Recipes by Amanda's Cookin

Thanksgiving Cookies

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:23:00 +0000

Sorry I don't have a post ready for these. I will have these to you next week. I'm afraid I have a boatload of crafts to do today, so food blogging will just have to wait. *pout* Below is a preview of the cookies I made last night, will post them sometime next week! If you haven't already, stop by my craft blog! I'm always making something :) If you like what you see, become a follower or subscribe to see what I'm up to! There's also a link to my Facebook fan page there, and there's one here for Amanda's Cookin' fan page (look on the right side bar). (If you are reading this in email or a reader, click here to go to Amanda's Cookin' , then look on the right.) Also, wish us luck! Tomorrow is the Super Bowl game for my son's football team! They won the division championship...

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Stir Fried Spicy Beef

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:00:00 +0000

I love stir fry. This particular dish is one of our absolute favorites. You can add other vegetables to it if you like, but the simplicity of it is what I like best. The beef takes center stage in this dish. Remember when you stir fry it's a super fast process. To stir fry successfully you must have all of your ingredients measured out ahead of time and at the ready. There is literally no time in between steps to chop, slice, or measure. This recipe comes from a You Tube video series called Cooking with Kai. There are no written instructions with his series, you just have to take notes, though he does give you measurements. I've written it out for you. :) I use bottom sirloin for this and all stir fries. Sliced thin against the grain it works perfectly. You can also use flank...

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Football Jersey Cookies, Royal Icing & Division Champs

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:16:00 +0000

I've mentioned recently that two of my boys play football. One of them (Dominic, 10 years) is done for the season, so the coaches hosted an end of season party for the team. I decided to make football jersey shaped cookies, and to go a bit further, thought I would finally try my hand at decorating with Royal Icing. My other football son (T.J., 12 years) is still playing. In fact, as I type this (which won't be when this posts by the way) he is at practice. See T.J.'s team won their playoff game over the weekend, giving them the title of Division Champs! Go Bulldogs! WOOT! The "Super Bowl" game will be played this weekend and we can't wait! Totally psyched! Since I was making cookies for Dominic's team, I doubled up the batch and made them for T.J.'s team too. It worked out...

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TWD: Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:00:00 +0000

Tuesdays with Dorie is a little all over the place for November. :) You see, for this month, due to the craziness of the holidays, our gracious blog event host is allowing us to pick from all four of this month's picks and make them on any Tuesday of the month. Last week I made the amazing All In One Holiday Bundt which I will definitely be making again for Thanksgiving. :) This week I made the Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies which was chosen by Pamela of Cookies with Boys. You can find the recipe on her blog or on pages 76 and 77 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours. I had been meaning to make these for several days. It's been a bit crazy here this past week. My 10 year old son had the flu, though thankfully that is over with. Our 12 year old son was in the...

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Chocolate Brownie Bars

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:25:00 +0000

I'm not sure why, but this recipe is named Chocolate Bar Cookies. I've renamed it Chocolate Brownie Bars because this is a brownie in every sense of the word, and a rich and delicious one at that! Everyone gobbled these up, it's good I got my camera out before the kids came home from school! You could probably just make one 13x9 pan of these, but the instructions said to use 2 8x8 square pans. I wanted to make sure I did the recipe right, so I followed as closely as I could. I only own one 8x8 pan, so I used a 9" cake pan for the other. I did not add the nuts, instead I stirred in extra chopped chocolate, probably why they were so rich! You could probably substitute the shortening with unsalted butter, but I made them with the shortening. These are dense and chocolatey, and the...

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Amanda's Espresso Chocolate Pie

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:20:00 +0000

This is a very fun post for me. :) I have a ton of recipe print outs, bookmarks, cookbooks and magazines. The other day I picked a few different pies and cakes and asked my daughter to pick which one I should make. She chose a recipe from an old Taste of Home magazine called Cappuccino Chocolate Pie. Well, that particular recipe used chocolate chips, corn syrup, a packaged graham cracker crust, Cool Whip and two boxes in vanilla pudding. While I'm sure it would have been tasty, I opted to revamp this recipe and make it my own by using more ingredients from scratch. I'm branching out more and more now, making recipes my own, and like with my Chocolate Dappled Pumpkin Cake, I changed the original recipe so much that this pie is a whole new recipe of its own now. My first challenge...

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Garlic-Marinated Chicken Cutlets with Grilled Potatoes

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:30:00 +0000

I somehow ended up on Martha's site the other day looking for recipes on the grill. Yes, yes, I know it's fall people, but I love my grill and use it whenever I can, even in the snow! I printed off oodles and oodles of different recipes, but settled on this mouth watering marinated chicken as my first pick. I am so very glad that I did! Not only did I savour every morsel at dinner that night, I had it for lunch the next two days and used the rest to make a chicken salad. This marinade is so simple it's almost embarrassing. With only four ingredients this marinate gives the chicken an amazing flavor that you will absolutely love. I will admit though, after cooking from Julia Child's book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I've learned a few things. One of those lessons include...

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TWD: All in One Holiday Bundt Cake

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:00:00 +0000

This month the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group is a bit more flexible than usual. Normally we all post the same thing as each other each week. However, because of the Thanksgiving holiday, the recipe schedule is a bit more flexible and we were allowed to choose from each of November's recipes this week. I chose the All in One Holiday Bundt Cake, which was chosen in the rotation by Britin of The Nitty Britty. You can find it on pages 186 and 187 of Baking From My Home to Yours or on Britin's blog . First off, I WILL make this cake again. It's delicious and moist and absolutely perfect for the holidays. I will be traveling for Thanksgiving and think I will bake this the day before we leave and ice it when we get there. It's fabulous and I am so glad it was chosen! It's full of...

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Savory Beef Brisket - It's Brisket Revisited

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:06:00 +0000

Almost two weeks ago I posted my favorite brisket recipe. In that post I stated my fear of trying new brisket recipes. I mean really, if ain't broke, why fix it, right? That day, my food blogging friend and TWD baking bud, Megan of My Baking Adventures, posted a comment that struck my interest. She said "I have a go-to brisket recipe that I've made so many times I have it memorized. I know I should branch out and try something new.... but.... I can't! I stick with the same one because it always works and everyone loves it." Me too! So it seemed that Megan and I had the same problem. We were chicken. So I wrote to her and asked if she'd be up for a challenge that would take both her and I out of our comfort zone. We decided to each try a different recipe for brisket and report our...

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We're on Facebook - become a fan!

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:57:00 +0000

I'm trying my hardest to stay in this century, so I've gone ahead and taken the plunge and created a fan page on Facebook for this blog. Would you be my pal and become a fan? Pretty please?? ;0) Click here for the Amanda's Cookin' Fan Page on Facebook

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Apple Cider Pound Cake with Caramel Glaze

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:38:00 +0000

I've made this Apple Cider Pound Cake twice already. That's a total of 4 pound cakes. Originally when I made this I cooked the caramel too long, even though I followed the instructions, so my adapted instructions below reflect that. Funny thing is, the caramel on the original batch looked ok, but after spreading it on, it hardened and I ended up peeling it off in one big sheet. I then made the caramel again and was successful, though the pictures were less than satisfying, so I made it again. This time we ate one (with much satisfaction I might add) and gave the other one to my neighbor. She said it disappeared the first day and that one of her teen boys had actually stashed 3 pieces so he could have them the next day! Ha ha ha, I'd say that was a success. He has already requested that...

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Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting & Chocolate Peanut Butter Topping

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:52:00 +0000

Today I am going to make you drool. It's only fair, because when I found this cake on Smitten Kitchen, my drooling reflex jumped into action totally against my will. As my British dad would say, I was losing my gravy. ;) So what else could I do but head into the kitchen and make this incredibly rich, fantastically delectable, never enough adjectives, the neighbors can't have any, cake. I'm serious. The neighbors never saw this. To be fair though, I did give them mini cakes. :) See this recipe is for a triple layer cake that calls for 3 round cake pans. I only have two, so instead of baking two, cooling them, then washing a pan and baking another, I baked the rest of the batter in a cupcake/muffin pan. I turned them upside down and frosted them, then topped them with the chocolate...

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TWD: Cherry Fudge Brownie Torte tweaked

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:07:00 +0000

This week's recipe is available online from our gracious host, April of Short + Rose. If you own the book, Baking From My Home to Yours, you can turn to pages 284 and 285 to get the recipe instructions. This dreamy torte originally called for dried sour cherries, Kirsch, and cherry jam. I had none of the above, so I substituted the following: dried strawberries, I used a scant cup instead of a full cup as I was concerned about the sweetness compared to sour cherries grenadine, no alcohol in this as it's a simple syrup made from pomegranates, so no flambe for me. red raspberry preserves, this was the closest I had to cherry jam. I also chose to mix semi sweet and bitter sweet chocolate, though the recipe indicates you can use either one. I had 3 ounces of bittersweet and...

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Apple Cider Milkshake

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:35:00 +0000

About a mile from my house is a wonderful apple orchard. There you can pick your own apples and pumpkins or buy them directly from their "barn" shop. You can watch them make apple cider too, which was always a huge hit with my kids when they were small. They sell apple cider by the half gallon and the gallon and my kids adore it. They also offer a seasonal treat - apple cider shakes. I asked them what was in it and they said soft serve vanilla ice cream, apple cider and cinnamon. Well heck, not to take any glory away from them or anything, but I can do that! As I type I can hear my daughter slurping the last of the shake you see in the picture. She's an apple cider shake fanatic. :) These are fantabulous (um, that's a word? Blogger didn't correct it LOL) and you really must try...

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Chocolate Zucchini Bread

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:33:00 +0000

At the end of summer, when zucchinis were in abundance, I made several different zucchini breads and cakes. This one from Our Best Bites is moist and chocolatey and every bit of fabulous. I made this twice before freezing the rest of my shredded zucchini. I plan to make some later this winter to remind me of the warms days long gone. :) The only deviation I made from this recipe was that I did not use the topping. Not because I didn't want to, but because I somehow forgot that step. :-/ Incidentally, this tastes more like cake than a quick bread, so enjoy! Chocolate Zucchini Bread Recipe by Our Best Bites 2 C flour 2 t cinnamon 1/2 t salt 1 1/2 t baking soda 6 T unsweetened cocoa powder 1/2 C canola oil 1 C sugar 1/4 C brown sugar 3 eggs 2 t vanilla 1/2 C sour...

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Beef Brisket in Tomato Onion Gravy

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:03:00 +0000

I buy beef by the side. In that side of beef I get 2 briskets (it's actually one large brisket, I have them cut it in two) and 1 flank steak, two of my favorite cuts. Because I only get a limited number of these cuts, I'm pretty picky about how I prepare them. In my recipe binder I probably have 20 different recipes for preparing brisket, all of which I have yet to try. I have several brisket recipes bookmarked as well, haven't tried any of those either. I don't own a smoker, and liquid smoke is just cheating, so I have yet to prepare smoked brisket (yes, yes, I know, it's fabulous, I must try it! I will, I promise, just not today). So every time I pull a precious brisket of beef from my freezer, I carefully thumb through my recipe binder trying to decide which one to try. But I'm...

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Mississippi Mud Cookies

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:55:00 +0000

Chocolate. Cookies. Marshmallows. More chocolate. Need I say more?? I've seem these cookies on several blogs over the past several months, but the first one I saw them on was my friend Megan's. It's funny about Megan. I remember the first comment she left on my blog. I don't remember what post, I just remember her saying she liked the name of my blog. I clicked over to hers and low and behold, it's called Megan's Cookin'. Hee hee! So today, Megan's Cookin' is melding with Amanda's Cookin' to bring you these satisfy-your-chocolate-craving Mississippi Mud Cookies. By the way, I find myself spelling out Mississippi in my head whenever I type that. In fact, I don't think I can type that word without spelling it out just like we did in elementary school! (yeah yeah, who cares Amanda, move...

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TWD: Sweet Potato Biscuits

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0000

One of my favorite bloggers is this week's host for Tuesdays with Dorie. Erin of Prudence Pennywise selected Sweet Potato Biscuits, which can be found on page 26 of Baking From My Home to Yours, or on Erin's blog this week. These biscuits whip up in no time, but you really have to be extra gentle with the dough or you'll get no rise on the biscuits. They include a 29 ounce can of drained sweet potatoes in light syrup, mashed with a fork. It really adds a nice taste, especially since I am not much of a biscuit fan. My dough was 1/2" tall before baking and almost 1" after baking, yet they still looked flat. LOL They were good, I let them cool all the way and served them at dinner with butter and honey. Good combo. :) Hubby liked them plain even. May try these again at...

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The best cake I can't remember how to make

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:24:00 +0000

Yep. I made this cake many months ago. I've been saving the pictures in hopes that I would have some miraculous dream that would magically make me remember everything I did when I made this. But alas, no such thing has happened and so this recipe has been lost and goes down in history as the tastiest cake I ever made that I can't remember. :-p Agghh! Don't be like me. Make sure that you keep notes when in the kitchen. It's always fun to make changes to a recipe and make it your own. I remembered to do that with my 4 Layer Chocolate Dappled Pumpkin Cake, but not with this one. It was so good too. I cheated and used an orange boxed cake mix, but then I filled it with a mascarpone filling and some blackberry jam with chopped chocolate and a ganache topping, but I didn't take any...

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Corn and Red Pepper Chowder recipe

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:57:00 +0000

This meatless soup, made with fresh or frozen corn, is a perfect warm up for a cold day. When I visited the local farmer over the summer, he gave me quite a few ears of fresh sweet corn. I blanched quite a bit of it and froze it, some in earns and others I cut off the ears for bagged corn. One of the batches had rather small kernels, so they were perfect for this soup! I stuck pretty close to the recipe on this, my only changes were that I used my homemade chicken broth, a handful of roasted red bell pepper from a jar, and whole milk instead of whipping cream. Even the finicky husband enjoyed this one. Corn and Red Pepper Chowder adapted from Epicurious 4 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels (thawed if frozen), divided 2 cups low-salt chicken broth, divided 3 tablespoons...

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Chipotle Chicken Recipe

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:27:00 +0000

I'm a chicken person. I'm also a chicken person that likes her barbecue grill, warm weather, cold weather, doesn't matter. Hubby isn't real hip on chicken, unless it's slathered in barbecue sauce. This particular recipe is great marinated then grilled, but it's also a great candidate for slopping on some barbecue sauce for persnickety husbands. See? Everybody wins. :) I found this recipe on the FamilyCorner message boards. You can see the original recipe by visiting the link, while I didn't change any ingredients, I did adapt the instructions for better results. TIP : Also, here's a tip for storing the rest of the chipotle peppers from that can you opened. Leaving them in the can will cause them to taste tinny and bacteria can form. Pouring them into a container blobs them all...

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TWD - Allspice Crumb Muffins

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:50:00 +0000

I'm late for Tuesdays with Dorie. It's inevitable this week. I am crazy swamped with work, but needed a break, so I went into the kitchen and flipped open Baking From My Home to Yours to pages 16-17. This week's host and holder of the recipe, Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table chose Allspice Crumb Muffins. It's a good thing there was a picture of these in the book, otherwise I would have considered these a failure. You see, the tops rise up and almost collapse, giving them a rustic flat top full of tasty streusel. I haven't tasted one yet, they are still cooling, but they look and smell fabulous! If you would like the recipe (it's really easy!!) click on the link above to visit Kayte's blog.

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Ducks - but it's not a recipe, read on...

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:38:00 +0000

It's not what you think. In fact, I've never even tried roast duck or any other kind of duck on a plate. No, this post is very out of the ordinary for me. This is such a great tale of survival, beating the odds, and natural instinct, that I had to bring it to you. A friend and coworker of mine writes a blog called My Muscovy Ducks Tale. It's the true life story about an ill fated nest of duck eggs without a mama. Animal control told her, even though they would be ready to hatch any day, that the humane thing to do was put the eggs in the freezer then dispose of them. Experts told her they couldn't survive or learn to swim without their mama. But Jodi is proving them all wrong. She not only hatched these adorable little babies, they are on their way to learning how to swim too! Some...

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Caramel Chocolate Nut Ice Cream

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:46:00 +0000

I love ice cream. Hubby loves ice cream. Kids love ice cream. Hmm, sensing a pattern here? When I see an ice cream recipe I almost always save it. When I found this one, I wasn't actually looking for an ice cream recipe, but there it was in all of its gloriousness. By the way, I wasn't really sure if "gloriousness" was a word, but there's no red dotted line under it in my blogger editor, so I guess it's a winner. ;) I've mentioned before that I give my library card a pretty good workout. One day while browsing through the cookbook section, I came upon Ina Garten's book Barefoot Contessa Parties. I've already made some cookies from this book, and have several other pages earmarked. The food stylist in this book really knows their stuff, they had me drooling all over the pages. This...

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Black and White Cookies

amanda@amandascookin.com (Amanda) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:49:00 +0000

I first saw these black and white cookies on the King Arthur Flour blog, Baker's Banter, however, the recipe I used for these I found on Alicia's Recipes. I did use a technique from Baker's Banter, and that was to flatten the cookie dough a bit with the bottom of a wet measuring cup. Great tip! These were pretty good cookies, but I didn't have lemon extract, so I'm sure that took away from the original deli flavor these treats are supposed to have. Also, the glaze on Alicia's is pretty different from the one on Baker's Banter, but still good. Would I make these again? Maybe for a birthday party or something, but not for cookies just to have around the house. They were good and all, but the frosting part takes some time and because it's pretty sugary, it's not the type of cookie...

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