Easter Brunch & Dessert at Auntie Regina's

Yesterday was the brunch and I had so much fun! Me and my mom got up at 5:45 in the morning to prepare everything and get ready for Easter Mass. I pulled my dinner rolls from the fridge and shaped them, mom boiled the ham so she could bake it later. We straightened the house a bit and got ready for mass, which was at 7:30. By the time we got home it was already 8:30 and we had work to do!

First, we got all the meats cooked:
Ham-


Roast Beef- I didn't get a close up, since I'm not a roast beef fan...

And mine, Roast Pork-



All the meat on the table:



Then we had to set the cinnamon rolls out:


Bake the French toast casserole(bad picture alert! Mom kept yelling at me because the guests were hungry...and it was SOOOO good, definitely one of my favorite!!):


The rolls didn't come out looking as good as I'd hope, but they tasted delicious. We had a lot of other thing in the oven, the doors were being opened and closed a lot to check on the other things, so I blame that, partially. You can see the tops didn't brown very well:


Even after we were totally stuffed from our own food, (which we had at 11:00 AM) We went to my amazing aunt's for dessert!
She served a torte cover with whipped cream and layered with coffee icing:


A delicious Babka, which I'm pretty sure is from my new favorite book by Carole Walter ^_-



A Banana bundt cake with chocolate chips, whic I didn't have the pleasure of trying because I was to stuffed:


And strawberry cupcakes, cute and delicious!


Overall I think the guests had a great time. The really, really loved the food and everyone went back for seconds, some thirds. I enjoyed everything and it's sad it has to end. We have a tone of leftovers though, so it'll last for a few days! Haha....I think I'm going to skip cereal for breakfast today and eat a cinnamon bun, since it's still sort of a holiday...<3

But wait! I can't leave without giving the recipe for the Blueberry Cream cheese Coffee cake, since I was asked. It was YUMMY by the way. Everyone loved it, especially my brother and sister, and cousin Maria...lol

Taken from Sunset magazine, 2005:

1 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed, or frozen blueberries
1/4 cup apple juice
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1 tsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. water
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2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick cold butter, cut into chunks
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1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
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3/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
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1/4 cup sugar
6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 egg
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1/2 cup sliced almonds

In a small saucepan, bring the blueberries and apple juice to a boil. Lower heat, and cook until blueberries pop, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with 2 tsp. of water. Add to the popped blueberries, and stir until blueberries are thick.

In another bowl, whisk together flour and sugar. Add the butter chunks and cut in butter, with either a pastry blender or 2 knives, until the mixture looks crumbly. Save half a cup of this mixture and set aside for later use.
To the larger half of the mixture, add baking powder, baking soda, salt and grated lemon peel.

In a seperate bowl, mix together yogurt, 1 egg and vanilla until well blended. Stir into flour/baking powder mixture just until incorperated, and the flour is all moisterized. Spread batter in the buttered 9-inch springform pan evenly.

Nows the time to take that 1/2 cup of the flour mixture. To the mixture, add cream cheese, 1 egg, sugar and lemon juice. Mix well with a fork. Spread cream cheese mixture over batter. Spread blueberry mixture over cream cheese mixture, leaving some of the cream cheese visible. Bake for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees. About 30 minutes through, or when the cake only has 10 minutes left, open the oven on spread streusel around the edges of the pan, with only a thin layer in the middle. Bake the rest of the way.

Streusel topping (from Carole Walter, because the part in the magazine made NO sense!! Tjis way it came out great)

3-4 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2cup sliced almonds, if desired

Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a bowl using a whisk. Add almond, floding well until incorperated. Melt buter in a saucepan of med-low heat, keeping an eye that the butter doesn't burn. Let butter cool slightly. Add flour mixture to the butter and use a fork to stir until crumbly.

Prepping for Easter Brunch: Part 3

Does it even need words? Seriously. I really wish I could upload smells to this blog, it would be so popular then! I nose was driving me crazy the whole time I was baking today, and I can't wait to eat it all up tomorrow!



And speaking of smell, this cake smelt so good. The lemon with the cream cheese and blueberry is to die for! I have no idea how the cake tastes, but the batter before it cooks is so good I would eat over pudding any day. It sits all pretty on it's cake dome tomorrow:



And the extra frosting is so yummy to lick, me and my sister had a ball...


There are 45 cinnamon rolls in total, not including the tasters we baked in a muffin tin and ate today. :)



And last week when I wasn't baking I was sewing! I was working an Irish dance dress for St. Patricks Day. I don't think I've ever mentioned I'm an Irish dancer, but I am!

Here's a picture of me in my dress, in the kitchen where I do all my baking:


And with my sister, in the dress she made:



For now, Happy Easter!!

Prepping for Easter Brunch: Part 2

Okay, so here's an update, with pictures! =3

We bought Easter yellow tulips and my dad finally made a (beautiful) coffee table for my mom, and my sister painted it:



We got Easter azaleas:



We got the cutest bunny salt and pepper shakers:



Are French Toast Casserole is soaking in the fridge, awaiting it's oh-so-buttery praline topping:



The Roast Pork is sitting in the fridge (and it smells so good!):





And I'm baking all day tomorrow, so I need a good night sleep! We rented August Rush, so I'm gonna sit down with Mommy and Daddy and watch it!

See you tomorrow with fresh baked cinnamon rolls, coffee cake and raisin bread!

Prepping for Easter Brunch

So, it starts today! 3 days of cooking and baking, all to get ready for Easter. We're and Easter brunch. There will be 14 people in total. My mother and father, 2 brothers and 1 sister, then my 3 cousin and 2 of their husbands and the one's fiance, then my aunt and uncle and myself.

So far, the cinnamon roll dough is sitting in the fridge. The dinner roll dough is sitting in the fridge. My mommy put the pineapples and cherries on tooth picks, getting them ready for the ham she's making. We've bought our favorite French bread for the French Toast Casserole. Tomorrow I'll bake the cinnamon rolls, a coffee cake, and I'm going to see if I can fit in some cinnamon-sugar swirl raisin bread in the evening, so it'll be fresh for Sunday morning.

I'll update later today or tomorrow when I have more.





And here's an update on the menu. We've made a few changes since I last posted it.

I'm making:
Cinnamon Rolls
Blueberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
Apple-Cranberry roasted Pork
Dinner Rolls
Cinnamon-sugar Swirl Raisin Bread

Mom's making:
Sausage
French Toast Casserole
Roast Beef With Roasted Potatoes
Ham with Pineapples and Cherries
Green Bean Casserole
Canned Fruit cocktail
Canned Celery Gravy

Drinks: Coffee, Tea, Soda, Milk and Orange Juice

YUM! I can't wait!

Blondies and Easter candy~

So today I made Blondies for the first time in my life. I've never made them, never tasted them. Let me say, I was certainly missing out. They were good. Really good.I used Mark Bittman's recipe, which I tripled, and put in semi-sweet chocolate chunks and walnuts. Just like a thick, chewy, moist chocolate chip cookie! (my absolute favorite cookie)

Smitten Kitchen's Blondies look better than mine, but you can find the recipe on her blog.


Me and my mom were out today, and we had a chance to run into the Candy Barn before picking up my brother from college. As soon as you walk in you get this intense chocolatey smell. It was so tempting me and Mom had to get a few pieces of chocolate to sample, as well as a few things to start our Easter baskets.



Next time I'll get pictures of the actual Candy Store! If I'd known we were going I would've brought the camera.

We also got these adorable candles from Target for our Easter Brunch.



Aren't they cute?

Cinnamon Rolls! Mmmmm.....

Carole Walter is a genious. Her Simple Sweet Dough is Absolutely delicious! I felt like I was making a pie crust when mixing the dough, not a yeast bread! It's soft, flaky and slightly sweet. Just perfect for cinnamon rolls! And what better to top cinnamon rolls than cream cheese frosting? Nothing. It's got to be a sin to use anything other than cream cheese frosting on cinnamon rolls!

Sunday evening and cinnamon rolls, a fire in the fire place, ahh....what could be better?





They were so gooey and yummy! Recipe for the dough can be found on this blog. I didn't use that filling recipe or icing. Filling was free-style. I used 1 sticks of really soft butter, and spread it all across the rolled out dough. Then sprinkled with a ton of dark brown sugar, maybe about 2 cups. Then sprinkled a fair amount of cinnamon, about 1/2 to 3/4 cup . Frosting was from my mom's carrot cake recipe-

Frosting Recipe:
8 Ounces or cream cheese, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons butter (softened works best)
1 tsp. vanilla


The Fireplace:


We got a new tablecloth and new napkins for our Easter brunch we're having at our house. My aunt and uncle are coming over, as well as their grown and married kids. (my cousins)





Here's our WIP menu for our Easter Brunch. Me and my mommy will be doing the cooking/baking. (with some help of Dad and big sis :-) )

Roast Beef with oven roasted potatoes.
Ham, with pineapple and cherries.
Sausage
French Toast casserole (Courtesy of Paula Deen) with our twist of cream cheese dollops and crumb topping, (thanks to a nice chef I met who attended the CIA)
Croissants, with a variety of filling. Chocolate, cherry cream cheese, pinapple cream cheese.
Dinner Rolls
Fruit bowl. (still deciding, it will depend on the prices.)
Green Bean Casserole
Cranberry Sauce
Sweet red cabbage, the way grandma makes it.
Blueberry Cream cheese Coffee Cake

Vegetables:
Corn
String Beans

I can't wait for Easter! Plus, I want to make homemade Cadbury Cream Eggs. And we'll buy lots of yummy chocolate and candy. =3