Christmas Time

What a looooong, looong journey the past few days have been. (Ok.. I admit it, almost a week!!!) We have celebrated Christmas and are getting ready to celebrate how our year has been, the changes our lives have endured and ring in the NEW year! I know.... who would have thought we would still be here after 12/21/12 (had to make a reference to the Apocalypse!) but, here we are. And here I am behind on my posts. I haven't actually done much other then work, child care (yes.. Just my own kiddos) and cook Christmas dinner. Nothing major there.. I cooked a wonderful pre cooked ham that I had to reheat, mashed tators, mac & cheese, broccoli and biscuits. Nothing overly worth mentioning. But I will say we had a fantastic day! Jeremy even got to butcher up the pigs we bought. Yay!! PIGS! That's right new recipes coming.. 

Today I am patty-ing up pork sausage and making two different batches of Jerky that have been marinating all night. Even might venture into some cookie making with the kiddos! 

Bottom line.. I hope you and yours had a fantastic holiday season and for those who celebrate Christmas like my family and I did, I hope you got all that your heart desired! Posts will be rolling out soon! 

<3  T

Marsh-hollow Cinnamon Crescent Rolls

I have seen this recipe all over Pinterest. So, I thought it would be fun to actually try it out for the kids!! Super simple no "recipe" to follow. You just need jumbo marshmallows, crescent rolls and cinnamon.

Sprinkle the crescent rolls with cinnamon...

Place a jumbo marshmallow in the center and roll it up...

I lined my baking sheet with parchment paper, then placed the rolled up gooey goodness on the paper..

And this is what you end up with sweet and cinnamon-y hallow rolls!! They loved them.. Even bought enough to make it again next weekend! 

Try it out for your family and see what they think about the taste.. and the awesome experiment of the marshmallow disappearing, yet leaving an empty space! Simply awesome!!

Now go bake something!

<3  T

Candy Cane Fudge

I was extremely inspired by the first 2 batches of fudge I made that I wanted to do it again... but go  BIGGER.. BOLDER... more out there!! Well.. they make a vanilla almond bark, I could cut that into pieces and in some Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses melt it down with remaining fudge supplies and top it with a actual candy cane pieces. Sounds good huh?!?!

Chopping up the Hershey Candy Cane Kisses

And vanilla almond bark....

Melt together (with other ingredients from CPB Fudge)....

Pour into lined pan and top with candy cane pieces and chill in the fridge..Well after more then 24 hours in the fridge, sadly the fudge is still soft. But taste fantastic . guess I will make truffles out of this too! :) I will add on to this post after I make the truffle.. probably this week!

Until then.. go bake already!

<3  T

Baked Brie with Peaches

I have been wanting to try baking Brie, and what a better time to try this by "practicing" for our family's winter solstice shin-dig. Bought a pretty basic grocery store brie and a can of peaches in syrup. I took the Peaches syrup and all and put it in a sauce pan with about 2 tbsp of cinnamon. Brought the peach mix to a boil over medium high heat, then reduced to simmer til the peaches started to break down.

I took a small brie wheel and left it in the rind placed it in a baking dish. Topped the brie with the peaches and baked it at 350 degrees for about 15 min.

While that was baking I happen to remember that I had some onion poppy seed ciabatta bread.. thought maybe I should toast it in rectangles to dip in the brie.

This was Jeremy's first time having baked brie.. well brie for that matter and I think he actually liked it. At least there was nothing left over once it hit the table. Now I spent $5 on the brie, $3 on the bread and the can of peaches maybe $0.89.. So trust me for this goodness it wasn't that expensive! Totally do able for anyone! So please go try it yourself.. let us all know what you thought of this!

<3  T

Chocolate Caramel Fudge Truffles

I had mentioned in an earlier post about the Chocolate Caramel Fudge. Well, this fudge ended up staying soft. It was too sticky to pick up with my fingers so I chilled it in the fridge while melting chocolate bark for a coating.  I took 2 spoons and formed them into the best round shape I could.. only for the hot chocolate to start to melt it.. which means when they cold the turned in to blobs.. Oh well best testing blobs I have ever had!

Chopping up the chocolate for the fudge, Yeah I ran out of chocolate chips..

Throwing everything into a pot instead of a double boiler.. Yup I am even shaking my head at myself!!

Fudge poured into the pan to make beautiful fudge.. only this is the batch that didn't get solid.. That's what bring us.. er.. me to this fun experiment...

Cut more chocolate up to make a coating, threw it into a pot and melted this.. unfortunately due to the fudge being sticky I couldn't take any pictures of the mess I made.. guess that's a bonus for me!!

TA-DA!! and you bite in to these babies and it melts in your mouth.. fantastic!!

Chocolate Caramel Fudge

2 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1/2 cup of caramel bites

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons of butter

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Put all ingredients into a heat safe bowl. Place the bowl over a pot with water in it over medium heat. stir the mixture until everything is smooth and heated but not boiling. In my batch the caramel didn't melt all the way (which could be why the mix didn't thicken) pour into and greased pan lined with parchment paper. Chill til formed.

Give it a go and see what you think! Go bake something!!!

<3  T

Venison Jerky

This is the second year in a row I have been involved with making jerky with the love of my life, Jeremy.  Last year (pre-blog) Jeremy did the majority of the process. ok well maybe he did all of the process as where I did do my part.. test taster!! Yes.. Please I will take that job any day!!

So this year Jeremy let me in on the how to's of making a marinate for jerky. He gave me the basic guidelines and I did it all.. this year he is the taste tester!!!

To start with Jer advised me to use half a bottle of Steve's hot sauce, 1 beer (only had bud light) and 1 bottle of Allegro Hot&Spicy marinate. Now before I mixed all the wet together I pre-seasoned the venison with about a tablespoon of each: salt, pepper, garlic and Italian seasonings.

Now keep in mind I had no clue what I was really doing.. Knowing that the meat should soak over night I took it upon myself to stir the meat in the marinate about every 2-4 hours. I did this til bed time of course.. I wasn't losing sleep over it :). 24 hours later I began the dehydrating process..

Wow... the smell of yummy goodness just filled the house. I was fun not eating everything insight as I tried very hard to rotate the trays every 2 hours! And even went as far as to lightly sprinkle salt over the topside and with the first tray rotation I also flipped each piece of meat over and lightly salted the back.. then rotated and removed jerky with each rotation... but all the hard work paid off (and one slightly melted tray) we had made some pretty darn good stuff!!

Now that is a beautiful thing!! More jerky marinates for both Venison and Beef coming! 5 hope you are able to try this fantastic marinate out for you self. Jer says this was sweet and sour mix. Tasted a bit of honey but with a bite. Now that is what I am talking about!!

We also did a batch of this same marinate with beef jerky.. EVEN better!! If you don"t cook this no worries.. Just cook.. experiment and find your own wonderful creation!

< T

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

I love being ambitious, I dis-like being motivated to do the project right then and there!! :) This usually how experiments in my cooking happens. SO.... I decided I wanted to make fudge. I figured I had the right ingredients and it shouldn't be too hard. I went on the hunt for a fudge recipe, even going as far as to tweet Bon Appetite and ask them what their favorite fudge recipe was!

They did give me a link to one of theirs with walnuts in them.. sadly I had almost none of the ingredients.. sigh! So back to go ol' Pinterest and searched for simple fudge. I found a pin for one of Martha Stewart's Easy Chocolate Fudge with Pretzels. Well right off the bat.. I didn't have pretzels.. does a fudge really have to have a topping?!?! After reading the rest of the ingredients I had everything else except the vanilla extract, but I had almond extract..  :) why not!

My lovely assistant was ready to help with her strawberry shortcake apron she got for her birthday! Sadly I couldn't convince her to keep the chefs hat on, It was a complete package!

So Emma and I chopped and measured chocolate bark.. Oh yeah, I didn't have enough chocolate chips for the recipe.. hahaha.. See what I mean by experiments!

Portioned out between two pots (I also made Caramel Chocolate Fudge.. shhh.. that comes later!)

We ended up with enough chocolate minus 1/2 for two fudge recipes! ok.. the particular fudge I added 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips. The rest of the ingredients followed the recipe in measurements but use almond extract instead of vanilla extract, regular salt not fine and no pretzels.

The other "mistake" (yes, I am by no means perfect!) the original recipe said to use a double boiler, you know when you put water in the pot, a heat safe bowl on top of the pot with the chocolate mixture in it and slowly melt the mix.. Yeah well this girl didn't read ahead (which you should do when baking and cooking) and threw all her ingredients in to the pot. I still put in on the stove use very low heat and slowly melted the mix. 

Once the mix has heated thoroughly pour it into a greased 8" square pan, or in my case a 10x5x1 1/2", then lined with parchment paper (or again like me.. sigh.. wax paper). Parchment paper will be the best choice her for the removal of the fudge. 

This is the final result after 3 hours in the fridge.. It was hardened yet still soft and "moldable".. just saying maybe a future idea...

I cut this batch in to squares about 1 1/2 to 2 inches. Lined a cut cookie container with wax paper closed the lid and hid it in the fridge from the sweet bandits in my house! The taste of this alone is enough to send any one of my boys in to sugar bless! The peanut butter chips infused the flavor of the chocolate with out losing much of the chocolate color.. Oh so yummy goodness!! The Caramel Fudge I mention earlier.. sat in the fridge over night and might get formed in to balls and dipped in chocolate.. who knows?!?!?  >:)

The Original Recipe:

Easy Chocolate Fudge with Pretzels

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Everyday Food, July/August 2011

• YieldMakes 36

Ingredients

• Nonstick cooking spray
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips (16 ounces)
• 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon fine salt
• 2 1/2 cups roughly chopped miniature pretzels

Directions

1. Coat an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on all sides.
2. Place butter, chocolate chips, condensed milk, vanilla, and salt in a medium heatproof bowl set over (not in) a pot of barely simmering water. Stir occasionally until chocolate just melts and mixture is combined and warm but not hot, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 2 cups pretzels. Transfer mixture to pan and smooth top; press 1/2 cup pretzels on top. Refrigerate until set, 2 hours (or up to overnight, wrapped). Using parchment, lift fudge from pan and cut into 36 squares.

Cook's Note

Fudge can be stored in an airtight container, up to 2 weeks.


The Website:

http://www.marthastewart.com/852402/easy-chocolate-fudge-pretzels?czone=food/christmas-candy-cnt/candy-recipes&center=0&gallery=276329&slide=852402

By: Martha Stewart


Stop it.. stop licking your lips and go make some for yourself!

<3 T

Butter Cookies... with flare

Finally.. my oven got some well needed sugar baking!!! I went on the hunt for my butter cookie recipe, and sadly could not find it. However I put my boys to work in finding another recipe. Tripp found one in an older cookbook "Southern Living, The Southern Hospitality Cookbook. I love going through older books my mother past down to me and recreating a classic!

Of course I did put my own twist into these cookies, where the original recipe called for rum extract I used Almond Extract. I didn't have rum extract on hand. None the less they tasted amazing. I even got into topping them with different flavors! So this blog will be more pictures then anything!

The Batter...
This did come out not as thick as I am used too, but with the help of my trusty spoons I was still able to form them some...

Dough Balls!!!

Uh huh.... Tasty, right?!?! Trust me it was all I could do to keep the Jeremy out of the raw dough balls!! Now for the final treat the baked cookies!!

COOKIES!!

 plain sprinkles

Peanut butter and chocolate chips

Allspice, chocolate sprinkle and cinnamon chips
Peanut butter and chocolate chips

YES!! They taste just as good as they look!









The Original Recipe:
"The Southern Hospitality Cookbook", Page 82

Yummy Butter Cookie

1 cup butter, softened
1 sup sugar
1 large egg, well beaten
1 teaspoon rum or rum flavoring
2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, using an electric mixer on medium speed or by hand. Add beaten egg and rum. Beat well. Combine flour and salt and add to creamed mixture, mixing well. Place mixture in a large bowl, cover and refrigerate over night. Drop cookies from an iced-tea spoon onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Yield: about 5 dozen cookies.

Now, as if you don't want to already.. GO BAKE already!! Until the next recipe...

<3 T

Homemade Chips

Sometimes when I am throwing together a meal, start out with one item and let the rest just kinda fall into place. Last night was one of these times.. All I had in mind was BBQ Pulled Beef, but now had to figure out what to have with it. The wheels started turning and the steam was coming out of my ears (hard work, that thinking thing! Whew!)and I decided to try making chips.. I had some potatoes and an empty oven!

I cut the potatoes as thin as I could by hand of course, first thing that could be improved.. maybe purchasing a mandolin in my future?!?! Who knows. I took vegetable oil and spread it around the sheet pan and placed the "chips" on the sheet and place them into a 350 degree oven starting with 12 minutes to get the hot.

I then flipped each chip and sprinkled with a touch of salt, placed them back in the oven for about 10-15 minutes (carefully watching to make sure the weren't browning to fast. I continued flipping and watching until each chip felt like a chip. giving us this:

Now I will say these did turn out good and the family ate every single chip, but.... cause I hand sliced them they were not evenly cut, so one chip might be thicker on one side and thinner on the other. And I do think the temp of the oven should have been lower maybe between 275-300 degrees. I think with the lower temp it would take longer but dry out better so even the thicker pieces get crispy.. who knows!?!?! but that's the fun of cooking.. trial and error!!

The final dish!! The chips were a very good addition to the already fabulous BBQ Pulled Beef! There is no original recipe for this one.. it came straight out of my mind.. crazy, I know :)

Now, that's enough reading.. go be creative! Cook, Bake or Boil.. just get your creative juices flowing!!

<3  T

BBQ Pulled Beef

We are very blessed and lucky to have the family and the neighbors that we have! So, my beautiful sister and brother-in-law gave us a package of pulled beef. The beef came from the cow that our fantastic neighbor who raised 3 beautiful cows!! If you ask me this was #37 she was a beautiful cow!! Just sayin!

Any who back to the subject at hand.. BBQ pulled beef. So our fantastic family cooked a beef roast and then pulled the meat with a few forks, thus giving us pulled beef.. (awesome, I know!!) SO I am yet again attempting another BBQ sauce.. Went looking online like I do for a recipe, came across a few by they called for liquid smoke..liquid smoke?!?! Who has liquid smoke on hand?? Not this girl! I finally stumbled upon a recipe that didn't call for it, go figure it says its the Applebee's BBQ sauce! Of course I made my own adjustments, and well... Created a whole new recipe!

I took 1/3 cup ketchup, 1/3 cup white vinegar, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of horseradish, 2 teaspoons yellow mustard, 1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder, 1 tablespoon garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of black pepper. Whisked this all together in a crock pot. I let that start heating up then added the pulled beef (once it came to room temp). With a fork stirring the beef into the sauce. Letting it cook for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

The mixture in the crock pot... OhMyGosh the amazing smell coming from my crock pot!! I let the mixture warm up in the pot before adding in the beef.

I then added in the pre-cook pulled beef. Which by the way smelt AMAZING!! WayToGo sister and brother-in-law!! Did I mention they were married last November 11, 2011 (11/11/11)? Well these two beautiful people had been together about 5 years (forgive me if I am wrong) and during their favorite time of the year (Hunting Season) decided to tie the knot! Wedding color Hunter's Orange! It was a beautiful ceremony followed by a week honeymoon in the woods, Hunting! So, every year for deer season two of my favorite people get to have an amazing honeymoon! (remember this there is a test at the end of this blog..hahah)

I let this beautiful marriage of ingredients and meat cook at low for 2 hours (maybe a little more)... Ohhh the smell that is produced!!! Yummy!!

And look at that plate!! This was a party in my mouth! I did get ambitious and tried to make my own potato chips. I will say this was a partial fail for me! Read the blog on it, you may enjoy it yourself!

The Original Recipe:

Applebee's Barbecue Sauce

Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Sauces Bbq

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
TO MAKE 1 CUP
1/3 cup Bottled apple butter
1/3 cup Catalina dressing
1/3 cup Ketchup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire

TO MAKE 1 QUART
1 1/3 cups Bottled apple butter
1 1/3 cups Catalina dressing
1 1/3 cups Ketchup
1/2 cup Worcestershire

Combine all ingredients. Will keep in the refrigerator for a few weeks or may be frozen.

The site:

http://www.budget101.com/mixes-myo-copycat-etc/2571-copycat-applebees-bbq-sauce.html

So as you can see I really changed some things around.. hahaha!! Now before I close out here and step down to cook/ bake some more I would like to pass on a cause to my readers. I told you earlier I would test you on my story line (haha.. story line) about my sister and brother-in-law. Well truth is these two amazing people have started or are trying to start a foundation to help victims of sexual molestation crimes and sexual abuse crimes. They are currently taking donations to become a non-profit organization. Women and man face such horrible crimes in one way or another EVERYday.. to have someone out there to provide them support and the road to recovery is something special and amazing! Please visit their site and help out where you can whether it is a donation of ANY size or simply passing the word along, you will be helping! Thanks to all and please keep baking!!!

2 Orange Hearts <3 <3 
(psst.. click on the link! At least view the site, let your heart decide which route to take!)



<3 T