Friday, March 30, 2012

Pasta Shells stuffed with 3 Cheese filling and topped with Sauce


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I love anything I can smother in Grandpa's Spaghetti Sauce  .  Especially these cheese stuffed shells.  Bill and I (and the kids when they have an open night) have started a new 5K training program called Run For God.  This was the first week of our training.  Bill is in training to run the 5K but I am only walking, no running for me.  It has been really fun to get together 3 nights a week with others and train together.  It has made me get up and do something.  We have been looking forward to training nights.  So on Wednesday night I was looking for something that I could have ready for when we got home from our training.  Even though I usually bake these shells, I thought I would try them in the crock pot.  They came out perfect!

First I boiled my shells

2nd I mixed up the cheese filling

Fill the shells

Yummy

Mix up the sauce and put it all in the crock pot

Pasta Shells stuffed with 3 Cheese filling and topped with Sauce

12 oz Jumbo Shells 

1. Boil shells until al dente (firm to the bite) about 12 minutes


32 oz Ricotta Cheese
1/4 C Parmesan Cheese, Shredded
8 oz Mozzarella Cheese, Shredded, 
2 eggs, beaten

2. In a large bowl mix up the cheese filling

3. Place 1/3 of the cheese filling in a large zip lock bag.  Cut off the corner and fill the shells with the cheese filling, repeat with remaining cheese filling and shells.

4. Mix up Grandpa's Spaghetti recipe (click here for recipe) or you can use ready made spaghetti sauce.  Put the sauce in the crock pot and then layer in your stuffed shells.  Cook on high for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
When ready to serve take out of the crock pot and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese if desired.

If you wish to bake them instead of using the crock pot.  Place 1/3 of the sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan.  Place stuffed shells into the pan, then cover with remaining sauce.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Iced Lemon Pound Cake


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I hope everyone is enjoying the March Madness.  My family sure is.  It was an exciting week having 4 Ohio teams left going into this weekend.  And we are really happy that Ohio State has advanced on.  O H I O

This cake idea came from Pinterest.  It was made by Picky Palate.  She calls it Starbuck's Iced Lemon Pound Cake Copycat recipe.  I changed her recipe because I did not have all the ingredients that she used, but I think mine will be close in taste to her recipe.

The changes I made were using Lemon cake mix in place of the Yellow cake mix, French vanilla pudding in place of the Lemon pudding and I used 1 1/2 tsp lemon extract in place of the lemon juice.  I also used a different icing recipe, mine is more of a glaze.  It is the same recipe I have used on donuts in past posts.

It reminds me of my sunsational cake but it holds together more like bread than cake.  It was really good.  Lemon is one of my favorite flavors, only second to almond.



Iced Lemon Pound Cake
cake recipe adapted from Picky Palate

1 box Lemon cake mix
4.3 oz instant French vanilla pudding mix
1/2 Cup oil
4 large eggs
1/2 Cup milk
8 ounce sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Glaze
2 1/2 Cups powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons Lime Juice
2 Tablespoons melted butter
3 Tablespoons warm water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour 2 loaf pans.  Place all cake ingredients in no particular order in a large mixing bowl.  Beat with mixer until well combined, about 1 1/2 minutes.  Divide cake batter between 2 prepared loaf pans, spreading evenly.  Bake 45-55 minutes, until golden brown.  Remove and let cool for 15 minutes before removing from pans.

Prepare glaze, place all ingredients in bowl and mix until a good drizzling consistency.  Drizzle glaze over cakes and let stand for 20 minutes to firm the glaze.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes


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It has been a busy week so far.  The weather has still been really nice, today it was 86 here in Ohio.  Spring has sprung early, which is a good thing since we have a lot to do before Cally's graduation party.  Hopefully it stays nice because I am planning on tidying up my flower beds and seeing what needs replace on my day off on Friday.  It feels so good to sit outside with the sun on your face.


I was busy last night making these cookies and cream cheesecakes, I made 96 of them and took most of them to the soup kitchen to be served with dinner tonight.


If you like oreo cookies you will enjoy these cheesecakes.  The crust is a whole oreo cookie... yum


And the filling has 9 chopped up oreo cookies mixed in 


Martha Stewart's Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

57 cream filled sandwich cookies, such as oreos,  48 left whole and 9 coarsely chopped
2 pounds cream cheese, room temp
1 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 C sour cream
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.  Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup

With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.  Gradually add sugar and beat until combined.  Beat in vanilla

add eggs one at a time, mixing after each egg.  Beat in sour cream and salt.  Stir in chopped cookies.

Divide batter evenly among cookie lined cups.  Bake for 20 minutes or until cheesecakes are set.  Cool on wire racks and then place in refrigerator for at least 4 hour or overnight.  Garnish with whipped cream and small oreo cookies if desired.

Makes 48 cheesecakes


Saturday, March 17, 2012

BYU Mint Brownies


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Happy St. Patty's Day.... We had another nice spring day in Ohio.  This week the trees have bloomed and boy has my allergies gone crazy.  If you have allergies and live in Ohio you are probably miserable right now.


Bill and Billy worked on the new landscaping today.  They got the grass planted and the flower bed is all done too.  Hopefully soon I will be showing you pictures of grass.

We are going to build a fire pit in the center of this area.  I can not wait for it all to be done so we can build a fire in the evening and just sit out back and relax!


Cally said she was the supervisor today.

Back to these really minty brownies.  This recipe came from the blog, The Girl Who Ate Everything.  The green center icing is mint flavored and then chocolate brownie on the bottom and chocolate icing on the top.  And they were oh so good!

I did make a change in her brownie recipe as I added 1 tsp vanilla and then I also made my own chocolate frosting.  You can make your own frosting or as she said you can use can icing as well.

BYU Mint Brownies
adapted from: The Girl Who Ate Everything

1 C butter, softened
1/2 C cocoa
2 Tbsp honey
4 eggs
2 C white sugar
1 3/4 C flour
1/2 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 C chopped walnuts or pecans (I used walnuts)

Melt butter and mix in cocoa.  Allow to cool.  Add honey, eggs, vanilla, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well.  Add nuts.  Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Cool

Mint Icing
5 Tbsp butter
dash salt
3 Tbsp milk
1 Tbsp light corn syrup
2 1/3 C powdered sugar
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1-2 drops green food coloring

Prepare mint icing: soften butter.  Add salt, corn syrup and powdered sugar.  Beat until smooth and fluffy.  Add mint extract and food coloring.  Mix.  Add milk gradually until the consistency is a little thinner than cake frosting.  Spread on top of the brownies.

Chocolate Icing
2 C powdered sugar
1/3 C milk chocolate chips, melted
1/3 C cocoa powder
6 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

Melt chocolate chips.  Mix together powdered sugar, melted chocolate chips, cocoa powder, vanilla and milk until smooth.  Spread on top of mint layer and enjoy!


shared on Gooseberry Patch

Friday, March 16, 2012

Chocolate Bundt cake with White Chocolate Hazel Nut Icing


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I have another bundt cake for you.  I have been doing a lot of bundt cakes lately because that has been the easiest for me to make for the soup kitchen.  The cakes I made for the soup kitchen this week I did not ice, instead I made chocolate bundt cakes and sprinkled powdered sugar and cocoa powder over them.  I am going to have to make this cake for them in the near future.  It was so chocolaty and super moist.  I just baked a chocolate cake mix and then made my homemade icing.  In the icing I used melted white chocolate chips and Bailey's Hazel Nut coffee creamer...oh was this icing ever good!!  I loved the taste along with the smooth texture.  It was thicker than a glaze but as you can see it did come down the sides a little when I iced the cake.


Chocolate Bundt cake with White Chocolate Hazel Nut Icing

cake:
1 chocolate cake mix and ingredients to make cake

icing:
1 C powdered sugar
1/3 C white chocolate chips, melted
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp Bailey's Hazel Nut coffee creamer

Mix and bake cake according to package instructions.  Cool Cake.

for icing:

Mix all ingredients together and pour over cake.
Sunday, March 11, 2012

Fudge Ripple Cake


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Yum
Today was a beautiful day outside.  It was 70 here in Ohio. 



 Bill and the kids worked outside all day.  In the fall we took down a pool and boy is it a mess where the pool sat.  We had a ton of sand that needed cleaned up and moved so we can get the area ready to plant grass seed.


We are landscaping around the deck and also putting in a fire pit.  As you can see from the date on this picture we started this project in the fall.  Bill blocked off the end of the deck where we use to jump in the pool.


This decorative railing piece was one of my birthday presents.  I just love wrought iron!


We are hoping the weather will stay nice but we do live in Ohio so we still can not rule out a snow storm.

I got this cake recipe from the book Ultimate Cake Mix Book.  I love recipe books that use cake mixes and jazz them up for awesome cakes.  For this cake, you make the cake according to package directions but you use some of the batter adding cream cheese and cocoa powder to make a neat dark chocolate filling.  Then top it off with home made chocolate icing.  These cakes sure are good and easy to make.  


Fudge Ripple Cake

Cake:
1 pkg (18.25 oz) yellow cake mix, plus ingredients to prepare mix
1 pkg (3oz) cream cheese
2 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
Fudge Glaze recipe:
1 C powdered sugar
1 square  (1oz) semi-sweet chocolate
1/3 C unsweetened cocoa powder
3 Tbs milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease and flour a bundt pan, set aside.  Prepare cake mix as package directs.  In a medium bowl combine 1 1/2 C prepared cake batter, cream cheese and cocoa powder until smooth.  Pour half of the yellow cake batter into prepared pan.  Drop spoonfuls of chocolate batter over the yellow batter in the pan.  Top with remaining yellow batter.  Bake for 35 minutes.  Cool completely on a wire rack.  Unmold cake onto a serving plate.  Prepare fudge glaze and pour over cake allowing some to run down the sides.

Fudge Glaze:
Place 1 square of semi-sweet chocolate in small microwavable safe bowl.  Microwave on high for 30 seconds; stir.  Repeat as necessary until chocolate is completely melted, stirring at 10 second intervals; set aside.  In medium bowl combine powdered sugar, unsweetened cocoa.  Stir in milk , vanilla and the melted chocolate.  Stir until smooth.  Drizzle over cake.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Sweet Cole Slaw


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I just love the Lenten season!  That is when we eat a lot of fish and along with fish you have to have Cole Slaw.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Easy Strawberry Pie


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On Saturday I made a strawberry pie, 2 apple pies and a peanut butter sheet cake and donated them to the local fire department in which Cally is a volunteer cadet, for a spaghetti dinner they were sponsoring for a family in our community.

The fire department was holding a dinner and silent auction for Reese.  Reese is a 5 year old boy that has been hurt while on vacation snowmobiling in Michigan.  It happened Super Bowl Sunday and he has been in the hospital since it has happened.  The family has also continued to stay in Michigan with Resse so this fundraiser was to help the family of this precious little boy out.

It was awesome to see the community come together to help out a family in need.  There were so many people for dinner they had to set up tables in the hallway of the school.


The peanut butter cake recipe is here

Easy Strawberry Pie

1 graham cracker pie crust
1  16oz ready to use strawberry glaze
2 lbs strawberries, cleaned and sliced
garnish with cool whip if desired

Mix strawberries and glaze.  Put glazed strawberries in ready made graham cracker crust.  Serve with cool whip if desired.