The Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Toast

Recently I found out that I have been making cinnamon toast wrong for my entire life. I have always been in the school of people who would toast my bread in a toaster oven, pull it out hot, butter it, then sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. My older sister actually craves my cinnamon toast. We have never seen a problem with it.

Then Then Pioneer Woman posted about the right (and wrong) way to make cinnamon toast and I was alerted to the fact that my way of making cinnamon toast was not only the WRONG way but apparently also the WAY GROSS way of doing it. So I figured...let me try hers and see what she's talking about.

Oh my. I can't believe how wrong I have been!!! How could I have ever thought my measly cinnamon toast was anything compared to the heavenly pieces I was able to make today! I had asked The Hubble earlier in the day if he wanted some and he said no. Just as I was taking it out of the oven he came upstairs and said it smelled like cinnamon and sugar. I showed him the piece as I took a bite. All I could do was stare at him and chew. There were no words. I reluctantly offered him a bite and he took a cautious nibble. He looked at me with surprise in his eyes and quickly took a manly (i.e. HUGE) bite. He then stole a piece of my cinnamon toast and ran. My Little Monster saw this and asked for a bite as well. After I gave her a bite she took the rest of the piece out of my hand as she danced away singing about how much she liked it. I stood in the kitchen in shock for a few moments then quickly called my older sister and told her she must make this cinnamon toast NOW. Do you want some too???

Sorry, mine is gone. But I highly encourage you to run to your kitchen and make this cinnamon toast right this very minute. The recipe makes a huge batch but I made the amount of butter stuff the recipe called for and only made a few pieces. The rest will be kept in my fridge until I eat it all. Then, I will have to replace it. I will always need the makings for this in my kitchen. Must. Have. Cinnamon. Toast!!!

The Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Toast
Retrieved from The Pioneer Woman     


Ingredients:

• 16 slices Bread (whole Wheat Is Great!)
• 2 sticks Salted Butter, Softened
• 1 cup Sugar (more To Taste)
• 3 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract (more To Taste)
• ⅛ teaspoons Ground Nutmeg (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Smush softened butter with a fork. Dump in sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg, if using. Stir to completely combine.
3. Spread on slices of bread, completely covering the surface all the way to the edges.
4. Place toast on a cookie sheet. Place cookies sheet into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil until golden brown and bubbling. Watch so it won’t burn!
5. Remove from oven and cut slices into halves diagonally.
6. Serve and enjoy!!!!

  

Nena's Strawberry Fridge Cake

Last month my brother in law, The History Teacher, had a birthday. I automatically assumed (and you know what happens when you assume...) that I would make the cake. Well, he loves Transformers (yes he's above the age of 12) so I ran out and bought this cake pan so I could make him a special cake for his birthday. Well...(here comes that assumption problem) when I was asking him his favorite cake flavor he told me his ultimate favorite cake is the one his mom would make for him every year. So to my surprise (and hers) my mother in law was charged with making his cake. When I inquired about this cake I was told my mom in law got the recipe from a friend a million years ago. When I found out the cake was strawberry flavored I was intrigued since strawberry is my most favoritest flavor of any flavor ever in the world. When I tasted the cake I was amazed! I had several pieces of this myself. I decided for a nice treat, I would make this cake for myself for Mother's Day. And now I will share the recipe with you. However, and this is a big however...I screwed it up! I didn't listen to the directions and I ruined the fabulousness of this amazing cake. So I'm going to most likely remind you of your childhood and tell you to do as I say, not as I do. Here...I'll explain:

Things start off innocently enough. You gather your ingredients. It is actually an EXTREMELY simple recipe.I know, I know...cake mix. But this cake is super easy and WAY worth it (if you do it right).

Make the cake mix per the box instructions.

Pour it into a 13x9 inch cake pan.

See? So far so good right??

Bake the cake, again per the box directions, until the tester (aka the toothpick) comes out clean.

Place on a cooling rack to cool. Awesome. Up to this point we are doing great and getting super excited. Then things go down hill from here.

This is where you need to start listening and not watching! These are pictures of what NOT to do to make this cake. Do not, for the love of God, DO NOT take the cake out of the pan to cool on the rack. LEAVE THE CAKE IN THE PAN (I'll explain this in a bit).

Do NOT then move the cooled cake to your brand new tray just so you can take pictures and show it off. It is a pretty tray though is it not?? At this point, the cake should still be in the pan.

At this point we want to poke holes in the cake (that should still be in the pan). But do NOT use a fork like I did. This just makes a crumbled mess on top of the cake...

Instead, use the handle of a wooden spoon, like this one, to poke big holes in the top of the cake that is still in the pan.

You want the big holes so when you pour the milk over the top of it, all the milk will flow into the holes. And if the cake was still in the pan the milk would reach all the edges instead of rolling over the side.

Do you see the milk on the tray in the bottom right corner?? Yeah. That was because the cake is on a tray and I had only little bitty fork holes poked in. Anyway. After you pour the milk over the cake, pour the strawberries and strawberry sauce over the cake.

Yum! Even though it's done wrong, it still looks good!

At this point you want to cover the cake and put it in the fridge for a few hours (overnight is even better) so all the milk and strawberry juices are soaked into the cake.

Then dump the whipped topping on the cake and spread it over the top. See the poor little milk mess??

We can also see here that the whipped topping only covers the top of the cake, so if it was still in the pan, it wouldn't be so noticeable.

The cake should be super moist, almost like a Tres Leches...but not quite. The sides didn't get the milk and juice...

But it was still really good. I guess I just have to make it again to get it right. Darn! I do highly recommend this cake. It is delicious if done right. Just make sure to leave the cake in the pan throughout the entire process and it will thrill you! Good luck!

Nena’s Strawberry Fridge Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 box strawberry cake mix
• 1 package frozen strawberry with sauce, thawed
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 package frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions:

1. Make strawberry cake mix as per instructions on the box, bake in 13x9 inch cake pan.
2. Cool cake completely; do not remove from pan.
3. Poke holes in top of cake with handle of wooden spoon.
4. Slowly pour sweetened condensed milk over the top of the cake.
5. Pour strawberries with sauce over the top of the cake.
6. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours (overnight is best) until milk and strawberry juice is absorbed by cake.
7. Cover with whipped topping.
8. Serve and enjoy.

Simple Spicy Mongolian Beef

The Hubble and I love Asian food. Whether it's Japanese, Chinese, Korean or Vietnamese we are usually down to eat it (however, I'm not a huge fan of Thai food). We love Asian food so much we are those pretentious people who have several sets of chopsticks in our drawer).

Please excuse my short trip through the daisies....While traveling across the country these last 6 months I had to put all my worldly possessions into storage, except for a "few" choice books (the word few is used extremely loosely here seeing as how a "few" to me was about 20 to 30 books). Included in these worldly possessions were all of my cookbooks and cooking magazines. Well, we finally settles into our new home in Missouri and as soon as I pulled my cookbooks and magazines out of the box I immediately plopped my hiney down and started perusing them. In the December 2009 issue of Cooking Light magazine (I just realized I bought this issue while on the road...oops) I found a recipe for Mongolian Beef. I decided I was absolutely going to make that one of the first meals we enjoyed in our new home.

See?? I was going somewhere. I was going back to the idea of Asian food. Anyway. I'm going to stop rambling and get to the recipe....

First step, gather your ingredients. I like to do this first so I'm not scrambling through the kitchen trying to find the things I need as the food is cooking and my hands are a mess.

Next, take your soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, cooking sherry, hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, chile paste with garlic, salt, and ground ginger. Put it all together to make your sauce. You want to make this first so all the flavors can sit and mix together and become super close by the time you pour it over your meat.

Now go ahead and chop your scallions into somewhere around 2 inch lengths. No need to get a ruler, you can just eye it.

Then take your gorgeous steak...

And cut across the grain to make thin strips of beef.

Now heat up your wok. When the wok is nice and hot, pour your peanut oil in. When that's hot, dump in your minced garlic.

Then toss in your steak and and sautee it all together for about 2 minutes or until it's brown.

When the meat is brown, toss in your scallions. Sautee these for about 30 seconds.

Then take your friendly sauce and pour that in.

Stir the mixture continuously for about a minute or until the sauce is thickened.

Doesn't that look delicious??

Once everything is nice and hot, pour the meat mixture over some rice, noodles, and or vegetables. Grab your chopsticks (or fork) and enjoy!

Spicy Mongolian Beef
 Adapted from Cooking Light Magazine

Ingredients:

• 4 Tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 4 teaspoons cooking sherry
• 4 teaspoons hoisin sauce
• 2 teaspoons rice vinegar
• 2 teaspoons chile paste with garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 Tablespoons peanut oil
• 2 Tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 1/2-2 pounds sirloin steak
• 16 medium green onions 

Directions:

1. Combine first 9 ingredients, stir until thoroughly mixed; set aside
2. Chop green onions into 2-inch lengths; set aside
3. Thinly slice steak across the grain.
4. Heat peanut oil in large wok, add minced garlic and beef; saute for 2 minutes or until beef is browned.
5. Add green onions; saute for 30 seconds.
6. Add sauce mixture; stir continuously for 1 minute or until sauce is thickened.
7. Serve with rice, noodles, and or vegetables and enjoy!