Halloween Treats - Cinna-Bun Carmel Corn

I found this awesome recipe for cinnamon candy popcorn - ya know that stuff the Harry & David's makes called Moose Munch that tastes wickedly good but they charge ya like $8 for a quarter-cup.

Well, while cruising my favorite recipe photo site (admit it, you eat with your eyes first, if there isn't a great picture with the recipe you won't try it) Taste Spotting, I saw a recipe for the popcorn. The "Our Best Bites" site calls it "Cinnamon Carmel Corn with Pecans and White Chocolate" -- I call it freakin' delicious.

So rather than post the recipe, I'm going to send you on over to Our Best Bites and just show you the pictures of the finished popcorn that I made today. I won't tell you the bowl is not empty, cuz it's not...I swear! ;)

I did add a small Halloween flair -- just before I drizzled the white chocolate on the cooled popcorn I tossed in Halloween m&m's and I also drizzled semi-sweet chocolate along with the white chocolate. Strictly for aesthetic reasons! ;)

You've got to make yourself some this year. I'm planning on serving up several other Halloween dishes in the next week, so I'll be sure to take pictures and post them.

Magical Lemon-Blueberry Bundt Cake

I have been remiss. I realized this morning that I have failed to share one of my absolute favorite recipes with you. I have people at work clamoring for this on a weekly basis. It is a truly divine concoction and, I hate to break it to you....but it's low-fat. Eeekkk! Doesn't that equate to "NO TASTE"? Not in this delicious Lemon-Blueberry Bundt Cake from Cooking Light. Here you go...

Lemon-Blueberry Bundt Cake
Cooking Light Magazine

Cake:
Cooking spray
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
3 C. all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 ¾ c. granulated sugar
¼ C. butter, softened
1 Tbsp. grated lemon rind (zest)
4 large eggs
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 16-oz container fat-free sour cream
2 cups fresh blueberries
Glaze:
1 C. powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. To prepare cake, coat a 12-cup bundt pan with cooking spray; dust with 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar. Set aside.
3. Lightly spook flour into dry measure cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.
4. Place 1 ¾ C. granulated sugar, butter, and lemon zest in a large bowl, beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 2 minutes). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition (about 4 minutes total). Beat in vanilla and sour cream. Add flour mixture; beat at medium speed just until combined. Gently fold in blueberries.
5. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes on a wire rack, remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.
6. To prepare glaze, combine powdered sugar and lemon juice, stirring well with a whisk. Drizzle over cooled cake. Yield’s 16 servings.

Enjoy!

Bright Raspberry Crumb Topped Muffins

I got 2 1/2 pints of fresh raspberries in my bountiful basket last week. I've been trying to come up with something to do with them before they went bad. Finally, I came across a raspberry muffin recipe that had some great potential. I did a bit of tweaking and they turned out pretty darn fabulous. They muffins are not overly sweet and the brightness of the berries perfectly highlighted, so very fresh tasting.

Bright Raspberry Crumb Topped Muffins

1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. white sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 c. yogurt (I used a single serving of peach no-fat yogurt and it was perfect. I might try lemon next time.)
1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. fresh raspberries

Crumb Topping
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. quick-oats
3 TBS brown sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt
3 TBS cold butter

1. In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg.
2. In small bowl mix yogurt, milk, and vanilla.
3. Combine dry ingredients (except for Crumb Toppings).
4. Combine dry ingredients; stir into creamed mixture alternatively with wet mixture just until moistened. Gently fold in raspberries.
5. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full.
6. Combine crumb topping ingredients, cut in butter till mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle crumb topping over muffins.
7. Bake muffins at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until muffins test done.
8. Remove from pan and cool on rack.

Enjoy!!!

Fresh Salsa

My very favorite salsa has been and will always be my Aunt Jan's homemade salsa. It's summer time and I got a huge box of tomatoes a few weeks ago and summer tomatoes equal salsa in my book. Here's the fabulous recipe. Keep in mind that you can kick-up the heat as much as you want...the heat valve is the jalapeno.

Fresh Salsa
4-5 Roma tomatoes, diced
1-14.5oz can crushed tomatoes
1/2 of a jalapeno pepper (seeded and deveined)
1 whole onion, diced
cilantro, as desired and chopped
juice of 1 lime
2 cloves of fresh garlic
salt & pepper to taste

Add onions, garlic, and jalapeno to a food processor and chop finely. Add Roma tomatoes, can crushed tomatoes, pulse a few times to combine. Pour into a bowl. Squeeze in lime juice and toss in chopped cilantro. Mix and add salt and pepper to taste.

Makes about 40oz.

Dutch Oven - Breakfast Pizza & Carmel Pecan French Toast

I'm back! The past few months have been a little busy and it's been a struggle to find time to actually cook anything, take pictures of it, and then post about it. It's been all I can do just to find something to heat up from the freezer.
Anyways, I've got a few things stored up and will finally be posting them. First, I went camping this weekend and did some dutch oven cooking with my family. My mom and dad have always loved to dutch oven cook and so they've taught us all to appreciate a good meal cooked in cast iron over hot coals.
My contribution to the family dutch oven breakfast was "Breakfast Pizza". Here's the recipe:

Dutch Oven Breakfast Pizza

1 can crescent rolls
1 lb sausage; browned & drained
1 c. thawed frozen hash brons
1 green onion; sliced
3/4 c. shredded cheddar cheese
4 eggs; beaten
3 TBS milk
1 TBS flour/bisquick
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
3 TBS. parmesan cheese

Unroll the crescent rolls. Line the bottom of a 12" dutch oven with a layer of flattened crescent rolls. Sprinkle evenly with sausage, hash browns, green onion, and cheddar cheese. In a medium bowl whisk together eggs, milk, flour/bisquick, salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture evenly over top of pizza. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Cover and bake using 8 briquettes on the bottom and 12 briquettes on the top for 20-30 minutes, until eggs are set.

RECIPE NOTES:

• I found that I actually used 1 1/2 cans crescent rolls in order to thoroughly cover the bottom of the dutch oven.
• You really need to use name brand -- Pillsbury -- crescent rolls. I tried the recipe the first time with cheap generic crescent rolls and it totally bombed (just ask my dad).
• I made two dutch ovens of pizza. The first was plain, just the recipe above. The second was a "mexican" style pizza. I added a can of green chilis and browned the sausage with taco seasoning. You could definitely add churizo and some red and yellow peppers and it would be great topped with cilantro or fresh salsa.

My brother and his adorable wife, Ellie, made Caramel Pecan French Toast. It was DELICIOUS. And here is their fabulous recipe:

Dutch Oven - Carmel Pecan French Toast

12" dutch oven-6 servings

3/4 cups butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
8 large eggs
1-1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 loaf French bread, cut in 1" slices

Place slices of bread in large casserole bowl. Mix eggs, vanilla, milk, and cinnamon, beating well. Pour egg mixture over bread and allow it to soak in. Melt butter in dutch oven, stir in brown sugar and cook long enough for sugar to dissolve.

Add pecans covering bottom evenly. Place bread slices in dutch oven, pouring remaining egg mixture over bread.

8 coals on bottom/ 12 top coals. Cover and bake medium to medium-low heat for 30-40 minutes, adding top coals after 15 minutes. Bake until toast is firm and brown.

This is so good, no syrup is needed... enjoy.
Chris http://forums.idos.org/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=21551

Quiche - 5 Ways

So for Mother's Day I made dinner for the whole family. I decided, for my mother, I would make QUICHE and because of my brothers I made 5 of them. Don't ask...
I used the every fabulous Jamie Oliver Pie Crust recipe, made the dough Saturday night, and then just rolled it out on Sunday.

The general quiche filling recipe is as follows:
4 eggs (I used 2 eggs and 2 servings egg substitute)
2 C. milk (I use skim milk and it always turns out just fine. This time I used about 1 1/2 C. skim milk and 1/2 C. cream).
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. sugar

mix together; pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake @ 425 degrees for 15 min. and then reduce oven to 300 degrees and back for another 30-40 minutes.

Some things I've learned (the hard way) about making quiche.

• Always put your empty pie shells, with whatever extras you want, on the baking rack first, THEN pour in the egg mixture. Slide the baking rack back into the oven and then bake.
• You will want to cook your vegetable al dente before adding them (unless you like crunchy vegetables in your quiches) and saute all your onions and peppers.
• There is such thing as "too much stuff", don't go over board on the fillings, you want room for the eggs.
• Don't fill the egg mixture all the way up to the top of the crust, eggs get poofy when they are baked and will spill over the top.
• MOST IMPORTANTLY, put your pie pan on a baking sheet before you put it on the baking rack in your oven. This way overfill with be caught by the baking sheet and not burn to the bottom of your oven.

Here are the pictures.Broccoli (it was actually CauliBroccoli) and bacon.It took me forever to bake all the quiches cuz I could only bake them 2 at a time cuz my oven is so small. Agghh! I dream of a larger kitchen someday, with tons and tons of counter space, a double oven AND warming oven, a side by side refrigerator and a seperate stand alone freezer, a stove with a pasta spout and 6 burners -- sigh!!

Anyways, back to reality...
Here's what I mean by putting them on the oven rack before I add the egg mixture.
You can see just how level my oven rack is (NOT).
Here's the finished product.

Ham, Bacon (isn't that redundant) and Swiss.
Green chili and cheddar cheese. This was the favorite.
Here they are all lined up, waiting to be served at mom and dad's. I made little name plates to tell everyone what was in each. I ended up making -- chili & cheddar cheese, ham & swiss, bacon & cheddar cheese, broccoli & bacon, bacon & ham & swiss.They tasted even better than they looked.

Apple Cinnamon Swirl Bread

One of my friends at work requested my Apple Cinnamon Swirl Bread recipe, so I'm throwing it up here. I got the original recipe from a recipe posted by Sharon Walker on Allrecipes.com and then I added my own personal twist.



Apple Cinnamon Swirl Bread
Makes 1 Loaf

1/4 C. butter, softened
1 C. granulated sugar
1 egg
2 C. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C. buttermilk (I don't have this very often, instead I use 1 C. skim milk with 1 TBS. lemon juice or vinegar)
1 C. diced apples (if you cut them too small they all but disappear, too big and they becoming an eating obstacle)

1 TBS ground cinamon
1/3 C. granulated sugar

1. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter, sugar and egg until well blended. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to the egg mixture alternately with buttermilk. Mix in the diced apples. In a small separate bowl combine cinnamon and sugar, set aside.

2. Pour half of the batter into the a well greased loaf pan. Sprinkle a very generous layer of cinnamon sugar over the batter. Pour the remaining batter in, sprinkle a small amount of cinnamon sugar over the very top.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.