Peppermint Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
Cake:
1 box mix chocolate cake, plus ingredients required
1 crushed/ground up candy cane

Icing:
1/4 cup softened butter
7 oz jar marshmallow creme
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1+ tablespoon milk
3-4 drops green food coloring

Topping:
1/4 cup crushed hard peppermint candies such as candy canes
1/4 cup diced Andes mints or similar chocolate covered creme mint candies

Prepare cake per directions, adding in the ground up candy cane at the end of mixing. Bake in two 8" cake pans. Cool completely on cooling rack.

In a large bowl, combine 1/4 cup softened butter, marshmallow creme, and peppermint extract. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Mix in a cup of powdered sugar and one tablespoon milk. Continue to gradually add in remaining sugar. Thin as needed with additional milk.

Place one cake onto serving platter. Trim top off with serrated knife to make a flat, even surface. Spread a thin layer of icing over even surface. Place second cake atop the first. Use remaining icing to ice and decorate the cake. Mix the two candy toppings together and sprinkle across top.

Potato Bacon Soup

Ingredients:

6 large russet potatoes, peeled and finely diced

1 large leek, green half discarded, white part cut into 1/2 inch rings

12 oz (1 package) bacon

32 oz chicken broth

1 cup water

1/2 Tablespoon granulated sea salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

In a large soup pot, fry off the bacon while chopping vegetables. Drain bacon and set aside. In bacon grease, sautee the chopped leaks until tender. Add in chicken broth, water, salt, pepper and potatoes. Boil until potatoes mash easily with a spoon.

Allow to cool until very warm, but not so hot as to quickly build steam. Pour soup into large bowl. Ladle out about 1 1/2 cups of the potatoes and leeks, draining juice back into the bowl. In a blender, puree the remaining soup in 3-4 batches until all remaining soup is blended. Pour into soup pot with whole potato and leek pieces.

Reheat over medium heat to desired temperature, stirring often. While reheating, crumble bacon and stir into soup.

Notes: I prefer to use the free range, low sodium boxed variety of chicken broth. For the bacon, I suggest hickory or mesquite smoked - stay away from the sweeter bacons with maple molasses. This is meant to be a more hearty dish than those types of bacon allow for.

Chocolate Dipped Coconut Meringues

Ingredients:

2 egg whites

Dash of salt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup sweetened coconut

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Pretzel Sticks

Preheat oven to 325 and grease cookie sheets.

Combine egg whites, salt and vanilla in a bowl. Beat on medium speed until soft peaks form. To test for peaks, turn off mixer and dip into egg mix.

Gradually add in sugar, mixing throughly before adding more. Mixture should be smooth when a small amount is pressed between your fingers. Mix until meringue is shiny and forms stiff peaks.

Gently fold in coconut. Drop by teaspoon full onto greased cookie sheets, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie (these things expand quite a bit!). Bake for 15-20 minutes, until lightly golden and crunchy when pressed. Cool and a cooling rack.

In a double boiler (or a small pan inside a larger one filled with water), melt the entire bag of chocolate chips. Gently press the cooled meringues into down into the melted chocolate, using a butter knife slid under them to coat one edge of the top and pull them out. Place them on a sheet of waxed paper and allow to cool for half an hour.

Note: The chocolate will not set during this half hour, just cool down!

Cover a large platter with waxed paper and, using your butter knife, transfer the cookies to the plate. KEEP THE CHOCOLATE COVERED WAXED PAPER! Use a chop stick to stab a hole into each cookie at a 45 degree angle. Scrap the cooled chocolate on the wax paper to a pile at the edge. Roll each pretzel stick in the chocolate (about half the length) and then slide into the chop-stick-hole in the cookies.

Cool for at least two hours in the refrigerator to set the chocolate. Remove from the wax paper (the chocolate should come off completely, remaining on the cookie - if not, they need to cool longer) and arrange on serving plater. The pretzels work as great handles for the cookies to keep from getting chocolate all over your hands!

aka Cloud on a Stick Cookies

This recipe was originally invented for a themed party, "Cloud on a Stick", where we were gathering to watch the re-rendered version of Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children. The cookies were a HUGE success, but nobody could eat more than three or four because they were so rich!

Chicken and Dumplings

Soup:

7-8 chicken drumsticks

3 carrots, peeled and cut to 1/4 inch rings

4 stalks celery, washed and cut to 1/2 inch pieces

1/4 cup diced red onion

1 Tablespoon Herb de Province

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup milk

2 Tablespoons Corn Startch

salt to taste

Dumplings:

2 cups flour

1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon melted butter

1 cup milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

1. In large soup pot, cover chicken with water, approximately 1 inch over the top of the chicken. Bring to a boil.

2. Wash, peel and chop vegtables while chicken is boiling. When chicken pulls away from the bones, remove from water and place in refridgerator to cool. Add vegetables and herb de province to chicken broth and return to boil.

3. While vegetables are cooking, perpare dumplings. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Add in melted butter, followed by milk and, lastly, the egg. Mix with spoon until all ingredients are combined.

4. Remove vegetables from water and set aside. Place a grate (such as a cooling rack) over boiling water. Cover the grate with a sheet of wax paper, leaving 1 1/2 to 2 inches of open space above the water on each side. Drop 1 inch balls of dough onto wax paper, cover with lid and steam until centers are firm. Remove, wax paper and all, and repeat with a fresh sheet of wax paper until all dough is used. KEEP A CAREFUL EYE ON THE WATER LEVEL! DO NOT LET THE WATER SIMMER DOWN BELOW 1 INCH! Add water as neccissary.

5. Lower heat to Low and return vegtables to pot. Debone and skin chicken, adding bite-size chunks to the broth. Add in butter. Add water until all meat and vegetables are well covered. Return to boil and cook for five to ten minutes until all meat and vegetables are fully cooked and tender.

6. Add milk. Place corn startch into a cup and fill with 1/2 cup cold water. Stir to combine. Pour mixture into the soup and return to boil. Add in steamed dumplings and continue to boil until mixture thickens slightly and the dumblings are heated through. Salt to taste. Serve hot and enjoy!

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Dough:
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter (plus extra for filling)
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 cups flour

Filling:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup powder sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
4 individual boxes of raisins

In small sauce pan, combine the milk, butter, sugar, salt, cinnamon and vanilla. Heat until melted and blended. Do not boil. Set aside to cool.

While milk mixture is cooling, pour 1 cup lukewarm water into large bowl. Sprinkle 1 package of yeast over water and let set for five minutes. Blend in the cooled milk mixture. Gradually mix in flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowls. Hand kneed the remaining flour into the dough and continue to kneed until dough becomes elasticy. Place in a well oiled bowl and turn dough to thuroughly coat. Cover and place in warm place for one hour, or until doubled in bulk.

Punch down the dough and turn out onto a board. Kneed the dough for a few more minutes. Cut dough in half and set one half aside. Roll the dough out to approximately 1/4 inch thickness. Cut in half once again. Brush the dough with melted butter leaving 1 inch border on three sides of each piece of dough. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, then place raisins. Roll the dough, starting at the portion without a border, into a loaf. Repeat to make four small loaves. Place on an oiled baking sheet and brush the tops with butter. Let rise again for another hour, or until doubled in bulk. Bake at 375 until golden brown.

Sweet Grilled Mahi-Mahi

Ingredients:
1 whole lemon, juiced
2 Tb butter
2 tsp honey
2 Tb teriyaki sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 Mahi-Mahi steaks

Melt butter in a sauce pan. Once completely melted, stir in honey, followed by teriyaki sauce, lemon juice and garlic powder. Pour over Mahi-Mahi steaks in a shallow pan, being sure to coat both sides, and marinate for half an hour. While marinating, prepare your BBQ pit. Grill for five to six minutes per side or until the fish flakes, being sure to baste with the marinade several times during cooking.

Note: There was a fair amount of marinade left over when I finished cooking the Mahi-Mahi, so I also brushed it on fresh asparagus and skewered shrimp to be grilled. They all came out WONDERFUL! A little trick on the asparagus - don't over cook it. You'll want the grill to be VERY hot, so that it lightly chars one side of the asparagus before fully cooking through. The result is a flavorful, crisp and crunchy side dish that blends flawlessly with the fish and shrimp while still holding it's own flavor.

Shrimp & Scallop Bruschetta Pasta

Ingredients:
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (cold press if you can find it)
2 Tb red wine vinegar
1/2 medium red onion, coarsely chopped
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 pint sweet grape tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1 lbs shrimp, peeled
1 lbs bay scallops
Pasta
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta of your choice to al dente. Set aside to drain. In a large skillet, combine olive oil, red wine vinegar, red onion, minced garlic, basil and oregano. Saute until veggies are tender. Add in scallops and shrimp. Cook, stirring frequently, until shrimp turn pink and scallops flake. Add in tomatoes and allow to simmer for another couple of minutes. Pour seafood mixture over pasta, still in the collander, to allow excess juice to drain off. Pour all back into a large bowl and stir to combine. Top each serving with Parmesan cheese to preference.