Spring Roll

Mmmmmm heading off for a big sushi lunch today, I can't wait!! I'll have a ton of pictures tomorrow along with all the crazy descriptions... dancing diablo roll anyone??? (it's tempura fried and covered in BBQ sauce... no joke!)

To satisfy your craving right now, here's a nice light spring roll for you to enjoy.

These are super easy, all you need is rice paper (spring roll wrappers) follow the directions, you just soak them in warm water for 30 seconds, then fill them up with whatever you want! I put in rice noodles, lettuce, and shrimp. For a dipping sauce I whipped up a quick peanut sauce that I use in this recipe here.

Chow!

Gingerbread

Gingerbread is one of those things that can taste so amazingly different depending on the recipe. I can't even count how many different kinds I have tried over the years. I signed up for a Healthy Starts newsletter my sister told me about and one day this recipe showed up in my inbox. I tweaked a few things from the original (halving the canola oil and adding apple sauce, I also upped the whole wheat flour a little, I'll try upping it more next time) One suggestion I have though is make sure you mince the ginger as small as you can... I missed a few and the big chunks were a bit too much for my taste. Otherwise this stuff came out super fluffy, moist, and delicious.

Chow!

Gingerbread

Ingredients
* Nonstick cooking spray
* 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
* 3/4 cup turbinado sugar ( I used 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs splenda baking blend)
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 cup light molasses
* 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
* 1/4 cup canola oil
* 1/4 cup apple sauce
* 1/2 cup buttermilk
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 cup boiling water
* 1/2 cup firmly packed minced fresh ginger
* Confectioner's sugar, for dusting

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in the lower third of oven. Spray a 9-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, turbinado sugar, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together molasses, eggs, oil, apple sauce and buttermilk.
4. Dissolve baking soda in the cup of boiling water. Fold the baking soda and molasses mixtures into dry ingredients until combined. (Do not overmix.) Fold in the minced ginger.
5. Scrape batter into the prepared baking pan; bake until cake is set around edges and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then invert onto a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature, dusted with confectioner's sugar.

When cookies kiss

Sometimes cookies spread a little more then you expect them too... and you end up with a whole bunch of smoochin cookies... scandalous!

Tomorrow I'll have a recipe for a really tasty gingerbread loaf. YUM

Quiet Day

Nothing like a good long showshoe to make you want to snuggle in with some hot chocolate. Hope everyone else is enjoying the holiday!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!! Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. I'll be back soon with more holiday recipes and cute things I crocheted :D

Hope santa treated you well!

snowshoe

John and I are off from work today... so we are going snowshoeing... pictures to come later on. Have a great day!!!! :)

snowed in

Friday was one of those days where everyone was either snowed in, or attempting to get home in the BAD BAD weather. The snow started around 9am and never stopped. Half way through the day our boss said, everyone go home! My boss rocks. Some of the many awesome things about working here are a) my boss is a total human and is always thinking about our well being, b) he gives us almost 2 full weeks off for christmas (WOOHOO!) c) he has a heated driveway and walkways here. I know a heated driveway?? It's seriously awesome, you never have to walk in the snow... except when it's snowing so hard and for so long (friday) that the driveway can't keep up!! You know it's bad when the driveway can't keep up.

Anyway, the drive home friday was an adventure, very thankfully my car (her name is iceskate) she has all wheel drive AND snow tires, both which I was so thankful for this weekend/ this morning. Yeah the roads STILL suck this morning. Since the gym closed friday due to snow I was left with no other option than to be a hermit friday night, and bake and crochet all night!!! WOOOHOOO (ok am I seriously an old woman... it's ok you can tell me :) )

One of the things I baked this weekend were some very thin crisp butter laden chocolate chip cookies.
(wait what??? butter??)
Yes, they were for John's neighbor, the big dude who I really don't like
(then why bake him cookies)
good question, because he has a snow blower and cleared off john's walkways and driveway all weekend long... for this, he gets cookies. Plus it's always good to bribe the guy with the snowblower, so hopefully he'll keep doing it all winter long... no shoveling for us! woohoo!

The cookies spread like mad so make sure to space these bad boys out. They can out totally flat and crisp/chewy, YUM. Eat with caution, these things are NOT good for you.


Crispy chewy chocolate chip cookies
1 3/4 cup white flour (seriously i used white flour NO WAY!)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 stick (8 Tbs) butter (softened)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 pound chocolate chips

WHISK flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

CREAM butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add egg. Stir in the vanilla.

MIX in dry ingredients (my dough was a little too dry so I added a little milk in)

preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake about 15 minutes (more for really crispy)

CHOW! and be prepared to get fat :)

No cook pizza sauce

Pizza is one of those things that I think I could eat everyday... and I would be a very large and happy woman! I love making pizza at home, you get to make the crust as thin as you want, add whatever you like, and it really doesn't' take that long at all to make!


Wegmans (the best food store EVER) sells their whole wheat (or white) pizza dough in big ball form. You basically pay $2 and get enough dough for two large pizzas, nice deal huh? I make sure to give the dough enough time to rest outside of the refrigerator so it can rise a little more, that way I can get the crust SUPER thin. Tear the ball in half and toss one back in the fridge for latter use. I don't have a rolling pin at John's house so I use an empty jar or a wine bottle, in reality I like this better then a rolling pin, the dough seems to stick to it less :) I also have one of those pizza pans that has all the holes in the bottom, makes the crust so super crisp I LOVE IT!

Anyway John wanted to make our own sauce for the pizza, we normally just use wegmans diavola sauce but he said it just didn't taste like a real pizza that way. So we made our own and MAN was it GOOD! John was eating the leftovers by the spoonful later in the week hehe. It only takes a few minutes and is again super cheep. You basically take a 45 cent can of tomato paste and add a bunch of spices to it. YUM

John's fancy pizza sauce
6oz can tomato paste
2 tsp chopped garlic cloves
1/2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs basil
1 Tbs rosemary
black pepper to taste
salt to taste
couple glugs red hot

2/3 cup water

Mix everything through red hot in a bowl, slowly stir in water and stop at desired consistency. Taste, add more spices if you like, that's it, you're DONE.


We didn't use the whole batch of sauce for the one pizza, we had some left over, spread it all over your dough and add whatever toppings you like! Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes. CHOW!!!!

Fluffy

And no I'm not talking about my bottom... which if I'm not careful is going to get fluffy from all the tasty cookies I've been eating! I'm talking about fluffy pancakes! John was asking why the one recipe I use to make pancakes were kinda... how do I say... FLAT. So I decided to revamp the recipe and start from scratch. I was super happy with how these came out. They puffed up so nice and tasted delicious!


There is just something about hot pancakes covered in warm maple syrup... or in John's case sugar free syrup... or his other favorite yogurt... anyone else put yogurt on pancakes? It's surprisingly good haha. Although I'd take real maple syrup over it any day :)


Fluffy Whole Wheat Pancakes
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 large egg
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 Tbs honey
1/4 tsp vanilla

WHISK dry ingredients together, in a separate bowl beat eggs and milk, stir in honey and vanilla. STIR dry slowly into wet until smooth.

POUR 1/4 cup of batter onto a hot griddle over medium heat. Once bubbles start forming flip pancakes and continue cooking. CHOW!

six word memoirs

Molly over at batter splattered wrote a post about six word memoirs... so I had to join in :)

these connection unknown yet so profound

hungry, why must i always chow

christmas cookies you torment me so

raw sticky dough crushing my willpower

chow obsessed, why yes i am

so much to accomplish – eff it

want to play along? Just leave me a link to your post or comment below!

Gift Idea - Pizzelle

Some cookies are so fussy and require so many ingredients and time... others are as simple as can be, four ingredients, tops. I try to make recipes healthier and normally I do a pretty good job... when it comes to pizzelles... there isn't much you can do except use whole wheat flour... I mean look at the ingredient list, butter, sugar, eggs, flour.... go ahead just try to take the butter out... yeah it aint going to taste good at all... and you are going to have a serious mess stuck to the iron :)


Pizzelles are one of those cookies I really don't want to mess with, so simple, so beautiful, so delicate and crisp. I remember making these as a kid with my dad, covered in flour, pressing out those beautiful snowflakes, rolling them into ice cream cones, or just eating them whole. *love you mom and dad!* The only bad part about these cookies is you NEED a pizzelle iron, if you don't have one... you aren't going to get too far. Thankfully a few christmas's ago I received not one... but two!! haha great minds think alike :)

As I mentioned in a previous post, I took part in a cookies exchange! I decided I wanted to send pizzeles and knew I would have to seriously bubble/ packing peanut them so they made it... let me tell you... I packed that box like I did my 10th grade egg drop project!

ok did anyone else have to do this? it was for physics class, *shout out to Mr. Morrill!!!* you had to devise a container that wasn't more than (blank) inches in surface area, that would hold a raw egg and allow you to drop it off from different heights and not have it break?? You started with a small drop of 6 feet and it all culminated with the entire class walking up the stairs of the bell tower to the observatory to drop them off (did I mention I was also in astronomy club in high school...can we say NNNEEEEERRRD!) And yes you read that correct we had a bell tower... So you chuck them off a seven story drop to their doom! Or in my case, safety!! That's right my egg survived!! Yup as I said before, I really am a NERD, because I though this project was awesome! OK back to cookies....

Pizzelles are a great gift, all you really need to do is a tie a bow around them, they are seriously pretty on their own! I can't wait to see when my person gets her cookies, I hope, like my egg, they make it their safely! You'll have to wait and see the ornament I made her, I'll link to her once I know she's received the package!

Pizzelle Cookies
(recipe borrowed and slightly tweaked from my awesome girl Maria's family!!! Wooohoo Maria!)
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick butter (melted)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
2 tsp baking powder
optional: zest of lemon rind
optional: 1.5 Tbs anise seed (I'm not a fan so I didn't use it)

BEAT eggs, add sugar gradually, add melted butter

MIX flour, baking powder, anise (if using)

ADD dry mixture to wet gradually, stir in lemon zest (if using)

DROP sponfulls on a hot pizzelle iron and cook according to iron instructions (mine has a light that goes on and off when they are done) remove and cool on a wire rack, or roll into ice cream cone shape and set aside to cool.

You can take two of these and make nutella sandwiches, or sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with ice cream... or just eat them all up plain!

Chow!

Roasted Banana Muffins

I don't know about you, but I've heard from a bunch of different places about roasting bananas before using them in baked goods... I always thought this sounded good but it wasn't until this weekend I realized just how much I was missing out!! I stuck the bananas on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes... they came out black and gross looking but once you peeled back the skin the insides were a nice vibrant yellow and so super soft. They smelled AMAZING and I couldn't wait for them to cool to start adding things in. (Make sure you let them cool a little though, otherwise you'll have scrambled cooked egg in your muffins... ewwwww)

The weekend was full of all types of baking, pancakes (recipe to come later this week), pumpkin cinnamon buns, poose cookies, and then finally roasted banana muffins. I'm not sure where I exactly came up with the recipe, I basically made it up as I went and (amazingly) wrote measurements down as I went along. Add a little bit of this a little bit of that... They came out of the oven steaming, so inviting, just asking to be devoured... oh, and they were.


John even proclaimed they were the best thing I had come up with to date! Pretty impressive statement if you ask me :) So they have his stamp of approval :) We sat and happily munched on these throughout the course of the night, and John told me this morning that amazingly some of them actually survived the night! And amazing feat if you ask me :) You see the recipe only made 12... next time I will be doubling this for certain.

Roasted Banana Muffins
created by me
makes 12

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup old fashion oats (take them and pulverize in a food processor)
2 tsp baking powder
dash salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 small to medium roasted bananas (how to: below)
2 Tbs splenda blend (or just use more honey to taste and leave this out)
1.5- 2 Tbs Honey
1 egg
1/4 cup skim milk

ROAST whole bananas by placing on a cookie sheet, roast in 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes (until they are black), cool until you are able to handle them without burning yourself.

WHISK flour, pulverized oats, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl.

PEEL bananas and place into a large bowl, stir in sugar & honey, beat in egg.

ADD dry ingredients a little at a time to wet, alternating adding in skim milk a little at a time, ending with milk.

POUR into greased muffin tins and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Try not to chow them all in one sitting... it's hard not to though :)

Honey almond cookies

So I was planning on posting about these amazing muffins I made this weekend but my camera doesn't want to connect to my computer at the moment... soooo you will just have to drool over these cookies instead :)

Don't those look tasty?


The recipe is taken directly from the wind attack. (great pictures there too, check them out) I found it randomly and was so happy I did. I actually made these before Thanksgiving but never got around to posting about them! They were super tasty, and even if you don't have creamy honey you can use normal honey, they will just be a bit more gooey. Come on... you know you want to try them :)

Honey Almond Sandwich Cookies

Makes a Baker’s Dozen (13)

• 2 cups Almond Flour (Almond Meal)
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/8 tsp Salt
• 1/3 cup Honey
• 2 tbs Canola Oil
• 3 tbs Plain Soy Milk
• 1/2 cup Raisins, coarsely chopped

For the Filling

• Raw Almond Butter
• Raw Creamy Honey or Creamed Honey

1. Preheat oven to 275°. Make sure you have an oven thermometer if your oven is like mine and has a dishonest thermostat. You don’t want it to get above 300 during your baking, as almond flour baked goods brown quickly.
2. Sift together the almond flour, cinnamon and baking soda. If you are using almond meal, there may be some residual brown almond skins that won’t make it through the sifter. Anything that won’t go through after pushing it with the back of a spoon can be discarded.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, mix the honey, oil, soy milk and salt with a fork until well combined.
4. Mix together the flour mixture and the honey mixture until completely incorporated. Add the raisins and mix until well combined.
5. On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, place small balls of batter about two level teaspoons per cookie round about 1 inch apart. This will make about 25-30 cookie rounds.
6. Dip your fingers in warm water, and gently push down on each pice of dough into a one and a half inch circle shape.
7. Bake the cookies for 15 minutes. When done, let cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer the parchment to a cooling rack.
8. Once completely cool, spread a generous amount of almond butter on the back of half of the cookie rounds. Place a generous amount of creamy honey on the back of the other rounds. Place the honey half on top of the almond butter half.
9. Keep these cookies in the refrigerator to prevent the honey from liquifying too much and oozing out the sides.

speedy dinner

I bought around 10 lbs of chicken breasts awhile back when it was on sale at Wegmans for 79 cents a pound or something crazy like that. Gotta love bulk package deals... Problem is... it's just me I'm cooking for most nights, and 10 lbs of chicken is going to last AWHILE! Needless to say I froze a ton of it and realized recently that I still have a bunch in the freezer, slowly growing icicles... ewww no good! I took out a freezer pack of them the other night to defrost in the fridge and made up some super quick tasty BBQ chicken sandwiches for dinner.

Super quick, I pulled out the good old George Forman grill preheated it, then tossed the breasts on with a little olive oil spray for 7-8 minutes. Take them off the grill and place on a cutting board to rest a few minutes (lets all the juices reabsorb) chopped them all up then tossed them with some Jack Daniels BBQ sauce (yum). That's it, you're done!

I put mine on some toasted bread and grated some fresh sharp cheddar on top. I also had enough leftovers for lunch a few days this week. Chow!

Cookie Exchange!

Molly over at Batter Splattered is hosting a cookie/ ornament exchange!! Molly is the fantastic lady who also hosted the jam exchange I took part of a few months back :) Let's give a big round of applause for Molly *clap clap clap clap*

After a somewhat crazy day at work, then some time to blow off steam at the gym, I pulled into the driveway to see a happy little package propped up against my front door. At this point I got very excited and started hoping like mad that the package was for me and not my roomie, I mean I love my roomie but come on it's a cute package, of course I want it to be for me :)

After quickly parking I ran out of the garage leaving behind all objects of importance to grab the package... score!!! it's for me! :) I looked at the return address Jeanne S. from Mountain View California... ooo Mountain View, that's where some of the google friends work when they are in the country! At this point I knew it must be my cookie exchange partner since I had no idea who the name was... unless it was a secret admirer... ooooo. I got even more excited and quickly went back to my car to retrieve all of my bags (I swear I'm a bag lady I don't know how I manage it but I always have at least 3 bags to schlep in every night).

OK so why is it that the more excited you are to open a package is DIRECTLY correlated to the amount of tape on said box??? Man Jeanne you used some industrial strength tape! That sucker wasn't coming undone anytime soon! After some wresting and a pair of scissors I finally released the contents of the box *packing peanuts flying everywhere*


Let me tell you. TOTALLY worth the struggle to get this package open. Jeanne wrote me a great note and she included a cute tin brimming to the top with gingerbread men/trees/canes and some biscotti.


That's totally not me trying to steal the gingerbread man so I can behead him... I have no idea what you are talking about... Seriously though how cute are these little guys, and all decorated to the nines! They didn't just look cute they tasted delicious too, same with the biscotti, YUM!

The other thing included was a Christmas ornament, even though she lives in CA she's originally from Ottawa (Ontario, Canada) which is why they are a little pair of mittens and an adorable sweater on a hanger! I'm not sure if she is the one who made these or not but serious props to whoever did, they are ADORABLE!!! (UPDATE: she DID make them! keep reading to find out where you can read about all her cute creations!)

Jeanne thank you so much!!! I love all of it and it totally made my day!! I'm not sure if you have a blog or not (I have an email in to Molly asking her) but if you do and see this send me a comment so I can link to you!! Thanks again! (UPDATE: Jeanne does have a blog!! It's a knitting one! So go check it out here )

:)

OK onto finishing making my ornament and then some cookies... I totally know what I'm going to make... but shhhh it's a surprise!

The perfect sweet gift for everyone

This recipe is not for the faint of heart, or for anyone trying to keep their waist at its current circumference... because this stuff is going to blow you up like a balloon! It's basically a glorified way to eat mass quantities of butter, sugar, and chocolate... so are you all drooling now? Or running away in fear of your skinny jeans? This has to be the number 1 request from both family and friends, I go through pounds of butter making batch after batch of this to satisfy their sweet tooth. This stuff is totally pretty and wrapped in plastic wrap with a nice bow is a perfect gift for everyone you know (unless they are allergic to chocolate or nuts... if they are allergic to nuts just replace the almond topping with crushed candy canes, m&m's, or pretty much anything within grabbing distance... maybe not the cat though... that would be gross...)

Anyway... my coworker Niki introduced me to the recipe on Food and Wine and I am so thankful for it, since this is one of the gifts I give to all those hard to shop for guys in my family. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

cooling in the pan

Chocolate-Almond Saltine Toffee
1 1/2 cups sliced almonds (6 ounces)
Approximately 60 saltine crackers (not low-sodium)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces

1. Preheat the oven to 350°, spread the almonds on a baking sheet and toast for about 6 minutes, until golden.

2. Line a 12-by-17-inch rimmed baking sheet with a silicone mat or lightly buttered parchment paper. Arrange the saltine crackers on the baking sheet in a single layer, patching any holes with cracker bits; slight gaps are okay.

3. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, butter and corn syrup and cook over low heat until the sugar is melted. Brush the side of the pan with a moistened pastry brush to wash down any sugar crystals. Cook the syrup over moderate heat without stirring until it starts to brown around the edge, about 5 minutes. Insert a candy thermometer into the syrup and simmer, stirring with a wooden spoon, until honey-colored caramel forms and the temperature reaches 300°, about 6 minutes longer.

4. Slowly and carefully pour the caramel over the crackers, being sure to cover most of them evenly. Using an offset spatula, spread the caramel to cover any gaps. Let cool for 3 minutes, then sprinkle the chopped chocolate evenly on top. Let stand until the chocolate is melted, about 3 minutes, then spread the chocolate evenly over the toffee. Spread the almonds evenly over the chocolate. Freeze the toffee until set, about 15 minutes.

5. Invert the toffee onto a work surface and peel off the mat or paper. Invert again, break into large shards and serve.

Sorry I didn't take a shot of it all broken up into pieces and wrapped up. I'll take one once I start the factory line of making this stuff close to Christmas :)

Luscious Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake

So for those purist out there... stop reading... cause this uses a cake mix. *gasp*! You know what, I'm all about doing it from scratch, but sometimes, like when it's thanksgiving and you are already making 4 other desserts, a little shortcut is a nice thing. This comes straight from Kraft... who I really don't like as a company... but they did have a tasty recipe so... oh well. Oh I did change a few things to lighten it up a bit (not as much as usual since Mom was watching over my shoulder saying "oh just follow the recipe and put the oil in!" haha), you'll see my slight changes below.

This cake looked amazing, so pretty! And it wasn't bad at all to make. I made the cakes the day before Thanksgiving, then whipped up the topping the day of and assembled it. The cake was a hit with everyone and I would totally make it again. However I may try my own homemade cake recipe next time.

Enjoy!

Luscious Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake
1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin, divided
1/2 cup skim milk
1/3 cup oil (I used 1/4 since Mom looked away)
4 eggs
1-1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, divided
1 pkg. (8 oz.) 1/3 less fat Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP fat free Whipped Topping, thawed
1/4 cup Chopped Pecans

HEAT oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) round baking pans. Beat cake mix, 1 cup pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs and 1 tsp. spice in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Pour into prepared pans.

BAKE 28 to 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min. Remove from pans to wire racks; cool completely. Beat cream cheese in small bowl with mixer until creamy. Add sugar, remaining pumpkin and spice; mix well. Gently stir in COOL WHIP.

CUT each cake layer horizontally in half with serrated knife; stack on serving plate, spreading cream cheese filling between layers. (Do not frost top layer - I totally frosted the top... yum.) Sprinkle with nuts. Refrigerate leftovers.

MMMMM now I want some cake...

Weekend Baking

I did a lot of baking and cooking this weekend. Which is always fun! I made some fantastic pancakes that I will have to post about once I get the pictures off of John's camera, I was too lazy to take them off so far. Sunday has become sauce night and we had HUGE bowls of whole wheat spaghetti with yummy turkey meatballs. I also made up some poose cookies, and some banana bread. Lots of cooking, no pictures... sorry guys!

I also made up some more roasted brussles sprouts, this time I used some potato spice grinder that I won in a giveaway over at Sugarlaws!! How exciting is that! I love winning stuff :) The spice grinder came from the spice depot and tasted great ground up on my sprouts!

After all that I was still in the kitchen and walked into the living room stirring something in a bowl. John looks at me and asks "wait what are you cooking now? aren't you done?"
Me: "nope, I thought I'd make some peanut butter pie"
John: "for who?"
Me: "us"
I start walking back into the kitchen as he starts laughing and says "you are going to make me so fat aren't you!!" Ahhh yes that is what the gym is for right? :)

So back to the peanut butter pie .... it wasn't really a pie like I normally do, I didn't put it in a crust, I just put it into containers to eat like ice cream... and I used honey to sweeten it... it came out... YUM! Follow the recipe and at the end instead of the splenda start drizzling in honey, stir it up and taste it, if it needs more, add some more :) Sorry I didn't bother measuring how much I used!

Mmmmm don't you love chowing weekends :) I don't have any chow pics but here is a cute one of John and me after a long day called Thanksgiving...

Biscuits with jam

All I have to say is YUM...

ok who are we kidding since when am I one for few words! ha! I saw this recipe earlier this week looking through Bread & Honey and I fell in love. You see I've never actually made biscuits... Bisquick ones, sure, but do those really count? These seemed so simple and easy I just HAD to make them!

Another reason I had to make them is due to little Walton's nickname. Before we knew who was growing in my sister's belly we called him biscuit, which I think is just a fantastic name for a little baby in a belly! Ok time for another adorable Walton shot!

Ahh doesn't that just make you feel better? :)

Ok as for the biscuits, I made a half recipe since I knew I would chow them all in one sitting. I came out with 5 biscuits all of which were phonominal with a little of my homemade raspberry jam slatherd on them! Mmmmmmmm maybe I should go make some more.... man these things are good!!

As per usual I changed the recipe up a little by adding in some whole wheat flour. Here is my version of half the recipe!


Buttermilk biscuits
3/4 cup bread flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp flour enhancer
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 Tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3 Tbs cold butter
4oz skim milk + squirt lemon juice (let stand 5 minutes to turn milk sour) (or just use buttermilk if you have it on hand instead of making it like me)

Directions (taken direct from bread & honey)

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F.

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, or in the bowl of a food processor. Cut the butter into chunks and cut into the flour until it resembles course meal. If using a food processor, just pulse a few times until this consistency is achieved. Add the buttermilk and mix JUST until combined. If it appears on the dry side, add a bit more buttermilk.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board. Gently, gently PAT (do NOT roll with a rolling pin) the dough out until it's about 1/2" thick. Use a round cutter (or the rim of a small glass) to cut into rounds. You can gently knead the scraps together and make a few more, but they will not be anywhere near as good as the first ones.

Place the biscuits on a cookie sheet- if you like soft sides, put them touching each other. If you like"crusty" sides, put them about 1 inch apart- these will not rise as high as the biscuits put close together. Bake for about 10-12 minutes- the biscuits will be a beautiful light golden brown on top and bottom. Do not overbake.

*Note: The key to real biscuits is not in the ingredients, but in the handling of the dough.

An unexpectedly tasty side dish

Thanksgiving is full of veggies drowned in butter or covered in cream sauces. Can we say "green bean casserole" ewwww, I know people love this stuff but come on you really shouldn't be able to call it a vegetable anymore after you drown it in cream sauce and then cover it in fried onions (oh wait aren't the fried onions veggies too??? hehe

I say bring on the simple super tasty veggies that are still actually good for you! Brussels sprouts are one of those veggies that are pretty much hated by both adults and kids alike. Everyone seemingly has had some traumatizing childhood experience with them :) I know I did! Then came along my mom and sister in the last few years telling me I had to give them another try... all this stuff about roasting them takes away the bitterness and makes them sweet... yeah right... well I finally gave in and tried them... and you know what... they are AMAZING!!!

We made these for thanksgiving and pretty much all of the cousins looked at them and gagged "no way am I having any of those" in the end after some arm twisting they gave them a try and it was the only dish we made that was completely demolished the night of thanksgiving! We had leftovers of everything else... except the brussels sprouts. seriously. I know it's hard to believe, people coming up for seconds of brussels sprouts??? Yes yes it's true, and now you dear reader should put your prejudices aside and give these a go :)

They are super easy.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts
1.5 lbs brussels sprouts, ends trimmed (if they are big cut them in half)
3 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Place all ingredients in a plastic bag and shake:


Empty bag onto a tin foil lined baking sheet, place in a 400 degree oven:


Roast for 35-40 minutes, shaking the pan every 5-7 minutes for even browning:


Chow! These even taste great cold the next day... if you have any left that is :)

TCHO chocolate drenched

Before all the Thanksgiving craziness started I very excitedly received a package from TCHO!!!! As always I was very excited and ripped the package open to discover 4 packages of goodies!

Dark chocolate drenched macadamia nut treats
Dark chocolate drenched roasted nib treats
Dark chocolate drenched mango treats treats
Dark chocolate drenched honey roasted cashew treats

Can we say YUM! As you may know I've tested out straight up chocolate from TCHO before. I've always been satisfied with their quality, texture, and flavors. It's amazing the different tones they bring out by roasting the nobs differently. Their chocolate is also not bitter like most dark chocolates I've had, however these treats had more of a bitter bite to them then their straight up chocolate did.

If you like tart you'll love the mango treats, if you don't like bitter stay away from the nibs these bad boys have some serious bitter kick to them. I couldn't really tell the cashews were honey roasted the chocolate definitely overpowered the honey flavor. The macadamia nuts paired perfectly with the chocolate and I think came out on top for me in comparison to the rest of the treats. Chocolate is always a great gift and I say order some up from TCHO for all those "hard to buy for" people in your life!!

OOO and they have Tshirts now!!! How fun is that??? Ok I think it's fun :) What flavor would you be?

Come back tomorrow for some more Thanksgiving day chow recipes :)!

Skinny Pumpkin Pie

Well of course we have to start out with some adorable pictures of Walton and his Mom (aka my sister). So freakin cute.


Now onto a different kind of little pumpkin! Pumpkin pie! I made this skinny pie last year along with a full on fat version... I didn't tell anyone the difference and hands down everyone picked the skinny one!!! This is what I'm all about, making it healthy and making it taste good! Give this a try in a regular pie crust, a graham cracker crust, or just make it in ramekins and serve it without any crust (that's the way my sister likes it best).

Born Again Pumpkin Pie
recipe from Better Homes and Gardens

3/4 cup crushed graham crackers
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon flour
3 tablespoons margarine, melted (I used a little more than 1 of butter)
1 16-ounce can pumpkin
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup refrigerated or frozen egg product, thawed
1 cup evaporated skim milk

Directions
1. In a 9-inch pie plate, combine gingersnap and graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and flour; drizzle with melted margarine and mix with a fork. Using your fingers, pat crumbs to cover the bottom and sides of the pan. Chill about 1 hour or until firm.

2. In a mixing bowl combine pumpkin, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Blend in egg product with a rotary beater or fork. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour in prepared pie shell. Cover edge of pie with foil. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until center appears set when shaken. Cool on wire rack; cover and chill to store. Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition Facts
* Calories 222,
* Total Fat (g) 7,
* Saturated Fat (g) 1,

I doubled the recipe and had enough for 2 deep dish pies, or 2 regular dish pies plus 2 medium size ramekins. We enjoyed the ramekins the night before with a whole bunch of ready whip on top. YUM

CHOW!

Holy Yum Award

Welcome back everyone!! It's back to work and back to normal daily life. Thanksgiving was great and very crazy. We had over 20 people and there were tons of good food, here's some quick pics from the day! I'll be posting all about it later in the week!

Dad finishing placing out some ham and turkey before the vultures descend!

John and I playing pass the baby... walton got snuggled by everyone all day long, he held up great, good job walton!

All the stuffed family members after a long day of chowing

Much happened while I was away in NJ, the best of which... I got a Holy Yum award from Megans Munchies!!! How exciting is this??? Go read all about it here :) woohoo!