Chocolate Raspberry Cake Balls

Hi everyone! It's Maggie!

I think long, long ago someone tagged me to include a recipe of my favorite messy meal. Well...basically everything I do in the kitchen leaves a path of destruction, but today I discovered THE MESSIEST DESSERT EVER! But It's so good that it's totally worth it.

I call these cake balls.

you'll need:
A chocolate cake mix
3 eggs
apple sauce
1/2 can of chocolate frosting
a package of fresh raspberries
a bag of milk chocolate chips

First you bake a chocolate cake using the lowfat directions. The cake mix I used called for a cup of water, 3 eggs, and 1/3 cup applesauce. Bake and cool.

Next scoop 1/2 a can of chocolate frosting in a large bowl and add about a 1/3 of a cup of applesauce. Mix in about 3/4 a package of raspberries. Using a hand mixer on the lowest speed, mix the ingredients until they are blended. The raspberries will be chunky.

Now's the FUN part! When the cake is cool, cut it up into large pieces and dump them a few pieces at a time into the large bowl with the frosting mixture. Use a hand mixer to blend everything together. The consistency should be very moist but the mixture should hold together enough to hand-form balls.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Using a spoon, scoop up the "dough" and shape it into small bite-sized balls (kind of the size of a donut hole) with the palms of your hands. Place the balls on the wax paper. You can place the balls fairly close together on the wax paper but just not touching.

When all the dough has been formed into balls and placed on the wax paper. Put in fridge for about 1 hour to cool and firm.

After cooling, pour 1 package of milk chocolate chips into a small saucepan (the smaller the better because you want it to be deep enough to dip the balls in the melted chocolate). Melt the chocolate on very low temperature. Add a little milk if you think you need more moisture. Once melted, hand-dip each ball into the chocolate so it is completely coated. You can also pour spoonfuls of the melted chocolate over the ball while holding it over the melted chocolate. Be careful to not burn yourself if the chocolate is too hot, because throughout this process your fingers will be absolutely covered in the melted chocolate!

Place each chocolate covered ball back on the wax-papered cookie sheet and when all the balls are covered in chocolate, be sure to lick all the remaining chocolate off your fingers!!! :) Place the cookie sheet back in the fridge for another hour or so to chill before serving.

Serve chilled on a plate garnished with the leftover fresh raspberries.

In this recipe I cut back on the fat by using the lowfat baking method, plus cutting back on the frosting by adding applesauce. The result is still a delicious moist chocolate and raspberry flavor. You can probably see that this recipe is very alterable. You could use any cake mix flavor or frosting flavor and could use white chocolate to cover the balls if you want. You could also add different fruit flavors. I'm serving these ToNigHt at a dessert party so I'll let you know how they go!

Miss you all!
Maggie

Pepper Jack Chicken

It's Di again! Matt loves pepper jack cheese, so I put a little twist on mac n cheese, to make him a happy hubby.

2 cooked, chopped up chicken breasts seasoned with salt and pepper (canned chicken works too)

2 lbs. penne pasta cooked and drained
(opt. cooked broccoli)

Sauce:
4 T. butter
5 T. flour
3 cans of evaporated milk or 3 c. milk (evaporated milk makes the sauce smooth)
2 t. salt
2 c. shredded pepper jack cheese
1 c. shredded swiss cheese
1/2 c. shredded colby jack cheese
Salt and pepper to taste


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add flour whisking until it turns a light brown. Slowly whisk in milk and 2 t. salt and cook until it begins to simmer and thickens. Take off heat and stir in cheese. Add salt and pepper if needed.
Place pasta and chicken and optional broccoli in 9X13 dish, pour the sauce over. Stir together. Bake 15 minutes.

The PERFECT Sloppy Joe

Sloppy joe, slop sloppy joe!

It's DI! I have my own kitchen, I'm cooking again, so I'm BAack!
Early in my marriage, my husband asked if I would make Manwich over rice for him. Eh? That sounded so disgusting to me! I had never had Manwich before, and I didn't even know what it was! I soon learned that sloppy joes were a favorite of his. I have tried over the years to perfect the elusive joe to no avail. Seriously, it's either too sweet, or not sweet enough, too spicey, flavorless, etc. I tried adding bell peppers, celery, carrots, even red beans, and it was never very good. Manwich has chopped up pickles in it, and it tastes like a tin can. NO WAY!
Lo and behold, I picked up my favorite magazine, Cook's Illustrated at Costco, and it had a recipe for sloppy joes! This magazine is so awesome because they write an article on each recipe explaining the many experiments they did to perfect it. They also recommend different brands of products and offer many cooking tips. I have never been disappointed by their recipes. So, without further ado:

The PERFECT Sloppy Joe!

2 T Vegetable oil (I used Olive oil)
1 medium onion chopped fine
Table salt
2 medium garlic cloves minced
1/2 t chili powder
1 lb. 85% lean ground beef (this percentage keeps it flavorful and less greasy, but just use what you have)
Ground black pepper
1 t. brown sugar
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1/2 c. ketchup
1/4 c. water
1/4 t. hot sauce like Tabasco
4 hamburger buns (the recommend Pepperidge Farm Bakery rolls, but I got the whole wheat buns, still good!)

Heat oil in skillet on medium heat, add onions and 1/2 t. salt. Cover and cook stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. If they start to brown, turn down the heat.
Add garlic and chili powder and cook about 30 seconds.
Add beef and break down with wooden spoon, until just pink.
Add 1/4 t. pepper, brown sugar, tomato sauce, ketchup, water, and hot pepper sauce. Simmer until mixture is slightly thicker than ketchup, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve on buns.

You won't be sorry!

A Different Sort of Salad...

We had this for lunch today. It's different, refreshing, and fun! Logan and Sophie ate so much I had to take it away. I think it's the corn chips.

Some of the ingredients look weird, I know, but trust me...it's fabulous!

Mexican Salad
1 large head lettuce chopped, romaine or iceberg
2 or 3 tomatoes chopped
1 bell pepper chopped
1 onion chopped
1 can kidney beans, rinsed well
1 bottle Catalina French dressing
1 ½ lbs grated cheddar cheese
1 large bag Frito Lay Corn Chips

Toss together the first 5 ingredients, cover and refrigerate until needed. Mix in the remaining ingredients when ready to serve.

Enjoy!

-Em

Greek Shrimp Kebabs

I've never actually made anything with shrimp before and there was a random sale at the store...voila!

These were pretty dang good! I hope you try them!

Greek Shrimp Kebabs
1 ½ lb shrimp, uncooked
1 onion, chopped
¼ c fresh lime juice
¼ c olive oil
1 tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb bacon, uncooked

Peel and devein shrimp. Tails may be left on. Combine onion, lime juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic. Add shrimp. Cover. Refrigerate for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Discard liquid. Wrap each shrimp in ½ strip of bacon. Thread 5 to 8 shrimp on each skewer. Grill over low heat (bacon burns easily) just until shrimp are opaque and firm. Yield: 4 servings.

Enjoy!

-Em

Chocolate Torte

Tonight I was in the mood to make a yummy dessert but had no butter, so I pulled out the old ward cookbook and searched through it. The first recipe I found looked simple enough, and I decided to try it out. HOLY HECK! So yummy! And so easy! And so elegant!

Chocolate Torte

1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. cocoa
1 c. sugar

combine. Make a "well."

1 c. water
1/3 c. oil
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp vanilla

Add to dry ingredients. Spoon into regular-sized or miniature lined or sprayed muffin tins. Fill 1/2 full

Filling

Combine 8 ounces cream cheese (softened), 1 egg, 1/2 c. sugar, and 1/8 tsp. salt. Stir well. Add 6 ounces of chocolate chips. Spoon 1 tsp over chocolate mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. Makes about a dozen and a half (with regular-sized muffin pan)

I greased a cookie sheet and flipped the finished tortes upside down on the sheet. They popped right out and looked like mini lava cakes.

SOOOOOO yummy!

Enjoy!

Adrienne's Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

I'm not trying to confuse you, but this recipe was given to me by my friend Adrienne (this is Adrianne). We're both part of the large network of APX wives here in Louisville. All of us decided to have a recipe swap earlier this week, so I now have an arsenal of delicious recipes to try once we move home next week (Meaning, I better see some of you at the Goodrich reunion next weekend). I haven't tried this recipe myself, but Adrienne brought some over to me, and they were DELICIOUS. I snarfed it in seconds!!
I will definitely be adding more recipes as I try the ones that have been given to me!

Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze:
prep: 15 minutes cook time:15 min. makes 44 cookies

Ingredients:
cookies:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tbsp lemon juices
1 lemon zested

Directions:
preheat oven to 375 degrees

Cookies:
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. set aside.
In the large bowl combine the butter and sugar. Using an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until incorporated. Add the ricotta cheese, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Beat to combine. stir in the dry ingredients.
Line 2 baking sheets with the parchment paper. Spoon the dough (about 2 tablespoons for each cookies) onto the baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, until slightly golden at the edges. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 20 minutes.

Glaze:
combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small bowl and stir until smooth. spoon about 1/2 teaspoon onto each cookie and use the back of the spoon to gently spread. Let the glaze harden for about 2 hours. Pack the cookie into decorative container.

P.S. I am making Emily's french chicken with cool whip tonight, so I'm excited to see how it turns out!
P.P.S. I cannot wait to get back to Utah. Another cousins' part, please?