After a long day all you want to do is veg-out in front of the fire. This is a super easy and super quick meal to throw together to get you back in front of the fire in no time at all.
Quick and Easy Hamburger Stroganoff
1 lb Ground Beef
1 small Onion, chopped
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1/4 cup Butter
2 Tablespoons Flour
Salt and Pepper, to taste
15 Mushrooms, sliced
1 (10 1/2 oz) can condensed Cream of Celery or Mushroom Soup, undiluted
1 cup Sour Cream or Greek Style Yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoon Tarragon leaves, crushed
Hot Cooked Pasta
Saute ground beef, onion and garlic in butter over medium heat in a large skillet.
Stir in flour, salt, pepper and sliced mushrooms; continue cooking for another 5 minutes, stirring often.
Stir in soup, add a bit of water if you feel it is too thick, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes.
Stir in sour cream and tarragon; heat through.
Serve over pasta.
I have had it in my mind to make an Applesauce Cake for absolutely ages. On my last trip to the shops I even bought a great big bag of apples; truth be told, I have bought a big bag of apples a few times before but the Applesauce Cake just never seemed to materialize, go figure.
It just so happens I had a few plans go awry on a Saturday and when you have to shift to Plan B, but wait, there was no Plan B; well, that is a good time to head to the kitchen and do some Baking! Coincidentally I had also just made a fresh batch of applesauce so I simply had to dig out the Applesauce Cake recipe.
It used to be that I would flip through my Betty Crocker cookbook but in this day and age, I enter what I want to make in the google search field on MY iPad* and sift through the multitude of recipes on offer. Good Ol’ BC has an Applesauce Cake recipe for a 9×13 cake which I guess I could have used but I wanted a tried-and-true recipe for a bundt pan because I bought a bundt pan in June and it was still sitting in the cupboard, unused!
I made only one substitution in this recipe and one addition: I used chopped dates instead of raisins and I added a layer of Cream Cheese Frosting to finish it off. You see, the picture in the old BC cookbook has a lovely 9×13 Applesauce cake all decked out in Cream Cheese Frosting and sprinkled with chopped walnuts so I had this vision in my head of my Applesauce Cake being frosted rather than merely dusted with powdered sugar.
Many thanks to Cookie Madness for breaking away from Cookies and making an Applesauce Spice Bunt Cake.
*My husband keeps absconding off to the bedroom with my iPad at the most inopportune times! And the nerve, sometimes he even closes down the pages I am using! I NEVER shut down his Geek pages!
Applesauce Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
3 cups Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Allspice
1 cup Butter, softened
1 cup Brown Sugar, lightly packed
1 cup Sugar
1 large Egg
2 cups unsweetened Applesauce
1 cup coarsely chopped Pecans
1 cup chopped Dates or Raisins
Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup Butter, softened
4 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
3 cups Icing sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
Milk, to right consistency, about 1 1/2 teaspoons
Preheat oven to 350F.
Spray a 10″ Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray, add 1 tablespoon of flour, tilting and lightly tapping pan to coat pan lightly with flour; turn out excess flour.
In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice; set aside.
In mixing bowl beat butter until smooth then add sugar and continue beating for about a minute.
Add brown sugar and resume beating for another 2 – 3 minutes until.
Add egg and vanilla; beat until light and fluffy.
Stir in applesauce on low setting.
Turn mixer off, raise paddle and add the flour mixture; lower paddle and stir at lowest setting until well blended and no lumps remain.
Stir in chopped pecans and dates.
Turn batter out into prepared Bundt pan and bake in 350F oven for 60 – 70 minutes, until golden and pick inserted in centre comes out clean.
Remove from oven and cool, in pan, on wire rack for 10 minutes.
Turn out of pan onto wire rack and cool completely.
While cake is cooling prepare Cream Cheese Frosting:
Cream butter until soft and no lumps remain.
On low speed, stir in 1 cup of icing sugar until incorporated.
Add vanilla and continue stirring on low speed.
Add another cup of icing sugar, again stirring until incorporated.
Add final cup of icing sugar and a bit of milk, if needed.
Beat on medium-high speed for 2 -3 minutes until light and fluffy.
When cake is completely cooled frost with Cream Cheese Frosting, sprinkled with chopped Pecans and drizzle with a bit of Maple Glaze (icing sugar mixed with a bit of maple flavouring and enough milk to drizzling consistency)
A beloved flavourful treat that has been carried off to school in many a lunch bags. These are sure to call forth many happy childhood memories! Mom might have made them in cookie-form but in these busy times it is quick and easy to make them as bars.
Hermit Cookie Bars
1 cup Butter
1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar, packed
3 Large Eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla
3 cups Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Allspice
1 cup Raisins, soaked and well drained
1 cup chopped Dates
1 cup chopped Nuts
Preheat oven to 350F.
Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper.
In medium mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice; set aside.
Cream butter and sugar together.
Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla.
Gradually add dry ingredients and mix well.
Add fruit and nuts, stirring well to evenly distribute.
Spread evenly onto prepared jelly roll pan.
Bake in 350F oven for 20 minutes or until edges are lightly golden and center is set.
Cool slightly, then dust with a bit of powdered sugar.
Cut into bars.
Remove bars from baking tray and cool completely on wire racks.
April 25 is the day to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Corps who fought at Gallipoli during WWI. But now it more broadly commemorates all the diggers who served or died in military operations. I always make Anzacs on Anzac Day but sometimes my Aussie husband misses home so I make him these….they are heaps easier to make than Lamingtons!
Chewy Anzacs
1 cup Flour
1 cup Rolled Oats
1 cup Coconut
3/4 cup Brown Sugar
125 grams Butter (about 1/2 cup; I actually measure butter(s) a kitchen scale)
2 Tablespoon Golden Syrup (Rogers Golden Syrup in Canada)
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
2 Tablespoons Water
Preheat oven to 325F.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
In medium mixing bowl combine flour, rolled oats, coconut and brown sugar.
In a medium saucepan melt butter over medium heat; add golden syrup and water, stirring until syrup dissolves.
Stir in baking soda.
Pour butter mixture into the flour mixture and stir until combined.
Using a 1.5ounce scoop, scoop out batter and drop 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, flatten biscuits slightly.
Bake in 325F. oven for 10 – 12 minutes, until golden brown.
Remove from oven and let biscuits cool on baking sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
Anzac bickies…”I like the chewy ones, not the crunchy ones. You have to have real golden syrup.” says my husband.
“They’re called “bickies” not cookies!” he exclaims.
One of the things I love about Anzacs is that there aren’t any eggs in them!!! I can eat all the cookie do….biscuit dough I want! Sometimes I don’t get many bickies actually baked because I just want to eat raw co…biscuit dough!
Welcome to my Kitchen where the most important ingredient is Love.
