Birds Nest Cookies

While I am definitely not an "artsy-craftsy" type of mom, I like to think I am relatively creative in the kitchen! I had the idea kicking around in my head for at least a week of trying to see if I could make a "thumbprint" cookie. I didn't want to use jam in the middle, but rather, I wanted the cookie to ultimately look like a birds nest. Okay, once I made the cookies and baked them, I had to figure out what the "grass" should be made of. Well, I had some coconut leftover from the ambrosia dessert salad I made a few weeks ago. Hmm, white didn't seem quite the right "color" for the "grass." After taking a quick glance into where I keep my spices, I found some food coloring. Yeah!  I put five drops into a zip top sandwich bag, sealed it up and shook the bag about ten times until the coconut turned green. The last time I was at Kroger, I had picked up a bag of jelly beans, which just so happened to be the right size to be the "eggs" in the nests. Cool - I was able to make these cookies with ingredients I had on hand. I love when that happens! This afternoon, I took Dominic's amazing music therapist a few of these cookies. She always gets a big smile on her face when she sees my "bakery" coming. I think that means she likes it :) Well, we love how much she has taught him!!!!!

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/4 cups white flour

For The Inside of the Nest:

1/2 cup sweetened flake coconut
5 drops of green food coloring


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl, put the butter, sugar, vanilla extract and egg yolks. Cream by hand with a large spoon or with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the baking powder and gradually add the flour, about a 1/2 cup at a time. Stir with large spoon until well combined. Roll into 30 equal sized balls, roughly a little smaller than a golf ball. Place 15 cookies at a time on an ungreased cookie sheet. With your thumb, press down in the middle of each cookie, so your thumb is almost touching the bottom of the cookie sheet. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until the cookies are starting to turn brown. Remove from the oven and let cool on the cookie sheet for five minutes.  Remove to wire rack to cool completely. To make the "grass" for the inside of the nest, put the coconut inside a zip top sandwich bag. Put five drops of green food coloring in, seal it up and shake. Distribute the "grass" between the 30 cookies. I used jelly beans for the "eggs." Have fun!

Rhubarb and Walnut Bread

 

Since I think baking should be fun, from time to time, I like to post pictures of my "bakery" on Facebook and see if any of my "peeps" can figure out what the mystery ingredient(s) might be. Well, today, nobody guessed that this bread had diced rhubarb!! I FINALLY stumped them all! I have to admit, it was a pretty tough one to guess.  The poor hubby. I had been promising him since last summer, when I put some diced rhubarb in the freezer, that I would make him rhubarb "buckle." Yesterday, I told him that it would be bread instead. Since I was making this recipe up as I was going along, I wasn't quite sure what the end result would be. When I offered a piece of the bread to the hubby this afternoon, he told me it was a 10 out of 10! He is always willing to be my taste tester and he (almost) always rates my baked goods a 10 - that's one of the reasons why I married him!

Ingredients

2 cups white flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon sour cream
2/3 cup rhubarb, chopped
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 1 1/2 quart loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.  In a large bowl, put the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, orange juice, canola oil, egg, vanilla extract and sour cream.  Mix well with large spoon and then "fold" in the rhubarb and walnuts gently. Mix to combine. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack for 15 minutes. Invert pan and remove the bread to wire rack to continue to cool. If desired, you can make the cream cheese frosting above and sprinkle a handful of chopped walnuts on top! Store covered in the fridge.

Ambrosia Dessert Salad

Okay, how many of you out there have ever heard of ambrosia? I looked through a handful of my cookbooks to try and determine whether it was a salad or a dessert. In one of my cookbooks, the recipe was in the salad section and in another, it was under fruit desserts. Good grief, which is it?!?!?! How about if we call it an ambrosia dessert salad???? I know, let's call it YUMMY!!! Hmm, with Easter right around the corner, wouldn't this look great (and colorful) on the table? Note: I used a 20-ounce can of pineapple chunks that were packed in juice and a 15-ounce can of mandarin oranges packed in light syrup. By the time I drained out all the juice from the pineapple chunks, I had about a 1/2 cup left (I think I'll use the chunks for a breakfast smoothie tomorrow morning). When I drained the juice from the mandarin oranges, it was exactly one cup! I normally have white marshmallows on hand, but since I didn't, I bought the colored ones the other day at the grocery store - aren't they cool?!?!

Ingredients

1 cup pineapple chunks, drained
1 cup mandarin oranges, drained
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup mini marshmallows (white or colored)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans (chopped),
  if desired

In medium bowl, put the pineapple chunks, mandarin oranges, coconut and marshmallows. Mix gently with large spoon. Add the sour cream and combine thoroughly. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge a minimum of one hour. When ready to serve, sprinkle with the chopped walnuts or pecans (if you want) and toss lightly.  Serve immediately. Makes five cups.

Scones

If I were alone on a desert island, I could probably survive on just muffins, biscuits and scones!! The word "scone" instantly makes me think of a fancy tearoom.  Since I don't have a "tearoom" in my house, I have to settle for our kitchen table :) This morning, before Dominic and I left to see his private speech therapist, I had one of these scones for breakfast. Since St. Patrick's Day is in just a few days, I decided to sprinkle some green sugar on top. I guess if I wanted, I could have even had an Irish Coffee with the scone. I looked up the ingredients in an Irish Coffee. It consists of hot coffee, Irish whiskey, sugar and cream. Hmm, that drink might be better suited to go with our "traditional" New England Boiled Dinner of corned beef, cabbage, onions, potatoes and carrots that I make every St. Patrick's Day!!

Ingredients

2 cups white flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon white sugar (for topping)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In large bowl, put the flour, baking powder, 2 1/2 teaspoons white sugar and salt. Mix well with spoon. "Cut" in the butter with two knives. Make a "well" in the middle of the batter and add the milk. Combine well and then remove to a lightly floured surface. Knead about 20 times and then flatten out with a rolling pin or your hands to an 8-inch circle. Slice into eight equal triangles and then place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Sprinkle the one teaspoon of white sugar evenly on the tops of the eight scones. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the bottoms of the scones are lightly browned. Remove immediately to a wire rack. Serve warm.

Zucchini/Coconut Muffins with Pecans

Zucchini is one of those vegetables that is very versatile. You can eat it raw with some dip or steam it to make a side dish. How about tossing some chopped zucchini into a slow cooker along with a bunch of other veggies to make vegetarian chili? Decisions, decisions. Well, my favorite way to use zucchini is making it into bread or muffins! Since I had a bag of shredded coconut in my pantry and some chopped pecans in the freezer, I decided to put a 1/2 cup of each into the muffin batter too!! I was keeping my fingers crossed while the muffins were baking, because I wasn't quite sure how it would taste. Well, I shouldn't have worried at all - these muffins are so yummy! Who knew that zucchini, coconut and pecans would make such an awesome threesome?!?!?!?! These muffins also contain one of my other favorite "threesomes" - cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger! One thing I've learned about baking with zucchini, it is a very wet vegetable! I shredded an entire zucchini and put it into a measuring cup. I then took my fist and gently pressed the zucchini down and then turned the measuring cup upside down over the sink.  So much water came out, that it then became only a 1/2 cup! Good grief. I ended up shredding another whole zucchini and then draining that water out too. I like a moist muffin, but what if I hadn't got all that extra liquid out?? Yikes!

Ingredients

1 cup zucchini, unpeeled and shredded
  (about two medium)
1 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/2 cup sweetened coconut, shredded
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Fill a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners and set aside. In small bowl, shred and drain out the extra liquid from the zucchini, until it equals one cup. Set aside. In large bowl, put the white flour, white sugar, light brown sugar, egg, canola oil, vanilla extract, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Add the zucchini and mix well with large spoon. Mix in the coconut and pecans and combine until well incorporated. Distribute the batter evenly into the 12 paper liners. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into one of the muffins comes out clean. Remove from oven and let the muffins cool for five minutes before removing to a wire rack to continue to cool. Enjoy!

Banana Smoothie

 

When the hubby was getting ready to leave this morning for work, he remarked that three of the bananas in the bowl looked, "very ripe." Yep, they certainly were great "candidates" for banana bread. Since I just made banana muffins last week, I decided instead to whip up a smoothie. I tossed a little bit of this and a little bit of that into my trusty blender and made a delicious concoction. We received an automated phone call at 5:15 this morning that Dominic's school was closed because of the subzero temperatures. That meant I had one of my taste-testers here to try a "sample." I poured the smoothie mixture into two glasses and tucked a straw into each one. Dominic and I polished ours off in less than 10 minutes. One thing I have heard incessantly lately from my son is, "Mommy, I'm hungry!"  Well, after Dominic had his smoothie, I didn't hear him utter that phrase for about three hours. That's a new record. LOL.  If you have a growing preteen boy like I do, give him this smoothie. It hopefully will keep him "filled up" for at least a few minutes!!

Ingredients

6 ounce container vanilla yogurt
3 small bananas, very ripe, chopped
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1/2 tablespoon honey
1 cup ice cubes
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put all ingredients into a blender in the order given. Blend until smooth and creamy. Serve immediately. Makes two cups.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I grew up in Maryland and have lived in the Midwest for over 13 years, but I love southern food, like jambalaya, hush puppies, sweet potato casserole, pulled pork, pecan pie and any kind of corn bread! Red velvet cake is a very popular dessert in the South. I have made red velvet cupcakes from a box (I used either Duncan Hines or Better Crocker, I can't remember) and while they were delicious, I was curious if I could make my own version from scratch. A key ingredient in a red velvet cake or cupcakes is buttermilk. I made a special trip yesterday to the grocery store and would you believe, I couldn't find any in the dairy case?!?!? Rather than giving up, I made my own. There are only two ingredients to buttermilk - lemon juice (which I haven't tried) or white vinegar (which I used) and milk. Did you ever see that movie, Steel Magnolias? If you did, do you remember the armadillo groom's cake? it was made out of red velvet cake!  I whipped some of these cupcakes up yesterday afternoon. They are so yummy that if I close my eyes while I'm eating one, I can almost picture myself down in the South where it's warm and sunny, instead of here, where we had to shovel a path,

To get to our mailbox!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
2 1/3 cups white flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons red food coloring
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put cupcake liners into a 12-cup cupcake tin. In large bowl, put the sugar and butter. Beat with electric mixer on low speed for two minutes or by hand until smooth. Add the eggs, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix until well combined. In small bowl, put the buttermilk, red food coloring, vanilla extract and the white vinegar. If you need to make your own buttermilk, put a tablespoon of white vinegar in a one cup measuring cup and pour in enough milk to make one cup. Let it stand 15 minutes. Add the ingredients of the smaller bowl into the ingredients in the large bowl and beat on low speed for about one minute or by hand until well incorporated. Pour batter evenly into the cupcake liners. This recipe made 18 cupcakes for me, but I filled the cupcake liners just a teeny bit too full!  The next time I make these cupcakes, I think I'll only fill the tins about 1/2 way up with batter :) Bake for 18-21 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and let them cool about five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to continue cooling. When cupcakes are completely cool, frost with the cream cheese frosting below. Store covered in the fridge.

Cream Cheese Frosting

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Put all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix by hand or with electric mixer until smooth and creamy.

* Feel free to sprinkle the cupcakes with red sprinkles (like I did) or with chopped pecans!