One Cake to Rule Them All...

For my son's thirteenth birthday tomorrow, I made a Hobbit Hole cake.  Cake is from a mix, baked in Pampered Chef batter bowl.  I cut a small chunk from one side to make the door, the leftover made the little hill under the right hand tree.  Fortunately, it's the right season for Christmas tree peeps.  Path is yogurt-covered raisins, windows are chocolate coated raspberry rings.

Cookie dough cream pie

I had a delicious chocolate chip cookie dough cream pie at a restaurant years ago and have been looking for a recipe since. I may have found it. Raw cookie dough inside a brown sugar pudding that tastes somewhat like cookie dough itself. Ignore your diet, folks.

Notes: This makes a deep dish pie! I doubled the recipe to make 2 pies for a church event. I used pre-made Oreo crusts for a shortcut. There was enough filling for 3.
Baking the egg-less cookie dough makes a pretty little garnish, but the cookies themselves were overly crisp and buttery for me. Next time I think I'll skip that step and use regular cookies or Famous Amos.

Crust:

• 1 1/2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs (7 oz)
• 6 tablespoons butter

Press into pie pan, bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Cool completely.

Dough:

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 stick butter
• 3/8 cup brown sugar
• 3/8 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars, ass milk and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients and mix into soft dough. Make 8 small balls (about 1/2 teaspoon) and bake at 350 for 7-9 minutes. Press rest of raw dough into pie crust.

Pudding:

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine sugar, flour and salt, whisk in 1 cup milk. Heat to boiling on medium heat, whisking constantly. Continue for two minutes, until custard is thick. Remove from heat. In separate bowl, whisk remaining milk into egg yolks. Whisk a dollop of the hot custard into the egg/milk mixture, then whisk into warm custard. Heat to boiling again for one minute, whisking constantly. Remove from hear and whisk in butter and vanilla. Pour over cookie dough and chill several hours or overnight.

Cream:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Beat cream to soft peak stage, add rest of ingredients and beat to stiff peaks. Spread over pie. Reserve eight dollops to pipe around circumference; garnish with mini-cookie.

White bean chili

I made this recently for a church event... quite good. I tend not to like traditional chili so this was a nice change. I doubled the recipe for a full pot.

• 1 lb ground chicken or cubed chicken breast
• 4 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper
• 16 ounces mild salsa verde
• 2 cans white cannellini beans
• 14 oz chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves

Brown chicken in stew pot in 2 tsp oil. Remove, cook onion and garlic in oil 5-6 minutes, until tender. Mix together remaining spices, add and stir for 1 minute. Add salsa, beans, chicken and broth, heat to boiling. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Serve with cilantro, if desired.

Loaded baked potato soup

I have been trying to make at least one crock pot of soup a week this winter. This one was for my potato-philic daughter.

• 6 large baking potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 quart chicken broth
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoons pepper
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup shredded cheddar
• 8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

Combine all ingredients except milk, cheese and bacon. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4. Mash potatoes to desired texture, stir in milk and cheese. Serve with topped with bacon, sour cream or more cheese, if desired. Or all three.

Hash Brown Soup

My daughter is a potato snob. She loves potatoes, but typically insists they be prepared from scratch and turns up her nose at instant or frozen products (though she makes an exception for KFC mashed potatoes and gravy, for some reason.)

For that reason, she was skeptical about this soup, but wound up really liking it, especially when I explained that, given the reduced prep and cooking time, it was likely to appear far more often potato soup from scratch.

• 1 chopped onion


• 1 tablespoon olive oil


• 3 cans chicken broth


• 1 large bag Southern style hash browns, frozen


• 1 can cream of celery soup


• 1 can cream of chicken soup


• 1.5 cups skim milk


• 1 pound shredded cheddar

Saute onion in oil. Add to broth in saucepan, bring to boil. Add hash browns and boil again. Add soups and milk, boil again. Stir in cheese until melted.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

My kids are crazy about chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, so when I heard of these cupcakes I had to try them. There are several versions around; I like this one because it uses a mix.

A few tips: It is essential that the dough centers be frozen thoroughly. I typically do mine overnight. Do not over bake these: 16 minutes is about right for me. If you over bake or do not freeze dough, you wind up with a dry crumply cookie in the middle instead of the soft dough. Toothpick test is not reliable for doneness if you stick it in the middle, because you'll be testing the dough; use the side.

I got the icing recipe from a different site. You can use any frosting you want, but this version has that "cookie dough" taste that makes it especially good. The original recipe made way more icing than I needed, (I don't put big swirls of icing on cupcakes) so the second time I halved it; which was barely enough. The version below is 2/3's of the original, which is about right.

Centers:

• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugar, then beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients and stir in until combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Using about 1 tablespoon each, roll 24 balls of dough. Place on cookie sheet and freeze at least 2 hours or overnight.

Cake:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup oil

Beat eggs slightly, then add rest of ingredients. Mix with mixer on medium speed 2 minutes. Fill 24 paper-lined muffin tins 1/2 to 2/3's full with batter, then place one cookie dough ball on top. Cupcake will rise and cover ball as it bakes. Bake at 350 degrees for 16-20 minute. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely.

Cookie dough buttercream frosting:

• 2 sticks butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 1/3 cups powdered sugar
• 2/3 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 1/3 teaspoons vanilla

Cream brown sugar and butter. Mix in powdered sugar until smooth. Mix in rest of ingredients to make a smooth frosting. Spread over cooled cupcakes. Top with mini-chocolate chips or a Famous Amos mini chocolate chip cookie, if desired.

These are best stored in refrigerator.

Turkey Curry Soup

I dug the turkey carcass stock out of the freezer and prepared this tonight. Everyone enjoyed.

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, minced (about 2 cups)
• 2 ribs celery, sliced
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Indian spices to taste (I used 4 teaspoons garam masala and 2 teaspoons curry powder)
• 4 tablespoons flour
• salt and pepper to taste
• 6 cups turkey broth
• 3 cups chopped turkey
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 3 cups milk
• 4-6 cups rice, cooked

Melt butter in soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and celery, saute 10 minutes until tender. Add garlic and spices, cook 2 minutes. Add flour, cook 2 more minutes. Add salt, pepper, broth and turkey, heat until simmering; simmer 10-15 minutes. Add lemon juice and milk and cook 5 minutes longer. Serve over rice or mix rice into soup.