Marble Bars

This recipe was from an ancient piece of notebook paper where Mom had copied down several recipes. They were okay. Imagine Texas sheet cake minus the frosting, plus a cream cheese swirl. They really weren't very chocolaty, and the cream cheese taste kind of got lost. The only change I made was that the recipe called for unsweetened baker's chocolate, and I substituted cocoa. I rate it a three star recipe. It was fine, but I don't know that I'll ever make them again.

The one awesome thing about these bars is that I thought I did an excellent swirling job, especially in that middle section. If you ever need to have a swirl in your dessert, let me know, and I'll come help you out.

Marble Bars

1/2 c margarine
3/4 c water
1 1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate squares (1 1/2 squares)
2 c flour
2 c sugar
1 t soda
1/2 t salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c sour cream

8 oz cream cheese
1/3 c sugar
1 egg

6 oz chocolate chips

Bring the margarine, water, and chocolate to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in flour, sugar, soda and salt. Add eggs, sour cream. Mix well. Pour in greased 15'' x 11'' jelly roll pan.

Combine cream cheese, sugar and egg. Spoon over chocolate batter. Cut through with knife to marble.

Sprinkle chocolate chips on top.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes.


Now that I typed the recipe in, I see that I missed the whole chocolate chip section when I made these things. Maybe that would add in some richness to the bars, but it would also add little hard chunks of chocolate. It definitely needs something else, though. Maybe some frosting would help.

Roasted Carrots

This was a nice simple recipe for a side dish. I give it four and a half stars.

1 pound baby carrots
2 T olive oil
1 t house seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic powder)
2 T butter
2 T chopped fresh parsley

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Coat carrots with olive oil. Toss with house seasoning and place in 9x13 in. roasting pan. Roast until tender, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and toss carrots with butter and chopped parsley. Serves 6-8.

Since we don't buy baby carrots, I peeled and cut ours, and I used dried parsley. It was still very good

Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies

 This project has shown me Mom's priorities when it comes to food.  I have tons of dessert recipes in my pile, quite a few roll recipes, a just a handful of dinner recipes.  That must be where my genes came from. Except that Dad always keeps a stash of candy around.  I must have gotten a double dose.  So I love making all these cookie recipes.  This one has peanut butter in it, so not just your average choco chip cookie. 

Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 C white sugar
1/3 C packed  brown sugar
1/2 C butter
1/2 t vanilla
1 egg
1 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C rolled oats
1 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine all ingredients and mix well.  Drop by tablespoon on to lightly greased cookie sheet.  Bake 10-12 minutes.

Results:
I had trouble with the baking part, they were either underdone or overdone and hard. Overall, they were pretty good.  I wish they were softer.  I dislike hard cookies and I think these were supposed to be kind of hard.  My husband liked them, but would have liked them softer.  We rate them a 4 out of 5 stars.

Grilled Asparagus Stromboli from King Arthur Flour

Saturday night we had this one for dinner before we headed to Stake Conference. It was pretty easy to make since the bread machine did the hard part. I roasted the vegetables in the oven. Big Chub liked it. Little Chub ate it. I thought it was fine. Next time, I'll definitely salt and pepper the vegetables more and maybe add some Parmesan cheese in with the mozzarella.

The dough was amazing! I'll definitely use it for all our future pizzas.

Stromboli dough

• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 7/8 to 1 1/8 cups warm water
• 2 tablespoons garlic oil (or olive oil)
• 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon Pizza dough flavor (optional but good)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Grilled Asparagus & Onion Filling

• 2 cups fresh asparagus
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 1 cup shredded cheese (mozzarella, provolone, or a blend)
• garlic oil or olive oil for brushing crust 

We had no garlic oil (I made my own version) and no pizza dough flavor (just left it out). I'm sure it wold have had more flavor if I did use it. I noticed on the King Arthur website, the recipe also includes artichoke hearts as an optional filling item. I assume it was added after this recipe was already printed back in 2010.

Paula's Ultimate Oatmeal Cookies

This recipe was copied from a cookbook (I assume a Paula Dean Cookbook). This is what she wrote about the recipe.

I created this recipe on my television show. I could have eaten the whole plateful myself--and I just about did!

I was not impressed with this recipe. I will probably never make it again. I didn't notice until I had started mixing it together that it makes about 5 dozen. We definitely do not need 5 dozen cookies sitting around our apartment. It is just calling for trouble. The dough also was more like a batter. It wasn't even close to being able to be nicely rounded. Then when they baked, they spread to form one huge cookie on the cookie sheet that was well-done (even at the shorter time length).

Now we have a tupperware full of crumbs and a few cookies that kind of turned out. They are still crispy after shortening the cooking time and adding some more flour to the dough.

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
2 1/2 cups quick cooking oatmeal (not instant!)
1 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Brown Butter Icing:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
3 cups sifter confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or nostick baking mats.
2. Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter, shortening, and sugar at low speed until fluffy. Add the eggs and beat until the mixture is light in color. Add the buttermilk and mix to combine.
3. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. At low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold in the oatmeal, raisins, walnuts, and vanilla, blending well. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 1 1/2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.
4. While the cookies are baking, make the icing: In a small saucepan, heat the butter over medium heat until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Remove the saucepan from the heat; stir in the sugar and vanilla. Stir in enough water (3 to 4 tablespoons) to make an icing of drizzling consistency.
5. Remove the cookies to wire racks to cool. Drizzle with Brown Butter Icing while the cookies are still warm.

Pork Chops in Orange Sauce

In my recipe pile there is a whole Taste of Home magazine. That alone will give me plenty of options for future posts. For dinner tonight I made Pork Chops with Orange Sauce from the April/May 2008 edition of Taste of Home, submitted by Billie Moss from Walnut Creek, CA.

Ingredients

1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 boneless pork loin chops (6 ounces each)
3/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons sugar
6 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cold water

Combine paprika and pepper; rub over both sides of pork chops. Brown chops in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray. Combine the orange juice, sugar, cloves and orange peel; pour over pork. Cover and simmer for 4-5 minutes or until a thermometer reads 145°. Remove chops and keep warm. In a small bowl, combine flour and water until smooth; stir into cooking juices. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Discard cloves. Serve sauce with pork chops. Yield: 4 servings.

We all really liked this one. I searched for the recipe online so I didn't have to type it all in, and I was astonished that it only had 3 stars on the Taste of Home website. I give it five stars, and I'll definitely make it in the future. It calls for boneless pork loin chops, but they are way too expensive. I didn't see regular pork chops at the store I went to, but I did find some thin cut boneless pork chops that were marked down for quick sale since they were expiring soon. I'm sure they were not 6 ounces each, but it still turned out fine. I usually have a problem with pork chops getting tough from overcooking, but simmering them with a lid on helped that. And I thought the flavors went well together, despite what mlblake says.

Southern Spicy Gingerbread

Mom brought me some recipes so I can contribute to the Cupboard Project. I looked through them and picked out some to start. In the recipe collection there was a booklet from Brer Rabbit Molasses. I chose to make the Southern Spicy Gingerbread.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup vegetable shortening

• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

• 2 eggs

• 3/4 cup BRER RABBIT Molasses, light or dark (I used dark, but I think light would be better)

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 2 tsps. baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 tsps. ground ginger

• 1 1/2 tsps. ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1/2 cup boiling water

In bowl, with electric mixer, beat shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in molasses. Sift flour with baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Add flour mixture alternately with water to molasses mixture, blending well after each addition. Spread into greased 9 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack. Makes 9 servings.

I only give this recipe three stars, but it might need to be made again to get a fair rating. It wasn't one of my best cooking attempts. One major problem was that I only had a very small amount of ginger, and that's a problem when you're making gingerbread. Honestly, we couldn't taste the ginger at all. The bread also sunk in the middle, maybe because I opened the oven to check on it after 30 minutes. The edges cooked faster than the middle, so it was dry on the outside. The middle sunken part was nice and moist. Maybe if I had more ginger and adjusted the cooking instructions it would be a four star recipe.