Puppy Chow/Dog Food/Reindeer Poop

There's quite an assortment of names for this, but I find puppy chow the most appealing and least disgusting.  I'm sure everyone has eaten this at some point in their life so there's no need for me to tell you how wonderfully addicting it.

Ingredients:

9 cups Rice Chex cereal

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 to 3 cups confectioners' sugar (It really depends on how much you want. I tend to use half a bag or so)

Directions:

Melt the butter, chocolate, and peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl for about 1 1/2 min. Add vanilla.  Pour the cereal into a large bowl and pour the chocolate mixture, coating the cereal thoroughly. Place the mixture in a large plastic bag if you don't have a lid for your large bowl; add the confectioners' sugar and shake until all the cereal is evenly coated. You can add any extras to this if you want; I added peanut butter M&M's to mine, though I like it without anything added the best.

Pink Lady Cake

I got this recipe from smittenkitchen. Here's the link to the original recipe with much better pictures than I can provide: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/10/pink-lady-cake/print/

The cake is gigantic! It filled up my entire KitchenAid bowl.  I'm not a huge fan of cream cheese icing, but those who were seemed to like it...it's definitely a lot of cake, but very pretty. :)

Ingredients:

For the cake:

4 1/2 cups cake flour

3 cups sugar

5 1/4 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature 

1 1/2 cups pureed frozen strawberries

8 egg whites

2/3 cup milk

1 to 2 drops red food dye

For the cream cheese frosting:

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese. softened (You can use low-fat too)

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

For the cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter three 9-inch or 8-inch round baking pans. Line with parchment paper and butter the paper. 

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixer bowl.  With the electric mixer (I'd use a KitchenAid, not a handheld electric mixer) on low speed, blend for 30 seconds.  Add the butter and strawberry puree and mix to blend the ingredients.  Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 min.; the batter will resemble strawberry ice cream at this point. 

In another large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, milk, and red food dye to blend.  Add the whites to the batter in 2 or 3 additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl well and mixing only to incorporate after each addition.  Divide the batter among the 3 prepared pans.

Bake the cakes for 30-35 min. or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Allow the layers to cool in the pans for 10-15 min.  Invert and turn out onto wire racks and peel off the paper liners.  Let stand until completely cooled before assembling the cake, at least one hour.

For the frosting:

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy.  Mix in the vanilla, then gradually  stir in the confectioners' sugar.  Store in the refrigerator after use. 

New Upcoming Recipes

It's been awhile since my lasting posting I know, but I have good reasons. This Christmas I'm giving away tins full of various sweets I've been making this past week. Due to the number of items I've been making I haven't had the time to post them all on here. So one night soon after I finish all my baking for the gifts I'll post them on here so keep checking!

White Chocolate Grapes

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com (here's the link http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/White-Chocolate-Grapes/Detail.aspx) This is definitely something everyone should try once. We had some grapes in the refrigerator which I knew would go bad soon, so I found this recipe. Obviously if you aren't a huge fan of grapes I don't recommend this recipe, but I found the white chocolate/peanut combination with the grapes to be excellent! Just a tip: make sure your hands and the grapes are DRY. Water and chocolate are not friends. The original recipe called for shortening, but we don't use shortening in our house to I substituted margarine. This made the chocolate mixture much more thick, but in my opinion it made it easier to coat the grapes with it. It's your call though, shortening or margarine. 

Ingredients

2 cups white chocolate chips

2 tsp. shortening (or margarine)

1 pound seedless grapes

1 cup finely chopped salted peanuts

Directions

Combine the white chocolate chips and shortening/margarine in a small microwave-safe bowl. Heat in the microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring between each, until melted and smooth. Spread the chopped peanuts out on a piece of waxed paper. Dip clean, dry grapes into the chocolate, then roll in the peanuts. Set of a wax paper until dry. Warm chocolate as needed in the microwave to keep it liquid. 

Pomegranate Pistachio and Banana Bread

This bread is my favorite bread ever...hands down. I'm not a huge bread person in general, but oh my goodness this bread is so marvelous. The mashed bananas keep it moist, but the buttery pistachios add a nutty flavor and the darling little pomegranates add a citricy burst. Not only does this taste so wonderful, but when you open your oven door, the kitchen is filled with this overwhelming bread aroma. I had to look online how to score and de-seed a pomegranate. You chop off the tip of the pomegranate, score it in four sections (slide your knife down four sections), and put it in water where the membrane will float to the top and the seeds are easily pulled off. Here's a link just in case my instructions didn't make sense. Each slice of bread has around 162, depending on how small or large you cut it. http://video.about.com/gourmetfood/Pomegranate.htmhttp 

Ingredients:

1 cup arils (the pomegranate seeds. I used two pomegranates)

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 & 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2-3 bananas, mashed (1 cup)

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup shelled pistachios, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease one 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan. In a large bowl stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl stir together bananas, oil, milk, and egg; stir into flour mixture with the arils and chopped pistachios just until moistened; do not over-mix. Spoon batter into prepared pan. If desired, sprinkle a few whole shelled pistachios and a few additional arils over the batter for garnish. Bake for 50-60 min. until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 min.; remove loaf from pan and cool on wire racks. Store bread tightly covered; or wrap tightly in foil and freeze for up to 1 month.

Pistachio White Chocolate Cheesecake

This is a recipe from the Pilsbury website. It has one of my most favorite flavoring and scents in the world--almond extract! There's something oddly invigorating in watching the cheesecake turn a light shade of green when you add the pistachio pudding mix to the cream cheese mixture. 

Ingredients:

Crust

1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs (I used Oreos)

1/4 cup sugar

2 tbsp. butter, melted

Filling

20 oz. cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup sour cream (I used light)

1/2 tsp. almond extract

4 eggs

1 (3.4-0z) package instant pistachio pudding and pie filling mix

2 cups white chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped shelled pistachios

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine cookie crumbs and 1/4 cup sugar; mix well. Stir in butter. Press crumb mixture in bottom of ungreased 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 10 min. Cool 10 min. Wrap outside of pan, bottom and sides,with heavy duty foil. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Beat cream cheese in large bowl at medium speed until creamy. Beat in 3/4 cup sugar until very soft and creamy. Add sour cream and almond extract; beat well. Reduce  speed to low; add eggs one at a time, beating just until combined and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

With a whisk, beat in pudding mix until well-mixed. Stir in white chocolate chips. Pour into crust-lined pan. Sprinkle pistachios over top. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 min or 1 hour and 20 min., or until sides of cheesecake are set and slightly puffed but center still moves when pan is tapped. Cool cheesecake in pan on wire rack 1 hour. Cover; refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving. To serve, remove sides of pan. Cut cheesecake into wedges. 

Chocaroon Cake

This is a chocolate bundt cake with coconut creme filling. I drizzled a Dove Chocolate fudge sauce on mine, but you can sprinkle confectioner's sugar or melt chocolate chips and spread as an icing over the cake. Just in case you were curious, a slice of cake is about 373 calories. 

Ingredients:

2 egg whites

1 pinch salt

1/3 cup white sugar

2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

1 & 3/4 cups flaked coconut

1 (18.35 ounce) package chocolate cake mix

1 (3.9 ounce) package chocolate instant pudding mix

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

1 & 1/4 cups water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

Beat egg white with salt until foamy. Gradually add sugar and continue beating until mixture forms stiff shiny peaks. Blend in flour and coconut. Combine cake mix, instant pudding mix, eggs, yolks, water, and oil in a large boil. Blend, then beat with electric mixer on medium speed for 2 min. Pour 1/3 of the batter into a greased and floured bundt pan. Spoon in coconut mixture and top with the remaining batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 min. Remove to wire rack and cool thoroughly.