My Lime Green Kitchen

This is the recipe I’ve used for quite a few years. The icing makes them even better! If you’re used to brownies from a mix, you’ll find these to be much thinner (as in not so tall) but they’re very, very good!

Ingredients for Brownies:

1/2 c. butter
1 c. white sugar
2 eggs
1tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder

Ingredients for Icing:

3 T. butter, softened
3 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 T. honey
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. powdered sugar
1 – 2 tsp. milk or cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour an 8″ square baking pan.

In a medium to large saucepan, melt 1/2 c. butter. Remove from heat. Stir in sugar, eggs and 1 tsp. vanilla. Stir in cocoa, flour, salt and baking powder.

Spread in pan. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes. Do not overcook! (I usually test mine after about 16 minutes and rarely let them bake the full 20 minutes.)

To make icing:

Stir together 3 T. butter, 3 T. cocoa powder, honey, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Add milk if necessary to get to spreading consistency.

Spread over warm brownies.

We never had rhubarb when I was growing up and it wasn’t til just a few years ago that I tasted Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. It was love at first bite! Pies are my favorite dessert. Cakes and cookies aren’t bad but they don’t come close to pie for me. Almost every pie I make, I say “This is my favorite pie!” Vince always says “You say that about every pie you make!” Men! Really, though . . honest . . this could be my favorite pie (at least for the day!). Add a little Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream and . . who needs dinner? I’m sure I know the answer to that question!

Ingredients:

Double pie crust
2 cups chopped red rhubarb, fresh
2 – 3/4 cups de-stemmed, washed and cut strawberries into quarters
1 – 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons minute tapioca (Plus another 1 Tablespoon for spreading in the bottom of the pie shell)
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 tablespoons butter, cubed small

Directions: Note: You may want to sit the pie in a large cookie sheet with sides. Mine always bubbles over a bit.

Spread pie crust in pie plate. Sprinkle 1 T. tapioca in the bottom of the pie shell.

Combine the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, remaining tapioca, flour, zest and juice of lemon, cinnamon, and almond extract. Mix well in a large bowl and pour into crust. Dot the top of the filling with the butter. Add top crust and seal edges. Cover the edges with foil and bake at 425° for 15 minutes. Reduce temp to 375° and continue baking for an additional 45 to 50 minutes.

Let cool before serving. (Dang it . . I always forget this part!)

For those who are asking for a good white bread recipe, this is one I like a lot. It’s dense and a little sweet but not too sweet. It makes really good toast too.

Ingredients:
2 cups warm water
2/3 cup white sugar
1-1/2 T. dry yeast
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
6 cups flour

Directions:
In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Stir in yeast and let sit for 5 minutes.

Mix salt and oil/butter into the yeast. Add flour, one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface til smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, turn dough to coat. Cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap. Allow to rise til doubled .. about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes and divide in half. Shape into two loaves and placed in two well oiled 9″ x 5″ loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes or til dough has risen 1″ above sides of pan.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

A few tips for those who have not made bread or need help.

• Make sure your water isn’t too hot to kill the yeast or too cool to activate it. Get yourself an instant read thermometer or any good kitchen thermometer will do. The water should be between 105º and 112º when adding directly to the yeast.
• It’s best to use salt that does NOT contain iodine.
• When making bread, after a bit of experience, you will know how bread dough needs to feel. Adding too much flour may result in a loaf that is too dry and the bread will be hard and crumbly. Adding too little flour will result in a loaf that will not hold it’s shape and will tear easily when sliced.
• There’s a big difference in the flour available. Bread flour is available in pretty much every store and it’s fine. In my opinion, King Arthur is better than regular bread flour but it can be tricky to find. My favorite all purpose four is Wheat Montana Prairie Gold and short of mail order, it’s probably difficult to find.
• Treat your recipe as a “guide”. It doesn’t have to be followed exactly! Once you have a recipe that has worked for someone you trust, keep working with that one recipe. Don’t jump from recipe to recipe. The first time you make your bread, it may not be the best but pay close attention to everything you do. Next time you make it, if you want different results, try changing one thing. If you change several things at once, you won’t know what worked or what didn’t so maybe try adding less or more flour, or kneading longer or less time.
• Depending on the size pan, the size of your oven, and whether or not your thermostat is exactly correct, you may need to adjust your baking time. What takes 30 minutes for me might take 25 or 35 for you.
• Bread making isn’t something that will work for one and not for another. If you want homemade bread, you can have it but like everything else, it may take a little practice and a bit of patience.

This is the cake I made for my birthday and it was so good! Chad loved it and Vince said it tasted “professional” . . whatever that means! So easy and so good. I’ll definitely make this cake again .. maybe today to send to work with Vince tomorrow.

Ingredients:
1 (18 ounce) package yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1-1/4 cups orange juice
1/3 cup oil
1 (3 ounce) package orange flavored Jello
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cold water
1 (3 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1-1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar (I used a little more)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare cake mix as directed on package, using eggs, orange juice, and oil. Spray 13×9″ pan with baking spray and add cake batter. Bake at 350º for 30-40 minutes until cake starts to pull away from sides of pan. Cool cake completely on wire rack.
Using a wooden chopstick (or knitting needle), poke small holes in the cake.
In a small bowl, place 1 box orange gelatin. Pour boiling water over gelatin and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved. Add cold water and mix well. Slowly pour this mixture over the cake, making sure that the mixture gets into all the holes. Cover and chill for 2-4 hours.
In medium bowl, combine the pudding mix, milk, and vanilla and beat well. In small bowl, combine heavy cream and the powdered sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold the cream mixture into the pudding mixture and spread over cake. Cover and refrigerate for 4-8 hours before serving.

We had a few peaches that were getting too ripe so I used them to make a peach cake.

Since I used one of my smaller cake pans, I was able to make some mini-cakes too and will send those to work with Vince tomorrow.

Chad isn’t a big fan of peaches so when I told him I was making a peach cake, he kinda turned up his nose. Then he said he’d taste it before making a final decision. He tasted it and loved it!

Here’s the recipe:

Peach Cake

2 sticks butter
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2-3/4 cups all purpose flour (plus 1/4 cup)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups peaches, peeled, pitted and chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a Bundt or tube pan and dust with granulated sugar.

2. Cream together butter and sugar til light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

3. Sift together the 2-3/4 cups flour, baking powder and salt. Stir into the creamed mixture.

4. Coat peaches with 1/4 cup flour. Stir into the batter but do not beat or over mix.

5. Pour into pan. Bake for one hour or until tester comes out clean. Allow to cool 10 minutes in pan. Turn onto wire rack to finish cooling. (Or, we served ours warm with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream).

Peach Chutney

4 quarts peaches, pitted, peeled and chopped
3 cups brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
1 cup raisins (I don’t like them but I use them for this recipe)
2 cups chopped onion
1/4 cup mustard seed
4 – 6 Tablespoons finely sliced, peeled fresh ginger
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
4 – 10 jalapeno peppers, sliced (remove seeds if you want less heat . . we leave them in)
4 cups cider vinegar

Combine all ingredients in a pot that’s plenty large enough that it won’t boil over.  Simmer til thick, stirring real often.  It tends to want to stick if you get the heat too high or if you don’t stir it enough.

Fill hot jars, leaving 1/4″ head space.  Remove air bubbles.  Adjust lids and rings.  Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Pesto:

2 cups as full as you can fill them of washed basil leaves (mash them down and get as many as you can in the cup)
1/4 – 3/8 cup olive oil
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 T. chopped garlic
1 T. Fruit Fresh or lemon juice

In a food processor, chop/blend the olive oil, cheese, pine nuts and garlic.

Add the basil leaves and Fruit Fresh and process til desired consistency. I like mine just barely chopped up.

Put into small containers and freeze. I often freeze mine in ice cube trays but they seem to have disappeared. Once it’s frozen, dump them into a zipper freezer bag. For this batch, I filled the little 1/2 cup containers I had and then I sprayed Pam on plastic wrap and wrapped up 1/2 cup amounts.

Then the little packets went into the freezer bag.

Blueberry Chutney

4 cups blueberries
1 onion, chopped
1-1/2 cups cider vinegar
3 tsp. mustard seeds
1-1/2 cups brown sugar
3 T. chopped or thinly sliced ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
2 jalapeno peppers, thinly sliced (more or less to suit you tastes)

Add all ingredients to a large pot. Make sure the pot is large enough for the ingredients to simmer without boiling over. Simmer, stirring often til as thick as you’d like it. I simmer mine for about 1-1/2 hours.

Put into jars as you would for any canning procedure. Process in water bath for 10 minutes.

Candied Jalapenos

* 3 pounds fresh jalapeno peppers, sliced about 1/4″ thick
* 2 sweet onions, sliced about 1/4″ thick
* 2 cups cider vinegar
* 6 cups granulated sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
* 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
* 3 cloves garlic, chopped

I do not remove the seeds from the jalapenos but I slice them, then put them in a colander and rinse them, using the sprayer on my sink so it has a bit of pressure. This rinses some, but not all of the seeds away.

In a large pot, bring cider vinegar, sugar, turmeric, and celery seed to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 7 minutes. Add the pepper, garlic and onions. Once they begin to simmer again, set the timer for 5 minutes. Once the timer goes off, using a slotted spoon, remove the peppers/onions to canning jars. Fill to 1/2″ from top. You should get 5 pints.

Raise the heat under the syrup and boil for 8 – 10 minutes. Pour the syrup over the peppers, to within 1/4″ of the top of the jar. Clean the tops of the jars, and use the 2 piece lids to seal. Process in water bath canner for 15 minutes (for pints).

This cake batter seems a little runny when you pour it in the pans and it always makes me wonder if I left something out but then I remember that last time I made it, it seemed a little runny too and it always works. And, it’s always good and it never lasts more than a few days around here.

I’ve never had this cake turn out less than perfect and anyone who has tasted it loves it.

Chocolate Cake

Cake:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1-1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup hot or warm coffee

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two round cake pans with waxed or parchment paper. Line with parchment paper. Grease and flour the sides of the pan. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.

Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt on low speed until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Slowly add this mixture to the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl, continuing to mix just til everything is blended well. Add the coffee and stir just to combine. Pour the batter into the pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in the pans for 15 – 20 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely before icing.

Icing:

6 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 sticks butter, at room temp
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar

Melt the chocolate in double boiler. Allow to cool slightly

Beat the butter on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and continue beating for a couple of minutes. Gradually add the powdered sugar, then beat at medium speed, until smooth and any lumps are gone. Add the melted chocolate and mix well. If the icing is too thick, add a little cream or milk. If it isn’t thick enough, add a bit more powdered sugar.

Add icing to the cooled cake.