Friday's Treat ~ Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownie

I thought I would do something special for today since it is Valentines Day. My husband doesn't really care to deliver heart shaped anything to co-workers but this year I did it anyway! :) 

I don't think there is much to say about these. The pictures tell you everything you need to know! They are really, really good! So easy and cute!

I baked these on a sheet pan and then when they were completely cool cut them into strips just wide enough for the heart shaped cutter and place that on a cutting board. It was easier to do it that way then try to dig the cutter out of the pan. :)

We don't really celebrate Valentine's Day but I do try to make  { or bake } something special....just because. Not that I need an excuse but I feel better about eating something like this if it is for a "special" day!

Here is the recipe. Bake some today for someone you love. They will love you back:)

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Brownies:

1 box red velvet cake mix

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 large egg

1 tablespoon water

Topping:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 large egg

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 baking dish.
2. Beat together the cake mix, butter, egg, and water until well combined. Dough will be very thick and sticky. Press the batter into the prepared pan.
3. Beat together the cream cheese, egg, sugar, and vanilla until well combined. Drop by the spoonful onto the brownie dough.
4. Bake brownies for 10 minutes and then remove from the oven and run a knife through the dough to swirl the cheesecake througout. Return to the oven and continue baking for 25 minutes or until set.
5. Cool completely before cutting.
6. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

 ~ recipe adapted from Food Fanatic

Cinnamon Biscuits

I see it is my turn to give a tour of our Christmas home. I am working on it...finishing up some pictures first. Meanwhile we were hungry this morning { while working on Christmas pictures }, a perfect morning for something warm and sweet. Something called a Cinnamon Biscuit!!!

 There is a restaurant back home in North Carolina that had the best cinnamon biscuits. 

I have wanted to make my own several time and just never did, until today. They took all of 5 minutes to make, 15 minutes in the oven.....

This is what we ended up with.  A cinnamon biscuit so much better than any restaurant could make.  Light and fluffy, which is essential in any good  biscuit. A sweet topping and crust that was just the right amount of sweet. No sugar high here today:)

We don't have this kind of breakfast very often. Despite all of my sweet treats I post on here, we actually do eat pretty healthy....most of the time:) These would be great Christmas morning. So quick and easy!!

But not today. Today was a cinnamon biscuit kind of day, something special, something warm from the oven as we sat and watched the snow fly.

Enjoy!!!

 Mary Elizabeth

Biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cold butter, cut into small cubes

1 1/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375. Butter and medium cast iron skillet.

Mix together the dry ingredients and then cut in the butter until you get course crumbs. Add just enough of buttermilk until everything pulls away from the sides and is just combined. { Sometimes I use it all and others I leave a tablespoon or so out }.  Drop large spoonfuls of dough into skillet, lightly smoothing out the tops. Cover with brown sugar topping and bake for about 15 minutes. 

Yields 8-10 biscuits

Brown Sugar Topping

1 stick very soft butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Mix together until smooth. Spoon onto biscuits and gently spread on top.

Firday's Treat ~ Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

It has been entirely too long since my last Friday's Treat post! Or any post for that matter, My two little babies keep my days full. Especially since they lack { for the most part } the desire to sleep!! I will post all the goodies I have been making as time allows, there are several you won't want to miss!

I have been ready to make something pumpkin for a while but the office seems to enjoy chocolate and more chocolate....well, not today:) Sorry ya'll!!

I have been eyeing these Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls for several weeks and I am so glad I finally made them! They were just as simple as regular cinnamon rolls, if you can call cinnamon rolls simple. I think I will try a different recipe next time, or just use a plain dough and do a pumpkin filling. Just to mix things up a bit. I found the recipe on Six Sister's Stuff website. They have some great fall recipes so check them out.

These are every bit as good as they look. I didn't make the cream cheese frosting. I thought the brown butter caramel drizzle would be better. These rolls do not lack sweetness and I think the cream cheese frosting would have been too much...

my little helpers hard at work. I officially need more counter space:)

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
      from Six Sister's Stuff

Dough:
1/4 c. warm water
2 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 c. milk
2 eggs
1 c. canned pumpkin puree
1/3 c. margarine, melted
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1 tsp salt
5-6 c. flour

Filling:
1/2 c - 2/3 c. canned pumpkin puree (to your preference)
1/2 c. butter, room temperature
1 c. packed brown sugar
2 T cinnamon
*optional: 3/4 c. raisins, 1/2 c. chopped walnuts or pecans

Cream Cheese Frosting:
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
3 T butter    1/2 tsp vanilla     2-2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Combine warm water, yeast, and teaspoon of sugar in small bowl. Stir until yeast is dissolved. Let stand until froth doubles.
2. In mixer fitted with dough hook, combine milk, eggs, pumpkin, margarine, the 1/2 c. sugar, nutmeg, salt, and cloves. Mix until smooth (don't have a mixer? You can still make these. I first used a wooden spoon until it got to be too hard and then I started using my hands. You have to knead it for a while to get that smooth consistency, but it can be done!).

3. Add 4 cups flour to mixing bowl. Pour frothed yeast mixture on top of flour. Knead about 5 minutes, adding flour 1/2 c. at a time until dough barely begins to clean the sides of the mixing bowl. Dough should be smooth and moist, but not sticky.
4. Spray a bowl with non-stick cooking spray. Place dough in greased bowl. Cover with wet towel, or plastic wrap sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Allow to raise until doubled, about 1 hour.
5. While dough is raising, prepare filling. Place room temperature butter and pumpkin puree in small bowl. Using electric mixer, beat until mixture is smooth. In another small bowl combine brown sugar and cinnamon, set both bowls aside.
6. Pour dough out on slightly floured surface. Roll into a rectangle 16x21 inches, dough should be about 1/4 inch thick. Spread the pumpkin/butter mixture over rectangle. Next, evenly spread the sugar/cinnamon mixture on top, slightly pressing it into the dough.
7. Roll up long side of dough, forming long tube. Cut tube with sharp knife about every 2 inches, making 12 rolls. Place rolls in lightly greased 9x13 baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes.
8. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

9. Bake rolls in oven until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract to make frosting. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

Brown Butter Drizzle/Frosting:

1 stick butter, melted and slightly browned

1/2-3/4 cup brown sugar, homemade makes it so much better

2-3 tbls milk

1-2 cups powdered sugar

melt butter in pan until slightly brown. add brown sugar and milk and stir to combine. remove from heat and add enough  powdered sugar to get your desired consistency. I only used about 3/4 cup for this recipe because I didn't want it to be too thick.

Friday's Treat ~ Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I cannot believe how long it has been since my last post!! A lot has happened that has been keeping me busy. A new baby being the biggest news!! I will post later to tell you about her, such a doll, and probably the best newborn sleeper that has ever been! At least at night which is the most important to me. 

Now, on to these cookies....

These are really good! Very moist and chewy with just a few chocolate chips in them. I first told you about these cookies here. I just made them into plain cookies, although there is nothing plain about the flavor of these cookies. They really are so good! I think these will be my basis for monster cookies as well the next time those are on the menu.

Try them! I know you will love them as much as we do!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Butter, Softened

1/4 cup Shortening, ( I used all butter )

2 Eggs

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Baking Powder

3 tbls Boiling Water

1 tsp Baking Soda

2 1/2 cups Flour

2 cups Quick Oats

1 cup Chocolate Chips

Recipe adapted from the Pioneer Woman

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the brown sugar, butter and shortening. Add eggs and mix. Add salt, cinnamon and baking powder and mix. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and then add to the bowl and mix. Add flour, oatmeal and chocolate chips and then mix well.

Scoop dough onto baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Enjoy!

Notes :  Use Homemade Brown Sugar.  I do and it makes everything better!

Mary Elizabeth

Happy Valentine's Day

via

 

If your looking for a treat today that isn't chocolate, here's a great idea. Heart shaped rice krispie treats. My kids would love these.

 

Christine

Friday's Treat ~ Five Layer Bars

I am on a butterscotch kick lately!!

I had been wanting to make something butterscotch for over a week and when we went to church last Sunday evening one of the ladies in my small group brought butterscotch bars...or brownies....or cookies? :) I'm not really sure which category they fell under but they were good!! And that is all that matters, really. So I knew right away I was going to do butterscotch for Friday. So, the search began:) I don't have any recipes for butterscotch ( other than just adding them in to something that doesn't call for them ) so I headed to Google! I found the perfect recipe for butterscotch bars from Paula Dean on the food network website. You can find the recipe here. These are so, soooo good! And so easy to make. Six ingredients....that's it!! They took minutes to put together and were just the right thing for the week!

Start with a graham crack crust

then mix up the coconut, chips and nuts ( I left the nuts out )

Pour that on top of the graham cracker crust.

Pour sweetened condensed milk over top of that and bake.

I did forget to take a picture of what my bars looked like when they were done so I pulled Paula's picture from the recipe. They are pretty close but I think mine looked better....haha:) Probably because mine didn't have nuts in them. I don't like nuts!

via

Hope you enjoy!!!

Mary Elizabeth

Brown Sugar

I have been in this quest lately to make as many things "from scratch" or "homemade" as possible. There are several reasons for my "insanity" as my husband refers to it. He thinks that I am the only person that gets excited about making things from scratch. I know that there are lots of people out there that feel the same as I do. First reason, I had set three financial goals for myself to accomplish before I quit working. Because of the addition of our latest son and my job situation changing I only met two of those goals. I met the goals for my Roth IRA and IRA, but not my 401K. I was extremely close to meeting the 401K. So, in my quest to meet that goal I need to save money around the house. Making so many things from scratch has help. Second reason, the unstable world we live in. We get a lot of earthquakes and wind storms here in Alaska. We could at any point loose electricity or we could have the next big earthquake. Not to mention the situation our county is putting it's self in. The third reason came after watching the movie Food, Inc. This really made me think about our country's food supply chain. By making things yourself you know exactly what is it.

With that all said, I now no longer buy brown sugar. I don't know why I ever bought it in the first place. Just habit I guess. If you don't already do this you should. It's so easy and it tastes SOOO much better. It makes a difference in your baking also. As you know brown sugar is just sugar with molasses and some added chemicals. If you make it yourself you get to leave out the chemicals. It's also so much more fluffy that store bought brown sugar.

Brown Sugar

1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon of molasses (if you like dark brown sugar add more molasses)

Mix for about 10 - 15 minutes, depending on the amount of molasses added. Enjoy!

It stays at this stage for awhile. To the point that you begin to think that it will never mix up.

Then just when your ready to give up it finally starts to look like this.

 

Then you end up with this.

Homemade brown sugar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I've got a couple of things to post that are homemade. What do you make from scratch? I'm always looking for more ideas.

Christine

Friday's Treat ~ Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are definitely a Christmas favorite at our house. They are one of those cookies that I feel I can't make any other time of year....I don't know why that is actually...

I found the best recipe for them on the Williams-Sonoma website and you can find the recipe here.

The dough is very thick but very "fudge-y" as well....

form into balls, roll in powdered sugar.....

and 10 minutes later this is what you get. A perfect chocolate crinkle cookie!

Don't they look good?! Well, trust me. They are;)

What is your favorite holiday cookie?

Mary Elizabeth

Friday's Treat ~ Brownie Rice Krispie Treats

I know this post is a little bit late but I am getting behind on all the things I have made and wanted to share this with you even though there won't be any pictures....Sorry about that by the way. We are working on things:)

These bars are absolutely the best!! After having these you won't want to go back to regular Rice Krispie Treats. These are so easy to make too.....

The first layer is your favorite brownie recipe. I use the one I wrote about here because it really is the best. Bake as directed and then pull out of the oven and cover with the second layer.....marshmallows!! Give a generous layer:) Place back in the oven for just a minute until the marshmallows are melted.

The third  ( and best ) layer...The Rice Krispie Treat layer:) Melt together 1 1/3 cup chocolate chips, 3 tbls butter and 1 cup peanut butter. Mix well and then stir in 2 cups Rice Krispies. Mix together and then pour over top of the marshmallows. 

Cool completely and then cut into bars. These are soo good.....I promise!! I'm sure you will love them also!

Have a great weekend and look back soon for more post...I have several Christmas things to show ya'll:)

Mary Elizabeth

Friday's Treat ~ Butterfinger Cake

This cake has so many names and so many versions its unbelievable, really. It seems every one had their own version so, I decided to make my own version well:) 

I started with a basic cake layer. Then as soon as you take it out poke some holes all over and then pour a layer of caramel over top. Let that sit until cool. I sprinkled some butterfingers on top of the caramel as well. 

I didn't take pictures of every step because I kept getting sidetracked by this little cutie that was crawling all over the place. I was leaving the kitchen every 2 seconds looking at what she was getting into:) 

If she was in the kitchen she was playing under the sink....haha...my "things" are the best toys apparently. Pans and utensils are her a few of her favorite things:) There is no stopping her now that she can open the cabinets. She is sooo much fun and she was certainly enjoying her self!!

So here is the finished cake. Once it is cool spread a layer of cool whip and then sprinkle with butterfingers. This is really good and very moist.....Now most recipes that I saw said to use a yellow cake mix. I made my own ( recipe follows ). If I was going to be serving this at home I would use real whip cream instead of cool whip and would bake it in a 13*9 pan instead of the baking sheet but this works really well for the office or for party's!

Can you see the caramel sinking into the cake? Sooo good!

This cake recipe comes from the cookbook I told you about here. It really is a no fail cake. So delicious and moist.

Classic American Layer Cake

1 cup unsalted butter. softened

2 cups sugar

3 large eggs

2 1/2 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 12/ cups milk, warmed

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and then as that mixes in slowly pour in the warm milk and mix until everything is combined. Spoon into prepared pans. 

If you use this as the traditional layer cake use two 9in pans and bake at 350 for about 35 minutes. 

If you use this as the sheet cake above I used a large baking sheet and baked it at 350 for about 20 minutes, until slightly golden brown on top. 

I also made my own caramel:) Use a can of sweetened condensed milk and pour into a double boiler and let cook for about 45 minutes or so stirring frequently. 

Friday's Treat ( and Homemade Blueberry Syrup )

What a busy few weeks we have had around here! I can't believe it is Monday already!!  Luckily I was still able to find time for  Friday's Treat and also the main thing I want to tell you about...Homemade Blueberry Syrup.

This week I made Chocolate Chip Cookies, nothing special really but always a favorite! I have made some similar cookies that you can read about here but this week I opted for just the traditional no frills chocolate chip cookies:) Which are my favorite, by the way, and apparently everyone else's. My husband said they were gone within an hour!! I don't have a special recipe, no secret ingredient. Just the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag. No matter the brand the recipe is still the same:)

Now the main thing I want to tell you about today is my Homemade Blueberry Syrup. As I have mentioned before I LOVE blueberries.....I could eat them everyday, but I don't really like blueberry jam. Or, at least eat blueberry jam....or any jam for that matter. So, I freeze some and this year decided to make syrup! I used the recipe from Simple Bites. It is sooo good:)

You start by bringing to a boil the blueberries with some water

Continue cooking for 15-20 minutes. The blueberries really cook down. Now the next step you could leave out if you want to have "chunky" syrup. I think I will do that next time....

Now you pour the cooked blueberries into a colander and mash until you get all the juice out of them.

Once your pan is empty pour in a little more water, some sugar and some lemon peel. Bring to a boil and then add the blueberry juice and some lemon juice.

As it cooks it will start to get this foam on top. Just continue to let it cook and then let it sit for about 5-10 minutes before pouring it into your jars and it will look like this

Pour it into your jars and then boil the jars full of syrup with the lid on for about 10 minutes to seal the jars.

 Why have I never made this before??? It really is amazing and you will love it on your pancakes, waffles or french toast!!

Enjoy

Mary Elizabeth