Naughty and Nice Christmas treats...

These are some simple and terribly tasty Christmas treats.  I love all things Mint and Chocolate and loved both of these.  I ate them too fast to even take a picture!

Peppermint Marshmallow Fudge

1 can sweetened condensed Milk
1 package (12 oz) milk chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups marshmallows ( I used the new Jet Puff Peppermint Marshmallows)


In a microwave safe large bowl combine chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk.  Microwave on high for 1 minute.  Stir and microwave for an additional minute, stir until mixture is smooth and add vanilla.  Mix in marshmallows and pour into lightly greased 8x8 pan.  Allow to set, overnight if possible.





Tollhouse Chocolate Mint chip cookies

1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup white sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup cocoa
2 cups flour
10oz bag of Tollhouse dark chocolate/mint chocolate chips

Beat butter with sugars, add vanilla, and then eggs-one at a time.  Add baking soda and salt, mix in cocoa, and then flour.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Spoon onto lightly greased baking sheet and bake at 325 degrees for 11 minutes.  Allow to cool on pan for 2 minutes before moving to a cooling rake.  Makes 3 dozen large cookies.

Vampires, Weddings, and Babies Oh My!

We had a Breaking Dawn Twilight extravaganza at my house this weekend and what fun we had.

We went with Fondue which turned out to be a lot harder than I thought...it pays to read directions.  Once I followed the directions it was actually quite easy and tasty.

Cheddar Fondue

5 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 cup flour
2 cups half and half
1 tsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp dry ground mustard

Shred cheese and carefully mix with flour until each pieces is coated.  Use more flour if needed, set aside.  Heat half and half, mustard, Worcestershire, and garlic powder to just before boiling.  Turn heat to low to simmer and add cheese and flour mixture ONE cup at a time, stirring continually until each cup is melted before adding the next cup.  Once mixture is melted and generally smooth, transfer to crockpot, or fondue pot as desired.

My inital mistake was that I didn't mix the flour and cheese well enough.  Then I added too much of the cheese at once.  It was going fine until it started looking too grainy and I thought to add milk.  BAD IDEA.  That made it too watery and the skim milk wouldn't mix with the half and half.  By then the cheese had also been cooking too long at too high a temperature and turned into a blobby mess sitting in orange colored milk-water.  GROSS.  Luckily for me my roommate had more cheese and saved us.

Other menu items included and Swiss fondue from Annicka, Butterfly shrimp, broccoli, french and brown bread, green apples, pretzels, and crackers for dipping.  We had a chocolate fountain with strawberry and regular marshmallows, pecan cookies, cinnamon bears, gummy bears, angel food cake, pretzels, berries, and lots of fruit to dip in it.  Thu made Red velvet cakepops, and cupcakes with darling Breaking Dawn themed cupcake wrappers and white chocolate chess pieces on top.

To make-and-take before the movie we had a popcorn bar with multiple themed flavors:

Spicy Breaking Headboard Popcorn

1 tsp paprika

2 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp ground red pepper or cayanne pepper

Sweet Jacob popcorn

1/3 cup white sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Volturi Italiano Popcorn

1 tsp dried italian seasoning

1 tsp garlic powder

1/3 cup parmesean cheese

Bloody Vampire Popcorn

melted butter mixed with red food coloring

salt

Orange Bread Pudding with Cranberry Syrup

If you are looking for a classic holiday flavored brunch dish, this one is pretty tasty.  I changed up a orange french toast recipe to make it into a bread pudding.

ORANGE BREAD PUDDING

10-12 slices day old bread
4 large eggs
1 2/3 cups orange juice
1/3 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
Chopped Pecans (optional)

Beat together egss,  sugar, milk, orange juice, vanilla, and nutmeg.  Cut bread with kitchen shears into 12 pieces per slice.  Grease a 9x13in pan.  Fill pan with bread pieces.  Pour egg and orange juice mixture over bread.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  Sprinkle with chopped pecans and bake an additional 5-10 minutes until browned and eggs cooked through.

CRANBERRY SYRUP

1 cup fresh cranberries
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup water

Bring cranberries, sugar, and water to a boil, stirring continually.  Cranberries will begin to pop.  As berries pop mash with your stirring spoon.  When mixture begins to thicken, remove from heat and pour thru a fine mesh seive into a heatproof bowl.  Mash cranberries with a spoon to release as much juice as possible.  Makes 3/4-1 cup of syrup.  Save mashed cranberries for cranberry relish if desired for turkey dinner.

Spooky Chex Mix

3 1/2 cups Rice Chex cereal
3 1/2 cups Corn Chex cereal
8 oz  vanilla bark or 1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup chocolate chips
2 cups reeses pieces (10.5 oz bag)
3 oz halloween pretzels
1 1/2 cup salted peanuts

Melt vanilla bark in 30 second intervals, stirring in between each interval, until smooth (mine took about 90 seconds).  Pour over rice chex and mix until coated.  Spread rice chex onto a wax paper covered cookie sheet.  Try and spread into a single layer.  Refridgerate for 5 minutes.

Melt chocolate chips in 30 second intervals, stirring in between each interval, until smooth (mine took about 90 seconds).  Pour over corn chex and mix until coated.  Spread chex onto a wax paper covered cookie sheet in a single layer.  Refridgerate 15 minutes.

Break apart each chex as needed into a large bowl.  Stir in pretzels, reeses pieces, and peanuts.

Autumn Tarts

I had a bunch of mushrooms I didn't know what to do with and found this great mini-mushroom tart recipe...

Mini Mushroom Tarts

Tart dough:

2 1/2 cups flour, sifted
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup cold butter
1/3 cup sour cream
1 egg, slightly beaten

Sift flour and add salt to a large bowl.  Cut in butter (I grate mine with a cheese grater and then use a pastry cutter or a fork to mix with flour) until mixture is crumbly.  Stir in sour cream and slightly beaten egg.

Grease a mini muffin pan.  Form dough into 1 inch balls.  Press each ball into muffin pan, covering the bottom and sides of each cup.  Bake at 350 degress for 12-14 minutes, until golden brown.

While tart cups are baking make Mushroom filling:
3/4 lb mushrooms, diced ( I used about 7 Large mushrooms)
1 bunch green onions, diced
1/4 cup butter
pepper to taste
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup flour
1 cup whipping cream

Dice mushrooms and green onions.  Melt butter in pan on stove and sautee mushrooms and green onions.  Sprinkle with flour, salt, and pepper.  Mix together and then add cream, stirring continually while cooking on the stove.  Cook until cream thickens.  Remove from heat and spoon into baked tart shells.  Yeilds 36-40 tarts.

I also made a dessert tart today that I have previously posted:  Pear Tart.  (Sorry for the crappy picture on this one...it is really tasty and stays together better than it looks!)

Bat wreath

I had seen this wreath on eighteen25 and wanted to make one of my own...

I used a 10 inch wreath and it took about 1 hour to make total.  I did not spray paint my wreath as other sites suggest, just careful winding and didn't have any trouble keeping it covered.  I used the Pebbles bat from the Silhouette store and cut out several sizes.  I attatched the bats with glue-dots.  For ribbon I used scraps left from my Vintage Halloween Picture Banner project.  I am really happy with how it turned out overall!

linked up to:

Vintage Halloween decorations

I made this vintage halloween picture garland as well as a little pennent garland to change up my halloween decorations this year.

It was super simple and cheap...

Google Old or vintage halloween pictures.  You will get a ton of these creepy old pictures of people in their halloween costumes.  I saved a bunch and printed them out at home on photo paper all as 3x4 pictures.  I had some random ribbon on hand and picked some out that was halloween-ish, as well as a tiny skelton key I had to tie to the ends.  I used baker's twine in white for the main string, cut up the pictures and just taped them to the twine. 

For the pennent I used Diecuts with a View Halloween paper stack that came out this season. They had a sheet of paper that was printed as pennents already and I just cut that apart and strung together with twine and tape.  Sewing them together would also be easy and cute but my sewing machine wasn't out.

For the candle just glue some lace around a votive.

I bought the Witches picture canvas at Bear Lake Raspberry days a few years back.  The basic idea is pretty simple though to print a picture on fabric or canvas and then glitter spot a few things for fun.

The owl was a thrift find. 

My next addition (as seen on eighteen25 and Pinterest): 

linked up to:

Chicken and Bacon Artichoke Pasta

This is a recipe adapted from Our Best Bites.  I adapted rather than completed exactly because I needed a bigger dish and was missing some of the ingredients they used.  Please click the link to see their exact recipe.

One thing I did make exactly was their Guiltless Alfredo Sauce.

2 cups of grilled and chopped chicken breast.
1 recipe of Guiltless Alfredo Sauce.
2.5 oz package of real bacon bits (found with the salad dressing)
1 (14oz) jar (without oil) of Artichoke hearts, drained and rough chopped.
1 1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
12 oz of bowtie pasta
1/2 tsp onion powder

1.  Grill chicken (2 cups is 2 breasts) and set aside to cool.  When cool cut into small 1inch pieces with kitchen shears. Sprinkle with onion powder and set aside.

2.  While chicken is cooling drain and chop artichoke hearts (I cut these with kitchen shears too) and shred Parmesan cheese for the sauce.

3.  Boil pasta in large pot and make the Guiltless Alfredo Sauce at the same time.  When sauce has thickened pasta should be ready to drain. 

4.  Drain pasta and return to large pot.  Pour in sauce.  Add chicken, bacon bits, artichoke hearts, and 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese.  Salt and Pepper to taste.

5.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spoon pasta and sauce mixture into a 9x13inch pan. Sprinkle remaining 1 cup mozzarella cheese and grate Parmesan to taste on top of pasta.

6.  Cover with Aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes.  Uncover and bake an additional 5 minutes until cheese is bubbly and browning.

Serve with bread, or if you really love Parmesan try Elise's easy breadsticks.

Bonus is that if you divide this pan into 15 servings it is only 6 Weight Watchers points a serving.
1 serving is 3/4 cup.

Berry Cupcakes

This is a recipe I adapted from the Strawberry Cake by the Cake Doctor.

1 french vanilla or yellow cake mix
2 cups mixed berries
1 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
4 eggs

Puree mixed berries.  Beat together berries, oil, milk, and egg.  Mix in cake mix.  Bake as three 8-inch rounds, or 30 cupcakes at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes.

Tastes awesome with Cream cheese icing:  1/4 cup butter at room temp, 1 (8oz) package cream cheese at room temp, 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla--whip all ingredients together.  Normally I would frost with the cream cheese frosting and top with a fresh berry.

I served mine as Diva cupcakes to represent Rachel Berry on the show Glee.  Since she loves gold stars I frosted mine with vanilla frosting, sprinkled with Wilton's Gold glitter sprinkles and topped with a gold star.

Krystal made the awesome Slushee cup cakes as inspired by here.

Tastes like fall...

Some recipes I have made recently that taste a bit like fall:

Orange-Cran Chicken Salad  (recipe adapted from the Our Best Bites cookbook)

2 cups chopped cooked and cooled chicken breast (2 chicken breasts or 1 can chicken.  I think at Thanksgiving left over turkey would be perfecto for this recipe as well.)
1/2 cup chopped celery
3 chopped green onions
grated orange peel zest (from 1 medium orange )
1/2 cup craisins
1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup jellied cranberry sauce
1 tsp grainy dijon mustard
juice from 1/2 half orange (i just cut the orange I grated in half and gave 1/2 a big squeeze)
pecans (optional)
rolls

Mix together chicken, celery, green onions, orange zest, and craisins.  In a seperate bowl whisk together mayo, cranberry, mustard, and orange juice.  Pour mayo mixture over chicken mixture and stir to coat.  Refridgerate for at least an hour.  Add chopped pecans if desired and serve sandwiched in rolls. Serves 12 rolls.

Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe adapted from the 1976 Betty Crocker's Cookbook)

3/4 cup shortening (I know shortening is bad...I'm over it)
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup chocolate chips
3 cups rolled oats

Mix together shortening, sugars, egg, water, and vanilla.  Add salt, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves.  Add flour.  Add oats.  Stir in raisins and chocolate chips.  Form into balls and space 1 in apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 13 minutes on a greased pan.  Allow to sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after baking to set.  Cool on cooling rack.  Makes 30 large cookies  (These cookies are crisp and chewey.  You need the raisins to balance the sugar).

Strawberry Daquiri Bundt Cake

Cake:
1 strawberry cake mix
1/4 cup lime juice and 3/4 cup water OR 1/2 cup limeade and 1/2 cup water
1/3 cup oil
3 eggs

Mix together ingredients with mixer for 2 minutes.  Grease bundt pan well and bake at 350 degree for 35 minutes until toothpick come out clear.

Strawberries:  slice up 2-3 cups of strawberries and sprinkle with 1-2 Tbsp sugar.  Stir and let sit for an hour while cake cooks and cools.

Lime Glaze: 
1 Tbsp melted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2-3 Tbsp lime juice

Stir together and add more juice or powdered sugar as needed to achieve desired consistency.

Slice up bundt when cool, top with strawberries, and drizzle with glaze. (Note:  This cake has a subtle lime flavor, if you were looking for a more intense lime flavor I would probably change the balance of water and lime in the cake.)

Zucchini Cookies

Camille made some Zucchini cookies....tis the season of the great zucchini.

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups grated zucchini
3 1/2 cups oats
1 cup  of mix in: rasins, or nuts, or chocolate chips and/or butterscotch chips ( I prefer chocolate and butterscotch chips)

Cream butter and sugar together.  Add and beat in eggs and vanilla.  Mix in flour, baking soda, and salt.  Add grated zucchini, oats, and mix in (ie. chocolate chips).  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  Makes a ton of large cookies!

Camping Cassoulet

This is an easy & filling recipe that we have eaten as a family while camping (and at home) for as long as I can remember.

1-2 cups boneless chicken, cut into pieces
1 medium onion or 1/2 of a large onion, chopped into pieces
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbsp veg. oil
1 large or 2 small cans Busch's baked beans
1/2 lb kielbasa sausage, cut into 1//2 inch pieces
1/2 tsp crushed dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Sautee oil with onion, garlic, and chicken pieces until chicken browned and onion is tender.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Oriental Chicken Salad

Applebee's oriental chicken salad

Dressing:

3 Tbsp Honey
1 1/2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1/4 cup mayo
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/8 tsp sesame oil

Whisk all ingredients together until well corporated. 

Salad:
2 cups Romaine lettuce
1 cup fresh spinach
1 cup red cabbage
1 cup napa cabbage
1 carrot, grated
1 green onion

toasted almonds
chow mein noodles

Coarsly chop romaine lettuce.  Finley chop cabbages.  Grate carrot and slice green onion.  Combine all salad ingredients.  Sprinkle with toasted almonds and chow mein noodles. 

Chicken:  I used Tysons pre-grilled chicken strips.  They are quick, easy, and have good flavor.  Any grilled chicken will work, or to make it more authentic to applebees use breaded chicken strips.

Note:  This recipe and dressing are for a "large dinner salad"... when we made this for a family of 6 eating we decided to multiply the recipe by 4.  We didn't even eat 1/2 of it and we had huge portions.  Instead of mixing in the dressing we added it to our personal plates as desired.  In reality 1 salad could most likely feed 2 people. 

This recipe is so tasty and easy to make.

Homemade Pancakes

I am loving Fiber One's new Buttermilk pancake mix.

I have made them several different ways including,

Blueberry:
1 cup mix
1/2 cup blueberries
1/3 cup water
1 container Brown Cow Blueberry Greek Yogurt

(I liked this way because it packed some extra protein and was more filling.  Had great flavor and made 4 -5 large pancakes which was easily 2 servings.  Each serving is 3 weight-watchers points plus points).

Banana:
1 cup mix
1 smashed over-ripe banana
2/3 cup water

(This made 5 medium sized pancakes that were 2 WW P+ each and I served them with some spray 'I can't believe it's not butter' and  some sugar and nutmeg mix sprinkled on top).

Even plain and made with 1 cup mix and 2/3 cup water they are delicious and only 2 WW P+ each.  Of course you can be creative and mix in whatever sounds tasty or try making the blueberry or banana with a pancake from scratch mix.  Just recognize the balance of yogurt and other wet ingredients may need to be adjusted.

Happy breakfast (lunch or dinner)!! :)

Dinner Group Fruit Salad

Made this fruit salad for my dinner group tonight....possibly the easiest thing in the world.

Ingredients:
a bunch of cut up fruit
1 can peach pie filling


yup that is it.  To be more specific I sliced and diced up 3 kiwi, 2 bananas, a bunch of green grapes, about 10 strawberries, and about 1/2 cup of blueberries.

It was tasty and easy and got good reviews from the group.

Adapted from this recipe.

Pepperoni rollups

These are super simple and tasty.

1 package crescent roll dough
2 sticks of string cheese
32 slices of pepperoni
italian seasoning
garlic seasoning

(I used the turkey pepperoni, low-fat string cheese, and reduced cal crescent dough so they were 3 points a piece on weight watchers)

Roll out dough into the triangles.  Sprinkle with italian seasoning.  Place 4 slices of pepperoni on each triangle.  Cut the string cheese into quarters.  Place on quarter string cheese in the center of fat portion of the triangle on pepperoni and roll from wide to skinny forming a stuffed crescent roll.  Sprinkle with italian seasoning and garlic seasoning.

When all 8 are rolled bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.  Dip in marinara sauce if desired.

Recipe adapted from Taste of Home.  Check it out for more detailed instructions and a picture.

Harry Potter and the Horcrux Hunt

For the Harry Potter 7.2 premier this past weekend I decided to to an all out final fling.  At my party in November for part 1 I focused on the Hallows, so this time it was all about destroying Horcruxes.

There were six different challenges you had to complete, one for each horcrux.  Everyone had a lanyard representing their house and when eat challenge was complete you could check it off by covering the number with that horcrux's sticker.  There was also a prize at each horcrux for people to take home.  By completing the challenges you were entered into a raffle.

Diary Challenge: Hermione has been petrified by the monster in the chamber of secrets. The only way to reverse the petrification is to grow Mandrakes. In Herbology we are re-potting the mandrakes today. In 1 minute try to dig up and repot all of the mandrakes (24) to help Hermione while Ron and Harry try to save Ginny from the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets and destroy Tom Riddle’s Diary. When the challenge is complete make sure to collect your own quill and diary.

I got the pot signs from here and the babies from here.  I wish I had earmuffs but didn't have time to find any (plus it's July!!)...  this was a pretty funny challenge.  The favors were little covered notebooks and a small quill tied together with a leather string.

 Ring Challenge: Throw on a witch hat and the object of the game is to toss a ring on your opponents hat. Dumbledore has destroyed the ring but make sure to gather a resurrection stone magnet or hair clip before moving on to the next challenge.

I saw a game like this in college and you can actually buy an official one online, but I just made my own using black posterboard for the hats, and glowstick bracelets for the rings.  It was hilarious!!  I made the resurrection stone magnets by glueing the symbol onto flattened dark green marbles and then glueing those onto magnets using regular tacky craft glue.  They turned out awesome.  The hair clips were the same but small and clear, glued onto bobby pins from oriental trading company.

Locket Challenge: The Locket is at the bottom of the bowl and to collect it you need to drop marbles at nose level into the bowl. Take turns  with your partner and the person with the most marbles in the cup with the locket wins! Make sure to pick up one Harry Potter flair when you complete the challenge.

This was inspired by a minute to win it game called, "Drop, Sink, Clink"...  I picked up the locket on clearance from Hot Topic and used 3 candle votives in the bottom of a plastic bucket.  Instead of quarters we dropped flattened marbles.  I got the Harry Potter flair buttons from Mud in My Blood on etsy.  She has amazing selections of Harry Potter stuff, check her out, and "like" her on facebook for discount coupons codes.

Diadem Challenge: The Ravenclaws are wise and clever. Complete the word search and “Who Said” quiz to complete the challenge. Make sure to grab a book mark since those Ravenclaws love to read!

I found all of the quotes for "Who said" by searching favorite character's quotes online and from here.  The word search is one that Kellie and I worked on months ago by altering one we had found online.  My sister weaved the bookmarks.

Hufflepuff Cup Challenge: When Harry, Ron, and Hermione searched the LeStrange’s vault at Gringotts for the Hufflepuff cup everything they touched multiplied. Split into 2 teams and play the memory game. At the end of the game enjoy a butterbeer or Dark Mark cupcake! Hufflepuff’s apparently love cupcakes.


How shall I prepare thee on this summer day?
Unfrosted, thou art sweet;
Frosted, thou art divine.
Food of the gods,
Like ambrosia to me.
Each bite:
Perfection!
Unusual though it may be,
Forever shall I sing thy praises.
Fantastic; most splendid! My cupcake are thee!

I can't remember where I got this poem SORRY if it was from you!  To make the memory game I found all of the pictures at the Leaky Cauldron and picked out the ones that related to horcruxes.  For the Dark Mark cupcakes I made picks with a dark mark I found on google and the cupcakes were just triple chocolate with buttercream frosting and black sprinkles.  The butterbeer cupcakes were catered by my friend Thu and were absolutely incredible.  She picked up her recipe here. 

Nagini Challenge: When most people have completed the challenges we will re-enact the slaying of Nagini by Neville. Grab the sorting hat and the sword of Gryffindor and give it a try!

For this challenge I picked up a sword from oriental trading company, grabbed my sorting hat, and altered a Dragon pinata to be a snake by cutting off its legs and covering it with dark green crepe paper. 

Mini Cheesecakes

These cheesecakes are super easy, pretty quick, and absolutely delicious.








2 (8oz) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
2 eggs
3/4 cup white sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp lemon juice
vanilla wafers

Line muffin tin with liners and place a vanilla wafer in the bottom of each (should make 18).  Whip cream cheese for 2 minutes to make lighter and fluffy.  Add in sugar and beat.  Stir in flour and baking powder. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix throughouly.  Add vanilla and lemon juice.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Fill each liner evenly.  Bake for 15 minutes and allow to cool completely (about 30 min in pan and then for as long as you can wait in the refridgerator--this is hard to do but they are so much better cold I promise!)...  Middles will sink down creating a perfect spot for berries, whip cream, any topping you desire.

Quick and Easy Key Lime pie

This is an adapted recipe from "Our Best Bites" cookbook.  It was easy, light, and a refreshing summer treat.

4 large limes squeezed for a little over 1/2 cup juice.
5 egg yolks (save the egg whites for an omlet in the morning or something!)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
green food coloring
1 graham cracker crust (I used a store bought)
Whipped cream topping

Whip together egg yolks, lime juice, and condensed milk.  Stir in food coloring (we had neon food coloring which looked perfect) for desired "limey" look.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Pour filling into crust and bake for 15 minutes.  Allow to cool, best if cooled in refridgerator for a couple of hours.  Top with whipped cream.

Classic Apple Pie

I am trying to use up ingredients I have around the house before I leave for Cambodia next week so last night I looked at my pre-made pie crusts, and the 3 apples I had laying around and decided to just go for a simple apple pie.  I had never made an apple pie with a top crust before.  After searching around I found this recipe on allrecipes.com.  The original recipe was for apple pie filling you could freeze and use as needed, thus it is for 5 pies.  I scaled it down and adjusted a bit and this is what I came up with...

3 large apples, sliced thinly (peel as desired, I didn't)
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
3/4 cup white sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 cups water

Thinly slice the apples and mix with lemon juice in a bowl.  In a pot mix together dry ingredients and add water.  Whisk until boiling and boil for 2 minutes.  Stir in apples and bring to boil again.  Turn down heat, and simmer 6 minutes until thickened and apples are soft.  Cool for 20-30 minutes.

Make (or in my case roll out) pie crust into pie dish.  Pour in filling (it's okay if it is still warm) and cover with top crust, cutting slits.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 25-35 minutes until crust is browned on top and golden on bottom (if you have a glass pie dish and can see it of course).

For extra flavor and presentation I whisked one egg with 1 Tbsp cinnamon-sugar mix and brushed the top of the pie with mixture before baking.

Butterfly Decoration

I had so much fun with the USA felt pillow, I decided to once again follow up on a project I liked online.  I had recieved the beautiful Madeline Collection by Prima in my Coordinates Collection kit and had been wondering what to do with the pretty little butterflies, when I saw this on Write Click Scrapbook...

Cheryl Overton and put the collection together and I loved it.  So here is my version (which just so happens to match my wood butterflies I picked up last year!)...

The quote is one by the Persian poet Hafiz, "Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you."

Yay for Spring!

New 52: New wizarding recipes

For my New activity of the week Kellie joined me to make up some recipes from "The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook" by Dinah Bucholz.

There is some seriously strange stuff in there, and some stuff we can't legally make in America (Blood pudding anyone?!) but we found 3 recipes to try and share...

1.  Meat and Potatoes Pies
(I altered this recipe so it was faster...the original took a total of 3 hours not including the 2 hours for the pie dough to chill)...

6 oz chuck steak, diced into small pieces (I used stew meat and cut each piece with scissors into 3 or 4 smaller pieces).
1 small onion, finely diced
Tbsp minced garlic (this is something I added)
1 red potato, peeled and diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1/2 tsp sage
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp veg. oil
2 Tbsp flour

pie crust (The book has a nice recipe for pie crust in it, but needing to be quick I buy premade crusts
1 egg

Heat oil in a skillet and brown meat chunks.  I browned on both sides until meat was nearly cooked through for about 10 minutes.  Remove meat into a bowl to rest and add onions and garlic to skillet to sautee until brown.  Re-add meat and sprinkle with flour.  Pour over chicken broth and mix together.  Bring to a simmer and cover, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes.  Add carrots and potatoes, and sage and mix together.  Continue to simmer for about 15-25 minutes or until potatoes and carrots become softer and mixture is thickened.  Stir every couple of minutes so gravy doesn't burn to bottom.

While simmering cut pie dough into nine 6 inch circles.  Grease a muffin tin and fill each cup with round of dough.  Fill generously with meat and potato filling when done.  Cut nine 4 inch circles with slits in top to create top crust.  Brush top crust with a mixture of 1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp water.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

2.  Glazed Carrots

This recipe was not my favorite, I think it needed brown sugar or something added, but then again, I was never much a fan of cooked carrots.

3.  Canary Custard Cremes

Cookie: 
2 1/4 cup flour
1 small package cook and serve vanilla pudding
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Sift together flour, pudding mix, baking powder, and salt.  In a seperate bowl mix together butter and powdered sugar until fluffy.  This takes about 5 minutes and frequent scraping of the bowl.  Add egg and vanilla to butter mixture and beat until combined.  Add the flour mixture and mix until crumbly.  Add milk and form into a dough.  Roll dough into one inch balls and space about 1 1/2 inches apart.  Press flat and sprinkle with sugar.  Bake for 8 minutes on bottom rack and then 8 minutes on middle rack in oven.  Cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes and then remove to cooling rack.

There is a filling recipe in the book for a basic vanilla frosting.  I had a canned buttermilk frosting on hand and used those instead as the filling between two sandwiched cookies.