Aug25

Smith Fun Night “D” Edition

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Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom at Walt...

Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Smith Fun Night “D” Edition took place on St. Patrick’s Day this year! Woo for holiday parties! Here is what was served. Sorry, my camera was forgotten for this one :-(

Dried Cherry Salad
Deviled Eggs (recipe to be posted)
Do Ahead French Toast (AMAZING!!! Recipe to be posted)
Deep Dish Pizza Casserole
Dumplings (courtesy of Kim)
Dulce de Leche Tarts (courtesy of Kim)
Deluxe Chocolate Chip Cookies
Drunken Fish (adult beverage)

We watched Dodgeball (always a good choice) and played Disney Trivial Pursuit. We actually learned a lot of new info about Disney. By the way, I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am about the expansion at The Magic Kingdom! When I was at Disney in May with my family you could see the construction and the anticipation is building and building! They’ve announced that the grand opening will be December 6. I wish I could go!

Aug12

Pudding Parfaits

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I want to start off by apologizing for my lack of posts this past month. Life has been super busy and packed full of things to do and places to go. I’m hoping to get back on track with more regular posting again and hope that you will continue to read! I enjoy getting comments and feedback and knowing that there are people out there who like my recipes and ideas! :-)

I’d like to post today about one of the most versatile foods…pudding! It doesn’t matter how old you are. I have always loved pudding. My favorite kinds are banana, butterscotch, and oreo. I’m drooling already thinking about pudding haha! The following recipe can be made with any type of pudding, and whatever kind of toppings that you can think of. I made this recipe for St. Patrick’s Day at school and the kids loved it. It’s super easy to make and super yummy!

Pudding Parfait / Leprechaun Pie

2 boxes pudding – flavor of your choosing (for this one I used Oreo pudding)
green food coloring
Lucky Charms cereal
Reddi Whip
green sprinkles
Oreo cookies
chocolate coins
plastic cups

Prepare your plastic cups and drop a golden wrapped chocolate coin on the bottom of each cup.
Prepare pudding as directed on the box.
Add food coloring drop by drop until you get the desired shade of green.
Fill each cup with equal amounts of pudding and put in fridge until set.
When ready to serve, top with a layer of Lucky Charms cereal.

Then continue with Reddi Whip, sprinkles, and an Oreo cookie on top.

Try not to eat all of them…sharing is caring ;-) Woohoo I’m back!!!

Enjoy!

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Jul8

Guinness Cupcakes w/ Chocolate Covered Potato Chips

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For those of you who may be new to following my blog, you may have had the misfortune of missing my recipe for Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with chocolate ganache and Bailey’s buttercream frosting. DEE-LISH-OUS!!! Here is the link so that you can easily get to the recipe because I know that you are craving them RIGHT NOW :-P I am recycling this recipe and updating it for a treat that I recently baked. And when I say recently, I mean a few months ago. My slightly OCD brain MUST post recipes in the order that I bake or cook them. My mind gets too overwhelmed when I try to think of how else I would be able to post my recipes in an organized fashion, rather than chaos. How do you choose which recipes to post and in which order you post them? I pick the best of the bunch and go from there, in chronological order of course.

I found the new inspiration for these delicious cupcakes on CakeSpy. When I baked these new ones, I used the cupcake recipe that was included. In my opinion, the recipe that’s linked to my blog up above is a better recipe for Guinness cupcakes. Hence the reason for including it and suggesting that you use it too! Follow the link above to the recipe for Chocolate Guinness cupcakes. Bake those, and follow these next steps. You won’t be disappointed :-)

After baking the Guinness cupcakes, make the Guinness Glaze and then top them with the chocolate covered potato chips (if you don’t eat them all beforehand that is).

Guinness Glaze

8 oz. cream cheese
1 & 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/3 cup Guinness Draught

Whip the cream cheese until smooth. Sift the sugar into the cream cheese and beat until mixed. Add the Guinness and beat until smooth. Spread on cupcakes with a flat spatula.

Chocolate Covered Potato Chips

1/2 lb milk chocolate chips
4 cups ridged potato chips (I used Lay’s)

Put 3/4 of the chocolate in a heat proof bowl and place over the top of a pan of simmering water (what we call a makeshift double boiler). Heat and stir occasionally until the chocolate starts melting. Keep stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and add the rest of the chocolate chips. Stir until completely melted. Dip the potato chips into the chocolate one at a time, covering about half of each chip. Place chips on baking sheet covered with wax paper and cool in the fridge until chocolate has solidified again. Once cooled, place each chip on top of a cupcake. If you have extra chips, hooray you have a bonus snack!

The sweet and salty combo is actually amazing and EVERYONE was raving about these. Enjoy :-)

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Jul4

Applesauce Spice Cupcakes

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Happy 4th of July!! Today calls for an all American recipe…what could be more perfect than something made with apples! These are really yummy and can be made at any time of year since they don’t require seasonal apples, but applesauce instead!

Applesauce Spice Cupcakes

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce

  • Preheat oven to 350°. Put liners in muffin tins.
  • Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
  • In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugars until fluffy.
  • Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is mixed in.
  • Add applesauce and then the flour mixture, beating until combined.
  • Fill each liner 3/4 full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
  • Transfer tins to wire rack to cool before removing cupcakes.
  • Once cooled, spread tops with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting.

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick unsalted butter
8 oz. cream cheese
1 cup light brown sugar

With an electric mixer on medium high, beat butter, cream cheese, and brown sugar until smooth. Use immediately or refrigerate up to 3 days in an airtight container. (It’s delicious! Enjoy!)

(recipe from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes)

Jun30

Amaretto Brownies

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I am posting this recipe because others really liked it. I’m not a huge Amaretto fan (not a big fan of the taste…makes me think of marzipan!) but I baked these for “A” night and they got good reviews. So if you DO like Amaretto, you will probably like these and they’re super easy to make.

Amaretto Brownies

2/3 cup slivered almonds – toasted (optional)
8 oz. semisweet baking chocolate
1/3 cup butter
1 1/4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp Amaretto
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs

  • Heat oven to 350°. Grease 13x9x2 pan.
  • Put 1/3 cup almonds in a food processor. Cover and process on and off until ground. Chop remaining almonds and set aside (I did not add the slivered almonds to my brownies).
  • Melt chocolate and butter in 3 quart saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat.
  • Stir in remaining almonds, flour, sugar, Amaretto, baking powder, salt, and eggs.
  • Spread batter in the pan and bake 22-27 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
  • Cool completely.
  • Frost with Amaretto Frosting and sprinkle with chopped almonds if desired.
  • Cut as desired.

Amaretto Frosting

2 cups powdered sugar
3 tbsp butter – softened
1 tbsp Amaretto
1 or 2 tbsp milk

  • Mix all ingredients until smooth.
  • Spread evenly over brownies.

Enjoy :-)

(recipe from Betty Crocker Cookie Cookbook)

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Jun23

Kielbasa & Apple Pasta Bake

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English: Two Fuji apples. In 1992, Washington ...

Two Fuji apples (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve made this a few times now and each time we eat it we remember how much we love it! We last made it for one of our Smith nights and our guests liked it as well. You’d be surprised how yummy the kielbasa/apple/cheddar combo tastes!

Kielbasa & Apple Pasta Bake

1 lb. rigatoni pasta
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion – sliced
1/4 cup flour
4 cups milk
3 cups shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 tsp hot pepper sauce
1 tsp salt
14 oz. cooked kielbasa – sliced into 1/4 inch thick rounds
3 Fuji apples – cored and cut into 1/2 inch chunks

  • Heat oven to 350°. Coat a 10 cup baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
  • In a large pot of lightly salted boiling water, cook the pasta until tender according to package directions. Drain.
  • In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onion and cook 5-7 minutes until softened.
  • Stir in the flour and cook for a minute more.
  • Gradually whisk in the milk. Bring to a boil, stirring continuously. Boil for about 1 minute or until thickened. Remove from heat.
  • Set aside 1 cup cheese for later. Stir in the remaining 2 cups cheese, hot pepper sauce, and salt into the milk mixture until smooth (the sauce mixture will look kind of gross, but trust me, it tastes delicious!).
  • In the pasta pot, toss pasta, cheese sauce, kielbasa, and apples. Spoon into the baking dish. Cover with foil.
  • Bake, covered, at 350°, for 30 minutes. Uncover. Stir pasta mixture. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake about 10 minutes more until cheese is melted. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Is your mouth watering yet? Enjoy! :-)

(recipe from Family Circle Cookbook)

Jun17

After School Dip

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English: A stack of Nabisco Graham Crackers.

English: A stack of Nabisco Graham Crackers. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve made this dip a few times now and each time that it’s served, people rave about it! It’s so simple to make and you can dip a variety of items in it. I usually serve it with apple slices and graham crackers. You could also use ginger cookies, ‘nilla wafers, or other fruits!

After School Dip

8 oz. package cream cheese
1 tbsp milk
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup raisins (optional – I leave these out as I’m not a big raisin fan)

  • Using a food processor or blender, combine cream cheese and milk. Do not overbeat.
  • Add brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice. Mix until blended.
  • If you’re adding raisins, transfer mixture to a bowl and then add the raisins.
  • Serve with your choice of dippers and enjoy :-)

(recipe courtesy of Family Circle Cookbook)

Jun16

Smith Fun Night “A” Edition

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This was our end of February party. The food was really good and the company was even better :-)

Here is what we served:

After School Dip
Angel Wings
Artichoke & Spinach Dip (courtesy of Tastefully Simple)
Avocado Onion Salad (courtesy of Kim P.)
Avocado Dip (courtesy of Danielle)
Asian Lettuce Wraps (courtesy of Kim P.)
Apple & Keilbasa Pasta Bake
Amaretto Brownies
Applesauce Spice Cupcakes 
Apple Crisp (courtesy of Amanda and Chris)
Apple Spice Cookies (courtesy of Kim L.)
Appletinis

I will be posting many of the above recipes as there are too many good ones!

We played Apples to Apples and watched Anchorman and Aladdin. It was a great night with great friends :-)

Jun9

Half & Half Cupcakes

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Sorry for the lack of posts lately! Work has been super busy as my school is going through re-accreditation and we recently had a family vacation to Florida (at least that part was fun!). But now I’m back and can get back on track! :-)

This is a super easy recipe that I found on pinterest. The options are endless and you can mix and match so many different types of brownie or cake mixes! I chose to try the combo in the recipe; brownie batter topped with strawberry cake. It was yummy, but not as delicious as I had expected. I will use a different flavor combo next time that I want to bake “half & half cupcakes” as I have dubbed them ;-)

Half & Half Cupcakes

2 different boxes of baking mixes (for this one I used 1 box brownie mix and 1 box strawberry cake mix)

Preheat oven to 350°.
Mix each box separately and add the required ingredients.
If you’re using brownie batter, add this to your cupcake liners first. Fill about 1/3 full.
Spoon the cake batter over the brownie batter (or other cake batter), filling about 2/3 full.
Bake until tops are golden brown, about 20 minutes.

I brought them to school for Valentine’s Day…the girls and I called them Pinkalicious Cupcakes! Enjoy - and if you decide to bake these, please leave a comment on which flavors/types of mix you used! :-)

May22

Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

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English: Rolled oats Español: Copos de avena

English: Rolled oats (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I made these for a Superbowl party this year and they were a huge hit! The original recipe called for cranberries, but I only had cherries on hand. I think that’s an even swap!

Cherry Oatmeal Cookies
(makes about 3 dozen)

1/2 cup butter – melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp canola oil
1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups oats
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup dried cherries (or cranberries)

Beat butter and sugars in a large bowl.
Add eggs, oil, and vanilla and mix well.
Combine oats, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.
Gradually add to the egg mixture.
Stir in the cherries.
Drop by tablespoon 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool for 2 minutes and then remove to wire rack to finish cooling.

Enjoy :-)

(And yes, I apologize for the lack of photos lately. Most of my future recipes have photos to go along with them. I’m hoping to get a nice camera at some point to work on my photography skills!)

(adapted from the Taste of Home Cookies cookbook)