Dump Cake! Hey, now... don't judge.

Today is St. Patrick's Day, and I can't believe I didn't make something deliciously Irish to at least commemorate it in some fashion.  I'm pretty sure that chili and Dump Cake don't qualify as Irish fare.  Shame on me!

Speaking of Dump Cake, until recently, I had never heard of it.  And recently, on Pinterest, I found a picture and, ultimately, a recipe for it.  I had everything I needed to make it without going to the store, so that's exactly what I did.  And, boy, was I completely surprised at how absolutely delicious it is!!!  Wow, is it good!

So, the original recipe for this Dump Cake can be found at 12tomatoes.com. 

The site didn't specify pan size, so I opted to make mine in two 8" round cake pans which worked just dandily. 

Ok.  This picture doesn't do it justice.  I'm gonna go take another one right this minute!!!!
Maybe this one will be a more enticing shot.  Here, have a bite!  (And, yes, I ate it after I took the picture!)

Did I already say how easy this is?  Very few ingredients and easy, easy!  I would even venture to say that this is a very kid-helper friendly recipe. 

Here's what you need:

1 can (large one) of crushed pineapple (I drained mine, but by scooping it out of the can with a slotted spoon - so the pineapple wasn't bone dry, it was still a little wet)
1 can cherry pie filling
1 yellow cake mix
1/2 stick butter, melted
1 stick of butter, cut into slices

Place the pineapple in the bottom of the pan.

Spoon the cherry pie filling on top of the pineapple.  Don't mix it with the pineapple - just create layers.

Place the yellow cake mix into a bowl and add the 1/2 stick of melted butter.   Oh, shoot.  This reminds me that this step resulted in a butter explosion in my microwave that I still need to clean up.  And when I say explosion, I mean butter ALL over the inside of the microwave.  It was impressive, in a way...

Anyway, focus, focus!  Combine the cake mix and the melted butter until the cake mix is crumbly. 

Sprinkle this evenly over the cherry pie filling.  Again, don't mix it in - just create a layer. 

Slice up a stick of butter (yes, an entire stick) and place the pats evenly distributed on top of the cake mixture. 

That picture makes the butter look HUGE!  Goodness gracious. 
Moving on...

Then sprinkle, if you'd like, with chopped nuts on top.  I love pecans, so that's what I used.  Then bake for about 30 minutes, or until set, at 350 degrees. 

Let it cool for about an hour, and then dig in, topping off with ice cream, or not.  I don't have any ice cream, and still, this cake is so delightful! 

A special message for my Padre:
So, Dad, if you managed to read all the way down to this, you should definitely print this one for Mom to make!  It's like a combination of cherry pie and cherry cobbler with a little pucker up from the pineapple.  And you really do want to add the chopped pecans on top.  You'll like it even more that way. 

I hope you all have a safe and wonder St. Patrick's Day!  And I hope you give this fabulous little cake a try!

Enjoy!

"With the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible."- Julia Child

Oh, Lemony Lemonade Luciousness, How I Love Thee

What a week this has been!  A little odd in some ways, as a couple of co-workers and friends helped maintain my own disillusions of it being Friday when it was only Thursday.  We were all confused at some point during the day on Wednesday and Thursday as to what day it really was so that we were all quite disappointed on Thursday to learn that we still had one more day to come into the office before the reprieve of the weekend.  Silly bunnies (as a friend of mine would say). 

Today it is Saturday.  En fin!!! 

I must also share that I had a lovely birthday lunch on Friday with two special people that I work with.  We went to The Breakside Brewery in Portland specifically to have the amazing Breakside Burger with waffle fries.  This is one of the juiciest burgers on the face of the planet with a little surprise nugget of soft, melted, velvety blue cheese in the center and topped with mushrooms and caramelized onions.  Seriously.  When they ask your order, just say, "Breakside Burger, extra napkins."  Seriously.  I think my stomach just growled. 

It's safe to say that I've been experiencing a new addiction to Pinterest.  It is so much fun!  For those of you who have yet to explore the Pinterest play pen, it's basically people sharing their own web searches and items of interest by sharing (or "pinning") pictures from websites on virtual billboards.  One of the recent pins that caught my eye was a Lemonade Layer Cake.  The original recipe from allrecipes.com that I used can be seen by clicking here. 

This cake, despite it's multiple layers and frosting, makes up surprisingly quickly.  It cooks in just 20-30 minutes and cools fairly fast.  In the original recipe, it says to chill the frosting for an hour, but I opted to skip that part and, instead, just popped the whole cake in the fridge for about 30 minutes after frosting it to let it set up and it came out just dandy!

Here is a picture of the final product, which was deliciously lemony and sweet.  The ample lemon zest (I have several quite naked lemons in my kitchen right now!) gives a nice texture to the dense and moist cake.  Seriously, my mouth is watering as I try to think of worthy words to describe it!  ~slurp~

The original recipe is a 9" double layer cake, but I only had 8" pans, so I made 3 layers to avoid over-filling my pans. 

After they cooled completely, I started stacking the layers and applying a thin layer of frosting between each.  I think the frosting is delicious!!!  I was afraid I hadn't made quite enough frosting, so I was being a little chintzy with it between the layers (next time, I will exercise no constraint!!!).  I had a little bit leftover and I desperately looked for something to slather it on - a cookie, a pancake, a flip flop... something! 

After I frosted the whole cake, top and sides, I put a little additional zest on top just for a delicate and pretty appearance. 

This will be a great cake to make for a summer picnic or potluck.  It's very fresh and the cake is quite pretty, even with my less than professional frosting skills. 

Enjoy!!

"With the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible."- Julia Child

Red Sauce Success, but a Food Challenge Failure!

For starters, I have been off-line for way too long and am so glad to be back, sitting her typing a new entry!  I spent a little time last week in Phoenix for work, so blogging just had to go on hold for a bit.  Let me just say, coming from the Portland, Oregon area, Phoenix was a nice change!  I'm one that loves the rain and the gray days (I know, call me crazy!), but the 65 degree sunny days were pretty darn nice!! 

While there, I enjoyed some fabulous food moments!  One evening, I dined on some very, very delicious butternut squash ravioli.  I love all things butternut, and I was not disappointed.  Additionally, for the first time ever, I went to a Greek restaurant.  I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to find something that I would like.  Oh, silly me!  I ate the Pastitsio, which is a ground lamb and ground beef mixture with a bechamel sauce over pasta.  I thought it was very tasty!! 

So, upon my return home, one task I had at hand was related to a challenge I had signed up to participate in with other bloggers.  My assignment was to find a red sauce recipe (i.e. for spaghetti) on another blogger's site and make it, then highlight that blogger in my own blog.

Kids, an important thing to keep in mind here:  Always carefully read the rules and pay attention to what you are being asked to do! 

In my mind, I had to just come up with a recipe and blog about it, so I made my own sauce using my own recipe and didn't bother with following the rules of what I was supposed to do.  It's unfortunate because doing this disqualified me from the challenge, and on top of it all, I really wasn't in the mood for spaghetti tonight. 

Oh well.  Sometimes ya just gotta roll with it.  Right?  Right.

So, this is what the final product looked like when I combined my leftover sauce with the pasta before storing away the leftovers.  My red sauce with meatballs, and I think it tasted pretty darn good! 

So, here's what I did to get this divine dish!

First, I made the meatballs.  I combined 1 pound of ground beef with 1 pound of ground pork (not sausage - just plain ol' ground pork) with about 3/4 cup of bread crumbs and 1 egg, then salt and pepper. 

Combined it with my clean hands.  I then used a cookie scooper to form meatballs.  This made about 30 meatballs that were a little smaller than golfball-sized. 

I then took my trusty dutch oven and heated a drizzle of olive oil in the bottom on medium-high heat and put 1/2 of the meatballs into the hot oil. 

Browned 'em on both sides.

You don't have to cook them completely through, because they'll finish cooking in the sauce.  Just get a nice browning on them.  Remove the first batch from the pan and then put the remaining meatballs in the pan to brown them in the same way.  Once the second batch is browned, remove them, placing them with your other meatballs for now.

While the meatballs were browning, I diced up 1 small onion very finely and about 4 small bell peppers of varying colors.  I love these little things.  They're pretty and they have a lovely mild, sweet taste!

I reduced the heat slightly, down to about medium, and added the finely diced veggies to the drippings and sauteed them until soft. 

For this batch, I also added a pint of coarsely chopped mini-portabella mushrooms, but I'd say that this piece is purely optional.  I just love mushrooms, so they were definitely destined to be in my sauce!

Once the veggies were adequately cooked, I added 1-29 oz can of tomato sauce, 1-12 oz can of tomato paste, 1/2 - 3/4 cup of chicken broth, 1 1/2 tsp of dried Italian seasoning, 1 Tbsp sugar and a couple of splashes of Worcestershire Sauce.  Oh, and salt and pepper to taste.  I always forget that whole salt and pepper part, but it's actually quite important!

 I let this cook for about 10 minutes over medium heat.  I then reduced the heat to medium-low and then added the meatballs back into the sauce being careful not to break them apart. 

Stir gently to coat the meatballs, cover with a lid and let simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring (gently, gently!) occasionally. 

When completed, make spaghetti noodles to use as a lovely delivery system for this delicious sauce and meatballs!

And there you have my disqualified cooking challenge recipe!!  Yay me. 

Next blog...  a new lemon cake recipe!  I can't wait to try it and share it, so definitely stay tuned!! 

Thanks, again, for your support and for taking the time to read my blog! 

Enjoy!

"With the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible."- Julia Child