All-American Chocolate Butter Cake Cupcakes

Hmmm, chocolate! This title is a mouth full! The recipe is mildly altered from The Cake Bible, which was gifted from dear family friends a few years ago, Thom and Doug! My Mom let me take the book with me when Greg and I moved to Kentucky.

I've made the cake version of this recipe before, and it's always a hit. The texture and flavor are great. The cupcake version was a bit disappointing, but only because I know how glorious the cake can be. But, all said, they were very good!

The only changes I made were to throw about 1 C. of almond slices into the batter. They didn't add much flavor, so I think I would have been better off using almond extract or amaretto. I really want to try that next time!

Recipe: Serves 12 (Yes, the recipe for this, and all of the cakes, comes in volume and weight!)

Unsweetened cocoa powder 1/2C + 3 TBS OR 2.25 oz
Boiling water 1 liquid C OR 8.25 oz
3 large eggs (room temp)
vanilla 2 1/4 tsp OR 9 grams
sifted cake flour 2 1/4 C + 2 TBS OR 8.25 oz
sugar 1 1/2 C OR 10.5 oz
baking powder 1 TBS OR 5 grams
unsalted butter (softened) 12 TBS OR 8 oz

Preheat oven to 350
-Boil water, whisk in the cocoa. Cool to room temp.
-Combine eggs, 1/4 the cocoa mixture and vanilla
-In a third bowl, sift the remaining ingredients together. Add the butter and remaining cocoa mixture. Gradually add the egg mixture.
-makes 24 cupcakes, bake for 15 minutes
OR
-makes 2 9inch cakes, bake for 25-35 minutes.
-Enjoy!!!

Chicken with Rice and Roasted Veggies

This past Thursday we had Dan and Rebecca over for dinner. I didn't have a recipe in mind, but the plan was to stuff chicken breasts with this wonderful feta "salsa" from Whole Foods, but they were all sold out! So, after browsing the cheese section, Greg and I opted for a mustard ale semi-soft cheese to use instead. Then, as we were checking out, we noticed that sparkling cider was wwwwaaaayyyyy on sale. At this point, dinner really started to come together.

When we got home I flipped open my Flavor Bible and found that oregano and garlic go very well with mustard. Perfect. I knew that I wanted to bread the chicken breasts before baking them, so I added both oregano & garlic to my whole wheat bread crumbs. We also roasted a sweet potato, 2 red skin potatoes, and a few brussel sprouts, and cooked some multi-grain wild rice. YUM! And, a nice side note, this was a no-sodium added meal! The chicken had really good flavor, but was a little dry. Greg thought that I could have added even more of the cheese, since the mustard flavor was very subtle. The herbed bread crumbs were nice and added a good texgure. We just roasted the veggies with olive oil, black pepper and a bit of rosemary. They were scrumptious. Especially the brussel sprouts (though they did not re-heat well the next day). The rice was plain, but it has such a nutty flavor anyway that it didn't need much.

Anyway, we ended up eating at our table, which almost never happens. It was really fun to get out our wine glasses and serving platters, especially a large cabbage leaf bowl that my Mor-mor (maternal grandmother) gave us as wedding gift.


And so, yes, we will be making each of these again. But more cheese next time. I also thought a sauce using the cheese would be good. That way, each person could control the amount of mustard they put with the chicken. Maybe some carmalized onions would be nice to roll up with the cheese as well. Hm...only time will tell how we cook this next!

Recipe: Serves 5

Chicken:
5 chicken breasts, thawed and with a deep pocket cut in.
2 C. bread crumbs
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp oregano
olive oil
mustard ale cheese

-Open up the sliced chicken breasts like they were a book. Lay a few slivers of mustard ale cheese along the whold opening. Roll up tightly from one end. Toothpick closed. Coat in olive oil and then cover in bread crumbs. Place in a 9x13 inch baking pan, about 1 inch apart (i needed to use 2 baking pans). Bake for 35-45 minutes at 420 degrees (baking time depends on how thawed out the chicken is).

Rice:
1 C. whole grain wild rice mixture
2 C. water

-bring water to a boil. Add rice. Cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 30-45 minutes.

Roasted Veggies:

1 medium sweet potato, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
2 red skin potatoes, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 C. brussel sprouts, cut trimmed and cut in half
olive oil
black pepper
rosemary

-Combine the sweet potato and red skin potatoes. Toss with olive oil, black pepper & rosemary. Spread onto a greased jelly roll pan. Place in the oven below the chicken when the chicken has 20 minutes to go. Stir after 10 minutes.

-Toss the brussel sprouts with the same seasoning. Place cut side down on a greased baking pan. Place in oven when the chicken has 15 minutes left. Don't over cook!

-Enjoy!!!

New Year, New Food

Well, as everyone knows, it is 2009! A new year! I generally don't like New Year's Resolutions since they don't often come to fruition. But, I've come up with some thoughtful goals for the blog so I can be more active with my posts, but still have time to juggle the rest of my life. So, the goals are:

1. Post at least once a week

2. Posting once a week means cooking something new once a week! (Kind of busy for someone who works full time and goes to school!)

3. Try foods I might not otherwise try

4. Eat more heart healthy (Yes, heart healthy. My 23 year old 115lb self is prehypertensive, and high blood pressure runs on my Dads side of the family).

So, there we have it. Blog goals for 2009.

Here are a few pictures from google that have inspired me:







Well, there are many more pictures, but I'll keep those for later. Maybe I'll even try to re-create some of them!

Cuban Bread

What is Cuban Bread, you may ask? It's more or less the Cuban version of a French of Italian bread. I love these breads for their simplicity. The ingredients are: flour, water, salt, yeast, bit of sweetener. Done. I love the idea of bread being so simple, clean and lovely. A bit like minimalism. Add-ins to bread are wonderful, don't get me wrong. But having such a nice base is refreshing.

I decided this year to bake bread instead of cookies around Christmas. I grew up baking and decorating cookies, and love it! But, I also knew that this year, each of our Christmas hosts would have plenty of cookies and treats, and that Greg and I didn't need batches to ourselves. I also figured that this was the worst week to give out cookies at work, since everyone has had their fill at home. So, in order to satisfy my baking craving, I made bread, which turned out to be equally as dangerous as a fresh batch of cookies.

I found this recipe in Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. This is a great book with breads for any baking level. The Cuban Bread is considered a beginners bread. We thought it was appropriate that I bake something more simple, since I've only made a couple yeast breads, each being very simple. Needless to say, I did not change anything from the recipe. The resulting bread had a nice crisp dry crust with a moist soft inside. A bit sweet, but not too much. It made wonderful grilled cheese sandwiches! It reminds me a bit of Great Harvest breads. The only thing I don't like about this bread is that it uses only all purpose flour. Now that I'm comfortable with the recipe, I'll play around with adding whole wheat flour and or wheat germ.

Recipe: Makes two free-form loafs.

5-6 C. flour
2 pkgs dry yeast
1 TBS salt
2 TBS sugar
2 C. hot water

-Place 4 C. flour in a large bowl. Mix in yeast, salt and sugar. Pour in hot water and continue to mix. Slowly add in the remaining 1-2 C. of flour until the dough is no longer sticky (i had to add the full extra 2 C.).

-Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic.

- Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and keep in a warm place for ~15 minutes, or until doubled in bulk.

-Punch dough down and cut into two pieces.

-Form into a ball by pulling the dough into the shape of a ball, and "tucking" the excess dough into the ball. Place it excess side down onto parchment paper or cornmeal-sprinkled baking sheet. Brush the tops of the bread with water. Make an "X" cut or a square cut in the tops of each loaf.

-Place a pan of cold water in the bottom rack of the oven. Place the bread in the middle and turn on to 400 degrees. Set your timer for 40 minutes. The bread will rise as the oven warms up. The recipe calls for the bread to take 50 minutes to be done, but I think mine took closer to 40. The crust will be golden and if you tap the bottom of the bread it will sound hollow once it is baked all of the way.

-Enjoy!!!

Wild Rice with Squash

I saw this dish on Epicurious close to Thanksgiving, and I have been wanting to make it ever since. I must admit, part of why I wanted to make it was an excuse to buy this beautiful multi-grain rice from Whole Foods. They have a bulk section, so we were able to get just the amount we need. It was a fun treat. Well, I like each of the main ingredients on their own, but I was a bit hesitant about how they would all taste together. Turns out, they are an amazing trio. I changed two main things about the original recipe. First, I cut the butter from 6 TBS to 0. That's right, 0 butter. I only used about 3 or 4 tsp extra virgin olive oil. Next, I changed the main herb from parsley to sage. Sage is one of my favorite winter vegetable seasonings. I know it's not very original, but it's sooooo yummy!

I think this would make a great side dish for a party. It makes a huge amount of food. We'll probably be eating this for a few days. I'm trying to think of ways to change it up a bit so we don't get sick of it. Maybe I'll make some chicken soup and put this in it instead of noodles. We'll see though.

Recipe: Makes about 10 Cups.

1 1/2 C. wild rice
3 C. water
1 C. chicken broth or water
1 small onion, diced
1 small butternut squash, skinned and cubed
2 tsp sage
salt and pepper
olive oil
1 1/2 C. frozen corn kernals

-Bring 3C. water to a boil. Add rice. Turn down to low heat and simmer coverd for about 45 minutes.

-While rice is cooking, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Skin and cube the squash. Toss with extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and sage. Roast for 10 minutes. Turning after the first 5 minutes.

-Dice onion. In a large skillet, saute with extra virgin olive oil. When the rice and squash are done, add each to the skillet with the onion. Add the corn and 1 C. chicken broth. Simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed. About 10 minutes. Serve warm.

-Enjoy!!!

Sugar Cookies with Chocolate Ganache Drizzle

This is one of my favorite sugar cookie recipes. There is a McGraw recipe for Apee Sugar cookies, but whenever I try to make them, they never turn out. So, though I prefer the taste of the apee, these turn out each and every time, and have a nice flaky texture. I have a bunch of cookie cutters which are tons of fun to use. For this batch, I chose a winter theme since I knew I was taking some to work. I wasn't sure if anyone at work would hate it if I brought Christmas tree's in. Turns out, everyone celebrates Christmas at work, and they thought some of the broken snowflakes were Christmas tree's! Looks like all of my cookie cutters are safe to use =).

Though these are cute cut out as snowflakes and such, I think these are best when I make them icebox style. Rounds are nice, but it's very pretty to line a left over foil box with saran wrap and fill the dough in, making them square. They tend to bake better when they are smaller and thicker, so icebox is a perfect solution! The chocolate ganache adds a nice extra element to these, without over powering the flavor of the cookie. They each complement each other nicely!

I got the base of this recipe from the food network, it was/is an Alton Brown recipe. Though, he did not have any flavored extract or chocolate ganache drizzle! I like Alton a lot. I've tried a few of his recipes and they all turn out really well. My parents are big fans of his french toast!

Recipe:

Cookie:
3 C. flour
3/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 TBS milk
1 C. butter - softened
1 C. sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 tsp vanilla or other flavored extract

-Sift together f lour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

-Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, vanilla and milk. Beat to combine.

-Add dry ingredients in three portions. Combine. Cut in half and cover, refrigerate for at least two hours.

-Roll out and cut or slice from roll. Bake for 7 minutes and 30 seconds at 375 degree's. Yes that's specific, but it works!

-Let cool a few minutes before removing from baking sheet.

Ganach:
Melt 1 C. chocolate chips in a double boiler. Add 1 tsp butter and 2 tbs milk. Mix together. Stir often until melted. Place in a bag. Cut the tip off the bag and drizzle over cookies. Let cool until chocolate sets.

Enjoy!

Pasty/Pot Pie

Generally, I'm not a big fan of pot pie/chicken ala king. Mainly, I don't like gravy, or my veggies and mashed potatoes mixed together. But, a pasty, a dense gravy-free version of the pot pie, is wonderful! This was another "What's in the pantry" meal. I had a left over frozen pie crust from Angel Strata, and then a left over packaged pie crust from an apple pie. It would be just as easy to make your own pie crust for this, also.

While this is not very fancy or unique, it was very easy and very good. I like the idea of baking meats and veggies together into a pie. It's so comforting. The only problem was that the potatoes I cut up didn't all cook through. I might boil them for a few minutes before adding them to the veggie/chicken mix next time. Greg loved this as well, and had two servings before work. He said he was so full that he almost forgot to bring dinner with him for the night.

And, I must let you know that I won't be making another post until after Thanksgiving. Greg has ventured to Michigan and taken the camera with! Have a great holiday everyone!

Recipe: Serves 6 - 8

2 pie crusts/double batch
pie pan
1 C. frozen veggie mix
2 chicken breats, cut into bite size pieces
2 small red potatoes/new potatoes. Cut into 1/2 -1 inch pieces and boil for about 5 minutes
extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp rosemary
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tbs grated parmesan cheese
sea salt

-Prepare pie crust

-Cut and cook potatoes

-Cut chicken into bite size pieces

-Combine veggies, chicken, potatoes, olive oil, parmesan, sea salt and spices

-Pour into pie crust, cover with second crust and put slices in the top. Brush with a bit of olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt

-Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour at 375 degrees

-Enjoy!!!