Caramel-Apple Cookies with Pecans

So I was looking for a caramel-apple cookie recipe with chunks of apples and caramels but could not find any, so what is a girl to do? Make one up! I found a basic recipe (I don't remember where anymore) and just adapted it.

ingredients
1 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar (I used light)
2 each eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste (lol I just sprinkled it in)
1 tsp. baking soda
20 caramels, quartered (and don't forget to remove the plastic :p)
1 medium apple ( a heaping cup) finely diced
1 cup chopped pecans
OPTIONAL: 1 Tbsp liquid, in case you need to loosen the batter. I used milk.

directions
1. cream butter and sugar
2. add 1 egg at a time until incorporated, add vanilla
3. add dry ingredients
4. add caramels, apples, and pecans (you may need to do this by hand)

I lined my tray with parchment paper due to the fact that caramel melts and make a gooey-hot mess.

bake at 350ºF for 16 minutes.

ENJOY!

Mudslide Cupcakes

Same recipe I used for the other mixed drink cupcakes. Except I used the TGiFriday's Mudslide mix and added about 8oz of the mix in place of the fruit concentrate

Onion Garlic-y dip, soup thing

This is yesterday's pic todays try came out a little thinner, not much. Since this is very savory I have no measurements

basically sautéed a couple of onions, get them get some nice color. Roasted some garlic until nice and soft and then chopped it into a paste. Once the onions are almost done add in the garlic. season with salt and pepper. One that is all done add some heavy cream and let thicken. Put a giant heaping tablespoon of cream cheese add in hot onions and garlic mixture.

I like eating it Ritz crackers. You can eat how ever you want.

Peach Cobbler

So this weekend we and my family went to Vermont. One of my aunts brought some home grown peaches so we made peach cobbler....with Bisquick.

1 cup (+) Bisquick
1 cup sugar
to taste cinnamon
1 cup milk
7(ish) peaches

cinnamon/sugar mix (topping)


so when I made it I added in a bunch more bisquick to make it a little thicker

bake it at 400ºF for about 30 minutes

and of course you need ice cream with hot peach cobbler!!

Danish Raspberry Cookies

I got the recipe from a web site called Cookie Recipes "Your Source for Cookie Recipes Online" here is the recipe. I only made a couple small changes and that was I did not roll it into a log. I took a small ice cream scoop this is the size I used. I LOVE it! two scoop of it (or 1 2oz) is the perfect cookie, but for these one scoop was perfect!

....and... 1/3 are raspberry, 1/3 are Hershey's Hot Fudge topping and the last 1/2 are caramel. But and flavor that goes well with chocolate would be great!

Oh yes, and I doubled the recipe

[by the way...going clock wise starting at the stop the flavors go: Raspberry, Chocolate, and Caramel]

Biscuits and Gravy

I got the recipe from I got the recipe from A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman (again)

The original recipe was Giant Sweet Cheddar Biscuits (I added in some scallions)

2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1/2 cup shredded medium or sharp cheddar cheese (I used the 4 cheese pre shredded stuff)
{To Taste (or omit) scallions}
1 large egg
2/3 cup, approximately, milk
1 cup generous, 1/2-inch chunks sharp cheddar cheese (since I was using pre shredded and since the diced cheese has more volume I only added in an additional 1/2 cup of shredded, it worked out very well)
Melted, butter for brushing
flour, for dusting

Preheat oven to 425F

in a bowl add flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and blend. Rub in butter. Make well and add in the egg and half the milk and mix. Then slowly add in the other milk until the dough is stiff, you could have some left, if you added too much add in a dusting of flour. Add in the remaining cheese.

Dump onto a floured surface. Roll out until 3/4-inch and cut into rounds with a cutter or glass (you also press into pan an make square and half way threw cooking process score to the size you want.

brush tops with melted butter (the recipe said to add flour but I skipped that)

Bake for 17-22 minutes, mine only took 15 minutes since they were smaller than suggested.

Milk Gravy

(from Paula Deen)

1/4 cup bacon grease

1/4 cup ap flour

1-1/2 cup warmed milk

1/4 teaspoon salt (I added more)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 Tablespoons melted butter

okay so Paula said to make in cast iron skillet....but since I don't have one...my dad made bacon for breakfast to I took the grease.

so what I did was warm the pot and the add the grease and let it warm for a short time more and then add the flour and whisk until smooth and bubbly about 1 minute. Slowly add warm milk and bring to boil. Reduce heat and bring to a low simmer and stir until thickened about 5 minutes, you can add more milk to adjust the thickness. Stir in melted butter (my add) and salt and pepper.

smooth them biscuits and enjoy!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I so did not have enough chocolate chips for I threw in some butterscotch chips and pecans to make up the difference.

I got the recipe from A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman

Tender, Buttery Chocolate Chunk Cookies

yield: 3-4 dozen

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2 large eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoons salt

3 cups chocolate chips (or any other "garnish")

Preheat oven to 350F

In a mixer bowl, cream butter and both sugars until very smooth, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add vanilla and eggs blend well. Fold in flour, baking soda, and salt and mix well about 2 to 3 minutes. Fold in the chocolate chips

Bake for 10-13 minutes for smaller cookies and 14-18 minutes for larger cookies.

I like using ice cream scoops, I have a I think a 3 Tablespoon one I love it!

Madelines!

ingredients

6 each eggs

4 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

2/3 cup milk (divided)

2 t baking powder

12 T butter, melted

2 t vanilla

directions

1. beat egg, sugar, vanilla, and half the milk until think & light yellow

2. combine flour & baking powder, add a little at a time

3. Stir in remaning milk & butter

4. Bake @ 375F for 15 minutes

I added in crushed almonds but I have added in so much more. I even made bigger batched and divide the and stir in flavors to make them different.

very easy to half this recipe! but the only thing is you need a madeleine pan. I have the silicon ones, they on down fall is the brown spots from where it rests on the baking sheet, but they were on sale! These are little babies took a flight with me from North Carolina

Dust with powdered sugar to look nice and cute for a function or eat right out of the oven.

Onion, Rosemary, and Roasted Garlic tartlets

I got a tart book a while back I have made two recipes from it for school, and they were really good. I made one again. The Onion, Rosemary, and Roasted Garlic tartlets. I got it from Tarts Sweet and Savory by Maxine Clark

I made the crust from the same book.

and here are the recipes.

Crust (rich shortcrust pastry dough)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 1/2 Tablespoons butter, cold

1 large egg yolk

1-2 Tablespoons ice cold water

1. Sift flour and salt into a bowl and sift (if you don't sift I won't know :p) then rub in your butter

2. Mix egg yolk with 1 tablespoon ice water add flour and mix with knife (or hands, really your hands rock) You may need to add more water you don't want it too dry.

3. Dump mixture onto floured surface.

4. Knead lightly with your hands until smooth.

5. Form into ball

6. Flatten slightly and wrap in plastic wrap, chill for 30 minutes...(or stick it in the freezer till its chilled, you put it in the freezer keep an eye on it or it will be hard.

Onion and Garlic Filling

6 Tablespoons butter

1 1/4 pound sweet onions (sliced)

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cup heavy cream or creme fraiche (I used heavy cream)

2 sprigs of rosemary (I chopped my rosemary a little)

6 large garlic cloves (I used 8, I would use more I L-O-V-E LOVE garlic

olive oil

4 large egg yolks

nutmeg (to taste)

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary (I left this out, since I did not strain it)

salt & pepper

Kalamata Olives, chopped or rosemary sprigs, to finish

1. bring dough to room temp, preheat oven to 400f

2a. roll out dough thinly on a lightly floured surface, and use to line tart pans (or muffin pans like I did) prick bases and chill (or freeze) for 15 minutes, bake blind.

2b. to bake blind. Line shells with parchment paper or foil. Add in dry beans.

2c. bake for 5 minutes, remove beans and bake for 1-2 minutes. (I skipped the beans and chilling, worked for me.

3. Melt butter in a large sauce pan and add onions, stirring to coat. Add a few tablespoons of water and 1 teaspoon of salt and cover with a lid. Steam very gently for 30 minuted to 1 hour (trying to look to often) until meltingly soft. When onions are cooked, remove the lid (raise the heat a little) and cook for a few minutes to evaporate any excess liquid-the liquid should be quite thick. Let cool.

4. Put the cream and rosemary leaves into a saucepan and heat until almost boiling. Remove from heat and leave [covered] to infuse as long as possible

5. Put garlic cloves into a small sauce pan and just cover with olive oil, simmer over gentle heat for 40 minutes or until golden and soft.

6. Remove the garlic from the oil (you can save it for something, you should keep it refrigerated, and it will separate, so just heat it up and bam! all set). You can strain the cream or not. Poor until a blender, and then add the garlic and egg yolks. I did not have a blender handy to I tried to whisk it...yeah that did not work so well. Add in the extra rosemary, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

7. If using tart pan put on a baking sheet, if not forgo the baking sheet. Spoon the cooled onions evenly into crusts, filling just about half full. Pour the rosemary garlic cream over the top. Bake for 15-20 minutes (depending on the size) or until pale and golden brown on top.

garnish with olives (yuck) or rosemary or even no garnish.

Cupcake Cake

I made it with my recipe that I use the concentrate for. For this one I used Strawberry Breeze mix (it had apple and pineapple mixed in)