Chocolate Lush Recipe

Chocolate Lush

This is my grandmother's recipe, which I have revised somewhat, and which I am posting here for posterity.

Ingredients

1 cup self-rising flour
3/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons shortening
1/2 cup milk
4 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 3/4 cup hot water
optional: 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans


Instructions
Part 1: Add flour, sugar, and 2 tablespoons cocoa together. Combine shortening, milk, and 2 teaspoons vanilla (and nuts if desired). Add to dry ingredients. Mix until well blended. Spread into 8x8x2 ungreased pan or dish.
Part 2: Combine brown sugar, 4 tablespoons cocoa, hot water, 2 teaspoons vanilla, mix well. Pour over batter in pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 40 to 45 minutes. The watery substance on top will magically fall to the bottom of the pan, creating a pudding with cake on top.

Cut into squares and serve hot with Cool Whip or ice cream.

Apple Butter Cake

So my friend Rebecca over at Shenandoah Gateway Farm had a recipe for an apple butter spice cake on her blog a few weeks ago.

I am always on the lookout for good spice cake recipes. My husband loves things like zucchini bread, which I make with lots of good spices, and I make an Irish spice cake sometimes that is okay but not quite what I want. It crumbles too much.

Apparently I am unable to follow a recipe to the letter. Rebecca's recipe called for plain ol' sour cream, and I used fat free. She did not use self-rising flour and I did (that is what I always use). Also she suggested pecans and I opted instead for golden raisins. I also didn't have any cardamom (I don't even know what that is) so I just left that out.

All in all this was a very good cake. It must have been decent because my husband ate most of it. I took a piece to my physical therapist and she pronounced it "awesome."

It got better as the days progressed, too, which I found unusual. It did not dry out but instead seemed to grow more moist.

I think I will give this another go over the holidays.

Many thanks to Rebecca for posting the recipe.

Zucchini Casserole

Our zucchini started coming in and the next thing I knew I had them everywhere.

Usually the only thing I do with zucchini is a stir fry or make bread. Sometimes I dip them in batter and fry them, but since I've had my gallbladder out I have not had any fried foods.

I searched the internet and came up with a recipe at cooks.com that I have now made twice. However, I don't always follow recipes and on both occasions have made changes.

Here is what you need:

4 pounds zucchini (about 3-4 medium ones)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used sharp cheddar)
1 cup Bisquick
4 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup butter, melted

Heat the oven to 350 degree. Grease a 2-quart casserole dish. You might also want to go ahead and melt the butter.

The original recipe called for salt, pepper, and garlic salt, but the first time I made it I used Mrs. Dash, original, and the second time I used a mix of Mrs. Dash and Emeril's Original Essence. My husband liked the second dish better. I think I preferred the first.

The first thing I did was chop up the zucchini. I used my food processor, which is actually a blender with an attachment.

It does the job. (I used to have a food processor but I burned it up using it for a creative paper-making project about 15 years ago and I never replaced it.)

Then I added cheese:

 

I used to use the pre-shredded kind but then I learned that it has cellulose in it to keep the cheese bits from sticking. So now I shred my own cheese.

 

 

 

I rather enjoyed the shredding part.









Then I added Bisquick. Then the eggs.

 

My mother always told me to never add eggs directly to a recipe. Always break them in a bowl first. That way if an egg is bad, you don't ruin all the ingredients.

 

That probably really only matters if you raise your own chickens these days.

Anyway, after you add the eggs, add the melted butter and seasonings (whatever you prefer). 

 
 



I topped my casserole with shredded cheese, though if you do this I suggest you might wait until about 1/2 way into the cooking process.

I didn't do that and I came very close to burning the cheese.
 

 
Put the casserole in the oven, preheated to 350 degrees, and cook for one hour.

I served this casserole at a cookout we had over the weekend to send the nephew back off to college. The family ate about half of it, which isn't too bad considering the young men generally do not like green and healthy foods.

This turned out to be 5 points in Weight Watchers if you figure 10 servings.


 

Summer Squash

This year we've had an abundance of yellow squash. The zucchini did not do well, but the yellow squash has more than made up for it.

I've fried it, sauteed it, baked it, grilled it. By far the favorite, though, has been a yellow squash casserole. This casserole is 3 points per serving on the Weight Watchers Points Plus plan.

I don't add salt and paper but use Mrs. Dash instead.

Here's the version I am using:

Squash & Rice Casserole

3 cups of squash
3 egg whites
1/2 cup low fat milk
1 cup low fat sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup onion
3 cups of cooked white rice
1 can of low fat cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup fat free Miracle Whip
Mrs. Dash
Greased casserole dish
Oven 350 degrees

Cook the squash however you like. Sometimes I boil it, sometimes I fry it up in a few tsp. of olive oil. The boiling is probably better for calories and fat. However you cook it, add liberal sprinkles of Mrs. Dash for flavoring.

Combine all the ingredients except squash. Blend in squash. Spread in casserole dish. Top with cheese. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

This is an easy recipe for substituting ingredients. You could use cream of mushroom or cream of celery soup, for example, to change the flavor a  little. And of course you can use regular instead of low fat items for something that has a bit more fat to it. And two eggs instead of egg whites.  You could add bread crumbs or stuffing, even.  However, it's pretty good without all of that other stuff.

Pear Cake

One of the items I baked over the holidays that I wanted to share was a pear cake made with fresh pears. My brother sent me a box of pears for the holidays and I couldn't eat them all so I went in search of a recipe I could use them in.

The cake was very good and the taste of pears made this unique. It was a hit at a my Christmas Eve gathering.

Pear Cake

Ingredients

4 cups fresh pears (peeled, cored and chopped)
1 1/2 to 2 cups white sugar (depending on taste; I used the lower amount and would probably add more next time)
3 cups self-rising flour
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
4 egg whites
2/3 cup oil (I used Smart Balance)
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1.Combine the pears and the sugar and let stand for one hour (I let it stand for over two hours).

2.Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Spray a 10 inch bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray.

3.Slightly beat the egg whites and combine them with the oil, chopped pecans and pear mixture.

4.Stir the flour, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. Stir in the pear mixture. Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan.

5.Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Remove from oven; cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan.

I added a glaze to the cake, which the recipe did not call for but which I think added to it:

Glaze

Ingredients
1/3 cup margarine or butter (I used butter)
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 to 4 tablespoons hot water

Directions

Heat margarine/butter in saucepan until melted. Stir in powdered sugar and vanilla. Stir in water a little at a time until mixture is desired consistency. Pour over cake.

Zucchini Bread

"Hey good lookin' whatcha cookin'?" said my husband as he came in from work the other day.

I stood holding the egg beater at the ready, a big bowl of something on the counter and flour on my hands.

"Zucchini bread," I told him. "I harvested our first batch of zukes today."

"Yum, I love me some zucchini bread!" he exclaimed.

And it was very good. He ate an entire loaf almost immediately; in fact, he didn't even let me allow it to cool off!

It's fairly easy to make, too. I like the way it turns brown inside and have often considered making it without the zucchini just to see what it does.

I do not consider myself a great cook but I will share this recipe. I am not sure where it came from as it is handwritten.

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients
2/3 cup Crisco butter-flavored shortening
2 2/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
3 cups fresh zucchini, chopped very fine
2/3 cup water
3 1/3 cups of White Lily self-rising flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup raisins

(You can put nuts in it too if you want but I never do.)

Heat oven to 350. Grease two large loaf pans or three smaller ones.
Mix shortening and sugar in large bowl. Add eggs, zucchini and water.
Blend in flour, cinnamon and cloves. Stir in raisins. Pour into pans.
Bake 60 - 65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool slightly; remove from pans. Cool completely before slicing.
Store no longer than 10 days.