Thankful Thursdays #47

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Veronica

This has absolutely nothing to do with my thankgivings this week, but I want you to know that I am SHIVERING MY TIMBERS OFF right now! LOL! Our heater has been broken since the end of last winter and with temps in the low thirties (F), I think it’s about time to get it fixed. I’m seriously quaking while typing! Even my stomach is spasming. It’s kind of like doing stomach crunches really fast, so maybe I can count this as exercise? Silver lining! :)

I apologize for the lack of posting yesterday. I had a recipe planned but got caught up in making my very first homemade card (I’ll share it with you Saturday on the Postcard Project update), and by the time I was finished, I was way too tired to even write a “there will be no post today because I’m tired” post. Besides, the recipe I’d planned to share is more November-ish than October-ish (mostly because I took the picture on a Thanksgiving dish towel) so I’ll do it then.

OK, now I’m ready to get to the point of this post! As you know, I made a thanksgiving resolution to find something to be thankful for every day until next Thanksgiving. Here’s what I am thankful for this week!

Thursday: It’s hard to be thankful for something new every day. There are many things I’m thankful for repetitively, but I have to be more aware so that I don’t become boring and redundant on my blog. The perk is that I realize I have more to be thankful for! So after crossing off several things I was already thankful for before, I settled on telling you guys that today I’m thankful for my coffee travel mug. It keeps my iced coffee cold so long that after an entire day at work, the ice is still chinking around inside. It’s one of these, if you’re interested–they come with two caps, one for water and one for coffee. I heart it so much. (Obviously Thursday was a warmer day than it is presently. My travel mug is now housing HOT coffee, thank you very much.)

Friday: Picnik.com. It’s the free photo-editing website (though you can pay for an upgrade which gives you access to more tools) where I created my header, and I just now returned to it to see how it would do with editing my food photos. I can’t believe it took me so long to try it! I was using the free one I got with my very first digital camera like six years ago and it is very basic and frustrating. Picnik is no Photoshop, but it is so much better than what I had that I’m pretty thrilled. Check out the before and after photos from my Butterfingers post:

That blue tint often kills my food photos–I don’t know how it happens but it’s evil and I could never fix it with my other program–I usually had to use a paint can icon (yes, just like with the Paint program, that’s how basic my program is!) along with a paintbrush to fill in the background with either black or white to undo all the blue, but that didn’t fix the blue added to the food itself. I love I now can fix the photos to reset the balance! For free!

Saturday: A rare eye twitch! Remember when I complained of having an eye twitch? Well, it disappeared but I didn’t realize it until today when my eye twitched for the first time in what must have been a month. I think it really was stress, because as soon as I was able to stop worrying about my Dad, losing my job, and started coming to terms with my awful schedule, that’s when it stopped and it hasn’t come back. Thank goodness!

Sunday: A friend confessed Jesus & was baptized today! This is the biggest reason to celebrate for me, and the greatest joy I have found on earth.

Monday: That the hubster is willing to do me favors on his day off, like shipping cookies & returning library books, since the post office and library are both closed by the time I get off work. Thank you, honey!

Tuesday: My postcards came in the mail! I ordered these off of Vistaprint last week. These will keep me busy for a while! If anyone would like some (you can use them to write whatever notes to friends/family you want), send your address to me in an email to: vraklis@yahoo.com along with the number you would like.

Wednesday: Random acts of yumminess. A coworker that knows my obsession for baked goods handed me a goody bag with dinner rolls and pumpkin chocolate chips cookies in it, and two Zac Brown Band CD’s since she had read on my blog that I’m digging country music lately. How cool is that? Thanks, Jen!

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Sausage & Spaghetti Squash Breakfast Pie

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Veronica

I created this recipe earlier in the year, when I was Somersizing, and not combining carbohydrates (other than from vegetables) with protein. Although I was thinner during that time than I have been for years, it wasn’t sustainable for me. I mostly chose to eat protein meals because those were the meals where fat was allowed, and therefore more fun. If I wanted carbs, I had to eat carbs only and without any fat. That was just way too boring, so I chose mainly protein/fats meals and ended up basically doing Atkins and calling it Somersizing. :)

Although I’m no longer keeping my carbs separate from fat and protein, I plan to make this casserole throughout the winter because it’s incredibly delicious and satisfying. One thing I’m going to try next time is cooking 1/2 cup of onions with the sausage instead of using chives. I love the chives, but I think a stronger onion flavor would be nice here. I know fresh herbs are harder to come by in winter if you don’t have pots of them indoors or want to pay an arm and a leg for a little tiny bunch of them at the supermarket, so you can totally substitute dried–just use half the amount called for.

And for those wondering what movie the quote from yesterday came from, it was Herbie the Love Bug, in the scene where, during the race, Peter Thorndyke stops for gas at Chinese camp. Fast forward to 8:00 to see the reference.

Sausage & Spaghetti Squash Breakfast Pie

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 (3 lb.) spaghetti squash
8 ounces bulk sausage
2 tablespoons fresh sage, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
5 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
Fresh cracked pepper
1 cup cheddar cheese

To cook spaghetti squash, cut in half lengthwise, and use a spoon to rake out the seeds. Place cut side down on a baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed with oil. Bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees or until tender. Set aside to cool a bit. Rake the flesh from the shell and refrigerate in an airtight container until you’re ready to make the pie.

Cook sausage in a skillet over medium-high heat, breaking apart with spatula so you have crumbles. Stir in the sage and chives, then stir in the spaghetti squash. If the squash is very watery, you can cook the mixture a little to help it evaporate. Butter or spray a 9” deep dish pie plate with oil and spread squash mixture in dish. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, salt, and pepper, then pour over the squash and sausage mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Sprinkle cheese over the top and cook another 5 minutes, until melted. Serve hot.

18 Comments

Posted in Breakfast and tagged Atkins, breakfast pie, low carb, recipe, sausage, Somersize, spaghetti squash. Bookmark the permalink.

Homemade Butterfingers & Butterfinger Pops

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Veronica

This super-easy recipe with only three ingredients is making it’s way around Pinterest, and since I’ve had pops on the brain lately (you can find all my pop creations here), I immediately thought this would be a great idea to turn into pops! It’s much easier to make them into the traditional bars, but for the adventurous, I’ll include the instructions for the pops in the recipe.

*Update: this is TOO funny! I did not read the blog that I found the recipe on until I already made the pops, and I see she had a similar idea as me to turn this into suckers using molds. Great minds! Except hers is greater because this would be MUCH easier to make using molds.

I was skeptical that the combination of melted candy corn and peanut butter would taste like a Butterfinger, but, amazingly, it really does. It even has that same crispy crunch in your mouth, though the texture is softer and not as dry & flaky as a real Butterfinger–more moist. One of my friends liked it more than a real Butterfinger for that reason, and I think I have to agree. Very delicious and fun!

Homemade Butterfingers

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture
Printable Pops recipe with picture

1 lb. candy corn
16 oz. peanut butter
16 oz. chocolate candy melts or chocolate candy coating/bark

Spray an 8×8 baking dish with oil, then line with wax or parchment paper. Place the candy corn in a large glass bowl and microwave for one minute. Stir, then continue to microwave in 15-second intervals, stirring in between, until melted and smooth. Stir in the peanut butter. My mixture was very chunky because the candy corn did not want to combine with the peanut butter so I nuked the mixture for another 15 seconds. At that point it was grainy, and I wanted to leave it that way since it reminded me of Butterfingers since they don’t have a smooth texture. If you want yours completely homogeneous, continue melting in 15-second intervals until you get the mixture perfectly smooth (disclaimer: it is only my assumption that eventually it would get smooth, since I have not tried it myself). Spread into the prepared pan and allow to cool completely, 1-2 hours. Remove from the pan by grasping the wax paper and lifting out. Cut into small bars. Melt the chocolate coating according to the package directions and dip each bar into it using a fork,tapping off the excess before setting on wax paper to dry.

To make Butterfinger Pops, let the mixture cool completely, then use a cookie scoop to portion it out. Roll each scoop into a ball and set on waxed paper. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes. Take lollipop sticks and dip the tip of each one into melted candy coating and then stick into the balls. After all the balls have sticks in them, put them back in the freezer to firm up again. Place your styrofoam block in the refrigerator. (Since the balls will be very cold when you dip them, the chocolate will be more prone to crack and placing the pops in the refrigerator after dipping will reduce the amount of cracked pops*.) Once they are firm enough to dip, remove five at a time from the freezer, dip them one at a time in the chocolate coating, tapping off the excess, and push the sticks down into the styrofoam block to set. Check on them each time you add another to see if they are cracking and if so, remove and apply extra melted chocolate onto the crack so that no oil leaks out. If you want to add sprinkles, do it as soon as you tap off the excess chocolate, while it is still wet. I put some peanuts and candy corn together in my food processor and chopped them up for my topping. To get a better idea of the process involved for pops, refer to my Cake Pops tutorial.

Recipe source: Plain Chicken

*LOL, “cracked pops” for some reason reminded me of my husband’s favorite quote from a movie. Can you name the movie this is from?

Father say, “Hurry is waste. Waste is cracked bowl which never know rice.”

24 Comments

Posted in Candy and tagged Butterfinger, candy bars, candy corn, chocolate, easy, homemade butterfingers, peanut butter, Pinterest, pops, recipe. Bookmark the permalink.

Winners & Postcard Project Update

Posted on October 15, 2011 by Veronica

Warning: This post is heavy on bold print and exclamation points. Sorry if you’re easily dismayed by such overusages! I am an effusive person by nature and if I didn’t express that in my writing, it wouldn’t be me. :)

Since I had to sort through comments that weren’t entries for the Eggland’s Best prize pack, I did the drawing the old-fashioned way and wrote down the names of everyone who entered (multiple times for those of you who had extra entries), cut them out, folded them, and put them in a bowl for Dennis to draw one. So you can’t blame me if you’re mad you didn’t win! It’s all his fault. :) And the winner is…

Britany!

Check your email, Britany, and reply back to me with your address so I can forward it to Eggland’s Best.

Now for The Postcard Project winner! I did this one the same way, putting the names of those who had any number at all in the “completed” column on the PP spreadsheet onto paper and having Dennis draw one. And the winner of a dozen of my blue ribbon chocolate chip cookies is…

Jenna Satterthwaite!

I already have your address, Jenna, from the last giveaway you won, so you don’t have to contact me–I’ll get your cookies out to you on Monday!

I am just so excited about this project it’s very hard for me to not talk about it every time I blog! We’ve kicked off the first week with 17 amazing people, and 117 pieces of mail! If we can get that much sent out the first week, just think how much more once the word starts to spread and more and more people join the effort! This is how change is made. One person at a time.

Please help spread the word about this project by linking to it (use this page’s link) on Facebook, on Twitter, and pinning it on Pinterest or any other site you use. If you have a blog, you could put a button with the logo on your sidebar that links to The Postcard Project page of my blog. (If I figure out how to make the code for a button, I will update with it next Saturday.) One idea that I hope to execute soon is to have a “Postcard Project” party and have a bunch of friends come over to create homemade cards for loved ones and if that appeals to you, have a party of your own! I want to make this explode!

I want to put a disclaimer here before anyone gets a wrong impression about my motivation for the project. I’m asking for you to spread the word, which will inevitably garner more attention for my blog, but I promise you that I’m not self-promoting. I have no reason to. As you can see on my side bar, I have no advertisers over there. I’ve never signed up with Foodbuzz or affiliates and do not get paid for what I do here. I don’t have a problem with bloggers who do, in fact I don’t think I know more than a handful that don’t have affiliates, but I enjoy blogging as a hobby and want to keep it that way, at least for now. So if this project gets my blog more attention, I won’t be benefitting from it financially at all. That’s not why I’m doing this.

I started this project for the two reason I have already stated:

1) To spread joy & cheer (which this world could always use more of!)

2) To support the US Postal Service.

If you’re reading this right now, I want you to join me in this effort! Let’s get excited about this! Yes, I’m asking for action, which I know is harder than slapping down money when someone asks for help. But I don’t want your money. I want your Grandma’s face to light up when she sees a “thinking of you” card from you in her mailbox, and I want your niece in the military to burst into tears when she gets a letter from you. You can’t put a price on that.

Together, we can save the dying art of “paper hugs,” as my friend, Jaci, calls personal mail. And we can help save the Postal Service and the hundreds of thousands of good jobs it provides our country, and a service that is priceless.

So, add your name to the spreadsheet. If you’re on it, update it & put a number in the column for letters you plan to send this week. Not because you have to in order to send mail, of course, but so you can help build excitement for the project as the list grows, and so we can all see how widespread it becomes and how we are all making a difference.

In closing, I wanted to share the highly inappropriate (which, IMO, makes it that much funnier) Halloween card I just sent my in-law’s this week. (Don’t worry, they have a great sense of humor and they loved it!) I got it at Dollar Tree, a great resource for inexpensive greeting cards, for $.50. I have more resources & ideas for cards & postcards listed here. If you pick up a funny card that made you snort, scan it and email it to me (vraklis@yahoo.com)–I’ll be featuring my favorite next Saturday when I announce the next winner of cookies.

*For next week’s drawing, please make sure you put a number on the spreadsheet indicating how many letters you plan to send, and return by Friday night to mark how many you did send. Only those who mark theirs as finished will be entered into the drawing. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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Posted in The Postcard Project and tagged Postcard Project, US Postal Service. Bookmark the permalink.

Butterscotch Swirl Cake

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Veronica

After taking pictures of the red velvet cake and forgetting to pose the blue ribbon I won for it in any of the photos before it was devoured, I smacked myself on the forehead and vowed I’d use the ribbons in future photos with award-winning recipes. Well, oops, I did it again. (I played with your heart, got lost in the game. Oh baby, baby…) Not a big deal, but annoying that I have these ribbons and have never shown them off! And this was my last blue-ribbon recipe I needed to share. Oh well.

So as you may have guessed after my little rant, I won first place for this cake in the “bundt cakes” class this year, and Marina, my foodie Mama who gave me the recipe, has won multiple blue ribbons for it before me. It is visually impressive with pretty swirls running through the cake, and the cake itself is very moist with a great butterscotch flavor.

A tip on making the swirls is to fold your knife or spatula across from the short ends of the pan and not in a line down the middle. This is hard to explain. Let me see if I can do better. Make a folding motion from one side of the pan across to the other side and keep doing it that way all the way around. If you start at the front with it facing you, you will plunk your knife down one one side, pull it under and toward you, then back up right before it hits the other side, in a circular motion, then turn your pan and repeat the folding motion all the way around. Is that clear as mud? Good, let’s do this.

BUTTERSCOTCH SWIRL CAKE

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
6 eggs, divided use
1 tablespoon rum extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
1 (3.5 oz) package instant butterscotch pudding mix
¾ cup butterscotch ice cream topping*

Butterscotch Glaze
¼ cup (½ stick) butter, cubed
¼ cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350° F and grease and flour a 10″ bundt pan (I used Miracle Pan Release). Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add 5 of the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in extracts. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine; gradually add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, beating well after each addition.

Transfer 2 cups of batter to another large bowl; beat in the pudding mix, butterscotch topping and remaining egg until well blended. Pour half of the plain batter into prepared pan. Top with half of the butterscotch batter; cut through with a knife or spatula to swirl. Repeat layers and swirl.

Bake for 65-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

For glaze, in a small saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar and milk. Bring to a boil. Remove from the heat; add confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Drizzle over cake; sprinkle with pecans.

*I made my own butterscotch topping by bringing ½ cup packed brown sugar, ½ cup heavy cream, ¼ cup unsalted butter, and ½ teaspoon kosher salt (use only ¼ teaspoon if you only have table salt) to a gentle boil and cooking 5 minutes before adding 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla and cooling completely.

***

Reminder: Tonight I will be doing the drawing for both the Eggland’s Best prize pack (enter here) and the chocolate chip cookies for The Postcard Project. If you signed up for the Postcard Project and have sent at least one piece of mail, be sure to return to the spreadsheet to indicate how many pieces of mail you sent, as I will be drawing from those that have put a number in that column only. If you have sent mail this week and haven’t added your name, be sure to do so for a chance to win. Thanks to everyone who participated this week!

19 Comments

Posted in Cake & Frosting and tagged baking, blue ribbon, butterscotch swirl cake, first place, kansas state fair, recipe. Bookmark the permalink.

Thankful Thursdays #46: free stuff

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Veronica

I made a thanksgiving resolution to find something to be thankful for every day until next Thanksgiving. Here’s what I am thankful for this week!

Thursday: Squeee! I got free stuff in the mail! I won Renee’s giveaway for a bunch of NuNaturals stevia products and I’m SOOOO STOKED to try them all, especially the baking blend.

Friday: Squeeee! I won another giveaway for Gold Medal white whole wheat flour and a canister from Pam! I LOVE FREE STUFF! :D

Saturday: Country music. Although I used buy it on CD, for some reason I never listen to it on the radio, despite liking it fairly well. I usually only listen to rock & pop stations, but I know that music too well and have had to start listening to country at work when I’m not listening to audiobooks. Why is knowing music too well a problem? Because if I know a song, I can’t help but sing along and annoy all my co-workers on the silent floor! So I turned to country in desperation because I can’t sing along to what I don’t know. It’s working like a charm so far, and I’m getting a lot of new favorites. This is near the top for me right now–gives me goosebumps every time!

Sunday: Sleep. I’d rather not have to sleep but since I do, I’m thankful that I got some extra rest on Sunday because I was past exhaustion.

Monday: I choose not to have affiliates or get paid for blogging (though this may change some day), but I was thankful for an exception this time because it meant my birthday celebration was paid for by someone else. Thank you, Eggland’s Best!

Tuesday: I had just enough disposable pie containers left from my cake-selling days to divvy up the leftover birthday cake to co-workers, thus sparing my arteries and thighs from eternal damnation.

Wednesday: Absolutely perfect weather. Not too hot. Not too cold. Juuuust right. :) I love fall!

I know not every state enjoys a crisp, cool fall like we do in Kansas. Do you have fall where you live?

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Posted in Thanksgivings. Bookmark the permalink.

My Eggland’s Best Birthday Brinner, Bacon Devilled Eggs & a Giveaway!

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Veronica

Last month, Eggland’s Best contacted me to see if I would like to participate in the “Eggland’s Best Double Dozen” in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness month, to help raise awareness and funding for the fight against breast cancer. To participate, I would host a brunch or brinner party using their eggs and blog about it. Well, Dennis’ Aunt Dorothy is a breast cancer survivor and so I would have agreed simply because they offered to make a $100 donation in my name to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, but they sweetened the deal even more by sending me a box of goodies, including free egg coupons, and a gift card to pay for all my ingredients! It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. :)

I decided to host a brinner party for my birthday with the money and free eggs they supplied me. I got enough coupons to give to all my guests, and to make all my egg-y dishes. Since the weather has been so nice, I decided to have an outdoor dinner and though it rained the day before, the weather behaved itself in honor of my birthday and was quite nice the day of the celebration!

The only problem was that I started dinner too late, forgetting the sun sets earlier in fall, and we ended up eating most of the meal by moonlight! Learn from my mistake, and be prepared with candles if your outdoor dinner party runs late. I have to say, though, it was a relaxing and unique experience. You will see from the photos that I had less and less daylight as they become more and more terrible. I apologize for that!

The first thing I made was poppy seed crescent rolls, which calls for four eggs. It’s a recipe I’ve been holding onto for a few years which comes from the recipe box of none other than my heroine, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Did you know she has a cookbook?

I’m sorry to report they were disappointing. Everyone said they were “good,” or “OK,” and I agreed. If I hadn’t put a lemon glaze on them, they wouldn’t have been worth eating. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t good enough to share the recipe. But they did turn out pretty!

I got the hashbrown casserole and two spinach-ricotta quiches in the oven and while they were baking, I shot some pics of my birthday “cake,” a Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte, which I topped with good-quality raspberry preserves because I adore the combination of dark chocolate and raspberries.

I’ve made this once before for Dennis’ birthday long before I was blogging, and I’m happy I finally made it again so I could take pics and share the recipe. It is just outstanding. Creamy, melt-in-your mouth rich chocolate, the texture lightened with whipped eggs (6 of them, which is why I chose this for my brinner–because I could use so many of the Eggland’s Best eggs in it!) and butter. And those are the only ingredients! This is for the serious chocolate lover. It’s like eating a slice of chocolate truffle or mousse.

I did a fall tablescape because of the time of year, and I saw this cornucopia and had to have it in honor of my blog’s name. :)

After shooting this, we added two more chairs, just in case you counted the plates and were wondering why the chairs didn’t add up. :)

And in honor of my blog’s Thankful Thursdays feature, I just had to have this pumpkin too!

I am thankful that breast cancer does not run in my family, and that my husband’s aunt survived it with flying colors! She seems even healthier now than before the cancer, and she is an inspiration!

By the time the quiche was done, the sun was nearly set so the following photos are awful! Here is the spinach-ricotta quiche,which I wasn’t overly impressed with anyway so I don’t regret not having great photos to blog the recipe with.

The hashbrown casserole (à la Cracker Barrel) was another story! This was my favorite dish of the evening. It’s been a long time since I’ve had it at Cracker Barrel, so I’m not sure how close this was in taste but without comparing the two, I thought this was incredible. So creamy and cheesy. Oh, yums. Thankfully there was a tiny bit leftover so I was able to snap a picture at home the next morning in better light for when I share the recipe!

I didn’t bring the veggies out until later, so here is a picture of my plate before they were added. You can see I also have meatballs on my plate, and they’re the same ones I bring to almost any party. I have the recipe here. The cups, though not filled yet, later housed iced coffee with sweet cream, which I made by combining a can of sweetened condensed milk with a cup of heavy cream. Yums.

I finally took off my apron so you can see my shirt. I wore my hot pink tank top underneath an Aerosmith (who just happens to have a song called “Pink!”) net shirt in honor of breast cancer awareness month and the purpose of the party.

Here is the only photo which hints that we ate vegetables! I just nuked some Green Giant steamers and we poured them out onto our plates. We couldn’t see anything anyway, and we were kind of like barbarians in the dark, as you can see from the devastation of the table. LOL!

After all these photo shenanigans, I realized I forgot to serve the bacon devilled eggs! I ran in and brought them out and forced everyone to take them, despite their full stomachs. Although I was sure these would be the winning dish of the evening, I guess devilled eggs are either a love ’em or hate ’em thing, even if they have bacon in them. I love devilled eggs and along with the others present who did too, I loved these! The bacon and cheese really made the filling good enough to eat with a spoon as a meal. :) I took this photo of the leftovers in better light:

Bacon Devilled Eggs

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

10 eggs
1 cup mayonnaise (I used homemade Miracle Whip)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (I used regular)
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (I used 1)
8 slices bacon, fried crispy and crumbled into tiny pieces (um…I used a lot more :) )
1 cup cheddar cheese, finely shredded
Salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce to taste
Smoked paprika for topping

Hard boil the eggs and cool completely. Once cooled, peel them, then slice in half, placing the yolks in the bowl of a food processor. Plate the egg whites on a serving platter. Add the mayonnaise, mustard, and vinegar to the egg yolks, and process until smooth. Add the bacon and cheese and process until combined. Season to taste.

Transfer to a small Ziploc bag and snip off the corner to use as a piping bag. Squeeze filling into each egg white half. you will have a lot of filling so be generous with it. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Sprinkle with paprika just before serving.

Recipe source: Cairns Manor

OK, now the moment you’ve all been waiting for. As the title of this post suggests, I have a giveaway for you! Eggland’s Best is offering to award one of my readers with a prize pack which includes:

2 Free EB Dozen coupons (Any variety- classic, cage-free, or organic)
1 Free EB Hard Cooked and Peeled variety coupon
4 EB ramekins
1 EB apron
1 EB whisk
1 EB spatula
1 EB egg timer
1 EB eco bag
1 EB plush egg

If you would like to enter to win, leave an inspiring comment below, or share how you contribute to raising awareness or funding for breast cancer.

For additional entries you can do one or all of the following, and be sure to leave a separate comment for each, letting me know you did (or already do) it.

Like Veronica’s Cornucopia on Facebook
Like Eggland’s Best on Facebook
Subscribe to Veronica’s Cornucopia by email or RSS feed (email subscription box is in upper right corner)
Sign up to send at least one piece of mail this week for The Postcard Project (you must add your name on the spreadsheet for this entry to count)

Drawing will end Friday at 11:59 PM, and winner will be announced Saturday along with the winner for this week’s Postcard Project prize. Good luck!

Update: This giveaway is now closed. Congrats to Britany!

43 Comments

Posted in Life, Side Dishes and tagged bacon devilled eggs, birthday brinner, Breast cancer, chocolate, Chocolate truffle, double dozen, eggland's best, laura ingalls wilder, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, recipe, Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Bookmark the permalink.

Teaser Tuesday

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Veronica

We celebrated my birthday yesterday and the day was just so busy I didn’t have time to do the recap that I had planned for today (I usually schedule my blog posts the night before because I don’t have time to do them before work the next day). Instead, I’ll leave you with a little teaser of things to come. This was a piece of my “birthday cake,” a Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte. It was every bit as delicious as it sounds!!

11 Comments

Posted in Life and tagged Baking and Confections, birthday, birthday cake, cake. Bookmark the permalink.

Cranberry Chicken

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Veronica

Before I get to today’s post, I want to do a quick update for The Postcard Project. People have started signing up but I want to encourage everyone that is participating to add your name to the list. Many have told me they are sending mail but aren’t on the list yet. The list is where I’ll be drawing from for the prizes! Oh, did I forget to mention there are prizes at stake? My blue ribbon chocolate chip cookies, to be exact! I’ll be drawing at random from those signed up each Friday this month (winners will be announced each Saturday), then at the end of the month I’ll award a batch to the person who sent the most mail. So you have a chance to win whether you’re sending 1 letter or 100! Every letter makes a difference, especially to the person who receives it. This project will never take over the focus of my blog, but I do intend for it to be ongoing. I’ve already started on my own goal and it has been so fun writing to people I rarely correspond with. I can’t wait to share some of the funny cards I got with you guys. In the meantime, I give you Cranberry Chicken! :)

*****

Pinterest. Have you heard of it? Bloggers have been annoying me with their urgings to get on there for months and I fought it hard, not wanting yet another reason for internet addiction in my life. Even when I was getting 15,000 views a day on my blog (which is not the norm, I can tell you) because of people “pinning” my cupcake bites on Pinterest, I did not sign up. I was steadfast and strong in my resolve. But then a personal friend sent me an invitation to join, telling me I “had to do it” and I guess she was right because I did it, despite myself. It was almost like some evil force in the universe overcame me and made me forget all my reasons for not wanting to. An evil force named Tracy. Oh yeah, girlfriend, I just called you out! :)

So, what does this have to do with cranberry chicken, you might ask? Well, if it weren’t for Pinterest, I would never have made this cranberry chicken! I bookmarked it ages ago and forgot about it because I never go back to look at things I’ve bookmarked. But when I signed up with Pinterest, I decided to use it instead of bookmarking things and I transferred all my favorites into boards on Pinterest. This chicken was one of the first things I transferred and I could barely remember marking it. And I made it the same week!

I don’t know if this is how everyone uses Pinterest, but I “pin” things, mostly recipes, that I want to try in the future and it is so much more useful to me than bookmarks. I can categorize things and then I see a visual picture to remind me of what I wanted to do and when I click the picture, it brings me to the web page I got it from. It’s very handy, but it is also addicting because I can spend an hour looking at everyone else’s pins and repinning them to my own boards for future reference. Handy and evil!

OK, so let’s talk chicken. This recipe is another super-simple one with just a few ingredients and fantastic flavor. It doesn’t have an overwhelming cranberry flavor, in fact the only cranberry taste comes from the whole cranberries themselves because the sauce has onion and Catalina dressing in it to make a flavor all of its own. It’s a little sweet, a little tangy, and a lot delicious. Dennis and I both give it two thumbs up!

Cranberry Chicken

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 (8 oz) bottle Catalina or French Dressing
1 (1 oz) envelope dry onion soup mix
1 (15 oz) can whole-berry cranberry sauce
6-8 boneless, skinless chicken pieces (breast halves and/or thighs)

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a large casserole dish with oil and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the dressing, soup mix, and cranberry sauce and whisk together until blended. Pour enough of the sauce in the dish to make a thin layer, then place the chicken in a single layer on top. Pour the remaining sauce over the top, making sure all the chicken is well-coated. Bake, uncovered, for 1- 1 1/2 hours. Serve over rice, ladling extra sauce over the top.

Recipe source: Very Culinary

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Posted in Meats and tagged chicken, cooking, Cranberry, cranberry sauce, easy, Home, onion soup mix, Pinterest, recipe. Bookmark the permalink.

Announcing: THE POSTCARD PROJECT

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Veronica

It is my birthday tomorrow, and I’m taking advantage of it by posting this idea today, in hopes that my upcoming birthday will put you in a generous spirit and you’ll be willing to grant me my birthday wish, which you will discover if you bear with me and read all the way to the end. Please and thank you! XOXO, V

I don’t know about you, but I get excited each time I check the mailbox. I get excited when I hear Jessie barking when I’m home mid-afternoon because I know it means the mail carrier has arrived with unknown treasure. I expect the catalogs, advertisements, and letters from charitable organizations, but what gets me excited is what I hope to see: an envelope with a handwritten address on it. Or a million dollar check from some sweepstakes I entered and forgot about. :) It’s these things that give me that tingle of excitement every time I reach into the mailbox.

Perhaps you don’t go to your own mailbox with the same hope each day, but I think we all know the feeling of receiving a card, letter, or package in the mail. It is enough to sweeten the dreariest of days. We all know how nice it feels to read something written in the hand of someone we love, and how we cherish those words, whether few or many. And yet, despite that warm feeling it gives us to receive personal mail, we rarely participate in this dying art.

As you may know, I work for the US Postal Service. I guess it runs in the family! My Dad became a mailman when I was a little girl and served as one through twenty-three cold winters and scorching summers, two serious dog bites, and one death threat. He walked on broken toes (actually it was just one toe that he had the misfortune to keep breaking), walked against fifty mile-per-hour winds with a negative wind chill, fell down icy steps, fought through foot-high snow, and sweated through long 100+ degree temperature days with a heavy mail bag that caused a permanent slope to his shoulder that he still has, three years after retiring. And he delivered the mail each day with a genuine smile.

Four years before Dad retired, my sister, Danielle, and I took up the reigns and signed on as data conversion operators (data entry) for the Postal Service. Danielle went on to become an industrial engineer and also opened up her own gift boutique, but I’m now into my seventh year with the Postal Service, and just recently became a permanent career employee. It was a very long process since the position was designed to be temporary, but it was well worth the wait. As any postal employee can tell you, we are very well paid for what we do, and the benefits are fantastic.

By now you’re probably wondering where I’m going with all this. Well, as you are probably also aware, the post office has a huge deficit and is facing default. While I’m hopeful that the steps we are taking will prevent that, the fact remains that in an age where texts have replaced post cards and email has replaced letters, the service we offer just isn’t as highly in demand it once was.

Some people think that the post office gets its money from the government. Not true. The Postal Service operates on the revenue it generates from the sale of stamps and the mailing of packages. We are entirely dependent upon the revenue we generate from our service to you. Which is why each year the Postal Service’s prognosis looks more and more bleak. There just aren’t as many letters and postcards being sent as there used to be.

This is why I’m introducing…

Artwork by Tara Roush of Wichita, KS

The aim of this project is twofold: 1) to spread love and good cheer through the mailing of postcards, cards, letters, and care packages, and 2) to help support the Postal Service at the same time. A simple plan, but if enough people get involved, it could make quite an impact!

It is my birthday tomorrow and I’m taking full advantage of it by using my soon-to-be birthday girl status to ask everyone to embrace The Postcard Project and commit to sending a postcard, card, letter, and/or package to someone this week (better yet, tomorrow on my birthday!!). Anyone. Send it to someone you love. Send it to someone that is lonely. Send it to a soldier. If you’re an animal lover like me, you can help raise money to feed them just by mailing postcards to The Pet Postcard Project! Sponsor a hungry child and correspond with him. There are so many great opportunities afforded to us by using the Postal Service!

If you would like to spread the postal love and join the Postcard Project, please click here and add your name to the spreadsheet along with the number of cards, etc., you plan to send this week. Make a mental note of your number line so that once your card(s) are mailed, you can return to the spreadsheet to check it off! If you look at the top of my blog, you’ll see I now have a page titled “The Postcard Project” which will have the link to return to the spreadsheet so that it isn’t a hassle for you to find it again.

As each person completes their commitment, I will update the total on The Postcard Project page so we can all see how this is spreading. Tell everyone you know and let’s see how far we can take this project!! Are you in?