Chocolate Snack Cake

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour*
1 cup sugar

1/4 cup baking cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon white or cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup cold water
Ice cream or whipped cream, if desired

Directions

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease bottom and side of 9-inch round pan or 8-inch square pan with shortening; lightly flour.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In a small bowl, stir oil, vinegar and vanilla until well mixed. Vigorously stir oil mixture and oil into flour mixture about 1 minute or until well blended. Immediately pour into pan.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes. Serve warm or cool with ice cream.

*Do not use self-rising flour.

New Orleans Bread Pudding and Whiskey Sauce

Bread Pudding
1 loaf day old french bread

2 tbs butter
4 cups of milk
3 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of raisins (opitional)
2 tbs of vanilla
1/2tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon

preheat oven to 305 degrees. Butter a 13x9 baking dish. Break bread into chunks. pour milk over bread, when soft, break into smaller bits and let bread absorb all the milk. Beat eggs and sugar together until think and smooth. Stir in raisins, vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon. Pour mixture over bread and combine ingredients. Pour bread in to baking dish. Place this dish in larger pan filled with 1" of water. Bake for 1 hour or until knife comes out clean.

Whiskey Sauce

8 TBS pf butter
1 Egg
1 Cup of sugar
1Cup of bourbon, rum or brandy

Melt butter in a double broiler. stir sugar and eggs together in a bowl and add to the butter. stir 2-3 minutes until sugar dissolves. remove from heat and cool before adding bourbon, rum or brandy. serve warm.

Banana Bread

I'm not sure where or who gave me this recipe. But it works very well. A quick note to those who have not made banana bread before you need to wait for the banana's to have turn almost black. Why? Because that is when the banana's are at the peak of their flavor. This recipe will not work with yellow or spotted bananas. The bread will turn out dry. I tried it, so don't repeat my mistake.

Banana Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
7 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs, slightly beaten
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda

Directions:
Makes two loaves of banana bread.
1. Cream the butter and sugar. Blend in the bananas, vanilla and eggs.
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients.
3. Add to the bread mixture and mix until just combined. Pour into two greased 9x5 inch loaf pans.
4. Bake at 350F. Check on the bread after 35 minutes (it may take up to 60 minutes). Banana bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool the banana bread in the pan for 10 minutes then cool completely on a wire rack.

Jerusalem Chicken

Chicken and Pasta
6-9oz Chicken Breast :oil and butter for saute
1/2 cup flour seasoned with salt, pepper and spike seasoning
6 oz of pancetta (or Bacon)
12 oz of Mushrooms sliced
1-1/2 TBS capers
1 lbs Cappellini pasta Cooked


To make Chicken and Pasta
Cook Pasta and drain, cover to keep warm. Heat a small amount of oil and two tablespoons of butter in a large skillet. Dredge chicken in flour and saute in pan, until brown and cooked through. Remove chicken from pan. Cook pancetta or bacon until done, remove from pan. Add a little more oil and butter if needed, saute mushrooms until soft cooked, add artichokes, and capers, saute lightly. Mix chicken and pancetta back into pan and heat lightly. Toss 3/4 of butter sauce if needed. Serve over noodles.

Lemon Butter Sauce
4 oz Lemon Juice
2 oz White Wine
4 oz Heavy Cream
1 lbs Butter

Heat lemon juice and wine in sauce pan over medium heat. bring to a boil and reduce by one third ( until there are 4 ounces) Add cream and simmer until mix is thicker (3-4 min) slowly add butter until completely incorporated. season with salt and pepper. removed from heat and keep warm.

Guiness Stew

I was looking for this recipe on here and found it wasn't posted. Shame on us.

Guinness Beef Stew

3 pounds Stew Meat
5 Cups Beef Broth or stock
1 Can Guinness Beer
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 Large Onion
about 5 russet potatoes
or you can use red potatoes
1 pound of carrots (I use the baby carrots and throw in however many I think look good,
you can chop them up a bit if you want. or just cut up some whole carrots into 1/4" slices)
6 Tblsp flour
1/4 cup vegetable oil

In a 7-8 quart kettle combine 5 cups of stock, beer and meat.
Add salt and pepper and simmer covered for 1 hour.
Peel and quarter the potatoes( I cut them in about 1/2" chunks), Chop the onion and carrots.
Add vegetables to stew and simmer covered for another hour.
In a small bowl whisk together the flour and oil until smooth.
Stir flour oil mixture into stew until well mixed.
Simmer uncovered until thickened, about 3-5 minutes
Adjust seasonings and serve.



This goes great with home made bread. I got this recipe from Erin Smith.

Zucchini and Rice

Back in my Vegetarian days of cooking this recipe was one of our favorite main dishes. With a loaf of warm bread and a salad it makes a great meal. We really like this as a side dish also. It complements many different meals.

• 2 cups cooked rice
  
• 1.5 pound zucchini
  
• juice of 1 lemon (1/4 cup lemon juice)
  
• 1 cup cottage cheese
  
• 1 tsp salt/pinch of pepper
  
• 1 tsp basil
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar
  
• 1/2-3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  
• Oven 350 degrees
  

Slice zucchini in 1/4 inch thick rounds and steam until done but still firm
While zucchini steams, mix cooked rice with lemon juice, basil, salt and pepper.
In a casserole dish make a layer of rice, then cottage cheese and Parmesan, then zucchini. Repeat. Top with cheddar. Bake 10-15 minutes. YUM!

Experimenting with the site design

let me know what you think, I would like to edit it more but will need Tim's help. Let me know if you don't like it and I will put it back =D