Ginger Cupcakes

As much as I love to bake, I have never ever used molasses. I originally bought a jar to try and make a "Shoo-Fly" pie. I still have that on my "to do" list, but in the meantime, I made some ginger cupcakes!! Ginger is most definitely a spice you need to use in moderation. A little goes a LONG way :) When I found a cupcake recipe using ginger and molasses, I knew it was one to try. When I was frosting these cupcakes after dinner last night, Dominic came over to investigate what I was doing. I told him he had to wait until after he had a bath to "sample" one. He and I both liked them so much we each had two!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups white flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup molasses, unsulphured
1/2 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and put paper liners into a 12-cup baking tin. In a large bowl, put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and butter. Mix well with large spoon. Add the brown sugar, egg and molasses. Combine well. Add the boiling water carefully and stir together until smooth. Pour evenly into the paper liners and bake for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove to wire rack to cool. Frost with your favorite frosting and sprinkles! Makes 12 cupcakes. Store in a covered container at room temperature for up to three days.

Apple Butter/Oatmeal and Walnut Muffins

Doesn't it seem like now that we are in the month of October, pumpkin flavored food is EVERYWHERE??  As much as I love marshmallow Peeps, when I saw the pumpkin spice flavored ones on the JustBorn website, I have to admit, I found that a bit, ahem, different. Well, all righty then.  There are other fall foods besides pumpkin, right? How about the apple?!?! More specifically, apple butter! I looked at the side of the apple butter jar and butter is NOT listed under the ingredients. Why in the world is it called apple butter then?!?!?! Anyways, I wondered if an entire cup of apple butter was put into these muffins if they would be too moist. Well, I shouldn't have worried! They were just right. Whew!

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 cup white flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup apple butter
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside. In large bowl, put the butter, light brown sugar, white sugar, egg, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, salt and apple butter. Mix well with electric mixer or by hand. "Fold" in the oats and walnuts with a large spoon. Distribute batter evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Store covered at room temperature for up to three days.  Makes one dozen.

Tomato Salsa

Recently, the hubby came home from the store with a bunch of really nice looking fresh tomatoes. The only thing is, we already had a bunch! Hmm, they would be great in a salad, but how about homemade salsa?!?!? Sounds yummy, right? The "heat" level of salsa is a very personal preference.  Please feel free to turn up the "temperature" by using hot sauce! I LOVE the Frank's RedHot  brand!!


Ingredients

2 cups chopped tomatoes,
  seeds removed
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
12-ounce package three pepper
  and onion blend, frozen
Few dashes of hot sauce,
  if desired

Put the tomatoes, lemon juice, chili powder, salt, black pepper, hot sauce (if desired) and about a fourth of the frozen bag of the peppers and onions into a blender. Blend until the peppers and onions are well incorporated. Keep adding a fourth of a bag at a time until all the peppers and onions are added. I tried to dump the entire bag into the blender and let's just say my blender was not happy!  Blend ingredients until desired consistency. Makes three cups of salsa. Store covered in a container for up to three days.

Deluxe Pumpkin Bread

When I baked this pumpkin bread last night, it felt like summer. Today, it's cool and rainy. It seems like once the middle of September rolls around, the stores start putting up the Halloween and yes, Christmas displays!  Cathy's Kitchen bakes pumpkin bread year round.  The past couple of times I have made pumpkin bread, I've added chopped pecans and coconut, which made it pretty tasty.  I was curious if I added milk chocolate chips and oats, plus upped the cinnamon and nutmeg, what the end result would be. Well, guess what?!?! It was awesome! I gave the hubby a bite of this warm from the oven and then left the remaining piece on a plate while I did the nightly call with my dad. After I hung up the phone, I was going to eat what was left on the plate. There was none left, the hubby ate it while I was chatting with my dad! That's okay, I still love him anyways!

 

 

This morning, I cut up the pumpkin bread and gave it to the hubby to take to work to share with his co-workers. He told me, "I'm sure it will be a hit!" I sent my husband an e-mail about 10:00 a.m. this morning and asked him how much of the pumpkin bread was left. His response, "the bread is almost completely gone!" Cool.

 

 

Ingredients

 

1 1/2 cups white flour

3/4 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

3/4 cup packed pumpkin

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup canola oil

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan with non-stick spray and set aside. In large bowl, put the flour, sugar, eggs, pumpkin, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, canola oil and water. Mix well by hand or mixer until smooth.  "Fold" the chocolate chips, pecans, oats and coconut into the batter and gently combine with a large spoon.  Pour into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Store covered at room temperature for up to three days. Serves 6-8.



Homemade Hash Browns

During the week, my husband and I don't eat breakfast together. Sunday morning is our time to "re-connect" and I usually make us scrambled eggs and bagels. I decided to change it up a bit this morning by adding homemade hash browns to the "menu."

Wow, these were pretty darn tasty, if I do say so myself. Lauren is home from college this weekend and she woke up late this morning. She put a serving on a plate and popped it into the microwave for lunch. Last year, when Lauren was a freshman and living in the dorm, there was a dining area, literally steps away from the front door. Now, living in an on-campus apartment, it's much quieter, and there's more room, but it's also further from the dining facilities. One of the first things Lauren told me when she walked through the door Friday was, "I'm looking forward to some home cooking!"

Ingredients

3 cups white potatoes, peeled and shredded
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons butter, unsalted
1/2 cup Colby Jack cheese, shredded
   (reserved)

Peel and shred enough potatoes to make three cups.  Pat with paper towels to get as much of the moisture/liquid out as you can. In large bowl, put the shredded potatoes, onion, salt and pepper. Combine well with a large spoon and set aside. In a large frying pan, melt the butter and then press the potato mixture into the pan. Cook on medium/high heat for about five minutes then sprinkle 1/4 of the shredded cheese on top. Heat for another five minutes. Cut into four wedges, flip over with a spatula and then cook five minutes, sprinkle with the remaining shredded cheese and cook an additional five minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy immediately!  


Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookies

 

When we make peanut butter cookies in "Cathy's Kitchen," about 99.9% of the time we do the "criss-cross" variety with the tines of the fork. While that's a great way to make them, I wanted to try a different recipe where that wasn't involved. In my mother-in-law's "treasure trove" of old newspaper clippings, I found a basic recipe for peanut butter "honeys." I adapted the ingredients slightly to use agave nectar, oats and chocolate chips. Note to self: don't make these before dinner. They will make your entire house smell so good you'll want to have dessert first!  Dominic grabbed three of these cookies off the wire rack while they were cooling and tried to talk me into letting him have all three before dinner. Well, in his defense, he did hand one to me to eat. LOL. I let him have one. It certainly didn't "spoil" his appetite any, my boy had two servings of spaghetti for dinner!

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups white flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup agave nectar
2 large eggs
1 cup quick oats
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. In a large bowl, put the white flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a medium bowl, put the peanut butter, butter and vanilla extract and using a large spoon, mix until smooth. Add the sugar, honey, agave nectar and eggs. Combine well and then add to the dry ingredients in the large bowl. Stir well and then add the oats and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until they are just starting to turn brown. Remove from oven and let the cookies sit five minutes. Remove to wire rack to continue cooling. Makes 2 1/2 dozen. Store covered at room temperature.

Yellow Corn Bread

The hubby made some really delicious barbeque chicken on the grill last night. Since I really have no clue how to use our grill, I am usually put in charge of the "side" dishes. We had fresh broccoli that I knew I would steam for the "veggie," and I planned on making buttered noodles for the "starch." I didn't have a bread "item" though. Biscuits didn't seem like quite the right thing to make, so I looked through an old Amish-Dutch cookbook and found a great recipe for corn bread! When we have corn bread around here, I usually just open up two boxes of Jiffy corn muffin mix, add the milk and eggs and make a dozen muffins. It took just a few extra minutes to make this corn bread from "scratch," but wow, was it ever worth it!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups yellow corn meal
1/2 cup white flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoon white sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups milk
2 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons melted shortening

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray an 8-inch square pan with non-stick cooking spray. In a large bowl, put all the ingredients in the order given. Combine well with large spoon and pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and put on wire rack to cool slightly. Cut into squares. Cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and store at room temperature.