For Sunday lunch, I volunteered to cook a big meal for everyone.  I know, it’s crazy…but all these years of my grandmother cooking lunch for everyone, I insisted that she relax and just eat.  So, I put together an Italian feast.  The menu consisted of garlic bread, chicken alfredo, lasagna, Caesar salad, and a tiramisu trifle.  The night before, I went to the store to get ingredients to make the lasagna and trifle.  As I’m slowly moving through the grocery store and mentally going over my list, it hit me that I still had to put together the lasagna, trifle, AND put my little girl to bed.  And honestly, all I wanted to do when I got back to the house was sit my happy butt on the couch and drink a glass of wine.  So, I compromised.  Grammy put little pumpkin to bed while I put together the trifle, and the storebought lasagna thawed in the fridge while I enjoyed that delightful glass of wine.  Everybody wins.  The day after I got home though, the fleeting thought of making a lasagna was still floating around in my head, so that was what made it on the dinner table the following night.  With this batch though, instead of making it in a 9×13 inch dish, I split the ingredients up and made two 8×8 inch pans of lasagna, and one went in the freezer for later use.  Perfect!  Next time I don’t feel like putting together dinner, all I have to do is thaw that baby out and pop it in the oven.  Shoot, we still had leftovers from this smaller version…and it was just as delicious.

Lasagna Recipe:

9 lasagna noodles, uncooked

1 lb. ground hamburger

1/4 cup minced onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 (24 oz.) jars spaghetti sauce

3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan, divided

16 oz. large curd cottage cheese

1 pound mozzarella cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Boil lasagna noodles in water according to package directions.  Cook hamburger meat in skillet until browned and fully cooked, add garlic and onions and cook for a few minutes until onions are tender.  Remove from heat, stir together with 1 jar of spaghetti sauce.  Spread 1/3 of remaining jar of spaghetti sauce on bottom of 9×13 inch baking dish.  Place three noodles along bottom on top of sauce.  Spoon half of cottage cheese on top of noodles, followed by half of meat mixture.  Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese, then 1 cup of mozzarella.  Repeat layering one more time.  For top layer, add remaining three noodles, remaining spaghetti sauce, and cheeses.  Bake in oven for 1 hour, let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

This is a two tiered cake, the top tier is 8 inches, and the bottom tier is 10 inches.  The bottom flavor is mocha, and the top flavor is a vanilla pound cake.  It’s completely covered with buttercream icing and fondant decorations.  The graduation cap, school book, stethoscope, and diploma are all made out of fondant.

The medical symbol is also made out of fondant.  I made that by printing out the symbol, then cutting the design out of the paper and placing it on top of fondant that I rolled out.  With a knife, I traced the outlines of the symbol, and took a toothpick to cut out the smaller holes.  This was tedious, but well worth it in the end.  The MD letters are made out of white fondant and black chocolate, and I used a mold to make those.

A friend that I grew up with is also a doctor, so I called him for some ideas.  “Is there anything I could put on the cake that would be a funny reference to their experience in medical school?” I asked him.  He thought for a minute, then mentioned a particular teacher.  Everyone knows this teacher.  He said, “If you put his name somewhere on the cake, they’ll crack up.”  And they did.  As I walked up to them with the cake in my hands, they were looking it over.  I told them to make sure they look at the book on top of the cake.  They both leaned over, and started laughing hysterically.  “Get the camera!  Take a picture!”  Their reaction to the cake was well worth every bit of effort.

It was delicious…in fact, I’ll be making this again for parties in the future.  When it comes to kids and punch, personally I try to avoid the bright red or other dark colors that stain floors and carpet easily, and go with something that’ll be easier to clean up.  This punch definitely falls into that category.  And let me tell you, this stuff did not go to waste, even though I made the whole batch.  My husband and daughter continued to drink it as the week went on.  This made Mama happy.

Pali Punch Recipe:

2 cans guava juice

1 1/2 cups pineapple juice

1 cup orange juice

1/2 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons grenadine syrup

1 (2 liter) bottle ginger ale

Combine all ingredients and stir.  Can be served in a large pitcher or punch bowl.

This thing tasted just as good as it smelled.  As we’re sitting at the table munching away, I was convinced that our daughter wouldn’t touch it, just because it looked different.  I was wrong.  She ate half of a piece, and I sat there in shock, watching her shovel it down her little pie hole.  When we finished our pieces, I looked in the pan and saw that there were five whole pieces left.  Good grief.  I thought for a minute about what to do with them, because I knew that we wouldn’t eat the leftovers since the following day was Monday and we get back on our routine…so I texted our neighbor across the street.  When I told her what we had for breakfast and asked if they wanted the rest, she excitedly called me about it, then sent her husband over to pick it up.  About thirty minutes later, I got another text message from her, telling me how awesome it was.  Yes, this has definitely been added to my breakfast list.  My nieces and nephews will love this thing!

Breakfast Pizza Recipe:

1 can refrigerated crescent roll dough

1 lb. ground breakfast sausage

6 pieces bacon, cooked and crumbled

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

8 large eggs

1/3 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray a round 12 inch cake pan, and press the crescent roll dough into the pan, forming a crust.  Cook sausage in skillet until browned and completely cooked through.  Spoon on top of crust, sprinkle bacon on top.  Sprinkle grated cheese on top of meats.  Combine eggs, milk, salt, and pepper.  Whisk together until eggs are beaten, pour over crust.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, cut into slices and serve.

While I was putting this together, the thought pondered in my head, wondering if there was too much coffee drizzled on the cake and cookie layers…but the distribution was perfect.  You could definitely taste the coffee in the dessert, but it wasn’t overpowering…and that mascarpone layer was so rich and creamy.  You can use regular coffee or coffee liquor, but that depends on how much of a “kick” you want.  Since my daughter ate some of this batch, regular coffee was used…but I would still love to throw some of the liquor in there as well.  You could always use half coffee and half liquor, or however else you’d like to make it.  This dessert has definitely been added to the “Heck yes, I’ll make it again” list for the future!

Tiramisu Trifle Recipe:

1 angel food cake (I just picked one up from the bakery at the grocery store)

1 box Nilla wafers

1 cup powdered sugar

8 oz. mascarpone cheese

1 cup coffee or coffee liquor

2 (8 oz.) containers whipped topping

4 teaspoons cocoa, divided

Beat mascarpone cheese and powdered sugar with electric mixer until creamy and blended.  Add 1 container of whipped topping, continue mixing until well-blended.  Break up half of cake and place on bottom of trifle dish.  Drizzle 1/4 cup of coffee over cake.  Spread half of mascarpone mixture on top of cake.  Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of cocoa on top.  Place half of cookies on top, drizzle with 1/4 cup coffee.  Spread half of remaining container of whipped topping on top of cookie layer, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon cocoa.  Repeat layering.  Cover tightly and set in refrigerator at least 4 hours or overnight, so the flavors can set.  Store in refrigerator.

Candy Sushi…who knew?  Really!  A good friend that I grew up with had a birthday dinner party last night at a sushi restaurant, and she had asked me a while back if I could make the cake.  When I talked to her earlier in the week, I had an idea of what I was going to do, but hadn’t nailed down anything in particular…until I started doing some research.  When I did a search for sushi cake, so many options came up…but what caught my eye was all of the sushi-looking desserts.  What?  How is this possible?  I continued looking through, and saw that this candy sushi was made out of rice krispie treats, fruit roll ups, starbursts, gummy worms, and Swedish fish.  Holy cow, this was the jackpot!

When I originally tried to make the sushi the way a couple of videos had instructed, it fell apart.  Literally.  I placed the gummy worms on top of the rice krispie treats in a pan, attempted to roll them up like real sushi…and FLOP.  Bigtime.  As I stared at the mess and kept thinking about what in the world was my backup plan going to be, I ended up having to walk away.  Got too frustrated, and didn’t have the ingredients to make another batch of rice krispie treats.  As I’m cooking dinner and brainstorming, it hit me that there was a box of store bought rice krispie treats in pantry.  Then, the creative juices REALLY started flowing.

Success!  And honestly, making them this way was SO much easier than the original way.  Well, to me at least…and time isn’t an issue.  You can make as few or as many as you want, and don’t have to worry about the rice krispie treats settling and not being able to work with them.  Also, if you still want to make the treats from scratch, just press them into a pan, let them set, then cut them into the shapes you need.  I used a small round cutter for the rolls, and just cut rectangles for the rest.  I used purple and green fruit roll ups as the seaweed, cut little slices of colored gummy worms and put them on top.  The other ones are starbursts, shaped into fish and placed on top of the treats, and the lines are created with the flat edge of a knife.

And here we are, with the sushi cake!  And let me tell you…walking in to a crowded sushi restaurant with this cake was fun.  Inakaya is THE place to get sushi in town.  I overheard several of the, “Oh wow,” and “That’s so awesome!” comments as I walked by.  It’s a two tiered chocolate strawberry swirl cake covered with cream cheese icing, and of course topped with all of the sushi.  I needed an extra cup of coffee this morning, because I stayed out later than my bedtime.  This was an awesome and fun group of girls who made a lot of noise…and I loved every second of it.  My husband was picking on me when I got home, raving about how much fun we had, and he asked if I made some new friend.  I flashed a big, cheesy smile and said, “I sure did!”  This cake was a huge hit, and the fact that the sushi is edible makes it even better!

The goodies for this themed birthday party were for my cousin’s daughter’s first birthday party, which was an Alice In Wonderland theme.  When she called me about making some goodies, originally I was just going to make some cookies.  After that, I asked her if she wanted me to make the cake, and she jumped on the opportunity.  I was worried about traveling with the cake already decorated, since my cousin lives almost two hours away.  I didn’t want something to happen to the cake since I’d be traveling farther than normal with a tiered cake, so I decided to come up the night before the party and decorate the cake after I got there.  The original plan seemed genius, just stack and ice the cake, worry about the actual decorations when I got there…  But, there was a problem…

The cake fell over en route.  It was a three tiered cake that was tall, and slightly top heavy, so I was a nervous wreck.  As I’m driving down the road, my husband calls me to see where I was.  I told him about having the cake already stacked, and he started laughing, “Why didn’t you wait until you got there to stack the cake?”  I sighed, and said, “I don’t know.  I really should’ve kept them separate until I got there.”  Shortly after that conversation, I heard something in the back…but assured myself that it was fine.  Halfway there, I stopped at a rest area to use the restroom and check on the cake.  I peeked in the back through the dark tinted windows, and saw it.  I stood there for a second and muttered a couple of not-so-nice words, then opened the back of the SUV.  I stared at it.  Shook my head.  Laughed.  Then, pulled out my phone to take a picture of it and text it to my cousin.   I started going over a Plan B, then called her.  She picked up the phone and said, “It’s okay, Erin.  It’ll be fine, I promise.  We’ll figure it out.”  I laughed and said, “Oh, I’m not worried about it…just have to make another one.  Are you still at the store?  Oh, good…here’s what I need…” and gave her a list.

Cake…Take Two.  After I got to her place, the process began.  We still had to run some errands, so I was baking two tiers at a time, only doing 1 layer per tier for this cake.  I decided to go with shorter tiers to the cake would be more stable when I stacked it together.  But, the good thing was that we only had to travel 15 minutes to the party location.  As I was working on the cake, I periodically would look at my watch.  Midnight.  I continued to go about putting everything together, determined to get this thing done.  1am hits, and my cousin is very sleepy, and I fuss at her to go to bed (since she had to get up with the kids early in the morning).  She passed out, and I continued to chug away on the cake.  I told myself that no matter where the cake was at 2am, I needed to go to bed.  2am hit, and I told myself to go until 2:30 and see where we were with it.  2:30 hits, and I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and continued.  The leaves were fondant that had to be rolled out and individually cut, then stuck on the cake.  That was the process that was taking so long…  3:15am.  Done with the leaves.  I’ll finish it in the morning before the party, the rest won’t take long.  I thought to myself.  I looked at the mess, and agreed with myself that it could also be cleaned up in the morning.  The next morning, I piped more leaves on the cake, then stuck the roses on it and the crown on top.  I made the crown earlier in the week out of fondant and gumpaste, so that it would have time to set before the party.

When I was talking to my other cousin (the birthday mom’s sister) about the cake on the phone prior to the weekend, she said something about how the Queen of Hearts had her minions paint the white roses red.  As I was preparing the cake decorations earlier in the week, this was one of the things I was doing…painting the white roses half red for the painted effect.  I called her up and asked, “Hey, I just realized that I’m painting white roses red.  Does that make me a minion?”  She paused, and said, “Why, yes…yes it does.”  So be it.  I diluted the red food coloring with vanilla, because otherwise the color is clumpy and looks like a blood red color that’s painted on.  Diluting the food coloring makes the color much smoother.  If you don’t have vanilla, you can use vodka (it evaporates and doesn’t cause the food coloring to bleed as much when diluted).  Try not to drink the vodka during the decorating process though…

I ended up calling my cousin back and asking her if she wanted a baby smash cake to match the big cake.  So, I just made a 4 inch cake, piped the icing on with a leaf tip, and topped it with a red rose.  So stinkin’ cute.

Cookies with instructions…I like it.  Although, with these cookies, you don’t have to tell me more than once.  These are my shortbread cookies, decorated with chocolate.  Chocolate?  Yes, chocolate.  I melted the colored chocolate wafers and spread the colors on top, then used a squeeze bottle with white chocolate to write on top of them after the colored chocolate set.  As I’m doing this, my daughter is sitting on my husband’s lap at the table, watching me, and says, “Don’t mess up the cookies, Mommy.”  I couldn’t help but to laugh.  Yes ma’am.

I didn’t do these, but my cousin did.  She just got the string, labels, and tied them on to the flavored drinks.  They were SO cute, went along great with the theme, and all the kids loved them.  The party was a big success, and the birthday girl was as adorable as they come!

In all honesty, I was terrified that the chicken was just going to come out tasting okay.  As it was cooking in the crock pot, I kept smelling it, thinking that it wasn’t going to be anything special.  Then again, I am getting over a sinus infection and my sinuses are still not back to normal, so maybe that could have contributed to being a little weary over how dinner would turn out.  Much to my surprise and pleasure, it was delicious!!  One of the things I remember about Hawaiian food was how deliciously moist and buttery the rice was…so I wanted to recreate that in my kitchen as well.  This rice was SO moist…and SO buttery.  I’m really not a big fan of plain white rice, but could have easily eaten this by itself.  My husband isn’t a big eater, and very rarely goes back for seconds…well, ladies and gentlemen…he went back for seconds!  I stared at my brother in shock and told him we should write down the date.  Even my picky brother went back for seconds and suggested that we have this again.  Needless to say, this went over well.

Hawaiian Crock Pot Chicken Recipe:

1 cup pineapple juice

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup teriyaki sauce

1 tablespoon worchestire

2 pounds chicken breast, cut into cubes

Whisk together ingredients until sugar is blended.  Stir together with chicken in bowl to coat completely, transfer to crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours.  Serve by itself, or over white rice.

White Rice Recipe:

1/2 stick butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup long grain rice, uncooked

2 cups chicken broth

Melt butter in saucepan at medium heat, add salt and pepper.  Add rice, cook for a few minutes until rice is lightly browned.  Add chicken broth, stir, and cover.  Lower heat and cook for 15-20 minutes, until rice is fluffy.

This is the dessert that was picked for tonight’s menu.  I wanted to make something fruity, but without the chunks…since there are some picky eaters this evening.  With this recipe, I pureed the carrots and pineapples with the oil and vanilla, and followed the rest of the directions.  This way, we can experience the flavor without texture being an issue.

The end result?  I called my brother after wolfing down a piece to tell him that he would like the cake.  He said, “Oh good, so if I don’t like dinner, then I can go straight to dessert?”  Absolutely.  In fact, I’m wondering if he’ll “fake” liking dinner just to eat a double serving of dessert.  I wouldn’t be surprised.

Carrot Pineapple Bundt Cake Recipe:

3 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

2 cups finely grated carrots

8 oz. pineapple (cut into chunks, pureed, canned)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour bundt pan.  Sift flour with soda, cinnamon and salt.  In large bowl using an electric mixer, combine sugar and oil.  Add half of the flour mixture and mix well.  Beat in carrots, pineapple, vanilla and nuts.  Add remaining flour mixture; beat well.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Pour into prepared pan and bake 60 to 70 minutes.  Cool completely, drizzle with pineapple glaze.

Pineapple Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1-3 tablespoons pineapple juice (depends on consistency you want)

Stir together sugar and juice until desired consistency.  Drizzle on top of cooled cake, save extra glaze to add to slices while serving.

Last week, a visit at the doctor’s office confirmed that I had a sinus infection, bronchitis, and an ear infection…all at once.  Yikes.  So, they started me on antibiotics.  Although it takes a while for everything to go away, my sense of smell and taste were very slowly starting to come back.  While mixing up the two batters for these brownies, the scent drifted up and into my nostrils.  My husband and daughter were watching me in the kitchen, and I said, “Oh wow.  This smells ridiculous, and I haven’t even baked it yet!”  The original recipe calls for swirling the two batters together, but I decided to leave it in three layers so the peanut butter layer could dominate the center.  Yes, dominate away, sweet peanut butter.

The recipe also calls for making it in a 9×13 inch baking dish.  I chose to use a 10 inch square cake pan…this made the brownies a little bit thicker.  You can make it in whichever size dish you please, but I personally thought the thickness of these brownies was perfect, especially with the layers.  After my daughter went to bed, I was spreading the melted marshmallows on top of the brownie and preparing the chocolate icing, when my husband looks over my shoulder and asks, “Can we eat them yet?”  I snickered.  This is the guy who has been peanut buttered out from the first few years we were together, from all of the peanut buttery stuff I made.  Recently, I realized that he may be spoiled with desserts now.  I cut some pieces out for us and we sat down to inhale them…they were absolutely fantastic…and I can’t wait for my brother, the peanut butter expert, to try these suckers out.  I will definitely be making these again!!

Peanut Butter Mississippi Mud Brownies

4 (1-oz.) unsweetened chocolate baking squares

1 1/3 cups butter, softened and divided

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

2 large eggs

3 cups miniature marshmallows

1 1/2 cups lightly salted roasted peanuts (optional)

chocolate frosting

Preheat oven to 350°. Microwave chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl at MEDIUM (50% power) 1 1/2 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring at 30-second intervals.  Beat 1 cup butter and 2 cups granulated sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add 4 eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Add melted chocolate, beating just until blended. Add 1 cup flour, beating at low speed just until blended. Stir in vanilla. Spread half of batter in a greased and floured 13- x 9-inch pan.  Beat peanut butter, brown sugar, and remaining 1/3 cup butter and 1/2 cup granulated sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add 2 eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Stir together baking powder and remaining 1 cup flour, and add to peanut butter mixture, beating at low speed just until blended.  Spoon peanut butter mixture over brownie batter; top with remaining brownie batter, and swirl together.  Bake at 350° for 45 to 55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Remove from oven to a wire rack; sprinkle with marshmallows and peanuts.  Prepare Chocolate Frosting, and drizzle over brownies. Cool completely.

Chocolate Frosting

1/4 cup butter

3 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cook butter, cocoa, and milk in a saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, 4 minutes or until slightly thickened; remove from heat.  Whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth.