'Naner Pudding

I have officially won an unofficial banana pudding cook-off.  I came in as the underdog against the fan favorite.  Sort of like Rocky.  Maybe.  I've never seen Rocky.

The beauty of this recipe is that it is so simple, but tastes like banana pudding that you might order at a restaurant. 

Banana Pudding

Ingredients

1 - 8 ounce package cream cheese
1 - 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 - 5 ounce package instant vanilla pudding mix
3 cups cold milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 - 8 ounce container frozen whipped topping, thawed (you can definitely use more)
4 bananas, sliced
1/2 box vanilla wafers

Directions

1.  In a large bowl (I used my stand mixer), beat cream cheese until fluffy.  Beat in condensed milk, pudding mix, cold milk, and vanilla until smooth.  Fold in 1/2 of the whipped topping.

2.  Line the bottom of a 9 x 13 dish with vanilla wafers.  Arrange sliced bananas evenly over the wafers.  Spread with pudding mixture.  Top with remaining whipped topping.  Chill (overnight if possible, otherwise at least several hours).

I would have liked to include a beautiful picture of my impressive banana pudding, but this is all I have:

The recipe can be found here.

DIY Chocolate Pudding

Last night I was craving something sweet.  Chocolate pudding to be more specific.  And I didn't even have any on hand, as it's not one of our staples.  Due to Winter Storm 2011, I wasn't planning to drive on icy roads to get to a grocery store that may or may not be open for a box of instant pudding.  So I looked online and found a recipe for chocolate pudding from scratch, which was surprisingly easy.  It was a microwave recipe, no less, so the mess was minimal.

Unfortunately, homemade pudding takes a little time to cool and set.  The recipe didn't indicate exactly how long, but I think that it would take about four hours.  Seeing as I didn't even start this recipe until 6:30 p.m., I was sound asleep by the time it was ready to be eaten.

The consistency was a little thinner than the instant pudding that I'm used to, but it could be due to several factors:  an ingredient substitution, using low-fat milk, or even not cooking it for long enough.  Or maybe homemade pudding is just a little thinner than instant.  However, the flavor is excellent and I would definitely attempt homemade pudding again.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tbsp cornstarch (I didn't have any, so I substituted 6 tbsp flour)
2 cups milk
2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. In a microwave-safe bowl, whisk together the sugar, cocoa, and cornstarch/flour.  Gradually add the milk while whisking so the mixture doesn't have any lumps.
2. Microwave for 3 minutes on high.  Stir, then cook at 1 minute intervals, stirring for 2 - 4 minutes between cooking times, until shiny and thick.  Stir in vanilla.
3. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming, and then chill in the refrigerator.

Winter Storm Cinnamon Rolls

Whenever we visit Baton Rouge, we can usually look forward to homemade cinnamon rolls made by my father-in-law.  This morning when we woke up to snow ice on the ground, I had a hankering for those cinnamon rolls.  My father-in-law uses Bisquick, which is banned in my house, so I found a similar non-Bisquick no-yeast recipe online.

Dough:
2 cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder 
1 tsp salt
3 tsp butter, softened
3/4 cup milk

Filling:
4 tbsp butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
3 tsp cinnamon

Glaze:
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 400. 

In a large bowl, stir flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Cut in softened butter, then stir in milk to form a soft dough.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick.

Mix the filling ingredients (butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon).  Spread about 1/4 to 1/2 on the bottom of a greased 9 x 9 pan.  Spread the rest on the dough.

Roll the doughy rectangle into a log, and then slice rolls about 1 - 1.5 inches thick.  Place in the prepared pan and bake 20 - 25 minutes.

Combine the milk and confectioners sugar to make the glaze.  Drizzle on the finished cinnamon rolls.

The consensus:
We prefer my father-in-law's glaze, which (we think) consists of confectioners sugar and butter, but adding the cinnamon filling to the bottom of the pan makes these cinnamon rolls extra delicious.  Joey gives her "thumbs up:"  she ate three.

My Husband's Nuts

That title is per his request.

Paul has been sitting at our dining room table shelling pecans for at least an hour.  He shows no signs of slowing down or stopping.  Every once in a while I'll hear, "This is a beautiful pecan.  Just perfect.  Look at this one.  I think I'll have to eat it.  Ack!  This one pinched me back.  I think I'll have to eat it.  Oh, this one's rotten.  That's probably why it pinched me."

Photo credit:  Josephine Losavio

Two days ago I made Rocky Road Brownies -- from scratch -- for our house guests using a recipe from a blog called Our Family Eats.  This morning, as Paul and I were fighting over the last one, I told him that I would make another batch if he would go out into our yard to gather pecans.  I really just needed half of a cup.  Our neighbors on two sides of us have pecan trees, and tons of pecans fall in our yard each fall.  I happened to have pecans (from the store), but I tapped into my stash the other day and I need what we have for my Holiday Sweet Potatoes for Thanksgiving.  And I really don't want to go back to the store.  Except...I do need butter, in the event that any of our Thanksgiving guests wants to butter their bread.  And if we're going to have cranberry sauce I'll need to buy oranges.  And we really don't have non-Thanksgiving food for this week...so I guess I'll be going to the store anyway. 

Paul's Nuts

These Rocky Road Brownies from Our Family Eats are divine.  I had initially disregarded the recipe because it calls for using a double-boiler, which I don't have, and seemed too complicated in general.  In fact, a make-shift double boiler was no problem to rig and this recipe consists of nine basic ingredients:  butter, chocolate chips, sugar, brown sugar, salt, eggs, flour, marshmallows, and nuts.  The recipe calls for semi-sweet chocolate chips, but I used dark-chocolate chips because dark chocolate is good for you, right?  Other than that I followed the instructions and my brownies came out perfect.

My make-shift double boiler

I've finished baking the brownies, but Paul is still shelling his pecans.  And he's talking about going back into the yard to pick up more nuts.  What will we do with all of these nuts?

What to do with leftover ham.

I've spent a lot of time in grocery stores over the past few days in preparation for Thanksgiving.  I've seen hams for sale, and while turkey is a Thanksgiving tradition, I'm tempted by the ham.  If I didn't have an 18 pound bird thawing in my fridge I might just throw tradition out the window and serve ham.  I doubt that I would get any complaints from my husband.

If any of you are serving ham, you might have some left over.  "Leftover" and "ham" are two words that don't go together in my house, but I thought I'd share a recipe that uses ham steak.  It's been part of my rotation for a few years now.  I will often make this the day before cooking it.  Real Simple suggests omitting the ham if you'd like to make this a vegetarian side dish.

Cauliflower and Ham Gratin
Ingredients
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 medium onion, sliced (I dice, or better yet, buy a bag of frozen diced onion)
8 oz ham steak, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk (I use 1%)
4 oz goat cheese, crumbled (I use feta)
Kosher salt and pepper
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets (I use a bag of frozen cauliflower florets)
3 tbsp bread crumbs (I omit)
8 sprigs thyme (I omit)
2 - 3 tbsp flour

Directions
Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add the onion and saute for about 6 minutes, until softened and light golden brown.  Add the ham and cook for about 2 minutes.  Add cream, milk, cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium-low.  Simmer until thickened, about 4 minutes.  I often add flour to help the mixture thicken -- probably because I use 1% milk rather than whole.  Add cauliflower and remove from heat.

Transfer to a 2-quart casserole and sprinkle with bread crumbs and thyme.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake for another 15 - 20 minutes.  Let it rest for 5 minutes or so before serving.

Holiday Sweet Potatoes

I realized today that Thanksgiving is barely more than 2 weeks away, which means that I've got a lot of work to do over the next two weeks.  Since we've lived in our home we've hosted dinner each year.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I love having friends and family over to celebrate.  The company and the menu are usually the same.  We achieved perfection early. 

This recipe for holiday sweet potatoes is a Losavio family tradition and is a definite crowd-pleaser.  I usually assemble it Thanksgiving Eve, and then bake it the next day while the turkey rests.  I look forward to eating it all year.

Holiday Sweet Potatoes
Serves 12

2 29 oz cans sweet potatoes, drained and mashed
1 stick margarine or butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs, beaten

Mix the above ingredients and spread in a greased 9 x 13 casserole dish.  Add topping of:

2 cups light brown sugar
2 cups broken nuts, such as pecans
1 cup self-rising flour
2 sticks margarine or butter, melted

Mix above ingredients and spread over potato mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

This Thanksgiving I am grateful for stretchy maternity pants.

Mmm...brownies

I usually buy boxed brownie mix, which is pretty ridiculous considering that I think Bisquick is a rip-off.  However, a few weeks ago I needed something sweet and I didn't have any mix.  So, I went to the Hershey's website to find out what I could do with the ingredients that I had on hand, specifically cocoa powder.  It turns out that you can make brownies.

The following is a pretty simple brownie recipe.  And there's probably a better one out there that's just as simple but I wasn't exactly on a search for the best brownie recipe of all time.  I wanted a recipe that was fast, easy, and required just the ingredients that I had on hand.  Regardless, it sure beats sending Paul to the grocery store at 9 p.m. for something to satisfy my sweet tooth.  He really is not amused by those sorts of requests. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup Hershey's Cocoa

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350°F.  Grease a 9-inch square baking pan.   Stir together butter, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl.  Add eggs and beat well.  Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended.  Stir in nuts, if desired.  (I actually just throw all of the ingredients into the KitchenAid and don't concern myself with the order.)  Spread batter evenly in pan.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack.  Cut into 16 squares, or however you want to cut them.

You can easily do all sorts of variations, like the mixes that you'll see in the grocery store.  For example:

Add nuts.  

Add peanut butter chips.
Add frosting (recipe below).  

Use peppermint extract instead of vanilla.  

Drop chocolate chip cookie dough into the pan with the brownie batter.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar. 

*****

Creamy Brownie Frosting

Ingredients: 

3 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon light corn syrup or honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

Beat butter, cocoa, corn syrup and vanilla in small bowl until blended.  Add powdered sugar and milk; beat to spreading consistency.  Makes about 1 cup frosting.

DIY Pancakes

About a year ago, Joey went through a phase where she wanted pancakes, or cake-cakes as she called them, every single day.  I started by giving her the occasional convenient frozen pancake, but she ate so many that it just wasn't cost effective.  So then I started making large batches using dry Bisquick, milk, and eggs and refrigerating the leftovers.  But one day Joey wanted pancakes and we were out of Bisquick, so I looked in my cookbook to see how to make them from scratch.  Here's what I learned:

Bisquick is a rip-off!

The ingredients of Bisquick are flour, shortening/butter/oil, baking powder, and salt.  I had these ingredients in my pantry all the time!  Why was I wasting our money on designer flour?  

Of course, Bisquick is a convenience product.  Buy it if you like that sort of thing.  But you should know that you don't have to.

Here's an easy from-scratch pancake recipe from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook:

1/2 to 3/4 cup milk
2 tbsp melted butter
1 egg
1 cup white flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Beat the milk, butter, and egg in a mixing bowl.  Mix the dry ingredients and add them to the first mixture, stirring just enough to dampen the flour.  Lightly butter or grease a griddle and set over medium-high heat.  Drop the batter on the griddle; flip when the top of the cakes are full of bubbles and the bottoms are lightly browned.   Bake on the griddle until both sides are lightly browned.  Serve.

The yield of this recipe is 16 pancakes, but I don't ever a correct yield.  This recipe is enough for one grown man, one pregnant woman, and one ravenous toddler.  I often double the recipe to have leftover pancakes for Joey to munch on for a few days.

You can easily modify this recipe by adding fruit.

My Favorite Pumpkin Cookies

It really felt like fall today so it was time for me to make my favorite pumpkin cookies.  Not that I have a lot of experience making pumpkin cookies, but I love these cookies.  They are cakey and tender and more sophisticated than my usual chocolate chip.  I found the recipe in the newspaper a few years ago, so I don't have an Internet link to it.  But here it is (with my notes) for your drooling pleasure.

For the cookies:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup shortening (or butter, margarine, whatever you've got)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  (I love parchment paper for baking.  It makes clean-up a snap.)  Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice and set aside (or don't).  Cream together shortening and brown sugar.  Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla.  Add half of the dry ingredients until well mixed, and then add the other half.  Scoop the dough by tablespoons onto the baking sheets and arrange two inches apart (I use a cookie scoop -- like a miniature ice cream scoop).  Bake for about 14 minutes, or until lightly browned at the edges.  Rotate baking sheets halfway through (or don't; use your judgment).  Allow cookies to cool completely before icing.

For the icing:
1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, room temp
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp pumpkin puree (or some of the leftover canned pumpkin)
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla
1 pound (4 cups) powdered sugar
Orange food coloring (or red and yellow, 'cause you know, that makes orange)

Combine the butter and maple syrup and beat until smooth.  Add pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla.  Add the powdered sugar and beat until fluffy.  Add the food coloring and beat until uniform.  Pipe or spread the frosting on the cookies and decorate with black sprinkles.

The yield for this recipe is supposed to be 24 cookies.  I never get a perfect yield; this time I got 37 cookies out of this recipe.

Store the cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  And as for the leftover canned pumpkin, feed it to Fido.