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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.

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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.”

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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!

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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.

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!

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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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Homemade Deodorant

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Veronica

You’d be surprised the conversations you get involved in at church.  The teens are talking about the “Ponzi scheme” of social security, while one sister is talking about how knitting can “tighten your bosom” if you do it enough (knitting, that is), another is recommending Robitussin for infertility (really??), and two others are talking about how much they love their homemade deodorant while you’re trying to ignore the bloody photos & details of a hunting trip some of your brothers just returned from.  I love my brothers and sisters in Christ for all their diversity!  And thanks to two of them, I found out how to make my own deodorant and so will you.

Many are concerned about the aluminum found in store-bought deodorants, afraid that daily use will raise the aluminum levels in our bodies above what is healthy.  The reason deodorants contain aluminum is to actually prevent perspiration, which is the only down-side to making your own deodorant.  If you’re hot enough to sweat, you will still sweat.  But at least you won’t smell!  And sweating is actually a very healthy thing, allowing your body to release chemicals and toxins through your pores.

Like I mentioned in one of my Thankful Thursday posts, this homemade deodorant passed the ultimate test for me: teaching Sunday school.  I’m not a very stinky or sweaty person even without deodorant, and with it I’m always fresh as a daisy, except on the Sunday mornings that I’m teaching Sunday school.  It’s ridiculous, but I’m totally intimidated by children when I’m supposed to be in a position of authority.  I love playing with kids, having fun with them, but when I’m supposed to be their superior and not their colleague, hoping that I sound like I know what I’m talking about, and required to discipline them if necessary, I almost can’t handle it.   (One big reason it might be a blessing that I’m not a mother!)  Before the homemade deodorant, I always stunk to high heaven after teaching Sunday school, but when I went in wearing the homemade stuff, I came out smelling just as shower-fresh as before!

So, it definitely is an effective deodorant.  As for the look and feel of it, it does not compare to the invisible types, but depending on how thick you make it, can actually be less visible than traditional stick-deodorants.  The first batch I made quite thick, only adding enough coconut oil to make the consistency like a thick, whipped frosting, and it went on a little thick when applied.  The second batch I made thinner so that I could actually pour it into the deodorant tube (the first batch I scooped and smashed into it), and while I have to keep it in the fridge so that it stays solid, it goes on very thin and smooth so I like it better that way.  I find I only need a very light smear of it, which means it lasts much longer than regular deodorant.  This may differ from person to person, and your mileage may vary.

While reading other reviews of this type of deodorant, I found that extra virgin coconut oil is ideal, as it is antifungal and antibacterial, which boosts the odor-eliminating power of the deodorant.   I also discovered that some people are sensitive to baking soda and can get a rash from it, so you may have to tinker with the recipe to reduce it (and upping the cornstarch as you do) until you get a formula that your body likes.  If your skin starts to get dark under your arms and starts to itch, this is a skin yeast infection which one person said is caused by the baking soda (I tend to think it would be the cornstarch since it is something that yeast could feed off of, but I don’t know).  If this happens to you, get a generic athlete’s foot cream to clear it up.  I have had this happen before for a different reason, and found that Lotrimin (I got generic) worked best for me, clearing it up in just a few days.  Go back to your regular deodorant until it’s cleared up, then tinker with your recipe to adapt it until it no longer has this effect.  You could even try putting Lotrimin in the mixture.

OK, so here’s the church lady-inspired homemade deodorant recipe!  Up next, how to naturally give your bosom a lift while learning to knit! ;)

Homemade Deodorant

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

3 tablespoons baking soda
3 tablespoons arrow root powder or cornstarch
3 tablespoons extra-virgin coconut oil, heated just enough to become fairly liquid
Tea tree oil (a natural antifungal), and/or other essential oils for fragrance (optional)

Start with an empty deodorant tube.  If yours still has deodorant in it, just roll it up and pull it off the base.  Reusing the container and wasting the deodorant is cheaper than buying a brand new empty container by itself, because you don’t have to pay for shipping.

Be sure to wind the base down to the bottom before filling.

Whisk the baking soda and arrow root powder or cornstarch together in a bowl until lump-free and fine.

Add the oil…

and stir with a spoon until incorporated, then whisk it up until smooth.

Add your essential oil(s) in now to reach your desired fragrance, then add additional coconut oil or dry ingredients of equal measure as necessary to achieve your desired consistency.  Pour or pack into an empty deodorant tube and refrigerate until solid.

This may be stored at room temperature, but if you made the mixture very thin, you will have to keep it in the refrigerator if you want to apply it as a solid rather than a cream.

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Pumpkin Pie Baked Oatmeal

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Veronica

I’m atoning for my sins of last week: fattening, nitrate-filled chili-cheese dog casserole, decadent red velvet cake with a pound of butter and over a pound of cream cheese in it, and beef roast slathered with high-sodium cream of mushroom soup and onion soup mix.  I felt I owed myself, and you, a healthy reprieve.

I usually don’t like labeling my recipes “healthy” or unhealthy” in the title (although I have been known to do so) because that’s not how I want you to think of them.  If something is healthy, I want you to think about how delicious it is, not how healthy it is.  And if something is unhealthy, I don’t want you to focus on that either, I just want you do enjoy your splurge.  So, I’m not labeling this as “healthy” in the title, but I am telling you right now it’s pretty darn healthy.

First of all, it’s naturally sweetened from three sources: apple cider, maple syrup, and honey (because it’s sweeter and because I was running low on maple syrup).  Second, it’s packed with fiber from the pumpkin and the oats.  It’s even got a little protein from the eggs (and the oats)!  I did use a smidgen of butter, but I’m not one who thinks of butter as unhealthy, especially in meager amounts.  It could easily be left out if you want to reduce the fat.

Now let’s talk about the important stuff: the taste.  It’s all well and good to eat healthy foods, but who wants to eat them if they taste terrible?  Not me, and there’s no reason to when healthy food can (and should) be just as delicious as unhealthy food.  These baked oats are perfectly sweet, with a great spiced pumpkin taste, very soft and creamy, with a nice nutty crunch from the pecans.  Served with a drizzle of maple syrup over the top, it is a breakfast treat that is good enough to make your mouth so happy that you forget that you’re doing your body good as well.

Pumpkin Pie Baked Oatmeal

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup apple cider
2 eggs
½ cup milk (any kind)
¼ cup honey
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ¾ cups rolled oats
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a deep-dish pie plate or a casserole dish with oil; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, apple cider, eggs, milk, honey, maple syrup, butter, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla until smooth. Stir in the oats, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

Pour into prepared dish and sprinkle with pecans. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until set. Serve hot with maple syrup or honey.

Recipe source: adapted from The Other Side of Fifty, as seen on Betcha Can’t Eat Just One and Little Bit of Everything (this one’s really making the rounds!)

If you have leftovers, they will slice a lot nicer and will resemble a piece of pie more when served. You can even serve this cold, though I do like it better hot! If you want the oatmeal to be more firm so that you can slice it like pie after removing it from the oven, you’ll have to do some tweaking to reduce the amount of liquid and maybe add another egg.

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Chili-Cheese Dog Casserole

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Veronica

I’m just going to go ahead and apologize right now before I go any further.  I’m sort of on a comfort food (i.e. high calorie, delicious, and unhealthy food) kick right now, perhaps because the weather is getting cooler, and there is absolutely nothing healthy about this.  Actually, you could make it significantly healthier depending on what type of ingredients you choose to use (low-fat turkey chili, nitrate-free turkey hot dogs, reduced fat cheese, whole wheat tortillas), but I’m not going to lie and tell you I made any of those choices.  This is pure, delicious, evil.

I really had no choice.  The recipe, which originates from Allrecipes, has been haunting me for three years now.  I first ran across it on MySpace when a friend, Kimberly V., blogged the recipe.  Then Debbi blogged the recipe a few months ago, reminding me that I wanted to try it.  I prefer to eat healthy & lighter meals to balance the decadent desserts I make (and eat!) on a much too regular basis, so I had been fighting it the whole time, trying to forget I ever saw it.   But I finally buckled under the pressure of Debbi’s delicious pictures.

I’m not going to lie and tell you I regret it, either.  Like I said, pure, evil, deliciousness.  And it can’t get any easier than this!

Chili-Cheese Dog Casserole

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

2 (15 oz.) cans chili with beans
1 (16 oz.) package hot dogs
8 (8-inch) flour tortillas
1 (8 oz.) package cheddar cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 425 F. Spray a 9 X 13-inch baking dish with oil and spread 1 can of chili over the bottom . Roll up hot dogs inside tortillas and place in baking dish, seam side down, on top of chili layer. Top with remaining can of chili and sprinkle with cheese. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Serve hot.

*Veronica’s notes: I have no idea what size my casserole dish is, but I know it’s a couple inches smaller on each side than a 9×13 and the dogs fit perfectly in it.  I found my chili didn’t go very far, so I added a can of salsa-style fire roasted tomatoes & green chiles in puree to the top along with the chili. A can of Rotel, as Debbi used, would be perfect. I highly recommend shredding your own cheese to get a magnificent gooey melt. If your cheese is going to come into contact with the foil you place on top, generously spray the foil on one side with oil and place that side down over the pan, otherwise the cheese will stick to your foil and come off when you remove it.

Recipe source: Allrecipes

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Red Velvet Cake

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Veronica


This is the red velvet cake I was telling you about that I won a blue ribbon for at this year’s state fair.  It not only won a blue ribbon for the red velvet cake class, but won second best of all cakes turned in for judging from all classes!  So I guess you could say this one is a winner.  :)

I get 95% of the recipes I use from the web, mainly from other food blogs, but when I saw the recipe for this red velvet cake in Dam Good Sweet, I knew it was the one I had to use for the state fair competition.  I could tell by reading the ingredients that it was going to be killer, and I was right!

Most recipes use white vinegar in addition to the buttermilk, which can cause the crumb to be coarse because there is too much acidity for the baking soda to neutralize.  I learned this from Rose Levy Beranbaum, who has a red velvet cake recipe in Rose’s Heavenly Cakes that I almost used, but decided not to since the amount of cocoa she used was the usual paltry two tablespoons.  After learning about the vinegar, however, I knew what to look for in a red velvet recipe and this one passed the test: buttermilk only.

**Update: upon re-reading Rose’s explanation of why she used buttermilk only, I see I was wrong about the vinegar.  She said that baking soda neutralizes the acidity of the buttermilk which makes a coarser crumb on the cake.  She uses only baking powder to keep the acidity in the cake high, thus making the vinegar unneccessary.  So it’s not the acid that makes the crumb coarse, it’s the lack of it caused by the soda neutralizing the acid.  So this cake DOESN’T pass her test, but now I’m thinking of making it again with baking powder only and seeing if it makes the color brighter and the crumb finer.**

This recipe has a whopping half-cup of Dutch-processed cocoa, which is more than any other red velvet recipe I’ve found, and it gives the cake a nice devil’s food flavor, far superior to the other from-scratch red velvet cakes I’ve made, where the frosting was the best part about them.  With this one, the cake itself is just as good as the creamy frosting.  In fact, the flavor is very similar to the Duncan Hines red velvet cake mix.  This is the only cake I’ve ever made that came as close to a cake-mix taste.  (Some might see this as not ideal, but cake mix cakes are my standard for the best cakes.)  It is not as moist or light as the Duncan Hines red velvet, but it is still very, very good.

Dutch process cocoa has a smoother and deeper chocolate flavor than regular cocoa powder, which means while it makes the cake taste incredible, it also affects the color, making it a deep red.  (I was racing against the sunset to shoot these pictures and due to the low light (and my lack of a good camera & photo editing program), the color of the cake appears darker in the first photos than it really is. The actual color is closer to these last couple photos).  The deeper color doesn’t bother me, but if it bothers you, you might want to go with Rose’s recipe, which is a very bright red.

Red Velvet Cake

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

For the cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 (1 lb) box light brown sugar (about 2 ¼ cups)
3 tablespoons red food coloring (about 1.5 oz)
2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 ¾ cups buttermilk, room temperature

For the frosting:
1 ¼ pounds (2 ½ packages) cream cheese, room temperature
1 ¼ cups (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (2 lb) bag confectioners’ sugar (about 7 ¼ cups)

To make the cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans; set aside. Sift flour with the cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream the butter with the brown sugar, food coloring, and vanilla on low to combine. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and beat until aerated and pale, about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium and add the eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly between each addition and using a rubber spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary. Reduce the speed to low and add one-third of the dry ingredients followed by half of the buttermilk. Repeat, finishing with the final third of the dry mix. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl and divide the batter between the two prepared cake pans, spreading it out as evenly as possible.

Bake until tester inserted in center comes out clean and center of cake resists slight pressure, about 40 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then run a paring knife around the edges of each pan to release the cake from the sides; invert the cakes onto the cooling rack. Cool for 1 hour, then wrap each cake in plastic wrap for at least a few hours.

To make the frosting: Beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla together with an electric mixer on low speed to combine. Increase speed to medium-high and beat  until aerated and light, about two minutes. Stop the mixer and add a few cups of the confectioners’ sugar, incorporating it into the cream cheese mixture on low speed until combined. Repeat with the remaining sugar, adding it to the mixer in two additions. Once all of the sugar is added, increase the speed to medium-high and beat until fluffy, about 1 minute.

To assemble the cake: Unwrap and cut the dome of the tops off the cakes. Break up the cake domes into a food processor fitted with blade attachment and process to crumbs; set aside. Slice each cake in half horizontally to make four layers. Ice between layers of the cakes then over the top and sides. Press the crumbs into the sides of the cake. Refrigerate at least two hours before serving.

Veronica’s notes: 1) I omitted the vanilla from the frosting because I’m  used to working with much thicker frosting and didn’t want to thin this recipe any more than it already was.  This kept the color lighter and the flavor didn’t seem to suffer for the omission.  If I’d added it, I’m afraid it would have squooshed out between the layers as I added them, making the appearance of the finished frosted cake not as pretty.  The icing did squoosh out a bit even without the vanilla, but would have been worse with it.  2) I had trouble with the cake crumbs because they were very moist and stuck together pretty badly once I processed them.  I had to add a couple tablespoons of flour and process until incorporated to get them to turn into smaller crumbs.  3) I left this cake in it’s original two layers for the fair, and it made things a lot simpler.  If you don’t have a lot of experience with layer cakes, I’d suggest making it two layers instead of four.  4) I had about a cup of leftover frosting after making this cake.  If you like to make cake pops like I do, freeze the extra in a tub for your next cake pop/ball project.  I use 1/3 cup of frosting per batch, so this will make three batches of cake pops for me.

Recipe source: Dam Good Sweet

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Basic Crockpot Beef Roast

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Veronica

OK, I just want to warn you that this recipe includes two of the Midwestern housewife’s pantry staples that most foodies seem to abhor: cream of ___ soup and dry onion soup mix.  So if you are against such things, go ahead and just close this now before I get you too riled up.  Because I’m going to use them, and I’m not going to apologize for it.

Now that I’ve got that out of the way!  This is yet another homestyle meal that Teri taught me to make, and it’s so simple and easy!  You may be scratching your head, wondering why I’m bothering sharing this recipe with you, because you’ve been making something similar since you lost your first tooth, but I’m hoping there are others out there who never learned how to make a delicious and tender roast.  This is for you!  And for those who know how to make a delicious and tender, yet complicated roast, and need a backup recipe for busy days.

Growing up, my mother never made a single pot roast.  Which is weird, because it’s something her own mother made almost every time we visited.  You how you grow up watching your Mother and thinking, “I’m never going to do that when I grow up?”  Well, I think my Mom did that with her mother’s cooking.  Because Grandma was all about the homestyle cookin’ and Mom was all about the weird healthy food.  Bowls of lentils.  Fish stew.  Salad sprinkled with Spike in lieu of dressing, which was forbidden.  Some of her food was delicious, like her chicken chili, but most of it I couldn’t tolerate, and that was probably the only reason I was thin as a child. I refused to eat most everything she served us for dinner.  I think the school lunch program saved me from starvation.  It’s so sad, because if I ate all those foods now, I know I’d love them.  The stubborn ignorance of childhood!

Wow.  Talk about getting off-subject.  Let’s get back to the roast, shall we?  As with anything cooked in a crockpot, the meat is rendered extremely tender during the slow-cooking process and the broth from the roast combines with the soup to make a nice gravy to coat everything.  Teri recommends serving the roast with fresh bread and I chose to make rolls out of my favorite honey oatmeal bread, but would have gone with my favorite rolls of all time if I’d had milk.  Any fresh bread will do the trick, though–you just need something to sop up the gravy! :)

Basic Crockpot Beef Roast

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 (3-5 lb) roast (Teri recommends one with fat marbled throughout for moisture)
Meat seasoning/butt rubb/seasoned salt to taste
1 (10.5 oz) can cream of mushroom soup
1 (10.5 oz) can cream of golden mushroom soup
1 (1 oz) envelope dry onion soup mix
2 lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
1 lb bag baby carrots
8+ stalks of celery, trimmed and cut into thirds

Sprinkle meat with seasoning of choice and sear in a non-stick skillet over high heat on all sides. Meanwhile, place vegetables in bottom of crockpot. Once meat is seared, place on top of the vegetables. Spoon the soup over the top over the meat and veggies, then sprinkle the soup mix over that. Cover and set on low all day (about 8 hours).

Check it out yo! Remember the Fairy Hobmother who gave me a $50 gift card to buy a blender? Well, I decided I needed a new crockpot much worse than a new blender (my old one didn’t even have a knob and took two days to cook anything), and this roast was the first thing I made in it. I got the Hamilton Beach Set ‘n Forget 6-quart Programmable Slow Cooker.  I’m in love!  You can program it by setting it for a certain amount of time, or you can stick the thermometer probe through the top into the meat and program it to turn off once the meat comes to the right temperature, or you can put in on manual mode and just let it heat/warm until you turn it off.  It even has a snap-tight lid, making it perfect for mess-free travelling, which would have come in handy when Teri put one of the roasts we made in her trunk and it fell over during transit onto her brand new Bible! She says she now has an official “preacher’s wife” Bible because it’s stained with pot roast juice. haha!

Did the Fairy Hobmother visit any of you guys? Do tell what you got!

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