Holiday Baking Ideas

Sugar cookies dipped in chocolate, yum! These are from Valentine's Day so I will make some holiday ones and post pics of those soon.

Chocolate bowls made in the Demarle At Home Petit Four Tray and filled with Rice Krispies. This is a Gluten Free treat...

Pretzels - dipped in chocolate or drizzled with chocolate. The drizziling is MUCH faster and still looks fabulous. You can also take pretzels sticks or wands and dip them in chocolate. Then roll them in crushed candy canes! Yummy!

Peppermint Almond bark made in the Deep Flexipat. Clean-up is a breeze and there are so many variations on this to make for the holidays. It looks great wrapped in cellophane and tied with a pretty ribbon. This year I am going to make Oreo Almond Bark.

Anything mini is always a good thing. These are made in the mini muffin tray.

To the right are bite size Pumpkin cupcakes with Butterscotch ganache. Yum!

Below are mini cheesecakes with raspberry sauce swirled through them. They were wonderful and came out of the Demarle SO easily. Good bye spring form pan!





Below are Pumpkin cupcakes with dark chocolate ganache and cream cheese frosting. Delicious!

Mini Tartlets- Below are jam filled and pumpkin and apple pie filled.

Peanut Butter cups made in the Petit Four tray

Drizzling melted white chocolate over the peanut butter cups

 

Watch for more ideas as we get closer to the holidays!

Broccoli with Peanut Sauce

I had a craving for this the other night and started making it at about 8pm. My hubby thought I was a little crazy, but doesn't he always :) It can be made a spicy with some red pepper flakes to your taste. It is WONDERFUL!! If you like Thai food at all you will like this. Serve it over brown rice or rice noodles add some chicken, shrimp, or beef and it is a meal in one dish! I use my Demarle At Home 12" stainless steel fry pan and it works as good as any wok I have every had. Hope you enjoy this as much as I have, it is good as leftovers too.

1 lb broccoli
1 1/2 TBLS peanut oil or canola oil
2 cups onions
1 TBLS fresh, or dried ground ginger
2 TBLS soy sauce or tamari (tamari is GF)
3/4 tsp sea salt

Sauce
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup hot water or stock
6 TBLS cider vinegar
3 TBLS soy sauce
3 TBLS honey
red chili pepper flakes (to taste) I use about 1 tsp
2 scallions, minced
Sauce-
Place peanut butter and water in a sauce pan, heat on low and whisk until thoroughly combined. Add vinegar, honey, soy sauce, and red chili flakes. Set aside.

In pan (wok) heat half the oil, half the ginger, and half the garlic. When hot add your meat if using and stir fry for a few minutes. Add that to the sauce and set aside.

Add the rest of the oil ginger, garlic, and onion. When hot add the broccoli (chopped into bite size pieces, remember to include the stems) stir fry for a few minutes. Add the soy sauce and stir, cook till broccoli is just tender and bright green.

Add sauce to broccoli and stir until everything is coated with sauce. Serve right away over steamed brown rice, whole wheat penne pasta, or cooked rice noodles. Top with chopped scallions.
Bon Apetit!

Fancy Pumpkin Cupcakes

I want to preface this post with the disclaimer that these are EASY!!!! The following pics are my first attempt at making these. My daughter Hailey actually mixed all the dry ingredients, cracked the eggs, and ran the mixer (with my help) to blend the eggs and pumpkin. The only thing I did for the cupcake part was to mix the wet and dry ingredients together. I don't usually make cupcakes from scratch, but I really wanted to try this and see if it was as easy as the author claimed. It was!
I want to be sure and give credit to the author of this recipe. She did an amazing job and I am indebted to her for this wonderful creation. http://kitschygirlsguide.blogspot.com
These were a breeze to make and looked like a gourmet cupcakes. Several people commented that there was NO WAY I had made these at home, and if I did I must be 'Martha Stewart'. Well...I am not Martha and I did make them at home. I have Kitschy Girl and Demarle to thank for my 'gourmet' looking/tasting cupcakes. So, without further delay, here they are!!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon allspice

 1 cup brown sugar packed

1 cup granulated sugar

In a bowl whisk together spices, flour baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add both sugars slowly ad whisk so there are no lumps.

NEXT:

4 eggs

2 sticks melted butter unsalted

1 15oz can pumpkin puree

In a large, separate bowl beat eggs with an electric mixer until yokes and whites are combined. Add pumpkin puree and mix. Add melted butter and mix again. Slowly add dry ingredients and mix until well combined.

 Fill cupcake wells 3/4 full and bake for 25 minutes. I was able to get 30 each of the Demarle Mini Muffin Tray and 12 each of the Demarle Regular Muffin tray. I baked the mini muffin and the regular muffin at the same time and then refilled the mini muffin (remember to fill the empty wells half full with water).

While you are waiting for the cupcakes to bake you can make the Cream Cheese Frosting and put it in the Demarle At Home Pastry Bag fitted with the large round tip:

8oz softened cream cheese

6 tablespoons butter

4 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine all ingredients. I used a hand mixer to blend them together and get it really smooth.

This is not a super stiff or sweet frosting so I wouldn't recommend a fancy piping job. I used the large round tip on my pastry bag and I frosted them slightly in from the edge, so you would see the chocolate.

 Ganache

1 4 oz Ghiradelli Semi Sweet bar

1 4oz Ghiradeli 60% bar

or

8oz of dark sweet chocolate, shaved

6 tablespoons of butter (room temperature)

1 teaspoon vanilla

Using a double boiler (or a pot of boiling water with a metal bowl on top). Melt chocolate with half the butter. Remove from heat, add remaining butter and add vanilla.

While ganache is hot dip each cupcake into it and set aside to cool.

The ganache will get firm and glossy as it cools and makes a beautiful presentation. Don't be afraid of ganache if you haven't worked with it before, it's unbelievably easy. Really!!

I'm BACK!!!

Me!!

So, as you can see I am writing on my blog again :) If you look at my history you will see that there are not that many posts. My bad :( I am on a journey of self-discovery and learning. God has led me down a path that has not given me as much time as I would like to cook, blog, and share the art of good living with others. Also, I do not like to post recipes that I have not personally made. In retrospect I have not given myself enough credit (that is what my friends Sara and Susan tell me :>) anyway). Although I love to cook, I did not think that anyone would need, or even want, my tips, ideas, or recipes. But many of my friends have been asking for recipes or for me to share my ideas. Who am I to say no? So, here we go...

Bradly

I am learning that the blogs I enjoy reading are the ones were I "see" other people's cooking 'lives'. So, my goal is to make this blog a 'part' of my life. I will continue to share my successes as well as my mistakes. Hang on!

I would like to share a little about me. I cook for a family of four. My husband, Gary,  is a 'particular' eater, as is my son, Bradly. My daughter Hailey is not as picky and shares my culinary 'adventurism' mostly in baking. You will see Hailey cooking/baking with me, and I will share her cooking wisdom with you too ;). I include my kids in my cooking adventures and hope that it will teach them to try new things, in and out, of the kitchen.

Hailey

Gary & Bradly

Half the battle of cooking is not being afraid to try new things! Many of the recipes you will see here are first try's. I like you to experience something with me the 'first' time I do it.

So please, join me on this 'adventure' in the kitchen and I hope that if you have questions, comments, or concerns you will please share them with me! You can email me at cooking2gether@yahoo.com or comment below my post.

Thanks and lets get
COOKING 2GETHER!!!!