Picky Tiffany

Dessert : Archer Farms Brand Brownie Mix

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:09:00 +0000

Sometimes it's nice to be able to grab a box of... something at the store and be able to whip it up quickly. Brownies especially apply to that. Unfortunately, I stopped buying brownie mix a while ago as it seems all of them have partially or fully hydrogenated oils and/or high fructose corn syrup in them. We try to avoid those things as much as possible, but I try to remember to take a peak at box mix ingredients every once in a while. We walked past the mixes at SuperTarget and I was reminded.

I was so surprised and thrilled to see that Archer Farms Brand (Target's store brand food) had none of the aforementioned ingredients. They had a few varieties at our store but the girls and I opted for Chocolate Overload.

I made it as it said on the box except for the water. Whenever cake and brownie mixes call for water I always use milk. I also use olive oil as the oil of choice so the milk and olive oil help balance each other out. Plus, the milk helps the chocolate taste great.

I baked them just as the box said and they came out great.

Just like any other type of brownies except they accomplish great taste with NO high fructose corn syrup and NO hydrogenated oils. They were cheaper, too, since they are the in-house brand!

We will definitely buy this brand and flavor again.

Cookies : Snickerdoodles

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:00:00 +0000

I never understood this cookie name but they sure do taste good so I stopped questioning the name!

This seemed like a small recipe. It only made 20 cookies but I'm guilty of eating the dough while I bake cookies and I made pretty large cookies so it could have easily made more.

It's a pretty classic recipe from the Betty Crocker website. I only changed it so that there was no shortening because I didn't have any in the house and I can never find any that doesn't have partially or fully hydrogenated oil of some sort in it.

Ingredients:
* 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 2 eggs
* 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 3/4 cups flour
For Coating Cookies:
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Directions:
Cream together the butter and sugar until they are well blended and light and airy. Then add the eggs until, again, well blended. Then add each of the above ingredients one add a time until thoroughly mixed together.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Also ready your cookie sheets with oil if yours need that like mine.

Mix together the coating of cinnamon and sugar. I like to take a fork whenever I mix cinnamon and sugar. It seems to help mix them better than a spoon.

Form whatever size cookies you want from the dough and roll each ball of dough in the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Then place on the cookie sheet. I was able to get everything to fit on two cookie sheets.

Bake about 8 to 10 minutes. One thing I learned long ago with snickerdoodles is that they are very easy to overcook. If you want them to stay soft once they have cooled you need to pull them a bit early. I baked them for four minutes, then swapped the sheets top to bottom since our oven is prone to over cooking whatever is on the bottom rack. Then I baked the cookies another four minutes and they turned out great.

These were of course, quickly devoured! And they were so wonderful with a big glass of icy cold milk.

Snack : Homemade Puppy Chow

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:00:00 +0000

Everyone seems to have their own name for this but we grew up calling it Puppy Chow. I see it referred to as People Chow in the stores and doesn't Kate on Jon & Kate Plus 8 call it "Monkey Munch"? I'm sure there are other names but I will forever call it Puppy Chow.

We haven't had the homemade kind for a long time. I'll buy it in the store every once in a while but it never tastes as good as what you make at home.

The recipe I used is supposed to be the original one. I found it at Moms Who Think.com while doing a google search. I used Chex instead of Crispix just because I like corn Chex better and am not really a fan of Crispix. I used more powdered sugar, too, because it didn't seem as though the original amount would cover everything very well. So this is what I used.

Ingredients:
* 9 cups Corn Chex
* 1 cup chocolate chips
* 1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 a stick)
* 1/2 cup peanut butter (I used smooth of course)
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
* 2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
I know the site I was using said to use a microwave but ours hasn't worked properly for a while so I melted everything on the stove. We don't have a double boiler official so I just used two pots - one with water on the bottom, and the second with the ingredients that needed to be melted on top. I put the chocolate chips in first and let them melt a little, then added the butter, then added the peanut butter. Be sure to stir continually so that you don't burn anything. After those ingredients are entirely mixed add in the vanilla.

I went ahead and measured out the cereal before I started anything else. Use a very large mixing bowl. Ours is woefully undersized but as long as I went slow it was okay. Pour the melted chocolate mixture over the cereal and stir until the cereal is well coated. Then pour the powdered sugar on top of the chocolate covered cereal and mix. The powdered sugar causes the cereal pieces to separate. I ended up having to use two large bowls and moved the mixture back and forth until everything was entirely blended.

We went through this VERY fast. It's so addictive!

Dessert : Backyard Fruit - Ice Cream, Pie, Pancake topping

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:00:00 +0000

We don't have a big backyard by any stretch of the imagination. When we moved in we decided we wanted some fruit trees and raspberry bushes. Of course, we didn't realize there was already a fruit tree in the backyard. The first few years we were here it didn't bear any fruit. All of a sudden last year we got fruit from it. We aren't quite sure if they are peaches or nectarines, but we found some papers from when we were looking at the house originally. In the original listing by the previous owner it says the tree is a nectarine tree. This year it gave us TONS of fruit. I guess the amount of rain we got at the beginning of summer was perfect for the tree. This little tree looked kind of pathetic earlier in the season when it was so overloaded with fruit that it looked to be bent in half. There are still a few on the tree.

This is part of what we have picked for the year.

A lot of the nectarines/peaches have fallen to the ground. The tree gets so overloaded that once they are ripe they fall. The birds and other little critters love our backyard right now. We're actually to the point where we are sick of peaches this year. That's how many we've picked.

As you can see, there are also raspberries in our backyard.

We started out with, I think, six raspberry bushes. We've had them for a few years now so they have really spread. The kids absolutely love going to the backyard to pick them. Our plants our nice because they actually bear fruit twice during the season - once at the beginning and then again later. We've had fruit this second time for a good month or so now. I saw how much raspberries are in the store and I can only begin to imagine how much money we have saved. The girls go out there probably 5 or 6 days a week and pick a bowl full of them. We don't spray or put any chemicals on our raspberries either so these are essentially organic, as is all the other produce in our backyard. that of course would drive the price up.

One morning my boyfriend was making pancakes and the kids decided they wanted the fresh fruit on them. They really loved it that way.

We also did some great ice cream. We decided to call it "Backyard Ice Cream" because we used both peaches and raspberries in it. It was a relatively plain vanilla ice cream and then we added in the fruit to the ice cream maker towards the end. I remember eating peaches and half & half as a kid and I thought this ice cream tasted so similar to that. It was really good!

We also picked a big batch and thought we'd have enough to make pie. Well, we started to cut them up and we had WAY more peaches than we thought.

We had more than plenty to make two pies and snack on them. I have no idea what recipe was used as my boyfriend made the pie. We each almost always use the basic pie crust recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. I think he tried to alter a rhubarb pie recipe that he made earlier in the season and use it to make the peach pies.

I'm not the biggest fan of peaches but I know my boyfriend and the kids all thought it tasted great. However, since it wasn't a recipe meant specifically for peaches, after a slice was cut juices seeped out into the empty portions of the pie dish. So it may not have looked extra pretty but it sure was great tasting.

Dinner : Pizza with Garden Tomato Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:32:00 +0000

We always try to grow tomatoes but this year it seems the weather was perfect for them and we had an abundance. They mostly ripened at the same time, too, and we didn't want them to go to waste. We thought we would try to make pizza/tomato sauce from them.

This isn't all of them, but still a good sampling of what we got. They are some variety of heirloom tomatoes so they don't always turn insanely red everywhere. It kind of helped give a nice zing to the sauce too by some of them having some green spots.

The first thing we did was remove the skin. It's super simple to do. Boil the tomatoes then run them under cold water and you will easily be able to peal the skins off.

We actually used the same blend of spices as we have used to make tomato sauce from plain canned sauce. We used twelve tomatoes and it seemed to be the equivalent to the amount we buy in canned plain sauce. After we added the spices and allowed the mixture to cook down we were concerned about there being so many lumps in it. Neither of us are a fan of chunks of tomatoes in our sauce and we weren't sure how the kids would react to chunks either. My boyfriend decided to throw it all in the blender and it worked great!

We tasted it a few times while it was cooking and while it wasn't identical to making it from canned sauce it was still really good tasting. We spread it out on the pizza and had enough to make two pizzas one night and we had plenty left over and it's now sealed in some plastic dish in the fridge for the next time we made pizza.

We didn't have any fresh mozzarella around so we just used some of the shredded and bagged stuff. The next time we make it we will definitely get some fresh mozzarella. This tasted good, but we've been so spoiled by using fresh cheese so often!

My Kitchen : Pizza Stone

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:00:00 +0000

I love our pizza stone. We recently ordered a second one but we haven't attempted to season it since we're so spoiled by our older and well seasoned stone.

It's almost comical to see the difference in the two. We make sure to use a lot of olive oil in the first few uses but after it starts to become more and more stick all we have to do is use the spray variety of olive oil. The more you use it the easier it becomes to clean as well due to the non-stick qualities it acquires. Mine are Pampered Chef and come packed with a plastic scrapper to help you clean it as well. You're not supposed to use soap at all. Usually mine come clean by letting them sit under running warm water and then I scrap front, back and the edges of the stone. Sometimes they get a weird sticky texture and to fix that all I do is scrub the stone with baking soda and water paste. It works really well and I'm so glad we've had a pizza stone. It will be really nice once we get brave enough to season the second stone!

Dinner : Potato Chip Casserole

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:00:00 +0000

This is kind of a gross indulgence for me. No one else in the house seems to like it. Well, my boyfriend does but he says it's too greasy for him and gives him terrible heartburn. I don't eat it very often but every once in a while I'll get a craving for it. It's also kind of a nice way to use up potato chips that have staled a bit but you don't want to throw them out and waste them.

Ingredients:
* 1 can cream of mushroom soup
* 1 can cream of chicken soup
* 1 can of tuna (drained)
* potato chips to thicken the mixture (I always use Lays)

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Basically just dump everything in a bowl and mix it together. I have never followed a specific measurement for the potato chips. I throw them in and stir them in until I can't add any more. I've tried to hold back on how much I add to make it less greasy, but it's still pretty indulgent.

I bake everything in the oven until it's lightly browned on top. It usually takes about 30-45 minutes. I sprinkle on a bit of black pepper and I think it tastes great, but like I said, it's definitely a once in a great while type dish. It tastes good reheated in the microwave for lunch the next day, too.

Dinner : Spaghetti Hotdish with Meat

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0000

This is basically identical to the last time I posted about Spaghetti Hotdish but I added some ground beef. I used 96% lean ground beef and browned it in the wok. Then after draining any unnecessary juices from the pan I added in the rest of the tomato sauce ingredients. I prepared it exactly the same as before but the meat definitely adds a different taste than making it without. We like each version a lot, but sometimes it's nice to take the same recipe and make a simple change.

Breakfast : Applesauce Donuts

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:00:00 +0000

In the town that I lived for the first ten years of my life there was a great bakery in our small downtown. It's still there and when I go back to visit family I try to stop in. My ultimate favorite has always been their applesauce donuts. I don't know what it is, but I think they are awesome. The closest I can come to duplicating those is to make donut holes or drop donuts because I don't have any special donut tools.

This was a new recipe this time because I couldn't find the one I used the one prior time I made them. I tweaked the recipe a bit after some taste testing prior to frying, too, but I used a recipe from All Recipes.

My version is as follows.

Ingredients:
* 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
* 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
* 3 eggs
* 5 cups applesauce (I used "natural" unsweetened)
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 8 cups flour (I think?)
* 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/4 cup milk (I used 1% as usual)
* oil for frying
* glaze or sugar for topping the donuts

Directions:
As a warning first, this is a really big recipe. It took me a lot of time to make these and I was very glad it was the weekend. The original wasn't quite apple flavored enough for my liking and thats why I altered the applesauce and flour so much. However, it still fit in my smallish kitchenaid mixer.

Mix everything together one at a time in the above order. Add the larger quantities of ingredients slowly, especially the flour. The amount of flower you use may be different. After you're done mixing it should look about like this:

If you have a deep fryer that would be perfect for this, but I don't have one so I have to make do by using the wok. Fill whatever pan you'll be using with enough oil to fry in. I also clipped the thermometer to the side of the pan. Our thermometer happens to be plastic and I didn't want it to melt. I used wooden clothes pins to attach it to the pan and keep the end in the oil at all times.

The original recipe said the oil should be at about 375 degrees F. I found it better to keep the temperature at about 325-350 degrees F. Also, as I fried things it of course made the oil level drop slowly so I had to readjust the thermometer.

Once the oil is at the appropriate temperature fry about a teaspoon to a tablespoon at a time of the batter. It doesn't seem like much at first but these really expand. Fry on each side until they are a golden color. Mine turned out a bit dark but they were not hard and crunchy on the outside. I was worried about the insides not being entirely cooked.

It took a really long time due to the amount of batter in the recipe but I finally finished. We had a ton of donuts.

That's not all of them. We ate a few here and there while I was frying and that's all I managed to stack into my large mixing bowl. If you want them to stay soft be sure to seal them entirely by using a covered bowl or some ziploc baggies. I've always found that putting away things like this while they are a touch warm will help keep a bit of moisture inside and keep them soft.

We also opted to use a basic powdered sugar glaze on some of them. It tasted good but it seemed as though the glaze would have been better thinned a bit. It almost made them too sweet since our glaze was rather thick.

Award : Brilliant Weblog

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:02:00 +0000

Courtesy of Nicoyle at Anybody Can Bake.

Thanks, Nicoyle!

Now it's my turn to pass this on to some others:

Caffeinated Crafter
All That and A...
I Hate the Kitchen

I'm sure there are some other fabulous blogs but I am really bad about remembering to bookmark blogs and continually read them. So I know there are others out there that are deserving but I just can't think of them off the top of my head!

Dinner : Potatoes and Cream of Mushroom Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:34:00 +0000

This can easily be turned into a full meal in one pan. My mom used to always serve it with some pork chops cooked on top of it. I'm not a big fan of pork in general but it would certainly be good with some chicken. However, when I made these I wasn't really in the mood for anything but the potatoes so I thought I would try them out relatively plain.

I was surprised at how few potatoes I needed to use also. I think next time I would add more cream of mushroom soup as well, but I'll chalk that up to the fact that this is the first time I have ever made this myself.

Ingredients:
* 5 baking size potatoes
* 1 or 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

Directions:
Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. I used a relatively small and square casserole dish that has a lid, but any oven safe container would be good. If you are putting meat on top this will help keep the potatoes from getting too crisp on top. The lid helped keep the potatoes nice and soft, but some aluminum foil would work just as well. Be sure to spray whatever you use with some olive oil or grease it somehow.

I wanted to make as little work as possible for myself so all I did was scrub the potatoes. I did not peel them. You could if you're so inclined. If you have a mandolin, it will make slicing the potatoes very quick. It also made everything nice and uniform.

If you do have a mandolin, be very aware of where your fingers are! If you don't have a mandolin, just cut the potatoes into thin slices. They can be as thick or as thin as you would like.

Then in a large bowl carefully mix the potatoes with the cream of mushroom soup. Once it's well mixed, pour the potato mixture into the cooking dish. Cook for about 45-60 minutes covered. It will be done when the potatoes feel soft to a fork all the way through.

Cookies: Soft Pumpkin Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:06:00 +0000

I always have leftover pumpkin when I make Pumpkin French Toast. I hate letting it go to waste so I tend to make cookies. I use Nestle's Old-Fashion Soft Pumpkin Cookies recipe as the basis, but I end up with just a touch extra pumpkin leftover and once again, I don't want to waste it. So here is my alteration of that recipe.

Ingredients:
* 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
* 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1 1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree (this will use up the rest of the can)
* 1 egg
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 2 3/4 cup flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Ready your cookie sheets. Mix all the ingredients above, one at a time until each is well blended into the others. I made nice average size cookies and was able to fit ten per cookie sheet, but they don't spread much so you could easily make large cookies and space less per cookie sheet without much worry. Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes.

While they are baking you can mix up the glaze.

Glaze ingredients:
* 2 cups powdered sugar
* 3 tablespoons milk (I used 1%)
* 1 tablespoon melted butter (unsalted)
* 1 teaspoon vanilla

Glaze directions:
Mix everything together with a whisk until well blended. If you need to make it runnier try adding extra milk little dribbles at a time. This combination worked well and turned it into this consistency.

When your cookies are finished baking allow them to cool on the pans for about 2 minutes.

Instead of moving the cookies to wire sheets, I place wax paper down on clean counters. It certainly helps make less of a mess to clean up after icing the cookies. When I iced them, I just took a spoon and added some to each cookie until all the icing was used up evenly amongst the cookies.

The original recipe says to wait until the cookies are cooled but I'm impatient and wanted to eat these! I waited about 15 minutes after they were done in the oven before frosting them. They still turned out great. They turned out so soft and cake-like. I really love cookies with a nice soft texture.

Breakfast : Pumpkin French Toast

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:30:00 +0000

Once again, this may be breakfast fare but we had it for dinner. I love breakfast food so I subject my family to lots of "breakfast for dinner" meals. They never seem to mind.

The funny thing about this recipe is that it's actually from an advertisement. GLAD had a several page section with multiple "make ahead meal" recipes at the back of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food Magazine in September 2006. This was one of those recipes. I seem to use this issue often. I also don't make this recipe entirely as stated in the ad. I don't let it soak overnight as suggested because once I smell it, I'm too anxious to dig in. So this is how I make it.

As an aside - I really love pumpkin.

Ingredients:
* 12 slices of bread
* 1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree (be sure to use 100% pumpkin)
* 1/2 cup milk (I used 1% as usual)
* 4 eggs
* 1/4 brown sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
Heat the oven to 250 degrees F and ready one cookie sheet. As you cook each slice you'll want to place it in the oven on a cookie sheet to keep everything warm until it's all done.

I used my electric griddle for this and sprayed it with olive oil, but any large pan on your stovetop would work as well as long as you grease it a bit before cooking. While the griddle was warming I mixed all the ingredients together except the bread. Using some tongs I placed one slice of bread in the mixture at a time and flipped it over to make sure it was entirely covered everywhere. Then I placed it on the griddle.

It only takes a few minutes on each side. Just ensure that they have browned a bit without looking overdone or burnt.

Once again, as each slice is ready place it on a cookie sheet and place the cookie sheet in your warm oven.

We served this with the fake maple syrup. I've never been a fan of real maple syrup as I think it's too strong, but if you enjoy the real thing it's a really great combination. One of the few syrup covered things that I don't grab for the fruit flavored syrup.

Between the four of us, we devoured all twelve slices. I'm sure if you have extra it would save well in the freezer once cooled and then you could reheat it in the toaster.

Breakfast : Bacon, Egg and Cheese Strata

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:37:00 +0000

While it might be breakfast food, we ate it for dinner one night. It would certainly make a good brunch dish as well.

We had bread that was starting to stale and I wanted to use it up before it went bad and some bacon sounded really tasty.

Ingredients:
* 6 slices of bread
* 6 to 7 eggs
* 3 1/2 cups milk
* 1 pound of shredded cheddar
* 8 slices of bacon

Directions:
Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. First I stacked all the slices of bread and cut them in thirds lengthwise and crosswise.
I spread them across the bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Be sure to grease it up spray with olive oil first.

We buy frozen precooked bacon, but it's never quite crispy enough for me. I fried it up first on our skillet it, patted it with paper towels to get rid of excess grease, then crumbled it into nice small pieces after it was cool.

While the bacon was cooling I mixed up the eggs and milk. After all the yolks were broken and the eggs were well blended with the milk I dumped in the cheese and bacon and gave it a good mix so everything had been at least coated with the egg mixture.

Then I poured it all on top of the bread cubes. The cheese of course settles on top of the eggs, the bacon pieces mostly settle on top as well.
Bake this until the cheese starts to turn brown. But be careful, it would be very easy to overcook the eggs and you want them to come out nice and fluffy. I cooked this for about 20-25 minutes. Watch it very carefully at the end. If you think it's ready and it wiggles too much like jello then you'll want to cook it a bit longer. It should look like a solid mass when you're moving it around (if that makes sense).

We all thoroughly enjoyed this and my boyfriend is already begging me to make it again!

Cookies : Molasses Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:22:00 +0000

I love molasses cookies but I grew up eating them often. My great-grandma always had a glass cookie jar filled with them on her counter. All of us grandkids (and great-grandkids) would ask her for them. She would give us a few but remind us that they are Grandpa's cookies for lunch so he could take them to work. To us, molasses cookies were always "Grandpa's Cookies."

This is not my great-grandma's recipe as it seems no one but her has that recipe. I have a few of her other recipes but I really need to get some others.

This recipe is from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine in September 2006. It is originally intended to be molasses sandwich cookies with molasses filling. I thought that sounded like too much molasses flavor and I love to just eat molasses cookies by themselves. The girls helped me make a double batch of cookies and then helped me devour them as well.

Ingredients:
* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
* 2 cups brown sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 cup light unsulfured molasses
* 3 cups flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 2 teaspoons cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Oil your cookie sheets. Mix together the ingredients above one at a time until each is well blended. This is kind of a wet dough, but you can put it in the fridge to chill after everything is mixed to make it easier to deal with. Use two small spoons or your hands to form small mounds of dough.

These cookies do spread and flatten a fair amount. So if you stick them close together don't make them too big. Bake for about 10 to 13 minutes. Let them cool on the pan before trying to move them otherwise they will end up as a squished mess.

These tasted so wonderful with a nice big glass of milk! Certainly not the same as my great-grandma's recipe, but a nice light flavor to satisfy my want of molasses cookies.

Dinner : Crockpot Gravy and Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:11:00 +0000

I've been wanting to try to make gravy in the crockpot while the meat is cooking. Usually when I make gravy I take the meat out, then pour the liquid out, then put the meat back in, make the gravy and let it set up partially on the stove and then put it back in the crockpot. Seems like a redundant and unnecessary dish-dirtying process.

For this I just did it with some chicken breasts and of course chicken gravy. I hate canned/jarred gravy and I always make it from broth. Bouillon is too salty and often has MSG in it, which my body can't handle and I end up with migraines. We buy big cases of Organic Chicken Broth at Costco so I usually have broth in the house. It seems like organic broth is the only kind with no MSG.

I have only tried this with chicken. Theory would say that it will work with other broths and meats/main dishes but it's hard to know for sure.

Gravy Ingredients:
* 32 oz. chicken broth
* 1 1/2 to 2 cups of flour

Directions:
I added the flour in slow increments. The chicken was frozen when I put it in. I poured in the broth, turned the crockpot on high and let it sit for an hour. After an hour I turned it down to low. I used a ladle to take out some liquid. In another bowl I whisked the broth and 2/3 cup of flour together until it was well blended. I aded it back to the crockpot, gave it a good stir and let everything sit for another two hours. Then I added another 2/3 cup flour doing the same thing before adding it back to the crockpot. About an hour before we were ready to eat I added the final 2/3 cup flour by doing the same thing.

I was really pleased with how it turned out. It might have been just a touch thick for my taste but it still was really good. Sometimes with gravy I feel like I taste too much of the flour. The nice thing about this all thickening while the meat was cooking was that there was none of that. I also didn't need to add any spices like I usually do. Cooking it all together really helped the flour in the gravy soak up the appropriate flavors.

We served it with some Oven Fried Potatoes. There was definitely no leftovers!

Dessert : Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:14:00 +0000

All of my posts lately make me look like all we're doing is eating dessert. That's not the case of course. We just do a lot of repeats in terms of meals in my house.

I love having an ice cream maker but it's hard to be spontaneous in terms of using it. Fresh cream is just not something I keep in my house. Sometimes I worry that the ice cream maker is yet another appliance whose sole purpose is to serve as a space filler in my frightfully non-existent cabinet space.

Luckily our last trip to the store sparked the idea to make cookies and cream ice cream so we remembered to buy fresh cream while we were there. Our store carries Picket Fence Creamery products so whenever we make ice cream we use that. It's a little organic farm about 20 minutes from us. We go there often to pick up other things as well. We really love organic products but sometimes those things get expensive. Picket Fence is usually very reasonably priced since it's local and not widely distributed. If you live near a creamery, I definitely advocate checking it out for fresh dairy!

When we were making this last night I didn't pay enough attention to how long the ice cream was in the mixer. I'm not sure if this recipe is from somewhere but the measurements stuck out in my head before I actually wrote them down. Admittedly, the plain ice cream was a bit bland before we put in the cookie bits, but I think with adding cookie bits you wouldn't want an over powering ice cream base. Once we added the cookies it was definitely the perfect sweetness and no worry about being over powering.

Ingredients:
* 1 1/2 cup cream
* 1 1/2 cup milk (we had 1%)
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* crushed oreos

Directions:
Ice using an ice cream maker, your bowl should be completely frozen. Crush your oreos (or whatever cookies) before you start any of this. Then place them in the freezer while you make the actual ice cream. Mix together all of the other ingredients with a whisk until well combined. Get your ice cream maker all set up complete with the frozen bowl and then add the liquid mixture. Follow the directions on your ice cream maker for how long you should mix. Once it is basically done you'll want to add the oreo pieces. We probably should have done this a bit sooner when the mixture was softer, but it still worked. We mixed until the color of the ice cream was an even color throughout. We also gave it a few turns with a spatula and turned it into a bowl so that it would stop freezing.

Cookies and cream is my favorite type of ice cream and this turned out tasting so good.

My Kitchen : Chopsticks

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 16:00:00 +0000

I love eating with chopsticks but they certainly have more uses than that.

I use them as drink stirrers for my chai in the morning or for alcoholic drinks.

I also like to use them to "fluff" flour. I can't remember where I saw that tip. I'm thinking Smitten Kitchen but I can no longer find the entry. The container I keep my flour in is just barely big enough to hold 5 lbs of flour. When I push the air-tight lid on, it really smashes the flour down. Sifting flour is too much work for my lazy self so I give the flour a quick stir so that it's not so packed in and then measure. While it's already out, it makes the perfect leveler as well.

What's better is they are cheap and usually pretty easy to find! If I'm using them for flour I just wash them with some soapy water, let them dry entirely and throw them back in the drawer I keep them in. No sense in throwing them away unless I use them for something like raw meat.

Content Question : About Pricing

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Would it interest you to see a break down of pricing?

I realize prices are not the same everywhere and I live in a relatively inexpensive part of the US. I'd be willing to price how much each item is (when feasible) and then also give a round about per meal, per person price.

Not everything is so easy to price of course - spices in particular, or things I buy in bulk. I don't buy those things as often so it's not as easy for me to extract pricing, but I do buy almost exclusively name brand items. So it might give you a round about figure of what it would cost to make different items.

I'd love some feedback on this!

Dessert : Strawberry Pretzel Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:00:00 +0000

I feel strange calling this a salad, but I suppose it's in the same vein as fruit salad. This is always a hit. We went to a get together recently and this was one of the things we brought. I always ask my mom to make it for Christmas for no other reason that I love it.

When I was hunting for ingredients I was really pleased to see whole organic frozen strawberries at Target. In the past when I've made this I've used the little tubs of frozen strawberries. They always seem to have... goo in them. I just had to cut up the whole strawberries into bite size pieces myself, which I really don't mind if I'm getting food with less "extras" in it.

I don't know if this is the exact measurements my mom uses but I just went online and searched for something that sounded about right. I never remember to print off or write down the recipe when I make this. I found the recipe for the Strawberry Pretzel Salad at Cooks.com this time.

Pretzel Crust Ingredients:
* 2 cups crushed pretzels
* 3 Tbsp granulate sugar
* 3/4 cup butter

Directions:
Heat your oven to 400 degrees F.

I throw pretzels in a baggie and have fun pounding them until they are crushed enough. I don't measure them out until after I have crushed them. You'll want to throw them in a medium mixing bowl with the sugar. Then melt the butter, pour it in the mixing bowl and mix everything well. After it's well mixed spread the mixture evenly into the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. I use a big glass casserole type dish. Bake this for 7 minutes. Then take it out and let it cool.

Cool Whip layer Ingredients:
* 8 oz. of cream cheese
* 8 oz. of Cool Whip
* 1/2 cup granulated sugar

Directions:
I took the lazy route and threw this all in the Kitchenaid and walked away. I made this up while the pretzel layer was cooling then stuck the entire Kitchenaid bowl in the fridge. You'll want to make sure the pretzel layer is completely cool before spreading the Cool Whip layer across it. You'll want to also be sure when you do spread it that it's in a nice even layer.

Strawberry layer Ingredients:
* 1 1/2 cup boiling water
* 6 oz. package of strawberry gelatin
* 20 oz. of frozen strawberries

Directions:
Bring the water to a boil then mix in the gelatin. Stir until it is entirely dissolved then add in the frozen strawberries. You'll want to stir this some until the strawberries seem less frozen. A bit hard to tell, I know, but since the water was boiling it really doesn't take more than about a minute or two of stirring. Poor the mixture over the Cool Whip layer. You might have to redistribute strawberry parts so that there's some in every bite but otherwise it should settle pretty evenly across the Cool Whip layer. Then put the entire thing in the fridge to allow the gelatin to set up. I made it the night before we went somewhere and it was fine by morning. I've only ever made it the day/night before I have to take it somewhere so I have no idea how long it actually takes to set up.

We did manage to take a little bit home with us from the get together but now there isn't any left. It always goes quickly.

Dessert : Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:00:00 +0000

I can't remember what brought on my want for these but this turned out to be a pretty rich dessert. I actually like making small batches of really rich tasting food. Then it only takes a few bites to satisfy a sweet tooth craving rather than 5 cookies that you didn't realize you just ate.

I used my small quarter sheet for this and it seemed like the perfect size. I reused the Peanut Butter Cookie recipe from an earlier post and simply spread it into the pan. I cooked it for about 12 minutes and started the chocolate topping while I had the bars in the oven.

I went hunting online for a chocolate frosting recipe that I wouldn't have to buy anything for. This recipe tasted good, but again, it made the bars very rich. I'm not usually a fan of dark chocolate and this certainly tasted close to dark chocolate. I supposed I could have tried to sweeten it up a bit but I don't often mess with chocolate or candy so I wanted to stick to the recipe as close as possible. It's still a good recipe and I would certainly be willing to use it again if I wanted something with dark chocolate.

Chocolate Frosting on CDKitchen.com

Ingredients:
* 3 squares unsweetened chocolate, chopped (3 oz.)
* 3 tablespoons Cornstarch
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup boiling water
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 1 pinch salt

Directions:
I used our wok to make this but anything big enough to accommodate for stirring should work just fine. Start by chopping up the chocolate squares and placing them in your pan, then measure out the cornstarch and sugar and put them in the pan as well. In a second pan bring the water to a boil. Once it's boiling, pour it into the chocolate pan being certain to stir the mixture continually. You'll want to turn the heat to medium and stir the whole time. Then add the vanilla, butter and salt. When this starts to thicken then it will be done. Pour it over your chocolate bars while it's warm. It will mostly even itself out but you may have to help it along to be sure all portions have chocolate.

I left the pan on the counter to allow the chocolate to set up. It did firm up a bit but still stayed quite soft. After we had a few fresh bars I covered them and placed the whole thing in the fridge. I think I like them better cold, even if the chocolate does stay a bit soft.

(These were kind of hard to get a nice picture of.)

Drink : Homemade Orange Julius

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:00:00 +0000

I've been making these for a few years now. In fact, it's been a really long time since I bought one at the mall. So long that I have no idea how similar this tastes anymore. You'll definitely want a blender to make this. When we needed a new blender I made sure to buy a smoothie maker specifically so it had a pour spout at the bottom. A lot easier for dispensing of anything you make in it - soup, drinks, etc.

I also have a juicer and wanted to use up some of our giant Costco size box of oranges so they wouldn't go to waste. I certainly got a lot more juice out of these oranges than I would have if I had to squeeze them by hand. However, it's still doable, and I've also used frozen concentrate many times to make this.

Ingredients:
* 2 cups fresh orange juice (4 medium oranges through the juicer) or 10 oz. frozen concentrate
* 1 cup milk (once again, I use 1%)
* 1/3 cup granulated sugar
* 2 cups ice
* 1 banana cut up (optional)

Directions:
Prepare everything and put in your blender. Once everything is in the blender just blend until it's the desired consistency. You can also alter the sugar content if you feel it's too sweet or too tart. I tried it with 1/4 cup a while ago and it always tasted a touch too tart, but everyone's tastebuds are different. The banana is nice, but I don't always add it. It does give it a nice smooth taste.

And all I have are Guinness glasses at home unless you count plastic cups for the kids.

Dessert : Fresh Strawberries

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:00:00 +0000

We have been eating lots of strawberries lately. I buy them with all these intentions to make creative menu items and try out some new recipes but they never last that long. A quick rinse in cold water and they're perfect.

My favorite way to eat them is to cut them up in little bite size pieces, sprinkle on some sugar so the pieces create their own juice and top them with a bit of cool whip.

The last batch I had, they were so bright and summery looking that I had to snap a picture. This was right before I sprinkled some sugar on them to set in the fridge.

If we can ever stop ourselves from eating them I do have a few ideas of what to make:
• strawberry risotto
• strawberry syrup - the stuff I buy now has high fructose corn syrup in it. I try to avoid that as much as possible.
• strawberry shortcake cupcakes

And I have an upcoming post with strawberries as another dessert (or party salad).

What's your favorite way to utilize strawberries?

Breakfast : Redo - Coffee Cake Waffles with Oil

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:00:00 +0000

This was actually brought on by laziness. Waffles sounded good for breakfast and I didn't want to wait for butter to warm to room temperature. I also wasn't really in the mood to melt it. We always have olive oil on hand so I thought I would just substitute that for butter. From now on, I think I'll use olive oil because the waffles seemed to turn out better. When I made the waffles with butter they were a pretty even consistency when cooked. When I made them with oil this time they have a slight crust to them with a nice soft inside. We all liked them better this way so I will continue to go the lazy route and measure out olive oil rather than wait for butter to warm.

Once again, here's my recipe revised.

Ingredients:
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* 1 3/4 cups milk (we had 1% in the fridge so I used that)
* 1 egg
* 2 cups flour
* 1/2 cup granulated sugar
* 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 3 Tablespoons brown sugar
* cinnamon for dusting (optional)

Directions:

Mix everything together and then cook according to your waffles irons directions.

I've been away for too long.

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:31:00 +0000

I've been really busy and just haven't been able to find the time to update this lately. Then when I finally did I couldn't find my card reader. Then the batteries for my camera needed to be replaced.

A whole string of things seems to be keeping me from this blog.

I've been cooking and baking in my absence but haven't really taken many pictures. I have four posts to put together and will schedule them a bit apart so that I can have some fill while I catch up. I made up a list of ideas of things I can make and post about, now it's a matter of being able to make those things.

Look for more from me real soon!