Slow Cooker Pork and Potatoes

~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

Yesterday I discovered yet another new reason to love the slow cooker! I didn’t think I could appreciate this kitchen appliance more, but turns out, it was/is possible.

I am very excited that I have the opportunity to stay home and raise my son. I feel very lucky and blessed that my husband is supportive of my decision and that together we can make it work. I absolutely love being able to see my son changing every day. Even the bad days are good. All it takes is one little smile to melt my heart and remind me that I made the right decision for our family.

When I was working I loved the slow cooker so that I wouldn’t have to prepare dinner when I got home. As much as I love to cook and be in the kitchen, after a stressful day at the office sometimes standing at the stove would be the last thing I wanted to do.

IMG_2748Now that I’m home during the day I feel like the slow cooker possibilities have multiplied! Have you noticed that there aren’t too many recipes that cook for more than 8 hours?! But now! Now I can cook something on high if I can’t get into the kitchen until later in the day!

Sure that’s all sunshine and daisies, but the real new reason I love my slow cooker is that while Stuart was at CrossFit instead of getting dinner going, I was able to sit on the couch and watch Chopped while my little man slept in my lap after a feeding. I didn’t have to play the dangerous game of putting him down in the hopes he didn’t wake up to get into the kitchen. These are the moments I live for.

Slow Cooker Pork and Potatoes

Ingredients:

  • 4 gold potatoes, quartered
  • 1 can (10.75 oz) cream of chicken soup
  • 1/4 C cooking sherry
  • 1/4 C Dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp Italian seasoning
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 pork chops (I used boneless pork tenderloin chops)

Steps:

  1. Place potatoes in the slow cooker.
  2. In a bowl whisk together soup, sherry, mustard, paprika, Italian seasoning, and S+P. Pour over potatoes.
  3. In a large skillet heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Season pork chops with S+P and sear on both sides for a couple minutes. Place on top of potatoes. Cook on high 3 hours or low 6 to 8 hours.

*This recipe is adapted from Laura at http://www.thecookingphotographer.com/2011/10/slow-cooker-pork-chops-in-dijon-paprika.html *

Slow Cooker Pork and Potatoes

Pretzel Caramel Bread Pudding

~ lk529 ~ 2 Comments

Last month’s Foodie Extravaganza celebrated pretzels and caramel. I used the leftovers to try my very first bread pudding.

I’d never made bread pudding or eaten bread pudding before. Something about it made me shy away. I’m not a fan of scrambled eggs and don’t like it when there’s too much custard on my french toast. Stuart was requesting a bread pudding so with the pretzel rolls we couldn’t finish in time I finally gave in.

And it was good! Especially with some fresh green apple to combat the sweetness. Bread pudding seemed essentially to be a baked french toast and with the caramel it reminded me of a flan.

Pretzel Caramel Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

  • 5 eggs
  • 1/2 C brown sugar
  • 2 1/4 C milk
  • 2 1/4 C heavy cream
  • 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 3/4 – 1 lb stale soft pretzels or bread, cubed
  • 6 tbsp caramel sauce

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
  2. In a large bowl whisk eggs with brown sugar, milk, cream, vanilla, and salt.
  3. Toss pretzel cubes in custard. Pour into a 9×13″ caserole dish. Top with caramel.
  4. Bake covered for 20-30 minutes until custard is set.

*This recipe is modified from Riley at http://www.mydailymorsel.com/2013/04/09/salted-caramel-bread-pudding/ *

Bread Pudding

Taco Seasoning

~ lk529 ~ 4 Comments

After starting the tradition of Mexican Monday in our house over three (can that be right?!) years ago, I’ve been making my own taco seasoning. Or rather, followed the recipe I found on allrecipes.com. This taco seasoning has a nice subtle kick but if you really want to crank the heat, include the crushed red pepper flakes that I omit. I make a large batch (triple the recipe below) at a time and keep it in an air tight canister.

Taco Seasoning

Ingredients:

  • 1 tbsp chili powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp onion powder
  • 1/4 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Steps:

  1. Combine all ingredients. Store in an air tight container. Use in your favorite recipes. Makes 1 ounce.

*This recipe is adapted from Bill at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/taco-seasoning-i/detail.aspx *

Taco Seasoning

Sloppy Joe Casserole

~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

I have a confession to make. I served this for dinner on April 10th but saved it until today to post. Yes, I pulled out the Halloween decorations in the spring just for these photographs!

A Halloween tradition in my house is to have Sloppy Joes before going out Trick-or-Treating. Last year I posted a recipe for Turkey Sloppy Joes and thought it’d be fun to post a variation of the Sloppy Joe for my blog’s second Halloween. Tonight I’ll be making another fun variation on the sloppy joe – Philly Cheese Steak Sloppy Joes!

But why did I make it in April? The answer to that question is simple: I was pregnant. There were two things I was craving – yellow mustard and tater tots. I saw this recipe for Sloppy Joe casserole on Pinterest and instantly had to have it. Instead of using the suggested Manwich Sloppy Joe sauce I used this recipe to make my own. This sauce recipe includes yellow mustard. Two birds – one stone!

This is our first Halloween with our little one and my little man will be a pumpkin. As he isn’t yet four months old we aren’t exploiting him for free candy, but we’ll be handing out our own to the neighborhood trick-or-treaters. (I just couldn’t resist putting him in an adorable little costume!) This is also our first Halloween in Ohio and we’re living in a great family neighborhood – there’s a bus stop right outside our house – so I’m anxious to see if we have more visitors than we ever got back in the Florida Panhandle.

 Sloppy Joe Casserole

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
  • 1/2 orange bell pepper, chopped (or any color you like, but as it’s Halloween!)
  • 3/4 C ketchup
  • 1 tsp yellow mustard
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 3 tsp brown sugar
  • 1/4 C cream cheese
  • 1 can (15 oz) corn, drained
  • 2 C shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 lb tater tots
  • chives, for garnish (optional)

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
  2. In a large skillet over medium-high heat brown ground beef. Add onion and pepper. Cook until the beef is cooked through and drain any fat.
  3. In a small bowl whisk together ketchup, mustard, garlic, powder, and brown sugar. Add to the beef and simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Melt in cream cheese. Stir in corn. Season to taste with S+P.
  4. Pour the beef mixture into a 9×13″ baking dish. Top with shredded cheese. Place the tater tots in a single layer on top of the cheese. Bake 20 minutes until bubbly and tater tots are golden.

*This recipe is adapted from Karly at http://www.bunsinmyoven.com/2013/08/19/sloppy-joe-tater-tot-casserole-2/ and Tamara at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sloppy-joes-ii/ *

Sloppy Joe Casserole

 I hope you have a wonderful Halloween and a safe night Trick-or-Treating.

Boo-tini

~ lk529 ~ 2 Comments

To finish off ghost week I present to you a cocktail. If you’re throwing a party tomorrow add this martini to your bar menu. Or, maybe you want something with a little kick to sip on while you’re handing out candy to the little ghosts and goblins knocking on your door.

Do kids really dress up as ghosts and goblins anymore? These days it’s all about wanting to be their favorite movie character – I challenge you to count the number of Elsas and Olafs. (Hey, this cocktail could easily be redone in the winter as a melted snowman!)

Boo-tini

Ingredients:

  • 2 parts vodka
  • 1 part vanilla simple syrup
  • 1 part cream
  • 2 parts seltzer

Steps:

  1. Combine martini ingredients in a large pitcher and gently stir. Pour into martini glasses. If only making one, 1 part = 1 ounce.

*This recipe is adapted from Janelle at http://www.hgtv.com/entertaining/liquefied-ghost-cocktail-recipe/index.html *

Boo-tini

Graveyard Cupcakes

~ lk529 ~ 2 Comments

The ghost theme continues with this super fun and adorable dessert.

I was originally planning on making another spin on S’more Brownies using ghost marshmallow peeps but during my trip to Joann’s for the ghost cookie cutterI used in Monday’s post my eyes fell upon these adorable ghost icing decorationsand I couldn’t resist! A change in plans was made and a discussion with Kate was in order. With her creative genius she suggested I do chocolate cupcakes with green icing and having these ghosts be coming back from the grave. I continued to follow her instruction and dipped Milano cookies in chocolate to create headstones.

I decided on a chocolate coffee cupcake for the base. My husband forgot his coffee on the counter one morning and I had the ambitious idea to save it, thinking I’d do something with cold coffee. These ideas are usually met with a lack of time or imagination, or even completely abandoned and everything I save with the intentions to do something awesome make their way to a dark corner of the refrigerator to die. But not this time! This time I found a use for that coffee! And because I did a coffee cupcake, I decided to use coffee creamer in the icing instead of milk. And my idea worked! Vanilla buttercream is my least favorite of the buttercreams and I didn’t think I’d be able to dye chocolate buttercream green very effectively. Using the Italian Sweet Cream flavor coffee creamer I had on stock for my mother-in-law made this frosting perfectly sweet and it complimented the cupcakes beautifully – making for an addicting chocolate cupcake. And I don’t say that about cake very often!

Chocolate Coffee Cupcakes with Coffee Creamer Frosting

Ingredients for cupcakes:

  • 1 stick butter, softened
  • 1 C sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 3/4 C flour
  • 1/4 C cocoa powder
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 C cold coffee

Ingredients for decorating:

  • 2/3 C chocolate chips
  • 12 Milano cookies
  • 12 ghost icing decorations
  • 2 sticks butter, softened
  • 3 C powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp liquid coffee creamer
  • green food coloring

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake tins with 16 cupcake liners. Note: there are only decorations for 12 cupcakes, the other 4 are bonus for the cook!
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Mix in vanilla.
  3. In a large bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder. If you’re using unsalted butter, add a pinch of salt.
  4. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the butter and mix until combined. Add 1/2 of the coffee and mix until combined. Repeat with another 1/3 of the dry ingredients, the last of the coffee, and ending with the remaining 1/3 of the flour mixture.
  5. Fill cupcake tins and bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out cleanly. Allow to cool.
  6. Over a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips. Dip the Milano cookies in the chocolate and let set on a piece of parchment paper.
  7. Make frosting: in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla and creamer. Add up to another tablespoon of creamer if needed. Mix in food coloring until desired color is achieved. Note: Depending on how you ice your cupcakes, there will be leftover frosting.
  8. Cut a cat’s eye slit into the cupcakes and place the chocolate covered cookies into the cupcakes.
  9. Ice the cupcakes. Decorate with the ghosts.

*This recipe is adapted from Roxana at http://roxanashomebaking.com/chocolate-coffee-cupcakes-with-coffee-buttercream-frosting-recipe/ *

Chocoalte Coffee Cupcakes with Coffee Creamer Frosting

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

Ghost Pancakes

~ lk529 ~ 4 Comments

Today’s ghost recipe is 100% inspired from my countless hours surfing Pinterest.

Ghost pancakes!

Doing ghost pancakes is the reason I chose the ghost theme for this year’s Halloween week!

I used my go to pancake recipe. I have been using this recipe for over four years and wish I could give credit where credit is due but I don’t remember where I found it. My copy is a wrinkled piece of paper with stains of egg, melted butter, and syrup all over it. The text is going to be fading before I know it. This recipe makes 12 1/3 C portion pancakes, or 10 ghosts. Feel free to use your favorite pancake recipe or use a boxed mix.

Ghost Pancakes

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 C flour
  • 3 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/4 C milk
  • 3 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
  • 30 chocolate chips

Steps:

  1. Preheat griddle to medium-high heat. Grease with cooking spray or butter.
  2. In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
  3. In another bowl whisk together egg and milk. Whisk in cooled melted butter.
  4. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients.
  5. Pour pancake batter into a measuring cup. Pour onto hot griddle into shape of ghosts. Place three chocolate chips in the form of eyes and a mouth in the ghost’s head. Flip pancakes when batter starts to set and bubbles form in the center of the pancake. Cook until both sides are golden brown.

Ghost Pancakes

SRC: Ghost Sugar Cookies

~ lk529 ~ 36 Comments

newsrcbanner

Today’s Secret Recipe Club post kicks off a week of ghostly treats in preparation for Halloween. I knew that in my search through my assigned blog, Making Miracles, I knew I would be narrowing down my scope to something that would fit into my plan this year. If you were to look at my secret Pinterest board you’d see that I didn’t do a very good job at tunnel vision.

Making Miracles is Rebekah’s blog about “food, family, and making memories.” Her blog started eight years ago to share her experiences at being a surrogate mother. I couldn’t think of a better gift to give to someone than the gift of a child. For six years Rebekah selflessly gave 4 daughters to parents dreaming of having their own children. Making Miracles was the perfect blog title.

Rebekah’s blog has transformed over the years into a very impressive food blog. With the exception of catching her blog during SRC reveal days, I was introduced to Rebekah through the blog event #10DaysofTailgate where together with 10 other bloggers we ate our way through the end of September cheering on our favorite teams. Let me tell you, it was very tempting not to tell her that I was assigned her blog this month.

If you don’t yet know, in the Secret Recipe Club, each participating blogger is assigned a blog from another participating blogger and secretly searches their site for something to recreate. The accompanying blog post then goes live on reveal day!

So back to my recipe searching.

My secret pinterest board is filled with over 25 recipes from Rebekah’s blog, including her pizza dip from #10DaysofTailgate, her buttermilk soaked parmesan baked pork chops, and chocolate chip cookie souffle. But to fit in with my Halloween week, I narrowed it down to quesadillas (either pizza or sweet potato black bean) or sugar cookies. After finding my ghost shaped cookie cutter, I knew I’d be going the cookie route.

This cookie recipe reminded me of my grandmother’s Roll Out Christmas Cookies. Instead of frosting, I put sprinkles on the cookies before baking them. There are two reasons for doing that: 1) that’s what my Busia did and 2) I don’t like frosting on my cookies. These sugar cookies are not overly sweet and that’s what makes them addicting. Without frosting, they’re also perfect for dunking in your coffee!

I halved Rebekah’s recipe and was nervous the dough didn’t come together perfectly, but after chilling in the fridge before rolling it was perfect! Do not skip the chilling step. If the dough gets too warm it’ll stick to the board and rolling pin all too easily. This means, in between throwing the cookies in the oven, put the dough back in the fridge.

While Rebekah likes thick, chewy cookies I’m the opposite and like thin, flaky cookies. I rolled my cookies to 1/4″ thickness until very lightly golden on the edges. This half recipe yielded approximately 4 dozen cookies. The amount you get will vary depending on the size of your cookie cutter(s) and your desired cookie thickness.

Ghost Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
  • 1 C sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 C flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • sprinkles (optional)

Steps:

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add in vanilla.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
  3. Add the flour to the butter in 3 batches.
  4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in fridge at least one hour.
  5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  6. Roll dough out on a floured surface. Cut out cookies and place an an ungreased cookie sheet. Sprinkle cookies with sprinkle, if desired. Bake 7 minutes.
  7. Cool cookies on a cooling rack.

*This recipe is adapted from Rebekah at http://rebekahrose.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-best-rolled-sugar-cookies.html?m=1 *

Ghost Sugar Cookies

To see the other bloggers who participated in the Secret Recipe Club this month click here:

Slow Cooker Hoisin Chicken

~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

As I sit here, trying desperately to come up with a Next Food Network Star style story behind the dish I find myself coming face-to-face with writer’s block.

I don’t have any personal connection behind this dish. And it has all of the usual selling points: Slow Cooker, Chinese food, Barbecue, chicken. Easy, fast, delicious. Wait? Chinese food and barbecue in the same dish? Absolutely!

Hoisin sauce is used in China in a similar manner that Americans use ketchup or barbecue sauce, and by shredding the chicken you get the same versatility you get with pulled pork barbecue. You can turn this slow cooker meal into lettuce wraps like the original recipe, serve it atop steamed brown rice like I did, or even make it into a sandwich.

Slow Cooker Hoisin Chicken

Ingredients:

  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 1/2 bell pepper, sliced
  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 jar (8.5 oz) hoisin sauce
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp water
  • 2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
  • 1/2 tbsp minced garlic
  • 2 scallions, chopped

Steps:

  1. Place sliced onions and peppers in bottom of slow cooker. Season chicken with S+P and place on top of vegetables.
  2. In a small bowl whisk together hoisin, soy, water, ginger, and garlic. Pour over chicken.
  3. Cook on low 5-7 hours.
  4. Shred chicken and return to sauce.
  5. Serve with steamed rice. Garnish with scallions.

*This recipe is adapted from Rebecca at http://whoneedsacape.com/2014/05/crock-pot-chicken-lettuce-wraps/ *

Hoisin Chicken

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

Sea Salt and Olive Oil Bagel Chips

~ lk529 ~ 2 Comments

Today is my mother-in-law’s birthday! After the birth of my son, her first grandchild, she now happily goes by Tilly. She didn’t want a traditional southern name for grandma and after a lot of contemplation she created this term for herself. After seeing Saving Mr. Banks (no, I don’t know what the movie had to do with it, I never saw it) she investigated her favorite family names to look for their origins, combined a couple, and created Tilly.

As you’ve probably gathered, my mother-in-law and I get along very well. I appreciate how lucky I am to have a mother-in-law who loves and trusts me enough to have given her diamond to Stuart to propose to me. (I still don’t know how she did it!) Three years ago she bought me my first sewing machine and taught me how to quilt. This new hobby provides a great way to bond with Tilly; it allows us time together to be creative, to have both serious and fun conversations, and to go fabric shopping!

Tilly

Wedding photography by Cher Hanna

During her last visit she requested bagel chips to be put on my grocery list. And then added the caveat “if they have them.” I thought, why wouldn’t they? Apparently, they don’t. They sell countless versions of pita chips and pretzel chips, but no bagel chips. If I knew how easy it were to make my own I would have done so for her, but it didn’t cross my mind until after she left. So, I diverted from my original Tilly’s birthday post idea (a chocolate skillet cake) to share this recipe instead. I will definitely be playing around with flavors in the future!

Sea Salt and Olive Oil Bagel Chips

Ingredients:

  • 1 plain bagel
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • sea salt

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Cut bagel into chips. Do this by splitting bagel in half and quartering. Halve the quarters from the bottom piece into thin chips and third the quarters from the top piece.
  3. Place bagel chips on a baking sheet and brush with olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt.
  4. Bake for 12 minutes. Allow to cool before storing.

*This recipe is adapted from Lori at http://whoneedsacape.com/2013/08/homemade-bagel-chips/*

Bagel Chips