Chocolate Raspberry Cake

Gather your ingredients:
1 box Chocolate Cake Mix
Eggs, Oil, water as mix calls for
1) 12oz. bag Frozen Raspberries
24 oz. Cream Cheese icing (16 oz. for 1 layer cake)
2 Tbs. Raspberry Preserves
¼ cup flour
Chocolate Sundae Syrup

Defrost berries by placing in colander and running lukewarm water over them. Drain very well.
Preheat oven and prepare cake mix as package directs.
Prepare pans by spraying with vegetable spray (Pam). Place about 2 tbs. flour pan(s) and swirl to dust the bottom and sides. This makes removing the cake easier.
Pour batter into one 13x9” or two 8” round pans.
Using a teaspoon, put little drops of raspberries over the batter. Use the baking times from the box as a guideline, cake may take a little longer.
Let cool enough to handle.
For 13x9” cake let cool till just warm. Ice with cream cheese icing (it will melt in slightly) and serve warm.
For double layer cake:
Remove cake by inverting a plate over the cake and flipping the plate and cake over. You want the bottom of the cake to be on the cake serving plate, so do this again with the cake serving plate. Spread the cake top with some raspberry preserves. They should melt in.
Place second cake on top, both tops of the cake should be together. This gives you a flat cake surface (baker’s secret!)
I like to put some icing on while the cake is still warm so it melts in. Fill in the gaps between cake tops (middle of cake) with icing. Let cool then chill to make the icing firm.
Ice the sides then the top of the cake with the remaining icing until you no longer see the chocolate.
A nice presentation is to drizzle chocolate syrup on the plate. Warm the preserves in the microwave for a few seconds and drizzle that with the chocolate. Place slice of cake on plate and drizzle a little more preserves over the chocolate cake.
Enjoy!
Variations:
Ice with chocolate icing.
Use strawberries in place of raspberries.
Use white cake mix with chopped (canned or frozen/thawed/drained) apples and walnuts.
Use white cake mix with chopped (canned or frozen/thawed/drained) peaches and raspberries, top with vanilla cool whip.
Check out the YouTube Video for slides of the cake making process.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWsp9dN9GgI

Not So Impossible Quiche

“Quiche” sounds complicated, but it is easy to make and inexpensive. Great for dinner or Sunday brunch.

You will need:
1 Pillsbury pie crust
14 oz. frozen loose chopped spinach
4 sliced mushrooms
½ cup chopped onion (1 medium)
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 cup shredded Cheddar Jack cheese
¼ cup imitation bacon bits*
2 cups (16 oz.) Eggbeaters (aprox.)
Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Place the spinach in a colander (strainer) and thaw by running warm water over it. Press to remove excess water, let dry.
Let the pie crust come to room temperature and remove from package. Place in 9” pie tin and crimp using your thumbs and forefingers.
Fill crust with spinach, mushrooms, onion, garlic powder and cheese. Pour in enough Eggbeaters to fill the crust.
Add bacon bits. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top, covering the other fillings.
Bake until eggs are solid and crust starts to brown, aprox. 40-45 minutes. Serve warm.
I just served this to my vegetarian 17 year-old and she "inhaled it".
Hints: I cover a cookie sheet with tin foil to catch any spills.
You can also make two at a time, freezing one for another meal. For individual microwaveable servings: let cool, slice and wrap servings separately in plastic wrap before freezing.
*Substitute: chopped bacon or ham

King Crab Bisque

Here is another Cafe Wrold menu item that my husband has been making for years. This was one of the favorites at our restaurant, and so easy even I can cook it.
Ingredients:
3 (6 oz.) cans Chicken of the Sea crabmeat
1 slice bacon (I prefer Hatfield)
3 Tbs. butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup chopped onions
2 cups diced potatoes
1 quart cream
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. Old Bay seasoning
1/2 tsp. Thyme
salt & pepper to taste

Saute bacon in butter slowly over low heat in a soup pot, about 10 minutes. Add onion, potatoes, bay leaf, Old Bay and thyme. Continue sauteing for 20 minutes. Add the flour and mix thoroughly. Cook over low heat an additional 15 minutes. Add the crab and cream. Slowly bring the temperature up to just below a simmer and cook for 5 minutes to blend the flavors. You now have a delicous crab soup and can stop right here.
To make a bisque, let the soup cool and run through your blender or food processor till smooth. Reheat. Enjoy!
Serves 10
Here is the YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I8Vwx9Ynkk

Triple Berry Cheescake

Ever since I saw the Triple Berry Cheesecake on Cafe' World I've been wanting some. This is an easy recipe and the result is to die for.

1 Keebler Brand Ready Made Crust, Chocolate
2 pkg.(8 oz. each) reduced fat Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 egg beaters (or 2 eggs)

Heat oven to 325°F
Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with mixer until well blended. Add egg substitute, (if using real eggs, beat in one at a time) mixing until blended. Pour into crust.
Bake 25min. (ovens vary) or until the top is just about dry. Refrigerate 1 1/2 hours or until chilled.
Topping:
1 cup each blueberries, strawberries (sliced) and raspberries
1/4 cup Maple Grove Farms Strawberry Syrup
I used frozen berries, thawed. Simply mix together.
Drizzle with Hershey's Double Chocolate Sundae Syrup.
Serves 8 (or 2 women 4 times)
To view the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnP9Yk6VjTE

Baked French Onion Soup

3 oz. butter
5 large onions, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 cups beef broth*
3 cups chicken broth
1 Tbs. white wine
Peel onions, cut in half and thinly slice into semi-circles. Sauté onions and garlic in butter over medium-low heat. The onions need to cook slowly, as they turn brownish their sugars will naturally be released and add a vast amount of flavor. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a slow boil.
Ladle carefully into oven safe crocks. Top with croutons, Swiss cheese and parmesan cheese. Bake in 350F/177C degree oven for 10 minutes. Nice served with toasted French bread.
Makes about 8 serving depending on the capacity of the crocks.
*Vegetarian substitute 6 cups vegetable broth
*You can also use all beef broth, substitute port wine

Vegetable Pot Pie

A homemade pot pie is nothing like the ones you buy in the grocer’s freezer section. Fresh from the oven they are really delicious. This is an easy and tasty meal. You can adapt it by adding your favorite cooked meat, and use regular gravy (making it even easier).

For Vegetarian Gravy

1 stick butter

Flour

(1) 14 1/2 oz can Vegetable Broth

Make roux: Melt butter in saucepan. Add enough flower to make it pull from the sides of the pan. Remove from pan, set aside.

Pour broth into saucepan. Slowly whisk in enough roux until you have the consistency of cream. You will have some leftover, just refrigerate it, it holds a long time. Simmer to thicken.

For filling:

2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped

Olive oil

Your favorite veggies, fresh or frozen

In a skillet, saute’ the garlic in a little olive oil.

For fresh veggies I added chopped onions (1 large), chopped carrots (3), Chopped celery (3 stalks), rutabaga (1 small), kohlrabi (1). Add a little water and simmer until tender.

I then added 1/2 bag of mixed silician style veggies and 1/2 bag of broccoli. Simmer until thawed. Mix with gravy.

Shell:

You can use premade pie dough or make your own*. I used 2 packages (4 ct. total) to make 4 small double crusted pies.

I varied the pies by adding to different shells: chopped seasoned tofu, rinsed black beans, chopped buffalo “chicken” (morning star) and chopped “beef” (morning star)

Top with remaing pie dough, crimp. Bake at 350 degrees F. until shell is lightly brown. For the small pies this took 18 minutes.

Enjoy!

*My husband and I used to own a restaurant and I did a lot of baking. One week I made a total of 80 pies! I haven’t made one pie crust from scratch since we got out of the business 13 years ago!