Apple Pumpkin Struesel muffins

This is a really easy, quick recipe which takes very little time to whip up. In fact, you don't even need to take your mixer out! The original recipe came from Taste of Home's Fast Family Favorites, but I found it on the net and changed it a bit. The changes, one an accident the other a substitution, are explained below.

Ingredients

• 2-1/2c flour
• 2c sugar
• 1tbsp pumpkin pie spice*
• 1tsp baking soda
• 1/2tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1c canned pumpkin**
• 1/2c vegetable oil
• 2c finely chopped, peeled apples

Streusel:

• 1/4c sugar
• 2tbsp flour
• 1/2tsp ground cinnamon
• 4tbsp cold butter or margarine

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl combine the first five ingredients.
3. In a medium size bowl combine the eggs, pumpkin and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
4. Fold in apples.
5. Fill paper lined muffin tins 2/3 full.
6. In a small bowl combine sugar, flour & cinnamon for struesel.
7. Cut in butter until crumbly.
8. Sprinkle over muffin batter.
9. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown.
10. Cool for 5 minutes before removing muffins from tins to wire racks.
11. Enjoy!
    

Notes
*I didn't have pumpkin pie spice on hand so, I used 1tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2tsp ground ginger & 1/4tsp ground cloves.

**Every now & then when I screw up a recipe it turns out to be a good thing. In this instance the original recipe called for 1c canned pumpkin but I used the entire can. It was a yummy mistake so go for it. Unless of course you know what the heck to do with the rest of an opened can of pumpkin!

Old Fashioned Sour Cream Cookies

These deliciously light, cake-like cookies came from an old cook book catalog (McCalls?) that Granny gave me when I was about 15y/o. They're absolutely addicting but don't worry 'cause one batch makes about 4 dozen cookies, so you can share them and still keep a few for yourself!

Ingredients

• 3c sifted all purpose flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1/2tsp baking soda
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1c soft butter
• 1 1/2c sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1c dairy sour cream
• 1tsp vanilla extract**

Topping

• 1/2c sugar
• 1tsp ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Sift flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
2. In large bowl beat butter, sugar and eggs at medium speed until light & fluffy.
3. At low speed, beat in sour cream and vanilla until smooth.
4. Gradually beat in flour mixture until well combined.
5. Refrigerate 1 hour.
6. Meanwhile, mix sugar & cinnamon together for topping.
7. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease cookie sheet.
8. Drop batter by slightly rounded tablespoons, 2 inches apart, onto prepared cookie sheet.
9. Sprinkle unbaked cookies with cinnamon-sugar topping.
10. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown.
11. Let cool for about a minute, remove to wire rack and cool completely.
12. Enjoy!

Note
**You can replace the teaspoon of vanilla for 2tsp grated lemon peel.

Double Chocolate Biscotti

I found this recipe like 5yrs on the side of a commercial size box of cake mix and tried it with the cooking class I used to teach at the hospital. They were such a hit I decided to make a few modifications to dress them up a bit and made batches to use as holiday gifts for several co-workers & friends. It's a fairly easy recipe but it's a bit time consuming. It's also a high yield recipe, approximately 11-1/2 dozen cookies, so you'll get to keep some and still have plenty to share!

Ingredients

• 5 boxes devil foods cake mix
• 2c butter, room temp
• 10 egg whites
• 5c all purpose flour
• 1-1/4c water
• 3 bags mini semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1 bag white chocolate

Directions

1. Place first 5 ingredients in a very large mixing bowl.
2. Mix at low speed for approximately 4 minutes, scraping sides of bowl as needed. The dough will become thick, so you may want to switch to mixing by hand if not using a heavy-duty mixer.
3. Mix in 1-1/2 bags mini chocolate chips.
4. Divide dough into 7 balls. With floured hands, shape balls into flat, 15"x13" loaves.
5. Place on parchment-lined sheet pans 4-inches apart.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm to touch, at 350 (standard oven) or at 300 (convection oven). Let cool for 20 minutes.
7. Cut each loaf diagonally into 20, 3/4-inch slices.
8. Place slices, cut side down, on parchment-lined sheet pans.
9. For standard oven, bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes; for convection oven, bake at 300 for 15-20 minutes.
10. Cool completely.
11. Melt remaining chocolate chips in microwave and dip one end of each cookie into melted chocolate, place on parchment-lined pan and refrigerate until set.
12. Melt white chocolate in microwave and drizzle over cookies; refrigerate until set.
13. Enjoy!

Jenny's Cracker Brittle

This has got to be the craziest dessert recipe ever! I mean, it's super easy and sooooo good!! My daughter's bf made it the other night for us and we couldn't get enough. And once Jenny gave me the recipe, I thought this would make for a wonderful holiday gift. It's absolutely delicious and super easy, so it's a win-win all around. Thanks Jenny!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 sticks of butter
• 1c sugar
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 sleeves saltine crackers (approx)
  
• 12oz semi sweet chocolate chips
• 6oz peanut butter chips
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Grease (or spray) a 9"x13" jelly roll pan ( cookie sheet with a lip along the edge). Place saltines in single layer on pan.
3. Place butter, sugar & vanilla in a small sauce pan and bring to boiling. Continue to boil for approximately 5 minutes to dissolve the sugar.
4. Pour butter mixture over crackers and bake for about 7 minutes or until crackers rise & bubble.
5. Top with chocolate chips and spread with spatula once chips have melted. You can place it back in oven for a minute to help the chips along if necessary.
6. Sprinkle peanut butter chips over chocolate and place pan in freezer for several hours.
7. Once set, use spatula to lift an edge and simply break brittle into pieces.
8. Enjoy!

Note
There are several variations to this recipe. For instance, you can use brown sugar instead of white. Or honey graham crackers instead of saltines. Also, instead of peanut butter chips, try a cup of chopped nuts. And for a more festive look, you can melt some white chocolate, add food coloring paste if desired, and drizzle over the brittle.

Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cookies

A much more accurate name for these tasty gems would be Francie's Magic Cookies! My daughter Kristina sent me this recipe and she got it from the frantic home cook. They’re wonderful just as they are, but since I used them as holiday gifts, I dressed them up with white chocolate drizzle. I made these for my staff as well and they pretty much inhaled them! In fact, several have already asked if I would make them a batch this year. Bottom line: they're a bit of work but sooooo worth it!!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.
In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda.
In another mixing bowl, beat together butter, the 1/2 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, and the 1/4 cup peanut butter with an electric mixer until combined.
Add the egg, milk, and vanilla; beat well.
Beat in as much of the dry ingredients as you can with mixer. Stir in remaining dry ingredients by hand with a wooden spoon.
Form chocolate dough into 32 balls about 1-1/4 inches in diameter.

For peanut butter filling, in a medium mixing bowl combine powdered sugar and the remaining 1/2 cup peanut butter until smooth.
Shape mixture into 32 (3/4-inch) balls.
On a work surface, slightly flatten a chocolate dough ball and top with a peanut butter ball. Shape the chocolate dough over the peanut butter filling, completely covering the filling. Roll dough into a ball.
Repeat with the remaining chocolate dough and peanut butter filling balls.

Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake ‘em in for 8-10 minutes or until they’re just set and surface is slightly cracked.
Let cookies stand for 1 minute as they are slightly soft.
Transfer cookies to wire racks; cool.

Donna's Cream Cheese Frosting

I'm not sure where this recipe originally came from, but it's wonderful with my Butter Pecan Pumpkin Cake. And it's easy.

Ingredients

• One block of cream cheese (I've tried this with neufchatel, which is softer, but the frosting came out sort of thin, and the cake didn't look as pretty as I like. But it tasted fine.)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or imitation, of course)
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk

Directions

1. Beat together the cream cheese, vanilla, and butter until creamy. Fluffy. Fluffy and creamy.
2. Gradually add powdered sugar. And you're doing this gradually so you don't end up with a face full of sugar. Trust me.
3. Once that's mixed, just add the tablespoon of milk, which will smooth it out and make it spreadable. And if there's any kind of lumps in your frosting, the milk will smooth those out.
4. Done! Put it on a cake (just a suggestion).

Butter Pecan Pumpkin Cake

I was looking for easy recipes for the clients' Halloween party this year, and came across this great one that uses canned pumpkin and boxed cake mix. The only place I've been able to find the Betty Crocker butter pecan cake mix is Wal-Mart.

The original recipe used a rum-flavored frosting. Instead of that (because yuck), I'm posting my recipe for yummy cream cheese frosting. It's perfect. Combined with this cake, it's not unlike a pumpkin roll with mascarpone.

Ingredients

• 1 box Butter Pecan cake mix
• 1 15-oz can of pumpkin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
• One recipe of cream cheese frosting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour two 8" or 9" cake pans (or spray with that fancy Pillsbury spray for baking). Set aside.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Beat on low until thoroughly combined.
3. Beat at medium speed for about two minutes.
4. Pour into prepared pans.
5. Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
6. Let cool for about 20 minutes in the pan. Then remove from pans and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
7. Frost with delicious cream cheese frosting that you got from my blog.
8. Enjoy.

Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie... a family favorite!

This is the best pie. Everyone loves it.
Here's where I found the original.

Ingredients

• One 9" deep dish pie crust
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 10-oz bag chopped pecans
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (Who are we kidding? I put the whole bag in.)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F).
2. Fit the pie crust into a 9" pie plate, trim and crimp the edge, and set it aside.
3. In a medium-sized bowl, cream together the sugar and the melted butter until light and creamy.
4. Beat in the eggs.
5. Add the corn syrup, salt, and vanilla and blend until well combined.
6. Spread the chopped pecans and the chocolate chips evently over the bottom of the crust. Then pour the filling on top.
7. Place in the oven and bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean (or as clean as a knife stuck into the center of a bunch of melted chocolate can come out)... about 50 to 60 minutes.
8. Let cool completely on a wire rack before serving.
9. Makes one 9" pie.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Mushrooms

Makes 6 servings

I chose to share this particular recipe for several reasons. First and foremost: it’s tasty, fast and guilt free (approx. 320 calories; 9gms fat; 6gms fiber). Also it works great as a side dish (I served it with honey-citrus grilled salmon) or as a vegetarian main dish. Either way, pray for leftovers ‘cause it’s a great next day lunch!

Enjoy.

Ingredients

• 12oz whole wheat spaghetti (any whole wheat pasta will work!)
• 3Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 bunch Scallions
• 16oz Asst’d Sliced Mushroom (shiitake, white, baby portabella)
• 4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
• 1/3c Parmesan, grated
• 2Tbsp Freshly Chopped Parsley
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 12oz Low Fat Chicken Broth
• 1tsp Corn Starch

Preparation

• Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add salt and cook pasta according to directions.
• Heat 1Tbsp olive oil in a large sauté pan; add mushrooms and cook over medium-high heat for 5-6 minutes or until brown.
• Turn to brown opposite side (for another 5-6 minutes) and add scallions, salt & pepper.
• Add 8oz chicken broth to pan and lower heat.
• Mix remaining broth and corn starch together and slowly add to mushroom mixture.
• Drain pasta. Toss in a large bowl with mushroom mixture.
• Add remaining olive oil, salt & pepper. Toss to combine.
• Top with parmesan and parsley; serve hot!