Let me preface this by telling everyone to go out and buy “Baking from my home to yours” by Dorie Greenspan. Heck – you don’t even have to go out – order it online.

I made these recently for breakfast at the cottage and served them with cinnamon maple syrup butter. Mmmmmmm……so good, so easy, so yummy fresh out of the oven with butter.

Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits

2 c. flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 c. brown sugar
5 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into 10 pieces
1/2 c. sour cream
1/4 c. milk
1/3 c. finely chopped pecans, preferably toasted

Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a bow. Stir in the brown sugar, making certain there are no lumps. Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips (my favorite method) or a pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly. You’ll have pea-size pieces, pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pieces the size of everything in between– and that’s just right.

Stir the sour cream and milk together and pour over the dry ingredients. Grab a fork and gently toss and turn the ingredients together until you’ve got a nice soft dough. Now reach into the bowl with your hands and give the dough a quick gentle kneading– 3 or 4 turns should be just enough to bring everything together. Toss in the pecans and knead 2 to 3 times to incorporate them.

Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Dust the top of the dough very lightly with flour, pat the dough out with your hands or toll it with a pin until it is about 1/2 inch high. Don’t worry if the dough isn’t completely even– a quick, light touch is more important than accuracy.

Use the biscuit cutter to cut out as many biscuits as you can. Try to cut the biscuits close to one another so you get the most you can out of the first round. By hand or with a small spatula, transfer the biscuits to the baking sheet. Gather together the scraps, working with them as little as possible, pat out to a 1/2-inch thickness and cut as many additional biscuits as you can; transfer these to the sheet. (The biscuits ca be made to this point and frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight and kept for up to 2 months. Bake without defrosting– just add a couple more minutes to the oven time.)

Bake the biscuits for 14-18 minutes, or until they are tall, puffed and golden brown. Transfer them to a serving basket.

Yield: Approximately 12 biscuits

Here is my (late to post) Dimply Nectarine Cake. I made mine with nectarines, orange zest and cinnamon. The cake was simple and tasty. The fruit was juicy and really made the cake, although I should have squished in another nectarine. I would serve this for breakfast or brunch in the future. Next time I’m going to try making it with lime zest and frozen cherries. Try this the next time you have some company over, you’ll be pleased you did. For a link to the recipe click below;

 http://bake-en.blogspot.com/2008/09/twd-dimply-plum-cake.html

I am on the hunt for a great Mac n’ Cheese recipe. I mean one that is consistently good, gooey, creamy and all things comforting. To be honest, I don’t care if it’s healthy or not. So to start my hunt, I turned to one of my favorite blogs, Pioneer Woman. Every single thing that I have made from her site has been fan-freakin’ tastic. Till now. Unfortunatly this one just didn’t do it for me, however it may be what you are looking for…..

P.W.’s Spicy Macaroni & Cheese

4 cups cooked macaroni or cavatappi
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 to 1/2 finely diced red onion
Equal amount diced red bell pepper
1 finely diced jalapeno
1 4 oz can chopped green chilies
1 cup frozen corn
2 to 3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup cream
1 generous cup grated Pepper Jack cheese
2 tablespoons butter
Salt
Pepper

Boil pasta until al dente. In a large skillet, add olive oil and saute garlic and vegetables over medium heat for a couple of minutes. Add in canned chilies and stir around, then turn off heat. Drain pasta and add it to skillet. Pour on cream, add cheese, then add salt and pepper to taste and stir gently. At the end, add 2 tablespoons butter and stir again. Check seasonings and serve.

It was baking Sunday at my house, it was supposed to be clean the house Sunday but I got sidetracked. First up was…………….Whopper vs. Malteezer…………………..hands down WINNER……………………………MALTEEZER!!

As a life ling Whopper eater I decided to try the Malteezer and I have been converted. Hubby especially loved these cookies – truthfuly as long as it has chocolate in it Hubby likes it For the recipes click below;

http://tangerine-tart.blogspot.com/

And then there were the Chocolate Chunkers – I so love this name. Chocolate, nuts, craisins (instead of raisins) and apricots! Mmmmm…….. For the recipes link please click below:

http://www.foolforfood.de/

Oh my…..this was tasty and was a sneaky way to get hubby to eat his fruit.  This is another recipe that I found on Pioneer Woman – I’m telling you – I don’t know what I cooked before I found her site. Well, I do know that I consumed a whole lot less butter – which may or may not be a bad thing:) The next time I make this I will make a 1/2 or 1/3 the recipe as it was way too much for the 2 of us. It was simple and I had all the ingredients in the fridge.

1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
1/2 cup brown sugar
fresh blueberries, strawberries, cherries

Mix together the cream and yogurt until smooth. Pour into casserole dish. Sprinkle brown sugar over the top evenly and do not stir the mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and throw it in the fridge. A few hours later, once the sugar is all settled into the yogurt, take that puppy out and stir it until the sugar is all mixed in. Pour it over your fruitof choice and enjoy.

 My youngest nephew recently turned three and my sister and I made this Monkey Cake from Martha Stewart’s website for his big day. I actually bookmarked the cake months ago and hoped that we could make it for him. You see he is a monkey – thats what I call him – so I thought that this would be perfect. I’m pretty sure that I was way more excited about the cake than he was

We ended up making Martha’s one bowl chocolate cake instead of the banana cake as we weren’t sure if he would like the banana. The icing was traditional buttercream and the chocolate was much tastier than the yellow due to the cocoa addition. For the recipes please check out; http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/monkey-cake

Wowzers! These are some seriously tasty cookies. I made them to take to the cottage and turn into ice cream sandwiches and they were a hit! For me the best part of them had to be the cinnamon - such a great ingredient. To me peanut butter and chocolate were meant to go together. I will definitely make these again

Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks, or 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips or chunks

Preparation
Adjust the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, Silpat baking mats, or foil. In a large bowl, stir together the oats, flour, spices, baking soda, and salt just to blend.

With an electric mixer (preferably a stand mixer fitted with a paddle), beat the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, and sugar on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients slowly, beating only until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. (At this point, the dough can be covered and refrigerated for up to 1 day.)

If the dough is at room temperature, drop rounded tablespoonsful two inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets. If the dough has been refrigerated, scoop it out by rounded teaspoonfuls and roll the balls between your palms. Place them 2″ apart on the sheets. Press the balls gently with the heal of your hand until they are about 1/2″ thick. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until the cookies are golden and just firm around the edges.

Lift the cookies onto wire racks with a wide metal spatula – they will firm as they cool. Repeat until all the dough has been used.

Makes about 60 cookies.

Do you love BBQ or what! I have a killer recipe for homemade BBQ sauce that is from “Tylers Ultimate” by Tyler Florence. I have made this sauce several times and we have had it with chicken, ribs, and  wings. It’s sticky, sweet and damn delicious. The recipe calls for peach preserves but I always use apricot as I have a serious dislike for all things peach. I have also made it with strawberry which was excellent as wll but I still prefer the apricot.