CANDIED SWEET POTATOES

This Thanksgiving we celebrated once again with our MO son and his family. Patrick always smokes the turkey and this year's was especially good. My husband Wayne said it was the best he had ever eaten. Don't miss the before and after pictures at the end.

I was requested to bring Pecan Pie, the Dressing, and sweet potatoes. Wayne and I especially enjoy a Sweet Potato Souffle that we first ate with friends in CA. They shared the recipe with me and it is my usual go-to recipe. I made it one year and only put the topping on half of the top because several in the family do not like nuts IN food, but since Patrick has asked me to make candied sweet potatoes. I have tried several different recipes, but I think this year I picked a good one. 

The number of sweet potatoes you cook will depend on how much you are planning to feed/make. I peeled and cooked 4 sweet potatoes but you might need more. You can adjust the amount of brown sugar and butter you use accordingly.

CANDIED SWEET POTATOES

Sweet potatoes (4 to 6 large)

Up to 3/4    cup brown sugar

1/4 - 1/2     cup butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. 

Peel and cut sweet potatoes into slices or chunks. (I cut mine into 1/2 inch slices and then cut the slices into chunks.) Place chunks in a pot covered with water and cook until done. Test doneness by inserting a fork in some of the chunks. The fork should come easily out the potato. Drain.

In a casserole dish big enough to hold the amount of sweet potatoes you have ( I used an iron skillet sprayed with non-sticking cooking spray.)

layer the potatoes with

the brown sugar and butter ending with the brown sugar and butter.

(I just had two layers.)

Bake uncovered about 30 minutes or till glazed. If you want to add miniature marshmallows for the last 5 minutes, you may. I didn't.

Spoon some of the liquid over the sweet potatoes before you serve them. 

Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving, 2021.

Tyler fell asleep on the floor less than an hour after we finished eating. He reminded us of Patrick when he was little. He knew when he was getting sleepy but didn't want to miss anything. SO ... he would bring his pillow and sometimes a blanket to the family room and be asleep within minutes of his head hitting the pillow.

Madison didn't stay awake much longer after I took this picture with her daddy.

For those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope yours was as good as ours was. Thanksgiving 

 

KATE'S CRANBERRY ORANGE MUFFINS

 I know it has been a while...the longest break I have ever taken since I started this blog in 2012. If this is your first time to visit, welcome. If you have been following me for a while, thanks for not giving up on me. I have mentioned before that I was dealing with some depression and it's still here. Depression takes time to recover from.

Some good news is the recipe I am sharing with you today is possibly the best one I have found for Cranberry Orange Muffins.  I don't remember where I saw the recipe. I wrote it down on a tablet but didn't include where I found it. At least I wrote down the title of the recipe. You wouldn't believe how many recipes I find where I wrote it down on the back of an envelope or a piece of paper and didn't include the title of the recipe.

It took me at least a week before I got around to making them since I didn't have any orange juice. I had all of the rest of the ingredients. I did something new that I have never done before when glazing baked goods. I usually glaze items while still in the pan or over a wire rack. This time I placed the muffins on a platter and then glazed them. The excess glaze ended up seeping under the muffins so we had glaze on top and on bottom when we ate one. If you like them warm, just pop one in the microwave on a safe dish and heat on High for about 15 seconds.

KATE'S CRANBERRY ORANGE MUFFINS

2     cups flour

3/4  cup brown sugar

2     teaspoons baking powder

2     large eggs

2/3  cup orange juice

1/3  cup oil

1     cup cranberries, coarsely chopped

1     cup chopped walnuts

*******

1     cup powdered sugar, sifted

2     tablespoons orange juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder using a whisk. (Make sure you break up any clumps in the brown sugar with your fingers.) Make a well in the dry ingredients in the bowl. Set aside.

Combine the eggs, orange juice, and the oil in a bowl with a whisk until the eggs are blended.

Pour the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and

stir with a wooden spoon until dry ingredients are mostly moist.

Add the cranberries and nuts and

finish stirring just until they are evenly distributed in the batter.

Divide the batter evenly in the 12 muffin cups. (about 3/4 full)

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Allow to stay in tin on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. May need to run a knife around the inside edge of the cups to loosen muffins.

Place on wire rack to finish cooling.

Prepare the orange glaze by stirring the powdered sugar and juice.

Drizzle glaze over cooled muffins. 

Thought I would share some recent pictures of Charlie and Parker, our kittens/cats. They each have their own personalities. We are so glad they are brothers from the same litter as they love play-fighting with each other. They also often nap and sleep together. Parker runs first to the food dish and if we don't watch him closely, he will move over to Charlie's bowl when he, Parker, finishes his own or decides Charlie's bowl has more food in it after he eats half of his. Charlie is a gray tabby with a red collar and Parker is brownish with a blue collar. Parker also has more white on his legs and chest.

APPLE FRITTER CAKE

After handing out Halloween candy, Wayne and I came in to watch Game 5 of the World Series. I started looking for a recipe that I thought was called Apple Coffee Cake. I must have checked 10 different cookbooks, some of them several times. But with no luck. Then I sat down to relax and watch some of the ball game and all of a sudden, I had a thought. Just like that I thought maybe the recipe was on a phone. Sure enough it was. 

I had seen the recipe on Facebook from the kitchens of King Arthur Flour and had saved it. I made several changes and am sharing my version of the Apple Fritter Cake. I made it for Friend Fran when she had us over for canasta at her house almost 2 weeks ago. That's why I wasn't sure which cookbook it came from. The girls all loved it and I brought back 2 pieces for Wayne to eat. They didn't last too long either. I intended to take some whipped topping but forgot it. I didn't necessarily miss it, but you might like to remember it.

APPLE FRITTER CAKE

Filling and topping:

1/2     cup light brown sugar, packed

1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1       teaspoon Instant ClearJel or flour

3       large apples, grated, about 3-1/2 cups

Cake:

2-1/4 flour

2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4    cup sugar

1       teaspoon salt

1/4    teaspoon nutmeg

12     tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature (1-1/2 sticks)

3       large eggs, at room temperature

2       teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4    cup milk, at room temperature

Glaze:

3/4    cup powdered sugar, sifted

3       tablespoons milk

1/2    teaspoon vanilla extract (clear if you have it)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 - inch square pan and

line with parchment paper.

In a bowl, whisk or use a fork together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and ClearJel or flour. Do not add the grated apples until just before you add them to the cake. Then you will stir the apple til coated with the mixture.

In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients of the cake.

Add the butter and

mix until the mixture is sandy looking.

Beat in the eggs one at a time,

scraping the bowl between additions as needed.

With the mixer at a low speed, add the vanilla and mix.

Once the milk is absorbed, scrape the bowl and mix at medium high speed for 1 minute.

To assemble the cake, grate the apples and

add the brown sugar mixture to them and stir to coat.

Spread half the batter in the prepared pan.

Spoon half of the apple mixture over the batter and press in lightly.

Spread the remaining batter over the apples and

spoon the remaining apples on top. 

Bake the cake for 60 to 65 minutes. The cake is done when a paring knife inserted in the center comes out clean. I made have cooked mine more like 70 minutes. Remove it from the oven and cool for 30 to 60 minutes. 

Combine the glaze ingredients, stirring until smooth. Drizzle over the cooled cake.

Cut in squares to serve.

Store the cake, covered, at room temperature for several days, if it lasts that long.