Mistaken Chocolate Brownie Cake

 

So, I have never said that I was a great cook.  Never.  I try.  But, you know what, I walk away from the oven and help someone with homework, or I have to get a band aid for someone, or I have to run upstairs and take the clothes out of the washer and put them in the dryer.  You know you can't be distracted when your cooking.  Everyone knows this. I know it,  I just choose to multi-task ;)  This cake was a big mistake!  It turned out Delicious but it wasn't even supposed to be a cake!!!  I was attempting to make a dessert to take over to friend's home for a "get-together"  and like I always do, I tried a new recipe at the last minute.  I was trying The Pioneer Woman's Knock You Naked Brownies, but, um, I didn't make the brownies.  I mixed the cake mix like the box said then I added all of the ingredients from the brownie recipe.  It was very wet.  I wasn't sure if I could even bake it. But, I put it aside and made the brownies and then went back to the mess I made. I just stared at it.  It had a lot of stuff in it.  Ingredients that I didn't want to waste.  So I dumped it into a bundt pan and cooked it. Then I made my homemade chocolate frosting and it was Delicious!  Very moist and chocolaty and just good!  So, that mistake turned out well.

 

Cake:

1 box of Betty Crocker Cake Mix

(the ingredients needed on the box)

1 cup chopped pecans, or less, or none!

1/3 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup butter, melted

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray your bundt pan with cooking spray really generously.

In a large bowl, mix the cake mix together like you normally would.  Leave it in the mixing bowl. Add the following to the mixture, pecans, evaporated milk, butter.  Mix these into the cake batter.  Pour into the bundt pan, and bake for at least 30 minutes.  You may need to let it cook a bit more, but check it with a toothpick .  Let it cool completely before frosting.

 

Frosting:

3/4 bag powder sugar

1/2 cup Hershey's baking cocoa

1/8 cup milk

1/2 stick butter, room temperature (don't melt it, let it set out and soften)

 

This is the starter mix for the frosting.  You may need to add a tad more milk, add only a Tablespoon at a time. Taste it, and go from there. More chocolate if it needs to be more chocolaty for you.  More powder sugar, if it needs to be thickened or sweetened.

 

 Adapted from The Pioneer Woman.

 

 

Crunchy French Toast

Looking at the menu plan in horror, I realized that the Baked French Toast I had planned for the next morning was just not going to happen.  Didn't have the right bread.  Could make bread but it wouldn't be the right texture since it would be fresh.  Didn't really want to run to the store late at night.  Hmmm....what to do?    Go to bed and hope that the Baked French Toast Fairy would come.

She didn't.  (True story.)

So that morning, after looking online for a jazzed up French toast recipe (that didn't require overnight soaking!), I decided to just go rogue and make it up as I went along, using a few ideas I'd seen online.   I was quite pleased with the result!  Try it and see what you think.

Also, if you could tell that Fairy that she owes me a breakfast, I'd be much obliged.

Ingredients:
16 slices of bread
4 eggs
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup skim milk
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
4 cups frosted flakes or plain corn flakes

1.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Place aluminum foil in the bottom of two large baking sheets.  Place a large cooling rack into each pan.  Spray racks with nonstick cooking spray.
2.  Measure the flakes into a plastic food bag and use the bottom of a 1-cup measure to crush the flakes into small pieces.  Pour the crushed flakes into a bowl (make sure the bowl is wide enough to allow you to lay a piece of bread in it).
3.  Whisk together the eggs, cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon.  One at a time submerge the bread into the egg mixture, lift it out, and use your fingers to gently squeegee off any excess.  Then place the dipped bread slice into the bowl of crushed flakes, pressing gently.  Flip the bread over and gently press the other side.  Then place each slice on the cooling rack.  Repeat this with all the slices, making sure to whisk well after ever two or three dippings (the sugar has a tendency to settle at the bottom and the cinnamon likes to float at the top).
4.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, flipping slices over halfway through the baking time.  Serve with butter and syrup and enjoy!

Notes:

• I used store-bought whole wheat bread.  Different breads will soak up the egg mixture differently and so may require more or less of the mixture.
• To promote more even cooking, I also rotated the position of the baking sheets halfway through the cooking time.  I just had them switch places in my oven.
• To check for doneness, I just poked the bread gently in the middle to see if it was still squishy (that's the technical term).  It should be dry but still soft.

Source:  me!  (well, with a little inspiration from the internet)

Albondigas Soup

Wow.  I get to post on Thanksgiving Day.  So in case you anticipate running out of creative ways to recycle your turkey leftovers, I am sharing a recipe from Pinterest that I have been wanting to try for a while and it contains no turkey...really.  It came together very easily and tasted really good.

Ingredients:  (please note that some of the ingredients for the soup are also used in the meatballs, so plan accordingly.)

SOUP:
1 T. vegetable oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t. dried Mexican oregano
1/4 t. ground cumin 
6 cups beef stock
2 cups crushed tomatoes
1 canned chipotle chile plus 1-2 t. adobo sauce
2 carrots, grated
1 t. salt
1/2 cup grated zucchini
1/4 cup uncooked rice

ALBONDIGAS (meatballs):
1/2 lb. ground beef
1/4 lb. bulk chorizo
1/4 cup grated zucchini
1 egg
1 clove garlic, minced
1 stale small corn tortilla, processed to crumbs 
1 T. fresh cilantro, minced
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. ground cumin
1/4 t. dried Mexican oregano

1.  Heat the vegetable oil in a large stock pot (or dutch oven) over medium heat and saute the onion, garlic, oregano and cumin until onions are soft.  Add the beef stock, tomatoes, chipotle, carrots and salt.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes.

2.  Make the albondigas by combining all of the meatball ingredients in a bowl and mixing well.  (One tip, the original recipe calls for a small, stale corn tortilla processed to crumbs but mine would never get small enough.  Next time I will use crushed tortilla chips.)  Pinch off about a tablespoon of meatball mixture and roll it into a ball about 3/4-inch in diameter.  Continue with the rest of the mixture.

3. Bring 2-3 inches of water to a boil in a medium to large saucepan.  Add the meatballs and boil for 3-4 minutes to reduce some of the grease.  Drain the meatballs and discard the water.

4.  Add the meatballs, zucchini, and rice to the soup and simmer for another 30 minutes.  Serve hot.  Garnish as desired.

Source:  Pinterest, originally  from The Border Cookbook by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison

Thanksgiving Egg Gravy

This is a family recipe from my Great-Grandmother Nanny past down to her daughter, my Grandmother Josephine, past down to her daughter my mom Jacqueline, past down to her daughter..Me.  My Grandmother Josephine was born and raised on a farm in the countryside of North Carolina.  Her father was a tobacco farmer and her mother tended to the children, the farm and cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner! (from scratch of course!)  This recipe was part of my favorite meal of the year!  I looked forward to this all year long.  I love food and appreciated the work that went into making this. I was allowed to help when I was around the age of 10.  My mom and grandmother would cook all day long.  They had to cook a lot of food because all of my Grandmother Josephine's siblings and their children and their children's children would end up at her house to eat every Thanksgiving.  So she fed roughly 30 people at one time. She even had pies, and cakes. Looking back now, I don't know how she did it.!  We ate in shifts with her best china, silver and crystal.  (I loved that and wasn't allowed to wash them until I was in high school!)  The men went first, then the kids, then the moms. Funny how I didn't think about that then.  But, it's pretty typical for a mom to eat last, huh?  The "shifts" would eat, the dishes were washed and then the next shift began.  The picture above is from this weekend.  My husband can't travel home with us for Thanksgiving.  So, we cooked an early Thanksgiving meal for him. This was yummy.  In the picture, (not my best china obviously) you can see the Egg Gravy, the Turkey, and the Dressing.  (The dressing is stuffing patted out in a cookie sheet and cut into squares.  Good Stuff.)  But the Egg Gravy is what we are talking about now.  It is really easy and so good. And you know, its taste is not "eggy". Its just good stuff.  Real comfort food and I love it.  I really do.  I love it.  Not just the taste of it, but my heart loves this treasured memory of my grandmother's recipe. 

1 32oz carton of Chicken Broth
1 32oz carton of Chicken Stock, OR use your drippings from your turkey!
1 dozen Eggs, hard boiled (you don't have to use this many eggs. but we like them so we use a dozen)
3-4 Tbs. Flour
salt
pepper

Hard boil the eggs. Peel them and slice them. In a big stock pot add the chicken broth and the chicken stock.  Cook over med-high heat.  Go ahead and add the flour before it gets to hot and you can't break up the lumps.  Add 3TBS in and whisk until all lumps are dissolved.  If you want the gravy thicker add more flour.  then bring it to a boil lower the heat to med-low and add the eggs.  Cook for about 30 minutes.  Stir frequently so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot.  Then serve over your dressing and turkey.  It's a southern delicacy!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Spice Puppy Chow

This is for all you "Muddy Buddy" lovers out there!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 12 oz. package white baking chips
1/2 c. (heaping!) Biscoff spread
1 t. pumpkin pie spice
9 c. rice Chex cereal

Directions:

1.  Place powdered sugar in a large sealable plastic bag.  Set aside.
2.  Combine white baking chips and Biscoff spread in a microwavable safe bowl and microwave on high for one minute.  Stir.  Microwave for an additional 30 seconds and stir.
3.  Stir pumpkin pie spice into Biscoff mixture.  Fold in Chex cereal and toss to coat.
4.  Pour Chex into plastic bag and shake to coat the cereal in powdered sugar.

This would also taste delicious with candy corn, orange and yellow Reese's Pieces candies or pumpkin pie spiced pecans stirred into the mix.

Biscoff is like a European peanut butter made from Biscoff cookies.  You'll find it in the grocery aisle with peanut butter and nutella.

Source:  pbfingers.com

Thankful.

As with most people, this month I've been trying to make a very concentrated effort to think about all the things that I'm grateful for. More importantly, thank my loving Heavenly Father for all the blessings I have. As I've gotten older I've come to realize that the things that I'm most grateful for aren't things. My family, my health (as well as my family's health), and most importantly, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the knowledge of Eternal Families.

I'm so grateful and thankful for my loving Heavenly Father. As I was at church today, we sang one of my favorite hymns, Prayer of Thanksgiving.There are a few lines in there that really stick out to me every time I sing in. In the first verse it mentions that "He chastens and hastens his will to make known." So yes, I should be grateful for my trials. I'm ever in His refining fire. It also says that "He forgets not his own." Our Heavenly Father loves us. We are His children. Just as I could never forget my children, especially in their time of need, He will not forget us.

How grateful am I for this time of Thanksgiving. I hope we all can take some extra time to reflect on all the things we are grateful for and to sincerely thank our Heavenly Father who gives us all those blessings.

Momo's Apple Pie

My husband loves to bake. I love that he loves to bake. (Am I a lucky woman or what?!)  Another thing that my husband loves is apple pie. Thus came to be Momo's Apple Pie. (His name is Morgan, but all his nieces and nephews call him Momo... it's 'his' thing).

This Apple Pie is different than most apple pies. Most pies you mix the apples with spices and a touch of flour then place them into a crust. With this pie, you make a syrup to pour over the whole apple pie (crust and all!) that that gives the pie an incredible flavor and a nice crisp crust. For those Dutch Apple Pie lovers (myself included) this pie my just change your preference.

Seriously, doesn't that look so yummy?! And it's not even baked yet...

Momo's Apple Pie 

Ingredients
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie (we're lazy and use pre-made crust)
1/2 cup butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
8 cooking apples - peeled, cored and sliced

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste.
3. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
4. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, slightly mounded.
5. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the brown sugar syrup over the crust. Make sure to pour in between lattice work to get into the apples. Use a pastry brush to coat the lattice with syrup.
6. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350. Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft. We bake our pies on some sort of cookie sheet or pizza pan to catch any drippings.

My son loved this pie too! He was so anxious for it to cool enough to cut. I'm positive you and your family will love it too.



Adapted from allrecipes.com