Spiced Rum Cake

Spiced Rum Cake

Cake:
1 package Duncan Hines Butter Recipe Yellow Cake mix
1 small package instant French Vanilla pudding mix
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
Dash nutmeg
4 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup melted butter, cooled
1/2 cup Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum
1 tsp sugar

Preheat oven to 325^F.

Place all ingredients in large mixer bowl and blend well (about 3 minutes on medium-high speed ought to do it).  Meanwhile, grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan.  Once your batter is well mixed, spoon it evenly into the prepared pan.  Sprinkle the sugar over the top of the batter and place the pan in the oven for about 60 minutes, or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

About 55 minutes into your baking time, prepare the Rum Syrup:

Rum Syrup:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 - 1/2 cup Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum

In a saucepan combine the butter, water and sugar.  Bring to a boil over medium heat and continue cooking, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in desired amount of rum.

When the cake is done, remove it from the oven, but leave it in the pan.  Using a wooden skewer, poke holes in the hot cake and brush on the glaze, making sure to let some dribble down the edges of the cake inside the pan.  Use about half the glaze and be patient!  Let it soak in before you add more glaze.  Let sit in pan for about 10 minutes.

Turn the cake out onto a serving plate and brush the rest of the glaze on the top of the cake, letting the syrup absorb into the cake between brushings.  Be patient!

Let the cake cool completely before serving.  This cake is awesome made the day before you serve it. Great with a dollop of whipped cream or ice cream!

Italian Chicken & Ditalini Soup

Smoky Italian Chicken and Ditalini Soup

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1/3 cup chopped red, green and yellow bell peppers
2 Tbsp olive oil
32-oz carton chicken broth
28-oz can diced tomatoes
4-oz can V-8 vegetable juice
1 tsp minced roasted garlic
1 tbsp diced pickled jalapenos
Pinch sugar
Splash hot sauce
1/4 cup bbq sauce
10-oz carton frozen Fordhook lima beans
12-oz Ditalini, cooked al dente
1 cup heavy cream
3 Tbsp shredded Parmesan cheese
Chopped Parsley


Heat olive oil in a large stockpot and brown the chicken breasts, seasoned with salt and pepper, on both sides.  Remove chicken from pot and add the onion celery and bell peppers.  Cook, stirring often over medium heat until the vegetables soften.  Return the chicken to the pot and add chicken broth, diced tomatoes, V-8, garlic, jalapenos, sugar, hot sauce and bbq sauce and lima beans.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 20-30 minutes or until beans are done.  Stir in the Ditalini and cream and serve immediately, garnished with Parmesan and Parsley.

Delicious!  John loved it.  Great with Garlic Toast.

Grinch Cookies

I found this recipe on Pinterest and could not resist making them!  They were so cute....plump little crinkled green cookies glistening with powdered sugar with a red candy heart in the center!  Any Grinch fan would love these!

Grinch Cookies

1 box French Vanilla cake mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 drop green food coloring
Confectioner's sugar for dusting/sprinkling
Heart Shaped decorating candies/sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 350^F.

Cream together the cake mix, oil, eggs and food coloring until it's completely mixed and forms a ball of dough in the bowl of the mixer.  Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Drop by tablespoons into the confectioner's sugar and roll into balls.  Place on parchment lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart and press a heart into the center of each ball.  Bake for 8 minutes or until just set.  (Mine took closer to 10 minutes!)  Let cool on the cookie sheet for at least 2 minutes before attempting to transfer them to a wire rack.  They are very soft and will fall apart if you try to do this before they are cool enough!  Trust me, I mangled several before I realized what I was doing. They oozed between the wires and fell apart.  :-(

So...mine did not look like the pleasingly plump little morsels on Pinterest....mine spread and were much flatter and all the confectioner's sugar completely dissolved into the cookies.  I was a little disappointed, but they were still tolerably cute.  And they tasted pretty good, though they do not keep well at all.  They dry out really quick, but since they only make a couple dozen cookies, that shouldn't be a problem for anyone who has kids!

If I were to make them again, I would use a scant 1/2 cup of melted butter instead of the oil and use the Non-Melting Confectioner's Sugar from King Arthur Flour.