Coca-Cola Cake

I'm usually not a fan of chocolate cake. At weddings I always, without fail, go for the bride's cake. I have found my chocolate cake exception.

After my Tres Leche cake flop, my Mom told me that I just had to try making a Coca-Cola cake. She swears by Cracker Barrel's version and told me that I would just love it. So I gave it a shot. Here's the recipe she gave me to try straight out of her Coca-Cola recipe book:

Coca-Cola Cake
2 cups plain unsifted flour
1 cup sugar
2 sticks butter or margarine
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup Coca-Cola (NOT Diet Coke)
½ cup buttermilk
2 eggs beaten
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups of miniature marshmallows

Sift the flour and sugar into a large mixing bowl. In a saucepan heat the butter, cocoa and coca-cola until they boil. Pour this over the flour and sugar mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the buttermilk , eggs, baking soda, vanilla and marshmallows and mix well. The batter will be thin and the marshmallows will come to the top. Bake at 350 in a greased sheet pan (2x12x14 inches) for 30-35 minutes.

Icing
1 stick of butter or margarine (melted)
3 tablespoons of cocoa
7 tablespoons of Coca-Cola
I box of confectioners sugar
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Mix the first three ingredients well and pour over the confectioners sugar. Mix well and pour over the cake while it is still warm. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

My only diversion from the original recipe was that I used a greased 13x9 inch dish. I didn't have the other size. My cake turned out delicious! It was so simple to make, especially considering it was from scratch, not very expensive, and I had most of the ingredients already around the house.

My Mom had a piece and she loved it also! She pronounced it more "brownie like" than Cracker Barrel's version, but it was so good! The whole family loved it! And seriously, the icing is so delicious I tried to drink the leftovers as I was mixing it. The icing would be amazing to just pour straight over vanilla ice cream if you ever wanted a quick chocolate fix. It was still warm from the melted butter when I poured it over the warm cake and with a scoop of vanilla ice cream it was so delicious!

Jeremy quickly told me that I had to make it again. Like the next day. It was that good! If you are eating the cake as leftovers, pop it into the microwave for about 10 seconds and get icing warmed up again. Give it a shot and let me know what you think. It's life changing!

Have a great day!

Turkey Fettucine

I apologize for Amy's lack of recipe sharing! She's supposed to be sharing a Coca-Cola cake recipe but she did say something about her Mom taking the cookbook back home....I'd post it myself, but I googled mine and it didn't turn out exactly like Amy's! So I'm sharing something else my family tried last night that was wonderful - good comfort food on a cold, chilly night.

I am going to post this recipe twice in this blog, once to share the original, and then again to show you my version. I'll explain why later....

Turkey Fettucine
1/2 pound fettucine noodles
3 tbsp. butter or margarine
3 tbsp. all purpose flour
1 c. milk
1 c. chicken broth
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. salt
dash of white pepper
2 c. chopped skinless turkey breast (about 10 oz.)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

When I first looked over this recipe, it reminded me of a "flopped" Chicken Carbonara pasta I tried a few weeks back. I don't know about the rest of you, but I like sauce when it comes to pasta - not just to balance the pasta/sauce out but because when you have a recipe that doesn't create a lot of sauce, a few things happen:
You end up with leftover cooked noodles and no sauce
OR
You end up with leftover sauce and no noodles
OR WORSE
You have leftovers of both but the sauce is so miniscule that when you reheat the dish it is DRY to the bone!

I also like a lot of flavor with my pasta, and cheese is always an added bonus! So using that carbonara experience and going from there, I present to you my own modified version of Turkey Fettucine!

Miranda's Turkey Linguine
1 lb linguine noodles
6 tbsp. butter
6 tbsp. all purpose flour
2 cups milk
2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 c shredded parmesan cheese
3 turkey breast fillets
2 tbsp dried parsley flakes
salt and pepper to taste

I used three of the turkey breast fillets, cooking them 5 minutes per side on medium heat until they were no longer pink in the middle. I think that took about 20 minutes, flipping them every five minutes. Then I had two half-empty boxes of linguine and no fettucine, so we substituted. When it comes to pasta, you can always substitute if you don't have something on hand!
I started the water for the pasta after the turkey fillets were cooked. Then I went to work with my Pampered Chef chopper and diced up the turkey fillets for the sauce.
Then you melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour, cooking for one minute until it is smooth (to me, it looked like warm, liquid cookie dough). I added the milk and the broth, and then waited for the sauce to thicken. This kind of takes a while, I think it was 15-20 minutes before it reached a consistency I was comfortable with. The pasta was done, so I drained it and added a tbsp. of olive oil and some salt and pepper to the pasta. I turned off the sauce and moved it from the heat, dumping in the 1 1/2 cups of shredded parmesan. I put the pasta in a huge pot and dumped in the turkey, and then the sauce and tossed it to mix.

I made some garlic bread and english peas to serve with it, and Gracie and I had leftovers for lunch today! My only recommendation for reheating is to add 1-2 tbsp. of milk to the bowl in order to keep the sauce from drying out or the pasta getting hard.

I am anticipating cooler temps for the rest of the week (although I'm not weather man!) and so I'm looking for recipes that make good comfort food, soups, stews, etc!

Maybe the next post will be from Amy to share her version of the Coca-Cola cake. Although mine was super-good anyway!

Chicken Packets

If you remember correctly, I mentioned a church member by the name of Amy in my last post on the blog. Amy has not only shared her recipes with me, but also some ideas on methods to plan grocery shopping and menus for a two-week time period so I'm not scrambling to get dinner together for our family of four. So she shared her chicken soup recipe, and then she also gave me the following recipe:

Chicken Packets
2 packs crescent rolls
2 cups chopped, cooked chicken (2 chicken breasts will work)
3 oz. cream cheese
2 tbsp. milk
1 tbsp. chives
salt to taste
1/4 c melted butter
1/2 c crushed croutons

I had already stewed an entire bag of chicken, so I defrosted two chicken breasts in the microwave for this recipe. I used a seperate bowl to mix the cream cheese, milk, and chives - I even heated it up to help the cheese and milk combine. Then I mixed it in with the chicken. You unroll the crescent rolls and pinch the perforation together - this will make two crescent rolls into a rectangle, and you should end up with eight total rectangles.
Spread some chicken mixture into the crescent roll, and fold over to pinch together. Dip them in the melted butter and then into the crushed croutons. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Tuesday night I made these for dinner with baked beans and garlic pasta and Wednesday I had them as leftovers with some Doritos. It says you can eat them cold or warm, but I like mine warm. The only difference is that next time instead of freeze-dried chives, I'm going to buy some green onions and chop that up instead. But they were awesome and were gobbled up in no time!
----- Miranda

Hot Tomato Grits and Tres Leche cake

Since Miranda and I decided to name this blog "Cheese Grits and Jesus" we knew that we were going to have to search high and low for the perfect Cheese Grits recipe. We didn't have to look far! I heard through the grapevine that a lady from our church, Mrs. Diane, made the best cheese grits ever. I got in touch with her and asked for her recipe. When I got it and saw how easy it looked, I knew we had to try it. So Friday night Jeremy, Jackson and I headed over to Miranda's house to make the Hot Tomato Grits. We fell in love with them! They were so simple to make, and everyone (husbands and children included) loved them! And get this...they even taste wonderful re-heated. I've never even considered re-heating grits before but these were so good, even the second time around. This will go down as one of those "you have GOT to try this" recipes. I hope you enjoy!

Hot Tomato Grits
8 cups chicken broth
2 cups quick grits
salt and pepper to taste
1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 can Rotel tomatoes (add a second can if you really like it spicy!)
2-1/2 cups sharp Cheddar cheese, grated

Bring Chicken broth to a boil and slowly add grits, stirring constantly while adding to prevent lumping. Turn heat down and continue stirring until desired consistency. Add salt and pepper and tomatoes. Add cheese - when cheese is completely melted, transfer to heated crock pot. Add crumbled bacon and garnish with extra tomatoes and 1/2 cup extra cheese.

Mrs. Diane also sent me a few tips for this recipe: You don't have to put these in a crock pot - that is only to keep them warm for serving. When cooking the bacon, put on a cookie sheet and bake it. If you put the bacon in the oven at the same time to start cooking the grits, they will be ready about the same time. (*This worked amazingly well for us!) By doing that, the whole recipe comes together in about 15 minutes.

This make a really big batch, so if it is just your family, cut it in half. However, when you cut it in half, remember to use only half a can of rotel because it will be really spicy if you use a whole can in a half batch.

And since we were trying a new recipe, I decided to get all wild and crazy and make a cake from scratch.

I'll let that sink in a moment....

I've never made a cake from scratch before. Frankly it's much harder than opening a box of cake mix and adding an egg and water. Much harder.

So I decided to make the Pioneer Woman's Tres Leche cake. I made a cake that I've never even tasted before. That might have been my first mistake, because y'all, this cake was hard to make. Maybe I should have started with something a little easier.

Is this a good time to tell you that I've never even separated egg whites from egg yolks before? I feel like I need to say something like, "Hi, my name is Amy. I'm 29 years old and I've never separated an egg before."

Anyways, with this recipe I was busy separating eggs, folding stuff into batter, whipping, and dirtying about 30 dishes. The total cake cooking time (including icing) took 2 1/2 hours which is about 2 hours longer than baking a boxed cake mix. So here's the recipe:

Tres Leches Cake
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

5 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk

1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup heavy cream

1 pint heavy cream, for whipping
3 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Spray 9 x 13 inch pan liberally until coated.Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Separate eggs. Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla. Pour egg yolk mixture over flour mixture and stir very gently until combined. Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With mixer on, pour in 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry. Fold egg white mixture into other mixture very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and spread to even out surface. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Turn cake out onto a rimmed platter and allow to cool.

Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and 1/2 cup heavy cream in a small pitcher. When cake is cool, pierce the surface with a fork several times. Slowly drizzle all but about 1 cup of the milk mixture—try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can. Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for 30 minutes. Whip 1 pint heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of sugar until thick and spreadable. Spread over the surface of the cake. Decorate cake with whole or chopped maraschino cherries. Cut into squares and serve.

We ate the cake over at Miranda's and we all decided that the cake was kind of "eh." I've never had a sponge cake before, and this was definitely very spongy. We all decided that it just wasn't quite sweet enough (despite all the sugar) for our tastes. Nothing at all against Pioneer Woman, because she is amazing, but I think I bit off a little more than I could chew with this recipe. Miranda and I both decided to go ahead and share this recipe, despite our so-so rating, because everyone has recipes that didn't work out quite great for them. If someone loves tres leche cake, then they might want to give this a try. I, however, will not be making it again. I found another cake recipe that knocked my socks off. I'll share it soon!

And now I'm off to go dream of those cheese grits again!

Chicken Soup for your Soul (is it in your belly?)

Okay so this morning when I went out to my car to crank it before work (and crank up the heater!) my car's thermometer said it was FOURTY EIGHT DEGREES outside.
Then my car wanted to protest about starting under such harsh conditions. I don't know how people up north do it - in the teens and below zero. I'd never survive!

So in honor of the wonderfully chilly weekend temperatures, I'm going to share a recipe for homemade chicken soup given to me by a church member named Amy (no, not the one I blog with!)

I made this soup Thursday night when it was humid and rainy, and am enjoying the leftovers for lunch today.

Homemade Chicken Soup
Special note: this is not Amy's exact recipe, because I altered it a little.

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, stewed and either chopped or shredded
2 cans of chicken broth (I used bouillon granules to make my broth)
1 can of Veg All (undrained)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 Cup of cooked Minute rice (I measured out one cup and microwaved it)
Parsley
Salt & Pepper to taste

I did mine the night before. I boiled the chicken and while it was boiling I put everything else in the crock pot. Once the chicken was done I stirred it in and then put the crock pot in the refrigerator. Bryan put it in the crock pot before he left for work the next day, and by the time I got home it was DONE! I am not a big fan of eating condensed soup, although I like to cook with it. This has just the right amount of flavor and warmth to me, and also just the right amount of broth. It actually called for half and half or cream, but I forgot to add it and it was STILL awesome!

Oh and also on Friday night, Amy, Jackson, and Jeremy came over to test out a recipe for Hot Tomato Grits and a sponge cake Amy made! Come back Monday to see us share those recipes, AND our thoughts on how the meal turned out! - Miranda

Our First Official Crock Pot Recipe!

Amy and I had lunch with our pastor the other day (totally by coincidence, he just happened to be at Country's BBQ and so were we!) and I ordered Brunswick Stew as a side item with my meal. When it came, he commented that he made some of the best Brunswick stew, to which I commented that my Granny Cole used to make some - and I had never been able to find a recipe that came close to hers.

Many people can cook the same thing and cook it in different ways, even going back to how simplistic Amy says her spice cabinet is - mine is much more complex, but I enjoy adding extra spices and seasonings. And I think I own all the spices Amy mentioned - except for rosemary! I'm not a big fan...the one time I tried it, it was disgusting. No offense to those of you who enjoy it!

So Amy makes her own version of crock pot spaghetti sauce, which I've tried, and the other night I had to be at church for choir practice. I didn't have every single item Amy adds to her sauce, but I was able to improvise. My sauce was wonderful! (Not that Amy's isn't, but we always have a ton left over if I make hers.)
So here is my recipe for my homemade sauce, and then Amy's!

Miranda's Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce
1 jar of spaghetti sauce (I used Ragu traditional)
1 can tomato sauce
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c. diced tomatoes in juice (I had some leftover in the fridge from a recipe)
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chopped dried onion (or fresh onion is good too!)
1 pack Italian sausage, cooked and drained

Whisk all ingredients in a crock pot and cook on low for 3-4 hours. Serve over spaghetti noodles or your favorite pasta!

Amy's Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce
2 jars of spaghetti sauce (I use Ragu Sundried Tomato and Sweet Basil and 1 store brand traditional or meat sauce)
2 cans of petite cut diced tomatoes (do not drain)
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 lb ground beef
chopped onion to taste (I use Pictsweet frozen chopped onion)
garlic salt (to taste)
sugar (a couple of tablespoons)
spaghetti noodles (I love Ronco Angel Hair)

Brown ground beef and onions. Drain. Add to the crock pot with all the other ingredients. Cook on low 3-4 hours. It will also be fine if you leave it on all day on low. Cook spaghetti noodles and serve with a salad and dinner rolls.

So now you have both of our spaghetti sauces. They share a lot of the same ingredients, but we each put our own little touches into them, so they taste completely different. Try them out and let us know what you think! Have a great day!

Amy's Apple Dumplings

Since Miranda gave you a little bit of her cooking background, I guess I need to do the same. To be totally honest, I don't think I did much cooking, other than scrambled eggs, until I moved to Auburn as a freshman, and then I realized that food doesn't just magically appear on the table all by itself! I can't tell you how many times I would call my mom asking her how she cooked this or that, and she was graciously patient with me until I figured out "how in the world do I cook ____ " without calling my Mama! Now I've figured out my own cooking style (which has been greatly influenced by my Mom!) and I still cook as simply as she does!

I didn't grow up eating food cooked with fancy herbs and spices, and I wouldn't know the difference between rosemary and thyme if you offered me a million dollars! My spice cabinet consists of salt, sea salt, Lawry's seasoning salt, Lawry's garlic salt, black pepper, cinnamon, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, chili powder, taco seasoning and that's about it. I'm not exaggerating with my simplicity! I will never, ever share a recipe that calls for some fancy, schmancy seasoning like dill or basil. It's not gonna happen! About as wild as I get would be minced garlic, and even that is out of a jar! And where Miranda is very exact with her measurements, I tend to be a bit more "pinch of this" and "dash of that" with my cooking.

I absolutely LOVE my crock pot, and am obsessed with finding recipes that are simple, quick to fix, and are somewhat healthy for my family to eat. I have a three year old at home, so if supper can't be fixed in less than an hour, not counting crock pot meals, then it won't be cooked in my house! Oh, and I hardly ever fry stuff unless you count homemade onion rings or fried green tomatoes about 2 times a year!

With all that being said, let's bring on the recipe! I found this recipe on a blog that I stumbled onto, and I hate to say it, but I have no idea whose recipe it is. I wish I could give them credit, because y'all, this dessert recipe is life changing. It's that good. But since I've changed the recipe up just a tad, so I guess it's fair for me to call it my own now!

Amy's Apple Dumplings
2 packages of Crescent Rolls (Do not let them get room temp. They need to be cold)
1-1/4 cup of sugar
3 Granny Smith apples
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1-1/2 sticks of butter
1 cup of Mt. Dew

Preheat oven to 350

Here is everything you need!

Peel and slice apples into 8 slices each (Use an apple wedge if you have it. We couldn't find ours.)

Wrap each slice in a crescent roll triangle and place in ungreased 13x9 inch baking pan. I put a few smaller pieces of apple in each crescent roll with 1 or 2 bigger pieces. It just depended on the size. Mostly I just eyeballed it!

Combine butter, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla in a saucepan and cook on medium low, stirring until it becomes a gravy-like consistency.

Keep stirring so it doesn't burn!

See how it looks like gravy!

Pour the mixture over the wrapped apples. Make sure to spread it out really good and cover all the crescent rolls. Pour the Mt. Dew arond the edges of the crescent rolls. You can also pour it on top, just don't wash off the sugary stuff. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes. (Don't be afraid of the Mt. Dew. It gets soaked up and turns everything into a glaze!)

After 30 minutes, place a piece of aluminum foil loosely over the pan and bake covered for 15 more minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. See all that cinnamony goodness on top! It's so delicious! Spoon some out and top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and enjoy! You can always tell yourself it's healthy because it does contain apples. At the very least, it's a good dose of fiber! I hope you love this as much as I do!

A Little Back Story....

Hey! Pull up a chair and sit for a while. I (Miranda) just wanted to back up and give you guys some history on how I got involved with cooking, crock potting, recipe blogging, or whatever you want to call it.

I was raised (until the age of 12) by a single mother who worked full time in the Air Force. I don't exactly remember when I started to cook for myself, but most of it I learned from browsing through cookbooks or watching cooking shows. My mom, bless her heart, is not a cook and was never meant to be one. Her idea of dinner? We call them "Soup Can Meals" and it usually involved something weird - like boiled macaroni noodles mixed with cream corn. Disgusting, right?

The first few things I learned to cook involved more baking than cooking - cakes, but more especially cookies. It wasn't until I was into high school that I actually developed a love for cooking itself.

Let me warn you first - I am not one of those people who ventures away from a recipe. I am pretty much a "stick-to-the-instructions" kind of girl. It drives me nuts to read a recipe that involves "a pinch" of this. What is that, really?

Now that I am a wife and mother and (as Amy said already) we both work outside the home and are actively involved in our church, it has become harder to find time to work with recipes that take up a lot of time and energy. And while I can't speak for Amy, I'm sure she would agree that the best recipes are the kind that are simple, most often involving a few ingredients and ready in less than thirty minutes, and (if we're lucky) can be cooked in a CROCK POT! (You'll find that Amy and I have a shared loved for crock pots, as well!) Most people assume crock pots are just for roasts. Well, hold on to your socks! Amy and I will share recipes beyond the usual pot roast!

And now that I've given you some insight into my development as a culinary genius (who am I kidding?) Here is one of my all-time favorite recipes The best thing about this recipe is you can cook it immediately, OR refrigerate or freeze it to use later! -

Chicken Spaghetti
2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, thawed and rinsed
2 cans cream of Mushroom soup
2 cups grated cheddar cheese (I like sharp)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green pepper

4 oz jar diced pimentos, drained
3 cups dry spaghetti, broken in 2 in. pieces
2 cups reserved chicken broth from pot
1 tsp season salt
1 additional cup grated cheddar cheese

Fill a pot with water and add chicken breasts, bringing them to a boil. When the chicken is cooked through, cut it up into small cubes/pieces. Save two cups of the broth from this pot and then cook the spaghetti in the remaining broth until al dente. When spaghetti is cooked, mixed with all other ingredients except the additional cup of cheddar cheese.
Please mixture in a casserole dish (I used 13x9) and top with remaining cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
Serve with salad and/or dinner rolls and enjoy!

Let Us Introduce Ourselves

Hi everyone! Thanks for dropping by our brand spanking new recipe blog, Cheese Grits and Jesus. This blog will be a collaboration between two friends that live in the wonderful deep South, Miranda and Amy. We wanted to tell you just a little about ourselves before we jump in the deep end of our recipe files. We are both wife/mother/working full time outside-the-home/friends in real life women who love Jesus and love cooking! Miranda is married to Bryan and has two children, Gracie and James. Amy is married to Jeremy and has a son, Jackson, and a dog, Macy.

We plan on using this blog as a way to share some of our favorite recipes and tips that we have found to make our life delicious and easy. We also would like to share with y'all some of the things that we have found didn't work for us, that way you won't waste your time with them like we did because let's face it, time is precious!

Between both of us we figure that we have about a million recipes, so you should find something you like! We hope you come back soon. Bye y'all!