Volcano Cake

I found it! For my (late) 8th of March party tomorrow, I wanted to bring this amazing cake that my aunt makes. I spent hours scouring all the places I might have placed the recipe, and then finally just called her and wrote it down. (Think maybe I could have saved time by calling her first?) Anyhow, after she gave it to me, I googled it (and why not?) and found this - it's virtually the same as hers, only with chocolate syrup on top! Who can beat that?

Volcano Cake

Recipe courtesy of Frances Holder of Dobson, a member of Surry-Yadkin EMC.

1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup flaked coconut
1 box German chocolate cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup oil
3 large eggs
1 stick margarine
8 ounces cream cheese
1 box confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 24-ounce can Hershey’s chocolate syrup
12 ounces Cool Whip, thawed
1 plain chocolate candy bar, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 13-by-9-by-2-inch cake pan. Sprinkle the pecans and coconut in bottom of the pan. Set aside.

Blend dry cake mix, water, oil and eggs in a large bowl at low speed until moistened, about 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour over pecans and coconut in pan.

Melt margarine and cream cheese in microwaveable bowl. Stir until smooth. Add the confectioner’s sugar and vanilla; mix well. Pour over the cake mix.

Bake 30–35 minutes or until tests done. Immediately after removing from oven, pour all of the Hershey’s syrup over hot cake. Cool completely. Top with Cool Whip and sprinkle on the grated candy bar. Refrigerate until serving. Refrigerate leftovers.

Yield: 12–16 servings

Source: Carolina Country

Grow it, pick it, eat it

A lot of American kids, specifically urban and suburban, think that food comes from grocery stores.
And that's it. A lot of parents, again, more urban and suburban, don't buy introduce their kids to things like kale, eggplant, and other produce because they don't know how to cook it and they don't think their kids will eat it. A school district in North Carolina is tackling the problem admirably. They've partnered with a local foodbank to create a school garden program where kids plant seeds, water them and take care of them, then harvest the produce and it's used in the school cafeteria. But they don't stop there. They also offer cooking demonstrations to the kids and their parents. They send home packages of freshly grown food on the weekends with kids from limited resource homes. They get the kids involved in the local farming community, taking them on field trips to local farms. There's an article about it here.

They're dealing with so many issues at once, and looking at them on a holistic level. Childhood obesity, malnutrition due to lack of knowledge, malnutrition due to lack of resources, raising lifelong healthy citizens, contributing to the local economy, helping the local environment - it's truly an awesome program. I'd love to recreate it in my area. I'd love to send my kids to a school like that.

Fight Hunger: Download a cookbook!

Barilla pasta is giving $1 to America's Second Harvest, a food bank organization, for every cookbook downloaded in February, up to $100,000. The cookbook has 10-12 recipes created by well-known chefs, and the recipes are inspired by favorite pasta dishes of celebrities. There's a picture for each one, and they range from typical family-friendly meals to gourmet style.

Anyhow, whether or not you plan on using the recipes, download it here to help fight hunger in America! You'll have to register (so Barilla can make sure you're a real person and 'worthy' of their buck), but it's painless. And once you've downloaded it, get the word out. Let's make sure America's Second Harvest gets some good funding out of this!

Super Bowl Fare

The challenge: to make a last minute tasty appetizer to bring along to a last minute Super Bowl party without having to make the dreaded trip to the grocery store in sub-freezing temperatures. It took some creativity, but I was successful! I did pizzetta triangles from the Pampered Chef Season's Best cookbook, and created my own pizza dip to go along with it. Here are the recipes:

Pizzetta Triangles
Based on what I remember from the Pampered Chef Season's Best cookbook

Ingredients
1 package refrigerated pizza crust
1 TBS olive oil
1 TBS pizza seasoning
handful of Italian cheese of some sort (parmesan, mozzarella, asiago - something like that)

Roll out the pizza crust, spread with olive oil, sprinkle the seasoning and cheese over the top. Cut into triangles with a pizza cutter, then bake at 375 for 10 minutes or until golden.

Pepperoni Pizza Dip
my very own creation

Ingredients
Whole head of roasted garlic
1 can condensed cream of tomato soup (I used Campbell's Healthy Request)
1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 cup prepared mashed potatoes (I used instant, prepared with water)
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
handful of turkey pepperoni slices, diced
1 TBS pizza seasoning
1 tsp seasoned salt

Roast head of garlic (cut off the end of the head but leave cloves unpeeled, drizzle with olive oil, wrap in aluminum foil, and roast in 400 degree oven for 35-45 minutes, then squeeze the garlic out of the cloves). Mix all ingredients together (with roasted garlic), bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until warm.

Yum! My disclaimer - I don't measure anything, so all measurements are estimations.

I can't wait to show up at the Super Bowl Party with my yummy pizza appetizer!