Spatulas & Buttons

Nowinsky Chili

Chili is a staple of fall. I don’t care who you are or what you think about that, in my world, it just IS. And when my husband and I were musing about fall foods a few weeks ago, both of us had the “lightbulb” moment of…”let’s make CHILI!”.

Now, having a solid chili recipe in your arsenal is essential. It’s something that could vary a little bit every time you make it, but in theory, you still have the same overall chili outline.

I did not have a chili recipe that I could fall on without looking up something to get me started.

My mother in law has one. A GOOD one. One that the entire Nowinsky family knows and loves. One she tweaks every time she makes it, sometimes with steak and sometimes with ground beef. She had never even written it down until we probed her for the basic outline so that we could give it a try.

This is foolproof, guys. It really is. You put in meat, spices, beans, veggies and liquid…you let it slow cook for several hours…and it becomes chili. That’s the basic premise. And you get to use Bloody Mary mix. (A newfound favorite drink. De-lish!)

It will also fill your entire kitchen with a chili aroma. That’s a bonus because let me tell you, the way it tastes will warm your insides and make you ooze happiness.

Ok, ok, that’s dramatic. But it WILL be good. And you WILL want to make it again.

We are diving in the chili-making process with a cannonball…here…we….

….GO!

Ingredients:

3 lbs ground beef
2 Tbsp dried basil
2 Tbsp Italian seasoning
2 Tbsp oregano
2 Tbsp chili powder
2 white onions, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
16 oz tomato juice
16 oz Hair of the Dawg (or any other Bloody Mary mix)
3 cans diced tomatoes
1 can whole peeled tomatoes
2 cans chili beans
1 can black beans
1 Tbsp garlic powder
6 (or so) dashes of hot sauce

How to Make:

First, it’s time to brown the meat. And not just the meat, we browned it with 1 Tbsp of each of the dried basil, Italian seasoning, oregano and chili powder.

Yum.

While that’s browning, chop up your white onions and celery stalks.

When the meat is mostly browned (my own technical term), add in your onions and celery and low that cook on low for about 15 minutes.

Now, this makes a large batch of chili. So for us, we divided it amongst our largest stockpot and crockpot. But if you have a BIG stockpot, this will all fit nicely. If not, I do think splitting amongst two big stockpots or between your stockpot and crockpot, will work too. It did for us!

Now, take your meat/onion/celery mixture and pour into your stockpot/crockpot. Now, we get to add everything else!

Add in the tomato juice (not pictured in step format, but I promise it went in) and the Bloody mix, which adds a nice amount of spice (we like Hair of the Dawg…it’s sooooo tasty)…

…and then the canned diced and peeled tomatoes…

…and the chili and black beans…

…add in 1 Tbsp of garlic powder….

…and the remaining 1 Tbsp of basil, Italian seasoning, oregano and chili powder.

Give everything a BIG stir and then, for a final touch of ‘zing’, add in some dashes of hot sauce (not pictured, but is an essential final step). We did about 6 dashes, but you can do more or less depending on your affinity for the condiment.

Now, if you’re doing this as an all-day crockpot item, I recommend doing this is on low for 6-8 hours. The longer and lower heat, the better!

If you’re like us, and wanting to eat this for dinner and you’re making it early afternoon, you can easily do this in your crockpot on high for 4 hours.

Now, for the stockpot option, leave that on medium-low for a short cooking time of 4 hours, or on low for a long 6-8 hour batch.

The good news is that this is flexible and you can tweak it depending on the time you have and the cooking method you plan to use!

When you’re ready, this is great to serve with a little sour cream or plain Greek yogurt, a sprinkling of your favorite shredded cheese and a big slab of cornbread. We really enjoyed dipping and eating our Beer Bacon Cornbread with this chili and it was perfect.

So if you too are ready for fall foods, you want something to warm your insides and make your kitchen smell like heaven, you need to make yourself a big batch of Nowinsky chili.

You WON’T be disappointed!!

Tags: Beans, Bloody Mary, Chili, Cornbread, Fall Recipe, Ground Beef, Onions, Tomatoes

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Categories Main Dishes

Beer Bacon Cornbread

16 Sep

There is a large place in my heart for cornbread. In fact, it graces my Top 10 favorite foods (which I like to think is a hard category to crack) and I have a hard time finding a cornbread that I don’t want to eat. Do you feel me, people!?

What is it about cornbread that is SO good?! I personally believe it’s the savory and dense flavor, the cake-like texture and the fact that it’s an excellent dipping mechanism for soups (chili in particular).

As I’ve alluded to in some recent posts, Luke and I were craving a homemade chili and cornbread weekend to kick-start the fall season. I have had this cornbread recipe from How Sweet Eats as a Pinterest pin for a LONG time and was simply waiting for the right moment to try it out. This seemed like the ideal time to give it a go, especially as I’ve been really pumped about Jessica’s new cookbook and am anxiously waiting to dive into it’s colorful and drool-inducing pages.

(I have a slight cookbook obsession…umm…can’t help it.)

Before I dive into the details, can I just say two OTHER items that I really love – bacon and beer. And these are to be IN the cornbread?!

Heck yes, people! They are!

Jessica over at How Sweet Eats knows how to really spice up cornbread with all the perfect ingredients. My husband thought I was kidding as I asked if he wanted to try out Beer Bacon Cornbread. HA. Not kidding, just about to create the most epic cornbread ever.

No. Big. Deal.

Enough already, let’s do this!

Ingredients:

6 slices thick-cut peppered bacon (just adds some extra zip to use peppered), chopped
1 Tbsp bacon fat (leftover from your bacon fryin’)
1 1/2 cups finely ground cornmeal
3/4 cup cake flour + 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (or you can use 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour, which I did not have on hand)
2 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup of beer (we used a light beer but you could experiment!)
1/2 cup skim milk
1/3 sour cream
1/2 unsalted butter, melted down

How to Make:

Prepare for a delicious loaf of cornbread to come out of your oven, people. To make that a reality, preheat to 375 degrees and find your favorite loaf pan.

Now, my parents are firm believers in flouring pans for all breads and cakes and I must say, I swear by it too. To do this, spray the pan with Pam or another cooking spray and then drop a handful of flour into the pan. Working over your sink or garbage can, carefully turn the pan and pat the sides to spread the flour across all sides and the bottom of the pan. (The sound of my mom tapping the side of the pan as she floured it is a distinct sound that brings back memories. My mom made banana bread all the time. Seriously – ALL the time.)

Before we dive into making the batter, gotta fry up that bacon! Use a skillet on the stove top and make sure to fry it up so it’s got a little crunch (at minimum). When the bacon is done, remove and set on a paper towel to absorb the grease and then leave the pan to cool as you’ll need a bit of the bacon fat later. Yes, we’re using bacon fat. You will love it. No complaints!

Once the bacon is cooled, chop it up into bite-size pieces.

Now time to get the batter going. In your medium bowl or stand mixer, mix together the dry ingredients of cornmeal, flours, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Once that’s all mixed together, you’ll grab a smaller second bowl to mix the milk (pictured below) and eggs (not pictured because I’m a moron) together, and then add into your dry ingredients. Add in the sour cream and the beer of choice (not pictured, but it did happen. Solemnly swear.).

Last liquid to add is the melted butter and that bacon fat.

Mix the batter until it’s all smooth and just before you finish, add in your chopped up bacon pieces. BEST PART. (Yes, you can sneak a piece or two. Who will know?!)

Pour your batter into your floured pan…

…and then pop the pan into the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes. Use a toothpick or another wooden skewer to test the doneness (it should come out clean when inserted into the cornbread if it’s done).

This had a BEAUTIFUL crust on it when it came out. Both Luke and I were ooohing and aaahing over how fantastic it looked and let me tell you, tastes even better!

We ate ours with a big batch of our Nowinsky chili (coming to a future blog post near you) and it was perfect with something to dunk it with. It’s also really good with a little sweet butter spread on it. It has a tangy flavor and the sweetness of butter really compliments the tang of the bacon and beer mixed into the cornbread.

Gosh, I don’t know how many other words to use to get you to want to try this, guys. It’s SO tasty!

It stays really great for a few days, but definitely do recommend you devour it quickly. We found that after 4-5 days, the bitterness of the beer came out. But hey, it makes the fresh baked bread REALLY good, so it’s totally worth it. Just make sure to feed it to lots of hungry folks and I have no concern that you will gobble this up right away.

Happy cornbread making, friends!

Tags: Bacon, Beer, Chili, Cornbread

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Categories Breads

Nutella Crispy Treats

14 Sep

“Rice Krispies Treats” as most of us know the gooey and delicious marshmallowy, rice cereal bars…are in fact, tasty. But maybe a little boring? I’m posting this to bring you to a happy, happy place where the rice cereal and mallow squares you thought you knew, get turned upside down with a major chocolate explosion.

This treat can be made with any brand of chocolate rice cereal, but the key to making these addicting and wonderful is the combination of peanut butter and Nutella. OH MY. These will make you and everyone who has one, swoon.

How am I able to say this to you with confidence?

I’ve made these twice, and they’ve disappeared BOTH times within less than 24 hours. The latest occasion was Friday evening and when I returned home after a get-together with girlfriends with 4 remaining in the pan, my husband took the pan from me and 3 disappeared in the next 23 minutes. We compromised and split the last one. (Marriage is about compromise, right?!)

These take about 15 minutes to make (no joke kids, 15 minutes) and all you need is a stove top OR, a microwave would work in a pinch. I modified the recipe from Handle the Heat and I think you’ll love it!

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp unsalted butter
6 (or so) cups of chocolate rice cereal (any brand you want)
1/2 cup Nutella (mounded scoop)*
1/2 cup of crunchy peanut butter (mounded scoop)*
1 bag of mini marshmallows (10 oz)
2 Tbsp cocoa powder

* I originally stated I added about 3/4 c. of Nutella and PB, but after remaking this recently, this was too much (I had eye-balled it and apparently guessed a bit high the first time I posted this) and resulted in treats that weren’t quite marshmallow-y enough to stick together. So instead, just mound out your scoop of both Nutella and PB, but not quite enough to do 3/4 c.

How to Make:

Alrighty people, here we go. First things first, you need a saucepan if you are going the stove top route. If you have only a microwave, then grab a medium-sized microwaveable bowl. The butter goes into your warming device of choice and melt that baby down.

Now time to add in the good stuff. Add in your entire bag of mallows…

…the Nutella…

…and the peanut butter.

You want everything to melt down smoothly. The only remaining lumps should be from the peanuts in the crunchy peanut butter.

Once it’s all thoroughly melted and mixed, add in the 2 Tbsp of cocoa powder and stir that in.

This extra bit of chocolate is what is going to make your bars GOOD. Not: good. But: GOOD. You feel me?!

Grab a large bowl (bigger is better as this part is a bit messy) and pour in the chocolate rice cereal of choice and then pour your mallow/chocolate liquid over the top.

Spatulas work well for the next task which is to mix all of the cereal into the mallow/chocolate. Be patient, it takes a bit to get everything all worked in together. Once you have a big wonderful mass of chocolate goodness, you’re ready for the next step.

Spray a pan with Pam or another similar butter/oil spray and then plop everything in. Use your fingers or the spatula to press everything into the corners and smooth out the bars. Let ’em cool for about 10-15 minutes, which will harden things up enough to cut them.

Divide these into big OR small bars, but regardless, know that folks will still come and pick from the pan and nibble continuously until they’re all gone. I think it’s the peanut butter, but these are just plain addicting and having one is near impossible.

Hope you make these for your next ‘quick and easy dessert’ occasion!

Tags: Bars, No-Bake, Nutella, Peanut Butter, Quick, Rice Cereal

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Categories Desserts

Lemon Orzo Salad

8 Sep

Ok folks, back at you with another post. I’m a roll and I figured there was no reason to stop posting if I was in the mood to share food. (Unintentional rhyming.). This is another one that falls in the side dish category and I thought it was one worth sharing with you guys because it’s a great, QUICK, and healthy and it’s one that you can throw into any meal. It’s versatile and it’s not going to take much of any effort from you. What more can you ask for, right?!

As summer is winding down, it’s also a great last use for fresh veggies from a farmer’s market. If you like that sort of thing.

Before I start hitting you with photos, did want to mention how much I love seeing your likes and comments on these posts! I’m only writing these so that you all can hopefully find something fun and different to explore with in the kitchen, spark some creative juices and get you thinking about what YOU want to make tonight or…at bare minimum…make you smile and chuckle as you read. Never be shy about leaving a comment – those are my favorite! And if you don’t already follow me, click that lovely little button in the upper right on my page and you’ll be in the loop with every post that gets published.

AND…as history has shown…you’ll likely be entered into future blog giveaways! What fun!

So. How did I happen upon making Lemon Orzo Salad?

This one goes to my husband…I was trying to come up with a new and different option for a side the night we had my parents up for dinner a few weeks ago. He mentioned trying to do something with orzo, as we had a fairly ginormous container in our pantry that we haven’t used for anything in recent months. And maybe he just had a hankering for some orzo?! Regardless, I thought that was doable, so began my searching for what to throw in WITH said orzo to make it a true ‘side’. The goal was to be able to combine grains and veggies in a side that was NOT boring and tasted really good.

Key thing in making that happen is truly the lemon. TRUST me when I say, don’t skimp on the lemon. It’s essentially the ‘sauce’ of this dish and it makes the orzo incredibly tasty and it mixes very well with all the veggies. And I’m not a crazy “I LOVE LEMONS” type of person, but this did it for me. (Sorry for shouting, but I do assume there are some out there that have passionate love for lemons.)

This recipe was a true keeper and is a twist on the Two Peas and Their Pod (blog post of Lemon Orzo Salad with Asparagus, Spinach, and Feta (go check ’em out…LOTS of good grub featured on their site). Can’t wait to make this again…

Ingredients:

1 cup orzo
Pinch of salt
3 cloves garlic, chopped/minced (you better believe I used my new garlic press for this…and it was more exciting than it should have been…I’m easily excited)
1 teaspoon olive oil (if you have Garlic infused Olive Oil…even better…this is a new favorite of mine in the kitchen!)
10-12 asparagus spears, cut into 1 inch pieces (I wanted to add more than the original recipe, and I didn’t think it overpowered the orzo one bit)
1 cup/1 hearty handful of packed fresh spinach
Juice of 1 large lemon (yes…the whole lemon)
1/2 cup feta cheese (added a bit more feta…because I wanted to)
Salt and pepper

How to Make:

First, must cook up that orzo. I followed the directions on the side of my orzo container to figure out the water to orzo ratio, but Two Peas in a Pod recommends about 4 cups of water to the 1 cup of orzo. Bring the water to a boil, sprinkling in your pinch of salt. Then dump in the orzo. Like any pasta, it can get a bit sticky, so stir it every few minutes so it doesn’t get clumpy.

Once it’s tender (which I use the method of…if I take a piece and chew it, does it have the right texture?! Yes, very elaborate method), drain it over the sink and set it aside. You will now be moving on to the green stuff…

Before you cook up the green stuff (also known as asparagus and spinach), you want to start sauteing the garlic in your olive oil. And is there ANYTHING better on this planet than the smell of garlic heating up?! I THINK NOT!

(I’m easily excited today…apologies.)

While the garlic is heating up, chop up the asparagus into easy to eat pieces (about 1-2″) and then add them into the garlic pan, swirling them around to start to soak up all of the garlic juices. You’ll saute those for roughly 3-4 minutes and then add in the spinach.

I was not as experienced with cooking up spinach and forgot how crazy small spinach shrinks down to! It won’t take long and your puffy pile of spinach leaves (as seen in photo below) will be shrunken WAY down. Don’t cook much beyond the spinach getting down to its teeny tiny state, as you want the asparagus and spinach JUST cooked and still bright green. Don’t overcook here folks…no one likes mushy veggies!

Now locate your orzo and pour into the serving bowl you wish to use. (Another aside…I was so excited to get to pull out serving dishes that we received as wedding presents. I mean, sadly, that was one of the best parts about making a fun dinner and hosting was getting to use some of these dishes for the first time! Ok, I realize my whole enthusiasm for things in the kitchen may be somewhat pathetic, but hey. It floats my boat, people.)

Into said bowl, pour the orzo and the freshly cooked veggies/garlic concoction. Toss it all around to coat all the orzo.

Slice a lemon in half and juice the WHOLE thing. Don’t be frightened by all the lemon juice…just trust me. It won’t be overly lemony and the veggies and orzo will soak it up and make every bite, sooooo sooo good. Don’t forget to add a few shakes of S&P to it too.

Make sure to toss the lemon around to really get the whole mixture coated and before you serve – sprinkle that feta all over the top.

NOM. Nom nom nom. Yes, you will be so happy to have this on your table. No more boring side dishes for you! And so simple, right?!

As a final aside, this is phenomenal the day after, whether you choose to warm it up or eat it straight from the fridge in it’s Tupperware container like yours truly. You can also easily double this recipe to make it for a larger group OR to ensure yourself some leftovers for dinner the next night.

Happy cooking and side dish making!

Tags: Asparagus, Feta, Garlic, Lemon, Orzo, Spinach

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Categories Side Dishes

Tomato Pesto Pie

7 Sep

Now although it may seem like we only eat sweet things in this apartment, there are MANY savory dishes that we’ve been making recently that I had noted for future posts to share with you. However, this particular post features something made yesterday that was just SO darn good, that I had to share it with you all today.

This particular recipe was one I pinned on Pinterest, close to 2 years ago. I thought that it looked gorgeous (which is what caught my eye), but it was also a creative spin on your typical ‘pie’ as well as different type of side dish.

Side dishes are always a spot that I want to experiment with. Of course, we have some fallback staples that are our favorites (my husband LOVES TBM Salad, and we make it at minimum, twice a month), but I am usually looking to try something new and different, even if we’re using the same flavors. As you’ll see, the TBM Salad ingredients are all still present in this dish, just prepared in pie format and with a twist.

We were tasked with bringing a side for a dinner with some friends last night, and knowing we had plethora of tomatoes around the apartment and a pie crust (left from the recently made Sour Cream Apple Pie) – my mind went to this Pinterest pin, from so long ago.

Now, if I made this again I would love to use a few different ingredients – perhaps make some fresh, homemade pesto first, fresh basil and use some light mayo with olive oil (or even greek yogurt).

But that’s for a different time.

And I can tell you, the full-fat and easy version was DELICIOUS. Four of us (and later a fifth who stopped by) devoured the entire pie last night. So whether you choose to lighten this up or not, I think this is a pretty foolproof recipe.

The recipe I used is a tweaked version of what Your Homebased Mom posted for her version, called Tomato Basil Tart.

Ingredients:

1 refrigerated pie crust
1 1/2 cups of shredded Mozzarella
2-3 medium tomatoes, sliced
1 cup of yellow cherry tomatoes (this adds both a pop of color and great flavor to mix in with the larger tomatoes)
1/2 cup of pesto (store-bought OR homemade if you’re fancy and have the time!)
1/2 cup of mayo (I used the full-fat version but you can lighten it up with a lighter mayo version or even mayo with olive oil)
1/2 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese (with extra saved for sprinkling on top)
1/8 tsp white pepper
1 Tbsp of dried basil (or chopped fresh basil, if you have some on hand!)

How to Make:

Similar to the apple pie I posted about yesterday, you start this guy off by baking the refrigerated pie using the instructions on its box – make sure to use the 1 pie crust, filled pie version.

While it’s baking, shred your mozzarella cheese (and sneak some…because you can). You want this to be all ready when the pie crust comes out!

Now, instead of letting the pie crust cool before we use it, you’re going to pile the mozzarella inside. I used all 1 1/2 cups and then spread it out so the bottom was all covered. The pie crust’s temperature will start to get the cheese all melty and wonderful.

While that’s melting and looking tasty, slice and chop up your tomatoes. We were excited to use a mix of medium tomatoes and some yellow cherry tomatoes (Luke and I really have a thing for cherry tomatoes), not only to use up all the tomatoes we had, but it adds two great colors to the dish AND slightly different flavors. I sliced up about 2.5 medium red tomatoes and then chopped about a cup of yellow cherry tomatoes, halving them.

Now, before the tomatoes go in, spoon out your pesto on top of the mozzarella. Spread it evenly across, and then it’s time to layer on the ‘maters! Layer as evenly as you can, so no matter what slice anyone gets, there’s a great mix of red and yellow tomatoes.

It sure does look great, doesn’t it?!

But we’re not done!

Now, mix up your mayo, parmesan cheese (which I bought already shredded) and the white pepper. The white pepper gives just a hint of zip, which mixes so well with the rest of the flavors of the pie.

Once the creamy mixture is ready, spread this as evenly as you can on top of the tomato layer.

Then, pop the pie into a 375 degree oven for 35 minutes! When there’s about 10 minutes to go, I pulled the pie out and sprinkled the whole thing with a little extra parmesan cheese. Just because.

Once it’s all done, pull it out and let it cool, sprinkling the top with dried basil.

Looks SO good!

Slice this up warm for family and friends, cutting it just like a normal pie. The slices may not all look perfect on a plate, but let me tell you the tomato juices, the creamy tang of the mayo and white pepper, the savory pesto and the flaky pie crust make this a side dish that you’ll want to DEFINITELY make a fallback favorite.

Tags: Basil, Cherry Tomatoes, Mozzarella, Parmesan, Pesto, Pie, Tomato

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Categories Side Dishes

Chewy Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies

6 Sep

As promised, it’s double-post Saturday and I’m bringing you one of my new favorite cookie recipes. This was featured in the recent Giveaway Boxes: Revealed! blog post as it was created and shipped off to Johnston, IA. I found this recipe after trying to find the perfect red velvet recipe that would be shipping friendly and have some great flavor. It’s a winner.

My thing with red velvet is that I was always unsure. I never really got why some people would go gaga for red velvet as I always felt there was some flavor lacking. I couldn’t put my finger on what additional flavor I wanted, but I just knew that if I had options between red velvet and something else, the something else usually won. But as I taste tested the batter and finished product of these cookies, my opinion has changed!

These cookies are great with mini chocolate chips – spreading out the chocolatey flavor in the cookie and also adding a little extra chewiness. Plus they look so great against the red color, don’t they?!

Whether you love red velvet or not, I really do think these are cookies you’ll love. If it helps to convince you, the extras made from my double batch went to Luke’s family in Wisconsin and they didn’t last more than 12 hours.

Convinced yet?

Excellent. I assume, yes.

This recipe makes 12-15 in standard form, so I definitely doubled to make enough for my giveaway box and to bring along to Wisconsin. This is a recipe that I tweaked slightly from the amazing blog, How Sweet Eats. Check out her blog for more delicious and creative twists on cookies and other sweets (lots of great shakes and smoothies on there that I’m dying to try out…particularly the boozy ones). I also just got her new cookbook Seriously Delish and am PUMPED to start working my way through it. She has some pretty fantastic recipes and this is just one of many that I’ve tried and put my own little spin on. (She also doesn’t know I exist, but I really do love her blog and cookbook. Big fan.)

And that Bacon Beer Cornbread I mentioned that Luke and I are making tomorrow? Her recipe too.

Ingredients (for 12-15 cookies, recipe is easily doubled):

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 – 2 teaspoon vanilla (we used the good stuff, but the usual stuff we’ll do)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 – 4 Tbsp of red food coloring (the original recipe says 1 tsp but I wanted RED and kept adding until I got the color I wanted)
1 cup of mini chocolate chips (or more if you LOVE chocolate chips)

How to Make:

Like with most cookie recipes, we start off creaming together the butter and both sugars. Throw ’em in the mixer until everything is light and fluffy, which takes a few minutes.

Next in are the vanilla and egg. Cream those in for another minute or so (you can see we doubled the recipe with our two eggs in the photo below).

One of our fun purchases on our honeymoon part 1 in Duluth, MN was a big bottle of Watkins Vanilla Extract. Gosh, I’m obsessed.

Next is my favorite part – adding the red food coloring! As I noted above, we added more than the original recipe because I really wanted RED cookies. I’m weird like that. I added slowly with the mixer going to I could get a sense of the color saturation as I went.

Once I was convinced that the color was perfect, in went the remaining dry ingredients.

Final mix-in was the mini chocolate chips, until the batter looked perfectly spotted with chocolate throughout.

Now, the ice cream scoop is the perfect cookie dough scooping mechanism, a trick a learned a few years back. Use your ice cream scoop to put 3 x 4 balls of batter on a Pam sprayed cookie sheet and then pop into the oven at 375 for 10-12 minutes.

Let ’em cool on a wire rack and then devour with a big glass of milk. Ooohhhh so good and totally changed my thoughts on all things red velvet.

These pack super well and are easy to throw into Tupperware and mail or travel with. I can speak to that on both accounts!

Tags: Chocolate Chips, Cookies, Giveaway, Red Velvet

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Categories Desserts

Mama’s Sour Cream Apple Pie

6 Sep

I preface this post that it may indeed be double-post Saturday. We’re enjoying a relaxing Saturday watching football, reading, cooking/baking (ok, that’s just me and not my husband) and all in all, decompressing from the week. So enjoy this post and be excited as I hope to have another post coming along to follow it!

I am in that mindset of late summer, where I’m starting to really crave fall. Not to be confused with wishing for snow, I’m simply ready for crisp weather, apple picking, cozy comfort foods and watching the leaves change. Sigh. Fall is the BEST.

However, I know fall weather will quickly become snow and then I’ll be wondering why on earth I didn’t cherish the last few weeks of summer. So, I’m going to do my best to enjoy what’s left of the hot and humid sunshine. In the meantime, I’m going to start in on some of my fall favorite foods. Luke and I are sipping Pumpkin Spice Dunkin Donut coffee (which he had the fantastic idea to sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice and nutmeg. Gosh, I love that guy) and are planning on making a big batch of his mama’s chili with some Bacon Beer Cornbread (um, right?!) tomorrow to celebrate fall in food form. Yes, we’re early but heck, fall foods are so tasty.

(How many more times can I use fall in this post?!)

Now, the classic that I must share with you today to kickstart fall foods is from MY mama – it’s her recipe for Sour Cream Apple Pie!

This is a pie that I remember eating as a little kid, loving the crumbly sweet bits on top and the creamy, tangy apple filling. It’s a slight twist on a classic apple pie, but in the very best way. This pie doesn’t take a lot of time and you can easily whip one up for any occasion! Luke and I made it when we had my parents up for dinner a few weeks back, and it was a hit! We even got to enjoy a few slices as leftovers and I can tell you, this pie is just as good a few days after the fact.

Note – This pie is always best served warm and with some melty, sweet vanilla ice cream. Just trust me.

Ingredients:

Pie:

1 refrigerated pie crust (because I just didn’t have time or energy to make from scratch, and the store ones taste just as delicious to me. Your choice!)
3/4 cup of sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup sour cream
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
2-3 cups (or more!) of chopped apples (any kind of sweeter apple will do)

Crumble Topping:

1/2 cup of brown sugar
6 Tbsp flour
1 tsp cinnamon (I like cinnamon so tend to be very liberal with my 1 tsp)
1/4 cup of cold butter, chopped

How to Make:

First things first, prep your pie crust. Bake as directed for one pie crust filled pie and let it cool. Optional: stare at it and dream about the finished pie (is it just me that does this?!)

Next, combine all of your pie filling ingredients. Yup. Just combine it all. Told you it was simple!

Pour the whole shebang into the cooled pie crust…

…and bake at 350 degrees for 30 min, or slightly less if needed. Key thing here is to make sure the pie filling is almost set.

While your pie is baking you can make the BEST PART – the crumbly delicious topping. (I remember picking this part off of my pie as a kid, and being devastated when it was all gone.)

To make the crumble topping, combine the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl and then add in the chopped up butter. Using your fingers, work the butter into the dry ingredients until it’s crumbly. You don’t want the butter so warm that it becomes mashed in with the dry ingredients so really try to maintain crumbles and not mush. (Apologies for no pictures, fail. Fail. Fail. But trust me, it’s really easy to do and it looks like delicious sugary crumbles if you’re doing it right.)

Spread the topping evenly across the top of the pie (snagging some bits to taste, you know, to make sure it tastes as good as it looks) and bake the pie for 10-20 more minutes, watching for the top to JUST get browned.

Take it out, let it cool a bit and then serve warm with heaping scoops of your favorite vanilla ice cream. (Any ice cream will do, Edy’s was the choice of the ice cream selector in our family – Luke.)

NOM nom nom nom….

Close your eyes, take a big bite and savor that tangy mix of sour cream and apples, sweet brown sugar and melty ice cream.

Sigh. SO GOOD.

Tags: Apple, Brown Sugar, Fall Recipe, Pie, Sour Cream

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Categories Desserts

Giveaway Boxes: Revealed!

17 Aug

SO there’s been quite a delay in me sharing the contents of the two giveaway boxes. There was this wedding thing in the middle of the summer (BEST DAY EVER) that took a BIT of attention, but now I’m back and excited to share the wonderful boxes that went on their way to Seattle, Washington and Johnston, Iowa!

The fun thing was, both winners picked different food items so I got to make two very unique, but very delicious boxes. Hearing their excitement when the box was received and how the treats inside went over, was my favorite part. THAT is why these giveaways are so great. Nothing is more fun for me than getting to cook/bake for other people. It’s the BEST! Am I right?!?

So both winners received recipe cards of the items in their box (each received three items) and they also received two fun, colorful spatulas. Because of COURSE, that is the cooking portion of this blog AND who doesn’t need/want more spatulas?!? 🙂

Box #1 winner was Todd, a dental student in Seattle, WA. He picked the following:

Muffin/Cupcake: A new, not-yet-on-the-blog item! Delicious Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins that I’m excited to share with you guys in a future post. They turned out very moist, gorgeous with the purple/blue berries and definitely a keeper that I’ll be making again for my husband (<— new favorite word) and myself.
Snack: Spicy Caramel Popcorn featured in this post
Cookies: Snickerdoodles featured in this post

Had a great day of baking while we watched baseball in the background. Is there anything better than baking and baseball?! Nope. Really don’t think there is.

They got all packaged up and sent off to Todd!

Next up was Teresa, a married mom of the cutest little guy you’ve ever seen. She and her husband, Josh came up with their box contents:

Muffin/Cupcake: The healthy twist on Chocolate Muffins featured in this post
Snack: Spicy Chipotle Rosemary Nuts featured in this post
Cookies: A great new challenge and one of my new favorites! Teresa and her husband Josh requested something red velvet and I found a great recipe from one of the blogs I read frequently that fit the bill. Really think you guys will love them as much I did, taste testing! Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies will be coming soon to a post near you. These were chewy, had lots of flavor and mini chocolate chips ensured that every bite had some chocolate.

Off the box went to Johnston, Iowa to a lucky family of three!!

Overall, definitely was great fun to send these off AND it was the perfect way to decompress after the wedding preparations that took up most of my free time in May and June and be in my happy place in the kitchen. I have LOTS of recipes all primed and ready to share with you guys so please do stay tuned! Luke and I have really enjoyed experimenting this summer in the new apartment kitchen and I have so many wonderful things to blog about.

Before you know it, we’ll do another one of these giveaways so keep your eyes on the posts for some delectable new treats, libations and maybe a few crafty projects too before we dive into another giveaway.

Off to draft my Fantasy Football team…simple goal is to beat my husband. 🙂

Tags: Cookies, Giveaway, Muffins, Snacks

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Categories Giveaway

S&B Giveaway Post #2 – And the Winners Are…

30 May

The time for the Giveaway #2 has opened and closed, and it is now 9:04 – we had 63 entrants vying for the chance to receive a box o’ goodies. And the results are in!

The time is now, the time is here….time to do the silent cheer! No, wait, that’s something else entirely.

We want to know who got the boxes!!

Drumroll………………………………

…………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………..first winner is………

TODD BILLINGTON!! Lucky number 38 via my lovely Random Number Generator!

Huzzah! Three Cheers!

Now for the second winner………..

…………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………..second winner is………

TERESA GORMAN!! Lucky number 51 via my lovely Random Number Generator!

Yahoooo!!!

Very excited to concoct boxes for both of these people (apparently ‘T’ names were lucky today?!)! I’ll be emailing both winners to validate box contents, mailing address, etc. Look for that to come from me within the next few days!

And with that….the second round of the S&B Giveaway is complete! Well, sort of. I have to bake everything now. 🙂 But that’s the fun part for me!!

As I did last time, I’ll do a post on the Giveaway box contents so you’re able to see the lovely goodies and get excited for the next one. These sure are fun, aren’t they?

We need to do these more. I know I said that last time, but heck, remind me how fun these are and we’ll do them again soon! Sometimes I just need a reminder – that’s what the comment section is for below. I do love comments.

With that – wishing everyone a wonderful sunshine filled weekend. I’m off to finish packing as I move into a new apartment tomorrow. Couldn’t be MORE excited about the new place but going to definitely miss my former apartment. It’s where I really taught myself how to cook and bake – lots of great memories, specifically of that kitchen.

But more memories to make with the new kitchen and with my fiancé!

Cheers!!

Tags: Giveaway

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Categories Giveaway

S&B Giveaway Post #2

28 May

Hello friends! Welcome to the second S&B Giveaway Post!! I have all the juicy details for you: what the Giveaway entails, how to enter, when the winner will be announced and why am I doing this Giveaway Post in the first place.

Ready for more info?!

S&B Giveaway #2:

What: A fun-filled box of goodies could arrive at YOUR door. It will cost you zero dollars. It will include all sorts of delicious treats for you and your family/friends (or just you if you’re not the “sharing” kind). It will be FUN.

What will be in said box?

A cookie of your choice from this blog OR you can request something new that hasn’t been featured on here yet! I’d be happy to expand my cookie baking if you can’t find something from this blog you’d like to find within your box. I will not take it personally!
A muffin OR cupcake of your choice from this blog OR you can request something new that hasn’t been featured on here yet. Same reason as the bullet above.
A snack of your choice from this blog, from these options: Spicy Caramel Corn, Chipotle & Rosemary Nuts or Granola
A spatula to add to your kitchen. I’m excellent at picking out cool looking spatulas, trust me. I’ll make it a super great one. Scouts honor.
As with the Inaugural Blog Giveaway, other fun surprises will likely find their way in. Happens.

Why: Because everyone needs a fun package in the mail. And because it’s so fun to surprise other people and get them excited about food! AND because this summer is a really, really fun one (about to be a Mrs. in 38 days!!!!)….I’ll be giving away not just one Giveaway box, but TWO BOXES!!!!

How: Entering the Giveaway is easy…all you must do is be a Follower of the blog!

If you’re already a Follower, then congrats you are already entered to win!! Huzzah!!!
If you’re not already a Follower, then click the Follow button in the upper right corner of the blog, follow the prompts (you’ll receive an email and need to confirm from that email) and become an official Follower to be entered. Becoming a Follower means that you’ll get an email each time I post in the future, This is also how I’ll clarify the details of the package and the mailing address with the winner as I get to see a list of all Blog Followers’ email addresses.
The winner will be selected through use of a random number generator where each person will be assigned a number and the RNG will do the rest. Equal chance for all! But DOUBLE the opportunity for you all with TWO BOXES!!

When: The Giveaway entry period will end Friday, May 30th at 7:00 PM (CST). I’ll announce the winner in a post Friday evening sometime between 9:02 PM and 9:53 PM. Mark your calendars!

Those are all the details, friends. It’s painless, free and you have DOUBLE the chance to win a box o’ treats from me! I cannot wait to bake up treats for two lucky winners!!

Wishing all of you the very best of luck!!!

Tags: Giveaway

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Categories Giveaway

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