Baked Apples

A nice little treat on a blustery, brisk, fall day....or a good little General Conference break snack.

4 medium apples, washed

1/4 cup apple juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup raisins
cinnamon candies (optional)

While Momma cuts top of apples off, cores them and places them upside down in a large microwave safe dish. (something like and 8X8 Pyrex) Kendra measures and mixes the brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl. Pack each apple first with raisins, pushing them to the bottom of the apple to kind of seal them, add a few cinnamon candies (if desired) and then pack the rest of the apple core with the sugar mixture. Little fingers work well to get all the ingredients nice and tight in there. Then pour apple juice into bottom of dish. Place dish in microwave and heat at full power for 3 minutes. Basts apples with juice from bottom of dish (a Mom job) and heat another 3 -5 minutes until apples are tender. Take out and let cool a good 5 - 10 minutes - will be VERY HOT. With a large spoon, place each apple in a bowl, (slice it up for the little ones) then spoon the juices over each apples. Can be served with a nice sized scoop of frozen yogurt or vanilla ice cream.

Billie Jean Cake

There is a little story to this cake.... Some of you might know this as a Judy Cake (or just a Texas sheet cake). I got the recipe from my grandmother, who got it from a friend named Judy. Now I have eaten this cake 100 times in my life (mostly at the Sheridan fire dances) but had never made it myself, as it just seemed too complicated. I'm a simple kinda baker girl. Then one day I was craving it and decided to make it, with a twist. Now, because I put my own little twist on it I thought it might be OK to rename it. The day I was making this cake for the first time happened to be the day that Michael Jackson passed away. I was sad about his passing and was listening to some of his music as I was baking. You may know his song Billy Jean, but noticed I spelled the new name of the cake Billie Jean. Some of you might also know my Grandmother, whose fill name happens to be Billie Jeanneane. So, in fallowing with the tradition of naming it after whom you got the recipe from, this cake has been renamed (again) and will forever be in my recipe box as a Billie Jean Cake. Thank you Grandma and thanks you MJ.

Preheat oven to 350*

Cake Ingredients:
2 C Flour
2 C Sugar
1/2 t salt
1 C Butter (2 sticks)
1 C water
3 T DARK Coco (original recipe was regular coco)
2 eggs
1 t Baking soda
1/2 C Butter milk
1 t vanilla

Mix flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl.
In a small pot combine butter water and coco. Heat and stir till butter is melted and comes to a boil, then remove from heat and add to the flour mixture.
In another bowl mix eggs, soda, vanilla, and milk. Then mix that with everything else in the large bowl.
Pour batter into a large cookie sheet or a 15 X 10 3/8 X 3 1/4 inch pan
Bake for 20 minutes at 350*
Remove from oven and place on a cookie cooling rack with several paper towels under it.

Icing Ingredients:
1/2 C Butter milk
3 T DARK coco (original recipe was regular coco)
6 T milk (not butter milk)
1 box powdered sugar (apx 3 3/4 C)
1 t vanilla
(original recipe has nut, not mine though)

Melt butter and coco in a med size pot on low heat. Remove from heat and add powdered sugar and vanilla.
Ice the cake while it is hot. Let icing run to edges and paper towel will catch any run over.

I always/only make this cake when we have Cafe Rio for dinner, because that is the only time I ever buy butter milk. And a little half pint is the perfect amount for both recipes.
This is a good cake for pot lucks too. My Grandma always made 2 at a time for the Fire House dances, one with nuts and one with out.

Chocolate Chip Pie

This make 2 pies, one for you and one for me! Trust me you will want your own, when you taste this!!

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease 2 9-inch pie pans with butter and set aside.

In a large bowl sift together:

2 3/4 C all-purpose flour

1 1/2 t salt

1 t baking soda

1 1/4 t baking powder

In a bowl for an electric mixer cream:

1 C (2 sticks) real butter - softened

1 1/2 C packed brown sugar

1/2 C granulated sugar

Add:
3 eggs -one at a time
1 T vanilla extract

Add flour mixture a little at a time and mix well.

Carefully add:
3 C semisweet chocolate chips
(2 cups of chopped walnuts if you'd like, but we don't)

Divide dough between the 2 pie plates and smooth the tops with a spatula. Bake about 30 minutes or until pies are golden and slightly firm to the touch but still soft. Cover pies with foil the last 10 minutes or so to avoid darkening too much. Let pies cool a bit before serving. Best served warm and with a hugh scoop of chocolate chip ice cream. You'll be glad this make 2 pies!

Recipe adopted from the Deen Brothers and modified to our liking. That means NO nuts!

Katy and Kendra's Introduction

We first met on October 21, 2004. That happened to be the first day of Kendra's life.

We have been the very best of friends ever since!! We go everywhere together and do everything together. We enjoy many of the same things, one of which is cooking and baking together.... thus we have here, Kook Kendra & Katy. We hope you enjoy our recipes as much as we enjoy creating them together.

Love, the Jewells of Kook Kendra and Katy