Black Forrest Cake

In honor of "Eat chocolate cake day", which I refused to let pass unobserved, my mom and I whipped up this beauty.

The recipe is to come, as my mom's recipes are never really measured. She is working on the specifics.

Happy weekend!

Baked apples

 

This is the dessert that would tell me cool weather had arrived, when I was a kid.  There are a few ways to do the apples: The whole apple, cored;  Peeled and cut up; or in a sauce, though that's my least favorite.  Either way, it is a great way to use up apples!

This recipe is easily adapted to amounts, so you can have it for two or for twelve.

-Any kind of apple in the desired quantity chopped up.

-Coat in brown sugar and cinnamon generously (if using whole apples, stuff with brown sugar)

-Top with butter

-Bake at 350 for 30 min or until apples are softened.

Serve with Vanilla Ice Cream

Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

I first discovered these lovelies over a year ago. So completely and delightfully delicious! It is a Paula Deen Recipe, the Queen of Butter. These cookies are so super easy and cheap to make. Thus making them perfect for this blog. I made them for my nephew's mission farewell luncheon/open house thing this past weekend. They didn't last long. Hope you love them as much as I do!

Ingredients

• 1 (8-ounce) brick cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (18-ounce) box moist chocolate cake mix
• Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the egg. Then beat in the vanilla extract. Beat in the cake mix. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up so that you can roll the batter into balls. Roll the chilled batter into tablespoon sized balls and then roll them in confectioner's sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes. The cookies will remain soft and "gooey." Cool completely and sprinkle with more confectioners' sugar, if desired.

Utah's famous Fry Sauce

If you are a Utahn, you are familiar with this fast food staple. For the fry sauce addict out of state, you'll be hard pressed to find fry sauce unless you frequent Arctic Circle. You should see the defiant looks at our local In and Out when you ask for Fry Sauce. I think they are more than used to having it requested and will cut you off mod sentence. "do you have any-" " We don't serve Fry Sauce."

Well now you can make your own and rest happy, knowing all is still right with your fries... And it is delicious on a burger.

The basic recipe is:

1/3 Ketchup. 2/3 Mayo (not Miracle Whip). And stir.

That's it!

For experimenters, try ranch dressing for the mayo, or BBQ sauce instead of ketchup. You can also add mustard, relish, or onion. But really, why mess with a good thing????

South Western Wedges

Cut up potatoes
Olive Oil
Season Salt
Cayenne Pepper

Brush potatoes with oil, place in Ziplock, shake in season salt enough to lightly coat the potatoes, do a few shakes of the cayenne, zip the ziplock and shake and bake!

Bake at 400 for about 20-30 minutes
For crispier taters, cut finer wedges or do Fry style!

Blogher Feature!

The team at blogher has feature this blog and all of our faithful posters!  Thanks to all who make this a place I come to indulge my inner foodie and my outter penny pincher!  Welcome to newcomers as well!

http://www.blogher.com/blogher-topics/food

Thanksgiving in a burger!

1 lb. Ground Turkey
1 sweet apple; grated
1/2 onion
1/2 C chopped Celery
1/2 pkg dry stuffing
1 egg
1/2 C dry bread crumbs
Poultry seasoning.

Combine ingredients and shape into a ball. Divide into 4ths and make into patties. Fry over med-high heat flipping periodically until heated through. Remember with all poutry to be very sure the meat is fully cooked.

Top with Cranberry sauce or this fantastic Cider Gravy by Rachel Ray. It is super easy and while it makes the burger a bit messy is, as RR would say: YUM-O!

Coal crystal garden! ...not edible

This is a fun experiment to do with the kids and most of you will have the ingredients at home already!

Coal broken up into chunks, or charcoal
6 T Salt (NOT iodized)
6 T liquid bluing
6 T water
1 T Ammonia

Food coloring
Pie tin

Mix salt, bluing, water, and ammonia In a glass dish with a disposable utensil and after well blended drizzle over coal in the pie tin. Drop food coloring onto different chunks of coal and let sit. You should start to see results in a few hours. Left over night, it will look like this picture. It will continue to grow.

Word of the day? Tabbouleh!

Even saying it gets me excited to try it!

1 C chicken broth/vegetable stock
1 C Bulgur
2 C diced tomatoes
1/2 cucumber peeled and chopped
1/4 Fresh lemon juice
1/4 C fresh parsley
2 T EVOO
2 green onions finely chopped
1 T lemon zest
1 clove of Garlic, pressed
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp allspice

Bring broth to a boil, add Bulgur.  let stand until bulgur is tender and broth is gone. 15 min-ish
toss in remaining ingredients and chill in fridge 2 hours.

Battle of the Bulge... in the breast. Food for thought.

A year ago last October, my sweet Momma had a breast cancer scare.  This year, we are back in the saddle.  So, as we worry and wait to find out one way or another, (rather than feel helpless) I have gone to where I now vent my stress into a creative passion: The kitchen.  I have been researching cancer fighting foods.  The funny thing is that it isn't that different from the healthy diets your doctor tells you about.  So my new theory, is why wait until you know have cancer to eat the way you should?  None of it is really drastic or weird.  High in fiber foods, leafy greens, beans and legumes, etc.  I'll be posting some of our family tested "cancer fighting" meals and some that I want to try and will inevitably lose due to my organization issues.

There are many sources but I liked this one from the Cancer Cure Foundation.  It lists different specific foods.  If y'all would like to contribute, we'd love to get your ideas and recipes!  Here's the link:  Cancer Fighting Foods