Toasted Coconut Pound Cake

I made this last week for Good Friday brunch and it is delicious! The buttermilk gives it a true pound cake texture and all the toasted coconut inside and out make it a rich coconut flavor. It is a wonderful spring and summer cake to make and share!

Get the recipe from Little Bits of here. 

Morning Glory Muffins

Abby loves to bake. My 4 year old knows where we keep all the baking supplies- she knows the difference between baking soda and baking powder, loves to open the salt spout and knows vegetable oil and olive oil are different. We have lots of fun baking with each other.

She wanted to bake together one afternoon and I dug around and had what we needed to make Morning Glory Muffins that I had seen on Big Mama's blog. We made them and ate them up! These are a great muffin for sneaking in some healthy stuff. They held up well and we have all packed them for breakfast this past week. Plus, I learned that Starbuck's sells these, too!

Morning Glory Muffins from The Big Mama Blog

Mix together:

1 1/4 cup sugar

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tbs. cinnamon

2 tsp.baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Add:

1/2 cup coconut 

3/4 cup raisins

1 large apple peeled and grated

2 cup grated carrots

1/2 cup chopped nuts 

Stir to combine

In a separate bowl mix together:

3 large eggs

1 cup veg oil 

2 tsp. vanilla 

Mix dry ingredients into egg mixture.

Spoon into muffin cups and bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.

Our changes: We sprinkled additional cinnamon and coarse sugar on top to give a little extra flavor and crunch. I hate a soggy muffin- crunch is good :)

Holidays Recipes of 2012

I have spent a lot of my holidays in the kitchen... and I love it! I made some favorites this year and tried a few new recipes. These are the best of our 2012 holidays...

For my daughter's Christmas party, they had a breakfast potluck and the kids wore their jammies. I brought Bacon and Egg Muffins. They are yummy and both her teachers wanted the recipe! 

For Christmas Eve lunch, we had tamales from a local restaurant with a few chips and dip and this Chocolate Poke cake for dessert. We always place our Little People Jesus on the cake and sing Happy Birthday to him. There was something wrong about my daughter licking frosting off the Baby Jesus that made us all laugh! There is nothing wrong with this cake- Peppermint Creamer poured into chocolate cake is genius!

Christmas morning, we had our traditional monkey bread. I love this bread and don't think I have had it since Christmas last year. It is delish and smells great while opening presents.

For Christmas lunch, we were at my Dad and Jacque's house and I brought dessert. We had Pioneer Woman's Apple Dumplings and Pineapple Pretzel salad. I love both of these desserts! My Dad doesn't eat chocolate and my BIL only eats apple pie for dessert, so these were perfect to please them.

Christmas dinner we were back at home with my Mom and I made one of my husband's favorites soups with sausage and tortellini. It cooked in the crock pot while we were at my Dad's house and was ready for us when we got home. The temperature dropped about 30 degrees while this soup was cooking, so it was great to have for dinner.

Easy Sausage and Tortellini Soup

Pour into your crockpot the following:
1 can French Onion Soup
2 cans Italian (garlic and olive oil) diced tomatoes
3 cups water
2 cups frozen green beans
1 link sausage, cut into small bite size pieces

Cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5.

Add:
cold or frozen cheese tortellini

Cook on high for 15-30 minutes.

Serve and top with shredded cheese.

Four Fall Breads and a Pumpkin

My husband is in sales and a couple of times per year he likes to take treats to his suppliers, clients, and the reps he works with. I love baking and can't eat it all myself, so I happily bake for his job!

A few weeks ago, I volunteered to bake loaves of fall bread for him and I ended up baking 18 loaves of bread over 2 days! Thank goodness I could bake more than one loaf at a time since each loaf baked for an hour.

My breakfast nook bench was my makeshift pantry of baking needs. I used almost 3 bags of flour alone!

Here is a picture of the yummy breads and the recipes...

Strawberry Pecan bread, this is one of my favorites because it is really moist

Pumpkin bread found online... it wasn't great so I'm not going to share that one :)

Banana Walnut Bread, my Nana's recipe

Caramel Glazed Apple Bread, a new find via Pinterest

I baked them in throw away silver foil containers and after wrapping them in Saran Wrap, I added a little orange tulle and a pre-printed shipping label from my ever handy digital scrapbooking software!

Finally, in the fall spirit I found these cute little burlap and velvet pumpkins at Hobby Lobby! They had various sizes and at 40% off, this one was $6. I love finding things at Hobby Lobby that look so much more boutiquey.

Happy Fall Ya'll!

Dutch Oven Jalapeno Cheese Bread

Don't forget to enter the Me and Lulu giveaway below! Winner will be drawn on May 1st.

We had dinner with a friend earlier this year and she made wonderful homemade bread with the meal. I snagged her recipe and it led me to my first load of homemade bread. It was wonderful and when I posted a picture of the dough rising, everyone was hungry!

I love cheese and this little girl did a great job of helping me put all the cubed cheese into a bowl. 

 Well, almost all of it. We needed a little snack after all that work :)

With all of the ingredients in the bowl, it looked like this.

Two hours later, it rose and started to look wet and sticky. 

This recipe makes 3 loaves and this is 1/3 or one loaf of bread dough ready to rise.

You can see the dough rising and doubling in size over a three hour period. It was fun for Abby Lu to watch it grow as we checked on it hourly.

The final product- delicious! Make your own!

 Homemade Jalapeno Cheese Bread

3 cups warm water

1 1/2 T yeast

1 1/2 T sugar

1 1/2 T salt

6 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup jarred sliced jalapenos, drained

1 1/2 cup cubed cheddar cheese, about .5"

Mix all ingredients together and stir only until the flour is integrated, about 1 minute. Don't knead- the dough is supposed to look wet and sticky.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter for 2 hours.

Lay the dough on a floured cutting board and cut into 3 pieces. Place 2/3 back in the bowl. It can be stored in the refridgerator for up to 7 days.

Take the individual loaf (1/3 of the total dough) and fold in half, then into thirds. Let it "rest" for 10 minutes.

Flour the outside of the dough and place it in a tea towel and cover it. It should sit in the towel until it doubles in size, about 3 hours for mine.

Preheat the oven to 450 with an empty dutch oven inside. Place the dough in the oven and put the lid on top. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes before slicing to serve. Enjoy!

My Nana's Banana Nut Bread

My Nana passed away about 10 years ago. She was my favorite- a Godly woman who raised 8 strong kids (many years as a widow), a seamstress, over the top accessorizer, and a wonderful cook. She is all the things that I want to be when I grow up. There was always hard candy and a big hug to greet you.

She met my husband for which I am so grateful. I only wish she had met Abby. Sometimes Abby will stick her tongue out when she is thinking (a trait my Nana had) and I think they met in heaven. I am grateful her church had a cookbook each year and I have some of her recipes within in. 

I made 2 loaves of her Banana Nut Bread for church recently. It feels full circle to bring my Nana's bread to my church as I serve and hopefully make her proud.

Nana's Banana Nut Bread


2 1/2 cup flour
2 cup sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 t. vanilla
2 t. baking soda
4 eggs, well beaten
6 lg. ripe bananas
1 c. nuts (I like walnut halves and use more like 2 cups!)
1 c. shortening

Stir flour, salt, and soda together in small ball. Set aside. In blender, cream shortening, sugar and vanilla.Add bananas, eggs, and nuts to sugar mix. Mix well. Slowly add in flour mixture while blending. Put in well greased loaf pans (2). Bake at 350 for 45 to 50 minutes. Enjoy!

Blueberry Peach Muffins with Granola

A group of ladies and I were responsible for breakfast for a PEO council meeting Saturday morning. I made one of my favorite muffins and have the recipe below to share with you.

There is no mix and dried blueberries in this recipe, so you can expect a big mess in the kitchen.

But these pretty muffins will impress your guests and be all worth it! Plus, they are pretty healthy with yogurt, egg whites and no oil.

And, how do you transport 3 dozen muffins? In your bundt pan upside-down of course!

recipe from Family Circle magazine

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 container (6 ounces) fruit-on-the-bottom peach yogurt
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 pint (1 cup) fresh blueberries ( I used frozen)
• 1/2 cup low-fat granola, lightly crushed (I don't both crushing it)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Coat a standard 12-indentation muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. On waxed paper, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1/4 cup water, the egg, egg white and melted butter. Stir the flour mixture into the yogurt mixture just until moistened. Gently fold in blueberries.

3. Divide batter evenly among the prepared muffin indentations, about a heaping 1/4 cup batter for each. Sprinkle crushed granola over all muffin tops (dividing evenly).

4. Bake muffins at 350°F for 20 minutes or until crowned and golden around the edges. Let muffins cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Transfer muffins directly to rack; serve slightly warm, if desired.

Strawberry Pecan Bread

Last weekend, my husband daughter and I went to a local farm to pick strawberries. They start out like this ...

then these come along...

and when you pick them, wash them, and slice them...

you can make this yummy strawberry pecan bread!

Strawberry Pecan Bread

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 t cinnamon

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

20 ounces fresh or frozen strawberries

1/4 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs, well beaten

1 1/4 cup pecans, chopped

Mix together flour, sugar, cinnamon, soda and salt. Make a well in the center and add strawberries, oil and eggs. Mix until well blended. Stir in pecans. Pour into 2 well greased loaf pans and make at 350 for 1 hour. Enjoy!

This berry sweet girl sure will!

Green Chile Cornbread

Is cornbread a Southern thing? If so, I can never live in the North.

This cold weather made me want beans and cornbread for dinner. And, Southern Living knows a good cornbread. Now, I know a good cornbread and thought you should too.

Southern Living's Green Chile Cornbread

2 7.5 oz. boxes of cornbread mix (like Jiffy)

1 8.5 oz. can cream style corn

1 4.5 oz. can chopped green chiles, drained

1 c. shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 c. plain yogurt

1/4 c. milk

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Mix all ingredients together, stirring until just moist (I HATE that word and wish I could find a substitute to keep my blog moist free!). Pour batter into a lightly greased 13x9 pan. Bake at 450 for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy warm with a little butter.