Molasses Cookies

I first posted this cookie recipe almost exactly three years ago! While there is nothing magical about baking theses cookies in the fall, it has become a sort of tradition for us. I don’t use regular molasses in these cookies – I use sorghum syrup. And we just happen to know some people who make sorghum syrup. And that always happens in the fall! So, every time we get a fresh batch of sorghum syrup, you guessed it, I bake these cookies!

Peppermint Snow Ball Cookies

I picked these cookies out of Gooseberry Patch’s “Garfield… Recipes with Cattitude!” cookbook because they remind me a lot of the butterball cookies that my mom always made at Christmas. (I’m not really sure why we decided those are Christmas cookies. These are more Christmas-y with the peppermint addition. But I guess it means there’s not always powdered sugar- and butter-filled cookies sitting around the house. Which is good. Most of the time.)

Not your grandma’s fruitcake

Fruitcake is one of those traditional holiday foods. It’s heavy, dense, and has those funny green bits in it. You can buy it everywhere. But who really buys it? And who really likes it?

Well, hold on to your fruitcake hats! This is not your grandma’s fruitcake!

Quick and easy blackberry cobbler

We have a few “tame” blackberry bushes in our yard. (They’re not looking so hot this year – we’re hoping they make it though the drought!) Usually we get tons of berries from them, and this cobbler recipe is one of our favorite things to do with them.

Start with around 5 cups of blackberries. We use our fresh off the bushes, but frozen would work well, too.

Mini birthday cakes

My birthday was last week. And unless I want a cake from WalMart or an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen (which sometimes I do), I need to bake my own cakes.

(Don’t tell Hubby Doc, but I really don’t mind all that much. I do love to complain about it though.)

And, I will freely admit, I am a bake-it-from-a-box-mix kind of girl. I want to be a bake-it-from-scratch kind of girl, but I’m just not. And that’s the way it is.



I did want to try something a little different this year, though. I’ve done the round 2-layer cakes, which are fine. I’ve done 9x13 cakes, which are kind of boring. I’ve done cupcakes, and I just make a giant mess.

Chocolate Lava Cake

To-die-for, melt-in-your-mouth, ooey-gooey chocolate cake from The Pampered Chef Chocolate cookbook.

In the microwave.

In ten minutes.

I’m sorry, Weight Watchers who??

Okay, six easy steps. Ready?

1. Mix up a chocolate cake batter. Just like the box says. Then put it in your Deep Covered Baker. (Don’t have one? You need one. It’s just like a slow-cooker, only fast. There’s even a recipe book to get you started. Oh, and it also comes in taupe, if you’re not crazy about cranberry.)

Oatmeal Bread

I just love baking bread. I used to use my bread machine about once a week, but it’s been put away for over two years now. I decided this was the perfect opportunity to pull it out of hiding!
I found this oatmeal bread recipe in Better Homes and Gardens’ “Bread Machine Recipes,” and I thought it sounded like just the perfect thing for the fall weather we are having here!

I made a 1-1/2 pound loaf. (Though I am wishing I had made a 2 pound loaf!) The instructions here are for the 1-1/2 pound loaf; the printable recipe card below has both sizes.

First, toast 1 cup of quick-cooking rolled oats in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes, until they are brown (stir occasionally). This brings out a really great nutty smell and flavor.

Then fill up your bread machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions. For my Toastmaster, I added 1/3 cup water and 2/3 cup milk, warmed to around 80 degrees, and 1 tablespoon of butter, cut into pieces.

Next I added 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar and 3/4 teaspoon salt. I layered 2-1/2 cups of bread flour and the toasted oats on top of the liquids.

The cookbook instructions are to add the oats with the flour. I added half the flour, then the oats, then the rest of the flour.

{It is important to use bread flour in bread recipes, not just all-purpose flour. Bread flour has a higher gluten (a kind of protein) content than AP flour. The gluten traps the carbon dioxide that is formed by the yeast, which helps the dough to rise. AP flour just doesn’t have the same gluten content, and may not hold up to all the kneading that goes on in bread-making. Save yourself some headaches, and make an extra trip to the grocery store for bread flour.}

Finally, I added 1 teaspoon of Red Star Quick Rise Yeast in a little pile right in the middle.

I loaded everything right into the bread machine, and set it for the whole wheat cycle, and a medium crust color. I love just a hint of crunch on the crust, while the inside of the bread is nice and soft – the medium crust color setting hits this perfectly for me! (If you don’t have a whole wheat or whole grain setting on your machine, just use the basic white bread option.)

Four hours later, and ta da – it seems like no work at all! (And isn’t that the best thing about bread machines?!)

This bread was so good warm with butter right out of the bread machine…

But it was also great lightly toasted with egg salad, fresh garden tomatoes, and homemade pickles! (The good thing about putting in a garden late, is that we still have fresh off the vine tomatoes in September!)

This will be a huge favorite of mine coming into the fall and winter. Something about the oats just gives this bread a great texture. We will be eating this with soups and stews, with big hearty sandwiches, and just warm with a bunch of butter. Can’t beat that. :)

The printable recipe card…


(Thank you to Red Star Yeast for a coupon for the yeast.)

Garlic Bubble Bread, recipe #3

From the farm to the kitchen…
Can I just say, I am loving this cookbook! I made Garlic Bubble Bread to go along with girl’s night Perfect Cheesy Pasta Bake. The bread was the hit of the party. (What can I say, we love butter and carbs!)

As always, gather your ingredients…This recipe calls for one pound of frozen bread dough. My grocery store didn’t have exactly that, but it did have frozen dinner roll dough. Worked great!!

This recipe also calls for both garlic powder, and garlic salt. Use them. Love them. Yum.

It does take a little bit of time, though, so plan ahead!

First, thaw the bread (roll) dough according to package directions. Then cut it up into bite-sized pieces. I cut each roll into 4-5 pieces. (This ends up being a super-savory version of the sticky-sweet pull-apart Monkey Bread. A fantastic variation on a theme!)When your thawed bread dough is ready to go, melt 1/4 cup of butter (1/2 stick).Add 1 tablespoon dried parsley, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, and 1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt to the melted butter.Dunk the pieces of bread dough in, and let them get a good coating.Layer the buttery, garlicky hunks of bread dough in a buttered loaf pan.   I started to run low on my melted butter mixture when I was about half-way through the dough-dunking. I melted another 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) and added it to the mix. This was a little too much, and I had extra left over. So I poured it over the top of the loaf pan. (We also love our butter!) Let the dough rise for about an hour, until doubled in size. Mine didn’t rise very well – I had the air conditioning cranked in my house, and it was on the chilly side. I moved the pan closer to the pre-heating oven for the last 15 minutes, and the rising went much better then.

Bake this yummy concoction at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. I left this in the oven in my stoneware for 35 minutes to get this perfect color.The extra butter bubbled up over the sides of the bread in the corners of the pan, and the pieces on the bottom were so buttery delicious!

We all loved this bread, and I have already had requests for the recipe, and to make it again! I will definitely make this again!

Special thanks to Gooseberry Patch for providing me with this great cookbook to try and to share with you. If you would like to see other great recipes, check out www.realfarmwivesofamerica.com.

Printable recipe card:

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Piece of custard!

I’m so happy to be posting my first Gooseberry Patch recipe!

  As the readers at Real Farmwives of America & Friends voted on, I will be cooking from Autumn with Family and Friends for the next three months.
  So, let’s jump right in!! I started with the Pumpkin Custard Crunch recipe.
First, gather your ingredients for the custard part:
Beat three eggs…
And add one 29 ounce can of pumpkin (that’s the big ones), 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. (I went heavy on the pie spice. I’m a spice girl. But not like the scary lip-synching ones from the 90s.)
I would recommend mixing the pumpkin and spices together first, then adding the eggs. It takes a little extra “oomph” to get the eggs to combine evenly with the pumpkin, and I think adding the spices first might help.
Add one cup of milk… (I used skim)
one can of sweetened condensed milk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. (I used the non-fat sweetened condensed milk. I’m going to be using a cup of butter later – I’m trying to cut back on the calories where I can!)Mix it up to a beautiful pumpkin pie-like consistency, and pour it into a greased 9x13 baking pan.
Then gather your ingredients for the crunch topping:
Melt one cup (two sticks) of butter. This took about 90 seconds in the microwave.
Mix 3 cups of quick-cooking oats, 1 cup of packed brown sugar… (I used the Splenda brown sugar blend. If you try that, you should cut the amount of brown sugar by half. I forgot to do that. Whoops.)
Add 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 cup of crushed walnuts or pecans, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. (Again, I went a bit heavy on the cinnamon.)
Mix it all up, and add the melted butter. Toss that mixture until it is a buttery, crumby, yummy mess.
(I had to switch to a bigger bowl for this part. I thought my 8-cup bowl would be plenty, but… 3 cups oats + 1 cup brown sugar + 1 cup flour + 1 cup pecans = 6 cups. Plus butter. Plus room for mixing. Note to self – always use a bigger bowl!)
Spoon the crunch topping over the custard. Don’t be shy. You have over 6 cups of topping! Be generous, and layer heavily. Seriously. There’s about an inch of “topping” here.Bake it at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes, until a knife comes out clean. In my stoneware pan, it took 55 minutes to bake.

Serve warm, and enjoy!!This would be great served with vanilla ice cream (I didn’t have any), or whipped cream (didn’t have any of that, either).
This is also fantastic cold for breakfast the next morning. Hypothetically. Or not so hypothetically.
Mine came out a bit too sweet, but that is all my fault for adding extra brown sugar. Although I do like the brown sugar flavor. I think this would be even a notch better with 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg added to the custard… That’s for next time!
The printable recipe card:

Special thanks to Gooseberry Patch for providing me with this great cookbook to try and share with you. If you would like to purchase this or other cookbooks, please visit their store. If you would like to see other great recipes, check out www.realfarmwivesofamerica.com.

Easter lamb cake

The Easter lamb cake was a tradition in my house growing up. My mom used to make it with a pound cake mix. Because I wanted to play in this month’s Iron Chef Challenge hosted by A Latte with Ott, A, I made a cake from scratch!

Having never made a pound cake (or any other cake, for that matter) from scratch, I searched for a recipe. My favorite, Alton Brown, had what looked like a yummy pound cake recipe, but it didn’t use baking powder. I did manage to find a cake recipe on Allrecipes.com that was supposed to be used with this lamb cake mold! Cool! (And thanks!)

First, I assembled the ingredients, including a brand-new container of Clabber Girl baking powder.

Don’t forget your lamb cake mold! You do have one of these, don’t you?



Cream together 1 cup of butter and 2 cups of sugar (I used Splenda instead of sugar).



Mix together 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

This recipe says to add 1 cup of water to the butter/sugar mixture and mix that well, then to add in the flour mixture. I tried just adding the water, and it made a mess. Really. The water didn’t combine with the butter/Splenda, and it splashed all over my counter. (Because the butter was too cold? Because it was Splenda instead of sugar? Any ideas?)

So I just added the flour mixture, and a little more water to compensate for the water that was on my counter. Then mix in 1 teaspoon vanilla.



Then, beat 4 egg whites until stiff. I had never done this before, and it was much easier than I thought it would be. Hooray for hand mixers!



Peaks! Neat!



Fold the egg whites into the batter.



Grease both halves of the lamb mold within an inch of your life.



Really. Just when you think it’s greased enough, grease it some more. I usually use butter for greasing pans, sometimes the spray stuff. For this project, I busted out the Crisco. I wanted some serious grease!



Fill your mold, but pay attention to the type of mold you have. This mold is meant to be filled on the “front” half of the lamb, and baked as a single piece. Some are meant to be baked as two halves and put together at the end.



This mold has a small vent hole in the back of the lamb’s head. (That helps me to remember which side goes up – the hole goes up so the poor lamb’s brains don’t leak out in the oven!)

I put the mold, face down, on a cookie sheet and into a 350 oF preheated oven. Bake for 45-50 minutes.



Then I did a little dance because all the dishes I used to make the cake went into the new dishwasher! After I started it, I thought to double-check that my stainless steel mixing bowls are dishwasher safe. (Phew! They are!)



After 45 minutes in the oven, I used a toothpick through the vent hole to see if the cake was done. The toothpick came out clean, so I pulled the cake. I let it cool for a few minutes before I carefully took off the back of the mold. (I had a little accident with part of the cake. Remember what I said about grease?) I didn’t think he looked quite done enough, so I gently put the mold back on, and stuck him back in the oven for another five minutes.



Five minutes later, done lamb cake! I had to use a knife to loosen the cake from the edges of the front part of the mold. I didn’t grease that part too well, I guess. Once the edges were loosened, he came right out!



Cool completely, and then start the icing!

First, put a layer of icing on your cake base so the lamb has some help standing up. (This cake should stand on its own, but this will give a bit more stability.)



I used icing from a can. I thought about making my own, but decided making the cake from scratch was enough to handle this time around.

Then I had to do a little surgery to put the lamb back together again.



Good thing I am a large animal veterinarian!



Stand the little guy up, and go to town with the icing!



I started with the back to get my technique down. I didn’t want a really “smooth” look, so it sort of looked like wool.



My mom used to dust the cake with coconut to give it some texture. We’re not big coconut eaters here, so I skipped that step.



I did dust him with sugar (the real stuff!) for some dimension, and gave him jelly bean eyes and a nose.



Add some grass for him to sit on, and some friends for him to hang out with.

Since my cats like to eat things they are not supposed to, I made sure to use the paper Easter grass, instead of the plastic stuff. Plastic stringy things are bad news for kitties. Always.

Now, if only my cake dome would fit without squishing the poor lamb’s head! Drat!



Happy Easter!



Also linked to Sweets for a Saturday at Sweet as Sugar Cookies.

 and Seaside Simplicity's Easter Party.

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