My 2011 Top 10 Posts—Happy 2012!

I thought it would be fun to share what my Top 10 posts were this year (everyone is doing it).  Here they are!

#10

Caramel Filled Milk Chocolate Studded Brownies

#9

French Cocoa Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache

#8

Butternut Squash Soup with Pepitas and Ground Pistachios

#7

Pumpkin Spice Streusel Rice Krispies Treats

#6

Blessed Bread, No Knead Bread and Honey Whole Wheat Bread

#5

Hot Cocoa Marshmallow Rice Krispies Treats

#4

Baked Alaska With Chocolate Chip Cookie and Chocolate Ice Cream

#3

Healthier No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Cookies

#2

Nutella Truffle Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies

And the #1 Most Viewed Blog Post of 2011 is-----

Mini Chocolate Chip Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

That’s it---one savory dish and nine treats—wait, what about that bread, what category is that?!  That’s the way I roll—a little bit savory and a lot of sweet. ;)  No, really.  I actually do eat healthy.  In fact, there is some of that butternut squash soup in my fridge right now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!  Be safe and enjoy the day!   Thanks for stopping by.  I’m so grateful for all my blog readers!

POM POMS Fresh Arils from POM Wonderful

I was lucky enough to recently be sent a couple of cups of POM Wonderful's POM POMS Fresh Arils to sample.  I’m here to tell you they are, well, wonderful!

Photo courtesy of POM Wonderful

I love pomegranates.  But I don’t think I’ll be the first to admit they can often be sort of a pain to get to the good part!  POM Wonderful has a perfect solution to that.  You can partake of those delicious little, juicy arils now with just a cup and spoon!  And what more—they’ve provided both of those for you as well!  Inside the lid of the cup of arils is a little plastic spoon that folds up and fits in perfectly.  It is great for scooping out arils for whatever you wish.  Sprinkle them on salads, cereal, whatever you’d like or just eat them right out of the cup!  The cups are available in two different sizes—4.3 ounce cups or 8 ounce cups.  They are available now through February.

I will tell you a couple of my favorite things I’ve done with them (yes, besides eating them with the spoon right out of the cup!).  One thing I have loved putting them on is my morning Greek yogurt and granola.

I often add bananas as well, but not always.  At the time POM Wonderful asked if I wanted to try the cups, I actually had 1  3/4 of whole pomegranates in the fridge.  They are still there!  I will eat them soon, but have sure enjoyed having them ready-to-go in cups!  (Thanks, POM Wonderful!)

Another thing I have recently enjoyed them on is some homemade raspberry sherbet with swirled chocolate.  What a great combo!  Love the extra chew and juiciness from the arils!

 

I recently made (for the first time) some raspberry jam and canned 10 jars of it!  (Go me, Mrs. Domestic!) ;) But I had a couple pints of frozen/thawed raspberries that I’d made the jam with leftover, so I turned that into some sherbet.  I didn’t really write down what I did, but used just some agave nectar to sweeten it a little and some skim milk.  It’s actually really good!  At the end of the churning, I drizzled in a little melted dark chocolate—I love the combination of chocolate and raspberry!  Just for a little added umph, I sprinkled it with a bunch of POM POMS!  What a treat—and pretty healthy, too!  

Thank you, POM Wonderful for allowing me to try the cups of POM POMS.  I love them!  Want to try them, too?  You can get a $1.00 off coupon for them on this link--

http://www.pomwonderful.com/?vopen=coupon_pomidays

A Virtual Blog Party For My Friend Shelby With Mini Nutella Chocolate Cream Pie Bites

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (or whichever holiday you celebrate)!  We did and are truly blessed!  Now, it’s time to par-tay!  I’m not just talking about ringing in the New Year, though that is a reason to celebrate.  Today I’m talking about a virtual blog party!

My friend, Shelby, at The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch is celebrating her fourth year blogging anniversary.  (Mine is coming up, too—in February.  My how time flies!)  Shelby thought it would be fun to celebrate with a virtual party and word has it, a giveaway, so be sure to head on over and check it out.  Besides, she has a great blog with some amazing food and some great stories she shares, mostly about her significant other, Grumpy and their relationship.  Shelby’s blog is one of the first I started reading.  She used to blog along with TWD (Tuesdays With Dorie), which is how I got to know her. 

I recently did a guest post on her blog while she and Grumpy sailed the ocean blue on a cruise.  She is such a kind-hearted person, one that I’m sure if we actually ever met face to face would be a great friend of mine.  As for now, we are “virtual” friends.  Can’t wait to see what else she shares next on her blog.  Year number five, here we come! ;)

For the blog party, I recently made some Mini Nutella Chocolate Cream Pie Bites (Tarts) that I wanted to share.  Don’t know if you’ll recall, but for Thanksgiving, I made this delicious Nutella Chocolate Cream Pie that was a big hit.  I had many people asking for the recipe.  I thought it would be really fun to make again, but mini-size.  These are great one-bite wonders that are perfect for serving at any party.  I love the little mini-tart fillo shells you can buy in the freezer section at most grocery stores (the ones I get are from a company called Athens).  At only 15 calories each, they are a great alternative to pie crust.  You can use them for all things savory and sweet—but of course, I went with sweet for this party!  I just cut the Nutella Chocolate Cream Pie recipe down and piped some of it into each fillo shell.  Then I drizzled on a little extra straight-up Nutella and sprinkled on a few chopped hazelnuts.  You can leave those off if you’d like, but they added a great texture to the mini pies.  I also thought they’d be great topped with a little dollop or piping of whipped cream, but I left that off this time.

Mini Nutella Chocolate Cream Pie Bites, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

30 mini fillo shells (2 boxes)

1/2 cup Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread

4 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened (half a brick)

4 ounces whipped topping or whipped cream (1/2 to 1 cup, to taste)

2 tablespoons more Nutella, for drizzling

2 tablespoons or so chopped, toasted hazelnuts, for sprinkling (optional)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place the frozen mini fillo shells on a baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, just to crisp them up a bit.  Let cool.

Combine in the bowl of a food processor or mixer the Nutella and cream cheese.  Scrape sides of bowl and make sure it is all well combined and smooth.  Add the whipped topping or whipped cream and pulse to combine.  With a rubber spatula, scrape the filling into a piping bag fitted with about a 1/4 inch flower tip (or you could use a plastic zip top bag and cut off the corner).  Pipe some of the filling into each shell.  Put some of the extra Nutella into a plastic zip top bag with just a small tip of the corner snipped off and drizzle over the Nutella chocolate cream filling.  Sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts (if using).  Refrigerate until serving.

These are perfect for a party.  I like little bite-sized things because then you can have more or are able to try lots of different things and not feel so guilty! ;)  And try to just eat one of these!  They’re really good, especially if you love Nutella!  I do!  Probably not many treats to make for a party that are easier!

……And many more!!!…..to you, Shelby!  Party on!  Go to Shelby's blog now!!  Check out her virtual party and enter the giveaway!

TWD—The Final Recipe! Kids’ Thumbprints

Here it is—the last post for Tuesdays With Dorie!  Kinda sad, I know.  Our last recipe and guess who hosted this one?  Dorie Greenspan herself!  I’m sure she’ll have the recipe for these fun cookies posted on her blog.  Peanut butter and jelly—a classic kids’ favorite.  Everyone knows I love cookies, so how fun to end on such a high note for me and with a good little cookie!  These were simple to make and taste great. 

You can use any jam or preserves you’d like (or that kids would like).  I used some lingonberry jam (from IKEA and my friend, Julie!) and some blackberry jam, that Julie also gave me when she came and visited from Kansas this past summer.  Thanks, Julie!

The Kids’ Thumbprints are perfect for cookie trays and parties as they are small and the recipe makes a lot.

I took them, along with a bunch of other cookies I’d made, to our family Christmas Eve celebration.  Besides jam, you can also play around with what goes in the middle of the thumbprints and what goes better with peanut butter than chocolate?!  So I made some of those, too.

The classic Hershey’s Chocolate Kiss would be great in the middle, too.  After spending time rolling small amounts of dough into balls, and then dipping them in a frothy egg white, and then chopped nuts, I became a little lazy (though I still had plenty of thumbprint cookies), I started just making the traditional crisscross peanut butter cookies with the rest of the dough.

I ended up with a lot of peanut butter cookies from this recipe and they were all good.  And this is for you especially, Kayte, my favorite version were the ones with the jam in the center!  (You thought I was going to say chocolate, I know it!)

I really will miss the weekly TWD posting and the visits to some favorite blogs.  But the end of TWD doesn’t mean I won’t go to those blogs anymore and a bunch of us will be back together in February as we begin another quest to bake our way together through another of Dorie’s treasures, Baking With Julia.

A special thanks to Dorie for supporting this group and often baking along with us.  Also thank you, Laurie, for starting the group, letting it grow as big as it did and for all the others who worked hard each week to keep us going!

Christmas Treats—Bugles Santa Hats and Cookies and Cream Chex Snack Mix

Y’all ready for the big day?  Ready or not, here it comes!  I think we’re about as ready as we’re going to be here.  I’ve just about made all the goodies I can and happily given most of them away.  What you see in the picture above here is some Cookies and Cream Chex Snack Mix I made and some cute Santa Hats made with Bugles.  Are you familiar with Bugles?

You know, those crispy corn snacks that look like, well, bugles.

Dip them in red candy melts with a marshmallow on top and some white candy sprinkles around the rim and you have a Santa Hat!  Bummer that I didn’t really take any more photos than the one at the top there and almost forgot that one.  (*Note, after dipping them in the red melts individually, tap the extra coating off and set them on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper.  Let dry (or chill for a few minutes).  Then dip the tip of the “hat” in a little bit of the red candy melt and push a mini marshmallow into the top.  Let the tops dry before dipping the bottom into the red and then dunking each into some tiny white sprinkles.  I also think (if you can’t find the white sprinkles), use some white candy melts to dip them in and that would be fine.  Lay them on a baking sheet to set.)

I saw the cute idea on Studio 5, a local noonday news show that is always full of lots of crafty and foodie ideas.  You can see the short video here of the gal who talked about them, as well as some other cute, simple ideas for some holiday treats you can make and/or easily include kids helping with making for some fun activities.

And the Chex Mix Muddy Buddies, also known to some as Puppy Chow—there are now many flavors/recipes of that addicting stuff available.  Well, I also happened to notice at the grocery store a limited edition Chex Mix Cookies & Cream.  A small bag of it was $2.50, which I thought was a little pricy.  So I actually bought a bag of it and took it home and cloned it, which isn’t really all that difficult to do. 

I wasn’t quite exactly right on with the Chex Mix in the bag, but I actually liked mine a little better.  I made a big old batch of it and bagged it up with those little Bugles Santa Hats and gave the ladies at church a little Christmas treat last Sunday.

Cookies and Cream Chex Snack Mix, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

9 cups of Corn Chex Cereal

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (6 ounces)

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 8 Oreo Cookies, ground into crumbs

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Have the cereal ready in a large bowl.  In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips and butter together until smooth.  Melt in 30 second increments, stirring each time.  Stir in the vanilla.  Pour the chocolate mixture over the cereal and stir to coat evenly.  Sprinkle in the cookie crumbs and stir to coat evenly.  Sprinkle in the powdered sugar a little at a time, coating the top cereal, then stirring, adding more, and stirring gently until it is all coated in powdered sugar.

Spread the snack mix on a baking sheet and let it cool completely.  Try not to eat too much all at once! ;)

TWD Rewind—Cocoa Crispy Peanut Grabbers (Granola Grabbers)

For Tuesdays With Dorie this week, we could chose any recipe we wanted from the book as a rewind to either something we missed in the past or any recipe we really loved and wanted to make again.  While flipping through the cookie section, I found a couple of the recipes I hadn’t made yet, so I decided that I would make one of them.  I would still like to eventually try to complete every recipe in the book.

One of the cookies I missed was Dorie’s Granola Grabbers (pages 82-83).  I love granola.  I eat homemade granola almost every day.  However, I was currently almost out and when looking in my cupboard, I saw that I had recently gotten two boxes of Cocoa Krispies and decided I’d try the cookies, but use the Krispies instead.  So, needless to say, I ended up making a lot of changes to the recipe because I also altered the amounts of sugar and flour a bit and omitted some of the other ingredients in Dorie’s recipe.  

Cocoa Crispy Peanut Grabbers, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Dorie Greenspan

3 cups Cocoa Krispies (I’m sure Rice Krispies would be great, too!)

3/4 cup salted peanuts, chopped

1/2 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (regular ones would be fine, too)

1/3 cup wheat germ

14 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar, minus 2 tablespoons

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1  1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Set aside.

Combine in a medium sized bowl the Cocoa Krispies, peanuts and oats.  In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, wheat germ and salt. 

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Scrape the sides of the bowl.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat for another minute or two.  Scrape sides of bowl.  Add the flour mixture and beat just until combined.  Stir in the cereal, peanuts, oat mixture.  Scoop out rounded tablespoon of dough and form them into balls with your hands.  Space them 1-2 inches apart on the baking sheet.  Press each ball of dough down slightly.  Bake for 10-12 minutes. 

Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for a couple minutes.  Move cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. 

I thought these turned out really well (I was a little worried with all the changes I made!)  The cookies are crispy but slightly chewy and have great texture with the cocoa cereal, wheat germ and oats, not to mention the peanuts giving them a great chocolate/peanut flavor. 

This is it, Friends.  One more week of TWD and our last recipe will also be a cookie, hosted by none other than Dorie herself!  I wonder what everyone else made for TWD Rewind week this week?

C&H Sugar Cookie Starter Mix—Cookies, Cookies, Cookies—And A $50 Giveaway!

Andes Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies with C&H Starter Cookie Mix

I have been making cookies! (Surprise!)  The folks at C & H Sugar emailed me about a new Cookie Starter Mix recipe they have on their site.  You just whip up a few ingredients and are ready to go with the basics for 1000’s of cookies.  Perfect for holiday baking.  What more—C&H Sugar is having a 1001 Cookie Contest on their Facebook page.   They want you to submit your cookie recipes (using their cookie starter mix) and you’ll be entered to win some great prizes as they select their favorites!  Their cookie recipe contest goes until January 5, 2012.

So I made some of the cookie starter mix and got to baking.   They have a number of recipes to get you started and thinking as you come up with your own recipes using the mix as well.  You’ll never guess which recipe I turned to first?  Waiting……guesses…..

Chocolate Chip Cookies, of course!  Now of course I ended up playing around with the recipe a bit, but I started out by just making the recipe as written.  It was so easy I even had a little helper do most of the work!

I decided to mix the dough by hand (or by Sam’s hand).  With the starter mix already having the flour in it, I didn’t want to overmix it by using the electric mixer.  AND, it was pretty easy to mix by hand anyway.  I mean, look at that little helper, he could stir it without even looking in the bowl! ;)  In a matter of minutes, we had chocolate chip cookie dough.

Being here in Utah where we’re at a pretty high altitude, I kind of knew this recipe would make flatter cookies, so I actually added some extra flour to the dough. I also ended up turning the oven to a lower temperature than the recipe suggested.  After a little test baking, I settled with 350 degrees instead of 375 degrees.  Oh, and besides using three different kinds of chocolate chips, I also added some Andes mint chips.  These cookies are good, slightly crispy with great chew and flavor!

I also decide to whip up more cookies as I was excited to see more cookies come from the cookie starter mix.  The next one I chose to make was the Lemon Sugar Cookies.  The cookies also turned out great (but again, I played around with the amount of ingredients a little.  I dipped the cookies (or sprinkled them) with some yellow sugar sprinkles.

The dough is quite wet/sticky.  But that didn’t stop me from trying a few cutout cookies (with a little extra flour).  After making a few of them, I went ahead and made most of them as just round cookies that I rolled in the sugar.

Well that just wasn’t enough.  I decided to put my own thinking cap on and create my own cookie with the starter mix.  I had biscotti on my mind.  I don’t like them super crunchy or hard or really thick as I think that makes them not-so-easy to bite into.  Since I don’t dunk biscotti, I made a great cookie perfect for what I was imagining.  It was so much easier with the cookie starter mix!

Here’s my Ginger Chocolate Chip Cookie Sticks!

The recipe made about 12 sticks and the ends (which I hear chefs call “cookie butts” and are their snacks in the kitchen ;)) are crispy like biscotti, but the rest of them are chewy in the middle with just a little crunch on the ends.  I love the flavor, too!

Ginger Chocolate Chip Cookie Sticks, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

2 cups C&H Sugar Cookie Starter Mix

6 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1  1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

couple grates of fresh nutmeg (or a pinch or two of ground)

2 tablespoons molasses

1 large egg

6 tablespoons mini chocolate chips

turbinado sugar, for sprinkling on dough

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In a medium sized bowl, combine the cookie starter mix, flour, baking powder and spices.  In a small bowl whisk together the molasses and egg.  Pour into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until well mixed.  Put the dough on the baking sheet and form into a log about 12 inches long and two inches wide.  Use slightly wet hands to form the sticky dough into a log.

Bake for 18 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes.  Carefully cut into 3/4 inch slices with a serrated knife.  (The cookie will still be a little soft.)  Separate each cookie stick and give them a inch or two to bake again.  Bake for 15 more minutes.  Let cool on baking sheet until room temperature.  Store in an airtight container.

The log really spreads out, so don’t freak out or be worried.  These are great!

Well, the moment I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for—the giveaway!  C&H Sugar wants to give one lucky reader of my blog a $50 gift card to buy all the baking supplies you’ll need to make cookies and enter their contest!  (They gave me one, too!  Thank you, C&H!)

Here’s what you need to do---one entry per person.  First—go to the C&H Sugar Cookie Contest Facebook page and LIKE it.  Check out all the cookie recipe submissions, come back here and tell me you liked the page and tell me which cookie entry looks the best to you, all in one comment.  I want you to have enough time to bake and enter their cookie contest, so this giveaway goes until Monday, December 19, 2011, 5 p.m. MST.  Contest is open to US residents only.  A winner will be selected randomly and notified by email, so please make sure I have a way to contact you!

***The giveaway is now closed and a winner was randomly chosen!  The winner of the gift card from C&H Sugar is Barbara Bakes!

Barbara Bakes said...

I like C&H on Facebook and the Turtle Cookie Bars sound pretty amazing. Love all the different varieties you whipped up.

December 19, 2011 7:34 AM

Congratulations, Barbara!  I’ll be contacting you via e-mail!

Chocolate Cinnamon M&M’s Blondies—12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

I’ve found these new Cinnamon M&M’s a couple weeks ago and wanted to use them, but make sure it was something really good.  And I think I did just that! 

The M&M’s are good with more of a subtle cinnamon taste.  They are good just for munching.  They are perfect in these blondies.  I don’t know if you’ll be able to find the Cinnamon M&M’s (I got them at Target), or if they’ll only be available during the holidays, but try to find them if you can.  If you can’t find them, if you like cinnamon and chocolate, I still think these blondies would be really good with just the addition of ground cinnamon in them.  Try these, they are a fun little twist on blondies.

I have found it is definitely worth it to gather all your ingredients and measure out and prep each thing before beginning.

Here’s what the blondies looked like ready for the oven.

After 35 minutes baking they are ready to cool--

Cut the bars and they are ready to devour.

These are dangerously good!

Chocolate Cinnamon M&M’s Blondies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

Cinnamon Streusel Filling:

1/3 cup light brown sugar

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup (2 oz.) good quality chocolate, chopped (or mini chocolate chips)

Blondies:

½ cup unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup light brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

Scant ½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup (3 ounces) good quality chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips)

½ cup Cinnamon M&M’s (chopped—optional) plus more for the top

½ cup pecans, toasted and chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8x8 baking pan with foil and spray lightly with cooking spray. (Foil is optional, but my preferred way to then just lift the blondies out of the pan and cut on a cutting board.) Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the 1/3 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, cinnamon and 2 ounces of chocolate. Set aside. In another small bowl, combine the 1 cup flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Since the M&M’s are kind of big (they’re bigger than plain M&M’s, I carefully chopped each one. A little tedious, but didn’t take too long. Plus, the bars are easier to cut without the big M&M’s throughout. You could easily make these blondies with plain M&M’s if you can’t find the cinnamon ones. Chop the chocolate if not using chips.

Beat together the butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until creamy. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Stir in the chocolate, M&M’s and nuts. Press about 2/3 of the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over the top and press it down a little. (I didn’t quite use all of it.) Dot the rest of the batter over the top. (It will not completely cover the top and that’s okay!) Sprinkle with extra chopped M&M’s if desired.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out without raw batter on it. Cool the blondies in the pan on a wire rack until completely cooled. Remove from pan and peel the foil off the back. Cut into squares.

Package up a few of these to give as a holiday gift for your friends or neighbors.  They are my final pick for the 12th week of The Twelve Weeks of Christmas Cookies!  Anyone else feel a little sad it’s over?  I will still be baking, so I don’t really feel sad.  I do feel like yelling “Ahhhhh” that Christmas is so close!  I should probably do a little shopping for it—soon! ;)  Check out the other 12 Weeks bloggers final goodies!

Special thanks to Brenda at Meal Planning Magic for heading up and leading this group this year.  Great job.  Happy Holidays, Everyone!  May they be sweet for you!

Wayfair Giveaway Winner and A Guest Post for Shelby

Just wanted to let you know that a winner was randomly selected (www.random.org) for the giveaway from Wayfair for the Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender.  There was 103 comments and #20 was chosen.

Max and Deborah said...

I liked Wayfair on FB

December 08, 2011 10:43 PM

Max and Deborah are the winners!  Please contact me and send me your mailing addresses as soon as you can and I’ll have the folks at Wayfair send you your new blender!  Congratulations and Enjoy!

_______________________________________________

Also, check out my guest post over at The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch!  Shelby and Grumpy are currently on a cruise and she asked if I’d post something for her while she’s off sailing!

A little sneak peek--

I thought it wouldn’t be fair if Shelby was out enjoying a refreshing drink, so we made our own (non-alcoholic, of course) pina coladas.  Easy and good!

We made churros and bunuelos (similar to deep fried scones/sopapillas) to go with the Mexican theme.  Shelby’s cruise involves being in Mexico!

I hope she’s having a blast, she’s been looking so forward to this vacation and deserves it!  We had fun making some treats she might be enjoying herself.