Quick & Easy Doughnuts

I don’t always make goodies for family night treats, but one Monday the kids really wanted a treat.  I didn’t have anything planned, and I didn’t have anything in the pantry.  So we made these quick and easy doughnuts with a can of refrigerator biscuits. The Grands Flaky Layers work really well. (which I don’t usually have at all, but that day I was glad I did) 

It’s really easy, heat your oil in a pan to about 325 degrees.  You might have to play with the temperature depending on where you live

Open the can and cut a hole in the middle of the biscuits .  You could leave them whole, just cook them really well or they will be doughy in the middle. 

Brown the doughnuts and doughnut holes on both sides.

Roll them around in powdered sugar until they are well coated.

That’s it! Enjoy!!

A Taste of Fall

We made some really yummy ice cream sandwiches last night for FHE.  I couldn’t decided between gingerbread cookies with pumpkin ice cream or snickerdoodle cookies with pumpkin ice cream SO we made half a batch of each.  SO good!  And actually they tasted very similar to each other so either choice is perfect.

You’ll Need

Gingerbread cookies I used my favorite recipe here ( I didn’t have butterscotch chips so I had to leave them out)

Snickerdoodles I also used my favorite recipe from here

then assemble

ENJOY!!

S’mores 2.0

One day I went to Costco and bought a big box of granola thins… yummy!  When I tried them I immediately thought they would make great s’mores so I made them for after school snacks for the kids.  Bit hit.

You’ll need

Granola Thins

Marshmallows

That’s all, go about your day.  Oh and ENJOY!!

On the Horizon

• Homemade Pancake Mix
• 
• French Herb Bread
• 

gingerbread cheesecake

When I was looking for a dessert for family night,  I came across this recipe and thought I would try it out.

The recipe is for your favorite gingerbread cookie.  You bake some of the cookie dough  into cookies to crumble on top about 5-6.  Then you put some of the cookie dough in the bottom of a 9 X 13 to form the crust.  Then bake it according to the directions  of your recipe. BUT after I made this I thought you could really just make a “graham cracker” type crust with a bag of gingersnaps and butter.  Then crumble some of the leftover cookies on the top when you were done.  If I ever make this again, I would do it like that.

The cheesecake part is

14 oz. of sweetened condensed milk

8 oz. of cream cheese softened

1/3 cup of lemon juice

2 cups of cool whip thawed

Mix the first three ingredients together until well blended and then fold in the cool whip. Refrigerate for at least and hour. It really does taste better cold.  I would also like to try this recipe with a baked cheese cake.

Enjoy!!

Berry Pie filling

When I was looking for my recipe for Blueberry Pie Filling I came across a Berry Pie Filling recipe and thought that, that was the one for blueberries too.  So after I have added the sugar, clear jel A, and water I remember that they are NOT the same recipe.  Totally annoying, I didn’t want to waste all of that sugar and clear jel A so I decided to make Bumble Berry Pie filling too.  What’s bumble berry pie??? It’s just a lot of different berries mixed together. This recipe works for all other berries that are not blueberries.

The Recipe

For 7 quarts

6 quarts of fresh or frozen berries*

7 cups of sugar

1 3/4 cups of Clear Jel A (don’t substitute cornstarch it really isn’t suitable for canning)

9 1/3 cups of water

1/2 cup of lemon juice

The Directions

Rinse berries. Combine sugar and clear jel A in a large pot.  Stir.  Add water Stir mixture and cook over medium high heat until mixture thickens and begins to bubble.  Add lemon juice and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Fold in Berries and process immediately for 30 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.  35 min for 1000-3000 feet & 40 minutes for 3000-6000 feet.

Bumble Berry Pie

What I used

2 quarts of Strawberries, 2 quarts of blackberries, 1 quart of raspberries and 1 quart of blueberries.  You can use whatever mixture of berries you want, or use all the same type.  Blackberries aren’t really ready yet, so yesterday the kids and I got on our bikes and road all around the neighborhood picking wild blackberries.  I was really surprised we got 2 quarts.

* if using frozen berries, thaw and drain them before use.

For 1 Quart of Berry Pie Filling

3 1/2 cups of berries

1 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of clear jel A

1 1/3 cups of water

1 TBS + 1 TSP of lemon juice

Blueberry Pie Filling

We finally got a chance to go blueberry picking!  The blueberries are on  late this year, but as they say better late than never. My absolute favorite thing about where we live is all of the U-Pick berry places. It’s awesome!  I try and pick between 60 –70 lbs. of blueberries every summer and that will last us about a year. Mostly I freeze them, but I also make blueberry jam, syrup and pie filling.  Today I’m sharing the pie filling recipe because it’s a really great one and you can’t find canned pie filling recipes in most canning books.  Interested in other types of berry pie filling? Checkout  this post HERE.

This recipe comes from the Oregon State University Extension Service.

Blueberry Pie Filling

For 7 Quarts (I give the measurements for 1 quart at the end)

6 quarts of fresh blueberries

6 cups of sugar

2 1/4 cups of Clear Jel A (don’t substitute cornstarch, it really isn’t suitable for canning)

7 cups of cold water

1/2 cup of lemon juice

20 drops of blue food coloring (optional)

7 drops of red food coloring (optional)

Directions

Wash and drain blueberries.  Combine sugar and clear Jel A in a large pot.  Stir.  Add water and if desired, food coloring.  Cook on medium high heat until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble.  Add lemon juice and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Fold in berries, fill jars immediately with mixture, and process immediately,  30 minutes in a boiling water bath (sea level). 1001-3000 ft. 35 min and 3000-6000 ft. 40 min.

Wash and drain 6 quarts of blueberries.

Gather you canning supplies, if you’re canning 7 quarts you’re going to need a large pot and some upper body strength. 

Add your sugar, clear jel A and water and cook until really thick and begins to bubble.

Thickened filling.

Get out your big girl muscles and start gently folding in the blueberries. I know it looks a little weird, I was really concerned the first time I made this, don’t worry though it turns out beautifully.

  Fill your jars with the gelatinous mass and process.

So after it comes out of the canner it’s magically turns into this beautiful pie filling.  It gorgeous coming out of the can too.  Love it!

Hope you enjoy it!

Measurements for 1 quart of pie filling.  The directions remain the same.

3 1/2 cups of fresh blueberries

3/4 cup+ 2 TBS. of Sugar

1/4 cup + 1 TBS. of Clear Jel A

1 cup of cold water

3 1/2 tsp. of lemon juice

3 drops of blue food coloring (optional)

1 drop of red food coloring (optional)

Kettle Corn

We love popcorn around our house and one of our favorites is homemade kettle corn.  It taste exactly like the real deal and it’s super easy to make.

The Recipe

1/4 cup of un-popped popcorn

1/4  cup of oil

1/4  cup of sugar

1/4 tsp. of salt

Directions

Place all of the ingredients in a stove top popper and cook until popcorn is popped. Pretty simple, pretty yummy!

Easy Purse Cake

Well the purse cake turned out pretty great for our little princesses birthday yesterday.  She loved it!  Plus, it was super easy to make.  Here’s how

You’ll Need

• 1 9X13 cake

• 1 container of pink icing (or whatever color you want your purse to be)

• assorted candy for decoration.  I used

• mini M&M’s, licorice,  Good & Plenty, and pink sugar sprinkles.

Cutting the Cake

Make sure you cake is really chilled before cutting.  You might want to put it in the freezer for a little while.

Cut your 9 X 13 into 4 sections each about 1/2 inch shorter than the section next to it.  The largest section should be about 4 inches.

Stack the cake on their sides, to start forming the shape of the purse.  I know it doesn’t look so great now, but don’t worry.

I moved my cake to a cutting board at this point and cut the sides at an angle the top of the purse smaller than the bottom of the purse. I didn’t have to cut much off.

I

Then I cut down the top of the cake so it would have a nice gradual slope.  Like so

If you want you can stuff the cracks with extra cake.

Stick the sections together with your favorite jam. Placing it on your cake board.  After it was all stuck together with jam I placed it back in the freezer for a good 20 minutes before I attempted to ice it.

Once it’s out of the freezer I did a light crumb coat with vanilla icing and stuck it back in the freezer for about 5 min.

Then I iced it with the pink frosting.  Since my daughter picked a strawberry cake I just used strawberry icing so I didn’t have to tint mine.  It worked out great.  

Also I didn’t worry about getting the icing super smooth, because I covered the whole thing in pink sugar sprinkles.  Continue to decorate with whatever candy you would like.

This is a great cake for little helpers to help decorate. ENJOY!