Peppermint Bark Ice Cream

I almost didn't post this one. It has good flavor but it took a long, long time to completely set up. It isn't a custard based ice cream, but one that is a simple mixture of heavy cream, sugar, milk, crushed candy canes, chopped bittersweet chocolate and chopped white chocolate.
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Again, good flavor but I think next time I would make a traditional vanilla ice cream and add the separate add-ins.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Peppermint Bark Ice Cream.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Turtle Cookies

I usually stick to recipes, not changing one little detail. I found this recipe and I loved the idea of making a spectacular, different kind of thumbprint cookie. The original recipe used melted caramel candies but I knew that I have a salted caramel recipe up my sleeve that kicks that idea's butt.

I'm going to just announce that this recipe stinks. I think maybe then I won't have to share with anyone else. Okay, maybe my husband will get a cookie or two :)



Seriously, these are great. I don't even like pecans. You know, I keep saying that about nuts. I think I may have changed my mind after my husband's pecan pie. I think I just don't like plain nuts but if they are encased in sweet gooeyness or coupled with chocolate and salted caramel... well, what's a girl to do? EAT IT!

In this picture you can see that I didn't even wait for the caramel sauce to cool and harden a bit before putting it together. I need to learn patience!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Chocolate Turtle Cookies.
Click here for the salted caramel recipe. This sauce is included in one of the best brownie recipes ever.

Tortilla Soup

The food blogger described this soup as easy and one pot (low mess in my mind) so I was on it. I'm glad that I tried a new recipe today. A soup was a great idea for a very cold, wintry day. And I love an enchilada/tortilla taste. Yum. I do need to say that this isn't very authentic Mexican. It felt like cheating but that's okay.

I think maybe I didn't use enough chicken. I'd probably add more vegetables of some sort too. I guess I'm used to a chunkier soup but the flavor was there. I used a mild canned enchilada sauce. I wonder if hot would have been too hot?

I garnished with avocado, baked tortilla strips (strips with oil and salt, baked at 400 for 10 minutes), cilantro, lime, sour cream, pepper jack cheese. Yum-o!

I've noticed that I don't print out a recipe until I've committed to making it again. I did send this recipe link to my husband so he can print it out tomorrow. I need to add it to my binder for future meal rotations.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Easy One Pot Tortilla Soup.

FAIL?

Well, Jim is eating his but maybe he's just being polite?

I made these "apple pies". I followed a recipe for the caramel apple pies and then just sauteed apples with butter, sugar, and cinnamon for James' pie. I call them pies but they're not really. Well, they have pie crust but only on top. I made little star and moon cutouts on the tops, so I knew that the star was James'. I guess I didn't figure that the caramel would ooze up and out of the ramekins.





Well, the crusts were fine. I think I'd make that recipe again. The caramel filling? Well, I didn't have Southern Comfort so I substituted another liqueur, Jim's ginger stuff. It seemed very thick and rich, but I thought it would bake up thick and rich too like a pecan pie filling. Well, no. It ended up kind of gloopy, for lack of a better word. The consistency of a raw egg white, you know, when you let it drip from the egg shell. It just hangs there, not really breaking off but just hanging on. Gloopy.

I didn't care for it.

Click here for the recipe for Spiced Caramel Apple Pie.
Click here for the recipe for Martha's Perfect Pie Crust (Pate Brisee). (I would make this part again. I am imagining using this for pot pies, minus a bit of the sugar.)

Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle Cookies

I made these cookies, thinking they'd maybe make it on my Christmas cookie plate later. Yeah, maybe. There are just so many cookies I'd like to make, so now that I've made these they might be out of my system, no matter how good they were. They were good! I found the recipe because I knew they'd be similar to Panera's cookies.

The first batch came out too dry. I overbaked. They were so soft to the touch that I kept adding minutes and more minutes to the baking time. Mistake. I guess they set a bit after you pull them out, more so than other kinds of cookies. So I learned. I made them smaller with the next batch and took them out earlier. They were crunchy on the outside but chewy on the inside. Yum. And so minty!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle Cookies.

What's for Dinner?

Well, I was by myself tonight. I hadn't planned anything but I defrosted a salmon fillet quickly and then baked it with this dry marinade. I like this stuff a lot- it's sweet and tangy. I found Wee Willy's at Cub, in the spice section.

The salmon is from Sam's Club. You can buy a package of them (10?) for like $19. It's a nice, quick option to have in the freezer.

The coleslaw is leftover from last night's dinner.

Thanksgiving

It's amazing how little time it takes to scarf down all that food, all that love, energy, and time spent cooking for two days. Was it worth it? Of course! I was very happy to try so many new recipes. I don't think a single one really disappointed. My cranberry walnut rolls weren't light and fluffy, but kind of dense but still good. It was one recipe I wouldn't repeat as is. I wonder if I kneaded too much? Anyway, lots of good food. And I made my own gravy! Very proud and happy :)


OH! And my husband made both desserts. I can't make any claims on those. He did a fabulous job!


Appetizer-

Stuffed Mushrooms

Meal-

Pioneer Style Herb Roasted Turkey with Sage Gravy

Unfortunately, I didn't get any "after" pictures of the turkey. This is the 20 pounder slathered in herb butter. James declared it "yucky" looking.

The turkey ended up with a fabulous brown crust. It was darn pretty. I am so regretful that I did not get one little picture. Oh well. I have something better- leftovers!

Pioneer Woman's Creamy Mashed Potatoes- These were great because I made them ahead of time and just stuck them in the oven while the turkey rested.


Brussel Sprouts Gratin- This isn't a picture from tonight's gratin. I was flying around the kitchen at the very end and didn't take a picture of the gratin or the turkey. Bummer.



Sourdough Stuffing with Carmelized Onions and Apples

Framboise Cranberry Sauce

Cranberry Walnut Rolls

Dessert-

Jim proudly serves up his creations.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Chocolate Pecan Pie

We are all satisifed and full. Our guests all went home with plenty of leftovers. That 2o pound bird was more than enough for our meal and many others. Happy Thanksgiving!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanila-Salted Caramel Buttercream

I finally tried THE chocolate cake recipe that I've seen so many times on food blogs. THE recipe is on the back of every Hershey's cocoa tin. Wow. I am so glad I tried this recipe. I guess I've been a cocoa snob, thinking my Penzey's Dutch cocoa is sooooo much better than plain old Hershey's cocoa. Maybe so. But this recipe reminds me of the fluffy, moist cake that you can can easily make with a boxed mix. Boxed mix is okay, and call me a snob again but I just think a homemade recipe with ingredients that you can pronounce is definitely the way to go.

So moist fluffy chocolate cake. Yum. And then there is a salted caramel sauce. A little bit of it went into the vanilla buttercream. And then a little is drizzled on top of the cupcake. Oh yum! Buttercream is usually a little too sweet for me so the saltiness of the caramel was good, cutting that sweetness a bit.

I'm so glad that (one of) my BFF's birthday is this week and I could make some cupcakes to share. I hope she likes them. Happy Birthday Bobbi! You better be at work tomorrow :)

Click here for the stolen recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla-Salted Caramel Buttercream.

Best Meal Ever

So I guess we were both really hungry. We both devoured our food. Jim proclaimed this "the best meal ever". It's damn good.

Easy notes: Make this on a Sunday, be leisurely about prep. I made the rice in the morning. I chopped the carrots, onion, garlic, ginger, and green onions ahead of time so when it came time to put everything together it was all just about following the recipe steps.

The sweet and sour chicken takes some effort because you have to pan fry the chicken pieces after they've been dipped in cornstarch and then egg. You brown them up and then put them in a 9x13 pan, pour the sweet and sour sauce over it, and then bake for an hour. You do need to flip the chicken pieces every 15-20 minutes so they don't dry out. In the last 15 minutes I started the fried rice.

Yum.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Vegetable Fried Rice

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust

Getting ready for Thanksgiving! I tried this recipe out last week, making it into mini cheesecakes that we could munch on all week. I also took two dozen of these babies to work. They were quickly devoured :)





We have declared them a success and will make the full sized cheesecake for Thanksgiving Day. Yay!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust.

Week's Menu

Sunday- Sweet and Sour Chicken & Vegetable Fried Rice

Monday- Tuscan Vegetable Soup

Tuesday- Leftovers

Wednesday- New recipe! Skinny Sloppy Joes & Buttermilk Broccoli Slaw

Thursday- Thanksgiving, baby! Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts Gratin, Cranberry Sauce, Cornbread Stuffing (?), Cloverleaf Rolls (new recipe), Pumpkin Cheesecake, Chocolate Pecan Pie (looking for recipe)

Friday- Leftovers

Saturday- Pizza

Tuscan Vegetable Soup

Update: I added a better picture. Also, added this to my "Easy" category!

Sunday's dinner- Tuscan Vegetable Soup. I added some prosciutto and pesto paste (new product I found).

This is fabulous soup. I've made this a few times now and each time it tastes different, probably because I'll vary the amounts of each vegetable or add more spices. It is just full of good vegetables and it really is very simple to make, after the time consuming part of vegetable chopping. I really need a sous chef in those moments!

My brother in law ate this soup one night and asked me, "Was this cooking all day?" No, but it sure tastes like it!

Click here for the stolen recipe. This blogger borrowed the recipe from a cookbook called The Food You Crave, which seems fitting for this soup!

Easy notes: I have chopped the vegetables and premeasured the spices (except for the salt) in a bowl the night before. It comes together pretty quick if you have that chore out of the way.

Fish Sticks

I forgot to take a picture until there were just two left. James wasn't thrilled with anything today, so I don't know why I dared to dream that he would try something new tonight. Oh well. We thought these were good, and easy! I will make these again, maybe with a bit more seasoning in the crumb mix and a bit more cooking spray across the tops to make them toasty looking.

But good!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Healthy Homemade Fish Sticks.

Star Wars cookies

I think these are my third official attempt at Royal Icing. I want to say that it's getting better with each attempt but I think I'm just failing to read the directions completely before I get too deep into the process.

Anyway, these were fun :) They were for James' 4th Birthday party and for the treat bags. Each of his little friends took home one cookie, wrapped with so much love.

Plain cookies. These are cute enough just like this!







I didn't get many pictures of the details but this is one cookie, very wet.



The cookies were all bagged up after completely drying overnight plus. I once made the mistake of moving and letting plastic wrap touch not-completely-dry cookies. Ugh. Never again.

We think they turned out well. Four year olds aren't picky!

My sister gave me this embosser for my birthday. Each cookie had my seal on it. I looked so professional!

Mummy Dogs

This was for my son. He didn't end up touching them. Stinker.

This idea is from this website.

Repeat

This is from a few weeks ago but the picture makes me happy. I must make this again especially now that it's cold!

Brussel Sprouts Gratin

I've made this recipe twice now and we've loved it. Jim isn't a big brussel sprouts fan but he really likes this one. How could he not like this recipe with shallots and brussel sprouts cooked in bacon grease and then with crumbled up bacon? Two strips of bacon isn't much in a recipe for two pounds of sprouts, but it's enough. Okay, confession. I used three strips.

Try this. We like it. We're making this for Thanksgiving dinner.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Brussel Sprouts Gratin.

Giveaway

A great blog that I read is having a giveaway! Click here to find out about the giveaway! (It's a fancy new vacuum!)

Ginger Pumpkin Muffins

These were bound to make both Jim and myself happy- they combine our loves of ginger and pumpkin!

These were very good. Jim ate one and when I told him he could have another he was obviously very happy. He said they are "very, very good". So glad :)

I actually made these not for us but for James. At naptime he told me it was the Sun's birthday and we need cake and presents. I went with it because it was a good way to get him to actually take a nap- if there was something to look forward to afterwards. So the muffins will serve as the cake. I don't know what we're going to do about the presents :)

Yeah, that's my muffin in the front. Its half eaten and then I thought maybe you'd like to see the inside of these muffins.

The recipe called for 1/2 cup of crystallized ginger. I didn't think James would care for that so I substituted 1/2 cup of mini chips. I know he'll love those.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Ginger Pumpkin Muffins. This is a recipe from one of my favorite bloggers. She does some great recipe comparisons.

Giant Ginger Cookies

My big sis needs a little cheering up so I baked some cookies for her. Okay, for all of us. I ended up only having a half cookie (3.5 points) but Jim enjoyed a whole one. He is a sucka for ginger anything :)

I hope Ana likes these! They are HUGE and gingerlicious. Martha just doesn't fail me!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Giant Ginger Cookies.