Pictures Added

My apple pie and bbbb pictures are posted :) finally!

Quiche!

I love quiche! This is the first one I've ever made. I told my parents I'd bring a quiche for day after Thanksgiving breakfast. I then realized I'd never made a quiche before. So I made this one from a recipe on allrecipes.com. I used turkey bacon instead of bacon bacon and it was delicious! I put it in my own pie plate to make it look like I even made the crust... but I didn't. It's a good trick though don't you think?

Also, I made chocolate peanut butter cookies that somehow missed having any pictures taken. They were chocolate on the outside and peanut butter filling on the inside. I overcooked one batch, so they came out a tad too crunchy, but the rest came out very nicely. They are kind of a time consuming cookie because you have to make two sets of dough and then do some manual labor to get them mushed into one cookie.

This weekend's project will be spritz cookies because Mom gave me her cookie press and I am dying to try it. Does anyone have a good standby recipe? there is one in my Pillsbury "complete baking" book, but I've never made it before.

Happy baking,
Mrs. Curlyhairedmegan!

Double the pleasure... by doubling the cocoa ...

I made the bars tonight, which came out more like cake. It's delicious though! I used just regular flour and skipped the nuts and chocolate chips. I did make an oops and put in a half cup of cocoa powder instead of a quarter. It tasted great though, no complaints here! I took pictures and will post soon. I had two large bananas and used those, but added a bit of apple sauce because the bananas weren't super ripe so I thought it might need some more moisture.

I might want to try this recipe in a loaf pan instead, because the consistency is much more like a cake than a bar.

Did anyone other than Jess and Steve try the gluten free version?

~mrs. curlyhairedmegan

We made bars!

Last weekend while Jess and I were at her parent's house we made the Black-Bottomed Banana Bars. I had the bars while visiting a previous time but was not aware what the recipe actually contained.

We used fairly fresh bananas so there we definite banana pieces in the batter. However that didn't end up making any difference in the end product.

I found the recipe to be very similar to how I have made banana bread in the past with the addition of chocolate. I can see myself using this recipe in the future when I want to use old bananas but don't want plain banana bread.

We layered the batter so it had definite chocolate and white layers. We added chocolate chips to the dark layer and white chocolate chips to the top layer. This was a nice way to add a little more chocolate to the recipe.

The bars were a hit with everyone in the house and were quickly devoured.

Pictures to come once I get them from Jess' mom.

Jess and I baking:


Mixing it up:


The final product:

here's the picture from the magazine for this month's recipe

December Recipe

Dear Readers,
It's December. It's time for a new recipe.

It's also holiday time. There are many different traditions, including ones of baking cookies and other holiday goodies. I know I had a shout-out in a previous post requesting a recipe for cookies. I do acknowledge this shout-out, but I've decided to post something different.

This recipe is baked in the oven, but not what you normally would think of when you are thinking of baking. However, this recipe will satisfy every taste-bud and it's a sure winner.

Here is the recipe from my hero Rachael Ray.

Sticky Spiced-Apricot Meatloaf
2 slices sandwich bread, chopped
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons apricot jam
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 pounds ground beef
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
7 dried apricots, chopped
2 teaspoons curry powder
Salt
Chopped parsley, for sprinkling

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, soak the bread in the milk. In another small bowl, whisk together the apricot jam and Worcestershire sauce.

2. In a large bowl, add the meat, almonds, apricots, and curry powder. Add the bread-milk mixture, season with salt and mix together with your hands. Transfer to a loaf pan and brush with the jam mixture. Bake for 1 hour. Pour off the fat and let cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pan. Sprinkle the parsley on top.

Variations:
- use ground turkey instead of ground beef meat
- use another dried fruit and another jam
- use allspice instead of curry powder

This recipe comes out very moist, flavorful, and just down-right delicious!