Category: Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

All The Food!

LSiehLeave a comment

Sometimes looking back at my food pictures makes me hungry again. 😁 The Husband starts traveling for work shortly, so you might see a few more vegetarian meals and thinks like barley and lentils. I thought I might be lonely, but Piggy is turning out to be goofy and so lovable that I might be less lonely than I think. She came with me to a new and beautiful park today for my outdoor staff meeting and charmed everyone. She mostly snoozed after saying hello.

We don’t think she has had much people food. She doesn’t even seem to get excited about peanut butter! That’s fine with me, it’ll be more peanut butter for me! I haven’t made any blog worthy pb recipes lately though. I’ll have to work on that.

Tonight’s chicken dish was good. I made tequila lime chicken with cilantro rice. We had chips and salsa on the side.

I made chocolate chip pecan muffins for breakfast that were pretty yummy. They were just my standard recipe with add ins.

Instant Pot Korean beef made an appearance. It’s super quick and delicious, so works well for work nights.

We had steak and potatoes on a sheet pan as well. I don’t remember where I got the recipe though. We used round steaks.

We needed some quick and easy comfort food one night after both of us were missing Fancy, so I made delicious caramel apple waffles with homemade caramel and whipped cream. Mmm… I made everyone jealous at work when I brought them for lunch the next day. I also cannot find this recipe, but you can use your favorite waffle recipe and store bought caramel for easier waffles. I just peeled and cooked down three or four apples with butter, cinnamon, and sugar.

On one of our nicer days, we grilled these chicken tenderloins and had them with a Mexican rice side and fresh pico. They were yummy!

And last, but not least, pasta salad with transportation shaped noodles. Hey now, I know what you’re thinking, but adults need whimsy and fun noodle shapes too! 😁

We’re trying to get back in the habit of meal planning again. Our days have been messed up, so we have taken our 3 month dive into on the fly dinners again, but it’s not super relaxing, so are trying to get structure back. I took all next week off from work, so am going to try to experiment with some new dishes. I may also can or bake, but we’ll see how lazy I feel.

I’m headed off to bed. I do have a new recipe to write up, but got a little too much sun today resulting in heat hives, so am super sleepy from the allergy meds. I think you probably want the recipe to actually make sense. 😬 So have a lovely night!

Wordless Wednesday- What We Ate Catch-up
Recipe Roundup · Wordless Wednesdays

Wordless Wednesday- What We Ate Catch-up

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Chocolate chip pecan banana bread

Chicken Divan

Beef Quesadillas and salad

Chicken/Turkey burger with mushrooms, cheese, and onions

Pot roast with noodles, carrots, and potatoes.

“The Best Mac and Cheese!” -According to the Husband. I used marscapone.

Blueberry muffins

PB Molten Lava Cake in the Instant pot.

Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

I think I’m sort of back in a cooking routine again. It’s been weird being home, but still working. I lose track of how much time I need to actually make things before having to retreat to the basement to start my telehealth sessions. I think I’ve managed to get out of my cooking rut at least. I made homemade puff pastry to top a steak and mushroom pie for Pi Day, for example!

I was impressed with myself! This is even the cheater version and it still has super flaky layers and loveliness.

I’m spoiled now and plus, I have all this butter… I see more puff pastry in my future. The puff pastry recipe is here: https://www.homecookingadventure.com/recipes/rough-puff-pastry

We used the Instant Pot to cook the filling! I left out the bacon as we had none thawed and surprisingly, the Husband liked it without it! He said to leave it out next time too. Apparently, there should be several next times for this meal. 🙂 The steak and mushroom pie recipe is here: https://www.jocooks.com/recipes/steak-and-mushroom-pie/

We also had baked chicken thighs with a spicy rub. The Husband had a salad and rice and I had buttered, herbed brussel sprouts.

An old favorite made an appearance, spaghetti! This one was cooked on the stove. This time I used two cans of tomatoes and two cans of sauce and that seems to be the perfect stove top method for us. We like it a little more saucy.

We, of course, had lasagna, after the spaghetti. I used my favorite french bread recipe to make herbed bread. Don’t tell the Husband, but I used the Sandwich Sprinkle in the batter and it was lovely.

I made Chicken Bacon Ranch pasta with the leftover from the chicken dinner. It was a fun recipe to try. I wasn’t sure how I would like the combo of spices, but it was fun. I made my own ranch dressing spice mix. The Husband is interested to try homemade ranch with the spice mix soon too. We would probably eat this again.

The recipe is here: https://thetoastykitchen.com/chicken-bacon-ranch-pasta/

Another fun recipe that I have had on my list to try for a while is Shrimp Hushpuppies from Tasty Kitchen. Since we had some extra time this week, I whipped up a batch.

They were pretty good and a fun recipe to try. We were thinking of other things to try in the batter. They reminded me a little of the corn fritters that my Mom used to make. Here’s the link: https://tastykitchen.com/recipes/appetizers-and-snacks/shrimp-hushpuppies/

These were the other pies we had on Pi day! We used this recipe to make apple turnovers. https://anitalianinmykitchen.com/apple-pie-breakfast-turnovers/

They were yummy! My inlaws helped the Husband move a server cage into our house, which at one point involved taking off the doors so the Husband could stand in the middle of it to get it down the stairs. Fancy tried to rescue him when it ended up hitting his shins. It was a circus, but the turnovers helped make up for it.

To finish off on an even sweeter note, here’s the latest homemade ice cream experiment. When we cleaned the freezer, we discovered a sad looking bowl of strawberries that were obviously in need of rescue. Since they didn’t look like they would be good to eat, we made ice cream instead! It was delicious and made with no eggs!

We needed a chocolate sauce, so I made a chocolate ganache and we ate it over Ghirardelli brownies the next couple of nights. It was amazing with both! Here’s the recipe: https://theculinarychase.com/2012/06/easy-homemade-strawberry-ice-cream/

Yum! I’ve made a few more fun things, including some new treats for Fancy, but those will be in a later post, as I don’t have the pictures yet. I hope you’re finding time to experiment with fun foods and things to do! Stay healthy!

Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

Hello from the variable weather of today. Yesterday it was so windy and cold that I couldn’t go outside for long because I like breathing without coughing. Our meals lately have been a lot of warm things, soups, and things without dairy as we both have a cold. We’re finally getting over it, although the Husband thinks he’s getting sick again. He better keep it to himself this time! I don’t need a second round, thank you.

I have been making sure to eat a good breakfast, even cooking, when I actually get up in time. I made these double chocolate, peanut butter chip muffins from a Food Network website recipe, but wasn’t happy with them.

They were super greasy, which was pretty disappointing. Normally I have good luck with FN recipes. I won’t post this one though, because it’s not very good.

I even made a fancy breakfast of French Toast for us last weekend. Nothing fancy, couple eggs, a cup of milk, and some cinnamon. I added cinnamon to whipped cream too. We used our friends’ homemade maple syrup as well and had chicken sausages.

I made chocolate chip pecan waffles for dinner one of the nights the Husband was moving his office late. I used Penzey’s Pie Spice in the batter as well, for a little extra deliciousness.

I got excited upon seeing a sale on passionfruit at the grocery store and bought 5 of them to play with. I ended up making passionfruit curd, which was absolutely delicious! Here’s the recipe I used. https://www.theflavorbender.com/make-passion-fruit-curd/

The Flavor Bender website has a lot of popup adds, so I almost used a different site, but it looked like the easiest one and had freezing directions as well. Here’s what the curd looked like on homemade yogurt.

It has a very distinct smell, which when you got a certain whiff was actually mildly unpleasant. The pulp smells like what you think tropical things smell like. It’s hard to describe! I was a little bit doubtful because of that and the Husband almost took the dog for an extra walk to escape it. It’s deliciously tart and has some texture from the seeds. It was amazing in yogurt, as they tamed each other. I felt so fancy!

Right as the Husband started the move in his new office, and coincidently his cold, we had corned beef in the crock pot. I don’t have a picture of that because we ate at different times, but I do have a picture of what I made with the leftovers. We had corned beef hash.

I used a recipe from The Spruce Eats, but left out the carrots and cabbage. https://www.thespruceeats.com/corned-beef-hash-with-cabbage-and-carrots-3054282

It may look homely, but it was delicious. The potatoes could be a little crispier, but they tasted good. The Husband raved about it and requested corned beef again, specifically so we could have this hash. We had fruit for a side as well, of course.

Tequila lime chicken with cilantro rice made an appearance on our menu again. It’s super easy and tasty.

We had burgers a week apart as well; beef burgers first and then turkey burgers.

The Husband requested seasoned fries and we had toasted buns. Mmmm. I used Montreal Steak seasoning in the burgers. I didn’t use a recipe for either burger, just made it up as I went along.

Here’s the turkey burgers with Cajun spices and seasoned fries. I was going to serve chips, but the Husband said that fries would “be good for my soul,” so that’s why we had fries again.

The turkey burgers turned out yummy as well.

We have been using Jet Tila’s 101 Asian Dishes You Need To Cook Before You Die. It’s been good so far, but I will save those recipes for a cookbook review, as there’s a couple more that we want to try first.

The Husband and Fancy are snoozing on the couch next to me and it’s making me super sleepy. It might be time for bed. Hopefully that will help kick the last of this cold!

Have a cozy night!

Recipe Roundup

Cooking Adventures

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Hello! I’m staying up late tonight because I’m cranky about going to bed. I’ll only have myself to blame tomorrow when I’m cranky about getting up, but such is life.

We’ve been experimenting some with recipes these past couple of weeks. I made some fancier foods and some regular recipes. This week is kind of a terrible week for food pictures, as the Husband’s job is moving buildings and everything is apparently a mess. I never know if he will actually be home for dinner or not. I’ll start with the fancy foods and then give you a quick run down of the regulars.

Probably the fanciest meal we had was duck! We had potatoes and swiss chard cooked in the duck fat as a side, as well as some kind of fruit that I can’t remember.

I followed this method from The Kitchn for cooking the recipe, just added the Swiss chard to the potatoes. https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-cook-duck-breast-254046

I like their recipes as they are pretty uncomplicated and easy to follow. I was nervous, but I think I did do a fairly good job on cooking it.

We also had a fondue date night a few weeks ago and watched Star Wars. A cheesy dinner with a cheesy movie was perfect for us. Fancy drooled all over our feet and attempted big puppy dog eyes, but alas, no fondue was provided. Cheese is life to Fancy.

It was really rich and delicious. I shared the plate of fondue dippers in the Blue Plate Special photos, but here it is again.

It was a fun dinner. We had butterkase, sharp cheddar, and fontina cheeses in the fondue. I heavily modified a recipe from the Melting Pot. I used the leftover fondue to make mac and cheese which was also delicious.

Apparently I have been using my flamingo pink Fiestaware a lot lately. I should probably do a regular color rotation for the dishes. 🙂

Here’s the pink plate again, this time with a Valentine’s Day dinner of roasted chicken, stuffing, and buttery herbed carrots. I used the herb butter I made with garden herbs in all three items. The stuffing is Stove Top. The Husband likes it, so I do occasionally make it. It’s growing on me a little.

Here’s another fancy dish on the pink plate. 🙂 This one is a lamb shoulder chop with Cajun roasted potatoes and roasted zucchini for me. The Husband had a salad.

It was pretty decent, although a bit fatty for me, of course. The lamb was seasoned with garlic and rosemary. I used garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, and olive oil on the zucchini and Cajun seasoning on the potatoes. Here’s the recipe for the chops. https://www.craftbeering.com/lamb-shoulder-chops-recipe/

I ended up frying the rest of the potatoes for breakfast the next morning. They were delicious.

I had them with eggs and sage chicken sausages. It was a good breakfast.

We’ve been pretty good about using leftovers for the most part. I made taco meat for taco salad one weeknight and we used the leftover meat for nachos on Saturday for lunch.

I added beans that I cooked down with lime juice, cumin, garlic, cilantro, and chili powder to mine and it was yummy! I also used fritos in my salad. I think the Husband used tortilla chips. Here are the nachos from the weekend.

We had delicious sandwiches for lunch one day too. When our toaster finally only toasted things properly on Thursdays, we decided to get rid of it and the Husband wanted to get a toaster oven so he could have toasted sandwiches. I do enjoy them as well.

I like them even better with homemade dilly beans!

We have also had some staple meals: mushroom cream pasta, chicken pot pie, and chef’s salad.

This has pesto in it as well!

And of course, some baking. I made cupcakes from a box, but used a super fancy frosting recipe with chocolate marscapone cheese to make up for the box mix. We had them for dessert for my MIL’s birthday. They weren’t really interesting to photograph though. I thought I had saved the frosting link, but it appears that I haven’t actually done that. Whoops!

Tonight we had spicy wonton soup, since the Husband is starting to get sick. I used the wontons from Costco, plus a bunch of spices, including turmeric, white pepper, ginger, garlic, 5 spice powder, soy sauce, fish sauce, spicy chili oil, mushrooms, green onions, and carrots. It was lovely and spicy.

We’re supposed to get lots of snow tomorrow, so I’m not sure if I will end up at work or not. I haven’t had many cancellations yet, but that may change with the weather in the morning. I’m torn between wanting to get paid and seeing clients and staying home to bake, sew, and snuggle the dog. I’ll leave you with a picture of a snuggly Fancy to help you guess which option is winning. 😉

Happy Snuggling and Good Night!

Party Posts · Recipe Roundup

Epiphany Party 2020

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It never fails with parties. I make several towers of cookies and treats and not very many people come. But if I make less, lots of people come and they I don’t have enough cookies! It’s a struggle. This year the weather was bad too, so some of our regular crew couldn’t make it. It was lovely to have the people who were able to come though and we had some new guests as well. Everyone was charmed by the tablecloth story as usual and we did pretty well on eating up leftovers. We still have cookies though…

Cookie stacks

I was excited to try pepperkaker this year and have them actually work! The last time I tried them, they went horribly wrong and I cried. This year, they were a hit and I figured out some tricks for the dough. I used this recipe from Outside Oslo- http://www.outside-oslo.com/norwegian-christmas-cookies-pepperkaker/

So the trick for me was to let the dough warm up just a little and then just wale on it with the rolling pin. Once it started getting too sticky, I would put it back in the fridge. The recipe makes a lot though, so I would halve the recipe next time. They are delicious! This particular recipe doesn’t have black pepper in it, so I would be interested to try one with that added. I eye measured the spices and so probably had some of the proportions off, but they were a hit at the party.

They are pictured here with the Tahini Blossoms which were from the Better Homes and Gardens cookie issue from 2019. People were surprised to find out that these weren’t peanut butter blossoms! They have a nice nutty taste. They did take some extra prep work. You had to chill them, make the dough into balls, and then freeze the balls for a while to prevent spreading. I don’t think it helped that much because they still spread a bunch. They weren’t my favorite, but were liked in general.

The top cookies on this plate are Malted Butter Riches, which were pretty plain. I didn’t have a chance to make the frosting for them, so I might have liked them better with it instead. They were one of the Retro Recipes from the BHG magazine. I was intrigued by the name, but probably wouldn’t make them again. Also from the magazine were the Linzer hearts on the bottom. My friend sent us home from our visit with sugarplum jam, which was delicious sandwiched in between the cookies. We also had sandbakkels from this recipe: http://www.outside-oslo.com/norwegian-christmas-cookies-sandkaker-sandbakkelse/

I really enjoyed reading Outside Oslo, by the way, and have several other recipes that I want to try. Lingonberry cake is high on my list, but I will need to order some lingonberries.

Last, but not least, on this plate are Cranberry Spiced Shortbreads. I didn’t end up making the eggnog icing, but the cookies were still good. They are from Sally’s Baking Addiction. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/cranberry-spice-cookies/

We, of course, had to have peanut butter balls.

It wouldn’t be Christmas/Epiphany without them!

We also had some dairy free, gluten free, and vegan cookies this year. On this plate were the gluten free/dairy free Almond Spritz Cookies and the Vegan chocolate chip. I was surprised to find vegan chocolate chips from Nestle at the store. I taste tested a few of them and they weren’t too far off what I was expecting. You know I’m a huge chocolate snob too, so if I liked them, they had to be good.

The Vegan Chocolate Chip were from the BHG magazine and the almond spritz were from here: https://www.mamaknowsglutenfree.com/almond-spritz-cookies-gluten-free-dairy-free/

I don’t remember tasting a vegan chocolate chip, so I couldn’t tell you how they tasted, but they were on the table with Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip and people were eating them both up, so they must have been good. The Almond Spritz had a grainy texture, which is sometimes an effect of the gluten free flour. My gluten free blend is nut free, which I learned is not always the case. I was glad to be able to offer them to my friends with different dietary needs though.

On this plate, we have chocolate banana bread and Nissu. The chocolate banana bread was from one of my cookbooks. I want to say Baking Unplugged, but I’m not entirely sure. It was pretty good.

Of course, we had to have a pickle and veggie tray!

We had homemade dilly beans and spicy pickles. Fancy charmed everyone into giving her carrots. 🙂

Another traditional item was the Rulle. It was delicious! I had freshly ground allspice this year again, which made a big difference, I think.

We tried a new savory item this year, in addition to the crab dip and meat, cheese, and cracker tray. These are ham and cheese crescent rolls.

We had a panic moment the night before trying to figure out another savory item to have, as we thought we didn’t have enough. I do tend to focus more on the cookie part. I made the crescent dough because I’m an overachiever when it comes to hospitality. We also had a balela bean salad, which was vegan and fancy. Also, delicious. I ate it for lunches and didn’t have to share after the party. https://reluctantentertainer.com/balela-salad/

So like I said, it was a smaller party, but definitely worth the work. Fancy was in heaven with children and adults to rub her belly. We had the guest room set up with the Husband’s loose Legos and a book of Lego Christmas ornaments. Fancy kept shooting worried glances down the hall, as she could hear them, but not see them. We didn’t get any actual Christmas ornaments, but did get some pretty neat towers.

Next year, I might try to reign it in foodwise…

Ha! Who am I kidding? I’ll see you at the Epiphany Party 2021 post wild eyed, battle weary, covered in sugar, and holding 4 pounds of butter clutched to my chest.

25 Treats of Christmas Round Up
Recipe Roundup

25 Treats of Christmas Round Up

LSiehLeave a comment

I’m a little behind on my cookie notes! It has been a busy couple of months and I’m still getting back into the swing of blogging. I thought you might be interested in seeing some more of the recipes though. In case you forgot, these were the cookies I made before the party. I’ll share our party treats in another post. I officially made all 25 treats, but some of them didn’t get photographed. Everyone was quite amazed. I ended up making about 2 batches of cookies every couple of days, sometimes three doughs, if they needed to chill.

These cookies are Chocolate Orange Pecan, Ginger Sugar cookies- hearts, and Norwegian Spice Cookies-snowflakes.

I thought the ginger sugar cookies didn’t have enough ginger. I was very into spices and unusual cookies this year. The Norwegian Spice cookies reminded me of apple pie and were one of the hits at the office. The Chocolate Pecan Orange cookies were also delicious, although I found that the chocolate cookies didn’t hold well and got kind of weird and dry. I would make a smaller batch of the chocolate cookies next time and wouldn’t bother making the ginger cookies. The spice cookies I would make again.

The chocolate cookies were from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookie magazine from 2019. The Ginger Sugar Cookies were from the Food Network December issue from 2016. The Norwegian Spice Cookies were from this website: https://roamingrosie.com/tag/norwegian-spice-cookies/

These Lemon Poppyseed cookies are from the Food Network December 2016 issue too.

The cookies were not super sweet and I accidentally left the poppyseeds out of the dough. As you can see, I just added them to the glaze. They almost started an office war between the Office Manager and another therapist who was trying to steal the tin. 🙂 Oh, and another therapist hip checked me away from my own cookies! It was a shocking, but hilarious display of cookie rage. 🙂 There was one other kind of cookie involved in this particular cookie mob and were also delicious. I found I tended to use the same magazine for a couple of different recipes- this one is also from FN Dec ’16.

Peanut Butter Crinkles with mini chocolate chips. I would make both of these cookies again. They both held well too.

The next one up was hotly contested and may have caused a not very Christmasy disagreement between the Husband and myself. These Cookies and Cream Drops from the Better Homes and Gardens magazine were either the favorite, or very much disliked. I was in the middle, but wouldn’t make them again.

They had frosting made from melting the middles of Oreos. It was weird and I didn’t like that part. They were either supposed to taste under-baked or I accidentally under-baked them. I baked them at the correct temperature for longer than it called for and they still tasted that way. They were also not sweet, which was really weird considering how much sugar there was in the recipe. I think they were supposed to be soft and cakey. The Husband had one bite, spit it out, and loudly declared them to be “an embarrassment to your reputation” and refused to take them into work! According to him, they were inedible. 🙁 However, at least a couple people at my work liked them, so they did mostly get eaten. As you can imagine, I will not be making them again.

Sadly for the Husband’s office, I declined to send many more cookies after that little incident. I was much offended. The Husband has since apologized and I have forgiven him his ridiculous statements… well, mostly…

I also made Malted Milk Brownies, Tahini Blossoms, and Dulce de Leche Thumbprints, all from the BHG magazine. The Thumbprints were too plain for me. They were a recipe that you made a large quantity of basic dough and then added to it. The second batch of them had cinnamon and other spices added to the dough and it still didn’t taste good to me. I won’t be making that dough again.

Lessons learned this year was that I definitely needed to add up amounts of ingredients like butter, flour, and sugar before the start of baking season. I definitely wasn’t prepared for the need for brown sugar this year and had we not had extra flour, I would have run out. The butter stores were good. I ended with about 10 pounds left, so probably used around 12 pounds total, just for the cookies. We did run out of regular chocolate chips, so I had to make a small Costco run to find more in the middle of baking season.

It was helpful to list out the specialty ingredients and know which recipes I was going to make ahead of time. I spread those purchases over a couple of shopping trips too, so that was good.

Getting into a routine of “make this dough to chill, then make this recipe to bake right away” was another good organizational tool. I felt very organized with all my lists in the same spot too. My blog notebook is full of all the lists! I still have about half of the notebook left too, so room for many more. 🙂

I still have a bunch of recipes I want to try, so I’m sure you’ll see more cookies this year. Hopefully not everyone at the office is on diets!

Please bear with me as I catch up on blogging again! I’ll bribe you with cute Fancy pictures, if I have to! Here’s one, so you know I’m serious. 😉

With that done, please excuse me while I head to bed. I have to have rest to bake up more cookies! Have a sweet night!

Recipe Roundup

25 Treats Of Christmas Review- Week 1

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Hello and welcome to this edition of “I’m Scandinavian and can’t stop feeding people.” 😁

I’m sharing the treats with two of the three offices that my center operates, and with the Husband’s office. The third of our offices only has two people working there, so my director beings cookies over when she goes there, as it’s a bit far for me.

The butter count started at 22 lbs and is down to 18-19 lbs. We bought another 25 lb of flour (probably had 30 ish lbs with that bag when I started) and 3 lbs of brown sugar. A lot of my cookies call for brown sugar this year. The Husband and I both eyed the pile of butter doubtfully when we bought the second batch, but it’s holding out so far.

I was much more organized this year while planning my 25 Treats of Christmas list. I have a few lists that include a running master grocery list, which magazine they are from, whether or not I need additional items, and if the dough is chilled or can just be made and baked right away. The Husband is very impressed. I think everyone else just thinks I’m a little crazy.

I’m making 2-3 batches at a time and bringing them in twice a week. It evens out to about a batch a day. People have started making requests! 😁 I tend to make a chilled dough the night before and bake them the morning of. I’m getting into quite a routine. It’s a lot more fun and a lot less stress than in previous years.

But you don’t want to hear the management side of things! On to the cookies!!

These were the first two batches. I brought them in right before Thanksgiving. The stars are Maple Star Sandwich Cookies and the others are Orange Molasses Snickerdoodles. Both are from previous editions of the Food Network Christmas Cookie collections.

I used my friends’ homemade maple syrup for them and they were good, but not maple enough for me. I would use more maple next time. Everyone else enjoyed them though. Even people who weren’t sure about the maple said they were good. I would make them again.

People were intrigued by the snickerdoodles. They reminded me more of gingersnaps than snickerdoodles though and weren’t my favorite. I think they were a touch dry for me.

The next cookie is a vegan and gluten free banana bread cookie. The picture is from the Husband’s work about 2 hours after he put them out. The tin was full when it went in. They are from this website: https://www.simplyjillicious.com/banana-bread-cookies

These have almond flour and no butter. They are naturally sweetened with the bananas and maple syrup. I could probably actually give these to Fancy, although I’d have to check on the almond flour first. They needed a heck of a lot more spices than the recipe called for, but were pretty good.

The second recipe I sent with the Husband was gone even faster. These are Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip cookies. The Husband has requested them again for Epiphany.

These are from the recent Better Homes and Gardens Christmas cookie edition. I have been having issues with my FN subscription, so haven’t received the December edition yet and needed a cookie fix. They are delicious! I will definitely be making these again.

The next three recipes are also from that magazine.

Chocolate Mint Chip. These were a big hit at my offices. I accidentally forgot the baking powder, but they were good regardless. I subbed Nestle peppermint baking truffles for the Andes pieces because it was what I had.

These are Citrus Meltaways. They have lemon and orange peel, lime, and lemon juices.

They are a slice and bake and were delicious. They would be a good summer cookie too. They are a bit delicate, but that just meant I could snack on the broken ones. 🙂 I will make them again.

Sweet and Salty Butterscotch Cookies

Judging by how many came back, these weren’t as big of a hit as some of the others. They also had cashews in them. The picture looked so good, but I did find them a little bland. I probably wouldn’t make them again.

This recipe got rave reviews from everyone and I will probably share the it at some point. It’s from a Food Network magazine.

They are gluten and dairy free Coconut Snowballs. I subbed Country Crock plant based sticks for the butter and it calls for rice flour. I completely forgot the coconut, but even so, they were good.

These will be made for the Epiphany Party too, as they are technically vegan when made dairy free. We don’t have a ton of vegan friends, but it never hurts to have something, just in case.

Which one do you think would be your favorite? Mine were the citrus melt aways and the chocolate mint.

Stay tuned for an overdue Recipe Review coming up this weekend! I hope your day is sweet!

Cookbook Review · Recipe Roundup

Wordy Wednesday- Cookbook Review- The Chew

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It’s been a while since I have reviewed a cookbook! I haven’t been interested in using just one lately. There’s a large chance that I accidentally obtained a few more too. 😉 And by chance, I mean, we went to book sales and I was unsupervised in the used book store…

For this cookbook, it took me a while to make the recipes I wanted to try, so they’re spread out over a month or two.

The recipes weren’t hard to follow, but they did have multiple steps and some required specialty ingredients.

This one is Michael Symon’s Holiday Mac And Cheese Casserole. It called for a full pound of bacon, half and half, marscapone cheese, Guyere, and butternut squash.

I had my doubts about the cheese sauce, as it was looking pretty runny, but it thickened up in the oven. I watered down cream for the half and half and used marscapone and a shredded cheddar jack blend. We didn’t enjoy the butternut squash in it at all. I have added squash before and it was fine, but this time it was gross. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too rich! I would make it again, but remove the squash.

This is General Tsao’s Chicken by Clinton Kelly.

It was a pretty quick dinner to make. The recipe had a lot of steps, but they all went quickly. I left out the broccoli for the Husband and made it on the side instead.

I’m not entirely sure I made it right. I think it was supposed to be crispier? It tasted good though. Definitely adding more sauce next time would be good. The rice was a little dry without it.

We tried Carla Phall’s Peach Cobbler. It was alright, but I thought it needed less crust and more seasoning. We ate it with churro flavored ice cream, which made it good. I don’t know if I would make it again. It smelled lots better than it tasted.

We also tried her fried Chicken Recipe. Oh man.. It was probably the best thing we tried out of the book.

We used drumsticks and thighs for it. The breading was slightly too salty for me, but the Husband loved it. The chicken sat in a dry rub for most of the day and then got dipped twice in a seasoned flour mix. It was tasty! The Husband ate it voraciously and declared me “the best wife ever.” Of course, now he wants more of it. 😄

I can’t find a picture, but we also tried the Turkey Meatball Subs by Mario Batali. I don’t remember thinking they were the best thing ever, but I think they were pretty good. If I were going to use them again, I would use less panko crumbs. They were kind of bready. I used homemade Spicy Scillian Pasta sauce instead of making a new batch. We also used turkey Italian sausage instead of the pork. It’s probably a safe bet that if I cannot remember them, I won’t be making them again.

Overall, it’s s good cookbook. The instructions are generally clear. It is arranged seasonally, so you do have to think of that when trying to find recipes. There are little hints and tips, plus the behind the scenes info about the show that are neat to read. It also fits nicely in my cookbook holder.

There are a few recipes that I still want to try. Soda bread, whoopie pies, and a potato leek soup are next on my list. I will be holding on to this cookbook for a bit yet, I think.