I'm a Cheater!

Believe it or not, I cheat! I am not always a 'from scratch'er. I did a lot of baking this weekend, and I did a lot of cheating this weekend too. I bought packets and changed them, adding and subtracting ingredients to make them taste homemade. On Friday Sophia and I made sugar cookies using a package. I had never tried this before, but Sophia grabbed the package off the shelf and looked up at me with those eyes, that only a daughter can give and said "Please Mommy, can we make these? I'll be a good helper" So Of Course I grabbed them. Instead of adding butter and an egg and dropping it on the baking pan, as directed I used two Packages, added two eggs, 1/2 cup of butter and 1/2 cup of sour cream, and a teaspoon of vanilla.Then I started mixing and adding flour (about a cup? I don't measure!) as needed to make it a nice roll-able dough. And baked at 350 for 6-8 min.

For Icing I  Mixed 1/2 cup Vegetable shortening; 2 cups (approx) Icing sugar, 1/2tsp almond extract, a few drops of milk, and an egg white. Then we smeared and sprinkled. They're delicious!






 My other cheat was The Nanaimo Bars. Have you ever tried making these from scratch? Check out this recipe; it's hard, and expensive to buy all of the ingredients. I buy this Package and make it my own. I follow the instructions for making the lower base of the bar, the crumbly, coconut and walnut layer. I only use half of it. There's enough to have a 3/4" thick layer, and I'm not a huge fan of it. Then for the creamy custardy layer I add a cup of icing sugar and some milk to make more of it, and Finally I drizzle some icing in the chocolate layer. It's sinfully sweet, and so delicious.

Pies, Pies, Pies! Yeah, I cheated on those too. Am I capable of making pie crust? YES. Do I make a good Pie Crust? YES. Did I have the time, or energy to make Pie Crust? NO. So once again, Store bought it was. I used this. I bought two boxes, A total of 4 Pie crusts. and I made 3 pies out of it.

Blue-Berry Peach -1 1/2-2 cups of previously frozen blueberries and juice, 1 Large peache.
On the stove I simmered blueberries, 1/2 cup of sugar, a dash of cinnamon,  5Tbsp (approx) cornstarch, and a teaspoon of butter. Stirring constantly until it thickened.
In a pot of rapidly boiling water I added  the peach for 1 minute then dunked it in ice water. Slit the peel with a knife, It just falls off when you do this. To save a step you could just peel them, I find it annoying so I blanch peaches when I'm going to be cooking it. Then I tossed the thinly cut peach slices with flour, and 1/4 cup of sugar. Next I poured the blueberries in the dish and arranged the peaches on top.
Bake 375 for 40min.
I can't wait to taste it!





Apple Pie - I used the apples from my tree in the back yard, they're a bitter baking apple so if you're using a sweet apple 1/2 the sugar!
Peel and slice 3 jumbo apples (Check out the picture below to truly understand how JUMBO my apples were, 3 of them made 1 1/2 pies!) or 5 small
toss with flour; 3/4C sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and dash of nutmeg.

My Monsterous apple; beside a Delicious

Pour into pie shell and top with remaining pie shell, poke holes (I used a cookie cutter for the cuteness factor). I also used an egg wash and sprinkled with Granulated sugar. Bakes at 375 for 40min
Put a baking dish or aluminum foil underneath. I may have had a fire in my oven from the juices igniting ;-D

Apple Peach Crumble Pie -  Prepare the apples and peaches the same as for the apple pie
take 3tbsp of butter or margarine, 1/4 cup of flour, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1 tsp of cinnamon and mash with a fork, or pastry blender until it's in oat sized crumbles, sprinkle on top
Bake 375for 40-50min.