I had the pleasure of shooting a very special day for Sarah and Blake on Saturday.  I’ve been working with this family now for the past 2 years with various members of their families for pictures.  Much love to you Sarah and Blake.  May you be blessed as you begin your lives together!

About 10 years ago I tried my hand at canning, hot water bath canning.  I started with peaches and proceeded to make a huge mess, with only half of the jars sealing.  Epic fail.  So I decided I would stick with freezer jams and jellies and leave the canning to the professionals, like my Grandma.  This year I passed a magazine on a rack titled “Canning & Preserving.”  I decided this year is the year to conquer my fears and try again.  The front of the magazine has hot bath canning recipes, the back has freezer and refrigerator recipes.  Just because I had the ingredients in the house, I started with a refrigerator jam tonight.  Tomorrow morning, toast and jam, no question…SO GOOD.  And a beautiful red, could easily be used as Christmas gifts.  The only negative in my book is that it is not a freezer jam and needs to be eaten within three weeks.  After my first taste, that will not be a problem.  Enjoy!

Cherry Rhubarb Jam

4 cups rhubarb, chopped

1 1/2 cup white sugar

1 – 3 oz pkg cherry geletin

1 can cherry pie filling

1 t. almond extract

Place rhubarb and sugar in a large dutch oven or saucepan.  Let sit for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.  Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes, or until rhubarb is tender.  Remove from heat.  Stir in geletin until dissolved.  Stir in pie filling and extract.  Transfer to jars and allow to cool.  Cover and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.  Enjoy!

I found this recipe on Pinterest for rhubarb dump cake.  I had a nice crop of rhubarb this spring and had some that still needed to be used up.  I decided to make this for Sunday dessert at Mom’s house today.  It was easy, used only a couple ingredients and was delicious.  I think my Dad ate half the pan.  I especially liked it warmed up a bit in the microwave with vanilla ice cream on top, or as you fancy folks call it, a la mode.  Enjoy!

Quick Rhubarb Crisp

4-5 cups rhubarb, cut into 1″ pieces

1 cup white sugar

1 – 3 oz pkg strawberry gelatin

1 yellow cake mix

1 cup water

1/2 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Pour rhubarb into the bottom of a 9×13 pan.  Spread evenly.  Evenly spread sugar over rhubarb.  Spread strawberry gelatin over sugar.  Spread yellow cake mix over gelatin.  Do not stir or mix.  Just layer these ingredients.  Then pour water evenly over cake mix.  Finally pour melted butter over entire pan.  Try to moisten as much of the cake mix as you can with the water and butter.  But do NOT mix.  Bake for 45-55 minutes.  Serve while warm with vanilla ice cream.  Or store covered until the next day and just warm up individual pieces in the microwave for about 20 seconds.  Yummy!

This morning we have a big clean up at our church, inside and out.  I found this recipe on Pinterest this week and thought it would be a great time to try it out, I’m bringing it to church this morning to share with everyone helping at the clean up.  These were quick and easy to make.  They tasted great while still warm.  Now if I could only find the recipe for the cinnamon roll frosting that they used at Happiness Is restaurant in Byron Center all those years ago when I was young.  I had to settle for plain powdered sugar frosting.  Try these on a Saturday morning…you won’t be disappointed!  Enjoy!

Cinnamon Roll Cake:

Cake:
3 c. flour
1/4 tsp.salt
1 c. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 c. milk
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. butter, melted

Topping:
1 c. butter, softened
1 c. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Mix everything together except for the butter. Slowly stir in the melted butter and pour into a greased 9×13 pan. For the topping, mix all the ingredients together until well combined. Drop evenly over the batter and swirl with a knife. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Glaze:
2 c. powdered sugar
5 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

While warm drizzle the glaze over the cake.

I found this recipe on Pinterest this week.  I told my mom that I would bring a dessert for lunch on Sunday, so I thought I would try these.  So easy with only five ingredients.  I’ve seen this recipe, or variations of it, many times.  But I thought I would share with those of you who might not have seen this before.  My sister-in-law also makes these for her Christmas platters every year.  Yummy and easy, my favorite kind of recipe.  Enjoy!

Yellow Cake Bars:

1 box yellow cake mix
3 eggs
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, melted
4 cups (1 lb) powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 300 and spray a 9×13 dish with cooking spray. Mix cake mix, melted butter and one egg to a soft dough. Press into the bottom of the pan. Mix powdered sugar, softened cream cheese and remaining two eggs until smooth. Pour on top of crust. Bake at 300 degrees for 40-50 minutes until top is golden brown.

So, I took my husband on a surprise vacation to Miami, FL a few weeks ago.  We only went for a few days and my intentions were only to sit in the sun and eat all I wanted.  We did sit in the sun, but did not make it out to any of the restaurants I wanted to try.  But…I did order room service the first night we were there and thought I’d try to coconut flan on the menu.  I’ve never had flan and really didn’t even know what it was I was ordering.  But oh my goodness…when I took the first bite, I knew I’d be trying to recreate this at home.  Flan is actually a Spanish dish very much like custard.  It looks difficult to make, but my first try last night produced awesome results!  The flan I had in Miami came in little, one serving ramekin sizes; but the recipe I found online said I could do this in a bundt pan.  I used a sunflower shaped flat bundt pan my mother gave me.  This worked great and looked beautiful.  After my first bite, I knew I had a winner.  This was easy, tasted great and my dinner company enjoyed it also.  Enjoy!

Cocount Flan with Caramel Sauce:

1 cup caramel sauce

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can (13.5 oz) unsweetened cocount milk

1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

6 eggs

1 T vanilla

1/2 t salt

1/2 cup sweetened coconut, toasted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray bundt pan with cooking spray.  Warm caramel sauce (I just bought a jar of ice cream caramel sauce and zapped it in the microwave for about 30 seconds).  Using an electric mixer, mix sweetened condensed milk, coconut milk, evaporated milk, eggs, vanilla and salt.  Take the caramel sauce and pour into bundt pan, turning to coat the bottom and sides.  Pour flan mixture over the caramel sauce.  Now, the trick to this is to place the bundt pan in a roasting pan and fill the roasting pan with water so that the water comes about half way up the sides of the bundt pan.  Cover the bundt pan with foil.  Carefully, place the pan set into the oven and bake for about 1 hour and 40 minutes, until the center is set but still jiggles slightly.  Remove from oven and let cool in pan for about 40 minutes.  Transfer the pan, still covered, to the refrigerator over night or at least 3 hours.  Remove from fridge and invert onto a serving platter.  The caramel sauce will spill all over the flan, which is fine.  Slice to serve and sprinkle with toasted coconut.  ENJOY!

Simple and delicious!  It does not get any better than that.  A coworker brought these bars in the other day and I was going to have just one little bite.  Well, once you taste these, you’ll see how that went.  One bite turned into 3 full servings.  These are oh so good.  Very easy and they make the house smell fantastic while cooking.  Enjoy!

Almond Bars:

1 cup butter, room temp

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 lb almond paste

Cream together with mixer.  Add:

2 eggs

1/2 t salt

3 cups flour

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Grease a 9×13 pan.  Cream butter, sugar and almond paste together.  Add eggs, salt and flour.  As I was putting this together, I thought for sure something was missing from the ingredient list.  These go together VERY thick, the batter is almost like cookie dough.  But continue on.  Press this into the 9×13 pan.  Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until slightly brown.  Cool completely and sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Enjoy!

This is a recipe that my mom got from her sister-in-law, my Aunt Cathy.  She’s not officially my aunt anymore, but I will always consider her my Aunt Cathy.  This is another VERY easy cake recipe, only takes a few minutes to make and is delicious!  If you love chocolate, this is for you.  I had actually completely forgotten about this cake, but last week my sister made the request that I make this cake for lunch after church tomorrow.  So I had my mom dig out her recipe card and I made it today.  And because I needed an “after” shot for this blog post, I just had to cut a piece out and test it.  So, so, so good!  The only piece of advise, be care for any cherry pits that might have made their way into the canned cherry pie filing.  I found one in the piece I cut out, hopefully it’s the only one in there.  Make this today and enjoy!

Chocolate Cherry Cake:

1 box German chocolate cake mix

2 eggs

1 – 21 oz can of cherry pie filling

2 t. almond extract

Mix above ingredients with a mixer.  Spread into a greased jelly roll pan, 10×15.  The pan I had was a bit bigger, still worked fine, just a thinner cake.  Bake at 350 degrees for 23 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool for one hour.

Frosting:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

4 T butter

2 cups chocolate chips

Heat sugar, milk and butter on stovetop until boiling.  Remove from heat and add chocolate chips.  Stir well until melted and mixed well.  Pour over cake.  Let cool completely.  Enjoy!

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com.  Very easy and oh. my. word. sooooo good.  I just got this out of the oven, let it cool for 20 minutes and just sat down and ate half the loaf myself.  Sadly, I’m not even kidding.  Perfect for a cold, winter day.  The house smells great and I’m hoping some lasts until tomorrow morning so I can eat it with my morning coffee.  Enjoy!

Sugar Cinnamon Quick Bread:

1/3 cup white sugar

2 t. cinnamon

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 T. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a 9×5 loaf pan.  Mix flour, baking powder, salt and 1 cup of sugar.  Add egg, milk and oil.  Stir until just blended.  Pour half of the batter into the loaf pan.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and 1/3 cup of sugar.  Cover with remaining batter.  Sprinkle with a little more cinnamon and sugar.  Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  Remove to a cooling rack and let cool completely.  Enjoy!

Ok, so my mom has been making these bars my entire life.  She keeps the original ingredients in the house at all times.  We are somewhat snowed in today, so I’ve been cooking.  I’ve been trying to use up extra stuff laying around and as I was searching through the cupboard, I saw the lone can of sweetened condensed milk.  This made me think of my mom’s seven layer bars.  I pulled out the recipe and started grabbing all the ingredients.  When I got to the third missing ingredient, I decided to just make up my own recipe today.  So here is my version of the classic seven layer bars.  Enjoy!

Seven Layer Bars:

1 sleeve graham crackers, crushed

1 stick butter, melted

1 bag caramel bits

1 bag toffee bits

1 bag chocolate chips

1 bag chopped pecans

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 10×10 pan.  Melt butter.  Crush graham crackers.  Mix butter and graham crackers.  Pat into the bottom of a 10×10 pan.  Sprinkle with caramel bits.  Sprinkle with toffee bits.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips.  Sprinkle with pecans.  Pour can of sweetened condensed milk over entire pan.  Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  Cool completely.  Enjoy!