Thursday, December 4, 2008

Chocolate Truffles with Irish Cream


Don't spend a fortune on store bought truffles - they are one of the easiest candies to make! They keep well in the freezer for up to 3 months and make a lovely homemade hostess gift. I use Irish Cream but it also works well with Rum, Kahlua, or any sweet liquor of your choice.

Truffles
-1/4 cup butter
-3 tbsp heavy cream
-4 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
-2 tbsp Irish cream

Coating
-4 oz bitter sweet chocolate, finely chopped
-1 tbsp vegetable oil
-1 cup chocolate sprinkles (jimmies)

In a saucepan over med-high heat, bring butter and cream to a boil. Remove from heat, and stir in chocolate until completely melted. Then stir in rum. Pour the mixture into a pan and chill until firm, 2ish hours. When firm, take rounded teaspoonfulls of the mixture and form small balls. Place them on a wax paper coated baking sheet and chill until firm, half an hour or so.

To make the coating: In a double boiler over simmering water, melt the chocolate with the oil, stirring until smooth. Remove from water, cool completely. Set the sprinkles in a bowl or cup.

Drop the truffle balls 2 or 3 at a time, into the melted chocolate coating. Using a fork, lift them out and allow excess coating to drip. Roll the coated truffles in sprinkles and put them back on the baking sheet. Chill until they are set, 30 minutes. Wonderful!


Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Coconut Snowballs


Having impromptu company and looking for a quick dessert without exotic ingredients? Looking for a way to dress up simple vanilla ice cream so it's pretty enough to serve? Look no further! These coconut snowballs please most palates, look nice on the plate, and take no more than ten minutes. You can even make the ice cream balls ahead of time and keep them in the freezer. This multi-purpose chocolate sauce hardens quickly when in contact with cold foods, making it perfect for ice cream dishes.

Vanilla ice cream - scoop and shape into round balls 2-3 inches in diameter
2 cups of sweetened coconut flakes

2 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
4 tbsp butter or margerine
1 lb confectioners sugar
1/4 cup half and half or whole milk

Scoop the ice cream, shape into balls. Put in the freezer until they harden. Toast the coconut on a baking sheet until just browned, approx 5 minutes.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a saucepan over med-high heat. Stir until smooth. Reduce heat to low. Stir in the confectioners sugar and cream in small amounts until chocolate sauce is smooth. You may need more or less sugar for consistency.

Roll the ice cream balls in the toasted coconut, patting with your hands to coat them. Drizzle chocolate sauce on plates and center the ice cream, top with more chocolate.


Sunday, November 23, 2008

Chicken or Pork in Balsamic Reduction


This recipe has a very tangy, flavorful sauce that works well on chicken or pork cutlets. It's an easy but relatively low-fat recipe.

4 chicken breast cutlets or boneless pork chops
olive oil
1.5 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 yellow onion, chopped fine
pinch of dried parsley
2 tbsp chilled butter
1 tbsp minced garlic
splash of red wine

Heat oil in a skillet over med-high heat. Salt and pepper the meat on both sides and add to the hot skillet. Cook 4-5 minutes on each side, remove from skillet and keep warm under foil.

Add chopped onion to the skillet with minced garlic. Sautee until soft. Add broth, vinegar, and red wine to the skillet, simmer until liquids have reduced by half. Remove from heat. Add cold butter and stir into sauce, then add the meat and juices to the pan, coating the chops in sauce. Serve finished with the pan sauce, or over rice.


Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Slow Cooker Chunky Applesauce


Nothing says "fall" like the smell of baking things with apples. Apple pie, apple crisp, apple compote, anything. The bad news is that they are all full of fat and sugar, you just can't go right with flaky pie crust or cripsy oatmeal topping. But you CAN go right with homemade spicy applesauce - all the warm cinnamon apple goodness without any added fats or sugars. All you need is a crockpot.

Apples - peeled and sliced (I use 8lbs of apples to fill a 7qt crock pot, adjust as needed)
Cinnamon - 1 tsp for every 4-5 lbs of apples or so
Sugar (optional) - 1/8 cup for ever 4-5 lbs of apples

Peel and slice the apples. Toss with the cinnamon and sugar. Put everything in the crockpot with 1/4 cup of water. Cook on low heat for 6-7 hours (overnight works wonderfully), stirring towards the end. Serve for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Lemon Cake


Nothing says summer like a fresh lemon cake! Super easy and super lemony, make a regular white cake from recipe or mix, but replace all the water with freshly squeezed lemon juice, and then fold into the batter the zest of 3 lemons. For lemon buttercream icing, beat as normal and replace the milk with lemon juice, and a drop of yellow food coloring if it's not quite yellow enough from the butter. Garnish with candied lemon slices. Voila! This is can be to the table in an hour or less if you use thin 6 inch cakes (3 layers) that cool quickly.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Peach Apricot Cobbler


This is a super tasty, rich, and easy cobbler type dessert. It can be made with virtually all kinds of canned fruit, so it's excellent for mixing and matching and using whatever you have! I've used peaches, apricots, pears, mandarin oranges, pineapple, and cherries in different combinations and all to pleasing results.

-1/2 c sugar
-2 tbsp cornstarch
-1 can (1 lb, 13 oz) sliced peaches - drained, juice reserved
-1 can (10.5 oz) apricot halves, drained, juice reserved
-1 tbsp butter
-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

-1/2 c flour
-1/2 sugar
-3/4 tsp baking powder
-1/4 tsp NaCl
-2 tbsp butter, softened
-1 large egg

1. Preheat oven to 400. In a medium saucepan, mix together sugar and cornstarch. Stir in 1/2 cup each of the reserved fruit juices. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils and thickens, 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Stir in butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add peaches and apricots. Spoon mixture into a 1.5 qt casserole.
3. For the topping, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, and egg. Drop in small chunks or spoon topping over the fruit mixture.
4. Bake cobbler until slightly golden, 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
5. For a nice garnish, beat up some heavy cream with 2 tsbp of honey and a pinch of cinnamon. Serve over the warm cobbler!

Friday, March 14, 2008

A Chocolate Cake


With fondant roses. Simple but pretty.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Lasagna Roll-Ups


I like this tasty recipe as part of our meatless meals plans - it's filling and hearty without meat or beans. Taken from an original recipe in Cooks Country, I made a few changes that I think punch things up a little bit (though the changes probably knock it out of the 30 minute meal category into a 45 minute meal).

8-10 no boil lasagna noodles
15 oz. container ricotta
1 block mozzarella, shredded 8 or 10 oz. (approx 2 cups?)
1.5 cups grated parmesan cheese
1 cup cheddar, shredded
1 large egg
1/2 cup chopped basil (or 1/4 dried basil)
1/2 tsp salt
1 can, 20 oz, crushed tomatoes
2 onions, chopped
3 tsbp olive oil
2 tbsp minced garlic

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place the noodles in a microwave safe dish with hot tap water, enough to cover noodles. Microwave until noodles are softened, 3 to 6 minutes. Discard water. Dry noodles on clean towel.
2. Combine ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella, 1 cup cheddar, 1 cup parmesan, egg, salt, and half the basil in a bowl.
3. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat until onion is soft. Remove from heat, add crushed tomatoes and remaining basil. Spread half the tomato sauce in a 9x13 dish, set the other half aside.
4. With the short side facing you, dollop 1/4 cup of the ricotta mixture on each noodle, roll up. Arrange seam side down in the dish. Pour the remaining tomato sauce over all.
5. Sprinkle remaining cheese over top the rolls, cover with foil and bake until heated through, 10-12 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 5 additional minutes, or until cheese is browned. Let stand 5 minutes and serve.

This makes a pretty hefty portion...but it freezes and reheats well, and makes great leftovers for lunches.



Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Creamy Turkey and Wild Rice Soup

This was a post-Thanksgiving recipe, but I just tried it out now - I made the stock from just the carcass of a turkey breast I had roasted, rather than doing a whole turkey (a breast is like 1/20th of the work!) and the stock came out just fine. For 2 or 3 people I cut the recipe in half...anything more than that and go for the full recipe. It reheats well. :-)

Turkey Broth
2 tbsp butter
2 chopped onions
1 celery rib
1 leftover turkey carcass, chopped into 4 pieces
3 cups white wine
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
Soup
1 cup wild rice
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 c all purpose flour
1 cup heavy cream
3 cups chopped cooked turkey
salt and pepper
1. For the broth - melt butter in a large dutch oven over med high heat. Cook onions, celery, and carcass until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add wine and broth and simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Strain broth, discard solids.
2. For the soup - wipe out the dutch oven (or if you have 2, lucky you!) and toast the rice over medium heat until it begins to pop, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in turkey broth, carrots, celery, thyme, and baking soda, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until rice is tender, about 1 hour.
3. Whisk flour and cream in a bowl until smooth. Slowly whisk flour mixture into the soup. Add turkey and simmer until slightly thickened, 10 mintues. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

If you find it easier to make in two steps - broth first, refrigerate, then soup the next day - that works too.