Tag: dessert

Our Take on Minnesota Bars

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When Erin and Molly requested we make a Minnesota bar recipe, I have to admit I had no idea what that meant. The only Minnesota bars that I knew about are those I frequented in college – but that’s a whole other story. So after a little research we discovered that in addition to the Minnesota hotdish, Minnesota bars are the second most popular potluck dish in the state. The dessert bars are any kind of dessert that fits into a large baking dish, is easily made and requires little to no cookie dough. For example Rice Krispie treats, lemon bars and peanut butter bars are all considered Minnesota bars – brownies however are not (although I don’t really understand why).

What I really wanted to make tonight was another batch of these lemon bars, posted over at Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide. These things are unbelievably good, but I know if we made another batch I would eat the entire pan. Seriously. So tonight we went for something a little less dangerous. Can you guess what dessert bar we made? (And it’s not Rice Krispie treats.) Continue reading →

Quest for the Best Banana Bread 2

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I had every intention of posting this delicious banana bread recipe yesterday, but the day just got away from me. It was a wonderful Mother’s Day spent with my little ones and was topped off with a special dinner that dad whipped up for me. It was the perfect day. It was also a great day to try a new banana bread recipe for our challenge. This time I picked the recipe that I’ve been dying to try – Bananas Foster Bread from Cooking Light magazine. I’m a huge fan of bananas foster. It was my favorite dish at a local New Orleans themed restaurant that sadly went out of business, so I was hoping that his recipe would fill the void.

We started by cooking the butter, brown sugar, bananas and cognac in a skillet over medium heat until bubbly.

Continue reading →

No Feast is Complete without Dessert!

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And last, but not least is our recipe for Easy Berry Mini-Trifle which we ate to round off our British Feast. (As if we didn’t have enough food to begin with!) After reading quite a few different trifle recipes it became clear that we could really customize this however we wanted. We left out the liquor this time and went the easy route and bought pre-made ingredients. Also, rather than making the trifle in one large glass bowl, we made several varieties in drinking glasses so that everyone could pick their own ingredients.

I would recommend using smaller, wider juice glasses if using this method. Sadly over the past 11 years of marriage all of ours seem to have broken or disappeared. So we made do with these. Continue reading →

The Quest for the Best Banana Bread

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ChefMom hiking with her little sister and dad circa 1984-ish

While Mr. N eagerly awaits his prize drawing this afternoon, we thought we’d share our latest adventure. One of my earliest memories of cooking is with my dad. We used to make Big Bird’s Banana Bread from one of my old Sesame Street books. After Mr. N was born this memory kept resurfacing and I knew I had to find the same series of books (my old set was ruined in a flood years ago). I was fortunate enough to find them on eBay and acquired the whole set once again. I knew this was a recipe I wanted to share with Mr. N as he got older.

I made the recipe a few years ago and it didn’t quite live up to the hype in my mind. The memory is far sweeter than this particular version of the tasty snack. Then while we were living in Minnesota my friend Doree brought over her banana bread. Now this stuff tasted much more like my memory of banana bread! In fact, this was and so far still is the best banana bread I’ve ever had in my life. So since banana bread holds a special place in my heart we’re going to test out some new recipes as well as some old recipes until we find our favorite. Don’t worry dad, I’ll make sure to bring you a piece of each of them! Continue reading →

Hail, South Dakota

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Miss A is at the helm again! Not only are we touring the culinary delights of Russia at Miss A’s request, but it’s also her turn to pick our stateside adventure. This past summer we took our western road trip which included South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado. South Dakota was easily one of Miss A’s favorite spots from meeting “Cornelius” at the Corn Palace in Mitchell (with whom she has a definite love/hate relationship – she loves to talk and giggle about him, hates to see him), to the peeking prairie dogs in Custer State Park and to “hikin’ it” in the Badlands. So it came as no surprise to us that Miss A chose the Mount Rushmore State this week, and we’re all happy she did.

Today we all spent the afternoon in the kitchen baking up several different dishes, including the South Dakota Peach Kuchen. The Kuchen is the official dessert of South Dakota – making it an obvious (and delicious) choice. We adapted this recipe from Midwest Living Magazine. Continue reading →

The Traveling Pan

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Magnolia Tree

This past week our stateside cooking adventure took us to Mississippi. While we were researching recipes it became very clear that two dishes are synonymous with the Magnolia State – catfish and Mississippi Mud Pie. It also happens that I need a dessert to take downstate to a family get together this weekend.

My family has a traveling 9″x13″ pan that always carries my favorite dessert when it makes its way up to this part of the state – my Grandma’s Blackberry Cobbler. Then when we head south, my mom whips up a chocolate dessert to take back in the pan. It just so happened that this time, the pan was at my house, giving us the perfect opportunity to try the Mississippi Mud Cake (similar to the pie, but suitable to this size baking dish).

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m not big on baking cakes and especially cakes that involve icing; but there are two things I love about this recipe: 1) It’s easy. 2) It’s supposed to look like mud. I figured that the kids and I could tackle this one. We chose Paula Deen’s recipe because she too is synonymous with the south. Continue reading →