Sunday, February 21, 2010

Valentines Day--Banana Cream Pie

For Valentines Day I made one of Steve's favorites--Banana Cream Pie!
the ingredients...

graham cracker crust:
2 1/2 cups of crushed graham crackers
1/4 cup of melted butter
1/4 cup mushed bananas


1/3 cup sugar

after crushing graham crackers, blend together the remainder of the ingredients in a food processor

bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes (until golden brown)

chill the crust

filling:
1 large package vanilla pudding mix (prepare as directed)



4-5 bananas sliced and coated with lemon juice
cool-whip



DELISH!!

Friday, February 12, 2010

Shelley's Birthday Cherry Cobbler

For my good friend Shelley's Birthday I made her request--Cherry Cobbler!
Having never made cherry cobbler before, I was excitedly up to the challenge! I checked through my cookbooks and some online blogs for recipe ideas. I finally came up with a combination of Pioneer Woman's Cobbler Crust and Cooking Light Cookbook's Cherry Filling!
2 pounds of fresh sweet cherries! Yummm!!!
Cleaned up!
Pitted by hand (this was also a learning experience--but I was able to come up with an at home pitter--the tip of my carrot peeler!) I recommend wearing gloves because the cherry juice is messy and will stain your hands.
This is funny---I really wanted a close up picture of some cherries, so I kept trying and trying (as you can see above it was quite blurry). So I finally got Steve to come over & help me with the camera settings...
And look--perfectly shiny cherries!
2 pounds of pitted cherries
Pits!!! After pitting, (and I forgot to take pictures on this step), you combine the cherries with 1¼ cup sugar, 4 tablespoons uncooked quick cooking tapioca, 1 ½ tablespoon lemon juice & 1/8 teaspoon salt...Pour into a pie Pyrex dish & set aside for at least 15 minutes...
Next part--crust! Combine 2 cups Flour, ¼ teaspoons Salt & 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder. Add ¼ cups Shortening & 4 Tablespoons Butter...
Cut the butter & shortening into the flour mixture (you can use a fancy pastry blender, but I just used a fork)
Mix together 1 Egg & ½ cup of milk
Pour into flour mixture...
And stir with a fork until smooth (and not sticky)...
Drop clumps of the dough mixture onto the cherry mixture...
Until it is completely covered with the dough. Brush with milk and sprinkle with 2-3 tablespoons of sugar...
Preheat oven to 425 degrees & bake for 30 minutes (should be golden on top) and you can see the cherry sauce bubbling. We let it sit for 30 minutes or so and it was still a bit runny. You should probably let it sit a bit longer just to be sure!

For an even yummier cobbler, eat with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Warning: Do not eat too much because you will have a belly ache! But it is totally worth it!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Sprinkles Rack!

For Christmas my amazing husband got me this spice-less rack! I knew that I wanted to use it for SPRINKLES!
I still need more of some kinds of sprinkles, but isn't it just the cutest?
I really can't take credit for the idea...Bakerella did this a while back on her blog :)