S'mores [Layer] Cake

My youngest two girls and I decided we wanted to try something new for dessert on Father's day this year so we came up with this recipe. I made it into a layer cake on the test run, but I would probably go with a simple 9x13, one layer version next time to save time. I may also come up with some other options to make it look a bit prettier in the future.
After making this, I searched online to see if I could put the whole cake under the broiler to give it that toasted look of a roasted marshmallow. I found that you need a cooking torch, but I also saw a s'mores cake recipe that used a graham cracker cake and added whipped chocolate ganache between the layers. I may have to come up with a recipe for graham cracker cake now... 😁

Peaches'n'Cream Tart

We made spinach, ham, turkey, egg, and cheese hand pies for brunch as a family yesterday. Since we're all "stuck" at home together with the "Safer at Home" order in place I figured that we might as well sleep in and then make brunch together. Jared made the filling because he's fantastic at making eggs. Each of the kids took turns helping fill, seal, and brush the pies with egg wash. Then we ate them together with the leftover filling.
Sorry for the rabbit trail. :D
While we were working on brunch, Miss E (my almost 12 yr old) decided that we needed a fruit version. I didn't have enough pie dough ready to make a bunch more hand pies so we decided to make a tart instead. Here's what we did.

[Instant Pot] Mexican Chicken and Rice Soup

I got a phenomenal deal on chicken leg quarters and decided to make Mexican chicken and rice soup. It was perfect on this cold midwestern day. I used a recipe on Allrecipes as a base for my idea but tweaked it a bit for the Instant Pot. Here's what I did:

Moist and Flavorful Roast Chicken Leg Quarters

My kids LOVE chicken legs, but my hubby does not. I came up with this recipe so that we'd have legs for the kids and thighs for the hubby and me. It's super simple and very flavorful. You can make enough for your family, or mass quantities for a big group. I've had several requests from family and friends for this recipe so I figured that I should finally get it posted.

Lemon Lavender Zucchini [Breads, Muffins, or Cake]

Anyone who knows me, knows that playing the mad baking scientist is kind of a stress reliever. With having 4 extra kidlets for 9 days, I decided it was in my best interest to whip up something creative after putting them all to bed one night.

Kaeng Kalampi [Laotian Cabbage Soup]

When I was a kid, my mom worked on a berry farm to earn money for our family vacations. For 3 weeks every June she would leave the house early in the morning and come home in the afternoon Monday-Saturday harvesting strawberries. Several of those years she worked with a family of Laotians and they shared a recipe for cabbage soup with her. We always enjoyed eating, particularly on a cold winter day. It was fairly simple to make and was packed with flavor.

Fast forward 20 years. I decided to make this soup for a special dinner at church where everyone brings a different ethnic dish based on their own heritage or of one that they enjoy. It turned out well enough that my DD who doesn't normally like soup actually asked to have the leftovers for lunch the next day! So without anymore rambling, here is my take in that recipe.

Mexican Chicken Soup

We love Tex-Mex food at our house, which I'm sure you already knew based on the number of times Tex-Mex ends up on the menu. When the kids were really little there was a Mexican restaurant over by my parents that we would sneak away to on dates. It had this delicious Mexican chicken soup that they would serve topped with avocado slices, sour cream, and cheese with chips on the side. It was a favorite of mine and I finally got it mastered using my 8 qt. Instant Pot. It has tons of flavor and is fairly simple with the help of the Instant Pot.

Apple Pork Tenderloin and Baked Potatoes

I made this delicious dish for my hubby's birthday on this year. It was super easy to throw together and cooked up nicely with baked potatoes on either side of my roaster in the oven.

Instant Pot Venison Roast

We love venison. It's a great, iron-packed, lean meat, but it can be difficult to cook. I always struggled with getting that perfect venison roast. You know, the one that's tender and flavorful. My hubby isn't a fan of roasts normally so I usually cut mine up into "steaks" for slow cooker carne asada or into cubes for peppery beef sandwiches.
My aunt came and stayed with us for a few days and brought a venison roast as my uncle is trying to get the freezer cleaned out before hunting season begins again. I decided to make it for supper one Thursday and wanted to try it in my Instant Pot. It turned out beautifully. Everyone had seconds, which is almost unheard of, and my hubby raved about it.

Pork Schnitzel à la Holstein

A few years ago, my hubby and I tried a new restaurant out for Valentine's Day. The restaurant was fantastic, but then, I've come to expect nothing less than that from a Bartolotta restaurant. My hubby had pork schnitzel with arugula, shaved mushrooms, a fried egg, and Foenegreek gouda for his entree and it was delicious. So delicious, in fact, that I had to work at recreating it so we could have it at home with the kids. Here is my version of the Rumpus Room's pork schnitzel.

Texas Caviar Casserole

Tex-Mex is a favorite cuisine in our family. Rice, beans, cumin, chili powder, garlic, cilantro, cheese, etc., it's all good. I love how this recipe combines all those flavors into one big dish. This dish is inexpensive, versatile, full of flavor, and contains a variety of textures. It can be used as a main dish by adding meat to it, a side with or without meat, an appetizer with tortilla chips, breakfast (leftovers topped with eggs and hot sauce), or maybe even a bedtime snack. The vinaigrette can also be used as a marinade or salad dressing for other dishes. It easily feeds 6-8 people.

Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Soup

My husband and I spent 10 days in Israel and Jordan with a group from our church at the end of September. While we were away, two of our kids stayed with my parents and the other two stayed with my oldest sister. The two that stayed with my sister came back with raving reviews of her broccoli soup and begged for me to get the recipe. I finally got the recipe and attempted it tonight with leftover turkey from our Christmas dinner. It was a hit and incredibly easy to throw together!

Buffalo Chicken Pot Pie [Skillet]

Today was National Pi Day 2016 and my hubby suggested that we should have pie for supper, Buffalo Chicken Pot Pie in particular.
It's been at least a year or more since my last attempt and I couldn't find the recipe that I'd used, which meant I must experiment.
Now, it was less than two weeks since my last experimental meal and that had totally flopped (only Mr. R. enjoyed it). I even had a hard time finishing my helping at the time, which just shows how truly terribly it was. With that in mind, I wasn't real excited about experimenting tonight. However, I was pleasantly surprised with how well this dish turned out and will probably start putting it on the menu more regularly. Why? You ask. A few reasons: 1. I love chicken pot pie (even if it's non-traditional), the family loves buffalo chicken wings, and 3. it's a one dish meal and we all know how much I love those (since I really don't enjoy doing the dishes).

Versatile Chipotle Vegetable Chili

We all love Tex-Mex, and chili is a favorite. I have recipes for white chicken chili, traditional tomato based chili, and cowboy skillet (basically chili cooked in a large cast iron skillet topped with cornbread batter and baked). When I saw a recipe for sweet potato and black bean chili I decided to get creative. It was delicious and has become a new favorite for my hubby. I have made it 3 or 4 times and am finally getting the recipe posted for you. The great thing about this dish is it's versatility. You can use whatever veggies you have in the house. You can use up leftover turkey after the holidays. You can even make this recipe for your favorite vegetarian by leaving out the meat and using vegetable stock.

Roasted Quad Pepper Hot Sauce

A few of years ago I stumbled on a recipe for jalapeno hot sauce. My hubby LOVES him some hot sauce and uses it all the time so I decided to give it a try (here's my original version). I made my version a couple of times and we really enjoyed it. However, as time has passed, both of us have developed a taste for spicier foods. This year we planted a couple of new varieties of pepper so I decided to tweak my recipe and roast four different kinds of peppers. I also added some new spices that we discovered thanks to The Spice House. Unfortunately, our peppers this year were not as spicy as they usually are (I'm wondering if the cooler weather played a part in that) so the sauce still wasn't as hot as we would have liked. 

[Gluten Free] Chocolate Zucchini Cake

There are days where I almost feel as if I've got zucchini coming out my ears so I've been working on recipes that use zucchini. I've substituted shredded zucchini for the spinach in my baked meatballs, made up a roasted veggie pasta dish with zucchini, and even made a GF blueberry lemon zucchini cake with lemon cream cheese frosting (which is SO delicious and you can't eve tell that it's GF). When I signed up to bring snacks for a fundraiser, I just knew that I needed to try something with zucchini. Since the fundraiser was a bike ride with three different options (10 mile route, 20 mile route, and 40 mile route), I needed to make a carb-loaded finger food. I opted to play around with my blueberry lemon zucchini cake and make chocolate zucchini cupcakes. Sorry that their isn't a picture but I forgot to take pictures before the fundraiser and they were gone afterward. I will try to get pictures the next time I make it! :)

[Gluten Free] Blueberry Lemon Zucchini Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

[Gluten Free] Blueberry Lemon Zucchini Cake
with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

It's blueberry season around the midwest and zucchini season will be here soon enough. I know I need to finish using up the stuff that is in the freezer from last season as I'll have to make room for this year's harvest. Now, I should probably tell you that I adore anything with lemon - pies, puddings, cakes, etc. I don't think I've ever tried something lemon without loving it. With that in mind, when several of my friends posted a link to I am Baker's blueberry zucchini cake with lemon buttercream on Facebook I knew that I needed to try it.

Creamy Turkey and Rice Soup

We enjoy brining and roasting turkey for Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving since my hubby isn't a huge fan of ham and grilling steak for 6 people isn't as cheap as turkey. The only problem is using up the abundance of leftover turkey. There's only so many dishes that you can throw together, oh so I used to think. I came up with this recipe a few months ago and it has continued to be a big hit with our family. It's an inexpensive meal and my kids usually eat one and sometimes even two helpings without a fuss, which is always great.

[Gluten Free] Blueberry Balsamic Chocolate Cake

The hubby and I really enjoy to cook for and entertain friends, and tonight was no different. We had a

childhood friend of Jared and his sweet fiance down for fittings, a visit, and dinner. They have changed their lifestyles and eating habits in a way similar to us so we wanted to make something delicious and low-carb for both dinner and dessert. We served grilled tuna steaks (chicken for the kids) with mango pineapple salsa and wasabi, wild rice medley, and a garden salad for dinner. It was so good, mostly because my hubby was in charge of the proteins. Miss. E. helped me prep the salad and wild rice medley early in the afternoon so that my portion of dinner prep would be done in advance. That way I could focus on wedding gown and tuxedo fittings, which I think I enjoy a little too much. :)

I knew dinner wouldn't be difficult to do low carb and low calorie, but dessert tends to present more challenges in regard to that. We got some beautiful balsamic vinegars from Fat Louie's while we were on our 10 year anniversary getaway last October and I have been dying to try them in dessert. I looked up a few low carb chocolate cake recipes (because chocolate and balsamic pair really well together) but none of them were just right so I went to the kitchen to play like a mad cooking scientist. :) What I came up with was absolutely delicious. It was decadent, yet it didn't leave you with that feeling in your stomach like you overdid it. The cake was almost fudgy in consistency yet not overly sweet, the blueberries added a nice pop of freshness, and the chocolate balsamic glaze gave it the perfect balance of bitterness, sweetness, and tang to cut through to creamy cake. The best part of all was that it was simple to make. Here's what I did...

Super "D" Brownies

Before you decide to make these, I must pass on the following warnings:

• Do NOT make these if you have little or no self-control as they can be highly addictive. 
• Do NOT make these if you are on a diet. 
• Do NOT make these if you are the only person home for the next 24 hours.
• Do NOT make these unless you plan to take them to or serve them at some sort of get together or party.