Pie season

Since Tina came to get the house ready for the baby shower she gets a homemade chicken pot pie.



I had to make them season-appropriate with fall leaves!

#rainyafternoonbaking

Today I did some #rainyafternoonbaking instead of my usual #latenightbaking. I just love making pocket pies!



A batch of pocket pies are heading Liz's way! I love having her in my neighborhood now!

Bunny cake for Easter

While lying around sick, I got it into my head that I wanted to make a chocolate bunny cake for Easter. It had been years since I made one of my bunny cakes, and I totally forgot that you don't bake the two side separately. You fill one side as full as you can, place the other half on top and let the cake bake up into it. The two cakes bake beautifully but they were not structurally sound when I stuck them together with frosting.

After I looked at my own blog post from the past I realized my mistake. Bunny cake stayed upright just long enough for me to snap a photo. He was still delicious.

#latenightbaking for Thanksgiving

We are in Thanksgiving production mode at my house. Lots of #latenightbaking.

I baked three loaves of bread for the stuffing. Aaron commented several times - we should have fresh baked bread other times of the year too... for eating!

It does seem a shame to bake that bread only to chop it up for stuffing. It's so worth it though, it makes the best stuffing.

The cranberry sauce is homemade too, from my grandmother's recipe. Can't wait to eat!

Baked apple roses

We have lots of apples now and lucky for me, Aaron saw this video on Facebook and used some of our apples to make these cool baked apple roses. They were really neat looking AND they tasted just like apple pie!

Peach Cobbler in a Jar

Remember those lovely Chambersburg Peaches I mentioned before? We made a batch of freezer jam with those. It was late at night too - #latenightcanning I know it is not really "canning" but it sounds better in a hashtag.

There were still quite a few peaches left. We were eating them on our cereal at breakfast but I could see they were on the brink of going bad. A peach will go bad if you look at it funny. Luckily a friend tweeted me this link "50 Foods You Can Put in a Jar". For someone that loves jars as much as I do, it's surprising how little I cook in them. The idea of peach cobbler in a jar sure sounded good though. I used a random peach cobbler recipe from a cookbook. Since it was going to be baked in a jar - I figured it would be cute and tasty no matter what.

Can I talk a little bit about the actual jar? My grandma was a dedicated canner, and I inherited her canning jars. There were some unique ones amongst the bunch. Jars I don't see available these days, like this Kerr Vintage Self Sealing Wide Mouth Short Pint. These squatty jars were perfect for my first foray into jar baking. Stay tuned for more. What is the next fruit in season?

Apple Pie Filling & Warm Apple Pie Sundaes

After picking apples yesterday I made a batch of apple pie filling. I planned on canning it so I could quickly make pies this winter. I noticed the recipe indicated you can freeze the filling also so I decided to do that instead.,

Apple Pie Filling

10 apples, 2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup flour, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/3 teaspoon nutmeg, 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Slice the the apples into lemon juice to stop the browning, drain apple slice, mix in sugar, flour and spices. Let it sit for 20 minutes. Mix in lemon juice and cook until the juices thicken. Can or freeze.

It made two quarts for me. I had a little left so I decided to make warm apple pie sundaes. I just added the warmed apple pie filling to vanilla ice cream and made pie crust crunchies to top it with. A little squirt of whipped cream on top and this is the next best thing to apple pie!

Pie crust crunchies

1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup of oatmeal, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 stick cubed butter

Blend ingredients until crumbly. Bake in a pie pan at 350°F for 15 minutes.

Piebox and Peach Pocket Pies

Aaron surprised me with a Piebox! I have been wanting one of these since I went through my Pushing Daisies pie obsession. Pieboxes are handsome reusable wood pie carriers handmade in Chicago.

Being gifted a Piebox led me to believe that Aaron was expecting... a pie.

So I made a batch of peach hand pies.

All pies in my house are now stored in style!

Cherry Pudding & Vintage Mirro Cake Pan

I swapped out cherries for blueberries for this pudding. The same recipe for Blueberry Pudding but with cherries instead.

How classic is this vintage cake pan? It's a Mirro 8x8 aluminum cake pan in mint condition! I have the typical rectangular version and was excited to find this square version. It's perfect for brownies... and cherry pudding!

It seemed like every baked good at family reunions when I was a kid arrived in a Mirro cake pan. They were made by Mirro Aluminum Company from 1909 to 2003 in Wisconsin. Mirro made everything from canteens to Sno-Coaster saucer sleds. Great. I feel a new collectable item coming on.

Kitty Litter Dessert for April Fool's Day

Yesterday morning at the office we all got an email in our inbox that our co-worker Chuck had brought in a special dessert to share. Not one to miss out on a treat I skittered out of my cubicle to check it out. This pan of "kitty litter" is what I found.

Isn't is GRRRROOOSSSS?! Ha ha we dug into anyhow! What craftsmanship with the kitty poo! It was very tasty! We all got a big kick out of Chuck's April Fool's Kitty Litter Dessert. It's made from cake crumbles, pudding and vanilla cookies. I found the recipe online for anyone that wants to yuck out their friends and family too.

Magic Marshmallow Puffs

This is what happens when I am left in charge of breakfast. Magic Marshmallow Puffs.

These are so easy to make. They consist of Pillsbury crescent dough with marshmallows rolled in butter and sugar inside. This was a good opportunity to use up some of my vanilla snowman marshmallows.

The marshmallow melts inside as the dough bakes leaving fluffy sweet parcels. A cup of coffee and you have breakfast.

Late Night Baking: Nutella Banana Bread

I had some bananas teetering on the brink of a brown smooshy death so it was time to bake some banana bread. To shake it up a bit, I used this Nutella Banana Bread recipe.

The recipe was pretty good. I thought the loaves were a smidge dry but both were gobbled up before you could blink, so they must not have been too bad. I think next time I'll mix in some walnuts.

Yum Yum Cake

I knew Aaron was starting to feel better after the flu when he made a request for some baking. He asked for my mom's Yum Yum Cake. Why is it called Yum Yum Cake? Well, isn't that obvious?

It's pretty easy to make... I was able to make one for Aaron and one for my boss' birthday in the office.

Here is how to make Yum Yum Cake:

Bake a yellow cake in a cookie sheet so it is very thin. Bake it for 15 minutes instead of the usual time.

Top it with this frosting:

Mix a large box of instant vanilla puddin with 1 cup of milk.

Mix in room temperature 8 oz of cream cheese

Mix in 9oz of cool whip.

Sprinkle with crushed walnuts.

Breakfast & Brunch Magazine = Breakfast Cookies

I spotted this issue of Better Homes and Garden: Breakfast and Brunch when I was Christmas shopping and had to pick it up. An entire magazine about breakfast food! Brilliant!

I was reading it in PA over the holidays when I mentioned out loud there were breakfast cookies. Both my dad and Aaron started hinting pretty heavily that a batch of those would be most appreciated.

I love the idea of breakfast foods that A. you can make a big batch of for the week and B. you can grab and take with you. So I was more than happy to bake a batch of these breakfast cookies. They turned out great. They aren't as sweet as a typical cookie but very satisfying for breakfast.

Here is the BHG online recipe for Banana Oat Breakfast Cookies.

Note that I didn't have any dried cherries on hand so I actually used chopped up marachino cherries. I didn't hear anyone complain.

I would like to make these Double Oat Breakfast Cookies next!

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

Much of Thanksgiving dinner is falling to me this year. I interviewed my Grandma and wrote down all her recipes so I can recreate the meal my family is accustomed to. This is a giant batch of cranberry sauce. Nothing from a can for these folks. I didn't realized it would make so much. The walk from the counter to the fridge was a tense one. I am pleased because it looks and tastes just like Grandma makes. Now if I could only get the lid on the container.

The stuffing is one of my favorite parts of the Thanksgiving meal. Along with the turkey... gravy... mashed potatoes. Who am I kidding? I love it all.

By the way... do you call it stuffing or filling? My family says filling but my Rochester friends look at me funny when I say it. Is it a pop/soda thing?

Our family's stuffing cannot come from a box. In fact it has to come from home baked loaves of bread. Bake the perfect loaf of bread was on my 2013 to-do list so now seems like as good a time as any. I don't know that these turned out perfect but the house smelled great while they were baking.

Turns out the warmest spot in the house to raise bread dough is on the heat vent that Stewie frequents. He wasn't thrilled to have to share his vent.

It seemed a shame to tear up perfectly good loaves of bread to make stuffing. The pugs were certain I was tearing it up for them. At any rate, I'm sure the homemade bread will make all the difference and the recipe was followed to a T. We'll see how I did when it gets spooned out of the turkey.

It's not all baking and cooking for Thanksgiving. I made these leaves to decorate our Thanksgiving table. I saw the idea here. They were pretty easy to make and they come from inexpensive aluminum roasting pans.

Dollop Book of Frosting.... and dogs.

Two good friends had birthdays this weekend and I wanted to get them something special. I have been shopping local for birthdays and this time I found a gift that is unique and "local". Heather Saffer who once owned the Penfield Dollop Cupcakes, and winner of Cupcake Wars, wrote a frosting cookbook "The Dollop Book of Frosting". It's packed full of creative, delicious looking recipes for frosting.

Heather has a super cute pup named Donald that she adopted from Rochester Animal Services. She posts adorable pictures of Donald on her Instagram feed and blog. Donald's Happy Tails story is even featured in the Verona Street Animal Society newsletter! It got me thinking. Pups and sweet tooth cookbooks go hand in hand (in my mind).

After I gave my friends, Nancy and Tina, each their cookbook, I asked them to take a picture of it with their pooches. Here is Ace and The Dollop Book of Frosting.

Ziva and the Dollop Book of Frosting.

Oscar, Hugo and the Dollop Book of Frosting.

I haven't even made a recipe from the book yet, and I am enamoured. I like to flip through the pages like a magazine, admire the photos, think about which recipes I will make and how I will enjoy the frosting.

With the holidays coming up "The Dollop Book of Frosting" would make a great gift. Especially paired with a cute spatula or whisk! I love gift themes!

Skillet cookie

We were going to go out for dessert but couldn't think of a spot that had exactly what we wanted so I made a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough and baked in a cast iron skillet. I especially like this little one baked in a wee number three skillet.

Warm out of the oven with a scoop of salted caramel ice cream!

Pies!

It's pie season! I rely on these two tools when baking pies... a pie crust shield to keep the crust from burning in the oven, and a juice drip pan to catch all the sticky fruit juices that bubble over.

I was going to make a grape pie with the grapes I got in PA but then I realized they had seeds in them and I didn't know how to deal with that. I made a cherry pie instead with some cherries I canned last summer.

It a sudden change in events, Aaron... AARON baked a rhubarb pie! I have only made strawberry rhubarb pie so I was dubious. It turned out great though! Not too sweet and not too tart. He might get the job of pie baker in the house now.

Zucchini bread to share

Last week's CSA had zucchini included and it has finally cooled off enough for me to venture to turn on the oven. That means two loaves of zucchini bread with my tried and true recipe.

I like how this recipe makes two loaves. One for home and one to take to the office to share. It looks especially appetizing when wrapped in parchment paper and baker's twine!

More CSA strawberry goodness

We got another basket of strawberries in our CSA share this week. What goes great with strawberries? Rhubarb. Aaron LOVES rhubarb and has two big rhubarb plants in the backyard. I "borrowed" a couple stalks to make this homemade strawberry rhubarb soda.

It's pretty easy. You just make a strawberry rhubarb simple syrup and mix it with sparkling water.

Strawberry Rhubarb Simple Syrup

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

2 cups cup strawberries

1 cup chopped rhubarb

Boil it all together and let it simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Mix it with sparkling water to taste.

The soda only used half the strawberries, so I raided Aaron's rhubarb again and made filling for strawberry rhubarb pocket pies.

Add a nice tall glass of cold milk and he didn't complain about his depleted rhubarb supply too much.