twd- Sweet Potato Biscuits

(If you are here for The Cake Slice, I will have that post up in a few hours)

This week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe, Sweet Potato Biscuits, was chosen by Prudence Pennywise. Prudy is one of my favorite bloggers. You can find the recipe on her blog.
I have made soo many of her recipes and posted about a lot of them. She makes healthy taste delicious and she does it on a budget!

I have made these biscuits before. About a year and a half ago- when I was new to blogging.
Last time I made these biscuits with orange honey butter -check it out HERE.
I remembered how delicious they were, even though they didn't rise very much when they baked. Last time I made them I used canned sweet potatoes. This time I used a fresh sweet potato. I roasted it in the oven and mashed it.

The only problem I have had both times I made these is getting the dough to form. I end up over-mixing/kneading it because it isn't moist enough to come together.
I should have just added more sweet potato or a splash of cream/milk/half&half to make the dough come together. Next time!
They were good though.

I made the full batch and they only lasted a couple hours. My kids down these things.
Go check out the TWD Blogroll to see who got the tallest biscuits!

p.s. I actually got better height when I made a Spiced Pumpkin version from Cooking Light- get the recipe and compare the pics HERE
Recipe for Sweet Potato Biscuits can be found HERE also

One Year Ago-Hot Cocoa Chiffon Cake

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

A week and a half ago, Tracey shared the link for this recipe, Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls. She saw it on the King Arthur Flour blog, Bakers' Banter.
She asked if anybody wanted to make these (on twitter) and a bunch of us decided to make them last weekend.
I don't know for sure who all ended up making them, but there were a few of us who were inspired to try these.
I made 1/2 batch of the dough. It was easy to divide and easy to mix. You just combine all the ingredients in a mixer, let the dough come together, knead it for a few minutes and let it rise.
Then the dough is rolled out, filled with cinnamon-sugar mix (I used the one from these Quick Cinnamon Biscuits-love the hint of nutmeg), chopped crystallized ginger (I couldn't find any, so I had to leave this out), and dried cranberries.
I made half of mine with the dried cranberries and half without.
Then you cut it into rolls and let it rise again.
I cut my into rolls and the popped them in the fridge overnight. The next morning, I let them rise baked them.
I had some leftover cream cheese icing, so I just added a little milk and thinned it enough to drizzle and had that on top.

The verdict- these were good. Not too pumpkin-y. I was hoping for a little bit more pumpkin flavor, but overall these were a good cinnamon roll.
I still got 8 rolls, even though I halved the recipe. Give 'em a try!

Recipe for Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

One Year Ago-Chocolate-Key Lime Cupcake Pies, Gale Gand's Butterballs, and Mini Phyllo Tarts 3 Ways

Lentil Soup with Chard

It is definitely soup weather. It has been all week. The temperatures have dropped and it has been raining. Cloudy skies and rain always make me feel like making soup and baking.

I found some beautiful swiss chard a couple of days ago and had a couple of recipes that I had been wanting to try. This was one of them.
It is a basic lentil soup without any meat and with the added nutrition and flavor of some dark greens. Dark greens and lentils pair together really well.
I really like lentils. They are easy to prepare and delicious. Make sure you sort and rinse them well. You don't want any tiny rocks to make it into your soup!

When I chopped my chard, I chopped up the stems and ribs and just added them to the soup. They soften up nicely and have to texture of celery in this soup.
I also used canola oil to cook my onion mixture instead of butter.
We topped ours off with a nice dollop of greek yogurt.

If it is cold and rainy where you are or you are in the mood for soup, give this one a try. It will warm you up.
Have a good weekend!
Recipe for Lentil Soup with Chard

One Year Ago-Vegetarian Pad Thai

Lemon-Garlic Shrimp

What a busy morning! Do you ever just feel like you are running around and before you know it, it is lunchtime?

Anyway- on to today's food- Shrimp.

I have mentioned before how much my kids and husband love shrimp and fish. We finally got around to trying crawfish (that is a for another day) and when we were at the seafood counter, my kids were pointing out the things they want to try next- scallops, clams, mussels and the tiny salad shrimp.
I am glad that they are so adventurous.
I had some shrimp left in the freezer and we were going to have a busy night, so I marinated the shrimp for a little bit and cooked it up right before we got in the car to go somewhere.
I gave everyone a plastic container filled with these shrimp and some steamed asparagus. Everyone also got a fork and we were off.

This recipe originally calls for the shrimp to be soaked in a salt/sugar mixture and then rinsed, skewered and grilled.
I skipped the salt soak and marinated my shrimp in the lemon-mixture for about an hour. Then I just cooked my shrimp in a little bit of olive oil, in a saute pan. They were ready in a matter of minutes. Nothing complicated or strange here.
Easy flavors and easy preparation.
My family loved it.



Recipe for Lemon-Garlic Shrimp

One Year Ago-Slider Caesar Salad and Veggie Manicotti

MSC- Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes

It's time for another round of Martha Stewart: Cupcakes Club! This month's cupcake was chosen by Kim over at What the Whisk.
She went with a seasonal pick-Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes. The recipe can be found on pg. 236 of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. I looked online to see if I could find this particular recipe anywhere and I was not successful. There is a recipe online, but it is different from the one in the book that we used.

I was excited to try these because I love anything made with pumpkin-sweet or savory. The recipe said it yielded 32 cupcakes, but Martha's recipes always make more than they say, so I made 1/4 of the recipe. It was easy to cut into 1/4ths and I still ended up with 9 cupcakes.

These little guys are supposed to be frosted with Martha's Cream Cheese Frosting, but I happened to make some Halloween sandwich cookies on the same day and used the frosting from the cookies to top the cupcakes. (I will have a link to the frosting when I post about those cookies.)

I also added a little bit of pumpkin puree and some spices to some of the frosting for a couple of the cupcakes.
We were supposed to make cute little pumpkins out of marzipan to top these, but since I didn't really have anywhere to take them, I skipped out on that step.

Overall, I thought these were good cupcakes. Nice flavor and texture.
Go and see the cute creations that the other MSC Bakers made by checking out the MSC Blogroll!
One Year Ago-Lunchbox

Roasted Beets with Feta, Sunflower Seeds,and Spinach

I remember seeing this post featuring red and golden beets on one of my favorite blogs- The Food Librarian. I have linked to Mary's blog a million times because she always makes such delicious food.

I grew up eating red beets and the greens, but had never tried golden beets before and actually hadn't seen them anywhere, until just the other day.
Of course, I bought them and went home and immediately roasted them. I washed the beets, wrapped them in foil (separately- so the red beets wouldn't bleed too much) and roasted them at 400 degrees for about an hour. I checked them at that point with a fork and they were tender, so I took them out.
I let them cool for a couple of minutes and then peeled them. The skin comes right off. I sliced them and tasted a golden beet for the first time. Delicious! Beets really do taste like candy, in my opinion.

Later we had them with dinner on top of a bed of spinach, sprinkled with feta and sunflower seeds. I was going to dress this salad with balsamic or red wine vinegar and olive oil, but it really tasted great with just these few components, so we ate it this way.
Absolutely delicious. I think golden beets are a little bit milder in flavor than red ones, but they are both really yummy.
I know I say this all the time, but I think I have a new favorite food.

Basic How-to for Roasting Beets

One Year Ago-Dorie's Biscotti

TWD- Allspice Crumb Muffins

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Allspice Crumb Muffins, is brought to us by Kayte who blogs over at Grandma's Kitchen Table.
You can find this recipe on her blog, as well as lots of other tasty treats and dishes. Kayte participates in lots of cooking/baking groups and feeds teenagers, so you always know you can find something delicious cooking in her kitchen!
These muffins were really easy to mix together and they smelled absolutely wonderful. I made a 1/2 recipe and cooked them in my jumbo muffin tin. I got 4 very large muffins- Dorie's muffin and cupcake recipes always seem to yield a lot of batter for me.
I had read that some people were have trouble with the "crumb" part of this muffin being too melty and buttery, so I reduced the amount of butter by 1/2 Tbls for my 1/2 recipe (that would be 1 Tbls if making the full recipe).
I made sure to follow Dorie's instructions to press the crumb mixture into the muffin batter and I didn't have any problems with my crumbs falling off or being too buttery. They turned out great.
I also replaced 2 Tbls of butter in the muffin batter with 2 Tbls fat-free greek yogurt (for 1/2 recipe, that would be 4 Tbls if making full recipe).

I was quite surprised that my husband really liked these. I gave him one when he was walking out the door to go to work, straight out of the oven and texted him later asking him what he thought and he said that he really, really enjoyed them.

My girls loved them. I gave them each 1/2 of a super-sized jumbo muffin and I'm not sure how much of the muffin they ate because the floor was covered with tons of crumbs, so they live up to their names. Ha ha. That is my attempt at a lame joke for the day. I really was thinking they should be called "crumbs" muffins when I saw the mess they had made.

Overall, I think that these muffins had great flavor and were exactly what you would expect from a tasty muffin. The lemon zest really complimented the allspice and overall flavor of these muffins.

Go check out the TWD Bakers Blogroll to see how the other Bakers fared this week!
One Year Ago-Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

Sauteed Rainbow Chard and Beet Greens

Do you love dark greens as much as I do?
I think I could eat them for every meal and be happy. Kale, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Beet Greens, etc. I love them all.
My grandpa grew beets growing up and what I remember most isn't the actual beets. It was eating the dark, leafy greens and the purple-y ribs. My mom would steam them and they were delicious.
I know a lot of people throw away the greens on top of their beets- The Horror! Don't do it! They are soo delicious.

I found some beautiful rainbow chard, as well as red and golden beets. I was so excited to saute them for dinner!

When I cook swiss chard and beet greens I always cook the ribs and stems. They become quite tender and are very tasty.

Plus, how can you not like eating something that tastes good and looks so beautiful?
I also use this techique to saute spinach, but I don't cover it because it wilts very quickly.
I saute kale too, but always remove the kale from the stems.

Sauteed Rainbow Chard and Beet Greens by Mary Ann
1 Tbls olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch Rainbow Chard, rinsed well and chopped- including stems and ribs
a couple bunches Beet Greens, rinsed and chopped-including stems and ribs
chicken or vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in large saute pan or electric frying pan over medium-high heat.
Add onion and cook for a few minutes.
Add garlic and cook until fragrant.
When onion and garlic are translucent, add your greens and stems.
Using tongs, toss the greens with the onions and garlic, until nicely mixed.
Add enough chicken broth to cover bottom of the pan and cover.
Reduce heat to medium and let greens cook for about 5 minutes.
Stir and check to see if stems and ribs are tender and greens are wilted.
If not, cook a little longer and check every few minutes until ready.
Make sure you do not over cook.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.


One Year Ago-Homemade Happy Meal-Mini Sliders on Whole Wheat Buns and Oven Fries

Peanut Chicken Soba Salad

Whenever I need a quick salad or side dish, I go to myrecipes.com. I just type in a keyword and I always find a recipe that I want to make.
The recipes are rated, like many other sites, so I can go and read what people thought about a certain recipe before I make it.

I chose this salad because I needed to take something to a get together that could be served cold and still taste good.
I also chose it because I didn't have a lot of time to prepare and wanted something that I already had all the ingredients for that I could throw together. The fact that most people had given it 5 stars on the ratings helped give me the extra little push to go ahead and make it.

The method for cooking the chicken could also be used for the Chicken Nachos that I posted yesterday.
I left out the red onion and used sesame oil instead of peanut oil.
I also used whole wheat angel hair pasta because I didn't have any soba noodles on hand.

I ate this at the get together and really enjoyed it. The bowl was clean when the whole thing was over so I suppose that means everyone else liked it too!


Recipe for Peanut Chicken Soba Salad


One Year Ago-Slow Cooker Vegetable Casserole

Chicken Nachos

A couple weeks ago I accompanied my daughters to a birthday party. It was really fun with lots of princesses and princess activities.
The birthday girl's mom had made some cute little sammies and snacks for the kids as a light lunch and had also prepared these chicken nachos for the adults to munch on.
They tasted really good and so I asked her for the recipe. Turns out that it is super easy.
I don't usually use sour cream, but I happened to have some in my fridge because I used it in a baked good, so I went ahead and used the rest of it in this recipe. I am sure that plain yogurt or greek yogurt would work just as well.
I added a can of black beans and also garnished it with green onions and cilantro.

I made these for a dinner get together and we had the leftovers for dinner another night wrapped in a tortilla with chopped tomatoes inside. It would also make a great filling for a quesadilla.


Chicken Nachos adapted from Misty Francom
Season 4 chicken breasts witih lemon pepper and garlic salt.
Cook and Shred.
Add 2 cans of corn without juice (I used Mexi-corn because I had it in the pantry)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1-2 cups of shredded cheese
1 large scoop of sour cream
1 jar of salsa
green onions and cilantro, for garnish

Simmer together for 10-15 minutes
Serve with chips

* Misty's note- I (Misty) don't cook it this way anymore, but it basically tastes the same as the way I make it. I cook the chicken and shred it the night before. Then in the morning I through everything in the Crockpot and let it cook until lunch and it is ready!

One Year Ago- Weekly Lunchbox

Spaghetti Squash Gratins with Chunky Tomato Sauce

It is so funny to me how our tastebuds change as we grow older. Sometimes.
When I was a child I did not like winter squash. My mom would always cook it in big chunks and I could barely swallow it. I hated the flavor and the texture. It literally made me gag.
I just thought it wasn't for me and didn't try it again for a long time.

Last year I decided to give all these sorts of squashy things another chance. I was older, perhaps wiser and so, who knows- it was worth a shot.
I tried this Butternut Squash Risotto and ever since all types of winter squashes and I are now really good buddies. Butternut, Acorn, Spaghetti, Pumpkin, etc. I love them all. That was also the first time I tried making risotto, which is also one of my favorite foods.

I saw this really cute recipe for Spaghetti Squash Gratins and I had a container of ricotta cheese in the fridge, so I decided to try it out.
Ever since I have tried this Spaghetti Squash and Quinoa Bake (which is one of my all-time favorite dishes- it is fabulous), I prefer to roast my spaghetti squash in the oven when I am planning to use it that day.

In this dish the spaghetti squash takes place of noodles. The sauce is easy and delicious, but if you are short on time you could also sub in your favorite jarred pasta sauce. The ricotta-herb topping is very flavorful and yummy. It was also fun for everyone to have their own little individual gratin.

My pictures didn't turn out very well because it was a rainy, dark day and there wasn't really anything I could do about it. This was a delicious dinner. I am so glad it is cooling off because that to me means that it is winter squash season!

Recipe for Spaghetti Squash Gratins with Chunky Tomato Sauce

One Year Ago- Butternut Squash Risotto

Vanilla Bean-Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Frosting

I found this really cute plate the other day for 2 dollars! I love finding cute plates for cheap prices.

I was thinking of a cupcake that I could make to round out my other treats and I remembered this picture.
Doesn't that frosting look perfect? I was so curious about these cupcakes that I had to throw them into the mix.
The secret ingredient here is reduced coconut milk. You bring coconut milk to a boil and then let it reduce on the stove until it becomes thick and syrup-like.
The reduced coconut milk is added to the cupcake batter and also the frosting.
I don't usually sample things when I am baking, as strange as that may sound, but I did take a little nibble of this cupcake and it was really good. Very moist.
I also tasted a little bit of the cupcake with the frosting- I think they went together well and complimented each other, but the frosting was a tad bit on the sweet side.

I was a little bit disappointed because the frosting didn't look as good as in the picture. I think the butter for the frosting was too soft which led to a very soft frosting that was difficult to pipe and keep its shape. A few hours in the fridge helped, but they didn't turn out looking as good as I wanted them too.

The cupcakes and frosting also had those fun little flecks that you get when you use a vanilla bean. I just love how that looks and the flavor it adds is amazing.

These were also well liked as I had no leftovers to bring home. If you like coconut-you should try these!

Recipe for Vanilla Bean-Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Frosting


One Year Ago- "A Lot Like Love" Pie- Fresh Peach and Raspberry Pie with White Chocolate Mousse, Raspberry Coulis and Fresh Peach Sorbet

Mint-filled Brownie Cupcakes

Okay, we have almost made it to the end of the 7-treat baking day treats. Just one more after today.
I chose these Mint-filled Brownie cupcakes because I needed to make something chocolately, they are super easy-you mix them in one pan, and once again, the single servings were already in the recipe.
These are a basic brownie batter with a York Peppermint Patty in the middle.
The recipe comes from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. Which I can honestly say I have gotten great use out of so far.
You can find this recipe all over the web, just by typing in Mint-filled Brownie Cupcakes and I have linked to one of those posts if you want the recipe and for some reason do not have this cookbook yet (It is a good one!)

Martha says to melt the chocolate and butter together over a pot of simmering water, but I didn't do that. When I was young, we always made brownies in a pot on the stovetop. Yes, the pot was right on the heat. It worked every time. I figured it would work this time and it did. I saved an extra dish from having to be washed.
Go ahead and do it her way if you want, but just know that it works the other way too.

Make sure you completely cover the peppermint patty with batter, so it won't leak through.
I doubled this recipe and my kids actually had to taste test these. They were a hit.

I was thinking they might be good with other kinds of candy in the middle too, but didn't have time to experiment.


Recipe for Mint-filled Brownie Cupcakes

One Year Ago- Caramel Peanut-topped Brownie Cake

Gingerbread Bars and Chocolate Chip & Peanut Blondies

Here are 2 more of the desserts I made a couple of weeks ago. I chose both of these recipes because they were bar cookies which mixed up quickly and could be easily transported.
Both of these recipes came from the same issue of Bon Appetit as the Lemon Cheesecake Squares from yesterday.
One of the fun little extras they included with this set of bar cookie recipes was a page called "Fun Cuts for Bar Cookies" which showed other ways to cut and serve these cookies, rather than the same old squares.
Both of these bars were extremely popular and the recipes were requested by the people who tried them.
I made the gingerbread bars in a 10x13-inch jelly roll pan simply because that is all I had that was clean at the time. They were really good. Because I cut them into rounds, there were scraps leftover that my kids and I were able to sample.
These were somewhere inbetween a cookie and cake, so they had great texture and flavor.
Definitely will make this again.
My mom also made these and in one of the batches she accidentally left out the molasses and she said they still tasted good, so there you have it!
I didn't get to try these Blondies, but the woman sitting next to me at the event they were served at said they were delicious.
The recipe called for golden brown sugar and I used dark because I had some of it hanging out in the pantry. I was a little worried that they would brown too quickly, but they turned out fine.
Both of these were definite crowd pleasers!

Recipe for Gingerbread Bars

Recipe for Chocolate Chip and Peanut Blondies


One Year Ago-Pear Dutch Baby and Sourdough Stuffing with Sausage and Pears

Lemon Cheesecake Squares with Fresh Berries

This is another dessert, one of the 7, that I made for a church gathering a couple of weeks ago.
Since I was making so many desserts in one day, I was looking for recipes that were fairly quick, but still had the flavors and taste that people would want.
Everybody loves cheesecake and I remembered a section of recent issue of Bon Appetit that featured bar cookies. Perfect for this type of baking madness!
I got out my trusty 3-ring binder full of torn out recipes from magazines and was able to find the bar cookie recipes in no time.
These little cheesecake bars needed to set up in the fridge, so I threw them together the night before.
I didn't use the recipe for the crust because I had graham cracker crumbs instead of graham crackers, so I just winged it. (I don't keep graham crackers in the house ever. They are too good dipped in milk and I have absolutely no self control when it comes to graham crackers.They are an absolute no-no for me.)
These bars couldn't be simpler and they have great cheesecake taste with lemon flavor. They were very popular. I doubled the recipe and cut them into small squares, so they ended up serving quite a few people.
Perfect if you need a make-ahead dessert that will please a crowd!



Recipe for Lemon Cheesecake Squares with Fresh Berries

One Year Ago-Fall Pear Galette

Tuna Panzanella

I've mentioned before how much I really love Panzanella aka Bread Salad. Ina's recipe is the first one that I tried and I make it quite regularly.
Basically if I ever see a variation of Panzanella, I want to try it-like this Edamame Bread Salad that I posted about a couple of months ago.

I saw this really easy version of Tuna Panzanella in an issue of Good Housekeeping and found it intriguing.
I made it for dinner back in August and was really pleased with the results. My husband really liked it and asked for seconds (picking out the tomatoes, of course), but I still saw that as a success. I packed him the leftovers in his lunch the next day and he really enjoyed it.

I only made a couple of changes- I used cherry tomatoes and added a chopped yellow bell pepper to have more veggies mixed in there (and because I knew my hubby was going to pick out the tomatoes).
The recipe claims to be ready in 30 minutes and it was. Nothing tough here. The only thing you have to do is toast the bread cubes, open a few cans, and then throw everything else together.

If you have any tomatoes or basil that need to be used and want one last taste of summer, make this today!

Recipe for Tuna Panzanella

Pistachio Cupcakes with Raspberries or Pistachio-Raspberry Teacakes

When I was growing up, my grandparents had a large garden. They grew everything imaginable. Every fruit and vegetable there is. They lived fairly close to us, so we spent weekends helping them pick and harvest different things.
One of the jobs I remember most was picking raspberries. They had tons of raspberry bushes and to get all the fruit, we would spend hours out in the raspberry patch. We would end up with lots of berries and lots of scratches.
Not exactly the most exciting way to spend a Saturday morning when you are a 5 year old, but I have fond memories.

The best part about the garden was having a never-ending supply of fresh fruits and vegetables that tasted wonderful because they were ripe, in-season, and fresh. I could go on all day about the delicious dishes my mom used to make us growing up that were so good for you and simply tasty.
One of the problems with having all that fresh produce during your growing up years is that you become accustomed to what fruits and vegetables are supposed to taste like when they are ripe and in-season. It becomes very difficult to find produce that tastes that good all the time.
Raspberries are definitely one of those things that I haven't really been able to enjoy very often, because they just don't taste like my grandpas did right off the bush!
That is the reason I made these cupcakes/ teacakes. I saw some raspberries that were a fairly decent price, so I grabbed a couple containers of them. Sub-par in the flavor department.
I decided they might be better in a baked good. I was thinking muffin or cupcake. I found this pistachio-raspberry combination in Martha Stewart's Cupcakes, searched for the recipe on her website and discovered that it had 2 different names.
On the website these are called Pistachio Cupcakes with Raspberries and in the cupcake book they are called Pistachio-Raspberry Teacakes.
I think the Teacakes name suits them better as they aren't very cupcake-like, in texture, but feel free to call them whatever you want.
I halved the recipe, tooked them to a dinner at my mother-in-laws, and they were enjoyed. A couple of people took an extra one for the next mornings' breakfast, so I guess these are kinda muffin-like too.
Whatever you want to call them- they were a success. They are easy to mix up and my tart raspberries tasted great in these.

I wonder if I am going to plant myself a raspberry bush.

Recipe for Pistachio Cupcakes with Raspberries

One Year Ago-Weekly Lunchbox