Wanted to share this with you. Last Wednesday, I went to our new grocery store that is absolutely wonderful. It made me feel like I was in Texas walking the aisles of Kroger, with the bright lights and wide isles. Oh to walk in a new grocery store is one of my favorite things to do. Just explore each isle and know that I will proably be taking home a new item, that I had never seen before. I was searching for the Sister Schubert Rolls, which were not there, but I am not complaining. I have learned to make do and have even made homemade rolls myself since the SS rolls are unavailable to us. But as I was walking through the deli, I spotted a bag of garlic-herb pizza crust. It was cheap and it looked just like what I would love to make for dinner. So I bought it and drove home all excited to make homemade pizza. It was so simple. I even threw it around in the air, just like you see them in pizza kitchens. I sauted 1/2 lb of italian sausage with onions and green bell peppers (you can adjust the amount you would want), with garlic and italian seasoning. While the meat mixture was cooking, I baked the dough for about 8-9 min after drizzling a little olive oil over it. Pulled it out of the oven and spread pizza sauce over the dough. Spread the meat mixture over the sauce and sprinkled 3 types of italian cheeses over this. Baked it for about 20 min at 375 until the cheese was bubbling. Took it out of the oven and let it sit for about 10 min. We thought it was one of the best pizzas we had eaten. So easy, took 30 min and was so inexpensive. Look in your deli/bakery for the dough which needs to be rolled out. Makes a great homemade pizza.
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.
Jay Leno, Here We Come
What a weekend! Tonight we have tickets to go to see Jay Leno so be looking for us. Looking back, I should have left my hair pink so maybe they would think we are younger than we look and pick us out to sit on the front row. We are wearing our Depends in case we do get up front and don’t want to look like “old foggies” that have to get up and head to the bathroom, halfway through the show. Ha. Tomorrow there is a huge car show in Glendale, which is the town right next to Pasadena and Paul Revere and the Raiders are singing on stage. Now, I know, they must be old, as they were singing when I was a teen ager. So Randy is all excited about tomorrow. Cars and Paul Revere, all in the same day. He has the whole day planned already. Luckily, since getting my hair cut yesterday, there is only about 2″ of hair on my head, so I can sleep a little longer as I won’t have to do anything to my it. Just get out of bed, shower and blow dry my hair, which should only take about 2 min…1 min per inch. My hair is officially shorter than Randy’s so it takes him longer to get ready than it does me. But….it makes the perfect cut for riding in a convertible. I have to tell you about last night. We go to eat our traditional Thursday night Mexican food but decided to try a different restaurant. When we pulled into the parking lot, they charged us $2.00 to park, so Randy pulls out $2.00 and hands it to the nice young man and he tells us where to park the car. After parking the car, we walked across the parking lot, having to pass the young man who took our money and Randy says to him, “does the $2.00 pay for you to watch our car to be sure nothing happens to it?” Oh my gosh, I was so embarrassed. The young man answered him by saying, “your not in Mexico sir, just a Mexican restaurant”…..I loved his comeback! But now I am too embarrassed to go back there, so guess we are now on another quest to find good Mexican food and hopefully we will be able to continue going back there unless Randy gets us thrown out of that parking lot.
Exercise and Haupia Cake
As you know, since we moved to California from Texas, we are living in our first condo and to say that we are pressed for space doesn’t really quite tell the whole picture. When you are used to those “big Texas houses with lots of storage” and move to a condo with one closet for the both of you, no pantry and sparce space for storing anything but cans of tuna, this was truly an “attitude adjustment” move. After selling everything we owned that was larger than a postage stamp, (well, not everything, I kept Randy and he kept me), we have had to be “creative” in how and where to store our necessary items for everyday living. We have crockpots and big serving dishes under beds and all the rubbermaid is in the utility closet, which also houses our washer and dryer, stackable of course. There is now the entire length of our hallway, shelves, full of cooking pots, pitchers, cookbooks, ice buckets, well, you get the idea. This all came to a head when the other night, with a housefull of guests (that was actually 4, which is all we can get in this place without making anybody sit on the potty, just to be able to sit during dinner) we were sitting down to eat, we discovered that I had not put out napkins. One of my sweet guests offered to go get napkins when I yelled, “NO NO” let me get them….I just didn’t have the heart to send her into the bathroom to look in the cabinet under the sink to obtain the dinner napkins. I was afraid that as she was digging through the rolls of toilet paper to get the napkins that she would discover the huge cans of tomato sauce that won’t fit into the cabinets in the kitchen, due to their height. So I ran to retreive the napkins, all the while smiling and saying, “oh my gooness, I needed to run to the “pantry” to get the new jar of parmesean cheese anyway, so I am glad to get the napkins”. As we finished dinner, the guests offered to help me clean up the dishes so we could play farkle (which is a whole other story sometime), but I didn’t want to tell them that they needed to be in great shape and were of the age that getting back up from being on their bellies on the floor, all the while pushing pans to the middle of the floor uner the bed, might be a little bit of a problem, so I just said, “oh no, lets not waste our precious time together, Randy will just help me later”. So we all gathered around the table and ended the evening with this great cake. The Haupia Cake. Bet you wondered how this story was going to finally get to the Haupia Cake, but we are almost to the recipe. I found this old recipe while going through some of our important papers, like wills, birth certificates, and old Southern Living magazines when I came across this recipe from years ago. It is such a moist, delicious coconut cake and you can leave in in the fridge a few days and it just keeps getting better and better. After I went to the garage to get my Kitchen Aid mixer out of the trunk of the car, I made this cake as a surprise for Randy, knowing he would love to have it as a dessert that night. He has been waking up at 5 every morning to go out walking. He and our friends loved the cake. He was so excited that in one sitting, he was able to put on the 5 lbs he had lost since walking. But what are cakes for? Since we are getting ready for out of town company, I need to go and move my cookie sheets out of the guests bed. Keeping them between clean sheets keeps the dust off very nicely and leaves me a little more room in my 2 kitchen cabinets for dishes I don’t have room for under the beds or in the bathroom. Need to leave a little space in there for the towels. So don’t ever let me hear you say you don’t have room to have people over for dinner. It just takes a little creativity…..and a cabinet in the bathroom!
Haupic Cake
Preheat overn to 350 Grease a 13 by 9″ pan
Prepare a yellow cake mix according to directions, baking it in the 13×9 pan. Cool completely and slice in half long ways to make two layers.
Prepare filling:
In a saucepan, mix 6 tablespoons cornstarch with 1 1/2 cups sugar. Stir in 3/4 cup water and a 12 oz. can of coconut milk. Cook over low heat stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Add 1 teas almond extract and 1 cup shredded coconut. Stire until smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
Spread filling between cake layers and on top of cake. Cool cake until the filling becomes firm.
When ready to serve, beat 1 cup heavy cream with 6 tables powdered sugar until it becomes stiff. Frost cake with the whipping cream and sprinkle shredded coconut over top. Refrigerate cake, keeping it covered.
Lemon Breakfast Parfaits
What a way to begin your day. These are something that you would see at a upscale restaurant. So easy and very good for you.
3/4 cup fat-free milk and dash of salt
1/2 cup uncooked couscous
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1/2 cup lemon yogurt
1 tables honey
1/4 tsp grated lemon peel
1 cup sliced peeled kiwifruit
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup fresh raspberries (or strawberries)
Chopped crystallized ginger and minced fresh mint
In a small soucepan, bring milk and salt to a boil. Stir in couscous. Remove from the heat; cover and let stand for 6-10 min ur until milk is absorbed. Fluff with a fork; cool.
In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, yogurt, honey and lemon peel. Stir in couscous.
Combine kiwi, blueberries and raspberries and spoon 1/4 cup into each of six parfait glasses.
Layer with couscous mixture and remaining fruit. Garnish with ginger and mint.
Pork Chops with Peppers and Onions
4 boneless porkchops, about 1″ thick
2 tables olive oil
Salt & Pepper
1 tables tomato paste
2 small red or yellow bell peppers, quartered and cut into 1/4″ slices
1 small onion, cut into 1/4″ slices
4 gloves garlic
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth
Warm oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Season chops with salt and pepper, cook until browned 3-4 min per side. Remove chops and sat aside.
Add tomato paste to skillet and cook, stirring for 15 sec. Add peppers and onion to skillet. Season with Salt & pepper. Cook, stirring occasionaly until vegetables start to brown, about 3 min. Add garlic and cook, stirring for 1 min. Add broth and bring to a boil, scraping up and stirring in any browned bits in the skillet. Return chops to skillet, reducing the heat to low. Cover with lid and cook until internal chops temp reaches 160 degrees. (this will take about 20 min) Serve over rice.
Hair Cut-Color Horror
Friends (well, if you can call them that, after laughing at me the last two weeks) have told me that I need to write about my hair experience the past couple of weeks. I would post pictures, but it is just too embarrassing for the world to see. Randy has been happy, because the “hair horror” has actually kept me at home. I keep waiting to see if maybe time will take care of the color and the cut, but so far, all I have gotten is texts from my kids telling me not to come back to Texas until this new color wears off. Let me begin at the beginning.
About 3 weeks ago, I was preparing to go visit family back in Texas. As it was time to color my hair, (yes we are cheap and color it at home), I thought I would surprise Randy and buy a little “lighter” shampoo in color and really get rid of the gray that was beginning to completely take over the blonde color that I knew God must have intended me to have, but He probably just ran out of bleach and just thought He would let me pick out what color blonde I really wanted to be. So through the years, the colors have gone from…well, let’s just say that sometimes, there have been colors that no one has every seen before, but….it kept life interesting. OK, back to the story,
I woke up on Fri before I was to leave on Mon. Got out my shampoo-in kit and proceeded to mix it. As I began to mix the color, I noticed that the color was one which had powder packets that meant that this was truly “bleach” and not just shampoo-in color. But…I thought to myself, this will really get rid of the gray, so I continued. As I was waiting the normal 30 min for it to develop, I began to see that the blonde was REALLY blonde, or should I say “white”. I hurridly washed it off and lo and behold, there was a total stranger staring back at me from the mirror. I looked like Tammy Fae Baker without the lipstick. I hurridly drove to Sallys to buy a frosting cap but told the guy I wanted one that had bigger holes, so I would have more red color to get rid of this awful white color. He sold me a “chunky cap” which lets you pull big chunks of hair out to frost. He looked at my hair and reminded me that my hair was now a blank slate in which would really intensify any color put on it so to be careful. I thought to myself, “now what does this little smart alec guy know about hair color, he is just probably a shelf stocker and after all, I have been coloring my hair for about 50 yrs now. I know what I am doing” So I come home and put the red color that I had bought when they didn’t have my #67 red that I always use. It looked very close to what I was use to using, so how different could it be? Well, after I pull huge chunks of hair out of the little holes all over my scalp, I apply the red…..30 min later, I take off the cap and OMGosh, I look like Christmas. I now have Christmas red and white hair. Now I am really crying.I call Randy and ask him to please make a stop at the drug store to buy more hair color. He does and calls me from CVS. He is reading all the “red” colors while I am on the computer trying to see what color he is describing to me over the phone. He buys “Chile Pepper Red” and comes home. We once again, are hoping that this color will bring the Christmas red down a notch or 10. We color all of the top of my hair, trying to leave some of the blonde to make it look like it is supposed to be frosted. Well, I now looked like a gypsy. I cannot even make myself go to church the next day because it is just flaming red with still “white streaks”. I wash it with Gain laundry detergent, Pomolive Hand soap, Tide, anything to help strip the color out. Nothing is working. Monday arrives and I have no choice but to head to the airport. People are staring, some are snickering but I hold my head high and make them think that I “meant to do this”. Upon arriving in Dallas, well, how do I put this? I sent out texts to everyone I might be seeing to warn them that if I see even one little smile cross their faces, I would write about them in my blog the rest of their lives. My daughter, Jodi, had to turn away when she saw me she was laughing so hard. As I continued to wash it over and over trying to get all that awful red out, my hair slowly fades to pink. So now people were coming up to me and sayin, “oh, you have pink hair”. Yes, I had pink hair, so I have gone from looking like a gypsy to a 60 yr old punk rocker.There have been to many comments to post on here, but as soon as I got home last week, I went and bought another red color kit. Now it was black/dark cherry red. Maybe getting it cut would take some of the black color out, so I ran into SuperCuts because there is no way I am going to go around looking like an old punk rocker with pink/dark cherry red hair. The girl cuts my hair and asks me how I got my hair that color. I didn’t have the energy to tell her. She finishes cutting my hair and Randy is waiting for me. We get in the car with me having wet hair. I run into the house and wash it and dry it only to discover that the sweet young lady who probably just graduated that morning from beauty school cut my hair about 2 in shorter on one side than the other. So now I have lopsided, dark red hair that continues to gather looks when I walk down the street. Let’s just say that the way I look, I should be wearing about 6 earrings and one in my nose, and lots of tattoos. I always wondered what it would be like to be the center of attention…..now I know! At least when we go see Jay Leno on Fri night, you will be able to spot me in the audience. Will hope this story has a happy ending. I go to the beauty shop on Thurs. If it looks better than it does now, I will post a picture to let you know,that I will now be able to go out of the house without sunglasses and a hat.
Ease Blueberry Skillet Coffee Cake
This is so cool. Just bought a new Paula Deen Cookbook and when I saw this recipe, I knew I would have to make it and share it.
Streusel Topping
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tables butter
2 1/2 tables flour
1 teas ground cinnamon
Coffee cake
2 tables unsalted butter
2 tables light brown sugar
One 12-oz tube buttermilk biscuits
1 cup blueberries, fresh or thawed frozen ones
Preheat oven to 375. To make the streusel, combine the almonds, sugar, butter, flour and cinnamon in a food processor and pulse until large crumbs form.
In a 9 in skillet (cast iron if you have one), cook the butter and brown sugar over medium heat until melted. Arrange the biscuits in a single layer in the skillet. scatter the blueberries over the biscuits and the streusel topping over the berries. Bake until the biscuits are golden and a tested inserted in the center of a biscuit comes out clean, about 30 minutes.
Red, White and Blue Cheesecake
One of the most wonderful gifts from above is cheesecake. Any flavor, any style, dessert just doesn’t get better than cheesecake. This recipe came from Taste of Home and is not only so delishious, but makes such a striking presentation. It is so worth the time it takes. Do not be afraid of making cheesecakes, they are not hard, just follow the steps and you will be so rewarded when you set this on your table at all the “wow’s, youu made that?”
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1/4 cup cold butter
2 egg yolks
1/2 vanilla
In large bowl, combine flour, sugar and lemon peel. Cut in cold butter until crumbly. Whisk egg yolks and vanilla, add to flour mixture, tossing with a fork until dough forms a ball.
Press onto the bottom and 3 in up the sides of a greased 9 in springform pan. Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 5-8 min or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.
FILLING
5 packages softened cream cheese (8 oz size) Yes, it has that much cream cheese, why do you think this is so good?
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup half and half cream
3 tables flour
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 egg yolk
1 cup creshed strawberries
1 cup creshed blueberries
Assorted berries, to top the cheesecake
For filling, in a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in the cream, flour, lemon peel, salt and vanilla. Add eggs and yolk; beat on low speed just until combined.
Divide batter in half. Fold crushed strawberries and crushed blueberries into half of the batter. Pour into crust. Top with remaining batter. Return pan to baking sheet.
Bake at 400 for 10 min. Reduce heat to 300 and bake 60-70 min longer or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire raack for 10 min. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight. Remove sides of pan to serve. Garnish with assorted berries. I also bought the Maria’s strawberry glaze to drizzle over the top.
*Even if your cheesecake cracks a little on top, no one will know because of all the fresh berries that top it.
Dark Chocolate-Cherry Cookies
Paula Deen does it again, where does she get thesegreat recipies? Do you think she just lays in bed at night and comes up with more delicious ways to use butter? No matter where she gets them, they are always delicious and this one even has dark chocolate in it, so I feel better about eatting the cookies, saying that, “I am only eatting them because they are healthy. They have fruit and dark chocolate in them, which makes them healthy” Are you on board with me on this?
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 teas baking powder (if you are a new baker or cook, you will discover that cookies with baking powder instead of baking soda tend to be a little more softer than ones baked with baking soda. The ones with the baking powder bake up fluffier (is that a word) than the ones made with baking soda, which tend to spread more on the cookie sheet and get a little more crispy)
1/4 teas salt
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 teas vanilla
1/2 cup chopped dried cherries
1/4 cup chopped unsweentened dark chocolate
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in vanilla. Beat in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in cherries and chocolate and chill 1 hr or until firm.
Preheat oven to 350. Drop dough by tablespoons 2 in apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 11-14 min, depending upon your oven or until lightly browned around the edges. Cool completely on wire racks. (I don’t do this, I cool cookies on paper towels as I think cooling them on the wire racks makes them more crispy than I like them. I love soft fluffy cookies so if you do also, cool them on paper towels. You may also substitute bittersweet chocolate for the unsweetened chocolate if you prefer.
Fireworks and Fellowship
This past weekend ended up being such a great time. As you know, this was our first July 4th since moving to California in Jan. Some friends invited us to their lake house for the weekend where we experienced not only some amazing food, but made some great memories with new friends. Randy and I had rack of lamb for the first time and discovered that we liked it alot. Our host baked German pancakes with fresh sliced cinnamon apples to pour over the pancakes with fresh butter and lemon juice. We feasted on baby back ribs, egg strata, pita bread and hummus and several new recipes that I cannot wait to cook. We drove back home yesteray only to realize that the best fireworks show in the Los Angelos area was right around the corner. So we loaded our chairs and poured us a glass of tea and headed for the Rose Bowl to be totally blown away at the beautiful fireworks being set off right before our eyes. Although Randy and I talked about how much we missed Sevy and Jaden, our grandsons, who always went with us to watch fireworks, God blessed us with precious new memories and we came home feeling so thankful for all we have. It was a most enjoyable Fourth of July.
Chocolate Castles 