All-Day Meatball Stew

We had this on Friday, and we had some of the leftovers for lunch today, which is Sunday.  There is still enough for two more servings.  So it makes a lot.  It's from Simple & Delicious.

All-Day Meatball Stew
2 pkg (12 oz each) frozen fully cooked Italian meatballs (I used a 2 lb bag)
5 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 lb fresh baby carrots
1 medium onion, halved and sliced
1 jar (4 1/2 oz) sliced mushrooms, drained (omitted)
2 cans (8 oz each) tomato sauce
1 can (10 1/2 oz) condensed beef broth, undiluted
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup beef broth
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup cold water

Place meatballs, potatoes, carrots, onions, and mushrooms in a 5 or 6 quart slow cooker.  Combine the tomato sauce, broths, water, garlic powder, and pepper in a large bowl; pour over top.  Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours or until vegetables are tender.  Combine flour and water until smooth; gradually stir into stew.  Cover and cook on high 30 minutes longer or until sauce is thickened.

I never thickened it.  The sauce seemed fine, and today when we had the leftovers it had thickened up some more, so I'm glad I didn't.  Also, I had mine in the crock pot for 8 hours on low, but some of the potatoes and carrots were still a bit crunchy.  I couldn't let it cook any longer though because I had to work on Friday night.  But today it was perfect.  Because this has prepackaged meatballs, there was a thin layer of fat once the soup was cooked that I wish I could have removed somehow.  I tried to strain it off.  Once it cools and the fat hardens it's obviously much easier to dispose of, but when the soup was hot that was kind of an "ewww" factor.  Nobody noticed that but me, though.  Everyone really liked this soup.  It was expensive to make, because meatballs by themselves are ridiculously priced, and then you have to buy tomato sauce and the condensed beef broth and the potatoes, too.  So it's not a soup I'll make often, but I'm definitely saving the recipe.  Next time I will cut the baby carrots in half, and cut the potato chunks smaller, too.  Yummmmm.

Asian Noodle Toss

We had this for supper tonight.  It came together very easily, which is good.  It also makes a lot.  It says 4 servings but that is crazy.  Maybe 4 lumberjacks.  I was going to make this to bring to church, because on Wednesdays now we have a potluck before the evening service.  But then one of my kids came down with a fever this afternoon, and so no church for some of us and no potluck dinner for any of us.  So we have 2 big servings of this leftover.  It's from Simple & Delicious.

Asian Noodle Toss
1 pkg (9 oz) refrigerated angel hair pasta (I used 1/2 pkg dry whole wheat linguine that I already had)
1 pkg (10 oz) julienned (matchstick) carrots
1 pkg (6 oz) snow peas (I used 1/2 of a 12 oz pkg of frozen sugar snap peas)
2 cups cooked cubed chicken
11 oz can mandarin oranges, undrained
2/3 cup stir fry sauce
chopped green onions, for garnish

Cook the pasta in a Dutch oven according to package directions, adding vegetables and pasta at the same time (since I started with dry pasta rather than refrigerated, I added the carrots when there was 10 minutes left of cook time and the sugar snaps when there was 5 minutes left of the pasta cooking time); drain.  Return to the pot and add the chicken, oranges and their juice, and stir fry sauce; heat through.  Divide on to plates and top with chopped green onions.

This was so good!  Like real Chinese food.  Steve was excited when he saw it..."Lo Mein?" he said.  "I don't know...it's linguine" I said.  I thought at first there were way too many carrots, but once the pasta cooked it seemed like the right amount.  Steve said that there are always too few carrots in lo mein anyway so it was good.  The littles didn't like the noodles, but they liked the chicken and vegetables.  The rest of us all liked this and though it was really good.  It was easy and we will definitely have it again!

Cinnamon Applesauce Pancakes

Yesterday was Christmas, and we had coffee cake for breakfast, meatballs before lunch, soup and sandwiches for lunch, and maybe a snack before dinner.  This recipe sounded quick and easy and light to finish off the day.  It's from the latest Simple & Delicious, which I love and which I just got in the mail last week.  It starts with a pancake mix, which I don't love, but I guess that's part of the "easy." 

Cinnamon Applesauce Pancakes
1 cup complete buttermilk pancake mix
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chunky cinnamon applesauce
1/4 cup water

Combine pancake mix and cinnamon.  Add applesauce and water; stir just until moistened.  Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto hot greased griddle; turn when bubbles form on top.  Cook until the second side is golden brown.  Serve with syrup and butter.

I doubled the recipe, because as it's written it says the yield is 9 pancakes.  I doubled it and got 18.  But the batter was really thick.  Too thick.  It didn't spread well when you dropped it onto the griddle.  It stuck to the griddle some, even with it being sprayed with cooking spray.  Also they didn't taste apple-y at all.  Everyone ate them though.  We have 5 leftover which Emma assured me she would eat.  We are now 24 hours out from this recipe and they are still in the fridge...so I won't be making these again, even though I'm sure they could be tweaked to be better.  With the rest of the pancake mix, I will make a yummy scone recipe I have that starts with pancake mix (Chocolate Orange Scones).  So not a total loss.

Chocolate Peppermint Brownies

I made this before Christmas, to give to the kids' teachers at church and to our neighbors.  They have quite a Christmas-y look about them, so if I did make them again, it wouldn't be til next Christmas.  But they were good (of course we sampled them before sending them out into the world...).  This recipe came from the Better Homes & Gardens Christmas cookbook I am working through.

Chocolate Peppermint Brownies
1/2 cup butter
2 (1 oz) squares unsweetened bakers chocolate
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans (left out due to: not everyone likes nuts in their brownies)
Peppermint Frosting (recipe follows)
1 tbsp butter
1 (1 oz) square unsweetened bakers chocolate

Melt 1/2 cup butter and 2 squares chocolate in large saucepan over low heat.  Remove from heat and let cool 10 minutes (I put the butter and chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwaved on high for 1 minute, then stirred until the chocolate melted...also I did not wait 10 minutes before proceeding to the next step).  Add sugar and eggs, stirring well.  Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; add to chocolate mixture, stirring well.  Stir in vanilla and pecans.

Spoon batter into a greased and floured 13x9 pan.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes back clean.  Cool brownies completely on wire rack.  Spread with Peppermint Frosting (recipe follows).

Melt 1 tbsp butter and 1 chocolate square in small saucepan over low heat (again I used the microwave).  Remove from heat and let cool.  Spoon chocolate mixture into ziploc baggie and snip a tiny hole in one corner.  Pipe decorative design over Peppermint Frosting.  Cover and chill thoroughly (I didn't...).  Cut into 2x1 inch bars. 

Peppermint Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp whipping cream
1 1/2 tsp peppermint flavoring
2 drops red food coloring

Beat butter at medium speed of an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add powdered sugar, beating well.  Add whipping cream, flavoring, and food coloring.  Beat until frosting is spreading consistency.  (I did it all by hand, I didn't want to get out my big Kitchen Aid just for this...it came out perfect anyway)

Okay.  So the brownies were not very thick.  I almost think the brownie portion could be doubled.  The frosting layer was as thick as the brownies.  But, the flavor combination was so yummy.  I was nervous about using unsweetened chocolate for the last step, but the sweetness of the frosting was perfect with it.  So these came out really good.  Way better than the last time I tried to make mint brownies, a few years ago, and I just bought "mint extract" and not specifically peppermint extract, and it tasted like I had made Toothpaste Brownies.  So yeah, these were way better than that. 

 

English Muffin Bread

My friend Jill made this and posted the recipe last weekend.  I clicked on the link and saw how easy it was (only 5 ingredients) and that you don't have to knead it, which is a point in it's favor.  So I made it on Sunday, because between services we had nowhere to go (how glorious).  If you have rapid rise yeast, it only has to rise once, but I have regular yeast, so it has to rise twice.  Here is the link to the blog, which includes pictures.  Here at New Recipe Night we have not gone so far in the publishing world so as to include step by step pictures with each recipe.  http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/02/moms-english-muffin-bread.html  Of course I do not want to plagiarize, and always want to give credit where it is due.  I don't make up any of my own recipes, I just pass them along to you guys and tell you if they were worth my time & trouble.

English Muffin Bread
5 1/2 cups warm water
3 pkg (6 3/4 tsp) rapid rise or regular yeast
2 tbsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
11 cups flour (she says you can use bread flour or all-purpose...I only had 9 cups of bread flour so I used those and then 2 cups of all purpose)

Mix all ingredients together in a LARGE bowl (if you are using regular yeast, cover the bowl and let it rise about an hour, until the dough reaches the top [or close to it] of the bowl).  Spoon dough into 4 well greased loaf pans.  Let rise until dough reaches the tops of the pans.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, or until tops are golden brown.  10 minutes before end of baking time, brush tops of loaves with melted butter (mine only took 40 minutes total).  Cool 10 minutes in pans before removing to wire racks to cool completely.  Bread will be moist at first.  Be sure you allow to cool completely before cutting. 

This made awesome toast.  One of the other comments on the blog this came from said it made awesome grilled cheese, too, but we didn't do that.  We kept two of the loaves and gave two away.  So easy and so yummy.  We will definitely have this again.

Velvet Cream Biscuits

I don't know if all of you have heard me rave about my mother's biscuits, so allow me to do so here.  She makes the best biscuits.  She uses bakewell cream, and, unlike me, does not detest kneading and rolling out dough.  I have tried several biscuit recipes, including her own, and can't get them just right.  I have so  many memories of those biscuits.  She lets kids play in the dough scraps when she is done making them.  My sister and I used to do it, and now our kids do.  She made them faithfully for her grandmother-in-law until she passed in like 1986.  So they are historical biscuits, too.  I request them every year for my birthday.  They taste the best when they are fresh out of the oven, but they taste almost as good as leftovers if you slather the cut sides with butter and then grill them for a few seconds on a hot griddle.  Yummmmmmmm.  Anyway.  This biscuit recipe sounded easy (except for the rolling out part which I usually hate) and they sounded good.  Instead of cutting in shortening or flour, you use whipping cream.  From the SL Christmas cookbook.  We had these with minestrone soup.

Velvet Cream Biscuits
4 cups flour
2 tsbp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 cups whipping cream (I had to add an extra 2 tbsp or so to get the texture right)
2 tbsp butter, melted

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl.  Add whipping cream, stirring with a fork just until dry ingredients are moistened.  Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead lightly 10-12 times.  Roll dough to 1/2" thickness.  Cut with a 2-inch biscuit cutter.  Place biscuits on lightly greased baking sheets.  Bake at 425 for 12 minutes or until golden.  Brush biscuits with melted butter.  Yield: 2 1/2 dozen

The verdict:  at first bite, I thought "I nailed it!  This is it!"  But then after I chewed for a few seconds, the texture and flavor were slightly different.  So if my mom's are a 10 (and clearly they are), I would say these are a good 8 or 9.  These didn't rise as much as my mom's do.  But I think they were easier to make.  And, my children played with the scraps, and used cookie cutters to make snowman-, apple-, angel-, train-, and gingerbread boy-shaped biscuits.  They had so much fun with it, which definitely made it worth the extra work of rolling out.  I'll keep the recipe, but will still prefer my mom's, which are #1!

Overnight Coffee Cake

I made this on Sunday, and we had it for lunch, along with sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, and hash browns.  A very yummy brunch.  This can be mixed the night before and then refrigerated and baked, or mixed and then baked immediately.  I didn't refrigerate it, so I can't say how it would turn out if you did.  I made it when I got home from church and put it in the oven.  This recipe is from the Southern Living Christmas cookbook I'm working through.

Overnight Coffee Cake
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup buttermilk (or sour milk, which you make by putting 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar into a measuring cup and then filling with milk to the 1 cup line)
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
Topping:
1/2 brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp cinnamon

Combine first seven ingredients in large mixing bowl.  Add buttermilk, butter, and eggs.  Beat at low speed of electric mixer until dry ingredients are moistened.  Beat at medium speed an additional 3 minutes.  Spoon batter into greased and floured 13x9x2 pan.  Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle over batter.  Cover and chill overnight.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes back clean.  Alternately, bake immediately at 350 for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes back clean.  To reheat, cover and bake at 350 for 5-10 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

This was very good.  Very moist.  I didn't have quite enough pecans, and I thought that was one of the yummiest parts.  We only ate about 1/5 of this as part of the brunch, so we had enough to give some to my parents and my grampie, and then still like 1/5 left of it for Sam & I to have for breakfast a couple of mornings.  So it would be great for a get-together because it makes so much.  Easy and yummy, definitely keeping this one.

Soft Ginger Waffles

This is another recipe from the Christmas cookbook I'm going through.  I have an old waffle iron; it used to be my grandmother's.  It is heavy, and it only has a two-prong plug, and the cord gets hot when I use it.  And, I love it because I think of her every time I use it.  I have a good waffle recipe already, but these sounded kind of like gingerbread waffles, so I wanted to try them.

Soft Ginger Waffles
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup molasses
2 eggs, separated
1 3/4 cup flour (I doubled this recipe, and used 2 cups white and 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour)
2 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp milk

Beat butter at medium speed of electric mixer until creamy.  Add molasses; beat well.  Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition.  Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices; add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.  Mix well after each addition.  Beat egg whites at high speed of electric mixer until stiff peaks form.  Gently fold beaten whites into batter.  Spoon 1 cup of batter onto preheated oiled waffle iron.  Spread batter to edges.  Bake until lightly brown.  Repeat procedure with remaining batter.

This batter was really thick.  Much thicker than my usual waffle batter, which you can pour onto the waffle iron.  This you had to dump and spread really quick.  These smelled so great while they were baking.  The end result was a bit dry, and I'm not sure why.  But we always use plenty of butter and syrup on our waffles anyway so it wasn't too big of a deal.  Nathan did not like these at all (he only likes waffles from a box, he said) but the rest of us ate them and thought they were fine.  They are hearty.  I made a double batch but didn't need to because no one had seconds, so Grampie benefitted from that.  He told me he thought they were "real good," and he chuckled when I told him Nathan didn't like them.  "Heh heh give 'em to Grampie!" he said.

White Lightning Texas Chili

Nathan really likes chicken.  And this is good soup/chili type weather.  This recipe is from the Southern Living Christmas cookbook my mother-in-law sent me for my birthday.  I left out the jalapeno so that everybody would eat it (myself included).  And I knew it would make a lot so I could freeze half for later.  This is always a gamble, because if we don't like it, we still have to eat it later.  But it's usually fine.

White Lightning Texas Chili
1 lb dried navy beans
4 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth, divided (I used 8 cups stock)
1 lg onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp ground white pepper
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground cloves
5 cups chopped cooked chicken
2 (4 oz) cans chopped green chilies, undrained
1 cup water
1 tsp salt
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped (omitted)
shredded cheese (we used shredded Mexican)
salsa, sour cream, and sliced green onions for garnish

Sort and wash beans; place in a large Dutch oven.  Cover with water 2 inches above beans.  Let soak 8 hours (I forgot to do this the night before.  You can also cover them with water, bring it to a boil, let boil for 2 minutes, then simmer for 2-4 hours [I did 3], then drain and proceed with recipe...this is according to my Taste of Home cookbook).  Drain beans and return to pan.  Add 3 cans (or 6 cups) of chicken broth, onion, garlic, and spices.  Bring to a boil.  Cover; reduce heat and simmer 2 hours or until beans are tender.  Add remaining can (or 2 cups) of chicken broth, chicken, chilies, water, salt, and jalapeno pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Cover; reduce heat and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Serve with cheese, salsa, sour cream, and green onions.  Yield: 11 cups.

We had this with tortilla chips, too.  It was pretty good for scooping.  Nathan liked the beans, because they were the same size and texture as in his favorite "brown beans," which are Bush's canned beans.  He doesn't really like kidney beans or black beans.  All told, this took 6 or 7 hours, which was fine because I made it on purpose on a day that I knew we would be home all day.  You could probably adapt it for the crockpot, too, but I'm no food scientist so I don't really know exactly how.  Probably Jill does  =o) So this was a good recipe.  Enough left in the freezer for another meal, which we will all enjoy eating.

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

A few weeks ago Nathan went to a Cub Scout meeting and one of the mommies brought these cookies.  Steve brought two of them home to show me.  What a fabulous, ingenious idea.  But I knew it wouldn't work with my mom's chocolate chip cookie recipe, which is how I always make chocolate chip cookies.  The dough would be too sticky.  It was in the back of my mind all the next day...thoughts of "how could I do this?" and "there has to be a way."  That night at church I spoke of my concerns with one of my besties, Lisa.  She said "that mom must have gotten that recipe from Pinterest."  Now, Pinterest isn't a site I have ever visited, because I'm afraid it will be a time vortex, sucking away all of my time.  Because I know there is a lot of great stuff on there, just from what I see my facebook friends post.  So Lisa went on Pinterest and found it for me, because that's the kind of friend she is.  She even printed it on thick paper, so I don't have to recopy the recipe onto a card or anything.  This dough has more flour but the same amount of butter and eggs as my mom's recipe, so that's why this one works.  I made these for home fellowship last night.

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups chocolate chips
1 pkg Double Stuf Oreos

Preheat oven to 350.  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars with a mixer until well combined.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  In medium bowl, mix flour salt and baking soda.  Slowly add to wet ingredients until just combined.  Add chocolate chips.  With a cookie scoop, form balls with the dough.  Place one ball on top of an Oreo cookie, and another ball on the bottom.  Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until Oreo is fully enclosed in cookie dough (mmmmmmmmmmm try not to eat it raw, raw cookie dough is bad for you!  Maybe I did that and maybe I didn't...I will never tell).  Place onto parchment or silpat (?) lined baking sheets and bake cookies for 13 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.  These barely spread while cooking, so keep that in mind when determining how many can fit.  Makes 24 gigantic cookies.

I don't think I need to tell you how awesome these were.  I was afraid there wouldn't be enough, but there were.  They are so sweet that one is enough.  But really you are eating 3 cookies at the same time.  So don't make these just for your family because that could be disastrous.  But make them to bring somewhere, definitely.

Chicken Alouette

I made this on Tuesday night.  It is one of those recipes you definitely don't need to make, but is fun to make.  It is from one of the cookbooks my mother-in-law just sent me, Southern Living Our Best Christmas Recipes.  It is the Christmas season at our house; our tree is up and our Christmas decorations are all over the place.  But I think you could make this any time of the year and the Southern Living Police would not come and get you.  Although, I am not from the south so I cannot state that with 100% certainty.  For this recipe, you use puff pastry dough and wrap up chicken breasts, then braid narrow strips of puff pastry dough to decorate the tops of the bundles.  In their picture all the bundles are symmetrical and of the same size.  Of my 6, 4 were oddly shaped, 1 looked like a kite, and the last one looked like a candy corn.  But the kids and I had fun making them.  Also, "alouette" means "lark" in French, according to the reputable website Wikipedia.  So the real name of this recipe is Chicken Lark.  Mmmmm sounds good, right?

Chicken Alouette
17.4 oz pkg puff pastry sheets, thawed
4 oz chive and onion flavored cream cheese
6 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp water
Kale leaves, optional (and left out by me)

Unfold pastry sheets and roll each into a 14x12 inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface.  Cut first sheet into 4 rectangles.  Cut second sheet in half, then cut one of the halves into two rectangles.  Set large rectangle aside (carefully because it's probably really thin by now).  Shape each small rectangle into an oval by trimming off corners (if you want to give these to your children to play with, along with some cookie cutters, they will like it); spread pastry ovals evenly with cream cheese.

Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper; place one in center of each pastry oval.  Lightly moisten edges of pastry with water.  Fold ends over chicken; fold sides over, and pinch to seal.  Place bundles, seam side down, on a lightly greased baking sheet.

Cut large rectangle crosswise into 36 strips (about 1/4" wide)(I didn't count or measure and didn't have enough but it was fine).  Braid 3 strips together (way harder than it sounds)(have your daughter help you so husband cannot determine which ones you did and which ones a child did), and place crosswise over chicken bundles, tucking ends under.  Repeat with remaining strips, making crosses on each bundle.  Cover and chill up to 2 hours, if desired.

Combine egg and water.  Brush egg over pastry bundles.  Bake at 400 on lower oven rack 25 minutes or until golden.  Arrange chicken bundles on kale-lined serving platter, if desired (ummm, no).  6 servings.

We had this with cranberry jelly (because we love it and had two cans left over from Thanksgiving) and rice.  Nathan did not like this because of the cream cheese, but it really wasn't that much.  Everybody else thought these were great.  So it was definitely a fun recipe to make, but not one that will become a regular part of our rotation.  I purposely chose to make this on a day that we had nothing to do in the afternoon, and it took from about 3 pm to 5:15ish to do all the steps, including thawing the puff pastry sheets.  The kids had a lot of fun, so that counts for a lot.   

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Last recipe from this cookbook!  Can I get a woot woot?  I brought these to take into work tonight, since nobody here really likes pumpkin.  Of course I opened a can of pumpkin for the sake of the 1/2 cup this recipe calls for, and it was a Sam's Club size can of pumpkin, too, so now I have like 3 more cups to use up, but I think I can manage that. 

Pumpkin Spice Muffins
2 cups flour (I used 1 cup white and 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour)
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup buttermilk (who has that laying around?  Put 1 tsp lemon juice in measuring cup and then fill to 1/3 cup mark)
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 400.  Grease a 12-cup muffin pan or insert paper liners.  Stir together flour, sugars, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, and ginger.  In separate bowl combine butter, pumpkin, buttermilk and eggs.  Combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.  Spoon into muffin pan.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan.

Okay so I tried one of the muffins that broke when I took it out of the muffin pan (I only had 7 cupcake papers left, so 5 of the muffins had none, and 1 broke really bad when I took it out of the muffin pan).  It was good and moist, but didn't taste very pumpkin-y.  But I will still bring them to work, with some butter (real butter that melts on muffins mmmmmmm).

Cinnamon-Maple Pork Chops

This is the second to last recipe from this cookbook, Back of the Box.  The last one is the pumpkin muffins I referred to in a post a few days ago...I am going to try to make them tomorrow to take to work tomorrow night, and then I can call this cookbook "done."  Woot!  Of course I have about 2/3 of a shelf full of cookbooks waiting to be started.  The ingredient they want you to buy for this recipe is the ketchup.  They want you to buy Heinz, but I always buy Hunt's (with no HFCS).

Cinnamon-Maple Pork Chops
2 cups ketchup
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp fresh thyme
2 tsp hot pepper sauce (I used zero tsp)
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground coriander
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 green onions, finely chopped
6 thick pork chops (about 3 lbs)(I used boneless)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Combine ketchup, syrup, seasonings, hot pepper sauce, and garlic in a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes or until sauce is very thick.  Cool completely; stir in onions (I did not cool it completely, who has time for that?  I cooled it for 10 minutes).  Preheat the grill to medium high and grease lightly (I used my George Foreman grill).  Sprinkle chops with salt and pepper; coat all over with half of the sauce.  Grill chops, basting often with remaining sauce, for about 7 minutes per side or until only slightly pink in the center.

I only had 4 pork chops, so I only made 1/2 of the sauce.  Even then it was plenty.  I knew 2 cups of ketchup would be too much, even if it was going to reduce down some when it was boiling.  It smelled so great, and the kids all thought so too.  We had this with mashed potatoes and corn.  It was a very yummy meal and we'll definitely have it again.

Easy No-Bake Peanut Butter Cheesecake

This sounded easy and so good.  It's the last dessert from Back of the Box.  They want you to buy the peanut butter chips, but I buy those almost all the time, so I didn't do it because they told me to.

Easy No-Bake Peanut Butter Cheesecake
Chocolate crumb crust:
1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
Cheesecake:
1 8-oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 10 oz pkg Reese's peanut butter chips
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup cold whipping cream, whipped
Sliced fresh fruit for garnish, optional (I did not add this--peanut butter and fruit doesn't sound good to me at all)

For the crust:  Stir together crust ingredients in medium bowl until blended.  Press firmly onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan (which I now have because my mom got me one for Christmas last year).
For the cheesecake: Beat cream cheese with lemon juice in a large bowl until fluffy.  Combine peanut butter chips and sweetened condensed milk in medium saucepan.  Cook over low heat, stirring constantly (I confess I did NOT stir constantly), until chips are melted and mixture is smooth; add to cream cheese mixture, beating until well blended.  Beat whipping cream in small bowl until stiff.  Fold into cream cheese mixture.  Pour over crust.  Cover and freeze 4-6 hours or until firm.  Remove sides of pan.  Garnish with fruit if desired.

I only have 1 mixing bowl, so first I whipped the cream and transferred it to a different bowl, then washed my mixing bowl so I could do the cream cheese mixture.  I made this last night after supper, so it was in the freezer for 24 hours.  When I got to Lisa's house, I put it in her fridge; it was there for about an hour and a half before we cut into it, and with a sharp knife it cut with no problems.  My springform pan sprang apart perfectly.  Some crumbs escaped onto the counter but probably because I didn't "press firmly" enough during that step.

This came out incredibly good.  Even all the kids liked it.  A few of them said it more than once.  And then all 3 of my kids said this is the kind of birthday cake they want when it's their birthday.  So I guess you could say it's pretty good.  Some grown ups (Nick and Steve) had 2 pieces.  It was rich, but not too rich.  Not too sweet, but not like some cheesecakes I've had that are SO rich and thick and not very sweet at all.  It was a very nice balance. I have a friend and blog reader who makes incredible cheesecakes, the real kind, not the no-bake kind.  She might give us some tips.  Stay tuned for that  =o)

Pineapple Glazed Pork Chops

Only 4 more recipes to go from Back of the Box!  2 of them are pork chop recipes, and I am making both of them this week, because I want to finish the book. Another one is a dessert recipe I'm going to make for home fellowship.  And then the last one is for spiced pumpkin muffins, which I am going to make even though I will likely be the only one that eats them.We had this recipe on Monday but then I worked Monday & Tuesday nights so I haven't had a chance to post it yet...Sam wanted to help with dinner last night, and he actually did a lot of it.  The featured ingredient is the pineapple.

Pineapple Glazed Pork Chops
1 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
4 pork chops (I used boneless but it doesn't specify)
1 8-oz can crushed pineapple, undrained
1/2 cup apple jelly
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp water
1 tsp cornstarch

Brown chops with garlic in butter in large skillet.  Remove chops from skillet; spoon off fat.  Add pineapple, jelly, cinnamon, and ginger to the skillet.  Cook over medium heat until jelly melts.  Return chops to skillet; spoon sauce over chops.  Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until chops are no longer pink in the center.  Remove chops to serving platter; keep warm.  Stir together water and cornstarch; add to skillet.  Cook, stirring, until thickened.  Spoon sauce over chops.

So this was pretty good.  I wasn't planning to thicken the sauce, because it's an extra step and I thought it wouldn't matter, but then I decided to and I'm glad I did.  It was more the consistency of applesauce after it was thickened, and it was very tasty.  Nathan had no sauce on his, and liked the meat by itself.  The rest of us liked the sauce on the meat.  We had this with Stove Top stuffing and carrots.  I'll keep it.

Honey Cashew Five-Spice Pork

I think the name of this one pretty much tells you what's in it.  The recipe writers must have run out of descriptive ideas.  This is from Back of the Box, and they just want you to buy the pork.  I already had some in the freezer left over from something else.  5-Spice powder is an expensive spice with cinnamon, cloves, fennel, pepper, and anise.  Anise is what the flavor of black licorice is.  Which I do not like.  But I didn't know that until I bought a whole bottle of this stuff for some ridiculous price.  Counting this recipe, I have used it 3 times.  I still have like 42 tsp left in the jar or something.  But little by little I will get through it.  I should say that Sam loves licorice.  He loves Good & Plenty, the candy that isn't even good.  It's so bad they probably torture terrorists with it at Club Gitmo.  So while I do not care for the flavor, others in my family do.  I didn't even mention the anise aspect of it though.  Also I did not tell them that this recipe is like Chinese food, because Nathan and Emma wouldn't have liked it if they thought that.

Honey Cashew Five-Spice Pork
8-10 oz boneless pork chops, cut into 1/2" strips (I used 1 lb pork tenderloin)
3/4 tsp 5-spice powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup unsalted cashews (it didn't say to toast them but I did because I love the flavor of toasted nuts)
Hot cooked rice

Sprinkle pork pieces with 5-spice powder and salt.  Stir together honey and soy sauce; set aside.  Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add pork and cook until browned on all sides and no longer pink, about 4-5 minutes (mine took longer because I cut the tenderloin into medallion-type shapes instead of strips.  I knew it would take longer so I only used medium heat so the outsides wouldn't burn).  (At this point I drained the skillet, even though it doesn't say to.)  Add cashews; drizzle with soy sauce mixture, stirring to coat; immediately remove from heat.  Serve over rice.

I'm just realizing as I type this out that I doubled the amount of meat but not the amount of anything else.  That's okay though, there was still plenty of sauce.  It might have been nice to have a bit more for the rice, but just for the meat itself it was fine.  We had this with the last of the green beans that Steve's work friend gave us that I had frozen this summer.  Everybody liked this.  They all thought it smelled and tasted great.  Seriously all I could taste was the licorice flavor.  Maybe they should have called this one "Good & Plenty Pork."

Corn Chowder (Dairy & Gluten Free)

My sister-in-law has been a vegetarian for like 20 years.  Occasionally she emails recipes to me that she thinks my picky children will like, especially now that I am trying to cook more meatless meals, for health and cost reasons.  This corn chowder is dairy-free, and she says the grated potatoes in it make the broth thicken instead of the traditional ways you thicken chowder (a milk/flour mixture).  This recipe does have creamed corn, but I just googled it (so I am 100% certain) and it said that depending on the brand, if it specifies corn starch vs modified food starch, it is gluten free.  Mine did (I bought Libby's).  I also found a recipe for homemade creamed corn, but I did not print it.  But if you are so inclined, you can make your own, apparently.  We are definitely not gluten free or dairy free here at our house but it's fun to try new things, and you never know when your gluten-free neighbor or a family from church will need a meal...to undo the gluten-free-ness of the meal tonight, we had this with freshly baked whole wheat bread & butter.

Corn Chowder (Dairy & Gluten Free)
1 tbsp oil
2 onions, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
2 peeled carrots, diced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 1/2 cups broth (I used homemade vegetable stock)
2 peeled grated potatoes (I don't have a fancy mandoline slicer from PC so I just used a cheese grater...it still worked)
2 cans creamed corn (she didn't specify size so I bought regular sized cans)
1 bell pepper, finely chopped (I used red pepper)

Saute onion, celery, and carrots in oil until soft.  Add broth and boil.  Transfer to slow cooker.  Stir in potato, salt, and pepper.  Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.  Add corn and bell pepper and cover and cook for 30 more minutes on high.

On the way home from karate I prepped the children for this vegetarian meal.  I said it was from Auntie Dawn who is very good at cooking without meat, etc.  This led to a long discussion of the various reasons people choose to be vegetarians (economic, ethical, or health concerns...or I have a friend who has none of those reasons, she just doesn't like meat and thinks it's gross...also a viable opinion).  The very first thing Nathan said when he sat down at the table was "where's the chicken?"  I said, "remember, I told you there was no meat in this soup?"  He protested, "but Mom, that is my favorite part of soup!"  He did eat a few bites but was not impressed.  Sam suggested a helpful hint of adding ham next time.  So they totally missed the point.  I thought it was good, and it paired nicely with the bread (I like dipping bread in my soup...I think I wouldn't do it if the President was over for dinner or something, but I do like to do it)(also I wouldn't make soup if the President was coming for dinner).  The texture was definitely different than a traditional chowder.  Steve didn't believe me when I said it was chowder.  It doesn't have that creamy color to it.  But I think it would be a good stand-in if you couldn't have traditional chowder for whatever reason.  So I'm feeling pretty good about this healthy (except for possibly the sodium content) meal, even if my carnivore family was less than impressed. 

Scrumptious Cheddar Bacon Scalloped Potatoes

I was planning on making this for supper tonight anyway, and to have it with one of those salad-in-a-bag things.  But then all of a sudden I heard there was a fellowship potluck at church tonight before the service, so I decided to make it and bring it there instead (minus the salad).  I love bacon, and potatoes.  This is from Back of the Box.  I am almost done with this cookbook, which my mom gave me for Christmas last year...just in time for another one hee hee.  They want you to buy evaporated milk for this one.  And I did it.  I think it is somewhat presumptuous to have the word "scrumptious" in your recipe title, because it might not be. 

Scrumptious Cheddar Bacon Scalloped Potatoes
2 to 2 1/2 lbs (about 6 medium) potatoes, unpeeled and thinly sliced
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
1 cup water
6 slices turkey bacon, cooked and chopped, divided (I do not buy turkey bacon...I bought good old Hormel Black Label pig bacon)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
2 green onions, sliced (I forgot to buy these)

Place potatoes in a large saucepan.  Cover with water; bring to a boil.  Cook over medium-high heat for 8-10 minutes or just until fork tender; drain.  Meanwhile, heat butter in medium saucepan over medium heat.  Stir in flour, salt, and pepper.  Gradually stir in evaporated milk, water, and 1/3 cup bacon.  Cook, stirring constantly, for 8-10 minutes or until mixture comes to a boil.  Remove from heat.  Stir in 1 1/2 cups of the cheese and the green onions (if you remembered them).  Layer half of potatoes in a greased 3 quart microwave safe dish.  Pour half of the sauce over potatoes.  Top with remaining potatoes and remaining sauce.  Top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese and bacon.  Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Normally I would not microwave these, but I happen to have a covered micro cooker that I got for free when I hosted a Tupperware party last year that I have barely used, and so I was happy to be able to use it for this purpose.  Plus it is my favorite color and looks nice on the table.  So I did put it in the microwave.  It's only for 2 minutes anyway.

I only got a small portion of these, because it's a potluck on those plates aren't that big.  But I thought they were really really good.  The potatoes were so tasty, and the cheese sauce was perfect.  And I love bacon.  Definitely one I will make again.  There was nothing left in the bowl after dinner, so that is always a good sign...so I have to admit that they were scrumptious.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are one of my top 2 all time favorite cookies (the other one is white chocolate macadamia nut).  Something might be wrong with my husband and children in that they do not like them.  I hardly ever make them, maybe twice since we've been married, and when I do make them, they don't measure up to this ideal in my head of these cookies that Steve's mom made, and I ate, a long time ago.  My mother-in-law makes the best oatmeal raisin cookies.  I have not ever gotten the recipe from her because it seems foolish to make cookies that only I will eat.  Foolish because #1 I will eat them all myself and #2 because it is a waste of baking ingredients if they're only going to be for me.  But this fall I have had a hankering for them and I said to myself "what the heck I'm going to get the recipe AND I'm going to make them.  AND I'm going to eat them."  So I called her last night, and it took her a minute to figure out which ones I was talking about, but then she gave me the recipe.  I made them today and they came out perfect.  They are the cookies I've been dreaming about.  My puppy-dog-eyed husband and children convinced me last night that if I was going to make these today, I should make half of them with raisins and half with chocolate chips.  So I did that because I love them lots (this puppy-dog-eye strategy is the same one they employed that caused us to get 2 cats when I wanted 0 cats...it is very effective when they all use it at once against me).  I still get an entire half batch for myself.  Which is good, or else really bad.  When you read the recipe, don't worry.  You should still make these.  Even though they have shortening and a LOT of brown sugar, also they have oatmeal and raisins.  So it's like they're good for you.  And I don't care anyway, they taste so good.  I just ate 2 of them with some coffee.  And in the morning I'm going to eat 2 more of them with more coffee. 

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
1 cup shortening
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups quick oats
1 cup raisins (or, if you have eclectic housemates who hate raisins, 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips)

Cream shortening and brown sugar in large mixing bowl (of course I used my Kitchen Aid).  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add vanilla.  In separate bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking soda.  Add slowly to sugar mixture.  Once combined, add oats.  Stir in raisins (at this point I divided the dough in half and added raisins to one half and chocolate chips to the other). Drop dough by approx 1 1/2 tablespoonfuls (I used my Pampered Chef scoop) onto cookie sheets and flatten slightly with fork.  Bake at 375 for 8 minutes, just until starting to brown around the edges.

I think I've said enough about how I feel about this recipe.  Best oatmeal raisin cookies ever.  EVER.

Stovetop Beef and Penne Casserole

I almost didn't make this one out of the Back of the Box Cookbook.  Part of me just wanted to see if I could get away with it.  And part of me thought it sounded good and healthy.  So I made it, but I was very sneaky about it.  When the secret ingredient was added, I waited for just the right moment to be alone in the kitchen.  To look at it, you couldn't tell what it contained.  Only I knew.  How was it received?  Read on...

Stovetop Beef and Penne Casserole
2 cups (8oz) dry penne pasta
2 lbs lean ground beef (I used 1 lb beef and 1 lb ground turkey)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 (12 oz) cans evaporated milk
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin (and there it is...nobody here likes pumpkin ANYTHING...in general)
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cups frozen peas, thawed

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain.  Cook beef and onions over medium-high heat in large (LARGE) skillet or Dutch oven until beef is no longer pink; drain.  Reduce heat to medium.  Stir in milk, pumpkin (here's where I waited for no witnesses), tomato sauce, brown sugar, paprika, worcestershire sauce, salt, garlic powder, and pepper.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture begins to simmer.  Add pasta and peas and heat through.  Spoon half into a casserole dish and freeze for another meal.  Serve remaining half. 

Amazingly, shockingly, everyone liked this!  I was so uncertain.  I don't even know if I liked it all that well.  But Nathan loved it.  And Steve said it had a great flavor, and that he could really taste the ground turkey.  After the meal, when no children were around, I did confess to him the secret ingredient, and then he speculated that maybe that is what the taste difference was rather than the turkey.  But he said he didn't care because it is the taste of pumpkin he dislikes and you couldn't taste the pumpkin.  This looked like a regular Italian dish, I think because of the tomato sauce and the paprika lending it's color.  Anyway this was a surprise hit.  A dark horse.  And the best part is, they still don't know.  They will most likely eat the leftovers and love them, too.  I am pretty happy.  I feel like a secret agent cook.

Skillet Pork Hash

This is supposed to be a one dish meal, but I don't have an oven-proof skillet, so it was not as easy as they said.  But that's not really their fault, I guess.  I've never had or made hash before.  I have heard of some people having "corn beef hash" but had/have only a vague idea of what that is.  I remember my grandfather eating something out of a can that he called "hash" that looked disgusting.  So there was nothing in the title of this recipe that made me want to try it.  But the ingredients sounded yummy and the recipe sounded simple, so I decided to go for it.  This is from Back of the Box, and it's a recipe submitted by the National Pork Board (of which I hope to never be a member), so nothing specific that they want you to buy, except the pork.

Skillet Pork Hash
1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb boneless pork loin, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
16 oz pkg refrigerated cooked, peeled, and diced potatoes (I used half of a bag of frozen cubed potatoes, aka hash browns)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/3 cup chicken broth
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (omitted by me)

Heat oil in large ovenproof skillet (or just whatever skillet you have) over medium-high heat.  Cook pork 3-4 minutes, until slightly brown.  Stir in potato, onion, green pepper, garlic, broth, thyme, salt, and pepper.  Cover, lower heat, and simmer for 8-10 minutes.  Place skillet under broiler (first transfer to an 11x7 greased baking dish if you don't have the ovenproof kind of skillet) 4-5 inches from the heat source.  Broil until surface of hash is crisp and golden brown, about 2 minutes.  Sprinkle with parsley.

This definitely did not look very appetizing.  Hardly any color to it, except from the green pepper.  It smelled okay.  And ultimately it tasted okay, too.  You can't really go wrong, I guess, with meat and potatoes, and it didn't have any weird sauce.  But this recipe was just "fine," not great.  Not yummy.  Also, not keeping..

Pumpkin Cake Donuts

TWO spontaneous recipes this weekend!  One was the pumpkin no-bakes, and this was the other one.  Another faithful blog reader posted this recipe on my wall after she said the was making them and I said they sounded good.  This is such a yummy time of year with all these pumpkin recipes.  Says me, and only me, at my house.  But I figured that even if nobody liked them, I could share them.  So I brought some to church last night for my friend Autumn.  We both like the Baked Apple Donuts recipe that is on here, and I did something similar at the end with these pumpkin donuts.  Also I don't have a donut pan, so I made these in muffin tins, then rolled them in butter and cinnamon sugar.  Yum.  This is a King Arthur Flour recipe.

Pumpkin Cake Donuts
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice, or 3/4 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp each nutmeg and ginger (I used 1 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice because my friend that gave me the recipe, as well as several commenters on the King Arthur website, said the donuts seemed like they needed more spice)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour (of course they suggest King Arthur)
Coating:
3 tbsp cinnamon-sugar
(I use 1 stick of butter melted, in one bowl, and 1 cup of sugar + 2 tsp cinnamon in another)

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease two standard donut pans. If you don't have doughnut pans, you can bake these in a standard muffin tin; they just won't be doughnuts (yes they will, they'll just be a different shape).

2) Beat together the oil, eggs, sugar, pumpkin, spices, salt, and baking powder until smooth.

3) Add the flour, stirring just until smooth.

4) Fill the wells of the doughnut pans about 3/4 full; use a scant 1/4 cup of batter in each well. If you're making muffins, fill each well about 3/4 full; the recipe makes about 15 (mine made 18), so you'll need to bake in two batches (unless you have two muffin pans)(which I do).

6) Bake the doughnuts for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. If you're making muffins, they'll need to bake for 23 to 25 minutes.

7) Remove the doughnuts from the oven, and after about 5 minutes, loosen their edges, and transfer them to a rack to cool.

8) While the doughnuts are still warm (but no longer fragile), gently shake them in a bag with the cinnamon-sugar. If you've made muffins, sprinkle their tops heavily with cinnamon-sugar.  (here is where I roll them in melted butter and then the cinnamon sugar)

9) Cool completely, and wrap airtight; store at room temperature for several days.

Of course these were great.  They smelled great too.  They were much easier to make than baked apple donuts, which require you to peel and grate apples.  The kids and the hubs liked these, although they will not replace the apple ones in their hearts.  Nathan took one bite and said "why did you have to put pumpkin in them??"  Poor kid.  He just licked all the cinnamon sugar from his and threw away the rest, practically intact but for the one small bite missing.  I hope Autumn liked them, too, although she hasn't let me know.  I gave two to our tenant and she texted me this morning and said she really liked them, and was I aware that pumpkins are actually vegetables?  Ha.  I told her I try not to think about that.  It is quite inconsistent with my normal pattern.  Keeping this recipe for sure.

 

Chicken Mozzarella

This looked like a really easy recipe, and I only had to buy the tomatoes.  Which is exactly what they wanted you to buy.  So they got me on this one, too.  But I did buy generic.  But this recipe was a cheap one to slip into my meal plan since I always have chicken in the freezer and I almost always have some remnants of pasta laying around from other recipes.  From Back of the Box Cookbook.

Chicken Mozzarella
6 oz bow tie or penne pasta
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (I used 6...I'd rather have leftovers than barely enough)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes with garlic and onion
1/2 cup fresh sliced mushrooms (omitted by me)
1/2 tsp crushed dried rosemary or basil (I used basil because it seeemed more Italian-y)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions;drain.  Meanwhile, season chicken with garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat.  Brown chicken about 4 minutes on each side.  Add undrained tomatoes, mushrooms, and rosemary or basil.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 5-10 minutes or until sauce is thickened and chicken is 160 degrees.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Cover and let stand for 2 minutes.  Serve over pasta.

We had this with garlic bread on the side.  Depending on what pasta you use, this recipe could be gluten-free, so I put it in that category, too.

So, since it used a can of diced tomatoes and no other liquid, the sauce wasn't really very saucy.  The kids picked around their tomatoes, and without that it was just like red water for sauce.  Despite that, it was tasty.  Everyone at least ate the chicken and some of their noodles.  Probably we should have had a vegetable with this, but we didn't.  I looked back through my keeper book and saw similar recipes to this with better sauce options, so I decided not to keep this one.  But I did like how easy to make and easy to buy for it was.

No-Bake Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

My friend and faithful New Recipe Night blog reader posted this cookie recipe yesterday that she made for their home fellowship.  She said they ended up tasting too healthy and more like a breakfast cookie than a dessert one.  I knew nobody but me would like these at my house, because I am the only pumpkin lover; nobody else here is even a pumpkin liker.  She got the recipe from another blog, chocolate-covered katie.  I try to never cover myself in chocolate, or any substance for that matter.  There are too many implications, and possible consequences, such as ants and husbands.  Anyway that's the name of her blog.  Here is the recipe.

No-Bake Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

• 3/4 cup quick oats
• 1/2 cup oat flour (or make your own by blending oats in a food processor until they become powder. Measure after blending)(I did this with my mini Tupperware chopper)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup xylitol or sugar (or coconut sugar or sucanat)(I just used white sugar)
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional: a pinch pumpkin pie spice as well)(which I did add, about 1/8 tsp)
• optional: handful mini chocolate chips (of course I added these)
• 1/3 cup canned pumpkin (or sweet potato puree)
• 2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons milk of choice, as needed
• 1 tablespoon oil (omit if you desire, but I can’t vouch for the results)(I used olive oil)
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Combine all dry ingredients and stir very well. In a separate bowl, combine all liquid (including pumpkin). Then stir to combine, and form into balls or cookies. Or put in the fridge to firm up a little before forming cookies.

I put mine in the fridge for 20 minutes after mixing before forming into balls, and then for about 30 minutes after before I was ready to sit down and eat one.  They were still pretty soft, didn't really hold together like a typical no bake.  But I would say they were good!  Definitely not dessert-like, though.  Like a cold pumpkin granola bar.  But it is perfect with my coffee!

Reese's Chewy Chocolate Pan Cookies

I made these for home fellowship.  We have our co-op on Fridays now, which means I have to make a quick dessert for home fellowship.  These are cookie-like things that you make like brownies, so only one pan in the oven instead of multiple pans.  This is from Back of the Box, and they want you to buy Reese's peanut butter chips.  Which I did.  Because I have not seen a store brand of that before.  And even if I did I might not buy it because Reese's is the best.  They also make puffs, which are a tasty breakfast cereal.

Reese's Chewy Chocolate Pan Cookies
1 1/4 cups butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sugar (ooh that seems like a lot)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
10 oz pkg peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease 15x10x1 inch jelly roll pan.  Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.  Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; gradually blend into butter mixture.  Stir in peanut butter chips.  Spread batter into prepared pan.  Bake 20 minutes or until set.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack; cut into bars.

Of course these came out great.  The batter tasted yummy when I licked it off the beater, and then the cookies tasted great too.  It was much easier than making 3 or 4 cookie sheets' worth of cookies so it was perfect for a busy day.  Everyone in my house loves Reese's Anything, so this one is a keeper for sure.

Mini Meatloaf Burgers

We had these for supper last night.  I love meatloaf (I know most people don't...my mom makes a great meatloaf, not like the ones you've heard about), so I thought this would be fun to try.  It's from Back of the Box Cooking, and the thing they want you to buy is Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce and Heinz ketchup.  I already had everything I needed for this recipe so I didn't buy anything for it.

Mini Meatloaf Burgers
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp ketchup
1 lb lean ground beef
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 tbsp plain dry bread crumbs
Salt & pepper (optional, and I can't imagine needing to add salt if your first ingredient is 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce...I didn't add any additional, or pepper either)

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl.  Shape into 4 patties.  In a large skillet, cook burgers over medium high heat for 5-7 minutes on each side or until cooked through.

These were okay.  Not great, but not bad either.  They didn't really stick together that well when they were in the skillet, they probably could have used more bread crumbs, maybe.  We had this with tater tots, which Nathan liked for the first time.  So in that aspect, the meal was a success.  He didn't like the meat, though, which I gave him, cut up, on his plate. So it was an easy meal, but I have other easy burger recipes that I like better than this one. 

Caramel Apple Pork Chops

I almost passed by this recipe because it calls for spinach, and I'm no Popeye.  But I kept looking at it because the rest of it sounded so good.  So I subbed green beans for the spinach and made this for supper tonight.  It came out so. so. good.  It's from Simple & Delicious.

Caramel Apple Pork Chops
4 bacon strips, chopped
4 boneless pork chops
3 small apples, peeled and thinly sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
4 tsp brown sugar (I may have added a bit more...)
1 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 pkg (6 oz each) fresh baby spinach (I used 2 cups of frozen green beans from Steve's friend's garden)
3 tbsp chopped walnuts, toasted

Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until crisp.  Remove to paper towels to drain, reserving 3 tsp drippings (I didn't measure I just eyeballed this).  Cook pork chops in 2 tsp reserved drippings in the same skillet over medium heat for 2-3 minutes on each side or until lightly browned.  Remove and keep warm.

Saute apples and onions in 1 tsp reserved drippings in the same skillet until apples are crisp-tender.  Stir in the brown sugar, butter, salt, cinnamon, and pepper.  Add broth; bring to a boil.  Add pork chops.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer 4-5 minutes or until meat thermometer reads 145 (that seems low...mine was 160ish).

Remove chops to serving platter; let stand for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile add spinach to skillet and cook until wilted (I left the pork chops in the skillet and added the green beans to the skillet, recovered and simmered another 5 minutes).  Sprinkle with bacon and walnuts.

Yum.  Perfect fall recipe.  This is going to replace another pork chop and apple recipe I have in my keeper book because this recipe is way better.  Definitely will make this again...

Cilantro Lime Corn

We had this with the Smothered Burritos that I just posted.  This sounded like it would be a good side dish for a Mexican meal, which we have fairly often.  We could have had beans and rice with this, because we had some Haitian ones left over, but we are pretty riced out right now.  This recipe came from Back of the Box Cooking, and the thing they want you to buy is Birds Eye corn.  But I bought Great Value corn.

Cilantro Lime Corn
3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 tsp black pepper
pinch salt
1/4 cup diced onion
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced (I left this out, I think for obvious reasons)
1 lb bag of frozen corn, thawed and drained (I used 2 cups frozen and I didn't even thaw it first)

In a saute pan (small skillet? I used a saucepan) combine butter, lime juice, cilantro, pepper, and salt.  Melt over medium-high heat.  Add onion and peppers and saute until onion is transparent and pepper is soft.  Add corn and cook until heated through.  Serve as a hot side dish or with chips as an appetizer.

Easy.  But I didn't really like it.  Too many flavors, I think, especially the lime juice.  I like both lime and cilantro very much, but I guess I don't like them together.  Or on corn or something.  Maybe I would like it better as a dip for tortilla chips, which I love, if it didn't have the competing flavors of the burritos or other Mexican dish.  However Steve & Andrew both really liked it, and Andrew wants the recipe, even.  So that is a success, even if it isn't a keeper.

Smothered Burritos

We had this last Sunday when Steve's oldest (by length of time known, not by his age) friend was visiting from NC.  It was easy to throw together, and I pretty much knew we would like it.  I have another recipe (Garlic Beef Enchiladas) kind of like this that is fabulous, but it takes a long time because you make the sauce from scratch.  So this seemed like it would be a quick easy thing to throw together.  We had this with Cilantro Lime Corn, which I will post separately.  This one is from Simple & Delicious.

Smothered Burritos
4 10-inch flour tortillas (I had 6 8-inch ones instead)
1 lb ground beef
1 can (10 oz) green enchilada sauce
3/4 cup salsa verde (I couldn't find this this time at Walmart so I used regular salsa-my fave is Pace)
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used shredded Mexican cheese, and I used more than this, probably closer to 2 cups)

Combine enchilada sauce and salsa in a bowl.  Cook beef over  medium heat in a large skillet until no longer pink; drain.  Stir in 1/2 cup sauce mixture.

Spoon beef mixture evenly onto tortillas; sprinkle each with about 3 tbsp cheese.  Fold sides and ends over filling and roll up.  Transfer to a greased 11x7 baking dish.  Pour remaining sauce over burritos; sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake, uncovered, at 375 for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

I don't know the difference between enchiladas and burritos.  These seem more like enchiladas because they have a sauce over them.  But I'm no Mexican expert.  Whatever you call them, these were very yummy.  Everyone liked them, except Nathan.  It's already in the keeper book...

Bannann Peze

I have had plantains a few times in Haiti, and I haven't really liked them.  The texture, I think.  But it seemed like an authentic Haitian meal would not be complete without them.  So I bought 3 of them for $1.50 at Hannaford (a cheap experiment).  These things are really hard to peel.  Steve and I struggled but we did it (2 adults vs 3 plantains should not have been so hard).  This is from A Taste of Haiti.

Bannann Peze
1 plaintain
1 cup oil (I used canola oil)

Peel the plantains.  (It sounds so simple.  Cut 1 inch off each end.  Stick knife into skin and make one long cut from end to end, making sure you are not cutting into the plantain.  Remove skin by placing knife into the incision and dislodging skin from one end to the other, one inch at a time, until you have removed the entire skin.  Scrape the threads from the plantain with a knife.)

Cut plantain into 1 inch chunks.  Heat oil over medium high heat and fry plantains until they are lightly browned on each side.  Remove from oil and place on cutting board.  Using a broad solid spatula (if you don't have a Haitian plantain press, which I do not), press down on each piece (cut sides up) so they spread out.  Put back into oil and fry for 1-2 more minutes, or until golden brown.  Serve with sos ti-malis (or with salt and ketchup, if you are Americans in Haiti).

Yeah, so I still don't like them.  But Gessie and her son ate them all up.  Steve ate them, too, and told me they tasted just like the ones in Haiti.  So I was happy that I made them, because they were a hit.  The hardest part was peeling the darn things, once that was done the rest was easy.  And I was so happy with how they looked, exactly like the ones I have eaten there.  So if I am doing a Haitian meal again, I will include these, even though I won't eat them again myself.

Griyo

Several months ago, I showed my A Taste of Haiti cookbook to our Kreyol teacher, Gessie.  She said I had to make something for her out of it.  I agreed, and then I forgot all about it.  But she didn't!  A few weeks ago, she asked when I was having her over for Kreyol food.  So it was this past Thursday.  I wanted to make yummy authentic Haitian food for her.  We had Diri ak Pwa (posted in September under Beans & Rice), Griyo (which is "pork bits"...I like Griyo better), Bannann Peze (Pressed Plaintain, which I will post separately), and Sos Ti-Malis to cover it all.  A delicious 4-course meal.  I wanted to make dessert, but I ran out of steam.

Griyo
4-6 lb pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch cubes
2 limes, cut in half
4 tbsp pikliz (posted a few months ago)
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
4 cloves
1 onion, sliced thin
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 thyme sprig
1/2 green pepper, sliced thin
2 shallots, sliced thin
2 cups sos ti-malis

Wash meat in cold water.  Clean meat with lime halves and rinse with water again.  In a large bowl, marinate meat with pikliz, salt, pepper, cloves, onion, garlic, thyme, green pepper, and shallots.  Marinate at least 1 hour.

Transfer all contents of bowl to a large skillet and simmer on medium heat for 40 minutes.

Transfer to a greased 9x13 baking dish.  Cover and cook at 375 for 1 hour.  Uncover and cook for another 30 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve with rice, bannann peze, sos ti-malis, and pikliz.

So so good.  Easier than the Haitian poultry recipes I've tried, since most of the cooking time is in the oven and you don't have to worry about turning it over or if the sauce is getting too thick.  This was fabulous, 5 adults, 3 kids, no leftovers.  Gessie assured me it tasted authentic.  I think she was serious.

I also just added a "Haitian food" label, so all the Haitian recipes will be in one place and easy to find.  Right now there are only 9 recipes.  But as you can see, when you make a Haitian meal, you need like 5 of them between the sos and the pikliz.  It will definitely make it easier for me in the future  =o)  I'm not sure if any of you will make any of these...but tell me if you do!

Pacific Rim Wraps

We had this last week for supper on a night that I was very tired due to working.  I used precooked chicken strips that I had a coupon for, so the prep was very easy.  This is from Back of the Box, and the thing they want you to buy is the evaporated milk for the homemade dressing that goes in these wraps.  I did buy evaporated milk, but not the brand they wanted me to.

Pacific Rim Wraps with Creamy Citrus Ginger Dressing
Dressing:
5 oz can evaporated milk
5 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Salad:
4 cups washed salad greens (or 6.5 oz pkg)
3 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 cup matchstick carrots
1 cup fresh sugar snap peas, cut in half (I left these out)(are you surprised?)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
6 8-inch flour tortillas

Combine all dressing ingredients into a jar or cup with tight fitting lid (I used one of the kids' Tupperware sippy cups...only by sheer coincidence did my tired self not hand it to Emma to drink...) and shake well until blended.

Combine all salad ingredients except tortillas in a large bowl.  Add 2/3 cup dressing; toss until evenly coated.  Place 1 cup salad mixture onto each tortilla.  Roll up tightly.  Cut in half and serve alongside remaining dressing.

These were so so good.  Nathan only had the chicken.  Emma was skeptical but did eat it the way it was given to her, once all the ingredients were spelled out.  Steve and I thought they were fabulous.  And they were very easy to throw together.  Definitely keeping it.  Oh, and if you make these, you can't really save the leftover dressing, which wasn't too much anyway.  It says it's only good for a day after you make it.

Cherry Cordial Cookies

As any of you who have been reading for a while know, I love chocolate and fruit together.  So I had to make these cookies.  I made them on Friday for home fellowship.  My friend Barbie (formerly mentioned in a previous blog post) was here for the afternoon and she helped me make these.  From Simple & Delicious Oct/Nov 2012.

Cherry Cordial Cookies
1 pkg (17 1/2 oz) sugar cookie mix (you could use your own sugar cookie recipe, too)
3/4 cup chopped dried cherries
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
3/4 cup cherry preserves (I used Polaner All Fruit)
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup white baking chips

Place cookie mix, cherries, butter, and egg in a large bowl, beat until well mixed.  Shape into 1-inch balls and place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.  Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until edges are browned.  Meanwhile, place cherry preserves in a small microwave safe bowl.  Microwave on high for 1 minute.  Stir in chocolate chips until melted.  If necessary, microwave in 10 to 20 second intervals until chips are melted; stir until blended.

When cookies are done, make an indentation in the center of each warm cookie using the back of a tablespoon (this didn't work for us; too much cookie stuck to the spoon.  We used a small Tupperware tool [okay, it was a little pill holder I got from a grab bag at a party][and it was Barbie's idea] to make the indentation).  Fill indentations with cherry mixture.  Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Microwave white baking chips until melted.  Drizzle over cookies.  Let stand until set.

Barbie and I made the executive decision not to add the white chocolate drizzle.  The cookies didn't need it; they tasted great without it.  The reason we know this is because one "broke" and we had to try it.  And we were already speculating about how we would transport these cookies, because we knew if we stacked them, some of the filling from the bottom cookies would get on the ones above them.  But to transport them in a single layer would have required like 6 plates.  So we decided to skip the white drizzle and stack them a little, figuring that people probably wouldn't mind if some of the filling mingled.

Additionally, we had about 1/3 to 1/2 of the filling left after all the indentations were filled.  We made the cookies the recommended size, and they say the yield for this recipe is 3 1/2 dozen.  We got 31 cookies, counting the one that broke.  So I think you could easily use 1 cup of chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of cherry preserves and be fine.  For the extra filling, I have plans to remelt it some night and dip pretzels in it.  Mmmmm.

Now, how did people like them?  Some of the kids at HF didn't.  But the grown ups did.  Even Nick, who doesn't like fruit, liked them.  Today I brought the leftovers to my mom's house, and all the adults there except my sister liked them.  I don't know why she didn't.  Her tastebuds are off right now because she is cutting waaaay back on her diet pepsi intake.  She is just starting to know what food tastes like, so it will take some time.  I will definitely make these again, I was very happy with how they turned out.

Layered Potato Beef Casserole

This is the recipe you make with the beef stew leftovers.  It's kind of like scalloped potatoes, which my husband loves because he says his grandmother used to make them a lot.  We had them sometimes, too, and sometimes mom would throw leftover ham in with them.  I tried making them from scratch once, but the sauce was too thin (I thought) and not cheesy enough.  Beef stew and scalloped potatoes is a weird combination I would definitely not have thought up on my own.  But I guess that is why I do not write cookbooks.  We had a lot of beef stew leftover, I could have made like 3 of these, but I stuck with the original amount.  My friend Barbie and her girls were over and were going to eat dinner with us, too.  So making this with her and then eating it with them was great fun, no matter how the dish turned out.

Layered Potato Beef Casserole
3 tbsp butter, divided
2 tbsp flour
3/4 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups milk
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
4 cups leftover beef stew
4 medium yukon potaotes, thinly sliced (I peeled mine first because my kids don't like potato peels)
1/3 cup crushed ritz crackers
1 tbsp dried parsley flakes (omitted by me...why add unnecessary green?  First impressions are important)
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Melt 2 tbsp butter in large saucepan.  Stir in the flour, rosemary, pepper, and salt until blended; gradually add milk.  Bring to a boil.  Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.  Remove from heat; stir in cheese until melted.

Spoon 2 cups beef stew into greased 2 1/2 qt baking dish (I think mine was only 2 qt...as it turns out, that matters).  Layer with half of the potatoes and half of the cheese sauce.  Layer with remaining stew, potatoes, and sauce (mine was filled to the very brim of the dish).

Cover (my cover did fit on...) and bake at 400 for 45-50 minutes (Barbie: you should put a cookie sheet under that because it's going to overflow and get all over the bottom of your oven.  Me: Nah.  I don't care) or until potatoes are tender (22 minutes in...I hear a weird simmer-y noise.  Ah, it's overflowing.  Barbie was right.  She makes sure I know this as I slide a cookie sheet onto the rack under the one the dish is on).  Melt remaining butter.  Stir in crushed crackers, parsley, and garlic powder.  Sprinkle over casserole.  Bake, uncovered, 5-10 more minutes longer (it is dripping and overflowing this whole time) or until topping is golden brown.  Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

So smoke was wafting out of my oven, because even after I put the cookie sheet in there, cheese was dripping on to that, and burning, and making smoke.  I turned on the fan and opened a window, so the smoke detector did not go off (PHEW!  This was Barbie's first meal at our house, and that would NOT have been a good first impression..."Come eat at my house and I'll almost burn it down, or I'll definitely at least burn dinner.")  When all was said and done, and we were sitting down and eating, everybody except Nathan liked this.  We didn't let it sit for 10 minutes because we were in a rush to get to home fellowship, so the sauce was very runny, but also very tasty.  The beef stew components seemed out of place, but tasted fine.  Barbie liked it well enough to take home the leftovers, which you do not do if you are just trying to be polite. So I would call it a success.  And since I used my new no-stick Wilton cookie sheet, the char just literally washed right off. 

Chilly Night Beef Stew

You can't just say "beef stew," apparently.  We did have this on a fall night, but it wasn't that chilly.  But that's okay because I do what I want.  I like when recipes give you another recipe right after to try with the leftovers, because with beef stew there are always leftovers, and it's fun to try something new.  So this one had the stew, and then a second one using stew leftovers which is kind of like scalloped potatoes, which I will post separately.  This is from Simple & Delicious.  It's written to go into the crock pot, but I didn't get myself in gear enough to get it in there in time on Monday morning, so at about 2ish I started it and it simmered on the stove all afternoon. That would have been good for a chilly night, too.

Chilly Night Beef Stew
6 tbsp flour
1 1/2 tsp salt, divided
1 tsp pepper, divided
2 lbs beef stew meat
1/4 cup olive oil
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
6 medium carrots, sliced
2 medium onions, diced
4 celery ribs, sliced
2 cans (14 1/2 oz each) beef broth (I used 4 cups homemade stock)
2 cans (11 1/2 oz each) V8 juice (I had plain tomato juice leftover from something else so I used that)
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp paprika
6 tbsp cornstarch
1/3 cup cold water

Combine flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper in large ziploc bag.  Add beef, a few pieces at a time, and shake to coat.  Brown beef in oil in batches in a large skillet.

Transfer meat and drippings to a 6-qt slow cooker.  Add potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery.  Combine broth, juice, worcestershire sauce, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, basil, paprika, and remaining salt and pepper; pour over top.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or until meat and veggies are tender.  Combine cornstarch and water until smooth; stir into stew.  Cover and cook 30 minutes longer or until thickened.  Discard bay leaves and serve.

To make on the stovetop:  Brown meat in smallish sized stockpot (I started in a Dutch oven and had to switch over because it wasn't big enough), then add all other ingredients through cornstarch.  Cover and simmer until your husband gets home, and then eat it (making it this way, I didn't add the cornstarch to thicken it, it was thick enough already).

This came out yummy.  I am going to have to compare it to my other beef stew recipe(s) to see if it will replace it or not.  I liked the spices and I liked the tomato juice in this one.

Pan-Fried Chicken with Hoisin Cranberry Sauce

It's that time of year when cranberry recipes make their appearances.  Even if it's canned cranberries.  The sauce that goes with this chicken has hoisin sauce in it, which I couldn't find at Walmart.  When I went to Hannaford to look, I went to the "international" section and couldn't find it there either.  I texted my sister to find out what the heck hoisin sauce was.  Then I called my husband and he googled it too.  Both of them found Hannaford's website which said what brand they had; my sister even texted me the picture.  It wasn't there.  I was getting mad.  I got what I thought would be a good alternative, based on a recipe Steve found for homemade hoisin sauce.  Then, because Steve found out it was "like Chinese barbecue sauce," I thought I would check by the ketchup and mustard, where the normal barbecue sauce is.  And there it was.  What weird product placement.  So all this made me mad at the recipe before I had even begun.  But it ended up being yummy enough that it was okay...from Simple & Delicious Oct/Nov 2012.

Pan-Fried Chicken with Hoisin Cranberry Sauce
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup panko bread crumbs
2 tbsp olive oil
 Sauce:
14 oz can whole-berry cranberry sauce
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Flatten chicken slightly; sprinkle with salt, pepper, and ginger.  Place the flour, eggs, and bread crumbs in separate shallow bowls.  Coat chicken with flour, dip in eggs, then coat with crumbs.

Cook chicken in oil in a large skillet over medium heat for 4-6 minutes on each side or until no longer pink.

Combine all sauce ingredients in a saucepan; heat through.  Serve with chicken.

Emma & Nathan didn't want the sauce on theirs.  Sam loved the sauce.  The chicken was juicy in the middle and the coating was crispy.  The sauce was very good.  It tasted very Chinese-y.  Almost like the sauce on the ribs you get at a Chinese restaurant, but not as thick.  And, no MSG.  Sam and I had some of the leftovers for lunch today, and the chicken wasn't crispy anymore, but I think the sauce was even better.

Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse

We were going to have this for home fellowship last week, but then it got cancelled, for various reasons.  Emma and I decided to make this today, since we had already bought all the ingredients.  Emma loves Nutella, so I was thinking of her when I picked out this recipe.  It was very easy, and she did the whole thing herself, with just a tiny bit of help from me reading the recipe and helping with the measurements.  It's from Simple & Delicious.

Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse
1 3/4 cup cold milk
1 pkg (3.9 oz) instant chocolate pudding mix
1/2 cup nutella
1 3/4 cup cool whip
Additional cool whip for garnish

Whisk milk and pudding mix in a large bowl for 2 minutes.  Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft set.  Whisk in Nutella until smooth.  Fold in whipped topping.  Spoon into 6 dessert dishes.  Chill until serving.  Garnish with additional cool whip before serving.

We just left ours in a big bowl and spooned servings out of it.  And I actually didn't get to try it, except for licking the spoon after we made it, because I went to work.  But Steve and the kids greatly enjoyed it.  And Emma was so proud that she had made it herself.

Beef Macaroni and Cheese

This was an easy recipe from Back of the Box.  All I had to buy were the tomatoes.  That is exactly the ingredient they want you to buy, so they got me on this one.  Tonight was a good night for an easy one because I worked the last two nights and only slept a few hours today.  It is similar to chop suey...our family calls it goulash.

Beef Macaroni and Cheese
1 lb ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
14 oz can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano, undrained
1 cup elbow macaroni
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Brown beef and onions until no longer pink; drain if necessary.  Add tomatoes with their juice and water; bring to a boil.  Stir in macaroni.  Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until macaroni is tender.  Stir in cheese.

See how easy?  When I was making this I thought it didn't look that great.  But once I got to the last step and added the cheese, it really came together and looked yummy.  Nathan doesn't like cheese (IF and only if he knows it's there...) so I scooped out a little bit for him before I added the cheese in.  Everybody loved this and it was really so easy.  Definitely keeping.

Chicken Sticks with Pineapple-Peanut Sauce

This is from Back of the Box.  I made another chicken recipe one time with peanut butter and it was really tasty so I wanted to try this one, too.  The featured ingredient is the pineapple.  They want you to buy Dole but I bought Great Value.

Chicken Sticks with Pineapple-Peanut Sauce
8 or 9 metal skewers (I used wooden ones, soaked for 30 minutes, because I don't want to have to wash skewers along with everything else...)
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 8-oz can crushed pineapple
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp lime juice
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Cut chicken into strips 1/2 inch wide and 3 or 4 inches long.  Thread two to three strips of meat onto each skewer.  Arrange skewers on broiler pan sprayed with cooking spray.  Drain pineapple, reserving 1/4 cup juice (don't bother with this step...I drained mine and got exactly 1/4 cup juice, and you end up combining it all anyway).  Combine crushed pineapple, reserved juice, peanut butter, brown sugar, lime juice, curry powder, and ginger in blender or food processor.  Cover and blend until smooth.  Reserve 3/4 cup sauce for dipping; set aside.  Brush part of the remaining pineapple sauce over chicken.  Broil chicken 4 inches from heat, turning once and brushing with sauce, for about 10 minutes or until meat is no longer pink.  Discard any remaining sauce used during grilling.  Serve chicken with reserved pineapple sauce for dipping.

This was SO fabulous.  The sauce smelled great before it ever got near the chicken.  It reminded me of a cross between chex mix seasoning and Watkins ground beef seasoning (only my mom & sister will know what that is...) but don't let that throw you.  Once I ate it on the chicken it was unbelievably good...all the layers of flavor, the subtle pineapple with the peanut butter and a hint of the chex mixy-ness.  We are definitely keeping this one and having it again.  Really, so so good.

Blueberry Ginger Muffin Tops

This is from Back of the Box cooking.  We always have blueberries now, because of our blueberry bushes.  So I didn't have to buy anything special for this recipe, which is always convenient, AND lets me make more new things during the week. The thing they want you to buy for this recipe is the oatmeal.  This recipe is like muffin batter, but a bit thicker, and you bake them on a cookie sheet instead of muffin tins, so you just get the tops of the muffins. 

Blueberry Ginger Muffin Tops
1 1/2 cups oats (quick or old-fashioned)(I used quick)
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 1/3 cup flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp ground ginger
2/3 cup milk
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 400.  Grease large cookie sheet.  Combine oats and sugar.  For streusel topping, combine 1/4 cup oat & sugar mixture with 1 tbsp of the melted butter in a small bowl; set aside.  For muffins, add flour, baking powder, and ginger to remaining oat mixture and mix well.  Combine milk, remaining melted butter, and egg; add to dry ingredients just until moistened.  Stir in blueberries.  Drop by measured 1/4 cupfuls onto prepared cookie sheet.  Sprinkle streusel topping evenly over batter, patting gently.  Bake 20 to 22 minutes, or until golden brown.  Serve warm.

First of all, not enough streusel topping, I only had enough for a scant smattering on 10 of the 12 muffin tops.  Secondly, the kids didn't really like these.  Nathan didn't even want to try one.  Emma and Sam both tried them,but they didn't like the oatmeal.  Steve and I liked them though.  And I had a leftover one for breakfast with my coffee this morning and I thought they were good.  I couldn't really taste the ginger in them, though.  To me they were just like oatmeal blueberry muffins.  So pretty good, but why make something again that I know the kids won't like?  So, not saving...

Southwest Pulled Pork

My new Simple & Delicious came a couple of weeks ago, and this is the first recipe I have marked to try.  It makes a lot of pulled pork and you have it on rolls.  Then it has 2 recipes you can make with the leftover meat, but I didn't like the looks of either of those, so I froze the leftovers to have pulled pork sandwiches again soon.

Southwest Pulled Pork
1 boneless pork shoulder butt roast
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (I left this out)
1 large sweet onion, coarsely chopped
2 cans (4 oz each) chopped green chilies
1 cup chicken broth
kaiser rolls, split

Cut roast in half (I removed all the fat I could at this point, too).  Combine the chili powder, brown sugar, cumin, salt, pepper, and cayenne in a small bowl; rub over meat.  Transfer to a 5 qt slow cooker.  Top with onion and chilies.  Pour broth around meat.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or until tender.  Remove meat; cool slightly.  Skim fat from cooking juices.  Shred pork with 2 forks and return to slow cooker; heat through.  Serve on rolls.

This was quite good.  It almost had the taste of taco seasoning.  All the kids liked it, even Emma who hates to chew meat, because it was nice and tender.  It makes me excited when I can freeze the rest, too.  Good easy meal that smelled great...a keeper! 

Drop Cornmeal Biscuits

I heart drop biscuits and drop cookies, because I hate to knead and roll out dough.  Not that I will never do it, because sometimes I will, but I like so much better a recipe that you just drop the dough.  We had these tonight with Yummy Chicken Soup, which is one of the first "new" things I ever tried way back when I first started doing new recipes.  It's still one of my favorites.  I thought these biscuits would go well with it.  The only featured ingredient here is Land O' Lakes butter, which of course I did not buy.  However, I did have to run to the "snack store" which is like 1 minute from my house to pay twice as much for butter as I would at any normal store because I only had 1/2 of a stick left instead of a whole stick.  That made me so mad that I bought some diet pepsi too.

Drop Cornmeal Biscuits
1 3/4 cup flour
2/3 cup cornmeal
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter
1 cup buttermilk (if you don't have it [and who has buttermilk laying around?] use 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar plus enough milk to equal 1 cup; let stand 5 minutes)

Preheat oven to 450.  Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; cut in butter with pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add buttermilk; stir until mixture is just combined (if batter is too thin [and how would I know, this being the first time I've made this?] stir in 1 to 2 tbsp additional flour).  Drop by 1/4 cupfuls, 1 inch apart, onto greased baking sheet.  Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown.

These came out perfect!  Even Nathan liked them.  They were great dunked in the soup, and I think they would be good with chili too because of the cornmeal.  But it wasn't overpowering cornmeal, it didn't have the texture or the yellow color of a corn muffin.  Definitely will make these again!