Broccoli Casserole Recipe

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

I'll be the first to admit I don't spend as much time in the kitchen as I should. I can cook, 

I just seem to save my skills for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm usually the one to bring a 

dessert since baking is what I love. But last year I made a broccoli casserole as a side dish to my 

in-laws and it was a hit, and I've been asked to make it again.

Broccoli Casserole

Serving Size: 8-10

Here are your ingredients:

• 2 (10-ounce) packages frozen chopped broccoli, cooked and drained
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup grated sharp cheddar
• 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cups crushed crackers
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13 by 9-inch baking dish with vegetable oil cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, combine broccoli, mayonnaise, cheese, soup and eggs. Mix well with a spoon. Place the mixture in the prepared baking dish. Top with the crushed crackers and pour the melted butter evenly over the crackers. Bake for 35 minutes or until set and browned.

Hope you have a fabulous turkey day!

Maple Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake Bars

Is there anything greater that pumpkin? Seriously. 

There really isn't'.

Today I've asked Melissa from my PBandJ to be a 

special guest and share her favorite pumpkin recipe.

Every year for Thanksgiving I bake a new dessert to serve alongside the traditional pumpkin and apple pies. Last year it was a pumpkin praline New York cheesecake, the year before a cranberry pear galette and for this year, an out of this world maple pumpkin pie cheesecake bar. The filling is reminiscent of it's custardy sibling yet has a subtle richness from the cream cheese. A buttery gingersnap crust is the perfect bed and cool fresh whipped cream tops it all off making for a great alternative dessert to serve this Thanksgiving.

Ingredients:

For the Crust:
1 Package gingersnap cookies (about 9 ounces)
1 stick butter, melted

For the Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar (not packed)
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
2 eggs
6 ounces evaporated milk
2 teaspoons maple extract or 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan. I use a fluted tart pan with removable bottom for an easy release. If you do not have a tart pan use a 9x13-inch pan and line with parchment paper, the excess paper should hang over the sides to help release after cooling.

2. Make the crust: In a food processor, pulse the cookies until they become fine crumbs. Next, add in melted butter and mix until combined. Press the crumbs into the bottom of your pan. Bake for ten minutes. Bake the crust at 350º F for ten minutes.

3. Make the filling: While the crust is baking, prepare the filling. Beat together the cream cheese and sugar on medium speed until smooth and well combined. Add in pumpkin and beat on slow until incorporated. Add the eggs one at a time and scrape the bowl as needed. Add the evaporated milk, maple and vanilla and beat until combined. Next, add the spices, beating until combined.

4. Pour the filling over the crust. Tap the side of the pan a few times to release any bubbles. Bake until the filling is set in the center, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. Place in the refrigerator and cut when ready to serve. Enjoy with whipped cream or as is.

recipe adapted from sticky gooey creamy chewy

Thank you SO much Melissa for sharing this amazingness. 

This is defiantly on my "to-make" list for Thanksgiving.

Enjoy friends!

Pink Lemonade Sparkling Fruit Punch

This weekends we made the best juice mixture I've ever tasted. Hands down. A perfectly refreshing non-alcoholic beverage that was sweet and sparkly with just the amount of tart to give it that little kick. Delicious! 

Ingredients

• 4 cans of frozen lemonade concentrate
• 1/2 gallon of cranberry juice
• 1 46oz of red fruit punch {Hawaiian punch recommended}
• 1 quart of chilled Ginger Ale
• 1 46oz can of pineapple juice
• 2 lemons {thinly sliced}
• Ice

Viola! Simple, easy and perfect for summer.

Cake Pop Recipe

I heard a lot of stories that making cake pops was difficult but I felt I was up for the challenge. We were having a Saturday afternoon backyard get together with a table full of munchies so I thought these would be perfect. The only hard part was choosing which flavor to make!

I'm here to walk you through these easy steps...

Supplies

• Cake mix and ingredients listed on the box {I did lemon & devils food.}
• Half a package of frosting {I used lemon with the lemon cake and chocolate with the devils food}
• White chocolate candy melts
• Styrofoam 
• Shortening {large spoon full}

Step 1

Make the cake mix as directed on the box.

Step 2
Bake as directed on the box and allow to cool slightly.

Step 3
Break the cake into pieces and put into a large mixing bowl.

Step 4
Now crumble the cake completely.

Step 5
Add 1/2 of the package of frosting into the crumbled cake. The frosting acts as glue.

Step 6
Now its time to get dirty. With your hands, crumple it all together so its mixed evenly and looks like one big dough ball.

Step7
Using the palm of your hands, roll your cake into 1" balls placing them on wax paper.

I put them in the freezer for 10 minutes to harden just a bit.

Step 8
Now its time to soften the entire bag of candy melts in a microwave safe bowl per the instruction on the bag. Once melted, stir vigorously until completely smooth. Once smooth add a tablespoon of shortening to thin out the texture.

Step 9
Take your cake pop stick and dip it in the melted candy about 1 inch. This will act as glue to hold your stick in place. Now insert the stick into the center of your cake ball.

Step 10
Now its time to coat the cake pops in the melted candy. I softly took a spoon and poured the melted mixture and allowed it to roll beneath the ball to coat all sides. Then placed them stick up, back on the wax paper for cooling.

If you want to decorate them I would recommend sticking them into a Styrofoam block to you can access the tops.

 

Viola! Now you know how to make cake pops! They are not hard, just a bit tedious at times. But well worth the wait!

 

I decided to make two batches. The yellow was lemon cake with lemon frosting. The blue was devils food cake with chocolate frosting. Have fun mixing things up a bit!

 

Found here.

These will be at every party I throw from now. Such as easy way to follow a color scheme. I'm thinking these would be a perfect "reveal" at a baby shower by having blue or pink cake inside. Wouldn't that be awesome?!

 
Enjoy!

Caramel Apple Trifle

Ready for some deliciousness? 

When this dessert was served, it was devoured in record breaking time!

Recipe: Caramel Apple Trifle

Ingredients

• 1 Baked Cake {apple, white or pound}
• 1 can apple pie filling
• 1 jar caramel sauce
• Old Fashion Glazed Donuts {approximately 4-6 depending on size}
• Prepared vanilla pudding
• Coarsley chopped oatmeal cookies

Instructions

1. In a trifle pan, layout all your ingredients starting with the donuts, pudding, cookies, caramel, cake, apple pie filling, pudding cookies...
2. Continue layering until the trifle dish is full coating the top with cookie crumbs and caramel for appearance. You have the option of adding whipped topping too.

I found this recipe here.

Hope you enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes + GIVEAWAY!

For some reason I've been on a sweet tooth kick lately. You might have saw my Snickerdoodle Peanut Butter Brownie Cookie recipe I made last week. If you missed it click HERE. Well today I'm super excited to introduce you to one of my blogging buddies who's bringing us a new must-try recipe. 

*********************************************************************************

I am absolutely over the moon to be here at Our Reflection.  My name is Jenny and I am the teacher mommy of The NY Melrose Family.  My spunky assistant is my two and half year old daughter, Riley.  She's usually my shadow and tries her best to "help" mommy with all of my diy, recipes, organization and party planning projects.  I'm here today to share a chocolate peanut butter and jelly cupcake recipe and a giveaway from one of my favorite sponsors Beryl's Cake Decorating & Party Supplies.  First, I want to share this recipe because it is A-mazing!

Before you start anything you need to pop 24 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups into the freezer.  I used Duncan Hines Devil Food Cake Mix so they are semi-homemade.  Once the cake mix is placed into the baking cups, place the frozen Peanut Butter Cups into the center of the cake mix.  My assistant did this for me and it was great because we worked on her directional vocabulary as she placed it into the mix.

As you can see we were pretty close to center.

Next take a teaspoon of strawberry jam and spoon it on top of the cupcake.  You'll want to fold it into the cake batter.

I know you've got to be thinking that these sound fabulous, but now we're only going to make it better because you'll need to frost on the Strawberry Jelly Frosting.  I used the 1M tip to get the rose look to the frosting.

I give you chocolate peanut butter and jelly cupcakes with strawberry jelly frosting!  I wish I had gotten a picture of Riley eating it.  It was as if each bite was a bite from heaven.  "It tastes like candy, mama," was her comment that made me smile from ear to ear.

Ingredients for Cupcake:

Devil Food Cake Mix

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup for each cupcake

1 teaspoon of strawberry jelly for each cupcake

Recipe for Strawberry Jelly Frosting, which I found at Best Friends for Frosting:

1 cup of butter (2 sticks)

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/3 cup strawberry jam

2 cups of confectioner's sugar

Directions for Frosting:

Beat the butter at room temperature.  Then add in vanilla extract and mix this together.  Add in strawberry jelly and beat together.  Finally add the sugar one cup at a time until you end up with peaks in the frosting.

Now it's time for the giveaway.  As a special thank you to Laura's audience for having me visit, I'm giving away a $25 gift certificate to Beryl's Cake Decorating & Pastry Supplies.  Beryl has everything you could possibly want when it comes to cake decorating and the best part is that it's on me.

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