sweet stuff!

I think everyone has these recipes, so I'm just posting a few pictures!


Mother's Day Truffles



Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting -- 3 layers with sweet cream in the middle

Caramel and chocolate covered pretzels

White chocolate raspberry cupcakes

Banana Blueberry Swirl Popsicles

Ingredients:

3-4 ripe bananas (1 lb)

1 1/2 cups yogurt

3 Tablespoons sugar

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1 cup fresh blueberries

1. In the bowl of a food processor, puree bananas until smooth. Add yogurt, sugar, and lemon juice; pulse to combine. Remove half of the yogurt mixture; set aside.
2. Add blueberries to processor, and pulse until just combined. Layer blueberry and reserved yogurt mixtures into ten 1/3 cup ice-pop molds. Using a wooden skewer, swirl the two flavors together. Insert ice-pop sticks. Transfer to freezer until frozen, about 8 hours
3. Dip molds quickly in hot water to unmold. 

Autumn Salad

This is a winner.

Salad:
-your choice of lettuce (I used a romaine mixture that came in a plastic container)
-1 diced tart apple
-2 sliced pears
-crasins
-toasted pecans (I used candied walnuts)
-shaved fresh Parmesan, feta, or goat cheese (I used goat)
-(chicken if you wish to make it an entree)

Dressing (This makes a lot.  I halved it, and still had a lot extra)
-1 cup sugar
-3/4 cup raspberry vinegar or red wine vinegar
-2 t. salt
-2 Tbsp prepared mustard
-2 Tbsp poppy seeds
-1/2 red onion
-1 1/2 cup oil

Puree in blender

Yogurt and Granola

Alright sisters. I got ambitious. Everything turned out very, very good. And it was all very, very easy.
Yogurt
http://www.nourishingdays.com/2009/02/make-yogurt-in-your-crock-pot/
Follow this recipe with exactness. Maybe a Saturday project because you have to do stuff 2.5 hours after you start, then again 3 hours later, then again 8 hours later. Just buy plain yogurt, I got low fat because it was all the store sold, but I don't think it matters. I used Vitamin D milk - pasteurized and homoginized, do not get ultra pasteurized. It turned out really good - it is plain yogurt so you need to add vanilla and brown sugar to make it taste good.
*By the way, apparently you can make cream cheese by draining the yogurt in cheesecloth in the fridge for 5 hours. Will report later once I have tried this.

Granolahttp://www.slashfood.com/2007/08/31/a-granola-recipe-from-my-moms-hippie-youth/
You can use maple syrup or honey, or both. I did both, and I did a little over a half cup because I thought it needed the moisture. I wouldn't be afraid to add a little more canola oil either. I did not use coconut or sesame seeds, and instead of peanuts or almonds I used walnuts because I have a whole bunch. I also increased the 1/4 of wheat germ to 1/2 cup, which I think was a good choice because it helps form clusters. When you are done mixing in the bowl, and there are not many clusters, add a little water and that will help.

Vegetable Frittata

Ingredients:
3 large potatoes
Vegetables (I used ½ an onion, 1 zucchini, and a little eggplant)
8 eggs
½ cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Cheese (optional)

Directions:
1 - Boil potatoes for 15 minutes. Drain out water and let cool.
2 - Sautee vegetables until fully cooked, salt them as well.
3 - Peel potatoes, and shred into a well-oiled nonstick-skillet (I used a 12” one, if you wanted it thicker it could be smaller, but I wouldn’t go bigger). Cook shredded potatoes for 5-10 minutes on a high heat. If they are sticking to the pan, add more oil.
4 - In a bowl, mix eggs and milk.
5 - Once the potatoes have browned a little, spread them out evenly across the pan, as to create a bottom-crust. Reduce heat to medium-low.
6 - Pour egg mixture over potatoes (make sure the pan has cooled a little from the last step so that the eggs don’t fry immediately), and then place your sautéed vegetables on top. Cover skillet and let cook, until the eggs are cooked through (about 10 minutes). If the eggs on top are taking too long to cook, turn oven on to broil, and place skillet in the oven (it cooks quickly so don’t worry about damaging your skillet).

*You could sprinkle cheese on top and place it back in the broiler for a minute, or you could mix shredded cheese in with the egg mixture. I like it best with sour cream on the side. You could also do a meat version of this with ham or bacon or sausage or whatever floats your boat. This dish refrigerates well.

Cipollini Onion and Fennel Pot Roast

From Food Network, Giada De Laurentiis

Yield: 8-10 servings
Total Time (prep and cook): 5 hours

Ingredients:1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 (5-pound) boneless beef chuck roast
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 pound (about 2 cups) cipollini, boiler, or pearl onions, peeled
3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped into 3/4-inch pieces
2 medium fennel bulbs, sliced into 1/2-inch pieces
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup dry sherry
4 cups low-sodium beef broth, plus extra, as needed
2 dried bay leaves


Directions:
For the rub: In a small bowl, mix together the rosemary, thyme, oil, salt, and pepper until smooth.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Pat the beef dry with paper towels and rub on all sides with the herb rub. In a heavy 6-quart pot or Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat. Add the beef and cook until browned on all sides, about 12 minutes. Remove the beef and set aside.

Add the remaining oil, onions, carrots, and fennel to the pot. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute until aromatic. Add the sherry and scrape up the brown bits that cling to the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Stir in the broth and bay leaves. Return the beef and any juices to the pot and bring the liquids to a boil. Cover the pot and transfer to the oven. Cook until the beef is fork-tender, about 4 hours, turning the beef over halfway through and adding extra broth, as needed, to keep the beef halfway covered in liquid.

Transfer the beef to a cutting board. Tent with foil and let stand for 15 minutes. Spoon any excess fat off the top of the pan juices. Remove the bay leaves and discard. Using an immersion blender, blend the vegetables and cooking juices together until smooth. (The vegetables can also be pureed in a blender). Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Keep warm over low heat.

Cut the beef into 1-inch pieces and place on a platter. Spoon some of the sauce over the meat and serve the remaining sauce on the side.

From Katharine

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/cipollini-onion-and-fennel-pot-roast-recipe/index.html 

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 18 (1 ounce) squares bittersweet chocolate
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 6 eggs
• 
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease one 10 inch round cake pan and set aside.
2. In a small saucepan over medium heat combine the water, salt and sugar. Stir until completely dissolved and set aside.
3. Either in the top half of a double boiler or in a microwave oven melt the bittersweet chocolate. Pour the chocolate into the bowl of an electric mixer.
4. Cut the butter into pieces and beat the butter into the chocolate, 1 piece at a time. Beat in the hot sugar-water. Slowly beat in the eggs, one at a time.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Have a pan larger than the cake pan ready, put the cake pan in the larger pan and fill the pan with boiling water halfway up the sides of the cake pan.
6. Bake cake in the water bath at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 45 minutes. The center will still look wet. Chill cake overnight in the pan. To unmold, dip the bottom of the cake pan in hot water for 10 seconds and invert onto a serving plate.

Jax's Notes:

~ I used a 9 inch pan instead of a 10 inch. If you have a spring form pan (a cheesecake pan), that makes it much easier to display the cake, if you’re interested in doing that, because you don’t have to remove the cake from the tin.
~ Grease the pan really well. I greased it and then floured it, and the pieces came out fine. (Scott pointed out the irony in my flouring the pan of a flourless cake. . .)
~It says to refrigerate overnight so it can set. I didn’t have time to do that, so I put it in the freezer for about 3 hours, and it was fine.

~The cake is pretty rich, so you don’t have to cut huge slices – so, a single cake definitely probably serve a dozen people.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Flourless-Chocolate-Cake-I/Detail.aspx?src=etaf 

Fruit Leather

Ingredients:

• Fresh fruit (apricots, peaches, plums, berries, apples, pears, grapes)
• Water
• Lemon juice
• Sugar (if needed)
• Spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg (optional)

METHOD

1 Rinse the fruit. If you working with stone fruit, take out the pits, chop the fruit. If working with apples or pears, peel and core them, then chop. If working with grapes, de-stem them.

Taste the fruit before proceeding. Note how sweet the fruit is. If very sweet (ripe Concord grapes for example) you will not need to add any sugar. If still a little tart, you may need to add some sugar in the next step.

2 Place fruit in a large saucepan. Add a half cup of water for every 4 cups of chopped fruit. Bring to a simmer, cover and let cook on a low heat for 10-15 minutes, or until the fruit is cooked through. Uncover and stir. Use a potato masher to mash up the fruit in the pan. Taste the fruit and determine what and how much sugar, lemon juice, or spices to add. Add sugar in small amounts (1 Tbsp at a time if working with 4 cups of fruit), to desired level of sweetness. Add lemon juice one teaspoon at a time to help brighten the flavor of the fruit. Add a pinch or two of cinnamon, nutmeg, or other spices to augment the flavor.

Continue to simmer and stir until any added sugar is completely dissolved and the fruit purée has thickened, another 5 or 10 minutes (or more).

Note if you are working with grapes - strain the juice out of the mashed grapes to make grape juice. Force what is left behind, after straining, through a food mill, to make the purée for the next step.

3 Put the purée through a food mill or chinoise. Alternatively purée it thoroughly in a blender or food processor. Taste again and adjust sugar/lemon/spices if necessary. The purée should be very smooth.

4 Line a rimmed baking sheet with sturdy plastic wrap (the kind that is microwave safe). Pour out the purée into the lined baking sheet to about an 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness.

5 Place the baking sheet in the oven, try to keep any plastic wrap from touch the sides of the oven or the oven racks. Also try to make sure that the plastic wrap hasn't folded back over on top of the purée. If this happens, the purée won't dry out. Heat the oven to a low 140°F. If you have a convection setting, use it, it will speed up the process and help dry out the purée. Let dry in the oven like this for as long as it takes for the purée to dry out and form fruit leather. We usually keep it in the oven overnight, so about 8-12 hours. The fruit leather is ready when it is no longer sticky, but has a smooth surface.

Alternatives to the oven. If you have a food dehydrator, this would be a great use of it. My mother suggested putting the tray in the weber grill, and leaving covered, in the sun all day. Sounds like a good trick, but I haven't tried it yet. My parents remember the traditional way of making fruit leather was just to tent the tray with some cheesecloth and leave it outside in the sun on a hot day.

6 When the fruit leather is ready, you can easily peel it up from the plastic wrap. To store it, roll it in its plastic wrap, put it in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator or freezer.

4 cups of fruit yield about one baking sheet of fruit leather.

Lily's Note:
i made a strawberry one. it is pretty tasty. it brought me back to the days of fruit rollups. When the weather gets nicer though, there are a whole bunch or apricot trees around, so i plan on making apricot ones. i did a thinner layer, about 1/8 inch, and it turned out pretty thin. i'd do a thicker layer.. 1/4-1/2 inch, maybe about 6-8 cups of fruit?
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_fruit_leather/

Dense Chocolate Cake

http://www.ehow.com/how_3391163_make-dense-chocolate-cake.html

Things You'll Need:

• Round cake pan or muffin tin
• Shortening
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder, divided
• 5 1-oz. squares semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
• 1/2 cup butter
• Double boiler
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• Medium bowl
• Toothpick
• Wire cooling rack
• Confectionery sugar

Directions:

• 1
  Grease the cake pan or muffin pan (for individual cakes) with shortening. Use about 1/4 cup of the cocoa powder to dust the cake or muffin pan.
• 2
  Select the baking temperature according to the type of baking pan you use. Some pans require either a lower temperature or less baking time. Preheat the oven at 300 degrees F.
• 3
  Melt 4 chocolate squares with the 1/2 cup of butter in the double boiler on low to medium heat. Fold chocolate and butter to mix well throughout the cooking process.
• 4
  Mix 3/4 cup sugar, remaining cocoa powder, 3 beaten eggs and 1 tsp. of vanilla in a medium bowl.
• 5
  Remove the melted chocolate and butter mixture from stove. Stir in remaining ingredients and pour into greased cake or muffin pan.
• 6
  Bake for approximately 30 minutes (about 22 to 27 minutes for muffin or cupcake size cakes). Insert a toothpick to test the cake, about 2 to 3 inches from the edge of the pan.
• 7
  Take the cakes out from oven and cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Turn the pan over onto a wire rack for the cakes to cool. Dust the cakes with confectionery sugar and shave the remaining ounce of chocolate over the top of the cake. Warm the cake before serving.

  
  

  
  

  Tips & Warnings
• ~While this cake is dense, almost like a brownie, you can adjust the cake texture by using more cocoa powder. Less cocoa powder and more chocolate squares create a silkier cake.

~When using more chocolate than cocoa, bake longer for the cake to set.

~Tweak the flavor by adding a flavoring extract or creating a custom glaze. Coffee, mocha, hazelnut, coconut, almond, orange or raspberry are all flavors that complement chocolate

~Substitute sugar with a sugar substitute or the eggs with egg whites or an egg substitute to create a low-calorie dessert.When using more chocolate than cocoa for a silkier texture, bake longer for the cake to set.

~If the cake falls, adjust the amount of liquid in the recipe or whip the ingredients longer before pouring the batter in pan.

From Lily

Cajun Jambalaya

Cajun Jambalya

Recipe from FoodNetwork, Emril Lagasse

Ingredients

• 12 medium shrimp, peeled, deveined and chopped
• 4 ounces chicken, diced
• 1 tablespoon Creole seasoning, recipe follows
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped celery
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 3/4 cup rice
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 5 ounces Andouille sausage, sliced
• Salt and pepper

Directions

In a bowl combine shrimp, chicken and Creole seasoning, and work in seasoning well. In a large saucepan heat oil over high heat with onion, pepper and celery, 3 minutes. Add garlic, tomatoes, bay leaves, Worcestershire and hot sauces. Stir in rice and slowly add broth. Reduce heat to medium and cook until rice absorbs liquid and becomes tender, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. When rice is just tender add shrimp and chicken mixture and sausage. Cook until meat is done, about 10 minutes more. Season to taste with salt, pepper and Creole seasoning.

Jax Note: It’s really good! I did a few things differently. . . didn’t add hot sauce (b/c I didn’t have any), used brown rice, added black beans. It’s still pretty spicy, so next time I might add less of the creole seasoning at first and then add more at the end to taste.