Food Groups

Anyone who knows me very well, will tell you that I'm campaigning to get chocolate accepted as one of the four food groups. I'm sure one of those others is completely expendable.

I recently made a layer cake that had a very unusual frosting, I found it on the Kraft Foods page. My kids thought it was special enough for a birthday cake, I just thought it was good enough to be a food group-as usual. I substituted Bakers chocolate for chocolate chips.

BEST-EVER CHOCOLATE LAYER CAKE

(that's Kraft's title not mine, but it's pretty good)

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips - divided

1 pkg chocolate cake mix, 2 layer size

1 pkg 3.9 oz Jell-o chocolate instant pudding

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup water

1 tub (8oz) cool whip topping, do NOT thaw

2 Tbsp sliced almonds

Heat oven to 350*. Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil and water in large bowl with mixer until blended. Stir in 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Pour into 2- 9" round pans sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min. Loosen cakes from sides of pans, invert onto wire racks; cool completely.

Microwave cool whip and remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chips in microwave on high 1 1/2 min or until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring after 1 minute. Let stand 15 minute to thicken.

Stack cake layers on plate, filling and frosting with cool whip mixture. Sprinkle with nuts, keep refrigerated.

RE MIX

I'm posting a do-over. I have made this ranch cracker mix for a long time, it's actually posted 2/23/2008. When my family was here last weekend, they asked for my mix recipe. It was the same mix, but I switched up the ingredients a little. Instead of using 2 bags of oyster crackers, I used 1 and added some pretzel rods (broken up a little) and a box of nutty crackers. Experiment!

In case you don't want to look back here it is again:

Ranch Cracker Snack Mix

2 - 12-16 oz pkg plain oyster crackers

1 envelope hidden valley buttermilk ranch dressing mix

1/2 tsp lemon pepper

1 tsp dill weed

1/4 tsp garlic powder

3/4 - 1 cup salad oil

Whisk together the ranch dressing powder and oil. Add the rest of the ingredients mixing well and pour over crackers; stir to coat. Place in a 250* oven for 20 min stirring a couple of times. Cool completely and store in an air tight container.

Brunch n Football

Saturday the Huskers played early, 11AM. I decided it would be fun to do a brunch thing instead of the usual game fare. I looked and looked for an egg recipe, then realized how short of time I was. I had to make a decision, fast! I fell back on a quick recipe, Breakfast Burritos. I was zooming to HyVee to pick up a prescription at 10AM and still didn't have eggs ready...stress! I hit the sausage aisle and found a new Jimmy Dean precooked sausage crumbles, awesome! I then headed for eggs and saw the egg beaters on sale too! I got one with seasonings already in it, so when I got home it was super fast, no eggs to crack. Nancy brought caramel rolls and cookies, I had apples and caramel dip. Of course we had a mimosa or two. By the way, the Huskers WON! GO BIG RED!!

Breakfast Burritos

flour tortillas

eggs, scrambled

sausage or bacon cooked and crumbled

cheddar cheese, grated (or any blend you like)

diced green onion-optional

diced green pepper-optional

salsa

Be sure to warm the tortillas so you can fold them easier. I just put them on my smooth top stove to heat them up on a burner. Microwave is good too. Down the center spoon eggs, cheese and sausage. Anything else you like can be added. Be sure to leave some room at the bottom to fold it up or you'll have a real mess on your hands. We like ours with salsa, they were delicious! Nancy and Bill liked them too!

Ba-nanas

I found a new banana bread recipe and it's really really really great!!!

My poor bananas have been waiting patiently 3 days now, crying out to me to make them into something. Why is it that as soon as you get bananas home from the grocery store, they already seem to be getting dark? I buy green bananas, really green ones, but they still ripen at the speed of light.

I have tried different bread recipes and often they turn out dry and without much flavor. I googled the Pioneer Woman just for fun to see what she had, and voila there it was. This was a large recipe, and the kicker?? You bake it in a bundt pan of all things! The were two things I didn't like about the recipe, no vanilla extract and no walnuts. I of course, fixed that. Please give this one a shot, I loved it.

BANANA BREAD

2 sticks butter (I used Imperial margarine)

1 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar

3 whole eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas

4 cups + 2 Tbsp flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cups walnuts

Preheat oven to 350* Grease and flour bundt pan or use a spray for baking and coat it generously.

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time, beating for a few seconds after each addition. Add mashed bananas and vanilla, beat together.

Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients and sour cream alternately to the mixing bowl. Beat well until all is combined, then stir in walnuts.

Pour into bundt pan and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes, then invert on a cooling rack and allow cake to cool slightly before slicing and serving with softened butter.

Nuts!

Speaking of nuts.....

About 4 or 5 years ago I realized I had gotten stuck on a phrase when things weren't going well. I'd say, "Nuts!" thinking it was far nicer than many other expletives I could be saying. Until one day, a preschooler heard me say it, looked me straight in the face and said, "Mrs. Mullen, that's a BAD word." I thought about it for awhile. His mom is a friend of mine, so I told her what he had said. She replied, "Well, when you live in a house full of boys, you can just imagine what that means at our place!" I was so embarrassed, I broke myself of that word very quickly. Well, I digress....

When we were leaving Lincoln a few weeks ago, my favorite son-in-law sent a Food & Wine magazine with us for the ride home. I found several recipes in that one book that peaked my curiosity. I really enjoyed this pecan recipe, this would be a great neighbor or co-worker gift for the holidays. FYI, I did a half batch and probably would again. Just half everything, the egg is tricky but you can do it!!

MAPLE PECANS

4 cups pecan halves

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

2 Tbsp butter, melted

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper(use 1/2 tsp if your not afraid)

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 large egg white, at room temperature

1. Preheat the oven to 350*. Spread the pecans on a large rimmed baking sheet and toast until they are fragrant, about 10 min. Let the pecans cool. Lower the oven temp to 250*.

2. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. In a large bowl, toss the pecans with the maple syrup, butter, salt, cayenne and black pepper. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg white until frothy. Add the egg white to the pecans and toss well.

3. Spread the pecans on the lined baking sheets in a single layer. Bake for 40 minutes until the nuts are golden brown. Immediately loosen the pecans from the paper with a spatula. Let cool completely on the baking sheets before serving.

The recipe said you can store in an airtight container for up to 1 week. I kept ours for about 3 weeks and they were fine. I did keep them airtight.

Cheese Head

Tonight it is supposed to freeze. Therefore, we have entered into the soup season. There are so many great soups, one of my old standbys is this broccoli cheese recipe. While Mike ate it, he told me 3 times how good it was. No sense reinventing the wheel, when you already have a winner!

BROCCOLI CHEESE SOUP

1 16oz pkg frozen chopped broccoli

1/2 cup shredded carrot

1/2 cup onion, chopped (I used more)

2 cups chopped potatoes

2 141/2 oz cans chicken broth

3 tbsp flour

2 1/2 cups milk

3/4- 1 lb Velveeta cubed

Simmer vegetables in broth 15 minutes. Mix flour into milk and add to cooked veggies. Cook and stir to thicken slightly, about 10 min. Add cheese, turn off heat, stir and cover till melted. Stir again and serve. So good.