Candy Corn Butterfingers

I have developed a bit of an addiction to Pinterest as of late. One of the first things I "pinned" was this photo linking a recipe for homemade Butterfingers.

Photo Source: http://www.thesaltypineapple.com/2011/08/i-love-food.html

When I realized the recipe consisted of only three ingredients, I had to try it!  You'll notice that I don't have a photo of the bars I made. Mine weren't quite as pretty as these. They weren't so much bars as they were nuggets, chunks and pieces. This was probably due to the fact that I did not let them set up as directed. Being impatient, I simply shoved the dish into the freezer and busted 'em up when they were cool. Despite their unpretty looks, they tasted fantastic! And yes, they taste like actual Butterfingers, but the texture isn't as flaky or crunchy. They were good, Y'all!  These are going onto my Christmas candy rotation!

Candy Corn Butterfingers

1 lb. candy corn
16oz jar peanut butter 
16oz pkg. chocolate candy coating

Melt candy corn in microwave on high 1 minute. Stir and continue cooking in 15-second intervals until melted, stirring after each interval. Stir in peanut butter. Spread mixture in a buttered dish(I used cooking spray). Cool completely. Cut into squares. Dip in melted chocolate candy coating. Lay on waxed paper to set.

Pumpkin Brownies

I was watching an episode of Hungry Girl on Food Network the other day and she made these absolutely yummy looking fudgey-brownies using a can of pumpkin, some peanut butter, light chocolate syrup and a box of brownie mix. It's not the first time I'd thought of trying this recipe, but seeing her eat them and hearing her talk about how wonderful they tasted, well it made me have to try making them.

I didn't have any chocolate syrup, so I mixed the brownie mix and pumpkin.

Next I added 2TBS of melted peanut butter to the batter and made it all pretty.

Baked at 350 for about 40min.

Don't they look yummy?

So. Not. Yummy. They weren't terrible, but they didn't taste like any brownie I've ever eaten. They had a weird(pumkin, no doubt) flavor that I just could not get past. I wonder if the chocolate syrup would have eliminated some of the pumpkin flavor?  Looking at the photo I can almost hear them saying "I'm not what I pretend to be".

They weren't for me, but that doesn't mean it's a bad recipe...my Vegan Husband loved  them!

Apple Crumble for Folks Who Don't Like Cooked Apples

I don't like cooked apples.

Or so I thought.

And then I watched Melissa D'Arabian on The Food Network make an apple crumble.

An Apple Crumble with Cardamom-Vanilla Caramel Sauce, to be exact.

And I thought to myself, "How have I lived 39(not really) years without having eaten an Apple Crumble with Cardamom-Vanilla Caramel Sauce? Truly, I haven't lived!" Then I changed the channel and got mesmerized by something else, probably Billy the Exterminator or reruns of Three's Company.

A few weeks later I was in the grocery store and remembered that I wanted to make that apple thingie with the fancy sauce. I had no idea what ingredients I'd need other than the apples. SO, I picked up some Granny Smith's, came home, hunted down the recipe, and realized I could make the apple crumble but not the Vanilla-Cardamom Caramel Sauce. Honestly, I reasoned, if it takes four words to describe the sauce, it's probably over my skill level anyway. I settled on making the Apple Crumble alone.

Since I wasn't making the Fancypants Sauce version, I decided to check out other recipes for apple crumble before I got started. What I ended up baking was a conglomeration of Melissa D'Arabian's recipe and one I found on Joy the Baker, and...

Oh. My. Gosh.

I felt the need to apologize to all those cooked apples I'd turned my nose up at in the past!

Apple Crumble for Folks Who Don't Think They Like Cooked Apples


What You Need:
For Filling:
5-6 medium Gala apples (or a mix of Galas + Granny Smith), peeled, cored & sliced
1Tsp. lemon juice
2.5 Tbs. sugar
1.5 Tsp. cinnamon
pinch of salt

For Crumble:
2/3 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cups brown sugar
2/3 cups oats
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans
pinch of salt
one stick of butter I use light margarine since my husband is vegan, but in my heart, I know butter makes it better.

What You Do:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Toss apple slices with lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon and salt and set aside.

In a separate bowl mix crumble ingredients until uniform.

Melt butter in baking pan. Pour melted butter into crumble mixture, leave the excess butter in baking dish to coat pan. Arrange apples in dish and cover with the crumble mixture. This crumble mixture will be dough-y(expert culinary term)sometimes I try to pat it out and lay it on the apples, other times I plop globs of it over the apples, covering as much of the filling as possible, either works.


Bake till apples are cooked through and topping is nice and brown. 45min. to an hour.


Serve this warm and top  with some Vanilla ice cream, and if you're more adventurous than I, make yourself a fancy Vanilla Cardamom Caramel Sauce to go with it. Don't forget to come back here to tell me what you think!

And for those of you just joining me, I'm giving away a few fabric postcards. Check my previous post for details on how to get one.

Best Oven Fried Chicken (no, really!)

Fried Chicken. Sigh. I direct you to my first(and only) slightly sad attempt at frying chicken. I almost got it right, and probably could have eventually gotten a handle on it if I'd kept at it, but I gave up.  I know.  I should be ashamed. I'm Southern after all, and from Kentucky...the Fried Chicken Capitol of the World! But me and fried chicken, we just don't jive. 

So here I am, four and half years after starting what I thought would be a cooking blog and I still can't fry up a chicken and I'm still not much of a cook either. This may explain why my cooking blog has morphed into a random craft/sewing/apron/quilting/ blog where I occasionally share a recipe. 

Which leads me back to the chicken...

I found a recipe for oven "fried" chicken that was a snap to make and tasted great! This recipe comes from the book Eat What You Love by Marlene Koch.

Best Oven Fried Chicken

What you'll need

• 2 large egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground sage
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 1/4 cups corn flakes
• 1/4 cup plain breadcrumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 lbs skinless chicken

***My changes due to lack of ingrediets: 1/2 cup egg beaters subbed for egg whites; paprika subbed for cayenne; Italian seasoning subbed for sage & thyme; I used precut chicken breast tenders.

What You'll Do

1. Preheat oven to 400. Place a wire rack on top of a baking sheet and spray with cooking spray.
2. In a shallow bowl, whisk together egg whites with  garlic powder, onion powder, caynne pepper, sage and thyme.
3. Place the cereal in a plastic bag and crush thoroughly with a rolling pin. Place in a shallow bowl and mix with  breadcrumbs, pepper, and salt.
4. Place flour in a third shallow bowl.
5. To bread the chicken pieces, first dredge the chicken in th flour to coat. Next, dip each piece of chicken into the egg white mixture, followed by the crumb mixture, making sure to cover all surfaces. repeat until all the chicken is coated.
6. Place the chicken pieces on the prepared rack and bake for 45 minutes, or until the chicken is  golden brown and reaches 180 degrees.

I'll admit to being a bit skeptical of any recipe titled "BEST" anything, but this was good stuff, y'all!  The chicken was juicy inside and crispy outside--just the way I like it! It was truly the best oven fried chicken I've tried....and I'd bet that cooking it on the wire racks is what made the difference. Give it a try and tell me what you think!  And I'd recommend you pick up a copy of this cookbook, especially if you're a cooking novice like I am. It has lots of familiar recipes(without exotic, hard to find ingrediets), made healthier.

More From Chicagoland...Stuff We Ate.

Finally! More photos and yammering to share from my summer trip to Chicagoland. I had such a great time with Jackie and Scott...I'm already thinking of planning another trip during Fall Break.

I'm not really a huge fan of hot dogs and no way would I think about eating one with all that "Chicago Style" stuff piled on it. However, because I am a hopeless superdork, I decided that I HAD to go to Superdawg during my visit. Mainly, because I'd seen it on a PBS documentary called "A Hot Dog Program",  but also for the building(I dig Googie arcitecture) and for the giant hot dogs standing atop it....none of which disappointed! The hot dog was dang tasty for a plain hot dog...hey...I can hear you...stop snickering at me.

Scott, w/a Chicago style Superdawg.

I sampled Jack's chocolate milkshake...fantastic! And in case you didn't believe me when I said I was a  superdork...here's proof...I took a photo of the box the hot dog came in.

We also ate restuarant in the 'Burbs called Portillo's. 

The atmosphere was really fun...the gal you see at the counter would call out a number and whenever someone went to pick up their order...she'd grin and rhyme the number.  "Number Two...I've got a meal ready for you!"

Portillo's  had a little bit of everything on the menu...including their own version of the Chicago dog, I, however, opted for another classic....Italian Beef....Lord. Have. Mercy. 

Then there was the Hollywood Palms...a resturant/movie theater. Our servers actually brought out a meal while we were watching a movie!  For whatever reason, I didn't take any photos of the individual theaters, which were all decorated in a different movie genre theme, but there are photos of those here.  I did manage to get a photo of one of two bars.

And what trip to Chicago is complete without amazing pizza? I give you Giordano's. Amazing is an understatement.

My favorite restuarant was Ann Sather.  I loved everything about it! 

....from the Swedish style decor to our waitress (who looked alarmingly like Ed Begly Jr.)... 

..to the ENORMOUS & delicious cinammon rolls... 

...to what has got to be hands down the best breakfast sandwich and potatoes I've eaten in my life.

 I would ride the train 5 hours just to eat at Ann Sather again. 

Expect more Chicagoland photos and yammering at a later date...

Kellie Cooks(and eats) A Vegan Dish...And Lives to Tell About It!

My husband is a vegan. I am sooo not a vegan. He is thin, I am chubby fat extra-large not thin. I'm certain I could point out more health related differences between us and chalk it up to his vegan-ism, but I'll stop at the thin/not thin thing. Since that's where I always end up...Weight. Sigh.

I tried to do the no meat/no dairy for a while not too long ago. It didn't last long...almost made it three weeks. Surprisingly, I didn't miss the meat that much, but those of you who know me know that I'm not a big fan of veggies(or beans) and I will go out of my way to avoid eating them. Instead of replacing meat and dairy with vegetables, I was replacing it with Cheetos and Little Debbie cakes. So I stopped that little experiment before the weight gain got out of hand. Yeah, I know. Pathetic.

Despite my failure as a vegan, I have begun to become more interested in trying to eat healthier {{{hides M&M's wrapper and half empty glass of Coke}}} and think it's about time I started cooking(if only occasionally) for my husband of 23 years. I'm going to try a bit harder to prepare food that Mark will eat not only because it fits his vegan diet, but because it tastes good. And hopefully I can tolerate it...change is hard, people! My mother keeps telling my taste will change. Um, Mom, I'm still waiting for cauliflower and cabbage to taste like Cheetos and Little Debbie cakes.

My Grandma Doris got us this cookbook for Christmas two years ago and yesterday I blew the dust off, and cracked it open. How sad that it took me two years to use it! There are some recipes that Mark wouldn't touch due to the dairy/egg ingredients, but I have come across several that either omit those things or could be easily altered.I made a dish called Southwestern Fettuccine Bowl. It turned out to be a great recipe! Mark absolutely loved it and I will admit that I liked it too, despite my preconceived notion to the contrary. A quick and easy dish, loaded with good stuff...I'm sure it would be just as good with a whole wheat pasta of some sort substituted for the fettuccine noodles if you wanted to make it even healthier.

Southwestern Fettuccine Bowl

What You'll Need:
8 oz uncooked fettuccine
Olive oil-flavored cooking spray
1 cup chunky salsa
1/3 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons chili sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 can black beans, drained, rinsed
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

What You'll Do:
1. Cook and drain fettuccine as directed on package. Spray fettuccine 2 or 3 times with cooking spray, tossing after each spray. Remove from saucepan; cover to keep warm.

2. In same saucepan, mix remaining ingredients except cilantro. Cook over medium heat 4 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until corn is tender.

3. Divide fettuccine among 4 bowls. Top each with about 3/4 cup sauce mixture. Sprinkle with cilantro.

Photo brought to you by Betty Crocker. We ate ours much too quickly to get a photo!

Dear Broccoli, I'm sorry for all the mean things I've said about you.

I admit it, I am a broccoli hater. Truth be told, there aren't many vegetables that I do like. Corn, potatoes and the occasional raw carrot, that about does it.

However, a couple Christmases ago, while at my grandmother's house, I tried a tiny helping of her broccoli salad. This was following my trip to Europe where I tried several weird foods. I didn't die from any of that stuff, so I figured a little broccoli at my grandma's house wouldn't kill me either.

To my surprise, I actually liked her broccoli salad, which also included broccoli's ugly cousin, cauliflower.

So lately I've decided that I have GOT to start eating healthier. I'm about 50 pounds heaver than I need to be and as much as it irks me to say, at 41, I'm not getting any younger. Yeah, yeah, I know you think a 41 year old shouldn't be such a wiener about eating her veggies. But I am.

Anyhow, I am trying to cut way back on the amount of meat and dairy that I eat on a weekly basis. I'm not going full on vegan mind you, just cutting back. However, in order for me to eat healthy, I have to learn to tolerate--if not like--veggies. I remembered trying this salad and asking my grandma for the recipe. I figured if I could get used to eating broccoli & cauliflower prepared like this, that perhaps it wouldn't be so bad in the next dish.

And tonight, I actually enjoyed eating a bowl full of broccoli and cauliflower! Alright, so the fact that the dressing includes mayo(fat free, thankyouverymuch) and sugar helps. Baby steps, people, baby steps!

Here's the recipe!

SUNNY VEGETABLE SALAD

What you need:

• 5 cups broccoli florets
• 5 cups cauliflowerets
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 2/3 cup chopped red onion
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 6 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
• 1/4 cup sunflower kernels

What you do:

1. In a large salad bowl, toss broccoli, cauliflower, cheese, onion and raisins. In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, sugar and vinegar. Pour over salad; toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Sprinkle with the bacon and sunflower seeds when ready to serve.

Italian Beef Sandwiches

Helloooooo....hellooooo....helloooo

I fear there may in fact be an echo since it's been such a long time since I have done any blogging. Between the dog, work, and time wasted on facebook I haven't been much of a blogger and I'm sorry to say I haven't been reading many blogs either. I also haven't been crafting, reading or doing anything productive much, but I plan to get back to it...I miss it.

In an attempt at getting this blog back on track I am going to post my latest cooking victory. After all, this started as a recipe blog once upon a time.

When I was in Chicago visiting with my sister and attending U2's 360 World Tour a while back I had my first taste of an Italian Beef sandwich. Now this was ballpark Italian beef from a cart, so probably not the best to be had in the city, but it was delicious! I knew I had to attempt to recreate it when I made it home.

And I did.

And it was FANTASTIC!


Here's a recipe that I found on allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 2 cups water
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon onion salt
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 (.7 ounce) package dry Italian-style salad dressing mix
• 1 (5 pound) rump roast

Directions

1. Combine water with salt, ground black pepper, oregano, basil, onion salt, parsley, garlic powder, bay leaf, and salad dressing mix in a saucepan. Stir well, and bring to a boil.
2. Place roast in slow cooker, and pour salad dressing mixture over the meat.
3. Cover, and cook on Low for 10 to 12 hours, or on High for 4 to 5 hours. When done, remove bay leaf, and shred meat with a fork.

I actually made this twice, and the second time was better...here's what I did on the 2nd round:

• 2 cans beef broth instead of water
• 2 packages of the Itialian dressing mix
• added a little less than a quarter juice from a jar of pepperoncini
• cut up a few of the pepperoncinis and added those as well.
• Used an eye of round instead of a rump roast
• Cooked it overnight on low

When I got ready to serve it, I buttered and toasted some Italian rolls, piled on the beef, topped w/a slice of provolone and broiled it till the cheese melted. Then we used some of the left over juice for dipping. Man! Good stuff!

I've Been Cooking...Well, Sorta...

I made these Cinnamon Apples w/a recipe from the Apple Barn. They were WAAAAY sweet(don't say I didn't warn you) but tasty nonetheless!Cinnamon Apples
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients
6 small apples
1/4 cup red cinnamon candies
2 cups sugar
2 cups water

Instructions
Wash apples, pare and core. Combine sugar, water and cinnamon candies. Boil 5 minutes. Add apples and cook slowly until tender. Cinnamon extract and red food coloring may be substituted for red candies. If desired, apples may be cut in halves or quartered. And yeah, I added some red food coloring for fun!

Next up...

OK, this doesn't really qualify as cooking but if you want to jazz up store bought lemon poppy seed muffin mix, add lemon juice to a cup of powdered sugar until it is liquid enough to be drizzled from a spoon. Drizzle over cooled muffins. YUM!

Would you say they have a plethora of pies?

Today, after Dad's surgery, Shea and I went for lunch at the Grand Traverse Pie Company.

He had been telling me about it and he's blogged of the place and posted some fun pie eater sketches and more pie eater sketches. Between hearing/reading about it and sitting in the hospital waiting room a most of the morning, I was more than ready to give it a try.

And no, the irony of a person on Weight Watchers eating lunch at a restaurant whose name contains the word PIE is not lost on me.

But it didn't stop me from eating there either.

And when they say Pie Company, they mean it. You walk in the door and are immediately slapped in the face with pie. Pies of all shapes and sizes. Pies in both the fruit and cream variety. It was Pie Overload! It was a Pie-O-Rama! You might say it was a Plethora of Pies!

Surely you don't think I ate any...

Of course I did. You expect me to go into a place called Pie Company and NOT eat pie? It wouldn't be right.

After what I thought was a "light" lunch of a half chicken salad(duh, they use REGULAR Mayo, not the fat free version I've been using to make it at home) sandwich on whole wheat bread and a cup of chicken noodle soup, I made my way back to the pie case.

Dear Lord. SO many choices. Not just pie...baked goods too. Cheesecake...plain, chocolate chip and cherry topped. Brownies. Cookies. Assorted Flavors of Muffins. Apple Dumplings. Giant Rice Krispie Treats. Death-by-Chocolate Cake. Turtle Cake. I could go on. It took me about five minutes to decide on a slice of peanut butter chocolate cream pie.

If you could take a bite out of Heaven, I imagine it would taste like the Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie at Grand Traverse.

It was one of, if not THE most perfect pies I believe I have ever tasted. The chocolate...decadent, rich and this is gonna sound weird but "old fashioned" tasting. The peanut butter...smooth and creamy...just the right balance to the chocolate. Crust baked to flaky perfection. If that's not enough it was topped w/whipped cream and peanuts. I'm drooling thinking about it.

I ate half of it. It took every single inch of willpower I had not to eat every last bit of it and then lick the plate. But I didn't.

So tonight I'm filling out my WW journal and look up the nutritional stats online.

One slice of that pie has 13 WW points!!! YIKES! Nearly 600 calories and 15g of fat in that ONE slice of pie. ONE! Luckily, I only used 7 by eating just half.

And it was worth it.

Every. Stinking. Point.

The Loveless Cafe OR Mmmmmm.

Last week at this time I was with my folks in Nasvhille. Dad had surgery, everything went well and while he's recovering slowly, we expect him to be up and at 'em again soon.

While in Nashville(pre surgery of course) we made a stop at my favorite restaurant, The Loveless Cafe. I love the atmosphere at the Loveless. Relaxed, simple, homey...from the minute you pull up. It even looks like granny's house.Go ahead, sit a spell before or after your meal. They don't mind, really.The inside is as inviting as the outside. Of course I adore how they've used aprons and tablecloths on the windows.And there's a porch for those days when you feel like taking it outside.Surrounding the cafe in what used to be the motel are several artsy-fartsy shops and a Trace bike shop. They were closed that day, but I got a big kick out of these...whatever they are. I assume smaller versions are sold in one of the shops. What are Jack and Sally doing in Nashville? At the Loveless? Neither of them look like Ham and Biscuit kinda folk to me.I think I've posted about my affection for the food at the Loveless before, so, I'll try not to go on endlessly about how down-home-just-like-your-sweet-southern-mamaw-used to-make-good the food is.Hot biscuits and homemade jam come just as soon as you sit down. Speaking of biscuits...we walked in and Carol Fay, the famous Loveless Cafe Biscuit Lady was standing behind the register. Of course I didn't realize it was Carol Fay, the famous Biscuit Lady until about two minutes later. And then came the delayed reaction. "Hey, was that Carol Fay, the famous biscuit lady? I think it was. It WAS! Shoot! I should have said hello...I should of asked for a photo with her!" Of course then I didn't want to look like a complete dork getting all googly-eyed over the biscuit lady, so I did nothing. Shoot! It was not unlike the time Shea and I walked right past Sting's son, lead singer of Fiction Plane, on the streets of St. Louis. Yes, THAT Sting. I'll warn you. The serving sizes at the Loveless are meant for two people. Even the sandwich was huge. Plenty left over for lunch later in the week.

For me it was barbeque, mac & cheese and hashbrown casserole. Hiding under that mound of bbq are hoe cakes. If you've never eaten a hoe cake, my best description would be this...imagine the flavor of cornbread fried up into the consistency of a pancake. YUM! For Mom, collard greens(which I would not touch w/a ten foot pole) white beans, caramel sweet potatoes and grilled pork chops in an onion gravy.Just a BBQ sandwich and a salad for Dad.
After our meal, Mom and I made a quick stop at Hams & Jams where a girl can get her fix of Loveless goodies to take home. Here's what I picked up...Mark LOVES the homemade granola and I will be making a batch of biscuits using this mix very soon!

You can pick up your own biscuit mix, hams, jams, cookbooks and other Loveless goodies like this super cute handmade in Nashville apron(why didn't I buy one?) at Hams & Jams online. The online shop is great, but if you're close enough, next time you're in Nasvhille, should make the trip to The Loveless Cafe. I think you'll be glad you did.