Christmas Break Salad

 

I got a mandoline for Christmas this year (so excited!) and yes, I cut myself the very first time I used it but that isn't going to stop me.  Today for lunch I was feeling the particular need to break away from all of the rich foods we have been gorging ourselves on over the holiday - cheeseball, chorizo stuffed peppers, creamed eggs (another blog post for another day), homemade fudge, etc...  I was determined to make a salad.  Unfortunately, all of the salad greens that are the normal stock in our fridge had gone bad during our healthy balanced diet hiatus. Cue: mandoline.

Perfect Pie Crust

This is the 'perfect' pie crust recipe that we grew up using. It is versatile so you can make it thin or thicker and it's not too flaky. It makes enough for 4+ pies and freezes well as a dough ball or in the shape of your pie tin. MMmmmm enjoy!

Mama's Brownies

I don't have a pic, but these are embedded in my brain, taste buds, tummy (unfortunately for that one) and heart. Just to say they are soooo good is an understatement. Mama used to make these for all the occasions where something special, yet simple was needed.

Double Chocolate Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread

Hearty, healthy, moist, and fun! Chocolate meets green=beautiful. 

Recently my hubby and I celebrated our ten year anniversary. For a few of our meals, we decided to grocery shop at Sam's Club (I love Sam's Club) and buy a few things that we never buy. One of the things we bought were some of those jumbo muffins... you know, the huge cake-like muffins that apparently people eat for breakfast. (Yes, I know they are gross, ahh well, I admit, in the past I had kind of liked them. But hey...love makes you blind, right? Ok, fine it was just a dumb choice.) So for breakfast the next morning, I had a smoothie & a muffin. Just after I finished it, I looked at the nutrition label (no, I don't always want to know...) and I was completely SHOCKED and grossed out. One muffin contained 33grams of fat. THIRTY-THREE! That's like THREE snickers bars! (Yes, I just looked that up) I bake often and there are not many pre-packaged foods that we buy on a regular basis. I do sometimes buy yogurt and bagels, bread and tortillas. But, there is just NO way that the muffins or breads I make are anywhere near that bad for me. Even the richest of my chocolate cakes or desserts are NOT that high in fat! So, hey..does that make you feel better? 

Pesto-Zucchini Stuff

We planted WAYYY too much zucchini this year. If you want any, holler! I love zucchini. I love to shred it and then freeze it and use it all year around. Goes great in soups, breads, italian-lasagnas and blends well also! Last night I pulled out my cuisinart and made some pesto stuff. It was fun and yum!

State Cakes

So loving to get unusual recipes, I have a friend who served some time in prison. He shared with me a recipe that he and some of the other inmates apparently made fairly frequently. With great privilege I present to you- State Cakes.

Ingredients-
1 sleeve of oreos (or for true prison authenticity use duo's)
1 honey bun
1 pack of 2 nutty bars
Bit of Jelly
your favorite candy bar (suggestions include snickers, butterfingers, reeses etc)

Separate oreos, scraping the cream into a bowl and the cookies onto a plate. Crush the cookies into a fine powder and add very small amounts of water until a slightly sticky dough is formed. Put the dough into a ziploc or grocery bag and flatten it out into a circle large enough to wrap a honey bun in. Then smear a little bit of jelly in the center of the oreo dough. Then since there are not jars of peanut butter in prison scrape the peanut butter from the nutty bars, and smear that on the jelly. then crush pieces of  your favorite candybar on that, remembering to reserve a little for the top, and place the honey bun on that. Then place the honey bun on the top of all of that, and wrap the oreo dough around it and flip it over.
Then take the cream from the oreos and mix in a little milk or water to thin it into a more spreadable cream. spread that on top of the state cake, and sprinkle the remainder of the candybar and nutty bar pieces.
Then sit back, and enjoy while wondering if your doctor was really serious about those "imperative diet changes" you needed to make.

Lemon Ricotta Cake

Lemon Ricotta Cake

Yield: Serves 6 - 8Prep Time: 15 minsCook Time: 45 mins

A simple lemon flavored cake that includes ricotta cheese, keeping the cake ver moist.

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup Softened Butter

3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar

Zest From 3 Large Lemons

1 Teaspoon Lemon Extract

3 Large Eggs, Separated

1 Cup Full Fat Ricotta Cheese

1/2 Cup Plus 2 Tablespoons All-purpose Flour

2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

Dash of Salt

To Serve:

Fresh Strawberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Lightly grease and flour a 7 or 8 inch spring-form pan.

Beat the butter and sugar with a hand mixer until light and fluffy.

Add the lemon zest, extract, egg yolks and ricotta cheese and beat until smooth.

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt, and beat into the butter mixture just until combined.

Wash your beaters well, and then beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff.

Gently fold the egg whites into the batter then spoon the batter into your prepared tin.

Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a cake tester stuck into the center comes out clean.

Allow to cool to room temperature before serving.

Hungarian Mushroom Soup

My husband and I are not big fans mushrooms, but when we food the fungi in our co/op food basket this week we had to use them up.  My husband found an awesome mushroom soup on the internet that we all loved. So, we thought that we would pass it a long.