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.
Daily Thoughts

Trader Joe’s Store

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

Most of the visitors to my blog are probably from Texas and I wanted to share something that you will be enjoying very soon, if you have not already. I hear from friends in Dallas that they are putting a Trader Joes at Park and Preston with two more stores located on Greenville and Ft Worth. If you have never experienced one of these stores, can I just tell you that you are in for a wonderful surprise! I have learned to appreciate the store for what it is and that is this: it is a small store that is so reasonable on prices and has a great collection of foods from all over the world. They are truly top notch and every thing that we have tried from there has been very good. They have lots of prepared frozen foods, which are really great and I have already served many of these new dishes for get togethers here at the house, which is rare for me to do. I usually home make what I serve, but the foods that I have had rave reviews are these:

The Gingerbread mix, which is seasonal, so you will have to wait until the holidays next year to probably find this.

Trader Joe  Jo-Joe’s, which is an oreo cookie with a peppermint filling. I bought these and got addicted to them immediately.Next year when they come back to the store I am going to make a cake with these delightful little gems with them chopped up in the batter and then the pink peppermint crumbs sprinkled on top.  This year, I dipped this cookie in melted chocolate just to give it an extra punch of chocolate. Their chocolate hazelnut biscotti is awesome!

Their line of frozen entrees are truly as good as what you would find in resturants.

I hope I have encouraged you to try them as soon as they open there in Dallas. You will not be sorry. See, California has sent you In and Out Burger and now….Trader Joe’s…….If we could just get Sister Schubert rolls and Diet Cherry Dr Pepper out here now, life would be grand. We do now have Dillards and Hobby Lobby, so I am a happy camper.

 

Uncategorized

Very Lemony Cookies

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

It will take me months to finish trying all the new recipes from the Paula Deen Christmas magazine, but these cookies were right up there at the top of new recipes that I just had to make. The older I get, the more I am enjoying other flavors other than chocolate. 

1 cup butter flavor all vegetable shortening

1/2 cup sugar

1 tables lemon zest

1/2 teas salt

2 egg yolks

3 cups flour

2 tables heavy whipping cream

1 teas lemon extract

1 teas vanilla extract

Lemon Glaze

Garnish: Candied Lemon Zest *Optional

In a medium bowl, beat shortening and sugar at medium speed with mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 min. Add zest and salt; beating until combined. Add yolks, one at a time; beating well after each.

Gradually add flour, beating at low speed until mixture is combined. Ad Continue reading “Very Lemony Cookies” →

Uncategorized

Going Green

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

Since some of you have totally gone all “green” (yes, this applies to my son-in-law) I thought I would change my blog screen to “green” to show that even though I am a little slow in learning to turn off lights, recycle or go without air conditioning, I can at least “go green” on my computer screen. So until I find a February Valentines theme, this blog will be “going green”…..Also, I love change, and thought maybe ya’ll would like a little change in color on your phone or computer also…..

 

Cakes

Vanilla Caramel Cake

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

Get to the store as soon as you can and buy a jar of Smucker’s Hot Caramel Topping and go home and make this cake. It is sooooo good. The jar of caramel goes into the cake and when I saw this recipe from Southern Lady over the holidays, I knew that as soon as I got home, it would be the first recipe I posted.

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 (12 oz) jar caramel topping

1 teas vanilla

6 large eggs

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teas baking powder

1 teas baking soda

1/4 teas salt

1 cup sour cream

Vanilla Frosting* recipe follows

Preheat oven to 350. Spray 3 (9 inch) round cake pans with Pam baking spray with flour.

In a large bowl, combine butter, sugar and caramel topping. Beat at medium speed with a mixer until creamy. Add vanilla, beating to combine. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Spoon batter into prepared pans and bake for 18-20 min or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans on wire racks.

Spread frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake.

Vanilla Frosting

1 cup butter, softened

2 (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scrape out seeds, reserving them to mix into frosting.

1/2 teas vanilla extract

5 cups powdered sugar

In a large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed until smooth. Add vanilla bean seeds and vanilla extract, beating until well combined. Gradually beat in powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

This recipe will work beautifully as a cake or cupcakes…..Sprinkle white sparkles on top to decorate.

 

Uncategorized

Happy New Years to You

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

Well, today is the beginning of a new year and as I’m sure most of you, like me, are excited to be in your kitchens cooking up foods for family coming over to watch the Rose Parade, the Bowl games and ringing in the new year. Doesn’t 2012 just sound so much better than 2011? Maybe because it’s an even number, or maybe it is because the number 12 is mentioned so many times in the Bible. We just returned from church where we gave thanks for the blessings from the past year and now look forward to the many new opportunities that the Lord will bring to us in this new year. 

We will be experiencing the Rose Parade from our front porch this year with one of our son’s, Jamin who came out here to meet some friends that have never been to the Rose Parade. So today, I am looking through new Paula Deen magazines and Southern Living to find a couple of new recipes to make for all of the friends who will be here tomorrow after walking up and down the street looking at the floats. This will be a new experience for us this year. Last year, we had spent our first night in our new home, had an air mattress and two sports chairs that we sat in watching the floats line up in front of our house. Last year, we didn’t know a soul here and spent the New Years by ourselves, which was fine, but those of you who know me know that the more people around us, the more I love it. So this year, after spending NYE with some new friends and getting to introduce them to Jamin, we are excited to know that a few new friends have told us that they will be walking down to our house tomorrow morning to grab a cup of cider and a piece of gingerbread. This is what I live for….having people come over and share food and friendship…..God has been so good to us and so faithful to lead us to people who are already so dear to both Randy and I. So tomorrow, I will be posting a couple of new recipes that we will be making tonight….Happy New Years and look for us on TV tomorrow, we will be the ones handing out coffee and hot biscuits to new friends who find their way past the floats to our new abode……

Daily Thoughts

Christmas in Texas

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

I leave tomorrow for Dallas to the land of grandkids, mexican food and hopefully some cold weather. Am wishing it will snow one day while we are there. It has been a year since moving here to California. I have to say that it has been a year of mixed emotions. We love it here and love the people God has placed in our lives. We also miss family and friends which have been so dear to us over the years there in Dallas.
We have lost a good friend this year and also Randy’s mom. Moving away from home and family and friends was truly a bit out of my comfort zone, but God was faithful. Our youngest son was married in September and we have another grandchild on the way. We have much to be thankful for, and also some precious memories from this past year.
Merry Christmas to each of you. Thank you for reading this blog. You have been such an encouragement to me to continue writing and I love it when I see comments to the posts.
Wishing you a most glorious Christmas season and may God’s Blessings be upon you!

appetizers

Stuffed Mushrooms

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

We had some friends over last night for dinner and I made spaghetti and meatballs fresh green beans sautéed with dill and garlic. Wanting them to have something the minute they walked in, I decided at the last minute to bake some stuffed mushrooms. They took 10 minutes and our friends raved about them. If you are needing a quick, delicious appetizer, try these. They were really good and very easy to prepare.

1 large container large button mushrooms, cleaned and the stem cut out and chopped up in a different bowl.
1 tabels dried onion flakes which I soaked in about 2 tables water, then drained after about 5 min.
1/2 cup chopped fresh spinach ( I used fresh baby spinach and just chopped up in skillet as I was sauteing the mushroom stems, which I chopped up in small pieces
4 tables butter
1/2 teas garlic powder or 1 clove fresh garlic
1/4 cup italian seasoned bread crumbs or just plain bread crumbs if that is what you have.

Melt butter in skillet. Place chopped mushroom stems, onion flakes, spinach leaves and seasonings and saute over medium heat until mushrooms and spinach are tender.
Place whole mushrooms in a baking dish, which I lined with foil and sprayed with Pam. Fill each mushroom with about a tables of filling. Sprinkle a little olive oil over mushrooms and then sprinkle Kikoman sauce over mushrooms. Place about 1/2 teas parmesan cheese over tops and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 15-18 min. Serve warm.

Chocolate · Daily Thoughts

Simple Easy Fudge

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

This is one of those recipes that you can make without even getting the recipe book out after a couple of times. It has 4 ingredients and we have Debbie Stuart to thank for this little gem….she served it to Leadership Team a few Christmases back and thanks to her, I am now a size larger than I was before I began to continually make this, every time I have an extra 5 mins…..
*You can cut this up into tiny little pieces and use in place of chocolate chips in the Warm Fudge-filled cheesecake that I posted a few minutes ago.
1/2 cup water
2 cups sugar
3 tabels cocoa
Stirring constantly, bring the above 3 ingredients to a rolling boil and boil for exactly 1 minute.
Pour mixture over 1 cup of peanut butter and 1 teas vanilla. Stir quickly and pour into a buttered 8×8 pan. This cools fast. If you don’t want the chocolate fudge, leave out the cocoa.
You can use crunchy or smooth peanut butter.

Chocolate · Desserts

Warm Fudge-Filled Cheesecake

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

This really caught my eye in that it had the word WARM in in along with CHEESECAKE! During the blustery months of winter (well, here in California, blustery means below 70) but for all my sweet friends back in Texas and Virginia, I’m sure that you are wanting desserts that you can savor, sitting right beside the fireplace and believe me, this one is exceptional…..I just had an idea….why not just cup up small little 1/2″ pieces of cocoa peanut butter fudge and use instead of the mini-chocolate chips? Then you could drizzle peanut butter, which you have nuked for a minute over the top of the cheesecake before serving. IF you choose to do this, be sure and use peanuts for the nuts, if you decide to use nuts in the crusts.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tables vanilla, divided
2/3 cup chopped pecans, walnuts or pistachios (even almonds would be great)
4 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups (a 12-oz package equals 2 cups) semisweet chocolate mini-morsels
Sweetened whipped cream
Garnish chocolate shavings *optional
Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add 1/2 cup sugar, beating well. Gradually add flour, beating at low speed until blended. Stir in 1 teas vanilla and nuts. Press into bottom and 1″ up sides of a 9-in springform pan. Bake at 350 for 12-15 min or until golden. Cool on wire rack.
Beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until flight and fluffy; gradually adding 1 1/2 cups sugar, beating well.
Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears and the cellulite has begun to form on our……oops,sorry, just wanted to be sure you were paying attention….
Stir in remaining 2 teas vanilla. Do not overmix.
Pour half of batter into crust; sprinkle with chocolate morsels to within 3/4″ of edge. Pour in remaining bater, starting at outer edge and working toward center. Place cheesecake on a baking sheet.
Bake at 350 for 1 hr or until set. Cool on a wire rack 1 hour. Serve slightly warm with sweetened whipping cream, if desired, (and yes, we always do desire whipped cream, now don’t we?)
*Warm left over cheesecake slices in the microwave 30 sec before serving.