Hope that all of you had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year! I’m not going to bore you with my resolutions that are probably the same as everyone elses. You know get yourself organized, eat healthier, and exercise more frequently. I just want to enjoy life. It is as simple as that! With that said here are the top 10 posts of this year. Several of them had the help of Stumble Upon by some of my blogger friends Dine and Dish and A Cook and Her Books. Thanks to all of you that read my blog. I really appreciate it! I still have many things to get done that you have asked for, so don’t think that I have forgotten. I havent. The printer friendly recipe is being worked on now. I do feel good about the recipe index. It was needed and took a long time for me to finally sit down and do it. So here’s to another year gone by and new one to do with what we would like. Let’s make it a good one. Any day will be good with any of the following recipes.
Tag Archives: baking
Top 10 Post of 2011
Cheese and Garlic Drop Biscuits
For our second lab of the semester we made these Cheese and Garlic Drop Biscuits. They are so easy and quick to prepare. Plus they are just plain delicious. I am loving my students for this semester. They are all eager to learn how to prepare all kinds of food. I still have to work on a few students that are a little lazy about writing down the steps and the amounts of ingredients, but failure can be a good learning experience.
Filed under Biscuits
Apple Dried Cherry Turnovers
When it comes to cooking, simple is better. I love Ina Garten’s Back to Basics cookbook that the Athlete gave me for Christmas. The photos are just gorgeous and I want to make everything in it! For the last 5 or 6 weeks I have received bags of apples in my CSA box. It has been many more apples than I can eat for snacks or in salads so when I saw this recipe I had to try it. I’m so glad that I did. I have made these twice and they are well worth the calories!
Nice and Crispy Waffles
I have been looking for a waffle recipe that will have a bit of a crunch to it and I finally found one. It came from this vintage Betty Crocker Cookbook. If you don’t happen to have it in your collection, you really should find one on E-bay or your local used bookstore. It is a treasure. Inside you will find basic recipes that are tried and true. Betty Crocker and I go way back. When I was a senior in high school I received the Betty Crocker award. Many things have changed since then, but I am still the same overachiever when it comes to cooking.
Pancake Lab
I cannot begin to tell you the excitement that was in the air in my classroom for the second lab of the semester! I have not seen such interest in a long time. Most students were in the classroom early washing hands, getting out equipment, and measuring ingredients. All groups worked well together trying not to ask me as many questions as this lab. There was a calmness in the air as if everyone knew exactly what they were doing. The students were much more confident washing dishes, setting the table, and eating with their group. All of them were working against the clock. Class members had to be ready to serve in 45 minutes. I have done this lab many times in a 55 minute class period so I knew from past experience that it could be done. Since the classes are 90 minutes long they sometimes will drag activities out needlessly. All groups I am happy to report were seated in less than forty minutes. Continue reading
Filed under Breakfast
Top Chef APPLE MUFFINS
A note to self – Do not deviate from lesson plans that work well!!! Not ever! I got the bright idea from somewhere to let my classes make muffins from scratch the very first time they were in the lab. It was a big mistake. Don’t get me wrong. Their muffins were very good, it was just so hectic. They are not familiar with the people in their group. They know where very little equipment is in the kitchen. They are not familiar with the equipment. So no matter how smart and energetic my students are the first lab has to be something very simple to do. It’s too much for five group members times six kitchens. And please don’t let one group have what they think is an emergency and my assistance is needed in their kitchen. For example, an oven gets magically turned off or a glass is broken or the timer is hard to set!
Filed under Muffins
Delicious Brownies
I really don’t know why these are called brownies. They are more like blonde brownies than the normal chocolate brownies. And not even those for heaven sake. They are full of butterscotch and marshmallows. But you will never know the marshmallows are there. Enough about the name. I know you don’t really care about that. It is the taste that you care about and you are going to love this little bar cookie. It is just the perfect size to indulge in without feeling guilty unless you are like some I know and just keep indulging until half the pan is gone. They are easy to make. In fact they are too easy. Trying to use up the bag of marshmallows in my pantry I have made them 5 times. Yes that is correct 5 times. I love the recipe because you can whip them together in one pan in 10 minutes. Bake them for 20 minutes. Then comes the hard part. Cooling. You need a couple of hours for this. They are really soft when they come out of the oven. You could just eat them right out of the pan with a spoon but try to restrain yourself because they are more attractive cut into little bars.
Filed under Bar Cookies, chocolate chip, Cookies from scratch, Desserts
Blueberry Muffins with a hint of Lemon
Today is the first day of my summer vacation. It is a gorgeous day here in Atlanta. There is not a cloud in the sky and the humidity is almost nonexistent. Now this is not going to stay, but I am enjoying it while it is here. To celebrate my new unfilled time I just had to make these blueberry muffins with the first blueberries I have received this season. These were shipped here from Baxley, Georgia. When I saw the address I was flooded with childhood memories of the beach. Baxley is about an hour south of McRae which is my hometown. Driving through Baxley meant that we just had to travel through Jesup and we would arrive at our destination St. Simons. Then my sister and I would have all the pool time and beach time we wanted.
Lisa’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate chip cookies are one of America’s most favorite cookies. Did you know that Americans eat 7 billion chocolate chip cookies a year? That equals to 19.2 million a day! WOW is all I have to say! That is a lot of cookies. Most everyone that I know loves chewy chocolate chip cookies. I personally like a more crispy cookie.
This particular recipe has been a hit. I have made it several times. My book club loved it. My tennis team raved about it. I took it to the Bake Sale here and they were a hit. If you love a chewy cookies you are going to love these. Plus they are easy to make. I always love that.
This recipe I am proud to say came from one of my former students Lisa S. I cannot take all of the credit for her great cooking ability because her mom has the same degree as I do and taught my son some of his food preparation skills in the eighth grade. Bless her! As I am writing I can still see Lisa in my classroom preparing food with perfection. Now she is a teacher and a mother in the fine state of Texas. So I share this great chocolate chip recipe from Lisa with a smile and hope that you enjoy it as much as I have and will continue to enjoy it in the future.
Filed under chocolate chip, Cookies
Cheese Biscuits and a Mission Accomplished – Vote Here
Today was our last lab for quick breads and the students ended the unit with a bang! All the biscuits that were made today were so good! Biscuits are not the easiest bread to make especially for beginners. At first you are not quite sure how the dough should feel and how much to knead it. And then there is always the question of how much flour to add to the dough to keep it from sticking to your hands. I was very impressed when I talked with each group about what they learned. Here are some of their comments
- These are so easy to make.
- They are better than the drop biscuits that we made from Bisquick.
- We have all the ingredients at home.
- Why would anyone buy those refrigerated things when you can make these?
- You can make these really small , eat two and fool yourself into thinking you are eating more.
- I had no idea that I could bake biscuits that tasted so good.
- We can save money baking biscuits from scratch.
- I want to make these for my mom.
So my mission for this unit is accomplished and we are ready to move on.
You will find the recipe for Basic Biscuits here and to make the Cheese Biscuits make the following changes:
The Teacher Cooks 