Chocolate Cherry Cake

When I was little, my best friend´s mom made this cake. As I got older, I really loved it. She would make it for me whenever we´d see her. It´s a really easy cake to make. A bit rich, but goes down well with a cold glass of milk. Time for a piece right now...

Chocolate Cherry Cake

Cake ingredients

1 devil´s food cake mix
2 eggs
1 can cherry pie filling
1 tsp almond extract

Mix well. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Icing ingredients

1/3 c milk
1 c sugar (can use a bit less (2/3- 3/4) if you don´t want it quite as sweet)
1 c chocolate chips
5 TBSP margarine

Heat to boiling. Boil one minute. Spread onto cake.

Springtime Vegetable Quiche

Again, going through all my recipes, and found my quiche recipe that we´ve enjoyed before. It´s from Taste for Life, but I can´t seem to find the recipe on their site.

Lately eggs have been on sale here, so I´ve quite a few to use, and quiche is a great breakfast food that keeps us going through the morning.

Springtime Vegetable Quiche
Serves 4

Pastry for a 9¨ pie crust
1 to 1 1/2 c fresh peas or broccoli florets or asparagus or spinach
1 c grated Swiss or Jarlsberg cheese
4 eggs
1 c milk or half-and-half
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 TBSP chopped fresh chives
1 small tomato, seeded and diced



Preheat the oven to 425. Prepare the pie crust. Bake for 5-10 minutes until light golden brown. Remove to a wire rack to cool and reduce the oven temp to 375.

Place peas, broccoli, asparagus or spinach into the crust. Then sprinkle the cheese on top of the vegetable.

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour mixture evenly over the dish. Sprinkle chopped chives and diced tomato on top.

Bake 40-45 minutes, or until the eggs have set (knife inserted comes out clean) and it´s lightly browned. Serve hot or at room temperature.

NOTES: I´ve used mushrooms, onions and broccoli as a filler, and it´s yummy. Also used green onions or dried chives in place of fresh chives. Used cheddar, or other cheeses instead of swiss or jarlsberg. It´s kind of a throw whatever in, and it generally turns out really good.

Curried Rice Salad

I found this recipe who knows when in a Country Living magazine. I was going through my plethora of recipes recently, and decided it sounded good enough to try... So I made it for potluck today, and it was well worth it.

Curried Rice Salad
8 servings

1 can (20oz) pineapple tidbits
2 c cooked rice, cooled
2 c cubed cooked chicken
1/2 c chopped celery
1/3 c slivered almonds, toasted
1/3 c raisins
1/4 c chopped green onions
2/3 c mayonnaise
1 TBSP Dijon mustard
3/4 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp salt
Lettuce leaves, optional

Drain pineapple, reserving juice; set aside 1 cup pineapple and 3 tablespoons juice (refrigerate remaining pineapple and juice for another use). In a large bowl, combine the rice, chicken, celery, almonds, raisins, green onions and reserved pineapple.

In a small bowl combine the mayonnaise, mustard, curry powder, salt and reserved juice. Gently stir into rice mixture.



Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Serve in a lettuce-lined bowl if desired.

NOTES: I used Fri-Chik, two of the small cans. That was more than 2 c chicken, but whatever. I added a bit more mayo, curry powder and pineapple juice. It covered it well. I think one could easily substitute fresh grapes for raisins too.

Ummm,

I don't think even this calculator can help improve these math skills...

Homemade Granola - camp-style

Each summer we have a worker´s retreat at our summer camp, Camp MiVoden.

This last year they served us granola as one of the breakfast cereal options. I´m not usually a big fan of granola - it´s always too crunchy, multiplies in my bowl of milk, and just isn´t that great. This granola looked a little different, a little softer, so I took a little bit, added some raisins, and ate it. I had it each day for breakfast, and then craved it two weeks later! It was so yummy. I asked a coworker, and she told me they made it there, and she had a request in for the recipe. She finally got it, and shared it with me. The first batch I made I ate within a week, though I think I screwed up the recipe, but it was still great.

Granola - MiVoden
(I translated it from pounds & ounces to cups)
Makes about 14 cups

7 c rolled raw oats, old fashioned
2 c coconut flakes
2 c wheat germ
1 1/3-1 1/2 c brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 c slivered almonds
about 10 oz vegetable oil
2/3 c water
1/4 c vanilla or maple extract

Mix dry ingredients together.

Combine liquid ingredients into another bowl, stir to combine, then add liquid ingredients to dry and mix to distribute evenly (do not overmix).

Divide evenly between 2 baking sheets.

Bake 350 for 25-30 minutes. Do not stir.

Remove from oven and cool thoroughly on pan. Break apart gently and store in an air-tight container.

OPTIONAL ADD-INS (I´ve added the following with success): cinnamon, various nuts, dried cranberries, raisins, sunflower seeds, oat bran instead of wheat germ. You'll want to add things like raisins, dried cranberries, dried other fruits after baking.)