Baked Ham and Cheese Sandwich

This is a very popular sandwich in my house.  I made it by accident one day and I havent looked back...hahaha.  It is so easy to double to feed a crowd, an easy dinner to make if you want to take dinner to someone.  I have made it for my sister in laws family and it is one of their favorites too.

*Bread
*2 tablespoons butter
*Garlic or onion powder
*Swiss Cheese
*Sliced ham
*Shredded Cheddar Cheese


Take bread out in morning and put on a plate sprayed with Pam.  Put plastic wrap over top (sprayed with Pam also) so that bread wont dry out.  Let bread rise.  When ready to make sandwich roll out dough on a floured surface, roll out to about a 8x12 rectangle.  Melt 2 tablespoons butter, pour over dough and sprinkle with garlic or onion powder.  Put a layer of swiss cheese down, put a layer of ham down then top with shredded cheddar cheese.

Fold ends over then tuck and roll the rest so that all of the filling is in the bread.  Place on a baking sheet and bake at 425 for 15 minutes, cover with foil and bake another 15-20 minutes.

Remove from oven and let sit 10 minutes before slicing

I have not forgot about you..

It has been a few days since I have been blogging.  Things got pretty crazy around my house for a few days.  We host an Orem Owlz baseball player each year and the other day they were having a host family BBQ.  I was asked to make some goodies for it.  I ended up making 2 loaves of coconut bread, a pan of brownies and 8 dozen cupcakes.  It was a little crazy around here!  The kitchen was really heating up :)  then on Monday, my hubby got hit in the eye while playing a game of racquetball.  It broke his glasses and bruised up his eye pretty good.  Tthankfully nothing too bad happened.  I do have to drive him where he needs to go for a few more days until we can get some new glasses (the things we don't do in the name of love)  But, have no fear my faithful blog followers, I am back at it again and will be making pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  I have started a start of Friendship Bread and with that I am wither going to make Pina Colada cupcakes or Friendship bread.  Not sure on that one yet. 

I have been looking through my blog and it seems most of what I have been posting has been sweet.  I will be putting a few more savory things up because it is good to have a mix of sweet and savory, right?  Also, I will be a guest blogger next week!  Woohoo for me!  I am doing Frosting For a Cause.  It is a blog that a lady started and what you do is make a treat and take it out to your local cancer treatment center.  If you don't have one you can donate them to your local hospital.  You also make a donation of 25$ to a cancer group, blog about what you made and tell you story of how, if at all, cancer has affected your life.  I am doing it for my grandmother, my mom and my sister in law.  I will get a link to it up on my blog so you can go check out what I made, the recipe and my story. 

I hope you are all enjoying my blog and a peak into my life :)  If there is anything you would like to see or know more about, please let me know and I will happy to make you happy (yes Lisa, I still remember that I need to get some good summer recipes on here for you)

Happy baking!

Sugar Cookies

Cookies:

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1.2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
6 cups flour

In a separate bowl add flour, soda, salt and powder, mix together with a whisk and set aside.  Cream butter, sugar and eggs.  Then add sour cream and vanilla. Slowly mix in flour mixture then chill dough for 4 hours or overnight.  Roll out dough on a floured surface, cut out cookies with cookie cutters and bake at 350 for 11 minutes. 

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 box confectioners sugar
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
little bit of milk
food coloring if desired

Mix until spreading consistency.  Keep adding milk, small amounts at a time, to get desired thickness for frosting your cookies.

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes

For Cupcakes:
3 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons limeade concentrate
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk (I used canned)

For Syrup:
3/4 cup limeade concentrate
1/2 cup confectioners sugar

For Frosting:
3 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 tablespoons (or more) maraschino cherry juice

For Decorating:
Fresh lime slices
Maraschino Cherries

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.  Line two muffin tins with paper liners.  In a medium bowl combine the cake flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Stir together and set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth.  Add the sugar and beat on medium-high speed until creamed.  Add in the limeade concentrate and mix to incorporate.  Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between additions.  Add in the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  Mix ingredients just long enough to incorporate but no longer.

Divide batter between muffin tins and bake for 15-20 minutes or until they spring back when lightly touched.  Allow to cool 5 minutes in tins then take out and let finishing cooling on wire racks.  Once cupcakes have cooled, whisk together limeade concentrate and confectioners sugar in a small bowl to make lime syrup.  Poke several holes in cupcakes and slowly pour syrup over top allowing to soak in before frosting. 

Combine confectioners sugar, butter and maraschino cherry juice in a bowl of a stand mixer.  Mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated the increase speed to medium-high and beat until smooth.  Add more maraschino cherry juice as needed to achieve desired texture for frosting. 

Frost cooled cupcakes and garnish with lime slices and maraschino cherries.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

 




For the cake:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon  salt
2 teaspoon lemon zest
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room tempature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3/4 milk
2 cups fresh strawberries, chopped

For the lemonade syrup:
1 cup lemonade concentrate
3/4 cup confectioners sugar

For the frosting:
1 cup fresh strawberries, roughly chopped
12oz cream cheese, at room tempature
18 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room tempature
 2 2/3 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
3 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the garnish:
Fresh strawberries
Lemon slices

Directions:
To make the cupcakes, preheat the overn to 325 degress F.  Line muffin pans with paper liners.  In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest.  Stir together with a whisk and set aside.  In a bowl of stand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until it is light and fluffy.  Add the sugar and beat until well combined.  Beat the eggs in one at a time scrapping down after each addition.  Add half the flour mixture to mixture and beat on low speed just until incorporated.  Add in the milk and mix until smooth.  Add remining flour and mix on low speed just until blended.  Fold in fresh strawberried with spatula.

Divide batter evenly between paper liners, filling them about 3/4 full.  Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes then let finish cooling on a wire rack. 

Once the cupcakes have cooled completely, whisk together the lemonade concentrate and confectioners sugar in a small bowl to make the lemonade syrup.  Poke several holes in the top of each cupcake with a skewer and pour syrup over the cupcakes, allowing it to soak in.  Place wax paper underneath wire rack before pouring syrup over so you dont make a mess!!

To make the frosting, puree strawberries in a food processor or blender.  Strain the puree through a mess sieve to get the seeds out and set aside.  Beat cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes).  Add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth.  Add the lemon juice and vanilla extract, mix until incorporated.  Mix in strawberry puree, a tablespoon at a time, until you achieve your desired texture and flavor for frosting.  You can add a few drops of red food coloring if you would like a more red color.  I just use the strawberry puree as my coloring.  Frost and decorate as you like :) 

Bake Sale

I will be doing a bake sale later this month with all proceeds going to JDRF for my son Christian.  He has been type 1 for 5 years.  More details to come :)

I am also going to be doing a sweet treat and blogging for Frosting for a Cause and donating all treats to our local cancer treatment center.  I will be doing that for my father in law, sister in law, my grandmother and my mom.  They have all had cancer.  Some have won the battle and some have lost.  I will be posting a link for that so you can read my story and see what I am making as it gets closer.

Happy Saturday all!  Hope you have a wonderful 4th of July weekend