Life in Lape Haven

Tag - homemade

Old Fashioned Pumpkin Cookies

October 4, 2016
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About six or seven years ago, I finally got brave enough to try making my own pumpkin puree. Once I did it, I realized it wasn’t very intimidating or difficult at all, plus it’s absolutely delicious. (It also freezes well). Of course with lots of fresh pumpkin on-hand, I had to find new recipes to use it in, besides just pumpkin pie.  

Thankfully, the internet loves pumpkin recipes in the fall, so my options were nearly limitless. We’ve had everything from pumpkin ice cream and cinnamon sugar pumpkin seeds to pumpkin cornbread and pumpkin soup, with all kinds of goodies in between. However, of all the recipes I’ve tried, only one has become our must-have fall pumpkin tradition: Old Fashioned Pumpkin Cookies.

Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday: Old Fashioned Pumpkin Cookies. This fall must-bake is a simple recipe for yummy, super soft pumpkin cookies drizzled with glaze. One of our family's autumn baked goods favorites.

Old Fashioned Pumpkin Cookies

The first time I made them, our family fell in love with these yummy, super soft cookies, so I made more to share with Brad’s family. The cookies were a big hit with them, too, especially with Brad’s grandpa, who wasn’t in the best of health and living with Brad’s parents at the time. He was a very picky eater, so when he talked about how much he liked those cookies, I took it as a big compliment and determined to make them for him as often as I could.

 

Later, during one of his short stays in a nursing home, Brad and I visited Grandpa, taking along pumpkin cookies for him to enjoy. While we were there, the nurse brought in Grandpa’s medicine for him to take, and I watched with a great deal of amusement (and a bit of admiration) as he took his sweet time eating just one cookie – like, 15 minutes, at least – just to avoid taking his pills. (Even the nurse was amused, albeit a little frustrated with him). I have no doubt that the other cookies were eaten much quicker when the nurse wasn’t around. 🙂

Because of Grandpa, who passed away several years ago, these cookies have become a special tradition for more than just how delicious they are. To this day, I can’t think of pumpkin cookies without thinking about him. Each time I make these pumpkin cookies, I smile at the memory of how Brad’s grandpa always smiled when I brought them to him and how thoroughly he managed to enjoy one cookie in particular.

By the way, this is a really easy recipe to make, and while I prefer to use fresh pumpkin puree, you can use canned pumpkin. (If you’d like to try making pumpkin puree, this post from Somewhat Simple, Homemade Pumpkin Puree, explains it fairly well. This is pretty close to how I make my puree, with the only difference being that I put some aluminum foil over the top of the pan to keep the heat in, so it usually only takes about an hour to cook. You definitely want the smaller SUGAR PIE PUMPKINS, not the big jack-o-lantern kind.)

My recipe is adapted from Libby’s Old Fashioned Soft Pumpkin Cookies. I use less sugar than the original recipe because they are sweet enough, especially when you add the icing. (I also make and use less icing.)

So, here’s a new pumpkin cookie tradition for you to add to your fall must-makes:
This fall must-bake is a simple recipe for yummy, super soft pumpkin cookies drizzled with glaze. One of our family's autumn baked goods favorites.

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Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Easy Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

Cinnamon Rolls for a Really Good Day

The Legacy in an Apple Pie Recipe

 

 

 

Chocolate Cake with Simple “Bavarian” Cream Filling & Chocolate Ganache

September 6, 2016
3 Comments
Chocolate Cake with Simple Bavarian Cream & Chocolate Ganache, Life in Lape Haven. Easy recipes for a tasty Bavarian cream filling and decadent chocolate ganache that take a regular boxed Devil's food cake from ordinary to extraordinary with very little effort or time!

In my family, there are three of us with birthdays in September. Not only do my dad, my younger brother, and I share a birthday month, but we nearly share a birthday week (Dad’s is on the 5th, Caleb’s is the 7th, and I’m a week later on the 14th). Growing up, my parents did a good job of commemorating each birthday separately, so that we each had our own day and our own birthday cake (or whatever treat we requested).

Of course, now that we all have families of our own, getting together three times in just over a week is simply not practical, so we tend to usually have one party to celebrate for all three of us.

This year, I provided the birthday cake.

Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday: Chocolate Cake with Simple Bavarian Cream & Chocolate Ganache. Easy recipes for a tasty Bavarian cream filling and decadent chocolate ganache that take a regular boxed Devil's food cake from ordinary to extraordinary with very little effort or time!

Over the last few weeks, thanks to pregnancy cravings and a lifelong love of chocolate, chocolate cake has been looking especially tempting. However, thanks to pregnancy issues, like heartburn and that persistent yucky taste in my mouth, I knew that indulging that craving wouldn’t come without a price. Up until last week, the cost outweighed the desire. And then I caved.

With only a few days until our planned birthday gathering, I broke down and baked myself a chocolate cake. However, having put off this craving for so long, this wasn’t going to be my regular chocolate cake. It had to be a little something special.


A couple minutes of searching on Pinterest, and I was making a chocolate cake with a delicious but easy Bavarian cream filling, topped with a decadent chocolate ganache.

It came together so simply that I wasn’t sure it would be all that spectacular, but OH MY, it was scrumptious. After cutting into it, I sent a picture to my mom because we like to share good recipes with each other. (I also took some over to them the next day because I’m a sweet daughter and because there was no way my guys and I could – or should – eat it all.)

Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday: Chocolate Cake with Simple Bavarian Cream & Chocolate Ganache. Easy recipes for a tasty Bavarian cream filling and decadent chocolate ganache that take a regular boxed Devil's food cake from ordinary to extraordinary with very little effort or time!

Her text reply was: “Nice. You made it too early. Dad wants chocolate cake Monday.”

So yesterday found me back at, putting together this delicious chocolate cake with its simple but yummy cream filling, all covered with that addictively rich chocolate ganache.

Brad, who is usually more of a vanilla cake fan, loved it, declaring it “one of the best chocolate cakes” he’d ever had. (Although, he tends to think a lot of the things I’m make are “the best ever,” like my homemade vanilla ice cream, which would be amazing with this cake.)

Even though it didn’t turn out to be my prettiest cake ever (I didn’t wait for the ganache to cool quite enough), it was still a big hit at our birthday shindig. I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes one of my requested, regular contributions to family gatherings in the future. I know I wouldn’t mind indulging again!

Okay, so here’s how I made each part of the chocolate cake.
CHOCOLATE CAKE:

This is super easy! It was a boxed Devil’s Food Cake mix from Aldi.  All I did differently from the directions was to substitute melted butter for the vegetable oil (make sure you let it cool after you melt it) and use milk instead of water. I baked it in round 9” pans for about 28 minutes. The cake turned out super moist and yummy, a perfect base for all the extras to come.

CHOCOLATE GANACHE:

I found this “Perfect Chocolate Ganache” recipe by Natasha’s Kitchen on Pinterest, and by following her very easy instructions, I made my first-ever ganache with only one problem – I did learn that allowing it to cool and thicken a bit more than the 15 minutes she specified made it cover my cake sides a little better.

BAVARIAN CREAM FILLING:

I had picked up a box of vanilla pudding mix when I bought my cake mix, knowing I could somehow combine it with whipped cream to make a tasty cake filling. Using this “Easy Bavarian Cream Filling” recipe from Sprinkled with Jules, with a minor tweak by myself, I had a perfect filling in no time with very little effort. Yes! The filling is a creamy vanilla without being too sweet. Also, I imagine that this idea could easily be switched up using different flavors of pudding mix. Yummy! (Below is my recipe).

A creamy vanilla cream that is not too sweet but is super simple. It's the perfect filling for any cake!

 

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YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Tried It Tuesday: Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

August 23, 2016
3 Comments
Tried It Tuesday - Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream. A delicious, traditional-style homemade vanilla ice cream recipe that's perfect for summer (or anytime of the year!) One of our family's favorites.

There is just something about homemade ice cream, isn’t there?

I think the first time I remember tasting it was when I was a little girl, and we went to a picnic or some kind of special event at my maternal grandparents’ church. Outside near the old schoolhouse that’s next door to the church, someone was using a hand-cranked ice cream churn to make the most amazing vanilla ice cream I’ve ever had – to this day – in my life.

The fact that the cream and eggs came fresh from my grandparents’ farm probably had something to do with it. That, and the fact that my grandma has amazing recipes for just about everything! (Here’s her homemade lime pickles recipe.)

With that memory of ice cream perfection, I had high expectations when I decided to try my hand at making homemade ice cream myself a few years ago. My first step was to get my grandma’s vanilla ice cream recipe…and then sadly realize that there was no way I was going to be able to make it just like hers. Even reducing her 5-quart recipe down to fit our 1.5 quart ice cream maker, I couldn’t duplicate that recipe exactly because it uses raw eggs and had the advantage of super farm fresh ingredients that aren’t as easy to find nowadays, at least not in our budget. 🙂

So, I went searching and did a lot of testing and learning (I suggest watching the “Churn, Baby, Churn” episode of Good Eats. A lot of my ice cream making process comes from Alton Brown’s suggestions.)

I also tried recipes from Columbus’s own Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream, which happens to be my favorite ice cream shop ever (the Wildberry Lavender and Darkest Chocolate flavors are spectacular)! Finding her recipes online was really exciting. Her method for making ice cream doesn’t involve eggs at all, so the steps are bit different, but they result in truly yummy ice cream. Of course, just like my grandma’s, even with a recipe given to you, it’s still difficult to duplicate the exact flavor of such great ice cream made with high-quality ingredients.

My ice cream quest, though, did finally bring me to creating my own simple, more traditional-style vanilla ice cream recipe that my husband has declared to be “some of the best vanilla ice cream” he’s “ever had.”

And I agree – it is pretty good.

Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday - Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream. A delicious, traditional-style homemade vanilla ice cream recipe that's perfect for summer (or anytime of the year!) One of our family's favorites.

I do have to say, too, that having a good ice cream maker has been helpful and has encouraged me to make ice cream more often, including coming up with a copycat recipe for an Ohio summertime classic, Kings Island’s Blue Ice Cream.

When I first started making ice cream, I had a cheaper plastic ice cream maker that I’d bought on clearance for maybe $15. It was the older kind where you add ice cubes and rock salt, and it was pretty noisy and a little messy. Then not long after that, my hubby found a great deal on a Cuisinart 1.5 quart ice cream maker on SlickDeals.net that has the bowl that you freeze and then churn the ice cream in it. (My bowl is always in the freezer, so it’s ready to go when I need it.)

I can’t guarantee that SlickDeals would have it again, but here is an Amazon affliliate link (which means if you use the link to make a purchase, I may receive a small commission, at no additional cost to you) to the ice cream maker that I use.

I’ve found that reducing the recipe to be a little less than the 1.5 quarts (or whatever the size of your ice cream maker is) is better. It might make less, but it churns better, which means better texture, when it has a little more room.

Also, this vanilla ice cream recipe does include eggs and tempering them and cooking your base a bit, but don’t let that intimidate you. It’s not complicated. If I can whip this up while my boys are running around me in the kitchen like a couple of crazy monkeys, trust me – You can do this, and you’ll be glad you did.

Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday - Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream. A delicious, traditional-style homemade vanilla ice cream recipe that's perfect for summer (or anytime of the year!) One of our family's favorites.

Because, really, there is just something about homemade ice cream, isn’t there?

Here’s my recipe for delicious Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream.
A simple, and simply delicious, traditional-style homemade vanilla ice cream that our family loves!
TRY THESE OTHER YUMMY RECIPES WITH YOUR VANILLA ICE CREAM:

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

The Legacy in an Apple Pie Recipe

Salted Caramel Cream

Chocolate Cake with Bavarian Cream Filling

Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies


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Tried It Tuesday: Homemade Blackberry Muffins

July 12, 2016
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Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday: Homemade Blackberry Muffins. Delicious, quick, and easy homemade muffin recipe using fresh blackberries and a secret ingredient to give you tender, fluffy muffins.

One of the many things I love about summer and this time of year is that you can get all kinds of fresh fruit and veggie. I especially look forward to all the berries – blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries.

There are so many yummy ways to enjoy fresh berries, but the down side is, if you don’t eat them or make something with them, they will go bad quickly. (Booo.) Sadly, this week I had to throw out some once-upon-a-time beautiful strawberries that I had only had for a couple days. It was so disappointing. Looking around at the containers of blackberries and blueberries nearby, I was determined to make good use of those other berries that I had purchased at the same time as the strawberries before they, too, got mushy, moldy, and yucky.

The blackberries were my first concern because they tend to have a shorter shelf life than blueberries. Plus, I already have a great recipe for blueberry hand pies.

So, the hunt was on for a new blackberry recipe that would use up my 12 ounces of tasty blackberries and one that wouldn’t be too involved. (It’s VBS week here, so our days are busy.)

Thankfully, I found one quickly, and before long the boys were anxiously awaiting their first taste of homemade blackberry muffins.

Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday: Homemade Blackberry Muffins. Delicious, quick, and easy homemade muffin recipe using fresh blackberries and a secret ingredient to give you tender, fluffy muffins.

This recipe was very easy to put together – mix your dry ingredients, mix your wet ingredients, combine them all together, add your berries, fill your tins, bake, EAT. Plus, muffins are perfect anytime of the day – breakfast, snack, dessert, or anytime this expectant mommy is hungry…again. 🙂

According to Simply Recipes, where I got this blackberry muffin recipe, the secret to these muffins being tender and fluffy is the sour cream. However, for my version, I used plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream because it’s what we had, and it worked out wonderfully. I also used a bit more cinnamon.

I found that my muffins could have actually come out of the oven EARLIER than 17 minutes, which was the shortest cook time given. I would say maybe 15 minutes would have been perfect. Since my muffins overcooked just a smidge, they were a little drier than I had hoped once they cooled. But they are still yummy. Oh, and just a reminder:  expect some seeds since you’re baking with blackberries. 🙂

Overall, these are definitely some muffins I’ll be baking again. I may even try them with blueberries instead of blackberries, maybe in the next few days since I have some blueberries that I don’t want to go bad.

Here’s how I made Homemade Blackberry Muffins.
Delicious, quick, and easy homemade muffin recipe using fresh blackberries and a secret ingredient to give you tender, fluffy muffins.

Yummy Cherry Cream Cheese Bars

June 28, 2016
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Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday: Yummy Cherry Cream Cheese Bars, These tasty little treats layer dough with a homemade cherry pie filling, cream cheese, and a sweet glaze. Great way to use fresh cherries!

Have you every picked fresh cherries? Have you ever picked fresh cherries with your children? Those are two very different events, aren’t they? 🙂

Even if it’s a little crazier, it’s definitely a lot more fun when the kids get to take part!

Since Elijah was about two or three, one of our summer traditions has been to help my parents harvest the cherries from their row of cherry trees. We’ve spent a day or two each June picking cherries, and the boys love that they can reach some of the cherries and help Grandma and Grandpa.

They have a wonderful time getting their hands sticky as they fill their buckets and wander from tree to tree, picking a few cherries from each one. Each boy tries to get more cherries than his brother, although Josiah tends to get tired of picking cherries sooner than Elijah is.

Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday: Yummy Cherry Cream Cheese Bars, These tasty little treats layer dough with a homemade cherry pie filling, cream cheese, and a sweet glaze. Great way to use fresh cherries!

After we take our buckets inside, I get to spend some time that night or the next day separating and pitting whatever my boys and I have collected. Talk about getting tired…

Last year’s picking was especially memorable because it was a very bountiful year, plus on one of the days we went over, we were there the same time as two of Elijah and Josiah’s cousins, so the four boys helped to gather quite a few cherries (when they weren’t chasing each other around the trees)! We ended up with so many cherries that I think I might still have some in the freezer!


This year’s harvest was definitely less impressive, but our family still managed to come away with enough cherries to make something yummy. My sweet mom even pitted them for us (me) before we left their house.

My first step when I have fresh cherries is either to go ahead and freeze them or to make homemade cherry pie filling. I have found a really tasty recipe for cherry pie filling over at Crumbs and Chaos.

Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday: Yummy Cherry Cream Cheese Bars, These tasty little treats layer dough with a homemade cherry pie filling, cream cheese, and a sweet glaze. Great way to use fresh cherries!

Since I’m not a huge cherry pie fan, I wanted to find a new recipe to use our cherries in. My parents’ cherry trees produce sour cherries, so I knew it had to be something with enough sweetness to balance the tartness.

I thought about making hand pies with the cherry filling, but then I remembered a cherry pie bar I made last year with some of our bounty. However, this year I couldn’t find the recipe that I used. Instead, I came across another one that I had saved a while ago, one that adds a cream cheese layer to the bars.

Cream cheese? Why, yes. I think we will try that! 🙂

I don’t think I’ll even need to worry about that other cherry pie bar recipe.

These Cherry Cream Cheese Bars by Inspired by Charm are delicious. The cream cheese and the almond extract really set these cherry bars apart. While they are a little involved, with all the layering you have to do, they are worth it!

They were great while they were still slightly warm (though kind of messy to cut), and they were really yummy once they were cooled completely, but they are perfect when topped with some vanilla ice cream. I took them to our family reunion over the weekend, and everyone else loved them as much as we did.

I’m pretty certain you will, too.

Here’s how I made these Yummy Cherry Cream Cheese Bars.

Homemade cherry pie filling plus a smooth cream cheese layer combine to make a delicious bar, perfect on its own or a la mode.

 

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YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

Sweet Vinegar Slaw

Chocolate Cake with “Simple” Bavarian Cream Filling & Chocolate Ganache

Making Grandma’s Lime Pickles

 

Tried It Tuesday: Oven Roasted Chicken

May 17, 2016
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Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday: Oven Roasted Chicken. Delicious, juicy chicken is easy to make when you roast it in the oven. Seasoned simply with rosemary , thyme, salt, & pepper, cooking the chicken at a high temperature creates a crispy skin and juicy, flavorful chicken. Yum!

I like to cook for my family, but I also like to cook enough so that I don’t HAVE to cook every single day. I like having leftovers that I can heat up in just a few minutes, and boom – dinner! When my boys were even smaller, I could pretty much make any dish go for at least two meals, but now, not so much. (I KNOW – they are only 3 & 5…I don’t even want to think about when they are teenagers.)

In the winter time, I have it fairly easy because I can make soups and chili that last us at least two or three days. I can divide them up, too, and freeze them so we aren’t literally eating them for three days in a row.

Warmer months are a little trickier, but I have found one thing that is versatile enough that I can stretch it out for several meals in either summer or winter: a whole chicken.

Whether we eat it just as it was cooked, or I debone it and use the meat to make chicken pot pie, barbecue chicken sandwiches, chicken tacos, or any number of chicken dishes, it feeds us well for a few days.

I used to cook it on the stove top, like my mom always did, bringing it to a boil and then cooking it low and slow all morning, and I still do it like this when I want a bit more stock for my dish, such as chicken and dumplings or chicken and noodles.

However, my favorite way to cook a chicken now is to oven roast it because it produces a more flavorful, moist meat, and the best method/recipe that I’ve found was one that I came across last year sometime, where they cooked it at 450 degrees – THE WHOLE TIME. (Most oven-roasted chicken directions say to heat your oven to 350).

I know you could easily pick up a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store deli, but honestly, it’s sooo easy to roast your own, with your own seasonings, that I would only buy one in a pinch.

Lisa at My Own Sweet Thyme has a yummy sounding recipe for Herb Roasted Chicken, which is where I got my cooking directions. I haven’t actually tried her recipe as a whole, though.

My recipe is less precise, with some salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, and olive oil being dashed over the chicken in a roasting pan and cooked about an hour, uncovered, at 450 (until the thickest part of the chicken is at least 165 degrees.)

Even though I don’t always have the exact same measurements on my ingredients, it always comes out delicious with crispy skin and juicy, flavorful chicken.

Here’s how I make my oven-roasted chicken: