Monday, February 25, 2013

Mash up

This week was just sort of a mash up of a recipe I'd been wanting to do for a little while, and a spur the moment one I saw Paula Deen making on tv and had a sudden craving for. They all turned out great, the soup was delicious and super easy, and the chocolate bread hit the chocolate craving I was having that day. Not much to say really this week, so I'll just jump straight to the recipes, enjoy!


Zuppa Toscana copycat recipe (from olive garden)



  • 1 lb ground Italian sausage
  • 1½ tsp crushed red peppers
  • 1 large diced white onion
  • 4 Tbsp bacon pieces
  • 2 tsp garlic puree
  • 10 cups water
  • 5 cubes of chicken bouillon
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 lb sliced Russet potatoes, or about 3 large potatoes
  • ¼ of a bunch of kale (our grocery store didn't have kale so I threw in some sweet peas instead and it worked fine)
  • Optional: shredded parmesan cheese


Sauté Italian sausage and crushed red pepper in a large pot. Drain excess fat, refrigerate while you prepare other ingredients. In the same pan, sauté bacon, onions and garlic over low-medium heat for approximately 15 mins. or until the onions are soft. Add chicken bouillon and water to the pot and heat until it starts to boil. Add the sliced potatoes and cook until soft, about half an hour. Add the heavy cream and just cook until thoroughly heated. Stir in the sausage and the kale, let all heat through, garnish with parmesan cheese and serve. Delicious and super easy!

Chocolate Bread


  • Butter, for pans
  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels
  • 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour (2) 9 by 5-inch loaf pans.

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Beat in the milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla at medium-low speed with an electric mixer until combined. Beat in the chocolate morsels and pecans. Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared pans. Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Shield the bread with aluminum foil to prevent excess browning. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Valentines day

 This Valentine's Day was something I had been scheming together for quite a while now. In the 4 years since my husband and I started dating we have only spent one Valentine's day together, and that was only a week or two after we got married and was not very largely celebrated as we had just come back from our honeymoon. Between long distance dating, basic training and field exercises, we've never really gotten to go all out for a valentine's day, but this year I decided to change that. Starting weeks in advance, I started planning up a menu, thinking up decorations and the lead up to it. The 13 days leading up to it I surprised him with a little treat each day with a cheesy quote on it "I'm nuts about you" "Beer my valentine?" and they only got worse as the days went on. Then I made up our living room like an elementary schoolroom, we're talking pink, red, and purple hearts all over the place. Since my husband had to work most of the day, I didn't plan too much (and he told me after dinner he something planned) so after all of that, I just focused on an awesome meal. Chocolate covered strawberries as an appetizer of sorts, rib eye steaks cooked to perfection (for us, that means rare!) paired with roasted cauliflower with parmesan and finished off with mini strawberry pies. It all turned out delicious! If you haven't cooked steaks very often and are particular, a few little hints to remember, first of it will continue to cook a little even after you take it off the pan, so if you don't like your steaks super dead remember, you can always cook it a lil longer, so take it out a bit early! There are three different ways to check how done your steak is, the worst way is cutting into it, a decent way is to use a thermometer, but if you don't have one, another good way is the finger test, which is explained here: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/the_finger_test_to_check_the_doneness_of_meat/ and last but not least, two of the most important (but often forgotten) things are to let it come to room temperature before cooking, and to let it rest when it is done the full time. Steaks are something I'm always worried that I will mess up as it can be such an expensive cut of meat, but you'll only get better with practice :) Hopefully my tips help, and I hope you all had a great valentine's day! (I didn't get many pictures of the actual meal because we were so hungry and just dug in)

Chocolate Covered Strawberries




  • 16 ounces milk chocolate chips
  • 2 tablespoons shortening
  • 1 pound fresh strawberries with leaves
  • Optional: White or dark chocolate chips

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and shortening, stirring occasionally until smooth. Holding them by the toothpicks, dip the strawberries into the chocolate mixture. Turn the strawberries upside down and insert the toothpick into styrofoam for the chocolate to cool, or lay on a sheet of parchment paper. You can drizzle with white or dark chocolate if you desire but they'll taste fine how they are!



Pan-Seared Rib-Eye


  • 1 boneless rib eye steak, 1 1/2 inches thick
  • Canola oil, to coat
  • Kosher salt and ground black pepper

Place a 10-to-12-inch cast-iron skillet in the oven and heat the oven to 500 degrees F. Bring the steak to room temperature. When the oven reaches temperature, remove the skillet and place on the range over high heat. Coat the steak lightly with oil and sprinkle both sides with a generous pinch of salt. Grind on black pepper. Immediately place the steak in the middle of the hot, dry skillet. Cook 30 seconds without moving. Turn with tongs and cook another 30 seconds, then put the pan straight into the oven for 2 minutes. Flip the steak and cook for another 2 minutes. (This time is for medium-rare steak, for our steaks I shortened the time a bit. If you prefer medium, add a minute to both of the oven turns.) Remove the steak from the skillet, cover loosely with foil and rest for 2 minutes. Serve whole or slice thin and fan onto plate.

Roasted Parmesan Cauliflower


  • 6 ounces cauliflower florets (1.5 cups)
  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • salt
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the cauliflour, boiling for about 5 minutes or until it starts to get tender. Drain and add the rest of the ingredients except olive oil. Toss. Drizzle on the oil. Toss. Put mixture into a small nonstick dish. Place into a 425°F preheated oven. Bake for 15 - 17 minutes; stir once. You want it to be lightly browned and tender. Serve.


Mini Strawberry Pies



  • 1 roll Pre-made refrigerated pie dough (Or you can use homemade)
  • 2 oz cream cheese
  • sprinkle of sugar
  • 1 cup diced strawberries
  • Optional: Hot fudge sauce, whipped cream.
Preheat the oven to 225 F Using a heart shaped cookie cutter, cut out as many pieces as you can, after rerolling a few times I got enough to make 4 mini pies. Top one with strawberry, sprinkled sugar and cream cheese and then another one of the hearts, sealing the edges with a fork. Prick the middle of each one once with a fork. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Garnish with hot fudge sauce and whipped cream and serve.





Sunday, February 10, 2013

Mini Cheesecakes

Last week slipped by me and I barely realized it until a while later, and I was determined not to let this week do the same thing. This week was pretty busy as well with all of the things we needed to do to get ready for the military ball we had this weekend (which was amazing), but about halfway through the week I got this crazy strong urge to do some baking, and this recipe was something I'd been wanting to try for a while. My husband is a huge fan of pumpkin pie, and I like to mess around with it just a bit and put that flavor into other fun things, so I decided to make Mini Pumpkin Pie Frosted Cinnamon Cheesecakes. They were amazing, they didn't look the greatest so I did not get a good picture to share, (note, when you frost them either do it with a knife or a star tip, not a round tip!) but everyone loved them, I even brought some to work to share with my coworkers and they liked them too. Here's the recipe and I hope you enjoy them too :)


Mini Pumpkin Pie Frosted Cinnamon Cheesecakes


  • 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup evaporated milk
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare 12 baking cups with paper liners. In a separate bowl, whisk together the first three ingredients until well blended. Scoop 1 packed tablespoon of crust into each baking cup, and press down to pack firm. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, then remove and set aside.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Begin to boil a large kettle or pot of water for the water bath (if you have a pan large enough for the cupcake tin to sit in follow this step, it will help the cheesecakes cook more evenly and not dry out, if not though, don't worry about it. I didn't have one and they still turned out great).
In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or you could use a hand mixer) combine the cream cheese and 1/2 cup plus 2 T. sugar, then mix on medium-speed until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla and cinnamon, and mix until smooth. Pour batter into each crust-prepared baking cup until 3/4 full.
Once your kettle or pot of water is boiling, carefully place a large baking dish on the lower rack of your oven and pull the rack out a few inches towards you, and then pour the water into it. This will create a water bath that will give off lots of steam while the cheesecake bakes.
Then place the cheesecake pan in the oven, and bake for about 25 minutes, or until the edges appear to be set and the center still has a slight jiggle to it. Turn off the oven and open the oven door slightly for 5 minutes. Then remove the pan and place on a cooling rack until completely cooled. Top with pumpkin pie frosting.

For the pumpkin pie frosting: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together all ingredients until well blended. Pour into a greased 9-inch pie pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the pie comes out clean. Remove and let cool, then refrigerate.
When ready to "frost" the cheesecakes, remove the pumpkin pie and spoon the filling into a piping bag. Use as you would regular frosting.