Daffodillies

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I love food.  I also love things of beauty and when you combine the two... shebang!  (And a bunch of other interjections, as in wowza! and holy smokes!)

This recipe is absolutely perfect for Easter and you'll end up looking like this amazing baker when you bring these out to the table.  I mean really, who else makes food that ends up looking like flowers?  Okay, unless you're a cupcake or cake decorator... which I am most assuredly NOT. 

But between you and me, these are not so hard.  

Pinky swear.

Daffodillies

Ingredients

1 tube (12 ounces) refrigerated buttermilk biscuits

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon dill weed
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
Dash salt
Dash white pepper

Directions

Separate each biscuit into three equal layers. Place 1 in. apart on greased baking sheets. With a kitchen shears or sharp knife, cut eight slits a third of the way toward center to form petals. Make a deep thumbprint in the center of each.

In a small bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Place heaping teaspoonfuls of creamed cheese mixture in the center of each biscuit. 

Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.

** See?  Told ya it was easy.  These will disappear really fast from the bread basket, so be prepared!

Until next time, here's to more smoochin' in the kitchen!

  

Minty Irish Chocolate Cream Pie

Top o' the evenin' to you!

Yes, it's still St. Patrick's Day for a few more hours (so technically it's St. Patrick's Night) so I thought I'd hop over here and share what we feasted on for dessert tonight.

May I present Minty Irish Chocolate Cream Pie?!

Oh my delicious goodness gracious.  This is chocolately, it's minty, it's so decadent!  In other words, it's scrumdidlyumptious.

 

(Ok, I really need a light box, right?  Honey...)

Ready to give 'er a whirl?

Ingredients:

• 1 graham cracker crust
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cup milk
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cup Cool Whip
• 18 peppermint patties
• green food coloring 

Directions:

•  Combine sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt in a medium sauce pan; gradually stir in milk.
• Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until at a full rolling boil.  (This took a while on my stove.) Boil and stir 1 minute.  Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla.
• Pour into crust; carefully press plastic wrap directly onto pie filling.  Cool; refrigerate 6 hours.  (Oh, yeah.  Six hours, baby.)
• Shortly before serving, remove wrappers from patties (duh, right?).  Remove plastic wrap from pie (yup, duh again.).
• Cut 9 patties in half; place cut side down at outer edge of pie filling forming a scalloped edge.
• Finely chop remaining patties, fold into Cool Whip with green fool coloring. 
• Spread on top of pie and serve immediately.
• Refrigerate leftovers.
 

This is so good, but so rich, so be careful!  I am a pie lover and I can handle onle the smallest sliver of this one.  But oh, good golly is it ever worth it!

Christmas Recipes

Oh my goodness.  The last several weeks have been such a blur of kitchen goodness and I haven't been able to get here to share with you!  I've wanted to, gotten so close to the keyboard a couple of times and have been dragged away as I'm screaming out But. I. Must. Blog. About. This!

Now I have some serious making up to do.

I have been cooking and baking and baking and cooking and now I just want to wallow around in all of the leftovers, making everyone else eat all the fudge and cookies so that I can still fit into my pants.

Here are some of the recipes we tried in the month of December:

Baking

Almost a Candy Bar
Chocolate Raspberry Bars
Double Chocolate Biscotti
Cranberry Orange Scones

Cooking

Vegetable Lasagna - Christmas dinner
Sausage and Peppers Lasagna - Christmas dinner
Pasta e Fagioli soup - Christmas Eve dinner

I'll share these recipes later, but if you don't want to wait, just click on the link and they'll take you right to where you need to go.  Most of them are Taste of Home Recipes (again, one of my favorite recipe sources), so they're almost guaranteed to be awesomely delicious.

But my absolute, hands-down favorite thing we made for Christmas dinner was the Caprese Skewers that I found on Pinterest.  Oh. My. Stinkin'. Gosh.  Seriously, the easiest thing I've ever made and they were perfect Christmas colors.

You must try these.  You must.  No seriously, do it.  You don't even need a freakin' recipe!!

I will be back in a while and fill you in on the rest of the recipes if you don't want to click on the links up there.

Enjoy the rest of your day and don't forget to smooch in the kitchen!

Thanksgiving Menu and the Amazing Bread Machine Cinnamon Roll Recipe

I don't know about you, but we're just emerging from a turkey-induced coma over here.  We've been wanting to post, but as soon as we'd get near the computer, our eyes would glaze over and the drooling would begin again in earnest.

I thought I'd give you a run-down on what was put out on our enormous farm-house dining room table this year.  Our table was literally groaning with food.  Even our kids looked at the spread and said, "That's a lot of food."  If they say that, then you know that you'd better have elastic waist pants on.

For Breakfast:

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

We got the party started early!  I made cinnamon roll dough in the bread machine and then made them the usual way the day before.  I'll share the recipe in just a sec.

For Dinner:

(by Paco and Jamie)

The turkey...  (angels are singing) 
Mashed potatoes
Homemade stuffing
Baked Apples
Pumpkin Roll (shared on Jamie's "mama-blog" last fall)
Two Pumpkin Pies

(by Rosie, Paco's amazing mamacita)

Corn souffle (must. get. this. recipe.)
Green salad with blueberries, mushrooms, walnuts and a vinaigrette
Cranberry jello
Peach Pie

Can you see why we haven't posted in a while?

Paco had been planning the turkey for weeks now.  He was drooling over the Food Network magazine and researching on-line how to make "his" turkey.

He's about as bad as the dad on the movie "A Christmas Story."

Seriously. 

He debated grilling, roasting, brining, or smoking it.  In the end, the poor, poor turkey was injected with fluid and smoked on the grill.  My heart went out to that turkey.  I can't imagine how bloated it felt.  Um, actually, I can. 

In the end, is was perfectly delicious.  That turkey's death was not in vain.

Now, for the cinnamon roll recipe...  Ready?

Ingredients

3/4 cup water

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 t. vanilla

3 cups all-purpose flour

6 T. sugar

1/4 cup softened butter

1 t. salt

2 T. milk

1 1/2 t. yeast

*Filling*

1/4 cup butter, melted

2/3 cup brown sugar, mixed with 2 t. cinnamon

*Icing*

3 T. butter

1 t. vanilla

3 T. hot water

2 cups confectioner's sugar

Directions

In bread machine, add ingredients according to manufacturer's suggested order (dry ingredients first, liquid second, yeast last) and set on dough cycle.

Turn onto lightly floured board.  Roll out to a rectangle about 10 x 18 inches.  Brush with melted butter, sprinkle with cinnamon-brown sugar mixture.

Starting at long end, carefully roll up, pinching seams together.  Measure and cut 1-inch slices.  Place cut side up on a buttered baking sheet.  Cover with a slightly dampened towel and let rise in a warm place for 45-1 hour (or until doubled in size). 

Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes or until browned. 

For the icing, melt butter in a medium saucepan; add hot water and vanilla.  Remove from heat then stir in confectioner's sugar.  Add more hot water, 1/2 to 1 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency.  Drizzle over warm rolls.

(Makes 12)

Loosen your belt, sit back and thank the good Lord for cinnamon rolls.

Then it's time to start thinking about the Christmas menu.

I'm linking up over at Skip to My Lou and Permanent Posies today.  If you're hopping over from there, let me know.  We're just getting started blogging over here so we love visitors!  You can always become a follower or join our email list.  Thanks for stopping by!