Spicy Lemon Garlic Shrimp

This is another great find from my new Pioneer Woman cooks cookbook.  I did mess up a little and bought the wrong shrimp!  OOPS!  But all in all the recipe was good and easy and oh sooo buttery!  I think next time I might try this with half the butter and I am sure it will still be plenty.  But then again, when I buy the right shrimp, maybe it will be right!

Spicy Lemon Garlic Shrimp

(The Pioneer Woman cooks cookbook)

• 1 cup cold butter, cut into pieces
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley (if using dried, 1 tsp dried = 1 tbsp fresh)
• juice of 2 lemons
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 lbs raw shrimp, deveined, shells on

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. 

Add your butter and garlic to a food processor.  Then add your parsley, lemon juice, salt, and red pepper flakes.  Pulse this mixture several times until everything is mixed together.

Arrange your shrimp on a baking tray in a single layer.

Dot the top of each shrimp with your butter mixture. (The cookbook has great pictures and step by step pictures throughout!  Love it!!)

Roast the shrimp in your oven until the shrimp are cooked through and the butter is bubbly, about 20 minutes.  Serve in a large bowl making sure to keep the juices and drizzle all over the shrimp.

She recommends serving with crusty french bread so you can dip your bread in the yummy buttery juices!  We ate ours with some yummy flank steak, french bread and baked potatoes!  It was super yummy!

Pioneer Woman Tres Leches Cake

I made this cake way before Cinco de Mayo, but as said in previous posts, I have been a slacker and haven't wanted to get on the computer!  So here it is many days after, but still a really good cake to try any time!

It was moist, and easy to make!  I dont' know if I would have thought to make this except I bought Pioneer Woman's new cookbook and was wanting to make something from it!  Cake it was!

It is definitely a yummy (and no chocolate) recipe and it was really simple to make!

Try it today!  I dare you!  You wont be disappointed!

Tres Leches Cake

(The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook)

• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 5 large eggs, separated
• 1 cup plus 3 tbsp sugar
• 1/3 cup milk (she says whole milk, but I used 1% that I had on hand)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 12 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 14 ounce can evaporated milk (I think I found I had a 14 ounce can sweetened condensed and 1 12 ounce evaporated and it was fine)
• 1 pint plus 1/4 cup heavy cream
• Maraschino cherries for garnish if wanted!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour your 9 x 13 pan.  Really follow this because I didn't and was unable to get mine out of the pan! 

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.  Set aside.

Add the egg yolks and 3/4 cup of the sugar to a mixing bowl.  Beat them until very light in color.  Then add your 1/3 cup milk and vanilla.  Beat until just combined.

Pour this over your flour  mixture and stir gently until combined with a rubber spatula.

In a clean mixing bowl, beat your egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form.  Add 1/4 cup sugar and then continue beating until the whites are stiff but not dry.

Gently fold your egg whites into the bowl with the other ingredients.  Don't over mix!  Again Don't Over mix!!  Stop just short of it all being completely mixed in!

Spread the batter in your baking pan and bake the cake for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove the cake and let it cool completely in the pan.  It will be spongy looking!

When the cake is cool, invert it on a platter.  This is where I ran into problems.  If you can't get it out, then just do the next steps in the cake pan.  It worked fine for me!

Poke holes in your cake all over with a fork.  Combine your sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and 1/4 cup heavy cream.  Slowly pour this all over your cake!  Make sure to get it all over the edges and evenly coat the surfaces!  Some of the liquid will pool all around the cake too!

Allow cake to sit for 30 minutes to soak up all that milky goodness.  Then whip your 1 pint heavy cream with the remaining 3 tbsp sugar until thick.  Spread this all over your cake!  YUM!!!

Cut into squares and be prepared for people to ask what is that?? and promptly want the recipe!

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

It doesn't seem like I am ever satisfied with the chocolate chip cookie recipe I have!  I do have a few of them and the ones in my recipe book have all been winners!  But for some reason I keep trying new ones and looking for new ones!  I don't know why, maybe I will figure it out one day!

These cookies were definitely thick and chewy and good!

They were yummy dunked in milk and would have made great ice cream sandwich cookies for summer time!

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

(http://www.browneyedbaker.com/)

• 2 cups plus 2 tbsp flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 sticks butter, melted and cooled until warm
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray.  I lined mine with parchment paper.

Whisk your flour, baking soda, and salt together.  Set aside.

Cream your butter and sugars together until thoroughly blended.  Beat in your egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until combined.  Add your dry ingredients and beat until combined.  Stir in your chips or mix on low.  Add 1 cup and see if it is enough for you before you do 1 1/2 cups.

OK~This is where you gives you a new way to make cookies!  I tried it and thought the cookies were cool looking, but definitely not a have too!

Roll about 1/4 cup dough in your hand and make a ball.  Now hold your ball between 2 fingertips and tear it in half.  Rotate the halves 90 degrees until the jagged edges are facing up and then squish the balls together at the base to form one ball.  Place the formed balls with the jagged edges up on your baking sheets.  This will give them a cool edgy appearance.

Bake until cookies are golden brown and outer edges start to harden and middles still soft and puffy ~ about 15-18 minutes.  Cool the cookies on the sheets and then remove to your cooling racks!

Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

OK I have taken a slight hiatus from posting new recipes.  This is not due to lack of trying new things, but lack of desire to sit at the computer!  See my computer in the kitchen died last fall and I have had to use the archaic old lap top that was bought ages ago and wasn't being used!  It is a pain to use and periodically just turns off!  I guess it is a good timer to monitor your Internet or computer use!!

Well, I made these cookies in April!  They were so yummy and definitely on my make often list, especially since I just bought the big jumbo jars of peanut butter at Costco!

The cookies are soft and the combination of peanut butter and chocolate are always a good combo in my book!  The other bonus in my eyes is that they make about 16-20 cookies!  Just enough to eat and not too many leftovers for my house!  My true love is a hot cookie out of the oven!!

Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

(www.browneyedbaker.com)

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 stick or 1/2 cup butter at room temp
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup oats
• 3/4-1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside!  (If you have an Allison's pantry dealer near you, you totally need to get there parchment paper sheets.  They come in sheets to fit your cookie sheets exactly!  I love it!  No curling sheets, cutting to size, etc!  Totally worth every penny!

Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.  (I don't often set aside my dry ingredients, probably because I am too lazy!  So do if you like, she recommended it but I think I just added the dry ingredients a little at a time!)

Cream together the butter, peanut butter, sugar, brown sugar,and vanilla extract.  Do this for about 3 minutes.  Add the egg and beat to combine.  On low speed, gradually add your whisked dry ingredients (or add them a little at a time like I do!  Live dangerous!!).  Add your oats, and then chocolate chips.  The original recipe called for 1 cup, but I thought it was too many chocolate chips, so I adjusted my recipe for next time to 3/4 cup.  I would recommended to start with 3/4 and see what you think!

Use a large cookie scoop and drop your dough onto your prepared parchment lined baking sheets.  Place about 2 inches apart at least and bake for 10 minutes or until lightly golden.  Cool completely on your baking sheets and then store in an air tight container!

Enjoy some peanut butter chocolate goodness and no you are getting your oats as well!

Chocolate Muffins

Chocolate is yummy!  Yes it is yummy for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks between breakfast and lunch, between snacks, between lunch and dinner, between snacks again, after dinner and maybe just maybe (if you exercised today) before bed!  I just love a good cup of hot chocolate!

So needless to say, I had to try these muffins!

They were yummy and chocolaty and a great breakfast treat!

Chocolate muffin and a grapefruit!

Yes that was my breakfast yesterday and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Chocolate Muffins

(found on pinterest from www.mybakingaddiction.com)

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, plus 1/4 cup for sprinkling
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin tin or place liners in your pan.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, sugar, and 3/4 cup chocolate chips.

In a medium bowl, combine the milk, oil, egg, and vanilla.  Whisk to combine.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.  There will be lumps because your chocolate chips are in there!

Divide your batter among your muffin cups.  Sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips on top.

Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until muffins are done, spongy and risen.  They totally remind me of the Costco muffins, only smaller!

Twice-Baked New Potatoes

I ordered, or pre-ordered the new Pioneer Woman cookbook for my sister for her birthday!  Well actually I ordered one for myself too!

I really like the pioneer woman's blog and her cookbooks have been great too!

Potatoes are an easy add to a meal, but sometimes I get tired of the same old baked or mashed potato.  So I tried this and it was a success!  I wont say it is good for you, but it is very yummy.  Another bonus is that you can make them in the morning when you have more time and then do the final bake right before dinner!

It takes a little extra work, but it was worth it in the end.  The recipe made more than my family could eat, but the leftovers were really good once again for lunch!

Twice-Baked New Potatoes

(The Pioneer Woman Cooks Food from my Frontier cookbook)

• 12 new potatoes, scrubbed clean (I used regular russets, about 6-7)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened (I used the neufachtal and room temp)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups Monterey Jack cheese, grated (I used Colby jack)
• 1 tbsp minced chives (optional if you don't have any)
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced
• salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

 Place your potatoes on a cookie sheet and drizzle with the olive oil.  Toss them around to coat, or rub them with your hands.  Roast your potatoes.  If you are using new potatoes, about 20-25 minutes is recommended or until they are tender and skins are crisp.  If using russets, bake for about 60 minutes or until tender and skins are crisp.

Now you need to halve your potatoes.  I waited a little to let them cool down.  Use a spoon and scoop out the insides of your halves.  Leave a little bit on the edges to keep your skin in tact and keep its shape.

Put your scooped out potato in a bowl and add your sour cream, cream cheese, jack cheese, chives, and salt and pepper.  Mash with a potato masher until mixture is smooth and taste it see if needs more seasonings.

Scoop your mixture into your potato skin shells.  You can now cover and refrigerate if you want to make these in advance before dinner.

If you are eating now, bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on top!  Enjoy with steak, chicken or whatever you fancy!

Rainbow Pinwheel Cookies

I found these on pinterest!  They are Dr. Seus inspired cookies!

My kids had a great time helping me make them!

They turned out really fun and the best part is I didn't have to frost them and the kids got to help!

This would also be a fun way to make theme cookies.  For example, you could mix your favorite sports teams colors together and swirl them!

Rainbow Pinwheel Cookies

(pinterest via http://www.soudersstudios.com/)

• 1 recipe your favorite sugar cookie dough (mine is the sour cream sugar cookies on this site!)
• Liquid food coloring, 5 colors
• Rainbow sprinkles, or I used colored sugar sprinkles

Preheat oven to recipes temperature.

Make your dough.  Divide your dough into 5 equal parts or as many colors as you want to do.  Color each part the color you want.  We used purple, red, yellow, green and blue.  The original poster said neon colors work really well, I will try that next time!

I mixed my colors in with my mixer.  I didn't clean it in between, so some of the colors got mixed up, but it worked fine.

Now, chill your dough as needed.  Make sure it is good and chilled so that it wont get too sticky as you work with it!

This is where my kids came in and helped!  Now you need to form your different colors into grape size balls.  I noticed that it didn't really matter the size, just that bigger balls made bigger cookies and bigger portions of one color than another just made that color more prominent than the others.

So make your different color balls.  When you have 1 of each color, combine them into a ball, like a multi color beach ball.  Now roll the ball into a snake and then coil together.

Roll your edges into the sprinkles if desired and cook for the time recommended on your cookie recipe!

Super good and super fun cookies!