1 Year Anniversary Giveaways!

by penji1

One week from today, Monday, March 21, will mark the 1 year anniversary of my food blog.  I’ve been thinking about a giveaway to mark the occasion but was having trouble deciding what that giveaway should be.  Finally I decided that rather than trying to give something big away, I would do multiple giveaways instead so that more people could win.  So here are the 4 giveaways:

#1  If you win this giveaway, I will give you your choice of any Pampered Chef product that I happen to have in stock at the time, such as this Family Size Quick Stir Pitcher.

#2  If you win this giveaway, I will give you your choice of any Dove Chocolate Discoveries product that I happen to have on hand at the time, such as these New Chocolate Chipotle Spiced Nut Clusters.

#3  If you win this giveaway, I will make 1 recipe of your choice from my blog or, if you’re feeling daring, then I’ll make something new and surprise you.  (Obviously if you win this giveaway and don’t live near me, then your choices will be limited to what will ship well.)

#4  And finally, if you win this giveaway, I will give you one of my favorite cookbooks (perhaps the “Hello Cupcake” one pictured here?).

Here’s how to enter, you can get up to 5 entries for these giveaways:

1  Subscribe to the blog, if you are already a subscriber then you already have 1 entry.

2  Respond to this post and tell me which Pampered Chef product you would choose (assuming that I have everything in the catalog, which I don’t!).

3  Respond to this post and tell me which Dove Chocolate Discoveries product you would choose (again assuming that I have everything in the catalog which, here again, I don’t!).

4   Respond to this post and tell me which recipe from the blog you would choose to have me make for you.

5  And for your 5th entry, respond to this post and tell me which cookbook you would hope to win.

(You can respond once to the post and include all 4 answers, you don’t have to respond 4 separate times.)

There you go!  4 giveaways!  5 ways to enter!

The giveaway will end at midnight on Monday, March 21 and winners will be chosen, notified and announced on Tuesday, March 22.

Good luck!  And thanks for reading my blog!

 

Maple Oatmeal Scones

by penji1

This is a Barefoot Contessa (who is Ina Garten) recipe from the January/February 2010 issue of the Food Network Magazine.  She made these easier to make than other scone recipes that I’ve tried, by making it so that you mix the dough entirely in a mixer.  They are yummy!

scones:

3 1/2 cups flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup quick cooking oats, plus additional for sprinkling (if desired)

2 tablespoons baking powder

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1 pound cold unsalted butter, diced

1/2 cup cold buttermilk (make your own by adding 1/2 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice to 1/2 cup milk and letting sit for 10 minutes or so)

1/2 cup pure maple syrup (don’t use your pancake stuff like Aunt Jemimas, you want the real thing here otherwise the maple taste isn’t very strong or there at all)

4 eggs, beaten lightly

1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk or water, for egg wash

glaze:

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1  Heat oven to 400.  In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine flours, oats, baking powder, sugar and salt.  Blend the cold butter in at lowest speed and mix until butter is in pea sized pieces.  Combine buttermilk, maple syrup and eggs and add quickly to flour and butter mixture.  Mix just until blended.  The dough may be sticky.

2  Dump the dough out onto a well floured surface (emphasize “well floured”) and be sure it is well combined.  Flour your hands and a rolling pin and roll the dough to 3/4 – 1″ thick.  (A note from me here, use your hands to pat the dough flat before trying to roll it.  There is so much dough and it is so sticky that is really hard to roll before flattening it a bit.  I flattened it with my hands to the desired thickness and then used the rolling pin to smooth it out.)  You should see lumps of butter in the dough.  Cut into 3″ rounds with a plain or fluted cutter (I used a 2 1/2″ round cutter) and place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper (Reynolds makes parchment paper which you can buy at the grocery store).

3  Brush the tops with egg wash.  Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, until the tops are crisp and the insides done.  (Mine baked much faster than the time suggested, in about 1/2 the time, so keep an eye on yours to see if they do the same.)

4  To make the glaze, combine the powdered sugar, maple syrup and vanilla.  When the scones are done, cool for 5 minutes and drizzle each scone with glaze.  Ina then sprinkles some uncooked oats on top for garnish but I decided to leave those off.  The warmer the scones are when you glaze them, the thinner the glaze will be.  (I let mine cool longer than 5 minutes so that the glaze would be thicker.)

The recipe said it would make 14 large scones (using a 3″ cutter), I used a 2 1/2″ cutter and got 4 dozen scones!

Cajun Chicken Penne

by penji1

While googling Mardi Gras dinner ideas yesterday, I actually found 2 that I wanted to try on the Taste of Home’s website so even though Mardi Gras is over, I thought I’d make this for dinner tonight.  Bob said he likes it better than last night’s and even Courtney ate this one because it had chicken in it.

1 1/2 cups uncooked whole wheat penne pasta

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 3/4″ pieces

3 teaspoons Cajun seasoning, divided (you can probably find this at your local grocery store just like I did)

3 teaspoons olive oil, divided

1 medium green bell pepper, julienned

1 medium sweet red bell pepper, julienned

1 medium onion, halved and sliced

3 garlic cloves, minced (or pressed)

2 medium tomatoes, chopped (I forgot to buy tomatoes yesterday so I used a can of diced instead)

1 cup fat free evaporated milk, divided

3 tablespoons flour

1  Cook pasta according to package directions.  Meanwhile, toss chicken with 2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning.  In a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray, cook chicken in 2 teaspoons olive oil until no longer pink and drain if necessary.  Remove chicken from skillet and keep warm.

2  In same skillet, saute peppers and onion in remaining 1 teaspoon olive oil for 1 minute.  Add garlic and saute for 1 minute longer.  Add tomatoes and saute 2 minutes longer.  Stir in 3/4 cup of the evaporated milk.

3  Bring to a boil.  Combine flour with remaining 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning and 1/4 cup evaporated milk until smooth.  Gradually stir into skillet.  Cook for 1 – 2 minutes or until thickened.  Return chicken to skillet and heat through.  Drain pasta and toss with chicken mixture.

Mardi Gras King Cake

by penji1

You can’t be making Mardi Gras food and not make a King Cake!  Here’s my attempt, it is delicious!  (It looks like kind of a mess but I googled pictures of King Cakes and this is pretty much how they all look although some are a little nicer mess than mine.)  The recipe came in an email from Tablespoon (General Mills).

cake:

1 cup warm milk (I took it straight from the fridge, microwaved it for 1 minute, checked it with my food thermometer and it was about 115 degrees which is right about where it should be)

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons active dry yeast

1 cup unsalted butter, melted

5 egg yolks, beaten

1 teaspoon lemon juice (I squeezed mine fresh, the stuff in the bottle is nasty)

4 cups flour

3 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice (freshly squeezed!)

2 tablespoons water

red, blue, yellow and green food coloring

extras (if desired):

poppyseeds

King Cake baby or pecan half

1  In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine milk, sugar and yeast.  Whisk until yeast is dissolved and let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes.

2  Whisk in butter, egg yolks and lemon juice.

3  Add half the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix, using a dough hook attachment.  Once ingredients are mixed, add in the rest of the flour in 2 batches, mixing between additions.  Knead by hand or using the dough hook on medium for about 10 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic.

4  Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.

5  Once dough is risen, punch down and divide into 3 equal pieces.  Roll each piece into a long rope, about 20 – 24″ long.  Braid the ropes together and form a circle, pinching the seam closed.  Carefully transfer the circle to a baking stone or parchment paper lined baking sheet.

6  Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap and let rise 30 minutes.

7  Heat oven to 375.  Once cake is risen, bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from oven and transfer carefully to a cooling rack to cool completely.

8  Meanwhile, make glaze:  In a medium bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, lemon juice and water.  Divide the glaze into 3 small mixing bowls.  Dye 1 yellow, 1 green and 1 purple (combo of red and blue).

9  Once cake is completely cooled, drizzle glaze onto the cake, alternating colors.  Sprinkle with poppy seeds, if desired.  Take King Cake baby or a pecan half and tuck into the underside of cake.  Whoever gets the baby in his or her slice has to make the Mardi Gras King Cake next year.

Cajun Sausage Pasta

by penji1

Happy Mardi Gras, food blog friends!  Today being Mardi Gras and all, I thought I’d make the fam a Mardi Gras dinner tonight.  This is a Taste of Home recipe that I found on their website after googling “Mardi Gras dinners”.  It was really good, Bob and Zach in particular really liked it but Courtney wouldn’t even try it, even after I promised that it wasn’t spicey (she said she doesn’t like sausage).

1 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced (I pressed them with my garlic press)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth

2 cups dry white wine or additional reduced sodium chicken broth (I used all chicken broth)

1 (14 1/2 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 (6 oz) can tomato paste

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I left this out)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 pound turkey Italian sausage links, sliced (I used 1 of those Jennie O turkey sausages that are fully cooked and looks like a horseshoe in the package)

1 green pepper, julienned

1 sweet red pepper, julienned

5 cups hot cooked penne pasta

1  In a large saucepan, saute onion and garlic in oil until tender.  Add broth and wine.  Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered, until liquid is reduced to 1 cup.  (This takes awhile so be patient.)  Reduce heat.  Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, cumin, cayenne and pepper.  Cover and simmer for 15 – 20 minutes.

2  Meanwhile, in a nonstick skillet, cook sausage and peppers over medium heat until sausage is no longer pink and peppers are tender then drain.  Stir in tomato mixture.  Serve over pasta.  (Since the sausage I bought was already fully cooked, I just added the sausage and peppers along with the tomatoes, etc and let them all finish cooking together.)

The recipe notes that for a variation, you can substitute chicken for the sausage.

Joy’s Frozen Hot Chocolate

by penji1

Knowing that Zach and Courtney love Dairy Queen Frozen Hot Chocolates, my mom sent this recipe to me that she found in a magazine so we could try them at home.  They were pretty good!

1/2 cup chocolate syrup

1 cup fat free evaporated milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups ice cubes

garnish:  reduced fat whipped topping and/or dark chocolate shavings

1  Combine chocolate syrup, evaporated milk, vanilla and ice in blender until smooth.

2  Pour into glasses.  Garnish with a dollop of whipped topping and/or a sprinkling of chocolate shavings if desired.

Variations:

Mexican Frozen Hot Chocolate:  Add 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon.

Peppermint Hot Chocolate:  Substitute 1/4 teaspoon mint extract for the vanilla.

Corn on the Cob Cupcakes

by penji1

These were my contribution to the silent auction for the youth fundraiser.  I made 2 trays of corn on the cob cupcakes.  They were not difficult to make but the assembly took a little time.  Both the cupcake recipe and the decorating instructions come from the “Hello, Cupcake!” cookbook by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.

Perfect Cake Mix Cupcakes:

1 (18.25 oz) cake mix (French vanilla, devil’s food or yellow)  (I did yellow for the corn on the cob)

1 cup buttermilk (in place of water called for on box)  (you can make your own by adding either 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to 1 cup of milk and letting stand for 10 minutes before using)

oil (the amount on the box)

4 eggs (in place of the number called for on the box)

1  Preheat oven to 350 and line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

2  Beat all ingredients on low until moistened, about 30 seconds, then on medium until thick, about 2 minutes.

3  Scoop batter into liners and bake until golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 15 – 20 minutes.  Allow to cool.

Corn on the Cob decoration:

24 vanilla or yellow cupcakes in white paper liners (I used white and yellow liners)

1 (16 oz) can vanilla frosting (I used my homemade vanilla buttercream frosting)

yellow food coloring

about 3 1/2 cups small jelly beans (Jelly Bellys) in assorted yellow, cream and white colors (My local Target superstore has Jelly Bellys in bulk so I bought these there.  I bought about 1 1/2 pounds but that wasn’t enough and I had to go back and buy a little more so I’m guessing 1 3/4 – 2 pounds would be enough.)

4 pieces yellow fruit chews (Laffy Taffys, Starbursts)  (I had some Starbursts, some Now and Laters and some Laffy Taffys and Bob said that the Laffy Taffys worked best, it was his job to make the butter)

1 tablespoon each black and white decorating sugars (you can usually find white deco sugar at your local grocery store but I had to get the black at Zurchers party supply store)

8 sets of corn holders (optional)  (Target had these in a box of about 24 for like $2 – $3)

(I also bought some cookie sheets at the dollar store to display them on)

1  Tint frosting yellow with food coloring.

2  Working with 3 cupcakes at a time, spread frosting on each.  Arrange 5 rows of jelly beans, close together, on each cupcake.  Place 3 cupcakes side by side on platter.  Repeat with remaining cupcakes, frosting and jelly beans.

3  Cut the fruit chews into 8 1″ squares and soften the edges slightly by hand so that they look melted.  (Bob softened them in the microwave to make them even more pliable.)  Place 1 square on top of each group of 3 cupcakes.  Sprinkle with black and white sugars.  Insert 1 corn holder in each of end cupcakes.

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes

by penji1

This post will be more story than recipe about these mini chocolate cupcakes, just so ya know!  🙂

Last night we had a huge fundraiser activity at our church to raise money for a big youth activity this summer.  We had a big dinner and an even bigger silent auction with all kinds of donated items.  My friend Kathy who was in charge of the dinner, along with her husband Daryl, asked me if I would be in charge of the kid’s meals, meaning would I cut up their chicken and get their baked potatoes unwrapped and cut up, basically make it so that their meals were all ready to eat when they got them.  She also said that I could do whatever I liked (if anything) to make their meals a little “special” so I thought I would make mini cupcakes and put one on each of their plates.  I went on line and found a really cute blog with a really yummy looking recipe for mini chocolate cupcakes which I printed off and proceeded to make, from scratch, and, they were awful!  They either sunk in the middle creating a crater or overflowed the top giving them a hard crunchy rim or both!  And, worse, they tasted awful too!  So I had to throw them all away and start over.  My time was limited at this point so I grabbed a chocolate cake mix, prepared it according to the package directions, baked them in my mini muffin pan, and, I’m sure you’re already ahead of me, perfection!  Perfectly shaped and delicious mini chocolate cupcakes!  So the moral of the story is that sometimes the simplest recipe is the best.

PS  I frosted them with my favorite vanilla buttercream frosting (which is already on the blog in multiple posts) tinted yellow and then sprinkled Wilton’s sprinkles on top in fun shapes such as dinosaurs, bears, cows, stars, moons, etc.

Elegant Almond Bars

by penji1

Another Betty Crocker recipe using a sugar cookie mix (which were on sale last week at Smiths and with a coupon, they were about $1, bargain!).  If you like almonds, you’ll love these bars.  The almond paste is a bit pricey but there are recipes on the internet for making your own which I will probably try the next time I make these.

cookie base:

1 pouch (1 lb, 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 egg

filling:

1 (8 oz) can or 1 (7 oz) package almond paste, crumbled into 1/2″ pieces (you can find this in the baking aisle of the grocery store but don’t use the 12 – 13 oz canned pastry filling which is a different product)

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 eggs

1/2 cup sliced almonds

topping:

2 oz white chocolate baking bar, coarsely chopped (1/3 cup) (the recipe says to use the baking bars in the baking aisle and not almond bark which won’t work as well or taste as good)

2 tablespoons shortening

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1  Heat oven to 350.  In large bowl, stir cookie base ingredients until soft dough forms.  Spread in ungreased 13 x 9″ pan.  Bake 15 – 18 minutes or until light golden brown.

2  Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat almond paste, sugar and 1/4 cup melted butter with electric mixer on low speed until blended.  Add 2 eggs and beat until well blended (mixture may be slightly lumpy).

3  Spread almond paste mixture over partially baked base.  Sprinkle with 1/2 cup almonds.  Bake 15 – 20 minutes longer or until filling is set (filling will puff up during baking).  Cool completely, about 1 hour.

4  In small saucepan, melt white chocolate and shortening over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth.  (Or microwave chocolate and shortening 1 – 1 1/2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted and smooth.)  Pour and spread over cooled bars.  Sprinkle with 1/4 cup almonds.  Let stand 30 minutes or until topping is set.  Store covered at room temperature.

Almost Famous Cheddar Biscuits

by penji1

This recipe came out of the Food Network magazine from October 2009.  It is their version of Red Lobster’s famous “Cheddar Bay Biscuits”.  Bob and Courtney said they were better than Red Lobster’s,  can’t think of a better compliment than that!

biscuits:

cooking spray

1 3/4 cups flour

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons baking powder

2 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons vegetable shortening, at room temperature

4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2″ pieces

6 ounces (1 1/4 cups) grated yellow cheddar cheese (I used shredded instead of grated)

3/4 cup whole milk (I only had skim)

garlic butter:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 clove garlic, smashed (I pressed mine with my Pampered Chef garlic press)

1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley (am I the only one who thinks parsley is just annoying?)

1  Position rack in upper 1/3 of oven and heat to 425.  Lightly mist a large baking sheet with cooking spray.

2  Make biscuits:  Pulse flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a food processor.  Add shortening and pulse until combined.  Add butter and pulse 4 – 5 times or until butter is in pea size pieces.  Add cheese and pulse 2 – 3 times.  Pour in milk and pulse just until mixture is moistened and forms a shaggy dough.  Turn out onto a clean surface and gently knead until dough comes together.  Do not overwork the dough or the biscuits will be tough.

3  Drop the dough onto the baking sheet in scant 1/4 cup portions (I used my PC large scoop), 2″ apart, and bake until golden, 15 – 20 minutes.

4  Meanwhile, make the garlic butter:  Melt butter with garlic in small saucepan over medium heat and cook for 1 minute.  (I melted and cooked it in the microwave instead.)  Remove from heat and stir in parsley.  Brush biscuits with garlic butter and serve warm.