PW Chocolate Sheet Cake

• FOR THE CAKE:
• 2 cups Flour
• 2 cups Sugar
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
• 2 sticks Butter
• 1 cup Boiling Water
• ½ cups Buttermilk
• 2 whole Beaten Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla

• FOR FROSTING:
• ½ cups Finely Chopped Pecans
• 1-¾ stick Butter
• 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
• 6 Tablespoons Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 pound (minus 1/2 Cup) Powdered Sugar

Preparation Instructions

Note: I use an 18×13 sheet cake pan.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.

In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir together.
Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.

In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.

While cake is baking, make the icing. Chop pecans finely. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together. Add the pecans, stir together, and pour over warm cake.

Cut into squares, eat, and totally wig out over the fact that you’ve just made the best chocolate sheet cake. Ever.

Chewy Pretzel Bites

from melskitchencafe.com

*Note: if using active dry yeast, increase the yeast to 1 tablespoon. Proof the yeast in the warm water and sugar (let it bubble and foam - maybe about 5 minutes) before adding it to the flour and salt.

*Makes about 2 dozen pretzel bites

Dough:

2 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast

1 cup (8 ounces) very warm water

Topping:

1/2 cup (4 ounces) warm water

2 tablespoons baking soda

Coarse salt (optional)

3 tablespoons butter, melted

In a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, place the flour, salt, sugar and yeast. Mix to just combine. Add the water and mix well, adding more flour, as needed, a bit at a time to form a soft, smooth dough that clears the sides and bottom of the bowl. Knead the dough, by hand or machine, for about 5 minutes, until it is soft, smooth and quite slack. The goal is to get a really soft dough that isn't overly sticky. Lightly flour the dough and place it in a plastic bag; close the bag, leaving room for the dough to expand, and let it rest for 30 minutes or up to 60 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 500°F. Don’t be afraid of the high heat! This is what will help those pretzels to brown up perfectly and stay soft on the inside. Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper or lightly greasing them.

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface, and divide it into about four strips of equal length. Allow the pieces to rest, uncovered, for 5 minutes. While the dough is resting, combine the 1/2 cup warm water and the baking soda in a liquid measuring cup (deep enough to dip the pretzel bites into). Make sure the baking soda is thoroughly dissolved. Sometimes I have a hard time getting the baking soda completely dissolved, so I just lightly stir up the mixture right before adding each pretzel.

Cut each strip of dough into about 6-8 pieces, about 1 to 1 ½ inches in width. You don’t have to be completely exact, just eyeball it. Dip each pretzel bite in the baking soda solution (this will give the pretzels a nice, golden-brown color), and place them on the baking sheets. Sprinkle them lightly with coarse, kosher, or pretzel salt. Allow them to rest, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

Bake the pretzels for 7-8  minutes or until they're golden brown. Bake one sheet at a time - it won't hurt the other pretzels to chill out for a little longer.

Remove the pretzels from the oven, and brush them thoroughly with the melted butter. Keep brushing the butter on until you've used it all up; it may seem like a lot, but that's what gives these pretzels their ethereal taste. Eat the pretzels warm, or reheat them in an oven or microwave on low heat.

Michael Will Like This

Andes Mint Brownies

from My Kitchen Cafe (www.melskitchencafe.com)

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup cocoa
½ teaspoon salt
1 package Andes mints (24-28 mints)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9X13-inch pan with foil and lightly grease with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa and salt. Set aside.

Unwrap all the mints and coarsely chop. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. Remove from the heat and add the sugar, stirring well to combine. Whisk in the vanilla and then the eggs. Blend well.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Gently stir in the chopped Andes mints. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 32-35 minutes, until the brownies are set in the middle but not overbaked. Let cool completely, slice into squares and serve

I Wanna Make This

This looks super yummy to me. Probably because all I have eaten today was a bunch of junk food, and it wasn't even good junk food. Oh well. I will make this someday. 

Baked Penne with Chicken, Brocoli, and Smoked Mozzarella
from Melskitchencafe.com

*Note: See the asterisk below the recipe for make-ahead directions.

*Serves 6-8

Topping:

3/4 cup bread crumbs (store-bought or make your own)

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:

1 bunch broccoli (about 1 ½ pounds), stalks cut off, florets trimmed into 1-inch pieces

12 ounces penne pasta

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, minced

6 medium garlic cloves, finely minced or pressed through a garlic press

1 teaspoon dried thyme

¼ cup all-purpose flour

2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 3), trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces

3 ounces smoked mozzarella, shredded

8 ounce jar oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and chopped into pieces

In a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs and butter and set aside. Lightly grease a 9X13-inch baking dish and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and make sure the oven rack is placed in the middle of the oven. In a large pot, bring the water for the pasta to a boil. Stir in one tablespoon salt and the broccoli. The broccoli cooks quickly so stay close! Cook the broccoli for 1 minute, until it is bright green. Quickly remove the broccoli with a slotted spoon to a plate. Return the water to a boil and add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 1-2 minutes less than how you would eat it normally (it will cook a bit more in the oven while baking). Drain the pasta in a colander and toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Leave it in the colander and set it aside.

Wipe the pot dry. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and return to medium heat until shimmering. Add the onion and cook until softened and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and thyme; cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until golden, about 1 minute. Slowly whisk in the broth and cream; bring to a simmer, whisking often. Add the chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked through, about 6-7 minutes. Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes and smoked mozzarella.

Add the cooked pasta and broccoli to the sauce; stir to combine. Transfer the pasta mixture to the prepared baking dish and sprinkle with the bread crumb topping. Bake until the casserole is bubbling and the crumbs are lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately.

*The casserole can be prepared in advance with the following steps: after the broccoli is removed from the boiling water, plunge it into a bowl of ice water and cool completely. Assemble the casserole following the directions in the recipe. After the casserole is spread in the prepared baking pan, let it cool for 5-10 minutes before covering with plastic wrap and refrigerating for up to 8 hours. To bake, preheat the oven to 375 and bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

Meghan's Yummy Fish Tacos

3 cloves garlic minced
1 cup cilantro chopped
6 limes zest 2 juice the rest
2 tsp. cumin
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 cup of water
1 Tb. Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound tilapia (or any white fish you prefer)
10 corn tortillas
Shredded cabbage (green or red doesn’t matter)
For the sauce
1 ½ cups sour cream
Chipotles in adobe sauce

Ok so go ahead and put the first eight ingredients in the food processor and pulse it up. Then put your fish in a pan and pour the mixture on. (The longer you can let it sit the better. I was such a good wife and had dinner all planned one night, so I let this marinate overnight, but we didn't actually make it for a day or two. I think it was a tad too long to let it go for the two dyas, but you can do whatever floats your boat.) Shred the cabbage really thin. For your sauce add the sour cream and the peppers to a blender (I put about 6 in at grandmas but i like it with a little more heat so you can make this according to taste) When you're ready to make your fish heat some olive oil over medium hi heat, cook both sides and make sure its flaky before you take it out. Last step is to warm up your tortillas, put every thing together and enjoy!!


For some reason, every time I go to the grocery store, I cannot find cumin for the life of me, so I just used paprika. I also prefer flour tortillas so I used those instead. 

Melissa Darabian's Huevos Rancheros

Flour tortillas
3 TBL butter, melted
Salt and pepper
Chunky salsa
1 can black beans
eggs
cheese, mozzarella, pepper jack, monterey, whatever you prefer
Sour cream, optional

For this, you want a big muffin tin, but a little one will work too. Spread the butter on both sides of your tortillas, and then fold the tortilla into the muffin tin, so it creates a bowl. Do that for however many you want to end up having, then sprinkle salt and pepper over all of them. Then do a spoonful of black beans and a spoonful of salsa into each. Now for the eggs, you can just crack the egg overtop the salsa and black beans, or you can beat the egg before and then add it. I think it tastes better mixed, so that is what I do. Then bake at 400 degrees for about 8 or 10 minutes, it depends on how runny you like them. Then fill the tops with your cheese, and cover with tin foil, and bake another 8ish minutes. It really just depends on how set you like the eggs, so you be the judge. Remove from oven and enjoy. You can put sour cream on them, but sour cream makes me feel fat, so I just serve it as is.

Gemelli with Turkey Italian Sausage and Roasted Vegetables in a Parmesan Cream Sauce by For the Love of Cooking.net

• Olive oil
• 10 spears of asparagus, ends trimmed, cut into thirds
• 1 yellow squash, sliced
• 1 zucchini, sliced
• 8 oz button mushrooms, quartered
• 1 small red onion, quartered
• 1 small red bell pepper, sliced
• 5-6 cloves of garlic (keep skins on for roasting)
• Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
• Turkey Italian sausage
• 1 lb gemelli pasta
• Fresh basil, chopped

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with tin foil (for easy clean up) then coat with cooking spray. Place the onions, mushrooms, bell pepper and garlic (keep the skins on so they don't burn while roasting) on the baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and season with sea salt and pepper to taste. Place in the oven and roast for 20 minutes.

While the veggies are roasting. Heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil a skillet over medium heat. Remove the turkey sausage from the casings and cook, making sure to break up the sausage into crumbles.

After the veggies have roasted for 20 minutes, place the asparagus, yellow squash and zucchini on the baking sheet, drizzle with a bit more oil and re-season with a bit more salt and pepper. Roast for an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside. Once the garlic has cooled, carefully remove the skins and slice then return to the rest of the veggies.

After you add the remaining veggies to roast, start cooking the pasta per instructions and make the cream sauce.

Fran's Parmesan Cream Sauce:

• 12 oz of low fat evaporated milk
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup of finely shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp fresh nutmeg, grated 
• Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
• 2-3 tbsp cornstarch mixed with some milk

In a small saucepan over medium heat, add the evaporated milk, Parmesan cheese, nutmeg, sea salt and pepper, to taste. Stir constantly until cheese is melted. Taste and re-season or add more cheese, if desired. Combine the cornstarch with a bit of milk and mix thoroughly. Once the sauce starts to boil, add the cornstarch slurry to the sauce and stir until well combined and the sauce has thickened.

Mix the cooked and drained pasta with the roasted veggies, turkey Italian sausage, fresh basil and cream sauce. Mix gently until evenly coated with sauce and serve. Enjoy.

I felt so domestic the first time I made this. I left out the mushrooms because I think they are gross. You can use whatever pasta you want. This is kinda heavy and makes a lot. When I made it, I had 4 men to feed and they didn't even finish it, so just a warning I guess. It is really good though. 

Brownie Bites

1 box of brownie mix, then whatever ingredients are required from there

Peanut Butter

1 bag chocolate chips

These are so easy to make and are SO GOOD. 

Make the brownies like normal, but don't bake them too long. You want them to be nice and gooey. 

Let the brownies cool for about 15 minutes and then get an ice cream  or cookie scoop, and start scooping little balls. Once they are rolled out, place them in the freezer over night. You can let them go for a few hours too, you just want them to be hard enough to take the melted chocolate and peanut butter mixture. Once they are hard enough, melt the bag of chocolate chips and add a heaping scoop of peanut butter, then mix. Then proceed to dip the brownie balls until they are nice and covered. I put it back in the freezer so they set better. You can serve right out of the freezer or let them thaw out a bit. 

If you use semi sweet or dark chocolate chips, I would serve it with ice cream. If you do milk chocolate, they are fine on their own, but ice cream never hurt anyone. I just hate dark and semi sweet chips so I never use them, but that is what the original recipe called for. 

Chinese Chicken Salad

I think we got this from Laverne Mackin in Merced originally. You can use left over BBQ chicken too and it is super good. The great thing about this recipe is that it is easy to divide up if you want to make smaller portions, even though when I make it for Michael and I, I still do the whole thing so then we have left overs.

Dressing
3/4 cup oil
9 TBL Vinegar
9TBL Sugar
3 pkts Oriental Seasoning

Salad
Shredded cabbage (I am cheap and don't have a food processor, so I just buy three bags of cabbage with the carrots in it. I like to think that makes it healthy)
2/3 cup toasted almonds
1/4 c sesame seeds
3 pkgs Oriental Ramen Noodles
3-6 chicken breasts shredded

Mix the dressing and set aside. The add all of the salad things after toasting the almonds and sesame seeds. I pour half the dressing and mix it up, then add the rest and mix again. You can also add a couple chopped green onions, but, my husband won't kiss me if I have onion breath so I leave those out.

Chicken L'Orange

This comes from Cami Callister's fam bam.
1/3 cup brown sugar    
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup orange juice (made)
11 oz can mandarin oranges, drained
1 TBS cornstarch
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Chicken breasts, however many you want


Sprinkle chicken with lemon pepper and cook in the oven.  In a small sauce pan mix sugar, salt and cornstarch.  Slowly stir in juice until smooth.  Stir in mustard with wire whisk.  Place over medium heat and boil.  Simmer (low boil) until transparent and thick (3 minutes).  Stir in oranges and heat some more.  Spoon over chicken and serve with rice.

Tortellini Soup

Mooder made this at my bridal shower and it makes it so there is a party in my tummy.  


1 lb Italian Spicy ground sausage...  (1/2 lb if making a small amount of soup) I bought it at Harmons.
2 tbl Olive Oil, add 1 onion, (I put the onion thru the food processor so that it was cut evenly, and small)

5 to 10 whole garlic buds

Saute Onions and garlic together, then add sausage to brown till cooked well.

Next add:

3 or 4 cans Stewed Tomatoes, Italian Recipe...with Oregano and Basil.

     I put one of the cans in the blender and pureed it....

1 32oz. box of Beef Stock


1 bag of Tortellini

Let this simmer for a couple of hours. Add tortellini, the amount that you want, cook until very DONE.

6 or 8 minutes before serving add fresh spinach leaves, (remember the left over spinach salad, I rubbed it

of the spinach to add to the left-over soup. Stir the leaves down under the soup, put the lid on and just let it simmer.

Pizza, Pizza!

This recipe is both easy and yummy. What a perfect combo for this blog.

Dough

1 TBLS yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp. salt
2 1/2 - 3 cups flour
2 TBLS oil

Dissolve the yeast in water. Add flour, salt and oil. Knead at least 10 minutes. Shape in a ball and place in greased bowl, turning once. Cover and let rise in a warm place 45-60 minutes - until it doubles in size.

Makes 2 small round crusts or 1 large cookie sheet crust.

For pizza pan (no stone) pre cook crust at 450 degrees for 5 minutes. Then add sauce, cheese, and stuff. Cook 10-15 minutes more.

Sauce

1 - 6 oz. can tomato paste
3/4 can of water
1 TBL dried parsley
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp thyme
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients, but do not cook.


Another way you can do it is by cutting the dough into little squares and then placing just the cheese and toppings on top, and then pinching the corners until you get a little ball. Do it until you run out of dough. Then drizzle olive oil on top and sprinkle Italian Seasoning, parmesan and garlic powder. Cook for about 15-20 minutes until it is brown on top probably around 450 or so. Make your sauce and have it to dip in. It makes a fun snack or dinner if you have some salad or something. Enjoy!

Alfredo Sauce

Oh man this is so good. 


2/3 cup parmesan cheese

4 TBL butter

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. cayenne

Combine all ingredients over medium heat. When cheese and butter have melted, turn to low and simmer 20 mintes, stirring with a wooden spoon intermittently. In case you didn't know, simmering means that it still has a light boil, it does not mean you turn the heat down to super low and let it just sit there. I learned this the hard way and got a runny sauce, which was still good, but could have been better. 

Serve with your favorite noodles. I also like to add chicken so it has some protein, every meal needs some protein.... 

Mini Meat Loaf

I stole this from someone's blog I stock but am too scared to tell her I like her food. It is yummers.

1 egg
¼ C Milk
1/3 C crushed Saltine crackers
3 Tbs. chopped onion
¼ tsp. Salt
1/8 tsp. Sage
Dash of Pepper
½ lb Lean Ground Beef (I usually use one with 10% fat or less. Figure 1/4 lb per person, or more if you have hungry boys at your house.)
¼ C Ketchup
2 Tbs. brown sugar
¼ tsp Worcestershire sauce

In a bowl, beat the egg. Add milk, cracker crumbs, onion, salt, sage and pepper. Crumble beef over mixture, then get your hands in there and mix well. Don't over mix. Just squish it together until everything is incorporated.


Then, shape into loaves, place in a shallow baking dish or cookie sheet lined with foil. (This makes clean up SO much easier!)


Now for the sauce! Do not skimp on the sauce! Spread it all on there, and try not to lick your fingers. In a small bowl, combine the ketchup, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Stir until sugar is mostly dissolved and then spoon it evenly over meat loaves. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until meat is no longer pink