Cake Pops Never Fail

You gotta love these cake pops from Bakerella. I made these for Annie's first birthday and again for my friend's baby shower. The first time I made them I followed Bakerella's directions down to each detail. This time around I made them about half the size with less frosting for easier handling. Can you say YUM!!

Laura Bush Cowboy Cookies

Forgive me for the picture. This is the best I can do with my cell phone.

Everything yummy that can go into a cookie is in this one. It's got pecans, chocolate chips, oatmeal, and (my fave) coconut flakes. I like to make these cookies when Alex is around because he can mix in the pecans, chocolate chips, oatmeal and coconut flakes a lot more easily than I could (these are pretty beefy cookies when it comes to the throw-ins).

3 c. all purpose flour (if at high altitude and 1/2 cup more flour)
1 T. baking powder
1 T. baking soda
1 T. ground cinnamon
1 t. salt
1 1/2 c. (3 sticks), butter, softened
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 T. vanilla extract
3 c. chocolate chips
3 c. old fashioned rolled oats
2 c. sweetened coconut flakes
2 c. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl.

In an 8-qt. bowl, beat butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy, 1 minute. Gradually beat in sugars; beat to combine, 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each. Beat in vanilla extract.

Sir in flour mixture until just combined. Add chocolate chips, oats, coconut and pecans.

For each cookie, drop 1/4 c. dough onto ungreased baking sheets, spacing them 3 inches apart. Bake for 15 minutes until edges are lightly browned; rotate sheets halfway through cooking time. Remove cookies to rack to cool.

Rotisserie Chicken

We love Rotisserie Chicken from the grocery store. For $5 you can make at least two quick tasty meals out of it. These are the ways we usually have it:

• By itself, served with a side of veggies and maybe some potatoes
• In a sandwich
• Chicken salad - shredded, mixed with a little mayo and tossed with other goodies, like almonds and craisins
• Chicken pasta salad - tossed with pasta
• Chicken soup - with veggies, broth and seasoning
• In any recipe that calls for cooked chicken

If you do something different with your chicken, let me know. I'm always up for new ideas :)

Sloppy Joes

1 T. vegetable oil
1 medium onion, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 t. chili powder
3/4 lb. ground beef
1 t. brown sugar
Salt and Pepper
1 c. tomato puree
1/2 c. ketchup
1/4 c. water
Tabasco
4 hamburger buns

Heat the oil in a skillet over med-hi heat. Add onion and cook until lightly browned (~5 minutes). Add garlic and chili and cook for ~1 minute. Add beef, sugar, 1/4 t. salt, 1/3 t. pepper. Reduce heat to medium and cook until no longer pink (~4 minutes). Stir in tomato puree, ketchup and water. Cook until thickened (~5 minutes). Season with Tabasco, salt and pepper to taste.

Sometimes it tastes a little too tart for me, so I add about a two rounded teaspoons more of brown sugar in the end.

Also, we don't eat them sandwich style. Instead we eat them open faced for more filling and less sloppy. I guess you could just call is Joe-style. Hah!

From The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Cheap and Quick Meals

By no means are these meals super healthy. We just make them when we want to cut down on cost or time.

• Spam and Rice - Fry the Spam in a skillet and serve with rice. We also eat it with a side of peas :)
• Quesadillas - We always have cheddar on hand and like to add whatever meat we can, whether it be sandwich meat or leftovers.
• Mungo - Mung beans flavored with chicken broth and sauteed onions and garlic. This is something I grew up on and I love it. Annie likes it now, too. You could call it the Filipino version of Red Beans and Rice.
• Spaghetti and Meat Sauce - this is Annie's fave.
  Corned Beef and Rice - similar to Spam and Rice. You've gotta love meat from a can (or not).
• Ground Beef and Green Beans - From Grandma Mary's kitchen. Brown the beef, add a can of tomato sauce and a can of green beans. Season it with whatever you want and serve over rice. Yum!
• Fried Rice - Must have day old rice and garlic. Throw anything else you want in there.
• Chicken Salad with dried fruit - Shredded or chopped leftover or rotisserie chicken with dried cranberries, sliced almonds, and a little bit of mayo. Serve over a bed of greens or in a sandwich.
• Chicken Pasta Salad - Just like the one listed above without the almonds and cranberries and with the rainbow rotini pasta. I've even used canned chicken before (that's when I'm real lazy). I like to throw in some frozen peas as well.

Spring Fling Cake

To commence sweets eating, I thought I'd begin with a Spring Fling Cake. I got the idea from my officemate whose wife made it. He showed me pictures of what it looked like and I thought it looked soooooo beautiful - the perfect welcome-back-I've-missed-you-come-and-get-it dessert. The recipe is on the internet and is supposed to be the recipe for the Spring Fling Cake served at The Market Coffee Shop in Larimer Square in Downtown Denver.

A few notes:

- I'd keep the middle layer of fruit to a minimum. I think I went overboard and the filling had a hard time saying in the middle. After a little car ride I found that part of the filling has slipped out.

- At the recommendation of my officemate, I doubled the frosting. I actually forgot to double the amount of powdered sugar, but it turned out perfect - not too sweet. The recipe only directs you to frost the in between and top of the cake, but I just did the whole thing.

- I sliced the kiwi and strawberries with an egg slicer. This made for even slices.

- Next time I'll arrange the fruit on the top better, such that the slices overlap more.

- The cake texture, once baked, is more like a muffin texture (not as firm as bread, but not as firm as cake). I bet they'd be just as yummie as cupcakes.

Spring Fling Cake

For the cake:

2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
5 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
1/2 tablespoon plus ½ teaspoon vanilla extract (for frosting)
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt

For frosting:
3/4 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream

Fruit for cake:
1 pint strawberries, cleaned, stemmed and sliced
4 kiwi fruit, peeled and sliced
2 mangoes, peeled and sliced
1 pint blueberries
Apricot glaze, or apricot jelly thinned out with a bit of warm water, optional

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch cake.

• To prepare the cake: Shred the zucchini in a food processor. In a large mixing bowl combine shredded zucchini, eggs, sugar, oil, sour cream and ½ tablespoon vanilla.

• When thoroughly mixed, combine all dry ingredients and add to bowl; mix well. Batter should be fairly wet and easy to pour.

• Pour in the batter and bake for 50 to 70 minutes, testing with a toothpick in center.

• Cool finished cake on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove it from the pan and allow it to cool completely. (You can make the cake a day ahead and refrigerate.)

• To prepare frosting, whip room temperature cream cheese and butter until smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing until well combined.

• In a separate bowl, whip the cream until stiff, and then fold it and the ½ teaspoon vanilla into the frosting. Do not overmix.

• To assemble cake: Cut the cooled cake in half lengthwise, making two layers. (The Market cuts the cake into three layers, which you may do if desired.)

• Spread an even layer of frosting over the first layer, and then add a layer of the various fruit pieces (repeat if three layers).

• Put on the top layer of cake and evenly frost. The sides of the cake are not frosted; use extra to fill in, as needed.

• Arrange the fruit in circles all over the top of cake, slightly overlapping fruit pieces.

• To finish: Spread the apricot glaze over fruit on top of the cake with a pastry brush.

Easy Cheesy Garlic Drop Biscuits

We had some for breakfast this morning. It was too cold for cold cereal, we're out of eggs, and we're tired of oatmeal. Good thing we keep a box of Bisquick around!

So the recipe for Cheesy Garlic Biscuits on the box is good, but sometimes end up a little too dry and don't offer enough flavor. So I changed it a little bit :)

I mixed 2 cups of Bisquick, about 1 c (maybe a little more) of shredded cheddar cheese, 2/3 cups of milk, about 1/2 tsp of garlic powder, and about 3 tbsp of cold butter that was chopped up into about 1/4 inch cubes. I mixed it all together until I didn't see any more dry mix. Then I dropped the dough by about 1/2 c. spoonfools onto a foil lined baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. I baked them in a 450 deg preheated oven for 8 minutes.

We don't have a good enough camera to show the pockets of stringy melted cheese when you break the biscuits in half. YUM!