Showing posts with label Sweet Monday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sweet Monday. Show all posts

5/20/13

Death By Chocolate Cake & Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

Hola Amigos! It's been a while since we dipped something in chocolate on the blog, so...let's dip it Big Time!
I'm sharing with you today my recipe for Death by Chocolate Cake with a Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting! Yup, this recipe is not for the faint at heart. It will cure your chocolate craving for an entire week for sure.
Here is the recipe and a Disclaimer saying this blog is not responsible if you: Fall into a Sugar induced Coma, Your kids go into Hyper Mode, Your Teeth Hurt, You gain 20 pounds just by reading this recipe or you Fall completely In Llove with it and make it over and over again! LOL

Death By Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Death by Chocolate Cake
1 Box Chocolate Fudge Cake 
1 Cup of Milo chocolate energy drink or your favorite chocolate milk
1/3 Cup Caramel Coffee
1 Small box Instant Chocolate Pudding
eggs according to box instructions
oil according to box instructions 
1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips
1 Bar (6.5 oz) Milk Chocolate Shredded, I used Trader Joe's
 Follow the instructions on the box of your Fudge Cake. I replaced 1 Cup of Chocolate energy drink plus 1/3 cup of coffee for the same amount the ask for water. Also add the pudding and manualy add the chocolate chips and shredded chocolate before putting the mix in your pan.
Bake according to instructions.
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz Cream Cheese Softened.
1/4 Cup Butter Softened
3 oz Semisweet Chocolate Melted
2 Cups Confectioners Sugar
1 TSPS Vanilla Extract
1/3 Cup Cream 
Pinch of Salt
Mix Cream Cheese and Butter until creamed. Add Melted chocolate, Sugar, Vanilla Extract , Cream and salt until everything is smooth and ready to spread.


Listo,

If you are a chocolate lover, you are in heaven! Chocolate Chips inside, Chunks of Milk Chocolate in the frosting and Big Chocolate Balls and Chocolate Syrup to decorate. Do you have enough?

I hope this recipe helps you have a Sweet Head Start this Week! Remember that everything tastes better with a Pinch of Love! and lots and lots of Chocolate!

Besitos,
Lizy

Sharing a few extra sweet calories at these Fabulous Parties:
Worthing Court
Under the Table and Dreaming
The NY Melrose Family
Will Cook for Smiles
Sweet 2 Eat
Heatherly Loves
Spatulas on Parade
Life on Lakeshore Drive
Sew-Licious Home Decor
Dessert Now Dinner Later
Your Homebased Mom
Serenity You
Claire Justine oxox
My Turn (for Us)
Simply Designing
The Best Blog Recipes
Chic on a Shoestring
Rattlebridge Farm
504 Main
One Artsy Mama
The Thriftiness Miss
My Romantic Home
This and That
The Home Girl
Kitchen Fun with my 3 Sons
The Charm of Home
Food Done Light
RealCoake.com
Nap-Time Creations
Pint Sized Baker
Love Grows Wild
Sarah Lynn's Sweets
Love Bakes Good Cakes
Memories by the Mile
Our Home Away from Home
twelveOeight
Fluster Buster
Feeding Big and More
Mom's Test Kitchen
Clean and Scentsible
The Style Sisters
No Minimalist Here
The Mandatory Mooch
Seven Alive
Jennifer Rizzo
Natasha in Oz
Rain on a Tin Roof
I Gotta Try That
Between Naps on the Porch
The Pin Junkie
Cozy Little House
Tumbleweed Contessa
Ginger Snap Crafts
Handy Man, Crafty Woman
Life with the Crust Cut off
Rate the Plate Utah
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4/1/13

Lunes de Chocolate-Chocolate Mondays

Hola Amigos! Glad to have you here today! I hope you had a beautiful Easter weekend with your family, with plenty of smiles, love and food.
Speaking of food...I really didn't feel like cooking today. I think the weekend got the best of me and after all the cooking, entertaining and a fridge full regular food and a few leftovers I really couldn't think about preparing anything else till tomorrow.

For how long do you keep your leftovers in the refrigerator? Do you even have leftovers? lol...and what is your favorite dish to create after a holiday weekend with delicious food?

This year I only had  ham which I will use for soup and pasta or since the kids are on spring break, maybe it will get eaten before I get to use it for any of that. Oh, and the other thing I had left was just a few sweets.

1.

2.

 3.

Put them all together the next day...

And add a few

You get...





















 I wish I had something brand new and spectacular to share with you, but I like to keep it real here in my blog and reality is I have no more room in my fridge to put anything else, I'm kind of tired after preparing Easter Brunch for my family and guests and it's Spring Break and I'm thinking on joining the kids and have some fun for a little while, lol.


Much love as always and I wish you a happy and productive week!
Besitos,
Lizy

Wondering who else is taking a break from the kitchen at these Fab Parties:
Sugar and Slice
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3/25/13

Lunes de Chocolate-Chocolate Monday

Hola Amigos! Hope you all had a beautiful weekend. It might be Spring in the calendar but when you have to clean the snow off your car and driveway every morning it sure doesn't feel like it! I'm forcing Spring...yes I am,  the same way you force tulips or bulbs to bloom, I'm forcing Spring to show up so today I'm starting with  my Kitchen Spring Cleaning.
First place to clean, the freezer. Half full bags of frozen fruits, popsicles, ice cream cartons (which by the way way you open them they only have 1 spoonful left!!!), frozen veggies, well you get the idea.
Unfortunately, no chocolate in the freezer so no chocolate treat today but .lots of frozen fruit bags though, I think the best way to get rid of them is by making a refreshing fruit crisp with 1 full bag of frozen mangoes and 2 half bags of mixed berries. Let's start this week on a "Berry" Sweet Note!

Berry Mango Spring Crisp


4 Cups of Frozen (or fresh) Mangoes and Mixed Berries
2 Tablespoons of sugar
1/2 Cup of packed Brown Sugar
1/2 Rolled Oats
1/4 Cup Flour
1/4 TSPS of Nutmeg, Ginger and Cinnamon each
1/4 Cup Butter

Heat up the oven at 375 degrees
Thaw the frozen fruits keeping their juice and 
mix with the 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place in a baking bowl.

Mix Together brown sugar, flour, oats, spices and butter until getting coarse lumps.



Sprinkle them all over the fruit and bake 30 to 35 minutes or until the topping is golden brown.
Serve while worm by itself of with your favorite scoop of Ice Cream
Listo,

I can't decide if it's better with Raspberry Sherbet 

Or Vanilla Ice Cream

Or just tasting the big chunks of mango and crispy oats all by themselves 

The important thing is my freezer is frozen fruit free, ice cream carton free and I have a happy family enjoying a fruity dessert in a snowy Spring afternoon. 

Remember everything tastes better with a Pinch of Love!
Besitos,
Lizy

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3/18/13

Lunes de Chocolate-Chocolate Mondays

Chocolate Tea Bread with Orange Cream Cheese Filling

 Hola amigos! How was your weekend? I hope it was full of green fun on St. Patrick's Day Celebration and anticipation for the arrival of Spring in a few days!
Before we get on with our recipe today, I wanted to let you know that due to the high amount of  "spam" I'm getting in the shape of anonymous comments I've stopped that option from the blog. I love to hear from you guys...but I hate those spammers filling up my mail with useless junk.

My recipe today starts with the story that unfolded  47 years ago..there was a young lady walking behind her mother's kitchen writing down eagerly every single recipe and cooking tip she could get her from her. That was my mother taking notes from a great cook, mi "abuelita, my grandma". Oh I miss her cooking and I miss her...but back to my mom. She did all this before she got married..now guess who has the notebook with my grandma's recipes and tips for a good meal...I Do! yes! Scored Big Time...my mom gave it to me, when I got married and it has been with me ever since. It's one of my most valuable possessions, she wrote some notes too so I think I have the best of both of them. There I found this recipe for Chocolate Tea Bread, still don't know why it's called that way...but that was how  my grandma's/mom called this bread and I'm sticking to it, lol.
Here is the recipe:
Chocolate Tea Bread with Orange Cream Cheese Filling

Chocolate Tea Bread
1 Cup Walnuts
2 Cups Biscuit Mix
3/4 Cup Hot Orange juice
2 Squares Semi-Sweet Chocolate
2/3 Cup Sugar
1 Egg
1 Tsps Vanilla extract



Heat Oven at 350 degrees, grease and flour a loaf pan. In a food processor finely chop the walnuts, empty into a large bowl and add biscuit mix. Mix the remaining ingredients until smooth ( you could also put them in a blender, I did)
Add this to the biscuit and walnut mix until everything is moistened. Pour in the prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes until a knife or toothpick comes out clean. Let it cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pan and placing the loaf on a  cooling in a rack. Serve with Orange Cream Cheese Filling

Orange Cream Cheese Filling.

1/2 cup Orange marmalade
8 ounces room temperature Cream Cheese. 
Process both ingredients until they are smooth, refrigerate unused portion and use on toast or bagels too!
Listo,

I got to say what I love about this bread is that is crispy in the outside and soft in the inside

The orange cream cheese melts the minute you put it on a slice of freshly baked bread enhancing the orange and chocolate flavors in it!

I'm a coffee drinker in the winter and fall and a tea lover for spring and summer, but this bread with go great with either of my favorite drinks...and even a hot cup of cocoa!

And if you don't have cream cheese and orange marmalade handy...butter, honey or syrup are always excellent alternatives!

This is my chocolate recipe for this Monday my friends I hope you get around to make it for your family and enjoy it as we've been enjoying it for generations now! With this recipe, I want to emphasize more than ever than everything tastes better with a Pinch or Love as my parents just celebrated their anniversary #47!

Besitos,
Lizy
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3/11/13

Middle Eastern Spiced Oatmeal Squares Recipe

Hola Amigos! What a beautiful weekend we had! Sunny, bright, a bit crisp, but that's O.K...just a little preview of what's ahead for us this coming Spring. I took advantage of the weather and went exploring around the city in search of exotic spices to create new dishes or give a new twist to good old favorites.
My exploring took me to a little Middle Eastern Market in the heart of the city...I almost past it because I had already spent more that I had planned  in a single place and in just spices..(they can get quite high now days), but I changed my mind and went in. I had only one thing in mind.Chocolate...I wanted to find something typical of the Middle Eastern Culture..and I did...I found quite a few variety of candies, not exactly what I had in mind. Until I talked to this gentleman who at first was kind of puzzled (or annoyed) by my request of chocolate from the region..
Why? he asked...well...I'm looking for different notes, tastes and spices in the chocolate...I proceeded to explain the differences between chocolates and cocoas depending on the regions or countries...well, you know the deal...that warmed him a little bit and he started telling me that what he knew was spices...and then ...he got on the phone, told me to wait a second, wrote some things down and said...Come with me...and I'm thinking Oh boy, what did I do now???
He went to were the spices where...took a little bag and started mixing all sorts of things...to fast for me to follow..he was a man on a mission, when he was done..he smelled the bag...told me to smell it..and oh....all I could say was Divine!!!!...I can't even describe it now...sweet, flowery, bitter, spicy...all in one little bag...You want more??? he said...Yes, please...but let me write down what you are putting there so I would remember next time...Don't worry he said...I'll remember...

After he was done...he gave me a recipe of some oatmeal treats with almond butter, butter, brown sugar and the mystery ingredients...that was the kind of treat he liked to eat..not too sweet, more on the nutty crunchy side. He told me only a few of the ingredients on the mystery bag, he kept one or two as his secret...because he said..I will be back...I think he was right...I'm hooked on whatever was in it! Here is His recipe.

Middle Eastern Spiced Oatmeal Squares

3 cups Oatmeal
1  1/2 Stick of butter 
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
3/4 Cup Almond Butter 
1 Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
2 TSPS Mystery Spice Bag
(what I know was on the bag, so you can make your own, ginger,  black pepper, coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg, anise)

In a heavy saucepan melt butter and sugar add the oatmeal and cook for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Add half this mix into a greased medium baking dish (I used a 9x9) to form a crust. Save the other half for topping. 
Melt the chocolate chips and add the almond butter, vanilla and spices. Once all is mixed, remove from heat and   distribute gently with a knife over the previously made crust and top it with the other half of the oatmeal mix. Pressing down on the chocolate. Refrigerate overnight. 
Listo,

 I tried to modify or translate in Recipe fashion what this kind gentleman told me, I think I got it right and they are simply delicious.

As he said, not too sweet, very crunchy and nutty flavored, but the background of all those spices stays in your mouth with every bite and beyond.

I find it is perfect for breakfast, he even told me to have it with natural yogurt and honey...

Or with cinnamon tea

However you choose to have these treats, you will enjoy every bite.
I hope you discovered something new today, as I did this weekend. I will be back for sure, this time pen and paper at hand and maybe a camera if I'm feeling daring....oh did I forget to say that when I got to the register he said...It's O.K ...you will be back!
Oh boy!!!

To be continued....
Besitos,
Lizy

Sharing Mysteries at these Fabulous Parties:
Clippie Dips
Nap-Time Creations
Sugar Bee Crafts
Pint Sized Baker


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