Thought I would share my attempt at a basketball cake that I made for my oldest son, P. Dude’s birthday last week.  It turned out pretty well.  The kids really loved it.  P. Dude is into so many sports.  Right now it is basketball and tennis.  I can’t believe that in another year Dave and I will have a teenager on our hands! 

The inspiration for my cake was found on the internet.  I found this photo for a wonderful looking 3-tier basketball birthday cake at www.carolynssweettooth.com.  I found it in the photo gallery under sports cakes or tiered cakes.  I love finding inspiration for cool birthday cakes on the internet.    

I realize that with this post, it will make three sweet, desserty recipes in a row for my In The Kitchen section.  Not much more to say about that other than that I have been baking like crazy since we have been fairly snowbound for the last 10 days or so.  I am definitely going to need to dust off my treadmill sometime soon!

This recipe for Deliciously Easy Dump Cake is the ultimate warm and delicious recipe.  I made this for dessert to go with our family Valentine’s Day dinner... had already been eating fancy chocolates all day and needed something different.  Even my non-coconut loving kids loved this and because the coconut gets toasted it just blends in with the cake... mm mmm.

Have you ever had a Dump Cake before?  The idea here is a perfect blend of ingredients that you literally just put in your cake pan, without mixing them up, and bake.  This recipe for Deliciously Easy Dump Cake comes from one of the sweet ladies that Dave works with... they are notorious for their potluck dish parties at his office!

I knew when I first heard about it, that this would become a favorite recipe for our family.  Three little words tipped me off – yellow cake mix.  You know it has to be good if there is yellow cake mix going on in there... and it really is delicious.  Hope you give this Deliciously Easy Dump Cake a try!

Ingredients:

1 20-ounce can cherry pie filling
1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple, drained
1 box yellow cake mix
1 lb. (or 2 sticks) butter, melted 
1 cup sweetened, flaked coconut
1 cup crushed pecans

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°.  Spray a 9x13 inch cake pan with Pam or cooking spray.  Put the ingredients above in the cake pan, in the order listed.  Do NOT mix together, just layer on top of each other as evenly as possible.  Bake for 1 hour.  Cool slightly before serving.

Serving Suggestions:

This Deliciously Easy Dump Cake is perfectly delicious on its own but you can kick it up a notch with a scoop of good vanilla or butter pecan ice cream.

Notes:

Travels well and is best served warm or room temperature.

Every year I make some kind of brownies to go with our Super Bowl football food feast.  Some years I make them in the shape of little footballs with white icing for seams.  Some years I frost the brownies with chocolate and sprinkle football-shaped jimmies on top of them.  This year, I decided to make my Game Day Super Brownies, and they are so good that they do not need any embellishments.

These are made to follow up some awesome football food, be it chili or hot dogs or potato skins – we will be having all of the above this year!  This is not going to be a day for the diet journal but hey, it is just one meal... diets can resume on Monday.  My Game Day Super Brownies are very rich with a deep warm flavor from the cinnamon and semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Hope that you enjoy them.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
¾ cup cocoa powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 lb. (or 2 sticks) butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
½ cup milk
½ cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.  Spray a large Pyrex dish or rectangular cake pan with Pam or cooking spray.  Mix together the dry ingredients (except for mini chocolate chips) in a large bowl.  Add the butter, vanilla, eggs, and milk and mix well to thoroughly combine.  Fold in mini chocolate chips.

Pour batter into prepared baking pan.  Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.  Cool for 30 minutes and then cut into rectangular pieces.

Serving Suggestions:

These brownies would be great served warm with some coffee bean or good vanilla ice cream.  Also fabulous with a tall glass of milk.

Notes:

I like to use semi-sweet mini chocolate chips but think that regular-sized chocolate chips would also work.

This recipe for Chocolate Chip Banana Walnut Muffins, is my favorite homemade muffin recipe of all time!  I adapted it from a couple of other banana muffin and banana bread recipes.  I think that walnuts are the perfect compliment to the bananas in the muffins... just wait until you smell them baking... they are heavenly.   I added the semi-sweet mini chocolate chips to my recipe because why the heck not?!  I have used regular sized semi-sweet chocolate chips when I could not find the mini ones and they worked out fine.

All of my kids love these Chocolate Chip Banana Walnut Muffins and there are plenty to go around... the recipe makes about 17 or 18 muffins.  Although I have tried some muffins from a box mix over the years, the muffins that are made from scratch always taste so much better and they are made with pure ingredients without the many preservatives that you find in box muffin/bread mixes.  This recipe is a great way to use up those fully ripened bananas that were forgotten about in the fruit bowl.  So, Go Bananas and try these muffins!

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
3 overripe bananas
1 cup light brown sugar
¾ cup (or 1½ sticks) butter, melted
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup finely chopped walnuts
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°.  Spray 2 muffin tins with Pam or cooking spray.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, set aside.  On a plate, lightly mash 2 of the bananas with a fork, so that they still have some texture to them and small chunks.  With a mixer or a wire whisk, thoroughly beat the other banana and the sugar together to combine.  Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla, and beat well.

Mix in the dry ingredients from the first bowl, until just incorporated.  Fold in the walnuts and mini chocolate chips with a rubber spatula or spoon.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling each cup about half way.  When all batter is used, gently tap muffins tins on the counter to get any air bubbles out of the batter.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick in the middle of the muffin comes out clean.  Let muffins cool for 5-10 minutes before turning out of muffins tins.  Serve warm or room temperature.

Serving Suggestions:

These are delicious with or without butter... remember there is already a fair amount of butter in the batter!  We like these Chocolate Chip Banana Walnut Muffins with scrambled eggs and some freshly-squeezed orange juice or just with some yogurt.

Notes:

I have not tried it yet but think that this batter would bake up nicely as mini loaves or as one big loaf of banana bread.  Let me know if you try it!

I came up with this recipe for ¡Let’s Salsa Chicken! as a way to make a lower fat version of a friend’s recipe for Pork Shoulder with Adobo, Sazon, and Sofrito.  Don’t get me wrong, every now and then you just have to go for it and make the full fat recipe but for easy and everyday use for a weekday dinner with lots of leftovers and plenty of flavor, my ¡Let’s Salsa Chicken! will do the trick.

This recipe is healthy, fairly inexpensive, and seriously easy to make.  If your family likes Mexican or Latin food, they will love this ¡Let’s Salsa Chicken!  As you can see from the colorful plate of food above, we tend to have this chicken with a variety of sides, as well as fruits and vegetables.  What you can’t see here is that the next night we warmed up the leftovers and added some cooked carrots and Perfect Parmesan Zucchini to the meal and it was great for the second time around.

I will admit that I feel a little like Sandra Lee with this recipe.  I know that it is not fancy food but it is incredibly delicious and satisfying.  The kids will eat it and everyone will be happy – sometimes when you are cooking for a family with kids it is nice to have food that is just simple and good... healthy and easy are definitely a bonus.

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
15.5-ounce jar of your favorite chunky salsa
1 packet of your favorite taco seasoning mix – mine is Taco Bell brand!

Directions:

Spray a crockpot or large sauce pan with Pam or cooking spray... this will make for easier clean up later.  Trim chicken breasts of fat and tendons, etc. but keep in whole pieces.  Pour jar of salsa into the bottom of crockpot or sauce pan and fill the jar up with water one time and pour this right in with the salsa.

Lay the whole chicken breasts in the salsa/water.  Sprinkle evenly with about ½ of the taco seasoning packet.  Cook in crockpot or on stovetop, on high for about one hour, so that chicken dish comes up to a boil.  Turn down heat and cook on low for another three hours, so that chicken continues to simmer.

Chicken will become very tender and easily shreddable, although I do not shred this chicken to serve but pull it apart into smaller pieces.

Serving Suggestions:

As you can see in the photos, I like to serve a diverse variety of sides with my ¡Let’s Salsa Chicken!  I always make sure that I have a fresh pineapple that will be ripe when I am going to make this dish.  The fresh pineapple with the yellow or amarillo saffron rice is such an interesting combination of flavorful goodness... you really should try it!

I also make light kidney beans because my oldest boy – the boy who eats almost anything and is now taller than me at age 11, does not like the saffron rice... so he gets kidney beans.  Yellow sweet corn is fantastic with this meal as is sweet peas.  We usually have either Hawaiian rolls or tortilla chips with this as well as some shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream.

Notes:

Believe it or not, just four pieces of this ¡Let’s Salsa Chicken! goes for two hearty meals for our family of five.

Making lasagna can be quite an undertaking.  My recipe for Hearty Lasagna with Italian Sausage is hearty, delicious, and worth every step that it takes to make it.  The key to this recipe is the homemade tomato sauce.  I started making my own sauce right after Dave and I got married, years ago.  Dave grew up with his father cooking Italian sausages in tomato sauce to have with spaghetti.  I took that idea and added sweet Italian sausage to my own tomato sauce.

I hope that you enjoy my Hearty Lasagna with Italian Sausage and give it a try.  It is so much tastier than frozen lasagnas and the large portions make it great for extending to a second meal or for serving a crowd.  The Italian sausage gives this dish a very earthy, more rustic flavor than ground beef and what is not to like about layers of cheese?!  Hope that you enjoy this recipe as much as we do.

Ingredients:

2 28-ounce cans whole peeled tomatoes (I try to find organic.)
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce (Once again, organic.)
12 ounces of tomato paste (And organic, as well.)
2 teaspoons garlic salt
¼ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon red pepper
¼ teapoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dry Italian seasoning
3 lbs. sweet Italian sausage
1 1-lb. box lasagna noodles – I like the kind with the ruffley edges.
32-ounce ricotta cheese
2 large eggs
20-ounces fresh mozzarella, to be shredded
1 cup finely grated parmesan cheese, plus about ¼ cup more

Directions:

Put whole tomatoes in blender or food processor and pureé until they are broken up and you have mostly liquid. Add the tomatoes to a large pot or crockpot. To the pot add the can of tomato sauce and the tomato paste and stir to blend together and break up the tomato paste.

Add the garlic salt, sugar, red pepper, and black pepper. Put the Italian seasoning in the palm of your hand and crush slightly with your other hand... this helps to release the flavors from the dry herbs. Add the Italian seasoning to the sauce. Stir gently to evenly distribute all of your dry seasonings. Bring to a light boil, stirring occasionally, while you start the next part of the recipe.

To prepare the Italian sausage, cut into 1½-2 inch pieces. Put a large sauteé or frying pan on the stove with a tiny bit of water on the bottom of the pan... really not much water at all. Add sausage pieces and cook on high heat, turning to get all sides of the Italian sausage lightly browned. Remove pieces from pan and add carefully to sauce pot. It took me 2 rounds of this total to get all of the sausages browned.

Gently stir sausage into tomato sauce. Bring back up to a boil – I can do this in my large crockpot by turning it up to High. After it starts to boil, stir again and turn back the heat – in my crockpot, I put it back to Low. Let sauce with Italian sausages simmer for about 4 hours.

Using a slotted spoon so that you do not get alot of sauce, remove sausage pieces to a plate.  Carefully slice the 1½-2 inch pieces into discs.  Return all of the discs back to the sauce and stir carefully back into it.  At this point you can turn off the crockpot or if using a pot on the stove, turn off the heat.

Prepare your cheeses for layering in the lasagna next.  Empty the container of ricotta cheese into a medium-sized mixing bowl.  Add the two eggs to the ricotta and carefully stir them to combine but not over mixing.  Set aside while you work on grating and shredding the parmesan and mozzarella cheeses.

Time to start putting the lasagna together! Preheat oven to 350°.  Spray a large rectangular Pyrex dish or lasagna pan with Pam or cooking spray.  Using a ladle or large spoon, add a small amount of tomato sauce (without any sausage pieces) to the bottom of the lasagna dish.  Put down your first layer of uncooked lasagna noodle side by side in the pan/dish, turning them sideways at one end if necessary so that there is an even bottom layer of lasagna noodles.

Spread ½ of the ricotta cheese mixture evenly on the bottom layer of noodles.  Using a ladle or large spoon, add a coating of sausage pieces and tomato sauce on top of the ricotta.  Evenly sprinkle the cup of parmesan cheese on top of the sausages and sauce.  Start the next layer of lasagna by evenly arranging more lasagna noodles... just as you did for the bottom layer.

Add the rest of the ricotta cheese mixture, once again spreading it out evenly over the uncooked noodles.  Spread more tomato sauce with sausage pieces on top of the ricotta cheese.  This time top with about ½ of the shredded mozzarella cheese, distributing it evenly over the sauce.  One more layer to go – starts with another round of lasagna noodles, just as you did with the first two layers.

For this third layer, simply top with more tomato sauce with sausage.  Cover the lasagna pan with aluminum foil.  Carefully place lasagna pan in oven (It will be heavy!) and bake for about 45 minutes.  You might consider putting a baking sheet with some water on it on a rack under the lasagna pan, to catch any sauce that starts to bubble over from the lasagna as it bakes.  Or use a deeper lasagna pan – I used a large Pyrex and the layers were somewhat overflowing – must get a larger pan for making future lasagnas!

After the 45 minutes, carefully remove lasagna from the oven and take off the foil.  Top with the remaining ½ of mozzarella and the extra ¼ cup of grated parmesan cheese, distributing evenly.  Put the whole lasagna back into the oven for 7-10 minutes, or until the cheeses are nicely melted without browning.  Remove from oven and put in a safe place to let the lasagna set up, for 20 minutes or so.  It will stay hot.

Using a spatula, cut the lasagna into squares or rectangles and scoop out to serve.  The first piece out can tend to be a little messy but it will still be delicious!

Serving Suggestions:

My Hearty Lasagna with Italian Sausage is a meal in itself!  I like to serve it with some garlic bread and maybe a salad or green veggie.

Notes:

This recipe for lasagna makes at least two dinners for our family of 5, probably along with a couple of lunches, as well.  I usually put about half of this lasagna in an airtight freezer container to save for an easy meal that just needs to be defrosted, for a busy weeknight.