Taco Casserole

Sundays are normally my cooking days and I have been known to cook up a few days worth of meals to eat during the week.  On one of the cooking Sundays that I have had recently, I made something called a Taco Casserole.  I have always liked tacos and enchilladas and those types of foods, but I can't really eat spicy foods.  This recipe doesn't have a spicy kick to it, but feel free to add jalapenos or another type of pepper to kick up the flavors if you wish. 

Taco Casserole:

1 pound of ground chicken (you may also use ground turkey or beef and leave this out if you want a vegetarian meal)
1/4 cup of reduced sodium chicken broth
1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed)
2 cup of roasted corn (I used a bag of frozen, but feel free to make corn on the cob and cut off the kernels)
1 bag of mexican cheese
1/2 cup of guacamole
1/2 cup of sour cream
20 crushed torilla chips

Coat a large skillet with oil and place on medium.  Brown the ground chicken with 1/4 cup of chicken broth.  Cook until there is no pink on the chicken.  Reduce flame to low.  Put the can of drained black beans and roasted corn in the pan and stir until warmed.  Add the mexican cheese and cook until melted.  Take off flame and plate.  Add guacamole and sour cream to desired preference.  Place a handful of crushed torilla chips on top of the casserole.  Stir to coat the mixture with chips.  Serve warm.  Makes 4 servings.

Enjoy!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

I have told you about the moment I realized when I loved to bake.  It all started with some red velvet whoopie pies and I will now share with you the recipe for them.

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies: adapted from the Paula Deen recipe, Cream Cheese filling from: simplyrecipes.com

For the pies:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 teaspoons unsweetened dark cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups canola oil
1 teaspoon white vinegar
One 1-ounce bottle red food coloring
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk

For the filling:

• 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature
• 8 oz of Philly cream cheese (1 package), room temperature
• 2 - 3 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease two cookie sheets or whoopie pie pan. Mix the flour, baking soda, and cocoa together. In a separate bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, and vanilla.
Using a mixer, beat the sugar and eggs together. Add the oil mixture and beat to combine. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately in small additions.  Add the food coloring to the bowl.

Drop the batter by tablespoons onto the baking sheets, allowing 1 inch between drops, as the cookies will spread. If you are using the whoopie pie pan, you can add up to 2 tablespoons of batter, depending on how large you like your cakes.  You’ll be making about 48 cakes (if  you use 1 tablespoon of batter). Bake until the cookies are set and firm, about 12 minutes.

For the filling:
Beat the butter, vanilla, and cream cheese together until light and fluffy.  Add the powdered sugar in small intervals, stopping to scrape the sides every few minutes.  Cream until desired thickness.

Take a pastry bag or ziploc bag (cutting a corner off of the bottom) and pipe filling onto the side of one cake.  Be sure to put enough to cover the entire cake and top with second cake. 

This should make about 24 pies total.

Enjoy!

Welcome!

It was about a year ago that my love of baking was started.  I have always liked to cook and bake, don't get me wrong.  But one afternoon, something just clicked.  I was waiting to take some classes at a local college and I decided that I would bake whoopie pies to kill some time during the day.  I went to the store, gathered all of the ingredients, and started to bake. I had decided on red velvet whoopie pies because they encompassed everything that I loved- chocolate, cakes, and the color red.  I set to work and spent several hours on this pastry.

For anyone who doesn't know what a whoopie pie is, let me explain it a bit.  It is a cross between a cake and a cookie and has a filling inside.  The cake can be any flavor you like, from chocolate to carrot cake, to anything in between.  The filling has the same idea and can be customized to your liking.  It is the most delicious thing that you may ever eat. 

Anyway, back to my epiphany.  I had just filled all of my whoopie pies with the cream cheese filling that I made to go with the red velvet cakes.  As I stood back to look at all the cakes that I had created, I smiled. 

I realized that I love baking.  It seems that know matter what happens, baking always has a way to make everything seem better.  It transforms my day and all of the problems that I may be having at the moment seem to disappear because I have created something tasty and delicious.  Everyone has to eat to live, but there are some of us who live to eat. 

I am going to take you on a wonderful journey through my love of food.  It may not always be neat and tidy, but it will definitely be tasty.