Deliciousness this week

Dinners this week went something like this:

Mexican Fiesta Potluck, Eggplant curry, Pesto Fettucine Salad, Red Thai Curry with Pork, and (take out) Butter Chicken Pizza.

My two favorites this week: My addition to the Mexican Potluck was a Mexican Chocolate Cake. The other winning meal was the Pesto Fettucine Salad. Both so easy and delicious. So here are the recipes.

Mexican Chocolate Cake with Spicy Chocolate Ganache:

I just used a no-name chocolate cake mix that was for a single layer cake. I pre-heated the oven to whatever the package said. I poured the mix into a bowl and added about 3/4 t cinnamon, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. The cake mix called for 1/2 cup of water. Instead I added 1/4 cup sour cream and 1/4 cup water, and of course an egg. Because the batter looked a tad thick I splashed in a bit more water until it looked right, and a pinch of baking soda, even if just for good luck! I poured that into a oiled and floured bunt pan and stuck it in the oven.

Mexican Chocolate Ganache:
This was the clincher! Just heat one cup of milk on the stove. Stir in 1 T of vanilla or 2 T rum. Pour 1 cup of chocolate chips into a bowl and set aside. When the milk is ready to boil turn off the stove and slowly pour 3/4 of the milk into the bowl with chocolate chips while stirring. It should look thick and syrrupy. Put that in the fridge for 20-30 min. When ready, mix in the rest of the milk to your liking. I like this to be the texture of butter but sometimes it turns out a little more runny. You can stir in 1/8 t of Cayenne pepper for a little warmth.

This combo turned out delicous and I'm sure going to make it again.

 My other favorite this week was the cold salad: Pesto Fettucine. I got the basic recipe from here:
http://www.cooksrecipes.com/salad/spinach_and_pasta_salad_recipe.html

The only difference: I didn't have a red onion and I don't like the other ones raw. I also didn't have pine nuts. So I sauteed one small white onion with some cashewnuts and added that to the mix instead. For some protein I boiled up one can of chickpeas and threw them in too. I added about 1/4 cup of feta and a little more lemon juice. Then I tasted it at the end and decided an apple would just throw this off the hook. So chopped one up and threw it in. I also added a little more fresh ground pepper.

I found a lot of other great ideas from http://www.cooksrecipes.com/ when I googled "entree salad recipes."

Not only are these great for dinners, they are great to take for work the next day because they are meant to be cold.

Yay for delicious food!!                                            marcie