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.

To leave a comment:

• If you are reading this post in email form, click the article headline. This will take you to the article on MMCW’s website.
• Scroll down until you see the box entitled ‘Speak Your Mind’.
• Enter your name, email (it will not be published) and your website or blogsite if you have one (you do not have to have one).
• Click on the big empty space and then begin typing your comments.
• When you are done, click ‘submit comment’.  That’s it!  We look forward to hearing from YOU!

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.

To leave a comment:

• If you are reading this post in email form, click the article headline. This will take you to the article on MMCW’s website.
• Scroll down until you see the box entitled ‘Speak Your Mind’.
• Enter your name, email (it will not be published) and your website or blogsite if you have one (you do not have to have one).
• Click on the big empty space and then begin typing your comments.
• When you are done, click ‘submit comment’.  That’s it!  We look forward to hearing from YOU!

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.

To leave a comment:

• Scroll down until you see the box entitled ‘Speak Your Mind’.
• Enter your name, email (it will not be published) and your website or blogsite if you have one (you do not have to have one).
• Click on the big empty space and then begin typing your comments.
• When you are done, click ‘submit comment’.  That’s it!  We look forward to hearing from YOU!

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.

Organization to Stay Sane: The Kitchen

When I asked MMCW’s staff for organizational tips, I was not surprised when Carla Coroy and Rhonda Ellis immediately replied. The three of us manage homes with a combined total of fourteen children. You heard right–14. Organization is not something we think about–it’s what we do to stay sane.

Having an organized home is about doing little things that add up to equal peace, free time, opportunities, and order. What organization is not about is stressing over the process. Get stressed and you’ll become overwhelmed and go nowhere. Start off with these thoughts in mind:

1. What area is bugging you the most right now? Focus your energy on getting it in order.

2. The best tips are often simple and easy–don’t work at over-complicating it or you will waste time.

3. Do it. Once you find a tip, try it. If it doesn’t work, try another way. Trying out a few methods may help you come up with your own strategy.

4. You do not need special equipment. Do what it takes to get it organized with what you have on hand first. Specialty containers and label machines can run into money that does not have to be spent.

In this first of our organization articles, Carla, Rhonda, and I share how we keep our kitchens organized. If you missed Loi’s kitchen decluttering article you may want to check it out too.

Carla’s Top Kitchen Tips

1. When I freeze soup, veggies from the garden, leftovers, and packages of meat I have divided, I put the food into zip-top bags. Squeezing the air out and making the bag as flat as possible, I make sure the contents reach into every corner.  I freeze the zip-top bag laying flat.  Once it is frozen flat it is easy to stack, line up, and see in either my deep freeze or fridge freezer.  It keeps my freezer organized and my frozen goods easy to find.

2. I use hair bands (scrunchies) to keep electrical cords of small appliances compact.  I have one for my waffle maker and hand blender. I also use rubber bands to keep my cords behind the computer all organized and in one out of the way place.

3. I label stuff!  Everything in my house is labeled.  And I don’t have difficult-to-stack-and-store packaging wasting space in my limited pantry area.  When I find square-ish plastic containers with tight sealing lids at garage sales I pick them up for storing things in my kitchen and in my bathroom.

Kellie’s Top Kitchen Tips

1. Keep plenty of paper plates, napkins, and cups on hand. For busy nights, skip the kitchen clean-up and use paper plates. My family uses paper products for lunch and most week night dinners.

2. Use your smart phone for grocery lists. I often email myself the grocery list or just enter it right on my phone.  It’s right there when I remember we’re out of peanut butter in carline–I don’t have to wait until I get back home to write it down. I never forget my phone–the grocery list is another story!

3. Make snack bags. I divide up chips, cookies, pretzels with mini-chocolate chips, peanut butter crackers, raisins, etc. and put into Ziploc sandwich bags in serving sizes. On our counter I have a glass dish where I put out the snacks (most are stored in the pantry) for the day, along with fruit. This saves money on pre-packaged snacks and allows me to create healthier options.  The kids put their empty snack bags in the sink and they are rinsed out to use again when done.

4. To maintain organization, do ongoing training with your family. Show them where things go and train them to use the system. My husband and children are a huge help to me. While it is messy in the beginning, teach the kids to cook. My 16-year-old son can cook a complete meal–any meal–and my 10-year-old daughter can make awesome desserts. Mentoring our children now in the kitchen will bless their families in years to come.

Rhonda’s Top Kitchen Tips

1. I keep an ongoing grocery list on the fridge. All the children know that when we run out of something, they need to put it on the list. We also list items before completely running out, as well as items we know we will need for upcoming recipes. Included with the grocery list is an ‘other’ category. Each family member has their initial listed where they can add non-grocery items. For example:
K – shampoo
A – deodrant
J – size C batteries

2. Keep an updated list of spices you have hanging on the inside of your cabinet door. This keeps you from duplicating and helps with quickly checking a recipe before beginning.

3. While the groceries are still being unloaded, one of the kids or myself starts cooking all the meat. We brown ground beef and boil all the chicken. The cooked meat is bagged in portion sizes that my family uses and labeled for the freezer. It makes it super easy to pull out a Zip-loc bag of meat and make taco soup, tacos, chili, lasagna, chicken and rice, fajitas, and more. This prep work also allows my family to quickly put together meals to minister to other families.

• Boil boneless chicken breasts and/or thighs in chicken broth
  • I buy chicken from Sam’s Club and boil at least two containers of chicken so that I can have a LOT to freeze. This will change your life and enable you to cook some great dishes quickly!
  • Boil IN chicken broth (four cans) in a large pot for juicier chicken.
  • You can even get a couple of pots boiling if you’re doing a lot of chicken.
  • This will enable you to make chicken dishes QUICKLY:
    • Quesadilla, chicken pot pie, chicken casserole dishes, fajitas, soups
    • Chicken and dumplings, chicken noodle soup, chicken taco soup
    • Chicken salad, salads with chicken strips, Ministry Meals, & more!
  • Save chicken broth to use for soups. Store in freezer in gallon freezer bags or in plastic containers.
  • After chicken cools, cut it however your upcoming recipes dictate:  shredding, cubing, and cutting into strips. Label bags accordingly.
• Brown beef:
  • Brown a large container of beef, drain excess grease.
  • Store in gallon freezer bags. Date and label  “Browned Beef.”
  • After browning some, you can add taco seasoning and then freeze in bags and label “Browned Beef with Taco Seasoning.”
  • This will save you so much time in cooking. Some meal ideas are:
    • Tacos, taco soup, taco salad, quesadillas, spaghetti bake, spaghetti,
    • Shepherds pie,  hamburger helper, chili, Mexican fiesta, lasagna,
    • Beef crock pot recipes, and more.
• Boil eggs
  • Boil a carton of eggs in water containing a drop of cooking oil.
  • Immediately rinse in cold water, dry off, and put back into container.
  • Write “Boiled Eggs” and the date on top and sides of carton.
  • Great for quick meals:
    • Chicken salad, egg salad, deviled eggs, egg wedges in salad,
    • Cobb salad, casseroles, and more!

4. HAMBONE: After you bake your next ham, save the hambone and pieces of ham by storing in a labeled freezer Ziploc bag. You can use this when cooking a pot of green beans, dried beans, or in other recipes.

Celebrating Food

Susan Gauen has done a tremendous service to those of us who have allergies and to all our family and friends.  In her recipe book, Celebrating Food: 121 Gluten Free Recipes for a Healthier You, she provides recipes for all the ‘normal’ food you’ve always loved but with no allergens.  Most of her recipes are adaptable to be egg-, dairy-, nut-, soy- and wheat-free.

I made her Fudge Brownies for a large event we were attending where we asked to bring snacks.  They were so decadent, rich and flavourful with superb texture that not a single person could guess it was egg, nut and gluten free.

Susan filled her book with beautiful pictures, detailed instructions and tips for the allergy cook.  One of the things I love about her book are the baking mixes.  Instead of buying expensive pancake and bread mixes at the store, you can prepare her mixes and have them on hand for a fraction of the cost.  The drawback to them is that they are in large quantities, so you’ll need to have a large container to store them in, and plan on a bigger expense when you first make them.

The recipes include pie crusts, cheese-free cheese sauce, biscotti, pasta dishes, salad dressings, cakes, cookies, beverages, desserts, breads, sandwiches, and more.  Her main course meals are wonderful.  You can serve them to guests without any apologies!

Most ingredients are readily available in supermarkets or health food stores.  In Canada it is very difficult to find gluten-free oatmeal as the government does not consider any oatmeal gluten-free.  Although she uses it in many of her recipes, she does include a recipe to make a substitute for it.  At the back of the book is a very helpful resource that lists where to buy hard-to-find ingredients if you are unable to find them in your area.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an allergy, or to family members and friends of those who have someone in their lives with allergies.  I also believe that every cook should have one of these in the house.  I’ve occasionally been asked to bring a meal to a family with food allergies and the task can leave me baffled.  If you like to bless others by bringing meals to them, you need this book on your shelf.

To order this superb resource go to:  www.celebratingfoodglutenfree.com.

MMCW’s Note: Thank you to Susan Gauen for providing a copy of her book for our review.

Cuban for Dinner

My family of picky eaters fell in love with Cuban food last year. From black beans and rice, plantains,  to traditional Cubano sandwiches, we love our Cuban. Imagine my surprise when a friend shared a recipe for Cuban pork that looked easy for this culinarily-challenged gal to make.

I popped the roast in the oven when I realized I had not read the instructions far enough to know it was (originally) a crockpot recipe. Looking down the barrel of a 6 o’clock dinner time I knew that was not happening. It was probably a good thing because the aroma of  the cooking roast was irrestible.  Be forewarned–your entire home will fill with the most exotic sweet citrus aroma. Do not be surprised if all the neighbors find their way to your door!

The original recipe appeared in November 2009’s  issue of Food Network Magazine and is called Slow-roasted Pork with Citrus and Garlic. My adaption skips the 48  hours of marinating and leaves out a few ingredients since  I used what I had on hand. If you’re a by-the-book cook ,you’ll want to check out their recipe. If you’re more like me, you’ll love playing around with this recipe and adding more or less of some spices and throwing in a few of your favorites to create your own signature version.

Citrus Pork

1 large Boston butt pork shoulder

For Rub:
10 cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons of either dried or fresh oregano, 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh or dried thyme, 2 teaspoons cumin seeds, 4 bay leaves (fresh or dried), 2 tablespoons Sea Salt, 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper.

For Marinade:
Juice of 2 oranges with halves reserved, juice of 4 lemons with halves reserved, juice of 2 limes, 1/4 cup Worcestershire, 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, 3 onions thinly sliced.

*Place roast in a large roasting pan.

*Grind the garlic, oregano, thyme, cumin, bay leaves, salt, and pepper together. No fancy kitchen gadget? Chop up the garlic and herbs (if you used fresh) then mix with salt and pepper.

* Make cuts into the pork and rub your ‘rub’ in.

* Cut all the lemons, limes, and oranges in half and squeeze the juices into a bowl. Set your citrus halves aside for later. Pour in the Worcestershire and olive oil and stir. Pour over your roast.

* Thinly slice one onion and put rings on roast.

* Cook covered with aluminum foil in a 350 degree oven for an hour. After an hour add remaining sliced onions to top of roast and several of your citrus halves around it. Take foil off at this point and continue cooking for another 30 to 45 minutes or until meat is nice and brown and done all the way through.

If you have leftovers this will freeze wonderfully in a Zip-loc freezer bag for another dinner or lunch.

Sneaky Chef

Can You Keep a Secret?

I’ve been hiding something from my family for the past year.  It’s something that falls under the category of “what they don’t know won’t hurt them.”  In fact, it could actually help them!

They don’t know that I’ve become a “sneaky chef”, thanks to Missy Chase Lapine’s cookbook series by the same name.  The Sneaky Chef cookbooks rely on the use of several basic recipes for pureed foods which are rendered tasteless and invisible when stirred into food items.

For the past year I’ve been adding pureed white beans, zucchini and cauliflower to the Kraft macaroni and cheese I serve my kids.  It looks and tastes exactly the same as always, but I find it stays with them a lot longer.  They couldn’t tell that the yummy banana muffins we ate for breakfast yesterday  were also full of pureed carrots and sweet potatoes.  And they would be shocked to know that their favorite brownies are packed with spinach and blueberries.

It has been pretty easy to incorporate Sneaky Chef methods.  By mixing wheat germ and wheat flour into my white flour I can easily fortify all my baked goods without a difference in taste.  The author does not assume we all have hours to spend in the kitchen, and she shares methods for boosting everything from store-bought barbecue sauce to jarred spaghetti sauce.  I spend a couple hours every other month (after the kids are asleep, of course) cooking the vegetables and preparing the purees.  I freeze them in ½ cup portions and can easily add them to my recipes throughout the week.

I’m still feeding my kids recognizable vegetables at meals, but I’m thrilled to know they are getting a double dose!  My veggie-hating husband happily chows down on everything from chocolate French toast to refried beans, never suspecting they contain healthy ingredients he wouldn’t otherwise touch with a 10-foot pole.   I enjoy adding some healthy items to our menu while still turning out crowd-pleasing meals.

The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals

Next Page »