Disneyland World of Color Picnics

by penji1

My daughter Courtney and I just got back from a trip to Disneyland so I thought I’d post a few foodie things about the happiest place on earth!  This first one is about their new show in California Adventures called “The World of Color” which is awesome!  I highly recommend seeing it if you are planning a trip to Disneyland; Courtney and I actually went twice.  If you do go then you might want to consider this:  you can buy picnics which come with a preferred viewing pass to the show.  You can buy them online at Disneyland.com; they are $15.99 each.  The ticket allows you to stand and watch the show in one of their preferred viewing areas which gives you a slightly better view of the show.  (I recommend watching from higher up as opposed to closer to the water, it’s harder to see the closer you are.  The first time we went, we were right down by the water and I could hardly see a thing so the next time we went, we stayed up higher and it was much easier to see.)  Now back to the picnics!  There are 4 to choose from and each comes with your choice of a bottle of Dasani water or a Coke product.  Courtney and I chose 2 and shared them; they were both surprisingly good.

The first we chose was the “European Antipasto” which consisted of cured meats, regional cheeses, pepperoncini, artichoke heart, sun dried tomatoes, Carr’s water crackers and chocolate dipped Tiramisu.

The second was the “Mediterranean Vegetarian” which consisted of marinated grilled vegetables wrapped in a whole wheat wrap with roasted garlic hummus, raw zucchini and squash spaghettini with first press lemon infused olive oil, vegetable couscous with toasted coriander vinaigrette and lemon layer cake.

The other 2 choices were the “All American” with fried chicken and “Taste of Asia” with salmon.

They also gave us a free World of Color tote bag when we picked up our picnics.  You can pick them up anytime between 11 am and an hour before your chosen showtime at the Sonoma Terrace in California Adventures (just look for the WOC picnic signs).

So there is my first foodie tip for you if you are planning a trip to Disneyland;  2 more to follow!  (If you are interested in more info on the picnics you can go to http://www.disneyland.com and type in “World of Color picnics”.)

Cupcake Haunted Houses

by penji1

So here are the Cupcake Haunted Houses that the girls made at Activity Night last night.  They came out really cute!  The idea and instructions come from the cookbook “What’s New Cupcake” by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.  The instructions are long, they take up 3 full pages in their cookbook, and I just don’t have the time to type them all up right now so I encourage you to buy the cookbook if you want the specifics (there are a lot of great cupcake decorating ideas in the book) or if you take a look at the picture, you can probably figure out how to do most of it and if I have more time later then I’ll type them up.  The girls put both these houses together in about an hour and then we took them to 2 of our Young Women leaders who are sick (feel better Julie and Laura!).  Happy Halloween everyone!

Ghost Cupcakes

by penji1

I’ve got a quick and easy Halloween treat idea for you.  I found these Reynolds shaped baking cups at either Target or Walmart; there are 24 of them and they are ghost shaped.  Mix up a cake mix, any kind, (I did a yellow cake mix and mixed ghost, pumpkin and bat shaped sprinkles, which I bought at my local grocery store Maceys, into the batter because I couldn’t find any of the Halloween Funfetti cake mixes that they usually do this time of year, did they not make them this year?) 1 standard cake mix will fill all 24 of the cups.  Place batter filled cups on a cookie sheet and bake according to package directions for cupcakes.  Let cool and frost with canned frosting, using mini chocolate chips for the eyes.  Doesn’t get much easier than that, now does it?  These are for the Young Women tonight; we are making haunted houses out of cupcakes for our activity night tonight and these are their treats for after.  (I’ll post the haunted house pictures later tonight or tomorrow so you can see how they come out.)

Maple – Walnut Mini – Tarts

by penji1

This is a Pampered Chef recipe from their “Simply Sweet” cookbook and the treats are for my friend Nicole’s baby shower tonight.  They are supposed to be Maple – Cashew but I didn’t have any cashews and besides, Maple – Walnut sounded better.  They are also supposed to be cupcake size but I did them in my mini muffin pan and so made them super mini tarts.  One of them fell apart as I was taking it out of the pan (what a shame!) and so I had to eat it and it was delicious!  I’ll give you the original recipe and also the changes that I made to it.

1 cup salted cashews or mixed nut blend without peanuts (I used walnuts)

2 eggs

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup pure maple syrup (do not use maple flavored pancake syrup), divided

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

(I also added 1 teaspoon maple extract to make sure they tasted really mapley)

1 (15 oz) package refrigerated pie crusts (2 crusts), softened according to package directions

1  Prepare Filling:  Preheat oven to 375.  Coarsely chop nuts.  Combine eggs, brown sugar, 1/3 cup maple syrup, butter, vanilla and maple extract, if using.  Whisk until smooth.  Stir in nuts.

2  Form Pastry Shells:  Unroll 1 pie crust onto a pastry mat.  Using wide end of clear Food Chopper collar, cut 6 pastry circles.  (Circles will measure 3 3/4″.)  (I used my mini Measure All cup to cut the circles for the super mini tarts and that measures about 2 1/2″.)  Pinch edges of circles inward at 1/2″ intervals, creating ruffled shells.  (You don’t have to do this if you are making the super minis.)  (The recipe doesn’t say to do this but I sprayed the pan with Pam before putting the shells in and it made it a lot easier to get them out.)  Place shells in muffin pan wells (if making super minis, use mini tart shaper to push rounds into mini muffin pan; repeat with remaining pie crust.

3  Fill Shells and Bake:  Stir nut mixture until combined; pour evenly into shells until 2/3 full.  Bake 18 – 21 minutes (the super minis took about 10 minutes) or until shells are golden brown.  Remove pans from oven to cool completely on racks.  Brush tops of tarts with remaining maple syrup.

Candy Cake

by penji1

I made this cake for dessert for the fam and all the nieces and nephews visiting.  The recipe comes from the October 21, 2011 issue of “All You” magazine.  It would be a great way to use up some leftover Halloween candy in a couple of weeks!

cake:

3 1/2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups finely chopped chocolate candies such as Snickers, Almond Joy or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (I used a combination of Andes mints and peppermint patties)

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs, separated, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/4 cups milk, at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

icing:

4 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup heavy cream

1  Make cake:  Preheat oven to 350.  Butter and flour a 10 cup nonstick Bundt pan (I used a tube pan and sprayed it with Pam with flour for Baking).  Sift 3 cups flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.  In a separate bowl, toss candies with remaining 1/2 cup flour.

2  Beat butter and sugar on medium high until light, about 3 minutes.  Add yolks 1 at a time.  Beat in vanilla.  Beat in 1/3  of flour mixture, followed by 1/2 of the milk.  Repeat, ending with flour mixture.  Do not overmix.

3  In a clean, dry bowl using dry beaters, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form.  Stir candies and 1/3 of egg whites into batter.  Fold in remaining whites.  Spoon batter into pan.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 50 – 60 minutes.  Let cool 10 minutes before removing from pan.

4  Make icing:  Place chocolate in a bowl.  Warm cream in a pan over medium heat until just boiling.  Pour over chocolate, let stand for 1 minute, then whisk until smooth.  Let cool slightly.  Pour icing over cake, allowing excess to drip over sides.

Easy Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas

by penji1

We had lots of company for Sunday dinner today!  My niece Heidi and her husband Mark, who are attending BYU Idaho, came to spend part of the weekend with us and then my nephew Wyett who is attending BYU Provo and my other niece Clara who is getting ready to start beauty school in American Fork both came over for dinner so I decided to make this recipe for all of them which turned out to be pretty tasty and was very easy to make.  I also made the Cilantro Lime Rice which is already on the blog and I made a 7 layer dip too.  Good dinner!  I found this recipe in the September 23, 2011 edition of “All You” magazine but it was a Campbell’s Soup ad so you can find it and other recipes on their website at http://www.CampbellsKitchen.com.

1 (10 3/4 ounce) can Campbell’s Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup

1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup Pace picante sauce

2 teaspoons chili powder

2 cups chopped cooked chicken (I used a can of Costco brand chicken)

1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (I used cheddar)

6 flour tortillas (6″), warmed

1 small tomato, chopped

1 green onion, sliced

1  Heat oven to 350.  Stir soup, sour cream, picante sauce and chili powder together in medium bowl.

2  In another bowl, stir together 1 cup soup mixture, chicken and cheese.

3  Divide chicken mixture among tortillas.  Roll up tortillas and place seam side down in 11 x 7 x 2″ baking dish (I used a 9 x 13″).  Pour remaining soup mixture over filled tortillas.  Cover baking dish.

4  Bake 40 minutes or until enchiladas are hot and bubbling.  Top with tomato and onion.

Cake Mix Bar Cookies – Peanut Butter M & M

by penji1

Here is a third variation of the Cake Mix Bar Cookie.  These are for Bob’s Sunday School class tomorrow.  This one is from Stephanie Ashcraft’s “101 More Things to do with a Cake Mix”.

1 white or yellow cake mix (I used yellow)

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter (I’m running low on crunchy so I used smooth)

1 – 1 1/2 cups M & M’s (I just dumped the whole bag in there)

Preheat oven to 350.  With a spoon, mix cake mix, eggs, oil and peanut butter together in large bowl.  Mix M & M’s into dough.  Press into a lightly greased 9 x 13″ pan.  Bake 14 – 18 minutes or until light golden brown around edges.  Cool 15 – 20 minutes before cutting into bars.

Homemade Nutty Granola

by penji1

The lesson for the girls in my class tomorrow is on Good Health Habits so I thought I’d make them a somewhat healthier treat as an example plus I’ve been wanting to try out this recipe for a long time since I love granola.  It smells great and I had a tiny taste and it tasted really good although it was still hot since it had just come out of the oven.  The recipe comes from the December 17, 2010 issue of “All You” magazine.

4 cups old-fashioned oats (not instant)

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

1/3 cup oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

1  Position rack in middle of oven and preheat to 375.  Mist a cookie sheet with sides (jelly roll pan) with cooking spray.  Mix oats, nuts, sunflower seeds, cinnamon and salt in large bowl.  In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, honey and oil and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

2  Remove from heat and carefully stir in vanilla.  Pour hot liquid over oat mixture, stir and toss until thoroughly mixed.

3  Spread granola on baking sheet and bake until golden brown, 20 – 25 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure even baking.  Transfer granola to large bowl and let cool, stirring occasionally.

Marshmallow Popcorn

by penji1

Here is a tasty treat that I don’t make very often because I eat way too much of it!  I got the recipe from my neighbor Lisa Hawkins and I made it tonight as a treat for my group of girls at church for our activity tonight.  Hopefully they will eat most of it and there won’t be any leftovers!

1 stick butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

32 large or 4 cups mini marshmallows

5 quarts popped popcorn

Melt butter then add brown sugar and marshmallows and cook until melted.  Pour over popcorn and mix.