Category Archives: Quick Breads

Double Ginger Citrus Pear Bread

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Double Ginger Citrus Pear Bread

Double Ginger Citrus Pear Bread


I mentioned this bread on my facebook page a week or so ago when I gave the choice between it or scones. The scones won. 😛 But I finally got around to making the bread yesterday.

I wish now that I’d waited until today to make it. Mother nature seems to be confused as to month and it’s rainy, chilly and totally ICK here right now. I think we MIGHT have made it up to 50 degrees. And while I know that that would still seem balmy to some in May and would have to me too had I stayed in my hometown of Chicago, here in Kentucky, high 40’s in May is COLD darn it! So having the oven on and baking sounds like a great idea.

I wasn’t sure about this bread when I first made it yesterday. You know how it goes… you make a quick bread, tell yourself to let it cool so it will slice better, then end up cutting it when it’s warm anyway because you just can’t resist. This however is one of those quick breads that NEEDS to meld for a day. yesterday, it seemed rather bland and boring and I wasn’t even sure I would blog about it. After sitting overnight however, I tried a piece and it was was quite good. It’s moist and dense; almost pound cakeish in texture, plus the ginger flavor is more pronounced as is the pear. Make sure though, that you use ripe flavorful pears in this.  And I think that next time I make this I will add about a 1/2 teaspoon of fresh nutmeg. It just needs a bit of spice.

Make sure you actually grease and flour your pan. With the pear and crystallized ginger in it, you’ll end up with parts sticking to the bottom if you just use cooking spray.

Double Ginger And Pear Quick Bread

  • 3 ripe pears, chopped (I left the peel on; your choice)
  • 3 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
  • 1/3 cup buttermilk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • zest of one lemon
  • zest of one orange
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a nine inch loaf pan.
  2. Stir the pears, ginger and zests together in a small bowl.
  3. Mix together the buttermilk, vanilla and lemon juice in a measuring cup.
  4. In a medium bowl, mix your dry ingredients.
  5. In yet another bowl (I know I know 😛 ) beat together your butter, oil and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.
  6. Add the flour mixture, alternating with the buttermilk mixture, beating on low speed, just until combined. Fold in the pear/ginger mixture.
  7. Pour the batter (it’s a fairly thick batter) into the prepared loaf pan.
  8. bake at 350 for about 50 to 60 minutes or until the top is a golden brown color, firm to the touch and a skewer inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
    Cool on a wire rack in the pan for about five minutes, then carefully run a knife around the edges to loosen. Turn out onto the rack to finish cooling.
  9. Now you can wrap it, wait a day and try it after flavors have blended or cut it now…but seriously, I advise the days wait. It’s delicious after the rest period 🙂

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Chocolate Chip Double Berry Scones

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Chocolate Chip Double Berry Scones 2-001

I can hear the outcry now… “MORE scones, lady!!!??? What the heck?? Can you do anything but scones or citrus pies or risotto!?”

Yes. yes, I can. But I wasn’t thinking the other day when I, on my Facebook page asked everyone which they would prefer- these scones or a quick bread I am trying. They chose the scones. Sooooo, being a woman of my word, I made them. Because honesty is just how I roll. Well, when I trip on our land, downhill quickly is also how I roll but I won’t blog about that. Though photos would probably be hilarious.

Moving on- been interesting in our household lately. My (very pregnant) daughter and her boys are with us through mid August while her husband goes through Basic Training and AIT (the on the job training for whatever you will be doing part of the military) so having 2 extra little ones (they are 3 and 6) has been chaotic to say the least. But I love knowing that when they move, they will, for a time at least, until it fades, have some memories of living with gramma and grampa. My daughter is due in a few weeks so I’ll have time with the baby (girl) for a while too 🙂

Plus, I’ve been having some health issues again. Not gonna go into detail here yet but I’ll cue you all in when things are more settled as to treatment. Until then, I’m just gonna continue to bake fattening things for all of you. Why? Cause I lurves you of course!!! Seriously. You have no idea what it means to me to know that people actually come here to my tiny blog, read my inane words and sometimes actually even make the foods I post.

These scones turned out delicious. I got the base recipe from The Pastry Queen Cookbook (you should have noticed by now that I love this cookbook) but changed it around. I just KNOW you’re surprised at that news. The only problem I had (which is my fault not the books) was shape. After I added the berries, I didn’t want to knead the dough, thus mushing the berries and toughening the dough, so I just reshaped it. BUT… I wasn’t able to get it back into a decent circle. so I tried making it more rectangular and cutting the scones from that. It turned out rather laughable 😛 These taste absolutely amazing… light, tender, flaky with a perfect mix of berries and chocolate and an orange glaze that just complements it all. But the way they look? Kinda wonky lol. But I promise you; you won’t care once you make some and taste them how they look. Also, you may have better luck shaping the dough than I did ANYWAY thus negating the issue. So don’t let looks fool you. Just look at the nicely glazed surface… see the pieces of berry peeking out alongside some chocolate. Then go bake. And I promise… no more scones…. for a few days anyway 😛

Chocolate Chip Double Berry Scones

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, COLD
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • zest from one large orange (about 1 to 2 tablespoons)
  • 1 cup semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
  • 1/2 cup fresh blackberries
  • Glaze-
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 teaspoons orange zest
  • 1/3 cup orange juice
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a buttered baking sheet with parchment paper then butter the paper.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (as always, you can use these directions with a hand mixer), combine the dry ingredients on low speed, including the orange zest.
  3. Cut the butter into small pieces, then add to the flour. Beat on low speed until the butter is in small pea sized pieces. Then add in 1 cup of the cream and the vanilla and continue beating on low speed. You want the dough to come away from the sides of the bowl in a clean ball of dough, no floury remnants left behind. If it still looks dry, add more cream, about a tablespoon at a time until it forms the dough ball.
  4. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and gently knead the chocolate chips into it. You’re not trying to work the gluten up like in bread dough. That will make the scones tough.
  5. When the chocolate is incorporated, gently pan the dough out into a fairly thin circle or rectangle. Lay the berries down on one side of the dough, then fold the other side down over them. Press gently to seal.
  6. Reshape the dough (circle if you want wedges, rectangle if you want squares or diamonds) and cut into either 10 wedges or if making squares or diamonds (for the diamonds, cut into squares then cut them in half diagonally), cut into 12 pieces. Brush each with some of the leftover cream and sprinkle with sugar.
  7. Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes for wedges or 10 to 12 minutes for squares or diamonds. You want them a nice golden brown on top.
  8. For the glaze- in a small bowl, mix together the glaze ingredients. Whisk well to get rid of lumps.
  9. Pour the glaze out onto a shallow lipped plate.
  10. Dip the top of each scone into the glaze. Let dry for about ten minutes then dip each one again. Let dry a bit before serving though when they are warm and sticky they are awfully hard to resist 😀

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Extra Rich Corn Muffins With Homemade Honey Butter

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Extra-Rich-Corn-Muffins-With-Homemade-Honey-Butter

Extra-Rich-Corn-Muffins-With-Homemade-Honey-Butter

I think I’m completely incapable of making a recipe that is 100% good for me (you, my family, the rest of the world). I instinctively search out the worst for you version of…well… everything. Ice cream? I go for the high fat premium stuff. My homemade bread puddings? I have to cover them in a puddle of heavy cream and if the recipe called for making it with low fat milk, you’d better believe I’ll be substituting cream. I am not, surprisingly enough, a huge sugar fan. My weakness is anything creamy and/or buttery. Richness is my downfall.

That of course is why, even though I lost almost 50 pounds last year, I’m still overweight lol. I am, I think, totally unwilling to live a life that isn’t filled with rich and creamy foods. This and the fact that I’m old, not that pretty,  saggy and practically toothless is the reason that the modeling world never need worry about me taking it by storm and shoving out all the young girls. However, if I were to give all the supermodels one or eight of these muffins, they too would end up with my love for rich foods and that would be the end of the modeling world as we know it. Hey… I may be onto something here. THIS is the way to get normal sized models featured more. Just FEED the poor women; make them realize how yummy food is lol.

And these are pretty yummy. They come from The Pastry Queen cookbook which is a damned awesome cookbook and one that I plan on using often. The only thing I would change about these would be the ratio of flour to corn meal. They could use a bit more of the cornmeal flavor, less of the flour. So next time I will probably increase the cornmeal one cup, decrease the flour one cup. I also cut the sugar down to about 1/3 of a cup because I am of the school that says cornbread should either be not sweet at all or just barely. ANDDDDDD, I used frozen corn because it’s too early in the year for fresh here and canned corn should be outlawed… nasty nasty stuff.

Extra Rich Corn Muffins

  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 3 cup heavy cream
  • 3 large egg
  • 3 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
  • 1 cup sugar (I used 1/3 cup)
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup fresh, frozen or canned corn (optional)
  • 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (optional- my addition)
  • 1/4 cup canned chopped green chiles (optional- my addition)
  • Honey Butter-
  • 1 cup softened unsalted butter
  • 1 cup honey
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional- I prefer it without but some people like the addition of cinnamon)
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or line 24 muffin cups. I used 12 muffin cups and a 8 count mini loaf pan.
  2. Pour the cream, butter and eggs into the bowl of a stand mixer (this can all also be done with a hand mixer or even by hand if you have strong arms 😛 ) fitted with the paddle attachment.
  3. Add the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt on top. Mix at medium speed just until the ingredients are combined and not lumpy. Stir in the corn (and the cheese and chiles if using)
  4. Scoop the batter into the prepared pans, filling them about 2/3 full. This is a very thick batter, almost more dough like than batter like so don’t think you goofed up when it’s thick.
  5. bake at 350 degrees until they are a light golden brown and spring back when touched, about 15 minutes.
  6. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool slightly but these are best served warm, like most muffins. They reheat nicely in the microwave however.
  7. For the honey butter, put the butter and honey in a small bowl (the cinnamon too if using). Beat at medium speed until smooth and creamy. taste and add more honey if you like it sweeter. Store this in the fridge covered will as it will pick up refrigerator odors if not covered.

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Ham, Cheddar And Herb Scones

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Ham, Cheddar & Herb Scones

I’m feeding my inner Brit today…and my inner Scot… and my inner whatever other ethnicity likes scones. The thing is, in real life, I have not a drop of Brit or Scot in me as far as I know.  Lots of German, some French, a touch or two of Irish (I think it’s the good at bull**** part of me), some Native American and some African American. I am the quintessential mutt.

I like pretending I’m Scottish though. There is little more fun than going into a store and loudly talking in a Scottish accent. People gawk big time. One would think they had never seen a Scot walking around Wal-mart before. Ok, so maybe they haven’t. An Indian accent is fun too since I’m light haired and extremely light skinned and don’t fit the genetic mold of what one would expect from a person speaking with a thick Indian accent.

Most fun however is Russian. My husband is fluent or close to it in a few languages and we have a habit of going shopping and somewhere, ineveitably, he will begin speaking Russian, usually very loudly and usually pretending to be irate over something silly done by Americans.

I, not knowing a lick of Russian, end up as his straight man, using a thick Russian accent to tell him that he is in America now and to speak English and not act like he just came over from the old country. We are American now and he needs to speak the language! Again, the looks are priceless hehehe.

We don’t have very exciting lives.

And I am fairly sure we need to be institutionalized

But before that happens, I want to share this scone recipe (do you say scone rhyming with cones or scones rhyming with cons? I’m a cones person myself) with you. As much as I love sweet scones, savory ones have a larger portion of my heart and my waistline. This one is chock full of cheddar cheese, diced ham, some garlic, some green onions and some dried dill. These smell amazing as they cook and they taste even better than they smell. There is nothing like a fresh, warm scone drowning in butter… unless it’s a fresh warm scone drowning in butter, served with a cup of tea. My idea of Heaven involves both those things. It also involves   ice cream, whipped cream and Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris hand feeding me peeled grapes but that’s another story.

Ham, Cheddar And Herb Scones

  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 cup diced ham
  • 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese plus more for sprinkling on top
  • 1/2 cup sliced green onions
  • 1 tablespoon dried dill weed
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  1. Grease the bottom of a nine or ten inch round cake pan. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, dill weed and garlic powder.
  3. Make a well in the center and pour in the ham, cheddar cheese and green onions. Mix lightly.
  4. Pour in the cream and using a wooden spoon, stir the dough just until evenly moistened and you have no dry flour left in the bottom of the bowl.
  5. Pat the dough down evenly into the prepared cake pan.
  6. Score them almost all the way through into 8 to ten wedges
  7. Bake at 350 degrees until the top is a nice golden brown and a wooden skewer comes out clean. When done, turn the oven off and sprinkle a little bit (or a lot) more cheese on the top of the scones. Put back in the oven just long enough to melt the cheese.
  8. Turn out of pan onto a wire rack and let cool at least ten minutes before cutting. Cut the scones into wedges using the score marks as your guide.
  9. Serve warm with butter. These can be reheated by nuking for about 20 seconds.


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Playing Favorites

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Almond Pecan Praline Bread

Almond Pecan Praline Bread



You know how your parents always said that they didn’t have any favorites among their kids and they loved you all equally? They lied. We ALL play favorites. Not intentionally, not maliciously, but we do it anyway. It’s human nature. With people (your kids or whoever), you can love them all just as MUCH, but there are always people you click with differently..better..on a deeper level somehow. That’s the same reason you end up with a spouse or partner. You…just…click.

It’s no different with foods. Everyone has favorites. Foods or flavors that just click with you. Most of us (the normal ones anyway) love chocolate and will use any excuse to eat it. Others love vanilla anything. Put something with lemon or other citrus in front of yet another person and they will devour it. What’s one of mine? Other than all of the above lol?

Almond. Not so much the actual nut To me, they tend to be rather flavorless and I don’t like the texture, though slivered or sliced and toasted is a whole different story. but no, I mean things flavored with almonds. be it almond extract, almond paste, almond filling, marzipan, whatever, I absolutely love anything with almond flavoring. And I add it to as many things as I can think of that it will go with.

One of almonds favorite places to call home is in my stomach in baked goods. Cookies, yeast breads, coffee cakes, muffins and on and on. It’s yummy in all of them. My favorite way is in a quick bread. We love quick breads here anyway (keep my husband away from my Chocolate Chip Banana Bread or nobody else will get any.) so making one with almond flavoring in it was a natural for me. But I couldn’t leave well enough alone and added some praline pecans to this one.

This is just a basic quick bread. The fun comes from the almond flavoring and the pecans. They totally make this bread. Spread this bread, still slightly warm from the oven, with raspberry, cherry or apricot jam and you will be in heaven. Those fruits are so complementary to almond. This is great for dessert, breakfast, a snack or just cause you’re darn cute and deserve a slice or twelve.

Almond Pecan Praline Bread With An Almond Glaze

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 14 cups sugar
  • 1 1/4 cups vegetable (or canola) oil
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 2 teaspoons almond extract
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 6 ounces praline pecans
  • GLAZE-
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • 3 tablespoons milk (more or less as needed to make drizzling consistency)
  1. Grease and flour 5 mini loaf pans. You can also use cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together all your dry ingredients, except for the pecans
  3. In another bowl or a large measuring cup, combine your wet ingredients.
  4. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and dump in the wet ones.
  5. Mix JUST until combined. As I’ve said before, don’t overbeat quick breads and muffins. You will end up with tough tunneled bread.
  6. Fold in the pecans, then spoon or scoop the batter into the prepared pans.
  7. Bake at 350 until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
  8. Let cool in pans on wire rack for about ten minutes if you plan on then turning them out or just leave them in the pan on the rack until completely cool if giving them away… though I’m not sure why you’d do that.
  9. To make the glaze, just combine everything in a small bowl. Drizzle it over the cooled breads.
  10. Eat. Say Yum!


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Leftovers? What Leftovers?

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Sweet Potato Bread- mashed sweet potatoes, wonderful warm spices, lots of flavor

My household is, in very many ways, a fairly typical American household. In most respects, I’m fine with that; proud of it as a matter of fact. One way I’m not so thrilled however is in the amount of food we tend to waste. Fruits and veggies that go bad before we get to them, meat that gets freezer burned, leftovers that everyone gets sick of and end up getting tossed. It annoys the poop out of me. Which is why, after a day like Thanksgiving, when there are enough leftovers in most families to feed a small country, I like to try to do something with what I can. Something other than serving Russ and the boys turkey and the fixings for yet. One.More.Meal.

Being me however, what really happens is that they get turkey and all the fixings for just one. more. meal. And they cry and gnash their teeth and threaten to move into the neighbors house (and if you’ve seen me talk about my psychotic neighbor, you know the desperation THAT entails). So I placate them. I take the good stuff and recycle it into…well… other good stuff.

There’s a lot you can do with leftover cranberry sauce. A lot you can do with leftover sweet potato casserole. Yep, even with the kind that has 36 cups of brown sugar in it, as well as 8 sticks of butter and 5 bags of mini marshmallows. Trust me. Being the mom of six kids, with the typical “omg, our monthly bills cost HOW much?!” life, I’ve learned to create some yummy stuff out of other stuff that was also yummy once upon a time but that now just causes people to cry when they see it. Mind you, we are also a “normal” American family in that we still spend too much on groceries and still waste too much, but I like to delude myself into thinking that I have a handle on it and am getting better at it. Delusion is also an American way of life hehe.

This bread is a good way to get rid of those last few scoops of sweet potatoes. Don’t bother trying to scrape off the marshmallows (or nuts if you use them) or whatever else is in there. Just use it all. You’ll get a nice moist flavorful bread and a “woohoo!” feeling when you know that you don’t have to nuke the stuff for yet another meal.

Sweet Potato Bread

A nice golden loaf of bread flecked with bits of sweet potato. This will fill your home with the smells of the holiday season as it bakes. Moist and tender, this is great spread with butter or some pumpkin butter if you have it.

  • 1 cup oil
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 cups (give or take a 1/2 cup or so. I usually go over and it’s fine) mashed sweet potatoes or leftover sweet potatoes
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Grease and flour (I use Bakers Joy) a large 9 (or even a 10 if you have it) inch bread pan and about 3 muffin cups. Yes, 3… this makes too much batter for one loaf, not enough for 2 8 inch loaves so I usually get the 9 inch loaf and a few muffins from it. The muffins become mine because I’m the cook… I think of it as a mom tax 😀
  3. In a large bowl, combine the oil, sugars,  eggs, vanilla extract and sweet potatoes. Mix well.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Dump them into the large bowl and using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, combine just until mixed. Do NOT over beat.
  5. Pour/spoon into the loaf pan and muffin cups.
  6. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown and until a skewer inserted in the center comes out with no crumbs on it. This will take about 20 minutes for the muffins and about 65 to 75 minutes for the loaf.
  7. Let cool in the pan for ten minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Try not to cut this until it is completely cool, cause it can be a bit gummy when warm due to the sweet potatoes. When cool however, it is just moist and tender.

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Eggnog, Fruitcake And Happy Accidents

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Eggnog and fruitcake; you either love them or hate them. I have never met anyone who says “Oh, fruitcake (or eggnog) is ok. I eat some every year but that’s about it”. From what I’ve seen it’s more like this

Person 1- “I am really loving this eggnog I’m drinking. I look forward to it every year!”

Person 2- “OMG!!! You sick bas****!!! Get away from me if you drink that crap! It’s nasty! It’s made from Llama brains! You are no longer a part of my life!!

Person 3- *tackles person one, steals the eggnog and sucks it all down in 5 seconds flat, then proceeds to hold up an eggnog delivery truck to appease their addiction*

Replace eggnog and drinking with fruitcake and eating and you have the picture of the typical reactions to both eggnog and fruitcake. I stand firmly in the camp of those holding up eggnog/fruitcake trucks. Not….erhmmmmm *whistles innocently* that I’ve ever done that.

I adore both eggnog and the much maligned fruitcake. I make my own fruitcake every year (you can get it how you like it that way, which in my case means a ton of fruit) and tend to buy one or two or eight of the preservative filled Hostess or whatever brand I see… “Joes Fruitcake anyone”? fruitcakes. And I happily slurp down a gallon or twelve of store bought eggnog each holiday season. Don’t get me wrong… home made is good too but somehow it just isn’t the same as the overly thick, overly sweet kind from a carton.

So when I saw a recipe a while back on Mandys Recipe Box  for eggnog coffee cake, I knew I had to try it. I mean… it uses store bought eggnog! But (no offense Mandy) I knew I wanted to change it up a bit. Originally though, it wasn’t going to be a big change, just a matter of more struesel and more spice as well as the chance to use my LorAnn Eggnog Flavoring. But, like I said, that was originally. It ended up being a larger change than I meant to make but it actually all worked out and saved some calories to boot. PLUS, made this egg free for those who like that. How? Simple. I forgot to add the eggs to the batter. Oops. When I saw how thick the batter was, I added about 2 tablespoons more eggnog to thin it out some. It seems to have done the trick in replacing the eggs because this was quite yummy without them. And it was still moist and tender. So, as far as I am concerned, the eggs are optional. Next time I make it, I’ll add the eggs out of curiosity but that’s about it lol.

Sooooo… if you like eggnog and warm from the oven baked goods, try this. It has a nice eggnog flavor and a moist tender crumb (even without the eggs hehe). Good cake for a weekend breakfast or a simple dessert. This comes together quickly. The original recipe called for an 8 hour rest time but I skipped that and it was fine. That would however be handy if you wanted to mix it up the night before and just pour and bake the next morning.

Eggnog Coffee Cake

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
  • 1 cup eggnog (add an extra 2 to 3 tablespoons if omitting eggs)
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon rum extract
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon eggnog flavoring (optional)
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • STRUESEL- (I doubled this)
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temp
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • GLAZE-
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1-2 tablespoons eggnog (enough to make a glaze of drizzling consistency)
  1. Grease bottom of a 13×9 inch pan and preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, mix together your struesel ingredients and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together your butter and sugar until creamy.
  3. Add in the eggnog, sour cream , extracts and eggs (if using).
  4. On low speed, beat in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  5. Spread the batter in the prepared pan. At this point you can refrigerate for 8 or more hours, but like I said, I didn’t.
  6. Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
  7. Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack.
  8. Mix together your glaze ingredients and eat a spoonful of it and drizzle all over the coffeecake.

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Carrots Are Yucky

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Really. They are. Would I lie to you? I love you all to death so I would never lie about something as important as the ickiness factor surrounding those orange…things.

I don’t like carrots (in case the above sentences didn’t clarify that). I will eat baby carrots if they are cooked almost to the point of mush and then covered in about 16 pounds of butter per carrot and salt. I will eat carrot cake. I mean c’mon, it has cream cheese frosting and is gooey and…well…it’s cake. I can forgive it for having carrots.

I’m also that person who, upon getting one of those bagged salad mixes, picks out every single carrot shred out of my bowl and throws it in my husbands serving. Raw carrots are even yuckier than cooked ones.

But… BUT I say! I like carrot cake. So when I saw a recipe for a quick bread that had a strong resemblance to carrot cake or would once I got through with it, I knew I had to make it. The original recipe is from Food And Wine. For the most part, I was true to the original but I seriously wanted it to be a bit more carrot cakeish but in quick bread form. That way if I wanted six slices for breakfast, I could honestly say that 1) I was NOT eating cake for breakfast and 2) it has carrots in it so it’s good for me. Right? So I added more spice to it, a TOUCH more oil (and I do mean just a little; just enough to increase the moistness w/out compromising the stability of the bread), raisins and the crowning touch of a cream cheese glaze.

This is good. Really good. I may or may not have eaten three slices already and scraped all the excess glaze out of the bowl with my tongue finger.

Don’t judge me.

Tender moist cake bread, stuffed full of raisins and sweet spices and a tangy sweet and creamy cream cheese glaze. And oh yeah, those orange things. What are they called again? Oh yeah… carrots.

Go buy some orange things and some cream cheese.

And you’re welcome. Continue reading →

“Can I Have Another Bigit Momma?”

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With six kids, I have heard a lot of mispronounced words in my day. For a woman who tends to be a grammar and vocabulary Nazi (*waits for someone to go through all my posts looking for all the errors…of which I’m sure there will be many hehe), I always found it strangely cute. I guess it comes down to that “when our kids do it, it’s cute even if other people aren’t so amused” sort of thing. I still say that the ability to find our children adorable is what keeps us from being like other species and eating our young. That and baby smell. Is there anything better than the smell of a babies head? Erhmmm… a clean baby. Not a baby that needs a diaper change or has old milk smell 😛

When Jordan and Zach (now 14 and 17) were little, they loved canned ravioli but called them “roly polys”. Hey! I had five kids then… convenience foods kept me sane! For the longest time, I never corrected them when they would ask me to make them a can of roly polys. Then when they hit puberty, I figured it could have long term effects on their social lives if I didn’t tell them the correct pronunciation so I reluctantly told them the correct way to say the word . 😛

Now Joshie, being three, is the one with the way of pronouncing things that makes me giggle.  Yes, I’m easily amused. What can I say? So when I made these biscuits the other night, how could I refuse his cute little face when eh asked me for another “bigit”? Not to mention, getting the boy to eat anything other than apples and raisins is a feat in itself, so I wasn’t going to argue. But seriously, they ARE good bigits.. I mean biscuits. Only I could manage to find a recipe for a simple southern treat that has been sullied by adding demon meat 😀 But really; like they say, everything is better with bacon. Well, except for chocolate. I can’t get behind that trend. *shudders*

These are easy as can be. And with bacon, cheddar cheese and cracked black pepper, they are yummy too! The first time I made these, the cheese on top got a bit too browned  so I suggest adding the cheese to the top when they are almost done. So I have more baking right now so that I have prettier ones to show you. The sacrifices I make for all of you. This came from a BHG magazine and other than adding more bacon and cheese it’s the original recipe. The real recipe called for just a stingy 4 slices of bacon and 1/4 cup of cheese and the cheese was just for on top. What WERE they thinking!? Aren’t that laws against the under use of bacon and cheese? I didn’t change much. Ok, so I added a few green onions… and the extra cheese…and more bacon. Sigh. Let me rephrase. Once upon a time, this began its life in a BHG magazine.

Bacon, Cheddar & Cracked Pepper Biscuits

  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
  • 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup cold butter
  • 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
  • 12 ounces bacon, cooked until crisp and crumbled (hold back two slices for crumbling on top of biscuits)
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (and about another 1/3 cup for sprinkling on top)
  • 2 green onions, sliced thin
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, pepper, cheese, green onions and cream of tartar.
  3. Using a pastry blender, cut in the cold butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
  4. Make a well in the center and pour in the buttermilk all at once.
  5. Stir with a fork just until mixture is thoroughly moistened.
  6. Dump onto a lightly floured board and knead until the dough is barely smooth. This isn’t a yeast dough; don’t over knead it.
  7. Pat it into a circle (doesn’t have to be perfect) of about 1/4 thick. Use a floured biscuit cutter to cut out rounds. Place them on a very lightly greased (cooking spray is fine) baking sheet. almost touching.
  8. Gently reroll scraps and do the same with them.
  9. Bake at 450 for 10 to 14 minutes or until golden brown. If sprinkling cheese and bacon on the tops, wait until they are almost done; sprinkle bacon and cheese on them, then finish cooking. Better yet, cook them, turn off the oven, sprinkle the cheese on them and put them back in and let the residual heat do the melting

 

Shhh… You Don’t See The Word Pumpkin In This Post

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Please tell me that, like me, you don’t feel that pumpkin recipes should only be posted in the 2 weeks preceding Halloween and only up until Thanksgiving and then they should be put away until the next year? Because if you don’t feel the same, there is a good chance that I will cry uncontrollably and will have no choice but to rethink our relationship.

I DO use pumpkin more when Autumn first arrives but then I seem to get into the pumpkin groove and don’t stop using it until…well, I just don’t stop using it. It’s a year round thing for me. I kinda like pumpkin.

So I figured that my Pumpkin Butterscotch Scones and my
Pumpkin Cranberry Bread needed company here in the blog.

Now normally when I make pumpkin bread, I make the pumpkin cranberry one. It is my favorite quick bread; very moist and flavorful. But for the longest time, I have had a printed out recipe for pumpkin bread that was just plain pumpkin bread. Literally had this for years and have never tried it. So I figured it was time. This comes from food.com and while I don’t think it will take the place in my heart stomach filled by many slices of pumpkin cranberry bread, it was very good for a simple quick bread. It was moist and had good flavor albeit a milder one than I usually make. When I make it again, and I will, I will use more spices in it (I already doubled it so that’s saying something). I changed it a bit from the original but not much. So here you go. If you like pumpkin bread and like making things that twist up old standbys a little, try this one. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. I made this in 9 inch loaf pans but I think 8 would be better because the loaves were a little thin for my preferences. But when you make this, if you use 8 inch pans, you will probably have to cover it with foil near the end to prevent over browning since the cook time will be longer.

Secret Ingredient Pumpkin Bread

  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 (4 serving size) package of instant gingerbread pudding mix (this is seasonal from Jello. I found it at Super Wal Mart. Also, the original called for butterscotch)
  • 1 (4 serving size) package of instant cheesecake flavored pudding mix (the original called for lemon but somehow lemon & pumpkin didn’t sound right to me)
  • 5 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
  • 2 cups pumpkin puree (I used canned)
  • 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour (or just use cooking spray) 2 8 or 9 inch loaf pans.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (including the pudding mixes) .
  3. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs well (BAD EGGS BAD EGGS! Erhmmm… sorry.)
  4. Add the rest of the ingredients to the eggs and mix well.
  5. Pour the egg mixture into the flour and stir until just combined.
  6. Pour batter into greased pans.
  7. Bake at 350 for about 70 minutes (longer if using 8 inch pans) or until wooden skewer inserted in middle comes out clean or with crumbs on it, no loose batter. Cover with foil if it starts to brown too much.
  8. Let cool in pan for about 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.