Free Pampered Chef Cookbook Giveaway!

by penji1
Fight hunger with one click! Download your FREE celebrity cookbook
Pampered Chef is giving away a free downloadable celebrity cookbook, “The Pampered Chef Cookbook for a Cause:  Celebrities Share Family Favorites to Benefit Feeding America”!  But here’s the best part, for every cookbook that is downloaded between August 1 and September 30, Pampered Chef will donate 1 meal to Feeding America (up to 140,000) so not only do you get a free celebrity cookbook, you are also helping  feed hungry people!
All you have to do is click on the picutre above or go to www.pamperedchef.com and click on the button that looks like the picture above to get your cookbook.  The recipes look yummy!  Here’s a couple that I’ll  probably try first, Creme Brulee French Toast from Samantha Harris and Pizza Margherita from Mario Batali.  Let me know what you think! 

Giveaway Scout Wants My Blog!

by penji1

Giveaway Scout - all the giveaways and sweepstakes in one place

I got a message last night on my blog from Giveaway Scout who wants to include my blog on their website!  Here is what they have to say about their website:

  • We automatically scan thousands of blogs to bring you the latest blog giveaways, sweepstakes and contests.
  • Never miss out on a giveaway!
  • Our lists update every hour.

    • You can sign up on their website to be notified by email about all the great giveaways they find.  Looks like a great site.  I’m going to sign up because who doesn’t love free!

    Here’s their website:  www.giveawayscout.com 

    Good luck and happy winning!

    Mint Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Chocolate Dream Glaze

    by penji1

    Today is my husband Bob’s birthday and it’s been a bit of a bust because our daughter Courtney just got out of the hospital last night after being there since Saturday night when she fell off a zipline and fractured her wrist and sacrum and her pelvis in two places but I did manage to make him a birthday cake and get him three different kinds of one of his favorite food which is shrimp (cilantro lime shrimp, shrimp cocktail and shrimp salad, all from Costco) so his day hasn’t been all bad.  This cake is from the Chocolate Cake Dr cookbook which I believe I’ve already professed my love for!

    cake:

    1 (18.25 oz) package plain butter recipe fudge cake mix (I could only find a butter recipe chocolate cake mix so that’s what I used)

    1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, room temperature

    1/2 cup water

    1/2 cup oil

    1/4 cup sugar

    4 eggs

    1 teaspoon vanilla

    1 1/4 cups (about 28 which is 1 whole package) Andes chocolate mints, broken in half

    powdered sugar for garnish

    1.  Preheat oven to 325.  Spray 10″ tube pan with Pam for baking.

    2.  Beat cake mix, cream cheese, water, oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla on low for 1 minute then on medium for 2 minutes.  Batter should be well combined.  Fold in mint pieces until they are well incorporated.  Pour batter into pan, smoothing it out with a spatula.

    3.  Bake until cake springs back when lightly touched with finger and is just starting to pull away from sides of pan, about 58 – 62 minutes.  Let cool on wire rack for 20 minutes.  Invert onto serving platter and let cool for additional 20 minutes.  Top with powdered sugar or glaze.

    glaze:

    1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

    4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter

    2 tablespoons light corn syrup

    Place chips, butter and syrup in microwave safe bowl and microwave on high for 1 – 1 1/2 minutes.  Whisk until butter and chocolate are melted and glaze is smooth and spreadable.  (Or you can put ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil on medium then remove from heat and whisk until smooth).  Drizzle over top of cake.

    I bought an additional package of Andes mints and chopped up about 10 of them with my Food Chopper and sprinkled them over the top of the glaze.

    Lemonade Party Cake

    by penji1

    A tasty, tart summertime cake for the barbeque, recipe courtesy of Betty Crocker.  When I make this again, I think I’ll double the amount of lemonade concentrate and powdered sugar that gets poured over the cake as I wanted more of that flavor and texture when eating it.

    1 package lemon cake mix (plus ingredients to make cake)

    1 (6 oz) can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed (I think I’d double it to a 12 oz can next time)

    3/4 cup powdered sugar (and I’d double this to 1 1/2 cups)

    1 tub fluffy white or lemon ready to spread frosting or 1 tub of Cool Whip (I used the Cool Whip, I think it goes better with the cake because it’s lighter than the frosting)

    Heat oven to 350.  Grease bottom only of 13 x 9″ pan.  Make cake mix as directed on package.  Pour into pan.  Bake 30 – 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool 15 minutes.  Mix lemonade and sugar.  Poke top of cake every 1/2″ with long tined fork occasionally.  Drizzle lemonade mixture over top of cake.  Run knife around sides of cake to loosen from pan.  Cover and refrigerate 2 hours or until chilled.  Spread with frosting or Cool Whip.  Store covered loosely in fridge.

    (I topped mine with Pampered Chef Lemon Sprinkles.)

    Pizza Pasta Salad #2

    by penji1

    Bob’s sister Mary and her family are here visiting and we’re having a big barbeque tonight so I thought I’d try out this pasta salad recipe from “All You” magazine on them.  It looks and smells delicious!

    salt and pepper

    1 pound short pasta such as bow ties, shells or penne (I used rotini)

    1/4 cup olive oil

    1/3 cup rice vinegar (I ran out of rice vinegar so used white wine vinegar to make up the difference)

    1/2 cup chopped oil-packed sun dried tomatoes (I just used grape tomatoes)

    3/4 cup sliced marinated artichoke hearts

    8 oz bocconcini (small fresh mozzarella nuggets), halved (about 18 pieces) (I just used shredded mozarella)

    4 oz pepperoni or salami, diced (I used pepperoni this time)

    1/2 cup shredded fresh basil leaves (I used about 1/2 – 1 teaspoon dried basil)

    2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano (I used 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano)

    1  Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain well and cool.

    2  Transfer pasta to a large bowl and stir in olive oil.  Add vinegar, tomatoes, artichokes, mozzarella, pepperoni, basil and oregano.  Toss well and season with salt and pepper.

    Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Martha’s Chocolate Icing

    by penji1

    Courtney’s BFF had surgery on her nose yesterday to fix a deviated septum so what better medicine to fix the sore nose than chocolate cake?  This recipe comes from the “Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor” cookbook by Anne Byrn, a personal favorite of mine.

    cake:

    1 (18.25 oz) package plain butter recipe fudge cake mix (I used milk chocolate)

    1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, at room temperature

    1/2 cup water

    1/2 cup oil

    1/4 cup sugar

    4 eggs

    2 teaspoons vanilla

    1.  Preheat oven to 325.  Spray 10″ tube pan with Pam for baking.

    2.  Blend cake mix, cream cheese, water, oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla on low for 1 minute then on medium for 2 minutes.  Batter should be well combined.  Pour batter into tube pan, smoothing out with spatula.

    3.  Bake until cake springs back when lightly pressed with finger and is just starting to pull away from sides of pan, about 58 – 62 minutes.  Place on wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes then remove from pan.  Allow to cool for 20 minutes more.  Top with icing.

    icing:

    1 cup sugar

    5 tablespoons butter

    1/3 cup milk (I only had 1% so used that)

    1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

    1.  Place sugar, butter and milk in saucepan over medium high heat, stir until mixture comes to a boil about 3 – 4 minutes.  Still stirring, let mixture boil for 1 minute, until sugar dissolves.  Remove from heat.

    2.  Stir in chips, continuing to stir until mixture is smooth and chocolate has melted.

    3.  Drizzle icing over cake, letting it run down the sides.

    100 Recipes = a $50 Pampered Chef Giveaway!!!!!

    by penji1

    In celebration of posting over 100 recipes on my food blog, I’m giving away $50 worth of Pampered Chef products (the winner gets to choose the products)!

    Here’s the catch – you have to be subscribed to my blog in order to win.  If you are already subscribed to it (meaning that you receive an email each time that I post a new recipe) then you are automatically entered into the drawing.  If you are not subscribed, all you have to do to subscribe is enter your email address in the box on the top left hand corner of the home page then confirm when you receive an email asking you to do so.  You can earn additional entries by having people let me know that you referred them when they subscribe to the blog.

    Right now I have about 30 subscribers to my blog; I would like to double that number, better yet, I’d like to get to 100 subscribers!  Help me get there and I’ll reward you with fun Pampered Chef products!

    I would like to end this giveaway on Saturday, August 7 so get crackin people and spread the word!  🙂

    (If we don’t get to at least 60 subscribers then the prize might be a little less, we’ll see how it goes and I’ll keep you posted!)

    Sweet and Sour Chicken

    by penji1

    On the last night of camp, we had this for dinner with rice.  I’ll try to record the recipe here but mostly I just kind of felt and tasted my way through this one.  The original recipe came from Bob’s Aunt Nancy (I think!).

    chicken breasts or thighs (for dinner at camp I used 2 of those big bags of chicken thighs from Costco)

    1 box brown sugar

    1 cup soy sauce

    2 cups pineapple juice or 1 large can pineapple rings (or crushed or chunk) with juice

    You can combine all these in a crock pot and cook it all day until the chicken is tender.  For camp, I divided the chicken up between gallon ziploc freezer bags (about 5) and added the brown sugar, soy sauce and pineapple juice in almost equal parts (be carefull with the soy sauce, a little goes a long way) and then froze it and as it thawed in the coolers up at camp, it marinated and then I just boiled it, adding additional pineapple juice as needed.  It was really good.

    Easy Baked Beans

    by penji1

    We had hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner one night so I adapted this recipe a bit for camping and made it to go along with the burgers and dogs, not sure where the original recipe came from.

    2 (16 oz) cans baked beans, drained and rinsed well and carefully

    1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper

    1/4 cup chopped onion

    1/2 cup packed brown sugar

    1/2 cup ketchup

    1/2 cup barbeque sauce

    5 slices bacon, cooked crisp, drained and crumbled

    1 1/2 teaspoons prepared mustard

    Combine all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 7 – 9 hours.

    (At camp I cooked the onion and pepper in a stock pot until tender and then added all the other ingredients and cooked on low until hot and thick and yummy!)