Endings mean New Beginnings

Thank you to all of our faithful followers who either keep up to date with us through the blog...even though we haven't posted much during the holidays...or those who have found our recipes and feedback interesting! 2012 was our first year of blogging, and we have learned a lot!  In the next year, we will have more new and exciting recipes, stories and pictures for you to salivate over. 

Some things you can look forward to next year are some challenges that I'm planning, such as throughout January, I must use something that is already in my cupboard for each recipe.  I have gotten into a bad habit of stocking up during the winter months...I can't pass up a great deal!... and now it's time for me to use up those items.  Another challenge is that I'm going to lose those 20 lbs. that I resolve to do every New Year...but I'm going to do it in 2013, and you all are going to help hold me to it!  :-)  I'll be taking some of my favorite comfort foods and making them weight loss friendly; or just making up recipes of my own.  You can also look forward to more crock pot recipes...everyone loves a crock pot, right?!?  The one you definitely want to look out for is our famous (ok...famous in our circle of friends) carnitas recipe.  

Look for the first blog of the new year this week with banana nut surprise muffins...they have lots of stuff in them, and they are addictive!  

Cheers to you and your family for a safe and wonderful New Year!  May 2013 bring you all that you wish and deserve!  As I close, here is a picture of the beautiful snow we are having in the Kansas City area today.  The big snow flakes and wet snow makes everything so beautiful...including my Christmas decorations!

Happy New Year!

Dee (&Mary)

Holiday Dinner club

The holidays are here, and seem to be passing us by so quickly; but we had an opportunity to get together for dinner club.  As usual, we had some amazing food, great conversations and delicious drinks!  This year, we decided that each of us would bring a friend, who could share in our food and festivities.  

Even though it was held in the evening, our theme for this month was brunch, I mean who doesn't love brunch food at any time?  Once again, everyone out-did themselves with the food, and a few people were smart and wore stretchy pants...wish I was smart!  

Mary started off the night right with a delicious holiday drink!  It was a simple syrup mixture with pineapple juice, and some other items to make a base (I'll post the recipe later), then you top it off with Champagne.  She also provided an appetizer that was a very fabulous shrimp salad appetizer.  It had Shrimp with tomatoes, olives, and a great dressing.  

For the main event, Carol, who was the hostess with the mostess, made a wonderful egg based quiche with bacon.  Now, if you remember, we have a rule in our dinner club that you aren't supposed to use a recipe you've tried before.  Well, Carol had tried this before, but it was a great tried and true recipe! 

Now, back to the food...oh yeah!  Ricki made a strata with spinach, that was absolutely fabulous.  Kathy brought a winter fruit salad, which I think I'm going to make and take to my family's Christmas dinner.  It was the perfect complement to the other heavy foods!  I made a coffee cake that was called 'The Best Coffee Cake. Ever.'  I was a little skeptical at first about if this was really the best coffee cake, but let me tell you...when I licked that batter off the beaters, well, I knew... this recipe was something special!  I also knew it after I found out that there are 3 sticks of butter in the recipe...wow, it isn't even a Paula Dean recipe!  This is actually a Pioneer Woman recipe, and here is a link to the recipe on her website:  Best Coffee Cake Recipe.  

Here is the recipe I used...you know I always have to make it my own.  

Ingredients:
For the Cake 

• 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
• 2 cups Scant Sugar
• 3 cups Flour, sifted
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 1/4 cups Butter milk (original calls for whole milk, but I mistakenly bought buttermilk...turned out great!)
• 3 eggs (the original calls for egg whites only and beaten until stiff...I'm too lazy to do that!)

For the topping

• 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
• 3/4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups Pecans, chopped (I made spiced pecans to add an extra kick) 

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.  Beat egg whites and set aside.  
• Cream butter and sugar together.  Add flour mixture and milk alternately until combined.  Don't overbeat.  Lightly beat the eggs and add to the mixture with a rubber spatula.  Spread the cake mixture into a well-greased 9x13 baking pan (the original recipe stresses to use a pan with high sides or even a larger an 9x13 pan.  I had no issues with the cake overflowing...maybe that happens if you beat the egg whites).  
• In a separate bowl, combine topping ingredients with a pastry cutter until crumbly.  Sprinkle all over the top of the cake mixture.
• Bake for 40 - 45 minutes, or until no longer jiggly.  Server warm and enjoy!!

 Picture from the Pioneer Woman's blog:

Pork and Geen Chili Stew

One of the only things I love about cold weather is sitting by a fire with a warm bowl of soup.  Luckily, I'm not the only one in the family that enjoys this.  My Dad, Jim is always trying new soups and passing the good ones on to me.  This week my post is one of my favorites that he found.
Pork and Green Chili Stew!!!  So if you are in the mood for an easy and very tasty bowl of goodness....you will need....

3 Tbsp Oil
2 and 1/2 pounds boneless pork, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup flour
2 cans petite diced tomatoes (14.5 oz)
2 (7 oz) cans chopped green chilies
2 Tbsp chopped jalapenos (I use pickled)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp sugar
1 can chicken broth
Rice

In large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add pork and cook until lightly browned. Stir in onion and garlic, add flour and cook, stirring constantly, 1 to 2 min. Add tomatoes, green chilies, jalapeno, salt, pepper, and sugar. Stir until well blended. Add chicken broth and cover, reduce heat and simmer about 2 and 1/2 hours or until pork is tender. 

Serve over hot rice...enjoy and warm up!!!!

Candy bar cookies

Halloween is over, but I'm sure you are like me and either had candy left over or need a reason to get rid of your kids candy.  I, like most people, over bought Halloween candy this year, and needed an easy way to get rid of it without just sitting and eating it, like years in the past.  So, I thought...why not just chop up the candy bars and throw them in some cookie dough to make some tasty treats.  

The cookies turned out great with Snickers and Milky Way added into the batter.  The caramel and chocolate melted into the cookies and added a nice sweet surprise in each bite.   

You can use whatever candy bars that you have...Reese's, 3 Muskateers, Twix, Heath bar...whatever you have left over.  Now, if you don't want to eat all the cookies...you can share with your co-workers, neighbors or other loved ones.  

I used a standard Mrs. Tollhouse recipe, and swapped in chopped up candy bars in place of the chocolate chips.

Cookie recipe:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 c. granulated sugar

3/4 c. packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 cup chopped Snickers and 1 cup chopped Milky Way candy bars (you can use whatever candy bars you want, just chop up 2 cups of candy).

Directions:

• Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.
• Combine flour, soda and salt in a bowl.
• With a mixer, combine butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and eggs until creamed together.
• Add flour mixture and combine.

• Add candy bars and stir by hand until combined.
• Drop by a spoonful onto a greased baking sheet.  
• Bake 9 - 11 mins until golden brown, or a little less for a chewier cookie.

Now, sit back, relax and enjoy the sugar high!

Dee

Chocolate Cake Martini

Welcome Back!  We've been on hiatus for a few weeks, just because life got a little busy for Mary and me at the same time.  So, I thought I would welcome everyone back with a cocktail.  Plus, it's Mary's birthday, so what's better than a Chocolate Cake Martini for your birthday drink?!?  

I started making these a few years ago, and like to have them on special occasions.  With the Holidays coming up, this would be a great drink for when you get together with your friends and family!  Some people like to have them for dessert, but I think they are perfect for any time.

It's an easy recipe, but looks so impressive!  Here's what you need:

- Vanilla Vodka
- Frangelico Liquor
- Irish creme
- ice cubes
- chocolate syrup

Directions:
Add 1 oz each of the Vanilla Vodka and the Frangelico, and 1/2 an oz of the Irish Creme into the martini shaker with several ice cubes.

Shake until the outside starts to get cold - 4 - 6 shakes; and put to the side.

Get your martini glass and drizzle chocolate around the inside of the glass.

 

Give the martini shaker another shake and remove the top lid and pour the martini into the prepared glass.

Step back, admire your work and take a drink...Enjoy!  

Cheers!

Dee

Waffles Wonderful Waffles!

Wonderful Waffles!  

I used to buy lots of frozen waffles, until I finally got smart and asked for a waffle iron so I could start making my own.  I experimented with a lot of recipes and if you've made waffles before, you know that the recipes make a lot of batter. The batter can store in the refrigerator, but if you are like me, you don't have time every morning to make fresh waffles.  So, now I make batches on the weekends and freeze them; so on weekday mornings I just have to pop them in the toaster and then I'm ready to head off to work!

You can do so many things with waffles...like top them with peanut butter and banana or strawberries; or make a sandwich out of them with egg, bacon (or sausage) and cheese; or break them up and use as a topping on an ice cream sundae!  The options are endless...don't you want to go make some now?  Yum! 

As I said before, I've been messing around with a lot of recipes, and have found what I think is the best recipe.  It's a little sweet, but is also made with some wheat flour and soy milk, so they are a little more healthy.  Go get your waffle iron, and try out this recipe and freeze what you don't eat that morning, and you'll have breakfast (or snack) for the rest of the week!

Healthy Whole Wheat Waffles
Mix the following items together with a whisk in a large bowl... I like one with a spout so it is easy to pour onto the waffle iron.

2 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup butter (melted)
1 cup vanilla flavored soy milk  (if you don't have soy milk, you can use regular milk for the entire 1 3/4 cups of milk for the recipe, but the soy milk helps add sweetness to the waffles.)
3/4 cup milk
2 T granulated sugar
1 T brown sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 t. salt

Mix all the ingredients together with a whisk

Pour batter onto heated waffle iron

Tip - pour the batter into the middle portion of the waffle iron, and then use a rubber spatula to push the batter out to the edges of the iron.

Once you have the batter spread out, close the lid and cook until your waffle iron ready light turns green.
 

There are a lot of options you can do to add flavors to your waffles, such as add a mashed banana to the batter, and make some banana pancakes (that's right Jack Johnson!).  Or my favorite, is to add some chocolate chips to the batter to add some chocolatey goodness!  This is a good basic waffle recipe that you can try a variety of waffle flavors with.  

Good breakfast!
Dee

French Beef Stew in my Le Creuset

So, I was in Atlanta for work and went to a demonstration kitchen at the convention center we were in.  After watching a cook use Le Creuset pots....one lucky person in the audience won a stew pot.  Well.....it was ME!!!  Very exciting...the pot retails around $200....crazy right!

I fully expected to blog about how it wasn't worth the money...however, I LOVE this pot.  It is basically a very well made cast iron pot that is coated.  It cooks very evenly and goes from stove top to oven.

I don't know that I would spend the money on it...but it was FREE!!!  If you happen to win one, buy one, or get one as a present.......you won't be disappointed.

Now....for my first cooking experiment in the pot....I made one of my favorite comfort foods.....a recipe passed down from my Mom.

French Beef Stew

2 lbs Tenderloin (Filet) we use what we cut off of the untrimmed Filet tenderloin from Costco

                  You can use London Broil for a cheaper version....but the Filet is my first choice for this.

1/4 Cup Oil

1 onion-Chopped

1 can Beef Broth

2 Bay Leaves

3Tbsp Tapioca (In the baking aisle)

32oz can Diced tomatoes

1 Tbsp Parsley

2 cloves garlic-minced

2 1/2 tsp Salt

5 stalks Celery, 5 Carrots and 3 large Potatoes (do not add in first part of cooking)

Preheat oven to 350

Brown tenderloin in oil in a pan that has a lid that can go into the oven. (Dutch oven)

Add all of the above ingredients except carrots, celery and potatoes....

Stir until well blended. Let simmer for about 10 minutes.

Bake in oven for 1 1/2 hours.

Then take out and add cubes of carrots, potatoes and celery. Cook for an additional 1 1/2 hours or until carrots and potatoes are tender.

Enjoy!  Great with some crusty Sourdough. My family has this for Christmas Eve dinner....and it just reminds me of home;-)

Cinnamon Roll Rice Krispie treats (5 ingredients)

I experiment with food a LOT, and every once in a while, I'll create something that makes me think 'Wow, that is awesome!'.  And, that's what happened this time with this recipe for Cinnamon Roll Rice Krispies.

It's one of those that is so easy and turned out so great, that I can't believe I didn't think about it before!  If you've been reading this blog, you know that I LOVE cinnamon rolls (drooling as I write about them), and Mary doesn't like Rice Krispie treats (I know...what is wrong with her?...Love ya, girl!).  Mary tried some 'gourmet' rice krispie treats earlier this year to try to see if she would find some that she likes.   Well, I think I created one that she will like, if not love!

I'm always trying to loose weight, and one of the ways that I can be successful at loosing weight is to find items that I like and make them into foods that have lower calories or fat.  What I've found in the past is that Rice Krispies can help curb your hunger for sweet treats and they are low fat! 

So, I've been craving cinnamon rolls lately, and had the idea that to make them into Rice Krispie treats will help satisfy that craving without all the calories and fat from an actual cinnamon roll.  And the results are Amazing!  In fact, the bad thing is that they taste so good, that I may not be able to stop with just one!  I've already had one to taste test... oh yeah...yummy!!

Here's the recipe for you to try out, and let me know what you think!

Ingredients:
3 Tablespoons of butter
1 - 10 oz bag of marshmallows
6 cups of Rice Krispies cereal
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 Tablespoons of Cream Cheese icing (add more if you want to be naughty)

Directions:
Melt the butter in a large pan

Add the marshmallows and stir to melt

Stir in the cinnamon when the marshmallows are almost completely melted

Stir in the cereal when the marshmallows are completely melted

Press into a 9x13 pan and add icing to the top.  
 

Tip:  Put the icing into a plastic sandwich bag and cut off the tip of one end, then use like a pastry bag to draw designs on your cinnamon rolls.

After they have cooled, Cut and enjoy!

Sweet Endings!
Dee

Individual Monkey Bread (5 indgredients!)

There is nothing better on a Sunday morning than having a cup of coffee and a warm gooey cinnamon bun with lots of frosting!  I cheat a lot of times and use the ones in a can...you know what I'm talking about.  They do usually hit the spot, but I would like them to be a little more ooey gooey!  

In search of how to create an easy cinnamon treat for breakfast at the lake, I found a recipe for individual monkey bread.  When I was little, I loved helping make monkey bread because you knew it was going to be all kinds of goodness when it was done.  Monkey bread is pretty easy to do, but I thought the individual part would be pretty cool.  The recipe I saw actually made them with crescent rolls, but I thought I would take it up a notch and make them with the cinnamon rolls in a can...What?!  I know...crazy!  

The great thing about these is that you have the icing from the canned cinnamon rolls left to put on top of your individual monkey bread once they are out of the oven.  Oh yeah!  That's what I'm talking about!  

These really did turn out pretty good, so you should try them yourselves and let me know what variations you've tried.  The individual ones made it really easy to grab and go in the morning.

Here's the recipe:

2 cans cinnamon rolls 

1/2 c. milk

1/2 c. sugar

2 T. cinnamon

1/4 c. butter

Directions:

Lightly spray a 12 muffin pan with non-stick spray.

Cut the cinnamon rolls into quarters.

Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl (but big enough to roll the dough around in).

Pour the milk into a small bowl.

Dip the 1/4 of the cinnamon roll into the milk and then lightly roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Place the dough into the muffin pan, and continue to do this until all the dough is cut, dipped, rolled and placed in the muffin pan.

Mix remain milk, cinnamon, sugar and the melted butter in one bowl (I put into a liquid measuring cup to pour easier), and pour over each of the muffins...try to do evenly, until the mixture is gone.

Place in a 350 degree pre-heated oven and bake for 15 - 18 minutes (until the top is just done for more gooey-ness). 

Let cool, then remove from the muffin pan and place icing on each of the muffins. 

Enjoy the ooey - gooey yumminess and wait for the compliments to rain upon you!

Nosh away!
Dee

BLT Pasta Salad Recipe

I love summer and all the fresh food that comes with it.  My family has an obsession with fresh tomatoes from the garden and this recipe combines two of my favorite things from summer....pasta salad and BLT's.  This is another recipe from my favorite cooking subscription...Cuisine at Home.  This turned out to be a real keeper and will be made over and over!!!! The red "jelly bean" tomatoes were from my Dad's garden and the orange were from a local farmer.....added great color to the salad.

Cook
1 lb. dry campanelle pasta (in large pot of boiling salted water, drain and cool with water)
1 lb. thick-sliced bacon....then diced (reserve 3 Tbsp. drippings)

Whisk in a large bowl:
1/2 C mayonnaise (Hellmann's Original)
2 Tbsp minced shallots
2 Tbsp minced fresh basil
2 Tbsp cider vinegar
2 tsp sugar
3 Tbsp cooled bacon drippings
Add salt and pepper to taste

Just before serving stir in:
4 cups chopped romaine lettuce
4 cups halved grape tomatoes (fresh ones are a must)

This salad is easy to make....and has great flavor....as well as being different from the usual pasta salad.
Great potluck dish that looks fantastic!

Salmon Goat Cheese wraps

A little while ago, Mary and I took a class at a local grocery store from the store's fish monger.  The class was for party foods using seafood, and one of the items we had was this recipe of a wrap with salmon in it.  It was a wonderful contrast of the salmon with goat cheese, and a black bean compote.  

These were made with the soft taco size tortillas, and then wrapped in foil so people at a party can pick them up and walk around mingling while eating them.  

This recipe is super easy, and tastes great!  You can make ahead for a party or make for dinner on a night that you don't have a lot of time.  

Recipe:

10 soft taco size tortillas

5 - salmon fillets 

1 - can black beans

1 - 10 oz can of Rotel

10 oz goat cheese

1/2 c. sour cream

Place the salmon fillets on a cookie sheet (put aluminum foil down first) and bake for 200 degrees for 20 minutes.  Cut in half to create 10 servings.

Place the black beans and Rotel in a saucepan and heat.

Heat up the tortillas in the microwave to make them easier to wrap; about 1 min. 

Mix the goat cheese and sour cream together in a small bowl.  

Now assemble the wraps by spreading an oz. of the goat cheese mixture on the tortilla. 

Place the salmon on the tortilla and spoon some of the black bean and Rotel mixture on top. 

Fold the tortilla into a wrap and wrap in aluminum to keep warm for your guests.

As you can see in the pictures, I forgot to put the goat cheese first, but they still look pretty and taste great!  

Enjoy!

Dee