Christmas Treats: Cranberry Upside-Down Cake with Cognac Whipped Cream

A few years ago we hosted Christmas for the first time, and I served this cake.

It. was. A.MAZ.ING!!! It's best warm, so if possible, make it the day of, between dinner and dessert. I know that sounds like a pain, but I combined all the dry ingredients in a ziplock bag ahead of time, so all I had to do was mix it up and bake it, and it actually was not at all stressful.

And SOOOOO worth it!!

This only makes an 8-inch square cake, so if you're having large crowd, you may want to double it and make 2, or you could try making one in a 9 x 13 pan, but you'd probably have to adjust the cooking time.

2 tablespoons butter, melted
Cooking spray
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1 (12-ounce) package fresh cranberries

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons butter, softened
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup fat-free milk
2 large egg whites

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon cognac

Preheat oven to 350°.

Pour melted butter into an 8-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray; sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake at 350° for 2 minutes. Remove from oven, and top with pecans and cranberries.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl; stir with whisk.

Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

Add flour mixture and milk alternately to butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix after each addition. Beat the egg whites with a mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form using clean, dry beaters; fold into batter. This part is important--if you don't beat the eggs enough the cake will be too dense.

Spread batter over cranberries. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes on a wire rack. Loosen edges of cake with a sharp knife. Place a plate upside down on top of cake pan; invert onto plate.

Combine whipping cream and cognac in medium bowl and beat until whipped cream reaches the desired consistency. Serve with warm cake. Do NOT skip this part!!

The original recipe had people just combine cognac and frozen whipped topping, but I do not believe in this stuff. Real whipped cream is absolutely worth it, and pretty easy if you have a mixer.

I can't wait until Christmas so I can have this again!!

Christmas Treats: Pumpkin Cake Roll

I began making this delicious treat right after I got married. Both my grandmother and my husband's grandmother bought me subscriptions to Taste of Home magazine, and this was in one of them. It freezes really well, so it's easy to make ahead and just remove from the freezer whenever needed. (It will keep in the freezer up to 3 months!)

Cake:
3 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar, divided
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt

Filling:
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Additional confectioners' sugar, optional

Preheat oven to 375.

Line a 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan with waxed paper; grease the paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat egg yolks on high speed until thick and lemon-colored. Gradually add 1/2 cup sugar and pumpkin, beating on high until sugar is almost dissolved.

In a small bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Fold into egg yolk mixture.

Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; gently fold into pumpkin mixture. Spread into prepared pan.

Bake at 375° for 12-15 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.

Cool for 5 minutes.

Turn cake onto a clean kitchen towel dusted with confectioners’ sugar. Gently peel off waxed paper. Roll up cake in the towel jelly-roll style, starting with a short side (the towel will end up inside the cake--it's ok). Cool completely on a wire rack.

In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth.

Unroll cake; spread filling evenly to within 1/2 in. of edges. Roll up again. Before serving, dust with powdered sugar (optional, but it looks pretty).

You can eat this right away, or chill it in the fridge to eat later that day. OR you can freeze it.

Freezing instructions: Cover and freeze until firm. Remove from the freezer 15 minutes before cutting.

Christmas Treats: Peppermint Snowball Cookies

I've been making these for several years, and they're always a big hit. I also like them because it's easy to have kids help with them. They can roll the cookies into balls and then help with the candy and peppermint once they've cooled. Rich and crumbly with a cool kick of peppermint, these cookies are delicious!

Ingredients:
2 cups butter, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped pecans
8 ounces white candy coating, coarsely chopped, or white chocolate chips
1/3 to 1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy (I put mine in a little food processor) You could probably also just melt peppermint kisses and dip the cookies in those, but they wouldn't look as pretty.

In a large bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Gradually add flour and mix well. Stir in pecans. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours or until easy to handle.

Roll into 1-in. balls. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

In a microwave, melt candy coating/white chocolate; stir.

Dip the top of each cookie into the candy coating; allow excess to drip off. Dip into peppermint candy. Place on waxed paper; let stand until set.

This should make about 5 dozen cookies.

Christmas Treats: Pretzel Turtle Bites

This is by far the easiest candy ever. It's also delicious. The salt on the pretzel plus caramel and chocolate is divine, and the pecan on top just rounds it out perfectly. Great for those with little helpers because there's so much they can do!

Ingredients:
rolo candies
small pretzels (with salt!)
pecan halves

You need one of each of the above per piece of candy, so get however many you want to make.

Preheat the oven to 250 and line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Do not skip the aluminum foil!

Place pretzels on foil. Unwrap rolos and place one on top of each pretzel.

Heat in oven for 4 minutes. Rolos will retain their original shapes.

Place a pecan half on top of each rolo and squish it down into the pretzel.

Repeat for as many candies as you're making.

Cool until caramel and chocolate harden.

Enjoy!

Kids can unwrap rolos, place them on the pretzels, and even do the squishing!

I hear that you can use a peanut m&m if you don't like pecans, although I've never tried it.

Chicken Cutlets Milanese with Butter Beans and Gnocchi

I think this came from a Rachel Ray magazine. I'm trying to make some of the recipes I have in my no-cookbook recipe stand, and this was on the list, so we had it tonight. I have to say, I thought it was tasty and easy (and fast), which makes for a good weeknight meal in my book. And it was pretty. I even had The Big Geek take a picture, which hardly ever happens around here.

Salt
Pepper
Two 8-oz boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I cooked 3 breasts, but they were from a package so I don't know their individual weights)
2/3 cup instant polenta or cornmeal
3/4 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese (I believe mine was just Parmesan, but I am not positive. I didn't have quite enough grated so I used shredded for the gnocchi.)
Flour, for dredging (about a handful)
1 large egg
2 Tbsp EVOO, plus more for drizzling (add a Tbsp for every additional breast you cook)
12 oz gnocchi pasta
3 Tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
One 15-oz can butter beans, drained and rinsed
2 springs rosemary, leaves chopped (or some dried rosemary--maybe 1 tsp?)
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved (I forgot to halve them, then thought, "this would be better if the tomatoes were halved")
2 cups arugula leaves
Juice of one lemon

First, fill a large pot with water and put it on the stove to boil.

While that's warming up, place the chicken breasts on a work survace and, slicking with a knife parallel to the chicken, cut in half to make 4 cutlets. Pound the cutlets between 2 sheets of plastic wrap.

On a plate (or in a shallow dish, like a pie plate), combine the polenta with half of the cheese. Fill another plate with flour. In a shallow bowl, beat the egg with a splash of water. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Set up your assembly line: chicken, flour, egg, polenta mixture, clean plate.

In a large skillet, heat 1 Tbsp EVOO over medium-high heat.

Dredge each cutlet in the flour, then the egg, then the polenta mixture.

About this time your water is probably boiling. Add the gnocchi to the boiling water (salt the water).

Place 2 cutlets in the heated skillet and cook, turning once, until crisp and golden, 6 to 7 minutes.

Before these are done, your gnocchi will be floating. Drain them into a bowl and return the empty pasta pot to the stove. Place the butter in the pasta pot and melt over low heat.

While that's melting, remove the first cutlets, add another Tbsp of EVOO, and put 2 more cutlets into the skillet.

Stir the butter beans and rosemary into the melted butter. Add the gnocchi adn remaining cheese and season with salt and pepper.

Flip your 2nd batch of cutlets and, when cooked, remove them from the skillet. If you're cooking more, add another Tbsp EVOO and repeat.

In a bowl, toss the tomatoes with the arugula, lemon juice, and a drizzle of EVOO. Season with salt and pepper.

To serve, place cutlet on plate. Top with the salad and serve butter beans and gnocchi on the side.

Yum!

This would have been good with white wine. Damn, why am I only just thinking of that??

The little geek and baby geek liked the gnocchi and chicken. Actually, so did The Big Geek. He thought the butter beans were "chalky" and he doesn't like cherry tomatoes. I, however, thought the entire thing was delicious. I'm sure we'll have it again, and they can just pick around the butter beans.

Baked Ziti with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Smoked Gouda

In an attempt to make up of our night of consuming melted cheese and chocolate for dinner, I decided to go with a Cooking Light recipe tonight. This is quick and easy and could be prepped ahead of time and then popped in the oven about 20-30 minutes before dinner, plus it contains lots of good stuff. Quantities listed are what the recipe says; quantities in parenthesis are what I actually used.

8 oz uncooked ziti
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped onion (1 small)
1 cup chopped yellow bell pepper (2 peppers)
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomaotes with basil, garlic, and oregano OR 2 cans tomatoes plus Italian seasoning/basil/oregano to taste
4 cups baby spinach (1 bag or approx 12 cups--yes, I know, that seems like a lot, but it wilts and I'm sneaking spinach into my family's diet. It's noticeable, of course, but they don't realize how much of it they're eating)
1 1/4 cups (5 oz) shredded, smoked Gouda cheese, divided. If you don't like the smoke taste you can use regular Gouda, or you can use a different kind of smoked cheese like smoked cheddar, but the smoked Gouda is yummy.

Preheat oven to 375.

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

In a large pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat, heat the oil.

Add onion and pepper. Saute 5 minutes. Add garlic to pan, saute 2 minutes or until onion is tender.

Stir in tomatoes (and seasoning if needed) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add spinach, one handful at a time. Cook until spinach wilts and repeat until all desired spinach has been added.

Remove from heat. Add pasta and 1 cup cheese to tomato mixture, tossing well to combine. Spoon pasta mixture into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish lightly coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or until cheese melts and begins to brown.

Even the Big Geek, who is a huge carnivore, likes this. And, as I said, he has no clue how much spinach he's eating.

Of course, I realized tonight that he also didn't know that ziti was pasta. He acted like he didn't know what I was making when I mentioned the plan for dinner, and then at the table I asked if he remembered having it before.

"Yeah, but you didn't mention the pasta before."

"Ziti IS pasta."

"Oh."

So he learned something, we all had a nice dinner, and everyone ate his or her spinach for the day. :)

German Cheddar and Beer Fondue

If you don't own a fondue pot, you should. In fact, it wouldn't hurt you to own a few. I have one with a pot made of enameled cast iron, but at a fondue party we hosted a guest brought one that had a metal outer pot for water and an inner pot made of ceramic (basically a double boiler). I'm going to find out what kind it is and get one of those, because it worked really nicely.

Anyhow, if you've never had fondue, you are missing out. Yes, I know, you're basically eating cheese for dinner, but man, is it delicious. Don't fix it every night if you're trying to eat a low-fat diet. At least it's low-carb (depending on what you dip). . .

At our party, we made two cheese fondues. One was a traditional swiss fondue, which was good but didn't quite set correctly. The second was this recipe, which was so good I might have made it for dinner again tonight if I'd had enough cheese. It will be making appearances at future "date nights" the Big Geek and I have at home after the kids go to bed.

You start out making these on the stove in a regular pan and then transfer them to the fondue pot. Or, if you don't have a fondue pot, I guess you could just stand around the stove and eat it, or put it in a little crock pot. From experience, I can tell you what you CAN'T do--you can't make this at home and then try to take it to a party. It won't work out. You can't cool fondue and reheat it--trust me.

This recipe is from Rachel Ray 30-minute Get Real Meals.

10 oz (2 1/2 cups) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (you can try the low-fat, but I'm not going to)
4-6 oz Gruyere cheese, shredded (1 to 1 1/2 cups)
1 rounded tablespoon flour
1 cup German lager
2 Tbsp spicy brown mustard (I used a whole grain, and it was awesome)
3 drops of Tabasco
3 drops of Worcestershire sauce

In a bowl, combine the cheeses with the flour. Add the beer to a small pot and bring it up to a bubble over medium heat. Reduce teh heat to simmer and add the cheese mixture in handfuls. Stir constantly in in a figure-eight pattern with a wooden spoon, melting the cheese in batches. When the cheese has been incorporated fully, stir in the mustard, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. Transfer to a fondue pot and serve.

Incredibly easy, incredibly delicious.

Serve with:
Cubed or thick sliced sausages
Blanched cauliflower and broccoli (see, it's healthy!)
Green apple slices
Roasted potatoes or carrots
Cubes of bread
Anything else that appeals to you!

Rachel says this recipe serves four. I made two of her fondues, which should have served 8, and 12 people ate it with some of the swiss fondue left over, and I don't think anyone was hungry.

Fondue probably isn't little-geek friendly. Sharp, long forks and bubbling pots of cheese plus kids is not a good combo.