Christmas Caramels

Hey! Look I know its springtime. I know you're trying to get your summer body ready. Don't hate me for posting this!  You can always Pin now, and make later. In my family we always had these soft caramels at Christmas time. My mom works for the post office and a customer of hers would bring them at first. Then, mom started making them herself. Everyone loved them. A few cousins in particular. They were always begging her to make them. The only problem was the constant stirring and a candy thermometer, and all the time! I saw a post about microwave caramels and thought "there is no way this is going to work". They were obviously going to be crunchy or weird in some way. But, since I didn't want to spend time on making the old school kind I figured I would risk wasting a few bucks and give it a try. I made some, and they were perfect. I made a couple batches of them and got the recipe and technique down to my liking. So here goes...

Soft Caramels:
1/4 Cup butter
1/2 Cup White Sugar
1/2 Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup corn syrup
1/2 Cup Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/4 teaspoon salt

You mix all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl, I like to use the large pampered chef glass pitcher. Make sure there is room for bubbles in the bowl! LOL don't ask! Microwave for 1:30 stir, and repeat 4 times. For a total of six minutes. Pour into a buttered dish, and cool completely. Then cut and wrap in wax paper. These make great neighbor gifts around the holidays, or really just good any time.

  This is what they look like before they are cut!

Here they are all wrapped up and ready to be gifted!

                                  Merry Christmas- Melissa your ornament kinda looks good! Hahaha!

BBQ Bacon Meatballs

BBQ Bacon Meatballs

I have been kind of in a meat rut lately. Same crap every week. I was trying to think of something different, but also trying to use the 1/4 beef we bought. I have been grilling a lot since the weather is starting to warm up. So I came up with grilled meatball kabobs. This had potential for disaster, but I tried it anyway.

Here's what you need.

1.5 LBS Ground Beef

1 Slice of bread minced

Granulated Garlic

Kosher Salt

Pepper

Bbq Sauce I used sweet baby rays

Mustard 

1 Egg

6 or 8 strips of bacon

6 or 8 wooden skewers 

Here's what you do.

-Take the meat, bread, egg, about 1/2 teaspoon of each seasoning, about 1 T bbq, 1/2T mustard. 

-Mix together, and form into balls. 

I do about 1 1/2 inch balls. 

-Then, thread the bacon on the skewers while putting the meat balls on at the same time. 

-You can put them in the fridge to firm up a little bit before you grill. I have grilled them without chilling, but I think it works better if you chill. 

-Make sure you heat up the grill before you put them on this will help keep them from sticking. 

-Brush with bbq sauce when you put them on the grill. Each time you turn them sauce the top. 

-You will be able to tell when they are done by pressing on them to see if they are firm.

Enjoy!

Smores Bars

S'Mores Bars

I know this is a very easy recipe, but I had such good reviews from the trial run I've decided to post it. I know I'm not the first one to make this but I didn't follow a recipe I made it up when I saw the cereal in the store a couple of weeks ago. So here is what I did. 

Ingredient list:

6 T Butter

8 C Cereal

20OZ Mini Marshmallows

Half bag chocolate or white chips

I took 6 tablespoons of butter, a large bag of mini marshmallows 16oz and I also had a half of a smaller bag in my cupboard so I threw those in as well. I melt those in a large pan on my stove top. I stirred in 8 cups of S'mores cereal. I stirred in some white chocolate chips. Then, I poured the glorious mixture into a prepped pan (coated with butter). I use a 9x13 Tupperware pan. I know this seems simple, but I got so many compliments on them I felt the need to share with the world!

Parmesan baked Jo Jo potatoes.

I found this recipe in a Kraft Food & Family Magazine about 10 years ago and I use it 2 or 3 times a month. It's one of those recipes you can keep coming back to over and over because they are basically french fries and most people i know love fries! There is good news if you are on a low kick too, I made these the other night with rutabaga not carb free just less than a regular white potato.

Here is the recipe:
3-4 Medium sized potatoes I usually use the Yukon Gold ones.
1 egg white lightly beaten
1/4 Cup Parmesan cheese grated
Garlic salt I don't use a certain amount, I just know what we like. I like the kind with the parsley flakes built in.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Prepare a pan. Lightly rub olive or whatever oil you usually use. Spray is okay but I like a thin layer of oil so they get crispy.
Beat egg white in a bowl. Not for a long time, just a couple seconds so its frothy. Add Parmesan and garlic salt and stir.
toss the potatoes in the mixture. They will not be fully coated. it will look patchy.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes they will start to brown. Turn over and back another 15-20 minutes. Sometimes I will flip a second time somewhere in the second time slot. Please watch these as oven times and temps do vary.  

 This is not my photo as I forgot to take a pic before we ate them (lol) but these look very similar to mine. Only I like mine crispy so mine are a shade or two darker.

Zucchini Fries

It's that time of year again! Well actually in my area it has just passed the time of year when everyone is giving me truck loads of zucchini!! For a few years I had no clue what to do with them. A lot of the time they sat on the counter or in the fridge for a week or so, then went into the garbage. Then, I decided that I wasn't going to waste them anymore. So to Pinterest I went searching for recipes. I found a zucchini fries recipe on Pinterest, but I have modified it to fit my taste.

Zucchini Fries:

1 Large Zucchini
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt pepper garlic to taste

 Preheat oven to 425

Cut Zucchini into strips as shown below
In a wide shallow bowl place flour
In a second shallow bowl place lightly whipped eggs
In a third bowl mix the remaining ingredients

Coat the strips in each the flour (shake to remove excess), then in the egg, following by the bread crumbs. Line them up on a lightly oiled pan. You can use spray if you like. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn and bake for ten more minutes. They should be lightly browned on both sides. Serve with the condiments of your choice. My favorite is barbecue sauce.!

Raspberry Cheesecake Minis

Do you like cheesecake? I do but not that sorry excuse no-bake stuff. You might think well it so much easier!! Well, cheese cake is really not that hard to make and you aren't going to fool anyone with JELLO kind! I'm only kidding I will totally eat the no-bake variety, but I am not kidding when I say the real stuff is so much better. I have tried many different variations but this one is pretty simple and turns out awesome! So now that I have worked out the kinks here is the recipe:

Crust:

1 1/2 Cups graham cracker crumbs
4T Melted butter
3T Sugar

Raspberry Swirl:

6oz Fresh Raspberries or Blackberries
2T Sugar

Cheesecake:

2Lbs Cream Cheese
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
pinch of salt
1t Vanilla
4 large eggs

Yeild: 32

I start by taking the cream cheese out and opening it all to temp up a bit. Then, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Then I start with the crust. Crunch up the graham crackers. You can use a food processor, or a hammer, or what ever works best for you. Add the sugar to the crumbs. Melt the butter in the microwave. Stir to combine. Then press into lined muffin tins.

 

Next I get the fruit swirl ready. The first time I made these I just smashed up the fruit with a fork. After that, I smarted up a bit. ha! Now i use my smoothie blender. It takes about 5 seconds. This is the time to add the sugar as well.

Before:

 

After:

 



 

Set that aside. Now it is time to make the filling. First I put  the cream cheese in my stand mixer and give it a good spin. Then, I add the sugar, and salt and give it another spin, like a minute or two.

Then I add the Vanilla, and eggs one at a time. Give it a 30 second spin after each egg on speed 2.

Now that the filling is done it is time to assemble the cheese cakes. I use a scooper to get the filling into the muffin cups. Then, I dot on the fruit. And swirl it around with a toothpick.

Once you have swirled all of your cheese cakes, its time to bake. (If you dont like fruit or you have a husband or child who is allergic or anti fruit, these are just as good plain. I have also done chocolate chip, peanut butter cups, anything you want.) These need to be baked in a water bath so the bottoms dont burn before the cheese cake is cooked. This simply means you put a jelly roll pan in the oven, then you pour water in that pan, then you set your muffin tin pan in tthe water and bake. These babies need to bake for 28-30 minutes. Light brown edges are okay but mean its time to come out! They will puff up quite a bit. They will fall back to normal as the cool.  

Top with fresh berries and whipped cream, or eat plain. I dare you to have just one!!

Spicy Sausage Dip

I know it has been a really long time since I have written here. I have been cooking a little less lately, and everytime I think about blogging I did not start taking pictures in time! I don't know maybe I am just lazy! Sometimes when I don't have an occasion to cook for the thought just passes me! Anyway yesterday was the SUPERBOWL. I don't care about the football game, I just go to the party for the snacks... The dip we will be making today is one of the recipes I made for our little superbowl party.  We also used to have a hockey mom that would bring this to those tournaments (that you stay at the hotel for a whole weekend and the parents all get plastered). I think it helped sober them up!


it's kinda like crack though....ADDICTING

Very EASY....

AND QUICK!!

I always double this recipe because once you open a package of jimmy dean what are you gonna do with it?

The recipe calls for:

1/2 LB Jimmy Dean regular ground sausage
1 Can of Rotel diced tomatoes and green chilies original
1 8oz pacakge of cream cheese

so just to Clarify I use:

1LB Jimmy Dean
2 Cans Rotel tomatoes
2 8oz bricks of cream cheese

Brown the meat and chop into small pieces during the process.

 

When the meat is fully cooked, drain it. Wipe out your pan with a paper towel. Return drained meat to pan. Turn heat on low.

Add cream chees and diced tomatoes.

Mix in and heat thouroughly stirring ocassionally.

When the cheese is all melted serve immedately, or move to a small crockpot to keep warm.
I like this dip best with tortilla chips. I have also eaten it with bread, crackers, pretzels, a spoon...you know whatever you like best!! ENJOY!! Doesnt look very good in the pictures, but thats why we don't eat pictures! GET COOKING