Author: Ang Anderson

Put a Lid On Your Dessert

Posted on by Ang Anderson

Okay.  Get to ready to be amazed.  You might want to take a seat if you are not sitting down already.

I have four little words that will change your life.  Ready?

Cake.  In.  A.  Jar.

Yea… I know.  Cake.  Jar.  Huh?  What?

But it really is that simple.  You put cake batter in a jar and make the cake in the jar.  I made these sweet little novelties for Valentine’s Day and am just now getting around to posting about it.  Because some of my time is actually spent looking after my little ones, doing laundry, and all that other mom and wife business that I do.  But I actually made these again today, which prompted the post about them.  We were gifting dinner tonight and thought this might be a good gift too.  Try as I might, I could not get my little jars of goodness to look at all like the gorgeous one pictured above.  So none of my own pics on this one.  I did revise the recipe a bit, since I felt like a 16 ounce jar of dessert seemed a bit…shall we say…plentiful.  I am not saying that I couldn’t eat an entire pound of dessert because I am quite sure that I could.  But I am trying not to gain twenty pounds by Easter so I used smaller jars half-pint jars in place of the pint jars on the original recipe.  You could easily use the pint jars if you prefer and they are actually a bit easier to pretty up with ribbon and a tag.  Half-pints worked but didn’t have that nice neck on them like the pint size one pictured above.  You can even do these in a coffee mug.  I never dreamed I would bake cake in my microwave but alas, I have done it.  Twice.  Thank you to my sweet friend Beth for sharing the link with me and changing my microwave forever.  Astounding.

I encourage you to play around with this to make your own personalized version.  For a fun cake twist, I might even serve them at our next birthday party.  Mmmm…

Cake In A Jar

Adapted from Red Velvet Nutella Cake in a Jar posted on Babble by Brooke McLay

  • 1 box chocolate cake mix, prepared according to package directions
  • 1 jar of Nutella
  • 1 jar cream cheese frosting
  • 6 to 8 half-pint-sized canning jars

Thoroughly wash and dry the inside of each canning jar. Spray the inside of each jar thoroughly with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Prepare cake batter according to package directions.  Spoon about 1/2 cup of cake batter into each jar.  Cook one jar at a time in the microwave for 1-2 minutes, or until the cake is cooked through.  I did two 30 second intervals, allowing for it to rest a bit in between and then another 20 seconds.  You might need to play around with it a bit because it will depend on your microwave.  Allow jars to cool for a few minutes (caution: they will be HOT), then scoop the top half of cake from the jar. Spoon a tablespoon or so of Nutella into the center of the jar, top with a dollop of cream cheese frosting, then replace the top half of the cake back in the jar, add another layer of Nutella, then enough frosting to fill the rest of the jar.

Serve immediately or cover with a lid and store in the fridge or pop into the mail & surprise someone you love! Cakes should stay fresh in the fridge for up to 5 days, and can be mailed so long as they are topped with a canning jar lid and arrive at their final destination within 3 days.

Photo courtesy of Brooke McLay from Babble.com

Turkey Tetrazzini

Posted on by Ang Anderson

If you know me at all, you know I love pasta. It makes my heart go pitter-patter. The discovery of this recipe is a true gem for me. It makes twelve servings which means there is plenty to share, which is just one of the reasons that I love it. Combine pasta and the generosity factor with wine, mushrooms, and creamy sauce and the swoon factor deepens. Plus, there is bacon for the men in your life. The first time I made this, my husband couldn’t believe that I was planning to serve it to his parents. My husband protested that his dad was never going to like this. (My father-in-law stems from the meat and potato generation and the meat and potato gender so you can imagine what I was up against and why my husband thought I was clearly insane.) But when both my husband and his father reached for second and third helpings, I knew the Tetrazzini was a hit with the men. I also did a little happy dance for a successful pasta conversion. Of course, I knew beforehand that it would be a hit with the women. The love of pasta runs deep in our veins.

Of course, the fact that I retrieved this recipe from the one and only Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman) only adds to the splendor of this delightful pasta. I will warn you that it is a labor of love. Preparation and assembly of the ingredients will take about an hour of your precious time. But in return, you will receive twelve beautiful servings of pasta goodness with which you can do whatever you like. Have a dinner party and share it all.  Feed your family and freeze the rest. Make little gift dinners for your loved ones.

I discovered that it makes very good sense to prepare all the ingredients first when making this pasta. The first time I made this, I just started going along with the instructions and cutting and measuring as I went along. My counters were a disaster and my mind in disarray. So, I highly recommend taking the time to cut everything up and measure things out before you begin. Also, the pasta begs to be broken up ahead of time and placed in a bowl. Listen to the pasta. I promise that your kitchen and your brain will thank you.  (Or go for the chaos. Who am I to tell you what to do?)

Ree’s recipe is for Turkey Tetrazzini, which she posted around Thanksgiving. It makes wonderful sense for your leftover turkey after the holiday. I just grab a rotisserie chicken and use that in place of the turkey. Ree has gorgeous step-by-step photos. I highly encourage you to check out her site.

I served this with a French baguette with rosemary herb butter, pear gorgonzola salad, and of course wine. (Some of you may be thinking “you had me at french baguette”.  You are my people.)

Cheers to the lovely baguette, delicious pasta, and wine!

Turkey Tetrazzini

Click here for the Printable Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1-½ pound Thin Spaghetti, Broken In Half
  • 4 Tablespoons Butter
  • 4 cloves Garlic, Minced
  • 1 pound White Mushrooms, Quartered
  • ½ teaspoons Salt
  • 1 cup White Wine
  • ⅓ cups Flour
  • 4 cups Turkey (or Chicken) Broth
  • 1 block 8 Ounce Cream Cheese
  • 3 cups Cooked (leftover) Turkey, Shredded Or Diced
  • 1 cup Finely Chopped Black Olives
  • 1-½ cup Frozen Green Peas
  • 4 slices Bacon, Fried And Cut Into Bits
  • 1 cup Grated Monterey Jack Cheese
  • 1 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
  • Salt And Pepper, to taste
  • Extra Broth For Thinning
  • 1 cup Panko Bread Crumbs

Preparation Instructions

Cook pasta until not quite done – al dente according to package instructions (it will finish cooking in the oven.) Drain, rinse, and set aside.

In a large pot, heat butter over medium-high heat. Add garlic and saute for a couple of minutes. Add mushrooms and salt, then saute for a couple more minutes. Pour in the wine and allow it to cook with the mushrooms for several minutes, or until the liquid reduces by half.

Sprinkle in flour, then stir the mushrooms around for another minute. Pour in the broth and stir, cooking for another few minutes until the roux thickens.

Reduce heat to medium low. Cut cream cheese into pieces and add it to the pot. Stir it to melt (don’t be concerned if the cream cheese remains in little bits for awhile; it’ll melt eventually!) Add the leftover turkey, the olives, the peas, the bacon, and the cheeses. Stir to combine, adding salt and pepper as needed.

Add the cooked spaghetti and stir it to combine. Splash in more broth as needed; you want the mixture to have a little extra moisture since it will cook off in the oven. If it’s a little soupy, that’s fine! Add up to 2 more cups of liquid if you think it needs it.

Pour the mixture into a large baking dish and sprinkle the top with Panko crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes, or until the casserole is bubbly and the crumbs are golden brown.

Sweet Valentines

Posted on by Ang Anderson

I am not usually on the ball when it comes to holidays.  I would really like to be.  In fact, I try to be.  But I never seem to have enough time in the day to achieve everything that I would like to.  Instead, I find myself laying awake in bed at night thinking of things I wish I would have done that day or thinking of the things I should definitely accomplish tomorrow.  This year, I decided that we would be on the ball for Valentine’s Day and actually make some treats ahead of time.  So, last Friday, in addition to the Pretzel Treats, we made my Great-Grandma Congdon’s Rolled Sugar Cookies.

The morning went something like this…

Make dough.  Chill dough.  Roll dough.  Cut out dough.  Bake.  Cool.  Ice.  Sprinkle.  Eat.

It also went something like this…

Make coffee.  Turn on cartoon for kids to watch.  Assemble cookie dough.  Put cookie dough in refrigerator.  Wait for dough to chill.  Drink coffee.   Do something productive (check Facebook).  Dough is chilled sufficiently.  Get kids.  Roll out dough on cutting board on dining room table so kids can help.  Let kids cut out hearts from dough.  Be patient.  Let them transfer cut out heart to baking sheet with spatula.  Be more patient.  Praise kids for doing a good job.  Put cookies in oven.  Set timer.  Drink coffee.  Get another tray of cookies ready.  Begin to wake up.  Get a system down.  Eva cuts out heart.  ‘Good job Eva!’  Easton transfers heart to cookie sheet with spatula.  ‘Good job Easton!’  Timer goes off.  Remove cookies from oven.  Transfer cookies to cooling rack.  Repeat cut out, transfer, patience process.  Lots of praise exchanged between siblings.  Kids are done with cookie factory jobs.  Turn on another cartoon for kids.  Make icing.  Get kids.  Spread icing on cookies.  Allow kids to distribute sprinkles on cookies.  Heavily.  Find more patience.  Let go of need for cookie to look perfect.

Daughter insists on high fives for everyone.

Kids are having the best time ever.

*heart bursts*

It was such a good morning.

Thankful for my sweet valentines (pictured above at bottom right) and for being on the ball this year.

Grandma Congdon’s Rolled Sugar Cookies

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 cup shortening or butter
  • 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Cut shortening into dry ingredients (I used an old-fashioned pastry blender).  Beat eggs and add sugar, then vanilla.  Add dry ingredients to egg/sugar mixture.  Refrigerate 20 minutes before rolling.  Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.  Makes about 6 dozen depending on size of cut out.

*****************************************************************************************************

The icing has almond extract in it.  Almond extract is so divine.  It is one of my most favorite things on earth.

Icing

Icing Ingredients

  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 2 teaspoons milk
  • 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • assorted food coloring

Icing Directions

  1. In a small bowl, stir together confectioners’ sugar and milk until smooth.  Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy.  If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
  2. Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity. Dip cookies, or paint them with a brush.

Icing Note:  I ended up making two separate batches of icing since i wasn’t sure about the cookie/icing ratio – you may just choose to double this upfront.  Recipe given above is for single batch.  Printable Icing Recipe Courtesy of All Recipes

Happy Heart Day to you and yours –

Ang