Meatball Sub Casserole

Daylight Savings Time is still getting the best of me and I find myself scrambling to finish all of my new-found chores to do in sunshine and get dinner on the table before 8:00. So, I've been looking for quick, easy-to-make dishes and tonight I made a real winner.

I was inspired by a pin on Pinterest for a meatball sub casserole but when I was making our grocery list, the pin didn't work and was probably some type of Trojan computer virus crap. So, long story short, I found a Taste of Home recipe and adapted it to the contents of our fridge and the week's menu.

I'm a real sucker for casseroles, but this one was wonderful! My food photography skills are limited at best, but I couldn't even get a good picture before we devoured he whole thing! J said that I will just have to make it again soon "just for pictures."

The flavors were wonderful and blended together perfectly. J works at a successful local deli and sandwich shop, so he knows his sandwiches and was skeptical of some of the components of the casserole but it worked beautifully. The bread we used was soft and delicate, so the cream cheese spread on it added a great richness that would've been lacking with just the basic meatball sub ingredients. I added sauteed onions and they brought a crisp bite to the softer ingredients and the good sear on the meatballs added another crispy quality, too. 

I can't say enough good thing about this recipe. 

It's a great "double duty" recipe, which I love. For example, I try to plan as many meals off of the same ingredient list as possible. We had subs and chips for dinner last night and saved the unused half loaf of French bread for tonight's dinner. It also doesn't require a lot of sauce, so we were able to use leftover sauce that I'd kept in a mason jar from our last spaghetti night. This is a great budget-friendly way to get the most bang from your buck - especially if you're only needing to cook for two. This dish makes three servings, you can multiply it as needed to feed a crowd - I think this a perfect dish for a potluck, taking to a sick friend, or making for a large dinner party. 

This is a really customizable recipe, too, and you can change it to suit your family's tastes and your timeline. I added garlic to the cream cheese spread and sauteed onions. I think sauteed mushrooms would be a great addition and if you're wanting to really appeal to kids' cliche notions of Italian food, you could add a layer of pepperoni. To save time, I used frozen (it is National Frozen Food Month, after all), pre-made meatballs (less than $5 for 60+ meatballs) that I cooked in the oven according to package directions but you can certainly make your favorite homemade recipe. I'm including ToH's recipe for meatballs but I know that when I make it again, I will probably use my own meatball recipe. 

And speaking of a time-saving, this is a great recipe where you can make all of the components ahead of time and assemble and reheat quickly before dinner. You can cook your meatballs and mix with the sauce ingredients, prepare the cream cheese spread and slice your bread. That will make for simple mise en place! 

And is a great recipe for kids - make sure they're either dealing with pre-made meatballs or know not to touch their mouth (or anything else) while handling raw meat. 

I promise I'll make it again soon -- just to get you some good photos!

Meatball Sub Casserole

Ingredients:

Meatball Ingredients- it not using 20 pre-made, frozen meatballs:

2 T chopped green onion
1 T seasoned bread crumbs
1 T grated Parmesan
1/3 lb lean ground beef

6 slices French bread baguette, sliced 1/2" thick
2 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 T mayonnaise
1/4 t Italian seasoning
2 cloves minced garlic, divided
dash pepper
2/3 c shredded mozzarella cheese, divided*
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 c spaghetti sauce (I used Hunts' original sauce)
1/4 c water


Method:

Preheat oven to 400. Mix meatball ingredients together by hand in a medium bowl. Roll small meatballs - will make over twelve 1" meatballs. Bake on a shallow baking pan for 8-10 minutes or until no longer pink inside. Drain on a paper towel.

Arrange bread in a single layer in an ungreased 8x8" baking dish. Combine the cream cheese, mayo, Italian seasoning, pepper and half of the minced garlic. Spread over bread.  Sprinkle with half of the two cheeses.

In a bowl combine the spaghetti sauce (if you have enough, use only 1 1/4 c spaghetti sauce, or add 1/4 c water to 1 c sauce), and garlic; add meatballs. Pour over bread and evenly distribute the meatballs. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses.

Bake uncovered at 350 for 20-25 minutes until heated through.

*Feel free to add more cheese! I love the extra gooeyness!

Quarter-Cookout-Crisis

We both love sweets - especially ice cream and milkshakes - and we knew that Cookout coming to town would be a major hit! Last summer, Sonic tried some funky shakes (like peanut butter and bacon) that we reviewed but we knew their uniqueness would be short-lived when the Greensboro chain opened. And as we predicted, everyone's been blown away by their cheap prices, zippy service and delicious milkshakes.

I've heard so many people who have their favorite - the most popular fave in my crowd is the banana pudding shake - but I doubt everyone's trying a lot of them. I know that I can get stuck in a (delicious) rut where I find something I like and prefer to not try anything else, and J is certainly that way. He thinks he's really stepping outside the box when he changes up his peanut butter fudge shake to a Reese's cup order.

So looking at the mega list of shake options (too big for one screenshot), I was quite disappointed to realize that I'd tried less than a quarter of them!

Thus far, I've tried the banana pudding (due to excessive peer pressure), chocolate malt, mocha, pineapple, watermelon, peach cobbler, banana nut, banana fudge and sips of J's various, trusty peanut butter and chocolate combos. That leaves at least 20-odd shakes left to try! So by the last day of summer - exactly 26 weeks from now - I want to have tried all of them (except egg nog,I'll have to wait until Christmastime). I'm pretty sure I can handle the difficult undertaking of one milkshake a week for two seasons! 

I think I've got some good flavors in store for me. So far, in my limited shake research, I've only had one Cookout shake that didn't wow me. The peach cobbler one, was just... odd. Let me preface this by saying my one never-fail, signature dessert is scratch-made peach cobbler. I can throw one together in less than 15 minutes and it's delicious and beautiful. So to suck a deconstructed cobbler through a straw is nothing short of disorienting. The flavor was great, but having chunks of pie crust (the best part of a pie) in a shake is just weird. 

I'm a little leery of the chocolate chip mint shake - the only choco mint combo I've ever enjoyed is Andes mints, egg nog - which I think has the texture of mucus, and Hi-C - which is just weird; but I'm willing to bet they'll be delicious. I was terrified of the watermelon shake but it turned out to be a favorite!

 If you've never had it, be sure to get your tail to the nearest Cookout come July 1. Don't worry, it's not an artificially flavored watermelon shake because yes, that'd be disgusting and was what I was afraid of. Instead, like all their shakes (or so I like to think) there's some nutritional value because they use real fruit. Tiny chunks of watermelon are mixed into vanilla ice cream and it's the most fabulous flavor and texture. The watermelon pieces are so small and obviously so water-dense that the liquid within the cubes actually semi-freezes giving a great crunch and burst of sweet, cold watermelon juice. I look forward to watermelon milkshake season every year, but again, I am so blessed to be in love with a talented chef who's figured out how to duplicate the recipe. And yes, it was one of the many ways he wooed me, long ago. And I'm going to share the recipe with you here! 

But first, let me give you some extra suggestions for your milkshake fest:

• Give the chocolate malt a try - it's all the great flavor of Whoppers candy, without that horrible biting-on-styrofoam texture
• If it says "fudge" go for it, it's wonderful, thick hot fudge that goes with everything
• The pineapple shake is a winner - it's like a third of a sundae with finely crushed pineapple. A subtle flavor but with the signature sweet and tartness of a pineapple.
• It's not technically a milkshake but be sure to try the Cheerwine float. Cheerwine is a Southern-exclusive cherry soda which they pour over a soft-serve vanilla ice cream. It puts a Coke float to shame. 

I'll be sharing updates on my flavor-fest on our Facebook page. Follow us here!

Jordan's Cookout Fake-Out Watermelon Milkshake

Ingredients:

1 c milk

1 1/2 c frozen watermelon

1 1/2 t sugar

Method:

Beforehand, cut watermelon into manageable cubes (2"). Place on wax paper-lined baking sheet in freezer until just frozen firm. 

Mix all ingredients in blender. If wooing someone, garnish with a pretty watermelon chunk. 

Homemade Chinese Takeout

J and I love "exotic" foods (although probably Americanized versions of such). We love to try new foreign menu items (like Ethiopian on our honeymoon to DC last week) and we especially love Asian-inspired dishes.

We enjoy these foreign meals so much that we've been developing our own versions to make at home (like our Russian feast). We've made our own sushi and curries, and I think we've finally perfected our take Chinese takeout dish - sweet and sour chicken.

J's DIY California Roll Stogie

Jade Dragon is our go-to Chinese restaurant and we could easily spend $35 on a takeout order for the two us. Even though it is disturbingly delicious, I have absolutely no idea what is in our food other than the obvious (or alleged?) things listed in the title and description. My only assumption is that everything we usually order is either seared or deep fried in lots of oil; covered in equally oily, and salty sauces and the vegetables are cooked to near death. It's delicious, but not affordable for our wallets or our bodies.

This dish is just the opposite.

We've been on our honeymoon for the last week and of course, came home to an empty fridge; so we're trying to "make do" with our pantry and freezer stockpiles until we can get to the store. We do have a good stock of meats and vegetables in our freezers (we buy in bulk and freeze in appropriate portions) but nothing outlandish, and we were able to complete this whole meal without stopping at the market.

In addition to pinching some pennies, it also means, that for the most part (ketchup aside, probably), I know exactly what went into this dish and it contains very little oil - only enough for the initial sear, and no MSG. The dredged chicken is lightly browned in a small amount of vegetable oil, but the majority of the cooking is done in the oven which saves lots of calories. Also, this recipe makes for a ton of sauce - which would be the biggest calorie culprit - and you can easily use less and serve the sauce warmed on the side for dipping (FYI: dipping not pouring sauces, like salad dressing, onto dishes is a simple calorie saver. Humans are much too lazy to bother dipping each bite and will usually skip it).

I love the flavor profile of this dish. Unlike real takeout, which is doused in sauce to the point of not tasting the protein, you can taste all of the elements of this dish. It is sweet and it is sour, but it's also chicken and I appreciate being able to taste all of the parts in a beautiful union -not cloyingly sweet or super bitter. The browning adds a crispness that isn't hindered by the sauce and makes for a crunchy, but still saucy bite.

I will remind you that this is a takeout-based dish, so don't come looking for authentic Chinese cuisine. For starters, I have my doubts that "sweet and sour chicken" exists in traditional Chinese diets, and secondly, if it did, I'm sure it wouldn't involve ketchup or cornstarch. If you're looking for a true-to-China dish, check out Easy Chinese on the Cooking Channel. Ching-He Huan makes dishes that are legit, but she also takes the time to explain the history and visit restaurants, farms etc. that are keeping up the traditions.

Enjoy this recipe and I hope you're able to enjoy your own homemade takeout!

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ingredients:
3-4 boneless chicken breasts (around 1 lb), cut into 1x1" pieces
salt & pepper
2 eggs, beaten
vegetable oil
3/4 c sugar
4 T ketchup
1/2 c distilled white vinegar
1 T soy sauce
1 t garlic salt**

Method:

Preheat oven to 325. Lightly grease a glass baking dish (I use a 9x9" pan, but it's all based on how big your diced pieces are, you want to be able to lay them all in a single layer).

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil over medium/medium-high heat in frying pan. Dip chicken into cornstarch and then into eggs. Cook chicken pieces in pan until lightly brown on all sides, but not cooked through. Place browned chicken into prepared dish.

Mix sugar, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce and garlic salt in a bowl with a whisk until sugar is dissolved. Then pour half of the mix evenly over the chicken. If you like a "wet" or saucy chicken, you can pour all of it, I prefer mine to be a bit stickier, so I gradually add more sauce throughout the cooking.

Bake for 30 minutes to an hour (until a meat thermometer in a large piece reads 160), flipping the chicken every 15 minutes (and re-evaluating sauce level, if needed). One pound usually takes around 45 minutes, but it depends on the cuts of the chicken and how crowded your pan is.

Serve with rice (homemade fried rice? yum!) and stir fried veggies.

**Note: I had a little flub today trying to throw this together (alliteration!) and used a tablespoon of minced garlic. Yes, that's a lot of garlic. And yes, it was delicious. If you love garlic, consider making this switch out. It's wonderful!

Gold Medal Meal -- Traditional Russian Dishes

As a new challenge we decided to make a meal based around the winners of the Sochi Winter Olympics - most gold and most medals.

And that means we'd be making Russian and American meals. The rules were - in case the US was a finalist - we had to make dishes we'd never made before and that were, in some way, authentic - from either cookbooks or "native" food blogs. For our American meal we're planning on using my new cookbook, Martha's American Food and we'll make our patriotic feast after we return from our honeymoon, to fittingly, Washington, DC.

This past weekend, we made a huge Russian spread and had my parents over to share.I did a lot of research with food blogs, an exciting Olympic-themed Buzzfeed article and an article from NPR. The hardest part of the meal was that I seriously struggled picking just a few dishes to try! Through this, I learned about a few trends in Russian cooking:

• Sturdy, root vegetables - potatoes, beets, turnips, carrots, radishes - are a big part of their cuisine. Id' imagine they handle the cold winter weather much better than other, more tender veggies. 
• Pickling of these veggies is also very prevalent, and also related to extending their shelf life. 
• They love to use mayonnaise in creamy salads and sauces. Apparently, Russian mayo tastes differently than our American style (but I used our Southern classic, Dukes)
• Seeds, like poppy seeds and carroway seeds, are very popular and used in most breads and many cakes. 
• The Russians love their sweets! Desserts were the most popular types of dishes I could find and were all super sweet! They used sweetened condensed milk, lots of sugar and honey. I have bookmarked several other cakes I want to try soon! 
• The food - and there's a lot of it made for meals and parties - is relatively inexpensive. We made our huge meal that would have easily fed six adults (with leftovers) cost less than $30 to prepare. 

Each of the dishes originally seemed very exotic and were combinations we'd normally have never tried - but turned out beautifully! We made six dishes that covered a wide variety of flavors and textures. Sharing all of the recipes would result in the world's longest blog post ever, so I'll just give you links to each of them with descriptions and any suggestions.

Golubtsi (stuffed cabbage rolls)

This dish is exceptional but beyond time consuming. It may take forever, but is totally worth it. I worried that there wasn't enough flavor infused into the dish or it was lacking enough sauce (only 3/4 a cup!) but it was incredibly flavorful. The mix of meats made for a great flavor, the sauce added just enough bold tomato-ness and the texture was great. And while all of the dishes made ample portions, this one was extraordinarily huge - we fed four of us each four rolls and had leftovers for three lunch servings and three freezer portions! This is going in the "freezer friendly" portion of my recipe scrapbook and I hope to make it every so often to stock up.

Russian Cucumber and Radish Salad 

This dish was impossibly simple to make and full of fragrant flavors. The green onion, parsley and dill gave it a very herbaceous flavor that paired nicely with the sour cream. And I was surprised to see how flavorful cucumbers could be and how mild the radishes were - normally cucumbers are really delicate and radishes are overpoweringly spicy but these almost changed in the salad. Adding just enough salt really blooms the flavor, too - but be sure to serve it immediately or the salt will bring out the water in the cucumbers.

Carrot Salad with Walnuts and Garlic 

I thought this dish was the most out in left field. Carrots are often in salad, walnuts are often in salad and mayonnaise is often in salad dressing - however, to have a salad compromised of only these ingredients, plus garlic (WHAT?!) sounded like a sure fire "oh, that was a fun idea; glad it didn't cost too much" dish. But it was so good! The carrots were crisp and their sweetness paired nicely with the large garlic. It was fresh and springy and very lightly dressed. I will be making this again for sure.

Buttery Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs

Another trend in Russian food - lots of herbs and spices - these potatoes were simply made, boiled and then crisped up in butter and olive oil and tossed with a bunch of herbs and spices. I don't find these to taste all that foreign or exotic, and they would go with almost any meal. 

Sweet Piroshki

I'm terrified of working with dry yeast - so this was J's project. This recipe - like the golubtsi - made a TON. Piroshki is a stuffed roll, and you can make it in either a sweet variety with apples (as we did) or savory with a braised beef and cabbage filling. Again like the golubtsi, this dish took forever too but was delicious. The folding of the rolls is complicated but they could withstand more filling and I would change the apple filling to be sweeter or more flavorful - adding cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice. Otherwise, when cooled they taste only like a yeast roll. 

Chocolate Salami 

This was my favorite dish of the entire night! Apparently this a staple in Slavic households and is always around for snacktime and I can see why. It was incredibly simple, only four ingredients and I could eat this for days. It is like a mix of fudge and cookie dough. J is really paranoid about cookie dough or cake batter or anything that delicious but also contains raw eggs, so this is a great alternative. It makes four salami and they're delicious in either the fridge or the freezer. My new goal is to make an entire chocolate charcuterie plate! 

I suggest you try some of these dishes and find your own new cuisines to explore! And stay tuned for our American feast. 

Simple Touches Make A Big Difference

I've mentioned before that while I appreciate slow dishes, stewed to perfection and take a real commitment of time, and usually high quality ingredients, I also love meals that are super fast and inexpensive. I don't always have the time or money required for some of my favorite recipes and we have to use simpler, often pre-packaged items in a pinch - and we're certainly not the only ones.

Food insecurity and food deserts are real issues across the country - and even our own community. With wealth disparities also come deficits of time for cooking and an inability to buy expensive, fresh ingredients. However, I want to plead the case that just because a meal involves simple, "low-brow" or pre-made/pre-packaged components doesn't mean it has to be any less special, delicious or full of love. I would argue that little, homemade, heartfelt choices can jazz up a meal that would otherwise be straight from the box (literally) and I want to share two such recipes - that we use frequently - with you.

When I was little, we were in a different place financially, and living in a rural area my family didn't know a lot about food. We ate a lot of country (and inexpensive) staples like cornbread, biscuits, potatoes and green beans, jellies and meats we canned ourselves. The majority of it was homemade but nothing like the crazy things my dad makes now (like bibimbap?!) and looking back at some of our "treats," I can't help but laugh. And it's absolutely not because I am ashamed or embarrassed, but the nostalgia of my childhood is just too funny to me.

One such treat, one of the first desserts I ever remember "making," was strawberry shortcake. We used to get these little pre-made sponge cakes that were practically flavorless (and only $1 for six!) and we'd top them with whipped cream and strawberries we'd cut up ahead of time and covered up sugar.

The sugar on the strawberries is the most important ingredient. It only takes about 2 T for a whole bowl of sliced strawberries, but left on them for a few hours, they make the most delightful, sweet juice - just perfect for shortcake! And instead of using plain white sugar, we use homemade vanilla sugar.

Feeling nostalgic, we made strawberry shortcake!

Albeit vanilla sugar does take some patience, but it couldn't be simpler to make and is easily refreshed. All you need is vanilla beans (we usually get Madagascar beans from MySpiceSage.com - they're a wonderful spice website that is inexpensive and gives freebies - usually vanilla beans - alot), white sugar and some sort of jar or airtight container.

Slice the beans in half so that you have two short halves, then split them open. Place them in your container and cover with sugar. We usually use half a bean per pint jar. Allow to sit for at least a month - the longer you leave it, the deeper the vanilla flavor. And whenever you've used up all of your sugar, just add more and repeat the process - the beans are very potent and will last through several refills.

After the sugar is ready you can use it in anyway you'd use regular sugar (in sweet dishes -- I wouldn't add this to chili or spaghetti sauce etc.). You could put it in your coffee, on french toast, in any pastry or, as we did, over sliced fruit. The vanilla adds a light sweetness and makes the most subtle, delicate changes in your dishes.

This is a wonderful touch for your dishes at home and adds a foodie feel to even the simplest of dishes, but it also makes a great gift. You can make it ahead in big quantities for holidays, decorate the jars and give out as beautiful and inexpensive gifts! We love our vanilla sugar so much that we actually gave out as favors at our wedding (with an added LEGO craft, of course).

Another quick, but impactful recipe is making your own seasoning for fries or homemade chips. We go to Grocery Outlet and stock up on $1.99 bags of french fries every few months and add them whenever we're short on side dishes. I am a french fry freak and I absolutely have a hierarchy of the best fries around and generally, frozen fries are on the bottom. However, using this Red Robin/Zaxby's knock-off seasoning, we're able to elevate ho hum fries into incredibly flavorful ones. And, the seasoning, which usually lasts us 3-4 months, costs less than $1 to make!

Mix 3 T salt (you could easily get away with 2 T if you're watching your sodium), 1 T instant tomato soup or spaghetti sauce mix, 2 t chili powder, 1/4 t ground cumin and 1/4 t ground black pepper. Store in an airtight container. 

I use this seasoning on practically any potato-product, but be sure to sprinkle this on immediately after cooking the dish - right after the fries come out of the oven/fryer etc. - to be sure it will stick. 

Providing a good meal doesn't have to involve a lot of time or money! I hope you take these two recipes and find your own way to incorporate small, homemade touches into your meals - making your own salad dressings and sauces or finding ways to jazz up boxed meals (check out Semi Homemade by Sandra Lee). 

Mardi Gras (or anytime) King Cake

I'm not Catholic, I've never been to Louisiana and I've certainly never "earned" any beads, but I love the season of Mardi Gras and Lent.

I've been observing Lent since I was 10 or 11 and the idea of self sacrifice for religious, and personal clarity has always resonated with me. I usually give up a few things that I love and I struggle to go without for 40 days and last year I started adding commitments - of things I don't do often enough. This year, I'm giving up french fries, all but one non-water drink a day and am going to "perform" an additional mile of exercise a day (on a bike, running, walking etc.). 

And before Lent starts on Ash Wednesday (March 5), I've been binging on my favorite sweet drinks and salty treats and obviously, not exercising regularly. But the best tradition before Lent begins is the big party of Fat Tuesday and its perfect dish - King Cake. 

Mardi Gras King Cake is a traditional dish in honor of the three wise men who visited Jesus as a baby and is eaten in celebration of the Lenten season. It's like a danish, cinnamon roll style dough, sometimes filled, but full of sweet cinnamon and buttery dough and covered with sweet icing or sugar in the colors of Mardi Gras - purple, gold and green (there are several variations in different cultures, like Mexican rosca de reyes which has more of a fruit cake flavor with sugared cherries and fruit pieces).  For Mardi Gras, a plastic baby (originally in honor Jesus) is poked through the underside of the cake and hidden inside. The person who received the piece with the trinket has to buy next year's cake or throw the next party. 

This recipe is a quick and easy version that, thankfully, doesn't involve actually making a yeast dough (I am terrified of using dry yeast) and is prepared in less than an hour. To me, the hardest part is the geometry of making a half-way decent circle shape and dying the icing and/or sugars just the right colors. 

Technically, this is a Fat Tuesday specialty but it is delicious year round and would make a wonderful dish for any breakfast, tea time (I assume people do that), bridal shower, holiday party or any time you're seeking a sweet, simple pastry. You can dye the icing/sugars to suit any color scheme or leave them plain white. 

Bon appetite and laissez les bons temps rouler! 

Mardi Gras-Style King Cake 

Ingredients:

4 oz. cream cheese

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/2 t. ground cinnamon

1/4 c. raisins - golden or purple

1/2 c pecan halves (optional; I suggest including unless you have an allergy)

2 cans refrigerated crescent rolls

1 1/2 c powdered sugar, sifted

3-4 tablespoons milk or half and half

1 tsp vanilla extract

Purple, green and yellow colored sugar or food coloring

Method:

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a baking sheet or pizza pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Soak raisins in a cup of hot water for 15 minutes; drain and pat dry (this will make them beautifully plump and tender). 

Blend cream cheese, brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins in the bowl of a food processor. Add the pecan halves and pulse until the pecans are 1/4" pieces. 

Unroll crescent dough and separate into triangles. Position triangles next to each other with the points toward the center, overlapping the long sides about a 1/4" - this will form a large round. Where the pieces overlap pinch the seams together in the middle of the seam - leave the ends unsealed so you can fold them. 

Visual example thanks to About.Com

Spread the cream cheese filling around the ring covering the center sealed seam. 

Fold the short side of each triangle toward the center, just covering the filling. Pull the point end of the triangles to fully enclose the filling, tuck under the points and lightly press the seams. 

Bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Let cool to room temperature. 

Whisk together the powdered sugar, milk or half-and-half (start with 2 T) and vanilla until smooth. This icing should be thick, so slowly add more liquid. Spoon the icing over the ring and allow it to drip over the sides. If you are using colored sugars sprinkle them in wide swaths across the cake. If using food coloring - separate your icings into three bowls and dye them accordingly and pour over individual sections of the cake. 

When it has cooled, you can push the plastic baby in through the bottom into a slice. Note: Some recipes suggest putting a dried bean into the cake, but this is small enough to choke on and hard enough to unexpectedly break a tooth - either do the big plastic token or skip it all together.