Yes, this is the weekend we set our clocks one hour forward. It is a sure sign Spring is coming! Well, unless you look outside and see the snow or glance at your outdoor thermometer. Then you might have some doubts. However, let’s remain ever hopeful that we will get there.
I haven’t posted over 6 weeks and have amassed some gems to pass along to you. Hopefully some will be of use or inspire you to take things in your own direction.
In January we celebrated 4 birthdays at once. My daughter, Melanie, has a birthday on the third. My twin sons’ birthday is the 25 and my dear friend Linda celebrates on the 26th. We all got together on the 26th and each person had their own special treat.
Linda always chooses Rice Krispie treats and I think we all know how to make them. Melanie chooses angel food cakes. Yes, plural. I made 2 (but she wanted 3 so she would have plenty of leftovers). I use a mix for the cakes but she likes her Grandma’s cooked icing to top them. I always have trouble with the icing. It is either lumpy or too runny or something. It always tastes good but I find it hard to get the texture right.
Josh chose a baked New York style cheese cake and I tried a new recipe this year that I was very happy with. Jacob chose an oreo pie and I was pleased with that as well. I will share both recipes with you and the cooked icing recipe that I have pretty much gotten the way I want it to be.
I also make a meatloaf with an Italian flair for dinner one evening and that was a crowd pleaser that I will definitely make again. It is always fun to try something new and have it work out.
I will admit though to some failures. Yesterday I had some extra apples I needed to use up so I looked up a recipe for Apple Pan Dowdy and gave it a whirl. AWFUL! I am not sure what I did wrong. You make a syrup to pour over the apples and biscuit dough. It has 1 teaspoon of white vinegar in it. I am not sure what I did wrong but all I could taste was that vinegar when I tried the dessert. It looked beautiful but…………………………. All I can figure out is that I may not have cooked the syrup long entough to kind of cook out the vinegar. I’m not sure but maybe someday I will try it again to see if I will have a better result.
Recipes
Oreo Pie
(Kittencalrecipezazz)
- (15 ounce) bag Oreo cookies, crushed, divided
- 1⁄2cup butter, melted
- 1(8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1(12 ounce) container Cool Whip, frozen topping thawed
- 1(6 ounce) package chocolate fudge instant pudding mix(lemon flavor is also good)
- 2 1⁄4cups half-and-half cream (or use whole milk)
- Crush Oreo cookies; set 1/4 cup aside for topping.
- Mix the remaining crushed cookies with the melted butter.
- Press into the bottom of a greased 13 x 9-in baking pan.
- In a bowl, beat the cream cheese with the confectioners sugar on medium speed.
- Fold in half of the Cool Whip topping.
- Spread over cookie crumb layer.
- Refrigerate 1/2 hour.
- In the meantime, combine milk with instant pudding mix; beat well, until smooth.
- Pour over chilled mixture in the pan.
- Refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Spread remainder of Cool Whip topping on top of pudding layer.
- Sprinkle with remaining reserved cookie crumbs.
- Store cake in the refrigerator, covered tightly.
I used a pre-made cookie crust to save time since I was making 4 different desserts for the party. Since this is enough for a 13 x 9 pan it made a sky high pie which was great!
Cheesecake
(from Life, Love and Sugar)
CRUST:
- 1 1/4 cups nilla wafers
- 5 tbsp butter
- 5 tbsp sugar
FILLING:
- 3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 tbsp all purpose flour
- 1 cup sour cream
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
CRUST:
1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.2. In a small bowl, combine crust ingredients and mix well. Remove any large pieces of nilla wafer. They will make it hard to press crust into pan.3. Press mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan.4. Bake crust for 10 minutes then remove and set aside.
FILLING:
1. Reduce oven to 300 degrees.2. In a large bowl, blend the cream cheese, sugar and flour with an electric mixer (Use low speed to keep less air from getting into the batter, which can cause cracks).3. Add the sour cream, eggs and vanilla extract. Beat until well combined.4. Pour the filling into the pan with the crust. Drop onto the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.5. Bake for 1 hour. Turn off heat and leave in oven with door closed for 30 minutes or until set.6. Remove from oven and chill.
I couldn’t have asked for a better cheesecake. It turned out perfectly! This is definitely in the dessert rotation for my celebrations!
Cooked Icing(The Pioneer Woman)
1 cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup butter (at room temperature) 1 cup granulated sugar (not powdered)
- In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. It took me around 5 minutes. Be careful not to burn it. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. You can place the saucepan over ice in the sink for about 10 minutes or so until the mixture cools if you are in a hurry. Stir in vanilla. This mixture must be completely cooled in order for the frosting to work.
- While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Then add the cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat until it all combines and resembles whipped cream. Make sure you scrape down the sides every so often so that it all gets incorporated and whipped. If it’s not looking like whipped cream, keep on whipping. This frosting is great for piping. Best served the same day.
Italian Meatloaf
Rather than a strict recipe this was an adaptation of an ordinary meatloaf where you use ground beef, eggs, bread or cracker crumbs, seasonings and a catsup or tomato based topping.
For this version I used the usual ground beef and eggs but switched the bread crumbs to Italian seasoned crumbs and used mozzarella cheese as well. In addition to the salt and pepper that I would normally used I added Italian seasoning. Finally, for the topping I used marinara and sprinkled mozzarella on top as well.
Since I made this I was thinking that you could do a Mexican take on a meatloaf too using a taco blend of cheeses and use a food processor to get Doritos or tortilla chips to the right consistency for use instead of bread crumbs. The topping could be a salsa type with more of the cheese. This is next up for me!
Recent Projects
My cousin, Linda, and I have been getting together to do some crafting. In addition to it being a lot of fun to make something with someone you enjoy and to visit (ok and laugh) we also end up with some nice creations. Our Winter creation was a styling snowman.
We needed two foam wreath forms. We used a 8 inch and a 12 inch. In addition we had white ribbon, ribbon of another color to create the stripes on your snowman, black felt, a liter pop bottle, posterboard, bling for your hat, an item of your choice to use as a scarf ( I used burlap ribbon) and fishing line.
The first step is to completely cover the wreath forms with the white ribbon. We used 3 rolls of ribbon that we bought from the discount bin at Joann Fabrics. Once the forms are covered you create the stripes on the snowman with the second color of ribbon. We used hot glue to secure the ribbon sporadically so that we didn’t have an untangling! Once both wreath forms were done we attached the two using clear fishing line.
Next it was time to create the hat. We used a one liter soda bottle that we cut the top and bottom off of. Using the hot glue we covered it with the black felt. Using a piece of posterboard we cut a circle large enough to fit over the end of the plastic bottle and then covered it with black felt as well. To complete the hat you just need to add your bling. We then hot glued the hat to the smaller wreath at a jaunty angle. He is a dapper little guy!
Using the fishing line we made a loop to hang our snowman and then finally created a scarf which we tied between the two wreath forms. This covered the fishing line which holds the two together.
Picture Frame Lantern
You will need 4 frames in the size of your choice. I bought 5″ x 7″ frames from Dollar Tree where everything really is $1. Hot glue is required as well.
I took the backs off the frames and broke of the little tabs that keep the backs anchored. I then used the hot glue gun to glue the four frames together forming a square. Viola!
I bought a mirror candle tray at Walmart for $2.97 to sit the lantern on which is not pictured with the lantern. All together the project cost $6.97 plus tax.
This and That
I have 3 vintage menus from local restaurants that have memories for me. These were found at household sales. I have been trying to figure out how and where to display them. I finally decided to put them on clipboards and hang them in my stairway. I feel like it worked out well.
Tip
This tip comes courtesy of a longtime friend, Carrie. If you want to get the wrinkles out of an item of clothing you can just pop it in the dryer with a couple of ice cubes and you have unwrinkled clothing. I have always used a damp washcloth to un-wrinkle clothing but I like the ice cube method. Mind blown!
I will see you next month. I already have a few ideas for my next post! Set your clocks ahead and enjoy the longer daylight hours!
