Red Velvet Cookies-to die for!!

Just tried these red velvet cookies made out of red velvet cake mix.  Soooo good!!

Caramel Apple Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

I posted this recipe on my family blog and you can find it here. These came out really good and they were fairly easy to make.

Dulce de Leche cake

We attended a Cinco de Mayo party and were asked to bring this cake. It was delicious!

DULCE de LECHE CAKE

CAKE INGREDIENTS

Yellow cake mix

1/2 cup butter (1 cube)

1 1/3 cups water

2 tsp vanilla

3 eggs at room temp (you can quickly warm them in a bowl of hot tap water)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray bottom only of pan with PAM or grease w/shortening. I think a glass pan does a better job but any 9x13 pan is ok.

In a quart sauce pan heat butter over medium heat for about 8 minutes stirring

frequently, just until golden brown. This happens quickly once it gets "frothy",

Remove from heat and cool 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, beat cake mix, browned butter, water and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes (brown flecks from butter will appear in batter). Pour into pan. Bake 30 -40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted in center of cake. Cool completely @ 1 hour.

FROSTING INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups butter (3 cubes)

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup canned milk

2 cups powdered sugar

Melt butter in sauce pan. Stir in brown sugar. Heat to boiling stirring constantly. Boil and stir over low heat for 2 minutes. Sir in canned milk and heat again just to boiling. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. Add powdered sugar gradually beating after each addition. Continue beating as it cools until of spreading consistency. This frosting sets as it cools so get it on cake when spreadable but not set. If its sets before you get it on the cake you can reheat it slightly while stirring constantly.

Cover frosted cake and keep in a cool place. Can be made the day before if necessary.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Having recently received some fresh vanilla beans, I figured the best use of them would be to make ice cream.  I found a recipe that I REALLY liked here.  Here is the shortened version if you don't want to go to the site.  If you are not too familiar with making ice cream, she does include pictures and step-by-step instructions for making it on the site.

Ingredients

• 1 whole Vanilla Bean, Split And Scraped
• 3 cups Half-and-half
• 2 cups Sugar
• 8 whole (up To 9) Large Egg Yolks
• 3 cups Heavy Cream

Preparation Instructions

Heat half-and-half and 2 cups sugar in a saucepan over low heat, adding vanilla “caviar” to the mixture. Turn off heat when mixture is totally heated.
Beat egg yolks by hand or with an electric mixer until yolks are pale yellow and slightly thick. Temper the egg yolks by slowly drizzling into the 1 1/2 cups of hot half-and-half mixture, whisking constantly. After that, pour the egg yolk/half-and-half mixture into the pan containing the rest of the half-and-half mixture. Cook over low to medium-low heat (depending on how hot your stove gets) until quite thick, stirring constantly. Tthen pour into a bowl with the heavy cream. Stir to combine.
Chill mixture completely, then freeze in an ice cream maker until thick. Place container in freezer to harden for at least eight hours.
Serve with something chocolate. Enjoy!

Apple Cake

My sister in law made this and had me try it. It was SOOO yummy! So, I snagged the recipe from her...but when I made it, it wasn't as amazing as hers. So, if you try it, let me know what you think. 

Apple Cake
1/2 c soft butter
1 pkg yellow cake mix
1 can apple pie filling
1/4 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 c sour cream
1 egg


Combine butter and cake mix. Pat mixture in 13x9 pan. Bake @ 350 for 10 minutes.
Arrange apples.
Mix sugar & cinnamon.
Sprinkle over apples.
Blend sour cream and egg.
Drizzle over apples.
Bake 25 minutes.
DO NOT OVERCOOK! 

 Here are my tips on the cake: 

I made the crust too crusty...with the butter and cake mix, I melted the butter, but next time I won't, I'll just set it out all day and let it get soft. Mix the soft butter in really really good with the cake mix. Also, I pushed the cake/crust too hard into the pan. Next time, I'll just lightly pat it down so the moisture can seep into it more. Other than that it turned out really good, the non-crust stuff was super yummy...kind of custard-y.

Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of it!

Thai Goldmine

I love Mexican food.  I can eat several times a week.  But Asian food is becoming a close second.  I don't much about Thai food, but what I have had is really good.  I just checked out the website on my Coconut Milk can and found a wealth of recipes. 
So, here I am-breaking my own rules because I haven't tried them yet, but they look really good and doable.

Check it out here!