Make and Takes » Recipes

Recipe Link Love: A Few Tasty Finds

Marie — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:13:29 +0000

I couldn’t resist sharing a few tasty finds I’ve stumbled across. There is some great cooking information and delicious recipes, see below! Do you have any fabulous finds to share?

Oh, oh, oh! This Honey Apple Peanut Butter Tart by Picky Palate couldn’t be more inviting (pictured above). Other than a quick trip to the store for puff pastry, I have all the other ingredients. So easy!

I love this informative Guide to Cooking Terms by Redhead Recipes. It has those hard to spell, probably French, cooking words all explained.

I’m a huge fan of cake mix cookies and I just found this new one over at Tidy Mom for Lemon Burst Cake Mix Cookies (pictured below). It uses whipped cream as an ingredient, where I usually see oil. So I’m very interested to try it this week.

I’ve just discovered this crafty lady, Daisy Janie, and found that she cooks too. Here’s a recipe for her Aunt Jane’s Nut Roll. My favorite part of her blog is on her side bar she has a column listed “Make Take Bake” – right up my alley!!

I love these cute Art Pancakes by The Paper Pony (pictured below). How simple are these, just letting the letter cook for a moment longer on the pan. So fun!

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Weekend Links: End of Summer Grillin’

Marie — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 09:28:43 +0000

I can’t believe August is almost over, we’re so close to saying goodbye to Summer. So here’s a few recipes for any last minute BBQ’s you might be having before the Summer is over. Time to fire up the grill at least one more time!

Grilled Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas by The Pioneer Woman (pictured above)
Pulled Pork Sandwiches by Aggies Kitchen
BBQ Shrimp by Dine and Dish
BBQ Baby Back Ribs by Make and Takes
Cowboy Burgers and Zucchini Kabobs by Picky Palate
Peanut Thai Dipping Sauce by Make and Takes

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Back to School Breakfast Ideas

Two Peas — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:11:10 +0000

The beginning of the school year can be rough for children and parents. It is hard adjusting to a new schedule. The sound of the early morning alarm is never a great way to wake up:) Eating a delicious breakfast can help though. Here are a few breakfast recipes that the entire family will enjoy.

Peaches n’ Cream Muffins

Pop Up Panakes

Baked Oatmeal

Berry Banana Smoothie

Homemade Granola with Coconut, Dried Cranberries, and Almonds

Make eating breakfast a priority this school year. Plan for a little extra time to sit down together and enjoy the most important meal of the day. If all you have time for is cold cereal, that is ok, but sometimes it is nice to enjoy a special breakfast treat.
Maria and her husband, Josh, are Two Peas and Their Pod. They are known as the “cooking couple” and are a great team in the kitchen. They love trying new recipes, flavors, and techniques and sharing their creations with the world. They try to keep things healthy, but they always save room for dessert.

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How To Freeze Fruit to Last All Year

Marie — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 18:00:30 +0000

I love to freeze fruit during the best part of it’s season. This helps it last a few more months. We use frozen fruit for all kinds of things, freezer jam, smoothies, or fruit pies. And with my Mom’s giant raspberry patch, here’s how I make those red jewels last as long as I can!

1. First, wash and DRY your fruit. You need to make sure it’s patted as dry as possible with paper towels or even left out for a while to dry. If you wash and immediately freeze your fruit, it can harden together, leaving them stuck together in a juice, unable to separate after. It’s best to have your fruit frozen individually and as fresh as possible. Once you add water to it, it can change the flavor.

2. Place your dry fruit onto a plastic or tinfoil lined tray. I’ve frozen it on a jelly roll pan for larger freezers. Or if you’re freezer isn’t as wide, you can place it in a 9×13 baking pan. Try your best to place the fruit apart from each other.

3. Place your tray of fruit in the freezer, with plastic wrap covering it, helping to avoid freezer burn. Let it freeze solid, leaving it over night for best results.

4. Once your fruit is frozen, strawberries below, place them in a plastic freezer bag or container. Now it’s ready for adding to smoothies if frozen, or pies and jams when thawed out.

What are you freezing these days?

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Blendtastic Pesto, Sauces, and Popsicles

Marie — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:58:42 +0000

Ever since I saw a Blendtec blender in action at a local event, they really blended a rake in front of my very own eyes, I’ve been dying to get my hands on one of these. So I was thrilled when they sent me one to try. And can I just tell you, I’ve used it EVERYDAY! I’m not blending glow sticks or baseballs, but I am making sauces and soups, yum.

I made a big batch of Basil Pesto for dinner with pasta. I cooked a whole box of penne pasta, saved half for later, and then added a 1/2 cup of basil pesto to the cooked pasta.

The next night, heating up the extra pasta from the first night, I made a new sauce: tomato, garlic, basil. I blended 3 tomatoes, a handful of basil, and 2 garlic cloves (all fresh from my garden, more garlic details later). The blender is better used with bigger batches, so with this combo, I did need to keep using my spoon to scrap it down to blend. Next time I’ll make a large batch with 9-10 tomatoes.

Yesterday I bought a huge watermelon and decided that I wanted to try to blend a watermelon, seeing how it would taste as juice. I got out some paper cups and popsicle sticks to make some homemade popsicles. These were easy and froze up in just a few hours. They were pretty good, but my son asked if we could add some lemonade to it next time.

Are you blending everyday too? What are you blending together?

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Satisfy Your Craving for Pie with this 6 Layer CherPumPle

Marie — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:51:56 +0000

Maybe you’ve got a craving for some cherry pie, or is it apple, maybe it’s pumpkin! Well, you can satisfy all these cravings with this one MONSTER dessert by Charles Phoenix called the CherPumPle!

I know. It’s crazy. Crazy enough that I can’t wait to try it!! I don’t know if I’ll go as far as 3 pie layers, but I’m really interested in what one pie inside one cake will taste like. I’ll let you know soon.

Here’s the video of Charles Phoenix and his cuckoo crazy Monster Pie Cake – CherPumPle:

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Homemade BBQ Sauce

Lindsey — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:58:52 +0000

Let’s talk about BBQ sauce. If you are picky like my family, you have a hard time finding a bottled sauce that tastes just like you want it to. A good sauce is paramount for a successful BBQ. Really, it is.

One day I casually flipped through one of my favorite cookbooks, The Joy of Cooking, and looked to see if there was a recipe for BBQ sauce. Of course there was! And not just that–it’s a good recipe. A REALLY good recipe. My husband declared it to be the best BBQ sauce ever. (We never exaggerate in our family.)

I have tweaked it a bit, but not too much. You can tweak it too. I’ve included some variations and other ideas below the recipe.

Homemade Barbecue Sauce

adapted from Joy of Cooking

1 1/2 cups ketchup
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp. molasses (I add this in, it’s not in the original recipe)
2 Tbsp. brown mustard (we like Gulden’s)
2-4 Tbsp. chili powder (start w/ a little and work up)
1-2 Tbsp. freshly grated ginger (can use 1 tsp. ground ginger)
2 garlic cloves, grated or minced
3 lemon slices, seeds removed (these are optional, but really good)
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 tsp. or so liquid smoke (or to taste)
(optional–Tabasco or cayenne to make it extra spicy)

Mix all the ingredients together in a non-reactive saucepan and simmer on medium low for about 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Variations and other ideas:

This sauce is easy to change up. Try substituting peach, apricot, cherry or blackberry jam for some of the sugar. Use red wine vinegar in place of the apple cider vinegar. Add different kinds of chili powder–chipotle, ancho, etc. Add a bit of cumin, cinnamon, cloves, or other spices. Add pineapple and more soy sauce and use with pork for an island flavor.

We have used this sauce to make BBQ baked beans, pulled pork and chicken, mixed with mayo for a spicy sweet fry sauce, and on burgers. Basically, anywhere you’d use store bought sauce, you’d use this instead and it would be 10 times better.

Make a huge batch and bottle it. Take it with you as a hostess gift or use as neighbor gifts at Christmas. (You can tell them it’s a super secret family recipe.)

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Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Two Peas — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:12:38 +0000

I love bananas, but I can never eat them fast enough, they always turn brown. I don’t mind though because then I have an excuse to bake:) I usually make banana bread or banana cinnamon chip cake, but I recently made banana chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and now I am hooked. They are delicious! The banana keeps the cookies moist and soft and you can’t go wrong by adding in chocolate chips.

If you are looking for a new banana recipe, give these cookies a try. Oh and a little tip-keep brown bananas in the freezer, so you can bake banana treats anytime. Just peel the bananas and put them in a freezer bag. Defrost before using in recipes. Enjoy!

Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large banana, mashed
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and sugars, mix until smooth. Add in vanilla extract and egg. Next, add the banana. Beat well.

Slowly add in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in oats and chocolate chips.

Drop cookie dough by heaping tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets that have been lined with parchment paper or Silcone baking mats. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-18 minutes or until golden. Remove cookies from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies

Maria and her husband, Josh, are Two Peas and Their Pod. They are known as the “cooking couple” and are a great team in the kitchen. They love trying new recipes, flavors, and techniques and sharing their creations with the world. They try to keep things healthy, but they always save room for dessert.

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How to Peel a Peach, Perfect for Pies

Marie — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:18:16 +0000

If you have a family like mine, they request to have the peach skins removed from their peaches. I personally like them, but they are a little papery and fuzzy at times. So I learned this trick long ago and it’s great for peeling peach skins, especially if you need to do a lot of them for jam or pies!

Supplies for Peach Skin Peeling:

peaches – any size, shape, or quantity
pan of boiling water
tongs or slotted spoon
bowl of ice cold water

1. Add your washed peaches to boiling water. Let them boil for at least one minute. Try not to let them cook longer or they will start to cook on the inside, we just want it to cook the skin.

2. Immediately after you take your peaches out of the boiling water using tongs or a spoon, dunk them into an ice water bath. Let them cool off here for another minute.

3. Once it’s cooled, take your peaches and start to pierce the skin with your thumb and peel the skin away. It should start to peel very easily and sometimes in one piece (I love when that happens!) It’s even easy enough for little hands to help with this process.

In just a few minutes, you just peeled your peaches whole. Now they’re ready for slicing and a big bowl of vanilla ice cream!

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Spelling Out Summer with Sunflower Cookies

Marie — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:12:05 +0000

I was inspired to create some cute cookies from my neighbors sunflowers that are growing bright and yellow. Doesn’t this image simply spell s-u-m-m-e-r?!

Here are the cookies that came from the inspiration, even though it might be a little bit of a stretch. But we get to use candy corn (one of my favorite candies) for something other than Halloween!!

Supplies for Sunflower Cookies:

small, flat cookies – we used this recipe for cake mix cookies with a yellow cake mix.
candy corn
chocolate chips
frosting – yellow or white is best
knife or spatula

1. Make your favorite batch of cookies, as really any good batch will do.
2. Frost your cookies with icing.
3. Add candy corns pointing outward, creating petals of the sunflowers.
4. Now place chocolate chips all over the center for the sunflower seeds.

Kids will have fun making any kind of shape or creation from these ingredients. No need to hold them to making only sunflowers. My daughter is just piling it all on and my son is making some sort of alien creature! Here’s to summer!

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