Oprah's Grilled Cheese & A Little Food For Thought

Today I have the privilege of being a guest blogger over at Out of the Extraordinary. Stop by and discover the power of corn dogs and birthday cake, plus a heavenly recipe for an ooey, gooey, Oprah-approved grilled cheese sandwich. (You definitely want to make this. Seriously.) And please browse through her site. Janet has so many wonderful, inspirational posts. She's a great friend and a great blogger!

If you've hopped over from Janet's blog, welcome! I've only been cooking and blogging for a few months, but I've already stumbled on some delicious discoveries. Make yourself at home and take a look around. (I suggest starting with the dessert category to the left.)

Better Than Sex Cake

Can cake be better than sex? Let's see....we're talking about a powdered sugar-pecan crust topped with fluffy cheesecake, fudgy chocolate pudding, whipped cream and cocoa. Yep. I'll take a slice of this dreamboat dessert over having to shave my legs any day of the week. 

Even with lightened ingredients, this lust-worthy lip-licker has the power to make you ditch your diet and scarf down three slices in one sitting. But for me, it wasn't love at first sight. I was a bit skeptical at first because it looked a little too "instant Jell-o pudding" for me. I prefer something I can sink my teeth into. Like a triple fudge brownie. And five layers meant five opportunities to mess something up. But it turned out to be an amazingly easy recipe that was equally as amazing to eat. 

The crust, a mix of chopped, toasted pecans, powdered sugar, flour and butter was a breeze to make thanks to my brand new food processor. How did I ever survive without this beast of a machine? Oh, that's right, by making microscopic batches of hummus in a teeny nut chopper and using forks for four-hour dough blending sessions. (Thank you, mom and dad! Best Christmas gift ever.)

  

  

  

Once the crust had baked and cooled, I whipped up the cream cheese layer, which in my opinion really made the dessert. Without it, the taste would be similar to an instant pudding pie. Still good, granted, but this creamy, rich layer takes the dessert from one-night-stand status to a totally committed relationship.

  

  

After the cheesecake layer chilled, I slathered on the pudding. I used chocolate fudge instead of milk chocolate and I highly recommend it. And I bet dark chocolate would be even better. Maybe next time. And there will be a next time.

  

  

A little more whipped cream, then into the fridge it went for another 30 minutes. But because it was already 1 a.m., that meant that I went to bed unsatisfied with a tummy void of layered goodness.

  

  

The next day, I sifted on a little cocoa, sliced this baby up, and...

 

  

Oh my goodness, it was just downright delicious. The crunchy, buttery crust paired perfectly with the rich cream cheese, cool chocolate pudding and fluffy whipped cream. Amazing.  Luke and I both couldn't get enough. We each ate two huge slices a day until it disappeared. And the best part about this better than sex cake? The recipe makes a lot. So it will, in fact, last longer than three minutes. Just sayin.

  

Better Than Sex Cake

(Cool, Creamy Chocolate Dessert)

Cooking Light, May 2008

Yield: 15 servings (serving size: 1 piece)

Cookbook Note: You can make this up to one day ahead, but spread the remaining whipped topping mixture over the chocolate pudding layer right before serving.

Ingredients

Crust:
1 1/4  cups  all-purpose flour (about 5 1/2 ounces)
1/4  cup  powdered sugar
6  tablespoons  chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1/4  cup finely chopped pecans, toasted
Cooking spray

Filling:
1  cup  powdered sugar
1/2  cup  (4 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
1/2  cup  (4 ounces) fat-free cream cheese, softened
1  (8-ounce) carton frozen reduced-calorie whipped topping, thawed and divided
3  cups  1% low-fat milk
2  (3.9-ounce) packages chocolate instant pudding mix
Unsweetened cocoa (optional)

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325°.

To prepare crust, lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and 1/4 cup sugar in a food processor; pulse 2 times or until combined. Add butter; pulse 10 times or until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in pecans. Firmly press mixture into bottom of a 13 x 9–inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 325° for 20 minutes or until crust is lightly browned. Cool completely.

To prepare filling, place 1 cup sugar and cream cheeses in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until fluffy. Fold in half of whipped topping. Spread cream cheese mixture on cooled crust. Cover loosely; refrigerate 1 hour.

Combine milk and pudding mix in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed for 2 minutes. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour or until pudding is set. Spread the pudding mixture over cream cheese layer. Spread remaining half of thawed whipped topping over pudding layer. Cover and chill for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with cocoa, if desired. Cut into 15 pieces.

Nutritional Information: Calories: 268 (34% from fat), Fat: 10.2g (sat 6.3g,mono 2.2g,poly 0.7g), Protein: 5.2g, Carbohydrate: 39.5g, Fiber: 1.1g, Cholesterol: 20mg, Iron: 0.9mg, Sodium: 183mg, Calcium: 92mg.

Thyme & Feta Chicken with Peppers & Onions

Don’t you just love it when life throws you off guard with an unexpected, yet delightfully pleasant surprise? Like when a two-minute make-up job ends up beating your usual stare-into-the-mirror marathon. Or when you’re at a loss for words, then suddenly, poetic grace miraculously flows from your mouth. Or in my most recent case, when a last minute, somewhat remiss meal turns out to be something that simply must become part of your permanent repertoire.

I guess it just goes to show that not all delicious dishes require exotic ingredients and hours of preparation. Indeed, there truly are healthy, quick, taste bud-tantalizing gold mines out there. And this is one of them.

Now, I'm already a huge fan of Mediterranean food. Just ask the Kabob joint by my office. In fact, I think in appreciation of my loyalty, they should seriously consider naming their shawarma/fatoush combo meal after me. So it comes as no surprise that a meal with similar flare would be welcomed with open arms to my dinner table.

But there are so many other reasons why I love this recipe, too. One of the biggest is the fact that I had all the ingredients on hand, aside from the onion and pepper. And that, my friends, is a huge plus in my book. Not that I don't like grocery shopping. I do. But two-hour ingredient stakeouts on Friday nights are getting kind of old, so this was a nice break.

Another great quality this meal possesses is simplicity. You gotta love a recipe with only one small paragraph of instructions. Take the chicken, for example. Instead of the usual, three-bowl, flour-egg-breadcrumb drippy mess, it only required a quick toss in a little seasoned flour and it was in the pan. And thanks to the thyme, it smelled like heaven while cooking and had a great, Greek flavor.

  

  

  

  

After four wonderfully-scented minutes on each side, I was seriously ready to dig in (what you can’t see in the photos are all the pieces I cut off for “necessary taste tests”). But my chicken was still a little pink in the middle, so instead of just keeping it warm, I covered and baked it for about ten minutes at 350º while I prepared the veggies.

And what the chicken left behind in the pan was glorious – a display of tiny, tasty caramelized bits, which I later learned is called “fond,” that were about to bring loads of flavor to my peppers and onions. And by adding the broth and white wine vinegar, I began “deglazing” the pan, something I always hear on cooking shows, which loosened all that fabulous fond and created a flavorful sauce.

  

After a few minutes, I transferred the mix to a bowl, stirred in some feta, returned the chicken to the pan, covered it with even more feta (another reason I love this recipe), and once the cheese was melted, we were ready to eat.

  

And let me tell you. We melted, too. It was delicious. And yet so simple and fast! I was planning on making some garlic couscous for a side, but it slipped my mind in all the excitement. It probably would have made the perfect accompaniment, but even without it, this dish was fantastic.

This is truly a meal anyone can make, any night of the week, all while barely lifting a finger. Well, aside from the eating part. That is definitely a step you won't be able to avoid.

 

  

Thyme & Feta Chicken with Peppers & Onions

Cooking Light, October 1999
Yield: 2 servings

Cookbook Note: Crumbled feta cheese and fresh vegetable strips bring the flavor of the Mediterranean to the table in no time with this quick all-in-one dish.

Ingredients:
1  tablespoon  all-purpose flour
1/2  teaspoon  dried marjoram or thyme (I used thyme and highly recommend)
1/4  teaspoon  black pepper
1/8  teaspoon  salt
2  (4-ounce) skinned, boned chicken breast halves
1  teaspoon  olive oil
Cooking spray
2/3  cup  red bell pepper strips
1/2  cup  vertically sliced red onion
1/3  cup  fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1  teaspoon  white wine vinegar
1/4  cup  (1 ounce) crumbled feta cheese, divided
Oregano sprigs (optional)

Preparation:
Combine first 4 ingredients in a shallow dish. Dredge chicken in flour mixture. Heat oil in a nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add chicken, and cook 4 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm. Add bell pepper, onion, broth, and vinegar to pan; cook 5 minutes or until vegetables are soft, stirring frequently. Spoon bell pepper mixture into a bowl; stir in 2 tablespoons cheese. Return chicken to pan, and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons cheese. Cover; cook over low heat 2 minutes or until cheese melts. Divide the vegetable mixture evenly between 2 plates, and top each serving with a chicken breast half. Garnish with oregano sprigs, if desired.

Nutritional Information: Calories: 234 (28% from fat), Fat: 7.3g (sat 2.8g,mono 2.7g,poly 0.7g), Protein: 29.8g, Carbohydrate: 8.2g, Fiber:1.3g, Cholesterol: 78mg, Iron:1.8mg, Sodium: 461mg, Calcium: 95mg.

Guiltless Chocolate Chip Cookies

Throughout this entire process of learning to cook, I have, indeed, gotten better. I can now caramelize shallots, stuff a chicken breast and roast garlic with results that have me seriously questioning ever wasting money at restaurants again. But there's still one thing that continues to be a thorn in my side. And that, my friends, is baking. More specifically, cookies. 

I follow the recipes to a T. I peer into the oven while they bake like an overprotective mom. But still, out of all the batches I've made, I somehow managed to screw up each and every one of them. 

I made the chocolate spiderweb cookies too crunchy and the icing too thick. The dough was entirely too sticky to roll for the raspberry strippers. All kinds of problems with the lemon-honey drop cookies left them bottomless. I kept the chewy chocolate cherry cookies in the oven far too long. And as for these chocolate chip cookies,  I think "raw" sums it up best.

What's wrong with me? Is their lightness to blame? Their lack of exuberant amounts of butter and sugar? Are there hidden cookies codes out there that I'm unaware of? Did my mom simply fail to pass down the cookie gene to me?

If you know the answer, please enlighten me. Cookies are so quick and tasty that I just can't bare to give up on them. But at this moment, I'm considering making only cake from this point on, as it has proven to be the one dessert I can't seem to screw up. (Don't even get me started on my problems with pie.)

But for now, here's one more sad defeat. But let the record show that even though the score is an embarrassing 5:0, most of those cookies tasted alright regardless of their flaws, so all was not (totally) lost.

  

  

Things started out normal. Butter, sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla, chocolate chips. All expected ingredients. Sure, there was a lot less of each when compared to the contents of a Mrs. Fields or Otis Spunkmeyer creation, but at least they all made an appearance.

  

  

Scooping them was easy enough. The recipe makes close to 50 cookies, so it took a little time and about four cookie sheets, but all worth it for a nice stock of yumminess. Or so I thought.

  

  

  

Alas, it was the baking that did me in. In fear of overcooking the cookies, which I so often do, I took them out a little early. Because I was not going to be defeated by an over-crunchy, dry cookie ever again! No, these chocolate chip cookies were going to be my victory! The end of my cookie curse! 

But what I expected to be ooey-gooey awesomeness turned out to be a slightly hardened piece of raw cookie dough. Don't be fooled by their beautiful outward appearance. In fact, they were so raw that they were literally dripping through the wires of my cooling rack. So in a frantic dash I flung them back on the baking sheets until they were solid. Then I let them cool. Then I tasted. Then I cried.

  

Once I got past the undone middle, the cookies actually had a decent taste for being guiltless. Although, the fact that I ruined them still left me feeling quite guilty. Maybe one day I'll learn to conquer the cookie. But for now, nothing drowns out the taste of defeat like a nice glass of ice cold milk.

 

  

(Guiltless) Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cooking Light, June 2007

Yield: 4-dozen (serving size: 1 cookie)

Cookbook Note: Store up to one week in an airtight container--if they last that long. We suggest keeping a dozen in the freezer for emergencies.

Ingredients:
2 1/4  cups  all-purpose flour (about 10 ounces)
1  teaspoon  baking soda
1/4  teaspoon  salt
1  cup  packed brown sugar
3/4  cup  granulated sugar
1/2  cup  butter, softened
1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
2  large egg whites
3/4  cup  semisweet chocolate chips
Cooking spray

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Combine sugars and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add vanilla and egg whites; beat 1 minute. Add flour mixture and chips; beat until blended.

Drop dough by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on pans for 2 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

Nutritional Information: Calories: 88 (31% from fat), Fat: 3g (sat 1.8g,mono 0.5g,poly 0.1g), Protein:1g, Carbohydrate: 14.6g, Fiber: 0.2g, Cholesterol: 5mg, Iron: 0.4mg, Sodium: 56mg, Calcium: 5mg.