Growing Up is Hard...

On a parent. Tall Child turned the big One-Six today. I can say, it certainly doesn't seem like it's been sixteen years. Happy Birthday honey! I'm so proud of the woman you are growing up to be.

She had a B-day bash with her friends on the weekend, so this evening was just a quiet dinner for her, Megz and myself. T.C chose the menu, it consisted of lemon oregano chicken breasts, steamed baby carrots and rice.

T.C's B-Day Dinner

For dessert, there were peanut butter swirl brownies. As we didn't have enough baker's chocolate squares, I used the Fry's cocoa recipe and topped them with the p.b. & chocolate mixture. I did cheat and melt the butter in the microwave as opposed to on the stove top.

Brownie Batter

Delicious Cinnamony Goodness

Today's project was going to be Monkey Bread, but as I couldn't really find a recipe that suited me, I instead made Cinnamon Rolls.

In the past, I have tried two different cinnamon roll recipes. Both were good but neither was fabulous, so I decided to try another and see if it was more of what I was looking for. I Think I may have found the one. As usual, I did tweak the recipe just a little. They were oh so soft and yummy. I will be using this recipe more often and I look forward to playing around with different fillings. The tweaks I made are in green.

Dough

4-1/4 cups all-purpose flour(I only used 3 3/4 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
1 envelope FLEISCHMANN'S RapidRise Yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 TBSP cream
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine

Cinnamon Filling (recipe follows)

Directions
In a large bowl, combine 1-1/3 cups flour, sugar, undissolved yeast, and salt. Heat water, cream and butter until very warm (120o to 130oF). Gradually add to flour mixture. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Add eggs and 1 cup flour; beat 2 minutes at high speed. Stir in remaining flour to make a stiff batter. Cover tightly with plastic wrap; refrigerate 2 to 24 hours. I didn't refrigerate, I just let the dough rise in a warm spot til doubled then rolled it out.

Remove dough from refrigerator; roll to 20 x 10-inch rectangle. Brush with melted butter; sprinkle with Cinnamon Filling. Beginning from long side, roll up tightly as for jelly roll. Pinch seam and ends to seal; cut into 18 pieces. Arrange rolls, cut sides up, on greased large baking sheet to form a heart.* Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Bake at 375o F for 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from sheet; cool on wire rack.

Cinnamon Filling: In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup sugar(1/3 cup white sugar, 2 TBSP brown sugar) and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon. Stir to blend.

The recipe also calls for an icing sugar glaze, I instead made a cream cheese frosting.

Adapted from www.breadworld.com



This photo was taken before the second rising and subsequent baking. By the time they were baked all the good light was pretty much gone. Even unbaked, you can see all the sugary, cinnamon, buttery yumminess.

Pseudo Elegante Gourmet

Can Pillsbury Crescents ever be elegant, or gourmet? Probably not, but for me most of elegant is in the presentation, and I'm not really a gourmet kinda girl anyway.

These babies were quick, easy and very tasty. I whipped them up this morning as a gift for Patrick, one of my fave supervisors at work who has decided that it is time for him to move on. I will miss him and decided that even though my shift for today had been cancelled, I would take these in when I said my goodbyes. Patrick always appreciated the goodies I brought to work.


I did change up the recipe a little, since I didn't have the exact combo of ingredients. I swapped the pepperoni for salami, and switched up sharp cheddar for the mozzarella. I also omitted both the egg yolk in the cheese mixture and the egg white brush on top. I did sprinkle them with grated Parmesan before popping them into then oven. I'm sure these would work with endless combinations of ingredients.

Still Lovin' It.

Last evening I once again used the Berry Bundt Cake recipe. This is the third time I've used it, and I am loving it more and more. The first time I made it with strawberries as the recipe calls for. The second time the batter was poured into the mini muffin pan with blue berries as the fruit. This time I used blueberries, and my trusty bundt pan. Each time, I have had tremendous success with it. This time I did have to make a couple of modifications due to me not being aware we were out of a couple of items, namely milk and vanilla. I will list the recipe, with my changes in blue, below the photo.

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3 cups plus 1 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk/buttermilk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla/spiced rum
1 1/2 cups sliced fresh strawberries/1 1/4 pints fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and lightly flour a 12-cup bundt pan.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and granulated sugar together with an electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. Add the vanilla extract(or spiced rum).

In another bowl, sift together the 3 cups of the flour, the baking powder, and salt. Gradually add this to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk/buttermilk. Toss the berries with the remaining 1 tablespoon flour, and fold them into the batter.

Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake in the center of the oven until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out just clean, 1 1/4 hours. I found it baked up a little more quickly, 55 minutes.

Let the cake cool in the pan over a cooling rack for about 10 minutes. Invert the cake into the cooling rack and let it completely.

Enjoy!

No matter what berries you use or if you make some of the changes I did, this cake is awesome. It is wonderful served with a little whipped cream, a scoop of vanilla ice cream or just a sprinkle of icing sugar and a few fresh berries.

Appetizer & Dessert

Last evening, Tall Child and I tried out a recipe new to us, and a slight variation of one that I have tried in the past.

The new recipe was Pioneer Woman's Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies. They were awesome, and really, really easy. We will definitely be making them again. We added a little grated cheddar before wrapping them up in the bacon. Next time I think we might try adding some herbs to the cream cheese. Or topping them with various grated cheeses.

The recipe variation was of Berry Bundt Cake. I made it a while back and have been dying to try it again with different berries. This time we used blueberries, and instead of making in it a bundt pan, we used the mini muffin pan. They were incredible. Tasty, sweet, little morsels of cake, stuffed with yummy blueberries. I know this recipe will be getting a lot of use in the future and will be the subject of experimentation and of course, taste testing.

No photos this time, everything went way to fast, and I missed the opportunity.

Pansies & Pretzels

First, a photo of a lovely little pansy, taken yesterday.


Tonight after dinner, Tall Child and I made soft pretzels. We used the recipe for the Bretzel Rolls. They probably wouldn't win any food beauty contests, but they are dang tasty. With practice, I'm sure we will get better with the pretzel shaping skills.

Rest, Relaxation & Rolls

Today being my day off, I took advantage of what will probably be the last Monday I will have to myself until the next school year begins. I lounged in my comfy clothes, planted a couple of plants I had picked up on Saturday, tried out a recipe for Dinner Rolls that I found through Food Gawker, and baked and iced a batch of Pink Lemonade Minis for an event at Megz school.

All in all, today was quiet and relaxing. The cupcakes turned out adorable. The dinner rolls were tasty, but I am still on the look out for a recipe more to my liking. No photos, I forgot to take them earlier, and now the light just won't very flattering ... nothing like orange tinted dinner rolls. I did take a few photos of a few plants, but they have yet to be uploaded. My time online this evening has been limited by the fact that I share it with two teen girls, one of them who happens to be an Anime loving Tall Child.

Home, Hearth & Muffins

My modern hearth, which due to the lack of a functional fireplace, is actually the stove in my kitchen. My dream kitchen does involve an Aga, but so far, that is a long way off. For now, I rely on my trusty stove, a much beloved Christmas gift from my Mother. Today my hearth was put through it's paces.

This morning while browsing Tastespotting I fell victim to a photo from The Teacher Learns to Cook, of some wonderfully yummy looking Bretzel Rolls. Being that I am me, and that today is my day off, I just had to make some up. I somehow managed to forget the milk in the recipe. However they still turned out awesome, everyone loves them. I will definitely be making them again. I am even thinking of trying them bite-sized next time. Who knows, I may even make the actual soft pretzels.



After the Bretzels came a batch of Mini Pink Lemonade Cupcakes. Then, while the chili simmered, I played with my corn muffin recipe and wound up with Cheesy Bacon Corn Muffins. They were also very tasty and went perfectly with the chili.



And my hearth isn't done for the day yet. Tall Child has requested Apple 'n Cheddar Muffins for this week's grab and go breakfasts. Who knows, there may even be a few peanut butter cookies before the night is through.

P is for Progress

and for Purl, Pattern, Panification, and Pirates. All of which were involved in my nice, but sadly nap deficient, Saturday.

Progress was made on the baby hoodie, which did involve purling and a pattern, which I am, of course, modifying a teensy bit.


Panification produced some very tasty buns, from a variation of an Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day recipe. I will definitely be using the buttermilk dough again.


Pirates of the Caribbean III was the movie I watched while I waited for the Marble Bundt cake to come out of the oven. It doesn't begin with 'P', but it does have rum in it, and rum goes with Pirates so I am including it in my list of progresses. The recipe turned out okay, not great, so I will continue to be on the look-out a recipe, more to my liking, to add to my collection.

Cupcake Porn

Nothing to say today, instead I will share this weekend's cupcakes. Carrot with cream cheese buttercream. I used this recipe for the cupcakes and made the frosting up as I went along. This photo was me being inspired, or my attempt at artsy, whichever. It is also our current desktop.


Cupcakes at Sunset

Identitiy Crisis

I very often think this blog should probably be titled "Moonlit Kitchen", since it seems to have way more food related entries than knitting ones. However, being the Gemini that I am, I would have great difficulty blogging about just one thing. Who knows, if it were Moonlit Kitchen, most of the posts would probably be about knitting, or sewing, or reading, or one of my many other loves. On that note, today I will share the products of my Moonlit Kitchen, which does actually have a lovely view of the moon this time of year.

Dual Focaccia Pizza

This is the pizza before going into the oven. I couldn't make up my mind what kind of pizza I wanted, so I went dual. I used a rosemary & onion focaccia. topped one half with asiago artichoke dip, rotisserie chicken, sliced capicolla, boconoccini and parmesan. I topped the other half with chipotle bbq sauce, rotisserie chicken, mushrooms and shredded monterey jack cheese. Both sides were very tasty.

Since making the Mojito cupcakes earlier in the week, I have been dying to make some chocolate cupcakes to go with the leftover mint buttercream. Today was that day. There were both mini cupcakes and regular sized cupcakes, and when smothered in the mint buttercream they were even more delicious. It was like eating a moist fluffy Andes mint. Come to think of it, Andes mints are sort of like a teeny, tiny, mint version of Nanaimo bars.

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes



Chocolate Cake Recipe

1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare pans, either grease and flour or line with parchment or cupcake papers. Sift together first five ingredients in large-ish bowl. Mix buttermilk, eggs, oil and vanilla in large measuring cup. Pour into dry mixture, mix well. Add one cup boiling water, stir just 'til combined. Pour into pans and bake.

30-35 minutes for cakes
12 minutes for mini cupcakes
18 minutes for regular cupcakes

This recipe is extremely versatile. Today I used it for cupcakes, 24 minis & 12 regular. In the past, I have used it for both 2, 8 inch round cakes, or one 9 x 13 inch cake.

On the note of mine and my blog's apparent identity crisis. The first two times I tried to type Moonlit Kitchen, I wound up typing Moonlit Knitchen. Maybe my Freudian slip is trying to tell me something.

Lime & Lime Again

In the beginning, there was pie.

After a couple of viewings of Waitress over the weekend I now have pie recipes dancing in my head and my baking demon needed to be fed, so today there was a modification of a lime meringue pie recipe I found online. I used a purchased crust, due to not having any graham crumbs. I reduced the sugar in the filling by a 1/2 cup and added about a tablespoon of toasted coconut. Oh, and I skipped the meringue and went for whipped cream with a sprinkle of lime zest. I thought it was very tasty, and the kids must have agreed as there is only half a pie left. Next time I'll try more lime juice, or maybe key limes, to bump up the limeyness. I think it will be a perfect summer dessert. Oooh, it would also make really awesome tarts. The colour is a little off, but that's probably because I left out the food colouring.


Lime Pie Filling, my adaptation:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup cornstarch
3 egg yolks
2 tsp, butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 tsp lime zest

Combine sugar, cornstarch, water and lime juice in a medium saucepan, whisk until smooth. Stir in yolks and butter until well combined, gradually add boiling water. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce and simmer for 1 minute, remove from heat. Add zest and pour filling into crust. Bake 15 minutes @ 350 F. Chill and serve topped with whipped cream.


Today also brought cupcake recipe experimentation. Of course, I had to use up the egg whites left over from the pie, so Pink Lemonade Cupcakes, were the logical choice. Being that I am not always logical, I instead went with Mojito Cupcakes, a variation I dreamed up that I have been dying to try. I substituted frozen limeade concentrate for the pink lemonade concentrate, added rum extract to the batter and topped them off with a mint butter cream frosting and lime zest. My daughters quite liked them and I will be taking a few off to work tomorrow for my guinea pigs friends.

My next adventure in lime will probably be this cupcake.

(Note: I have no idea what is going on with the text spacing, maybe it's on my end. Hopefully it's just some temporary blogger glitch.)

Sneak Peek

Mini Pink Lemonade Cupcakes for Friday at work. I think I may do a little experimenting with this recipe on the weekend.


Made a stop at Winners again today, thanks to the kindness of my friend Kim, who drove us. I bought a broom I had seen on my last visit. I love it, my twelve year old daughter hates it. She was actually horrified in the store that I was indeed buying it.


On a side note, Em, aka: Tall Child, informed me today that her friends have named her president of PETMA. "People for the Ethical Treatment of Marshmallow Animals." Apparently after being appointed, she celebrated by eating a pink Peep bunny. The VP celebrated by putting a Peep in the microwave. I'm so proud that my crazy gene will not end with me, and has obviously been passed to my offspring.

Btw, Em loved the broom.

Never Know What a Day Will Bring

Today turned out to be a little less relaxing than I had originally intended, but at least the day didn't race by at warp speed. The majority of the day was spent with a friend who was feeling a little under the weather. For me, it's always worse to see those I care about not feeling well, then to not feel well myself. After coming home, I frogged and re-cast on the Feathers & Fan dishcloth, due to a mistake I had made. Then I baked up a yummy B-Day treat for a co-worker friend. Here's a peek.


Lemon bars. Yeah, the picture is not the greatest, but they are very tasty. Now I am off to watch Transformers 'til I drift off to dreamland.

By-Products of Insomnia

Usual suggestions to combat insomnia; warm milk, count sheep, a warm bath. Those don't work for me. What do I do for insomnia? I usually bake, or I knit. Tonight, I did both. I baked cookies, Toffee Chocolate Almond Crunchies to be precise. When those were done, and I was still unable to sleep, I turned to the knitting. I decide on something small and while hunting on Ravelry found this dishcloth.

The Dishcloth seems like it will be a fun little pattern. I have never tried the feathers and fan stitch before. The cookies are delicious and were fairly easy. However I think that I need to pick up a silpat or two before the next time I bake them up. The toffee bits make the cookies stick.

In Need of a Creativity Refill

I've been feeling exhausted for two days now, with no valid reason, so my brain is running a little low on creative ideas. Once again, there will be no knitting content to this post, but I am working on it, I promise. Today, there will be recipes, some of them I have linked to in the past, today, I will be posting the actual recipes here. They are in no particular order.


Top 3 Current Favourite Recipes


1. No-Knead Challah

1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 Tbsp instant yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp course salt)
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and room temp.
7 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

In a large bowl mix together the eggs, water, honey, melted butter, yeast and salt. Add in the flour and mix until all the flour is incorporated. Cover (not airtight)
and let the dough rise for 2-3 hours on the counter. You can shape and bake after it has risen or you can refrigerate 4-7 days.

Either way, shape the dough as desired (I made it into large buns) let rest 40-90 (depending how cold your house is) minutes and bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 20 min. After removing from the oven I gave mine a brush of melted butter.



2. Apple Dumplings

2 Granny Smith apples
2 cans crescent rolls
2 sticks butter (I reduced it to 3/4 c)
1 1/2 cups sugar (I reduced it to 1c)
1 teaspoons vanilla
cinnamon
1 small can Mountain Dew

Peel and core apples. Cut apples into 8 slices each. Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll. Place in a 9 x 13 buttered pan. Melt butter, then add sugar and barely stir. Add vanilla, stir, and pour over apples. Pour Mountain Dew around the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream, and spoon some of the sweet sauces from the pan over the top.


3. Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
Pinch salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 egg whites
1/3 cup thawed frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate
1/4 cup buttermilk


In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, egg whites and lemonade concentrate. Alternately whisk in flour mixture and buttermilk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of buttermilk, beating until just smooth.

Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake in 350F preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack.

These are great topped with swirls of white chocolate, cream cheese frosting or a dusting of powdered sugar.

*Note, the original recipe said these made 10. I find one batch makes 6 medium to large cupcakes, or about 24 mini cupcakes.

Upside of Deviation

I had intended today to be a day of knitting and much T.V. viewage. Instead it wound up being a day in the kitchen. There was however plenty of productivity. I baked another batch of apple dumplings, I baked chocolate chip, pecan cookies and then I baked up some pizza-esque flat breads. I also made up a batch of master dough for peasant bread which will be baked up tomorrow or Monday.

The rest of my evening will be spent watching Grindhouse, sipping Kool-aid and munching on parmesan topped popcorn.

Until tomorrow, I leave you with some "Cookie Porn".

A Losing Battle

My battle with Bread Making Disease has been lost, and I have wonderful, yummy flat bread to show for it. The battle was officially brought to its end yesterday afternoon, when the batch of No-Knead Pizza Dough was made. Later glorious handfuls of soft dough were formed into amoeba like flat breads, covered in various topping and baked to a delightful state of crispy, yet still soft.

Some were topped with just a drop of olive oil, a sprinkling of garlic and a dusting of grated parmesan. Another was topped with basil tomato sauce and sliced mushrooms, and the version pictured here was topped with PC Bacon & Roasted Onion dressing, slices of turkey breast, mushrooms and grape tomatoes, with a grating of Bothwell smoked 2 year old cheddar. They all tasted wonderful, and there is still dough in the fridge.

(I think it looks even tastier if you click on the picture.)

Maybe it's time I learned to co-exist with my Bread Making Disease, and just accept it as being a part of me instead of constantly battling against it.

Banana-riffic

To beak up the possible monotony of lists, the March theme for NaBloPoMo, I bring you Banana Cupcakes. I used to have a fabulous recipe for these, but sadly, it was lost during the time of no oven. Fear not though, I have found a replacement. Dare I say, I think it may even be better than the lost recipe.

Banana Cupcakes
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. soda
4 tbsp. sour cream
1 c. mashed bananas
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts or chocolate chips(optional)

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs. Dissolve soda in sour cream, add to creamed mixture and beat well. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into cupcake papers. Bake at 350 degrees, 20 - 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Makes 1 dozen large cupcakes or 3 dozen mini cupcakes.

These are equally yummy with or without frosting.