Category Archives: Recipes

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

by Sarah

I’m late.  Originally I was going to post these cookies for Christmas and then Valentine’s Day.  Now, it’s almost March and I’m finally getting around to sharing these with you.

These are some of my favorite cookies.  They have all the good stuff: chocolate chips, toffee pieces and dried cranberries.  One of my friends lovingly refers to these as trail mix cookies because they have so many add-ins.

For these cookies, you’ll need

  • 1 cup of butter
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
  • 2 and 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 and 1/2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 and 1/2 cups of cranberries
  • 3/4 cup of toffee bits

In a stand mixer, cream the room temperature butter and sugar using the flat beater attachment.   Add the eggs and vanilla.

Separately mix the flour, baking powder and salt.  Then gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture.

Stir in the chocolate chips, cranberries and toffee bits.  Drop tablespoonfuls of the batter onto a cookie sheet that has been lightly sprayed with a nonstick cooking spray.  Bake at 350° for approximately 12 minutes.   When the edges turn brown, these cookies are done.

I’ve always toyed with the idea of adding chopped pecans, but never have.  I don’t know the nuts would make the cookie too busy.  If you get a chance to make these, let me know how they turn out!

Mushroom Beef Stew

by Sarah

It’s been a bit chilly here and what a better way to warm up than with a stew.  Cary was particularly enamored with a stew that could be served over potatoes.  A quick internet search led us to Pioneer Woman’s Beef Stew with Mushrooms.

First off, while I love Pioneer Woman’s recipes, sometimes they are a little time intensive.   With a few short cuts, I was quite pleased that this one didn’t take that much time.  I could easily make this on a work night.

Instead of using fresh onion and garlic, I used dried onion and ready to use garlic.  Don’t judge…  it cuts down an amazing amount of time.

Here’s what you need:

  • 2 pounds Beef Stew Meat
  •  Flour
  • 1/2 a Stick of Butter
  • 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
  • 1 Tablespoon of Minced Garlic
  • 1 Tablespoon of Dried Onion
  • 16 Ounces of Baby Portabello Mushrooms or Button Mushrooms (I used both)
  • 1/2 cup Red Wine
  • 1 can Beef Consomme
  • Salt And Pepper, to taste
  • Mashed Potatoes

Coat the meat with a few tablespoons of flour.  Melt and butter with the olive oil and brown the meat in batches.  Set the meat aside.

Without cleaning the pot, add the garlic, onion flakes, consomme and mushrooms.  Let simmer for about 5 minutes.

Add the meat and red wine.  Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Serve over mashed potatoes or egg noodles.  Delicious!

Puffy Muffin Quiche

by Sarah

Cary and I recently went to the Puffy Muffin for lunch.  One of the nice things about the Muffin, as I like to call it, is that they have all sort of pre-made delights that you can take home.  Cary mentioned we could get a quiche and have it for breakfast throughout the weekend.  I thought this was a lovely idea and went to the counter to see what kinds of quiche they had and the price (YIKES).  After picking myself up off the floor and Cary mentioned he felt a great disturbance in the force later on, I realized I had the Puffy Muffin Cookbook and off I went.

 

This cookbook is filled with delicious, easy Southern recipes.  I LOVE it. (On a related note, I wished it had the Mocha Crinkle Cookie Recipe….)

The quiche recipe is surprising simple.   Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.   Combine the following ingredients and mix with a wire whisk.

  • 5 eggs
  • 1/2 cup of half and half
  • 1 1/2 cups of cream
  • 1 tablespoon of flour mixed with 1/4 cup of water

Sprinkle one cup of any kind of shredded cheese (we used a mixture of different kinds of cheddars) in the bottom of a deep dish uncooked pie shell.  Next layer any herbs you feel like and 1 cup of add-ins (broccoli, ham, bacon, sausage, asparagus, onions, spinach, mushrooms, peppers, etc).   We used a little pepper and 1 cup of ham.   In the future I’m going to add a little cayenne pepper.

 

Pour the egg and cream mixture into the pie crust.   Even though we had a deep dish pie crust, we had a little bit of the mixture left over.  Bake for 1 hour or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

 

Quiche is normally served warm, so you need to let it sit for about 20 – 25 minutes before serving.  I opted to cook it the night before serving and re-warm the next morning.

Easy Shrimp Creole

by Sarah


I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving.   Personally, I’m stuffed from all the turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce.  While those are delicious, as Christmas approaches, I find that I get a little tired of the normal fare.  As Cary and I begin our own traditions with our growing family, we decided that on Christmas we would serve themed foods, kinda like Christmas around the world.   This year, we are going to have a Creole Christmas.

We plan on serving shrimp creole as the main dish, with crusty garlic bread as a side and bread pudding for dessert.

A quick search brought us to this recipe.  We tweaked it quite a bit.  First, we hate dicing the onions, celery and garlic (ie trinity).  We perused the produce section at Publix and found they already had a pre-diced trinity mixture.  We used 3 of those for this recipe.   Here are all the ingredients we used:

  • 3 to 4 lbs medium-size fresh shrimp, peeled, deveined
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 3 containers of trinity mixture from Publix  ( or 1 1/2 cups chopped onion, 1 cup chopped celery, 2 cloves garlic, minced)
  • 1 green pepper, diced
  • 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
  • 1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
  • 1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper, ground
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
  • dash hot pepper sauce

In a large pot, combine the oil and flour.  Cook over medium heat, stirring (DO NOT WALK AWAY), for about 15 to 20 minutes.  The mixture should be a light brown color. 

Add the trinity and the green pepper.  Cook, stirring frequently,  until the vegetables are tender. Add all the other ingredients and bring to a boil; cover and reduce the heat. Simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add shrimp and simmer for about 10 minutes more, or until the shrimp turn pink. Remove the bay leaves. Serve over rice.

While the color comes out an interesting orange, it tastes delicious.   As far as our Christmas goes, does anyone else have any suggestions for Creole dishes?

Easy Pumpkin Bread

by Sarah

Fall is my favorite time of the year.  I love the changing colors and Cary loves football.  Every fall I try a pumpkin recipe.  Last year it was pumpkin bars.  The year before that it was pumpkin whoopie pies.  This year I felt like making something to take to The Bug’s teachers at his daycare and decided upon pumpkin bread.

I was goofing off on pinterest…  (I’m seriously addicted.  Help me.) …  and found this delicious looking recipe.  I’ve made pumpkin bread before, but let me tell you, this was WAY, WAY better than anything I have ever made.  It’s also pretty easy too, which is always a plus in our house.

Here are the ingredients:

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp ground cloves
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 3 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 cup butter, melted in the microwave
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon of vanilla
  • 1 16 oz can of pure pumpkin

Preheat the oven to 350°F and spray either 2 medium loaf pans or 4 small loaf pans.

Mix the flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a smallish bowl. 

In a stand mixer, cream the sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla on medium speed for about 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the pumpkin and mix until well blended (about another minute or so).

In a few small batches, gently add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture.

Pour the batter into the pans and cook for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!  :)

Peanut Butter Pie

by Sarah

One of my favorite food blogs to read is Ezra Pound Cake (not to be confused with one of my favorite bands Better Than Ezra).  Her recipes are easy to follow, pictures are gorgeous, and food tastes delicious.  Around Father’s Day, she came out with a list of 15 Father’s Day recipes.  Since it was Cary’s first Father’s Day, I told him I would make him any recipe off that list.  Being the discerning person he is, he chose Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie.

Knowing we might have a newborn, I decided to make a few shortcuts.  Particularly, instead of making the black bottom cookie crust, I bought a pre-made Oreo crust at the store.

I made the ganache layer first, boiling 3/4 cup of heavy cream on the stove top.  I added the hot cream to 1 cup of chocolate chips and stirred vigorously.  After reserving about 3 tablespoons, I poured the ganache layer in the bottom of the pie crust.  To firm the ganache layer, the pie went in the refrigerator for about an hour.

Two cups of heavy whipping cream and 1 tablespoon of vanilla was whipped to the soft peak stage in a stand mixer.  Half of the whipped cream was reserved for the topping and the other half of the whipped cream was placed in a bowl to be mixed with the peanut butter layer.

To make the peanut butter layer, 3/4 of a cup of peanut butter and 8 oz of reduced fat cream cheese was creamed in a stand mixer (same bowl as the whipped cream…  no need to clean it out, which is awesome).  A little less than a can of sweetened condensed milk (3/4 of a cup) and 1 tablespoon of vanilla was added to the peanut butter mixture and stirred until homogenous.  Fold in half of the reserved whipped cream and spread over the ganache layer.  Refrigerate the pie for at least an hour.

At this point, our pie was pretty full.  I decided to try to slice a piece of pie and top with whipped cream and chocolate ganache.   Unfortunately, it didn’t slice well…  I don’t know if it was because of the crust or the fact that I used 2 oz of extra cream cheese or reduced fat cream cheese.  There was just something off about the consistency.  According to Cary it tasted great though!

Lentil Salad with Greek Vinaigrette Dressing

by Sarah

One of my grandfather’s specialties is lentil salad.  This is a great side dish or main course, depending on your love for it.  Unfortunately, he hasn’t made it in quite a while because Bulgar wheat has become hard to find in his small town.  When I was checking out the new Whole Foods at Cool Springs, I was very excited to find the wheat and knew immediately what I wanted to cook!

Here is his recipe:

Lentil Salad

  • ¾ cup Bulgar wheat, boiled in 1 ½  cup water for 30 minutes
  • ¾ cup lentils, boiled in 2 cups water for 20 minutes
  • 2 medium tomatoes, diced
  • 1 small cucumber, diced
  • ¼ cup red onion, chopped
  • 20 – 22 black Kalamata olives, pitted
  • Feta Cheese to taste

We found cracked Bulgar wheat, which lead to a different cooking time.  We boiled the Bulgar wheat for about 10 minutes when all the water was absorbed.  We decided to let it sit for about 20 minutes.  We boiled the lentils for 20 minutes, where they also absorbed most of the water.  We added the lentils to the wheat in a large bowl and waited a few minutes for the mixture to cool.

Once cooled, add tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, and olives to the mixture.

At this point, make the Greek Vinaigrette Dressing.

Greek Vinaigrette Dressing

  • ½ cup olive oil
  • ¼ cup water
  • 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • ½ teaspoon oregano

Combine all the ingredients in a jar and shake well.

Pour the Greek vinaigrette dressing over salad mixture and toss.  Refrigerate until cold and serve with crumbled Feta cheese sprinkled over the top.

Mocha Crinkle Cookies

by Sarah

Our favorite cookie from the Puffy Muffin is the Mocha Crinkle Cookie.  Last Christmas, Cary bought me the Puffy Muffin cookbook, which has many lovely recipes.  Unfortunately, the Mocha Crinkle Cookie recipe was not included.  We searched on the internet for different recipes, finding two types.  One recipe called for black pepper, which was interesting.  I’m fairly sensitive to black pepper, so I was pretty sure it was not in Puffy Muffin’s cookies.  The other recipe from Betty Crocker seemed more appropriate, but was lacking the mocha portion.  So, I adapted the recipe just a tad to try to create the cookies we love.

The ingredients I used are as follows:

  • 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
  • 4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, melted according to directions
  • 2 cups of granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons of vanilla
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 2 heaping Tbsp of instant espresso powder
  • 1 cup of powdered sugar

Using a stand mixer (or large bowl and hand mixer), combine the oil, melted chocolate, sugar and vanilla.  Mix in the eggs one at a time.  Carefully, add the flour.  I got a little over zealous and subsequently spent quite a bit of time cleaning flour from my counter tops.  Stir in the baking powder, salt and espresso powder.  Chill the dough for at least two hours.

Preheat the oven to 350°C.  Even after chilling the dough, it is going to be pretty sticky.  Drop a spoon full into the powdered sugar and roll into a ball.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake for about 11 minutes.

These cookies turned out a little lighter in color than Puffy Muffin’s and the espresso flavor was a little strong.   While these were delicious, next time I think I’ll try dark chocolate and less espresso.

Take One: Swiss Chard

by Sarah

Here’s our confession:  we’ve never had Swiss chard.  We were delighted to find it in our weekly CSA.  Since we had no background in this particular vegetable, a quick search led us to this recipe.  We had everything on hand so we made it as a side dish to omelets. We did modify the recipe to taste just a bit.

Here are the lovely ingredients:

  • 1 Tbsp of butter
  • 2 Tbsp of olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp of minced garlic
  • 2 Tbsp of diced onions
  • 4 cups of Swiss chard
  • 1 cup white wine
  • 2 Tbsp of lemon juice
  • Parmesan cheese and salt to taste

Separate the center stems and the leaves and chop.  Saute the butter, olive oil, garlic and onions until the onions and garlic are soft.  Add a dash of the white wine and the stems.  Saute for about 5 minutes until the stems soften.  Add the leaves and cook until wilted.  Add the lemon juice, Parmesan cheese and salt.  Enjoy!

Easy Bread Pudding

by Sarah

Treme started this last Sunday.   Whenever we watch that show, both Cary and I miss New Orleans.  Unfortunately, there will be no trip in our recent future, so instead, I made bread pudding.  Bread pudding is one recipe that has failed me several times (see also: caramels… they make me curse).    I wanted an easy recipe that was pretty much fool proof.

The recipe that jumped out to me was one by Paula Deen.  I was a little surprised, as Paula Deen’s recipes generally aren’t my favorite.  I feel like everything she makes has a cup of mayo, a cup of sour cream or a stick of butter.  It’s not hard to make something taste good with any one of those ingredients.  Surprisingly, this recipe called for less butter than many of the others I reviewed.  The original recipe is here.  I adjusted it a bit.

The ingredients are as follows:

  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 5 large beaten eggs
  • 2 cups milk
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • 5 cups cubed Italian, allow to stale overnight in a bowl
  • 1 small box of raisins
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup chopped pecans

Spray a 9×13 pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Mix the sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla in a large bowl.  Add the cubed bread and raisins.  Let sit for 10 – 15 minutes.  In another bowl, mix the brown sugar, butter, and pecans.

Pour bread mixture into prepared pan. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over the top and bake for 35 to 45 minutes.

We also made a lovely whiskey sauce (according to Cary) by Pioneer Woman to top off the bread pudding.  Personally, I thought the bread pudding was fantastic without any sauce, but I’m also avoiding booze currently.