Yummy Chocolate Chip Cake

It has been awhile since I've posted a blog here!! I have been busy, busy, busy and I have a list of things to start posting again (I hope you like Mickey Mouse because my 2 year is having a Mickey Mouse birthday party in a couple weeks and I have some super cute crafts to share with you!)

Here is a recipe for a super yummy, super moist, super easy Chocolate Chip Cake that I've been meaning to share with you.

The original recipe is from my girl Paula Deen and can be found here.

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• Flour for dusting pan
• One 18 1/4 ounce yellow cake mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• One 3 ounce package instant pudding mix
• One 12 ounce package semisweet chocolate chips
• Confectioners' sugar for dusting top of cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a bundt pan with cooking spray then put about 2 tablespoons of flour in the bottom of the pan. Tap the pan and turn it all around until the flour coats all surface of the pan. Dump out any excess flour into the trash can.

In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, sour cream, eggs, oil and pudding mix. Combine with an electric mixer until very smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips.


Place the batter evenly in the bundt pan and smooth the top. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until the top appears set and the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. 

Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, then take a butter knife and run it around the sides of the pan. Invert the cake onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Dust the top by placing confectioners' sugar into a strainer, holding it above the cake, and tapping the sides of the strainer. Move the strainer from place to place until the cake is dusted.

 This cake is so easy to throw together when you need a quick dessert, but it is also absolutely delicious! I promise you will love it and have hardly any leftovers!!

Enjoy and Happy Cooking!!

So Easy Cinnamon-Orange Cranberry Sauce

If I haven't said it yet, I'll say it again: I love this time of year!! I love Thanksgiving. I love what the season means and the time spent with loved ones around a table of yummy goodness.

In honor of tomorrow's festivities and the fact that tables everywhere will be filled with food and kitchens busy with cooking, today's recipe is one of my own.  It is a very simple, yet delicious recipe for cranberry sauce, a Thanksgiving staple. You'll never buy canned again (except to use in a yummy roast, but that is another recipe for another time!) I always make this the day before, one less thing to do the day of so you can enjoy your time with your family.

All you need is:

3 cups fresh cranberries (one bag usually contains 3 cups)
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
zest of one orange
ground cinnamon
2 cinnamon sticks (optional)


Mix water, sugar, cranberries and cinnamon sticks (if using) together in a pot. Bring to a boil. While the mixture is coming to a boil, add the zest of one orange and a couple shakes of cinnamon. (Sorry for the lack of measurement on this one. If you are using cinnamon sticks too, just a couple shakes will work, about 1/4 teaspoon if I had to guess. If you are not using cinnamon sticks, probably doubling the ground cinnamon would work, about 1/2 teaspoon.)


Let the entire mixture boil for a few minutes. The cranberries will pop; that is just their skins bursting open and letting their yumminess out. After boiling for about 5 minutes or so, bring it down to a simmer. Stir occasionally. The mixture will thicken slightly.


Take it off the heat and let it cool a bit before putting it in the fridge.

Enjoy!!


Happy cooking and Happy Thanksgiving!!

Mexican Lasagna

This recipe came from Eva Longoria's cookbook Eva's Kitchen. I am a big fan of this tiny little person, so when the book came out and she had a signing at William-Sonoma, JJ and I trekked down to South Coast Plaza to meet her, and yes, she is teeny tiny. Like, pocket size. But she is just as beautiful as you would imagine and she was super nice. She was very sweet with my son, too, and as you can see, he was a bit smitten himself :0)

Anyway, as I waited in line for the signing I had a chance to flip through the book and there are so many yummy looking recipes in here. Eva (I call her Eva because, in my head, we are friends) is from Corpus Christie, Texas so there is a heavy Tex-Mex influence in her recipes, but there is so much more too. I have a feeling I will end up trying all the recipes at one point or another.

This particular recipe seemed very simple, and it was, but it was also delicious. My husband LOVED it. And the best of all, it is a great make ahead meal and it also freezes very well. I actually divided the recipe up into two pans and froze one. I think it would work very well as a meal to take to a potluck or to a friend's house if you are bringing them dinners for some reason. When I was pregnant with my son, I made a bunch of freezer meals so I wouldn't really have to cook after he was born. This recipe would be perfect for that.

Ingredients

• Cooking spray for the cake pans and foil
• 2 pounds ground beef or turkey
• Kosher salt and ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup Chicken Broth (page 51) or store-bought low-sodium chicken broth
• 10 flour tortillas
• 1 16-ounce jar Pace Picante Sauce or other store-bought or homemade saucy salsa (Eva's tip: don't use pico de gallo because it is too chunky
• 1 16-ounce package shredded Mexican cheese (you can shred your own if you want, but there is something to be said for the convenience of the Mexican cheese blend, usually Cheddar, Monterey Jack, queso quesadilla, and asadero. Even my friend Eva uses it.)
• 1 8-ounce container sour cream
• 2 4.5-ounce cans chopped green chiles

Directions
1 Preheat the oven to 375°F. Coat two 8-inch cake pans with cooking spray. [Abby's tip: I originally used two square pans, but quickly switched to round because the tortillas fit so nicely in the round ones.]

2 In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the beef, stirring and breaking it up with a spoon, until browned. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

3 Pour the chicken broth in a large shallow dish and add the tortillas. Soak about 5 minutes; you want them soft but not mushy. Set aside 1/2 cup salsa and 1 cup cheese.

4 Place one tortilla on the bottom of each cake pan. In each pan, layer as follows: spread about 2 tablespoons of sour cream on top of the tortilla. Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons chiles over the sour cream, followed by about 1/2 cup of the browned meat, 2 tablespoons salsa, and 1/3 cup shredded cheese. Top with a tortilla. Repeat to make 3 more layers of filling. Finish with a tortilla on top. (You'll have a stack of 5 tortillas and 4 layers of filling.) Divide the reserved salsa and cheese between the two pans, spreading the salsa to cover the tortilla and sprinkling the cheese to cover the salsa.

5 Spray one side of 2 sheets of aluminum foil with cooking spray and place them oiled-side down over the pans. [Abby's tip: This is where I stuck one in the freezer, but feel free to bake both, I promise it won't go to waste.] Bake for 30 minutes, until hot and bubbling around the edges. Serve hot.

Each pan makes 6 to 8 servings.

The bonus to a recipe like this is that is really adjustable too. I used ground beef because that's what I had, but you could easily substitute ground chicken or turkey. You could change up the cheeses or the salsa, add more of something or less of something, whatever you want.  This also passes the "Leftovers Test" with flying colors.

Try it out and let me know what you think.

Happy Cooking!!

Change Up Enchiladas

Welcome to my first recipe post!

I really like enchiladas, but sometimes I want to shake things up a bit, so that is where this recipe comes in. Instead of a traditional red sauce, it uses a cream sauce.

*WARNING: THIS RECIPE IS NOT HEALTHY* I won't even tell you the calories per serving.You can always justify it by saying "but I used Low Fat sour cream and low fat cream of chicken soup" which is what I do, but we all know we are really fooling anybody. :0)  Also, I'm not usually a fan of using cream of anything soups, but in this case it helps make a really nice sauce.

This recipe calls for almonds, which I initially thought was weird, but it actually adds a nice nutty flavor and some texture. I also add some corn to the mix because I did it on a whim once and it worked out really well.

Ingredients:

• ¼  cup slivered almonds
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 4-ounce can diced green chile peppers, drained
• 1 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 cups chopped cooked chicken or turkey
• 12 7-inch flour tortillas or 6-inch corn tortillas
• 1 10.75-ounce can reduced-fat condensed cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup
• 1 8-ounce carton light dairy sour cream
• 1 cup milk
• ¾ cup shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese (3 ounces)
• 2 tablespoons slivered almonds

 I had cooked up my chicken yesterday and shredded it with my cool new Pampered Chef salad choppers. They are for salad, but at the party I went to, the demonstrator used them to shred chicken and it works like a dream!!

In a medium skillet cook the the onion in hot butter over medium heat until onion is tender and nuts are lightly toasted. This is where I added the frozen corn and you would add the almonds if you were using them. Remove from heat. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the canned green chile peppers; reserve remaining peppers for sauce

In a medium bowl stir together cream cheese, the 1 tablespoon milk, and the cumin; add nut mixture and chicken. Stir until combined. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the chicken mixture onto each tortilla near an edge; roll up. Place filled tortillas, seam side down, in a greased 3-quart rectangular baking dish. Set aside.

 You know, sometimes your hands are your best kitchen tools!!

For sauce, in a medium bowl combine the reserved chile peppers, the soup, sour cream, and the 1 cup milk. Pour evenly over the tortillas in the baking dish. Cover with foil.

Bake, covered, in a 350 degree oven about 35 minutes or until heated through. Remove foil. Sprinkle enchiladas with cheese and the 2 tablespoons almonds. Return to oven; bake about 5 minutes more or until cheese melts. Makes 6 servings.

Like I said, not in anyway healthy, but it is delicious! And a nice alternative to the red sauce traditional enchiladas!

Original recipe source: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/chicken/chicken-enchiladas/

Let me know if you try this and how it turned out.

Happy Cooking!!