Chocolate Cream puffs

The cream puffs I made the other day have been in my dreams. So yesterday I decided it was time to make another batch. Even though this was my mom's recipe I decided it could be improved upon, just a bit. I decided to add 1 teaspoon of sugar, a pinch of salt, & 1 teaspoon of vanilla, it made a huge difference. Not that Moms' recipe wasn't good, it actually was fantastic, I just decided it could use a little update. Love you Mom.

I added the sugar and salt in when I added the flour. The vanilla I added in after I put the dough into the mixer, but before I added the eggs.

I changed the baking also. I baked them at 420° F for 25 minutes instead of high temp them low temp. Cut them open and let them sit in the cooling oven cut side up for 15-20 minutes to dey out. Worked great. 

I made a chocolate ganache pudding to fill the cream puffs, instead of the vanilla custard I used last time. I still topped the cream puffs with whip cream. So, the top half of the cream puffs had whipped cream and the bottom half had the chocolate ganache pudding. Then they were sandwiched together. 

Topped with a hot fudge sauce that I made from scratch. It's a super easy recipe. All it is is one can of condensed milk, 1 Cup of grated chocolate, 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of water, and a touch of salt. Put all of these ingredients to a saucepan and slowly warm it over medium low heat until everything is melted together. That's it!

They were so yummy

No idea why this took so long!

Let me start by saying we're all sick here again. Thus, soup was in order. I decided to pull out my trusty old cookbook, and see what I could find.

I found a recipe for shrimp bisque soup. It sounded easy enough, and only had 6 ingredients. Even in my sick haze I can make this! I would need the help of the kids though.

Jasmine started on peeling the shrimp. Benjamin started on shelling the garlic. I was reading through the recipe and it called for two cans of tomato soup. I thought why use canned soup if I have lots of tomatoes here how hard could it be to make real tomato soup. Turns out not that hard!

Benjamin's job got rerouted to dicing 4 cups of tomatoes, as I diced 1 small onion. The tomato, onion, plus 2 cloves of garlic went into a large pot with 2 cups of chicken broth. Bring this to a boil and allow to boil for about 20 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft. Put it into a blender and blend it until smooth. In the same pot I add 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of flour. Cook this until it is a light brown color, then slowly pour in the blended tomatoes. That's it homemade tomato soup. I almost wanted to stop here because the soup was so good, but on I went.

Jasmine wanted to help again at this point. I let her continue on with the shrimp that she had finished peeling the shrimp and cubing.  She cooked the shrimp on a skillet with 1 tablespoon of butter and just a little bit of salt and pepper. She did this perfect. She has seasoning down! There is some shrimp juice, pour this off and save.

The soup went back in the stove. I added 1 cup of heavy cream and brought to a very low rolling boil. In a separate pan I had Jasmine boil 2 tablespoons of brandy. Once it boiled for 5 minutes we added it too the tomato bisque. Also add the shrimp juice. Turn to simmer for 5 minutes.

As we were finishing this Benjamin was making us some garlic parmesan bread. The bisque is put into a bowl then top with shrimp and chives. Really turned out amazing.

Cream puffs

Growing up one of my favorite things to both eat and make with my mom was Cream Puffs. I remember helping her mix the "slimy" eggs into the batter that was roughly the texture and smell of Play dough. I knew that once done we would have a creamy fluffy treat. It was always fun and worth the work!

Today I got to share that tradition with my daughter. It is a tradition that I waited over 12 years to share with her. It was worth it.

I did not realize how easy they are to make, as a kid I felt like they took a whole day to make. In all fairness if I had 3-4 little kids "helping" me instead of one very proficient helper, it might have taken the whole day and not just over an hour.

Ok so how to make them. Take 1 cup of water, bring it to a boil. Add in 1/2 cup of Butter and melt it in the boiling water. Once the butter is melted, add in 1 cup of flour and 1/4 tsp of salt. Now mix this all up, it will make a play dough looking ball. Funny it even kind of smells like it too. It is a scent I remember as a child and did not let me down. I had to grin when my daughter said are you sure we are not making play dough?

Once you have the dough part done, the slimy part is here. At this point I transferred my dough from the pot to my KitchenAide mixer. You will be adding 4 eggs at this point. I had my daughter crack one egg at a time into a bowl. One egg at a time she would crack the egg then slowly add it to the dough. Mix it really well between each egg. You want the egg really incorporated before adding the next one. Do this for each of the eggs. 

THAT is it as far as making them goes. All that is left is put them on a cookie sheet. I make them about a heaping Tablespoon size. They will grow! Make sure they are spaced about 3 inches apart and away from the side.

Cook them in the oven at 450 F for 15 minutes. They will be golden on the tips only. KEEP them in the oven but turn the heat down to 325 F and cook them for another 25 minutes.

Take them out and cut them in half. They cool VERY quickly. Turn the oven off, but keep it closed you will need the heat for just a few more minutes. Cut each Cream Puff in half and put them back on the cookie sheet cut side up. Put them back in the oven for about 5-10 minutes or until the insides dry out.

All that is left to do is fill them. You can really fill them with what ever you want. Tonight we made filled them with Vanilla pudding (homemade) and topped that with Whipped cream. 

Jasmine had her own style of filling them. I think I like the way that she did it better then I remember doing it. She filled the bottom half with pudding. It was overfilled, but not too far. Then she took the top half and WAY over filled it. She then put the top and bottom together. It was perfect, brilliant and beautiful!

After they were all assembled, we drizzled chocolate syrup we had made on top. This was the finished product. Just over an hour of work, and what seemed like my whole kitchen worth of dishes. These tasty puff were ready to eat. So worth the work. I would make them tomorrow again if my family requested them

Brownies!

Many of you that know me and my family know that we have not had egg in this house for 12+ years. When our daughter was about a year old we found out that she is HIGHLY allergic to eggs and egg byproducts. This was a major shock to us and a huge hit to my baking. I LOVE TO BAKE. It is a passion that I have always had. When we found out about her allergy we had to purge egg from our house. No cookies, no cakes, no brownies, no pies, no store bought breads, no store bought pastas, the list goes on and on and on. 

From that day on 12 years ago she has never eaten eggs. She has not come into contact with them. She has not even touched an egg to decorate it at Easter. It has been an adjustment that we happily made for her safety and wellbeing. 

I taught myself how to make everything egg free. I can make a mean egg free cake, egg free cookies (chocolate chip, sugar and gingerbread), I make an awesome loaf of bread. Waffles, not perfect, not fluffy, but pretty darn good. There are not many things that she has missed out on, because if she wanted it I would figure out how to make it egg free.

We had been told as long as she NEVER came into contact, cross contact or accidental contact with any egg or anything that had come into contact with egg we could test her again at around 12 to see how her allergy has progressed. 

Today is that day. We could take her in to the Dr. with a crappy store bought cookie and let her eat it, but as a woman who LOVES to bake, I did not want her first REAL baked item to be store bought. SO off to school I sent her this morning, and off I went to the store to buy everything I needed for some good old fashion chewy, gooey, chocolately brownies!

MAN it was amazing to mix that batter, break an egg, watch as the batter took form and was shiny and creamy. Pouring it into the pan and watching it raise the way only egg products can almost brought tears to my eyes. 45 minutes in the oven and out they came, perfect candied top. Carmalized edging and chewy center. They are perfect. I still have it. I have to admit I ate quite a few pieces before the kids even got home from school.

After a moment of panic because I have a substance in my house that has been deadly to my daughter for so long, I scrubbed everything down, counters, pan, pots, bowls, oven, stove, floors and cabinets, just in case. Then I sat back and enjoyed the smell of baked brownies.

My daughter came home, we took her and tested her. EVERYTHING WENT PERFECT! No reaction. Nothing! No breathing issues, no rash, no snot, no coughs, no hives, NOTHING! At this point I have to admit I cried. Unless you have had a child that has been on a medical plan since birth, you will have no idea how liberating and frightening it is. I am not tossing the medical bracelet just yet. The Epi Pen will still be following me around and she will not be eating eggs for breakfast tomorrow, but heres to the beginning of a new life for us!

My cooking will be taking a very different form from now on. 

Chicken tacos

Again it has been too long since my last post. Tonight I decided to make chicken tacos from scratch. In theory this was an easy project, in reality, not quite so much.

I started by making tortillas. That in itself was harder than I thought it would be. The cool part was once I had the tortillas made, I have lots of tortillas. I took 10 of the tortillas that I had already made, I wrapped each individually in a damp paper towel, then microwaved them for 30 seconds. Now they were all warm and soft.

I took the warm and soft tortillas and brush a very thin layer of extra virgin olive oil on both sides of the tortillas. Next I took out the top rack of my oven, and draped the warm and soft tortillas over two wires of the oven rack. Here is a picture of what I'm talking about.

I baked the tortillas for 7 minutes at 375° F. Then took them out, rack and all, and set them over the sink too cool. The sink has a nice negative space so they could still drape while cooling.

Next I took chicken breasts and cut them up into little small pieces and boiled them in about a cup of white wine, white onions minced, and sprinkled with garlic salt. I put the lid on the pan and let it cook for about 5 minutes without flipping the chicken. After about 5 minutes I flipped the chicken an added just a little bit of beer, about 1/4 cup. I then put the lid back on the chicken and let it cook for about another 5 minutes. Then took the lid off and let it sauté a until all the juices and garlic and onions and the two alcohols dried up and caramelized. The chicken is done!

All that was left to do was to dice the tomatoes, lettuce, avocados, fresh chives from my garden, and shredded cheese to top the tacos with.

Because I draped the tortillas over two wires in the oven they had a nice flat bottom. We could fill them however we like without having to worry about them falling over. I have to say it was one of my better meals, but time consuming. That being said, I would definitely make them again.

I know, I know

I am well aware that it has been awhile since I posted last. Today is 3 days post Christmas and we are all getting over the flu. None of us, kids, hubby or myself, have eaten much since Tuesday. Today we finally showered and got out of the house. We only made it to church and back, but that was enough. We came home and all were hungry. My solution was onion soup. I knew it needed to be something not to heavy, as all of our tummies are very delicate right now.

I have always followed different recipes when making French onion soup, and have never used the same one twice.  I figured I had enough variations in my mind I could do one on my own without a recipe.

Here it goes. 4 red onions sliced into thin rings. Garlic. 1/2 cup real butter. Thyme.  Salt and pepper. Put this into a large pot and saute until golden and soft.  This took about 30 min.

I added 1 1/2 cup of white wine. Boiled it until the wine dissolved. Then removed the thyme stalks. It is kind of thick and pasty at this point.

I stirred in 1/4 cup of flour, and cooked it until the bitterness of the flour was gone. It got even thicker now.

Add in 8 cups of chicken stock and bring back to a boil. I then added two handfuls of mozzarella cheese. Then I turned heat down to medium and let slowly boil for about 15 minutes.

As this was finishing up I sliced french sandwich rolls into thin slices. Added garlic powder and topped with mozzarella cheese. These went into the oven on broil until it was golden brown.

By the time the rolls were done so was the soup. I put the soup into oven safe bowls for each of us. I floated a slice of cheese bread on top and covered with more mozzarella. These went back into the oven on broil for about 5 minutes until these cheese was golden. Took out and served.

It was so good. I think tomorrow it will have aged a bit to my benefit. It will only get better.

Turmeric shrimp

Following the same track as yesterday led me to shrimp and turmeric. I started with shrimp boiled in white wine and covered until almost fully cooked. Then added garlic, turmeric and onions. This one smelled very mustardy. Not even sure if that is even a word. But it did. The taste was heavenly though.

Perfect paring was pasta shells. That way the sauce from the turmeric shrimp can be caught in the shells.

It was a delightful meal.  Kids finished off it all. Here is the after.

So far turmeric works with both chicken and shrimp. No turmeric for a few days, do not want to burn the kids out on turmeric.

Turmeric Chicken

Not sure why but my Pintrest has been inundated lately with the health benefits of turmeric. Not sure if it is a new American Fad or if I am just late to jump on the bandwagon. Crazy enough I already had this in my cupboard. It was in a recipe that I used quite a while ago. I have never used it since. I could not even tell you what recipe I used it on and have never used it since. That being said I actually love it, as of yesterday.

My cooking consist of me smelling spices and adding them to my dishes based on smell. If anyone has smelled turmeric, it smells like mustard. Not really something that seems like it could be added to many dishes.

Yesterday I asked the kids what they wanted for dinner. Benjamin responded with the usual, Bean and cheese burritos, followed by Quesadillas. Jasmine gave her usual anything but pasta. I settled on chicken and couscous.

I started with olive oil, and chicken breasts on the skillet, high heat. I sprinkled turmeric, garlic salt and some grilled onions (from yesterdays dinner) over the chicken. One side got nice and golden and then flipped the chicken over. I again sprinkled turmeric and pepper on the chicken. I turned the heat down to med-lo and added in 1/2 cup of white wine, and covered it. This cooked for about 5-7 minutes. Then I turned it once more and added in a 1/4 cup of water and some bacon bits (the ones from Costco that come in a bag). Covered it again and cooked for 2-3 minutes. Then took the cover off and turned the heat way up and boiled off the liquid.

What was left was a oniony garlicky sauce, along with the chicken breasts. The turmeric did not have a mustard flavor at all. It added just a touch of spice to the chicken. It ended up so juicy and good. Not sure why I have not been using this spice more often. I needed to hop on this band wagon quite a while ago. It is a new and different flavor that is amazing.

The couscous was just a basic couscous that I add a bit of salt, onion powder, dried onion (I like how it stays a bit crunchy), sun flower seed and grilled garlic slices. It is easy and the kids like the various textures.

I did not get any pictures of this meal. By the time it was done, the kids were starving and I was not going to fight them to let me get a picture before they ate. But know this, all the food was gone. I usually make 3 chicken breasts, the kids each eat half and Rougeh and I eat a whole one. Last night, Benjamin ate his and asked if there was any more, I gave him half of mine, he loved it that  much.

Another score of mommy! If anyone has a spice that they would like to introduce me to I would love suggestions. This will be tried in many different dishes for the next, who knows how long.

BTW, ORANGES are in season!!!

Shrimp and pasta

Driving home from church and family says,  "what's for lunch we are starving?" No idea! Hubby says how about shrimp.

Shrimp it is. Now what to do with it. Google my trusty friend shows me lots of shrimp recipes, but none seem to sound good. Even the 5 star ones. All this in the 15 minutes it takes for us to get home.

We get home. I put a pot on the stove to start boiling water, because no matter what I do to the shrimp, pasta will work.

Now on to the shrimp. I started with coconut oil and garlic. Always a good place to start. Then added in some white wine and diced onions. Bring that to a boil, add in fresh oregano, stem and all. Boil that. Then add in cayenne pepper, garlic salt and cracked pepper. At this point I removed the stems of the oregano, but left the leaves. Once that was done I then added in the shrimp. Turned the heat down to simmer and covered. Cook the shrimp for about 5 min. Turn the heat off and flip the shrimp. Let the shrimp stand as you finish the pasta.

By the time the pasta was done. The shrimp had stood long enough.

Plated with pasta on the bottom and shrimp with sauce on top. 

Start to finish this took 20 minutes. Jasmine asked if I can make this for dinner too. Haha. I made enough for both meals, but planned on having enough to pack Rougeh a lunch tomorrow. No such luck. 2 pounds of shrimp and 1 pound of pasta all gone. 

Tilapia and pasta

Today is the aftermath of over indulging from yesterday. Thanksgiving was amazing, just too many items to blog about. Today is a new day though. I am a proud mom. I asked the kids what they wanted for dinner. One said chicken and the other said fish, if only they would always agree on everything! I said ok lets start with the side, one said couscous and the other said pasta, Ughh. Love these kids.

We settled on Tilapia and pasta, each is happy. Benjamin asks when will it be ready. LIGHTBULB! They are going to be making dinner, supervised of course. I have them look up recipes for tilapia. First three are immediately vetoed, fourth looks good. Only issue with the recipe is that we do not have jars of alfredo sauce. Both the kids look at me confused. You see the look of "Oh, No we cannot do this one too." Ha Ha, they had no idea that I always make my own. Instead of just giving them the recipe and have them do it, I make them look it up.

10 minutes later, we finally have alfredo sauce in the making. They made the sauce totally on their own. They measured, stirred, and seasoned it themselves.

















Then on to the Tilapia. It needed to be baked with Creole seasoning, another thing we do not keep in stock here. Back to good old Allrecipes.com. Guess what, we have everything we need to make our own creole seasoning. Surprise surprise! Both sides of the tilapia get seasoned and into the oven at 425 for 10 min.

Two fidgety kids later, we have fish done, alfredo sauce done, and garlic crescents in the oven. Jasmine says "we are ready to eat" Benjamin, "What about the pasta? Man this cooking thing is hard work."

They get out the pan and start the boiling water. Start to finish they make the spaghetti on their own. Tasting the half cooked noodles WAY too often, but still getting it done.

Over an hour later and a full meal, they have done it!

Side note: This meal is crazy good. They were a little heavy handed on the cayenne pepper, which I love. It added the touch of fire that you want from a creole seasoning. So good.

Pasta fagoli

Let me start by saying, I know I butchered the spelling of this soup. I began the morning I'm looking for a dairy free soup to make. I decided I was going to try to remake Olive Garden's pasta fagioli. After looking through about 30 recipes I decided to compile them all and make my own version of it.

I love simplicity. This recipe is garlic, spices, Italian sausage, tomatoes, pasta and salt and pepper. It only took me about 20 minutes start to finish for this recipe.

I took garlic and sautéed it. Then added in carrots, celery and onions, all diced. Sautee then until soft.  Then add in vegetable broth, tomato sauce (fresh tomatoes boiled until soft and blended), tomatoes diced and 1 cup of water. My family is carnivores (except for me. I could never eat meat and be happy as can be) so I added in spicy Italian sausage, grilled and crumbled. Bring to a boil then simmer for 15 min. I did not need salt, but did add pepper.  When everything was ready to go I added in red kidney beans and white beans. Heated until beans were warm.

When I served it I added in the pasta so it would not get soggy.

End result over kid loved it,  one not so much, and hobby love it. My son did not finish his, and ended up just eating a bowl of the pasta. 3 wins and 1 loss. Good odds? Only 75‰ not great but acceotable I guess.

I thought it was amazing and am excited there are left overs. It will age wonderfully!

Caramels

As the weather is getting colder I begin making the best dessert of all times, Caramels.  It is the kids favorite also. PLUS fun to make. Here is my recipe.

Caramels

1 can sweet condensed milk
2 cup sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup white Karo Syrup

Pour all the ingredients into a pot. It needs to be a big pot. turn the heat to medium. Stir constantly. It will start to boil, keep stirring. The color will start to change to a caramel color. Keep stirring. If you have a candy thermometer that is the best it needs to get to 240 degrees. But if you do not have one, just keep cooking until it is a very brown/caramel color. It takes about 45 min to an hour to get it to the right temp. then pour it into a 9X13 pan that has been sprayed with PAM. Put it in the fridge until it is cool. Then pop it out and cut it up. Wrap in parchment paper and store in air tight container.

Spicy Sausage Lasagna

Last night not sure if I call it a failure or not.

I made lasagna. Normally this is a huge hit. I change it up a bit every time, but the basic recipe is the same. Sauce, noodles, ricotta cheese mixed parmesan cheese, mozzarella, meat, veggies and repeat. Last night was a much smaller dish, I realized that making a 9x13 dish for a family of 4 is WAY too much. 8x8 in theory would be perfect.

So changed up a few things, I made some spicy sausage for the meat, skipped the veggies, and fresh tomatoes peeled and boiled. This whole process takes about an hour to cook it all, layer it and top it. I put it in the oven and left instructions for my husband to turn the oven on 30 minutes before I would be back home from taking the kids to karate.

It looks amazing, it smells amazing and will cook to a golden bubbly brown delight. I come home to a husband that has followed my instructions perfectly and the lasagna is done. Right on time. The stars have aligned to a perfect meal.

Only issue. My husband came home from work to an empty house, and snacked (that is what you do after work right, EVEN when you are the one finishing up dinner,Ughh). Son had a tough workout at karate and just wants to go to bed and daughter is not feeling well and just wants some tea and bed.

As sit down to a dinner that only I eat I realize this was a wasted meal. No one will be eating my hard work. I cut my little slice of heaven, then sadly cover the rest and put it in the refrigerator. Man it was a great lasagna. Oh how my family missed it. Dinner tonight. They will be getting Lasagna, it is better the next day right?

Lazy mom's dinner

Last night I was worn out from a day of fun with the kids, plus a meeting at 6pm. Solution was a one pan dinner. I made margarita chicken pasta. Never made this before, but not quite sure why I never have.

Penne pasta, chicken breasts (sliced), tomatoes (chopped up), garlic, basil, butter and mozzarella cheese. Boil the pasta to al dente. Drain it them and set aside. Grill chicken without any seasonings in a large skillet. Do not cook thoroughly, just until the inside is VERY slightly pink. Put all the other ingredients, except for the cheese into the skillet and set on simmer. Cook until tomatoes are soft, chicken will be done cooking by this point also. Add the pasta and cheese back into skillet with all the other ingredients. Simmer covered for 5-10 minutes or until the pasta is warm. Add what ever seasonings you would like. I add salt, pepper and a bit of pepper flakes just to give it a bit of spice.

The kids both loved this meal. I think it will be added to my easy meal ideas.

On a side note, the kids are crazy for English muffins right now.

I am going to veer off for a moment. Anyone with kids knows, that they do not always call things by the correct name. English Muffins are one of those things for my kids. They have called English Muffins, Indian bread for as long as I can remember. As such we also call it Indian bread. Just about a month ago I finally asked them why they call it that, as they are old enough they know what they are actually call. Thomas English Muffins have a horse and carriage on the package. My son pointed to the picture and said, "because it has an Indian on it."

Back to my point. They love English muffins. We are going through about 4 packages (that is 24 English muffins) in about 5 days. They eat them for breakfast with just butter and sometimes jelly. They eat them after school with cream cheese. Then at dinner they are eating them as garlic bread. Last night was no exception. We toasted the English muffins, buttered them then added garlic powder to them. The kids ate 2 whole English muffins (we cut them in half, so 4 halves) along with their pasta.

Tonight we are going to be having spicy sausage Lasagna!

Weekend fun

We have had a full house since Friday. Thank you to all our loved ones that traveled up to us for the weekend. It was a blast.

I knew I would be doing a lot of cooking this weekend with 12 extra mouths to feed. First up was on day one we started out with Cake batter pancakes and waffles. It is exactly what it sounds like. I made cake batter and made them into waffles and pancakes. We topped that with whipped cream, Pomegranate syrup, chocolate chips and butter. It is as sweet as it sounds. Kids love it. Guests stuck with syrup and butter.

Dinner was a BBQ at our house. We started with a salad. I am not a fan on lettuce salads, so I tend to use baby spinach. We added dried cranberries, sesame seeds and pomegranate arils, topped with balsamic vinaigrette. This may be a new favorite salad (at least as long as we have fresh Pomegranates) I marinated some chicken breasts with rosemary, thyme, peppercorns crushed, oregano, dried garlic, dried onions and garlic salt. Then threw it on the grill. Hubby was the grill master for the night. He rocked it. Chicken came out so juicy and full of flavor. I made for the side rice. The rice was sauteed in butter until golden then boiled with coconut oil, vegeta and ground pepper. Perfect pair with the chicken.

Dessert was a real treat. I wanted to continue on with the pomegranate theme. Like that should surprise anyone? With the help of two adorable little helpers we made dark chocolate shells filled with white chocolate pomegranate mousse. The shells were an easy make. Just made a batch of chocolate, but instead of making it milk chocolate I it dark with the use of some bitter cocoa powder. Very rich. The filling was made by making a batch of white chocolate, but not letting it harden. As I was in the process of making that I had my daughter making the pomegranate part. This was just pomegranate juice mixed with gelatin, set aside to harden. Then on to 2 cups of heavy cream beat to fluffy and stiff, thanks to my son for that part. Add in a touch of vanilla, the white chocolate and pomegranate gelatin mixture. Whip it all and refrigerate to harden.

By the time the filling is set the shells are too. Now just use a pastry bag and fill the shells. We topped them with a couple arils and they were light and delicious.

Like one dessert is enough. Ha! We have a fire pit in our backyard and a nice bonfire going so what better second dessert then one cooked over a fire pit. We made campfire pies. This is something I should sell as kits. They are easy and amazing. You take biscuit dough, and  dowel (about a 1.25 inch diameter by 4 feet long) press the dough onto the dowel and wrap it around the end. Slowly cook it over the fire. SLOWLY is the key to a fully cooked pie crust. Once it is cooked remove it and fill with your favorite pie filling and top with whipped cream. The end result is what we call a campfire pie. It is warm and sweet, a perfect mixture.

Pot stickers and cheese

My son ran in the championship cross country race for elementary ages today. He rocked it. As such he asked for a celebration dinner. He wants his favorite homemade meal, Pot stickers and baked cheese sticks. Now pot stickers are not my favorite thing in the world, but then again neither are lima beans. Cheese sticks on the other hand, I love.  Jasmine is like me, pot stickers are not her favorite either, but she will eat 8 cheese sticks with tomato sauce.

The ones I make are from Costco, I do not make them as directed. I boil them in water until they float then sear them with coconut oil. It makes them better. The sauce that they come with also needs a bit of tweaking. I add garlic and honey to the sauce. It just makes it better.

The cheese sticks are also from Costco. Directions say to fry them in vegetable oil. I do not listen and instead bake them on a cookie sheet at 425 F for 20 minutes. 

Not much healthy about it and not much work to it. I do not even count this as "making" dinner. It is more like warming up stuff. 

Benjamin is happy, Jasmine is content, Hubby loves both and I am done with dinner in less than 30 minutes.

French onion soup

This dinner was incredibly easy, yet oh so delicious.

Slice 3-4 large onions very thin. Brown with 1/2 stick of butter on very low heat. After 45 min the onions will be golden brown and nice and soft.

Then add in lots of broth, (chicken, beef, or vegetable all work equally well). The recipe that I was roughly working off of asked for a cup of white wine. I skipped that step, I think It would make it too sweet. Instead I added extra water. This comes to a boil then simmers for 30 minutes. After I bring this to a boil and add in 2 teaspoons of flour, not part of the recipe but I wanted it a bit thicker. Mix that in really well then I turned it off and left to Karate with the kids.

We got home from Karate 2 hours later. The soup was still warm, but not hot anymore. I decided to veer from the recipe again, I love my soup with a nice browned layer of cheese. I have had French Onion soup with Swiss cheese, Mozzarella cheese, but never my favorite cheese Provolone. I scooped the soup into bowls (only three, because my son is running in the District Cross Country finals tomorrow, he only eats pasta the night before a race). I cooked the soup at 450 F for 10 minutes. 

The cheese melted into the soup perfectly. There was some golden brown cheese along the edges.  Perfection.

My husband and I loved the soup. My daughter not so much. She said it was "too oniony" Lol it is french onion soup. Love this girl. She ended up eating pasta with my son. This is saying a lot because she does not like pasta, especially if it has tomato sauce on it, which this did.

Oh well, I will be making this again for just my husband and I.

Kids, Cleaning and Fish

The kids had off of school today. I know who gives them JUST a Tuesday off. Oh well I will take what I can get. We spent the morning in PJ's watching TV and playing games. Then cleaning house, still in Pj's. By this time it was noon and the kids requested bean and cheese burritos. Ugh, I think they are so gross, but to the kids they are the greatest lunch ever.

I make my refried beans. So at least it is kind of good. Then kids add cheese, and hot sauce. They wrap it all up, devour it and make a second. Huge hit, I on the other hand, made some chili, it is a cold day (54 F when we ate lunch). I must confess I get this from a can. I love Stagg Chili. I did make some garlic bread to go with it. Well making garlic bread my be a bit of a stretch also. I took English muffins, toasted them, slathered them in butter, then sprinkled with garlic powder. It is so much yummier than it sound.

For dinner we are going with tilapia. Specifically,  I am breading it with flour, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne pepper.  After the fish is cleaned and dried I do an eggless breading. All I do is make sure the fish is dry and put it in a zip lock bag with the breading mixture. I kind of smooch the breading into the fish, both sides. Then put it in a pan that has BUTTER melted into it. Bake for 7 min at 450 F. Flip and bake for 7 more minutes.

It should be golden on both sides.

I pared this with couscous and asparagus for my husband and I. The kids do not like couscous so they got mashed potatoes and asparagus. The mashed potatoes were made with red potatoes boil until soft and mashed with cheese, sour cream, and a bit of milk.

My son took seconds on the fish ( he ate and entire tilapia filet). My daughter ate her fish, potatoes and asparagus, then took more potatoes.

They are enjoying my food. That is a victory!

Loaded baked potato soup

So good on a cold day.

This is such an easy meal. I start by boiling potatoes. I use Russet Potatoes as often as I do the Red ones. Before I boil them I score them all around the width. I do not bother peeling them. Once they are boiled and soft throw them in a bowl of cold water. Once they are cooled just put the potato in your hand and kind of roll it and the skin just comes off, like magic.

While the potatoes are cooling I saute garlic in butter. Once the garlic is ready I add about 2 cups of vegetable broth. Bring that to a boil, then add pepper, and any other seasoning you may want. Add to that 3 cups of milk. More if you want it creamy. I then add cream cheese, about 1.5 cups, 4 cheese mix 2 handfuls, and chives.

The potatoes should be cooled by now, mash the peeled potatoes to a very course mash. I like to have nice size chunks in it. Add this into the soup and let simmer for an hour or so, covered and stirring occasionally. 

I serve this topped with fresh chopped chives, cheese and bacon bits. It is a great easy and tasty soup for a cold night.

All is right again

Today I decided I was not going to be a conquered woman. My kids were harder to convince. I let know we needed to go to the grocery store. When asked what needed to be on the list I gave them the basics, chicken, heavy cream, beef, butter, milk, cocoa, bread, chocolate chips... I figured I would break them slowly into the fact that it was going to be day 2 of brownie making.

Once we started shopping my daughter put it together.  She asked if we could do cookies instead. She is ever the politician. But, I will not be beat by brownies.

We get home and I ask who wants to bake with me. My son says,  "I will, if Jasmine has to taste them." Come on guys it was not that bad. In reality it was, but man these kids are food critics now. One miss step and my kids are jumping ship. They were ready to call grandma for reinforcements on desserts. I was thrown over board and had a full mutiny in my kitchen. No alliance at all.

Batch 1 back to my basic brownies. The mix perfect, they bake perfect, while they are still warm we cut through the candied crust and enjoy the fudge perfection that is a perfect brownie. Once Benjamin realized they were amazing, he had no trouble sampling the whole pan with his sister.

Batch 2, not to be outdone by Mrs. Fields, I decide I have baked these enough I should be able to tweak them to make them even better. I be honest I was a little worried to have another disaster, but batch 1 gave me courage.  So substituting milk for heavy cream, adding chocolate chips,  and cutting back the sugar but adding more sweetened cocoa along with the dark cocoa. I baked in watching it very closly. 45 minutes later the kids, regained faith in my abilities,  could not wait to taste.

I stopped them at one slice each. It was a brownie domination!  So good. So chocolatey. So gooey. So perfect. So worth revisiting yesterday's failures.

This is what is left of the pan of batch 2.