Cranberry Blondies

I'm going to share something with you today. A recipe. A yummy recipe.

But before I get to sharing, I have a confession to make.

Today, I am sharing with purely selfish motives.

Let's start with a view of my most frequently used counter space - the corner between my stove and my sink:

Small and cluttered, right? But, the most used.

And now let's talk about why I'm showing you this picture. It's not to point out one of my most loved and frequently used wedding presents - the set of orange mixing bowls. Nor is it about how much more I like my large glass storage jars since I've attacked them with washi tape - although I do like them ever so much more. And it's not to give you an opportunity to point out how filthy dirty my oven mitts are - although, you certainly could jump on the chance, eh? 

Nope, this picture is to show you my most used kitchen tool as of the past year or so - that iPad! Pinterest is my most favorite source of recipes at this point, although I also use and enjoy allrecipes.com. I pull up the recipes and work from the iPad and rarely ever pull out my cookbooks anymore. It sits on a cookbook holder (how appropriate, right?) and helps me cook and bake my way through every day in the kitchen. 

Cranberry Blondies. That's what this is about, isn't it? Right! The thing is, the recipe I make every year around Christmas (I'm guessing because of the whole cranberry thing? although I'm not 100% certain...) is an absolute favorite of mine and yet I cannot pull it up on my iPad. Why? Because it's in my little stash of hand written favorites I store away in a little red recipe box. 

Sooooo, I'm sharing this recipe with you today with ulterior motives. I want to enjoy modern technology recipe reading. If I write a post about it, and Pin it, it's safely stored away in my stash of baking recipes and I will no longer have to worry about getting buttery finger prints on my beloved recipe card. Happy me...and...happy you, after you've baked a batch of your own!

Unfortunately, when I copied this recipe years ago I didn't feel the need to be concerned with giving credit to the its creator. And I know that's a big deal online right now. So if this is your recipe - do let me know so I can give you the credit and send you a thank you card for letting me enjoy it for so many Christmas seasons!

CRANBERRY BLONDIES

1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
3/4 teas. baking powder
1/4 teas. baking soda
1/4 teas. salt
2 eggs
1 teas. vanilla
1 c. flour
1/2 c. dried cranberries
1/2 c. white chocolate chips (or chunks)
1 c. fresh cranberries

Directions:

> Set your oven for 350 degrees F.
> Beat butter until creamy, then add sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
> Add flour and mix in at low speed.
> Stir in dried cranberries and white chocolate chips.
> Line an 8x8 pan with foil, then spray with non-stick spray.
> Pour the batter into the pan. Sprinkle fresh cranberries on top and gently press them a little bit into the batter.
> Bake for 30 min, according to the recipe, although I've found that it takes quite awhile more to finish up - closer to 40 minutes. So set that timer for 30 and check it to see if it needs more time.
> Let cool for awhile, but then lift the foil lining out of the pan and cut into squares.

* I usually double this recipe and put it in a 9x13 pan...

And the result?

I've refrained from eating this batch, since they're designated for our church's Christmas Program this evening. But a small handful might've made it to our freezer already to be enjoyed Christmas Eve! Mmm. Can't wait.  !! 

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do...

Linking to Jennifer Rizzo's Fabulously Creative Friday

Fudge Sisters

Edie and I? Well, she doesn't know it yet, but we...we are fudge sisters.

Fudge sisters for life.

Because I licked the Dutch oven clean. My husband and daughter got one (rather small) spoonful each, and I? I hoarded the dutch oven.

Oh. So. Good.

!!!

Not sure what I'm talking about? Me neither, really. Except that she promised that when I made her Grannie's Old Fashioned Fudge and took that first bite of ever so delicious fudge that we'd be connected somehow. And I quote " ...once you eat this, it's like we're blood brothers. But more like fudge sisters. We're for real friends now. This chocolate bond can never be broken."

The crazy thing is? I believe her. This crazy great fudge is good even straight out of the freezer! (I know because I attempted to hide it from myself...)

Insanity.

So when Hadassah and I made it, we thought we'd show Edie that we meant business. If this was a bonding thing, we wanted to really bond. As in, do it just like her. So we took a picture of the Canadian version of her ingredients...just like her...

...buuuut then that's as far as we got. There was a cute little big girl distracting me, so I took a picture of her instead of the next series of cooking and stirring and pouring shots. Oops! I hope this doesn't affect our friendship...me and Edie...

Her directions were great. Her pictures were helpful. Her fudge? Amazing!!

Can I tell you again how much I enjoyed this batch of sweetness? No? Ok. Overkill, right? Settle down Jen.

But I do want to encourage you in this: If you need fudge - easy to make fudge - good fudge - than make Edie's fudge.

Mmmmm.

Because there's nothing like being fudge sister's with Edie. Nothing like it. (seriously, you gotta try it right out of the freezer...)

Edie? I thank you. And Grannie. A hundred fold.




*Extracurricular Activity* Don't forget about the giveaway to celebrate the fact that I actually opened SparrowJoy! The deadline is Mon, Dec.2 - so hurry to get your comments in - there are some great suggestions there already! Thanks friends!

Cakes & Confessions

Friday night

Me: Tim, how come you didn't finish your cupcake?
Tim: Well, I think I've figured out that I just don't like cupcakes.
Me: Really?! Me neither! Although mine had chocolate on it and in it, so I had to finish it. What about cake - do you like cake? Cause I don't think I like cake either.
Tim: No!! *sitting up in excitement at the discovery of our mutual dislike of cake* Me neither! How great is that?! You never have to bake either because we don't like it!
Me: Excellent. We are a no cake household then. Decided.

Saturday night

Me: Tim, I want to get into the habit of making a yummy dessert for Sundays cause, well, it's Sunday! What should I make?
Tim: Oh, I dunno. Whatever you like, dear.
Me: Hmm...let's see. Well, I don't really feel like running to the grocery store for ingredients, so I'll have to make do with stuff I have in the house. Let's see *rummaging in pantry* I have a cake mix. And butter and icing sugar. I could make a cake!
Tim: Uh...didn't we just decide we didn't like cake?
Me: Good point. I'll look online to see if there's recipes with cake mixes as a base.

Sunday afternoon

Me: Ok! Cake's ready!Tim: Cake?! You made cake?! I thought....
Me: I know, I know. But I found this recipe online and 50 someodd people gave it 5 stars...so I had to try it.
Tim: Alright......*takes a bite*......Jen! This is the best cake! Ever! Can you make this next week too?!Ok. Our conversation didn't go exACTly like that, but it was pretty close! And man, did I ever score on this cake recipe! And since it's nice to share...

White Almond Cake

1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups water
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 egg whites

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour an 11x13 inch cake pan.
Stir together the white cake mix, flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl until well mixed. Pour in the water, sour cream, vegetable oil, almond and vanilla extracts, and egg whites, and beat with an electric mix on low until all the ingredients are mixed and moistened but some lumps still remain, 4 minutes.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, and bake in the preheated oven until the top is a light golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Allow to cool before frosting.

(from AllRecipes.com)

And while I'm at it, here's a Cinnamon Rolls (from scratch!) recipe that I've made a number of times before and keep getting requests for. Makes me want to go and make them right now!!

Cinnamon Buns
1/3 cup butter, soft
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup cold butter
1 cup milk
1/3 cup nuts (opt. - I never bother)

Directions Cream butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, set aside. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter. Pour milk in all at once, stir to make soft dough. Knead 8-10 times. Roll out on floured surface. Roll up, slice and place into 8x8" greased pan. Bake 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Mmmm, these are so good.

Now. Onto confessions. We received a phone call at 8 o'clock this morning and this person asked if we were up. I couldn't lie. I had to say 'nope. still in bed.' And now, I will confess, I've failed to get up early for 4 days now. 4 days!! My post about the 5AM club...well...I failed to wake up early since I posted it!!

But now that I've made a public confession, I am determined.

6:30am.

Every morning.

Now...there's a slice of cake calling my name...

Around the house

It seems as though everyone has been sick in the past few weeks, with at least the minimum cold. We had it over here off and on. Well, Tim and Hadassah have had it off and on. So far, it's managed to skip me. Am I ever thankful for that!!

But there are a couple things I tried to help them out and I thought I'd share them...because they seemed to help!

Hadassah had a little regiment going of a children's "hot toddy" in the morning, and one in the morning. Brilliant stuff! Apple juice warmed up with real lemon juice squeezed in, as well as a couple teaspoons of honey. At night I followed that with one spoon of plain honey, a smathering of BabyVic's on her chest and back, and a fresh VapoPad put into the Vic's Plug-in, as well as having the humidifier running. She slept SO much better the nights that I did all of this. These are probably super common for the average mom, but all new to me! Thanks Mr. Internet and Mrs. Suzanne for your advice.

And for Tim - I introduced him to echinacea and Red Pepper Soup.He fought it for days. (a cold, not the soup...) Snored for days. Slept on the couch for days. But I'm convinced that he never got it reallllly bad because of the Red Pepper Soup. ;) And it was such a big pot that I was able to freeze some of it and serve it to Deb and Marlaine this weekend, who I'm sure would've noticed an instant cure...had they had colds. But they didn't. They were well. And so much fun! Hadassah loved getting to know her aunties. And here are some random pictures of our Dassah enjoying the fall. You'll notice on the the picture below that she has a leaf on her nose? Well...we went for a walk but forgot to bring along some Kleenex. A cold and the crisp autumn air didn't do well for Hadassah's nose and so before I started pictures, I had wiped her nose with the only available tissue nature offered - a leaf! And so when I said to Tim "oh look, her nose is running again", the first thing she did was grab a leaf and give her nose a wipe.

Yup. She's a smart one!Here she is with "Beo" (Leo), her partner in learning how to share. Some of their more frequent words the morning of his visit were "Mine" and "No, mine". And here is my little helper. We had our first coloring-on-the-wall incident a few days ago. She saw mommy clean it up and had to get in on that. So she somehow found her own rag, cleaned the wall, then wiped her nose...cleaned the wall, then wiped her nose. Let's just say mommy cleaned the wall again.

For my burger lovin' husband...

How fun is it when this...

...turns into this...


Thanks to Bakerella for the fabulous idea & instructions. It was a hit, as you can see (Hadassah couldn't wait to dive in...but Tim loved it too!!):


Thanks to all the courageous dads out there, swimming against the tide of this world in order to raise their children in a way pleasing to God. And, a special "Happy Dad's Day" going out to dad, dad, Opa and (of course) Tim. Love you all!