Author: Chocolate Castles

Welcome to Chocolate Castles, a blog about food, family and stories that hopefully will bring a smile to your heart. Thanks for reading chocolate castles and may the recipes and stories help bring your family and friends a little closer around the table! Remember that Princess On The Porch is still available on Amazon! Makes a great gift for anyone who enjoys being in the kitchen and needs a little laughter in their lives.
Chocolate · Desserts · Holiday Fare

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

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A few years back, a dear friend, Debbie had a team of ladies from church to her home for lunch. We quickly filled up on this fudge before she had a change to put the main meal in front of us. We just stood at the cooking bar and kept munching on the fudge. It is a never fail, quick and peanutty. If you don’t like chocolate, just omit the cocoa and it becomes peanut butter fudge.

In a saucepan bring to a rolling boil, stirring continually.
1/2 cup water
3 tables cocoa
2 cups sugar

Before you begin to cook this chocolate mixture, in a separate bowl, put 1 cup of any kind of peanut butter you want. Smooth, crunchy, organic, Unsalted, whatever. To the peanut butter, add 1 teas vanilla.

When mixture is boiling, set timer for 1 minute and boil for exactly 1 minute. Pour boiling chocolate mixture over the peanut butter, vanilla ingredients and stir to melt peanut butter. When all is mixed, pour into a lightly greased pan and allow to cool completely before cutting.

Have mine ready and am taking to the salon where I get my nails done. Maybe they will like it so much they will paint a turkey on my pinky without charging me.
Thank you Debbie for a most easy and yummy fudge that easily becomes a great hostess gift.
Thank you Cora for reminding me about putting it on the blog.

Desserts · Holiday Fare

Pecan Pie Mini Cupcakes

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Found these on FaceBook the other day and decided they looked so good I had to try them, and try I have….about 10 times. These little gems are like eating a piece of pecan pie. Took them when we had dinner last night with some friends and the ladies have all requested the recipe…I can already see them on the Thanksgiving buffet, sitting beside, ever so quietly beside a bowl of whipped cream. You can pop about 10 per hour…..the recipe made 30 mini muffin cups.

1 cup chopped pecans (finely chopped)

1/2 cup flour

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2/3 cup butter, melted

2 eggs, room temperature

1 teas vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 (325 for dark coated pans)

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well.

Spray miniature muffin tin with Pam or lightly grease with butter.

Fill each cup 3/4 full. ( I didn’t use paper liners, but if you do, do not grease)

Bake in preheated oven for 13-15 minutes. (Mine took 13 minutes).

How easy is this? Great pecan flavor without the 7000 calories of a piece of pecan pie. This probably only has 3000 calories.

 

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The Scents of Thanksgiving

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At 3:30 am I woke up to put a turkey in the oven. By 6:30, the house began to smell like a typical Thanksgiving morning. As I sit here, waiting for the turkey to finish baking and the giblets to magically transform into gravy, so many thoughts are racing through my head.

Our Sunday School class at church is feeding about 100 people today. These are men and women who have just been released from prison and are trying to fit back into society. I had truly never thought much about the different aspects of what these men and women go through to begin life again. Just having read, “A Glimpse of Grace” by a lady in Dallas who was sent to prison for some happenings regarding dispensing meds from her pharmacy back in the 90’s and her transformation from the pride of having “it all” to a humble lady who was only known as a number; it really opened my eyes to the different emotional and spiritual needs of people who are now trying to live in a society that has changed since they lived in freedom. Some of them are the same, but some have been transformed into a person that doesn’t quite know how to live in a world where there are so many choices, as their choices have been made for them, while behind bars.

As I am sitting here recalling the memories of different Thanksgiving mornings, when, as a child, I awoke to the most amazing scents of pies and turkeys baking, rolls waiting to rise, and the sweet potatoes just waiting their turn in the oven, There are the memories of when it was now my turn to turn our home into a house filled with all the foods that turn that last Thursday of November into something magical. I began to wonder about the people we will be serving today. Do most of them have precious memories that would be brought back by the smells of Thanksgiving? Most of them probably don’t have the same memories that I have been so blessed to have. Probably some only have memories of different holidays on the streets, or homes where the atmosphere gave way to the smell of alcohol.

Part of the precious Thanksgiving memories, are the scents, and what they represented; security, love, friendships, God’s amazing love and grace to each of us. Most of the ones we will be serving today will probably not have experienced this. It is my prayer this morning that I will be able to somehow share God’s grace and love to the people that will be there today. That these prisoners will not only be set free from the prisons that have held them physically, but that they will find spiritual and emotional freedom that comes from turning their hearts and eyes toward the One who can truly “set them free”.

This Thanksgiving, as that first smell of turkey comes drifting out of the oven, let that scent remind you to thank God for what He has done in your life and lift up the people that may not have the blessing of sitting around the table sharing God’s love with family.

Cakes · Desserts · Fruit · Holiday Fare

Cranberry Cupcakes

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What a novel idea. Why had I not thought of these? When I opened the new Food Network Magazine, there they were. So simple and what a great dessert to serve through the holidays. Use them with a pretty little Thanksgiving pick and then place the name cards in front of the pick to welcome your guests to the table. Ditto for Christmas, changing the picks to Christmas.

Serves 12

For the cupcakes:

 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teas baking powder

1/2 teas salt

1/4 teas baking soda

1/8 to 1/4 teas freshly grated nutmeg (Or use ground if that is all you have)

6 tables unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg, at room temp

1 teas vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup whole berry cranberry sauce

Frosting:

2 sticks unsalted butter at room temp

3 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup canned whole-berry cranberry sauce

1/2 teas vanilla

Pinch of salt

Dried cranberries to top cupcakes

To make the cupcakes, preheat oven to 350. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Set aside

Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with mixer until creamy, about 2 minutes.

Add the egg and vanilla and beat until fluffy, about 3 more minutes.

Reduce the speed of the mixer to low and add the flour mixture; beat until just incorporated, about 1 minute.  Add the sour cream and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 more minutes.

Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

Let sit until cool enough to handle, then gently press the back of a small spoon (or if you have ordered a Thumbie from me, it makes it so easy) to make a small indention. Fill each indention with a teaspoon or 2 of the whole cranberry sauce. Remove the cupcakes to a rack to cool completely.

For frosting, beat the butter with1 cup of the powdered sugar in a large bowl until combined, about 2 mins. Reduce the mixer speed and add the remaining 2 cups powdered sugar and beat until all butter is incorporated and the mixture is fluffy. Beat in the 1/4 cup whole berry cranberry sauce and vanilla and salt until combined. Spread the frosting on the cupcakes and top with dried cranberries, if desired.

Casseroles · Holiday Fare · Starches

Sausage & Wild Rice Stuffing

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We are ten days from tasting some of the most flavorful foods of the season.  One of my most favorite foods is stuffing. I love bread stuffing, cornbread stuffing and rice stuffing. If it’s stuffed, I love it. This recipe is from days long ago. A family friend use to stuff her turkeys with this dressing. I quickly fell in love with the flavor of wild rice with sausage. For those who are trying to “do” a gluten free Thanksgiving, use this stuffing. You won’t miss the traditional dressing one bit.

1 pound bulk sausage

2 medium onions, chopped

1 (8 oz) fresh mushrooms, sliced and chopped

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup half & half

2 1/2 cups condensed chicken broth

1/2 teas poultry seasoning

1 teas salt

2 (6 oz) packages Long grain and wild rice, cooked

1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds

Saute sausage until cooked and crumbly. Drain well, saving about 1 tablespoon of the drippings.  Saute onion and mushrooms in drippings. Add sausage.

Mix flour with cream; add chicken broth and cook until thickened. Add seasonings. Combine all ingredients except almonds and pour into casserole dish which has been lightly greased. Bake 25-30 minutes at 350 preheated oven. Sprinkle with almonds and bake about 5 minutes longer.

*If desired, follow directions for making the stuffing, but instead of baking in  a dish, stuff a hen or turkey the last 2 hours of baking. You can add the almonds to the stuffing before placing in hen or turkey. (Bake turkey according to directions in your recipe, but stuff the dressing the last two hours of baking.

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Individual Pumpkin Creamcheese Bundt Cakes

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Using your favorite pumpkin pound cake recipe, make them in individual cakes to use as your name place card holders. This is the recipe I used last evening and then topped them with Cream cheese Frosting and Fall sprinkles!
8 oz softened cream cheese
3 sticks softened butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups granulated sugar
6 eggs
1 Table pumpkin pie spice
1 teas cinnamon
1 cup pumpkin purée
2 teas vanilla
3 1/4 cups cake flour or 3 1/4 cup all purpose flour minus 2 Tables

Preheat oven to 325. Measure flour into a bowl. Crack eggs into a separate bowl.
Meanwhile, cream butter, cream cheese and sugars until light and fluffy. Add pumpkin
and spices and vanilla. Alternate adding in flour and eggs, beginning and ending with flour. Do not over is. Pour batter into a greased and floured bundt pan or individual pans and bake until cake tests done when knife inserted in middle comes out clean.
Cool completely and either frost with cream cheese frosting or dust with powdered sugar.

Daily Thoughts

Cooking & Cleaning

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

It’s amazing how “company coming to town” will inspire me to clean house. It’s so easy to look past dusty baseboards and dirty windows. We seem to think that eventually it will rain and get the windows either dirtier which makes us think it’s no use wasting our energy, or the rain will kind of clean at least the outside of the window. But, the last couple of days, as I began to look around and try to look at our house through the eyes of company, I began to panic. When was the last time I actually dusted the whole house, not just dusting the table that we would be putting our feet on, alas, not wanting our socks to get dust on them?

Not wanting our friends, who are coming, to think we qualify for the Hoarders Program, we have been busy this week throwing out things that have been hiding under beds and the backs of closets. I started to worry that they might possibly drop something on the floor and bending over to pick up what they dropped, become so horrified of what they would see under their guest bed, that I have been crawling under beds all week, trying to at least organize what was under them. As of now, one of the beds serves as a cover for all the big pots and platters that won’t fit in the kitchen. We have the Christmas bed in the guest room that houses all the delicate Christmas décor which I was afraid might get broken if taken to storage. Now I just hope that the bed never breaks and my Christmas treasures get crushed by some of our oversized friends and family. We have couches which hide several  boxes of “out of season” clothes and blankets/quilts under them that won’t fit in the linen closet because I have all the extra paper towels and toilet tissue that we saved lots of money buying at Costco. With all the money we saved buying in quantity, we had enough left over to go buy a new chest to house all of the placemats and table cloths. Randy has been busy the last couple of nights, mapping out an escape route ,zig sagging through the furniture which lines our walls, just in case of fire of earthquake. He was very thoughtful and made an extra one for our guests. We would hate them to get caught in their bedroom, not knowing where to step to avoid the Christmas tree stand and the collection of Santas that are boxed under their bed.

Well, as of tonight, we are ready.  I went ahead and put the Christmas sheets on their bed. I thought they might like a little room in their closet to hang a few clothes. I rearranged the Easter decorations which were housed in the guest bath, making way for their toiletries. We were very thoughtful to move all the large cookie sheets that we keep between the sheets to keep off the dust. Didn’t think they would appreciate sleeping with those, especially since there are no cookies on them.  

Just in case I missed some dust and dirt, I placed chocolate candy on each of their pillows. Hopefully they will be so impressed with the gourmet chocolate they won’t notice the extra car mats that Randy ordered, (he thought he would have some here just in case his wore out in a couple of years), which are stored under the chair in the guest room.

Casseroles · Holiday Fare · Starches · Vegetables

Thanksgiving Tidbits

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Last week I was watching a chef, who I cannot remember his name, showed a few ideas of how to decorate your table, without spending the money you were going to use to buy the matching jets from Neiman’s catalog. He used the miniature pumpkins and had one for each guests. Using a biscuit cutter, he pressed it into the top of each pumpkin making a round cut across the top. Using a spoon, he scooped this out (being careful not to cut all the way through, but created a hold to set in a small tea light candle. He then wrote with glue, each person’s name and then sprinkled glitter on the glue. This was what he used for name place cards. Looked so pretty and the candlelight at each place added such a warm glow to the table.

At our house, we would need to use the little battery tea lights, as the little darlings that we would have would have the entire table engulfed in flames before the turkey was carved. Thought it was worth passing on.

Another great idea is to make your sweet potatoes in individual servings. Using an orange, cut the orange in half horizontally. Scoop out the entire meat of the orange, reserving the juice. Use half as many oranges as you have people. In other words, if you are having 10 people, use 5 oranges, as they will be cut in half.

Mix up your favorite sweet potato casserole, but add some of the orange juice to the mixture.. Instead of just baking it in a casserole dish, spoon about 1/2 cup of the sweet potato mixture into the shell of the orange. Place in a lightly greased baking dish and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes or until it is bubbly. The last few minutes of baking, top with a marshmallow which has been cut in half, using only a half per shell. If your favorite recipe calls for streusel, omit the marshmallow and just top as you would with the streusel.

Breads · Casseroles · Holiday Fare · Starches

Wild Mushroom Bread Pudding

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I am in love with bread puddings of all kinds. In a new  BH&G Christmas book, this recipe jumped off the page. Well, not actually, but when I saw the picture of it, I wanted to jump in the kitchen and make it. A great meatless main dish or a wonderful side to any type of meat, this will knock your socks off.

3 cups sliced assorted fresh wild mushrooms (such as cremini, Portobello, chanterelle or stemmed shitake) (8 oz)

2 medium shallots, sliced (1/4 cup)

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tables olive oil

1/4 cup dry sherry or dry white wine

8 oz rosemary or onion focaccia, cut into 1″  cubes (about 6 cups)

4 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups half & half

1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese (4 oz)

1 tables snipped fresh thyme

1 tables snipped fresh rosemary

1/2 teas salt

1/2 teas coarsely ground black pepper

Grease eight (10 oz) individual casseroles (ramekins); set aside. In a large skillet, cook mushrooms, shallots and garlic in hot oil over medium heat about 5 minutes or until tender. Carefully add sherry. Simmer, uncovered, until liquid is nearly evaporated. Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Stir in focaccia cubes.

In a medium bowl, combine eggs, half and half, cheese, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture over focaccia mixture, pressing with a wooden spoon to moisten all of the bread.

Divide pudding mixture between the prepared casseroles (ramekins, if using pyrex ramekins, will make probably 10 instead of 8).

 Cover and chill for 2 to 24 hours. Preheat oven to 325. Bake, uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes or until a knife inserted near the centers comes out clean. *If you used the Pyrex ramekins, you won’t need to bake them that long. Tests after 20-23 minutes for doneness.

Serves 8 to 10 depending on size of individual casseroles

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Thanks and Gratitude to Our Veterans

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First of al I want to just say thanks to each Veteran who has sacrificed so much. Just sitting here this morning in a warm and comfortable home that had plenty of food and no fear of someone dictating what I can or cannot write makes me so grateful for the freedoms that we have that did not just happen. We owe so much to the men and women who have given up time, families, comforts and some even their lives for us to be living in this country. A million thanks from the bottom of my heart..our prayers that God would bless you and your families not just today, but throughout your lives.