German Chocolate Cake

Caleb wanted a German Chocolate cake for his birthday.  I decided to try a real recipe over a cake mix to see if I would like it better (I didn't--liking cake is such a struggle for me.).  However, it hit the rafters with good reviews from everyone else, so I guess it is a good recipe!  It took me a good 3 hours to make (part of that is too much girlie help, I'm sure) and I dirtied too many dishes, so I'm not sure how much I'll be making it, but it is good to have in my files for future requests.

Original recipe found here.

German Chocolate Cake

• 1/2 cup water
• 4 (1 ounce) squares German sweet chocolate
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 egg whites
•  
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  
• 1/2 teaspoon shortening
• 1 (1 ounce) square semisweet chocolate

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 3 - 9 inch round pans. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a small saucepan, heat water and 4 ounces chocolate until melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
2. In a large bowl, cream 1 cup butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in 4 egg yolks one at a time. Blend in the melted chocolate mixture and vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, mixing just until incorporated.
3. In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into the batter, then quickly fold in remaining whites until no streaks remain.
4. Pour into 3 - 9 inch pans Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto wire rack.
5. To make the Filling: In a saucepan combine 1 cup sugar, evaporated milk, 1/2 cup butter, and 3 egg yolks. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in coconut, pecans and vanilla. Cool until thick enough to spread.
6. Spread filling between layers and on top of cake. In a small saucepan, melt shortening and 1 ounce of chocolate. Stir until smooth and drizzle down the sides of the cake.

Snicker Bar Ice Cream

From my free membership @ America's Test Kitchen:

1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened
10 mini peanut butter cups, chopped coarse
10 mini Snickers bars, chopped coarse
1/4 cup heavy cream

1.  Make peanut butter ice cream:  Stir ice cream and peanut butter cups together in a large bowl until combined.  Return to freezer until firm, at least 30 minutes.

2.  Make Snickers Sauce:  Combine Snickers bars and cream in small saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently, until melted into chunky sauce.  Remove from heat.

3.  Serve:  Scoop ice cream into four bowls and spoon warm sauce over it.  Serve.

Frappe

I used to make frappe a lot.  The recipe:  pineapple sherbet, sliced strawberries, sliced bananas.  Freeze and serve over Sprite.  Then when I married Tom, I stopped making it because he doesn't like bananas.

But then I had to make treats for a meeting the other day and had a request to make an ice cream treat.  I've about used up all of my ice cream treats on that group already, so I went back to my roots and did a frappe.  I changed it up a little though.  Also yummy!

2 containers pineapple sherbet
1 container vanilla ice cream
1-2 cups frozen raspberries
1-2 cups frozen blueberries
3-4 quartered then sliced bananas
Stir until it starts to turn pink.  Freeze.  Serve slightly softened over Sprite.

And suddenly as I was stirring, I came up with a non-banana lover solution: remove some before adding the bananas.  Store in a different container.  We're back to being a frappe-loving family.  I'm so excited!

Lettuce Wraps

I had an abundance of lettuce so I put lettuce wraps on the menu. I decided to try a new recipe (my other one was quite time intensive and I didn't want that for a Sunday). This is the one I tried. I made a lot of changes and they were quite yummy. I don't really love hamburger so I used sausage instead. I added about a cup of rice to stretch it. I also added peanuts. I did put the chili paste in (I think about a tsp). I didn't use the pickled ginger--I just used fresh--about 3 tsps. It was very yummy. So yummy we ran out. But that was okay because the boys could also fill up on rolls and these yummy nachos for dessert. I didn't even have cool whip and everyone yummed it up. Happy kids left the dinner table today! Makes me smile.

Grilled Chicken

Today for Sunday dinner we had Grilled Chicken (rub recipe below), rice, corn on the cob, lettuce salad, rolls and strawberry shortcake. I love a well rounded Sunday meal that everyone loves. This is one of them.

BBQ Rub

1 1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup salt

1/4 cup paprika

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup pepper

Stir together. Rub on meats 10 minutes before grilling. Store extra in a sealed container. (I make this about once a year and store it in a ziplock bag in the fridge.) This is great on chicken, pork, beef and fish. It is one of our favorites for shish kabobs.

Dinner Rolls

1 egg

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 cup warm milk

1/4 cup softened butter

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

4 cups flour

1 TBSP yeast

Put all ingredients into the bread pan. Select dough setting. When complete, melt 1/4 cup (I've been using less lately--still yummy) butter. Cut dough into 2 pieces. Roll into circles one at a time and spread with half of the butter. Cut into 16 wedges. Roll up starting at the wide end. cover with wax paper and let rise for 1-3 hours. Bake at 400 for 10-12 mins.

Strawberry Shortcake

Make white cake mix from the box.

Mix 1/2 of a package of cream cheese with sugar to taste. Start with 1/4 cup or so. After well mixed, add Cool Whip until desired creaminess. Spread on cooled cake.

Make 1 package of Strawberry Junket. Add strawberries. When that cools, spread on the cake. Keep cake refrigerated.