Happy - Spooky - Fun!

I have to admit it - we tried...we tried not to carve pumpklins this year. Why? I have no idea. The subject came up between my daughter and me while in the car last weekend and we just kinda of sluffed it off. She said she didn't really feel like it and I likened it to getting the lights strung on the Christmas tree. Now, I really don't mind doing either one - and actually, carving pumpkins is fast and we all love the roasted seeds. Fall is even my daughter's and my favorite time of year - so why would we shun the innocent pumpkin?

Turns out - we didn't! Wednesday night we were getting more and more Halloweeny feeling. We'd rented two movies for my daughter and her friend to watch after a few holiday festivites on Saturday/Halloween night. I pretty much picked the flicks - see, my daughter only recently started getting the itch to watch any sort of scary movie. She was never interested as she is home alone several times a week and I never encouraged her to put all that crap in her head (fyi, I see Linda Blair's Regan from the 'Exorcist' every dang day of my life - so I know of what I speak!). But with the fall season, the Halloween holiday and her ever-blooming 'teenagery', some horror has been sparking her interest. Now she just needs to stay clear of the crap and watch what's good.

I shun the stupid scary movies like 'The Leprechaun' (I've never seen it - I just know it's dumb!) and the way too scary like 'The Exorcist' or 'The Evil Dead'. Over the last few weeks, she's seen 'Halloween', 'Friday teh 13th', 'The Amityville Horror' (the 3rd remake with Ryan Reynolds - cuz...welll...he's shirtless in it - a lot) and together we watched 'The Stepfather' (the original - that remake is crap for sure - avoid it!) and 'An American Werewolf in London' (she thought it was dumb).

Now, Minners (my daughter), doesn't like a lot of blood or nasty killing so I helped her choose two great flicks for Halloween night (who am I kidding - I totally chose them!....but for her own good ;-)). We got 'Poltergiest' - a Spileberg classic....Great story, a few laughs, some scary here and there but mostly, lots of "awesome!" kinds of stuff. Movie two...'The Blair Witch Project'. I know this movie scared lots of people - the Hubs thinks it's the scariest ever. However...everyone is wrong ;-) I mean, no killing (that you see anyway...just disappearing), no blood, no monsters.... It IS creepy and freaky, I'll give it that - but it won't leave horrible images in a teenagers head and that's the goal. So - SCORE one for mom!

K...I'm getting way off track... So - When we drove through the neighborhood to the movie store, we saw several houses had stepped up their spooky decor and the air was so crisp and cool....we knew we had to get pumpkins. So on Thursday, we got three pumpkins - two for her, one for me and as soon as dinner was over, we plunged our knives in. The pumpkin above is mine - I like his teeth!
And these two are my daughter's creations. That big one....he just makes me smile! Doesn't he look jolly? I can just imagine he has a big ol' belly 'guffaw' ready to roll out. If memory serves, she's never carved a mean or scary pumpkin in her life!

Just goes to show...Halloween doesn't have to be about scary...it can just be about fun. I'm sure I picked the right movies. :-)

Happy Halloween!

Autumn Warmth in a Flaky Crust...

What's a perfect, hot and comforting remedy for rainy weather? Homemade Individual Chicken Pot Pies!Buttery, flaky crust….rich, chickeny gravy, hearty chucks of chicken and tender vegetables…Mmmm….It’s easy and beautiful – but most of all – it’s delicious!

Here’s how to do it!

Get the crust dough made first - following your favorite recipe for a two-crust pie (as I’ve said before, I do what Betty Crocker says!). I make sure my butter is chopped straight from the freezer and I draw my tablespoons of water from a glass of ice cold water.

A few seconds in the food processor gives me fine-as-sand dough that just holds together. When mixing by hand with a pastry blender, you may have pebble-size pieces of butter – that’s fine too. But if you can use a food processor, the butter has no time to get warm and it makes a wonderfully flaky crust!

Once blended, shape the dough into a disk, then wrap it up and chill it in the fridge till it’s time to roll it out.

Next, I prepped all my other components. I chopped about ½ of a medium onion, ¾ of a green pepper, used the last quarter of a bag of frozen peas-n-carrots and chopped about a quarter cup of parsley. All tolled, veggies measured about 2 or 2 ½ cups worth. Use your favorites!

Then, I gathered other herbs and aromatics that were pleasing to my nose right then and there – Garlic powder, celery seed, cayenne, basil, coriander, big black pepper, the remainder of a spice blend from Pampered Chef and of course, chicken broth.

First I heated a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and added 2 breast worth of chicken, cut while raw into a half-inch dice. I then added salt, pepper and garlic powder and cooked it till almost all the pink was gone.

Next, I added the veggies….

…..and the herbs. I eyeballed all of these – but I’d guess that there was about 12 – ¾ teaspoon of each – and I stirred to combine everything well, then let this mixture heat through and cook until the veggies were just tender.

Meanwhile, I made a rue. I used about 2-3 tablespoons butter, melted it, then added approx. ¼ cup flour. Make sure you stir this well and heat it to bubbling. You want to cook out the taste of the flour, but you don’t want the rue to brown. Once the rue is done, remove it from the heat till ready to use.

After your rue is done and the veggies have cooked with the chicken for about 5 minutes, add the chicken broth - approx 2 to 2 ½ cups. Heat till almost boiling….

…then add in the rue. Stir constantly and heat to boiling. You want a thick-ish sauce and it will not reach it’s full thickness until it boils.

The boiling had just begun here – kinda hard to see. But once it does boil, it turns rich and thick and wonderful!

Lastly, add the chopped parsley and stir to combine. Remove the pan from the heat and get your ramekins ready to go!

I sprayed my ramekins with Pam before filling each to within about a quarter inch from the top.

After all are filled, wipe the rims with a cloth or paper towel.

Next, flour a rolling mat or your clean counter top and roll out the chilled pie dough to approx 1/8 inch thickness.

I placed a ramekin atop the dough, then used a paring knife to cut a circle ¾ inch larger than the circumference of the ramekin.

I made a wash of one egg beaten with one tablespoon of water and wetted the rim of the ramekin.

Using a small off-set spatula, I lifted the circle of dough from the rolling mat….

…and placed it on top if the egg-rimmed ramekin.

Then, I crimped the dough as I pushed down slightly, sealing the dough to the rim of the ramekin.

Then, cut two slits in the top so steam could escape during baking.

Aren’t they so cute?! I was so proud of them!

Lastly, I brushed each one with the leftover egg wash. The pot pies can now be refrigerated until you’re ready to bake them, or they can go straight to the oven. I chilled mine till dine time, but then baked then at 350-degrees for approx 45-50 minutes. I checked them every ten minutes or so after 25 minutes as I wanted to make sure the crusts were golden – not too pale, not too brown.

And – Voila!!!

The crust was tender, flaky and buttery. Inside, the sauce was flavorful, the chicken and veggies tender, hot and delicious!

VERY DELICIOUS!!!

I froze three for a later dinner and can’t wait to have them again. These were easy and are so pleasing to the eye, they’d be great for a small dinner party –each guest getting their own beautifully golden-crowned pot-o-pie. Served with a seasonal fruit salad it was a fabulous hot meal on a cold, rainy autumn day!

Recipe? Well, there really isn't one! This came out of my head. Suffice it to say that you make and chill pie crust dough, then, mix chopped veggies of your choice with diced, raw chicken and cook through in a little olive oil over medium heat with herbs and spices to your taste. Pour in chicken broth and add a rue to thicken. Spoon mixture into ramekins (or one big casserole),roll out rounds of dough to fit top of baking vessel(s) and bake until heated through and golden brown :-)

Sick and twisted

We had a little of both happening in our house this past weekend. A little of sick and twisted I mean. Actually – the little sick turned into big sick and the little twisted was more twisted than I’d planned.

Let me explain….

I’d planned on making homemade soft pretzels with my daughter on Saturday afternoon. I’d stayed home with her on Friday as she wasn’t feeling well and was glad to see her feeling better – albeit not 100% by Saturday morning. We ran a few errands together and though she was feeling a bit ‘off’, she had a friend over (chatting with a friend over their Home Coming dance pans took precedence over the pretzels – that was cool…I was young once too :-)

I will say the pretzels turned out so yummy and chewy and the spinach cheese dip I made to go along with them was SO entirely like a restaurant version I’ve had…oh my gosh, yum - it was perfect. More info on making those pretzels & dip in a sec…

By the time we’d all eaten and watched a movie together, my daughter didn’t look so good – her temperature was 102.4 – so the Hubs ran her friend home and I started the medication and cold compress. Long story short, by the time the next afternoon rolled around, her temp was at 103.8! We more or less ran to the house straight to the doctors office. At this posting, she’s cooled a bit, but is not out of the woods yet. It made for a pretty scary Sunday, but hopefully within a day or two, she’ll be solidly on the mend.
Meanwhile, let me tell you how to make the most scrumptious, warm-n-soft-n-chewy pretzels y’ever had!

This recipe comes from the Food Network’s Alton Brown. Thanks Al! Not only were they easy to make on my own, but having my mom over on Sunday to make them a second time was a real treat.You start with yeast, water, salt and sugar, let all that sit for about 5 mins to activate the yeast, then just add the flour and some melted butter. Mmmmmm….butter……

This picture makes it look like I beat the heck out of the dough, but I assure you this is only speed 2 on the ol’ Kitchen Aide. After all the flour was incorporated (on speed 1) I let it run on speed 2 for 4 minutes straight. I then rolled it out into an oiled stainless bowl & covered it in plastic wrap.

Now, we don’t keep our house very warm – only had the heat on once so far this year, so I filled a bowl half full of pretty warm water and set the bowl with the dough, atop it to catch it’s cozy toastiness

After one hour, this beautiful puffed up dough was begging to be wo-‘man’ handled!

So we lined two baking sheets with parchment and then lubed up the parchment very lightly with olive oil

We did the same with one naked baking sheet as well, then….

…I turned the dough out onto that sheet (look at all those yeasty holies! It smelled SO good!

I then cut it into eight pieces. It was sticky, I ain’t gonna lie, but I’d just cut the knife down in and run my finger along the edge to separate the dough from the blade. This pic doesn’t exactly show it because I cold take the picture and run my finger alongside the knife – but it worked really well – take my word for it :-)

Now, the dough was fairly fragile – but we finagled each piece into a rope about 28 to 24 inches long. As soon as it was close to the length we wanted, it was laid on the oiled parchment in a ‘U’ shape, then the middle was twisted and the ends were gently pressed/massaged in.

While twisting the pretzels into shape, a big pot of water boiled. The recipe calls for 10 cups of water and 2/3 cup baking soda added. I eyed balled mine and had my pot filled about half way and I put in a good, healthy couple-a shakes of baking soda. When all the pretzels were formed, we carefully laid them one at a time into the boiling water and let them bathe for about 1 minute. The we used a slotted, flat 5” round ‘spoon’ to lift it out and rest it once again on the oiled parchment.

On the left is an unboiled pretzel, the one on the right just came out of the bath. The boiling makes the tiniest bit of a ‘skin’, if you will, on the dough. I know, I know….the word skin should not be associated with anything to eaten unless it’s chicken! But the boiling DID leave SOMEthing…..not a crust, they weren’t hard….certainly not tacky…. They just had a skin!

After all were boiled, they were brushed with egg yolk beaten with a little water, then salted and baked for 14 minutes. I baked two sheets at once, trade levels and rotated them halfway through for the most even baking. And here are the golden beauties now!

I made this warm and cheesy spinach dip to go with the pretzels and it was SO creamy and cheesy and fattening – translation – Heaven!

Mmmm….cheesy-spinachy-chewy-yummy!

Recipes!

Alton Brown's Homemade Soft Pretzels

Ingredients: (yields 8 pretzels)

1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 package active dry yeast

22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups

2 ounces unsalted butter, melted

Vegetable oil, for pan

10 cups water

2/3 cup baking soda

1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water

Pretzel salt

Directions:

Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.
Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart pot. While waiting for the water to boil, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula or spoon. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Spinach Cheese Dip

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 (14.5 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, drained and chopped

1 (4 ounce) can diced green chilies, drained

1 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed and drained and chopped well

20 ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

2 cups half-and-half cream (mine was non-fat)

salt and pepper to taste

Tabasco - just a dash or two – optional (I opted not)

* Note - you can substitute two cans of Rotelle diced tomatoes with green chilies in place of the two separate cans of tomatoes and chilies - but the spice from the chilies will be less and it's not all that spicy anyway).

Directions:

Sauté onion in skillet over medium heat in oil until softened, about 4 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and chilies, let cook 2 minutes. Pour in cream and add cream cheese, spinach and shredded jack cheese. Season with salt and pepper (and Tabasco if desired) to taste. Stir until combined – serve hot* Note – you can also make this ahead of time, spoon mixture into a baking dish and when ready, bake in a preheated, 400-degree oven until the dip is bubbly and the top is light brown, about 35 minutes.

Chicken Peanut Noodles

We had the most awesome dinner on Sunday night. I’d wanted to make the dish several days earlier, but for one reason or another, it kept getting delayed. So by the time we got around to making it was a real treat. I expanded on a recipe I found on a blog I frequent called ‘battersplattered’. Battersplattered had posted a recipe for Spicy Peanut Noodles which was right up my taste bud alley. I love the combo of chicken and peanuts though and wanted to make it more of a one pot meal rather than just a side noodle dish. Because I added the chicken, I also tweaked the sauce to add a little more spice/heat and volume in general so the chicken could swim around in and soak up the peanuty, saucy goodness. It was to die for….OMG…SO good! And the leftovers the next day for lunch were just as good as the first night – my husband actually liked day number 2 better! Try this – we had ours with an egg roll on the side - you will love it!

Chicken Peanut Noodles

Ingredients:

6 T peanut butter

3/4 to 1 c chicken broth

4 T rice vinegar

4 to 5 T soy sauce

2 1/2 T sugar

1 T sesame oil

1 t ground ginger

1/4 t cayenne pepper

1 to 1 ½ t garlic powder

1 t red pepper flakes (optional)

1, 1 lb (16 oz) box of linguine

2 large (or 3 small) chicken breasts very thinly sliced while raw

1 T olive oil

1 envelope fried rice or Asian seasoning (I use Sunbird fried rice seasoning)

salt, pepper & garlic powder

1 orange bell pepper, thinly sliced

1/2 c sliced green onions, cut on the bias

1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro

1/4 c chopped salted peanuts

Directions:
Combine first 10 ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk to blend. Set dressing aside. The peanut butter will soften as the mixture sits after that first whisking. Give it a good whisking again before combing it with the chicken and noodles later.

Begin cooking the pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water until done (I prefer just past the al dente point – but not in no way mushy!)

While pasta boils, heat olive oil in a large frying pan over medium high and add the thinly sliced chicken. Season chicken with salt, pepper, garlic powder and the envelope of the fried rice seasoning (or approx 1 T Asian seasoning). Stir frequently until just cooked through. Add sliced orange bell pepper and combine (you want a little crunch to the pepper so if your pasta is quite a ways from being done, hold off adding it just yet – and turn the chicken down in this case as well).

Once pasta is done, strain it and add it to the chicken/pepper mixture. Whisk the sauce once more and pour over the chicken & pasta. Toss to coat thoroughly. Keep heat on medium and heat until sauce thickens slightly. Add sliced green onions and stir to combine.
Serve in bowls and sprinkle with cilantro and peanuts if desired (and DO desire it...these two additions are the crowning glory!).

Get ready to drift off into deliciousness!

Time Flies - Fall is Here Again...

This post marks just about one year since I started this blog. I needed a place to be creative and get out what was on the inside and it’s been super fun to do so. My first blog included instructions to make this wreath that, as of Saturday, is gracing our door yet again.

My daughter and I put out a few other autumn decorations….yummy candles and pine cones – and some squishy window stickies I’d bought last year on clearance. The house felt warm and cozy and perfect for baking – so that’s what we did! It’s not too often that I get a chance to spend an entire day with my 15 year old daughter what with friends and home work taking up her time – but yesterday, that’s just what I got…the whole day. It was heaven!

These are the cookies we made – Halloween Sandwich Cookies. They were sinfully simple and super scrumptious.

The recipe for the cookies is just three ingredients:
1 cake mix of your choice
1 stick of butter softened
2 eggs

Mix all ingredients together. It’ll be stiff and you’ll think it’ll never come together – but it will. Use your stand mixer to save time and trouble. We actually made two batches at once (2 mixes, 2 butters and 4 eggs).

Once dough comes together, use a small scoop to make even-sized balls on parchment-lined baking sheets. You could roll walnut-sized balls if you don’t have a small scoop.

Bake for 11 minutes at 350-degrees and cool completely. It doesn't take long at all.

Next, whip up some creamy vanilla frosting. You probably have a favorite recipe – I just sued my basic Betty Crocker that included powdered sugar, vanilla milk and butter. Then we split the icing into thirds and tinted them with….

Green…..

…then sandwiched them together….

…and orange….

…and sandwiched….

…and purple….

….and, well, you get the idea! Aren’t Halloween colors so much more fun with the addition of the green and purple to the age--old orange and black?! We LOVE it!

My Minners did a great job filling all the cookies. And buy making a double batch of dough, we had enough to set some aside to make some of her favorites…..

Chocolate with white chocolate chips! She and I both like white chocolate way better than bittersweet for baking.

But these were what the day was about – don’t they look fun and festive?

Mmmmmmm…..Chocolaty and creamy…. You can use any flavor of cake mix and icing to make these super easy sandwich cookies any time of year! Spice with cream cheese for Thanksgiving, lemon or strawberry cake mix with tinted icing for spring or Easter….the possibilities are endless. They are quick, delicious and great baking fun for kids of all ages.

And….individually bagged and tied with a ribbon – they make fun treats for friends, coworkers and family!

Welcome Fall!!