MomCooks is temporarily down
By Elizabeth | April 30, 2008
For anyone to whom I owe a post, a review, the start of a giveaway, or any other blog business-my laptop is unavailable, which means I don’t have access to Microsoft Outlook where all of my email folders, contact addresses, and Calendar reside. If it is critical that you get in touch with me today, please email me at table4five at gmail dot com. I apologize for any inconvenience this causes anyone.
Topics: Personal | No Comments »
Site Review-My Wooden Spoon
By Elizabeth | April 28, 2008
Readers of MomCooks, I’d like you to meet Lori, from My Wooden Spoon. Lori is the mother of three, lives in the middle of nowhere, and used to cook on a ranch for twenty cowboys at a time. Seriously! She is my kind of cook-no fancy ingredients, no gourmet cooking techniques, just easy, filling food that kids will like-just like my cooking!
Lori asked me to check out her blog, so I did, and I have to say, I like it! Her theme uses warm browns and has a cute custom banner, it’s easy to navigate, and her recipes are well-organized. She must be doing something right, she has 360 Feed subscribers!
My Wooden Spoon also does cooking-related contests and giveaways, and she posts Tuesday’s Tips with a cooking tip. Lots of great practical advice! Here’s a recipe from My Wooden Spoon for something I have never had before but it sure sounds good-Buttermilk Pie.
INGREDIENTS:
* 1 refrigerated pie dough for single crust
* 1 cup sugar
* 2 1/2 tablespoons flour
* 2 eggs
* 1 3/4 cup buttermilk
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350′. Pierce pie crust with a fork all over, and prebake for 5 minutes. Whisk remaining ingredients together and pour into pie crust; bake 50-60 minutes and till browned. You need to let it sit, cool, and settle before eating:) It’s hard to wait, I know!
TIP: You can add a touch of butter and/or vanilla for a richer pie.
It sounds delicious, and it looks REALLY delicious! Thanks so much, Lori!
Topics: Foodie Websites | 7 Comments »
Fine Dining at Disney World Orlando
By Elizabeth | April 24, 2008
This past weekend, I was honored to be invited to attend the first Disney Mom Blogger Mixer along with Maria Bailey, creator of Precious Moms.com, as well as my fellow Precious Moms Lori Seaborg and Marybeth Whalen. We had an unbelievable two and a half days of fun and surprises at Disney World, including a sneak peek at a new Hollywood Studios attraction that NO ONE else had seen, and a trip to see “La Nouba” at Cirque de Soleil!
I expected to be treated to some special meals, but Disney far exceeded my expectations. Our dinner on Friday was at “Tutto Italia” in the Italy section of Epcot. I had a Caesar salad that is unlike any I have ever had before, with a whole heart of romaine, shaved parmesan, a homemade crouton/bread slice, and a delicious creamy dressing. For my entree, I chose Bucatini Gratinata. Bucatini is a spaghetti-like noodle that is thick and has a hole in the middle. It was mixed with prosciutto ham, peas, and a parmesan cream sauce, with broiled cheese on top. Decadently delicious! We hadn’t planned on dessert there, but the pastry chef insisted, and we each got a plate with a sweet cream and candied fruit cannoli, a huge chocolate dipped strawberry, a cream puff rolled in chocolate flakes, and a cup of zabaglione topped with sweet marsala wine sauce and strawberry puree. Amazing!
Our lunch on Saturday was at the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood Studios; it’s a recreation of the famous Hollywood restaurant where the Cobb salad was invented. Most restaurants serve a big pile of lettuce with a small amount of toppings, but not the Brown Derby! Their Cobb salad is a huge bowl with a bit of chopped lettuce and herbs, topped with chopped tomato, hardboiled egg, bacon, turkey, blue cheese, and avocado, with a creamy dressing. It was better than I imagined! We also had two delicious appetizers, a crispy shrimp in ginger-lime sauce, and braised beef short ribs on celery root puree, and that beef literally melted in my mouth.
And that was just the first day!! Here’s photos, and then I’ll write up our amazing dinner on Saturday night in a separate post.
The Caesar Salad:
The Bucatini Gratinata:
The Dessert Plate:
The Shrimp Appetizer:
The Cobb Salad:
Doesn’t that make you want to go to Disney World so you can taste it for yourself?? 
Topics: Dining at Disney World | 13 Comments »
Four Foods on Friday
By Elizabeth | April 16, 2008
I am having so much fun participating in this meme every Friday, and I think Val at Fun, Crafts and Recipes is a genius for coming up with it! If you like recipes for good, basic food that is easy to prepare and kid-friendly, I recommend signing up for her free daily recipes email.
#1. Cottage cheese. Small curd, large curd, chunk or whipped?
#2. Burgers. Made fresh, preformed fresh or preformed frozen?
#3. If you could only buy one kind of salad dressing what would it be?
#4. Share a crockpot or slow cooker recipe.
#1-Cottage cheese is nasty, but if I had to eat it, it would have to be small curd. There’s whipped cottage cheese?
#2-My All-American Burgers, the recipe is in my FFoF post from last week!
#3-Hidden Valley Ranch. It’s good on EVERYTHING.
#4-Interesting you should ask this! If you type the keywords slow cooker hot fudge cake into Google, guess who is number two????
Crockpot Hot Fudge Cake at MomCooks-Recipes that Rock
Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and everyone who eats it will be in chocolate heaven! Slow Cooker Hot Fudge Sundae Cake Slow Cooker Hot Fudge …
momcooks.net/2007/11/02/crockpot-hot-fudge-cake/
Yay me! Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients
1 cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 1/2 cups hot water
Directions
1. Spray inside of 2- to 3 1/2-quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Mix flour, granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons cocoa, the baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Stir in milk, oil and vanilla until smooth. Stir in nuts. Spread batter evenly in slow cooker.
2. Mix brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa in small bowl. Stir in hot water until smooth. Pour evenly over batter in slow cooker.
3. Cover and cook on high heat setting 2 hours to 2 hours 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
4. Turn off slow cooker. Let cake stand uncovered 30 to 40 minutes to cool slightly before serving. Spoon warm cake into dessert dishes. Spoon sauce over top.
Makes 6 servings
Topics: Cakes, Chocolate, Crockpot, Four Foods on Friday | 15 Comments »
Very Chocolatey Cookie Recipes
By Elizabeth | April 16, 2008
This past Monday, the Second Annual AirBake Extreme Cookie Challenge took place, it’s a cookie recipe contest sponsored by Wearever. The Grand Prize was one by the recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough “Ice Cream Cones”, and I have the recipe!!
![](http://momcooks.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/cookiedough.jpg "Cookie Dough \\"cones\\"")
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough “Ice Cream Cones”
by Heather & Alexa Cohen from Owings Mills, MD
Ingredients
For the “Ice Cream Cones”
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (preferably toasted; you can substitute pecans or almonds)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
For the “Cookie Dough”
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons malted milk powder (optional)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Whipped cream
Maraschino cherries (optional)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. To make “ice cream cones”, in a small saucepan, combine butter, sugar, and corn syrup. Bring to a boil; remove from heat. Add walnuts, flour, and salt. Stir until well-combined. Let sit for 10 minutes.
3. Depending on the size of your sheet pan, place 4-6 rounded teaspoons of dough on an ungreased
AirBake sheet, at least 5 inches apart (the dough spreads a great deal).
4. Bake each batch for about 10 minutes, until most of the bubbling stops and the cookies turn a walnut brown. Let the cookies rest on the sheet pan for about 1 to 2 minutes, until they are easily removed from the baking sheet with a spatula. Allow to cool slightly longer if cookies wrinkle when a spatula is slid under the cookie. If too stiff to remove, put back into the oven for a couple of minutes to soften up.
5. With the small spatula, wrap the cookie around a cylindrical object such as a funnel or water cooler paper cup. Or roll a 6″x10″ piece of parchment paper into a cone and cut it into a 5″ cone and wrap the cookie around it to resemble a cone. Repeat with the rest of the cookies. Again, if they become too stiff to remove, put back into the oven for a couple of minutes to soften up. The ice cream cones can be made ahead and stored in an air tight container until ready to top with the raw cookie dough.
6. To make “cookie dough”, in a large bowl combine flour, salt, cinnamon, and malted milk powder (optional).
7. In another large mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and milk. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips and mix until well blended.
Refrigerate for 1 hour.
8. To make the finished “ice cream cones”, spoon a rounded tablespoon of the “cookie dough” into the “ice cream cones.” Top with whipped cream and a cherry (or anything else you or your child’s heart desires, like hot fudge, caramel, sprinkles, nuts).
9. Makes about 36 cookies.
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Yum! One of the finalist recipes has a funny name, “Extremely Chocolatey Beaver Huts”, but that’s because the finished cookie does look like a beaver hut covered in logs! Here’s that recipe:
Extremely Chocolatey Beaver Huts
by Jessie Grearson & Eleanor Sapat from Falmouth, ME
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup Quaker instant oats
1 Tbsp. cream or half and half
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¼ cup white chocolate chips
¾ cup dark chocolate chips
¼ cup chopped walnuts
One Hershey’s kiss
5-6 Tbsp. Nutella (note-this is chocolate/hazelnut spread, found in grocery stores with the peanut butter)
1/6 bag thin stick pretzels, some broken, for decorating huts
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. In large bowl beat together butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy.
3. In another bowl whisk together flour, cocoa, oats, baking soda and salt; stir into the butter mixture and add cream slowly, just enough to form a stiff, but well-blended dough.
4. Fold in chocolate chips and chopped walnuts (we think of these as rocks and stones).
5. Roll by large tablespoons into rough balls, about the size of a ping-pong ball (these are your mud huts) then hide a chocolate kiss “beaver” inside one cookie.
6. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes on an ungreased AirBake cookie sheet in the preheated oven until set (watch carefully).
7. After cookies cool, spread a small amount of Nutella as muddy layer over each hut and have fun adding pretzel “sticks” to the outside of each beaver hut.
Makes 20-24 cookies.
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To see more of this year’s finalist recipes plus recipes from the 2005 AirBake Challenge, please visit the Wearever website.
Topics: Baking, Chocolate, Cookies, Food News | 3 Comments »
