And the 10 Lucky Winners are….

Before I list the winners out I would like to thank Krista and Lucky Leaf for offering my readers the chance to win a sample of their pie filling and a heart shaped cake pan. 

Nine of the lucky winners were chosen by my three children.  They each picked 3 numbers and I picked the tenth number.   To claim your prize please email me (joes1pain<at>hotmail<.>com) your mailing address.  You have until Friday noon to respond. 

For those of you that didn’t win have no fear, I  have another giveaway coming up this weekend along with two yummy recipes!

# 5

Julie Q. said...

I can't wait to try the Cherry Chocotinis - what a perfect valentine's dessert!

#13

oneordinaryday said...

The cake is so festive! My kids would love a heart shaped cake. : )
I saw the recipe for blueberry salad and it jolted a memory of my great aunt making something she called blueberry salad when we were kids. Now I've gotta go track that down and compare recipes.
(Love the pic of Joe and baby girl. Couldn't be any sweeter.)

#18

steph said...

Your cake is so pretty and perfect for Valentines! I need to get started on my Valentine's sweets!

#23

Andrew's Mom said...

What a beautiful picture - the father and daughter - not that the cake isn't nice too. I'd try apple butter bread.

#25

teresa said...

aw, what a precious picture! your cake turned out so pretty! i would love to try that cherry crisp, mmmmm.

#32

Katy ~ said...

That is the most adorable picture. Your husband and baby girl are just alight with love and anticipation of a evening made of wonderful memories. You make my throat tighten with emotion and joy for them and for your beautiful family.
Let's see. I spent some time cruising the Lucky Leaf site (I didn't even know they had one til your post) and saw any number of tempting recipes, blueberry moon pasties, coconut cherry squares, and strawberry frosting.
I think I'm going with the strawberry frosting first. That has really intrigued me and considering I'm on a bit of a cupcake kick, I think that frosting sounds totally irresistible.

#36

Amber said...

Cherry Pineapple Surprise - sounds easy and delicious!
Thanks!

#48

Diana's Cocina said...

Awwww, a father-daughter dance, how awesome! Your cake looks perfect. Seconds Please Peach Cake
sound yummy to me :).

#50

Eliana said...

Your cake looks just lovely. And what a gorgeous daughter you have. She is going to be a heartbreaker!

#54

Lori said...

Hmmm blueberry upside down cake. Yum!
I love that picture of your daughter and husband- so sweet.

The truth or lies? You decide!

Danae from The Busty Baker pasted along this fun award.  As with most awards it comes with a few rules.

The Rules:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award. Thanks, Danae!
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.  Check!
3. Link to the person who nominated you. Check!
4. Tell us up to six outrageous lies about yourself and at least one outrageous truth. See below!
5. Allow your readers to guess which one or more is true. Go for it!
6. Nominate seven "Creative Writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies. ALL of you are challenged, er invited to grab the award for yourself and get to lying!  :)
7. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
8. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

A lie or the truth?

1. I’m ambidextrous.
2. I have triplets.
3. I love chocolate!
4. I take tons of random photos.
5. I sat on Yankee’s Chris Chambliss’ lap when I was three.
6. I’m a terrible liar.
7. I played baseball on a all boys team until I was 13.

Hint….there are two truths and five lies. 

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Last call to enter the Lucky Leaf giveaway!  My children will be picking 10 lucky names tomorrow so you have until midnight tonight to enter. Please leave your contact info.  Good luck! :)

 

Bananas + Biscuits = Yum!

For those of you who have read my blog a few times know this post has several elements that are fairly standard to my blog.  Bananas.  We’re fond of bananas and you can find quite a few recipes here where bananas are key.  Another two are caramel and cinnamon which for me pretty much go hand in hand with bananas. Wait, who am I kidding?  There isn’t much those two don’t go with. (Am I right, Grace? Monica?) But the last two are quick and easy.  I love pretzels and cinnamon rolls but I really, really love quick and easy especially when it’s full of flavor! These upside down banana pecan biscuits, that I found on Monica’s blog  deliver on quick, easy, AND flavor. 

Wait! It gets better.  There’s no wrong way to make these and customize them to your tastes.  You don’t like bananas?  Want  walnuts instead?  Play with it…make the recipe yours!  My two suggestions for maximizing the flavors are to lightly toast your nuts especially if you’re adding them straight from the freezer (They’re not in the oven long enough to get nice a toasty.) and to use the canned (Make your own if you’re so inclined but did you catch the key words, quick and easy?) biscuits that are your favorite.  Don’t go with ones you hate but they’re on sale and you think you won’t mind them in this recipe.  You will.  (I made that mistake with this pie and bought the cheapy crust. Learn from my mistakes.  :))

I think I’ve made these once a week since I first saw them on Monica’s.  Needless to say my crew loves them.  The Twins top theirs with vanilla ice cream but Babygirl likes her plain with no nuts.  (Click here for a printable recipe!)

**********************************************************Leave a comment here for your chance to be one of ten Lucky Leaf giveaway winners.  Please don’t forget to leave your contact info!

Lucky Leaf & 10 Lucky Winners

At the end of January Krista from Lucky Leaf contacted me about trying their one of their Lucky Leaf premium pie fillings.  While I’m not crazy about pies my children are so I figured why not. Along with the two cans of  Lucky Leaf premium cherry pie fillings I received Wilton’s heart shaped pan, a set of heart shaped measuring spoons, and recipe card for a sweetheart cherry cake.

My honest opinion?  I still don’t like mushy fruit but thought the cherry pie filling had a pleasantly sweet flavor and  it didn’t have that awful artificial cherry taste.  I made a slight change to the recipe in that I added all the pie filling at once.  I did this so my mixer would chop up the cherries as I didn’t want chunks of them  in my cake. Both the kids and I really liked the cake.   (I loved the frosting and wish I could have split the cake into two layers as I had plenty of frosting to fill it.) The only issue I had with it was that the outside was done well before the middle.  I think there may be too much batter for the pan.  Next time I’ll divide the batter between two pans instead of the one.  Thanks Krista for the chance to try Lucky Leaf!  I’ll be keeping my eye open for more the next time I go to the grocery store. I’m thinking  strawberry pie filling with a lemon cake!

I’m sure you’re wondering about the 10 lucky winners.  Well, Krista and Lucky Leaf have very generously offered to give 10 lucky commenters a chance to sample their products and receive a Wilton heart shaped pan along with the sweetheart cherry cake recipe card! All you need to do it swing by Lucky Leaf and tell me what recipe you’d like to try. (I’m hoping you’ll find some good ones I might have missed!)  Besides my giveaway click here for info on Lucky Leaf’s Blue Ribbon Recipe Contest.  You’ll have a chance at $1000 and $50 worth of Lucky Leaf premium pie filling products!  Good luck!

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Here’s a photo of Babygirl and Joe just before they left tonight to attend Winter Springs’ Annual Father Daughter Dance!

Soft Pretzels

Last year Monica and I baked together quite a few times.  Our adventures in baking were cupcakes out of Martha Stewart’s Cupcake cookbook.  This year we stepped it and dragged along Michelle from One Ordinary Day. Over the next year we hope to conquer our fears and expand our baking horizons. 

Michelle chose soft pretzels as our first challenge.  Knowing I was baking with these two awesome bakers and bloggers gave me the push I needed to give these a try!  (FYI, I first drooled over pretzels after seeing Ann’s at Household 6 Diva!) Michelle chose Alton Brown’s recipe which she saw made here on Macheesmo.

Unfortunately my photos don’t really do the pretzels justice but the good news is you can check out Michelle’s and Monica’s pretzels which are sure to be stellar. 

I opted to make all my pretzels cinnamon sugar ones. You’re shocked right?  :)

I hope that we’ve motivated you to try your hand at making pretzels.  The recipe is straight forward and the dough isn’t too difficult to work with, just remember to have everything in place.

 ***Click here for the printable recipe I used!***

Cinnamon Roll Perfection!

These were the cinnamon rolls of my dreams and I almost gave up on the recipe before I really gave it a try. 

If you’ve read this post or this one then you know I’ve wanted to master yeast so I could whip up a batch of cinnamon rolls for my children on Christmas morning.  During my initial foray into yeast and cinnamon roll baking I received lots of encouragement and offers of recipes.  This was one of those recipes. 

Lori from Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness sent me an email telling me of a recipe that was both easy and good.  I suggested we bake them together and post them at the same time.  Lori, the sweetie agreed. For the record this was back in November. 

The first time I made this recipe I made some changes….bad move.  My first mistake was thinking I was proficient enough to make changes. :(  The second was using all purpose flour instead of the bread flour.  I do think my biggest mistake was not baking the cinnamon rolls after their second rise.  After cutting the dough into rolls I placed them into my pans and then placed the pans into the fridge so I could bake them in the morning.  When I pulled them out to bake the next morning I didn’t realize things anything was wrong until we tasted them.

While the cinnamon rolls were good, they weren’t great. For the amount of time and effort I put into them they needed to be more than just good.  In my (& the Twins’) opinion they weren’t as good as the no yeast cottage cheese ones that I blogged about here.   I have to say I was pretty disappointed but felt the recipe deserved another try as I did change some things.  It wouldn’t have been fair to give it a thumbs down when in all likelihood it was me not recipe. My other thought was perhaps I’m just a weirdo who doesn’t like homemade cinnamon rolls made with yeast.  

After making the cinnamon roll recipe again this past weekend I realize that the dough does not keep well overnight.  This time around I followed Lori’s recipe exactly (I didn’t frost mine with cream cheese) and my cinnamon rolls baked up beautifully.  Better yet they tasted exactly how I thought a homemade cinnamon roll should. The twins and I loved them.  (One of the twins thinks we should do a side by side comparison of this recipe and the cottage cheese one but it ain’t happening!)  We’re not weirdoes and my Pillsbury cinnamon roll preferring daughter had one last night and one today which says a lot as she has claimed not to like homemade cinnamon rolls.  YAY! 

Frosted Cinnamon Rolls, printable recipe & tips

adapted from a Taste of Home Recipe & Lori's Lipsmacking Goodness

1 cup milk

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

4 cups bread flour

1/4 cup instant vanilla pudding mix

1 T sugar

1 T active dry yeast

Filling:

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Frosting*:

(you can put the remainder of the pudding in the frosting if you like.)

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

1 1/2 t milk

1/2 t vanilla extract

In a bowl or in a mixer, combine flour, vanilla pudding mix, salt, sugar and yeast.  In another bowl combine milk and water.  Make a well in the center of the flour or beat in with a KA- the milk and water. Add the egg and the softened butter to that well or the KA.  Stir the mixture together in the center, pulling the flour into the mix, until all the flour is incorporated. Add more flour or water, depending on what is needed. If the dough feels dry add a tablespoon of water.  If the dough is too sticky add a tablespoon of flour.  Knead the dough on a surface or continue to knead in a mixer, whichever you are using.  When it is a soft and smooth, place in a bowl, cover and let rise until it had doubled in size- about an hour.  (I put my bowl in the oven with the light on.  It took just over an hour.)

After the rise, roll out the dough to a 17x10 inch square.  Spread with butter; sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.  Roll, jelly roll style, starting from long end.  Pinch sides and seam to seal.  Cut into 20 or 21 pieces.  Place 12 slices in a 13x9x2 inch pan.  Place the remaining 9 rolls in a 9 inch pan. Cover and let rise until doubled- about 45 minutes.  Bake at 350F for 20 to 25 (mine were done in 18 mins) minutes until golden brown.  Frost warm rolls.

Please hop over to check out Lori’s cinnamon rolls.  Not only does she make terrific cinnamon rolls, she is also fearless in the kitchen and leaves me in awe of all that  she whips up. Thanks Lori for the recipe and for your patience with me!  I’d also like to thank Katy, Coleen, and Monica who went out of their way to send me encouraging emails and “held” my hand. 

Bars are Better than Cookies

As I mentioned in this post I made these cranberry crumbs bars while waiting for my cookie dough to chill.  They are an excellent example of how bars are better than cookies.  :)

I’m not going to lie to you. These are a little more time intensive than most bar recipes with the zesting and juicing but they are so worth the effort AND are still quicker than cookies.  My mom who had requested cookies said she enjoyed the bars MORE than the cookies.   I personally loved them though I can’t decide if I preferred them at room temp or straight from the fridge.  The only person who didn’t gobble them down was my Dad and that’s because he thinks he only likes cherries and apples in his desserts!

Thanks, Abby for passing along a great recipe.  For those of you who haven’t been to Abby’s blog, Confabulation in the Kitchen I suggest you hop on over.  She has a lot of really good recipes, both sweet and savory.

Cranberry Crumb Bars, printable recipe

Adapted from Allrecipes, Smitten Kitchen, & Confabulation in the Kitchen

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup cold unsalted butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces)

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon salt

Zest and juice of one orange

4 cups fresh cranberries

1/2 cup white sugar

4 teaspoons cornstarch

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch pan.  I lined mine with aluminum foil.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and orange zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

3. In another bowl, stir together the 1/2 sugar, cornstarch, and orange juice. Gently mix in the cranberries. Sprinkle the cranberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.  These are bars are very good served cold.

*Smitten Kitchen used blueberries and lemons.  I'm thinking raspberry and limes.

Click here for another great cranberry recipe!

Cookies

In my last post I mentioned it had been years since I baked cookies but that I ended my cookie boycott this Christmas and baked some with my mom.

When I found out my parents were going to be in town for the holidays, I quickly told my mom that I would take a day off so we could bake some Christmas goodies together.  I guess I should have been more specific about what we would make as her mind went straight to cookies.  Her and my dad’s favorites, Raspberry thumbprints and Mexican wedding cookies.  I didn’t have the heart to tell her I didn’t want to make cookies but I did whine a lot about how much work they are.  

I’d like to say this foray into cookie baking changed my opinion but it didn’t.  It confirmed it.  Cookies are time consuming and a lot of work.  Bars ARE better!  :)  Were they good? Yes!  They were very good but for the amount of work I really didn’t get many cookies.  And you know, no one eats two or three slices of cake at one time but two or three cookies?!  That’s just getting started.  Every time some one went into the kitchen they grabbed one (or two), well with seven people in the house  those 36/40 cookies just didn’t last.  As a matter of fact there were only a few of each one left by the end of the night.

Click here for the thumbprint recipe I used from Land o Lakes. Unfortunately, I couldn’t  find the wedding cookie recipe that we used and none of the ones I saw on the web looked familiar.  Sorry.  The good news is while the recipe was good it wasn’t “oh, my gosh this is the best cookie recipe I’ve ever had in my cookie eating life.” good so you’re not missing out.  :)

Here’s a picture of the official cookie ball roller, my Mom, Linda. 

See that photo below?  I made a pan of cranberry crumb bars while waiting for the cookie dough to chill.  We’ll talk about their yumminess in a later post along with a couple of other things I made.