So you’ve all seen the lovely picture of our new house in one of the posts below…yay, shiny new house! We’ve been living here for almost two weeks now and its really become a “home” – all the furniture’s moved in, the rooms are painted, the pictures are hung, the hideous 80’s-esque sliding mirrored doors in the bathroom are gone (thank the Lord for that!). Everything is near perfect….except when it comes to photographing my food!!! In our old apartment, I had a perfect picture-taking area in my dining room; there was a window that provided exactly enough natural light – perfect for an amateur food blogger with little to no photography skills. So now I have my wonderfully large, formal dining area in my lovely new house- perfect for hosting a large dinner party….but there’s no place to take good pictures! I have plenty of windows, but by the time I get finished making dinner/baking for TWD, there’s not enough light coming through them. All I get is shadows. Boo!! Now I know I’m probably being a tad dramatic (its what I do best), and I’m sure after lots of experimenting I’ll eventually find an ideal spot for my food pics! Until then, I guess I’ll go ahead and post these fugly pictures….please don’t judge me.
Ok, I’ll get to the point of this post, which is obviously, my first TWD in my new kitchen!! YIPPEE!! So, Dimply Plum Cake, chosen by Michelle of Bake-En…this was “WOW-OHMYGOSH-BLOW-ME-AWAY GOOD“! Here’s the gist of the cake: sweet juicy plum halves are nestled down in a cake batter with brown sugar, orange zest and lots of vanilla…..sound good? Oh trust me, it is!
As I was reading through the recipe I was sort of thinking to myself, “oooh, you know, I bet the actual cake part of this won’t have a whole lot of flavor…hmmm, maybe I should add something to it…hmmm’“. I thought long and hard about adding a little something extra to the cake batter to give it some oomph; but in the end I decided not to because well, um, its Dorie, and she’s a freaking genius. Good thing I didn’t – the cake part (minus the plums) could’ve stood on its own two feet as far as I’m concerned! The orange zest and vanilla added so much flavor – and it was super moist! Oh-so-yummy!! The plums on top only added to the deliciousness – they got all soft and juicy…mmm. I loved this cake, people – LOVED it. In fact, I think I’d go so far as to say this is my favorite TWD recipe so far!
Its just too bad my pictures are so funky looking. All shadowy and weird. Promise you won’t write my blog off because of the steady stream of bad pictures that are inevitably headed your way….just accept me in spite of my hideous photo-taking skills. Don’t worry, they’ll get better – I promise!
We’re still in the never-ending process of moving into our house and getting everything unpacked, decorated, etc, so I don’t have a whole lot of time to blog, but here’s a little mini-post, just to keep things moving around here!
A few weeks ago I was making breakfast for dinner (one of my favorites!) and wanted something sweet (other than pancakes or waffles) thrown in there with the bacon, eggs, etc. but it needed to be super quick! Luckily I remembered one of my sister’s quick and easy recipes – a coffee cake made out of refrigerated biscuits that bakes in no time! Perfect!
Sweetly Simple Coffee Cake
2 10-oz tubes refrigerated biscuits
1/4 c margarine, melted
1/3 c brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c chopped nuts
Arrange biscuits very close together in a 9″ round cake pan. Mix together margarine, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts; spread over biscuits. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
This is perfect for mornings when you’re trying to hurry and get something on the table for breakfast, or if you want a quick and easy substitute for the usual pancakes and waffles! Yum yum!
I know my blog has been pretty neglected lately – there have hardly been any recipes in between the TWD posts each week and I know that’s no good. But before you write me off completely for being lazy, neglectful and just plain no good, at least let me explain myself!
We bought our very first house back in July but haven’t been able to actually get into it until now (it has to do with our apartment lease). So before we make the big move this coming Saturday (pray for no rain!!!), we’ve been fixing it up a little. Our parents have been coming over pretty often to help us paint, clean, etc. and its been TIRING! I’m sleepy, sore, grouchy, irritable, and the list goes on. However, I know all this hard work will have been worth it when we move all of our furniture in and an empty house instantly becomes Our Home. I can’t wait for that!! Woo Hoo!!
So now you know why I’ve been (and will most likely continue to be for a while) a little distracted from my beloved food blog! Once things calm down a little, everything will be back to normal here at Sing For Your Supper! No worries! But until that time comes….wish me luck! I’m gonna need it!!
This week’s recipe was Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops chosen by Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart. Ok, now, I have to confess – when I first got Dorie’s cookbook, Baking From My Home to Yours (aka: the book that changed my life!), I immediately saw this recipe and did a mental, “BLECH!” I’m sorry, but these cookies were one of the firsts on my “probably won’t try” list. I’m not a huge fan of whoppers to begin with, so when I found out Rachel had picked these for TWD this week, I wasn’t really enthusiastic about making them. Buuuut, I figured I’d give them a try for variety’s sake and also since my dad really likes whoppers.
Ok, believe it or not, I really liked these! I mean, I don’t know if I liked them enough to make them all that often, but at least now I’ve tried them and know that they’re really not bad! Here’s a run-down of some of the main ingredients: chopped up whoppers, malted milk powder (I used chocolate), chopped bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder (to name just a few). As they bake, the whoppers inside the cookies sort of caramelize and come out really chewy and toffee-like. (I really liked that!) The cookies were super moist and chewy, almost like a brownie.
I will say, though, I stored these in a ziploc bag overnight and the next day the cookies tasted totally different. I didn’t like them at all the next day – in fact, I ended up having to throw them out. Warm out of the oven was a totally different story, though – I think I ate about 10 in one night!
If you would like the recipe for these funky whopper cookies, head on over to Rachel’s blog and check it out!
Sorry about the crummy pictures – these were kind of hard to photograph for some reason. Anyway, I first heard about these potatoes from my sister sometime last year. Her husband and son are all about the “meat and potatoes”, and she told me they gobbled these up when she first made them. They’re really simple to make and taste REALLY good. But lemme just warn you, I don’t recall ever seeing these potatoes in a Weight Watchers or Cooking Light recipe book…..they’re not the healthiest of vegetable side dishes, but all things in moderation, right?
I made these for hubby and I on Labor Day to go along with turkey chili dogs – they worked great together! These would be great to bring to a barbeque or pot luck party – I’m telling you, everyone will love ’em!
Southwestern Potatoes
1 package bacon bits (the real kind – not “bacon flavored bits”)
2 unpeeled large potatoes, scrubbed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup barbecue sauce (I used the hickory brown sugar kind)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 sour cream, optional (for dipping)
Line 2 large baking sheets with foil and preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Cut potatoes into 1/4 inch slices. Toss the potatoes, olive oil, garlic salt and pepper in a big ziploc bag to coat the potatoes. Arrange potatoes in a single layer on the baking sheets. Bake until lightly browned, about 15-20 minutes. Brush with barbecue sauce, then top with the shredded cheese and bacon bits. Bake until the cheese melts, about 3-5 minutes. Top with sour cream, if desired.
Well, the title really does say it all. These cookies should not be in existence right now….I should be in Playa del Carmen with my smiling husband, sipping frozen drinks, lying on a sunny beach, enjoying a temporary escape from our busy, dramatic and chaotic life…not blogging about these cookies. Obviously Hurricane Gustav had other plans for our little vacation. Soooo, as it turns out, I had plenty of time to bake, photograph and blog about these delightful cookies for this week’s TWD.
This week’s TWD recipe was Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters (what a mouthful!), chosen by Stefany of Proceed With Caution. These reminded me of a monster cookie (one of my favorites!), but had a few small ingredients that made them a little different. We really enjoyed these – I froze the leftover dough to save as a nice treat for everybody who will be helping us move into our new house in two weeks (yaaaaaaay!)
A few of the ingredients included: Peanut butter (I used Natural because some of the girls suggested trying it if you wanted a more “peanutty taste”), chocolate chips, old fashioned oats, cinnamon (this gave a really nice flavor!), grated nutmeg and brown sugar to name a few. I cut the recipe in half and still had a ton of dough. These were a great cookie (although they didn’t taste quite as good as a trip to Mexico) and if you would like the recipe, visit Stefany’s Blog.
** On an separate note, I would like all of the people in the areas affected by Hurricane Gustav to know that you are in our thoughts and prayers.
