Tag Archive for: Taste of Home

Cold Weather Calls for Hot Desserts

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Everyone has been talking about this Polar Vortex that is causing the ridiculous cold all over the place.  It is something crazy like -15 degrees in New York- here is a picture of my adorable niece on her way to school.  It is 20 degrees in Charleston today, and it feels like 9.  And compared to New York, I shouldn’t really complain, but guess what, our heat went out.  I waited for the heating guy to come this morning, fully dressed, under the covers of my still-warm bed, with gloves on, playing Candy Crush on my phone.  Fortunately, he was very speedy, and the heat was returned to our house.  When I used to live in New York, occasionally we would run out of oil on a very cold day, and I would wait with Walker, and both dogs huddled in bed, but the difference is that we had a fireplace in our bedroom back then, and that made a significant difference.  I was thinking fondly of that fireplace this morning as I waited, and I also started thinking about turning on the oven and sitting next to it while I waited, but decided that might not be the best idea.  However, thoughts of the oven and Candy Crush did inspire me to look for warm dessert recipes, and this caramel and pear pudding recipe from Taste of Home that you make in a slow cooker is just the trick for a cold, cold day!

Caramel and Pear Pudding

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup 2% milk
4 medium pears, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup boiling water
Vanilla ice cream, optional

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and cloves. Stir in milk until smooth. Add pears and pecans. Spread evenly into a 3-qt. slow cooker coated with cooking spray.
In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and butter; stir in boiling water. Pour over batter (do not stir). Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours or until pears are tender. Serve warm with ice cream if desired.

A Weekend in Savannah

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We spent this past weekend in Savannah, GA.  Having never been there, I really didn’t know what to expect, and I was wonderfully surprised.  Of course I had heard Savannah was beautiful, but being from Charleston I am of course biased.  It really is a beautiful city.  We had perfect weather for walking around, and the squares were enchanting.  The first night, we wandered around until we found a great sidewalk restaurant where we could enjoy the weather and looking around.  It was called The Public and it was a great spot.  We then moseyed back to our hotel, The Bohemian and had a drink on their spectacular roof deck over looking the river.  The next day we explored the river front and then drove out to Tybee Island.  Tybee is a great old beach community, and we thoroughly enjoyed a late afternoon cocktail at the Tybee Island Social Club.  They bingo on Tuesday nights and I was very disappointed that it was not Tuesday.  That night we went to Local 11 Ten for dinner.  We started on their roof deck which was fantastic and then had an amazing dinner.  It was really amazing.  Sunday morning before driving home, we stopped at Goose Feathers Cafe for a quick breakfast.  I was still stuffed from the night before, but they had slices of coffee cake in the display that looked very interesting.  The woman told me they were made of pastry dough, a sweet cream filling and topped with cinnamon.  Of course, I got one, and it was so delicious.  I have now spent the better part of the day looking for some sort of recipe that even resembles what I had, and I can’t really find one.  There are tons of recipes for sour cream coffee cakes, but not many for sweet cream coffee cakes.  I did find one that comes from Taste of Home that I am going to try.  We will see if it comes close!

Cream Filled Coffee Cake

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar, plus
1 teaspoon sugar, divided
1 tablespoon salt
1 (1/4 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 to 115)
5 1/2-6 cups all-purpose flour, divided
3 eggs, well-beaten

STREUSEL TOPPING

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter

CREAM FILLING

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup butter or 3/4 cup margarine
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

Heat milk, butter 1/3 cup sugar and salt; stir until the sugar dissolves. Set aside. Mix yeast, warm water and 1 teaspoon sugar; let stand 10 minutes. In a large mixing bowl, combine 3 cups flour, milk mixture, yeast and eggs; beat until smooth. Add enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 6-8 minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning one to grease top. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 to 1-1/2 hours.Meanwhile, prepare topping. Combine sugars, flour and cinnamon in a bowl. Cut butter into dry ingredients; set aside. Punch dough down; divide in half. Pat or roll each half to fit a greased 9-in. cake pan. With a fork, pierce entire cake top. Divide topping and sprinkle over each cake. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks. For filling, combine flour and milk in a saucepan; cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Cool. In a mixing bowl, cream remaining ingredients until well-mixed. Add flour mixture and beat until fluffy.  Cut each cake in half horizontally; spread each with half the filling.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Halloween Costumes and Pumpkin Cheese Puffs

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Halloween has always been Walker’s favorite holiday especially since we have moved back to Charleston.  He loves the carnival at school and of course the candy is great, but Walker actually doesn’t go in for trick or treating. Every year, Walker and my dad build a haunted tunnel up the front steps of my parents house, and Walker hides in the tunnel and scares the trick-or-treaters.  As he has gotten older, he has gotten much scarier in the tunnel.  We now have to ask children and their parents whether or not they want a big scare or a little scare.  If they want a big scare, then Walker has full reign to jump out and scare the living daylights out of them.  If they actually don’t want to be scared, then we have to yell to Walker in the tunnel to “tone it down” at which point he comes out completely disgusted and lets the children through the tunnel without scaring them.  While all this is going on, Corby, my dad and mom, and myself are sitting on the front porch (at the top of the tunnel) drinking wine and handing out candy.  By the end of the night, we are laughing so hard at Walker scaring people that he gets mad that we are ruining it and not making it scary enough.  To be honest, with this whole tradition, Halloween is my favorite holiday as well.  Here are some pictures of Walker through the years- first when I got to dress him up in whatever I thought was cute- then we moved on to a “Star Wars” stage (my favorite is the jazz hands Darth Vader), and then we got scary- initially with the Headless Horseman, and now he is just a zombie.  This year, I think I will add to the wine and candy aspect of the evening with this great recipe for Pumpkin Cheese Puffs that I found on www.tasteofhome.com.

Pumpkin Cheese Puffs

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 drops yellow paste food coloring
1 drop red paste food coloring
1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
2 eggs
20 sprigs fresh Italian parsley, stems removed

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine cream cheese and vinegar. Cover and refrigerate. In a large saucepan, bring the water, butter and salt to a boil. Add flour all at once and stir until a smooth ball forms. Remove from the heat; let stand for 5 minutes.
In a small bowl, combine the yellow and red food coloring; stir Romano cheese and food coloring into dough. Add eggs, one at a time; beating well after each addition. Continue beating until mixture is smooth and shiny.
Drop by level tablespoonfuls 3 in. apart onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400° for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack to cool.
Using a star tip and reserved cream cheese mixture, pipe stems onto puffs. Add parsley sprigs. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 10 servings.

Southwest Chicken in a Crock Pot

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Despite the fact that it is still hot, it is September which means cool weather and sweaters are around the corner, and I am kind of ready for it.  Granted, it will probably be 6-8 weeks before that happens in Charleston, but something about school being back in session and the hope of fall makes me want to pull out the crock pot and cook easy hearty meals.  Wednesday is fairly busy at our house- Walker gets home from school, does his homework, has an hour or so of down time and then heads to football practice at 5:30. Football is supposed to be over at 7:00 pm but it is usually more like 7:15-7:20 and then we rush home on our bikes for Walker’s piano lesson at 7:15.  We were late last night.  By the time piano is over it is very close to 8:00, and Walker is starving.  Fortunately, yesterday I pulled out the crock pot and made southwest style chicken- microwaved some minute rice (please don’t judge!!)- cooked up some green beans, and dinner was on the table by 8:02.  I was pretty pleased with this effort, and I had forgotten the ease of crock pot dinners- throw everything in the pot- turn it on, and it is done 4 or 5 hours later, and it is really delicious.  So, here is my Southwest Chicken recipe.  Basically, you are making soup in the crock pot with chicken breasts thrown in. I got the southwest soup recipe from www.tasteofhome.com, which I just love!

Southwest Chicken in a Crock Pot:

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts

1 1/2 cups water

2 8oz cans tomato sauce

1 8oz can kidney beans drained and rinsed

1 can chicken broth

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup salsa

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

Directions:

Put chicken in the crock pot- cover with the rest of the ingredients and stir.  Turn the crock pot on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours.  Serve over rice.  Yummy!

 

 

More from the Mountains: Bear Claws

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This is my 11-year-old Springer Spaniel, Nemo (named before the fish).  As you can see, he is a ferocious beast.   Despite the fact that he still looks like a puppy, he is getting old.  His hips are going, and he sleeps most of the time.  However, this morning, he recaptured some of his youth when, at 5:45 am, he demanded to be let out.  I dragged myself down the stairs and opened the door- my eyes still basically closed, thinking he would just quickly do his business and come right back in.  Well, instead, Nemo, the ferocious beast, found and scared a bear cub off our front porch.  The barking and scrambling that ensued, I thought that there was a raccoon or something, except that when I ran onto the porch, I saw this. I did not get a picture of the cub because, well, this is a huge bear, and I did not want to hang out for too long.  But I woke everybody up in the house, and we all watched them safely through the upstairs window as they went up the hill.  I have to say,  when I am out on the boat in Charleston, I still get super excited to see dolphins- it never gets old.  Bears on the front porch, this could lose its appeal pretty quickly!  In honor of Nemo continuing to keep us safe and our hopefully never-to-return visitor, the bear and her cub, here is a fun recipe I got from www.tasteofhome.com for bear claws!!

Bear Claws:

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
5 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1-1/4 cups half-and-half cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 egg white
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup almond paste, cubed
1 tablespoon water
Coarse or granulated sugar
Sliced almonds

Directions

In a bowl, toss butter with 3 cups flour until well coated; refrigerate. In a large bowl, combine yeast and remaining flour.

In a saucepan, heat cream, sugar and salt to 120°-130°. Add to yeast mixture with 1 egg. Beat until smooth. Stir in butter mixture just until moistened.

Place dough onto a well floured surface; roll into a 21-in. x 12-in. rectangle. Starting at a short side, fold dough in thirds, forming a 12-in. x 7-in. rectangle. Give dough a quarter turn; roll into a 21-in. x 12-in. rectangle. Fold into thirds, starting with a short side. Repeat, flouring surface as needed. (Do not chill dough between each rolling and folding.) Cover and chill for 4 to 24 hours or until firm.

For filling, in a small bowl, beat egg white until foamy. Gradually add confectioners’ sugar and almond paste; beat until smooth. Cut dough in half widthwise. Roll each portion into a 12-in. square; cut each square into three 12-in. x 4-in. strips. Spread about 2 tablespoons filling down center of each strip. Fold long edges together; seal edges and ends. Cut into three pieces.

Place on greased baking sheets with folded edge facing away from you. With scissors, cut strips four times to within 1/2 in. of folded edge; separate slightly. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Lightly beat water and remaining egg; brush over dough. Sprinkle with sugar and almonds. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.