Popovers!

It's amazing something with just 4 little ingredients can be so yummy. I've never made popovers before but these came out wonderfully. I pulled them open an added a dollop of homemade whip cream to top them off. These are great for breakfast, I think. Now I just need a popover pan, lol.

I remembered the picture this time.

Pinterest and Sopapilla Cheesecake!

Have you discovered Pinterest?  It's so much fun.  You create "boards" of stuff you love basically, and you can look at other people's boards and repin stuff to yours that you love from theirs.You can request an invitation and then you're off and running. 

So while looking at other people's boards I discovered Sopapilla Cheesecake over at My Yellow Umbrella.  Ms Em and I had to make it.  I let Ms Em make the entire thing last night after dinner.  It was delicious!!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.

We did change up the recipe just a smidge. 

Sopapilla Cheesecake

2 cans crescent rolls
2 (8oz) packages cream cheese (softened)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla 

2 tbs butter (melted)
Cinnamon & sugar - I used 1/3 cup and sugar and 1 tbs of cinnamon.

Instructions:
Unrolled and spread 1 & 1/2 can crescent rolls on bottom of un-greased pan. Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Spread mixture over crescent rolls. Unroll and spread remaining crescent rolls over mixture. Spread melted butter over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

And after we made it, I thought if it's a sopapilla cheesecake, then it needs honey too, so after it's sliced and on the plate, we add some honey to top it off. 

My Sewing Room - work in progress

We moved in 3 months ago but unfortunately I've been in school since then. I finished up my last class a week early so I'm having a 3 week break before classes resume on 8/29.

My plan is to get my sewing room in order so I can sew some things for a couple of craft fairs with my mom and some Etsy things.

So here is the work in progress. This is my eBay/sewing/baby room all in one. As soon as I'm done I'll post new pics of my tricked out sewing room lol.

Delicious Banana Muffins..or I swear I'm never gonna get to sew again

I swear I will never get to sew again.  I cannot wait for December so I can graduate and sew again.  I try to sew, but it ends up sitting there because I have 59 million school papers and projects to do.  This week, I have to write 4 journal entries, a paper on a movie and interpersonal relationships (I'm fairly certain I'm going to write it on The Time Traveler's Wife...even though the book is so much better, I have to do a movie.), and finish a group project.  I swear group projects are what they make you do in hell....forEVER!

I think I'm swearing too much in this post. 

Well, to make myself feel somewhat "crafty" and I'm always cooking and baking for about 99% of our meals, I like to bake up new things, especially desserts.  My hubby is a banana lovin' man.  I swear if we go somewhere and they have some type of banana dessert, he will get it.  (The Cheesecake Factory's Fresh Banana Cream Cheesecake is sinfully delicious, and that's saying something since I don't even care for banana desserts.)  So...I had bananas about to go rotten and not much flour, so I made this recipe.  It makes exactly 12 regular-sized muffins.  It came out deliciously moist and so yummy.  I love the topping.  I'm thinking of trying it again, but leaving off the topping and making banana buttercream frosting.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 bananas, mashed

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup oil

Topping

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line muffin cups with papers.  In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In another bowl mix together bananas, sugar, egg and oil. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.  Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes.  Sprinkle topping with 5 minutes left in the baking process. 

Topping: 

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins when there is 5 minutes left in the baking time. 

To Die For Chocolate Pie

I had a bizarre intense craving for chocolate cream pie so Ms Em and I made one today. It's a recipe with just cocoa and not chocolate. I never made a chocolate pie from scratch before and it came out perfectly. 

Ingredients

1 chocolate cookie pie crust

3 egg yolks, beaten

1 1/2 cups white sugar

4 heaping tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

2 cups of heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon butter

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Whip Cream

2 cups of heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

Directions

1.   In a large mixing bowl, cream together egg yolks and sugar. Mix in cornstarch, cocoa powder, and salt. Add cream and milk and stir gently.

2.  Pour mixture into a large saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until boiling. You will feel it thicken.  Cook additional 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in butter or margarine and vanilla extract. Cool slightly, then pour mixture into pie shell. Chill about 2-3 hours.

3.  Whip cream and sugar together until it forms peaks. Then pile it on top of chocolate filling. Garnish with chocolate sprinkles or shavings.

Chicken & Stuffing Casserole

Oh my goodness, I made the BEST dinner tonight. It was Chicken and Stuffing Casserole.  I remember my mom giving me a recipe for turkey and dressing casserole, but I couldn't find it.  I had some leftover cubed chicken breasts and a box of Great Value chicken stuffing, so I went looking for a recipe.  I found a few and then sort of made my own with them.  This made a 13 x 9 casserole dish sized, and it was completely devoured by all of us.  Even the toddler loved it.  It melts deliciously in your mouth -- so good!  Serves 4-5. 

2-3 lbs of cubed chicken
1 box of chicken stuffing
About 6-7 biscuits - shredded
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 can of evaporated milk
2 cups of chicken broth
3-4 tbs butter
Shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350.  Poach chicken by adding chicken to sauce pan or skillet and adding just enough chicken broth to cover it.  Let it come to a bubble, but not a rolling boil, just bubbling a bit.  Cook until chicken is thoroughly cooked.  Poor into bottom of casserole dish. 

Next, I had leftover biscuits I made a few days ago for breakfast.  I shredded them and then combined them with the stuffing.  I layered this on top of the chicken. **I don't see why you can't just use 2 stuffing boxes or substitute a can of biscuits instead of homemade ones or even a pan of cornbread. 

Then I poured the rest of the chicken broth, cream of chicken, and cream of celery soups together in the same sauce pan I had cooked the chicken in.  I heated them up and then added the evaporated milk.  Then I melted 1 tbs of butter while stirring to prevent burning.   

I cut up 2-3 tbs of butter and put them along the top of the stuffing in the casserole dish.  Then I poured the soup/milk mixture over the entire thing.  I then mixed it up a bit to make sure the soup/milk mixture got all the way down to the bottom. 

Finally, I topped it off with about 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar.  (If you like swiss, it goes well with this too, but we don't like it.)

Cook for 40 minutes uncovered.  Then let it sit for about 10 minutes before serving.   

This recipe is to die for!  My husband took one bite and could not quit raving about it, so did my son.  They devoured nearly the entire pan themselves.