Chocolate Sludge

Mike's mother will be happy to know that I found this recipe in the Stuffed Cougar Cooked Book. This book has been in the family for a while. It's one of those great cookbooks that still includes several blessings in the beginning of the book to say at the beginning of a meal. We use it all the time for the Pancake recipe and every once in a while I look through it for something new to make. As the recipe states this is not gourmet, but children and hungry husbands love it. This would make a good dessert for a Halloween party too. Especially if you're able to use Hershey's special Dark Cocoa.

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 t. baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
3/4 cup pecans
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 3/4 hot water
Whipped Cream or Vanilla Ice Cream

Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, granulated sugar, and 1/4 cocoa. Add mik, vanilla and butter and mix well. Fold in pecans. Pour into buttered 8" square pan Mix 1/4 cup cocoa with brown sugar. Sprinkle over top. Pour hot water over this. DON'T MIX. Bake 40-45 minutes at 350. Serve warm. Serves 6-8.

Easy Chocolate Croissants

This is another one that I made for the party.....I ate about......10 yesterday. They aren't real croissants but for a quick fix they work in a pinch.

• 1 8-count tube refrigerated crescent rolls
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375. Place about 10 chocolate chips on the bottom third of each triangle and roll the dough up around the chocolate. Transfer rolls to a baking sheet. (lined with parchment for easy cleanup) and bake for 12-14 minutes until brown. Serve warm or at room temp. Topped with powdered sugar if desired. An idea a fellow pregnant woman shared with me.

Spanish Omelet with Potatoes and Chorizo

This is a great Real Simple recipe that I found. It was a hit at the morning mommy/baby playgroup I hosted.

• 1 Tbsp. EVOO
• 2 ounces chorizo (sliced and cut into half moon shape)
• 1 large yellow onion chopped
• 3/4 cup flat leaf parsley (chopped)
• 10 large eggs
• 3/4 lb. red potatoes diced
• 1 cup sharp cheddar
• salt and pepper
  

Heat over to 400 degrees. Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in over medium heat skillet. Add onion and cook 5 minutes. Add chorizo, potatoes, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper and cook covered stirring occasionally until potatoes are tender (a little less than 10 minutes). Stir in parsley. Pour eggs into skillet and stir to distribute the ingredients. Sprinkle with cheese. Transfer to over and cook for 15 minutes or until puffed and brown around the edges.

French Coconut Pie

One of the easiest Pies I have ever made and YUMMY!

4 Tbsp. butter
2 eggs, beaten
1 Tbsp. all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup or 3 1/2 ounce can shredded coconut
1 cup milk
Pre-made pie shell


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt butter in microwave; add remaining ingredients. Pour into pie shell. Bake until firm, about 45-60 minutes

Giambotta (Italian Vegetable Stew)

Promise me not to cringe when reading "stew" at the top. I'm for the most part not a fan of stew. It usually has some sort of bean, rice, or pasta in it and although recipes encourage to save for leftovers, it just turns out to be this slimy gelatin consistency when pulled out of the fridge the next day. The worst is when there is some sort of fatty meat in it and the grease solidifies at the top. I just can't stomach it.

The reason why this recipe intrigued me, was because there was no pasta, rice, or beans in it, it was healthy comfort food, and for the most part very cheap and fast to make. All the meat eaters may scoff seeing that it's a vegetable dish but it can easily be made into a meat dish by adding some meatballs or Italian sausage.

The original recipe by Rachel Ray asks for canned fire roasted tomatoes. While I couldn't find those at the store, I did find "Italian" canned diced tomatoes with oregano, basil and garlic added and instead of using a regular large eggplant, I used 2 Ichiban or Japanese eggplants which are less bitter. Otherwise I followed the recipe almost exactly. I'm curious to maybe try some Japanese sweet potato or Japanese pumpkin in this next time and see what the results may be. The fresh basil really did the trick so I recommend spending the extra money to buy it at the market.

For left overs I recommend getting some whole grain hoagie rolls cut in half length wise and using the same method for them as the cheesy garlic bread then, plop some of the left over stew on the halved roll, top with some provolone cheese and enjoy! The potatoes don't get smooshy at all either.

• 1/4 Extra Virgin Olive Oil plus more for drizzling
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 large potatoes
• 1 zuchinni
• 3 cloves of garlic (or whip out your huge jar of garlic from the fridge)
• 1 eggplant (or 2 smaller eggplants)
• 1 red bell pepper
• salt & pepper
• 1 28ounce can of fire roasted tomatoes
• 1 cup stock (veggie or chicken)
• 1/2 cup torn chopped basil (10-12 leaves)
• loaf of whole grain bread
• 1/2 romano or pecorino cheese

Heat soup pot over medium heat add olive oil, bay leaf, garlic and onion (quartered and then thickly sliced). Let them sweat while cutting other veggies into nice hearty chunks. As your cutting just drop them into the pot. Season with salt and pepper and cover and cook for 10 minutes. Uncover, add stock and tomatoes, cook another 5 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in basil (or, hold off and top each bowl of stew off with chopped basil)

Place bread slices in broiler after adding smashed garlic and drizzling with olive oil. Char, take them out and top generously with shredded pecorino. Place them back in the broiler to brown/melt cheese and serve.

Pineapple Flan

The onslaught of recent family crises back home has made me feel powerless to help and constantly worried. I'm also going to finally go to college this upcoming fall which is another stress factor. I'm 26 and still don't have my degree. There are many reasons and excuses why I never went: I always was told I wasn't the school type which made me constantly feel inadequate as a student during my lessons (you know the whole power of suggestion thing?), not having someone there to pay for my schooling, working full time, not being familiar with the college system in terms of what classes I should take towards future success, not knowing what I wanted to work towards and an unexpected pregnancy (Josh) and marriage caused everything to be put just a tad on the back burner. Now that Josh is almost 4, he's on his way to preschool and I am on my way back as well. He proudly goes around saying, "Mommy is going to college and I'm going to school." I'm fresh out of excuses and am tired of getting the look of surprise every time I mention to a friend or acquaintance that I am only (gasp) High School educated. Mike has always said that because I come off as being so educated people look so surprised. However, I think it's a little more sinister than this. I believe it's because they think that people like me didn't exist in circles like theirs. Maybe that look of surprise is a little bit of both the above analogies. I'd hate to underestimate the love and respect that my friends have for me.

Besides reasons of self-esteem, I also want some sort of degree to hold as an insurance policy. Truthfully, I'm happy with who I am for the most part and extremely satisfied with being a stay at home mom. As my mother in law always says, "When all is said and done we all put our pants on the same way in the morning no matter what our background" However, if anything should happen to Mike, I want the comfort of knowing that I would be able to go back into the work force and make sufficient funds to support the family.

Although I'm excited about this upcoming challenge, I'm also nervous and stressed. My first step is taking a placement test. In preparation for this test, I'm brushing up on my math skills. I hate math and have always done awful in the subject. So as soon as I opened that math book for practice, those feelings of despair quickly set in.

Oh yes to add to all of this: Mike, Josh and I were all knocked out from a killer cold virus as well.

My way of dealing with stress is to cook, drink and or exercise depending on what the stressor is. Since I was deathly ill, exercising was nixed and because I am now a mother, responsible for another human life, drinking until I'm smashed is pretty much out of the question.....which leads solely to one conclusion: Cooking and baking like a crazy. Below you'll find 3 new additions to the recipe blog.

Mike has just recently taken on a private English student, an older Japanese business man who wants to brush up on his English skills for an upcoming presentation. He stated in his first lesson that he took a year of culinary school, so it's inspired/challenged me to make recipes he might find appealing.

You'll need 6 ounce Flan cups for this recipe. Little metal cups you can probably pick up at any home store. These are fairly easy to make and when served on dessert plates, look very gourmet & pack an unexpected flavor. I usually am not a fan of flan (try saying those last 3 words 10 times fast!) However, I really enjoyed this.

1 1/4 cups sugar
8 extra-large eggs
2 cups unsweetened pineapple juice

Preheat oven to 350F

Spray flan cups with non-stick cooking spray. Put 3/4 cup sugar in a small nonstick skillet. Cook over medium-high heat and melt until dark brown liquid forms. Divide caramel among flan cups to coat bottom of each. Caramel will harden.

Separate 4 egg yolks and whites, saving whites for another use. In bowl of an electric mixer put 4 whole eggs, 4 egg yolks, and remaining sugar. Beat for 1 minute, until eggs and sugar are well blended.

Slowly add pineapple juice, little by little, and continue to mix until juice is incorporated. Do not let mixture become too frothy. With a ladle, divide evenly among 5 custard cups.

Place custard cups in a large, deep baking pan. Create a water bath by adding boiling water to the pan so that water level comes to 2/3 up the side of cups. Carefully place in oven. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until firm. Remove cups from water bath. Let cool, then refrigerate until very cold, preferably overnight.

When ready to serve, carefully unmold custard onto flat dessert plates, loosening the sides with a small sharp knife if necessary. Caramel will coat the top and sides of flan. Serve immediately.

Mayor Koch's Meringues

I made these super sweet cookies with the leftover egg whites that I had after making the above Pineapple Flan. Another Cooking 1-2-3 Recipe. Rozanne Gold at the age of 24 was the chef for New York's Mayor Ed Koch at the Gracie Mansion. She states that these satisfied his sweet tooth.These are very sugary sweet but easy to make and easy to mail in a care package as well. I think I made mine a tad to large the first time around but I think I will attempt these again. The fact that she instructs the reader to "let cool" after spending 12 hours in a cooling oven is beyond me but hey, it works so why knock it? Be sure to preheat your oven!!

3 extra-large egg whites
14 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cups miniature chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375F

Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

In bowl of an electric mixer, beat egg whites until frothy. Add a pinch of salt and slowly add sugar. Beat for several minutes, until very stiff and glossy. The mixture should look like marshmallow fluff. Gently fold in chocolate chips and drop onto baking sheet by heaping tablespoons mounding meringue so it is at least 1 inch high.

Place in oven on middle rack and turn off oven immediately. Leave door closed for 12 hours. Remove from oven and let cool. These can be stored in a tightly-covered tin.

Dark Moist Chocolate Cake

As the Author of Cooking 1-2-3, Rozanne Gold, so eloquently states, "If Original Sin were a cake, this would be it." Her recipes are simple when it comes to ingredients. Because it's flourless, it would make a fantastic Passover cake (just use kosher chocolate of course!) Although she recommends taking the cake out of the fridge for 1 hour before serving, I prefer cutting a stone cold wedge of it and eating it immediately out of the refrigerator. Mike prefers slathering peanut butter on the top or, pressing peanut butter chips into the top on his wedge before eating. Embellish how you like. It's divine.

16 ounces good-quality semisweet chocolate
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 extra-large eggs

Preheat oven to 350

Line the bottom of an 8 1/20-inch spring form pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Coat the inside of the pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Chop chocolate into pieces. Cut butter into small chunks. Place chocolate and butter in a double boiler or in a large metal bowl over simmering water, making sure bowl doesn't touch water. Melt, stirring frequently, until smooth. Remove from heat.

Whisk eggs and pinch of salt into bowl of an electric mixer, until mixture triples in volume, about 8 minutes. Fold chocolate mixture into egg mixture with a flexible rubber spatula until completely incorporated.

Pour mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes. The center will still be a little soft. Remove from oven. Let cool at least 30 minutes before cutting. The center will sink a little as it cools. You can refrigerate the cake for up to 2 days (let it sit at room temperature for 1 hour before serving).

Lemon Risotto

The ultimate comfort food!! Really there are no words to describe the yumminess of this recipe.

2 shallots
1 rib of celery
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/3 cups risotto rice , Arborio
approx. 1 quart vegetable stock
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
needles from 2 small sprigs of fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 egg yolk
4 tablespoons heavy cream
sea salt to taste
freshly ground pepper to taste

Put the shallts and clery into a mini food processor and blitz until they are finely chopped mush. Heat half the butter and oil and the shallot and celery mixture in a wide saucepan, and cook to soften the mixture for about 5 min. making sure it doesn't stick. Mix in the rice, stirring to give it a good coating of oil and butter. Meanwhile, heat the stock in another saucepan and keep in at the simmering point.

Pour a ladleful of stock into the rice and keep stirring until the stock in absorbed. Then add another ladleful and stir again. Continue doing this until the rice is al dente. You may not need all the stock, equally, you may need to add hot water from the kettle.

Mix the lemon zest and rosemary int o the risotto, and in a small bowl beat the egg yolk, lemon juice, Parmesan and cream and pepper.

When the risotto is ready-when the rice is no longer chalky, but still has some bite-take it off the heat and add the bowl of eggy, lemony mixture, and the remaining butter and salt to taste. Serve with more grated Parmesan if you wish, check the seasoning and dive in.

Puffed Oven Pancake

I finally had a chance to try this out once I replaced my 10 inch skillet with one that had a metal handle so, I could easily transfer it from stovetop to oven.

I went on a small hunt for a German Pancake recipe online when I first tried this puffed pastry at The Original Pancake House in San Diego. At this restaurant, it's called The Dutch Baby and, is served to one person. However, in my Better Homes and Gardens book it says it serves 6.......hmmm maybe this is an indication that serving sizes have gotten out of control? Actually, maybe with a large fruit salad on the side this recipe could serve 6. Otherwise, plan on a side for even your family of 4.

It's super easy and makes a great presentation for a small brunch party. I usually top it off with powdered sugar and fresh lemon juice. YUM! It can also be topped off with traditional whipped butter and syrup, honey, jam, fresh fruit, etc.

The main reason I am including this in my blog is that soon, I will be headed off to the states and locked in my mothers kitchen to cook for my younger brother and sister. I don't mind. To me, it's time off while my mom spoils Josh. I'll be putting this blog to good use though considering I can't take my cook books!

2 Tbsp. butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 milk
1/4 tsp. salt
3 cups sliced fresh fruit (strawberries, nectarines, pears, or peeled peaches) Powdered sugar or whipped cream. (optional)

1. Place butter in a 10-inch ovenproof skillet. Place in a 400 degree oven for 3-5 minutes or till butter melts. In a medium mixing bowl use a wire whisk or rotary beater to beat eggs till combined. Add flour, milk, and salt. Beat till mixture is smooth. Immediately pour into the hot skillet. Bake about 25 minutes or till puffed and well browned.

2. Top with fruit. if desired, sprinkle with powdered sugar or top with whipped cream. Cut into wedges and serve warm. Makes 6 servings.