Cookies and Cream Cake

by penji1

Cookies and Cream Cake

It was Zach’s birthday this past week and he is a huge Oreo fan so when I found this cake on the Food Network site, I knew it was the birthday cake for him and I was right, it was delicious and I think he ate probably half of the cake  himself.  The recipe for the “Basic Chocolate Cake” can be found here and the instructions for the “Cookies and Cream Cake” can be found here.  It wasn’t hard to make, just a little messy while putting the Oreos on the sides of the cake.  P.S.  The frosting on this cake was to die for!

Basic Chocolate Cake

1 cup unsweetened cocoa

2 1/2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

3/4 cup oil

1/2 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla

1  Preheat oven to 350.  Spray two 9″ round cake pans with cooking spray (I used the cooking spray for baking).

2  Whisk cocoa and 1 1/2 cups boiling water until smooth and set aside.  Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in your mixer bowl until combined.  Add eggs, oil, sour cream and vanilla and beat on medium until smooth, about 1 minute.  Reduce speed to low and beat in cocoa mixture in a steady stream until just combined then finish mixing with a spatula.

3  Divide batter between cake pans and tap to help batter settle.  Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 30 – 40 minutes.  Let cool 10 minutes before removing from pans and allowing to cool completely.

Cookies and Cream Cake

frosting:

6 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped (I used Ghiradelli white chocolate discs, like the Wilton Candy Melts)

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

pinch of salt

3 cups powdered sugar (it was a warm day when I made the cake so I ended up using about 5 cups)

Melt white chocolate in microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.  Beat butter, vanilla and salt in mixing bowl on medium high until smooth, about 1 minute.  Add melted chocolate and beat until combined.  Gradually beat in powdered sugar until smooth.

cake assembly:

15 Oreo cookies (I used about 30 I think), crushed

Place 1 cake layer on platter, spread approx 1 cup frosting on top and spread then top with about 1/2 cup crushed cookies.  Place second layer on top and frost entire cake.  Press cookie crumbs onto sides of cake.  (I got my Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator out and had some fun with the top of the cake too.)

Pasta Puttanesca

by penji1

Pasta Puttanesca

So we went on a cruise a couple of weeks ago and went to a cooking demonstration with the ship’s chef and he made this dish and it looked and smelled so yummy that I gave it a try when we got home.  They didn’t give us a recipe or anything and he just kind of threw it together so I thought I’d just do the same and it came out awesome!  If you’ve got a lot of tomatoes in your garden then you might want to give this a try.  I’ll tell you what I did but you can make this dish your own!

1 – 2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, thinly sliced

salt and pepper

garlic, your choice on how much, I used a couple of cloves

tomatoes (I’m not sure how many I ended up using, somewhere between 15 – 20 I think and they were Romas although I’m sure you can use whatever you have, also add a few more than you think you need)

1 can chicken broth

1 teaspoon oregano

basil, your choice on how much

Parmesan cheese

cooked pasta of your choice

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium to medium high heat then add onion and salt and pepper and cook until almost translucent.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 – 2 minutes, then add tomatoes and cook just until heated through, another couple of minutes.  Next add chicken broth, start with half the can and then add more as needed.  Stir in spices of your choice, if using fresh basil like I did, don’t add that until the end.  Bring to a boil then let simmer until tomatoes and broth are reduced and soft and saucelike.  🙂  Stir in fresh basil and top with Parmesan.  Serve over pasta.

Circus Tent Fondant Birthday Cake

by penji1

Circus First Birthday Cake

Courtney and I haven’t had a lot of time for cakes lately but her friend Brie requested a circus cake for her daughter Perry’s first birthday and we didn’t want to say no to that!  I baked, Cort decorated with fondant and then Brie made the topper out of clay.  Came out so cute!  The cake is brown sugar from the “White Almond Sour Cream” cake recipe, found here.  I just subbed brown sugar for the white sugar in the recipe.  Happy 1st Birthday to sweet little Perry!

Almond Mint Pesto

by penji1

Almond Mint Pesto

Since Bob loved the mint pesto so much, I thought I’d experiment with some other recipes and give him a variety so here is mint pesto #2.  This one comes from Good Housekeeping.

2 cups mint

2 tablespoons roasted salted almonds

1 clove garlic

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon peel

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1  In food processor or blender, pulse all ingredients except olive oil until coarsely chopped.

2  With food processor or blender running, add olive oil and puree until coarsely ground.

Mint Pesto

by penji1

Mint Pesto

I planted 1 mint plant in my garden and it is huge!  So I’ve been looking for ways to use the mint and discovered that you can make pesto with mint so I thought I’d give it a try since everyone around here loves the basil pesto.  I took one bite and thought I was going to puke, it was awful so I went to throw it away but then I thought I should let Bob try it because he’s always game and so he tried and LOVED IT!!  Ha ha!  Maybe it’s like cilantro which I can’t stand and he loves?  The recipe comes from a website called “Donna Hay”.  Maybe you’ll like it and maybe you won’t!  🙂

1/2 cup pine nuts

1/3 cup chopped green onion

1 cup mint leaves

2 teaspoons white wine vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon lemon rind

sea salt and cracked black pepper

Place all ingredients in blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

Cocoa Nut Almond Butter

by penji1

Cocoa Nut Almond Butter

I got a new Twister Jar for my Blendtec blender.  The twister jar is designed to blend thicker recipes, such as this nut butter.  This recipe comes from the cookbook that came with the twister jar.  I’m thinking if you have a heavy duty blender or food processor then you could make some nut butter too.

1 1/4 cups roasted, unsalted almonds (almonds are easy to roast in your oven, set oven to 350, spread almonds on a cookie sheet and roast for 10 – 12 minutes, you can tell when they’re done because you can start to smell them)

2 tablespoons cocoa

2 tablespoons unsweetened coconut flakes

3 tablespoons sugar

1/16 – 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Add ingredients to jar in order listed and place twister lid on jar.  Hold twister lid and with other hand press speed up to speed 7, run for 40 seconds and press pulse to stop.  Turn twister lid counter clockwise during blending.

PS  It is delicious with apples!

Zucchini and Ricotta Mini Frittatas

by penji1

Zucchini and Ricotta Mini Frittatas

We had a bridal shower here on Saturday for our dear friend Marlene who is getting married this month.  This was one of the yummies that I made for the shower.  The recipe comes from “My Recipes” and it was so good that I made it again for dinner last night!

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium zucchini, finely chopped (one of the joys of gardening, I just walked out to my back yard and picked this fresh!)

1 onion, chopped

salt

8 eggs

3/4 cup ricotta (I bought the fat free kind and it tasted great)

1/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons chopped mint leaves (ah yes, I also just walked outside and harvested this from my garden!)

1  Preheat oven to 350, 325 for dark colored pans.  Mist 12 cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.  (Be liberal with the spray, my first batch stuck a little bit.)

2  Warm oil in medium skillet over medium high heat.  Add zucchini and onion, sprinkle with salt and cook, stirring often, until softened and lightly browned, about 8 minutes.

3  Whisk eggs, ricotta, milk and 1 teaspoon salt.  Stir zucchini mixture and mint into eggs.  Use 1/4 – 1/3 cup dry measure to transfer mixture into muffin cups.  Bake until just cooked through, about 25 minutes.  Cool in pan 5 minutes before removing.

Last night for dinner, we had a “garden meal”, everything was made with something from the garden:

Bruschetta, Zucchini and Ricotta Mini Frittatas and Blue Ribbon Zucchini Bread

Balsamic Bruschetta – made with Grape Tomatoes, Roma Tomatoes and Basil from the garden, recipe here

Blue Ribbon Zucchini Bread – made with zucchini from the garden, recipe here

Zucchini and Ricotta Mini Frittatas – made with zucchini and mint from the garden, see above for recipe 🙂

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Starbuck’s Hot Cocoa Chocolate Chip Muffins

by penji1

Starbuck's Hot Cocoa Chocolate Chip Muffins

Some more muffins from our St George trip, these come from a blog called “Amanda’s Cookin” and are pretty yummy too.  

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup Starbucks Hot Cocoa Mix (I used Stephens Chocolate Mint Truffle Hot Cocoa Mix cause that’s what I had)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (I used semisweet)

1  Preheat oven to 375.  Spray or line muffin pan with liners

2  Combine sugar, flour, cocoa mix, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

3  In another bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla, milk and melted, cooled butter.  

4  Fold egg mixture into flour mixture.

5  Place 1 tablespoon of batter into each muffin cup.  Add chocolate chips to remaining batter in bowl and fold in.  Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.  (I just mixed the chips into the whole bowl of batter and then scooped them into the cups.)

6  Bake 15 – 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Let cool in pan 5 – 10 minutes before removing.

(I topped my muffins with a spoonful of mint sugar, recipe here, before baking and then when they came out of the oven, I put a couple of chocolate chips on top.) 

Yogurt Streusel Muffins

by penji1

Yogurt Streusel Muffins

We took the Young Women on a St George trip this weekend which was tons of fun.  I made some muffins for Saturday morning breakfast and this was one of the recipes that I tried.  It was clearly the favorite because they were the first to go.  The recipe comes from “My Recipes” and was easy and delicious.

streusel topping:

2/3 cup finely chopped pecans, almonds or walnuts (I went with walnuts)

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter, melted

muffins:

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted and cooled

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup plain low fat yogurt (I used vanilla instead)

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1  Make streusel topping:  In small bowl, combine streusel ingredients and pinch together into large crumbs and place bowl in freezer.

2  Make muffins:  Preheat oven to 375.  Line muffin cups with paper liners.  Whisk butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and yogurt together.  Stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  Fill each muffin cup with batter.  Scatter streusel topping over each muffin and press lightly on crumbs so they adhere to batter.  Bake until tops are golden, 17 – 20 minutes.  Let muffins cool in pan on wire rack 5 minutes before removing.

Yield:  recipe said 12 but I got a few more than that

Loaded Pesto Pasta Salad

by penji1

Loaded Pesto Pasta Salad

I’m not the world’s greatest gardener but this year my basil has exploded!  Take a look:

Basil Garden

So as you might imagine, there has been a lot of pesto around here lately.  I really like to eat it cold so the other night I threw together this pasta salad.  Enjoy!

1 recipe Fresh Basil Pesto (found here), doubled (or store bought pesto in an equal amount)

16 oz of your favorite pasta (I used a 17.6 oz bag of tri colored bow ties)

1 cucumber, chopped

2 – 4 stalks celery, chopped

1 pint grape tomatoes, sliced in half

1 bunch radishes, sliced

1 small zucchini, chopped

1/2 bunch green onions, chopped

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 small jar artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

1  Prepare pesto according to recipe directions.

2  Boil pasta according to package directions.

3  Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and refrigerate until chilled.

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