Tag: recipes (page 5 of 5)

January 26, 2010 / 0 Comments

Sugar Pie

It won’t be too long before Valentine’s Day arrives and I have been busy thinking about what I can make for my Sugar Pie (also the title of one of my favorite Subdudes songs)! I won’t say too much because he does read this blog, but something handmade and embroidered might be coming his way…

I like to make heart shaped items for the day. Last year I kept it simple and baked heart shaped sugar cookies in a variety of sizes, and sprinkled them with pink and red sugar crystals. They were festive and tasted delicious with a cup of hot chocolate and heart shaped marshmallows. Hmm, can you tell I like to have a theme going here?

I was looking at the gorgeous Serena’s website today and saw her “Sweetie Pie” recipe. These look too good not to try! When I am making a pie or anything else with pastry whether it be shortcrust or puff I always use my leftovers. My Nana taught me to not be a wasteful cook!

She would roll out her left over dough into a rectangle, brush it with butter and then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, roll them up in a log and slice, like a mini cinnamon bread pastry (great with a cup of coffee). I do that or depending on my mood I will make small turnovers with whatever jam or jams we have going in the house at the moment.

So, this recipe has given me the idea of cutting out shapes the next time I have leftover dough to use, you just know they will taste that much sweeter because you are popping a little heart of love into your mouth! Click here to be linked to the Farm Chicks website and this sweet recipe.

(All Images copyright The Farm Chicks, embellished by Jennifer Michie)

January 15, 2010 / 0 Comments

Maple Snow

All this snow has made me think of “Little House in the Big Woods”. I loved reading this books as a child, it was a world I wanted to belong to.

I wanted to be in the sleigh with them as they drove through the snow to their Grandparent’s house, for the sap harvest. Once, they arrived Pa joined the men folk, trudging off into the snow to help start the sap buckets. Drilling holes into the thick bark to place a pipe that would drain the sap into the buckets below.

The women worked hard indoors for the party that would come that evening under the starlight. At the party to celebrate the winter harvest, Laura and Mary scoop fresh powdery snow into bowls and their Grandma ladles a stream of hot syrupy sap onto their dishes to make snow candy with. The sap hardened on the snow, thus making a chewy maple candy to enjoy.

“Grandma…poured hot syrup on each plate of snow. It cooled into soft candy, and as fast as it cooled they ate it. They could eat all they wanted, for maple sugar never hurt anybody.”

I always wanted to do this when I was little, I loved reading about Laura’s pioneer girl existence, I wanted to be a pioneer girl myself! I wanted to run through the fields with my hair in braids and my bonnet hanging down my back, the warm sun baking me as I brought Pa his lunch pail.

I found this recipe for “Snow Sugar” on the Laura’s Prairie House website:

I have not tried this particular recipe myself, so I will have to wait for the next snowfall and pull out my glass bottle of syrup and get to work!

{click on the recipe to be taken to a larger version}

December 27, 2009 / 0 Comments

Peppermint Fairy Cakes

MMM! I know that after the holidays the last thing on your mind is probably eating anything more. But, these cupcakes on The Farm Chicks website looked so heavenly, I think they are worth stuffing your face with.

The cakes in these little star studded wrappers (from Bake it Pretty) with a candy cane on top, look absolutely delectable. I love that they are filled with a peppermint cream. I love to whip up extra icing or a Boston Cream Pie filling and pipe it into my cupcakes. It just gives them that extra little something. I am a cupcake kinda girl, they are the perfect bite when you just need that little taste of something sweet!

To make your own Peppermint Fudge Cakes click here to get the recipe.

Wouldn’t these stripe and polka dot cases look sweet as well, holding these wintery tasting treats!

(Images copyright the FarmChicks & Bake it Pretty)

December 21, 2009 / 0 Comments

Ice N’ Spice N’ Everything Nice

I love vintage Ads, especially Christmas ones. I have a fantastic Christmas Schweppes Ad that hangs in my kitchen and I smile every time I see it.

I found this old A&P Ad in Found in Mom’s Basement for spiced ice cubes. I am not sure what I would think of my ice tea once the cubes started to melt, with all the little bits floating around in it, but, I love the idea of these ice cubes.

It is probably because of the adorable little girl in her Eskimo coat showing us the recipe. This would be a fun thing to make for your girlfriends at a Christmas lunch or just to have in the house when Holiday visitors drop by unexpectedly.

October 19, 2009 / 0 Comments

Pumpkin Patch Love

I love the festive look of these Pumpkin Patch cupcakes from Martha Stewart. We went pumpkin hunting this weekend and I came back with another pumpkin to add to my collection. He is small with a cute curl of a stem, and has lots of personality!

I haven’t seen any teeny pumpkins yet this year, I love the little munchkin pumpkins! I thought these cupcakes would be perfect with a glass of cold apple cider to wash away those hungry pumpkin hunting appetites. They also would taste just as yummy if you cheated and used a gingerbread cake recipe instead of a pumpkin one, you decide.

Happy Hunting!

Get the Recipe

(Image used copyright Martha Stewart Living)

October 1, 2009 / 0 Comments

Halloween Countdown

October is here and All Hallows Eve is on its way. This was a time of important decision making in my childhood – what to dress up as was a daily dilemma? One of my favorite costumes was the year I dressed up like my American Girl Doll, Kirsten, we each went as Santa Lucia. My mom pulled out her advent wreath and we put battery powered candles in it. She braided my hair up in rings and with a white tunic and a red satin ribbon, I looked just like my doll. We were costume inventors in our house.

My mom always made the best Halloween packets so everyone always came to our house to be sure to get their treats. You always knew who’s house to avoid, like the lady down the street who always spent Halloween eating candy on her couch, but when you trick-or-treated at her door she gave you a penny and a pencil, I was holding out for the real goods. Pennies and pencils were not handed out at our front door, my mom is the Candy Queen and so her Halloween bags were filled with an assortment of goodies.

Now, is the season where I want to make candy apples, I usually cheat and just melt caramel and then dip in apple slices, just as yummy, but not the same teeth almost breaking experience you get at the fair trying to bite into your first candy apple of the season. That first bite is one to be savored and cherished anew each autumn. So here’s to October and blustery days, cold apple cider, candy corn and Indian corn, leaves crunching underfoot, pumpkins and witches and Halloween.

(Click HERE to go to a candy apple recipe from Martha Stewart)

September 10, 2009 / 0 Comments

Apple Cupcakes for Autumn Days

The weather is so beautiful here today in England. The sun is actually peeking out and there is a nice breeze going. Autumn is coming, you can hear it whispering through the trees. The trees along our common are just starting to turn a delicious gold, along their edges. This is perfect picnic weather.

I would love nothing more right now than some fried chicken, a homemade pimento cheese sandwich and some sweet tea from Chick-fil-A, and then to nestle down on a nice quilt in the sun. If the weather holds we might be doing that this weekend, sans the Chick-fil-A tea. Sadly, they are not in England yet!

I am listening to my “Little Women” soundtrack, it seems to hold the best promise of autumn and winter in its notes. I was in a cupcake mood today and decided to try something new. I came across these cupcakes on the Martha Stewart website and thought they were too cute for words. I like the idea of an apple cupcake, but I think that pumpkin spice would be just as lovely with the cream cheese frosting on top.

My local grocery store is out of marzipan at the moment, so this is a recipe that will have to wait till I go shopping in the bigger village. Until then, I will just dream of Autumn and festive apple topped cupcakes, complete with a smiling worm.

Picture and recipe are copyrighted to Martha Stewart

August 5, 2009 / 0 Comments

Scrumpious Shortcakes for Weekend Guests!

My in-laws came to visit us this weekend and after a day walking around the gorgeous Cliveden Estate, we headed back to our house for a cozy chicken potpie with mashed potatoes for dinner. It was a perfect meal for such a cold dreary day, but even so it is still Summer and I was determined to have something summery for dessert.

I have made them Southern Shortcakes in the past and they have really enjoyed them. This time however, I decided I would try something different since I had some eggs that needed to be used. So, i discovered this recipe on Betty Crocker’s website. I am fortunate to get some American items at the grocery store here for those moments of homesickness and Bisquick is one of them.

I made this dessert for the weekend, but with slight variations. I made two round cakes and after cooling them, I roughly iced the middle and top and let it chill in the fridge. I made a huge bowl of ripe strawberries with orange zest, and a sprinkling of sugar and another bowl filled with juicy peaches, lemon zest and a hint of sugar, they didn’t need much, the “gorgeous ladies” from France.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it, my mother-in-law even asked for seconds and had a piece before they headed home on Sunday! Even though the recipe states that it can be iced and stored for up to 6 hours, it lasted just fine in the fridge for longer than that. Thank goodness there was some left over, it was a delicious Sunday morning breakfast with a cup of tea! Since, it was deemed such a success and the strawberries are juicier than ever, I have made another one to take to a friend’s house for dessert tonight. I have included the recipe below, so I hope you enjoy!

June 19, 2009 / 0 Comments

The Cookie Jar

Food, like music, is a cultural transcendent. We bond over food. In looking at our cultural and geographical diversities we do have similar dishes to one another. The smell, look, taste and even thoughts of food conjure up very powerful memories for me. For better or for worse, food makes me happy. I have only to think of Paris and I can see the patisserie my sister and I visited near the apartment we were staying in. What could be better than sugar for breakfast? We feasted like Marie Antoinette on pastel colored cakes, éclairs, iced in chocolate, with billowing clouds of pastry cream oozing out and strawberries delicately sliced on top.

The aroma of something delicious wafting out of an oven door or an open window brings to mind childhood reminiscences. I grew up in an unusual household, in that both of my parents are excellent cooks. Through them I have learned to cook and to trust my instincts in the kitchen, to know if something is “right” by the smell, the look, the taste.

The food was just as important as the company. We all ate dinner together. That was our time to talk, to be. It took time to make the meal and therefore it should take time to enjoy it. We caught up on our day, on what was coming up for us in school, in work. Both of my parents worked and yet we still ate healthy balanced meals and they made time to be with us, no matter how tired they were.

It is a sad comment on today’s society that food companies are now making commercials to encourage us to prepare their particular meal in the hopes that we will have a “family night” once a week to enjoy it. Family night is every night. It should be the core of your household; the kitchen is after all the “heart of the home”. But, maybe the problem lies with us instead, with the busier we get as a society and the more media based we become, possibly the only option is for the media to encourage us to get back down to family basics.

As I was doing a little research I came across an old Susan Branch newsletter pertaining to some of her cookie recipes. I have always loved her illustrations, wishing I had that talent. I have given her books to friends in the past knowing they will thoroughly enjoy thumbing through them with a good cup of hot cocoa or tea, but at the same time, I am sad to not be keeping it for myself as my own little treasure to go back to again and again.

Having made some of her recipes in the past I wanted to share this link with you; I am not sure which I enjoy more the recipes or just staring over the charming illustrations surrounding them. As Julia Child says, “Bon Appétit”!

Please Click on the Cookie Jar to go to Susan Branch’s Website.

(recipe card image taken from “Recovered Recipes“)