Spooky Pumpkin Muffins

Just in case you need a really last minute treat to bring to a Halloween party....here you go!  Grab a box of your favorite muffin mix (I used pumpkin because it seemed seasonally appropriate).  Once the muffins are cooled, put some ready made cream cheese frosting into a ziploc baggie.  Snip off the corner and pipe on the ghosts.  I raided Ellie's candy to find some mini M&Ms for the eys, but chocolate chips would work just as well.

Happy Haunting!!!

Rice Meatballs

I made it last night.  It's easy, and it is one of the only meals that every single child eats.  And EATS!  This was a favorite of mine growing up (and still is) and it's not rare for Austin to match me meatball for meatball.

We always pair it with "smashed" potatoes and corn.  The recipe is a bit versatile too.  If you want to, substitute brown rice for the white rice.  Or, ground turkey instead of ground beef...whatever floats your boat.  Another reason I like this is becuase I can make it the night before or during naptime and just let it hang out in the fridge until "go time".

Rice Meatballs

1 lb ground beef
1 can tomato soup
1 can water
1 egg
1 c rice  (if you use instant rice, I find 3/4 cup is plenty)
salt, pepper, garlic salt

Mix ground beef, egg, rice, and seasoning together (use your hands...gross but effective).  In a seperate bowl mix together tomato soup and water.  Form about 1.5 inch balls out of the meat mixture and plop them into the tomato soup mixture.  Bake at 350 for one hour, stirring half way through.

The next day, cut leftover meatballs in half, lay them on a hoagie bun, layer that with a bit of cheese (provolone, white american, etc.) throw them in the toaster oven to heat them up and for a whole new meal!

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Final Installment

I have narrowed it down to two cookie recipes.  Both delicious for their own reasons. 

Cookie Recipe #1

This is the tweaked version of the original recipe.

1c butter (softened)
1 1/2 c packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 c cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 c chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugar together.  Add room temperature eggs, one at a time until well mixed.  Add vanilla.  Mix all dry ingredients in a seperate bowl.  Make sure when you measure the flour, that you spoon it into the measuring cup instead of scooping with the measuring cup.  This packs in more flour and give an inaccurate amount.  Add dry ingredients slowing to butter/sugar mixture.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Refrigerate the dough for 2+ hours.  Bake at 375 for 8 minutes.  Take the pan out, let the cookies sit on the pan for a minute or two before removing them to a cooling rack

Why I liked this cookie
It was chewy.  It also remained chewy for quite some time.  Days.  And, of course, it was very tasty.

Recipe #2 (Patrick, this is yours +vanilla)

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 c cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package (12 Oz's) semisweet chocolate chips

Cream the sugars with the butter.  Add a room temperature egg, mix well.  Add the vanilla.  Combine dry ingredients in a seperate bowl and mix well before slowly adding them to the butter/sugar mixture.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.  Let cool on pan for a few minutes before removing to cooling rack.

Why I liked this cookie
For one, it looked prettier than #1 when it was done.  It had a very crispy "outer shell" but a soft center.  Not quite as chewy as #1.  However, these didn't seem to stay soft quite a long.  As I've said before, that's not usually a problem around here.

And those are my picks for chocolate chip cookies. 

Moving on.....

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Part III

Since my last cookie post, I've had a couple people send me their recipes.  In addition, my friend, who works as a Principal Food Scientist enlisted the help of her whole building for suggestions.  In her building, is the Cargill Bake Lab.  Also, there is a guy who's title reads "Certified Master Baker".  I'm not sure what the certifcation process involves but, back in the day, he made all the formulations for Mrs. Fields.  I think I'm in good hands.  The unanimous response from her building was that I needed to use cake flour instead of all purpose flour.  It gives "shoulders" to a cookie.  Today, I finally found said flour at Walmart (both Super Target and Cub were out when I tried to get it a week ago).  His other sugestion was that I increase my flour by about 20% to increase my flour to fat ratio.  Also, I was informed my all butter cookie is destined for failure in terms of shelf life.  However, that does not concern me because none of my cookie attempts sit around this house for more than a day before we devour them. 

Other suggestions included: using a convection oven (not possible for me), using a butter/margarine combination, using karo syrup or honey in place of some of the sugar (but then increase the flour to make up for the extra liquid).

Today, I just went with the substitution of cake flour, plus I added 20% more flour than I have been previously used.  I'm also going to chilled the dough because that seemed to help a bit last time.

The results
They were okay.  I watched them in the oven and I really thought this was going to be it.  They were plumping up beautifully.  But, by the time they were done, they fell flat.  The taste is fine and the texture inside wasn't "cakey" which I was worried about.  The outsides were a bit crispier than before, and they seems to be a tiny bit hard along the edges already. 

I don't doubt that the above suggestions were accurate.  I am not about to argue with a whole building of food scientists.  But, it didn't create my perfect cookie.  I think that second cookie batch I made (original recipe but with a chilled dough) was my best tasting so far.  Perhaps I will just add a little extra flour to that recipe and see what happens.  I also have, in my hands, one more recipe that is just a bit different than others I've recieved.  After I try out those two options, I will pick my favorite and call it good.  Too many wonderful recipes out there to get hung up on one...right?

BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad

This is a quick meal.  Really quick.  Most of the ingredients we usually have on hand.  Plus, it's versatile so even if you don't have the required ingredients on hand, you can improvise.

We stole this recipe from the Cheesecake Factory.  I mean, we don't actually know their recipe, but we made ours based on theirs.  And I'm guessing our final recipe is about a 1/4 of their recipe since most of their dishes designed for a single person could easily feed 2-3 people.

Anyway, onto the recipe.  Here is what the Cheesecake Factory's looks like:

And then here's what you can more realistically expect your salad to look like:

I realize that second salad does not look appetizing at all, but, trust me, it is.  I also have no dreams of being a great food photographer, so I will never learn how to make my food look scrumptous.

Anyway - onto the recipe.

Chicken

Lettuce (spinach, romaine, iceburg, whatever you have on hand)

Can of black beans (rinsed)

Can of corn (or bag of frozen cooked first)

Cucumbers

Tomatoes

Ranch Dressing

BBQ Sauce

You can make your chicken however you prefer, or you could even just use those pre-cooked seasoned strips you can find by the deli meat.  We like our chicken just a little bit crispy on the outside though, so I heat up some olive oil, toss in a tiny bit of butter.  While that is getting nice and hot, I season (salt, pepper, garlic salt) the chicken, then I sprinkle a bit of flour on each side.  I'm not going for the "fried" chicken effect, so it's not much flour....just enough for a tiny bit of crispiness.  Cook both sides of the chicken until they are a nice golden brown.

And from here, it's really up to you and your pantry.  Tonight, we didn't have a cucumber on hand, and I wasn't feeling like tomatoes. Our spinach, which we normally use (added health benefits), was looking a little sad so I went with traditional iceburg, but would have preferred romaine.

Black beans aren't normally on my list of foods I seek out, but they really add something in this salad.

Mix the ranch dressing and BBQ sauce together in a 2:1 ratio (respectively) and enjoy!

Cupcake Bites for Halloween

Last time I made the cupcake bites, my brother, ever so politely made the comment that they looked like eyeballs.  It made me think....why not?  So I went all out with the idea.

Same cupcake bite as before.

This time with iris colored M&Ms and a few bloodshot lines.

Eyeballs.  It's what's for dinner.

Oreo Pops

I came up with this the other day.  Well, I can't say for sure that no one else has ever achieved the greatness that I call "Oreo Pops", but what I mean is that this idea is without a recipe or inspiration from someone else.  Maybe it's because I'm attracted to all the colors that Wilton Candy Melts come in.  When I saw orange at the store, I immediately thought of pumpkins and I needed something round to go with them.  Hello Oreos!

They are fairly easy.  Just stick a lollipop stick in the frosting of a double stuff oreo cookie.  Melt the candy melts according to the direction on the package.  I also add about 1-2 teaspoons of shortening to thin the melts out a bit.  I think it helps with the dipping.  Never use water to thin out candy melts.  Vegetable oil and shortening are your best options.  I stuck mine in an empty box to stand upright while they dried.

Then, I took an edible marker to draw Jack o'Lantern faces on the Oreo Pops.  I got tired of drawing faces, so I wrote words like "boo" and "eek" on a few of them.  Clever, I know.

Oreo Pops.  They're spooktacular!

Choclate Chip Cookies - Part II

Austin and I worked on the cookie recipe yesterday.  I read someplace that the reason for the cookies spreading so much could be as simple as the dough just needing to be refrigerated before hand.  While the girls were napping, Austin and I set out to test this hypothesis.  His words...not mine.  I'm raising a scientist.

We halved the batch because we don't need that many cookies lying around our house.  Austin might disagree but since he never gains a pound, and since I have no self-control, I win.  When the dough was ready, it sat in the fridge for an hour.

The results were better.  But not my perfect cookie.  Incidentally, if your perfect cookie is thin, crispy on the outside, and goey on the inside, then just ask, and boy do I have the recipe for you!  The cookies taste awesome.  But, I'm on a mission to figure out how to thicken them up.  I know the problem.  It's the butter.  It's adding a lot of moisture and causing the cookie to spread.  The other problem is that I love the taste of a buttery cookie so I will substitute with some shortening as a last resort.  Plus, the butter is also responsible for that crip outer layer I'm seeking. 

Therefore, I reject our hypothesis.  Next step...more flour to bind with the moisture.

Cupcake Bites

The Vikings play the Packers tonight.  We're suppose to be having an outdoor tailgate at our house and suppose to be watching the game on the big screen outside.  However, due to weather, I have a feeling it will be cancelled.  Nonetheless, I made these yesterday just in case.

Let me just start by saying, these are a pain in the butt.  I got the idea from Bakerella.  Basically, you take a baked cake, mash it up, combine it with a tub of frosting, roll little balls out of the mixture, and then coat them in candy melts of your choice.  I urge you to visit her site, because what I created is nothing what they are suppose to look like.
Actually:

There, that is from her site.  That is how they should look.  And, maybe you want to make me feel better and say "well, she probably makes hundreds of these and picks the best 5 for the picture".  True, she might.  But, I made at least 40 and I couldn't even find one that remotely resembled hers.

I mean, I had some really ugly ones.

However, they are delicious.  I had to hide them from Rob so he didn't eat them all, just in case the party does happen.

Either way, Skol Vikings!

Joe's Tomatoes

Last May, when we were in Vegas, our neighbor highly recommended we go to Joe's in Ceasar's Palace.  Specifically, we were to order "the tomatoes".  We asked her to specify which tomatoes and she just replied, "Just ask for the tomatoes, they'll know what you mean".  And so we did.  In my opinion, Joe's was only ok, but the tomatoes were indeed memorable.

Last night we set out to recreate them.

Ingredients

4 slices beefsteak tomatoes (1/2 inch thick)
1/2 cup creamed spinach
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons seasoned dry bread crumbs
3 slices real American cheese (not cheese food)

Directions

Preheat broiler to high.

Arrange tomato slices on a baking sheet and lightly salt them.

Combine creamed spinach with melted butter and breadcrumbs in a medium bowl.

Spread approximately 2 tbsp of creamed spinach on top of each tomato. Use up all of the spinach.

Dice American cheese slices, then pile an equal amount of cheese on top of the spinach on each tomato.

Broil the tomatoes for 2-3 minutes, or until the cheese melts and browns. Serve hot.

I ran a couple of the finished products over to our neighbors.  Maybe she was just being nice, but she declared them exactly like Joe's.  It's too bad we only just now started making them since we've had more tomatoes than we knew what to do with all summer.  As proof that they are delicious, consider this:  I don't like tomatoes.  I don't like cooked spinach either.  (I have no problem consuming large amounts of cheese).  I thought these were great!

Here's the recipe we used for the cooked spinach:

Ingredients
3 tablespoons salted butter
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3/4 cup half-and-half
1 (10 ounce) boxes frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for about 30 seconds. Whisk in flour and heat for about 1 minute. Whisk in half-n-half.

Squeeze water out of the thawed spinach and add spinach to the saucepan. Add salt, nutmeg, and black pepper. Simmer for 20 minutes on low/medium heat. Spinach will be tender when done.