We are headed back to Texas! We have been in Phoenix where we went looking for a house! We found just the perfect one for us! Actually we looked at it last August for the first time! It had just been listed and the minute I walked in the door, I could sense the feel of “home”! We returned to Phoenix again in November, after being in CA, to see our kids and to once again go “looking”! The house was still available! When we were told that it would not be available to buy until the end of April, we began to ask the Lord to please “hold” it for us! And that He did! We went back this past Saturday and put a contract in it! We are thrilled that God showered us with this gift of the only house we looked at that, each time we looked at it, there was just not any negative in it! We loved the beautiful back yard, the Arizona room (that’s the fancy name for screened in porch) and all the windows just was exactly what we wanted!
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.
Green Chile Breakfast Casserole
Looking for a great dish to serve Easter weekend? This breakfast dish is a little different from the usual one you see and is “lighter” since there is no meat. Whip up some sausage balls to go along with this and a fruit compote and you have a perfect beginning to your Easter Celebration.
10 large egg
1/2 cup flour
1 teas baking powder
1 pint small curd cottage cheese
1 lb Monterrey Jack wheeze, shredded
7-8 oz can chopped green chiles, drained
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 13×9″” baking dish with oil or Pam Cooking spray.
Lightly beat eggs in large mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
Pour mixture into prepared baking dish. Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until casserole is bubbling and lightly browned on top.
Allow casserole to sit about 10 minutes before serving.
Serves 8 to 10.
Almond Tea
This past week has been a full week of packing up to leave Texas to a new adventure. In the midst of the packing, there was a luncheon I attended where I was just invited. I didn’t have to cook or bake anything. It felt a little weird but was nice to just go through the buffet line, load (and I do mean load) up my plate with salads and finger sandwiches. The hostess served this almond tea. It was just a hit with all of the ladies there. She kindly printed up the recipe and handed it out to anyone asking for it. I think I will just make up a huge pitcher and have it sitting in the fridge so I can drink it all day long. Kept thinking about this summer, our first in Phoenix and how good it will taste when it is 120 outside.
3 Tables lemon instant tea, (unsweetened)
1 cup sugar
2 cups boiling water
2 (6 oz) cans frozen lemonade
3 teas vanilla extract
3 teas almond extract
Mix tea and sugar together. Bring 2 cups water to a boil and pour over the tea and sugar mix. Add extracts and thawed lemonade to this and mix well. This is very concentrated, so use 2 parts water to 1 part concentrate when ready to use.
May be store for several days in fridge.
Makes 1 gallon: serves 10-12 unless I am at your house, then will serve about 2.
Sassy Saturday
Such a cold rainy day here in Dallas, and out of packing boxes until it quits raining and we can go buy more, I decided to look through some of my old post. This one was from 2012 and brought back so many fun memories! Hope it makes you smile!
Well, we were up and ready to head out this morning. Randy was feeling good after having gone back to work after his surgery this past week and life was good. We were excited to be having a “normal” Saturday in front of us as we headed out to storage to take some winter items and bring out new spring bedspreads, etc. We left storage feeling good that the storage unit did look like maybe there were getting less and less boxes to have to go through each season. Maybe the prior visits of us going through and refining really was working. Well, we load up our car, you know the one, the new one with the navigation system which, by the way, I have totally mastered.
We have arrived at Wal Mart and am just visiting and talking about how fast Randy’s head is healing after the surgery and…
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Baked Cabbage Steaks
Last evening, we discovered that something very simple to make can be extremely good! Wow, we were shocked at how good the cooking method could change the normal flavor of boiled or fried cabbage. I had seen this on FaceBook and decided to just try it last night. Even picky Randy who isn’t a real cabbage eater, said, “this is really so good” and ate all of his plate full. So see, something good does come from FaceBook!
1 large cabbage head, cleaned and outer leaves peeled away.
Seasonings: onion powder
Salt & pepper to taste.
Fresh garlic, minced (amount to your liking)
Olive oil
Cut cabbage into about 1 1/2″ “steaks” (I got 4 steaks out of the head of cabbage)
Place in a greased 9×13 baking dish. Drizzle olive oil over the steaks and season with the onion powder, garlic, salt and pepper to taste.
Place a sheet of foil over the dish and bake in preheated 350 oven for about 40-45 minutes. I took the dish out after 40 minutes and removed the foil, placing cabbage back in to get a little brown for about 5 minutes. Serve with a spatula onto plate.
Bang Bang Shrimp
Last night, my sweet hubby took me to Bone Fish Grill for dinner. We have been wanting to go back since we ate there in Ft Lauderdale, FL a few years ago and have just discovered that there is now one here. So off we went, all the while talking about the first thing we will do is order the Bang Bang Shrimp. If you have never had these, all I can say is, if you live anywhere close to a Bone Fish Grill, get there as fast as you can and order these little darlings. Your life will never be the same. As soon as we got in the car after dinner, we googled to see if there was a copy cat recipe of this and sure enough there it was. So am posting this to encourage you to make your way into this restaurant if possible, and if not, do yourself a favor and make this.
1 lb shrimp, shelled and deveined (smaller shrimp works great, but not the tiny ones)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup Thai sweet chile sauce
3-5 drops hot chile sauce
1/2-3/4 cup cornstarch, to coat the shrimp
Mix may with sauces for coating the shrimp. Set aside.
Bread shrimp in cornstarch.
Deep fat fry the shrimp until lightly browned.
Drain on paper towel, putting shrimp in a bowl and coat with the mayo sauce.
Serve in a lettuce lined bowl, top with chopped green scallions.
Pork Roast
A couple of days ago, taking a break from packing boxes, I got hungry for a pork roast! We texted (only old people call their kids) our kids and ask them if they wanted to come over for dinner. I think we all know the answer to that question anytime free food is involved! So I got busy and began to look for the necessary food items that I normally use for pork roast. They weren’t there, such as brown gravy mix, cream of mushroom soup and That brown stuff you sprinkle on meat that starts with Worches, but I can never remember the spelling and since I don’t have any in the fridge, I can’t run to check the spelling, so you will just have to guess what I’m talking about! Anyhoo since we are trying to use up all the items in our pantry and not keep buying I went with what I had in hand! It turned out so good! Will make this again as all four of us loved it! I used cream of celery soup, a packet of dry French onion soup and about 4-5 shakes of Kikoman sauce!
1 (2-3 lb) pork roast
2 tables olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 reg size can cream of celery soup
1 envelope of Liptons dry French onion soup kix
4-5 shakes of Kikoman sauce
garlicpowder to taste
pepper
in large Dutch oven heat with olive oil. Sprinkle roast with pepper and garlic powder to your liking! Because of the onion soup mix and Jimoman you don’t need to add any salt!
brown roast and sliced onion in hot oil on both sides about 3-4 min on each side. When roast is brown sprinkle it with the dry soup mix, then cover with cream of celery soup and splash in the Kikoman sauce! add about a can or more water to roast and bake st 350 for 2-3 hours! The last hour of baking I add cut up potatoes and carrots. Bake until roast is tender and veggies are done! The gravy this makes is so good!
So Many Thoughts, So Little Time
This appeared on my FaceBook memories and as I reread it, it occurred to me that some of these same questions which were in my mind 2 years ago, were once again questions as we move once again to a new place. Another adventure and once again, having learned new things about ourselves, we pray that the things we have learned here will be useful to us as we move to new surroundings as God once again “enlarges our territory”. Our prayer is that we leave having fulfilled our purpose in being sent here 2 years ago and willing to be used in however the Lord desires to use us in the new place!
As we are fastly approaching moving day, Wednesday, there are just so many thoughts going through my mind. One thought is, “I DON”T WANT TO GO” and another is “HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU PACK FOR TWO TO THREE MONTHS WHEN I CAN’T GET TO CLOTHES BECAUSE THEY WILL BE IN STORAGE SOMEPLACE”…where will we go for this new adventure? Will we travel to places which hold special memories or search out new adventures in places that we have always wanted to find..where will we be living around Dallas?… where will we be going to church? Will I be living in a house or a condo? Will we be able to just fall back into the life we left 3 years ago? Will we really spend the time with family that we intend?
Only time will reveal the answers to the questions. We have been up to Big Bear…
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Peanut Butter Chip Brownies
These brownies are so moist and seem to be just the perfect chocolate flavor that I was looking for last night. Instead of adding the regular semi-sweet chocolate chips, I added the bag that has peanut butter & chocolate chips. Love, love, love these brownies. Sprinkle a little sugar over the top as soon as they come out of the oven and you have yourself a winner! Super easy and quick and you could be munching on them as you watch the New Hampshire returns this evening.
2 cups sugar
2 sticks softened butter
4 eggs
1 cup flour
8 tables cocoa
1 (12 oz) bag of peanut butter/chocolate chips
1 teas vanilla
Cream softened butter with the sugar. Add vanilla and eggs. Stir just until blended. Add cocoa and flour, stirring just until mixed. Add the chips and then spread into a greased 9×13″ pan. Bake for about 18 to 23 minutes, depending on your oven. I take mine out just before the knife comes out clean as I like them a little gooey. Sprinkle with granulated sugar as soon as they come out of oven.
Chile Rellanos/Tkbakesalot Style
Randy and I are hooked! We have such fun making these so we look for anyone who is wanting to try them! Last week we had some family over who loves Mexican food so had told them we would make them! They brought guacamole and I fried flour tortillas into homemade chips! The difference is that I make green chile sauce to pour over the Rellanos and then sprinkle some cheddar cheese on top and put them in the oven for a min until the cheese on top is melted! I just googled “recipe for chile Rellanos” which is easy so am only posting the green chile sauce! There are several recipes that are posted for these do pick one that you like and use this sauce to make them extra flavorful!
1 small can (like a soup size can) chicken broth
1 small can mild green chiles (diced)
1 small can mild green chile sauce
1 stick butter
1/3cup flour
sslt, pepper & garlic powder to your liking
melt butter in large skillet! Sprinkle flour a little at a time over melted butter and whisking continually to avoid lumping. When you have a paste of the flour mixture add the green chilies, green chile sauce and chicken broth (a little at a time as you might not need all the chicken broth) and seasoning! Stir continually until mixture is thickened as gravy consistency! Set aside while you make the Rellanos and the top each Rellano with about 2 tables of the sauce mix! Sprinkle shredded cheddar over the entire pan and place in preheated 425 oven until cheese is melted!
I also use this green chile sauce over my chicken green chile enchiladas!
Chocolate Castles 