Amy Scott's Thoughts

You’d be amazed by the amount of marshmallows that I have in my home. Jeremy and I have a fire pit in our backyard and every year we like to try fun, new marshmallow flavors for our S’mores. We have developed a bit of a collection because when we see a new flavor we haven’t tried, we buy it.  We had a bunch of half open bags leftover from this summer. I recently decided to “thin the herd” and get rid of some of the older marshmallows. I’m not sure why it is this way, but you get rid of something, before you know it the item has multiplied again.

One of our life group members brought three bags of marshmallows to share with the group. Two of the flavors I had seen before. The one I hadn’t seen before was pumpkin spice marshmallows. We opened the bag so we could sample them and they were very tasty. Just a week after we received the 3 new bags, we were given 6 boxes of gourmet marshmallows as a gift for Pastor Appreciation Month. We have not yet tried them, but they look very good. I think we might have to wait for a reason to share them so we don’t over do it! I like marshmallows… I’m not saying anything against the marshmallows that have been given to us. I am just surprised that I tried to take the collection down to a reasonable size and it more than doubled!

I started to think about what I could do with all these marshmallows. The bag of pumpkin spice ones had been opened, but the majority of it was left uneaten. I let my mind wander and I came up with the idea of using the pumpkin spice marshmallows to make some kind of marshmallow treat. Now the classic is Rice Krispy Treats, but I wanted to stay with the fall theme. After exploring the cereal aisle yesterday, I landed on Cinnamon Burst Cheerios. I figured the cinnamon and pumpkin combination would make for a yummy autumn treat.

This afternoon I assembled what I am calling Pumpkin Spice Cereal Treats. Using the basic Rice Krispy Treat recipe, I mixed my fall inspired ingredients together to create a yummy marshmallow treat. The recipe on the back of the bag said you could decorate using candy corn or another fall candy. I didn’t think the flavors would mix well, so I used Wilton’s Colorful Leaves Sprinkle Mix. I thought they would add to the fall theme without adding another flavor layer.

The recipe on the back of the bag also suggested using a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter to make the treats into a pumpkin. I have a large pumpkin shaped cookie cutter and I knew that if I used it I wouldn’t get enough servings out of the recipe to share with my class of girls tonight. I decided to keep it all in the 13×9 pan instead.

All I can tell you right now is that they smell amazing and look good. I don’t like to present goodies that have already been partial eaten so I must wait until tonight when I share them with my class of 5th/6th girls to sample them. Here’s hoping they are a yummy snack for my girls and for myself!

I love chocolate chip cookies! Especially the Toll House recipe in my cookie book. Recently I’ve done some twists to this classic recipe and they’ve been a lot of fun. The first variation I tried was pan cookies. It’s the same exact recipe just baked up to fill a jelly roll pan. I cut these into 2in squares to serve. The second variation I did was to add fall colored M&Ms as half of the called for chocolate pieces. It’s fun at different times of the year to use special M&Ms to give it a holiday flair. Sometimes it’s fun to take something you know by heart and make it a little a different!

Tuesday night, Jeremy informed me what we were going to make our own raviolis and pasta sauce for dinner. This has been a goal of his for some time now. He has a ton of tomatoes from his garden and I knew he was ready to try his hand at making homemade pasta sauce. What goes well with homemade pasta sauce? Homemade pasta!

Jeremy set to work on the sauce while I started the pasta dough. This is the first time I’ve ever made homemade pasta and it certainly was an experience! Even though I got a workout trying to roll the dough super thin, I would say it was still too thick. The flavor of the dough was good, but the once it was boiled the raviolis almost turned to bread. Not a texture I’m used to and a little dense. I will try harder next time to get the dough as thin as possible because it will expand in the cooking process. We used an Italian cheese blend and then added grated Parmesan cheese on top of the blend. The stuffing turned out well. I also learned that more cheese is always better when it comes to stuffing ravioli.

The pasta sauce Jeremy created was very flavorful. We used a packet of spices to flavor it, but the truth is we really didn’t need the packet. We had all the spices that it included in our own spice collection. Jeremy also added some extra spices and some ketchup to the mixture. He is pretty good at getting things into balance.  We both agreed that meal was good, but there were things we know better for next time. Overall, I rated it a 5-6 out of 10 (10 being awesome, 1 being inedible). We also came to the same conclusion when we attempted to make deep dish pizza a few weeks ago.  We might not get it perfect the first time, but we learning lots and having fun in the kitchen together.

After we were finished with cooking experiments, we sat down the kitchen floor and starting carving our pumpkins! Jeremy is super creative when it comes to carving. Every year I’m sadly disappointed with my own carving skills. I’m not sure why I expect to get better each year, but I don’t… My pumpkin looks so sad compared to Jeremy’s two pumpkins. Regardless of my skills, I always love gutting the pumpkin and squishing my hand around in the gooey, seedy insides. This was our first time carving pumpkins with Toby around. It was humorous to watch him smell the pumpkins, lick the pumpkins… try to eat the pumpkins!

It was a very fun and full night in the Scott household! I was certainly tired when I was done from all the focus I put into that pasta and pumpkin! When it comes to pasta – I think I have a bright future. When it comes to pumpkins – I think I need to accept I’m not an artist!

This weekend I decided to do some baking for my life group on Sunday. I’ve been posting pictures of all the yummy treats I’ve been creating and I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to share my goodies with them. They took notice and felt they needed to sample some of my baking! I was happy to accept the challenge.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I’ve been using applesauce and apples as a theme in a lot of my baking as of late. It’s probably because I have so much of both ingredients around my house right now. I’d already made two different kinds of cookies with applesauce, so this time I decided to go with a spice cake recipe I found.

I love the Betty Crocker app that I have on my phone. That is where I discovered this Applesauce Spice Cake recipe with a Brown Butter Frosting. I couldn’t pass it by! The spice cake was easy to make and it smelled amazing at it baked and cooled. The frosting didn’t come to me as easy, but it still turned out pretty good!

I’ve never really browned butter before and everything I read said that it burned very easily. I’m fairly positive my butter didn’t fully brown, but I was too nervous to leave it on the stove any longer. The frosting was very easy to assemble from that point on. The trick with the frosting is that it sets on the cake pretty quickly. You need to spread it and get it how you like before it hardens.

Jeremy decided that it would be a great idea to sprinkle cinnamon on top of the cake. I’m never opposed to a stronger cinnamon flavor so I let him do it. We didn’t get as even as I would have liked, but it tasted good, so in the end it doesn’t really matter all that much. I would probably just add more cinnamon to the recipe next time and skip the sprinkling.

It’s been a lot of fun challenging myself to try and make new things. I realized I’ll never develop better skills without practice. I’m really enjoying this practice phase of my cooking/baking. Not everything has turned out Food Network worthy, but it’s all been very tasty! Overall, the best part is sharing the food I create with the ones that I love! I hope they have enjoyed the goodies as much I have enjoyed preparing them (and eating them)!

This weekend it seemed like pies were being made all over the place! I talked with so many people who decided to make a pie over the weekend. Jeremy and I were included this group of people who flocked to the kitchen with pie in mind!

At the beginning of September, Jeremy and I took our little dog for a drive and went blackberry picking. We know a couple of spots around the area that are pretty good for picking a pie’s worth of berries. The best part of berry picking is doing it together. With Toby along for the trip, it truly felt like a family outing. Despite the scratches from the thorny bushes, it was the highlight of my weekend to spend time in the wonderful weather with my hubby and puppy. Due to the crazy schedule that our month of September held, the blackberries were poured into a zip-lock bag and placed in the freezer until we had time to turn them into pie.

This weekend was the weekend that the blackberries had been waiting for! We were ready to transform them into yummy pie goodness. In years past, I would have sent Jeremy into the kitchen to make the pie on his own, but not this year. In my cooking quest, I am heading into the kitchen every chance I get to try something new and learn more about cooking/baking.  Jeremy and I split the tasks at hand. He made the filling and I made the crust – when our powers combined we had a pie!

I’m pretty sure I got the easier of the two jobs because we decided to make the crust from a Krusteaz mix.  So not entirely from scratch… maybe next time. According to Jeremy, no one can make pie crust as good as his mom and grandma, so why try. I figure we’ll never reach that standard until we try and practice. Next time I’ll attempt to make the crust entirely from scratch.

The pie filling we used was right out of the handy dandy Betty Crocker big, red cookbook. Jeremy added extra flour to the filling because we both agreed that we like a firmer berry pie. We’re not fans of runny pie. He also added some cinnamon to the mix. Just enough so you can taste it, but not enough that it over powers the berries.

Once the pie was assembled, Jeremy brushed the top of the pie with milk and sprinkled some cinnamon sugar over the top. Into the oven it went and the results were fabulous! Making the pie together was a lot of fun. Just like picking the berries, it was fun to do an activity together. We do “work” together a lot because of our job situation, but I’m learning the importance of prioritizing fun things that take place outside of the office.

The pie was a success and it was made even sweeter by the fact that we made it together!

A couple of weeks ago, I was flipping through my trusty cookie book (the one mentioned in my previous blog). The title “Spiced Applesauce Drop Cookies” caught my attention. Since I didn’t have any applesauce at the time, I flagged the page and knew that was a recipe I would be coming back to! Being back in a somewhat normal routine this week meant that I had my Wednesday night class of girls to teach and a snack would need to be provided. I had purchased a large container of applesauce the day before and I was ready to tackle another cookie experiment.

These cookies turned out amazing! The cinnamon and cloves that are added to the cookies make them taste like a cup of apple cider. The recipe called for raisins and walnuts, but with the crowd I was serving these cookies to I thought it might be a little too grown up of a taste palette for them. I was worried the lack of raisins and walnuts would cause the cookies to bake up funny, but they turned out just fine! They are extremely fluffy, soft and moist! I love baking with apples and cinnamon during the fall. It makes my house smell wonderful and these are the flavor combinations I crave this time of year. Each cookie tasted like autumn.

I didn’t really think through how much applesauce my cookies would be needing and I found myself left with a rather large container of applesauce that was still almost full. According the the label, it’s best to use the applesauce within a week of being opened. I love applesauce, but I knew that I couldn’t eat all the applesauce in a week’s span of time. I would simply need to look for another opportunity to bake with applesauce.

I leave tomorrow for a three day retreat with the staff of Bethel Church. I decided that this trip away would be the perfect time to bake another new treat and not have to eat the results entirely on my own. Yesterday, I pulled out all my cookbooks and started to search the index for applesauce. I found a couple of really yummy sound recipes and I settled on “Iced Applesauce Oatmeal Cookies” from my Martha Stewart cookie book.

Just as before, I made some changes to the recipe. This cookie called for golden raisins. I’m not a huge fan of raisins (no matter what the color) so I decided to use chunks for fresh apple instead. I also added a little bit of cinnamon to the batter for an extra fall flavor. The cookies by themselves were very moist and soft. The apple chunks make you feel like you’re eating a pie or a crisp. I did decide to take them up a notch by adding an icing glaze. The glaze the book pairs with the cookie called for pure maple syrup. Now I’m a Mrs. Butterworth’s fan and I’m pretty sure that is no where near pure maple syrup! I took the glaze another direction.  Just this week I reading on a friend’s blog (http://sweetmaggiemays.wordpress.com) how she added cinnamon to regular Betty Crocker frosting.  I had a container of vanilla frosting in my pantry so I decided to add cinnamon to it and turn it into a glaze.

I always have the hardest time when I try to drizzle glaze over cookies. I have no skill with it. Most of the time it makes the cookie look it’s been in war with frosting and lost the battle. I decided to use my pampered chef frosting bottles to help me achieve a cleaner appearance. I mixed the cinnamon and the frosting together first. I did this to taste and after the flavor was right, I put the bowl in the microwave for 20 seconds and melted the frosting. While it was still warm and liquid, I poured the frosting into the bottle and set to work glazing my cookies!

The final product turned out very well. I used my husband as a guinea pig and he was very pleased with the cookies. Now he has to wait until staff retreat to get more of them! Poor guy! I’m excited to share these cookies with my co-workers and I hope they enjoy the flavors of fall as much I do. Baking for others is a great joy! It’s been fun to work with applesauce as a theme ingredient. I have a couple of cake recipes that are calling my name when I get back from retreat! I look forward to trying and learning new things in the kitchen!

Through a strange turn of events, my husband and I ended up with quite a bit of refrigerated biscuit dough. Now in my eyes, this is not a problem because I love biscuits. I think they are amazing! However, with all this dough, I wanted to find creative new ways of using apart from biscuits and jam or biscuits and gravy.

I set off with a goal to find a new way of preparing biscuits. I figured I would explore a source that knows biscuits well. I ended up at http://www.pillsbury.com. This was a very fascinating experience for me. Let me just say, they have some awesome biscuit recipes, but they also have so much more than I expected on their website. I looked over quite possibly 30+ recipes while drooling and giving Jeremy my positive feedback on how yummy looking they all seemed to be.

I decided on two recipes. One I would use for dinner and the other I would use for dessert. I have recently decided that I wan to learn to cook more than just mac and cheese. Jeremy and I have set aside time for a weekly date night and every other one will be spent at home (because going out every week really adds up). On these nights where we stay home, we’ve decided to cook something new together. I figured cooking together sounded like a great shared interest… it’s food, we both love food! I got to pick the menu for this date night and I know it’s super simple – but remember I have a ton of biscuit dough in my fridge and I’m trying to use an ingredient we have a ton of. Jeremy has decided for our next cooking experiment we’re going to be making our own pasta and pasta sauce. He is like Food Network and I’m like… there is no comparison. He has high standards, I just want to learn more!

The recipe I chose for dinner was a turkey and cheese panini. I chose this recipe for two reasons – 1) I know Jeremy loves paninis and 2) I got to use the George Foreman Grill for the 1st time. I was already expanding my culinary skills by using a new appliance. The recipe called for Pillsbury Grands, but I had the jumbo flaky biscuits in mass supply. I was a little nervous that the difference in the two biscuits would be a big deal, but it wasn’t. The thing I loved about the grilled paninis was how quick they were to make on the George Foreman. I also love how thin the biscuits baked up and the crunch of the outer layer.

For dessert I picked a lemon-blueberry shortcake. We have a ton of blueberries at our home thanks to my in-laws. Again, I was trying to use ingredients that I have a lot of around my house. The lemon part of the shortcake is a combination of lemon peel, lemon yogurt, and whipped topping. It was truly amazing! Seriously, Jeremy licked his plate! The biscuits went great with the lemon whipped topping and the fresh blueberries. Jeremy even suggested baking the blueberries into the biscuits next time to add another layer to the dessert.

Overall, the first cooking experiments went very well. It wasn’t high class or gourmet, but I had a lot of fun using ingredients that I had in bulk around my house and trying something new. I found that just the experience of looking for the recipes was fun and I’m every excited to try our next cooking experiment together!

Turkey and Cheese Paninis

1 can refrigerated biscuits (the recipe calls from Grands, I used jumbo flaky)

1/2 lb. thinly sliced deli turkey

5-8 slices of Colby-Jack cheese

Heat closed medium-sized contact grill for 5 minutes (or in my case – when the ready light goes off). Pull each biscuit apart into 2 layers. Press each layer into 5-inch rounds (we used a rolling pin to help in this process). Place 2 rounds on grill at a time; close grill. Cook about 1 minute or until lightly brown. Remove from grill; layer turkey and cheese on rounds. Top with remaining rounds. Place 2 at a time on grill; close grill. Cook 1-2 minutes or until cheese begins to melt. Makes 8 (or 5 depending on which biscuit dough you use). 300 calories a panini.

Lemon-Blueberry Short Cakes

2 Flaky Layers Biscuits

Filling – 1/4 cup lemon burst yogurt, 1/4 cup reduced fat whipped topping, 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

3/4 cup fresh blueberries

1 to 2 teaspoons powdered sugar.

Heat oven to 350F. Bake biscuits as directed on package. Place on plate. Cool in refrigerator 5 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile, stir together yogurt, whipped topping, and lemon peel. To serve, split shortcakes; fill with blueberries and yogurt mixture. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Make 2 servings. 260 calories a serving.

I couldn’t leave my foodie blogging just about the cookie book when there another equally great cookbook in my life. One of my most treasured possessions is a church cookbook from Shueyville United Methodist Church. My mom lived in Shueyville, Iowa as a girl and this cookbook is from 1972. It was given to my mom as a wedding present and it has handwritten notes in from my grandma.  It’s tattered and torn. The cover has certainly seen better days (it is no longer attached). Every time I pull it out, I feel like I am pulling out a piece of family history.

I actually had the thought once to cook through the entire cookbook. It’s full of old Midwest recipes that I’m sure would be a hoot to create. The terminology is so different. I had to ask my mom what oleo was when I first started using it. It would be like cooking a blast from the past. However, I have still only made two recipes out this cookbook and I plan on sharing them with you today. These recipes are some of my favorites to bake and I know exactly where to find them in this unusual book. It’s almost like the book flips right open to them as if it knows me that well.

No Bake Chocolate Cookies (submitted by Darlene Lindemann)

¼ cup oleo (translation – butter)               3 cups oatmeal

½ cup milk                                                           1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups sugar                                                       (I add about a ½ cup of peanut-butter to the recipe)

1 tablespoon cocoa

Bring first four ingredients to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes and remove from heat. Mix in oatmeal and vanilla (peanut-butter if you choose) quickly. Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper.

Banana Bread (submitted by Ruth Ziskvosky and a note from grandma saying “This is your bread!”)

1 cup sugar                                                         ½ teaspoon baking soda

2 large or 3 small bananas                             1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons milk                                          2 cups flour

2 eggs                                                                   ½ cup nutmeats (chopped) (I don’t add this)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract                            ½ cup butter or oleo (melt)

Mix ingredients in given order except oleo. Then add the ½ cup oleo. Bake in 2 bread pans (9×5 inch) at 300F for 1 hour. Bananas can be sliced real thin instead of being mashed)

The great charm in this book is that when my mom gave it to me, I discovered a calendar from April 1997. It was made by my dad and it is of April and I’s little league schedule. The hand written notes are great because I know what recipes my grandma loved (and what ones she didn’t like). She also has little suggestions and tips here and there. It also has little sayings typed at the bottom of every few pages. Here are some you might find interesting:

• Money will buy a fine dog but only love will make him wag his tail.
• Laziness often is mistaken for patience.
• Few men have ever repented of silence.
• Sad facts of life: square meals make round people.
• We get our parents so late in life that is impossible to do anything with them.

Like I said, the charm of this book cannot be denied! It’s a good old fashion Midwest cookbook and maybe someday I’ll make more than two recipes out of it!

I’ll be honest with you… My mom didn’t send me off into the world with great culinary skills. For many of you who are home cooks, you would be horrified if you knew how little I can actually cook. I’m a master microwaver and I really love cereal for any meal. This is an area of my life that I know I have great room to improve in. However, my kitchen doesn’t sit empty and downcast. I love to bake! In fact, I try to make a treat my Wednesday girls each week. It’s a special treat in my life and I love to share it!

My mom might not have passed down a love for cooking to me, but she did pass on a love for baking. There weren’t many treasured recipe books in our family, but there was one that both my sister and I loved dearly. It’s title – “Cookies”! Originally published in 1983, this book was a staple in our household. I’m absolutely positive the best cookies are made from the recipes in this book. Getting married and moving out of the house meant leaving the cookie book behind at my parents. No other cookie book took its place. I brought the cookie book to work once and photocopied my favorite recipes out of it. For Thanksgiving 2009, my mom surprised April and I with copies of the cookie book. She had found them used online since I’m guessing this book is out of print. It has been truly a blessing to have the best cookie book back in my midst.

Below are my three favorite cookies out of this book. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Original Toll House Cookies – (Yes, I do really use Toll House chocolate chips for this recipe)

1 cup butter, room temp.             2-1/4 cups all purpose flour

¾ cup granulated sugar                 1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ cup packed brown sugar          1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract            2 cups (12oz.) semisweet chocolate pieces (I use milk chocolate)

2 eggs                                                   1 cup chopped nuts, if desired (I certainly never desire nuts)

Preheat oven to 375F. In a large bowl, beat together butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and eggs until fluffy. Add flour, baking soda and salt, beating until well blended. Stir in chocolate pieces and nuts, if desired (not). Drop by rounded teaspoons, 2 inches apart, on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light browned. Remove from baking sheets; cool on racks. Makes 100 (2-inch) cookies.

Snickerdoodles – (This is Jeremy’s favorite cookie that I make)

1 cup margarine, room temp.     1-1/2 teaspoons cream of tarter

1-1/3 cups sugar                               1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs                                                   Pinch of salt

3 cups all purpose flour

Cinnamon-Sugar Coating:

2 tablespoons sugar                        1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Prepare cinnamon-sugar coating; set aside. Preheat oven to 375F. In a large bowl, beat together margarine, sugar and eggs until fluffy. Add flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt, beating until blended. Shape into 1-inch balls. Roll in cinnamon-sugar coating, covering completely. Place 2-1/2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 10 minutes or until golden. Remove cookies from baking sheets; cool on racks. Makes about 80 (2-inch) cookies.

Basic Butter Cookie Dough – (This is my holiday cookie dough. There is a great variation using peppermint extract and food coloring to make candy cane cookies.)

1 cup butter, room temp.             1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup sugar                                        2-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 egg                                                     1 teaspoon baking powder

In medium bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add flour and baking powder, beating until blended. Use dough immediately or wrap and store. May be stored in refrigerator up to 1 week. May be frozen, wrapped airtight, in moisture and vapor proof paper up to 2 months. Thaw in refrigerator several hours before using. Bake at 375F. Cookies should take about 8 to 10 minutes to cook depending on thickness.