Trading Chocolate Cake for Tamales!

Today I made the best trade ever! A few years back I went to my friend's house to make tamales with her for Thanksgiving. This year I didn't even wait for the invitation, I messaged her last week to see what time I should be there! "How about 6?!" she replied with excitement. And then our countdown to tamales began!

Today finally came and I made a chocolate cake to give her & her family as a "thank you" for the tamales. I baked my favorite chocolate cake recipe, which is the moistest, creamiest, chocolate bundt cake around!

VIEW RECIPE

It's super easy to make:

Mix the first 7 ingredients (chocolate cake mix, sugar-free instant chocolate pudding mix, eggs, egg substitute, low fat sour cream, unsweetened applesauce, and water).

The batter will be extremely fluffy and creamy!

Next, stir in the chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into a greased bundt pan and smooth it out.

Bake.

Let it cool for at least 10 minutes, and then remove it from the pan.

TIP: Before removing the cake from the pan, I use a spatuala to carefully separate the cake from the pan. I go around the edges and then around the center. The cake is very springy and doesn't usually break during this process.

TIP: Use a bread knife to carefully even out the bottom of the cake if needed. This will help it sit evenly and will also give you some cake to sample. 

Carefully flip it over so that the evened out portion is on bottom and the rounded part is on top. Then sprinkle confectioner's sugar (aka powdered sugar) on the top.

Don't forget to sprinkle some powdered sugar on your scraps too!

TIP: When I'm baking someone a cake as a gift I like to buy a bakery container to put it in. Most stores with a bakery inside will sell you a box or container. Depending on the store and the box, the price ranges from 50 cents to a couple of dollars. To me it's worth the extra dollar or so to give a presentable cake to someone special. 

This is a FANTASTIC chocolate cake recipe because it's creamy, moist, fluffy, and chocolaty--while at the same time not being too rich. It's pretty much everything you'd ever want in a chocolate cake! It doesn't even need frosting!

... Ok enough about my delicious cake. On to my friend's delicious tamales!!!

When I arrived, my friend had already prepped the meat and her husband had prepped the masa. Last time that I was there they taught me how to do those things. One thing that I specifically enjoy about cooking with my friend's family is that they teach me about the traditions of their culture. For example, her husband explained to me that the person who hand-mixes the masa is the only one to mix it. The other people can help make the tamales with it, but only that one person mixes the dough. Another interesting thing that my friend explained to me was how the tradition varies in Mexico vs. the U.S. For example, at my friend's house we made a giant pot of about 80-100 tamales. But in Mexico the pot would have been 2-3 times bigger with a divider to separate the various types of tamales, and would have been cooked outside because it'd be too large to cook on a stove! All the women in the family would prepare the tamales together because there'd be so many to make! Such heart-warming traditions, and the thought of 200 tamales at a time made me want to hop on a plane to Mexico so I could cook tamales with the women there! What an amazing cultural tradition! It reminded me of the times when I was a kid, helping my Papou cook Dolmades in his kitchen--I could eat about 200 of those too!

As mentioned, my friend and I made about 80-100 tamales! We filled them with shredded chicken and homemade salsa verde! Yum!!! Her husband had gone a little overboard with the masa (like I did with my soups the other day!), so we joked that we'd be there making tamales all night. It actually only took us about an hour or so. They're pretty quick to make once you get going, especially when you have a friend to chat with while you work. They'd already made about 50 sweet tamales before I even got there, plus the 80-100 that we made... We were in tamale heaven!!!

This really happened!

TIPS:

- Keep the tamale sizes the same--even when you grab a large husk. I asked her if I should make the bigger husks into bigger tamales. She laughed a warm laugh. The kind of laugh that was filled with fond memories. Then she explained that her mom used to laugh at her for doing the same thing when she was a kid! It made me smile to think that I'm the next in line of a long tradition of learning something that's been passed down. Maybe in the future I'll be making tamales with my kids and will laugh at them for making bigger tamales in the bigger husks...

- How to know when they're done: When you open the husk and the masa doesn't stick to the husk, it's done. The tamles may need to cool for a minute so the masa can become more dry/firm, but as long as the masa doesn't stick to the husk they're considered done.

A few hours later, after my friend and I had eaten a few piping hot tamales each, I packed some into a container to head home. My friend saw my container and laughed, "oh no you need to take more!" And she loaded up a grocery bag with both types of tamales! She didn't have to twist my arm!  I drove home with my front seat full of tamales!

I've got a lot of great foods in store for tomorrow, but it doesn't even matter what I make because we're having HOMEMADE TAMALES!!! I baked my friend a phenomenal chocolate cake, but if you ask me, I got the better end of the deal!

Soup's On!

I got a little soup crazy this weekend! With colder weather heading our way, I thought that soup would make the perfect "go to" meal! I rolled up my sleeves and spent about a day cooking two batches of veggie broth and seven batches of soup! 

Bowtie Veggie Soup; Corn Chowder with Lima Beans; Chipotle Black Bean Soup

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Last year I had also pre-packaged a bunch of soup, but I made two mistakes:

1. I made only one kind of soup at a time

2. I stored it in large containers

This meant that whenever we wanted soup we had to commit to eating that same soup for a whole week straight!

This year I invested some extra time to improve my set-up: I made four different kinds of soup and put them in small-medium sized containers. Now whenever we want a quick, hot meal we can heat up exactly what we're wanting for that meal. I'm excited because this will be perfect for the winter weather and will be a lot healthier than store-bought soups or freezer meals--not to mention how much better homemade soups taste!

Here's what I did:

First I made the broth. Fresh, homemade broth sounds intimidating, but is actually SUPER easy to make! You basically heat a couple of Tablespoons of olive oil in a giant pot and then add onion, garlic, and a bunch of chopped veggies (celery, carrots, potatoes, etc.)...

After they've cooked in the oil for about 5 min., add some parsley, peppercorns, bay leaves (make sure to remove these at the end), 12-15 cups of water, and salt to taste. Something I love about homemade veggie broth is that it has no preservatives and it has a ton less salt than pre-packaged broth! I don't even add salt and it's still flavorful and delicious!

Next, bring the broth to a boil and let it cook uncovered over a med-low heat for about an hour or so. It'll look kind of like dishwater, but don't worry, it'll taste delicious! Yields about 10-12 cups of broth!

TIPS: Squash the veggies in a strainer to get the juice from them. 

After I've strained the broth, I set aside the carrots and potatoes to add them to some soups.

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While the broth is cooking, I chop the veggies for my soups and put them into various bowls so that they'll be ready to go when the broth has finished cooking.

I made four kinds of soup and doubled three of the batches. This took about 2.5-3 batches of broth. If I had any leftover broth I would have pre-measured and froze it. TIP: Be sure to double and triple check that you have everything you need for your soups before embarking on this soupy endeavor!

The soups I made:

- Corn Chowder with Limas (double batch)

- Bowtie Veggie (double batch)

- Creamy Tortilla (single batch, but I would have doubled it if I had more broth, containers, and freezer space)

- Chipotle Black Bean (double batch, but I should have tripled it! YUM!)

I'm not going to include the recipes because I got them all from the same cookbook, but I will give you the name of the cookbook: Quick-Fix Vegetarian, by: Robin Robertson. I highly recommend it because it contains a lot of awesome recipes!  I'll also tell you what I did for each that was different than the recipes in the cookbook:

- Tortilla Soup: I used cilantro in place of parsley, and I added extra avocado. I also added black beans and corn to give it some texture and to make it a Tex-Mex kind of soup. It was delicious! My husband commented on how he liked that it had beans and corn in it instead of being just a creamy broth with tortilla strips.

TIP: Leftover toasted tortilla strips get kind of stale, so I recommend toasting fresh ones while you reheat the leftovers.

- Corn Chowder with Limas: I used unsweetened almond milk in place of the soy milk. I added extra potatoes too! Potatoes give the soup a thick and smooth texture when added to the food processor/blender.  I pureed a little more than the recommended 2 cups to get the texture I wanted. I also ditched out on the pimentos (yuck!) and added a little cayenne pepper for some kick. It was delicious!

Before stirring in the cayenne pepper

- Chipotle Black Bean: I added extra carrots and a can of green beans. I also added extra chiles, some cilantro and lime, and some potatoes. I like to add potatoes because it thickens the soup nicely when blended. The finished product ends up more like a vegetarian chili than a soup! In fact, my husband has notified me that he's officially going to refer to it as chili instead of soup! It's one of our favorites! We eat it with sharp cheddar sprinkled on top, a dollop of sour cream, and either tortilla chips or crackers! Yum!

TIP: Chipotle chiles in adobo sauce aren't very spicy but they can be pretty strong, so be careful when adding them. 

- Bowtie Soup: I added a bunch of veggies, such as carrots, potatoes, green beans, etc.! It ends up being more of a stew than a soup! This one is my favorite! I eat it with either fresh bread or crackers. You can never go wrong with fresh soup and bread!

TIP: Be careful that you're aware of how many red pepper flakes you're adding to the soup! It can get spicy pretty quick, and the red pepper flakes continue adding heat--even after the soup is done cooking!

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TIP: These are all vegetarian recipes, and are delicious as veggie soups, but if you feel the need you can always add meat to yours.

The cookbook where I got these recipes is called, Quick-Fix Vegetarian, by: Robin Robertson; ISBN-13: 978-0740763748 I highly recommend it! There are SO many great recipes in it--not just soup and broth, but hummus and other amazing snacks and dishes! And they're all quick and easy to make!


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Still to come:

- Thanksgiving!!! I'm in charge of making several signature dishes and family recipes this year! I'll also be making the turkey for my first time! Tune in for some great recipes, photos, and laughs!

- Homemade Pizza! The weekend following Thanksgiving weekend is when I'll be making pizza with my friends! It's going to be amazing! It'll be well worth the anticipation!

- Requests??? On the left side of my site you'll see a survey where you can vote for the types of recipes you'd like to see more of! I want to post what you want to read, so please take a moment to vote! 

Blueberry Coffee Cake!!!

It's finally Saturday!!! Last night I fell asleep thinking about blueberry coffee cake! When I awoke I couldn't wait to start on the project! I have made several coffee cakes before, but never this recipe and never a blueberry one.

What caught my interest about this recipe (besides that it was coffee cake with blueberries) was that it contained cream cheese. It made me wonder if it'd resemble a cream cheese danish, which meant I definitely had to try it! What also peaked my curiosity was that it didn't contain brown sugar. The other coffee cakes I've made contain brown sugar in the crumbly topping, so I wasn't quite sure how a coffee cake without brown sugar would turn out. With these two things grabbing my attention, I decided to give the recipe a try!

View Recipe

... The coffee cake turned out fluffy, creamy, and absolutely fabulous! It had just enough blueberries to add zing, but not enough to be overwhelming. It was sweet, but not too sweet. The combination of cream cheese, feathery cake, juicy berries, and crunchy topping created the perfect variety of textures!

The cake was soft and springy with pockets of cream cheese and blueberries. The topping, without brown sugar, created a thin layer of crust--which added a slight crunch and held in the warmth.

This recipe is definitely a keeper!

After stirring in the blueberries and cream cheese cubes

After sprinkling the topping in an even layer over the cake batter

The top layer becomes a thin crust after it's baked

Pockets of cream cheese and blueberries

The perfect combination of textures!

TIP:
- Promise half of your cake to friends, neighbors, or coworkers if you're in the baking mood but don't want a whole coffee cake calling your name every time you open the fridge.



What I'll do differently next time:
- I'll add more cream cheese and/or I'll make the cubes smaller. I'll also make sure to stir them in one at a time so they'll distribute more evenly and so they don't clump together. The goal being to have cream cheese in more bites.







Still to come:
- I also made some soups today, but I will post those later this week.
- Thanksgiving food!
- Make your own pizza!

Biscuits and Gravy!!!

You're going to be amazed when you find out how easy this delicious breakfast is to make! You might even start cooking breakfast for dinner!

View Recipe

What you need:
* 1 package pork sausage

* 6 Tablespoons butter
* 6 Tablespoons flour
* 3 cups milk
* Pepper to taste

* 1 tube of southern style biscuits

What to do:
1. Bake the biscuits as directed on the package.

2. Cook the sausage in a frying pan. Then drain it and put it on a plate covered in paper towels to help remove the grease.

3. In a separate pan, combine the flour and butter until they make a paste. Then add the milk and an even layer of pepper. Continue stirring over medium heat until the gravy thickens.

(This is just after adding the milk. After this I stir it with a whisk until it becomes smooth and thickens.)

4. Add the cooked sausage and stir.

5. Serve the biscuits and gravy together.

These Biscuits and Gravy are extremely delicious and easy to make! They're guaranteed to become one of your favorite family traditions--whether it be once a week or on special occasions! 

TIPS:
- I use a whisk when stirring the butter/flour with the milk. It helps to make the gravy smooth.






Still to come: 

- Blueberry Coffee Cake this weekend!

- More soups & breads--perfect for this cold weather!

- Make your own pizza!!!

Oatmeal Flax Pumpkin Muffins!

As promised, this weekend I set out to make pumpkin muffins! For day-to-day sweet treats I try to make healthier options, so I found a recipe for Oatmeal Flax Pumpkin Muffins online. Whenever I make a recipe for the first time I try to stick to the original recipe before deciding on what to change about it. The exception to this is when there is something I'm certain I'd like to do differently. For today's recipe I changed a few things around.

View my version of this recipe

Here are some helpful baking TIPS that I've learned over the years, and applied when baking these muffins:

1. Get all ingredients out before starting. It's a good way to double check that you have everything before starting.

2. Measure all dry ingredients first so that you don’t have to use two of every measuring spoon/cup. 

3. In one bowl, thoroughly mix all dry, powdery ingredients (ie. not nuts, raisins, chocolate chips, etc.) with a whisk. In a separate bowl, thoroughly mix all wet ingredients with a mixer. Then gradually add the dry mix to the wet mix while mixing with a mixer. The purpose of this is to keep the ingredients and texture consistent. Usually any nuts/choc. chips/raisins, etc. get stirred in with a spoon afterwards. Be sure to gradually add them instead of dumping them in. It’s all about keeping the batter consistent. Note: Sugars usually count as wet ingredients unless specifically mentioned otherwise.

4. Applessauce, flax, and chia can be healthy substitutes for various ingredients.

The muffins turned out well! They are SUPER moist and you can simultaneously taste the pumpkin, oatmeal, and applesauce! They are not very sweet, so if you are in the mood for a pumpkin muffin that resembles more of a cupcake, these aren't what you're looking for. These taste more like a pumpkin-flavored bran muffin. If you're looking for a "healthier" version of a pumpkin muffin, these are a great choice! They're pumpkiny, moist, and have a great texture!

Enjoy!

Up and coming:

- Next weekend: Blueberry Coffee Cake!!!

- I'm still experimenting with chia and trying to find a post-worthy recipe. I've recently received one from my sister that I'm going to try out within the next few weeks. I'll post about it once I've tried it.

- Later this week: Biscuits and Gravy! I actually made them this morning, but I don't want to be obnoxious with two posts in one day. I'll wait until mid-week to post it. Then you can make them on Saturday morning! Start counting down the days because you and your family are going to LOVE them!!!

Made this morning!

- Further down the road: Great hang-out recipe/activity--Make your own pizzas! I'll post instructions, photos, and TIPS for this in a few weeks. Keep checking back in!

This is an actual pizza I've made! YUM!