Recipes – Page 7 – Thimbleanna

Adventure & Giveaway

159 Comments / March 28, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Bunnies, Recipes

I had a little baking adventure this weekend. For a long time I’ve wanted to buy a kitchen scale – mostly because I see so many recipes on non-US blogs that give ingredients by weight, rather than volume. I discussed a scale purchase with TheManoftheHouse and he poo-poo’d the idea. His reasoning was that my culinary skills have survived just fine so far and therefore I didn’t really need one. So, I did what any self-respecting wife who really wants something would do — I went and got one anyway and “snuck” it into the kitchen.

TheManoftheHouse walked into the kitchen, just after I had installed the batteries. (Busted!) “So, how does it work” he said. “See for yourself” I replied and I placed the stick of butter that says 4 ounces on the scale. That was that. He was sold. (He’s easy.)

Now to try it out. A few weeks ago, my blog buddy Anne in Scotland (you know how I love me my Scottish bloggers!) shared some cookie recipes and I really wanted to try them. I decided Anne’s recipe would be perfect for the inagural run of the new scale. First up was 3 ounces of sugar. I took a wild guess and scooped up 1/2 cup of sugar and poured it on the scale.

A little bit too much, so I removed some until it hit 3. I’ve read some volume-to-weight converts say that they think measuring by weight is more accurate and easier than by volume. I’ll definitely concede that it’s more accurate, but it doesn’t seem easier to me. Scooping up a cup just seems easier than putting an ingredient on the scale and then adding or removing to hit the right weight. It’s not a big deal though, just different.

Next up, was the flour. The recipe called for 5 ounces, so I guessed with a cup of flour. This time it wasn’t quite enough.

I was beginning to feel like goldilocks here! Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything else to weigh — I’m betting I would have found the just right size on the third attempt!

Anyway, I made Anne’s Melting Moments. TheManoftheHouse gave them his stamp of approval, and he’s pretty picky about his cookies. I wasn’t too sure about the cherries, so I saved one without a cherry and pressed an M&M into it when it came out of the oven. It wasn’t necessary — I loved them just the way Anne’s recipe suggested.

I also made Anne’s Mars Bars Cakes. Anne suggested that what they call a Mars Bar is what we call a Milky Way, so that’s what I used. I molded them into little nests and added some jellybean eggs. They’re yummy — they taste like chocolate rice krispy cookies.

Thanks for sharing your recipes Anne! And, if you’re a US cook and you’ve been on the fence about a kitchen scale, jump in. I heard on a radio cooking show several months ago that within the next five years all cookbooks in the US will be published with weights in them, so you might as well be ready!

Ok, now that you’ve suffered through my cooking adventure, we’ll get to why you’re really here. You’ve all been so fantastic to comment and give me lots of project love, so I thought we should have a little giveaway. How ’bout a bunny giveaway — it’s been awhile since we’ve had one.

Make Life by Sweetwater is my new fabric crush, so I’ve made a Make Life bunny. He’s excited to find a new home — and he’ll be bringing along a 1/2 yard security blanket piece of my favorite Make Life print.

To be entered for the drawing, there are six things you have to do. Just kidding — I’m not going to make you touch your toes, stand on your head, or sell your soul. Just leave a comment. Easy peasy.

I’ll have TheRandomManoftheHouseGenerator guess a number next Monday — so you have until 12:00 p.m. EST next Sunday, April 4th to enter. Good Luck!

XOXO,
Anna

Brownies

75 Comments / February 26, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Recipes

Man…can you believe we’re at the end of February already? Pretty amazing. I see a lot of people writing about how sick they are of winter and they just want to see spring. Not me. I Love the snow. I love being holed up at home working on projects. Fortunately for me, winter is hanging on around here — we’ve had snow flurries all day. Just like I like it. I’ve been holed up working on the monogram quilt. I’m making good progress, but I can’t show you ’cause SweetiePie has informed me that she doesn’t want to see it again until it’s done. She wants to be surprised. I would have loved to completely surprise her, but I had to have her opinion on a few things, to be sure that I didn’t take a wrong turn.

Anyway, I wish you lived next door. I’d invite you to trudge through the snow for some tea and brownies.

(Hey – wanna see my Wizard of Oz tea set? There was an occasional little boy tea party when the boys were little, but it’s been sitting around neglected since then.)

When I was little, my very favorite treat from the bakery was a brownie with icing on it. Then, it seems that brownies with icing fell out of favor, or something, because they were harder to find. For years, I searched for a recipe similar to those bakery brownies, but couldn’t really find one. When the boys were growing up, I would try a new recipe and then fall back to the old faithful brownie mixes. It’s really hard to beat a good brownie mix — they’re nice and fudgey, just like I like them.

But a year or two ago, I found a recipe that I really like. Fudgey, with nuts and with a good, chocolaty frosting. I’ll give you the recipe while you’re here having tea with me, ’cause that’s what we do — we swap recipes.

Frosted Brownies

Brownies:
1/2 cup shortening*
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 medium eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup broken pecans

In small saucepan, heat shortening, cocoa and butter until butter and shortening are completely melted. Mix well and set aside to cool.

In small mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In large mixing bowl, beat eggs with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar and mix to combine, then add cooled chocolate mixture and vanilla. Add sifted ingredients and mix well. Fold in pecans.

Pour batter into well greased 8×8 baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes.

Ten minutes before the brownies come out of the oven, prepare the
Frosting:

4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In small saucepan, heat the butter, milk, and cocoa until butter is melted and mixture is bubbly. Remove from heat, stir well and add powdered sugar. Add vanilla and beat well. If frosting is too thick to spread, add a little more milk.

Pour frosting on top of brownies while they are still hot from the oven. Cool completely in pan and then cut into 16 squares.

While you’re waiting on the brownies to cool, scrape the frosting bits from the bowl, mix with a few rogue pecans and then suck them off of the spatula. Come on … you know you want to!

Ooops, I couldn’t wait for you to get here, so I took a bite. Sorry.

I probably should have asked before I made you these brownies…what’s your brownie pleasure? Caky or Fudgy? Nuts or no nuts? Frosting or no frosting? Chocolate Chunks or no chocolate chunks? (If you’re a chunky, no frosting, no nuts guest, next time I’ll try to make you these yummy looking brownies that Anne just posted today!)

XOXO,
Anna

*I know that some of you are shortening-o-phobes ’cause it’s not exactly healthy. Here’s my take on it … you’ll probably live longer than me. But those extra years aren’t at the beginning of your life — they’re at the end. The end, when you’re drooling and don’t know your name. In the meantime, I enjoyed these brownies during my shortened, happy life! ;-P
(And please don’t be mean to me and my shortened life in the comments — it’s a joke!)

Brown Rice Pilaf

30 Comments / January 21, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Recipes

Well Hello Boys and Girls! How is your MiddleofJanuary going? Slow? It must be lovely for those of you in the southern hemisphere. I’m sitting here dreaming of your warm weather and sunny skies. It’s cold and dreary here and I’ve been occupying my time by spending too much time on the computer and not enough time making anything that I can show you. Sooo…..I’ll give you one of our go-to, very favorite side dish recipes. MeMum found this years ago and we all love it. (Remind me one day to show you MeMum’s recipe clippings — they’re just a teeny bit obscene!)

This brown rice pilaf is fun to make and it goes with darn near everything. And it beats the heck out of BrownRiceInABox ’cause it’s WAY more healthy.

Brown Rice Pilaf

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup brown rice
2 cups boiling broth or consomme
Salt and Pepper
1/3 cup chopped parsley or green onions
2 – 4 Tablespoons diced red or green pepper

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute garlic and onions until tender. Add rice and saute 3 – 4 minutes. Turn into greased, shallow 2 1/2 quart casserole dish.

Add boiling broth and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Stir well. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 1/4 hours or until rice is tender.

Stir in parsley and green pepper. Fluff mixture with a fork. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

And I’ll tell you a little secret.

Shhhh.

Come a little closer.

Brigette has a fantastic Spanish Rice recipe that is made in a very similar manner to this brown rice pilaf. You should run over to her blog and beg her for it — it’s the perfect side dish for a mexican dinner.

And with that I’m outta here! I have a sock that’s been patiently waiting for me all week. Have a good weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

Christmas Cookies

51 Comments / December 21, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Holidays, Recipes

Wow! Thanks for all the fun Christmas Top Ten lists. I had a great time reading through them all. I hope you are all enjoying your top ten and are well on your way to being ready for the big day!

It was a good weekend here in ThimbleannaLand. I had a good time in the kitchen and made my Christmas cookies. Here’s what the family will be snacking on this year:

Lemon Gems. Buttery and lemony — and cute!

Raisin Filled Pockets. I thought I was using the old family recipe this year, but it was different. They’re good, but they flattened out an awful lot.

Chocolate Caramel Delights. Chocolate and Caramel. I have nothing else to say.

Chocolate Dipped Shorbread. I used my fun little “cookie writer” that I previously blogged about here.

Grandma Hill’s Browned Butter Cookies. We’ve had them every year since I was a little girl. And we don’t always wait until Christmas to make them, ’cause we LOVE them.

Angel Slices. Our number one Christmas cookie. They go so fast, we have to make twice as many as the other cookies.

January is going to be extra painful this year. But, it will be SO worth it!

XOXO,
Anna

Muffins and Veteran’s Day

36 Comments / November 11, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Recipes

Not much happening here in ThimbleannaLand this week. This seems to be a bit of a recoup and plan week. There’s so much holiday inspiration popping up all over in blogs and magazines and I’ve just been taking a little extra time to read and decide how to go about organizing any projects I might want to do this year. I feel so unorganized!

Anyway, there’s definitely been NO time for sewing or knitting of any kind. I spent ALL weekend cleaning up the leaves in the yard. It was beautiful out there, so I almost didn’t mind all the work. My ribs are a little sore though from all that raking! So, you know how it goes around here — when I don’t have much going on, you get a recipe. This is my old stand-by, very favorite recipe for bran muffins. Someone gave me this recipe years ago, when I was a newlywed and I’ve just about worn it out. The fabulous thing about this recipe is that the batter keeps in the refrigerator, tightly covered for up to six weeks. I love to make up a big batch and then just bake one muffin while I’m getting ready for work in the morning. Then I can grab it and go. Yum, Yum!

Bran Muffins

3 cups sugar
1 cup + 2 Tbsp. shortening
4 eggs
1 quart buttermilk
4 cups Kelloggs All Bran
5 cups flour
5 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups Nabisco 100% Bran
2 cups boiling water
1 – 2 cups raisins (optional)

Pour hot water over Nabisco Bran. Set aside. Cream shortening, eggs, and sugar. Add buttermilk and Kelloggs All Bran. Add flour, soda and salt. Fold in Nabisco Bran and raisins.

(I included this picture with the spatula, because we haven’t been able to find Nabisco Bran Buds in the grocery store, so I’m not sure if they make it anymore. Last time I made this recipe, I substituted Kellogs Bran Buds, and it seemed to work just fine, although, I adjusted the water a bit. I wanted you to be able to sort of see how thick the batter should be when you’re done mixing it. And, I apologize to those of you not in the US, you probably won’t be able to find these cereals at all!) Bake at 400 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes. (Or, when I’m just making one, I turn the oven on, put the muffin in the cold oven, and bake for about 22 minutes.) Voilà!

Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day. For all those of you who serve, thank you for your bravery and sacrifice. Jean has a wonderful post tonight that you might want to check out. And I’m sure you probably know that if you’re a veteran, Applebee’s will give you a free meal tomorrow — what a nice tribute.

Happy Veteran’s Day!

XOXO,
Anna