Pasta Fagioli and Fiddler On The Roof Cake

Have you heard of the book The Five Love Languages?  It explains how people show their love and receive love from others in different ways.  It gives 5 ways people show or receive love:  words of encouragement, physical touch, acts of kindness, gift giving and quality time. 

This week I realized that food is not on that list and that is exactly how I reach out to others and show my love.  When friends or family are sick I want to make them food to feel better, when they are happy I want to make them a treat to celebrate, if they are down I want to comfort them with...food.   Do you feel that way too?

My grandma had knee replacement surgery last week and my family has taken turns bringing dinner for she and my grandpa.  What a treat to make a homemade meal and share it with the grandparents who have shown such love and devotion to our family all these years.   I treasure the time we have together.  My son politely sat at the table and talked their ears off - grandma listened intently and grandpa just shook his head at how Ben can talk so much without taking a single breath.  That's my boy.

My meal of choice was a wonderful crockpot soup.  I found this soup a few years ago on-line.  It makes a ton so it's great to feed a crowd or freeze for a later meal.  I love meals that you make in the crockpot.  You throw the ingredients in, set the temperature and in just a matter of hours - voila - there is a delicious meal ready to eat! 

This soup is so fragrant.  I love to lift the lid and just breathe it in...

Mmmmm......

See how it fills the WHOLE crockpot!  Goodness!

Along with the soup I also brought a lettuce salad, some Garlic-Rosemary bread from Great Harvest Bread Co. and cake.  Fiddler on The Roof Cake to be exact.  It was a new recipe for me.  I had a hard time deciding which cake to make.  I'm not sure why I chose this cake but I'm glad I did.  It was great warm out of the oven with a scoop of ice cream.  Grandma and grandpa loved it.  But after it cooled it was not what I had hoped.  It seemed dry and not very flavorful.  I was a little bummed.  Thankfully, 24 hrs later my sweet tooth kicked in and I went to the kitchen in search of a little something to satisfy my craving.  I opened the pantry door and saw the leftover cake.  The frosting looked a little different.  A little more moist.  I thought "what the heck" and gave it another try.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Like a fine wine it seemed to get better with time.  The frosting soaked in a little more and it tasted great!

Pasta Fagioli Soup in a Crock Pot (Recipezaar.com)

1lb ground beef

1 lb sausage

1 onion, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

4 stalks celery, chopped

2 (28oz) cans diced tomatoes, undrained

1 (16 oz) can red kidney beans, drained

1 (16oz) can white kidney beans, drained

3 (10oz) cans beef stock

3 tsp oregano

2 tsp pepper

5 tsp parsley

1 tsp Tabasco sauce (optional)

1 (20oz) jar spaghetti sauce

8 oz pasta (I use Penne)

Brown meat in skillet.  Drain and add to large crock pot with all other ingredients except pasta.  Cook on low 7-8 hours or high 4-5 hours.  During the last 30 minutes on high, add pasta.

Fiddler On The Roof Cake (Ann Byrn - The Cake Doctor)

1 pkg yellow cake mix

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp salt

4 large eggs

1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

Chocolate marshmallow frosting

Grease and flour bundt cake pan.  Using electric mixer, blend cake mix, sour cream, oil, sugar, almond extract, salt and eggs.  Mix 1-3 minutes until smooth.  Pour half of batter into pan.  Smooth with spatula.  Add cocoa powder to remaining batter and blend on high 1 minute.  Pour into pan.  Using knife, swirl batters together.  Bake 60-65 minutes.  Cool.  Frost with warm frosting.

Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting

2 c. powdered sugar

1/2 c cocoa powder

6 large marshmallows

4 T butter

1/3+1 T milk

1 tsp vanilla

Sift together cocoa powder and powdered sugar.  Set aside.  In medium saucepan melt milk, marshmallows, butter.  Stir until marshmallows are melted.  Remove from heat.  Stir in vanilla and powdered sugar mixture.  Stir until smooth.  Pour warm frosting over cake.

Spicy Grilled Pork Chops

I'm so excited!  When I decided to blog about dinner meals for the month of March I really wanted to include this recipe but I didn't know if I could because it means using the grill.  And as many of you have experienced, we have had quite the winter weather.  But - guess what?!  It has been up in the 40's and 50's the past few days.  Warm enough to melt the piles of snow around our grill.  My hubby kindly agreed to fire it up today so I could make and blog about these pork chops!  Yippee!!!

I found the original recipe on an ad for Ziplock bags.  It was for chicken that you marinade and then microwave all together in a gallon bag.

It was in mid-summer when I came across the recipe and we (and when I say we I mean my husband) were grilling just about everything.  Instead of microwaving the peppers and meat we grilled the meat and I sauteed the peppers.  It was amazing and has become my favorite way to eat pork chops! 

Spicy Grilled Pork Chops

4 Boneless Pork Chops

1/2 each - Red, Yellow and Orange Pepper, sliced

1/2+ Hot Sauce (I use Franks)

1 tsp. Chili Powder

1 tsp. Garlic Powder

1/2 tsp. Salt

Place everything into gallon-sized Ziplock bag.  Squeeze all together to coat chops well.  Place in fridge for at least 20 min.  Remove chops from bag and grill until completely cooked.  In a small pan, sautee peppers in a little olive oil.  For a little zing, I squirt lime juice over peppers as they cook. 

Cinnamon Roll Cake

I really enjoy getting on-line (almost) every night to catch up with the blogs I follow.  I feel like I am getting to know the writers without ever having met them.  One of the blogs I get a kick out of is 3 B's Baking, Baseball and Books.  There have been so many recipes from there that I have been wanting to try.  Two that I can't seem to get out of my mind.  Cinnamon Rolls and this Cinnamon Roll Cake.  It was not too difficult to whip up and it tasted divine.  I got a lot of compliments on this one! 

After getting great reviews from this cake - I also have had a lot of people telling me they are trying to lose weight and I am not helping them by baking such sweet treats.   I took it personally at first and got a bit discouraged but I have come to the decision for the month of March that I am going to stick with more meal ideas instead of sweets.  Before I head to the store today I will pick out a cookbook to "cook through".  We'll see how it goes!

Sweet Links to Some Sweet Treats

I am working on a new recipe to post - in the mean time I will post a few of the sweets I have been trying out recently.  I made these cookies to give as gifts for Valentine's Day.  I used a simple recipe for Oatmeal Scotchies and used chocolate chips and Valentine M&Ms.  They were a little more runny than usual, but they tasted good.  "Good Dunkers" 

My son decorated a recycled vitamin container and we filled it with cookies to give to a good family friend - his best buddy :)

I have also made the Maple Pumpkin Granola from Emily at Sugar Plum.

It tasted great and was really yummy mixed with some vanilla yogurt!

And ever since I made the Cream Filled Berry Muffins I have fallen in love with my mini-muffin pan.  I love coffee flavored treats so I had to try out the Coffee Chocolate Chip Muffins I found at Lick The Bowl Good.

I only used my mini-muffin pan and it made 96!  I still have some in the freezor.  I absolutely LOVE them.  I will definitely be making them again.   And I don't have any pictures of them, but I did try the Baked Corn Dog Muffins I also found at Lick The Bowl Good.  They were a hit with my family.  I also made those mini.  Who knew one muffin pan would make me so happy?!  My sisters just laugh at me!

Chicken Soup

It seems like a long time since I have posted a new recipe.  The days seem to pass so quickly!  I made this soup last Tuesday when it was cold and snowy outside.  Normally I don't like snow at this point in the winter, but I thought this last snow was really pretty.  I suppose I liked it because I got to be inside making soup and baking cookies instead of having to drive around in it. 

I have to give my mother-in-law, Marie, credit for this soup.  She made something very similar for our family at Christmas and shared with me how she made it.  I thought it was delicious and I have attempted it a few times since.  She wanted it to be healthy and knew my son would probably turn his nose up at the sight of carrots and celery in the broth - so she pureed them and made them the broth.  My recipe is a little different than hers because I used whatever I had in my house at the time I decided to make it.  For instance, when Marie made this soup she used a whole chicken and the juices from cooking it for the broth.  I  used a large container of chicken broth and canned chicken.  She used mushrooms (which I like but didn't have on hand)  I  threw in some chopped red pepper.   She used tortellini, I used egg noodles.

One on the beautys of soup is that you can mix and match ingredients and spices to suit your own tastes.

It's fun to get creative - and even better when you're creativity is a success!

Chicken and Noodle Soup

With Pureed Veggie Broth

2 c. sliced carrots

1-2 c. sliced celery

1/2 onion, chopped

1 clove of garlic

1-2 tsp. parsley

1 large container chicken broth

1 8oz pkg egg noodles

1/4 c. red pepper, chopped

1 can canned chicken

Fill a deep sauce pan with sliced carrots, celery, onions, garlic, parsley and 1/4 cup of chiken broth (The second time I made this I added 1 T. butter).  Cook until just slightly tender.  Place in blender and puree until smooth. 

While the vegetables are in the blender pour the remaining chicken broth into the pan and pour in 1/2 bag of egg noodles and chopped red peppers.  When noodles become tender add the blended vegetables and the chicken to the pan and stir until the broth is smooth.

Season with salt and pepper.