Key Lime Pie

This pie is heavenly! That's all that needs to be said.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 6 tbsp butter, melted
• 2/3 cup lime juice
• 2 14oz cans sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• zest from 3 limes
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. Combine crumbs, sugar and butter in a bowl,  Press the mixture into a pie pan. (Hint: use the back of your measuring cup)  Bake for 5 minutes and cool completely.
3. Drop oven temp. to 350°.
4. Combine milk, sour cream, lime juice and zest into bowl.  Pour into cooled pie shell and bake for 10 minutes.   
5. Set pie on counter to cool for 30 minutes then move to refrigerator and chill for 3-4 hours before slicing.
6. Beat cream and sugar until stiff peaks form.  Add vanilla.  Decorate your pie and enjoy

 Click here to get the most juice out of your limes.

 

Easy Beef Enchiladas

These easy enchiladas are a week night must.  In fact, you probably have all the ingredients right now.


Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 can of rotel
onion, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
19 oz can red enchilada sauce
1 1/2 cups of mexican cheese (I used a mexican blend)
10-12 small flour tortillas*
mexican seasonings**


In a skillet, start browning your meat with your favorite mexican seasonings.  I make my own blend but your can use to packets also.  Add onion, bell pepper and rotel and cook until veggies are tender and meat is nice and brown.  Add about a 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce and 1/2 cup of shredded cheese into the meat mixture.  This helps to meld everything into a nice filling.  It should look like this...

Spread some enchilada sauce on bottom of pan.  Next, place 2 tablespoons of filling into tortilla.  Add more cheese if you want.  In fact, personalize to your liking by adding jalapenos, cheese, olives etc...  Roll up and place in pan seam side down.  Repeat until all filling is gone and top with more shredded cheese and green onions and/or cilantro.  

 

 Do you see the little fingers trying to grab an enchilada?  Someone can't wait until they're cooked! Place in 350° oven until hot and cheese is melted and golden.  Serve with spanish rice, black beans, avocado slices and a dollop of sour cream.  Eat and enjoy!

 * you can use corn tortillas instead of flour tortialls

** For the mexican seasonings, I use salt, black pepper, red pepper, cumin, chili powder and dried oregano.  I'm sorry I don't measure what I use.  Just taste as you go and adjust accordingly.

Cherry Almond Cupcakes

These yummy cupcakes are made with cake mix which is something I hardly do but I spruced up the batter and it makes them taste homemade.  No one will ever know any better.

Ingredients

Almond Cherry Cupcakes:

 1 box white cake mix

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs 

1/2 cup sour cream

3/4 cup buttermilk

2 tsp almond extract

1 cup maraschino cherries, chopped

Almond Buttercream:

1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)

2 tsp almond extract

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 heavy cream, use as needed*

1 jar maraschino cherries with stems

Directions for cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 350° 
2. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, buttermilk, oil, sour cream and almond extract until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, sift cake mix. (You don't want any lumps) Then stir cake mix into wet ingredients.
4. Fold in chopped cherries
5. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 20-23 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
6. Completely cool cupcakes before frosting.

 Directions for frosting

1. Beat butter until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
2. Add almond extract and slowly add powdered sugar.
3. Add cream until you reach desired consistency.
4. Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes ( 1 used a 1M tip)
5. Make your cupcakes personal by adding stemmed cherries, red sprinkles, etc.

* makes 24 cupcakes
* you can use milk instead of heavy cream but it won't have the same thick consistency.
* store in refrigerator and bring to room temp before serving.

Lightened Up Potato Soup

This soup is so delicious, you won't miss all the cream, bacon and cheese.

Ingredients:

1 lb of lean ground beef

5-6 cups low sodium chicken broth

3-4 handfuls fresh baby spinach

1 lb baby red potatoes, halved or quartered

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried parsley

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

salt, black pepper, red pepper

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in pot and add beef.  Add salt and peppers to your liking.  Continue to brown the beef until dark brown, not gray. You want all the good bits stuck on the bottom of the pot.  That's where the flavor is.  If you have excess fat, drain it off.  I didn't because I used lean beef
2. Add onion, garlic and dried herbs to the beef and cook until onions are translucent.  About 10 minutes.
3. Stir in 5 cups of chicken brown and bring to a boil, scraping up all the yummy bits at the bottom of the pan.
4. Reduce heat and add baby potatoes.  Cook for about 20-25 minutes or until potatoes are tender.   
5. Add spinach and cook for a couple minutes.
6. Stir in heavy cream.  Continue to cook for a couple more minutes.
7. Ladle in bowl.  Top with sour cream, cheddar, green onions or whatever your little heart desires.  Eat and be merry.

Adapted from Damn Delicious

 

Butter Pecan Cake

Frosting:

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

12 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup unsalted butter ( 1 stick), room temp

1 lb powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Cake:

6 oz white chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup boiling water

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)

 4 eggs, separated

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp baking soda

3 cups sifted cake flour

To make the frosting:

  Melt 2 tbsp of butter in pan, add pecans and cook over medium heat until toasted.  This may take approx. 10 minutes.  Be sure to keep an eye on those suckers! They can go from raw to toasted to burnt very quickly!  Remove from heat and cook completely.

   Beat cream cheese and 1/2 cup butter until creamy.  Gradually add sugar and beat until fluffy.  Stir in buttered pecans and vanilla, cover and chill at least one hour.

To make the cake:

  Put chopped white chocolate in bowl and pour boiling water over the chocolate.  Stir until smooth and set aside to cool.

  Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease three 9 inch round pans and line with wax paper.  Then grease and flour the wax paper.  If you don't do this, you may end up with cake crumbs.

  Combine buttermilk and baking soda and set aside.

  Beat butter until creamy.  Gradually add sugar beating until fluffy.  Add egg yolks one at a time until incorporated.  Stir in chocolate and vanilla.  You may now add the cake flour to the mix alternating with buttermilk.  Make sure to begin and end the flour.  Mix on low until all blended together.

  In another bowl, beat the egg white with stiff peaks form.  Gently fold it into the cake batter.  Evenly distribute the batter to the three cake pans.

  Bake 20-23 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.  Cool the cake in the pans for about 10 minutes.  Then you may turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.  This may take approx.  30 minutes to 1 hour.  Frost and enjoy the delicious taste of Butter Pecan Cake.  Store in fridge.  

I only made my cake with 2 layers.  I had a little accident with the third layer.  Oh well, I prefer a higher frosting content on my cake anyway!!

BUTTERMILK PANCAKES

Flipping through the channels one rainy day, I came across Good Eats.  Alton Brown has a wacky way of explaining the science behind cooking.  He captivated me with his buttermilk pancakes and here we are...  I tweaked it a little and let me tell you, these are the fluffiest melt in your mouth pancakes I have ever tasted.  You'll never go back to the box stuff again!

Dry Ingredients

2 cups AP flour

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Wet Ingredients

 part 1: 4 tbsp melted butter and 2 egg yolks, mixed together

 part 2: 2 cups buttermilk and 2 egg whites, mixed together


Preheat a griddle pan to 325°.  Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Once the griddle is preheated, you can mix parts 1 & 2 of the wet mixture together.  There is a reasoning behind this.  Trust me and just do it!  At this point, I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the wet mixture.  Now you may add the wet ingredients to the dry.  Stir until just mixed.  Warning: Do NOT over mix your batter! Unless you want hockey pucks for breakfast.  Add a little shortening or butter to the griddle or pan and ladle the batter in.  Flip when little bubbles begin to appear.  Throw some on your plate with butter and maple syrup.  If you're from Louisiana, a little Steen's works too.

Enjoy!

chocolate chip cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

•  2 1/4 cup AP flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups chocolate chips (any combo)

1.  Preheat oven to 375°.  Stir flour, baking soda and salt in bowl, set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until fluffy and creamy.
3. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time until incorporated.
4. Gradually add dry ingredients to wet mixture.  Stir in chocolate chips ( I use half milk and half semi-sweet).   
5. Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 9-10 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Cool on wire rack.  Eat and enjoy!

makes 2 1/2 dozen large cookies