Comfort Food Saturday--Red Velvet Cake

In honor of Valentine's Day, I give you my favorite dessert recipe. Enjoy!


RED VELVET CAKE
1 ½ cups flour
½ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
½ cup milk
1 bottle (1 oz.) Red food coloring
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Heat oven to 350. Mix flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Mix sour cream, milk, food coloring and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed just until blended. Spoon batter into cake pan or muffin cups. Bake 20-25 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely. Frost with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting!

VANILLA CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 box (16 oz.) confectioners’ sugar
Beat softened cream cheese, softened butter, sour cream and vanilla extract in large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar on medium speed until smooth.


TIP!! If you like pecans, you can stir some chopped ones into your frosting once it's made and then spread it on the cake, OR sprinkle them on top of the cake once it's frosted. YUM!

Comfort Food Saturday, Take Two: Chocolate Fondue

Since it looks like my cole slaw recipe was a flop, here's something chocolate. Enjoy!

CHOCOLATE FONDUE (just in time for Valentine's Day)

3/4 cup heavy cream
1 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped (or use semisweet chocolate chips)

Add-ins: 1/4 cup of your favorite flavored liqueur (coffee, etc.), 4 tablespoons instant coffee or 1/4 cup brewed coffee, 1/4 cup of your favorite extract (mint, almond, etc.)

In heavy saucepan, bring cream to a boil. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Stir until smooth. Stir into fondue pot. Add any add-ins you'd like. Keep warm over low heat. Serve with dippers of your choice. Recommended dippers: fruit, biscotti, bread or marshmallows.

*If you don't have a fondue pot, you can serve this out of a crock pot. Just make sure your heat is not too high. Mine has a "keep warm" setting that is perfect for fondue.

Comfort Food Saturday: Cole Slaw

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I absolutely HATE mayonnaise. I can't stand the look or smell of it and the taste makes me gag. Therefore, cole slaw was not on my list of things I ate. Then I met my husband. And then I met his mother. And she made cole slaw with vinegar. Oh. My. Word. It is amazing. This is great for BBQs or picnics and gets better the longer it stays in the fridge. I've heard it called "Carolina Slaw," "Boston Slaw, " "That Really Good Slaw Your Mom Makes With The Vinegar" and a few other names. I just call it good. Try it on a hot dog or dip it onto your potato chips. Especially if you're pregnant. (It was one of my cravings)

LANE FAMILY COLE SLAW

1 medium head of green cabbage (about 4 cups chopped--julienne it or do it in the food processor)

1 cup cider vinegar

3-4 bunches green onion, chopped

2 tablespoons celery seed

1 tablespoon dry mustard

1 cup sugar

salt and pepper to taste

*You may also add juliened carrots if you like it a little sweeter. (OR use a ready-made bag of cole slaw! EASY!)

Bring sugar, vinegar, mustard and celery seed to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, stirring often until sugar is dissolved. Allow this dressing to cool completely. Once the dressing is cool, pour over shredded cabbage and onions. Allow to marinate at least 3 hours, overnight if possible. Serve chilled, adding salt and pepper to suit your taste.

Enjoy!

Comfort Food Saturday--Spinach Artichoke Dip

In honor of one of my favorite bloggers, Frema, who is at this very moment welcoming her baby boy into the world, I give you Spinach Artichoke Dip. Those of you who read Frema's blogs know of her deep affection for this stuff. I also love it and searched far and wide for a recipe that didn't involve mayonnaise, which I do NOT love. This one's tasty and uses low-fat ingredients. So here ya go, just in time for Super Sunday. Enjoy!

SPINACH ARTICHOKE DIP
1 box frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 cup light sour cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella
8 ounces reduced fat cream cheese, softened (*I found that the reduced fat kind just works better for some reason, but feel free to use the "real" stuff!)
4 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more as needed
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, plus more as needed (This can be omitted if you don't like spicy food. You can also substitute a few red pepper flakes.)
1 (14-ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Squeeze all excess liquid from spinach, place in a food processor with sour cream, Parmesan, 1/2 cup of the mozzarella, the cream cheese, garlic, pepper and hot sauce.
Process until just blended but still slightly lumpy. Add artichokes and pulse to form a chunky mixture. Place in a 1-quart baking dish. Top with remaining mozzarella. Bake until bubbly, about 30 minutes. Serve with carrot sticks, celery sticks, crackers, toasted pitas or tortilla chips.

Comfort Food Saturday: Chicken Tortilla Soup

I made a big batch of this in the crock pot the day before our Christmas party only to be told that my husband does not like chicken tortilla soup. This is information he might have shared while we were at the grocery store, where I announced at least 3 times "I need this for my chicken tortilla soup!" Nope. I had a big ol' pot of soup ready to be sprinkled with cheese and annointed with tortilla strips when he came into the kitchen and turned his nose up at it. Thanks, honey.

Ever the mother hen, I filled every tupperware container I own, put a couple in the freezer and reserved one for a couple of our students who were coming over the next day. I sent it home with them and they reported back to me saying it was the best chicken tortilla soup they'd ever had. I don't know about all THAT, but it is pretty dang tasty. Add you own "flair" to make it the best it can be for your palate. (AJU5's Mom: I am DYING to try some of your chile-infused sour cream with this!) I kind of made this one up as I went along, like I do with most recipes. There are not a ton of spices because the mingling of the simple flavors is what makes it so tasty. Enjoy!

Chicken Tortilla Soup:
Cooked white chicken meat (I am being vague here, I know. You could technically used canned or pre-cooked stuff. OR you can do what I did, which was to throw a whole pound of boneless, skinless tenders in there raw and let them cook in the soup all day. They will eventually be so tender you can just pull them apart with a fork. If you like chunks, cut them up. You could also use 2-3 boneless skinless breasts.)

1 can Rotel tomatoes (with green chiles!), drained

1 small can tomato sauce

1 1/2-2 cups chicken broth (depends on how liquidy you like it and how big your slow cooker or pot is)

1 small can white shoepeg corn

1 can black beans, drained

1 medium onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

3 cloves minced garlic

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon black pepper

dash of cayenne pepper (if you like it hot)

Pour all ingredients into slow cooker and mix well. Cook on low for at least 4 hours or until chicken is very tender. This can also be made on the stovetop in a stockpot, where it should simmer for at least 2 hours. If using the stovetop recipe, cook chicken before adding other ingredients.
Top with grated cheese, sour cream, and tortilla strips or crushed tortilla chips.

Recommendation! If you like tortilla strips, buy your own corn or flour tortillas, cut into small strips and toss into a deep fryer or pan of hot oil until crisp. If you choose to use tortilla chips, the blue ones are excellent with this soup and are best when crushed into the bottom of the bowl with the soup ladeled over the top. YUM.

Comfort Food Saturday

I'm craving comfort food. That is probably the reason I allowed Marcus to talk me into eating lunch at Dairy Queen. And yes, I did eat my sundae before I ate my cheeseburger. And I know, I didn't need either of them.

ANYWAY, I always enjoy doing recipe posts because sometimes it prompts folks to send me recipes of their own. Which I love. So keep sending them! It also saves me the bother of writing down new recipes, then losing them. I can just go to my archives! After the blandy mcbland turkey meatball recipe I posted earlier this week, which are quite tasty when mixed into tomato sauce, I thought I should give you something with a little more pizazz. So why don't we start Comfort Food Saturday? I'll try to provide a good, comforting recipe each weekend that won't break the bank. (And I realize some of our banks are more about saving calories than saving money!)

Here's one of my favorite snack recipes. I could eat an entire bowl of this stuff RIGHT NOW.

SOUTHERN CAVIAR

• 2 (15-ounce) cans black-eyed peas, drained
• 1 (15-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 (10-ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chiles (recommended: Ro-Tel)
• 2 cups chopped red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh jalapeno peppers
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 (8-ounce) bottle Italian dressing
• 1 (4-ounce) jar chopped pimentos, drained

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Serve with tortilla chips or crackers.

Some notes about this recipe:
If you hate black-eyed peas, use black beans instead!
If you hate spicy food, use a regular can of diced tomatoes instead of Ro-Tels and omit the jalapeno. Maybe add some green bell pepper for color.
Use fat free Italian dressing or the Wishbone "Just 2 Good" dressing which has only 2 grams of fat. Those dressings tend to have more chunks in them, which adds to the yum factor of this recipe.

This is great for pot-lucks. Enjoy!