Fudgsicles

I made these about a month ago, and it's kind of ridiculous that I haven't made them again. They are so yummy, and not that much work.

Our fancy-dancy popsicle molds.

The tongue is getting ready to taste.

In the heat, the best place to enjoy a popsicle.

This recipe is from the book On a Stick! by Matt Armendariz.  I found the recipe when Smitten Kitchen featured it.  (I doubled the recipe because... four kids in summer, duh! so if you want a single recipe, Smitten Kitchen's got it up here.)  I'd like to try other recipes from the book.  They look like a lot of fun, plus Evan bought 1000 Popsicle sticks in a crafting moment this spring.  They are going to be hanging around here until I am a grandmother if we don't get creative.

Fudgsicles

1.5 ounces (1/4 cup) choc. chips	2 ½ cups whole milk
2/3 cup sugar	Large pinch of salt
2 T cornstarch	1 tsp. vanilla
3 T unsweetened cocoa powder	1 T unsalted butter

In the bottom of a heavy saucepan, melt the chocolate chips over very low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth.  Stir in sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder, milk and salt and raise heat to medium.  Cook mixture, stirring frequently until it thickens, between 5 to 10 minutes (Smitten Kitchen said it took her five minutes-- I used all ten minutes, maybe because it's a doubled recipe).  Remove from heat, add vanilla and butter and stir until combined.

Set aside to cool slightly then pour into popsicle molds or Dixie cups.  Freeze 30 minutes, then insert popsicle sticks.  Freeze the rest of the way (several hours).

Sweet and Savory

This is sort of a hodge-podge of recipes-- things I have been making over the last several weeks, but haven't had the time to post here!

Remember this pesto? Here's one of the things I used it for...

Four Cheese Pesto Pizza

• 6 (6-inch) pita breads
• 1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
• 2 T milk
• 6 T pesto
• 1 can ripe olives, sliced
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1/2 cup shredded Fontina cheese
• 2 T Parmesan cheese

Place pita breads on ungreased cookie sheet. Mix cream cheese and milk until smooth. Spread on pita breads. Gently spread pesto over cream cheese. Top with olives. Sprinkle with cheeses. Bake 7-12 minutes or until thoroughly heated and cheese is melted.

Except, this time, I didn't have pita breads. Or Fontina cheese. And I hate olives. But, I did make a pizza crust (still working on finding a recipe I really like for homemade pizza crust!) and loosely followed these instructions for the topping. I also added chopped chicken, from the following recipe. I have followed the four cheese pesto pizza recipe exactly (except for the olives) in the past, and it was very tasty.

Cooked Chicken (from Rival Crock-Pot Cookbook)

• 2-3 pounds chicken breasts or parts
• 4 cups water
• 2 T chopped parsley
• 2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 T minced onion
• 1 tsp. seasoning salt

Place all ingredients in Crock-Pot. Cook on low 6 to 8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. Remove chicken from water, discard bay leaf, and shred or dice according to your preference.

This is such a handy recipe for when those big club packs of chicken are on sale. I cook it (my big crockpot can take a doubled recipe of this), chop it up, and freeze it. It's great having cooked chicken ready for casseroles, and it also makes excellent chicken salad for sandwiches. And you can put it on pesto pizza!

I cooked one of my favorite chicken recipes last night--

Spicy Buttermilk Chicken

Marinade:

• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 T hot pepper sauce
• 1 T Dijon mustard
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. salt

Mix together and pour over about 1 1/2 lbs. of chicken breasts or tenders. Marinate for at least four hours or overnight.

Topping:

• 1 cup plain bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 2 T flour
• 2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp. paprika
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 2 T olive oil

Combine topping ingredients and dredge chicken through the crumbs. Place chicken on a baking rack and let sit for 20 minutes, so that crumbs will adhere better. (I've skipped this step before without too noticeable a difference in the crumbs. Those twenty minutes are useful for working on other parts of the supper, though!) Drizzle one tablespoon of olive oil on a baking sheet and place in oven. Heat oven to 400°. After about 5 minutes, place chicken on heated baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes (tenders will be done in about 20 minutes).

Last night, I served this with potatoes, because I had some neglected potatoes that were thinking about sprouting, but I usually serve this with jasmine rice. Both ways are yummy! I also did some of the tenders differently for my kids, who aren't as fond of hot things-- when I was mixing the crumb coating, I took about 1/3 of a cup of the crumbs out before adding the cayenne pepper and paprika. I'm not sure the paprika adds much heat, but it made it easy to see the less hot tenders-- they weren't as red!

Now, on to sweet things...

I found a recipe for this Millionaire's Shortbread in Hannaford's "fresh" magazine, which I stole from my mother. I wish we had a Hannaford's in our area, so I wouldn't have to resort to thievery-- it's usually full of good recipes! I wasn't crazy over this recipe at first, but every little nibble made me more of a fan. Elliott loved these, too.

Millionaire's Shortbread

Shortbread base:

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) salted butter, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Caramel filling:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup Lyle's golden syrup or dark corn syrup (I bought dark corn syrup, but I did see Lyle's golden syrup in Wegman's the next day!)
• 1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2/3 cup (4 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease an 8- or 9-inch pan. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer on medium speed to cream butter and sugar until smooth and lightened in color, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl and beaters as needed with a rubber spatula. Mix in vanilla. Sift together flour, cornstarch, and baking powder and add to bowl. Mix on low speed until dough forms large clumps and holds together, about 1 minute. Using your hands, press dough gently and evenly into pan. Bake until top is golden and edges brown, about 25 to 30 minutes.

While shortbread bakes, prepare caramel filling. Put butter, sugar, syrup and condensed milk in a large saucepan and cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil, stirring occasionally, about 10 to 15 minutes. (I don't know if I had the heat too high or I didn't stir enough, but I had to throw my first batch out-- watch it!) Continue boiling, stirring gently and constantly, 4 more minutes. Mixture should darken to a light caramel color. Remove pan from heat and pour filling over warm shortbread. Let filling cool about 5 minutes, then sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Let chips soften until they melt, then use a knife or spatula to spread melted chocolate over filling. Let chocolate set until firm, 2 or 3 hours (or 15 in this heat!) When set, cut shortbread into squares (or cut a little piece out of the pan every time you walk by!)

A couple of weeks ago, Evan was dreaming about the lava cakes he had eaten at the restaurant "99" while working away from home this spring. It took me about three minutes to whip these up, and Evan was eating them 14 minutes later! He wolfed them down too fast to take a picture of them (well, the kids and I helped, too) but they are the chocolate cakes with fudgy filling oozing out of them when you eat them. Excellent with vanilla ice cream!

Molten Lava Cakes (Kraft Foods)

• 4 squares Baker's Semi-Sweet Chocolate (or 4 oz. of chocolate chips)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 6 T flour
• Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 425°. Butter four 3/4 cup custard cups or souffle dishes. Place on baking sheet. Microwave butter and chocolate in large bowl on high for 1 minute or until butter is melted. Stir with wire whisk until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar until well blended. Blend in eggs and egg yolks with whisk. Stir in flour. Divide batter among prepared custard cups. Bake 13 to 14 minutes or until sides are firm but centers are soft. (Evan felt 12 minutes would be better-- more goo, less side.) Let stand 1 minute. Carefully run small knife around cakes to loosen. Invert cakes onto dessert dishes. Serve immediately.

And, the cookie recipe I've made hundreds of times-- chocolate chip cookies. This is the recipe Evan's family makes. It's basically the Toll House recipe with oatmeal. Evan likes a steady supply of these for his lunches, and none of us are averse to eating the dough before it's cooked!

Evan's Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp. water (I have NO idea why this is in the family recipe... makes you kinda wonder about those Whites-- you can probably safely omit this ingredient)
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 cup oatmeal
• 12 oz. (2 cups) semisweet chocolate chips

Cream together butter and sugars. Add vanilla and eggs; beat well. Add flour, soda, salt and oatmeal and beat until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Eat cookie dough raw, or place tablespoons of the dough on a greased cookie sheet and bake in a 375° oven for 9 minutes. Let cool in pan, if you like them chewy.

There's no recipe attached to this activity, but we made some creamed corn this year! We came home from Altamont with four garbage bags of corn. (Thanks, Knaggs!)

Evan husked it all, with lots of help from the kids.

I then boiled it, about a dozen ears at a time, for 2 minutes, dunked it in ice water, and let drain on the drainboard.

I then used my handy-dandy Lee corn-cutter and creamer to take all the corn off the cobs.

All 95 cobs, eventually. This was early in the process.

I froze it in plastic Ziploc containers, and got about 6 1/2 quarts. It sure will be delicious this winter with a little butter and salt!

All this writing about food has made me hungry! Time to go check out the kitchen before bed...

More Chocolate

These recipes are feeling left out, since they weren't included in my last post about chocolate. So, in the spirit of inclusion, here are two more yummy chocolate recipes.

The first recipe is chocolate dirt cake, which gets high marks from kids. I know dirt cake isn't exactly gourmet-- you usually throw some crumbled Oreos, chocolate pudding, and maybe Cool-Whip in and call it good. This recipe has some extras, like cream cheese, that make it yummy enough to serve to adults. You may, however, want to omit the gummy worms in the adult version. They're a little... different.

Marilla liked eating one of the extra Oreos while I made this. She did NOT, however, like me poking the camera in her face instead of getting her out of her high chair the minute she demanded it.

My other recipe is a fudge recipe. It was in our newspaper years ago, and I clipped it out, then didn't make it for three years. Part of the reason was that I had such an easy fudge recipe (Microwave fudge) that it seemed silly to look for another one. Wow, this is definitely worth the extra effort (and extra expense) to make it. It's called "Mamie's Fudge" (it was Mamie Eisenhower's favorite fudge recipe), but I think of it as "Moorish Fudge." One of our friends was here the first time I tried it back in April, and as she cut herself yet another little piece, she said, "This tastes like Moorish fudge." I was desperately trying to rack my brain, wondering if this was really an international delicacy, or whether "Moorish" was some sect like the Amish or something... Then I got that it was "More-ish" fudge because you always want a little more. I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes. Even now, I picture it as "Moorish" in my head.

Chocolate Dirt Cake

• 1 (6 oz.) pkg. instant chocolate pudding
• 3 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
• 3 /4 cup butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 12 oz. Cool-Whip, or 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, whipped
• 27 oz. (1 1/2 pkgs.) Oreos (Original or DoubleStuff)
  
• Gummy worms, optional

This is a great recipe to do in the food processor, ir you have one! (I've had mine for 14 months, and I'm still passionate about it!) Obviously, you can get by without one for this recipe. First, pulse (or crush) the Oreos into fine crumbs and set aside. Then, cut the butter and cream cheese into little chunks, and place in the food processor bowl with the pudding mix, sugar, vanilla, and 1 cup of the whole milk. Pulse until blended. Use a whisk to stir in the remaining 2 1/2 cups milk. Fold in the Cool-Whip or whipped cream. Spread 1/3 of the crumbs in a 13x9 pan, then top with half the pudding mixture. Sprinkle another third of the crumbs over that, pour on the remaining pudding mixture, and finish with the last of the cookie crumbs. If serving to kids, strew gummy worms all over the top!

Mamie's Fudge (Moorish Fudge)

• 4 1/2 cups sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 can (13 1/2 oz.) evaporated milk
• 2 T butter
• 12 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
  
• 12 oz. German sweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 jar (7 or 8 oz.) marshmallow creme
• 2 cups nuts (if you like nuts in your fudge-- I usually don't!)

Combine sugar, salt, evaporated milk and butter in saucepan; boil 6 minutes. In a large bowl, combine the chocolates, marshmallow creme, and nuts. Pour boiling syrup over the chocolate mixture and stir until the chocolate is melted. Pour into a buttered 13x9 pan. Let stand a few hours before cutting. Makes about 40 (very rich!) pieces.

Chocolate, STAT!

I am starting a new blog for the simple reason that I am tired of lugging my recipe box around with me when I go places. (Philistines have suggested I just lose contact with my recipes while I am away-- I ignore them.) I thought if I post a recipe at least every other day, within a year or so I will have all my recipes available on the internet for use whenever I need them.

The more I thought about how I like new recipes, though, I realized I will probably never catch up with putting them all up on here. However, I love food, and talking about food, and occasionally cooking food, so this blog will be fun for me. I will only post recipes I have actually cooked, and if I'm feeling ambitious, there will even be pictures!

Without further ado, here is a very important recipe. Not that I need to write down this recipe-- this is all in the spirit of passing on some advice for fellow chocoholics.

Now, I do believe in the philosophy of "Moderation in all things." I try not to have lots of junk food around at all times, but there are times when I really NEED chocolate. Sure, I could just swipe a handful of chocolate chips out of my baking cupboard, but why do that when there could be so much more with one minute of effort?

This recipe was introduced to me in my high school French class. While I love to parle francais, this may be the thing that I remember most from that class! This is... a chocolate sandwich. There are probably numerous variations on this French snack, but us Vaughans figured out the quickest, yummiest way to have a chocolate sandwich.

Throw a handful of chocolate chips and a meager tablespoon of butter in a microwaveable bowl.

Microwave 30 to 40 seconds. See how the butter is bubbling nicely?

When you first start to stir, it won't look like much.

Keep going, and it all comes together in a creamy spread!

Then, spread it on bread and enjoy! I love whole grain bread for my tuna sandwiches, but this works better on a sweeter bread-- I like potato bread. (Or potato hamburger rolls, if that is all that is in the bread drawer.) From the time the intense craving first hits until you are sinking your teeth into its yumminess, is about 90 seconds, tops. And if you are lazy and use a knife both to stir the chocolate and stir it on bread, it's pretty minimal dishes!

Another quick and easy path to chocolate indulgence is microwave fudge. Mom gave me the recipe when I first got married. It is also something that can be thrown together in a minute. It does take a while to chill in the fridge, but by then you'll have been able to lick the mixing bowl so the cravings will have subsided!

Microwave Fudge

• 1 (12 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (12 oz.) pkg. semisweet chocolate chips
• Grains of salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 tsp. vanilla

Dump sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, salt and butter in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave on "high" one minute. Stir until chips are melted and combined (you may have to microwave it another 30 seconds). Add the vanilla (the step I always forget), and pour into a buttered dish. Chill until set. In the meantime, grab a spoon, scrape out the mixing bowl, and enjoy!