Chocolate Rice Pudding - Chocolate With Francois

I've never made rice pudding. Chocolate Rice Pudding seemed like a great first time! As far as Payard's recipes go, this is one of the easier ones. Most of the time is spent with the rice in the oven. The recipe calls for an hour's baking time, stirring every 20 minutes. Mine was beautiful after the first and second 20 minutes. I should have checked it again after 50 minutes instead of letting it go the full hour. Mine ended up over done and a little dry. The orange and chocolate flavors of this recipe are delicious and leave your kitchen with a wonderful fragrance.




Chocolate Rice Pudding was the recipe choice of Peggy of Pantry Revisited. You'll find the recipe over at her blog! Her pudding looks beautiful, just as Payard describes.

In My Garden

Wild Blueberry Oat Muffins - Secret Recipe Club

This is my third month participating in Secret Recipe Club. Secret Recipe Club is the brainchild of Amanda of Amanda's Cooking. You're assigned a blog, you choose a recipe and keep it a secret until reveal day. How fun is that? Secret Recipe Club has become so popular, we've been divided into three groups. This month I am posting in Group B. Our host is Tina of Mom's Crazy Cooking.

My blog for this month is The Wednesday Baker. Andi has a lovely blog with lots of delicious recipes. After browsing on her blog several times, I settled on the Wild Blueberry Oat Muffins. I happened to have a pint of blueberries in the fridge and needed to make something for food day at hubby's work. Perfect!

I had some leftover crumb topping in the fridge. Instead of topping with sugar after baking, I decided to top with the crumb topping before baking.

The batter for these muffins is the most liquid batter I've ever seen. Usually, at least for me, muffin batter is thick. After putting these in the muffin tins, I read the recipe again, thinking maybe I'd read it wrong. That does happen to me quite a bit. No I read the recipe correctly. My muffins baked just shy of 20 minutes and were perfect. This is by far the best blueberry muffin I've ever eaten. They're moist with a nice soft crumb. The crumb topping added a beautiful finishing touch. I can't wait to experiment with this recipe with other fruits. Thanks Andi for a fabulous recipe!



Wild Blueberry-Oat Muffins
Paula Deen magazine July-August 2011
Courtesy of The Wednesday Baker

1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup milk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp orange zest
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries*
*keeping out 1/2 cup of the blueberries to sprinkle on top of the batter before baking
confectioners' sugar to sprinkle on top after baking

Place the milk and the old-fashioned oatmeal in a bowl, stir to combine and allow to set for 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with papers or spray muffins pan well with pam spray.

Add to the oatmeal the sugar, oil, orange zest, and egg and mix well. Mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon and the nuts then add to the wet mixture. Stir just long enough to combine. Carefully stir in the one cup of blueberries and mix gently. Spoon into the baking cups, sprinkle the tops with the remaining blueberries. Bake at 425 degree for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a cooling rack. After they are cool sprinkle with the confectioners' sugar and serve.

I am linking this to Tasty Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday , Tuesday's at the Table,.
Foodie Friday and Full Plate Thursday.

Squash Pudding

A couple of weeks ago my CSA contained quite a bit of yellow squash. Although we enjoy yellow squash, we always eat it grilled or in a stir fry. In searching for a different way to prepare yellow squash, I found this recipe for Squash Pudding.

If you've never had squash pudding, give this recipe a try. You'll think you're eating a vanilla custard or pudding. Or if you're looking for a great recipe to get your children to eat veggies, this one is perfect. You'll never know the main ingredient is yellow squash.



Aunt Bea's Squash Pudding
Adapted from Sustainable Table

Ingredients:
6 medium yellow squash
1 egg, beaten well
3/4 cup milk or half and half
3 heaping tablespoons flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Nutmeg

Directions:
Peel and cube squash and boil until soft. Puree in the blender. Add milk, vanilla, sugars, flour and egg. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Bake at 350 degrees 30-45 minutes until set.

I am linking this to Foodie Friday, Miz Helen's Full Plate Thursday and Sweet Tooth Friday.

From The Good Life - Nebraska Wine and Balloon Festival

After several consecutive weeks of heat and humidity, last weekend we were treated to almost Fall like temperatures. What do people do when they've been held hostage in their house by this heat for weeks, they celebrate by attending the Nebraska Wine and Balloon Festival.



Along with thousand's of other Nebraskan's we enjoyed a beautiful evening of balloons, wine and music. Many of our favorite Nebraska wineries were in attendance. We sampled a couple of old favorites and discovered a new wine or two. My favorite was Dryline White from Superior Estates in Superior Nebraska. The Dryline White is one of the wines in their Tornado Alley Series. A perfect name for a wine from a winery on the Kansas/Nebraska line, tornado alley for sure!



Wine seems to be the weekend theme in August. Next up this weekend, the Riverfront Wine Festival. Unfortunately, due to flooding it isn't being held on the riverfront.

Celebrity Cook Along - Rachael Ray

For the past several months I've been participating in the Celebrity Cook Along hosted by Lynn at Happier Than A Pig In Mud. When I read that this month's celebrity was Rachael Ray I was thrilled, I already had a Rachael Ray recipe in my que. Or so I thought! Last night when I went to finish the post and link up, I realized the recipe was NOT Rachael's but Giada's. OOPS!

Fortunately, though I'd posted a lovely Rosemary Potato Frittata almost two years ago when I was first blogging. No one, except my husband and occasionally my son, was reading my blog, so I am posting this one again today. Rosemary is my favorite herb and this makes a delicious Sunday brunch or even weeknight meal.

Rosemary Potato Frittata
Adapted from Rachael Ray

1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove of garlic, chopped.
3 medium to large yukon gold potatoes
3 to 4 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
8 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup parmesean cheese
1 tablespoon McCormick vegetable seasoning

Heat oven to 450 degrees.

Heat the olive oil in a cast iron skillet over medium low heat. Thinly slice the potatoes. Add the potatoes to the skillet and season the layers with rosemary, salt and pepper. Raise the heat and cook for 6 to 7 minutes. Carefully turn the mixture and cook for 5 minutes longer.

In a large bowl, wisk the eggs and milk together. Wisk in the parmesean and vegetable seasoning. Pour the egg mixture over the potatoes and lift the potatoes to allow the egg mixture to settle under them. Bake in the oven for 10 - 12 minutes. For the last couple of minutes, turn on the broiler to brown the top of the frittata. Watch carefully, so it does not burn. Remove from the oven and cut into slices and serve.



My notes on this recipe: The original recipe called for onion along with the potatoes, I am not a big fan of raw onions, so I omitted these. Next time, I think I will use them but saute them first. I added the vegetable seasoning to the eggs to give them a little more flavor. I put the Parmesan in with the egg mixture, the original recipe had it sprinkled on top for the last couple of minutes in the oven. I would like to try this recipe with another type of cheese, just to make it a little cheesier. Not sure what cheese will compliment the rosemary and potatoes, I think some type of savory cheese would be so good.

The recipe was a hit with my husband, although he couldn't resist telling me how good it would be with some MEAT in it, possibly some spicy sausage.

I am linking this to Celebrity Cook Along, Tasty Tuesday's, Tuesday's at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

Sunday Night Cake - Club: Baked

When Karen asked for my recipe choice for Club: Baked, I was drawn to Sunday Night Cake. The title of the recipe took me back to when my son was in high school, we had a pact to always have dinner together on Sunday night's. A cake that's perfect for Sunday night's sounded like the perfect recipe to me.

As I tend to do, a little too often, I made the recipe the day before the post was due. I read through it again and realized, I didn't have sour cream or cake flour. Quickly, I grab my keys and head to the closest store. Of course they had sour cream but did they have cake flour? Nope! I substituted all purpose flour and added 3 tablespoons of cornstarch. Well the second time I measured the flour I added cornstarch, the first time I added baking powder. You know those great new square plastic tubs you find cornstarch and baking powder in these days? This is the second time, I mixed them up. Can't remember what I was making the other time. You'd think I would have learned. I am reminded of my mom saying "Haste makes waste". Once I gathered the proper ingredients, the cake went together easily.

Oh I guess I also forgot to mention, I didn't have a 9 x 9 square pan or a 9" springform pan. I used an 8" springform and made a couple of cupcakes with the extra batter. My cupcakes were done after 20 minutes but the cake itself took almost 50 minutes. Probably because I made it in a smaller pan. My cake rose much higher than I would have anticipated. I sliced off the top so there would be a flat surface for frosting.

This recipe is all about the frosting. While this cake is moist with a wonderful texture, I thought it lacked flavor. The frosting reminds me of a lighter version of chocolate pudding and makes this cake. I can't wait to try this frosting again, maybe on a peanut butter cake? I am looking forward to reading the other Club: Baked members comments on this cake.

Sunday Night Cake

• 1 3/4 cups cake flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 10 tablespoons (5 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup sour cream

Frosting

• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 3 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9″ round cake pan (springform works great) with parchment paper. Melt a little butter and brush it onto the paper and the sides of the pan, then shake about 1 tablespoon of flour around the pan, disposing of excess. This will keep the cake from sticking.

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl. Add eggs one at a time and mix until blended. Scrape down the bowl again.

Add the flour one scoop at a time, alternating with scoops of the sour cream. The last addition should be flour. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl and mix a few more times to incorporate.

Pour batter into pan and bake 30-35 minutes. Allow cake to cool at least 25 minutes on a wire rack. Flip out of the pan and frost with the chocolate frosting.

Frosting instructions:

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch and cocoa powder. Add the chopped chocolate. Pour 1 cup boiling water into the pan, wait 30 seconds, then whisk until mixture is combined and the chocolate is melted.

Turn the heat to medium-high and whisk continuously for about 5 minutes, or until the mixture begins to thicken. (Once pudding begins to thicken, it will come together very quickly.)

Remove the pan from the heat and pour the mixture into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on high until the steam escapes and the mixture is room temperature. Add the butter and mix for an additional 2-3 minutes, until the frosting is light and pudding like. If you prefer a fluffier, more spreadable frosting, continue to mix for a few minutes longer.

Frost the top of the cake, allowing a little of the frosting to drip down the edges. Chill for 5 minutes to set the frosting. Serve immediately.

The cake can be stored, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Bring it back to room temperature before serving.

You can see what the other Club: Baked members thought of this recipe here! Next up for Club: Baked is Boston Cream Pie Cake!