Saturday, August 29, 2009

Chicken and Cheese Chimichangas

Chicken and Cheese Chimichangas
- Powered by Rhodes from LDS Living Magazie

Your favorite Mexican taste treats have just come home to you and are so easy when you start with convenient frozen dough.

Prep Time: 30 minutes (not including thaw time)
Skill Level: Intermediate
Servings: 12

  • 12 Rhodes Texas™ rolls, thawed and risen
  • 1/4 cup chopped onion
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1-1/2 cups shredded, cooked chicken
  • 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
  • salsa
  • vegetable oil for frying
  • salsa, sour cream and grated cheese, if desired
Sauté onion and garlic in oil. Add chicken and cook over low heat until heated thoroughly. Remove from heat and add cheese. Flatten each roll to a 5-inch square. Spread each square with 2 teaspoons salsa. Spoon 1/4 cup chicken mixture onto half of each square. Fold over the other half and pinch the edges to seal. Pour oil 2 to 3-inches deep into a small sauce pan or an electric frying pan and heat to medium high setting or 375°F. Fry each chimichanga approximately 3 minutes on each side. Serve with salsa, sour cream and grated cheese, if desired.

Variation: Instead of frying, these can be baked at 350°F 20 minutes

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Peant Butter Cup cake

from Kevinandamanda.com

Awhile back, I got a comment on my best chocolate cake (ever!) recipe- someone had added PEANUT BUTTER to the buttercream frosting!! :) I *had* to try it. I knew he’d love it. A chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting?? It’s kind of like an inverted peanut butter cup! :) What more could a chocolate and peanut butter lover wish for??

chocolate-peanut-butter-cup-cake-with-peanut-butter-buttercream-frosting-

I used my best chocolate cake (ever!) recipe- but instead of the two cups of chocolate chips at the end, I used 2 cups of chopped, miniature peanut butter cups. It took almost an entire bag. I tried taking the easy way out and using a food processor, and then my Pampered Chef food chopper (you know… it’s like the Slap Chop! ;)) to chop up the peanut butter cups, but in the end, it was easier to just do it with my trusty old knife and cutting board. Actually the hardest part was unwrapping all of those babies. :p

The best chocolate cake recipe ever:

Ingredients:

1 box devil’s food cake mix
1 small box Jello instant chocolate pudding mix (not the sugar or fat free kind!)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips

All you do is dump everything except the chocolate chips into a very large bowl– A 4 qt bowl is good, but one of those 8 cup mixing bowls is too small! — then mix well with a beater. The batter will be thick!

Then take your 2 cups of chocolate chips and stir them in.

Now, pour your batter into your cake pan of choice. Okay, it doesn’t really pour. It’s very thick. “Scoop” your batter into your cake pan of choice.

I like to bake my cakes in two, 9-inch pie pans. But you could really use this batter to make any kind of cake- sheet cake, cupcakes, bundt cake, etc. It tells you the cooking times for specific cakes on the back of the cake mix box. I use that as a guide. Usually I need to add about 10 mins to whatever they say. I usually end up baking my two, 9-inch pie pans for 45 mins. You definitely don’t want to overbake or it won’t be moist! :) Do the toothpick check, but remember, you may get some of the chocolate from the melted chips on your toothpick so don’t let that fool you. ;)

At first I thought the peanut butter buttercream frosting might be a little rich for me- but let me tell you right now that was THE best frosting I have ever had the pleasure of tasting in my *entire* life. So smooth. So light. Just a hint of peanut butter.


I think I may even like it better than the original vanilla buttercream!! :O Is that legal?? To make it, all I did was make my regular vanilla buttercream frosting and mixed in a 1/2 cup of smooth peanut butter at the end.

Vanilla butter cream frosting recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup shortening (crisco)
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

In a mixing bowl, cream shortening until fluffy. Add sugar slowly and continue creaming until well blended. Add salt, vanilla, and whipping cream. Blend on low speed until moistened. Beat at high speed until frosting is fluffy.

After your cake has cooled completely it’s time to frost it! Don’t forget to put a nice helping of icing between the layers! :)==

In the end, I ended up using 2 *entire* bags of mini peanut butter cups. Almost a full bag for the inside and the rest for the outside. That’s over 100 peanut butter cups in a single cake. Excessive? Extravagant? Over the top? Yes. Divinely delicious? Yes. :D