Made By Melissa

Yay! I made bread! I really wanted to make some sort of homemade bread to go with my Zuppa Toscana soup, so I turned to Amber’s Blog knowing she has several bread recipes. I wasn’t quite ready to try a bread recipe that would take all day to make so I went with this one for garlic swirl bread. I took Amber’s hints for the garlic swirl and added some minced roasted garlic instead of raw garlic. This bread came out great, a nice thick, golden brown crust on the outside and soft, fluffy bread on the inside.

Garlic Swirl Bread

• Dough Ingredients:
• 3 1/4 cups bread flour, divided
• 1 T sugar
• 1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp) active dry or quick-rise yeast
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup very warm water (115-125 degrees F)
• 2 T butter or margarine, softened or melted
   
• Swirl Ingredients:
• 4 T butter, softened
• 1 T garlic, minced (I used 1 1/2 teaspoons of TJ’s minced roasted garlic and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder)
• 2 tsp parsley
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

In a large bowl or the bowl of a heavy duty mixer combine 2 cups bread flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Add in water and butter/margarine and mix by hand or on low speed for 1 minute. Add in remaining flour 1/4 cup at a time until the dough is moist but not sticky.

Knead dough for about 10 minutes by hand or with the dough hook on low to medium speed, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and turn it over to coat with oil. Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place (75-85F) until doubled in bulk, 40 to 45 minutes.

Grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan. Punch down the dough and place onto lightly floured work surface. Roll the dough into a large rectangular no more than 9″ wide. Combine butter, garlic, parsley and oregano and spread evenly over top of dough, leaving 1/2″ at end to help seal loaf. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over top of butter mixture. Tightly roll dough up into cylinder shape, pinching and tucking ends to form a tight seal and pinching seam to seal. Place seem side down into prepared pan. Oil the surface of the loaf and cover loosely with a clean cloth. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 20 to 45 minutes. (If desired you can top the loaf with Parmesan cheese)

Preheat the oven to 450. Bake the loaf for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 and bake about 30 minutes more. Bake until the crust is golden brown and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Remove the loaf from the pan to a rack and let cool completely before slicing. I did not let mine cool completely, I couldn’t resist cutting in to it and I *think* that is why my swirl sort of “separated.”
 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I made these sugar cookies for Nate to take to work today. The recipe for the cookie is the same one I used for Valentines Day sugar cookies and comes from Blonde Ambition in the Kitchen. The frosting is royal icing from the Wilton Meringue Powder can. I added almond extract to the cookie and icing to add a subtle almond flavor.

Famous Sugar Cookies

• 1 cup butter (VERY soft)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder

• 3 tablespoons Meringue Powder
• 1 lb. (4 cups) confectioners’ sugar (about 1lb.)
• 6 tablespoons warm water*
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• Wilton Gel Color, leaf green

Beat all ingredients, except color, until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer). Recipe makes 3 cups.

* For stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.

To ice cookie:

Transfer 1/2 cup or so of the white icing to a pastry bag fitted with a number 2 tip. Outline the shamrock with the white and set aside to let dry.

Color the icing by dipping a toothpick into the green gel color, then into the white icing. Mix and keep adding color, using a new toothpick each time, until desired shade is achieved.

Thin the icing with water until it reaches a “syrup” consistency. Add water slowly, it does not take much to thin the icing and you don’t want it to thin or it will take forever to dry! Let the icing rest for a few minutes, then run a small spatula through icing to eliminate any air bubbles.

Pour the thinned icing into a squeeze bottle. Using the squeeze bottle, pour the icing into the outlined area on the cookie in a zig-zag pattern. Spread the thinned icing with a toothpick or decorating brush. Let harden for at least an hour before packaging.

I was browsing myrecipes.com the other day when I found this Cooking Light recipe. This chicken is delicious. Very moist and the raspberry jam adds just enough sweetness, but does not over-power the chicken. I used a little over a pound of chicken breasts and doubled the onions and the ingredients for the sauce. I should have let the sauce simmer down some more, but I was in a hurry so it was a little thin. We had the chicken with mashed potatoes and a side salad.

Caramelized Onion Chicken

• 1 pound chicken breast tenders
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup sliced onion
• 1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon bottled minced ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary 

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, and sauté 2 minutes. Add chicken to pan; sauté 8 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove onion and chicken from pan.

Add jam and remaining ingredients to pan; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a whisk. Return chicken mixture to pan; cook 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.

This class built on the basics learned in the first class. I had to bring in an iced, 8-inch round cake which we then decorated and turned into a rainbow cake.

I have to say that the cake baked up beautifully. I baked the cake in an 8-inch round, 3-inch deep cake pan with the bake-even strips. I lowered the temp of the oven to 325 degrees and increased the baking time- I am not exactly sure how long, I started checking the cake at 1 hour and pulled it out when it looked done. After the cake cooled I used the cake leveler to level the top and make the layers.

The first actual challenge for me was frosting the cake. I used the cake icer tip to apply the icing and a flat spatula to spread and smooth the icing. This was much harder than I thought it would be. I had a hard time getting the icing to stick to the cake when it was coming out of the icer tip, then trying to smooth the icing with the spatula without it coming off the cake. This is the method my instructor recommended, but I am not sure it is the best way for me or maybe I just need more practice. If anyone has any tips, please feel free to leave a comment!

I brought my cake to class and learned how to decorate with the star tip, write with the round tip and how to do a piping gel pattern transfer. After a couple rounds on the practice board, I found the star tip and round tip fairly easy to use. The piping gel transfer technique is something that I think will definitely be helpful for future cakes.

Here is the end result:

Rainbow Cake

Next class: Flowers and figures, the Wilton rose, shell border and drop flowers. The cake is the clown cake.

Additional supplies needed: additional colors: black and orange, and the creepy clown heads. I also picked up another pack of couplers for a total of 10. I will need to bring an 8-inch round, frosted cake to class.

I have wanted to take a cake decorating class for at least a year now. But between work schedules, and having a baby, it was not happenning in 2007. I had planned to take it in January, then February, but again things just kept comming up.  So finally March was my month!  I was supposed to start class last week, and I was so excited. I had gone out and bought my supplies, planned my work schedule and was good to go. Imagine my disappointment to find out the class had been canceled. It turns out I was the only person signed up for the class, so I thought I would have to wait yet another month to take it in April. But the people at Michael’s were so nice and scheduled a special class just for me on Tuesday and the schedule will resume on Thursday.

I was a little nervous about being the only person in the class, but the instructor quickly put me at ease and assured me she gets paid either way! Tonight I basically just learned about how to frost a cake so that it is smooth and also about what I will be learning about in course one and what supplies I would need.

Prior to the class, I read about Katie’s experience with class 1. She is very smart, so I took her advice and purchased the Wilton Cake Decorating Caddy and Tools kit. It’s like my own little cake decorating tackle-box! I am one of those people who has the best intentions of being organized, but am rarely able to follow-through. However, this thing makes it very easy to keep everything in it’s place. There are spots for tips/couplers, colors and some small items on top, then the bottom is open for the larger items. I also brought a small notebook as suggested and a pen to write in the actual instruction booklet with.

The caddy comes with:

• 19 decorating tips- all the ones you will need for courses 1-3
• 2 couplers
• decorating brush
• 10″ re-usable decorating bag
• practice board
• tip brush
• 4 icing colors (lemon yellow, royal blue, leaf green, Christmas red)
• 18 disposable decorating bags
• flower nail
• instruction booklet
• small angled spatula

After the class tonight, I picked up some more supplies per the recommendation of the instructor and also those things that are required for the next class.

• toothpicks and holder
• scissors
• wax paper
• 8″ round, 3″ deep cake pan
• piping gel
• 10″ cake circles
• clear vanilla and almond extract, and butter flavor
• bake-even strips- supposedly these help the cake bake evenly, resulting in moist, level cakes
• cake icer tip and 16″ re-usable bag to put it in
• icing colors ( no-taste red, violet, kelly green)
• 4-pack of couplers
• small containers for frosting
• revolving cake stand

Total cost for everything so far is around $75. The caddy was $50, but I used a 40% off coupon for that. I also used a 40% off coupon for the most expensive item tonight and the 10% off coupon you get on all cake supplies for taking the course. The cost of the class was $17.50 this month, normally $35, but I guess at different Michael’s, they charge different rates.

The next class we (I) will be making the “rainbow” cake. I am not really sure what I am going to with this cake, but I am looking forward to finally decorating a cake!

Sorry this turned into such a long blog entry, but I found these posts very helpful when I was looking into taking the course, and it is also a way for me to keep track of things!

I was *so* honored to be chosen by Ally for the “You Make My Day” award. Ally has a great blog, from sweets to savories, I know I can always look in her blog for something yummy to make. She also has a great personality, she is one of those people I would love to meet and have a drink with ;).

There are so many people out there who make my day, but I am going to try to pick some that have not yet received this honor, or they have not blogged about it yet .

Erin, Amy, Elizabeth, Delia, Ashley, Mylinda, Jessica, Melissa, Brilee

You ladies all make me smile and have fabulous blogs!

I was looking for some recipes to use my new Pampered Chef mini-muffin tin and Joelen sent me this one. These cute little muffins are very good and the perfect size for snacking. I brought these along with the cinnamon-apple mini-muffins to work for a treat over the weekend. These weren’t the prettiest muffins when they came out of the oven, so I added the almond glaze.

Raspberry Almond Mini-Muffins

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter or margarine
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 3/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/4 cup raspberry preserves

Almond Glaze

• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 1/2 to teaspoons milk
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in Classic Batter Bowl. Stir melted butter, milk, egg and almond extract into dry ingredients, mixing until well combined.
Spray Deluxe Mini-Muffin Pan with nonstick cooking spray. Fill prepared muffin cups using Medium Scoop (1 scoop per muffin cup). Press approximately 1/2 teaspoon raspberry preserves into top of muffin batter. Gently fold batter over most of preserves.
Bake 12-14 minutes or until light golden brown or Cake Tester inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pan 5 minutes. Carefully remove from pan, cool on a wire rack. Once cool, combine ingredients for the glaze and drizzle over the top.

I modified this recipe for cinnamon muffins from allrecipes.com to make apple cinnamon mini-muffins. These little muffins had just the right amount of sweetness and went perfectly with a cup of coffee. I brought these to work, along with the raspberry-almond mini-muffins.

Apple Cinnamon Mini-Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 cup butter, melted  
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 -1 cup chopped apple (I used granny smith)

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter, melted

In an large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and allspice. Combine the egg, milk, butter and vanilla extract; mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in apples. Scoop into greased mini-muffin pan using medium scoop. Bake at 400 degrees F for 12-14 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Combine 2 tablespoons sugar with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Brush the tops of the warm muffins with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar. Or, dip the tops of the muffins into melted butter and then into the cinnamon-sugar.

Ohhh laughing cow, how I love you. So many uses for your creamy goodness.

I was siked when I saw this recipe for Laughing Cow Alfredo sauce over at Danielle’s blog. I am always looking for new ways to use this cheese, and this recipe is super-easy! Danielle got this recipe from the Weight Watchers message boards. I doubled the recipe, so we would have some leftovers and added some grilled chicken and broccoli.

Laughing Cow Alfredo (Double recipe)

Put cheeses, milk, butter and garlic powder in a small sauce pan and set on low. Cook for 20 minutes or until creamy and smooth, stirring frequently.

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Once the sauce is done, add broccoli and chicken, stir to combine. Serve over pasta.

There are several versions of chicken taco soup out there, but I decided to make this one from Melissa’s blog.  I love that you can throw the ingredients in the crock-pot in the morning and have a warm, delicious, hearty soup for dinner. Original recipe is from allrecipes.com.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Taco Soup

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 (16 ounce) can chili beans
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans (I used kidney beans)
• 1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained (I used frozen)
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer
• 2 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
• 1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning
• 3 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced