Chocolate Trifle

William and I made this tonight for our FHE tomorrow (Aaron is in Chicago tonight).  It is very easy, and really yummy - although all we did was lick the bowls and utensils when we were done.  

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 1 (19.8 ounce) package brownie mix
• 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 (1.5 ounce) bar chocolate candy

DIRECTIONS

1. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions and cool completely. Cut into 1 inch squares.
2. In a large bowl, combine pudding mix, water and sweetened condensed milk. Mix until smooth, then fold in 8 ounces whipped topping until no streaks remain.
3. In a trifle bowl or glass serving dish, place half of the brownies, half of the pudding mixture and half of the 12 ounce container of whipped topping. Repeat layers. Shave chocolate onto top layer for garnish. Refrigerate 8 hours before serving.

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Comfort Food: Pasta Salad

I have to explain why this is a comfort food. I have decided pretty early in my mom-days, that dinner is the most important thing I can do in a day. If nothing else goes right, I want to be able to sit down with my family for dinner. Because of that, I've gotten into the habit of making most of my meals, as much as possible, in the morning. I use my crockpot a lot, make casseroles and stick them in the fridge, etc. This meal is my favorite because I can get it totally and completely done in the morning. There is no last minute prep stuff for it, like there is for a lot of my other meals. It makes me happy to know that dinner is ready. And, my kids absolutely love this one. There is something in it that everyone will eat.

So, the recipe. We like to use shells, but you can pick any fun pasta you want. Boil it, strain it, and then immediately cool it with cold water. Dump a little ranch dressing in, just enough to coat the noodles. Then, stick it in the fridge to finish cooling. (You coat the noodles so that they don't stick to each other.)

While that cools, chop up whatever you want to put in it. We do a meat (chicken, ham, or deli meats), veggies (tomatos, cucumbers, celery, carrots), cubed cheese, olives, whatever else sounds good. This is the nice part, because if kids interupt you, you can stop, attend to them, and come back to it. There is no time limit on this step.

Dump stuff into the noodles. Add more ranch, and then, add some italian salad dressing. Trust me, it gives it the perfect zing. I'd say mine end up with about 2 parts ranch to 1 part italian, but there is no measurements.

If your in my house, the last step is to make sure Seth doesn't keep snitching from the bowl throughout the day.

These make great leftovers, too. When we are going to have a few days of back to back craziness, or if I just don't know how many people I'll be feeding, when, I make this up, and then it is there, ready for whoever needs to eat whenever.

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April Proposal

Comfort food month seems to be a success. Therefore, I am proposing a theme for next month. I propose that April be "Summer food" month- salads, grill recipes, fruit, etc.

I don't think that every recipe has to be with the theme, but it did help me think of recipes to post, so I say we do it again.

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Comfort Food: Warm Pudding

1 package, any flavor, cook and serve pudding
milk

Make the pudding according to directions. Take it seriously when it says to stir constantly. And make sure to keep the bottom of the pan scraped. When it is done, pour immediately into mugs and serve.

Matt introduced me to this when we were engaged. I was very dubious at first, but now its a standard in our house. By far, the best flavor is butterscotch, but be aware that its very rich. We usually just do chocolate. Vanilla is all right, but not the best.

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Comfort Foods: Beans and Bread

Okay, I have no good title for this one. It is an homage to Grandma and Grandpa Pratt.

Admittedly, one of the first tests of my marriage was introducing Stef to Grandma Pratt's cooking. Stef barely survived the experience. It's not that Grandma Pratt didn't know how to cook, it's that she wasn't willing to spend any money on ingredients. So if she had leftover piecrust, green beans, and canned beef, well, she'd make it work. Or at least try.

But there was one time they devised something that was truly great out of leftovers:

Grill a slice of homemade bread.
Pour baked beans (from a can, hormel or van camp's work just fine) on top.
Put a slice of fresh tomato on top of that.
Then melt a slice of mozarella cheese on top of that.

After the Whole-Wheat Griddle cakes with Santa Barbara Plum Jam, this has to be my favorite Pratt recipe. The Burnham side is another story - my mom and grandma and great-grandma have 'the gift' with cooking - but the Pratt side produced just two great recipes.

By the way, if anyone manages to perfect a recipe for the griddle cakes(it was made 'off-the-cuff'), be warned of the following:

As I understand chemistry (which is very little at all), when you combine elements, the new compound has properties that are unrelated to the properties of the original elements, e.g. flammable hydrogen plus fire-feeding oxygen = water, an extinguisher. The only exception to this rule is mass: You cannot create mass by combining elements. The mass of the new compound is the sum of the masses of the elements. Properties different. Mass same. There is only one exception to this law:

Pratt Whole-Wheat Griddle Cakes defy all of the laws of chemistry, physics, and gravity. Their atomic weight is greater than gold. If you can eat more than one, and they're good enough to make you want two, you need to be prepared for the fact that you've just swallowed fiber with a density that defies the law of physics - even light can't escape. Astronomers wondered for decades why their black hole studies consistently become erratic at 5:30 AM pacific time. It's because that's when Grandma got back from her morning walk and fired up the griddle and started mixing the Sprite and Buttermilk.

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Comfort Foods: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Go to store. Walk to refrigerated aisle. Put package of Nestle Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough in your cart. Proceed to check out. Pay and go home. Follow directions on package.

The bonus is, no mess and they're done faster.

Ha ha ha ha. You thought I was gonna post my secret recipe. Fooled you.

But really, the reason why I do cookies this way is because I haven't been able to make my recipe work in our oven. Like all rented apartment ovens, its a piece of crap and doesn't bake right. Since the Nestle pre made cookie dough is cheaper than my secret recipe, I just do it that way. And then, when I find out my visiting teachers are coming over in 30 minutes, I can pull those out just as they walk in. And then they think that not only am I amazing for having cookies ready, but that I'm extra amazing for already having the mess cleaned up. I've been told that I'm passive aggressive because I do things like that. Oh well. I need to get out of this place. April 27th can't come fast enough.

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Alternate cooking method for Bubbles and Squeak

Although a couple of the Pratt siblings use the oven for this recipe, some prefer the stove top method, allowing for a more fresh cabbage texture, and making it more likely you'll have this in warm weather when you don't want to heat up the house with the oven. I have adjusted this to include both the stove top and the crock pot, thus allowing myself to prepare it around 2pm, before the kids come home from school, yet eat it when Aaron gets home at 5:30pm.

Boil potatoes, but not all the way. They should be firm still when the sausage is done being browned. If you check them and they are getting close to ready, remove, drain, and reserve them.

Brown the sausage in wok or large skillet, then drain the fat and return to pan. I agree with Melissa that Jimmy Dean is not the best option for this. We have a different brand here than what is available there, but it has a wonderful flavor which has some fennel in it.

Mix in cream of (whatever) soup - we still like cream of chicken - and add the potatoes.

Cut up a whole cabbage into bite-sized chunks. Add them to the top of the pan and sprinkle some kosher salt and some sugar on it, then cover. The chemical reaction of the salt and sugar with the cabbage allows it to retain a pleasant color, rather than turning gray. It also removes its bitterness. Allow it to steam on medium low heat for a while. Once the cabbage is at a point where it has lost its crunch, but is not soggy, move the whole concoction to the crock pot. Turn it on low. You have a few hours before you need to serve it. 20 minutes before you serve it, sprinkle it with mozzarella.

If you aren't looking for some extra time before serving it, you can mix the cabbage in and add the mozzarella as soon as the potatoes and cabbage are just getting fork-tender. It doesn't take a whole lot of time to melt.

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