Easy and moist Lemon Bundt Cake

The birthday tradition where my husband works is to draw names at the beginning of each year to "sponsor" somebody's special day.  At staff meeting the week of their birthday, the responsible person brings a treat to share with everyone for a birthday celebration.  My husband drew Brian's name and needed a good treat to take to work.  Brian requested something with "tart fruit" and asked that my husband NOT make it - since his cooking usually involves Spam.  So I made this moist and delicious lemon bundt cake....but swore my husband to secrecy about the convenience foods used in the recipe!  Let Brian think I had to have some serious mad baking skills to make this.

Lemon Bundt Cake

For the cake:
1 package lemon cake mix
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup warm water
4 eggs
3 oz. package lemon gelatin
1 teaspoon lemon juice
zest of one lemon
3/4 cup sour cream

For the glaze:
2/3 cup orange juice
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 cup powdered sugar

• Prepare a bundt cake pan by coating with shortening and dusting with flour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
• Combine all cake ingredients in mixing bowl.  Blend to moisten, then beat for two minutes.  Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
• Let cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.
• Combine glaze ingredients in a small pan and bring to a boil, then simmer 5 minutes.  Let cool 10 minutes.
• Return the cake to the cake pan,  Poke holes all over the bottom of the cake with a toothpick or fork, then spoon or brush about half the glaze onto the bottom of the cake.  Invert cake onto a plate and poke holes all over the top, then brush or pour remaining glaze all over the cake.
• Garnish with lemon slices and let cool completely before serving.  Can be served with ice cream or whipped cream if desired.

Reminiscing...looking back as well as looking forward - with Peanut Butter Fingers

When I was a kid we didn't have "lunch ladies" in our school cafeteria.  We had COOKS.  Sturdy ladies in large aprons who filled the halls of the school with the aroma of rolls baking all morning and who whipped real potatoes in a huge mixer that stood on the floor.  There were no pre-packaged chicken nuggets getting heated up and thrown on a plastic tray, we had real food served up on glass plates that made a loud crash if you were the poor kid having a bad day who dropped his tray on the floor.  I was reminiscing about school lunch after I found a recipe for Peanut Butter Fingers while looking for ideas to make a dessert for a family function.  Peanut Butter Fingers were one of the home made treats we often had beside our potatoes and hamburger gravy or made from scratch chili, and once I made these treats it really took me back to the school cafeteria.

The family function I was baking for today is my parent's mission farewell.  Tomorrow after church they will have a houseful of people at their house for lunch and to tell them goodbye as they embark on a big adventure together.  They'll be going to Quezon City in the Philippines for 18 months to serve an LDS mission.  When I said I would bring dessert for this event I thought it was going to be mainly for our family, but as time went on and my mother invited more and more people I had to find something to feed over fifty people.  A couple of batches of these treats are what I made, since each tray can be cut into more than 30 cookies  (depending on how big you want to make them).

As I think about my parents going so far away for so long I again feel like the awkward and skinny redhead who found comfort in those old fashioned school lunches.  Just as I was strengthened by some of the rejection and loneliness every shy kid goes through, I will grow through the separation from my parents and be enriched by their experiences.

Make these peanut butter treats and think back on your own school days.  And give your parents a hug.

PEANUT BUTTER FINGERS

3/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Glaze:

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup powdered sugar

4+ tablespoons milk

• Cream together the butter and sugar, then beat in the peanut butter.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.  Add vanilla, baking soda and salt.  Add the four and oats and mix well.
• Pat dough evenly into a greased 15 inch x 10 inchx 1 inch baking pan (jelly roll pan or deep cookie sheet with sides).
• Bake at 325 degrees for 18 minutes.  Take out of the oven and immediately sprinkle with the chocolate chips.  Return to the oven for two minutes.  Remove from oven again and let cool two minutes.  Spread the softened chocolate chips evenly over the top.
• For glaze, beat the peanut butter and sugar.  Add enough milk to make a spreading consistency.  Spread over the warm bars.

A non-pie treat for National Pie Day

National Pie Day should be a day of pie baking, right?  But instead I spent today at the Utah Capitol building with my husband and am going to the movies with three of my girls in the evening - so there's no pie making around here today.  But I would like to share this fast and easy treat for anybody who needs a good sugar injection on a snowy day.   I took it to an evening of sewing at My Girlfriend's Quilt Shoppe in Logan, Utah and the ladies there really liked it.

Peanut butter and Butterscotch Marshmallow Treats

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 bag butterscotch baking chips

1 stick butter

1 bag miniature marshmallows (colored are more fun than plain white - but you can use either)

Melt the peanut butter, chips and butter in a saucepan over low heat.  Stir while melting and until the mixture is smooth. 

Let cool for 15 minutes (so that the marshmallows won't melt).

Spread into a greased 9x13 pan.

Refrigerate until set.  Ideally this will be at least a couple of hours....if you can wait that long!

Thumbprint cookies for New Year's

These tasty and pretty cookies are a staple for my family at Christmas, but I also make them for our New Year's Eve gatherings.  They seem a little complicated to make, but they are actually quite fast and easy.  Definitely faster than  making sugar cookies with all the rolling out and frosting - but these are so much more elegant.  For Christmas I usually use jewel-like currant jelly or even mint jelly, the picture shows the cookies I made this time with raspberry jam.  The jam doesn't look as showy but it is really delicious on these little morsels.  Make a batch of these for a great way to start out the new year!

THUMBPRINT COOKIES

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 large egg yolk

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg white

1 cup finely chopped nuts (I use walnuts, but you can use the nut of your choice)

About 6 tablespoons jelly or jam

• Heat oven to 350 degrees F
• Beat brown sugar, butter, vanilla and egg yolk with electric mixer.  Stir in flour and salt.
• Shape the dough into 1 inch balls.  Beat egg white slightly with fork.  Dip each ball into egg white then roll in nuts.  Place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  Press thumb into center of each cookie to make indentation, but do not press all the way to the cookie sheet.
• Bake about 10 minutes, or until light brown.  Quickly remake indentations with the end of a wooden spoon if necessary.  Immediately remove from the cookie sheet to cooling rack.  Fill each thumbprint with about 1/2 teaspoon of the jam or jelly.

Cookies claimed by multiple countries

I first made these cookies many years ago when I had small children and thought these would be good ones they could make with me, since the dough needs to be rolled into balls.  At that time we called them Mexican Wedding cookies.  Later I lost my original recipe and then re-found it in Betty Crocker's Cookbook.....where they are called Russian Tea Cakes.  Recently I heard someone call them Italian cookies.  So apparently everybody wants to claim these yummy morsels as their own!  These are one of three kinds of cookies that I always make for Christmas.  They are delicious and easy to make, but look fun and festive.  (However, they turned out not to be good ones to have young kids help with making the balls of dough....the dough needs to be kneaded a little to hold together well...but kids can roll the cookies in powdered sugar).

Mexican Wedding Cakes/Russian Teacakes

As always, please use "real" ingredients in these cookies.  Real butter and real vanilla.  It makes such a difference in the quality of the finished product!

1 cup butter, softened (it is important that the butter be softened)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 -1/4 cups flour

3/4 cup finely chopped nuts (I have always used walnuts, but you can use any kind of nuts)

1/4 teaspoon salt

Powdered sugar

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
• Mix the butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and the vanilla with a mixer.  Stir in the flour, nuts and salt and beat until the dough holds together somewhat.  It will look mostly crumbly but should hold together when you squeeze a ball of dough.
• Shape the dough into 1 inch balls. You will probably need to work each ball in your hands a little to get the dough holding together well.  Place about 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are set but not brown.  However, be careful not to undercook the cookies or they may crumble when you try to remove them from the cookie sheet.
• Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes.
• Roll the warm cookies in powdered sugar, then let cool another 5 minutes.  Roll in powdered sugar again.

Makes about 30 cookies.

Eggnog Cheese Pie

The Christmas lights are on the house and the ornaments are on the tree, I'm so excited for the music and flavors of the holidays!  One flavor I like is eggnog, but I need it milder than the straight out of the carton taste.  This pie gives you that eggnog experience without being overpowering, and the cream cheese texture is really nice.  I grated some nutmeg over the top and it really finished the pie off well.

(I apologize again for the photography - some day I'll have a real camera again).

Eggnog Cheese Pie

• Baked pie shell or baked graham cracker or cookie crust
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup eggnog
• 
  
• Beat the cream cheese, sugar and flour until smooth. Add the eggs and beat on low speed until combined. Beat in eggnog. Pour into crust.
• Bake at 325° for 45-55 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate overnight.

Easy Beef and Broccoli Lo Mein

A few weeks ago I received an email from familyfun.com which contained links to a couple of recipes.  I'm always up for something new to try for dinner so I checked them out.  This Beef and Broccoli Lo Mein sounded good, and fast, so I stopped at the store for the necessary ingredients after work.  I had the butcher at the grocery store cut the meat for me while I did the rest of the shopping, then prepared everything else at home while the spaghetti was cooking.  I had this dinner done in 20 minutes!  And....it was delicious.  My 9 year-old son requested the Lo Mein for his birthday party this week.  I neglected to get a picture of the main dish, but check out the birthday cake my sister made for him.

Try this dish for a fast and yummy dinner.  It's good enough for company (we served it with egg rolls from the freezer section at Costco - they were perfect!)

Easy Beef and Broccoli Lo Mein - from Family Fun

8 ounces thin spaghetti, broken in half
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 cups chopped broccoli
1 1/2 cups sliced onion
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
4 garlic cloves, minced
12 ounces sirloin tips, cut crosswise into thin strips (I used sirloin steaks because there were no tips in my store)
3 tablespoons beef broth
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon oyster sauce

Instructions
Stir the spaghetti into a pot of lightly salted boiling water and cook it according to the package directions. Drain the noodles well, then return them to the pot and toss them with the sesame oil.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the broccoli and onion and cook, stirring often, for 3 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and continue stirring while the mixture cooks for another 30 seconds. Add the sirloin and cook it, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until it is no longer pink.

In a small bowl, mix the broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, and oyster sauce. Add the soy sauce mixture and the pasta to the skillet and continue cooking, stirring often, for 1 to 2 minutes or until everything is heated through. Serve the lo mein hot. Makes 4 to 6 servings.