Friday, February 18, 2011

Chocolate sheet cake



Cake ingredients:

2 c. sugar
2 c. flour
1 c. water
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 c. butter (2 sticks)
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. soda
2 eggs
Mix sugar and flour together, set bowl aside.
Heat together in a saucepan the water, salt, cocoa and butter until it's melted together; pour into the sugar and flour mixture. Add the buttermilk, vanilla, soda and eggs; mix together well. Pour into greased & floured cookie sheet (jelly roll pan) with rim (17 x 11 x 1 inch). Bake 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes - frost while warm.
Frosting:
1/2 c. butter (1 stick)
4 tbsp. cocoa
6 tbsp. buttermilk
16 oz. powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. chopped nuts
Boil well the butter, cocoa and buttermilk. Remove from heat and add sugar, vanilla. Spread on the warm cake.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Chicken with Olives & Tomatoes


Heat 2 Tblsp. olive oil in a large pan over a med-hi heat. Saute 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (cut in half = 4 pcs.) that have been seasoned with salt & pepper for 5 minutes, then turn once and saute the other side for another 4 minutes. Into the pan, add a med. thinly sliced onion, 2 cloves chopped garlic & saute for a few minutes, stirring often until the onion is wilted. Add 2 Tblsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice. Add a half pint of halved grape tomatoes - season with salt & pepper (fresh ground), 2 tblsp. chopped parsley, 1/2 tsp. dried basil (or 1 tsp. fresh). Taste - adjust seasonings. Cover & cook for 5 minutes. Add a half cup (or more, depending how much you like them) small green olives with pimientos - or use pitted Kalamata olives, black olives or whatever type you like best. Cover and cook another 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

Chocolate chips with Dove mint chocolate morsels

Shortbread cookies

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Chocolate frosting


I've been playing around with recipes for chocolate frosting & found that the cooked type (for red velvet cakes) is VERY good when you add melted chocolate!! This recipe will make enough to frost a cake made in a 9x13" pan. If you're making a layer cake, I'd adjust the ingredients to produce a higher yield.



In a saucepan, mix 1/3 cup flour with 2 cups milk. Heat, stirring frequently with a whisk, until the mixture begins to come to a light boil and becomes thickened. It'll look like pudding. Cook a few minutes longer until quite thick, stirring constantly to prevent it from getting lumpy. Remove from heat - put a sheet of waxed paper directly on top of the mixture to prevent a crust from forming. Cool completely, at least an hour or more.

Cream together (with mixer) on a medium speed:
2 cups sugar
1 cup softened butter
1 tsp. vanilla
3-4 squares (depending on how chocolatey you want this) of unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

Raise the speed of the mixer to medium high and beat until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
Add the cooked/cooled milk-flour mixture to the butter-sugar-vanilla and beat on a higher speed (scraping down the sides of the bowl often) for 4-5 minutes, or until it's the consistency of whipped cream. Continually scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Frost your cooked, cooled cake. Lick the spatula & bowl thoroughly. :)




Seafood chowder

Recipe will be posted soon!