Little Stout Bundt Cakes

To go along with a corned beef and cabbage dinner tonight these were the perfect dessert.  I found a great mini bundt pan in Marshall's this afternoon and could not resist using it.  I will have to remember this recipe for St. Patrick's day.  These cakes are very moist and rich.

Cakes: (adapted from Real Simple Magazine, December 2010)

2/3 cup unsalted butter, plus extra to prep pan
Unsweetened cocoa powder, for pan
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt
1/2 cup stout beer (such as Guinness)
5 oz. semisweet chocolate
2 large eggs
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sour cream

Heat oven to 350 degrees.   Butter a 6 mini bundt pan, dust with cocoa powder, tap out the extra.  In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In a small saucepan, combine the butter and stout. Cook over medium heat until butter is melted.  Remove from heat and add chocolate and whisk until smooth.

Beat eggs and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in the chocolate mixture and sour cream.  Gradually mix in the flour mixture until just combined.

Pour bater into prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean,  35-40 minutes.  Let cool in pan for 20 minutes, then invert onto a rack to cool completely.

Icing:

3 tablespoons of confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon of Bailey's Irish Cream

Whisk in a bowl until a consistency to drizzle.  If too thick add a little more Bailey's too watery add more sugar.  Drizzle over cooled cakes.

Turkey Meatloaf

In our quest to eat healthier  I have started to use ground turkey instead of ground beef.  Tonight I came across a wonderful recipe for a BBQ turkey meatloaf.  It was delicious served with some mashed cauliflower and roasted asparagus.  I do admit I have to work on the recipe for the mashed cauliflower. It did taste good but the consistency needs a little work. Something for me to work on for a later post.  The roasted asparagus is always a side I love, simply drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper.

BBQ Turkey Meatloaf: (adapted from Once Upon a Chef)

For BBQ Glaze: 

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

2/3 cup kethcup

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Meatloaf:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup minced yellow onion

2 gloves minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 large egg

3 tablespoons of BBQ glaze (from above)

1 pound ground turkey

1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a bakin sheet with foil and spray.

Heat olive oil in saute pan and cook onion about 2minutes until soft and golden.  Add garlic and cook another minute.  Set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl mix salt, pepper, paprika, thyme, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and egg.  Mix until well combined.  Add in onion mixture.  Finally add breadcrumbs and turkey mix by hand until just combined.

Form a loaf on the foil lined pan.  Spread BBQ glaze over the top of the meatloaf.  Should be plenty to coat top and sides.  Cook 40-45 minutes.

Fuel Filled Breakfast: Peanut Butter Banana Roll-Up

Mornings are hard for everyone.  Even harder to think about getting breakfast on the table.  It definitely has to be quick. Breakfast also needs to be something that will keep me until lunch, and give me energy for the morning.  One of my favorite things in the world is peanut butter.  This peanut butter banana roll up is also great to prepare and take with you on the go.  This breakfast definitely fills me up and keeps me full all morning!

* I have since updated this with a couple of variations at the bottom.  After making this a few times and a little different each times I have some suggestions.  Definitely slice the banana, something I did not originally  do.  Add some berries, either sliced strawberries or blueberries add a great flavor and helps to not have everything stuck to the roof of your mouth.  I love the combination of apples and peanut butter so I think that sliced apples would also be great.  After a recent trip to the  Peanut Butter Company we have a bunch of different flavors of peanut butter so we have been using them also, along with my husband's favorite...Nutella! But I am sure anything you can enjoy with peanut butter will work with this, it's just a quick very filling breakfast that can be eaten on the go.  I would even roll these in some foil and take it with me for lunch.

Peanut Butter Banana Roll-Up:

1 large tortilla
1 banana
1 tablespoon of peanut butter
1 tablespoon of granola

Warm tortilla to make it easy to work with. Spread peanut butter over center, place banana in center and sprinkle with granola.  Roll like a burrito, cut in half and enjoy.

Variations:

#1:  Using cinnamon raisin swirl peanut butter with sliced banana, blueberries, and granola.

*adding the blueberries give its a nice touch a little moisture so everything is not so sticky in your mouth! Strawberries would also be great.  Acting as the jelly in PB&J.

#2: Nutella, cream cheese, blueberries, and granola.

This was my husband's idea and variation.  The nutella and cream cheese work very nicely together alongside the blueberries.

Shrimp Tacos

There are plenty of weeknights where dinner needs to be quick and easy.  Something that I have come to love is a bag of frozen shrimp.  It is quite simple to pull them out of the freezer defrost fast under some warm water.  Tonight an easy meal was pulled together using this ingredient.  Served with a quick side of refried beans and rice.

Shrimp Tacos: (makes 6 tacos)

Shrimp-

18 shrimp (raw, peeled and deveined) 

1 teaspoon of cumin

1 teaspoon of smoke paprika

1 teaspoon of chili powder

juice of half lime

salt and pepper to taste

1 teaspoon of olive oil

Mix shrimp and all but olive oil in bowl.  Let stand 10 minutes. Heat olive oil in skillet.  Cook shrimp until pink 5-6 minutes turning halfway through.

Carrot Slaw-

1 carrot finely julienned 

1/4 onion finely sliced

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

juice of half lime

salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in small bowl. Set aside to use as topping for tacos.

Warm tortillas or taco shells.  Place shrimp in tortillas, top with carrot slaw, shredded cheese, sour cream, and sliced avocado. Squeeze fresh lime over.  

Nutella Hot Chocolate with Frangelico

After a day of digging out from more then a foot of snow dumped on us from a blizzard, there is nothing better then hot chocolate! And what better way for Moms and Dads to enjoy their hot chocolate then with a little Frangelico liqueur added.  I am a huge fan of nutella and cannot get enough of it sometimes.  Adding it to the milk gives this hot chocolate a rich smooth texture.  Delicious.  Perfect end to a day out in the cold snow.

Makes 1 Drink: (adapted from an article in Saveur)

1 cup of milk
2 tablespoons of nutella
1 tablespoon of hazelnut liqueur, such as Frangelico
2 teaspoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
whipped cream
shaved chocolate to top

heat milk in saucepan until bubbles form around edges, about 3 minutes.  Remove from heat and whisk in nutella and liqueur.  Top with whipped cream and shaved chocolate.

Easy as Pie Pizza

As with most people I do love a good slice of pizza.  However since I married my husband I have had less of it since he does not like take out pizza but will pretty much only eat homemade.  This caused me to buy a pizza stone and peal with a gift card I had received to Williams Sonoma (we bought the Emile Henry Pizza Stone). Today our lunch was a nice hot homemade pizza fresh out of the oven.  Perfect lunch after digging out of over a foot of snow that a blizzard dumped on us last night.  I don't think I can look at the movie Nemo the same ever again.  This yummy pizza with sliced mushrooms and chorizo was just what we needed after our first round of shoveling.  Unfortunately the apartment we live in requires us to park on the street so now waiting for the plow to come around so we can go out for round two of digging out.  I think later some nice hot chocolate will be needed!

Pizza Sauce:

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 small yellow onion diced

2-3 garlic gloves minced

1 red pepper chopped

1 tablespoon of oregano

2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon red pepper flake

1 can of diced tomatoes (fire roasted works well)

1 (small) can of tomato sauce

salt and pepper to taste

In a saucepan heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add onion and saute till golden and soft.  Add the garlic and red pepper and cook another minute or two.  Add spices and stir.  Add diced tomatoes and sauce.  Allow sauce to simmer 15-20 minutes.  Stir occasionally.  Season with additional spices and salt and pepper to taste.

Pizza:

1 store bought pizza dough

1 ball of sliced fresh mozzarella cheese (size that's fits into palm)

2 tablespoons of cornmeal

additional toppings of your choice, we went with mushrooms and chorizo since that is what we had in the fridge.  Others good be salami, pepperoni, other vegetables.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.  Using a pizza stone place it in the oven to heat.  On the wooden peal sprinkle cornmeal, this helps keep the dough from sticking.  Now shape dough to desired size and shape.  My husband likes to go around the edges to make a little ridge.  Next take sauce and spread around the dough leaving the edges free.  Next layer on the cheese and toppings.  Using the peal to slide pizza onto hot stone in the oven.  Cook about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on it as ovens vary.  Use peal again to pull pizza out. Allow to cool and set for a few minutes before cutting. Enjoy!

Jambalaya

I think lately I have been enjoying foods that have that underlying heat, spice that bites back.  In my cooking I know at times I can have a tendenacy to give an extra shake or two of the red pepper flakes.  Last night we enjoyed ASian turkey meatballs with some spicy mayo which I made iwth a hefty squirt of Sriracha sauce.  Tonight it was a couple of extra shakes of the Tabasco in the Jambalya.  For most of the bowl it just tastes good with a little heat.  By the end I realized my nose was now cleared and my mouth was a little on fire.  As with any recipe adjust the heat to your own liking.  As I typed the recipe I realized when I added to the spices to the pot I threw in a little red pepper flake in for good measure even though the recipe does not call for it....oops extra spicy tonight at our house!

1 Tbp olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 red bell pepper chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
6 ounces andouille sausage, sliced (i used an entire Smithfield spicy andouille so lots of sausage in mine)
1 cup uncooked rice
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 bay leaf
2 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (I think I went one too many shakes of the Tabasco...it was SPICY...oh so good)
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 pound (roughly 10) peeled and deviened medium shrimp


Heat olive oil in a dutch oven or heavy bottom pot over medium-high heat.  Add the onion, pepper, garlic, and sausage.  Cook about 5 minutes or until vegetable are tender.

Next add the rice and all spices.  Cook for 2 minutes to heat spices.

Add the broth, water, tomato paste, hot sauce, and diced tomatoes and bring to a boil.  Cover and reduce heat, simmer about 20 minutes.

Last add the shrimp and cook 5 minutes or until shrimp are cooked through.

Tastes great served with some garlic bread and a red Irish Ale!