Buckeyes: Dessert From Heaven!

I spotted these at Your Fun Family and started drooling. Oh I just love peanut butter and chocolate! It doesn’t love me, so there’s always that supplements for weight loss in the back of my mind.. *sigh*

Well, Melissa graciously allowed me to copy her recipe and share. We are making these very soon! Melissa didn’t say how many this recipe would serve, so I’m guessing it when I include it.

Buckeyes
Serves 1. Well, OK OK I guess you’ll have to share… serves 2.

INGREDIENTS

* 1 1/2 cups peanut butter
* 1 cup butter, softened
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 6 cups confectioners’ sugar
* 4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, butter, vanilla and confectioners’ sugar. The dough will look dry. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet.
2. Press a toothpick into the top of each ball (to be used later as the handle for dipping) and chill in freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.
3. Melt chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 15 second intervals stirring in between until melted.
4. Dip frozen peanut butter balls in chocolate holding onto the toothpick. Leave a small portion of peanut butter showing at the top to make them look like Buckeyes. Put back on the cookie sheet and refrigerate until serving.

Wow Chow Rum Cake

Oh wow. This is GOOD Rum Cake. I never had it or made it before this. Yum Rum Cake! I found a conventional recipe and altered it a little. It’s a tiny bit more “rummy” than the regular kind, but it’s not bitter or overly rum-tasting. This is an incredibly moist cake, too. My family eats it up immediately. I barely got a few photos in before it was gone!

Wow Chow Rum Cake

1 box of yellow or white cake mix (they are about 18oz or so)
1 1.75oz instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup cold milk
3/4 cup rum

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Grease a Bundt cake pan.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Blend with an electric hand mixer for 2-3 minutes, until batter is smooth and there are few lumps. Pour the mix into the Bundt pan, and bake for one hour.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan, then invert on a serving dish.

You can serve this cake with various things: warmed strawberry jam (yum!), vanilla yogurt, orange glaze, or a rum glaze.

Rum Glaze:
1/2 cup butter (not margarine)
1/4 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup rum

In a small saucepan, melt the butter; stir in the sugar and the water. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and stir in the rum. Drizzle onto the rum cake.

I personally prefer an orange glaze or strawberry glaze, or even sprinkle with fresh blackberries from the garden! It’s a great and easy dessert. I can’t say it’s exactly the most healthful of things; you’ll probably need some serious health insurance leads after eating too many slices… but OOOHHHH it’s sooo good! Enjoi!

Edamame: Cool Beans!

I’ve heard about the bean edamame (eh-dah-MAH-meh) for quite some time. I spotted it in the frozen section of the grocery store, and decided to check it out. It’s actually quite good! I wouldn’t say it’s the most amazing thing since chocolate bars, but it’s not too bad. The best part about the stuff is how it makes me FEEL. Wow, I feel like I could leap tall buildings or plan complicated orlando vacations after eating this stuff! And it fills me up quickly, too, so that I eat less of the starchy stuff.

OK, I’m getting ahead of myself. If you have not yet met edamame, let me introduce you. It’s a soybean. GET BACK HERE! IT’s not THAT BAD, REALLY!! Let me explain.

So it’s a soybean, but it’s a NICE soybean. It’s not pasty or bitter like the “regular” kind of soybean. Edamame is very popular in Asian countries, especially Japan, where the kids actually SNACK on this stuff! It’s extremely nutritious, and has a smooth, mild, slightly nutty flavor. It’s usually shelled and boiled for a few minutes, then eaten plain with salt. I usually eat about 1/4 cup (yes, I am eating it regularly!) a day, before a meal. WOW! I just feel so good after eating them, so healthy. The protein must go straight to my cells, because my energy perks, my thoughts lift, and I am not hungry after eating them.

Here’s the nutritional breakdown of these little green wonders, in 1/2 cup serving sizes:

# 120 calories
# 9 grams fiber
# 2.5 grams fat
# 1.5 grams polyunsaturated fat (0.3 grams plant omega-3 fatty acids)
# 0.5 gram monounsaturated fat
# 11 grams protein
# 13 grams carbohydrate
# 15 mg sodium
# 10% of the Daily Value for vitamin C
# 10% Daily Value for iron
# 8% Daily Value for vitamin A
# 4% Daily Value for calcium

It’s becoming more popular in the United States because it is so nutritional. Health benefits are said to be to lower cholesterol, regulate blood sugar (so it is promoted to diabetics), and help fight off cancerous cells.

I like it best plain.I’ve had it heated and eaten with dinner (potatoes, brussels sprouts, etc), but I actually prefer it as finger food, cold. After boiling and cooling, I sprinkle a little salt on it, and eat it with cheese and crackers, or a light snack. They are really good! The texture is smooth and the beans are slightly crunchy but not pasty like other legumes can be.

You can also toss the cooked beans into soups or salads, casseroles or stews, anything! It’s best not to overcook, because the bean will lose it’s sweetness and firmness that make it so appealing. I’m hoping this bean catches on as a snack for the American consumer. I so dislike our culture’s emphasis on chips, pretzels, and sodas as snacks. No wonder our society has so many health problems. I love edamame!

Concentrate, Woman, CONCENTRATE!

Why oh why am I always juggling a dozen things AND trying to cook at the same time?! It happens again and again!! Gah!!

I’m trying to pull out the ingredients for the Bavarian-Filled Eclairs while talking on the phone, starting a load of laundry, and assisting my son with his English homework.

WHY did I do that?

As I’m cooking the mix in the first step (butter and flour, trying to get the dough to firm up), it’s not working. It looks like Cream of Wheat when it should be looking like beautiful bread dough. I went over and over and OVER the ingredients list, and had my daughter go over it, too. It looked correct. After 45 minutes of non-stop stirring, hoping it would thicken, my blistered hand could take no more. I added more flour to the pot, and the mix started to change into something that looked more accurate.

I doubled the amount of butter needed. I measured 1 stick of butter to be 1/4 cup when it is 1/2 cup.

I tried baking a few anyway, just to see if they would turn out. My vote would be, uh, NO.

GRRRRRROOOOOAAANNNN!! This recipe was for my church group, too, which was meeting tonight! :’(

Well, I added more flour, what I could, and a lot of eggs. This is what they are. Not exactly the glorious products from Amish fireplaces… but over all, not too shabby.

They look OK. A little too brown for me, but still nice. They have a cake-ish consistency, not like the puff-pastry texture it is supposed to have. I will fill it with the most luscious Bavarian Cream filling and see how they turn out. I think they will be OK, just… different.

Well, lesson learned. NEVER multi-task when preparing an important recipe! NEVER!!!

Cranberry Apple Crisp

Mmm I love crisps, especially crisps with cranberries in them. A dollop of vanilla ice cream on top of warm crisp is SO luscious!! It’s a terrific comfort food, especially after a long, cold winter’s day at the office, or for the weary housewife who has been haggling over term life insurance comparisons all day. And crisps are easy and cheap! Here’s my absolutel favorite crisp, just in time for autumn’s apple and cranberry season!

Cranberry Apple Crisp
serve 6

2 cups fresh cranberries
4 cups apples, peeled and diced
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 packed cup Homemade brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup quick-cook oats
1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons wheat germ or ground flax seed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 Tablespoons butter or margarine (but butter is better), at room temperature

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 2-quart baking dish. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the cranberries, apples, granulated white sugar, and salt. Dump into your baking dish.

In the bowl that you just emptied, combine the brown sugar, oats, flour, wheat germ or flax seed, and cinnamon, and mix well. Cut in the butter until it looks like gravel. Dump this on top of your cranberries/apples mix in the dish.

Bake for 50 minutes to an hour, until the fruit is tender and the kids start salivating heavily. Serve while warm, with fresh cream, or ice cream. OH MY WORD, this is SO GOOD!!! It’s great after a turkey dinner.

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