[Share Your Recipes!] What are you cooking?

[Gossamer]

I'm going to spend a blissful evening making some sweets for the week coming up and whatnot. So I thought I'd post a couple of recipes I plan on making tonight. Everyone's always cooking something yummy on here, so I thought we should start a thread in the tradition of "What are you listening to?" for us cooks out there.

As you know, we have a lot of eggs in our house. So we're always making stuff that require a lot of eggs. Tonight I'm making pumpkin pound cake.

Ingredients

* 1-1/2 cups butter, softened
* 2-3/4 cups sugar
* 6 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1 cup canned pumpkin


Directions

In a bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture alternately with pumpkin, beating just until combined. Pour into two greased and floured 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pans. Bake at 350° for 65-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing form pans to wire racks to cool completely.

[Danica]

yumm that sounds good Goss. I might just have to make it sometime. I made these a few days ago and they're from A Hershey's cookbook.

SECRET KISSES COOKIES
Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
11/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup finely chopped walnuts or almonds
36 Hershey's kisses
Powdered Sugar

Directions
Beat butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium in large bowl until fluffy. Add flour and walnuts, beat on low speed until well blended. Cover and refrigerated until dough is firm enough to handle.

Heat oven to 350°F and unwrap the Kisses. Use about a tablespoon of dough for each Cookie. Shape dough around each chocolate, roll in hand to make a ball. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until set but not browned. Once they are warm enough to handle roll in powdered sugar.

Notes
I found them a little bland to be honest (but no one else did so I'm not sure how you'll feel) and the recipe says to cool them before eating but I liked them warm with the chocolate still slightly melted. Once you've made them you can pop them into the microwave for 15 seconds and have the chocolate slightly gooey again. You can also add Cocoa to the powered sugar for a chocolatey covering.

[Kell Northwind]

Oh, now you got me wanting to bake tonight. My specialty is Traditional Guava Chiffon Cake. Most people I meet think it sounds weird but, It is amazing. Your pound cake sounds good too, Goss. Yay for yummies.

# 2 1/2 Cups of All purpose Flour
# 1 tsp Salt
# 3/4 tsp Baking Powder
# 3/4 C Vegetable Oil
# 4 Eggs
# 1/2 C. Guava Nectar Concentrate, thawed
# 1 tsp Vanilla
# 1/2 tsp Red Food Coloring
# 12 Egg Whites
# 1 1/4 C Sugar
# Pinch of Cream of Tartar
# Guava Icing
# Guava Glaze

Guava Chiffon Cake Instructions
Sift 2 cups sugar, flour, salt, and baking powder together. Blend together oil, whole eggs, guava juice, vanilla, and coloring in a large bowl. Add dry ingredients, mixing at medium speed for 5 minutes. Whip egg whites until triple in volume. Slowly add 1 1/4 cups sugar and cream of tartar. Whip egg white mixture until soft peaks form. Fold guava mixture into egg white mixture and mix until smooth. Pour batter into two 9-inch rounds (ungreased) and bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until done. Remove from oven, immediately turn cake over onto a rack. Cool with pan in place. Place in freezer until firm, then fill and ice with Guava Icing (work fast, as icing will melt). Fill center of top with well-chilled Guava Claze.


Guava Icing Ingredients
# 1 Pint Whipping Cream
# 1 C Guava Nectar Concentrate

Guava Icing Instructions
Whip cream at high speed until soft peaks form. Fold in guava juice and blend well.


Guava Glaze Ingredients
# 1 C Guava Nectar Concentrate
# 1 Tbsp Cornstarch
# 2 Tbsp Water

Guava Glaze Instructions
Dissolve cornstarch in water.. Bring guava juice to a quick boil. Stir in cornstarch. Simmer until mixture thickens. Chill well before topping cake.

[Gossamer]

Mmm cookies and Guava Chiffon cake. I want to try them both! I bet if you hit the cookies with some almond extract and lemon zest they'd perk right up, Danica. Lemon zest is a secret cookie ingredient... it doesn't make them taste lemony, but gives them a zing. Its kinda like adding a tablespoon of instant coffee to chocolate recipes...

Kell, the first line of the ingredients.. is that 2 cups sugar and then 2.5 cups cake flour? I think it should read 2 cups all purpose or 2.5 cups cake flour??? Cause sugar is listed further down... I want a correct recipe! I'll totally try this.

[Kell Northwind]

Sorry, old village recipe . I do it all by eye anymore so I forgot to modify it. It's fixed now . BTW goes great with fresh pineapple

[Gossamer]

Who doesn't like little Italian donuts? These look actually a lot like donut holes when you get done making them, but they are yummy and really fast. Also, you can add in tons of things too them - like diced apples/pears/peaches - almost anything.

Directions
1 stick unsalted butter
¼ cup flower
½ cup water

melt those three things in a pan on the stove…

turn off heat

1 cup flour added to batter

heat, until forms dough… take off heat

Put dough in a blender

add 4 eggs to dough with blender

add in flavorings… apples whatever….

Then form into dough balls and fry in oil until golden brown - turning if necessary

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon

[Cayenne]

Schadenfreude Pie!



Disclaimer: I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR HEART ATTACKS AND DIABETES CAUSED BY THIS RECIPE!

Omfreakingnomnomnom. I swear to GOD, people...

1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks
3 large eggs (I used brown eggs in keeping with the spirit of things, but white eggs are fine)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 splash Kahlua or other coffee liqueur
1 graham cracker pie crust (9 or 10 inches). Choose regular or chocolate graham cracker crust according to taste.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees (Fahrenheit). Melt butter in largish mixing bowl; add in corn syrup, molasses, brown sugar and cinnamon. Mix well. Melt chocolate; fold into existing mixture. Add eggs and Kahlua; mix vigorously until mix has an even consistency. Pour into pie crust (depending on size of crust you may have a little filling mix left over).

Shove into oven, center of middle rack, and bake for about 45 minutes. At 45 minutes, poke pie with butter knife. If butter knife comes out clean, your pie is done; otherwise give it about another five minutes.

[Miharu Mindi]

For anyone who's interested, I have a cooking blog (though I haven't updated it yet this month because I haven't been grocery shopping ). It is here:

http://theapartmentchef.blogspot.com/

[Cayenne]

By Request: Broccoli-Shrimp Stirfry

• 1 pound fresh/frozen shrimp.*
• 1/3 c water
• 1/4 c soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp cooking oil (Sesame if you have it!)
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2-4c broccoli florets**
• 1 c thinly bias-sliced carrots
• 1 small onion, halved lengthwise and sliced
• 1 c fresh sliced mushrooms***
• Rice or chow mein noodles, however much you like for however many people you are serving, cooked and drained.
• 1/4 c cashews (or almonds, but cashews taste so much better) toasted.****

* = Use either medium or small ("salad") shrimp, the latter of which works best for me. It doesn't have to be one pound - if you like less, go for less.
** = If you're serving more people or people with big appetites, more broccoli.
*** = a can of mushrooms (stems and pieces) will work in a pinch and actually tastes really good.
**** = Mish's notes on toasting: Toasting heightens the flavour of nuts, seeds, and coconut. To toast, spread the food in a single layer in a shallow baking pan. Bake in a 350ºF oven for 5 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown, watching carefully and stirring a few times so that the food does not burn. DO NOT BURN THEM.

Instructions:
1. Thaw shrimp, if frozen. If necessary, peel and devein them, removing the tails. (If you got the salad shrimp, you shouldn't have to do that). Rinse, pat dry with paper towels. Set aside.
2. In small bowl, combine water, soy sauce, vinegar, cornstarch, and sugar, mix with a fork; set aside.
3. Heat oil in a wok or large enough (minimum 12 inches) skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir the garlic in the hot oil for about 15 seconds.
4. Add the broccoli, carrots, and onion, cook and stir for 3 minutes.
5. Add the mushrooms, cook and stir for 1 to 2 minutes more until vegetables are crisp-tender.
6. Remove vegetables with a slotted spoon, put aside in bowl.
7. Stir the soy sauce mixture again, and add to wok - cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Add shrimp, cook for about 3 minutes or until shrimp are opaque.
8. Stir in vegetables, heat through.
9. Service with rice/pasta, and sprinkle with the cashews.

[Jinka]

Well, mine isn't a real recipe cause I didn't measure any of it...but it's still yummy!

Take boneless chicken breasts and beat them with a meat tenderizer to make them flatter.

Once it's pretty flat roll some artichoke, and if you want more flavor some basil pesto sauce, up in the chicken.

Pin it in place with tooth picks

Once all of them are rolled dip them in Italian dressing then directly cover them in Italian bread crumbs.

Gently place in a baking dish, remove tooth picks, and carefully drizzle with abit more Italian dressing in order to guarantee moister.

Place in oven, heated to 350 and cook until chicken is fully done.

Remove and top with shredded mozzarella then place back in the oven until cheese is melted.

Remove chicken.

If you want to make a tomato sauce to eat along with it, it's very good. I cooked tomato sauce and added onions, mushrooms, garlic cloves, sliced olives, salt, and you can add spices you like to make it hot if you choose. My tomato sauce was very simple, and I liked it that way, because it didn't over power the chicken.

And of course you can always cook some pasta noodles with it, angel hair is my favorite.

If you do all three, then you can serve is as such:
1. First layer of noodles
2. A thin layer of sauce
3. Place chicken on top
4. Pour on just a tad more sauce
5. Sprinkle with parmesan