Last one of the day-- promise.

So here's the FYI-- in an effort to make this page not so... single posted... I've transfered recipes that I've been posting to my personal blog. I haven't made all these in a matter of this week, so ignore the context and enjoy the recipes!

Braided Coffee Cake

Here it is! The very very very best breakfast pastry ever!


Start with

1/4 c Butter
3 oz Cream Cheese
2 Cups of  Bisquick
 Cut the butter and cream cheese into the Bisquick. 

Stir in:
1/3 c Milk
Knead 10 times (and check out this super cute apron of Amy's)

Roll it out onto a cookie sheet lined with foil or parchment

Mix the filling next:
5 oz Cream cheese
1/3 c sugar
1 tsp almond extract

Then: here's the fun part! Choose your fruity filling!
I used these:

but I have also used jam, pie filling, or nothing at all (just the cream cheese)
Then set it up like this: Cut 1" strips on the outside thirds of the pastry, put the cream cheese stuff in the middle then top with your choice of filling.

Next you start braiding:

Till it looks like this:

Put it in an oven that's at 425 for 15 or so minutes. Don't over bake it... but make sure it's all the way brown, or you'll have doughy stuff in the middle (which I don't like).
And when it comes out, it might look something like this:

Then you've got to make a glaze:
1 c powdered sugar
1 tsp Almond extract
1 1/2 Tbsp water/milk
drizzle it on your slightly cooled coffee cake and it should look like this:

and as soon as you cut into it, it's likely to look a little more like this:



Seriously though, this is the best. It has even won awards!

The most beautiful cake ever

Adventures in Provo Part 2: The most epic cake ever.

One day this week I was goofing off looking at food blogs, and I found the most beautiful looking cake.http://www.theartoftwotarts.com/2010/01/21/happy-birthday-sarah-white-cake-layered-with-pastry-cream-and-a-strawberry-filling/ I showed it to my best domestic goddess friend, and soon (after a few setbacks) I was on my way to her house to make this beautiful/delicious cake.
Directions (theirs) plus pictures (mine) follow:
White cake: Suzy and I used a boxed white cake, but with the whole egg recipe so that it was a little sturdier. We did an 8" round in her super snazzy fatty cake pan (i don't even know what to call it!), but I would suggest using 9" rounds, and even 1 1/2ing the recipe to make a bigger layers (if you're going for a real, not out of the box, cake) The recipe called for 4 layers, we only did 3.

Strawberry filling.

3 cups of slice strawberries
1\4 cup granulated sugar
1\2 cup of water
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 Tbs cornstarch

Directions:
Mix everything, besides 1 cup of strawberries, in a medium pot over medium heat. Let the mixture simmer for 15-20 minutes until the strawberries have melted a little and the mixture has thickened.
Turn off heat and mix in the last cup of sliced strawberries.
Transfer to a medium bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until cool.

Pastry cream.

2 cups of half and half
1\2 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks (you'll need the whites for the cake!)
3 Tbs Cornstarch
4 Tbs of unsalted butter, cold and cubed.
1 tsp vanilla paste (You could also use one vanilla stick or tsp a vanilla extract)
1\2 cup of whipped cream ( We do this to make the cream lighter and it seriously makes a BIG difference)

Directions
Heat the half and half, vanilla paste, 6 Tbs sugar and salt in a medium pot over medium heat until it starts to simmer.
In the meantime, whisk the egg yolks, in a medium bowl, with the remaining sugar and cornstarch for about a minute.
When the half and half mixture reaches a full simmer, pour have of if into the egg mixture bowl and whisking constantly.
Return the mixture to the pot and whisk the cream over medium heat. Let the cream thicken for about 1-2 minutes. Once the cream has thickened, turn of the heat and mix in the butter until melted.
Strain the cream through a sieve over a medium bowl. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and press the wrap directly over the cream so that a skin will not form. Refridgerate until cold and set.
Once the cream is cold fold in the whipped cream. Use right away of refridgerate until ready to use.

Frosting
3 cups of heavy whipping cream
1\3 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Beat whipping cream in a stand mixer until soft peaks form. Fold in the sugar and vanilla. Continue beating until peaks are stiff.

Chocolate covered Strawberries
6 oz of semisweet chocolate, chopped
3 ounces of white chocolate, chopped
15-16 large strawberries
Put the chocolates in seperate microwave safe bowls. 

One at a time, melt the chocolate in the microwave in intervals of 30 seconds, stirring each time. Heat and stir until smooth.
Line a baking pan with parchement paper. Hold the strawberries by the stems and dip each one into the semisweet chocolate. Lift and twist the strawberries to let the excess chocolate drip off. Then place onto the parchement paper.
Dip a fork into the white chocolate and drizzle the chocolate over the dipped strawberries.
Let the chocolate set.

Place one layer of cake, cut side up, on a cake board and pipe a ring of whipped cream around the edges of the cake. This keeps the filling from oozing out!

Place half the strawberry filling in the middle and smooth it out to the edges.

Place the second layer of cake, cut side down, on top and pipe another ring of whipped cream around the edges.

Place the pastry cream in the middle and smooth it out to the edges.

Place the fresh strawberries on top of the pastry cream.

*this part we didn't do, but feel free*(Place the 3rd layer of cake, cut side up, on top and pipe another ring of whipped cream around the edges.

Place the other half of strawberry filling in the center and smooth out.)

Place the last layer of cake, cut side down, on top.

Cover the entire cake with the whipped cream.

You don't have to be perfect because all of this will get covered up!

Place the rolled wafers, alternating the flavors, around the sides of the enitre cake. 

When done, tie some ribbon around the cake to help hold the wafers in place! Place the dipped strawberries on top of the cake. The wafers will keep them from sliding of the top. (Not pictured)

Beautiful right? 

I think I'm in love. 

A cross cut:

Hummus and Pitas

After getting home, I stole a recipe from Kristen's blog and made YUMMY pitas, and hummus that actually tasted good. THEN, when I was sick of the garlic (because in true Emily style, I put 3 cloves of garlic rather than just one) I made honey-butter .

I'm not going to lie. Sometimes, I feel like I out do myself.

I'm that awesome...  (and humble)

Ok, enough about me, here's the recipe stolen from K-bob, stolen from Joy. Joy of Cooking, that is...

Pita Bread from Joy of Cooking
3 c flour
1 1/2 TBSP sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 TBSP yeast (2 pgks)
2 TBSP butter, melted
1 1/4 c room temperature water

1. Mix flour, sugar, salt and yeast in mixer. Add in butter and water. Mix about 1 minute until ingredients are combined. Knead for 10 minutes.
2. Place dough in oiled bowl, cover with plastic or a towel and let rise about an hour, or until doubled in size.
3. Preheat oven with pizza stone in it to 450 degrees. (I don't have a pizza stone, so I just used a cookie sheet, it seemed to work great)
4. Punch down dough and divide into 8 balls. Cover with plastic and let rest for 20 minutes.
5. Roll out balls into rounds, about 1/8" thick and 8" in diameter. (Thicker ones will be easier to open and fill.)

6. Place rolled out dough on heated pizza stone for 2-3 minutes, flipping half way through the cooking.

Hummus
1 can garbonzo beans (chickpeas)
2-3 TBSP lemon juice
2-3 TBSP olive oil
1 clove garlic (or 3, if you are afraid of vampires, or aren't thinking about kissing anytime soon.)
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
dash of cayenne pepper and black pepper

Place garlic in food processor until finely chopped. Add remaining ingredients and process until desired consistency. Add more/less lemon juice and oil depending on desired thickness. 
 

Carolina Style Barbecue

Can I just say that I heart my dinner group! I totally do! I love that we have so many people. I love that it means that I know 12 people in the ward fairly well... and I have a warm meal 4 days a week that I only have to think about once every 3 weeks. The down side to being in such a great dinner group is that I only have to cook once every 3 weeks, (which is a little sad, I like cooking), until I find something I really want to make, and even have most of the stuff for, but I don't get to cook for another week and a half!

So I'm telling y'all about it... that's right, y'all! Currently in my freezer, I have one of these----->
This 7 pound boston pork butt roast I got for only $1.48/lb.(Sweet deal, right?)
 I was going to do a classic BBQ style pulled pork sandwich (you know, with BBQ sauce), but then... Oh but then...

I've been missing the mission lately, and so, I'm going to do a Southern Style meal!

For the main course we'll have Southern Style Barbecue on buns with coleslaw.I suppose that people have the choice to eat the slaw on the side, but I, for one, would be so disappointed!  *(Southern Style BBQ is a vinegar based sauce rather than the tomato kind we're most used to)*

I found these awesome recipes:

Southern Style Pulled Pork BBQ

Please click here for the slaw recipe

• Pork Roast (approximately 5 pounds)
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups cider vinegar (that is one and a half cups, not eleven cups)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Put roast in slow cooker and sprinkle salt and pepper over. Pour cider vinegar over. Cover with lid and cook on low for twelve hours (I cook it overnight). Remove pork roast and shred with forks (this will be very easy). Drain juices from slow cooker, reserving two cups of liquid. Return pork to slow cooker. To the reserved liquid add: Brown sugar, hot sauce, and crushed pepper flakes. Stir well. Pour over shredded pork and place lid back on. Place on low or warm setting until ready to serve.

Vinegar Slaw

• 4-1/2 to 5 Cups finely chopped or shredded cabbage (about half a head)
• 1 Cup white vinegar
• 1 Cup sugar

Place cabbage in a bowl. Add in vinegar and sugar. Stir. Cover and place in refrigerator a few hours or overnight before serving. Will make more juice over time.

Chicken Marimba (or Chicken Lasagna)

Mix the following ingredients:
3 C Cooked diced chicken
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1/3 c milk
chopped onion
chopped red pepper
sliced mushrooms
1/2 t basil

Then mix these:
1 1/2 c cottage cheese
1 egg
2 Tbsp Parsley

2 C shredded cheddar
1/2 c Parmesan
lasagna or bow tie noodles cooked (one package)

Layer chicken mixture with noodles, cottage cheese mixture and cheddar cheese, like lasagna. Use 3 layers of noodles, ending with chicken sauce. Top with the Parmesan cheese.

Bake at 350* for 45 min to an hour. Then enjoy it with some french bread and some salad. 

Easy Pumpkin cookies

Ok, here is the easiest recipe known to man for the yummiest cookies!



1 box spice cake mix
1 small can (or 1/2 a big can) pumpkin puree
Mix them together till all the cake mix is wet. Then add, pretty much whatever you want. I like raisins. The people in dinner group seemed to like the chocolate chip ones better. It's about a cup of mix-ins. You could add nuts too...
Anyway, put the cookies in plops on baking sheet. They don't rise much. Bake at 350* for about 20 minutes.
Then enjoy the deliciousness! (I ate 3 last night) And a few more today... But with the pumpkin and the raisins they're WHOLESOME! Right?

Mom's Molasses Cookies

I've been craving Molasses cookies for the past couple of days. But in my extreme laziness I didn't want to ball my own cookies. So I found out that a girl in my ward has a cookie scoop, and I borrowed it and so I made these delicious molasses cookies:

 3/4 c butter (I did 1/2 c butter, 1/4 c shortening)
1 c brown sugar
1/4 c molasses
1 egg
2 1/4 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp soda
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves (I didn't have any, so I didn't put any in and it was fine!)

Cream butter and sugar. Add molasses and egg. Mix in dry ingredients. Refrigerate for one hour (I know, a whole hour, but it's important). Roll into balls and roll in cinnamon sugar. (I just did sugar and it's good).
Bake at 375* for 8 to 10 minutes. Then... PERFECTION.

Carmel Apple Cake

You know the song "Wake me up when September ends"?  That's how I feel right now, except that it's October... so maybe "wake me up when the semester ends"!  Life is just, fun. And that's all I have to say about that... So, without further ado: The most delicious sweet thing I've eaten today (and today, in case you were wondering, I had 2 apples, 2 bite sized candy bars, a swirl ice cream cone, a donut, a serving of stroganoff at dinner group, some hummus w/ tortilla, and a piece of this... [which might be my breakfast tomorrow, and every other meal till it's gone...]

Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze

from Lick the Bowl Good

Courtesy of Kristen :) 

Apple Cake

1 1/2 c flour

1 c sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

1/2 c canola oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 c fined chopped apples

1/2 c pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)

Brown Sugar Glaze

1/2 c packed brown sugar

3 TBSP butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 TBSP heavy cream (we used milk)

For the cake:

Heat oven to 350. Grease 8" pan (round or square) and set aside.

In medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir with a whisk to mix everything together.

In separate bowl, mix eggs with hand mixer until light in color and foamy. Add oil and vanilla and beat well. Stir in the flour mixture with a spoon and continue stirring the batter until the flour disappears. (Ok, so at this point my batter was WAY DRY, so dry in fact, that I skyped Kristen and asked her about the consistancy. I had to add some applesauce to make it an actual batter) Add the apples and nuts and sitr to mix them into the batter.

Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

For the glaze: (I started making the glaze right after I took the cake out of the oven, it was good timing, I thought)

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the mixture comes to a gentle boil. Cook for 3-5 minutes.

Spoon the hot glaze over the hot-from-the-oven cake. Let the glazed cake cool completely before serving. (So that was the hardest part of the whole cake baking experience... the waiting for the cake to cool completely, but Oh My, it was so worth it!)

It's all Greek to me!

So here are the recipes for the greek extravaganza we had for family dinner the other night. Even the leftovers are amazing! 

Ingredients

• 1/2 onion, cut into chunks
• 1 pound ground lamb
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram (I didn't have any so didn't use it)
• 1 teaspoon ground dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon ground dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 scant teaspoon sea salt 

Directions

1. Place the onion in a food processor, and process until finely chopped. Scoop the onions onto the center of a towel,(Paper towel!) gather up the ends of the towel, and squeeze out the liquid from the onions. Place the onions into a mixing bowl along with the lamb and beef. Season with the garlic, oregano, cumin, marjoram, rosemary, thyme, black pepper, and salt. Mix well with your hands until well combined. Cover, and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours to allow the flavors to blend. (I just let it sit overnight, which made the next day prep super easy!)
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
3. Place the meat mixture into the food processor, and pulse for about a minute until finely chopped and the mixture feels tacky.(I didn't have a food processor big enough, so I skipped this part and it was fine, I'd like to try it again, maybe next time I'm home....) Pack the meat mixture into a 7x4 inch loaf pan, making sure there are no air pockets. Place the loaf pan into a roasting pan and place into the preheated oven. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the loaf pan.
4. Bake until the gyro meat is no longer pink in the center, and the internal temperature registers 165 degrees F (75 degrees C) on a meat thermometer, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Pour off any accumulated fat, and allow to cool slightly before slicing thinly.
5. Take the slices and fry them in a hot frying pan for a few minutes on each side. This makes the meat crispy like at the restaurants :)

Serve over Pitas with onions, tomatoes, feta (which I had but forgot to put out!) and Alton Brown's Tzatziki Sauce:

Tzatziki Sauce:

16 ounces plain yogurt

1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped

Pinch kosher salt

4 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

5 to 6 mint leaves, finely minced

Place the yogurt in a tea towel, gather up the edges, suspend over a bowl, and drain for 2 hours in the refrigerator.

Place the chopped cucumber in a tea towel and squeeze to remove the liquid; discard liquid. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the drained yogurt, cucumber, salt, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and mint. Serve as a sauce for gyros. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week.