Garlic Rice Pilaf

My favorite meal as a child was a chicken and rice casserole that my mom made with Lipton's Onion soup mix. I actually still love this meal, but Robert feels that it's too salty so I never make it. When my mom made this meal, she mixed together water, chicken bouillon cubes, margarine, rice and the soup mix together in a pan and set chicken breasts on top and baked it. The absolute best part of that meal was the rice. I would often eat a bowl of that rice for a snack and be completely satisfied.

This garlic rice pilaf is almost as good as the rice from that beloved casserole and it's better for me without all the margarine and sodium in the chicken bouillon and soup mix. This pilaf is a great side dish to accompany any main course protein you have on your menu. Add to its great flavor the fact that its easy to put together and doesn't require a lot of hands on cooking time really make it a great choice for your next dinner party.

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Garlic Rice Pilaf


Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup long grain brown rice
3 large garlic cloves pressed
2 1/2 cups chicken broth divided
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Heat the butter over medium high heat

saute the rice and garlic until both are golden brown, about 3-4 minutes.

Stir in one cup of the chicken broth and the salt and pepper and bring the liquid to a boil.

Pour into a prepared casserole dish and bake, covered for 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and stir in the remaining cup and a half of chicken broth and bake, covered, for 45 more minutes.

Serve with your favorite main course.

Source: Adapted slightly from Annie's Eats

Pasta Dough for Ravioli

Bunker and I are not huge Valentine's Day people. We have never gone out to dinner on the actual night of Valentine's. We just do not like the whole forced fuss...the fixed menu dinner...the push in and out of our table...and the awkward couples sitting next to us! Instead, we stay in and cook a yummy dinner together (Bunker even went to Central Market with me on a Sunday afternoon...a huge gift in itself!). We are actually making our Valentin's dinner tonight...a few days early. Bunker is on a new case which keeps him in town (yeah!), but keeps him at the office until 10 or later every night (boo). Therefore, tonight is kind of our only night to cook and enjoy dinner together. I believe that the date you celebrate something does not matter. What matters is that you are with the person or people that you love...and on whatever date that can happen...then that is the date for the celebration!

I am making Sweet potato Ravioli for dinner. But, to make a specialty ravioli, you have to make your own pasta dough, something that strikes a bit of fear in my heart. I have tried to make my own dough for ravioli before, and really made a mess...and gave up and made wantons out of the dough. It was still yummy...and served the purpose of containing the filling in a tidy little package, but it was not ravioli. Well, no time like the present to try something new. This time, rather than rolling out one long sheet of dough and topping it with another long sheet of dough, I decided to cut out little pieces with cookie cutters, and sandwiching them together to make little sealed oreos. This worked beautifully and was far less stressful!

This recipe is from Epicurious, but I only used the dough recipe, as I used a different recipe for the sweet potato filling. This is a classic pasta recipe that is rather easy to follow, a bit messy (but that is part of the fun of cooking...you actually get to play with your food as an adult!), and most importantly, reliable. Be creative with your ravioli fillings!

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Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of water

Steps:
1. Gather your ingredients and prepare a space for making the dough (I used my butcher block counter. A good option would be a large wooden cutting board).

2. Pour the flour out onto your surface and mold into a circle with a well in the center.

3. Add the eggs and salt to the well.

4. Gently fold the flour into the well with a fork, adding small bits of water to the mixture as you pull the flour into the well. (As you can see in my picture, my well feel apart rather quickly. However, the process still worked, I just had a more free form "well").

5.  Once the ingredients are mostly incorporated, start kneading the dough, and continue to knead for about 8 to 10 minutes. You want a firm silky dough, not sticky.

Not ready yet!

Silky and smooth and ready to rest.

6. After kneading the dough, place under a bowl and let rest for about an hour.

7. Separate the dough into four pieces.

8. With each of the pieces, roll out the dough and then fold it over on itself and re-roll, repeat about 8 times. As you work on each piece of dough, keep the other pieces of dough covered so that they do not dry out.

9.  With each of the pieces, roll out the dough one final time to the thinnest you can possibly roll the dough.

10. Using a circular cookie cutter, cut out as many pieces of the dough as you can, and set each aside and covered.

11. Place a small amount of filling in the center of every other ravioli piece. The amount will depend on the size of your ravioli pieces.
12. Cover the ravioli pieces with the filling on them with another piece of ravioli (with no filling) and seal tightly around the edges. You could use a fork to help seal the edges.
13. Finish the ravioli in a pot of boiling water, cooking each for about 6 minutes.

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting: The Perfect Birthday Cake!

It was my fellow blog writer's birthday the other day! Staci decided to make her own birthday dinner and treat a few of her friends to her delicious cooking! What a treat! So, I decided that the least I could do was make the birthday cake. My only guideline from her husband was "chocolate." So, indeed, I went to town on the chocolate and made this rich and decadent Chocolate layer cake with Chocolate Buttercream frosting.

The cake was rather easy to make. Once I had all of my ingredients set up and ready to go all I had to really do was mix them together in the bowl, pour into dishes, and bake! The frosting was equally easy. I enhanced the cake a little bit by using my Dessert Decorator (a gift from my parents...very useful and helpful!).

Before decoration...

After!

The number of candles you put on a cake can be a touchy subject for birthday girls. I was chatting about this with Bunker's grandmother the other day, and she had a simple and thoughtful solution. Rather than marking each year with a candle, she suggested that you use only three candles on a cake: one for yesterday, one for today, and one for tomorrow. I love this and I will always use this candle tactic in the future.

Happy Birthday Staci!

I found the cake recipe at My Baking Addiction, and the Buttercream Frosting at Savory Sweet Life, and I made only a few variations.

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Cake Ingredients:
2 cups of sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup strong black coffee (I used Texas Pecan from Central Market)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Frosting Ingredients: If you are going to decorate the cake...you should double this recipe.
1 cups unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened (NOT melted)
3 1/2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla

4 tablespoons heavy cream

Cake Steps:
1. Heat your oven to 350 degrees and gather your ingredients.

2. Prepare two 9-inch round baking pans. I cut out circular pieces of wax paper to fit in the bottom of the pans to ensure not mess-ups!

3. Attach your whisk to your standing mixer. In the large bowl of the standing mixer, combine the 2 cups of sugar, 1 3/4 cups of flour, 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of cocoa, 2 teaspoons of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

4. To this dry mixture, add the 2 eggs, 1 cup of buttermilk, 1 cup of coffee, 1/2 cup of oil and 2 teaspoons of vanilla.

5. Beat on medium speed for about two minutes.

6. Pour the batter evenly between the two prepared baking dishes.

7. Bake in the 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes. To ensure that the cake is fully cooked, you can insert a wooden toothpick into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, that means the cake is done!
8. Remove from the oven and let the cakes cool for about 10 minutes before you remove them from the pans.

9. Once removed from the pans, let them cool completely before you assemble and frost the cake.

Frosting Steps:
1 Gather your ingredients.

2. With the paddle attachment on your standing mixer, cream the 2 sticks of butter for a few minutes, until the butter is nice and creamy.

3. Combine the 3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar and the 1/2 cup of cocoa powder together in a separate bowl.

4. Slowly add the sugar and cocoa to the butter. Mix until the sugar and cocoa are fully absorbed into the butter.

5. Add the 2 teaspoons of vanilla, the 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and the 4 tablespoons of cream to the sugar and butter mixture. Beat for about 3 minutes.

6. If you are unhappy with the consistency of the icing try this: If the frosting is to runny, add more sugar. If the frosting is too stiff, add milk.
7. Frost the cake!