White Chocolate Bread Pudding w/Whiskey Hard Sauce

Now I'm not typically a bread pudding fan, to be honest I don't think I've had a single one I've liked. Well that was until I was at a friends house and had the most amazing bread pudding of my life. I went back for seconds (well actually I went back for fourths) it was that good. I found my friend who was hosting the party and asked her for the recipe. I then found out the "secret" to the amazing bread pudding and I'm about to share it with you...are you ready???  Make sure you're sitting down because this secret is a doozy, here it goes, the secret to the most amazing bread pudding you've ever had...Hot Dog Buns!!!! No joke. Seriously. Hot Dog Buns. You will never look at a hot dog bun the same way again, and you will never never never want bread pudding any other way.

White Chocolate Bread Pudding - (Keep Refrigerated)

12 oz. White Chocolate (chips or chunks cut in pieces).
10-12 Hot Dog Buns cut in approx. 1" sections
1 cup granulated Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
½ t cinnamon
1 Pinch of Nutmeg
7 Egg Yolks
2 whole Eggs
6 cups Heavy cream, ½ & ½ or Whole Milk (depending on how rich you want it to taste, I
recommend heavy cream)


Put all cream/milk into a pot on the stove.
Stir in sugar, vanilla & nutmeg.
Combine whole eggs and egg yolks in a bowl, and whip till bright yellow and slightly frothy.
Add cream mixture and whip vigorously.
Add white chocolate.
Cut hot dog buns into 1” pieces. Arrange cut hot dog buns in a greased 9 x 12 baking dish.
Pour the milk mixture over buns.
Move and push buns in the baking dish to be sure all buns are saturated with liquid.
Push down on the top of the buns to bring any excess liquid to the top.  If there is no excess of
liquid, add milk or cream to allow a small amount of liquid to surface.
Cover with foil and bake for 45 mins. at 350.
Uncover and bake another 15 minutes (or until pudding is set).
Test with a toothpick in the middle of the dish to make sure that pudding is done, checking often until toothpick comes out clean.


Whiskey Hard Sauce  - (Keep Refrigerated Makes 1 ½ cups)

1 C Cream
½ C Sugar
¼ t vanilla
2 oz. Brandy or Whiskey
1 t cornstarch.

Heat cream just until it starts to simmer.  Simmer until slightly thickened. (about 1 minute)
Add sugar, stir until dissolved.  Add vanilla.
Mix cornstarch with brandy until dissolved.  Take cream off the heat and stir in cornstarch
mixture.  Stir until dissolved and then reheat stirring constantly until thickened.
Cool to desired temperature before serving.

Mango, Avocado, Black Bean Chop Chop Salad

I can feel it...can you? Summer is coming. This past Friday it was a 82 and beautiful and just made me crave those summer days. We ate dinner outside and I could picture swimming in the ocean, coming home after spending all day at the beach and eating something light and refreshing. Sipping a glass of wine and eating salad a delicious salad.  Today of course is raining and summer feels so far away, now this is coming from someone who lives where it's typically 70 and sunny so I'm not definitely complaining, I'm just dreaming of what this summer has in store. 

Mango, Avocado, Black Bean Chop Chop Salad
1 1/2 cup mango, chopped (I used frozen because it was easy)
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 can black beans rinsed
1 avocado, cut into chunks
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
1/2 cup tomatoes, chopped
1 green onion, chopped
1 cup chicken, cooked & chopped
Juice from 2 limes
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup cilantro
salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together and serve over lettuce. 
*I actually made everything (excluding the avocado and tomatoes) this morning and it's in the fridge marinating to get extra flavor, the kids and I have tasted it a few times (hey a chef has to taste their food to make sure it's good) and I can say I'm super excited for dinner. 

Shepherd's Pie

Oh how I love a good Shepherd's Pie, but I usually find the recipes over involved or time consuming neither of which I have the patience or time for. I finally found a recipe that is quick easy and most of all delicious.

Shepherd's Pie

For the potatoes:
4-6 medium potatoes
1/4 cup heavy cream
4 tbsp butter
1 tsp salt & pepper

For the meat filling:
1 lb ground beef
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion chopped
1 tbsp garlic
Your favorite veggies (I use 1 cup of frozen 4 pack of corn, green beans, carrots and peas)
4 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3/4 water
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary

Turn on oven 400 degrees
Place diced potatoes in water and bring to boil, cook until tender
While potatoes are cooking, heat skillet add olive oil, chopped onion and garlic.
Add ground beef to brown.
Sprinkle meat with flour and toss to coat. Cook for another minute
Stir in the tomato paste, water, Worcestershire, rosemary & thyme. Combine well and simmer fro 7-10 minutes until sauce thickens slightly.
Add veggies (I really love a frozen organic foursome that I use so I add 1/2 the bag.) Cook until desired doneness
When potatoes are done cooking add butter and cream and mash until smooth
Spray baking pan with non stick spray, pour in meat & veggie mixture. Top with potatoes, make sure to use a spatula and smooth potatoes all the way to the edges this helps create a seal and prevents the mixture from bubbling out too much.
Place baking dish on cookie sheet and bake in middle rack @ 400 for 1 hour 

Cilantro Potato Salad

Summer time is coming, which means BBQ, cook outs and spending time outside. Here's a new potato recipe to try. I'm not one for potato salad, actually I don't really like potatoes typically at all but this potato salad was amazing. Not to mention they were fresh grown potatoes picked straight from our backyard yesterday morning. Actually all of the ingredients (except the mayonnaise) were from our backyard garden, even the garlic & green onions was from our backyard.

Cilantro Potato Salad
1 1/2 Tbsp mayonnaise
3/4 cup cilantro leaves chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp salt
2 lbs small new potatoes, cooked
1/3 cup finely chopped green onion

In a bowl stir together mayonnaise, cilantro, green onion, garlic & salt. Add potatoes and toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

Crock Pot Lasagna

I was hesitant about this one, would the noodles get soggy? Would it taste like a good lasagna, cause I love a good lasagna. I was pleasantly surprised! I made a homemade sauce but you can always use a jar of your own favorite sauce.

Crock Pot Lasagna

1 26oz box/can strained tomatoes (we're a huge fan of Pomi)
chopped onion
2 tsp garlic
1 lb ground beef
1/3 cup basil
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup parmesean
15 oz container ricotta cheese
2 cups mozzarella
1 whole egg
lasagna noodles, uncooked

In large skillet ground beef and onion, add garlic.
Pour in strained tomatoes (or jar of sauce). I wanted a bolognese type sauce so this is where I added the heavy whipping cream (can be omitted) 1/4 cup parmesan, and 1/4 cup basil. Let simmer for 5 minutes
Mix ricotta, 1 1/2 cups mozzarella, 1/4 cup parmesan, egg and remaining basil.
Spray crock pot with non stick spray
Pour in 1 cup of sauce, place noodles on top (break into pieces to make fit if necessary), layer cheese. Continue until last layer is sauce.
Cook on low for 3-4 hours (depends on temperature of your crock pot, mine was done at 3 1/2, then I turned on to warm.
Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella and let cook an additional 10 minutes until melted.
Serve

Crock Pot Ham Bone Soup

The question of what to do with leftover ham bone, there is so much good flavor and meat leftover on that bone you don't want any of it to go to waste. After Easter dinner, I started trying to come up with the perfect recipe for the ham bone. Seeing how much I love my crock pot it all just made sense to put together a soup that included the ham bone. Looking at our bone we assumed we'd eaten just about all the meat, boy were we wrong. After sitting in the crock pot for 7 hours we were shocked to see how much meat we still had.

Crock Pot Ham Bone Soup
1 ham bone with some leftover meat (ours was frozen)
1 onion diced
1 can crushed/diced tomatoes
1 can beans, drained & rinsed (we used great northern bean, kidney will be good to)
3 potatoes, cubed
1 bell pepper (we used yellow)
4 carrots chopped
4 celery stalks chopped
4 cups chicken stock
2 tsp garlic

Put all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low 6-8 hours.
The ham bone itself has so much flavor there is no need to add any additional spices.

Crock Pot Fajitas

This was probably one of the easiest/quickest recipes I've thrown together. Just 4 ingredients and you're done.

Crock Pot Fajitas
1 lb flank steak cut into strips (you could use any meat you want for this recipe)
2 bell peppers sliced
1 onion sliced
1/2 a jar salsa (what ever is you're favorite, I use a salsa verde from Trader Joes)

That's it, place all in crock pot and cook on low 6-8 hours.
We served with tortillas, guacamole, cilantro, cheese and more green sauce.
Enjoy!!!

Crock Pot Zuppa Toscana

Crock Pot Zuppa Toscana
1 lb Italian Sausage
1/2 lb bacon chopped
chopped potatoes (I added 4 medium sized potatoes)
2 cups chicken both
4 cups water
1 medium onion chopped
2 tsp garlic
1 cup kale
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Chop sausage into bite sized pieces and brown sausage in skillet and add to crock pot
Brown bacon until crisp, drain and add to crock pot
Place water, broth, potatoes, onion and garlic into crock pot
Cover and cook on low 4-6 hours, until potatoes are tender
Add kale and whipping cream and stir to combine, cook on low an additional 30 minutes
***recipe called for 1lb bacon cooked in skillet and added to crock pot, personally although I LOVE bacon I didn't think the recipe "needed a full lb", so I cut it to 1/2 lb.

Crock Pot Chinese Beef Strips with Snow Peas

I'm always looking for things to change up our weekly dinners, and I really like to utilize the crock pot as it gives daddy time to play with the kiddos or for all of us to go for a walk/bike ride after daddy gets home from work.  Seeing that daddy is usually the "cook" in the house (he really enjoys it, is really good at it and by the time he gets home I just need 10 minutes to myself), the days I crock pot are a break for him too. So I venture onto new recipes every once in a while, this week I found 4 to try. Last night we tried the first of the 4 and it was good. Here's the recipe:

Crock Pot Chinese Beef Strips w/ Snow Peas
1 lb flank steak (sliced into strips)
2 cups beef broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp garlic
1 bunch green onions
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp water
1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained
1 can bamboo shoots, drained
1/2 cup snow peas

Combine steak, beef broth, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and 2 chopped green onions in crock pot.
Cook on low for 5-7 hours
Turn to high. Dissolve 2 Tbsp cornstarch with the 2 Tbsp cold water. Stir into crock pot and mix well
Cook on high for 15 minutes or until thickened
During last 7 minutes (I like my snow peas still crunchy) add water chestnuts, bamboo and snow peas.
Serve over white rice.

Crock Pot Italian Wedding Soup

Italian Wedding soup, named for how well the ingredients "marry."

I searched for a few recipes to finally find one that I liked and then I altered it and have mastered it by making it a few times. I love this soup because it's a great combination of flavors and really easy to make. 

Crock Pot Italian Wedding Soup
  Meatballs
1 lb ground beef
1 egg slightly beaten
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup chopped basil
  Soup
4 cups chicken stock
2 scoops Herbs de Provence
1/2 cup onion chopped
chopped celery
chopped carrots
1 tbsp garlic
2 small bay leaves
1/4 chopped basil
2 cups kale (or spinach, escarole...your favorite "green")
1/2 cup cooked pasta (I like to use acini di pepe)
Parmesan cheese for serving

Mix together meatballs and form into small balls.
Cook @ 350 for 10-15 minutes turning half way through
While meatballs are cooking place all soup ingredients in crock pot, excluding the kale and pasta.
When meatballs are done in the oven place in soup
Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours
1/2 hour before ready to eat add pasta and kale
Serve with Parmesan