Daring Bakers Flourless Chocolate Cake and Ice Cream

February’s Daring Bakers challenge is a Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino. "The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge."

Many Daring Bakers made this for a special Valentine's dessert, but since I already had dessert plans for Valentines, I decided to make a Slumdog Millionaire dessert and served it on Oscar night. I thought the movie definitely deserved to win!

This was a fun challenge, but I probably wouldn't make this cake again. It was too rich for my family. I also had a bit of a problem with it. The recipe says to cook it for 25 minutes or until it has an internal temperature of 140º, but my cake reached 144º at 18 minutes so I took it out of the oven, but the center was gooey when I served it.

My husband and son loved Dharm's Ice Cream (frozen custard) Recipe. It stayed smooth and creamy the next day, unlike other homemade ice creams I've made in the past.

As usual, the Daring Bakers made some beautiful, amazingly creative desserts. Stop by the Daring Bakers' blogroll to checkout the other posts.

Three Easy Round Steak Meals

My daughter called me the other day and wanted my round steak with gravy recipe. I don't really have a recipe. It's just one of those dishes that I make without measuring. It's a family favorite and it's so easy. You cook once and eat three or four times.

So this time when I made it I was careful to note the ingredient amounts so that I could post it for her. I usually make it for a Sunday dinner and serve it with mashed potatoes. Then I'll serve it again with lots of cracked pepper over noodles with sour cream on top, and another night it makes a great beef stew.


Round Steak with Gravy

Buy a big thick round steak, (about an inch and a half or two inches) about 6 lbs. Sometimes stores won't have the whole big thick round steaks any more, so I just buy smaller ones and only brown as many as will fit in the pan.

In a large dutch oven brown steak on both sides in a hot pan with a little vegetable oil, until you have lots of dark brown bits on the bottom of the pan. The browning adds so much flavor to the gravy, so be sure and brown the meat well.

Add water (be careful because it may spit at you) at least enough to cover the meat. Stir in 2 beef boullion cubes and 2 T. dehydrated onions.

Cover the pan with a tight fitting lid and roast in the oven for at least 2 to 3 hrs at 350º until the meat is fork tender.

Remove from the oven, place the meat on a platter and cut 1/3 of the steak into individual serving portions. Cube the remaining 2/3 of the steak.

To make the gravy, mix about 1/2 cup flour with 1/2 cup water and gradually stir into the pan on the stove over medium heat until it thickens. You may need to add more of the flour mixture or more water to get the desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put 1/3 of the gravy and steak into a serving dish and serve with mashed potatoes. Stir the cubed steak in to the gravy. After dinner, I'll freeze it in freezer Baggies in 2 cup portions.

Stew
2 cups cubed round steak in gravy
1 can crushed tomatoes in puree
2 bay leafs
1 T. dried parsley
2 large potatoes, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 cup uncooked macaroni
1 small bag frozen corn

Heat round steak in gravy, tomatoes, parsley and bay leafs until boiling over medium heat. Add diced potatoes and carrots. Simmer until potato is almost tender stirring frequently. (Add water if necessary for desired broth consistency.) Add macaroni. When the macaroni is almost done, add frozen corn. Serve when corn is heated through. Remove bay leafs before serving.

Caramelized Onion Mashed Potatoes

I had my mom over for dinner on her 80th birthday and I made a delicious BBQ pork tenderloin and these fabulous potatoes. My blogging buddy HoneyB posted the recipe on her blog, The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch, in November and I've been wanted to make them ever since. The potatoes were a big hit and I'll definitely be making them again. Here's my version:

Caramelized Onion Mashed Potatoes

Light & Tasty, November 2006

1 tablespoon canola oil
2 large onions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt, divided
6 large russet potatoes, diced
3 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
1/3 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 to 3 T 1% milk as needed
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 cup shredded cheddar/jack cheese
2 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat; add onions and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook and stir 15 minutes or until moisture has evaporated and onions are completely wilted. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook and stir for 30-40 minutes or until onions are caramelized. (If necessary, add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, if onions begin to stick to pan). Cut onions into one inch pieces with kitchen shears.

Place potatoes and garlic in large saucepan; cover with water. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 18-22 minutes or until tender.

Drain potatoes; place in large bowl and mash. Add the sour cream, milk, pepper, and remaining salt; mash until blended. Stir in caramelized onions. Transfer to a serving bowl. Drizzle with butter; sprinkle with cheese and bacon.

Chocolate Fondue

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you a nice holiday! My husband didn't want to go out to a restaurant this year. Last year we paid a lot for a nice dinner, but they had a fixed menu and they rushed us along. So this year he decided to go with "how guys do steak" and we went to Carl's Jr. for the steak sandwich with the kids.

I think he was surprised I bought into the idea, but I knew dessert would be good even if dinner wasn't. But next year I don't think he's getting off that easy.


He did however buy me beautiful roses.

I was at Sam's Club last week and saw this Ghirardelli chocolate on sale and decided it would be fun to do a chocolate fondue for Valentine's Day. They must have been closing it out, because it was only $2.60 for 2.5 lbs. I only bought one block, but decided later I wanted more and went back, but it was all gone.


I loved this chocolate. It was so smooth and creamy, and a good blend between milk and semi-sweet chocolate. It was so easy to work with. It chopped easily, melted in the microwave easily, and set up on the strawberries beautifully. I'll definitely try to find this chocolate in my local stores. (Update: I recently found this dipping chocolate at Super Walmart for a great price!)

I thought about getting out my fondue pot, but I decided I didn't want to waste any of the chocolate transferring it from the bowl. I also knew between the four of us, the chocolate wouldn't last very long - I only melted .5 lb, which was just the perfect amount for four. I didn't need to add anything to the chocolate. It was perfect for fondue just melted in the microwave.

Pesto Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Rolls

Aggie at Aggie's Kitchen posted this recipe for chicken rolls and I knew I would love it because it has the two flavors I can't get enough of lately, pesto and sun dried tomatoes. What I didn't know was that my husband and my kids would also love it. They told me they definitely want me to make this again.

I have to admit I wasn't very good at rolling these up and Aggie's look much prettier than mine. A couple of changes I would make for next time that would make things easier for me, are included in my version below:

Pesto Chicken Rolls
3 large chicken breasts
6 tsp of prepared pesto
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped
shredded parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1-2 tsps olive oil for pan

Split each chicken breast in to two pieces horizontally and place between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Using the flat side of a mallet (tenderizer), gently pound chicken into 1/4 inch thick cutlets. Season both sides with salt and pepper.

Spread 1 teaspoon of prepared pesto over each chicken cutlet. Sprinkle the sun dried tomatoes and shredded parmesan cheese over the pesto. Starting from the small side, roll cutlet being careful to keep filling inside. Seal the opening with a toothpick if necessary. (These can be made ahead up and stored in the fridge for a few hours until ready to cook.)

Heat 1-2 tsp olive oil in an oven proof skillet and gently place each chicken roll in hot pan. Cook each side until golden brown, using tongs to gently turn rolls. Once all sides of the chicken are seared to golden brown, place oven proof skillet in to preheated 375º oven. If you do not have an oven proof skillet, just transfer chicken into a baking dish greased with nonstick spray.

Cook chicken in oven for appoximately 20 -25 minutes or until chicken is completely cooked through. Makes 6 chicken rolls.