Chocolate Molten Cake

This recipe was adapted from Land O' Lakes recipe collection. This is an "impressive" dessert that is deceptively easy to make. Good way to earn "points" especially on Valentines Day, or any other special occasion!!

• 1/4 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

• 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips

• 1/4 butter

• 30z package cream cheese, softened

• 1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

• 3 eggs

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1/4 cup all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Grease (or butter) 4 (six ounce) custard cups and place onto an ungreased baking sheet
Divide pecans evenly (about 1 Tbs each) and place on bottom of each cup. Set aside.
Combine chocolate chips and butter in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH (100% power) for 45-60 seconds, stirring twice, until melted and smooth. Add cream cheese and beat at medium speed until smooth. Set aside.
Combine brown sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed until well mixed.
Add chocolate mixture and continue beating until well mixed.
Reduce speed to low and gradually add the flour, beating until well mixed.
Divide batter evenly among the prepared custard cups.
Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until top is puffy and cracked in appearance, so center will still be soft. Be careful not to OVERCOOK.
Cool 5 minutes. Gently run a small knife around outside edges of the cakes and carefully invert onto serving plates.
Serve with vanilla ice cream, and/or whipped cream.

Note: The batter can be prepared up to four hours ahead. Place in custard cups. Cover each cup with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature and bake as directed.

Onion Dip

This is a Brown family favorite and tradition dating from the 1950's. It was a "required" dip for every Sunday Green Packer game and was served frequently throughout the rest of the year. It's simple to make, tasty, and quite possibly the best onion dip ever!

• 80z package Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 yellow onion
• 8oz Sour Cream
• Titch of salt

Using a fork, work a titch of salt into the cream cheese in a medium bowl. Using the second smallest graters of a 4-sided box grater, grate 1/2 - 2/3 of the onion into the cream cheese. Using another fork (or similar utensil), scape the onion from the inside of the grater and as much as possible from the grater tines. Mix the grated onion into the cream cheese until well incorporated. Stir in the sour cream until fully incorporated. Cover and chill for an hour or two to allow the flavors to incorporate, if you can wait that long!!

Variation
Stir in some ketchup until the mixture is a nice reddish color, then add a can of small shrimp, drained. This makes a nice variaiton to serve with crackers or Ruffles.

Gloria's Reyenos de Repollo

This was one of our favorite meals that Gloria, our housekeeper & cook in El Salvador, used to make. The recipe is great - handwritten by Gloria in blue ink with my father's translation floating above her words. Circa 1982ish.

• 1 repollo (cabbage)


• 1 lba (pound) de carne de cerda (ground pork)


• 1 zanahori ricada (carrot, chopped)


• 1 chile verdeo picado (green pepper, chopped)


• 1 cucharada de cebollo picado (T of onion, chopped)


• 1 can pasta de tomate (tomato paste)
  


• 1 cucharada de caldo de ren (T of chicken broth)


• 1 cucharada de arina (1 T flour)
• 2-3 eggs beaten with 2 Tbs of water
  


• sal y pimienta al gusto (salt & pepper to taste)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Peel the cabbage leaves and cook in water until leaves are soft and pliable, drain and set aside.

Cook pork in a medium frying pan until pork is cooked through. Add carrots, onions, and green pepper and cook for a few minutes. Add a titch of salt and pepper to taste. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a medium sauce pan, add the can of tomato paste and add some water to thin. Begin to heat the tomato paste mixture, then add the chicken broth and heat until a slight simmer. Stir in the flour until it is completely incorporated. Cook for about five minutes. Add a titch of salt and pepper to taste.

To Assemble, place 2-3 Tbs of the pork mixture in each cabbage leaf and roll. Dip the rolled cabbage leaves in the beaten egg mixture and fry them in a pan with Wesson Oil until egg mixture is golden brown. Place the fried stuffed cabbage leaves into a rectangular casserole and pour the tomato mixture over the rolled cabbage leaves. Place casserole in oven and cook 5-10 minutes.

Party Chicken

Haven't had this in years, but I very fondly remember this & will have to make soon.

• 4 split, skinned & boned chicken breasts
• 4 slices of bacon, cut in half
• 1 can mushroom soup
• 1 C sour cream
• 1 package dried beef

Wrap each chicken breast with bacon. Cover the bottom of a greased 7x11 dish with beef. Place chicken over beef. Mix mushroom soup and sour cream and pour over chicken. Bake uncovered at 325 for 2 hours.

Mom's Peanut Butter Cookies

Best. Peanut. Butter. Cookies. Ever. When mom used to ship them to me in college, my evil roommates would open them without me!

• 1/2 C shortening
• 1/2 C peanut butter
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients together, then cook on an ungreased baking sheet at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Wrap well, take to post office & mail to Jen. Priority Mail, please.

Grandma's Sugar Cookies

Grandma Mae Brown's famous recipe!

• 3 C flour
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 C shortening
• 2 eggs
• 1 C sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Sift dry ingredients then cut in shortening. Beat eggs then add sugar & vanilla. Mix everything together and chill dough. (Mom says it's really important to make sure the dough is very much chilled!)

Make sure not to roll them out too thickly or you will get mutant shapes. ;-) Mom has a note to use a flex spreader to lift the cookie shapes

Frosting

• 1 lb powdered sugar
• 1/4 lb butter, softened
• titch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3-4 T milk

Cream one-third of sugar with butter and slat in large bowl. Blend vanilla, 2 T milk and remaining sugar. Gradually stir remaining milk into frosting until desired spreading consistency is reached. (Mom does this all with electric beaters; I use a wooden spoon. I keep it real.)

Divide up your frosting and add food coloring!

Salmon with Divine Mustard Sauce

From Janet Fetters, our next door neighbor for years in Miami. She first made this for us in 1993 & we immediately demanded the recipe.

• 1 1/2 lb salmon fillets
• 6 T olive oil
• 4 T dijon mustard
• 2 T mustard seeds
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 T lemon juice
• 2 T orange zest (Mom often substitutes this with a bit of orange juice which also makes the sauce a bit less thick, mom likes it to be generous enough to slather, but not runny)
• 6 T butter, melted
• 6 T parsely, chopped

Mix together all ingredients and use as a marinade for the salmon - let it sit for a couple hours in the refrigerator. Don't discard any of the marinade, but heat and serve as a sauce on top of the salmon.

Cook the salmon for approximately 10 min per inch of thickness. Dad was very vague and non-committal and kept making faces as I tried to get a straight answer out of him about the grilling time, though. The key seems to be that he flips it and checks it and pokes it and that's how he really knows it's done.

The first time I had this it was served on a bed of red cabbage, coarsely chopped and sauteed in olive oil, balsamic & salt until it's tender but still has a bit of a crunch. So yummy.

Cedar-planking the salmon works well with this marinade/sauce, too. If you cook it on a cedar plank, you should do so for 15 minutes (according to Dad).