Friday, January 27, 2012

"National Chocolate Cake Day" Cake

A few people who obviously don't care that I'm trying to lose weight, posted about National Chocolate Cake Day today. I'm sure they all knew full well that I wouldn't be able to help myself and would just HAVE to make a cake. I'm sure that's what they were thinking.... Okay, so maybe not. BUT, I did have to make one and I'm gonna blame them in the morning when I step on the scale and cry.


Cake:
1 boxed cake mix - I used a dark chocolate
1 large instant chocolate pudding mix
1/2 c. sour cream
3/4 c. chocolate chips, melted

Mix cake as directed on box. Add in pudding mix and mix well. Add sour cream and mix well. Add melted chocolate and mix well scraping sides of the bowl. Bake as directed on the box in desired shape. I baked mine in a 9x13 mostly because I always make my cakes for cakeballs that way and I didn't give it any thought until it was already in the oven. Oops.

Frosting:
2 cubes butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
2 t. vanilla
1/2 c. hot chocolate powder
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
1/2 c. melted chocolate chips

Place butter in mixer and whip. Add powdered sugar and mix well. Add vanilla and hot chocolate powder and mix well. add whipping cream and beat for about 1 minute on high. Add in melted chocolate and mix until smooth.

Whipped Cream:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 t. vanilla
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Place all in bowl and mix on high until very stiff cream forms.

When cake is baked and cooled place cake in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour. Slice in half so you have 2 9 x 6.5" pieces. Then slice each of those in half to make 4 layers of 9x6.5". Frost two layers with cream and one with frosting. Place a cream layer on the bottom, followed by the chocolate frosted layer. Place the last cream frosted layer on top and add the last cake layer. Frost the entire cake with remaining chocolate frosting. Enjoy! (But don't blame me when you step on your scale and cry. Blame my crazy facebook friends. It's really their fault. Haha)

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Alicia's Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cube butter, softened
1 cube margarine, softened
2 c. Brown Sugar
1 c. White Sugar
3 eggs
1/2 T. vanilla
1 t. Almond extract
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
4 c. flour
1/2 bag milk chocolate chips
2 Hershey's Bliss Chocolate Meltaway Center Candy Bars, chopped small
Whip butter and margarine until light and fluffy. Add brown sugar and white sugar. Mix until fluffy. Add vanilla and almond extracts and eggs. Mix well. Add baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix well. Add flour and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips and candy bar chunks. Drop by cookie dough scoop onto cookie sheet. Bake at 350* 8-10 minutes.

*This recipe makes about 75-80 cookies.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Onion Bagels

This is just the few changes made to make the cinnamon bagels into onion bagels.
  • 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1-2 Tablespoons dehydrated onions
  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 3 quarts boiling water
  • 3 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cornmeal
  • 1 egg white

  1. Place water, salt, sugar, cinnamon sugar, honey, flour and yeast in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough setting.
  2. When cycle is complete, (or after all ingredients are kneaded together) let dough rest on a lightly floured surface (I let it sit about an hour because I didn't do a full cycle). Meanwhile, in a large pot bring 3 quarts of water to a boil. Stir in 3 tablespoons of sugar.
  3. Cut dough into 7 equal pieces, and roll each piece into a small ball. Flatten balls. Poke a hole in the middle of each with your thumb. Twirl the dough on your finger or thumb to enlarge the hole, and to even out the dough around the hole. Cover bagels with a clean cloth, and let rest for 20 minutes.
  4. Sprinkle an ungreased baking sheet with cornmeal. Carefully transfer bagels to boiling water. Boil for 1 minute, turning half way through. Drain briefly on clean towel. Arrange boiled bagels on baking sheet. Glaze tops with egg white, and sprinkle with more dehydrated onions.
  5. Bake in a preheated 375 degree F (190 degrees C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until well browned.

Cinnamon Bagels

I have been wanting to try and make bagels for a few weeks and yesterday I was on a bread kick so I took the plunge. They really weren't nearly as intimidating as I had made them out to be in my head. I found a recipe on AllRecipes that I could throw into the bread machine for the dough process. I actually only put them into my bread machine for ten minutes. Just long enough to knead it all together. I wanted to make cinnamon bagels AND onion bagels so I needed the machine. You say I'm impatient? Okay, maybe I am. BUT.... It worked!

  • 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cranberry honey (You could use plain honey as well. This is just what I had)
  • 1-2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar
  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 3 quarts boiling water
  • 3 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cornmeal
  • 1 egg white

  1. Place water, salt, sugar, cinnamon sugar, honey, flour and yeast in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough setting.
  2. When cycle is complete, (or after all ingredients are kneaded together) let dough rest on a lightly floured surface (I let it sit about an hour because I didn't do a full cycle). Meanwhile, in a large pot bring 3 quarts of water to a boil. Stir in 3 tablespoons of sugar.
  3. Cut dough into 7 equal pieces, and roll each piece into a small ball. Flatten balls. Poke a hole in the middle of each with your thumb. Twirl the dough on your finger or thumb to enlarge the hole, and to even out the dough around the hole. Cover bagels with a clean cloth, and let rest for 20 minutes.
  4. Sprinkle an ungreased baking sheet with cornmeal. Carefully transfer bagels to boiling water. Boil for 1 minute, turning half way through. Drain briefly on clean towel. Arrange boiled bagels on baking sheet. Glaze tops with egg white, and sprinkle with more cinnamon sugar.
  5. Bake in a preheated 375 degree F (190 degrees C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until well browned.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Sausage Dip

This is another recipe that I inherited when I married Cole. Everyone loves this dip!

1 lb Sausage, browned (From the Pork Shop if you know what's good for you)
3 large tomatoes, diced
2 onions, diced
2 green peppers, diced
2 cans diced green chilis
1 12oz cream cheese
1 c sour cream

Place all in crockpot until heated. Serve with chips.

You can also just add the veggies to the sausage in the pan you browned it in. Cook for a few minutes and add the last 2 ingredients until heated.

Crockpot Hot Chocolate

I have a Pinterest addiction. It's a little crazy. On the bright side I try new recipes a lot these days. My bestie, Emily found this recipe and made it a few times. I seemed to always miss out. She made it for New Years Eve and I was going to grab some while we played games. but we played some wild dice game and it was way too crazy to have a drink on the table. Needless to say, two days later I realized I never got any. Sad day. So last night I made it - thanks to Emily and her ingredients. Did I mention she's the best? It was amazing. The recipe comes from Mrs. Happy Homemaker and she says it's the best, but I wasn't a believer until I tried it myself. She's telling the truth guys. Try it out. You'll see.

1.5 cups Heavy Cream (or more if you're like me)
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 15 oz bag milk chocolate chips
6 cups of whole milk
1 tsp vanilla

Put everything in your crock pot and turn it on low for two hours whisking occasionally. Or do like I did and heat the milk up in the microwave until it's warm and then put it in the crockpot. This took my cook time down to about 45 minutes. When the kids want hot chocolate, they want it now! :)

Millie's Salad Dressing

This is another family recipe. This was Cole's grandma Millie's own recipe for salad dressing. I was SHOCKED when she told me what was in this. Give it a chance, it's a lot better than you think. It's very good on a green salad with shredded cheese, boiled eggs, tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers.

2 cups Miracle Whip (If you sub mayo you need to add 1-2 t. more mustard and up the sugar a bit)
1 T ketchup
1 T A1 sauce (or similar steak sauce)
1 T sugar
1/2 t. pepper

Mix all together and toss over salad right before serving.

Fairy Rolls


This is a family recipe that came from my husband's great-grandma, Vera Barrett. I actually prefer these to the Texas Roadhouse Rolls. Yep. They're that good.

2 cups boiling water
2 cubes/sticks margarine (This is equal to 1 cup) (DON'T USE BUTTER - you may never hear me say that again, but in this recipe it changes everything. Trust me - I found out the hard way)
3/4 cup sugar
2 T. yeast
2 eggs, slightly beaten
6-7 cups flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. salt

Pour boiling water over margarine (You used margarine, right? If not, you'll be sorry.) Stir the sugar into this mixture and then let it cool until just warm. THIS IS IMPORTANT! If your water is too warm you will kill the yeast. Then add the yeast and beaten eggs. Mix together the dry ingredients. Add these to the wet mixture and stir, stir, stir. Then get your husband to stir when your arm feels like falling off. (Or put it all in your kitchen-aid mixer!) Throw a towel over the bowl and let the dough rise until double. Shape rolls however you wish. (This dough makes really good cinnamon rolls, caramel rolls & orange rolls, too!) Bake at 350* for about 18 minutes. For cinnamon rolls bake 22-25 minutes.

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