Riley’s Post: Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Posted by suzyhomebaker in gluten free, Holiday recipe, kid friendly and tagged with chocolate, strawberries, Valentine's Day February 11, 2013

Riley saw a commercial for chocolate dipped strawberries and wanted them, right then and there. That didn’t happen. But how long could I deny her especially since she kept bringing it up. So we made some chocolate dipped strawberries and she asked me to post it on my site. How sweet is this kid?

She looks grumpy but I think she’s just concentrating, real……hard. Here’s what you need:

Strawberries and chocolate chips (semi-sweet, dark, milk or white chocolate, your preference). Wash and dry your strawberries. Put chocolate chips in glass bowl and microwave for 45 seconds, stir, microwave for 25 seconds more stirring until melted. Nuke again if needed but don’t over cook, just keep stirring till there are no lumps left. Then……..

Dip ‘em in! See even a 5-year-old can do it. No excuses. If you can’t make that Red Velvet cake from the previous post you can at least dip some strawberries for your honey.

Keep on dippin and lay them on a parchment paper covered plate or baking sheet. If you want to get fancy you can swirl a different flavor melted chocolate over the strawberries while on the plate. My white chocolate burned so we didn’t do the swirls. If you really want to impress your Valentine, put the dipped strawberries in mini cupcake papers and in a nice tin or box. Instant Valentine gift.

Put them in the fridge and let the chocolate harden.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Pin 231, Red Velvet Cake

Posted by suzyhomebaker in 261 Days Pinned Challenge, cake, Holiday recipe, kid friendly and tagged with Pinterest, Red Velvet Cake February 11, 2013

Since this Red Velvet cake was the top choice for my friend’s wedding cake, I figured I better post the pin. I think her exact words were “this is the moistest red velvet cake I’ve ever had”. I’d say that’s quite a compliment. But I can’t take too much credit. I only baked it. The recipe is from the Bakerella website. I’ve baked several recipes from this site and have always had great results. The Red Velvet was a winner all around. The husband liked it, the kids loved it, most importantly the bride and groom picked it, and I’ll admit I had a taste and devoured it too. It was my cheat day, Superbowl Sunday, give me a break. Get yourself a heart cake pan (or shape your own cake here) and make your family, or your sweetie, or yourself this cake for Valentine’s Day. Here’s the original pin and here’s the recipe:

Recipe courtesy of Bakerella.com

Red Velvet Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 oz. red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans.
Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside.
Place all the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together really good with another wire whisk.
Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined.
Pour into cake pans and then drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
After about ten minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack. I also cover in plastic wrap while the cakes cool.
Then make the frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 cups confectioners’ sugar

Sift sugar and set aside.
Beat cream cheese and butter on high until creamy. Add vanilla.
Then, add the sugar in batches. Scrape down the sides in between each addition.
And frost away.

230 to go………

261 days Pinned Challenge

Posted by suzyhomebaker in An Ode to......., Craftacular, Holiday recipe, I'm loving this right now......., kid friendly, savory and tagged with challenge, Pinterest December 27, 2012

After the kids go to bed I find myself scanning through pinterest for several hours. The TV is on in the background, I’m curled up on my living room chair covered in a soft blanket with my ipad on my lap. I should be writing on my blog or being slightly more productive, maybe reading a book, but instead I find myself pinning craft projects and recipes that I may someday take on. I won’t lie. I have completed several of my pins, of which include easy crock pot recipes, kids crafts and all natural beauty tips. Most of them are successful with only a few being disappointing and sometimes painful ie: the make your own black head mask with unflavored gelatin. OUCH! I actually feel very accomplished when I do complete a pin. Almost productive. And it got me thinking.

I have so many things pinned that I have not attempted to utilize yet. And I know there are people out there who simply pin, get excited, and never visit that pin again. So I have decided to challenge myself by making, creating, or using one pin for every weekday in 2013. Here’s how it will work, aka here are my rules set by myself for myself:

1. I must make, create, use a pin each weekday of 2013 from the pinterest website starting January 1. I think I stated that above. I wanted to do one every day of 2013 but my husband reminded me that we have two kids and that I need to be a little realistic. Good point.
2. The pin can be a new pin or something I pinned a year ago. It has to be found on pinterest.
3. A picture must be posted along with a blog entry to prove the pin was used.
4. Pins can include anything, from making a muffin recipe to buying an outfit seen on pinterest. If you follow me you’ll find I pin recipes, craft ideas, kids stuff, beauty tips and holidays ideas. Either way, the pin has to be used in some way.
5. I can use my own pins. In other words, if I find an interesting website with a cool cleaning tip I can pin it and do it.

I think that just about covers it. Wish me luck and I hope I gather some followers on the way.

Ode to Pinterest…..and Chocolate Chunk Cookie Monsters.

Posted by suzyhomebaker in An Ode to......., cookie, Craftacular, Holiday recipe, kid friendly, Party Time!, Uncategorized and tagged with cookies, Halloween, Pinterest October 23, 2012

So now that I’ve found you, I can’t stop checking you out. You post so much deliciously beneficial information that I could almost spend every waking hour on you. Just seeing what’s new and what I’ve missed. You make it possible to keep all those awesome magazine clippings about what’s the best way to clean a stove top or how make a glove out of converse sneakers, but in a more environmentally friendly way. I thank you. For making me realize how annoying and unentertaining Facebook has become and how much more useful information there is out there. So I raise a glass and post this for you. It is your site that I found this idea to create such crazy and delicious monsters out of simple chocolate chip cookies for a friends pumpkin carving party. And may I add, it was a delightful baking experience that my daughter took part in as well. Cheers Pinterest! I hope you never bore me.

Want to make this recipe even easier? Get some Pillsbury cookie dough, a tub of icing, and some candy and go to town. These cookies are pretty damn good though.

Recipe courtesy of Lee Bailey’s Country Desserts

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 2 Tbsp (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)
9 ounces extra-bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I use Ghiardelli 70% chocolate chips)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugars until smooth, about 4 minutes. Add the egg and mix well. Add the flour mixture and beat thoroughly. Stir in the vanilla, then fold in the nuts (if using) and then the chocolate.

Drop in 2 Tbsp clumps onto an ungreased cookie sheet, leaving several inches between for expansion.

Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, rotating once, or until the bottoms are lightly browned. Repeat with remaining batter until used up.

Makes approximately 30

Icing

Ingredients

12 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
3 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or other flavoring)
gel food coloring

Directions

Put the butter in a bowl and beat until fluffy. Add sifted sugar and beat together until we mixed, add the milk and vanilla extract.

Separate icing into bowls and color to desired shade. I made orange, purple and green. I put my icing in three pastry bags for easy, controlled assembly, but you can also use a spatula.

Assembly

Use whatever candy you like. I used M&M’s, sour cherry balls, semi-sweet and white chocolate chips, fruit roll ups, large and small marshmallows, and those candy dots on paper.

Wait till cookies are completely cooled to assemble. Flip over cookie so that bottom is up. Spread or pipe icing on cookie, giving one side a more than the other. Rest another cookie (right side up) on top. The side with more icing will be the mouth opening. Now, decorate to your heart’s content. This is a great kid craft since its messy and edible and the monsters look much better when they are far from perfect. Have fun.

SMILE!

Pinkalicious cupcakes

Posted by suzyhomebaker in cake, Holiday recipe, kid friendly, Party Time! and tagged with Party June 18, 2011

Riley turned 4 a couple of weeks ago and we celebrated with a Pinkalicious party. Pinkalicious is the title of one of Riley’s favorite bedtime books about a girl who eats so many pink cupcakes, she turns pink. The only cure is to eat green vegetables. For her party I tried making everything as pink as I could, including the food. I also had an abundance of green food to counter act any pink children running around. In the mayhem I forgot to snap some shots of the savory food I served but did manage to get some of the desserts on film, since those are the most important part of any good party anyway. As for the savory foods, they included london broil sandwiches (a big hit, I’ll post this later), shrimp orzo salad (Barefoot Contessa), turkey meatballs (Giada) in vodka sauce (from a jar), french fries (Ore Ida), tomato salad (an old recipe from Martha), mixed green salad, and hot dogs. I think the food was a success. Everyone seemed very satisfied. As for the desserts, well, I’ll let the pictures tell most of the story:

Pinkalicious cupcakes

Strawberry milkshake malt balls, cupcakes, Red Velvet Giant cupcake, and cotton candy

The cupcakes were really good. Very dense and thick, they reminded me of the Magnolia Bakery cupcake. They would be hard to mistake for a cake mix, completely different texture. The giant cupcake with a red velvet cake recipe I’ll post another time but it was equally delicious and topped with a pink cream cheese icing. Even after this party, Riley still loves the color pink.

As I was about to post the recipe for the Pinkalicious cupcakes, I noticed a copyright at the bottom of the page so I’m opting out of posting the recipe on my site and directing you to the Pinkalicious page to check it out for yourself. You’ll find it on the Print and Play crafts section. It’s actually a cute site with lots of crafts and ways to “Pinkify” your kid by uploading their image into Pinkalicious’ face. It is a good recipe and doubles easily.

Mary Vitti’s Belated Easter Egg Bread

Posted by suzyhomebaker in bread, Holiday recipe, kid friendly April 26, 2011

This is a recipe I made for Easter at the Bakery. I made it for this Easter too but never got a chance to post it. Sorry. It’s a recipe from my friend Sal’s mother and it’s really good. I can only imagine growing up in Sal’s house when he was a kid. The house probably smelled so great at every holiday. And the sweet smell of this bread probably wafted through the house announcing that the Easter bunny was on his way. I heard through the grapevine that she sent five loaves out to each family member this year. Five loaves, four brothers and who knows how many grandkids. That’s a lot of bread making. It’s across between a Brioche and Challah bread and it is really delish. It’s dense, sweet and lemony. It’s perfectly tasty alone or with butter or jam spread all over it. It makes one large loaf or four smaller loaves. I opt to make the smaller loaves and give them out to friends. They also freeze very well. Just remove the egg cause you probably won’t want to eat a defrosted egg. One warning: this bread takes all day to make so think ahead, like a day ahead.

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Irish Soda Bread on St. Patty’s Day? Very original.

Posted by suzyhomebaker in bread, breakfast, Holiday recipe March 17, 2011

Al right, it’s almost too predictable. But when you have two kids sometimes its hard to be creative. I guess I could have made an Irish Cream cheesecake or some delicious rye bread for our dinner leftovers…..but sorry kids, Irish Soda Bread is all I got. I made it last night and it didn’t take too long. I’ve sliced it up this morning and it’s quite yummy. Especially considering it’s not my favorite thing to eat. I find it very dry and hard to chew usually and the raisins, well, sometimes they make me quiver to eat them. But this recipe is pretty good. It’s not too dry, has a nice soft texture with a hard crust and the flavor of the orange zest really helps. Sometimes soda bread is so damn tasteless. Spread a little butter or jam on top and its a nice breakfast treat. Ooooh, that’s a good idea, homemade breakfast treats. Maybe next week. Happy St. Patty’s. PS: I can’t believe your drinking that Irish coffee this early in the morning. You lush!