ITALIAN BISCUIT COOKIE

This recipe is for an Italian Biscuit Cookie or as my husband likes to call the " Dream Cookie."  You may be wondering why he calls these cookies the "Dream Cookie"?  These cookies are so good you feel like you are in a dream?  The sugar, butter and almond flavoring combine together and literately melt in your mouth.  Add the buttery & creamy icing to the top and you feel like you have died and gone to heaven!!!!  I found these biscuits on Pinterest and they were called "Spring Biscuit Cookies".  Let me tell you....you can make these cookies in the spring, you can make them in the summer, you can make them in the fall, you can make them for Easter, Christmas, Birthdays....etc....No matter when you make them or where you bring them I promise you they will be gone, gone, gone! I have made them for Easter & Mother's Day and I tinted the frosting pastel colors or left them plain white and sprinkled pastel sugars on them.  This time around I made them for a trick-or-treat broker open house (yes, we are trying to sell our home).  As you will see I tinted the frosting a light orange, placed a candy corn in the middle and wrapped them up as a "thank you" goody bag.  I doubled the recipe and brought some over to a friends house as a gift for Halloween and brought extras to my parents Halloween party.  Make these cookies once and you will make them again, and again, and again!  People will request you bring these to their parties!  These are the types of cookies you will not be able to eat just one.  You eat one and then you just keep eyeing the platter of cookies and sooner rather than later you just go ahead and grab another...because they are just that good!  Believe me..or rather believe me husband when he says these truly are a "Dream" Cookie!

ITALIAN SAUSAGE, BELL PEPPER & PARMESAN CHEESE STRATA

I don't know about you guys, but when I have guests I really don't like to do alot of cooking in front of them.  I feel like when I am cooking and working in front of them I do not get to enjoy their company and then that defeats the purpose of inviting people over to your home.  This recipe, Italian Sausage, Bell Pepper and Parmesan Cheese Strata is awesome AND it can be made the night before OR the morning of.  I always try to have some sort of "bake" for breakfast on Christmas morning and my husband said he believes we have a new "winner" with this recipe...which is a major compliment.  I got the recipe from epicurious.com and it called for fontina cheese.  Fontina cheese is really soft and I did not believe it would taste as good as grated parmesan or romano.  Hey...who am I to argue with the pro's, but that was just my opinion. Also, I do agree with them not to use green bell pepper and to use red, orange or yellow instead.  I feel bad for the poor green pepper, but the other colors have a way better flavor. Anyway, try this recipe...it is easy to make and it tastes great!  The one tip that I learned from this recipe is to cook the peppers on the other side of the sausage in the same pan.  It really flavors the peppers and also carmalizes them from the oils in the sausage.

 

VANILLA BEAN & CRANBERRY COFFEECAKE

Ok everyone Easter is just about a week away!  With holidays come out of town guests. With out of town guests comes lots of cooking.  Let me help you!  I have two great recipes you can serve for breakfast or brunch.  And guess what I actually have found the time to post these recipes.  How?  You may ask.  Well, I was lucky enough to contract a kidney infection!  Yep, 104 temp. with pain so bad in my back, sides and abdominal region I could cry.  My husband and my mom have been great as they have taken over the job of taking care of the baby and the two three year olds.  So I have been laying in bed since Tuesday (with no t.v. in bedroom I may add).  Today I finally have the strength to check e-mails, pay some bills and post recipes on my blog while laying in bed.  So....the two recipes I have for you are: Vanilla Bean & Cranberry Coffeecake, which is in this post, and Italian Sausage, Pepper and Parmesan Cheese Strata ( which will be the next post).  When I say the coffee cake is to die for...it really is to die for...no lie!  Please do not substitute the vanilla bean for vanilla extract.  Recipes that include the seeds from the vanilla bean taste to dramatically different than recipes that use vanilla extract.  The vanilla bean really does make this recipe.  When I shopped at Caputos for ingredients they were out.  I found some at Jewel in the spice section.  If your local grocery store does not have them I am sure that Trader Joes or Whole Foods would carry them.  Also, it is not cranberry season.  Ask your local grocery store to point you in the direction of whole frozen cranberries.  They work just as well, just pat them dry as they tend to have excess water when the thaw.  This recipe is for sure a "make ahead" recipe so you can make it the day before your guests arrive...bonus!

GRANDMA'S EASTER LEMON KNOTS - " TARALLI "

I would like you to take a moment and think about your childhood. Think about the recipes and dishes that your grandmother's or your mother's made for you.  Is there one dish that really stands out from all of the others.  A dish that when you walk into a restaraunt, a bakery or into someones kitchen that is making something that smells like  the dish you remember,  all of a sudden it just brings you back.  That smell or flavor just brings you back to your childhood.  It brings back memories!  I have many recipes that bring me back to my childhood when my grandmother's would put together the big family holidays, but one recipe in particular that just encompasses my childhood is my Grandma's  Easter Lemon Knots or " Taralli ".  For some odd reason when I was little I did not pay too much attention to the Easter holiday.  Don't get me wrong, it was fun...the whole Easter Bunny thing and eggs were great...., but in the overall picture of  all the holidays, Easter for some weird reason was at the bottom of my totem pole.  Which is why I find it so surprising, now that I am an adult, I find myself getting very emotional the last few years around Easter time.  While it was mundane when I was a child, I would give anything now to have it over again....just for one day...just to bring it all  back.  So that is why last year I decided to bring the memories back for my family and for myself and make my Gandma's Lemon Knots.

CARROT CHEESECAKE

This recipe has "Easter" written all over it!  The taste, the look, the whole shebang!  We had my family over this past Sunday to make Italian Easter Pizza (recipe coming in a new post soon).  Because we were already going to be taking over the kitchen making Easter Pizza we decided ordering in food would be the best.  I still wanted to have a little something home-made so I made this awesome Carrot Cheesecake. The flavors are a cross between carrot cake and pumpkin pie with the light creamy texture of the cream cheese.  I must say it was pretty awsome!  It was also semi easy to make (there are a few tricky steps like getting the nuts around the outside of the cake) and every ounce of time spent on this cheesecake is worth it.  This dessert is a must, must , must for the upcoming Easter holiday!

Planning Ahead for Easter - Walnut Citrus Twists

I very good friend of mine is hosting an Easter brunch for about 16 people.  She called me a few days ago and asked if I would help come up with a few recipes for her brunch menu.  I love...I absolutely love planning menu's.  I like to think of this as my specialty (so if anyone out there needs help with this...please call me.  I have hundreds if not thousands of books and recipes).  So that being said I hopped right to this task of finding some fun Easter brunch ideas.  I am thinking salads, breads and other baked goods, egg casseroles, yummy spring desserts and fun punches and mimosas! The next few weeks many of my posts will be dedicated to Easter menu ideas. The very first recipe I thought of is one of my very favorite sweet roll recipes:  Walnut Citrus Twists.  These are extremely easy to make since you purchase some frozen Rhodes dough, wrap and twirl it around some walnuts, sugar and cirtus rind and bake it to a puffy yumminess!  Slap a citrus glazed icing on top and you have heaven all wrapped up in a yummy citrus twist!  These Walnut Citrus Twists are a must....I repeat....a must for an Easter breakfast or brunch! 

BUNNY PATCH DESSERT

It is funny, now that I have kids I am always finding dorky and yet cute recipes that I think would be fun for them. Things I would not normally make for a room full of adults such as this Bunny Patch Dessert cake.  It is totally easy to assemble if you follow the recipe. You could also just make a plan boxed cake and then decorate it with the coconut/food coloring, marshmallow bunnies and jelly beans.  I would make this dessert for the kids and then have a beautiful carrot cake or cheesecake for the adults.  But how cute would this be on the Easter dessert table...all the kids would just love it!


BUNNY PATCH DESSERT


• 1 package Sara Lee pound cake, frozen, cut into 10 slices
• 1 can (21 oz.) Comstock or other brand pie filling (blueberry, cherry or whatever flavor you like)
• 1 tub (12 oz.) Cool Whip whipped topping thawed
• 1 cup Coconut
• Green food coloring
• Pastel Easter candies and marshmallow Easter bunnies & jelly beans to decorate the top of cake with.


1. Line bottom of a 12 x 8 baking dish with cake slices.
2. Top with pie filling
3. Top with cool whip
4. Put in fridge to set
5. In the meantime tint the coconut a pale green with the food coloring. Sprinkle it over the top of the cake to
    look like grass.
6. Decorate with easter candies, marshmallow bunnies and jelly beans to make it look like the bunnies are
    playing in the grass.

* Recipe & Photo Courtesy of Kraft

Cherry Cheesecake Bars

We were invited over to our friends house this past Saturday along with our kids and some other families.  I was to bring some sort of dessert to share.  Since the weather had been a bit warmer this past week-end I wanted to make something fruity instead of heavy and chocolaty (is that a word ?).  I found a recipe in my dessert file from an old Southern Living issue.  It was for Cherry Cheesecake Bars. This seemed to be the perfect recipe; a little crust for the taste of a pie, a little cream cheese filling for the decadence and a little cherry fruit filling to feel a little like spring!  The dessert was a hit!  This could be a great recipe for the upcoming Easter Holiday!