Month: June 2015

Salads

Broccoli Cauliflower Salad

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I’m stepping out of my dessert mode for a day and posting a recipe that I love to make during the summer. I have discovered that I like broccoli raw, more than cooked.  So this recipe is a favorite of mine. Sometimes, I add a chopped green onion for more color and a 1/2 of a red bell pepper.

1 good size bunch of fresh broccoli, cut into small bite size pieces

1 medium cauliflower, cut into small bite size pieces

1 jar real bacon bits, or 10 strips of bacon, fried and crumbled

1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped

1 cup golden raisins

Dressing:

1 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sugar

2 teas white vinegar

Mix dressing ingredients and blend until thoroughly blended. Can be made the day before pouring over salad mixture.

Mix all salad ingredients, except bacon. Combine with dressing ingredients. Toss gently. Cover and chill for several hours or overnight. Add bacon just before serving.

Breads · Salads

Italian Bread Salad

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Toasted Bread

1 loaf of 2 day old country Italian or sourdough bread

extra-virgin olive oil

Dressing

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup EVOO

Salt and pepper to taste

Salad

1 container red grape tomatoes, or 4 or 5 vine ripened tomatoes, chopped

1/2 container yellow cherry tomatoes, halved

1 large cucumber, seeded and diced

1 small red onion, diced

1 cup pitted and halved olives or 1/4 cup rinsed capers

chopped fresh basil to taste

chopped fresh parsley to taste

salt, finely ground pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400. Trip some of the crust from the bread, but not all and then cut into large crouton size pieces. Toss with a little bit of olive oil, spread on a cookie sheet and bake in the  oven until lightly toasted. (approx. 5 to 8 min).

Check every 5 min so the bread doesn’t get overly browned. Remove from oven and let cool.

Whisk together the garlic, red wine vinegar, 1/2 cup EVOO, salt and pepper to make a vinaigrette. Set aside.

In a bowl, gently toss together the bread cubes, tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, and olives. Season the salad with the fresh basil, fresh parsley, salt and pepper.

Drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad. You may not use all of it/. Toss to coat and then let salad sit for about 20 minutes, so the bread soaks up the dressing.

Taste before serving and add more of the seasonings, if needed.

This recipe is taken from Plano Profile magazine and it will be on our table this week. Sounds perfect for these hot summer days.

Cakes · Chocolate · Desserts

Brown Sugar Fudge Cake

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Summer is suppose to be all about the fresh fruit, cool ice box pies & ice cream. But in my world, any season is perfect for chocolate. The combination of the brown sugar with the unsweetened cocoa, makes for a moist, delicious flavor that creates a great chocolate cake.

1 3/4 cups flour

1 teas baking soda *see below

3/4 teas salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

1 teas vanilla

3 eggs

3 envelopes (1 oz each envelope) Nestle Chocolate Unsweetened Bake (If you cannot find these, use 3 squares of 1 oz each unsweetened chocolate, melting as per directions on box)

1 cup buttermilk

*If you don’t use your baking soda regularly, test it to be sure it is still good by dropping in about a 1/2 teas in a glass of warm water, if it doesn’t fizz up, replace the baking soda)

Preheat oven to 350. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, combine butter, brown sugar and vanilla. Beat until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in the melted chocolate.

Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk. Pour batter into two greased and floured 9″ round or square pans. Bake 30 to 32 minutes  or until cake tests done. Cool on wire racks. Fill and frost with your favorite frosting.

It is wonderful with browned butter frosting or the chocolate frosting that is on the blog. Just put in chocolate frosting in the search engine.  The browned butter frosting is under the Fresh Apple Cake post, so just put that in the search space.

Chocolate · Desserts

Nestle Tollhouse Heavenly Cream Cheese Pie

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Taken from a Tollhouse Cookbook from 1980, this chocolate cream pie is a great and a little different pie. Just finished making the Fresh Peach Miracle Pie for family tonight, but as soon as it is gone, will be making this pie…

Chocolate Nut Crust

1 6 oz package (1 cup) Nestle Toll House Semi sweet chocolate chips

1 tables shortening

1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans

Filling

1 (6 oz) package (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar, divided

1/8 teas salt

2 eggs, separated *(If you worry about the egg yolks, buy imitation eggs for this recipe but you will still need 2 egg whites)

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 teas  vanilla

Chocolate crust:

Line a 9″ pie pan with foil. Over hot (not boiling) water, melt 1 cup of the semi-sweet chips with the shortening, stir in nuts.

Spread evenly on bottom and side of prepared pie pan. Chill in fridge until firm, about an hour. Lift out of pan, by the edge of the foil.

Remove foil and place back in pan. Chill until ready to fill.

Filling

Melt the other 1 cup of the chocolate chips over hot (not boiling) water; cool 10 min. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar and the salt. Beat until creamy. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time. Stir in cooled chocolate. Set aside. In a small bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form. Set aside. In a small bowl, beat cream and vanilla unit stiff peaks form. Fold whipped cream and beaten egg whites into chocolate mixture. Pour into chocolate crust and place in fridge for about 4 hours. Garnish with more sweetened whipping cream.

Cakes · Desserts · Fruit

Key Lime Coconut Angel Cake

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I have a cookbook from the ladies of First Bapt.,Jacksonville, Florida. A friend gave this to me years ago and it is still one of my favorite books to sit and look through. This recipe had not popped off the page at me until now. As much as I love Key Lime anything, I cannot believe I have not noticed this. But I have now and am buying an angel food cake next trip to the store.

Summer is here and all that is sounding good is cold desserts, full of lemon, strawberry or lime! This one is totally up my alley.

1 round angel food cake (store bought so you don’t have to heat up the kitchen)

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated) ex: Eagle Brand

1/3 cup key lime or regular lime juice

12 oz frozen whipped topping, thawed, such as Cool Whip, Extra Creamy (or use real whipping cream, which you would only need 2 cups whipped)

1 cup flaked coconut

sliced kiwis and strawberries, if desired

Using a serrated knife, slice cake horizontally into 3 layers with a sawing motion, or use an electric knife, if possible.

Beat milk and lime juice in a large bowl with a wire whisk until smooth and thickened. Fold in whipped topping. You may use a little more juice for added flavor, but be careful not to make it to thin.)

Frost layers of cake as you assemble. Sprinkle with coconut and garnish with the fruit.

Place in fridge for several hours, to enhance flavors…Enjoy and be cool!

Cakes · Daily Thoughts · Desserts

Princess Payton Cupcakes

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Last week, our daughter in law, Mandy had ask if I would make the cupcakes for our granddaughter’s 1st birthday party. All the relatives would be coming into town from near and far and it was a joyous occasion. Of course, we wanted everything to be pink so the cupcakes were going to be strawberry. I began to look for cupcake pics that would go with the theme, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and found these precious pink netting with glitter piks at Hobby Lobby and then made star pics for some cupcakes as well.

Thought a post of some of the ideas that helped might be helpful to you, if you are so inclined to be giving a party for a princess in the near future.

Cupcakes: Made from a strawberry cake mix, substituting strawberry juice for the water that the mix called for. Also, buy a package of Dream Whip and make the cupcakes according to the recipe on the Dream Whip Box. They will be so much lighter and fluffier.

1 envelope of Dream Whip (it is boxed whipping cream which is found on the baking good aisle at grocery store)

4 eggs

1 cup cold water (I used cold strawberry juice)

1 strawberry cake mix

Beat on medium for 4 full minutes and pour into cupcake lined cupcake pans. Bake about 13 minutes or until they test done. Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

1 stick butter

1 box or 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 teas vanilla

Enough strawberry juice (I got the juice from thawing out frozen strawberries that you get in a container in the frozen food aisle and just draining off the juice after they have thawed)

Beat all until creamy adjusting the powdered sugar and juice until the frosting is able to hold its shape when placed in a cake decorator to be piped onto cupcake. *I doubled the amount of frosting, as I was making 48 cupcakes! Had just enough after doubling recipe for frosting.

Take about 1/2 cup of the frosting and place in a glass bowl. Place it in the microwave for about 10 to 15 seconds, until it is melted. Take each cupcake and turn them upside down, dipping the tops in the melted frosting. This seals the cupcake and keeps it fresh longer. Then, using your star tip cake decorator, fill tube with frosting and make a big enough swirl to put a cupcake pic in the middle of it.

Repeat until all cupcakes have been frosted. If you have a container that will hold the frosted cupcakes, cover them and place in fridge until about an hour before serving. This also helps to keep them moist. Then remove from fridge and place a pic in each cupcake. The cupcake stand also came from Hobby Lobby!

Princess Payton Cupcakes
Princess Payton Cupcakes

Daily Thoughts

RC & TK’s Bed & Breakfast

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We have had out son-in-law, Eric, here this week, having just left this morning. Rushing into the guest room, I pulled the sheets from the bed and began to clean the bath room to get ready for our kids that are coming in from Florida tomorrow. This week has been so much fun, having the opportunity to cook for more than just 2, it has been a delight to shop for the 4 yr old that will be here tomorrow. Instead of the usual basketballs, dinosaurs and Matchbox cars, we have in our basket at checkout, for our 4 grandsons, we had fun picking out cute little coloring books with pink ponies on them, blanket throws with Frozen characters and books about fairies. What fun it will be to serve pink frosted cupcakes out of pink dishes.

Last night, Eric had been taken out to dinner by some work vendors, as was the case the night before. When he came in last night, we began to talk about the two different steak houses that he had been taken to. We ask him which restaurant he liked the best. He thought for a minute and said, “you know, actually the food was pretty much the same, but what made the difference was the server. At the first restaurant, our waiter acted as though he was so glad we were there and made attempts to visit with us and participate in some of the conversation, as he would come back to help replace drinks or bread. The second restaurant’s food was good as well, but the server had no interest in us at all. He acted as though it was just his job and he did the minimal task that was required of him.  No warm conversation, and nothing extra. Just did what was necessary.”

That made me stop and think. How do I treat people that come into my home? Do I go the extra mile to make them feel wanted? Do I just do what is necessary to check off a list of required tasks?

Both Randy and I have always felt that we are so blessed to have homes through the different seasons of our lives that allowed us to entertain friends and family. I remember one lady whose house we bought. She had told us that she was selling the house because she would have liked to entertain, but that house was simply too small to have anyone over. We bought it and had numerous people there all the time. We had groups of 12-16 there for dinners and I was so excited to host luncheons for ladies from church, which numbered sometimes 30 plus. We found out from one of her new neighbors that she never entertained in the new home either.

What I am saying is this. When we like to do something, we find a way. Don’t use the size of your home, apartment or condo not to open up to people. The times around the tables are some of the best memories you will ever make. I pray that anyone who visits our home, will feel that they were served with the kind of hospitality that made them feel so welcome, that they can’t wait to come back. They might not remember what you served them, but they will definitely remember how you treated them!

Daily Thoughts

Blue Goose Visit

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Last night, we were treated to Mexican food at Blue Goose by our son-in-law, who is in town from Phoenix for a conference. Since Eric stays with us and had told us that one night while he was here, he wanted to go have Tex-Mex, which he doesn’t get in Arizona. So last night, off we went to his favorite Mexican food place. Randy and I had never been to Blue Goose, as we always wondered how good could Tex-Mex food be, cooked by a blue goose, but we are always up for an adventure, (and knowing that Randy wasn’t going to have to pay, which always makes him agreeable to go anywhere) so off we went.

Please do not get me wrong, we so enjoyed our time with Eric and the 2 hours, that it took to get our food delivered correctly and straighten out the check, well…all I can say is that maybe they might want to think about hiring some people of Hispanic descent, instead of blue geese to cook their food.

I won’t bore you with all the details, but this one story I have to relay. We saw that on the menu was printed instructions of putting a goofy picture which you take, while there, and posting it on Facebook or Twitter, will get you a free order of sopapilla’s. Well, I am certainly game for anything if it gets me a free dessert. So I whip out the ole phone and start shooting pictures of Eric and post them. I got one bite, white Eric and Randy devoured the whole plate, while I was busy posting. But the best story of the night was that when the young man delivered the sopapillas to us, he also brought a side order of guacamole and set it down beside the dessert. We all looked at him and looked back down at the bowl of dip. At first we thought it must be a bowl of fudge sauce to dip the little sopapillas.  But we looked closer and sure enough it was a small bowl of guacamole. When we ask why he was bringing guac to us, he replied, “well, I noticed on the ticket that you had ordered a side dish of guacamole, so here you go.”

We started laughing and Eric told him that, no we never ordered that and even if we had, it was over an hour too late, as it should have been delivered with the meal.

I came home and had a piece of key lime pie. Which brings me to a second thought today. It has come to my attention that it really isn’t my fault that I have a weight problem. It is all the company that we have. Each set of company which comes to visit always has different requests for me to make, and because I am such a great host, I certainly don’t want to serve anything without first trying it out. So this week, I have HAD to sample, “pork roast, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs and key lime pie. And it is only Tues. We have more company coming in Fri, which will MAKE me have to eat the chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookies that they have requested. Eric also reminded me that just in case his plane gets delayed and he is stuck out on the tarmac for hours, he needs to take snacks with him. Just took out more butter to make extra cookies, but will certainly need to sample them, heaven forbid he eat a bad cookie and get sick on the plane. Two of our grandkids have birthday parties this weekend, which means that I do NOT want to hurt their feelings by turning down birthday cake from them. What kind of grandmother would I be? We also promised our kids coming in Friday that we will have homemade peach ice cream. My daughter-in-law, Mandy requested that I make potato salad for 30 for the birthday party for the one year old. I LOVE POTATO salad. How could I not eat a huge plate of it when I am stirring in the pickle relish and chopped egg?

Randy and I figure that by the time our lease is up here in Texas in early spring, we are moving to Italy where we know no one. Our plans, Lord willing, will be to stay over there a few months so we can eventually fit into something other than our bathrobes.

We aren’t going to invite anyone to go with us or tell anyone where we are staying. No company, means no sampling. No sampling means that maybe, just maybe, I will get my cholesterol under 400. Ok, just one more complaint today.

Randy goes to get his yearly check up last week. I’m not saying that I am glad his “numbers” are all well within the normal range, but how, when we eat the same food day in and day out can his cholesterol be 207 and mine is always way above 300? When I told him that I was mad that he was so healthy, he told me that he is sorry that he is in such good shape…I’m glad we agree on something!

I just don’t understand why men don’t have cellulite or as I like to call it, “angel dimples”. How can he still wear the clothes he wore when we married and the only thing that I still fit in is my earrings?
When I get some answers to all of these “life questions” I will share them with you…until then, I have to go sample some of the cookie dough to make sure it is ok before baking it into cookies. I wouldn’t want Eric to come back after a hard day at his conference to a house with no dessert. All this sampling and cooking is wearing me out, think I will just sit for a minute with a piece of key lime pie before going to bake. You know what they say, “sugar gives you energy”, why am I not the most energetic person around?

Uncategorized

Ooey Gooey Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

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1 cup butter

8 -1 oz squares semi sweet chocolate

1 cup sugar

5 large eggs

1/2 cup flour

1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream. Soften

6 (2.07 oz) Snickers candy bars,chopped and divided

3/4 cup chocolate sauce

garnish: chocolate sauce and caramel sauce

In a large bowl, combine butter and chocolate. Microwave at high in 32nd intervals, stirring after each, until chocolate is melted and smooth.

Whisk in sugar. Add eggs, what time whisking well after each addition.

Whisk in flour until smooth. Pour batter into greased 10 inch spring form pan.

Place pan on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool completely.

In a large bowl combine ice cream and half of chopped snicker bars. Spread chocolate sauce evenly over cake layer.

Spread ice cream mixture over chocolate sauce. Cover and freeze for four hours or until firm. Drizzle cake with chocolate sauce and caramel sauce if desired. Sprinkle with remaining chopped snicker bars

Thank you Paladine for yet another great summer delicious ice cream treat.

.

Cakes · Chocolate · Desserts · Fruit

Neapolitan Cheesecake

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Leave it to Taste of Home to publish a great and different cheesecake. I had never seen a recipe for this and it sounds quite good. Will be the next cheesecake I make. The recipe has won several first place ribbons at fairs and is from a lady who lives in Canada.

1 cup chocolate wafer crumbs

5 tables butter, melted and divided

3 packages ( 8 oz ea) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 teas vanilla

5 squares (1 oz ea) semisweet chocolate, divided

2-1/2 (which will be equal to 2 1/2 oz) white baking chocolate, divided

1/3 cup mashed sweetened strawberries

2 teas shortening, divided

Combine crumbs, 3 tables melted butter; press onto the bottom of an ungreased 9″ spring form pan. Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake in a 350 degree  preheated oven for 8 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Add vanilla. Divide into 3 portions, about 1 2/3 cup each.

Melt 2 squares semisweet chocolate; stir into one portion of batter. Melt 2 squares of white chocolate; stir into second portion. Stir strawberries into the 3rd portion. Spread semisweet mixture evenly over crust. Carefully spread with white chocolate batter, then the strawberry mixture on top of that. Place on a baking sheet. Bake in preheated 425 oven for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 300. Bake about 50 minutes or until center is nearly set. You want it to jiggle slightly. Remove from the oven; immediately run a knife around the edge. Cool then remove from pan.

Melt remaining semisweet chocolate, remaining butter and 1 teas shortening; cool for 2 minutes. Pour over cake. Melt remaining white chocolate and rest of shortening; drizzle over the chocolate glaze. Cool in fridge at least 4-6 hours.

Serves: 12-14