St. Patrick's Day Whoopie Pies

I'm so excited that tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day.  No I'm not Irish but I love any excuse to bake :-).  So today I will be making chocolate whoopie pies with mint cream filling for tomorrow.  Yummmmy  Of course that is going to require me to head to the grocery in the rain, hey at least it's not snow and ice anymore.

What you need....
Pies
1 Duncan Hines Devil's Food Cake mix
1 cup of water
3 large eggs
1/3 cup oil

Filling
1/2 Cup Shortening
1 stick of butter or margarine
1 tsp of mint extract
2 Tbsp. milk
1/4 cup of sugar
4 cups/1 lb of powder sugar
green food coloring

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
A chocolate cake mix.  I know, I know, a mix. But you really can't beat a Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Devil's Food Cake Mix, 18.25-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 6).

For this do not follow the recipe on the box. 

In a large mixing bowl, mix cake mix, water, oil and eggs for 30 seconds until blended on low, then mix for 2 minutes on medium.  Mix the full 2 minutes.  Yes it makes a difference.  Drop by rounded tablespoon full on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Okay I know I say I use parchment instead of spray, but this time parchment is a must!  Or good luck getting these babies off the pan.  Bake for 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove on the parchment to a wire cooling rack.  Cool for 10 minutes before you remove from the paper.

While the pies are baking, mix the filling.

cream together butter and shortening for about 1 minute.  Add sugar (not powdered yet), mint, green food coloring, I use Wilton 601-5580 1/2-Ounce Certified-Kosher Icing Colors, Set of 12and milk mix until creamy.  Then add powered sugar 1/2 cup at a time.  Fill a pastry bag, fitted with a number 12 tip if you don't have a pastry bag fill a Ziploc and snip off a corner.  Swirl onto the inside of one pie then top with another pie.  Sprinkle the edges with green sugar.  Everything needs a little sparkle.

This may be the best mint filling I've ever had.

Peanut Butter Cookies

One of those days, it is 2:30 and the kids will be off the bus at 3:00.  Yikes no snack planned today.  But I do have my all time favorite peanut butter cookie dough in the freezer :-). 

I love these cookies because the dough freezes so well.  All you have to do is form into a log, notice I didn't say roll, this dough does NOT roll, I wrap them in freezer paper then pop in a freezer bag.  Also don't write on that freezer bag, write on the paper.  See that way you can reuse your bag.  That is my trade off for using parchment paper.  Just a little side note: If you will leave the roll on a cookie sheet, place in the freezer unwrapped for about 30 minutes then wrap with the paper it will not stick to the paper.

I found out these freeze well because the recipe makes so many, 144, there is no way we could eat them all.  Well I could but I shouldn't and the kids most definetely should not!  I was thinking mix half a batch and my hands mixed a whole.  So there you have it, 2 good sized logs in the freezer 2 months ago.  See way I love it?  SO easy!

Peanut Butter Cookies


Not as pretty without the crosscrosses but still yummy



4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 jars (18 ounces each) creamy peanut butter
2 cups butter softened

2 cups packed brown sugar

2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees                                                  

1.  In a medium bowl wisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until well blended.

2.  In large mixing bowl beat peanut butter, butter, and both sugars at medium speed until creamy.  Reduce speed to low; beat in vanilla, then eggs one at a time until creamy.

3. Add flour mixture and mix until just blended.

4.  Drop by rounded measuring tablespoons, 2 inches apart, onto ungreased (parchment papered) large cookie sheet.  Dip the times of a fork into sugar, then press crisscross pattern into top of each cookie.

5.  Bake until lightly brown, 12 to 14 minutes.  Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool.

Now if this is frozen of course there will be no crisscross pattern unless you want to slice then let thaw.  I just slice, place on pan and straight into the oven frozen about 15 minutes at 350.  No they are not as pretty as the fresh dough ones but they still taste goooood.

 Complete mystery in my kitchen, rack was full, left the room to get the to get the camera....hummmm ;-)

So in about 20 minutes you can have homemade fresh baked cookies.  I know my kids will be excited when they get home from school.

Cobbler

Ever gone a little overboard in the fresh fruit area of your grocery? Every once in a while I go little nuts and when I get home I realize how much I've bought. Today was one of those days....either everything looked really good or I was a little hungry. So while making our lasagna tonight I was thinking. What in the world am I going to do with an entire bag of pears? It wouldn't be so bad had I not also bought apples, nectarines, bananas, grapes...you get the picture. I have to use them or they will go bad. Pears are my kids least favorite fruit so they will be eaten last. I think it's the texture.

My first thought was ooooh a tart. Well that means a pastry has to be made and well dinner was already in the oven. It needed to be fast and easy! So I was wondering, what would a pear cobbler taste like? I love peach cobbler. Oh what the heck...I'm going to try it.

The bag of pears I purchased contained three different types of pears. I peeled, cored, and sliced two Red D'Anjou, two green D'Anjou, and one Bosc.  I've never baked with pears before so I wasn't sure which would be best.  They all seem to have held up well.

I have a Peach Cobbler recipe that is really fast to stir together and bakes in about 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  So I decided to use it.

Spray the pan, I use Nordic Ware Bakers Joy Non-Stick Spray, love the stuff.  Peel and slice the fruit.  Enough to cover the bottom of your pan.  I used a Wilton Excelle Elite 9-Inch Springform Pan.  Any small casserole dish will work also.  I like to remove mine from the pan and plate it, that is why I use the springfrom.  This isn't your typical cobbler.  It holds together and is not runny or juicy.  It is more of a sweet soft dough with fruit in it.

After you place the fruit in the bottom of the pan.  Stir together the following in a small bowl and pour over the fruit.

3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups flour
3/4 cups of milk
1/2 cup butter melted
1 tsp baking powder

That's it pour in pan over pears and bake at 350 for 45 to 50 minutes.  Or until the top is golden.

SO what was the verdict....My middle and I son loved it.  The others not so much.  But then again the hubby doesn't like pears and neither does my oldest son they picked the pears out and ate the dough.  I was surprised my daughter didn't like it, because she does like pears.  She said it was too sweet. Never thought I would hear that come out of a child's mouth.

See it looks more like a pie.

So next time you need to use up some fruit, this recipe will work with peaches, cherries, blueberries, and pears.  I would try any fruit in this.  If you try something not listed here let me know how it turns out.

I'm scared of fish!

I'm scared of cooking fish, well I'm really scared of cooking any kind of seafood.  Not really lake fish, I can gut, skin, and fillet a fish, bread and deep fry bass, crape, catfish.  I am after all from Texas.  I however never have really tried to cook anything from the sea other than salmon and it just never turns out...But yesterday I found a new cookbook Flavors of a Newport Summer. It is such a cute book, it was put together by a local school to raise money. I'm not sure where to buy the book other than the little local store where I picked it up.  http://www.beachhousenewport.com/   The people in the store are so nice and it is just full of local artists' works. 

Anywho you know what they say... 'when in Rome'.

So I've decided I am going to do it!!!  I am going to learn to cook seafood.  YIKES! I mean we do live on an island, there is seafood in every shop.  YIKES!

There is everything in the cookbook from breakfast/brunch, lunch, cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, picnic foods, dinner and desserts. But most of all there is lobster, crab, shrimp (YUCK), littlenecks whatever those are????  And clams, an entire clam bake.  I like most of this, not the shrimp obviously, and I'm not sure about littlenecks, going to have to ask the guy at the market about those...but I'm pretty adventurous with food.  Shrimp is one of the very few things I do not like.  Of course I'll be trying a dessert first.  Though I do love the way this book is organized as entire meals...They have sections like Lunch on Center Court...get it?  The Tennis Hall of Fame is here.  And Tailgate at the Polo Match or Orchestrating a Bellevue Dinner.  I may just try an entire meal!  I'll most definitely share how it goes.  But for now I've got to get started on a grocery list.  There is NO seafood in this house.

Use This for That

Substitutions

I didn't have potatoes....so I substituted rice,

I didn't have paprika.... so I used another spice,

I didn't have tomato sauce...I used tomato paste,

A whole can...not half a can...I don't believe in waste!

A friend gave me the recipe

She said you couldn't beat it!

But there must be something wrong

As I couldn't even eat it!!!

Author unknown

I have people ask me all the time if they can use butter instead of margarine, or the other way around.  Or if they can use shortening instead.  Or what about cake flour and regular flour? 

So a few of the following can be used in place of one another.

But watch out because it really depends on the recipe!!!

1 cup sifted cake flour = 1 cup less 2 Tbsp. sifted all-purpose flour

You can use cake flour where sifted all-purpose flour is called for but not the other way around unless you want to sift it about 10 times.

1 cup of granulated sugar = 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar or 1 cup packed light brown sugar or 3/4 cup honey

This is one of those, it doesn't always work subs.  You CANNOT substitute anything for powdered sugar in buttercream icing.

1 cup brown sugar = 1 cup sugar plus 2 Tbsp. molasses

And to answer the butter vs. margarine ummm no you should not substitute them for each other unless the recipe says you can. Yes they look alike but they aren't the same thing.  And you most definitely should not swap one out with or for shortening.

No buttermilk?  Well 1 cup of milk with 3 Tbsp. of lemon juice let stand for 10 minutes = 1 cup of buttermilk

1 cup of sour cream = 1 cup of plain yogurt
but only in baking


So the next time you have half the ingredients already mixed in your bowl and realize you are missing something maybe you can use something else in it's place.