Recipes

[Preds]

mustang ... Just wanted to thank you for this soup recipe. Finally made it earlier this week and we loved it. DH said it is a keeper.

[Writer with Flair]

On 4/9/2015 mustang66lady said:

Writer with Flair,

Thank you for taking time to tell us about your Tante Anna cake! It sounds like it was lovely and very spring like. Hope you all had a blessed holiday. Will have to put this on my ever growing list of things to try.

I have not made the baklava cheesecake but Respect did and boy, does it sound wonderful. I'm sure she will tell you about it! Have a peaceful week, and thanks again for letting us know how your dessert turned out and for the frosting recipe. How many cupcakes did you end up getting out of the recipe, and by "smaller cakes" - approx. what size cakes did you bake?

Dear Mustang66lady,

We did indeed have a very blessed Easter. The week leading up to Easter, we spent time everyday reading the Passover story from the Old Testament and then the Passion stories from the Gospels in Scripture. We went to a Good Friday service and an Easter Sunday service. We watched our DVD of "The Passion of the Christ" on Saturday night and the new "AD" program (about the early church) on Sunday night on NBC. I truly believe that this was the most meaningful Easter we have ever had. I am so glad that we gave first priority to these things this year.

To answer your cooking questions, I made one cake in a smaller non-stick spring form pan (Wilton 2105-213) and one in the bottom of a regular size angel food cake pan (hole in middle with plain sides--no size or brand name on it--sorry). The second one turned out shorter because I did not have as much batter left over at that point.

I think I made around 24 cupcakes. I used a ice cream scoop to measure out the batter (one scoop per cupcake) so they would be consistent in size.

The recipe I gave you for the frosting was just enough to frost all the cupcakes with a little left over on which my husband decided to do a little "quality control" taste check. From how clean the mixing bowl looked after my husband was finished with it, I would say that the frosting "passed inspection" with flying colors! I hope this helps.

By the way, I love that small Wilton spring form pan. It is such nice quality and is great for making things like cheesecake in smaller quantities. The non-stick surface is really good. I just spray it with Pam or Spectrum Spray Canola Oil and pour in the batter. I have never had to dust it with flour. It still looks pretty new after about 12-15 years of use. I believe I got it at a Marshall's or T.J. Maxx. I always hand wash it. I would not put it in the dishwasher.

Wow! It's almost Friday. This week has flown by. Enjoy your weekend and stay safe if you are in an area where there is the potential for severe weather.

All the best,

Writer with Flair

[mustang66lady]

Hi Preds

Glad you and your DH loved the soup. It was almost 90 degrees here today and nothing sounds too good to us! Hope you have a great weekend and enjoy your family. Thanks for taking time to let me know your review of the soup. Makes my day.

Writer with Flair,

Thank you for explaining how you baked these cakes/ cupcakes. I could tell by the recipe for the frosting, it is a winner! Maybe make them for Memorial weekend if not before. I have a Wilton springform pan but do not think it is the small one; think it is the next one up. I love it, too. I have 3 springform pans of different sizes but the Wilton is my favorite. It does take a beating!

You Easter week preparation sounds lovely. I'm so happy you and your family had this uplifting experience in your faith. I know you all were blessed. Have been singing El Shaddai all day as I cleaned; helped get me thru the day. You hit the nail on the head speaking of priorities. Makes a world of difference in the peace we have each day. Have a peaceful and blessed weekend.

[ChiliPepper]

Hi Kitchenettes, I'm really, really busy today at work but I wanted to pop in & say "Good Morning"! I tried to post last night from home but I fell asleep instead. Ooooops...

Have a great day my Friends!

[RespectLife]

Hi ya Chili! Have a good day at work!

Writer...First let me say how much I enjoyed reading about your Blessed Easter. What a beautiful, faith filled celebration! It warmed my heart. I so agree about trying to prioritize the meaning of our holidays!

Thank you also for reporting back on the Lemon Cakes. I appreciate your details and the suggestion to use Lemon Extract. I have a bottle unopened still! Those are going on my list to try for sure.

I did make the Baklava Cheesecake...goodness it is delish! Not overly sweet (I put less honey on top than listed), the cheesecake part was a true NY style yummy cheesecake! Check out that thread and you can see my full review. It wasn't near as hard as I thought! I was unsure of what I was doing, but fretted for nothing. A tiny mis-step or two...but the flavor!!! You need a good deep pan though...I couldn't fit everything in my Pyrex 13x9. Needed more depth! It is a treat I know I will repeat as often as I can.

Mustang...thinking of you! Those storms last night were something. We had the biggest lightning and thunder here too...but when I saw the news my heart broke for those in that town of IL. Hope you are safe....and from what I read above...warm???? 90?? We are hitting only 60 I think...of course add the total grey sky and rain, it is uglier than the snow. Now high winds! Nothing like the midwest...so praying you all are safe!

[Writer with Flair]

On 4/10/2015 RespectLife said:

Hi ya Chili! Have a good day at work!

Writer...First let me say how much I enjoyed reading about your Blessed Easter. What a beautiful, faith filled celebration! It warmed my heart. I so agree about trying to prioritize the meaning of our holidays!

Thank you also for reporting back on the Lemon Cakes. I appreciate your details and the suggestion to use Lemon Extract. I have a bottle unopened still! Those are going on my list to try for sure.

I did make the Baklava Cheesecake...goodness it is delish! Not overly sweet (I put less honey on top than listed), the cheesecake part was a true NY style yummy cheesecake! Check out that thread and you can see my full review. It wasn't near as hard as I thought! I was unsure of what I was doing, but fretted for nothing. A tiny mis-step or two...but the flavor!!! You need a good deep pan though...I couldn't fit everything in my Pyrex 13x9. Needed more depth! It is a treat I know I will repeat as often as I can.

Mustang...thinking of you! Those storms last night were something. We had the biggest lightning and thunder here too...but when I saw the news my heart broke for those in that town of IL. Hope you are safe....and from what I read above...warm???? 90?? We are hitting only 60 I think...of course add the total grey sky and rain, it is uglier than the snow. Now high winds! Nothing like the midwest...so praying you all are safe!

Respect Life,

Thanks for your kind words. I do appreciate them. Priorities--yes, they are a challenge.

The Baklava Cheesecake sounded yummy. I must find a special occasion for which to make it. I appreciate your feedback about what it was like to make it. I feel like I can now soldier on and give it a try.

Thank you for the heads up about reducing the honey. I am finding that I am liking things less sweet than I used to. Sometimes I use agave nectar in place of honey and maple flavored agave nectar in place of regular maple syrup. A friend who used to be diabetic told me about it. Supposedly, it has less of an impact on your blood sugar than regular sugar, honey, and maple syrup do. Of course, it does not have the same flavor that honey does.

I hope you and everyone have better weather and a great weekend.

All the best,

Writer with Flair

[mustang66lady]

Hi Kitchenettes!

It's been a rough few days because of the storms but today was bright and sunny although cool and very windy. We have water standing everywhere and many little rivers and streams around us are out of their banks. We haven't driven over to the Mississippi yet to see how full it is, but one of the creeks near our house empties into the river and it is almost out of its' banks which tells me the Mississippi is up. We had very strong winds and storms walls all around us most of the day yesterday and hail the size of quarters. One place in MO had grapefruit size hail and another baseball size. Many areas around us had hail somewhere in between what we had and the above larger hail. Once the cold front pushed the warmer air east, our storms ended but the weather folk say there is a similar situation starting the pattern over out west which will move towards us next week. Thankfully tomorrow DH and I are going to make a kennel under our basement steps to take the doggies to in times of storms. Hopefully that will help them to settle down. Looks like I won't be cooking too much this weekend!

We did go out tonight and had something unusual. It was called Italian Nachos. Maybe other places know of this but was new to us. The restaurant deep fried broken lasagna noodles and layered with red sauce, cheese (mozzarella and possible provel), black olives, and pepperocinis. It was so good. Not something I would eat often but was really good none the less.

Hope all have a peaceful evening.

[Writer with Flair]

On 4/10/2015 mustang66lady said:

Hi Kitchenettes!

It's been a rough few days because of the storms but today was bright and sunny although cool and very windy. We have water standing everywhere and many little rivers and streams around us are out of their banks. We haven't driven over to the Mississippi yet to see how full it is, but one of the creeks near our house empties into the river and it is almost out of its' banks which tells me the Mississippi is up. We had very strong winds and storms walls all around us most of the day yesterday and hail the size of quarters. One place in MO had grapefruit size hail and another baseball size. Many areas around us had hail somewhere in between what we had and the above larger hail. Once the cold front pushed the warmer air east, our storms ended but the weather folk say there is a similar situation starting the pattern over out west which will move towards us next week. Thankfully tomorrow DH and I are going to make a kennel under our basement steps to take the doggies to in times of storms. Hopefully that will help them to settle down. Looks like I won't be cooking too much this weekend!

We did go out tonight and had something unusual. It was called Italian Nachos. Maybe other places know of this but was new to us. The restaurant deep fried broken lasagna noodles and layered with red sauce, cheese (mozzarella and possible provel), black olives, and pepperocinis. It was so good. Not something I would eat often but was really good none the less.

Hope all have a peaceful evening.

Dear Mustang66lady,

I am so glad that your family and the dogs are safe. I'll pray that the bad weather does not reoccur next week.

That kennel under the steps sounds like a great idea.

The Italian Nachos sounds interesting. Who would ever of thought of something like that? There definitely a lot of creative chefs and cooks out there for sure. I don't do much frying at home, but I will be on the lookout for that appetizer in restaurants and give it a try if I see it.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

All the best,

The Writer with Flair

[mustang66lady]

Writer with Flair,

Thank you for your kind words and prayers. We were very blessed but had areas all around us and thru out the state that had things much worse. Wish the season was over but that is kind of like wishing spring was over. So we just have to take the good with the bad.

The kennel under the stairwell was from something I saw on pinterest. Ours isn't as fancy but will hold our two dogs and if need be, the two from a couple of our daughters that I dog sit while they work. I am going for a remnant of carpet to put there and some chew bones and a large water dispenser for them along with extra leashes for each of them. At least if the rest of the house blows away, we have a chance to at least contain them.

I listed the ingredients to the Italian nachos that we ate, but I did google "Italian nachos" and several recipes came up if you are interested. The noodles seemed crisp and crunchy but held up better than tortilla chips and didn't get soggy. We thoroughly enjoyed them for a treat!

Have a blessed evening and peaceful week.

[ChiliPepper]

Hi Kitchenettes, looks like we might actually have a nice day for once. I hope you are all doing well & had a wonderful weekend.

Respect, yesterday on "The Kitchen" (Food Network) G-Z said to make saffron (spice) you use:

1/2 teaspoon paprika &

1/4 teaspoon TURMERIC!!!

Now, that opens a whole new can of worms because I have no idea what to use "saffron" for either! I think I have heard of saffron rice maybe???

Mmmmmmm......