Cowboy Cake

My kids really like this and they eat it up!! Be sure to have lots of milk on hand though because it is very cakey and a big glass of milk goes perfectly.


2 1/2 cups Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

2 cups Brown Sugar

2/3 cups Shortening

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1 cup Sour Milk or Buttermilk

2 well beaten eggs



Combine flour, salt, sugar and shortening. Mix until crumbly. Reserve 1/2 cup to sprinkle on the top. Mix remaining ingredients and pour into a cake pan, 9x13 baking pan or 2 8x8 pans. Sprinkle reserved topping (can add nuts if you'd like) Bake at 350 for 30-35 min.

Tuscan Bread Salad

1 Loaf dense crusty Italian bread. (french bread or an artisan bread etc.)
1 Large ball of fresh mozzarella cheese
1 Large tomatoe
1 Yellow or red bell pepper
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped

Dressing:
1 clove garlic
6 Tbs olive oil
3 Tbs balsalmic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Combine dressing ingredients and blend well; set aside. Cut cheese, tomatoe and pepper into 1 inch cubes and transfer to a salad bowl with chopped basil. Pour dressing over cheese and veggies to marinate while cutting and toasting the bread. Cut bread into 1 inch cubes and toast in oven until lightly brown. Add bread cubes to salad bowl and bix well to coat all pieces. Serve immediately.

This is SO good. If you Bruchetta you will love this salad. I leave out the peppers when I make this and it tastes just as good.
Enjoy!

Tapioca Pudding

This recipe is timed by 5 so you may want to cut it down a bit. It makes a lot!

1 2/3 cups sugar
5 eggs separated
15 Tablespoons tapioca
10 cups milk
5/8 teaspoon salt (do not confuse this with 5 to 8 teaspoons. if you do, it will make a very salty tapioca. haha)
3 1/3 teaspoons vanilla

Separate eggs. Beat whites until foamy, add 10 teaspoons sugar and beat until smooth and stiff. Set aside. Mix milk, remaining sugar, egg yolks, tapioca and salt. let stand 5 min. Cook tapioca mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly until it comes to a full boil and is slightly thickened. (6-8 min) Remove from heat and VERY slowly add hot mixture to egg whites stirring rapidly to blend well. (If you add it too quickly it will cook the egg whites.) Add vanilla and cool.

Simple Fruit Salad

OK, here is my best attempt at a recipe for the fruit salad. I hope I get it right, haha.

8oz cream cheese (if it's room temperature it's easier to mix)
2 cups sour cream
1-2 cups of powdered sugar (it takes quite a bit of powdered sugar, but use whatever you want for the amount of sweetness you want)
Grapes washed and separated
Granny Smith apples cut into bite size pieces
(I like to add strawberries when they are in season too)
Brown sugar

Directions
Combine cream cheese and sour cream together until smooth. Add powdered sugar until you achieve desired sweetness. Add fruit and chill. Top with brown sugar before serving or serve brown sugar on the side and let your guests put it on themselves.

If you make this and find that the amounts are off PLEASE let me know. I'm not very good at translating my recipes onto paper. haha.

ENJOY!

White Bread

2 Tbs dry active yeast
2 cups warm water
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs salt
2 eggs beaten
1/4 cup oil
6 1/2 cups flour

dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water and let sit until yeast activates. Add eggs, salt, oil and 3 cups of flour and beat until smooth. Stir in remaining flour to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 6-8 min.) Place in a greased bowl, turn once to coat the top. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down dough. Divide into 2 pieces and form into loaves. Place in greased bread pans and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Bake at 375F for 25-30 min or until golden brown. Remove from pans and let cool on racks.

Cornbread Muffins

I got this recipe from the blog My Kitchen Cafe and we tried it last night. They were SO delicious.



Cornbread Muffins
adapted from The New Best Recipe

2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 cup (about 5 ounces) yellow cornmeal (the original recipe calls for fine, stone-ground, but I used the average, everyday Quaker brand and it worked great)
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
¾ cup (5 ¼ ounces) sugar
8 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
¾ cup sour cream (I used reduced fat sour cream)
½ cup milk

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin and set aside (when I made them, it made about 16 muffins).

Whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, soda and salt in a medium bowl to combine; set aside. Whisk the eggs in a second medium bowl until well combined and light-colored, about 20 seconds. Add the sugar to the eggs; whisk vigorously until thick and homogenous, about 30 seconds; add the melted butter in 3 additions, whisking to combine after each addition. Add half the sour cream and half the milk and whisk to combine; whisk in the remaining sour cream and milk until combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients; mix gently with a rubber spatula until the batter is just combined and evenly moistened. Do not over mix. Using a large spoon sprayed with cooking spray, divide the batter evenly among tins.

Bake until the muffins are light golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 15-18 minutes, rotating the muffin tin from front to back halfway. Cool the muffins in the tin 5 minutes; invert the muffins on a wire rack, stand the muffins upright and cool 5 minutes. Serve warm.

Snickerdoodles

1 3/4 cups shortening
1/2 cube margarine
3 cups sugar
4 eggs
5 1/2 cups flour
4 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
cinnamon sugar for coating


Cream shortening, margarine, sugar, and eggs together. Then add the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. mix well. Form into balls and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place on greased cookie sheet and flatten slightly (we use the bottom of a cup or something else that is completely flat)
Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 min or until the edge is slightly brown.
This makes quite a few cookies, you can freeze the balls of cookie dough you just have to thaw completely before cooking.