Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Sheet Cake

I discovered this recipe just recently on one of my favorite websites ever. It's a homemade from scratch chocolate sheet cake that is too die for. The recipe does call for almost a full pound of butter (no subs) so if you can get over that, you'll enjoy every bite of the cake. I brought this cake to a potluck picnic we attended this past weekend and let's just say there was very little of it leftover. If mine had been the only dessert, I'm sure there would have only been crumbs left behind. The recipe was pretty easy, but done in steps...so hang in there! It's worth it in the end.

Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Sheet Cake

Combine in a mixing bowl:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
(set aside)

In a saucepan, melt:
2 sticks butter and add 4 heaping tablespoons cocoa. Stir together.
Add 1 cup boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat.

Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.

In a glass measuring cup:
1/2 cup buttermilk.
Add: 2 beaten eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla

Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.

While cake is baking, make icing:
Chop 1/2 cup pecans finely.
Melt 1 3/4 sticks butter in a saucepan.
Add 4 heaping tablespoons cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat.

Add 6 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 lb minus 1/2 cup powdered sugar, stir together. Add pecans, stir together, and pour over warm cake.

Cut into squares, eat, and totally wig out over the fact that you just made the best chocolate sheet cake. EVER.

A MUCH better Pizza Dough

I know...not much of a pizza picture, huh? Well, I'm sorry but we couldn't help ourselves. This was last of our pizza and then I realized that I hadn't taken a picture. This picture is actually more to show you two of the products we use to create our homemade pizzas. Plus, to announce I've discovered an all-new pizza dough just recently that has become our family favorite. And there's no way I can take credit for this recipe, so I will leave the name as it is and give credit to it's rightful owner, Tony. Yo, Tony...I don't know who you are, but I love your pizza dough, man! It beat out Giada DeLaurentiis' recipe previously posted on this blog. Sorry Giada, love your Italian cooking, but Tony's got'ya by a landslide on this one.

I would recommend a mixer with a dough hook. You will need it with this recipe. The recipe seems kind of time consuming, but it really is worth it in the end. Plus, it makes (2) 14" pizzas from one batch of dough. And you do need to add the amount of salt listed. It's dough for pizzas, not cinnamon rolls.

Tony's Pizza Dough

1 pkg. active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (90 to 100 degrees)
1 cup cold water
1 tbls. sugar
1 tbls. salt
2 tbls. olive oil
5 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour

In a small bowl, with a fork, stir yeast into warm water. Let stand until yeast is dissolved, about 5 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl with a dough hook attached to electric stand mixer, add the 5 1/4 cups flour and turn on mixer to a slow speed. Slowly add the cold water, sugar, salt and oil until crumbly. Add in the yeast mixture and continue on the slow speed until flour mixture pulls together into a ball. Add an extra 2 tbls. of flour if it appears sticky. Or 2 tbls. of water if the dough appears dry. Let the mixer knead the dough for 10-12 minutes.

Lightly flour countertop and remove dough from bowl. Knead dough into a nice, smooth ball. Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled. About 1 hour up to 10 hours. If making ahead, place in the fridge until ready to use.

Divide dough in half, and roll each section out into 14 inches. Pick up and place on pizza pan and reform to the pan. Add toppings. Bake in a preheated 400 F degree oven for 15-18 minutes. Or until dough is lightly browned and no longer doughy. Slice into pieces and ENJOY! Yum!

Oatmeal & Peanut Butter Swirl Bars

Yes, this recipe does have chocolate in it, but the dominating flavors in these scrumptous bars are oatmeal and peanut butter. Two of my most favorite flavors in a cookie or bar recipe. When I came across this recipe on the back of a 10 lb. bag of flour and saw it's list of ingredients, I knew I had to make them. My curiousity always gets the best of me when it comes to recipes.

Oatmeal & Peanut Butter Swirl Bars

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 teas. baking soda
1/2 teas. salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup old fashioned oatmeal
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Icing:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tbls. peanut butter
2 tbls. milk
(Mix together in a small bowl while bars are baking and set aside.)

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add egg and peanut butter and mix well. Stir in soda, salt, flour and oatmeal. Press into a 9 x 13" baking dish. Sprinkle chocolate chips over top. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and drizzle with icing. Spread the icing into the melted chocolate chips to create a swirl or marbled look. Cool completely. Cut into squares and... devour!

Note: the consistency of this mixture is a thicker cookie dough. It should be a little hard to spread into the baking dish. Just be patient and it will cover the entire dish.

Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken

I sure hope this recipe isn't grossing you out by the looks of this picture. I don't think I could get it to look any better before it was cooked or after. So trust me this really was a simple and tasty recipe done in the crockpot. I used my favoritre new sauce I discovered at Costco earlier this year. I'm sure most of you have seen or even tried it yourself, but I've really come to enjoy the convenience and ease of this sauce and marinade.
I was desperate for a Sunday after church meal and was craving some kind of Asian-type dish. I immediately thought of my bottle of Mr. Yoshida's sauce. So I hurried and cut up some chicken breasts into 2 inch pieces and poured this sauce over it, added some brown sugar, garlic powder, soy sauce and some fresh pineapple chunks I had in the fridge. You can't see them in the picture, but they're in there. I then set the crock pot on High and let it cook while we were at church. The sauce ended up a little watered down so I removed the chicken to a bowl and took about one cup of the sauce from the crockpot. I then poured that sauce over the chicken in the bowl and started to shred the chicken into smaller bites and added another cup of fresh sauce from the bottle. The warmth of the cooked chicken was warm enough to heat up the extra sauce. We ate the cooked chicken on top of steamed rice and some cooked veggies on the side. The whole family loved my dinner that night and was pleased with it's simplicity.

Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken

4-5 chicken breasts, cut into 2" pieces
2-3 cups Mr. Yoshida's Gourmet Sweet & Savory sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teas. garlic powder
1 teas. ground ginger
Fresh or canned pineapple chunks

Put ingredients into crock pot, add lid and simmer on High for 3 hours. Remove chicken and reserve 1 cup of liquid from crockpot. Shred chicken with liquid and the 3rd cup of sauce. Serve over steamed rice and cooked veggies.

Crescent Chicken Roll-ups

I came across this recipe from another website. The recipe couldn't have been yummier! AND I actually got most of my family to eat it...which is always a bonus in our house. The recipe called for chopped walnuts which was an optional ingredient, but I chose to add it to the chicken mixture to try it out. I felt like it was a nice addition as it gave it a light crunchy texture to the roll-ups. Another ingredient that's listed was chopped celery. I didn't have any of that on hand so I of course left it out. We didn't notice the ingredient missing. But I think the next time I make these, I'll add it. I think it will give a good flavor balance to the walnuts and mushrooms. I used a Cream of Chicken and Herbs soup instead of the regular Cream of Chicken. Since it was being used as the gravy, I wanted it to have more flavor than the regular soup. But both flavors are also very good. Also, 2 cans of canned chicken can also be used when you are in a hurry or don't have leftover cooked chicken. Serve with your choice of side dish. A nice, colorful green salad works and looks really good.

Crescent Chicken Roll-ups

6 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/8 teas. pepper
2 cups cooked chicken
1 (4 oz.) can of mushrooms, diced
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup celery, chopped (optional)
2 cans of refrigerated Crescent rolls
1 can Cream of Chicken & Herbs soup
1/2 soup can of milk

Preheat oven to 375 F degrees.

Mix first 7 ingredients. Unroll crescent rolls and flatten them into a more even-shaped triangle. Place 2-3 tbls. of chicken mixture on wide end of each piece of dough. Roll up and place each one in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake until roll-ups turn golden brown and dough looks fully cooked. About 15-20 minutes.

In a small sauce pan, pour in Cream of Chicken & Herbs soup with the milk. Stir to combine and warm until the soup resembles a gravy. Pour over rolls and serve.

Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for a friend last month for her birthday. The cupcake recipe itself was too die for! I love making cake batters from scratch now. It's really hard to go back to a box mix once you find some really yummy recipes that turn out really good from home. If you have some good recipes on hand, then you can always make a cake batter whenever you need one. Lemon just happens to be one of my most favorite cake flavors and when I came across this recipe, I had to try it. Especially when I saw that it had buttermilk as one of its ingredients.

The flowers on top of these cupcakes are made from melting candy chocolates. The were so easy and of course, my mind flooded with tons more ideas for future chocolate creations. I saw the idea online on one of favorite baking blogs. Here's the link for the instructions: http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2008/05/wow-your-mom-on-mothers-day.html You should scroll through her blog and see all the cute stuff she creates. Clicking on the blog title will bring you back to the most current post and scroll from there.

Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes

1 1/4 cups cake flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teas. salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk (Note: Buttermilk is better with the lemon extract or use whole milk with 1 teas. vanilla extract for a plain white cake.)
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 teas. lemon extract

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners or grease two 9" cake pans.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl with a whisk attachment at medium speed, cream butter and sugar together until soft and creamy. Add in 1/2 of milk and egg mixture. Mix until combined. Slowly add in 1/3 of flour mixture and alternate with milk mixture and flour mixture until the batter is thoroughly combined and homongenous. Finally, give the batter another 2 minutes of mixing to make sure all lumps have been removed. Divide the batter into the cupcake liners or cake pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes for cupcakes and 30-35 minutes for 9" cake pans. Bake until a light golden color and test with a toothpick to make sure the insides are completely baked. Transfer to a cooling rack. Make sure that cakes are cooled before frosting.

Lemon Buttercream frosting

3/4 cup softened butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl until smooth.

Green Chile and Chicken Enchiladas

These enchiladas were quite heavenly. And with very little heat behind them, the kids even ate them. I've seen several different recipes over the years for these, but never actually kept any of them. So I basically put these together using ingredients I thought would be quite tasty. I hope you like them just as much as we did. The only complaint I received from my hubby was, "they were real good, but I would have like some jalapenos on mine". So with that said, you jalapeno lovers out there may want to have a small can on hand for a dinner like this.

Green Chile and Chicken Enchiladas

3 chicken breasts, boiled and shredded
1 pkg. corn tortillas
1 jar Herdez brand green Salsa Verde (use 1 cup)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese (plus more for top)
1 small can green chiles (or jalapenos)

Preheat oven to 375 F degrees.

Boil chicken breasts in water for 15 minutes or until they are no longer pink inside. Meanwhile, in a medium mixing bowl, add 1 cup of Salsa Verde, soup, mayonnaise, cheese and green chiles. If mixture is too dry, add 1/2 cup of sour cream or more Salsa Verde. The mixture should look more creamy than meaty.

Warm package of tortillas in it's plastic bag for 30 seconds in the microwave. Remove and scoop about 1/4 cup of mixture on each tortilla, roll and place in baking dish. Once the baking dish is full, spread any extra mixture over top and more shredded cheese. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted and the inside is bubbly. Serve warm with a side salad or Mexican rice.