Cool summer nights scream fire pits and campfires. You really can't have a fire without marshmallows...it's like having cookies without milk or a movie without popcorn...or....I could go on and on.  I won't fault you for whipping out the bag of Jet Puff, I've done it many times, but trust me when I tell you this; nothing compares to marshmallows made from scratch.  You need to try making them at least one time this summer. It can be a little messy but it's definitely not difficult or scary.  This recipe makes fluffy, chewy, melt in your mouth marshmallows...and best of all they taste incredible toasted over a fire.  (Recipe below)

Recipe:
2  8oz packages cream cheese
3 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 stick butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
8 graham crackers
3/4 cups chopped nuts

Butter a 9 inch square pan and dust with graham cracker crumbs. Mix crushed graham crackers with melted butter and nuts.  Beat cream cheese with eggs. gradually add sugar and lemon juice. pour into pan and sprinkle with graham cracker topping.
Bake in 325 degree preheated oven for 30 minutes.

Artichokes have more antioxidants then red wine or chocolate and they contain plenty of fiber, vitamin C, magnesium and potassium.


Recipe

6-8 small artichokes
2 cups panko bread crumbs
2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
1/2 cup chopped parsley
4 cloves garlic finely chopped
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil

Prepare artichokes by removing the stems and cutting off the top. Open artichoke leaves with fingers like a flower. Remove any spines on leaves and in the center. In a large bowl, combine bread crumbs, cheeses, parsley and garlic. Stuff each leaf and into the middle of the artichoke (shown in bottom left picture). Fill a pan with 1 -2 cups water and arrange artichokes in the pan. Drizzle artichokes heavily with olive oil to moisten all the stuffing. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and cook over medium to low heat for 1 hour. If the water starts to evaporate add more as needed (just enough to keep the bottom of the pan covered with water).

Since I'm working on a cookbook for my family, I've been baking allot! Here's another recipe. Plus, it was a good way to break in my new mixer.

This frosting is so yummy. Don't use it with cake mix cake though, use the butter cake recipe below. Mix cake is too sweet to carry this frosting.


Recipe:

Butter Cake

3/4 cup butter (softened)
3 eggs
2 1/2 cup cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Sift dry ingredients and add alternately with milk. Pour in greased and floured cake pan. Bake 350 Fahrenheit for 50 minutes.

Penuche icing

This icing is poured on the cake warm. Its a crusting icing, so don't fuss with it, just pour it on and let it drip down the sides, it crusts quickly and stops dripping.

1/4 cup butter
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup confectioner's sugar (sifted)

Melt butter in saucepan. Add brown sugar and boil over low heat for 2 minutes stirring constantly. Stir in milk and allow to bubble. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Working quickly, stir in confectioner's sugar and vanilla and immediately pour on cake and spread to edges. Allow icing to drip down the sides of the cake.

These cookies have a delicate flavor, not too sweet and are encrusted in sesame seeds.

These are little, crumbly, melt in your mouth, balls that taste like butter, rum and cinnamon...YUMMY!


Italian Rum Butter Balls:

1 cup butter (softened)
¼ cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons rum
2 ½ cup cake flour
¼ cup melted butter and ¼ cup cinnamon sugar mixture

Cream softened butter & light brown sugar until fluffy. Add rum and blend well. Sift cake flour and add gradually to butter mixture until a soft ball is formed. Chill dough 1 hour. Roll small balls. Dip balls in melted butter then drop into mixture of cinnamon/sugar. Shake off excess.
Bake: 350 Fahrenheit 15-20 minutes (until golden brown).

Kids and baking go hand and hand...don't you agree?! This time we tried a recipe with yeast. Kids love watching the yeast foam and come to life and they hate waiting for the dough to rise!

I'm always amazed at simple things that teach us lessons about who and how we are... and help us to bend away from it. In this case, it was sugar cookies. I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to cookie size, shape and placement on the cookie sheet, but my 6 year old daughter Kenna and her friend Erica wanted to make the cookies whatever size they happened to grab out of the bowl and plop them wherever on the sheet. I tried to reason with them and tell them they should be the same size...and then the question "why?". Hmmm...I was stumped. I tried to think of a good reason and all I came up with is "they look better that way". But look at the picture below... I'm wrong, they look adorable all different sizes. So my lesson: To let go of things that don't really matter. Oh and I also learned that it really doesn't matter what size my cookies are!!
Perfectly Imperfect Sugar Cookies:

INGREDIENTS
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll dough into ANY SIZE balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.