butter tips

every time i see butter written down in a recipe i hear my husband obnoxiously [love you] saying it in his best julia childs voice from the julie & julia movie [don't ask why he's seen that one either...] but seriously, one of the worst things is to get all inspired to make a great recipe only to find out that it calls for softened butter after you are 3/4 of the way through your recipe or beyond the point of turning back. you pop butter in the microwave, you end up with the valley in the center of somewhat melted butter and the rest so soft that it creates a hot & greasy mess as you open it. or almost even worse than that, you say screw it who the heck cares if its softened my kitchen aid mixer can cream it regardless ending up with large chunks and a burnt out mixer.

creaming butter & sugar together [as many recipes of baked goods require] should be the longest step of the entire recipe if you do it the way we are all actually supposed to. melted butter effects the consistency of the batter and the creaming process is essentially shot at that point. It really is recommended that if you melt the butter, that you put it in a small bowl and back in the fridge for your next baked potato or grilled cheese sandwich and start with a fresh stick. i will admit i've made a batch of muffins or two that ended up with grainy looking "creamed" butter and sugar versus the beautiful, slightly yellow lofted goodness a great recipe has.

in the ideal world we would all have the butter softened perfectly out of the wrapper and ready to go the moment we are ready to get baking. what i have found is that the days that i pull butter out, i don't end up baking...the days butter is frozen solid, its a matter of life or death for me to have a fresh sour cream pound cake...the solution?

all you need is a sandwich size ziploc bag. put your butter in there, and run some hot water over it for about 60 seconds, rotating the butter and the bag so that you don't end up with a hole where the stream of water poured onto the bag. within a minute of using not so scalding hot water, i've been able to soften my butter (from refrigerated temperatures) and creaming it with the sugar within minutes!

my fave mac & cheese

here is my favorite homemade mac & cheese recipe ever! 

what you need...

2 Tbsp Corn starch
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp pepper
2 1/2 cups milk
2 Tbsp butter
2 cups (8oz) shredded cheese
8 oz elbows, cooked 5 minutes and drained

what to do...In medium saucepan combine first 4 ingredients; stir in milk. Add butter; stirring constantly, bring to a boil over medium-high heat and boil one minute.  

Remove from heat. Stir in 1 3/4 cups cheese until melted. Add elbows. Pour into greased 2 qt casserole. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake uncovered in 375 degree oven 25 minutes. Makes 4-6 servings


Trick is not to over cook the noodles! Might take more then 5 minutes, but DO NOT cook them till they are soft.  If you do not constantly stir when the milk is boiling it will burn aka taste bad.

chocolate peanut butter chip pound cake

so we all know (or you should know) about the infamous chocolate chip pound cake that pig's mom has made for years. if you've ever been to on of the hee haws get togethers, you know that either the chocolate chip pound cake or sour cream pound cake can be found within arms reach!

when at bonnie & william's earlier in the month, i helped bonnie out with a recipe that she had for a chocolate peanut butter chip pound cake which sounded great, smelt amazing, and was the 2nd easiest recipe i've ever made to get such a great end product (1st being the original due to # of ingredients)!

bonnie's chocolate peanut butter chip pound cake
what you need...
1 yellow cake mix
3 eggs
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 small instant chocolate pudding packet
8 oz. sour cream
1 cup chips (1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate and 1/2 cup peanut butter chips)

what to do...combine the 1st six ingredients mixing well. fold in sour cream and chips. pour into well greased & floured bundt cake pan. bake 350 for an hour

yes that is all there is to this amazing recipe! i think i may try and use the mini peanut butter cups too sometime soon when i make this again.  


thanks Bonnie for sharing!!

what's with the cupcake liners?

so recently i used for the first time ever foil cupcake liners...i was mesmerized by the fact that when we were recently given a treat in them how little they actually stuck to the liner. i was in love and ready to try them out for myself. so i have my reynold's cup cake foil liners and begin putting them in the trays...but something was weird.  in between each foil liner was a regular liner. what was i supposed to do with them?! how complicated had i just made this?!

i googled and found a great discussion board where i was surely educated. no you don't have to use both cupcake liners & actually you technically get double the liners if you like to use the regular paper liners too. you can also however, use both if you like the look of the foil liner and the feel of the paper liner. one other fun fact about the foil liners is you don't require a cup cake pan. the foil liners actually hold up the raw cake batter for you! 


good luck to all you bakers!