Apple Butter Cupcakes

 I had pinned a recipe for apple butter cupcakes awhile back.  I've been dying to try them for about a week- they've just been on my mind.  When I went to look up the pin, that blog had been deleted.  Sadness.  They had caramel frosting and some kind of filling and I really wanted them.  But I made these instead and if the smell coming out of my oven is any indication, they're going to be fabulous.  It's based off this recipe.

 

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour ( I used King Arthur gluten free flour)
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum (if you're making this gluten free)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup apple butter
• 3/4 cup milk ( I used almond)

***Cream Cheese Frosting***

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350°. Line 24 muffin cups with cupcake papers. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl with electric mixer, beat 1/2 cup butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Beat in the apple butter until well blended. Slowly beat in the flour mixture, alternating with the milk. Beat until smooth and well blended.

Fill cupcake papers about 2/3 full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. (I needed 25 minutes at 360 for the gluten free.)  Cool in pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool completely before frosting.

Makes about 18 to 20 cupcakes.

I also decided these cupcakes needed to be filled.  I got a cupcake corer for my birthday that I haven't tried out yet.  I melted a stick of butter with a cup of brown sugar and made caramel, which I used to fill the cupcakes before frosting them.

You should really make these.  Oh my.

Cottage Cheese Salad

Okay, so I had a semi-life-changing experience with cottage cheese this weekend, y'all.  I didn't really have any idea that such a thing was possible.  I don't like cottage cheese.  It's weird diet-y food that makes you feel deprived and it's usually served on a limp lettuce leaf with one sad slice of canned peach and the juice running all under.  Nasty business.

I went to visit my grandma this weekend and she made cottage cheese in a way I've never had.  She said she's always made it this way, ever since she and her mom went to Luby's for lunch one day and tried it.  And since my great-grandma Kel passed away when I was eight, it's true that she's been making it like this for oh, thirty years or so.  I am not sure why I've never seen it or heard of it.

Okay, so, ready for the complicated recipe?

Cottage Cheese
Grape Tomatoes
Green Onions
Black Olives if you like them.

THAT IS IT.

You wouldn't think a little bit of tomato and onion could transform cottage cheese into something I'd look up and suddenly realize that I'd eaten a whole pound of it.  But the fact of the matter is, I did that.  I made it this morning because I've been thinking about it since Saturday, and I've been nibbling out of the serving bowl all morning, and it is just about gone. The great thing is that it is still a diety-type food, except now it tastes good.  A pound of cottage cheese is 280 calories and has a ton of protein.  I don't even have to feel guilty that I ate it all!

I did add a bit of Mrs. Dash, and I'm thinking that chopped cucumber would be really good in it too but I didn't have any today.

It's pretty too!  I used the yellow sunburst grape tomatoes, but when I had it this weekend Grandma used the red ones and it's just as good like that.

Squash and Corn Soup

I am growing to absolutely love butternut squash.  (still hate all the other kinds, but hey, baby steps)  My hubby really doesn't like it, but he'll eat this soup, and both my kids love it too.  Sometimes I make a double batch and then freeze the leftovers in muffin cups so I can pop them out into a gallon ziploc.  We call them soup pucks.  Two or three is perfect for a small cup of soup for lunch, a couple more for a big bowl.  It's nice to have on hand.  Yay Pinterest for that idea.

I got this recipe from a Taste of Home soup book I bought on impulse at the checkout.  It's been well worth it.  I tweaked it just a bit- it originally called for half and half but I just use milk.  And since I always use turkey bacon, I never have the drippings that it said I should cook the onion and celery with, so I use butter there.

12 strips bacon, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
2 tbsp flour (I use sorghum)
1 can chicken broth (14 1/2 oz)
6 cups mashed cooked butternut squash (I never measure- just buy a good sized one and use the whole thing)
1 15 oz can creamed corn
2 cups milk
fresh parsley, salt, pepper to taste

Cook bacon and save drippings, or else microwave your bacon and melt some butter like me

Saute onion and celery til tender.  Stir in flour til blended.  Stir in broth.  Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or til slightly thickened.

Reduce heat to medium.  Stir in squash, corn, milk, spices, and bacon.  Cook and stir til heated through.  Top with sour cream if you want.

It's super easy and really tasty.  The most labor intensive part is the squash and that's not bad at all.  If you don't know how to cook a butternut squash, here's what you do:

Slice it longways and scoop out the seeds from each side.  Lay both pieces face down on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 for about 45 minutes.  Cool it and then scoop out the flesh.  I usually zap it in the food processor for a bit just so it's very smooth, but you don't have to.  Just makes the soup a tiny bit chunkier if you leave it as is.

Gluten Free Cornbread

I have no idea where my mom got this recipe, so I'm probably copying without credit. Sorry 'bout that, but it's tasty and I need it written in a place where I can find it!

1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup potato starch
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 cup shortening (not butter)
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup yellow cornmeal

Preheat oven to 425.

Combine the flours by sifting them into a large bowl. Add remaining dry ingredients and stir.

Cut the shortening into the flours, the way you would when making pie dough. You should end up with walnut-sized pieces in a sandy flour.

Combine the eggs and milk in a small bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid. Stir with a rubber spatula until everything is combined.

Stir in the cornmeal, whisking fast, until just combined. Do not overstir.

Pour into greased 9x9 pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the sides of the cornbread are slightly shrinking back from the edge of the pan and a toothpick comes out clean.

Chick-Fil-A-ish knockoff Nuggets

Chick-fila is one of the places I really miss. We can still do the fries and coleslaw, and the grilled chicken filet, but those nuggets and that crispy #1 sandwich haunt my sleep, with the two crucial pickles....

So on pinterest I found this recipe and tried it. It was really good, but didn't quite nail it for me, so after reading all the comments and judging what I felt like it was missing the first time I tried it, I tweaked it and came up with this one. It's still not quite CFA, but it is tasty and quells the cravings. I think next time I make these, I'll run through the drive thru and get coleslaw and fries with lots of chick-fila sauce and ranch, just to make the whole experience complete.

Ingredients:
2 big boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in little bites
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 good sized spoonful hamburger dill pickle slices
1 cup Bob's Red mill all purpose GF baking flour
1 tbsp Lawry's seasoned salt
1 tsp Mrs. Dash (I like the table-ready kind so it's ground fine, but any kind is good)
2 tbsp powdered sugar (this was in the original recipe so i kept it. not sure what difference it would make to leave it out)
1 tsp pepper
oil for frying (I use refined coconut oil- it's better for you if you gotta have oil. the recipe calls for peanut or canola but I don't do those. A: can't do peanut. B: explain to me what a canola plant is? oh that's right... no such thing. manufactured in a lab and not real food!)

Steps:
Put the chicken, beaten egg, milk, and pickles in a gallon ziploc bag and marinate in the fridge for 2-4 hours.
Put all the flour and spices in another gallon ziploc.
Drain the liquid out of the marinade bag and add the chicken to the spice bag. Seal and shake. (If you hate fried pickles, fish those out first. I happen to love them, so I just mix them in with the chicken for a secondary treat.)
Heat your oil to 375 in a deep-ish pot, should be an inch or two deep with oil.
Drop chicken/pickles in small batches and cook about four minutes.
Try to let them cool so you don't burn your face off munching them.

Breakfast Casserole

My facebook status this morning was:

after a discussion of what to make for breakfast, Mich tells me, "Don't get me wrong, I love healthy you. But I REALLY LOVE casserole you."
This is why I love her. Bring on the casserole...

And many people have liked that status. It made me laugh a lot, and then I made casserole. Requests for the recipe then followed. This is one I make based on sheer taste. It's comfort food. Don't be looking for low fat or low calorie or lots of nutritional content on this one... I try to do that most days, but this one is not. I just keep telling myself a hot meal made with love has got to be better than a cold bought donut or danish. :) I may be deluding myself though.

Most of the daycare kids do really like this one. My own children won't eat it, but I don't really care. They can have a bowl of cereal and I'm happy to eat their share.

Ingredients:
1 bag crispy crowns (the small round hash browns like chickfila has. Ore-Ida is gluten free. I use regular tater tots when that's all I've got, but I like these better in this one.)
1 box cooked turkey sausage links
1 thing of condensed soup (I use Pacific because it's gluten free but most of you can probably use campbells. I've used chicken and also mushroom and they're both good.)
some sour cream- I had a 16 oz container and I put in two big spoonfuls. Maybe 4-6 oz?
1 cup shredded cheese
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Chop the sausage in small pieces and mix it with the peppers and onion, soup, and sour cream in the bottom of a casserole dish. If you use 13x9 it comes out pretty thin- I like to use that weird 8x11 one.
Spread that out smooth and cover it with cheese. Pour the whole bag of crowns on top and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes.

Creamy Crockpot Chicken

This stuff is GOOD. It completely satisfies all my comfort food, noodle goodness, cream sauce cravings and I've perfected the gluten free version finally. We used to make this a lot before we were GF and it's taken me a while to figure out how to do it and make it taste the same. I always make double the amount of sauce it calls for and we still end up with big chunks of chicken in the pot while we scrape the last bit of sauce onto our pasta. Also good on rice.

If you're like me and you love the sauce and noodles, I'll post a recipe next about what to do with the leftover chicken. I made it last night and almost wept for joy it was so good. And my daughter? She wept for real and spit it in her plate. Silly rabbit.

anyway...

In the crockpot, put a 3 lb bag of frozen chicken. I like to use the tenders instead of the big pieces for this because I like for more surface area to be covered by spices. Then put a dry packet of Good Seasons Italian dressing over it. Or if you're like me and you never buy that stuff, here's how to make it at home:

1 tablespoon Mrs. Dash
1 tablespoon Lawry's Garlic Salt
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon celery seeds (which I always leave out because I never have them)
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon pepper

So you cook that for 5-6 hours on low. Then add:
chopped onion- however much you like
3 blocks of cream cheese
1 box Pacific gluten free cream of chicken soup (This stuff is new and it is a MIRACLE OF SCIENCE. It has made easy casseroles a reality once again. I don't like it by itself the way I used to eat the Campbells cream soups, but it's awesome in recipes.)

I like to shred the chicken with forks before mixing all the cream sauce into the juices. Then cook it on high for about another hour and serve it with noodles. Super yummy!!

Flawless Sesame Chicken

It has been years since I blogged. Really. Like since January of last year. I actually forgot how to blog! I had to call my sister to remind me and even then it is doing something weird with the colors, spacing and links. So Bare with me!

This recipe was good enough to bring me out of my 18 month blogging hiatus. THAT good.

My husband LOVES sesame chicken. Since we went gluten free 3 years ago we stopped going to Chinese restaurants for fear of death and while I do make Chinese food it is mostly limited to fried rice and stir fry. Until now.



I found the recipe here and changed it a little to fit our family needs.

Ingredients:

Servings: 3-4

• 3 whole boneless chicken breasts

Marinade

• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon cooking wine or 1 tablespoon dry sherry
• 3 drops sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons flour *I used a mixed GF flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

* this smelled really weird to me while I was making it but that could be the crazy pregnant nose. I also found it odd that it bubbled like a baking soda volcano but it turned out so I guess it is supposed to do that?!

Sauce

• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/8-1/4 cup white vinegar (depending on how sweet you want the sauce) or 1/8-1/4 cup rice wine vinegar (depending on how sweet you want the sauce)
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup sugar (we use 1/2 cup sugar but the orginal recipe called for 1 cup) *I used 3/4 a cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon chili paste (or more) *They didn't sell this at the store I went to so I used chili powder and added a few chili flakes on the top of my serving.
• 1 garlic clove (minced)

*I have no idea the differnce between light and dark soy sauce so I just used what I had in the fridge for both

Frying

• peanut oil (3 1/2-4 cups) (I used Canola because it was what I had)

Serving

• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
• *I was feeling lazy by this point and didn't toast the sesame seeds. We didn't die.
  

Directions:

Prep Time: 10 mins

Total Time: 40 mins

1. 1 Cut the chicken into 1-inch cubes. Mix the marinade ingredients (the first 9 ingredients listed) and marinate the chicken for 20 minutes.
2. 2 To prepare the sauce:.
3. 3 Mix together all of the sauce ingredients. Pour them into a small pot and bring to a boil, stirring continuously. Turn the heat down to low and keep warm while you are deep-frying the chicken.
4. 4 To deep-fry the chicken:.
5. 5 Add the marinated chicken pieces a few at a time, and deep-fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and then place chicken in warm oven (130 degrees) while you continue frying. Repeat with the remainder of the chicken. Just before you are finished deep-frying, bring the sauce back up to a boil.
6. 6 Place the chicken on a large platter and pour the sauce over. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve the Sesame Chicken with rice.

This was the most amazing dish EVER!! I served it with a steamer bag of mixed Asian veggies and almost everyone loved it. The 3 year old was not a fan of the sauce so next time I will reserve some of the chicken out before I put the sauce on. We will for sure be doing this again!

Cornbread Skillet Supper

Got this out of one of those homemade office cookbooks where everybody submits their favorite recipes. And of course I adapted it some to fit us. It turned out really well. Everyone loved it and there was none left. I think it would be really easy to create new variations too, with different spices and flavors.

First Set:
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 c. yellow cornmeal
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. biscuit mix (I used bob's red mill wheat-free baking and biscuit mix)
1 tsp salt
1 can cream-style corn
1 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. vegetable oil

Second Set:
1 lb ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
2 c. cheese
2-4 jalapeno peppers (I only put in one because I wanted my kids to eat this- it wasn't hot at ALL and I could have done more I think)
1 can corn

Combine the first set of ingredients in a bowl; mix and set aside.

Brown the ground beef and onion; drain well and set aside. Pour half of the batter in a cast iron skillet (which I don't have- I used a 9x13 pan and it turned out fine). Layer the meat mixture, cheese, and corn on top. Pour remaining cornbread mix over layered ingredients. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes. Let stand for five minutes before cutting.

This called for a cup of sliced green olives, which I left out because my family hates them. However, I love them so I put a bunch of them over my portion- it was fabulous. If you like olives, they really add some nice flavor to this.

Bolognese Risotto

WOW this stuff is good. I belong to a group on Facebook called Recipes from Around the Globe. A guy named Chris posted this, all in grams and celsius. After I used various conversion charts and figured out how to Americanize it, it's really pretty easy to make and boy is it good. He said it would serve four, but five of us ate and ate and almost half is left. It's so good that my seven year old wants to take the leftovers in her lunchbox tomorrow.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
2 cups risotto rice
2 liters of stock (any is fine, I used mostly chicken, with a can of beef thrown in)
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
2 tablespoons milk
1 onion, chopped
2 T unsalted butter
2 cans chopped tomatoes (or chop your own!)
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
4 bay leaves
1/2 cup parmesan
4 ounces cream cheese
1/3 cup red wine

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 300
2. Separate 2 cups of the stock
3. Add the tomato paste to the milk and mix in well
4. Add the garlic, onion and butter to skillet
5. Add the meat and cook until done
6. Add the marsala, then the tomatoes, then 2 cups of stock and the bay leaves
7. Add the milk mixture, mix the whole lot together
8. Transfer the whole lot into an oven suitable container and place into the oven
9. Rinse out the skillet, then put in the rice
10. Toast the rice lightly, don't allow it to brown
11. Add the stock, about a ladleful first
12. Bring to a simmer and stir, allowing the stock to reduce
13. Before the whole mixture dries out, add another ladleful of stock and repeat step 12
14. Repeat until the rice has cooked (chefs like it to have a slight bite; I don't)
15. Add the cream cheese and mix it in completely
16. Add 1/4 cup of the parmesan (the other is to sprinkle on top at the end)
17. Mix all this together
18. Check the oven, the bolognese should be done by now, if the bolognese is very runny you may want to remove some of the liquid
19. Add the Bolognese into the Risotto and mix together
20. The dish is complete

YUM.. The end.

The Quest for Roast and The Use of Leftovers

I want to make a really good, foolproof crockpot roast. I am not sure why this has been eluding me. "Everybody" says that it's one of the easiest, most basic meals to make. I've followed numerous recipes. I've tried putting the potatoes and carrots under and over the meat. (although now I hear also that some people don't put them in at all and cook them separately. I haven't tried that yet.) I've tried on low and high. I've tried cooking less and more than it calls for. I've tried different kinds of seasonings, different amounts of water/soup/beer, .... I'm tired. My family has eaten a bunch of roast that I'm just not happy with. I want the meat to be able to come apart with forks instead of a hacksaw. I want potatoes that are neither crunchy nor mushy. I want some gravy, but not too much, and I want it to taste good. Not too salty, not too boring.

Is this too much to ask?

The other night I got closer to what I'm looking for, following my friend Jenn's direction. She swore I could not mess it up and I did not believe her, since my track record is so bad. She is of the school who steams the veggies separately, but I didn't want to. So I put them in the bottom and plopped the meat on top. Then she said she always puts a package of Lipton onion soup mix and a can of cream of mushroom soup on it. I didn't have Lipton so I made some. I'm finding that pretty much every mix like that has a clone on the internet. It's a beautiful thing. Turns out onion soup mix is mostly dried onion and beef bouillon granules. I have those things. And Gluten Free Cafe has come out with a can of mushroom soup that I like enough to use in cooking. There is still a place in my heart for Campbell's, but oh well. Them's the breaks.

Then came the problem of cooking. My crockpot was a wedding present, so it's 14, and I think it doesn't get as hot as the newer ones. I put it in at 11:30 and was going to do it on high. Jenn said no, it would burn, and I should start on low. Hmm. I turned it to high at 3:30 and we didn't eat till 8 pm. But it tasted good!!!! So to recap:

potatoes, carrots, meat, cream of 'shroom soup, and onion soup mix. Mine went 4 hours on low and 4 1/2 hours on high.

Second day: ROAST SOUP. My mom made it with the leftovers the last time my roast went Horribly Wrong, and it was super tasty- WAY better than the original roast. She said her mom used to make it all the time after roast day, so I'm not sure how I made it to age 35 without knowing this trick. Maybe my mom makes good roast and there were never any leftovers? Dunno. Anyway. I made it again last night and I love it.

You cube up the leftover meat and throw it in a big pot with the veggies and any leftover gravy you've got. Then you start adding things from your fridge. :) It's a little different every time. This time I added:

2 mushrooms (who saves TWO mushrooms? I am a freak. But they were in a ziploc, so there you are.)
a 28 0z can of diced tomatoes, with the juice
2 stalks celery
part of a red onion
a can of corn
a baggie of leftover canned mixed veggies from the daycare kids' lunch the other day
the rest of a box of beef broth
about a cup of water

And then I heated it for the time it took to make cornbread, and it was AWESOME. I highly recommend it, even if you screw up your roast on a regular basis. The soup is forgiving. Eat it with cornbread and be happy.

Grandma's Potato Salad

This is one of the first recipes I mentioned wanting to put up here, and since the crickets have been chirping here for months... I figured I would go back and actually do it. I want to get started putting up more regular posts.

Usually I am very careful about Following The Recipe. I don't do well just tossing stuff in a bowl. However, that tends to be how grandmas cook, and since this recipe is hers, I don't have measurements. With something like potato salad though, you can't really mess it up. Just taste it as you go along and make sure it's the way you like it, and you'll be fine.

So. You will need:

• a pot full of potatoes. it depends on how big they are. generally I end up with between 7-9.
• radishes. Yes, I know that's weird. But they're so crunchy and good in this salad! I don't LOVE the flavor, so I only put in around 4 or 5, cut very small.
  
• dill pickle. Pickles are my friend so I chop way more than most people probably would. I like Claussen best.
• red onion. I go by how the colors look in the bowl, depending on how much of the other ingredients I end up with. 1/2 to 1 onion, I'd say.
  
• mayo, mustard, salt, and pepper to taste
• hard boiled eggs if you like them. I HATE THEM so I always leave them out. My mom said she puts around 5 in there.

Peel the potatoes and then boil them whole in a pot of water till they are fork tender. They'll fall apart a little and that's fine, but try to save the pieces. Cool them and slice them very thinly into a big bowl. Salt every layer as you put them in there. Salt them way more than you think you need to, because those puppies suck it up like nobody's business. (and if you ever use a bread machine and want to make potato bread, you can save that starchy potato-y water and use it in place of the regular water and it makes killer bread!!)

Then put in all the other stuff, chopped very small, and stir in the mayo and mustard. I don't put much mustard- just a big shot from the bottle.

It's better if you make it ahead of time so you can chill it and let the flavors meld, but I never do. We love it too much to wait. :)

Christmas Eve Fondue

For the past few years it's been a tradition for our family to fondue on Christmas Eve. I sort of demanded it, actually, when I was Great With Child and nobody had the will to tell me no. And I figured if we turned it into a tradition, it would be fine that we never use the fondue pots any other day of the year. It's a holiday gig now and rationalizes spending the money on the equipment.

Which by the way is not at all fancy. We have two of these Rival pots for the oil and cheese, and then we use a small crockpot for the chocolate. They work fine. The cords are really short though, so we have a multi-plug extension cord to run behind the table and connect everything. Otherwise the pots are way too close to the edge for little kids to be safe.

So. We have three pots going. One is for hot oil. This year we used high-heat safflower oil. The type doesn't really matter as long as you get one that can handle heat. And after awhile the kitchen is going to smell like you're burning things anyway, if you do this for a long time...

We use bites of chicken and steak in the oil, and also mushrooms. We make a tempura batter to dip the stuff in first so they end up with a nice crunchy coating. Ours is this one. If you're not gluten free, you can google a different kind.

For the cheese, we've tried a couple different ones. I think our favorite so far is a variation of Tyler Florence's recipe. Of course, I don't have any of the fancy ingredients it calls for. I always leave out the kirsch, and this year I did half white wine and half chicken broth because I didn't have enough wine.

• 1/2 pound imported Swiss cheese, shredded
• 1/2 pound Gruyere cheese, shredded
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon cherry brandy, such as kirsch
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• Pinch nutmeg
• Assorted dippers

Yeah, this year I threw in minced garlic instead of rubbing the pot with a clove, didn't have any lemon juice, used about 1/3 wine and 2/3 chicken broth, left out the kirsch, and put in a shot of real mustard instead of dry.

Does that even resemble Tyler's recipe anymore?

With the cheese, I like dipping the meats and mushrooms in it, and we also had bread cubes. If your people like broccoli or cauliflower that would be good too. My people don't touch those things.

The chocolate fondue is a six pack of Hershey bars, broken up and melted in the crockpot with a half a cup of whipping cream. Light cream or half and half if you're feeling especially virtuous. So easy, and oh so delicious.

With that, we set out marshmallows, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, mandarin oranges, and sometimes pretzels or angel food cake cubes.

It's a little different every year, just depending on who is going to be there and what fruits are on sale and all that good stuff. It takes forever to do, but it's SO much fun!!

Beach House Breakfast Lasagna

This is not my recipe at all- I always wonder if I should post things that I make if I have nothing to do with their origins. :) But I was saying on facebook how good it was and some people asked for the recipe, so I am posting it. It's Jennifer Cinquepalmi's, from her gluten free cookbook that I pink puffy heart....

• 16 thin slices bread (I used Pamela's bread mix in the bread machine, but obviously if you don't have those issues you can do this much more easily. It called for day-old bread, but mine was hot and straight from the machine and it did fine.)
• 1 lb ham, cut into bite-size pieces
• 16 slices Swiss cheese
• 16 slices American cheese (I used 10 swiss and about 15 cheddar. You just really can't go wrong with cheese though.)

Make 2 layers of these things just like you were making lasagna in a 13 x 9.

Then mix:

• 8 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 tsp onion salt
• 3/4 tsp dry mustard (I couldn't find mine so I put a big shot of French's in there. Yum.)

I also added a bunch of chopped onion because I am of the opinion that most everything tastes better with onion in it. But that's just me.

Pour the wet mixture all over the dry stuff and stick it in the fridge awhile, preferably overnight. In the morning, take it out and let it sit out up to 2 hours to get to room temperature, then bake for about 30 minutes at 350 till brown and bubbly.

It is very, very delicious. My kids both ate 2 plates. I will say, though, that most of the daycare kids thought it was weird. :)

Buttercream Frosting

Everyone thinks that this is my recipe and that I am fabulous for creating such greatness. But no. It is not mine. It is Betty's. Regardless, you should use it because this frosting is far superior to the stuff you buy in the store and it's super easy to make.

3 Cups powdered sugar
1/3 Cup stick butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 to 2 TBS milk

Mix sugar and butter. Add vanilla and milk, and food coloring if you like. Beat well.

Frosts a 9X13 or fills and frosts one 8 or 9 inch two layer cake.

Chicken Pot Pie

Oh. My. Word. I have missed you, chicken pot pie. Things with cream sauce and flaky pastry have been the hardest to recreate on my own. I finally found a couple of recipes to cobble together and the results have been fabulous. And it's GLUTEN FREE!!!! Not dairy free, but I'm sure you could change it up if you needed to. Plus, if you don't have to be gluten free, you could just get a can of whop biscuits and throw those on the top to make it even quicker.

{you know, whop biscuits? The ones in the can that you have to whop on the counter to open?}

I wish I could say I made this up, but it's pretty basically Bette Hagman's recipe from her Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods. I change it up a tiny bit, but not really enough to say it's my own recipe.

Filling Ingredients:
1 cup diced cooked chicken
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/4 cup minced onion (i always chop a whole onion. onion is our friend.)
1/2 cup frozen peas (i use a can of those lesoeur peas with mushrooms and pearl onions- it adds a nice touch.)
3 tablespoons GF mix (or flour)
2-3 tablespoons water
1/4 cup cream
salt and pepper to taste

Oven at 350.

prepare chicken and set aside. In my case, that means open the can and flake it with a fork.

put the chicken stock in a large saucepan and bring it to a boil; add the carrots, celery and onions and cook for 15 minutes. Add peas and chicken and cook 5 minutes longer.

Mix the flour to a thin paste with the water. Use it to thicken stock and cook on low 1-2 minutes. Add cream and season with salt and pepper.

Pour mixture into a 2-quart casserole dish or individual ramekins (which I haven't tried but OH the cuteness!) and top with globs of biscuit dough. Bake for about 20-25 minutes.

I ALWAYS double this recipe and put it in a 13x9.

Topping (gluten free):
Her recipe says to use her biscuit recipe, obviously. I don't. My mom spent her last snow day from school baking batch after batch of gf biscuits, tweaking 1/2 teaspoon here and there of various things to find the perfect recipe. I don't know what it started out as, but now it's hers and it is GOOD. So that's what I use instead.

1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup potato starch
3/4 cup cornstarch
1 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk

Oven at 375 if you're making actual biscuits with this recipe, otherwise I just throw the dough in blobs on top of the pot pie stuff and use the 350.

In food processor, blend all ingredients except milk. When everything is blended, add the milk and blend till smooth. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes to make 8-9 biscuits.

I always have to at least triple this when I make biscuits for breakfast. A double batch works nicely for a double batch of potpie filling.


My daycare baby is highly enamored of the pot pie.

Here's one serving, ready to eat.

Side view of the casserole dish as it comes out of the oven. I'm not sure if I was trying to be artsy or what- now I'm looking at it and thinking it's kind of weird.

But I guess from the top, all you can see is huge fluffy biscuits, so it's good to have a side view to show off the sauce. :)

Taco Soup

This recipe is:

-Super easy
-GF
-Nut free
-Freezable
-Can be made in the crockpot to simmer all day
-Can be made on the stovetop and is ready as soon as it's hot
-Inexpensive
-Nutritious
-Makes a lot (6-8 servings)
-Good for giving to a family
-Ingredients can be added/substituted
-Tastes good!

You can make this and take this to a friend as a hot meal or as a freezer meal. If you are making it to be ready to eat, a great vessel for traveling is a large mason jar. The lid is tight so it won't spill and there should be enough soup for a family of four. You'll even have some left for your own family. It has enough veggies that you don't need to bring an additional salad, but you can take some tortilla chips or cornbread, some shredded cheddar cheese and/or sour cream.

To make as a freezer meal for your family or someone else, just brown the meat and add the other ingredients. Transfer to ziplock quart size freezer bags. Lay bags flat on a cookie sheet and place in freezer till frozen. Once frozen, put it together with a package of shredded cheese in a gallon size bag. Label with the contents and date. Then you or someone you love will have a hearty meal ready and waiting for a busy day.

*One more tip: When you chop onions for any recipe, chop the entire onion and save the extra in a ziplock bag and freeze. Then you have saved a little produce and some tears the next time you make a recipe needing chopped onions. Even if I only have a little extra, I just add it to a bag I already have in the freezer.

TACO SOUP

16 oz. can chili beans
16 oz. kidney beans
16 oz. can black beans
8 oz. can tomato sauce
15 oz. can diced stewed tomatoes
16 oz. can whole corn
16 oz. creamed corn
pkg. taco seasoning
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 lb. ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 sm. can chopped green chilies

Open but do not drain any of the liquid in the cans.
Brown the ground beef in a pan with chopped onion. Drain and return to pot.
Add all remaining ingredients to a crock pot or dutch oven.
Simmer.
Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips.

Cuban Bean Soup

This recipe is one of my favorites. It takes a lot of time to make just because of the bean-soaking and the simmering, but it's not too terribly labor intensive. It makes a huge pot and I usually freeze some of it for later.

Although it's called "soup", it's a lot thicker than that, and I always make a ton of rice to eat it with. We usually call it beans and rice, because it's not really very soupy at all. Just tasty.

Ingredients:
1 pound white beans (I've used pinto too and that's fine)
2 cubes each beef and chicken bouillon
4 slices bacon
1/2 slice ham steak, cubed
2 small green peppers (I usually use one)
4 garlic cloves
1 large onion
1 can tomato sauce
4-6 packets Goya Culantro y Achiote spice (this stuff is in an orange box in the Mexican food aisle. I used to have to go to a mexican market to get it but it's gotten pretty mainstream. It's BRIGHT orange spice.)
1 tsp cumin
1/4 cup cooking wine
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp vinegar

Soak beans overnight and rinse. Then cook with two quarts of water and the bouillon cubes. Bring to boiling, lower heat, and simmer till beans are done. (It usually takes at least two hours.)

Make Sofrito:
Slice and dice ham and bacon. Saute with diced peppers, onion, and garlic. Fry till soft. Add tomato sauce and Goya spice, salt, pepper, cumin, and wine. Simmer uncovered 15 minutes and then add to beans.

Cook, covered, for at least 90 minutes. Before serving, add oil and vinegar. Serve with lots of rice.

Good for most allergies- dairy free, nut free, gluten free as long as you are careful what brand of bouillon you use. It's really flavorful but not spicy- my kids will eat it. Good stuff all around.

Paw-Paw's Killer Sweet and Hot Pickles

I love pickles. And I'm willing to eat them lots of ways (in a box, with a fox...) but these are my absolute favorite. I eat them straight out of a bowl as a snack. In fact, when I was pregnant with my daughter I ate SO MANY that this conversation ensued:

my father in law: "baby girl, don't you think you should slow down on those pickles?"
me: "no. your granddaughter loves them and they're healthy!"
fil: "honey. you've had EIGHTY SEVEN."
me: (shamed) "seriously?"
fil: "no. but you should really stop eating them."

I really thought I might have eaten that many. I'm glad he wasn't actually counting.

So I got the recipe, which is my husband's grandfather's as far as I know, and it's written in his handwriting, which I love. Get your grandparents to give you recipe cards that they actually write out- I LOVE going into my recipe box and getting handwritten love from somebody who's not around to hug anymore.

I don't make them very often, but last time we went to visit this was waiting for me in the fridge, with my NAME on it so everybody else would keep their grubby mitts off:

And yes, that is a half gallon jar, why do you ask? So what if I've eaten almost the whole thing in less than two weeks?

Paw-Paw's recipe:
1 gallon sliced dill pickles
4 pounds sugar (yes, POUNDS)
1 bottle tabasco sauce (I use a small one because I am a pansy, but you can adjust this to taste)

Drain liquid from pickles, reserving 2 cups.
Bring liquid to a boil. Add 4 POUNDS sugar, stir till dissolved, add tabasco. Stir well and add pickles back in.

If you're making a smaller recipe, basically it's a quart of pickles for every pound of sugar.

When I got these out the other day, my sister's husband ate some and said "wow. These are REALLY sweet. And not that hot." And then he kept eating them and soon his throat was on fire. They sneak up on you. At first you're lulled into complacency by the sugar and then the tabasco bites you.

My two year old asked for one today. I told him they were spicy but he insisted on tasting a "bee-ko". He ate it. He liked it. He had another. And another. And then number four...


He's now on his second string cheese to cool off his mouth and I may have turned him off pickles forever. Good. More for me.

Hot Crab Dip

Where did everybody go? Let's get some new recipes up! :)

This is my sister-in-law Jamey's famous crab dip. I don't eat seafood anymore, but when I did, I shoveled this stuff into my face, and usually I don't even LIKE crab. She brings it to most family gatherings and there's never any left. It's easy and yummy!

1 can crab
8 oz. cream cheese
2T onion
1T milk
1 tsp. horseradish (we use extra)
3T butter
1/4 tsp. salt


Saute onion in butter, add crab meat, then add horseradish, softened cream cheese, salt & milk. Mix well.


Put in baking dish and bake at 375 for about 15 minutes