Indoor S'mores Bars

Now that I'm a mom - it's opens a whole new world of food and food prep for me.  When looking to make something Munchkin can help me with, there are different things to think about - what can she help me make that won't make her sick if she eats a little before it's done?  What can we make that can have some margin of error for the amount that will end up on the floor?  What doesn't need a lot of knife work, heat or patience (on both our parts)?

Now, Munchkin is just turning ONE this month (OMG!!).  She isn't really helping me yet, but I came across this recipe as something to make as a give away for her birthday party.  It's a beautiful layered jar mix.  As I was testing it for yummy-ness (as not all jar mixes are as awesome in taste and they are in look in the jar) I found it was the perfect kid recipe!  Simple ingredients - check!  Nothing raw - check!  Easy for little hands - check (she can even use her hands to mix when she is dexterous enough)!  Nothing really hot (except a little time in the oven) and no real knife work - check check!!

...AND it's super yummy to boot!

I made 4 batches of this in one night for an event at work (I got 60+ bars) and hardly broke a sweat.  Even better - you probably already have everything in your pantry.

Indoor S'mores Bars

as adapted from Cookies and Cups recipe for Campfire Bars (visit here)

1½ cups graham crackers cut into 1" pieces (I used teddy grahams to look festive and avoid chopping)

1½ cups mini marshmallows

¾ cup chocolate chips

½ cup plain granola (I've used vanilla bean and honey so far)

½ cup packed light brown sugar

8 Tbsp butter - melted and cooled a little

 

Preheat oven to 350-degrees. 

 

Mix all ingredients with a bowl until all pieces are gleaming with buttery goodness.  Spread in an 8x8 baking pan, making sure to pat down the graham crackers that are sticking up a bit.  Bake for 12-15 minutes.

 

Cool completely before cutting.

 

One batch makes 16 bars.

To make as a give away - layer all ingredients except butter in order listed (graham cracker on bottom and brown sugar on top) into a quart size mason jar.  Print directions and attach to jar.

 

Almost all packaged for party goodies -
just need to add tags and directions!

 

Cookbook Challenge #4 - Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Cooking

This week, there was a bit of a delay in my post…but for good reason. We are spending the weekend in a rental apartment in Syracuse, NY. Everything was covered in a picturesque layer of snow and the moment we arrived, a welcoming flurry greeted us with a cool February smile.

Being away from home, I thought this would be a great opportunity to think outside my kitchen. I decided that the semi-homemade style of Sandra Lee was perfect for cooking in a kitchen I’ve never cooked in before and wasn’t even sure what supplies were there.

 

With a kitchen full of only pots, pans and salt and pepper, Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade Cooking cookbook is perfect for when you don’t have a pantry to pull from. Semi-Homemade cooking is described as 70% store-bought ingredients and 30% fresh-food to make foods that were prepared in minutes and taste like they were made completely from scratch. I found two recipes that made a hefty dinner – Curried Bow Tie Salad and Lemon Turkey Cutlets. And better yet, the only things I’m taking back home with me are my new containers of curry powder and dried onion flakes.

 

 Curried Bow Tie Salad

Adapted from Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade Cooking

3/4 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons curry powder*

16 oz (2 small cans) pineapple chunks, drained

1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and cubed

1 medium red apple, cored and cubed

8 oz bowtie pasta/farfalle (about ½ a box)

Salt and pepper to taste

*Curry powder is not a hot curry. This made for a VERY mild curry – which is a great introduction to curry if you have not had it before, but we added extra to the leftovers and think it’s going to be much better when we have it for lunch today. If you want more curry taste – double it.

Follow instructions on box to prepare pasta to firm. Drain and rinse in cold water. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix sour cream and curry powder to blend. Fold in avocado, pineapple, apples and pasta. Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 15 minutes and up to 1 day.

After tasting, we felt this salad would be an excellent summer all-in-one salad if you add cooked and cubed chicken.

Serves 4 

 

 Lemon Turkey Cutlets

Adapted from Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade Cooking

1-1 1/2 pounds boneless and skinless turkey cutlets

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1 egg, lightly beaten

Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 Tablespoons)

1/2 cup Italian style bread crumbs**

1 teaspoon dried onion flakes***

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Salt and pepper

** The recipe called for 2 Tablespoons finely chopped onion, but I thought that onion flakes would be a more economical choice for us this trip. Add more if you like more onion flavor. My hubby isn’t a big fan.

*** The recipe called for 1 cup of breadcrumbs, but as you can see in the pictures below, there was almost ALL of it left. I cut it in half for the recipe above, but I’m sure you can use 1/3 of a cup like the flour with no problem also.

Rinse cutlets with cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Salt and pepper each cutlet and set aside.

In a shallow bowl, put the flour. In another bowl, mix the egg and the lemon juice. In a third bowl, mix breadcrumbs with onion flakes.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, dip cutlet in flour then egg mixture, then into the breadcrumbs, making sure to cover all the meat and tap off the extra of each mixture before adding the meat to the next one. Place cutlet in hot oil and cook until brown, about 3 minutes per side. When done, take out cutlets and place on clean paper towels to soak up any excess oil.

Serves 4

 

before dipping

after dipping - looks like I didn't do anything

To make this a complete dinner, I made the salad first and while it was in the fridge, I had plenty of time to do the cutlets. They are not listed as 2 recipes that need to go together in the cookbook, but we found that they complimented each other very nicely.

 

An Irish Stout and a Diet Coke make it a dinner for two

 

*****

 

Some highlights from Syracuse and the Finger Lakes

 

Day 1 - Arriving and settling in - oh, and making dinner...

 

Having a coney dog (pronounced "coo-ney") from Heid's for lunch 

 

 

Day 2 - Beer and Cheese tastings in the Finger Lakes

 

3 Brother's Winery complex in Geneva, NY

We checked out War Horse!

Thanks Andrew for the Cincinnati - 1/2 lager, 1/2 root beer - YUM!! 

 

 

Amazing cheddars and more at Miranda Cheese Company

in Waterloo, NY 

 

 

 Tasting pint of a Amber Lager at Naked Dove Brewing Company

in Canandaigua, NY 



 

 And we found this in Geneva also - Red Jacket Orchards, an

Union Square Farmers Market staple. It's closing it's outlet for a bit

so we got some great deals. 

 



#52cookbooks

52 Cookbooks Challenge #2: Easy Breakfast & Brunch: Simple Recipes for Morning Treats

When my husband and I moved in together, I realized I was going to have to become the "Queen of the Brunch". My husband worked the 4 p.m. to midnight shift, Wednesday to Sunday. If we wanted to entertain together, it would have to be on the weekend before he left for work at 2 p.m. This means Brunch.  The next logical step to becoming a Queen is to get a killer cookbook, so I hopped online and ordered Easy Breakfast & Brunch: Simple Recipes for Morning Treats by Susannah Blake.

The cookbook arrived and I remember thinking how bright and fresh everything looked. Then, the poor thing went up on my cookbook shelf and became part of the décor. Not because it didn’t have viable recipes (as I have rediscovered) but more that we didn’t host as many brunches as I had planned.  Besides, cooking for guests at that early morning hour usually meant I needed something brainless, like my go-to frittatas or everyone’s favorite, Farmer’s Casserole.

This weekend, my mom was visiting me while my dad was in Brooklyn. I handed her the cookbook and said, "What do you want to eat?" She chose the Pecan and Chocolate Muffins. Given the lack of preparation I had allowed myself for the recipe, we substituted walnuts (my favorite match with chocolate anyway).

Walnut & Chocolate Muffins
Adaptation of the recipe from Easy Breakfast & Brunch: Simple Recipes for Morning Treat

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 ounces walnuts, chopped small*/**
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup milk
4 Tablespoon butter, melted
3 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips*
Chopped walnuts to decorate**

* I use a small scale I got a weight loss meeting years ago. You can get digital scales for $20 and I think when you are dealing with items of strange sizes, it’s better to weight anyway.

** The original recipe called for 2 1/2 ounces of ground pecans and chopped pecans to decorate.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a small bowl, sift flour and baking powder together. Add walnuts and chocolate chips and mix to coat. In a medium bowl, mix together brown sugar, egg, butter and maple syrup and beat well. Add dry ingredients to bowl and mix to combine.

Spoon batter into a 12-muffin tin with cupcake liners. Fill them up generously, making sure to use all the batter (muffin will not rise so much that they spill over). Sprinkle with chopped walnuts.

Cook muffins for 18-20 minutes or until light golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. Cool and serve slightly warm, no need for butter.

These muffins can be made ahead of time and warmed in the oven to save time on party day. They are also good for work meetings – perfect with a cup of coffee or nice milky black tea.

Makes 12 muffins 

Everything is easy enough to mix by hand.

#52cookbooks

52 Cookbooks Challenge #1: Nigella Kitchen

My first of new recipes for the New Year was from my culinary idol, Nigella Lawson (are you really surprised?).

On my honeymoon, Nigella’s Kitchen debuted on the shelves. It was great, I was in England for my honeymoon and my favorite cook had a new cookbook out and she was English – how perfect!! I picked up a copy at the airport (couldn’t wait). I was so excited to have a true English version of my idol’s cookbook. I read it front to back on the flight to Edinburgh and made plans for all the good food I was going to make.

Flash forward 2 weeks and I’m home, in my kitchen with my new Harrods Christmas mug full of Breakfast blend from Edinburgh and ready to try a recipe out of my treasured honeymoon gift to myself. I tried pumpkin biscuits. You would think it would have been easy, but to my horror (and with a groan) I looked at the recipe for the first time with cook's eyes. Holy crap… it’s in metric! What does gas mark mean for me? How many milliliters in a cup?

Out came the computer and I started my translation. I translated the measurements best I could to match my cups and ounces.  I made the recipe per my changes, thinking it was quite simple. And the biscuits were... well.... crap. I totally attribute this to my translation and maybe a bit to my own taste buds (I’m not as big of a fan of pumpkin as I thought).

After that, my beautiful book was shelved not to be opened again but to keep as a tribute to my honeymoon trip.

This past winter, I was in my local bookstore chain and they were having a sale on the American version of Nigella Kitchen – YAY!! I picked it up and now, without need of translation, I was ready to dive in again. First off the block is comfort food at its best – Ed’s Mother’s Meatloaf.

Ed’s Mother’s Meatloaf

½ recipe Adaptation of the recipe from Nigella’s Kitchen
Available at: http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/eds-mothers-meatloaf.html

1 raw egg
2 hard-boiled eggs (shelled)
1 onions (2 if you don’t have a finicky husband), diced
3 tablespoons butter and or olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 pound ground beef
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
10 slices of bacon

For a one pot recipe, use a cast iron skillet (looks kind of awesome too).

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a skillet, melt butter or heat oil and start to cook the onion. Add a dash of salt to help the onions soften instead of fry. Once onions are soft (4-5 minutes), remove from heat and cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk raw egg slightly. Add raw ground beef, salt, Worcestershire sauce, breadcrumbs and cooled onions. Bite the bullet and get your hands into the bowl (trust me, it will just break a spatula) and mix until well combined.

Split meat mixture in half and make a mound in the now cool cast iron skillet (or in a baking pan with edges). With the side of your hand, make a well in the middle of the meat in the pan lengthwise. Place the 2 hard-boiled eggs end to end in the well. Take the remainder of the mixture and cover the eggs and try to seal the sides. The end product should not show any sign of the eggs.

Take the bacon and start to cover the meatloaf from one end, overlapping the pieces slightly to adjust for shrinkage. Tuck the ends of the bacon under the loaf, like you were tucking your little beef log in to bed with a bacon blanket. Weird, but that’s what it feels like.

Put swaddled meatloaf into the oven and cook for 50-60 minutes, or until the bacon is crisp and there is no more pink on the inside. Let rest 5-10 minutes to reincorporate juices and then serve.

Serves 3-4

Beef Loaf in a Bacon Blanket - cow in a pig blanket?

This is a no-red-sauce meatloaf so it tastes like a super moist, well done burger with the cute surprise of an egg on the inside.  If you serve right after cooking, and the meat you used wasn't too fatty, the juices can be poured over like gravy.  Perfect comfort food!

#52cookbooks

Gingerbread NYC Style - Gingerbread Brownstone

This is a wonderful post I saw on Facebook today (posted by Etsy) that give instructions on how to make a Gingerbread Brownstone.

Enjoy and share if you give it a go!

Build a Gingerbread Brownstone
By: kitchentablescraps

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Gingerbread-Brownstone/

Holy crap!  This is awesome!!

And...she lights up!

Photos borrowed from instructables.com to show just how awesome this house is.