Creamy Eggs

This is our traditional Easter morning breakfast.  It is hard-boiled eggs in a thick cream sauce poured over toast.  We also have kielbasa on the side.  My dad even sings (he is not known for his singing), 'We're creamed eggs on toast! Mom & Dad were Easter Eggs!!' as he ladles up the creamy eggs for us.  It's a great tradition, and I was nervous when I made it for Zak the first time, but he was sold from the first bite.  I made this for breakfast this weekend, because my brother is visiting and we didn't get to make this for Easter, as we were visiting Zak's grandparents.  I was unsure of how many eggs to make, if I should halve the sauce recipe or what, but what I made turned out to be the right amount for the three of us to stuff ourselves with!  It was delicious and worth the wait!

6 hard-boiled eggs

1 cube + 1 Tbl. butter

6 Tbl. flour

3 c. milk

salt & pepper

7 pieces of toast

1.  Place eggs in a small saucepan, and add enough cold water to cover them.  Bring to a rolling boil, then remove from heat, cover and let sit for 15 minutes.  Drain and add to cold water with ice cubes.

2.  Heat butter on medium heat in microwave until melted.

3.  Whisk in flour, cook on medium heat 1 1/2 - 2 minutes, until bubbling almost reaches the top of the bowl.

4.  Slowly add in milk.  Cook on medium heat for 3 minutes.  Stir, cook for 2 minutes.  Keep repeating until sauce has thickened.

5.  Peel and cut up eggs, and add to thickened sauce.  Sprinkle in salt & pepper and combine.  

6.  Serve over toast and enjoy!

enjoy with juice!

Slow-Cooker Old-World Corned Beef & Vegetables

I used to not be a big corned beef fan.  But then I grew up and now look forward to having it every St. Patrick's Day!  I've only made it once before, our first married St. Patrick's Day, and don't remember what I did.  So I went on a little hunt for some good instructions and a recipe, especially because I invited our friends over, I wanted it to work out well.  I found this recipe and was a bit hesitant--it had me discard the seasoning packet!  But I thought it'd work out well for us, and looked easy enough.  Zak helped me with the veggies and everything, and after 8 long hours in the crockpot, we finally got to eat.  It was very, very good--we have just enough leftovers for one of us to eat.  I used 'Idaho gold' potatoes instead of red potatoes, some pearl onions and baby carrots.  It was so simple, and we have a bonus brisket, so I plan on making this again in a little bit!

2 lbs. golden/new/red? potatoes (8-10), quartered
2 c. baby carrots, halved
1 c. frozen small whole onions, thawed--I used about half a bag of white pearl onions and cut them in half
1 corned beef brisket, 3 - 3 1/2 lbs.
pepper
1/2 c. water
1 Tbl. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbl. cornstarch
2 Tbl. cold water

1.  Mix potatoes, carrot and onions in a 4 - 6 quart slow cooker.
2.  Thoroughly rinse corned beef; discard seasoning packet.  Place beef on vegetables, sprinkle with pepper.
3.  Mix 1/2 c. water with Worcestershire sauce and pour over beef.
4.  Cover and cook on low for 8 - 9 hours, or until beef and vegetables are tender.
5.  Remove beef and vegetables from slow cooker; cover to keep warm.
6.  Pour juices into saucepan and heat to boiling.  Mix cornstarch and cold water until smooth; stir in.
7.  Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce has thickened.

right before making the gravy and eating

the potatoes were so tender and delicious

wonderful carrots and onions

the meat was amazing!

Irish Chocolate Guinness Cake

For St. Patrick's Day, in addition to corned beef, our friends requested I make this cake.  I agreed because I really love making cakes and it looks like it'd be a delicious, moist cake.  Plus I can't say no to a recipe with cream cheese frosting.  I'm a sucker for the stuff.  Anyways, this cake is delicious.  It's very thick, moist and easy to eat.  It's so very good, so good that Zak didn't want me to give any away to our friends!

Cake
1 c. Guinness
1/2 c. butter, cubed
2 c. sugar
3/4 c. cocoa
2 eggs
2/3 c. sour cream
3 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 c. heavy whipping cream

1.  Grease a 9" spring-form pan, then line with parchment paper.  Set aside; set oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Melt butter in a small saucepan.  Once butter is mostly melted, add beer and stir until butter has completely melted.  Remove from heat.
3.  In a large bowl, combine sugar and cocoa.  Add in beer mixture and stir until smooth.
4.  In a small bowl, beat eggs.  Add vanilla and sour cream, mix well.  Add to large bowl with beer and chocolate.
5.  Mix in flour and baking soda until completely smooth.  Pour in prepared pan.
6.  Bake for 40 - 45 minutes, until toothpick is inserted in middle and comes out clean.
7.  Cool completely on wire rack, still in pan.  Once cake has cooled, remove from pan and place on cake plate.
8.  Beat cream cheese until fluffy.  Slowly add in powdered sugar and heavy cream and beat until smooth.
9.  Frost cake and refrigerate.  Bring to room temperature about half an hour before serving.  Store leftovers in fridge.

delicious

a thick, moist piece of cake!

Christmas Treat Boxes (Oreo Truffles, Chocolate Cookie Bark)

This year I made treat boxes for our friends for Christmas.  I made the Oreo truffles that were a hit the year before, and a peppermint crunch variation.  I also made a very simple cookie bark, some covered in semi-sweet chocolate, the other in white chocolate.  I had a fun time making these, I just put on some Christmas music and went about my day, and eating pieces of the goodies here and there.  These recipes are all very simple, and everyone told me how much they loved them.  So here you go, enjoy!

Oreo Truffles

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 package (16 oz.) Oreo cookies (also can use other cookie variations, if desired)

16 oz. semi-sweet chocolate 

optional white chocolate to drizzle

1.  Crush cookies in food processor or blender, or by simply putting them in a bag and pounding on them with a rolling pin.  It worked well enough for me.

2.  Pour into bowl with softened cream cheese and mix until well blended.  Place in fridge for about 30 minutes to firm up before rolling.

3.  Roll mixtures into 48 (1 inch) balls and place in freezer for 30 - 60 minutes.  If the mixture gets to soft while rolling, place bowl in fridge until it becomes more firm.  

4.  Right before removing from freezer, melt chocolate.  Dip each ball into chocolate and place on a wax or parchment paper lined baking sheet.  

5.  Place baking sheet in fridge for 30 - 60 minutes.  Before removing, melt remaining chocolate or white chocolate and melt.  Remove balls from fridge and drizzle chocolate on each ball.  Refrigerate again until ready to serve or package up.

should make at least 48 truffles, depending on size

Peppermint Crunch Oreo Truffles

6 - 10 candy canes, finely chopped, divided (save some for sprinkling on top)

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 package Oreos

16 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

1.  Follow same directions and fridge/freezer times as above.  Except add in a fair amount of the crushed candy canes with the Oreos and cream cheese.  When you're dipping them in chocolate, sprinkle some of the saved candy canes on top immediately after.

so yummy and pretty!

Chocolate Cookie Bark [I doubled this recipe, and did half with semi-sweet chocolate, half with white chocolate, but feel free to use your own variations, etc.]

1 package Oreos

2 2/3 c. white chocolate chips

2 2/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 tsp. vanilla extract (use with semi-sweet)

1.  Line a 9-inch baking pan with wax paper.  Coat with nonstick spray and set aside.

2.  Take half of the cookies from the package and crush them.  They don't need to be as small as the truffles.

3.  Melt the semi-sweet chips and, once it's cooled a bit, add in extract.  

4.  Add cookies into chocolate and mix until incorporated.  

5.  Pour into prepared pan and spread to a 1/2-inch thickness.  Refrigerate until solid, about 1 hour.

6.  Remove from pan, carefully peel off wax paper, and place on cutting board.  Using a sharp knife, cut into bars or triangles.  

7.  Repeat and use the remaining cookies with the white chocolate chips.

Makes a couple dozen pieces, it depends on the size.

I cut them into bite-sized chunks, more or less

in the cute boxes 

ready to be delivered!

Thick, Soft Christmas Cookies

These cookies are so delicious!  My mom made these almost every Christmas for our family.  I still have fond memories of helping her roll out the dough, cut out shapes and sneaking pieces of excess dough (it's so yummy!).  I decided to make these for my first time for a Christmas party we went to at our friends'.  The original recipe makes about 9 dozen, so I thought maybe to do 3/4 of the recipe.  And then I ended up with like, 100 cookies.  It probably was because my cookie cutters weren't very big.  But, no matter!  Our friends will just enjoy a bunch of cookies for Christmas.

The frosting was always my favorite part, because my mom did several different flavors and colors.  Usually green peppermint trees, red cherry or strawberry bells, yellow lemon stars, etc.  For the party, I did: green peppermint trees, red cherry candy canes, yellow lemon stars, blue/purple/white almond snowflakes!

Cookies
4 eggs
2 c. sugar
1 c. Crisco
1 c. sour cream
1 tsp. baking soda
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
6 c. flour

1. Mix ingredients in order.  Make sure the batter is light and fluffy before adding the flour.  Also, use the whisk attachment for the ingredients before the flour, then switch to the paddle attachment.  It makes it much easier.
2.  Let dough chill in the fridge for awhile, up to an hour.
3.  On a floured surface, roll out the dough.  Cut with cookie cookies.  Place on cookie sheets (air-cushioned ones are amazing) lined with parchment paper (the best baking tool ever).
4.  Bake at 325-degrees for 8 minutes.  Let cool on pan a few minutes before using a spatula to move to cooling racks.

Frosting
2 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. butter, melted
2 Tbl. milk
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract (or other flavors)
4 - 5 drops green food coloring (or other colors)

[to do 4 different colors, do about 1/2 c. sugar, 2 Tbl. melted butter, 1/2 Tbl. milk, 1/8 tsp. extract, and 2 drops food coloring]

1.  Blend powdered sugar and butter.
2.  Add other ingredients to taste and color preference.  Also, you will probably need to add a bit of milk every now and then to keep the frosting spreadable.

ready to start frosting!

yum!

double yum!

White Cake (with Whipped Cream & Strawberries)

This is the cake I made for Easter, that I mentioned in this blog post. I got the recipe from my mom, who had made it a few weeks earlier for a co-worker's birthday. I figured it would be a perfect Easter/spring cake and called her for the recipe and her tips on it. She said the original recipe had a different filling, but she just to use just whipped cream and strawberries. She suggested I incorporate the strawberries into the whipped cream, in the hopes that it would sit and set up better. She had done: cake/whipped cream/sliced strawberries/whipped cream/cake, etc., and it was a bit slippery. The way I did it worked well, but I didn't need nearly as much whipped cream and strawberries as she suggested, so ... just a note.

Also, another note: follow the recipe exactly. And use parchment paper. It just makes life easier. The cakes turned out perfectly and my confidence level for cake making rose about 50 points after this baking episode.

White Cake (warning, you will be licking the bowl, it is so tasty!)

2 1/4 c. cake flour

1 c. whole milk, room temperature [a tip for getting things to room temperature: set containers in bottom of sink, filled with hot water, leave for 10 or so minutes, just make sure to check periodically]

6 large egg whites (3/4 c.), room temperature

1 tsp. almond extract

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 3/4 c. sugar

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

12 Tbl. unsalted butter, softened but still cool, cut into pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Either cut parchment paper to lay on the bottom of round pans or grease and flour pans.

3. Pour milk, egg white, extracts into 2 c. glass measuring cake and stir with fork until blended.

4. Add cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and beat in mixer on low speed until all mixed up.

5. Add butter, beat on slow speed until resembles coarse crumbs.

6. Add all but 1/2 c. milk mixture, and beat on medium speed 1 1/2 minutes.

7. Add remaining milk mixture, beat 30 seconds on medium speed.

8. Scrape sides of bowl, beat another 20 seconds on medium.

9. Divide batter evenly into pans.

10. Bake on middle rack 23 - 25 minutes. Make sure the middle isn't wobbling; if the cake starts to sink when it's pulled out of the oven, it's not cooked enough.

11. Rest for 3 minutes in pans after pulling out of oven.

12. Loosen sides with a knife around the edges.

13. Turn over onto cooling rack; turnover again so top is facing up (use parchment, if desired).

14. Let cool 1 1/2 hours.

Whipped Cream

1 pint heavy whipping cream

1 lb. strawberries, cut and diced into small pieces

powdered sugar

almond extract (opt.)

vanilla extract (opt.)

1. Beat whipping cream until thick.

2. Add powdered sugar (sorry I don't have an estimate, just until it is sweet enough; don't add sugar to the strawberries because they'll 'leak', so allow the cream to get sweet enough to compensate for the berries) until sweet.

3. If desired, add in some vanilla and/or almond extract. Just eyeball it.

4. Once thick, remove from mixer and incorporate strawberries in by hand.

5. Spread whipping cream between cake layers, on top and on sides if there is enough. It's also good just by itself!

a beautiful golden cake

complete with filling; this cake is very dense and rich

care for a slice?

Delicious Mashed Potatoes

We used this recipe at Thanksgiving, it was wonderful! The secret is evaporated milk.

2 - 3 potatoes per person
1 12-oz. can evaporated milk (unsweetened)
4 Tbl. butter
salt and pepper

1. Boil salted water, add potatoes (small cubes cook faster and mash easier).
2. Drain when tender, usually 15 - 20 minutes.
3. Mash potatoes, add butter.
4. Add evaporated milk gradually, until desired consistency is reached (whole can may or may not be used).
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.