Sunday Night Football

I.O.U. one blog post. Steelers are playing the Patriots. See you tomorrow.

Oh, Ina . . .

Ina Garten is my hero, and she fits perfectly into this week's theme. Ina believes that some things should be made from scratch, and that some things . . . should just be bought. I love Ina because some of her "recipes" are the equivalent of "buy some fresh vegetables, and put out a dip". She has a refreshing mix of "from scratch" and "buy quality pre-made".

I also love her entertaining philosophy, which is kind of a "never let them see you sweat/ don't sweat it" combination. She believes that guests prefer hosts to be relaxed and happy, rather than be served food that's been slaved over. It's taken me awhile to take this to heart ("NO! I'm sure my guests will prefer me whipping them fresh butter for their rolls, rather than mingling!"), but . . . she's totally right. Most of her recipes are available online, but I recommend the buying the books too. Her turkey meatloaf is to die for. :)

Sometimes, It's Called "Take-Out"

Sometimes, it's Friday. Sometimes, you're tired. Sometimes, you just can't make, and photograph, and blog about another food. Sometimes, it's called "take-out". I got chicken korma from my favorite Indian Restaurant. I didn't take a picture. Tomorrow I will resume blogging properly. Good night.

World's Easiest "WOW" Cake

This cake rocks. I came up with it seven years ago, and I'm still completely in love with it. It's my easy Chocolate Raspberry Cloud Cake. If you are a person who is afraid of baking, feel you can't possibly make a cake, then make this one. It's a confidence builder. You literally frost it WITH THE BACK OF A SPOON! No complicated tools, no complicated ingredients, it's just simple, and people are so impressed by it. It's pretty! It's pink! It has raspberries and chocolate! Make this cake.

You will need:

A Dark Chocolate Cake (follow the instructions on the box, usually involves eggs and oil)

2 8oz. Cool Whip tubs

2 6oz. packages of Raspberries.

A Spoon

That's it. Seriously (see picture).

Bake the cake according to the package directions. (Since my house is filling up with baked goods from these blog posts, I made a couple 6 inch cakes, so my cake looks small in the pics, but you should make a regular 8 or 9 inch cake.)

Let cool completely (see picture).

Wash your raspberries and set them out on paper towel to dry off. It's also an excellent time to split them into two categories: smooshy and nice looking. It should be an even split (see picture).

Open one tub of Cool Whip, and mash the smooshy raspberries into it. It should turn the Cool Whip pink with raspberry bits. Mash it right there in the container, no sense messing up a bowl (see picture).

Cut off the rounded tops of your cake layers. Put one cake layer down on a plate, cut side up. Spoon half the raspberry mixture on it, and smear it around into an even layer. Put the next cake layer on top, with the cut side down. Spoon the remaining raspberry mixture onto the top of the cake, smearing it into an even layer with your spoon (see picture).

Clean your spoon.

Open the other container of Cool Whip. Scoop some Cool Whip onto the back of the spoon and smear it onto the sides. Don't try to smooth it. It looks better rough. If you get some crumbs in the Cool Whip, just wipe off the spoon, and put more Cool Whip over the crumb-y part. Make sure all the cake is covered (see picture).

Then take the nice looking raspberries and place them in a circle around the edge of the top (see first picture). Put a raspberry in the middle. If you still have raspberries, make another ring around the center. You can eat it right away, but I recommend putting it in the fridge for about an hour. If you have leftovers, store them in the fridge. Super easy.

Spicy Apple Chicken with Gorgonzola Orzo

This is my "go-to" dinner, when I want to be impressive, but I just don't have "impressive" time. It is seriously the easiest thing to throw together, so easy, that tonight, for the first time, I actually paid attention to, and measured the ingredients. Normally, I just throw the ingredients in the pan. It's 15 minutes prep, and 45 minutes to bake, but it's a complete meal, not to mention low in fat. And, if I do say so myself, it's just SO yummy!

You will need:

3-4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (whatever comes in the package)

1 Onion

1 Apple

1/2 cup Apple Butter (from yesterday's recipe, or store bought)

1/2 cup Spicy Brown Mustard

1 cup Orzo (or other small pasta, like Israeli Couscous)

3-4 oz. Crumbled Gorgonzola (whatever comes prepackaged)

8x8 baking pan

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Slice your apple and your onion (slice your onion like it's an apple) and drop in your baking pan. Cover with your chicken breasts (clean and trim them if you have time, but if you don't care, just plop 'em on)(see picture).

In a separate bowl, mix your apple butter and mustard together. Slather the apple & mustard sauce over the whole thing, making sure to completely cover the chicken (this will keep the chicken moist). Put the baking pan in the oven for 35-45 minutes, or until the chicken reaches 165 on a kitchen thermometer.

About 15 minutes before the chicken is done, boil your pasta according to package instructions (usually around 10 minutes). Drain, and throw back into the pot. While the pasta is still hot, stir in the gorgonzola crumbles. The heat from the pasta should melt the cheese into a sauce.

Serve the chicken over the gorgonzola orzo with some of the apples and onions from the bottom of the pan, and plenty of the apple & mustard sauce. Done. Leftovers refrigerate and reheat very well, and I even think it tastes better on the second day. Seriously easy.

Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Butter

This is the one "From Scratch" recipe I'll be posting this week. But, I realized it does kinda fit in with the spirit of the week, since I didn't invent this recipe. In fact, it's copyrighted, so I can't even copy it here. Which is making tonight's blog post super easy, since all I can do is give you a link to it!

I love this apple butter. We gave it as favors at our wedding. In fact, this jar is one we canned for our wedding, six years ago. I should mention that the original of this recipe is no longer available on the internet, so the link is to a slightly less spicy version. To make it the way we made it six years ago, up the cinnamon to 1 tsp., and the cloves and ginger to 1/2 tsp.

I also feel I should mention that apple butter contains no butter, unlike fruit curds, which contain TONS of butter. So, if you're looking for a delicious, not too sugary, non-fat fruit spread, I say go with a fruit butter.

Not From Scratch

I've been posting a lot of recipes, and I've noticed that most of them are a bit, shall we say, "time consuming"? Not even I, with my tons of time, really have enough time to cook and bake like this all the time, so I'm dedicating this week to "Not From Scratch". Other than one recipe (which is just SO good, I had to!), all the posts and recipes this week will be easy to throw together, can be done on a weeknight, and use pre-prepared goods.

I'm a big fan of pre-packaged, quality products. Pictured are a few of my favorites. Now, most of these things, I have made from scratch, but buying them is just easier. And, frankly, usually tastes as good. Heating up Bush's chili and serving it over some corn bread from a mix, with some shredded cheddar and sour cream is wonderful, and does not take more than 15 minutes. Stonewall Kitchen marinades are also a wonderful time saver (if you don't have time to marinade your meat, just heat up the marinade and use it as a sauce!). Dickenson's curds and preserves are a staple in my pantry, and I use them in a lot of my baking (which I also occasionally use a cake mix for). The Physicist buys our organic chicken broth in bulk, because I just don't have the patience to make it from scratch, freeze it, and then wait around for it to thaw before I use it in a recipe. Sure, you can make fudge sauce from scratch, but somehow the sundae is sweeter when you don't.

And here is my confession: I don't like pancakes, unless they're made from Jiffy Baking Mix. The Physicist has tried many recipes for making pancakes from scratch, and I can't make it to a second bite. I can tolerate other mixes and pancakes from Pamela's Restaurant (President Obama's favorite pancakes too, but they aren't really pancakes but more of a butter conveyance system), but the pancakes I want, I crave, are Jiffy.

So, yes, you can milk your own cow and butcher a whole pig. But, most people don't have the kind of time or energy to spend more than 20 minutes putting dinner together. If you're pressed for time, and your grocery store can offer you a delicious, time-saving alternative, well then, you should take it.