Holiday Baking

One of my favorite traditions of the holidays is the baking from old recipes and brand new recipes.  Although it is one of the craziest times of the year we still managed to squeeze in our favorite cookie recipes, including peanut butter blossoms and sugar cookies. One of the best parts of the holidays is being able to give and make someone's holiday that much more special.  My way of giving is sharing my baking and culinary skills.

One of the first things we made this holiday was cupcakes.  If you know anything about my family it is that we love making cupcakes.  We are always experimenting with new cupcake recipes and flavors.  We made a total of four different cupcake recipes.  The first one was a salted caramel chocolate cupcake.  We shared this cupcake with many friends and family and it was definitely a favorite.  Here is the recipe for the cupcakes: http://jancooks.blogspot.ca/2011/01/gigis-chocolate-salted-caramel-cupcakes.html.

Another cupcake recipe we made was a gingerbread cupcake.  They too, were very good and enjoyed by everyone who shared them with us.  The tiny gingerbread were found at Trader Joes, which if you have not been is the BEST STORE EVER They have unique ingredients that can add a special touch to any recipe.  Here is the recipe for the cupcakes http://thedomesticrebel.com/2014/12/15/gingerbread-cupcakes-with-vanilla-bean-marshmallow-frosting/.

The hot cocoa cupcake was my sisters favorite and definitely was enjoyed by those who ate it.  Not only does it taste delicious, it looks delicious too.  Another thing that I have been working on is presentation, The recipe we used for the hot cocoa cupcakes was http://thecupcakedailyblog.com/hot-cocoa-cupcakes/.

Finally our christmas tree cupcakes were probably my favorite.  We made this recipe probably a total of three times because people enjoyed them so much.  The christmas tree was an idea seen by my mom and she knew that I could figure it out.  It did however take a few times to get it down, but once I figured it out there was no stopping.  The recipe we used for these cupcakes was our own.  We like to experiment with different cupcake recipes, and we took a variety of suggestions from different bakers and created our own, semi homemade. The recipe we used and altered to fit our needs is http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/doctored-up-cake-mix-recipe/.  As with anything, this works for us but you can be the judge.  What I did was substitute butter for oil and the eggs will help determine the texture, so you can use three to four eggs.  Although we suggest devils food, we have used other flavors of chocolate cake mixes and had a variety of different results.

A tradition for our family is the cinnamon sugared pecans, we have done them every year that I can remember.  The smell is enough to get you in the holiday spirit, but the taste is even more delicious. Here is the recipe we used for the pecans: http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/snack/nut-snack/sugar-and-spice-glazed-pecans.html.

My personal favorite recipe of the holidays is my mom's recipe for maple walnut bars.  Once again it is a dessert that finds its way to my mouth every year, because I can't go without it during the holidays.  Here is my mom's recipe for her Maple Walnut Bars:

Recipe: 
Base-
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter softened

Filling-
3/4 cup sugar
2 T flour
3/4 cup pancake syrup
2 T butter (melted)
1 tsp maple flavor extract
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Glaze-
1-2 T milk
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp maple flavor extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x13" pan. Combine base ingredients.  Beat on low until crumbly.  Press into pan.  Bake for 12-14 minutes or until light brown.

In a small bowl, mix filling ingredients except for walnuts.  Mix until well blended.  Add nuts.  Pour filling over baked crust.  bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until set.  Cool completely.  Prepare glaze and drizzle over top.

Another traditional holiday recipe in our family is the peanut butter blossoms.  I think along with the cupcakes this recipe was made close to three times.  The problem with these is that they are gone way too quickly.  We almost forgot to take a picture because they were devoured so quickly.  If that doesn't give you enough prove they are good, then you will just have to try them for your self.  Here is the recipe we used for the peanut butter blossoms: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/peanut-butter-blossoms-cookie-exchange-quantity/78806839-e0bd-4710-8b10-82abbece7ce5.

Another traditional family recipe is our white chocolate raspberry bars.  They are perfect with a balance of white chocolate frosting and fruitful berries.  If you have never had these before I highly suggest trying them out because they are easy and delicious.  Here is the recipe for the bars: http://www.landolakes.com/recipe/1876/old-world-raspberry-bars.

This recipe is a new one that we had not yet tried before Christmas.  We knew that we wanted a fudge recipe so while searching we found a nutty yet delicious fudge recipe that is perfect for the holidays.  Here is the recipe for the White Pecan Praline Fudge: http://livingsweetmoments.com/white-pecan-praline-fudge-recipe/#_a5y_p=4617540.

Another new holiday baking recipe I found on Pinterest is a caramel version of a thumbprint cookie.  I have had the traditional version of thumbprint cookies before but had never tasted these before.  They were SO good and once again I highly recommend them, and i can tell you from the feedback we received from those we shared them with - they were a winner for them as well! Here is the recipe for the thumbprint cookies: http://www.cookingclassy.com/2013/12/salted-caramel-turtle-thumbprint-cookies/.

Finally the last thing we did was decorate our sugar cookies.  While attempting to make a royal icing, we got a beautiful textured frosting that decorated our cookies nicely ;)  If anyone has a royal icing recipe they have used before I would love to try it. 

 On Christmas Eve Eve we realized that we still had not planned what we would have to eat on Christmas Eve... While explaining our dilemma to a friend they suggested that we have Chinese (similar to a Christmas Story).  That was definitely a good idea.  We made teriyaki  and white rice to go with our orange chicken as well as our Chinese Meatballs.  The recipe we used for the meatballs is http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/saucy-asian-meatballs/ and the recipe we used for the chicken was ______.  We then sat down and watched the Christmas Story to end our perfect Christmas Evening.

To go along with our holiday baking, I would also like to share a family friend's recipe.  When we moved to Arizona my brother became friends with a boy in his class and when we got to know the family better we learned that his parents were raised in the UK.  I have enjoyed taking to his mom, Michaela, about some of her favorite and traditional British recipes, especially those for the holidays. This is a traditional Christmas finger food that we call sausage rolls.  She has made them for us twice but both times they were eaten before I got a picture...  Here is a photo (not mine) to show you what they look like.

Here is Michaela's recipe:

The recipe:

Shortcuts Pastry for quickness or Flaky Pastry - if you have time

Sausage Meat (I prefer the one with sage in it)

Grated Onion

Black Pepper

Egg and milk mixed for sealing and coating the pastry rolls

Directions:

Preheat oven to Gas Mark 6/400*F

1. Mix sausage meat, finely grated onion and pepper together.  Put to one side.

2. Make pastry - leave in fridge for about 30 minutes before rolling out into an oblong shape.

3. Brush egg wash along one long edge, and then place a long roll of sausage meat mix along the other edge. 

4. Roll up.  Cut to size.  Place on a cookie sheet.  Egg wash the tops.

5. Cook for 20-30 minutes depending on how big they are.

 To end off the blog I thought I would show you some pictures from a recent food field trip I took to visit Melody Larsen, who recently competed on the Food Networks Holiday Baking Championship.  Although she did not win the whole thing she did an incredible job and encouraged young bakers as myself to always pursue your dreams.  Melody is the owner of Sassy's Cafe and Bakery in Mesa, AZ.  She is just as nice as she was on TV and I encourage you to go and visit her cafe and taste her delicious food!

My sister enjoyed a delicious peppermint whoopee pie...

My brother enjoyed a triple chocolate cupcake in less than three minutes...

Last but not least I enjoyed a salted caramel cheesecake that I did not share with anyone...

That is it for this week I hope you had a fantastic holiday season and enjoyed all of my recipes.  Happy cooking and be looking for my next blog post!

BREAKFAST!

My favorite meal of the day, definitely has to be breakfast, whether it is Lucky Charms {aka The Best Thing Ever Created} or homemade crepes.  Every Sunday we always like to share some sort of family breakfast meal.  Everyone sleeps in {except for the chef ;)} and wakes up to the scents of breakfast.  Breakfast is also Izzy's favorite meal.

These past few weeks crepes have been the highlight.   My sister's college room mate loves crepes so we always make a few extras to send back with them.  My mom had noticed that one of the breakfast restaurants had made streusel crepes, so I took on the challenge and created my own.  I used Martha Stewart's basic crepe recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/335089/simple-crepes. 

For the filling I used a recipe from Taste of Home: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/strawberry-creme-crepes.  I then bought a can of cherry pie filling to top off my crepes.  You can use any recipe you want for the streusel topping, but I chose this recipe: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/streusel-topping-15.

To go along with our sweet crepe I made a savory crepe. It is a feta and spinach crepe.  It is so good and can even be reheated for a snack in the day time. Here is the recipe for the crepes: http://www.food.com/recipe/spinach-and-feta-crepes-20568. 

In order to create my own unique and different recipes I discovered the amazing things you can do with croissant rolls.  We made breakfast pizza, topped with scrambled eggs, fresh veggies, bacon and cheese.  Although there is no "pizza sauce" the cheese and eggs make up for it.  It is perfect with fruit and potatoes.

This past weekend in a rush to find a quick and simple recipe for breakfast {the night before} I decided on french toast and tiny egg casseroles.  I have done this french toast recipe before and I enjoyed it so much I knew it would be perfect to have again.  The egg casseroles have been something I have always had my eye on but hadn't tried before.  They were incredible and my dad ate most of them. :)  The best part about these recipes is that it does not take a whole lot of ingredients and they make a whole lot so they can be froze.  Even in the middle of the week they are still being eaten.  Here is the recipe for the french toast: http://www.justataste.com/easy-cinnamon-french-toast-sticks-recipe/ and here is the recipe for the egg casseroles: http://www.ellaclaireinspired.com/delicious-omelet-and-potato-breakfast/.

 Another of our breakfast recipes I made recently was potato waffles.  I am sure you have heard of potato pancakes before.  These are very similar but they are easier and better!  Of course because we just had Thanksgiving there are plenty of leftovers, including mashed potatoes.  Since I already had the mashed potatoes I was able to cook up the recipe in less than fifteen minutes.  The recipe is super easy to follow and the waffles will be gone before you know it.  Here is the recipe for potato waffles: http://www.justataste.com/cheesy-leftover-mashed-potato-waffles-recipe/.

Another big celebration during this time of year is my brother's birthday.  The one thing he asked for was to wake up to the smell of breakfast, so I made that happen...TWICE.  He asked for biscuits and gravy but I had remembered a recipe we had before that he LOVED, so I decided to surprise him.  The recipe is for Croque-Madame which is a french sandwich that includes ham, cheese, and an egg on top.  Besides finding the gruyere cheese, the recipe is actually pretty easy to make.  It takes a little bit of time but it is well worth the wait.  Here is the recipe for Croque-Madame: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/croque-madame-237589.













The next day I made him another breakfast meal that was his clue to his birthday gift.  I found an old arcade that I thought would be perfect for his birthday.  To give him a hint where we were going I made these  Pac man pancakes.  Everyone enjoyed the pancakes and they actually tasted good!  You can use any pancake recipe and simply die the batter yellow.  (Even the box mix!) I chose Martha Stewarts recipe.  Here is the recipe for the pancakes I used: http://www.marthastewart.com/338185/basic-pancakes.

If you are in a rush there are always other options for breakfast including Krispy Kreme's seasonal donuts that are perfect for the holidays.

That is it for this week but I encourage you to check out my Instagram page @izzabeleandcompany and be looking for my next blog post about Arizona restaraunts.

Turkey Day {aka Thanksgiving}

We have officially begun the holiday season! It is a busy time of year but I am hoping to bake as much as I can over the next few weeks.  I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Living in Arizona, while the rest of the family is back in Illinois, can be difficult around the holidays.  However, we were still able to carry on most of those traditions including the big Thanksgiving meal.    However before we began a crazy day of cooking we enjoyed a delicious brunch. For brunch I made a Pumpkin French Toast Casserole.  In order to reduce the amount of things that actually had to be baked on Thanksgiving day, I prepared the casserole ahead of time.  The night before, I put together all the ingredients so I could put it in the oven quickly before we began the day.  I was able to wake up at 8:30, pop it in the oven, and enjoy a nice brunch before baking. Here is the recipe for the casserole: http://www.littlespicejar.com/pumpkin-french-toast-casserole/.

Before we began the cooking I went out to my wildflower garden and was able to put together a beautiful bouquet of flowers to use as the centerpiece for our Thanksgiving table. They were the perfect colors for Thanksgiving. 

Oh and Cleo decided to help too...  

The Thanksgiving meal included the turkey, green bean casserole, brown butter mashed potatoes, the Pioneer Woman's soul sister (taters), pumpkin creme cheese bread, stuffing, and pumpkin pie.  All of these recipes were very good and not to difficult to make.  

However the best part about Thanksgiving was when my sister offered to help me cook the meal.  Since she is in college she does not get to experience all of my fantastic cooking, so it was a lot of fun having her help me put together our Thanksgiving dishes.  The total preparation time for our meal was probably around 4 1/2 hours.  It was a little difficult managing my time because all of the recipes have different baking times and settings, but we got it done and it all tasted sooo good.

So the turkey was bought on Monday at our local Fry's, frozen.  We were a little worried it would not be thawed in time for Thursday, but we were able to make it just in time.  Although we did have to stick it in a cool water bath early on Thursday.  I opted not to brine my turkey, however I did use the Pioneer Woman's recipe for Turkey.  I had watched the episode where she used this recipe and wanted to try it out myself.  Here is the recipe I used for the turkey: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/roasted-thanksgiving-turkey-recipe0.html.

Along with the turkey we made three sweet recipes.  One of the recipes I used was found on Pinterest.  It is for creme cheese filled pumpkin bread.  I would highly recommend this recipe and it would be very delicious for breakfast.  It did take a few extra minutes than the recipe called for in my oven.  Here is the recipe for the bread: http://www.averiecooks.com/2014/08/cream-cheese-filled-pumpkin-bread.html. 

Of course my favorite part of Thanksgiving is the potatoes.  I chose my favorite mashed potatoes recipe (originally from Pinterest) to use on Thanksgiving.  They were fantastic and the leftovers are perfect for many different recipes including Potato Waffles, which is the recipe I will be using this weekend.  Here is the recipe for the browned butter mashed potatoes: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/browned-butter-mashed-potatoes.

 Another recipe included in our meal was sweet potato casserole.  My mom always makes this dish and uses her own recipe, however this year she decided to try something a little different.  She used the Pioneer Woman's recipe called Soul Sweet (taters).  It is very good and once again is perfect as leftovers and can be eaten anytime of the day, including breakfast!  Here is the recipe for the Pioneer Woman's version of sweet potato casserole: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/soul-sweet-taters-step-by-step-recipe/.

Although it is not necessarily the most favorite dish of Thanksgiving, my family and I still felt it was necessary to include stuffing.  I am not a huge fan of stuffing, so I decided to try a new recipe I found on Pinterest.  I figured it would be good, considering it was named "Best Ever Stuffing".  It was actually very good.  Here is the recipe for the stuffing: http://www.chef-in-training.com/2014/11/best-ever-stuffing/.

Another must for the holiday meal is green bean casserole.  This is my oldest sister's favorite dish of the day.  We generally just use the recipe off the back of the green bean can, but I thought it would be fun to try a new recipe.  My sister panicked when we had to actually make the cream of mushroom soup.  To her surprise this recipe was delicious and ten times better than the can.  However, I did choose to use canned green beans instead of fresh.  It was very very good.  Here is the recipe for the green bean casserole also found on Pinterest: http://www.thenovicechefblog.com/2013/11/the-best-green-bean-casserole/.

Last but not least was the pumpkin pie.  I did slack off on the pie and chose to just use the can recipe. It was just as good and took less time than other recipes.  I did get a little crazy and put a fancy crust across the top. With the help of my sister we were able to get it done in less than fifteen minutes.  I used refrigerated pie crust and cut out tiny leaves which I then used to decorate the crust.  If you have a leave cutter you can save lots of time...

Overall the meal was delicious with lots of sweet, salty, and flavor!  I got ten thumbs up from my family, so I would say it was a success.

Even college students have big appetites...

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, friends, and food.  Be looking for my next few blog posts before the holidays with lots of delicious recipes. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram and check out our Etsy over the weekend.  We will have a 20% off coupon for small business Saturday and Cyber Monday! Use code: shopsmall20.  Happy holidays and happy baking! 

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