Hello Friends,
   Here I am back again for this week.  Sorry that this is only getting to be about once a week, but things are busy at this time of year.   I know one of my recipes today is a repeat, but I did make the stuffing moister, and I took pictures during the process, and I DID stuff the turkey this time - yay!!  This was my first time to cook a stuffed turkey, and I was truly happy with the outcome.  So, yesterday we had the turkey with the sausage and apple stuffing - which I think will become a favorite here - no more boxed stuffings - I personally have never been a fan of that stuff anyway!!  Wished I could give you my gravy recipe, but I do not have one, I just make it and it is usually thick and no lumps - lol. 
   Today I baked cookies, and I got the recipe from another website, but I did changed it a bit.  Here is the link to the original though.  http://www.hugsandcookiesxoxo.com/2012/11/m-m-cookiesextra-thick.html

So, here are my recipes for today.

Sausage and Apple Stuffing
8 cups cubed white bread (I used french bread)
1 pound country sausage
2 medium sweet onions, diced
3 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
1 cup chicken broth
1 Tbsp poultry seasoning

Cube bread and leave out on a cookie sheet to dry out; or place in oven at 250 degrees F for 10 minutes or until dry to the touch. When ready to make stuffing, place bread cubes in a large mixing bowl.

Brown country sausage in frying pan; breaking into pieces as it cooks. Cook until there is no pink left in the sausage, With a slotted spoon, remove sausage from frying pan, and add to the cubed bread. Mix together, breaking up any larger pieces of sausage.

Pour fat from frying pan, reserving but 1 to 2 tablespoons for sauteing onions. Add onions; saute them until they are tender, not brown. Stir in the chicken broth and apples; heat to boiling. Pour over bread and sausage mixture; add poultry seasoning. Mix or toss until evenly moist.

Ingredients

Cook and chop up sausage - I love my Pampered Chef Chop and Mash!!

Add sausage to bread crumbs - I dried these out a couple of days ahead by just leaving out.

Saute chopped onion

Add chopped apple and 1 cup chicken broth and bring to a boil.

Mix into bread and sausage mixture, and add poultry seasoning!!

Close up - doesn't it look awesome?!

This is the finished turkey!!!

I cook my turkeys in a bag.  You can probably see the cut bag in the picture.

I shake 2 Tablespoons of flour in the bag.  I have rinsed my turkey, and then patted it

dry with paper towel.  Then I baste the turkey with vegetable oil, and sprinkle poultry seasoning

on the turkey.  Turkey was cooked at 350 degrees F. for almost 3 hours.

Close up of the yummy stuffing, and how it was bulging out of the turkey!

The basting of the oil on the turkey makes a nice brown and crisy skin!!

Take the turkey out of the roaster, and take the bag out of the pan, leave the drippings.

Add some more chicken broth, and bring to a boil and make your gravy, adding some more

poultry seasoning and a little salt to flavor.  Oh, I also use a little soy sauce to make the gravy

a little darker in color.  And I also use a water and flour mixture to make my gravy, but make sure

your liquid is boiling, and you whisk in the mixture constantly so you do not get lumps.

 

 

 

Now on to the cookies!!!

M&M's Extra Thick Cookies!!

1 cup softened butter or margarine - I used margarine.
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 extra large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 and 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 oz. bag of chocolate chips
1/2 bag M&M's

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Beat butter and sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Add to wet micture.  Stir in chocolate chips and M&M's.  These are very stiff so use something very sturdy to stir, I broke my wooden spoon, and it wasn't a thin one - lol.

Using cookie scoop, scoop dough onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake 12 minutes, and when the cookies come out of the oven, immediately push in a few more M&M's.

Yield : 3 and 1/2 dozen cookies.

Cookie mixture.

Scoop of cookie dough on greased cookie sheet.

Fresh out of oven and ready to have M&M's added.

Added M&M's.

 

These cookies were a big hit with the neighbors!!!  I HAD to share with them all!!

Hope you all enjoy, and have a great day!!!

 

Hello Folks!!!  This has been a busy week. A belated Happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends here in the US!!  And Happy Birthday today to my wonderful husband!!!
This week, as many families do, we got together for Thanksgiving dinner.  My contributions were corn pudding, apple crisp, and pumpkin pie.  So my morning was busy cooking.  My sister-in-law said, "I thought you would do all your baking yesterday."  And my reply was, "If I am not making the whole meal, then why not have fresh desserts!"  I had to make my house smell somewhat of Thanksgiving. lol
My hubby is not a cake fan, so again yesterday, I baked pumpkin pie again.  This is one of his favorite desserts, and he gets overload on it during November and December, and if we celebrate my Canadian Thanksgiving, then he gets it again in October!!

Well, on to my recipes for today.

Corn Pudding

2 eggs beaten
1 cup sour cream
1 box Jiffy cornmeal  muffin mix
1/2 cup margarine, melted
1/3 cup onion, chopped
1 cup shredded cheddat cheese
1 can cream style corn
1 can whole kernel corn, drained

Whisk together each ingredient in the order it comes to make a smooth mixture. Pour into a well buttered 2 qt. dish.  Bake at 350 degrees F. for 45-55 minutes, or until the top begins to golden and crack, and the sides begin to pull away from the casserol dish, and the muffin mixture feels done.

Ingredients

Nice and smooth texture

Yummy, golden edges

Cracking on the top, but I did cook this for another 10 minutes.

Apple Crisp

7 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced.

Topping
2 cups flour
2 cups rolled oats - quick cooking
2 cups lightly packed brown sugar
2 tsps. cinnamon - heaping

Combine these ingredients, and then cut in,

1 cup butter or margarine.

 Take 1/4 of your crumb mixture, and toss it in with your apples.  Place sliced apples in a well buttered 9x13 pan. They should look like they almost fill the pan.  Cover with remaining mixture, and pat down. 
Bake at 350 degrees F.  for 40 - 50 minutes, or until your apples are tender.

Please note : This mixture can be cut in half, but the family here likes lots of crisp, and when using Granny Smith Apples, they can be a little tart, and this crumb makes a nice balance for the tart to the sweet.

Also, if made ahead, can be placed back in the oven at 350 degrees F. for about 20 minutes to reheat, and then serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

Granny Smith's all peeled, cored, and sliced.

As you can see, the pan is well buttered.

Crumb Mixture

Yummy, I love my pastry blender for cutting in the butter.

About 1/4 of mixture tossed with the apples.

Can smell the cinnamon and makes your mouth water.

Rest of crumb mixture patted on top.

Ready to put in oven.

Crisp is done and smells awesome!!!

Look at those oats!!! Smell the sweetness of the brown sugar!!

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my blog for today.  I trust you all will have a wonderful weekend.  Another busy one with practising for the Christmas Musical!!!  Later, my friends, and God Bless!

Hello my dear and patient followers!!  I have been busy lately, and hence not much fancy cooking going on, just some of the usual standbys.  Well, so today, I decided that I would share two of the cakes I have made for a niece and a nephew since I have been married.  Having never done anything like this before, it has been very exciting to do!!!  So I will post pics today and maybe explain them a little bit.  I will also add the cupcakes that I made for another niece's birthday.  Hope you all have a great day!!  Besides me, who else has been thinking about Thanksgiving baking and Christmas baking?

This cake was three cake mixes, one being a funetti cake mix and the other two were chocolate. As you can see, the top part was pieced together - but hey - it worked.

Justyn was into big monster trucks, and that was his theme of his party, so this is how his cake turned out. Covered in chocolate icing - sorry - this was the first cake, so it was the tubs of frosting - I know, shame on me - lol.  The gravel is made of the boughten chocolate chip cookies and I put them in a Ziplock bag and crushed them with a rolling pin.

 

 This is the tub of homemade buttercream icing for my niece's 10th birthday cake.  It took 4 batches of icing for this cake, as well as 4 boxes of cake mix and 4 boxes of pudding.  I always add a box of pudding to my cake, even if the cake mix has pudding in it.

 Yes, my 10 year old niece insisted she wanted a 3 tier cak for her birthday!!! lol.  Her theme was Hollywood, so hence we did the stars!! 

The thick stars, are made of white chocolate chips and a teaspoon of vegetable shortening, poured into a silicon ice tray and put into the freezer to harden.  These were a big hit!!  In the middle of each little yellow/gold flower, an edible pearl seed was put.  Then I sprayed the cake with edible mist by Wilton that pearlized the cake, and then she and her cousin threw edible gold glitter by Wilton onto the cake!!  She was very happy with her cake, and the little girls were all in awe!!!  So another success was made.

Long stemmed candles were used on the cake and it seemed to make the cake glow!!!

Another niece had a birthday, but she wanted cupcakes, and her theme was Hello Kitty!!  Here are her cupcakes!!

Triple Chocolate Cake Mix with Chocolate Pudding in them!!!  Then homemade buttercream icing on the top.  Then I used edible Pink Mist and then edible Pink Glitter, both by Wilton, and then inserted the candy Hello Kitty faces.  She was a very happy girl with these!!

Well, that is all for my fancy cakes.  But as time goes on, I am sure I will have more chances to do more!!  Hope you enjoyed these!!  Have a great day my friends!!

Good Morning Friends!!!  Back as promised, and now that the vacuuming and scrubbing are done, I must take a minute or two and post the recipe for the best banana muffins you will ever eat!!!  Hubby loves these for breakfast, and he had one just about every morning for about 3 months, right after we were married.  These muffins are so moist - even after freezing, that you can eat them without added butter on them.  Hope everyone is having a good day, and remember, if you are elgible, go out and Vote!!!  It is both your right and privilege, and if you do not vote, then you can't complain about how it turns out - lol.

Mom's Banana Muffins  - Fit for a President!!!

1/2 cup margarine
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
4 tsp milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 cups flour
3 bananas, mashed
1/2 tsp vanilla

Cream sugar and margarine.  Add egg and beat until fluffy.  Add mashed bananas, milk and vanilla, and beat until well mixed.  Sift soda, salt and flour together.  Add to banana mixture and beat only until dry ingredients are moistened. 
Grease and flour muffin tins, or put in muffin paper cups.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes.
Yield : 12 regular size muffins or 1 loaf.

Note : I make the jumbo muffins, so I have to double this recipe to make 12 muffins.  This recipe makes an awesome loaf also - needs to cook for about 45 minutes or more - check after 45 minutes and see what you need.
I also mash and freeze my bananas ahead of time.  I mash them and put them into Ziplock bags in portions of 2's, this way I can take them out and put them in the fridge for a day or two and let them thaw. This makes it very convenient when bananas are on a good price, or if you can buy a large amount of over-riped bananas.

Sorry for missing the picture of  the batter in the pans before going into the oven...I had company and they wanted something done, and I told them they would have to wait until I got my muffins in the oven - lol - nothing like priorities!! LOL

Greased and Floured well

Dry ingredients whisked together

Margarine and Sugar creamed

Eggs added and fluffy

Frozen and thawed bananas

Bananas, milk and vanilla added

Baked muffins

Nice and large - these make a meal!!

Love the crusty edges and soft tops!!

A dozen Muffins - Ready to freeze in Ziplock Sandwich Bags!!!

 

Enjoy my friends!!!