Thanksgiving

Pumpkin Cake (Diabetic)
Carrot Cake recipe from an egg carton
Saugus, California 1980

1 cup Sugar (original recipe 2 cups)
1/3 cup Agave
2 cup Flour 1 cup white, 1 cup white wheat
1 tsp Salt
2 tsp Pumpkin Pie spice
2 tsp Baking Soda
1lg carton Egg Beaters
3/4 cup Salad Oil
2 cup Cooked Pumpkin Puree

Pre-heat oven 350 degrees
Grease two round cake pans
Mix all dry ingredients and sift
Beat pumpkin, eggs and oil together
Add dry ingredients and mix well

Icing
1 pkg reduced fat cream cheese
2 sticks lowfat margarine (promise)
splenda to taste (doesn't take much)

Since this icing did not have bulk from the powdered sugar normally used I piped rossettes onto the cake - this covered the cake without being a think heavy layer

the cake was dense and moist - almost like pie without the crust - due to the extra eggs? did not need much icing - could even be served with some whip cream instead fo icing as it is so much like pie.

Derby Pie


1/2 c. butter, softened (promise)
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. plus 1 tbsp. flour
6 oz. pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1.5 c peacans (use more next time?)
1 unbaked pie shell

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add flour
and blend until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake in a preheated
325 degree oven for 60 minutes or until center is set and
top is golden. Cool at least 1/2 hour before serving, but
is best while still warm.
I reheated it before serving.

Cauliflower Gratin

1 small Cauliflower cut into 2 inch pieces
1 can evaporated skim milk
1/2 cup 2% cheese - any kind
2 TB smart balance
ground pepper
salt

bake at 400 for 1 hour

Pumpkin Muffins 2

Pumpkin Muffins 2

I went to make my perfect pumpkin muffins and realized i was out of yougurt. Without something sour I had to change from baking soda to baking powder. I made 12 little muffins, but could have made only 9 or 10.

INGREDIENTS

5TB Agave Nectar
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 eggs

Dry:
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup oat bran
3/4 cup dry milk
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
OR
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamon
3 cloves
and some fresh ground nutmeg - maybe 1/2 tsp

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and a muffin pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients and set aside.
3. Beat together egg, yogurt, agave nectar, pumpkin and apple. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients.
3. Bake for about 20 min in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean
These are great - perfect texture - no hard exterior like my pumpkin loaf. I think these are close to fat free,they are sugar-free and whole grain.

Posted by KitchenPrincess at 6:07 AM

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miniature wedding cakes

We got engaged on Labor Day!!!!
So I made these miniature wedding cakes to surprise our grandmothers with the news.
I made basic white cake baked in a jelly roll pan. I used different size cirlce cookie cutters to cut out various size circles for the layers. I used 3 layers on the bottom
2 layers in the two top layers. Between the layers I spread lemon curd. I then covered the cakes with white chocolate ganache and decorated with ganache dyed with gel food coloring.

These were so easy and would be cute for birthdays too.

Apple layer cake

Cake
1.5 cup sugar
2 c flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
touch of fresh ground nutmeg
2 tsp soda
4 lg. or 6 sm. eggs
1.5 c oil
2 cups grated apple

grease three round pans
mix all dry ingredients
beat eggs and oil together
add to dry ingredients and mix well
mix in apples
bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes

i use these special contraptions that your wrap around the pan to make the care bake without a bump in the middle. i highly recommend these things - they are great. if you have uneven layers you must even them with a bread knife and put the crumb end facing the filling.

Filling - Apple curd
3 cups diced apples
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick of butter
2 egg yolks

cook apples, butter and sugar until dissolved and cooked through
add egg yolks and cook until thickened

cool cake and filling
assemble cake with filling between layers.

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream

2 large egg whites
1.5 cup sugar
1.5 sticks of butter
2 tsp cinnamon

combine egg whites and sugar in heatproof blow of an electric mixer placed in simmering water. Wisk until the mixture is 160 degrees.
beat until stiff peaks form. add butter one tablespoon at a time. add cinnamon and bet until smooth

ice cake with buttercream


This was a great cake! This is my mom's carrot cake recipe - i just used apples instead of carrots. I always get compliments on the carrot version - so i figured this would work.

Low-Fat Au Gratin Potatoes

The pan you use for this makes all the differrence. You need some sort of shallow ceramic pan with a lot of surface area. Maybe a lasagna pan. If all else fails use a shallow disposable aluminum pan.
Preheat oven to 350.
slice 2.5 lbs yukon gold potatoes very thinly - i used a food processor
line the bottom of the pan with a layer of potatoes
cover with shredded cheese of your choice - i used 2% milk mexican (as long as it doesn't contain hot peppers)
sprinkle with salt and a little black pepper
cover with another layer of potatoes, then cheese and so on
on the last two top layers dot with butter ( I used smart balance)
Once it is assembled carefully pour two cans of evaporated skim milk over the layers
bake for at least 1.5 hours
serve with turkey meatloaf
possible additions: onions and or green peppers
ham

Perfect Pumpkin Muffins

I continue on my quest for a really healthy muffin I can eat for breakfast during the week. I modified my pumpkin bread recipe a little and made muffins.
INGREDIENTS

5TB Agave Nectar
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 apple shredded
1/2 cup nonfat yogurt
1 egg
Dry:
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup oat bran
3/4 cup dry milk
3/4 cup flax seed meal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
OR
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamon
3 cloves
and some fresh ground nutmeg - maybe 1/2 tsp

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and a muffin pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients and set aside.
3. Beat together egg, yogurt, agave nectar, pumpkin and apple. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients.
3. Bake for about 20 min in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean
These are great - perfect texture - no hard exterior like my pumpkin loaf. I think these are close to fat free,they are sugar-free and whole grain.

Whole Grain Zucchini Muffins

Super Whole Grain Muffins
I now work 2 blocks from whole foods and i am obseessed with their vegan banana walnut muffins
So i am trying out a supe healthy muffin for breakfast during the week

1 zucchini
1 small apple
1 egg
½ cup yogurt
½ cup applesauce
2 tablespoons agave nectar
puree in food processor

in blender grind
½ cup quinoa
½ cup oats (meant to use oat bran)
½ cup of flax meal

1 cup dry milk
1 cup white wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg

add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the food processor and combine
bake at 350 for 14 minutes

Whole Wheat Crepes

these were so good!

1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 cup milk

mix milk & eggs in blender, add flour and salt
heat a good quality 12 nonstick pan over med-heat until water sizzles
pour 1/4 cup of batter into pan and tilt pan until batter covers surface
cook for a minute or two -you will be able so see the batter cook before your eyes
flip carefully using a spatula
These are good rolled up and served with butter and syrup - but i love them with berry filling - and we have like 10 bags of mixed berries in the freezer - which is what inspired this breakfast

Berry filling

1/2 bag of frozen mixed berries
2 tsps lemon juice
sprinkling of stevia

cook over high until defrosted - then turn down to med while you cook the crepes

line crepes with berry filling and roll up

Super Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies

I couldn't fina a peanut butter cookie that was whole gran and used only honey as a sweetner - so i made this up comletely from scratch - i hope they work out. I bought some peanut butter i htought was natural and it turned out to be super sweet - it had sugar and honey - so i figured i would use it in cookies.
1 cup sweetened natural peanut butter
1/2 cup agave nectar or honey
2 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce
blend
add 1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup oatmeal processed in the blender
mix dry:
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
bake at 350
drop by tablespoonfuls onto a baking sheet - i used my kitchen gadgets - a cookie scoop and silpats
otherwise spray the pan with baker's joy
looks likt they need a little longer than 10 minutes
i may have used too much baking powder - these are looking like little peanut butter biscuits.....
they taste good - not too rich and not too sweet -maybe if i had added some butter they would have spread more

"Honey Cakes"

The BF and i went to the international festival and had a really yummy honey cake that tasted like gingerbread, but with more spice. He loved them. I found a recipe online and altered it in that i used whole wheat flour and agave, a sweetener that is safe for diabetics and more spices than what they called for. Since agave is actually sweeter than sugar I left out the brown sugar the original called for. These turned out pretty well for whole wheat cookies.
The original recipe also included a glaze of powdered sugar which I didn't do.

Lebkuchen "Honey Cakes"

Ingredients:
2-3/4 cups 'white' wheat flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 agave

1/2 cup dark molasses

1/2 cup powdered milk

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1 large egg


Preparation:
1.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 15X10-inch jelly-roll pan; set aside. Combine flour, dry milk, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices in a medium bowl. Bring molasses to a boil over medium heat; add agave and butter. Remove from heat; cool 10 minutes. Stir in egg.

2.
Place molasses mixture in large bowl. Gradually add flour mixture. Beat at low speed with electric mixer until dough forms. Stir in almonds with spoon, if desired. (Dough will be slightly sticky.) Spread dough evenly into prepared pan. Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until golden brown and set. Remove pan to wire rack; cool completely.

3.
Prepare Glaze. Spread over cooled bar cookies. Let stand until set, about 30 minutes. Cut into 2X1-inch bars. Store tightly covered at room temperature or freeze up to 3 months.

Stuffed Steak (Braciole)

2 1lb flank steaks
1 beaten egg
2/3 of a 10 oz package of frozen spinach, thawed and drained well
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup parmasean cheese
1/2 cup seasoned break crumbs
salt & ppper
italian seasoning
garlic, fresh or powdered
1 8 oz can of tomato sauce

pound steak thin if neccessary - season with salt and pepper
in a blender combine cottage cheese and egg - move to bowl and mix with spinach and bread crumbs
spread over steak
roll up steak and tie
brown steak rolls in vegtable oil on stove top
in glass baking dish combine tomato sauce, italian seasoning, garlic, salt and pepper.
Place steaks in tomato sauce and cover with foil
Bake at 350 for about 1.5 hours
Remove ties and slice steak rolls - serve with tomato sauce from pan

super healthy pumpkin bread

will it taste good....it is in the oven now...

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup SPLENDA® Sugar
3/4 cup dry milk
3/4 cup flax seed meal
1 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup low-fat sour cream
1 egg
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
OR
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamon
3 cloves
and some fresh ground nutmeg - maybe 1/2 tsp

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the splenda, flax meal, pumpkin, dry milk, sour cream and egg until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the pumpkin mixture until moistened. Spoon into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the crown of the loaf comes out clean
Wow - this looked sketchy while it was baking - looked kind of dry
but when i sliced it - there is very moist pumpkin bread inside - you wouldn't even guess it was completely whole grain and low fat - i will def make this again!

Dark Chocolate Cashew Biscotti

can you tell i have cashews sitting around the house...
the dark chocolate really hides the whole graininess of these
not bad I must say...

5 TB margarine
4 Tb splenda
dash of stevia
(or 5TB splenda)
1 egg
1 large egg white or 2 reg egg whites
3 TB water


3/4 cup oatmeal flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 TB special dark cocoa powder
1/2 cup dry milk
1/2 tsp baking powder

add dry to wet
form into loaf
bake at 350 for 20 minutes
slice and bake another 15 to 20 minutes - turning slices halfway through

Diabetic Orange Coconut Cashew Biscotti

My mom was recently diagnosed with Diabetes - so i am looking into some diabetic baking recipes
i came up with this as splenda apparently works well in biscotti and I just got a fancy new zester I was dying to try
These are so good! So Orangy I don't think you will notice they are 'diet'
I think maybe a little bit of salt should have been included
also I might try a splenda/orange juice glaze




5 Tb sortening (without trans fat)
5 Tb splenda
Beat together
continue beating add
1 egg
2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
zest from one orange
juice from half of orange

In a seperate bowl Combine
1/2 cup oat flour (oatmeal proccessed in a blender)
1 cup white flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup dry milk
1/2 tsp baking powder

add to wet ingredients
fold in 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut & 1/4 to 1/2 cup cashews

Mold dough into 12 x3 inch log
bake 20 min at 350
remove from oven and slice into 1/2 inch slices
put slices back in oven until crispy - about 15 minutes

Smore's Cupcakes

My brother is having a campout for his birthday and I have been looking for an excuse to try Smores Cupcakes. There are so many options - you could do a chocolate cupcake or a graham cracker cupcake...and you have to work marshmallow in...and it is better if it is toasted....
So chocylit had smore's cupcakes on her site and I like how she did a graham cracker crust on the bottom - so i used her cupcake recipe. I think a main component of smore's is that the chocolate is melty - so I injected the cupcakes with ganache. Actually injected cupcakes has been on my mind and I think that is what lead to the obsession with smore's cupcakes. So I think that actually worked out ok - there is a limit to how much you can inject so it may not be as chocolatey as I would like - we will see. For the toasted marshmallow component I scoured the internet for marshmallow frostings that you could toast. You can make frosting by melting down marshmallows or with marshmallow fluff, but many reports say that 7-minute frosting tastes a lot like marshmallow - and you can toast it!
So I made a batch of that straight out of Joy of Cooking and iced the cupcakes. When I got to the campsite I 'toasted' the icing with a kitchen torch. I imagine you could also toast them under the broiler.
They were a total hit and people were raving about the chocolate centers.
I took the photos on site with my camera phone - so not the best pics - but you get the idea.
I so want a kitchen torch now!

Creamy Mushrooms and Pork Chops with Noodles

1 carton baby bella mushrooms
1 can evaporated skim milk
1/2 cup onions (Frozen chopped)
1 TB minced garlic
1 TB smart balance margarine
6 thin boneless pork chops
whole wheat noodles, cooked
bavarian seasoning from penzys or any spice blend you like
salt & pepper

Brown pork chops briefly and move to oblong baking dish. Deglaze pan with some water, add onions, garlic and margarine. Cook down liquid and add mushrooms. Saute until mushrooms are cooked. Combine mushrooms with canned milk, spices and pour into oblong pan with pork chops. Bake at 350-400 for at least half an hour - serve over noodles

Other Version of Creamy Mushrooms and Pork Chops with Noodles

1/2 cup frozen chopped onions
1/3 cup frozen chopped green peppers
1/2 tb garlic
1 tb oil
satue over med high heat
add
4 thin boneless porkchops, seasoned with salt and pepper and cut into strips
brown
deglaze pan with some water
cook off water
add
1 can evaporated milk
1 can mushrooms
salt and pepper
and turn heat to high
cook for 10 minutes
add 3 oz low fat cream cheese
and stir until mixed in
add cooked whole wheat noodles and stir to cover noodles

Easter

Here are my Easter offerings for this year....I am going to my aunt's and the BF's aunts - hence 2 desserts. Well, I have been craving coffee cake - coffee-flavored cake to be clear- think coffee ice cream. I found a recipe at chockylit.blogspot.com - her recipe is for Vietnamese Coffee Cupcakes - but it worked fine as a cake. I will paste it below with the slight alteration I used. Recently I bought these do-hickeys that wrap around your cake pan to keep your cake from forming a dome - and then requiring you to trim it to get a nice shaped layer cake. I couldn't wait to try these! The are called "Evenbake Cake Strips" and you can see from the photos that they really worked! No trimming needed to form my nice layer cake. I also decided to try a Dacquoise layer. Dacquoise is simply meringue piped into the shape of a cake layer and then baked at 225 for 1.5 to two hours. Nuts are often incorporated - but I used freeze dried coffee as a flavoring. I haven't tasted it yet - the BF said it tasted like a coffee flavored toasted marshmallow. My friend at work said she liked it. We will see tomorrow how it tastes in the cake. You can see in the photo my dacquoise layer in a large Tupperware with some little mushroom pieces I also piped. Underneath it is the underside of another layer that didn't work out b/c i tried to remove it from the pan too early. To finish this cake I made a mocha buttercream. I tried making it with some blue bonnet light - which is not recommend for baking - it totally didn't work. I thought I might save us all some calories on Easter. That batch had two melted squares of baking chocolate and 1 packet of freeze dried coffee - it tasted great - but the light margarine didn't hold up. The second batch was done with normal margarine - but I was out of baker's chocolate. So I used dark cocoa powder dissolved in a small amount of hot water, along with freeze dried coffee. It turned out much better as far as the texture goes - but the mocha flavor was not as pronounced. The recipe below will yield the tastier kind. I assembled the cake as follows: cake layer on the bottom, a thin layer of mocha buttercream, the dacquoise layer, more buttercream, and the final cake layer. Then I went on to try a basket weave design on the cake. First I did a 'crumb coat' on the cake, then I applied the basket weave - I can't believe it worked! I thought it would be terrible and I would have to forgo the basket weave and ome up with something else. I colored some coconut with green food coloring for the basket filling and topped with some candy malted milk eggs. I hope it tastes good!

Moving on to the Bunny Cupcakes! I baked some buttermilk cake - the recipe came from my kitchen aid cookbook - but I used buttermilk instead of regular milk. I iced them with 7 minute frosting from the "Joy of Cooking". Then I went about decorating.
You will need the following: Large Marshmallows, Small Marshmallows, Coconut, Blue and Green Smarties, Pink Sugar, and Pink Jelly Beans.
1) Cut large marshmallow in thirds, discard middle third and dredge sticky sides of other pieces in pink sugar.
2) Adhere ears to iced cupcakes.
3) Coat faces in coconut
4)Insert pink jelly bean into cupcake to make nose. You only want a little of the short side peaking out - so you have to really push it into the cupcake.
5) Adhere sweet tart eyes - put some frosting on the back to make them stick
6) cut a small marshmallow in half and adhere under nose with some icing.
7) make pupils - color some icing darker than the eyes and dot on with toothpick
It was really pretty easy. For the pink sugar I dissolved a drop of 'neon' pink food coloring in about a teaspoon of water. This was then mixed into about 1/2 cup of sugar. It is a little moist - but still sticks to the marshmallows. It air dried and I may try to save it for future use - why pay for colored sugar?
Now I want to try:
1) making the better tasting mocha buttercream
2) injecting cupcakes with something yummy
3) a pecan (yes I am still on the pecan kick) with some rich chocolate icing and a layer of pecan dacquoise

Coffee Flavored Cake

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup strong brewed coffee
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons freeze dried coffee

1. Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
2. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each.
4. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
5. Measure out coffee and milk together.
6. Add the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine.
7. Dissolve the freeze dried coffee in the coffee/milk mixture.
8. Add the coffee/milk mixture and beat until combined.
9. Pour into prepared pans (I use baker’s joy)
10. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

Coffee Dacquoise
Have everything at room temp
½ cup egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
beat at high speed until peaks form
add 1 tb at a time
1 cup sugar
Pipe onto parchment or silpat
Bake at 225 for 1.5 to 2 hours

Buttermilk Cupcakes
2 1.4 cup flour
1 1/3 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ cup shortening
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

combine dry ingredients in mixer bowl. Add shortening, milk, and vanilla and beat for 1 minute, add eggs, beat for 30 seconds, scrape bowl, beat on high for 1 minute.
Scoop batter into cupcake liners using an ice cream scoop (with the clicker that releases the ice cream) or a cookie dropper that works the same way (this will require two scoops). The cupcakes should be 2/3 full.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Will not brown – check with cake tester

7 minute frosting
in the bowl of kitchen aid mixer combine:
5 tablespoons water
1 1/3 cp sugar
2 large egg whites
1 TB light corn syrup
Set bowl in a saucepan of simmering water. Wisk continuously until the mixture is warmed through (about 160F)
Beat on high until stiff peaks form, adding 1 tsp vanilla.

Mocha Buttercream

In bowl of kitchen aid mixer combine
4 large egg whites
1 ¼ cup sugar
Set bowl in a saucepan of simmering water. Wisk continuously until the mixture is warmed through (160) and sugar has dissolved.
Beat on high until stiff beaks form. Switch to the paddle attachment and add
3 sticks butter or margarine (room temp)
one tablespoon at a time
If it separates beat on medium-high until smooth again
Beat in
1 packet (2 tsps) freeze dried coffee dissolved in
2 squares of bakers chocolate, melted
This mixture should cool before incorporating it into icing

*Update* the Dacquoise layer turned gummy inside the cake-i won't try that again in this kind of cake-next time I will try a Mocha pastry cream. The cake was yummy - one comment was that I could even up the coffee flavor.

Easter Cookies

I have a bunch of Easter cookie cutter, as well as an Easter cookie stamp and an eager little helper. So I made up a batch of basic sugar cookie dough and a batch of butterscotch sugar cookie cookie dough (by substituting brown sugar in a regular sugar cookie recipe). I also had a set of neon food coloring which I used to color granulated sugar for sprinkling. This worked better than I thought it would. I just added a drop or two to about 1/2 cup of granulated sugar. I mixed it really well - the liquid food coloring tends to form little chunks, but with enough mixing you end up with evenly colored sugar. I also used the food coloring to color some icing which I made by mixing powdered sugar and water to desired consistency. For the little running rabbits, the rabbit faces, and the large eggs I used the regular sugar cookie dough. For the cookie stamp I used the brown sugar dough. The large egg cookie cutter came with a stencil that I used to make decorations with the colored sugar. This was really easy - even for the young helper that I had. For the rabbits I iced them and then topped them with coconut shavings to mimic fur. My little helper really enjoyed these. Finally, I painted the stamped cookies with a variety of icing colors. These were a little more difficult and I am not sure I am happy with the results because the details of the cookie are a little blurry. I think another dough more suited to a cookie stamp might have been better.

Chicken Alfredo

This was so good I had to enter it in the blog right away before I forget how I did it.
First I put water on to boil. Then I sprayed a large saute pan with the new pan olive oil mist. I sauteed about a tablespoon of chopped garlic - i buy the jar of prechopped garlic - for a few minutes. Then I added 1 pkg (6 pieces) boneless/skinless chicken thighs cut into bit sized pieces and seasoned with salt. This could also be done with 4 frozen chicken breasts - the would have to be cooked in some water until defrosted enough to cut into bite sized pieces and then cooked through and until liquid was reduced. While those are cooking I added 2 cups of whole wheat rotini to the boiling water. When the chicken is cooked through turn the heat down to low. After 5 minutes add about 3 TB of margarine (I use smart balance) and 1/3 of a package of low fat cream cheese and stir into chicken as it melts. Add 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and 2 tablespoons of light sour cream.
When pasta is cooked mix it into chicken mixture right in the pan. I also added some cooked frozen broccoli to mine - but the BF wasn't havin' it. This is low-fat - except for the cheese - and you could probably use less.

Chicken pepperkash

Recently I realized you can make some pretty good 'cream' sauces using low-fat or fat-free sour cream. Chicken paprikash and beef stroganoff were not staples in my house growing up because my mother considers sour cream to be the devil's work, along with yogurt, mayonnaise, cream cheese, and ranch dressing. Yet she eats blue cheese dressing - go figure. The BF has the same aversions, leading them to believe they are long lost cousins or something. However, unlike my mother, the BF is easily fooled. The BF hates sour cream - but has loved all of these.
If you serve my mom a cream sauce she will go hunting in the trash hunting for proof that an offending product was used. The furthest I have gotten is some chicken marinated in yogurt. That was only after she ate it in an Indian restaurant without realizing how it was prepared.
I wish I would have realized sour cream could be used this way a long time ago. I also think you could incorporate some cream cheese or lite cream cheese for all or part of the sour cream, but I haven't tried that yet.
From a few cookbooks I came up with this variation and gave it my own name:
Chicken Pepperkash:
In a large saute pan place 2-3 chicken breasts seasoned with salt and pepper. I used frozen so that is what I will describe here. I love recipes that allow you to use chicken breasts right out of the freezer. Open one jar of roasted red peppers in olive oil with garlic. Pour the oil/juice onto the chicken. Add about a half cup of chopped onions. Cook over med high until the chicken is thawed enough to cut into bite sized pieces. I use tongs and a knife and cut the chicken right in the pan. Continue cooking until most of the liquid has evaporated and chicken and onions are starting to sizzle a little. Turn heat down to low. Place about 3/4 cup of sour cream and the roasted peppers in a food processor and puree until smooth. Add sour cream mixture to pan, combine well and allow sauce to heat. The key is not to let the sour cream boil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over pasta with parm or romano cheese.

I am also including the beef stroganoff and chicken paprikash recipes I made because they truned out really well. Next I will try pork chops with lots of mushrooms over noodles - my mom always made that with cream of mushroom soup, but I am a purest and I hate cooking with canned soup.

Beef Stroganoff:
season 3 small steaks (inexpensive ones)with salt and pepper and cut into strips. Place in large saute pan and brown in a small amount of oil. When steak is done remove and add 1/2 cup onions. I always use the frozen chopped onions - I haven't cried in my kitchen in a long time. When the onions are beginning to brown add 2 small cans of mushrooms (drained) or i pkg fresh sliced mushrooms. When everything is looking nice and brown add steak back and add about 1 cup of sour cream - more or less depending how creamy you want it to be. Serve with pasta or rice. I think this would be good with some peas included, but I love peas so I may not be a good judge.

Chicken Paprikash:
Place 3-4 frozen chicken breasts, seasoned with salt and pepper, in a saute pan with 1/2 cup water. Cook until water evaporates and chicken is defrosted enough to cut into bite sized pieces. Add a small amount of oil and 1/2 cup frozen onions. Brown chicken and onions. Turn heat to low and add a generous amount of paprika - I add around 2 tablespoons.
Add 1 cup sour cream - more or less to taste. Stir until sauce is heated through. Serve with pasta or rice.

Bacon Cheese Whole Wheat Biscuits

Bacon and Cheese - and these actually aren't bad for you!
Anyway, these are really good served with scrambled eggs.

Makes 12 biscuits. Sorry no picture - the BF finished them off before I got a chance.

Ingredients:
6 slices Turkey Bacon, cooked and crumbled

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 ½ tsp salt

3 tablespoons flax seeds (optional)

1 tablespoon baking powder

4 tablespoons cold margarine - i used a "Promise" stick

1 cup buttermilk or skim milk

½ cup shredded low-fat process American cheese - i used velveeta which is kind of gross - but tastes good



Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Spray baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray; set aside or use a Silpat.

2. Combine whole wheat flour, 3 tablespoons, baking powder, in medium bowl. Cut in margarine with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add bacon, milk and American cheese; stir until just combined.

3. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 1 inch apart onto prepared baking sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove immediately from baking sheet. Serve warm.

Valentine's Ice Storm Breakfast

We had an Ice Storm on Feb. 13. We were at work and my friend had her daughter with her due to a snow day, she was facing a very long commute home in the deteriorating conditions. So we all hoped on a bus, leaving my friend's car behind, and came to my house for the night. We watched some cartoon network and made some cut-out cookies (which I did not get a picture of). A desire for Green Eggs & Ham was voiced several times throughout the evening.
I had no ham, but plenty of green food coloring and a heart shaped cookie cutter.
Personally, I coudln't stomach the green eggs so I went with the natural yellow.
We made it in to work on the 14th to deliver our cookies to everyone and spent at least an hour digging her car out.
I can't wait for spring!

Conversation Hearts Mini-Cakes

This is a pourable fondant project from the Wilton Site that I tried out.
Basically you bake a cake in a jelly roll pan and then cut out heart shapes. Ice with some buttercream and then pour colored fondant over the cakes. Finally you write the sayings in red icing. Sounded easy enough.
Since it is Valentine's I made these with extra spicy Gingerbread cake for the BF.
Also I had buttermilk left over from the baseball cake. The colors didn't quite turn out to be the pastel shades I was aiming for, but they are still pretty cute. The cake was delicious, the icing was a little sweet for my taste, but they were a big hit with everyone. Especially my surprise overnight visitor on the Valentines Eve.

BUTTERMILK GINGERBREAD
1/4 cup softened butter
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses
1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground caradamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup buttermilk

Line jelly roll pan with parchment paper leaving a 1 inch overhang for lifting the cake out later. Then spray the parchment with baking spray containing flour.

Combine butter, sugar, egg, and molasses and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Mix flour well with soda and spices. Add alternately with buttermilk to molasses mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Pour into jelly roll pan. Bake at 3500F for 30 minutes.
(If you don't want to use this recipe for this project reduce the buttermilk to 1/2 cup and use a 9 inch pan.)

Allow cake to cool and remove cake from pan using the overhangs of the parchment paper. Use a heart cookie cutter to cut out little heart cakes.

Quick "Buttercream"
for the first layer of icing I just beat together 1 cup of powdered sugar with 1/2 cup of butter

Pourable Fondant

Ingredients:
6 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted (1 1/2 lbs.)
1/2 cup water (4 ounces)
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla
gel icing colors


Place sugar in saucepan. Combine water and corn syrup. Add to sugar and stir until well mixed. Place over low heat. Don't allow temperature of fondant to exceed 100°F. Remove from heat, stir in flavor and divide in Icing Color. I attempted to generate pink purple and pastel green, but they weren't quite pastel. To cover cake, place cake or cookies on cooling grid over a drip pan. Pour fondant into center and work towards edges. Touch up bare spots with spatula. Let set. Excess fondant can be reheated.

I used purchased red gel icing to write the words, it didn't hold up after a day or two. Royal Icing would have worked better, but I wasn't sure if I could get it red enough.

Buttered Pecan Cookies

I gave up chocolate for lent and instantly started craving buttered pecans. I came up with this recipe by replacing the chocolate chips and walnuts in a chocolate chip cookie recipe with butterscotch chips and pecans. The butterscotch and the pecans go so well together -just like in butter pecan ice cream. Next time I would chop the butterscotch chips to get them more distributed through the cookie and actually add even more nuts, and possibly chop a little less. Maybe that is just because I am on a huge pecan kick, I don't know.
These are so good I though surely someone else had thought of this before, but in a quick Internet search I didn't find anything like this.

3/4 cup Crisco
1 & 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 Tbs milk
1 Tb vanilla
1 egg
1 & 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup pecans, chopped

Award Winning Brownies

Last fall I won a brownie bake-off at a local chocolate festival. So I figured this 'signature' recipe of mine should be one of the first I include in this blog. Basically these are extra chocolatey due to the use of Hershey's Special Dark cocoa and I used the recipe for the filling of my grandmother's nut tassies and spread it over the top of the brownie batter. These really are good - I knew I had a winner when I brought the test batch into work and not only were they gone - my office mates dug into the box I was planning to take to the post office for a friend. These were also featured in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

I will add a picture next time I make a batch.

1st Place Brownies

Brownies
2 sticks butter
2 c sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
¾ c Cocoa
(Hershey’s Special Dark)
1 c flour
½ tsp b. powder
¼ tsp salt
Nut topping
3 eggs beaten
3 Tb melted butter
3 tsp vanilla
2 ¼ c brown sugar
¾ tsp salt
3 c finely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350
Grease 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan


Melt butter in microwave, cool to room temp.
Stir in sugar and vanilla.
Beat in eggs one at a time.
Beat in cocoa.
Beat in flour, baking powder and ¼ tsp salt
Pour into prepared pan

Combine all ingredients for nut topping except for walnuts and mix thoroughly. Fold in walnuts.
Drizzle nut topping over brownie batter, being careful to completely cover edges. Some of the topping will leak over to create a caramelized bottom on the brownie.

Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes until toothpick comes out with fudgey crumbs.
For neatly cut brownies, score the brownies shortly after removed from the oven.

Cool completely, then finish cutting.
Yields 24-30

Baseball Cake (Fondant Experiment)

Is it just me or do you think you could make beautiful cakes like the ones on the food network too...if only you had gone to culinary school instead of college...and you didn't work full time...alas, I decided to venture into the world of fondant anyway.
This is probably the best coconut cake I have had - but we are here to talk about fondant first and foremost.
For my first attempt I choose an easy shape - a baseball. I made the fondant several days ahead - a no-fail recipe from Peggy Weaver

http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm
Sorry I can't get the link to work.


I baked the cake in a round pyrex casserole dish, cooled it overnight, then seperated the cake, filled it with cocounut filling, and iced it with a thin layer of buttercream. This is what is recommended on every website and I also saw it done on the foodnetwork - so it must be true - ice with butter cream first before applying fondant.
I rolled out the fondant on cornnstarch as directed - but it stuck. So I ended up rolling it out on wax paper and then transfering it to the cake - which was on a plate that was just the right size. I let the fondant hang down and adheared it to the cake then trimed the bottom. It was easier to work with than I thought, but my cake still had minor imperfections. I smoothed over blemished in the surface with wet fingers and that worked well. As for the strings - I intened to buy that spray can of red icing (betty crocker) and draw them on. However, a new product is on the market (also from Betty Crocker)- a form of food spraypaint - and it comes in the same can as the spray icing - only smaller. So I accidently purchased that. It worked out to be serendipity becuase I just cut the laces out of rolled fondant and spray painted them red. The whole project worked out much better than I had anticipated - which doesn't happen very often.
The cake tasted great I must say - I didn't eat the fondant part - but those who did said it was good.
For the fondant recipe see Peggy Weaver's site - I am no expert! I encourage you to try this - it really isn't that hard.

Coconut cake:
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sugar
5 egg yolks
1 teaspoon soda
5 egg whites
2 cups plain flour
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup of coconut milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
Cream butter and shortening with sugar. Add egg yolks. Sift flour and soda together. Add alternately with buttermilk and coconut milk beginning and ending with flour mix. Beat egg whites until stiff. Fold egg whites into batter gently so the batter is as light and fluffy as possible.
Pour into greased/floured pans or cassarole dish. I used Baker's Joy spray that has flour in it - I love that stuff!

Coconut filling:
1 cup frozen fresh coconut
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon coconut milk
2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten

Combine milk, butter, and creamed coconut in a small saucepan over medium-low heat; cook, stirring, 3 to 4 minutes. Whisk one-third of the hot milk mixture into egg yolks. Return mix-ture to saucepan; cook, stirring constantly, until it is the consistency of pudding, about 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Stir in coconut. Let cool, I press saran wrap onto the surface so that no 'skin' develops on top. Refrigerate - I make a day in advance.

I had extra coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk, and buttermilk when I was done.
I hate to throw all that away, if not for the wastefulness then because I don't want to make a special trip for coconut milk next time I make this cake. So, I freeze it. What I do is open a small sandwhich size Ziplock into a coffee cup. I pour the milk into the ziplock and seal it, pressing out any air and it is ready for the freezer. It is really nice to have aliquots of buttermilk in the freezer because it makes great muffins, pancakes, biscuits, and cakes - but i never just happend to have some in the fridge.

Spicy Gingerbread Hearts (Sprtiz Cookie)

The BF loves gingerbread and 'windmill' cookies, so I adapted the spice combination to this heart shaped cookie for Valentine's Day. I purchased whole nutmeg, cloves and cardamom. Which I grated or ground with a mortor and pestle. Next time I may increase all the spices to so that this cookie will taste more like a "windmill" than gingerbread. Recipes I have seen for 'windmills' call for one and a half tablespoons of mixture of ‘speculaas kruiden’; a mixture of the 5 spices featured here.
I used the attachemt that makes the heart shapes it has three openings that are petal shaped.



Gingerbread Spritz

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ginger
pinch cardamom

In mixer bowl beat together butter or margarine, molasses and brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla extract; beat well. This mixture may separate.

In another bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, cloves, ginger, and cardamom. Add to creamed mixture. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Cover and chill 1 to 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

This is difficult dough to work with. Use only a small amount at a time and keep the rest in the fridge. Fill the cookie press and press cold dough onto a warm ungreased cookie sheet for best results. I used my Silpat.
Bake for 7 to 10 minutes or until set, but not brown.