Monday Munchies: Peanut Butter Cups

Don't raid the kids Halloween candy - make your own! They are far better and you can control the sweetness!

Mommy's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups



Melt dark chocolate (I use 85% dark or above, either Scharffenberger or Lindt) over a double boiler or similar (I use a small sauce pan of water with a pottery bowl placed in it, with the chocolate in the bowl), stirring until smooth. Use whatever chocolate you prefer - semisweet, milk, dark to whatever degree you prefer - semi sweet and milk will melt differently and you can do this directly in a saucepan on the stovetop over low-medium heat.

Mix 1/3 c natural peanut butter with a spoon until smooth. If you have a sweet tooth, add a little powdered sugar to the peanut butter, mixing til smooth and the desired sweetness/taste is achieved.

Spoon a small amount of into a mold. Add a small amount of peanut butter/powered sugar mixture. Top with another drop of chocolate. Tap molds on tabletop/counter top repeatedly to release air bubbles; refrigerate until firm. If you do not have chocolate molds, you can use mini paper cupcake liners, a mini cupcake tin (greased lightly with butter) or you can make large peanut butte cups in standard size cupcake tins/liners.

Dark chocolate versions need to be kept in the refrigerator as the dark chocolate softens quite a bit at room temperature. But these are much better than the sweet ones! Milk and semi-sweet cups are generally shelf stable for a few days (if they last that long!)

Monday Munchies: Chicken Corden Bleu

I love food.

Correction: I love GOOD food.

Clarification: I especially love good food that can be made quickly. I will spend hours and hours in the kitchen baking/decorating, but as far as dinners go, I love good food, homemade food, made from scratch food that does not take a long time to prepare.

Kenna's favorite dish ever is chicken cordon bleu. I refuse to buy the prepackaged/frozen version, so this is my quick, easy and delicious take on it. She ges very happy whenever I make this :) And it makes me happy too because it takes about 5 minutes.


Chicken Cordon Bleu




Place chicken breast on plate. Place slice of ham on top, hanging over the side of the chicken. Add cheese (I used mozzarella for Kenna, provolone for me) on top of ham, then fold the other half of the slice of ham over. Fold/roll up the chicken breast. Secure with toothpick. Dip in egg wash then in seasoned bread crumbs. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, til chicken is cooked through and cheese is bubbly.

This is also especially good with spinach in place of the ham and feta in place of the mozzarella.

Monday Munchies: Strawberry Lime Sorbet

No ice cream maker needed!

Strawberry Lime Sorbet in Dark Chocolate Bowls (recipe adapted from Tasty Kitchen)



In a food processor, puree one 16 ounce bag of frozen strawberries (partially thawed) and 4T limeade concentrate. (Adjust the limeade to your taste - ours was TART!). Put in a container with lid and freeze for a few hours.

To make chocolate bowls, melt chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet - I would usually use dark, but because I used no sugar in the sorbet, I used semi-sweet to offset the tartness). Coat the bottom and sides of either a chocolate bowl mold or a paper cupcake liner (sprayed with cooking spray). Quick and easy way to do this is to pour melted chocolate in the molds/liners, let set for a couple of minutes on the counter, then pour out excess chocolate. Refrigerate to set.

To serve, unmold or remove paper from chocolate bowl and scoop in two scoops of sorbet.

Once the chocolate bowls were gone, I semi-defrosted the sorbet, added some semi-sweet chocolate chips, mixed and refroze.

Monday Munchies: Paella

Super quick paella (it took me 40 minutes from start to finish!)



Cook 2 cups of your favorite rice according to directions. I used jasmine rice. Under cook it slightly and remove from heat when done.

Heat 1/2c olive oil in large pan (I used my wok). Add two chicken breasts and sear over medium-high heat. After browned, add 1T paprika, 2t oregano, salt and pepper to taste. Cover and continue to cook on medium heat.

In a small frying pan, cook one onion, diced, and 4-5 cloves garlic, crushed, in 2T olive oil. Remove and add to chicken. use the same pan to cook 2 thickly sliced sausages (I used chicken sausage, sun dried tomato and garlic, because it is the kids' favorite, but chorizo is good). Remove and add to chicken. In same small frying pan, cook 1/2 pound shrimp and set aside.

To chicken mixture, add 1 can whole tomatoes, a bunch of parsley (chopped) and the rice. Add shrimp. Simmer for a few minutes to let everything mix together.

You can add clams as well, which I will do next time. The kids love them - I just didn't have any on hand!

Monday Munchies: Sopapillas

I have vivid memories of long family drives on Sunday afternoons when I was a kid. At some point we would stop for sopapillas because my mom loved them. They are really easy to make at home, and are definitely better than I remember them!



Sopapillas
1 3/4 c flour
1T sugar
1t baking soda
1t salt
2t baking powder
2/3 cup milk
Cinnamon and sugar for rolling
Oil for frying


Mix all but last two ingredients and knead to form ball. Let rest 1 hour.

Roll dough and cut into strips. Cut strips into squares, cut squares into triangles. Fry in oil about 1 minute on each side; remove to paper towel covered plate. While still warm, place in a bowl of cinnamon-sugar and coat.

Monday Munchies: Strawberry Shortcake Belgian Waffles

Strawberry Shortcake on Homemade Belgian Waffles - one of the best things about summer. And the very best part? You already have tomorrow's breakfast made!



For the strawberries and cream:
Cut up quart of strawberries and put in fridge. we used freshly picked strawberries, but any will do!

Whip whipping or heavy cream in stand mixer with 1/2t vanilla.



Belgian waffles (adapted from an Emeril recipe)

Preheat waffle iron
Separate 4 eggs - whip whites to soft peaks
Mix yolks in separate bowl with 2T sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add 1/2t vanilla, 2cupca milk, 4T melted and cooled butter and mix. Add 2 cups flour and 2t baking powder, stirring til just combined. Fold into egg whites. Pour in waffle iron and cook.


Add a generous helping or strawberries and a dollop of cream right before serving.

For breakfast the next day, serve Belgian waffles with butter and syrup, or with fresh fruit. These freeze very well - we just reheat in the oven for a quick breakfast!

Monday Munchies: Pretzels

I ♥ pretzels. The kids ♥ pretzels. I have tried a bunch of recipes and have one that I use all the time, but a friend posted a link to this recipe for Auntie Anne's pretzels last week, so I had to try it out. I don't know who Auntie Annie is (must be a regional thing in some region other than Connecticut) but her pretzels are pretty darn good. I didn't manage to snap a picture because they were all gone in the blink of an eye.

Auntie Anne’s Pretzels

1 1/2 C. warm water
1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast (1 1/2 pkg.)
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 1/8 tsp salt
1 C. bread flour
3 C. regular flour
2 C. warm water
2 Tbsp baking soda
To taste, coarse salt
2 – 4 Tbsp butter (melted)

Sprinkle yeast on lukewarm water in mixing bowl; stir to dissolve. Add sugar, salt and stir to dissolve; add flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Let rise at least 1/2 hour.

While dough is rising, prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 tbsp baking soda. Be certain to stir often.

After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough and roll into a long rope (about 1/2 inch or less thick) and shape. Dip pretzel in soda solution and place on greased baking sheet. Allow pretzels to rise again. Bake in oven at 450 for about 10 minutes or until golden. Brush with melted butter and enjoy!

* Ok, I found this dough to be very hard to roll out to shape into pretzels, so I pinched off small balls and rolled them and made pretzel bites. I dunked them in the baking soda bath for about a minute a piece, and used a larger pot, more water and baking soda, so that I could dunk about 8 at a time. I made three different types - regular with sea salt, cinnamon and sugar and asiago cheese (the asiago cheese were the biggest hit with everyone). I brushed all the pretzels with melted butter before cooking, and salted the regular ones prior to cooking as well. For the cinnamon/sugar and asiago pretzels, I brushed them with melted butter before cooking and in the last 5 minutes of cooking i brushed them again and sprinkled them with a cinnamon sugar mixture or placed a slice of asiago cheese on top. Next time, I will be making stuffed pretzels - spinach and feta topped with asiago for A and me; mozzarella and sauce topped with cheddar for the kids.

Friday Favorite: Fragrant Coconut Rice from Love Abounds

Katherine over at Love Abounds sent me a fragrant coconut rice kit to test for her recently. When Holden saw it, his reaction wasn’t quite what I had expected – he yelled “Oh my god!! I can’t wait to try that!!” Holden generally likes the same old, same old – new recipes aren’t always met with as much gusto as I would hope. So, needless to say, I was very anxious to make his rice!

There were three sets of instructions: for a rice cooker, for the microwave and for a steamer. Since I have none of the three, I winged it a little and made it right on the stovetop in a pot. I soaked the rice for about 2 hours prior to cooking. I was worried that that wouldn’t be enough time, but it ended up being perfectly fine.

It came out wonderfully and the 4 of us liked it a lot, especially Holden ♥ It has a very mild sweet taste; Katherine said her husband likes to eat his with vanilla ice cream, and I can definitely see why. It added a nice little burst of sweetness to our dinner that night: lemon dill tilapia, New York deli-style rye bread and coconut sticky rice. The rice itself, a Thai jasmine rice, is a type that I have never had before, and found it to be something I really liked. I have to go find some locally because I can envision using that for almost everything rice related that I may want to cook. I will definitely be back to order some more – next time I think I might even try it with a little vanilla ice cream!

Monday Munchies: The Ultimate Macaroni & Cheese

It is a well known fact that I love to cook, and that everything has to be from scratch. I get teased in my family because "Bonnie churns her own butter" (it's easy! And way better than store bought butter!). But a good macaroni and cheese from scratch has eluded me for years. I have tried recipe after recipe and nothing has ever turned out the way I wanted. Last night, we had made a lasagna and I had a ton of cooked lasagna noodles left over that I had to do something with ... so I decided to just wing a broken macaroni and cheese recipe. It came out better than anything I could have imagined! This is by no means low fat - but it is GOOD!!

Ultimate Macaroni and Cheese

Heat a skillet on a medium burner. Toss in the following:
* half a stick of butter (4T)
* half block of cream cheese (4 ounces)
* 10 - 12 ounces cheese, cubed - I just used what I had in the fridge - approximately 3 ounces sheep's milk cheese, 4 ounces sharp provolone, 4 ounces sharp cheddar
* about 3/4 cup of milk (I don't measure, which makes writing out recipes a tad difficult!)
Cook until almost melted, stirring frequently. Add pepper to taste, and 1T ground mustard; mix thoroughly. Stir in your favorite cooked pasta (I broke up the lasagna noodles) and simmer, stirring frequently, until warm.

Serve with a really good loaf of bread. Next week, I will post my new favorite - tweaked - deli rye bread recipe!



Look at all that cheese!