Chocolate Turtle Cookies: Footprints

These Chocolate Turtle Cookies are a recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.  I love her recipes!

I may try this recipe with some alterations next time...so look forward to some adaptations!

These kinds of cookies are traditionally called "thumbprints" since the indentation in the middle where the caramel is looks like it was made by your thumb.  The closest "imprint" song I thought of is the jazz classic "Footprints" played by Wayne Shorter.  Check it out!

Pita Bread: Flying Home

My sister just made this amazing Homemade Pita Bread from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.  It actually puffs up the way it is supposed to.  This is a recipe to make successful homemade pita bread!

Since homemade is definitely the way to go for great pita bread, here's Lionel Hampton playing "Flying Home."

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies: It's All Right with Me

Let me just say thank you to my sister, Amy, for finding this Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies recipe on Mel's Kitchen Cafe and sharing with me.  She made the cookies pictured above.  They are scrumptious because they combine chocolate and peanut butter and oatmeal--three of my favorite ingredients!

I'm still getting into the swing of law school, but hope to be back in the kitchen soon.  Until then, thanks Amy for sharing!

And since things are all right even though they are very different for me right now, I'd like to share "It's All Right with Me" sung by Ella Fitzgerald.

Buttermilk Banana Bread: Imagination

My sister, Amy, made Buttermilk Banana Bread today and she shared the recipe with me.  So, of course, now I'm sharing it with you!

The original recipe is from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.  I love her site and you should definitely check it out!

So I couldn't think of a song that would go with Buttermilk Banana Bread, so I decided I use wasn't using my imagination...which led me to the song "Imagination" sung by Ella Fitzgerald.

BUTTERMILK BANANA BREAD

Adapted from a recipe on Mel's Kitchen Cafe.

BREAD
½ cup butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 average-sized bananas)
4 tablespoons buttermilk
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 ¾ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

⅛ teaspoon baking soda

TOPPING
2 ½ tablespoons sugar
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour 1 large pie pan.  (You can use loaf pans if you like.  I just like using a pie pan.)  Prepare topping in a small bowl and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs, bananas, buttermilk and vanilla until the batter is well mixed.  Add flour, baking powder, salt and soda. Mix until well combined.
3. Pour batter into greased and floured pie pan.  Sprinkle topping over top of batter.  Use as much or as little as you like.
4. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Halfway to Christmas Tomorrow!

Tomorrow on the Y105 morning show we are having a "Halfway to Christmas" show and are playing Christmas music!  To help celebrate, I made Chocolate Peppermint Cookies from Mel's Kitchen Cafe!

My sister and her friend first made these cookies last year right before Christmas and they were a hit!  They are now part of my yearly Christmas cookie list.

The only thing I do differently from the original recipe is I only coat the cookie part way.  I like to taste a balance between the peppermint flavored chocolate cookie and the white chocolate coating...plus it's easier to just partially dunk the cookies!  They set up faster and look quite artistic!

You really do have to follow all of the steps in the recipe including refrigerating/freezing the dough twice.  These cookies may take a little more TLC than the average cookie, but they are so delicious that the work fades in your memory as you savor them with each bite!

So from me to you preparing for tomorrow's "Halfway to Christmas" day, June 25, I share Louis Armstrong's "Cool Yule" with the applicable lyric: "You'll flip when old Saint Nick / Places a lick on the peppermint stick!"  Tune in to the morning show 7:00 to 10:00 AM CST!