Happy New Year!

Yes...you read correctly. It's still the New Year. It's January, I could still wish you a Happy New Year.

It's been an eventful start to the year. I've been exercising regularly for a few weeks now, and I'm addicted! My husband and I run five mornings a week to the beach and back home. So now that I've got that down, I'll start focusing on my diet. The fact that I ate homemade butter biscuits with jam, Doritos, Cracker Jack, an orange, an apple and ready-made ravioli today while waiting for my slow cooker Vegetable Barley Soup is a start to eating healthy.

I haven't made any resolutions, but I have decided that I need to focus on some things this year that will benefit not only me, but my whole family. I don't know how far I'll get because I believe that my children are secretly trying to kill me. My soon-to-be-17yr. old-high-school-graduate is trying to use psychological tactics to have me committed or get me to walk in the front of an oncoming train (which would really be a feat seeing that there are no trains in The Bahamas). While my 7yr. old son pepper sprayed me while I was driving over the weekend.

Well I have to finish dinner (the ready-made ravioli) and get to a PTA meeting. You have no idea how hard it is to be a homeschooler and be the secretary of the PTA. I have to bite my tongue quite a bit and try not to preach from the Homeschooling Bible. It's frustrating.
 So again, Happy New Year! I'll try to post regularly, but if you don't hear from me, please just email this post to the Royal Bahamas Police Force in case they may be investigating my mysterious disappearance.

Chocolate Walnut Cookies

I baked these the other day.

I bought "The Best of Fine Cooking - Cookies" magazine back in 2008.  This edition has 101 recipes, tips and tricks.  The photography is beautiful and all of the instructions are easy to follow. 
These cookies are the first recipe that I've tried for the season.  I'm not a chocolate lover, but the family is. They loved them.

Last Minute Advent Calendar

After numerous attempts over the years, I have finally completed an Advent Calendar.  Usually I would start an intricate calendar that is just too complicated and would often run out of time.  This year, I kept it simple.

The numbers are actually shrinky dinks.  The "flowers" are mini cupcake papers and I pinned them to my corkboard located in the kitchen with straight pins.  Not bad for last minute. Everything I used was already on hand except the candy.

No Roll Pie Crust



Unbaked No Roll Crust

How do you roll out pie crust dough into that perfect circle?

I don't know.

I've tried a few times ending up with odd shaped uneven dough.  My brain just cannot comprehend how to form that perfect circle.  So as a result, my lovely glass Pyrex pie dish has been used as a flour and egg dip pan, a pancake plate and a bead sorter.

So my interest was piqued when one of my favourite bloggers, Joy The Baker, posted a recipe for No Roll Crust.

Eureka! I can bake a pie completely from scratch? 
You know, I had a bit of baker's guilt because my crust was not my own. It was hard always having the following conversation:

Sister/Aunt/Friend: "Michelle, this pie is sooo delicious! Did you make the crust?"
Me: "Thanks! But no, it's refrigerated."
Sister/Aunt/Friend: "Oh....I see....it's still good."

Why is it that whenever someone eats a pie, they always want to know if you made the crust yourself?  These people don't bake! And they sure don't bake pie crusts!

Anyway, finally, thanks to this recipe, my future conversations will go like this:
Sister/Aunt/Friend: "Michelle, this pie is sooo delicious! Did you make the crust?"
Me: "Thanks! Yes. Yes I did."
Sister/Aunt/Friend: "Guuurrlll you are a baking goddess! I bow down to you!"
Me:" Oh it's nothing really, it's just my calling."

The crust is great.

No Roll Pie Crust by Joy The Baker:
makes 1 9-inch pie crust

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup (4 Tablespoon) frozen butter that has been grated on a cheese grater
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil 
• 1 Tablespoon cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 Tablespoons cold milk

In a medium sized bowl combine flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Whisk together.
Add frozen butter that has been grated on a cheese grater and tablespoon of cream cheese. With your fingers, work the cream cheese and butter into the flour mixture, breaking the butter and cream cheese up until they’re in well incorporated into the flour. Some butter bits will be tiny, other the size of small pebbles. The dough may even begin to some together in a rough, sandy kind of way.
Combine the milk and oil. Whisk together. Add all at once to the flour and butter mixture. With a fork, begin to combine the ingredients, making sure that all of the flour mixture is introduced to the liquid. The mixture does not need to come together into a ball. Leave it a bit shaggy and dump the dough into a clean 9-inch pie plate. With your fingers, press the dough evenly into the bottom of the pie plate and up the sides. Try to get the dough as even as possible, but don’t worry too much about finger indentations. You can’t fight that.

Place the prepared crust in the freezer while you preheat the oven and prepare your filling. If you’re going to pre-bake your crust, heat the oven to 350 degrees F and line the chilled pie crust with foil, weigh down with beans and bake for 10 minutes covered. Remove the foil and beans and bake for 4-6 minutes uncovered until golden brown.
If you need an unbaked pie crust, simply remove the crust from the freezer once your filling is made, fill your pie and place in a preheated oven. Bake according to your particular recipe.

Sweet Potato Pie with No Roll Crust

Linked To:
Blue Cricket Design
Someday Crafts
Night Owl Crafting

Sweet Potato Pie

Here in The Bahamas, we don't celebrate Thanksgiving.  Let me clarify that, Thanksgiving is not a National Holiday.  However, many Bahamians choose to celebrate the day with our neighbours to the North. I think many use it as an excuse to eat a big meal.

I, on the other hand do not.  As a descendant of an oppressed people, I choose not to observe the day. I do however enjoy all of the online sales and recipes! So yeah, I'm two-faced...whatever.

As I mentioned previously, when this time of year rolls around, I like to test recipes out before Christmas just to make sure that they will be great on the big day.  So far, I've tested the Christmas Morning Cinnamon Rolls.

Now I've tested one of my desserts...Sweet Potato Pie.  I tried this recipe for the first time last year and loved it.  So, I really didn't need to test it, I just had a craving for it.

 I modified the recipe from a Sweet Potato Pecan Pie on the Eagle Brand website.  Pecans are not readily available here, and they are also very expensive. Also, I do not like nut pies.

So here's my take on it:
Sweet Potato Pie by Eagle Brand modified by The Sapphire Ridge Chronicles:
Ingredients:

• 1 pound yams or sweet potatoes, cooked and peeled 
• 1/4 cup butter 
• 1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk 
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1 teaspoon grated orange peel 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1 large egg
• Prepared Pie Crust (I made my own)

 Directions:

HEAT oven to 350°F. Beat hot yams and 1/4 cup butter in large bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Add sweetened condensed milk, cinnamon, orange peel, vanilla, nutmeg, salt and egg; mix well. Pour into crust.

BAKE 55-60 minutes.

Linked To:

Silly Little Sparrow

Sugar Bee

Christmas Morning Cinnamon Rolls

I'm starting to get the Christmas bug. For me, that means baking!  

I always have this fantasy that my husband and kids, family and friends will come over to a house full of goodies and great food to eat. Unfortunately, it doesn't turn out that way. You see, I also sell cakes and goodies for the season, and end up being too pooped to do much at home. But I always make sure that Christmas Dinner is cooked and they have a great Christmas Breakfast.

I like to try new recipes out before Christmas morning to make sure that everyone will enjoy them.  We love Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast.  I've tried a few recipes, but they were never quite to my liking, OR they were just too much work.

However, I have found a recipe that tastes great and is easy to do, mainly because it uses a bread machine. It can be done without one as well, but a bread machine makes it easier.

I love the way they came out, and will definitely be making them on Christmas Morning!

Cinnamon Rolls III by Miss Alix on Allrecipes.com  

Ingredients: 

Dough

• 1/4 cup warm water 
• 1/4 cup butter, melted 
• 1/2 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix 
• 1 cup warm milk ( I used powdered milk)
• 1 egg, room temperature 
• 1 tablespoon white sugar 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 4 cups bread flour 
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

 Filling

• 1/4 cup butter, softened 
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)

 Glaze:

• 1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened 
• 1/4 cup butter, softened 
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar 
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons milk

 Directions:

1.In the pan of your bread machine, combine water, melted butter, vanilla pudding, warm milk, egg, 1 tablespoon sugar, salt, bread flour and yeast. Set machine to Dough cycle; press Start.
2.When Dough cycle has finished, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 17x10 inch rectangle. Spread with softened butter. In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over dough.3.Roll up dough, beginning with long side. Slice into 16 one inch slices and place in 9x13 buttered pan. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
4.Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes. While rolls bake, stir together cream cheese, softened butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and milk. Remove rolls from oven and top with frosting.

Linked To:
It's So Very Cheri
Round Tuit
The Girl Creative
C.R.A.F.T
Making the World Cuter
Sugar Bee
These Creative Juices
Skip To My Lou
Blue Cricket Design
Someday Crafts
Santa's Gift Shoppe
Night Owl Crafting

Homemade Cinna Stix



 It was family night last night and on the menu were homemade pizzas and cinna stix.
This was easy to make and it tastes just like Dominos!  

Ingredients:

• pizza dough (12oz.)
• 1/2 stick butter (2oz.)
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 cup confectioner's sugar
• water

Mix white sugar and cinnamon together.Take your favourite pizza dough, and roll out to the thickness desired.  As you can see, my dough was not a uniform shape. Melt butter and spread onto rolled out pizza dough. Make sure you get a lot of butter on there, but you dont want it to become soggy.Then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mix heavily onto the buttered dough. With pizza cutter, partially cut dough. Do not cut dough completely.
Bake in preheated oven at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
For the glaze, mix confectioner's sugar with a little water. If its too watery add more sugar.  You don't want it too thin. Drizzle onto Cinna Stix while hot out of the oven.