Baked French Toast

As you have probably noticed I have been MIA from my blog.  My life has been a little crazy lately So needless to say I have been pretty tied by the end of the day.  I do have some recipes to share with you so for awhile I might just be posting pictures and recipes.  If I get time I will tell you a little about what is going on.

Last week I did take Friday off and traveled to Portsmouth to spend the night with Cally in her apartment before the end of school hits this week.  Cally will be home for the summer and again working at the Mini Market/Deli/Gardens.  She mostly works in the greenhouse when she is home over the summer.

I had Billy home for a bit at the beginning of the month.  He needed to be taken care of after having ACL surgery.  He had a snowboarding accident in NY this past winter.  While I enjoyed having him here with me I wish he did not have to go through the surgery.  It was pretty rough.

We had a wonderful Easter at our house.  Bill's mom and dad came home from Florida the week before Easter and we had them over for Easter Dinner.  Cally did an excellent job setting the table and doing the centerpieces!

Baked French Toast

12 pieces of Texas Toast
1/4 C butter
4 eggs
2/3 c half and half (or milk)
1/3 C sugar
1 t cinnamon
1 t vanilla

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  While oven is heating up place the butter on a cookie sheet with sides and place in oven so it will melt.

Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle over the cookie sheet with melted butter.

In a bowl mix the eggs, half and half, and vanilla.

Dip the bread in the mixture soaking well.

Place bread in pan.  I mix up more cinnamon sugar and sprinkle over the top side of the toast.  That way it has cinnamon sugar on both side when it is done but you do not have to add the extra cinnamon sugar if you do not want to.

Bake 10 to 15 minutes

Limoncello Chiffon Pudding Cakes

For the Lemon Liquor Spiked Recipe Challenge I decided to make Limoncello Chiffon Pudding Cakes.  The cakes were really moist and the warm gooey lemon pudding surprise in the bottom of the dish was heavenly.

Thanks to Carrie from Frugal Foodie Mama and Julie from This Gal Cooks for hosting the awesome Spiked Recipe Challenge!!  Be sure to visit their blogs to see all the other amazing Lemon Liquor Submissions.

Limoncello Chiffon Pudding Cakes
adapted from: Southernfood.about.com

4 eggs, separated
1/3 C Lemon Liquor
1/2 t Lemon extract
1 T melted butter
1 1/2 C sugar
1/2 C flour
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 C half and half
whipped cream or whipped topping to garnish

In medium mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks until light and fluffy.  Beat in lemon liquor, lemon extract and melted butter.  In another bowl combine sugar, flour and salt.  Add to lemon mixture, alternating with the half and half, beating well after each addition.  The batter will be thin.  Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, fold into the batter. Divided between 6 buttered ramekin dishes.  Set ramekins into a pan (I used baking sheet with sides) and place about 1 inch of hot water into the pan. place in a 350 degree oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.  Allow to slightly cool.  Serve warm with whipped cream.

Changes made from original recipe: Lemon Liquor (in place of Lemon Juice), Lemon Extract (in place of Lemon Peel) , half and half (in place of milk). I baked mine in 6 ramekins (in place of 1 1/2 quart baking dish), Also changed the recipe name from Lemon Pudding Cake to Limoncello Chiffon Pudding Cakes.

Chocolate Peanut Pie

Chocolate Peanut Pie was the pie I made for the Church Pie Auction.  The pie filling was really creamy and super rich.  My awesome Hubby was the highest bidder for my pie.

Cally made a Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Pie.  Her recipe was adapted from Monica's recipe on Lick the Bowl Good.  Cally used a graham cracker crust, only made the peanut butter Mousse filling, topping the peanut butter mousse with the Chocolate glaze and a ring of whipping cream around the edge.  For the recipe click here Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Pie

Cally's pie brought highest bid in the pie auction at Church last night.  It looked awesome!

Chocolate Peanut Pie
adapted from Taste of Home

CRUST:
1-1/4 cup chocolate cookie crumbs (20 cookies)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
FILLING:
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped
TOPPING:
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 C powdered sugar

In a small bowl, combine cookie crumbs and sugar; stir in butter. Press onto the bottom and up the sides of a 9-in. pie plate. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

For filling, beat the cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar, butter and vanilla in a large bowl until smooth. Fold in whipped cream. Gently spoon into crust.

For the topping: Beat the whipping cream until soft peaks form then add the powdered sugar and beat until well set.  If desired you can pipe the whipping cream on top of the pie for the flowered look that I have or you can just spread it out over the top of the pie.

Store in refrigerator. Yield: 8-10 servings.

Coconut Lime Vanilla Wafers

Yum

Billy and Cally came home for the weekend.  They only got to stay 1 night because of this storm that the weathermen seemed to blow out of proportion again.  Billy and Cally went up to Columbus last night because Cally had to catch a flight to Florida today and we were afraid with the ice they were predicting that it might be tough getting her there.  As it ends up we could have taken her because as of right now the weathermen were not right on what they were predicting.  They are still saying we are to get a lot of snow overnight but I am not holding my breath on this one.

I made these cookies so Billy would have some goodies to take home with him.  The coconut lime flavor is really tasty 

Coconut Lime Vanilla Wafers

1/2 C butter, softened

1 C white sugar

1 egg

1 Tbps lime juice

1 tsp coconut extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 C flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

sanding sugar for dipping before baking

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg, vanilla, lime juice and coconut extract.  Combine the flour, baking powder and salt then add dry ingredients into the cookie mixture.

Drop by teaspoons fulls onto ungreased (I used cookie sheets covered with parchment paper) about 2 inches apart.

Bake until edges of cookies are golden brown 12 to 15 minutes.

Banana Foster Pie for the Cook Book Club

I have joined Pass the Cook Book Club on Facebook.  Each month we are given a few recipes to choose from.  We then make the recipe of our choice.  This month I chose the Banana Foster Pie.  This recipe comes from the cook book Cooking up a Storm .  This collection of recipes was gathered by  The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.  The recipes were submitted by the residents of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  The newspaper complied 250 authentic New Orleans  recipes along with the stories of how they became to be made.

The Banana Foster Pie starts out with a simple ice cream pie.  I did make my own graham cracker crust but you can always us a store bought crust if you are in a hurry.  I used Butter Pecan Ice Cream for mine.  To make the pie, let the ice cream soften a little then spoon it into the graham cracker pie crust smoothing it out as you go.  Place the pie in the freezer for at least 3 hours or until ready to use.  After that all you need to do is make the YUMMY banana foster sauce.  This sauce is amazing.  I have never had Banana Foster before. I did only use 1 banana in mine so that I would have more runny sauce than just coated bananas.  This is a recipe that I will definitely make again!

Banana Foster Pie

2 quarts vanilla, almond praline or butter pecan ice cream, softened
1 9" graham cracker crust
4 T butter
1/2 C packed brown sugar
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 C dark rum
6 medium bananas peeled and cut into slices

Spread the softened ice cream evenly over the graham cracker crust and freeze until firm 3 to 4 hours

Just before serving, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Stir in the brown sugar, cinnamon and rum,  add the bananas and heat through.

To serve, cut the pie into wedges and spoon equal portions of the banana mixture over each

Here is what other club members made:

No Bake Granola M & M Cookies

No Bake Granola M & M Cookies

3 Tablespoon butter
1/2 Cup brown sugar
1/4 Cup honey
1/4 Cup peanut butter
2 Cup Granola
1 Cup rice Krispies cereal
6 large marshmallows
1/2 Cup M & M baking chips
1/2 Cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon olive oil

On stove melt together butter, brown sugar and honey until melted.  Add peanut butter and marshmallows and keep stirring until all is melted and smooth.  Take off stove and add the granola and rice krispies.  Stir until all combined.  Put into a 9 x 13 pan and smooth out.  Take the M & M chips and sprinkle over the cookies pressing down a little to get them to stick.

Put the semi sweet chocolate chips and olive oil in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave on high for 20 seconds stir and microwave for another 20 seconds until all chocolate is smooth and melted.  Drizzle over cookies.  You can cut your cookies in any size you would like.

Chocolate Liquor Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting

Here is my entry in the Spiked Recipe Challenge.  I have made a Chocolate Liquor Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting.  The cake has a nice chocolate taste and paired with the Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting is delicious!  But of course Chocolate and Peanut Butter were made to go together.

Be sure to visit Frugal Foodie Mama and This Gal Cooks to see all the other fantastic entries.

My choice of Chocolate Liquor was Godiva Chocolate Liqueur

 Instead of greasing and flouring my pans, I greased and cocoa-ed them

Chocolate Liquor Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting

cake:

3/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 C hot coffee

1/2 C Chocolate Liqueur

1/2 C butter, room temperature

2 C sugar

2 eggs

2 t vanilla extract

1/2 t salt

1 1/2 t baking soda

1 C sour milk (1 cup milk with 1 T white vinegar added)

2 C flour

Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting

1 package Dream Whip

1/2 C milk

1/2 C peanut butter

2 t vanilla extract

2 C butter

5 C powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and cocoa two 8 inch round pans

In a small bowl, mix together the cocoa, hot coffee and chocolate liqueur, set aside

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs, vanilla and salt.

Make the sour milk by using 1 C of milk and adding 1 T white vinegar and let it curdle a little bit.  After about 5 minutes add the baking soda to the sour milk.

Sift the flour and alternate mixing the flour and sour milk into the batter.  Once combined beat in the cocoa mixture until it is well blended

Pour batter evenly between pans and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.  Cool completely on cooking racks before icing cakes.

For the frosting: Beat the Dream whip, milk, peanut butter and vanilla extract until thickened (about 3 minutes) Add the shortening and mix until fluffy.  Add the powdered sugar a cup at a time until desired consistency.  I used 5 C of powdered sugar for my icing.

To make the fancy flowers on top of the cake I used Wilton Icing Tip 1M.  I just made swirls with the icing making little flowers all over the top.  I straight iced the edges and then piped little balls around the bottom.