I've been a bit crazy making ice cream since Christmas when I got a new ice cream maker.  This is the basic sweet cream base I use - you can add all sorts of stuff to this....blended fruit to make it fruit flavor, chocolate candies in all varieties, chocolate & cherries, use mint extract instead of vanilla & add small chunks of chocolate, the options are endless.

French Vanilla Ice Cream 
Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream & Dessert Cookbook

2 large eggs
¾ cup sugar
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup 2% milk
2 TSP vanilla bean paste (you can use vanilla extract if you must)

Whisk eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes.  Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, and then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute.  Pour in the cream, milk and vanilla bean paste and whisk to bend.

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and turn on….(follow the instructions for your ice cream maker)

Makes about 1 quart. 

Grilled Bananas
3 bananas
4 TBL (approximately) cinnamon/sugar mix
2 TBL (approximately) honey
Cut bananas lengthwise in their skins

Drizzle with honey, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture.

I told you I have been craving these sweet little morsels.  I couldn't take it any longer, so Boy 1 and I headed to the kitchen to make a batch.  I must admit, he did most of the work.  The only thing I did was zest the lemons, since we were both afraid he might grate his fingers on the microplane, and I dip the muffins at the end, but the rest of the credit goes to him.

This is another Paula Deen Recipe WITHOUT butter.  Can you believe it?  I've been making these for years, they are one of Robert's favorites and I can' t believe I forgot to make them while he was here.  Now, here is an odd twist...Hubby had never had these.  I promise I have been making them for year, then I realized, I did ALOT more baking while he was in Iraq for 15 months, and that is when I found this delightful little recipe.  Well - he approved by eating, well, lets just say so many he couldn't take them to work with him the next day.  ;)

Lemon Blossoms

By Paula Deen – I did not change a thing.

18 1/2-ounce package yellow cake mix
3.4 -ounce package instant lemon pudding mix
4 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
Glaze:
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 lemon, zested
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons water


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Spray miniature muffin tins with vegetable oil cooking spray. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and oil and blend well with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour a small amount of batter, filling each muffin tin half way. Bake for 12 minutes. Turn out onto a tea towel
To make the glaze, sift the sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice, zest, oil, and 3 tablespoons water. Mix with a spoon until smooth.

With fingers, dip the cupcakes into the glaze while they're still warm, covering as much of the cake as possible, or spoon the glaze over the warm cupcakes, turning them to completely coat. Place on wire racks with waxed paper underneath to catch any drips. Let the glaze set thoroughly, about 1 hour, before storing in containers with tight-fitting lids.

I was sitting here Thursday night thinking about making a coffee cake for Hubby's office.  I always make the same ol' coffee cake. Don't get me wrong, it is good and all, but just a standard coffee cake.  I wanted something with a swirl, so I started searching the internet when I ran across this one.  Now, I have been a fan of the Smitten Kitchen for a while now, so when I saw this recipe on her website, I knew it would be good.  I've adapted it just a bit, as I did not have rhubarb in the house. I couldn't decide on which fruit to put in this cake, blueberry or raspberry, so I just made one of each.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter an 8x8 pan.

For the filling:
12 ounces frozen blueberries, or raspberries, or any type of fruit you would like.  Fresh fruit would most likely taste better, but I only had banana’s on hand, and that did not sound very good to me.
1/8 cup sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
½ tsp ground ginger

Combine all ingredients and set aside.

For the crumbs:
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp salt
1 ¾ cup flour
10 TBL melted butter

Combine all ingredients and set aside.

For the cake:
1/3 cup + 2 TBL  sour cream
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
6 TBL softened butter cut into small pieces

In small bowl combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla.

Using your mixer, combine flour sugar, baking soda, baking powder & salt.  Add butter, and about 1/4th of the sour cream mixture, mix on medium speed until flour is moistened.  Add remaining sour cream, increase mixer speed a little, mix until well combined. 

Pour ½ the batter into your prepared pan.  Add fruit mixture, dollop remaining batter over fruit mixture, it does not have to be even.  Top evenly with crumb topping.  (You may need to break apart crumb topping with your fingers)

Bake for 50-55 minutes.

This cake brings back very fond memories for me.  I always think of my friend Tricia N. & our dinner club in Kansas each time I make it.   Several years ago when we lived at Ft. Leavenworth, 5 of my friends got together and created a dinner club.  Each person had a night, mine was Monday.  Every Monday I would cook dinner for my family plus 4 other families, I would deliver dinner to the other 4 families each Monday night, then I was done cooking for the week.  Every other night, Tuesday - Friday, dinner was delivered to my door by 5:30PM.  This lasted for a year & boy was it fantastic...the only problem is our little group started trying to out do each other, our meals were DELICIOUS, but our bellies started growing.  Finally we had to set another rule....no more desserts!!!

1 ¼ cup sugar, divided ¾ & ½ cups
1 cup flour
7 TBL cocoa, divided 4 TBL & 3 TBL
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ cup milk
1/3 cup melted butter
2 tsp vanilla
½ cup packed light brown sugar
1 ¼ cup hot water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Combine ¾ cup sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and 3 TBL cocoa.  Mix well.  Blend in milk, melted butter, & vanilla until smooth.

Pour into 8x8 (9x9 will work too, just reduce cooking time by 5 minutes) pan.

In a small bowl combine ½ cup sugar, brown sugar & 4 TBL cocoa, sprinkle evenly on top of batter.  Pour hot water on top of sugar mixture, (DO NOT COMBINE) bake for 40 minutes or until almost set.

To serve, scoop out & turn upside down on plate.  The bottom of the dessert will be think and gooey, like hot fudge.

Serve with vanilla ice cream!  I make my own, but Kathie, feel free to buy Bluebell's homemade vanilla.  ;)  I'll make some for you when you visit in July!

I got this recipe from my friend Teri many moons ago.  I am almost ashamed to put this on here as it is not *homemade*.  However the taste makes up for what this cake lacks in being homemade, plus it is so easy even my sister Kathie could make it.

1 box devils food cake mix, with pudding in the mix
1 small box instant fudge chocolate pudding
2 cups sour cream
1/3 cup kahlua
1 package milk chocolate chips
4 eggs
¾ cup oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Coat  a bundt cake pan with cooking spray.
Mix all ingredients together.
Bake for 45-50 minutes.

The second cake was MUCH better as you can see from the picture above.  Check out the inside, super moist and scrumdibleeumpsious!!.  If you love, or even just like carrot cake...try this one, you will not be disappointed!! 

If you have a food processor, pull it out now so you can use it to grate your carrots and apple.  OK, let's go!

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon 

Combine and set aside.

1 ½ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs slightly beaten
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1 ¾ cups grated carrot
½ cup peeled and grated apple
1 cup chopped pecans

Mix last 7 ingredients together, add dry ingredients until well combined.

Most of the time I use 3 round (8 inch) cake pans, greased with flour dusting.  Bake in a preheated oven for 30-35 minutes.

Let cake cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick butter (I used salted) – room temperature
8 oz cream cheese – room temperature
1 pound powdered sugar, sifted

Mix together until smooth and creamy.

Or maybe I should have called this blog "over confident".  I tend to think I am a pretty good cook.  I think anyone can be a good cook.  I mean all you have to do is read a recipe, follow the directions and "bam" there is your food. For me anytime I do this, things come out just as the recipe described them. 

I have been making this carrot cake for years.  I acquired the recipe from a friend at Ft. Leavenworth, KS, Celia Baxter - I have no idea what ever happened to this sweet woman.  Anyway, I had been looking and looking, and I mean years of looking for that 'perfect' carrot cake recipe.  I went to Celia's house one night for BUNCO, and carrot cake was on the menu for dessert.  My hopes were not high, as most carrot cakes were dry, and not at all what I was looking for.  To my surprise, this carrot cake was PERFECT!  It was like a little dance going on in my mouth, creamy meet moist, and sweet, with a little crunch.  WOO-HOO!! I was hooked. Celia was kind enough to give the recipe to me (after I threatened her dog…  JK!) From that day on every time I make this cake it gets RAVE reviews and almost everyone always asks for the recipe.    Well, today is Hubby's promotion party at our house, so I thought I would make this cake again, take a picture before I put our name on it, so I could share it with you here.   I waited until this morning to make the cake....I guess because I am so (over) confident in my cooking abilities....  For the first time in the history of making this cake, something bad happened, something very bad......

Never fear, I already have another one in the oven, and I still have 7 hours until the party!

I have a confession to make.  I have always made cinnamon rolls  (OH GOD, I hate to admit it) from a can.  So a few months back when I wrote that girl wanted cinnamon rolls for breakfast, lunch and dinner on her birthday, and then my friend L ask for the recipe, I didn't have the heart to tell her to go to the store, buy a can of Grands Cinnamon Rolls, pop open the can, follow the directions and voila, there  you go!  Notice how I spelled voila correctly? Anyway even before L unintentionally guilted me into searching for that perfect cinnamon roll recipe it was already a thought in my head.  The only thing that was holding me back was the amount of time they took.  I mean you have to wait and wait and wait.  I love to cook, but the one thing I do not like about cooking is when you have to wait for a recipe to do something. For example, I used to buy sugar cookie dough from the store becaue I did not like the fact that you have to put it in the fridge for 1 hour before you roll them out.  For chocolate mouse, you have to put the chocolate mixture in the fridge before you can fold in the whipped cream - oh that used to irrateate me.  Not to forget about good ol' crème brulèe, you cook it, thput it in the fridge for hours before you can torch the top, now I do it all the time.   I figured if I could come to terms with all these items, I could wait a few hours for dough to rise - right?  Well I am glad I did. I found the perfect recipe for cinnamon rolls, well it is actually 3 recipes put together and then I still changed a few more things about it. So, here you go, my perfect Christmas Eve Cinnamon Rolls!  But, you will have to wait... just kidding... here you go..

Dough***
2 packages active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)
2/3 cup sugar, PLUS 1 tsp
1 cup warm milk (105-115 degrees F)
2/3 cup butter –melted PLUS extra to coat bowl
2 eggs slightly beaten
7 cups flour plus extra for rolling on

***I do not add salt because I use salted butter.  If you use unsalted butter, add about 1 tsp salt

Filling***
1 ½ cup butter divided, ¾ cup melted, ¾ cup room temp
1 ¾ cup brown sugar plus 4 tbl
3 tbl cinnamon (the best you can find)
1 ½ cups chopped pecans (optional)
1 cup raisins (optional)
 
Cream Cheese Frosting***
4 oz cream cheese
¼ cup butter
½ tsp vanilla
½ tbl milk
1 ½ cup powdered sugar (sifted to ensure no lumps)


Directions***

In a small bowl mix together warm water, yeast, and 1 tsp sugar and set aside. In a large mixing bowl (Preferably the one that connects to your Kitchen Aide mixer – you can do this by hand, but I would not recommend it, this recipe take too long already!) mix milk, 2/3 cup sugar, melted butter, salt and eggs, stir well then add your yeast mixture.  Add ½ the flour and beat until smooth, add the rest of the flour ½ cups at a time until well incorporated.  Dough will be sticky.  Change the paddle on your Kitchen Aide to the dough hook (if you don’t have a dough hook, you can kneed on floured surface for 5-10 min), and let your KA do the kneading for you, for about 7 minutes. The dough will creep up on your hook, so stay close by to help it down.  Place in a well buttered glass bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size for about 1 ½ hours (ughh!!)  When doubled, punch down dough with your fist, this part is fun,  but then you have to let it rest for another 5 minutes!

After you wait the 5 minutes, roll dough out on a floured surface, I don't know dimentions very well, just roll until it is big and about 1/4 or maybe 1/8 of an inch in thickness. I don't know, just roll.  This was not big enough....

but this was....

I forgot to mention, roll it into a rectangle.

Now for the filling directions....

Spread dough with ¾ cup melted butter. Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over buttered dough (like in the picture above).  Sprinkle with pecans and raisins if desired.  I did ½ with nuts and raisins and ½ without.

Roll up jelly style, like in the picture above.  Cut into 20-24 slices.  Coat the bottom of two, 9x13 pans with remaining butter.  Sprinkle 2 TBL (for each pan - 4 TBL total) brown sugar on top of butter. Place cinnamon roll slices close together in pans. 

Then put them in a warm spot and  WAIT another 45 minutes or so for them to double in size - again.  Ughh!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 25-30 minutes until rolls are nicely browned, cool rolls slightly before you frost.

Here they are just coming out of the oven.

Frosting - cream together cream cheese and butter.  Add vanilla and milk until incorporated.  Add powdered sugar ½  cup at a time.

Frost slightly cooled rolls.

So, was all that waiting worth it (all 2 hours and 45 minutes of it)?  YOU BET!!  These were AWESOME!  They are VERY sweet and gooey.  If you don't like them as sweet and gooey cut back on the brown sugar mix and cut back on the butter, however, I would not suggest it.   The only thing I am going to do differently next time will be to do everything through letting the cinnamon rolls rise in the 9x13 pans, then I will stick them in fridge overnight, so I can just pop them in the oven the morning of.  When I try this I will let you know how it works.  I think it should be fine though.