Happy Birthday Hubbs (belated post)

The Hubbs Birthday was early in May and I totally forgot to post about the absolutely insanely delicious birthday cake that I made for him. His favorite is Red Velvet. We both LOVE the Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory. I can bake Red Velvet Cake and I can bake a cheesecake-how hard could it be to put the two together? Not hard at all-just really time consuming!

But sooooo worth the time and effort! I started this cake at around 6ish and here is The Hubbs blowing out the candles at around 11ish! You may be wondering about the candles, I goofed and got an 8 instead of a 9! Dork move on my part! But I used 9 singles instead (hehehe)

Doesn’t that look delicious?!! I didn’t feel like shaving white chocolate so I took a short cut and used white chocolate chips. Both cakes (cheese and red) were made from scratch.

Got the recipe from Erin’s food blog see the link below.

Red Velvet Cheesecake from Erin's Food Blog

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Enchiladas ::Reicpe::

Before learning to make Enchilada's the right way, I thought the kind you make from the Old El Paso box kit were the BOMB! I was having a conversation with a friend and some of her family of whom are Mexican and can cook their faces off! Her Mom makes this potato salad-Oh eM Geee!

 It's so good....ok ok back to enchiladas.....I explained to them how I made Enchiladas and they had a good laugh. The next day my neighbor bought over a plate of REAL enchiladas. Folks when I tell you it was an tastebud party going on in my mouth- no lie. She'd bought over enough for me to share w/ the Hubbs but for some reason when he got home from work I couldn't remember where I'd put it.  Darn kids musta got to it!  Needless to say, I have never bought another Old El Paso Box Kit!! I hounded and begged asked her for the recipe and of course it's one of those "I don't know the measurement" type of situations. I told her just gimme' the ingredients, basic instructions and I'll make it do what it do!

Though I no longer buy the box kits the canned green enchilada sauce works great!

Fry your corn tortillas until brown, they will pucker and swell and that’s okay.

First put down a layer of tortillas. I always make them in my Pampered Chef Rectangle Baker

 It’s AWESOME!

Layer of shredded chicken breast and on top of that, a layer of Muenster cheese.

You’ll do this twice.

So tortillas, chicken, cheese,onions, tortilla's, chicken, cheese....got it?

For the top layer I put just a layer of tortilla’s and more cheese!

Ingredients:
3 Cans Green Enchilada sauce (small cans or 2 large ones)
2 packs of Chicken Breast or any type of chicken meat (I guess about 3 - 3.5 lbs)
1 1/2 pound Muenster Cheese or 2 precut packages
1 small/med onion
18 corn tortillas
Cooking Oil
Sour Cream (optional)
Directions:
Put chicken in a pot with LOTS of seasoning and enough water to boil the chicken. Cook until completely done.
Fry tortilla's until they are brown on both sides your pan till browned on both sides.
Saute Onion
Using two forks shred all of the chicken
Pour all of your enchilada sauce into a large shallow bowl
Dip your tortilla's in the sauce and layer
I add my onions to the middle layer or you can mix it with the chicken throughout
Once your done layering cover with aluminum foil and bake at about 350 degrees for around 20-25 minutes.

Linked up to remodelholic

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Carmely Apple Pie {recipe}

This is one of my favorite pies….easy to make and so yummy with French vanilla or vanilla bean ice cream. My apple recipe is from my Gran Gran who measures by, “a pinch of this, a dollop of that, and about a 1/2 cup of…” and I’ve learned to bake the same way. I can tell you what to use just not reeeeally how much-sorry, my bad!

When I first started baking I wanted to learn to make crusts from scratch,so I called my Gran Gran and asked her for the ingredients and her reply was, “Baby, I don’t know, every since I discovered Pillsbury I just use that”. Gran Gran’s Apple Pie’s are to die for! She bakes big GINORMOUS 15”x18” ones.

One of my favorite kitchen tools is this Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer. Helps me and Gran Gran whip up pies in almost 1/2 the time.

Their handy dandy Baker's Roller is perfect for my pie making needs. I got to check to see if Gran Gran has one of these.

Mix in the sugars

and a little flour, then add apple mixture to your pie pan, top with Carmel and about 2.5 – 3 Tbsp. of butter.

After topping with your 2nd crust don’t forget to brush it with a little egg white/water mixture. Bake at 375 degrees until golden brown and when you tilt it no juices run out.

Ingredients:

3-4 Large Granny Smith Apples

I box Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust

1 tsp. lemon juice

About 1/2 C white sugar

About 1/2 C light brown sugar

1 TBS flour

2.5-3 TBS butter

                                                                  2 TBS Carmel sauce

                                                               1/2 -3/4 TBS cinnamon

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**Deep Fried OREOS**

This past summer my family and I went to a Renaissance Festival and at this festival I experienced DEEP FRIED OREOS! I’d never knew such a delicacy existed! They made them to order HOT and fresh sprinkled with powdered sugar!  I kept saying I was going to give it a try but I thought they’d be too difficult to make at home- NOT. You need five ingredients (well 6 if you count the water needed to make the pancake batter)

I googled “fried Oreo recipe” and found this recipe at Allfoods.com one of the reviewers suggested just using pancake batter! Hey I’m all for quick and easy.

I poured vegetable oil in sauce pan and heated until it was around 350 degrees. Takes about 10-15 minutes.

Dip the Oreos in the pancake batter

I got this egg separator from my days as a Pampered Chef consultant, I’ve only ever used it to separate eggs-look what else it can do!

YUMMY!!! The cookie becomes soft and the icing in the middle melts a little and I love the little bit of crunch from the pancake! I thought about trying fried marshmallow’s-Maybe next time.

I made whole bag of Oreo’s and shared with two neighbors and a coworker.

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Chocolate Chocolate Peppermint Chip Cookies

I’m very excited about these cookies, one because they are soooooo YUMMY and two because I made them up! Yup, this is my first official blog recipe that I, myself created! Christmas is coming up and we always make cookies for Santa and we wanted something a little different, these Peppermint chips by Andes are just the ticket.






Couldn’t resist using my muffin top pan to make a giant sized version-Oh yeah!

Chocolate Chocolate Peppermint Chip Cookies (my own recipe!)
2 C Light Brown Sugar
1 C Sugar
2 Sticks Butter (Softened)
1TBS Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs
3 1/4 All Purpose Flour
3/4 Tsp. Baking Soda
3/4 Tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 C Chocolate Chips
1/2 C Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1/2 C White Chocolate Chips
1 C Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips
Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.
In mixer, mix together butter and sugars until blended well. Add vanilla and eggs.
In separate bowl mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, & salt
Slowly add dry ingredients to sugar mixture.
Add in all three chocolate chips and stir with a spoon.
Pour Peppermint Chips  in shallow bowl or plate
Scoop out a ball of cookie dough, press the top of ball into peppermint chips and set it on the cookie sheet with the peppermint side up.
Bake 10-12 minutes…you want them to come out still a tad gooey. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack to cool.
**Or if you’re like me put them on a plate and scraff em down with milk while they are still hot! Pin It