Sugar Cookie Bars

I have been shamed.

Apparently, someone other than my mom reads my ramblings here (hi sis!) so I have been summarily shamed today into posting. Which is fine, since I have a flipping backlog I have been ignoring anyway.

I made Christmas-ish cookies this year. Hubs & I are away for Christmas, so I didn’t have a whole lot of time before we left to bake. (I was also shamed by some friends for the lack of cookies, so apparently I will now be baking New Years cookies for several people. This is the season of my shaming.)

These little things are amazing. And so simple it makes you sad you’ve never thought of it before. Sugar Cookie Bars from Cooking Classy.

The recipe doesn’t make a lot of the frosting - I was dubious that it would be enough - but it’s rich, so you don’t need a lot. Also, the frosting doesn’t harden like store-bought cookies do, it stays soft. Yummmmm.

This is my Thanksgiving post

So, Thanksgiving has come and gone. I love Thanksgiving. Hubs and I have friends (and dogs) over and eat and drink and hangout. It’s super low-key and I love it. I also love Thanksgiving food. Except for stuffing/dressing.

This year, I cooked A Lot. I always do, but this year it seemed like so much more. I took no pictures though, because - well come on. I was cooking all day. There was no time for photos. I did take a picture of my gameplan:

I always make a plan like this for big meals. Several items aren’t on here - the cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, rolls, deviled eggs, and turkey. The turkey was the big ticket item, so everything else had to be worked around it. The others were made early because I planned ahead (for once!).

So… without further ado here’s my Thanksgiving and links to recipes I used.

Turkey - 17.5lbs for 5 adults and 2 kids. I really like leftovers.

Sweet Potatoes - family recipe so sorry, no link for this one

Creamed Corn - My ABSOLUTE favorite thing I made for Thanksgiving this year. HANDS DOWN. I can’t speak for everyone else, but I’m so making this all the time forever now. From Kitchen Runway.

Green Beans - I kind of used this recipe from Kalyn's Kitchen, but honestly, I got to step 2 and it was time to eat so I just spritzed them with lemon juice and served warm.

Mashed Potatoes - my mom’s recipe, which is basically boiled potatoes, butter, milk, and salt. Mix well, serve warm.

Macaroni & Cheese - This is the first time I’ve ever made mac & cheese sans box. I (and everyone else) approve of this non-box variety from Evil Shenanigans.

Deviled Eggs - I’m almost embarrassed to tell you how I make deviled eggs, but here goes. Hard boil the eggs, cool, then peel. Slice in half, scoop out the yellow bits and add Miracle Whip. Mix. Put the yellow mix back into the egg whites. Refrigerate until time to eat.

Cranberry Sauce - I kind of just throw my cranberry sauce together, because, really, this stuff is wicked easy to do. Fresh cranberries, water, orange juice, a cinnamon stick, sugar, and pecan pieces if I remember. Make it a couple of days ahead and keep it in the fridge until about 5 minutes after everyone has sat down with their food. Wait, that’s only me? Ok, suit yourself. Here's a basic recipe from The Meaning of Pie that's pretty much like mine.

Rolls - From Bake Me Blush. Yum yum yum. For defs a make-ahead though.

Fudge Pie - My grandmother’s recipe. Imagine a brownie baked in a pie shell.

Pumpkin Pie - Used the recipe from the back of the pumpkin can. Cause I’m fancy.

Ok, so I lied. I have one pic from all the food I made for Thanksgiving -

Please ignore how disgusting my stove looks.

Cleaning Out the Fridge Turnovers

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I have started the cleaning out the fridge ritual. But, since I can’t just throw food away (unless it smells, looks funny, I can’t remember when we had it, or I can remember when we had it and it should have been thrown out many moons ago…) I’m trying to use up some of the items that might have otherwise ended up trashed.

Hence -

Chicken Bacon Cheese Turnovers

The last few slices of bacon plus leftover rotisserie chicken plus chicken tenders from a couple of nights ago plus cheese. What could go wrong, right?

Answer - nothing.

Not a thing wrong with these.

Fail.

Not everything I make turns out right.

Exhibit A.

Crispy Flat Potatoes

So in my last post (sorry about the lack of posting - would you believe I’ve been busy?) I had a cute little side dish with the yummy yummy sandwiches. ‘What were those little cuties’ you asked? Well! Guess what - I’m about to give you the answer.

Crispy Flat Potatoes from Whisked.

Ta da?

Very yummy and fun to eat. However, make sure you bake them long enough otherwise you’ll end up with my problem. Above, you’ll notice 3 potatoes - 2 were under-baked and smashed into bits when I - well… smashed them. The third one was baked to perfection and smashed just right. Do it this way.

Fry in a smidge of oil and enjoy.

Grilled Caprese Sandwich

Ok - super easy. And super yummy.

Basil pesto + fresh mozzarella + tomato (leave everything at room temp - that way it all warms & grills together).

Olive oil on each side of the sandwich. Grill on the Foreman.

Yum yum. I love this sandwich.

Potato Soup

Since it rained all weekend here in the sunshine state, I decided it was time to break out the soup pot. Luckily, I just happened to have some potatoes sitting around not quite to the point of looking back at me.

There are a thousand different ways to make potato soup. Mine involves slicing potatoes very thin/small and boiling them in milk and butter. I seasoned with salt, pepper, granulated garlic, and onion powder.

(Here's a recipe from Lighter and Local that I forgot I had saved. I’ll use this one in the future.)

If you have some sort of potato masher, this would be the time to use it. I used the back of a plastic spoon (pictured).

Once it is the consistency of a thick, runny porridge (more or less) serve topped with one or more of several toppings: shredded cheese, bacon crumbles, sour cream, chives, crispy onions, etc.

Enjoy.

Just buy the Butterfingers.

So, I found this recipe (from In Katrina's Kitchen) for homemade Butterfingers made with candy corn. WOW! I thought. How awesome and amazing!

This is what melted candy corn looks like. It’s even more terrifying in real life.

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It’s quite possible I messed up the recipe. I was baking a lot when I made these and I didn’t think they would cool, so I put the pan in the fridge. They were impossible to cut without crumbling after that. They tasted great, but way too much work.

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This is the only piece that made it to completion.

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Just buy the damn candy bars.

Hot Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

I’m woefully backlogged on stuff I need to put up. But I’m jumping ahead. Way ahead. Like ‘batches of these cookies are in the oven now’ ahead. But that’s just how I roll.

These I’m making for a Halloween movie night hubs and I are going to tonight. Ok, so it’s not a Halloween themed party and I doubt we’ll be watching Halloween movies. It’s a movie night that I’m bringing Halloween-themed snacks to. So there, you got the truth out of me.

These cookies (from Julies Food) are kind of amazing. I ended up putting a dash more cayenne into the mix than it called for (a litteral dash) and it made them a little kickier. I thought it was appropriate for a Halloween cookie. They’re chewy on the inside if you don’t make them too thin and they taste like a healthy brownie from all the oats.

Warning: these cookies will spread. I made the first batch into cute little shapes and they came out as pumpkins and blobs. Lesson learned.

Edit: These things get spicier as they cool!! Holy crap! Don't add the extra dash of cayenne!!

Tortellini & Corn (Salad?)

There are some recipes so simple you think they can’t be good. You think “this is so easy! It can’t (very quickly) become something I want to make over and over and over.” Or maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, this has become one of those for me.

I only have two pictures of this all coming together because I basically threw everything in a pot and mixed it up.

This is my freshly chopped basil:

Garden fresh! I’m not showing you the other picture because it’s just a pot boiling.

I ate this cold for lunch twice and it was deelish. I used frozen corn (a sweet corn, though. I think it makes a difference).

The recipe is here from Taste of Home.

Kale Chips - An Experience

So, I figured it was high time I tried something healthy. Ok, to clarify for those concerned with the quality of my diet, I actually do cook fairly healthy. I just don’t post about recipes I do all the time. So there.

So kale. I’ve only fixed/tried kale once before. It wasn’t great. Kale has such a strong flavor and I just can’t make it work for me. But I’ve seen kale chip recipes floating around and it looks delicious and healthy and easy, so I did it.

And it was easy. And healthy. … It wasn’t terrible, honestly. If you like kale, it tastes like crunchy, papery kale. I asked hubs what he thought. His response: “It tastes healthy.” I also got such reviews as: “I feel like I’m going to get in trouble for eating it. Like someone’s going to say ‘Hey! That’s not edible! You aren’t supposed to eat that!’”

So, I don’t think this one will be repeated.

Sometimes, you gotta be bad.

I made burgers. They were delicious. Sometimes you just have to have a big juicy chunk of meat. At least I do.

The goods for a mighty fine bar-b-que burger.:

Ground chuck seasoned with 2 dashes of garlic powder and a dash of onion powder. Mix in a raw egg, some Worcestershire sauce, and a heap of breadcrumbs (remember I said I don’t often measure…).

Heat the grill. Fry 3 pieces of bacon (for 2 burgers). Grill the burgers, slice some cheese. Assemble as follows: Bun, burger, cheese, bacon, crunchy onions. On the other bun - bar-b-que sauce (a little dab ‘l do ya).

Put all together and enjoy.

(Recipe for the healthy green stuff beside the yummy burger soon. Scout’s honor.)

Breakfast Turnovers of Glory

This a.m. hubby woke up on the cranky side of the bed. So, to help him out (I’m so thoughtful) I made turnovers for breakfast. This was my own concoction - I happened to have the ingredients handy.

8oz of cream cheese (I didn’t have a full 8oz of cream cheese, so I used what I had - 5oz.)

Sugar

Puff Pastry, thawed

Mini choc chips (optional)

Heat oven to 350. Mix the cream cheese and sugar together. I used around 3 tablespoons, but I frequently don’t measure when I cook. Use more/less to suit your own taste. Cut the pastry into 4 squares. Divide the cream cheese mix evenly on half of each pastry.

If you want, add approx 1 tablespoon of mini choc chips into each portion. I made half choc, half plain. Fold dough over and press edges together.

Cook for 15-18 min.

LET COOL. The filling will burn your mouth to bits.

You will enjoy. These are probably one of the best things I’ve ever made.

Bar-B-Que Chicken a' la Crock-pot

So, I rushed home after class yesterday to wait for our maintenance guy to come see if he could fix the dishwasher (it shouldn’t take 3 cycles to clean a dish). Since I was home at 1:30 with nothing to do but wait, I decided it would be a good time to do a crock-pot recipe - there was plenty of time to throw everything in the pot to simmer for hours.

I’ve been hanging on to this recipe (Crockpot BBQ Beer Chicken from How Sweet It Is) for a little while. For some reason, I really need to gear up to do a crock-pot recipe. I have no reason why.

(Side note: I’m not a total alchy. I’ve posted 2 recipes that include beer as an ingredient not by coincidence. We bought a mix pack of seasonal brews and neither hubby nor I really liked some of them. So they have been in the fridge waiting to be cooked with.)

I halved the recipe since it serves 8-10 and we still had leftovers. No complaints, though. This stuff is yummy. I get bar-b-que cravings and this stuff will straight-up satisfy it. And it’s much healthier since it’s chicken breast instead of pork. I also added 12 oz of beer instead of 8 and used a little less sauce (only cause I didn’t have a whole lot).

Yummy yummy. Pulled-chicken bar-b-que on a wheat bun.

The maintenance guy came the next morning. I’m so glad I waited for him.

Chick(not Fil A)en Nuggets

Once I get a craving for something, nothing will make me happy until I get whatever I’m craving. This happens A Lot. Something I crave (at least) once a week - Chick Fil A nuggets. I’m a crazy person about these things. So, when I found a recipe that promised the exact same nuggets as the ones I’m constantly longing for, it was like the skies opened up in sunshine-y glory.

I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.

Now, don’t get me wrong - these puppies were good. Great even. But they were no Chick Fil A nuggets of wonder.

However, I did mess up on the recipe. Twice. In step one. The first line of the recipe (here, from My Name is Snickerdoodle) states In a medium bowl whisk the egg and stir in the milk. I left out the egg. I also didn’t have any milk and used cream + water instead.

Despite my efforts to screw up, these turned out very good. And looked surprisingly like the photo. That’s a first for me. I will make these again (the correct way) and see if they taste any different.

Viking Bread

Confession: Last night I didn’t cook dinner. We had frozen chicken pot pies. From the microwave. *Shame* I was tired and frankly uninspired. However, by a pure stroke of luck I found a super easy recipe (you know it’s easy ‘cause it’s in the name!) that I happened to have all the ingredients for. Presenting Easy Honey Beer Bread from Kirbie's Cravings.

I used clover honey and Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale and it turned out delicious. It was slightly sweet because of the pumpkiny-ness of the beer, so a darker ale or lager would probably be a heavier taste. I had several tasters today and they all liked it. So, yay!

Side note, my tasty bread crusted A Lot more than the pictures Kirbie’s site. It was good, but not as pretty as hers.

This is called a teaser.

I made bread. Post tomorrow.

Chicken Enchilada Puffs

First, I would like to apologize for the blurriness of my pictures. Apparently, I shake.

Second, if this recipe was a prostitute, it would be one of those REALLY high class ones that everyone thinks is in PR or advertising and you worked really hard to snag while all the time you’re thinking “Man! I really pulled this off!” … I think I lost this metaphor somewhere.

Anyway, last night I made chicken enchilada puffs. I was prepping these while on the phone with my mom and she remarked “it sounds so gourmet!” They weren’t. But they did taste pretty damn good.

The recipe is here from Tidy Mom. I’m pretty sure this is one of those Kraft-sponsored recipes, or whatever, but who cares, because, seriously, it’s that yummy.

What I changed:

1. I used puff pastry instead of crescent rolls. But the frozen kind, not homemade. My motto is, if it’s good with crescent dough, it’ll be better with puff pastry. (Technically, this is the first recipe where I’ve tried out this motto, but so far, so good.)

2. I used more chicken. I grilled 4 chicken strips (approx 1 1/3 breasts) on the George Foreman grill and used all of it in the mix. It came out to about 1 cup of torn-up chicken. Even after this, it was still a little creamy for my taste, so next time I make this I’ll probably use less cream cheese.

I used about a heaping tablespoon of filling per turnover. You will have some filling leftover. I suggest putting it in a wrap and having it for lunch the next day. (I really wish I had thought of that this morning.)

3. I cooked mine for about 18 minutes on 350. The inside was still a tiny bit dough-y (you may be able to see that in the pictures if you look really hard), but with already cooked chicken, there wasn’t a big worry about under cooking.

If you try this one, let me know what you think. And what you served with it. I didn’t cook any sides, just served mine with canned pineapple. It was good, but not great, together, I just kind of forgot about sides.

Punkin Muffins

I made muffins a couple of days ago, so I thought I’d post them while we still had some (all pictured here were eaten moments after the photos were taken).

These babies are pumpkin muffins with cream cheese filling. I also made some mini muffins with no filling. Perfect little bite-sized muffin numminess.

The recipe I used was from movita beaucoup and I didn’t really adjust anything. I would recommend putting more filling in them, though. That part is yummy.