Spicy-Crunchy Chicken Lettuce Cups

 This meal has been my favorite recipe since I was about 10 years old. It is great for a quick summer weeknight meal. It's crunchy, spicy, tangy, sweet, and overall DELICIOUS!

 Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons Southeast Asian fish sauce
• 2 teaspoons Asian-style chile paste, like sambal oelek
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, like corn, peanut, or soy
• 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound ground chicken (or ground turkey)
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt (this isn't required, tastes fine without)
• 4 scallions (white and green), thinly sliced
• 1 medium carrot, grated
• 1/2 cup canned, drained water chestnuts, chopped (I don't use water chestnuts)
• 3 to 4 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves (I don't use mint leaves)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander leaves (cilantro)
• 8 to 10 Bibb lettuce leaves (or iceberg lettuce)
• Lime wedges
• 
  
• Directions

In a small bowl, whisk together the lime juice, sugar, fish sauce, and chile paste. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the ginger and garlic and stir-fry, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the chicken and salt, and stir-fry the meat, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until just cooked through, about 6 minutes. Stir in the scallions, carrot, and water chestnuts. Transfer the chicken mixture to a bowl and cool. Stir in the lime juice mixture, mint, and coriander. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Arrange the lettuce leaves on a platter and fill each with some of the chicken salad. Serve with lime wedges.

Flourless Chocolate Almond Cake

 Are you watching your weight? Or just trying to eat healthy? Well no more feeling guilty about eating cake because right here is a great gluten-free cake recipe that tastes delicious. This cake is just the right sweetness and is perfect for parties. Enjoy:)
Ingredients
FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE-ALMOND CAKE:

• 1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) butter
• 1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) sugar
• 9 eggs, separated 
• 10 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, shaved (see picture below)
• 2 3/4 cups (10 ounces) blanched almond meal (also called almond flour)

CHOCOLATE GANACHE:

• 1 1/2 pounds semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 3 cups heavy cream

• 4 tablespoons butter
• rasberries for garnish

Directions

To make the cake:
Preheat oven to 350degreesF with the oven rack in the middle.Grease a 13x18-inch baking sheet and line it with parchment paper.

Shave the chocolate using a box grater or the grater attachment on your food processor. It needs to be fine flecks of chocolate in order to blend well into the cake.

Cream the butter, sugar and yolks together, using the paddle attachment on your stand mixer, on medium speed, until they are light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add the shaved chocolate and almond meal to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until it is evenly distributed. Turn the speed up to medium and mix for 1 more minute.

In a clean mixing bowl whip the egg whites on medium high until they are at soft peaks, about 3 minutes, but be sure to watch them carefully. If the egg whites are over whipped and curdled looking they will be difficult to fold into the chocolate mixture.

Mix a third of the whites into the chocolate mixture. This will lighten up the chocolate mixture so you can fold the rest of the whites in more easily. Add half of the remaining whites and gently fold them into the chocolate. Repeat with the remaining whites.

Pour the batter onto the prepared pan and use a spatula to smooth the mixture out, making sure it is very even.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan completely on a cake rack.

Once the cake is cool, run a knife around the edge to loosen it. Invert the cake onto the back of another baking sheet, covered with parchment or a cutting board covered in parchment. Peel the parchment off of what is now the top of the cake.

Pour 1/3 of the ganche over the cooled cake. Spread the ganache evenly over the surface. Refrigerate the cake and allow the ganache to cool completely.

Cut the cake into 3 equal pieces, cutting along the long side of the cake.

Stack the 3 layers together. Trim the sides so they are perfectly smooth and then cut the cake in half.

Stack the 2 pieces to create a cube. Place the cake on a cooling rack set over a baking pan, which will catch the dripping ganche. Pour the remaining ganche slowly over the top of the cake. It needs to be cool enough that the ganache clings to the cake and doesn't just drip off. You may have to go over it a few times to make sure the whole thing is covered smoothly.

You can use the leftover ganache, once it has set firm at room temperature, to pipe a design along the bottom of the cake after you have placed it on a serving dish.

Decorate with berries and edible flowers.

To make the ganache:

In a large saucepan bring the cream substitute to a gentle simmer. Turn off the heat and add the finely chopped chocolate. Swirl thechocolate in the pan to make sure the liquid covers it all and allow it to sit for 3 minutes. Gently stir the ganache with a rubber spatulauntil it is completely smooth. You do not want to whisk the mixture or you will get air bubbles in the ganache. Let the ganache sit for 15 minutes to cool slightly.

   

Pinterest

Please follow me on Pinterest. I just discovered it in March and I have been addicted ever since. Here's the link to my Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/mangopapaya27/
If you have never heard about this online pin board, then you should check it out asap. I'm almost positive that you'll get obsessed also. It's basically just an "online pin board" where you just repin whatever pictures you want to be on your pin boards. Right now I have one-thousand seven-hundred and something pins. I mostly pin food(of course), style, DIY, and hair pictures. Come check Pinterest out and follow me and I might just follow you back!
Thanks, Maddie <3

Fudgy Brownie Cookies

    Ready for another delicious cookie recipe? Well, I've definitely got one for you. These are called fudgy brownie cookies and the reason they're called this is because they are actually made from brownie mix. They are crunchewy and wonderfully chocolaty. And the best part about them is that they are super simple to make!
       Ingredients
1 package (18 to 21 oz. box) fudge brownie mix
1-1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 whole eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons milk, or more as needed
1 cup dark chocolate chunks

Preparation Instructions

Whisk together brownie mix, flour, and sugar. Using a heavy spoon, stir in the eggs one at a time, followed by butter and 2 tablespoons milk. If the batter appears like there is too much flour, add 1 more tablespoon of milk. Batter will be very thick. Fold in chocolate chunks. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough on the cookie sheet. You want pretty thick cookies here to get the brownie feel, about 3 inches apart. Press down slightly. Don't flatten completely. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Makes 20 cookies.

Meltaway Cookies

These cookies fit its title perfectly. When you put one in your mouth it's almost like magic. They melt in your mouth! They taste similar to shortbread cookies because their base is butter. And the best part about them is that they are made up of only 6 ingredients. In 1 word I would describe these cookies as DELICIOUS!

MELTAWAYS
1 cup butter
3/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup flour
1 recipe cream cheese frosting,
see below

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl beat the butter until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Then mix in the cornstarch and powdered sugar until smooth. Next, gradually beat in the flour. On 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper place teaspoon sized balls of dough. Take the bottom of a glass and press down on the cookies to flatten them out, using powdered sugar so it doesn't stick. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
3 oz. Cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat the cream cheese till it is smooth and a liitle bit fluffy. Mix in powdered sugar and vanilla. Add food coloring if desired.
Spread on cooled cookies and serve. Frost only the ones you're going to eat right away.

An update!

So remember when I said I was going to be in the Little Orphan Annie Jr. well this weekend its playing at our community theater, it is really really small. Thats why I haven't had time to post anything so again I give my apologies. The play has been a success so far and thats probably because of me, I'm Molly one of the main orphans, just kidding everyone plays a part in it especially Annie. You would know that if you've ever been in a production. So as you can tell I haven't even had a moment to sit down and type so I definitely haven't had time to cook a single thing, this is just an update of what I've been doing. Today I had a soccer game about 20 minutes away from where I live, we didn't win we were like 2 points off but my excuse is that was my first soccer game in my life. I mean I've watched my cousin before but man was it ruff. You have to run so much. Yeah so for the food I've been eating, well its been horrible usually I like fast food but to much it literally makes you sick, I got so tired of it.

Things things and more things

Oh my I'm so sorry for not posting anything lately I've been so buzy, first I'm in the play Annie- I'm Molly- then it was my Birthday!!!(: So I turned 11 and I had a party with my friends. It was really fun, we had savory crepes for dinner and for dessert we had chocolate fondue with pineapple, strawberries, graham crackers and marshmallows. I thought everything was delicious as did everyone else, we also had a lot of fun games. For my Birthday from my parents I got 2 cooking books, first I got A Crepes book of all different kinds, second I got a book called Ethnic Foods of Hawai'i, which has many yummy treats that I love. I wanted to do a shout out to Lush, if you don't know what lush is well it is a place where you can buy beauty cosmetics, like bubble bars and bath bombs and shower gels and such. I really am addicted to lush, my sister got lush for me for my Birthday, the honey gift set! It is amazing! You can buy LUSH online too, heres the link: www.lushusa.com I really would like everyone to check out this website, please tell me if you like it, I almost know you will!!!(: