If you aren’t in the mood for chocolate, then give these buttery, sugary, chewy, yummy Blondie bars a try. They are not really a cookie bar, they are more of the consistency of a chewy brownie. You can absolutely make this recipe without the sprinkles, but don’t the sprinkles just make them look happier! 😅
Ingredients:
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9″ x 9″ or 13″ x 9″ pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.
Melt the butter and let it cool slightly. Combine with the brown sugar in a large bowl and mix well.
Look at all that butter! Yum! Brown sugar and butter just go so well together.
Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well until smooth.
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small mixing bowl. Add to the butter mixture until well combined.
Then…..stir in the sprinkles!
Spread the batter into the greased pan and sprinkle some additional sprinkles on top. Bake for approximately 30 minutes until brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let cool before cutting. The nice thing about using aluminum foil is you can just lift it out of the pan and it makes it much easier to cut.
Pot pie is such a classic comfort food isn’t it? I’ve made it a few different ways over the years and this is the way I have made it the most, and most recently. This pie is actually a turkey pot pie with leftover turkey from Thanksgiving that I had in the freezer. Normally I would cook chicken breast for this, but since I had the turkey why not make it into a pot pie.
Let me just come clean right now and say that I cheated and used a pre-made pie crust for this pot pie. And I don’t feel bad even though my family always teases me when I use pre-made crust. As I have mentioned before, pie crust is not my favorite thing to make and after a busy day I just prefer to use something already made. Still tastes delicious!
Ingredients:
Pie crust
2 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 cups frozen peas and carrots
2-3 cups shredded cooked chicken or turkey
3 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup half and half
Salt
Pepper
Dried thyme
Onion powder
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the peas and carrots and cook for about 2-3 minutes stirring frequently.
Add the chicken and cook for another minute.
Add the flour and stir well, then cook for another minute.
Add the chicken broth and bring to a low boil for about 3 minutes until it starts to thicken.
Add the salt, pepper, onion powder, and thyme to taste. I don’t measure it out, I just shake some in the pot.
Add the half and half and continue cooking at a low boil until it thickens.
Remove from the heat and let it sit for a few minutes before pouring into a pie dish.
Top with your pie crust, homemade or store bought.
If you would like, brush the crust with an egg wash. To make an egg wash mix a beaten egg with 1-2 tbsp. of water and brush over the crust. Use a knife and put a few slits in the crust as well to let the steam escape.
Bake at 375 degrees on a foil lined cookie sheet for around 30 minutes or until the crust is brown and the pie is bubbly.
When you think of calzone you probably think of Italian Cold Cut Calzone. It is one of those classic calzones you always see on a menu where calzones are sold. It is also a calzone that tends to differ depending on who is making it. My version is a very simple combination of Italian meats and cheese. I have tried different variations but in the end this is the way we like it.
Calzone is something people often only think about serving for a party or gathering, but calzone can be a wonderful dinner if you serve it with a side salad. If you can make homemade pizza, you can make homemade calzone.
Start layering your ingredients while leaving some space on the edges.
As I mentioned you can use whichever Italian cold cuts and cheeses you like, this is the combination that my family and myself prefer. It’s a really good combination! Trust me!
Gently fold the long sides of the dough inward, then fold the edges in. Press the seams to ensure the dough is sealed. Putting a little water on your fingers will help with sealing the seams.
Flip the calzone over onto a greased cookie sheet. If you like you can brush with an egg wash, which is a slightly beaten egg combined with an equal amount of water. I also like some sesame seeds sprinkled on top.
Bake at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the calzone is brown and hard when tapped. I personally prefer a softer calzone so I don’t cook mine as long as you may want to.
Who doesn’t love nachos? They are the perfect food to eat while watching a football game right? Well that is what I gathered from my husband’s puppy dog eyes as he mentioned how one of his clients had said he was going to be having nachos for the Patriots game last night. Despite his insincere “oh no you don’t have to make nachos”, I made nachos. I am not complaining because they were a yummy treat!
Let me start by saying I did not make gourmet nachos with all homemade ingredients. I made easy, no frills, but delicious nachos. I know making nachos may seem like a simple thing to do, which it is, but in case you have never made them I thought I would share how I make nachos.
Last night I decided to use the following ingredients:
Tortilla chips
Shredded cheddar cheese
Queso
Ground turkey (or beef)
Taco seasoning
Lettuce, chopped
Tomatoes, chopped
Black beans
Sliced black olives
Banana peppers, chopped
Jalapenos
Sour Cream
Guacamole
I cooked ground turkey until no longer pink in a frying pan, drained the grease, and added the taco seasoning and water (follow instructions on the package). Cook for about 5 minutes until the mixture thickens. You can also use shredded cooked chicken mixed with the taco seasoning if you’d like.
Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spread a layer of tortilla chips covering the sheet.
Add shredded cheese on top of the chips. You can use as much or as little as you like.
Spread half of the taco meat on top of the chips.
Add another layer of chips and more shredded cheese. I don’t know about you but I like nachos stacked.
Now add the rest of the meat, the olives and black beans. My son doesn’t like beans or olives so I had to leave a section without. I then added some queso on top as well. You can never have too much cheese!
Bake at 375 degrees until the shredded cheese melts.
Then top with the remaining ingredients and that’s it!
Since not everyone in my family likes sour cream and guacamole, I served it on the side.
I can officially say this is my favorite cake, and not just my favorite cake recipe, but my favorite cake. It is better than a bakery. While it is very time consuming to make, it is completely worth it. Unfortunately the vintage lighting in my Maine cottage was not very good for photos 🙁
Carrot cake was my wedding cake and every year on our anniversary we would buy a carrot cake from the same bakery. When they stopped offering to bake the cake without walnuts, instead of looking for another bakery I decided I would just bake a carrot cake for our anniversary. HUGE thank you to that bakery because this cake is so much better! Now every year on our anniversary we have this cake.
Even though I do not use walnuts you can absolutely add them to this recipe if you choose. I also only use 1/2 cup raisins because no one in my family likes raisins except me. If you enjoy a carrot cake with more raisins you can increase that to 1 cup.
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
3 extra large eggs (room temperature)
1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour (plus 1 tbsp)
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 lb. carrots grated
1/2 cup raisins
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease two 9″ round cake pans, line with parchment paper, then grease and flour the parchment paper.
Peel the carrots and grate them using the fine side of a hand grater, you do not want the carrots shredded. Once grated put them aside. This is my least favorite part of making this cake, and pretty much the only reason I don’t make this cake more often.
In a large mixing bowl combine the sugar, eggs, and oil and beat on medium speed with an electric mixer for 2 minutes.
Stir in the vanilla.
In a separate bowl sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture while beating on low speed with the electric mixer. The batter will be thick.
In a third bowl combine 1 tbsp. of flour with the carrots and raisins and mix well. This helps prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cakes.
Have you noticed the vintage Pyrex bowls yet? These were my mother’s, I love everything vintage.
Stir the carrot mixture into the cake batter and pour into prepared pans.
Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool the cakes in the pans for 15 minutes and then transfer them to wire racks to cool completely.
Once the cakes are cool it is time to frost these delicious cakes with cream cheese frosting!
Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 stick of butter softened (1/2 cup)
1 8 oz. block of cream cheese softened
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar (or more per taste)
Using an electric mixer on medium speed beat the butter and cream cheese until well mixed and smooth. Add the vanilla and beat just until combined. Beat in the powdered sugar.
You may like the frosting sweeter and if so, just add a little more powdered sugar.
Place one of the cakes upside down on a dish or cake stand and start frosting the middle.
Place the second cake round side up on top of the first cake and finish frosting.
Make sure to keep the cake covered and refrigerated.
I have had this Pooh Cookbook since I was a child in the 70’s and the only recipe I ever remember making from it were the Popovers For Piglet. Despite the fact that I can no longer get the popovers to actually pop, I refuse to make any other recipe because every time I make these the memories make me smile. Not to mention it’s Pooh and how can you not smile with Pooh?
I feel like they used to pop, maybe? I have tried them in two different ovens and they don’t pop. They are delicious regardless, but not going to win any awards for tallest popover lol. One thing that seems to be a little different than other Popover recipes I have seen is that these contain honey. Of course they do, because Pooh loves honey!
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup milk
2 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. melted butter
2 large eggs
Sift together the flour and salt.
Stir in the milk, honey, and melted butter.
Beat in the eggs.
Fill greased muffin tins just under half full.
Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes until the sides are rigid and tops are brown. Do not open the oven before they cook for 25 minutes or they will fall. However, mine never really popped. Hmmm.
While they may not be the most perfectly popped popovers, they are delicious!
Rice pudding is a dessert I have loved since I was a child and I always got so excited every time my mother would get ready to make it and take out her Betty Crocker cookbook. This is one of those childhood desserts that regardless of whether another recipe make look or taste better, I am sticking to this recipe because I want my rice pudding just the way it was. It may not look as creamy or appetizing as some others I have seen, but it is delicious and to me there is no better. My mother and I loved rice pudding, and now my daughter and I are the pudding fans in my family. My husband and son do not like it which just means more for us girls!
I needed a little pick me up with this gloomy weather and rice pudding was just the thing to do it!
There have been a number of different variations of this recipe over the years, but this is the Betty Crocker recipe my mother made when I was a child.
Ingredients:
2/3 cup uncooked white rice
1 1/3 cup water
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup raisins
Cinnamon (or Nutmeg)
Combine the rice and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer covered until all the water is absorbed. Around 20 minutes.
While the rice is cooking start preparing the rest of the pudding.
Whisk two eggs in an ungreased small casserole.
Add the sugar, milk, salt, and vanilla and whisk together until combined.
Add the rice and the raisins and stir well. Sadly I can never put in the full 1/2 cup raisins because I am the only one in my family that likes them.
Sprinkle the top with cinnamon (the original recipe calls for Nutmeg, but I like Cinnamon better).
Bake at 325 degrees for about an hour, stirring occasionally until a knife comes out clean.
I prefer the pudding cold so I chill before eating. I also prefer it with whipped cream on top. Yum!
I hope my childhood memories bring back some of yours as well 😊
In my opinion pizza is one of the best comfort foods, I absolutely love it and could eat it all the time. The first thing I made when I finally got around to getting a new food processor was pizza dough! I have been craving homemade pizza like crazy, and I decided to go all out and make many different kinds. If you have never made dough, it was super easy to make.
Here are the ingredients you need:
1 tbsp. active dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar
1 cup of warm water
3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
Olive Oil
Dissolve the sugar and yeast in a small bowl with the warm water for about 5 minutes.
Add the flour and salt to your food processor and pulse a few times to mix together.
Once your yeast and sugar have dissolved, turn on the food processor and add a little bit of the liquid at a time through the top until it is mixed, then continue with a little more, etc.
Once the dough is formed and is no longer sticking to the sides, mix for another minute or so.
Coat a large mixing bowl with olive oil and add the dough to the bowl.
Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel for an hour and a half and then once it has risen it looks like this.
You are now ready to make pizza! Flour a cutting board and rolling pin and roll out the dough into pizzas. Spray your pans before topping with the dough.
For the pizzas I made I topped the dough with a little tomato sauce, shredded mozzarella, my toppings, a little more mozzarella, a sprinkle of Italian Seasoning and pepper, then a drizzle of olive oil. Delicious!
Bake at 450 degrees until the bottom turns slightly brown.
The pizza shown in the blog header is topped with homemade turkey meatballs.
This pizza has slices of fresh tomato, ricotta (mixed with parmesan, garlic powder, pepper, and parsley), and homemade turkey meatballs on half.
This pizza is half cheese, and half mushroom and onion.
