Molten Lava Cupcakes

Molten Lava Cupcakes

1/2 cup butter
4 oz favorite semisweet chocolate (or 25 Dove Promises)
2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease cupcake tin or place cupcake liners of your choice.  Melt butter and chocolate over low heat.  Let cool.
Beat eggs, sugar and flour.  Add cooled chocolate mix to egg mix.

Pour into cupcake pan.  Bake for 10 minutes which should mean that the cake appears done.  You, of course, cannot use the toothpick check as the innards are supposed to be soft and undone.

Let cool slightly and indulge.  Be sure to serve before your meal...you know, just in case...cuz you so don't want to miss out on this dessert.  If you make it through dinner then you can have dessert again! :)

I had no idea.  I thought there was some trick where you put chocolate inside or maybe you piped some in.  I made them and then was all what the...they are supposed to be ooey gooey...while I broke one in half and Eeeeeeee!  OOOEEEY GOOEEEY!!!  Impromptu dance of joy!

Add berries. Add ice cream. Or just eat as is.  Good "cold" as well but best if you nuke it even for just 6 seconds to get it all warm and ooey gooey again!  Super easy to split the recipe in half...wait, why would I do that????  :)

Ooey Gooey Super Easy Chocolate.  Yes, I am the Queen, and if you want to be part of my queendom - you may become my jester.  You want ooey gooey chocolate? Dance, Jester, Dance!

Popper Chicken

Bacon wrapped Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Chicken Breast

If you like jalapeno poppers and chicken - mmmmmmmm...this is for you!

2 jalapenos, quartered (unstuffed and completely cleared of veins and seeds if you are wimpy like me and you like spicy foods just not spicy in the holy crap my mouth is on fire kind of way)
8 oz of soft cream cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
5-6 chicken breasts
6-12 strips of raw bacon

Cut the jalapenos and chop them into a nice minced size.  Discard the nasty hot parts like those stems, seeds, and veins if you prefer the taste of the jalapeno not the spicy bite of it.  Your call.  
 You have let your cream cheese sit out for a little while so that it is soft.  Now you simply add the jalapenos to the cream cheese and add a tsp or so of garlic powder.  You can also add pepper and onion powder if you wish.

If you know how to stuff a chicken breast you are on stage now.  They say you slice a lengthwise pocket down the chicken. Spread the innard goodness along this length and mash the chicken together.  It won't close therefore you now wrap the chicken with bacon strips.  I found 2 strips per chicken breast worked perfectly.  Now you grill over medium heat, flipping once, until it's done.  My recipe indicated that this would be 8 minutes on each side until the internal temperature reached 160 degrees.  Well, I've never stuffed chicken before and I did the 8 minutes with innards spilling out and my internal temp was 160 based on my brand new meat thermometers and lookie - it was still undone inside.  Basically cook til it's done.  How do you know?  Well, I can only offer you tasty recipes not life answers. :)

I tried this again with boneless skinless chicken thigh as I read something in a healthy type magazine that said that even though the dark meat thigh has a gram more fat it is loaded with vitamins and minerals  (?) that the white meat breast does not have; plus it's cheaper so you should go with dark meat.  Well, I found that the thigh costs the same but I do like the dark meat - but alas, I had the same issues.  Result: I cannot successfully stuff any part of a chicken! SOOOO, brilliant woman that I am, I decided next time to cut my chicken into bite size pieces and cook.  Then, I added my cream cheese mixture to the pan until it basically melted all over the chicken.  Oh my - so much easier and just as tasty!  Maybe I'll add bacon pieces and chedder cheese shreds too.

Definitely on the list of meals to eat over and over and over again!

Lasagna

Lasagna

So, the picture may not look like your perfect lasagna - but had I put it in the fridge and then pulled it out and taken a picture it would have looked fabulous - but this is real life - this is how it looked as it was scooped out and put on a plate.  Yummyness.

Ok per usual the recipe will say something and I stop and say back to it - not likely.  Case in point - ever notice how lasagna recipes on the box indicate you should use the whole box, yet you never actually use the whole box and are left with cooked noodles with no home.  Well, this recipe says that - I'd suggest you use 2/3 to 3/4 of the box.  But, here is the recipe:

1 box lasagna
1 pound sausage (I used Hot JimmyDeans)
2 cans/jars favorite marinara sauce
1 15oz container ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 cup mozzarella cheese (diced or shredded)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese



Preheat oven 350
Cook pasta according to directions (or longer as I can never get pasta to work as the directions indicate)
Brown sausage
Add 1 & 1/3 of marinara to sausage and mix. Bring to boil.
Spray 13x9 pan
Pour half of remaining marinara on bottom
Mix ricotta with egg (this was not in the original recipe but makes the cheese spread way easier) in small bowl
Layer 5 sheets noodles, top with 1/3 sausage mix, 1/3 ricotta, and 1/3 Parmesan.
Repeat layering 2 more times
On top of final layer pour remaining marinara sauce. Be sure you cover every part of the exposed noodles with sauce so they don't become burnt and crunchy.  Unless you like that kinda thing.
Bake 20 minutes covered in foil
Take off foil (silly) and add mozzarella and remaining Parmesan (do you have Parmesan left?  Hope so)
Recover and bake 10 minutes more or until bubbly
Let sit for 5 minutes and then dig in

I'm pretty sure I added some mozzarella with each of my layers and I'm pretty sure I kicked the heat up to about 425 and didn't cover in foil.  But, I like to live on the edge so you do what you feel like doing.  I suppose it's possible to screw it up but doubtful that you'd screw it up so bad that you wouldn't be able to eat it!

Enjoy!

Berry Cheesecake Delight

Chocolate Ganache cheesecake topped with whipped cream and berries = Delightful!

Crust:
One sleeve of Oreos
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

First step is to crush around 20 Oreo cookies - a sleeve of Oreos - innards and all - so they are like a crumb as this will be your crust.  I also added about a 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs to the mix and then added the 1/4 cup melted butter to create the crust. No need to add sugar as there is plenty in the Oreo innards.

Cheesecake:
3  8oz packages of Cream Cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs 

Blend softened cream cheese packages and sugar.  Add one egg at a time beating with mixer until completely mixed. Pour into Oreo cookie crust. Bake about 45 minutes, in your previously 350 degree preheated oven, until center is nearly set.  Cool. Refrigerate.

Ganache:
8oz yummy semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream 
1 tsp vanilla

Bring heavy whipping cream to a boil.  Pour over chocolate chips.  Use good quality yummy chocolate chips - the kind you prefer to eat by the handful not some cheap nasty crap.  Wisk until all the chips are melted and then add vanilla.  Let it cool a little.  Truth be told I'm not sure how long.  You want it to slowly trickle not run all over the place.  I say this because mine ran all over the place and caused a huge mess - everywhere.

Pour cooled ganache over cooled cheesecake.  Use spatula as needed to drizzle or cover to your hearts content.  Put in the fridge.  I recommend putting some sort of plate under it in case your ganche makes like a river and erodes your cake and waterfalls all over your fridge.  Not that that isn't fun!

Once you are ready to serve - top with little dollops of whipped cream and pile on the berries.  I used a frozen berry bag that had strawberries, blackberries, red raspberries, black raspberries, and blueberries.  Um, Yum!

If you super want to impress your guests with your kitchen mastery - drizzle some chocolate over the plate first (mine is chocolate syrup) and then carefully place the cheesecake slice on top.  

Oh yeah.  Be prepared to be impressed!