Broccoli Cheese Soup

I wanted to try a Broccoli Cheese Soup that didn't have processed cheese in it. This recipe from My Kitchen Cafe was really good and I love the taste of the swiss cheese in it.

(I had already eaten half my bowl when I thought to take a picture and Ashton decided to help me stir the cheese in as I took the picture)

Broccoli Cheese Soup

1 can chicken broth (about 1 3/4 cups of broth)
1 small onion, diced

1/3 c. flour
1/4 c. butter
Pepper to taste (about 1/2 teaspoon)

2 c. milk
1 1/2 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 c. shredded swiss cheese
3 c. steamed chopped broccoli florets

Simmer chicken broth and chopped onion for 15-20 minutes in a covered small saucepan, until onions are soft. Heat milk in microwave for 1-2 minutes. In a separate medium-sized stockpot, melt butter then add flour and pepper. Cook together for a couple of minutes, then whisk in warmed milk. Stir and heat together on medium-high heat until soup starts to thicken. Next add chicken broth and continue to stir until well blended. Add cheeses and steamed broccoli. Serve immediately.

Chocolate Drizzled Caramel Popcorn

This is what I made for neighbor/friend gifts this year. It's cheap and you can make alot of it at once. I made 5 batches of this recipe.

Chocolate Drizzled Caramel Popcorn
Ingredients
• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 quarts popped popcorn (1 c. unpopped)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Place popcorn in a very large bowl.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat.
Place in two large shallow baking dishes and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely. Drizzle chocolate over cooled popcorn and let set.

*Add 1 t. to your chocolate chips when you melt them. You can also add nuts, candy, pretzels or anything else you want to the popcorn.

River City (Portland) Clam Chowder

Wow! I loved this clam chowder. I had an issue with the potatoes (see notes after recipe) and after searching for the recipe again I found another blogger with the same issue I had. But I'm sure I will be making this again soon.

River City (that’s Portland) Clam Chowder

From: Your Homebased Mom

8 slices pepper bacon, diced (I use a whole pound) (I used 1lb of normal bacon since that's what I had on hand and added pepper while it was cooking)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 cup celery (2 large stalks), chopped
1/2 cup flour
4 (6 oz.) cans chopped clams or 2 cups fresh clams, shucked

3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 cups whole milk
1/2 cup half and half
salt and white pepper (I have used black pepper also, just effects the color of the soup)

In a large pot over medium high heat, cook bacon until browned. Drain grease. Add butter, onions and celery to pot and cook over medium heat until softened and onions are translucent.

Add flour and cook 3 minutes, stir constantly.

Drain clams and reserve liquid in a 1 pint measuring cup. Add enough water to clam liquid to equal 2 cups.

Add this liquid slowly to mixture in pot, stirring constantly. Add potatoes and bring mixture to boil. (**see notes below)Reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add clams, milk and half and half. Heat until thickened, being careful not to boil or burn. Add salt and pepper and serve. (I usually make the day ahead and refrigerate, it gets a little thicker this way)

**After adding the 2 c. of liquid what was left was a really thick consistancy and so there was no liquid to boil the potatoes in. I ended up adding a total of 2-2 1/2 c. water so that there was liquid to boil the potatoes in and to keep everything from burning and sticking to the pot. In doing so my chowder wasn't thick but it still tasted great. Next time I'm going to boil the potatoes in a seperate pot in the clam juice liquid and then add all of it to the pot or I'll cook them in another pot with water and drain and add the potatoes when it's time. Not sure yet. But then I'll be able to control how thick I want the chowder and if it's too thick I'll add water.

Key Lime Pie Cupcakes and a Birthday Cake

My aunt's birthday party was a Fiesta Theme and I was asked to make a cake using bright green, pink and yellow and a sombrero. I still wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do for the cake until the night before and I think it turned out pretty good. I didn't have much time to put it all together so Matt helped me make everything on the cake. He's a pro at cake decorating.

I decided to make these Key Lime Cupcakes to go with the cake and fiesta theme. They have a filling in the middle and everyone loved them. I really liked them too except next time I think I'll use a cream cheese frosting or maybe a glaze type frosting. I thought the whipped cream on top was too light and didn't seem right on the cupcake for me. But nobody else complained and they were gone quick.

Key Lime Pie Cupcakes

Wendy Paul - 101 Gourmet Cupcakes

• 1 box white cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 1 c. half and half
• 6 T. key lime juice (I used regular lime juice)
• 1 c. sweetened condensed milk
• 1 recipe whipped cream (below)
• 4 T. grated lime peel (3 limes)

Mix together cake mix, eggs, half and half and 3 T. key lime juice. Pour 1-2 T. batter into each paper liner. In a separate bowl mix sweetened condensed milk and the rest of the lime juice. Evenly divide lime milk into batter-filled cups. Top with remaining batter and fill 3/4 full.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly. Remove from oven and cool completely on wire rack.

Whipped Cream:

• 2 c. heavy whipping cream
• 1/4-1/2 c. powdered sugar

Pour cream into a large mixing bowl and start mixing on low speed. Gradually increase speed until cream thickens and soft peaks form.

Turn off mixer and add sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Frost with whipped cream and grate lime peel.

Coconut and Banana Cream Pie

This is a recipe I've used before for coconut cream pie. This time I wanted to try it with a normal pie crust and a graham cracker crust since I prefer the graham cracker crusts. I also did the same with the banana cream pie. Most of the pie was gone when I remembered to take pictures so my mom took these of what was left of the pie. I love Marie Calendar's coconut cream pie but this is so much better!

Coconut Cream Pie

• 3/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups milk, scalded
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
• 1 cup coarsely shredded fresh coconut
  
• (I use 2 c. (1 3/4 c. in pie and 1/4 c. on top); I also toast it in the oven)
  
• 1 baked 10-inch pie shell
• 4 cups whipped cream

Preparation:

Combine cornstarch, sugar and salt; mix well. Gradually stir scalded milk into cornstarch mixture. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and boil for two minutes, or until thickened and shiny. Add a small amount of the hot mixture to eggs and beat until well blended. Return to pan and beat for two minutes over medium heat until slightly thickened, being careful not to let mixture curdle. Remove from heat and add vanilla and butter, mixing until smooth. Place plastic wrap directly over filling; set aside to cool.
Add coconut extract and half the coconut to the cooled pie filling. Pour filling into pie shell; chill. Spread whipped cream over pie, mounding in center. Sprinkle with remaining coconut. Coconut cream pie recipe makes one 10-inch pie.

(To make a Banana Cream Pie omit the coconut and coconut extract and layer sliced banana's and the cream filling)

Graham Cracker Pie Crust

2 C. Graham Cracker Crumbs
1 stick butter, melted
2 T. sugar

Mix sugar and crumbs. Add butter and mix with fork until combined. Press in 10-inch pie pan and up the sides. Bake at 325 for 10 minutes. Cool.

Creamy Shrimp and Mushroom Pasta

Kaleb has never complimented my cooking as much as he did when I made this. He LOVED this dish (minus the mushrooms). He's always loved shrimp but he's not much of a sauce person. So I was crossing my fingers he would like it. He kept saying, "this is just so good, mom" as he was eating it. Ashton wasn't a fan of the shrimp but he loves mushrooms so it was a hit for him.

Creamy Shrimp and Mushroom Pasta
From: Chaos In The Kitchen

* 1 (8 oz) package fettuccine or linguine (I only had thin spaghetti on hand)
* 10 tbsp butter, divided (I know, but I’ve tried it with less and it’s just not the same)
* 8 oz fresh, sliced mushrooms (I used more than this because I love mushrooms)
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
* 3 oz cream cheese, cut into small pieces
* 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
* 1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped (you can use dried herbs if that’s all you have)
* 2/3 cup boiling water (from your noodle pot)
* 1 lb cooked shrimp (feel free to buy frozen-gasp!)

1. Boil and salt a large pot of water and cook your pasta. I usually only use about half of an 8 oz box, preferring fewer noodles.
2. While your pasta is cooking, cook your shrimp if necessary and reserve. If your shrimp are pre-cooked and frozen, quickly thaw them under running water.
3. In a large skillet melt 2 tbsp of butter over medium heat and saute mushrooms until soft and brown. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Reserve cooked mushrooms and melt remaining butter in the skillet. Add minced garlic, cream cheese, and herbs. At this point, I generally feel like something has gone terribly wrong. The cream cheese doesn’t really melt and starts to look almost curdled, don’t worry about it! It will all smooth out and be wonderful when we add the water. I promise.
5. Simmer cream cheese mixture until well blended. Get a scoop of boiling pasta water from your noodle pot and mix it in, stirring quickly to smooth out the sauce.
6. Keep sauce hot and add shrimp and mushrooms, mix well and make sure everything is hot-you wont ruin this sauce by accidentally boiling it so don’t worry.
7. Toss sauce with cooked noodles and serve.

I'll have to try more pasta dishes with cream cheese in them. I've never used it before in a sauce but it made the sauce really creamy. I've heard that Olive Garden uses it in their Alfredo sauce and that would make sense because it's the same thick, creamy texture.

I also made a cupcake cake from a mold a couple of weeks ago for a birthday. The mold was easy to use. The bottom section was chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache frosting and the top was strawberry cake with a cream cheese buttercream frosting.

Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars

I took these bars (along with these cheesecakes) to a church activity and everyone loved them. I've made them twice now and I'm sure I'll be making them again.
The recipe is from My Kitchen Cafe which is probably my favorite food blog to get recipes from. The only thing I changed is that the recipe said to use softened butter but usually when making a crust that you cut butter in with a pastry blender you use really cold butter. So I used cold butter and it worked perfectly. You could probably do either way though. (And I also didn't put nuts in but I'm sure they would taste good in them.)

Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars

• 2 1/3 c. Flour
• 1/4 t. salt
• 2/3 c. brown sugar
• 3/4 c. butter (1 1/2 sticks)
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
• 1 c. coarsely chopped nuts (optional)
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 package toffee bits, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9X13 pan with aluminum foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Whisk together flour, brown sugar, and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or fork until the mixture is crumbly. Add eggs and mix well with a wooden spoon or your hands. Mix in 1 1/2 c. of the chocolate chips and the nuts. Set aside 1 1/2 c. of the dough mixture. Press the remaining dough into the prepared 9X13 pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Pour the sweentened condensed milk evenly over the crust. Top with all but 1/3 of the toffee bits. Place pieces of remaining dough over the top. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 c. chocolate chips. Bake for 25-30 more minutes, or until golden brown. Sprinkle the remaining toffee chips on top. Cool completely before serving.