Cardamom Rice Pudding

I absolutely adore this rice pudding that I adapted from the Joy of Cooking

1 cup short grain rice
6 cups milk (I've only tried this with whole milk)
1/2 tsp salt
4 green cardamom pods
2 tsp of sugar
2 T butter
Cook the rice in the milk, salt, and cardamom in double boiler stirring often. Make sure the water in the bottom pan doesn't boil off.  You'll know it is done when the rice has expanded and absorbed almost all the milk.  Take it off the heat and stir in the sugar and butter.  Serve hot and then serve the left-overs well chilled.

I love the slightly perfumy combination of jasmine rice and cardamom but if that isn't your thing, you can replace the cardamom with vanilla or lemon rind.  I also enjoy adding dried cherries in the last 10 minutes of cooking so they plump up and offer a sweet-tart counterpoint to the creamy richness of the pudding.  I ate something very like this on my mission with cinnamon sugar or good jam and enjoy that as well.

Double Dark Chocolate Cheesecake

This is the chocolate cheesecake I shared as my talent at the recent reunion.

Cheesecake Recipe at Epicurious

I changed a couple of things in the recipe.  First I bake the cheesecake in a 12 inch cake pan lined with a parchment paper circle.  Cheesecake and spring-form pans have never worked well together for me.

Second I add the chocolate to the batter before the eggs.  Otherwise you over-beat the eggs. 

Third I serve this with raspberry jam which I sometimes spread under the ganache and sometimes just drizzle over each piece.

Monster Cookies (flourless)

1 1/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1 c. sugar
3/4 c. shortening
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. peanut butter (crunchy or creamy)
1 tbsp. corn syrup (optional but good to include if you have it on hand)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
4 1/2 oats
1 bag of choc chips or something

Bake at 350 for 11-13 minutes on a greased cookie sheet.

The chocolate chips can be replaced by any combination of chips and dried fruit. We liked dark chocolate chips with dried cherries, and another variation with dried apricots. My most recent batch had butterscotch chips. I also like the Sunmaid "tropical trio" dried fruit in it.

I think they're called "monster cookies" because this recipe makes a monster batch, probably about forty cookies.

Fruit Puree with Ice cream (Not quite a smoothie)

This is a recipe we've had twice in the last week. It is a wonderful summer food as it is nice and cool. Hope you enjoy

1 can peaches in pear juice
1/2 half a banana ripe and sweet, but not banana bread ripe yet(Max eats the other half)
1 1/2 c. frozen fruit. So far we've tried straight blueberries and a mixture of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries (out of a bag they sell at the mega mart)
3 scoops of Vanilla Ice cream
1/2 cup of milk or more as necessary.

Add all the ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth. Depending on a number of factors you may need more milk to get it to blend. Feel free to use as much milk as you want to get a smooth consistency.

I drink this like a smoothie, Adrian and Yoroko eat it with spoons (it is thick enough to justify spoons) Max eats it with delight and spreads as much of it on his face as possible.

The only thing that is stopping me from having it again is that I used up all my fruit this morning. I plan to spend most of the summer with one of these for dinner. 5 stars

Inside-Out Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 c. sugar
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
3/4 c. butter
1/2 c. shortening
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. baking cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. butterscotch or white chocolate chips
1 c. chopped nuts

Heat oven to 350. Beat sugars, butter, shortening, vanilla and eggs. Stir in flour, cocoa, soda and salt. Stir in chips and nuts. On ungreased cookie sheet, bake 10-12 minutes.

Seventh Heaven

This is a seven-layer dessert, the best I've ever had.

First layer: crust. 1 c. flour, 8 T melted butter, 1 c. chopped pecans. Press into 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for fifteen minutes. Cool completely.

Second layer: 8 oz cream cheese, 1 c. powdered sugar, 8 oz cool whip. Let cream cheese come up to room temp. Beat together cream cheese and powdered sugar, stir in cool whip. Spread on crust.

Third layer: Large package of vanilla pudding.

Fourth layer: Large package of chocolate pudding.

Fifth layer: 8 oz cool whip

Sixth layer: grated chocolate bar

Seventh layer: chopped pecans.

Okay, so the sixth and seventh layers are kind of cheating, but wow, is this good!

Fudge

16 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 oz. baking chocolate
14 oz sweetened condensed milk (one can)
1 tsp vanilla

Melt chocolate in double boiler. If you use the microwave, be very careful about burning it. Stir in milk and vanilla. Pour into very well-greased 8x8 pan. Chill.

I was eating some fudge yesterday that a friend brought and decided that it was not as creamy and chocolatey and wonderful as my own fudge. Spencer points out that this is not real fudge because there's not enough cooking involved, but I think it tastes as good or better than any real fudge that I've ever had. It has a dark chocolatey tinge to it instead of milk chocolate. And because it's an easy recipe I can always make it right.

Gia's Fruit Cake

Original recipe from Butt'ry Shelf Cookbook by Mary Campbell
Fruitcakes for Christmas Baskets

The Fruit
2 quarts (about 3.5 lbs.) of dried fruit (I use cherries, peaches,
prune/plums, apples, pineapple, craisins, reg. raisins, Brazil nuts,
hazelnuts, extra apricots, tropical fruit mix, etc.)

2 c. diced dates
1 c. golden raisins
4 c. coconut
1 c. diced apricots
2 c. blanched chopped almonds

The Cake
Sift together 1 T. baking powder, 1 T salt, 4 c. flour

Pour 1 c. flour mix over fruit and mix well to coat

Cream together 2 c. soft butter, 2 c. sugar, 1/2 c. pineapple juice

Add, one at a time, and beat well after each addition: 10 eggs

Add flour mixture to butter mixture, then add slowly 1 c. pineapple
juice or sweet cider, beating well. This will make a thick sticky batter.
Add fruit mix and stir thoroughly

Spoon into about 10 well buttered small bread tins (can also partially
line with parchment) The batter will not rise appreciably, so fill the bread tins as full as you want them.

Place well apart in 250 degree oven for 2 hours until golden brown and firm.
Cool on racks, wrap in foil, tie with ribbon and a sprig of balsam.

This is how I received it from our fair Gia. We have definite favorites when it comes to the dried fruit. Apricots are king. Followed closely by the dried cherries. We have also added dried apples to good effect. Everyone we have ever given these to always requests the recipe, and we never seem to have enough. If you have more than you need you can wrap them in 1. plastic wrap, 2. foil, then you can freeze it in a reclosable freezer bag and they'll keep for a couple of months or more.

Quick (but still tasty and totally from scratch) Cinnamon Rolls

I jotted this recipe down on a tiny bit of paper at a friend's house, so it has little in the way of detailed instructions, but it works out very well! The thing that is awesome about this recipe is that they only rise for ten min. not sure how it works, but it's yummy.

Preheat oven to 425.

Mix and let sit ten min:

1 1/2 cup warm H2O
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup sugar
2 tblsp yeast
1/2 tblsp salt

Then, add 1 large egg (beaten). Add approx 5 cups flour (enough to make a good dough).

Roll out and spread cinnamon mixture evenly over dough.

Cinnamon Mixture:

1/2 cup melted margarine and/or butter
3/4 cup sugar
6 heaping teaspoons cinnamon

Roll it up pretty tightly, make sure the edge seam is sealed tight. Cut into rolls. Place in a greased pan. Let rise about 10 minutes in pan. Then, bake ten min. at 425.

Frost when still warm, but not hot, with:

Mix together:
3 tablsp margarine and/or butter, melted
2 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/8 cup milk
3/4 tsp vanilla
orange zest (optional)

gloat over your yummy cinnamon rolls that only had to rise for ten minutes (optional)