Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies

Cookie:

3 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup cocoa

1 cup shortening

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup milk

Big marshmallows, cut in half

Frosting:

1 cup brown sugar

6 tablespoons margarine

1/2 cup water

4 tablespoons cocoa

3 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoon vanilla

Cookie:

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa.  Cream together remaining ingredients except marshmallows.  Add dry ingredients, mixing well.  Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.  Remove from oven and press half a marshmallow, cut side down on each cookie.  Return to oven 2 minutes more to partially melt marshmallows.  Cool on pan 2 minutes then remove to cooling rack.  When cookies are cooled, frost.

Frosting: 

Put brown sugar, margarine, water and cocoa in pan and bring to boil.  Remove from heat and cool.  Add powdered sugar and vanilla.  Spread on marshmallow and cookie.

If there is left over frosting, I put it on graham crackers.

Enjoy!

Homemade Fresh Lemonade

When I'm at the Iowa State Fair each year I HAVE to get a glass of fresh lemonade.  Well...My husband and I had family over for Memorial Day weekend and I made fresh lemonade.  It sure was good!  Everyone that tried it seemed to really like it!

 The recipe made half a gallon.

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon grated lemon rind <I grated one entire lemon rind and used all of the gratings>

1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice which equals 8 large lemons

5 cups water

Stir together sugar and boiling water until sugar dissolved. Stir in lemon rind, lemon juice and water.  Chill. Enjoy the wonderful tasting lemonade!

Steak Kabobs

I stole this recipe from here: allrecipes.com/recipe/sensational-sirloin-kabobs/detail.aspx and man-o-man, it sure was good!

We had family over for Memorial Day weekend and steaks sitting in the freezer.....so why not make kabobs.  This is something I had never done before but I like to try new recipes! 

I usually like to try the new recipe for my husband and I before I make it for a big group of people, but not this time.

Meat Marinade

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 tablespoons light brown sugar

3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt <I used Lawry's.>

1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper seasoning <I hunted and hunted for this seasoning.  Finally found it under the brand name of Lawry's.>

4 fluid ounces lemon-line flavored carbonated beverage <I used Diet Sierra Mist.>

6 sirloin steaks cut into 1 1/2 inchish cubes <I cut off most of the fat as well because I can't stand the texture of it.>

Vegetable's and Veggie Marinade

1 bottle Italian Dressing

green pepper

red pepper

orange pepper

cherry tomatoes

onion

Mix soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, garlic powder, seasoned salt, garlic pepper, and lemon-lime flavored pop with a whisk.  Pour it over the beef chunks about 9 hours before grilling.  

Wash and cut veggies into mediumish-largish chunks.  Put all veggies in one bowl and pour italian dressing over all of it.  Let it marinade for about 30 minutes.

Thread meat and vegetables onto kabob sticks.  Grill on medium to medium-low heat, flipping the kabobs over a few times until done.  Then chow!!

I didn't reserve any of the marinade for basting as the original recipe calls for and they turned out just fine.  And I didn't do the vegetables as the recipe directed either.  I didn't  blanch the peppers or oil the grill grate.

I hardly ever follow a recipe.
Next time I make these I'm going to try throwing everything in a grill basket and grilling them up that way.  No kabob sticks that way!

Homemade Fruit Roll-Ups

Wow!  These turned out awesome!  I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I found this recipe.  I pinned this recipe on Pinterest.  Best website ever!  Here's the link to the actual recipe: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/09/how-to-make-homemade-fruit-roll-ups/. 

Homemade Fruit Roll Ups Tiffany's way

2 - 2 1/2 cups ripe fruit, diced (strawberries, raspberries, pears, peaches, etc.)

honey or sugar (Honey will make them chewier.)

lemon juice (fresh or from the bottle)

Prehea1t oven to lowest temperature.  My oven went down to 170 degrees F.  Line baking/cookie sheets with plastic wrap.  No, the plastic wrap won't melt.  At least it didn't in my oven.  Make sure plastic wrap is up and over the lip on the baking/cookie sheets.

Wash the fruit.  I didn't bother drying it off.  Cut it in chunks.  Puree the fruit in a food processor or in a Rocket Blender/Magic Bullet Blender.  Add honey, sugar, or lemon juice if you would like.  Pour the pureed fruit on the lined baking/cookie sheet.  Spread around with an offset spatula.  Put it in the oven and bake for 6-8 hours.  Take it out when the center is no longer tacky.  I had a couple spots in my raspberry flavor and a few spots in the strawberry flavor that were still tacky.  I took them out of the oven anyway and let them set over night.  They we not tacky when I went to cut them.  Cut the edges of the sheets of fruit off to have straight edges for the roll ups.  Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the sheet of fruit.  Use scissors or kitchen sheers to cut the fruit into roll up width.  I got 6 roll ups out of each sheet of fruit.  I tied a piece of ribbon around each roll up to keep them from unrolling.  

Flavors made:

Strawberry (I only used strawberries.)

Raspberry (I used 2 packages of Raspberries and 1 tablespoon sugar.)

Pear (I used 3 pears, should have used 4 or 5.  I also used  1 tsp of lemon juice from the jar per 1 pear.)

Flavors yet to make:

Strawberry Banana

Peach

I didn't take any pictures, but when I do I will post them!  They look and taste delicious!

Lincoln Cake

Happy Birthday Lincoln!  January 19th was Lincoln's (nephew) birthday.  I made cake to help him celebrate!

I was searching the internet to find a special cake to honor Lincoln.  What better find than Lincoln Cake, vanilla almond cake.
Here's the website: http://www.visit-gettysburg.com/mary-todd-lincoln-cake.html.

Cake Ingredients:
1 cup almonds (I didn't have almonds so I replaced them with 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and 1/4 tsp almond flavoring.)
1 cup butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1-1/3 cups milk
6 egg whites
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Confectioners' sugar (I didn't use the confectioners' sugar for the topping.)

Frosting Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (I didn't have any on hand, so I went without.)
Dash of salt
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cake Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Grease and flour two nine inch round layer cake pans or one bundt cake pan.  (I accidentally 'floured' the pan with powered sugar.  It still turned out just fine.  I also used the bundt cake pan because I didn't want to go to all the work of a two layer cake.)  If using almonds, use a food processor to grind them into a course flour.

Cream the butter and sugar to and mix until well blended.  Sift the flour and baking powder.  Fold the dry flour mix into the creamed butter/sugar mix, alternating with milk, until well blended.  Stir in the almond powder and mix thoroughly.  (At this point I added 1/4 cup all purpose flour.  Folded it in, then added the almond flavoring and folded the batter a couple more times.)

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.  Add a pinch of salt for easier stiffening.  Add vanilla extract as eggs are forming still peaks.  Gently fold the egg whites into the batter with a rubber spatula.

Pour the batter into the pan(s) and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool for at least 15 minutes before flipping the cake out of the pan.  Allow the cake to cool completely before serving.  If layer cake was made, use a jam for filling.  Sift confectioners' sugar on top for decoration or make the frosting and smother the cake with it.

Frosting Preparation:
Bring to boil sugar, water, cream of tartar and salt.  Boil until sugar dissolves.  Beat egg whites in mixing bowl.  White egg whites are beating, very slowly add hot syrup.  Beat until still peaks form, about 7 minutes.  Beat in vanilla for 1 more minute.

Cut the cake and scarf it down!

 Happy Birthday Lincoln!  I hope you enjoyed the look of the cake!  It was delicious!

Zucchini Bread

Mmmmm...Zucchini Bread!  I remember helping Grandma pick tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet corn, gourds, zucchini and many more vegetables when I was a kid.  With the zucchini's we picked she always made zucchini bread.  

My favorite kind of homemade bread is...I bet you can't guess...zucchini bread.

I start off by grating the zucchini so it is ready when I need it.

 Combine well beaten eggs, white sugar, vanilla and oil.  Blend it together well.

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and baking soda.  Mix these ingredients together.

 

Mix the dry ingredients into the egg, sugar, vanilla and oil mixture.  Once that's combined, mix in the grated zucchini.  I add all the zucchini juice to it as well.

Split the batter between two different greased and floured loaf pans.  Bake it and it should turn out like this!

Here's the whole recipe:

Zucchini Bread
2 eggs, well beaten
2 cups white or brown sugar (Grandma always used white sugar so of course, that's what I use)
3 tsp vanilla
1 cup oil
Blend well.

In separate bowl mix
3 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda

Combine the flour mixture into the egg and sugar mixture.  Then add the zucchini and mix well.  Put in 2 greased and floured loaf pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

The recipe I got from Grandma said to bake it one hour.  I always start at 30 minutes.  It usually ends up taking around 45 minutes.

Enjoy!  This is the best zucchini bread you will ever consume.

Zucchini Cobbler

This is what happens when I have an extra zucchini just chillin' on the kitchen counter.

One of my co-workers brought this into work and I just had to have the recipe! 
Everyone that takes a bit will think it was made with apples.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Zucchini-Cobbler-2/Detail.aspx?prop24=etaf
I've made a few changes from allrecipes.com.

Saucepan Ingredients:
8 cups peeled, chopped zucchini (I didn't chop it.  I cut off thin slices to resemble apples for apple crisp.)
2/3 cup lemon juice
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Topping:
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups butter, chilled
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Saucepan Ingredients: In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook and stir zucchini and lemon juice until zucchini is tender, 15 to 20 minutes.  Stir in sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Cook one more minute.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Grease 9x13 dish.

Topping: In a large bowl, combine flour and sugar.  Cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Stir 1/2 cup of topping into saucepan ingredients.  Add cinnamon to remaining topping.  Press half of remaining topping into bottom of dish.  Spread zucchini mixture over top of crust.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until top is golden.  Serve warm or cold.

I felt like the end product was to deep.  Next time I'm going to either cut the recipe in half and still use the 9x13 dish or make a full batch and split it between two 9x13 dishes.