Caramel Mocha Truffle Cupcakes–Can You Say Yum!

For these cupcakes, I altered the recipe for Caramel Lightning Cake from The Joy of Cooking (75^th Anniversary Edition), by Irma Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker.

For truffle filling:
1 ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
¼ cup flavored creamer (I used eggnog flavor, but any would be great) or half-and-half
10 large marshmallows

Begin melting chocolate chips in 30 second increments in microwave, stirring thoroughly after each interval.  As chips begin to melt, stir in creamer and marshmallows and continue to heat. Stir carefully until blended.  Set in refrigerator to cool.

Whisk together in a large bowl (I use my stand mixer)
1 ½ cups flour (we often use half whole wheat):
½  cup sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

Add in and continue to blend:
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp espresso powder
1 Tbsp coffee liqueur (optional)

Beat in and continue to blend until light and airy (about 3 minutes, stopping to scrape down bowl halfway):

½ cup salted butter, softened

Fill cupcake cups ½- ¾ full (I use a large ice cream scoop).  Carefully place a small scoop, approximately ½ tsp, of the ganache onto each cupcake, trying not to drop it to the bottom.

Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 16 minutes, watching carefully.

Allow to cool and frost with:

Espresso Mocha Buttercream
2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter
3 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar
2 Tbsp dark cocoa
1 tsp coffee liqueur (optional)
Beat until light and fluffy.

Best of the Best

Do you ever get tired of hunting through stacks of recipes, looking for your favorites?  It seems that I return to the same tried and true dishes again and again.  Time is at a premium for me, and I don’t like wasting it while searching through my large stack of cookbooks and recipe cards looking for particular recipes.

Several years ago I took a few minutes to set up my own “Best of the Best” cookbook, and it has saved me countless hours every week.  I have found, over the years, it is well worth the time I spent organizing my favorite recipes.  Now I primarily rely on one single cookbook each day:  The Best of the Best.

To make your own cookbook, just take a plain 3-ring binder and fill it with a stack of page protectors.  Place your favorite recipes in the pages and voila, you have created your own perfect cookbook.

Here are some tips to remember when setting up your Best of the Best cookbook:

• Only choose your favorite tried and true recipes.  If you use this cookbook to store recipes you are hoping to test out, it will quickly become clogged with useless papers and the purpose will be defeated.  This cookbook allows you to immediately find your favorite recipes, so be sure to reserve it for that purpose.  If you need a place to store recipes you want to try out, set up a separate binder for those.
• Recipe cards and magazine clippings can easily be stored in the pages.  For all other recipes (such as those found in favorite cookbooks), photocopy the recipe from your book or type it into a Word document, print and place in your Best of the Best cookbook.  This will save you from thumbing through a thick cookbook looking for a particular recipe.
• When asking a friend for a recipe you’ve enjoyed, see if she can email it to you.  It will be simple to print off the email and slip the page into your Best of the Best cookbook.
• Once a year, go through your cookbook and cull recipes you haven’t used much.  Take a few minutes to update Best of the Best with any new favorites you’ve discovered.
• When a son or daughter gets married or heads off to college, give them their own starter version of Best of the Best, including copies of recipes for their favorite foods as well as family heirloom recipes.

Cream of Vegetable Soup

Choose the vegetable of your choice and make homemade soup tonight!

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk or half and half
3 cups chopped veggies  (carrots, broccoli, celery, potatoes, cauliflower, etc.)
1 large onion
1 tsp salt and pepper
2 cups chicken broth

Melt butter.  Add onion and saute.  Slowly add flour, salt and pepper, stirring until well combined.  Slowly add milk.

Meanwhile, in a separate pan, cook the vegetable in the chicken broth.  When the vegetables are cooked through, combine with the milk mixture.

If you want a smooth soup instead of a chunky one, process everything together in a blender or food processor before serving.  I often double this recipe to have leftovers.

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The H-E-A-R-T of Hospitality

Do you remember the following melody and song lyrics?

“Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage. This I tell you brother, you can’t have one without the other.”

Have you ever considered how hospitality and love go together like a teacup and saucer? Both can stand alone, yet one without the other is not complete. Hospitality offered without love leaves your guest feeling cold. A teacup without a saucer can be filled, yet the cup and spoon have no place to rest properly. When people come together through biblical hospitality, usually they will find their cups being filled to overflowing with love and sweet moments of rest.

Hospitality must come from the heart; otherwise it is nothing more than entertainment. Webster’s dictionary defines hospitality as “the act, practice, or quality of being hospitable; friendly and solicitous (showing care, attention, concern) entertainment of guests.” A great definition, but for the Christian woman there is so much more: tender acts of kindness, caring, listening, serving, and touching the lives of others in Jesus’ name.

How do we demonstrate hospitality from the heart?

Where is hospitality demonstrated? First and foremost it is to be exemplified in your home. Your home is the greatest evangelistic tool available to reach a lost world for Christ. Your home is to be a prepared place for those who live there and for those who visit–a refuge. From our homes hospitality is to be demonstrated to the church, taken to the marketplace, and into the world. (Romans 12:13; Titus 2:3-5; Proverbs 31:27)

Who is offered hospitality? God shows no partiality; therefore we must be willing to express hospitality to everyone. Hospitality is to be shown to our neighbors (Matthew 5:43-48). We are to invite the needy (Luke 14:12-14). James 2:1-10 admonishes us to show no favoritism. Hebrews 13:2 states, “Do not forget to entertain strangers…” Many times our hearts are not open to everyone–we have a list of exclusions.

When is hospitality to be extended? It is not often that the word always can be used, but this is one of those instances. Hospitality is to be spontaneous and intentional; both require our time and effort. Paul instructed Timothy to “preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season.” (2 Timothy 4:2) Demonstrating hospitality does not always fit into our schedules. This is why it is important to be prepared at all times. Create a special nook in your home just for tea and talk.  When you are preparing casseroles, soup, breads, and muffins, make extra and freeze for future use.

What are the benefits of hospitality? The benefits come through our relationships: creating new ones and nurturing the old. Touching lives through biblical hospitality is about refreshing others with encouragement, restoring a relationship which has been broken, renewing a relationship which has fallen by the wayside.

Why practice hospitality? You and I are given the opportunity to share Christ, our greatest treasure, a priceless possession. Furthermore it is a command.

Biblical hospitality is a lifestyle. Perhaps today you need to write a love note from your heart to God’s heart and say: “My home is open and available to everyone You bring to my door. I am willing to learn how to take the necessary steps to be prepared always. I want to touch lives, build relationships, and share the greatest treasure, Jesus Christ. Create in me a willingness to sit at Your feet and serve hospitality from the heart.”

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Strategic Incompetence

Chocolate Kisses Coffee Cake

We all know any recipe that includes a bag of Hershey Kisses is going to be a keeper.

This is one of those recipes.

I’ve had it so long I’ve forgotten exactly who gave it to me although I know it was a co-worker years ago. When I brought it out earlier in the month and made it for breakfast my kids just about had a fit (that’s Southern for real excited). It was their first time to eat a chocolate coffee cake.

If you’re looking for a wonderful Valentine’s breakfast / brunch coffee cake, give this one a try. You can easily adapt this coffee cake to the size you want it to be. For a coffee cake that fills your bundt pan, double this one.

Chocolate Kisses Coffee Cake
16 Hershey Kisses
1 can of refrigerated biscuits (8 count)
1/2 stick melted butter
Cinnamon to sprinkle
Powdered sugar to sprinkle

Remove Hershey Kisses from wrappers. Divide each biscuit dough in half to create 16 biscuit pieces. Flatten dough and put one Hershey Kiss in the center and wrap dough around it. Make sure the dough seals good so the chocolate does not seep out. Put each ball into a sprayed bundt pan. Drizzle melted butter over coffee cake and sprinkle with cinnamon to your taste.

Bake for 15 minutes or until biscuits are brown in a 350 degree oven.  Allow to cool for a few minutes then turn out onto a serving plate. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Enjoy biting into the flaky biscuit dough to find warm melted chocolate.

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Fondue

Peanut Butter Fondue
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup canned milk
1/3 cup honey (if the honey is very thin, add less milk)
Stir together and serve with bananas and apples.  The texture changes if it is made in advance, so plan on making it just before serving.

Chocolate Fondue
1 – 28 oz pkg chocolate chips
1 cup margarine (butter burns too quickly)
Place in a double boiler and melt.  Do not boil because it will turn a dull brown and then get lumpy.   To serve in a fondue, once it is melted pour into fondue pot and keep the burner under it at medium.  Stir frequently to keep it smooth.

Fruit Fondue Dip
1 pkg instant vanilla pudding prepared according to package instructions
1 cup whipping cream – whipped
2 tbsp orange concentrate
Fold everything together.  Pour into a fancy dish.  Put the dish onto the center of a large platter and surround the dish with fruit slices and cubes.

Extra Easy Chocolate Fondue (my personal favorite)
Buy one jar of your favorite sundae toppings.  Heat it in the microwave according to package instructions.  Pour into the fondue pot and keep warm with the burner on medium.  Stir occasionally.

Cheese Fondue
1 pkg cream cheese
2 tbsp butter
1 cup cream
2 tsp dry mustard (optional)
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (optional)
2 cups cheddar cheese
Parmesan Cheese to taste
In a saucepan melt butter with cream cheese and cream.  When melted and smooth, mix in mustard and Worcestershire sauce.  Add shredded cheddar cheese until just melted.  Do not over-heat.  If you like a thicker consistency, add Parmesan cheese to thicken.  Keep heating until Parmesan cheese is completely melted.  Pour into fondue pot and keep warm over medium burner.  Stir occasionally.

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Sugar Cookies for Valentine’s Day

Cake and cookie designer Ally Plummer shares her recipe for sugar cookies today that’s perfect for a Valentine treat.

To add elegance to sugar cookies, frost and monogram with your Valentine’s initial. This is a wonderful gift idea for neighbors.  Attach a note that says, “We are blessed to have you as neighbors.”

2/3 cup shortening, 3/4 cup sugar, 6 ounces butter at room temperature (1 1/2 sticks), 1 egg, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 3 1/2 cups flour

Mix dough and chill in fridge for at least two hours. Roll dough to a 1/4″ thickness with a floured rolling pin. Use cookie cutters of choice. Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes.

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Fiesta Cheesecake

It may say cheesecake, but don’t let the name fool you–this is not a dessert, it’s actually a dip. Lovely to look at and marvelous to eat, Fiesta Cheesecake is perfect for a tailgate party or a nice buffet table. My mom made Fiesta Cheesecake for the first time years ago for my brother’s wedding reception. It was such a hit that by the time I got to it, it was all gone!

Mom makes Fiesta Cheesecake in a heart-shaped springform pan, but you can certainly use a round a one if you prefer. The heart-shape pan would make it perfect for a valentine get-together this month. By the way, this recipe easily feeds a crowd. Serve with tortilla chips and salsa on the side.

Fiesta Cheesecake
Wilma Kitchens

1 1/2 cups finely crushed tortilla chips
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 (8 ounce) cream cheese, softened
2 large eggs
2 1/2 cup (10 ounce) shredded Monterrey Jack cheese with peppers
1 (4.5 ounce) can chopped green chilies, drained
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (8 ounce) carton sour cream
1/2 cup of each: chopped green bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 medium tomato, diced
1 small can of sliced or chopped black olives, drained

Press tortilla chips and butter into a greased 9-inch springform pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool.

Beat cream cheese, eggs (one at a time), cheese, chilies, and ground pepper. Pour into pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. Cool.

To save for later: wrap in Saran wrap followed by aluminum foil and freeze for up to three months. When you are ready to serve, let it thaw in the fridge.

To serve: Spread sour cream on top and top with green, yellow, and red chopped bell peppers and chopped green onions. Sprinkle chopped or sliced black olives on top. Serves 25.

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Lemon Bright Potatoes

A new restaurant opened up this summer near us, The Diner at Sugar Hill.  A favorite side dish of mine is their lemon potatoes. While their potatoes reign supreme, this copy-cat version comes very close.

As workout guru Denise Austin says in her commercials for Idaho potatoes–they are healthy and just 150 calories. Of course that’s plain and we all know plain potatoes just don’t cut it. Lemon potatoes are surprisingly simple and yes, healthy when you consider there is not a pound of butter in the recipe. The lemon adds a brightness and complimentary flavor that makes them unique. Lemon Bright Potatoes go great with chicken, beef, and pork–love them with citrus pork.

Lemon Bright Potatoes

3 to 4 baking potatoes (I allow one potato per person), Extra-virgin olive oil, 1 lemon, Sea Salt, fresh cracked pepper.

Peel potatoes. Cut each potato into four wedges.

Place in baking dish. Toss in olive oil, sea salt, and pepper to taste. Squeeze juice of one lemon over potatoes and toss again.

Reserve lemon halves. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees until soft. If you like them a bit crispy, uncover and bake. Remove from oven and squeeze lemon over potatoes again (there’s always a bit more juice left) and toss before serving.

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