Food, Family, Fun.

You might be wondering what happens with all of the bread scraps I must have from making a different sandwich shape every day. I surely don't throw them all away! I put them in a ziploc bag and freeze them until I have a decent quantity, then I defrost the bag and make either croutons, overnight french toast casserole or this Bread Pudding. This is a local favourite British Bread Pudding recipe --it's a pudding in the British sense of the word meaning dessert -- not meaning that this is a custard  or creamy pudding. It's also not the same as Bread and Butter Pudding. It is however, one of my hubby's favourites :)

Most recently, I have used Nature's Own Honey Wheat bread scraps that were defrosted from the freezer and added in some leftover Masa which is a Portuguese Sweet Egg Bread. If you don't quite have 6 cups of  leftover bread scraps you can add in a slice or two of fresh bread (any kind) or slightly decrease the milk.

Dice or tear the bread into cubes/pieces and put in a medium bowl. Pour the milk over the top and leave it to soak in, about 5 minutes.

Add in 1 beaten egg,  the softened butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and raisins. Stir really well until it is well combined.

Press with a wooden spoon into a 9x9 ungreased pan.

Bake at 350F for 1 hour. The time depends on your bread (how stale it was) and your oven. I think it is best to check it after 35-40 minutes. If you are worried about it burning the outsides without cooking the middle through at that point, turn down your oven to 325F for the rest of the time. To tell if it's cooked through, the top should crust and when you touch the middle it should be firm and not "bouncy". Leave to cool and then cut into squares. It's delicious served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (or chocolate ice cream if that's your fancy) and of course a cup of tea!

Yup. You read that right. #69 on our family fun list is to eat only ice cream for dinner. Well we did it last week! We all had Banana Splits for dinner. I set up a 6 cup muffin tin with several toppings, mini chocolate hips, cherries, rainbow sprinkles, chopped nuts, gummy bears and Butterfinger crunch bits. I gave the girls each a split banana with ice cream on it (no banana for Amy - she doesn't like them). Then I let each of them put on their own toppings. I added whipped cream, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup or Dulce de Leche upon request. This was the most fun we have had at dinner in a long time!

I saw this recipe on 4Kowboys blog for cherry kuchen bars and wanted to try it right away! I opted to switch to my husband's favourite -- blueberry. Yum! I did not have a 15x10x1 baking sheet so I used a 9x13. The only problem was possibly making the bottom crust slightly too thick and not saving enough dough for the top. They still tasted yummy! Next time I will save at least 2 cups of dough for the top. I'm not quite sure how this works out in the larger pan, the bottom crust must be really thin and I can't quite figure out how 1 1/2 cups of dough will cover the larger top enough. Anyhow -- I recommend the 13x9 pan instead but you can certainly go with the original recipe plan and used the 15x10

Preheat oven to 350F. In a mixing bowl combine butter and shortening. Add in sugar, baking powder and salt and cream together. Add in eggs, vanilla and then the flour one cup at a time. Mix until combined. In an ungreased pan spread all but 1 1/2 (or 2 cups) of the dough on the bottom. Bake at 350F for 12 minutes - it will not be golden brown. Remove from oven and spread the pie filling over the top. Drop the remaining dough by teaspoonfuls over the top. Return to oven and bake for 30 minutes more until the top is lightly golden. Cool on a rack for AT LEAST 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla and milk to make a thin icing. Drizzle over the top of the bars and then cool just a little bit more and cut into squares. The original recipe said to cool completely and then cut into bars. However, you can cut and serve this slightly warm  -- it tastes great both ways and cuts fine slightly warm :)

One other little booboo I made was putting my icing on the top before they had cooled enough. It looked less drizzled and kind of melted/spread all over. Still tasted great but not quite as pretty as the original photo! 

Easy peasy lemon squeezy! As Amy would say :) I used one box of Duncan Hines Coconut Supreme cake mix and some food colouring. I separated out the cake mix into 6 bowls and coloured them- red, orange, yellow, green, blue and a violet-y-purple. Then I layered in one small spoon of each colour into each cupcake well.

Baked as usual and frosted with Betty Crocker cherry frosting and covered in rainbow sprinkles. The coconut cake and cherry frosting is really a good combination. I was not in the mood to make icing and all I had in the house was one can of ready made cherry frosting. I'm glad it worked out that way -- Delicious! These do not hang around too long -- I had to hide two that I wanted to take to my grandparents. they almost missed out!

The girls made a fun dessert tonight. It's out of our children's cookbook by Anabel Karmel - Children's First Cookbook. It was pretty fun and very tasty!

It was easy for them to make together. Bash up some meringues. Mash and slice strawberries. Layer in a glass with strawberry ice cream. I didn't have to help with this except reaching some of the items from the cupboards, freezer etc. and read out the directions.

Rose's turn mashing

Amy slicing strawberries