All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel
This Bourbon Nut Bundt Cake is a fluffy, moist vanilla cake that is studded with nuts and loaded with rich bourbon. It packs a delicious flavorful punch!
I love holiday baking! You can crank up your oven to stay cozy warm while whipping up a delicious treat to share with family and friends. I have a feeling that your friends and family will love this Bourbon Nut Bundt Cake. It’s a wonderful cake that is easy to whip up and gift.
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Peach, Blueberry, and Blue Cheese Summer Salad is wonderful with its fresh fruit, salty cheese, & sauteed chicken sausage. It’s like summer in every bite.
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Change up your typical salad and add some fresh summer fruit! The fruit in this Peach, Blueberry, and Blue Cheese Summer Salad gives you a fun burst of flavor that will make dinner tonight rock!
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You wanna know what’s not a fun way to way up at 1.48 in the morning?
By ALL 5 of your smoke detectors in your house going off.
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You guys, Labor Day is just a few days away. I can’t even…
How is the unofficial end of summer here already? It’s like a slap to the face I tell you! I just don’t want to believe that the days are getting shorter (you know what I mean), it’s already getting cooler in the mornings, and before I know it I’ll be muttering swears under my breathe as I shovel snow off the walkway in front of our house. Or my favorite, mop up melted snow water that sneaks away from the mat at the front door in hopes that the bamboo floors don’t get water damage there. Seriously, thanks previous owner- it was super smart to put a sensitive wood right at the door in a climate where is snows for like 8 months of the year. dumb. And that’s just the beginning of the crap they didn’t or did do.
Since September is just about here I am making this ‘The Next Best Thing to Robert Redford Pie’ because it’s Price’s favorite pie and his birthday is coming. So let’s pretend this is an early birthday pie. Or is it a late birthday dessert since I never made him the German Chocolate Cake brownies that I owe him for his 2013 birthday. I am the worst.
Speaking of being the worst, I can barely remember to do my time sheet every week before the system closes on Saturday at midnight. And yes we get reminder emails that I just delete because I’m dumb. That means I have to do it manually in excel on Monday mornings, which is bad because it creates more work for a coworkers as he then needs to enter it in the system in some sort of back way sort of way. And when I said Monday mornings I really meant Wednesday morning, which is exactly what happened this week since I was traveling on Tuesday… ugh. how am I not fired yet? So I bought him a breakfast burrito and left a note at his desk asking him not to hate me. Hello, tangent…
Anyway, this pie is great. I had never heard of it before Price asked for it years ago. I did manage to make it for him in a somewhat of a timely manner then. ha! So you should do yourself a favor and make this asap since it’s the bee’s knees.
It’s super quick to make since it uses the good stuff like Cool Whip and instant pudding mix, however it takes several hours to set up. Sooooo plan accordingly. And be sure to tell people that you are not make it for right just now. My mom is visiting and was kinda disappointed to learn that she would have to wait for it. So she just stole some of the cream cheese & Cool Whip layer and went back to watching TV and reading. #multitasking
The first piece kinda has to be scarified since it just doesn’t come out of the pan that nicely so that is the one you get to set aside for a midnight snack. Or you can eat it for breakfast, like what Price did. Now that is not the worst.
Ingredients
Process
Sourced from All Recipes
This time last year Price and I were visiting his family back in central New York so we could attend his niece’s Christening. And we just happened to enjoy watching the Kentucky Derby there as well. It was so much fun with the big group of us cheering on the horses kick up lots of mud. Plus, Price won the money in the pool in the super competitive pick-a-piece-of-paper-with-a-name-on-it game. (Thanks Orb!!)
While there we also did the fun game of “pass the drink”. It was still early on in my pregnancy so we didn’t want to share the news just yet so we were trying to act normal so no one would suspect anything. So Price would drink his beer and I would hold on to a beer then we would each out our beers down and swap so it would look like I had been drinking. We did this over and over until our beers would run out and I’d say that I was getting ‘us’ new beers. ha!
Well now I’m able to enjoy a fun bevie every now and then so I am ready to enjoy one tomorrow while we watch the Kentucky Derby. And while enjoying a Mint Julep I can enjoy some Kentucky Derby Pie.
The offical Derby Pie recipe is Top Secret! (And the name is even trademarked too!) So this is a version that is close to the pie that the Kern family created and has made ever since.
This pie is very similar to the Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie I made back in January. But with Bourbon!!!! Oh man, I L-O-V-E Bourbon. I actually missed white wine and bourbon the most while I was pregnant. The bottles of bourbon I had on hand just sat there collecting dust. So sad! But now I can enjoy making Kentucky Mules again with my favorites, Woodford Reserve and Bulleit Bourbon.
I bet you have all of the ingredients for this pie at home and it only takes about 10 minutes to mix together so you better make one to enjoy while watching the Kentucky Derby.
Makes a 9″ pie
Ingredients
Process
Sightly adapted from American Food
I enjoyed last year’s Thirsty Thursday’s posts so much that I started to think of another series that I could tackle. I wanted to do something that was a bit more of a challenge for me. I was thinking of breads and pizzas but then I would be eating a lot of carbs and cheese. And neither of of those are easy to share with other, which is what I really like to do. So I kept thinking and decided that I would have a year of PIES!!!!
I want to conquer making homemade crusts, creating lattice top pies, making the perfect crimped edge, and creating the perfect filling. This will be a year of fruit pies, chess pies, savory pies, chocolate pies, and meringue topped pies. There will be deep dish pies, tarts, mini pies, and hand pies. This will be an awesome year. 🙂
So I am kicking this year off with this Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie. It’s the combo of 2 great things… chocolate chip cookies and pie!!! And it’s just as amazing as you imagine.
The key to making this super simple pie is slowly incorporating the ingredients into each other. This makes the pie really smooth and light in texture. As well, the butter needs to be really soft as you are adding it into the rest of the beaten ingredients and you really don’t want any lumps.
The pie is best right out of the oven but if you can’t enjoy it right then you should just microwave it on a low power level until it is warmed through again. It makes the chocolate chips ooey gooey and irresistible.
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Stay tuned for another irresistible pie recipe next week!
Serves 8
Ingredients
Process
Sourced from Nestle
I personally think that chicken salad is a a great example of a perfect food. Smooth yet crunchy. Salty yet sweet. Lean and yet fattening as well. The textures and flavors made great for a great combination. You have diced crunchy veggies,crunchy walnuts, and crisp grapes tossed together with moist chicken. If that was not enough all of that is held together with a creamy mayo.
I really love Waldorf Chicken Salad but the apples throw me off for some reason. my favorite chicken salad is from Whole Foods. I love their Sonoma Chicken Salad, but my wallet doesn’t since it can add up quickly. I often think that the best way to get what you want is to combine favorites, like my donut muffins, which is exactly what I do here.
I have some rules when it comes to making chicken salad.
1- I always use a roasted chicken because the skin helps keep the chicken moist. If I take the time to make a roasted chicken at home I always make 2 so that 1 can go towards chicken salad. Or if you happen to find a roasted chicken on sale, like I did, then use one of those.
2- Shred the chicken. I think that this makes you much more careful about having consistently sized ingredients. If you chop up the chicken breast you can make the pieces too large and that is too awkward for a successful sandwich.
3- I always use Helman’s mayonnaise. Always.
Makes 6-8 servings
Ingredients
Process
These little buggers are trouble. I don’t think you can eat just one- I know we couldn’t. Luckily, we brought these over to a friend’s house when we were watching the Giants vs Colts game on Sunday to share the wealth. (Seriously, what they hell happened guys? Giants have to step it up!)
You might be thinking ‘these look like rugelach’. Well you’re right! These basically are. I’m just calling them Cream Cheese Spirals since I don’t want someone looking at this saying ‘Rugelach has apricot jam in the filling’ or ‘this does not have enough sugar’ etc. Either way, both these and rugelach are amazing. I’m really glad that I made these because it opened my eyes to why I love rugelach… cream cheese and butter. I won’t be eating rugelach for a LONG time now.
I loved rolling these guys up into a cresent (roll) shape. But to be honest… next time (a long time from now) I will just divide the dough into 3-4 sections and roll them out into rectangles and make them into the logs to slice them. So you can skip the rolling out into a circle, trimming, and then reworking into trim parts into rectangles if you want. I totally give you permission. Do whatever it easy and enjoyable.
Using an electric mixer, cream together the cream cheese, butter, sugar, and vanilla extract until soft. Add in the flour in batches and mix until a dough forms. Divide the dough in half and flatten into disks, wrap in wax paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Make the filling by combining the nuts, sugars, and cinnamon. Set aside.
Preheat your oven to 375. Grease 2 cookie sheets.
Remove dough from refrigerator. Roll out each half into a thin circle and trim to 11 inches (about the size of a dinner plate). Reserve the remnants. Sprinkle some of the filling mixture onto the circle, press into the dough. Cut the circle into 4 sections, then 4 more, totaling 16 sections. Roll the spirals from the widest point to the smallest.
Gently kneed the trimmed pieces to incorporate together. Roll out into a rectangle. Press the remaining filling mixture into the dough. Roll the dough into a log and then slice.
Evenly place all spirals on a baking sheet. Bake until golden, 15-20 minutes.
These really are my favorite cookies. Not just because I make them but because they are oatmeal, chocolate chip, and coconut macaroons rolled into one. I call them trail mix cookies because they remind me of good trail mix from trader joes. So with oatmeal, chocolate chips, coconut, cranberries, and walnuts you can take on what ever is ahead of you, a long trail or the sofa and a movie.
These were originally cinnamon chip oatmeal cookies off of a package of cinnamon chips but as time went on I started to mess around and bake them differently every time until reaching this. So cinnamon chips became chocolate chips, then I added in nuts, then coconut, then cranberries. Everything worked together to become a chewy oatmeal cookie packed with goodies.
Typically, I make cake for our monthly staff meetings as a way of celebrating the birthdays that month. Things have ranged from Tres Leche Cake to Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting. I kinda felt bad for not making a cake this month but I was not in the mood to make cake. Just plain and simple, I wanted to make cookies. So on Thursday morning I got up when Price was getting up for work @ 5.20 and started to make cookies. Having 1 for breakfast was a great way to start the day.
I don’t think people minded having cookies instead of cake, esp when I saw some people stack up a few on a napkin as they went into the staff meeting and then grab some on the way out. After work I brought over the extras to Price’s class. True story- I got on the wrong train. I could have taken the B,C, or the D there but I got on the E line. 6+ years in Boston and I get on the wrong train! What makes it even worse is that I could have gotten off and waited for another or walked but I w as not paying attention for my last chance to fix the situation so I had to walk through the mall to get back on course. What the hell?
makes 6 dozen 2 in dia cookies
3 sticks of unsalted butter 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar (I use dark brown) 1/2 cup of granulated sugar 3 eggs 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract 2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda 3 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats 2 1/4 cups of chocolate chips 1 1/4 cups of shredded coconut 1 cup of chopped walnuts 3/4 cup of dried cranberriesPreheat the oven to 350.
Prepare baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray or line with parchment paper.
Combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl, set side. Cream together the butter and sugars on high until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well. Add the flour mixture to the batter in batches. On low-speed, add the oatmeal, chocolate chips, coconut, nuts, and cranberries until combined.
Form cookies and place on cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Recipe produces 6 dozen 2 in diameter cookies, larger cookies will result in a lesser number and will take longer to bake.
