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.

Dutch Babies!

Being that it’s Saturday, I made brunch this am. I’ve wanted to try a Dutch Baby for a while, but I can’t seem to order it anytime we go out for breakfast. It’s just too…. intimidating. Luckily, I found a recipe that seemed perfect. It had the obligatory Dutch Baby, but added the magical ingredient of - bacon. *sigh* It can’t go wrong, right?

Of course, I said that.

The Dutch Babies were great. Wonderful, even. I modified the recipe and added 2 tbs of sugar and a good squirt of lemon juice. I cooked them in a large muffin pan for 10 min then added the bacon and eggs and cooked for an additional 10. Then 5 more. After that, I had to take them out because everything was cooked except for the bacon. Warm and raw. Hubs and I ate the babies and the eggs and left a big pile of bacon on both our plates. The sight of it pretty much broke my heart.

Oh, well. I’ve already got a plan for next time.

Here's the recipe I used from The Karmic Kitchen.

I really like food.

Buyer beware: This is not a foodie’s blog.

I am amateur in every possible way. I’m cooking things in my own tiny crappy kitchen and taking pictures of what I’ve done with my cell phone.

Feel free to comment/critique/question.

I won’t post the actual recipe (unless it’s not off the interwebs) but I will link to everything and give any modifications I made.

Umm… what else?

Cheers!