Pardon My Dust

Christmas is over and the new year is in full swing...I have been cooking, I just haven't been posting.  I am so NAUGHTY.  I have dug up some awesome childhood memory recipes over the last few weeks, but I can't post them until they've been through the rigorous testing process...which means I gotta make 'em and then have someone eat 'em.  Also, one is top secret for a party so I can't post it until the weekend anyway.

In the meantime, we've been making Chocolate Pudding Cake as the standard Sunday Dinner dessert at our house for the last few weeks.  Never had it before?  Think chocolate cake with a layer of hot fudge pudding on the bottom.  And it does that all in the oven without your help.  You can make it Vegan and you will more than likely have all the stuff in your kitchen already, so no trudging out in the snow for ingredients.  And warm out of the oven with a scoop of ice cream? (Moosetracks!!!)  Fuggedaboudit! 

Chocolate Pudding Cake

3/4 cup sugar
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk (you can use soy or almond milk)
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

topping:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 and 1/2 cups hot water

~Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
~Whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
~Mix in the milk, butter and vanilla.
~Spread the batter into a 9x13 pan.
~Mix together the white sugar, brown sugar and cocoa powder.  Sprinkle all the mixture evenly over the cake batter. 
~Pour the hot water over the sugar mixture.
~Bake in oven for 40 minutes.  Don't worry about testing it.  It should look like cake with little pudding volcanoes here and there.
~Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.  Scoop into bowls and serve. 

Danged Quesadillas

I know you can buy tortillas at the store or better yet, buy some fresh ones that you cook yourself from places like Costco or Bajio. But if you have some time to kill and want to impress people, plus know what's in your tortillas, this recipe is the way to go, man! They have canola oil in them instead of the traditional lard (lard is not so muy healthy) and they're super tasty. And they're easier than you might think. Depending on the size you make them you'll get about dozen...maybe more! Enjoy!

Recipe from Stacey Diaz in the San Jose Mercury News.

Flour Tortillas Diaz

4 cups flour (I do half white half wheat flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 cups warm water (not HOT)

1. Mix the dry ingredients.
2. Add oil and mix in with fingers.
3. Mixing with your hands, add water a little at a time, until you get a soft dough.
(You should be able to mix in all the dry ingredients, but the dough shouldn't be sticky.You can add in more flour if you add too much water.)
4. On a floured surface, knead the dough for 2- 4 minutes, adding flour if the dough is sticky.
5. Form dough into a ball, cover with towel and place upside down bowl over dough.
6. Let the dough rest for 15-20 minutes. NOTE: the dough will not rise, this just rests the gluten.
7. Heat ungreased griddle to medium-high.
8. Break off golf-ball sized pieces of dough and flatten into 5 inch circles.
On a floured surface roll out tortillas using a back and forth motion, turning the tortilla 1/4 turn after each roll. Flip the tortilla at least once.
9. Place tortilla on hot griddle and cook till bubbles rise (20-25 seconds).
10. Flip and cook on the other side 20-25 seconds. Finished tortillas will be speckled with brown.
11. Place cooked tortillas in a bowl covered and lined with a towels to keep them warm. When you get good you should be able to roll out a tortilla while one on the griddle cooks.

Mostly Alive...

Seeing as I've got morning sickness, I thought this might be a nice chance to post some of my favorite tried and true recipes from my files. Although I can't guarantee I'll always be in the mood to do so, so I apologize in advance for rather infrequent updates in the next few months.

The other night I just HAD to have sloppy joes. I don't know why, but nothing else would do. And where can you actually just go buy a sloppy joe? So I dug out my favorite recipe and sent my poor husband into the kitchen to make them for me. And they came out as good as ever. We also had some wonderful, summery cucumber salad (vegan!) to go with it that I finished eating for lunch the other day when nothing else sounded good, so I'll post that recipe too. They're both easy and good and perfect for the finicky pregnant lady...and even those who are not.

Dana's Sloppy Joes

(6-8 servings)

1 and 1/2 lbs. ground beef (93% lean or leaner)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon mustard
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste

-Brown ground beef with onion in a skillet.
-Add remaining ingredients and stir well.
-Simmer on low to medium low for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
-If mixture becomes too dry before this point, add 1/4 cup of water and continue simmering
-Serve on hamburger buns.

Cucumber Salad with Dill

2 english cucumbers (2 lbs total)
1 small red onion
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon white or red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons dried dill or 2 tablespoons fresh dill

-Slice the cucumbers lengthwise, scoop out the seeds with a spoon and slice about 1/4 inch thick.
-Thinly slice the onion.
-Put the onion and cucumber in a colander and toss it with the salt.
-Let them sit and drain for 20 minutes. (Don't leave it much longer than that or you will have salty veggies.)
-Press the liquid out of the cucumbers and onions and rinse to remove the extra salt.
-Combine the vinegar and sugar, stir well.
-Put the cucumbers and onions in a bowl and pour the vinegar mixture over them. Toss to coat.
-Stir in the dill.

Ginger+Molasses=True Love

When I was young I could polish off one of those packages of Archway Molasses cookies all by myself. I love, love, love molasses cookies with ginger. Especially if they're soft and chewy. I like the flavor of gingersnaps, but I don't like that they're hard as rocks. I don't enjoy eating things that make me feel like my teeth are going to break off. Maybe that's why we used to call them dangersnaps?

I have had an old standby molasses cookie recipe that I've been using for the last few years and they were good, but not anything special. And they didn't really taste like the Archway ones that I love so much. They needed something else...something extra.

Yesterday I played around with the recipe a little bit and now I think these are my new favorite cookies. They're wonderfully soft and spicy and just completely perfect. I think the key ingredient here is the fresh ginger. It's the first cookie I've made in a long time that's made me say "Wow!" I've added a vegan option as well for people who don't want to use animal products.

An extra added bonus feature is that they taste even better the next day. Enjoy!

(BTW, aren't my vintage 1960's tea service plates fab? Thanks Mom and Dad!)


Chewy Double Ginger Molasses Cookies
(with Vegan version!)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1/2 cup molasses
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced (don't leave this out!!)
2 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon nutmeg
white sugar, demerara sugar (for rolling)

Vegan version:
Replace the butter and shortening with 3/4 cup margarine and replace the egg with 1/4 cup water.

-Cream together the butter, shortening and brown sugar.
-Stir in the egg, molasses and fresh ginger. Mix well.
-In a seperate bowl mix together the remaining ingredients with a fork until well blended.
-Stir the dry ingredients into the butter mixture until well blended.
-Cover and chill until firm, 1-2 hours or longer.
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
-Roll dough into walnut size balls (rounded tablespoons...a cookie scoop will help make portioning the dough faster).
-Roll the balls in sugar. I put the sugar in a mug and shake them around until they're coated.
-For sparkly tops I dipped the top half of the cookie in demerara sugar first (so it will stick better) and then rolled them in regular white sugar.
-Place the cookies on a cookie sheet at least 2 inches apart and flatten slightly.
-Bake for 9-10 minutes. Cookies should look slightly underdone.
-Leave on the cookie sheet one minute to set. Finish cooling on a rack. Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 40 cookies

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Tips:
An easy way to peel fresh ginger is to use a regular teaspoon and scrape the skin off with the tip of the spoon. Easy peasy!