Category Archives: Recipes

Salted Caramel Butter Cream

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J. had some extra molasses laying around and I though we should use it up. He bought different types of molasses (not different brands, different types), so I couldn’t combine the bottles. The interwebs brought me this:

Always With Butter

The cake is okay. It really is a molasses cake. Tastes better after being refrigerated. Makes it kind of like a black forest cake except more molasses. If you don’t like molasses, avoid this cake. If you like molasses and it’s too much for you, try pouring some unsweetened cream over it.

But the buttercream? OH DEAR LORD I WOULD EAT THIS WITHOUT CAKE. DO I NEED CAKE FOR THIS? According to the website it either came from chow.com or Martha Stuart’s Cup Cake book. I found a similar recipe at Chow.com. Also I didn’t have powered sugar, so I substituted it with sifted granulated sugar and some tapioca powder. Trust me, it didn’t matter as far as the flavor goes, but it makes the frosting crunch, like putting regular sugar in whipping cream. I really like that but if you want it totally creamy, use powder sugar.

  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 12 tbsp butter, softened
  • 1 tsp sea salt (experiment with different types of seal salt)
  • 1 cup powdered sugar

 Step 1 Make Caramel

Stir regular sugar and water together in small saucepan. Once mixed, turn the burner on medium/high and let it come to a boil. DO NOT STIR. Let it boil until it turns a DARK AMBER color. Take it off the heat and stir in cream, and vanilla. Let it sit until it is completely cool. Warning: if you taste it will taste burnt. THAT IS OKAY. Trust me here, this will work.

 Step 2 Make butter cream

Cream the butter salt and powdered sugar together. When the caramel is cool, slowly pour it into the mixture as it’s being beaten and beat until thoroughly mixed. Chill until set. Or eat with spoons. If you’re all alone, just lick the damn bowl. I won’t tell.

Chocolate Ganauche

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So for the Halloween party, I decided to make chocolate ganache to dip the cupcakes in. I make a similar one for truffles but this recipe is much simpler and very tasty.

  • 8oz of heavy cream or whipping cream
  • 6 oz of unsweetened chocolate
  • 1/2 cup of sugar

Dump the ingredients in a bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir, then microwave for another 30 seconds. Stir again. Microwave again. Repeat until when you stir it the whole soup turns silky brown. Let it sit for about 10 to 15 min for it to gel up. You can just eat this, dip stuff in it, uses it as filling or pour it over something. If you refrigerate this, it will turn into a stiff paste and you sculpt with it or dip it in confectioners coating to make chocolate candies. If you dip stuff in it and refrigerate that it will turn into a firm coating similar to the stuff that covers Ding Dongs or chocolate donuts.

WARNING: Do not microwave more than 30 seconds before stirring. Chocolate keeps it’s shape when it melts and so it may not look melted and will catch fire before it looks melted unless you constantly stir it. You can heat the mixture over low heat on a stove, but you MUST stir constantly and remove from heat immediately after it turns a smooth brown.

Quick Blueberry Cobbler

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I was craving something with bread and sweet. I didn’t want to take the time to make soda bread even if it only takes 30 min. So I pulled out a mug and used some microwave fu.

I choose blueberries cause I started craving them recently and found no one makes blueberry pie or cobbler anymore. Sad, but not defeated I took my bag of frozen blueberries and made yummy.

  • 1 mug
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • Butter, Lard or Olive oil
  • 1 and cup flour
  • Salt, only a tiny bit
  • 1/2 cup blueberries
  • 1/4 cup sugar or 1/8 cup agave nectar
  • 1/2 tbsp on baking soda

Coat the mug with butter, lard or oil. Mix lemon juice and milk and let it sit for minute. This can be replaced with buttermilk if you keep it around but the lemon and milk work just fine. I haven’t tried this with Soy or Almond milk. This does not work well with hemp milk.

Mix milk & lemon juice with the flour, baking soda and salt. It should be solid but sticky ball, it should not drip. If it seems drippy add a little more flour. Put the ball in the mug and stick it in the microwave for one minute, thirty seconds. DON’T GO OVER THIS TIME. Otherwise the loaf will burn. If the loaf is still raw after this, pull it out of the microwave and let it cool for five minute. Then put it in for 30 second bursts not exceeding another minute thirty.

Let it cool then run a knife around the edge. The bread should pop right out. You will not get the crispy top with this method of making soda bread (cause that’s what this is).

In a blender blend blueberries and sugar. I use agave nectar instead of sugar these days, but both will work. I had frozen blueberries around but fresh will work too. Place mixture in the microwave for one minute and then stir.

Break up the bread and pour blueberries over it. The End. Now eat!!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

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Lots of work todo with much creative payoff. And yes, he will be an obstacle today.

A clean up of an old post.

Tortilla soup is a spicy take on chicken soup to which adding sour cream, fried strips of tortilla and cheese enhances the flavor at serving time. The base of this soup uses premade spice mixes to add an extra dimension of flavor to the soup and keeping the soup easy to prepare. This warm dish will be wonderful on any cold day.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cup Lemon Juice
  • 4 Chicken Breasts
  • 1/2 lb Cheddar Cheese
  • 3 Large Tortillas
  • 2 cans Chicken Broth
  • 2 Avocados, diced
  • 3 tbs butter, softened
  • 1 can Green Chilies, diced
  • 1 can Black beans
  • 1 Can Hominy
  • 1/8 tsp Chipotle Chili Powder
  • Taco Seasoning Packet
  • Ranch Seasoning Packet
  • Sour Cream

In a crock-pot, combine Ranch, Taco Seasoning, Chili powder, hominy, black beans, chilies, chicken broth, 1/8 cup lemon juice and avocados. Turn on low. This will help dissolve the spices dissolve as you stir. Stir until spices dissolve.

Fry chicken on medium heat in remaining lemon juice until white all the way through. Shred the chicken and place it in a crock-pot. Turn crock-pot to high for 3 hours. Stir Occasionally.

Slice tortillas in a lattice pattern. Fry in butter until crisp. Put aside.

Shred cheese. Put aside.

After 3 hours place soup in bowls. Top with tortillas, sour cream and cheese. Serves ~8

Variations: Add fresh tomatoes. For less spicy taste, omit chilies and chili powder.

Garlic Coconut Oil Vinaigrette

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Okay a vinaigrette you have to heat up to use? Dumb I know but it tastes good.

Water
Coconut Oil
Garlic Cloves
Lemon Juice
Red Wine Vinegar
Mrs. Dash

1 part vinegar and lemon juice to two parts water two three parts oil. Crush garlic cloves and add a few shakes of Mrs. Dash. Microwave 10-20 seconds. Shake. Num.

It will solidify in the fridge. Just nuke it again to use.

Cherry Blueberry Dump Cake

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A dump cake is a cobbler that uses cake instead of biscuit or crumble topping. You can make your own cake mix or use box mix.

You’ll Need:

1 box of cake mix
Milk
Eggs
1 stick of butter
Fruit

Preheat the oven to 350F.

You can use any fruit you want. I use canned fruit in combination with frozen because then I don’t have to stew the fruit myself. Of course you can if you want to or even leave the fruit be, just cut it up in pieces. The cooking time will be lower with fresh, un-stewed fruit. Today I used a 21oz can of pie cherries, 15oz can of pears drained and cut into chunks, and 21oz of frozen blueberries. I dumped the cherries and blueberries into a 9×13 stoneware dish sprayed with Pam. You can use glass or a baking pan if you like. I spread the fruit until it covered the bottom. I drained and chopped up the pears then sprinkled them on top of the rest of the fruit.

In a bowl prepare the cake mix but not according to the directions! On the back of the box, cake mix usually gives you how many eggs, water and oil to add. Add the number of eggs required (usually 2 to 3). Instead of water, use equal amounts milk. Skip the oil all together. I used moist yellow cake from Duncan Heines. This called for 3 eggs, 1 and third of water and oil. I mixed the eggs, 1 and a third of milk and the cake mix together.

Dump the cake batter over the fruit and spread it until it covers the fruit. Cut the butter up into pats and lay them on top of the cake batter. Stick it in the oven for 30 minutes to an hour. After 30 minutes check it by inserting a knife into the middle. If it comes out clean, it’s done. If not, just check it ever ten minutes until it’s done.

This is sweeter than biscuit cobblers but not as sweet as crisp or crumble cobblers.

Lime Steak on a Bed of Olive Cream Cheese

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Our kitchen is a disaster area. One of the cabinets fell off the wall. The important one, with the dishes. We’ve been living off of fast food and cold food while we try to find a replacement. Today I finally had enough and cleared off the stove so I could do some cooking.

Before this catastrophe I purchased bruschetta topping and cream cheese with some idea of doing a chicken dish with coconut. However, I bought these nice flat iron steaks and thought this would be good. Oh I was right.

2 Flat Iron (small) steaks
4oz of cream cheese
4 tbsp Bruschetta topping*
Lime Juice
Coconut Oil
True Lime

Spoon out the bruschetta topping and allow the oil to drain off a little bit. In the middle of a plate, smoosh the bruschetta topping* and cream cheese together.

Melt some coconut oil on low heat in a frying pan then turn it up to medium. Sprinkle the oil with lime juice. Butterfly (that’s cut in half by not all the way through) the steaks. Rub them with True Lime. Fry the steaks until done and place on top of the cream cheese. Eat each delicious bite with some meat and some of the cream cheese.

*The bruschetta topping is just green and black olives, pimentos, red peppers and capers in white wine vinegar and olive oil. You can easily put this all together yourself beforehand. Eating it with a spoon is good too.

And I promise to take better pictures. Cross my heart.

Kitchen Scratch Quesadilla

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So due to the broken cupboard, dishes litter our stove, freezer, and counter space. This also happens to be a week with little to no leftovers or easy heat ups. J. got us a rotisserie chicken earlier in the week, but I’m about chickened out.

So I feel hungry for something else. This is what I pulled out:

2 slices of sharp cheddar

2 slices of Dubliner cheese

Herdez Salsa Verde (the pantry shelf buckled too…but this managed to stay on the shelf.

Lemon Juice

Ms. Dash Fiesta Lime (chili powder and lime powder basically)

Whipping Cream

Tortillas, Flour

Chicken, precooked, in this case rotisserie

Shred chicken. Put cheese, chicken, a splash of lemon juice and salsa on a tortilla. Fry or nuke in the microwave. Hint: it’s better pan fried. Sprinkle Dash over the top and drizzle with whipping cream.

Dreamcicle Icecream

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2 cups whipping cream

1 cup milk

3/4 cup sugar

1 tbsp Vanilla extract

1/2 of a lid of Orange extract

Put milk and sugar in a mixer and mix it till dissolved. Add cream and whip it till soft and foamy, not stiff. Add vanilla and orange extracts and whip for about 30 more seconds. Dump in you ice cream machine.

It’s good with chocolate, chocolate cookies, chocolate cake, chocolate syrup, chocolate anything.  But don’t add chocolate to recipe though…it’s way rich. You were warned.