Recipe Testing - Appetizer

Last night we went out for a date night and I ordered some Deviled Eggs as an appetizer and loved them.  The only problem was that they brought me three halves.  Three?!?  This doesn't even make any sort of sense to me.  So somewhere another half of my egg is wondering around the restaurant.  So today I wanted eggs.  I found this recipe at Kalyn's Kitchen for Sriracha Deviled Eggs.  Rooster sauce!  Yum!

I didn't add as much mustard because I don't really like my eggs tangy.  The addition of yogurt was a little weird to me but I did like how they made the yolk filling nice and light and creamy.  Hubby on the other hand was not a fan.  He like the flavor but prefers more of a dense egg.  Clover ran off with a bunch of egg whites after they where peeled.

Overall very yummy!    

In Season

One of the great things about living where I live is the fresh produce from farms literally right down the street.  It's awesome.  The sucky part is dealing with the allergies from the pollen but right now even though I can't breathe through my nose until my zyrtec kicks in, I am choosing to focus on the positive.

We hit a strawberry stand on Thursday.  My eyes were way bigger than my stomach which has been a problem for me.  As soon as I got out of the car, I could smell the warm strawberry scented air.  I just stood there and soaked it in for a minute.  When I got to the counter I had already made up my mind that I wanted a full flat.  Twelve baskets of farm fresh literally just picked from the farm strawberries.  Twelve baskets for three people.  As we were driving back home I realized that I bought to much.  Then I felt bad because I didn't want to waste all that goodness.

We had to stop by Osh on the way home to pick up a toilet flapper to fix the ghost toilet.  While we were at Osh I found the canning isle and decided that I could make jam!  I got really excited!  And then immediately really intimidated.  I skipped the canning process and went for freezer jam which is pretty easy to make and I don't have to worry about sanitizing and properly handling jars and boiling and all of that.  What I should have picked up was Pectin.  Since I have never made jam before I didn't realize I needed it.  So in the end I got a thick strawberry sauce/spread.  Which is still very tasty.  

Hull the berries and put them in a pan.  Mash.  I added an apple for natural Pectin and some honey for sweetness.  I cooked until the apple was mush then I hit it with a stick blender.  I added another basket of mushed strawberries back to the mix for some chunkies.

Once it was cooled I added it to the washed freezer jars.

I still had six baskets left.

So I whipped up some cream and we went outside after dinner.  

I've got three baskets left...what else can I do with them?

Every. Single. Time!

It never fails.  It's almost predictable.  I have lost count of how many times it has happened.

The grill caught on fire...again.

The first time we freaked out and grabbed the baking soda.  This time I feel as if I am a pro.  Hubby didn't even bother to get out of his chair while Clover was yelling that the grill caught on fire again.  Whenever the Hubs grills burgers you can bet that the next time we fire it up it at some point, sport some flames.  And not the cool racer kind on the side either.  I thought I was safe this time and I bought the lowest fat content I could find but I was wrong.  I preheated the grill to grill up some chicken tonight since it was nice outside and five minutes later the grill was on fire.  I put it out like the pro I am and finished dinner.  Now I am just sitting here wondering if I will get the blame for catching it on fire yet again.  

Floppy Bunnies

Time is forever messing with me.  Some days seen to go by really slowly and then some weeks fly by without any notice.  I have to remind myself to enjoy the moment.  I have a tendency to bumble bee around and every now and then I have to tell myself to stop and smell the flowers.

I wanted to do something fun last night and yummy!  A few weeks ago a friend suggested that we do Peepsmores.  Uhm..yes!

So we gathered our ingredients...

I went with fun size hershey's and they were perfect.

Poor bunnies don't know what's coming to them.

Yummy!

We had originally planned to have a fire but it was pretty warm last night since it was supposed to rain today.  I say supposed because it's actually very sunny outside.  Since we opted for no fire I just roasted the Peeps over the bbq grill.  As my daughter would say it was easy peasy.  She was pretty happy that she got to stay up late and have smores with all the grown ups.  She even somehow weaseled 3/4's of one from Daddy.  Who told me they were "sharing".

Pass Me Another Slice

I got tapped to do some baking for a bake sale.  Of course I said yes.  How could I turn her down?  Baking lots of goodies?  Yes.   Which will be sold and profits will go towards helping out teen moms?  Double Yes.  Win all around.

So what did I make?

The first, I am calling an experimental recipe.  I have not tested it before but It was pretty easy to make and is totally yummy, not to mention totally sticky.  The smell in the house this morning was heavenly.  Fall mixed with popcorn mixed with caramel.

 
This recipe was from Make it and Love it.  I couldn't stop eating it.  Then I ate some more.  Then I stopped eating it long enough to pack it up.  Now that I am finally sitting down to write this I am seriously thinking about getting up and snagging a bag.  I will hold off a bit because I don't want my poor keyboard to get sticky since I am not done writing yet.

My fall back recipe that I use every year, multiple times a year is the good o Tollhouse recipe.  I didn't actually have the tollhouse bag since I use Guittard chocolate chips.  I have experimented in the past and I find that I love the quality of Guittard.  The milk chocolate chips are so good that I will eat them straight out of the bag.  I made triple chocolate chip cookies with the recipe.       

I set some goodies aside for the Hubs since he swears up and down that I never save him anything that I make.  But since it's all sitting nice and neat on the counter for him I can't help but think that maybe I want just one more cookie.  After all the taste testing I did today I didn't think it would be possible to want one more cookie...but they are tempting.    
 

Little Slice of Fall

I was nostalgic as I peered into the pot.  I'm not exactly sure when I perfected my recipe.  I can not describe how great it smelled to have Chicken and Dumplings simmering on the stove and the smell of wet foliage floating in through the open window.  It was a little slice of Fall.

My mind wandered as I stirred the pot, I thought back to learning how to cook.  When I left my parents nest I had a basic set of skills.  We were a family of five and did the best with what we had.  I could pretty much whip up anything with hamburger in it.  I knew how to cut up and onion and make pasta.  I was a pro at cooking for five.  I had done it since I could remember.  Learning how to cook other things came slowly.

I first starting cooking things from a box.  Grocery stores now days are filled with easy to make meals that come nicely packaged in a box.  They also came with lots of preservatives and other things I can't seem to pronounce.  My first Chicken and Dumplings was from a box.  It came with a can of chicken stew and a pouch of baking mix that you add to it and bake.  It was tasty but as my skills improved so did my confidence.  Soon I became adventurous.  Thanks to the Hubby for always eating it or mostly eating it!

The last three dumplings.

   Today I made a short cut and used canned broth and poached the chicken breast.  If I have the time I use a whole chicken and make the stock but I didn't have a whole chicken and I was way to lazy to go to the grocery store.  Or leave the house in that matter.  So basically I used what I had.

I poached the chicken in three cans of chicken broth.  When the chicken was done I took it out and let it cool for shredding while I put the stock aside for later.  Then I sautéed some onion, celery, carrots, and a clove of garlic.  When they got soft I added the chicken stock back along with a pinch of oregano, thyme and a bay leaf.  I shredded the chicken and added that back in.  Then let that simmer for about twenty minutes while made the dumpling mix.  Most of the time I use Bisquick, since I was out of that I used this substitution recipe from Erika Jurney except I used butter instead of Crisco.  I also added 1/2 a teaspoon of garlic powered and a teaspoon of poultry seasoning.  After I made the dumpling mix I used the dumpling recipe from the back of the box, or the website if you don't actually have the box.  I scooped them out with a mini disher or other wise known as mini ice cream scoop.  The instructions say 10 minutes with the lid on and off but I usually find that 8 works well for me.  Probably since I use the mini scoop.

It didn't occur to me to take a picture of the bowl while it was full.

I was to busy stuffing myself to think about that.  

I am a floater kind of a person.  Not that I mean to offend anyone but if you are a fan of sinkers then you are just a fan of Chicken Noodle Soup.  

Mental Notes

After minutes of frantic searching I was realizing that what I was looking for wasn't there.  Stress starts to build.  I scold myself for not double checking.  Frustration sets in, while I continue searching the same spot.    Tears start to form...wait that was the onions.

Finally fifteen minutes...in the back of the cabinet laid the bag I was looking for.

Ah HA!  Paprika.

I was making one of my favorites.  Basically I followed this recipe at Kalyn's Kitchen.  Except I used chicken.  I know it as Chicken Paprikash.  I may have used more paprika than the recipe called for.  It was delish.  

Mental Note:  Check the pantry for supplies.  It would probably be one less thing to stress out about.

C is for Cookie

And that's good enough for me.

Here is an excellent recipe for Lemon Cookies.  I have made just a few tweaks and elevated it.

First off, I went to the fridge and surprise, no Ricotta.  So I subbed a brick o Cream Cheese (room temp) instead.  I also used really really really big lemons off of my lovely lemon tree outside.  So if you have scrawny lemons, go ahead and double the zest.  I still used the same amount for the juice (maybe a tad more).  I also added a teaspoon of Vanilla.

I also used a mini ice cream scoop which happens to be 2 tablespoons.

The texture is awesome and they actually taste like mini cakes.  They are surprisingly light and absolutely addicting!  So watch out!