Life As Mom » Baking

6 Great Recipes to Make with Berries (Ultimate Recipe Swap)

Jessica Fisher — Thu, 24 May 2012 02:53:14 +0000

Spring and summer are ideal times to enjoy fresh berries. Check out this round-up of great berry recipes.

It’s been years since I took the kids berry picking, but it was a highlight of our spring back when we lived in Paso Robles. Then, it was olallieberries that we were after, specialty berries that grow well on the Central Coast. Yum! There was a you-pick farm not too far from our house where we would spend early morning hours plucking ripe berries off the bushes.

Like Little Sal, sometimes more berries made it into my kids’ mouths than into their pails. But, I made sure we took plenty home to can into jam. Oh! Olallieberry Jam is definitely one of my favorites. I’m contemplating whether or not we can make a trip north before the season ends.

You might not have olallieberries flourishing in your neck of the woods, but chances are good that some kind of berries are. Spring and summer are good times to harvest strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. So, it’s in your best interests to have some recipes in reserve so that you’re ready for the onslaught of sweet, delicious berries. The following recipes can be used with interchangeable berries, depending on what grows well near you.

And don’t forget that you can freeze your berries to use throughout the year.

Red, White, and Blue Scones

Whole Grain Shortcakes with Berries and Cream

Raspberry Cream Cups with Pretzels

Mixed Berry Pie with Cinnamon and Lemon

Raspberry Baked Oatmeal

Chocolate Strawberry Scones

URS Guidelines

Remember: Each week at Ultimate Recipe Swap, there is a posted theme. You are welcome to share any recipe that fits the theme and contains a link back to Life as MOM. If you’re curious about the upcoming themes, I have a calendar here. This week’s theme is Dessert.

If you have a recipe that fits the theme, please link it. However, things like Beef Strogonaff will be deleted from Chicken week because it doesn’t contain chicken. Please keep this meme as helpful to others as we can.

And don’t make me the bad guy!

What is your favorite recipe for berries?

Bake Cookies with Your Kids (12 Days of Christmas Family Fun)

Jessica Fisher — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:00:48 +0000

We love to have a big variety of Christmas cookies on the plate.Last year the kiddos and I made a dozen different kinds! We baked them the weekend of Thanksgiving and then froze them to enjoy through New Year’s. It was great fun.

I was chatting with my friend Shaina the other day, and she mentioned that her daughter was going to be making cupcakes. Her daughter is five. In that moment, I realized I need to loosen some control in my kitchen. I tend to micromanage things. But, if the kids are going to follow their food passions and become independent in the kitchen, I need to let loose a little bit. (See Shaina’s tips for holiday baking with kids.)

Not only are we going to bake Christmas cookies this year, but I hope to give my kids a little more freedom in the kitchen.

The other day, FishChick and I started out dipping Oreos and pretzels in chocolate. It quickly morphed into more kids joining in and then the kids doing the project all by themselves. And somehow marshmallows entered the equation. It was so fun to be a Yes Mom in that moment!

I don’t know if child-freedom-in-the-kitchen will result in a dozen different kinds of Christmas cookies this year, but I’m betting we will have a blast — and hopefully the kids grow in their kitchen skills and I will grow in saying, “Yes.”

Check out our family’s top 12 Christmas cookies and bake someone happy!

12 Days of Christmas

For the next 12 days, I’ll be posting quick and easy ideas for family fun while some friends are sharing tips in different areas.

Christmas Homeschool Fun: 1+1+1=1
Christmas Decorations: Songbird
Tips for a Healthy Holiday: The Thrifty Mama
Saving Money: Surviving the Stores
Travel Tips: Mom’s Travel Tales
Christmas Recipes: Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures
Homemade Christmas Gifts: The Happy Housewife

What’s YOUR favorite sweet treat to make at the holidays?

Easy Food Gifts to Make (& FREE Printable Instructions)

Jessica Fisher — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:20:05 +0000

Preparing gifts of food can be a thoughtful and economical way to treat your friends and neighbors at the holidays. Plates of cookies or tins full of toffee are such a treat!

One trouble with baked goods, however, is that I fear sometimes those items will go to waste. If your friends are receiving plates of goodies from five other people, plus baking their own, that can be sugar overload. And unfortunately, it doesn’t always get consumed before it goes bad.

That’s why I love to give baking and other homemade mixes as gifts. They are a DIY gift that doesn’t need to be consumed right away. Your friends can save it for a day when they really need a little sweet treat. Plus they are great gifts that the kids can easily help you assemble.

This week’s FREE printable is a Baking Mix Kit to help you put together three different kinds of mixes as gifts. Recipe cards and label tags are included. You can dress up the package any way you like. But, here I have pictured three different ways.

Pumpkin Coffeecake Baking Mix

Malted Hot Cocoa Mix

Mix and Match Muffin Mix

Choose one or choose them all. Either way, my little sis and I have laid out everything you need. Just print out the gift cards, assemble your mixes, and spread sunshine all over the place.

Download your Baking and Cocoa Mix Kit today – for FREE. And if you like it, share this post with a friend. We need to help each other celebrate a simpler season.

Celebrate a Simpler Season!

Life as MOM is offering a dozen FREE “grab and go” ideas for the holiday season to help you simplify and enjoy more sweet times with your peeps. Check out past posts in the series, each featuring a FREE download to help you make the most of this season:

Planning for a Simpler Season

Thankfulness is Something to Practice

Thinking About a Simpler Season

Time Management for the Holiday Season

Thanksgiving Fun Booklet

Christmas Countdown

Easy Food Gifts to Make

Make a Big TO DO Out of Christmas

Be on the lookout for installments of A Simpler Season each week, from now until New Year’s.

You can subscribe for free emails or get Life as MOM in your feed reader each morning, so you don’t miss a thing.

This series is brought to you, in part, by Bob’s Red Mill.

Booking It with Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

Jessica Fisher — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 20:00:00 +0000

This year we’re Booking It on LifeasMOM. It’s an online book club designed to get you off the computer, phone, and boob tube and into a book. Reading is an adventure! You learned this long ago. But, in our older years, it is tempting to forget.

On the 10th of each month, we’re discussing an assigned book, one of the Eleven List. On the 11th there’s a link up opportunity to share all your reading of the past month.

For the past few weeks we’ve been baking up a storm with Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes?

I think I first heard about Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day several years ago. My friend Lynn started baking from it when the book was first released. It was during last year’s Booking It that I finally though, “I should try this.” I waited forever to get the book from the library and then only had time to read the first three pages before it was due back.

Sometimes I’m a little slow. This year seemed like a good time to review it, especially since I was tossing around assigned reading. I could make you read it with me! And a little internet accountability never hurt anyone, eh?

After having read the beginning chapters of the book , tested three recipes, and eaten 9 loaves of bread, I have mixed feelings about the book and the 5 Minute Method.

For the unenlightened, the five minutes refers to the time you spend in mixing the dough, storing it in the fridge, and forming the loaves prior to baking. You still need to allot counter-top rising time, refrigerator resting time, pre-baking rising time, as well as baking and cooling. It’s still homebaked bread, not abracadabra.

What I loved

There’s learning to be had. I’m a firm believer in reading the front sections of a cookbook, especially one that emphasizes a certain method, ingredient, or style of cookery. There’s science you need to know in a specialty book like this. And the concepts are explained quickly and simply in this book.

The method is easy to follow. Except for dealing with a hot oven and a boiling water, most of the preparation is easy enough for a child to make this bread. In fact, the method is so easy, it seems too good to be true.

The results are beautiful. I totally wowed my family with the bread I produced. I made the Master Recipe, the Herbed Boule, and the Oatmeal Bread. They all turned out gorgeous.

Some things you should know

You need to get tooled up. If you don’t have a large food container with a lid, a baking stone, a pizza peel, cornmeal, and a serrated knife, you aren’t ready to make this bread. That can be disappointing if you take the book home and expect to have bread in a short while.

I had to hunt high and low in my local stores for a baking stone and go get a large enough container. The metal pizza peel we have is one that my husband found on the side of the road, so I’m skeptical of using it, which is just as well as my family informed me that the medium grind cornmeal I have tastes like what happens when the lava rocks in your barbeque explode when you use the grill after a rain.

So I fudged a little and used parchment paper. Yes, yes, I did. I let the bread boules rest on the parchment and then slid the parchment onto the hot baking stone. The bread was good and beautiful, but it didn’t have the bottom crust that I’m sure develops when you bake it right on the stone.

The bread is good, but not great. Admittedly, I haven’t made every recipe in the book. In fact, I plan on trying out some of the peasant loaves in the next few weeks. But, while it is good bread, it’s not great bread. It seems to lack a depth of flavor. It tastes a little, well, plain. I’m hoping that as I test recipes with whole wheat or rye flour, that I will get better results.

That said, it is super easy, good bread. I admit, I was hoping for super easy, great bread. But, I also have a French bakery just down the road, so I’m a little spoiled.

The time savings is debatable. With the Master Recipe and the Herbed Boule, I really did spend only five minutes of my time, and the waiting on all other points was negligible. The bread rests 40 and then bakes in 30. Very doable while I do other things.

But, I found that my time investment on the oatmeal bread was excessive. Long rising time, long baking time does not equal breakfast on time at my house. In that instance, it would have been easier for me to put the ingredients in my bread machine and walk away. So, I think which recipe you use has a huge impact on how you make best use of the method.

It’s a good book.

Overall, I think Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day is a good book — and a brilliant method. For ease of use and instilling baking confidence, I give it all A’s. On flavor, I’m still undecided. I’ll let you know once I explore some of the more complex recipes in the book.

Buying this book and learning the 5 minute method is a worthy investment, especially if you already own the recommended tools. Baking your own bread can save you a lot of money if your family eats a lot of bread. So, following this method could be a great way for you to cut costs.

Have you missed past Booking It days? Check out the others we’ve read this year:

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Next month’s book: Finding Your Purpose as a Mom by Donna Otto.

What did YOU think?

Share your thoughts on the book in the comment section. Tomorrow, we’ll have a link up for all your Booking It posts.

Bake a Pie for National Pie Day

Jessica Fisher — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 17:30:00 +0000

I rarely need an excuse to enjoy pie, but in case you do, I thought I would let you know about National Pie Day which just happens to be tomorrow. So, you know what that means?

Today is a great day to bake one! In fact, make two. Eat one and then share the other with family or friends.

And don’t forget to include the kids. My mom and my grandmother were both fantastic pie bakers; I learned from the best. Here’s a short clip of FishChick4 helping me make one of the easiest ~~breakfasts~~ pies on the planet.

(If you can’t see the video, go directly to the video on my YouTube Channel.)

Don’t know how to bake a pie from scratch?

Don’t worry. I’ll show you. Bop around through these posts and you’ll find all you need to whip up some fantastic pies in short order.

Pie Basics

Fruit Pies

Frozen Pies

Savory Pies

What’s YOUR favorite pie?

Gramma John’s Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Jessica Fisher — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 19:30:00 +0000

My Gramma John was born and raised in South Eastern Minnesota. She lived most of her life on a farm, was widowed twice, and raised eight kids — six of them boys.

Besides being a very brave and somewhat ornery woman, she was a fantastic baker. Here we are in my mom’s 1970s kitchen making Christmas Cookies.

I loved to bake with Gramma John. She taught me, but more importantly, she was just fun to be with. I miss her terribly. She died just a few weeks after FishBoy10 was born. I cherish that uncharacteristic phone call that I received from her in the hospital just minutes after he was born.

There are a few recipes that are also precious to me — her donuts, her apple pie, and her cookies.

Legend tells that she was sly in sharing her recipes — and would often alter an ingredient in the list before passing it on. The recipe I have is the one she gave my mom, her daughter-in-law. Hopefully, they were on good terms that day!

Gramma John’s Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies are award winning — in my book as well as at many a county fair in Minnesota. We added them to our Christmas Cookie List this year. They freeze wonderfully, baked or as unbaked dough. So, make all you want — and then some more.

Don’t forget to check out The 12 Days of Christmas Cookies.

Nanna’s Gingerbread Gone Wrong

Jessica Fisher — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

In the recent Gingerbread versus Sugar Cookie battle, the Sugar Cookie won. The above cookies were both cut with the same donkey cookie cutter. You know, the donkey that Mary rode to Bethlehem on.

Both recipes were from my mom, recipes that mom made all the time when I was a kid. Both recipes that have worked in the past. However, the gingerbread could not hold its shape. See?

It seems my cookie baking was full of comedy. Hershey kisses melted. Snowball sugar melted. Gingerbread? Melted.

These tasted fine, but they sure weren’t pretty. While I was able to salvage my melted Hershey Kisses cookies, these were irreparable.

Got Gingerbread?

Any ideas on what went wrong? Do YOU have a gingerbread recipe that works?

Don’t forget to check out The 12 Days of Christmas Cookies.

Oatmeal Cranberry Jumbles

Jessica Fisher — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 16:00:00 +0000

Looking for a fun food gift? Might I suggest a recycled plastic pretzel jar full of Oatmeal Cranberry Jumbles?

These cookies are so good. They are egg free, nut free, and taste fabulous.

The cookie recipe is simply my Farm Style Oatmeal Cookies with 2 cups of dried cranberries mixed in. They can easily be made ahead and frozen. Just layer the cookies between sheets of waxed paper in an airtight container.

If you’re looking for ways to wrap your cookies, you might want to consider recyclable containers. Here are some ideas for food gifts under $5.

For more cookie inspiration, check out The 12 Days of Christmas Cookies.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Biscotti

Jessica Fisher — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 20:30:00 +0000

As you know, our freezer is bursting with Christmas cookies. Every few days I pull out a box and we munch to our hearts content. The kids and I had a great time baking a few weeks ago.

My kids love baking Christmas cookies and in years past, I’ve put it off and felt guilty about it. It’s amazing how much stress that took off me to get all the baking done ahead of time.

Since FishChick2 was diagnosed with allergies to egg whites and nuts, we’ve made some changes in our baking. Not all of the recipes I used were egg free, but we’re going toward a nut-free household. Just for sanity’s sake. (pun intended)

Anyway, one of my husband’s favorite cookies is Biscotti. So, we made Chocolate Chocolate Chip Biscotti

I took my Chocolate Almond Biscotti recipe and tweaked it, ever so slightly. When I pull these babies from the freezer, we might just drizzle them with chocolate, just for fun. Bwahaha!

These cookies are crispy, crunchy, with just the right amount of chocolate nuggets to bite into. Delish! Come on over!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Biscotti

3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 3/4 cups unbleached flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300°. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment or a silpat mat. In large bowl, beat eggs and extract with hand mixer. Blend in sugar. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Mix to blend. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon batter into one long log down the center of parchment. Bake for 50 minutes. Remove from oven. Leave oven set to 300°. Wait 5-10 minutes, then slice large cookie log crosswise into 1/2 inch slices. Place slices on cookie sheets and bake for 25 minutes. Turn cookie slices over and bake another 25 minutes. Cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Don’t forget to check out The 12 Days of Christmas Cookies and a great round up of recipes from around the web!

Chocolate Minty Melts

Jessica Fisher — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 19:30:00 +0000

We made a wonderful discovery this month when we were baking our Christmas Cookies. Oh my! What a happy accident!

Years ago I discovered this recipe for Chocolate Mint Snow Top Cookies. It was basically a chocolate crackle gone minty. I tweaked the original in altering the form of baking chocolate used. But, I’ve been meaning to try this tweak for quite some time.

This year, I finally did it. I took the basic dough, thickened it with a tad more flour, simplified it with cocoa, and then put a mint chocolate Hershey kiss in the center.

I assumed that the kiss would hold its shape when I baked it. Obviously, I don’t regularly bake with Hershey’s kisses, because they did not. The first batch had half melted kisses in the center. Kind of like lopsided party hats.

I quickly googled “peanut butter blossoms” and Facebooked my woes only to discover that you’re supposed to put the kiss on after baking. Well, that still resulted in half melted kisses in the center.

See how the heat from the cookie is migrating up the chocolate mountain? The chocolate kiss eventually sank into itself.

Well, I don’t like to look at ugly cookies. So, I played around. I poked the little tip into the pool of melted chocolate and found that I liked the look better. I got out my offset spatula and set out to smoothing the tops of all the kisses. And I love the look! And the taste. Oh my!

You have to try these this year.

Chocolate Mint Kiss Cookies

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
6 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
Hershey chocolate mint kisses, wrappers removed
powdered sugar for rolling

Combine flour, baking powder, cocoa, and salt; set aside. Beat butter with a mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Beat in sugars until combined. Beat in eggs, vanilla, and mint flavoring. Stir in flour mixture

Preheat oven to 350*F. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll balls in powdered sugar. Place balls about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press kisses candies into the center of each cookie ball.

Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until tops are crackled. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet. Transfer to wire racks. Smooth the tops of the chocolate kisses with an offset spatula. Cool. Makes 42.

Place in layers separated by waxed paper in an airtight container; cover. Store at room temperature for 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.