Holiday Baking

I’m still undecided about how much holiday baking I’m going to do this year.

I want to keep the traditions alive, but, honestly, I’m not feeling the motivation or desire to spend a lot of time in the kitchen baking right now. Maybe this will change as the holidays grow nearer, maybe not. I’m going to take it one day at a time. We certainly don’t need a plethora of sweets in the house, although I want to have my usual holiday goodie bags for our friends (and the kids’ teachers) – it’s just so busy at work these days I’m not sure I’m going to have the energy or time to do the baking in the evenings like I’ve done in years’ past!

I have a back up plan, though, that I’m going to try out this weekend, just in case baking falls by the wayside for holiday gifts. After I try it out, I’ll let you know how it went.

I thought that today I’d share with you some of my favorite cookie recipes. Since this is the time of year when a lot of us are invited to holiday cookie swap parties, I thought it might be fun to share some of our favorites.

If you have a favorite cookie recipe, please share in the comments! I am sure the rest of us would love to try something new!

Here are some of our holiday standbys:

What about you? What cookies mean Christmas to you?

Oh, and I just discovered this new online magazine: FoodieCrush. They have some beautiful food shots and some even yummier cookie recipes!

Twelve Days of Cookies (wholefoodsmarket.com)
Holiday Baking (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)

Teriyaki Chicken & Fried Rice

I mentioned on Facebook last night that I’d made an absolutely awesome teriyaki chicken and fried rice recipe. I thought I’d share it with you today. Unfortunately, there were not enough leftovers to get a picture to show you, and in the hustle of getting food on the table, I totally forgot last night. Sad smile

But it tastes awesome. I promise.

This is one of those easy weeknight dinners, too. I think I had it on the table in less than 30 minutes. Two recipes… make them separately if you wish, or serve them together like I did. The girls preferred plain white rice to the fried rice, but they don’t know what they were missing. That was the best part of the dinner to me.

Teriyaki Chicken

For the Teriyaki chicken, the base was just as simple as can be – chicken thighs marinated in a teriyaki sauce. I used Veri Veri Teriyaki. It is an all natural teriyaki and I love the flavor it has.

I started out with frozen thighs, so I marinated the partially-defrosted thighs for about an hour in a Tupperware with about 1/2 cup of this sauce. Then I cut the thighs into bite-sized pieces and put them back in the marinade to soak for another half hour or so. I find that chicken is easier to cut into small pieces when it’s partially frozen. Less slippy-slidey that way. This is something you could easily skip and just marinade/defrost the chicken in a Tupperware in your freezer while you’re working during the day.

Once I was ready to cook the chicken, I just put some olive oil and about 1 tsp of sesame oil in a hot skillet. I sautéed the chicken (marinade and all) until it was cooked (about 10 min) and let it simmer until the water cooked out of the marinade. I was left with a nice, shiny glaze on the chicken.

In a separate pot, I cooked about 1 cup of rice.

For the girls, I served a small bowl of the rice with a serving of the chicken on the side. Fruit rounded out their meal.

Fried Rice

2-3 cups (cooked) rice
1/2 bag frozen vegetables (I used Publix Japanese Blend)
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp olive oil
Soy Sauce (about 2 Tbsp)
Emeril’s Asian Seasoning (you could also use Chinese Five Spice Powder)

In a large skillet, heat the oil. Once oil is shimmering in the pan, put your rice in and stir to heat through.

Add your soy sauce (to taste) and the frozen vegetables, heating through. I covered the pan while the veggies thawed and this helped to use the steam to moisten the rice a little more (I was using leftover rice)

Let this cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the garlic and sprinkle generously with Asian Seasoning.

Serve with the Teriyaki chicken. YUM.

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I just realized the Asian Essence I reference above (Emeril’s) is no longer available (mine is old, I guess!) but here is a recipe you might try – the source says it is from Food Network, but I could not find it there to link you directly to it. It looks pretty close, though, and like I said before, you could just use Chinese Five Spice Powder and be good to go.

Emeril’s Asian Spice Blend:

1 tablespoon 5-spice powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon cayenne

In a small bowl, blend all the ingredients. Keep in an airtight container until ready to use.

My new favorite appliance

You might be surprised…

then again, if you have one, you probably won’t be.

I have rediscovered it after it sat in my garage for a few months…

well, I didn’t rediscover it.

SuperMan did.

Last Sunday. When he was looking for the cord for my deep fryer to fry some chicken. Which we never found. I took it as a sign that we were not supposed to deep-fry the chicken.

SuperMan was not to be deterred, however, and decided to use this “new” appliance to fry the chicken.

He said it was only fitting since it is what my grandma used to use to fry chicken on Sundays when we had our family dinners.

I could not disagree. If it was good enough for her, it was certainly good enough for us.

And thus, the new appliance made its way into my kitchen and into my heart.

What an awesome little worker it is!

Tuesday night, I used it to make fajitas (pictured below) and it was awesome! Bigger than most of my skillets and hot as can be. I loved being able to set it to “warm” and wait for SuperMan to come home to eat with us.

Look at it.

In all it’s Harvest Gold glory.

Isn’t it beautiful?

It makes me remember my grandma when I cook – I imagined her standing over me smiling as I cooked the fajitas… chuckling to herself that I had just now figured out how cool this little cooker was.

Don’t worry, Grandma. It’ll get lots of use now. I promise.

Now I just have to find some more recipes to cook in it. I’m in love.

Holiday Baking (part 2)

I promised you I’d share some of my savory recipes today – some of the family favorites that we enjoy during the holidays. I’m also going to share one that is brand new to us and that we’re trying out this year.

The new recipe we’re trying is a corn casserole recipe. It’s not something that was traditionally made at my house (or Grandma’s) when I was growing up, but I’ve had it when other people have made it and loved it. So, I decided to try my hand at making it this year… introduce a new tradition to the table, so to speak.

I’m excited to see how it turns out!

One of the old standbys we make every holiday is a sweet potato casserole. Mom has been making this for years and years – I think the original recipe is one that she clipped out of a magazine or the newspaper. After it’s debut at one of our family dinners, it quickly replaced the ultra-sweet marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole that we used to eat. I absolutely LOVE it. I’d eat it every day if I thought I could get away with it. Of course, since my WLS surgery, I have to be very, very careful when I’m indulging like this or I’ll be curled up in a ball crying in a few hours. So, I enjoy it sparingly but I do have a tiny bit when we make it for the holidays.

Sweet Potato Casserole

4 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes (you can use one large can of sweet potatoes if you wish)
1/2 – 3/4 c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 – 1 cup finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350.
Combine sweet potatoes, sugar, egg, vanilla, milk and butter (1/4 cup). Whip with hand mixer until smooth.
Pour into 2 quart baking dish. (8×8 or 9×9 works well)
For topping, mix remaining ingredients to form a crumble topping. Sprinkle over sweet potato mixture.
Bake for 30 minutes.

What about you? Any family favorites that you just have to make or it doesn’t seem like the holidays to you?

And, now, I’m off to bake and enjoy my family!!

Holiday Baking

I’m baking today.

Pies and breads and sweets in preparation for the big day on Thursday.

You’d think we were having an army over for dinner and not just the four of us.

But it sort of mushrooms – you think “oh, I’ll just bake a simple meal.” and then someone asks “but you’re going to make this, right?” and you say “yes, of course!” and pretty soon you have a feast on your hands.

But that is part of what Thanksgiving is about, right? Feasting? Well, it’s become that, anyway. It’s really supposed to be about GIVING THANKS for all the blessings we have, but somehow it has turned into a day about eating. But, I’m OK with that, as long as we remember to be thankful for the fact that we CAN eat all this food and that we are so BLESSED to have an abundance of food to select from and eat.

But, enough of the soap box. I thought I’d share with you some of the things I’m baking today:

Pecan Pie (one of those things that just popped up on the menu, unbidden but welcome) I’m trying this recipe from Tasty Kitchen because it seems very, very close to the one my mom makes. I used a combination of spiced pecans and plain ones. I saw that on Food Network this past weekend and thought it sounded like a really good idea.

Watergate Salad recipe

Watergate Salad (also known in our house as “green stuff”)
Well, this one is not baked, but I’m making it today. I’m also making it with sugar-free pudding, sugar-free cool whip and no-sugar-added pineapple so that it will be WLS friendly. A girl’s gotta have dessert, right?
Honey Oatmeal Bread – this is just because I haven’t made any fresh bread in a couple weeks and I thought I’d try a new recipe and see how the family liked it.
I’m also planning to bake a mincemeat pie this evening, but I’m cheating and using a jarred filling. It is what my mom always makes and I love it.
For Thanksgiving morning, I’m planning to make these for breakfast.

Mom made them a few weeks ago and said they were really good so I’m going to give them a try.

That’ll be enough baking, I think. Don’t you? Smile

Tomorrow I’ll share some of the savory recipes we’re planning for Thanksgiving.

Menu Plan Monday

Busy, busy weekend – but an awesome one.

SuperMan’s birthday was Friday – we went out on a date night (you can read more about that here)

I got to see my brother and two of his best friends on Saturday (haven’t seen him in 2 years! he lives on the west coast and we just haven’t been able to swing a trip out there or here in a while thanks to the economy.) and I got to spend lots of time with my mom. Doesn’t get much better than that.

That was us after dinner on Saturday evening. I asked him how we got so old… neither of us was quite sure. Man, he looks a lot like my dad did when he was that age…

We also brought back some old furniture that was at my mom’s lake house – things that we’re going to restore and find uses for here at home, including this

an old glider-rocker that used to be on my grandmother’s front porch when I was a child. I remember many hot, sticky summer nights spent sleeping on that porch when it was just too hot to sleep inside (no air conditioning). My brother and I would listen to the big trucks rolling down the highway and giggle and whisper for as long as we could stay awake without getting fussed at by Grandma.

I can’t wait to restore it and put it on my back porch for my girls to do the same one day.

I also brought home this

which is an old table from my GREAT-grandmother’s kitchen. We have the “naugehide” covered chairs, too. I can’t wait to restore them and put this puppy to use. Lots of happy Saturday mornings were spent at this table when I was a girl.

So, we are getting back to “normal” today – including planning our menus for the week. I really, really need to go grocery shopping as I’ve been cooking out of the freezer for the last two weeks and we are out of fresh veggies and the like as well.

Here’s what I have planned so far:

Monday: Bourbon Chicken with Rice & veggies (trying a new recipe)
Tuesday: Tacos
Wednesday: Grilled Chicken or maybe this new recipe – Chicken Yakitori
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday/Saturday/Sunday: SuperMan and the girls are on their own as I’ll be in the mountains on a girls’ weekend! Scrapbooking & relaxing.

How about you? Hop on over to orgjunkie.com for some great menu ideas.

Five Decadent, Mouth-watering Fall Recipes to Try (soon!)

I’m on the hunt for some new recipes to try this fall – revisions of old favorites, new tastes and flavors to sample.

I thought I’d share with you some of the things I’ve recently ear-marked (or bookmarked, rather) as recipes I want to try this fall: (all images are from the website the recipe is linked to)

Caramel Apple Bread Pudding: Just the name makes my mouth water. I mean, seriously – caramel, apples and bread? Oh.my.
Apple and Brie melts: This is like the grilled cheese of the gods. I absolutely love, love, love brie and apples on toast. Why did I never think to make it a sandwich? MUST TRY THIS SOON.
Caramel Apple Trifle: Yes, yet another apple recipe. Hey, I’m getting a half-bushel a week! I’m on the hunt for new recipes to try! Of course, I’m quite content eating them just as God made them, too. Several a day, as a matter of fact!
and just to prove I’m not apple-obsessed ~ Snickerdoodle Bread:this one has me curious. I love snickerdoodles and I love sugar cookies – and who doesn’t love bread? Think this one will be on the list to try the next time we have company for dinner.
And last but not least ~ White Chocolate Toffee Brownies. Seriously? I am sure these taste like what they’d serve in heaven. Got to be. Must bake soon.

Okay, there’s my five, mouth watering treats I must try sometime this fall.

What about you? Any recipes you’re dying to try?

Most of my new favorites are over on my Pinterest recipe boards. Hop on over to check more out!

Easy Recipe Ideas for Entertaining

It’s Labor Day in the US. That means lots of cookouts, parties, and get-togethers with family & friends. We’ll be celebrating as well, today, with some of our closest friends. Cooking a Low Country Boil for our friends and enjoying the rain that we are finally getting thanks to the tropical storm headed our way. (We’re going to be having an indoor cookout!)

I love to cook – as I think you already know – but I love to bake and prepare main dishes. I’ve never been much of an appetizer person. Not that I don’t like to eat them – I’ve just never cooked many. I’m too busy concocting the main course!

But I had the opportunity a couple weeks ago to bring some appetizers to a get-together. This required my digging around in my favorite recipe books for something suitable. It had to be easy, quick, inexpensive (without a lot of complicated ingredients) and something filling. Our get-together was going to be a “light supper” that would be comprised of the “heavy appetizers” everyone was bringing. So, SuperMan and I dug around until I found some likely candidates.

First up was Sesame Chicken Drumettes – a sweet and tasty glazed chicken wing concoction. We figured that would be a good, filling contribution. I found the recipe in my Sandra Lee cookbook, but it is available on the food network website, too. The only things we did differently was that we added the sesame seeds after the marinade.

They were a huge hit and everyone really enjoyed them. Even Big Girl, who was the official taste tester before we left. She decided they were not to leave the house – they had to stay with her. Winking smile

Second, I made Pepperoni Pinwheels. A mixture of crescent rolls, pepperoni and cheese. I made them pretty much according to the recipe and I think the next time I make them I’ll make some changes. They were good, but I think they could use a little more flavor. I think next time, I will add some ricotta cheese, garlic and Italian seasoning to the filling mixture.

They were popular, too, but not as popular as the chicken wings were.

Of course, now I need some new ideas for some appetizers.

Anyone have any that are tried-and-true hits?

Grinding your own grains

I just read a great article over on goodLife{eats} and thought I would share it with you… It’s about grinding your own grains – something you know I am in favor of.

I swear that our family has been healthier (and eating healthier) since we started grinding our own grains this spring. I made the decision to begin to grind our own wheat once I learned about how much healthier this was. When commercial flours are created, the germ is removed, removing many of the vitamins and nutrients that are so good for us.

Additionally, I love the flavor of freshly-ground flours. Once you try something made with freshly-ground flour, you will not want to go back to “store-bought” flours. The fresh flour has a lightness, a sweetness and nuttiness, that the other flours lack. Whenever I eat something that has been made with store-bought flours, I can always tell. It tastes flat to me. Dead, even. Fresh flour is bright, green, and flavorful.

She’s even got a review of one of the grain mills you can purchase (NutriMill) – I have a different one, but from what I’ve learned there are only minor differences between the two brands.

If you are interested in learning more about grinding your own meal, baking your own bread and getting started with whole grains for your family, you might want to watch some of the videos on the BreadBecker’s website:

Bread Making 101
Bread Making 201 (taking it to the next level: pizza dough, cakes & cookies)
Getting Started (this is long – 4 hrs – but so worth it)

If you’ve been thinking about doing this for your family, check out the articles. They are a great source of information!

Beef Stir Fry

We tried a new recipe this week – it was a spur of the moment thing and not something I’d originally planned on my menu, but I was craving it, and rather than go out to eat, I decided to make it at home instead.

I had some steaks marinating in some teriyaki sauce, so I decided to make some stir fry. I started with this basic recipe and modified based on the veggies I had in the refrigerator.

I made a batch of 1/2 Jasmine / 1/2 brown rice to serve with it. The family loved it. The kids ate around the veggies (of course) but they ate some without even realizing it (hee hee)

This is one I’ll be keeping in the arsenal for future quick weeknight dinners.

Beef Stir Fry

1/4 Napa cabbage, sliced in ribbons
1 bell pepper, julienned
1 small onion, sliced thin
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, finely minced (I used a microplane zester)
1 large broccoli head, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup Asian Toasted Sesame dressing (Kraft)
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1-2 Tbsp sesame oil + some vegetable oil (for the skillet)
1 pound steak sliced thin (flank steak or the like)
Chinese five spice powder

Preheat skillet, add oils.
Add steak, sprinkling with Chinese five spice powder & house seasoning.
Sauté steak until cooked (about 5 min)
Add ginger, garlic & vegetables, cooking until just crisp-tender.
Add dressing & soy sauce.
Cover & cook for about 10 minutes.
Serve with cooked rice.

If I had had them, I would’ve added some water chestnuts, green onions, and bamboo shoots.

Try it! Let me know what you think!

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