Chadian Dinner

My kids are really starting to test my ability to find these foreign foods.  J only chose Chad because he thought it was funny that there was a country named after his uncle.  I searched and searched for recipes from Chad but had hardly any luck.  I finally settled on Baked Fish and a Salad that I found on another blog that is pretty much doing the same thing as me.  I thought my idea was unique and although I'm a little bummed that it's already been done, I was grateful that they had a recipe I could use.

The Baked Fish tasted pretty much the same as any American fish.  It just had a few simple seasonings on it and it was delicious.

The Salad was a very unique combination of rice, cucumbers, bananas, and raisins with lemon, honey coriander, cumin and cayenne pepper.  I was very hesitant to try it but although it's not our favorite, the flavors weren't bad together.  My kids even really liked it.

Nigerian Night

Oh boy, Nigerian cuisine was a bit difficult.  First, they eat TONS of beans and my kids don't really like beans.  Second, so many of their dishes called for chicken hearts and gizzards.  Again, I really would like a chance at getting my family to enjoy the meal.  And Third, I kept running into ingredients that I couldn't find locally and online they were SO SO expensive.

I finally settled on Suya (Nigerian Chicken Skewers) and Jollof Rice.

As we've found with most of our international meals, this one was also really good; albeit spicy.  My kids all ate without complaining and commented on how delicious it was.  It was very spicy, though, so they didn't eat very much.  The Suya recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper!!!  I love spicy food but this made even me nervous so I only added 1/2 teaspoon.  Even with only using 1/4 of the cayenne it was still pleanty hot.  

The Jollof rice was also really good.  Kindof like Mexican rice but with it's own unque seasoning.  The recipe calls for cooking the rice over medium heat til dry.  Next time I will turn the heat to Med-Low because I ended up burning the rice to the bottom of the pan.  That didn't effect my rice at all; I just had to make sure I didn't scrape the bottom while serving it.

Peruvian Night

Peruvian Night has become one of my favorites.  I hadn't realized that it included a lot of beef and barbecue.  I found so many delicious looking recipes; I'm going to have to add some extra Peruvian dinners.

For this night's dinner we had Lomo Saltado with homemade fries and Aji Sauce and it was do good.

This is one of those rare meals that everyone in the family loved.  It reminded me of a fajita only the seasonings were a little different and it was served on fries instead of in a tortilla ... okay, so maybe not so similar to a fajita.

The only thing I did different from the recipe is that instead of tossing the fries with the meat, I served them seperate and just layered the meat over the fries.  The meat is really juicy and I think if I had tossed them, it would have made the fries really soggy.  

Next time I will also spread the cooked fries out onto a cook sheet rather than toss them in a bowl.  The fries that were in the bottom of the bowl came out of the pan crispy but as they sat while I cooked the rest of the fries, they steamed and became very soggy.

Mexican Night

My 7yr old chose Mexican for this weeks dinner.  Honestly, I considered just cooking one of the many Mexican dishes that I already make but I decided to find something new.

I decided to make a new recipe for Beef Enchiladas.  They turned out so delicious and all 3 of my very picky eaters asked me to make this again soon.

My Enchiladas didn't plate nearly as pretty as the ones in this picture but I think these one's had to have been cooked seperate from the main casserole dish full of enchiladas.  

We ate our enchiladas with restaurant style refried beans and mexican rice.  I also made Horchata for the drink.  I have never had Horchata before so I can't compare it to others but I liked this one.  I have heard many people complain that it's too sweet so I used the minimum sugar suggested in the recipe.  I also think next time I will use a little less cinnamon.

For dessert I made Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars.

These bars are so good and would make a great dessert to bring to a family party.  

English Night

I figured that English Night would be easy to find recipes for so I kept putting it off until the night before I went grocery shopping.

So about 8:00 that night, a storm rolls in and boy was it a storm.  I live is a valley surrounded by big, beautiful mountains.  These mountains usually help to break up the wind and we don't get things like tornados.  On this night, though, we had winds hit 125mph.  My full garbage cans spilled into the road and covered my neighborhood in freshly chopped down tree.  The neighbor's trampoline took a trip down the street and into a nearby clubhouse's windows.  Several large trees were uprooted.  My picnic table was blown over and shattered and really the neighborhood was in chaos.  Amongst all this, my fence was being destroyed.  The wind had blown out several panels and had snapped the heavy duty vinyl fence posts.  Our front fence was also starting to bend and was on it's way to snapping also so hubby and I were out in the storm dismantling the fence while trying to dodge the debris blowing around us.

By the time we got inside, we were exhausted and all I wanted to do was climb into bed but I had to do the grocery shopping which included finding some English recipes for that weekend.  As I was searching recipes, everything looked to complicated for didn't look tasty; I believe this was directly related to how tired I was.  So I was thrilled to find that a traditional English Sunday dinner was Pot Roast.

This recipe was very tasty although the garlic wasn't nearly as strong as I thought it would be.  The only alteration I made was that I cooked it in my crock pot rather than in the oven.  

I also made the Yorksire Pudding recipe from the same site.

It tasted good but sunk when I removed them from the oven so they were really flat.

For dessert I made Peach and Blackberry scones.  

These are now a new favorite in our home.  They were delicious straight out of the oven with warm glaze drizzled over top but they also tasted great cold.  You cold even pass them off as a breakfast "muffin".

NOTE: I did find the dough extremely sticky and even after adding an extra 1/2c flour I still couldn't fold it and just gave up.

The Beginning of International Night

Over the years, our blog has gone through a few changes, and I'm here to tell you that it's changing again.  I used to use this blog as my personal recipe box and a place where I could direct family and friends to my favorite recipes.  As Pintrest became more popular, I realized that it was a much less time consuming way to store and share recipes; and so, I stopped using this blog.

But now I'm back and I'm excited to share with you the new experiment in our kitchen.

I was sitting at my computer, trying to plan my menu for the week, when I realized I was bored with every recipe I have.  And to make it worse, searching Pintrest for dinner ideas wasn't helping at all.  I started thinking that it might be fun to try different meals from around the world. To include my family in this I told my kids that they would each get a turn to choose which country the meal came from.  J (my 7yr old) piped up "China", M (my 11yr old) "France", C (my 8yr old) "Iowa".  Wait .... what?   Guess we will be teaching geography as well.

We have been trying this for a month now and we are having so much fun.  I have never considered myself a picky eater but as I'm searching for recipes I find myself looking for the ones that look "Americanized" and I am trying to branch out and choose recipes that are more traditional.  That being said, I hope that I'm finding authentic recipes but really this is just dinner so I'm not going to do tons of research on the meal.  If it says it's chinese, I'm going to assume that it is.

One hangup I'm finding, as I search for recipes, is that every country eats food from other countries.  If someone asked me to cook an American meal, I would have to throw out half my recipes because they are Mexican or Italian, etc.  As I searched for Ukrainian dishes, I kept running into Russian and Polish recipes because they are also eaten in the Ukraine.  So again, I'm trying, but hey at least we are trying new and unique meals.







For our first International Night meal, J chose Chinese.  I thought "this is going to be easy" but I wanted to make something I hadn't made before so I chose General Tso's Chicken.  I'm not sure if it was the Hoisin sauce or the recipe or if I just messed it up but it did not taste like the chicken I've ordered at chinese restaurants.  Because I'm not sure if the problem was me, I'm not going to post the recipe.  Let's just say, it wasn't our favorite and I'm sure this won't be the only International Night that isn't a huge hit.

Doesn't this look delicious!  

The following week M chose French!  I was totally excited for all the pastries that I was going to make until I remembered that I shouldn't serve my kids pastries for dinner.  I searched online for hours but wasn't willing to make escargot or ANYTHING with duck liver (I at least want a chance at getting my kids to eat it) and finally settled on Croque Madame.

Croque Madame is more or less a very cheesy grilled ham & cheese sandwich with a fried egg on top but it was oh so delicious.  Everyone in the family loved it!  I also made French Beignets for dessert.  They tasted delicious but the dough didn't rise like it should have (I blame my yeast) so they were pretty flat.  Next time I make them, as long as they puff up, I'll try filling them with custard.

Look at all that cheesy goodness!

YUM!

For our next International Night, C chose Egypt!  This one had me worried.  What in the world do they eat in Egypt?  Turns out, really delicious and pretty food.

For this one I made Oven Roasted Chicken Schwarma, that I served on thick pita bread, along with hummus and Tabbouleh salad.  The Tumeric made the chicken a beautiful yellow-orange color and my house smelled amazing.  I wasn't sure how the cinnamon would taste with the other spices but it really was delicious.

I did have to alter the Tabbouleh Salad a bit.  Mint is not in season here so I had a really hard time finding it fresh so I just left it out.  I know it's not a "real" Tabbouleh salad without it but it was really good none the less.  I also couldn't find bulger wheat but the recipe said it could be substituted with Couscous.  I didn't have and couscous but I had quinoa which I've substituted for couscous so that's what I used.

For dessert I made a Basbousa Cake.  I used Cream of Wheat enriched farina in place of the semolina.  It was good but very sweet.  I think if I make it again I will only use half of the simple syrup recipe.

Okay, so now we're caught up to last night's International Night.  Being the kind wife that I am I told Trent that he should get to choose a country, too.  Of course, he decided to be difficult and chose Ukraine.

I did struggle with this one a bit because all the recipes I found were actually recipes from the surrounding countries.

I finally settled on Cabbage Rolls and Yabluchnyk (Apple Layer Cake).

I didn't want to do the cabbage rolls because we aren't big cabbage fans but I couldn't find much else and over and over I read that cabbage rolls are served at every big Ukrainian family function so I gave them a try.

They turned out really good.  The cabbage was really mild and the bacon, along with the filling, was tasty.  We did end up adding some salt and pepper but that's because of our American tastes, I'm sure.

The Apple Cake was delicious.  I could just snack on it all day.  The orange juice in the batter was a great contrast to the apples and cinnamon.

So far we are having so much fun with our weekly International Night meals.  I printed up a current list of countries for the kids to choose from and they all immediately chose their countries for the next 4 weeks.  Currently, there are 195 countries so this experiment is going to take us about 4 years to get through.  There are a few countries that I'm a bit worried about but it's going to be fun figuring it out.

Creamy Chicken and Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

I love this recipe.   The roasted red peppers make it taste like I spent the whole day cooking but in reality, I only spent about half an hour.  

Creamy Chicken and Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

• 1lb bowtie pasta
• 1 1/2lbs cooked chicken, sliced or cubed
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
• 4T butter
• 1c half and half, room temperature
• 1c chicken broth
• 1t seasoned salt
• 12oz jar roasted red peppers, sliced (these are usually found on the condiment isle)
• 1c mozzarella, shredded
• Fresh parsley or basil, chopped

Cook the pasta according to the package.  While it cooks, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat and cook the onion and garlic til soft.  Whisk in the half & half and chicken broth.  Stir in the seasoned salt and mozzarella.  Lower the heat to keep the sauce from boiling.

Add the chicken and red pepper slices to the sauce.  Stir frequently and keep an eye on the heat so it doesn't boil.  Drain the cooked pasta and stir it together with the sauce.  Add chopped parsley or basil when serving.

Recipe from Six Sisters' Stuff

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

I love to make casseroles.  They are quick and easy and everyone seems to like them, but I get tired using the same ingredients over and over.  Even though this is a chicken casserole, it doesn't taste like every other one.  Adding the ham and the sauce makes this a very unique and tasty meal.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

• 2c cooked rice
• 3c cooked chicken, cut into 1 inc pieces
• 6 slices of swiss cheese (or enough to cover, if slicing it yourself)
• 10 slices of deli ham, chopping
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 1/2c milk
• 1/2c sour cream
• 1/2c bread crumbs (or 10 saltine crackers)
• 1/2t paprika
• 1/4t garlic salt
• 1/2t parsley

Coat a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray

Spread the cooked rice on the bottom of the baking dish.

Layer the chicken pieces on top of the rice.

Arrange the swiss cheese over the chicken.

Spread the ham on top of the swiss.

In a separate bowl, mix the cream of chicken soup, milk and sour cream.  Spread on top of the ham.

Mix together the bread crumbs, paprkia, garlic salt and parsley.  Spread on top of soup mixture.

Bake at 350' for 30 minutes.

Recipe from: Organize and Decorate Everything

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

For Valentines Day, this year, I decided to make it fun for the kids and do a Pink & Red themed dinner.  For all the work I put in to it, the kids were only mildly impressed but everyone LOVED the Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars.  

I found this recipe on the amazing website, Sweet Basil.  If you haven't already, you should stop by and check out all the other recipes; they are wonderful.

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

• 16oz package refrigerated Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
• 3/4c Oats
• 8oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/4c sugar
• 1 egg
• 1t vanilla
• 21oz can Cherry Pie filling
• 1/3c shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 350'

In a large bowl, break up the refrigerated dough.  Using your hands, knead in the oats and mix until evenly incorporated.  Press 2/3 of the dough into a lightly greases 8x8 inch square pan.  

Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the crust is just set.

In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg and set aside.  In another bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth with no lumps.  Beat in the sugar, then stir in the vanilla and egg.  Spread the cream cheese mixture over the top of the cookie crust.

Pour the cherry pie filling evenly over the cream cheese layer.  Evenly sprinkle the remaining cookie dough over the top, then top with the shredded coconut.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until set and lightly golden.  Let cool completely, then cover and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

The Best Dang Beef Pot Roast

Some days this is exactly how I feel.  Just had to share.

The Best Dang Beef Pot Roast

• Small to medium size rump roast
• 1 envelope onion soup mix
• 1 envelope brown gravy mix
• 1 individual size serving apple sauce
• 2c water
• salt and pepper
• 1 small bag sliced carrots
• 2 medium to large size potatoes, cut up
• 1/2 yellow onion, sliced
• 1 stalk celery

Sear the roast in a frying pan with a small amount of oil.  Sear it well on all sides.

Put the roast, then vegetables in the crock pot.  Mix envelope mixes with water and applesauce, then pour over all.

Set crock pot on low and let it cook for at least 8-10 hours.  

Recipe from When the Dinner Bell Rings

Baked Churros

My kids have gotten it into their heads that if they eat their dinner, they always get a dessert.  Seeing how I don't make a lot of desserts, this has caused a bit of a dilemma.  I found this Churro recipe and loved how easy it was to make.  I can pop these babies in the oven and in no time I have a dessert for the family.

Baked Churros

• 1 sheet frozen pastry puff, thawed
• 1c sugar
• 1T ground cinnamon
• 1/2c melted butter

Preheat the oven to 450'

Cut the frozen pastry into 1" wide strips.

Bake on a cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes

Mix together the sugar and the cinnamon

When they are done baking, brush the sticks with the melted butter and roll them into the sugar and cinnamon mixture.

Recipe from Lovin' From the Oven

Chile Colorado Burritos

I love Mexican food but since our favorite "hole-in-the-wall" Mexican restaurant moved and became too "Americanized" we haven't been able to find a place we like.  This recipe is every bit as good as any burrito that we've had in our old favorite restaurant and much better than the burritos we've found since.  It's easy to make but tastes like you've been slaving over the stove all day.  Even my kids love it; which is a huge plus.

• 1 1/2 to 2lb stew meat or other beef cubed (top sirloin is great)
• 1 large can mild red enchilada sauce (amount isn't too important but you need at least 19oz)
• 2 beef bouillon cubes
• 1/2 can re-fried beans
• 5-7 burritos size flour tortillas (I recommend using the raw tortillas that you cook yourself.  They taste so much better)
• 1c+ shredded cheddar cheese

Put the beef, bouillon, and enchilada sauce into a crock pot and cook on low for 7-8 hour or until the meat is very tender.  

When the beef is done (very tender and flakes when stirred) taste and add more salt if desired.  Heat up the refried beans in the microwave and put your oven on broil.  In a casserole dish, lay out a tortilla.  Place on tortilla about 1/2c of the meat, drained with a slotted spoon, and a spoonful of beans.  You can add a little shredded cheese also if you want to.  Roll into a burrito (tucking the sides in) and lay in your casserole dish.

When you've rolled all of your burritos, pour some of the remaining enchilada sauce from the crockpot over the burritos to cover them.  Sprinkle with some cheese. 

Broil until the cheese is bubbly, about 2-4 minutes.

Source: Food Pusher

Antipasto Pizza

Homemade pizza is a staple in our home.  With our busy schedules I don't always have time to make a big meal but I also don't like how unhealthy and expensive it is to order pizza. Although the kids are happy to always have pepperoni and cheese pizza, it has started to get old for the adults.  So I'm always trying find new toppings for our pizzas.  This Antipasto pizza really hits the spot for us grown-ups.  I especially love the fresh basil on top.  I cooked the basil with the pizza but I think it would taste even fresher if you sprinkled it on after you pulled the pizza out of the oven.

Serving size: 1 slice   Calories: 303   Total Fat: 14g  Saturated Fat: 5g  

Cholesterol:  36mg    Sodium:  971mg   Carbs:  26g  Protein:  19g

Nutritional information is approximate depending on the crust and sauce you use.

• 1 prebaked 12" pizza crust
• 3/4c pizza sauce
• 2c (8oz) shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• 1/2c roasted sweet red peppers, julienned
• 1/2c marinated, quartered, artichoke hearts, drained
• 1/4lb thinkly sliced hard salami, julienned
• 1/4lb sliced deli ham, julienned
• 1/4c minced fresh basil

Place the crust on an ungreased pizza pan.  Spread the sauce over the crust; sprinkle with 1c cheese.  Top with the red peppers, artichokes, salami, and ham; sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Bake at 450' for 10-12 minutes or until the cheese is melted.  Sprinkle with the basil.

Source:  Taste of Home

Bacon-Jalapeno Cheese Ball

This year my husband and I hosted the Superbowl party at our house.  Of course I wanted to try a bunch of new recipes for the event.  Unfortunately, some of them didn't turn out all that great and I won't be making them again but this cheeseball was delicious.  Because the jalapenos have been cored and seeded, there is almost no heat.  It was great and everyone loved it but next time I think I'll leave a few seeds; I like a little heat.

Bacon-Jalapeno Cheeseball

• 6 slices of bacon, cooked - I recommend you bake it
• 1/4c pecans, chopped
• 8oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2c shredded cheddar cheese
• 2T chopped parsley
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4t ground cumin
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1t lime juice
• 1/2t Worchestershire sauce (I ran out of this so I substituted Soy Sauce.  Worked great)
• 2 jalapenos (ribs and seeds removed), finely chopped and divided
• crackers (for serving)

Cook the bacon in the oven until crispy.  Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.  Allow to cool, then crumble and divide in half.

After the bacon is done cooking, preheat the oven to 350'F.  Spread the pecans on a baking sheet and toast for 5-7 minutes, or until fragrant.

In a medium bowl, stir together the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, parsley, garlic, cumin, cayenne, lime juice, Worchestershire sauce, half of the minced jalapenos, and half of the crumbled bacon until well combined.  Season the mixture to taste with salt.

On a large plate, stir the toasted pecans, remaining minced jalapenos and remaining half of the bacon together until evenly distributed.  Shape the cream cheese mixture into a ball (the mixture will be sticky.  I found it was easier to shape if I just barely wet my hands first).  Roll the ball in the pecan mixture until coated on all sides.

Cover the ball and refrigerate for at least and hour before serving.

Source: Tracey's Culinary Adventures

Construction Cake with "Construction Tape" inside

When my, then 2 year old, asked for a bulldozer cake for his 3rd birthday, I immediately thought of a 9x13 cake with sprinkles and a truck sitting on top.  Can we say BORING!?!  

I found this cake tutorial Fredellicios and decided to try it out.  While I love how the cake is decorated, my favorite (and most stressful part) was the cake itself.  I knew the theory behind what I was doing but it wasn't until I cut into the cake that I knew it had worked.  And now you're probably wondering what was so great about the inside of the cake, so let me show you ...

Construction Tape!!!

Seriously, didn't it just turn out so cute.  Sorry for all the crumbs but I quickly took the photos while party guests were waiting for their slices.

Construction Cake

• 1 8" round White Cake, colored yellow
• 1 8" round Chocolate Cake, colored black
• 3 batches of Buttercream Frosting with Chocolate
• Oreos, crushed
• Candy Rocks
• Small construction truck

I could type up all of these directions but Lauren, over at Fredellicious has done such a great photo tutorial, I thought I would just link to her site for this post.

This is the link for her Slanted Cake tutorial

and this is the link for her Construction Cake

Bottom Layer of my cake

Top layer of my cake

He absolutely loved his cake.

Yeah!!! The stripes worked

Buttercream Frosting

Buttercream Frosting

• 1/2c (1 cube) butter, ROOM TEMPERATURE
• 1 1/2c powdered sugar
• 1t vanilla
• 1-2T milk
• 4oz Chocolate chips, melted (optional)

Cream the butter.

Add the powdered sugar, 1/2c at a time, mixing until it's fully incorporated before adding more.  It doesn't look like it will mix in right away, but just keep mixing and scraping the sides as needed, it will come together.

Once all the sugar is added, add the 1t vanilla (and the chocolate if you're using it), then mix on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

This frosting is pretty thick as is, I like to use it like this for piping cupcakes and decorations.  But, if I'm going to frost a cake, I will add some milk to get a better spreading consistency.  This frosting is also good on sugar cookies.

This recipe doesn't make a whole lot (about the same as a container from the store) but it is really easy to double or even triple of you need a lot.

Source: Fredellicious

White (almond) Cake

Here's the recipe for the white cake I used in my Construction Tape cake.  I colored mine yellow to match but without food coloring, you'll get a nice white cake.  Also, even though this is called "white cake", I think a better name for it would be called "Almond Cake".  The almond extract in it gives this recipe a really good flavor and I got plenty of complements on the taste, when I served it, but it's not the traditional flavor of a white cake.

White (almond) Cake

Makes 2 8" round cakes

• 1c milk, room temperature
• 3/4c egg whites (about 4), room temperature
• 1 1/2t almond extract
• 1 1/2t vanilla extract
• 1 3/4c cake flour
• 1/2c all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4c sugar
• 4t baking powder
• 1t salt
• 12T (1 1/2 cubes) butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350'F and prepare 2 8" pans with spray and wax paper.

In a bowl, combine the milk, egg whites and extracts and whisk together with a fork.  Set aside.

Sift both flours together, add sugar, baking powder and salt.  Mix together on low speed with a standing or hand mixer.

Add the butter a little bit at a time, and mix together until it's all moist crumbs.

Reserve 1/2c of the egg/milk mixture, and add the rest to the dry ingredients.

Mix on medium speed with a standing mixer, using a paddle for 1 1/2 minutes.

Scrape the sides of the bowl, then add the rest of the milk mixture, and mix to combine, for at least 30 seconds.

**If you are adding color, be sure to add it before you start baking**

Divide evenly into the 2 pans, and cook for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.

Let cakes sit in the pans for about 3 minutes, then invert them onto wire racks, remove the wax paper, then invert then again and let cool completely.

Source: Fredellicious

Chocolate Cake

Originally I was going to make one post that included 2 cake recipes,  2 frosting recipes and a cake decorating tutorial.  I decided that was probably a little too much to include in one post so I'm breaking each piece up individually.  Unfortunately, all my photos are from when a made one cake so you'll have with them and use your imagination, a little.  

This recipe is for the black stripe in the cake pictured above.  I used Hersey's Special Dark cocoa powder and black food coloring to get the cake so dark.  If you aren't trying to turn your cake black, you can use whichever cocoa powder you like the best.

Chocolate Cake

Makes 2 8" cakes

• 1 1/3c flour
• 1 2/3c sugar
• 1/2c cocoa
• 1 1/3t baking soda
• 2/3t salt
• 2/3c oil
• 2/3c sour cream
• 1c water
• 4t vinegar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2t vanilla

Preheat oven to 350'F and prepare your pans with cooking spray and wax paper.

Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.  Whisk to combine.

Add the oil and the sour cream - this will be thick.

Gradually beat in the water.

Add vinegar and vanilla and blend.

Whisk in the eggs and beat until well blended, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.

Divide evenly into 2 prepared pans, and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let sit for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack, remove the wax paper, and invert again onto a wire rack to let cool completely.

***Note - while this recipe tastes really good, it is a bit sticky.  I found that the best way to handle inverting it back-and-forth was to cover the wire rack (and my hands) with plastic wrap.  The cake won't stick to it and you'll have a lot less grief because the top of your cake won't be stuck to your hands.***

Source: Fredellicious

Lasagna Soup

I have a friend, Carrian, who creates wonderful recipes.  Her site has become my "go-to" site for dinners because everything I've made off of it has turned out wonderful.  You really should head on over to Sweet Basil and check out everything she has on there.  You won't be disappointed.  

I found this recipe on her site and had to try it. It turned out really good and all of my kids loved it.  It's so wonderful (and rare) when all 3 of my kids are happy with the dinner I make.  

• 1lb ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (32oz) box chicken broth
• 2 (14,5oz) cans diced tomatoes
• 1 (15oz) can tomato sauce
• 1T brown sugar
• 2T Italian Seasoning
• 2T salt
• 2c lasagna noodles, broken
• 3/4c fresh parmesan cheese
• mozzarella cheese, shredded
• baguettes to serve with the soup

In a large pot, combine ground beef, onion, bell pepper and garlic.  Cook over med-high heat for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally until meat is browned.  Drain well.

Stir in broth, tomatoes, tomato sauce, brown sugar, Italian seasoning, and salt.  Bring to a boil over  medium-high heat; reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.  Add noodles and simmer until the noodles are tender.  Add parmesan cheese.

Pre heat broiler.  Ladle soup into oven safe bowls, top with mozzarella and place under the broiler until the cheese is melted.

Brush the baguette slices with olive oil and broil until the bread starts to brown.  Serve along side the soup.

Recipe from Sweet Basil

Mushroom Pasta Sauce

I have always enjoyed trying new foods and I am happy to try anything ONCE.  I'm happy to say, though, that this sauce is one that I will be trying again.  I was a little worried about putting dill into the sauce.  It didn't seem like it it would go with the other ingredients.  It ended up tasting really good and the dill gave it just enough flavor that it didn't taste like every other mushroom pasta sauce.

Mushroom Pasta Sauce

1/2lb mushrooms, sliced

1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2T olive oil

1/2c chicken stock
1 1/2c cream
2T chopped fresh dill
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh parmesan cheese
12oz pasta, whatever kind you have on hand

Cook pasta per package directions.

Saute mushrooms, onions and garlic in olive oil until the mushrooms start to golden and the onion is soft.

Add chicken stock, cream and dill.

Let simmer for 5 minutes and then season with salt and pepper.

Put the cooked pasta into a serving bowl and add your mushroom sauce.  Mix and serve with shaved parmesan on top.