Cream Cheese Clouds

One of the desserts on the menu this month was cheesecake. As you may or may not know, cheesecake is kind of an involved recipe. It takes time. It takes energy. I had neither this week. So instead of actual cheesecake, I found a recipe from Robin Sue that I had saved back before Christmas. She added cherry pie filling to hers, but I didn't have any, so I substituted chocolate pudding.

Beat a block of cream cheese with powdered sugar and vanilla until it is super creamy.
Slowly add in a cup of cream. Cream. Not milk. Not half and half.
Because we are going for fluffy here, and truly, the only way to get there is by using real cream.
Beat this mixture until you get soft peaks form. Just like you would in whipped cream.
Spoon about a third of a cup of the mixture onto a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper. I was out of waxed paper, too, so I used aluminum foil.
Take a spoon and carve out a little space for the filling.

Freeze this for a couple hours and then fill with pudding. Or pie filling. Or fruit.
You know, I think anything with "cloud" in the name just has to be good, doesn't it? These are wonderful. I left them in the freezer overnight, and that made them really difficult to cut into at first, but they didn't take long to thaw out.

I really want to try these with lemon pudding. The Boy is upset we didn't have cherries, so that will be up the next round.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Cream Cheese Clouds

1- 8 ounce brick of cream cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup heavy cream

In a large mixing bowl using a hand held or stand mixer, mix together cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Slowly add cream and whip until mixture is whipped to a light and fluffy cloud. Line cookie trays with waxed paper and spoon about 1/3 cup sized mounds of the cream mixture on trays and makes a well in each mound using the back of a spoon. Freeze up to 2 hours on trays then remove to an airtight container to store in the freezer.

Butterscotch Pudding

This winter, I remembered my childhood in which pudding was made on a stove. Or maybe I just dreamed that, I don't know. But I've made it my mission to discover home made pudding. I am sooooo glad I did that.

What I have found is that pudding is really simple to make, even if it takes a bit longer than instant. And like so many other things, it is infinitely better than instant, plus, you can have some while it is still warm...mmmmmm....

On low heat, stirring constantly, (we don't want to burn the milk) bring the milk, cornstarch, salt and dark brown sugar to a boil. You could use light brown sugar here, but don't. The dark brown sugar gives a whole other dimension of flavor.

After the milk reaches boiling, cook for one minute. Add a quarter cup of the hot mixture to two egg yolks. Temper those yolks so they don't turn into scrambled eggs in your pudding. Add this back into the milk mixture and cook for one more minute.
Remove from heat and add in two tablespoons real butter and a teaspoon of vanilla. Stir this until the butter is completely melted.
Pour into your fancy garage sale glasses and cool.
This didn't even get to the refrigerator before The Kids got into it. What a wonderful dessert for a cold winter afternoon. My only regret is that I didn't have any whipped cream to add to the top. How does that even happen?

Click here for Printable Recipe

Butterscotch Pudding
1/2 C Dark Brown Sugar
2 T Cornstarch
1 1/2 C Milk
Pinch of Salt
2 Egg Yolks
2 T Butter
1/2 t Vanilla
In a small saucepan, mix together brown sugar, cornstarch, salt and milk. Over low heat, bring mixture to a boil. Cook and stir 1 minute. Temper yolks by quickly stirring in about 1/4 of the boiling mixture. Pour yolk mixture back into hot milk and return to heat. Cook and stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla until butter is melted. Pour into bowls and let cool.

Coconut Crunch Delight

My Grandma turns 90 this week. I can't believe it. You wouldn't either, if you could meet her. The woman refuses to act her age. I have been so blessed in my life to know all of my grandparents as well as a good number of my great-grandparents. They are such a part of me that I can't imagine letting them go. Grandma has seven kids and lots of grandkids and lots of great-grandkids, so get-togethers with this group always ends up being more of a reunion than anything.

Of course, we always eat well on these days.

This was a recipe that I made several times a few years ago. When our house burned, I thought I had lost the recipe, but it turns out I had written it out for someone at school and made a copy. This copy had somehow gotten stuck in between my desk drawers and when I went in search of my green laser, I found it, wrinkled and somewhat shredded. Still no word on the laser, but I can't describe how excited I was to find the recipe.

Melt 1/2 cup butter and mix with 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 1/4 cup shredded coconut. The recipe calls for slivered almonds as well, but I forgot to add those in :(
Bake the mixture at 350 for 10 minutes. You don't need to make it into a crust...
because after 10 minutes you are going to stir it all up and put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
Then stir again and bake for between 5 and 10 minutes more. You want it nice and golden brown; more of a toasted rather than baked.
While that is cooling, add 1 package of instant vanilla pudding and one package of instant coconut cream pudding to 2 2/3 cups milk. Whisk this all together. You don't really need to get out your giant stand mixer, but mine is still fairly new and I still need excuses to use it.
Fold in 2 cups of whipped topping. If your children are AWOL and not hovering over the bowl, just add in the entire tub.
Spread about 2/3 of the toasted mixture onto the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. You can use the one you toasted the mixture in if it has cooled. Then spoon the pudding mixture on top. It's pretty important to spoon it on instead of just pouring it in (experience here), otherwise you will end up with all your crust on one end of the pan.
Sprinkle the remaining crust mixture on top.
I'm not sure how all those test kitchens end up with perfect squares on their plates, but in my world, we just spoon it out. I love this dessert. It is so light and delicious and it just feels like spring. And so, so easy. Jeff loves coconut cream pie, and I can never get pie to turn out how I want it. This is an incredible substitute.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Coconut Crunch Delight
1/2 Cup Butter, Melted
1 cup Flour
1-1/4 cups Flaked Coconut
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup Slivered Almonds
1 package Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix
1 package Instant Coconut Pudding Mix
2-2/3 cups Cold Milk
2 cups Whipped Topping

In a bowl, combine first five ingredients; press lightly into greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown, stirring every 10 minutes to form coarse crumbs. Cool. Divide crumb mixture in half; press half into the same baking pan. In a mixing bowl, beat pudding and milk. Fold in whipped topping; spoon over crust. Top with remaining crumb mixture. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Garnish with fresh strawberries if desired.

Old Fashioned Rice Pudding

I was on a roll. This is the same night that I made Ham and Beans for supper. I distinctly remember detesting Ham and Beans as a child (more on that later) and I really don't care for rice. But I can remember the few times I ever saw my Grandpa eat rice. I think there were only two (we are a meat and potatoes family). He drowned his rice in milk and sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar. I was fascinated, but couldn't bring myself to try it.

So what possessed me to try it now, I am not sure. I found this recipe (ironically, as you will see) from an old Quick Cooking magazine. For some reason, it just kept calling me. So, in the spirit of Try It Tuesday, I forged ahead.

Take 3 1/2 cups of milk, 1/2 cup of uncooked long grain rice and 1/3 cup of sugar and mix them all together in a medium sized saucepan.
Cook over low heat until it all comes to a boil. Stir this constantly and don't heat this too quickly or you will end up with burnt milk. And to be honest, there are few things that are worse than that.
Pour the heated mixture into a greased baking pan. Cover and cook at 325 for 15 minutes.
Take it out, uncover and stir the mixture. If you look closely, you can see some rice on the spoon.
Recover and cook for 15 minutes. Take it out and stir again.
Recover (again) and cook for another 15 minutes. At this point, I am beginning to see why this is called "old-fashioned". It is called old-fashioned because it is "not convenient". But, it is starting to actually look something like a pudding.
So let's cover it back up and cook it for another 15 minutes.
Now we are getting somewhere. Add in 1/2 cup raisins and a teaspoon of vanilla. I also didn't check the recipe and added a teaspoon of cinnamon. The recipe says to sprinkle the cinnamon on at the end. Oh well. Stir all this in, cover one more time and cook for the last 15 minutes.
And magically, not instantly, but magically, this is what you end up with.
This went over really well. The Girl had two bowls. I think there were too many raisins. I don't like raisins that well (again, why I even made this is beyond me), so I just ate around them.
This is actually something I will make again. It takes awhile and is not something you just pop in and forget about, so probably not on a week night. I also would add in diced apples instead of the raisins, maybe on the second stir.

I encourage you to try this, even if your first reaction is "yuck" (a surprising number of reactions are!) Because if I like it (me, who doesn't like rice or raisins), chances are good that you will.

Click here for Printable Recipe


Old Fashioned Rice Pudding
3-1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup uncooked long grain rice
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt, optional
1/2 cup raisins
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Ground cinnamon, optional
In a large saucepan, combine the milk, rice, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Pour into a greased 1-1/2-qt. baking dish. Cover and bake at 325° for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Add raisins and vanilla; cover and bake for 15 minutes longer or until rice is tender. Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired. Serve warm or chilled. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: 6 servings.