Monthly Archives: July 2010

Triple Chocolate Cake

We saw this on-line and couldn’t pass it up… it’s the winner of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Is Your Dessert Intense Enough? contest! Enough said! We also liked the simplicity of ingredients… literally chocolate, butter, eggs and heavy cream. While there are very few ingredients, it is fairly time intensive, so plan accordingly. We made the cake on a Wednesday and froze it until Friday when we pulled it out around noon. We whipped up the ganache frosting around 3:00, frosted the chilled cake and it was perfect when it was cut around 9:00 that night!

Active time: 30 minutes Baking time: 40 minutes Freezer time: overnight

Cake Ingredients:

3 cups Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
8 large eggs, chilled
1/4 teaspoon salt

Ganache Frosting Ingredients:

1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips
2 ounces Ghirardelli White Chocolate baking bar, chilled

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Italian Potato Salad

Some of us really like potato salad, in all it’s many variations. Basically if it has potatoes, it must be good.
But some of us aren’t big fans of mayo, so when a potato salad must be made, we like this lighter, Mediterranean version!

Prep time: 10-15 mins Cook time: 10 mins

ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds red-skinned potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
6 tablespoons olive oil (preferably extra-virgin)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons drained capers
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
8 tablespoons sliced green onions

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Burritos & Wraps

It’s 5:45 on a Wednesday. You’re tired. You just got home from work. And you don’t really want to cook. You had take out yesterday. You don’t really want to go out… so where does that leave you? Well, if you have homemade burritos prepped and waiting for you in the freezer that leaves you ready for a super easy, super delicious dinner in!

We prep these burritos by the dozen… chicken, veggie, and our newest discovery… lamb wraps!

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Lamb Meatballs


Ingredients:

1 pound ground lamb
1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons quinoa
1 egg
olive oil for frying

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Chocolate Beet Muffins

Found the original recipe on this blog, but–big surprise–modified it slightly to its current form. We’re not totally convinced about the awesomeness of this recipe; and not sure we’d even make them again. It got very mixed reviews from our official samplers, but if you really like beets try it out! If you don’t like beets and are wondering what beets are doing in a dessert, then don’t waste your time!

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ tsp salt
¼ cup coconut flour
½ cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
¼ cup olive oil
1-2 tsp pure vanilla extract
¾-1 cup whole milk
2 cups pureed (cooked) beets
some chocolate chips, if you want to add them to the tops of the muffins!

click “read more” for additional photos and the instructions!

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Tortilla Casserole

Taken (and only slightly modified) from the Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant cookbook.
We had tried this before, so we doubled the recipe so we would have leftovers!

Ingredients:

1 medium organic onion
1 roasted garlic clove, minced or pressed
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons olive oil
jar of organic tomatoes, chopped (you can use fresh, just saute longer)

10 sprouted tortillas

1/2 pint organic heavy cream
1/3 cup grated parmesan
salt and ground pepper to taste

1/2 cups grated organic Monterey Jack cheese

Prep time: 10-15 minutes

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Chocolate Covered Granola

Ingredients:

3 oz dark chocolate
2 cups of your favorite granola

Instructions:

Melt the chocolate (either over a double boiler pot set up or in 20 second increments in the microwave)
Pour over the granola
Scoop out into individual servings while still hot- we put ours in cupcake liners!
Let cool until chocolate is set
Enjoy this super easy dessert!

Black Forest Cake

Ok, we’ll admit…. this is a time consuming cake. We made this over two days. Day one we made the four chocolate cake layers and the filling. Day two we made the frosting and assembled it. Click “read more” to see the lengthy list of ingredients and instructions. While it’s time consuming, it did get rave reviews from those that ate it! One catch–you have to like maraschino cherries!

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Peach Crumble

Ingredients:

8 ripe peaches, pitted and chopped into eight sections
 Juice of 1 lemon
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into thin pieces
1/3 cup quick-cooking oats

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Spiced Plum Pie

Ingredients:

one pie crust–store bought or try our easy homemade whole wheat crust!

1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons (packed) finely grated orange peel
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 pounds plums, halved, pitted, each half cut into 4 wedges

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Pie Crust

Ingredients:

3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
8 tablespoons (or more) ice water
1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

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Chicken Vegetable Quiche

Ingredients:

1 pie dough round

1 cooked chicken breast shredded
1 medium zucchini cut into cubes
1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
3 sticks of celery thinly sliced
1.5 cups whole milk
3 large eggs
1.5 cups grated cheese – we used a combination of mozzarella, monterey jack and a cheddar
salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder to taste

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Avocado Potato Salad

Monday night. It’s Peter’s night to cook for Lisa. At 4:00 pm he says “Can you look in the fridge and come up with a fancy dinner I can make for Lisa using what we already have? She’ll be back at 5:30” I grab my laptop, hustle into the kitchen, take stock of what’s there and head over to Epicurious to use their awesome advanced search feature. Based on what we have this is how the four course meal shapes up: Chicken Veggie Quiche, Avocado Potato Salad, Avocado Soup and a Berry Reduction Sauce over ice cream for dessert!

See the Chicken Vegetable Quiche entry for a photo of the salad next to a slice of quiche!

Ingredients:

3/4 pound small red potatoes (about 6)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest
3 tablespoons minced fresh chives
1 firm-ripe California avocado

Preparation:

In a saucepan cover potatoes with salted cold water, simmer, covered, until tender, 15 to 20 minutes
Drain potatoes in a colander and quarter
In a bowl stir together warm potatoes, oil, lemon juice, zest, chives, and salt and pepper to taste.
Pit and peel avocado and cut into 3/4-inch pieces.
Add avocado to potato mixture, gently tossing to combine

Garden Risotto

Found this on the Food Network website–the original recipe called for asparagus, we didn’t have any so we just doubled the amount of cheese that the recipe called for! We figured that would make up for the lack of asparagus!

Ingredients:

6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
3/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 lightly packed cups baby spinach leaves
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Instructions:

Bring the broth to a simmer in a pot.
Heat the oil in a saucepan over low heat, cook the onion, stirring occasionally, until soft, 3 to 5 minutes.
Add the rice and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute.
Add wine and simmer, stirring constantly, until absorbed, about 1 minute.
Add 3/4 cup of the hot broth, the salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper and simmer.
Stir constantly, until broth is absorbed.
Continue simmering and adding hot broth, about 3/4 cup at a time, stirring constantly and making sure the broth is absorbed before adding more.
Continue this process until rice is almost tender and creamy-looking, about 18 minutes.

Add the spinach and peas and cook until the spinach is wilted.
Add the asparagus and cook just until the vegetables are hot.
Stir in the Parmesan and serve.