Jenn — Page 80

Holiday Baking- Baked French Toast Casserole

December 27, 2010 by Jenn

Christmas Morning!

Every Christmas morning my Mom makes Christmas Wife Saver.

Christmas Morning Wife Saver

You can find it in the Best of Bridge Series (if you can’t, let me know and I’ll get you the recipe). Nothing is tastier than Wife Saver after you have been working up a sweat unwrapping your Christmas presents and arguing over whose turn it is to open first this round (yes my family must open presents in order!).

This year, I set out to find something that complimented my Mom’s signature dish. She did the savoury, so of course I went for the sweet . . . Baked French Toast Casserole. I have to thank my friend Janine (new name- London’s mom!) for inspiring me to search for a recipe of this sort. Every time Janine joins her American relatives across the border, she is in charge of baking French Toast Casserole. Since she just had a beautiful baby (London Ashley) I didn’t feel it was the time to ask her to dig into her recipe vault to find her tried and true tasty concoction! After searching through my many favourite food sites, I settle on Baked French Toast Casserole with a praline topping.

Baked French Toast Casserole

Inspired from http://alyssastwobites.blogspot.com

Ingredients:
1 loaf of French bread (13 to 16 ounces)

8 large eggs

2 cups half-and-half

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Praline Topping:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:

Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch each. Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9×13 inch flat baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and beat with a rotary beater until blended but not too bubbly. Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all is covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread and bake for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden.

The original recipe says to serve with maple syrup, but I found that it was definitely sweet enough without it . . . honestly, it was almost too sweet (seriously . . . I know that it doesn’t sound believable!)

Filed Under: Holiday Baking, Other Baked Goodies Tagged With: baked french toast, praline topping

Christmas Gallery

December 27, 2010 by Jenn

Filed Under: Randomness

Holiday Baking- Maple Cream Cookies

December 27, 2010 by Jenn

My Grandma is celebrating her 96th Christmas this year. What do you get for a woman who has celebrated her 96th Christmas? I think by the time I reach that age (if the genes carry on) I will be satisfied with enough christmas “stuff.” I have done the books on tape (she has Macular Degeneration so is no longer able to read), Christmas CD’s (she loved that Charlotte Church girl in the 90’s), Christmas scenes for her mantle, World’s Best Grandma signs . . . blah, blah, blah. This year, I decided that I would shove my new love of blogging/baking in her direction and make her favourite cookie! Now, this is always a gamble, because if you have ever conversed with someone in their 90’s, they tend to be fairly set in their ways. My Grandma likes her Maple Cream cookies . . . from the store! I decided that the risk would be worth it . . . and at the very least, I would get a blog post, and another check off on my Holiday Baking List from it. Merry Christmas Grandma! I hope you liked the cookies. Here’s to many more Christmas’ together.

Looking pretty fabulous for her 96th Christmas!

Maple Cream Cookies

adapted from http://sweetpeaskitchen.com

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add the egg and maple extract; beat at medium speed until combined, about 30 seconds.

Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl as needed.

Divide dough into two balls and flatten each ball into a disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoon maple extract
4 tablespoon butter, room temperature
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 tablespoon maple syrup

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove dough from refrigerator onto a lightly floured surface.
With a rolling pin, roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness. Use a maple leaf cookie cutter to cut out cookies, placing on prepared baking sheet.
Bake cookies in preheated oven 8-10 minutes, or until edges just start to brown.
Cool the cookies on the baking sheets about 3 minutes; using a wide metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool to room temperature.
While cookies are cooling, make the filling by creaming butter in a stand mixer. Add confectioners sugar and maple syrup and beat until combined and smooth.
Using a knife or spoon, spread the filling onto the backside side of the cookie. Top with another cookie, backside down. Repeat with the remaining cookies.

Holiday Baking- Chocolate Covered Potato Chips

December 24, 2010 by Jenn

Only six more recipes to go on my Holiday Baking To Do List! Uh, why didn’t someone try to stop me when I started that list? It was a tad bit adventurous when you think this is my first couple months doing this blogging thing. I’m so in love with baking now (and blogging!) . . . thank god I love it as I have a lot more baking to complete . . . and tonight is Christmas Eve Eve! Happy penultimate to the penultimate! I think I’m going to have to save the rest of the recipes for after Christmas, or I won’t get to have any family time.

This one is a gooder 🙂 Sweet. Salty. Sweet and Salty. Sweet and salty goodness.

Apparently this type of treat is big in Eastern Canada. I had never heard of them before, and stumbled upon the delightfulness on ManifestVegan.com. I love chocolate covered pretzels. Strike that, I love chocolate covered anything! I figured chocolate covered chips would be an amped up version of the pretzel treat. And boy was I right! So delicious. If you are a sweet and salty combo fan, you MUST make this.

Here you go:

Chocolate Covered Potato Chips

makes 30 individual chips

Ingredients:

30 uniform and unbroken salted potato chips (use your favorite here- I used Lay’s Wavy Original)
1 bag chocolate candy melts (or chocolate chips . . . I had a new bag of melts I wanted to try out)

Directions:

Sort through your potato chips and make sure they are all in pristine condition. No cracks, brakes, bumps, folds, etc. Set aside so that you can easily get to them once your chocolate has melted . . . you can eat the broken and small ones 🙂

Melt chocolate chips until smooth. I used the microwave on 50% power, one minute at a time. Stir after each minute, even if it looks like nothing is happening, something is!

Dip one potato chip at a time into the meted chocolate, using a small spoon to help glide the chocolate over the entire chip. You can’t dip the chip straight in and then pull it out perfectly covered in chocolate (as great as that would be). I ended up having to smear it on the chips.

Place chocolate covered potato chip onto wax paper. Repeat with all chips until thoroughly covered. Add some colorful sprinkles, if desired.

Let chocolate harden and then serve. I put them in the refrigerator to cool for about 20 mins, then I set them free on my guinea pig friends that were over at my place.

Sooooo delish.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Filed Under: Holiday Baking, Other Baked Goodies Tagged With: chocolate, chocolate covered potato chips, potato chips

A Tale of Two Truffles

December 23, 2010 by Jenn

A Guest Blog Post! The first of many . . . hopefully. Thanks for joining me Gretchen!

My (Jenn’s) Side of the Adventure:

Yesterday Gretchen and I spent the day baking! A dual baking attempt that could have gone really wrong . . . as we are both a tiny bit obsessive-often about the same things, but on rare occasions, we obsess about opposite minute details. I’m pleased to say that we are still talking to each other, and doing this blog post together! FAB!

See, I AM learning how to share! For those of you that don’t know me very well, I am NOT good at sharing. Yes, I teach Kindergarten and spend all day talking about how “In Kindergarten, we share everything!” (good ole Robert Munsch), but lets face it, Kindergarten is not the real world, and I clearly missed that lesson when I went through school. I blame my parents. Full stop. Just kidding Mom and Dad! I blame my brother. Seriously. If I had had a sister, I would have had to share clothes, toys, etc, but having a brother meant he had HeMan, and I had SheRa. We could play together when we wanted, but when SheRa was mad at HeMan, they could play in their own castles. I was always a bit obsessive about my possessions, and anytime Steve touched anything of mine (I could sense when he put one toe in my room) I would freak out. Clarifying Statement -Steve, I do not wish I had a sister . . . you are the best sibling anyone could ask for!

I have matured (aka-learned how to hide this) and don’t freak out anymore (lie), and in fact, have relinquished control to let Gretchen write whatever she wants. On my blog. I trust her completely. Gretchen, don’t mess up. xo

Gretchen’s Side of the Adventure:
After having coveted my “besties” awesome blog for some time here I am a) guest posting and b) very excited! We have been talking about the idea of baking together and finally found the time. Yah!

Over the course of our friendship Jenn and I discovered that we have many things in common, in addition to baking we are both can be a tad obsessive and enjoy being in complete control of most situations (hey why do you think we are both teachers?). I start my baking projects with a “vision” and sometimes struggle to alter my plan. Well this could be a recipe for, no not truffles, but disaster.

However success was ours. We baked the afternoon away, shared great conversation, laughed and cooperated! We are still friends and now have a delicious selection of truffles.

THANK YOU Jenn for inviting me to bake with you and to go so far as to let me post on your fabulous blog! I hope I didn’t mess up! xo g

Recipes are SUPER easy.

Maple Cream Truffles, Oreo Truffles

You take one package of your favourite cookies . . .

. . . grind them up in your food processor or blender . . .

. . . add one block of cream cheese (at room temperature), mix and roll into balls about 1″ in size! Freeze for about 20 minutes, or cool for a couple of hours in the fridge. This step is important as the cooler the truffle, the easier it is to roll in the chocolate coating.

Last step is to melt one bag of chocolate chips, or 10 oz of melting wafers, drop the truffle into the chocolate, roll around to coat it, then drop it back onto the cookie tray. If you use a fork to lift the truffle out of the chocolate, the excess chocolate will drip off, which is what you want.

We tried toothpicks, skewers, big spoons, little spoons, forks…there doesn’t seem to be an “easy” way to dip them.

Make sure to add your toppings/finishing touches before the chocolate hardens again. Work fast!

Left to right . . . Maple Cream, Oreo rolled in cookie crumbs, Oreo with white chocolate drizzled onto of dark chocolate coating, Maple Cream, Oreo with an Oreo piece on top, Oreo with mint chocolate chips. The possibilities are endless!

Filed Under: Holiday Baking, Other Baked Goodies Tagged With: guest blog, maple cream truffles, oreo truffles, truffles

Lower Body Reverse Drop Sets

December 22, 2010 by Jenn

I competed Day One of my new weight training regime on Sunday morning . . . Monday (Day Two) was cardio day . . . and today (Tuesday) was lower body reverse drop sets. To simplify:

Schedule:

Day One – Upper Body/Cardio

Day Two – Cardio

Day Three – Lower Body/Cardio

Day Four – Cardio

Day Five – Abs/Cardio

Day Six – Rest

Day Seven- Cardio

As today was Day Three, it was time for the lower body workout. I’ve been dreading it because I know that my legs have not had to work harder than pushing the peddles around the spin bike in the last 6 months. I was prepped to feel that burn! Here’s what I did:

Lower Body Reverse Drop Sets

Quadriceps – Squats

No weight – 12 reps * I started out very cautiously!

5 lbs – 10 reps

8 lbs – 8 reps

10 lbs- 6 reps

No weight – 24 reps (reps 13-24, switch move to pile squat)

Hamstrings – Deadlifts

5 lbs – 12 reps

8 lbs – 10 reps

10 lbs – 8 reps

12 lbs- 6 reps

5 lbs – 24 reps (reps 13-24, switch move to hamstring curl)

Calves – Calf Raises on Step

8 lbs – 12 reps

10 lbs – 10 reps

12 lbs – 8 reps

12 lbs- 6 reps

10 lbs – 24 reps (reps 13-24, switch move to single leg calf raise)

I finished off with a good 15 minute stretch. I know my body, and I know that this routine was plenty for me to start with. I have super tight hamstrings, and no matter how light of a weight I use, they are always sore. I was hoping that an extra long stretching session would help with the amount of muscle soreness I’m bound to feel tomorrow. I’m really bad and hate stretching . . . I always feel so hurried to get out of the gym (“Thank god that is over!” is what I’m usually thinking) that I never want to waste my time stretching. But, that is not good practice!

Filed Under: Cardio, Weights Tagged With: lower body drop sets, weight training

Upper Body Reverse Drop Sets

December 22, 2010 by Jenn

To go along with my revamped desire to run, I have also remembered the need for weights. Sunday morning, after my “run” I started with upper body weight reverse drop sets (also called pyramid lifting). The idea behind this is to start with a light weight, and high reps, moving towards a heavy weight with low reps. Always start with your biggest muscle group (e.g. back, chest, biceps, triceps, then shoulders). Here’s what I did (please remember that I am not a certified trainer and you should do only what you are comfortable doing . . . listen to your body).

Upper Body Reverse Drop Sets

Back- Bent over row

10 lbs – 12 reps

12 lbs – 10 reps

15 lbs – 8 reps

17.5lbs- 6 reps

10 lbs – 24 reps (reps 13-24, switch move to upright row)

Chest – chest press

8 lbs – 12 reps

10 lbs – 10 reps

12 lbs – 8 reps

15 lbs- 6 reps

8 lbs – 24 reps (reps 13-24, switch move to chest flyes)

Biceps- Curls

10 lbs – 12 reps

12 lbs – 10 reps

15 lbs – 8 reps

17.5lbs- 6 reps

10 lbs – 24 reps (reps 13-24, switch move to hammer curls)

Triceps – Extensions

10 lbs – 12 reps

12 lbs – 10 reps

15 lbs – 8 reps

17.5lbs- 6 reps

10 lbs – 24 reps (reps 13-24, switch move to triceps kickback)

Shoulders – Overhead press

3 lbs – 12 reps

5 lbs – 10 reps

8 lbs – 8 reps

10 lbs- 6 reps

3 lbs – 24 reps (reps 13-24, switch move to lateral raise)

Filed Under: Cardio, Weights Tagged With: reverse drop set, weight training

Holiday Baking-Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

December 21, 2010 by Jenn

Seriously, this cookie has the BEST filling in the middle of it. I, literally, had to refrain from sticking my tongue into the bowl . . . while the beater was beating. It’s just that good. I took the beater off the second it was finished . . . and this is what happened.

SO GOOD!!

I spent a lot of time working with my new camera this morning, and I think I have a couple of things figured out. Well, I do one minute, then can’t remember what I did to get the affect when I try to do it again! It’s coming though . . . and it hasn’t been in my possession 24 hours.

Poinsettia in focus

Tree in focus

Uhhhh...not too sure

Linzer Cookies-Revamped

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Mmmmmmm . . . it was love at first taste.

Best new kitchen tool ever! It’s called the Measure All Cup by Pampered Chef! So easy and so handy. You can use solid, dry, or liquid ingredients. You just set it at your required amount, load it up, and then push the bottom out and every smidgen of the ingredient comes out! My hate on for molasses may be coming to an end.

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookie Recipe

(recipe adapted from www.othersideoffifty.com)

1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (I used white as it was all that I had)

Cream together the peanut butters, shortening, butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs and vanilla, scraping down the bowl and beaters after mixing. In a smaller bowl whisk together the baking soda, salt, and flours. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture and mix well to combine.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls two inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. Flatten slightly with a fork. (I used the plunger from my food processor.) Bake for 8-9 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for a minute or two on baking sheet before moving to cooling rack to cool completely.

Peanut Butter Cream Filling
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups marshmallow Fluff
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup powdered sugar in a mixing bowl beat together all ingredients except for the powdered sugar until smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar and beat well to combine.

To assemble the sandwiches:

Take a tablespoonful of the peanut butter cream and place on bottom of one cookie. Take another cookie and place it, bottom side down, on top of the cream-topped cookie. Flatten slightly to spread the cream evenly.

In my happy place.

Watch out for your tongue in the beaters when you make this!

Enjoy.

Filed Under: Cookies, Holiday Baking Tagged With: cookies, marshmallow fluff, peanut butter, peanut butter cookies

Holiday Baking- Baked French Toast Casserole

Christmas Gallery

Holiday Baking- Maple Cream Cookies

Holiday Baking- Chocolate Covered Potato Chips

A Tale of Two Truffles

Lower Body Reverse Drop Sets

Upper Body Reverse Drop Sets

Holiday Baking-Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

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