3 Solid Recipes from 2015 That Never Made The Blog

Ok friends. Over my break, I cleaned up the innards of the blog. Mainly, I went through the posts I hadn't published yet to see what I had. There were a few recipes I knew I had (the 3 below) and a couple I'd forgotten about (the last 5). All the photos for these recipes were taken with my old lens. I've finally come to conclusion that I'm done with all those old photos. Some of the recipes were over a year old! I decided that if I hadn't posted them in the first 365 days that I'd finished the pictures, that I never was. A few of the recipes were solid, delicious and share-worthy. A few were what I finally deduced as "worthless". Recipe that would need to be completely reworked, therefore needing completely new pictures. So, to get rid of anything having to do with the old camera lens, I'm going to share the 3 recipes that were really quite tasty and deserving of a repeat. 

Here we go!

Blackberry-Swirled Peach Pops

Ingredients (makes 8 popsicles):

3 large peaches, peeled and roughly chopped

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

Blackberry Syrup

Directions:

1. Combine peaches, orange juice, sugar, and lemon juice in a food processor. Pulse until mixture is smooth. 

2. To construct popsicles, pour 2 tbsp peach mixture into popsicles molds. Place 1 tbsp blackberry syrup on top of peach mixture. Top with 2 more tbsp peach mixture. Top with more syrup if you have room. Take a knife and swirl the mixture together. Repeat until all molds are filled. Stick a popsicle stick into each popsicle.

3. Place molds in the freezer and freeze for at least 4 hours or until solid. To remove pops from molds, run molds under warm water. Wiggle the popsicle sticks around until you free them from the molds. Store popsicles in the freezer.

Printable Recipe

Banana Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Frosting

Recipe slightly adapted from: Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients (makes 12 cupcakes):

Cupcakes-

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

3 large eggs, room temp

3 large bananas, very ripe, mashed

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup buttermilk

Frosting-

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

2 tbsp heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Line 2 cupcakes pans with liners, set aside.

2. Prepare the cupcakes- In a stand mixer, cream together butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Mix until pale and creamy. Mix in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the banana. Mix in the vanilla.

3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to mix. Add banana mixture to the bowl, and fold into the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Batter will be lumpy. Spoon batter evenly into cupcake pans. Bake in preheated oven for 17-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out with moist crumbs. Remove from oven, and allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

4. Prepare the frosting- In a stand mixture, beat butter for 2 minutes or until creamy. Add sugar and cocoa and continue to mix. Add the cream and vanilla, continue to mix until the mixture is well combined and creamy. If frosting is too sweet, add pinch of salt.

5. Frost cooled cupcakes with frosting, dividing evenly between cupcakes. Serve immediately! Store cupcakes in an airtight container for up to 2 days at room temp or up to 5 days in the fridge.

Printable Recipe

S'mores Oreo Truffles

*This recipe is another take on those simple Oreo truffles, which you all know I'm obsessed with. If you can find any S'mores Oreo's lying around, make these today!*

Ingredients (makes ~20 truffles):

1 (18 oz) package S'mores Oreos

4 ounces cream cheese

1 (16 oz) package Chocolate Melting Candy

Cookie Frosting (I used Betty Crocker's White Cookie Frosting- found in baking aisle), Graham Cracker Crumbs (garnish-optional)

Directions:

1. Place Oreos in a food processor. Pulse until the cookies are a fine crumb. Add cream cheese. Pulse until mixture forms one big dough ball.

2. Scoop out truffles using a 1-tbsp cookie scoop. Place truffles on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.

3. Melt chocolate according to package directions. Using a toothpick or spoon, dip truffles into chocolate. Place dipped truffles back on parchment paper. Repeat until you've dipped all truffles.

4. To garnish truffles, top with graham cracker crumbs and a couple stripes of cookie frosting. It's best to dip 4 truffles, and then garnish them before they dry. 

5. Once truffles are decorated, place tray in fridge and chill for 30 minutes. Truffles should be set after this initial chill. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. 

Printable Recipe

And 5 Recipe Fails:

This was a recipe that I tried from Pinterest, Chicken and Broccoli Stir-Fry. The pictures might not have turned out too bad, but the dish had no flavor. None, nil, nada. The sauce for this recipe needs a flavor infusion- STAT! I might try this again someday with modifications.

While this is one of my absolute favorite recipes for Fish Tacos, the pictures were a big, fat FAIL. I used to make these all the time when we lived in Oregon, where we had access to fresh sturgeon. I'm definitely waiting for an unforgettable cut of fish before I try my hand at this recipe for the blog again.

My first try at Classic Pumpkin Pie. The crust was raw and doughy. Nuff' said. You better believe you'll see a recipe for Classic Pumpkin Pie at some point!

This was an attempt at shrimp pasta with a Béchamel sauce. It was dry. And just gross.

Ah, the green spaghetti. This pasta dish made with broccoli, swiss chard, basil, and spinach was all tied together with a garlic sauce. Sigh. It needed a lot of help. It kind of tasted like dirt. 

And that was THE last photo from the old camera lens. 

Sayonara old camera lens! It's been real! :-)

To wrap up this post, in case you are following the dog saga, things have calmed down. First of all, the puppy has not been back. I suspect he's off at obedience school, and that's for the best. The hubby took the blonde dog to his work on Saturday morning, because with the big project going on at the plant, there's way more people at the office than usual. The hubby said contractors from out of town were adopting all these strays in the area, especially after they heard that people around here aren't so kind to homeless pets. So the hubby loaded the blonde dog into his truck that chilly morning, and guess what? She was adopted right away. I knew she would, she was such a love. And she had the most beautiful eyes. Now 2 of the 3 dogs have been dealt with. We are now left with the beagle-mix, who has decided that this is his home. Yeah, he's still hanging around. He's so calm, and so scared of all people and dogs that we are content letting him be. If a dog is not going to attack my Chihuahuas, the dog is fine by me. We are still feeding him, and he sleeps on the porch. 

He also likes to sleep in the yard, guarding the house. I think we may end up with one more dog. I've named him Huck. Like Huckleberry Hound. He seems to like it :-)

That's it for today folks. Happy Monday!