Tomato Mozzarella Pizza

Did you ever see those already baked mini pizza crusts in the grocery store?  I am sure you did and I am sure many have used them.  When Natalie and I went to Disney Nick said that he rediscovered them because they fit perfectly in our toaster oven and they were a great one person quick meal.  So I got to thinking that with tasty summer tomatoes they would make a great lunch for Natalie and me.  Actually Natalie wanted a pizza without the tomato, she just wanted the cheese!

Anyway, I brushed a little olive oil on the pizza crust and then baked it in the toaster over for about 5 minutes.  Then I added sliced vine tomatoes and sprinkled a little sea salt.  Next came the fresh sliced mozzarella and finally I sprinkled the top with a little bit of basil.  Then back into the toaster oven until the cheese was melted.

Can I say…a perfect summer time lunch!  Quick, easy and delicious!

Macaroni and Cheese

Who doesn’t love home made macaroni and cheese?!  Well, I sure do.  A lot of kids only like the boxed kind too but not Natalie she actually loves both!  The last time I made this, it was entirely too much.  This particular recipe has half of it made in 10 6-8 ounce ramekins for children and the other half in a two court baking dish.  I made it in 2 2-quart baking dishes.

So I decided to freeze one of the dishes because I knew that my brother-in-law and sister were having us and my parents over the following week.  I called them and asked if it was OK if I brought and they said sure.  Well, a day before we were going over my sister called and said her husband wanted to make his own mac-n-cheese and didn’t want ours.  Oh well, their lose.  And it was…not to toot my own horn but mine was soooo much better! 

I found the recipe at epicurious.  I have an app for that!

Ingredients

For topping

• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 2 cups panko (coarse Japanese bread crumbs) or 3 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs (from 6 slices firm white sandwich bread)
• 1/4 pound coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (1 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

For macaroni and sauce

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 5 cups whole milk
• 1 pound coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (6 cups)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 1 pound elbow macaroni

Preparation

Make topping:
Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle.

Melt butter, then stir together with panko and topping cheeses in a bowl until combined well.

Make sauce:
Melt butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat and stir in flour. Cook roux, stirring, 3 minutes, then whisk in milk. Bring sauce to a boil, whisking constantly, then simmer, whisking occasionally, 3 minutes. Stir in cheeses, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper until smooth. Remove from heat and cover surface of sauce with wax paper.

Make Macaroni:
Cook macaroni in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (2 tablespoons salt for 4 quarts water) until al dente. Reserve 1 cup cooking water and drain macaroni in a colander. Stir together macaroni, reserved cooking water, and sauce in a large bowl. Transfer to 2 buttered 2-quart shallow baking dishes.

Sprinkle topping evenly over macaroni and bake until golden and bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes.

Chicken and Dumplings

One of Natalie’s favorite songs to listen to is “She’ll be Coming Around the Mountain.”  Every time we listened to it she always said that she wanted to have Chicken and Dumplings.  So I had to make it for her.

I made it more like a chicken noodle soup but instead of adding noodles I made dumplings instead.  Not sure it that is really correct but what it worked and it tasted good.

I had some left over chicken so I used that with chicken broth, water and bouillon. I added onion and carrots with some sea salt and my secret ingredient when I am cooking with chicken, Vegetable Supreme Seasoning by McCormick.  After simmering for awhile, I made the dumplings.  The dumplings have 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp of salt and ice water (I got the recipe for the dumplings here).

To prepare the dumplings: Mix the flour with the salt and mound together in a mixing bowl. Beginning at the center of the mound, drizzle a small amount of ice water over the flour. Using your fingers, and moving from the center to the sides of the bowl, gradually incorporate about 3/4 cup of ice water. Knead the dough and form it into ball.  Dust a good amount of flour onto a clean work surface. Roll out the dough (it will be firm), working from center to 1/8-inch thick. Let the dough relax for several minutes.  Cut the dough into 1-inch pieces. Pull a piece in half and drop the halves into the simmering soup. Repeat. Do not stir the chicken once the dumplings have been added. Gently move the pot in a circular motion so the dumplings become submerged and cook evenly. Cook until the dumplings float and are no longer doughy, 3 to 4 minutes.

Chocolate Graham Cracker Cupcakes

I haven’t been posting lately and I keep saying that I need to come back.  I enjoy cooking and then posting about my creations.  So now that summer is here and we are back from a great trip to Disney World, I will have some time (and no excuses) to post more often.

I actually made these cupcakes some time ago but definitely thought they were worth posting.  They are delicious.  Who doesn’t love a smores?!  I certainly do (and can’t wait for our first camping trip this summer to make them over the fire).  The marshmallow frosting is really good too.

During the last week of school we had an ice cream party and one of the toppings was homemade marshmallow fluff.  Everyone was saying how tasty it was and no one sure how it was made.  Low and behold a few days later, I found this recipe and the frosting tasted exactly like the fluff.  Yummy!

I found the recipe from Martha Stewart website.  My cupcakes don’t look as pretty as Martha’s but I am sure they tasted just as good.

Cupcake Ingredients

Makes 2 dozen

• 2 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (from about 20 squares)
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• Marshmallow Frosting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 standard muffin tins with cupcake liners; set aside.
2. Sift 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix ingredients together on low speed.
3. In a large bowl, mix together eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Add to flour mixture and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl and continue mixing on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add boiling water and stir to combine; set cake batter aside.
4. Place graham cracker crumbs, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, and melted butter in a large bowl; stir until well combined.
5. Place 1 tablespoon graham cracker mixture into the bottom of each prepared muffin cup. Use the bottom of a small glass to pack crumbs into the bottom of each cupcake liner. Reserve remaining graham cracker mixture for topping.
6. Place 2 teaspoons chocolate in each muffin cup. Transfer muffin tins to oven and bake until the edges of the graham cracker mixture is golden, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and fill each muffin cup three-quarters full with cake batter. Sprinkle each with remaining chocolate and graham cracker mixture. Return to oven and bake, rotating pans halfway through baking, until tops are firm and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer muffin tins to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and let cool completely.
7. Transfer frosting to a large pastry bag fitted with a large plain round or French tip (such as Ateco #867 or Ateco #809). Pipe frosting in a spiral motion on each cupcake. Transfer cupcakes to a baking sheet. Using a kitchen torch, lightly brown the frosting, taking care not to burn the cupcake liners. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container, up to 2 days.

Frosting Ingredients

Makes enough for 2 dozen cupcakes

• 8 large egg whites
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar in the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer. Set over a saucepan with simmering water. Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and whites are warm to the touch, 3 to 4 minutes.
2. Transfer bowl to electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and beat, starting on low speed, gradually increasing to high, until stiff, glossy peaks form, 5 to 7 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix until combined. Use immediately.

Baby Rylie’s Birthday Party

Natalie loves to look at calendars with everyone’s birthday marked on it.  She evens knows what month a lot of our family members and friends birthdays are in.  She has been talking about how her Baby Rylie needs a birthday.  So we were looking at the calendar to come up with a day for her.  First she said she wanted it on the same day as her birthday but then decided that wouldn’t be best.  So we came up with May because nobody else has a birthday in May on our calendar.  She picked May 16 so the planning of the birthday party started.  She decided she wanted a Baby Einstein birthday so we found a caterpillar like on the videos.  It was easy to make the cupcakes.  I used a chocolate cupcake recipe (that I will include in another blog because I actually made half for the caterpillar and half with another type of cupcakes).  I made butter cream icing with butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and milk and then colored a little bit of the icing in the four colors.  We added colored sugar on top of each cupcake and then created the caterpillar.

I still can’t believe I had a birthday party for Natalie’s baby but I am glad that I did.  She was so excited and had a great time. Natalie picked out a baby toy and wrapped it.  Grammy, pappy and GG also brought presents along.

Salty Caramel Ice Cream

Over the Easter holiday I thought I would try a different ice cream recipe.  I wanted something different than vanilla, although I really like vanilla ice cream.  Home made ice cream is so easy with the Ice Cream Maker for the Kitchen Aid mixer so I thought it wouldn’t be too hard.  I even thought I would make vanilla along with a different kind.

So I searched for one and when I saw this, I thought who doesn’t like sweet and salt so what the heck.  Well, I didn’t really read the instructions thoroughly and after I started making it, I kind of regretted it.  First I had to make caramel.  I never made caramel before and I don’t care if I ever make it again.  It wasn’t hard but it did take a long time.  I was surprised (and so was Nick) with how to make it.  If you don’t know, you just warm white sugar until it turns into the carmel.

So that was the first disappointment in the recipe for me….how long it took to make the carmel.  The other disappointment was the amount of ice cream it made.  Again I probably didn’t read the instructions well enough to notice that it wasn’t a very big recipe.  Maybe a quart and I think my ice cream maker holds two quarts.  So after it took so long to make, I didn’t have time to make a different kind because the attachment has to freeze for 12 hours after using it once.  So I had one quart of ice cream for all of Nick’s family for our Easter gathering.  Luckily we had a lot of other food and desert so it didn’t matter too much.

From Epicurious

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
• 2 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt such as Maldon
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole milk
• 3 large eggs

Preparation

Heat 1 cup sugar in a dry 10-inch heavy skillet over medium heat, stirring with a fork to heat sugar evenly, until it starts to melt, then stop stirring and cook, swirling skillet occasionally so sugar melts evenly, until it is dark amber.

Add 1 1/4 cups cream (mixture will spatter) and cook, stirring, until all of caramel has dissolved. Transfer to a bowl and stir in sea salt and vanilla. Cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, bring milk, remaining cup cream, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar just to a boil in a small heavy saucepan, stirring occasionally.

Lightly whisk eggs in a medium bowl, then add half of hot milk mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly. Pour back into saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until custard coats back of spoon and registers 170°F on an instant-read thermometer (do not let boil). Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl, then stir in cooled caramel.

Chill custard, stirring occasionally, until very cold, 3 to 6 hours. Freeze custard in ice cream maker (it will still be quite soft), then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to firm up.

Fudgy Toffee Brownies

Every time I pass the toffee pieces in the baking isle, I think that I really need to find a recipe to use them with since I really like them.  I finally bought a bag which forced me to find a recipe.  So after our neighbor cleaned all the stones from the winter off of our road in front of our property (plus his and two other neighbors) I thought it was fitting to make him to show our thanks.  I found this recipe.

The brownies are really good and very easy to make.  I understand why they are called fudgy brownies they taste like chocolate fudge.  After they were made and cooled which did take some time Natalie and I took a plate over to the neighbors.  We had some left over and I served them to Nick’s family at our Easter gathering.

The recipe is from Bon Appetit.

Ingredients

• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (about 12 ounces)
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 1/4 cps English toffee bits
• 2/3 cup whipping cream
• 3/4 cup whole almonds

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 9x9x2 inch metal pail with foil, leaving overhang.  Butter foil.  Combine 1 cup chocolate chips, butter and 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate in heavy large saucepan.  Stir over low heat until chocolates melt and mixture is smooth.  Remove from heat.  Whisk in sugar, then eggs and flour.  Whisk in 1 cup toffee bits.  Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake brownies until tester inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 45 minutes.  Cool brownies 15 minutes.  Using metal spatula, press down brownie edges to level top.

Bring cream to simmer in heavy small saucepan.  Add remaining 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate; whisk topping until smooth.  Pour topping over brownies in pan.  Sprinkle with almonds and 1/4 cup toffee bits.  Chill brownies until cold, at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.