Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting and Berry Mousse

This is my go-to cake recipe.  What's not to love?  

Fudgy, moist chocolate cake...yum.  Buttercream frosting that is silky smooth and perfect.  Mousse filling that is to-die for.

Cooking Show: Breakfast for Dinner, Part II

It's been about 2 years since we filmed our first Breakfast is My Favorite Kind of Dinner cooking show.

There are so many great breakfast recipes that I just don't make for breakfast very often (if ever), simply because I don't have time!

Please tell me that I'm not the only one who would rather get extra sleep than drag myself out of bed an hour early in order to prepare an awesome breakfast.

Nothing should stop you from preparing breakfast recipes for dinner, however!

Considering that she cooked with me for the first show, it was only fitting that my friend, Maureen, cook with me again for this show.  We were able to prepare a few recipes that didn't make the cut the first time!

 Fruit Salad with Honey Lime

A taste of summer in the middle of winter!

Mini Frittatas

One of the most practical breakfast recipes in existence.  Stir together some eggs with a splash of cream and a dash of salt, pour into muffin cups and then mix in whatever cheese, meats and/or veggies you happen to have on hand.  A great way to use up leftovers!  And they freeze beautifully...defrost them as needed for those mornings when you need a quick hit of protein before you start your day.

We neglected to plan for a drink, so we poured a Bellini or two as an afterthought.  Two parts prosecco to one part peach juice (or peach puree).

Baked French Toast

This needs to be prepared in advance (whenever is convenient for you!  At least an hour, but up to overnight is fine), to give the bread time to absorb the egg mixture.  Sooooo good.

 Open-Faced Egg Sandwiches with Ham and Cheese

These take very little effort!  Scramble some eggs, layer the eggs into a hollowed-out bread load with ham and cheese, pop it under your broiler and voilà!

Fruit Salad with Honey/Lime

As I am typing this, it is 18 degrees out and the local forecast says that it will be a whopping 10 degrees when I get up to walk my dogs tomorrow morning.

A week ago, I was still able to embrace the beauty of the snow as I walked out my front door.

Today, I'm over it.

I've got a bad case of spring fever.  This fruit salad, drizzled with a little bit of honey and lime, is like a bowlful of warmer temperatures and sunny skies.  Well, not really... but during the cold month of February, fruit salad is a nice touch of summer!

Mini Frittatas

Whether you are looking to use up the half-empty packages cluttering your fridge or simply looking for a recipe for leftovers, I can't think of a better recipe than these mini frittatas.

The only ingredients that are absolutely required are eggs, cream and salt.  The rest is up to you!

It took less than 10 minutes from the moment I started pulling ingredients out of the fridge until the moment I popped the frittatas into the oven.

I baked them in a regular cupcake tin this time, but you can also use a mini-muffin tin for bite-sized frittatas.

While the frittatas were baking I spent time with my latest obsession--watching the cardinals in my backyard.

They've always had a major presence at my bird feeder, but since we've had snow those flashes of red are really popping!  I'm totally obsessed.

I've tried counting them, just to see how many there are hanging out.  They move around so much, I lose count!

On this particular day, I counted 10 males (all red) and 4 females (brown with red at the tips of their wings, tail & head).  

Clyde was so perturbed by my focus on the cardinals that he started acting up (chewing on sticks is a no-no...tearing them off of the shrubs is a double no-no!), trying to get my attention.

Ham & Cheese Bites

Tomorrow is Super Sunday, so I thought it would be a good idea to post this appetizer recipe which has been one of my go-to recipes this football season.

Even though my favorite team was eliminated during the conference championship, I'm still planning on watching the game tomorrow and you can bet I'll be making these Ham & Cheese Bites!

Valentine's Day Cooking Show!

We filmed an episode of the cooking show last week.

Valentine's Day is on a Sunday this year!  Wouldn't it be fun to stay home and cook something special together?  Spend time bonding in the kitchen with your husband, wife, boyfriend or girlfriend instead of going out?

My friends Amy & Kerry cooked with me, and we came up with a few things that are perfect for Valentine's Day!

We started off with a cocktail.  Whenever a certain one of my circles of friends gathers, we refer to this cocktail as "Karen's Drink," because Karen was the first one who served it.  There are 8 of us who regularly get together, and one of us will say, "I'll bring Karen's Drink!"

Valentine's Day Cocktail

I googled the ingredients (Cran-Raspberry juice, Sprite and Stoli Razberi) to see if there is such a drink which already exists.  There were two that are close: Razberi Kicker, which uses similar ingredients in different proportions (regular cranberry juice instead of cran-raspberry and only a splash of sprite); and From Russia With Love, which I thought was a GREAT name for a Valentine's day cocktail!  However, the From Russia With Love cocktail uses opposite proportions (mostly 7-Up and only a splash of cranberry juice).

So Karen's Drink is going to become our Valentine's Day Cocktail.  Click on the title above to be taken to the printable recipe.

Herbed Scalloped Potatoes

These were totally devoured.  When Dan the Awesome Camera Man arrived, he handed me a container and said, "I mentioned scalloped potatoes to my wife and she handed me THIS."

I'm so glad that I filled up Dan's container before we all sat down to eat!  There would have been nothing left for him to take home to his wife.

Lemon & Garlic Shrimp with Wilted Spinach

This requires minimal prep and about 5 minutes cooking time.  I think it took me longer to take this picture of the shrimp than it took to cook it.

And then it completely disappeared when we finished filming.   No leftovers.  It was thoroughly devoured.  

Next time, I'm making a double batch.

And finally, Raspberry Brambles, little fruity pockets of yumminess.

Herbed Scalloped Potatoes

In my mind, I call this recipe Christmas Potatoes.

I only make them once a year (care to guess when?), for many reasons, prep time and caloric content being at the top of that list.

When I made them last month (did you guess that I made them on Christmas?  Good guess, you're right!), I thought to myself that I needed to make this recipe on a day when I had time to take pictures and blog about it.

There's a good amount of hands-on prep time involved (about 25 minutes) and then there's at least an hour of cook time (more if you prep and refrigerate in advance).  I promise you, however, that if you serve these potatoes as a side dish for a special occasion, you won't regret putting the time in!

They are really good.

Raspberry Brambles

Last month, my husband came home with two dozen raspberry-filled little tarts, a gift from a client.  Two dozen.  For our family of five.

We pretty much polished off the first dozen in one sitting.  In between our exclamations of "these are so good!" and "I have to have another," one of my daughters asked, "What do you call these?"  My husband answered, "I can't remember the name...we used to get these from the bakery when I was a kid."

As soon as he said those words I had an AHA! moment.  My friend, Gayle, has been singing the praises of raspberry-filled brambles served with tea during her childhood visits with her grandmother.  Hmmm, could these little treats be what she's been talking about?

So I asked my husband, "Do you think these are called brambles?" Yep, that's what they are.  And I just HAD to figure out how to make them.

All of these pictures were taken one week ago during my first attempt to make these brambles!  

I've made them twice since then, tweaking as I go along: 

•  I've decided that frozen raspberries make a better filling than fresh berries--they cook faster when you're making the filling (and cooking fresh raspberries just seems a waste, doesn't it?). 
•  I've also tried making them with ready-made pie crust (from the supermarket dairy case)...in a word, yuck.  
• I tried ready-made puff pastry (from the supermarket freezer), it tasted fine but puffed up worse than frizzy hair on a humid day.
• I'm still trying to figure out a way to totally prevent the filling from leaking.  I tried poking a hole in the top crust, figuring it would let steam out, but those are the ones that really leaked!  Any suggestions?

This recipe needs prep ahead of time--the filling needs to be refrigerated to firm up, and I've decided that it's easiest to just prepare it the day before and let it sit in the fridge overnight.  

For those of you who may be thinking to yourselves that there could be too much effort to this recipe and it's not worth spending two days to make a few cookies:  I promise you, making the filling is very quick.  Throw it together, put it in the fridge and forget about it until the next day (which is when you'll make the crust;  unfortunately, the crust is not so quick to prepare.  But I promise you it's worth it).

2015 Top 3 Most-Viewed Recipes

Today is going to be a soup day.

It's 38 degrees out as I am typing this.  The Patriots game is at 1 p.m. so we are going to light a big fire in the fireplace, hunker down, slurp some soup and watch our favorite team (hopefully) pull off a win and get themselves home-field advantage for the playoffs.  What team will you be rooting for?

Although there are five of us, I'm lucky that Broccoli Cheddar is the favorite soup of both my girls, because I only have four burners on my stove and all of those burners will be fired up as I prepare all of our favorites!

I scrolled through my blogposts to check the recipes and make sure I had all of the ingredients on hand, and as usual I got sidetracked.  I thought it would be fun to see which recipes from 2015 were the most popular!

Third Most-Popular:

Slow-Cooker Baby Back Ribs.  I admit, when I saw this it gave me pause and I momentarily rethought today's soup agenda!

I decided that I'll make these for the divisional playoff game instead.

Second Most-Popular:

Southwestern Chicken Soup  This is my favorite soup!  I'll be making it today!

Most Popular Recipe, 2015:

Cashew Chicken!  We made this during our "Cooking With Kids" show and it was a big hit.  It tastes fresher and better than any takeout chicken!

The best part: since it only takes about fifteen minutes to prep, cook and serve, it's at the top of my go-to list for those nights when I don't have a lot of time to spend preparing dinner.


Happy 2016!

Cooking Show: January Soirée for the Downton Abbey Premiere!

I'm still trying to extend Christmas through this week.  I'm not ready to take down my trees, lights and decorations!

Smack dab in the middle of all of our holiday preparations, my friends and I still managed to find time to plan our upcoming soirée to watch the Downton Abbey premiere!

Counting down the days now (FIVE!!) until the premiere.

Here's a shot from last year's get-together.  Canapés, tarts, scones and tea.

And here's a shot from the cooking show that we filmed earlier this month.  My friend, Trish, cooked with me and we attempted some new recipes as well as a few tried-and-true favorites.