Glazed Irish Cream Cake

As St. Patrick's Day is coming up and after reading the excellent reviews of this on the Allrecipes site, I made it as a birthday gift for a friend.  As I made two glazes, I didn't need all of the cooked glaze.  If you don't want two glazes, then this cake is excellent with only one... your choice!

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped pecans 1  package yellow cake mix 1 (3.4 ounce) box instant French vanilla   pudding mix 4 eggs 1/4 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil 3/4 cup Irish cream liqueur 1/2 cup butter 1/4 cup water 1 cup white sugar 1/4 cup Irish cream liqueur

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan. Sprinkle half of nuts evenly over bottom of pan.
2.	In a large bowl, combine cake mix and pudding mix. Mix in eggs, 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup oil and 3/4 cup Irish cream liqueur. Beat for 5 minutes at high speed. Pour a little batter over nuts in pan; add remaining nuts and then top with remaining batter.
3.	Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then invert onto cake plate. Prick top and sides of cake with fork. Spoon glaze over top and brush onto sides of cake. Allow to absorb glaze repeat until all glaze is used up.
4.	To make the glaze: In a saucepan, combine butter, 1/4 cup water and 1 cup sugar. Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 cup Irish cream. Optional:  I topped my cake with an additional glaze made with confectioner’s sugar and amaretto liqueur for prettier presentation.  Blend together 1 cup confectioner’s sugar with 3-4 Tablespoons amaretto (depending on consistency you want).  Drizzle over cooled cake.

Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Stew

What Southern girl doesn’t like old fashioned chicken and dumplings?  Or chicken and noodles or chicken and slicks?  There are many versions of this traditional staple; dumplings can be made from biscuit dough, pie crust dough, or noodles.  For a change of pace, I tried this version with egg noodles.  Reames egg noodles, found in the frozen food section of the grocery store, proved to be easy and delicious.  To make it even easier, I used a package of frozen onion/celery seasoning blend.  I served this as a stew with sides of a citrus green salad and southern style green bean corn succotash.

INGREDIENTS:

3 pounds of chicken breast tenderloins

2 cans low sodium chicken broth

1 can cream of celery soup (low sodium)

1 can cream of chicken soup (low sodium)

1 chicken bouillon cube

1 package frozen celery and onion seasoning blend

1 package matchstick carrots

2 teaspoons Herbes de Provence

Salt & pepper to taste

1 package frozen Reames egg noodles

DIRECTIONS:

Place chicken pieces in bottom of lightly greased slow cooker.

Mix together the soups and broth and pour over the chicken.

Add the celery and onion seasoning blend, carrots, and bouillon cube.

Stir to combine and add the Herbes de Provence and salt & pepper to taste.

Cook on low for 6 to 7 hours.

Two hours prior to serving, shred the chicken and add the frozen egg noodles.

Stir to combine; add extra broth if necessary.
Continue to cook on low for about 2 hours until noodles are done.

Ladle into bowls and let the smiles begin.

Skillet Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Hubby's birthday was a few days ago and Valentine's Day was yesterday.  We've been so busy and thus postponed his birthday and our Valentine's day dinner until this evening!  One of his favorites is pineapple upside down cake.  Since I've become smitten with cast iron skillet cooking, I decided to try it with the cake.  The result?  Perfection!  

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup unsalted butter

1 ½ cups brown sugar

Few sprinkles of cinnamon

1 (20-ounce) can sliced pineapple (my skillet took 7 slices)

1 jar of maraschino cherries (one for each pineapple slice and extra for decor)

1 package yellow cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)

1 teaspoon almond extract

DIRECTIONS:

• Melt the butter over medium heat in iron skillet (I used a 10” skillet). 
• Remove from heat and sprinkle brown sugar evenly to cover the butter. 
• Sprinkle with cinnamon. 
• Place pineapple rings over this sugar/butter mixture; only one layer.
•  Place a maraschino cherry in the center of each pineapple ring. 
• Place maraschino cherries between the pineapple slices for more color. 
• Prepare the cake mix as directed by the manufacturer, substituting pineapple juice for the water (add water if necessary to make up the difference). 
• Add 1 teaspoon almond extract to the cake mix batter. 
• Pour the batter over the pineapple layer. 
• Bake as directed in the cake mix directions, until browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 
• Cool for about 10 minutes and carefully turn out onto a plate.  
• Tip:  Don't let the cake cool for too long or it will stick to the skillet/pan! 
• Smile!

Fried Okra Salad

I made a big pot of zydeco gumbo in anticipation of Mardi Gras and decided to make a fried okra salad as the side dish accompaniment.  The okra was perfectly crisped and made for tasty croutons on this pepper, tomato, greens, and bacon salad!  It's a keeper.  

  Serves – about 8

INGREDIENTS:

1 (16-ounce) package frozen, breaded cut okra

6 slices bacon, cooked and torn into bite sized pieces

1 package butter lettuce

1 red onion, chopped (optional)

1 green bell pepper, seeded & chopped (or combo of red, green, yellow peppers)

2 medium tomatoes, diced

1 package Good Seasons Italian dressing mix, made with red wine vinegar

DIRECTIONS:

§  Cook okra according to package directions in small amount of vegetable oil, until browned and crispy; I did mine stove top rather than deep frying.

§  Cook bacon until crispy. Drain and tear into bite sized pieces.

§  Place the lettuce, onion, pepper, and tomatoes in salad bowl.

§  Whisk together the Good Seasons ingredients and drizzle small amounts at a time over the salad until coated (or let everyone serve themselves).

§  Add the bacon and fried okra and toss again.  
Yummy!