Baking With Kids - "The Best Bread Pudding" by Paula Deen

My daughter and I typically bake on the weekends. Last nights bread pudding adventure was inspired by an overabundance of Italian bread. See, my husband's cousins were given many loaves of bread by a friend who owns a small restaurant. The poor guy ordered all of these loaves for a customer, to be included in their catering order. The customer cancelled the order last minute and our friend was left with loaves upon loaves of Italian bread, which he so generously shared with Stephen's cousins, and they in turn, very generously shared with us.

What to do with all of this bread? Why, make bread pudding, of course!

Except, I had never made bread pudding before so I did a search on Food TV's website and came across "The Best Bread Pudding" recipe by Paula Deen. It seemed simple enough and I am so happy that we tried it because this bread pudding recipe is outstanding! It is rich and sweet and delicious and if you like bread pudding, I highly encourage you to try it too!

Ingredients

• 2 cups granulated sugar

• 5 large beaten eggs

• 2 cups milk

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 3 cups cubed Italian bread, allow to stale overnight in a bowl

• 1 cup packed light brown sugar

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened

• 1 cup chopped pecans

For the sauce:

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

• 1 egg, beaten

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 1/4 cup brandy

Here's What You Do

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan.

Mix together granulated sugar, eggs, and milk in a bowl; add vanilla. Pour over cubed bread and let sit for 10 minutes.

In another bowl, mix and crumble together brown sugar, butter, and pecans.

Pour bread mixture into prepared pan. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over the top and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until set. Remove from oven.

For the sauce:

Mix together the granulated sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir together until the sugar is melted. Add the brandy, stirring well. Pour over bread pudding. Serve warm or cold.

This recipe calls for you to bake the bread pudding in the oven for 35-45 minutes, however, I kept it in much longer...about an hour. I did this because I was envisioning one of those thick bread puddings, that my husband has been served numerous times before, in various steakhouses (bread pudding is his favorite). I kept checking the pan and it seemed "loose" to me so I kept it in. When I finally went back to consult the picture on Food Network's website, I saw in the picture, that the bread pudding is meant to be on the loose side, with more of a yes, pudding-like appearance, rather than thick cake.

Our bread pudding was not at all over done though, even with the added baking time. We all absolutely loved it!  I hope that you try it and love it too. 

Enjoy!

Curb Your Enthusiasm

One of my friends was teasing me the other day, telling me that she wants me to write about corduroys because she loves them and says she wants me to bring them back! This cracked me up.

I'm also a fan of the corduroy pant... so I figured... heck, why not? I thought, hmmm what's so great about corduroys? How can I sing its comfie praises? How can we bring corduroy back? Well, not exactly back, as I noticed many pairs in fashionable colors at Ann Taylor Loft the other day.

Hmmm... Larry David, of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld fame, wears corduroys... and I have BIG love for him....SO....

Haiku to YOU, Larry David!

"Oh! Larry David.

Put on your corduroy pants.

Autumn brings a breeze."

What I Like About YOU, Sam's Club

1. Gallon of skim milk $1.90

2. Poland Spring, natural spring water, 35 pack case $4.34

3. 32 oz package of strawberries $3.90

4. Wonder, large white bread, 2/24oz loaves $2.97

5. Arnold Selects, 2 count package $4.08

6. Mott's 100% apple juice, 2/86oz bottles $3.82

7. Kellogg's Raisin Bran, 76.5 oz $6.58

8. 90% lean ground beef, $2.49 a pound

9. Kedem Grape Juice, 96oz bottle $4.38

10. Aisles and aisles of low priced deliciousness.... priceless.

We've finally done it! We've taken the plunge and went ahead and purchased a Warehouse club membership all of our very own. Sam's Club! I'm not a total stranger to warehouse shopping, as I've been riding my parents Costco coat tails for years. Only shopping for non-perishable items while visiting them though, as there is a two hour car ride from their Costco to our fridge. Secretly, I was always a little jealous of their robust pork chops, mouth-watering chicken pot pies and decadent spinach dip. But not anymore! We have arrived! Now, WE are a part of the warehouse shopping community and I LOVE every single budget-conscious, high quality, bulk purchasing, morsel of it!

Baking with Kids - Heavenly Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I thought it would be fun for my daughter and I to do some baking on this nice lazy Sunday. I decided to try a recipe that we flagged in one of our Gooseberry Patch Christmas cookbooks. Just the other day, she asked if we could bake chocolate chip cookies on our next adventure, so I thought this would be a great recipe to try. They're not your average Chocolate Chip cookies either, as the recipe calls for 2T. instant coffee granules. It's a nice twist on an old classic.

Ingredients

2 c. plus 2 T. all-purpose flour

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

3/4 c. butter

2 T. instant coffee granules

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

11 1/2 oz. pkg.semi-sweet double chocolate mega-chips or 12 oz. pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 c. walnut halves, toasted (optional)

Here's What You Do
Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Combine first 3 ingredients; stir well.

Combine butter and coffee granules in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat until butter melts and coffee granules dissolve. Stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature (don't let butter resolidify).

Combine butter mixture, sugars, egg and egg yolk in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixture until blended. Gradually add flour mixture, beating at low speed until just blended.

Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts (optional).

Drop dough by heaping tablespoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 325 degrees for 12-14 minutes. Let cool slightly on baking sheets.

The cookies are really tasty and are very simple to make. As I mentioned, not your run of the mill chocolate chip cookies because of the instant coffee granules. I wasn't 100% sure that my daughter was going to like them because of this, but she absolutely loves them! She's already eaten 3!!! She didn't want walnuts in her cookies, so we omitted them from our recipe. We used regular chocolate chips instead of the mega-chunk chips because that's what we had in our pantry.  We were at Sam's Club yesterday and I scored a 72 oz. bag of regular semi-sweet chocolate chips for just $7.94 (woo hoo)!  I knew that they were going to come in handy with all of baking we have planned.

Hope that you try this recipe with your kids too and that they love the cookies as much as my daughter does.  Looking forward to hearing from you!

Nice Soft Pillow

"Mommy, your belly's a nice soft pillow"

Thanks honey.

Lighten Up

It's been a crazy few weeks, thus making it really difficult for me to stay focused on my weight loss efforts. I'm still going to kickboxing 2-3 times a week, but I haven't been tracking my Weight Watcher points as usual. I'm so close to my goal now too.

As you may have gathered from my "Party of One" post, I am an emotional eater. I eat when I'm happy. I eat when I'm sad. I eat when I'm feeling stressed and anxious. It's been at my current stint at WW meetings, that the light bulb finally went off, and I realized that I look to food to comfort me, when there is no one else to. I recognize it but I do not have full control over it.

I recognize that I'm doing it now, and this new self-awareness is something I'm very grateful for because it has reigned me in, and I haven't done too much damage this time. See, we Weight Watchers follow a point system. I get my daily allotment of points, which are based on my weight and then get to add 5 extra points because I'm breastfeeding my son. Woo Hoo!!! And boy, do they come in handy. Especially for me, someone who has been nicknamed, "Snacks" by my 4-year old daughter.

Lately, I've been tracking the points in my head and not typing them in on my online tracker.  This has made for some creative point counting. When I use my online tracker, the point values of the foods that I'm eating are automatically subtracted from my daily allotment, and the number of points I have left for the day are left staring me right in the face. When I count in my head, I very conveniently "forget" some points that I've used up over the course of the day. A sandwich I may have valued at 7 points at lunch time, magically becomes 5 points at late night snack time. I think this is pretty common too among my fellow Weight Watchers.

I am recommitting myself this week and am going to try and bring back the things that have been working for me for the past 8 months. Now, this is not to say that there will not be many, many more blog posts describing "food parties" for one, as I am a work in progress.

I thought that it would be fun though, to share with you, some of the tips and tricks and creative food swaps that have been working for me in my future blog posts.

I'd love to hear about your Adventures in dieting too!!! Please leave any comments, funny stories, tips or tricks that you would like to share in the comments section of my blog.


side note..some friends have told me that they are having problems when trying to leave a comment on my blog. From what I understand you need to either sign up for a Google account, or leave a comment anonymously. You can always sign your name in the body of your "anonymous" comment, if you don't want to sign up for a Google account. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Baking with Kids - "Those Darn Cookies"

Today my daughter and I made one of my mom's recipes, "Darn cookies!" You got it, because they're so darn good! And simple to make too! I have to admit that we actually call them something else when the kids aren't around :-)

Yes, it's true, I totally went ahead and chose a recipe that I was very familiar with to share first, and I am ok with that.

Ingredients

1 1/2 sleeves of Saltine Crackers

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup butter

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts, today we chose walnuts


Here's What You do

Pre-heat oven to 350

Line entire cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Spray the foil with Pam.

Lay out Saltines, completely covering bottom of pan.

Cook sugar and butter for 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly (on a low to medium heat) until caramel colored. Do not let it boil over.

Pour hot sugar over crackers. Then spread  butter and brown sugar mixture over the crackers with a spatula. Bake at 350 for 4-5 minutes. tip...bake on top rack and keep a close eye.

Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips on top of hot crackers.



Return to oven for an additional 4-5 minutes. Spread melted chocolate.

Sprinkle with nuts (optional).

Place the tray in fridge to cool. Once the cookies set, you can either just break them up by hand or cut neatly into squares with a butter knife.

My daughter and I made these cookies a couple weeks ago to bring to a party at her school. We didn't make them with nuts then, but decided to "mix it up a little" today (as my daughter says) and sprinkled walnuts on top. They taste delicious both ways, but I think they look prettier with the nuts on top.

Enjoy!!!