Bacon Day

Tuesdays have recently become "bacon day" in our house. We don't sit around eating bacon all day as tasty at that might be.  What we do do, is bake a special treat.  Tuesdays are our quiet unplanned days, it is also the day that my youngest tells me she never gets to do anything fun and it isn't fair that she doesn't get to go to school everyday like her brother and sister.  To help make her feel better I told her that we would make Tuesdays our special baking day - or "bacon day" if you are 3 and have trouble making "-ing" sounds.

This week we went for a classic, everyone's favorite M&M cookies. 

Like most 3 year old kids scooping and dumping is tons of fun for Edy, so she was in charge of scooping the ingredients into the measuring cups, then pouring into the mixing bowl.  Edy's other main job was the placement of M&Ms.  She alternated between over loading the cookies to only putting one candy on, for fear there wouldn't be enough candies leftover for her to eat when we were done.   

As always, kids learn a ton just being in the kitchen, but if you are looking to get a little extra teaching in while baking, M&Ms are a wonderful teaching tool.  Some fun ways to use them are:

• Have the kids place the candies in a pattern
• Ask them to put 3 red, 2 green and 2 yellow then have them tell you how many candies are on the cookie
• Tell the kids each cookie needs 10 candies and they can only use 3 colors.  How many of each color is used?

 M&M Cookies (Printer Ready)

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup  granulated white sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
1 cup M&M's

Preheat oven to 350°
In large bowl whisk together flour, baking soda and salt, set aside. In large mixing bowl combine butter and sugar, mix until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla, beat until just incorporated.  Add flour mixture, again mixing until just incorporated.  

Using a medium sized cookie scoop place balls about 2 inches apart on ungreased parchment lined baking sheet.  Place M&Ms on top of cookie.  Bake for 8-10 or until light golden brown.

*Note M&M’s can be added to the batter after the flour has been mixed in, but I like to put the candies directly on the dough to ensure they stay at the top of the cookie.    

I hope to continue Tuesday Baking Day. It is a nice way to spend some extra special time with my baby Whatever day is your "bacon day" enjoy it with someone special. 

Nutella Cheesecake

I can't believe a month has passed since my last post.  August just flew by and while we had lots of fun with family and friends making the most of our summer days I am definitely ready for the Fall routine to begin.  I am ready to begin thinking about back to school and what to back in school lunches.

I will have to pack two lunches this year, so I want to have some extra special treats for my veteran 2nd grader and my newbie in Kindergarten.  When I came across the recipe for Nutella No Bake Cookies on Cook Lisa Cook I knew I had found the perfect thing not only for school lunches, but for this month's Secret Recipe Club as well.

Now if you look at the title of my post and the name of Lisa's recipe you have probably guessed I didn't make cookies. When I went to make the cookies I only had a little milk left and didn't want to use it up.    What I did have plenty of was cream cheese.  I thought about looking for a new recipe, but I was really excited about using the Nutella.  Then it hit me Lisa's No Bake Cookies would make the perfect base for a cheesecake.

I kept everything else in the recipe the same.  The result was a thick and crumbly dough that formed into a good ball when pressed together - the perfect crust for holding a nice creamy cheesecake.  The recipe was large.  I was able to make a really thick crust that went high up the sides - which is my favorite way to have a cheesecake - and still had some leftovers.  My family managed to eat their way through the leftovers a handful at a time and while this made an amazing snack I would recommend reducing the amount of sugar and oats to create a smaller batch.



This is an amazing flavor combination.  I loved it as a cheesecake base and am looking forward to giving the cookies a try as well!


Nutella Marble Cheesecake

Nutella Base:
2 cup sugar 
1/4 cup cocoa

1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup Nutella
3 cup Old Fashioned Oats

Marble Cheesecake:
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla


Base:

Butter 9 inch spring-form pan.  Preheat oven to 325.
In a microwave safe bowl combine the sugar, cocoa and butter.  Heat in one minute intervals stirring after each minute until the butter and is melted and all the ingredients are combined.  Remove from the microwave and add the vanilla, salt, peanut butter and Nutella.  Stir to combine until smooth.  Stir in the oats until combined.  Press mixture into the bottom and up sides of prepared pan.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Let cool

Filling:
Place chocolate in the top of a double boiler and melt over hot water.  Let cool.
Place cream cheese and sugar in bowl of food processor or mixer.  Process/mix until combined and smooth.  Add eggs, sour cream and vanilla, mix until combined.  Add 3/4 cup of cream cheese mixture to chocolate, stir until combined.  Pour remaining plain filling into the baked crust.  Spoon chocolate mixture over plain filling in distinct blobs.  Gently swirl chocolate into the light filling to marble it.

Bake in preheated 325 oven for 30 minutes, or until just barely set.  Turn oven off, leave door slightly ajar, and let cool in the oven for 1 hour.  Chill before serving.

Enjoy!

Oatmeal Rolls

I have seen the Bread Baking Babes around, I have tried a couple of their recipes and been happy with the results,  so when I saw Astrid was one of the Babe's I knew immediately I had to bake some bread for this month's Secret Recipe Club challenge.  Astrid blogs over at Paulchen's Food Blog.  She has a lot of great recipes to share, but I spent most of my time checking out the breads.

After much contemplation,  I finally decided on the Oatmeal Twists, which the Babes baked in June.

Unfortunately due to poor reading skills my bread was a flop.  Somehow I completely overlooked the use of a starter.  When reading the recipe I was slightly confused by direction to "slowly add the dry ingredients to the starter" but I convinced myself the starter was the milk, water and butter I had just mixed together.  Even when I combined all the ingredients and got a thick dry dough that required more kneading than I thought necessary, I just kept on working.  I knew something was wrong, I reread the recipe to check my measurements, but still didn't see that one line at the top of the ingredient list that said sourdough starter.

Even though I was 100% certain the final product would not be a success I went ahead baked the dough off.  The final result was a dense, rather bland, oatmeal roll.  It was palatable when smothered with butter and jam, but what isn't.

This recipe is going on my try again list, I will let you know if I have better luck the second time around.

Oatmeal Twists
from Paulchens Food Blog



700 g sourdough starter
(or poolish/starter of 350 g all-purpose flour mixed with 350 g water and 2 teaspoons yeast. Sit 3 hrs, stir down, put in fridge overnight, or at least 8 hours- use where recipe calls for sourdough starter.)



320 g all-purpose flour
230 g whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
115 g rolled oats, coarsely ground in a food processor
15 g salt
1 1/4 cup water
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
100 g pecans, chopped

Mix the flours together with the yeast, oats and salt. Stir the water, buttermilk and butter into the starter. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the starter mixture until a soft dough forms. Let sit 10 minutes.

Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead in additional flour if needed until dough is tacky but not sticky. Knead in the pecans.  Shape into a ball and put dough ball into oiled rising bowl or container, turning dough to coat with the oil. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk. This might take 2 hours or 6. (Also fine to cover and let sit overnight in the fridge, then let rise until doubled on the counter the next day.)

When dough has doubled, turn out onto lightly flour board. Shape into a log and cut into two pieces. Return one piece of the dough to the rising bowl and cover.  Shape the second piece of dough on the board into a log and cut into 8 pieces, each about 100 g. Cut each piece in half and shape each piece into a snake and twist two pieces together a a time or two, then place twist on a parchment or silicone mat lined baking sheet.

Repeat with remaining 7 (100 g) pieces. You will have eight twists.  Take the remaining large (about 800 g) piece of dough and repeat the shaping into a log, cutting into 8 pieces, cutting those in half and shaping into twists. You will finish with 16 twists set out on parchment or silicon mat covered baking sheets.

Cover twists and let rise until doubled in bulk. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F when twists are almost doubled.

Uncover, glaze with buttermilk with clean pastry brush. If desired sprinkle with finely chopped pecans, or preferred seeds or with sea salt. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. If browning too rapidly, turn down the oven temperature. Turn the pans back to front and bake another 10 – 15 minutes or until breads are 180 degrees inside. Cool on a rack then serve.

Famous Footwear

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Famous Footwear for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

It is getting close to back to school time, which means it's time to go shopping.  I love shopping for school supplies with my kids, but I despise shopping for clothes with them.  Up until this point I have been able to buy clothes, stick them in their dresser and they would happily wear whatever I bought them.  Unfortunately this is changing.  They now have very strong opinions about what they will and won't wear which means we all need to venture out together when it comes time to stocking up on clothes.  

I am definitely a fan of stores where I can shop for everyone at once and still get a good deal.  Famous Footwear is one of those places.  They carry a variety of styles, so everyone can find something - my girls can get their bright colored sneakers, their funky calsual shoes, their plain casual shoes, their boots, and their dress shoes,  while Will can get his one pair of sneakers.  

And now is the time to make a trip to Famous Footwear with their 15% off (20% off if you are a Rewards Program member) and BOGO  (Buy One, Get One Half Off) back to school promotion. 

This coupon is definitely one to take advantage of.  It is redeemable from August 2nd to the 18th, so be sure to print one off for yourself.  Even if you don't have to buy shoes for 3 little people - one of whom is slightly shoe obsessed, go stock up for yourself.   

BOGO + 15% off Famous Footwear Coupon

Make sure you sign up for the free rewards program.  You earn 1 point for every dollar spent, discounts just for signing up, plus lots of great benefits including exclusive discounts and bonus point offers. 

Happy shopping!

Garden Sitting

We have been garden sitting for the past week 

and it has had many tasty rewards - tomatoes, zucchini, squash, peppers, chard and even some blackberries.

We have been enjoying many wonderful meals, but the yellow squash has really challenged me.  I usually just grill or saute squash, but you can only have that so often before there is some rebellion.  Plus there were some really large squash which wouldn't be very tasty just grilled, so I decided to try some stuffed squash and I am happy to say it was very well received.

It is one of my favorite types of recipes - very easy and very versatile.  Simply choose a grain and a protein and you have a meal.   I opted for rice and beef, because that is what was in the fridge.  I kept it simple, but the recipe can be enhanced with some veggies.  The options are endless!

Since we still have lots of squash I am definitely going to continue experimenting with this dish.  I think next I am going to try a lighter filling.  Maybe a cold quinoa or couscous salad and add the filling to squash that has already been cooked.  I will keep you posted.

Stuffed Squash

1 lb ground beef

1 onion, finely chopped

1 cup diced tomatoes

1 cup rice

2 cups vegetable broth

1 tsp finely chopped oregano

1 tsp finely chopped basil

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup ricotta cheese

1/2 cup parmigiana cheese

4 large yellow squash, halved lengthwise seeds remove

Preheat oven to 375.

Over medium high, heat large saute pan.  Add ground beef, cook until brown.  Pour out excess fat, add onions.  Cook until onions are soft, then add tomatoes. Cook for 2-3 minutes then add rice and vegetable broth.  Cover and cook until rice is soft.  Stir in ricotta and seasonings.  Evenly divide filling between squash halves, sprinkle with parmigiana cheese and bake for 20-30 minutes or until squash is tender.  

Cherry Ice Cream

We are big fans of our cherry chomper.

He is cute and easy to use - the kids love him. He is often in demand by a couple of people at once, which of course results in fighting - my kids are professional petty squabblers.  When OXO offered to send me one of their cherry pitters I jumped at the chance. Not only because it looks super easy to use, but I  thought adding another pitter to the collection would eliminate at least once source of household fighting.


When the pitter arrived OXO was very generous and also sent along an ice cream scoop.  I saw the two items together knew immediately what to make - Cherry Chocolate ice cream.

I only had one helper around, so the two of us got to work pitting the cherries.  Maggie wanted to try the new pitter, it was a little big for her hands so kept switching between the two.

 I found it super easy to use and we went through the two pounds of cherries very quickly.

I used about two cups of cherries for the ice cream. Half a cup was chopped up and thrown into the freezer. the remaining cup and a half was added to some cream, cooked until soft,

then pureed into a beautiful pink cream.  The cream was chilled for a bit and then put into the ice cream machine.  

Just as it was finished mixing the remaining half cup of chopped and frozen cherries was added to the ice cream, along with chunks of chocolate. The result was a wonderfully creamy chunky ice cream perfect for a hot summer day.  

Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream


1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
2 cups sweet cherries, pitted
1/2 cup roughly chopped, bittersweet chocolate

In saucepan combine heavy cream, sugar and 1 1/2 cups cherries.  Over medium high heat bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until cherries are soft.  Let mixture cool slightly, pour into blender and puree.  Pour into bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, can be left overnight.

While mixture is cooling roughly chop remaining 1/2 cup of cherries, place in freezer along with chocolate chunks.  Once mixture has cooled place into ice machine, mix following manufactures instructions.  Just before ice cream is done mixing add frozen cherries and chocolate.  Mix until combined.  




In case you were wondering it doesn't appear as if adding another pitter will eliminate any fights, it just adds to the things to fight over. Now they fight over who uses which pitter.

Texas Caviar

I am not sure when I will learn that procastination is not a good thing.  Every month I get my SRC assignment choose 2 or 3 recipes that look really good and am determined to make them right away.  Yet every month it seems as if I am scrambling to make something a few days before the posting deadline.

This month I knew I had to make something early in the month because of travel plans.  I gave myself a deadline of June 28th, but did I have anything made by then - no.  I was still ok though, I had a few days before we left on vacation and I had all the ingredients to make one of Noelle's Green Monster Smoothies, in Popsicle form.  I knew we had some super hot days coming up and couldn't wait to have a Cherry Bom Bom waiting in the freezer.

Then the power went out for two days, making our refrigerator look like this.

One good thing about an outage is that your fridge gets a really good cleaning.

 I knew the produce wouldn't last while we were gone so I passed it on to neighbors and decided to get back to An Opera Singer in the Kitchen when I returned from vacation.  I knew there were a lot of great recipes I could choose from and would definitely be able to find something to make, even if I only had a day to do it.

Since our weather was still unbearably hot I decided to go for something light and easy - Texas Caviar Salad.

This was the perfect dish for a hot summer night.  We made a meal out of it by serving it with some tortilla chips and avocado slices, but it also makes a great side dish.  I made it early in the morning, allowing all the flavors to meld together. I didn't need to turn the stove on during the heat of the day and we came home to a delicious and belly filling meal after an afternoon at the pool.  

I modified Noelle's recipe slightly - using canned beans instead of dry and reducing proportions.  Be sure to go visit An Opera Singer in the Kitchen. she has a lot of great vegan recipes on her site, so be sure to go check them out.

Texas Caviar


1 can black eyed-peas, drained and rinsed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup corn (canned, frozen or fresh)
2 cups tomatoes, diced
1 cup cilantro, finely diced
1/2 cup red onion, finely diced
1/2 cup Italian dressing

Combine all ingredients, mix well.  Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.
Enjoy!