Holiday Post!

I'm so sorry I have taken so long to post these photos.  At any rate, here are a few of the holiday treats and goodies we made:
LOTS of Puppy Chow!

 Many flavors of rice crispy treats:

 Delicious fresh puppy chow...I think I'm going to make some more...today.

 Cornflake wreaths made with peppermint marshmallows.  So delicious and chewy!

 Chocolate cherry drop cookies.  They were just okay. ;)

 Chocolate covered peanut butter balls. Yum!

 Simple fudge!  Got the recipe out of the Better Homes cookbook.  Good stuff!

 Mixing the chocolate cake for my chocolate banana trifle which I forgot to take a picture of.

 Sugar cookies!

 Homemade whipped cream is so much better than store bought, in my opinion.

 James even got into the kitchen and helped with a few things.  Devilled eggs.

 Amazing stuffed mushrooms with breadcrumbs, mozzerella and sausage.

Fried Chicken & Birthday Cake Pops

Inspired by watching the movie "The Help", I decided to try an old school fried chicken recipe.  I haven't completely thrown all nutrition out the window so I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  But the rest is pretty unhealthy. ;)

I started by dipping the breasts in an egg coating.

I kind of just went on my own as far as the breading.  I crushed up a bunch of saltines & Ritz crackers, added some Lawry's and other seasonings and mixed it all up in a brown paper bag.  I dropped each piece of chicken into the bag and shook it up.

I finished by frying them in a little bit of good old-fashioned Crisco till crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.  They actually turned out a little on the salty side for my tastes but everyone ate it and said it was good.

We actually had this last Wednesday for dinner when two of Ewan's friends ate over.  All three 4-year-olds tried it! And yeah, I cheated on the sides. ;)

For dessert, peppermint Rice Krispie treats.  I just used peppermint marshmallows and followed the usual recipe.

It was fun to let the boys decorate them with whatever sprinkles they wanted.

Friday is Ewan's 5th birthday...excuse me while I cry/breathe into a paper bag/beam with pride/cry again.  So since he doesn't have school on Fridays and two of his classmates have birthdays on Thursday and Monday, tomorrow is Ewan's day to be the line leader and bring treats.  I told him I'd make whatever he wanted or even buy cupcakes from Sam's Club (love their non-dairy whipped frosting) and what did he choose?  Cake pops. *sigh* The most time-consuming baked good I know how to make.  Oh well, he's totally worth it!

Ironically, we've been trying to limit sugars, carbs and a number of dyes in an effort to improve Ewan's behavior and attention span so of course he chose red candy coating.  Red's his favorite color and it's his birthday. I'm going to let it slide, this time.  Here they are!  The sprinkled one if for the birthday boy! :)

I'll try to update more often especially as the real holiday baking begins, next week.

Holy moley I'm a slacker!

Sorry friends, it's been a madhouse around here.  I will do my best to update soon.  Tonight I'm making meatloaf and mashed potatoes so hopefully I'll get some good pics and a nice recipe up here for you.

In the mean time, since it's cyber Monday, check out ebates to earn some cash back as you shop online!

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Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and you're getting excited for the upcoming holiday season!

Halloween Chili

Like many, we make chili on Halloween.  It's a nice warm meal when we return home from trick-or-treating and because we're a high protein family, we love chili anyway!  This time, though, I decided to try using beef tips instead of ground beef.  We actually purchased a huge pack of beef tips from Sam's Club a couple of weeks ago.  I split it in half and froze half of it.  The first half I used for beef stew but forgot to take pictures, sorry. 

So for the chili I combined the beef, three cans of dark kidney beans, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of pumpkin (NOT pie filling, just straight up pumpkin), some diced peppers and a chili seasoning packet (I'm either out of chili powder or it's buried so far into my cabinet that I can't find it) into the slow cooker. Oh and few shakes of paprika. It was delicious and I'm taking the leftovers to church tonight hopefully someone will use it.  I can't stand to throw it out.

Also, thanks for the patience as I recovered from my surgery.  It has been three weeks today and I'm feeling much better.  Soon, look for photos of Ginger Rogers, my new kitchen friend.  I was able to upgrade my Kitchen Aid mixer and now it matches our Keurig.  Yay!

Turkey Dinner and Cake Pops!

If you don't already know this about me, now you do: I LOVE THE HOLIDAYS!!! And because I love the holidays I'll make turkey dinner a few random times throughout the year.  Today was one of those days.  Next Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving so I guess I could use that as an excuse but mostly the turkey was on sale and I love stuffing so...yeah. ;)

The turkey I prepared today was about 13 1/2 lbs so I roasted it at 325 degrees for about 4 hours.  I am old school.  I still stuff my turkey with stuffing...I mean, that's why it's called stuffing right?  I'll give you my stuffing recipe in a minute.  Back to the turkey.  I cleaned it all out and then poured about half a can of chicken broth over the bird.  I then rubbed a bit of melted butter, sage and Lawry's seasoning salt under the skin then poured the rest over the turkey. I did not do a foil tent at all with this turkey though sometimes I do.  It turned out fine without it.

For the stuffing I tried a few new ingredients today to test them out on my immediate family before Thanksgiving next month.  I used 4 hot dog buns, 4 hamburger buns (both on clearance at Kroger) and a loaf of wheat bread.  I ripped it all up and then added a LOT of sage, some Lawry's, one egg, some chicken broth and a half stick of melted butter.  I told you we splurge on butter, right? ;)  This time I added a handful of original Craisins, a diced talk of celery and shredded half a carrot into it. Smashed it all together by hand (the fun part) then stuffed it in the turkey.  It turned out great!  The cranberries gave it a little sweet taste.  Mmm.  Looking forward to leftovers tomorrow.

I also made (from scratch) mashed potatoes.  I didn't take a picture of them, though because mashed potatoes all look the same whether you make them from scratch or a box of flakes, amirite?  However, I did make them from scratch, I promise.  I peeled and cubed 5 or 6 potatoes, boiled them and strained them.  I then dumped them in the bowl from my Kitchen Aid mixer (Betty White) and added some milk and, you guessed it, butter.  I let Betty do the bulk of the work and she put a hurtin' on those taters!  They were awesome and I love that I didn't have to smash them.  I love Betty White!

I did a pan of Pillsbury crescent rolls (gosh we love those little loaves of Heaven) and a bag of frozen corn and jar of gravy.  See, here's the thing about gravy.  Some people say it couldn't be easier to make gravy.  I say it couldn't be easier for me to mess up.  I have yet to make a good gravy from scratch so whatever is on sale will not only do, but will make my family a lot happier.

Ok, about cake pops.  They are delicious.  They are a hit.  Everyone loves a cake pop.  They're a great alternative to a whole piece (or four) of cake.  However, they are time consuming little buggars!  Now you can use whatever flavor(s) of cake, frosting, candy coating and toppings you want.  Experiment!  It makes it really fun!  And this is one baking project Ewan LOVES to help with and he begs me to roll the balls and stab the little sticks in them.  I'm thinking of adding these to my baked goods gift baskets for the holidays.  So anyway, here is how I made this particular batch.

I started by making a Devil's Food cake and a Funfetti cake from the box.  I let those cool on a wire rack for half an hour or so.  I then broke up the cake (one at a time) into Betty's bowl and added half a can of pre-made frosting (Chocolate for the Devil's Food and Vanilla for the Funfetti) and let Betty do the work...again. Once it was all in a big ball inside the wisk I removed it from the mixer and rolled the mix into 1 to 1 1/2 inch balls.  I then melted about 7-8 pieces of the candy (again, chocolate melts for the Devil's Food and vanilla for the Funfetti).  Dip the lollipop sticks into the candy then place one stick in each cake ball.  Now comes the hard part. Make space in your freezer for the cake balls and stick them in there for an hour to set.  As the end of that hour approaches, melt the rest of the candy and put your toppings into bowls.  Dip the cake balls into the melted candy coating and then into the topping(s) of your choice.  I used sprinkles, coconut and peanuts.  My favorite combination was the Devil's Food cake dipped in milk chocolate rolled in coconut.  SO GOOD!  Ewan prefers the sprinkles on Funfetti. ;)  So yeah, they take forever but totally worth it!

Mmmm...chili! And pumpkin spice rice krispie treats!

It's been nice and cool here lately so I decided to put chili on the menu. Wouldn't you know it?  Today was a high of 75. :-/  It's still beautiful, though and there's a nice breeze.  So I made the chili anyway.  I started by browning some ground turkey.  I combined 3 cans of chili beans, two small cans of tomato sauce, one onion (diced), one green pepper (diced) and a bottle of Wal-mart brand V-8 juice into the crotch pot and let it cook on low for 3 hours.  I then left it on the warm setting for about 5 more hours and it was perfect just in time for dinner.  I made a quick pan of Marie Callendar's low fat corn bread and served the chili with shredded cheddar and oyster crackers.

And for dessert: Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispie Treats!  Now, I honestly wasn't sure about these but I thought it was worth a shot.  I pretty much followed the regular recipe for Rice Krispie treats on the box of cereal.  However, I added a few sprinkles each of ground nutmeg and ground cinnamon into the melted marshmallows.  Once they were done I used the medium sized pumpkin cookie cutter (yes we have three different size pumpkin cookie cutters) to shape them.  Ewan's exact words were "They look like circles, not pumpkins."  Whatever, kid.  I tried. ;)

We then added orange sprinkles on the base and green apple sprinkles on the tops.  They actually taste great!  Almost like they should only be for grown-ups.  Remember when your parents told you certain foods were only for grown-ups?  I kinda wish mind would've said more foods were for grown-ups only. ;)

Yes, I am a slacker!

Sorry, folks.  It's a bit of a crazy time, here.  I've had quite a few shoots, Ewan's getting ready to start school today and it seems like when it rains it pours (as far as stuff breaking down).  So today is the first day of our new normal and I'm hoping to get back to blogging more regularly, too.  I've got a beef roast I need to use up so look for a currently undecided beef dish for dinner tonight. ;)