64 posts tagged “food”
We spent a quite Christmas at home. We slept in and even got to wake Sienna up. She was so excited about opening presents. The joy was contagious and made for a magical morning for all of us. We were overjoyed to have Eli here as well. If you read my blog you know that he was due Christmas day and we had hoped and prayed that he would be here early so we could enjoy him on Christmas day.
After a lovely morning spent as a family, my mom and Daniel's parents came over. We all cooked and ate and praised the Lord for the gift of His son. We had so much food, you would have thought we were cooking for twelve people not six. Rissa made ham, rolls, and a apple pie. I made appetizers, mashed potatoes and roasted veggies. And my mom made her famous baked mac and cheese. Which by the way is my most favorite thing to eat! We spent the rest of the evening opening presents and playing games. It was nice to not have to go any where or stress out about Christmas. Thank you to both of our parents for understanding that we wanted to stay home, and for, making Christmas special for Sienna! I love my family and today was just what i wanted.
This afternoon we headed over to Daniel's parents house to celebrate Thanksgiving. We fit eighteen people in the house and enjoyed a wonderful day of food, family, games and laughter. Rissa (Daniel's mom) out did herself with the food, she made one of the juiciest turkeys i've ever had, along with her famous rolls and tons of sides. Everyone pitched in by bringing a side dish or dessert. I made green bean casserole from scratch, it turned out good, but i think i need to work on the recipe some more. Maybe it will be blog worthy at Christmas time.
After eating ourselves into a food coma, we played cards all evening. It was a wonderfully relaxing Thanksgiving with family. I hope you had a great day as well.
Just in time for Thanksgiving here is a perfectly yummy dessert that will impress your friends and family. Try it and let me know what you think of this little twist on a traditional apple pie.
Sienna and I were in a baking mood again, you know what that means,
right? Reading cook books and coming up with our own recipes. Sienna
loved helping me. As i made the pie dough I made sure to make extra
so she could play with some. She loved it and spent hours playing with
her special "real" dough. Too Cute. The pie is delicious and was pretty
easy to make. I was able to bring it over to my in laws who loved it as
well. So all around a keeper of a recipe.
Crust
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cold butter
1 tsp. salt
2 to 3 tsp. ice water
(or buy a pie crust, which ever works for you)
Filling
6c. sliced, peeled Granny Smith apples (about 6 apples)
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. vanilla
Crumble Topping
1/3 c. butter
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 c. flour
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make pie dough in food processor. Combine flour, salt and butter until butter is the size of peas. Then slowly at ice water, until the dough makes a ball. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. In large bowl, combine sugar and flour. Mix together with apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Roll out pie dough and place in pie pan. Trim edges and crimp. Take left over dough and put back in food processor and add one tablespoon of flour and mix. You should have small crumbs, sprinkle crumbs on the bottom of pie crust, do NOT press them into the crust. This will help keep your crust from getting soggy. I saw this on food network and it really works.
layer in apple mixture into pie. I think you get a much better result when you layer the apples in the pie, you get less air pockets and more apples. It might take you an extra minute put it really does make a difference. Make French Crumb Topping by mixing 1/3 cup butter and sugars together. Cut in 3/4 cup flour. Sprinkle topping over apples in pie plate. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until topping is golden and apples are tender.
Let cool for at least an hour. Serve warm with ice cream or whip topping.
They were super fun to make and my three year old daughter could help. Plus you don't need a lot of ingredients. And they make your house smell like cinnamon rolls! Just what you need to make your house smell like the holiday's.
Cinnamon Pull Apart Muffins
2 tubes of refrigerated biscuit dough
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 stick of butter (melted)
Easy Vanilla Glaze
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
a splash of milk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl. Melt butter. Cut biscuits into fourths. Dip in melted butter and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture. Place 6 to 7 pieces of dough in each section of a greased muffin pan (not cupcake liners). Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes then carefully remove and place in cupcake liners on a cooling rack. While muffins cool make glaze, drizzle glaze over the top while muffins are still warm. Now eat share and enjoy!
I sent three muffins wrapped up all cute to a friend of mine with a package of tea. She loved them, and was a prefect fall treat. So try them and give them to your friends. Let me know how they turn out or if you come up with a twist on this simple recipe.
Monkey Munch Recipe:
Ingredients
- 9 cups Chex cereal (any kind)
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted (6oz.)
- 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter, melted
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 1-2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- Measure cereal in large bowl.
- Set aside.
- Microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter for 1 minute on high.
- Stir.
- Cook for 30 seconds longer or until smooth.
- Add vanilla.
- Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until coated.
- Pour mixture into large Ziploc bag or paper bag and add powdered sugar.
- Shake until well coated.
- Spread on waxed paper to cool.
- Store in Ziploc bags or large sealed bowl.
- Recipe Note: It helps to add cereal mixture a little at a time if you only have small bags.
Tonight the whole Milner clan went to Santa Monica Pier to celebrate Rissa's and I's Birthday's. I am blessed to share my birthday with my mother in law. So it was wonderful getting to celebrate together. We enjoyed a delicious dinner on the Pier and enjoyed watching the ocean while we ate. After dinner we walked the Pier and enjoyed spending time together as a family. Happy Birthday Mom! I hope you had a great evening.
I love cooking. There is just something about spending time with your family in the kitchen, cooking together, talking and then creating something really tasty. I didn't have the "typical" family growing up and I don't have lots of memories like this. So as an adult and a parent I want to make memories with my family through food.
My husbands favorite meal is steak. And over the years it has gotten kind of boring and a time consuming job. So i have been working on a recipe that tastes great and doesn't take a long time. So here it is, it's so simple the hardest part is letting it marinade for an hour. And really i think we can all do that! Anyone can do this and look like a amazing chef. You need to try it, i have been twicking it for a few months and every single time the meat comes out perfect! So if you are afraid to cook large pieces of steak you need to try out this cooking method, it works and it's easy!
Garlic Rubbed Tri Tip
1 Tri Tip (at least one pound)
5 gloves of garlic
3 table spoons salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1 tablespoon of dry oregano (or any other herb you like)
3 tablespoons olive oil
Put all ingredients in a food processor or mortar pestle. Blend until combined and has become a paste. Spread paste all over meat and let sit out at room temperature for one hour.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Scrape as much of the garlic paste off the meat as possible so it does not burn in the oven. Heat
a large oven-safe skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium-high heat.
Pour in 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and sear the beef until browned
on both sides, 4 to 5 minutes total. Transfer the skillet to the oven
and cook the roast for about 35 minutes for medium and up to 45 minutes
for medium-well. Remove the roast from the oven, cover with foil, and set aside to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.
This recipe is so versicle, tonight i cooked it with tri colored peppers. However i have cooked it with potato's and carrots and also with cherry tomato's and pearl onions. Whatever veggies you put with the meat will come out amazing! So try your own take on it and let me know how it turns out.
I love baking, however I have never made holiday breads before. So this fall I have set out to try serveral differnt flavors and see which one my family likes best. Then I want to work on that recipe to prefect it in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas to give away as gifts. Well, if you have been reading my blog over the past two day's I have made pineapple bread and apple bread, well today i made pumpkin bread. After all the breads were made i asked my mom, husband and daughter to taste them and pick their favorite. And the winner is PUMPKIN SPICE BREAD! It was my favorite too. Not too sweet or over spiced and just right for the holiday time. Pineapple was my husband and daughters second favorite, however i think i just really liked the maple glaze, hehe!
So here you go the recipe for my families favorite Autumn Spice Bread. Make it and enjoy it with love. Over the next few weeks or so i will be working on the recipe and trying some differnt things with it, so you may see serveral other versions of this bread. However this first one is just amazing on it's own. Happy Baking!
Pumpkin Spice Bread with Crumble Topping
3 c. sugar
1 c. oil
2/3 c. water
4 eggs
16 oz. (2 c.) pumpkin
3 1/2 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 c. chopped nuts
2 tbsp. vanilla
Crumble Topping
1/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 c. chopped nuts
4 tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tbsp. butter, softened
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour bottoms only of 2 (9"x5") or 3 (8"x4") loaf pans. In large bowl combine sugar, oil, water, eggs and pumpkin. Beat 1 minute at low speed. Add 3 1/2 cups flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Blend at low speed until moistened. Beat 1 minute at medium speed. Stir in nuts and raisins. Pour into prepared pans.
In small bowl combine all topping ingredients until crumbly; sprinkle over batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 to 75 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pans.
I have been in a baking mood the past two days and my house smells GREAT! Today I am baking a yummy apple bread and a pumpkin bread. Right now the pumpkin bread is in the oven, so look for another post later. But my Carmel Apple Streusel Bread looks and smells great. Now i live in California and it's still warm here, but i think this bread will be perfect on a cold day with a nice hot cup of tea. Please try it and enjoy! Baking is so much fun and so heart warming. My three year old daughter helped me and it made for a wonderful morning spent together. I do think i used every bowl, measure cup and spoon in the kitchen. hehe! What's a few dishes when you are having fun? As a mom it's these moments i hope my children remember, fun times spent in the kitchen, the house smelling so good and a mom that loves them so much. So take sometime this fall and winter and make a mess with your kids! It's so much fun, plus you end up with some yummy breads!
Carmel Apple Streusel Bread
2 cups flour
2tep. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped toasted walnuts
Caramelized Apple
(cook all ingredient on the stove for about 5 mintes. Set aside and let cool)
3 granny smith apples (peeled and chopped)
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of salt
Streusel Topping
(Combine all ingredients until it becomes a coarse crumble. Set aside)
2 tablespoons cold butter
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Vanilla Glaze
(combine until smooth and set aside.)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
4 tablespoons of milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare camel apples, streusel topping and glaze and set aside for later. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; set aside. In another bowl, cream together butter and both brown and white sugar. Beat in sour cream, eggs and vanilla until blended. Fold in flour mixture until moist. Don't over mix! Then stir in caramelized apples and nuts, just until combined. Pour into a loaf pan; smouth top. Sprinkle with streusel topping. Bake 50-60 minutes. Let stand in pan for 10 minutes. Remove bread from pan and place on a cooling rack, while the bread is still warm, not hot, drizzle with Vanilla Glaze. And ENJOY!
I love fall and with it comes cool days and the need to fill the house with warm smells. This weekend we are going to be visiting family and I want to bring them a basket full of yummy fall baked goods. Today I make Pineapple Spice Bread. I have been wanting to make one for a while, but haven't found a recipe that i like. So i got a basic recipe and added to it. I haven't tasted it yet, but the house smells amazing! So if it tastes half as good as it smell it should be delicious. So try it on one of these cool fall days, and let me know what you think. I am hoping to make a pumpkin spice bread and a apple strudel bread tomorrow. I will let you know how they turn out as well! Happy Baking! :)
Pineapple Spice Bread with Maple Glaze
2 cups flour - sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
2 teaspoons maple extract
2 eggs
1 can crushed pineapple in juice - 8 ounces
In a large bowl, sift together first 6 ingredients. Stir in sugar, set aside. In a small bowl, mix butter, maple extract and eggs until well blended. Stir in un-drained pineapple. add to dry ingredients; stir just until moistened. Pour batter into greased loaf pan.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 55 to 60 minutes or until loaf is golden brown and a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove and cool on rack.
Maple Glaze
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons maple extract
3 tablespoons milk
Combine ingredients until smooth and think, if it's still not think add more sugar if it's too think add more milk. Then pour over top of cooled loaf.
