Best... Cake... Ever!

What do these ingredients have in common... besides the fact that they are all really unhealthy? :) They are the ingredients for the frosting of my favorite cake... the best cake in the whole world.



I get to make and eat this cake once a year for my birthday. I keep it a once-a-year treat so that it will always be special, and I'll never get tired of it. I've been having this cake for my birthday for at least 5 or 6 years now, and I still love it every time!



Here's the cake batter in the pan before baking... I love how you can see the dark chocolate flecks in it!


Here's the bottom layer with the scrumptious white chocolate frosting and smashed up Heath bar chunks.

The filling should really be as thick as the layers on this cake! That's what makes it soooo good!

Here's the finished product!

Chocolate Sour Cream Cake

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

1 8oz. carton dairy sour cream

1 cup milk

1. Let eggs stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In large bowl beat shortening and sugar on medium speed until combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in melted chocolate and sour cream. Alternately add flour mixture and milk; beat on low after each addition just until combined. Spread batter in prepared pans.

3. Bake 25 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely.

4. Prepare frosting (see below). Place one layer flat side down on plate. Spread top with 1/2 of the filling. Stack second layer flat side down. Spread with remaining filling. Stack third layer flat side down. Spread with remaining frosting. Makes 16 servings. Chill cake before serving for best results.

White Chocolate Frosting with Heath Bars

6 oz white chocolate

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

2 sticks butter

1 small bag powdered sugar

3 regular sized Heath bars, smashed into chunks

1. Stir chocolate and cream over hot water until melted and smooth; cool. (fill one sauce pan part way with water, turn onto medium heat. Set second sauce pan over first for the chocolate and cream)

2. Add butter and 1 cup of powdered sugar. Beat on high until light and fluffy. Continue adding 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time until it reaches desired spreading consistency.

3. Divide by removing 1/3 of frosting into a small bow. Add crunched up Heath bars to remaining 2/3 frosting to make filling.

Mmmm... Pizza!

You can make delicious pizza at home! Begin by making the Pizza Dough as directed below. Spread one 15 ounce can of pizza sauce or one 10 ounce container refrigerated Alfredo sauce over each hot, partially baked crust. Add meat; veggies such as green onions, olives, fresh mushrooms, sweet pepper, tomatoes; sprinkle with 1 to 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese. Add Parmesan cheese, pepper, and/or cayenne pepper to taste.

Home Made Pizza Dough

Prep: 20 to 50 minutes

Makes: 2 pan or thin-crust pizzas that make 6 servings each

2 3/4 to 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 package active dry yeast

1 cup warm water (120F to 130F)

2 Tablespoons cooking oil or olive oil

1. In a large mixing bowl combine 1 1/4 cups of the flour, the yeast, and 1/4 teaspoon salt; add warm water and oil. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl. Beat on high speed 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.

2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes total). Divide dough in half. Cover; let rest for 10 minutes. Use to make Pan Pizzas or Thin-Crust Pizzas.

Pan Pizzas: Grease two 11x7x1 1/2 inch or 9x9x2 inch baking pans. If desired, sprinkle with cornmeal. With greased fingers, pat dough onto bottoms and half way up sides of prepared pans. Cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double (30 to 45 minutes). Bake in a 375F oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until brown. Spread sauce onto hot crust; top with meat, vegetables, and cheese. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes more or until bubbly.

Thin-Crust Pizza: Grease two 12-inch pizza pans or baking sheets. If desired, sprinkle with cornmeal. On a lightly floured surface, roll each dough portion into a 13-inch circle. Transfer to pans. Build up edges slightly. Do not let rise. Bake in a 425F oven about 12 minutes or until brown. Spread sauce onto hot crust; top with meat, vegetables, and cheese. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes more or until bubbly.

Fudgy Chocolate Crinkles

They have the word "chocolate" in them; they're chewy, delicious cookies; and they're low fat! They must be perfect!

Fudgy Chocolate Crinkles

1/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 egg whites
1/3 cup vanilla low-fat yogurt
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 to 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1. Lightly grease a cookies sheet; set aside. Beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium speed 30 seconds. Add brown sugar, cocoa powder, and baking soda. Beat until combined, scraping bowl. Beat in egg whites and yogurt until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can. Stir in any remaining flour.

2. Place the powdered sugar in a small bowl. Drop dough by a teaspoon into powdered sugar and roll into balls. Place 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet. Bake in a 350F oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are firm. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

Nutrition facts per cookie: 66 calories, 2g total fat (1g sat. fat), 4mg chol., 54 mg sodium, 11g carbo., 0g fiber, 1g protein.

Giant Ginger Cookies

Yay! Fall is almost here!! Can't wait to wear sweaters and jeans again! :)


These ginger cookies are so delicious on a cool fall evening, with a cold glass of milk. Enjoy!


GIANT GINGER COOKIES

"Chewy and delicious, these cookies are giants in both size and snappy ginger flavor." ~New Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Prep: 20 minutes Bake: 11 minutes per batch Oven: 350F Makes: about 24 cookies


4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups shortening or butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
3/4 cup sugar


1. In a medium bowl stir together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt; set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat shortening/butter with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Add the 2 cups sugar. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and molasses until combined. Beat in as much of the flour mixture as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour mixture.


2. Shape dough into 2-inch balls using a 1/4 cup measure or scoop. Roll balls in the 3/4 cup sugar. Place 2 1/2 inches apart on an ungreased cookies sheet.


3. Bake in a 350F oven for 11 to 13 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned and tops are puffed (do not overbake.) Cool on a cookie sheet 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.


(For regular sized ginger cookies, shape into 1-inch balls and bake for 8 to 9 minutes. Makes 120 cookies.)

Fried Chicken with Creamy Gravy and Cole Slaw

Tonight I made a delicious Sunday dinner!

Fried Chicken with Creamy Gravy:

1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning or paprika; dried basil or marjoram, crushed; or 1/2 tsp garlic powder or onion powder
1/2 tsp salt
2.5 to 3 pounds meaty chicken pieces (breasts halves, thighs, or drumsticks)
Cooking oil
1 recipe Creamy Gravy (see below)

1. In a plastic bag, combine the flour, seasoning, salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper. Add chicken pieces, a few at a time, shaking to coat.

2. Add oil to a 12-inch heavy skillet to a depth of 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Heat over medium-high heat until hot enough to sizzle a drop of water. Reduce heat. Add chicken to skillet. (Do not crowd chicken. If necessary, use 2 skillets.) Cook, uncovered, over medium heat for 15 minutes, turning to brown evenly. Reduce heat; cover tightly. Cook for 15 minutes. Uncover and cook for 5 to 10 minutes more or until chicken is no longer pink (170F for breasts; 180F for thighs and drumsticks.) Drain on paper towels, reserving drippings for gravy. Transfer chicken to a serving platter; keep warm. Prepare Creamy Gravy. If desired, serve with mashed potatoes.

Oven Directions (This is what I did): Coat chicken pieces as above. Brown chicken in a 12-inch ovenproof skillet. (Or brown chicken in a regular skillet; transfer to a baking pan, arranging bone side down.) Bake, uncovered, in a 375F oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Do not turn.

Creamy Gravy:
Pour off drippings in a skillet, reserving 2 Tablespoons. Return reserved drippings to skillet. Add 2 Tablespoons flour, 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, and, if desired, 1 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon granules or 2 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese, stirring until smooth. Add 1 2/3 cups milk all at once. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 1 minute more. (If necessary, thin with a little additional milk.) Makes 1 2/3 cups.

Granny Smith Apple Cole Slaw:

1 bag coleslaw mix
1 Granny Smith apple, cut into small pieces
1 cup Miracle Whip
1 Tbsp honey

Add all ingredients to a large bowl. Stir to mix well. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Serve cold.

Tell me about your favorite Sunday Dinner!

Homemade Salsa & Tortillas

This is one of our current favorites! I love, love, love the home made tortillas, and the salsa is so refreshing!

We'll start with the salsa:

2 medium to large tomatoes
1/2 large onion (my favorite is a walla-walla sweet!)
1 small bunch of cilantro
lime juice squeezed from half of a lime
1 jalapeno (optional, for spice)
Chop everything up to make a yummy, fresh salsa!

Last year for Christmas I got this Kitchenaid food chopper. It's small, but I love how I can use it to make salsa in minutes!


Because of its small size, I chop each ingredient separately: onions, then tomatoes, then cilantro. We usually cut the jalapeno with a knife.

And here's the recipe for the tortillas:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup hot water

1. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Either by hand or with a pastry cutter, cut in the shortening till the mixture is crumbly. If the mixture looks more floury than crumbly, be sure to add just one or two more tablespoons of shortening till it is crumbly. Add about 3/4 cup hot water (as hot as you can stand to mix with your hands) to the mixture, or just enough to make the ingredients look moist.

2. With your hands, knead the mixture making sure to rub the dough against the sides of the large mixing bowl to gather any clinging dough. If the dough still sticks to the side of the bowl, add a couple more tablespoons of flour until the dough forms a soft round shape. The dough is ready to roll out now. Roll into golf ball sized balls. I usually get 13 to 14 balls from one recipe.

Cover with a dish towel and let it rest for half an hour to an hour.

3. Lightly flour your rolling area, and roll each ball with a rolling pin to

about 1/8 inch thickness.
To get a nice circle shape, I press the dough down with the bottom of small cooking pot, then roll it the rest of the way with a rolling pin.

4. Place each tortilla on a medium hot cast iron skillet (I use stainless steel, and have my stove top set to 3 for a good cooking temperature). Cook for about 1 to 2 minutes on each side, or until the tortilla does not look doughy.


The tortilla will start to bubble on the uncooked side, then its ready to turn over (just make sure your pan isn't too hot or it will burn before it bubbles- click on the picture to make it big so you can see the bubbles)

Your finished stack of tortillas! So tasty served warm. Easily stored in a zip lock in the fridge, then pop them in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds on high to re-warm them. They should be soft and pliable.

It took me about 3 times making these to really perfect them. Its fun making them as a team with my hubby! I roll while he cooks, then we can modify the thickness if they seem to thick or too thin as we go.

Our favorite way to eat these is to boil one or two chicken breasts, shred them, and put the chicken, fresh salsa (hubby likes his with jalapeno, I like mine without!) and place on a warm tortilla. Then fold the tortilla in half and enjoy!

Turkey Noodle Soup

We made some really yummy, tummy warming soup... it was so good we didn't even have leftovers!!

Here's how we made it:


6 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup sliced carrots (we used sliced baby carrots)
1/2 cup sliced celery
1-1 1/2 cups cooked turkey pieces
1 cup egg noodles
oregano
basil
pepper
(I didn't measure the seasonings)

Saute the carrots and celery in hot oil or butter until tender.

Put all ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil, boil for 10 minutes, remove from heat, dish up into bowls, let stand to cool for a few minutes, enjoy!

Here's a picture of our 3 bowls of soup... I love how you can see the steam swirling around!

GINGERBREAD

As September inches ever closer, my mind starts to turn to fall, holidays, and yummy food! I love baked goods with spices in the fall, the aromas and flavors bring back floods of memories of family dinners, cooking with my mom and sisters, and eating yummy treats.

My mom always made gingerbread around the holidays. I finally tried it out myself last year. It turned out soooo yummy! This is from an old cookbook, I wish I knew the date!





Hot Gingerbread



1/2 cup of butter

1/2 cup of sugar

1 egg

1 cup molasses

2 1/2 cups of flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1 cup hot water



Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the well-beaten egg and molasses. Beat well.

Mix the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and cloves.

Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, beating until smooth.

Lastly, add the water and beat again until thoroughly blended.

Pour into a well-greased and floured 9x9x2 inch baking pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Check center with toothpick.

Cut into squares and serve warm. Six servings




Gingerbread is good served warm with whipped cream or butter.



*Notes from Mom: after I add the molasses I use the measuring cup to measure the hot water that you add at the very end. I usually use hot tap water & then put it in the microwave for 10 or 20 seconds on high. You don't want it boiling but it should be a little hotter than warm. Try using only half the spice amounts for a less overwhelming flavor.



**Notes from Me: I only used half the spice amounts and it was just right, my mixer was broken so we used the power drill to cream the sugar, butter, eggs, and molasses, but then I stirred the rest in by hand and it turned out fine.

Asian style dinner

We made the best dinner! Here's a picture

Let me tell you about it!

First is the chicken. I found a recipe online to make batter for fried Chinese chicken (you know, like you buy at Safeway with sweet and sour sauce). So we boiled the chicken to cook it, then coated it in our homemade batter, and fried it in one of my fondue pots.

We then poured a warm "duck sauce" on it.

Explanation: we found a little whole-in-the-wall Asian foods grocery store on Saturday, and found this huge jar of sauce called "duck sauce". And, it was only like $4! It's made with peaches and/or apricots (seriously, that's what the ingredients label said!) and was labelled as a sweet and sour sauce good for pork or chicken. I have no idea why it was called duck sauce!!

Anyway, so we warmed up the duck sauce and poured it over the chicken.

Next is the white rice. We also found at the Asian grocery store some palm sugar. We had never had or heard of palm sugar, so we bought some. Then we looked up online what recipes it is good in. One suggestion was sweet sticky rice. So we cooked up some of our white rice and stirred in some palm sugar when it was done, and it was seriously sooooo good!!

Third was just some stir fry vegetables. We just scrounged in our fridge and came up with sweet mini peppers, sweet onion, sugar snap peas, and baby carrots. Delish!!

Finally was the fresh chow mein. We bought it frozen at the Asian grocery store and we really weren't sure how to cook it. So we sort of stir fry/steamed it and it turned out yummy, especially with a little of the duck sauce on it. It was uncooked when we bought it, so we weren't just re-heating it, we were actually cooking it.

Anyway, it was one of the best Asian food dinners we've had, even compared to going out to eat. I guess if we had put in some MSG it would have been a little more authentic, but, hey... you can't have it all, right? :)