Nutty Cheeseball

I know that you are thinking, there is a recipe to make Amie? This recipe is so good you won't be able to stop eating it. So when that happens, remember I warned you. I made this for a party it was so good. It is the traditional recipe from Kitchen Aid, but I used sliced almonds instead of finely chopped pecans. Personal preference I think and it was beautiful. I know what you are thinking, this girl has lost it cheese beautiful. I say we have lost that sense of pride in a job well done, and this was good.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1 cup of shredded Swiss cheese
• 1 8oz pkg of cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped chives
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (this makes it really garlicky, so you might want to use less if you don't like a lot of garlic)
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds

Place all ingredients, except almonds, in the mixer and attach flat beater. Turn to speed 4 and mix about a minute or until well blended. On wax paper shape mixture into a ball. I had enough to make 2 balls. Roll the ball(s) in the sliced almonds. Wrap in wax paper, refrigerate until serving time.

Donut Muffins

So we were given recipes for the Pioneer dance to make and I chose donut muffins, they were very tasty and not too difficult, here is what you need

For the Muffins:

• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 med egg
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3/4 cup milk

For the topping:

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup melted butter or margarine

Using the paddle attachment, mix together the sugar and the shortening. Add the egg and mix until smooth. Add dry ingredients and turn mixer to stir, slowly add milk and mix until smooth. drop the mixture into oiled muffin cups. Make sure not to fill the cups more than 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove muffins from oven and allow to cool slightly.

Mix the powdered sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl and set aside. Melt butter or margarine. When the muffins are cool enough to handle dip them in the butter and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Serve warm. This recipe should make a dozen, but I only got 10 out of it.

Rolls, rolls, and more rolls.

So everyone who knows me knows that at every family gathering I am bringing the rolls. So it was no surprise to me when I was asked to make bread for a pioneer themed dance. Here is the recipe that I like

Ingredients:

• 5 c. pre-sifted flour
• 2 pkgs dry yeast
• warm water
• 1 c. oil
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt

Mix the dry ingredients including the yeast in the mixer for about a minute. Add the oil and continue to mix with the paddle attachment. Slowly add warm water to form a dough. When the paddle attachment starts to struggle, switch to the bread hook attachment. You want a firm dough that tastes good. Mix with dough hook attachment for about 5 minutes. Put dough into a glass or plastic bowl and cover. Let rise one to two hours in a warm place. Form doughs into rolls and put onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes until golden brown.

variation: for a white wheat roll, substitute half of the all-purpose flour for wheat flour. Food storage wheat is great, just grind it into flour. Make sure not to add more than 2 1/2 c. of wheat flour or bread won't rise properly as the wheat is too heavy. Also do not leave dough in the metal bowl to rise, plastic or glass bowls work best. Serve rolls warm with butter.

Chocolate Banana Bread

I will admit, I love some good banana bread, and who doesn't love chocolate? When I went to the grocery store this week and all the bananas for sale were at what I would call Banana Bread stage, I thought I would make a loaf. My sister came over for dinner and we decided to make it tonight, at some point we thought why not make chocolate banana bread. Here's how I did it, my sister found the recipe on tasty kitchen.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• ¾ cups Whole Wheat Flour
• 1-¼ teaspoon Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoons Baking Soda
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• ⅓ cups Margarine Or Softened Butter
• ⅔ cups Sugar
• 2 whole Eggs
• 2 Tablespoons Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 cup Mashed Ripe Bananas
• ½ cups Mini Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In your mixer, beat together the butter and sugar, scraping the bowl often.

Then add the eggs, milk and vanilla until blended together. Add in the mashed bananas. Next, add in the flour mixture and mix well.

Next add in the chocolate chips. I didn't have chocolate chips on hand, but I did have Hershey Kisses, so I chopped them into smaller pieces and used them in leiu of the chocolate chips. urn batter into a lightly greased 9″x5″x3″ loaf pan.

I decided to make muffins they need about 20 minutes to bake.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Remove from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack. For easy slicing, wrap and refrigerate overnight. Makes about 20 slices.

I also added some pecans. Yum. Enjoy!

Sugar Cookies

Ok so i know it has been a while since I posted, I just finished throwing a fabulous baby shower for my Sister-in-Law, and let me tell you girls, It is not as easy as you would think. Especially if you make everything from scratch which we did. From the invites, to the food, even the favors. We spent weeks trying to get everything right. One of the things that I made for the shower were sugar cookies. I used a cookie press, and boy was I glad that I did, no rolling out and cutting cookies for me. I got this recipe from my sister, who got it from her Mother-in-Law. The cookies were great, but the recipe made 70 cookies so keep that in mind, you may want to cut it down. Here it is enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
grated rind of 1 lemon
4 cups sifted flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup milk

Cream sugar and shortening in blender. Add eggs one at a time. Continue adding the other ingredients, alternating with the milk. Put into cookie press and bake on parchment paper about 6 minutes. If desired pipe on icing. I let my nieces do it, they had a blast and the cookies looked great.

Mashed Potatoes

Ok so I know you are thinking, YES! finally she made the potatoes. And the answer is yes I did. Here's the not so secret recipe:

Select your potatoes. You can use whatever kind of potato you want, I know a lot of people only eat red potatoes, but white and golds are good too and in this case I had white ones so I used them, get over it. One large potato per serving or 2 small ones. Wash and peel potatoes, of course you don't have to wash the potatoes before you peel them, but I think it is less messy if you do.

Re-wash the potatoes and dice them. Rinse diced potatoes, it helps remove some of the starch which helps prevent them from boiling over. Cover potatoes with water and bring to a boil. Cook until tender.

Drain potatoes and put the paddle attachment on the mixer. Mix until smooth, adding milk, salt, pepper and butter to taste. ENJOY!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

At first I decided that the first thing to make in my beautiful new mixer would be Mashed Potatoes, but my best friend happened to be in town and cookies sounded fantastic, so cookies it was. I mean who wants solid foods when they can have cookies. I used the recipe that came with the mixer and boy were they good. Here is the recipe you HAVE to try these...........

Ingredients:

1 c granulated sugar
1 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 sticks of butter (softened)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 c all-purpose flour
1 bag of chocolate chips (yes I use the whole bag, and I like milk or dark chocolate)
2 eggs

Place sugars, butter, eggs and vanilla in mixer. Attach flat beater and mix 30 seconds on speed 2. Stop and scrape bowl. Turn to speed 4 and mix 30 seconds, stop and scrape the bowl.

Turn to stir speed and slowly add baking soda, salt and flour to sugar mixture and mix about 2 minutes. Turn to speed 2 and mix 30 seconds. Stop and scrape the bowl. Add chocolate chips, mix on stir speed about 15 seconds.

Drop rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart.

Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes if you like gooey cookies, 12 minutes for cake like cookies. Cool on wire rack. ENJOY!

Here's how it all started.......

I have always thought of myself as a pretty good home cook, and a kitchen gadget junkie. No matter how many gadgets I buy there was always one that was a little out of my budget, but finally after 10 years my dream of owning a Kitchen Aid stand mixer is finally fulfilled, and it is everything I had hoped it would be. I am only 3 days in as an owner, but I have managed to use it twice thus far and I work full-time. I have been thinking about a food blog for a while. This blog will show you all of the good things that I make in my mixer and may encompass other recipes as well. I hope you enjoy. I know I will.