Well, it seems I’m bailing on Tuesdays with Dorie. It’s been weeks since I’ve managed to actually make one of the recipes and I just can’t seem to find the time to do it with the way my schedule has been lately. I love to bake, and I’m sad to see it go, but it’s time for a change around here.

Since my mom’s stroke, we’ve all been making a conscious effort to eat better and that definitely impacts the goodies I am motivated to bake each week. Also, despite the fact that I’m currently pregnant with twins and actually encouraged to eat a high fat, high protein, high calorie diet, I know that after the girls are born, there will be some major lifestyle changes for all of us in the Sticky Feet household (not limited to lack of sleep). We all need to be more healthy and I am so ready to reclaim my body after years of infertility, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and now more pregnancy and probably breastfeeding. I know it isn’t going to be easy — especially with three small children, but hopefully posting about it here and finding healthy recipes will help.

And that isn’t to say you won’t see a few Tuesdays with Dorie posts from time to time — or high fat recipes for chocolaty goodness. I’m all about indulgence. But you’re probably going to start seeing more alternative recipes instead of the classic, rich, and fattening fare.

I had a random craving for these “healthier” mini-muffins last week so I whipped up a batch. I actually find they are great for a quick chocolate fix and they are extremely quick and easy to make — which is the type of recipe I’m going to need with three children under 2 at home! The result is very rich and brownie like — not to mention low fat and high in fiber.

Even Reagan was interested…

Chocolate Mini-Muffins

1 box devils food cake mix
1 can pumpkin
½ cup chocolate/butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium mixing bowl combine cake mix and pumpkin – batter will be very thick (sometimes I add a dash of Diet Coke to thin the batter a bit) . Divide into 24 mini-muffin cups. Add 3 to 4 chocolate/butterscotch chips on top of each. Bake for 15 minutes. 1 WW point each.

I actually had another recipe all geared up and ready to go for this week — but then I realized that this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie was the Blueberry Crumb Cake, and I had to make it. Yesterday morning, when I should have been grading papers, I made cake. 🙂 If you would like the full recipe head over to Walking in the Rain.

The first step is to make the crumb topping in the food processor. I did this and placed it in the fridge while I prepared the cake.

I used frozen blueberries and tossed them with a bit of flour. This is suppose to help keep the blueberries from sinking in the batter.

Then it was time to prepare the actual cake batter — lots of yummy ingredients – butter, buttermilk, cinnamon, nutmeg, eggs, sugar, lemon zest, flour. All the good stuff.

Then I folded in my blueberries.

I spread the batter in the buttered 8×8 pan, sprinkled it with crumb topping, and popped the cake in the oven.

My cake smelled done, but there was still a soft spot in the middle of the cake, so I baked it a few minutes longer. That made it extra crunchy on the outsides, but still pretty soft in the middle. I think next time, I would put a little less butter in the crumb topping.

And here it is, the finished product. I enjoyed a piece as an afternoon snack yesterday and served the cake for dessert last night. It was a hit all around – Mike, my mom, and Bo all enjoyed the cake. This one’s a keeper at Chez Sticky Feet.

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This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was chosen by Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles. I tried to experiment with natural light for a few of these photos… Obviously, I need to experiment some more. 🙂

This a simple dessert to make and did not take many ingredients. I started with some “Bo milk” (whole milk) and boiled it with some lemon zest. I’m not showing you my lemon zest. Of all of the kitchen tools I own, I do not have a zester. So I had to attack the lemon with a cheese grater. Let’s just say, it was a mess. Will someone please buy me a zester??

So anyway, I boiled the milk and the zest and let it seep. Then I mixed together the eggs and sugar.

Then it was time to temper the two mixtures together and pour it into a water bath to bake.

I ended up baking my custards a little longer than the original directions stated.

The end result was a very eggy custard. It was fine but tasted more like a lemon flan than a lemon custard to me. It was fine, but probably not something I would go out of my way to make again. Mike didn’t try it but Bo was a fan. 🙂

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I’m back at it, after missing two weeks in a row, I managed to bake my Tuesdays with Dorie recipe this week! Woo hoo! Thanks to Whitney of What’s Left on the Table? for choosing this week’s recipe – Caramel Crunch Bars.

First, I blended the sugars and butter and put the dry ingredients in a separate bowl to add in just a few minutes.

Meanwhile, Mike got busy chopping the 9 oz. of bittersweet chocolate required for this recipe. That’s a lot of chocolate!

I added the dry ingredients and the chocolate and ended up with this beautiful shortbread dough.

I spread the dough in the pan and patted it down with my fingers.

After the shortbread was baked, I added the chocolate on top, stuck it back in the oven to melt and spread it across the top of the bars. We could not find toffee bits so we crunched up Heath toffee bars and I sprinkled those on top.

The resulting bars were very rich and chocolaty but won a thumbs up from around the table here at Chez Sticky Feet.

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This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is for World Peace Cookies chosen by Jess of Cookbook Habit. You can click over to her blog for the full recipe.

With a name like “World Peace Cookies” I had to try these. I started by creaming the butter and adding the sugar. It whipped up nicely.
The next step was to stir up the dry ingredients and add them to the butter mixture. After the butter and dry ingredients were combined I added chopped pieces of bittersweet chocolate.

Then I separated the dough into two balls and rolled them into logs. Mike didn’t find the logs of dough too appealing…

After refrigerating the rolls of dough overnight, I sliced and baked the cookies.

Beautiful! The cookies were quite good. Mine didn’t look done at all when I took them out of the oven but quickly became quite crispy. Be sure not to over cook them. 🙂

On another note, today’s beta results are in. 12dp3dt, 14dpo with a HCG level of 314. Not bad. I go back for another blood test on Thursday.

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This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was chosen by Ezra Pound Cake.

I preheated the oven, prepared my muffin cups, and threw all of the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.

Then, I chopped up the peppers. And then I pureed the peppers, because I knew there was no way I was going to convince Mike to eat a muffin with chunks in it.

I added the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and then added my pureed peppers on top.

And then I had a quick, yummy, savory batter ready to go for my muffins.

These were quick and easy to make. The flavor has a distinct Mexican flare. We enjoyed them with chili on Sunday night and I enjoyed the leftovers with a bowl of Chicken Tortilla Soup* that I made last night. Delish.

*I modified the recipe for this soup. To see my recipe, check out my recipe file in the left hand sidebar labeled “Jamie’s Favorite Recipes”. Lots of recipes there!

**In case anyone is curious, I have decided to stick with Tuesdays with Dorie. I really enjoy making the recipes and I have fun with it – even if my thighs don’t enjoy it. I’m still debating starting a separate cooking blog…

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This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was chosen by Anne Strawberry. You can view the entire recipe on Anne’s site or buy purchasing the book, Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Dorie includes an extensive area for playing around with this cheesecake, so I decided to do some playing around of my own and combined Dorie’s recipe and this intriguing Red Velvet Cheesecake recipe from RecipeGirl.com to make a beautiful Red Velvet Cheesecake for our Christmas Eve celebration.

The first step was to crush Oreo cookies in the food processor and combine with melted butter to make the chocolate crumb crust! Yum!

Then I pulled out my trusty mixer and made the cheesecake batter. And included 2 full bottles of red food coloring to give it that gorgeous red hue. (Still looks a little pink doesn’t it? I was out of food coloring and I wasn’t going to go buy more…)
I poured the batter on top of my chocolate crumb crust and prepared to put my springform pan into a water bath to bake.
After the cheesecake was baked I let it setup overnight in the fridge. When I finally released the sides of the pan it looked amazing.
I added a cream cheese frosting — which you might think would be too much for a cheesecake, but was really amazing! And then cut a few branches off of one of our holly bushes outside to give the cheesecake a festive holiday look.

This cheesecake was very good and something that I would definitely consider making again for a special occasion. I think it would be a pretty cheesecake for Valentine’s Day with heart shaped candies sprinkled on top.

And if you can’t tell from the picture, Bo was also a big fan!

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This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie Recipe was Buttery Jam Cookies, chosen by Randomosity and the Girl. You can find the full recipe on her blog or by purchasing the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.
The recipe was very simple to put together with my trusty KitchenAid. I just threw all of the ingredients together and used raspberry jam instead of apricot.

Then I scooped out teaspoons of dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets. I still want a couple of Silpats for Christmas. Hint. Hint.
And the cookies went into the oven. It was a very simple recipe that I was able to throw together during Bo’s morning nap on Saturday.

I decided that we’ve had enough cookies in our house over the last few weeks and since we were headed to have family pictures taken on Saturday morning I hand delivered the warm cookies to my photographer friends. They will have to comment and let everyone know what they thought of them.

One of the constant battles at our house is keeping the four cats out of the food. Mike was my guest photographer this week and caught this shot of Reagan trying to nab a cookie. But don’t worry, Mike and Mary Lou, I didn’t bring the one Reagan licked to you.

I ate it. 🙂

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This week’s Tuesday’s with Dorie recipe was Grandma’s All Occasion Sugar Cookies. You can find the full recipe on Kuchenlatein’s site or by purchasing the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

This recipe frustrated me. The recipe itself is very simple but I couldn’t manage to transfer the cuts outs. They practically melted in my hand. I tried chilling the dough. I tried freezing the dough. It just didn’t work. Finally, I rolled it all into a little log and made the slice and bake cookies. And while not as beautiful, they tasted just as good.

These cookies have Bo’s seal of approval!

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