Ty's Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pie

     My husband is what you would call a chocoholic. If they had meetings for his condition I would definitely sign him up for them. I know you probably think I am exaggerating but it is so true. Have you seen the commercial with Cookie Monster waiting for his cookies? That's my husband. Anytime I am in the kitchen working on new recipes the first thing he asks me is if it is going to contain chocolate. If he was a poet I bet he would write odes to the beauty that is chocolate. The man has a one track mind but that's okay. I love making him desserts, well I just love him period.

     Back to this chocolate recipe. The other day I was working on a recipe for a cake, which I will share later, when the hubby came into the kitchen and asked once again for something chocolate. This got me thinking. I did not want to have to make a trip to the store so I started exploring the cabinets and the fridge for ingredients. I saw that I had some Oreos on hand as well as chocolate chips, peanut butter, cream cheese. I thought to myself what could I do with these items? It then came to me. Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie! I made something similar not too long ago but the recipe I used did not come out quite right. If you are wondering where the recipe was from it was from the book, Lick the Bowl Good. It was the Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Pie and it was one of the recipes I was not happy with. The mousse never set and remained runny. I wanted something similar but less fussy.

     This pie was very easy to make but still delicious. It only takes a few minutes to put together and the rest of the time, it needs to chill. I put mine in the freezer and my husband is enjoying it as a frozen treat. It is almost summertime here in Arizona and yesterday we hit over 100. How I am dreading the next few months because it is going to be so hot and I will have to find ways to keep cool. Anyway, the pie was hubby approved and he is happy he has something chocolaty to eat. Maybe he will even share it. Haha, somehow I doubt that but you should share it with the chocoholic in your life.

Ty's Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pie

 

Melissa DeWees

Inspired by Monica Holland

 

Ingredients

for the crust

1. 12 Oreos crushed
2. 3 T of melted butter

for the filling

• 1 c of peanut butter
• 3/4 c powdered sugar plus 2 T divided
• 8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
• 1 c melted chocolate chips cooled
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3/4 c heavy cream

Topping

 

1. 1/2 c of chocolate chips melted.

Directions

• Preheat oven to 325 F
• Crush Oreos in a food processor into crumbs and then add the melted butter to the cookies and pulse until combined.
• Press the crumb mixture in a 9 inch spring form pan very firmly. I lined mine with parchment paper and sprayed it with cooking spray for easy release.
• Bake for 10 minutes until fragrant and set aside to cool.

 

• In a mixer, beat the cream cheese and peanut butter until light and fluffy.

 

• While its whipping melt the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second increments, stirring after 30 seconds until smooth.
• Add the powdered sugar to the peanut butter and cream cheese mixture and mix until combined.
• Add the melted chocolate and mix until combined. It will look a little grainy but it will become smooth again when you add the whipped cream.
• In another bowl beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form and then add the powder sugar and vanilla and whip it for a few more seconds. Do not over whip or you will end up with butter.
• Gently fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture and pour into the spring form pan.

 

• Freeze for 3 hours or until firm.
• Drizzle the melted chocolate chips on top and return to the freezer until set.

 

• Enjoy.

 



Chicken Gyros on Pita Bread

       When I was a young child there used to be a place in the mall that sold these delicious gyros. I used to walk by and see the meat on the spit and watch the workers slice off pieces and it always fascinated me. One day, I finally tried one and my love for gyros was born. Nowadays, I get my gyros from this little Greek café by my house and they are so good. I have always wanted to try and make my own but I just do not see myself roasting a lamb mixture on a spit in my house any time soon. Instead of lamb I thought chicken would be a great alternative to make. The marinade for the chicken makes all of the difference. Seriously, I will be making this chicken more often. I have already mentioned chicken is not my favorite protein but this marinade made it juicy and tender and oh so flavorful.

        I adapted a recipe I found on pinterest for Greek chicken and let it marinate for a few hours. The recipe was from Cooking Classy. It involves a few ingredients but it was very easy to make. The most time consuming part of this is the marinating. The chicken smelled amazing as it was cooking and Tzatziki sauce was so good. I think I will use if for other things besides this recipe. I added feta cheese to my gyros but my husband who hates feta had pepper jack cheese on his. This dish was hubby approved and will definitely be added to our week night rotation. I served our gyros with homemade fries since I love fries and am convinced they go with everything. I recommend wrapping your pita in foil to keep it together and all of your toppings inside. I think it gives it an authentic restaurant feel so you can imagine it came from your favorite Greek place. Next time I might be adventurous and make my own pitas instead of purchasing them from the store.

Chicken Gyros

 

adapted from Cooking Classy

http://www.cookingclassy.com/2013/09/gyros-chicken-souvlaki-tzatkiki-homemade-greek-flatbread/

 

 

 

Ingredients

1. 2 chicken breasts

For the Marinade

1. 3 T of plain greek yogurt
2. 3 cloves of garlic minced
3. 1/4 c of lemon juice
4. 1/4 c of olive oil
5. 1 T red wine vinegar
6. 2 tsp. oregano
7. 2 tsp. fresh dill
8. 1 tsp. of salt
9. 1/2 tsp. of pepper
10. 1/4 c diced red onion

 

For the Tzatziki Sauce

 

1. 1 cucumber peeled and diced
2. 1 c of plain greek yogart
3. 2 T of lemon juice
4. 1 clove of garlic
5. 1 T olive oil
6. 1 T fresh dill
7. 2 tsp. red wine vinegar
8. salt and pepper to taste

 

For the toppings

 

1. Lettuce
2. red onions
3. diced cucumbers
4. feta cheese

 

Pita Bread to serve on

Directions

 

• For the marinade mix all the ingredients in a non-reactive bowl and add chicken to it. Let it marinate for at least 2 hours but longer would be better but not to exceed 24.
• For the tzatziki sauce - let the diced cucumber sit in a colander with a sprinkling of salt to draw out excess moisture. Rinse the salt off after 30 minutes and squeeze between either layers of paper towels or a clean kitchen towel.
• Place in blender with rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth and set aside.
• For the chicken - grill marinated chicken until cooked through and let rest. I cooked mine on the stove because we were out of propane for our grill. It was still delicious.

 

• Heat pita and then add your choice of toppings, chicken, sauce, and feta cheese.
• Wrap in foil and enjoy.

 







Italian Meatballs

        I am not sure if I mentioned it before but I love Italian food. In fact my dream is to take a cooking tour of Italy. Just think, getting to experience the beauty of Italy and its old world architecture while learning how to create dishes from the local region. Sounds like heaven to me. Someday I will be able to go there and experience it but for now I will just have to bring Italy to me in the shape of meatballs. That's right meatballs.

       I love a good meatball sub as much as the next guy. I just do not like those meatballs in the frozen section of my local grocery store. You know the tasteless ones made out of mystery meat. Actually the idea to make my own meatballs came from one of my good friends who was complaining one day about the meatballs she recently purchased at the grocery store. I told her the first mistake was buying the cheap ones. If you are going for convenient meatballs you have to buy the good ones but the best ones are the ones you make yourself. She kind of took my advice and bought a better brand while I went a different route. I made my own and I must say they were better than the ones from the store in my opinion.

     My hubby vehemently approved these meatballs and had a couple of servings of them. This recipe made a lot so I froze the remaining ones for the next time we had a meatball craving. These meatballs were fairly easy to make and so worth the extra effort. If you are not a huge fan of cheese you can cut the amount down, in fact I think it may have been a little too much cheese because some oozed out when they were cooking but they were still very tasty.

Italian Meatballs

 

by Melissa DeWees

 

Ingredients

 

1. 1 lb. Italian sausage ground
2. 1 lb. ground beef
3. 1/2 c fresh chopped parsley
4. 2 eggs
5. 1 c parmesan cheese grated
6. 1 tsp. salt
7. 1 tsp. pepper
8. 1 tsp. dried basil
9. 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
10. 1/2 tsp. onion powder
11. 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
12. 1/2 c + 2T Italian bread crumbs

 

 

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Mix all the ingredients in a bowl to just combined.
• Do not over mix it will make your meatball tough.
• Scoop into balls ( I used my cookie scoop) and place a couple of inches apart.

 

• Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the meatball is cooked through.

 

 

              So easy and so delicious. 

Orange Poppy Seed Cake

         For the last month I have been baking out of the cookbook Lick the Bowl Good, by Monica Holland, and for the most part the recipes have turned out well. If you get the chance I recommend picking up this book. It contains a variety of recipes from cakes to brownies to puddings and they are very easy to follow.

       I asked my husband what kind of dessert he was in the mood for this past week and handed him the book to peruse. He chose the Orange Poppy Seed Cake which surprised me because he is usually all about the chocolate. His choice pleased me because I am one of the few who do not care for chocolate. I know, I am a little bit strange this way. This cake turned out light and fluffy with a very nice orange flavor. I used a naval orange for the cake and added a little extra something in the glaze. Can you guess what the something was? I bet you can. If you guessed alcohol you would be correct. Grand Marnier to be exact. I think it made the glaze just that much better. I do not recommend using orange juice out of a carton for this. I think the orange juice you buy from the store has a lot more sugar in it and you also won't achieve the delicate orange flavor in this cake.

     This cake is perfect for a breakfast treat to go with your morning tea or coffee. It is also good for an after dinner snack when you just want a little something to nibble on.  Don't worry about the alcohol because it is definitely not enough to get you drunk. I hope if you get the chance you make this cake and also pick up this book.

Orange Poppy Seed Cake

 

adapted from Monica Holland

 

Ingredients

 

For the cake

1.  1 1/2 c all purpose flour
2. 1 T of baking powder
3. 1/2 tsp. of baking soda
4. 1/4 tsp. of salt
5. 3 T of poppy seeds
6. 1/2 c plain Greek yogurt
7. 2 L eggs
8. 1/4 c fresh orange juice
9. 1 tsp. vanilla extract
10. 1/2 c unsalted butter at room temperature
11. 3/4 c granulated sugar
12. 1 T orange zest

For the Glaze

 

1. 3/4 c powdered sugar
2. 1 tsp. orange zest
3. 1 T Grand Marnier
4. 1 T orange juice

 

Directions

 

• Preheat the oven to 350 F
• Grease a 9 inch cake pan and set aside
• Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and poppy seed in a small bowl.

 

• Combine yogurt, eggs, orange juice, and vanilla together and whisk until combined.
• In the mixer cream butter, sugar, and orange zest together until light and fluffy.

 

• Add 1/3 of flour mixture followed by 1/2 of yogurt mixture and mix until combined. Repeat until all of the ingredients are incorporated scraping down the bowl as necessary.
• Scrape into prepared cake pan and bake 30 - 35 minutes until done.

 

• Cool cake in pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out on baking rack and cool completely.
• Once the cake is cooled, transfer to serving plate and make the glaze.

 

• Whisk all of the glaze ingredients in a bowl together, you may have to add more powdered sugar if it is not at the desired consistency.
• Pour over top of the cake and allow it to set before cutting.

 

 

        This cake is perfect for the days when you are craving something sweet and not too heavy. The bonus is it is very easy to make and not time consuming. I hope you have a great day and I will talk to you soon.

Chicken Pasta Primavera with Basil Cream Sauce

         Spring is my favorite time of the year because not only are flowers in bloom but we start to see beautiful fruit and vegetables making their appearance in the markets. Since I love fresh vegetables and also love pasta I thought I would make a dish which featured both. Pasta is one of my most favorite foods besides French fries. I would eat it everyday if I could but I try to limit it to once a week. One of my goals this year is to learn how to make fresh pasta. I don't know why just the thought of making it intimidates me. Anyway, I digress again.


        Not too long ago I went to dinner with my husband and some friends and Pasta Primavera was ordered. I was very dismayed when it came out to the table. It hardly had any vegetables in it and the ones it did were not very fresh. All and all the dish was a disappointment. I decided I wanted to make a version of it at home with the dish being centered around fresh vegetables. I did not want a tomato sauce like the one it was served in but thought a basil cream sauce would compliment it better. All I can say is my dish looked a lot better than the one at the restaurant. I definitely will be making it again. I used bow tie pasta in my dish but your favorite type will work as well with it. The sauce was a little thinner than I wanted but that may be due to the fact I used too much chicken broth. I think 1/2 cup would have been better or with reduced white wine.

Chicken Pasta Primavera with Basil Cream Sauce

 

Ingredients

 

1. 1 lb. chicken cubed
2. 2 T of butter
3. 1 onion diced
4. 1 zucchini diced
5. 1 squash diced
6. 8 oz. mushrooms sliced
7. 4 cloves of garlic minced
8. 1 red pepper diced
9. 1 head of broccoli broken
10. 2 T olive oil
11. 2/3 c chicken broth

 

Ingredients for the Sauce

1. 1 1/2 c heavy cream
2. 1/2 c parmesan cheese and a little more for sprinkling
3. 1 bunch of basil
4. 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
5. 1/2 tsp. of salt
6. 1/2 tsp. of black pepper

 

Directions

 

       For the sauce blend all ingredients in the blender and set aside

 

• Cook pasta according to directions, drain, toss with 1 T of butter and set aside.
• Heat olive oil in a pan with 1 T butter.

• Salt and pepper chicken and cook until done and set aside.

• Cook onion in leftover oil and butter mixture and cook until soft.
• Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Add vegetables and cook until softened.

• Add the chicken broth and cook until reduced.

• Add the basil cream mixture and bring to a simmer.
• 

   
• Taste and salt and pepper sauce if necessary.
• Add the chicken back in and let it warm through.
• Remove from heat and let it sit for a couple of minutes so the sauce can thicken. Add the pasta and toss in the cream mixture.
• Place in bowls and top with more parmesan cheese if desired.