Christmas goodies!

Here are the recipes from some of the cookies from my cookie swap the other night, as well as one of my new favorite goodies to make and hand out..homeade moose munch! Thanks to my friend Amy for firstly giving it to me and secondly, for sharing her recipe!

Homemade Moose Munch

2 boxes Toffee Crunch 'n' Munch
1.5 c. mini marshmallows (you can't tell in this picture, but I used snowman shaped marshmallows
2 c. pretzels (I used holiday shaped pretzels, but if you don't have those, use mini twists)
1 c. peanuts
1 c. holiday-colored M&M's
3 squares Almond Bark white melt
2 squares Almond Bark chocolate melt


Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Melt white squares in microwave. Mix in with dry ingredients. Spread on a cookie sheet. Melt chocolate squares and drizzle over top. Let chocolate harden (15-20 mins). Enjoy!


Maraschino-Cherry Cookies1 1/3 c. flour
1/2 tsp. soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 c. butter, melted
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 egg whites
1 tsp. almond
3/4 c. maraschino cherries, chopped (1 jar, 10 oz.)
2 c. granola (without raisins)

Mix and cook at 375 for 8-10 minutes.
Watch carefully - do not let them brown too much - will finish baking on cooling rack - you want them to be soft. (These were SO YUM! And I don't even like maraschino cherries!)

Cranberry-Orange Cookies
Ingredients
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• ¼ teaspoon almond extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups chopped cranberries
• 1/2 cup chopped cashews (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg until well blended. Mix in 2 teaspoons orange zest and 2 tablespoons orange juice. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the orange mixture. Mix in cranberries and if using, cashews, until evenly distributed. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Cookies should be spaced at least 2 inches apart.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges are golden. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.

Flourless Peanut Butter Granola Balls

1/3 c honey
1/4 natural peanut butter
2 T unsalted butter
1 c rice crispies
1 c old fashioned rolled oats (not quick cooking oats)
1/3 c dried craisins, cherries, or raisins (there were craisins in this and they were sooo good!)

1. Heat honey, peanut butter, and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until warmed through and smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in cereal, oats, and dried fruit.
2. Drop mixture by the tablespoon into mini paper cupcake or candy liners. Placce on a rimmed baking sheet and chill until set, about 15 minutes. Balls can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 1 week.

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

Ingredients
48 HERSHEY'S KISSES Brand Milk Chocolates
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup REESE'S Creamy Peanut Butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Granulated sugar (I used colored sugar, red and green)

Directions

1 Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolates.
2 Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
3 Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4 Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 4 dozen cookies.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

1/2 c butter
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1/2 t salt
4 ripe bananas
2 c flour
1 t baking soda
1 c mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, and bananas. In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients and add to first bowl. Grease pans well and fill 2/3 pull. Bkae for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Makes two loaves.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I bake literally dozens of these during the fall season. (These are pre-oven, but they look pretty much the same when they come out!) My last double batch went to teachers, the ladies I visit teach, David, the kids and me! I've had a couple requests for the recipe, so figured I'd post it here since it needed to wind up here anyway. My sister-in-law loves them, and I have promised her a batch at Thanksgiving!

Yummy! So glad for fall and the food that comes with it!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, from Everyday Food Magazine

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t pumpkin pie spice
1/4 t salt
1/2 c (1 stick)butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 can (15 oz) pure pumpkin puree
1 cup (or more if you're me) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice, and salt; set aside.

Beat together butter and sugar until light and flufy. Add egg; beat until smooth. With mixer on low speed, alterately add flour m ixture in two parts and pumpkin puree in one, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined (do not overmix). Stir in chocolate chips. (The mini chocolate chips are good too!)

Drop dough by heaping tablespoons onto two baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until puffed and edges are golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Immediately transfer to wire racks and cool completely.

**I can rarely find pumpkin pie spice, so I make my own. For 1 teaspoon, you mix 1/2 t cinnamon, 1/4 t ginger, 1/8 t allspice, 1/8 t nutmeg. If you're just making 1 batch of these cookies, you would need to half these measurements since the above makes 1 t of pumpkin pie spice and the recipe calls for 1/2 t, but I always double this recipe, so I use the amounts as written for 1 t of pumpkin pie spice.

A twist on Chicken Salad

I have been absent from my cooking blog lately. Almost immediately following my last post, Ethan started kindergarten, then my sweet granny passed away. I spent a week in Alabama for that. Then Sara Katherine started preschool. Then I have to dial 911 on my wife-beating next door neighbor (and consequently, have to be a witness for the prosection in his preliminary hearing tomorrow). Then we spend two days dealing with the Ethan-rock-up-his-nose fiasco. Ethan starting kindergarten has absolutely rocked my world. For some silly reason, I thought I'd have more time once kids were in school. Wrong. I haven't quite gotten my groove down yet, but I feel like I'm close. Ethan is in Tae Kwan Do, Sara Katherine is in ballet, and in a matter of weeks, I feel like I'm living a whole new life. Needless to say, this hasn't given way to many opportunities for experimenting or baking. I have done enough to feed my family, but little that is blog-worthy. I did make some yummy bruschetta using tomatoes from our garden, but failed to take a picture, and a food blog is no fun without pictures. If someone is just dying to have that recipe, then just leave me a comment. Anyhow, with fall coming, the cooking blog will be nicely resurrected. Now until December is my favorite time of year for just about everything; baking and cooking included. I already have a list of things I want to make and blog about. And now that my synthroid has kicked in, I actually have a lot of energy again. So I'm excited.

Anyway, back to the point. I'm fortunate to have some really fun friends here in Clovis. On Tuesday, the (very brave) bishop's wife opened the doors to her home for a drop-in crafting day. Everyone could bring their current crafting projects (mine included hairbows and a do-it-yourself Scentsy warmer) and bring a treat to share and craft and visit and eat. It was seriously so much fun. All the kids who weren't in school played with each other and relatively stayed out of the way of the glue guns. Debbie set up big tables all over the kitchen and living room and covered them with protective vinyl covering, and we ate and crafted to our hearts content. Some people didn't even come with crafting projects, but just to visit and eat.

And boy, did we eat.

Debbie made this to-die-for chicken salad. I am a big chicken salad fan anyway, so I was thrilled to get a different way to prepare it and eat it. It was so good that I made it tonight for my family. If you love chicken salad, get ready. You're going to want to eat this all.day.long. Yum!

Debbie's Chicken Salad

(As a warning, this is one of the "approximated" recipes)

For the salad:

Torn romaine lettuce (I actually had a coupon for a free big bag of lettuce, so I used the larger size bagged romaine. Otherwise, I would have chopped my own because I think it tastes better and it's cheaper, and I would probably use an entire head of romaine).
Shredded swiss cheese, about one cup
Chopped Tomatoes (I used three)
Chopped Red Onion (I used 1/2)
Chopped Pecans (I used about 1 cup, measured before they were chopped)
Chopped cooked chicken (I used about 3 cups)

For the dressing:

1 cup mayo
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Fresh cracked black pepper to your taste
about 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, added 1 T at a time until you get the consistency and tang you like.

Toss salad ingredients in the dressing until fully coated. This is one of those salads where you really do need to toss the whole thing. It won't be as good if you just pour the dressing on top.

We ate this on crossaints (but you could also use pitas or tortillas) and even my children gobbled it up. A perfect paper plate kind of meal. Dang. Just typing this post makes me want to go eat some, now, at 11pm.

Also, Debbie gave me a good tip. She said if you happen to have leftovers for this, the lettuce will get a little wilty-like from being coated in the dressing. She said before you eat it the next day, just toss it again with some fresh romaine, and you won't even be able to taste the wilty stuff. Awesome. We had just enough left for David and me to have lunch tomorrow. I.can't.wait.

Zucchini Bread

This is the week of zucchini posts! I made zucchini bread yesterday (along with a million other things! A cake for a baby shower, mini cupcakes and bacon cheese mini appetizers for the same baby shower, and a chicken vegetable crockpot meal for my family's dinner. Long day in the kitchen!).

Anyway, I love zucchini bread, banana bread, and any of those other breads that should really be called cake. Sara Katherine keeps asking me for a piece of cake while pointing to the zucchini bread. I'm not sure why we even call them breads.

I love to put chocolate chips in my zucchini bread (about 1 cup's worth), and the only reason I didn't yesterday is I just forgot. Too much going on.

I got this recipe out of a Taste of Home magazine and really like it.

3 eggs
2 c sugar
1 c vegetable oil
2 t vanilla
1 t grated lemon peel
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
2 c shredded zucchini (about 2 medium ones)
1/2 c chopped nuts, optional

In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs and sugar. Beat in oil, vanilla and lemon peel. Combine the dry ingredients; gradually add to sugar mixture and mix well. Stir in zucchini and nuts. Pour into TWO greased 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pans.

Bake at 325 degrees for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the middle comes out clean. Cool for ten minutes before removing from pans to a wire rack.

I love that it makes two loaves. One to eat; one to share. :)

Stuffed Grilled Zucchini

Tonight I had this great dinner planned out. A great dinner that included my husband at the grill. He's good with the grill. We just have a cheap charcoal grill that I wouldn't feel comfortable operating unless my family was starving and that's the only way we could eat, but he's good at it. I wanted to grill Jamaican Jerk pork chops, have a nice green salad, and then my friend Kelly sent me the link to a recipe for Stuffed Grilled Zucchini. We're eating something from our garden (or our neighbor's garden) every night, and I'm getting kind of tired of fried and baked, fried and baked. So she graciously sent me several recipes that use summer produce in different ways.

Only it got to be 6pm and my husband still wasn't home from work. Hmmm. Where could he be? They're in the middle of a base-wide readiness exercise in which he's working even crazier hours than he was previously. And he's previously been working 12-14 hour days with no lunch breaks, but this time they can do crazy things like call him in out of a dead sleep at 12:30 am . They have to make sure if there is some horrible disaster somewhere that they can process their troops here and get them out within 48 hours. It's a worthy exercise, it's just unfortunate that it's falling now at this time when David's office is five attorneys short and the two that are there are being worked, literally, to death. I assure you I complain about much more than he does, and I try to keep mine to a minimum. It just gets lonely not having him around. A taste of what is to come, I suppose, when he deploys.

So I call him at 6pm. He's with a client. At 6pm. They rotate doing night legal assistance for people who work the night shift once a month, and it's his turn to do it. He'd been so busy today that he hasn't eaten or even had time to call and tell me he won't be home until probably after the kids are in bed. And you know that's late.

So, hungry, sad, and tired of whining, hungry kids under me (and rightfully so, I guess. It was 6pm and I hadn't let them have snacks since about 4), I took matters into my own hands.

If you haven't invested in a grill pan for your stovetop like this one, then you should. I use mine a lot, and even more so during the winter when it's too cold to grill outside. This one, of course, is a Pampered Chef grill pan, but I'm sure there are other good ones out there. I just love the way the nonstick Pampered Chef pots and pans clean up. It's a snap.

So I grilled our porkchops on the grill pan inside (and even managed to get the criss-cross-apple-sauce grill marks!), made a salad, and then made the stuffed "grilled" zucchini. Only I had to adapt it a bit.

We all cleaned our plates, and possibly because we didn't eat until 6:45 and we were all starving, but it was good.

Stuffed Grilled Zucchini

4 medium zucchini
5 t olive oil, divided
1/2 c finely chopped onion. (I used red onion because I needed to use it up, but the recipe said vidalia was really good in this recipe.)
1 t minced garlic
1/2 c dry bread crumbs
1/4 c + 3 T shredded parmesan cheese
2 T minced fresh basil (I just sprinkled some dried basil over the top because despite my fresh herbs being literally right in front of me multiple times during the day while standing at the sink, I forgot to water them and they died. Sad.)
1/2 t salt

Cut zucchini in half lengthwise; scoop out pulp, leaving a 1/4" thick shell. Brush with 2t of oil; set aside. Chop pulp. In a large skillet, saute pulp and onion in remaining oil. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Add bread crumbs; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from the heat. Stir in 1/4 c parmesan cheese, basil, and salt. Spoon into zucchini shells.
Sprinkle with 3 T parmeasan cheese. Grill, covered with foil, over medium heat for 8-10 minutes or until zucchini is tender.*

*So because I didn't have the grill fired up, I did things a bit differently. I assembled them according to the recipe, but them put them on a baking sheet and roasted them for about 20 minutes in a 425 degree oven. Then I took them out and added them to the hot grill pan after I took the pork chops out and put my grill press over the top and grilled them for about 10 minutes.

Heaps of Chocolate Goodness

I don't know what the real name of these are. I don't know where I got the recipe, but it was scribbled on a used envelope. I made these for a Scentsy party I had this past weekend, and I got two emails today from two different people asking for the recipe. So here ya go. :)

3 cups chocolate chips (I always use semi-sweet chocolate chips)
3 cups butterscotch chips
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 c peanuts (I like to use the salted ones because I like the salty/sweet combination)
2 1/2 cup chow mein noodles (found in the Asian foods section in a blue bag)

Place chocolate and butterscotch chips in a medium saucepan over low heat until melted. (I melted mine in my large Pampered Chef micro-cooker. 1 minute for the initial melting, and then in 30 second intervals until it was nice and smooth).

After mixture is melted, take it off the stove (if you melted in a saucepan) and stir in the peanut butter and vanilla.

Gently stir in peanuts and chow mein noodles. (Next time I make these I will break up the chow mein noodles a little so they're in smaller pieces).

Scoop heaps onto waxed paper laid on a cookie sheet. Put in the refrigerator or freezer to set-up until solid. I used my medium Pampered Chef cookie scoop for these because I was in a hurry, so they were a bit big. I plan on adding these to my Christmas treat trays and I will use my small scoop to make them tinier so that the recipe makes more. Using the medium scoop, I still made about 36, so if you use the small scoop you could probably almost double the amount.

Yellow Squash Casserole

Our garden is overflowing with squash right now. We pretty much eat it in some form, everyday. I feel like Bubba from Forrest Gump with the shrimp. Seriously. It's probably my favorite summer vegetable, though, so I don't really mind.

I made this squash casserole tonight to go with our pork roast, green beans, and mashed potatoes. It was SUPER good.

Yellow Squash Casserole

1 3/4 pounds yellow squash
1/4 pound zucchini, or additional squash if you don't have/like zucchini
1/2 cup coarse-chopped carrots
1/2 cup butter
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 1/4 cup Ritz cracker crumbs
1/2 cup grated medium cheddar cheese
a few shakes of Tabasco sauce (this really added nice flavor)
salt and pepper to taste
2 eggs, lightly beaten (note: I subsituted two heaping spoonfuls of mayo for the eggs just because I think it tastes better)

Preheat the oven to 350 and butter a medium baking dish.

Slice the squash and zucchini lengthwise into quarters, then cut 1/2 inch thick wedges. Place the squash, zucchini, and carrots in a saucepan and barely cover with water and salt well. Bring to a boil; reduce the heat to medium and cover. Cook about twenty minutes, until the veggies are soft.

Meanwhile, warm three tablespoons of the butter in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Stir in the onion and cook until translucet, 6 to 8 minutes. Add garlic and cook an additional minute. Scrape the mixture into a mixing bowl. Wipe out the skillet, return to medium low heat, and add it to the remaining tablespoon of butter Stir in 1/2 cup of the cracker crumbs and cook until the crumbs are golden (yeaaah, I didn't do that. Too much trouble.) Scrape them out into a smaller plate and reserve them.

Drain the squash mixture, mashing the vegetables a bit (the Pampered Chef mix and masher or mix and chop works great for this task). Spoon it into the mixing bowl. Stir in the remaining 3/4 cup of cracker crumbs, cheese and a good splash or two of the pepper sauce. Salt and pepper generously to taste. Stir in the eggs (or mayo) and spoon into prepared baking dish. Scatter the toasted (or not toasted!) cracker crumbs over the top (I also covered with a bit more cheese). Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes.

So good!

Best Ever Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake

I made this cake while my in-laws were here last week. My mother-in-law raved about, and even though it's stupid-easy (remember what I said about loving a box cake mix?), I'm going to post the recipe so she can have the recipe whenever she wants it. I got it out of a Kraft Food and Family magazine back in 2006, but have never made it before last week. We were craving chocolate, and I wanted something I could make fast!

1 pkg (2-layer size) chocolate cake mix
1 pkg (4 serving size) instant chocolate pudding mix
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1 pkg (8 squares) Semi-sweet baking chocolate, divided (I didn't have squares, so I used chocolate chips. 1 square = 1 oz, so it 's about 3/4 of a bag of chocolate chips)
1 tub (8oz) cool whip, thawed

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 2 9" round cake pans. Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil, and water in large bowl with an electric mixture on low speed until just moistened. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes or until well blended. Stir in 2 oz of the chocolate (chopped if you used the squares, or 2 oz of chocolate chips). Spoon into prepared pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted near centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on wire rack. Loosen cakes from side of pans with spatula or knife. Invert cakes onto rack; gently remove pans. Cool completely.

Place remaining 6 oz chocolate and whipped topoping in medium microwavable bowl. Microwave on high 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Stir until well blended and shiny. Cool five minutes. Place 1 cake layer on serving plate; spread 1/4 of the chocolate mix over cake. Place the second layer on top; spread remaining choclate mixture over top and sides of cake.

*I really liked the frosting on this cake. Very tasty and easy!

Amanda's Caesar Artichoke Pasta Salad

So I know this may not look like much, (and I probably could have garnished it with some fresh herbs or whatever), but who cares! IT IS GOOD!

We go to church with one of the other JAGs in David's office. His wife made this pasta salad for an office picnic last month and I have been dreaming about it ever since. I got the recipe and made it to take the 4th of July BBQ yesterday at David's coworker's house. It's awesome and easy!

Here's the recipe

-1 lb macaroni noodles, cooked and cooled (I had three open boxes of macaroni, rotini, and small shells, so I dumped all those together to make 1 lb)
- 2 cans of artichokes
- 1 bunch of green onions, chopped
- 1 bottle of Ceasar dressing
- 1 heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise
- 2 heaping tablespoons of sour cream
- a few shakes of lemon pepper
- garlic (fresh or powder) either a few cloves pressed or a few shakes of the powder
- about a cup of Parmesan/Romano cheese, grated works best

Cook your pasta according to package directions. Chop the artichokes (again, I used my Pampered Chef food chopper. I use it almost daily. Love that thing.) I had marinated artichokes on hand, so I used those, but I think Amanda used plain artichokes in hers. Both were good. Thinly slice the green onions. Combine the artichokes, onions, the entire bottle of Caesar dressing (my favorite brand is actually the Great Value brand), the mayo, sour cream, lemon pepper, garlic, and parmesan cheese and stir well. Add the cooled pasta and stir to combine. And p.s., it's even better the next day.

Note: I will not add the lemon pepper next time. I'm not a big lemon pepper fan to begin with, so I will omit it next time. But even with the lemon pepper in it, it was still dang good.

Mom's (and Wilton's) Buttercream Frosting

This is my favorite cake frosting, hands-down. The only thing my mom (and now I) do different that the original Wilton recipe does not call for is to add a pinch of salt. Somehow it helps balance out the sweetness.

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter (use real butter, even though it's more expensive)
1 t vanilla (and if you're making white frosting, you can get clear vanilla at Michael's or Hobby Lobby so your frosting will stay ultra white, and also sub more shortening for butter and add butter flavoring - see directions below).
4 cups powdered sugar
2 T milk (or maybe a little more until you reach a good consistency, just add one tablespoon at a time)
a pinch of salt

(Medium Consistency)
In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add 2 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.

For Pure White Icing (stiff consistency), omit butter; substitute an additional 1/2 cup shortening for butter and add 1/2 teaspoon No-Color Butter Flavor. Add up to 4 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk to thin for icing cakes.

Chicken Italiano Appetizers

I made these for a bridal shower I helped with. I actually pulled the recipe out of a Wilton Cake Decorating book. They were great! It'd be good as a filling for a crescent roll braid or wreath, Pampered Chef style, too!

18 wonton wrappers (I found these in the produce section)
1/2 cup finely chopped red pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped green onion
2 t olive oil
2 c cooked chicken, finely chopped (roughly two boneless skinless breasts) (I used my Pampered Chef food chopper for this!)
1/3 c mayo
2 T parmesan cheese, I used grated
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t basil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray standard muffin cavitites with vegetable pan spray. Press wonton wrappers into cavities.

In small skillet, cook red pepper and green onion in oil until soft, about five minutes. Meanwhile, combine chicken, mayo, cheese and seasonings. Stir in cooked red pepper and green onions. Spoon 3 tablespoons filling into wonton cup (my medium Pampered Chef cookie scoop put the perfect amount in all 18 cups).
Bake 7-8 minutes. Serve hot.

Makes 18 appetizers.

Mom's Homemade Onion Rings

Another personal favorite.

1 large vidalia onion, sliced about 1/4" thick (and it's important that it's a vidalia)
1 c flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 c milk (I used buttermilk yesterday b/c I had some I needed to use up)
1/2 c vegetable oil for batter, plus extra for the pan

Slice onions and separate into rings. Pat rings dry in between two dish towels. Coat well with flour. Dredge the rings into the batter. Let excess drip off (use tongs if you don't want to get your hands all gooey). Fry a few at the time (don't crowd the pan) in a cast iron skillet in about 1" of oil until golden brown. I put my cooked rings on my Pampered Chef cooling rack over a cookie sheet (so the excess oil can drip down and away from the rings so they don't get soggy), and then put the rack in a 250 degree oven to keep them warm and crisp why you finish frying the others.

I *love* these, especially with steak and potatoes.

Mom's Steak Marinade

This is one of my favorite marinades for steak. Mom has been using it for as long as I can remember.

1/2 c soy sauce
1/2 c water
2 T lemon juice
1 T brown sugar
2 T Italian Dressing
1 1/4 t pepper sauce
1 crushed clove of garlic
1/4 t pepper (I always add a little more pepper)

This makes 1 1/4 c of marinade...enough for about four good-size steaks. Flip half-way through marinating.

Beaba babycook - easy homemade babyfood.

Okay, y'all. I'm about to introduce you to one of THE COOLEST baby-related inventions ever. I spied this thing while perusing the Williams Sonoma website well before I became pregnant with Elyse. I decided then that I had to have this little contraption after I had our next baby. Then I saw the price and decided that maybe I didn't. Then I watched the little video again on the Williams Sonoma website about it and decided I did. I was able to buy one used on Ebay that I think was hardly used (or else they just hold up really, really well) along with the Williams Sonoma homemade baby food cookbook (and y'all know how I feel about a cookbook!) for significantly less than what I would have paid for them new. It was a splurge. I used a giftcard I found that my sister-in-law gave me at Christmas to buy curtains for my house. It got shoved into a deep, dark place in my wallet until I discovered it recently, about the time I was getting ready to buy this wonderful little babyfood maker. It was an omen, I just know it.

So what is so great about this? Why do I think everyone who wants to make homemade babyfood for their babies should have one? Why, I'm glad you asked. Here's my list of reasons:

1. It is small. And compact. And takes up very little counterspace. And everthing is done in one tiny pot. Which means I'm not having to pull out my pressure cooker or my big stockpot, my blender, my steamer inserts for said big pot and pressure cooker, and then wash all that stuff and put it away. I can steam, puree, and reheat, all in one tiny little pot, and only that tiny little pot and steamer basket has to be cleaned. The size of the pot is decieving though. One pot produces one ice cube tray full of food.

2. Somehow (and I think it is magic), you put your food in the steamer basket, pour the appropriate amount of water into the steamer chamber, then you turn the little knob to the left to let it know to start steaming. A light comes on the knob. When your food, whatever is in the basket, is perfectly steamed, the light goes off. How that light knows when to go off, I do not know, but it knows. So you don't have to guess if it's perfectly steamed or not, or stick a fork in it, or whatever. It just is, every time.

3. I love that you can defrost the frozen food in the pot, and not have to nuke it in the microwave.

4. I love that by making homemade baby food that the little machine will pay for itself very quickly (especially if you make organic baby food instead of buying jarred organic babyfood, and especially if you get it used on Ebay).

So far I have made carrots, sweet peas, butternut squash and sweet potatoes and put them into ice cube trays. Then I put them into freezer bags. .
They'll keep in the freezer for up to three months. I have enough food to last for dozens and dozens of meals for Elyse, and it cost me a little (and I do mean a little) time and less than $5. Some of the vegetables I bought frozen in bags (the peas and carrots) and that REALLY cuts down on the time invovled, and then other vegetables, I bought and peeled and cubed. Still worth it, even if you do it that way. I still have some more butternut squash to finish, and I also bought apples and pears to do as well. And this will grow with your baby. It comes with recipe ideas for combining meats and vegetables as the child grows.

Ethan was a jarred baby food kid. I was working for David's uncle when he started eating baby food, and didn't really have the time or want to take the time with trying to do homemade. Sara Katherine quite literally skipped the rice cereal/baby food stage altogether, and was eating mashed up table food by seven months. She wanted nothing to do with rice cereal or baby food. I hated that. She ate some things probably before her palate was ready for them, and of my two kids that eat food, she's the one that gravitates towards sweets the most. I try to blame myself that it's because she was eating that stuff long before she should have been. So Elyse will have the best of my three.

Also a great tip I got from a girl I go to church with: When she's on the go, she uses 1/4 pint canning jelly jars and bought the white plastic screw on lids. Perfect size for 2-3 cubes of babyfood, and it's glass, not plastic if you need to heat in the microwave. Not to mention it's economical storage. I paid less than $10 for this stuff and it is probably all I'll need.

I highly recommend this little machine. I really do have so much fun making her food, and feel good that I'll be giving her wholesome food without preservatives for her first taste of real food.

How to dress-up a boxed cake mix.

I love a cake mix. I make homemade red velvet cake batter, homemade pound cake batter, and maybe another kind of homemade batter if I'm following a certain recipe, but I love the convenience and even the taste of boxed cake mixes. Every year my mom makes me a funfetti cake with rainbow chip icing, and I love it. (And mom loves the easiness of it!)

One of the various cooking blogs I frequent had this great idea of how to doctor up a boxed cake mix to give it more of a "homemade" taste. It thickens up the batter. She lifted it off someone else's blog, who had lifted it off someone else's, so I really don't know who to give the credit too. But here it is anyway:

1 box cake mix
3 large eggs
1/2 c melted butter (1 stick)
1 c water

Mix ingredients on low for 1 minute, then on high for one minute. Bake according to package directions.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Throw out all your other pound cake recipes; you will never need another one. My friend, Rachel Grice, made this for me when I visited her once. It is in NO WAY good for you, but really, what pound cakes are? I didn't get a picture of this, mainly because it was GONE by the time I started thinking about getting one. I served it with strawberries and Cool Whip (convenience won out today. I love to make real whipped cream* when I have time). David's office is having a potluck breakfast on Friday and they asked me to make another one of these to send. For breakfast. Yeah, it's awesome. And easy. And I did it in my stoneware bundt pan which I had never used before, and it turned out fabulously. Slid right out of the pan with a perfect, golden crust. Love it.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

2 sticks softened butter (I do not cook with margarine and I recommend you don't either. It's more expensive, but some things are worth the money. Real butter is one of those things.)
1 8 oz pkg softened cream cheese
1/2 c shortening
3 c sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp butter extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 1/2 c self-rising flour

Beat the first three ingredients with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in the sugar, one cup at a time. Beat in six (yep, I said six) eggs, one at a time. Beat in 1 t. vanilla, 1 t. butter extract, and 1 t. almond extract. Combine the two flours and gradually add to the beaten mixture. It will be a thick, stiff batter.

Grease and flour a tube pan or bundt pan. Pour the batter in and bake at 330 degrees (NOT 350 - bake at 330...it will keep the top from getting too brown) for about 1 hour and 20-30 minutes. Cool in pan for about ten minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

*My mom is the one who turned me on to real whipped cream. She pretty much never uses cool whip and taught me all the good tricks (like putting your metal bowl in the freezer for about fifteen minutes prior to beating the cream). It really does taste so much better than cool whip, and doesn't have all the hydrogenated junk that cool whip has, so when you can, make your own whip cream. But when you do have to use cool whip, a tip I learned from Sandra Lee on the Food Network is to add 1 tsp of vanilla to an 8 oz carton of cool whip to give it a homeade taste.

Chicken/Spinach/Alfredo/Feta Pizza

Before the oven.

I hardly ever cook anything without a recipe. This is for a few different reasons: 1. I'm really not all that imaginative when it comes to food, and 2. If I make something that is a bust, I can just blame it on the recipe!

But tonight, I did create this out of my head. Not that it was all that hard, mind you, but no recipe was used. My mother-in-law never cooks with recipes...she said cooking for a family of five on a limited budget that she just had to use what she had. I admire her for that. I stress myself out sometimes and make extra trips to he store for an ingredient for something specific I want to make, not to mention the way I cook is likely more expensive than the way she did for her family. Maybe by the time I reach five kids, I'll be cooking with no recipes either!

Anyway, here is my creation for tonight's dinner. I didn't measure anything, so I'll be guessing on amounts:

Chicken/Spinach/Alfredo/Feta Pizza
1 pizza crust*
1/2 jar prepared alfredo sauce, or get really industrious and make your own
about 1/2 bag of bagged fresh spinach
1-2 cups of cooked, chopped chicken
3 pressed fresh cloves of garlic
a handful or two of feta cheese
a few drizzels of olive oil over the whole thing

Spread pizza crust out on your baking stone. To keep crust from sticking to the stone, sprinkle a little cornmeal on the stone prior to putting the crust down. Spread the alfredo on top of the unbaked pizza crust. Spread spinach leaves over the top of the alfredo. Sprinkle the chopped chicken on top of the spinach, then using a garlic press, press about three fresh garlic cloves over the chicken. Then throw a couple handfuls of feta over the whole thing and drizzle with olive oil (or EVOO as Rachael Ray calls it, and I can't stand it when she does!)

Bake at 425 for about 20 minutes or until your crust turns light brown.

Next time I'm adding artichokes to this, just didn't have any tonight. It was gooo-ooood. Ethan told me he wanted me to make it again tomorrow night!

*You can use lots of different kinds of pizza crusts. The Boboli prepared ones, the Jiffy Mix Pizza Crust mix, the Pilsbury ones in the tube, or use my friend Sara's pizza dough recipe. It's my favorite. For this crust tonight, I had a box of Pampered Chef pizza crust/roll mix. The dry ingredients come premeasured, you just add in the yeast packet that comes with it in the box and some olive oil and hot water, knead a few times and then spread out over your pan. So easy and so yummy. I'm looking for a good whole wheat pizza crust recipe, so if you have one, send it my way.

Sara's Pizza Dough Recipe (I use this for pizza and calzones).
1 pkg yeast
1 1/4 c warm water
2 T veg oil
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups plain flour

Mix ingredients, stirring to form a ball of dough. Knead 8-10 times using extra flour as necessary to create a good consistency. Let rest five minutes before rolling out for the crust. Poke a few holes in the crust with a fork so it doesn't bubble up on you when baking. After the oven.

Pasta Fagioli

This is one of my favorite soups in the CrockPot. I know it from the Olive Garden, but got the recipe off of one of my favorite cooking blogs, www.crockpot365.blogspot.com . It makes a ton. Freezes great; great for leftovers so I usually don't ever half the recipe. It also has tons of vegetables in it, so it's mostly good for you!

Pasta Fagioli

1 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
1/2 large red onion, chopped
1 cup carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, sliced
2 cans (14.5oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups beef broth (I do half beef broth/half water to cut down on sodium)
1 jar (16.5 oz) of your favorite pasta sauce
2 tsp oregano (I've used Italian seasoning when out of oregano)
1 T Tabasco, or less if you don't like spicy
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 c dry pasta (I use whatever I have open, and this past time it was small shells, which I really liked)

Use a 6 qt or larger crockpot. Brown meat on stovetop, drain well. Chop up carrots, onion, and celery. Add to empty crockpot. Drain and rinse the beans, and add them. Add the whole cans of tomatoes, and the pasta sauce. Add the beef broth. Add the salt, pepper, oregano, and Tabasco sauce. Stir in meat. Cover and cook on low for 8 hrs or high for 4. When vegetables are tender, stir in the 1/2 c. dry pasta.

Cover and cook on low for another hour on low or until the pasta is tender. Serve with parmesan and garlic bread! We ate with a ceasar salad too, and it was yummy!

Sundays in the kitchen

There are three things I really like to do on Sunday afternoons (and in this order): take a nap, cook/bake, and walk around the block with my family. Today I got to do all three of those things! I enjoy cooking and especially baking, more on Sundays because David is around to entertain the kids while I'm in the kitchen. On normal days if I start dinner before David is home, I'm interrupted a million times which can make for some frustrating cooking experiences. But on Sundays I can start and finish a recipe, usually, with no interruption.

After I got home from church, I put some porkchops and vegetables in the crockpot to make Pork Chop Succotash for dinner. I made a skillet of cornbread, sliced up some tomatoes and cut up some watermelon. With dinner done, I could move onto the fun stuff. I made another batch of those banana muffins my friend Rozlynn makes (because they are that good). I actually bought a batch of bananas and waited for them to turn brown so I could make these again. In the past I've usually only made banana bread/muffins when I have had bananas that have gone bad without me trying to let them go bad!

I've also been in an apple mood lately. I made an apple pie last Sunday and was ready for more apple something today. I have been wanting to try a recipe that I actually got from Rozlynn's mother-in-law several years ago. It's called Apple Pie in a Jar, but the recipe with the jarred apples actually makes an apple crisp. A delicious apple crisp. I bought two bags of Golden Delicious apples at the store last night, pulled out five of my Mason canning jars this afternoon and went to work. This really wasn't a lot of work for several jars of dessert I now have sitting in my pantry. They will be good, quick, go-to homeade desserts. All I will have to do now is put the jar of apples in a pan, make a quick crumb topping and bake. I love it. I also made the cakes for a red velvet cake I'm taking to a cookout at David's office tomorrow. I'll make the cream cheese frosting and frost them in the morning when I get home from my walk/run and try not to lick the beaters. :) There are also beans soaking for me to do some homeade baked beans in my pressure cooker in the morning. That's the other thing we're taking to the cookout. I have gazillions of bags of dried beans. So I'm trying to use those instead of buying canned beans, and my mom has a really good baked bean recipe for the pressure cooker. Hopefully mine will turn out as good as hers.

While eventually I want to share with you all my stepmother's red velvet cake recipe, tonight I'm going to focus on the Apple Pie in a Jar. I had a lot of fun making these, and the kids even helped me some. I think I'm really going to like this canning thing. Hopefully our garden will be bountiful.

Now, for Apple Pie in a Jar, courtesy of Pat Forester.

Peel and slice apples in wedges (made so much easier when using this Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer.) One of the best kitchen inventions, ever. (Thanks to my honey and my kids for helping me peel all the apples! It was a team effort!) Of course I have the Pampered Chef version, though there are others. If you want to keep your apples from turning brown, place them in salt water while you peel all the apples and make the syrup. (My peeler/corer/slicer did my apples so fast today that I didn't have to put them in salt water and they never turned brown. We peeled two five pound bags of apples in less than ten minutes!)

Before putting apples in jars, wash and shake off excess water. Fill the jars with the sliced apples.

Pour syrup over apples in jars up to 1" from the top.
Wash off rims of jars; put on washed tops and rings.

Cover jars with water in a large stock pot
and cook with a rolling boil for 25 minutes.
Take out and cool on a wire rack before storing in your pantry.

Syrup (I was able to do 5 one-quart Mason jars with this syrup recipe).

4 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup cornstarch
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp salt
3 Tbs. lemon juice
10 cups water

Mix your dry ingredients together in a large stockpot and then add the water. Stir well and cook until thick and bubbly. Take off the heat and add lemon juice. Pour over the apples while still hot. Wipe the jars off and seal with tips and rings. Place into big stockpot (my stockpot was able to hold four quart jars at once), cover completely with water and cook with a rolling boil for 25 minutes.

When you get ready to make a crisp, pull a jar of apples out of your pantry and use this crumb topping recipe.

Crump Topping

1 stick butter, softened
1 cup self-rising flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
dash of cinnamon

Mix together with hands to make clumpy. Put filling in a 13 x 9 pan. Put crumb mixture on top of filling and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown. Come on now. You know you want some. With a big ol' scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yummmm!

Green Smoothies

Last night we had a women's Relief Society meeting at church. It was all about health and fitness, which goes along perfectly with what I'm trying to accomplish with my body and diet right now.

One lady I go to church with is what I would consider an extreme health foodie. She's been a vegetarian since she was 14, and she, nor her three children, eats white flour, white sugar or anything processed or bleached or bad for you. Period. She buys the mess out of some produce and has to order a lot of what she eats and cooks with off of health food websites because Clovis doesn't have crap in the way of specialized health foods. While I admire her for it, I could never give up my meat. I think our bodies need some kind of meat, probably in more moderation than what I prepare at my house. We usually do one meat-free night a week, and that's about all David or I can handle. Nothing against vegetarians, I just know I couldn't be one.

So last night my uber-healthy friend did a really neat demonstration for us, and this is something even I can eat. Every morning, she and her daughters make these spinach smoothies. She got the idea and recipes from www.greensmoothiegirl.com. She said her girls love them. She made two different spinach smoothies for us to sample, and I loved them both. Even though it looked like a blender-full of diahrrea, I thought, if her three year old can drink this and like it, then I can too!

She shared with us that the recommended amount of fresh fruits and vegetables for adults is 5 servings per day. She said less than 50% of adults actually get the recommended amount, and even fewer children do, and that's counting french fries and ketchup as a serving. I'm so glad that David and I have taught our children to love and eat fruits and vegetables. We do not have picky kids, and I'm glad for that. I think it's one of the best gifts we can give our children is to introduce them to all kinds of food and make them try everything, sometimes making them try it more than once or even twice.

Anyway, my friend drinks 1 quart (4 cups) of this particular smoothie every morning for breakfast and her girls drink about 2 cups each (She has a three year old and a two year old and an infant). She said you should probably start with two cups and work your way up to 4 cups, and to plan to spend some time near the toilet for the first little while after you start drinking these.....). She gave all kinds of benefits to doing this. She said it kind of acts as a detox for your body. 1 qt of this smoothie has FIFTEEN servings of fruits and vegetables in it. So even if you didn't even look at another fruit or vegetable all day, you would have still gotten THREE times your recommended daily limit by BREAKFAST. She said her cravings for sweet things has gone down, her energy level has improved, her skin has improved. She started doing these about two years ago just after the birth of her second baby. She lost thirty pounds in a matter of months without exercising at all. Her hair, her nails, everything just became more radiant.

I'm excited to add this to my healthier eating routine. Don't you worry, I'll be adding plenty of recipes to this blog that won't do a thing to help your skin, hair, nails, or your waistline, but I'm going to throw some healthy things in here too.

Basic Green Smoothie

1 1/2 or 2 cups water
3/4 - 1 lb greens (spinach, kale, collards, chard, etc) (The one she made last night had spinach and kale in it). (She used a whole entire bag of bagged spinach)
1-2 bananas, fresh or frozen
1-2 cups frozen or fresh berries (she likes to use frozen berries to help keep the smoothie cold)

Put water in blender. Gradually add greens until, briefly pureed, the mixture comes up to the 5 cup line (in an 8 cup blender). Or maybe the 4 cup line for kids or new "converts" to green smoothies. Puree greens for at least 90 seconds or until they are very smooth.

Add fruit until the container is very full. Blend 90 seconds or until smooth.

You can save your smoothie in the fridge for up to two days - just shake well or blend again before drinking.

You're probably wondering about the cost of these..one blender full, if you use all organic ingredients is about 2.53. If you have a Sam's or Costco close, you can get giant bags of bagged spinach for cheap, and if you have commissary privileges, a bag costs about 1.50 (non-organic). I noticed at Wal-Mart last night that the GV brand is just under 2.00 a bag. Buy the big bags of frozen fruit..they'll last you awhile and are more economical.

Don't knock it 'til you've tried it!!

And one last thing, she had a BlendTec blender. I'm quite convinced this thing could chew up a ski if it were put in there. You can make bread dough in it. Definitely on my wish list.