Ice-cream Cake Roll

This is a chocolate cake roll with ice-cream as the filling.  I generally use mint chocolate chip ice-cream, but have used other flavors as well.  This recipe is not for the faint at heart.  I have no ideas how many times I have made this cake.  Coming from a large family, we all kind of took over a certain type of dessert and got good at it.  And when it needed to be made, we were the one to make our particular specialty.  This cake is my particular specialty in my family.  I started cooking at a fairly young age and my dad taught me how to make this cake.  We often made desserts together on Sunday afternoons.  He taught me a lot of my dessert specialities-good memories that I hope to pass on to my own kids. I have made this cake almost every time it was needed/wanted since then-even after being married.  Two of my brothers always had this cake for their birthdays.  As our family grew and we became adults with kids, I altered the recipe to make double and triple batches.  My husband and one of my children love this cake, so it is now a tradition in our home to on certain birthdays.  It really is super delicious!!  The original recipe came from the classic "Better Homes and Gardens" cookbook.  I have changed a few things-mostly added more cocoa powder and made the size larger to curtail it to our family.

To make 1 large cake roll:
1/2 cup flour
1/3-1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/3 tsp baking soda
Sift the above ingredients together and set aside.
6 egg yolks
3/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
In a medium mixing bowl beat egg yolks and vanilla with electric mixer on high speed for 5 minutes or until thick and lemon colored. Gradually add the 1/2 cup sugar, beating on high until the sugar is dissolved.
6 egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
In a large mixing bowl beat egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form.  If you are using the same beaters-wash them thoroughly!  If you get any yolk into the whites, they will not fluff up. Gradually add the 3/4 cup sugar, beating until stiff peaks form, but not too stiff.  Essentially, the egg whites should look like whipped cream.

Fold egg yolk mixture into the egg white mixture-gently (not with the mixer-a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon would be great).

Gradually sprinkle the dry mixture over the egg mixtures and fold in gently, just until it is all combined.  Spread batter evenly into a greased/floured cookie sheet (15x10x1 pan).

Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.  Immediately loosen the edges of the pan with a knife. When the pan is cool enough to touch, but still pretty warm, turn cake onto a clean dishtowel that has been sprinkled with powdered sugar.  Gently roll up the towel to help the cake form.  Let cool.  

1 container of mint chocolate chip ice-cream
Soften ice-cream until you can spread the ice-cream (stir it until it is softened and ready to spread).  Unroll cake and gently spread ice-cream on it.  Re-roll cake and immediately place in freezer to harden.  This cake is delicious no matter how you eat it, but my favorite way is to serve it with chocolate sauce-I just love chocolate!!

To make 2 large cake rolls:  
(this is a little more tricky as you really need a large bowl for the whites and mixing is a little harder-you have been warned)
1 cup flour
3/4-1 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
Sift the above ingredients together and set aside.
12 eggs yolks
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
In a medium mixing bowl beat egg yolks and vanilla with electric mixer on high speed for 5 minutes or until thick and lemon colored. Gradually add the 1/2 cup sugar, beating on high until the sugar is dissolved.
12 egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
In a very large mixing bowl beat egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form.  If you are using the same beaters-wash them thoroughly!  If you get any yolk into the whites, they will not fluff up. Gradually add the 3/4 cup sugar, beating until stiff peaks form, but not too stiff.  Essentially, the egg whites should look like whipped cream.

Fold egg yolk mixture into the egg white mixture-gently (not with the mixer-a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon would be great).

Gradually sprinkle the dry mixture over the egg mixtures and fold in gently, just until it is all combined.  Spread batter evenly into a greased/floured cookie sheet (15x10x1 pan).

Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.  Immediately loosen the edges of the pan with a knife. When the pan is cool enough to touch, but still pretty warm, turn cake onto a clean dishtowel that has been sprinkled with powdered sugar.  Gently roll up the towel to help the cake form.  Let cool. 

1 gallon of mint chocolate chip ice-cream
Soften ice-cream until you can spread the ice-cream (stir it until it is softened and ready to spread).  Unroll cake and gently spread ice-cream on it.  Re-roll cake and immediately place in freezer to harden.  This cake is delicious no matter how you eat it, but my favorite way is to serve it with chocolate sauce-I just love chocolate!!

Magic Cookie Bars

After posting homemade sweetened condensed milk, I figured I ought to add the recipe that inspired it in the first place!  So here is one of my husband's all time favorite desserts, and fortunately it's one of my favorites too! 

Magic Cookie Bars
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 TBLS sugar
1-1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (pecans are my favorite-though my husband doesn't like nuts, so half of the batch has nuts and half doesn't)
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut
1 can sweetened condensed milk (or 3/4 -1 cup of homemade sweetened condensed milk)

In 9x13 pan melt butter.  Add cracker crumbs and sugar-stirring together with a fork and then pressing down for your crust.  Top crust evenly with chocolate chips, nuts, & coconut.  Pour milk evenly on top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. 

Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk

I wanted to make one of my husband's favorite treats-"Magic Cookie Bars", but as usual did not have one of the key ingredients-Sweetened Condensed Milk.  I am just too cheap to keep that on hand especially since it is not a need, but always a desire for a yummier desire that isn't good for the waistline.
I went searching-I figure if it is sold at a store, it had to be made from scratch at some point.  What I didn't know is that it would be so incredibly simple and very delicious!  I will never buy the can again!

Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/4 cup boiling water
3 TBLS butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup powdered milk

Using an electric mixer or a small blender (I use my magic bullet), blend together water, sugar, butter, and vanilla.  Add powdered milk and blend until thickish.  If there are leftovers, they are good in the fridge for at least 2 weeks (I won't admit how long I had the leftovers and then made chocolate sauce with them-oh man that was yummy too!).

Homemade Spaghettios

Yup, that's what I mean-homemade spaghettios-those nasty fake pasta things in a can that are actually quite gross.  My kids LOVE them and I don't buy them anymore.  I only ever bought them a few times on sale or they had them at their Grandmas house with other cousins that loved them.  So it was my sons night to help me make dinner.  He wanted to make spaghettios-so I went on a search for a recipe.  I found several and liked 2 recipes-things from both.  So I came up with my own and. . . it was delicious!  I not only had seconds, but third helpings (we must realize that my first helping was very small in anticipation that I wouldn't care for this meal).  We also didn't use little round "o"  pasta, but instead found this alphabet letters pasta at Winco-likely intended for soups because it is very small in size, but it worked out great actually, I mean how can you go wrong with a meal made for kids and alphabet letters?

Homemade Spaghettios
15 oz can tomato sauce
1/2 can of water (using the tomato sauce can-rinsing out all the tomato while adding the water)
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder (or 2 minced garlic cloves)
1/4 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp chili powder (or red pepper flakes)
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 tsp pepper
1 TBLS butter
1 can V-8 (totally optional-just to add more nutrition and good flavor-I only did this when I re-heated the leftovers and it was delicious)
1-2 cups cheese (whatever kinds you want to use-I used about 1/4 cup parmesaen (the real kind that you actually grate, you could use the other kind, but it will be grainy), and 1 1/2 cups mozzerella because I had some I needed to use) 
1-1 1/2 cups dry pasta (cook while making the sauce)

Mix all the ingredients except cheese and pasta together.  If you don't have all the ingredients, you are probably fine-it will likely taste better than the canned stuff no matter what.  The sauce should taste strong to you because once you add the pasta it will tone down the flavor quite a bit.
While sauce is heating up, cook dry pasta according to package directions.  Bring tomato mixture to a simmer and then slowly add cheese.  Add cooked pasta until desired amount (we like a lot of pasta-so if you want it more saucy, probably stick with 1 cup of pasta).  Serve and enjoy!

Eds Hearty Chili

This chili recipe is variable, of course-isn't that partly what chili is (throw in what you have)?  I really like the flavors of this chili.  My husband hates chili, but he really enjoys this-so that's a big plus!  I don't always make it exactly the same, but it always has a good flavor!

2 TBLS oil or butter or bacon or sausage grease (could be a combination of these-the bacon or sausage grease is of course totally optional, but it gives it a more hearty, man loved flavor)
1/2-1 onion, chopped (I like a lot of onion)
3-6 cloves garlic, minced (I like a LOT of garlic too!)
Saute the onion and garlic in the oil.
Add:
up to 1 lb of bacon, hamburger, or chicken or any meat that you would like, if you have it (I often don't have any meat and I love this just with the beans-so I go either way on this quite often though bacon is my favorite-I usually only do half of a package of bacon-just enough to get some good bacon flavor in there-this is the way to get a man that doesn't really care for chili to love it-add bacon)
2 cans kidney beans

If you did not add meat, for sure add more beans, if you added meat, 2 cans is enough, but you can throw in more if you want to:   Add 1-2 cans any other beans that you want to add (black, pinto, white, more kidney)

Add 1 can of beef broth or 2 cubes of beef broth and 2 cups of water.

Let simmer for a bit to soak into beans a little more and dissolve the beef broths cubes.

Add 2 cans diced tomatoes-fire-roasted are really good (or do 1 diced and 1 tomato sauce-which is what I often do because my hubby prefers no chunks of tomatoes-I have also added a fresh garden tomato or two to get that great fresh garden tomato flavor.

Add to taste, but approximately for mild flavor follow below-for a more spicy flavor 1 1/2 to 2 x's the spices:
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp-1 TBLS chili powder (Start with 1, it's pretty spicy with just 1)
1 tsp of chipolte powder (I often haven't had this, but it does add a nice flavor if you have it)
1 TBLS cocoa powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 TBLS brown sugar

I sometimes add 1 cup of frozen corn, depending on if I have it, and my mood.

Stir together and let the spices soak in while simmering.  You can pretty much eat it at any time or let it simmer for a long time.  I like to stir in some greek yogurt, spinach, and nacho chips when I eat it and it is delicious!!  You can sprinkle cheese, sour cream, or whatever you like on top!

Breakfast Casserole

There are probably hundreds, if not thousands of recipes for a breakfast casserole.  I love breakfast, I love bacon, I love sausage; basically, I love a lumberjack style breakfast.  So here is a pretty good breakfast casserole and you can change things around if you like too!  It really doesn't matter that much-you can't really hurt it!  Oh, and we have this as a dinner too!

6 slices bread, cubed (could also do hash browns either mixed in or substituted)
8-16 oz. bacon or sausage, cooked (depending how much you want, have, whatever)
2 cups cheese
6 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
1 tsp dry mustard (or since I never remember to buy dry mustard, I use 1 TBS mustard-hotdog type (or whatever kind of mustard you want would probably be just fine))
2-4 drops tabasco sauce
a few shakes of pepper 
several shakes of salt

Grease a 9x13 casserole dish.  Spread the cubed bread/hash browns on the bottom.  Sprinkle with chopped up cooked bacon or sausage.  Sprinkle with cheese.
Mix together the rest of the ingredients and pour over the bread/meat/cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes.
YUM!  YUM!  YUM!

Fried Soba

So it looks like I started typing this up several months ago and never finished and just saved it.  I better stop posting and get on with what I need to do, but here is another recipe for today!

This is seriously super easy, in a crunch, quick-fix meal-though not very healthy, but my husband and kids love it and I can add veggies to make it a more healthy meal.  Anyway, here it is:

2-4 packages of Ramen Noodles (depending on how many people you are cooking for-we eat 3-4).
2-4 eggs (as many eggs as you have packages of noodles)

Any pre-cooked veggies or meat that you want to throw in (left-over hotdogs are great-I know, so unhealthy).

Boil the noodles in water.  While they are boiling (they only take 3-4 minutes to cook in the boiling water) blend eggs and the seasoning packets from the noodles together.  Get a fry pan heating with a little butter or oil in the bottom.  Throw in cooked noodles and stir-fry them around a bit.  Add the eggs and anything else you want (cooked veggies or meat).  Mix is all together, trying to get the egg mixture to distribute evenly.  Continue cooking until egg is cooked.  Enjoy. 

No-Bake Energy Bites

Yikes, it has been exactly 3 months since I last posted!  Between moving to a new house, Christmas, awful January illnesses, adopting a dog, running a marathon with 5 other family members, a couple of birthday parties, lots of company (and more coming tomorrow), what can I say-life is busy and it's been a while.  This blog will work up slowly, but surely and eventually I will have all the recipes I like on it-though it may take a few years. 

Anyway, my little sister made these for us while she was visiting.  They are delicious and even healthy!  They come from this awesome blog: 

http://smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com/2011/08/no-bake-energy-bites-recipe.html

Enjoy!!

No-Bake Energy Bites

1 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter)

1/3 cup honey

1 cup coconut flakes

1/2 cup ground flaxseed

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla

Mix everything above in a medium bowl until thoroughly incorporated.  Let chill in the refrigerator for half an hour.  Once chilled, roll into balls and enjoy!  Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.  (makes 18-20 bites)

***I have made these several times now and I always double the recipe, add another cup or 2 of oatmeal or so and about 1/4 cup of coconut oil. I also never chill the dough in the refrigerator-I just roll them out right away.  I find it dries out a little if you let it chill in the refrigerator and is much harder to roll into balls-but that could be from always adding extra oatmeal.