Cherry Cheese Tarts

Cherry Cheese Tarts

3 - 8oz cream cheese blocks, softened

5 eggs

1 cup of sugar

1.5 teaspoons of vanilla

sour cream

pie filling cherries (or blueberries)

Preheat oven to 325.

Line cupcake tins (makes 24)

Mix together the softened cream cheese, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

Pour batter into cupcake tins.

Bake for 40 minutes.

Remove from oven and top each cheese tart with a dollop of sour cream and cherries.

Return to oven and bake for 5 minutes.

Remove from oven, allow to cool, refrigerate until ready to eat. (best served cold)

Oatmeal Unleavened Bread

We're celebrating the biblical Feast of the Days of Unleavened Bread this week.  As a kid, we always ate the store bought matzos during this festival.  We ate them and we loved them.  I mean, we really loved that stuff and looked forward to eating it (not enough to eat it any other time of the year, but during that week, we devoured many boxes of the giant crackers).  My husband's family also ate the store bought cardboard like matzos, but he was never thrilled about them.  His mom made it tolerable to him by topping them with butter, cinnamon and sugar and baking them for a minute or so, but he never really liked them.  When he was a young teenager, his cousin introduced his mom to this recipe.  From then on, he loved and looked forward to eating unleavened bread.  He loves this stuff the way I used to love matzos.  I admit, since I have eaten this bread, I no longer love the store bought stuff, but we do buy a box or two every year.  I still like it (not love it anymore) and Arin prefers the store bought over the homemade.  Ella loves them both!

Oatmeal Unleavened Bread
1/2 c water
1/2 c butter
1/3 c honey (can use less, but we like ours a little sweet)
2 c old fashioned oats
1 & 1/3 c flour (or possibly a little more)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bring the water to a boil.  Turn heat off.  Add butter to the water.  Stir to melt the butter.  Add the honey and stir.  In a separate bowl, mix together the oats and flour.  Add the honey/butter/water mixture to the flour/oat mix.  Stir to form a dough.  It'll be a little "wet" but not so wet that you can't roll it out.  Flour the counter, roll the dough out to about 1/4" thickness.  I work in batches.  Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough.  Place the cut dough pieces on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes.

Strawberry Soup

When I was a kid, my mom would make Strawberry Soup on special occassions, like Sabbath brunch.  I love Strawberry Soup!  I hadn't had Strawberry Soup for years, until the girls and I came back here for a visit. We've been here almost two weeks now and my mom has spoiled me with this special treat several times already.  Arin likes it ok, but Ella cannot get enough of it.  She loves it as much as her mama does!

Cold Strawberry Soup
makes 6 servings

Strawberries (fresh) 1 pint (or a little more)
Sour cream 1 cup
Milk 1/2 cup
Ginger Ale 1/2 cup
Sugar 3 oz.
Vanilla 1 tsp.
Lemon Juice 1 TBS.

Combine all ingredients except ginger ale in blender; blend until smooth. Add ginger ale.  Blend quickly (quick swirl)  Chill; Serve in frozen bowls or cups (my mom always serves it in champagne glasses) Garnish with strawberry slices (optional)

Jam Thumbprint Cookies

We worked on the letter Jj a few weeks ago, but at the time, we did not do our "More Blessed to Give Than Receive" Lesson.  We have family members whose names start with the letter J and we wanted to make them a special treat, but at the time, I could not think of something to make for them.  Yesterday, I saw this post for Jam Thumbprint Cookies.  The recipe looked simple, which I knew would be perfect to use when working with the kids in the kitchen.

While Ella napped, Arin and I made these cookies for Aunt Jessica.  They were so good that we also made a second batch to have here!

Oatmeal Thumbprint Cookies with Jam


1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
1 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup quick oats
jam (we used strawberry All Fruit)

Preheat the oven to 350°. In the bowl of a food processor (we don't have a large food processor, so we used a mixer and it worked just fine), combine butter and brown sugar. Pulse until blended. Add vanilla and egg yolk. Blend until smooth. Add flour, salt, and quick oats. Pulse until blended.

Roll dough into walnut-sized balls. Arrange on a baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Press your thumb into the center of each cookie, making a depression.

Bake for 10 minutes. Fill depressions with small spoonful of the jam. Bake for another 10 minutes or until golden. Cool the cookies on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container, separating the layers with waxed or parchment paper. Can be frozen.

 

I think this was the first time she's turned on the mixer.



We've had our grain mill for three years.  It claims to be "The Quietest Mill" on the market, but it is still pretty loud.  This is the first time that Arin was brave enough to pour the wheat into the mill.  She normally has to have both hands free to cover her ears!



 



Arin was so happy about her accomplishment that she insisted that I take a picture of the flour!



Rolling the dough into balls was a lot of fun!

  

Making thumbprint indentions was also fun. 


 

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

Today, the girls and I made Pumpkin Streusel Muffins. We are big fans of muffins and we will enjoy these tonight and tomorrow (and then probably a few more days too!).

Ingredients
2 cups canned pumpkin puree (we used the puree we made)
1 cup vegetable oil (we used olive oil, but I bet coconut oil would be great too)
2-2/3 cups white sugar (we scaled this back to 2 cups, which was still too much)
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs
3 cups and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (we used fresh milled soft white wheat)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (we used 1.5 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves

Streusel Topping:
1/3 cup all purpose flour (we used fresh milled flour)
3T brown sugar
2T cold butter

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour muffin pans (makes 24 muffins)
Mix together the streusel ingredients until crumbly. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, oil, sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves; stir into the pumpkin mixture until well blended. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Sprinkle streusel topping on each muffin.

Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes. The top of the loaf should spring back when lightly pressed.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares

I love to make a sweet treat for my family for the Sabbath.  Sometimes I make a dessert for after dinner on Friday night and sometimes I make muffins or quick breads for breakfast on Saturday.  This week, I made dessert.

This week, I was given some pumpkins.  The first one, I used the boiling method that I talked about here.  After taking the encouragement of Carmen and Michelle, I roasted the second pumpkin, using the method that Carmen talks about here.  Roasting the pumpkin took a longer cook time before being ready to puree, but it was so much less hands-on time and also such an easy process that this will most likely be my method from now on!  Thanks Michelle and Carmen for the encouragement!

With the fresh pumpkin puree, I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares. The only changes that I made to the recipe were to use fresh pumpkin in place of the canned pumpkin and freshly milled soft white wheat flour in place of the all purpose flour.  Although they are for dessert tonight, I had to sneak a taste of one (hey, it was a new recipe!).  Pumpkin and chocolate together sounds like a strange combination to me, but these squares are so good!  Super moist and the flavors compliment each other more than I could have imagined.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with foil, leaving an overhang on all sides. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pie spice, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

2.With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until smooth; beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in pumpkin puree (mixture may appear curdled). Reduce speed to low, and mix in dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

3.Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake until edges begin to pull away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in pan.

4.Lift cake from pan (using foil as an aid). Peel off foil, and use a serrated knife to cut into 24 squares.

This post is linked to: Preparation Day (click the link to participate or to see how others are preparing for the Sabbath)

Eclair Cake

During Ee week, we had two choices for our Better to Give than to Receive lesson:  Ella or Ellen.  We just don't know a lot of people whose first or last name begin with the letter E.  I thought about having a special day for Ella, but we didn't do something out of the ordinary for Arin for Aa week (it was her birthday week, so we did celebrate her, but not specifically for a school project).  I thought about having Arin make something for Ella because I want my girls to be kind and generous to one another as well, but that would have left Ella out of the project and I didn't want that. 

So, we ended up making something for Ellen.  I thought this would be a bit confusing to the girls since they only know her as Grandma, but we told the girls that her real name is Ellen which starts with an E, so they seemed fine with it.  (Grandma said she was so happy that we didn't wait until Gg week!)

I found this recipe for an Eclair Cake.  This cake is so simple to make with the kids and it is so yummy (just not so healthy!). 
Eclair Cake
2 - 3.5oz boxes of vanilla pudding (we made our's with french vanilla and "Ellen's" with regular vanilla)
3 cups of milk
8oz Cool Whip, thawed
graham crackers (we used honey flavored ones)
1 can of chocolate frosting

Mix together pudding and milk.  Fold in Cool Whip.  Layer bottom of 9x13 baking dish with graham crackers.  Spread half of the pudding mixture over graham crackers.  Add another layer of graham crackers.  Top with the remaining pudding mixture.  Add another layer of graham crackers.  Microwave the frosting for 30 seconds.  Stir.  Pour over the top layer of graham crackers.  Spread with a spatula or knife to evenly coat the top of the graham crackers.  (Andy said the chocolate was a bit much for him, so you could just drizzle it over top if you are not a big chocolate fan).  Refrigerate for at least four hours before serving.

Dark-Colored Dessert & Dd Cookies

It wasn't as easy to come up with something for the girls to make for Dd week's Better to Give Than to Receive lesson.  Yes, there's donuts, but I didn't want the girls around hot grease.  Yes, there's danishes, but I have never made one and didn't want to make something that might or might not be good.  Yes, there's deviled eggs, but the food had to travel a couple of hours to its recipient, so that was out.

In the end, we ended up making a dark-colored dessert for Uncle Don.  These were devil's food cake cupcakes, with dark frosting (fudge flavor) and dark decorations (semi-sweet chocolate chips).

I love how Arin helps her sister without anyone telling her to.

We also made a dozen D and d cookies for David.  We took a big shortcut and bought the cookies from the bakery.  Then, the girls frosted them and Arin (with my help) wrote the D or d on each cookie.

Yes, we were reaching a little this week!  As we were packing the cookies up for David, Arin looked at me and said, "cuh, cuh, cookies.  Mom, we should have made these for c week!"

(we also used this week to donate some of our unwanted items!)

Cupcakes and Crazy-Colored Crayons

During Cc week for our Better to Give Than to Receive lesson, the girls made confetti cupcakes for Aunt Candace and for Cameron.

They also made crazy-colored circle crayons for the children of three families whose last names begin with the letter C.  We had to mail the crayons, so we are hoping they arrived in tact and not as a melted crazy-colored mess!

Bread and Bracelets

For Better to Give Than to Receive during B week, Arin made braided bread for Uncle Brian.  She quickly learned the braiding pattern (over two, under one).  I did have to help tighten up the braid, but otherwise she did that part.  Arin thought the greatest part of making this bread was when she painted the bread with a beaten egg.  Ella also helped brush the egg on the bread.  We also made a second loaf of this bread for our family and it was so good.  The recipe can be found here.

She also beaded a black and blue bracelet for Brianna.  This bracelet was more difficult than the amethyst anklet that she made last week.

Almonds and Anklets

One lesson we've always tried to teach our children is that it is better to give than to receive.  When Arin was 18 months old, we started having her help bake something to give to someone.  We would look at a picture of the person as we baked for them.  Then, Arin would hand deliver the food item to the person.  I've fallen behind on teaching this lesson to Ella and also having her help me in the kitchen.  So when we decided to do a Letter of the Week, it only made sense to incorporate in the lesson of it is better to give than to receive into our weekly curriculum.  We choose people whose name begin with the letter that we are working on and we make/buy them something that also begins with that letter.  I wish, I could say this was an original idea, but it came from an idea that I saw here.

For the letter A, Ella made Anytime Almonds for Aunt Angie.  She had a lot of fun with this project (she even let Arin help a little!) and Aunt Angie said the almonds were very delicious!

Arin made an Amethyst-colored anklet for Amber.  She strung the beads all by herself and I think she did an awesome job of it.  Arin had such a great time with this project and Amber was very pleased with her gift!