Cherry Bread

I like just about cherry anything, fresh cherries, frozen cherries, dried cherries, and even maraschino cherries.  I feel like the character from Forest Gump that kept listed off shrimp dishes.  I could go on and on about cherry recipes.  I feel like I have made a lot this summer. This is a pretty bread and it would be really pretty for Valentine's Day or even a girl baby shower.

Isn't that a pretty loaf of bread?

You will use a whole big jar of cherries for this recipe.

Start with 3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup oil

1 eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Drain the juice off the cherries

Keep 1/3 cup of the juice for the glaze.

Put 20 oz of cherries in the food processor or you can hand chop them but I can tell you from experience that they get sticky and messy.  Food processor is the way to go.

All chopped and ready to use.

Add them to the batter.

The batter is really pretty.

Pour into a sprayed loaf pan. Place in a preheated 350 oven.  Bake for 50-55 minutes.

Ingredients for the glaze.  

2 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup juice

Mix those.

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 Tablespoons melted butter

Add that to the sugar

Whisk well until all the powdered sugar is mixed.  You can add a drop or two of food coloring to get it the color you want.

Let the bread sit for about 10 minutes before you remove from the pan.  Mine stuck a little on bottom. I don't know if it wasn't sprayed well or if it got too cool before I turned it out.

I let it cool some more on a rack.  I put a piece of wax paper underneath so the glaze won't make such a mess.

Pour the glaze on top.

All finished.

Look at all those cherries in the bread.

Cherry Bread

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup oil

1 egg

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

20 oz maraschino cherries

glaze

2 cups powdered sugar

2 Tablespoons melted butter

1/3 cup maraschino cherry juice

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 350.  Bake 50-55 minutes.

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

These little cookies taste like a chocolate covered strawberry without the seeds or stem.

Look at all those chocolate chips.  They are full of chocolate which makes them yummy.

I don't usually make cookies from a mix but these really interested me.  They were really easy.

1 stick of butter softened.

Add the cookie mix.

Add 1 egg.

1 1/2 teaspoon strawberry extract

The recipe called for pink food coloring.  The red was handy and I just put a couple of drops in until it was the color I wanted.

Mix well.  The dough will be stiff.

Now for the 2 cups of mini chocolate chips.

Because the dough was stiff it was hard to mix the chips in well.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Place in a preheated 375 oven for 8-10 minutes

Fresh from the oven.

There's enough to share, but you may not want to.

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

1 pouch sugar cookie mix

1/2 cup butter softened

1 1/2 teaspoon strawberry extract

pink or red food coloring

1 egg

2 cups mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375.  Bake 8-10 minutes.

Complete Pork Chop Dinner in a Crockpot

This is the first meal that I made in my kitchenless house.  I have been searching for weeks for crockpot or electric skillet recipes that I can make in the next couple of months.  There will be more on that later. This was not a bad meal for my first of many crockpot meals.

You can really use whatever veggies you like.  The recipe called for potatoes and brussel sprouts.  I thought about adding some carrots but there wasn't room in the crock pot.

Start with four pork chops in the bottom of your crock pot.  You can use bone in if you like.  I just really like these small boneless ones.

Cover them with bbq sauce.  Whatever you favorite kind might be.  I tried a new kind this time, Sticky Fingers.  It was really good.

Spray a piece of foil and then cover the chops.

Add some new potatoes on the foil.  I like the different colored ones.

Add some sea salt to the potatoes.

Cover them with another piece of foil and seal them so they can steam.

Take another piece of foil and place some fresh brussel sprouts on it with a little butter and salt and pepper.  I think you could probably use frozen sprouts and just not put them in as early.  These were large and a little bitter.  I really like the smaller ones better. Wish I had used the carrots instead.

Close up the sprouts pouch and place it on top of the potatoes. Cover and cook for 6-7 hours on low.

Take everything out of the crock pot.

The potatoes are nice and roasted.

The brussel sprouts are nice and steamed.

The pork chops are fork tender and fall apart.

Not a bad first meal, and even better not much clean up.

Complete Pork Chop Dinner in a Crockpot Recipe

4 boneless pork chops

1 bottle BBQ sauce

8-10 baby potatoes

1 bundle fresh brussel sprouts

butter

salt 

pepper

foil