Fresh Baked

My virtual friend Ara over at My Edible Yard has a fantastic recipe for white wheat bread.  I made it this morning which makes 2 loaves and already the kids and I have devoured about 2/3's of one. I have been trying to make all our own bread from scratch and this recipe is ridiculously easy and tasty. You can also break it out for rolls. I'm going to try it for english muffins but I need to buy more yeast.

I've made it twice, once using raw Honey and this time Agave nectar and couldn't tell a difference so whatever sweetener you have on hand should work just fine.

Pumpkin Pie French Toast -Recipe

I love squash. I love that it can be savory or sweet. I love that it can be a dessert, a side, a main course or breakfast. I love growing it and visiting local pumpkin patches. I can't wait to have yards of vines weighed down with heavy gourds.

Pumpkin is one of those foods that calls out Autumn which just happens to be my favorite time of year. I recently brought home some regular and pie pumpkins to roast and can (in the fridge or freezer if you're doing purees). The yield was amazing and the flavor so sweet in those little pies that I could eat the puree without a dash of anything else.

I woke up one Friday with the gnawing need in my stomach to make pumpkin pie french toast. I'd never done it before and was too bleary eyed to look up a recipe so if this is similar to another it wasn't intentional. I broke out the family sized electric griddle (have I mentioned how much I LOVE this thing?) and set to work.

Here is the recipe.

Pumpkin Pie French Toast.

Ingredients

2 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup milk
2 tbs cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp all spice
8 large slices of bread (I used dark whole wheat which I think too a bit away from the pumpkin flavor)

Whisk everything except the bread in a bowl while you preheat the griddle. Pour into a shallow pan or plate. Soak each side of the bread in the mixture to coat and throw on the griddle. Cook until golden brown.

You can play around with the spices and pumpkin, omitting the milk makes it harder for the bread to absorb the mix but can be done. With my griddle as long as the side is cooked completely, I don't have to use oil or butter to cook. Drizzle with real maple syrup or eat smeared with pumpkin butter.

What is your favorite pumpkin or squash recipe?

Mac n Cheese and Home Fries

I used to get food from Schwans. I started with them years ago when I was huge pregnant with #4. I like some of their stuff and they have fairly good prices considering I don't have to drag a ton of kids the store. Then I looked at the ingredients list.

Oh. My. Word. The quick bake fries have FIFTEEN ingredients. Seriously. Fifteen! It's a french fry, I thought to myself, what on earth could it be other than a cut potato? So, I stopped buying the fries. I stopped buying boxed dry mac n cheese eons ago but trouble is my kids really like mac n cheese (what average kid doesn't?). So, the poor favorite mac n cheese got left for "special occasions" meaning someone else made it wherever we happened to be.

But no more! I have come up with some simple, healthy alternatives for these classic comfort foods.

Home Fries or Baked Potato Wedges

Potatoes
1tbs oil
sprinkle of salt
seasoning (optional)

I used white potatoes with the skins on, olive oil, Hymalaian sea salt and salt free general purpose seasoning.

Cut the potatoes into wedges. Place in a bowl with the oil, salt and seasoning. Use your hands to toss and bake at 375 F for 15 min, then flip and do another 15 min.

Mac N Cheese

1lb noodles
1lb cheese
2 cups milk
2 tbs Flour

Cut the cheese into small chunks. Melt the cheese in the milk in a sauce pan over medium high heat adding flour in 1tbs increments to reach desired thickness. While this is cooking boil the water and cook the pasta, we used shells. Drain pasta when finished, put back into the pot and stir in the cheese.

Enjoy!

1+1 = mmmmmm

I love to use canning jars for single-serving-take-along ice teas. We're in Florida, ya'll, our lives center around good cold Sweet Tea. I've wanted to expand this so the kids could have some too but I've struggled making lemonade. No idea why, just couldn't get the water-lemon-sugar ratios right. Yesterday, a fellow blogger posted a lemonade recipe. Boy, is it good!

For the tea simply place one tea bag in each pint size jar and add boiling water leaving a little headroom for adding flavoring or sweetener. Steep for 10-15 minutes. Seal with a well fitting lid and refrigerate. Hubby likes his unsweet and I like mine sweet so I just make them all unsweet and add sugar to mine when I have one. It's easier than trying to figure out whos is whos.

Now, here's where life gets a little more interesting. I made Shaken Lemonade Iced Tea. Ohhhh. Now that I have a good solid lemonade recipe making my favorite after-coffee drink from you-know-where is easy. And a lot cheaper than the 3+ dollar drink.

Crystal's Shaken Lemonade Iced Tea

Make one jar of tea but reserve one additional empty jar. Make up the lemonade while it steeps. Pour half the tea into the empty jar and fill both jars the rest of the way with lemonade. It's THAT easy!

You can modify the ratios (I like that word today) to more tea or more lemonade per jar to taste.

Using jars makes it easy to grab some hydration to take out to the garden and the lids keep the bugs and dirt out too!

I scored some canning jar drinking cups at the local thrift store.

I got this whole lot for $1.82! So, if you don't have jars at the ready, before you go looking to buy new, see what you can find! Deals like this make the tea even sweeter.

Snack Attack

We like snacks. Sometimes entire meals are made up of snacking foods. The other day I made crispy kale. I hadn't tried it before but it sounded good (and it is, by the way). I cooked it a bit too long though and it was really crispy. So, I decided to crunch it up and sprinkle it on my popcorn. mmmmm. What a treat!

My friend Chellie had posted on FaceBook (because this is the only place I ever interact with people and I'm really addicted to human contact) that she liked those little reusable ziplock type bags but they were kinda pricey. So, I made her some. And made me some, too. Emmy loves them. They hold our dear snacks.

Emmy? Can mommy have one?

Um, not likely.

Crystal's Pasta

One thing that has slowly changed since I've first gotten married and then mothered babes is my ability to cook. By no means am I a skilled chef. If you've ever been a guest or had me as a guest chances are you've eaten food I've made. I like feeding people.

It's one of those basic needs we all have. Food is the essence of life. I like contributing to others lives in simple ways. Needful ways.

A recipe I've fallen back on time and time again is this simple pasta dish shown above. It's simple and easy yet filling, hearty and packed with vitamins.

Step 1. go in the fridge/pantry/garden and collect a variety of veggies. Try and get a wide color spectrum. Chop them up into bit sized pieces.  (above I have 3 different color sweet peppers, canned black olives and tomatoes) You'll want about 2 cups of cut up veggies.

Step 2. Boil some water and cook up some pasta. Doesn't matter the kind really, we've used everything from spaghetti to ravoili and it always works out.

Step 3. Grab some pasta sauce or mash up some ripe tomatoes, you only want about a cup or two for a large pot of pasta. Warm it in the microwave or stovetop, don't cook it, just warm it up a bit. Toss in your diced up veggies and remove from heat. This will be really chunky.

Step 4. Drain the pasta and pour the sauce on top. Mix well and serve with a generous helping of Parmesean.

You can add salt and pepper or other spices if you like but I usually cook without it. Some ideas for veggies are:

artichoke hearts
roasted red peppers
raw peppers
raw tomatoes
fresh spinach
cucumber (yeah really)
eggplant
zucchini
various squashes
peas
carrots

You name it. This is a great way to use up the little bits of veggies you might have laying around and fast enough to make on a night when you forget what to make or have little time.

Enjoy!

Smoothies a la Me

I like smoothies in all their forms. Juice based, milk based, yogurt based. You say smoothie I say "yeah!" I've always thought it was a great way to use up too ripe fruit and get much needed vites into the kiddo's. I have just one little problem.

I don't know how to make a smoothie.

Well, that's not entirely true. I know how to get a packet of smoothie mix from the store and blend it with frozen fruit and milk but after that my knowledge, experience and confidence in smoothie making goes flying out the window. Right along with all the amazing benefits of this simple treat. I have friends that make smoothies with vegetables (vegetables!) and still I sat on the fence mystified, thinking there must be a book, a website, to learn from. Some carnal knowledge that is ingrained in their bones giving them the keys to successful smoothie making sans powdered mixes and hip juice joints.

So I asked, and guess what? they just winged it. I've been known for sucessfully winging. Heck, I do it daily with five kids running around. Maybe smoothie making isn't too far out of reach for me.

Yesterday, I set out to confront my uncomfortableness. That's part of this whole big scheme I have going on with farming. Looking at a project or problem and not walking away. Not taking the easy road and letting someone else do it. Standing up to it and my inadequacies and head butting them like one of the goats I want to raise.

I stuck some stuff in a blender.

That there is Kefir (another new headbutting thing I'm trying), Strawberries, raw Wheat Germ, organic Whole Milk, Kale and Honey. I only added one leaf of Kale for the whole smoothie. I might be ramming things with my head but I don't want a concussion. Easy, baby steps over here.

I had to tweak it a bit. The strawberries weren't very tasty, actually a bit too tart so I added about a tsp of Raw Sugar to round it out.

I might not have blended it quite enough, the Kale pieces were noticable and a bit large but I did get most of the kids to drink it and I had some too! I encourage you, if there is a thing you want to try but are unsure to just go ahead and do it. The final product might not be perfect but it'll be yours and it'll be good.

Hearty Healthy Pumpkin Muffins Recipe

I read somewhere that cupcakes are just an edible utencil for eating frosting. And if that's true than muffins are edible utencils for streusel. I *heart* streusel. More than homemade frosting. I've been tweaking this recipe for a few weeks and I think I have it to the point where I can confidently share it. I've added quite a few nutrition boosters to make this delicious treat a bit healthier food option.

 Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients

1/4 cup Salted Butter

1/2 cup Granulated Sugar

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1 can of Pumpkin Puree

1/2 cup Heavy Cream

2 Eggs

2 tbs Black Strap Molassas

2 cups Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

2 tsp Cinamon

Pinch of All Spice

Pinch of Nutmeg

2tbs Raw Wheat Germ

2tbs freshly ground Flax Seed

Topping Ingredients (mix these all up)

2/3 cup Flour

1/4  cup Brown Sugar (or Raw Sugar)

1/2 cup Grain Mix*

1 tbs Wheat Germ

2tbs Salted Butter

*I used Bob's Redmill 5 grain oatmeal mix but you can use whatever mix or just plain non-quick cook oats

Directions
Preheat oven to 375. Cream the butter and both sugars together. Mix in the eggs one at a time until well blended. Add pumpkin and everything else wet, mix for thirty seconds. Add dry and mix well. Fill lined muffin tins 3/4 full. Add a tablespoon of topping to each and pat it down a bit to stick into the batter. Cook for 20-25 min until a toothpick comes out clean. Let them cool completely before removing liner. Maxkes 2 dozen muffins.

You can substitute regular molassas for the black strap and omit the flax and wheat germ if you like but those few ingredients will boost the health value of your muffins. My kids gobble these up (as do I and Rob) and the 2 dozen doesn't last but a day. Enjoy!

Egg Bowls Recipe

I took a lot of photos of this but it's another of my almost-not-a-recipe recipes. And I'm probably going to babble a lot. I got inspired by The Pioneer Woman's cookbook where she made little breakfast dishes for everyone. This is a similar recipe but without a lot of the work. Here's the basics

Scramble 9 eggs with 1 cup heavy cream, salt and pepper. This makes 6 10 oz ramekins.

Chop up a bunch of stuff you want to eat. We have orange and yellow peppers, bacon, cheese and spinach.

Spoon in eggs about half way filled. Then have everyone make their own bowls their way.

Place on a baking sheet and put in the oven on 350 for half an hour. Just keep checking to make sure all the egg is cooked.

And the above now looks like this:

Or this

Enjoy.

Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup

I really amaze myself at what I consider a recipe. Then again, for someone that's never made chicken noodle soup before this might be an epiphany. Six years ago I didn't know how to make soup. I like to think I cater to the other lazy inexperienced or busy family cookers out there providing tutorials on things people with All-Clad scoff at. Hey, only so many of us can channel Martha. The rest of you get my recipes.

Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients
Here's where things get interesting...

1 cooked chicken deboned and chopped*
4 large carrots chopped bite size
4 sticks of celery chopped bite size including leaves
4 tbs Chicken Boullion
4 cups water
1 lb dry uncooked wide egg noodles
1 -2 cups mixed veggies frozen is fine

Disclaimer: you can really use any veggies you want. Canned, fresh, frozen; doesn't matter. You can add as much chicken as you like. You could tear it up like I did or chop it tiny. You can use saltless boullion, add pepper or onion/garlic powder to taste. You can use extra wide noodles or orzo. This recipe is really flexible and really hard to mess up. Though if you were like me years ago, you still could. Once, I cooked artichokes for 4 hours. Boiling the whole time. They didn't survive, I haven't attempted it since. Point is, no guarantees but you really have to work at it.

Directions

Put everything but the noodles in a crockpot (a really big one, I think mine is 2 quarts, if you have a small one divide the recipe in half). Cook on low for 8 hours. Turn it back on and add the egg noodles cooking for another 10 minutes until noodles are mostly cooked. You're done. Eat your soup.

*I cook 2 chickens at once. It's just easier. Roast slathered in Lemon Butter under the skin on 350 until done, about 2 hours. I overcook stuff. I'm paranoid like that.  I pull off the darker meat for soup and casseroles and we eat the white meat as a main portion. I can get 2 meals out of the breasts for all 7 of us and still have oodles left for this. We've had it twice and there's still some left. Two chickens = $10 = 4+ meals for 7 people. I like that math. Also, it's a great way to use up all the meat and hiding the dark meat in something I like helps me to eat it. I just don't like it otherwise. Give the fatty parts to the cats and there you go, you've fed even more beings.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup Recipe

Here's the first recipe from my soup-capade on Sunday. I have chili on the stove as we speak. The chickens will go in the oven soon and the rest of the soups will hopefully get made today. Though I've only two freezer containers left. We'll just have to see how it goes.

For your eating pleasure, I give to you...

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Ingredients

2 tbs butter
2 tbs finely chopped onion
2 tbs flour
2 cups beef stock or boulion
3 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
3 cups Extra Sharp White and Yellow Cheddar Cheeses mixed
4 cups steamed broccoli pulsed to almost a meal consistency in a food processor

Directions

Melt butter in a large stock pot, add onion and cook slowly until limp. Stir in flour and cook for 3 minutues, stirring. Slowly add the stock, milk and cream alternating until all are combined. Heat to boiling stirring frequently. Stir in the cheese and broccoli. Keep stirring until the cheese is completely melted. Add salt and pepper to taste.

The longer this soup sits the thicker it gets until you end up with a soup that won't fall off a spoon.

Tuna Melts

Yes, this is another Tuna recipe in the same month but honestly, it was on sale really cheap and I stocked up a while back. I have to clean out the pantry before the canned tuna goes off...all twenty seven cans of it. Hey, I have a big family to feed. One can just doesn't cut it.

So, here's another almost-not-really a recipe since it's so darn simple but here you go anyway because I like to share. Enjoy.

Tuna Melts

Ingredients

3 cans of tuna
approx 1/4 cup Dukes Mayo
2 Tbs Dill
1 Tbs White pepper
1/2 Tbs Onion powder
1/2 Tbs Garlic powder
4 full English Muffins
8 slices of Asiago cheese (1 for each 1/2 English Muffin)


Directions

- Seperate each muffin and place outside down on a nonstick cookie sheet (so the nooks and crannies are facing up). Preheat oven to 350.

-Mix tuna, seasonings and mayo together. Taste as you go and adjust to your liking.

-Spoon and spread into a thick layer on each muffin half. Top with a slice of cheese. It's okay if it overlaps, it's yummy that way.

-Cook for 10 minutes then blast them with 1-2 min. of High under the broiler to brown the cheese a bit.

That's it! Next time I'll be making more of these since the 8 halves barely fed us all. They're super yummy and the kids loved them, Livi had two. Other than the cheese and muffins it's pretty much a pantry meal which is great. Keep the items on hand for when you're pressed for time but need something hearty. We served ours with carrot sticks and watermellon. Complete meal in about 20 minutes.

Tuna Casserole

Tomorrows post...today!

I had this on the calendar for our menu plan. I never bought, nor intended to buy, a box mix. That was fine until today when I set out to make it and also didn't have a recipe. Boxes are good for those. I relied on canned and dried food which makes this a pantry meal except for the butter and milk, unless you make your own. There are more than a couple of ingredients but not a lot of prep work and fairly simple directions. Here is my take on a Tuna Casserole. I tried to health it up a bit.

Ingredients

1lb eggless noodles
1/4- 1/2 cup dried onions
1 can salt free (sf) cream of something soup
1 can sf sweet peas
1 can sf jullien cut carrots
1.5 cups room temp milk
2 tbs butter plus more for topping
2 tbs whole wheat flour
2 tbs some kind of boullion
2 cans chunked tuna (you could also sub. chicken)
2 cups shredded white cheddar (using that Amish cheese again!)
pepper to taste
1 cup breadcrumbs
Nutritional Yeast

Directions

-Preheat oven to 375. Set a large pot with water to boil for the pasta, add boullion and onion to the water. When it boils, add the pasta.

-While the water is heating, get a medium sauce pan and melt the butter in it. Stir in the flour. Add the warmed milk. Wisk that together and cook for 10 minutes. Wisk in the cream of soup and tuna, add pepper to taste.

-Drain the pasta and onions just before al dente -or fully cooked- and pour into a 9x13 or larger casserole pan.

-Add the cream tuna sauce, peas and carrots to the pan and stir it all up really well.

-Sprinkle the top with the cheese and breadcrumbs. Add tiny pats of butter to the top.

-Bake for 35 min.

-Serve in a bowl with a nice sprinkling of nutritional yeast.

This filled my casserole pan and is quite hearty. This single dish will more than feed the seven of us (yep, even Max had a good bit). I hope to get more sustaining and use peas and carrots, milk and butter from our farm when we have it. Perhaps grind our own flour, fish the tuna and make the cheese. I already did well with the onions and breadcrumbs.

Baby steps and good food. That's what this is about.

Potato Zuke Bake

Quick, easy and yummy is how I like to cook. I'm not a great chef by any strech of the term. I'm a simple stay at home mom and I make simple at home food. I don't have time for bouillabaisse or reductions. Heck, I don't even know what those are! I also hate measuring. So, true to form, here is another almost recipe.

Potato Zuke Bake

Ingredients

4 medium russett potatoes
2 medium/large zucchinis*
Parmesean cheese
Romano cheese
Sharp White Cheddar cheese**
Salt/pepper to taste
1/2 stick of butter
Breadcrumbs

Instructions

-Chop up the potatoes and zucchini into 1/2" pieces (the smaller they are the quicker they cook but not too small or they'll just smoosh). Place in a large casserole dish all mixed up.

-Shred cheese over top evenly. I used about 1/2 cup total but you can use more if you like. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top with 5 pats of butter, one in each corner and one in the middle. Sprinkle generously with breadcrumbs and add another 4-5 pats of butter on the top.

-Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. If your potatoes aren't cooking on the top, mix them up a bit so they're on the bottom and cook another 5-10 minutes.

*I used a quart sized freezer bag I had filled with chopped zucchini from late last year when it was uber on sale. Fresh is good but you can also use the zukes straight from the freezer without defrosting.

**I picked up some really great local Amish Made Sharp Cheddar Cheese over at the Bearss Farmers Market here in Tampa. It's well priced and made in Plant City. This is part of my desire to keep small local farms in business. Besides, they make a heck of a cheese.

I'd make Bill Cosby proud

We've all had those 2-in-1 desserts; Apple Pie Ice Cream, Cheesecake Brownies, Cookie Brownies, Ice Cream Cake, and the like. For some reason, people have a compulsion to add a desert perfectly delicious on its very own to yet another singularly delicious desert therefore creating a sugary black hole of euphoric bliss. I think it's added a thousand pounds to my hips  teriffic.

While recipe hunting on http://www.tastykitchen.com/ I found yet another double-your-pleasure caloric wonderland dessert: Pudding Cookies by fellow blogger Double Dipped Life. O.M.G. Here they are fresh from the oven. Perfection.

I tend to get all worked up over desserts which is good because I need to expend much energy to counteract all the scrumptiousness I consume. That I can, in fact, actually bake worth a darn is both a blessing and a curse when a delight of a recipe, like the pudding cookie, falls into my slightly-sweets-padded lap. Easy to make, simple ingredients, quick bake time; we have a winner folks.

And just to make you drool a little more...

Hot Mess Sammy

I try and provide easy stuff here. Stuff that takes little work but has big reward. Recipies or projects with less fuss, low ingredient lists and beginner skill level. My life is hectic, I like good food and I have little time to do a lot of work. Sometimes I go all out but those times are few and far between. Usually, it's simple, quick and oh, it's just gotta be good.

May I please introduce you to the Hot Mess.

The only tools you have to have are a butter knife and a skillet. Though you could just rub the butter on the bread if you didn't have a knife to spare.

The ingredients are simple and can widely vary to suit your person tastes. The one I'll tute you with now is as follows:

2 slices artisan whole grain bread (or whatever you want really but I like the texture and taste it gets from toasting)
2 slices munster cheese (Boar's Head is what I get)
2 slices chicken breast (I used Everroast Boars Head)
Dukes mayo
Deli style mustard
butter

Prep: gather ingredients and preheat a skillet with a tad of butter to med/high heat.

1. Smear the butter on one side of each piece of bread, these buttered sides will go facing the skillet.

2. construct the sammy BEFORE putting it on the skillet. It'll go like this: buttered bread facing down, 1 slice of cheese, 2 meat slices, 1 cheese then squirt on mayo and mustard to your own tastes. I like more mayo, Rob likes more mustard. Add second buttered bread on top, butter facing UP.

3. Place sammy in the skillet. It should sizzle right away. I find about 40 seconds to be just about right but you'll find your own stoves temperment. Flip sammy and toast another 40 seconds on the other buttered side.

4. Eat it up.

Basically, this is a grown up grilled cheese which was what I initally called it. I like Hot Mess better because it's just a mess of stuff you want to eat packed inside hot buttered goodness. It's quick and easy and a good way to use up leftovers that might not be enough for a full meal. If you come up with your own combo I'd love to hear it! I'm always open for new recipies. Ohhh...turkey and cranberry sauce Hot Mess...mmmmm.

Popeye Pockets

Mmmmmm. A dinner Popeye would be proud of. Here's a little recipe for a night you need a quick meal. They're really scrumptious, full of vites and very hearty. And guess what? I got the kids to eat them. I think that's all the recommendation I need to give. It makes a ton. Potluck here I come.

Ingredients

2 packages crescent rolls

1 8oz package of cream cheese

1 4oz package of Feta

1tsp teeny diced garlic (or more if you prefer)

1 frozen box of spinach, thawed and drained throughly

1 can of sliced black olives

1 can of quartered non-marinated artichoke hearts

some chopped tomato

a bit of shredded parmesean

Mix the spinach, cream cheese and feta in a mixer till it's all well mushed together. Lay out the crescent rolls as they come in the little triangles. Spoon about 1 -2 Tbs of the spinach mix into the center of the fat end of the roll. Put a quarter of 'choke on top and a few slices of black olive and some totatoes, not too many because the more liquid the harder it'll be to cook the inside roll. Fold in the sides then roll it together to make a little round "pocket". Sprinkle the tops with the parmesean. Cook on 325 for about 15-20 min. or until you're satisfied with the brownness and the inside is done (best way is to cut one open to check). Enjoy!

Yeah, it's that easy. (pie tutorial, stages 1 and 2

So, on a recent twitter relay between myself and Kitschy Coo* about pie, where we discussed the merits of bringing damaged and/or inedible pie as a hostess gift and whether or not you could actually cobbler a key lime pie (don't you dare steal that idea! I'm so entering a contest with that), I discovered you can't buy Jell-o in Scotland. My heart goes out to all you delicious dessert making Scots and your lack of gelatin goodness. Apparently, the Kitsch-ter is also lacking in pie making abilities to go along with her Jell-less-ness. It's a very sad day.

But, on a happier note, for those of you swimming in the abundant gelatinous sea, I've whipped up (quite literally, too) an easy chocolate pie recipe that is sure to please and dirty enormous amounts of dishes should you choose the advanced prep setting. I usually go for what I call "beginner easy" tutes on here but have also included an "advanced easy" recipe for those of you more pie-efficient -or would that be pieficient?

Beginner Easy Chocolate Pie 


Ingredients
1 6oz pack of chocolate Jell-o
3c milk (any will do)
1 premade chocolate graham crust
1 tub of coolwhip
some chocolate chips (optional but come on, you know you want them)

Make the Jell-o as instructed. Fold in (this is an advanced term which means not to stir it in, you fold it over lots of times) half the cool whip. Open the pie crust. Slap the chocolate Jell-o mix in the crust, slap on the rest of the cool whip. It doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to taste good. Make lovely swooshie designs in the cool whip and lick the bowls. Sprinkle on the chips (optional but makes it look fancier and thus advances your skill level in the minds of the people with whom you wish to share). Fridge it until it's cold and firm. Eat it.


Advanced Easy Chocolate Pie

Ingredients
1 6oz pack of chocolate Jell-o
3c milk (any will do)
2c heavy whipping cream
1tsp vanilla
1/2c granulated sugar
1 pack chocolate Grahams pulverized (give to your kids to carry into the house or stick them in a baggie and work out your frustrations)
2tsp butter
some chocolate chips (optional, I don't really think chocolate chips are optional...)

Put the cream in a cold bowl and stir the bejezus out of it on med/high until it forms "peaks" (this is assuming you have a hand blender or lovely Kitchenaid otherwise stick with the beginner recipe). This is the stage before butter is made so be careful not to over whip it, not that I speak from experience...) Drop the speed and add the vanilla and sugar. It's done when it makes nicer peaks and looks whipped creamy.

Make the Jell-o as directed on the box (using the 3c of milk) then fold in half the whipped cream you just made. Smash up the grahams, melt the butter and mix it in until it resembles coarse meal. Press it into a pie tin.

Slap in the chocolate mix, slap the whipped cream on top, sprinkle with chips, fridge it till firm and consume with wild abandon.

I seriously made the advanced pie and the blog post in less than an hour so I take no excuse from those of you with access to Jell-o. As for you Scots, if you're visiting the US or some other instant pudding fortunate country, you can totally make this in a hotel room.

*KitschyCoo can be followed on Twitter. Or you can shop her fabulous store on Etsy.

Ravioli Factory

Today, I forced little laborers to crank out almost a hundred pumpkin/butternut squash raviolis (before you start yelling at me, I totally helped). We're expecting company on Saturday and I haven't seen my dear friend Chellie* since she moved up north and I want to make her visit to our house a nice memory on her crazy East Coast tour. And maybe if I distract her with yummy food she won't notice the dirty parts of the house we're probably going to miss.

Super easy and fun to make I got the recipe off some site but as is true to my nature had to change the darn thing because I could. I cooked up a BNS I had in the fridge, gutted it and pureed it with a can of pumpkin, tossed in nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice without really measuring and about a cup of grated Parmesan cheese. Wetted the edges of precut wonton wrappers with some whisked up egg and filled each with 1/2 tsp filling, folded in half and pressed shut.

The kids decided these were just the greatest thing to chef (it's a verb of cooking in case you were unawares) and could be filled with so many things, as the kids mused, like cheese, peas or orange juice. Just whatever your stuffed-pasta heart desires. 

There's a sage/butter sauce that goes with this and I'll toast up some pine nuts from the pantry to go along. Add a side salad and some yummy chocolate cherry brownie cookies and the bliss will be so overwhelming she might think I live in Martha's house. At least I can hope.

*Chellie is a funny zombie loving librarian musician that can be twittered @chelliemo

Raw Food Energy Bars

Looking back again, I found THIS post and since the ingredients to make these are sitting in my pantry I thought I'd do a recap...this time posting the recipe I forgot to do last time (oops).

Today I made cherry and apple raw bars. Of course, I forgot to take photos today so the above is from when Livi helped me make them over a year ago. It's a pretty basic formula I think

equal parts dates to whichever dried fruit you prefer and about 1 cup of nuts per 3/4 cup date/fruit mix.

Here's what the cherry bars were

2 cups dried cherries
2 cups dates
2 cups WHOLE nuts (I did a mix of almonds, cashews and walnuts because I didn't have enough of any one kind)

I just wing most recipes. For this I chopped the nuts fairly well in the processor but still left some nice chunks. Then removed those and did the dates and cherries together until it made a pastey kinda gob. Took that out, hand mixed them together.Basically, I used as much nuts as I thought looked good in the bars as I mixed so the proportions will vary. Lined a deep sided cookie tray with saran wrap and used that to make the squared sides by pressing the mixture into place.

Apple bars

1 1/4 cup apples (because that's all I had)
1 1/4 cup dates
a dash of cinnamon (I just dumped a little in)
2 cups nuts (I used the remainder of the above mix plus added a bunch of walnuts)

Much the same directions as above; nuts first and remove, dates/apples/cinnamon to paste (I had to add a little water to make it sticky), mix together by hand, used the opposite side of the same cookie sheet to make them square.

Cut into bars and individually wrap in cling stuff. All in all, these took maybe 20 minutes to make and both recipes made approx 15 good sized bars. Happy not-cooking!