Hodgepodgin’ It Today

Hey there, y’all. 🙂

How was your 4th?  Cool I hope. 🙂

Today’s eats are mostly new ways of making things I’ve already blogged about before (recently)…but they were so go I want to share and give y’all some different ideas of how to use them.  🙂

Since we last met…

So last time I wrote about that Snicker’s cake but we hadn’t cut into it yet and I was the only one who’d tasted it (anytime I make something for other people I make a little mini tester to make sure it’s ‘other people’ worthy). Papa B said it was the best cake he’s ever had. Thank you, Papa bear. 🙂

A couple of days later I wasn’t feeling peanut-y so I scraped off the toppings and poured some warm leftover ganache over it. OH MY GOODNESS this was even better. 🙂  This is my new plain chocolate cake recipe right here. I can’t image ever needing another one.  🙂

That cake was for Father’s Day and of course Papa B wanted chicken fried steak. This was my first time using gfJules for frying. It was fantastic.  Another 3-pointer for Jules. 😉  Isn’t that piece of meat an interesting shape?

Yacht Rock is back. 🙂

So are snow cones. Wedding Cake FTW.  🙂 When we were little in the summertime…at the bay…every day at 3pm Mema or Pappy would take us to the only little store for miles and we could get a treat. 3pm because it was after their nap time. You know…be quiet while we sleep and you can have a treat. 🙂  I always got one of those old school three flavor snow cones in the paper cup with the pointy bottom.  A couple of times a week now we go get snow cones…at you guessed it…3pm – ish.  🙂  We weren’t doing it that way on purpose at all but then realized we always went at the time. 🙂

Back to the eats…the next week a neighbor brought over a box of fresh Fredericksburg peaches so I made some preserves with them and Mama B said she wanted a peach cake or cobbler.

So I used this recipe and subbed the peaches for the blueberries.  It was another win. 🙂  And this my new go to yellow cake. Can’t imagine ever needing another one. The fam got to this before I could get a good pic.

 🙂

Made some individual lasagna and I used this recipe for bread to make garlic toast.  Instead of the butter in the dough though I used an equal amount of sour cream.  This was a huge win too and how I will be making it from now on.

😉

For the 4th I made some homemade banana pudding. I made the vanilla wafers and just subbed gfJules for the flour.  It worked great. I’ll add the wafer recipe at the end of the post.

So earlier this year I started a business.  This is how my car seats look when I leave the house now. Packages ready to drop off. 🙂  I’m loving it a lot but it takes a lot of energy which y’all know I struggle with.  It’s also a reason why blog posts are so sporadic right now.

The other reasons being…health and heat. It’s just so hot I don’t really feel like turning on the oven for baking more than once a week or so.  We’ve had heat advisories down here for like the last 2 weeks.

So anyway…that’s what’s going on here. Hope y’all are staying cool in your parts of the world. 🙂

See y’all soon.  🙂

Vanilla Wafers

1 1/3 cups Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/8 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1 stick soft Butter

1 Egg

4 tsp Vanilla

2 tbsp Milk

Directions

Oven 325*

Mix dry.

Add wet.

Mix well with spoon, hands, mixer. I used a wooden spoon.

Portion out dough balls.

Icebox for 30 minutes or freezer for 15.

Bake 15 – 17 minutes.

Cool on racks.

 

Homemade Caramel Sauce + Cake

Hey, y’all. 🙂

Let’s just get right to it today. 🙂

If you like caramel. Or snickers. Or chocolate. You’re going to want to get your grocery list ready as you read today. 🙂

First of all though Thank You. 🙂 Thank you for embracing my tiny little corner of the internet. Even though I’m pretty much only posting once a week and sometimes it’s like 10 days between posts right now…y’all keep reading and it means so much to me. Thank you. 🙂

Ok so have y’all ever tried to make homemade caramel sauce?  Has it been a complete disaster?

With the burning sugar and trying to get it to correct temp?

Yeah, me too. Until now.

So I was going to make a special father’s day treat for Papa B and it has a bunch of steps and ingredients.  I thought I’d put everything I needed on my grocery list but then got home and of course was missing an important ingredient. Caramel sauce.

SO…I tried this 5 minute microwave caramel sauce and it was to die for.

1 stick melted butter. 2 cups brown sugar. 1 cup cream.

All whisked up and into the microwave for 2 minute bursts.

Cook for 2 minutes at a time testing at the end of each 2 minute burst.  Just drop a little on a piece of wax paper. You’re going for the color next to the spoon. This took 6 minutes in my microwave.  Don’t actually stir it between the 2 minute bursts.  Just kind of swirl the bowl around real good a few times (I used an 8 cup glass Pyrex measuring cup).  Then just dip your spoon into the caramel to get a little out to test. Go by color not thickness. Trust me on this. It thickens up A LOT as it sits and cools down.  When it gets to the color by the spoon up there it will definitely still be more runny than you think it should be. DON’T cook it more or you’ll end up making caramel chew instead of sauce.

After 6 minutes.

Even if the next recipe hadn’t turned out…all of the work would have been worth it just for this liquid ‘gold’.  It’s that good.  And easy.  And no burnt sugar ruining pans and smelling up the place.  🙂

So then it was time to make the actual treat.

Snickers cake. 🙂

I followed Brown Eyed Baker’s recipe just subbing gfjules for the flour.

Look at my pics and captions but follow that link and go to her site for the actual recipe. 🙂

Chocolate cake cooling down while I get started on the other steps.

This cake recipe is unreal. Even if you don’t like Snickers or any of these other toppings the cake recipe alone is worth making and toping with a toping you do like. The only thing I changed from her recipe is I didn’t use coffee as we’re not coffee people. I just used an equal amount of hot water.

 😉

Up next nougat…

Sugar. Evaporated milk. Butter. Vanilla.

Marshmallow cream. Peanut butter.

Stirred up and cooling down while moving on to the next step.

Me too, Hill. Me too. 🙂

Like this crazy but oh so worth it step-y cake recipe. 😉

On to the next step…

Cream cheese. Butter. Powdered sugar. Caramel sauce. Vanilla.

Caramel buttercream icing. Yum. 🙂

Let’s put this cake together now shall we?

Topping station. I forgot to take pics of the last bowl on the right. It’s chocolate ganache. Just Hershey’s bars and heavy cream.

Completely cooled cake.

Covered in nougat.

Covered in caramel sauce.

Covered in caramel buttercream.

Topped with salted peanuts and drizzled with chocolate ganache.

Devine. 🙂

And proving yet again there is very little you can’t make gluten – free.  But you should definitely use gfjules to get you there.  It just works. Perfectly. Every time.  🙂  And no…since someone did ask…I do not have any affiliation with gfjules at all. In fact depending on their political leanings they might wish I’d never post their site here at all. But I paid for the products and this is my space. I’ll post about them whenever I want.  The main reason I keep making sure the link is posted is because until you try it and compare it to whatever you’re using now you can’t imagine how much easier this flour will make your gluten – free baking life.  It’s never hit and miss and the taste is second to none. Gluten – free is hard in this gluten – filled world.  I want to do my little part to help make it a little easier for those of us who have no choice.

Anyway…

Do y’all have big father’s day plans?

Happy father’s day to the best dad 2 girls could ever ask for.  Papa B, you’re the best and as I always say…we hit to the super duper parental lottery with you and Mama B.  🙂

Y’all have a great weekend and I’ll see y’all soon.  🙂

 

 

Blueberry Streusel – ish

Hey, y’all. 🙂

Hope y’all are well and dry. 🙂

This is a park I pass all the time.  It looks like a lake.  There’s also a section that’s for pets and the water was so high it washed all the chairs and toys up against a fence.

Good thoughts for everybody suffering from all the floods in the area.

Since we last met…

Well first…

 🙂

Ok now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…

Do y’all remember how much I’ve raved about the InstaPot?

I used the InstaPot to make a batch of pintos. This was another pressure cooker hit. Perfect soft creamy beans in about and hour (and a half if you add in the prep time and the time it takes for the pot to pressure up and then down at that end.)

Memorial Day eats.

Celiac smores. 🙂  I mean really? What’s the point of the graham cracker anyway? 😉

Albuquerque’s pot fell off and broke. Pioneer Woman coffee mug to the rescue. This particular mug couldn’t match my kitchen more if it tried.

 😉

 

Now about that blueberry treat.  🙂

Do y’all have some summer fruit you’ve been trying to figure out how to use up?

Meet your solution. 🙂

1 cup softened butter. 1 1/4 cup sugar. Beaten for about 4 minutes.

Add vanilla. 2 eggs. 8oz soft cream cheese.

Beat til smooth.

Add 3 cups flour. I used gfjules of course but this is just a regular recipe and I didn’t adjust anything at all. Just swapped out the flour.  1 heaping tsp baking powder. 1 heaping tsp baking soda. 1/4 cup plus 3 tbsp milk. Beat til combined.

Spread half of mixture into a 9 X 13 pan.

Cover with  1 – 2 cups blueberries.

Top with rest of batter. It’s kind of thick. Spray your spatula with some Pam to help it spread more easily.

Pour 6 tbsp melted butter over batter. THEN (I didn’t get a pic of this but) mix together 3/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup flour and cinnamon to taste. Then sprinkle it over the butter.  Spread it around so the sugar / flour mixture soaks up the butter but do it gently so it doesn’t start mixing into the batter. You want it to remain it’s own layer so it bakes up kind crispy on top.

Bake at 350* for 35 – 45 minutes. It took 35 minutes in my convection oven.

This is a kinda step-y recipe but trust me it’s worth the work. 🙂

The whole thing was good but the cake part? I already have plans to try it as something completely different. I’ll share if it turns out.  🙂

Ok that’s all for now. See y’all soon. 🙂

 

 

 

Water Roux Bread + Catching Up

So hey there, y’all. 🙂

It’s been a while again.

I haven’t forgotten about this space. I just figure nobody wants to hear about pain after pain and health issue after issue all the time.

Plus I told y’all a while back I’m working on a project right now and it’s taking up so much of my focus.  I’m actually having a lot of fun with it and will probably share here at some point but it’s too early right now.

 🙂

So…I’ve cooked a few thing since the last time we met.

Now this first thing will probably freak some of y’all out so just move on to the next one. 😉

Mahi, gfJules, seasonings, egg / water dip.

Yep. That’s right crushed up puffy Cheetos.

So a few years ago I was watching Chopped on the Food network and if you’re not familiar with that show they give the contestants all kinds of weird ingredients and they have to turn it into something good.  On this one episode they gave them puffy Cheetos and one of the contestants used them as ‘fish stick’ breading.  I’d always wanted to try that.

A couple weeks ago I had 2 mahi fillets left over and a couple handfuls of Cheetos left in a bag and decided it was sign and to give it a try.

Again I know this freaking some of y’all out but I have to say…I’m gonna do this again.  It was pretty good.  🙂

 😉

Next up…

Posting this one just to say Barilla is without question the best gluten – free pasta I’ve had.  Even the non-celiacs in the house are eating this with zero complaints. What I love the most about this brand is that it doesn’t break down in the boiling water or become one big sticky clumpy mess. I’ve tried spaghetti, elbow and penne. They all held up perfectly.

We wouldn’t need bathroom laws if all these intollerant, hateful, @ssholes would stop raising equally intollerant, hateful @sshole kids.

On the same topic…human garbage for this week’s post = did y’all read this story about the human garbage in Dallas who followed the born and living life as her FEMALE birth gender lesbian into the women’s restroom just because she didn’t look / wasn’t dressed like a girl?

I truly hope there’s a special place in hell for all y’all coming out of the woodwork in support of these hate fueled bills.

On a side note…I pixied my hair the other day. I hope none of these @ssholes mistake me for a non-female.

On second thought…bring it on.  I’ve been needing some Gucci retail therapy and trust me…you’ll be buying when I get done with you. 😉

More cooking…

Y’all remember how I ordered a bunch of gfJules mixes a while back? Well Papa B loves the muffins.  He asked me if I’d make him a batch and I didn’t have any bananas or blueberries or apple sauce (all options for the recipe she includes with the mix) so I pureed up this can of Caramel Apple pie filling and used the required amount it in place of apple sauce.  It worked perfectly.

 🙂

Ok this is the main baking I want to share today…

Dry ingredients.

Liquid ingredients.

Mix dry and wet til combined. Then throw in butter and ‘knead’ for 5 minutes.

It’ll look like this.

Divide. Cover and rise til doubled.

Bake and eat. 🙂

If you followed the old blog or know me in real life you know one of my favorite homemade breads ever is Water Roux bread.  I’d made it so many times pre-celiac and then made it several times gluten – free with Cup4Cup. It was one of the few things I hadn’t tried yet with gfJules. Well that changed last week.  I used my regular recipe just using gfJules in place of flour and I also added some of that gluten – free dough enhancer I wrote about last time.

The verdict?

This is the best gluten – free bread ever. Period. Period. 😉

If you have gfJules flour try this. You won’t be sorry. 🙂  Even though I don’t normally put full recipes on here I’m actually going to stick the recipe at the end of this post…after the music.  Seriously.  Try it. 🙂

Ok that’s all for today. Hope y’all are doing well / have a great week and I’ll see you soon. 🙂

 

Water Roux Bread

for the roux:

6 oz Milk

1 1/2 oz Flour

Combine the milk and flour and cook over low to medium heat til it’s pudding consistency.  Let it cool to about 100*.

While it’s cooling measure the rest of the dry ingredients into mixing bowl.

6 oz Milk

16 oz Flour

2 tbsp Sugar

1 1/2 tsp Yeast

1 1/2 tsp Salt

4 tbsp Soft Butter

Heat up the remaining milk.

Then add it plus roux to dry ingredients.

Mix to combine.  It’ll look messy and way too thick. DON’T try to ‘fix’ it by adding liquid.

Trust me. Trust the process. 🙂

Now throw your softened butter into the bowl and start ‘kneading’ til smooth. 5 minutes.

Portion dough into pans and let rise til doubled.

When they’re ready to bake place them in a COLD oven.

Close the door and turn the oven to 350* and bake til brown and sounds hollow when tapped on bottom.

It took these small loaves about 30 minutes in my convection oven.

Full loaves take a good hour.  I don’t have great luck with full loaves of gluten – free bread so I usually do smaller loaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gluten – Free Shrimp Lasagna + Bubble Up

Hey, y’all. 🙂

It’s been a little while 🙁 so I’m just gonna jump in here.

 😉

So I did a little cooking this week.

Up first was some gluten – free dough / bread I needed for  garlic toast.  Of course I used gfjules flour and I tried out this Authentic Foods gluten – free dough enhancer.  I’ve only used it once but based on these results I’m a big fan.  Normally for my kitchen conditions I need to bake gluten – free bread in a pan for the support.  I did this loaf free form and it held up better than ever.  It has ginger as an ingredient and I was a little worried you’d be able to taste it but this had no added taste at all.

Next up…

Individual shrimp lasagna.  I used Heartland gluten – free lasagna noodles.

And this was the best thing I’ve made in ages.  I did most of it with an alfredo based sauce but I also did some with a rosa style sauce…alfredo sauce with a tiny bit of tomato sauce mixed in.  I used the bread to make garlic toast to go along with this meal.

While I was making the lasagna I decided to make a small pan of something I’d seen floating around for a while and always wanted to try but didn’t want to waste the ingredients on a full pan incase it was gross…bubble up.

I held back enough dough to make 7 little balls.  Put a small layer of rosa sauce in the bottom of the pan.  Scattered the dough balls.

Topped with shrimp.

Then more rosa sauce.

Then baked at 350* for about 30 minutes then topped with mozz and baked til bubble-y.  We all agreed this is a keeper and well worth the ingredients for a full pan.  I was worried about the dough being weird when baked this way but it was perfect.  The bottoms were kinda crispy while the tops absorbed the sauce and were really soft and delish.  The original recipe calls for spaghetti sauce and that’s how I’ll make the next pan.

Way to go, y’all.

This made me smile.  The couple got married and their wedding party dressed in rainbow suits. 🙂

I don’t have much else to share this week so I’ll close with this…

Happy Mother’s Day to the best Mom a girl and her sister could have. 🙂  You’re the very best of the best and I love you. 🙂

We’re doing Mother’s day today and I made a treat I hope to share next week. Fingers crossed it turned out blog worthy. 🙂

Have a good weekend and I’ll see you soon. 🙂