Spring Lunch

Chicken Bearnaise Sandwich
(from our favorite gals at Sisters Cafe)
Croissants
Grilled Chicken or deli chicken or turkey
Provolone Cheese Slices
Avocado, peeled and sliced
Roasted peppers, peeled and sliced
Tomato slices
Knorr Bearnaise Sauce Packet

Roast peppers by lining a broiler pan with foil. Place whole peppers on the foil, about 5 inches away from the broiler element in the oven. Broil peppers, turning as needed until blackened on each side. Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let stand 20 minutes. Peel away the skin and slice.

Make Knorr sauce as directed on packet. Slice croissant in half and place cheese on one side. Place on pan and broil to melt cheese and brown croissant (not more than a few minutes). Place chicken or turkey, pepper, avocado and tomato on sandwich and then spoon warm béarnaise sauce over. Serve immediately.

Fruit Soup
(adapted from Sisters Cafe)
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup peach juice (lite) from can
3 Tablespoons tapioca (Minute Brand quick cooking)

6 oz. orange juice concentrate
1 1/2 cup water

2 cans mandarin oranges or 3 small cans (drain most of juice)
1 large can peach slices (lite, and drain most the juice)
Just before serving add:
2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
2 bananas, sliced
1 bag frozen raspberries, thawed (or equivalent amount of fresh, or other berries in season)

Bring sugar, water, peach juice and tapioca to a boil. Continue boiling on medium high for about 10 minutes, stirring often and scraping the pan. (Some tapioca will be clear and other granules will have a white center still.) Take of heat and let sit for 30 minutes (this is when the tapioca will become clearer.) Add 6 oz. orange juice concentrate and 1 1/2 c. water, stir well with a fork. Chill overnight.

Add mandarin oranges and peaches. Just before serving add strawberries, bananas, and raspberries. I like to drain the canned juices into a container and save them in case I want to thin the "soup." Serving suggestion: Spoon about 2/3 cup into small clear plastic cups and serve with a spoon. Goes great with cinnamon rolls or other pastry for a brunch as well.

Pear Salad with Blueberry Vinaigrette

Blueberry Dressing
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup blueberry vinegar (if you can't find blueberry vinegar, use raspberry or other deeper colored vinegar)
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
Blend in a blender, then refrigerate.

Salad
1 lb. mixed baby greens
2 pears, cored and thinly sliced
2 cans mandarin oranges (drained)
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 cup salted sunflower seeds
1 cup crumbled Blue cheese
1/2 cup fresh Parmesan cheese
Mix and serve immediately.

Mini Coconut Cupcakes
1 pkg. white cake mix
1 ½ cups unsweetened coconut milk
4 large egg whites

Beat until well blended.

Pour into mini muffin tin and bake at 350° for about 10-12 minutes. Do not over bake.
This recipe can be used for 2 round 8 inch cake pans (baked for about 22 minutes).

Coconut frosting:
3 ½ cups powdered sugar
½ cup butter, softened
1 tsp. coconut extract
1 pkg. 8 oz cream cheese

Beat butter and cream cheese until creamy. Add sugar and extract. Roll cupcakes in coconut flakes.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
(adapted from The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookie book)

I have the most delightful 7 year old. He and I understand each other. When ever we are given a difficult choice like cake or cookie, we always choose the later. This is a delicious recipe, one of may favorite treats by far. We usually dump a whole bunch of homemade hot fudge on top of it with a side of ice cream, but it could easily be smothered in frosting and devoured for dinner.


Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

1 1/4 c. All purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter, melted and cooled
1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
6 T. granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 t. vanilla
1-2 cups chocolate chips (I always use semi-sweet)

Sift flour, soda and salt...set aside.

Using electric mixer of medium speed beat butter and sugars for about 1 minute. Add egg and vanilla and mix for 1 minute. On low speed add flour, just mixing until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

Use fingers to spread dough evenly over the bottom of prepared pan (10 inch spring form, buttered and lined with parchment). Bake at 350 until top turns golden, but center is still soft. Cool on rack.

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.

Favorite Breadsticks

My family LOVES these, but I think what makes this my favorite breadstick recipe is that they are something that I can make even if the"What's for dinner?" question doesn't come to mind until 5:00Pm! They only take about an hour and by 6:00PM I can have warm breadsticks to go with my favorite soup or pasta recipe or whatever! This recipe is a combination of two similar recipes from two very reliable sources, so I adopted it as my own! Thanks Kristen and Melanie! If you want to see a picture, click here!

HELPFUL HINT: So before I start the recipe, I have to share something I was taught that has been priceless when it comes to bread making! In all of the recipes that use yeast, it says to combine yeast with "warm water." What in the world does that mean? The word "warm" means different things to different people! To my mom's dishwater-ravaged hands "warm" water burns mine! So a very skilled bread-and-roll-master friend of mine (she's over 70...oh how we need to learn from the wiser generation) says that you need to turn on the tap and let the water run over the inside of your wrist (the same place where you would shake a baby's bottle of milk to test it.) If it feels too hot to give it to a baby to drink, you will kill the yeast. If it feels too cold to give to a baby, it won't effectively activate the yeast. (For you thermometer happy people...it's about 110 degrees.) So there you have it! The definition of "warm water!" Thanks Kathryn!

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 Tablespoon yeast
2 Tablespoons sugar
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Butter for pan (4-8 Tablespoons depending on how gooey you want to make them!)

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add sugar and let it sit and bubble for a few minutes. Add the flour and salt. Knead for 3 minutes (adding a little more flour if needed.) Let dough rest for 10 minutes. Melt butter and pour on a cookie sheet. Roll dough on a floured surface, about the size of the cookie sheet. Cut rolled dough to desired width ( I sometimes cut mine in half length-wise as well to make make more and make them easier to work with.) Return dough to the original shape on the cookie sheet by rolling each piece in the butter on the pan and twisting the dough or laying it flat. Sprinkle with garlic salt, Parmesan cheese, and parsley (or whatever.) Let rise about 15-30 minutes. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until golden. These come out puffy and soft, but if you want them thin and crunchy, use dough to roll out enough to fill 1 1/2 cookie sheets. Enjoy!

Cheese Soup

Soup is by far my favorite comfort food! This soup is one I have made for many years and is always a favorite. My sister-in-law Allison shared this recipe with me and I am so grateful! Yummy, creamy, feel-good, home cookin'!
The soup in this picture has been served with my favorite and fast breadstick recipe! If you want to see the recipe, click here!

8-10 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

1 1/2 cups carrots, peeled and diced

1/2 tsp salt

Put these ingredients in a pot and cover with enough water to cover veggies well. Boil until veggies are tender. (Before the next step, I like to drain out some of the water and save it just in case I have been overzealous on the veggie cutting and end up with too much water. You can always add some of the water in again if it needs thinning.)

Ten minutes before serving add:

2 cups chopped broccoli (I use just the flowers)

16 oz. Cheese Whiz or Velveeta

1 can Cream of Celery Soup

Salt and pepper to taste

Just a note: I am actually a real cheese soup connoisseur and contrary to what you might believe, Cheese Whiz and Velveeta actually make a better soup. I have tried grated cheese and it just isn't as creamy, so don't be afraid to use it! This is a no fail, simple, fast recipe...and now it's even faster thanks to my new Food Processor I got for Christmas! Thanks so much Santa's helpers!!!

Chocolate 101

Here are a few of the recipes from our latest class. The hot chocolate recipe should be sold for millions of dollars, but we both feel it is our duty to save souls from some of the stuff people dump in their water. How fun it is to teach a class about how to enjoy chocolate. It is like teaching people how to breath, it comes pretty naturally. Remember to use dutch processed cocoa where possible, and good quality chocolate.

Mom’s Hot Chocolate

2 2/3 cup dry milk
1 cup sugar
4 Tablespoons cocoa
Small pinch of salt

Combine in saucepan with:
7 ½ cups water
1 can evaporated milk
¼ teaspoon vanilla
Heat slowly on low stirring occasionally and serve. Makes 11 cups.

Note: This is delicious served with a little whipped cream and chocolate shavings or maybe a few Andes mints dropped inside. Sweet mercy!


Chocolate Bundt Cake
Taken from The Sister's Cafe
This cake is so dense and rich and such a simple cake to make, you will want to make this for every birthday or special gathering, or whenever! Be sure to use semi-sweet chocolate chips!

1 devils food cake mix (do not make according to package)
1 (4 serving) instant chocolate pudding mix
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
½ cup warm water
½ cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Place all ingredients except chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl. Blend with electric mixer for 1 minute. Scrape down sides and continue to mix on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared (generously grease, then flour or cocoa) bundt pan. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes, rotating half way through baking time. Cool for 20 minutes (you can make the Chocolate Glaze while cake is cooling) and then run a knife careful around edge of cake in pan and invert carefully onto a serving platter. Glaze cake while cake is warm, not hot. You can also just dust with powdered sugar.

Chocolate Glaze:
8 Tablespoons butter (not margarine)
4 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1/3 cup evaporated milk (or 2%)
4 cups sifted powdered sugar

Melt butter in medium saucepan over low heat. Whisk in cocoa and milk. Bring mixture just to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Beat in powdered sugar with electric mixer until thickened and smooth. Pour warm frosting over warm cake so that it forms pretty "drips" over the side of the cake. (This recipe makes a lot of frosting, so you won't use it all.) When the glaze and cake have cooled a bit, you can also add chocolate shavings for a triple chocolate, totally delightful experience!

Note: This can be made with peppermint candy cane pieces (put in baggie and break up) sprinkled on top before glaze cools and served with peppermint ice cream for a fabulous holiday treat. You could also try using a white frosting glaze with coconut extract added, and sprinkling coconut on top and around sides of cake platter. Ooooh! Coconut and chocolate together!


Perfect One Bowl Brownies
Adapted from The Sister's Cafe
We've tried A LOT of brownie recipes and this one has definitely passed the "Sister's Test!" So yummy and easy that we promise you will never go back to "the box!"

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup(slightly heaping) cocoa (can of dutch processed mix is best)
4 eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup chocolate chips to sprinkle on top (We like to use a mix of semi-sweet and milk chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl melt butter in microwave, then stir in oil, sugar and cocoa. Using a wooden spoon (so you don't over mix), stir in the remainder of the ingredients except for the chocolate chips. Spread into a 9 x 13 pan (glass has worked well) sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. (You can also "bang" the pan on the counter to smooth out the batter more!) Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top. Bake for 25-30 minutes. You know they are done when they start pulling away from the edge of the pan, but a clean toothpick means you've cooked them too long...be careful not to over bake!

Note: We think these are best when they are cooled so they are allowed to increase in density and chewiness...WOW! Serve them alone or these make delicious brownie sundaes with ice cream and chocolate syrup on top.