Baking for Breast Cancer Awareness...

Ley over at Cilantro and Lime is hosting this event to help raise awareness for Breast Cancer. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I think it is something that we all need to become more aware of. If you have not loss someone close to you to this horrible disease you are definitely in the minority. Each year it is estimated that nearly 200,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 40,000 will die. Approximately 1,700 men will also be diagnosed with breast cancer and 450 will die each year. The evaluation of men with breast masses is similar to that in women, including mammography.

The best defense for breast cancer is early detection so give yourself a breast self-exam at least once a month. Look for any changes in breast tissue, such as changes in size, a lump, dimpling or puckering of the breast, or a discharge from the nipple. If you discover a persistent lump in your breast or any changes in breast tissue, it is very important that you see a physician immediately. However, 8 out of 10 lumps are benign, or not cancerous.

In honor of this great event I baked Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese/Chocolate Chip Filling.


These were so good and so easy to make. It took me less time to make these than it does to make a cake!!! Ridiculously simple. Have I mentioned these were good? When I ate my first one it was still warm and gooey from the oven and then about 10 minutes later I ate the second one (it was sacrificial, all in the name of a good photo which didn't turn out so great!) they were even better. They were so rich. I was going to frost them with some pink icing in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month but after tasting one I realized that would be total overkill! I got out the lovely pink tulle and shot away!! I can't wait for the girls to taste these...they will love them!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese/Chocolate Chip Filling.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. baking cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. water
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 Tbs. white vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla

Filling:
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/3 c. sugar
1 egg
1/8 tsp. salt
1 c. bittersweet chocolate chips (you can use whatever you like but I like bittersweet)

Directions:

In a bowl, beat cream cheese. Add sugar, egg, salt. Mix well. Fold in chips. Set aside. For cupcakes, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Mix well. Fill paper-lined muffin cups half full with batter. Top each with 1 Tbs. of cream cheese mixture and then top with more chocolate batter to cover the cream cheese. Bake at 350º for 25-30 minutes. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pan. This makes 12



I did have some cream cheese mixture left over. Haven't really decided what to make with that but whatever it is I bet it will be delicious!!!

Go on over to Ley's blog and bake something to help promote October as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

As Always...

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Zucchini Muffins with Cranberries and Chocolate Chips!

Yeah, I know that is a huge title but that's what these were. I guess I should have added that it was bittersweet chocolate chips that I used...

Real simple recipe. I used the last 2 bags of grated zucchini that I had in my freezer. Probably just in time for my CSA to start next month! No mixer needed just 2 bowls.

Zucchini Muffins with Cranberries and Bittersweet Chocolate Chips

Oven 350

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups AP Flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup sugar
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/4 butter, melted
1 egg
handful of dried cranberries
handful of bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:

In a mixing bowl add the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder and nutmeg. I another bowl add the sugar, zucchini, butter, and egg. Mix well.
Add the flour mixture and stir til just combined. Stir in cranberries and chocolate chips.
Fill paper lined muffin cups very, very full. Should make about 7 large sized muffins.
Bake for about 25-30 minutes, testing for doneness before removing from oven.
Allow to cool for 5 minutes then remove from pan to rack to cool the rest of the way.

These were incredible. I love how the spice accented the zucchini and the cranberries and the chocolate just took it right over the top. The girls loved these so I guess i need to come up with more zucchini!!!

***Just saw that I my apple in puff pastry photo is on the Foodie Views of the Day. Go on over there and check it out and give me a quick vote!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Kathy's Cannellini Bean Salad with Tuna

Cannellini Bean Salad with Tuna

Now for another great recipe from the Potluck last Friday...wonder how long I can ride this one out???

I loved this salad, so much so that I begged for some of the leftovers so that I could have some for lunch the next day! I think I loved the simplicity of it and how all the flavors were so nicely balanced what with the oil and the lemon. Yumm. I must make some more for lunch tomorrow!

Cannellini Bean Salad with Tuna

Ingedients:

2 cans cannellini beans
2 cans of tuna, drained
4 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1 tomato, diced small

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together and serve.

Thanks so much for the great recipe Kathy. I will be making this one over and over again!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Here it is...Lasagna!

This is a really simple lasagna recipe to make. I always use the no bake noodles. I know that there are several different schools of thought on this. Yes, I do like the texture of the boiled noodles better but really the noodle is just a vehicle for the sauce and that all gets soaked up into both of them! This recipe will make enough for about 6 people. We increased our from Friday night for enough to fill a 20 X 13 aluminum pan. My sauce is incredible and so easy to make. Do yourself a favor and start making your own sauces. I make one almost the same as this one for our pizza's. I just use chunked tomatoes instead of pureed ones. (What is with my font here???!!! LOL) Homemade Lasagna Ingredients: 1 box no bake Lasagna 1 (15 ounce) container Ricotta cheese 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese salt and pepper pinch of nutmeg 2 eggs 4 cups (1 pound) shredded Mozzarella cheese 5 cups homemade pasta sauce,(see below), or 2 jars Hunt's Spaghetti Sauce, sausage flavor 1 pound bulk Italian sausage, cooked, drained, crumbled
Directions: Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine Ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, eggs, salt, pepper, nutmeg & 1 cup Mozzarella cheese in a medium bowl; mix well. Spread 1 cup pasta sauce in a 13x9-inch baking dish. Layer with half each of the lasagna, Ricotta cheese mixture, sausage, remaining pasta sauce & Mozzarella cheese. Repeat layering. Bake uncovered 40 minutes or until hot & bubbly. Let stand 15 minutes before serving. Pasta Sauce Ingredients: 1 onion, diced 5 cloves of garlic, minced About 5 cups pureed tomatoes (I use ones that I froze last winter) oregano garlic powder salt and pepper to taste Direction: In a small amount of oil cook onions and garlic until the onions are translucent. Add the tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Turn the heat to simmer and add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer uncovered for about 1 hour or until the sauce has reached the consistency of a jarred sauce. The freshness of the sauce still comes through and everyone will wonder what your secret is. They did mine and that is one of the reasons I am posting this now! As Always... Happy Entertaining!!! Judy www.nofearentertaining.com

First Monthly Potluck Dinner...huge success!

What a great night it was. Being surrounded by a large group of your friends, sharing food, wine, conversation and lots of fun. The children swam or played most of the night so it was really just us adults all gathered around a large table "breaking bread"!

We decided to give this a try. We have a huge circle of friends and feel very fortunate for this but it has seemed that in the last year or so that we are all losing touch with each other. None of us really wanted to invest all of the money, time and energy into a huge party that was sponsored by just one of us so this was a natural progression for us. We started the planning of this a month and a bit out but there was really nothing to it short of finding out who was available and what they would bring. All I had to do as hostess was have a couple of bottles of wine on hand, buy the paper products and clear a space for the food! It was so cool to be surrounded by all of these people for such a fun night...thanks to all of you for coming!!!

For this month's Potluck I choose and Italian theme for the ease of it.

The food was great we supplied the lasagna (recipe later this week!) and everyone else brought the rest.

We had a great Caesar Salad (no pictures)

Antipasti platter (yumm...no pictures)

Cannellini Bean salad with Tuna (this was delicious and will make it this week):


Bruschetta (gotta have bread)

Gazpacho (incredible!)

Ice Cream Dessert (where to start??? This was amazing! I am working on getting the recipe as they had a triathlon this weekend and were out of town!)

Smucker's Uncrustables. A necessity at any party where you have more than 2 children...This is the one thing they are guaranteed to eat. They are against everything I believe in food wise but are a great treat!!!

I think I have some takers for hosting this event next month. It really was so easy. Clean up was a breeze as everyone brought there own stuff and took it home. Please consider trying this if you have a group of friends that are as busy as we all are!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Apples in Puff Pastry

This was a nice size to 1/4 and serve a piece for each of us!

No I didn't make my own puff pastry. Did that once and didn't really turn out so good for me. This time I was in a hurry anyway and just wanted to use up some aging apples that I had been looking at for a while. I had one leftover sheet of puff pastry in the freezer so I thawed that out and took my apples and just plopped them in and pulled up all the edges almost like an apple galette but with puff pastry. I used an egg wash on the pastry and placed it in the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes. Checking often to see about the coloring of it. It should b a nice golden brown.

For the apples all I did was chop up a couple of apples and to taste I added cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, some sugar and a touch of water. These apples were a little dried out so I added an over ripe pear to the mix as well. I let this cook until the apples were soft. I let this cool over night but I think room temp would be okay.

This was a super easy dessert and the whole family thought I put a lot of work into it. The presentation is wonderful!

Tonight we are trying something new here. I am hosting our first monthly Dinner with Our Friends. We always used to have parties regularly but believe me when you have a huge group of friends this can get very costly. My friend Jenn and I were talking and she was telling me about some of their friends that host a Community Dinner every Tuesday night. They pick a theme for the night and then just give their friends an open invitation. I loved this idea but there is nooooo way in this world that I could ever do a weekly thing so I decided on the first Friday of every month. I said that I would host the first few and that anyone who wanted could take it over after this. We also decided on one list of friends (about 40 people with about 1/3 of that children) that are invited every month. Whoever is hosting can add to that list but not remove. Everyone is pretty excited about this and so are we. I only had to make lasagna and tidy up my house!!! Love this and can't wait to see everyone!!! I'll fill you in more on Monday after our first one but this is a low impact way to keep up with everyone throughout our very busy lives!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Lemon Chicken Scaloppini...

I had no idea what was going to be for dinner last night. Wednesday night's are the only night that we aren't running off to something that the girls are doing so I usually put a bit more effort into the meal. This time it was easy though.

I went on Tastespotting for some inspiration and actually found something that wouldn't require me to re mortgage the house to make or take up any of my valuable "play with the kids time". Very, very important to me right now!!!

I came across this post for Lemon Chicken Scaloppini and just couldn't resist! I am so glad I didn't. I made this and served it with rice and green beans and it was incredible. The rice took longer to make then the chicken. Loved this dish...have I mentioned that I loved this dish????

Lemon Chicken Scaloppini (The Food Channel)

Ingredients

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used 4 chicken cutlets. All natural, hormone and antibiotic free)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon salt (I added garlic powder and black pepper as well)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons capers, drained
• 1 lemon, sliced very thin
• Salt and pepper to taste (I also finished with garlic powder and onion powder)
• 1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped

Preparation

• Place chicken breasts on cutting board and slice in half horizontally, forming 8 thin filets.
  
• Place each chicken fillet between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound until 1/4-inch thin.
  
• Combine flour and salt in shallow container. Dredge pounded chicken in seasoned flour; shake off excess flour.
  
• Heat butter and oil in large skillet. Working in several small batches, sauté chicken for 5 minutes over medium heat, turning once.
  
• Add white wine and chicken broth. Simmer until the liquid is reduced by half.
  
• Add lemon pieces and capers.
  
• Season to taste; garnish with parsley.

Everyone loved this dish. Even my daughter who said "that smells so bad" ended up eating it and loving it!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com