Caramel Apple Bread Pudding

made w/ soft pretzels - YUM! recipe to come... :)

FINALLY - (ok almost finally)

At long last I finished knitting my daughter's blanket! And long before she went a way to college, heck well before she got out of 8th grade (she's in 4th). Yeah there were times when I wondered if it would EHver be done. And now it almost is. Still have to weave in some ends, but that won't take to long. She loves it - yay!!

More Egg Muffins...(never gets old...)

Ok so they might get old at SOME point, but not yet. And this time I tried something new - broccoli, ham & cheese. Yum! Stole the idea from a friend of mine. To be honest, the thought of broccoli and egg was a tad on the unsettling side... but clearly I got over it - and good thing. TASTY!

I typically just do a dozen. But last time, they went like hotcakes! So, I considered doing double...but reconsidered since I was doing the new and wasn't sure we'd like them...but then ended up with double the 'filling' and they were delicious so I guess it all worked out. So below is the recipe for what ended up being exactly 23 muffins. If you've got a touch of OCD (I too have such moments) and need it to be 24, just use a li'l less filling and it'll get there.

What you need...
2 7 or 8oz (can't recall) ham steaks, fried up a bit and diced
about 2 cups of raw broccoli floretts (or so) boiled, roughly chopped
shredded cheese (how much and what kinds of course are totally up to you :) )
15 large eggs
milk - enough to make 3 3/4c egg batter
pepper, onion powder, and/or any other seasonings you desire (b/c of the ham and cheese, they don't particularly need salt)


What to do with it...
Preheat oven to 375.

FILLING

• Ham - I fried it up a bit, not much, enough to eat it through and give it some color, give it that fried, look, feel, taste and then diced it up.
• Broccoli - Boiled it a bit. Could also steam it, but I didn't think of that til later. Again, just a bit. I didn't drain/shock it right away so it's a little doner than I'd planned but it still worked well.Then I roughly chopped it.
• Throw it all in a bowl with shredded cheese and mix well.
• Spray the tins with cooking spray. I've found that regular works best.
• I used an 1/8c measuring cup to fill the tins and it's a great amount. You could use more or less. It'd impact how eggy they are and how many muffins you end up with. 
• If you want to add more cheese now's the time. Put it on top of the filling - not after you've added the egg batter. No clue why, but it just didn't work as well for me. 
• Sit the tins aside.

EGG BATTER

• Break the eggs into a large bowl, add your desired seasonings and beat well.
• Add milk... I actually have no clue how much. all I know is that when I do a dozen I magically end up with exactly 2c every time. So, knowing I wasn't quite doubling it, I added some milk, and then poured the mixture into a 4c measuring cup and added milk to get it to about 3 3/4cup of liquid.
• Distribute batter evenly into all cups. The batter should ideally cover the filling but not fill the cup to the rim. 

BAKE at 375 for 25 minutes and let cool for a bit.
Typically they pop right out, if not, take a knife around the edge to loosen them.
They freeze well, reheat well in a microwave or a toaster oven. They're the perfect size to put on a biscuit or slice a couple in half and put them on bread for a sandwich. They're easy to take to work. Eat em w/ a fork or a hand (the latter being my 2 year old's preference, lol).

Notes for next time: I think I'll dice the ham first and add onions. I also think I'll add cheese and broccoli to get me to the full double dozen. :)

Note to self: Glaze

Powdered sugar & cream... like sugar ganache! Yum... sometimes simple is best. Can't wait to put that on... my  next bundt cake... yum. Saw that on Unique Sweets last night and just thought of it and thought I should "write it down" so I don't forget.

Blog-a-palooza to come...

escher rocks. picked this image
cuz this entry is like everywhere
and nowhere at the same time.
seemed kinda apropros

I plan to make red/green cupcakes for the choir...cookie Christmas trees for some people (who? tbd. would be great to make them for the kids' teachers, but...well... not sure when I'd find the time to do that between now and their last day of school.)... deviled eggs for Christmas dinner (can't WAIT! getting a zig zag cutter and going to use my pastry bag to fill them...once i experiment w/ ingredients (during which I'll inevitably pretend I'm working on my audition video for Next Food Network Star - don't judge me)... is that it? well there is the apple/cr cheese/praline bunt cake I want to make - YUM (i hope, lol) but that has nada to do w/ Christmas, so i digress... anyway, if I'm a good little wannabe blogger I'll take lots of pics and blog as I go... mind you i already have two or three (or more?) recent endeavors that I have yet to blog... so much to blog... so little time...  random: so in Pinterest, I have a board for things I've pinned to other boards and then purchased/made/etc. I typically just repin the original pin...BUT what i SHOULD do is pin a pick of  my actual whatever w/ a link to my blog! Man i'm a genius! (ok i think i had that thought before just never followed thru... still genius tho, lol) ok stream of consciousness complete. hopefully i'll catch up on my blogging soon...

uh...creativity what...?

ok so somehow i gotta make this blog tru to the blurb... it seems to have become almost all about food... what's that about? is that the only realm of life in which i engage in creative escapades? if not, i need to do better at recognizing and recording them... of so - i need to fix that... hmmm...

Banana Cake w/ Banana Cream Cheese Frosting

The recipe my mom always used for banana cake has gone a-missing... Ok it vanished long ago and since I've tried various recipes. I wasn't looking for THE recipe per se, just one that I liked. And while I haven't hated the others that I've found, I'm pretty sure I'm done looking. Barefoot Contessa's Old-Fashioned Banana Cake - uh YUM!

There were some tweaks, oooofff course, due to time, availability and preference. Imagine how much stuff I wouldn't make if I let li'l old things like that stop me...

CAKE INGREDIENTS  
(*indicates a deviation from the recipe above)

3 very ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
*1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed (didn't have light brown)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
*2 large eggs (didn't have xtra large)
1/2 cup sour cream
*1 teaspoon imitation vanilla extract (didn't have pure)
*Grated zest of 1 orange (in the interest of time, skipped it. willing to try add it next time. I did have the orange.)
2 cups (*unbleached. not sure it maters but figured I'd note it. it's what i had.) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
*1/2 teaspoon salt (didn't have kosher)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional) - opted out
Walnut halves, for decorating (optional) - opted out
  
 CAKE BAKEWARE
It called for a cake pan that was 9 inches round, 2 inches deep. That I do not possess. Silly me, not really thinking it thru, foolishly decided to use two 8 inch rounds... seems EVER so foolish now... But i was in a rush, lol. Why I went with smaller in both dimensions I can't say at this time... suffice it to say - nxt time (and there WILL be a next time) 2 9in. 

As a result, they were uber high in the middle and not easily stackable. On another day, I'd have leveled them and repurposed the cake I had to slice off the tops. But that night I opted just to ice, stack, & hope for the best... With the too soft icing (which follows) it was...um... fun. yeah, that's it...

FROSTING
(*indicates a deviation from the recipe above...ok so basically it's one great big deviation...but I did kinda base it off her recipe...)

As much as I love the stuff, I didn't just want cr ch frosting. Partly, because I like banana frosting on banana cake, partly because this was all done b/c I had a few bananas I need to do something with... Yeah, blame the poor, defenseless ripe bananas... lol. Anyway, I also had some leftover icing from the cupcakes I'd made a couple weeks ago for my daughter's birthday and wanted to use it up.

*8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature, (eh, it was an 8oz package, but rec only req'd 6)
*4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature (to uh balance out the 2 extra ounces of cream cheese)
*1 'heaping" teaspoon vanilla extract (cuz I'm generally obsessed w/ vanilla)
*3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (to compensate for the extra liquidiness from the banana)
*1 ripe banana
* 1 cup or so leftover uber basic icing (recipe off domino's conf sug box)

Sooo, I'm still working on getting cr ch frosting to be stiffer... in this case, it was totally the banana's fault. When planning to make the cake, I totally intended to nix the butter altogether... Clearly I forgot. I could have added more powdered sugar but it was already at an extra 1/2 cup, I didn't want to over do it... It taste's delish, we just have to keep the cake in the fridge. I can live with that.

 All in all? Delish!!! And I think this may be the first recipe to actually remind me of the one my mom made... Which is cool. *smile*