Pumpkin "donut" holes

http://cravingchronicles.com/2010/10/11/baked-pumpkin-spice-donut-holes/

I make these minus the butter- cinnamon/sugar mix at the end..

Pumpkin Pancakes

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Shopsins-Pumpkin-Pancakes?cmpid=fb

There comes a point every year that pumpkin something for breakfast just sounds good to me! I make these pumpkin muffins (they are supposed to be doughnuts, but they are really just muffins)... and I may have all these ingredients... so I might try these!! They look SO yummy!

Chicken & Apple- Rice Skillet

http://www.dvo.com/recipe_pages/bestchicken/Chicken_and_Apple-Rice_Skillet.html

I just posted this recipe because a friend of mine picked a ton of apples & wanted to know what to do with them. I love this dish and I make it every fall.. usually when I'm up to my neck in apples!

Lentils & Pasta

You'll need prepared ditalini pasta to toss in at the end- so whenever you want to do that... go for it!

(You'll need a very large pot)

For the Lentil Soup:

1 Large Onion (fine chop)
4-5 ribs of celery (fine chop)
4 Garlic cloves (fine chop)

1/4C- Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Saute the onion & celery in the olive oil. Then add the garlic- cook for about 2 minutes until golden but NOT brown.

Add the sautéed veggies into your large sauce pot.

Add a bag of lentils &

6C- Chicken Broth
4C- Water
Salt & Pepper

Let this simmer for 1 hour.

(This is the color it should look like when it's done)

When ready to serve combine lentil soup and toss in pasta... everyone likes this differently. I like more lentils so there is more liquid in my bowl with pasta- my husband likes more pasta with the lentil soup so it's more like PASTA and lentils... LOL! This is such a staple we can have these minor preferences... ;)

I HIGHLY recommend this- especially if you're tired of the same old chicken soup if you're sick. Either way, around here- it's a big treat to have lentils & pasta (even though it's easier than sin to make!)

Enjoy!

OH! I forgot to add- when I made this for just my husband & I- we liked to add some red hot pepper flakes... it gives it a LOVELY taste to the soup... but since we have kids, I just go as far as the ground pepper...

Ropa Vieja

http://icuban.com/food/ropa.html

Ok, so the literal translation is Old Clothes... This is BY FAR the BEST dish (in my humble opinion) that Cubans can hang their hats on. It makes me all giddy inside when it's served. I was a little nervous about serving it to my little kids... but they LOVE it.. let me repeat.. LOVE LOVE LOVE it.
The only change I've done to this recipe is that it says to discard the veggies and I HATE and WON'T do it. So, I leave them in there. Ahem... better than my grandmothers....

Picadillo

I am half Cuban (the half that counts- lol) and these guys BY FAR have the most authentic Cuban recipes. I'm planning to make a few recipes of theirs that remind me of home (actually-- shhh... BETTER than home)

http://icuban.com/food/picadillo.html

Beef with Apples & Sweet Potatoes

This is a slow cooker dish

2#- Boneless beef chuck shoulder roast (cut into 2" pieces)
1 can (40oz) sweet potatoes, drained
2 small onions (I'm going to bump mine up to 1 large)
2 apples, cored & sliced
1/2C- Beef Broth
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tea- Salt
1 tea- dried thyme leaves
3/4tea black pepper
1/4tea- cinnamon

Add all and put on low 8-9 hours

make a slurry of:
1T- cornstarch
2T- water

mix together and add to the slow cooker after the 8 or 9 hours
Cook on high for 15 minutes until the juices thicken.

Serve sauce with beef, sweet potatoes & apples

Rack of Ribs

Well, tonight's dinner is a full rack of ribs. I don't cook ribs often... but I'm going to make that Asian marinade (see previous post) & cut the rack in half, put everything into a zip lock bag & let it sit.
I also have tri color peppers (red, orange & yellow) and asparagus that I'm just going to brush a little with olive oil before we put everything on the grill.

Blueberry Tea Cookies

http://theyearoflivinghealthfully.blogspot.com/2012/08/blueberry-shortbread-cookies.html

Um, yea.. don't let the phrase living healthfully bother you-- lol... these cookies are made with butter! I'm having a friend over for tea tomorrow. She's bringing a blueberry tea and I thought I'd make these to go with them... I'll let you know if I finally do make them. ;)

Game Day Menu Week 2

I'm going to make Nachos tomorrow for game day. These have been my signature nachos for almost 10 years... very little has changed.


Take a large baking pan and put a small layer of tortilla chips on the bottom (you'll need the majority of the bag to eat with- will explain later).

Then I usually take ground beef, saute it and add a taco seasoning... as soon as the ground beef is prepared, I pour it over the layer of nachos.

I chop up tri color peppers (yellow, orange & red) and fresh tomatoes and scatter them on top.

Then I take a Mexican cheese blend (I use Sargentos) and cover the top.

I pop it in a 350 oven until the cheese melts.

To serve I scoop out a portion but need additional tortilla chips to actually eat it.

It's really really simple... you can add sour cream or guacamole-- but since my husband doesn't really like either I usually don't include it.

Cinnabon Clone

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/clone-of-a-cinnabon/

After an entire week of NOT cooking breakfast, lunch, or dinner... I find myself scrambling to get back into it. Wrapping my head around WHAT to cook and the sad reality that I'll have to start cleaning everything after I've done something in the kitchen... has me dragging my feet. I have a few NEW recipes on deck starting with this one... I'm going to try it tomorrow for breakfast. I heard, it's better than sex. Yes... my eyes got a little bigger when this comment came from a very close and reliable friend. So, I'm ready for the experience... I wanted to make it this morning... but the reality that it would take almost a full hour from beginning to end, I chose to sleep in instead. Tomorrow I'm going to get up nice and early to try it out.

9-16-12 UPDATE: WHEW! Ok, finally sitting down to eat these bad boys. I woke up at 6am & we didn't start eating them until 9:15am... and I was hypersensitive from the get go what needed to be done and when and worked as quickly as I could. I think they are pretty good. I would give them, hm... maybe a B+/A-. It didn't rate higher because 1. the time it took to make these was REDICULOUS... and 2. the frosting was ok... I think I would have liked more of a cream cheese flavor OH and 3. some of the brown sugar/cinnamon filling actually started to get stringy and sticky and crunchy... I made a LOT of cinnamon rolls in my baking career and the filling should be more like a smear than this... So, it is possible that I would go through all this trouble if I had to, but if I don't have to... I probably won't do it again... The recipe is a keeper- unless something else better came along...

UPDATE Part II- I realized as I was driving over to the grocery store... you need to take the butter, cinnamon & sugar and beat that together as a paste and smear it on... Also, For my taste, I would cut back on the butter a bit and increase the cream cheese... ;) If I made those tweeks, I'd rate it higher- like an A, maybe even an A+

Game Day Menu

Week 1 Game Day Menu:

Lunch

Wings, two ways... an Asian Garlic & Buffalo Wings

Dinner

Giordanno style: Deep Dish, Stuffed Crust Pizza with spinach & sausage

Yeah, I can't wait until dinner!

Cake Batter Popcorn

I sort of swore off doing this... I was curious at first... then dismissed this whole idea of loading up popcorn with other "stuff" but, as I stared at the pictures for about the billionth time on Pinterest... I thought, why not do a popcorn assortment for the holidays as gifts? Like Cake Batter, kettle corn, cookies & cream, orangesicle.. then the idea wasn't so crazy anymore...


http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2012/03/birthday-cake-batter-popcorn/

I'll have to let you know how it comes out....

Chicken Potpie Pockets

I saw this the other day in a magazine and I'm TOTALLY going to make it!

http://www.countryliving.com/recipefinder/chicken-potpie-turnovers-recipe-clv0912

Fresh Strawberry Muffins

http://janessweets.blogspot.ca/2010/03/strawberries-and-cream-muffins-i-do.html

I just made these muffins... A+! Would make them in a second without thinking. Someone says... I have fresh strawberries- love to see them in a muffin, I'd send them this recipe.
I made them and failed to read the last instruction which was to put another layer of muffin batter on top (I used the extra batter for mini strawberry muffins- just muffin batter and a sprinkling of strawberries on top- STILL excellent). I just happened to have a little less than 4oz of cream cheese lying around AND strawberries that looked like I had until today to figure out what to do with. VOILA! Our breakfast and a very yummy one at that. The kids were not complaining that they were getting fresh strawberry muffins this morning! :)

Stromboli

Bring on the first football game of the year!! Once a week during football season- I planned on a special snack... a dip, a special dinner-- SOMETHING to look forward to while we watched the game.

My MIL makes 2 kinds of stromboli... one which is a mozzarella & pepperoni and the other is a spinach and feta. My husband hates feta, so I make the mozzarella & pepperoni one.

I make my favorite pizza dough (ahem, nods to the bread machine)...

1 1/3C- Hot water
1tea- Sugar
2tea- Salt
2T- Olive Oil
3 1/4C- Bread Flour
3/4C- Whole Wheat Flour
2 1/4tea- yeast

This makes 2# pizza dough.

I cut it in half and use my cutting board as a guide. I stretch and roll out the pizza dough into the size of a square. I lay out my sliced mozzarella (I use 1/2 pound in each stromboli log) and I get about a 1# to 1 1/2# of pepperoni. I prefer boar's head pepperoni. I split what I need for both and evenly lay out mozzarella and then pepperoni.
I roll the dough- mozzarella/pepperoni up into a log... much like you would for a jelly roll cake. I make a couple of slits on the top (not too deep, but if you don't it'll burst out). Then I just bake it off until the crust is golden brown... I would check after 15 minutes to gauge how much longer it needs to stay in.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

So, today I'm making fresh cinnamon raisin bread so I can include it in my son's lunchbox for his first day of school tomorrow. I've made this a few times... last time I ran out of butter and had vegan butter instead. It turned out to be the best loaf I'd ever made. 

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/bread-machine-cinnamon-raisin-bread/b42228f5-4f6e-454a-9186-c67c0d7686c9

This is the 1 1/2# loaf recipe- I believe. I make the 2# loaf recipe. I highly recommend it. I love the way it makes the place smell and it tastes wonderful, seriously.

If anyone needs the larger recipe, please email me at diycookingnation@yahoo.com

Sausage & Shrimp Gumbo with Cornbread

So, in my slow cooker I have:

1#- Sausage, cut into chunks
1 red pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped/sliced
1 can of crushed tomatoes (35oz?)
1-2T- Worcestershire sauce
Salt & Pepper

I'll let it go for about 6 hours then I'll add:
1 package frozen sliced okra
1T- White vinegar
red pepper sauce (1/2 tea?)
& raw shrimp (no shells, deveined)

That'll go in for about another 1/2 hour or so (until the shrimp is cooked and I'm satisfied everything has thickened up.

I'll be making cornbread as well...

3 boxes of Jiffy corn muffin mix
5oz (or so) of canned creamed corn
1/3C- Milk
3ea- Eggs

375 Oven for 22- 25 minutes... you do NOT want to over bake the cornbread.