French Macaron Class!

Missy Tippens

Y'all, I learned how to make French macarons! I took another class at The Cook's Warehouse and had a blast. One of the associate pastors at our church, C. Kay Fuino, had heard me raving about the pasta making class I took last year. So she signed up for this one and invited me to take the class with her. It was so fun to do it together!

Chef Lizzie Jones was amazing. So helpful and patient as we worked in our groups to make different spring flavors.

I'm not going to share her recipe. I don't feel like I can do that since it came from a paid class. However, I will share a link to a site that she says she has learned a lot from.

Indulge with Mimi 

That link is to a macaron recipe at Mimi's site. She includes a video tutorial.

The steps aren't difficult, but they're a lot of work. And macarons can be finicky depending on the humidity. It's a bit taxing physically as well. I feel like I developed some muscles from all the stirring during the macaronage! :) But it was so worth it!

The class participants were broken into 4 groups. All made a basic macaron shell. Here are the variation of flavors/colors that were made:

Lemon raspberry with lemon raspberry curd filling--shells were dusted with crushed dried raspberries.

Lavender with honey buttercream filling--dried ground lavender was mixed with the dry ingredients and the batter was tinted purple. Then dried lavender buds were sprinkled on top before baking.

Matcha with chocolate ganache filling--matcha powder added to dry ingredients

And our group made Sparkling Mimosa macarons!

We tinted our shells orangy-pink and dusted with gold edible glitter. The filling was Orange (flavor, not color) Champagne Swiss Meringue Buttercream. The buttercream was AMAZING. My favorite of all the fillings we tasted that day. It was flavored with reduced Champagne and orange juice and zest. I felt lucky to learn how to make it! Again, a lot of work but worth it. Here are some photos. We used different piping tips and made smooth and fluted. We had a ton of buttercream so filled them generously. :)

We got to sample all of them--the fruits of our labor (a three-hour-plus class!) And here's a bag I got to bring home. However, they were hard to place in the bag! Still tasted amazing, though.

If you ever get a chance to take a class (or just to try making them by watching a video), I hope you will. They were delicious! And we really felt a sense of accomplishment. :)

I hope you all have a blessed Easter weekend.


www.missytippens.com

Easter Bread Redoux: Simply Good

I first published this several years ago, and did a re-do of it a couple of years back, but it's a "shouldn't be forgotten" favorite at our house... Frosted sweet bread, decorated with jelly beans or tinted coconut... Always something to love, either way! 

I'm in Dallas this week, having Holy Week and Texas Ranger baseball and Chip and Joanna and the Silos with my husband "Farmer Dave", my youngest son Luke and meeting up with Mindy Obenhaus in Waco with her wonderful husband. How exciting is that?  But it's also Holy Week here, just like it is back home, and this week is the culmination of the thoughtful and introspective days of Lent. How out of great sadness comes the greatest of joys: The Resurrection. 

So I'm sending hearty blessings to you and praying for you, that this Easter week, this Holy Week, this Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday will draw you closer to the one who gave it all... for sinners like you and me.

May we believe, may we trust, may we hope and never be afraid to embrace a sacrifice of our own. God is good!

Today is a re-do of a big Easter and Christmas favorite, homemade Easter Bread using Grandma Eichas's As-Told-To-Me and then reconstructed sweet dough recipe... and Grandma Eichas and the Eichas family of strong women were part of the inspiration for my historical prairie novels... I just moved the family west to South Dakota, LOL!  Youse know that I love championing strong women and giving my prairie heroines the Eichas name was just way fun! You can find them in the wonderful historical anthology "The Sewing Sister's Society" 

And in the first full-length historical novel "A Most Inconvenient Love" featuring Rachel Eichas and the absolutely swoon-worthy hero Sebastian Ward...

So here you go, a delightful homemade bread that makes everyone smile... and think of simpler times.

EASTER BREAD 

I blame Mandy.

She called and said, "When are you going to make Easter Bread? Because I need Easter Bread!"

I may have said something snarky like, "Great. Make some and bring it to me!"

To which she laughed.

GUILT BUTTON ENGAGED.

So when I finished writing Sunday morning, and I'd gone to Palm Sunday Mass the evening before... I made the dough for Easter Bread. I don't put hard boiled eggs in mine because I don't like hard-boiled eggs. (stop gasping!!!) And if I had jelly beans, I'd have decorated with jelly beans, but I can't stop eating jelly beans when they're in the house.

And not those fancy weird-flavored jelly beans. Good old fashioned fruity... or spice, but never mixed.... jelly beans.  But enough of that, because you are going to love this recipe. I confirmed amounts by checking a few recipe sites including "Taste of Home" because I'm famous for not measuring and didn't want to mess you up!

Here it is, and it's not even hard. You really have no excuse, and the dough is amazing. Not that I know that personally, I heard it from a friend. :)

Also, I left out the cardamom that Taste of Home suggested, I didn't use hard-boiled eggs, although that's festive for Easter, and I didn't use any oil. I'm a butter gal. I did add one tablespoon of vanilla to the flour mix before adding the warm milk/butter to the dry ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup sugar
2 packages yeast (I buy in bulk so I used two full tablespoons)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
6 1/2 cups flour (I use bread flour, but all purpose works fine)
1 1/2 cups whole milk (I use whole milk, I don't know if it matters if you've got 2%)
6 Tablespoons butter, cubed
4 eggs (3 for recipe, one for glazing)

Mix sugar, yeast, vanilla, salt and 2 cups of the flour.

Heat milk and butter to about 120° - 140° in small kettle (I love that word!) on stove.

Slowly add butter/milk to dry mix while blending.

 (KARO SYRUP PHOTO-BOMB! A HINT TO MAKE SPONGE CANDY FOR EASTER!!!! OH, YOU KIDS!!!!)

Add  three eggs and remainder of flour and knead (either by hand or with handy-dandy dough hook) until dough is smooth, and elastic.

This is great dough, and might need to be tested at this point. Wait. Did I say that out loud??? Don't eat raw eggs, you sillies....

But it's okay if I do it!!! :)

Put dough into buttered/greased bowl. Flip the dough so surface is greased. Cover and set in warm spot for rising.

When dough has doubled in size, punch down.

Heat oven to 375° cut dough into three equal pieces.

With hands, roll dough into 24" long ropes.

Set on greased cookie sheet.

Braid, bringing outside ropes to inside, alternating sides. (Just like braiding hair, here's a great pic!)

Form braid into circle, pinch together.

Allow to rise about 15 - 20 minutes. Brush with beaten egg.

Bake.

Frost, if desired, using plain white frosting. Usually then I decorate it with sprinkled fruity jelly beans or tinted coconut to give it the spring nest look... Either works, and both are delicious.




White Glaze for Bread:

2 cups powdered sugar
Enough milk to make glaze consistency.

Drizzle 1/2 onto warm bread. Let sit. Drizzle more onto bread. Drizzle as much as you want onto bread. :)

Oh my stars, it did not take those vultures long to dive in! I left half unfrosted because Jon cut sweets out for Lent, but Mom's home-made bread doesn't count, and this recipe made a great bread-and-butter treat, too.

A family history note: I took this recipe idea from Taste of Home, but it's virtually identical to the recipe Grandma Eichas (Ol' Dave's maternal grandmother, a great woman who emigrated at age 11 and crossed the Atlantic with her 13 year-old brother. Dad was in America, Mom refused to get on the boat. She stayed in Germany, and the two kids sailed on their own to Ellis Island. A young couple on board kept an eye on them. Today you get in trouble if your kid walks to the park alone. Sigh...)

Grandma's words were like this in her quaint and lyrical German accent: "Some say I brought recipes from Germany." She gives me a look that says otherwise. "I was eleven, what recipes did I know? No, it was when I was married with a farm and a job and I had to make do with what we had. There were no eggs through much of the Depression. We had chickens, yes, but no money for laying mash. And to make the cheese for the kuchen (using the dough recipe above for the base) I took the milk, clabbered it on the counter (soured it into curds) and then I hung it out in a cheesecloth bag, squeezing the water out of it. When it dried (and we had to wave flies off it in summer) I would mix in some sugar, an egg or two if we had extra, and maybe cream if needed until it was the right texture. And then I'd fill the kuchen with the cheese."

Grandma's recipe, made on her own with hit-and-miss for a young hard-working housewife who raised 11 children to adulthood... From her heart to ours.

Here's the carrot cake Xavier helped me make for Brody and Elijah's birthday:

It's for you, Grammy!!!  Oh, Finn.... :)

(Look how little he was!!!! He's 5 and a half now!!!)

Easy Shrimp Parmigiana

I did a post for the Love Inspired blog last week about how easily I'm attracted to the food characters in books are eating. Like every time I read one of the cozy mysteries from Laura Childs, I want tea and scones.

And when I'm writing, I tend to get sucked into whatever my characters are eating.

Last Friday, I was reading a book and the characters were having spaghetti and meatballs. They were raving over the meal, and I was having SERIOUS CRAVINGS.

But it was a Friday.

In Lent.

That means no meat.  😢

No meatballs. 😢😢


No problem!  😀

I remembered I had shrimp in the freezer. That would work, right?

My husband absolutely hated the idea of tomato sauce with seafood, so I'd gotten out of the habit, and I did a quick Google search to make sure it was actually okay to mix them. I found some recipes for shrimp parmigiana so I figured I was okay to wing it on my own.

Because the thing was ***confession time*** I wanted to eat it, but I wasn't particularly keen on cooking.

Again, no problem.

I bought angel hair pasta - just a few minutes to boil.

I bought a jar of tomato sauce, poured it into the pan, added the frozen shrimp, dumped some cheese in and simmered.

Once the pasta was ready, I poured the shrimp mix on top, sprinkled some extra cheese on and stuck it in the oven for a few minutes.

Cravings satisfied!!!!



Am I the only one who gets so caught up in what the characters in books are eating?

My Favorite Easter Desserts

Since I have a rapidly approaching deadline and I've done little to no cooking or baking, and Easter is this weekend, we're going to revisit a post I did just before Easter last year. I have an array of springtime desserts, but these are some of my faves.

Well, Easter is almost upon us. The day we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And it's only fitting that Easter is in spring. A time of rebirth and renewal. "If any man be in Christ he is a new creation." 2 Corinthians 5:17

After a time of rejoicing with our church families, most of us head home to continue the festivities with family and, of course, food. In our church we always joke that Baptists can't do anything without food, however I have enough friends of other denominations to know that the same thing can be said about Catholics, Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians... You get my drift. We all like good food.

So as we look forward to those delicious Easter spreads, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite Easter desserts, just in case you're still trying to decide what to fix at your house.

This first one is always a favorite with the kids. Although, I'm woman enough to admit that this particular adult will still arm-wrestle one of those kids for the last one. Okay, only the kids that are bigger than me.

Simply start with your favorite cupcakes. Top with Seven-minute Frosting (find that recipe here), some tinted coconut (how to do that is in the same link) and some colorful jelly beans for a fun, festive treat.

When it comes to Easter desserts, I always think of color. It's spring, after all, so things should be colorful. Like this pistachio cake (recipe here). 

Or these lemon bars (recipe here).

And a relatively new favorite, Sour Cream Blueberry Bundt Cake (recipe here).

Okay, now I'm craving dessert.

What are you Easter plans? And which of these desserts would you pick? 

Three time Carol Award finalist Mindy Obenhaus lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, the youngest of her five children and two dogs. She passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner. When she's not writing, she enjoys cooking and spending time with her grandchildren. Learn more a mindyobenhaus.com.

It Was a Busy Week!

Last weekend was...busy. To put it mildly. And things still haven't let up.

Wynter always enjoyed her treats!

But it's all good!

Let's see...it began with negotiating a deal to buy our place in the Hills...

And then Wynter...

And then WINTER!

But I still found time to try a new (delicious) recipe!

After months of looking, we have finally found our place in the Hills. We spent last weekend going back and forth in negotiations...and we came to an agreement! We'll be moving sometime this summer, if everything falls into place. I hope to have pictures to share soon, but until then I'll leave you with this tantalizing view.

Yes, we'll be able to see Mt. Rushmore from our new place! (Not this close, of course...)

And then Wynter.

She was such a good dog, even though she really didn't like strangers! She started her life in Kentucky, moved to Kansas with us, and then to South Dakota.

And she loved hiking in the Hills...until her arthritis got too severe.

A good dog. But at 14 years old, she was tired and sore, and the dementia was beginning to bother her. Her anxiety was heartbreaking in her last few days, so we made the hardest and most loving decision a pet owner ever has to make.

We'll miss her. Thatcher is still grieving, and so are we.

But the next day, WINTER came back! Not the fuzzy one - the snowy one!

With this spring storm, we experienced the difference between snowfall and snow accumulation!

Of course, it was a blizzard (lots of wind and blowing snow,) so we can only estimate. But based on measurements in the areas around our house, I think we got about 24 inches of snowfall, and about 12 inches of accumulation.

Part of my estimate comes from pictures like the one of our grill. On the deck, the grill got cold faster than the ground, so more snow piled up. We had a couple days of 70° weather before the storm, so a lot of the snow fall melted rather than accumulated. But that's at least 20 inches of snow on the grill!

And with a blizzard, you get drifts! This one outside the front window was about 24 to 30 inches high.

This was a two-and-a-half-day storm. We didn't go anywhere. The interstate was closed from Rapid City to the Minnesota state line - that's 350 miles - and there was "no travel advised" warnings everywhere else. Everything was closed - schools, stores, the post office... This was a serious storm.

But we did what South Dakotans do. No frenzied rush to the grocery store. No panicked drivers clogging up the streets.

We settled in and enjoyed the time to read and catch up on the indoor chores. :-)

By Friday, the sun was out. Yesterday the temperatures reached 50°. The April storm is over!

During the storm, I tried a new recipe. We need to clean out our freezer and pantry with our pending move, and I found a great dish that used what I had on hand.

Easy Beef and Broccoli

ingredients:

2 pounds beef (chuck roast, steak, flank steak, or whatever you have) cut into thin strips

1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons sesame oil (if you don't have sesame oil, increase the olive oil)

1 medium onion, diced

1 cup beef broth

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1/2 cup soy sauce (I used low-sodium)

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 Tablespoon cornstarch

1 package (10 - 12 ounce size) frozen broccoli florets

Serve with rice (I used Jasmine rice)

Do all of your slicing and dicing first. The meat should be cut against the grain in thin slices, and the onion should be chopped. I use my cereal bowls for prep bowls, just like on the TV cooking shows, but put your meat in a larger bowl - you'll see why in the next paragraph.

Then, in another bowl, combine the soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, and beef broth with a whisk. Pour the mixture over the meat (this is why you need the larger bowl!) and set aside. Let it marinate for five to ten minutes.

(This is a good time to start cooking your rice.)

By the way, you can cook this in your Instant Pot, or on the stove.

Put the oils in your pot and heat for a minute or so. Add the onions and saute until they are translucent, then add the meat and marinade.

On the stove, let the meat mixture cook for about an hour, simmering until the meat is tender.

In the Instant Pot, cook at high pressure for 10 minutes, then quick release the pressure.

Carefully remove about 1/3 cup of the juices and add the cornstarch. Mix with a whisk until combined, then add it back to the meat mixture. Stir occasionally (low heat on your stove, the "keep warm" setting on your IP) as it thickens.

Meanwhile, cook the broccoli according to the package directions, then add it to the meat mixture.

Serve the Beef and Broccoli over rice.

It was delicious!

I hope your week wasn't as crazy as mine, but I'm expecting this week to be worse. We need to put our house on the market before the end of the month, so we're cleaning, painting, and staging the house to make it look its best. New carpeting will be installed in a couple weeks, and then let the buyers come! I hope they enjoy this house as much as we have!

Jan Drexler spent her childhood dreaming of living in the Wild West and is now thrilled to call the Black Hills of South Dakota her home. When she isn’t writing she spends much of her time satisfying her cross-stitch addiction or hiking and enjoying the Black Hills with her husband of more than thirty-six years. Her writing partner is her corgi, Thatcher, who makes life…interesting.

Trying My Best to Like Plain Greek Yogurt

Missy Tippens

I've tried. Really hard. But I just have not been able to eat plain Greek yogurt! It's like eating sour cream by itself...only worse! (shivers)

But recently, while at a Weight Watcher's meeting, a woman shared a sauce recipe to use on chicken and pork: fresh or frozen cherries, dijon mustard and plain Greek yogurt. The sauce is great because it's 0 points. She said she just blends it up.

I don't think I've ever bought frozen cherries. But I LOVE fresh ones. So I decided to buy some frozen to try in the sauce, as well as to use in smoothies.

And since I keep buying large containers of plain yogurt and end up throwing it out, I decided to just buy a couple of small, single serve containers to give her recipes a try.

For the smoothie, I put about a cup or more frozen cherries in my Ninja blender cup. I added about half the container of yogurt. Then put in about a cup of almond milk. I also know my tastebuds well, so added Truvia to sweeten the yogurt. :)

I blended it up (had to add some more milk to make it drinkable because it was too thick). It was so good!

I'll definitely be doing this again! I'll also let you know how the sauce turns out.

Missy

www.missytippens.com

Brownies Make Everything Better

Come closer...

No.

CLOSER....

SHHHHH................

Missy Tippens thinks I make almost everything from scratch.

GIGGLE!!!!!!

I do make some things from scratch, but I:

A. Love cake mix cakes
B. Love brownies
C. Love food
D. Love quick

So when we need a quick fun snack, I use my 11" x 15" Pyrex pan and make a double box of brownies... Cooking time on this is about 37 minutes, and you know that's important with brownies.

So I make the double boxes according to the box recipe...  I lightly spray the bottom of the big pan.

Pour the batter into the pan....

Sprinkle generously with milk chocolate or regular chocolate chips....

Dot 1/2 of the pan with scoops of peanut butter.

Swirl the peanut butter into the batter lightly, leaving veins of peanut butter....

Swirl the chocolate chips into the other end lightly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 37-38 minutes. (preheated oven)

I forgot to take a picture at the end (possibly because the entire pan went to Beth Jamison's house for the night and saved me from myself!!!!) But here's what it looks like before baking...

And then cool as much as possible (they do cut nicely once cooled, but we never, ever wait for them to be cool before we hack into them....

And keep wrapped once cool.

This is a BIG tray of deliciousness and the two varieties make it look like you fussed.

(You didn't)

They make it look like you did twice the work.

(Wrong again!)

And you make people happy!!!!

(True words!) 

Crazy busy week here on the farm, doing some spring clean up, I just got back from a four-day jaunt to Christian Fiction Readers Retreat in Rockville, Maryland, and we're hosting Help for the Homeless on Saturday which means there will be people around.... doing nice things to help the least among us.

"When I was hungry, you gave me to eat... when I was thirsty, you gave me to drink."

"Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me."

Paraphrased but heartfelt. I've got fun book stuff going on, and there's always a bit of this work and that, but I love "Help for the Homeless" and huge thanks to my 18 year old friend Christina for nudging me to get on this project.

I love teens that love to help!

Ruth Logan Herne has written over 50 novels and novellas, she loves writing, she loves God, she loves her family and has some seriously cute grandkids... many of whom will be helping this weekend! Find this busy author on facebook.... on Twitter.... her website ruthloganherne.com or email her at loganherne@gmail.com  She loves to hear from readers, writers, and just about anyone!