Pumpkin Bread

Two of my very best friends had babies in the last couple of months, and one of them even had twins! I love to visit them and the new additions - Sasha, Rocco and Marianna. And, because they are new moms (cindy and kelly), i like to bring them baskets filled with goodies and love. I came across this awesome recipe as i was browsing around some blogs one freezing cold Michigan evening. I love this recipe, first because i LOVE pumpkin and second because it makes 2 loaves with virtually no effort. The best part though, i guarantee you will have these ingredients at home already! Now, i did make some changes, and you will see them in parenthesis next to the ingredient. I hope you love this recipe. Make a loaf for someone you love! It is sooo good!




Pumpkin Bread Recipe (from: zuccherodolce.blogspot.com)


1 can (about 2 cups) canned pumpkin (or homemade pumpkin puree)
3 cups sugar (i only used 2 cups)
1 cup water
1 cup Canola oil
4 eggs
3 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¾ teaspoon ground cloves (i didn't have any, so i didn't use them)


Preheat the oven to 350 F.


Spray two 9" x 5" loaf pans with baking spray.

Combine pumpkin, sugar, water, oil, and eggs in the bowl of a standmixer (or in a large bowl if you'll be using a hand mixer).


Whisk together dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder,cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and cloves.

Slowly mix in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Divide the batter evenly between the two loaf pans. Bake for 50-60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then cool on rack.

Wrap up with a pretty ribbon and deliver with love to make someones day :)

smooches, gigi

Love in a potato.

One of my bff's growing up, Yvonne used to make this for me alllll the time. Its so so delish. And more that that, its pretty much the easiest thing on the planet. So much so that my other bff, Cybelle made it and took these photos of her result :) (check out her blog, its FAB! www.cybellecodish.blogspot.com)

MMMMM, now how can you not make it for your bffs?

Recipe:

1 package of frozen potatoes (not hash browns but like the square ones)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 stick butter melted

1 big sour cream

1 onion finely chopped.

2 cups Cheddar cheese

salt and pepper to taste.

Combine all ingredients except for the cheese. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees covered with foil in a 9x13 baking dish. After 1 hour remove the foil, sprinkle with cheese and bake an additional 15 minutes or until it looks like the pictures above. (this recipe also doubles very well)

Enjoy :) and nice job bella!

love, gigi

For the Love of Lobsters

so, anyone who knows me knows how much i LOVE my doggie. aka Lola the Lobster :) . Above is a picture of her baking with me.

In fact i love all doggies and there have been many who have played a huge part in my life. I'm going to give shout outs later. So, seeing as these adorable puppies bring us so much love and happiness, why not do something wonderful for them? I came across this recipe for healthy doggie treats, and decided to whip up a batch for lola and the other pooches in my life. If you love the doggies (aka lobsters) as much as i do, i recommend you whip up a batch for your loves too!

Ingrediants:

1 - 16 oz jar of turkey, rice and garden vegetables Gerber baby food

1/4 cup savory beef gravy (just the jar kind is fine)

1/4 cup water

1 large egg - seperated

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon milk

1.Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper

2. In a large bowl, combine baby food, water, gravy and egg white.

3. Gradually add flour, stirring to combine.

4. In a small bowl, combine egg yolk and milk - set aside

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/2 inch thickness.

Using a bone shaped cutter (i used hearts too :) cut out cookies and transfer to baking sheet. Brush cookies with egg wash. Bake for 35 minutes or so, until golden brown. Cool completely before storing or they will get soggy.

Then give them to the lovliest lobster in your life and tell them how much you love them :) and accept all the great wet kisses you can stand!

My doggie shout outs to the dogs who have brought me so much love and joy:

Lola!!!, Nika, Tank, Lucy, Charlie, Babu, Cashie, Angel, Mandy, Scuba!!!

Smooches! gigi

Goop Apple Cake

I go this recipe from the GOOP newsletter. I dont care what people say about Gwenyth Paltrow, her recipes are AWSOME. and so was this cake. Make it!

TIME: 1 hour approx. including baking time
1 cup sugar
½ stick or 2 ounces butter, melted
½ cup applesauce
1 egg
1¼ cup flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2½ cups chopped apples (i used macintosh)
¾ to 1 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease your baking dish. Mix the sugar, butter, applesauce and egg together with a hand mixer. Whisk the dry ingredients together. Blend the wet and dry ingredients and then add the apples and walnuts. Pour into baking dish and bake for 30 to 50 minutes (depending on your pan and oven temp) or until knife or toothpick comes out clean when inserted.

Pecan Tartlets

I updated this recipe, because my friend Cybelle - the best photog EVER - took photos of these tartlets! Check out her blog at www.cybellecodish.blogspot.com. Thanks Bella!

These Pecan Tarlets are so great. They are delish and sooo super cute too! Perfect to take along to a party!

These were so super fun and SOOO super easy. Go make them now. im positive you have all the ingrediants in your fridge!

Recipe:

Tartlet shell:

1 stick of butter, softened

4 oz of cream cheese, softened.

1 cup of flour.

Cream the butter and cream cheese together then add flour. Cover with plastic wrap and refridgerate for 1 hour.

Filling:

1 egg

3/4 cup of brown sugar

1 tbs vanilla

3/4 cup of finely chopped pecans.

beat the egg with a whisk and add the sugar and vanilla. Then add the chopped pecans.

This recipe will yield 24 tartlets. Divide the dough equally into your little tartlet pan - rolling the dough into little balls.

When you have filled the pan - take a spoon (i used the tbs measuring spoon - worked like a charm) and smoosh the dough into the tartlet pan and use your fingers to make sure the dough rises to the edges. Then fill with the filling.

Bake at 375 for aobut 20 minutes - or until they are lightely brown.

Perfection!!!

Have fun :) smooches, gigi.

Serbian Galete

Me and all the Serbian kids i know pretty much grew up on these cookies. They are so good. They however, are not very "American" which means that they are not sweet or filled with any chocolate deliciousness BUT are amazing on their own. They are buttery, lemony, vanillay discs of heaven. To make them though, you must have a waffle iron. But trust me, go buy one, you have to make these. They are AMAZING! AND the recipe (which i am translating from a Serbian recipe) says they can last up to a month! and they just get better and better and better!

Ingrediants:

2 sticks of unsalted butter softened

2 turkish coffee cups of vegetable oil (im sorry if you dont know what these are but i dont know how else to translated it :-/

3 eggs

15 tbs of sugar

1 tbs of baking powder OR 1 Prasak za Pecivo (for my fellow serbs)

1 tsp of baking soda

2 packages of vanila sugar (vanilin secer) - This comes to about 2 TBS.

1 cup of milk

zest of 1 lemon

800 grams of all purpose flour

Directions:

Beat together Butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs and beat until incorporated.

After the eggs are incorporated add the remaining ingrediants except for the milk and flour.

Once all the other ingrediants are in begin adding the flour and milk in 3 additions starting with the flour and ending with the milk. Your dough will be nice and moist.

At this point, plug in your waffle maker and let it heat up well. Then take a heaping spoon full of dough and shape into a ball and drop into the waffle maker.

They will cook up very quickly - in about 40 seconds or so - so dont walk away from them. Let them sit on a cooling rack straight from the waffle maker and package them up when you are done. You may come out with several dozen depending on how big you make them. Send some to your friends and family. They will love them! enjoy :)

Slow Cooker Jambalaya

I used to work above Fishbones in Downtown Detroit and used to order Jamalaya allll the time! Well, here is a quick and easy version you can do at home. It makes a bunch and is delish!

Ingredients
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 package of turkey keilbasa, sliced
2 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans

1 onion chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 can reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons dried oregano
4 teaspoons Cajun or Creole seasoning
2 teaspoons hot sauce
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 pound frozen peeled and cooked shrimp, thawed
2 cups instant uncooked rice
Directions
In a slow cooker, combine chicken, sausage, tomatoes, onion, green
pepper, celery, and chicken broth. Stir in oregano, Cajun seasoning,
hot sauce, bay leaves, and thyme.
Cover, and cook on LOW for 7 hours or on HIGH for 3 hours. Stir in the
thawed shrimp, cover and cook until the shrimp is heated through,
about 5 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Add a cup or 2 of uncooked instant rice and let it sit for a bit until it softens up and there ya go!!!

Banana cake with Pecan Crumb Topping

I have the same issue with bananas as i do with blueberries। When they are in season, they are EVERYWHERE! I'm always trying to figure out what to do with them before they get to the point of no return and i end up making yet another loaf of banana bread. So, a co-worker of mine subscribes to the Good Housekeeping Magazine and she always brings them into work when she is done with them. I am "that girl" who rips out the recipes that i like leaving blank pages in the magazine. (sorry!) Well, one day i came across this banana cake recipe that looked so good, so i ripped it out in usual gigi fashion.

Well this weekend my friend kelly who is having twins was having her baby shower and i thought, what a perfect time to make this cake to take along! After all, it is so super pretty! So i did, and it was a hit!!! So good! So moist! You must make this! It is so good either warm or at room temp. I made it the day before so it could cool off and chill for a bit. You have to make this! It is sooo great!

Pecan – Crumb Topping
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup all purpose flour
¼ tsp cinnamon
2 tbsb cold butter or margarine
¾ cup chopped pecans
Banana Cake
1 1/3 c mashed fully ripe bananas (abour 4 medium)

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter (1 stick) softened

3.4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 lg eggs.

1. Prepare topping:

In a medium bowl combine brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture resembles carse crumbs. Set aside.

2. Pre-heat oven to 350. Lightly grease 13" by 9" pan.

3. Prepare cake: in a bowl mix bananas, lemon juice and vanilla.

4. On wax paper, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

5. In large bowl with a hand mixer, beat butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

6. On low speed alternately add flour and banana mixtures and beat until smooth.

7. Spoon batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle with crumb topping and bake 25 minutes or until toothpick insterted in ceter comes out clean.

8. Cool in cake pan on wire rack.

Cut it up, put it on a pretty tray and viola!!! Again, you end up the star of the party!
Smooches! gigi

Turkey Meatloaf

Mmmmmmmmmm........
Turkey Meatloaf...

Here we go!

Ingredients

1 tablespoons good olive oil

1 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)

1/6 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup chicken stock

1 teaspoons tomato paste (i substituted ketchup here)

2 pounds ground turkey breast

3/4 cups plain dry bread crumbs (i used italian)

2 large eggs, beaten

1/4 cup ketchup

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a medium saute pan, over medium-low heat, (cook the onions - if you are using them), oliveoil, salt, pepper, and thyme until translucent, but not browned,approximately 15 minutes.

Add the Worcestershire sauce, chicken stock,and tomato paste and mix well.

Allow to cool to room temperature.

Combine the ground turkey, bread crumbs, eggs, and onion mixture in alarge bowl.

Mix well and shape into a rectangular loaf on an ungreasedsheet pan.

Spread the ketchup evenly on top.

Bake for 1 1/2 hoursuntil the internal temperature is 160 degrees F. and the meatloaf is cooked through.

Serve with love and collect all of the fabulous compliments you can handle :)

smooches! gigi

Zucchini Lasagna

My parents didnt grow or buy zucchini. I dont think i ever tasted zucchini until well into my 20's. But they are everywhere! So, what to do? I figured why not lasagna! And thank goodness gigi is so sharp because this was delicious! Sadly, i dont have a picture, but no worries, you can do it without one.

1 large or 2 small zucchini - sliced lengthwise (i did this the day before. You can even do it 2 days before...)
1 cloves of garlic - or 2 tsp already minced from a jar
1 pound ground turkey
1.5 jars of marinara sauce
1 16 oz container fat free ricotta cheese
1 egg beaten
1 tsp dry parsley
1 tbs dry italian seasoning
2 cups shredded mozerella cheese



Directions:

Grill the zucchini until it is semi-soft - i used a George Forman

Step 1.
fry the minced garlic for just about a minute,
add and Brown the turkey
To the browned turkey add the marinara sauce.

In the meantime:
Combine 1 cup mozerella
Ricotta cheese
1 beaten egg
2 tsp italian seasoning
1 tsp parsley
dash of pepper



Cover the bottom of the casserole dish with a thin layer of the sauce mixture
layer zucchini slices to cover the bottom of dish
spoon and smooth the cheese filling on top of the zucchini
cover with a layer of sauce
Repeat until you are out of ingrediants ending with sauce
Sprinkle the remaining mozerella cheese on top of the dish.

Bake for 55 minutes at 350 degrees.


Serve and bask in your beautiful glory as you have just made another awsomely fabulous meal and nobody will ever know that it took you no time at all :)

smooches! gigi

Yummy Cakey Chocolatey Zucchini Cookies from Heaven!

How much zucchine bread can one person make? I decided to mix things up a bit, in true gigi fashion. I found an awsome recipe for a double chocolate cake zucchini cookie and decided to give it a try. Man, oh man, these were GOOOOOOOOD! They were good when i made them, but trust me they are WAAAY better the next day and the following days after!

I had a huge zucchini so i doubled the recipe. After i squeezed the juice out of the zucchini, i came out with about 2.5 cups, instead of 3 cups for the double recipe, but it was more than enough.

Ok. make these. now!

Cakey Chocolate Zucchini Cookies

courtesy of http://kirbyvonscrumptious.blogspot.com/

Ingredients-

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup white organic sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 organic free-range egg

2 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 cups zucchini, shredded on the small holes of a grater; drained and pressed

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

DirectionsPreheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl with a (hand) mixer.

Beat in egg.

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl.

Gradually stir into the wet ingredients.

Fold in zucchini, then stir in chocolate chips.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper, and drop tablespoons of dough onto the tray (dough will be sticky).

Bake for 9-11 minutes in a preheated oven.

Remove from oven, cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then serve!

Store in a tupperware container to keep the cookies extra moist.

Go ahead and pass these out to your favorite neighbor(s), your co-workers, friends and your sweetheart. You are bound, yet again, to be the belle of the ball!!!!!!!

Smooches ***gigi

Chocolate Chip Party Bars

So, i'm always looking for fun things to serve to my friends when we all get together. And, although i LOVE making cookies, i just feel like bar form cookies are a bit more posh. So, i found this toll house chocolate chip cookie recipe and gave it a shot. and OHHH MAN are they awsome! and easy. I learned from my bff Bambi that she uses crisco instead of butter, and thank goodness i did because i cannot tell you the difference it makes!

talk about a delish and moist cookie!!!!!!!!!! They oooooze chocolate. yum! WOWZERS! you must make these NOW.

Gigi's Side note: for "non-bakers," i think most bakers get intimidated by baking because they have messed something up once and don't ever want to try again. Here is one tip to always getting a great result. DO NOT OVERMIX. EVER. this means once you have the flour in your dough. you can mix the sugar and eggs and butter until your arm turns blue. BUT! once the flour is in, just mix until your ingrediants are incorporated. This will ensure that you get a moist delicious batter as opposed to a dry and dull one. :)

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened (i used butter flavored crisco, and you should too!)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 (12 ounce) package semi-sweet chocolate chips

secret ingrediant: 1 tsp cinnamon!

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350, Grease a 13x9-inch pan.

2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.

3. Beat butter, both sugars and vanilla in large mixer bowl.

4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.

5. Gradually beat flour mixture into butter mixture. * Do not overmix!

6. Stir in chocolate chips.

7. Spread into prepared pan.

8. Bake 2o-25 minutes or until golden brown.

And Voila! Go and show off your baking skillzzzzz and be the hit of the party!