Eclair Cake

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/eclair-cake/

I'm not a big fan of semi homemade stuff... but this cake is SO kid friendly and, quite frankly- YUMMY if I didn't already have it on the blog, it should be here. I follow the recipe exactly EXCEPT that I don't add a chocolate layer- I add fresh berries. I usually add blueberries and strawberries for a great patriotic flag cake..  Since I got some really yummy raspberries on sale- this Labor Day I'll be making mine with raspberries and strawberries.

Labor Day menu

So, I just picked up steak tips-- that I'm going to marinade in that UK marinade. Super Yum.
We'll also grill corn on the cob...
I'm going to make that 3 bean salad as my other side dish...

For dessert I think I posted the recipe for it- it's a no bake eclair cake and INSTEAD of using chocolate I'm going to top it with raspberries and strawberries. That also is super yummy.
If I didn't post that no bake eclair cake I'll post it here.

Mexican Taco Pasta

Ok, I've never made this one before.. I always thought... well... that it looked a little gross. But since it said it's a big hit with kids & I've got two of them, I thought I'd give it a shot.

http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2011/07/taco-pasta.html

I may make some changes, but if I do-- I'll post them here PLUS if it was good or not! ;)

UPDATE: This was a crowd pleaser!!!! Here are my alterations from the original recipe above:
I used minced onion and powdered garlic instead of fresh
I used a large can of diced tomatoes
I used dried cilantro
I used about a 1/4 of a bag of Sargento's Mexican Cheese blend...

Everyone liked it.

Thai Chicken Noodle dish.

Yes, a few posts ago I wanted to make a soup dish... but this version ended up having so much STUFF in it that it's more of a noodle dish than soup. Here is the final version...

2T- Sesame Oil
5 cloves garlic, sliced
powdered ginger generously poured over
chicken thighs- cut into cubes (I think I used about 2#)

I browned the chicken (just until the pink was all gone) in a VERY large soup pot
I added

1/2C- Peanut Butter
1C- Tomato puree
6C- Chicken Broth
2T- Fish Sauce
1 large coconut milk (24oz?)
1T- Thai Curry Paste
1tea (approx) soy sauce

Brought all to a boil

added 1 package of rice noodles & cooked for 5 minutes

added 1 small cabbage that I HIGHLY recommend gets shredded (I chopped mine and regret it)- cook that for 5 minutes

add juice of 2 fresh squeezed limes
1 can of rinsed and drained bean sprouts
1/4C- scallions
cilantro
Cooked that for about 5 more minutes and killed the heat.


I would give it a strong B+ but since my husband is a pretty picky person-- I'll put his feedback of the whole thing later after he has some... ;)

8-29-12 UPDATE: I sold it to him as a noodle dish instead of a soup... my husband bought it and REALLY liked it. I would say from his perspective, it was an A dish. I think it would have been an A dish if I shredded the cabbage instead of chopped it up.

Pork Chops with Apples and Bacon Cheese Grits

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/08/pork-chops-with-apples-and-creamy-bacon-cheese-grits/

I am super excited to try this one... Pork & apples- glazed with maple syrup... Grits with bacon, cheese & heavy cream!!! I think this one is going to be a win win situation... I'll update after we've had it. I expect great things from this one though.... ;)

8-28-12 UPDATE I made this dish... 2 days ago... I thought it was pretty good.. my husband hated it. I think the grits reminded him of potatoes au gratin and he HATES au gratin potatoes... I thought my kids FOR SURE would like it.. they BOTH turned their noses to it. I was the only one who liked it and now am the only one eating the leftovers... sigh. Overall B+.

Green Chicken Chili

http://www.womansday.com/recipefinder/green-chili-recipe-122693

I'm making this instead of the Thai Chicken Soup because I realized this morning I didn't have enough ingredients for it.

The ONLY change I make to this green chicken chili recipe is that I add a can of black beans (rinsed)... The recipe is really good...

Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipe/soups/thai-chicken-noodle-soup/

I'm going to try this recipe today for dinner... Given the last failure of the Thai Chicken Salad, I'm going to study a few other recipes I have squirreled away and may add to this recipe... I have a fear that this recipe will be a little flat... if I add anything to this recipe, I'll update after I'm done!


UPDATE- I just found this:
http://chefmichaelsmith.com/Recipe/thai-coconut-curry-soup/

This recipe I think is going to be a better one... It has some KEY additions: coconut milk, Thai curry paste, lime, lemongrass... ALL are really big flavors that I think would help the soup... Since I don't have any of those ingredients... I'm putting this one off to the side, going to make another recipe instead... I'll probably make this on Sat. instead...

White Chocolate-Blueberry Muffin Top (Cookies)

This recipe comes from "The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook". Although many of the recipes seem like they would turn out well, there are strong acusations of plagerism. It did give me pause to buy the book, but since I had a list mile high of recipes I wanted, I bought it anyway...
I made a cobbler and a lamb/plum stew and both came out pretty good. I have high hopes for this one..

2 sticks Butter
1/2C- Sugar
1/2C- B. Sugar

Cream- then beat in:

3 Eggs
2tea- Vanilla

Add:

2 1/2C- Flour
1tea- B. Powder
1/4 PLUS 1/8tea- B. Soda
1tea- salt

Mix until just combined, add:

1C- White Chocolate Chips
1C- Fresh Blueberries

400 Oven... 12-15 min. It's ready when the edges turn brown.
*The longer they bake, the less cakelike they will be
*These are drop cookies


I'll let you know how these turn out!!! :)  I LOVE cookies!


8-21-12 Update. I made them... I LOVE them.. VERY GOOD. 2 thumbs up!! NOW, I needed to cut back the baking time... maybe because my scoop was smaller than the author intended (then again, it wasn't specific the size they were going for).. I used (what I think) a standard cookie scoop and I think maybe 9-11 minutes.. Bottom line is. Whatever size scoop you use-- watch the oven and once you see the rim of the cookie darken-- take it out. They are cake-like. The blueberries and white chocolate compliment each other.

Apple Cinnamon Chips

I want to give my dehydrator a nice big ole hug! Yesterday I started to test dehydrating fruits as snacks. The apples came out the best! I sliced them up thin and rubbed a thin coat of cinnamon & nutmeg... my house smelled like I was baking an apple pie the whole time. :) They were fantastic. I can't wait until apple season comes around at the local farm... They have these gigantic honeycrisp apples that I really like to go pick. I am totally making a ton of apple chips when they become available. Great for my kid's lunchbox & my husband's 10 o'clock snack.
I also dehydrated banana slices & strawberries. The bananas were about to "go" and they also came out amazing. I highly recommend getting a dehydrator for the only reason that it doesn't add as much heat as your oven would and it frees up your oven if you want to use it for other things (like dinner). My dehydrator also came with trays for fruit leather. From my previous posts that is a little hit or miss... the strawberry recipe came out really great though.
I can't wait to continue to experiment with fruits, vegetables & leathers on my dehydrator.

Thai Chicken Broccoli-Slaw Salad

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/shredded-thai-chicken-salad/da18cb65-e062-4110-9e6b-17f71982bd43?nicam4=SocialMedia&nichn4=Facebook&niseg4=BettyCrocker&creativeID4=Post

So I'm going to make this salad today for dinner. I think I'm going to up the ingredients so that it can be our main meal for tonight.

I'm also thinking of making these blueberry/white chocolate muffin-top cookies (I'll post the recipe later).


8-22-12 I made this yesterday for dinner and it was NOT very good. It didn't taste very Thai... It was the kind of dinner that it didn't turn my stomach and make me gag, but I wanted it to be over. I would give this a D-.

Engagement Chicken

So, today I'm making Engagement Chicken

http://www.glamour.com/magazine/2006/07/engagement-chicken

I bought a 4 pound chicken... We'll have it tonight and then the leftovers, I'll make a Thai Chicken Noodle Soup and a Shredded Thai Chicken Broccoli Slaw Salad...

I've decided on baked potatoes for one side, but I haven't decided what else we'll have with it.
I also need to go through my kitchen and decide which things have to go... and go soon. I think I'm going to make Blueberry/White Chocolate Muffin Top Cookies soon... I think I'm also going to make some strawberry fruit leather and possibly some banana & cinnamon apple chips...

None the less, lots of new cooking this week-- I'll keep everyone posted!!! Let me know if YOU have a recipe you'd like me to try and email me at diycookingnation@yahoo.com


8-21-12 I made this Engagement Chicken yesterday... the run off juices were pretty good. I'm not into herbs being used for garnishes so I omited them. For a family of 4, I ended up with just enough chicken for one of my recipes today... Would I make this one again? I suppose if I just had a few lemons laying around and I had a whole roaster and I didn't know what else to do with it, I would... I probably wouldn't go out of my way though...

Strawberry Muffins

http://www.food.com/recipe/fresh-strawberry-muffins-375759

I made these strawberry muffins.. they were kinda dense. But, I was happy that the whole wheat kept the structure of the fresh strawberries in the muffin.

I'm not sure if I would make these again...

Today I'm making steak tips and using the UK steak marinade that I posted last month. I'm also going to make the cheese pusher's creamy garlic pasta as a side dish along with some broccoli I think... Since the garlic pasta is a new recipe, I'll let you know how it turns out. :)

8-20-12 The Creamy Garlic Pasta was VERY good. When I was in college my roommate got me addicted to Pasta Roni's Angel Hair Pasta and Herbs... this tastes JUST LIKE IT. I would even deem it a copy kat recipe of that product. Very happy to have it and would definitly make it again!!!

Also, used the UK steak marinade again... it is still fantastic. :)

Menu planning...

I have to do some serious menu planning... I've been skating by since I got back from my mini vacation and now I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and get down and dirty. Here is my rough list of things I'm interested in trying over the next few weeks...

Pioneer Woman's Pork Chops with Apples and Bacon/Cheesy Grits
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/08/pork-chops-with-apples-and-creamy-bacon-cheese-grits/

Green Chicken Chili
http://www.womansday.com/recipefinder/green-chili-recipe-122693

Thai Chicken Noodle Soup
http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipe/soups/thai-chicken-noodle-soup/

Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/chicken-tikka-masala-recipe-00100000072578/index.html

Mexican Taco Pasta
http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2011/07/taco-pasta.html

Creamy Garlic Pasta
http://thecheesepusher.tumblr.com/

Hibachi Chicken & Vegetable Fried Rice
http://www.food.com/recipe/hibachi-chicken-and-fried-rice-408318

Shredded Thai Chicken Salad
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/shredded-thai-chicken-salad/da18cb65-e062-4110-9e6b-17f71982bd43?nicam4=SocialMedia&nichn4=Facebook&niseg4=BettyCrocker&creativeID4=Post

Engagement Chicken
http://www.glamour.com/magazine/2006/07/engagement-chicken

Other dinners I'm thinking about are:
- My signature pasta salad
- Beef Stew
- Chicken and shrimp gumbo & cornbread

Asian Steak Marinade

This marinade made my steaks taste the BEST they've ever tasted before. It got a "please write this recipe down" nod from my husband!

Here it is:

I took a pound London Broil, put it in a large ziplock bag and added:

Soy Sauce
Sesame Seed Oil
1tea- Toasted Sesame Seeds
1tea- Minced Garlic (dried is fine)
1tea- Minced Onions (dried is fine)
3/4tea- Ground Ginger

FANTASTIC Marinade... we grilled the steak off and it was delicious. It did NOT have an in your face Asian taste at all... in fact, I was serving baked potatoes as well.. I put mine over the leftover steak juices on my plate and wiped it clean with the potato. VERY GOOD MARINADE!

3 Bean Salad

So, my FAVORITE recipe that I made over my week away was this 3 bean salad. Seriously yummy and I'm still thinking about having some more and I last had it a week ago...

Here's the recipe:

red onion, small dice
Red Pepper, small dice
Celery, small dice
Drained chickpes
Drained Red Kidney Beans
Drained Black Beans
drizzle extra virgin olive oil
drizzle Balsamic Vinegar
Parsley, Basil, Oregano, garlic
Fresh cilantro 

Salt & Pepper
drizzled apple cider vinegar

(Optional: additional veggies, pictured is grape tomatoes because I just happen to have some)

Rinse all of your beans very well under a cold tap. 

Chop your veggies 

Add all your spices (fresh is always better and the cilantro must be fresh), vinegars, evoo...

Mix all together and adjust spices to taste. Holy YUM! ;)

It's raw, it's vegan & if I had to eat this for the rest of my life, I would.

Canning

I'm very excited, I'm going on a mini vacation and I'm staying with my IL's. One thing that is planned to do (I think) is to go picking blueberries-- but what I'm more excited to do and learn is HOW to can and make jams. I've never made jam or canned anything... in fact, that's on my too chicken poop to try list! If I actually get the opportunity to do it- I'll post my experience and "recipe" here!

8-16-12 We had every intention to can while I was there... but when we called the guy who grew the blueberries, he said he was done for the season... so there went my canning lesson. :( 
I did, however, come back with a FANTASTIC 3 Bean Salad recipe!!!

Romantic Dinner

I've been thinking it's been a long while since my husband and I went on a romantic date... Since we have 2 little kids and no sitter- I think I want to start planning a very sexy menu for us to have after we get the kids to bed. ;) I think I want it to include a cheese fondue as a main course.. I can add that to the "too chicken poop to try" list. I've made chocolate fondue, but never a cheese fondue--- I think it would be fun and different for us. a real change of pace. An appetizer and dessert should be equally sexy, I just don't know what those will be yet. Any suggestions??