Stuffed Patty Pan Squash

What a great way to eat those summer vegetables! I am not a big fan of squash, because I do not like the squishy texture. In this recipe, the squash is nice and firm and has a lot of flavor!! My mother in law found this recipe online, I unfortunately do not know where to credit them.
So, I realize the picture is not of the recipe, but I can't seem to find the picture I took! You all have seen my mad photography skills, so realistically you probably are not missing out on much!

Ingredients
12 medium patty-pan squash
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, finely diced
1 medium zucchini, seeds removed and diced
1/4 cup toasted and slivered almonds (see toasting directions below)
3 tablespoons heavy cream
6 sprigs fresh marjoram, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
3/4 cup pepper jack cheese, divided

Directions
1. Clean squash and steam for 10-15 minutes, until tender
2. Remove from heat and cool (so you don't get third degree burns trying step 3)
3. Cut tops of squash and scoop out enough to make hold the filling
4. Chop the scooped out squash and set to the side
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly oil a large baking dish
6. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat
7. Add onion and saute for 4 minutes, until softened
8. Add garlic and cook for 1 additional minute
9. Add zucchini and cook for 6 minutes
10. Add the reserved patty pan squash, almonds, cream, majoram, salt, and pepper and cook for approximately 5 minutes, mixture should begin to thicken
11. Add 1/2 cup of cheese to mixture and fill squash shells
12. Cover with foil and bake for 25-30 minutes
13. Remove foil and sprinkle with reserved cheese

To toast almonds, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread the almonds on a cookie sheet and toast until golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Carrot Cake!!!!!

Carrot Cake and Orange Ginger Cream Cheese Icing

Yum Yum!!! This cake is amazing. It isn't like most carrot cakes, because it is more spice cake in taste from the ginger. The orange and ginger in the icing finish the cake off perfectly. Warning - it is difficult to resist a second slice!

Ingredients - Cake

Makes one 8-inch layer cake.

• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, melted plus more for pans
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
• 1 cup (3 ounces) pecan halves
• 1 pound large carrots, peeled
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup nonfat buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter two 8-by-2-inch round cake pans. Dust with flour, and tap out any excess. Set aside. (I do not like nuts, so I omitted this) Spread pecans in a single layer on an ungreased baking pan, and toast in oven until lightly golden, about 7 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand until completely cool. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees. Finely chop pecans and set aside.
2. Using the smallest holes (less than 1/4-inch in diameter) of a box grater, grate carrots, yielding 2 1/2 cups. (I did not have a grater so I chopped them in the food processor and it was just fine) Place carrots, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, sugar, and ginger in a large bowl; mix until well combined. (As Sunny said in previous posts, buttermilk can be made from milk and a teaspoon of vinegar)
3. Into a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Using a rubber spatula, fold the flour mixture into the carrot mixture until combined. Fold in the melted butter and toasted pecans.
4. Divide batter between the two cake pans, and bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 30-40 minutes. Remove pans from oven, and transfer to a wire rack to cool, about 15 minutes. Turn cakes out onto rack; let stand until completely cool.
5. Using a serrated knife, trim tops of cakes so surfaces are level. Slice each layer in half crosswise. Place a layer on a cake stand or cardboard round, and spread 3/4 cup frosting over top. Place a second cake layer on top, and spread with another 3/4 cup frosting. Repeat with third layer and another 3/4 cup frosting. Place last cake layer on top, and spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of assembled cake. Transfer to refrigerator, and chill 3 to 4 hours. It really needs to be refrigerated prior to serving. Otherwise, it will fall apart upon cutting.

Ingredients - Icing

· 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

· 3 bars (8 ounces each) cream cheese, room temperature

· 3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

· 1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest

· 1 tablespoons freshly grated ginger

· Pinch of salt

Directions

Place butter in bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add cream cheese, and beat until well combined and fluffy, about 2 minutes more. Add sugar, orange zest, ginger, and salt, and beat for 5 minutes.

Recipe modified from MarthaStewart.com

Cheesecake Brownies

So this was the original dessert for the lunch today. I might just be partial but adding cream cheese to anything is a wonderful addition. These are such wonderful tasty treats and I am sad to say that a few got left at my house on accident... I hear it was an accident way to frequently all day from Brayden so I am beginning to forget the real definition of the word. LOL They are not going to last long!

I hate cutting brownies, especially when you are going to serve them to people so I went to the wonderful all answering Internet and found out that you can make brownie bite out of any recipe by just dividing the cooking time in half to the original recipe. It also recommended that cake brownies are a better choice for bite size. Because the directions called for swirling the cream cheese mixture in the brownie mixture I went for a regular size muffin pan but I think that a mini muffin pan would work for normal brownie recipes. I don't think that I will ever make brownies any other way. I love this new trick.

Cheesecake Brownies

This recipe was given to Kelly by a her friend Melanie.

Thanks Melony! I love them.

1 brownie mix
1 ½ packages (8 oz) cream cheese (lite is ok)
1/3 c sugar
1 eggs
2 T milk
½ tsp almond extract or vanilla
1 (6 oz) package chocolate chips (~ 1 c)

Directions

1) Mix brownie mix as directed.
2) Combine cream cheese, 1/3 c sugar, 2 T milk; mix well in bowl. Then add 1 egg and ½ tsp almond extract (or vanilla).
3) Pour brownie mix into greased and floured (can use cocoa instead) jelly roll pan (13x9). Spoon cream cheese mixture on top of chocolate. Cut with knife to make swirls. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. (Here is were I changed and greased muffin pans really well)
4) Bake 375° for 25-30 minutes. (Bites took 15 minutes)

Key Lime Pie

I (Sunny) love when friends ask me to cook for them. I would have to say "cooking definitely makes me happy"...sorry it just fit:) I was given the opportunity to cook for the church staff today and got excited because that gave me the chance to try a recipe that I have been wanting to try to perfect. I am in absolute love with Key Lime Pie and searched the web for a recipe that would taste like lime and not pudding. I wanted the real thing. Sunday I had my first go round and I knew that it was a "repeat with modifications"...OK, a little history lesson to explain this rating scale. Our Papa Pete didn't believe in getting rid of something just because it didn't work or was broken so just about everything he got his hands on was "modified". In many cases this also included things that were brand new but still needed a little tweaking. So Kelly came up with "repeat or repeat with modifications", in other words it is a pretty good recipe but could be better. Anyway, the crust on this recipe was as thick as the filling and was way over cooked in my opinion but wow was the filing great. So when given the opportunity to cook for people I thought I might just slide in an extra dessert so that I would not have had to eat the whole thing by myself:) I still think I am going to work on the crust ratio but this was good. You can see in the picture that I tried to get some of the extra crust off the top and it sprinkled the top of the pie. So here it is:

Key Lime Pie

Modified from GourmetSleuth

A few hints: don't over bake or it will turn out rubbery and is best if used fresh Key Limes...get your squeezing fingers ready or make sure you have a citrus squeezer you are going to need it:)

Crust

1 1/4 Cups graham cracker crust

3 Tbsp sugar

1/3 Cup Butter

Combine crumbs and sugar. Stir in melted butter and press firmly into 9 inch pan and cook for 5 minutes at 350 degrees.

Filing

5 egg yolks

14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup fresh key lime juice (approximately 12 Key limes)

2 teaspoons grated lime peel

I N S T R U C T I O N S
Beat the egg yolks until they are thick and turn to a light yellow, don't over mix. Turn the mixer off and add the sweetened condensed milk. Turn speed to low and mix in half of the lime juice. Once the juice is incorporated add the other half of the juice and the zest, continue to mix until blended (just a few seconds). Pour the mixture into the pie shell and bake at 350F for 12 minutes

Whipping Cream (Optional)

1 cup whipping cream

4 teaspoons granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla
beat whipping cream until you get small peaks. Add sugar and vanilla and whip. Watch over whipping or whipping on too high of setting.

Strawberry Cake

This cake is a family favorite, especially to Matt (Kelly's husband). It is not the prettiest cake but defiantly is asked for over and over. I normally don't try making it layered because the icing is pretty runny and I am afraid of it falling over, but I gave it a whirl and it stayed...well it really didn't have much time before it was cut into and then well, if fell.


Strawberry Cake & Icing
1 Pkg. yellow cake mix
1 Pkg. Strawberry Jell-O
1/2 C water
1/2 Pkg. frozen strawberry
1 C Wesson oil
4 eggs

Mix till well blended & bake in greased & floured pan.
350 deg. -40 min.

Icing-
1/2 pkg. frozen strawberry (make sure and use whole berries without added sugar)
1/4 lb. butter (room temperature)
4 3/4 C powdered sugar

Blend butter and powdered sugar and then add strawberries to taste. Best if you thaw the strawberries first.

I didn't use the full amount of strawberries that it called for so that it would not be so runny. I just went by color and TASTE... well, how else would you make icing if you didn't have all of the spoons out of the flatware drawer and on the counter or in the sink. I really think I need to find a dishwasher when I bake or cook for that matter. Ok, so I have Brayden and he loves cleaning dishes but then again I am still cleaning up and usually it is a bigger mess:)

Birthday Cake

I (Sunny) am very excited to share my latest creation. I really wanted to make a cake that not only looked good but tasted great. After doing several hours of research on the Internet. By the way that was way to much fun, it really got my creative juices flowing and I found several new blogs and websites that I am going to be checking out again. (spent way to much time though) Here are a few so that you don't have too: http://www.mixingbowl.com http://bakespace.com/ http://www.cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/

I needed to use fondant but don't love the taste of it so in my search I found several people talking about MMF (marshmallow fondant) they were saying how much better it taste and how easy and inexpensive it was to make. So I gave it a try and for fondants it is great!! I would however recommend only making it with a standing mixer. It takes around 5-7 minutes to mix and my mixer was working hard those seven minutes! So next was the cake. I wanted something moist and tasty. I found a Buttermilk White Cake and it is YUM-O!!! Ok, I know that is a Rachel Ray word but since Brayden started talking that has been our favorite word for wonderfully delicious food and nothing else would work to describe that cake. I picked this cake because of the buttermilk but then I kept reading and you mix all of the ingredients except the egg together and then you beat the egg whites with cream of tarter like you are making meringue and then fold them together. And WOW did it make it moist. It takes some time but I think it was worth it. For the icing and filing I used the recipes on the Lemon Cake that were posted before. This cake was a lot of work but I really learned a lot and had fun creating it.

Buttermilk White Cake Recipe http://bakespace.com/recipes/detail/Buttermilk-White-Cake/6906/

Marshmallow Fondanthttp://www.wilton.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=7&threadid=77236

Sorry, for some reason I could not just copy and paste these recipes but if you follow the link about you will find the recipes.

A new technique I learned is cutting some old dish towels in half and moisten them with water, fold them in half again and rap them around your pan. To fasten them so that they will hold paper clip or pin the ends together. This technique is an inexpensive way to keep your cake level when it is baking (and not get that high point in middle of the cake). If you don't want to ruin your towels and craft store that sales cake decorating items sells silver wraps that do the same thing. It works great!