Olive Garden Alfredo Pasta

My friend Janet made this for a group of friends she had over. She said that she has been trying all different Alfredo recipes and likes this one best! (It's actually from the website Top Secret Recipes.) This sauce was absolutely delicious! She served it sort of "pasta bar" style with all kinds of delectable things to choose from, chicken pieces, broccoli, artichoke hearts and other yummy toppings. Then spoon over this fabulously CREAMY, FAST and EASY sauce! She shared the secret of this recipe that makes it her favorite and makes it so creamy...the GREEN CAN of Parmesan cheese! Hey, I can do the no grating thing, and no guilt because it does make the best sauce- no lumps!

When I serve it, I usually put bite size chicken pieces in the sauce and serve it with cooked broccoli. Serving it on the plate order is noodles, broccoli, then sauce with chicken in it. It is my family's new favorite. My kids even now like it better than spaghetti sauce...but then again, they have good taste! Another thing I like about this recipe is that it's completely from my freezer and pantry! I use evaporated milk instead of cream, minced garlic in a jar (a fabulous new treasure I found at Costco!), you can use frozen broccoli (although fresh is my favorite, bagged fresh from Costco again), and the rest you can figure out! This is delicious served with these breadsticks.

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

2 cloves garlic, minced (or 1 teaspoon minced in a jar-can also use granular but not as good)

2 cups heavy cream (or evaporated milk)

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

pinch salt

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (the Kraft green can kind!)

12 ounces fettuccine pasta (or your choice of pasta)

Toppings of choice (optional)

Can also top with fresh grated Parmesan

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium low heat. Add garlic and let cook a minute. Add cream/evaporated milk, pepper and salt, and bring mixture to a simmer. Turn the heat down if the mixture reaches a rapid boil, you just want a simmer. Add the cheese, and continue to simmer sauce 8 minutes or until thick, stirring occasionally. You can start the broccoli and the noodles just before the sauce and they will be done about the same time. (If you don't have cooked chicken pieces, start 2 small or l large chicken breasts boiling first, when cooked, drain well, cut up and can add to the sauce when thick or serve separately.)

New and Improved Peanut Butter Blossoms

I will tell you this right now...I am a sucker for peanut butter and chocolate! Anytime I have a choice of dessert, it usually involves both of those yummy and fattening ingredients! But if you're going to have a treat, you might as well ENJOY IT!!! You will definately enjoy these! I like this recipe because it uses butter and the recipe on the back of the Hershey's kiss bags have you use shortening, which is too much solid fat for me. (O.k., I know I just said I don't mind fattening, but atleast it makes me FEEL like I'm trying to be a little healthier!)
I made these at Valentine's and used Hershey's "extra creamy" milk chocolate hearts and they were sooo delicious! I also found they were easier to eat than with kisses on them, so look for them at Valentine's Day time!





1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar (plus additional to roll dough in)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Hershey's kisses (or hearts!)
Soften butter or bring to room temperature and cream with sugars. Add egg, vanilla, and peanut butter (don't forget my sister's hint and put plastic wrap in the measuring cup first to make life much easier!) Add dry ingredients. Roll into just over 1 inch balls and roll in a bowl with the extra sugar until barely covered and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes at 375 degrees. (The edges of the cookies will be just beginning to crack, if the middle is cracking, you've baked them too long!) As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, gently press the kiss or heart on the center. Let them cool until the chocolate has cooled through the soft phase (it takes a while, although we always get impatient and stick them in the fridge to finish cooling after a while because they look too good!) Enjoy!

Note: The original recipe tells you to cook them 8 minutes, put kisses on, then to cook for a couple more minutes. You can try that too if you find that the kiss falls off the cookies too much!

Double Layer Chocolate Cake

Have a good laugh at my photography skills. Listen I barely have time to floss let alone learn how to take a decent picture. Moving on...
I use to cringe when mom assigned me the cake for the monthly birthday party, but now I like to experiment with cake recipes. I am essentially trying to one up myself each time I make one. Sad hobby I know but when you have kids following you into the bathroom you look forward to some alone time with a cake. This time the cake was for my sweet nephew. He is a soccer guy through and through so we used cheap soccer balls from the grocery store for cake decor and used the candles as the goals. Remember to use parchment paper on the bottom of your pans and spray the sides well to make cake removal a piece of...oh, you get what I'm saying! This cake recipe is courtesy of my friend Jamie.

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (I always use unbleached cause I'm crazy like that)
1 2/3 cups sugar
3/4 cup softened butter
2/3 baking cocoa (Love the Dutch processed)
1 1/4 cups water
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla (use the real stuff please, in fact find Mexican vanilla is you're feeling loco)
1/4 tsp. baking powder
2 large eggs

Set oven to 350. Grease two 9 inch round pans and use parchment paper to line the bottoms (just trace the cake pan and cut out with scissors...just like kindergarten). In a large mixing bowl combine all wet ingredients. then mix in all dry ingredients. Mix for 30 seconds on medium, scraping the sides as needed. Beat all of the ingredients on high for 4 minutes. Divide evenly among pans and bake for 20-25 minutes. If a toothpick comes out clean your cake is done. Cool for 10 minutes and then remove from pans and cool completely on rack.

Delicious Chocolate Frosting:
(adapted from America's Test Kitchen)

8 oz. semi-sweet Chocolate ( actually used half milk, half semi)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch Salt
2 tbs. cocoa
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar

Melt chocolate in microwave at 3o second increments, add vanilla and salt. Beat the butter in a mixer on medium-high until smooth, about 30-60 seconds. Reduce the speed to medium-low and add the sugar and cocoa. Beat until smooth, 2 to 5 minutes. Beat in the chocolate mixture. Increase mixer speed to medium-high and beat until the mixture is fluffy, 4 to 8 minutes.