Tag Archives: kitchen

Baking Peanut Butter Cookies

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Recently, my husband and I both had a craving for peanut butter cookies. However, not just any peanut butter cookies would do. We wanted some that had the taste and texture of the ones we bought many years ago while on a trip several hundreds-of miles away.
Not wanting to trek halfway across the states to buy some peanut butter cookies, I decided to start trying to make our own. I bought a couple packs of peanut butter cookie mix of a familiar and trusted brand.
I got my supplies together and made the cookies.
I haven’t baked cookies in quite a long time. Even with the mix and easy directions, I figured I’d mess them up.
Oh dear, the cookies turned out ever so tasty and the texture was perfect. My husband and I really enjoyed them. They were just as tasty on the second day when only 2 cookies were left to enjoy. (And this is the reason I don’t bake cookies much anymore. lol)

I wonder if the cookies years ago were as tasty as I remember or if it’s just my happy thoughts of a pleasant place in time.
I would have made cookies from scratch, but I’ve don’t have the same level of confidence in my skills at cookie baking from scratch as I did 30 or so years ago when my son was a child.
These peanut butter cookies are as close as I’m going to get to the ones from years ago. I’ll happily make them again!

Have you ever tried to recreate a tasty food from a memory of a place far away and long ago?

Here’s wishing you all success in making your favorite foodies from mix or scratch.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

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The other day, I was watching an old black and white movie and a woman in the movie said that she had made ‘Chicken Cordon Bleu’.
I’d heard of cordon bleu entrées several times over the years, but usually in reference to a restaurant menu. I don’t know why it never occurred to me that it could be made at home. I wondered just how hard it would be to make.
I went surfing around and came upon a really good recipe and decided to give it a go. I’m surprised at how easy the ‘Homemade Chicken Cordon Bleu’ recipe is to make.

This is one of the few recipes that I made real close to the published recipe.
I used:
Panko bread crumbs
Deli Black Forest Ham
Swiss Cheese slices
I didn’t use toothpicks, the chicken stayed rolled up quite nicely without them.
I checked the internal temperature of the chicken and made sure it was over 165°. I’m real careful about that.

I served the Chicken Cordon Bleu with baked squash and a baked yukon gold potato.
It was a hearty meal and very tasty. My husband sure enjoyed it too.I condsider my attempt at making Chicken Cordon Bleu a success. I’m always happy to add another tasty recipe to our menu.

Have you tried any recipes that were inspired by a mention on a movie or tv show?
Was it a success?

Wishing you a successful rest of the week.

 

 

recipe can be found at:
Taste of Home – Homemade Chicken Cordon Bleu

 

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Chocolate Ice Cream Bread

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chocolatebread1Well, here it is ‘Chocolate Ice Cream Bread’.
It tastes like a cross between a brownie and a chocolate cake.
chocolatebread2I’m happy that I’ve tried all 3 flavors in the Neapolitan ice cream.
It’s an easy recipe and bakes up beautifully.

Wishing you all fun with creative cooking.

 

*I used a small batter made like my basic ‘Boiled Custard Bread’ recipe.
Use melted ice cream instead of boiled custard.
Add flour a little at a time to the melted ice cream until the batter is a creamy consistency.
If you get the batter too thick, thin it with a little bit of water.

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Strawberry Ice Cream Bread

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P1050425Well, it was bound to happen, that’s right, I made ‘Strawberry Ice Cream Bread’. One can only bake around with vanilla ice cream or custard for so long before the other flavors become too tempting not to try too.

I had been playing with the idea to use strawberry or chocolate ice cream to make some ice cream bread. I mentioned it to my supportive & wonderful husband and he went out and brought home a gallon of neopolitan ice cream.

P1050416I made a small loaf of strawberry ice cream bread. I’m so amazed how this bread can rise so lovely and come out of the pan without sticking. The strawberry bread has great texture and wonderful taste. I love the pretty color too.

This was such fun to try. Now next up is chocolate. I hope it does as well. I’ll let you know.

Happy creating!

 

*I used a small batter made like my basic ‘Boiled Custard Bread’ recipe.
Use melted ice cream instead of boiled custard.
Add flour a little at a time to the melted ice cream until the batter is a creamy consistency.
If you get the batter too thick, thin it with a little bit of water.

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Recycle a plastic cola bottle – scouring pad bowl & bell jar

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IMG_5517-1bottlebottomsI originally was going to make a post about using the scalloped shaped bottoms of plastic bottles as a holder for a scouring pad. I discovered that the scalloped design helped the scouring pad dry better.
It’s not 100% fool proof, occasionally I’ll find a bit of rust in the bowl from steel wool scouring pads.
It’s only a temporary holder for the yarn scrubbies because they’re so thick they won’t dry out before souring.
None-the-less this is something I wanted to share on my blog.
The other day when I was washing out a plastic bottle, it occurred to me that I should also post something to recycle the upper portion of the cut off bottle.
A bell-jar was my first choice because it’s simple and useful,but I needed to think of something handy to use as a base. After thinking on it awhile I decided to use a bowl lid, cardboard and contact paper to make a base.
So, now, this post is about more than a scouring pad bowl, it’s also about recycling a bottle and a couple other things as well.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.spring-017

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