Raspberry Zucchini Bread

I love a good quick bread. I have always had issues with yeast and getting regular breads to rise, so quick breads are my bread and butter. 🙂

While looking around for recipes for Yule dinner, I found this one. I tweaked it a little, of course, and it turned out really tasty! The Man loved it to and it used up the zucchini I had too much of!

Print Recipe
 Raspberry Zucchini Bread BigOven - Save recipe or add to grocery list
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Servings
loaf
Ingredients
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Servings
loaf
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Grease/flour loaf pan (9x5)
  3. Blend flour, baking powder, and salt.
  4. In a separate bowl, beat eggs well. Add oil and sugar, mixing well until combined. Add milk, lemon jouise, and zest; mixing well.
  5. Gently mix in zucchini until evenly distributed.
  6. Add dry ingredients to wet. Mix well.
  7. Fold in raspberries. Pour batter into loaf pan.
  8. Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing from pan and cooling on rack.
Share this Recipe

Samoa Bundt Cake

I love Girl Scout cookies. LOVE THEM! And I have been known to order cases at a time because … I’m guilty of gluttony. Thin Mints, Samoas, and Trefoils are my absolute favorites. So when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it!

Note – I don’t make things pretty but I did try this time.

 

The taste is what truly matters. And this was pretty damn good! Not *exactly* like a Samoa, but close enough for me to eat more of this cake than I should!

Print Recipe
 Samoa Bundt Cake BigOven - Save recipe or add to grocery list
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 60 minutes
Servings
servings
Ingredients
Cake
Frosting
Toppings
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 60 minutes
Servings
servings
Ingredients
Cake
Frosting
Toppings
Instructions
Cake
  1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a bundt pan.
  2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave until it's smooth when stirred.
  3. Beat the butter and brown sugar together.
  4. Add eggs and beat well.
  5. Add melted chocolate and beat.
  6. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add half to the batter along with half the sour cream.
  7. Add the second half of the flour mixture and sour cream.
  8. Add in the vanilla and hot water, mixing on low speed.
  9. Pour into bundt pan and bake for roughly 60 minutes.
  10. Take out of oven (leave the oven on!) and cool for about 15 minutes, then remove cake from pan.
Coconut Topping
  1. Spread your coconut out on a baking sheet. Pop in oven for roughly 5 minutes, stir and then toast for another 5. Keep an eye on it, as you don't want it to burn. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes total - but you know your oven better than I do!
Frosting
  1. Beat butter and caramel together until smooth. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar.
  2. Add the cream a little bit at a time to get the consistency you want in the frosting.
Put it together!
  1. Frost the cooled cake. It's easier to pop the cake in the fridge to get it nice and cool before frosting.
  2. Gently pat the toasted coconut onto the cake, a little at a time.
  3. Drizzle it with the leftover caramel sauce and hot fudge sauce.
Recipe Notes

I recommend doing the frosting and coconut on a wire rack that has a baking sheet underneath. This will help you from losing too much coconut when you put it on.

Share this Recipe

Zucchini Au Gratin

I love zucchini, which is saying a lot since I don’t like many veggies. Something that my taste buds have changed their mind about over the years. This is why I recommend trying things you may not have like the taste of previously. I do it about every 7-10 years.

Anyway, I like finding new ways to cook it. This is one that looked interesting and it involved cheese, so why not? Adding cheese to most things makes it tastier. However, I can tell you that this particular recipe needs tweaking. I added more cheese, because cheese, but if you prefer less, cut down the amount of cheddar by half.

 

Print Recipe
 Zuchini Au Gratin BigOven - Save recipe or add to grocery list
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
servings
Ingredients
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
servings
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat over to 350.
  2. Slice zucchini - about 1/4 inch
  3. Blanch zucchini - see notes below.
  4. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent.
  5. Add milk, paprika, garlic powder, nutmeg, allspice, salt, and 1 cup of cheddar cheese.
  6. Stir until cheese is melted. Remove from heat and add egg.
  7. Pat dry the zucchini one more time. Lay zucchini out in dish.
  8. Pour cheese mixture over zucchini.
  9. Sprinkle remaining cheddar cheese and fontina over the top.
  10. Crumble up crackers and sprinkle on top.
  11. Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Take foil off and broil for 5 minutes to brown top.
Recipe Notes

To blanch: Set up an ice bath in a bowl big enough for your colander to fit into. Boil enough water that will cover all your zucchini. Once water is boiling, toss in zucchini for one minute. Drain into colander and plunge into an ice bath to stop them from cooking more. Lay out zucchini on paper towels and pat dry. Sprinkle with salt and set aside.

Share this Recipe

Crockpot Hot Chocolate

Another Pinterest find that sounded good and thought I’d give it a try at a meeting that the Man and I were having at our house. It was a huge hit and almost nothing left at the end of the night. I doubled this recipe in our 6 quart crockpot.

I’ll be making this quite a number of times throughout our winter!

Print Recipe
 Hot Chocolate BigOven - Save recipe or add to grocery list
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Servings
servings
Ingredients
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Servings
servings
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Put everything into your crockpot or slow cooker. Put it on high to start to help melt the chocolate chips.
  2. Check back every 20 minutes or so to stir up the melting chocolate. Turn down to low or 'warm' when all the chocolate has melted.
Recipe Notes

Additional options: have mini marshmallows, candy canes, cinnamon sticks, or even a bit of chili powder for flavoring if desired.

Share this Recipe

Cinnamon Roll Bake

I love cinnamon rolls and the lovely smell that fills the house when they are baking. At one point, I saw a video on Facebook somewhere for this recipe and then saw a Pinterest pin on it.

Giving this a try, I can tell you that I altered the recipe a bit. Pretty much end up doing that with a lot of stuff, but I digress. This turned out better than I expected but I predict that I’ll add more maple syrup next time.

Before baking:

Read to eat!


Print Recipe
 Cinnamon Roll Bake BigOven - Save recipe or add to grocery list
Great brunch dish!
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Grease a 9 x 13 pan
  3. Cut up cinnamon rolls into quarters. When fresh out of the refrigerator, they are easy to cut. Spread them out in pan.
  4. Whisk together the eggs, milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl.
  5. Pour mixture over roll pieces. Be sure to coat them all well.
  6. Pour maple syrup over rolls.
  7. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Oven temps vary.
  8. Put icing that came with rolls into a microwave safe, easily pourable bowl. Microwave for roughly 30 seconds.
  9. Pour icing over bake when it comes out of the oven.
Share this Recipe