Brownie Camo Cheesecake

Nothing says Happy Birthday to my son like this fun and tasty treat! I've gotta say, I like this kid's taste.

His request:

"Can you make a cheesecake with a brownie on the bottom and cheesecake on top...but not too much cheesecake--just enough."

Got 'er covered. He didn't even know that it would be camo colored.

The base can be a box brownie mix (for a 9 x 13" pan) or your favorite recipe. I baked the brownies about 5 short of being fully done (they were no longer jiggly in the middle but a toothpick definitely would not come out clean).

I then used this cheesecake recipe but changed the proportions to use 3 pkgs. (24 oz.) cream cheese. I did not use almond extract, so I added an additional 1/4 tsp. vanilla.

I'm seeing a birthday trend in this family!

Tye-dyed red velvet cheesecake

Brownie cheesecake

Caramel Puffcorn

If you like caramel corn--and don't mind the addictive quality is has in taking over your brain telling you to have just another handful...until it's gone--you'll really like this version made with kernel-less puffed corn. I like that I don't even have to worry about the thought of cracking a tooth on those little buggers when I pop these caramel puffs in my mouth.

My mother in law sent us home with a bag of puffed corn because she knew that my husband could eat this gluten-free snack, which he would have devoured on our 21-hour roadie back home to Texas from Minnesota if I hadn't seen the caramel corn recipe on the back of the package.

I packed them away in the back of our vehicle so none of the 12 hands looking for snacks would find them and eat'em up before I returned home and had the chance to try this recipe! (Yes, this is probably considered abusive--especially when my entire family is physically restrained for 1200 miles.)

Here's everything you'll need:


Yes, I know it's a HUGE box of baking soda. You'll only need 1+ tsp. for this recipe. You really don't want to know why I have this overabundance of baking soda...and four more boxes just like it at my house. I'll just leave you with two words: mummified chicken. 'Nough said, k? Carrying on...

Here's the recipe for

Caramel Puffcorn

3- 3-1/2 oz. pkgs. puffed corn (found in the snack aisle, butter flavored--not cheese flavored!)
1 cup butter (not margarine)
1-1/4 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp. baking soda

Preheat oven to 250 degrees
Combine butter, brown sugar, and light corn syrup in a 2 qt. sauce pan, cook on medium heat until mixture has melted. Once mixture has melted add the baking soda.

Note: This will cause the mixture to foam slightly.
Note 2: You may need to add an additional 1/2 tsp. soda if 1 tsp. doesn't cause it to foam or get slightly cloudyish.

Pour puffed corn into a large roasting pan. Pour caramel mixture over the puffed corn and stir until mixed.

Place in oven at 250 degrees for 45 minutes, stirring at least every 10-15 minutes.

Remove from oven, pour on wax paper or parchment and break apart/separate puffs. Allow to cool and...
ENJOY!

*For a naughtier version: drizzle melted chocolate over the mixture after you
remove it from the oven.

Bring it to your neighbors for a Christmas treat.
Just beware they'll be looking for it again every year.

If you don't continue to deliver, they'll look at you with (as my 7 year old son would say) "angry eyebrows"...and you don't want that, do you? Unless they complain about your yard not looking good enough--then it might be okay to occasionally skip a year of caramel corn for them! :}

For all of you living north in the frozen tundra, you're in Old Dutch country--not Chester Cheetah country. Look for Old Dutch brand corn puffs in your grocer's snack aisle.

Lamb Cake :: Almond Cherry Pound Cake

This is a fun little cake to make in the spring for Easter or 1st Communion celebration. My mother-in-law makes a number of her lamb cakes and gives them to friends for Easter!

I couldn't find her recipe in time to make my daughter's First Communion lamb cake (photo), so I modified a recipe I found online instead. I'll add her recipe in the future.

[Make in a bundt pan, two loaf pans, or halve the recipe to fill one lamb cake mold.]


Ingredients:

½ pound (2 sticks) butter
½ cup vegetable shortening, plus more for pan
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1/4 tsp fine salt
½ tsp baking powder
¾ cup half and half or whole milk + ¼ cup maraschino cherry juice
½ tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. almond extract
1/8 – ¼ cup finely chopped cherries (get all liquid out)
¼ cup chopped pecans

Finish:
Frost with your favorite white or cream cheese frosting...or simply dust with powdered sugar.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

With a mixer, cream butter and shortening together. Add sugar, a little at a time. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl and add to mixer alternately with milk, starting with the flour and ending with the flour. Mix in vanilla and almond extract. Fold in the cherries and pecans. Pour into a greased and floured tube pan and bake for 1 to 1-1/2 hours, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

For molded lamb cake:
Pour batter into mold so it's even with the top of the base pan. Place other mold half (the one with a steam hole)on top of filled base mold. Gently poke with the end of a utensil to ensure there are no air pockets.

Place on cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour, checking doneness with toothpick through top steam hole.

Allow to cool for 15 minutes before taking top mold off. Let cool ~5 more minutes before, then gently slide a small knife around edges to ensure good mold release. Turn whole lamb cake out onto a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting or dusting with powdered sugar.

Use white frosting to frost lamb in swirls (like lamb’s wool), add flattened raisins for eyes and sliced cherries or cut fruit roll up pieces shaped for the mouth.

This white frosting recipe is truly excellent! Or, in a pinch, use prefab frosting.

(I use the whole recipe and make one molded lamb cake and one loaf.)

Recipe modified from Paula Dean's Mama's Pound Cake.

Birthday Cakes...once again!

Mikey's request: "A 3-D monster truck--with roll bars--climbing up a mountain"

Kathleen's request: "A tree with some fall-colored leaves"

Rice Krispie Kisses

Every year for the past four years, the kiddies have looked forward to making these sweet little treats for St. Valentine's Day.


They're just rice krispy treats with tinted melted marshmallow,


...packed into a smallish funnel,


...wrapped in foil (sprayed lightly with non-stick cooking spray)


(with a cute little ribbon--or a strip of paper with a sweet message written on it).


I snip the corners off the foil squares before wrapping the krispy treat. Otherwise, there would be a big wad of foil at the top.


Yum!


Now go give 'em to all the little neighbor kids!

NOTE: I made 2 regular batches of rice krispy treats. Using a funnel that holds about 1 cup of water, I was able to make 16 krispy kisses (8 kisses in each batch). If needed, more can be made using a smaller funnel or just by not filling the funnel up to the top.

For a more authentic chocolatey (and gluten-free!) kiss treat, you can use Cocoa Pebbles. Sadly, krispy rice cereals still contain gluten because of the malt ingredient.

Longhorn Hummus

I just whizzed up this "burnt orange" version of hummus in preparation for watching the Fiesta Bowl tonight. Go, Horns. Hook 'em!

Now I need to gather some fresh veggies for the dip.
Then I need to make sure everyone has on their Longhorn shirts.
Oh yes, I suppose I should prepare a real meal for my family as well.
As for me, I think I could live on appetizers.

Cheers!

Find this recipe in the variation section at the bottom of this hummus recipe post.

Cashew Clusters

If you're looking for a special treat that is super easy to make and doesn't involve the oven or icing or colored sprinkles, this recipe is for you! This is a winner above many other yummy recipes since it is 1) chocolatey, 2) embarrassingly quick and easy, 3) different than all the other "cookie" exchange items, 4) substantially satisfying to eat!

This is a recipe my mom always made at Christmastime. My Grandma Hardie used to make these, and many of her five children latched onto the recipe and have continued to make these chocolatey morsels for many, many years. My family always used the roasted Spanish peanuts, but I prefer the cashews. My children and I now make these clusters at Christmastime and give them to friends and neighbors in small tins.

Ingredients:

12 oz. white chocolate chips
2-12 oz. packages chocolate chips
2 lbs. whole cashews (or roasted Spanish peanuts)

Directions:

Place chips in a double boiler over medium heat. Stir until chocolate until melted and smooth. Or microwave chocolate to melt by heating on high for 1 minute, stir, then continue to heat for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between until chocolate can be stirred smooth.

NOTE: depending on the chocolate you use, you may need to temper the chocolate to prevent white streaks from forming after the clusters cool. I use regular bags of chips and I don't bother tempering. Just don't overheat the chocolate while melting.

Remove from heat and add the nuts. Spoon onto waxed or parchment paper to form small clusters. Cool a few hours. Place in a tin separating layers with waxed or parchment paper.

To serve, place one or two...or three of them on one of Grandma Hardie's little Christmas plates and enjoy!

Caramel Morsel Bars (Mike's Favorite)

My grandma used to make these for a Christmas treat along with her many Christmas cookies. She made them especially for my brother, Mike, since they were his favorite. Grandma loved providing family favorites.* I was told she found this recipe in a magazine. After Mike died in 1987, we all realized that these bars were favorites of more of us than Mike alone. When my grandma passed away in 1989, I started making these as my own Christmas treat tradition!

Ingredients:

14-oz. bag KRAFT Caramels
3 TBSP water
5 cups crisp rice cereal or toasted oat cereal (I use crisp rice)
1 cup peanuts, optional
One 6-oz. pkg. (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips
One 6-oz. pkg. (1 cup) butterscotch chips

Directions:

Melt caramels with water in saucepan (or double boiler) over low heat. Stir frequently until sauce is smooth. Pour over cereal and nuts; toss until well coated. With greased fingers, press mixture into greased 9” x 13” pan. Sprinkle morsels on top; place in 200 degree oven for 7 minutes, or until morsels softened. Spread softened morsels until blended to form a frosting. Cool, cut into bars.

* Grandma liked to make people feel special by going out of her way to provide their "favorites". Besides making these bars for Mike, she baked mint surprise cookies (I still need to locate that recipe)--my Uncle Steve's favorites. One year grandma couldn't find her usual chocolate mint wafers for these cookies. I ended up locating something similar at a bake shop in the Twin Cities on Thanksgiving break and bringing them back to DBQ so she could make them for him before Christmas. I also recall Grandma asking me to pick up a loaf of sour dough bread at a bakery on Bluff Street for Grandpa...just because she knew he really liked it. She didn't want me to mention to Grandpa how expensive it was because he, in all his frugality, would not have wanted her to buy it for him. These were Grandma's little touches to make people feel special...and I would have never known about them had I not been running errands for her while she was recovering from a heart attack.

Candy Cane Brownies

You can even use a mix for these little trees!

Today was one of those days when your little child scampers up to you and asks, "So, what treat am I bringing to my Christmas party today?" and hands me a note from his religious education teacher that he received LAST week...about the party TODAY!

Whuh?

As I recall, all the kids said that they didn't need to bring anything to their parties--only a couple of ornaments for the older kids to trade with their classmates. The children were finishing up making homemade cards for all their teachers when Jimmer sprang this one on me. So goes life.

No time for creative thought. My husband had taken the family vehicle to work since it was too rainy and cold to take his open Jeep, so I couldn't get to the store. Hmmm...not much in the pantry, though I had a box of unsweetened chocolate.

I just want to say a big thanks to my neighbor, Julia, who had candy canes that I could use to make these holiday brownies.

Directions:

The easy way to make these brownies is to use a box mix, add 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract (very good, but optional if you don't have it on hand) to the batter and bake as directed in a 9 x 13-inch pan. Using a quart-sized zipper baggie, crush four larger-sized candy canes with a mallet.



When the brownies have about 5 minutes left to bake, take them out of the oven, distribute the crushed candy canes over the top of the brownies, press them gently into the top, and finish baking.

If you're like me and don't have a mix, then make a fudgey version of your favorite brownie. I cut the vanilla extract in half and add 1/2 tsp. of peppermint extract.

Today, instead of just adding the crushed candy canes on top, I sprinkled on some milk chocolate chips five minutes before the brownies were done. After they were done baking, I spread the chocolate over the brownies with a knife, then sprinkled the crushed candy canes over the chocolate.

Allow the brownies to cool completely, then cut them into triangular tree shapes for that little extra Christmassy somethin', flip them all onto a red plastic plate, top it with non-festive, plain old clear cellophane (that is molecularily opposed to bonding with red plastic plates), hand them to your six year old, let him know that you'd like him not to run with them and drop them all before he gets to his party, and send him on his way with his dad...who has now returned just bit late with the family vehicle to run all the children to their parties.

Now close the door, pour some spiked egg nog, and finish wrapping Christmas presents while all the kids are away for that one and only precious hour a week that they are out of the house without you at their side. Ahhhhhh!

If I had the time, the ingredients and the gumption, I may have tried making these yummy looking brownies. The recipe has a few extra steps I just didn't have time for today.

Note: If you looked really closely at the picture of the final brownies, you'd notice a very sparce sprinkling of green sugar. I didn't think it addded anything special, so I stopped and left it with barely noticable greenery.

Cake Ball Christmas Tree

The inspiration for this Christmas tree treat totally came from Bakerella's directions on making cake balls. This Christmas tree is made from red velvet cake mix and cream cheese frosting, and covered in melted candy wafers. The cake balls were then arranged on a foil-covered Styrofoam cone "tree" with toothpicks. A nice centerpiece for a festive holiday party.

If you think this looks festively fun, you really should check out Bakerella's site. She has a perfectionist way of decorating all sorts of cake ball-type goodies and, of course, other scrumptious baked goods.

Using the same method of arranging the little cakes on the Styrofoam tree, I've also created a more decadent chocolate truffle tree. This will be a post for another time.
Basic directions are:

Bake a cake mix in a 9" x 13" pan. Let it cool, then crumble it up in a large bowl. Then take a standard off-the-shelf tub of frosting and mix it in (I used a fork to mix) until it all is crumbly-sticky. Grab a glob of the mix, roll it with your hands and plop it onto a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet. I stuck mine in the freezer to firm up before coating.

Psst.

Don't tell anyone, but I didn't use up the whole can of frosting. The cake held together sufficiently using only a little more than 3/4 of the frosting. I like a little less frosting.

Here's what your hands will look like after making the cake balls!

Follow the directions for the candy coating wafers (you can get in most grocery stores or in the cake decorating section of craft stores), dip the cake balls and get festive or creative or nutty with your designs!
For the green accent, I just melted some green wafers in a glass bowl in the microwave and plopped it into a quart-sized freezer zip bag. I snipped off a tiny bit of a corner then scribbled away on the cake balls. Yep, I just scribbled back and forth. I'm no perfectionist like Bakerella. If you look closely at the tree you can see little crumbs of cake, hanging strings of green scribble, blobs of coating here and there. Nope, no time for being a perfectionist!
I ended up making smaller (and more) balls out of the 9" x 13" cake to fill up the tree proportionately. I made about 70 balls and used 66 starting with 11 on the bottom and reducing by about one each layer. So, let me see...70-66=4 means I had four lucky children who got to pop unused cake balls!

It would even look better if the balls had been smaller--even graded in size to have the larger ones (1-1/4 inch) at the bottom and smaller ones (1 inch) near the top. See how some of those top ones kind of stick out like a sore thumb?
It's just not festive to think about sore thumbs. So, smaller balls at the top equals no sore thumbs!

Voila!


Your very own Red Velvet Cream Cheese Cake Ball Christmas Tree. But instead of saying that mouthful, just fill your mouth with these little crowd pleasers!

Again, for more inspiration check out Bakerella. She's full of cake ball ideas. Go wild and get creative!

Mashed Potatoes--Creamy & Rich (make ahead)

My Aunt Joanne cooked many a meal for her brood of five children, extended family, and many friends. She knew how to please a crowd with her food...and endless supply of candy and soda pop! These potatoes are one of her crowd-pleasing recipes. After tasting these super creamy and rich mashed potatoes, you won't go back to the plain dab-of-butter-and-bit-of-milk mashed potatoes again.

What, you say, could make this recipe even better? These spuds can be made ahead of time, refrigerated, then baked on the day of your special meal. These are one of our Thanksgiving meal favorites.

5 lbs. potatoes, your favorite kind (our crew likes Yukon Gold)
1-8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
8 oz. sour cream
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 TBSP Lowrys seasoned salt (using regular salt is okay too)

Dice potatoes to a uniform size--about 1-1/2 inches. You can peel the potatoes if you prefer, but if I'm using potatoes with a thin skin like Yukon Golds, our crew prefers them unpeeled. Cover with cold water; add 1 tsp. of salt to the water and bring to boil until fork tender. Drain all moisture out very thoroughly. With potatoes put back into the pot, add the cream cheese, sour cream and salt and allow them to warm together for a few minutes. Add the softened butter and mash potatoes by hand with a masher until you reach your desired consistency. If the potatoes aren’t smooth enough after using a masher, use your mixer briefly to whip them to your liking, being careful to avoid overmixing.

If making ahead: Store potatoes in a greased oven-proof covered casserole dish overnight. When ready to reheat, place foil covered casserole dish in the oven at 350 degrees (or whatever moderate temperature other food is being cooked) for at least 1-1/2 hours. You can reduce reheat time by setting out the potatoes for an hour or two before reheating them in the oven.

Veggie Skeleton

You know your kids are going to have way too much candy on Halloween, so here's a healthy snack idea for a change. Added bonus: Because kids like the idea of eating this helpless guy's "bones" (ewww!?), they just may eat more veggies than usual. A healthy snack with entertainment value. A keeper!

Head--lettuce leaves, sliced olives, veggie dip in a small bowl
Body--celery, baby carrots, bell pepper, mushrooms, cherry or grape tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumbers

Arrange the veggies on a platter in the shape of a skeleton, top with an appropriate sized bowl of veggie dip for the head. (I'm sure your presentation will look better than mine. Note to self: skip the waxed paper next time. I'm not really sure WHY I used it in the first place.)

Take a picture of your final Veggie Man, print it up, then let your kids recreate him with the left-over veggies the next day.

I found this vegetable skeleton idea on the internet last year, but I'll be darned if I can find it now to give appropriate credit.

Fruit Rosary

To celebrate Our Lady of the Rosary today, we put together a fruit Rosary. Celebrating with food always goes over well--especially with a bunch of kids! I'm sure if I had planned better, I could have thought of lots of food variations to make a Rosary, but this is what we had around today. Mmmm...prayers never tasted so good!

53 grapes (for the Hail Marys)
6 strawberries (for the Our Fathers)
2 small celery sticks (for the cross)
some pretzels (for the corpus)
peanut butter (for glue)

Assemble into the form of a Rosary, say the prayers as you eat it!

Birthday Cakes!

What we do for our children!

Somehow, we've set a precedent for our children's birthdays. A day of fun, a scavenger hunt to find their birthday gifts (with all clues in verse), and a cake of their request. Believe me, I have no special cake decorating abilities, as you'll see if you look close enough. I have a couple of decorating tips, but only the ones that attach to the little tubes of colored frosting that you can buy at any grocery store. I rarely even use those. So you don't need any special equipment. Now if you want to make a simply beautifully decorated cake, go get some real decorator tips, take a cake decorating class...or go buy one. Those decadent bakery cakes are what I go for (better yet, just give me a big gooey and very chocolatey brownie), but for our children...they just want a cake that they've requested and looks cool to them. Here are some of their past requests for cakes that I've made.

"Mommy, can you make me a sleep-over cake this year?" was Mary Kate's request the other day. This sleep-over cake is made from a 9 x 13-inch cake with Twinkies for bodies, Reese's peanut butter cups for the heads, smashed large marshmallow for the pillows, and candies to embellish. I found this idea in Cooking for Kids Bible.



"Can you make a fun and yummy cheesecake?" was the request from Kathleen and Mikey. A tie-died cheesecake was the answer--red velvet cake on the bottom and swirled colored cheesecake mixture on top. I used the recipe from this site, but I'd strongly suggest that you only use about 1/3 of the red velvet cake batter and increase all the ingredients for the cheesecake proportionately to use 24 oz. of cream cheese instead of 16 oz. I made these changes, and was relieved I did. Otherwise it would have been like eating cake with a little cream cheese frosting.


Flower and bugs cake--made from one cake mix in a bundt pan, a small round cake pan, and a few cupcakes...and lots of colored frosting.


Soccer ball for our soccer super star--baked in a Pyrex bowl.


I used this recipe for the Mom Cat and Kitten Cakes--made from a couple of frozen pound cakes.


A monster truck made from a 9 x 13-inch cake, a couple of small round cakes, and candy for embellishments.


A cheetah cake made from a 9 x 13-inch cake and a small round cake with jelly beans as the spots.


A rainbow cake made from a bundt cake.


Flip-flop cake made with two frozen pound cakes, ice cream, whipped topping, and candy embellishments. Check out this site for the recipe. It can also be made with a regular cake and frosting. Get this recipe here.


Mike just HAD to have an Army helmet cake. I made one round cake layer and baked the rest in a Pyrex bowl. Check here for directions.


A lion cake--made from two regular cake layers and a small amount of batter baked in a small Pyrex bowl.


This cake was a big hit, especially since Mary Kate had a life-sized Raggedy Ann doll and had dressed up as Raggedy Ann for Halloween! I got the recipe here.


"A monster jeep riding up a mountain." That's what Mikey requested! It was made from a 9 x 13-inch cake and a couple of cup cakes. I sure could have done more with the "mountain" but when I need to make two cakes at a time for my twins, somethin's gotta give!


What will they ask for next?

Addendum:
(Here's what we've made since the original post.)

Mary Kate wanted a "volcano cake with tropical flowers." This is what she got.

The cake idea was from here, and the tropical flower idea from here.

Another "monster truck riding up a mountain" was in order. This time it was 3D, and I just winged it with various-sized cake layers topped with a cupcake for the mountain, the truck was made with a frozen pound cake, the boulders were krispie rice balls, and the rest was candy decorations and frosting.


This was an interesting order: a "tree with fall-colored leaves." My daughter ended up with this.

I formed stiff cocoa krispie treat mix around a drinking glass and added roots at the bottom. The "tree" was green-frosted angel food cake (I used a cardboard base to rest atop of the "tree trunk"), and the colored leaves were cupcake tops that were frosted green and rolled in fruity pebbles.

What have I started with these 3D cakes? I'm scared for the future!