Kate has joined the fun! Notes on her future posts.

Hello family and maybe friends!  

Heather hooked me up so that I can start posting recipes.  I have had a blast this last year, my first year of marriage to Mr. Weinstein, playing in the kitchen with all my new gadgets let alone my new kitchen.  Before I started posting recipes I wanted to fill you in on a few things that my recipes would include.  So as most people know I am wheat-free.  Often times society doesn't differentiate from wheat-free and gluten-free.  I would like to include a little information about that here before I begin posting.  

I found an excellent explanation of wheat-free v. gluten-free in case you are interested.

“Wheat-free” means that a person avoids all foods containing wheat. Foods containing wheat are anything made with white or whole wheat flour, such as: cookies, cakes, breads, tortillas, pizza, pasta, pancakes, waffles, most fried food, tempura, dumplings, wontons, etc.; anything made with bulghur such as tabouli; wheat berries; cous cous; sauces that are typically thickened with white flour; soy sauce.

Gluten-free means that a person avoids all foods containing gluten. Gluten is the general term used to describe the protein found in many grains including wheat, rye, barley, spelt, kamut, oat, triticale, semolina, pumpernickel, and farro.

(from http://www.snoety.com/wheat-andor-gluten-free-when-should-you-be/)

So for my posts if there is anything included in the recipe that has wheat or gluten I will be adding notes on how I made it wheat-free.

WF = Wheat-Free

GF = Gluten-Free

Looking forward to giving you a glimpse into the Weinstein Kitchen!

Love, Kate

Favorite Friday: Chocolate-Covered Oreo Cookie Cake

Happy Friday to all! I hope you are all enjoying the much needed rain, and getting to cozy up at home now that it is cold again.

Today's recipe is thanks to Kristen having a request. She wants to make a cake for her sweet friend Katherine's birthday. Ideally, it would be a chocolate and coffee combination, so if you have a cake that meets that description, please share! I didn't have one but suggested this. Kristen, if you make it, give your input on how it goes!

This recipe came from my wonderful friend and neighbor Kelley--of the previously posted apple dip and oreo chocolate balls. This was actually what she made the night I met her at a neighborhood dessert party, and we have been exchanging our favorite recipes ever since. This one is SO delicious. So thanks, Kelley!

FYI, I have adapted this recipe once to make it portable (I wanted to serve it on the boat). It worked well. I made the cake in a well-greased sheet pan, then turned it out onto the counter and sliced it in half across the middle, sandwich-style. I put the bottom layer back in the pan, covered it with the oreo mixture, and topped with the top cake layer, then drizzled the chocolate on top. A more homey presentation, but still just as yummy.

Chocolate-Covered Oreo Cookie Cake

Ingredients:
1 pkg. (2 layer size) Devil's Food Chocolate Cake Mix
4 squares semi-sweet baking chocolate (like Hershey's)
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick), cut up
1 pkg. cream cheese (8oz.), softened (1/3 less fat works fine)
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups thawed whipped topping
12 oreo cookies, coarsely chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare and bake cake mix in two (9 inch) round cake pans as directed on package. Let cool in pans for 5 minutes. Invert onto wire racks; remove pans. Cool layers completely.

Place chocolate and butter in small microwavable bowl. Microwave on high 2 minutes and stir until butter and chocolate are completely melted. Cool 5 minutes.

Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add whipped topping and cookie crumbs; mix lightly. Place 1 of the cake layers, top-side down, on serving plate and top with cream cheese mixture. Cover with remaining cake layer, top-side up. Spoon glaze over top and let stand until set. Store in refrigerator.

Favorite Friday: Rosemary-Tomato Pinwheels

Happy Friday everyone!

I chose today's Fave Fri selection simply because I'm making it for a shower this weekend. Oh, and because it's delicious. I often end up calling these Rosemary-Tomato Pinwheels "pizza pinwheels" instead, because that's pretty much how they taste. And, who doesn't like pizza? Besides Reid, that is. (Maybe he does like it now, I haven't checked since we were about 8 years old.)

I actually also made these for progressive dinner two (or three) years ago. They usually get great reviews, and are both adult and kid pleasers. Side note: this time I'm attempting a new time-management strategy. I already prepared the dough and rolled it up in advance (not cutting into pinwheels). Then I wrapped the dough rolls in wax paper. That way tomorrow all I have to do is slice and bake. I will let you know if this is not a good idea, but I bet it will be fine.

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
My awesome time-saving strategy did NOT work! I guess canned pizza dough must be finicky. When I did it this way, the pinwheels did not rise nearly as well as normal, and they were pretty tough. The sweet ladies at the wedding shower acted like they were good, but I'm telling you they were barely edible. So disappointing! At least I'd also made Kristi's scones, which are always crowd pleasers. Anyway, FYI--just make the recipe all at one time!

Rosemary-Tomato Pinwheels

Yield:
24 pinwheels (May stretch to make more by slicing the pinwheels thinner.)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extravirgin olive oil
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup sun-dried tomato halves, packed without oil (about 2 1/2 ounces)
2 (13.8-ounce) cans refrigerated pizza crust dough
1 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Romano cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

Preparation:

Combine first 4 ingredients; let stand for 1 hour.
Cover sun-dried tomatoes with boiling water in a bowl; let stand 30 minutes or until soft. Drain and chop. (This time I found some that were already cut, and ready to eat--no rehydrating. I like to cut them up a little more with kitchen shears though.)
Preheat oven to 425°.

Working with one can of dough at a time, unroll dough onto a lightly floured surface; pat into a 15 x 10-inch rectangle. Brush about 1 tablespoon oil mixture over dough. Sprinkle half of sun-dried tomatoes, 1/2 cup basil, 1/4 cup cheese, and 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary evenly over dough. Starting at long edge, roll up jelly-roll fashion. Cut into 12 (1-inch) slices; place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Flatten each pinwheel with hand. Brush tops with about 1 tablespoon oil mixture. Repeat procedure with remaining can of dough, oil mixture, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, cheese, and rosemary.

Bake at 425° for 12 minutes or until golden.

Favorite Friday: Frosted Cranberry Squares

Another happy Friday to all!

I know you are all dying to know how my cherry muffins turned out. They were awesome! I'll post the recipe sometime next week, but didn't want to spend two Favorite Fridays on the same recipe. So for now we'll talk about something else....

Remember the recent post for the Stuffed Chicken Breast? This is the cranberry-pineapple jello salad that my mom always served with it. She emailed the recipe to me today. I am making the stuffed chicken breast for friends this Sunday, and I am thinking I'll have to make this too. It seems pretty old school to make a jello salad, but sometimes the good old standbys are what we crave. And this one really is delicious.

I don't know where I was when my mom was cooking all these years, because I keep finding out stuff I didn't know. For example, I had no idea this recipe calls for a bottle of ginger ale. No wonder it's so yummy.

Side note: I've never seen these "squares" actually served in the shape of a square. Mom puts it all in a pyrex and we scoop out our servings at the table.

Thanks for this recipe, Mom!

Frosted Cranberry Squares
from: Brenda

2 13 ½ oz. cans crushed pineapple
2 7 oz. bottles ginger ale
4 3 oz. packages lemon Jello
2 1 lb. cans jellied cranberry sauce

Topping:
1 small package Dream Whip
½ cup chopped pecans
1 8 oz. package cream cheese

Drain pineapple and reserve syrup.
Add water to syrup to make 2 cups.
Heat until boiling.
Dissolve Jello in liquid and cool.
Stir in ginger ale.
Add cranberry sauce. I do this with a hand mixer.
Add pineapple.
Chill in a large Pyrex.

Topping:
Mix Dream Whip according to package instructions and mix in cream cheese. Spread on top of the cooled cranberry mixture.
I don’t usually use pecans. They can be sprinkled on top.

I usually cut this in half unless I’m having a crowd. It still makes quite a bit and goes in a fairly large flat Pyrex or other dish.

Favorite Friday: Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!



I hope you all have some special plans for sharing the love today! Our FF post is publishing quite late (almost not until Saturday, again), but that will work out fine since it's a Valentine's Day post anyway.



I know we all have some special family traditions associated with this day, even if they're just little things. I would love to hear some of yours if you would like to share!



In our house, Mom would always make heart-shaped cherry muffins, and we kids would each have a little Valentine goodie bag waiting at our spots at the breakfast table that morning. It was such a fun way to start a special day, and got us excited for the rest of the good times that always followed (bunches of tiny valentines from classmates, tons of candy, and homemade heart cookies in our lunchboxes).






















I want to carry on this tradition in my family, so this year I asked my mom for her cherry muffin recipe and to borrow her heart-shaped muffin tin. Little did I know what a treasure this muffin tin is! I must have been asleep each year until the muffins were actually out of the oven, because I don't remember ever seeing it. It is this adorable little cast-iron muffin tin that makes the cutest little hearts. I am way too excited over this little thing. So I have a picture to share with you, and I'm actually considering hanging the tin on the wall in my kitchen--the "heart" of the home, you know.







Anyway, unfortunately my mom hasn't been able to find her recipe for cherry muffins. They involved chopped up maraschino cherries and some of the cherry juice to make them pink. So yummy! I am going to use the recipe for my Lowfat Strawberry Cinnamon muffins, and adapt it to make it a cherry muffin recipe. I will follow up to let you guys know how it goes.



In the meantime, here is a link to the Lowfat Strawberry Cinnamon Muffin recipe, in case you're curious.



http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=592312



Phillip LOVES these muffins, and they are awesome just out of the oven. I always make lowfat muffins and love them, but I will say that the lowfat variety tend to (in my experience) be delectable just out of the oven, but not as good when left over. So I make the batter in advance, and only cook the number I'll need that day. Then we can use the rest of the batter to make fresh-from-the-oven muffins again the next day.


Have a lovely heart-day!

Stuffed Chicken Breast

Kara called me last night to get a good old family comfort food recipe. She is having some folks over for dinner next week and wants to serve a nice, homey meal. This is definitely a great one! We consider this our mom's stuffed chicken breast recipe. She used to make it for Sunday dinner when friends came over, and she served it with fresh green beans and her cranberry pineapple jello mold. I can smell it all now! Anyway....the recipe card I have says that this recipe was actually Myra's originally.

Kara plans to make this sometime this week as a trial run before she makes it for company. I always think it's awesome that she takes the time to try out what she is serving her guests in advance. I usually just go ahead and let them be my guinea pigs. Sorry, guests...

I am notorious for mixing up my memories, combining one with another, and telling family stories all wrong. So...Kate will have to correct me if I'm wrong here. But I remember when Kate and I were both at A&M, we decided we wanted to have friends over to my apartment for a real home-cooked meal. We called her mom and got this recipe, and made it for a couple of friends (I don't even remember who the friends were now). We also made Kate's "cowboy cookies." I was constantly learning great things from Katie, and that was the afternoon I learned that it is SO much better to drop cookies the size of your fist, versus the little cookies we normally make. Anyway, it was a fun afternoon and evening. Does anyone have the cowboy cookies recipe?

Kara asking me for this recipe has inspired me to resurrect it in my kitchen. Maybe you'll enjoy it in yours too... here you go!

Stuffed Chicken Breast
from Myra

Ingredients:
1 box stovetop stuffing, chicken flavored, prepared according to box
1 pound chicken breasts
flour
oil
1 can cream of mushroom soup

Directions:
Flatten the chicken breasts (I like to do one at a time inside a gallon ziplock freezer bag).
Put 1 tablespoon prepared stuffing in each breast.
Roll each breast up, securing with 1 or 2 toothpicks.
Roll each stuffed breast in flour.
Heat the oil (just enough to coat the bottom of a skillet).
Place the stuffed breasts in the oil and brown, turning to brown all sides. No need to cook it all the way through at this point.
Place the breasts in a casserole dish sprayed with Pam.
Spoon the rest of the stuffing all around the breasts.
Combine the can of soup with 1/2 can of water.
Pour it over the chicken and stuffing.
Bake at 350 for 45 min.

Freezes well.

Favorite Friday: Myra's Baked Potato Salad

Happy Friday friends and family!

Today's recipe is something that I consider a delicious treat whenever Myra makes it, and I know I'm not alone. What I love about her potato salad is that she uses baked potatoes instead of boiled. It is so yummy that way, plus to me it is easier to bake potatoes than boil them. Also I believe she uses homemade ranch dressing, made with her preferred combo of canola oil and (I think?) light mayonaisse. So you can tweak that to suit the way you like to eat.

Myra brought this to my dad's birthday party last year when Matt and Denise grilled up a ton of red meat--it was perfect. Thanks to Denise for scoring the recipe and sharing it with all of us! And thanks to Myra for making it!

Baked Potato Salad

Recipe By: Myra McCoy

Ingredients:
7 medium-sized red potatoes, roughly 3 lbs.
2 cups fancy shredded cheese
8 ounces ranch dressing, bottle or homemade
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
6 green onions , chopped
1 medium-sized red bell peppers, chopped
2 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (can use turkey bacon too)

Directions:
Coat potatoes with Pam; pierce several times with a fork.
Bake at 400 degrees, for 45 minutes, or until tender.
Cool and cut into 1 inch cubes (really let them cool or they will just mush). (Can do this step up to a day in advance.)
Combine 1 ½ cups cheese, dressing, and next three ingredients in a large bowl.
Add potatoes, tossing gently.
Sprinkle with bacon and remaining cheese.