B-Movie Star

Today I saw an article about what an authentic red velvet cake is.  I was happy to report that this recipe I shared with you a couple years ago meets the requirements for AUTHENTIC red velvet cake! Only the best from me I tellya!

Anyway, here is a repost of the recipe I've used, with instructions on how to make a cute little heart shape cake so you can surprise your sweetie . . . or just make one for yourself !

Make your cake in one square (8x8x2") and one round (8x1-1/2") pans. To make the heart shape, cut the round cake in half and place against the the square layer as shown in the diagram. So easy and cute!

Then frost and decorate your cake however your sweetie will like it best!

If you'd like a red cake here's a recipe for Red Velvet cake with White Frosting - click to enlarge.

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Here's a great sweet potoato recipe that you might like to try - especially since Thanksgiving is fast approaching! I got the recipe from Taste of Home and it is delicious!

INGREDIENTS
3 cups thinly sliced tart apples (about 3
large)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3 pounds sweet potatoes (about 5
medium), peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup soft bread crumbs
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cider vinegar

DIRECTIONS
Place apples in a large bowl; sprinkle with lemon juice. Add the sweet potatoes,
syrup, butter, salt and pepper; toss to coat.
Transfer to a 3-qt. baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake, uncovered, at
400° for 35-40 minutes or until apples are tender, stirring once.
In a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs, oil, cinnamon, nutmeg and
vinegar; sprinkle over potato mixture. Bake 10-15 minutes longer or until topping
is golden brown.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Isn't this cute? I found these Frankenstein inspired green peppers over at The Family Kitchen at Babble.com I love them because they're so cute, but they're also stuffed with quinoa - so awesome!   Head over there, they've also got a great link to some Monster Nachos . . . yum!!!

Frankenstein Baked Peppers
2 cups black quinoa or black rice, cooked
1 can black beans
1/2 cup black olives, chopped
1/2 teaspoon beef bouillion powder
1 cup pepper jack cheese, grated
4 green bell peppers

To Decorate:
8 water chestnuts
8 black olives, whole
4 black olives, halved
4 small, thin slices of red bell pepper
16 White Toothpicks

In a large bowl, stir together the quinoa or rice, black beans, olives, boullion powder, and cheese.  Slice off the tops of each of the bell peppers, clean all seeds and pith from the inside of each pepper, then fill generously with the quinoa mixture.  Gently place the tops of each pepper on top, then bake peppers in an oven preheated to 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Remove the baked peppers from the oven, allow to cool slightly, then carve a small triangle for a nose, and a small slit for the mouth.  Press a thin piece of red bell pepper into the slit.  To make the eyes, use a toothpick to connect half an olive and a water chestnut to the bell pepper for each eye.  Then, press two whole olives into the sides of the pepper with a toothpick for the “bolts.”

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Gabby and I tried this recipe the other night and we fell in love. It's a lot like traditional apple crisp, but with more of a baked apple flavor and less "crisp"  The flavor is delicious and it's a nice cozy autumn dessert for a chilly evening!

3 cups apples sliced

1 tbsp. flour (we used gluten free flour for ours)

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup oatmeal

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup flour

1/3  cup butter

1/3 tsp baking soda

1/3 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup water

Cinnamon to taste

Mix 1 Tbsp flour, sugar and cinnamon with sliced apples. Place in a a greased baking dish. Mix remaining ingredients and spread over the apple mixture.

Pour the water over the topping and bake at 350° F until the apples are tender and golden brown - about 30 minutes.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Nothing hits the spot on a chilly autumn night like something warm and glazed and maybe buttery . . . HEY I know! Acorn Squash!!! It's in season and it's delicious!! If you've never tried it, you really should.  The taste will remind you maybe of sweet potatoes  -  a bit maybe?  Well try it and see what you think.  Here is an awesome, no trouble at all, way to cook them.  (down at the bottom, click on the image to download a printable pdf recipe card for your files!)

1. Slice the acorn squash in half.

2. The squash has seeds inside, like a pumpkin - in fact it even smells a bit like a pumpkin when you cut it open.

3. Take a spoon and scoop out the the seeds so you have a nice clean center.

4. Place the squash upside down in a baking dish and pour in the water.  Bake the squash just like this at 350° F  for about 45 minutes.

5. After 45 minutes, remove from oven, drain water, and turn squash right side up. Pour glaze mixture over the squash and add a pat of butter to each one.  Bake like this for apx. 10 minutes, until glaze is heated through.

The squash should be nice and soft and coated with a sweet buttery maple glaze - and ready to serve.  Your family will eat it up!

Click the recipe card to get a printable version - and enjoy!

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If you know us, you know that my family eats a LOT of salsa, really, a LOT.  I made salsa last year and my husband was hoarding jars of it in his closet . . . I kid you not. He wouldn't let just anyone eat "the good stuff" he ran out in mid winter and all I've hear about recently is that we need to make more salsa! What can I say? He's a spicy guy!

I did run across some incredible and intriguing salsa recipes - the first one that I'm going to try is Fresh Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips. Okay, so this isn't my husband's idea of salsa, but it sounds like a wonderful refreshing treat on a hot summer day!

Recipe and photo from Chef Mommy

Isn't that just delightful?!

Ingredients

Fresh Fruit Salsa
1 pint fresh strawberries, stems removed and berries chopped
1 banana, peeled and chopped
2 kiwifruit, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup blueberries
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

In a medium bowl, combine all the fruit. In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Drizzle, the lemon sugar over the fruit and stir gently to coat all the fruit. *I actually only used 3/4 of the lemon sugar*
Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Cinnamon Crisps
Flour tortillas
vegetable cooking spray
2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Stir together the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Firmly press cookie cutters into the tortillas and place the tortilla cut-outs onto an ungreased baking sheet. Lightly spray with the cooking spray, then sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the tortilla cut-outs. Bake for 6-8 min or until lightly browned. Cool and serve with the fruit salsa.

Over at Tip Nut she has a whole slew of salsa recipes - if you love salsa in all it's variations, I suggest you get on over there and check some of them out!

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Remember making Kool-Aid Popsicle as a kid in the summer? Yeah, we did that. We would pour kool-aid into ice trays, cover them with plastic wrap and poke in toothpicks for the handles. Good times.  Now that I'm slightly older,  the thought of a Kool-aid Popsicle is not the most appealing thing . . . while iced coffee is. This got me to thinking, "hmm if we take the iced coffee and pour it into a mold and alter it's molecular structure from a liquid into a solid form (yeah, this is the way I talk to myself) we could produce a frozen item that would be appealing to adults."

Then I found this recipe and voila! Thank God for the internet folks! This is a pretty complicated recipe, print it out if you need to:

Easy coffee-cicles! Combine cold coffee and your favorite creamer (about 2/3 coffee and 1/3 creamer) Pour into ice pop molds and freeze until firm, about 2 hours.

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On a cold day there's nothing more comforting than a pot of stew cooking in the kitchen. I usually make stew the old fashioned way - I just throw in whatever we have, and it usually turns out great.  I often start with a beef base -when I cook a pot roast I save the pan drippings and freeze them to make a stew base. If you don't want to go to that trouble,  you can use canned soup or packaged broth.  Really, it's hard to go wrong with old fashioned stew.  Make some cornbread to go on the side, and you're set!  In fact, I think I'm going to go make some right now!

* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 pound beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
* 1 small onion, chopped
* 1 tablespoon canola oil
* 1-1/2 cups water
* 1 can (10-1/2 ounces) condensed beef consomme, undiluted
* 1/2 cup sherry or reduced-sodium beef broth
* 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
* 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1/8 teaspoon pepper
* 2 medium carrots, chopped

* 1 large potato, peeled and chopped

Directions

* Place flour in a large resealable plastic bag; add beef, a few pieces at a time, and shake to coat.
* In a large saucepan coated with cooking spray, cook beef and onion in oil over medium-high heat until beef is browned on all sides. Stir in the water, consomme, sherry or broth, Worcestershire sauce and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 hour.
* Stir in the carrots,  potato, and whatever other veggies you want to add.  Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30-45 minutes or until meat and vegetables are tender.

*Feel free to add whatever veggies your family likes - corn, peas, turnips - every time I make stew it's different!

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Need some help staying warm? This delicious recipe is just what you need on a freezing cold day! Make some Mexican Hot Chocolate, curl up under a blanket and read some Isabel Allende! (She's not Mexican, but her stories will fire up your imagination!)

Ingredients
* 1/4 cup baking cocoa
* 2 tablespoons brown sugar
* 1 cup boiling water
* Dash ground cloves or nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 3 cups milk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* Whipped cream
* Whole cinnamon sticks

Directions
* Combine cocoa and sugar in small saucepan; stir in water. Bring to boil; reduce heat and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
* Add cloves, cinnamon and milk. Simmer 5 minutes (do not boil). Whisk in vanilla. Pour hot chocolate into mugs; top with whipped cream. Use cinnamon sticks for stirrers - mix will settle to the bottom if not stirred before drinking.

Stay Warm!

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Gabby and I discovered these delicious enchiladas - we didn't have any enchilada sauce on hand so we used Heinz Chili Sauce and YUMMY! These are some fantastic enchiladas - I highly recommend trying them!

Angela's Awesome Enchiladas

Ingredients

* 2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast meat - cut into chunks
* 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
* 1 1/4 cups sour cream
* 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 1 small onion, chopped
* 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies, drained
* 1 package mild taco seasoning mix
* 1 bunch green onions, chopped, divided
* 1 cup water
* 1 teaspoon lime juice
* 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
* 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
* 5 (12 inch) flour tortillas
* 3 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded, divided
* 1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce ( I use Heinz chili sauce)
* 1 (6 ounce) can sliced black olives (optional)

Directions

1. Place the chicken in a large pot and add water to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the chicken pieces are no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Shred chicken by placing two forks back to back and pulling meat apart. Set the shredded chicken aside. Meanwhile, combine the cream of chicken soup, sour cream, and chili powder in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, then turn off the heat and cover to keep warm.
2. Heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onion; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the shredded chicken, chopped green chilies, taco seasoning, half of the bunch of chopped green onion, and water. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the lime juice, onion powder, and garlic powder; simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
3. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Stir 1 cup of the soup mixture into the skillet with the chicken mixture. Spread the remaining soup mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.
4. Fill each tortilla with chicken mixture. Sprinkle Cheddar cheese over the chicken filling before folding the tortillas, reserving half of the shredded cheese for topping the enchiladas. Fold tortillas over the filling and place seam-side down in the prepared pan.
5. Pour enchilada sauce evenly over the enchiladas. Cover with the remaining 1 1/2 cups of Cheddar cheese. Sprinkle the reserved chopped green onions and the sliced olives on top of the cheese. Bake in the preheated oven until filling is heated through and the cheese is melted and bubbling, about 25 minutes.

Popularity: 1% [?]