Pecan Pie Cookies

Pecan Pie Cookies

Cookie:
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
3/4 cup softened butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder

Filling:
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350.  Combine first 4 cookie ingredients in large bowl.  Beat until creamy.  Add flour and baking powder and beat until well mixed.

Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls.  Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  Make indentations in each with thumb, rotating your thumb to hollow out the indentation slightly.  Or make it easy on yourself and just pick up the ball and create a hollow in it (it doesn't have to be so complicated!)

Combine filling ingredients in small bowl.  Fill each cookie with 1 rounded teaspoon of filling.  Bake for 8-12 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool for at least one minute before removing.

I ended up using 1/2 cup of whipping cream as I messed up so they were a bit flat and ran a bit but they were still tasty.  Super easy and tasty and it's like mini pecan pies with no karo syrup.  HELLO!

Tummy...prepare to be happy!

Roast Turkey

Juicy Roast Turkey

Step 1: Plan ahead.  Recipe starts with a thawed turkey!
Step 2: Ready your fridge!  You'll need to put the turkey in a 5 gallon pail and then in the fridge overnight so you may just want to plan ahead by finding the pail, cleaning as necessary, and removing shelves and such from the fridge.  I don't recommend putting the turkey outside in the cold overnight - but hey, that's your call; maybe you want to encourage coons and cats to hang out and provide the cold wildlife with a free meal.  But, that might just put you behind in your turkey preparation...I'm just saying....
Step 3: Get going on making ice.  You'll need quite a bit.  Or cheat and go buy some. Lazy.

14-16 pound turkey

Brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 gallon veggie stock (modify as necessary)
1 Tbsp black peppercorns
1 1/2 tsp allspice berries
1 1/2 tsp ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water

Aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
rosemary
sage

Other important items:
canola oil
emptied fridge
5 gallon bucket

Combine vegetable stock (I used 4of those concentrated chicken stock tubs and added water to make around a gallon of stock), brown sugar, salt, berries, pepper, and ginger in stockpot and heat until it boils and your sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat. Cool. Put in fridge if you aren't ready to proceed yet.  I did not have a big enough stockpot so I simply did this step two times until it was all done.  I put this in the bucket let it cool slightly and moved on.  The recipe assumes you are doing this part a day or two ahead - I did it the day before.  Your choice.

Day or night before you want to eat - combine the above brine mix with your heavily iced water.  Place your thawed turkey in this bucket. Of course you have removed the innards cuz that would be silly not to.  It says to put the turkey in breast side down and weigh it down if necessary.  Since my bucket sits vertically (horizontal 5 gallon buckets??? Where do you people shop?) I simply put the bird in so it's legs were sticking out of the brine.  Make sure it's fully immersed (if not, ha ha).  Refrigerate overnight.  Technically the recipe also says it should be covered and you should turn it once half way through.  I say just leave forget it cuz it's fully immersed - why would you need to turn it? and let it sit overnight in the cleaned out fridge.

The following day....
Preheat oven to 500.  Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water.  Discard the brine.  Place bird on your roasting rack in a half sheet pan. Pat dry with towels.

Combine apple, onion, cinnamon, and 1 cup water in microwave safe bowl and micro for 5 full minutes.  Add the rosemary and sage and place into turkey cavity.  Tuck wings underneath (no idea) and coat skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast on lowest oven level at 500 for 30 minutes.  Insert probe thermometer into thickest part of breast and reduce heat to 350.  Assuming you have an oven safe probe leave it in and set alarm for 161 degrees.  Should you not have a fancy dancy thermometer - best not to leave it in the oven as it will simply melt (not that I have any experience with this). 14-16 pound bird should take about 2 - 2.5 hours.  20 minutes per pound rule assumes you are roasting at a lower heat thus needing a longer amount of time, I'd guess. Watch that thermometer...or quickly call someone to bring you one should you have melted yours.  Once pulled from oven, let it rest loosely covering it with foil for 15 minutes.

Carve. Enjoy!  Juicyness worth the effort.  Plus it's kinda fun and you feel like a famous chef!

Mushroom & Spinach Korma

Mushroom & Spinach Korma

As the recipe states first, then my details later (oooh I have details!)
1 1/4 cup basmati rice
1 medium red onion (1/2 chopped; 1/2 thinly sliced)
1 2-inch piece ginger, peeled and chopped
1 plum tomato, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp ground coriander
kosher salt
2 Tbsp veggie oil
1 pound mixed mushrooms, sliced
8 oz baby spinach (about 8 cups)
1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup light coconut milk

1. Cook rice. Combine onion, ginger, tomato, cumin, coriander, and 1/4 cup water in blender and puree until smooth.
2. Heat 1 Tbsp veggie oil in wide saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add onion until golden. Add mushrooms and cook stirring occasionally about 3 more minutes.  Transfer to a plate
3. Heat remaining oil in same pan. Add tomato mixture and cook, stirring, until very thick (6 minutes).  Return mushroom mix to pan.  Add 1 1/2 cups water, bring to simmer and cook until mushrooms are soft (about 4 minutes).  Stir in spinach and chickpeas and cook 2 more minutes.  Stir in coconut milk. Serve with rice.

Oooh there are soooo many problems with this recipe!  I always have good intentions to follow the recipe but sometimes early on I realize this is never going to work!  Part of that, yes, may be rooted in my refusal to go shopping after deciding what to make.  I tend to do with what I have, therefore the first 5 ingredients were replaced!  In fact I don't even know what coriander even is!  Not to be deterred, I carry on.

My recipe would say: 

Get your rice cooking.  I used a rice cooker with brown rice made with half chicken broth and half water.  It's rice: make it how you want.

While rice is cooking cut an onion (I only had white so that's what I used and noone complained - oh wait that's because I'm the only one who ate it! :).  Brown onion in olive oil.  Dice up a nice tomato, or an unnice one, that you got from your little tomato garden or stolen from your neighbors little tomato garden.  Hold off on those mushrooms, I don't care if you mix them or not.  Brown the onion.  Move on.

We're at the add tomato mix and cook until it gets really thick...ummmm, what exactly is in that ingredient list that will make a mix thick???  How exactly?  No matter, we'll deal with that later.  At the point I add various spices most of which I have no idea how they will flavor my dish =)  Alittle ground ginger, a bit of chili powder, and some garlic basil herb mix my father supplied.  Please note that this is not thickening. Shocker.  Carry on.  Add your sliced mushrooms.  Simmer a minute or two.  Add spinach and chick peas.  Did you know that rinsing your canned veggies is a good way to make them lower in sodium - don't pay the extra cash for low sodium canned veggies - just rinse them.  See I save you money too! Man, I'm cool! =)

Did I fail to mention that you'll want a very large pan - such as a stir fry pan?  Huh, well it looks like you'll have extra dishes to do today.  Transfer, I'll wait.  Recipe says add 1 1/2 cup water. Say what?  This is going to be so runny. So not cool.  Fine, I'll compromise and add 3/4  cup chicken broth.  If you have a lid, slap it on and simmer.  If not, grab a pan - perhaps the one that you initially used - it's dirty anyhow - and use it as a cover.  

After about  4 minutes the spinach is cooked down and oh look it's a soup.  Didn't see that coming.  Now, I have no idea what Korma is - perhaps it's soup over rice. I don't particularly want soup over rice so we are fixing this now!  I add a nice dose of flour and cornstarch...make it a gravy baby.  Nice!  Add salmon after giving a huge hunk to the cat.  Viola!  Now you may serve over rice. 

Tasty and the cat is happy.  Let's face it the house is happy when the cat is happy! =)

NannerNut Mufs

NannerNut Mufs (aka: Banana Nut Muffins)

For the most part : ) I followed the recipe.  I only did a half batch but increased the bananas (I had three overripe ones what am I going to do with one left over!) and ended up with 12 standard sized small muffins.  Full recipe states 12 muffins so I'm not sure what happened there...but here is the full recipe in all it's glory!

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
4 overripe bananas
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (why would you use fake stuff?  Nasty.)
1/2 cup pecans, chopped (or more or more plus walnuts...up to you)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375.  Spray two muffin tins (or use paper cups and save yourself some washing time)

Combine flour and baking soda and set aside (do you honestly do this step.  I soooo do not. Yes, I understand why but when you get to the add flour mix part you can totally add the soda and mix and then the flour and mix and it gets all stirred up anyhow...but, do as you will, kitchen Gods and Goddesses)
Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork so they still have a bit of texture.  With an electric mixer (with wire whisk) whip the remaining bananas and sugar together like you mean it (3 good minutes...pretty sure I only made it to the half way point because patience is not my virtue - told myself I only did a half recipe so it was ok to mix for half the time : )
Add melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice as needed. 
Mix dry ingredients until just incorporated. Fold in the nuts and mashed banana.  Spoon batter into muffin tins to fill them about halfway (I filled completely to get mine to look like normal muffins - perhaps a check on the expiration date of the baking soda is in order)  Give them a rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out. (Watch yourself - don't go splattering batter everywhere, unless you are in someone elses kitchen - then splatter away!)

Bake until toothpick comes out clean, 18-20 minutes.  This is fine as long as you don't end up sticking the toothpick into a bit of mashed banana - cuz that will come out like it's wet but the muffins may be done.  I'd watch for brownness and wing it.
Let cool a few minutes before turning muffins out. Yeah I don't do that step either.
Serve wam...Yummy!

Mmm Mmm Mojos

Mojo potatoes. A great appetizer before pizza.  Remember Shakey's...well here's a recipe to recreate mojo potatoes.  Recipe as I found it and then, per usual, I'll let you know the modifications as we go along! :)

6 russet potatoes  (I used large red potatoes)
canola oil
2 eggs (I used one egg)
4 cups flour (umm, really? 1 cup for me)
seasoning salt
1/2 tsp cayenne (eeeks no way! how about chili powder - it's red)
2 tsp thyme (don't have any so let's use garlic herb mix)
2 Tbsp milk
1 Tbsp melted butter

Just looking at those ingredients I say Whoooa Doggie to the 4 cups of flour.  Four?  That seems just a wee bit excessive.  I used 2 large red potatoes and used only one egg and 1 cup of flour and ended up with beyond plenty left over of both the egg and breading mixes.  Even if you are double battering 4 cups seems excessive.  As for the seasonings I used what I have and what I thought would be good.  Chili powder actually brings a nice flavor to potatoes so opted for that, besides the fact that I don't have cayenne in this house - eeks!) But, you do as you will do.

If you are ready to proceed:
1. Place egg in bowl and beat adding milk and melted butter. (don't melt your butter and then add your cold ingredients or your butter will set - your objective is a mix not butter lumps otherwise you might not take the time to melt the butter, silly)

2. New bowl - mix flour and spices (I don't have cayenne or thyme so I dumped in some garlic herb seasoning and chili powder - guessing with my one cup of flour I probably used 1 tsp chili and 1/2 tsp garlic herb - basically I mixed until I was happy that it seemed there were actual spices in the flour so I'm not real clear on the amount actually used). 

3. Heat your oil

4. Cut each potato into rounds (cut lengthwise so you have tall pieces) - 1/4 inch thickness works.

5. Potatoes into egg and then into flour

6. Drop into hot oil (personally I like to gently place into hot oil - but if you feel like risking hot oil splattering your face - go for the drop - totally your call... I'll stand back).

7. Let them brown and cook.  (When you think they are probably brown enough - leave them for a little bit longer - the goal is to have the potatoes totally soft and feel like mashed potatoes inside your mouth. Leave it.  Leave it.  Leeeeaaave it....)

8. Drain and season with salt (I used a mix of salt and garlic salt)

9. Serve quick while they are steaming hot.  Go ahead and pile some Parmesan on that plate too.

Oh my goodness!  Give yourself some room because you'll be doing a happy dance!

Peeps Sunflower Cake

Mom will be so disappointed but this is using prepackaged everything.  But, it's just too cool to complain about.  Too bad you're on a diet and avoiding sugar...cuz this is gonna be tasty!  Almost too cute to eat....almost. =)

Ingredients:

• 1 package (18 1/4 oz) yellow cake mix
• 1 16 oz can of dark chocolate frosting (you may want more depending on how much you love frosting - original recipe called for 2 cans but 1 can worked perfectly for me)
• 19 yellow chick Peeps
• semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

• Prepare and bake cake according to package.  Using the two 9inch round baking pans.  Cool for about 10 minutes and remove from pans to wire rack to completely cool.
• Spread frosting between layers and over top and sides of cake.
• Without separating Peeps and curving them slightly to fit, arrange chicks around the edge of the cake for sunflower petals.  For sunflower seeds, arrange chocolate chips in concentric circles in center of cake.

Note: once you place the Peeps you've placed the Peeps!  Same goes for the chocolate chips - if you pull them up because you decided it would look better if you did that - forgetaboutit! - you'll rip up the frosting and you're Peeps won't stick now.  Decide. Place. Live with it!!! =)

Final note: if you don't like Peeps - I do. I do! Give them to me!

Have fun & ENJOY!!!

Chicken Chinese Salad

Cold salad - but super yummy.  Has been modified from the original to my liking as follows:

Your shopping list will include:
cider vinegar (white works too)
sugar
canola oil
low sodium soy sauce
ramen noodle package (minus the flavor pack)
broccoli slaw
green onions

If you are adding chicken (can be made without and is still super good) and you are going to fry some chicken - do so while you are making the sauce as both need to cool before adding to the veggies.  Other options are to make breaded chicken pieces, or prepackaged chicken. I am partial to the Tyson Honey BBQ or frying some boneless skinless chicken breasts and adding some honey and BBQ sauce to it while frying.

1/4 c cider vinegar
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c canola oil
2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce

I usually add just under these amounts as the original recipe calls for two ramen packages and I only use one - and the ramen soaks up these ingredients.  Your choice.  Play with it and you'll understand what I mean.

Combine all of these ingredients in small sauce pan and bring to boil until sugar is dissolved.  Allow to cool.

Thinly slice your 2-3-4 green onions.

Take out your aggressions and frustrations on the ramen noodle package - jeez not that much! - crunch it all up into crumbled and small pieces.  Open the package and dump into a large bowl - removing the flavor pack.  Add your green onions to the bowl.  Dump in a package of broccoli slaw (you may want to cut these up a bit to make it not so long and therefore more eatable pieces).  Add your cooled chicken and the cooled sauce.  Combine thoroughly. 

I usually can't wait so I eat some now but ideally I put the remainder in the fridge and let it marinate overnight. 

It won't last long!  Only share with those you really love!