Here are this week's National Food Holidays:
February 19th: National Chocolate Mint Day
February 20th: National Cherry Pie Day
February 21st: National Sticky Bun Day
February 22nd: National Margarita Day
February 23rd: Dog Treat Appreciation Day
February 24th: National Tortilla Chip Day
February 25th: National Chocolate Covered Nuts Day
February 19th: National Chocolate Mint Day
Consider
celebrating February 18th & 19th together and pair this decadent chocolate
mint cake with a wonderful wine. Here's
a recipe for a chocolate mint lava cake:
Ingredients:
8
ounces of semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
4
large eggs
1/2
pound (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, chopped
4
tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1/2
cup of sugar
1
teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1
1/4 teaspoons of peppermint extract
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease eight
4-ounce cake molds or ramekins.
2. Over a double boiler, melt the chocolate and
butter, stirring constantly. Once they are completely melted, set aside and
cool.
3. Combine the sugar and eggs and whisk until
pale and fluffy. Stir the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture until
completely blended. Whisk in the flour, nutmeg and peppermint extract and mix
well.
4. Pour the batter into the cake molds and bake
for 14 minutes at 350°F.
5. Remove the lava cakes from the oven and cool
for 2 minutes. Run a knife around the edges, invert the molds onto individual
dessert plates.
6. garnish, as desired, with whipped cream, raspberries
and mint leaves and serve immediately.
February 20th: National Cherry Pie Day
In
celebration of President's Day and George Washington, bake yourself a cherry
pie! Here's a simple recipe for the
cherry pie filling.
Ingredients:
1-1/4 cups sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 cup cherry juice blend
4 cups fresh tart cherries,
pitted or frozen pitted tart cherries, thawed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
In a
large saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; gradually stir in cherry juice
until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove
from the heat. Add the cherries, cinnamon, nutmeg and extract; set aside.
Make
your pie crust. (See January 23rd for a
fool-proof pie crust recipe.) Divide pastry in half
so that one ball is slightly larger than the other.
On
a lightly floured surface, roll out larger ball to fit a 9-in. pie plate.
Transfer pastry to pie plate; trim even with edge of plate. Add filling. Roll
out remaining pastry; make a lattice crust. Trim, seal and flute edges.
Bake
at 425° for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 375°; bake 45-50 minutes longer or until
crust is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
February 21st: National Sticky Bun Day
One of the things that my
grandmother made was Sticky Buns. Here's
her recipe!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of scalded milk
2 T. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 T. vegetable oil
1 package of yeast
1/2 c. warm water (110°F) -
follow the directions on the yeast packet
1 egg
1 1/2 to 2 cups all purpose
flour
Combine milk, sugar, salt
& oil. Cool. Stir in yeast dissolved in water. (Let yeast bloom according to package
directions.) Beat in egg. Add in about 1 1/2 c. of flour. Add additional flour until dough isn't
sticky. Knead the dough until
smooth. Place in a greased bowl, cover,
and let the dough rise about 40 to 60 minutes until doubled.
While dough is rising make
filling.
1/3 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. of butter or
margarine, softened + additional melted butter to brush on top of dough (1 to 2
T.)
3/4 c. of pecans
white or brown sugar and 1
tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. dark Karo syrup
Blend brown sugar &
butter. Spread in 9 or 10" square
pan. Arrange nuts over brown sugar &
butter mixture.
Once dough has risen, punch
down the dough and roll the dough out to about 15" x 8" on a floured
surface. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle
with white or brown sugar & cinnamon mixture. Roll like a jelly roll. Cut in about 16 slices (a little less than an
inch wide). Arrange in pan on top of the
butter, brown sugar & nut mixture.
Cover and let rise again (about 30 minutes).
Bake in a pre-heated 400°F
oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven
and pour Karo syrup over rolls. Bake an
additional 5 minutes.
February 22nd: National Margarita Day
Ingredients
(for one margarita):
1
ounce of tequila
1
ounce of Cointreau
Fresh
lime juice to taste
Kosher
salt and a lime wedge for garnish
Rim
a margarita glass with salt. Shake other
ingredients over ice and pour into the glass.
Garnish with a lime wedge.
To
make a frozen margarita, take a 1/4 of a cup of crushed ice, tequila, Cointreau,
& lime juice and mix in a blender.
February 23rd: Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day
We
have a new addition to our family -- the first fur baby that we've had in a
long time having been cat owners previously.
In honor of Rosie, here's a recipe for dog treats.
Ingredients:
3.5 oz container
sweet potato baby food
3/4 cup + 1 Tbsp
gluten-free flour*
1/4 cup rolled oats
1 Tbsp honey
1 large egg, beaten
* all-purpose or whole wheat
flour can also be used if your do doesn't have any wheat allergies
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350
degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium bowl,
combine sweet potato baby food, flour, rolled oats and honey. Use a
sturdy spatula to combine everything together. Dump content onto a
lightly floured working surface and knead dough together. (This could probably be done in a mixer
with a kneading paddle.)
- Pat or roll dough to a
thickness of about 1/4 to 1/2-inch. Use desired cookie cutters to
punch of shapes. Stick to one or two similar sized shapes to ensure
even baking.
- Place cutouts on
prepared baking sheet. Lightly brush the tops of cutouts with beaten
egg wash.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes
until biscuits are crisp and golden in color. Rotate pan midway
through baking. Let treats cool in pan before treating your dog.
February 24th: National Tortilla Chip Day
It's so easy & so much
less expensive to make your own tortilla chips.
Here's how to do it:
Ingredients
1
(12 ounce) package corn tortillas
1
tablespoon vegetable oil
3
tablespoons lime juice
1
teaspoon ground cumin
1
teaspoon chili powder
1
teaspoon salt
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Cut each tortilla into
8 chip sized wedges and arrange the wedges in a single layer on a cookie
sheet.
- In a mister, combine
the oil and lime juice. Mix well and spray each tortilla wedge until
slightly moist.
- Combine the cumin,
chili powder and salt in a small bowl and sprinkle on the chips.
- Bake for about 7
minutes. Rotate the pan and bake for another 8 minutes or until the chips are
crisp, but not too brown. Serve with salsas, garnishes or guacamole.
February 25th: National Chocolate Covered Nuts Day
Sometimes you feel like a
nut, sometimes you don't! Hopefully
today's one of those days you do! But
just to make things even nicer, cover them with chocolate!
Ingredients:
2 pounds white candy coating, coarsely chopped
1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1 package (11-1/2 ounces) milk chocolate chips
5 cups salted dry roasted peanuts
Directions:
In
a heavy saucepan over low heat, cook and stir candy coating and chips until
melted and smooth. Cool for 10 minutes; stir in peanuts.
Drop
by rounded tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Refrigerate
until firm, about 45 minutes. Yield: 10 dozen.
