BERRY CALFOUTIS

Recipe found here

INGREDIENTS

1 ¼ c. milk
½ c. sugar
3 eggs
½ c. flour
¼t salt
1T vanilla
1/8t cinnamon
2 c. berries
heaving whipping cream for topping

INSTRUCTIONS

-- Preheat oven to 350°

-- Blend milk, 1/3 c. of the sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt, cinnamon and flour

-- Pour a ¼ inch layer of the batter in a buttered baking dish and bake until batter begins to firm (a film will set). 

-- Remove from heat and place the berries over the batter. 

-- Sprinkle with remaining sugar and top with remaining batter.

-- Bake at 350° for about 45-60 minutes. Until browned and center is set.

-- Serve warm or room temperature topped with homemade whipped cream (heavy cream + sugar + vanilla beaten until stiff).

-- Refrigerate leftovers

M2- WEEK THIRTY TWO

I am just loving this morning! I am awake early in my kitchen doing one of my favorite things.. baking! So, my house smells fabulous, the windows are open with fresh spring air pouring in, it sounds like Spring outside with the birds chirping away, and Pandora is playing all the right music. Today is fabulous. This afternoon we will attend church (I'm one of the speakers today) and then bring a cake (yay for trying new recipes!) over to my parent's for an Easter dinner. What are your plans?

The big fun from this week was putting the kitchen back together! The process of re-staining our cabinets was actually quite simple, but it did take some space.. and some time to dry between coats. Having our kitchen disassembled actually didn't slow down our cooking. This week we ate this soup to use up some leftover spinach, made a quick skillet lasagna, tried a new broccoli dish, and oh darn, just had to make some ice cream to use up some left-over half-n-half.

Other (not nearly as exciting happenings)...
+ I had my blood drawn so my insurance will "give me" $400 in my HSA
+ We're studying advanced cardiac life support  in school. i love it.
+ I learned how to preform a knee aspiration on a model
+ I also fake-delivered a baby with a birthing mannequin
+ T and I watched Smash (and a lot of basketball) this week
+ And I studied outside in the sun as much as possible!

Well, it's time to go get pretty and to ice this cake! Have a fabulous day!

Double Chocolate Mint Cookies

ingredients
2/3 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla extract
1 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
10 oz Hershey's Mint Chocolate Chips

directions
1. heat oven to 350 F
2. beat butter and sugar until creamy
3. add egg and vanilla
4. stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
5. add to butter mixture
6. stir in mint chocolate chips
7. scoop onto ungreased cookie sheet
8. bake 8-9 minutes

opinion
Superb cookies! The only negative is that they are chocolate batter cookies which means I have to pay closer attention to keep from over-baking them, lol.

Molasses Cookies (from a mix)

ingredients
Betty Crocker Molasses Cookie Mix
1 stick butter
1 T water
1 egg
Sugar

directions
1. mix ingredients
2. scoop and roll in granulated sugar
3. bake according to the mix
4. enjoy

opinion
These are great to have on hand for when you need last-minute baked goods. They are a fun change from the normal chocolate chip and look fancy since they are rolled in sugar :)

Cool Whip Cookies

ingredients

1 box of cake mix

1 8oz tub of cool whip

1 egg

Powdered sugar

directions

1. mix ingredients

2. chill in fridge for 30 minutes

3. scoop and roll in powdered sugar

4. bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes

opinion

K: (+) these cookies are super light and only use a few ingredients

(-) the batter is super sticky to work with.. but it is a fun alternative to my normal cake-mix-cookie recipe

T: I made these for a potluck and T resisted until we were walking over. Once he tried one, he said, "If I knew they were this good I would have eaten all of them already!"

Chocolate Fondue

Maybe I'll edit this post when I have a good chocolate recipe to add. The one we made today was only okay. This one had a milk + semisweet chocolate base. However, we did make some fun dippers. Did I remember to take a picture of the fantastic display? Nope. blogging fail.


drizzling with chocolate

• Ice cream: use a small cookie scoop to make small portions of ice cream and freeze them on a cookie sheet ahead of time. This time we used our favorite flavor, cinnamon.
• Cookie dough: make a recipe of dough without egg and portion and freeze like the ice cream.

dipping in chocolate

• Pound cake: buy a pound cake in the freezer aisle and slice into squares
• Rice Krispie Treats: slice into squares
• Fruit: we used strawberries and bananas
• Cream Puffs: grab whatever sweets you may have in your freezer- cream puffs were super good
• Marshmallows: would be even better with homemade/flavored 'mallows

Chocolate Souffles

Photo credit: Sandy Major

1 T butter, softened
2 T sugar
2 bars (8oz) dark chocolate baking bar
1/4 c. butter, softened
5 large eggs, separated
1/2 t vanilla extract
1/8 t salt
1/4 t cream of tarter
1/4 c. sugar

preheat oven to 375 degrees. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position of the oven. Grease six 6-ounce (I used 8 6-ounce) ramekins with 1 T butter. Coat bottom and sides with 2 T sugar, dump out any extra.

microwave chocolate and 1/4 c. butter in large, uncovered, microwave-safe bowl on medium-high power for 1 minute; stir. Pieces may retain some of their original shape. If necessary, microwave at additional 10-15 second intervals, stirring just until smooth; cool to room temperature.

whisk egg yolks, one at a time, into chocolate mixture. Whisk in vanilla extract and salt.

beat egg whites in large mixer bowl until soft peaks form. Beat in cream of tarter. Gradually beat in 1/4 c. granulated sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/2 c. egg white mixture into chocolate mixture to lighten. Fold in remaining egg white mixture gently but thoroughly. Divide batter among prepared ramekins. Smooth tops and clean excess batter from rims. Place on baking sheet.

bake for 15-17 minutes or until puffed and center still moves slightly. Serve immediately (I served with cinnamon and peppermint ice cream)

Photo credit: Ryan's iphone