Slow-cooker Indian Butter Chicken

http://www.indianasapplepie.com/2009/09/slow-cooker-butter-chicken.html

Will post pics and modifications later but a good recipe!

Bacon-infused Red Velvet Cake

This recipe was inspired by all the press that bacon in baking is getting these days. I was looking to try something new (my last attempt at low-altitude experimentation before we move to Boulder, CO next week!), and was intrigued by the write-up provided here.
I won't lie: there were many doubters and naysayers and people who were all-around grossed-out by this. But in the end, anyone who tasted it at least said that it was good. Some said amazing, some seemed slow to admit it, but I had no bad reviews (at least to my face).
The cake and icing recipes you can tweak, but I do think that red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting might be the perfect backdrop for the savory-sweet-salty bacon. (Although...I'm already contemplating my next move with bacon, and it might be into this.)

Ingredients
Favorite red velvet cake recipe (example)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate mini-morsels
Favorite cream cheese frosting (example1 example2)
~1 cup candied bacon pieces, divided + several larger chunks for garnish on top

1. Prepare red velvet cake batter as directed, stir in mini-morsels.
2. Stir in ~half of candied bacon pieces (recipe/technique below)
3. Bake as directed.
4. Let cool; cut cake halves in half horizontally (so you have 4 layers)
5. Divide frosting -- into 3/4 of it mix additional 1/3 - 1/2 cup candied bacon pieces
6. Use un-baconated frosting on top of cake; garnish with candied bacon slices if desired.

Candied bacon
There are a lot of ways people have suggested doing this.
I actually used pre-cooked bacon from Whole Foods (about 8-10 large-ish slices), coated in brown sugar and a little (1/4 cup?) melted butter, and cooked in the oven on a parchment covered cookie sheet at ~400deg. Do this until you start to suspect burning (i.e., keep an eye on it; it won't take more than 10 min probably).
Let cool, and try not to eat the candied mass of of bacon...it is (surprisingly?) good. Keep the burnt edges out of the cake, reserve a few prettier chunks/pieces for garnish, and crumple up the rest of the candied bacon into sub-centimeter sized chunks. Actually, maybe sub-half-centimeter is better. You want the flavor in the cake and frosting, but not really the chunks of bacon.

Ginger Butter Bars

I had a box of gingerbread mix laying around after the holidays and I wanted to do something different with it. The result was unexpectedly very good...

• 1 box Krusteaz Gingerbread Mix (unfortunately only sold near the holidays I think)
• 1 stick of butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips
• Butterscotch ice cream topping

Directions

Heat oven to 350.

Grease an 8x8 pan.

Mix gingerbread mix, butter, and eggs.

Add in butterscotch chips and spread in pan.

Drizzle butterscotch topping over top, about 2-3 Tbsp or so.

Bake for ~25min or until a knife comes out nearly clean

Berry Cobbler

Cookie Dough Brownies

Mini Blueberry Upside-down Cakes

This recipe was another one that was adapted from Baking Bites.

I added a few tweaks and have attempted to note them below as best as I can remember them!

3/4 cup sugar

2 cup fresh blueberries (do not use frozen...too soggy!)

2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup light brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

2 large egg

3 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease, with butter or oil, 12 muffin cups

Place 1 tbsp sugar in each greased cup. Add about 2 tbsp blueberries to each cup, making sure that the bottom of each cup is well covered with berries.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.

In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, melted butter, egg and vanilla.

Pour into dry ingredients and whisk until everything is well-combined and no streaks of flour remain.

Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups, filling each to the top.Tap pan firmly on the counter several times to knock out some of the air bubbles and ensure that the batter gets down between the blueberries.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with only a few crumbs attached. Cool cakes in pan for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes and turn them out onto a wire rack to cool before serving.

If the sugar sticks to the cup bottom, dig it out and crumble the chunks on top of the berries.

Drizzle with white icing (or powdered sugar/milk drizzle) if desired.

Other ideas:

Stir in 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

and/or

Pulverize 1 cup of white chocolate in a food processor and gently stir into batter before dividing into cups...

and/or

sprinkle a crumb topping (1/3 cup sugar + 3 Tbsp flour + 1 tsp salt + 1/4 cup melted butter) on the top of the cups (which end up being the bottom) before baking.

Blackberry Raspberry Pie

INGREDIENTS
CRUST:
2 ¼ CUPS ALL – PURPOSE FLOUR
1 CUP CAKE FLOUR
1 ½ TSP GRATED LEMON PEEL
½ TSP SALT
¼ TSP BAKING POWDER
14 TABLESPOONS (1 ¾ STICKS) CHILLED UNSALTED BUTTER, CUT INTO ½ INCH CUBES
6 TABLESPOONS (ABOUT) ICE WATER
1 TABLESPOON APPLE CIDER VINEGAR

FILLING:
NONSTICK VEGETABLE OIL SPRAY
¾ CUP SUGAR
¼ CUP CORNSTARCH
3 CUPS FRESH RASPBERRIES
3 CUPS FRESH BLACKBERRIES (CAN'T BEAT THE NC FARMERS MARKET FOR THE BERRIES!)
DIRECTIONS1-2 TBSP SALTED BUTTER, SLICED INTO THIN SLIVERS

OPTIONAL FOR PIE CRUST TOP: WHIPPED EGG WHITE AND CREAM (EQUAL PARTS, ABOUT 1 TBSP EACH), ADDITIONAL SUGAR

FOR CRUST:
COMBINE FIRST 5 INGREDIENTS IN PROCESSOR AND BLEND FOR ~5 SECONDS.

ADD BUTTER AND CONTINUE BLENDING, USING ON/OFF TURNS, UNTIL MIXTURE RESEMBLES COARSE MEAL.

ADD 5 TABLESPOONS WATER AND THE APPLE CIDER VINEGAR. USING ON/OFF TURNS, BLEND UNTIL MOIST CLUMPS FORM, ADDING MORE WATER IF DOUGH IS DRY.

GATHER DOUGH INTO BALL; DIVIDE IN HALF. SHAPE EACH HALF INTO DISK. WRAP IN PLASTIC AND CHILL AT LEAST 1 HOUR AND UP TO 1 DAY.

FOR FILLING:
PREHEAT OVEN TO 400 F. SPRAY 9 INCH DIAMETER GLASS BAKING DISH WITH NONSTICK SPRAY.

WHISK 3/4 CUP SUGAR AND CORNSTARCH IN LARGE BOWL TO BLEND. ADD BERRIES AND TOSS TO COAT. LET STAND 10 MINUTES, TOSSING OCCASIONALLY.

ROLL OUT 1 DOUGH DISK ON LIGHTLY FLOURED SURFACE TO 12 INCH ROUND; TRANSFER TO PREPARED PIE DISH.

SPOON FILLING INTO DOUGH-LINED DISH. EVENLY SPREAD OUT THE THIN BUTTER SLICES OVER THE FRUIT FILLING.

ROLL OUT SECOND DOUGH DISK TO 13 INCH ROUND. DRAPE DOUGH OVER FILLING, AND TRIM OVERHANG TO ½ INCH. PRESS EDGES TOGETHER TO SEAL; FOLD OVERHANG UNDER AND CRIMP DECORATIVELY. CUT SEVERAL SMALL SLASHED IN TOP CRUST TO VENT.

IF DESIRED, USE A BASTING BRUSH TO APPLY A THIN COAT OF EGG WHITE-CREAM MIX OVER THE TOP CRUST, AND SPRINKLE WITH ADDITIONAL SUGAR.

BAKE UNTIL CRUST IS GOLDEN AND FILLING IS BUBBLING, ABOUT 50 MINUTES; COOL 30 MINUTES. SERVE WARM WITH NATURAL VANILLA ICE CREAM...ALTHOUGH IT'S QUITE GOOD AT ROOM TEMPERATURE TOO, AND HAS BEEN KNOWN TO MAKE A WONDERFUL NEXT-DAY BREAKFAST (IF THERE'S ANY LEFT!)