Special Apple Cobbler

I was sooooo in the mood for a decadent baked dessert today! Jeff pointed out that we had lots of apples that needed to be used, and there were several cake mixes (purchased on sale, of course) in the pantry. I did some quick thinking and, by combining an apple pie recipe with the recipe for cake mix cookies, came up with this totally awesome apple cobbler. It turned out so delicious!


Special Apple Cobbler
5 medium-sized tart apples (we used granny smith)
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp. flour
Dash each cinnamon and nutmeg
1 tbsp. butter or margarine
1 box spice cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil

Preheat oven to 375 and grease a 9-inch pie pan. Peel apples and cut into small chunks. Mix with sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Spread apples in the pan, dot with butter.

Mix together the spice cake mix, eggs, and oil. Drop by large spoonfuls onto the apples. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.

Too bad we didn't have any ice cream, that would have been absolutely perfect.


I think this concept would work well with other fruit and cake combinations. Peach pie filling topped with yellow cake mix, cherry pie filling with chocolate cake mix - yum!!!

Corned Beef

There's a right way and a wrong way to smoke a corned beef brisket. The right way involves the use of a grill or a smoker. The wrong way involves putting it on the stove to boil, then forgetting about it until the entire upstairs is filled with smoke as the 30-year-old fire alarm emits strange and ethereal gurgles.

Guess which way I did it today.

Well, at least it turned out incredibly delicious anyway.


Though it took me quite a while to clear all the smoke from my lungs.


Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Biscuit Pudding

I love biscuits - rolled biscuits, drop biscuits, homemade biscuits, pop-the-can biscuits, all of them are so delicious! Hot and steaming, right out of the oven with butter melting down the sides, ooooohhhh, they're just so good.

But what happens when you don't eat them all right away, and they sit around overnight? They get kind of "blah" and unappetizing. No matter what I try, I haven't found a way to make leftover biscuits taste as wonderful as fresh-from-the-oven biscuits. The texture is dryer, the flavor blander. So usually, if we have leftover biscuits from a meal, they just sit around until they get rock hard and we throw them out.

NO LONGER! This morning I decided that I was going to come up with a way to use the golden brown chunks of used-to-be deliciousness left over from last night, a way to turn them into something absolutely wonderful. And I believe I was successful - I now look forward to having leftovers the next time we make biscuits because I'll be able to make this delicious dish again!


All I did was use a simple recipe for bread pudding, and substitute chunks of day-old biscuit for the cubes of bread. And thus I created Biscuit Pudding, a deliciously soft, moist, and custardy dish that is equally good as a breakfast or a dessert. No more bland leftover biscuits sitting around waiting to be thrown away.

Hooray for the frugality and tightwaddery that runs deep in my veins, that allows me to experiment with breathing new life into old foods.


Biscuit Pudding
2 1/4 cups milk
2 slightly beaten eggs
2 to 3 cups day-old biscuits, torn into 1-inch chunks
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup raisins

Combine milk and eggs, pour over biscuit chunks. Add remaining ingredients, toss to blend.

Spread mixture in a greased 8-inch baking dish. Set dish in a shallow pan on oven rack. Pour hot water around it 1 inch deep. Bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

2 Years Old!

Today is Fun Foods' 2-year blogoversary. To celebrate, here is a deliciously dark and dense recipe for flourless chocolate cake. If you like bittersweet chocolate, this is the perfect cake for you! If you prefer your chocolate to be a bit sweeter, you can substitute semisweet chocolate instead of unsweetened.


A great thing about this recipe is that it uses pureed beans instead of fat or flour. It adds lots of protein and nutrients, and keep the cake deliciously dense and tasting fresh. Yummy! And no one will know there's beans in the cake unless you tell them. ;-)


Secret Ingredient Flourless Chocolate Cake
8 oz. unsweetened chocolate
2 cups pinto beans, cooked drained and rinsed
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
Optional: sliced almonds, powdered sugar, melted white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 inch round cake pan, dust with cocoa powder.

Place the chocolate into a microwave-safe bowl. Cook in the microwave for about 2 minutes, stirring every 20 seconds after the first minute, until chocolate is melted and smooth.

Combine the beans and eggs in the bowl of a food processor. Process until smooth. Add the sugar and the baking powder, and pulse to blend. Pour in the melted chocolate and blend until smooth, scraping down the corners to make sure chocolate is completely mixed. Transfer the batter to the prepared cake pan. If desired, sprinkle with sliced almonds.

Bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate. If desired, dust with confectioners' sugar and/or drizzle liberally with melted white chocolate just before serving.


I might admit to adding more white chocolate on top of the cake after taking these pictures...

Cranberry Syrup

This has become my absolute favorite syrup for pancakes. It tastes delicious and has yummy chunks of soft, juicy cranberries. Plus, it's really simple to make. Jeff created this syrup several weeks ago, and now I force him to make it again every time we have pancakes, because I love it so much!

Jeff: Yup, I'm awesome. (Jeff hacked into my post and added that. Silly guy.)


Jeff's Cranberry Syrup
1 cup water
2 cups sugar (can be white, brown, or combination)
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
Dash each cloves and cinnamon (optional, but very yummy)
1 tsp. Vanilla (also optional, but also very yummy)
1 tsp. maple flavoring

Combine water, sugar, and cranberries in saucepan. Heat on medium high until water is boiling gently and cranberries begin to pop. Use a fork to mush the cranberries slightly, enough to release the juice, but leaving the cranberries mostly whole. Simmer for about another minute.

Remove from heat and stir in cloves, cinnamon, and maple flavoring. Serve over pancakes, waffles, French toast, etc.


I think this would also be fabulous as a topping for ice cream or angel food cake or other light dessert foods. Maybe with some whipped topping. Mmmmm....

Eggnog

Happy National Eggnog Day, everyone! Oh yeah, and Happy Christmas Eve too. :-)

Eggnog is one of my favorite beverages ever. So rich and creamy, and perfect for holiday sipping. I wanted to buy some the other day when I went shopping, but was appalled to see that a gallon of eggnog cost over $7! However, whole milk was on sale for $1.66/gallon. So I picked up some milk and eggs and determined to make my own eggnog. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. It was simple to make, and turned out so delicious! I won't go so far as to say I'll never buy eggnog again, but I definitely will make this recipe again.

Eggnog
6 eggs
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 quart milk
1/3 pint heavy whipping cream (I cheated and used whipped topping)
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 pinch salt

Beat eggs; mix in condensed milk, vanilla, quart of milk and salt.

Beat the whipping cream until soft peaks form. Fold in to egg and milk mixture and sprinkle with nutmeg. Serve chilled.

Brownie Bottom Cheesecake

We had my brother and his girlfriend, and my husband's sister and her family over for dinner on Sunday, a nice big turkey dinner with stuffing and rolls and sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows. For a big dinner like that, you need a super yummy dessert to finish off the meal. This brownie bottom cheesecake is what I made, and it was so good! The brownie layer was chewy and moist, and the cheesecake layer was deliciously creamy. It was a big hit.


Brownie Bottom Cheesecake
4 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened baking chocolate (I used 4 oz. semisweet chocolate chips)
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 1/4 cups sugar, divided (reduced to 1 3/4 cups because of the chocolate chips)
5 eggs, divided
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla, divided
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Add 1-1/2 cups of the sugar (here I used only 1 cup); mix well.

Add 2 of the eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Add milk and 1 tsp. of the vanilla; mix well. Combine flour and salt. Gradually add to chocolate mixture, mixing after each addition just until blended. Spread evenly into greased and floured 9-inch springform pan. Bake 25 min.

Beat cream cheese, remaining 3/4 cup sugar and remaining 1 tsp. vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add remaining 3 eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over brownie layer in pan (Filling will come almost to top of pan.)

Bake 55 min. to 1 hour or until center is almost set. Run knife or metal spatula around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim of pan. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Let stand at room temperature 30 min. before serving. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.