Pomegranates!

Have you ever eated a pomegranate? If not- you need to get a few next time you're out! They're not very common, and not very many people eat them. At first when I cut it open, I thought it looked really freaky.
What you do is cut off the crown of the pomegranate, first. Then you take a knife and make grooves in the skin of the pomegranate on the outside. Then, you take it and soak it in cold water for 10 minutes. Then, you pull off the skin and the membrane, and take the seeds out. The seeds will sink to the bottom of the bowl of water. When you're done, take out all of the skins, strain the bowl, and there you go!
These are REALLY good. They look weird, but they taste amazing. Try it sometime!! :)
~Adelaide

AllRecipes.com

So I was messing around online last night, and I found this really cool site, and it has just about every recipe you could ever imagine. Check it out! :)

~Adi

Cream Puffs

CREAM PUFFS

Anyone can Bake

Ingredients:

1 cup full of water

1/2 cup butter

1/8  teaspoon salt

(if your using salted butter u don't have to add salt:))

1 cup of all-purpose flour

(basically a fancy way of saying white flour.)

4 eggs

3 cups of whipped cream, pudding, or ice cream

OPTIONAL: cocoa powder and/or powdered sugar

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a saucepan, bring water, butter, and salt to a boil.

3. Add the flour all at once, and keep on a-stirrin' till the dough forms into a ball.

4. Remove from the heat, and let the dough cool for...about 10 minutes.

5. When it's done cooling, add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one gets dropped in.

6. When it's all stirred, drop the dough on a cookie sheet THAT HAS BEEN SPRAYED WITH COOKING SPRAY, into twelve mounds. (just make sure they're not too close-they expand to like 3 times their size.)

7. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until they're golden brown. DO NOT OVER BAKE: the first time I made these, I over baked them, and they didn't taste too hot o.o

8.When they're done, immediately take them off the cookie sheet, and let them cool for a while. (I usually put them all on a plate and set them in the fridge.. it helps them cool faster;))

9. When they're done cooling, carefully slice off about 1/3 to 1/2 the top of each cream puff, and with a fork, take the dough out of the middle of each one.

10. Whether it's whipped cream, pudding, or ice cream, fill up the bottom half of each cream puff, and when you're done, put the other half on top of it.

It's better to serve these immediately after they're done, because once the ice cream/whipped cream/pudding reaches room temperature, it's kinda nasty. If you ARE gonna save them, make sure to put them in the fridge. :)

11. Eat them, duh

These (i thought) were super amazing and delicious. Everyone liked them. :D I made mine with pudding. The 1st batch I made I burnt the puffs a little...The second one I made they got cooked to perfection, and in the pudding I smashed up 1/2 a banana and mixed it in with the vanilla pudding. It was pretty good.

If you're new to cooking, this recipe is SO for you. It's so easy! 

~Adi :3

Peanut Butter Cookies

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

Grandma's Recipies

Ingredients:

1 c. sugar

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. butter

2 eggs

1 c. Peanut Butter

1 tsp. vanilla

3 c. flour

2 tsp. soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar

2. Beat in eggs.

3. Add peanut butter and vanilla.

4. Mix well,  and blend in dry ingredients.

5. Roll in balls, and place on a greased cookie sheet.

6. Press each cookie twice with a fork.

7. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes

8. Take out of the oven and let cool because, well they just came out of the oven so they're extremely hot.

9. Eat.

These are awesome cookies and everyone loved them.

Pineapple Pie

PINEAPPLE PIE

Ingredients:

1 20 0z pineapple pie filling

1 pkg cream cheese (softened)

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 tsp salt

(NOTE: you really don't need to measure it exactly, i just put in a dash of salt or so.)

2 eggs\1/2 c. milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

(NOTE: THIS, on the other hand, you should measure. if you put too much vanilla in a recipe, it will hardly have a taste. and if you put too much vanilla in, it will taste nasty.)

1 unbaked pastry pie shell

1.Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Spread the pineapple filling over UN-baked pie shell.

3. Beat cream cheese for about 30 seconds, then add sugar, salt, and eggs, mixing after each addition.

4.Pour mixture over pineapple filling.

5. Bake for 10 minutes, the reduce the heat to 325 degrees, and bake for another 40 minutes.

6. Cool.

7. ENJOY!! :)

''Coffee'' Cookies

   'COFFEE' COOKIES

Ingredients:

3 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 c. lard

1 1/2 c. coffee (strong)

1 1/2 t. soda

4 1/2 t. baking powder

vanilla and lemon

4 eggs

6 c. flour

Equipment:

Large mixing bowl

Wooden spoon

Greased cookie sheet

Oven

Mix coffee and flour alternately. Bake @ 350 degrees.

The person who made this recipe is obviously not very specific. I just added all of the ingredients in order, rolled them into little balls (flatten them a little), and baked them in the oven for about 9 minutes.

Before you make this, I'll have you know that they do not taste at all like coffee. They taste like little pancakes, and they're good dipped in maple syrup, really. Oh and for the vanilla and lemon, I added about 2 tsp. vanilla and 2 tsp. lemon juice. But I also made half of the recipie, so if you're going to make it all, you should add 4 tsp. vanilla and 4 tsp. lemon juice.

~Adi :)

Oreo-Balls

OREO-BALLS

Ingredients:

1 package of Oreo cookies

1 8-oz pkg. cream cheese

Melted white chocolate

Equipment:

Mixer (Kitchen Aid is the best ;))

Mixing bowl

Big plate

Wax paper

Food processor

1. Ground up all of the Oreo cookies in the food processor. Make sure they are finely ground.

2. Mix in creamed cheese.

3. Roll into about 1'' balls, set on wax paper (that is on a plate), and leave in fridge for a few hours.

4. When hardened, melt white chocolate and dip them into it. Leave in fridge until hard.

If you don't like white chocolate, you can substitute it for milk chocolate or dark chocolate. I made the white chocolate ones and the dark chocolate ones, and i liked them both, but i liked the dark chocolate ones more.

~Adi

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day!! ;)

Shepherd's Pie

SHEPHERD'S PIE

(e-meals)

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs. ground beef

1/2 c. onion

1 can cream of mushroom soup

(1/4 c. + 1 T milk)

1 can mixed veggies, drained

3 c. prepared mashed potatoes

1 c. shredded cheddar cheese

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a skillet, brown beef with onions.

(Tip: if you're using raw meat, it doesn't matter how brown the meat is, you just have to make sure none of it is pink.)

3. Drain and add soup, milk, and veggies.

4. Mix well and pour into a 2 qt. baking dish.

5. Cover meat mixture with mashed potatoes.

(Tip: make sure you spread the mashed potatoes so you can't see the meat)

6. Sprinkle w/ cheese. (i added more cheese than what they said.)

7. Bake 20-25 minutes.

I thought this was reallllly good, but I love shepherd's pie. It's even better when you put a lot of cheese on top. Everyone loved it.

~Adi

Marshmallow Fluff

The other day i was making cookies that required marshmallow fluff and it really got me wondering- how DO you make marshmallow fluff? I'd figured it was just melted marshmallows but it's really-

2 c. marshmallows

1/4 c. corn syrup

heated up on a double-boiler.

I thought that would be easy enough.

And was I ever wrong.

When I made the marshmallow fluff, it was time-consuming and VERY hard to stir. And i thought it wouldn't turn out this bad but it turned out more like marshmallow glue. It stuck to the pan when I was done with it.. and that thing was hard to get clean. :P

So I learned that next time I need marshmallow fluff, just go buy it at Walmart.
~Adi

Fudgy Peanut-Butter Mousse Cups

FUDGY PEANUT-BUTTER MOUSSE CUPS

Ingredients:

 1 (17. oz.) pkg. sugar cookie mix

1 c. pecans, toasted

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 stick unsalted butter

(Note: it doesn't have to be unsalted butter. There actually isn't enough salt in a stick of butter to effect this recipe.)

1 1/4 c. heavy cream

(Note: Sometimes called Whipping Cream.)

1 c. chunky peanut butter room temperature

(Note: if you prefer creamy, that's fine.)

1 8-oz package of cream cheese

1 c. powdered sugar

*1 tsp. vanilla extract*

1 c. semisweet chocolate chips

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 30 degrees.

2. Grease 12-cup mini-muffin tin. 

3. Mix together pecans, and flour in a food processor until nuts are finely ground. Transfer to large bowl and add butter,stirring until mixture resembles wet sand.

4. Press rounded tablespoon cookie mixture into bottom and sides of each muffin cup.

Note: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE MUFFIN CUPS IN THE TIN!! If you don't it will turn out like mine- and mine wouldn't come out of the tin and they crumbled up..

5. Bake until golden brown- about 10 minutes.

6. Cool for 20 minutes, then remove from tin. Repeat if you have any remaining dough.

7. With electric mixer, on medium-high speed, beat 1 c.  cream to stiff peaks, about 2 minutes. In separate bowl,beat peanut butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla, on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute.

8. Fold in whipped cream.

9. Microwave chocolate chips and 1/4 c. cream in small bowl, stirring occasionally until smooth, about 1 minute.

10. Portion 1/2 teaspoon chocolate mixture into each cookie cup, then fill cups with 1 tablespoon peanut-butter mixture. Pipe remaining chocolate over tops of cookies and refrigerate for 1 hr. or until firm.

 11. ENJOY!! :)

These were VERY hard to make. And the worst part is- they turned out horrible. When i tried to take out the cookies from the muffin tins, they crumbles into little pieces. Only 3 of them made it.. :( The peanut-butter part is verrrrrry rich. pics up soon.

~Adi



Ande's Mint Chunk Cookies

ANDE'S MINT CHUNK COOKIES

(On the back of the Andes baking chips package)

Ingredients:

1/2 c. (1 stick) salted butter

Note: if you do not have salted butter-that's okay. There's actually not enough salt in butter to effect this recipe.

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 2/3 c. all-purpose flour

1 pkg. Andes baking chips

Equipment:

Large mixing bowl

Wooden spoon

Oven

Greased cookie sheet

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix butter, sugars, soda, powder, vanilla, and eggs, adding each gradually.

3. When thoroughly mixed, add flour. Then add baking chips.

4. Chill for approx. 1 hour.

Note: that's pointless. I didn't and they turned out fine.

5. Form the dough into balls, place on cookie sheet, then slightly flatten.

6. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Note: let them cool for a few minutes before you take them off, but don't leave them on too long or they will stick to the cookie sheet.

7. ENJOY!! :)

I made these yesterday and they were awesome. Awesome is an understatement because everyone ate them and loved them.

~Adi :)