Monday, January 31, 2011

Hot Fudge Peanut Butter Pudding Cake

Are you ready for this? I know I have posted a crock pot cake before, but this is the ultimate! Of course it is from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. I doubled it and put it in my big crock pot for about 3 1/2 hours on low and when you scoop into it, the liquid you pour on top has turned into this gooey, fudgy sauce that is perfect with the moist cake. The peanut butter flavor was not that strong, but it was still chocolatey and delish with some vanilla ice cream on top. It was pure comfort food during those snowy days we had last week!

Cake:

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

½ cup sugar

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

½ cup milk

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

½ cup smooth or chunky peanut butter

½ cup semisweet chocolate chips

Topping:

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

¾ cup sugar

1 ½ cups boiling water

Vanilla ice cream for serving

Coat a medium round or oval slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center, add the milk, oil, and vanilla, and stir in widening circles, gradually incorporating the dry ingredients, until you have a smooth batter. Stir in the peanut butter. The batter will be thick. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spread evenly in the crockpot.

To make the topping, in another medium-size bowl, combine the cocoa, and sugar; pour in the boiling water and whisk until smooth. Gently pour over the batter in the cooker; DO NOT STIR. Cover and cook on HIGH until puffed and the top layer is set, 2 to 2 ½ hours.

Turn off the cooker and let it stand, covered for 30 minutes before serving.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

raspberry rice pudding




pudding on the rice
rice pudding



Ingredients:
  • 8 Cups of Milk
  • 4 Cups of Cooked Medium Grain Rice
  • 4 Cups of Sugar
  • 2 tsp. of Salt
  • 2 Eggs
  • 4 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream
  • 2 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
Method:

In Large Sauce Pan add: The first four ingredients.

In separate bowl crack 2 eggs and let sit at room temperature. Set aside.

Stir slowly with flat wooden spoon at medium heat for 45-60 minutes until the mixture has evenly thickened.

Take pan off heat. Take the room temperature eggs and whisk them thoroughly adding a table spoon of the hot pudding to temper the eggs. When you have added equal amounts of pudding to the eggs, slowly incorporate the eggs back into the pudding. Return the pudding to medium heat and slowly stir as you bring the pudding back to a boil.

Then take off heat, put pudding in glass bowl cover with saran wrap and cool from 6-24 hours.

Whip 4 cups of heavy whipping cream and 2 tsp. of pure vanilla extract.

Add the whipped cream to the cooled mixture until it is fully enveloped.

Keep pudding refrigerated, it lasts about 1 week. Different Flavors:

Amaretto Rice Pudding

Omit the Vanilla Extract and instead add 2 tsp.of Almond Flavoring

Chocolate Rice Pudding

In a microwave melt 1 cup of milk chocolate chips with 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream for 2 minutes. Whisk until shiny and add to the cooled pudding BEFORE adding the vanilla whipped cream.

Raspberry Rice Pudding

Add a bag of frozen raspberries and mix into the pudding fully incorporate and then fold in the vanilla whipped cream.

Enjoy!

Quick Margarita Chicken

This dish is Oh So Delicious! And is my husbands number one request. (I'm salivating just writting it.)

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp honey
1 cup finely lime tostitos tortilla chips
1 cup italian style stewed tomatoes
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1/2 cup monterey jack cheese

In a blender or food processor, finely crush tortilla chips.

Mix oil, juice, and honey. Brush on chicken and roll in chip crumbs.

Bake @ 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Puree tomatoes and cilantro into a sauce.

After chicken has been cooking 20-25 minutes and is just about done, remove. Top with puree, sprinkle with cheese and bake again for 4-5 minutes. Serve with lime wedges.

Note: If you decide to use a different tortilla chip, DO NOT use the more authentic stone ground tortilla chips, it just doesn't seem to turn out right. Also, I always make more of the sauce... cause I'm "saucy" like that.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Killer Guacamole



Since living in Africa and having avocado trees in my backyard, and the avocados were the size of small melons...I have eaten plenty of avocados/guacamole in my day. I have perfected the recipe and wanted to share!

3 ripe avocados
1 vine ripened tomato
1/4 c chopped cilantro
fresh garlic
1 lime
2 T ranch
1/2 sweet onion
1/4 salt
1/8 t pepper

Empty avocados into bowl and mash with fork. Dice tomatos and onion, chop cilantro,and fold into mashed avocado. Add juice of entire lime, 2T ranch dressing, add salt and pepper. Stir with spoon softly. Place in bowl and top with more chopped tomatos and cilantro for garnish.