Chocolate and other food groups

I know, you already have a lot of recipes for chocolate cake. Why keep another one? Because it's good, that's why! And because sometime you have the ingredients for one, sometimes for another, and maybe you want a certain texture. I'd call this a basic chocolate cake, not especially dense, not especially light, and well suited for cupcakes, layer cakes, or sheet cakes. HERSHEY'S DISAPPEARING CAKE 1/4 c. butter 1/4 c. shortening 2 c. sugar 1 tsp. vanilla 2 eggs 3/4 c. cocoa 1 3/4 c. flour 3/4 tsp. baking powder 3/4 tsp. baking soda 1/8 tsp. salt 1 3/4 c. milk Cream butter, shortening, sugar and vanilla until fluffy; blend in eggs. Combine dry ingredients and mix well. Add alternately with milk to batter. Blend well. Pour into two greased and floured 9" pans. Bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes or until done. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then remove from pan and cool completely before frosting. For cupcakes, cook about 25 minutes. Yum all around.

Hello again! I'm back at last with a couple of yummy recipes. Here's one for Tandoori-Style Chicken. Surprisingly, my kids ALL liked this one. It helped that it smells AMAZING while it's cooking. It's spicy, but not too hot. If you want it hotter, add more cayenne. No pictures, sadly, but maybe next time. Oh, and wear an apron. This stuff stains. TANDOORI STYLE CHICKEN with freezer meal options 1/2 c. plain yogurt 2 Tb. lemon juice 2 tsp. paprika 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. ground cayenne pepper 1/2 tsp. cumin 1/2 tsp. ginger 1/2 tsp. turmeric 1/8 tsp. pepper 2 garlic cloves, minced ( double these ingredients for a freezer meal ) 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, about 1 lb. In small bowl combine all  marinade ingredients. Cut each chicken breast into strips and add to marinade. I like to use a Ziploc bag - then you can throw the whole thing away when you're done. ( For freezer options, throw the whole thing in the freezer at this point along wi...

Some of you know that I work holidays at See's Candies. It's the perfect job. I'm around chocolate all day, I get to work with customers, and I get paid. If only books were involved somehow, I would never leave. That and my feet get tired. Anyway, this year See's has a new product that I am loving. It's the Christmas Mint Lollipop. It is super good. I think it's like buttercream frosting with a little mint added. One customer said it was like the mints you get at weddings. I took some samples home and my kids loved it. If you want to try it, you'd better hurry. This lollipop is only available during Christmas, and I'm sure it will sell out. One nice thing they're doing this year, you can buy this lolly and the cinnamon one singly now instead of having to buy them in a pack of eight. One lollipop is 70 cents. You can also get the cranberry orange truffle, the pecan pie truffle, and the eggnog truffle singly. But I don't like any of them! Still, if...

My mom picked up this mix at a kitchen store in Salt Lake recently for our family. We couldn't wait to try them. It comes in a box, with pouches for the mix and one for the chocolate chunks. Just add a stick of butter, an egg, and the optional walnuts. (We left those out.) Then all we had to do was bake and wait. Super yum! Worth every minute. I will add that they are pricey. Mom got them on sale, but they normally sell around $10 for a 9" pan of brownies. We wound up with 6. Cheaper than 6 bakery brownies, but by no means cheap. So for taste, 4.5 stars, but for value, more like 2 stars. But then, I'm pretty frugal with shopping. I'd say pick it up if they're on sale or save for a special treat.

Happy Thanksgiving! I made this pie for the holiday this year and it was a big hit. Easy to make and yummy. Diamond Cookie Pie 1/2 c. butter, softened 3/4 c. brown sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 c. flour 1 c. chocolate chips 1 c. nuts - the recipe called for walnuts, but we used pecans 1 9-inch uncooked pie shell In large bowl, cream butter, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Blend in flour. Stir chocolate chips and nuts. Pour mixture into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 325 for 50 to 55 minutes or until top is golden brown or pick inserted into center comes out clean. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

I generally put recipes I enjoyed in here, but I decided to share one I *didn't* like. After all, you readers (all 5 of you! JK, mostly) might like to know about my flops too. So here's one that failed to live up to my expectations and why. Roasted Garlic Soup This one comes from Mark Bittman's huge cookbook, How to Cook Everything . I'm on a mostly soft food diet right now, so soup is my mainstay. But not this one. 4 Tb. olive oil 8 cloves garlic, peeled 1 Tb. ground cumin or paprika or 1 tsp. chili powder (I used cumin) 4 thick slices French or Italian bread 4 c. chicken or beef broth Salt and pepper to taste Place olive oil in large, deep saucepan and turn heat to medium. Add the garlic cloves and cook, stirring and turning occasionally, until they are golden brown. OK, here's my first mistake. I don't keep garlic handy all the time. I buy the prechopped stuff in a jar. The actual cloves tend to sit around too much and when I want them they are all shriveled....

My friend Jodi gave me a big bag of plums from her trees. I finally got around to trying something with them, and this is what I made. I wish I had a picture, but the plums were amazing. Not much to look at on the outside, but wow, deep red rich color inside. Just gorgeous. Plum Coffeecake Crumb Topping 8 medium sized plums, but I needed about 20 small ones 1 c. butter, softened 1 c. sugar 1 1/4 c. flour 2 tsp. baking powder 2 tsp. lemon peel 1/4 tsp. salt 4 eggs heavy cream, optional Prepare Crumb Topping and set aside. Slice plums if large or halve them if small; set aside. Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour 13x9 pan. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar. Add flour, baking powder, salt, lemon peel, and eggs. Beat until smooth. Spread batter evenly in pan; top with plumbs. Pinch small pieces of crumb topping and sprinkle on top of plums. Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until top is golden and cake tests done. Serve warm with cream. Crumb Topping : In small saucepan, melt 1/2 c. butter. Re...