Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes and a Surprise Addition

Our church has a ministry to cancer patients and every year, right around Valentine's Day, we host a banquet for those patients who are well enough to attend, along with their caregivers. It's a night of encouragement, fun, and, of course, food. This year, the colors are black and gold, so I wanted to create a special dessert that showcased those colors. This is what I came up with. 

Chocolate Salted Caramel cupcakes. This was a test subject I made ahead of time, hence the polka dots. For the banquet, they'll have plain black wrappers. I'll tell you more about these in a minute.

So, you may or may not remember that we lost our sweet Golden Retriever Dixie back in October, leaving us with just our little Maddie. But Friday, this little guy wandered up to our house, hungry and thirsty. 

Met Marvel. He looks bigger here than he really is. He only weighs ten pounds and the vet tells us he's about two years old, so he's done growing. 

We have no idea where he came from. He had no collar, no microchip. Then again, out here in the country,  people rarely choose their pets. Instead, pets usually choose their owners. Uncaring people have dogs and cats they don't want, so they often take them for a ride and dump them somewhere, which is what we suspect was the case with this little guy. So, it looks like he's here to stay.

Maddie isn't all that thrilled, however, she is coming around. She just wants everyone to know that she's still top dog. 

Now back to the cupcakes. Since I knew I was going to use the salted caramel, I wanted a nice rich chocolate cake and this one was perfect. Lots of chocolate flavor.

Then I topped it with my usually buttercream icing, which is 4 cups sifted confectioners sugar, 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, 1 tsp vanilla and 1-2 tablespoons milk to thin as needed.

Now for the salted caramel. 

I found  this recipe at Sally's Baking Addiction and you can get it here. It's not difficult to make, though it does take time, more than the ten minutes stated in the recipe. But the result was a beautiful and delicious salted caramel which was then drizzled over the cupcakes.

Simple and delicious with a pretty presentation. Exactly what I wanted.

The banquet isn't huge, but it's an event meant to take the attendees minds off of cancer and treatments, have some fun and mingle with others. It also serves to inspire hope and share the good news of Jesus Christ. And those two things are something the world could use a lot more of.

Three time Carol Award finalist Mindy Obenhaus is passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner. She lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, one sassy pup, countless cattle, deer and the occasional coyote, mountain lion or snake. When she's not writing, she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, cooking and watching copious amounts of the Hallmark Channel. Learn more a mindyobenhaus.com.

 

Lighter Spaghetti Pie

by Jan Drexler

I tell you folks, especially you Southerners who were reeling under your recent snow event, it's February.

Yes, February. That means snow, not flowers. Short days, cloudy days, and cold air.

But it also means comfort food to the max!

My most recent comfort-food craving sent me to one of my Taste of Home publications. I buy these every once in awhile. I enjoy browsing through them to find new recipe ideas.

Learn about Taste of Home magazine here

On a recent browse-through (not in the magazine pictured) I found a recipe for spaghetti pie - something I had never made before - but it sounded delicious! I adjusted the recipe to match the items I had on hand, and the result was delicious!

Lighter Spaghetti Pie

ingredients:

4 oz uncooked angel hair pasta
2 large egg whites, slightly beaten
1 Tablespoon butter (softened or melted)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 pound ground beef, cooked and drained (you can substitute ground turkey)
1/4 cup chopped onion
8 oz can tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 cup lowfat cottage cheese

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

Preheat your oven to 350°.

Cook the angel hair pasta according to directions and drain. In a medium bowl, mix the butter and egg whites. Add the cooked pasta and stir until the pasta is coated (using two forks instead of a spoon works well.) Add the 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese and mix in well.

Distribute the pasta in the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate.

Meanwhile, brown the ground beef, adding the onions when the beef is about halfway done. When the meat is cooked, drain it, then put it back in the pan.

Add the tomato sauce and herbs, mixing well.

Spread the cottage cheese in the bottom of your spaghetti crust.

Then add the meat and tomato mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350°, then sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on top. Bake for another 5 minutes or so, or until the cheese is melted.

What makes this recipe "lighter?" If you notice, the recipe had very little fat in it - only 1 Tablespoon butter (if you drain your beef well or use ground turkey white meat.) Using egg whites instead of a whole egg and low fat cottage cheese all help keep the fat content down. Angel hair pasta instead of regular spaghetti helps lighten up this recipe, too.

This dish met my comfort-food cravings! Easy and delicious!


While I cook, I often watch the sunset in the western sky.

It's worth every second! And Jack enjoys the deck in the evening, too. He watches the deer walk by and the neighbors as they drive home.

Does he look a little bit lonely to you? Maggie-Cat doesn't play with him as much as he'd like her to.

Maybe he needs a playmate closer to his own age (and energy level?)

Border collie puppy at 5 weeks - we are waiting to give
him his name after we meet him. :)

Shhh! Don't tell Jack, but his new furry brother will be coming home in a couple weeks!

Jan Drexler lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota with her husband and growing family. When she isn't writing, she loves hiking in the Hills or satisfying her cross stitch addiction.

You can find Jan on Facebook, Jan Drexler, author, or her website, Jan Drexler.com

Super Bowl Barbecue & Brisket

I blame Mindy Obenhaus!

She talked about smoking meat and briskets and ribs and all kinds of delicious things a few years ago and I was determined to learn how to do this thing called "smoking meat."

Of course, you need a smoker!!!!

Now smokers are like deep fryers. Folks get 'em, then they realize they rarely use them and they sell them at bargain prices at garage sales. I think four of my last deep fryers were brand new, big ones from garage sales for under $20 each.

My $300 Masterbuilt Smoker was $45. Mandy (my beautiful niece who puts up with me all the time) found it and grabbed it, so I practiced a little over the summer and through the fall. I was no where near proficient, but I was gaining skills, let's put it that way... But my goal, the piece de resistance, the magnum opus, the pinnacle would be to do a great brisket. I'd done a half one (about 6 pounds) but it wasn't cooked long enough and it was still tough. Great flavor! But not what you'd get at Texas Bar B Q Joint if you know what I mean... (local barbecue with great brisket)

And then along comes Super Bowl... and a bunch of folks to feed.... and a 12 pound brisket from Walmart (great price, great brisket) and my urge to throw a barbecue feast!

We had the brisket, oven barbecued baby back ribs, Jambalaya, homemade mac-and-cheese, cornbread, deviled eggs, chicken wings, chocolate dipped pineapple and homemade rice pudding... and I broke the theme with Boston Cream Pie, too.

But even the most Louisiana of Louisianans would have liked this meal!

So let's start with my investment that really helped keep me calm through a 12 hour smoking/resting process!  I went online and bought this on Amazon: Two-Piece Wireless Meat Thermometer


It was a low-price model with great reviews and I LOVE IT. The smoker was on the porch, the transmitter was on the porch next to it with the probe in the thickest part of the brisket round, and the receiver was on the window ledge over the sink. This way I worked in the kitchen, edited a story, and watched the meat's internal temperature crawl from 45 degrees to 190 degrees... including the stall everyone talks about around the 165 degree point!

What a lifesaver this was, I didn't have to worry, I could add vinegar to the water pan as needed, not disturb the meat too often, and get other stuff done.  The thermometer was $26.99 (the $29.99 is a newer version, I probably bought the last of the old version!) and well worth the cost.

So now, to the business at hand because this wasn't hard... with the right stuff going on.

1 big brisket
Dry rub if desired (heck, yeah!)
Smoker
Wood chips (I used hickory because that's what I had on hand)
Vinegar for water pan (suggested on a website and I liked the effect)

I started on Friday afternoon for a Sunday meal. I split the brisket in half. One part is considerably thicker than the other (the round is thicker than the point) and I knew I'd have to put them on separate racks. My brisket was 12.5 pounds.

Trim the fat to 1/4 inch. (Vacuum packed brisket from Walmart was well-trimmed, I only had to trim a little from overhang and top side.)

Coat with dry rub (recipe below)

Put into pans, cover and let sit in refrigerator for a day or two.

And that was it. That was the sum total of effort.

It couldn't be that easy, right? I must have missed a crucial step!!!! But-- no. Let it rest. Then on cooking day, set some wood chips to soak for an hour or so while you do other things.
Bring the briskets out of fridge and let them warm up on counter/table for an hour or so. That gave me time to figure out the battery compartments on the two-piece timer!!! :) So eventually I got the second one open and put into place and they worked! They synced with one another. Another bonus!!!  And here's the bonus of being up early, this gorgeous sunrise!!!

I turned on the electric smoker when I pulled the meat out of the fridge around 4:00 AM. Put wood chips in the chip tray in smoker, add apple cider vinegar to the water pan and when smoker is hot, set brisket inside on the slightly grungy racks, insert the meat probe from the thermometer into thickest part and close the door.

And that was it. My smoker runs hot so I had to keep dialing it down to do a long, slow cook, and once I had to refill the chip tray and the vinegar tray, but that was it.

GETTING CLOSER!!!!!

At 3:30 my Therm-Pro measured 190 degrees! I brought the briskets in, wrapped them in aluminum foil, put them in a pan and covered that with aluminum foil and tucked them in my 200 degree upper oven to rest...

And they were fall apart tender and amazing! The flavor.... to die for.

Texture?

Wonderful!

And the Super Bowl folks who stopped by?

So happy!

DRY RUB (I used a version inspired on the Masterbuilt website) but then tweaked it into my own:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Paprika
4 TBSP Kosher salt
4 TBSP coarse ground pepper
3 TBSP Granulated garlic
4 TBSP Cumin
3 Teaspoons Cajun Seasoning

Mix together, coat meat, put into pans, cover with plastic wrap and let sit in fridge for 12 to 48 hours. Honestly, every website has a different time, but I figured a day-and-a-half was way more than enough... and I think the cooking/timing/monitoring is the most important part of this process. I bet you could salt and pepper this baby and if you cooked it right, nice and slow, it would still be wonderful! In fact, some pros only use coarse salt and coarse black pepper.... It's all optional!

We packed a big tray of food to send to a nearby family who couldn't be with us, we had an amazing bunch of nice people hanging around and watching a great game and I survived, nay...

Triumphed! :)

My first real brisket.

And we were so busy eating later that I didn't get one pic of the sliced meat, but let your imagination be your guide....

And Andy Reid got to bring home the Lombardi Trophy to KC after fifty years, so that made me happy, too!  What a comeback!

Next week we'll play with the chocolate-dipped pineapple, a new crowd-pleasing favorite!

Bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne loves to play in the kitchen on her terms, which means it could be a riotous success or an epic failure which is why she fits in well over here... because she's okay to own it in public! Her newest book "A Hopeful Harvest" is on shelves now and that makes her very happy...and she loves to talk to readers. Friend her on facebook, follow her on Twitter, visit her website ruthloganherne.com or email Ruthy at loganherne@gmail.com. She'd love to hear from you!

Corn and Potato Haddock Chowdah

You may remember me introducing you to my favorite Bob's Red Mill dehyrdated potato flakes. I've enjoyed having them as an easy side after a long day at work, but I've been wanting to try them as soup. The package has instructions for a potato soup, but I had something different in mind.

So on Sunday, while half the world was watching the Super Bowl, I decided to give it a try.


I took out my favorite cast iron round Dutch Oven and simmered three pieces of haddock. (One was for Fenway's dinners).

I used plenty of water because that became my fish stock. I added some garlic and some corn.

Then I added the potato flakes. I did it slowly, adding them in small amounts until I got my desired consistency.

The last step was to flake the haddock back in. I rinsed the haddock under cold water so I could easily flake it and make sure there were no bones.

I heated it all through and dinner was ready. Just like that.

And apparently I forgot to take a photo of the finished soup.  Ooops.


I'll leave you something else instead.

I saw these on my walk yesterday. Spring is coming.


Snowdrops!

It was delicious and I had enough leftovers for lunches this week.

A Super Bowl Birthday

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past week, you probably heard something about a little football game that took place Sunday evening. Okay, the biggest game of the year, and it was a good one. Everyone loves a comeback.

However, we all know that the Super Bowl isn't really just about football. No, it about the commercials and the FOOD. This year's big game happened to fall on my husband's birthday so I had to make some of his favorite treats. 

Guacamole. You can find my recipe here.

Homemade sub sandwiches.

Fried pickles. 

Actually, that was our son's request. They were frozen, but done in the air fryer, they came out nice a crisp.

But the one thing hubby really likes are jalapeno poppers. Not the battered and fried version, but bacon-wrapped and baked.

They're actually relatively easy to make, they just take a little bit of prep.

Start with fresh jalapenos. Cut off the tops, slice them in half, then remove the seeds and the ribs, which is where all the heat is. 

In a bowl, beat softened cream cheese with some shredded cheddar cheese. I only had six jalapenos, so I used one 8 oz brick of cream cheese and about 1/2 to 1 cup cheese.

Spoon cheese mixture into jalapeno halves, filing them without over-stuffing them.

Then wrap each half in half a slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick.

Place wrapped halves atop rack placed inside of a baking sheet to allow grease to drip away. I just use a cooling rack.

Bake in 275 degree oven for an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and half, until bacon is cooked. 

Allow to cool slightly before serving.

One side note here, be sure to wash your hands with a grease-cutting dish soap such as Dawn after cleaning out the jalapenos to remove the oils. Because I you rub your face or eyes without having done that, you will wish you had. Trust me on this.

Did you watch the big game? What were some of your favorite commercials? The Groundhog Day Jeep commercial with Bill Murray and Punxsutawney Phil had me laughing out loud. The one with Sofia Vergara was funny, too.

Three time Carol Award finalist Mindy Obenhaus is passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner. She lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, one sassy pup, countless cattle, deer and the occasional coyote, mountain lion or snake. When she's not writing, she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, cooking and watching copious amounts of the Hallmark Channel. Learn more a mindyobenhaus.com.

Salad Season is Anytime of Year

by Jan Drexler

We live in a beautiful place.

I know I say that often - probably too often for our regular readers - but it's true. We have mountains, vast valleys, and gorgeous skies.

One wonderful thing about living in the Black Hills is that we're an island in the prairie. Look on a map:

Satellite view of the Black Hills!

We're surrounded on all sides by National Grasslands - Thunder Basin, Oglala, and Badlands. They have a beauty all their own.

Last week, we drove to Wall, South Dakota, to pick up our side of beef. (When you live in ranch country, you buy yourself a freezer and purchase your grass-fed beef from your favorite rancher!) The drive was absolutely breathtaking.

We drove home on the back roads through Badlands National Park. We hadn't been to this end of the park before, and were amazed. We'll have to take this route again.

One reason we took the opportunity to drive the back roads is because we've been enjoying a mild winter for the past six weeks. After a few promising snow storms in November and early December, we've had weeks of 40° degree weather, sunshine/clouds/sunshine, and very little snow.

With spring-like weather, my appetite turns to salads!

I know I've mentioned that we have trouble getting fresh produce here in the winter, but that's one perk of the mild weather. The romaine in the stores has been in great condition, and I've been enjoying it!

I wrote about these Salads in a Jar nearly five years ago, and I felt it was time to revisit them...and get out my canning jars to prep for the coming week of lunches!

Salad in a Jar

We writers never stop writing. So every shortcut we can find is like gold.

Less time cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc. means more time to write. More time to write means more books. More books = happy readers.

Yay for shortcuts!

Writers also spend WAY too much time sitting (or standing) in one place. We all know what happens to sedentary people, and we want to be happy, healthy writers.

One solution? Salad in a jar!

This is an easy-peasy way to make sure you're getting your veggies, even when the rest of your life is crazy busy.

So what do you need?

First, your favorite veggies - -

And did you notice there are some protein sources among the veggies? Protein is what turns your rabbit food into a powerhouse complete meal that sticks to your ribs well into the afternoon.

Second, some one quart canning jars. Five is a good number - the salad will stay fresh in your jar for about five days, so five jars will give you an entire week of salads.

Those plastic reusable lids are perfect for things like this!

Next, sort your ingredients by weight. You want the heaviest and wettest ingredients in the bottom of your jar, and the lightest at the top. Think of the salad we made in the cafe a couple months ago- Ginger's Salad - where we layered the ingredients in the bowl. With the jar, we're going to layer ingredients in the opposite order. So your dressing and toppings go first, and the lettuce or slaw last.

One note before we begin - since I work at home, I opted to leave a few ingredients out of the jars. I'll add them in on the day I eat the salad. The ingredients that will wait until later are salad dressing, slivered almonds, cheese, avocados, and chopped apples. They'll be better fresh.

Let's start assembling our salads!


This one is a Chef-style salad, without the lettuce.

The layers are:
sliced boiled egg
sliced black olives
chopped mushrooms
cooked, diced chicken breast
chopped broccoli/cauliflower mix
shredded cabbage (I use the cole slaw mix)


Here we have a classic salad:

1/4 cup canned garbanzo beans (chick peas)
cooked, diced chicken breast
sliced carrots
sliced radishes
chopped mushrooms
diced red onion
sliced pickled beets
chopped broccoli/cauliflower mix
chopped lettuce



This low-fat salad is going to be filling:

1/4 cup canned garbanzo beans (chick peas)
1/4 cup cooked, diced chicken breast
1-2 Tablespoons dried cranberries
cabbage slaw to the top of the jar


This one is also low-fat:

1/2 cup canned garbanzo beans (chick peas)
sliced carrots
sliced radishes
chopped broccoli/cauliflower mix
cabbage slaw to the top of the jar


And this last one:

1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
sliced carrots
sliced radishes
chopped mushrooms
chopped red onion
chopped broccoli/cauliflower mix
chopped lettuce to the top of the jar


Remember: If you're taking your salads with you to work or school, you'll want to put your favorite salad dressing in the bottom of the jars before layering in the other ingredients.

Stick the jars in the fridge, and you have a week's worth of salads to eat at home or to go!

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

There's nothing like a salad to make a writer lean and healthy, is there? What is your favorite salad combo?

Jan Drexler is an author by day who is addicted to counted cross stitch and sauntering through the Hills with her dear husband and their goofy corgi puppy, Jack. You can find Jan's books and other fun things on her website: www.JanDrexler.com.