White Chocolate Berry Muffins

This recipe comes from my mother-in-law's personal trainer.  These muffins are delicious.  I love the combination of white chocolate and raspberry.  When Finlay wanted to bake something with raspberries I knew this is the recipe we had to make.

1 package (8oz) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh raspberries
1/2 cup (or more) white chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. 
2. Add eggs one at a time; beat well after each addition.
3. Stir in vanilla.
4. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; add to cream cheese mixture just until blended.
5. Fold in raspberries and chips.
6. Fill greased or lined muffin cups two-thirds full.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.
8. Makes 1 dozen.

Chard Tacos

I recieved chard in my bag of vegetables from my CSA this week.  I found this recipe and it was delicious.  I will definitely be making it again.  It's so easy, and as you can see from the directions you can play around with it and make it your own.  It's not important to use exact amounts. 

1-1/2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 large onion diced or sliced (however you prefer)
1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced (you can put more if you want a stronger garlic flavor)
1/2 cup chicken broth (or veggie broth if you are vegetarian)
1 bunch swiss chard, tough stems removed leaves cut crosswise into 1-1/2inch slices
corn tortillas (I prefer white corn tortillas)
cheese, salsa, ranch (whatever taco toppings you like)

1. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Stir in the onion and cook until the onion is soft and golden brown (6-10 minutes depending on the size of your onion pieces).
2. Add the garlic, chard and broth.  Cover and reduce heat to low.  Simmer until chard is almost tender, about 5 minutes.
3. Remove lid and increase heat to medium.  Stir until the liquid evaporates, about another 5 minutes.
4. Warm the tortillas in another skillet until they are warm.  I like the small tortillas.  Fill with chard and taco toppings.

Lemon Brownies

This was a recipe I found on pinterest (http://rita-may-recipes.blogspot.com/2011/08/lemon-brownies.html).

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), soft

2 eggs

1 tablespoon lemon juice (juice from about 1/2 a lemon)

1 teaspoon lemon zest (zest from about 1/2 a lemon)

Glaze:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

additional lemon zest

1. Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a big bowl.
2. Mix in the softened butter.
3. In another bowl mix the eggs with the lemon juice and lemon zest.
4. Add to the flour mixture and mix well.
5. Pour into prepared 8x8 pan.
6. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.
7. Remove and let cool.  Then glaze.
8. To make glaze just stir all the glaze ingredients together.

Chicago Chocolate Cinnamon Cake

This recipe comes from the Ivory Family Favorite's cookbook.  We made it for my mother-on-law's birthday.  It was delicious!  I can't wait to make it again (with pecans in the frosting).

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
1/4 cup cocoa
1 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt

Glaze:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup cocoa
6 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup chopped pecans, optional

• Mix flour and sugar in large bowl.
• Bring 1 cup butter, 1/4 cup cocoa and water to a boil in saucepan.  Pour over flour mixture and mix well.
• Add buttermilk, baking soda, cinnamon, 1 teaspoon vanilla, eggs and salt and mix well.
• Pour into greased and floured 9x13 pan.  Bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
• Bring 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup cocoa, milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla to a boil in saucepan; remove from heat.
• Add powdered sugar gradually, mixing until spreading consistency. 
• Stir in pecan in desired.  Pour over warm cake.
• It is great eaten warm with ice-cream, or cold the next day.

Not Yo' Mama's Pudding

This recipe came from a lady at my church (Vanessa Schaumann) who got it from Paula Deen.  I adjusted the ingredients a little bit and have included the recipe exactly as I made it.  I served it as a nice dessert at a Relief Society activity a few months ago.  It tasted great and was very pretty with all the fruit on top.

1 bag Pepperidge Farm Chessman cookies
2 cups milk
1 (5oz) box instant vanilla pudding
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12oz) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

• Crush the cookies and sprinkle them on the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.  (If you don't want to crush the cookies you can just layer the bottom of the dish with whole cookies)
• In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix.  Blend well using a handheld electric mixer.
• Using another bowl, combinet he cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth.
• Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture.  Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding and stir until well blended.
• Pour the mixture over the cookies.  Refrigerate several hours so the cookies soften a bit.
• When you are ready to serve top the pudding with your choice of berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, etc. - it looks a tastes great if you use a variety).

Pepperoni Rolls

We really like the pepperoni rolls a local restaurant has to offer.  When I saw a smiliar idea floating around on pinterest lately I knew we had to try it.  We made these a few months ago and loved the results.  I didn't really use any one recipe, just looked at the pictures and recipes and made up our own version using our favorite go-to dough.

1 batch of best ever pizza crust (http://tishastips.blogspot.com/search?q=best+pizza)
marinara sauce
shredded cheese (we used mozarella and cheddar this time, but you can use what you have on hand)
mini-pepperoni

1. Make one batch of pizza crust.
2. Roll the dough out thinly on a floured surface.
3. Spread marinara sauce over the top.  Leave a few inches uncovered at once edge of the dough.
4. Sprinkle with cheese.
5. Sprinkle with mini-pepperoni.
6. Roll tightly like you would a cinnamon roll.
7. Cut into slices like you would a cinnamon roll.
8. Place on cookie sheet.
9. Cook at 350 degrees for 15+ minutes (I just checked on them periodically until I though they looked done.  Your's could take you less time or more time depending on the size of your rolls, how much stuff is in the middle and how your oven cooks).
10. Enjoy!

Poppy Seed Bread

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup poppy seed
1-1/4 cups milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg

1. Heat oven to 350. Grease bottom of 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.
2. Mix all ingredients in large bowl. Mix 30 seconds with a spoon. Pour into pan.
3. Bake 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
   
4. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen sides of loaf from pan; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely (about 2 hours). Sprinkle with powdered sugar if you want.