Ginger Molasses Cookies

Really these are called Molasses Cookies but I decided to be like Jamie and emphasis the ginger part:) They really do have a lot of ginger and I make these every December (at least). I wanted to make something new but once I saw ginger was for this month I wanted these more than anything!

(photo from 2007 but they current ones look the same!)

Gingerbread Cranberry Cookies

I made these for the lame holiday luncheon at work today and completely forgot to take a picture! Luckily I had left one at home for myself.
These are actually called Cranberry Gingerbread Cookies but I thought I should put the emphasis on the gingerbread part. I added vanilla frosting on top mostly so I could add the really cool red sugar sprinklies. I really must get a better camera/cell phone.

Lisa...where are you...?

Lisa might not be aware that it is her turn on the blog this month. Might I suggest...GINGER?

Cranberry Shortbread Bars

My camera quit mid-photo shoot so I borrowed this one from the recipe site. I randomly found this recipe on the back of an article I had saved. Seemed easy enough, and all I had to buy was the cereal and maple syrup - and I've been meaning to eat more waffles anyway - so I made them to take to my friends house on Thanksgiving. (I also brought a sweet potato casserole. Don't be impressed, it was from a box - but still good!) The cranberry shortbread bars I made were a little thicker than the ones in the pic since I didn't have the right pan, but I thought they were pretty good!

Cranberry Cookies!

I made the recipe on the back of the Oceanspray bag of dried cranberries and this is what came of it! They were really good and I brought them to a singalong we went to for Owen's music class. I'll have to remember that kids go for BIG cookies so next time I need to make them huge because when a kid gets to pick one treat they go for the biggest one there is and that wasn't these!

Cranberry-Orange Muffins!

I nearly forgot to post these muffins I made! I love these because the mix only requires water! I have not screwed these up yet! During the week I eat them at work with coffee, I am at home today so I enjoyed one with some chai.



And since I have the camera out, I'll take a picture of the festive Fall Leaf Garland that I made. I made it at work which means it was "educational craft research".

It's November!!

Let us be thankful for CRANBERRIES!!

Pumpkin Scones

Since I had to go Krogering anyway... and I was out of portable breakfast food, it turns out I was able to participate in this months challenge. And they are often challenges for me, especially when I try anything other than cookies. This is the outcome of following the recipe for Starbucks-style Pumpkin Scones with Spiced Icing. They look much better than they taste. They were touted as being so tasty they could give Starbucks a run for their money. Survey says: not so much. I'm eating PopTarts today.

Pumpkin Squares

These are seriously delicious and not at all healthy in any way. I first had them when I worked at Williams-Sonoma because they would use samples of these to convince people to buy pumpkin butter. I brought these to a party so I could eat a couple and leave the rest there:)

Recipe Here

Next Ingredient!

Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin!!!
Jamie has opted out for this month so I'm choosing Pumpkin!

Cincinnati Chili -- There's Cinnamon in it!

When I saw that the secret ingredient was cinnamon, I immediately thought of Cincinnati chili, since I remembered hearing that the secret ingredient was cinnamon. It turns out that it actually has a lot more cocoa in it than cinnamon, and an equal amount of allspice. Anyway, there is cinnamon in it. The chili is veggie crumbles, onion, garlic, tomato sauce, chili powder, cinnamon, allspice, cocoa, and maybe some other stuff I'm forgetting right now. With it, we made coneys (with veggie dogs, of course) and 3-ways. It was good. I (read: Alex) made short order of the leftovers. Here's the recipe we used: http://whatscookingamerica.net/Beef/CincinnatiChili.htm.

It's October!!

We need a new ingredient!

Cinnamon French Toast

I got this reciepe on the internet. It called for two teaspoon cinnimon and one teaspoon vanilla.It tasted good . No need for powered surgar just some syrup.

Flour's Famous Banana Bread.

I had to borrow this picture :) I made Flour's Famous Banana Bread. I got the recipe from a Runner's World issue a long time ago, but I found it on the Internets too: right here. I added more cinnamon than it called for and in hindsight, I really should have added mini-chocolate chips!

Lemon Tofu Cheesecake

Better to post late, than never!
This was actually made Aug. 30, it just took a while to get it posted.
Everyone that tasted this said it was good, although some said not enough lemon, others said it was just right.
Cinnamon is the next spice of the month. I'll try to get that on the blog before the month is over!

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I found out yesterday was National Cinnamon Raisin Bread day after I had already decided to make some but wasn't able to get this post up last night. This recipe comes from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. It's very good but could use more cinnamon which is my own fault because I thought it looked like too much so I didn't add part of the recommended amount! My picture isn't very good, not sure if it has to do with the little hand that snuck in to steal a raisin!

Cinnamon?

I believe Mom said that cinnamon was the ingredient for this month but she hasn't put it up yet so I thought I would. Maybe she'll confirm it soon...

The Saucony Progrid Omni 8

Now that we all know I'm indulging in brownies and cookies, I thought I should post what I'll be concentrating on now instead of eating sugar :) These are my fascinating new running shoes. Why are they fascinating? It won the Runner's World Editor's Choice award for June 2009 (really, there's a special sticker on the box) so it must be a fabulous shoe. HA! I just went back to buy inserts. Maybe my next post will be about the protein bars I made...or homemade Gu...

An Old Fav of Mine

I'm killing you all on posts lately! Ok, actually I'm just catching up...
I felt like making these so I did. It's "The Neiman Marcus Cookie". I just found out that there are actually two versions, the one that was sent out by angry email from the lady that supposedly paid $250 for the recipe and the other one posted on the Neiman Marcus site. The one I made has oatmeal in it (therefore it is healthy), the one on the company site is made with espresso. I'll have to try that one another time.

Labor Day Weekend Brownies!

I didn't really labor over them, but they were fun to make. I forget what Betty Crocker called these, but they are brownies with oreos and then vanilla frosting on top with more crushed oreos. I think they are made even better by the frosting, my friends preferred sans frosting. (I can't explain it either!)
This photo is especially amusing because of my ingenious cropping; Silk now says Suk and that's rather funny :)

Sesame-Tofu Stir-Fry

Ta-Da!!

Our contribution to the Tofu challenge

Extra credit for showing the whole dinner! Green beans a la Lala (recognize those green beans?) , Creamy Parmesan Red Wine Risotto, Chimichurri Marinated and Pan-Seared Tofu with a Chimichurri Reduction, Peach Marinated and Pan-Seared Tofu with a Peach Garlic Reduction.

Operation Tofu

Hooray! We like tofu! I made Lasagna Rolls and they were devoured by everybody! And they look cute too:)


Tofu Cookies too! These are good but would be pretty flavorless without the chocolate chips.

August - Ready?!

The next challenge is TOFU!! Just kidding, the actual challenge is finding me a job, but you could make things with Tofu while you're looking!

Lemon Pudding

We had another lemony dinner the other night. Lemon Pasta and this pudding a couple hours later. From the book Luscious Lemon Desserts (if you click on this link the whole book is online!? What!?). The first time we had it without Cool Whip and it was very lemony, as promised, but really just made me want some lemon meringue pie. With the Cool Whip, however, it was perfect. I'm out of lemons now so I think this is it for me!

Lemon-Pistachio Baklava

Okay okay, so it took me awhile to finally get this posted. Still good - really good. Sweet, crunchy, flaky goodness. I'm still thinking that it would have been even better as a 'double-decker' rather then just one layer of filling...but, not complaining! This recipe is an excellent team project considering all the brushing of butter and phyllo sheet arrangement. It's too bad we didn't find this baklava recipe for the 'Honey challenge'!
http://www.recipezaar.com/Lemon-Pistachio-Baklava-47048

Apricot-Oat Scones

Iam late but I finally made these Apricot-Oat Scones from the Betty Crocker Book Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol Cooking Today book, that one of my Daughters bought me. They came out pretty good and they tasted good. Iam researching Lemon. Here are the before and after pictures.

Jamie Cooks, Kinda-Sorta

Oh Lemon! I thought you said pistachios! hehehe...my bad
I'm late, but isn't that just like me? (Ask my friends they will tell you YES.) I saw this 'healthy snack' in a magazine last month, just randomly after i had picked apricots for no apparent reason. This is not my picture, i borrowed it off the internets. Mine have more chocolate and more crushed pistachios. They are really good :)

Lemony Dinner

I bought a bag of lemons and was in serious danger of not making anything new with them. I have a few lemon recipes that I already love (Lemon Pasta and Lemon Rosemary Chicken are a couple) and really just immediately thought of those. I ended up making a chicken recipe we've had once before and Lemon-Dill Carrots. The chicken was great, which I already knew, and the carrots were great too, although I would have liked them to taste more lemony. I was also excited that I got to use two previously unused spices from my spice rack. Dill! Celery Salt! More recipes to come, I still have lemons!

Task 6

LEMON!
(I think everyone that was participating this month has posted so I'm putting up the next ingredient now! Lisa--you get August!)

Ah, the Red Velvet Apricot.

Apricot, red onion and tomato dice...

Served over Quorn chicken tender strips and wild rice. This was geat! A very nice combination of savory and more savory - and we always like some fresh crescent rolls!

Apricot Cobbler - Ah dessert.

This - was the most tart dessert I have ever experienced. Over vanilla ice cream was a good idea. The bisquit-y-ness on top was the best part, I thought.

Apricot Bread Fail!

Well, I thought I was being all clever because I had found a recipe that used apricots and also would help me get rid of some bland tasting Total cereal I didn't want to eat. Unfortunately, I didn't notice until I had started making it that it called for self-rising flour...which of course I didn't have. I'm sure there was a way to fix it but I just sprinkled some baking powder in the mix and hoped that would work. It didn't. Did I need baking soda instead? Clearly I need to read up on the science of baking. The bread never rose at all from when I poured the mush in the pan. Luckily, it's still tasty because it has enough dried fruit to give it a good flavor.

Apricot/Turkey Stuff

I'm pretty sure it's almost impossible to make meat look appetizing, especially when half of the people looking at this are vegetarians, but I did my best anyway. Just pretend this is your favorite meat substitute (veggie crumbles?). Anyway, this was supposed to be a pork (I used turkey) empenada filling but I decided to be lazy and just buy some premade pizza dough and eat it like a calzone. Then I got even lazier and decided to just put it in some tortillas and eat it like a taco. Super tasty! Hooray! That squarish thing in the back corner was corn cake (just like Chi Chi's!) that was also good.

Recipe for empenada filling - Even if you don't want this recipe you may still want to check out this blog. It features tons of vegetarian stuff and is focused on being fast, cheap and good. My three favorite things for food to be!
Recipe for corn cake

Task 5

ap.ri.cot 



[ap-ri-kot, ey-pri-]
the downy, yellow, sometimes rosy fruit, somewhat resembling a small peach, of the tree Prunus armeniaca.

Chocolate shortcake with Yogurt

The shortcake was dry. But when you add the strawberries and yogurt it tasted really good.

Chocolate Doughnuts!

I made it just before May ended! Hooray! I really wanted to make these but thought I wouldn't have time so I made the pudding too. These probably aren't technically doughnuts because they are baked but I just couldn't handle dealing with a huge pot of oil. I don't know why I decided I wanted to make doughnuts but I did a search and found this recipe that contained ingredients I had. Of course they don't really taste like doughnuts but they look like them! They were really good too! Someday I'll make real ones...

Mascarpone Chocolate Toffee Bars

Our chocolate contribution!

Chocolate Pudding!

I always figured pudding was one of those foods that could never really taste as good as the kind you buy from the store. I'm happy to report that I was wrong! Not only is it just as tasty but it's incredibly easy. Who knew? We've been overrun with desserts here lately (no, I'm not complaining) so I didn't want to make anything too chocolatey or dense, even though I love both of those qualities normally. The recipe was from a cookbook called Betty Crocker's Cooking for Two but it's also online here. I made it all chocolate but I reserved a couple spoonfuls of vanilla so I could make a fun swirl on top. Also, I took the recipe at it's word but my bowl overflowed the second time in the microwave.


I didn't have any time to get a nice fancy picture so I'm including an action shot!

Task Four

Chocolate!
(I couldn't help myself, I needed to have it on record!)

Ice Cream Cake

Hi. It's Alex. Lisa's lazy, and, well, it was my birthday cake. We're putting it here as a kind of scientific report--that is, we wanted everyone to learn from our, ahem, my mistake.

So I had the bright idea to make ice cream cake like we used to get from Kroger so long ago--two layers (one chocolate, one vanilla) separated by a layer of crushed Oreos and caramel. Then we thought, "hey! We could make our own ice cream using our Cuisinart ice cream maker!" Brilliant. We halved the recipes for both vanilla and chocolate ice cream that come with the machine and lined a small bowl with plastic wrap. We poured in the vanilla, topped it with a hefty portion of crushed up Oreos, and topped those with some caramels we melted down. Once that was good and frozen, we topped it with the chocolate ice cream and froze it. Once the whole thing was complete, we put it on a platter, frosted it with Cool Whip (even using a pastry bag for edging), and threw some sprinkles on top. It was so pretty. After dinner that night, we pulled the cake out, and proceeded to cut into it. There was a bit of a problem--there was too much caramel. When I say "too much," I mean the stuff froze into an impenetrable barrier. Seriously. I had to use a knife and a hammer--that's how hard it was. Put it this way: trying to chew the little pieces you hack off is a hazard to your tooth enamel. Still, it was very tasty. I think I might go eat some now. (Mmmm, Ghirardelli chocolate ice cream and other stuff.)

So next time I think I'll put far less caramel (or maybe none at all), opting instead for more Oreos, which will be fine, I assure you. So go forth and make ice cream cake--just don't overdo the caramel.

This is Alex, signing off.

Cupcakes Transformed!

So when you fail at cupcakes you transform them into Cake Balls! Kim suggested I save the defunct cupcakes (and the vat of frosting I made) by making these. I was hesitant, because 'cake balls' do not sound appetizing, and I seriously thought that they were supposed to be the size of a baseball, and the thought of eating cake like an apple was not appealing to me. (That was the first 'ball' I thought of! I didn't feel so bad when my friend Melanie thought the same thing.) But about a week later I still hadn't eaten or thrown out the lemon cupcakes so I thought I'd give it a shot. (Plus it was Sunday and Nigel was away training for war, so what better time to bake?)

To make a long story shorter, I tasted one and I thought oh my gosh these are impossibly sweet! I will never eat these, someone at work will like them... And oh my gosh they did. People were raving in the hall (that's where the 'kitchen' is) suggesting to other coworkers to try one and oh my gosh did you try these they are so good. It-was-crazy!

This pic was taken with the cell phone, so it's not awesome. The first batch I just covered with white chocolate and dotted with chocolate frosting, you can see one in the back left corner. The second batch seen here was dunked in a melted white chocolate and strawberry bar.