Maple Candied Bacon

Recipe here.

For topping your Maple Bacon Cupcakes!

Maple Bacon Cupcakes

Recipe here

This looks too good.  Allegedly, it comes out just like (or better than) the take out version.

http://therecipecritic.com/2013/07/baked-sweet-and-sour-chicken/

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

JULY 4, 2013

I am going to try to keep this as short and simple as possible and just say that you NEED to make this. This became our number one favorite meal last night! I love Chinese food and this blew my mind.

The breading on the chicken was exactly the same as from an amazing restaurant. I usually use flour to bread my chicken, but I think the difference in this one was cornstarch and eggs. The flavor of the sauce was incredible and it was even thick on top of the chicken. One of the best parts of this meal is the picky eater asked for seconds! We all couldn’t get enough of it. Including the 5 guys that came over to eat later that night. They said it was even better than a restaurant. We decided that this has to be made weekly. We now have Chinese Wednesdays and this will be made every week! It is just that amazing!

4.8 from 77 reviews

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

 

Print

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour 20 mins

 

Amazing restaurant quality sweet and sour chicken that you can make from home!

Author: Alyssa

Ingredients

• 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1½ cup cornstarch
• 3 eggs, beaten
• ¼ cup canola oil
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoons ketchup
• ¼ cup white vinegar
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cut chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and season with salt and pepper.
2. In separate bowls, place cornstarch and slightly beaten eggs. Dip chicken into cornstarch then coat in egg mixture.
3. Heat canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook chicken until browned. Place the chicken in a 9 x 13 greased baking dish.
4. In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine sugar, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic salt. Pour over chicken and bake for 1 hour.
5. I stirred the chicken every 15 minutes so that it coated them in the sauce.

Notes

Recipe adapted from Six Sisters

Flourless Red Velvet Marble Cake

FLOURLESS RED VELVET MARBLE CAKE BY GRAHAM BLACKALL

by Jake Lemkowitz February 6, 2015

When was the last time a dessert blew your mind? 

Here in NYC, we’ve seen the rise of cronuts (croissant + donut) and the pretzel croissant. Now we’ve witnessed another first: Graham Blackall’s Flourless Red Velvet Marble Cake. 

Three classic desserts in one! Is your mind blown yet? Take a look and get Graham’s recipe, below. 

“Valentine’s Day without red velvet is like a Super Bowl without Beyonce — there’s just something missing.” – Graham Blackall

The Cream Cheese Layer

12 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 whole egg
1 tablespoon beaten egg (Don’t be scared! Just crack an egg, beat it with a fork, and measure out one tablespoon!)
2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract

1. In a medium bowl, beat the softened cream cheese with a whisk or spatula until creamy and light. 

2. Whisk in sugar. Add the egg + beaten egg and vanilla extract and stir until no lumps remain. 

The Red Velvet Cake Layer

4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
¾ cups sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 ¼ tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
1 ½ tsp. white or apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon red food coloring
3 large eggs
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Cocoa Rouge for extra color)

1. In a heatproof bowl, melt together the chocolate chips and butter over simmering water until combined and smooth. Whisk in the sugar, salt, vanilla, vinegar, and food coloring until fully combined and set aside to cool for 5 minutes. Once cool, whisk in the eggs, one at a time. Finally, sift in the cocoa powder. 

2. Preheat oven to 375 F. Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment and grease with butter and flour. 

3. Place spoonfuls of cake batter into the prepared pan, alternating between the red velvet and cream cheese batters. Once half of the cake pan is filled, use a thin knife to gently mix the two batters. Repeat this same process with the remaining batter. 

4. Bake the cake for 40-45 minutes, until the top of the cake is set and the edges will look cracked. Let the cake cool completely before transferring to a refrigerator to set for at least 4 hours. When ready to serve, remove from the springform pan, slice and serve with sweetened whipped cream (recipe below.) 

Sweetened Whipped Cream

¼ cup powdered sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream, chilled
Vanilla (optional)

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the powdered sugar, cream, and vanilla on high speed until stiff peaks are achieved. 

Graham Blackall of Glazed & Confused is a food blogger, photographer, and sugar addict living in New Orleans. You can follow him on Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. 

COMMENT

From:  http://blog.westelm.com/2015/02/06/red-velvet-marble-cake/?utm_source=zemanta&utm_medium=native&utm_campaign=zemanta_west_elm&_z1_adgid=1095&_z1_caid=103789&_z1_msid=b1_adsnative

3 Envelope Roast

From Alexzandra Skinny's Facebook Page:

I was asked to post this again, remember to save it to your timeline for future reference, hit the share button so you'll always have the recipe available!!!

3 Envelope Roast

Ingredients:
3 pound beef roast such as chuck roast
1 envelope of dry Italian salad dressing mix
1 envelope of dry ranch salad dressing mix
1 envelope of dry brown gravy mix
2 cups water

Instructions :
Put the water in a measuring cup that is larger then the amount of water you are using. Now add and mix all three envelopes to the water. Mix until blended completely.
Brown the roast (if desired). Add the meat to your cooker. Pour the water, salad dressing mixture over the roast. In the slow cooker cook it on high for about 4 hours on low about 8 hours.

Lemon Lush

LEMON LUSH

1 stick butter - melted
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cup pecans - chopped (reserve 3/4 cup for topping)
1 16 oz. container Cool Whip
8 oz. cream cheese - softened
1 cup sugar
2 boxes Lemon Instant Pudding - regular size (made to directions and refrigerated)

Directions:

Making 4 layers in a 9 x 13 glass dish

1st layer - butter, flour and 3/4 cup pecans mixed together and pressed into the bottom of glass dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 - 15 min until light brown. COOL completely.

2nd layer - cream cheese, sugar and 1 cup Cool Whip. Blend until creamy and spread over 1st layer.

3rd layer - Lemon pudding (made to box directions) spread evenly over 2nd layer.

4th layer - extra Cool Whip spread evenly over 3rd layer and topped with remaining pecans.

Cover and refrigerate for several hours before serving

Chocolate Lasagna

It's a NO BAKE dessert that the kids will LOVE! Don't forget to share or tag yourself in it to keep it for further reference.

Chocolate Lasagna

INGREDIENTS

1 package regular Oreo cookies (Not Double Stuff) – about 36 cookies
6 Tablespoon butter, melted
1- 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons cold milk
1- 12 ounce tub Cool Whip, divided
2 – 3.9 ounce packages Chocolate Instant Pudding.
3 1/4 cups cold milk
1 and 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Begin by crushing 36 Oreo cookies. I used my Manual food processor for this, but you could also place them in a large ziplock bag and crush them with a rolling pin or meat mallet. When the Oreos have turned into fine crumbs, you are done.

2. Transfer the Oreo crumbs to a large bowl. Stir in 6 tablespoons melted butter and use a fork to incorporate the butter into the cookie crumbs. When the butter is distributed, transfer the mixture to a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan. Place the pan in the refrigerator while you work on the additional layers.

3. Mix the cream cheese with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add in 2 Tablespoons of milk, and sugar, and mix well. Stir in 1 and 1/4 cups Cool Whip. Spread this mixture over the oreo crust.

4. In a bowl, combine chocolate instant pudding with 3 and 1/4 cups cold milk. Whisk for several minutes until the pudding starts to thicken. Use a spatula to spread the mixture over the previous cream cheese layer. Allow the dessert to rest for about 5 minutes so that the pudding can firm up further.

5. Spread the remaining Cool Whip over the top. Sprinkle mini chocolate chips evenly over the top. Place in the freezer for 1 hour, or the refrigerator for 4 hours before serving.

recipe originally from centercutcook.com/chocolate-lasagna 

Almond Joy Brownie Bites

EVIL!  EVIL!  EVIL!

Almond Joy Brownie Bites

Ingredients:
1 box of family size Chocolate Fudge brownie mix
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (14 oz.) bag coconut
1/4 C milk
1 C chocolate chips, melted
1/4 C almonds (or nuts), crushed

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line (regular size, not mini) cupcake pan with paper liners. (Don't skip the paper liners as they make stick).

Make brownies according to package directions and pour batter only half way up the liners.

Bake in preheated oven for 12 minutes. While they are baking, mix the coconut, sweetened condensed milk and milk together.

Remove brownies from oven and spoon on some sweetened coconut.

Place bake in oven and continue to bake an additional 14-16 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before removing the paper liners. Drizzle on the chocolate then sprinkle on the almonds.

Grape Salad

Hat tip to Sandra Corum for posting this on FB for me to steal!

 GRAPE SALAD

 "This is a wonderful dessert salad that never failed to be a hit. Made the  day before the brown sugar makes the sauce taste like caramel. You can   use less brown sugar, if you wish."

8 servings

Ingredients:

4 pounds seedless green and red grapes
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 ounces chopped pecans
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Directions:

Wash and dry grapes. In a large bowl, mix together the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla. Add grapes and mix until evenly incorporated. Sprinkle with brown sugar and pecans, mix again and refrigerate until serving.

Eggplant bacon

Now this just looks too interesting NOT to post:

http://www.theppk.com/2011/10/eggplant-bacon/

Snickers Caramel Apple Salad

Is this EVIL, or what?

Ingredients

6 regular size Snickers Candy Bar
6 apples I used Red Delicious... Granny Smith would also be great
1 (5 oz.) package Vanilla Instant Pudding dry, do not prepare
1/2 cup milk
1 (12 oz.) tub cool whip
1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping

Instructions

Whisk vanilla pudding packet, 1/2 cup milk and cool whip together until well combined.
Chop up apples and Snickers.
Stir chopped apples and Snickers into pudding mixture.
Place in a large bowl and drizzle with caramel ice cream topping.
Chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

Share this to your wall and you'll always know where to find it:www.facebook.com/BakeByKim

Cheesy Bacon Bombs

Found this recipe, and just had to share it.  Canned biscuits, cheese and bacon, on a stick!  How cool is THAT?

And, really...after all that, the person who wrote the recipe used CANOLA oil?  As if it's gonna matter what oil you fry 'em in.  There is NO WAY these things can be considered healthy.  Absolutely slap a baby delicious, yes.  Healthy, no.

I suppose you could go the 'healthy' route and bake them, and that's probably worth trying. Still and all, it's biscuit dough, cheese and bacon, all in one--not the healthiest thing in the world, especially since eating one will quickly lead to eating six.

Bacon Bombs:

1 can (8ct.) Pillsbury Grands Flaky Layers Biscuits

Cubed Mozzarella Cheese (1-1″ cube per Bomb)

2 lbs. of Bacon (1 slice per Bomb) Sticks

Oil for frying (I used Canola)

Directions:

   Cube up the Cheese, and cut each Biscuit into fourths. Place one piece of Cheese inside a Biscuit quarter, and roll it up in there, nice and tight…  Wrap each rolled Bomb in a slice of Bacon, and secure it with a skewer or toothpick.

   In a med/large pot, heat up approx. 2″ of Oil (to 350 degrees) and fry them up in small batches. Maybe one or two at a time, the oil will expand so stay close… Drain them on some Paper Towel, but serve them up good and warm. YUM!!

Pecan Praline Cake

I found this the other day, and it's just pure, unmitigated evil.  So, naturally, I just HAD to share it!

Pecan Praline Cake

1 (15 oz) box Butter Pecan Cake Mix

1 (16 oz) tub Coconut Pecan Frosting

4 eggs

3/4 cup oil

1 cup water

1/2 cup chopped pecans

FOR THE SAUCE:

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

2 tbsp. butter

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350.

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. 

In a medium bowl (or your stand mixer bowl), combine all the cake ingredients except for the chopped pecans. Also, add the tub of coconut pecan frosting. That goes into the cake batter too! Once it's all combined, stir in 1/2 cup chopped pecans.

Pour batter into greased baking dish. Bake for about 40 minutes or until gollden brown.

And if you insert a toothpick into the middle it should come out clean.

This cake is perfectly good just like this. It is moist and yummy. But it's even better with this butter sauce.

In a small pot over medium heat, melt 2 tbsp. butter. Pour in can of sweetened condensed milk with the melted butter and stir. Continue to stir until heated thoroughly, then add 1/2 cup chopped pecans. Stir again then take off heat.

Then spoon this yummy sauce over individual slices of cake.

I pour the sauce over the individual slices instead of just pouring it over the whole cake because I love to be able to scoop up some of the sauce off my plate as I eat it and I don't want the sauce to soak in and just become part of the cake. 

But if you are feeding a crowd, it may be easier to pour the sauce over the entire cake before serving. 

*Note: You can also make this in a bundt pan. Bake for about 50 minutes.

Homemade Twinkie Recipe

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/11/16/have-no-fear-the-homemade-twinkie-recipe-is-here/

Here's the recipe from the above link:

The bankruptcy of Hostess is effecting Twinkie lovers everywhere, but not all hope is lost. I present to you, the homemade Twinkie recipe.

 Golden “Twinkie” Cake:

2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray molds/pan with non-stick spray.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Next, beat in the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute in between each addition. Reduce the mixer speed and add flour mixture alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Add the vanilla and mix until the batter just comes together. Over mixing with make your cake chewy. Makes 12 cakes.

Spray your Twinkie canoes and bake at 350 for 15 minutes, or until the cakes are just a light golden color and a tester inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Cream Filling

¼ cup shortening (I prefer Crisco brand)
¼ cup margarine
1 cup sifted powdered or 10x sugar
2 tsp. vanilla

Beat together the shortening and margarine until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar in a little at a time and beat on high until peaks form. Add vanilla and beat for one minute. Place in prepared icing tubes for piping into cakes.

To fill the cakes, insert the icing tip – preferably a large star tip – into three points along the flat-side of the cake, about 1/8 of an inch deep. Squeeze lightly until you see the filling begin to ooze out.

Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup

Homemade Cream Of Chicken Soup

Here's a homemade recipe that you can whip up to substitute for pre-made canned condensed cream

of chicken soup.  Best of all, you can adjust the spices to your own preferences; I like to add a dash

or two of celery salt and decrease the 'regular' salt.

Yield:

3 cups (about 2 cans)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon parsley

dash of paprika

1 1/2 cups milk

3/4 cup flour

1. In medium-sized saucepan, boil chicken broth, 1/2 cup of the milk,

and the seasonings for a minute or two.

2. In a bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 cup of milk and flour.

Add to boiling mixture and continue whisking briskly until mixture boils and thickens.

Add 1/4 cup diced chicken if desired.

3. Use immediately, or store in a container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Important Stuff

This is the same information in my "Important Stuff" handout and post, transformed into a slideshow.

Important Stuff Slide Show