Friday Foodday

TGIF! Here are my favorite recipes from the week!


Peppermint Hot Fudge Sauce
c/o Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients
2/3 cup heavy or whipping cream
1/2 cup light corn syrup or golden syrup (see Note above)
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, ideally Dutch-processed
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt or level 1/4 teaspoon table salt
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (or, about 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips), divided
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract, or to taste


Directions
In a 1 1/2 to 2-quart heavy saucepan, bring cream, syrup, sugar, cocoa, salt (if you’d like the salt to remain slightly textured, add it with the butter and extract at the end) and half the chocolate to a boil. Reduce to a low simmer and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in remaining chocolate, butter and extract and stir until smooth. Cool the sauce to warm before serving it so that it can thicken up. While very hot, it will only slide off the ice cream and pool in the alleys of the bowl and that would be tragic, right?


Cheesy Taco Pasta
c/o Lauren's Latest

Ingredients
1 lb. ground beef {I used 80/20]
1 taco seasoning packet {reduced sodium is a good idea}
1 1/2 cups southwest salsa
1/2 cup water
1/2 lb. pasta
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1/4 cup cream
salt & pepper, to taste


Directions

Bring water to boil to cook the pasta. Salt it and cook pasta until al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, in a large skillet, cook ground beef, breaking apart as you go. Once thoroughly cooked, drain meat and run under hot water to remove any fat. Wipe out pan with paper towel and place back on heat. Pour cooked beef into hot pan with taco seasoning, salsa and water. Simmer until pasta is finished cooking.

Once pasta is cooked, drain well and pour into skillet. Top with cheese, cream, salt and pepper. Stir until cheese melts and noodles are coated in sauce. Serve immediately.

Recipe Notes: A lot of people have told me that this recipe tends to be very salty because of the taco seasoning. I have found that the brand of taco seasoning does matter! On tv and at home, I tried this with McCormick low sodium taco seasoning and it was perfect.  So, try to look for that brand. If you can’t find that, then don’t salt your pasta water or add any additional salt at the end.

Cinnamon Toast Rolls

c/o Kitchen Bellicious

Ingredients

dozen or so slices of very soft, fresh white bread

melted butter

• cinnamon sugar (1 cup sugar plus 3 TBSP cinnamon)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cut the crusts from a slice of bread and roll until very thin. Spread both sides of the bread with melted butter and then sprinkle one side with the cinnamon sugar, making sure to cover very well. Fold each side into the middle and then gently roll up and place in a buttered mini muffin tin. Sprinkle with a little more cinnamon sugar. Alternately, you can fold the bread into a triangle, and then fold into another smaller triangle and place on a parchment-covered baking sheet.
3. When all of the rolls are made, bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until they are just starting to turn golden brown and get a little crisp. Remove from the muffin tin to cool slightly before serving.
4. If desired, drizzle with some icing made with powdered sugar that's been moistened with a little milk.
5. These freeze really well. To reheat, place briefly in a microwave to thaw and then bake in a low oven (250 or 300 until warm and slightly crisp. Alternately, you can reheat them in foil in the oven.