Turkey Day BBQ Pizza

Is everyone stuffed? Are you seriously sick and tired of turkey?? Well I've got a fabulous solution for you. Pulled turkey BBQ pizza! You can make this with any leftover turkey you have or if you want just used torn up sliced cold cuts.


Truth be told... I'm not a turkey fan... thankfully my cousin also made a ham!! In all reality though I could have gotten by just fine with everything else there was to eat. We started with fruit salad, followed by homemade ravioli, then cream of chicken soup, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, fried cauliflower, eggplant, cranberry dressing, normal stuffing, pineapple stuffing (this stuff is bright yellow and horrible for you... but I LOVE it)... and so many more things... who ever needs the turkey!! And then there was dessert, pumpkin pie, 2 kinds of apple pie, crumb cake, pumpkin chocolate cheesecake, brandied pears... is anyone else getting full just listening to this? To put it simply it was delicious!! I'll try to wrangle a picture out of my family so you can see the setup... a giant square of cobbled together tables made to fit all 23 of us... YIKES!!!

So how did you all celebrate?

Turkey BBQ Pizza (the easy way)
by steph chows

1 premade crust (sure you can make it yourself but this is the easy version)
Dinosaur BBQ sauce (or whatever your favorite is)
part skim mozzarella
turkey (cooked and torn into small pieces)
chopped onion (if you want to get fancy caramelize them first)

Layer sauce onto the crust and then cover with torn turkey, sprinkle on cheese and then finish with some onions. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes.

CHOW!!!!

Read more...

Vikings and Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving week!!! What do you all have planned? We are headed down to my homeland of New Jersey to party it up with my extended family! There will be turkey, ham, and most importantly homemade ravioli (I mean uh...time with family)!! I can't wait to see everyone, chow all the tasty thanksgiving food, and tickle attack my nephew! Watch out Walton, Aunt Stephanie is coming for you.

On another note remember that awesome hat I mentioned I was making for a first birthday party... well here it is!!! Yup that's right... it's a viking hat... I mean I like to give practical gifts... and everyone needs a viking hat!


Of course I had to do a little modeling of it too... Too bad my head's too big... maybe I'll have to size it up so I can have one. If you're interested, the pattern is free and can be found here. Ahhha 2 headed viking monster!!!


Now onto something that makes me think of the holidays for sure. Hickory Farm Gift Baskets!!!! Through the Foodbuzz tastemaker program I got the chance to sample this bad boy for free.


How happy was I when I saw this gigantic box show up on my door step! Look at how much stuff came in this!? They sent me the Home for the Holidays gift box. It ships free to any Military APO/FPO address too! Know a soldier who could use a little taste of home, I'd recommend this box for sure. I think the person in my life who deserves a little extra appreciation would be my Mom and Dad, they are always there for me no matter what and could use a little extra fun surprise!

It comes with 3 summer sausages (we grew up having these with cheese platters at the holidays - yum!) 4 types of cheese, 2 boxes of crackers, and 2 types of delicious mustard. There is so much in this box I'm going to bring some to John's parents, some home to NJ with me, and STILL have some leftover to leave here at home! I love Hickory Farms, it is truly a nostalgic staple :)

What things make you think "holiday"? Or... what weird traditions to you have?

Oh and one last thing, the winner of the CSN giveaway picked by random.org is Traciet! Congrats!

Read more...

Blondies... kinda... not really.

Blondies, the weird half sister of brownies... some love them, some hate them. I told John these were blondies... he looked at them and said "but they're brown..." well that's what happens when you use almond butter, whole wheat flour, and apple butter in them I guess.

So these are brown blondies... doesn't sound so appetizing does it... hmmmm ok call them whatever you want but I'm calling them tasty! You might be wondering... apple butter?? Huh??? Let me give you some back story.


I love Musselmans apple sauce and have done some delicious recipes in the past using all their different products. Most recently the wonderful people there sent me a gallon of apple cider and a big jar of apple butter! Of course I had to experiment baking with the apple butter! This is my first recipe using it, but stay tuned because I want to try making a cake using even more of it!


Brunets formerly known as "Tasty Brown Blondies"
adapted from Healthy Food for Living

1/4 cup almond butter
2 Tbs apple butter
1/4 cup sucanat or brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup mashed banana (about 3)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup whole wheat pasty flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or tin foil so the edges hang over the sides of the pan.
2. Cream together the peanut butter, apple butter, and Sucanat. Add in the egg and beat until combined. Add in the mashed banana and vanilla; beat until well combined.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. Stir chocolate chips into the dry ingredients (this step prevents the chips from sinking into the batter).
5. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet until just moistened.
6. Spoon batter into prepared baking pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. Remove pan from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Remove the blondies by picking up the edges of the parchment paper and let cool completely; cut into squares and serve.

OK people what would you call these things??

Read more...

Time for another giveaway

That's right peeps time to share some love again through another giveaway! CSN is providing me with a $75 gift card to give to my lovely readers... the question is, what will you order with it?? (images taken from CSN.com)

Perhaps some kitchen bar stools? I like the idea of this one... it has a step stool built in... yeah I'm short...

Or maybe an ottoman? I got this one last time. LOVE it!!! Just look at the classy lines? It's perfect!! Comfy to sit on or stick your feet up. Perfect I say! I should take a picture of mine... this image doesn't do it justice.


OK OK maybe you want something for the kitchen? No problem, choose from thousands of items at Cookware.com, EveryEspressoMachine.com, or from one of the other 200+ CSN.com
stores.

Hmm this Bodum French Press sounds good to me...

Three ways to enter:
1) Comment below with what you think you'd buy
2) Like me on facebook then come comment here to let me know (or let me know if you already do)
3) Follow me on twitter then come comment here to let me know (or let me know if you already do)

You have until Sunday November 21st 5pm EST to enter! Get moving :)

Read more...

Cake and Hats and a Winner!

One of John's work buddies always walks by when John is snacking on some home made goodies. I think he's a little bummed out that he's not getting a plethora of baked goods every week like John gets... I can't stand by and see someone with a lack of baked goods so I baked him a wicked tasty blondie this weekend... and I forgot to take pictures... and it got dark at 5... darn you winter... so you'll have to wait for the picture and recipe.. but know this... it's super tasty, and involved almond butter and chocolate.

In other news I'm almost done crocheting a hilarious 1st birthday gift for a friend's little boy... it's awesome... again... pictures to come. :) Sorry for the total lack of pictures today, but believe me, it will be worth the wait!

Now it's time for the winner of the Foodiacs Tshirt!!! (picked by random.org) Drum roll please...

Reeni of Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice!! She's also competing in Project Food blog so go check out her post and vote for her!! Reeni send me an email with your address and I'll get a shirt out to you!

Don't feel bad if you didn't win, you can still sign up to win 12 days of giveaways at

www.Foodiacs.com

So what did you all do this weekend?

Read more...

Foodbuzz Blogger Festival

First don't forget to sign up for Foodiacs! And the tshirt giveaway!

------

OK I was going to attempt to write up an amazing post... but then I realized I took about 10 pictures the whole weekend! *fail* I made the conscious decision not to pack my big camera and brought our tiny old point and shoot instead... note to self... buy a new point and shoot. All of my inside shots came out full on grainy and not so hot at all... so here are the non food related walking around outside shots I took.





So anyway... back to my awesome weekend. There was so much to eat and see. I'm just going to tell you about my favorite parts.

Best thing at street cart fest: 4505 Meats jalapeno encrusted pork sandwich OMG amazing.
Best ice cream: Triple tie between: threetwins, straus organic and Josie with her natures pride winning entry for honey wheat ice cream YUM
Best thing at the tasting pavilion: Mushroom soup from Americano although those ghiridelli smores were a close second...
Best thing at the Gala Dinner: Getting to sit at the table with the exectuive chef and sous chef of the evening... everything was amazing, from the beet tart, to the perfectly cooked scallops with fried fennel fronds, to the fork tender lamb with the best mushrooms ever, to the almond cake with figs... great now I'm drooling... I can't put into words just how AMAZING that meal was.

The best part is always the people you meet though. It's like speed dating how quickly you meet people... in all reality they need to set it up like a speed date so I can meet more people!! Even with all the faces, I only have 100 cards... there were over 300 of you there, why didn't I meet all of you!?

Some awesome people from the weekend:
Lisa of Snack Girl- she's plotting to dress up as snack girl next year... I told her to go for it!
Ash and Lew from Ash and Lew Plus 2 what an amazing couple. The kindest friendliest people you will ever meet. Totally following their blog now, you should too!
Laura of The Cooking Photographer - another amazing lady. (her husband was a peach too!) Not only is she wicked talented with a camera, the lady can make honey! among so many other things... check her out here.
Stepfanie of Daily Spark - Come on we share a name... just a slightly different spelling :) She was amazing and total smiles the whole weekend!
Krissy and Daniel of The Food Addicts- another great couple! Here's a link to their write up, if you scroll you'll see a cute picture of me hanging with Mike of South Bay Foodies another fabulous guy!
Of course I had to hang out with the Duo Dishes while I was here. Love Chrystal and Amir! I've followed them for some time now and got to meet them last year!
Angela of SpinachTiger, was wonderful to have breakfast with on sunday and had some interesting stories from the weekend!
Ben from you fed a baby chili? was hilarious!
Gillian Young of Confessions of a young woman and Pauline of SassySavvyTravels had me rolling the entire gala dinner.
Emma of Food Samba was my exchange partner and gave me delicious homemade truffles!
Kashia of Fro and a Fork is the best person on twitter... love the sarcasm... her blog rocks too!
Joan of Foodalogue is feisty and an awesome lady!
Can't forget Damn the Freshman 15! She was my other exchange partner, I gave her a silicon baking mat/muffin pan set, and a rochester favorite, sponge candy!

OK I think I need to stop... otherwise I'm going to go on for days. If I missed you leave a message and I'll add you in! But for now... time for a snack :)

Good point by SpinachTiger... here's what I look like for those of you who have my business card but can't remember who I am! LOL
picture compliments of The Food Addicts and I'm sitting with the awesome Mike of South Bay Foodies

Read more...

Foodiacs- monster giveaway

As you read this I'm on my way to San Francisco for the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival! I can't wait to tell you about all the tasty things I saw and gobbled up. While I'm there I'm going to be spreading the news about this amazing new site I'm a partner of.

www.Foodiacs.com

Foodiacs [foo-dee-aks]-noun Slang. Definition: Those who are overly zealous and enthusiastic about eating, cooking, and fine dining.

Here's the best part, Foodiacs is hosting a 12 days of Christmas giveaway!!! Sign up once you are entered for all 12 days of the giveaway!! And I helped hand pick out the prizes so you better believe they are good! Even better news. Once you sign up you will get a unique URL and HTML code, use either to spread the word via email/twitter/facebook/your blog and for every person who signs up through you... if they win... you win too!!! It's like extra entries just for telling your friends! So please go sign up and spread the word! I am so excited to see this company launch and hopefully grow into something amazing! *crossing fingers*

Now onto the giveaway being hosted HERE! An awesome Foodiacs t-shirt (designed by me!!)



Ways to enter:
1) Leave a comment here saying hi :)
2) Go sign up for the Foodiacs giveaway then come back here and tell me you did
3) tweet or blog about Foodiacs.com with your unique URL (so you get more chances to win!) then come back here and tell me you did.

Tshirt winner will be announced on 11-15

Hey are you at the foodbuzz festival??
If you are at the foodbuzz festival come and find me! I'll be carrying around an ipad and the first 100 people who sign up for Foodiacs with me will get a Foodiacs tshirt! So come and find me people!!!!! :)

Read more...

Chocolate and almond butter muffins...cake

So these were going to be muffins, but then I decided to make a loaf instead. Why you might ask? Especially since I just rebranded the blog with a flying muffin... because I didn't feel like cleaning the muffin tin afterward and I was out of cupcake liners. Yup that laziness is how I roll.


I was browsing around on How Sweet it is (who also has a love of muffins) and found this recipe. I had to make them!! Just a few changes... like almond butter instead of peanut butter, and flax egg instead of egg whites. The loaf is delicious, especially served with a scoop of icecream. YUMMM



Whole Wheat Almond Butter Fudge Muffins
recipe by How sweet it is (slightly adapted by me below)

Makes ~1 loaf

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup splenda (or use white sugar)
1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
dash salt
1 1/4 cups fat-free milk
1/2 cup no stir MaraNatha almond butter
1 Tbs ground flax seeds plus 3 Tbs water
2 Tbs canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-3 tablespoons applesauce

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400.

Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours, sugars, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture. Combine milk and next 4 ingredients (through vanilla); add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in applesauce. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spoon batter into 9" loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 30-35 minutes or until loaf springs back when touched lightly in center. Let cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove from pan, and cool on a wire rack.


Did you all dress up for Halloween?
John and I went as Jesse James and Bombshell McGee... awesome.

Read more...