Keeping Apples

I saw this on Pinterest: Cut up an apple into chunky slices, leaving the core in tact, and put a rubber band around it to prevent it from browning while you tote it around or tuck it in your kid's lunchbox for a crispy snack!

Root Beer Float Ice Cream Cake!

Best Idea Ever. I saw this recipe on foodbuzz.com and HAD to try it out. And since my father-in-law is pretty much the Root Beer Float King, and his birthday was last week...it was perfect.

I was surprised at how much the root beer really flavors the cake. AND probably my favorite thing was the way my kitchen smelled as it was baking. Heavenly!

Be Warned: This makes for a sticky, sticky cake. Light, moist, delicious, but sticky! Refrigerate the cakes before you try to take them out of the cake pan. Don't try to plop the cake out onto a cooling rack like I did with the first one; the cake stuck to the cake pan AND stuck to the cooling rack AND stuck to the plate I tried to invert it onto and ended up a big mess. (I squished it into the ice cream layer before re-freezing the ice cream layer and that saved it.) The second cake was much easier to get out of the pan after having been refrigerated and much easer to transfer around with the use of a sheet of wax paper.

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1 box white cake mix
1 12 oz can/bottle root beer (diet or regular)
abt 4 cups vanilla ice cream
16 oz Cool Whip (2 small containers or 1 big one)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with cooking spray; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together cake mix and soda until almost all the lumps are gone. Divide cake batter evenly between cake pans and bake for 16 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Refrigerate to cool (you can even cool the cake layers in the freezer.)

While cake is cooling, prepare ice cream layer: Line an 9-inch cake pan with wax paper and press ice cream down into pan. Put this layer in the freezer until firm, about 1 hour.

Once ice cream has hardened and cakes have cooled, you can begin to build your cake.

Place first layer down on a cake plate. Top cake with ice cream layer by turning wax papered ice cream upside down over cake and then peeling wax paper. Top ice cream with second layer of cake and press down lightly. Re-freeze cake until ice cream is well frozen again, about 20 minutes.

Ice entire cake with cool whip and refreeze until cool whip is set. Slice and serve.

Store leftovers in the freezer covered tightly with saran wrap for two weeks.


(Apologies for no pictures, I was too stressed about getting to Bill's parent's on time with a frozen rather than a melted ice cream cake!)

Pasta alla Philadelphia

I've had this recipe in my mission collection for years, but never tried to recreate it. Until I just couldn't pass up a good-looking batch of sweet Vidalia onions at Whole Foods and needed a good recipe for their flavor to shine. Ohhhh it must have been inspiration. This recipe was made for sweet Vidalia onions and sweet summer zucchini. Unfortunately, cooking with an entire block of Philadelphia cream cheese makes this dish a "sometimes food". Or probably it should.

I had Bill write out the instructions, since he's the master of this dish now.

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2-3 Vidalia onions, peeled and sliced
3-4 small zucchini, sliced
1-2 small yellow squash, sliced
1 pkg Philadelphia cream cheese, cut into cubes
season to taste
1/2-3/4 box penne pasta


Cook onions on high until they start to carmelize, with a sweet brown tint. Include a tablespoon of brown sugar if you don't have sweet Vidalia oinions or they aren't browning.

Add sliced veggies with a 1/4 cup water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, continuing to cook/steam until desired softness, adding a little water if needed.

Season with garlic powder, oregeno, pepper and salt. A touch of chili powder and paprika if you're feeling spicey, which I allways do!

Stir in the cream cheese a chunk at a time untill all smooth. Buon appetito!

Layered Look

I love this idea of graded color layers. I need to find a great event to try out this idea. Luckily, I know there's a lot of baby showers coming in the next few months!

Good to Know: Lunchbox Safety

I heard a segment on the radio that said cases of food poisoning are on the rise because people are sending their children to school with items that are improperly prepared or refrigerated. What! So, I did some Googling and found a handy little checklist at the Home Food Safety website:

Download the original .pdf for yourself here.

Pies for the win

Bill's office decided to have a little bake-off this week. And if there's one thing we cannot walk away from, it's a cooking competition! So, Bill was hell-bent on a classic apple pie. And I threw together something involving Pillsbury crusts, canned Oregon fruit and a few handfuls of Bill's carefully peeled and sliced apples.

Here is the recipe we found on Allrecipes.com. And the one we found on OurBestBites.com.

And this is what Bill did with them:

Recipe for double pastry crust

2 Tbsp butter

5 Tbsp flour

1/2 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

8 apples

1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350F.

Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in flour. Add water, sugar and brown sugar. Bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.

Spoon over apples, coating them well.

Place bottom crust in 10" deep dish pie pan. Fill with apples, slightly mounded. Top with second crust.

Seal edges of top and bottom crusts. Cut vents in top crust.

Bake 45 min.

4th of July Jell-o

My friend Jenn posted this recipe on her blog a very long time ago, and although I haven't made it in years, I remembered it being a big hit at potlucks. And we were unpacking the kitchen all morning so it wasn't such a pain to keep up with all of the layers! So, I thought it was time to revive this one:

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1 box (6 oz.) berry-blue flavored Jell-o
1 box (6 oz.) raspberry flavored Jell-o
2 packets Knox plain gelatin
1 (6 oz.) container Yoplait mountain blueberry yogurt
1 (6 oz.) container Yoplait red raspberry yogurt
1 (6 oz.) container Yoplait vanilla yogurt
water
½ cup sugar

1. In medium bowl, stir 2 cups boiling water into blue jell-o until jell-o is dissolved. In another medium bowl, slowly stir 1 cup of the blue jell-o into blueberry yogurt. Pour yogurt mixture into 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish. Refrigerate about 1 hour or until set. Meanwhile, stir 2/3 cup cold water into remaining plain blue jell-o; let stand at room temperature.
2. When blue yogurt layer is set, carefully pour plain blue jell-o over yogurt layer. Refrigerate about 30 minutes or until set.
3. Pour ½ cup cold water into a bowl. Sprinkle with two packets of Knox plain gelatin; let stand one minute. Add 1 ½ cups boiling water and stir until gelatin completely dissolves. Stir in ½ cup sugar. In another medium bowl, slowly stir 1 cup of the gelatin mixture into vanilla yogurt. Pour mixture over blue layers. Refrigerate about 30 minutes or until set. Stir 2/3 cup cold water into remaining plain gelatin; let stand at room temperature.
4. When white yogurt layer is set, carefully pour plain gelatin over yogurt layer. Refrigerate about 30 minutes or until set.
5. In medium bowl, stir 2 cups boiling water into raspberry jell-o until jell-o is dissolved. In another medium bowl, slowly stir 1 cup of the raspberry jell-o into raspberry yogurt. Pour yogurt mixture over layer of clear gelatin. Refrigerate about 30 minutes or until set. Stir 2/3 cup cold water into remaining plain raspberry jell-o; let stand at room temperature.
6. When raspberry yogurt layer is set, carefully pour plain raspberry jell-o over yogurt layer. Refrigerate at least 2 hours until set.