German Pancakes (or sweet Yorkshire Pudding eaten for breakfast)

Yield 2 9-inch pancakes.
4 eggs
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup flour, sifted
2/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons soft butter
Heat oven to 400°F. Butter two 9-inch cake pans or pies dishes well. Put eggs in blender, cover and process at “stir” until light yellow in color. Push “mix” button, remove cover and add remaining ingredients; process until smooth. Pour into prepared pans and bake 20 minutes; then reduce heat to 350°F and bake 10 minutes. Slide onto hot plates. Sift powdered sugar onto pancakes, eat with butter, nutella, banana, syrup, jam, or any combination thereof.

From Smitten Kitchen

Barbequed Tri-tip

Tri-tip steaks or tri-tip roast

Marinade:
Garlic
Salad oil
Red wine vinegar
Red wine
Salt and pepper

Mix marinade in ziplock bag. Add meat. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours for steaks and overnight for roast.

Barbeque. Eat lots!

Citrus Punch

2 cans frozen orange juice
2 cans frozen lemonade
8 cans water
2 cups grenadine syrup
Juice of 3 lemons
3 quarts 7-Up or Ginger Ale
Float lemonade ice rings containing maraschino cherries on top.

Salmon Salad

Ingredients

1 lb salmon fillet, cooked, either poached, grilled, or gently fried, and cooled to at least room temperature
2 celery stalks - finely chopped
1/2 red onion - peeled, finely sliced
1 Tbsp of capers (strain out the pickling juice)
The juice of 1 lemon (regular lemon, not Meyer lemon)
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp fresh dill - chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Break cooked salmon into chunk sized pieces and add to bowl. Combine celery, red onion, capers, lemon juice, olive oil, fresh dill in a separate dish.
Gently add the dressing mixture into the bowl of salmon, mixing just enough so all pieces
are coated. Add a sprinkling of salt and ground pepper to taste. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to cool and to allow the flavors to blend.
Serve with a slice of lemon. Serves 4.

Pumpkin Orange Cake

Orange Pumpkin Cake

1/2 cup (125 ml) butter, softened
1 cup (250 ml) granulated sugar
2 tbsp (10 ml) finely grated orange zest
2 eggs
14 oz (400 ml) can cooked pumpkin
2 cups (500 ml) all purpose flour
2 tsp (10 ml) baking powder
1 tsp (5 ml) baking soda
1 tsp (5 ml) ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp (2 ml) ground nutmeg
pinch of salt
2/3 cup (160 ml) 18%cream

1. Butter a 9 inch (23 cm) springform pan. Line base and side
with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
2. Beat butter, sugar and zest in a medium bowl with an electric
mixer until light and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating
well after each addition. Add the pumpkin. Stir until
combined (mixture may look curdled).
3. Add remaining ingredients and stir until combined. Spoon
mixture into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for
50 to 60 minutes or until done when tested with a toothpick
or cake tester.

Orange curd

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup orange juice
9 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons grated orange peel
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 Place lemon juice in small bowl or custard cup. Sprinkle gelatin over. Let stand 15 minutes.

2 Whisk sugar, orange juice, yolks, orange peel, and lemon peel in heavy large saucepan to blend. Add butter. Whisk over medium heat until curd thickens and bubbles begin to appear at edges, about 9 minutes. Remove from heat. Add gelatin mixture. Whisk until gelatin dissolves. Transfer curd to small bowl. Press plastic wrap onto surface of curd. Chill overnight.

Rainbow Surprise Cake

Cake:
Vanilla cake mix
Stuff required on box
Betty Crocker gel food coloring

Icing:
Rainbow Chip store-bought
White home-made or store-bought vanilla frosting





Mix up batter, and distribute into 6 liquid measuring cups (preferably) or bowls. Or you can use 5 of the above and use the mixing bowl for your 6th container. First mix the orange and purple colors, and then the red so that you don't run out of red trying to make the red batter red and don't have enough for the other two that require red dye. The yellow, green, and blue are a piece of cake- no pun intended.

Using either 2 round cake pans or 1 9x13" cake pan, follow the instructions for greasing on the cake mix box, and then add 3/4 of the red batter to one (side, if using the 9x13) and 3/4 of the purple batter to the other (side). For the first 3 colors add more batter to the pan out of each bowl, and for the last 3 colors add less of the batter, i.e., the rest in the bowl. This should form concentric circles in the order of the rainbow forward and backward. Bake according to package instructions.
















When the cake is ready to frost, stack the two cakes (if using 9x13, cut in half) using the Rainbow chip frosting between. Frost the outside white so those not in the know get a surprise when cutting into the cake.

Note: This is fun to do for holidays, etc., with color themes. See picture:
















Credit: http://omnomicon.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-to-make-rainbow-cake.html

Cake Kisses

Cake:
1 box of cake mix (Vanilla or Red Velvet)
Ingredients listed on box
If vanilla, Betty Crocker gel food coloring (can be found with decorative icing supplies in the regular grocery store)

Icing:
4T butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 t vanilla

Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips
Vegetable oil

Mix cake ingredients and add red, yellow, and blue coloring until dark red. Bake in 9X13" pan and allow to cool completely.

Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl for icing. Add cream and vanilla and beat until mixed in well. Crumble cake into icing and use a pastry cutter to cut the icing into the cake crumbs. Continue to mix in until the mixture is soft and moist, and can be formed into shapes.

Form into hershey kiss shapes, and place on a cookie sheet with edges. Place in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Use a large glass liquid measuring cup to make a double boiler. Put the dark chocolate and a couple of tablespoons of oil in the measuring cup, and stir until melted. Cover another cookie sheet with wax paper. Make an assembly line on the stove: heat the chocolate on a burner on the left, put the cooled cakes on the right-hand side burners, and put a warmed bowl and the other cover sheet on the counter to the right. Once the cakes have cooled and the chocolate has melted, pull the measuring cup off the pot, and make the outside is completely dry so no water gets in the chocolate. Pour some chocolate into the warmed bowl. Then methodically pour the chocolate on top of each cake. The chocolate will not want to even cover the cakes, so check to make sure you've gotten all surfaces. When the chocolate on top hardens, pull each cake off the sheet (I used a spatula to get them off and then my fingers for the next part which didn't leave fingerprints), and swirl the bottom in the bowl of chocolate. Place it on the wax paper. You may need to remove some of the cakes before all of them are covered with chocolate so that they don't harden to the first cookie sheet- just do them in batches. If you want, after the kisses are all hardening on the waxed paper, melt some white chocolate or vanilla chips in the measuring cup, and drizzle it on top of the kisses (this helps hide fingerprints if that was a problem).

Cut aluminum foil into roughly 6" squares and wrap with a message of your choice.

Credit: http://vegsf.blogspot.com/2008/02/valentines-day-goodies.html