TWD: Caramel Crunch Bars

What's Left on the Table chose this weeks

recipe for Caramel Crunch Bars. Whitney let her kids choose this weeks recipe. These looked fantastic. It has all of my favorites things in it. Who doesn't like chocolate, toffee and shortbread? I love toffee bits but couldn't find them at these store so I substituted Heath bits. I have been busy this week but I HAD to make these. I was very disappointed in these bars. I am not sure what I did wrong. The dough looked good but after it baked it was very greasy. I did not like the addition of cinnamon in this recipe. I added the heath bits after they cooled and overdid it on these too. I baked for 27 minutes and they were still soft. It was an off baking day for me. I must have over mixed my dough.... It seems everyone else had better luck with these cookie bars. Maybe adding ice cream would have helped. Thanks Whitney~

Triple Ginger Cookies

The last time I ate ginger cookies was at my moms house, a couple summers ago. I remember how much I loved the ginger bite that they had. I was at Trader Joe's and they were selling chocolate covered ginger. It reminded me of the wonrderful cookie. I found this recipe and love how they turned out. These are quite spicy but our kids both liked them. I think they are best right out of the oven and still warm and gooey.

Triple Ginger Cookies with Chocolate chips
3/4 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root
1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger
6 oz chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and molasses. Combine the flour, ground ginger, baking soda, and salt; stir into the molasses mixture using a wooden spoon. Mix in the fresh and crystallized gingers. Cover, and refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Shape dough into 1 inch balls, and place about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Cool on wire racks.

Italian Wedding Soup

I was watching Ina Garten make this soup on her show last week. It looked so amazing and healthy. I had to try it for dinner last night. We loved it. I didn't make 40 tiny meatballs but made 25 larger ones. This was a wonderful winter nights dinner. I will be making this again. I did add the spinach to each bowl and then ladle the hot soup on top instead of wilting the spinach into the soup.
Italian Wedding Soup
2008, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, All Rights Reserved
Prep Time:
30 min
Inactive Prep Time:
hr min
Cook Time:
45 min
Level:
Easy
Serves:
8 servings
Ingredients
For the meatballs:
3/4 pound ground chicken
1/2 pound chicken sausage, casings removed
2/3 cup fresh white bread crumbs
2 teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving
3 tablespoons milk
1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the soup:
2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 cup minced yellow onion
1 cup diced carrots (3 carrots), cut into 1/4 inch pieces
3/4 cup diced celery (2 stalks), cut into 1/4 inch pieces
10 cups homemade chicken stock
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup small pasta such as tubetini or stars
1/4 cup minced fresh dill
12 ounces baby spinach, washed and trimmed
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
For the meatballs, place the ground chicken, sausage, bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, Pecorino, Parmesan, milk, egg, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a bowl and combine gently with a fork. With a teaspoon, drop 1 to 1 1/4-inch meatballs onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. (You should have about 40 meatballs. They don't have to be perfectly round.) Bake for 30 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside.
In the meantime, for the soup, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until softened, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock and wine and bring to a boil. Add the pasta to the simmering broth and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the pasta is tender. Add the fresh dill and then the meatballs to the soup and simmer for 1 minute. Taste for salt and pepper. Stir in the fresh spinach and cook for 1 minute, until the spinach is just wilted. Ladle into soup bowls and sprinkle each serving with extra grated Parmesan.

Devils Food White Out Cake

The perfect chocolate round!

My frosting was perfect at this time.

Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater chose Devils Food White Out Cake for today's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. This is such a gorgeous cake and I had high hopes for how this would turn out. I used a combination of ghirardelli dark 80% and milk chocolate from the store. I loved the cake batter and how perfectly chocolate it was! I also thought the frosting turned out great right after I made it but then something happened while trying to frost the cake. My layers were small and the frosting became droopy after several hours. It was still eaten but not the "WOW" cake that I had imagined. It tasted allot like a ding dong with the filling and devils food cake. I think that I prefer butter cream over this seven minute frosting and I should have done something more to dress it up. Thanks Stephanie for choosing this recipe. It was a unique cake.

Real Meatballs compared to Fake...

This week for Barefoot Bloggers Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake selected this dinner recipe, Ina's Real Meatballs and Spaghetti. These were so filling and hearty! I had a special Valentines dinner made by my husband and daughter. It was so sweet of them to cook for us since it has never happened before! They substituted whole grain penne with flax seed pasta, whole grain bread crumbs and used a lower fat hamburger. He has never made pasta sauce but it still had a good flavour. The meatballs were my favorite part of the dinner. I loved them as a kid and have made lots of varites over the years. These reminded me of my mothers type of meatballs. The kids and I all enjoyed this dinner! The meatballs were a little crunchy due to overcooking but it was the thought that counts and the recipe is definitely a good one that we will be making again.

TFF Mexican Pork Chili

I decided to try this Mexican Pork Chili for my Tyler Florence Fridays group. It was so good and filling. I had a few problems along the way with finding Tomatillas. They were not at our grocery store. Maybe they are out of season? The pork chili turned out great without roasting my own. I found a Tomatila Chili Verde at Traders Joes and substituted that in its place! I loved how the roast pork shredded apart and melded into the soup. This was awesome with sour cream, crisp fried corn tortillas and shredded cheese. I left off the cilantro this time around. My husband was on a work trip and I had this ready when he got home last night. It was quite an enjoyable dinner together.

Mexican Pork Chili
Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence
Prep Time:
20 min
Inactive Prep Time:
hr min
Cook Time:
2 hr 30 min
Level:
Easy
Serves:
6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
3 pounds boneless pork shoulder
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon toasted fennel seeds, ground
3 tablespoons ground cumin
Extra-virgin olive oil
15 whole tomatillos, husked
3 poblanos
2 white onions, quartered
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 bay leaf
2 limes, halved
1 big bunch fresh cilantro
1 quart low-sodium chicken stock
1 cup masa harina, to tighten it up
Chili bar toppings:
Crispy fried tortilla strips, fresh corn tortillas cut into strips and deep fried in vegetable oil
Mexican crema, store-bought with lime zest
Shaved radishes, radishes shaved vertically on a mandoline
Crumbled queso fresco
2 limes, each cut into 8 wedges
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Season the pork shoulder with salt, pepper, fennel and cumin. Take a large roasting dish and place over medium-high heat. Add a 3-count of olive oil and sear pork shoulder all over until golden brown on the outside, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Add vegetables, spreading out tomatillos, poblanos, onion, garlic and bay leaf around the seared pork shoulder. Drizzle with olive oil, squeeze lime juice all over and season with salt and pepper. Cover the whole tray with aluminum foil and roast in the oven for 2 to 2 1/2 hours until the pork is falling apart. Remove from oven, set the pork aside and pull apart. Rake all the other ingredients into a blender (a bit at a time) with the bunch of fresh cilantro and process until smooth. Pour into a large Dutch oven. Set over medium heat and add chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and whisk in masa harina to thicken the sauce up. Fold in shredded pork shoulder and season with salt and pepper to finish. Serve with toppings.

Valentines Day Parties

Anna and her friend had
lots of fun dressing up
and putting on a show for
me!

My son the clown!

Making bags and passing out Valentines.

Anna decorating her crafts.

My little sweetie heart.

I am so glad that I am able to help in my kids classes each week. I get to be the home room Mom and help plan the Holiday Parties. It was a little tricky since this time, the Valentines Day parties were at the exact same time. There were allot of Moms that jumped in and helped me out! I had to post some of the pictures of the kids with there treats and Valentines. It was such a fun afternoon for all of us! Now we have a 4 day weekend to relax and have some family time. One of the Moms made the best sugar cookies and decorated them like conversation hearts. I am still waiting for the recipe. They were amazing.

Pottery Barn and new furniture....

Ever since buying our first house, I have wanted a new dining room table. I wanted a farmhouse style with a leaf. A table that you can invite lots of people over for big dinners with out being too crowded. I have had my eye on several but been holding out for a sale.... This weekend I went to the Pottery Barn outlet in Jeffersonville. I found the most amazing table at Pottery barn with matching chairs. I fell in love with the price and bought it! It looks awesome in my dining room and is perfect! It was reduced from $1,000 to 124.99! I went at the perfect time and found exactly what I wanted. I also found a console table, 4 chairs, a new bed for Anna's room, a bench and storage locker. What a great weekend for buying furniture. I have my eye on some black wing back chairs next. Maybe when they go on sale.....

Tyler Florence Fridays and Chocolate Banana Bread

This week for TFF I chose to make some banana bread. I needed something to take to my Women's Bible Study. It looked good and I had all the ingredients on hand! It is always nice to not having to make a trip to the store for an ingredient! This bread had a completely different texture from my usual banana bread. It was denser and had a heavier crumb then Aunt Betsy's. I loved adding melted chocolate as well as coco powder. There weren't any leftovers so the kids didn't get to try it. My daughter was very disappointed about this. I am going to make this into muffins next time and eat them warm out of the oven!
Tyler’s Ultimate.
Chocolate-Banana Bread

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted

2 eggs

1-1/3 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 bananas)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

powdered sugar
Heat oven to 350. Butter 9×5 inch loaf pan. Whisk flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in large bowl.
Beat butter in large bowl on medium speed until lightened. Beat in chocolate, eggs, bananas, and vanilla at low speed. Stir in flour mixture just until combined. Pour into pan.
Bake 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out almost clean. Cool on wire rack 15 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely. I chose to melt white and dark chocolate over the top.

World Peace Cookies with TWD

This week the TWD recipe was chosen by Jessica of cookbookhabit . She chose World Peace Cookies, page 138-139 of Baking From My Home to Yours By Dorie Greenspan.

These cookies are not what I thought they would be. They are a rich dark chocolate and have a salty/sweet combination with bites of chocolate mixed in. I love salt and chocolate together and was excited to see how they would turn out in a cookie. I had the same problem as everyone else with my dough being too crumbly. I rolled it into logs and put it in the fridge to set up. I had a really hard time getting these to stay together. They came out crumbly and oddly shaped mounds. We still enjoyed them. The kids liked them straight from the oven. Once they cooled they no longer tasted as good. Thanks Jessica for choosing this unique cookie!