Yesterday I was baking alot

I decided to really get into some baking for the weekend. I figured with the 4th I wanted some extra food in case of drop ins.
I started out with cheese corn bread. Simple recipe but meant turning on the oven but oh well, I did it anyway.
Here goes:
CORNBREAD
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup milk
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons poppy seeds(optional)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400. Grease or spray one 8x8 baking pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the poppy seeds, cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Breat in the egg, milk and oil but well combined. Pour into pan and bake 25 minutes or until golden brown and a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean. While warm slather some butter over the top. Hey, cut a slice and enjoy.
Next I wanted something cool so I reached for a box of premix cheese cake. There are different brands out there so I went for the Jello. The crust is a graham cracker crust which is simple mixing the graham cracker mix with butter and pressing it in the bottom of a 8 or 9″ pie dish. Be sure to press down to make sure it will firm up. Put it in the refrig while making up the cheesecake filling. Just add milk to the cheesecake filling and blend according to the directions which can take a few minutes. Add the filling to the crust and let sit for at least an hour in the refrig. When ready to serve, pour a can of cherry pie filling(or any fruit you like) over the pie. Let sit and chill in the refrig while you are eating your meal. This serves 4-6 people.
Enjoy your holiday and be safe with the fireworks.

How to Substitute Salted or Unsalted Butter

Today I found the answer I have been looking for when it comes to how do you substitute unsalted butter and vice versa when baking? Here is the rule according to Chefs Cary and Kevin @ CHEFSLINE. When recipes are written with just “butter,” and do not specifiy salted or unsalted, you want always to use unsalted butter. As a general rule, most professionally developed recipes call for unsalted butter. When baking a cake, you will usually get the best results by including salt as an ingredient. If your recipe does not include salt as an ingredient, or if your recipe calls for salted butter and you are using unsalted butter, then you should add salt to your dry ingredients. Use 1/4 tsp of salt for a 1 stick of butter recipe and 1/2 tsp. of salt for a 2 stick of butter recipe. Mix the salt with your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cornstarch – again, it depends on your recipe) and you’ll be good to go.
You want to use salt in your baking for flavor, to control leavening, and generally, you just won’t get the best results on these two fronts when you bake with salted butter.
Here is more info about Chefsline and that is you can get help instantly if you are having problems while cooking. It is a 1-800 number which helps. So it seems you get recipes from great chefs and some help instantly if need be. Sign up for the weekly free email while you are there as well. Imagine! Great resource when you need it.

Happy National Chocolate Eclair Day

Here is the latest national day to celebrate according to Slashfood. It is National Chocolate Eclair Day. Now you have to like chocolate and eclairs to do this. I found some great recipes Cooks.com that might be of interest. I can remember my mother bringing these home from the bakery and we could not wait to get one.

Viewing how-to-make chicken-parmesan

Today I visited one of my favorite sites to get the scoop on how the chef at BESTWISHES prepares chicken parmesan. He also has a video to watch as he goes step-by-step. Good place to learn the tricks to make a fine dish. Anyway, for starters, here is his recipe and the how-to is on the video.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 cups "Panko" Japanese style bread crumbs
3/4 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup grated provolone
4 oz fresh mozzarella
salt and pepper to taste
red pepper flakes to taste
olive oil for frying
1/2 cup prepared tomato sauce (high-quality!)
1/4 cup fresh shredded basil, or pesto, or dried Italian herbs of your choice, or omit
*Baked for approximately 15-20 minutes at 450F
I already have some of the items and need the cheeses. It is quite simple and I like his idea to take it easy on the sauce which many restaurants DO NOT.
I love Italian food so I am looking forward to this dish.

Something for breakfast!

I just had to post this picture.  Maybe some of you may feel like this tomorrow morning. 

Anyway I have found alot of good food slideshows at BHG on everything from meals to desserts.  Usually their weekly email has a slideshow.  I been looking at chocolate recipes today and found a good slide show at BHG which as usual made me want to bake something chocolately.  Instead I made a cinnamon coffee cake.  I added a banana this time and it added a great flavor.  I am always looking for something to go with scrambled eggs. Here are two other recipes you may want to try.  The first is an apple-cinnamon-oatmeal-bread and secondly is making doughnuts.  Just something to get your sweet tooth going.     

NEW SITES FOR WOMEN

I just added two sites for women interests and issues. Both have blogs for food but have interesting info on other subjects as well which is why I am posting. The point is that there is information there especially for women, you may not read elsewhere.
The BLOGHER site is for all women bloggers to get their site listed and viewed. There are topics for everyone but the main idea is to list your site and be exposed. As you register your site you are asked to pick a category for it to be placed. Many topics for you to choose. If you do not have a blog but would like to, there is lots of help for you to begin. Like at BLOGGER.COM.
You may have read about this site called SK*RT, which seems to be showing up on many headline news sites. Topics discussed are quite varied but do pertain to womens' issues. You can vote on the post as to importance. At the top of the page you can pick a category of interest which gives you recent posts for a given category. You can select those posts that are most important. Either way, there is lots to read.
Both of these sites are important for women who peruse the internet looking for something relative to their way of life and interests. I would rather read of what interests me and other women than all the everyday Hollywood glitz and woes their money brings to them. So look into each site for something of interest to you.

Chocoholics take heed!

If you a chocoholic, here is some interesting info for ya. Here is a picture they posted with this title- "this-chocolate-treat-should-come-with a warning". Read the whole article and see just what this is all about. This is one amazing piece of sweets for all chocolate lovers. I could not believe it. I had to find some chocolate as soon as I finished reading the article. Thanks to "desertculinary" for the article.
Here is the latest chocolate survey on those little chippers we use so often in cakes and cookies. Some folks decided to do a rating on chocolate chips and Guittard came out on top. Ghiradelli was right up there as well. It was good to know where my chocolate chip choice came out. Check it out to see how your favorites rate. Interesting!

Here is someone who decided to make Lemon Cupcakes With Milk Chocolate Frosting Adapted from Perfect Light Desserts by Nick Malgieri and David Joachim after the Virginia Tech shooting. It was a great idea to pass out these cupcakes "with the hope that with each crumb, the world would be a sweeter, more tender place."

Bought a NEW KitchenAide

I am so excited since I purchased a new KitchenAide mixer yesterday. Bright red, no less. This has been a dream come true as I have looked at them for years but the price was not right, like too high. Anyway a lady posted an alert on KitchenAide mixers that were reduced on Amazon. I checked it out and the 6 quart was already over but the 5 quart was still in progress. It has 3 beater attachments, chrome bowl and pour it attachment. Anyway I checked the colors I might want and found my gift coupon for $10 that was still good and DID IT. I have a few weeks to wait for delivery(no delivery charge) but already picked a few recipes to make. So I made space already by moving things around cuz I am going to keep it available. BTW I checked Amazon and the price has gone back up. I would imagine alot of folks jumped on this deal. I always look to compare prices before I buy any electronics cuz there usually is someplace that is more reasonable and especially no shipping charges.