Edible Experiments

Valentine’s Day Breakfast: Malted Waffles with Strawberry Syrup

2012-02-12T19:47:00.001-08:00

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Perhaps you’re looking for ideas for the perfect Valentine’s Day morning surprise… or maybe you should send this post to your significant other as a hint (*wink).
In all seriousness, my husband absolutely loves malt powder (it doesn’t usually last long in our house), and I thought it would be fun to give these malted waffles a try. I loved the subtle malt flavor—it was just enough to be noticeable but not so much that it was overwhelming.
They were great with strawberry syrup, but I dare say that they tasted pretty good naked… that is… without any toppings on them. So, you may want to make a bunch of these and then freeze the extras. As long as you freeze them flat, they’ll fit in your toaster, and you’ll have a quick, easy breakfast on the go. I’ll take these over Eggo any day!
Ingredients:

2 C. all-purpose flour
1 C. malt powder (Carnation, not Ovaltine)
2 TBSP. firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 1/2 C. buttermilk
6 TBSP. butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

Strawberry Syrup:

1 pint strawberries
1/3 C. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Other Toppings:

whipped cream
sliced strawberries
malt powder for sprinkling

Directions:
1. First, break out a bag of conversation hearts to munch on while you are cooking.

2. Second, gather all your pink or red colored cooking utensils. It’s more festive.

3. Put on a sappy love song mix to listen to while you cook.
4. Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large pink bowl.

5. In a separate bowl, mix together the butter, eggs, and buttermilk. Make a large well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients.
6. Fold in the dry ingredients gently until combined. There will be lumps. Over mixed waffle and pancake batter makes for dense waffles and pancakes.
7. Warm up the waffle iron and preheat the oven to 225 F. Depending on your waffle iron, pour 1/4 C. to 1/2 C. into the waffle iron. Cook until the waffles are golden brown. Transfer the waffles to a baking sheet and place in the warm oven to keep them warm and toasty while you finish cooking the rest so you can serve them all at the same time.
To make the Strawberry Syrup:
1. Wash, hull, and slice the strawberries on a hot pink cutting board.
2. Cook over medium heat in a pot with the sugar and vanilla. Stir with a hot pink whisk frequently and mash until the strawberries are soft and cooked and the sugar is dissolved.

3. Let the strawberry mixture cool. Pulse in a blender until smooth. You can also pour this over ice cream, oatmeal, or anything you want!

To top the waffles: Drizzle with strawberry syrup, dollop with whipped cream, decorate with fresh strawberries, and sprinkle with malt powder.

Waffle Recipe adapted from the wonderful cook book Baked Explorations
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

GIVEAWAY WINNER

2012-02-11T05:56:00.001-08:00

The winners of the La Chinata Smoked Paprika give away are:

1. Amber-who chose sweet

2. And Jess and Seth-who will receive the hot variety

Congrats! I will be sending your paprika out shorty!

Oh, and I have a couple fun valentines recipes coming up in the next day or two, so keep reading!

In the mean time, check out this Valentines Treat

Chickpea Veggie Soup with Smoked Paprika (GIVEAWAY!!!)

2012-02-04T11:54:00.001-08:00

I know most foodie bloggers are posting super bowl recipes right now, but most super bowl recipes are heavy, fatty, and greasy. When you think “game day”, don’t you think chicken wings, burgers, chips, soda? I do too, but this year I am still going strong with my new year’s resolutions, believe it or not. I am still eating healthy and exercising 3 or 4 times a week.

So I have created a delicious soup that is healthy, but still has the big flavors required for a super bowl party. It makes a big pot to serve the masses, its hearty and filling, and its healthy! I got the idea from The America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook, but altered it quite a bit to make it my own.

The star of this dish is the La Chinata hot smoked paprika. La Chinata sent me a couple tins of their delicious Spanish smoky paprika. They have three varieties: hot, sweet, and bitter and they are all delicious. This is high quality spice straight from Spain, with vibrant color and intense flavor. You don’t need much of this spice to add a huge kick of flavor to a dish. If you have only had regular old paprika, you need to try smoked paprika. It kind of reminds me of bacon with the smoky flavor. Check out the La Chinata website or like them on facebook. You can also buy it online at www.tienda.com

And you, my lucky readers, have a chance to win some La Chinata for your self. I have two tins to give away. One sweet and one hot (the hot is not extremely hot, just flavorful), so there will be two winners. You have one week to comment on this post. Tell me if you would rather have sweet or hot. The first name I draw (using random.org) will get first pick at the flavor and then I will draw one more reader for the remaining flavor. Your last day to comment is Friday, February 10, 2012. I will post the winner the next day.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 TBSP olive oil
1 onion, minced
1 tsp. sugar
6 garlic cloves, pressed
1/2 tsp. hot smoked paprika
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
2 cans (15 oz.) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
3 large red potatoes (1 pound), washed and chopped into chunks
1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes
2 sweet peppers (any color)
4 C. hot water
4 chicken bullion cubes (4 tsp.)
1 zucchini, chopped into chunks
1/4 C. parsley
salt and pepper to taste
lemon wedges

Directions:

1. Chop up all your veggies and open all your cans.

2. In a large pot, heat up the olive oil over medium-high. When it is hot, add the chopped onions and the sugar. Stir occasionally until the onions are soft. Add the garlic, paprika, ginger, and cumin and stir for about 30 seconds.

3. Reduce heat to medium. Add the potatoes, chickpeas, tomatoes, sweet peppers, water, and bullion. Bring to a simmer, cover, and let simmer until potatoes are tender. About 20 minutes.

4. Add the zucchini and let simmer for another 5 or 10 minutes, until the zucchini is cooked, but not soggy.

5. Stir in the parsley. Taste and add salt, pepper, and more paprika as needed. Serve with lemon wedges.

If you have left overs, reheat on the stove, but do not boil.

Idea adapted from The America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook

Texas Roadhouse Roll’s

2012-01-25T18:59:00.001-08:00

For some reason I panic when people ask me to bring rolls to events. I guess it is because I have had so many flops when it comes to making rolls. For thanksgiving, the rolls that I had made 3 times before with success, turned out hard and dense and flat.

I don’t know why, but I just have never felt confident making rolls. When I was asked to bring rolls to Christmas Dinner, I went straight to the store and got frozen rolls. I didn’t want to risk another Thanksgiving roll incident. But after opening presents, I was in the mood to bake, so I decided to try a new roll recipe.

I thought it turned out pretty good. I used a copy cat recipe of Texas Roadhouse rolls. Yes, those yummy, slightly sweet rolls with cinnamon butter. Mine weren’t quite exactly the same as Roadhouse, but they were still very yummy. Especially when hot with cinnamon butter.

Ingredients:

1/4 oz. active dry yeast
1/2 C. warm water
2 C. milk
3 TBSP. melted butter
1/2 C. sugar
2 quarts all purpose flour
2 whole eggs
2 tsp. salt
1 egg

Cinnamon Butter:

1 stick of salted sweet cream butter, softened
1/3 C. powdered sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Place the warm water in a small bowl and sprinkle the yeast and 1 tsp. of the sugar over the water. Let it sit for about ten minutes, or until the yeast starts to get frothy and bubble.

2. Scald the milk in a small saucepan. Cool to lukewarm. Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer.

3. Add the yeast, sugar, and the flour. Add enough flour to create a batter about the thickness of cake batter. Beat thoroughly. Let stand until light and foamy

4. Add the melted butter (let it cool first), eggs, and salt. Beat well. Add enough flour to make a soft dough. Add a little bit at a time until the dough starts to pull away from the side of the bowl. All in all, there should be about 2 quarts

4. Let the dough rest for a couple of minutes.

5. Knead for about 6 minutes in the electric mixer with a kneading hook. Or knead by hand with a little flour sprinkled on the surface. Put the dough in a big bowl that has been lightly greased with oil. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and let it rise until it doubles in size.

6. Punch the dough down and divide into equal portions. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Shape the dough into roll shapes.

7. Place the rolls on a greased baking sheet. Let the rolls double in size again. Whip the egg and brush over the rolls.

6. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Place a pot of hot water on the lowest rack of the oven while it is preheating and leave it in while the bread bakes.

7. Bake the rolls for 10 minutes. Lower the temp. to 350 F. and bake for 10 to 15 minutes more. Cool on rack.

8. Make the cinnamon butter by beating the butter until fluffy. Add the powdered sugar a little bit at a time, blending well. Add the cinnamon and blend well. Store in the fridge in a air tight container.

Recipe adapted from food.com

Baked Kale Chips

2012-01-16T16:52:00.001-08:00

You have probably heard of these before. They are all over the blogosphere. I had to give them a try.

They are thin and crispy and have way less calories than a potato chip.

You can crush them up and sprinkle on top of popcorn.

You can season them with what ever floats your boat.

But at the end of the day, they taste like crispy kale. I don’t love kale, but if I have to eat it, I prefer it this way(or in a pasta dish with lots of other flavors to mellow it out, like THIS).

Ingredients:

Kale, chopped, rinsed (enough to spread out evenly and fill a baking sheet)
Olive Oil
Kosher salt or seasoning salt (or any flavoring you want)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 F.

2. Rip Kale away from the thick stems and tear into bite sized pieces.

3. Toss kale and a little bit of olive oil in a bowl until well coated. Transfer to a baking sheet.

4. Sprinkle salt and seasonings even over kale.

5. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the kale is crispy and starting to brown on the edges.

Recipe from www.ediblexperiments.blogspot.com

Orecchiette with Kale, Bacon, and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

2012-01-12T07:46:00.001-08:00

If you read my last post, you will be happy to know that I’m still going strong with my New Year’s resolutions. Aside from one trip to Buffalo Wild Wings to celebrate a friend’s birthday, we have made healthy meals and exercised almost everyday this week.

The recipe that I am sharing with you today is so tasty and has so many different flavors! It only takes about 20 minutes to make! Boiling the noodles takes the longest.

I have a funny story about this recipe, too. The first time I made it I was so excited to try it and it was delicious except for some reason the kale turned all slimy and shriveled. It didn’t taste bad it just looked really bad in the picture. I felt like I needed to make it one more time and not cook it as long, so I went chop up the bunch of kale that I had bought and for the first time I saw the name of what I had bought on a little sticker: Curly Mustard!

I had bought Curly Mustard and used it instead of kale! I looked up curly mustard online and found out that it has a spicy, mustard taste. I rinsed off a big leaf and popped in my mouth, and sure enough, it was spicy and tasted like hot mustard! I couldn’t believe I didn’t notice it’s flavor in the pasta dish before. I couldn’t believe that I didn’t know what kale looked like enough to grab the right bundle of greens.

I went back to the store and bought a bag of prewashed, pre chopped Kale, and let me tell you, that is the way to go! It makes the recipe that much easier!

Ingredients:

8 oz. uncooked orecchiette pasta
5 cups bagged prewashed kale
1/2 TBSP. olive oil
1/4 C bagged bacon crumbles, two pieces of bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/4 C. oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and chopped
1/4-1/2 crushed red pepper flakes
3 large garlic cloves, pressed or minced
1 large roasted red pepper from the jar, roughly chopped
4 oz. sliced mushrooms
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3/8 tsp. salt
1 TBSP. fresh lemon juice
Parmesan cheese, grated, to taste, or an Italian cheese blend

Directions:

1. Boil a pot of water to cook the pasta. While the water is boiling, chop the red pepper, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and anything else that needs to be chopped.

2. Once the water is boiling, add the pasta and cook for 8 minutes or until almost tender. Add Kale and cook for 2 more minutes. Drain in colander, reserving 1/2 C. of the pasta water.

3. While the pasta is boiling, heat the olive oil in a skillet. Once it is hot, add the garlic, tomatoes, roasted red pepper, bacon, mushrooms, crushed red pepper flakes, pepper, and salt. Over medium heat, stir until mushrooms and garlic are start to brown, slightly. I used the 1/2 tsp. of crushed red pepper flakes, and it was pretty spicy. Use 1/4 tsp. if you have a low tolerance for spicy, hot foods.

4. Add pasta and kale to the mixture. Add the reserved 1/2 C. of water and toss to combine. Mix half the cheese through the mixture. Drizzle evenly with the lemon juice and toss once more time. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese and more bacon if desired, on top. Serve hot.

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light Magazine December 2010 page 38.

Eating Healthy: Baked Brussels Sprouts, Parsnips, and Bacon

2012-01-07T20:03:00.001-08:00

Last week I thought New Year’s resolutions were cliché.

I wasn’t even going to make any because I knew I was going to fail miserably. In the past I would make a ton of resolutions and after a day or two I realized I couldn’t keep it up and so I completely gave up. So this year I decided not to make any. I got discouraged because there were so many things that I needed to change and I just don’t have time with my job to do hardly any of them.

Then it hit me! I only need to make one goal (well, two, if you count flossing every day)!

To plan my day out the night before!

All the things I need to change are things I WANT to do, I just can’t find the time. What I really needed was to be more in control of my time. So every night this week, my husband and I have written out the next day down to the hour in our planners before we go to sleep. And on one night a week we plan weekly menu.

It has been a miracle! I actually knew which nights I was going to cook and which nights Benj was going to cook (he has been a huge help since I have been working). We each knew what we were going to make and what ingredients we needed. It is really helping us not eat out so much. My husband also got a gym membership at my gym next door to my work and almost everyday he meets me there right after my work and we exercise together. We went 4 days this week! I got the laundry done, the dishes were kept up better, our meals were more nutritious, we had time to just hang out every night, and we went to bed at a more decent time.

Yeah, I know its only one week after New Year’s. Do you think it will last? (If I start posting a bunch of ice cream recipes in a few weeks… I guess you’ll know that things went south). I’m not worried about it. I’m just taking one day at a time. I have never lasted this long on any resolution, so I think that’s a good sign. You may think I just said that without realizing that we’re only 7 days into the new year… but I’m not kidding. My previous record was my resolution to read the Complete Works of Shakespeare.

I thought about it for a couple days… then I totally forgot about it.

But somehow I mustered up the motivation to go for a solid week (I probably deserve some sort of medal). I’m sure there might be some of you out there who made a resolution that had to do with diet and exercise (the gym was packed last monday; tonight… not so much). So, here are a few other tips from a 7-day expert:

Keep nutritious, low calorie snacks on hand, already prepared. Baby carrots, sliced apples, berries, sliced cucumbers, hummus, cherry tomatoes, bananas, etc.
If you just like the taste of something sweet right after a meal, find a yummy flavor of gum to chew. I love Extra’s Apple Pie gum, Strawberry Cheesecake gum, and especially their Key Lime Pie gum. It’s ok to have a little something sweet every once in a while, but not every time you sweet tooth starts talking. For me that is every waking hour of the day. Why do I crave gummy bears ALL THE TIME?
I love going out for a treat (ice cream is my Achilles' heel). Instread of going out for ice cream, we went to the grocery store and got some healthier, lower calorie, Jamba Juice smoothie bars that we reward ourselves with after working out. They are delicious and they feel like dessert, but they are only 70 calories because they are made from real fruit. I like the Peach Blackberry Smoothie bar. There are also other low calorie treats like Skinny Cow and Weight Watchers ice cream bars.
Or instead of getting ice cream, pick out a fun fruit. Something you don’t normally eat or something you have never tried. The other night got a prickly pear and and Ugli fruit. It was fun and exciting to try a new exotic fruit, and it was much more healthy than a Frosty from Wendy’s.
Eat a little slower. Chew your food more. It will give your brain a chance to realize that you are full.
Brush and floss your teeth earlier in the evening instead of right before you go to sleep. You wont really want to snack if you just brushed your teeth.
Eat more fish and less red meat (except, of course, bacon :).
Don’t deprive your self completely. It will just back fire and you will end up caving in to your cravings. I don’t consider myself on a diet, because I don’t like that mentality and I don’t want to feel guilty when I mess up. I just am trying to be more in control of what I eat rather than eating whatever is in front of me.

Enough blabbing, on to the good stuff:

Baked Brussels Sprouts, Parsnips, and Bacon

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Lbs. fresh Brussels sprouts
3 or 4 large parsnips
crumbled bacon to taste
Zest from 1 lemon
a little bit of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 roasted red peppers, from the jar
3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
Grated Parmesan cheese, to taste (about 1/4 C.)
4 oz. sliced mushrooms

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Wash the Brussels sprouts and peel away any discolored leaves. Slice off any discolored parts of the stems. Slice in half. Put in a large mixing bowl.

2. Peel the parsnips and cut into chunks. You don’t want them too big, or they will still be crunchy when the sprouts are done. Throw them into the bowl with the parsnips. Chop up the roasted red peppers and put them in the bowl, too.

3. Add the lemon zest, pressed garlic, crumbled bacon, cheese, mushrooms, and a drizzle of olive or canola oil to the bowl. Toss until everything is coated in the oil and mixed around. Add salt and pepper to taste and mix again.

4. Transfer to a large baking dish and bake for about 30 minutes, stirring every ten minutes so it doesn’t burn on the bottom. It may need more time, depending on how big your sprouts are and how thick your parsnips are. Just keep checking until the sprouts and parsnips are tender.

5. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. Serve hot, with more cheese on top if needed.

Recipe from www.ediblexerpiments.blogspot.com

Cookies and Cream Pudding Poke Cake

2011-12-29T17:40:00.001-08:00

Guess what I’m doing right now.

I’m multitasking.

I’m watching Cake Boss, writing about cake, editing cake pictures, and eating cake.

It’s pretty awesome.

I knew I had to make this cake when I saw it on Pintrist. It is so easy. And I would much rather have pudding smothering my cake than frosting. And I would rather have Oreos than sprinkle on top. And the beauty of it all is that each day you keep this cake in the fridge, the better it gets. I made it for Christmas Day dinner and the piece I am having right now is more moist and delicious than the first piece.

You could do any cake flavor or any pudding flavor, but this combination is my favorite!!!

Ingredients:

1 Chocolate fudge cake mix (and the eggs, oil, and water required to make the cake)
4 TBSP. mayo or sour cream
2 boxes (4.2 oz) Cookie and Cream pudding
4 C. milk
5 or 6 Oreos, crushed

Directions:

1. Mix the cake mix and all the ingredients listed on the cake mix box. Mix in the mayo or sour cream. Don’t worry, it just makes it more moist. You can’t taste the mayo. Follow the directions on the box for baking.

2. After the cake is done baking, take a wooden spoon and use the handle end to poke holes all over the cake.

3. Mix together the pudding mixes and the milk. Whisk and let it sit for a minute or two. Let it thicken just a little, but not completely. Pour over the cake and spread it even.

4. Cover with tin foil and let it cool and thicken in the fridge for at least and hour.

5. Just before serving sprinkle the crushed Oreos all over the top of the cake.

Easy. Fast. Moist. Yum.

Recipe idea taken from picture on Pintrist from The Country Cook

Winner of the Chex Mix Party Giveaway!

2011-12-26T14:32:00.000-08:00

The winner of the Chex Party Mix-change is...................................................Mami2jcn!
Email me at ediblexperiments@gmail.com and tell me your mailing address. You have one week to claim your prize. If I do not hear from you by Tuesday, January 3, 2012, I will randomly pick another winner. Congrats!

-Prize donated by Chex through Myblogspot.com.
-Winner chosen through Random.org

Hope you had a good Christmas everybody! My camera is having some issues, but as soon as I get it up and running expect a Cookie's and Cream Cake and some Homemade Texas Roadhouse Rolls.

Kernel-less Carmel Corn

2011-12-23T08:20:00.000-08:00

WARNING!!! This caramel corn is extremely addictive!!! Some nice ladies brought some into my work for us and as soon as I ate the first bite, I knew I just had to make it. I went straight to the store after work and picked up the Pirate’s Booty needed for this recipe.

What’s Pirate’s Booty? It is kind of like a cheese puff, but with white cheddar. It melts in your mouth. It is so yummy. I got mine at Whole Foods, but you can do a store search on their website. I know some Costco’s carry them. Also, a lot of smoothie shops carry them, like Jamba Juice and Smoothie King. You can also use any kind of white cheese puff. I found lots of different kinds at three different normal grocery stores. Just make sure they are either white cheddar or just plain butter flavored. Trust me, you don’t even taste the cheese.

This recipe is so easy to make and it is so much better than regular caramel corn because there are no kernels. Just the puffy goodness.

Ingredients:

8-10 oz. Pirate’s Booty ( White Cheese Puffs)
1/2 C. butter
1/2 C. light corn syrup
1 C. brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda

Directions:

1. Pour the Pirate’s Booty into a very large bowl and set aside.

2. Combine butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup in a 2 quart sauce pan. Cook on medium heat until it has all melted and begins to bubble.

3. Add the baking soda. The mixture will bubble up a lot and become frothy. Give it a good stir until it is completely combined and remove from heat.

4. Pour caramel over the Pirate’s Booty. Use a spatula or a big spoon to fold the caramel into the Pirate’s Booty. Repeat until all the Pirate’s Booty is completely covered in the yummy caramel corn goodness.

5. Here is where you choose your own adventure: You can either eat it soft and chewy right away (well, after it cools), or you can bake it for a more crispy texture. It is amazing both ways.

6. For a crunchy texture: Spread the Pirate’s Booty out on a cookie sheet and bake at 250 F. for 25-30 minutes. Give it a good stir every 10 minutes or so. Allow it to cool and break into bite size pieces.

Keep in an air tight container.

Recipe adapted from Living Eventfully

Nutter Butter Reindeer Pop’s

2011-12-21T20:01:00.001-08:00

Last minute Christmas post for ya’ll.

Don’t you just love how the little one with the pupils is rolling his eyes at his brothers. He is probably thinking that he is better than everyone else because he has pupils and they don’t. Little does he know, in the end everyone’s just sticks.

Ingredients:

1 package of Nutter Butter cookies
1 package chocolate candy coating
1 bag red M&M’s or Red-hots ( 1 for each cookie)
white gel frosting (in the tube)
black gel frosting (in the tube)
pretzel twists
1 popsicle stick for each cookie

Directions:

1. Prepare a baking sheet with wax paper or a silicone baking mat.Stick one popsicle stick into each Nutter Butter Cookie. You may need to gently separate each cookie in order to fit in the stick. If it breaks a little, its ok because the chocolate will hold it together. It is just easier to dip when it’s whole.

2. Melt chocolate in a small pot on low heat. Or use a double-boiler to melt it. Stir occasionally until smooth.

3. Break up pretzel twists until you have two antlers for each cookie.

4. Dip each cookie into the chocolate. Swirl around until coated. I also had to use a pastry brush to brush on some more chocolate onto the parts I couldn’t coat on the first dip.

5. Place each reindeer on the baking sheet and put a redhot or M&M at the bottom towards the stick.

6. Dip the pretzel antlers in some chocolate and press them onto the reindeer head. They really just need to be touching it because when the chocolate hardens they will be stuck together.

7. Use the little tubes of white and black gel frosting to squeeze on the eyes. Or make your own frosting and pipe the eyes.

8.Let the chocolate harden completely before serving.

I had a little fun with Picnik photo editing.

Merry Christmas from Rudolph!

Remember to comment on my previous blog post for a chance to win a Chex Mix Party Prize pack.

A Cookie Exchange Makeover: Host A Chex Party Mix-Change (Giveaway)

2011-12-18T18:32:00.001-08:00

This holiday season I had the opportunity to host a Chex Party Mix-Change . I was provided with recipes, 5 boxes of Chex, $20 for party supplies, cute little to-go boxes, invitation templates, and party ideas by Chex through Myblogspark.com.

The idea of a Chex Party Mix-change is to cut out the holiday stress of a neighborhood cookie exchange by having a big get together instead and swapping treats while enjoying everyone's company. The Chex mix theme really cuts down on a lot of stress and time because it is so easy and fast to make. You can make most flavors of Chex Mix in fifteen minutes using your microwave! Everyone who attends just brings their own bowl of Chex mix to share and at the end, everyone goes home with their own little container of Chex Mix. I was shocked by how many different flavors there are. Click here to see a list of flavors and ideas for making Chex mix.

I had so much fun trying to figure out how much Chex mix I could make out of 5 boxes. Let me just tell you: A LOT! I made 5 different flavors and still had tons of cereal left over. I was surprised that everyone who attended brought a different flavor. The table was PACKED full of Chex mix. Some of my favorites that my guests brought were Spicy Asian Chex Mix, Apple Pie Snack Mix, BBQ Chex Mix, Lemon Pistachio Cranberry Muddie Buddies, Nutella Hazelnut Muddie Buddies, Honey Ginger Chex Mix,and Double Chocolate Chex Mix.

It was a fun party and a fun idea that I would never have thought of on my own. I encourage everyone to throw their own holiday Chex Party Mix-Change. To make it easier for you I am going to give one lucky reader their own Chex Party Mix-Change prize package, supplied by Chex through Myblogspark.com. All you need to do is tell me your favorite Chex mix flavor or the flavor of Chex Mix you would like to try (check here for flavors)in the comment sections of this post (and this post only) by Christmas to enter. I know you will get the package after the holidays, but you can throw a Chex Mix party anytime of the year! I will randomly (random.org) select one of the readers’ comments to win 5 boxes of Chex, $20 gift card, recipe cards, and a bunch of to-go carry out boxes.

If you win, you don’t have to throw a party, but I encourage you to try some of the different Chex mix flavors and maybe even invent a flavor your own.

My friend Jen made this yummy looking jumble of goodness. It had M&M’s, Candy Corn, Oreos, Pretzels, Sprinkles, White Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, and Chex:

Take a look at some of the flavors I made for the party:

HOT BUTTERED “YUM”

Ingredients:

4 C. Honey Nut Chex
2 C. Cinnamon Chex
1/4 C. butter
1/4 C. packed brown sugar
2 TBSP. honey
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. rum flavoring
2 C. mini marshmallows

Directions:

1. In large microwavable bowl, place cereals. In 2-cup microwavable measuring cup, microwave butter, brown sugar and honey uncovered on High 2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute, until mixture is bubbly. Stir in spices and rum flavoring. Pour over cereal mixture, stirring until coated.

2. Microwave uncovered on High 3 minutes, stirring and scraping bowl after every minute.

3. Cool slightly; about 5 minutes. Stir in marshmallows. Spread on waxed paper. Store in airtight container.

CHILI LIME

Ingredients

8 C. corn Chex
1 C. corn nuts
1 C. bite-size cheese crackers
1 C. mini pretzel twists
1 C. corn chips
6 TBSP. butter
1 TBSP. lime juice
1 tsp. lime zest
2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1.8 tsp. cayenne

Directions:

1. In large microwavable bowl, mix cereal, corn nuts, crackers, pretzels and corn chips. Set aside. In small microwavable bowl, microwave butter uncovered on High about 40 seconds or until melted. Stir in lime juice, lime zest and seasonings. Pour over cereal mixture, stirring until evenly coated.

2. Microwave uncovered on High 5 to 6 minutes, stirring thoroughly every 2 minutes. Spread on paper towels to cool. Store in airtight container.

PUMPKIN PIE CRUNCH

Ingredients:

1/4 C. brown sugar
1 TBSP. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 C. butter
2 tsp. vanilla
2 C. Cinnamon Chex
2 C. Wheat Chex
2 C. Honey Nut Chex
8 oz. pecans

Directions:

1. In small bowl, mix brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice; set aside. In small microwave-safe dish, microwave butter on High about 30 seconds or until melted. Stir in vanilla. In large microwavable bowl, mix all cereals and pecans. Pour butter mixture over cereal mixture, stirring until evenly distributed. Add sugar and spice mixture and stir until coated.

2. Microwave uncovered on High 5 minutes or until mixture begins to brown, stirring every minute. Spread on wax paper or a cookie sheet to cool. Store in airtight container.

PINK POWDER PUFF CRUNCH (STRAWBERRY CHOCOLATE MUDDIE BUDDIES)

Ingredients:

9 C. Rice Chex or Corn Chex
1 1/2 C. semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 C. Butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 C. powdered sugar
1 box strawberry-flavored gelatin

Directions:

1. Measure cereal into large bowl.

2. In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips and butter uncovered on High 1 minute. Stir; microwave 15 to 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour over cereal, stirring until evenly coated.

3. In 2-gallon large food-storage plastic bag, mix powdered sugar and gelatin. Add cereal mixture. Seal bag and shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper; cool about 15 minutes. Store in airtight container.

PEANUTTY SQUARES

(Sorry. No Picture for this one.)

Ingredients:

1/2 C. light corn syrup or honey
1/4 C. sugar
1/2 C. creamy peanut butter
6 C. Corn Chex or Rice Chex
1/2 C. salted peanuts

Directions:

1. Butter 9- or 8-inch square pan.

2. In 3-quart saucepan, heat corn syrup and sugar just to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

3. Stir in peanut butter. Gently stir in cereal and peanuts until evenly coated. Press firmly in pan. Let stand 1 hour. For squares, cut into 6 rows by 6 rows. Store loosely covered.

If you want to throw your own party, CLICK HERE, for recipe cards, shopping lists, Invite templates, packaging Ideas, and other party tips and tricks.

Remember to tell me your favorite kind of Chex Mix in the comment section below by Christmas for your own Chex Party Mix-Change prize package!

Disclosure: The Chex Party Mix-Change product, information, and giveaway have been provided by Chex through MyBlogSpark.

Later this week: Reindeer Pop’s

Roasted Garlic

2011-12-11T12:25:00.001-08:00

I know that I already showed you all how to do this when I made Roasted Garlic and Cheddar Mashed Potatoes, but I wanted devote a post just for this easy trick.

Garlic takes on an entirely different flavor when it is roasted. It becomes soft, creamy, caramelized, and slightly sweet. Mash it into potatoes, spread it onto toasted Italian bread, throw it on top of pizza, or put it into salsa or dip.

Ingredients:

whole garlic heads
olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F. Take off some of the paper skin from each garlic head. Leave enough to hold the head together.

2. Cut each garlic head in half cross-wise. Or you can just cut the tops off. Either way, you want to be able to see a cross section of each individual clove inside the head.

3. Drizzle each cut surface with a little bit of olive oil. Wrap each head in aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 30-45 minutes. Or you could roast at 350 F for a full hour. I don’t think it really matters.

4. Remove heads from foil and squeeze out the soft cloves. You will know it is done when you can very easily pierce the cloves with a knife. They should be soft and slightly mushy. Add it to any recipe.

Poppy Seed Salad Dressing

2011-12-03T16:04:00.001-08:00

This dressing is just like the food services department made at my University, BYU-Idaho. I found the recipe on Our Best Bites, but it tastes exactly like the deliciousness that I poured all over my many spinach salads during my undergrad. It is super easy and tastes great over spinach salad with mandarin oranges, Swiss cheese, mushrooms, bacon, and toasted sugared almonds. Yum!

Ingredients:

1/3 C. white vinegar
1 tsp. Kosher salt
a dash of freshly ground pepper
3/4 C. sugar
1 tsp. mustard
1 green onion, ends removed ( the hairy end and the the limp greed end)
1/2 C. vegetable oil
1 tsp. poppy seeds

Directions:

1. Combine the vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar, and mustard in a blender. While the blender is going, add the green onion. Continue to run the blender and add the oil in a stead stream until it is fully incorporated.

2. Pour the dressing into a serving or storing container and whisk in the poppy seeds.

3. Serve over spinach or other greens.

Recipe from Our Best Bites

Cranberry Sauce

2011-11-23T08:43:00.001-08:00

Real quick, I have one more Thanksgiving recipe that I almost forgot to post! I hope it’s not to late for everyone to see before Thanksgiving. This sauce was easy and you can make it ahead of time and refrigerate it! The cranberries give off their own pectin and make it gel without adding anything to thicken it. Very easy and very tasty!

Ingredients:

1/4 C. orange juice
1/4 C. 100 % cranberry juice, not cocktail juice
1 C. honey
1 lbs. fresh cranberries, about 4 cups
sugar to taste

Directions:

1. Rinse the cranberries and discard any mushy ones. If you buy a bag of fresh cranberries there are lots of little leaves and stems, so make sure you are thorough.

2. Combine the orange juice, cranberry juice, and honey in a 2 quart sauce pan and cook over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer for 5 minutes.

3. Add the berries and cook for 15 minutes, stirring and mashing occasionally. The cranberries will burst and the mixture will thicken. Taste and add sugar or more honey if it is too tart. Do not cook for more than 15 minutes because the pectin will start to break down and it wont set up as well.

4. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minute.

5. Spoon into a mold if you like. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours and up to over night.

Recipe adapted from Alton Brown.

Pumpkin Pie

2011-11-23T08:21:00.001-08:00

I don’t have much time to speculate on life today. I have the day off and I am going to go do something fun! But here is a delicious pumpkin pie recipe for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Have a happy Turkey Day!

Ingredients:

1 C. packed brown sugar
1 TBSP. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1.8 tsp. cloves
1 1/2 C. pumpkin puree
3 large eggs, beaten, plus 1 egg for glaze
1 Can (1 1/2 C.) evaporated milk
1 premade pie crust
1 TBSP. heavy cream
Whipped cream for topping

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 F. In a large bowl combine sugar, cornstarch, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, pumpkin, and 3 eggs. Mix well. Add evaporated milk and mix until combined.

2. Fit the pie crust into a pie pan and pinch to form a decorative edge. Mix together 1 egg and the heavy cream for a glaze. Lightly brush the glaze onto the edges of the pie shell. Fill the pie with the pumpkin mixture.

3. Transfer the pie onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. This makes it much easier to transfer the pie in and out of the oven and prevent spills into the oven.

4. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 F. and continue to bake for about 30 –40 more minutes. You want the out side to be completely set and the middle to jiggle a little when you shake it.

5. Let cool for 20 minutes to let it set up. Top with whipped cream.

Recipe from Martha Stewart

Candied Yams

2011-11-19T18:59:00.001-08:00

This is one of my Thanksgiving favorites! I always serve it with the main course even though it is as yummy and sweet as a dessert. This is something that I like now that my taste buds have matured a little bit. When I was young I thought they were disgusting. I never actually gave them a proper chance, though. Same with mushrooms, avocados, and oatmeal. Hated them when I was young, love them now. This recipe has always been a family favorite.

Ingredients:

1 large can of yams (or 3 C. mashed yams or sweet potatoes)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 C. milk
1 C. sugar
1/3 C. melted butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Topping:

1/3 C. brown sugar
1/3 C. cold butter
1/3 C. flour
dash of salt
sliced almonds (optional)

Directions:

1. Drain the yams. Mash or blend the drained yams and mix in the salt, milk, sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla until well combined.

2. Transfer to a 9 x 13 baking pan. Spread out evenly.

3. For the topping: In a medium bowl, mix the sugar,salt, and flour. Using a fork or a pastry cutter, cut in the cold butter. Sprinkle the sugar mixture and the almonds over the over the top of the yams.

4. Bake uncovered for 40-45 minutes at 350 F.

Thanksgiving: Roasted Garlic and Cheddar Mashed Potatoes

2011-11-19T01:01:00.000-08:00

As most of you probably know, I am from the land of potatoes. Idaho. Up through high school I always got 2 weeks off from school in October for “Spud Harvest.” Those who were old enough would find temporary work from a spud farmer and help bring in the potatoes. I never helped with the harvest because I always went to the Utah Shakespearean Festival during that time, but my town revolved around potatoes. Now that I’m here in Ohio, every one who finds out I’m from Idaho automatically thinks I LOVE potatoes. I do like potatoes, but I would argue that I do not love them just because I am from Idaho. I like them just as much as the average person. But I do LOVE all the unhealthy toppings and mix-ins served with potatoes. Gravy, sour cream, cheese, butter.

At the gym the other day I saw a commercial on the T.V. advertising Idaho potatoes as being certified to carry the “heart check mark” from the American Heart Association. First off, I almost started bawling on the elliptical because I miss my home. Second off, sure potatoes are low in saturated fat, but who eats them plain? Name one person who chokes down a potato without putting something fattening on top?

Just so you know, this recipe is NOT certified by the American Heart Association. I’m all for being healthy, but Thanksgiving is a feast. The definition of feast as a verb is “to eat and drink sumptuously.” One day a year, throw your diets away and celebrate!

Ingredients:

2 pounds russet or Yukon potatoes (from Idaho)
Water for boiling
2 TBSP. salt
1 stick softened butter or 1/2 C. olive oil
1 1/2 C. sour cream or yogurt
2 tsp. salt
4 whole heads of garlic
1 C. shredded cheddar cheese
1 squirt of Dijon mustard, to taste (optional)
1/2 C. fresh chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.To Roast the garlic: Cut the garlic heads in half crosswise. Set them on a sheet of foil and drizzle with olive oil. Wrap up the foil around the garlic and roast at 350 F for 1 hour. Squeeze out the individual cloves.

2. Peel and slice the potatoes and put them in a large pot. Cover the potatoes with cold water and add 2 TBSP salt. Bring to a boil and simmer over medium-low heat until tender. Drain the water and transfer spuds to a large bowl.

3. Add the butter or olive oil, sour cream, 2 tsp. salt, pepper to taste, and all the cloves of roasted garlic. Mash the potatoes and garlic with a masher. If you want it smoother, use a hand beater. I like mine chunky. I also liked getting chunks of roasted garlic. It has a sweet, creamy, deep flavor; much different from raw garlic.

4. Stir in the cheese and fresh parsley. Salt and pepper to taste. You could also add crumbled bacon. Yum

Serve with gravy or just eat on it’s own.

Tomorrow=Sweet Candied Yams

Recipe by Edible Experiments. Idea from Food Network Magazine: Thanksgiving Issue

Thanksgiving Stuffing with Mushrooms, Cranberries, Pine Nuts, and Parmesan

2011-11-18T11:08:00.001-08:00

There is something cozy about stuffing, don’t you think? Although Stovetop stuffing is good, I thought I would try my hand at my own stuffing. The science of stuffing is pretty easy. You start with butter, celery, and onions. Add some chicken or turkey stock. Mix it all together with a bunch of stale bread and mix in whatever yummy add-ins you can think of.

Personally, I don’t like to put the stuffing inside the turkey to cook. You can read why on my turkey page. Safety reasons and culinary reasons. I feel like it is just as good baked in a separate dish. If you like the presentation of it coming out of the bird, stuff it afterwards. If you like the yummy toasted bits coming out of the bird, use a kitchen blow-torch to crisp up the top.

Ingredients:

16 C. cubed bread ( I used sourdough)
1 stick butter
2 C. chopped onions
2 C. chopped celery
1 TBSP minced fresh sage
1 TBSP minced fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
3 C. chicken or turkey stock
2 eggs
1/4 C. chopped fresh parsley
1 1/4 lbs. mushrooms
3/4 C. grated parmesan cheese
1/4 C. cranberries
1/8 C. pine nuts
2 TBSP butter for dotting

Any other mix in’s like:

Italian sausage
ham
wild rice
chopped apples or pears
bacon
butternut squash
any other vegetables
any other cheeses

Directions:

1. Chop the bread into 1/4 inch cubes.

Stale bread works best, so either set it out ahead of time to get stale or toast it in the oven spread out on baking sheets for about 15 at 300 F.

2. Melt 1 stick of butter in a large skillet on medium heat.

3.Add the celery, onions, sage, thyme, bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste. I chopped my veggies a day early and saved in a Ziploc bag to save time on Thanksgiving. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the veggies are tender. Add the stock and let simmer for a couple of minutes. Remove bay leaf and remove from heat.

4. In a separate skillet, sauté the mushrooms in a little bit of olive oil.

5. In a very large bowl, whisk the eggs and fresh parsley. Add the bread cubes, veggie-broth mixture, mushrooms, cranberries, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, and any other mix ins you like.

6. Toss until well combined. I found it was easiest to just toss with my hands until all the bread was moist and mix- in’s were evenly distributed.

7. Transfer the mixture to a 3- 4 quart baking dish. Dot with about 2 TBSP. butter. Cover with foil and bake at 375 F for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 20 more minutes or until it is golden brown on top. You can put it in the oven with the turkey if you need to, but it might need more time to cook.

Tomorrow= Roasted garlic cheddar mashed potatoes

Recipe by Edible Experiments

Thanksgiving Roast Turkey

2011-11-17T18:56:00.001-08:00

I cooked a turkey for the first time. I was very nervous. I shouldn’t have been. It turned out wonderful! It was browned and crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. I did a lot of research ahead of time. The thing that helped me the most was the Romancing the Bird episode of Good Eats by Alton Brown. That man is my hero. He is so weird and slightly annoying, but he has away of instilling kitchen confidence into his viewers. After watching that episode, I was pumped! I was read to tackle the turkey. I took Alton’s advice down to every last detail and I was very happy with the result.

So follow me on my turkey journey:

Ingredients:

1 turkey, thawed and rinsed
garnish (I used kale to pretty up the turkey platter)

Brine:

1 gallon vegetable stock (Don’t buy low sodium stock. The salt is necessary)
1 C. kosher salt
1/2 C. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. black peppercorns
1 1/2 tsp. allspice berries
1 1/2 tsp. chopped candied ginger (optional)
1 gallon heavily iced water
1 large bucket or pot ( I used a clean 10 gallon bucket that I bought for 5 bucks at Sears)

For the Aromatics:

1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 C. water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
canola oil or butter

Directions:

1. Buy the turkey. If you are brining the turkey, do not buy a self-basting or a kosher turkey. Figure at least 1 pound of turkey per person for all birds under 16 lbs. Less if the bird weighs more because there is more meat in proportion to bone. There will still be plenty left overs. We bought the smallest bird we could find since there were just four of us.

2. Thaw the turkey. Do not let the turkey sit on the counter to defrost. Allow 2 days for a turkey under 12 pounds, 3 days for a turkey 12 to 14 pounds, 4 days for a turkey 14 to 18 pounds, and 4 or 5 days for a turkey 18 pounds and over. You can also do a speed thaw by submerging the turkey in cold water. Change the water every 3 hours. Always leave the turkey in its wrappings while thawing.

3. Cut away the wrappings and remove the neck and giblets. Did you know a turkey has two ends? You would think that would be obvious, right? Alas, I have blonde moments in abundance. My mom told me multiple times not to forget to pull out the neck AND the giblets. The neck was easy. I pulled it right out (although I had a secret fear that it would have a head still attached when I pulled it out). But the deeper into the cavity I reached, the more confused I got. I could not find the stupid bag of giblets. So I called my mother in law because I knew she was the only one who would be awake at that early time in the morning over in Idaho (6:00 AM in Idaho) and I asked her what I should do. She said, “Look in the other end".” And I said, “I didn’t know there was another end!!!” She said, “Amy, every body has two ends.” Sure enough, there they were. So take out the neck and giblets, rinse them off, and put them in a Ziploc bag if you are going to use them later for gravy. Or just toss them.

4. Rinse off the turkey. Rinse out the cavity.

5.To make the Brine: The day before cooking the turkey, boil the veggie stock, salt, sugar, and spices in a large pot. Let it cool to room temperature and then refrigerate to get it cold. At least 8 hours before cooking, but up to over night, transfer the brine to a large bucket or pot and add a gallon of heavily iced water. I used a ten gallon bucket. Plunge the turkey into the brine breast down. Let it soak in all that moisture and salt and flavor, turning the turkey over once half way through the brining. Brining really helps the turkey hold in flavor and juiciness. If you are worried about having a dry turkey, then a wet brine is the way to go.

6. When you are finished brining, rinse off the turkey again. Set the turkey in the roasting pan and pat dry. Now, I am not a believer in stuffing the turkey. If you watch Alton Brown’s Good Eats, you will see that he has convinced me to stay away from stuffing the turkey. Stuffing is the perfect home for bacteria and food born illness once its in the turkey. You need to cook the stuffing to a certain temperature for it to be safe, buy by then the turkey breast is dried out. You can stuff it after it’s done cooking if you like the presentation. But I do like to fill the cavity with some nice aromatics to give it more flavor. You don’t eat these, but you let them cook inside the turkey. You just leave them inside the turkey when your carving.

Microwave the apple, onion, and cinnamon stick in 1 cup of water for 5 minutes on high. Then stuff them in the cavity along with the rosemary and sage. You could also throw in some garlic heads, too. I used tongs to stuff them inside.

7. Preheat the oven to 500 F. Rub the turkey with canola oil or butter. I put some parsley on top, but I really wouldn’t recommend doing that. I didn’t really have a reason, I just did it. The leaves burned and looked ugly. Insert a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the breast, avoiding any bones.

I can’t say enough about this little purchase. It is a timer and thermometer all in one. I bought it for $15 at Sears and it saved me! The pointed end sticks in the meat, the cord comes out of the oven, and the timer is magnetic and sticks to the door of the oven. You have the timer go off either after a certain amount of time or when the internal temperature reaches a certain point.

8. Get some tin foil and make a triangle out of it and kind of shape it over the breast. Pull it off and set it aside away from everything else. You will need it later.

8. So first off, set the timer for 30 minutes at 500 F. This will give the turkey skin a nice golden brown crisp and lock in all the juices and fat. After 30 minutes, lower the heat to 350 F and set you thermometer alarm to ding when the internal temperature reaches 161degrees Fahrenheit. Put the bi-fold of tinfoil over the breast and do not open the oven door unless you absolutely have to. That is right: no basting periodically. The brining gives it the juiciness and opening the door to baste just makes it cook slower. The tin foil helps the breast meat not to over cook. The whole process of baking took me 2.5 hours, but every oven and turkey is different, so yours might take more or less time. Don’t go by the little pop up thermometer that comes in the turkey, but don’t pull it out because the juices will run out of the hole. A probe thermometer will give you a more accurate idea of when the breast meat is at the perfect temperature to be safe, but juicy.

9. Let the turkey sit for at least 15 minutes to let the juices settle. Garnish with greens and fruit. Carve and enjoy!

Recipe from Alton Brown’s Good Eats

Thanksgiving Prep.

2011-11-16T14:05:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving is in 8 days. Are you ready?

I celebrated Thanksgiving early this year. We had our feast yesterday because we had a friend visiting us from France and we wanted him to share the festivities with us, but he will be gone before the actual holiday. We also invited our friend, Mintu, who lives across the street. I cooked all day long and the result was a huge, delicious Thanksgiving feast.

Now, most of you are probably celebrating with lots of family, so the cooking load is probably spread our between a couple different people. But whether or not you are cooking it all or just hosting, you need a game plan. This year was my first year making the feast, so I am by no means an experienced expert. However, I did do a lot of research and planning. I tried a lot of new things and used a lot of old family recipes. Here are some tips for throwing the perfect feast:

1. Make a menu in advance. I wrote out my menu on google docs with the source of each recipe and a list of ingredients under each item. Make sure you have taken food allergies or special accommodations into mind. Our friend Mintu is Hindu and does not eat beef or pork, so I had to remember that in my planning.

Here is an snippet of my basic menu plan.

2. Make a shopping list and go shopping early. I found that I had to run to the store two more times after I did my main shopping trip. By allowing myself enough time in between my shopping trip and the actual feast, I was able to remember anything I forgot before it was too late. Plus you need enough time to let the turkey thaw. Don’t forget non food items like a bucket for brining, disposable gloves, table cloths, napkins, etc.

3. Decide where to take short cuts. I knew that I wanted the meal to be yummy, but I just new I wouldn’t have the energy to do everything perfect from scratch. For instance, I knew that I wanted to take the time to brine my turkey, but I didn’t want to take the time to make pie crusts. So, I went for store bought pie crusts. I knew I wanted to whip my own cream for the pies instead of using cool whip, but I didn’t want to boil and peel and chop my own candied yams. So I bought them canned. Its ok to take short cuts. Just decide what is important to you and then try to make things as easy as you can.

4. Make a game plan. I wrote out the order that I was going to do everything starting three days before:

The day before:

Make pumpkin pie
Assemble apple pie
Make roll dough
Toast almonds for salad
Make vinaigrette for salad
Chop vegetables
Make cranberry sauce

On Turkey Day, I wrote out a game plan with times. An experienced Thanksgiving hoster might not need this, but for a first time hoster, it saved me. Mine was a combination of times and just general order of operations. Mine looked like this:

7:00 AM-put turkey into brine
start jello
Pull roll dough out of fridge for final rise
assemble green bean casserole
assemble candied yams
assemble salad
assemble stuffing
slice and peel potatoes
2:00 start prepping the turkey for the oven
2:30- put turkey in oven at 500 degrees
3:00 lower turkey temp to 350 degrees

…and so on. You get the idea. I just went through the day in my head and put it on paper. It kept me focused and helped everything to be ready at the right time.

5. Expect obstacles. Nothing is going to go perfectly. Don’t get so emotionally invested that you have a break down when things don’t quite work out. Adapt. Change plans. When for some reason my rolls didn’t rise and came out hard and dense even though I've used the same recipe three other times, I just whipped together a quick pop-over batter and threw them in oven 40 minutes before go-time. When the power went out for an hour, I just changed the order of things and did some chopping and peeling until it came back on. When I woke up with a horrible cold, I just decided that I was going to allow myself many breaks through out the day to rest. There are some kitchen catastrophes that can be avoided. Click here for my post about avoiding kitchen catastrophes.

6. Make sure you have enough dishes and serving utensils. I had to borrow a pie pan from my neighbor (I also borrowed both of my next door neighbor’s ovens right at the end.) I ran out of serving utensils and we were using a table spoon to dish up the mashed potatoes. Where is that gravy boat that is in storage because you only pull it out once a year at Thanksgiving? Ask those kind of questions early. Find all that stuff ahead of time. Especially if you are worried about having a nice table setting. I think I will worry about all that stuff more when I have a table bigger than a hula hoop in circumference. This year my focus was on the food.

I know this post is kind of lengthy. Sorry. Through out this week I will be posting all the recipes I used and tips and tricks to make the day easier, so keep reading! Good luck!!!

Mint Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats

2011-11-09T16:37:00.001-08:00

This is a great little Rice Krispie Treat recipe that I made up. It turned out delicious. After my first success, I got so excited about putting my own little spin of one of my favorite treats that I decided to try another Rice Krispie Treat original creation. It was a disaster! Word to the wise: don’t mix Rice Krispie’s with pumpkin puree and marshmallows. It’s soggy and yucky. Rice Krispie Treats should never be soggy. Ever. It’s gross.

But these are good and crispy:

Ingredients:

6 C. Rice Krispies
3 TBSP. butter
1 package Mint Chocolate Marshmallows
1/2 package Andes mint baking chips

Directions:

1. In a big pot, melt the butter over low heat.

2. Add these:

Let them melt, stirring constantly.

3. Turn off the heat and remove the pot and add the Rice Krispies. Stir until all the ingredients are well combined.

4. Transfer to a 9 x 13 baking dish and spread out evenly.

5. Sprinkle on some of these:

6. Let cool. Cut. Eat. Yum.

Oh! P.S. I am making Thanksgiving dinner for the first time ever. But we are celebrating early this year so our friend from France can join us while he is visiting. That means I will have loads of Thanksgiving recipes for you before actual Turkey Day! Yes, I’m even making the big bird. Wish me luck.

Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

2011-11-03T16:34:00.001-07:00

I had a RARE surprise for my husband this morning. It’s called breakfast. Ya, I am the all time worst wife when it comes to breakfast. I am not a morning person, and my husband isn’t a pancake person. He is more of an oatmeal person. So normally he just makes himself a bowl of oatmeal every morning. I am kind of an “eat a piece of toast in the car on the way to work” person. But I am also a pumpkin person. So when I found a recipe for a breakfast meal that had my husband’s oatmeal and my pumpkin that I could whip together the night before and bake while doing my make up, I was all over it. Seriously, this recipe was a synch. Mix it together in five minutes the night before and bake in the morning while you’re getting ready. This recipe was created by Lynn from Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures. I hear she has some pretty yummy baked peanut butter oatmeal, too. Go check it out.

Ingredients:

3 cups quick cooking oats
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup canned pumpkin
¼ cup brown sugar (for the top)

Directions:

1.In a large bowl, mix together the eggs and milk. Add everything else except the brown sugar for the top.

2. Spread into a greased 9×13 pan.

3. Sprinkle remaining ¼ cup brown sugar on top.

4. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Serve with milk. Happy breakfast!

Recipe adapted from Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures

Halloween Treats: Bloody Eyeballs

2011-10-30T16:04:00.001-07:00

It’s the day before Halloween, and most likely you are reading this on Halloween. Perhaps you have a Halloween party to attend. Perhaps you need to bring a treat to this party, but you don’t have a lot of time to make something because you are too busy putting together your last minute costume. Some people go all out with their costumes. My family does. Every year they have a huge Halloween party with a theme. Everyone comes up with awesome funny costumes, and then there’s me. This is how I usually go about making my Halloween costume:

1. Walk through the dollar store trying to get ideas.

2. Walk through the thrift store trying to get ideas.

3. Spending the last few hours before the party trying to assemble something out of my dollar store and thrift store findings.

This was a few years ago when the theme was “Out of This World”

I was a Super Nova. You know, one of those really colorful exploding stars. I was literally walking around the dollar store a half hour before the party trying to get an idea for a costume. I bought a bunch of glow sticks and wrapped them around me. That’s how I roll.

We went to a Halloween party last Friday and it was no different. I wandered around the thrift store and got the idea for this:

Yup. I was a lamp. I’m wearing a card board party hat covered in white paper with a thrift store lamp shade balancing on the tip. I have a plug coming out of my pocket and a little flash light hanging up in the lamp shade. Yes, I did walk around balancing a huge lamp shade on my head the whole night.

Anyway, if you’re like me and you take all the time before the party putting together an incredibly cheap, corny costume because you have procrastinated until the day of, then this is the recipe for you. It is so fast and easy. Its unique and it is pretty disgusting (looking, not tasting). You only need three ingredients. No baking or slaving away in the kitchen. Just a quick assembly and you are good to go.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 can lychees (you can find this in the Asian section of any grocery store)
Strawberry, cherry, or Raspberry jam or jell, as needed
1 raisin or blueberry for each lychee

Directions:

1. Open the can of lychee’s and drain out the syrup. If you have never had a lychee, you are in for a treat. They are delicious little white fruits common in Asian cuisine. They grow inside of a red spiky casing and have a pit in the middle. The canned ones come shelled and pitted.

2. Spoon a little bit of jam into the whole where the pit used to be.

3. Put a raisin or a blue berry (flower end facing out) in the middle of the jam.

4. Put a tooth pick through each eye ball and serve on a plate with a little sign saying “Bloody Eyeballs” or “Fresh Eye balls”

Happy Halloween!!!

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Apple Cider Glaze and Cream Cheese Frosting

2011-10-25T23:32:00.000-07:00

Have I got a recipe for you! Tiny little mini pumpkin cupcakes! They are the perfect size for eating a whole bunch and not feeling like you ate any. They are so little, they don’t count. So go ahead. Have six. Its ok, because they are small. Just kidding. That’s how I sometimes feel about these though. I want to keep eating them. My amazing friend Jen made these for a Girls Night. She also had chocolate toffee cupcakes and Italian Sodas. She gave me the recipe. Thanks Jen.

So, I guess I am a hypocrite. I made these cupcakes, but didn’t have time to frost them right away. So I put a paper towel over the top and wrote “Don’t Eat” across the top so that my husband wouldn’t eat them before they were finished. Never mind, the two empty spots in the muffin tin. Wasn’t me…….. he he he.

The beauty of this blog, is that I’m here to make all the mistakes for you so that you don’t have to. And if there is a mistake to be made, I will make it. Trust me. Here are some do’s and don’t that I learned from making these cupcakes:

DON’T:

Don’t realize that you need room temperature butter to make cream cheese frosting, pull a stick of butter from the freezer, and set it on top of the burner that is still warm from when you were hard boiling eggs to make egg eyeballs for Halloween. It melts and makes a mess. Now you don’t have to make that mistake, because I made it for you.
Don’t spoon the pumpkin into the little mini muffin tin liners. It sticks to the liner and the spoon and its difficult.
Don’t realize that spooning the pumpkin into the liners isn’t working and proceed to scoop all the pumpkin batter into a large plastic bag, put a big piping tip in the bag, cut a whole that is too big in the bag, squeeze the batter, and explode the piping tip through the bag along with lots of pumpkin batter. It makes a big mess.

DO:

Place all the pumpkin batter into a large Ziploc baggie. Forget the piping tip. Just cut a medium size whole in a corner of the bag. Squeeze the batter into the mini cupcake tin liners from the corner in the bag. Forget the piping tip. Not necessary.
Lick the spatula and the beaters and the bowl after making the cream cheese frosting. And maybe even pipe some right onto your tongue, for good measure. Use cream cheese with 1/3 less fat. That way you can eat 1/3 more. :)
Buy REAL apple cider. Not apple juice. Make sure the ingredients are: apples. It should be cloudy, not clear like apple juice.
Pour yourself a glass of apple cider straight from the jug while you are making the apple cider glaze. Don’t worry if all the cups and glasses are dirty. Use the fancy goblet. It will make you feel fancy and special.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

For the Cup Cakes:

1 box spice cake mix
1 (15oz) can pumpkin puree
4 TBSP. mayo or sour cream

For the Apple Cider Glaze:

1 C. powdered sugar
2 TBSP. real apple cider
1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese, room temp
4 TBSP. butter, room temp
1 tsp. vanilla
1 C. powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a mini muffin tin with white paper liners. Mix together the cake mix, pumpkin puree, and mayo.

2. Cut the tip off a large Ziploc baggie. Transfer batter to the baggie. Squeeze the batter into the muffin tin liners. Fill each one to the top. Bake for 15 minutes. If you are going to make larger cup cakes, they may take longer. Let them cool completely.

3. Meanwhile, whisk together the glaze ingredients in a small bowl. Pick up baked and cooled cup cake and turn upside down. Dip into the glaze. Let it drip before turning it right side up. Repeat with all the cupcakes.

4. Let the glaze harden and make the cream cheese frosting. Mix together the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar until combined. Transfer to a baggie with a star piping tip. Squirt a little blog of cream cheese frosting onto each cupcake.

Enjoy!!!

Recipe from my friend Jen, who got the idea from Big Red Kitchen

Other Awesome Pumpkin Recipes:

Halloween Treats: Deviled Egg Eyeballs

2011-10-23T15:05:00.001-07:00

I don’t know how I feel about Halloween, honestly. I have a love hate relationship with Halloween. I loved getting tons of candy as a kid, but I didn’t really like wearing sweat pants under my ballerina costume because in Rexburg, Idaho, it snows every Halloween. I love seeing little kids all dressed up, but I hate when teenagers dress up all gory with scary masks and go around getting candy when they are too old. I love my families annual Halloween party, but I hate trying to think of a good costume. I hate all the nasty masks and creepy blood and guts, but I love trying to make creepy goodies and themed treats. Halloween: the only time of the year when people make regular food look like bloody body parts and monsters (like this). My favorite body parts to mimic are EYEBALLS! You can make them cute and fun, or really gross looking. Today I am going to share a fun and easy eyeball recipe, and hopefully later on this month I’ll share a gross and more realistic eyeball treat. Happy Haunting.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

This recipe can be doubled or tripled depending on the amount of mouths you need to feed. You can also use any recipe for deviled eggs, if you have a favorite recipe.

Ingredients:

6 extra large eggs
water for boiling
1/4 C . mayonnaise
1/2 tsp. mustard powder
1/2 tsp. paprika
salt and pepper to taste
mustard to taste
green or blue food dye
red food dye
1/8 C. mayo for blood shot veins
sliced black olives

Directions:

1. To hard boil the eggs: Place the eggs in a pot and fill with cold water until the eggs are just covered. Heat over medium-high heat until it starts to boil. As soon as it starts to boil, cover the pot and turn off the heat. Set the timer for 20 minutes and let them sit. They will be cooked perfectly if you do it this way. I was skeptical at first, too, but this method really does work perfectly.

2. Remove eggs from water and let them cool until you can touch and handle them. Remove the shells and cut the eggs in half, lengthwise. Remove the egg yolks with a spoon and mash together in a small bowl.

3. Add the paprika, mayo, dry mustard, and green or blue food dye to the yolks. Add anything else you like in your deviled eggs like relish, onion, capers, Tobasco sauce. Its up to you. Mash until creamy. If you need it to be more runny add a little bit more mayo. My husband likes to add a little bit of mustard to taste, too. Add salt and pepper if it needs it.

4. Spoon the yolk mixture back into the egg whites. Cut black olives in half, or just use sliced olives. Place one olive slice or half into the middle of the yolk. You can also use green olives with pimentos.

5. For the blood shot veins: Mix 1/8 C. mayo with some red food dye in a small bowl. Place the mayo in a small Ziploc baggie with a very small tip cut off. Or you can use the smallest circle piping tip. Pip squiggly veins onto the egg whites and into the middle of the olive.

Another way to make veins: After the eggs are done boiling, make lots of cracks all over the shell, but leave the shell on. Put the eggs back into the hot water. Add 1 TBSP. vinegar and lots of red dye. Let the eggs sit for half and hour. Rinse, drain and cool again. When you peel the eggs there will be red veins all over the egg. I wish I had done this, but I didn’t think of it until after I made finished making the eggs.

Recipe idea from Squidoo

Pepperoni, Cheese, and Herb Stuffed Sourdough

2011-10-16T18:42:00.001-07:00

I am a sucker for specialty grocery stores. I love international markets. I love to walk across the street to the Japanese grocery store and buy Melona popsicles. I love to stop by the Indian market and pick up a can of Lychee juice. I love going next door to my work to walk through the aisles of The Fresh Market or Whole Foods to look at all the interesting foods. Trader Joe’s is Heaven to me. The other day I stopped by the Market District Giant Eagle for the first time and got immediately sucked in by big loaves of artisan bread being baked. There were samples of each kind of bread. I tried cheese and jalapeno bread, apple cinnamon bread, and all sorts of different kinds of fancy artisan bread. I selected a nice round loaf of sourdough and had to resist taking a big bite out of it once I got in the car. I am happy to say it lasted long enough for me the stuff it full of goodies and serve with spaghetti for dinner.

Ingredients:

1 large round loaf of bread, uncut
peperoni to taste
bell peppers to taste
lots of cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, parmesan, or all of them), grated
black olives (optional)
fresh flat leaf parsley
3 TBSP. melted butter
2 or 3 cloves garlic, pressed

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

1. Make long parallel cuts in the bread with a sharp serrated knife. Do not cut all the way through the bottom.

2. Turn the bread and make cuts along the bread perpendicular to the first set of cuts. There should be little squares of bread that are still attached to the base.

3. Melt the butter. Press the garlic into the melted butter. Using a pastry brush, brush the garlic butter into each crevice, working systematically until there is butter on every side of the little squares.

4. Stuff chopped up pepperoni, peppers, olives, and fresh parsley into all the slices and between all the morsels of bread. Seriously, stuff that bread full. I thought I stuffed it a lot, but once it was cooked I realized it could have used a lot more toppings.

5. Stuff lots of cheese between all the cracks. Lots. Of. Cheese. I used cheddar because its all I had, but I think it would be good with a mix of different Italian cheeses.

6. Brush some butter over the top of the loaf. Sprinkle lightly with garlic powder. Wrap the top of the loaf in tin foil. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the cheese gets all melty. Take the tin foil off for the last 5 minutes or so.

7. Dig in with your fingers. Serve with marinara dipping sauce.

Recipe by Edible Experiments

Shoes, Cookies, and Shoe Cookies

2011-10-12T11:11:00.001-07:00

What do you get when you combine a full-time shoe sales person and a hobby baker?……………Shoe Cookies. Since the first of June I have been working full time at a little shoe store in Columbus, Ohio. It is a small shop owned and managed by a couple and has been around since 1954. We carry shoes made in America, Europe, and Israel and they are all comfort shoes. I think shoes all day and then I come home and try to bake something up for my blog and this is what I get. So today, we are going to have a lesson on sugar cookies and quality shoes.

Shoes:

I am a firm believer in comfortable shoes. I used to try and squeeze my feet into uncomfortable, cute, and cheap shoes. Uncomfortable shoes = misery. I now know that you can find shoes that are supportive and comfortable and………CUTE!

As you can see, I have made good use of my employee discount.

There are so many brands that I absolutely love (Sanita, Beautifeel, New Balance, Wauldlaufer,SAS, Halflinger, to name a few) But just for today, let me show you three of my favorite brands:

Finn Comfort: These shoes are hand sewn in Germany. They all have leather uppers and a removable cork foot beds. The foot bed has such great arch support and because it is cork, it will mold to your foot as you wear them and is as good as wearing a custom orthotic. These shoes last for years and years. You can get them re-soled and replace the foot beds and they will last even longer. And I think most of them are so cute!

Thierry Rabotin: These shoes are still designed by Thierry himself in Parabiago, Italy. The leather is the finest, softest leather I have seen in a shoe. They are hand sewn and are the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn. They are so fashionable. They are quite spendy, but someday when I am a millionaire (ha ha,ya right) I will own a pair. If you ever get the opportunity get a Thierry shoe and you can afford it, DO IT!

Naot: These shoes are based in Isreal and they are one of my very favorite brands. They are more affordable and they are so comfortable. I think all the Naot shoes are very stylish, too. I wear my Naot Rongo’s almost every day at work.

I made high heel sugar cookies for one of our trunk shows. October is not only pumpkin season, its shoe season. We have been holding trunk shows, where the reps of the companies come and display new styles and help make special orders for customers, all month.

I used the same recipe I used when I made my leaf and acorn cookies last fall.

Brown Sugar and Spice Sugar Cookies:

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp. allspice
½ cup sugar
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
2 sticks butter, at room temperature
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices in a bowl and whisk together

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the sugar and butter. Add the egg and vanilla. Mix until well blended.

3. Mix in the flour mixture a little bit at a time and beat until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

4. Roll out the dough into a disk between parchment paper or plastic wrap. Refrigerate for about 30 minute ( or speed it up in the freezer for about 10 minutes). Roll it out on a lightly floured surface and use cookie cutters to make shaped cookies.

5. Lay cookies out on a baking sheet and refrigerate for another 10-15 minutes. This prevents them from spreading when they cook. Bake for about 10 minutes at 350 F. Take them right out of the oven right when the edges start to firm up, even if they don’t look done. You don’t want to over bake them. Let them cool before decorating.

ROYAL ICING TUTORIAL

The great things about royal icing (and there are many great things) are:

1. It is fairly easy to make and you can leave it out on your counter in an air tight container and use it days later.

2. It is fairly easy to pipe.

3. It dries with a really smooth, glossy, hard surface. Once dry, you can stack them lightly on top of each other and they won’t smudge.

4. It tastes pretty good, too.

So, the first step to icing these beautiful cookies is to make the frosting. Here is how:

Ingredients:

3 oz. pasteurized egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 C. powdered sugar

4 C. powdered sugar
2 TBSP. Meringue powder
5 TBSP water

Directions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer combine egg whites and vanilla and beat until frothy. Gradually add the powdered sugar and mix on low until the sugar is incorporated and the mixture looks shiny. Turn speed up to high and beat until it forms stiff, glossy peaks. This took me about 6 or 7 minutes.

Working with Royal Icing

Once you have your icing, you need to plan out what colors and how much of each color you will need. I found it very helpful to draw out my cookies on paper ahead of time and figure out what colors I wanted to use. I decided on orange and yellow for the leaves and brown and black for the acorns. I decided that I would just make some brown icing and when I was done, add a little bit of black food coloring to the brown.

Then separate your icing out into a Tupper-ware for each color. Make sure each one has a lid so it doesn’t dry when you aren’t using it. I saved some of my white icing out just incase I needed to lighten the color or thicken it later. The icing should be kind of thick so it doesn’t just run off your spoon, but thin enough to stir it around easily. Add a couple drops of water at a time to thin and add a little bit of powdered sugar to thicken. Mix in the colors you want. It is best to use gel food coloring because it doesn’t change the consistency of the icing and it produces more vibrant colors. And you can find more colors like brown and black and pink. You can find them where ever Wilton cake products are found. I get mine at Wal-mart.

Load up your bags with icing to outline the cookie with, reserving some to flood the cookie with later on. I didn’t need very much in the bag. A little bit went a long way. When you are not using a color just tip the bag upside down in a cup with a little bit of water at the base so that the frosting doesn’t dry up in the piping tip. If you don’t have piping bags, just use Ziploc baggies with a hole in the bottom corner.

Now, outline the cookies with the piping bags. It is easiest to sit down with your arm resting against the table. After you out line all the cookies, let them harden for about an hour. This is ideal, but really, it dries very fast. I didn’t wait an hour. I started onto the next step right away because the first ones I outlined were dry by the time I finished outlining.

Next, you need to take the reserved frosting in the containers and make your flooding frosting. Add a couple of drops of water to the frosting at a time until it is just thin enough to dribble off your spoon. Let the frosting sit for about 5-10 minutes so all the air bubbles can rise to the top. Give the frosting one stir to pop all the bubbles and you are good to go.

Now using a spoon, scoop a little bit of frosting into the boundaries of the outlined border. Spread it out with a toothpick or with the spoon. A little bit goes a long ways. Start by putting less frosting in the middle and trying to spread it out. This helps you to not overflow and make a huge mess. Set the cookies aside to dry for a couple of hours. Again, I only waited about 10 minutes before moving on. But you might need to wait longer if you flood the frosting on thicker.

Now, pipe on the detail work with the thicker frosting that is still in the piping bags. Let them dry until they are smooth and hard to the touch. The longer you let them dry, the more firm the frosting will be. If you get air bubbles on your cookie, pop them with a tooth pick point.

To see a tutorial with pictures click here.

Sugar Cookie Recipe from Bake at 350 and Royal Icing Recipe from Alton Brown.

White Chocolate Caramel Apples with Cinnamon Sugar

2011-10-02T17:38:00.001-07:00

Today was a good day. In my religion (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), there is a bi-annual worldwide conference broad cast. In April and October, everyone in my church watches talks and messages from the church leaders. There are two 2-hour sessions on both Saturday and Sunday and instead of going to church on those two special days, we watch the prophet speak to members across the world. Because of modern technology, we get to watch live on our computer over the internet. I always look forward to this time each year, as does my husband. When he was little, his parents made this conference a special occasion. In the two hour break between sessions, his family would always make homemade salsa. And during the broadcast, as they were all gathered around the TV to watch, his dad would give foot massages to everyone. I also have pleasant memories of everyone in my family snuggling up in blankets on the couch while we watched. My dad would sit in the recliner and would almost always fall asleep at some point and start to snore, causing my brother and I to giggle.

Because it was such a special time for my husband and I growing up, filled with tradition and family quality time, we decided we want our own kids to think of conference time as a special time, too. We want them to look forward to it and be excited to listen to the church leaders and gathering together as a family. We don’t have any children yet, but we were wanting to test out some fun little family traditions. For some reason, we each had an idea in our minds of one that we wanted to try out. Benj thought it would be fun to have chili every fall during conference and I was thinking it would be fun to make caramel apples during fall conference. You see, my husband like beans a little too much. He always wants to eat beans or something containing beans. It’s a mystery to me. I don’t understand how someone’s favorite food could be beans. But at the same time, my husband doesn’t quite understand my obsession with gummy bears and gummy worms. To each his own, right?So, in between conference sessions, we made chili together. We decided that it would not be a good conference tradition because my husband offers to make it on a weekly basis and we eat it way to much for it to be a special occasion. It was still yummy, though. After we made chili we made caramel apples. Its festive, its easy, it delicious, and its not something you do every day. We opened caramel wrappers while we listened to the speakers. We dipped them in caramel, then white chocolate, and sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar. They were absolutely delicious! I think its something our future children will look forward to.

Ingredients:

4 apples (granny smith are the tradition caramel apple variety, but I I used a sweeter kind because I don’t like the tartness of the granny smith. Its Up 2 U.)
1 bag of caramels
popsicle sticks (most bags of caramel come with a couple)
1 block of white chocolate or 1 bag of white chocolate chips
1/2 C. sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
parchment paper or baking mat
baking spray

Directions:

1. Wash the apples and pull out the stems

2. Poke the popsicle sticks into the apples where the stem should be. I didn’t have any popsicle sticks, so I used lollipop sticks that I had on hand. I don’t recommend doing what I did. They were way too flimsy.

3. Unwrap caramels. You might want someone to help you with this task. Place one caramel in your mouth. Place the rest in a small pot. Put about 1 TBSP of water in with the caramels.

4. Melt caramels on medium-low heat until they are completely melted. Stir occasionally. Remove from heat. Dip apples into the caramel and roll around until they are completely coated. Turn so the stick is facing down and let the caramel drip over the pot. Rotate the apple so it drips off evenly. Don’t let it burn you. Caramel can get very hot. (I actually dipped mine twice because I wanted lots of caramel!)

5. Place on the parchment paper that has been sprayed with baking spray or a silicone baking mat, sticks facing up. Repeat to all apples and move them to the freezer. Wait until the caramel hardens.

6. Melt white chocolate in a double boiler on low heat or just place a small bowl containing the chocolate over a pot of simmering water. Stir occasionally until chocolate has melted completely. Remove apples from freezer and dip in the white chocolate in the same way you dipped them in caramel. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle it over the white chocolate before it hardens. Let cool.

7. Eat.

Now I know that traditions can actually cause more harm than good if they are only done for the sake of “tradition” and nothing else. And things don’t always happen the way you dream. I don’t think tradition should be forced either. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. But I am a sentimental person. I think my husband and I just want a family so badly that we can’t help dreaming up fun things to do with our kids someday. Do you have any family traditions that bring you closer to each other? Comment below!

Other Apple Recipe You Might Enjoy:

This Is What I Love About Fall

2011-10-02T08:46:00.001-07:00

What other time of the year can one find sparkling pumpkin cider?

Happy Autumn!

Pumpkin Recipes:

Zucchini and Mushroom Vegetarian Lasagna

2011-09-28T06:28:00.001-07:00

What do you do when your husband is showing signs of becoming a herbivore? He is not a full-blown vegetarian, but he wants to eat mainly a plant based diet. Its not that he wants to protect the cows and its not that vegetarianism kind of a fad, he just really loves veggies and legumes and doesn’t really think its worth it to eat all the calories of meat when he doesn’t really even care for it. Now, don’t get me wrong, we still eat meat. We just don’t have a hunk of meat as the main part of our meals, hardly ever anymore. And every once in a while, I get a craving for a slab of meat and we head over to Five Guys. But don’t worry, we get enough protein. Did you know that if you eat legumes or nuts with grains, rice, or corn you get a complete protein. That’s what we do. Plus we still eat eggs and milk.Oh, and we eat fish and occasionally shredded chicken in a stir-fry. We also eat so many lentils, mushrooms, beans, whole grains, and fish which are all high in iron. I also take iron pills. And guess what! I feel better than ever. My ulcerative colitis has been in remission since we have started eating this way. I certainly don’t know if the way I have been eating has helped my health, but it certainly is not hurting and I feel great! The hardest part of eating a plant heavy diet, is finding new recipes that feel like a complete meal. The other day I stumbled upon a really really great food blog that has all vegetarian recipes. You should really check it out. I made a weeks menu from just a few minutes looking around on his site. It is called Herbivoracious. Go check it out! The original recipe from Michael’s site was Summer Squash and Portobello Mushroom Lasagna. I had zucchini and regular sliced mushrooms on hand and it still turned out to be fabulous. This lasagna was the best lasagna I have ever made. It was better than a regular old meat lasagna. Give it a try. I think you will love it too.

At the request of Michael, I’m not going to put the recipe up on my blog, just a link to it. It’s his original recipe and I would love you to go to his blog and check it out. The only changes I made to his recipe were using zucchini instead of squash and crimini mushrooms instead of portabello.

Michael Natkin’s Vegetarian Lasagna

My notes about this lasagna:

Sauté the zucchini and mushrooms in olive oil in a large frying pan. Get a nice sear on each side. This prevents the veggie from loosing all their moisture in the lasagna and turning it into a mushy puddle. It also adds a nice tasty roasted flavor. You will probably need to do this in batches.
The sauce calls for lemon zest. I’m not used to adding lemon zest to tomato sauce, so I thought it was a strange addition. Until I tried it. I really loved it! I noticed that salt balances out the lemon flavor nicely. So sprinkle a little salt in, taste, and sprinkle more if needed. You don’t want to over salt, but if you don’t add enough salt, the lemon will be really prominent. It still yummy and I actually like I that way, but adding enough salt and pepper will make everything blend together.
You can use cottage cheese instead of ricotta cheese. I know ricotta is more sophisticated than cottage cheese, but I tend to keep cottage cheese on hand more than ricotta. While ricotta is suggested, I used cottage cheese (low fat) because I had it and it tasted just fine.
Let the lasagna sit for 10 minutes after baking so that it can settle before cutting into it.
Use oven ready no-boil lasagna noodles. They are the way to go! No boiling. Just layer the lasagna with the hard uncooked noodles and the tomato sauce will cook them. Avoid over cooking. You don’t want really mushy noodles.

Recipe from herbivoracious.

Update

2011-09-19T18:43:00.001-07:00

Hello all! Just so you know, I updated the previous post on freezing the summer harvest so that it includes instructions about tomatoes. There is now a blanching time for tomatoes and some brief instructions. I hope that helps some of you out. Thanks for reading!

Save the Season: Freezing Summer

2011-09-18T15:03:00.001-07:00

I associate different feelings and moods with different seasons. In the Fall I feel an overall feeling of contentment and coziness. In the winter I mostly just feel cold. In the spring I feel hopeful and fresh. In the summer I feel energetic, excited, committed to eating better and exercising, and completely optimistic. I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time letting go of summer. I have a hard time saying good-bye to fresh herbs in my tiny patio garden, pop-cicles, grilled corn on the cob, pot-lucks in the parking lot, late night walks around the block, and lightning bugs. I have a hard time saying good bye to…

Raspberries

Blueberries

Strawberries

and garden veggies.

Although I love the autumn, I was kind of surprised by it this year. Usually after a rain storm, it gets hot again, but not long ago, it rained and never really warmed back up. There is a definite hint of fall in the air and I wasn’t expecting it. I was just going along, minding my own summer business, when BAM! Fall decided to show up. Foot ball season decided to start and the leaves decided to turn yellow and here I am, still wanting to go to the water park. I guess I better get on the Fall wagon and enjoy it before its gone and I am left with winter, thinking “where did fall go?” I think the hot apple cider I am sipping right now is warming me up to the idea of fall, but I am going to save every last bit of summer that I can. Here are some tips and tricks for freezing foods and saving the season.

SAVING FRESH HERBS:

This year I planted some basil, parsley, thyme, and oregano and it did amazing! It grew so well and I had much more than I could use myself. But even if you buy fresh herbs from the grocery store, there are always leftovers. To make them last freeze them or dry them.

1. Freeze them: Chop the herbs up and fill the compartments of an ice cube tray. Gently pour a water into each compartment and freeze. Once frozen, pop cubes out and store in a freezer bag. Anytime you need herbs, just throw a cube or two into the pot.

2. Dry them: Snip off the good, healthy branches. Remove leaves from the bottom part of the stem. Bundle a couple twigs together with string or a rubber band. Hang upside down in a warm, well-ventilated room. Check them every week until they are completely dry, then crumble them into baggies or spice jars.

FREEZING PRODUCE:

What is Blanching?

Before freezing, you need to blanch most produce. What is blanching? It basically half boiling your veggies. It reduces the “action of enzymes, which can destroy fresh flavors. Basically, it helps heighten and set color and flavor, so it’s a must for veggies you’ll freeze for more than four weeks. (Simple and Delicious Magazine June/July 2011)”

How to Blanch:

1. Fill a large sauce pan with enough water to cover the vegetables you are going to blanch. Boil the water.

2. Add the chopped veggies for the specified amount of time. Start counting as soon as you add the veggies to the water. Set a timer! Under-blanching can stimulate the enzymes and ruin the flavor and over-blanching can cause the veggies to loose color and flavor.

3. Drain the veggies and immediately place them in ice water. This stops the cooking process so they don’t over cook. Leave them in the cold water for the same length of time as you boiled them.

4. Drain and pat dry with a paper towel.

Corn on the Cob	6-9 minutes
Whole Baby Carrots	5 minutes
Broccoli Spears	5 minutes
Cubed Egg Plant	4 minutes
Onions	3-5 minutes
Button Mushrooms	3-5 minutes
Asparagus	2-4 minutes
Spinach	2 minutes
Cauliflower Florets	1-2 minutes
Summer Squash	1-2 minutes
Sugar Snap Peas	1-2 minutes
*Tomatoes*	*1 minute*

If you live 5,000 feet or more above sea level, add 1 minute to the above times.

Special Tomato Instruction:
1. After blanching and shocking the tomatoes, the peel should slide right off. You don’t want to eat the skin of a frozen tomato. I have also heard that if you freeze them whole, the peel will come off after you freeze them. Either way, you wont want to eat the peel after freezing them.

2. Squish the tomatoes with a spoon or even your fingers to get out all the seeds. Then place them in a colander and squeeze them a little bit more. You can save the juice to cook with or drink later. Draining the liquid off before freezing them will make a thicker tomato sauce. But it is probably ok to not worry too much about getting all the liquid off.

3. Freeze like any other vegetable.

What Can Be Frozen Without Blanching?

Berries
Jalapenos
Bell Peppers
Herbs

How to Freeze:

1. Lay a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Spread the berries or veggie chunks out so they are not touching one another. Freeze completely. Transfer into a freezer bag after they have been individually frozen.

2. Write the date and ingredient on the bag with a sharpie.

Cooking with Frozen Veg:

Cook them the same way you would fresh veg! They might take slightly less time to cook if they were blanched. Use the smallest amount of water possible to cook them.

Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?
~Robert Frost

Tips and tricks from Simple and Delicious Magazine,Taste of Home Magazine, and pickyourown.org

Cinnamon Bun Doughnut Ice Cream (Easy! No Machine Needed!!!)

2011-09-13T19:50:00.001-07:00

So, this thing keeps happening over and over and over. I find a really great recipe or idea, and right as I am about to post it, one of my favorite food blogs, Our Best Bites, publishes a post of the exact same thing. Sometimes right while I am typing up a post, they will put up a post of something similar. I guess great minds think alike, right? It has become a little joke between my husband and I. The thing is, I wish my blog was more like theirs and I am always trying to improve my blog, but I really really don’t want to look like I am copying this blog that I idolize. I have left off a lot of posts, because of it. So just yesterday as I hopped on the computer to do some blogging, I looked at Our Best Bites, and sure enough, two ingredient ice cream. My husband and I chuckled and I decided that this recipe is too good not to have in my archives. I actually got this recipe from Kevin & Amanda’s blog.

This recipe is so easy and you don’t even need an ice cream machine. It has a creamy, rich texture and you can add any flavorings. It literally took me 5 minutes to put together. I took the base of cream and condensed milk and added some cinnamon, butter, and vanilla for a delicious Cinnamon Bun ice cream. Or you could crumble up some doughnuts and stir them in. Or you could do both and have a cinnamon bun cake doughnut surprise, like I did. Hehe. It was amazing. It tasted like creamy cinnamon doughnuts. It was wonderful.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

2 C.heavy whipping cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk
3 TBSP. melted butter
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 soft cake doughnuts

Directions:

1. Whip the cream until firm peaks form. I use my blender and it takes about 30 seconds, but you can also use egg beaters.

2. In a separate bowl, mix the sweetened condensed milk and all flavorings and add-ins, in this case, the cinnamon, vanilla, butter, and doughnuts. Just crumble the doughnuts up into pieces. Leave a couple big chunks because they are yummy.

3. Gently fold the cream into the condensed milk until combined.

4. Place in an air tight container and freeze for 6 hours. No need for an ice cream maker because the whipped cream adds plenty of air into the ice cream, giving it a wonderful creamy texture.

What ideas do you have for flavors and add ins? Be creative. Comment your ideas below!

Recipe adapted from Kevin & Amanda.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookie’s Ever (after my brother’s recipe)

2011-09-07T16:31:00.001-07:00

When I was growing up, my little brother was always the cookie maker in the house. Whenever someone wanted chocolate chip cookies, we would call Riley. It was just kind of his thing, whether he wanted it or not. He just made really good chocolate chip cookies. They were really good, but the other day I was hankering for some chocolate chip cookies, and I didn’t have my little brother (who is now all grown up and tough and in the army) to make some for me. See, he just had a way with the cookies. Everyone else who made his recipe didn’t quite have the same turn out. I wanted to find an amazing cookie recipe that didn’t require my brother’s magic touch.

I found this recipe in Baking Illustrated (pg. 434) and it is the perfect formula for a big bakery style cookie. There are a couple things that make the perfect chocolate chip cookie:

melted butter
extra egg yolk
brown sugar and white sugar
not over baking
cooling the cookies on the pan, instead of a cooling rack

Perfect, chewy, big, soft, bakery window cookies.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (10 5/8 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup packed (7 ounces) light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

2. In an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars until combined. Add the egg, yolk, and vanilla.

3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

4. Stir in as many chocolate chips as you want.

5. Prepare baking pans by lining them with parchment paper or silpat or spray with baking spray. Roll just under a 1/4 cup dough into a ball. Pull apart, turn so the jagged edges are facing upward, and push back together leaving the jagged edges facing upwards. This makes the tops all pretty and kind of bumpy like bakery cookies.

6. Space them 2 1/2 inches apart on the pan and bake for 14 to 18 minutes. Check at 14 minutes. I know its hard, but take them out right as the edges start to firm up, even though the middle is still dough. It will probably look underdone, but it will continue to cook after you take them out of the oven. Do not over cook, or these wont be the worlds best chocolate chip cookies. Make sure you leave the cookies to cool right on the pan, not on a cooling rack. This will make the texture just perfect.

C is for cookie.

Recipe from Baking Illustrated

Fried Green Tomatoes

2011-09-03T19:06:00.000-07:00

We have a trillion tomatoes on our in our tiny little garden. They are all green. Every time one starts to turn red, the little chipmunk who lives under our air conditioning unit, takes a big bite out of the tomato.

I decided to make use of some of those big fat green tomatoes that are taking their sweet time turning red. I have heard of this southern dish, but I never really knew what to expect. I actually don’t like eating tomatoes. I like them cooked and along with other food, but I am not a fan of taking a big bite of tomato. However, these green tomatoes taste quite different than red ripe tomatoes. They are more firm and they have kind of a citrusy, sour taste. They are delicious all battered up and fried and dipped in fry sauce (a dipping sauce native to Utah and Idaho made of ketchup and mayo). They are easy and so delicious. So if you have a bush full of green tomatoes, give this recipe a try.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

4 large green tomatoes
2 egg whites
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 tsp.coarse kosher salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
vegetable oil for frying

Fry Sauce:

1 part ketchup
2 parts mayonnaise

Directions:

1. Slice your green tomatoes between 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch.

2. Whisk together the egg whites and milk in a bowl. Place the flour on a plate. Mix together the salt, pepper, cayenne, garlic powder, bread crumbs, and cornmeal. Place on another plate.

3. Heat the oil until it bubbles when a wooden spoon is placed in it. It is easier if you have deeper oil (at least 1/2 inch), but I hate using a lot of oil, so I just used about 1/4 inch in the bottom of a pan.

4. Dip a slice of tomato in the flour, then in the milk, and then in the bread crumbs. Place in the hot oil. Fry in oil in batches of 4 or 5. Turn when one side gets crispy and golden brown. Place on a plate with paper towels.

5. Whisk together the ketchup and mayo for dipping sauce. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com

Three-Cheese Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Kielbasa Sausage

2011-08-31T00:44:00.000-07:00

Macaroni and cheese is the ultimate comfort food for me. I love it. I absolutely love it. Not the cheap blue-box kind, but the hearty homemade baked kind. Usually a good baked macaroni and cheese calls for a cheese sauce made from a white sauce roux (butter, flour, milk). This recipe that Brown Eyed Baker came up with for the 30 Days 30 Ways Macaroni and Cheese takes an easier route using evaporated milk.It’s so easy and creamy and delicious. I took her basic recipe and added Kielbasa sausage and bread crumbs to it. The day we moved to Ohio, some of our neighbors were moving out. We bought their washer and dryer and they also gave us a bunch of food from their fridge that they couldn’t take with them. Surprisingly there was a whole pre-cooked Kielbasa sausage in there, so I put it to good use.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

1/2 pound elbow macaroni
1 TBSP. butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 eggs, beat
1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
black pepper to taste
a little bit of onion powder to taste, only if needed
1 1/2 C. (6 oz.) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 C. (2 oz.) shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
1/2 C. (1 oz.) grated Parmesan Cheese
1 pre-cooked Kielbasa sausage, sliced
1/2 C. panko bread crumbs
1 to 2 TBSP butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven o 475 F. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the macaroni for about 6 minutes. It will be a little bit al dente. Drain the pasta.

2. Meanwhile, heat a small skillet over medium heat and melt butter. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove the garlic and put in a 2 quart casserole dish. Add the macaroni to the dish and stir to combine.

3. Add the evaporated milk to the dish and stir around again. Add the beat eggs, cayenne, pepper, salt, cheeses, and sausage. Mix well. Spread the macaroni mixture out evenly in the dish.

4. In a small bowl, melt the butter and mix with the panko crumbs. Sprinkle crumbs over the top of the dish. Bake until the sauce bubbles at the edges, about 12 minutes. Let rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe adapted from 30 Days 30 Ways Macaroni and Cheese

Concord Grape Sherbet

2011-08-28T04:57:00.000-07:00

I love all things purple. It’s my favorite color. Purple and green were my wedding colors. I love all my purple clothes. I have an easy time selling the purple shoes at work. I paint my toes light purple more than any other color. Most of all, I love this amazing vibrant ice cream. And not just because it’s purple. It is truly AMAZING and its really easy to make, too.

If you ever have the opportunity to buy a bundle of concord grapes, juicing grapes, wine grapes, or table grapes, do it! I bought a big bundle of concord grapes and they had an amazing rich juicy taste, but this particular batch had a lot of seeds in them. It was just too much work to just snack on them, so I decided to just make ice cream. Best decision ever.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of concord grapes or about 3 C. of good quality concord grape juice.
1/4 C. water
3 TBSP. sugar
2 TBSP. light corn syrup
1/2 C to 3/4 C. cream or half-and-half (or you can leave the cream out and make more of a sorbet).

Directions:

1. Pick all the grapes off of the stems and put them in a medium stainless steel pot with the water. Cook on medium heat until the grapes become soft.

2.Continue to cook while mashing the grapes with a potato masher, until all the skins are broken and the fruit inside is mushed up and the seed are separated from the fruit.

3. Push the grapes through a mesh sieve with a rubber spatula over a medium bowl. Push them until all the juice is through. Discard the seeds and skins.

4. Add the sugar and corn syrup to the grape juice. Stir around until the sugar is dissolved. Add the cream. I kind of just started pouring it in, so I am not sure how much. I know I used at least 1/2 C., but if you want you can make it creamier.

5. Chill in the freezer for about 45 minutes or until it starts to get firm around the edges. Then churn in the ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Keep in an air-tight container in the fridge. You may need to thaw it out before scooping.

Recipe idea from David Lebovitz, but adapted to make creamier.

Avoiding Kitchen Catastrophe’s

2011-08-25T15:09:00.001-07:00

Ok, so just because ya’ll see pretty finished plates of food on my blog, it doesn’t mean I don’t have major catastrophes in the kitchen every once in a while. Just in the last two days I have managed to go grocery shopping and realize I left my wallet home after the groceries were all rung up, shatter my favorite casserole dish all over the kitchen, get grape juice stains all over my favorite shirt, get Jalepeno juice in my eyes (it burns!!!), and slice my finger cutting onions.

Kitchen catastrophes just happen sometimes and you can’t do anything to stop them. However, I have a couple tips for making things run all together more smoothly in the kitchen.

1. Mise en Place: a French term that means having everything in place before you start cooking. Thomas Keller of The French Laundry and Per Se says, “it is about having everything you need before you start cooking; picturing every task involved in creating a dish—all the ingredients and all the tools—and having them organized in advance.”

Find all the utensils and tools before starting to cook. There have been countless times when I have a pot of custard on the verge of boiling, and my whisk is dirty.
Make sure you have all the ingredients you need, so you don’t need to run over to the neighbor’s begging for butter.
Open and drain all cans.

Chop all raw veggies and fruit before hand. Prepare any meat after all the veg is chopped, so there is no chance of cross contamination.

Have items you will need through out the cooking process, like salt and pepper and olive oil, on hand

2. Start with a clean kitchen. Put stuff you aren’t using in the cupboards. Wipe off the counters. Only have out what you need.

3. Start with an empty dishwasher. As you cook, put dishes straight into the dishwasher.

4. Clean while you cook. When you finish with a pot or pan, clean it immediately. If you clean as you go, you feel a lot less stress when you are done. I always hate looking back at the kitchen when I am done cooking and thinking a tornado struck. It is discouraging. Today, I cleaned as I went, and I felt happy and energized, rather than discouraged and tired.

5. Pull the garbage can over right next to the counter you are preparing food on. Have an open can or a foot pedal can so you don’t have to touch the garbage can. Throw scraps and empty cans straight into the trash. This will help make space on the counters. Also, you wont have to walk across the floor dripping food along the way.

6. Have “stuff” on hand for emergencies. Make sure you have

soap

paper towels

and band-aids. When I sliced my finger while cutting onions, I had to run upstairs and rummage around to find a band-aid, while my oil was getting too hot on the stove. If I had a band aid near by, things would have been much less stressful.

6. Have fun! I like to set up my I-home just outside of the kitchen and listen to audio books while I cook and do dishes.

And of course, I need my little bag of chocolate chips to pop in my mouth every once in awhile.

6. Serve Simply. Bon Appetit magazine says, “At home, food should be rustic and fun, so serve foods in the dishes you actually cooked them in. Prep salad right in the salad bowl. Don’t be scared to serve something out of a pot. It keeps food hot longer. And, yes, it cuts down on the dishes.” Sometimes, presentation isn’t really a big deal, so save the dishes.

Happy Cooking!!!

Cake Batter Truffles

2011-08-14T17:30:00.001-07:00

I have a friend. Her name is Jess. She lives two doors down. She lets me borrow butter and books. She can sew. She is crafty. She is organized. She has a cool button collection. She gives me cake batter truffles. She is nice.
She made yummy cake batter truffles for my husband and I and invited us over to play games right after we moved to Ohio. She let me take the last one home so I could take a picture of it. She is seriously amazing, guys. She can sew anything. She is super crafty. She alters her own clothes and makes them 10 times cuter than they were. She makes decorations for her house and everything she makes is affordable on done on a budget.
She made these:

And these:

And these:

Go check out her way cute blog, All For This Penny, right now (well, you can finish reading my post first)!
PRINTABLE RECIPE
Ingredients:

1 1/2 C. flour
1 C. yellow cake mix
1/2 C. unsalted butter, softened
1/2 C. white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt
2-4 TBSP milk
2 TBSP sprinkles

Truffle Coating:

16 oz. (8 squares) almond bark (or white candy melts)
4 TBSP. yellow cake mix
sprinkles

Directions:
1.Beat together butter and sugar using an electric mixer until combined. Add cake mix, flour, salt, and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add 3 Tablespoons of milk or more if needed to make a dough consistency.
2.Mix in sprinkles by hand. Roll dough into one inch balls and place on a parchment or wax paper lined cookie sheet. Chill balls in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to firm up.

3.While dough balls are chilling, melt almond bark in the microwave in 30 second intervals until melted. Stir between intervals. Once melted, quickly stir in cake mix until incorporated completely. Using a fork, dip truffles into almond bark and shake of excess bark by tapping the bottom of the fork on the side of your bowl. Place truffle back on the cookie sheet and top with sprinkles. Repeat with remaining balls until finished.
4.Chill cake batter truffles in the refrigerator until serving.
Makes around 24-30 truffles.
Recipe from my friend Jess, author of All For This Penny, who got her recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything (also a very cute blog).

Homemade Cotton Candy

2011-08-06T17:48:00.001-07:00

I made homemade cotton candy!!! It’s pretty exciting. I am finding out that you can make lots of stuff homemade. Like gummy bears, fudge-sicles, hamburger buns, kettle corn, Butter Beer and doughnuts. As soon as I saw a recipe for homemade candy floss, I knew that I just had to make it.

I love cotton candy. I remember going to Sea World with my family when I was young and my little sister was probably about 2 at the time. We got this HUGE thing of pink cotton candy and she was holding it and it was as big as she was. It was pretty funny. I wish I had the picture to show you. It is one of things that I always long for at fairs and theme parks, but I never can bring my self to fork over the money for something that melts as soon as it touches your mouth and is pure sugar. So, in the spirit of State Fair’s across America, I bring you homemade cotton candy from the awesome cook book, Sugar Baby by Gesine Bullock-Prado. Just a warning, this treat will not be quite as light and fluffy as carnival cotton candy, but it is the closest you will get in your own kitchen.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

(I am giving you the full recipe. It makes 8 cotton candies. However, I just halved it because I didn’t want to use up that much sugar and corn syrup).

4 C. Sugar
1 C. Corn Syrup
1 C. Water
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. extract of your choice (I did coconut)
2 drops food coloring (any color)
1 Decapitated Whisk
Candy Thermometer
pastry brush or basting brush

Are you wondering what a decapitated whisk is and where to find one? I’ll show you. A decapitated whisk is a specialized piece of equipment that is necessary for making cotton candy at home. It is exactly what it sounds like; a whisk with it’s head chopped off.

Just start with a normal whisk and snip the wire tines of the whisk with a wire cutter until you are left with straight wire branches. I had a really old whisk that I hardly ever used. You can probably find a whisk to decapitate at a thrift store and maybe even at the dollar store.

To Make the Cotton Candy:

1. In a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar,corn syrup, water, and salt. Stir until the sugar is melted. With a damp pastry brush, wipe down the sides of the pan to prevent tray sugar crystals from forming. I just kept a cup of water next to the stove so I could periodically wet down the sides of the pan.

2. Clip the candy thermometer onto the pan and stop stirring. Heat to 320 F. Make sure the thermometer is positioned so that it is resting in the sugar, but not hitting the bottom of the pan.

3. Pout the hot liquid into a shallow heatproof container. Add the extract and food coloring and stir well. Work quickly so the liquid sugar doesn’t cool. Be careful not to touch the molten sugar. It will be very hot.

4. Line your work table with parchment or silicone mats. Dip your headless whisk into the sugar syrup and let it drip over the pot for a second or two. Hold the whisk a foot above the the parchment and swing the whisk back and forth quickly so that thin hairs of sugar fall onto the paper. Repeat this a couple times until you have a nice big next of spun sugar.

5. Immediately wrap around a large lollipop stick. Don’t wait too long, or it will break and not bend. Repeat until the sugar syrup is gone. Move quickly, so the sugar doesn’t set up. I was too slow and the sugar started to get hard. I guess you could melt it down again, but instead I just made some suckers.

6. Eat right away or store in an air tight container. Moisture will make it soggy.

This is one of the suckers I made with the left over molten sugar. I just scooped some into a little heart shaped cookie cutter sprayed with cooking spray. Once it set up, I popped it out and attached a stick with another little glob of sugar.

Recipe adapted from Sugar Baby by Gesine Bullock-Prado

Fudge Popsicles

2011-08-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

It is my day off. What does that mean? I’m watching food network on Hulu on my laptop (and maybe the latest episode of the Bachelorette???). I know I should get some cleaning done, but I’m going to take it easy until just before my husband gets home and then I am going to clean up as fast as I can so it looks like I have been working hard all day and then he will offer to make dinner. Ha ha. Sounds like a plan. ( I am mostly joking. That isn’t really how our relationship works. If I want to take it easy all day and the house stays a mess, my husband wouldn’t mind. And if I asked him to make dinner, he would gladly pitch in. And I am happy to try and keep the house clean and he is happy to help me. But right now, I am feeling really lazy.)

But I need to find something more substantial to eat than butterscotch chips straight from the bag. Yes, I think I need something more. I know! How about fudge-sicles! I just watched Throwdown with Bobby Flay and he visited this Mexican popsicle shop in Nashville called Las Paletas. Their many flavors of ice pops had me drooling. I knew right away that I have to make popsicles today. But we ate all of our fruit, so its got to be chocolate. And I love fudge-sicles.

I will be right back. I need to go make some fudge-sicles.

Okay. I am back. One batch of fudge-sicles, one episode of the bachelorette, and one nap on the couch later. I am feeling good! Maybe even good enough to clean the kitchen. Maybe.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

2 TBSP. semisweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
1/3 C. sugar
1 TBSP. cornstarch
1 1/2 TBSP. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 C. whole milk
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 TBSP unsalted butter

Directions:

1. In the bottom of a medium saucepan, melt the chocolate chips on low heat. Add the sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder, milk, and salt and turn heat up to medium. Cook until it thickens, stirring frequently. This should take between 5 and 10 minutes.

2. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and butter. Let mixture cool slightly.

3. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze completely.

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen, originally from On a Stick

Mixed Berry Fraisier

2011-07-29T11:01:00.001-07:00

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make Fresh Fraisiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

Can you believe that I have never made a layered cake? Ever. Until this month. When I saw the Daring Baker’s challenge, I was really excited to challenge my self. My impatience in the kitchen tends to ruin big projects like this, so I vowed to myself that I would be totally patient and follow the instructions exactly, because I did not want the cake to fall apart after I built it. And I succeeded!!!!! And you can too! The steps to this cake are actually pretty easy, there are just a lot of them. So make the cake one day. Make the cream the next day. Make the simple syrup the day after that. And take a fourth day to assemble it.

I only had one little moment of impatience. I picked the top layer off the cake and ate it. I couldn’t wait to see what the cake tasted like and I knew the top would be covered in whipped cream, anyway.

Speaking of cream… I have a story for you. So, I spent quite awhile making the perfect pastry cream filling for this cake. Then I tasted it (thank goodness) and I smelled it and it just didn’t seem right. It tasted almost like I had put 1/2 C. of lemon juice in the cream. It was not the decadent pastry cream I was hopping for. Then I checked my container of heavy cream. Sure, enough it was SOUR. So I threw it in the trash, went to the store and bought more cream, and started all over again. Much better the second time! Word to the wise: check your cream before starting the pastry cream.

Basic Chiffon Cake:

1 C + 2 TBSP. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 C. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 C. veg. oil
3 large egg yolks
1/4 C. 1 TBSP. water
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. lemon zest, grated
5 large egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

Lemon Chiffon Cake: reduce water to 1/4 C., add 1/8 C. lemon juice to egg yolks, increase lemon zest to 1 1/2 tsp., and remove the vanilla.

Orange Chiffon Cake: Replace the full amount of water with orange juice, replace lemon zest with the zest of one orange, and remove vanilla from recipe.

Coconut Chiffon Cake: Add 1/4 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg to flour, reduce oil to 1/8 C,reduce water to 1/8 C, add 1/3 C. unsweetened coconut milk to oil, water, and yolks. Remove the vanilla.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake: Reduce flour to 3/4 C. + 1 TBSP and add 1/4 C. of cocoa powder to the flour mixture.

1. Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line the bottom of an 8-inch (20 cm) spring from pan with parchment paper. Or you can grease the bottom, but do not grease the sides of the pan.

2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder. Add in all but 3 TBSP. of sugar, and all of the salt. Stir to combine.

3. In a small bowl combine the oil, egg yolks, water, vanilla, and lemon zest. Whisk thoroughly.

4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and whisk thoroughly for about 1 minute. Should be smooth.

5. Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium-high speed with the whisk attachment until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and beat on a medium speed until the whites hold soft peaks. Slowly add the remaining 3 TBSP. of sugar and beat on medium-high speed until the whites hold firm and form shiny peaks.

7. Using a grease-free rubber spatula, scoop about 1/3 of the whites into the batter and fold in gently. Fold in the rest of the whites gently until just combined.

7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes (mine took 45). Remove the cake from the oven and let it cook in the pan on a wire rack.

8. To unmold, run a knife around the sides to loosen the cake from the pan and remove the spring form sides. Invert the cake and peel of the parchment paper. Make sure the cake is cool before you start handling it. You can store the cake in the fridge for up to 4 days.

PASTRY CREAM FILLING:

1 C. whole milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt
2 TBSP. cornstarch
1/4 C. sugar
1 large egg
2 TBSP. butter
3/4 tsp. gelatin
1/2 TBSP. water
1 C. heavy cream

1. Pour the milk, vanilla, and salt into a heavy sauce pan. Place over medium-high heat and scald, bringing to a near boiling point. Stir occasionally.

2. Meanwhile, in a stand mixer add the cornstarch and sugar. Whisk to combine. Add the eggs to the sugar and cornstarch and whisk until smooth.

3. When the milk is ready, gently and slowly while the stand mixer is whisking, pour the heated milk down the side of the bowl into the egg mixture. This is called tempering the eggs. It is the same thing you do when making a custard based ice cream.

4. Pour the mixture back into the warm pot and continue to cook over a medium heat until the custard is thick, just about to boil and coats the back of a spoon.

5. Remove from heat and pass through a fine mesh sieve into a large mixing bowl. Allow to cool for ten minutes stirring occasionally. Cut the butter into four pieces and whisk into the pastry cream a piece at a time until smooth.

6. Cover the cream with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic wrap onto the top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Chill in the refrigerator for up to five days.

7. In a small dish, sprinkle the gelatin over the water and let stand for a few minutes to soften.

8. Put two inches of water into a small sauce pan and bring to a simmer over a medium heat. Measure 1/4 cup of the chilled pastry cream into a small stainless steel bowl that will sit cross the sauce pan with the simmering water, without touching the water. Or you can use a double-boiler. Heat the cream until it is 120 F (48.8 C). Add the gelatin and whisk until smooth. Remove from the water bath, and whisk the remaining cold pastry cream in to incorporate in two batches.

9. In a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream until it holds medium-stiff peaks. Immediately fold the whipped cream into the pastry cream with a rubber spatula. Cool completely in the fridge.

SIMPLE SYRUP:

You may choose to flavor the syrup. One way is to use flavored sugar (for example: apple cider sugar, orange sugar, or vanilla sugar) or to stir in 1-2 teaspoons of flavored extract. You may also infuse with herbs or spices, if desired or add four tablespoons (60 ml) of fruit juice or liqueur while the syrup is cooling. I just left mine plain.

1/3 cup of sugar, flavored or white
1/3 cup of water

Combine the water and sugar in a medium saucepan.
Bring the mixture to a boil and let the sugar dissolve. Stirring is not necessary, but will not harm the syrup.
Remove the syrup from the heat and cool slightly.
Transfer syrup to a lidded container or jar that can be stored in the refrigerator. Simple syrup can be stored for up to one month.

FRAISIER ASSEMBLY:

1 baked 8 inch chiffon cake
1 recipe pastry cream filling
1/3 C. simple syrup
powdered sugar for dusting (optional)
1 to 2 Lbs. fresh strawberries ( and any other fruit you would like to include)
1/2 C. almond paste (optional)
1/2 C. whipping cream, whipped with a sprinkle of powdered sugar to taste

1. Line the sides of an 8-inch (20 cm) spring form pan with plastic wrap. Do not line the bottom of the pan.

2. Cut the cake in half horizontally to form two layers. Try to make them as even as possible.

3. Fit the bottom layer of cake into the spring form pan. Moisten the layer evenly with the simple syrup to resemble a squishy sponge.

4. Hull and slice enough strawberries to arrange around the sides of the cake pan. I just cut the strawberries in half. Place the cut side of the strawberry against the sides of the pan, point side up forming a ring.

5. Pipe cream in between the strawberries in a thin layer across the top of the cake. Hull and quarter the remaining strawberries. You may also use any other kind of berries. Place them in the middle of the cake. Brush them with some simple syrup. Cover them entirely with the rest of the pastry cream. Don’t be shy, the more pastry cream the better. (If you decide to use almond paste, save out 1 TBSP. of the pastry cream). My strawberries looked mashed up because I was also making jam at the same time and I had left over mashed up strawberries.

6. Place the second layer of cake on top and moisten again with simple syrup.

7. If you use the almond paste, roll it out to 10-inch round, 1/16 inch thick. Save out about a TBSP of pastry cream and spread it over the top of the cake and cover with eh round of almond paste.

Just put sweetened whipped cream all over the top, like I did. Top with fresh berries.

8. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to 3 days. The longer you refrigerate it, the more stable the pastry cream will get. I left mine in the fridge overnight and it was plenty stable the next morning. Right before serving, release the sides of the spring form pan and peel away the plastic wrap.

Kiwifruit Ice Cream

2011-07-24T20:09:00.001-07:00

I recently learned that it isn’t good to refer to that brown fuzzy fruit with a green inside as a Kiwi, because a Kiwi is a person from New Zealand. It is also a flightless bird that inhabits the island of New Zealand. So today I give you Kiwifruit ice cream, not Kiwi ice cream. Thank you David Lebovitz for making that clear.

I made this ice cream to share with the LDS Missionaries that came over for dinner. One of them confessed that he had no idea how to eat a Kiwifruit and that the only time he tried to eat one he just bit into it with the skin on. I promptly grabbed a Kiwifruit from the fridge and gave it to him after telling him to either peel it or scoop the fruit out with a spoon. They really liked the ice cream and I am glad I had an extra kiwifruit to give him.

I got the idea of this recipe from the kiwifruit sorbet recipe in The Perfect Scoop, but I decided to make it into a creamy ice cream instead of a sorbet. It tastes just like a kiwifruit, but its ice cream. You can strain out the seeds if you want. I left them in because I love them. I love the little sweet crunch they add.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

2 Lbs. kiwi fruit
3/4 C. sugar
1 1/3 C. Cream or Half-and-Half

Directions:

1. Peel and chop the kiwifruit. Make sure you cut off the woody part at the two ends of each fruit.

2. Puree them in a blender. You should have about 2 cups of puree.

3. Add the sugar and cream and blend until combined. If you wish to remove the black seeds, push the mixture through a mesh sieve with a spatula.

4. Chill the mixture until it is really cold. I like to pop it in the freezer for about 30 to 45 minutes and take it out once it barely starts to freeze around the edges.

5. Churn according to your ice cream makers instructions. Store in an air tight container in the freezer.

Spaetzle

2011-07-18T19:52:00.001-07:00

Have you ever heard of spaetzle? I was shocked when I first saw a recipe for it. First of all, because I had no idea what it was. Second, because it looked really easy and yummy. I was determined to make it. Then only a few days later, I got the new Daring Cook’s challenge. Sure enough, it was spaetzle.

Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks' July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!

I chose to make the delicious spaetzle featured on Tasty Kitchen. Spaetzle is a German pasta that is made by dropping the dough into boiling water, where it cooks on the spot in irregular little squiggles. It is very fun and easy to make.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

2 eggs, beaten
3/4 C. water, plus water for boiling
1 1/2 C. flour
1/4 tsp. salt, plus some from boiling water
1 cube bullion or 1 TBSP. mustard powder
chopped fresh herbs (parsley, sage, or basil)
1/4 C. bread crumbs ( I used Panko)
salt and pepper to taste
butter or oil

Directions:

1. Place the flour in a large bowl and add the salt and bullion or mustard powder. Mix it all together.

2. Beat the eggs and add them to the flour. Add the water. Mix together with a fork and work out all the lumps. The batter will be pourable, but a little bit elastic.

3. Bring some water or stock to a rolling boil. Add some salt to the water.

4. Have ready a colander with large holes and spatula ready. You can also use a spaetzle maker, but not very many people have one of those. Hold the colander over the boiling water and pour a little bit of the batter into the colander. Keep it above the steam or the pasta will cook to soon. Push through with the spatula. Let the drops boil for about 3-4 minutes.

5. Fish out with a sieve or slotted spoon and set aside. Continue this process until all of the batter has boiled. I did it in about 4 batches.

6. You can serve it tossed in a little bit of olive oil or butter, or you can toast it, which I like to do. Brown the spaetzle over medium heat in olive oil or butter. Toss in some chopped fresh herbs, the bread crumbs, and a little bit of salt and pepper. Stir occasionally until the spaetzle has little bit of crispiness to it. Serve and enjoy!

Recipe from Tasty Kitchen.

Goblet of Fire and other Harry Potter Party Ideas

2011-07-14T00:13:00.000-07:00

If you have been reading my blog for the past two weeks you know that I have been counting down to the premier of the final installment in the Harry Potter movies. Tomorrow night at midnight the ending will begin. If you are a hard core potter head, you might consider throwing a Harry Potter party to celebrate. I’ve given you the recipes for Butter Beer, Acid Pops, chocolate frogs, peppermint toads, licorice wands, and pumpkin pasties. Today I want to wrap things up by providing a couple more ideas that will at to your perfect Potter party.

Goblet of Fire (Green Flames):

Boric Acid
Heet Gas Line Antifreeze and Water Remover
Heat proof container ( metal or stoneware)
Lighter or matches

1. Pour some Heet into the container. Heet is a chemical that you put in your gas tank to keep the water in the gas from freezing. You can find this at most stores, gas stations, or auto stores and it is fairly inexpensive. The more Heet you use, the longer it will burn green. About 1/2 C. equals about 10 minutes. Note: Make sure you use regular Heet, not Iso-Heet. We used Iso-heet and it didn’t turn green as well. Regular Heet will be a vivid distinct green color, so don’t make the same mistake we did.

2. Sprinkle about 1-2 boric acid into the container and swirl around until partially dissolved. It doesn't all need to dissolve, so it is ok if there is still some powder at the bottom of the container. Boric Acid is a fairly easy chemical to find. Medical grade boric acid can be found in the pharmacy as a disinfectant. It is not, however, the same as borax, so don’t be confused. You can also use Enoz Roach Away, which is mostly boric acid. It is a white powder. It is a fairly safe chemical and any residue can be washed down the drain.

3. Set the container on a heat-safe surface outside and ignite with a lighter.

To see a video of the green fire you can expect, click here.

Green Fire instructions from About.com and my brother Riley.

OTHER PARTY IDEAS:

Put out a bowl of some mixed-jelly bellies. You used to be able to buy little boxes of Bertie Bott’s, but now they are more difficult to find and are kind of expensive. If you can find these for a good deal, buy them! They have flavors like Booger, dirt, earthworm, earwax, soap, vomit, etc. A couple of years ago I bought a couple of these boxes at a grocery store and stayed up late with my room mate taking turns closing our eyes and picking one. We were laughing so hard as we tried to guess which flavors they were, while trying not to gag. If you can’t find Bertie’s, a bowl of mixed flavor jelly bellies will work, too.

I really wanted to make some cauldron cakes for my Potter party, but I just didn’t have enough time. I found this really cute recipe on Cook Like a Champion. Go check it out!

I also found a yummy recipe for Pumpkin Juice on She Knows Food and Recipes. You should definitely have Pumpkin Juice at your Potter party.

Have your guests take the online patronus quiz to find out what their patronus would be or have them take a sorting hat quiz and then have your own sorting ceremony. There are tons of quizes on the world wide web.

Send out invitations that look like Hogwarts letters. You can buy the envelopes pictured above as well as loads of other Harry Potter themed things like chocolate frog boxes, marauder’s maps, and potions sets at this etsy store.

Have the guests brew their own poly juice potions. Set out a buffet of fruits, fruit juice, ice, yogurt, sherbet, etc. Let them blend their own smoothies. Or you could put dry ice in the bottom of a bowl or cauldron and fill with sprite.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed while I indulged in Potter-Mania. Be creative! Throw your own Potter Party! Let me know what you think of the show. With this last Potter post, I bid farewell to the legacy that I grew up with. I will miss you Hogwarts.

Harry Potter Sweets: Chocolate Frogs, Peppermint toads, and Licorice Wands

2011-07-13T13:24:00.001-07:00

Are you getting excited? I am! Yesterday, I bought tickets online to see Deathly Hallows: Part II in 3D on Friday (Thanks Jess and Seth for the Fandango Gift card! We have been saving it for this very occasion!) Since the show premiers at midnight tomorrow, I really only have two more days to post Harry Potter themes treats, so come back tomorrow morning to see some last minute touches to your HP themed party.

Today, I am going to show you some really simple, fast sweets that you might find on the Hogwart’s Express sweet trolley. And you don’t need to go to Diagon Alley to find the ingredients.

Chocolate Frogs:

Good quality chocolate for melting or chocolate melties
Frog or toad candy mold

1. Put a pot of water on the stove and let it simmer over medium heat. Place a heat proof bowl on top of the pot and put the chocolate in side.

2. Stir the chocolate until melted and runny.

3. Immediately pour into candy molds. Let cool in the refirdgerator. Pop out of molds when ready to serve.

Peppermint Toads:

White chocolate for melting
a few drops of peppermint extract (found by vanilla in grocery stores)
frog or toad candy mold

1. Follow the same instructions to melt the chocolate as in the chocolate frog recipe above. Keep a close eye on it because white chocolate is a little bit more temperamental.

2. When it starts to get runny, stir in a drop of peppermint extract. Taste it and add one drop at a time of peppermint until the desired taste is reached. It is strong stuff, so be careful and taste often.

3. If you want, you can add food coloring to the white chocolate. I tried to do a swirl of red, but I got the idea after the toads were already cooling in the molds, so it didn’t really swirl very well. You can see little specks of red, though.

4. Pour the white chocolate into candy molds. Let cool in fridge until hardened. Pop out of molds when ready to serve.

Licorice Wands:

Any variety of licorice (twizzler, red vine, black, red, whatever)
melted milk or dark chocolate
melted white chocolate
sprinkles
parchment paper

1. Use the melted chocolate from making the frogs and toads, or follow the instructions on melting chocolate in the recipes above. I an even amount of each kind of chocolate.

2. Dip the top 1/2 of each licorice strand in the white or milk/dark chocolate.

3. Lay on a piece of parchment paper. Cover with sprinkles. Let chocolate harden, and serve.

Wingardium Leviosa!

To see other Harry Potter themed recipes:

Pumpkin Pasties

2011-07-10T17:09:00.001-07:00

“Anything from the trolley? Anything from the trolley?”

“Two pumpkin pasties, please.”

Do you remember that part in Harry Potter? When Cho orders pumpkin pasties? I have always wanted to try these, and after making them I can see why Cho didn’t just get one! My husband, who lived in England for two years, says that he had pasties all the time but they were always savory and filled with meat and potatoes. I promised my husband that I would make him savory pasties another day, so expect that in the future, but these pasties are sweet little pumpkin pie packets. They are probably my favorite Harry Potter treat that I made. I used store bought pie crust and it was really easy. You can make your own pie crust if you want, but I just had a lot of other things to make for the HP party and not very much time, so the store bought crust was a good option for me.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

2 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 C. sugar
1 lb. canned pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp. salt
2 TBSP. melted butter
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1/2 tsp. allspice
1 can evaporated milk
9 oz pie crust ( enough for two single standard pie crusts)
some cinnamon sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Combine eggs and sugar to a mixer and blend until combined. Mix in the pumpkin, butter, salt and spices. Add evaporated milk and mix well.

2. Bake the filling a a large greased casserole dish at 425 F. for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 F. and continue to bake for 45 minutes or until a fork inserted comes out clean.

3. Let the filling fool completely. Roll out the pie crust thin and cut into circles about 4 inches in diameter. I used the rim of a cup or something.

4. Put a spoonful of the pumpkin mixture in the center of the crust. Fold the circle in half and firmly crimp the edges closed. You can pack quite a bit of filling in the center as long as it is crimped closed tightly.

5. Cut three small slits in the top with a paring knife. Bake at 400 F. on a cookie sheet until crust is light golden brown, about 10 minutes. Dust with cinnamon sugar and serve at room temperature.

I set out a can of whipped cream that people could top theirs with if they wanted.

Recipe adapted from The Geeky Chef

Acid Pop’s

2011-07-07T19:25:00.001-07:00

As you know, I am featuring Harry Potter themed recipes up until the release of the last movie in the series on July 15th. My previous post was of the infamous Hogsmeade drink, Butter Beer. Today I am going to show you how to make Acid Pop’s. This is a fun, easy, quick idea that you can add to the spread at a Harry Potter movie party, which I think everyone should throw or attend at least once in their life. These suckers are really fun to eat. They explode in your mouth! I just used the original flavors of blow pops, but you can give them even more of a kick by using sour the sour blow pop flavors.

By the way, I was running at the gym today and I saw a little segment on the gym tv about Harry Potter and it showed clips of some of the movies and I think I started to tear up a little just thinking about how the journey is almost over. Don’t make fun of me.

Ingredients:

6 or 7 Blow Pop’s
2 or 3 packets of pop rocks
plastic wrap or wax paper

Directions:

1. Unwrap each blow pop.

2. Pour the pop rocks onto a plate.

3. Dip a blow pop in some water or just run it under the sink really fast, to make it sticky. Shake as much water off as you can. You don’t want it to be dripping wet, just sticky.

4. Roll the blow pop in the pop rocks to coat.

5. Wrap in plastic wrap or wax paper.

6. Repeat with each blow pop.

Idea adapted from www.britta.com

Harry Potter Countdown: Butter Beer

2011-07-03T18:20:00.000-07:00

Maybe you are like me. If you are you will love the next couple of posts. Maybe you aren’t like me. If your not, you will probably think I am obsessive and crazy. That’s ok. Your loss. If you are like me, you are counting down the days until the next Harry Potter movie comes out. You have probably read the whole Harry Potter series, possibly multiple times. Perhaps you have dressed up as one of the characters and waited in line at midnight of a book release. If you are like me, we should be friends.

I know everyone is probably posting Fourth of July recipes today (take a look at some of mine here, here, here, here, and here), and that is great, but I have decided to take the first two weeks of July and devote my posts to the one and only H.P. I threw a pretty fun Harry Potter party a while back. I made lots of themed treats, we made a goblet of fire, had a sorting hat sort everyone (I am a Ravenclaw), and we watched the first movie. It was awesome.

This is a picture of my husband getting sorted. My dad was the sorting hat and my husband is cheering because he got sorted in to the same house as me, Raven Claw.

So, I present you a delicious non-alcoholic butter beer recipe! I always envisioned butter beer as being this amazing frothy drink and when ever I read about it in the book, I pretty sure I would drool a little bit. I am dying to go the the new Harry Potter theme park in Florida, just for the butter beer.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

Cream soda (make sure it isn’t flat, like mine)
2 C. heavy cream
6 TBSP. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp. imitation butter (find this at the grocery store by the vanilla and almond extracts)

Directions:

1. Pour cold cream soda into mugs until almost full.

2. Beat together the cream, sugar, vanilla, and imitation butter on high speed for about six or seven minutes, until soft peaks start to form.

3. Spoon a big scoop of the cream mixture on top of the cream soda. If you want, you can put some foam in the bottom of the class, too and pour cream soda on top.

Another option: You can also add 1/2 tsp. of imitation butter to every 12 ounces of cream soda. I have read that this is yummy. I tried it without measuring and I am pretty sure I added way to much imitation butter to a couple of them (sorry grandma. I think you got one of those.) Or you can ad 1 oz. light rum to each serving, but then it is no longer kid friendly. I have also read that you can add butterscotch sauce to the cream soda.

I also really want to try this recipe for butter beer and see if it tastes any different, but it is more labor intensive.

Recipe adapted from My Bakingdom

Amazing Homemade Brioche Hamburger Buns

2011-07-01T19:22:00.001-07:00

What are you doing to celebrate the Fourth of July? I will probably light a couple small fireworks in the parking lot with my husband. But I am sure my family back in Idaho will be having at least one barbeque. It is just kind of a given when it comes to the Fourth. Summer celebrations = barbeques. A grilled hamburger is good, but I have a way to make it AMAZING! Wow your barbeque guests with homemade hamburger buns. They are SO MUCH BETTER THAN STORE BOUGHT! I don’t think I will ever go back to buying buns again.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

3 TBSP. warm milk
1 C. warm water
2 tsp. instant yeast
2 21/2 TBSP. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 large egg
3 C. bread flour
1/3 C. all purpose
2 1/2 TBSP. butter, softened
sesame seeds
1 egg for egg wash

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix together the milk, water, yeast, sugar, salt, and egg until just combined.

2. Add the flours and mix until combined. Mix in the butter.

3. Switch to the dough hook and knead for about 7 minutes. Don’t add any more flour, even it you are tempted. It will be a little bit tacky, but you don’t want the buns to be tough.

4. Move the dough to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled in size. 1 or 2 hours.

5. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat. Using a dough scraper, divide the dough into 8 equal parts and roll each portion into a ball. Place on the baking sheet and loosely cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for another hour or so, until they are puffy.

6. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Set a large metal pot or pan of water on the lowest rack of the oven. Whisk a little bit of water into an egg and brush lightly onto the tops of each roll. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

7. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating half way through baking. The tops will be golden. Try to resist eating them before the burgers are done. It will be hard.

Recipe from Annie’s-Eats and originally from Smitten Kitchen

Other Fourth of July Recipes:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream

2011-06-23T19:13:00.001-07:00

I am seriously tempted to lick my computer screen right now. Don’t do it! It is just a picture. It is not real!

It is that time of year. When my ice cream maker and The Perfect Scoop take up a permanent residence on my counter next to my toaster.

And chances are if you stop by my house at any given time, there is a pretty good chance you will see my other ice cream maker churning away over in the corner. It’s summer, folks. And I start thinking about every ingredient as a possible flavor of ice cream. This particular flavor is outstanding! It is so rich and creamy and smooth and wonderful. I was planning on taking some to my neighbors, but when I found out they have Peanut allergies, I was secretly excited because I got to keep it. Don’t tell. : )

Like most foodie bloggers out there, I snatched my recipe from the renown The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, the ice cream master of the universe. I made a couple changes to his recipe, however. His recipe was a simple Philadelphia style (if you don’t know what that means, click here to find out). I had 4 egg yolks leftover from some egg white omelets and decided to temper the yolks into the cooking ice cream. I am sure the original would be amazing, but those egg yolks just added an extra creaminess and richness. So if you want to take the easy way out, just skip tempering in the egg yolks in the recipe below. Or, if you don’t want to add 4 yolks, just add one or two. The more, the creamier, though. Either way, you will have an amazing batch of ice cream. If you want to learn more about this kind of Custard Based ice cream, click here.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

2 C. half and half
1/2 C. unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 C. sugar
pinch of salt
4 egg yolks (optional)
1/2 C. smooth peanut butter
Fudge Ripple (recipe below) optional
Peanut butter patties (recipe below) optional

Directions:

1. Whisk together the half-and-half, cocoa powder, sugar and salt in a large sauce pan. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until it starts to foam up and boil.

3. Whisk up the egg yolks in a separate medium bowl, slowly pour the half-and-half mixture into the eggs, constantly whisking as you pour. Then slowly pour it all back into the pan, whisking constantly as you pour.

4. Heat until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spatula, frequently scraping the bottom of the pan and stirring. Don’t let it boil, however. It should be about 160 F, just before it boils. Immediately pour through a mesh strainer into a separate bowl. Stir in the peanut butter. Let the mixture chill in the fridge for a couple hours, or in the freezer for about 45 minutes.

4. Mix in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. For tips on using ice cream makers, click here. If you wish, mix in the peanut butter patties and pour in some fudge ripple. Don’t stir the fudge ripple too much, or it will become muddy. Pour into an air-tight container and let freeze completely in the freezer.

PEANUT BUTTER PATTIES:

6 TBSP. peanut butter
2 TBSP. powdered sugar

Mix together the peanut butter and sugar in a small bowl. Line a plate with plastic wrap. Pinch off small pieces of the peanut butter mixture (1/2 tsp.) and drop them onto the plate. Freeze completely and then add to ice cream at the end of churn cycle.

FUDGE RIPPLE:

1/2 C> sugar
1/3 C.light corn syrup
1/2 C. water
6 TBSP. cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Whisk together the sugar, corn syrup, water, and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium, whisking constantly, until it starts to bubble at the edges.

2. Continue to whisk until it just comes to a low boil. Cook for 1 minute, whisking frequently. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Let cool completely in the fridge before mixing into ice cream.

To mix it in: The best way to incorporate the ripple is to start by putting some in the bottom of the container. Add some ice cream and then another layer of ripple, and so on. It is best not to stir it.

If You Like This Recipe, You Might Also Like:

Recipe from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Fruit Pizza

2011-06-14T15:06:00.001-07:00

Ok, so you have probably seen fruit pizza all over. Its nothing new, but oh, it is good. I could have eaten the whole pan. It is perfect for summer time. There is something so fresh and bright about it. If you have never had it, go make it right now!

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Cream together the butter and 3/4 cup sugar. Mix in the egg.

2. Sift together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar. Mix until combined. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Chill the dough for about 15 to 30 minutes.

3. Pat the dough into a pizza pan or a 9x13 pan. Just make sure the pan is big enough that you can pat it out enough. I put it in a tart pan and it was too thick and the dough puffed up way too much. Half way through the baking I had to stop and move it to a bigger pan.

4. Bake for 8 to ten minutes. Do not over cook. You want the dough to be nice and chewy.

5. While it is baking, mix up the frosting. Beat the cream cheese with 1/2 cup of sugar. Add the vanilla and beat until light. Let the crust cool. Spread the frosting evenly on the crust.

6. Load up the pizza with your favorite kinds of fruit. I think raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blue berries, kiwi, mandarin oranges, and bananas are all amazing. You can also throw on some chocolate chips or toasted coconut.

Recipe from Allrecipes.com

Lemon-Lime Slush

2011-06-07T16:02:00.001-07:00

I made it to Ohio! I know it took me forever to post a new recipe, but I just barely got me internet hooked up. Can I just talk about my new home for a minute? It is awesome! There are so many awesome restaurants, foreign food markets, and farmers markets! We even have a spot for a small garden! It is going to be so much easier to find unique and interesting ingredients. And it is HOT! I am not used to this kind of humid heat, but I love it. If you are anywhere except Idaho or Antarctica, you will need something cold to cool you down. This slushy drink is perfect for a pool party, bar-b-que, or for just lounging around.

This recipe requires a lot of tasting and using your own judgment to decide how much of each ingredient you want. Everyone likes a different amount of sweet and sour. I like mine pretty sweet.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

2 whole limes (whole thing, minus skin)
2 lemons (whole thing, minus skin)
1/8 C. raw honey
sugar to taste
ice
water

Directions:

1. Peel the lemon and limes. Throw them in the blender with the honey,some ice, about 1/2 C. sugar, and a little bit of water. Blend until smooth.

2. Taste. If it is still too sour, add more ice and water and blend again. Taste again. If it is still to sour, add some more honey or sugar. If it is too thin, add more ice. If it is too thick, add more water. Just keep adding ice and sugar until it tastes as sweet or sour as you want.

3. Garnish with a slice of lemon and lime.

Recipe adapted from From Sad to Raw

Graduation Hat Candies

2011-05-25T22:41:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!!! How are you today? I am doing surprisingly great today! I just packed everything I own except my laptop and my bed into a moving truck. Moving usually exhausts me emotionally and physically, but I am actually doing great! We had awesome neighbors come help us load the truck and we got everything loaded in less than and hour. Pretty painless. I do have that strange butterfly-in-the-stomach feeling that comes with starting something new or ending something. This time of year is full of changes. Three years ago around this time of year I got married.This is the time of year when I started all my jobs, moved long distances, and welcomed in the summer. Five years ago I graduated from high school and I just recently barely graduated from college. To celebrate this time of changes, I am sharing a fun recipe for candy graduation hats. My sister in-law made these for my husband’s graduation. Aren’t they cute! I wish I had a better picture to show you, but I just couldn’t resist showing off her creations.

Ingredients:

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups-Bite Sized
Ghirardelli chocolates, or some kind of square, thin chocolates
Brown M&M’s
Frosting in what ever color you want

Directions:

1. On parchment paper, place the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups top down, so the small part is facing the top.

2. Put a small dab of frosting on top of each peanut butter cup. Place a Ghirardelli chocolate square on top of the frosting so that the writing is face down.

3. Pipe a tassel from the center of the chocolate square off the side of the hat, so it looks like a tassel hanging. Place a brown M&M at the start of the tassel on top of the hat. Repeat until you have the desired amount of cute little graduation hats.

Good Luck to everyone in any new adventures you might be embarking on. The next time you hear from me, I will be in Ohio!

Toasty Chickpea Bacon Salad

2011-05-22T18:48:00.001-07:00

I am moving to Ohio next week. From Idaho. That is 1,755 miles. Needless to say, I am trying to use up the stuff in my fridge and cupboard quickly because there is no way I am hauling all the food in my fridge on a four day road trip. So I thought to my self, “Self, what could I make that would use this green bell pepper and red onion that are sitting in my crisper? And the bacon in my fridge and chickpeas in the cupboard?” I thought of the bacon and went straight to my bacon go-to blog, How Sweet It Is. My fellow bacon lover didn’t disappoint me. I always seem to find something amazing on her website. Normally I am not a fan of red onions or bell peppers, but this recipe made me crave them. I think it is the bacon and the cheese. I mean could something really be gross when it is served with bacon and cheese? Probably not.

Go make this pseudo-salad right now, and check out How Sweet It Is. Oh, and wish me luck on my big move, will ya?

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 (15 oz.) can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 or two slices of bacon, chopped
1/4 red onion, chopped
1/4 green pepper, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 C. freshly grated parmesan cheese
a bunch of freshly chopped parsley

Directions:

1. Heat a skillet or pan on medium heat and cook bacon until crispy and golden. Remove the bacon with slotted spoon and drain onto a paper towel. Leave the grease in the pan ( If you want to be healthier, then remove the grease and use olive oil or something not as tasty). Add the chopped onions and green peppers to the bacon grease and cook for about 2 minutes.

2. Pat the chickpeas dry after rinsing and toss with the paprika and pepper. Add to the pan and stir let toast for about 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute.

3. Turn off the heat and add the parmesan, parsley, and cooked bacon. Eat while warm.

Recipe adapted from How Sweet It Is.

Chocolate Graham Cracker Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow

2011-05-18T00:06:00.000-07:00

Can you buy someone’s love and approval with cup cakes? Probably not, but maybe it helps? Maybe? We are desperately trying to get someone to fill our apartment before we move and someone is finally coming to look at it tomorrow morning. We are running out of time and we really need someone to fill it. I spent all evening cleaning and scrubbing. And baking these beautiful cupcakes. I really made them because I was dying to bake something and I want to take them over to some of my friends tomorrow. But do you think a counter full of pretty toasted merengue topped chocolate cupcakes will make someone want to live here? Should I offer her a cupcake? Or would that just seem desperate? I’ve heard that the smell of fresh baked bread can help impress a house viewer subconsciously. Do cupcakes have the same effect?

You could win me over with these cupcakes. They are amazing. I have made a few different chocolate cup cakes (like these, these, and these), but the actual “cake” in these is the best I have ever made. It is easy to make and is very moist. It is my new go-to chocolate cake base recipe. The recipe is from Trophy Cupcakes and little cupcake shop in Seattle (and supposedly the best in Seattle). I would love to go there someday. You can see a video of the owner of Trophy Cupcake on Martha Stewart’s website.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

2 1/4 C. plus 2 TBSP. Sugar
1 3/4 C. all purpose flour
3/4 C plus 1 TBSP. cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
1 C. whole milk
1/2 C. vegetable oil
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 C. boiling water
1 1/2 C. graham cracker crumbs (about 20 squares)
1/3 C. butter, melted
9 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Marshmallow Frosting

8 egg whites
2 C. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two cup cake tins with paper liners. In the bowl of the electric mixer with the paddle attachment, combine 2 cups and 2 Tablespoons sugar (reserving 1/4 C.), flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda, and salt on low speed.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Start boiling the cup of boiling water. Add the wet ingredient mixer to the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until combined. Then increase to high speed and beat for about 2 minutes. Add the boiling water and mix until combined.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and butter. Place 1 Tablespoon of the graham cracker crumbs into each muffin tin. Press down so the cracker crumbs are packed. The bottom of a small cup works well for this. On top of that place 2 tsp. of the chopped chocolate. Bake for about 5 minutes so the crust holds together.

4. Fill each muffin tin about 3/4 full on top of the cracker crust. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.

5. While the muffins are baking and cooling, make the frosting. In a heat proof bowl, combine the egg whites and sugar. Place the bowl over top of a pot of simmering water. Whisk until the eggs are warm and the sugar is dissolved. This should take about 5 minutes. Beat in the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment on high for about 7 minutes until stiff, glossy peaks form. Mix in the vanilla.

6. Put the topping in a piping bag with a large star tip. Once the cupcakes are cool pipe a large spiral on top of each cup cake. Toast each frosting swirl with a culinary torch. Or, if you don’t have one like me, put the oven on broil and cook the cupcakes until the tops are lightly toasted. Watch them really closely. This only takes a couple minutes and it goes from nothing to burnt really fast. They will keep for two days in an airtight container.

Can you see the layer graham cracker on the bottom with a layer of gooey chocolate on top of that? of So delicious.

This recipe is supposed to make 24 cupcakes, but I had a lot left over. I made about 24 little mini cupcakes, too.

Recipe from Trophy Cupcake from Martha Stewart’s Website.

Homemade Kettle Corn

2011-05-16T22:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I just typed this long thing about how I am having a terrible day. Its true that I have felt gloomy all day. Mostly because I spent most of the day at the dentist. I have eight cavities. Yup, eight. Not fun.
I wailed about how the book I was in the middle of is overdue and I was dumb enough to try to renew it when five people have it on hold ( I had to hand it over). I ranted about how my move across the country is stressing me out and how I have a sore throat.
I went on and on about every little thing that was going wrong. I was mostly being dramatic, but I decided to delete it. You don’t need to hear me complain. My life isn’t really that bad. I have a home. I have a loving husband. I have food in the pantry. True, I have eight cavities, but I haven’t had to deal with tornados, floods, tsunami’s, or hurricanes. I have a job. I have a dishwasher. Life isn’t that bad. I just had to be dramatic for a little bit to bring me back to reality.
I also had a bowl of this delicious homemade kettle corn to shake me out of my gloom. It is hard to be sad when you have a bowl of this. It is easy, fast, and so so so yummy. It is addicting. Once you try it, you will crave it everyday. The sugar makes this crispy layer around each kernel. It is salty and sweet and so much better than the microwave kettle corn ( I hate that stuff!). So the next time you are having “one of those days” take one minute to take some deep breaths and two minutes to make some of this kettle corn.

To see me making this pop corn, check out the Phamdamily page on YouTube!!!

PRINTABLE RECIPE
Ingredients:

1/4 C. canola oil
1/4 C. sugar
1/2 C. pop corn kernels
salt for sprinkling

Note: I would suggest sticking with these measurements. I tried doubling it to make more at once and there was too much to shake. The sugar burned at the bottom. You can cut it in half, but just don’t double the recipe.

Directions:
1. In a stainless steel pot (make sure it has a lid that fits) heat up the oil on high. Put 2 or 3 kernels in the oil and when they start to pop, the oil is ready.
2. Quickly dump in the sugar and the pop corn kernels. You can give this a really quick stir to mix in the sugar, but if the oil and pop corn are popping and sizzling then don’t worry about it. Cover the pop with the lid.
3. Shake the pot off the heat vigorously every three seconds or so. Trade off letting the pot sit on the burner and shaking it about every three seconds. This keeps the sugar from burning. Do this until the popcorn stops popping.
4. Immediately pour into a large bowl and toss with desired amount of salt.
Serving suggestion: This pop corn is delicious made with white sugar. To mix it up, try using brown sugar instead of white sugar for a more caramel corn flavor. I am drooling.
Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

Pop Rock Cookies

2011-05-05T21:59:00.001-07:00

Do you remember those candies that come in little envelopes that explode once they hit the moisture in your mouth? I used to love those when I was a young, and frankly, I still do! I went to an ice cream shop and they had pop rocks ice cream. I couldn’t resist it! I ordered it, but was disappointed with that the pop rocks didn’t crackle. The moisture had taken all the “pop” out of them. But I loved the idea and decided that I wanted to make my own creation out of pop rocks. So I experimented with the candy by putting them in sugar cookie dough, and they kind of dissolved. So I decided that the best thing was to just put a heaping load of pop rocks on top of each frosted cookie. This worked great! I just used a drop sugar cookie recipe from King Arthur Flour and a basic cream cheese frosting recipe.

I had to many cookies for my little family of 2, so I took some over to my Uncle “Olinselot’s” house to share the goodness. He has a couple of really cool Youtube channels and he posted his kids eating the “Exploding Cookies” and experiencing pop rocks for the first time. Go check out my cookies on his Youtube channel Phamdamily. The movie is called “Exploding Cookies.” Watch it, Like it, or Subscribe.

If you are new to my blog, feel free to look around, try the recipes, comment, subscribe by email, or become a follower. I hope you enjoy!

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

1/2 C. shortening (I just used softened butter. It’s healthier.)
2/3 C. sugar
1/4 C. buttermilk or sour milk
1 TBSP. vanilla
1/8 to 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, to taste
2 C. Unbleached flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 stick butter (1/4 C.)
1 tsp. vanilla
2-3 C. powdered sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
3 or 4 packets pop rocks (you might want to get a couple extra packets for snitching)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Cream together the butter and the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the buttermilk and vanilla and combine until combined.

2. Add the dry ingredients and combined until mixed. Note: it doesn’t really work to put the pop rocks straight into the dough because they just melt and lose their “pop”.

3. Drop the dough in round blobs onto a cookie sheet that is lined with parchment paper, silpat, or has been lightly greased. Make sure the dough isn’t cold before you cook them or they wont spread out as much. The ones in the picture above came straight out of my fridge and into the oven and they didn’t spread as well. Bake for about 16-18 minutes or until they just start or turn golden brown. Do not over cook if you want soft, chewy, yummy cookies.

4. While the cookies are baking, cream together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until combined. With the mixer on low, add in the powdered sugar about a half a cup at a time. Once it is combined a little bit you can increase the speed to high. Beat until the powdered sugar is mixed in well. Try to resist licking sticking your finger in to snitch some frosting. It will be hard. Trust me. It’s ok if you give in. We are human. : )

5. Let the cookies cool and frost them with the cream cheese frosting. Sprinkle the cookies with loads of pop rocks. Eat as soon as you put the pop rocks on.

Note: I looked around the web after I got the idea and I found a few other versions of pop rock’s cookies. Cake Spy had a very similar idea, but she sandwiched them and used blue and red pop rocks to make Fourth of July cookies. I thought that was such a cute idea! Exploding cookies on Independence Day!

Cookie recipe from King Arthur Flour. I’m not sure where my frosting recipe is from. It is just my go-to cream cheese frosting recipe.

If you liked these, you might also like:

Quinoa Pilaf with Lemon and Thyme

2011-05-03T11:46:00.001-07:00

For a long time I have heard of Quinoa, pronounced “KEEN-wah”, and have wondered about it is and tastes like. Well, when I found a recipe for it and found it in the bulk section at Winco, I decided to do some research. Quinoa was first found in the Andes Mountains in South America. It is the seed of a goosefoot plant. It is what is called a “supergrain”, which means that it is a complete protein. It has all of the amino acids, unlike many other grains. It is easy to make, tastes kind of nutty and chewy. It is also gluten-fee and easy on the digestive system.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 onion, minced
1 tsp. olive oil
salt and pepper
1 1/2 C. quinoa, rinsed and dried
1 1/4 C. low-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. minced fresh thyme, or 1/4 tsp. dried
2 TBSP. minced fresh parsley

Directions:

1. First, rinse the quinoa. Put it in a mesh trainer and run it under water until the water runs clear. Drain and lay grains out on a baking sheet that is lined with a clean kitchen towel. Let it dry for about 15 minutes.

2. Combine the onion, oil, and 1/4 tsp. salt in a large saucepan. Cover and cook over medium low heat, stirring occasionally so the onions don’t burn. Cook for about 8 to 10 minutes until the onion is soft.

3. Stir in the quinoa and increase the heat to medium. Stir often until the quinoa is slightly toasted and smells yummy and nutty. About 5 minutes. Stir in broth, lemon zest, and thyme. Bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and and simmer for about 16 to 18 minutes. The quinoa should become slightly transparent.

4. Remove from heat and lay a clean kitchen towel under the lid. Let it sit for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and add parsley and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Recipe from The America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook

Strawberry Banana Bread

2011-04-27T15:11:00.001-07:00

What do you do when you have bananas that are going bad and strawberries that are going bad? Make Strawberry Banana Bread! Strawberry and Banana is one of those classic flavor combos, but I have never seen strawberry banana bread before now (but after doing a food-blog search I found hundreds of recipes for it). I decided to start with my mom’s amazing banana bread recipe and just add some pureed strawberries. It turned out delicious! You can really taste both of the flavors and they compliment each other nicely. This bread makes one large loaf ( or if you do what I did it makes 1 small loaf, 1 medium loaf, and about 12 mini muffins). Needless to say, this bread didn’t last very long.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

1/2 C. butter, softened
1 C. sugar
2 eggs
1 C. mashed, ripe banana (about 2 bananas)
1 C. mashed or pureed strawberries
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 C. milk
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 C. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
some sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat.

2. Mush up bananas in a large measuring cup with a fork. Blend strawberries in a food processor or blender. Add both fruits to the butter mixture.

3. Add lemon juice, vanilla, and milk. Mix well.

4. Sift dry ingredients and add to the mixture. Mix until combines. Pour batter into greased bread tins. (Don’t fill the bread tins too full.)

5. Bake at 350 F. for about half and hour. If you are coking smaller loaves, they will need less time. Make sure you frequently check them if using different sized loaf pans. Half way through, sprinkle sugar over the tops. Do not over cook!

Banana Bread base made from Lionhouse Recipes.

More Banana Bread recipes:

Crispy Baked Fish with Tropical Salsa

2011-04-25T21:53:00.000-07:00

Lately I have just been craving healthy fresh foods. Tropical fruit and fish met my requirements. Spring is finally settling in! This salsa was really yummy and fresh, but about a week after I made this I had dinner at my sister in-law’s and she had made a mango salsa that I thought was just as good and a lot more simple. I will include recipes for both salsas. (P.S. My husband is currently trying to rebuild our desktop. Keep your fingers crossed that it works so that we can have two computers again. Two computers= more recipe posts! )

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

Fish:

3 TBSP butter
2/3 C. Heart Healthy Bisquick
1/4 C. yellow cornmeal
1 tsp. chili powder
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 pound orange roughy fillets or other white fish fillets
1 egg, beaten
Tropical Fruit Salsa

Tropical Salsa:

1 C. pineapple chunks (fresh is best, but canned works too)
1 TBSP. finely chipped red onion
1 TBSP. chopped fresh cilantro
2 TBSP. lime juice
2 kiwi fruit, peeled and chopped
1 mango, chopped (click here for help cutting the mango)
1 papaya, peeled, seeded and chopped ( I don’t really love papaya so I didn’t put as much in. Put however much you want according to your preferences)
1 jalapeno chile, seeded and finely chopped

Simple Mango Salsa:

1 C. chopped, fresh mango
1 C. chopped, fresh pineapple
1 TBSP. chopped cilantro

Directions:

1. Make the salsa. Mix together the ingredients for which ever salsa you wish to use in a bowl. Cover and let sit in the fridge for about an hour to blend flavors.

2. Heat the oven to 425 F. Melt the butter in a 9 x 13 pan in the oven.

3. Mix the Bisquick, cornmeal, chili powder, and salt. Beat the egg in a bowl or shallow dish. Dip the fish into the egg and then coat with the Bisquick mixture. You can do this in dishes, but I put the egg into one large gallon baggie and swished the fish around in it until coated. Then I moved the fish to another large baggie with the Bisquick mixture and tossed around until coated.

4. Place in the pan with the melted butter. Bake uncovered for 10 minutes. Turn the fish. and bake for about 15 minutes more or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

5. Serve with the salsa. This is also good with rice that has been cooked in coconut milk instead of water.

Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker Sunday Dinner

Buckeyes

2011-04-22T11:30:00.001-07:00

In June I am moving to Ohio because my husband is going to start medical school at Ohio State University. To celebrate I made these tasty little confections. They are called buckeye’s because they look so much like the nut from the Ohio Buckeye Tree. They are deep brown with a little circle of light brown peeking through.

And not only is this nut from the Ohio state tree, it is also the mascot of Ohio State! The Ohio State Buckeyes. (My husband and I have had some really weird mascots in our time: First “Diggers” and now “Buckeyes”. A potato/beet digger and a nut? ) The guy in the costume at games is Brutus Buckeye and he is actually a man with a Buckeye nut for a head.

The actual nut, also called a horse chestnut, is not actually edible, but known as a good luck charm. These tasty little candies are however, very edible. Many people in the far east and western states (and I daresay, other countries) have never heard of them, but they are quite well known in Ohio. The only reason I know about them is because I have a friend from college who was from Columbus, Ohio, and she made them and let us try them. I recently got a book called Baked Explorations that is full of regional treats and desserts and it contains a lovely recipe for Buckeye’s.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

1/4 C. cream cheese
1 1/ C. peanut butter
1 C. graham cracker crumbs
3 C. powdered sugar
10 TBSP (1 1/4 sticks) butter, melted and cooled
12 oz. good quality dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions:

1. In a bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and peanut butter until combined. Add the graham cracker crumbs and beat on medium speed for about 10 seconds. Add the powdered sugar and butter on low speed for a little bit so that the powdered sugar doesn’t spray every where. Slowly increase the speed until it is combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom and mix again. Don’t worry, it will feel kind of dry and a bit crumbly.

2. Set the peanut butter aside and start to melt the chocolate. Ok. Let me tell you a little something about melting the chocolate. I decided to skip the step of melting the chocolate over the double boiler and just microwave it. I had poor quality milk chocolate chips and rater than melting, it melted a little and then started clumping together. The more I cooked it the harder it got. So I decided to go get some good dark chocolate and melt it in a bowl, over a pot of boiling water. This worked great because it melts it slower (using a microwave can also burn the chocolate if you aren’t careful to stir it every 30 seconds or so). The double boiler also keeps the chocolate melted. In making buckeyes’ the most important thing is getting the chocolate melted nicely in a wide enough bowl so you have room to work. The recipe says to pour it into a small, deep bowl, but I found that very difficult to work with and I had better luck with a more shallow wide bowl. It is really your choice.

3. Shape the peanut butter centers. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Scoop out slightly more than a Tablespoon’s worth of filling and use your hands to form it into a ball. A small ice cream scoop can help to get uniform balls. Place the balls onto the prepared cookie sheet.

4. One by one dip each ball into the chocolate. You could stick them with a fork or skewer to dip them and cover the holes after dipping. I found it easier to just use two forks to set the peanut butter balls into the chocolate and lift them out from the bottom. That is why is was easier for me to just use a more shallow wide bowl. Swish the ball around in the chocolate so most of it is covered, but still leave a circle open at the top. Set them back on the parchment paper and let the chocolate harden. To speed this up, refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Note: These babies will keep for about 3 or 4 days in the fridge. This recipe is great for parties because it makes a lot and they can be passed around and eaten with your fingers. And you can make them ahead of time so there is less stress in party-prep.

Recipe from Baked Exploration: Classic American Desserts Reinvented

Pictures from Ohio-Nature.com and thesportsbank.net