A little of this ~ a little of that

In an earlier post I told you about the caramelized banana mixture that I made to swirl into brownies.  If you'll remember the kids loved it and ate it smeared on bagels and forgetting all about the brownies I was making.  Well, we just couldn't forget about it.  The other day while surfing through FoodGawker and Tastespotting I came across a picture and it's caption intrigued me.  I followed it to Cheese Cake Pie at The Cook Mobile.  After reading through the recipe I thought why not use the recipe for the caramelized banana cream and use the Cheese Cake Pie recipe for the crust and general idea.  I was getting brave taking a little of this and a little of that to come up with something that was almost mine.  Mind you this was getting crazy for me.  I'm a by the book, don't stray from the recipe kinda girl.

Okay, so here's what I did I followed the recipe for the caramelized bananas and added an extra large egg and then for the "cake pie" portion I followed the recipe skipping the cream cheese section and used two extra large eggs.  I also decided to break in these molten cake pans with the removable bottoms (NICE!) and make minis.  The middle of my cakes sunk a lot.  Without the assistance of fresh whipped cream, cinnamon sugar, and caramel drizzled over them they were not pretty.  They tasted really good as a matter of fact I had to hide one so I could wait for good lighting. For my first foray into experimenting not bad.  I'm pretty certain that I'll try these again with a bit more researching and tweaking. 

       

I think these pictures came out a little better.  Though they may have gotten too much light? Not enough, too much, I don't know.  Hopefully I'll get it right soon.  I also need to figure out how to set up a portable "studio" so I don't have my kitchen table in every shot.  Any ideas?  I'm think of getting a large box, cutting out one wall, and then covering the inside of it with white material. 

LiveJournal Tags: bananas,cheesecake

Soup's on with the Supper Club

I'm gonna make this short, sweet, and soupy.  Several weeks ago Molly from Batter Splattered  posted an "invitation to dinner" inquiring if any one was interested in making the same dish every week and then blogging about their results.  Sorta like Tuesday's With Dorie or the Daring Bakers but in this our case it would be savory dishes as opposed to their sweet ones.  There were several of us interested and so it began with emails back and forth discussing how we would go about choosing dishes and posting.  So, without further ado.............

Dish #1 Cheese and Potato Soup

I didn't make any changes to the recipe other than to double everything except the celery (I'm not a fan) and using half Sharp Cheddar and half four Mexican Cheese blend.   Along with the soup I served a crusty five grain bread baguette from Publix.  While Babygirl was ladling out the soup I put the bread in the oven to warm it up a bit.  Did I like the soup?  Yes.  Was it the best potato soup I ever had?  No. 

Please go visit Molly at Batter Splattered.  She is gathering all of our versions of the soup.

LiveJournal Tags: soup,cheese,potato

Snickerdoodle Blondies

Nope, we're not tired of Snickerdoodles!  If you've tried one you'd jump on the Snickerdoodle bandwagon yourself!  These bad boys are GOOD with a capital "G"!  Though this is my first time posting about the Blondies it's actually the second time in two weeks that I've made them.   I cannot tell you much my children LOVE these bars.The best part, after their great taste is that they are so quick and easy to throw together!  The first time I made these the kids and sitter didn't leave me but one tiny scraggly corner piece to take a picture of, oops! ( I want an Lowel EGO Light, hint, hint, Joe!)   This time I hid 2 pieces to try and get a decent photo of them.  (I don't think  I'm progressing with my photo taking skills. )One of the Twins raved to his teacher about them and promised to bring her one to try and he even gave her the recipe!   These fabulous blondies are from Julia at Dozen Flours!   Really, you have to try these, you won't be disappointed!  And be sure to swing by and check out her blog, lots of yummy recipes! 

LiveJournal Tags: Snickerdoodles,blondies,bars,lowel ego lights

 

My first award!!!

Blog LOVE Award

How cool!  I got my first EVER blog award and from a really nice lady, Jin Hooi from Smell and Taste are My First Memory!  She has some very good Asian flavored recipes.  Check her out and you be sure to take a look at her Oreo Cheesecake that's how found her blog from the picture of it on Tastespotting or Foodgawker  I can't remember which one.

(Pls. don't remove) Credits: Elements/Paper by Dani Mogstad/ Layout by JennyL

Rules:

1. Don't remove the credits when you post the image

2. Please link back to the person who tagged you and pass this tag to many of your friends

3. If you have more than one blog, please post this to all of your blogs so your other blogs can be listed to the master list too.

4. Remember to come back here at A SLICE OF LIFE (pls. don't change this link)and leave the exact post url so I can add you to the master list to help increase our rankings and improve our Technorati Authority.

6. Spread the BLOG LOVE FEVER!!BLOGGERS:
1.Jenny Said So 2.) Simply Jen 3.) This and That 4.) Bargain.Sales.Deals. 5. A Slice of Life 6.) Aussie Talks 7. When Mom Talks 8. Mommy Talks 9 Aggie Shoots. Aggie Scraps 10 All Kinds of Me Stuff 11 The Salad Caper 12. Winding Creek Circle 13. InkBabyStudios 14. Me and Mine 15. Creative in Me 16. For the LOVE of Food 17. Little Peanut 18. Pea in a Pod 19. It’s Where the HEART Is 20. Around the World 21. SugarMagnolias 22. Nita's Random Thoughts 23. Nita's Corner 24. Nita's Ramblings 25. Batuananons 26. Thomas Web Links 27. Filipino Online Community 28. Thomas Travel Tales 29. Bohol Paradise 30. My Wandering Thoughts 31. Arts and Entertainment Center 32. Great Finds and Deals 33. Make Money Online 34. Entertainment News and Beyond 35. Erlinda's Wandering Thoughts 36. TnT Kit 37. Aha Mama! 38. A Zone for Digiscraps 39. RazorianFly :] 40. WebGeek Journal… 41.All About The Memories 42. Spymama 43. Alamak OiOi 44. HasH's Personal Blog 45. MommyAllehs Up-Close and Personal 46. All About Kawaii 47. My Photographic Sketch 48. Embrace Simplicity 49.WilStop 50. Fun.Fierce.Fabulous 51. Kidd Designs 52. Me,Myself+2 53. Anygen's JourneyUltimate Food Cooking Guide 54. 55. Moments of My Life 56. Insights from the Grocery Cart 57.Beauty of Life 58.Jona's New Life 59.Money Maker 60.Creations 61. Quicker8 62. The Daily Matters 63. Make Every Day Your Lucky Day 64. Triz Designs 65.Pinaymama's Diary 66. A Mother's Journal 67.Simple Life, Simply Me 68. Life Expressions 69.Asawa's Love Book 70. Pinay in States 71. Blessings in Life 72. Thoughts and Beyond 73. Journey in Life 74. Tere’s World 75. A Mother's Simple Thoughts 76. Tech Stuff Plus 77. Unique You 78. My Blogging Experience 79. Pinay dot US 80. My Blog Entry 81. Byaheng Pinay 82. A Pet's Life 83. My Journey to Momhood 84. Straight from the Heart 85. Anything and Everything in Between 86. Living A' La Mode 87. My Crossroads 88. A Beautiful Life 89. Race Corner 90. Moms... Check Nyo 91. My Wanderings 92. Picture Clusters 93. Maiylah's Snippets 94. Free Blogger Templates 95. joys IN LIFE 96.Life is What we Make it 97. Pinay WAHM 98. Life Realities 99. Hailey's Domain 100. Hailey's Bits and Beats 101. When SAHM-one Speaks 102.Jean's Live it Up... 103. Motherhood Unscripted 104. Ivory Tasks 105. I Play Mom 106. Juls Random Thoughts 107. A Grateful Heart 108. The Real Deal The Real Me 109. Biz-N-Honey 110. Aeirin's Collections 111. Blessings and Beyond 112. Mommy Earns Money Online 113. Pinay Mommy Online 114. Pinay Mommies Community 115.Everything Has A Reason 116. A Moment to Exhale 117. Room of Sphere Ideas 118. Jenny's Wandering Thoughts 119. Rumination 120. OnlineBiz and Resources 121. Digital Life Scraps 122. Lourdes' Mia 123. A Matter of Perspective 124.My Colorful World 125. Heartish 126 My Not So Pvt. Space in th Web 127. Rosilie: My Blog 128. Changing Lanes 129. Lost in Love 130. Pinay L0ve 131. Captured on time 132. Pit of Gadgetry 133. Me, the Islands and the World 134. Startin’ A New Life 135. Startin' A New Lfe Too 136. Filipina Web Designer 137. The blog Presher 138. Webline Help Desk 139.Treeennndddzzz 140. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 141. Watchamacallit! 142. Nellypie's Chatterbox 143. Meishien 144. Food on the Table 145. Simply Me 146. My Heart 147.Ang Kinabuhi ni Lakandiwa148. Lovin' Life 149. Cooking Momster 150. Simple Life 151. Anything Lah! 152. Perfect Gift From Above 153. Memoirs: * Cross mY Heart 154. Little Prince 155. Our Little Princess Gwen 156. Chen Xi & Mama's Blogs 157. LovelyMummy 158. Our Journey 159. Spy Mama 160. Little Corner of mine 161. Smell and Taste are My First Memory162. 3B's....baseball, baking, and books 163. your blog is next

Now I'm going to spread the Blog Love to these wonderful bloggers! 

1. Dozen Flours ~Julia

2. Peckerwood Gravy Company ~ My blogging "sis" Nella

3.The Crepes of Wrath ~Sydney

4. Pumpkin and Spice

5. Cupcake Corner ~Natalie

6.Diannes Dishes ~ My blogging "Mama" Dianne

 

LiveJournal Tags: award

Another The Crepes of Wrath recipe!

Sydney over at The Crepes of Wrath has a plethora of wonderful recipes both savory and sweet.  I've yet to try one of the savory recipes but I've printed a few out and added them to my must make pile.  I'm in the middle of football and baseball season, my children are lucky to eat!  I have though tried several of the sweet recipes and all were huge hits! 

The most recent one I've tried was Caramelized Banana Brownies with Peanut Butter Sweet Cream Frosting.  That is a mouthful!  Can you say that 5 times fast? 

I followed the recipe and only made one very minor change... I didn't use the frosting on the brownies.  I made it and if you're a fan of cream cheese and or peanut butter it's a must try but I didn't use it!  The caramelized banana mixture was OUTSTANDING and tasted so good with the brownies  I couldn't  "mess" it up by adding frosting.  Try the recipe you'll see what I mean. 

Because I didn't want the kids diving into the brownies before I could take (good daylight )photos I toasted up a couple of bagels and slathered them with the left over banana mixture.  Talk about good......the kids didn't even ask for a taste of the brownies.  They were willing to wait until the next day so that I could take my photos during the daytime.  They even asked for "bagels and bananas" as they called it the next morning!  The peanut butter sweet cream frosting was also a yummy addition to bagels though most of it got eaten straight out of the bowl or was put on whatever else was handy.

I only posted one photo because after looking at all the pictures I had taken I realized that the plate I used was distracting!   This was the best one out of the lot of about 20!  BOO-HOO!  Just when I thought I was getting better!

Coming up next...Snickerdoodle BARS from Julia at Dozen Flours and a few books!  I got in 3 new cookbooks and Tess Gerritsen's new thriller The Keepsake!

LiveJournal Tags: brownies,bananas,peanut butter,frosting,books

 

I've been adopted!!!

Guess what? I've been adopted!  I now have a new blogging "mom"  and "sister".  Yea, me!    My "mom" is Dianne from Diannesdishes  and my new "sister" is Nella from Peckerwood Gravy Company!  Nella and I are fortunate to have Mama Dianne take us under her wing!  Not many people have the fortitude to knowingly take on Twins.  Go check out their blogs.....Please!!!!!  :-)

A few weeks ago at Dine and Dish I saw a cool post about adopting "newbie" bloggers.    It caught my attention...'cause I'm a "newbie" blogger.  The event is called Adopt A Blogger. How it works is a "veteran" blogger takes a "newbie" blogger under his or her wing, answering questions and showing them the ropes. Both the veteran and the newbie have to add each other to their blogroll and try one of other's recipes and blog about it.   At the end of the time the veteran writes up at post about the experience and give a helpful tip about blogging on Dine and Dish.  For more information go here.  If you haven't been to Kristin's blog, Dine and Dish you should check it out! She's pretty funny and has some great recipes!

LiveJournal Tags: events

Sorry, a quick update!

I have been SOOOOO busy, crazily busy! And not with anything work (the paid kind)related but with my children and their ridiculously hectic lives. I'm trying to juggle too many balls. Mine keep crashing down on top of me and I barely manage to keep the children's up in the air! I won't bore you with the details....unless of course you insist. Ha-ha-ha! The real reason I'm not saying is because I don't want to relive last week!

I HAVE baked several yummy desserts and learned about large eggs versus extra large but unfortunately have not been able to blog about anything...yet. I intend to TRY and catch up this week. Keep your fingers.

Thanks for sticking around! :-)

Snickerdoodle cake?

Since finding the food blogosphere I have found that there are MANY things that I have not tried that are "normal" foods.  You know, nothing crazy or unusual.   I am slowly tasting or making all of these wonderful treats that I had previously either not heard of or just hadn't tried.  One of those treats being a Snickerdoodle cookie.  A couple of months back I had the opportunity to try one.  I really enjoyed the slightly spicy and crunchy taste.  A couple of weeks ago Sydney at The Crepes of Wrath posted a Snickerdoodle Cake that I piqued my interest.  It was even better than I thought and I  was wrongly concerned  that my children wouldn't care for it.  The evening I made it the Twins had two friends over and Babygirl had a friend as well......they all ate big slices and said the cake was really good but that they LOVED the frosting!  (They kept trying to sneak frosting!) It was a recipe for Buttercream from Bakerella that I adapted.  I do have to say that the frosting really was good.  The cake didn't last long as the following afternoon my nephew, another of the Twins' friends and my three finished off the last of the cake.

Here's the recipe for Buttercream with my changes in dark green.

Buttercream Frosting (adapted from Bakerella)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I used 1tsp vanilla bean paste)
1 1b. 10X powdered sugar (I used only 3 cups but added 3 packed Tsp of brown sugar)
1-3 teaspoons milk, half and half or cream ( I used 2 tsp)

• Using a mixer, cream softened butter and vanilla with until smooth.
• Add the brown sugar first  and creamed well then I added the  powdered sugar gradually, allowing butter and sugar to cream together before adding more.
• If you want it a little creamier, add a teaspoon of milk at a time and beat on high until you get the right texture.

*After cutting a slice I dusted it with cinnamon before serving it. 

     

LiveJournal Tags: cake,snickerdoodle,buttercream