter how much I pinched and tried to make the dough seamless there was no hope. Instead I made a rustic-looking tart. But the flavors were still beautiful. I don’t know if the dough warmed up too much in the 30 minute drive to Kate’s or if using the name brand product is simply too good at it’s job – Stuart suggested maybe buying a generic brand of crescent dough in the hopes that it’s not as perforated. Here’s the real advice – if your store sells seamless crescent dough, buy it! None of my local stores do.

Last year I made this bread braid (see pre-baked photo in above collage) for St. Patrick’s Day and it was such a hit that Stuart requested it again for Easter. I will probably make it again, and if I’m successful in the braid I’ll post it!

Irish Bread Tart

Irish Bread Braid

Ingredients:

  • 3 red potatoes
  • 3 C chopped kale, stems removed
  • 2 cans seamless crescent roll dough
  • 1/2 lb sliced corned beef
  • 1 C shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 egg
  • caraway seeds, for sprinkling

Steps:

  1. Boil kale in salted water for 4 minutes. Drain, pat dry, and set aside.
  2. Boil potatoes until tender. Let cool, slice, and set aside.
  3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  4. On a greased baking sheet, unroll crescent dough and press side-by-side lengthwise into one larger rectangle. Additionally, press together all perforated seams if not using seamless.
  5. Place corned beef in the center of the rectangle, leaving 3″ on each side. Top with potato slices, kale, and shredded cheese.
  6. Cut dough into the same number of strips on each side of the filling, leaving an inch buffer around the filling. Criss-cross the strips over the filling to create a braid. Fold crescent dough around the filling to create a rustic tart. (See above photos.)
  7. In a small bowl whisk the egg with 1 tbsp water. Brush the bread with egg wash and sprinkle with caraway seeds and kosher salt, if desired.
  8. Bake for 25 minutes. If your bread braid turned into a rustic tart lightly cover with aluminum foil for 20 minutes, remove foil and bake another 5-8 minutes until the crust is golden and cooked through. Allow to cool slightly before slicing.

*This recipe is modified from girlversusdough at http://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/irish-bread-braid/aa8ebb56-1255-4cec-996f-3de32cb5456e*
Irish Bread Tart

Easter Mantle

~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

I consider Ash Wednesday to be the beginning of the Easter season. As such, I decorate the first chance I get immediately following Ash Wednesday. Today was that day.

I love having a mantle to decorate and our mantle is located in the family room so I get to see it every day!

Last year my mother-in-law found an old window for me to use. And as many Pinterest projects there are, I’ve chosen to leave it alone. It’s such a beautiful piece of architecture and makes me love my mantle decor even more than I did last year!

There is a cable hook up and a square hole above the fire place where one could hang a TV, so I always have a piece of art over it. (Detour – hanging TVs scares me. Like, seriously, makes me nervous. And also, hanging TVs puts them at an awkward angle so you always have to look up to watch a show.) The size of the window meant I had to take down the art which also meant I’d be stuck looking at the hole in the wall. (I’m always afraid there’s going to be bugs coming out of it.) I was about to be disappointed and then I saw in my box of decorations a light blue gingham piece of fabric that lines an Easter basket. I hung that from the bolts in the wall and laid the window against it. I thought it’d look strange, but I am loving it!

When Stuart was little his parents gave them tiny rabbit figurines over the years and I now have them to add a little bit of sentiment to the decorations.

I have filled glass jars with Easter straw and plastic eggs and transformed a spring candle holder by using it to hold more eggs.

Easter Mantle