Cake Balls & Oreo Balls

After seeing this post I intended to make red velvet cake balls to bring into work for V-day.  Her version looked so cute and valentine-y!  However for some reason I thought I had food coloring at home and I did not, and didn't think to purchase a red velvet cake, just a regular chocolate cake so they ended up being just chocolate cake balls.  Oh well!  Don't think anyone minded.  This is not my type of desert however.  I am not too much of a plain old cake and frosting type of person.  Its just not my desert of choice.  I've made oreo balls before and I liked those so much better.  I'm sharing the recipe for those below as well, I also thought they were much easier to make.

Cake balls:
1 box cake mix - your choice
1 can cream cheese frosting (or make home-made here - you'll need 1 1/2 cups of that)
chocolate chips or chocolate almond bark for coating

Prepare the cake per instructions on the box.  Cool completely in fridge or freezer.  Crumble cake into large bowl (I mean the largest you've got) and also add frosting.  Mix together with your hand mixer until fully combined.  You may think this is going to be impossible when you see how much cake you have when its crumbled and you may or may not end up with it all over the walls like I did - that's what that backsplash is for :)

Place combined cake and frosting in freezer for 30 minutes at least.  Form into balls and place on a cookie sheet and back into freezer for another 30 minutes to an hour.  Melt chocolate or white chocolate bark and dip balls in the chocolate and then put back into freezer.  Are we starting to see a trend here?  A lot of steps are involved in this recipe, but its really pretty easy.  Finished product should look something like this:



The oreo balls are basically the same steps except easier.

1.  Chop 1 package oreos in food processor

2.  Mix with 1 package of cream cheese

3.  Freeze for a bit then roll into balls then freeze again

4.  Dip into 1 package of melted white chocolate chips and freeze a third time

Chiles Rellenos & Chicken and Carmelized Onion Taquitos

This is the second time I've attempted to make chiles rellenos at home.  They are soo good at the mexican restaurant and I'm starting to realize that maybe I should just leave it up to them!  I've made this recipe before (my fav of the two) and below is the recipe I made tonight.  Two completely different approaches, both good, but not as good as the real thing!  The recipe below was very light and fluffy but I think I prefer a thicker, crunchier crust.

4 Pablano (Pasilla) Chiles

1/2 pound Monterey Jack cheese (or pepperjack in my case)
1/4 cup Flour
3 Raw eggs (separated)Olive oil or vegtable oil

Refried beans

Sour cream

Salsa

Rinse the chiles.  Preheat your oven to broil.  Place the chiles in a baking dish and place on the top shelf of your oven.  Roast until the skins start to char and turn black in places, take the chiles out and flip them over.  When both sides are fairly evenly charred, remove them from the oven & wrap each chile in a moist paper towel or place in a sealed plastic bag to steam.  After a few minutes, check them. Once the skin comes off easily, peel each chile.  Cut a slit almost the full length of each chile.  Pull out fibers and seeds carefully and replace with a slice of cheese.  Mix together equal parts beans and sour cream and put a few spoonfuls of bean mixture inside peppers w/ the cheese.  Whip the egg whites at high speed with an electric mixer, until stiff peaks have formed.  Heat the oil in a skillet until a drop of water sizzles when dropped into the pan.
 Beat the egg yolks with one tablespoon flour and salt.  Mix the yolks into egg whites and stir until you have a thick paste.  Roll the chiles in 1/4 cup flour and dip each one in the egg batter.  Fry on both sides until golden brown. Place on paper towels to drain.  Top with Salsa (I used a salsa verde for mine but I think a red sauce would have been great also).

Now these Taquitos you have got to make!  I think I topped these with the Chicken & Caramelized Onion Taquitos.  Yummy!  Taquitos are really pretty easy to make and are something you can change up the fillings with and make what you are in the mood for.

You will need:
4 small Corn Tortillas
1 large chicken breast
1 yellow onion
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon sugar
S & P
other spices, I used cumin, garlic, crushed red pepper, and oregano
Shredded Cheese
Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 400.  Start by caramelizing your onions first because they are best cooked slow and low.  Saute sliced onion in butter & sugar, with a touch of salt.  Allow the onions to cook without stirring them too often until caramelized in color.  Saute diced chicken in spices of choice while onions are cooking.  Heat olive oil in a skillet.  Once oil is hot you want to fry both sides of the tortillas for just about 20 seconds per side, then place on paper towels to drain excess oil.  This will soften them up so they do not crack when you bend them and they will get crispy in the oven.  Layer tortillas with a small amount of cheese, onions, and chicken.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until crispy and slightly brown edges.  Top with sour cream or salsa of choice.

Homemade Honey Wheat Bread

I have been wanting to make some homemade bread to see how easy it was.  I was thinking it would probably taste great and a lot fresher and I really enjoy making things homemade and knowing what ingredients I put into them myself.  I have to admit however that this was pretty difficult by hand and the final product was not what I was looking forward to!  The bread was very dense and honestly took a lot of time & effort to make!  I think we will stick to purchasing bread in the grocery store unless we for some reason get a bread maker some day.

Recipe from here
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon milk
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons instant active dry yeast

Instructions: 

1. *Combine first 6 ingredients in a large mixing bowl; stir.
2. Add flours and yeast, and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10-15 minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover with a clean towel and let rise until doubled, about 40 minutes.
3. Punch dough down; knead for a few minutes until smooth and then form into a loaf. Place in greased loaf pan and cover.  Let rise in a warm place until almost doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. If loaf starts browning too soon you can cover with foil (I had no issue with that)
5. Remove bread from oven and allow to rest in pan for a few minutes. Remove to a wire rack and cover with a cloth. Slice and enjoy while still warm.  Leftover bread can be stored in an airtight bag or frozen until needed

Molten Chocolate Cakes

I have the perfect desert for you to make any day of the year.  I made mine for Valentine's day and it was so yummy to come home to after dinner out with Cor.  These molten chocolate cakes will forever remind me of the cruise we took this summer with two other couples.  Such a fun time!  These chocolate cakes, served warm with vanilla ice cream, were one of the desert choices every night at dinner...and a few of us may or may not have ordered them every night.  They are literally irresistible.  Little did I know at the time, but they are also incredibly easy to make at home!  I mean like 10 minutes prep, 10 minutes cook, 10 minutes set up time and they're ready to go.  A molten chocolate cake is basically a small chocolate cake that has a warm melted center basically like chocolate sauce in the inside.  Oh it is soo good served warm w/ ice cream, I mean you just got to try it right away.  This is what it looks like to give you perspective on what you are missing in life:

The foodie bride did a series these past few weeks leading up to V-day showcasing chocolate deserts.  We all know I followed very closely :).  As soon as I saw this title come up on the right side of my blog I had to re-create the recipe ASAP, especially when she explained how easy they were to make!

Molten Chocolate Cakes
8 oz semisweet or dark chocolate, chopped (I used 1 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips)
4 Tbsp butter, room temp
1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 400. Spray 6-8 wells of a muffin tin with baking spray.  Melt the chocolate and set aside. Beat the butter and sugar on medium-high together for about 3 minutes, until light and fluffy (I didn't realize how light and fluffy this could get until I actually beat them together for 3 minutes - guess I'll do it longer next time I make cookies!).  Scrape down the sides and add 1 egg at a time, waiting until the egg is incorporated fully before adding the next one. Add vanilla. Switch mixer to lowest setting. Add the flour and salt and mix until just combined.  Add the melted chocolate and mix on low until thoroughly combined.
Fill each muffin tin almost to the top (the cakes will rise, but only very slightly). Bake for about 10 minutes. The cakes will look done on top and will jiggle if you give the pan a light shake. Remove from oven, let sit for 10 minutes. Place a plate on top of the muffin tin and invert to remove the cakes. Serve warm with ice cream.

Chicken & Black Bean Stuffed Pablano Peppers

I've made stuffed peppers before, but this was complete opposite.  This recipe used pablano peppers vs green peppers and chicken vs ground beef.  They were so good.  You might use half a jalapeno if you don't like it too spicy because ours was pretty spicy but it really depends on the jalapeno you buy.  The pablano peppers are a lot more flexible and once I removed the stem and seeds they really opened up all the way and I ended up just making them sort of open faced.

Chicken and Black Bean Stuffed Poblano Peppers:

Recipe adapted from For the Love of Cooking

3 poblano peppers (these are also referred to as pastillo peppers at the grocery)

2 cups of diced chicken

1/2 cup of black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup of sharp cheddar cheese

2 tbsp red bell pepper, diced

2 tbsp red onion, diced

2 tbsp cilantro, chopped

1/2 small jalapeno, diced

1 clove of garlic, minced

Salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste

Dash of oregano

Dash of cumin

Clean the poblano peppers and carefully slit them down the center (be careful not to go all the way through the pepper).  

Broil until peppers are blackened on all sides in the oven and skin is bubbling.  Transfer the peppers to a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap (or in a plastic bag), and let cool for 10 minutes.  While peppers are blackening then cooling, season the chicken with S&P, oregano, and cumin and cook through in a sauté pan, then shred it or dice it small.  Combine the chicken, black beans, bell pepper, onion, cilantro, jalapeno, minced garlic, S&P to taste.  Once the peppers are cool enough to handle, remove the blackened skin – it should peel off very easily.  I pulled out the stem and the seeds also.  Place peppers in a baking dish and carefully stuff each pepper with the chicken and black bean mixture.

Top each pepper with the cheese.  Place in the oven and bake uncovered for 15 minutes or until the chicken is warmed through and the cheese is melted. Serve with guacamole, sour cream, and fresh salsa.

Pork Tenderloin stuffed w/ Artichokes & Mushrooms

Have you guys heard of all recipes?  My friend Katie told me about this website.  You can create a "recipe box" of your own on there and basically save web links from all different websites.  Its awesome.  And they also have a ton of great recipes on the website as well.

I found this recipe on there when I first signed up and wanted to make something like it.  The recipe was a pork tenderloin with a artichoke and mushroom stuffing but I decided to take out the stuffing part and make it a lot healthier.

1-2 pound pork tenderloin

1 can artichokes

1 small package of mushrooms

olive oil

2 cloves garlic

salt & pepper

italian seasoning

Saute artichokes and mushrooms (chopped first) in olive oil for a few minutes.  Add garlic and other seasonings for a few more minutes.  Butterfly pork tenderloin down the center and fill center with the artichoke and mushroom mixture.  Cover with foil and bake at 400 for around 25 to 30 minutes and then begin to check every 5 minutes to make sure not to overcook.  You want the pork to be still light pink in the center.  If you cook it perfectly it will be very moist and flavorful and will be able to cut with a fork.  This was such a good combo.  We served it with the hasselback sweet potatoes.

Hasselback Sweet Potatoes

I saw these and wanted to make them first because they were so pretty in her picture.  I also have never had sweet potatoes besides the sugared-up kind you have at Thanksgiving...crazy right!  These were good, but I would make them with regular potatoes next time.  I don't think sweet potatoes are me or Corey's thing.

Hasselback Sweet Potatoes (adapted from foodie bride)
1 sweet potatoes (they are big enough for us to split one)
olive oil
salt
black pepper
thyme
1 Tbsp butter
Goat cheese, for serving
Thyme Vinaigrette (recipe follows)
Preheat oven to 425. Wash and pat potatoes dry. With a sharp knife, cut slits almost to the bottom (but not all the way through) of each potato. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and thyme. Cut butter into chunks and place on top of potato. Bake ~45 minutes, or until the center is tender. Crumble goat cheese over top and drizzle with Thyme Vinaigrette.

Thyme Vinaigrette
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp mustard
1 Tbsp finely chopped shallot
thyme
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
Salt