Days 356 & 357: Prosciutto & Linguine Frittatas and Italian Cream Cake

 Today we had an "appetizer" gathering for a belated Christmas party with Randy's side of the family. (The crazy side of the family--see photo above.) ;)  Then my parents came over in the evening for dinner and Randy's birthday, so I was up at the crack of dawn preparing food.  I made 2 appetizers and a dessert for our Christmas party and then we had a roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and broccoli au gratin for dinner.  His birthday cake this year was an Italian Cream Cake. Sunday (Day 357) was another busy day and it was a "leftover" day food-wise. :)
The appetizers I made for the party were (once again) my jalapeno poppers and these prosciutto & linguine frittatas...

Prosciutto & Linguine Frittatas (Giada De Laurentiis)
1/2 lb linguine
7 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
6 oz diced prosciutto
5 oz mozzarella cheese, diced
1/2 cup freshly grated Asiago cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt, pepper, nutmeg

Cook the linguine in a large pan of boiling salted water for about 8-10 minutes to al dente.  Drain in a colander and use kitchen shears to cut the pasta into smaller pieces.  You should have about 3 cups of pasta in the end.
Preheat the oven to 375*.  In a blender or food processor, combine the eggs, milk, cream, and mascarpone.  Pulse until well combined.  Transfer the mixture into a large bowl and add the cut pasta, the prosciutto, mozzarella, Asiago, parsley, garlic, salt, pepper, and a dash of nutmeg.  Stir the ingredients to mix thoroughly. 
Spray a couple muffin tins with cooking spray.  Fill the muffin cups so the mixture comes about to the top.  Bake for about 30-35 minutes.  Allow them to cool a few minutes before removing from the pan.

I let Abby look through a recipe book of holiday desserts that I have so she could pick what kind of dessert to make for our Christmas gathering.  She picked out an arrangement of cupcakes in the shape of a Christmas tree.  Together we made chocolate cupcakes from scratch with vanilla buttercream frosting.  Here is our creation:

Special Note: We had an "ugly sweater" contest which is why Randy's shirt has a giant bow on it!

Italian Cream Cake (Ree Drummond)
I sometimes struggle to come up with a cake design for a grown man.  Most elegant cakes are kind of girly--I don't want to give Randy a birthday cake with flowers all over it.  I like the birthday cake to somewhat represent the person they're for.  Last year Randy requested a chocolate chip cake with chocolate frosting for his party.  That was perfect because the chocolate frosting with white icing designs looked great and wasn't "girly" at all!  This year, I decided to do this Italian Cream Cake because it required literally no design.  It's more about the flavor and architecture of the cake.  And since Randy's Italian, it was the perfect fit!

5 eggs, separated
1 stick butter
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1 TB vanilla
1 cup sweetened coconut
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
Frosting:
16 oz cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter
2 tsp vanilla
2 lbs powdered sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup sweetened coconut
1 1/2 pints fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350*.  Butter and flour 2 round cake pans.  Beat the egg whites until stiff and set aside.  In a large bowl, cream together the butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy.  Mix in the egg yolks, vanilla and coconut.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and baking powder.  Alternate adding the buttermilk and dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.  Mix until just combined, then fold in the egg whites.
Pour evenly into the prepared cake pans and bake about 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes.  Then turn the cakes out onto cooling racks and allow to cool completely.
For the frosting, beat the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar until well combined.  Mix in the pecans and coconut.
To assemble, cut each layer of cake in half lengthwise so you are left with 4 layers.  Spread the first layer with frosting and top with blueberries.  Repeat the cake, frosting, and blueberry layers until you have 4 layers of cake.

 

For a fun drink with dessert, I made pomegranate bellinis.  To make, simply combine 1 cup of pomegranate juice, 1 cup of cranberry juice, and 1 cup of simple syrup with 1 bottle of champagne.  Mix and pour into champagne flutes garnished with pomegranate seeds, lemon slices, and mint leaves.  Cheers to Randy!

Merry Belated-Christmas & Happy New Year from this Ugly-Sweater Rockin' Family to Yours!

Sweet Delights: Lemon-Blueberry Cake & Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cup Cookies (Days 243-245)

There is so much going on over here that it's taking a lot of motivation for me to sit down and get caught up on this blog.  Particularly because I know I have several things to write about.  I have sweet recipes to share, a celebration of my grandmother's 80th birthday to recap, and so many emotions I'm going through about the beginning of fall and the ability I have to stay home and be with my children and experience our wonderful lives together.  Where do I even start???

Let's start with the weekend.  (I will save my latest autumn creation for another post.)  Friday night I had a girls' night with some friends.  I made those blackjack margaritas I wrote about recently.  And for a fun little treat, I made chocolate chip cookies stuffed with mini Reese's peanut butter cups.  It's simple!  Just follow the recipe on the bag of chocolate chips, then spoon some dough into a mini muffin or tartlet pan.  Press a peanut butter cup into the center of each spoonful, then spread some more dough on top.  Bake for about 10-12 minutes at 375*.  These are delicious little bites!

Saturday we celebrated the matriarch of our family: my grandmother and her 80th birthday.  I've mentioned before how close my mother's family is, and so it was nice to have (almost) everyone together for Nana's birthday.  (My brother couldn't make it up from Georgia.)  For the occasion, I tackled my first tiered cake.  Remember the lemon-blueberry cake with lavender frosting I made in August?  Here it is again, as a special 3-tiered cake.  My Nana is a beautiful woman whose love for Jesus and her family is clearly seen.  How wonderful it was to celebrate her on Saturday!

3-Tiered Lemon Blueberry Cake w/ Lavender Buttercream Frosting
2 cups unsalted butter, softened
3 cups granulated sugar
8 large eggs, room temperature
2 TB vanilla
6 cups flour
2 TB baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups buttermilk
zest & juice of 6 lemons
3 cups fresh blueberries + 1-2 TB flour

Preheat the oven to 350*.  Butter & flour 3-4 cake pans and set aside.  (I used two 9-inch rounds for a thick bottom layer, and then one deep 8-inch round, and one deep 6-inch round.)
Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly.  In a separate bowl, toss together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, lemon zest, and lemon juice.  Add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients to the batter.  Mix until everything is combined, being careful not to overmix.  Toss the blueberries with the extra flour so they are covered.  Carefully fold them into the batter with a spatula.
Spoon batter into the prepared pans and bake for about 40-50 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.

Lavender Buttercream Frosting
In a small saucepan, pour somewhere between 1-2 cups of milk (you won't use it all--a rough guess is fine).  Add 4 bags of lavender tea and steep over medium heat for about 5 minutes.  Watch carefully so the milk doesn't burn.  Turn off the heat and let the milk cool completely with the tea bags still soaking.  Remove the tea bags and refrigerate the milk in a sealed container until ready for use.

***When I made frosting, I really never measure.  I grew up watching my dad make a "special icing" to put on graham crackers as a special treat.  I've since learned that he was using the same ingredients for a buttercream frosting, just on a different scale.  So I've never really looked at a recipe or measured things out.  I'm trying to get better for the sake of this blog, but a few measurements did get overlooked here, so please bear with me!

For the 3-tiered cake, you will need about 1 pound of powdered sugar and 1 1/2 pounds of very soft butter (it's not called "buttercream" for nothing!).  Add 1-2 TB vanilla, and slowly add a little bit of the lavender milk at a time.  First add a little, then whip the frosting, and then add some more until you reach the desired thickness.  The frosting will be a beige color because of the "tea milk" so use red and blue food coloring to achieve a nice lavender color.  Gently spread on the cake and decorate as you like.

Days 126, 127 & 130: #TBT Carbonara & Flag Cake 2 Ways (plus a BONUS recipe!)

It's time for #TBT!!!  Tonight I quickly whipped up carbonara for us after Noah's 1 year check-up and before going to Life Group.  That's how quick and easy this recipe is!!!  Believe me when I say it--as long as it takes you to boil water and cook pasta, is as long as the entire recipe takes to make.  Try it, you'll love it!

Here's my final "catch-up" from my no-post streak last week and over the weekend.  I bring you Sunday (Day 126) and Monday (Day 127): Flag Cake 2 Ways!!!  Okay, the truth is, I didn't cook at all on Monday.  Memorial Day, I stepped away from the stove.  After the catering and other cook-outs, I was done.  We got up early for a family photo shoot Memorial Day morning, and then spent the day with my parents.  It was fabulous!

So on Saturday, you know I made a flag cake with a yellow cake recipe I'm not yet ready to disclose, and a raspberry filling, whipped cream frosting, and blueberries and raspberries on top.  But, I made a second, bigger cake that was similar!  I used the same yellow cake recipe, but made a strawberry filling instead.  I also swapped out the whipped cream frosting for a buttercream frosting and used strawberries instead of raspberries on top.  Disclosure: this cake recipe doesn't travel well.  On Sunday, we attended a cook-out in CT, which is why I made the big cake.  I knew it would be a long drive, so I opted for the buttercream frosting, figuring it would hold up better than whipped cream, which I assume it did.  However, the juices from the fruit do melt the frosting a little bit and cause dripping.  So, my suggestion if you're going to travel with a cake like this is, place the fruit topping on the cake when you arrive!  It could be a fun thing for guests to help with, also. :)  As I said in my previous post, the exact recipe for this cake is still a work in progress, and I think every cooking girl needs a "secret" recipe anyway. ;) 
Hopefully these cakes provide some inspiration, though, for your July 4th get-together!

BONUS RECIPE

Crust-less Quiche
I love finding ways to use leftovers.  Recipes that include "everything but the kitchen sink" are great for that!  So this morning, (yes, before work) I threw together this crust-less "quiche."  Remember those spring veggie tartlets I made for Friday's luncheon?  Well, I had a ton of leftover chopped vegetables from when I prepared those!  I stuffed them all in a bag and threw them in the fridge.  The yellow cakes I made also used a lot of egg yolks.  So I saved the whites.  Randy's not a fan of egg white omelets, but I saved them anyway.  That's when it hit me--throw them together with the veggies and make a quiche.  I had some leftover cheese in the fridge, and some deli turkey.  And ok, I added 2 whole eggs just for a little extra protein. ;)  Combine it all in a pie plate and bake at 400* for 45-50 minutes.  Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting into it.  What a great breakfast!!!