Incredible Bundt Cake

Sometime over the course of the last year or so I acquired a cookbook called 101 Things to Do With a Cake Mix. I pulled it out yesterday as I had just been to the grocery store and cake mixes were on sale (gotta love 10 for $10 items!). I decided to whip something up for the NICU nurses. I make brownies and cookies a lot, so I decided to go with a cake. I originally chose a chocolatey cake, but then I remembered something.

Last week I was telling Lily's primary nurse Julia about my plan to bring in cupcakes for the babies 2 month birthday and Julia informed me that "Lily" was not a fan of chocolate cake and preferred vanilla. As not to disappoint "Lily," I ditched the chocolate cake and went with this one instead. The problem with making a cake to give away is that you can't taste it beforehand. However, if the aroma it made while baking is any indication, this cake is awesome! I got many compliments on it from the nurses today, so I think it's a winner! While typing this recipe I realized that I forgot to divide the chips and nuts and instead put them all in one layer. I'm not sure if it made much of a difference, but next time I'll try to pay attention to the directions!

Incredible Bundt Cake

1 yellow cake mix
1 small box vanilla pudding
1 cup sour cream
3 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1 cup chopped pecans, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using and electric mixer, blend the cake mix, pudding, sour cream, eggs, oil and applesauce 5-6 minutes. Grease and flour a bundt or tube pan. Pour 1/3 of the batter into pan and sprinkle one half of chocolate chips and nuts over it. Pour in remaining batter and top with remaining chips and nuts. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool about 5 minutes, then turn out onto a serving plate; cool completely.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Charlie and Lily have been in the NICU for a little over 2 months now. In this time we've really gotten to know many of their nurses well, and they are wonderful, wonderful women. To show our gratitude to them in some small way, I try to bake them treats at least once a week. Sometimes it's just brownies from a box, but when I have time I try to do something from scratch. These cookies were one of the first treats I made for them after I got out of the hospital and they were delicious! Rich and fudgy and chewy - a huge hit! I left out the nuts in case anyone was allergic and I added a cup of semisweet chocolate chips in addition to the white chips.

(The recipe is linked above, but I will add it to the post later. For some reason Blogger is refusing to let me copy and paste...)

I'm back!

So by now everyone knows why I haven't been baking or cooking much since my last post! Joe and I have been spending a lot of time in the NICU with Charlie and Lily - we love being parents! I don't have much free time at home these days, but I'm trying to cook and bake a little when I can. So stay tuned for some new posts!

On Hiatus

Well, I'm sorry to announce that "...and a cookie for dessert" will be taking a rather lengthy hiatus. I've been put on bedrest, most likely until the babies arrive, and then I think I'm going to have my hands full for awhile after that. I hope to be able to return at some point though, as I really do love this blog!! But thank you to everyone who's been reading all this time and hopefully, I'll be back!!

In the meantime, if you're curious to see what's going on with me in baby land, check out my baby blog - http://threecheersforbabies.blogspot.com/

Cake Batter Ice Cream

Now that the weather is finally getting warmer I decided it was time to break out my ice cream maker. I knew that Lauren had been using her ice cream maker all through the winter so she had an arsenal of great recipes for me to choose from. I bookmarked several, but decided to give this cake batter ice cream a whirl first since Joe is a big fan of cake batter ice cream. Like Lauren I used Funfetti cake mix, but heeding her warning about the sprinkles dissolving I added more sprinkles to my ice cream at the very end, just to make it more colorful. This ice cream is SO delicious! And the ice cream came out perfect - creamy and rich and the perfect consistency. In fact, I think it's the best ice cream I've ever made! I highly recommend this!

Cake Batter Ice Cream

1 cup whole milk, well chilled
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups heavy cream, well chilled
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup Funfetti cake mix

In a medium bowl, whisk the milk and granulated sugar until the sugar is dissolved.

Stir in the heavy cream and vanilla.

Stir in cake mix, making sure there are no lumps.

Pour mixture into the freezer bowl of your ice cream maker and let mix until it has thickened (about 25-30 minutes).

Remove ice cream from freezer bowl and place into a separate container.

Place freezer bowl and the ice cream into the freezer to further harden.

Weeknight Paella

Another winner from my friend Colleen! Joe and I love paella. In fact, Joe loves basically any combination of proteins and rice. This paella uses shrimp and sausage and comes together with the help of some Mexican rice mix and peas. It's incredibly delicious and is perfect for a weeknight, just as Colleen described. I did not have any chorizo so I used turkey sausage and it was still fantastic! I look forward to having this again soon!

Weeknight Paella

2/3 cups yellow rice (Goya)
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small shallot, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 pound large shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/2 pound chorizo, sliced
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons chicken broth
1 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1/3 cup frozen peas

Heat olive oil in large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add rice and cook until it begins to toast, about 1-2 minutes.

Add shallot and garlic and continue to saute until garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add shrimp, chorizo, and broth. Cover pan tightly and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for 18 minutes.

Remove lid, add parsley and peas and cook until heated through. Continue cooking uncovered until all liquid is absorbed.

Famous "Ben-chiladas"

I've heard a lot about these enchiladas on the What's Cooking board - a creation of the awesome Annie. I was inspired to make it though when I saw it on Lauren's blog and she posted that her husband Pat liked them. I had been unsure but Joe and Pat often have similar tastes so hearing that Pat enjoyed it was a good sign. And it was - Joe LOVED this! He raved about it the entire time he was eating it. Plus it was super quick and simple to put together. I made it even simpler by using Perdue pre-cooked Southwestern chicken strips - all I had to do was take the chicken from the package and put it right into the tortillas. I will definitely make this again!

Annie's Ben-chiladas

1 package Perdue Southwestern pre-cooked chicken strips
8 oz. reduced fat sour cream
8 oz. Ranch salad dressing
flour tortillas
jar of salsa
shredded Mexican cheese

In a large mixing bowl, combine half of the sour cream and half of the Ranch dressing. In a small bowl, combine the rest of the sour cream and Ranch dressing. Stir both until well combined. Add the chicken to the large mixing bowl. Mix well with sauce.

Preheat the oven to 375°. Grease a 9 x 13″ pan (and possibly another, smaller pan if needed). Take one tortilla and top with a little less than 1 tbsp. of the sauce from the small bowl. Spread over the tortilla in an even layer. Add some of the chicken mixture to the center of the tortilla. Top with salsa to taste. Sprinkle with shredded cheese, to taste. Roll up tortilla and place, seam side down, in the prepared baking dish. Repeat with remaining ingredients (I only made 4 large enchiladas but you can make as many as you need by increasing the amount of ingredients.)

Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes (30 for a crispier tortilla). Allow to cool a few minutes before serving.