Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce

The other day our neighbor gave us eight quarts of heavy whipping cream.  Eight.  And when life gives you heavy cream, you make alfredo (and ice cream, and butter, and creamy soups...).  I found this delicious knock off recipe on Top Secret Recipes, and if you happen to have eight quarts of heavy cream that you need to use, this is definitely the recipe for you!

Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce
from: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes, by Todd Wilbur.

1/2 c. butter
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 c. heavy cream
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
pinch salt
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese

In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat.  Add the garlic, heavy cream, pepper and salt and let it simmer over a low heat.  Add the cheese and continue simmering for 8 minutes or until it thickens up.  Remove it from the heat and serve it over your favorite pasta.  

Perfectly Cooked Steak

This year, Valentine's Day was on a Sunday, so we didn't go out.  Dustin offered to make dinner, and I wasn't going to argue with that!  He chose steak (big surprise) and baked sweet potatoes.  He found a recipe for a "perfectly cooked steak" and got sucked in.  And, I must say, it was a well cooked steak.  And pretty easy to accomplish.

Perfectly Broiled Steak

by: food.com

Steak

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

olive oil (or canola)

Move the rack in your oven to be 6 inches from the top.  Preheat your oven and your skillet by setting your oven to broil, with the skillet in it, for 15-20 minutes.  Using a paper towel, wipe any excess moisture from your steaks.  Rub your steak with the oil, salt and pepper (and any other seasonings that you want).  Once your skillet is extremely hot, lay the steaks on the skillet and sear them in the oven for three minutes per side.  Make sure that you don't stab them with a fork to turn them.  Use tongs to pick them up.  After you have seared both sides, turn your oven to 500 degrees and cook them according to this chart, turning them once: 

Rare (120-130F)1" 0-1 minute, 1 1/4" 2-3 minutes, 1 3/4" 4-5 minutes
Medium (140-150F) 1" 2-3 minutes, 1 1/4" 4-5 minutes, 1 3/4" 6-7 minutes
Medium Well (150-160F) 1" 4-5 minutes, 1 1/4" 6-7 minutes, 1 3/4" 8-9 minutes


And that should give you a perfectly cooked steak!

Banoffee Pie

I made this pie for Thanksgiving this year.  And it is much more than just a graham cracker crust and some caramel.  But, I think I must have taken a picture of the final product with someone else's camera at Thanksgiving.  So, to my family members who were there, if you have a picture of my pie, could you send it to me?  This was a super rich, sweet and very delicious pie.  Try to imagine it covered in bananas and whipping cream.  Yum.

Banoffee Pie
from: many different websites, but mostly, food.com

1 graham cracker crust
1 can sweetened condensed milk
3 bananas
1 pint heavy whipping cream
sugar and vanilla, to taste

The night before you need your pie (or at least a good few hours before), turn your sweetened condensed milk into dulce de leche.  I followed the recipe for this on Our Best Bites, but there were many different ways to make it.  Pour your can of sweetened condensed milk into a shallow baking dish, like a pie plate.  Make a water bath by setting the pie plate inside a larger dish (like a roasting pan).  Pour water in the outside dish until it is about halfway up the outside of the pie plate.  Cover the pie plate tightly with tin foil.  Bake it at 425 degrees for an hour and then check it.  It should be a nice, brown, carmel color.  If it isn't put it back in for another 20 minutes, or so and check it again.  Once it is ready, stir it until it is smooth and then let it cool a little before pouring it into the graham cracker crust.  Refrigerate it over night (or a couple of hours).  Prepare your heavy whipping cream by mixing together the cream, sugar and vanilla (I usually add about 2 tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla, but taste it and add more if you want). When you are ready to serve it, slice the bananas onto the dulce de leche and then spread the whipping cream over the top of that.  Grate a chocolate bar on top.  Serve it immediately.  And have a big drink of milk ready!

Freezer Meal Chicken Alfredo

The other day I was needing something new to try, and I found this recipe.  It is a very easy homemade alfredo recipe, with a little bonus of instructions for making it a freezer meal.  This recipe is enough for two 9X13 pans, with the idea being that you will freeze one of those pans for another day.  I only wanted one on this night, so I halved it and just cooked it up right then.  But this would be a nice recipe if you were taking dinner to someone else, plus making it for your family

Chicken Alfredo (enough for two pans)
adapted from: Our Best Bites

6 Tbsp butter, plus more for baking dishes
salt and pepper
16 oz. penne pasta
1 tsp. olive oil
2 chicken breasts, cut into strips
1/2 c. plus 2 Tbsp. flour
3 tsp. minced garlic
6 c. whole milk
mushrooms (either a can of sliced mushrooms, or thinly sliced fresh mushrooms)
sun dried tomatoes
1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
4 oz. softened cream cheese
1 1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese

Butter two 9X13 pans.  If you are going to freeze one, use a disposable foil pan.  In a large pot, cook your pasta in boiling water, for 3 minutes.  Drain the pasta and set it aside.  In a large skillet, heat your oil over medium high heat.  Season your chicken with salt and pepper, and cook it until it is cooked through.  Remove it from the pan.  In the same pan, saute the mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes and set them aside.  In a large sauce pan melt the butter over medium heat.  Stir in the flour and garlic.  Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly with a wire whisk.  Bring it to a simmer.  Keep stirring as the sauce thickens and then add the mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes.  Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the mozzarella, cream cheese and half of the Parmesan.  Stir it until it is smooth.  Add the chicken and the pasta to your 9X13 pans.  Pour half of the sauce over each pan.  If you are cooking it now, sprinkle the rest of the Parmesan over the top.  If you are freezing it, put the rest of the Parmesan in a ziplock bag.  Bake at 400 degrees, for 25 minutes, or until it is golden and bubbling. 

Scotcharoos

My neighbor, Virginia, makes the most delicious scotcharoos.  This week she brought over an entire 9X13 pan for me.  To eat all by myself.  Just kidding.  Those were not her instructions.  But I did consume enough in one sitting to put myself into a sugar induced coma for the next couple of days.  The above picture is of hers, but I want and need to have this recipe documented for my further use.  So we get to see her beauties.  

Scotcharoos
by: My neighbor Virginia

3/4 c. sugar
1 c. corn syrup
1 c. peanut butter
6 c. rice crispies
1 bag milk chocolate chips
1 bag butterscotch chips

In a large pot, over medium high heat, stir together the sugar and corn syrup, just until it begins to start boiling.  Don't let it cook too long!  I put an exclamation point there, because I did let it cook too long and my scotcharoos were as hard as a rock.  My neighbor says that it really needs to just barely start boiling.  Then add the peanut butter and stir it until it is just melty.  Those are her words.  Stir in the rice crispies until well combined and pour it into a greased 9X13 pan.  In a glass bowl, combine the bag of milk chocolate chips and the bag of butterscotch chips.  Cook them for 30 seconds and then stir.  Repeat as many times as needed until they are melted.  Pour them over the top of your rice crispy mixture and refrigerate it for 30 minutes.

Easy Cinnamon Rolls

We have a tradition at our house to eat cinnamon rolls during General Conference .  Sometimes I remember this tradition the night before, so I make a quick run to the store and buy a Pillsbury can of cinnamon rolls.  Thank goodness for those Pillsbury cans of cinnamon rolls.  But, every so often, I remember the day before, and I actually have some time, and a willing helper or two, and I make homemade cinnamon rolls!  This time, I had just a little bit of time, so I found this recipe for easy cinnamon rolls, that also only need to rise one time.  They did end up being pretty easy, which was what I was going for.  If I had more time and less busy, I think I prefer my ol' standby recipe, which has to rise multiple times and is definitely more high maintenance, but a little softer and fluffier.  But, if you have limited time, these are a great alternative (to a late night run for Pillsbury canned rolls!).

Easy Cinnamon Rolls
from: sallysbakingaddiction.com

2 3/4 c. flour
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 package instant yeast
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. milk
2 1/2 Tbsp. butter
1 egg

For the filling:
3 Tbsp. softened butter
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1/4 c. sugar

In a large bowl, stir together 2 1/4 cups of the flour, sugar, salt and yeast.  In another bowl, add the water, milk and butter, and microwave it until it is hot to the touch and the butter melts.  Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture.  Add the egg and stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft, sticky dough that pulls away from the side of the bowl while you are stirring.  On a lightly floured surface, dump your dough and knead if for 3-4 minutes.  Place it in a bowl that has been sprayed with cooking spray, and let it rest for 10 minutes.  While it is resting, mix your cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and set it aside.  After 10 minutes, on a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into an 8X14 inch rectangle, spread with the softened butter and sprinkle it with the cinnamon sugar.  Roll it up and cut it into 12 pieces.  A little trick to help with cinnamon roll cutting is to get a long piece of thread, wrap it around the roll about an inch in, and pull the two sides together.  It will cut the roll perfectly.  Does that make any sense at all?

Place the cut rolls into a greased pan (I doubled my recipe and used a 9X13 and a glass pie tin), lightly cover them with tin foil and place them in an oven, warmed to 200 degrees and then turned off.  Let them rise until doubled in size, about 90 minutes.  Bake them at 350 degrees, for 25-30 minutes.  I covered mine with the tin foil for the first 15 minutes, and then took the tin foil off for the last half of baking.  Top them with frosting and eat them warm!

Brigadeiro (Brazilian Chocolate Truffle)

So far, I have found that I love almost all Brazilian food that I have tried.  Dustin served his mission in Brazil, so of course, he is a big fan of their food, and it is a fun treat for him when I make some Brazilian dish.  Last week we tried a Brazilian dessert, that was not only delicious, but super easy to make.  I loved it!  It combined two of my favorite ingredients (and not too many more): sweetened condensed milk and chocolate.  Mmmm.  These would be even cuter if you put them in a mini cupcake paper, like they apparently do in Brazil, but I was making them for children, and I know they didn't really care, so why waste the papers?

Brigadeiro

by: cynthiapresser.com

2 Tbsp. butter

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

3 Tbsp. cocoa powder

chocolate sprinkles

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, sweetened condensed milk and cocoa powder.  Stir it constantly until it thickens and reduces down quite a bit (her website says that you will be able to see quite a bit of the bottom of the pan, and that is what happened after I had stirred it for about 10 minutes).  Take the pan off the heat and let the mixture cool to room temperature.  Once it has cooled, butter your hands and begin to roll the candy into bite size balls.  Roll each ball in the chocolate sprinkles.  You can serve them at room temperature, or chilled.  I had mine after it had chilled and it was so delicious!