Carrot cake

Hi, I haven’t made a carrot cake in years. 

 Back in the day when food processors were not known of; I used to grate my carrots but with modern inventions today I used my food processor and it worked out great!  No tedious grating Or I remember you could use jars of baby food labeled carrots, this shows you how old I am. Can you believe?

The original recipe is below.  I used my new round deep cake pan I bought recently. Baking time was similar to as below. I baked approximately 40 minutes. Use a cake tester to make sure center comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Note: I cut sugar to 1 cup and oil to 3/4 cup

knowing that my cream cheese icing would make up

For the sugar.

I added chopped pecans on top!

It’s delicious!

Original:

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 
• 1 cup vegetable oil 
• 3 eggs 
• 2 cups Gold Medal™ All Purpose Flour 
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 3 cups shredded carrots (5 medium) 
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts 

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened 
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened 
• 2 to 3 teaspoons milk 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 4 cups powdered sugar 
• Nutmeg, if desired

• Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom and sides of one 13x9-inch pan or two 8-inch or 9-inch round pans with shortening; lightly flour. In large bowl, beat granulated sugar, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low speed about 30 seconds or until blended. Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, 1 teaspoon vanilla and the salt; beat on low speed 1 minute. Stir in carrots and nuts. Pour into pan(s).
• Step 

  2
  Bake 13x9-inch pan 40 to 45 minutes, round pans 30 to 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool rectangle in pan on cooling rack. Cool rounds 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
• Step 

  3
  In medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, milk and vanilla with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, on low speed until smooth and spreadable. Frost 13x9-inch cake or fill and frost round layers with frosting. Sprinkle nutmeg on frosted cake, if desired. Store in refrigerator.

Betty Crocker

Lemon Garlic shrimp orzo

I added my touch to this recipe and we really enjoyed it. 

****I substituted frozen cooked and thawed shrimp ,thin cooked green beans because I didn’t have fresh spinach.

I  added  dried basil and parsley as well. About 1/2 tsp. each.  Taste test for salt. I felt it needed more.

I felt it needed some zing so I sprinkled red pepper flakes on top! 

Enjoy!

Recipe below as written without my adjustments.

• 2 teaspoons olive oil

• 5 cloves garlic, minced

• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

• 1 1/3 cups orzo pasta

• 3 cups chicken bone broth

• 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 8 ounces raw tiger shrimp, peeled and deveined, or more to taste

• handful of spinach, cut into thin strips

• zest of 1 lemon

• lemon juice, to taste

  Parmesan cheese to taste

  
  

  Heat olive oil in a deep skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and Italian seasoning; sauté just until fragrant, 30 to 60 seconds.

  
  

  Add orzo and stir to toast lightly, about 30 seconds. Pour in broth, add salt and pepper, and bring to a gentle boil.

Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the orzo is nearly tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, 7 to 9 minutes.

Nestle shrimp into the orzo. Scatter spinach over the top. Add lemon zest and lemon juice. Cover and cook shrimp just until pink and opaque, turning once, 2 to 3 minutes per side.( my shrimp were cooked so I nestled them in the center and then covered the pot.

Turn off heat. Stir in Parmesan cheese. Adjust seasoning to taste.

****Personal note when I make this again I will add butter to the olive oil to sauté garlic.  Everything seems to taste better with a little butter…

Allrecipes

Monday chicken

I was intrigued by this allrecipes recipe so I made some changes//additions after reading the reviews.

Hubby and I thoroughly enjoyed it especially with my changes.  I think it would have been on the bland side had I not done so.

In this recipe I only used 2 chicken breasts halves which I cut lengthwise.  Pictures show how I cut and then placed them.

NOTE:I seasoned the chicken with a reasonable amount of salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika. 

I also used cream of chicken soup.

I did add the broccoli frozen as suggested as well as shredded sharp cheddar cheese to the top of the casserole.

****In the soup mixture I added the sour cream ,about 1/2 cup milk and also some additional garlic powder and 1-tablespoonful **Dijon mustard instead of horseradish. Mix well.

Original recipe:

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

• 1 (14 ounce) bag frozen broccoli florets

• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed golden mushroom soup

• ⅓ cup sour cream

• 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish

  Sharp cheddar cheese (optional)

  
  

  
  

Gather all ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Spread the broccoli evenly in the bottom of the baking dish. Place chicken breasts over the broccoli as well as soup mixture..

 Bake 1 hour uncovered.

Even though I only used 2 chicken breast’s halves I followed the rest of the amounts about the same.

****My recipe was baked in 50 minutes.

Enjoy!

 Allrecipes

Pot Roast

1- approximately 3 lb. Chuck roast( a bit of marbled fat is great)

Salt and pepper slightly both sides

4 T vegetable oil

In a large pot place oil on medium heat.  When heated add roast and sear on both sides.

In crockpot add 1 cup beef broth

Add seared roast 

To the roast add I package onion soup mix mixed into

1 cup hot water.  Mix well.  Add to top of roast and cook on high approximately 4 hours or more. Make sure the meat pulls apart with fork.  That is how you’ll know it’s cooked and juicy!

Enjoy!

Option:

Layer carrots on bottom as well as cut in half potatoes then add the above.

Sausage, Peppers and onions pockets

Simple sausage, peppers onions and mozzarella pockets.

Ingredients:

Approximately one(1) lb. Loose hot or sweet Italian sausage.

2 variegated peppers sliced. I small onion sliced.

Pinch or more shredded mozzarella cheese. Olive oil and seasoning on top.

Sauté sausage peppers and onions and drain well.  Allow to cool thoroughly.

Make two balls out of dough.  Roll each ball as thin or thick as you like on lightly floured surface.  Fill center with cooled sausage and cheese mixture and shredded mozzarella.. Fold over and pinch sides well . Brush with olive oil and seasoning  as desired.

Place on sprayed cookie sheet.

Bake 375° for approximately 15 minutes and until

Brown slightly.

Enjoy!

Separate dough into two balls.  Roll each ball large enough for several tablespoons of sausage mixture. Brush with olive oil and seasoning.

M.j.

 

 

 

 

Cheddar Broccoli soup

This recipe called for mashed potatoes as one of the ingredients.  Fortunately I had all ingredients and was extra pleased at the results.

I was going to use my immersion blender but chose not to.

I adapted this recipe to my liking.  My amounts of each ingredient were slightly less than this recipe and I added*** 1/2 cup American cheese and 1 cup shredded cheddar instead of all cheddar.

NOTE: I also added slightly less milk. About one cup instead of two was fine. Everything else was pretty much as called for. Note: I had store bought refrigerated mashed potatoes which were handy)  Just a pinch of salt was necessary in my recipe.

Enjoy!

• 1 tablespoon  olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped 
• 3 cups  broccoli, frozen and chopped 
• 2 cups  chicken broth
• 1 1⁄2cups  mashed potatoes(I used refrigerated Mashed potatoes)
• **2 cups  milk
• **1 1⁄2cups  cheddar cheese, shredded 
• 
  

• Heat oil in Dutch oven pot and add onion. Cook until translucent.
• Add broccoli and chicken broth and cook until tender.
• Add mashed potatoes & mix thoroughly. Heat for 5 minutes.
• Add milk and heat some more. 
• Add cheddar cheese.
• Salt and pepper to taste

Recipe Food.com