Chocolate Chip Cake

Chocolate chip cake. The powdered sugar is sprinkled on right before serving so it won't melt away.

 

I'm one of the few ladies of the world that doesn't love and go gaga for chocolate and/or chocolate cake. I'm a fruity candy kind of gal and my favorite cake is strawberry so there you have it.

I will say this though, I *LOVE* this chocolate chip cake. It is super duper easy to make and it always comes out moist and delicious.

My friend Sarah recently had a birthday and when I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, she requested chocolate. This cake is so decadent and rich, you sprinkle powdered sugar on top of it instead of frosting. It was gone in 15 minutes, tops. :)

Chocolate Chip Cake

• 1 (12oz) package of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 (4oz) instant chocolate pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 package Duncan Hines yellow cake mix

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Mix cake mix and pudding together. Add eggs, water, and oil. Stir by hand. Add chocolate chips. Stir until evenly mixed. Grease and flour Bundt pan. Pour batter into pan and bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool and turn over. Sprinkle with powdered sugar right before serving.

Recipe from the St. John Vianney Church Cookbook

Mom's Birthday Part II

Menu: Blueberry pancakes, fresh fruit, thick cut bacon, smoked salmon/goat cheese/dill frittata, carrot cake cupcakes, brunch champagne cocktail

My Mom's favorite thing to do with family (besides get all of the gossip haha), is to go to brunch on Sundays after church. We don't often make brunch due to busy schedules, but when we do, Mom always comments on how much she loves brunch and what a wonderful time she always has. For her birthday, creating this brunch for her and our family was my gift to her.

I tried to combine all of Mom's favorites into one meal: blueberry pancakes, fresh fruit, and smoked salmon. The sweet breakfast cocktail in a pretty shade of pink is now a new favorite! (Besides, what's not to love about booze with breakfast?!) I also made bacon so that there would be a little something for everyone (extra thick is totally the way to go...mmmmm pork fat....). With six people eating, I worked like a maniac trying to get everything hot and ready for when they all got back from church.

The blueberry pancakes I've done several times and are posted on this blog here. I baked the bacon in the oven while cutting up the fruit. The smoked salmon, goat cheese, and fresh dill frittata is an Ina Garten recipe. It's super easy and gorgeous and a must serve if you ever have guests to impress. It made for delicious leftovers served with a small salad the rest of the week.

We polished off the cupcakes for dessert and sang Happy Birthday again. Mom was absolutely thrilled and once I recovered from my food coma, I was able to enjoy her celebration even more because she was so happy. :)

Fresh flowers :)

Smoked salmon, goat cheese, fresh dill frittata (still puffy from the oven)

Smoked Salmon Frittata

* 1 medium onion, diced

• * 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• * 12 extra-large eggs
• * 1 cup heavy cream
• * 4 ounces fresh goat cheese, such as Montrachet, crumbled
• * 1/2 pound smoked salmon, chopped
• * 3 scallions, chopped, white and light green parts
• * 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• * 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• * 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Saute the onion and butter in a 10-inch oven-proof omelet pan over medium-low heat until translucent, about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the heavy cream, goat cheese, smoked salmon, scallions, dill, salt, and pepper and combine. Pour the mixture over the onions and place the omelet pan in the center of the oven. Bake the frittata for about 50 minutes, until it puffs and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serve hot directly from the pan.

Recipe from Ina Garten


Breakfast Cocktail
* 1-2 bottles chilled dry champagne
* Pink Lemonade frozen concentrate
* 1 lemon, sliced thin for decoration


Right before serving, mix champagne and pink lemonade concentrate in a glass pitcher. Add sliced lemons for decoration. Serve right away.

Mom's Birthday Part I

My Mom celebrated a milestone birthday this October and it was absolutely spectacular! She *thought* that I was whipping up a casual Sunday brunch for just her, myself, and my dad but the reality was that we had her family drive (and fly!) in to surprise her, took her to Truluck's for dinner Saturday night, and then had brunch on Sunday. Mom's favorite kind of cake is carrot cake so I borrowed a simple but delicious recipe from a nice woman I work with to make for her. It's moist and delicious and ALWAYS a hit at the office when she brings it in. :)

Every little surprise was so special and fun for my Mom. When our family walked in through the door, she laughed and cried and then ran around like a crazy person trying to get ready for dinner! We had a champagne toast before Dad "suggested" taking pictures outside. Little did she know that he had gotten a stretch Hummer limo to take us all to dinner and back! 

Truluck's is known for their crab claws so we feasted on the remaining claws that they had (seriously, we cleaned out the house!) and then each ordered fish for dinner. I started out with a yummy hothouse tomato salad. My main dish was the miso-glazed seabass and it just melted in my mouth. We topped off dinner by sharing key-lime pie and chocolate cake and then had the limo take us back home where sang Happy Birthday, opened gifts, and went off to digest/sleep off dinner. Absolutely fantastic. :)

Tomato, shaved parmesan, warm bacon, fresh herbs, house ranch dressing

MSC certified South Georgian Chilean seabass, crab fried rice, chilled cucumber slaw

Key-lime pie

Chocolate layer cake, vanilla ice cream cup, strawberries

Ann's Famous Carrot Cake

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 cup oil
• 4 eggs
• 4 cups grated carrots (1 lb.)

Mix together flour, sugar, and oil.  Add eggs beating after each addition.  Add cinnamon, salt, and soda.  Add grated carrots and mix.  Pour into 3 8-inch pans that have been greased and floured.  Bake 350 degrees for 35 minutes.  Cool thoroughly before icing.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 8oz bar cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 stick butter (1/2 cup) butter, room temperature
• 1 box 10X confectioner's sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla

Beat together cream cheese and butter.  Add powdered sugar and mix.  Add vanilla and mix.  Spread on cooled cake.  Refrigerate.

Chicken Enchiladas

  

Ok so I know that I said that I would be M.I.A. *but* I was flipping through my pictures on my camera and I found one that I liked of the chicken enchiladas that I made for my grandparents on my last visit. On a side note, I made them my AWESOME SAUCE blueberry pancakes (ever so handily featured on this blog as well), and they loved them!

My friend Brittany first made these for me and they completely blew me away. Not only are they easy, but you can claim that they are legit since the guy who gave her the recipe is her dad's friend and is from Mexico. That makes them legit in my book at least.

I've made these loads of times for my family since they are stupid easy to make and have quickly become a favorite in our house. I've slightly modified the original recipe by baking the chicken breasts instead of boiling them. This makes them more flavorful (I think), and you can also bake them ahead of time if you're going to be in a rush or just plain tired when you get home from work.

These are a must-make. Go ahead and add them to your dinner planning list for the week and save yourself the time and trouble of thinking about it. They are YUMMY!

Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 bar cream cheese, ~8oz.
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 package shredded Monterrey jack cheese (or one brick, shredded)
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 10oz. can Old El Paso mild green chile enchilada sauce
• 1 package yellow corn tortillas

Sprinkle salt and pepper over and then bake chicken breasts at 350 degrees F for 30min or until done but still moist (no pink centers!).

Once chicken breasts have cooled, take two forks and shred into pieces. Dump shredded chicken in a large pan. On a low heat setting, put chunks of the entire bar of cream cheese into the pan with the chicken. You want to keep it on a low heat setting so that it will mix with the chicken, but not cook the chicken more or melt the cream cheese into a sauce. Mix the shredded chicken and cream cheese until everything is thoroughly coated (it'll be chunky).

Wrap several corn tortillas (about 5-6 at a time) in a wet paper towel. Warm up the corn tortillas in a microwave, ~20 seconds. Spoon shredded chicken and cream cheese mixture into tortillas, roll up, and place in a glass 9x13 dish.

With the amount of shredded chicken, you can usually get between 12-13 enchiladas.

Pour cream of chicken soup over enchiladas. Make sure that it's evenly spread over them. Pour green enchilada sauce over next. Sprinkle shredded cheese last. I use the entire bag.

Cover with foil and cook at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Uncover and cook for an additional 15 minutes or until cheese is slightly browned and bubbly.

Serve with a salad. Enjoy!

I'm Alive!!! Ahhhhh!!!

I've fallen off the face of the blogosphere but I *am* alive. I've done a lot of cooking but nothing new to post on the blog and the recipes that were new that I've made were very unappealing and unappetizing to look at.

However, all that aside, my mom is having a birthday party soon and as a special treat, I'm putting together a really nice brunch. I'm trying out a couple of new recipes and I know that they'll make killer blog posts so I'LL BE BACK SOON IN CAPS.....just nothing until then probably.

Brunch is on October 16th, see y'all then or soon after!

Happy eating!

<3

P.S. Part of the reason why I've been M.I.A. is below. His name is Henry and he's tiny and adorable and awesome!