Wednesday, December 8, 2010
My Favorite Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake
I have been enjoying this cake for Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember. It's one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. My Mom used to make it and now the task usually falls to me. This is a rich, creamy bundt cake full of mini chocolate chips. It's perfect by itself or with some vanilla ice cream, yum! Making this cake is surprisingly simple but result is a cake that looks like it took a lot of time to make. Using a bundt pan makes the edge really pretty and the glaze is a perfect amount of sweetness to make this cake perfect.
I have no idea where the original recipe came from, I can now make this cake from memory, it's that easy!
Ingredients:
Cake
1 box vanilla or white cake mix
1 box instant vanilla pudding
½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1 bag chocolate mini morsels
Glaze
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
½ tsp vegetable oil
1-3 tsp milk (enough to make it smooth)
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
2. Mix first 5 ingredients together with a hand mixer
3. When smooth and well mixed, stir in bag of mini morsels.
4. Pour batter into a greased bundt pan and bake for 60 minutes
5. To make glaze, mix together confectioner sugar, oil and milk. Add more milk if necessary until the glaze is smooth and thin enough to pour.
6. Drizzle glaze over fully cooled cake and let set.
Traditional Pecan Pie
This year we had the pleasure of having my husband's family down for Thanksgiving. My Sister-in-Law got married the Sunday before Thanksgiving so we had a wonderful week with the whole family in town. My Mom decided to host the dinner because her house had more room than mine, so I brought a lot of dishes over to pitch in for the big Thanksgiving dinner.
I decided to try a traditional Pecan Pie recipe for one of the desserts. I used frozen pie crust and only a few ingredients to make this pie. It came out wonderful, gooey in the middle and caramelized on top. I will definitely be making this again!
Traditional Pecan Pie Recipe from RecipeZaar
Ingredients:
3 Eggs
1 Cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups Pecan Halves (I like them roughly chopped)
2/3 cup Sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 Frozen Pie Crust
Directions:
1. Preheat Oven to 350 F
2. Beat eggs lightly with a mixer until fully combined
3. Stir in corn syrup, butter, suger, and vanilla extract
4. Stir in Pecan halves
5. Pour into frozen pie crust
Tip: Cover edges of pie crust with aluminum foil for the first 25 minutes of cooking to avoid burning the crust
6. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until a knife comes out clean
Let cool for at least 10 minutes and Enjoy!
Creamy Cajun Pasta
I found this pasta recipe on Cook Like a Champion and decided to give it a try. It's a perfect weeknight recipe, really quick to prepare. I have never made a creamy past a sauce so this was a first for me. This dish really is delicious and the smoked paprika really makes the dish unique. I found the paprika at Penzey's spices in Winter Park but it's available at most supermarkets.
The first time I made it I used the heavy cream as called out in the recipe, but you can substitute regular cream or half and half, you'll just have to add a bit more and cook it down a bit. You can also use cajun sausage or shrimp in this dish instead of chicken, or make it vegetarian, it's very versatile.
Ingredients:
1 lb Chicken - cut into chunks and cooked (optional)
2 tsp Olive Oil
1/2 sweet onion - finely chopped
2 large cloves garlic - minced
1/2 Cup white wine
1 tbsp Tomato Paste
1 1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
1 1/2 tsp Cajun Seasoning
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 lb Rotini or Penne Pasta
Salt and Pepper to taste
freshly chopped Italian parsley for garnish
Directions:
1. Heat olive oil to medium-low heat in a large saucepan
2. Add onions and garlic and saute until translucent
3. Increase heat to medium and add white wine. Simmer for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add tomato paste and spices and mix well
5. Add heavy cream and heat up sauce until it reaches a slow simmer. Simmer on low for 5 minutes.
6. Mix in pasta and chicken to the sauce and serve
Enjoy!!!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Pasta with Bolognese Sauce
This is one of those recipes that always turns out fantastic and gets my family excited for dinner time. This is not a quick recipe, the longer it sits on the stove the better, so it's great for a weekend meal. I make it often for Sunday night dinner. I usually have enough left over to freeze a meal, just defrost it and heat it up in a saucepan when you are ready to have it again.
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman
Ingredients
½ cups Olive Oil3 Carrots, Grated or finely chopped
1 whole Large Red Onion, finely chopped
2 pounds Ground Beef or Meatloaf Mix
2 Tablespoons Dried Oregano
2 Tablespoons Dried Basil Flakes
1 can (6 Ounce) Tomato Paste
5 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 1/2 cups Red Wine2 Tablespoons Worcestershire
2 cans (28 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes (smoosh them with your hands as you add them to the sauce)
1 cup Milk
Salt And Pepper, to taste
Fresh Parmesan Cheese
Preparation Instructions
1. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or deep skillet over medium heat. Add carrots, onions and garlic and cook for a few minutes.
2. Make a well in the center of the mixture, and then add in the ground beef. Cook for a few minutes until brown.
3. Throw in oregano and basil. Use fresh if you have it; if you don’t, it’s fine.
4. When the meat is browned and combined with other ingredients, make another well. Add tomato paste and let it heat.
5. Make a well in the center of the mixture and add red wine. Stir together.
6. Add Worcestershire and stir.
7. Add canned tomatoes.
8. Finally, pour in milk, stir, and let simmer for 30 minutes to 2 hours—the longer the better.
Serve with pasta and a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.
Baked Whole Wheat Chicken Taquitos with Grilled Corn
My family loves Tex-Mex food but I hate how fattening all of the recipes are. It seems like everything is fried or covered in cheese. I found this recipe on another blog and changed it to use whole wheat flour tortillas. You can use corn tortillas as well but I've never been a big fan. To get shredded chicken, I usually boil 1 cup of chic
ken stock (1 cup water plus a bouillon cube) in a skillet, cover and simmer the chicken breasts for 7 minutes per side. They are fully cooked and shred easily when done.
I loved the way these turned out, they were really crispy on the outside and soft and melty on the inside. There was just enough cheese to make it rich without being overly fattening. We dipped them in salsa and sour cream. I served these with yellow rice and grilled corn.
Baked Whole Wheat Chicken Taquitos
Adapted from Pennies on a Platter
Ingredients
3 ounces cream cheese, softened (low fat optional)
1/4 cup salsa (green or red)1 Tbsp fresh lime juice (juice from half a lime)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp chopped cilantro (optional)
2 Tbsp sliced green onions (optional)
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Mexican flavored cheese16 small whole wheat tortillas
kosher salt
cooking spray
1. Preheat your oven to 425˚F.
2. In a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, salsa, lime juice, ground cumin, chili powder, onion powder and garlic. Once combined, stir in the cilantro and green onions. Add the chicken and cheese; mix thoroughly. (If you decided to prep this in advance, refrigerate the mixture at this point until ready to continue.)
3. Working with a few tortillas at a time, heat t
hem in the microwave between two paper towels until they are soft enough to roll (about 20 – 30 seconds).
4. Spoon 2-3 Tablespoons of the chicken mixture onto the lower third of a tortilla. Roll the tortilla as tightly as you can.
5. Place the rolled tortilla seam side down on the baking sheet. Repeat with remaining tortillas until the mixture is gone. Make sure the taquitos are not touching each other. Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle wi
th kosher salt.
6. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until crisp and golden.
7. Serve with salsa, sour cream or guacamole.
**To freeze: Before baking, chill the taquitos on the baking sheet in the fridge. Once completely cooled, wrap each taquito individually with plastic wrap. Place in a labeled freezer bag and freeze. To bake a frozen taquito (no need to thaw first): Preheat oven to 425˚F and bake for 20 minutes
Grilled Corn
Ingredients
4 fresh cobs of corn, husks and silk removed
oil (for grates)
Salt and Pepper, to taste
1. Preheat the grill to HIGH
2. Cook corn in boiling water for 5 minutes or until cooked, but not too soft.
3. Oil the grill grates
4. Cook the corn on the grill for about 5-10 minutes or until slightly charred.
I like to cut the corn off of the cob, that's the way our family likes it. You an also leave the corn on the cob and season them with butter and salt and pepper.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Chicken and Gnocchi Soup
Monday, July 19, 2010
Chicken Souvlaki with Fresh Pita Bread
Spinach Salad with Grilled Chicken
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Beef tips with gravy
I found this recipe on a few different cooking sites, so I figured it would be a good one to try. I make A LOT of chicken so I figured we could try a beef meal that tastes good but is still inexpensive (strip steaks are so pricey lately!). You can adapt this recipe to make large batches, just increase the amount of ingredients proportionally.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Yummy Pork Chops and Potatoes
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Shrimp Salad Recipe
This recipe was sent to me from my sister-in-law who made this for our Christmas Eve dinner a while ago and it was really good. She served it on crispy toast, yummy!
Melissa’s Shrimp Salad
(I got this recipe from Paula Deen on Foodnetwork.com and tweeked it a
little!)
1 pound cooked shrimp, peeled and de-veined
(I boil mine with salt and a little bit of Zatarain's Shrimp & Crab Boil,
drain and then peel them)
3 hard-boiled eggs, finely chopped
1 or 2 celery stalks, minced
1/2 cup mayonaise
Dash of onion powder
Pepper
Salt (or I just use some Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning)
Bread (to toast and put your shrimp salad on!)
Directions
Place shrimp in a food processor and pulse until finely minced. (I also did
this first with the celery I chopped.)
Transfer the minced shrimp and celery to a bowl and add the eggs and mayonnaise.
Add seasonings, to taste, and stir to combine
Spread the shrimp onto toast or whatever you would like!