Tag Archive for: desserts

Feeling Blessed

/in /by

By Sparkle Abbey

The
holiday season is in full swing. Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday…all were
officially over in a swift five days. Unlike us, most of you have probably not
only finished your Christmas shopping, but have your gifts wrapped, and tucked
tenderly under your beautifully decorated Christmas tree.

What
were we doing while you stashing your presents under the tree the Saturday
after Thanksgiving? We were getting our hair done. Yes, we go to the same salon
and see the same hairstylist. Sheron has been taming our locks for almost ten
years now. While we were sitting under the dryer, in our deep conditioning
stage, we were talking about how we’ve gotten caught up in the business side of
writing and in the process have forgotten to share with you how much fun we
have behind the scenes. (No, we don’t have a photo of us with colored hair and
a plastic bag on our head. ) 

Colleen’s Turkey.
So before we get too caught up in the great hunt for the
perfect gifts, we wanted to spend a few more minutes to share some Thanksgiving Day
moments with our families. So here’s a few “behind the scenes” snapshots or our peeps. We ate fabulous food, created turkey themed
decorations, played games, and Skyped with loved ones who couldn’t be with us. 
Evie’s Turkey.
Group Selfie.

One of us even tried our hand at making dessert in a jar. We’ve
posted the recipe at the end of the blog. It turned out pretty darned good.
Maybe we’ve got a cooking mystery series in us after all. 

Serious gaming.

We
hope your Thanksgiving was filled with love, laughter, family, and friendship. We’d love to hear how you
spent your Thanksgiving. Did you stay home? Did you travel? Did your brave the
crowds and shop ‘til you dropped?
Pumpkin
Pecan Jar Dessert


Yes, this is a photo of the actual dessert. Yum!

Ingredients

  • 12 Wide mouth ½ pint jars
  • 1 can (15oz) pumpkin
  • 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
  • 3 eggs
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
  • (or 2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon allspice)
  • 1 box of yellow cake mix
  • 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
  • 3/4 cup butter, melted
  • whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream, for serving


Directions

Step 1. Preheat oven to 350*F
Step 2. Lightly spray 12, wide mouth 1/2 pint jars with non-stick cooking spray. Place on large cookie sheet and set aside.
Step 3. In a large bowl combine pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, and spices. Whisk together until combined completely.
Step 4. Pour ½ C of the pumpkin mixture into each jar. Use a measuring cup for best results.
Step 5. Sprinkle heaping tablespoons of dry cake mix on top of pumpkin layer. Gently spread cake mix to cover pumpkin as evenly as possible.
Step 6. Add 1 tablespoon of chopped pecans on top of cake mix.
Step 7. Pour 1 tablespoon of melted butter on top of pecans. Jars should be filled almost to the top. Once baked, dessert will rise to fill jar.
Step 8. Bake jars on a large baking sheet (so they are easy to put in and out of the oven) for about 40 minutes. Test doneness with a toothpick. Inserted in the center of a jar, if it comes out clean, it’s done. Dessert should be golden brown.
Step 9. Cool at least 30 minutes before serving.

If desired, serving with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream on top.

Once cooled, the dessert will shrink some, leaving the enough room to seal jar with lid. If you’re going to give dessert away as a gift, jars should be completely cooled before sealing. Wrap with your favorite holiday ribbon. Sealed dessert will stay fresh for 5 – 6 days.

Recipe Source: Betty Crocker, Holiday Recipes booklet, 2000.



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Bake, Love, Write—3 Stiletto Gang Members Contribute to Dessert Cookbook — NEW!

/in /by
By Kay Kendall
Bake Love,
Write is a brand new cookbook full of delicious desserts. It is the brain child
of Lois Winston, a USA Today

bestselling, award-winning author
who currently writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting
Mystery series.

Authors
from the US, UK, and Canada contributed their favorite recipes. Of the
participating 105, three are Stiletto Gang bloggers. We are Lynn Cahoon, Debra
Goldstein, and me—Kay Kendall.

Here
is information about this unique cookbook that may tempt you to buy it soon,
available online. Lois writes, “What do most
authors have in common, no matter what genre they write? They love desserts. Sweets
sustain them through pending deadlines and take the sting out of crushing
rejection letters and nasty reviews. They also often celebrate their
successes—selling a book, winning a writing award, making a bestseller list, or
receiving a fabulous review—with decadent indulgences. And when authors chat
with each other, they often talk about their writing and their lives. Recipes.
Writing. Relationships. In this cookbook 105 authors not only share their
favorite recipes for fabulous cakes, pies, cookies, candy, and more, they also
share the best advice they’ve ever received on love and writing.”

I contributed the beloved
family recipe of my Aunt Martha from Texas. Her recipe for Oatmeal Cake is given below. But, to read what I advise on Love and
Writing, you’ll have to buy the cookbook! 
Aunt Martha’s Oatmeal Cake
Deliciously moist cake that keeps and travels well, handed down
through the Texas side of my family for decades. If you can’t eat nuts, then
omit them and double up on the coconut for the topping.Note: This cake is easy to mix by hand. Does not require an
electric mixer.
 Ingredients for the cake:
1 1/2 cups hot water
1 cup oatmeal
(uncooked) 
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup cooking oil
2 eggs
1 2/3 cup sifted flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon soda
Dash of salt
 Ingredients for the topping:
6 tablespoons
margarine or butter
¾ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons canned condensed
milk (Pet, Carnation, etc. NOT sweetened condensed milk)
1 cup chopped nuts
(pecan or walnut—can be toasted ahead of time too before baking as a topping)
1 can angel flake
coconut
 Instructions:
1. Turn oven to 350
degrees. Grease and flour a 9X13 inch pan.
2. Place oatmeal in a
bowl and pour hot water over oats. Let stand while you do next steps.
3. Blend brown sugar,
white sugar, and cooking oil in a large bowl.
4. Add eggs, sifted
flour, cinnamon, soda, dash of salt to the sugar mixture. Blend with a large
spoon.
5. Now add the
water-oats mixture and stir until all ingredients are well blended.
6. Pour into greased
and floured pan.
7. Bake at 350 degrees
for 35 minutes. Remove from oven.
8. Make the topping. In
a saucepan combine margarine, brown sugar and canned condensed milk. Boil for
one minute. Remove from heat and add chopped nuts and coconut. Blend.
9. Before cake cools,
spread the topping (from step 8) thinly over top.
10. Turn oven up to
500 degrees. Return cake-with-topping to oven and bake for 4-5 minutes. Watch
that nothing burns since the heat is now so high.
11. Remove from oven
and cool.
 This cake is delicious immediately, but even more moist and
yummy on the next day. If kept tightly covered with foil or clear wrap, this
cake stays moist and lovely for many days. It never lasts a week at my house,
but I bet it would be good even then.
Bake, Love Write will
sell in the major e-book formats at 99 cents and will be available on Amazon also
in paperback. Watch this space for more news.
 *******

Kay Kendall
set her debut novel, Desolation Row—An
Austin Starr Mystery, in 1968 in an anti-war group. The sequel is Rainy Day Women, set for 2015, and this
time her amateur sleuth Austin Starr must convince police her best friend
didn’t murder women’s liberation activists in Seattle and Vancouver. A fan of
historical mysteries, Kay wants to do for the 1960s what novelist Jacqueline Winspear
accomplishes for England in the perilous 1930s–write atmospheric mysteries that
capture the spirit of the age. Kay is also an award-winning international
public relations executive who lives in Texas with her husband, three house
rabbits, and spaniel Wills. Terribly allergic to the bunnies, she loves them
anyway! Her book titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff too.  
 *******