Posts Tagged ‘recipe’
Crazy Dumplings Cookbook with Sample Recipe
April 3rd, 2013 | 
Author: 
Hi! My name is Amanda and I am an American who has been living, writing, and cooking in China for nearly three years. China’s favored dish, the dumpling (or jiaozi in Chinese), can be found on every street corner, in every restaurant, and in every kitchen in China, but they are all pretty much prepared the same way: a bit of meat, some garlic and ginger, and a bit of vegetables if you’re lucky. Even a visit to the freezer section at any grocery store displays hundreds of packages of dumplings that all look and taste the same. 
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Chocolate Romance Cake – Valentine’s Special Recipe
Chocolate Romance Cake Recipe
The title of this cake says it all – this is the perfect Valentine’s Day treat for that special someone in your life. This deep chocolate cake is moist, delicious and will please any chocolate lover.
*Please note: NOT the actual cake
Cooking Time: 35 min
Ingredients
- 2 cups cake flour or 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour, unsifted
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 tablespoons powdered buttermilk
- 9 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons mayonnaise or shortening
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 or 3 8-inch layer pans or 1 9x12x2 cake pan.
- Mix all dry ingredients together. Blend in mayonnaise, eggs, vanilla and 1/2 of sour cream. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed with mixer or 300 strokes by hand. Add remaining sour cream and beat 2 minutes longer. Pour into pans.
- Bake 25 to 35 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on rack a few minutes before removing from pan.
- When completely cool, frost cake.
Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese
1 stick butter
1 box confectioners sugar
A dash or two of cinnamon (optional)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
Cream butter and cream cheese together until fluffy, gradually add dry ingredients one at a time until all are well blended. Add vanilla and blend well.
If you give this recipe a try, let me know. I’d love to hear how you like it!
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What I Love About Fall: Guest Post
What I like about fall
Guest post by Author Vanessa Morgan
The main reason I love fall is because it’s just so… cozy. Fall stands for reading and writing in bed, for endless movie marathons and for the following treats and drinks…
Roasted butternut squash
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel the squash, cut it in half long-ways, remove the seeds and cut them into 1-inch cubes. Grease a baking pan with cooking spray. Place the squash on pan with ½ teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoons cinnamon and toss it around. Bake for 45 minutes (flipping squash at around 20 minutes). Remove squash from oven and add 3 tablespoons maple syrup and 2-4 crushed walnuts. Toss it all together and bake for 5 more minutes.
Spicy pumpkin soup
Cut the pumpkin in half, remove the seeds and cut into cubes. Put 4 red chilies, 4 shallots, 1 garlic clove, 4 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon Szechuan pepper and the zest of two limes in the food processor. Bring 800ml coconut milk to boil. Add pumpkin and mix to pan. Then reduce the heat and simmer until pumpkin is tender. Garnish with Thai basil.
Hot apple juice with cinnamon
Combine 4 cups apple juice, 1 cup water, 1 thinly sliced orange and 1 stick cinnamon in a large saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer; continue cooking for 10 minutes. Strain and serve in warm mugs. Garnish with orange slices.
Pumpkin spice milkshake
Put 1 glass of vanilla-flavored soy milk, 1 banana and 1 tablespoon pumpkin spice in the food processor. Serve chilled. Some people also add canned pumpkin puree.
What do you like about fall? Do you have any favorite fall drinks or treats?
About Vanessa Morgan:
Vanessa Morgan is known as the ‘female version of Stephen King’. Her screenplays, A GOOD MAN and GPS WITH BENEFITS, are currently being turned into movies. She is also the author of DROWNED SORROW and THE STRANGERS OUTSIDE. If she’s not working on her latest supernatural thriller, you can find her reading, watching horror movies, blogging, digging through flea markets or indulging in her unhealthy addiction to her cat. She writes in English, Dutch and French. You can cyberstalk her at her blog and on Amazon.
About Vanessa’s new release, GPS WITH BENEFITS:
Hilarious comedy in which a womanizer test drives a new GPS device, but has no idea it’s one with a mind of ‘her’ own.
GPS WITH BENEFITS is available NOW at:
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
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Baked Potato Soup
It’s SO COLD at my house today. Here’s a great cold-weather recipe to help warm you up!
Baked Potato Soup
Serves: 8
Preparation Time: 5 min
Cooking Time: 20 min
What You’ll Need:
- 5 large baking potatoes
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 quart half-and-half
- 3 cups milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese
- 8 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
What To Do:
- Prick each potato several times with a fork. Microwave 1-inch apart on paper towels at HIGH 14 minutes or until done, turning and rearranging after 5 minutes. Let cool. Peel potatoes, and coarsely mash with a fork.
- Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat; add onion, and saute until tender. Add flour, stirring until smooth. Stir in potatoes, half-and-half, and next 3 ingredients; cook over low heat until thoroughly heated.
- Top each serving with cheese and bacon.
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The George Foreman Grill: Show Us Your Grill Skill Recipe Contest
Grilled Pork Chops
I got to participate in The George Foreman Grill: Show Us Your Grill Skill Recipe Contest. For this, I made our usual Pork Chops, but cooked them on my George Foreman Removable-Plate Grill instead of in the skillet. Very quick and easy recipe I’ve “perfected” over the last year or so. The pork chops cooked even faster on the George Foreman Grill! The removable plates make clean-up amazingly easy. I LOVE quick. We don’t have a lot of time here in the evenings, so every minute we can shave off our time helps so much. We LOVE pork chops & have them at least once a week.
What You Need: (Please note, in recipes that I have kind of invented on my own, I don’t really measure any of my ingredients)
- Boneless Pork Loin Chops (We usually buy a pack with about 8 in it)
- Season All
- Brown Sugar
- Garlic Pepper
- A “Sminch” (Between a smidge and a pinch-VERY little) of Crushed Oregano (optional)
How To Cook:
Plug grill in to warm. Place pork chops on grill. Sprinkle thoroughly with Season-All. Sprinkle a tiny bit of garlic pepper on each chop. Close lid. Cook for about 3 minutes. Open grill. Flip chops. Rub each chop with brown sugar. Sprinkle again with Season-All. Take a pinch of Crushed Oregano and crush over the chops while sprinkling VERY lightly. Close lid. Cook another 3-4 minutes or until done. Enjoy!
I expected the pork chops to come out a bit dry because of the run-off of fat, but I was surprised to find they were only slightly drier than if I had cooked them in the skillet. I REALLY like the fat that they cooked much faster than in the skillet, also!
I’d love to know if you try my recipe how you liked it!
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