Easy French Baguettes

Here they are, hot out of the oven! French Baguettes that are so light and crispy! You've GOT to try this easy recipe! 

Awhile back I went to a great cooking class and listened to a master cook and teacher named
"The Food Nanny". She was just delightful and fun to listen to. She had so many food stories I could have listened to for hours.   Here is her book.

 It is less than $16.00 on Amazon. It is called The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner and it's Here at Amazon. Check out her book, because she has such a great meal plan to help families eat dinner together and stay close!

  I didn't have my purse with me so I didn't get an autographed copy of it! DARN! But I DID get her to take a picture with me, when I told her I had a food blog. Isn't she cute?

Me and the Food Nanny...yeah we are real tight....snicker....

 The Food Nanny is mom and a grandma too! (and she loves being a grandma best!)

She made pizza dough and french baguettes both in under an hour....

Anyway, she gave us all this fantastic recipe for French Baguettes!  It takes literally 5 minutes to make. She showed us this cool baguette pan too. I ran right over after the lunch class and bought one at Spoons and Spice..... my favorite cooking gadget store. They are having a huge sale, so check it out at Spoons and Spice.

They had so many french bread pans to choose from and they were surprisingly CHEAP!

My finished french breads.....Don't they look great?  They are crunch on the
outside and soft in the inside...perfect to my taste.....

French Baguette recipe....totally easy and seriously yummy! 

Then I went to work. A half hour later here were my baguettes.  They taste just like a crusty french bread should. And no fat!  She gave us all kinds of tips about meal planning that I thought were fabulous! In a nutshell here is her plan....

Sunday is traditional day...roast beef, chicken, those kinds of things.
Monday is Comfort food...chili, mac and cheese, easy stuff like casseroles....
Tuesday is Italian night....she does all her pastas here...she has tons of varieties....
Wednesday is Meatless night....soups, salads, fish, or breakfast for dinner, waffles, french toast, pancakes, bacon, etc.
Thursday is Mexican Night. Tacos, Enchiladas, mexican casseroles, burritos etc.
Friday is Pizza night and all the kids invite their friends over for her out of this world pizza varieties.
Saturday is Grill night. They do a lot of hamburgers or chicken on the grill.

Doesn't that sound fabulous and fun?  I thought so too.   Gotta give that plan a try. The thing she stressed, that I really liked was how she said it kept her family together while her husband flew planes in the military and later for an airline. He was gone a lot. She was like a single parent. And dinner around the table every night added structure to her day and a bonding with her kids. They still all come back for Pizza night. She has many gourmet types of pizza as you can imagine. Her favorite is arugula, fresh mozzerella, cherry tomatoes and olive oil on thin crust. I'll do that on a later post.

Yeast mixed with warm water and sugar.....let it foam up a bit.....

Then add the flour and salt and mix up with warm water....a little at a time until it is a nice ball....Then knead
for a minute on the counter....

Here are mine kinda kneaded and waiting to be put into the pan....took 5 minutes to make and roll!  

I went over to Spoons and Spice to see if I could find a "Baguette Pan" 

 HERE is a page full of coupons to Spoons and Spice. It's a really fun place to browse around if you are a foodie like me.

Anyway it looks cool....it's 2 long u shaped pans for breads....

The food nanny makes this bread and gives it away for people's birthdays and special occasions. What a great gift idea and so quick. Who wouldn't love some hot french bread homemade by you?

Here's the Baguette pan.  It was only $5.99 at my local kitchen things store. (Spoons and Spice)

Recipe for French Baguettes... SO EASY!
1/2 Cup Warm Water
1 1/2 Tablespoons Yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/4 cups flour add a cup at a time
Add up to one cup warm water to get perfect consistency

Mix up first 3 ingredients in a small bowl and let sit for 2 or 3 minutes. (sugar feeds yeast so let it set awhile) Then in a separate bowl add salt and flour and add it to wet mixture, and then add the (up to 1 cup) warm water. Mix and then knead for a minute. Roll out in 2 loaves and lay them on greased baguette pan and let rest for 15 minutes under a towel (it will rise a bit).  Then bake 450 for 15 minutes or until golden colored.   This whole french bread takes about 35 minutes total to make and bake.

So here they are before the 15 minutes rising time.....Both have their own tube to sit in....

And here they are after the 15 minutes rising time....I put a line down the middle of each with
a sharp knife just before popping in the oven....it will look just like french bread when it has been baked! 

Wha la!  Ready for a hot 450 degree oven for about 15 minutes....watch it the last  minute or so.....

And here they are, hot out of the oven! French Baguettes are light and crispy! 

Well, they are just plain DEEE-LISH!  That's what they are! My hubs liked thema lot. And I sent one down to my friend Lauri down the street. Spread the lovin!   
Then Spread some REAL butter and dig in!  mmmm....Yummy! 

8 Minute Caramel Dipping Sauce

I love dipping Granny Smith and Honeycrisp apples into warm, gooey caramel. I was at an event recently (The Festival of Trees) and we bought some warm caramel sauce and cut up apples and enjoyed them sooo much. I thought I would look for a recipe and make some of the sauce tonight for New Year's Eve. We have several parties to go to but this is just for us to enjoy at home. But it would also be a great treat to bring along with us to the parties.

My Easy Caramel Dipping Sauce.  It literally takes about 8 minutes to make, but it is so evil delicious!

For Easy Caramel Dipping Sauce I started with the cream, sugar and butter and let that all melt together on low. 

After you dump the butter in, add the vanilla and salt and let it get the Caramel Sauce up to a rolling boil, stirring as you go. 

Easy Caramel Dipping Sauce..... stir it while it bubbles for 5 to 7 minutes. It will look lucsious like this! Can you say....delightful deliciousness? Mmmmm.....

I put the Easy Caramel Dipping Sauce  on a tray with Granny Smith and Honeycrisp apples for a holiday treat. This would be so easy as a finger food for a New Year's Eve Party! Or what a nice hostess gift in a pretty jar with a ribbon and a cute label? 

 Here is the recipe I used. All you need is butter, brown sugar, cream and vanilla and salt. It was super easy. I would boil the mixture for the full 7 minutes. It said 5 to 7 minutes so I went with 5. But I wished mine had been a little thicker. It thickens as it cools, but to make it even chewier and thicker, let it boil for the 7 minutes. This recipe is taken from The Pioneer Woman's website, HERE.

Notice my 2 little granddaughters are standing right in front of the Easy caramel dipping sauce and apples? They are READY to dig in to this yummy stuff. 

You can use half and half OR cream, and I had cream on-hand from making Alfredo a few nights ago. So I used the rest of the pint. Bubbling boil it for 7 minutes to thicken it up. Or thinner sauce I'd go less, more toward the 5 minutes mark.

Now I've taken down more than half of the Christmas decorations and replaced them with January "Snowman and Winter themed" decorations. Don't they look cute? 

It is always a little bit of a downer to change out all that Christmas gloriousness. So I have to replace it right away or my house looks very dull and depressing! To see more check out my
 Patties Place blog.

Here's my kitchen table with some snowman decorations. It is starting to look a little bit wintery with the shades of blue. 

8 MINUTE CARAMEL DIPPING SAUCE

Ingredients

• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/2 stick Butter (4 Tablespoons)
• 1/2 cup Half-and-half Or Cream (cream Will Make It Thicker)
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla
•  Pinch Of Salt

Preparation Instructions

Mix all ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium-low to medium heat. Cook while whisking gently for 5 to 7 minutes, until thicker. Turn off heat. Serve warm or refrigerate until cold.

If sauce is thin, just continue cooking for a few more minutes. This would also be so wonderful drizzled over cheesecake! Mmmm. The possibilities are endless!  

Good luck taking down all of your Christmas decs the next few days. And have a very Happy New Year Y'all!

Chocolate Fudge Icing

I love a good chocolate cake, don't you? It's one of the best dessert around! And one of my favorite ways to ice a chocolate cake is with a fudge glaze. This one is an easy and yummy cooked icing that is great for cupcakes, eclairs, donuts, cream puffs and cakes.

I have our Christmas Table Setting all done for Breakfast Christmas morning. We have grandma and Grandpa come for Brunch every year. 

I have 3 granddaughters who all like to sit at their own Kid's Table setup with little plates and sippy cups and kiddie chairs too. Here is one of the dinner parties we had set up. I used snowmen plates and cups. 

My Kitchen is all festive with lots of Christmas doo dads too. 

I have Mrs. Santa in the kitchen with her cupcakes, and the Nutcracker playing on my under the counter CD player. It is on its last legs. The hubs has something coming from Amazon for me that is the newest thing. He had to be "Invited" to buy it. I guess it plays wireless music from somewhere I'll never understand. The cool kids and their gadgets! 

This was my favorite area of the kitchen this holiday. I just loved it. The chalkboard said how many days left till Christmas with a snowman holding it. I cut his head off, great photog that I am! lol. 

This island wall just filled with crap the last week before and this whole week after Christmas. I am so full of junk food, breads, chocolates, cookies, marshmallow santas ( I ate 4 I think) and nuts and candy, chips and dips. When will it end I tell ya! 

 I started putting all the Christmas junk away today. It is a little sad. I love decorating for the holidays so much. But I switched it all out for snowmen and snowflakes. So it isn't too hard to bear. :D

Kiddie table this year in red and green with snowmen. 

Grown up table setting was very pretty. I loved this table runner with red pointsettias made with red sequins. And the holly berry brocade placemats are some of my all time favorites. 

We make Gingerbread men and woman for Christmas Eve decorating fun. 

And some Sugar cookies too. 

We made this Cranberry Cilantro dip and pour it over a block of cream cheese to eat with crackers and Wheat Thins. It is delicious! Check it out HERE. It is fun for New Years Parties too! 

I'm getting my cinnamon rolls ready. We will add THIS MONKEY BREAD recipe to them. It just makes them more gooey and delicious with pecans too! Yummy. 

Some of my end tables in the living room all decorated cute. I also make this breakfast casserole that is traditional in our family. It has hash browns, Jimmy Dean sausage, eggs, cheese and it can be cut into 12 to 16 pieces for brunch or breakfast. Check it out HERE.

We have to leave out some cookies for Santa tonight while we watch his progress on Google Santa Tracker. It is fun to see what country he's at every minute. 

Anyway, if you are making a chocolate cake, cupcakes, cream puffs or anything that would be made better by a fudgy, chocolate icing that really does taste like fudge, then this is the recipe for easy, fudgy icing. 

 Chocolate Fudge Icing 
1/2 slick real butter
2 Tbsp. cocoa
2 Tbsp. milk
2 cups powdered sugar ( I used a little less, just add it till desired consistency)

Put butter and cocoa into a medium saucepan. Add milk. Heat until melted, stirring constantly.

Slowly add 2 cups powdered sugar until melted and smooth.

Chocolate Cake with Fudgy Icing..... so, so good! 

Chocolate Bundt Cake - Is just as good with the chocolate fudge icing as the traditional cream cheese icing. So you just have to choose your poison! I love it on Christmas eve. It is also great for a New Year's Party. Happy Holidays!