Massachusetts .. Boston Cream Pie

If you are a regular reader of my blog you might be wondering if we quit Cooking Our Way Through the USA. The answer in short is no but we have taken a pretty long break from cooking with the kids and studying the individual states. Obviously we need to get back on track.

Today we made Boston Cream Pie for the Great State of Massachusetts. I can tell we have been out of the kitchen for awhile with the kids because there was lots of arguing and me,me,me stuff going on.. ARRGG! Not exactly a fun day in the kitchen. Luckily we survived with only one minor burn and lots of yelling! A day in the life I tell you. Oh well, not every day can be a perfect day. In fact, at our house most of them are not.

Boston Cream Pie

1 3/4 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Sift together flour, salt,and baking powder in a bowl. 2.cream the butter. Add the vanilla and gradually beat in the sugar. Beat until fluffy. Beat in the two eggs and stir in 1/2 cup flour mixture. 3. Stir in 1/4 cup milk and then add 1/2 cup flour mixture and another 1/4 cup milk. Mix. Add the rest of the flour mixture and beat just enough to blend well. 4. Spoon the batter into 2 greased and floured 7-8 inch round cake pans. 5. Bake the layers 20-30 minutes at 375 degrees. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans. Cool completely.

CREAM FILLING

1/2 cup sugar
1 cup milk
3 T flour or 1 T Cornstarch
1 egg
few grains salt
1/2 tsp vanilla

1.Put the sugar, flour, and salt in a small heavy saucepan. Stir in milk. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens (about 5 minutes). 2. Add the 1 egg and mix. Cook and stir for 3 more minutes. Stir in vanilla. Chill.

CHOCOLATE FROSTING

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 T butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk

1. Place chocolate, butter, and milk in the top of a double boiler. Cook on medium low heat until the chocolate melts. Stir well. 2. Take off the heat and let stand until lukewarm. Stir in Sugar and vanilla. Beat until thick enough to spread.

Put together the cream pie.

Put the layers together with the cream filling. Spread with chocolate frosting.

OUR REVIEW:

We all loved it although the consistency of the cake was slightly biscuit like. Was it supposed to be this way?? Who knows? It was a lot of work for one small cake. Not sure I would try it again with four kids.

NEW ENGLAND POT ROAST.. YUM.. 5 STAR!!!

Connecticut has been our FAVORITE STATE so far.. Why you might ask?? Because of the wonderful pot roast we cooked.

Below you will find a must try recipe!!

The kids said "MOM you bought the MOST AMAZING INGREDIENTS" .." No, not really.". It was the way we put it together and followed a recipe.

So far this has been my favorite as far as teaching the kids about cooking and food. They really were amazed at how wonderful food combined in the right way could taste.

So get out your recipe cards and get ready for a recipe you will use and use again!!

Here Jack is flowering and putting the Pot Roast in the pan. It will cook and brown for 15 min.
Once browned it gets topped with horseradish on BOTH sides.
Our finished product.. This does NOT do it justice.. YUM, YUM, YUM, YUM!! 5 STARS!!

1/4 cup flour

1 T.plus 2 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp pepper

4 lbs lean boned beef chuck roast

2 T vegetable broth or butter

5 oz prepared horseradish

1 cup water

8 small potatoes, pared and halved

8 small carrots, halved crosswise

8 small onions

1/2 tsp salt

** optional peas for color/taste

1. Stir together flour, salt, and pepper; rub mixture on meat.

2. Heat butter in Dutch Oven; brown meat over med heat about 12-15 minutes

3. Reduce Heat; spread horseradish on both sides of meat. Add water; cover tightly and simmer on top of range about*** 4 hours or until meat is tender.

4. About 1 hour before end of cooking time, add veges and 1/2 tsp salt.

Our roast was smaller than this.. Which is why I have the **** listed. Please adjust your cooking time if you have a much smaller roast.. Ours was not quite 3 pounds so I think I dropped cooking time by about an hour. When we thought the meat was done we pulled it and continued to cook the vegetables until done.

I will use this recipe EVERY time I make a pot roast.. FABULOUS!!

Part 2 Georgia/ Coca Cola Salad

Part 2: We had to try this next recipe just to say that we did!! I figured the kids would not like it and I was right. I think the cherries and just the look of it through them all off..especially my Jack. He has a weak stomach just like his old grandpa used too!! That being said John and I both liked it and only wish we had served it with the Chicken Delight as opposed to serving it as a dessert.. Who knew??

Cooking with the Greeneteam.. here they are waiting for our gelatin to boil.
The look of the finished product.. A little spooky.. Jack said it looked like something dead from a Halloween party.. Gotta love kids

Ingredients for the Coca Cola Salad:

1 can pitted bing cherries. I would quarter them

1 20 oz can crushed pineapple

1 3-oz box black cherry gelatin and one box strawberry gelatin

1 12 oz coca cola chilled

8 oz cream cheese crumbled

1 cup chopped pecans

Drain fruit, reserving liquid

Bring reserved juice to a boil

add gelatin; stir until dissolved

Cool slightly and add Coca Cola. Cool a little while longer

Add cream cheese, fruit, and pecans.

Chill until firm.

Our review.. the kids were a no go on this one.. John and I enjoyed it. Wish we had served with our dinner. This makes a HUGE salad.. I would not make it again for just our family as we ended up throwing away a good portion of it.. I would make it for a potluck or to take to a large Thanksgiving Feast. I would say it is like a gourmet cranberry sauce. Enjoy!!

Part 1 Georgia's Chicken Delight

We are still cooking our way through the U.S.A. :) We cooked a dish for N. J. but decided not to blog about it because it was the basic chicken stuffing recipe that I know so many of us make. So moving on we are now at the GREAT state of GEORGIA.. We made two for this state since it is our home state. Here is a fabulous recipe for Chicken Delight.

Our Ingredients
Makenna pouring our mixture into the baking dish.
The finished Chicken Delight.
We served the chicken delight with cranberry sauce, green beans, stuffing and biscuits.. YUM

Chicken Delight

4 chicken breasts, Salt and pepper to taste

1 can cream of chicken soup, 1 sleeve of Ritz crackers crushed

8 oz sour cream butter melted,

1/2-2/3 cup of milk

Boil the chicken. Cool and chop

Combine chicken, soup, sour cream, and milk. Salt and pepper to taste

Pour into shallow baking dish.

Top with Crackers

Drizzle with butter

Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly and crackers are golden.

This recipe was absolutely delicious!! The entire family LOVED it!!

PENNSYLVANIA.. Chicken Paprika

Carson adding our chicken to the hot oil. He absolutely LOVES to cook!!
Makenna still adding chicken to the oil. She is such a good little homemaker already!!
Maddie (with the help of Daddy) adding onions and the remaining flour .
Jack stirring our onions, water, boullion, salt, pepper and paprika.

CHICKEN PAPRIKA

2 1/2 pounds small chicken pieces.

1/3 cup flour

oil

2 onions, thinly sliced

1 1/2 cups water

2 chicken bouillon cubes ( we substituted homemade chicken stock for the water and bouillon cubes)

2 tsp salt

pepper as desired

1 tsp paprika

1/2 cup sour cream

noodles.

1. Coat chicken with flour; reserve remaining flour. Brown chicken in hot oil, remove from pan.

2. Cook onions and remaining flour in hot oil for 2-3 minutes. Stir in water, bouillon, salt, pepper, and paprika.

3. Return chicken to pan, cover and simmer for 20-40 minutes.

4. Stir in sour cream;serve with or over noodles

5. Sprinkle with a touch of paprika

The Greeneteam gives this dish from Pennsylvania two thumbs up!! The sauce was creamy and delicious and spiced just right. We served it over butterfly noodles but would be wonderful over spaghetti, penne, or linguine!! Enjoy

*Fun food facts about PA..

*Hershey, PA is the home to the world's largest chocolate factory.* Philly is famous for its Philly cheesesteak sandwich.

*The chocolate chip cookie is the official state cookie!!