Oh boy!

A tie on the cookbook of choice.............who will win?!?!

Ever have one of those days........

...........when you wish someone would come and bring a gourmet meal to your house, so you wouldn't have to cook it yourself????( *sigh!*) WE ARE!

The Del sisters

The other cake we made for our Dad!

For our Dads party he asked that we make carrot cake! We were very happy about this choice as we have the best recipe ever, and its healthy too.........if you don't have a recipe you like for carrot cake you have to try this one. This cake is very moist and the frosting gives it the right amount of sweetness. Give it a try its sure to please anyone:)Well I think almost anyone.....

The Best Healthiest Carrot Cake Ever!

1 1/2 c. oats

3/4 c. butter

2 1/2 c. boiling water

2 5/8 c. whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/8 tsp. sat

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

3/8 tsp. nutmeg

3 eggs

1 7/8 c. honey

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 c. raisins

1 c. grated carrots

1 c. chopped pecans

Combine oats, butter, and boiling water in large bowl; let stand 20 min. Sift flour,soda,salt,cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Beat eggs until light and foamy. Add honey in a fine stream, mixing well. Add vanilla. Stir in oat mixture. Add sifted ingredients about 1/2 c. at a time beating well after each addition. Stir in raisins, carrots and nuts. Pour into a 13x9inch pan or 2 round 9inch cake pan greased and floured. Bake at 350 for 30-40 min. or until tests done. Cool cake. Frost with Cream cheese frosting(recipe below)

Cream Cheese Frosting

11oz. cream cheese softened

1/4 c. butter, softened

1/3 c. honey

1/2 tsp. vanilla

3/4 c. chopped pecans

Beat cream cheese and butter together. Add honey in a fine stream while beating. Add vanilla. Stir in pecans. Spread on top and sides of cake.

Oh my!

AGRH! I really hadn't double checked my article for spelling and grammar mistakes..... sorry you all! It's fixed now!

Esther

What we made our Dad...........

At our church, one Friday a month we get together and have a hymn sing So this last month, we went and it was also our Dad's birthday. I decided to make a cake to bring along to celebrate his birthday. It started out like a normal cake, although I had a few problems when it came to mixing it together. I thought I had a big enough bowl but ended up throwing flour everywhere:) After that episode I put the batter into the pans and in the oven. Well they cooked, and I took the opportunity to get in some violin practice. Beep!Beep! the timer goes off, I go check on them and they look perfectly golden brown and they rose very nicely except one thing, the all cooked at an angle! Our oven has been being moved due to us putting in new counter tops so we did not realize that the oven was uneven. OK, that's fine I will just even them out and make sure I put more frosting on the side that has less batter. Next I let them cool. After the cooling process, I went to go take them out of the pans and all 3 had also cooked unevenly. One side was brown, and the other not quite so much. Carefully removing them from the pan, they all had 1 side fall off! Yikes, what else could go wrong! I finely got the frosting put together after again throwing powdered sugar all over the kitchen:) I then started the icing process. Boy did that take some engineering. Now we are ready to go I put the cake into our cake carrier, and then placed it in the car. Not thinking that where we would be driving to, would be down some pretty swervy roads:) We got to our friends house, open the back door to the van to find my lovely cake mutilated! As we were driving the cake had slammed up against the cake carriers' lid and made half the icing fall off. So much for my pretty cake! Even though it didn't look good everyone said it tasted great!

"Not your average "

Yellow Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

3 1/2 c. flour

2 1/2 c. sugar

1 3/4 c. shortening

1 1/4 c. milk
3 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

5 eggs

Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour 3 round 9 inch pans, 9x11/2 inches. Mix all ingredients in very large bowl with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl occasionally. Beat on medium speed 2 min. scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pans evenly. Bake 30-35 min. or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 min. remove from pans. Prepare Chocolate Buttercream(recipe below) and fill layers and frost top and side of cake.

Serves: 16 very large pieces of cake.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

5 1/3 c. powdered sugar

1 c. baking cocoa

3/4 c. butter softened

2/3 c. milk

2 tsp. vanilla

Beat all ingredients until smooth and spreadable.

Tropic Smoothie

Tuesday night after a day of running around all day we came home and went for a walk with Kay , we had a blast singing songs and reciting our scripture from memory,we were so hot when we got back that we decided to make ourselves smoothies! It was very good and very cold, watch out you might get a brain freeze:)

2 frozen peaches

1/4 frozen mango

2 frozen bananas

1/3 c. coconut milk

1 c. ice cubes

Blend till smooth. Top with a little shredded unsweetened coconut!

Two very large glasses

A Serbian Apple Cake for Church

After church on Sunday's we have a fellowship meal. So this past Sunday I decided to make this cake because we had so many apples left from when we went apple picking! This cake is very moist and is sure to please anyone........just make sure to use the full amount of apples when you make it:)

Happy Baking.....

Esther

Serbian Apple Cake

Ingredients

5oz. butter

1c. sugar

2 T. lemon juice

3 eggs, separated

8 oz. flour

2 T. finely ground almonds

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

6 apples, peeled, cored and sliced

Method

Beat the softened butter and 3/4 c. sugar into a thick pale mixture. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the lemon juice. In a separate bowl, beat whites until stiff peaks form. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, ground nuts, slat and spices. Add half the whites and flour mixture to the batter ans whisk together carefully. Repeat with the remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour the batter into a 9 inch cake pan that has been greased and floured. Press the apple slices into the batter in a circular pattern, sprinkle with 3 1/2 T. of the remaining sugar and bake at 356 degrees for 50 min.

Side Note:

It seemed like a lot of apples when I made it so I didn't put them all on top, but make sure you use the full amount because the apples sink in quite a bit and then you can't see the pretty pattern as well.

Chocolate Coconut Treats

Amazing Black Bean Brownie

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup coconut butter
1 cups soft-cooked black beans, drained well (hs: canned is fine)
1/2 cup almonds, chopped
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
¼ cup cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cups honey

1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line 9-inch (rimmed) baking pan (hs note) with parchment paper and lightly oil with canola oil spray.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a glass bowl in the microwave for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes on high. Stir with a spoon to melt the chocolate completely. Place the beans, 1/2 cup of the almonds, the vanilla extract, and a couple of spoonfuls of the melted chocolate mixture into the bowl of a food processor. Blend about 2 minutes, or until smooth. The batter should be thick and the beans smooth. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the remaining 1/2 cup almonds, remaining melted chocolate mixture, cococa powder, and salt. Mix well and set aside.

In a separate bowl, with an electric mixer beat the eggs until light and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the honey and beat well. Set aside.

Add the bean/chocolate mixture to the chocolate mixture. Stir until blended well.

Add the egg mixture, reserving about 1/2 cup. Mix well. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Using an electric mixer, beat the remaining 1/2 cup egg mixture until light and fluffy. Drizzle over the brownie batter. Use a wooden toothpick to pull the egg mixture through the batter, creating a marbled effect. Top w/ 1/3 cup of shredded coconut. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the brownies are set. Let cool in the pan completely before cutting into squares. (They will be soft until refrigerated.)

Makes 12 Large

New Poll-Please Vote and let us know what you want to see more of

The new thing in the DeL Kitchen is that we a going to try and cook straight through one cookbook, giving ourselves of course a deadline! Give us your opinion!

Please vote on the Poll on the side bar!!!

Roasted Garlic and Red Pepper Hummus

Hummus is one of our favorite lunch foods and is great for when we are on the go, especially on the days we take music lessons:) The other thing we like about Hummus is that you can change the flavors around, like the other day, Hannah made a roasted red pepper flavor(that's before the very bad thing she did:)! Plus chickpeas are chocked full of good things, they are readily available cooked and dried. Look for a even kaki color, and don't worry about wrinkly outside that's normal.


A couple other tips on chickpeas, try them in your salad with some minced garlic and marinated artichokes, also try subbing them in your meat loaf for some of the meat.
It is also shown that 10 -12 cloves of garlic a day help to keep down bad cholesterol, also it is shown that the some large amounts of garlic enhance the process by which our body's break up potentially dangerous blood clots. And for all those worried about there sodium in take, garlic is essentially sodium free!


Kitchen tips for garlic:
For easy peeling drop in boiling water for 5 seconds
Love garlic but don't like the breath it leaves you with? Chew on a sprig of fresh parsley
Or if you don't that the smell it leaves on your fingers rub them with a bit a toothpaste and rinse







1 can chickpeas 3 T. liquid reserved from chickpeas
1 Head Roasted Garlic
1T. oilve oil
3 T. Tahini
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. red pepper flakes(more or less to your liking)




Pour into blender and blend on high till creamy!

Figgy Nutmeg Smoothie

A few weeks ago our whole family trekked out to a local apple and fig orchard.............and picked to our hearts content! We've had so much fun experimenting with the figs, it was our very first time picking these yummy little treats! Coming soon, a new faze in the Del sisters kitchen!

1/2c. milk

2 figs

1/4t. -1/2t. nutmeg

1/2. ice cubes

1 banana

Blend and enjoy

Garlic Herb Challah

We made this special bread a few weeks ago for a friend who just had a baby!

13/4 c. very warm water

2T. honey
1/2 c.olive oil

4 eggs

1 T. salt

8-81/2 c. flour

4 cloves garlic minced

1 tsp. dried basil

1 tsp. crushed rosemary

1 tsp. dried thyme

In a large bowl combine water, honey, yeast and spices and garlic. Let stand 10 min. Using a wooden spoon stir in eggs, oil and salt. Gradually stir in as much flour as you can. Turn dough on to floured surface. Knead in enough flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic. About 5-7 min. Shape dough into ball let rise for 1-1/2 hrs. Punch dough down turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Cover with a clean towel, rest 10min. Divide dough into 3 portions divide each portion into 3 parts totalling 9 portions. Gently roll each into a 24 inch rope. Braid three ropes at a time to make three ropes; shape each into a spiral loaf. Place braid onto baking sheets. Let rise 1/2hr.

In small bowl combine 3 T. melted butter,1tsp.basil,tsp.thyme,tsp. rosemary and 1 tsp. minced garlic. Brush over loaves. Bake in 350 oven. Bake 30-35 min. or till hollow when tapped. Immediately remove from pans and cool.

Makes 3 Large loaves, 16 servings each.

Espresso Banana Smoothie

1 banana
1/2c. milk
1T. maple syrup
1/2c. ice
2T. espresso cooled

Blend throughly, and enjoy!