Hawaiian Haystacks

I was a cabin mom for a week of camp in August, and had Hawaiian haystacks for the first time there. It's just a creamy chicken gravy over rice, but then you put on all kinds of yummy toppings! It's kinda like a create your own dinner which is great for picky kids.

Hawaiian Haystacks
adapted from iwashyoudry.com
2 (10.5oz) cans Cream of Chicken Soup with Herbs
8 oz sour cream
1/2 cup milk
3 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
6 cups prepared hot rice
Salt and pepper to taste
Toppings
Chopped tomato
Diced bell pepper
Pineapple tidbits
Diced green onions
Sliced black olives
Shredded cheese
Crunchy chow mein noodles
Dessicated coconut

In a large skillet whisk together the cream of chicken soups, sour cream and milk over medium heat, until heated through and smooth. Add in the chicken and cook until warmed. Serve the chicken gravy over the hot rice, and top with any of the suggested toppings you would like.

Cheese Souffle

We have seen every season of Master Chef, and every season they make souffle. I tried my first souffle in Paris 4 months ago. I finally decided to make it! I looked at a bunch of recipes online and decided that Alton Brown was the way to go. I followed his recipe but used white cheddar. This took a little bit of time to make. There are 3 main steps, mixing the base on the stove, tempering in the egg yolks so that they don't cook in the hot mixture, and folding in whipped egg whites. It's a good 30 min of hands on work...but it was worth it!! My souffles turned out beautiful! I ended up making 6 small souffles. I baked them in 4 inch wide dishes (about 1 cup each) for 20 minutes. Next time I'm trying chocolate!

Cheese Souffle
foodnetwork.com
Butter, room temperature, for greasing the souffle dish
2 TBSPs freshly grated Parmesan
3 TBSPs butter
3 TBSPs flour
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/3 cups milk, hot
4 large egg yolks
6 ounces sharp Cheddar
5 egg whites plus 1 TBSP water
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1. Use room temperature butter to grease an 8-inch souffle mold. Add the grated Parmesan and roll around the mold to cover the sides. Cover with plastic wrap and place into the freezer for 5 minutes. 2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
3. In a small saucepan, heat the butter. Allow all of the water to cook out. In a separate bowl combine the flour, dry mustard, garlic powder, and salt. Whisk this mixture into the melted butter. Cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in the hot milk and turn the heat to high. Once the mixture reaches a boil, remove from the heat.
4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks to a creamy consistency. Temper the yolks into the milk mixture, constantly whisking. Remove from the heat and add the cheese. Whisk until incorporated.
5. In a separate bowl, using a hand mixer, whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until glossy and firm. Add 1/4 of the mixture to the base. Continue to add the whites by thirds, folding very gently.
6. Pour the mixture into the souffle. Fill the souffle to 1/2-inch from the top. Place on an aluminum pie pan. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes. Serve immediately.

Key Lime Cheesecake

Happy National Cheesecake Day! I had a request for a key lime cheesecake as a birthday cake this month. It was awesome! I combined a few recipes and used stabilized whipped cream to hold my piping. Stabilized whipped cream has a little unflavored gelatin mixed in to help it hold it's shape. You can use regular instead. Make this the day before you want to eat it!

Key Lime Cheesecake

Crust
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 9 or 10 full cracker sheets)
2 TBSPs sugar
Pinch salt
5 1/3 TBSPs unsalted butter, melted
Filling
3 packages cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 TBSPs cornstarch
1/2 cup key lime juice (I use the bottled kind)
3 large eggs
Stabilized Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp unflavored gelatin
2 tsps water
Lime for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Put the oven rack in the middle of the oven and the second rack below it. Place a 9x13 inch pan filled with 1 inch of  HOT water in the oven on the bottom rack. Spray a 9 inch spring-form pan with cooking spray.
2. In a medium sized bowl mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and salt. Add the butter and stir until evenly combined. Dump the crust mixture into the prepared pan and evenly press it down around the pan and about 1/2 inch up the sides.
3. Place 1 package of cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar, and the cornstarch in a large mixing bowl and mix on low until creamy, scraping down the sides as needed. Add the remaining cream cheese, one package at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add remaining sugar and lime juice and mix on medium speed until blended, scraping down the bowl as needed. Blend in eggs, one at a time until completely blended, but do not overmix.
4. Pour the cheesecake filling onto the crust. Spread out evenly.
5. Bake on center rack for 1 hour until edges are set and only a slight jiggle in the middle.
6. Turn the oven off and open the door. Let cool in oven for 30 minutes. Then remove and let cool completely on wire rack. After it has cooled, cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the next day.
7. To make whipped cream, combine the gelatin powder and water in a small microwave safe bowl. Once water has been fully soaked up by the gelatin, microwave the mixture for 15-20 seconds. It should become a thick, hot liquid. Stir well and let sit at room temp. While gelatin is cooling, beat whipping cream and powdered sugar in large mixing bowl on med-high speed with whisk attachment until soft peaks form. With mixer running, slowly pour in the room temp gelatin and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.
8. When you are ready to eat, pipe or spread the whipped cream on top, and garnish with lime zest and/or slices.
Keep covered and refrigerated

Fresh Cherry Scones with Lime Glaze

Cherries have been on sale here, so I've been making these scones! I bought a cherry pitter last week. Can you believe I've never owned one?! My 7 year old doesn't like to eat cherries because he's worried he's going to swallow the pit. Now he pits them himself (yes he makes a mess) and eats them like a pro. :) This is similar to my Blueberry Scone recipe but with self rising flour instead of all-purpose and the addition of an egg. If you want to use all-purpose flour in this recipe add 4 tsps of baking powder and 1 tsp of salt. These are made into Americanized triangles but you can also cut them into rounds if you prefer. 

Fresh Cherry Scones with Lime Glaze

4 cups self rising flour
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 cups pitted, chopped cherries fresh or frozen
1 egg
1 cup milk
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream plus 1 TBSP of cream, separated

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 TBSP fresh lime juice

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheet with baking mat or parchment paper and set aside. 2. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter or rub it in with your fingers until it resembles fine crumbs. Stir in the sugar and cherries.
3. Add the egg, milk, and 2/3 cup of cream. Stir until it comes together in a dough. Do not over mix.
4. Over lightly floured surface, knead dough a few times. split in half. Make each section of dough into a ball and flatten out dough into 8 inch circle.
5. Transfer circles to baking sheet and using a pizza cutter to cut into 8 triangles. Leave them together in the circle.
6. Brush the top of each circle with remaining 1 TBSP of cream.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until scones begin turning golden brown around the edges.
8. While scones are baking, mix powdered sugar and lime juice in a small bowl. After scones have been removed from oven, drizzle glaze over the top. Serve warm.
Makes 16 large scones

Cheesy Zucchini Rice

I've found a few new ways to use up my garden zucchini and this is one of them. You just stir in a little cheese and shredded zucchini into your rice and you've got Cheesy Zucchini Rice! The original recipe has you making it on the stove top, but I did it in my rice cooker and it worked just fine.

Cheesy Zucchini Rice
therecipecritic.com
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup long-grain white rice
2 TBSPs butter
2 medium zucchini, grated (about 2 cups)
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
Salt and pepper, to taste

Stove Top Method
In a medium saucepan, add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Stir in the rice, cover and reduce heat to low and cook for about 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and add the butter, zucchini, and cheese. Stir and let stand for about 5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

 OR

Rice Cooker Method
Cook the rice with the chicken broth in your rice cooker. When it is finished, add in the butter, zucchini, and cheese. Stir to mix everything in. Put the lid back on and keep it on warm for 5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Zucchini Cake

It's just the beginning of May and our garden is busting out the zucchinis! We planted yellow squash this year too and since you don't do much baking with those, we are eating them as a veggie and I'm trying to make desserts with the zucchini. This zucchini cake was fabulous! I can't wait to make it again...which I'm sure will be soon since I have a huge zucchini sitting on my counter right now. And yes, since this has a vegetable in it, it's in my healthy category. :)

Zucchini Cake

adapted from spendwithpennies.com

Cake
1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 tsps vanilla extract

1 egg

2 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsps baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups grated zucchini, undrained

Frosting

1/3 cup milk

1/3 cup butter

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×13 pan.
2. Combine oil, sugar, egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and stir well. (It will appear quite dry).
3. Gently stir in the zucchini and spread the mixture into your prepared pan.
4. Bake 25-30 minutes.
5. While cake is cooling, combine butter, milk and sugar in a small pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Allow to boil vigorously for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips. Immediately pour over warm cake. Let cool completely before cutting.

Earth Day Cookies

Celebrate Earth Day with these sugar cookies! You can add food coloring to any sugar cookie dough, or use my recipe below.

Earth Day Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
Blue food coloring
Green food coloring

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla.
2. Gradually blend in dry ingredients. Mix until dough comes together.
3. Divide dough about in half making one half slightly larger than the other. Add blue food coloring to the larger half and green food coloring to the smaller half to get desired color. You can mix it in with the mixer, stir it with a spoon, or even knead it in by hand.
4. Once the food coloring has been mixed in, pull a few small pieces from each color of dough and roll them into a ball with your hands. It should be about tablespoon sized. Place balls on ungreased cookie sheets.
5. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Let stand on cookie sheet 2 minutes before removing to cool on wire rack.
Makes 2 1/2 dozen