Saturday, May 16, 2009

Sangria!

J & I are going camping this coming week with another couple and we're slim on cash. I hate beer and liquor is so expensive so I decided to make a Sangria to take with us so I and S can have something to drink with the guys. I got the recipe from here and it had many great reviews. I cant wait to try it.


Ingredients:
1 Bottle of red wine (I used Barefoot Merlot b/c Merlot is sweeter)
1 Lemon cut into wedges
1 Orange cut into wedges
1 Lime cut into wedges
2 Tbsp sugar
Splash of orange juice or lemonade (I used OJ NO PULP)
1 Cup of raspberries (I used fresh & will add some blackberries)
1 Small can of diced pineapples (with juice)
4 Cups ginger ale

I poured the Merlot into a pitcher and cut up the orange, lemon, lime, and I added an apple (Golden Del.) Make sure to get as many of the seeds out as you can, you don't want to choke on those bad boys. Major party foul. Add pineapple & juice. Then add the 2 Tbs. of sugar. Mix and chill in the refrigerator. The longer you can let it sit the better :)

Before serving add the ginger ale and berries. Serve over ice if prefer ed.

Delish Porkchops

I always make these when we have pork chops. We love this. It's so simple, easy, and takes no time at all.


Ingredients: -Plus your chops



Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spoon mixture over shops (both sides). Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 15-20mins. Uncover, and bake for about 5-10 more mins.



Serve with your favorite sides. We served it with Lima beans & the blue box mac-n-cheese!


Homemade Strawberry Shortcake

J & I went to his grandma's house the other day and her son had brought back a heap full of fresh picked strawberries. Of course, she gave us a heap. They were Delicious! I pondered on what to make with the ingredients I had on hand. I found this recipe for an old fashion type of shortcake. I read many mixed reviews on it and decided to give it a try. Boy am I glad I did.



Ingredients:
(For the glaze) Chop up strawberries and put in container with 1/2 cup of strawberries. Set aside in the fridge for later.

For The shortcake:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder (Reviews said to cut down to 2Tbsp)
2 tablespoons white sugar (Reviews said to up the sugar to 1/2 cup)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening (I used butter)
1 egg
2/3 cup milk


Directions:
First, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Grease & flour one 8" round cake pan.

Next mix the dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder, 2 tablespoons white sugar and the salt. Once mixed together place the shortening(or butter) and cut into ingredients. I used a fork but you can use a pastry blender. Blend until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Make a well in the center and add the beaten egg and milk. Stir until just combined.
Spread the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool partially in pan on wire rack. You can slice partially cooled cake in half, making two layers. Place half of the strawberries on one layer and top with the other layer. Top with remaining strawberries and cover with the whipped cream. I just made the cake and sprinkled it with a little powder sugar and sliced as we ate it and topped with strawberries & ice cream.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Chocolaty Cherries Jubilee Cheesecake

Wow, it's been awhile eh? Ive not blogged anything Ive cooked recently for some unknown reason. I thought to myself since I've never done a cheesecake I'll blog about the one I recently was asked to make. My mother saw this recipe in a magazine ( I think it was Women's First) and asked if I would make it for Mothers Day. I said sure I like a challenge and my mom wanted it so off I went to the store to gather the ingredients.

Ingredients:
10 Chocolate wafer cookies (I only found them at Ingles)
1 cup granulated sugar, divided
1/4 cup melted butter
1 envelope (.25g) unflavored gelatin. (I used Knox)
3 Tbs. Cherry-flavored Liqueur (I didn't have any so I used some grenadine & cherry syrup)
10 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted & divided (I used Ghirardelli bittersweet chips)
3 pkgs. (8oz each) Cream cheese, at room temp.
1/2 cup sour cream
1 container(8oz) Cool Whip
1 can (21oz.) Cherry pie filling, drained.
1 8" well greased spring form pan



I forgot to lay out the cream cheese when I got home from the store. So to help move the room temp. along I cut up the cream cheese so the surface area wasn't so large :) Oops

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 Degreed F. In food processor, pulse cookies until they're fine crumbs. The directions said about 20 cookies. Once crumbs are formed stir in 1/2 cup of sugar and the melted butter. Press into the bottom of a WELL GREASED 8" spring form pan. (I totally forgot to grease the pan... and yea it stuck like crazy. I was so nervous about making it turn out right) Bake for 12minutes and let cool.

In a microwave safe bowl, combine gelatin and 1/2 cup water; let sit 2 minutes. Then stir in liqueur. Microwave for about 30seconds or until the gelatin is disolved. Once disolved stir in 8oz melted chocolate.
In a bowl ofelectric mixer (I used my KA Mixer, thankgoodness for this invention) on medium speed, beat the cream cheese for about 1 minute. Add remaining sugar and sour cream. Beat another 1 min. Add gelatin/chocolate mixture and beat 1 min.



Pour batter into prepared crust and chill for 4 hours. Top with whipped topping, melted chocolate, and cherries. Cut, serve, and enjoy. I'm glad this was such a hit. Simple & a great dessert. I'm not a fan of cheesecake but this was pretty good. The Ghiradeli chocolate brought out the flavor of the cherries.