Rich Chocolate Frosting

This weekend we threw a surprise birthday party for my husband's good friend Mike. I said I would bake the birthday cake and asked his wife what Mike's favorite cake was, and she said German Chocolate Cake. Which interestingly enough is my husband Jeremy's favorite cake - they must share the same brain. I used a recipe for German Chocolate Cake that's already posted on my blog but I'm posting the recipe for the chocolate frosting which was adapted from this recipe from Allrecipes.com. I've made frosting from scratch before but never chocolate. This was definitely "rich" as the name implies - it had, and it pains me to say this, almost TOO much of a chocolate flavor. Next time I might cut back the cocoa a bit and replace it with a little more powdered sugar instead. It's a dense frosting with an intense cocoa flavor - it reminded me of a canned chocolate frosting but with a much better flavor, if that makes any sense. If you want a fluffy lightly chocolate flavored frosting this isn't it. If you want a rich chocolate frosting that might remind you of your birthday cakes as a child, this is it. The birthday boy loved the cake though, and said he could feel like arteries clogging as he ate it - ha! I think I did a pretty decent job frosting it too, if I do say so myself. ;)

RICH CHOCOLATE FROSTING

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar
1 1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup milk, approximately

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl beat butter and vanilla until light and creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar, cocoa, alternating with tablespoons of milk, until sugar and cocoa are incorporated. Beat until well combined, adding any additional milk necessary until frosting reaches desired consistency.

Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken and Shrimp Skewers

Sometimes you're in the mood for chicken, sometimes you're in the mood for shrimp. Sometimes, you want both. This original recipe from Cooking Light uses chicken thighs, but I used shrimp and chunks of chicken breast on skewers for mine. The rub has a good amount of heat to it, balanced out by the sweet and tangy glaze you brush on while cooking. Jeremy and I both agreed that we liked it better on the chicken than the shrimp - I think it overpowered the shrimp a little. Next time I'll try it on boneless chicken thighs like the recipe suggests. I'm including the recipe just for the rub/glaze for you to use on whatever meat you fancy! :)

SPICY HONEY-BRUSHED CHICKEN AND SHRIMP SKEWERS

INGREDIENTS:

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

6 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons vinegar

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a medium bowl combine first 6 ingredients. Add meat (chicken, shrimp, etc) and toss to coat. Grill or boil until meat is almost cooked through - brush with honey glaze and continue to cook, brushing frequently with glaze, until meat is done.

Sweet and Spicy Orange Salmon

I've been trying to change up our dinners a bit. It's been mostly chicken with some beef or maybe pork for a long time and it's getting a little boring. Jeremy LOVES fish, especially salmon. I don't dislike fish, but I'm not always the biggest fan either. I got a couple nice pieces of salmon at the grocery store and decided to try this recipe from Cooking Light. Now Jeremy is notorious (although he's getting better) for saying things like, "It's not bad" after he tastes a new recipe. That drives me nuts and eventually I had to tell him so - say it's good, or bad, but what is, "Not bad"??? After we had this he told me about 4 times how delicious it was and that I'd have to make it again, soon. Wow! I really liked it too.


The original recipe is called "Sweet Orange Salmon" but I felt like that was misleading - the rub definitely has a kick to it. I also omitted the coriander from the original recipe and added a splash of orange juice over the salmon just as it came out of the oven - next time I might simmer some of the leftover rub mixture with orange juice to make a sauce. I broiled this on a rack that is a couple notches down from the highest and it came out perfectly.

SWEET AND SPICY ORANGE SALMON

INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

4 (6 oz) salmon fillets
1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice


DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat broiler to high. Coat a broiler-safe pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a small bowl combine first 7 ingredients. Rub both sides of salmon fillets with spice mixture. Broil for 8-10 minutes or until salmon flakes when tested with fork. Drizzle with orange juice before serving.

Chewy Chocolate Drizzled Coconut Cookies

So I'm kind of into little kitchen gadgets. I don't know why, but cute little kitchen tools that really only do one thing make me happy. I've had this little cookie dough scoop for awhile but it was really small, like barely a teaspoon size, so I mainly used it for truffles and tiny cookies. I'd been trying to find a bigger size forever but could never find one. For Christmas Jeremy found me a bigger sized cookie dough scoop and gave it to me as a stocking stuffer. I finally got to use it for this recipe and I LOVE it, man does it make things easier and faster, plus all the cookies are the same size so they cook evenly. I'd seen this recipe floating around different blogs and wanted to try it - the original source is from this recipe on Allrecipes.com. I made it exactly as-is, except I added a chocolate drizzle on top. Also, I doubled the batch from the original recipe and was glad I did, I doubt I would have had more than a dozen if I made the original quantity. These were really, really good - nice and chewy, sweet but not too sweet, and the coconut flavor was yummy - not to mention the smell of baking coconut was divine!

CHEWY CHOCOLATE DRIZZLED COCONUT COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 2/3 cups sweetened flaked coconut

Semisweet chocolate chips, melted, for drizzling

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat liners.

2. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl combine butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar, beating until smooth. Mix in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and mix until light and fluffy. Gradually blend in flour mixture until combined. Stir in coconut. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto baking sheets a few inches apart. Bake until lightly toasted on the bottom/edges, about 8 minutes. Cool on sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.