Walnut Clusters

Ingredients:
Dark Chocolate
White Chocolate
Salt
Caramel
Milk
Vanilla extract
Walnuts

Directions:
I don't have exact amounts for the ingredients.  This was a test run.  The caramel in the clusters hardened and didn't become gooey like I thought they would.  But basically, when melting the caramel, add in extra milk and a dash of vanilla extract to decrease the hardness of the caramel.  The amounts of each ingredient varies based on your preference.

Basically, I melted some dark chocolate, placed walnuts on the melted dark chocolate and then melted the caramel with milk and vanilla extract and drizzled that over the walnuts.  Next, I melted the white chocolate and drizzled that on top and then sprinkled salt over that.  Cover the tops with more dark chocolate.  Refrigerate or freeze the clusters between each layer.

Peppermint Bark

Something festive for the season.... and also incredibly easy to make.

The white chocolate is beige in this because I got lazy and used the pot I had used to melt the dark chocolate for the white chocolate without washing it.

Ingredients:
12 oz. dark chocolate
12 oz. white chocolate
3 tblsp. crushed peppermint

Directions:
Melt chocolate (microwave or double boiler)
Spread over wax paper to desired thickness.
Place in fridge or freezer to harden.
Repeat with white chocolate.
Before cooling the white chocolate, sprinkle with crushed peppermint.

Lemon Chiffon Cake

Another birthday cake!  I didn't have lemon zest or tartar sauce so I made some modifications to the original recipe.  Instead of lemon zest, I used cardamon (completely different flavor) and add the toasted coconut to the cake batter instead of using it for the icing.  For the tartar sauce substitute, I used lemon juice.  Anything to keep the egg whites stiff will do.

Bell Pepper Salad

Ingredients:
1 yellow bell pepper julienned
1 green bell pepper julienned
1 red bell pepper julienned
1 orange bell pepper julienned
1 (large) red onion sliced
1/2 c. olive oil
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. celery seeds
black pepper and salt to taste
2 cloves garlic minced

Directions:
Mix together

Note: I did not have green peppers when I made this... thus none in the picture.

Broccoli Casserole II

Recipe found at this previous post.
Only change I would make is to add flour to onion/oil before adding milk to insure clumping does not occur.  I also added more cheese this time.

Birthday Cake

Chocolate cake with Buttercream/Cream Cheese Icing.
Cake recipe from my Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cake Recipe.  Only variation I would put is to use whole milk or half and half instead of skim milk.

Buttercream/Cream Cheese Icing:
Ingredients:
2 1/2 c. confectioner's sugar
3/4 c. butter softened.
6 oz. cream cheese

Directions:
Mix cream cheese and butter.
Add in sugar until completely saturated.

Note: For the pinkish icing I added 1 tbls. of cocoa and red food coloring.

Squash and Spinach Gratin

Ingredients:
3 pounds fresh spinach, stems discarded, or 3 (10-ounce) packages frozen leaf spinach, thawed3/4 cup finely chopped onion (1 small)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
Rounded 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup heavy cream
3 yellow squash sliced
2 tomatoes
Mozarella Cheese for topping
1 tbls. butter
oil

Directions:
Preheat oven: 400 F.
Saute onions and garlic in oil until onions are translucent.
Place in bowl with spinach.  Mix in nutmeg, salt, pepper and cream.
Grease bottom of a pan (I've used a loaf pan and a springform pan for this).
Cut up half of the butter and place on bottom of pan.
Line with slices of yellow squash.
Layer with spinach mixture and repeat.
On the top layers, place sliced tomatoes, remaining butter and cheese.
Bake for 40 min.

Recipe modified from here.

Apple Pie

Ingredients:
Filling:
6 cored, peeled and diced apples (I used Gala)
1 1/2 tbls. Apple Pie Spice --or-- 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 1/4 tbls. allspice, 1/4 tablespoon nutmeg
1/2 c. sugar
1 tbls. melted butter
1/4 c. brown sugar

Crust (makes one layer):
1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter diced finely
1/4 c. ice water

Directions:
Preheat oven: 375 F
Filling:
Mix all the ingredients together, set aside.

Crust:
Double the recipe to make both pie crust layers.
Dice the butter and place in freezer.
Mix salt and flour.
Add diced butter to form crumbles.
Mix in water to make dough.  Don't overwork the dough.
Refrigerate dough for about 2 hours.
Roll out 1/2 the dough (if you doubled the recipe) and place in 9 in. pie pan.
Add filling.
Roll out next layer and cover.
You can make a design on the top layer if you wish.
Bake for about 90 minutes.