Buttery Crusted Tilapia

The price of beef lately has made it really easy to eat less red meat and more fish and chicken.  But it's also meant I've had to expand/revamp my go-to dinner selection.  I recently discovered this recipe and it was an instant hit.  Everyone in the family loves it!  

BUTTERY-CRUSTED BAKED TILAPIA

4 6-oz boneless tilapia fillets
6-8 Ritz crackers, crushed
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon adobo seasoning
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold

Arrange fish on a lined baking sheet. In a mixing bowl, combine crushed Ritz crackers with seasoned salt, chili powder, and adobo seasoning (use clean hands to mix).  Cut butter into 6 equal pats. Place one pat a piece directly on the center of the tilapia. Cut remaining 2 pats into pea-sized pieces and mix by hand into cracker mixture. Sprinkle crumbs equally over each tilapia filet.

Bake in a preheated oven at 425°F for 15-20 minutes, or desired doneness. Serve hot on a nice platter.

Here are my cooking notes::

• I use 4oz fillets that are individually packaged and they work really well for this.  
• I suggest patting the fillet's dry before setting them on a foil lined baking sheet.  
• I use 2 tablespoons of butter for 7 fillets, you can totally get away with less butter than it calls for.  
• I made my own adobo seasoning mix which has worked out really well. I store it in the spice cupboard and it's made the subsequent times I've made this recipe go much faster.  
• Since my fillets are 2 oz. or more smaller, baking them for 10-12 minutes is plenty. 
  

Ringing In 2011

The girls really wanted to invite some friends over to ring in the new year.  As a general rule we won't have friends over to spend the night, but given that no one wants or should be on the road New Years Eve, we made an exception.  Only one friend was able to come over, so this gathering was a far cry from a "slumber party" and we were just fine with that.  They certainly weren't lacking for fun things to do though ... they played Scotland Yard and Monopoly Deal, watched 'Muppets in Manhattan,' made sweet little flower pins using this technique, and of course enjoyed a little junk food.  

While we were at Mom's I found a caramel corn recipe in my grandma's hand writing.  I love caramel corn, but have never made it myself.  I instantly wanted to try it out so I could share it with the extended family.  In reading through the recipe, Mom determined that it wasn't the recipe Grandma used, (she would often write down recipes she thought would be good and send them to us, so it's made it hard now to whittle it down to her tired and true recipes) so we went in search for a different recipe.  We found an excellent one and I set out to duplicate it for our New Years Eve festivities.  

Growing up Mom always popped her corn in a large stock pot on the stove top.  A while back I tried to pop corn the way mom did on the stove, and burned every single batch.  This time I used one of mom's tips ... she told me to put in test kernels with the oil.  Once they pop, pour in your kernels.  Viola!  Three perfect batches in a row!  I am so excited to be able to quickly and easily pop popcorn for the family just like my mom did!


BTW - the recipe we used is not like Grandma's.  Grandma made sticky caramel corn that wasn't baked in the oven, which is probably why I prefer sticky caramel corn to crisp. 

Banana Cream Cupcakes

The girls and I made cupcakes this afternoon for a little birthday celebration for Grandma tonight, Banana Cream Cupcakes.  Yum.  They are light and not super sugary sweet the way some cupcakes are.  I used my pastry bag contraption with the filling tip to fill the cupcakes with the banana pudding.  Sadly, this method was a complete failure, and I didn't know it until we ate them.  The cupcakes were way too dense, no room for the pudding, so most of the cupcakes didn't get much filling in them.  Next time I will cut out the center like I did for Rebecca's filled birthday cupcakes.

Holy Guacamole

Tonight is our Relief Society Birthday dinner, and this is half my kitchen island. Mom and I are spending the day making 40 cups of guacamole. And it looks like we'll just make our deadline!


Until this week I'd never made guacamole. So we've done a number of test runs this week, including purchasing ready made varieties, and, if we like them, reading the ingredient list so we know what to add to our recipe. Our final recipe tastes pretty good if I dare say so:

4 avocados, diced and slightly smashed with a fork
1/2 cup yellow onion chopped
1/4 cup red onion chopped
2 Roma tomatoes diced
1 tablespoon jalapeno puree
juice of a lime
1 teaspoon salt
2 dashes of pepper


This little judge things the guac is better than the chips! Let's just hope the ladies do too!

The Cakes

It took a while and one had to wait until tonight to be eaten, but they each made their own cakes without the other interfering and they were delicious.

Emily's Quick Tunnel of Fudge Cake was a favorite Sunday night:
Rebecca's Buttermilk Devil's Food Cake w/ White Chocolate Frosting made the perfect end to Family Home Evening:

Little Chefs

I found the box of cookbooks this morning and while mom put them away, pulled out the Fall '09 Food and Family from Kraft. Surprise, surprise, two recipes jumped out as possibles for dinner tonight. Both were a huge success. Dinner was a tex-mex beef and potato casserole that was very yummy and went over well with everyone except my potato poo-pooing 3 year old. What isn't there to like about cheese and potatoes? It will be a bit before I get the food storage unpacked and put away - still trying to figure out the best way to do that given the space we have for it. Anyway, we're still paying "use it up" when cooking for dinner, so we used the leftover Velveta & Rotel dip from Monday nights basketball game, and instead of using frozen cubed hash browns, we diced and boiled our own potatoes. Worked like a charm and since the potatoes are hot and cooked it didn't need much time in the oven at all.

For dessert, Alex and Anna helped make a special surprise they were both quite proud of. This yummy triple-layer chocolate pie is a quick, simple dessert they could easily help with, as you can see:

Chili Cook-off 2010

Ever since Emily got wind that the ward was hosting a Chili Cook-off she has requested to enter a pot in the contest. She complicated things this week by saying she wanted to make a unique chili - something different than my standard recipe. Something we've never made before is fine, but I wanted to make sure she would eat her chili too. I also wanted the recipe to be simple enough that she could literally make the chili all by herself. After consulting the one cookbook left on the self, and my Southern Living magazine, we found a recipe that fit all the criteria.

Emily's chili was really terrific, although it didn't even hit the judges radar screen. There was a lot of stiff competition this year, even with our attendance more than half what it typically is, (there was a big basketball game tonight between the two rival Kansas teams! thankfully our team pulled it out in the end, but man was it close!) Emily's chili was quite a hit with the audience members who tried it and she got LOTS of complements from them. It's a simple chili with great flavor and texture. It can be made with ground turkey, but since I forgot we had ground turkey in the freezer, she used the ground beef I knew about in the freezer.

Turkey-Black Bean Chili (from Jan. 2010, Southern Living)

(From SL) Black Bean Chili using meat crumbles or ground round received a "definitely a keeper" comment from our readers when we first shared it. Here is our update using ground turkey.

3 (15-oz.) cans black beans
1 large sweet onion, chopped
1 lb ground turkey (or ground round)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
4 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 ((14 oz.) can low-sodium fat-free chicken broth
2 (14.5 oz.) cans petite diced tomatoes with jalapeno peppers (we used one plain can, and one with green chilies)

Topping options: sour cream, shredded Cheddar cheese, sliced jalapeno peppers, chopped fresh cilantro, chopped tomatoes, lime wedges, corn chips.

Drain and rinse 2 cans blacks beans (do not drain or rinse the third can.)
Saute chopped onion and ground turkey in hot oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat, stirring often, 8-10 minutes or until turkey crumbles and is no longer pink. Stir in chili powder and next three ingredients; saute 1 minute. Stir in drained and undrained beans, chicken broth, and diced tomatoes.
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 10 minutes. Serve chili with desired toppings.

A fun addition to this years contest categories, cornbread. Hearing Emily was going to make something for the ward activity, Rebecca wanted to make something too. It took her a while, but she finally settled on cornbread muffins and made an excellent batch that was quickly gobbled up. It went up against Native American fry bread in the competition and didn't stand a chance! Someone brought homemade walnut honey butter - oh so very, very scrumptious, especially on Becca's great muffins.

* * * *
Today was a crazy day. It's our last weekend before the big move. Alex had a birthday party this morning, Kathy came and helped me pack boxes for most of the morning, and GR and I took a couple good sized loads to the basement of the new house. My Mom has been here all week long. She came to help with the kids so I can make better use of my time during the day. She was suppose to go back yesterday, because of assignments she had a home, but realized that since she was coming right back on Sunday, it wasn't worth the 10 hours in the car. And so she stayed. This morning, she got royally sick and has been in bed since about 9:30. This afternoon, GR and a friend gave her a priesthood blessing, and she says she's feeling a bit better but man, whatever she has, has really hit her hard! She did ask that we save her some of Emily's chili and one of Becca's muffins so she could try them.

ETA: Sunday morning about 3am, Mom woke up, felt up to eating a bit, and ate Emily's chili with Becca' muffin, and went back to bed. She was a bit slow moving today, but felt so much better. She said that in the blessing GR gave her, he said something to the effect of, ' this infection is going to take some time for you to recover from, but don't worry, we will be taken care of.' This has been so true.

GR & Kate plus Eight

Tonight we - actually I guess it was really only me, GR didn't get home until the night was well underway, hummm anyway - got a taste of what it would be like to feed 8 children 10 and under. The oldest three are the same ages, roughly speaking. At most they are about 6 months apart. So here's our family if we'd had three sets of twins:

I managed to satisfy all but one child's taste buds with chicken enchiladas. I was pretty impressed by that turn out.

Last weekend while GR and I were packing and moving boxes, their family invited the three big kids to stay for pizza at their house - so very unexpected and very generous. School was canceled for tomorrow making it the perfect chance to return the favor. Plus the girls were itching to make a new special dessert and this was a great chance to share it with everyone:


It's inspired by dessert parfaits they saw in an American Girl Magazine from the library. But it's basically a variation of Death by Chocolate - one of GR's signature desserts. Brownie bites, crushed Girl Scout Thin Mints, chocolate pudding, topped with a bit of whipped cream and a sprinkling of mini chocolate chips. Yum!!

Kids Cooking School - Banana Bread

Near the end of last school year the girls came home with a recipe box from grandma's house. The box had kid friendly recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, etc. This summer they have perfected one of the recipes from the box and it has become their go-to recipe when they are looking for something constructive to do and all the ingredients are on hand.



It's been a great learning experience for them, and teaching opportunity for me.

In the first week they made over 10 loaves of banana bread. The girls are learning as they go ...

• it is possible to make this recipe without using 7 bowls.
  
• a wire whisk works just as well and is faster than a sifter
  
• scrap all the ingredients into the main mixing bowl - don't leave anything behind
  
• when using all natural peanut butter, don't pour off the oil at the top of a new jar.
  
• cleaning up the kitchen is part of the cooking/baking process, you don't get to leave that part to someone else.
  
• it's best to clean up the kitchen while the bread is baking, so you can enjoy eating it when it comes out of the oven.

Yesterday after school, the girls made a batch for their teachers. The whole process is so much easier to sit through now than when they first started! It's quite exciting to watch the girls learn and get better and better at making this recipe. And their work has received rave reviews from everyone they've given loaves to!



Monkey's Favorite Banana Bread
2/3 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 small egg, well beaten
1 mashed up banana
2 tablespoons crunchy peanut butter

Remove butter and egg from refrigerator, 1 hour before using. Grease 4x2x1-1/2" loaf pan. Preheat oven to 325. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt onto a square of waxed paper. Set aside. With wooden spoon, cream butter, gradually adding sugar. Add beaten egg and mix well. Mash banana with fork or potato masher. Blend well with peanut butter. Add dry ingredients alternately with mashed banana mixture to the creamed butter mixture. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake 35 minutes. Test for doneness by inserting a fork in the center - if the fork comes out clean, it's done. Let cool in pan on cooling rack 10 minutes before turning out. Refrigerate batter for up to 4 days. Makes 3 - 4x2x1-1/2" loaves. Makes 2 - 5-3/4x3x2-1/8" loaves.

Double recipe to make a full size loaf.

This recipe creates a very nice, moist yet light bread. Very different than the dense banana breads I'm use too.

I want to try using Soybutter or Sunflower butter in place of the peanut butter so we can use it school and give loaves of it to our peanut allergy friends. Anyone experimented with it?

Father's Day

Ever had one of those days where you expected one thing, got another and in the end it was totally okay? In a nutshell, that was today.

I woke up to GR talking to his councilors on the phone, saying he wouldn't be at his early morning church meetings and he wasn't sure if/when he'd make it in for church. He'd gotten a migraine and felt sick to his stomach.

GR takes the church program in for me and it magically gets photocopied and folded. Since he wasn't going in, I needed to get it to church earlier than 8:55 when we typically roll in. Anna and I got ready, and just as we left for the church around 7:40, the girls woke up. I asked them to please remind everyone to get dressed for church and eat some breakfast, suggesting that if the boys weren't awake by 8, to wake them up. I would help them finish things up when I got back and we could leave. Anna and I didn't get back until nearly 8:30 and I was very worried about what I was going to walk into. But I found everyone dressed, shoes on (Alex needed help getting his on) and fed (I have no idea what they ate, because the kitchen looked exactly the same way it did when I left.)



I am so proud of all they did this morning!! The more I think about it the more amazed I am. Our Sunday mornings never go that smoothly! When I told GR about it this afternoon, he was totally clueless. He had no idea I'd left and the children had gotten all ready for church by themselves. Obviously, they did it without fighting or arguing too much, cause he slept through the entire thing.



We spent a quiet afternoon at home playing and baking. The kids & I decided to make Ester Bolick's Orange Maralide Cake for Father's Day. This cake is quite famous in my Mitford Series and in the book I just finished listening too, they give the recipe. The cake was beautiful, and yummy, but as is true with most things, it wasn't quite as good as the book.

** The picture of the kids was Friday's attempt at getting a really good shot for them to send out as a Father's Day remembrance. Sadly, all their willingness to participate got used up picking peas. This frame (only one of four I took in total) was good enough to email the Grandpa's, even though the cards never happened.

Best Brownies Ever

I have to say that while I love the idea of homemade, from scratch, brownies, they never seem to turn out like the box kind, and consequently, in my mind fall short. I am not a cake like brownie girl. And most of my, from scratch brownies, have turned out cake-like.

Sunday, Diane tried a new brownie recipe she is hoping to use for Farmers Market. We didn't get a chance to eat them Sunday night, so she sent us home with the pan. They were amazing, and the entire 9x9 pan was polished off by Monday night. The three big kids spent a couple hours at Grandma's this afternoon and brought home the recipe:

Best Brownies Ever

1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine, melted
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Heat oven to 350. Grease 9" square pan. Stir together margarine, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs; beat well. Combine flour, cocoa, and baking powder. Add to margarine mixture. Spread into prepared pan. Bake 25 minutes. Frost.


Creamy Brownie Frosting

3 tablespoons margarine, softened
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons milk

Beat margarine, cocoa, corn syrup and vanilla. Add powdered sugar and milk. Beat to a spreading consistency.

Banana Sour Cream Cake

Lori made an amazing Banana Sour Cream Cake for our January Enrichment I've been wanting to make for the family. Last week Sam and the girls wanted something to do after school and I suggested they make this cake for our dessert. I printed out the recipe, told them where to find the ingredients and with little more instruction from me, let them make the cake.

* * * * *

BANANA SOUR CREAM CAKE

1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 bananas)
1 cup fat free sour cream
1/4 cup oil (or applesauce)

1 pkg. (8 oz.) 1/3 fat cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 pkg. (16 oz.) powdered sugar (about 4 cups)
1 cup Walnut Pieces, finely chopped

HEAT oven to 350°F. Beat cake mix, eggs, bananas, sour cream and oil with mixer on low until moistened, scraping bottom of bowl often. Beat on medium 2 min. Pour into greased and floured 13x9-inch pan.

BAKE 35 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake completely in pan on wire rack.

BEAT cream cheese and butter with mixer on medium until blended. Gradually add sugar, beating well after each addition.

REMOVE cake from pan. Carefully cut cake crosswise in half using serrated knife. Place 1 cake half, top-side down, on plate; spread top with frosting. Top with remaining cake half, top side up. Frost top and sides. Press nuts onto sides. Refrigerate leftovers.

Note: Lori says you can successfully substitute applesauce for the oil!

* * * * *


Apparently, Rebecca was in charge of reading the directions and Sam and Emily were in charge of putting the ingredients in the mixer. Halfway through making the cake they realized they had put the cream cheese in the cake batter instead of waiting and using it for the frosting.

It was a great teaching moment ... I was able to talk to the girls about the importance of instructions and why you need to read through them a couple of times before you get started ... and I learned that I really need to give them more opportunities to make things in the kitchen with little interference from me - they can do it and they are old enough, even if the mess is out of control! Honestly, given the way the recipe is written on Kraft's website, it wouldn't surprise me if a number of adults haven't made this same mistake.

We baked up the cake anyway, frosted it (it's the cake pictured) and had it for dessert Wednesday night. It's not a mistake I recommend making. Thanks to the frosting, it was eatable. The cake hadn't baked correctly and we all decided a second attempt was necessary. Thursday afternoon I made it a second time so I could prove to GR (who had flatly refused to eat any of the girls cake) that it was an excellent cake and so I could take it to Julie's for Survivor. Everyone loved it! This is my new favorite cake that is not chocolate - where was this recipe when Anna couldn't tolerate any chocolate in my system?!

Chunky Chicken-Potato Soup

Last night I was desperate for something different to make for dinner. Soup is an underutilized meal option in this house, and I've been wanting to change that. So I went in search of a soup that used a some ingredients I needed to use up ... namely chicken and potatoes.

The recipe was relatively simple, used stuff I always have on hand, was yummy and everyone ate it - meeting all the necessary requirements to be added to the home cookbook for future dinners. I'm thinking it would freeze well for those who like to do that kind of thing. For reference, here's the original recipe.



CHUNKY CHICKEN-POTATO SOUP

3 medium potatoes or 6 small potatoes
1/3 cup dry diced onion (or medium onion)
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
3 cans chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1-1/2 cups cooked, cubed chicken
1-1/2 cups milk
1 (16 oz.) can corn, drained

Peel and dice potatoes into 1/2 cubes, rinse under cold water and set aside.
Place dry diced onion in small glass dish, cover with water and microwave 45 seconds to reconstitute.
In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Add the onion, stir until heated, approx. 1 minute (if using fresh onion, cook stirring, until wilted, 1-2 minutes.). Stir in the flour and cook stirring constantly, until the flour and butter are completely blended, 1- 2 minutes.

Slowly pour in the chicken broth, stirring constantly. When the mixture returns to a boil, add the potatoes and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pan and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

While potatoes cook, dice the chicken. Increase the heat to medium when the soup returns to a boil, stir in chicken, milk and corn. Cook until chicken is heated through.

* * * * *

The chicken was leftover from a crockpot chicken recipe I heard about on the radio. The flavor was very nice and I think it really complemented the soup.

1 whole chicken (4-5lbs)
1 lemon, pierced
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup orange juice

Clean chicken cavity, pierce lemon and insert in cavity and place in bottom of crockpot. Mix honey and orange juice and pour over chicken. Cook on low for 8 hours. Remove skin and bones and serve.

Dust and Dirt

Monday the Young Women's President called and asked if the girls could come over and serve the Bishop's family... cleaning, organizing, playing with the children ... "anything you need done, we'll do it." I swallowed hard and called GR for a pep talk. People in my house ... all over my house ... seeing, cleaning ALL OUR DIRT?! I don't think so. Not in this life time. Not this week. ... But it's the young women and they are wanting to serve. I was so torn. Like a good husband, GR convinced me it would be okay ... I would survive.

So before they came I tried to get caught up on laundry, get things put away that had been waiting for months, get some Christmas decorations put up, and the worst surfaces dusted and vacuumed. On the list of "chores" for the night ...

1. sweep kitchen floor and spot clean, wipe down kitchen table
2. help girls straighten room and put away laundry.
3. help boys straighten room and put way laundry.
4. clean mirrors and counters in bathrooms
5. dust, first floor
6. wash windows
7. vacuum first floor

They did all this and so much more, truly exemplifying the principle of going the extra mile. The house is clean, and it feels oh so good! Add the couple of Christmas decorations we've gotten put up this week and I'm starting to feel the spirit of the season, and that's a good thing.

I told the YW I would take care of the treats. Apple cider, and one of my favorite Christmas cookies ... Reindeer Cookies, using my Brown Sugar Spice Cookie recipe. Oh so yummy, quick and simple to make, plus they look super cute.

BROWN SUGAR SPICE COOKIES

1-1/2 cup softened butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 egg
4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Cream butter, sugar and egg. Beat until light and fluffy. Stir flour with spices and soda, add to creamed mixture; mix well. Cover and chill until firm, about 2 hours. On floured surface, roll dough to 1/8" thickness. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350ºF for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes 6 dozen cookies.

For Reindeer Cookies, before chilling dough, shape in to a rounded triangle log, wrap in waxed paper and chill. Then slice, re-shape if needed and decorate with pretzel twist antlers, chocolate chip eyes and a red nose (gum drop, red M&M, etc.) before baking. Cool on baking sheet ~1-2 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

In the Kitchen with Kate

GR and I have been testing a few new recipes lately and I thought I'd share our results.

My friend Katrina over at Baking and Boys, posted a recipe a couple weeks ago for Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Stuffed with Spinach and Ricotta that I suggested to GR we try. Saturday was our first open night and so he purchased the needed supplies and set to work making them. We cooked ours on the grill, and everyone cleaned their plates. I used the leftover chicken for Sunday nights dinner. Rotini noodles, cream of chicken soup thinned with milk and leftover chicken diced up - also very yummy.



I've been looking through past issues of Food & Family (the free Kraft magazine) for new recipes to try. They had basic instructions for an "old fashioned" poke cake ... make a cake, while warm, poke it with a fork, pour a hot, concentrated solution of jello over the warm cake, chill in fridge for 3 hours, frost with cool whip and serve. They had a little chart with suggestions of flavor combinations. They had a spice cake paired with orange jello and since I had all the ingredients in the pantry I gave it a try ... the jury is still out on this one. GR described it as a lot of intense flavors, and Sunday night that was true. It mellowed as it sat in the fridge over night. The kids loved it, even Rebecca who typically avoids intense tastes.



Our All-American dinner was oh so yummy, although I don't think anyone got the correlation. And we did make it over to Ben & Jerry's for our "I Voted" ice cream cones! I made my own patties this time ...


~2lbs of hamburger meat
1 envelope onion soup mix
1/3 cup dry onion
1/2 cup bread crumbs
a little water (1/4 cup)
salt and pepper

Mix all together and gently form into patties and cook until desired doneness.

After my request for a Dutch Apple Pie recipe, April called and gave me her families recipe. They don't exactly measure anything over there ... it's just done to taste and feel. But I think even with that handicap, after an eatable first try, I've produced a really good version of her family's recipe. Don't you love the dish I baked it in? A birthday gift from my sister ... LOVE it!


I used a made-from-scratch, pie crust (Heather's recipe that's posted on Mormonchic with her peach pie is excellent), 'cause I now have a food processor and am too cheap to purchase pie crust from the store if I can make it work here at home. Then 6 or so sliced apples (it was hugely mounded when I put in it the oven), mixed with 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, pinch of nutmeg, 1 tablespoon of butter, and 2 tablespoons of tapioca (the instant variety - I tried the non instant and that didn't turn out so well). The crumb toping ... 1 stick of butter, 3/4 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of sugar. I have learned that I prefer crumb toppings made with brown sugar instead of white, but they both taste quite yummy. Baked at 400 for 50 minutes.

I really should have put a cookie sheet or foil under my pan, cause it made a royal mess in my oven. Now I have to figure out how to clean my oven.
. . . .
Alexander was in a massively destructive mood yesterday. I spent his entire waking day, cleaning up after him ... so today we're taking advantage of a sunny crisp day and going to the park and hopefully meeting up with some of our playgroup friends. Then I hope to try this recipe ... I think it will make a great addition to this years brunch menu!

Pumpkin Carving

We've had a week of Halloween and soccer fun all rolled into one very short, very full week! I'll start with pumpkin carving, then highlight the kids fall parties and then trick-or-treating!

Last Saturday (October 25th) the kids each played their last soccer game of the season, and everyone's had a little party of some kind to celebrate the season over the last week. We've eaten lots of pizza this week and my dishwasher has greatly appreciated the week off!

After our marathon morning of soccer on the 25th, we headed out to Bob and Diane's for our pumpkin carving party. This year, we invited our entire ward and a few friends to join in the fun. In all, about 50 people came out and enjoyed an evening of amazing weather and fall family time fun!





We went through 5 big crock pots of chili, and I thought I'd share the recipe I use. It's a good basic chili that seems to go over well with kids and adults, and is easy to make in large quantities when needed since you really only need a good big pot and reliable can opener.

Kid Friendly & Adult Filling Chili

3 cups browned ground beef (a little more than 1lb.) that was seasoned with onion
1 envelope McCormick's chili seasoning
3 cans petite diced tomatoes (undrained)
2 cans seasoned chili beans (undrained)
2 cans dark red kidney beans (slightly drained)

Dump in large pot and heat through. Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, hot dogs, dice onion or any of your favorite chili toppings. Makes ~13, 1 cup servings.

* * * * *

Monday and Tuesday evenings were spent at Triple R Ranch ... aka Rachel and RJ's ... sharing good food, lots of laughs, and letting our kids (and us adults too!) get in some good, long overdue playing time together. We just found out they are expecting number five in March and it's a boy! This is five for five with our two families ... we're girl, girl, boy, boy, girl, and they are boy, boy, girl, girl, boy. RJ was joking we could marry them all off within the two families in one day and call it good ... what are the odds of that happening?

Here's a picture of all of us carving away at our pumpkins Tuesday night. Add these to the ones we worked on Saturday, and we should have a good little line of jack-o-lanterns lighting the path to the front door for trick-or-treaters.

Mutti's Pumpkin Bread

I'm still playing catch up ... so ignore the fact that this says it was posted 10 days ago ... we all know it's November 1st... Pictures of our Halloween Madness are coming!

The kids each took a little mini loaf of pumpkin bread to their teachers today. No school tomorrow - yippee!!

And since so many of you asked ... here is my mom's pumpkin bread recipe - it simply isn't fall around here without making loaves and loaves and loaves of this bread! Let me know how your loaves turn out! Enjoy!

PUMPKIN BREAD
2/3 cup oil
2-2/3 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 can (1lb.) pumpkin
2/3 cup water
3-1/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease two 9x5x3” loaf pans or three 8.5x4.5x2.5” loaf pans. For nice beautiful tall loaves, use two 8.5x4.5x2.5.” Makes 5 mini loaves.

In large bowl, cream shortening and sugar until fluffy. Stir in eggs, pumpkin and water. Blend in flour, soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and cloves. Pour into pans. Bake about 70 minutes (50 minutes for mini loaves) or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

While loaves are still warm (not hot) place in plastic bags and let sit. This helps create the moist outer crust that we love!

Birthday Waffles

1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons margarine
2 large eggs
1-1/4 cups milk
2-1/2 cups flour
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup melted butter

Cream together sugar, margarine and eggs. Add all remaining ingredients except butter and blend well. Pour melted butter over batter and do not mix. Dip batter (~1/3 cup each for my waffle iron, yielding 10 waffles) onto heated waffle iron and follow directions for making waffles.

Serve with syrup or choice of topping (although they are fantastic plain), and enjoy every mouthful with the ones you love.

Cupcakes

I'm not a huge cake lover, but I do love cupcakes and it seems everyone else is catching the love of cupcakes too, they are so in vogue. There are tons of cupcake blogs and bakeries all over the place. Beautiful little mini-cakes, not too big, not too small. Perfect for every size hands.

A couple of weeks ago the Martha (Stewart) TV Show had a week of cupcakes with a different recipe each day of the week. Such great ideas! Someday I want to try making these Chocolate Graham Cracker Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow and in my dreams I would love to make these Cupcake Pops for a shower or birthday party, but let's be realistic, it will probably never happen! But I do want to purchase this book, Hello Cupcake.

With these segments still fresh in my mind, I got a call yesterday afternoon, asking if I could make refreshments for a baptism happening that night ... the sons of a sister I visit teach. From what everyone understood, no other refreshments were coming ... a little background. It's about 1pm, GR had surprised me by coming home at 12:30 to help relieve me a little bit ... the morning hadn't gone well ... Alex was a loud, squirmy disaster during Library story hour, Sam disappeared for what seemed like forever (5 minutes or more) at the craft store, and I desperately needed a nap in order to keep from falling apart at the seems.

So with additional reinforcements in my court, I said I thought I could bang out two batches of cupcakes for that night. My thought process was this. I figured two batches of cupcakes would yield 48 cupcakes and that attendance would be around that. One cupcake seems like plenty of refreshment, while with cookies, one per person is never enough! Plus they are the perfect "finger food" no plates, no forks, no knife, no dishes, no clean-up needed!

GR and I both agreed that chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting would be well received, and I pulled out my trusty "Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor", settling on Chocolate Midnight Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting.

Chocolate Midnight Cake
1 pkg plain dark chocolate fudge cake mix
1 cup water
1 cup mayonnaise
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake liners with papers or prepare two 9-inch round cake pans with butter and flour.

Place cake mix, water, mayonnaise, eggs and vanilla in a mixing bowl and blend on low speed for 1 minute. Stop machine, scrape down sides and mix for an additional 2-3 minutes on medium. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full or divide between both cake pans. Bake cupcakes for 17 minutes, bake cakes for 28-32 minutes. Allow cakes to cool completely before frosting.


Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
8 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3-4 tablespoons milk

Place butter, vanilla and 1 cup confectioners' sugar in large mixing bowl. Blend on low until incorporated, 30 seconds. Add remaining confectioners' sugar alternately with 3 tablespoons milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, blending with the mixer on low speed. Add another 1 tablespoon milk if the frosting seems too stiff. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes more.



The other thing I love about cupcakes, is that with one or two simple little extras, or in my case substitutions, your cupcakes can look like they took a lot longer than they really did.

A couple of years ago I got this little decorating tool from my MIL for either Christmas or my Birthday and I have used it for every birthday and school party since. I love using it to frost cupcakes ... for me, frosting cupcakes with a knife is really tedious and time consuming. Swirl on the frosting using one of the star tips and they almost, from a distance at least, look like they came from a bakery. Add a slice of strawberry for color (and cause you had them in the fridge already) and to cover up the fact that your swirl is more of an oval than a circle. And everyone thinks you've done something amazing, when in reality, you didn't - I mean come on, it's a cake mix cupcake, vanilla frosting and a slice of strawberry.


In other cupcake news, apparently Becca saw this segment on Martha earlier this month, and she's now decided that she wants the cupcakes I made last night for the baptism, only filled with pudding, to take to school for her birthday. Filled with pudding?! I guess I'll figure out how to use the filling tip from my little decorating tool kit ... I should probably practice this one before next week, huh?!

Farm Fresh

I'm sharing more recipes today ... tomorrow it will be Valentines, Valentines, Valentines since that's what I've been totally focused on for what seems like an eternity.

Sunday a sweet friend at church stopped me after the block of meetings and asked if I'd be interested in some eggs ... fresh eggs from her chickens! Living in Kansas, in and around farm country, I am constantly reminded that I am a city girl. So it is no surprise that I have never had fresh eggs straight from the chicken.

Pam has 35 chickens on her property and she brought dozens of extras with her to church to pass on to friends. She was incredibly generous and gave our family 18 beautiful petite eggs in shades of a lovely soft brown and beautiful soft green. I asked Pam if there were any specific ways to prepare the eggs to really experience their farm freshness in their fullness, and she suggested fried or in egg salad. Tonight I prepared all 18 using my favorite egg salad recipe, and it was scrumptious!



Egg Salad:
2/3 cup mayonnaise, divided
4 large hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1 celery rib, diced
4 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon minced sweet onion
1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Garnish: whole fresh chives

Stir together 1/3 cup mayonnaise and next 7 ingredients.Use remaining mayonnaise on your bread of choice ... toasted wheat bread, or croissants are excellent options. Spinach or fresh arugula are also a great addition to your sandwich.

* * * * *
Last week I got a craving for baked apples and decided at the last minute to throw together a German Apple Pancake for dessert. I couldn't find a recipe my Mom and I made years ago, so I once again when in search of a recipe online (one might ask why I own cookbooks, if google is my best cookbook ...) and found a very good substitute for the recipe I'm still looking for. And since my adaptation has 6 eggs in it, it goes perfectly with our theme for the evening :)



German Apple Pancake
6 eggs
3/4 cup unbleached flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1-1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 pinch salt
1-1/2 cups milk
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup white sugar, divided
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 large tart apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced

In a large bowl blend, eggs, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add vanilla, melted butter and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg. Let batter stand for 30 minutes or overnight (or in my case, while you finish up dinner and get the rest of the stuff ready).

Preheat oven to 425.

Melt butter in a large heavy oven proof skillet, brushing butter up the sides of the pan. In a small bowl, combine half the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Sprinkle mixture over the butter and line the pan with apple slices. Sprinkle remaining sugar over the apples. Place pan over medium-high heat until the mixture bubbles, then gently pour the batter mixture over the apples.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 and bake for 10 minutes. Slide pancake (lift, scoot, etc.) onto serving platter and cut into wedges. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

NOTE: If you have a smaller skillet - say 10 inches - than use this recipe.