Homemade {Teething Biscuit}

Our boy has no teeth but he is a drool factory, which leads me to believe he is teething. Somehow I have become this overprotective momma and I don't want anything but the best ingredients going into  my boy's little body. I'm sure I will get over it, as life gets busy and he requires more food. For now, I am taking advantage of my free time and making teething biscuits from scratch. 

He loves them, and it's keeping him occupied for now! I think these are going to be a great treat to help occupy him when we fly to the east coast next week!

Here are the ingredients:

• 1 cup baby cereal ( I used brown rice baby cereal)
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/3 cup organic apple sauce (I made my own, here) 
• 2-4 tbsp cold water

Combine all the ingredients, except for water, into a bowl.  Add water one tbsp at a time until a dough is formed. Roll dough on a floured surface, use cookie cutters of your choice! I experimented with different shapes using a series of round cookie cutters and a straight edge. I also used some of my rubber stamps to imprint designs into the biscuits. 

Crockpot {Apple Sauce}

This is super yummy and easy to make! The only catch is it takes 6 hours. 

Here are the ingredients:

• 10 medium apples (use a combination of varieties)

• 1 strips of lemon peel - use a vegetable peeler

• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice

• 3 inch cinnamon stick (or 1/2 tsp cinnamon)

• 5 tsp light brown sugar (unpacked) - or agave

Peel and core your apples, and combine all the ingredients in a crock-pot. Cook on low for 6 hours. Mash with fork or blend if you want a smoother consistency (don't forget to pull the lemon peel out). I thought our apple sauce was a little too sweet, next time I will put less sugar. 

Enjoy the taste and the smell of fall in the air! 

Cream of Chemical No More!

So many fall and winter recipes call for condensed Cream of Chicken soup. If you have ever used canned cream of chicken you know that it is pretty gross! I had been wanting to try and make my own but just had never gotten around to it! Finally, I had the prefect opportunity! All the ingredients are super basic, so if you're like me you probably already have them laying around your kitchen! 

This Cream of Chicken soup recipe only takes 5 minutes to make and about 10 minutes to cook and it makes 3 cups of soup! 

Here is what you need:

• 2½ cups chicken broth (I used 2 cans)
• 1½ cups milk
• ¾ cup flour
• 1 tablespoon seasoning mix (or on your own, ½ tsp. onion powder, ½ tsp. garlic powder, ½ tsp. black pepper, 1 tsp. salt, ½ tsp. parsley, etc)

Now you will need to:

1. Combine the chicken broth and ½ cup of the milk in a large saucepan. Bring to a low boil.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the flour and seasonings into the remaining 1 cup milk until a smooth, thick mixture forms.
3. Pour the flour and milk mixture into the saucepan with the broth mixture over low heat and stir continuously, whisking as the mixture simmers. Continue to simmer and stir/whisk until the mixture is smooth and thick, 5-10 minutes. The mixture will thicken a bit as it cools.

You can use whatever seasoning you want to, there are endless possibilities! Also, when you stir/whisk the mixture make sure you keep the heat low and take your time because it's easy for the mixture to get lumpy.

The Kane house has officially made the switch to this soup instead of the over processed canned Cream of Chicken! 

Banana Bread {Wrapping}

I finally have a little craft/office space in our house! Ever since I stopped working I've been wanting a space of my own for crafting, blogging, paying bills, and everything else "officey". I needed a space that makes me feel like there is more in my life than hanging out with a baby all day! I'm trying to get it organized, once it's finished I will share this precious space with you! For now I want to share with you an awesome banana bread recipe and my wrap job! 

If you follow us on instagram you know that we took a trip down the coast to see our friends who live in Monterey! I didn't want to go empty handed so I made some Banana Bread! 

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the actually loaf, but I promise it was really good and moist! Our friends loved it!

Here is my Recipe! (of course I made some substitutions!)

1/2 cup butter
1c. White Sugar
2c. Flour
2 eggs
1tsp Vanilla
1tsp Cinnamon
1tsp Baking Soda
1tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Salt
1/2 Greek Yogurt (plain or vanilla)
3 ripe bananas

Mix wet ingredients in one bowl, mix dry ingredients in another. Mix everything together and pour into a greased bread pan, Cook at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until knife comes out clean!

{Chocolate Zucchini Bread}

Baking is something I'm really not good at. My major issue is I can't seem to EVER follow the directions. I like to add an extra dash of this, or sprinkle of that. It works with cooking but in baking everything is precisely measured for a reason. I just can't stick to the plan, a theme that rings true in other areas of my life! Sometimes my bake goods are a stroke of genius, but a lot of times my results are disastrous! You would think I've learned my lesson by now! I actually managed to follow the directions of this recipe!


I know my last food post was about Zucchini, but it's such an awesome summer vegetable and its extremely versatile! So here it goes! The only things I substituted in this recipe was coconut oil (it's just so much better for you). Also, i forgot to put coco powder in the image below and I wasn't about to set everything up and retake the picture!

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Makes one 9×5 loaf

1 1/2 cups zucchini, shredded
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup canola oil (I used coconut oil)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips 

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9×5 loaf pan with cooking spray (or grease with butter/shortening).

In a mixer, combine your oil, sugars and vanilla. Mix in your eggs and shredded zucchini. In a separate bowl, sift together your flours, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder. Slowly add this dry mixture into your wet mixture. Beat until combined. Mix in your chocolate chips.

Scrape your batter prepared loaf pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center. Remove from oven and cool in pan for 10 minutes before cooling on a wire rack.

[Squash and Zucchini Noodles]

This is my new favorite way to eat yellow squash and zucchini. The way I make this dish is I use a Julienne Peeler (Here is the one I bought on Amazon). You peel the yellow squash and zucchini into noodles (stop peeling when you get to the seeds), then I sauté in either butter or coconut oil until soft. Lastly, I season the noodles with salt, pepper, and fresh garlic.

For my Noodle Recipe You will need:

Yellow Sqash
Zucchini
Julienne Peeler
Garlic
Salt
Pepper

{Bunting & Bergers}

Finally the Ravens made it back to the super bowl; and where do we LIVE??? CALIFORNIA! After living in Maryland our entire lives the Ravens make it, and we are living in the rival state! That did not stop us from having a purple party, peppered with a few Niners fans. I just have to tell you this,  I took a ton of awesome pictures of our Ravens Party on my new camera, and my SD card decided to stop working :-(. I would have liked to through my new camera at a wall I was so mad. So here are the pictures from my phone, wish I had more.

I took some old burlap and made a banner, I used my rotary cutter to cut triangles and made some stenciled letters from computer paper. I used a hole punch to thread ribbion through the flags, and that was all!

Here it is hanging up!

I had to add some purple and gold bow's to spice things up.

I wanted to bring baltimore to california, so I attempted to make 'Burger Cookies'

The recipe was actually pretty easy, just a lot of steps.(I found the recipe here) Berger cookies are a cake cookie topped with fudge! They were a hit at the party.

Here is the Baltimore themed dessert table! Sorry, I haven’t posted picture of the new house, I’m trying to get it semi-decorated first!

Here are some pictures I have recovered from my Camera.

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{Hogs in a Comforter- Pretzel Dogs}

As most of you know this a staple food in the Kane Household. It's a super simple recipe, I like to think it's better for you then an over processed hot dog bun, probably not true; but I'll just let my self think that :-). I always buy all beef, Nathan brand hot dogs.

So here it is!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups hot water (115 degrees)

1 pkg yeast

1 tbs sugar

2 tsp salt

3-4 cups flour

1/2 stick melted butter

1 egg yolk (to brown the bun)

2 tbs water

kosher salt

Directions:

Dissolve sugar and yeast in water. Let it sit until it gets foamy, this will help you know that the yeast is alive and kicking. Add salt and butter (make sure the butter is not too hot because it could kill the yeast). Add the flour one cup at a time, mixing well as you add. The dough has enough flour when it is know longer sticky. Knead the down, and then place it in a greased bowl to rise for 1 hour.

Roll dough into a large rectangle and slice into 2'' wide strips. Wrap each hot dog with dough. Mix egg yolk with 2 tbs water. With a basting brush, brush egg yolk mixture on top of each wrapped hotdog (this will brown the dough as it cooks). Last step is to sprinkle kosher salt as desired.

Cook at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until brown.

Call me Paula {Cinnamon Rolls}

Here is an awesome recipe that I have made twice in the past couple of weeks! The recipe comes from Paula Dean, but I can't be a good baker without changing some of the ingredients!

 I need to be better about taking pictures during the process! This picture is after I made the dough, rolled it into a rectanle, spread the filling inside and rolled it into a log.

is your mouth watering yet becuase mine is.....

     Here is my kitchen help, spooing on the glaze (the kanes perfer cinnamon rolls with out raisin and nuts)

Spoon in hand and she is ready to go! I love my Nan!

Ingredients

Dough:

1/4-ounce package yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 cup scalded milk <I just put it in the microwave

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter or shortening <butter :-)

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg

3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour

Filling:

• 1/2 cup melted butter, plus more for pan <i sprayed the pan with butter flavored cooking spray
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup brown sugar < i added this ingredient all together
• 3/4 cup raisins, walnuts, or pecans, optional < I put this on top, mostly bc i forgot to put it inside :-)

Glaze: BEST PART!

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract <or more
• 3 to 6 tablespoons hot water

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside. In a large bowl mix milk, sugar, melted butter, salt and egg. Add 2 cups of flour and mix until smooth. Add yeast mixture. Mix in remaining flour until dough is easy to handle. Knead dough on lightly floured surface for 5 to 10 minutes. Place in well-greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size, usually 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

When doubled in size, punch down dough. Roll out on a floured surface into a 15 by 9-inch rectangle. Spread melted butter all over dough. Mix sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over buttered dough. Sprinkle with walnuts, pecans, or raisins if desired. Beginning at the 15-inch side, role up dough and pinch edge together to seal. Cut into 12 to 15 slices.

Coat the bottom of baking pan with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Place cinnamon roll slices close together in the pan and let rise until dough is doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake for about 30 minutes or until nicely browned.

Meanwhile, mix butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Add hot water 1 tablespoon at a time until the glaze reaches desired consistency. Spread over slightly cooled rolls.

enjoy!

Christmas Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

YAY for the new oven!!! I am working on some before and after collages of the kitchen and living room to share with you. I could not be happier with our kitchen renovation, and I feel so silly for not being more patient and trusting in my wonderful husband. I feel completely provided for.

Now that I have a kitchen I get to put all of the fun recipies I have found on pintrest to the test! So here is the first thing I tried (really only becuase we had all of the ingrediants in our house). I am terrible at sticking to any recipies, becuase I always want to add and subtract certain things. I will do my best to share with you the recipies I am using. Mabye this will help me actually mesure things, and not just add a little bit of this, and that, here, and there :-)

Here it goes:

1 cup butter(softend)

1 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 egss

1 tbs vanilla extract

3 cups all-pupose baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp milk

Oreo cookies

Mix all wet ingrediant together. In seperate bowl mix all dry ingrediants together. Slowly stir dry ingrediant into wet ingrediants (I used our kitchen aid).

With cookie scoop, form balls with dough. Place one ball on the top of an oreo, and another ball on the bottom. Seal edges by pressing, pinching, and cupping in your hands until the oreo cookie is completly enclosed.

Cook: 350 degrees 10-13 Mins.