Dinner for 2

We typically don't have a huge celebration for Valentine's Day.  While I think it's imporant to recognize the one you love and celebrate your togetherness, I don't think it requires an expensive dinner, jewelery and dozens of roses.  I'm perfectly happy making a meal with Jeremy and enjoying a quiet dinner at home!  Which is exactly what we did!!!!

Dinner for Two Menu

Butter Chicken

Broccolini

Rice

Molten Lava Cakes

with Blue Bell Vanilla Ice Cream

I found the recipe for Butter Chicken on the Tasty Kitchen website- they have great recipes.  I really liked the butter chicken and it's pretty simple to prepare, but lots of the reviews said "best chicken ever" and I don't think I would go that far.  But very tasty nonetheless!

You can find the recipe for Butter Chicken here!

If you haven't tried broccolini, you're really missing out.  It's more delicate and tender than regular broccoli.  It is often mistakenly referred to as baby broccoli, but it's actually a hybrid between broccoli and a Chinese broccoli.  I'll spare you the specifics!  You should definitely give it a try!  It's available in most stores (if I can find it in OKC, you should be able to find it, too!).  I roasted it and used a sauce with garlic, dijon mustard, and balsamic vinegar.  Yum!

Let's move on to the real star of this show!  Dessert!

This recipe came straight from Mrs. Paula Deen.  I think you're gonna love it!  I substituted Bailey's Irish Cream for the Grand Marnier, because a) that's what I had at my house and b) I don't like orange and chocolate together.  I think it turned out well, so feel free to use one of your favorite "flavorings."

 Molten Lava Cakes

6 (1-ounce) squares bittersweet chocolate
2 (1-ounce) squares semisweet chocolate
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 stick) butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 large eggs
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons orange liqueur

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Grease 6 (6-ounce) custard cups. Melt the chocolates and butter in the microwave, or in a double boiler. Add the flour and sugar to chocolate mixture. Stir in the eggs and yolks until smooth. Stir in the vanilla and orange liqueur. Divide the batter evenly among the custard cups. Place in the oven and bake for 14 minutes. The edges should be firm but the center will be runny. Run a knife around the edges to loosen and invert onto dessert plates.

I baked mine just a tad too long- they could have been a little gooey-er, but still delicious!  And the vanilla ice cream is the perfect compliment!!!

I thought we looked a little sleepy in this pic . . .

Ah, much better.

Hope you had a lovely Valentine's!!!

Texas Sheet Cake

I’m not really sure why it’s called Texas Sheet Cake. Maybe people in OKC call it Oklahoma Sheet Cake? Regardless of what you call the cake, it’s super delicious and you really need to try it!


It’s an absolute must that you put the icing on while the cake is still hot. The icing melts a little bit- you can’t even tell where the cake stops and the icing starts.


I took this cake to our small group and I think it was a hit! I think it would be even better with toasted pecns in the icing, but Jeremy prefers his baked goods without nuts. And I’m just that kind of wife!

Texas Sheet Cake

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
½ cup butter
½ cup shortening
1 cup water
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoons vanilla

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a medium saucepan combine shortening, butter, water, and cocoa over low heat until fully combined. Pour saucepan mixture over flour and sugar in large mixing bowl. Add buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and mix. Pour into greased 12 x 17 jellyroll pan and bake in preheated 350 degree oven ofr 15 to 20 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean).

Chocolate Icing:

1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
¼ cup milk
3 ½ cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans, optional

While cake is baking, stir together butter, cocoa, milk, and vanilla in a saucepan until combined. Pout over powdered sugar and mix well in mixing bowl. Pour over cake as soon as it comes out of oven. Cool before cutting.

Welcome Dinner

Jeremy has a new staff person starting next week and they moved to OKC all the way from Texas. Since we know how hard moving can be, we decided to help out by bringing over dinner.

I made lasagna, salad, garlic bread, and a home made pound cake. Yum! They were so sweet and really appreciated the effort. I was glad to do it, since I know when you're moving you're so tired and sweaty and yucky and starving, but you can't find your packed deodorant, so you don't want to leave the house for dinner!

I served the pound cake with strawberries (I cut these up and put a little sugar on them earlier in the day, so they were nice and juicy!) and cool whip. Delicious!

Sour Cream Pound Cake

Ingredients:
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
3 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups all-purpose flour
6 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the sour cream and mix until incorporated. Sift the baking soda and flour together. Add to the creamed mixture alternating with eggs, beating each egg 1 at a time. Add the vanilla and pour the mixture into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes.

Red, White, & Blue- Strawberry, Cream Cheese, & Blueberry

We had a fabulous July 4th! On Thursday night, Alison and I baked and decorated a cake for their community's annual 4th of July picnic. I would post the recipe, but we used a mix and store-bought icing. It's a strawberry cake mix and 2 containers of cream cheese icing (Duncan Hines).

Then we decorated with fresh strawberries and blueberries! As most of you know, I really like making things from scratch, but this was pretty darn good. And as always, the fun part was the decorating.

Unfortunately, Alison had to work on Friday, so she wasn't able to attend the picnic, but we saved her a piece!

Isn't Alison's new haircut cute?!?!

Jeremy and I went to Ms. Thelma's house for the picnic. Don't you love potlucks?!?! There was so much food. We had barbecue (that means pulled pork in TN), fresh tomatoes, chicken dorito, green beans, corn on the cob, all kinds of little salads, vegetable trays, spinach dip. And then, the desserts!!! They had pecan pie, blondies, strawberry cake, sugar cookies, other cookies. It was a feast!

That night, we went to see Lexington's fireworks. Alison and Cody invited us out to watch the display from Cody's boat. We had front row seats! It was a very impressive display. My pictures didn't turn out too well, but trust me, they were good. The fireworks lasted for over 30 minutes!

Alison, Cody, and their friend, Ricky.

Jeremy and I on the boat.

Fireworks reflecting off the lake.

We had such a great time, but we're so tired! We went to another picnic on Saturday night. They had more delicious food, including homemade ice cream! It was amazing!

A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch.

My cousins, Deborah and Delancy, are coming for a visit. I asked them what they would like to eat while they are here. They said- Chinese food and chocolate cake. So they're driving out here today with my Aunt Lisa and since I don't want them to be disappointed on their first day at Cousin Erin's, I have the chocolate cake waiting on them!

I made a Butterfinger Cake, which was first introduced to me by Jeremy's mom. It's completely ridiculously fattening . . . but so yummy! I think they will really like it. I personally prefer it with Symphony bars, but Jeremy told me he liked the Butterfinger better, so I did half and half!

Butterfinger Cake

1 chocolate cake mix
1 can Eagle brand milk
1 jar caramel ice cream topping
1 (8 oz.) tub Cool Whip
2-3 Butterfingers (or other favorite candy bar)

Bake cake as directed on box. Punch holes over entire cake top when it comes out of the over. Pour can of Eagle Brand milk over top of cake while it is hot. Pour jar of caramel over top of the cake next. Let cake cool and absorb these. Refrigerate. When cake is cooled, smooth Cool Whip over top of cake. Top with crushed candy bars.

here is the cake after I've poured on the Eagle Brand and caramel topping

the finished cake!

First pride, then the crash— the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.

That's from Proverbs 16:18- maybe you've heard- pride goeth before a fall? Same sort of concept. Well, we all knew it was going to happen, didn't we?

I spotted the Southern Living magazine "Best Ever Cakes and Pies" edition and I really wanted it. All the pictures were completely amazing and I couldn't wait to start trying them out. The magazine was a little pricey, so every grocery store trip, I talked myself out of buying it. But today, we were at Sam's and they sell magazines at a discounted price. I could no longer resist. I immediately flipped through it when I got home and showed a few of the dessert pictures to Jeremy. I told him I would make whatever he wanted. He said he would like a strawberry cake (I'm not even going to comment on the fact that he chose strawberry over chocolate?!?! What???). The magazine didn't have a strawberry cake, but they did have a strawberry frosting and I could make just a plain white cake. Because we decided all of this at 7:30pm, I decided to cheat a little bit and use Betty to help me out with the cake part.

I baked the cakes and they looked beautiful. I let them cool on wire racks, while I whipped up the frosting, which was a combination of butter, powdered sugar, and fresh strawberries. I got out my fancy little cake plate, while I already started to imagine the gorgeous pictures that I would post on my blog. A two- layer white cake with a lovely light pink frosting with specks of delicious strawberries and garnished with sliced strawberries on top. It was going to be my blog masterpiece! Somewhere along the way, as I was frosting the cake, things went wrong. The top layer slid a little bit, but that's normal, maybe even to be expected.

But then as Jeremy came over to take a look at my masterpiece, it just broke itself into pieces . . . or maybe hunks?!?!

I couldn't even believe it! I've never seen that happen before. Instantly, I decided that I could clean up the mess, put away my camera, and never tell anyone (except for Jeremy and he doesn't care how food looks!). But what kind of a blogger would I be if I can't be honest and tell you about all my experiences in the kitchen? A prideful one. So here it is, my big mishap and my crazy falling apart cake. Any thoughts on what happened? The cakes were completely cooled- maybe the icing was a little too runny or melted? I don't know.

We still ate it and it tasted pretty good. I might be a little gun-shy with layer cakes now. I think I'll stick to cupcakes- they've not yet turned out this poorly for me. This wasn't my "best ever" by any stretch of the imagination. I'm not going to post the recipe- you can email me if you would like a copy!

Berry Sweet

I love strawberries! When I was little we had them growing in our garden and my dad used to joke that he couldn't take me to pick the strawberries because he didn't come back with any. I'm also still working on those pantry items!

I made strawberry shortcake- I used Bisquick and Jello instant pudding! So easy and pretty delicious! Here is the recipe on the Bisquick web-site!

Strawberry Shortcake

2 1/3 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
Sweetened sliced strawberries
Whipped topping or vanilla pudding

Heat oven to 425°F.
Stir Bisquick mix, milk, sugar and butter until soft dough forms. Drop by 6 spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Split warm shortcakes; fill and top with strawberries and whipped topping. (Sweeten strawberries before making shortcakes so sugar has time to dissolve; for each quart of sliced strawberries, stir in 1/2 cup sugar.)

I can't believe how big Ivy is getting! It's almost her one year birthday. Here are some "berry sweet" pictures of our little Ivy.

THEN

NOW