Hen Party

Gidget is hosting a hen party today.  The featured foods are chicken and eggs.  The chicken sandwiches are a family favorite.

ground chicken sandwiches (canapes)

 2 cups chicken breasts, poached and ground*

This may be done in a mini-chopper.  You want finely chopped meat.  This should look like a spread rather than a chicken salad when completed.  Add the mayonnaise slowly.  You want it to be a thick, spreadable paste rather than being able to see mayonnaise.

1/2 cup mayonnaise or less

1 tablespoon lemon juice

salt and pepper

bread rounds

parsley

Mix ground chicken with mayonnaise and seasonings. Spread on buttered bread and garnish with parsley. Makes about 3 dozen.  Or, top with an additional slice of buttered bread and cut into finger sandwiches. 

*You can also use the breast meat of a pre-roasted chicken or bake chicken breast that are still on the bone.

Instead of deviled eggs.  Gidget has stuffed the hard boiled eggs with her favorite egg salad recipe and added crispy, crumbled bacon. 

For dessert...white cupcakes with strawberry icing, topped with bird nests filled with jelly belly eggs. The nests were created by mixing yellow candy melts with crispy oriental noodles and shaping them in a mini muffin tin.

Gidget isn't too happy with the entire male world, so her door made it clear...

German Chocolate Heaven

german chocolate heaven

My neighbor said that this cake reminded her of one her mother made. I’m glad it brought back good memories for her and hope you’ll make some of your own.

Prepare:

German chocolate cake mix (18 ¼ ounces)

according to package directions. Before baking, stir in:

⅔ bag milk chocolate toffee bits

Bake at 350° for 35 minutes in a 9x13 inch pan.  Set aside to cool.

After the cake has cooled, make small holes across the entire top of the cake.  I used the hollow end of an ice-tea sipper spoon, but use what you can find.  Pour each of the following ingredients over the top of the cake, allowing each ingredient to soak in before adding the next.

¾ cup fat free sweetened condensed milk

¾ cup cajeta de Celaya   (a sweet milk caramel sauce from Mexico,

substitute caramel sauce.)

¾ cup Smucker’s hot fudge topping   (Microwave for 1 minute to

soften.)

Top with:

whipped cream or 8 ounces Cool Whip

Sprinkle with:

remaining ⅓ bag of toffee bits

Refrigerate.

Veronica is taking time off from her novel writing to go on a date to Octoberfest.  Just a last minute spritz of Heaven Scent and she'll be ready for her blind date. Maybe she will pick up some ideas for her manuscript while people watching, too.

White Chocolate Orange Mousse

While the rest of your witches and goblins are eating cookies and cupcakes, the adults can enjoy this delicious dessert.

white chocolate orange mousse 

This is easily made ahead and can even be used as the filling for a chocolate crumb crust pie.

Dissolve gelatin in warm orange juice.

3 tablespoons orange juice

1¼ teaspoon unflavored gelatin powder

Stir and set aside.

6 ounces white chocolate, chopped

¼ cup whipping cream

Carefully melt white chocolate in microwave for 40 seconds.  Stir until it is smooth.  Add gelatin mixture and flavorings.

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ teaspoon orange oil

Set aside and beat:

2 cups whipping cream

until it is firm.  Fold into gelatin mixture.  Pour into 12 individual dessert dishes or chocolate shells.  Refrigerate.  Serve with candied orange peel.

candied orange peel (optional)

⅔ cup water

2 cups sugar

Boil sugar and water, then lower heat to simmer.  Add orange peel and cook for 40 minutes.  (It is easy to peel an orange by using a vegetable peeler or a bar tool that is made to produce thin peels.)

zest strips of two oranges

Remove from sugar syrup with tongs and place on parchment paper to harden.  Store peels in an airtight container.  You can save the sugar syrup to moisten cakes or in making fruit based drinks.

Lucy is considering this outfit for her Halloween party. Now all she has to do is find a place to store her mean cat, Ethel, during the event.

Caramel Apple Trifle

Apple Trifle

This was my experiment a few weeks ago.  It is a great fall treat and serves a crowd. You can also make this in individual dessert dishes.

Apples

7 large Apples (Pink Lady)

Peel and dice apples into ¼ by ½-inch slices.  Place in 2 ½ quart bowl.  Add:

1 teaspoon cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon nutmeg

½ cup brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

Cook in microwave oven for 13 minutes.  Drain and reserve juice.  Chill apples.

Apple basting sauce

Juice from baked apples

1 ½ cups frozen apple juice concentrate

1 cup brown sugar

Put the ingredients in a 4 cup microwave safe container.  Cook for 4 minutes, stirring at two minutes. Stir when done and chill.

You only need about ¼ cup of this for the trifle, but you can use the rest for flavoring hot tea or cider.

custard

2 (4 ½ cup serving size) French vanilla instant pudding

3 cups whole milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Beat until smooth.  Refrigerate.

Whipped cream

2 cups heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup confectioners’ sugar

Whipped cream stabilizer (The amount varies by brand.  Mine called for 4 tablespoons per 2 cups of cream.)

Set aside 1½ cup for topping the trifle.  Fold the rest into the chilled pudding.  Refrigerate.

Cake

1½ loaves Sara Lee Family Size pound cake

Trim all the brown outside edges off the cake.  Slice the cake into thirds horizontally and then baste all surfaces with the apple basting sauce. Then cut the long cake layers into ½-inch thick “fingers”.

5 ounces Trader Jacques fleur de Sal Caramel Sauce

Layering the trifle:

Start with a layer of the custard.  Lay cake fingers over that and then add a layer of the apples.  Top that with a drizzle of caramel sauce.  Continue in this manner until the ingredients are gone.

Top trifle with a layer of the reserves whipped cream.  If desired, you can garnish with chopped pecans or toffee bits.

Yes, it is finally Fall.  Put the blanket back on the bed and restock the hot chocolate!

Maryanne is looking soigne in her gorgeous apple red satin gown.  She is attending the opera tonight and wishing she was the one singing on stage.  

Pink Lemonade Cake

It is that time of year again...the Barbie Nation wants to remind you ladies to get your annual mammogram. Once again, the girls are going pink for the cure.

To get you in the spirit, this week's recipe is Pink Lemonade Cake...fresh from my experiments in the kitchen.

Pink Lemonade Cake

Cake

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1¾ cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream until light and fluffy.  Then add one at a time:

5 large eggs

Beat about one minute after each egg is added.

Add:

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

A pinch of salt

.23 ounce package unsweetened Kool-Aid Pink Lemonade(*Reserve ½ tsp for syrup.)

5 drops soft pink food coloring

Combine until thoroughly mixed.   Bake at 350° in a greased 9x13 pan for 33 minutes.  Let cool for one hour.

Syrup

While the cake is baking, you can mix up this syrup.

½ cup water

½ cup granulated sugar

½ teaspoon unsweetened Kool-Aid Pink Lemonade*

Cook in the microwave oven for 2 minutes, until stir is dissolved.

When the cake is fairly cool, either poke holes in the cake with a wooden skewer and slowly pour syrup over cake.  Do this in 5 minute intervals so the syrup will have time to be absorbed. Or, you can just inject the syrup with an injector, plunging it into the cake and lifting it up as you push the plunger. 

Allow cake to fully cool.  

Then ice with the following frosting.

4 cups confectiones’ sugar

¼ cup (4 tablespoons) butter

Beat butter and sugar.  Add coloring and slowly add cream until frosting is desired consistency.

¼ cup or more of cream

One drop soft pink food coloring