Simple and Oh So Heavenly Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting

I LOVE BUTTER CREAM FROSTING!!! There I said it...are you happy!?!? There is simply nothing like homemade butter cream. You can tint this lovely frosting with gel or paste food colors or use it as is.

3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 stick salted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tbsp whipping cream


In stand mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for 3 minutes.

Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium high speed for 3-5 minutes more until frosting is thick and creamy.

Chocolate Truffle Tart...Can You Say Chocolate Heaven!?!?

It's that time of year again...as Thanksgiving (and Christmas) approach, I begin pouring over recipes old and new to add to the holiday dinner table. I found this recipe in one of my Gourmet Holiday magazines...it is 110% chocolate overload...and I love it!!! It is a keeper. This tart is so simple and elegant that it needs little adornment. You could easily serve it "naked" with a light dusting of cocoa powder. I like the lightly sweeted whipped cream because it cuts through the intense richness of the tart. The original recipe did not call for Teddy Grahams, but it's what I had in the pantry and the crust turned out fab using those cute little bears!

For The Crust

1 1/2 cups finely ground Chocolate Teddy Grahams (use your food processor)
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For The Filling

1/2 lb good quality bittersweet chocolate (I use Scharffen Berger 62% cacao semi-sweet)
6 tbsp unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1/3 cup heavy whippping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

For Serving

Lightly sweetened fresh whipped cream
fresh berries

Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl, stir togehter cookie crumbs and melted butter. Pour crumb mixture into springform pan and pat evenly onto bottom of pan and 1 1/2" up the sides of pan. Bake 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool 15 minutes before filling.

While crust cools make ganache filling. Melt choclate and butter over low heat, stirring until completely smooth. Remove from heat and cool 5 minutes. Whisk eggs, cream, sugar, salt and vanilla in a bowl. Whisk in chocolate mixture until thoroughly blended.

Pour filling into cooled crust, spreading to edge with spatula. Bake until filling 1" from edge is set and firm and center still jiggles slightly when pan is shaken, 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack for 2 hours. Cover loosley with plastic wrap and refrigerate 4 hours before serving.

When ready to serve, whip 1/2 heavy whipping cream with 1 tsp sugar. Slice tart and plate with a dollop of whipped cream and a few berries.

Better Than Almost-Famous Swedish Meatballs

This was dinner tonight...pure comfort food!!! My family loves, loves this recipe..I hope yours does too! The orignal recipe was Food Networks attempt to recreate Ikea's famous Swedish Meatballs...I played with it until my family said it was perfect...maybe even better than Ikea's...I'm just saying!

For The Meatballs

3/4 cup breadcrumbs
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp allspice
2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly cracked pepper
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3/4 lb ground turkey
1/2 lb lean ground pork
1 large egg plus one egg white, lightly beaten

For The Gravy

2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups beef stock
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup cream (or half & half)
salt and pepper
Egg noodles, cooked according to package directions and kept warm for serving
Lingonberry jam for serving (optional)

To Make The Meatballs

Place breadcrumbs in a large bowl and set aside. In a medium skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, allspice, salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, until onion and garlic is softened, about 5 minutes. Add the milk and worcestershire sauce and bring to a simmer. Pour hot milk mixture over breadcrumbs. Stir to combine; let cool. Once cool, add the turkey, pork and egg and mix thoroughly. Cover bowl with platic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Remove mixture from fridge and shape into 1" meatballs. Place on a baking sheet sprayed with Pam cooking spray. Preheat oven to 400. Bake meatballs 20-25 minutes, unitl cooked through.

To Make The Gravy

While meatballs bake, melt butter in medium pan over medium heat. Add flour and whisk until smooth. Continue to whisk constantly until roux is pale golden brown. While still whisking, slowly add beef stock. Add worcestershire sauce and lower to a simmer. Add cream and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occassionally.Taste and correct seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

To serve

Place a generous amount of noodles on plate. Top with 5-6 meatballs and ladle gravy over meatballs. Place a bowl of lingonberry jam at the table to serve with meatballs. My sweet girl Tori uses lingonberry jam like ketchup...dunks her meatballs in a ramekin filled with the darn stuff...whatever makes her happy!

Leonards's Chicken meets Hot Pockets Equals One Tasty Handheld Dinner

While reading my most recent edition of Food Network magazine, I came across a recipe for homemade "Hot Pocket" style sandwiches. Problem was that none of the mag's flavor combos were ever gonna fly with my kiddos! All were either too boring or too wierd....which got me to thinking, what would my family want in a homemade Hot Pocket...(besides gobs of flavor)? I refuse to buy the commercially made Hot Pockets much to my kids dismay...those things are plain nasty pockets of artifical flavors...blech!

Going thru all the possible flavor combinations, I had a lightbulb moment and decided to take my kids FAVE chicken dish (Leonard's Chicken), deconstruct it and voila...the Leonard's Hot Pocket was born! Juicy roasted chicken, baby swiss cheese and sweet & smoky Black Forest ham...yum to the max! The critics all gave them two thumbs up and Harrison even had one for a snack today after school. In this test recipe, I used white french bread dough, next time I am going to try whole wheat and see what the critics in my house have to say.

3 cups shredded chicken (rotisserie chicken rocks here)
1 1/2 cups shredded baby swiss cheese
1 cup julienned Black Forest ham ( I love Boars Head)
1/4 tsp fresh cracked pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp seasoned salt
flour for dusting
2 tubes refrigerated french bread
1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 425. Spray baking sheet lightly with Pam cooking spray. In a large bowl combine chicken, cheese and ham. Sprinkle spices over mixture and toss with hands to combine thorughly.
Open tube of dough and unroll on a lightly floured surface. Cut into 4 eqeual pieces, repeat with second tube of dough. Roll each piece of dough into a 6x8" rectangle, dusting with flouring to keep dough from sticking. Place a generous handful of filling mixture in center of each dough rectangle, pressing filling down slightly. Fold the two shorter sides of dough over filling to cover. Fold in the two long sides of the dough to form pocket. Pinch edges to seal. Place pockets, seam side down on baking sheet. Brush tops with egg wash and place in oven. Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and serve.

Korean Style BBQ Pork Ribs/Korean Tacos

If you can stick it in a tortilla my family will eat it! Not into the whole taco thing, serve the ribs on the bone with the slaw and other goodies on the side. Traditionally, Korean BBQ is made using Korean-style short ribs (beef chuck flanken, cut 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick across bones)...I had pork ribs in the fridge and sick kids...the beef would have to wait until another time!

3/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup water
3 tbsp white vinegar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tbsp honey (or Agave)
1 tbsp fresh cracked pepper
2 tbsp dark sesame oil
1/4 cup minced garlic (8-10 cloves)
6 green onions, sliced thinly (green tops and bulb)
3 pounds pork ribs (one rack)
sweet and sour slaw
chopped cilantro
lime wedges
go-chu-jang (Korean Sweet & Sauce) or Sriracha sauce
flour and/or corn tortillas


Sweet and Sour Slaw

2 cups cole slaw mix
1 cup julienned cucumber
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
generous pinch kosher salt

For The Ribs

In a glass bowl, whisk together all marinade ingredients. Place ribs in a gallon ziploc (cut rack of ribs in half to fit)and pour marinade over ribs. Seal bag and turn a over a few times to coat meat. Lay flat in fridge and marinate 24 hours.

When ready to cook, preheat gas grill to medium high. Place ribs on grill and cook 10 minutes, flip over and cook 10 more minutes. Turn flame off on one side of grill and move ribs to this side. Continue cooking ribs another 4-6 hours, until meat is tender. (you can also slow cook your ribs and finish on the grill...whatever works for you).

For The Slaw

While ribs are doing their thing...whisk together vinegar, sugar and salt in a small bowl. In a glass bowl combine cucumber and slaw mix. Pour dressing over slaw and toss to combine thoroughly. Cover and let sit in fridge until ready to serve.

When ribs are done, remove from grill and let rest 10 minutes. While ribs are chilling, warm tortillas, cut limes into wedges and coursely chop cilantro.

To Asemble Tacos

Shred some of the pork off the bone and pile in a tortilla. Top with some of the slaw and cilantro. Squeeze some lime juice over and drizzle with go-chu-jang...Enjoy!

Maple Apple Crisp

This dessert defines Autumn...apples, cinnamon, maple syrup...yum!!! Serve it warm with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. The original recipe is from The Neeley's (of Food Network fame)...I tweaked and played around with it and love the results.

Filling

6 apples peeled, cored, chopped (I use 3 gala and 3 honey crisp), but use your fave apples
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
pinch kosher salt
1 tbsp pineapple juice
1/4 cup maple syrup

Topping

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
8 tbsp (1 stick) chilled butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350.

Butter a 9 by 13-inch baking dish. In a large glass bowl mix all the filling ingredients with the apples and toss to coat evenly. Spoon into the prepared baking dish.

In a food processor combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in large bowl. Pulse to blend. Pulse in the butter until mixture forms pea size lumps. Add the pecans and pulse 1 or 2 more times. Sprinkle over filling. Bake crisp for 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes before serving.

Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy...A Classic TV Dinner...Rox Style

When most of us think Salisbury Steak we think of those gray machine formed patties covered in brown goop from the Swanson TV dinners...blech!
Trust me, this is soooo not the Salisbury Steak from childhood! Even my picky eater gave this a two thumbs up! I served it tonight with creamy mashed potatoes and steamed brussels sprouts with a red wine vinegar reduction...YUM to the max!

For The "Steaks"

3 tbsp olive oil
6-8 large white mushrooms, finely diced (should be about 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup finely minced onion
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 1/2 pounds ground sirloin*
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups fresh bread crumbs
1 1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1 tsp freshly cracked pepper
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tbsp worsterchire sauce

For The Mushroom Gravy

3 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
3 cups beef stock
1 lb sliced button mushrooms
1/4 cup sherry
1 tsp fresh cracked pepper
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder

Saute onions,diced mushrooms and garlic in 1 tbsp of the olive oil until softened and fragrant,about 5 minutes. Spoon out of pan and set aside to cool. In a large bowl, mix ground beef with cooled onion mixture, eggs, bread crumbs and next 4 ingredients. Using dampened hands, make 6 oval shaped patties, about 1 1/2" thick and saute in the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil until golden brown on both sides. Remove from pan and keep warm. In large skillet melt butter and add flour and cook over low heat for 2-3 minutes until roux looks like wet sand. Begin to add stock 1/3 cup at a time, constantly whisking and bringing to a simmer each time making sure there are no lumps. Add mushrooms, sherry, pepper, seasoned salt, onion & garlic powders. Stir to combine and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Place patties in a roasting pan (I prefer my 13x9 glass baking dish) and pour gravy over patties and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 45 minutes.

Serve with mashed potaotes, your fave veg and enjoy!

*You can use ground turkey or chicken if you are cutting back on your red meat.

Mojo Criollo Grilled Chicken with Black Beans & Rice

What does a girl do with a surplus of oranges??? Well...you make this amzing Cuban marinade (as well as last night's Orange Rosemary Pork Tenderloin)! Serve this tasty chicken with my quick and easy Black Beans and steamed rice.

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice,
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp fresh cracked pepper

In a gallon size ziploc, combine marinade ingredients. Add chicken breasts. Seal bag and turn to coat chicken. Place bag in fridge and marinate at least 8 hours.

When ready to grill, preheat grill to medium heat. Grill chicken turning occassionally until cooked through and deep golden brown, about 18-20 minutes. Remove from grill and let chicken rest 5-7 minutes before serving.

Quick and Easy Black Beans

2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 15 oz can black beans
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1/2 tsp fresh cracked pepper
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

In a dutch oven over medium heat, saute onions until softened, about 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook 2 minutes more. Add beans and tomatoes (with their juices) & remaining ingredients. Stir to combine. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, stirring ocassionally until beans have thickened, about 20-25 minutes. Taste and correct seasoning with kosher salt and pepper to taste. Serve over steamed rice as a side to Mojo Criollo Grilled Chicken.

Orange Rosemary Grilled Pork Tenderloin

2 pork tenderloins (about 2 lbs total), silver skin removed
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 1/2 tbsp rosemary citrus rub*
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp fresh cracked pepper
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil

In a gallon size ziploc bag, combine all marinade ingredients. Seal and shake to combine. Place pork tenderloins in bag. Seal bag, turn to coat tenderloins and place in fridge. Let pork marinate at least 3 hours.

When ready to grill:

Heat gas grill to medium high heat. Remove pork from bag and gently shake to remove excess marinade. Reserve marinade. Grill pork 15 minutes (or until internal temp reads 140-145), turning once. While pork is cooking, pour reserved marinade into small saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Cook until sauce is reduced and thickened, stirring occassionaly. Remove pork from grill and cover loosely with foil and let rest 5 minutes. Slice pork and drizzle with some of the sauce. Enjoy!

*I use La Madeline restaurant brand Rosemary Chicken Seasoning. You can use any rosemary citrus based seasoning blend.

Red Wine Braised Beef Short Ribs with Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes & Sweet Peas

Ahhhhhh....feels sooooooo great to be back in the kitchen post surgery!!! Cooking for the ones I love is truly therapuetic! Think of this as a marriage between beef stew, shepard's pie and beef burgandy....can you say yum to the max!?

1/4 cup Olive Oil
3 lbs boneless beef short ribs
kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper
1 small sweet onion, chopped
2 handfuls baby carrots, cut into halves
3 stalks celery, sliced into 1" pieces
1/4 cup sherry
5 cloves garlic, minced
6 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1 bay leaf
3 cups beef stock
2 cups red wine (Shiraz, Zin or Pinot Noir is best)
14 1/2 oz can diced tomatoes with juice
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 packet McCormick Reduced Sodium Brown Gravy Mix

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes for serving

1 can sweet peas, drained and heated thru for serving


Preheat oven to 350. In a large dutch oven heat olive oil over medium heat. Pat ribs dry with paper towels and season with salt & pepper. Cook ribs, in batches, until browned. Remove ribs to a plate. Add onion, carrots and celery to pot and deglaze with sherry, making sure to scrape up the browned bits on bottom. Cook veg until sherry is almost completely cooked off, 4-5 minutes. Add garlic, thyme, bay leaf, oregano and rosemary and stir until garlic is fragrent. Add wine, stock, tomatoes and vinegar. Stir and bring to a boil. Cover pot and place in oven. Cook 2 1/2-3 hours or until meat is tender. Remove from oven and place on stove top. Remove ribs and most of veg from pot; cover and keep warm. Remove & discard thyme and bay leaf. Add gravy packet to dutch oven, stir to dissolve. Simmer sauce until reduced and slightly thickened, about 30 minutes. Return ribs and veg to pot and warm thru. Taste and correct seaoning with salt and pepper. To serve - in a pasta or soup bowl place a generous spoonful of mashed potatoes. Place 2-3 ribs on top of potatoes and ladle some sauce & veg over top. Sprinkle about 1/4 cup peas over dish and serve.

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes

6-8 large buttergold potatoes, scrubbed, peeled and cut up
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
buttermilk
4 tbsp butter

Place potatoes in large pot of salted water. Heat over medium heat and cook until potatoes are tender, about 25 minutes. When potatoes are cooked thru, remove from stove top and drain into large colander. Return potatoes to pot. Add 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, garlic powder and butter. With potato masher, mash potatoes and incorporate butter & seasonings. Add 1/2 cup buttermilk. Stir to combine. If potatoes are stiff, add 1/4 cup buttermilk (at a time) until desired consistency is reached. Taste and correct seasoning with salt and pepper.