Macadamia- Coconut Clusters

Mmmm coconut... Made these especially for Joelle and she loved them :) pretty easy to make too!

The Recipe:
For the clusters:
1 package sweetened flaked coconut, lightly toasted (about 2 2/3 cups)
1 jar dry-roasted, salted macadamia nuts, coarsly chopped (about 2 cups)
8 squares (8 ounces) semisweet chocolate
8 squares (8 ounces) white chocolate

For the glaze:
2 squares (2 ounces) semisweet chocolate
2 squares (2 ounces) white chocolate
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening

Special aids:
4 miniature muffin tins
miniature paper or foil candy cups
small resealable plastic bags

Making the Clusters

1. Line four miniature muffin pans with candy cups; set aside.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, combine half of the coconut and half of the macadamia nuts. In another medium-sized bowl, combine the rest of the coconut and macademia nuts.

3. In a small microwave-safe bowl, microwave white chocolate on HIGH for about 2 minutes. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth, reheating for 30 seconds, if necessary.

4. Stir the melted chocolate into one bowl of the coconut mixture, stirring to coat. Drop mixture by heaping teaspoonfuls to fill each candy cup in two pans.

5. Refrigerate until set, about 45 minutes.

6. In same microwave-safe bowl, microwave semisweet chocolate on HIGH for about 2 minutes; stir until melted and smooth.

7. Stir melted chocolate into remaining bowl of coconut mixture; stir to coat.

8. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls to fill candy cups in remaining 2 pans.

9. Refrigerate until set, about 45 minutes.

Making the Glaze

1. In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine the white chocolate and shortening. Microwave on HIGH for 2 minutes; stir until chocolate is melted and smooth. Let cool slightly; pour into a resealable bag.

2. Remove semisweet chocolate nut clusters from candy cups; transfer them to an ungreased baking sheet. Snip off one corner from the bag of white chocolate; drizzle over the semisweet clusters.

3. In same microwave-safe bowl as step 1, microwave the semisweet chocolate on HIGH for 2 minutes; stir until chocolate is melted and smooth. Combine leftover white chocolate glaze. Let cool slightly; pour into a resealable bag.

4. Remove white chocolate nut clusters from candy cups; transfer them to an ungreased baking sheet. Snip off one corner from the bag of chocolate; drizzle over the white chocolate clusters.

5. Refrigerate all the clusters until glaze sets, about 15 minutes.



My Experience:
I included the few adjustments I made from the original recipe to this version (such as using the same microwave-save bowl, and the order of which to make to reduce dishes!).

All in all, pretty simple to make. Dishes are a bit of a bugger because it is melted chocolate but as long as you don't let it sit too long, it's not that bad.

Make sure you have a lot of fridge space for the cooling periods because it does take up a lot of room. For quicker chill times, try using the freezer.

The Ratings:
Joelle's rating: 10/10 for semisweet, 12/10 for white chocolate (she says "SEIGNEUR QUE CEST BON!")
My rating: 10/10

Lemon Sugar Cookies

I like lemon, I like sugar cookies... so I figured these would be a good choice for Christmas cookies :) The recipe is from the Holiday Cheer edition of Good Housekeeping magazine.

The Recipe:
1 1/5 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour

1. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg, lemon and vanilla extracts, and salt.

2. With a mixer on low speed, beat in flour in 2 additions until blended.

3. Divide dough into thirds; shape each into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about 2 hours.

4. Preheat over to 350F.

5. Roll 1 piece of dough at a time, on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin, 10 1/4-inch thickness.

6. Cut out desired shapes with cookie cutters; re-roll scraps.

7. Place 1 1/2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

8. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden. Cool on wire racks. Decorate as you like using ornamental frosting.



My Experience:
So I've discovered I don't like rolling dough! It's an unnecessary pain. Next time I'll just do them as mostly drop cookies with a few cutouts so that they are pretty.

Other than that, they were pretty simple and straight-forward to make. And best part, they are yummy :)

This recipe makes about 6 dozen depending on the size of your cutouts.

I will soon be posting the frosting recipe that I used from the same magazine so keep an eye out for that.

The Ratings:
Joelle's rating: 9/10
My rating: 9/10 for taste, 6/10 for pain in the ass due to rolling!

Creamy Peanut Butter Cups

Homemade peanut butter cups! Not as easy as buying Reese's but the satisfaction that you made them makes enjoying them that much better!

The Recipe:
1 package semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar (icing sugar)
1/4 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened

40 miniature foil or paper candy cups
miniature muffin pans
small glass or shot glass

1. Place foil liners in miniature muffin cups.

2. In a large microwave-safe bowl, microwave chocolate on HIGH for 1 1/2 minutes. Stir until chocolate is melted and smooth.

3. Drop 1/2 teaspoon melted chocolate into each cup. Tap the pan lightly on a hard surface to distribute the chocolate evenly in the cups.

4. Place the filled muffin pans in the refrigerator or freezer; chill until the chocolate is firm, 5-10 minutes.

5. In a large bowl, combine peanut butter, confectioners' sugar and butter; mix until blended and smooth.

6. Drop 1 tablespoon of the peanut butter mixture onto top of chilled chocolate layer. Wrap a small glass or shot glass in plastic wrap and use bottom to press the peanut butter mixture evenly into the candy cups.

7. Top the peanut butter mixture in each cup with 1 tablespoon of the melted chocolate. Tap the pan on a hard surface to evenly settle the layers.

8. Refrigerate or freeze until chocolate is firm, 10-15 minutes.



My Experience:
My only tip is make sure that you don't overfill the paper cup. Make sure that there is a bit of paper passing over the chocolate line. Makes it easier to take them out of the paper shell.

The measurements of how much chocolate and peanut butter to put per cup is kind of just for an idea. You can just go by eye and do about a third of the cup height for each layer. Once you get a couple done, you catch on.

If you want, you can also use white chocolate instead of the semi-sweet! Makes it a little different :)

Another variation to the recipe: to make a quicker batch, layer mixtures in a foil-lined 8-inch square pan. Chill until firm and cut into bite-size square pieces for tasty Peanut Squares.

The Ratings:
Nannie's rating: 9/10
My rating: 9/10

Gumdrop Cookies

Thought these were a different kind of cookie. The gumdrops intrigued me so I accepted the challenge and made them during my Christmas baking spree!

The Recipe:
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped fruit-flavoured or spiced gumdrops
2 egg whites

1. In a large bowl, cream shortening and 3/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in extract.

2. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.

3. Stir in gumdrops.

4. Drop by heaping teaspoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

5. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

6. Cool for 1 minute before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely

MAKES: 3 1/2 dozen



My Experience:
Next time, I buy smaller gumdrops. Nannie and I made the foolish mistake of buying normal gumdrops and we had to cut the damn things into smaller pieces! Let me tell you something... cutting gumdrops into 4 or 5 pieces with scissors is not an easy task! Even had to enroll Papa into helping.

To be festive, I stuck with green and red gumdrops. Obviously, you can use other colours and flavours.

Overall, pretty good, pretty simple, pretty different.

Currently, they are sitting in the freezer. Here's to hoping they are still good after being frozen :)

The Ratings:
Papa's rating: 8/10 (he had to cut the gumdrops and wasn't happy about that! lol)
Nannie's rating: 8/10
Joelle's rating: 9/10
My rating: 7.5/10

Italian Sausage-Vegetable Soup

SLOW COOKER! That's right. Another slow cooker recipe.

The Recipe:
1/2 lb. bulk Italian pork sausage
1 cup sliced carrots
1 large baking potato, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cans ready-to-serve beef broth (141/2 oz. each)
1 can garbanzo beans or chick peas, drained (15 oz.)
1 can chunky tomatoes, undrained (141/2 oz.)
11/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
1 bay leaf
1 cup julienne-cut zucchini
grated Parmesan cheese

1. In large skillet, brown sausage; drain. In 31/2 to 4-quart Crockery Pot, combine cooked sausage and all remaining ingredients except zucchini and cheese; stir gently to mix.

2. Cover; cook on low setting for 7 to 9 hours.

3. Remove bay leaf.

4. Gently stir in zucchini. Cover and cook an additional 30 minutes or until zucchini is tender.

5. To serve, ladle soup into bowls and sprinkle with cheese

My Experience:
Easy. Yummy. Need I say more?

I would actually put more carrots next time since I love carrots.

Careful when serving, the chick peas sink to the bottom. Make sure to scoop them out.

Makes 7-8 servings

The Ratings:
Joelle's rating: 6/10
My rating: 7/10

Snack-ies

Now none of this is actually cooked by me. But it's just some suggestions for pre-meal time snacks that I know my family enjoys.



So in this picture we have:

1. Pumpernickel bread to go with some spinach dip (one of these days I'll try homemade spinach dip).

2. Bagel Chips and roasted garlic hummus (I also heard hummus is easy to make and cheap too! That will be coming soon).

3. Veggie platter with Heluva Good Dip (love this brand of dip! good with ripple chips or tostitos)

4. Tostitos and salsa! (once again, could make own salsa but I'm not a huge salsa person personally... others can enjoy!)

6. Deviled eggs (my FAVORITE!!!!)


So yea, some of this you could make homemade, which I plan on doing for some in the near future! So keep your eyes peeled for some new blogs.

Roasted Garlic and Feta Dip

Yummy. I saw the recipe on the side of my cracker box and realized I had all the ingredients in the fridge so I made some :)

The Recipe:
1 cup sour cream
1 cup feta cheese
2 tbsp roasted garlic
2 tbsp black olives, chopped
2 tbsp roasted red pepper, diced
1 tbsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste

1. To roast garlic, drizzle 1 tsp of olive oil over head of garlic and wrap in foil. Bake at 400F for approximately 1 hour or until soft

2. In a food processor, blend sour cream, crumbled feta and roasted garlic until smooth

3. Stir in black olives, red pepper and oregano

4. Season with salt and pepper to taste

5. Serve with Rosemary & Olive Oil Crispy Baguettes Omega-3 (yea yea... promoting)

My Experience:
Well it's a simple dip to make. Makes a little more dishes since there is a food processor involved but oh well. And I LOVE garlic so I added more than the recommended amounts (and I was lazy and used minced garlic... next time I will actually roast it. Don't judge me, I was hungry). But yea, good if you like feta and garlic which I do.

The Ratings:
My rating: 8/10

Springtime Tortilla Roll-Ups

So it's not Spring but I saw this sandwich type thing and thought it looked really yummy...


The Recipe:
For the herb spread
1 package whipped cream cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill
2 green onions, chopped
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

For the tortilla roll-ups
8 flour tortillas
8 romaine leaves
1 small zucchini, julienned
1 red pepper, halved, seeded and julienned
1 yellow pepper, halved, seeded and julienned
2 small carrots, peeled and julienned

1. In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, parsley, dill, green onions, salt and pepper. Lightly spread some cream cheese mixture over the tortillas.

2. Layer romaine leaves, zucchini, some pepper strips and carrots on top.

3. Roll the filled tortillas up tightly.

4. Wrap the roll-up tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

5. Slice the tortillas, on an angle, into 1-inch strips.

My Experience:
These are a nice little snack. If you don't like the peppers or any other kind of the vegetables, I also had these sandwiches with just julienned cucumber.

I didn't use fresh parsley and dill, I cheated and used the bottled stuff. Still works :)

You can also add or vary the fillings with: alfalfa sprouts, strips of roasted pepper, very thin slices of ham, turkey or roast beef, strips of green onions, thin strips of cheese, sprigs of parsley.

The spread on it's own with crackers like melba toast or something is pretty good too if you have left overs.

The Ratings:
My rating: 9/10

Lemon Meringue Pie

MY FAVORITE! I love me some lemon pie :) There was no way I was not making a lemon meringue pie for Thanksgiving!!!

The Recipe:
1 box of Shirriff Lemon Pie Filling
2 eggs
1/3 cup cold water
2 cups boiling water
1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup sugar

Filling

1. In a saucepan mix 2 slightly beaten egg yolks and 1/3 cup cold water with contents of one pouch.

2. Add 2 cups boiling water.

3. Cook over medium heat (not higher); stirring constantly.

4. When bubbles first break the surface, continue to boil and stir for 30 seconds.

5. Remove from heat and stir in 1 tbsp butter.



6. Cool 5 minutes, stirring twice. Pour into BAKED, cooled 9" pie shell (baking instructions are on pie shell package...)



Meringue

1. Beat 2 egg whites until soft peaks form.

2. Gradually beat in 1/4 cup sugar until stiff peaks form.

3. Top pie with meringue and bake at 350F until golden, about 12 minutes.

4. Cool before serving.



My Experience:
So tip: make sure you keep the egg white and yolk separate. If there is any yellow in the whites for the meringue... IT WONT WORK!! Make sure you use an egg separator or be really careful.

Any left over lemon filling is also good just on its own as a pudding type snack.

The Ratings:
Papa's rating: 10/10
Nannie's rating: 9/10
Dad's rating: 10/10 (also Dad's favorite)
Kathie's rating: 8/10
Bill's rating: 9/10
My rating: 10/10

Pumpkin Pie

Well I think it's about to time I start to post my thanksgiving recipes. I wanted to start with the most important thanksgiving dish in my family... the pumpkin pie. And no, it's not homemade. I basically followed the recipe on the side of the pumpkin can.

The Recipe:
2 eggs
1/2 can (28 oz/796 mL) E.D.SMITH® PURE PUMPKIN
1 cup (250 mL) packed brown sugar
1 tsp (5 mL) ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp (2 mL) ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp (1 mL) ground ginger
1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
3/4 cup (175 mL) evaporated milk
1 (9-inch/23 cm) unbaked home-made or frozen deep dish pie shell

1. Beat eggs lightly in medium bowl.

2. Add E.D.SMITH® PURE PUMPKIN, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt - stir until well combined. Blend in milk.



3. Pour filling in pie shell.





4. Bake at 425ºF (220ºC) 15 minutes.

5. Reduce oven temperature to 350ºF (180ºC) and continue baking 30-35 minutes longer or until knife inserted in centre comes out clean.

6. Cool.



My Experience:
Yummy pie. Of course we (and by we I mean my Aunt Kathie) also made homemade whipped cream by using whipping cream and sugar. Tip: put the mixing beaters and bowl in the freezer. Supposedly it whips better? Ps: check out this site for a similar recipe http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/cooking/ht/whippedcream.htm

I actually made a larger sized pie so I multiplied the recipe by 1/2 and grandma is just going to use the left over pumpkin to make muffins or something.

I just used a pre-made pie shell. Didn't have time for that much effort. Maybe I'll try another time.

And unfortunately I kind of burnt the edges of the crust :( Mom said it didn't matter because she doesn't eat the crust anyways. This happened probably because I had to cook longer than expected since the pie was larger and the filling hadn't finished cooking. So I would suggest sticking to the original recipe. Maybe that will work better...

The Ratings:
Mom's rating: 9/10
Kathie's rating: 9/10
My rating: 9/10

(the whipped cream got a unanimous 10/10!)

Apple Sauce

I went apple picking on the weekend with some friends and came home with mass amounts of apples and had to do something with them! With some of them, I made apple sauce :) IN THE SLOW COOKER! Man I love the slow cooker.

The Recipe:
4 apples - peeled, cored and chopped
3/4 cup water (or apple juice)
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. In a saucepan, combine apples, water, sugar, and cinnamon.
2. Cover, and cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, or until apples are soft.
3. Allow to cool, then mash with a fork or potato masher.

OR

1. Combine apples, water, sugar, and cinnamon in slow cooker.
2. Cook on high for 2-3 hours.

My Experience:
So I went with the slow cooker version (obviously!). But I also doubled the recipe and instead cooked it for about 4 hours. I just checked the apples after 4 hours and they seemed mushy enough to me.

I also used apple juice instead of water. I saw it in a different recipe. I don't know if it was because of the apple juice or not, but it honestly looked too liquidy when I first started mashing. BUT after allowing it to chill in the fridge overnight, it was less liquidy.

For the sugar quantity. I think it totally depends on A) your tastes and B) the kind of apples you use. If you use a sweeter apple, you don't need so much sugar. If you use a sour apple, you might want more. I, personally, like sugar so I stuck to the recipe.

Turned out really good and I would love to try it next with strawberries or something else in with the apples to give it that extra flavour :)

The Ratings:
My rating: 10/10

Homemade Pizza

I made my very first homemade pizza. Dough, sauce and all! Rather exciting stuff... some things I would do differently in the future but I will explain that later.

The Recipe:
The Dough
1 cup of warm water (105F)
3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 teaspoons of honey
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of yeast

1. Put warm water (80 to 110°F) into a bowl. Add salt and honey and mix with a spoon. Add yeast, mix and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

2. Gradually add flour and olive oil and start mixing.

3. When the mixture gets too heavy to mix, start kneading the dough with your hands.

4. Knead the dough until you have a smooth ball. If the dough cracks it is too dry. Add water bit by bit until if forms a nice coherent ball. If your dough feels more like batter, it is too wet and you need to add flour bit by bit. If you need to add water or flour, do it by small amounts.

5. Coat the dough with olive oil, place it in a large bowl and cover it with kitchen wrap or a grocery bag. Let the doug rise for about an hour at room temperature, then push it down again so it deflates. Let it sit for about another hour. If you want to use it the next day, put it in a refrigerator.



6. Put the dough on a lightly floured surface, put a bit of flour on top and make it into the shape of a pie by stretching it out from the center outwards. Use a rolling pin until the dough is about 1/4" thick. Punch some holes in the dough with a fork to let the air escape while the pizza is in the oven.



7. Put on your pizza sauce of choice (my homemade version below).

8. Put on your favorite pizza toppings.



9. Bake the pizza in you oven at 400 - 450° F for about 20 to 25 minutes until the crust is light brown.



The Sauce
1. 28 oz. of can crushed tomatoes
3 oz. of tomato paste
4 tbsps. Pecorino Romano
1 tsp Oregano
2 tbsps. minced fresh garlic
1 tbsp. black pepper
3 tsps. of sugar
2 teaspoons of dried basil

1. Whisk all together.

2. Allow flavors to blend for one hour before using.

My Experience:
First of all, next time I will make 2 small pizzas rather than one HUMONGOUS crust medium pizza. Clearly there was too much dough lol! Don't judge me lol.



I chose to make stuffed crust pizza because clearly that is the only way it should be done. Very simple. Stretch the dough out a little larger than the pan, sprinkle cheese around the edge, fold over.



Pizza toppings are really as you like. We had cheese, pepperoni, onion, green pepper, mushrooms, and bacon.

And just a side note, the pizza sauce makes more than is needed. BUT it is a really good pasta sauce to finish off the leftovers.

The Ratings:
Joelle's rating: 9/10 she said she would have given it a 10 had it not been for the 2 inch crust
My rating: 9/10 (the crust was a little much...)

Mashed Potato Trio

So I have started practicing for my big Thanksgiving dinner. And these... are my potatoes :)

Unfortunately there are no pictures this time around.

The Recipe:
For the mashed potatoes
2 pounds (about 6 cups) russet or Idaho potatoes, peeled
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup hot milk


For the cheese flavour
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese


For the herb flavour
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives or green onions
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme


For the roasted garlic flavour
9 cloves garlic, roasted


Making the potatoes
1. Cut potatoes into uniform pieces. Place potatoes in a large pot; add enough water to cover.

2. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer over medium-high heat until just tender when pierced with a fork, about 10 minutes. Drain potatoes and return to pot.

3. Add butter, salt and pepper to pot. Mash potato mixture with potato masher. (Add more salt as desired)

4. Add milk, a little at a time, while mashing potatoes. Continue adding milk as necessary and mash until the potatoes are smooth.


Making the flavour mixtures

1. For the cheese flavour, in a small bowl, combine Parmesan and Cheddar cheeses.

2. For the herb flavour, in another bowl, mix parsley, chives and thyme.

3. For the roasted garlic flavour, in a third bowl, mash the roasted garlic clove.


Flavouring the potatoes

1. Divide mashed potatoes into three portions and season each with a different flavour; mix well.

2. Transfer into a serving bowl and serve immediately.

My Experience:
Awesome. Great potatoes. Cannot wait to make these Thanksgiving Day. Best way to spice up plain old mashed potatoes ever. I actually think my sister, for once in her life, will enjoy eating potatoes (not in the form of french fries).

Honestly, they are best served warm so if you aren't ready to serve them ASAP, throw them in the oven (as long as they are in oven safe bowls) at a low temperature.

Also good microwaved the next day (not as good though...)

The Ratings:
Joelle's rating: 10/10
My rating: 10/10

Strawberry Cheesecake

Jon came for a visit from Montreal and requested cheesecake. So of course I had to attempt this new desert (which also makes Mom very happy because she LOVES cheesecake and expects me to make some for her in the near future). Thanks Jon for helping out :) So here it is!

The Recipe:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoon butter, melted
3 tablespoon sugar
2 pkg. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 cup sour cream
3 eggs
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 package (10 oz.) frozen strawberries, thawed

1. Preheat oven to 325°F

2. Mix cracker crumbs, butter and sugar. Press firmly into bottom of pan.

3. Bake 10 minutes, remove from oven and set aside.



4. Raise oven temperature to 350°F.

5. Beat 1/2 cup sugar, cream cheese, lemon juice and lemon peel with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended.

6. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each egg is added just until blended. Pour into crust.



7. Bake 50 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool.

8. Drain strawberries, reserving liquid. In a medium saucepan add enough water to reserved liquid to measure 1/2 cup then mix in cornstarch, blending well.

9. Bring to boil on medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute. Cool, then stir in the strawberries and spread evenly over cooled cheesecake. Refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.



My Experience:
First of all... the fact that the frozen strawberries are thawed is key. I didn't take them out of the freezer quite early enough and it took FOREVER to get the liquid from them. SO THAW THEM!

I unfortunately kind of burnt the bottom crust. Oops. Our oven is hotter than I thought it was. So it didn't turn out quite as good as it could have been.

Also, when the cheesecake is done cooking, there is like a crust on the top that you don't usually see on a cheesecake. I think this is totally normal and that for presentation reasons you cut off the top bit (my opinion though!). Then it will look a little prettier.

Finally, the recipe didn't have a pan size so I improvised and planned for the worse. After making it, you could probably use a 4 by 4 pan.

The Ratings:
Lydie's rating: 8.5/10
My rating: 7.5/10 (would have preferred the bottom not being burnt)

Golden Chicken with Noodles

I love slow cookers. They are my new favorite thing! So be prepared for more amazing slow cooker dishes like this one! The original recipe serves 8 so I only made half of everything. So here is the 4 servings recipe.

The Recipe:
1 can Campbell's Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup (Regular or 98% Fat Free)
1/4 cup water
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
3/4 teaspoons garlic powder
4 large carrots, thickly sliced (about 3 cups)
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 of a 12-ounce package egg noodles (about 4 cups), cooked and drained
chopped fresh parsley

1. Stir the soup, water, lemon juice, mustard, garlic powder and carrots in a 3 1/2-quart slow cooker. Add the chicken and turn to coat.

2. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours or until the chicken is cooked through. (On HIGH for 3-4 hours)



3. Serve with the noodles. Sprinkle with parsley.



My Experience:
To be honest, Joelle sort of put this one together. Had I put it on before work, it would have been overcooked considering I am gone for over 9 hours. Really simple to throw everything together and I love egg noodles so it was a pretty great meal!

The Ratings:
Forgot to ask Joelle and Jon for rating so you just get mine
My rating: 8/10

Pan Sautéed Chicken with Vegetables & Herbs

So it has been a while. I actually made this dish a couple weeks ago but I've been a little lazy. So here it is! Joelle had a friend over (Lydie) and so I made a nice meal for the 3 of us to go along with our drinks! (sex on the beach of course!). Since Lydie was over, I kind of forgot to take pictures along the way... oops. Here is what I got though!

The Recipe:
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 bone-in chicken breast halves
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 small red onions, cut into quarters
1 pound new potatoes, cut into quarters
8 ounces fresh whole baby carrots (about 16), green tops trimmed to 1 inch (I was lazy and just used normal baby carrots... so they work too)
1 1/2 cups Campbell's Chicken Broth
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves

1. Heat the oven to 350F.

2. Stir black pepper, paprika and flour on a plate. Coat the chicken with the flour mixture.

3. Heat the oil in a 12-inch oven-safe skillet over medium high heat. (I don't have one of these so I just used a frying pan and then later transfered to a ceramic pot thing you will see in the pictures)

4. Add the chicken and cook until it's well browned on all sides. Remove the chicken from the skillet.

5. Add the onions and potatoes to the skillet and cook for 5 minutes. Add the carrots, broth, lemon juice and oregano and heat to a boil. Return the chicken to the skillet. Cover the skillet.



6. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes. Uncover the skillet and bake for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender. Sprinkle with the thyme.



My Experience:
Turned out amazingly well. I made a few adjustments to the original recipe such as using Campbell's Chicken Broth instead of the original Swanson Chicken Stock which is more of an American thing. I also used normal baby carrots and a Spanish onion for the vegetables. All went well though.

The total prep time is about 20 minutes and cook time is around 1 hour. So be prepared for that amount of time which is quite longer than my past posts.

If you have the proper oven-safe skillet, this meal doesn't use too many dishes because you are making your vegetables and potatoes right in the same pan! I had to use two though.

Leftovers were also excellent! FYI if you are going to save some for leftovers... make sure that you add some of the juice to your container so that when you microwave it the next day or whatever it wont dry up the chicken. I also found that you taste more of the lemon juice the second time around.

The Ratings:
Lydie's rating: 8.5/10 (pretty good for a first timer)
Joelle's rating: 9.1/10
My rating: 8.5/10

Triple Chocolate Pudding Cake with Raspberry Sauce

Sooo I made a chocolate cake... with one of the weirdest cake ingredients ever. V8 vegetable juice. I obviously thought this was very odd but, surprisingly, the cake turned out really great! So don't judge a cake by it's ingredients lol.

The Recipe:
Vegetable cooking spray
1 package (about 18 ounces) chocolate cake mix
1 package (about 3.9 ounces) chocolate instant pudding and pie filling mix
2 cups sour cream
4 eggs
1 cup V8 100% vegetable juice
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate pieces
Raspberry dessert topping
Whipped cream

1. Spray the inside of a 4-quart slow cooker with the cooking spray

2. Beat the cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, eggs, vegetable juice and oil in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in the chocolate pieces. Pour the batter into the cooker.





3. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 7 hours or until a knife inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs.



4. Serve with the raspberry topping and whipped cream.



My Experience:
I don't know if I was looking in the wrong place... but I couldn't find raspberry desert topping. The alternative I chose was homemade strawberry jam between 2 slices of the cake (I sliced it like bread) and used Strawberry Sundae sauce on the very top. Since I was going with the strawberry theme, I put a strawberry on top of the whipped cream.

As for the cake mix and pudding mix... just use your favorites whether it be chocolate, devil's food, dark chocolate or chocolate fudge. Personally, next time I make this cake I will probably use vanilla pudding because yes, it is very chocolatey.

For me, it took seven hours to cook. After I decided it was ready, I just flipped the slow cooker pot over onto a cutting board.

Excellent cake. I will without a doubt make it again!

The Ratings:
Joelle's rating: 10/10
Lydie's rating: 10/10
My rating: 10/10

Chicken Stir Fry

Mmmmm stir fry. Enough said. Just wanted to cook myself a quick dins tonight and I chose yummy stir fry.

The Recipe:
boneless skinless chicken breast
veggies (tonight I chose bean sprouts, green pepper, onion, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli and snow peas)
olive oil
soya sauce

1. Cook chicken in a frying pan with some olive oil


2. Cut up veggies


3. Add veggies (I added the mushrooms and onion first because I prefer them to be more cooked) and simmer on medium-low heat

4. Add soya sauce to taste (I love me some soya sauce so I add lots lol)

5. Serve :)


My Experience:
Easy. One pan, minimal mess. You can add a bunch of different veggies like red/orange/yellow peppers or you can use beef or pork instead of chicken. Add what you like! You can even use other sauces like szechuan, honey garlic, whatever! Like I mentioned in the recipe, I cook the mushrooms and onion a little longer so basically cook to taste!

The Ratings:
My rating: 9.5/10

Macaroni Salad

While at the cottage, we needed to make a quick and easy side dish to go with our burgers and corn on the cob. My choice, grandma's macaroni salad!

The Recipe:
Noodles (you can use spirals, penne, basically anything)
Vegetables (once again, basically anything)
Italian salad dressing (personally, I use the calorie wise)

1. Cook the noodles, strain and chill


2. Cut up the vegetables


3. Mix noodles and vegetables with salad dressing to taste


4. Enjoy

My Experience:
Easiest side dish to put together ever. Even great as a quick meal. Also, very good for leftovers.

For the vegetables, it can really be anything. I often will just use what I have in the fridge. This time I used carrots, broccoli, and cucumber. It is also good with radishes, celery, peppers (green, yellow, orange, red... whatever you like) and cherry tomatoes. Honestly any vegetables you like will work fine!

As a tip, try not to mix too much at once and just mix what is needed (the vegetables get soggy if you leave in for too long like for a couple days). I will often cook too much pasta on purpose and leave the extra in the fridge cold and mix small amounts when I want some. If, however, you do mix extra, the next time you have some you will probably have to add more salad dressing because it will soak into the noodles and be slightly dry.

The Ratings:
Alannah's mom Mary: 9/10 (3 meals and took the leftovers home)
Alannah's sister Ginny: 9/10 (she's a picky eater and she ate it for 3 meals!)
My rating: 9/10 (really love this dish)

Cheesy Broccoli Potatoes

Yumm! I decided to make this as a side dish to go with chicken fajitas (see previous post). WAAAAY too easy to make and is microwaved in only 4 minutes! I mean, common. Look at that ingredient list and you'll realize how easy this is

The Recipe:
potato
broccoli
cheese sauce

1. Clean potato

2. Make a slice (I kind of just cut out a apple slice style of a chunk)

3. I place the potato in a microwavable bowl (so that I didn't loose broccoli or cheese)

4. Top with pieces of broccoli

5. (this is where it depends on your cheese sauce) You can either make the cheese sauce on the stove top like I did or you can totally just put cheese straight on the potato

6. Microwave potato for 4 minutes on high (if stove top cheese sauce, put cheese sauce AFTER you cook the potato and broccoli)

7. Serve and enjoy


My Experience:
So like I mentioned in the recipe part, I just made a stove top cheese sauce (like that powder crap you add water to). The actually recipe in the Campbell's Cookbook says to use cream of cheese soup? But I totally couldn't find it in the grocery store so improvised.

This side dish is super easy. Just popped it in the microwave while I was preparing the main course. Will totally be making these potatoes again but next time I will try to make the cheese sauce with real cheese melted with milk. We'll see how that turns out!

The Ratings:
Joelle's rating: 8.7/10 (yea I know, she's random)
My rating: 8.5/10

Chicken Fajitas

Joelle and I finally had our first meal together in our new apartment. For the occasion I made chicken fajitas and cheese & broccoli potatoes (see next post for potatoes). We (by we, I mean Joelle) even lit candles for "ambiance". Lol.

These are super easy to make but I didn't make them like I usually do due to lack of ingredients... just lettuce really but oh well.

The Recipe:
skinless boneless chicken breast (I usually do half a breast per person but it depends on level of hunger and appetite)
onion
salsa
sour cream
cheese
lettuce
fajitas tortillas

1. Cut chicken into strips or small chunks and cook in a frying pan with a bit of olive oil


2. (while chicken is cooking...) Finely chop onions (and if you're like Joelle, you might definitely cry)

3. Chop lettuce (I usually try to make it look like McDonald's lettuce because that's how I like it but it really doesn't matter)

4. Once chicken is cooked, add onions and salsa. Turn down heat and allow to simmer

5. (while chicken mixture is simmering) Grate cheese

6. Warm up tortillas by placing over chicken mixture for about a minute and a half

7. Place tortillas on plate, add chicken mixture (in a straight line down the middle and put as much as you like)


8. Top fajitas as you like with cheese, sour cream, lettuce and more salsa


9. Roll and enjoy


My Experiences:
I make fajitas quite often actually. You make them really to your own taste. You can add green peppers, for example, to the chicken mixture (I, however, do not particularly like green peppers). You'll figure out what you like and don't like by trying it. Sometime in the near future I'll make a different kind of fajitas that I really enjoy and you can try those too (because of course I'll be blogging about it)!

Other than that they are fairly fool proof as long as you don't over cook the chicken or add things (or too much of others) that you don't like. I always suggest to have the eaters top their own fajitas (for example, Joelle doesn't like sour cream but I love it). Then that way everyone is happy :)

The Ratings:
Joelle's rating: 9/10
My rating: 7/10 (I know I prefer it with lettuce and have made better... next time though!)

Beef Taco Skillet

Alannah is finally home from India. Her request for dinner: meat and cheese (but absolutely no rice). My choice: the beef taco skillet

The Recipe:

1 pound ground beef
1 can Campbell's condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 cup water
6 flour tortillas (6-inch), cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Cook the beef in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until it's well browned, stirring often to separate meat. Pour off any fat.


2. Stir the soup, salsa, water, and tortillas in the skillet and heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cook for 5 minutes. Stir the beef mixture. Top with cheese.



Makes 4 servings
Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 20 minutes

from Campbell's Recipe Collection

My Experiences:
So we had no can opener. Oops. So instead of the soup and water, I used tomato juice. Did the job. VERY easy to make (Hamburger Helper easy).

Alannah and I enjoyed our meal :)

The Ratings:
Alannah's rating: 8.5/10
My rating: 8/10