Tag Archives: fruit

Guest Post: Frosting for the Cause

25 Nov

 

I am so excited to share a post I did for Frosting for the Cause today.  It’s in tribute to my mother, in celebration of who she is, being 9 years cancer free, and for her her delicious banana puddin’, which of course has my own twist on it.

Here is just the start …

This past year I’ve grown an obsession with baking.  Baking things I find.  Baking things I create.

My husband just shakes his head when I bring home a new cook book.  How many is too many?  At one point should I seek professional help?

I’m not sure exactly where this new found love came from.  My mother can’t make cookies to save her life.  She often came to class parties with a bag of Oreos.  I always thought it was because she worked at home and outside the home and there simply wasn’t enough time in the day.  As I look back now, I realize it probably had more to do with the fact that she really couldn’t bake a batch of cookies without burning them.  Ever.

Head on over to Frosting For the Cause to read the rest …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It’s the little things … OR what to do with left-over apple pie filling

23 Nov

So last Saturday I made these tasty treats.  The recipe makes 8 and since my husband doesn’t eat fruit, I decided to only make 6.  2 for my mom.  2 for my dad.  2 for me.  I didn’t think any of us needed to eat another one and add to our waistlines … no matter how good they turned out.

But now what to do with the left over pie filling?

Monday morning, I got creative.

I used a basic muffin recipe.

Threw in the apple-pie filling.

Added 1/2 a cup of peanut butter.

And WALA!

Peanut Butter-Apple Pie Muffin!

I’m pretty stoked with this little spur-of-the-moment creation. 

And the moms at Moms’ Group seemed to enjoy them.

It’s the little things in life that get me excited.

Now if I could only have come up with a breakfast creation for the little bit of pastry dough I had left. 

Suggestions anyone?

 

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Mini Apple Pies – Super Delicious, Easy, Ingenious, and Cute

20 Nov

Last night my padres joined us for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner.  This year we will be spending Thanksgiving with Nana and Pa so Grandma and Poppa joined us for some yummy, homemade broccoli/cauliflower/cheese soup, accordion potatoes, and these yummy, mini apple pies.

 

This is a really ingenious idea.  Personal mini apple pies.  Great portion control … unless of course, you eat like 4 at a time.  Fun for the kids too.  There are a couple steps – bake apples, make dough, chill dough, roll and cut dough and then bake – which can seem at first a bit overwhelming but once you do it you realize they are easy steps to do.  You can do one and go to work on something else and come back and finish that step and start another.  And then go do something else again.

And I actually found these less intimidating to make, the dough part, than an actual standard pie (which I’ve only done once).  I am always nervous at the thought of making homemade pie crust and struggling with the kneading and rolling.  But when you are just making smaller versions … well it just seemed more doable to me.

And they turned out great!

Yummy!!!

Thank you to Momma’s Gotta Bake for sharing.

 

 

 

 

 

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Catering Around Town: Momma’s Bread Pudding

31 Aug

Last Friday I got the chance to “cater” my first event.  I volunteered to fix all of the desserts for my church campus’ Children’s Ministry Volunteer Appreciation Night.  I was pretty proud of myself.  I spent approximately $140 and fed approximately 100 people.  I do believe the treats were quite yummy.

I thought I’d share some of the treats that I made.  Per the little poll I did, it was a toss-up between the Banana Nut Crunch Muffins and Momma’s Bread Pudding.

So I got to pick and here it is …

Momma’s Bread Pudding

 

I had never made bread pudding before, but a few years ago my momma was missing her momma.  Grandma used to make bread pudding so I decided to give my try at it.  I searched the internet and checked out the recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks.  Using their recipe as a base I made a couple changes as I got inspired by the way different recipes on the internet added fruit.

I chose peaches as my fruit as it is my momma’s favorite fruit.  And I use a Vanilla Sauce which came about because I did not have the ingredients required for the Caramel or Bourbon Sauce that was recommended and had already put the pudding into bake.  I’ve found using the Vanilla Sauce makes the bread pudding a little different and get lots of compliments on it.

Bread Pudding Ingredients

  • 4 beaten eggs
  • 2 1/4 cups milk
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 4 cups dry bread (french or italian or sourdough bread, 6 to 7 slices or 2 medium loaves)
  • 1/3 cup raisins
  • 4-6 fresh peaches or 2 cans of peaches (no sugar added) or 1 bag of frozen peaches (listed in order of how I would choose)
Sauce Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • Dash of salt
Kitchen Tool
  • 13x9x2 pan
  • 1 sauce pans (1 small/1 medium)
  • large wooden or plastic spoon
  • large mixing bowl
  • whisk or large knife
  • pairing knife if using fresh peaches
  • knife if using fresh peaches
Baking Directions
  1. The night before (or morning of) break up/tear up the bread into small pieces and place in 13x9x2.  The goal is to let the bread get a little stale/hard.  (You do not have to do this and the harder the type of bread you choose the less time you need to “air out” the bread.  However, you will be putting peaches with juices and sauce over the bread so letting the bread get a little stale helps prevents an overly soggy bread pudding.)
  2. Leave out over night unwrapped or leave unwrapped for most of the day.
  3. If using frozen peaches, set out to thaw.  (They do not have to be completely thawed out but should be close.)
  4. If using fresh peaches, peel skins off and cut into slices.  You can also dice, but I like the slice look and getting a full slice when I serve/eat it.
  5. If using canned peaches, drain both cans.  You want to get 90% of the juice out; a little juice left is okay and encouraged.
  6. In large mixing bowl combine eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon.
  7. Pour peaches over bread and mix up.
  8. Pour raisins evenly over peach/bread mixture.
  9. Pour egg mixture evenly over bread/peach/raisin mixture.
  10. Using the top of a large spoon, press the mixture down lightly.
  11. Bake, uncovered, in oven at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.
  12. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center bread comes out clean.
  13. Cool.  (How long you let cool is up to you.  It tastes best served warm.)
**Sauce Directions
  1. Boil 1 cup water in small saucepan.
  2. While water is warming up, mix cornstarch and sugar in medium saucepan.
  3. Slowly add water.
  4. Cook over medium heat until sugar-water starts to come to a gentle boil
  5. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Sauce should start to thicken up.
  6. Remove from heat and add in butter, vanilla, and salt.  Mix well.
  7. Pour over cooled/warm bread pudding.  Be sure to pour evenly.
  8. Serve as is or with vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

I have to say that I have never been a big fan of bread pudding.  But even I enjoy this little treat.

And since it was made for my Momma and with her in mind, I call it Momma’s Bread Pudding.

Here is Momma and her two granddaughters, just a few years apart.  lol :)

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Gidgets and Gadgets: Mango Cutter

27 Aug

Recently I made Bango Muffins (yummilicious I might add).  They are great for breakfast, an afternoon snack, or dinner time dessert.

But if you have ever eaten a mango, you know they can be quite hard to cut.  They are extremely juicy and slippery, but amazingly good.  My first experience with a mango was as a teenage girl living in the Philippines.  Of course, they are even more amazing right off the tree.  My favorite though was eating a green mango (not quite ripe) with sea salt.  It makes my mouth water just thinking of it.

I found this video at YouTube on how to cut mangoes and it is very helpful for us visual people.  But I always manage to do it wrong or wind up with a stinky mess so I was delighted to find this nifty little gadget at the store the other day.

 It’s a mango cutter.  It works just like an apple cutter.  Stand the mango up and place the cutter on the top, just where the stone (core) would be and press down.  It slides right on down and Wala! you have your mango without the stone.  This cutter doesn’t take the sides off so watching the video is still helpful so you can get all of the fruit off.  Or you can do what I do which is just eat the fruit off the sides yourself.  You get a treat while making a treat.

Now if you are eating the mango it can still prove to be a bit messy and if you are baking with it you have to slide the fruit off the skin with a knife or spoon (I recommend small pairing knife) so it can still be a bit messy but I find using this I get more of the fruit off the stone than when I try to cut it.

So what one gidget or gadget do you have around the house that you wouldn’t want to be without?

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Tasty Tuesdays: Bango Muffins

24 Aug

I’m so excited to be posting my very first post.  The writer in me wants to give you some great paragraph full of witty, creative sentences that inspire you to go out and create deliciousness.  But I’m so excited about my first post and my first step to someday owning my own baking business that I’m going to just dive on in and give you this amazing recipe for my Bango Muffins (plus I figure you can go read my About page if you are looking for some deep, spiritual pining about food and baking) :)

I got brave and created these after baking a few muffins following different recipes and looking over a few different recipes in my cookbooks and online. This is what I have created with their guidance and some of my own originality.

Muffin Ingredients

  • 1 2/3 cup of flower
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 eggs, slightly beaten
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 2 tsp lime juice
  • 1 1/3 cup mango pureed
  • 1 med-large banana pureed
Topping Ingredients 
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 2 tbsp cold butter, divided
  • 1/4 macadamia nuts
  • Shredded Coconut
Kitchen Tools
  • Three bowls
  • 1 Wooden Spoon
  • Pastry Blender
  • Muffin Pan
  • Butter or Baking Spray or Paper Muffin Cups
Baking Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Grease muffin pan or line pan with muffin cups and set aside.
  3. Mix dry ingredients (first 5 ingredients) in bowl.
  4. Make well/hole in center of flour mixture and set aside.
  5. Break eggs in bowl and beat lightly.
  6. Add in milk, oil, lime juice and pureed mango and banana.  Mix together.
  7. Pour egg mixture into center of flour mixture all at once.
  8. Stir with wooden spoon until moistened.  Be sure to not over beat/mix.
  9. Spoon into prepared muffin pan or cups.
  10. Add Muffin Topping** evenly on top of batter.
  11. Bake for 15-18 minutes.
  12. Place on wire rack for 5 minutes to cool.
  13. Take out of wire rack and cool for 2-3 more minutes.
**Muffin Topping Directions
  1. Mix all dry ingredients (not nuts).
  2. Cut butter into small slices.
  3. Using pastry blender, cut into mixture until it looks like little crumbles.
  4. Add in nuts and mix some more using pastry blender.
  5. You can add coconut now or wait and add after they come out of the oven while they are still warm which is what I did.
Makes 6 Jumbo Muffins or 12 Regular Muffins
I got to share these with some pretty cool people today.  But the coolest person of all (who I thought might just like these with me) was my dad who was celebrating his 71st birthday today.
Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Shout Outs to:  www.allrecipes.com and this amazing cookbook 

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