Spicy Tilapia

Okay, I have now officially started my 2010 Cooking with Cuties recipes. For my first, I chose a recipe Dad sent me from work asking me to try it out. Here is the description and recipe:
For a healthy and tasty meal, try seasoning tilapia fillets with cumin and pepper. Combine diced tomatoes with green chilies, sliced green olives, fresh cilantro, and 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Spoon this mixture over the tilapia. Bake until flaky and opaque in the center - about 12-15 minutes at 450 degrees. A 3 ounce serving provides about 180 calories and 5 grams of unsaturated fat. Use fresh tomatoes to reduce sodium. Enjoy!


So, I cooked it tonight. It was so easy and the fish was delicious. I made a small Greek salad to go with it and (because I wanted to use it up) split a sweet potato between the two of us. Not only was dinner delicious it was colorful! I would definitely do this one again!

Fruit Pizza

This was a super easy recipe but I'm behind on my posts so I pulled out something quick and easy.  I'm glad I did!  These little fruit pizza's were YUMMY!

We had Chris and Regina over for lunch on Sunday and I made these for dessert. They were a big hit! And, since we got together after church the fact that these were easy to pull off in a small amount of time was perfect. Everyone gave them an A+. The ingredients are easy to have on hand (since the "crust" is just store-bought sugar cookie!) so I see these popping up a lot in our future.

We make a fruit dip that is made with cream cheese and marshmallow fluff and thats all the "sauce" is on these pizzas. Of course you could top with any fruit you want, but we had these fresh strawberries and blueberries on hand. I halved the recipe and made tiny pizza's, but the picture on allrecipes.com (where I found the recipe) shows the pizza made in a tart pan and the fruit is arranged in a decorative pattern. Its actually quite pretty! Done that way, I wouldn't hesitate to make this for company.

As I said, it was a big hit. Here are a few pictures of my little taste testers. They are pretty easy to please, but they really seemed to enjoy this one. Their favorite part was the "sauce" and "toppings". They ate that off first, and then ate the cookie.

Fruit Pizza

* 1 (18 ounce) package refrigerated sugar cookie dough
* 1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow creme
* 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. On an ungreased medium baking sheet, smooth the refrigerated sugar cookie dough into a single layer approximately 1/4 inch thick. Bake in the preheated oven 10 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned and center is no longer doughy.
3. In a medium bowl, blend the marshmallow creme and cream cheese. Spread the mixture over the baked crust. Chill in the refrigerator until serving.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

First of all, thank you ladies for letting me share this little gem! To introduce myself to anyone else who might be reading- I'm Abby, these cuties Cousin/niece, its great to be here! It makes it even more fun to share a recipe when there is a special story to go with it. I especially like using ingredients that are local and fresh when I can!

Growing up, my Dad's favorite summer dessert was strawberry rhubarb pie. Mom always had a big rhubarb plant in the backyard that she was cut and cook up. Well, here in Northern Michigan they haven't yet planted the rhubarb but one day Mom and Dad (TQ and PopPop) were out on a walk in the woods and Mom spotted some wild rhubarb on their property! It still needed a few weeks to mature so the other day John and Mom went on a walk in the woods, armed with a knife and a basket to harvest the wild rhubarb!





I spent the next day making a pie crust, but unfortunately I had a bad pastry day (I'm told they happen to everyone) and alas, there was no crust for the pie. We were not deterred though, Mom went quickly to the Internet to her trusted source on foodnetwork.com and found a recipe courtesy of Anne Burrell for strawberry rhubarb crisp. It was quick, easy, and GREAT!

Ingredients::
Filling:
- 1 quart strawberries, stemmed and quartered
- 4 stalks rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch lengths
- 1/2 C sugar
- 1/4 C cornstarch
- 1 orange, zested and juiced
- 2 TBSP balsamic vinegar

Topping:
- 1 1/4 C whole-wheat flour
- 1/2 C rolled oats
- 1 C brown sugar
- 1 1/4 sticks butter, cut into pea sized pieces
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- 1-2 TBSP water

Directions::

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Filling: Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and stir to be sure everything is well combined. Spoon the filling into 9 individual ramekins or 1 wide shallow baking dish.


Topping: In a food processor combine the flour, oats and brown sugar and pulse to combine. Add the butter, vanilla and salt and pulse pulse pulse until the mixture looks dry and crumbly. Add 1 TBSP of water and pulse until the mixture starts to come together and look crumbly. If the mixture still seems dry add 1 more TBSP of water and pulse to combine.

Crumble the topping over the filling. Bake in the preheated oven until the filling is hot and bubbly all the way through and the topping looks crispy and light brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm and with whipped cream or ice cream.



*note* I made this one with splenda sugars and olivio instead of butter due to the dietary restrictions of PopPop, and it was still fabulous!

Blueberry Caramel Pecan French Toast

Last night I made this Blueberry Caramel Pecan French Toast. I got the recipe from a Cedarville Alumni magazine - apparently some professor at Cedarville made this for her students every year at a Christmas party (I never had her). But I thought it sounded good so I cut out the recipe and saved it. I love making breakfast things but I never make them in the morning, so sometimes I like to do breakfast for dinner.

Here's the recipe:
Blueberry Caramel Pecan French Toast

Texas toast, cut in half
5 eggs
2-1/2 cups milk
1 cup packed brown sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Arrange a single layer of bread in greased 9x13 inch baking dish. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, milk, 3/4 cup brown sugar, vanilla, and nutmeg; pour over bread. Cover and refrigerate for eight hours or overnight.

Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Sprinkle pecans over egg mixture. Combine butter and remaining sugar, drizzle over top.

Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with blueberries. Bake 10 minutes longer or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

I started the french toast in the morning since we were having it for dinner and it needed to sit in the fridge for 8 hours. Here's the bread with the egg mixture poured over it:


I forgot to take a picture of the butter/brown sugar topping that you put on before putting in the oven (we omitted the pecans). But here's the french toast after cooking for 25 minutes, before adding the blueberries:


And after another 10 minutes in the oven - the finished product!


The critics (yes, Joy is drinking Smirnoff with her breakfast):


I thought this french toast was really good. It was easy to put together, but still a little special since it had the blueberries and "caramel" topping. I would definitely make this again, although I think I still like my Creme Brulee French Toast better (that one will be in the second Tastebook!). But everyone thought it was yummy and went back for seconds. That's success in my book!

Chicken and Broccoli in a Crescent Roll

So, for my first post, I chose a recipe from one of my friend's blogs. Stephanie, I hope you don't mind me stealing your idea, but it looked so good I had to try it! I wanted something that would be easy to do so I could add it to my fall back recipes, and this was just that- so easy! Here's the recipe:

2 Chicken breasts, cooked and cubed

4 oz. cream cheese

2 c. broccoli, steamed

2 Tbsp. butter

1 package refrigerated crescent rolls

salt and pepper to taste

milk

Lay out crescent rolls in pairs of two triangles making four rectangles by pinching seams together.

Dump all remaining ingredients into a food processor- process until chicken is shredded. Add milk to ease in the mixing process (about 2-3 Tbsp.)

Spoon chicken/broccoli mixture onto crescent roll squares and pinch corners together at top (you may have extra filling).

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until golden.

This is a recipe I really liked because it will be so easy to modify. Cole really like it and so did Savannah (but she'll eat anything!). I only used one chicken breast because mine were really big and I still had plenty of filling.

As a simple, throw-together meal, this one is definitely a winner! We'll be making them again for sure. Maybe next week I'll try something a little more challenging, but this is my kind of cooking!

Banana Dessert Wraps

After last week's labor intensive Chocolate Raspberry Cream Cakes, I was ready for something a little easier. These Banana Dessert Wraps were perfect! The recipe was a Pillsbury Bake-Off winner (thank you again for that cookbook, Lorren!).

Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS: 1/2 cup coconut 1/2 cup chopped pecans 1 box refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 4 firm ripe bananas (5 to 6 inch) 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips 1 jar (12 oz) hot caramel ice cream topping, heated Whipped cream, if desired 1 cup vanilla ice cream DIRECTIONS: 1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spread coconut and pecans separately on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 5 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until light golden brown; set aside. 2. Increase oven temperature to 450°F. Remove pie crust from pouch; place flat onto work surface. With rolling pin, roll crust until 12 inches in diameter. 3. In small bowl, mix sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Reserve 1 tablespoon sugar mixture; sprinkle remaining sugar mixture evenly over crust. Cut crust into 4 wedge-shaped pieces. 4. Place 1 banana lengthwise on each crust wedge, about 3/4 inch from curved edge (if banana is too long, trim ends to fit within crust, at least 1/4 inch from each edge). Push about 1 rounded tablespoon chocolate chips, points first, into top and sides of each banana. 5. Bring curved edge and point of each crust wedge up over banana to meet; pinch seam and ends to seal, shaping crust around banana. Sprinkle tops of wrapped bananas with reserved 1 tablespoon sugar mixture; place on ungreased cookie sheet. 6. Bake 10 to 14 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet. Cool 5 minutes. 7. To serve, drizzle or spread about 2 tablespoons warm caramel topping on each individual dessert plate. Top each with baked banana, whipped cream and additional caramel topping, if desired. Sprinkle coconut and pecans over top of each. Serve with ice cream.

Joy and I cut the recipe in half since it was just the two of us. It's super easy - basically you put a cinnamon mixture on refrigerated pie crust, put bananas on top, push chocolate chips into the banana, wrap, sprinkle more cinnamon sugar and pop in the oven! I think it would be a fun dessert to make with kids.

Here's Joy putting the chips in the banana.


All wrapped up with more cinnamon sugar on top:


After cooking for about 11 minutes, the wraps looked nice and golden. Since Joy and I didn't use some of the toppings the recipe listed (the coconut, pecans, whipped cream), I just dribbled the caramel across the top and put ice cream on the side. (Joy's is on the left and mine is the right - notice the different seams techniques, haha!)


It turned out delicious! I was actually kind of surprised because it seemed like it would be plain or dry or something. But the banana and melted chocolate were yummy together, especially with the ice cream and caramel. I think the presentation turned out nice too, and would be even fancier with the other toppings. I would definitely make it again. I'm sad Brent didn't get to try this one. Thank goodness he's coming home tomorrow!

Broccoli Chicken Divan

Well, I planned to make something a little more impressive this week but with a SICK child, it just didn't happen. Plus, this recipe turned out to be super yummy and a HUGE hit so its worth recording!

Since I didn't plan on this being my CWC recipe, I don't have any pictures of my darling children eating it, but just know they were chowing down!

I made this with a rotisserie chicken. I just pulled all the meat off, chopped it up and put it on top of the broccoli. The broccoli we bought fresh at the Saturday Market downtown. We were back this morning and I picked up 2 more bunches so we can have this for dinner one night this week and so I can leave one frozen for my mom to eat with the girls next week.... while she is babysitting.... while David and I are out of town.... on a cruise! Yea! First time away by ourselves since we became parents. I can't wait!

Anyway, back to the recipe. It came from allrecipes.com. You can find it here. It was a winner. I don't know if it would be something I'd make often if I wasn't also trying to please 2 little girls. But it got them to eat their veggies without any prompting so I know it will be a new regular in our house.

Broccoli Chicken Divan

• 1 pound chopped fresh broccoli
• 1 1/2 cups cubed, cooked chicken meat
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of broccoli soup
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons dried bread crumbs

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).

1. Place the broccoli in a saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook 5 minutes, or until tender. Drain.
2. Place the cooked broccoli in a 9 inch pie plate. Top with the chicken. In a bowl, mix the soup and milk, and pour over the chicken. Sprinkle with Cheddar cheese. Mix the melted butter with the bread crumbs, and sprinkle over the cheese.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until bubbly and lightly brown.

Strawberry Cream Puff Pie -- Joelle

I'm so glad we're back at it! I've missed Cooking with Cuties.

This week I made a Strawberry Cream Puff Pie. I got the recipe from Real Mom Kitchen. We went to the Farmer's Market yesterday and bought a gallon of fresh strawberries and I thought this recipe would spotlight them perfectly.

I made this for our small group. I started it when the girls went down for their nap today. I made the puff pastry crust and let it cool. Pressley woke up early and was running a 103 degree fever. I sat with her, rocked her, comforted her and tried several times to get up to finish the pie. Every time I tried she cried and cried. I finally convinced her to sit on the counter next to me while I finished. I made the cream layer and then tossed on the strawberries I had already cut up. I thought I was done.

I intended to let the strawberries sit in some sugar water before I put them on the pie but with my little interruption, I forgot. So I tossed a few of the cut up strawberries in a skillet, added about 3 tablespoons of sugar and some water and cooked it until it made a thickened sauce. I let it cool completely then spread it on top of the pie and David said that sauce really "made" it for him. So I guess this sauce is a keeper.

Since Pressley was sick, I stayed home with her and David took the pie with him. He said everyone loved it and gave it an A. I can't grade it for myself since I didn't get to try it. I asked David if he would want me to make it again and he said "Yes, it was really good!". Thats a lot coming from David! He tends to grade me a little on the tough side.

So, I'll call this one a success! I didn't get any pictures of my prep. I planned to get one of my cooked crust and then another picture after each layer but with Pressley it just didn't happen. David did take a couple of pictures of it before it was served.

I will make this again. I can't wait to try it and it seems to be perfect for summer!

The recipe:


Strawberry Cream Puff Pie


Cream Puff Base:
5 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
2/3 cup flour
3 eggs


Cream Cheese Mixture:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2/3 cup powdered sugar


1. For the cream puff layer, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bring the butter, water and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the flour all at once and stir quickly until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and stir the mixture until smooth. Let cool for 5 minutes.
2. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until the mixture is shiny with a satiny sheen. Don’t overbeat. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch spring form pan (or in a pinch, you could use a 9-inch circle cake pan). Using an offset spatula, spread the mixture on the bottom and one inch up the sides of the prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes.
3. Remove from the oven and prick pastry with a toothpick 10-12 times. Return to the oven and bake 5-10 minutes more until golden brown but not over baked (you can insert a toothpick into the center and if it comes out with sticky dough, it still needs longer in the oven). Cool completely.
4. For the cream cheese mixture, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar (if you want to ensure there are no lumps, sift the powdered sugar into the cream cheese) and beat with the cream cheese until mixture is smooth and light. Add the remaining ingredients and beat until stiff peaks form. Spread onto the cooled cream puff shell.
5. Top with fresh sliced strawberries (I mixed 2 cups of strawberries with 2 teaspoon sugar and let them hang out in the fridge while I was prepping the cake) or you can use a 16-ounce bag of frozen strawberries that have been thawed. Mix the thawed strawberries and juice with 1-2 teaspoons sugar and bring to a simmer in a saucepan. Cook until slightly thickened. Cool completely and use as topping for the cake

Chocolate Raspberry Cream Cakes

And so we're back! I've been saving this recipe for a while now - wondering when I would get the chance to make it. A long while back I was browsing through tastespotting.com and found this post for chocolate raspberry cream cakes. You should definitely check out that link because the step-by-step pictures are so much better than mine! It was one of those recipes that I wanted to try just once, knowing it would be too complicated to become a "stand-by" recipe. Amy left Saturday to help medical relief efforts in Haiti, so we had the family over for a Bon Voyage dinner Friday night. It was the perfect occasion to bust out this dessert. Luckily I had a whole day at home to prepare it...

Here's the recipe:

Devil’s Food Cake:
-3 cups granulated sugar
-2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
-1 1/8 cups cocoa powder, sift if lumpy.
-1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
-2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
-1 1/2 teaspoons salt
-3 large eggs
-1 1/2 cups milk or buttermilk
-3/4 cup vegetable oil
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-1 1/4 cup hot coffee
-1/4 cup rum or brandy (if you opt out of the booze then use equal parts coffee)

1. Combine all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and whisk.
2. Whisk together, eggs, milk, oil and vanilla until well combined. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Slowly add the hot coffee and rum to the batter and whisk until totally blended and smooth, about 2 minutes. The batter will be quite runny.
3. Bake in 2 Sheet Pan Half Size lined with parchment. Bake about 20 minutes or until set.

Raspberry cream:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons raspberry preserves

Chocolate ganache:
1 pound bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup apricot jam, heated and strained if there are chunks of fruit
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup corn syrup

1. Cut the devil’s food cake with a Heart Cookie Cutter. Depending on the size of your cutter this will get you about 12 2-layer cakes per sheet.
2. To make the cream: whip the heavy cream until soft peaks, add the raspberry preserves and continue whipping until stiff peaks. Fill a Pastry Bags, fitted with a round pastry tip and pipe the cream on half of the heart shaped cakes.
3. Top the cream with another layer of cake. Cover the cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate while you make the ganache.
4. Make the ganache: Heat the apricot preserves in a sauce pan over medium low heat until melted. Add the cream, milk and corn syrup and heat until just about to simmer. Remove from heat. Dump in all of the chopped chocolate, swirl the pot to make sure the chocolate is completely covered by the cream. Let sit for about 3 minutes and then gently whisk until smooth.
5. Pour about 1 cup of the hot ganache into a shallow dish and refrigerate for 10 minutes or until slightly firm, but still spreadable.
6. Leave the remainder of the ganache in the pot to keep it pourable.
7. With a small Spatula, spread the refrigerated ganache over the sides of the cakes. The goal is to fill the gap between the layers of cake and make them smooth. We want a smooth surface so that when you pour the ganache over the cakes you will not have any bumps.
8. To pour the ganache on the cakes you will need to set them on a cooling rack that is over a sheet pan lined with parchment. You want to do this to catch all of the dripping chocolate.
9. Slowly pour the ganache over the cake, starting in the middle and working outward. Be sure to check all the sides as you go. As you can see there will be a lot pooled up on the parchment, but you will scrape that up and be able to remelt and use again.
10. If your ganache starts to get too thick, return the pot to the stove and heat on very low heat, just for a moment.
11. Allow the cakes to set at room temperature for about 20 minutes. If you need to refrigerate them, they will loose their shine. Once you return them to room temperature and they warm up the shine will come back.

Here's the batter in the pan. I didn't have a sheet half size pan, so I got a disposable pan at the grocery and used it twice. Cooking and cooling two cakes was one reason I needed to start so early Friday morning.


The two finished cakes - this made more than enough, and the recipe could be simplified by just making one sheet. I think I got 15 cakes total.


I didn't have a heart cookie cutter, but I did have a star from a Christmas pack. I tried that for a while, but they weren't turning out great. So then I got a glass and tried to make circles, till I broke the glass :( Finally I used a bigger plastic cup and made big circles. As you can see, at the end I had a good variety of shapes...


This left a lot of cake left over (all the scraps). I thought I might make Bakerella cake pops, but the cake itself was so good, I found myself just snacking on it while I worked (and the rest of the weekend). My dad took home a big bowl to have with coffee the next morning (this is where I get my sweet tooth), so now it's almost gone.

Here are the cake sandwiches waiting in the fridge as I made the ganache:


Ok, the ganache was the most challenging part. After heating it, you put some of it in the fridge, and use that portion to fill the gaps between the layers. This wasn't really hard, just time consuming to do for 15 cakes.


Then you pour the warm ganache over the cakes. From the pictures on the recipe site, I don't think my ganache was thin enough. It didn't cover very smoothly. Still tasty, but not quite as pretty.

What the end product was supposed to look like:


My end product:


Haha, it looks so thick and gloppy. But it was shiny!


So, here's the review. The elements of this recipe were delicious. I don't even like chocolate cake, but that Devil's Food Cake recipe was amazing. I think it was the combination of the hot coffee, buttermilk and rum...I'm not sure, but it was moist and wonderful. The ganache had apricot jam in it, and that was just a nice subtle touch (probably not even noticable if you didn't know it was there). But all of these things combined to give the cake a really rich, complex taste. Almost everyone loved the dessert (too much chocolate for Brent, but he hadn't been feeling well so he only took one bite). My mom even said it's the best dessert I've ever made. That's quite a statement.

Now, logistically, I don't think I'll make these cakes this way again. Too time consuming, and not even that pretty to look at (well at least my version wasn't that pretty). But the cake, cream and ganache are too good to forget. So I think maybe it would be easy to make cupcakes instead of these cookie cutter shapes - cut them in half, pipe cream on the middle, then pour ganache over top and maybe put a raspberry or something on top. Or, as my mom suggested, just make the sheet cake, cut into squares, and stack them with cream in between and ganache on top. Definitely worth a try!