Chocolate Praline Cake

My husband’s mom and dad have been in New Orleans visiting us for the past week. We’ve been busy doing all kinds of things around the city and traveling to other places close-by (we took a day trip to Grand Isle and spent the 4th of July on the beach in Gulf Shores). Today was my mother-in-law’s birthday and also their last day here before they head home in the morning, so Drew and I decided that we would make them dinner and bake his mom a birthday cake.

I actually had never baked a cake fromĀ scratchĀ before. I’ve always wanted to, but just never really had the chance. I’m not a huge cake baker (I’m more of a cookie and other dessert person– cake isn’t my dessert of choice). It is usually just Drew and I here, so baking an entire cake on any normal day would mean that the two of us have an entire cake to eat. I don’t like wasting food, so I usually stick to baking cookies, that way we can only cook how many we will eat then, and then freeze the restĀ to bake later. (I have helped my mom bake many cakes before though!)

So, I did some searching online to find the best cake recipe that sounded like something Susie would like. As soon as I stumbled across this cake with “praline” in the title, I knew I had found the right one. How perfect to make a chocolate praline cake for her birthday being celebrated in New Orleans?! (Which is famous for its pralines, in case you didn’t know.)

This cake turned out amazing. It was delicious! So very rich and the praline topping was fantastic! Susie said it tasted like a candy bar! I will definitely be making this cake again. New birthday cake tradition, perhaps?

Chocolate Praline Cake

original recipe from here.

ingredients:

1/2 cup Butter (1 stick)
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 can (14 ounces) Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 cup Chopped Pecans
2 cups All-Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa
2 cups Granulated Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
2 large Eggs
1 cup Sour Cream
1/2 cup Canola Oil
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon White Vinegar
1 cup hot Water
1/2 cup Fudge Topping
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips, melted
Chocolate Icing

Directions:

To make the cake:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the bottoms of two 9-inch round cake pans and fit a circle of parchment paper large enough to cover 1 inch up the side of each cake pan.
2. Heat the butter, brown sugar, and sweetened condensed milk in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat until the butter melts and the sugar is dissolved. Do not boil.
3. Divide the sugar mixture between the prepared pans. Sprinkle 3/4 cup pecans over sugar mixture and set aside to cool.
4. In a large bowl, combine together the flour, cocoa, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
5. In a smaller bowl, combine the eggs, sour cream, oil, vanilla, vinegar, and hot water.
6. Mix wet ingredients into dry with a wooden spoon until batter is smooth.
7. Pour the batter into the cake pans — over sugar mixture — and bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the cake center comes out clean — 35 to 40 minutes.
8. Cool cakes in the pans for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pans and turn cakes out onto a cooling rack. Remove the paper and cool completely.

To assemble the cake:
1. Place bottom cake layer on plate or cake stand with the praline sugar mixture side facing up.
2. Spread the fudge topping over the praline sugar mixture side of bottom cake layer.
3. Place the second layer over the first and drizzle the top with the melted chocolate and the remaining 1/4 cup pecans.
4. Frost the cake sides with your favorite chocolate icing.

Enjoy!

P.S. — The chocolate cake this recipe makes is really excellent. I’ll definitely be using this recipe as my go-to chocolate cake recipe for when I’m making just a plain chocolate cake as well! šŸ™‚

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Farmer’s Market & Homemade Muffins

When I was 14, I moved to St. Louis, MO for the summer to live with my older sister and be a nanny to my baby niece, Evie. Often on Saturday mornings, we would get up and go walk around and get fresh produce from the Soulard farmers market. I have many fond memories of that summer, farmers market included.

Just a couple weekends ago, Drew and I tried out the Saturday farmers market in New Orleans. I had wanted to go for a while, we just hadn’t because it is downtown, not close to our house, and only open for a couple hours on Saturday morning. Saturday morning is Drew’s day to sleep in and then get fresh croissants from the Patisserie upon waking at 2 in the afternoon. šŸ˜‰ It was much smaller than I expected (not anything like I remember from St. Louis), but it was definitely worth waking up earlier for.

We ended up with a bouquet of fresh cut zinnias, creole tomatoes, fresh peaches, blueberries and several pots of fresh herbs to plant in our windowbox. Everything we bought was delicious. It so makes me miss living in the country and having a garden! For the city, it’s the next best thing.

With all the fresh blueberries we have, I’ve made blueberry walnut muffins with fresh lemon zest several times the last two weeks! So delicious! This muffin recipe is really great. My mom always uses this recipe too and it can easily be adapted for whatever kind of muffins you want to make.

blueberry walnut muffins with fresh lemon zest (or whatever kind you want to make)

ingredients:

-1 3/4 cup flour
-1/3 cup sugar
-2 tsp baking powder
-1/4 tsp salt
-3/4 cup milk
-1/4 cup oil
-1 beaten egg

for blueberry/walnut/lemon:
-3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
-1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I like nuts, so I usually use closer to 1 cup)
-fresh zest from 1 lemon (or less, according to taste)

for banana/nut:
-reduce milk above to 1/2 cup
-3/4 cup mashed bananas
-1/2 cup chopped walnuts or other nuts (again I use more like 1 cup)

for cinnamon/peach:
-3/4 cup diced peaches
-1 tsp cinnamon
-1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional)

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin cups.
2. Mix dry ingredients together.
3. Mix wet ingredients together in separate bowl.
4. Add wet ingredients into dry and add in fruit/nut mix-ins. Stir just until moistened. Batter should be lumpy.
**Important–do not overmix your muffin dough or your muffins won’t be as fluffy and will have a tougher texture.
5. Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full.
6. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Enjoy!

P.S. Don’t those peaches look fabulous in that yellow bowl? I love that bright sunny pop of yellow in the kitchen! That bowl, along with the rest of its set in different colors, was a wedding gift from my friend, Jessica. Love them! šŸ™‚

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The Most Amazing Brownies

This past weekend, Drew, my friend Jessica, and I were busy working on a craft project for the wedding. While we were working, I made these brownies for us to snack on. My mom used to make these and it had been so long since I had had them. They are delicious!

The Most Amazing Brownies

ingredients:
-one box fudge brownie mix (including oil & eggs, per package directions)
-1 jar marshmallow creme
-1 cup peanut butter
-1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I prefer a mix of milk chocolate and semi-sweet, but whatever your preference is)
-1 Tbsp butter
-2 cups crisp rice cereal

directions:
1. Mix up your brownie mix according to the package directions. Bake as directed, using a 9×13 pan.
2. Let cool completely, then spread marshmallow creme on top of brownie layer.
3. In a saucepan, melt butter, peanut butter, and chocolate chips.
4. Add in crisp rice cereal and mix well.
5. Spread chocolate/peanut butter coated cereal on top of marshmallow creme layer.
6. Enjoy! (P.S. The brownies cut nicer if refrigerated until chilled before cutting.)

These really are the perfect mixture of gooey, soft and crunchy! So delicious!

P.S. In completely unrelated to brownie news, our wedding is exactly 2 months away today!!! It is getting so close! I’m so excited! šŸ™‚

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Strawberry Freezer Jam

***Thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers for my hometown last week after the tornado they went through. Please continue to keep them in your hearts as they mourn those lost and as they pick up the pieces to re-build their homes and lives.***

While doing our grocery shopping last week, we spotted a good deal on a flat of strawberries.

Lately I’d been craving some homemade strawberry jam, so I figured what better an opportunity to make some.Ā Growing up, my mom always had a container of strawberry freezer jam in the fridge and several more in the freezer. It’s just so delicious!

The main difference between freezer jam and your regular canned jam, is that freezer jam is much quicker and easier without all the specificity of the canning process and the jam tastes much more like fresh strawberries than with regular canned jam (which tastes more like cooked strawberries). Although, of course, since it isn’t canned and pressure sealed, it must be stored in the fridge or freezer.

It is super simple to make. Just pick up a box of fruit pectin at the grocery store (in the canning aisle) that looks like this:

Inside, you will find a whole little booklet with recipes for every kind of jam or jelly you could think of.

Regardless of which kind you choose to make, you will need containers for your jam. My mom always used small plastic containers, but I don’t like how plastic can crack after its been in the freezer for a while, so I got glass jelly jars (make sure they say freezer safe).

I ended up making two batches since I had so many strawberries (although now I have enough jam to last me the rest of my life) and in my experience, one batch of strawberry jam will fill twelve, 4 oz jelly jars and one 8 oz jelly jar, or if you use all 8 oz jars, it will fill six with a tiny bit leftover. And yes, that does mean that I now have twelve small jars of jam and 7 bigger jars of jam. If you live in the New Orleans area and are fresh out of jam, no worries, I will gladly give you some.

Anyway, here is how you make it:

Strawberry Freezer Jam

2 pt. strawberries, crushed (equal to 2 cups)
4 cups sugar
1 box fruit pectin
3/4 cup water

1. Wash and rinse containers. Make sure you have tight fitting lids.

2. Discard strawberry stems. Crush strawberries, either using a potato masher or a food processor (do not puree!), you want small chunks of fruit.

3. Measure fruit into large bowl. Stir in sugar and mix well. (exact amounts! substitutions will result in set failures) Let strawberry/sugar mixture sit for 10 minutes.

4. Stir pectin and water in small saucepan. Bring to a boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute, continuing to stir constantly. Remove from heat.

5. Stir pectin mixture into fruit/sugar mixture. Stir constantly until sugar is completely dissolved and no longer grainy, about 3 minutes.

6. Pour into prepared containers, leaving 1/2 of space at the top for expansion during freezing. Cover.

7. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours until set.

8. Refrigerate up to 3 weeks or store in freezer for up to 1 year. Thaw inĀ refrigerator.

Enjoy!

P.S. It was great on my almond flour biscuits!

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Low Carb Gluten Free Biscuits

If you have read my last few posts, then you know that Drew and I gave up carbs for Lent. Almost all foods have a few grams of carbohydrates in them at least, so it is impossible to completely give up carbs, but we are trying to stay away from the biggies — flour, oats, cereals, pastas, potatoes, etc. The last few days have been pretty hard, I won’t lie. I now realize that I might be slightly addicted to carbohydrate-rich foods. This diet is easier to handle when we cook completely at home, but it is really hard when eating out. It is hard to tell the waitress that you can’t have all the carbs that come with your meal (that you will be paying for anyway!). Try eating Chinese food with no rice!

Anyway, after a few days of fighting off carbs, I got smart. Why not try some virtually carb-free substitutions for the foods we love? After a little internet research, I’ve found tons of recipes for low carb breads, biscuits, pizza crusts, etc. These 40 days of Lent might not be so bad after all.

For breakfast this morning, I tried a recipe I found for low carb gluten free biscuits and they turned out delicious! They are slightly different that your typical flour biscuit. They have a more similar texture, density, and slight taste to cornbread. Although a little bit fluffier than cornbread. They are also more like drop biscuits.

Behold:

One regular flour biscuit has roughly 28 grams of carbohydrates. Want to know how many these low carb biscuits here have? 2.5 grams per biscuit!Ā Those are some serious carb savings!

Here is how you make them:

Low Carb Gluten Free Biscuits
original recipe from here.

Makes four biscuits.

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 tablespoons of unsalted organic butter or nonhydrogenated shortening
1 cup plus two tablespoons of finely ground blanched almond flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
2 egg whites

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

1. Cut cold butter or shortening into dry ingredients with a pastry cutter until butter is in pea sized chunks.
2. Chill mixture in fridge 5-10 minutes. The colder your butter is, the fluffier your biscuits will be.
3. Separate egg whites from yolks. Whisk egg whites in a bowl for 20 seconds or until no longer stringy and gloopy. You want them to be slightly foamy.
4. Remove mixture from fridge and whisk in the egg whites. The dough will be extremely runny with chunks of the almond mixture.
5. Pour into well greased muffin cups (edges stick really badly, so make sure they are definitely well greased) and get it in the hot oven before the butter softens.
6. Bake for 12-14 minutes.

They taste great plain, with butter and honey, or with jam. Visit the original recipe here for garlic cheddar,Ā parmesanĀ herb and sweetĀ cinnamonĀ variations.

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Homemade Flour Tortillas

I never really ate tortillas much as a kid. I never really liked the taste of the store-bought ones. When we had taco nights, I would just mix up all my taco toppings and pick them up with tortilla chips and skip the flour tortilla.

Last summer when I was shopping at our local grocery store in New Orleans, I noticed that our grocery store sold homemade tortillas in the bakery section. I bought some and after trying those, I changed my opinion on flour tortillas. They were really tasty! Then of course, it occurred to me that I could make them at home myself and they would be even better! So I tried that. Now, I am officially addicted to homemade flour tortillas. Seriously. We’ve made them three times in the last few weeks. (and this recipe makes 12 and there are just 2 of us!)

You should definitely try this recipe! These are amazing!

homemade flour tortillas

makes 12 tortillas, recipe from fearless homemaker, (originally adapted fromĀ mexican made easy, as seen onĀ kitchen meets girl)

ingredients

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (or you can use part whole wheat if you want to make them slightly healthier)
3/4 cup shortening (i used vegetable shortening)
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup lukewarm water

directions

In a large bowl, blend the flour and shortening until the mixture resembles fine meal.

In a small bowl, mix the salt and the water until the salt has dissolved. Using the dough hook attachment of a stand mixer, add water/saltĀ mixtureĀ to the flour mixture, mixing until the liquid is incorporated. Mix for 2 to 3 minutes, or until smooth. If you donā€™t have a stand mixer, stir the liquid into the flour mixture with a wooden spoon, then knead by hand.

Divide the dough into 12 equally-sized pieces and roll each into a ball. Coat each ball with a thin coat of flour.

Roll each ball into a thin 8 inch round, as thin as you can get ā€˜em ā€” this keeps them soft and pliable once theyā€™re cooked. After you roll them out, you can take an 8ā€ salad plate, turn it upside down on top of the circles, and cut off any excess around the edges. Voila! Perfect circles. Or if you don’t care if they are perfect or not, just leave them as is.

Cook each round in a heavy non-stick pan over medium-high heat, flipping once, until puffed and golden on both sides, about 3-5 minutes per tortilla. Or if you have a flat electric griddle, that works perfectly and you can cook 2 at a time.

Careful not to cook them too long or they will get crunchy and will break when you try to stuff them. (Although they will still taste delicious)

Here are step-by-step photos of the process as well:

Flour and shortening,

plus salt water equals dough.

Tear dough into 12 mounds,

then roll those into balls.

Coat dough balls and rolling pin in flour,

then roll into circles.

Set up the kitchen, assembly- line style, with plates for raw and cooked dough.

Let dough cook several minutes per side,

then flip to the other side. Dough will bubble up. It seems that in our case, ones made with part whole wheat flour bubbled up more.

Then before you know it, you have a kitchen full of delicious tortillas!

Great for breakfast burritos, normal burritos, quesadillas, covered in honey and cinnamon, or even just to snack on. (all of which I have made with these, by the way. I told you I was addicted!)

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Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, you read that right. Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies. Healthy as in, no sugar, definitely no nasty sugar substitutes, no flour, no eggs and no butter. You can make these completely vegan and also gluten free.

Really. Plus they taste really awesome. You can eat a few and not even feel guilty. You should try it. šŸ™‚

Ingredients:

3 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut oil, barely warm ā€“ so it isnā€™t solid (or alternately, olive oil or grapeseed oil)
2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup almond meal
1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded & unsweetened
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 ā€“ 7 ounces chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, and coconut oil. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oats, almond meal, shredded coconut, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks/chips. Scoop dough with a cookie scoop or drop in dollops onto a cookie sheet, an inch apart. Bake for about 13-15 minutes, watching closely. They might be done a bit sooner depending on your oven and the size of your cookies.

Notes:

If you want to make these completely gluten free, make sure that you buy gluten free oats– that weren’t processed along with flour products. I used milk chocolate chips, but if you want to make them completely vegan, use chocolate without milk in it. I bought almond flour at the grocery store in the organic aisle, but if you can make your own almond meal by pulsing almonds in a food processor until they are the texture of sand ā€“ but be really careful and donā€™t go too far or youā€™ll end up with almond butter.

Oh, and definitely make sure that your bananas are very ripe. I got so excited about these cookies that the first time I made them I went to the store, got bananas, and made them that night while the bananas were still a tiny bit yellow-green. Yeah, don’t do that. Since the bananas are the sweetener, they will taste nasty if the bananas aren’t sweet enough. Now every time I make them I wait until the bananas are really overripe–almost completely black on the outside–that will give you the sweetest cookies.

original recipe from here.

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Cheesy Chicken Lasagna

One of my favorite things about Fall is warm and delicious comfort food. It hasn’t even gotten very cool in New Orleans yet, but we’ve already made chicken pot pies, chicken and dumplings, and many other yummy dishes. Tonight we tried a new recipe — Cheesy Chicken Lasagna. It was delicious! We will definitely be making it again! Recipe from here, originally from here.

Here is the recipe:

Cheesy Chicken Lasagna

2 cans (12 oz) evaporated milk (not fat-free)
1 (1 oz) pkg. dry Ranch dressing mix
3 C. cubed, cooked, chicken
1/8 tsp pepper
1 (12oz) lasagna noodles, cooked
1 1/2 C cheddar cheese, grated
1 1/2 C mozzarella cheese, grated

Cook the chicken and noodles first at the same time. Once noodles are done–rinse in cold water and set aside (it keeps them from sticking together). Combine evaporated milk (don’t use fat-free version) and Ranch dressing in a 3 quart heavy saucepan. Heat over low heat, stirring frequently until dry ingredients are dissolved. Stir in chicken and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, 25 minutes (don’t do any less), stirring frequently. Layer half of lasagna noodles, poultry sauce, and cheese in well-buttered 9×13 pan. Repeat layers again. Ā Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

For extra cheesiness, increase both cheeses by 1/2 cup.

Enjoy! šŸ™‚

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Homemade Chicken & Dumplings

Drew and I made homemade chicken and dumplings for the first time tonight. I don’t know why we hadn’t ever before. They always sound so good. I always thought for some reason that dumplings would be hard or time-consuming to make, but they weren’t hard at all! Actually they were really easy and dinner was done pretty quick.

Here is how I made them:

-1 rotisserie chicken, meat pulled off and shredded (or around 3 cups cooked chicken)

-10 cups chicken/vegetable broth

-3 cups flour (and more for rolling surface)

-2 Tablespoons butter

-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

-salt to taste (I just shook some in)

-1 cup milk

In a large pot, bring broth to a boil. I didn’t have homemade chicken stock, so I used 4 cups vegetable broth, 4 cups chicken broth and 2 cups water mixed with two teaspoons chicken soup base. The flavor was really good with the combination of chicken and vegetable broth. I also added a little salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, in a mixer (or bowl) mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter, mix, and then add the milk. Form the dough into a ball.

Heavily flour your work surface and rolling pin and roll the dough out thin, or until it is about 1/4 of an inch thick. Dip a pizza cutter (or other cutter) into the flour and then cut dough into roughly 2×2 inch squares. Once your broth is boiling, take the dough squares one at a time, dip each side in flour and drop into the broth, stirring while you add them. The extra flour on the dumplings helps to thicken the broth.

Cook for about 20 minutes or until they aren’t doughy tasting when you bite into one. Once the dumplings are cooked, add in the shredded chicken and enjoy!

They were so tasty! The best dumplings I’ve ever had actually. I will definitely be making these again!

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Stuffed Green Peppers with Quinoa & Home Canned Tomatoes

Goodness, it has been a long time since I’ve shared cooking and food related things on here! I’ve still been cooking just as much, if not more, but just haven’t gotten around to sharing those tasty things.

One night this week for dinner I made stuffed green bell peppers. There are many ways you can make them. My mom always made them with rice, I’ve had them with oatmeal before, and when I was visiting in France several years ago, my friend Anne-Nelly’s mom made them for dinner one night with Quinoa (she also made stuffed tomatoes, which are equally delicious!). If you’ve never used or heard of Quinoa before, it is a grain-like substance of little seeds, but when cooked is similar inĀ consistencyĀ to rice or couscous. It is known for its nutritional value–high protein content, fiber, lysine andĀ essentialĀ amino acid content, high inĀ magnesiumĀ and iron and is gluten-free. It is great and easy in this recipe and is much healthier than using rice or oatmeal.

1. In a saucepan, combine 1 cup dry quinoa and 1 jar (mine was a pint, because that is what I had, but a quart jar would work as well–if I had it I would have preferred the extra tomatoes of the quart size) of home canned tomatoes. You need at least two cups of liquid in with the quinoa, so depending on how much liquid was in your tomatoes, you might have to add extra water. With a pint jar of tomatoes, I ended up adding an extra cup of water. If you don’t have canned tomatoes, you can also use a jar of crushed tomatoes that you buy from the store or you could just cook the quinoa in water and add fresh tomatoes into the rest of the inside mixture (I’ve also used tomato sauce or paste before and my mom uses ketchup). Cook according to directions on quinoa, but most likely you will bring them to a boil, then simmer for 10-15 minutes.

2. In a large skillet, brown 1 lb. hamburger (could also use ground turkey, sausage or whatever you prefer or leave out for a vegetarian option). Drain meat and add 1 onion, several cloves of garlic, and any choppedĀ vegetables you would like (I added carrots to mine and the bits of green pepper around the tops I cut off) and cook until done. Also add salt, pepper, or other spices to taste.

3. Once quinoa is done, mix it in with meat and vegetable mixture.

4. Cut the tops off of your green peppers (this recipe should make 4-5 peppers, but I only had 3, so as you can see I had filling left over), place in baking or loaf pan and stuff peppers with filling mixture. You can also steam the peppers before baking if you want, but I’ve never done so. If you have extra filling, stuff it around outside of peppers in baking pan.

5. Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or so, until bell peppers are tender. You can also add cheese to the tops in the last few minutes of baking.

Enjoy! šŸ™‚

All due credit given to my wonderful older sister, Blair, for her yummy home grown and home canned tomatoes. Oh and also to Drew, who put the peppers in the oven and monitored them while I went to my Pilates class. That is also why they are a little burned on top! šŸ˜‰

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