Peanut Butter Cups

Happy Halloween Everyone! Last year we didn’t have a single trick-or-treater come to our apartment, we’re hoping to have at least one this year. I know that most of the trick-or-treating on the east coast has been moved to this coming Saturday, more time to get your costumes ready, right?

As I said, last year not a single person showed up at our door so this year we didn’t by a huge bag of candy. This year I decided instead to make a treat for my husband and me to enjoy. Homemade peanut butter cups are so much better than the ones that Reese’s makes and they’re easy to make. On to the recipe…

What you’ll need…

4 – 4 ½ C Chocolate Chips

1 C Creamy Peanut butter

1 C Powdered Sugar

8 Tablespoons Butter, softened

1 teaspoon salt

In a small mixing bowl combine the peanut butter, butter, powdered sugar, and salt. Make sure that the powdered sugar is completely mixed in. Once this is complete place the bowl in the refrigerator and allow to chill for at least half an hour. This allows the peanut butter mixture to be easier to work with.

Once the peanut butter mixture is chilled line muffin tins with cupcake papers. Scoop tablespoons of the peanut butter mixture into your hand, dust with powdered sugar and roll into balls. Once the peanut butter is rolled into balls flattened it slightly and put aside.

 

Melt the chocolate in the microwave, about two cups at a time. Now we begin to assemble the candy. Place a tablespoon of chocolate in the bottom of the papers and shake the pan to even it out. Obviously the peanut butter mixture goes on top of the chocolate. Once the peanut butter is in put another tablespoon of chocolate on top; shake the pan again to even the chocolate out.

Once all of the cups are assembled let them harden in the refrigerator or freezer. Store in an air tight container in or out of the refrigerator. This recipe makes 16-20 regular muffin size peanut butter cups. The amount all depends on how big the peanut butter mixture is rolled. 

Enjoy!

Applesauce

It's fall! My second favorite season to winter, but I'll take what I can get. This is my third fall in California so I should be used to the lack of real fall weather. I still miss the East Coast falls though, fall in Pittsburgh is the best. It just started raining here the other day which means that in a few weeks it should start snowing in Pennsylvania. I miss not having to drive somewhere to see snow...

As I said, it's fall, and that means that apples are in season. Apples are delicious, well most of them are. There are so many things that you can make with apples, most of them desserts, but they are all worth the time that it takes to make them. 

With all of this being said, a few weeks ago we bought apples and I wanted to make something with them. I decided on applesauce, it's simple and the hardest part of the whole process is cutting the apples. This applesauce is delicious. It is my own recipe and somehow it tastes like apple pie, yes even the crust part of the pie. So, on to the recipe...

What you'll need...

3 ½ - 4lbs Apples

Lemon juice, enough so that the apples don’t turn brown.

½ teaspoon Salt

½ teaspoon Nutmeg

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

¼ Cup Sugar

¼ Cup Brown Sugar

1 Cup Water

Start off by peeling all of the apples with a vegetable peeler, coring the apples and cutting the apples, a large dice will do nicely. As I said above, this is the hardest part of the entire process.

 

Once an apple is diced place it in a bowl and coat with lemon juice so that it doesn't brown while you cut the rest of the apples. When all of the apples are diced combine all of the ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil.

Once at a boil bring the mixture down to a simmer, give it a good stir and let it continue to cook for 25-30 minutes.

When the sauce is done cooking stir it again to make sure that everything is combined. If you like a thicker, chunkier applesauce mash it with a potato masher. However, if you like an applesauce that is more smooth you can put it through a food mill or put it in the blender. This apple sauce is delicious warm or cold. Enjoy it by itself or even on top of some zucchini bread. Obviously store the sauce in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Panckes

Everyone loves pancakes, well I guess everyone that isn't super health conscious. As much as my husband and I love regular pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, or even pancakes with fruit we wanted to try something different. So, we decided to experiment with chocolate peanut butter pancakes and they turned out pretty well. With that being said, chocolate peanut butter pancakes...


What you'll need...

1 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 1/4 Cups Milk
1 Egg
3 Tablespoons Melted Butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 Cup Cocoa Powder
1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cup Melted Peanut Butter


Start out by sifting the flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, and cocoa powder together. Once all of the try ingredients are combined add in the milk, egg, vanilla, melted butter and melted peanut butter. Mix until all ingredients are combined and the batter is smooth. Lastly add and mix in the chocolate chips.

Scoop out about two generous spoonfuls of batter into a lightly greased pan. Once bubbles begin to appear on the top of the pancakes and you get your spatula under cleanly flip the cakes.

I place the already done pancakes on a plate in the oven set at about 200 to keep them warm while the others cook. This recipe makes 11 good sized pancakes.

These are great with syrup. Enjoy!

Honey Wheat Bread

This week's recipe is relatively simple, it's something that I make once a week, bread. I have been making bread for about a year now, and homemade bread is so much better than store bought. It tastes so much better and there's no icky preservatives. So, on to honey wheat bread.


What you'll need...

2 1/4 teaspoons Dry Active Yeast
2 Cups very warm water
1/4 Cup Oil (vegetable or canola)
2/3 Cup Honey
1 teaspoon Salt
3 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
2-3 Cups All-Purpose Flour


Start by combining the yeast and 1/2 Cup of very warm water in a medium to large mixing bowl. Allow the yeast to bloom for about five minutes before doing anything else.

Once the yeast has bloomed add the remaining 1 1/2 Cups of water and the rest of the ingredients. At first add only two Cups of All-Purpose Flour, you can always add more but you can't take it out if you have too much. Mix until the dough is combined enough that you can knead it.

Once you have combined the ingredients knead the dough until it all comes together and is smooth. (This can all be done in a stand mixer with a dough hook, but I do it all by hand.) Grease the bowl with either oil or cooking spray and cover with a clean dish or tea towel. Allow the dough to sit in a warm place until it doubles in size, 45 minutes to 2 hours.

Once the dough has risen punch it down and divide it into to two. Grease two loaf pans (or you use the same pan twice) and form loaves on a moderately floured surface. At this point the dough most probably won't fill the pan as much as you would like, so turn your oven to 375 and place the pans on the stove top covered with the towel again. The heat from the heating oven will help the dough to rise again. You can skip this step, but it does help the loaves to get larger. If you choose to, allow the dough to rise for an additional 30 minutes.

Once the dough has risen again bake at 375 for 30 minutes, the loaves will be golden brown. Allow the loaves to cool out of the pan on a cooling rack for about an hour. At this point they will be cool enough that you can wrap in foil.

A loaf will be good for about a week in foil on the counter top. They freeze great and can keep for months in the freezer. This bread is delicious and is great for sandwiches and toast.

Enjoy!

Loaded Lasagna

Lasagna is something that reminds me of when I was younger and family dinners. It's simple yet complex, but it's mostly time consuming to make. I started making lasagna for my husband and I when we moved into our apartment last August and from the beginning it was always a little different than the "traditional". Earlier in the week we had had tacos and there was left over meat and corn that was mixed together in the fridge. (As you saw in the taco salad recipe I like corn with my tacos.) We added the left over meat to new stuff with the corn still in it and the resulting lasagna was delicious. We have been making it that was since, that is until two nights ago when I decided to tweak the recipe a bit again. This is what resulted...

(You can change the ingredients if you want, this is just what I used.)

What you'll need...

Lasagna Noodles (1 box or one batch of homemade.)
1lb Ground Meat (Whatever you prefer.)
3 small/medium or 2 large Chicken Breasts
Shredded Cheese
Cottage or Ricotta Cheese (Optional, I don't use it.)
Pasta Sauce
1 Bell Pepper
Corn (About three handfuls)
Broccoli (Two handfuls)
Green Beans (Two handfuls)
Spices 

If you want to make your own noodles you'll need...
3 Cups Flour (All-purpose/Whole Wheat/ whatever you want to use.)
1 teaspoon salt
About a cup warm water


I'll start off with the pasta since it needs time to set. In a medium mixing bowl mix flour, salt and water until combined enough that you can knead it. You can always add more water but it should be about a cup. Once the ingredients are combined knead until smooth. After kneading let the dough sit in the bowl covered with plastic wrap for 15 minutes.

On the dough has set divide into four and roll out on a heavily floured surface. The dough will stick to the counter top if there isn't enough flour. Once the dough is as think as you would like cut to size.

 

 The first real step, because I know that most of you will use store bought pasta, is to cook the pasta. Follow the cooking instructions on the box for store bought pasta and for homemade cook in boiling water until the noodles float at the top for about 30-45 seconds. Once the pasta is cooked let it drain and set aside.

Next cook both the chicken and ground meat all of the way through separately in a large skillet. Obviously the chicken cooks quicker if you cut it into smaller pieces. You will also want to drain as much grease as possible from the ground meat. While the meat is cooking cook the frozen vegetables all of the way through, cut the bell pepper into small pieces, and sautee the pepper. Once the chicken is done cut it into small bite size pieces. 

Combine chicken, ground meat and vegetables in the skillet and sprinkle with spices. You can use as much as you want and any kind you like. I use basil, oregano, rosemary, parsley, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, and pepper. Mix well so that you don't get a bite with just spices or one with out any flavor.

In a very well greased 9 x 13 pan layer noodles, meat and veggies, sauce, cheese and if you are using it cottage or ricotta cheese. There should be enough for three layers of noodles and two layers of everything else. On top of the last layer of noodles spread a thin layer of sauce and cheese.

Cover the pan with foil that has been sprayed with cooking spray (so it doesn't stick to the cheese and sauce). Bake lasagna for 35 minutes with foil on and 10 more minutes after removing the foil at 350.

After removing the lasagna from the oven let it sit for about 5 minutes to cool slightly. Letting it sit helps it to come together so that it falls apart less when you serve it. After letting it sit for 5 minutes cut and serve.



Enjoy!  

Taco Salad

Tacos are for the most part fast, easy, and delicious. For a while we had tacos once a week because they were easy, but by the time my husband and I had filled all of the taco shells and actually sat down to eat everything was cold. So after a few months we started making taco salad and now I think I have the perfect recipe for some pretty awesome taco salad.


What you'll need...

1 lb Ground meat (Beef, Turkey, Chicken, whatever you like.)
1 1/2 Cup Corn
Peppers (1/2 of a bell pepper or 3 sweet peppers.)
Shredded Cheese (Any kind you like.)
Lettuce
Salsa
Sour Cream
Spices
Chips or Taco Shells (Something to eat the salad with.)


Before you can do anything else you need to decide what you're going to use as your "utensil". If you're going to use broken up taco shells or store bought tortilla chips then your first step is over. However, if you're going to use homemade tortilla chips from either store bought tortillas or homemade tortillas start those first.

If you make your own homemade tortillas (we do) make and cook the tortillas through in a skillet. For store bought tortillas and the completed homemade tortillas place on a dry baking sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven. The baking time depends on the type of tortilla. Bake until as crispy and golden brown as you would like. You can make the ships before you start the rest of the salad or during.

Now on to the actual salad. Slice the pepper or peppers of you choice to bite size pieces and set aside. Brown the ground meat in a large skillet, once it is cooked place the skillet in the oven that is already set for your tortillas (if you are not using tortillas an oven at about 200 will work) to get the meat warm.

Sautee the pepper and cook the corn. While the vegetables are cooking grate the cheese (unless you have store bought pre-shredded) and cut or pull apart the lettuce to the size of your choice. Once the peppers and corn are cooked at both to the skillet with the meat. At this time also add any spices of your choice. (Parsley, garlic powder. and crushed red pepper are our spices of choice.)

Also sprinkle all of the cheese and a few spoonfuls of salsa on top and mix all of the ingredients together. Add lettuce, sour cream, and more salsa on top before returning to the oven to melt the cheese and warm everything. (You can add the sour cream and salsa after taking the salad out of the oven if you want it them to be cold.)


After removing the finished product from the oven eat straight out of the skillet using your chips or scoop onto plates or into bowls. You can eat this with a fork if you want but the chips give it something that makes it so much better. (Chips made from homemade tortillas are the best, I've tried all of the aforementioned types of chips/taco shells.)

Enjoy!

Two Cheese, Garlic, Herb Bread-sticks.

Hey Everyone! This is the first recipe I've written, I threw some stuff together the other day and like the result. This all stemmed from grocery shopping; we were at the deli counter which is right next to the bakery and a delicious scent caught me. Well, caught my nose? I was standing next to three cheese garlic bread-sticks. My husband wanted to get them but because I like to make things from scratch I told him that I would make them at some point during the next week. I finally got around to them yesterday and they were amazing. 

Enough rambling and on to the recipe...

(Two) Cheese, Garlic, Herb Bread-sticks. 

You will need...

One packet of dry active yeast (Or 2 1/4 teaspoon is you have the jars.)

1 1/2 Cups Warm water (Use water straight from the tap, just let it heat up for about a minute.)

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil (I'm sure that vegetable or canola would work fine.)

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

2 teaspoons salt 

3 1/2 Cups Flour (All purpose or whole wheat work fine, I've never tried gluten free though.)

2 1/2 Cups Grated Cheese Divided (Any kind of cheese and as many kinds as you like.)

Garlic Powder (To taste.)

Various dried herbs (To taste.)

In a medium mixing bowl combine one packet (2 1/4 teaspoons) of dry active yeast and 1 1/2 cups of warm water, let these sit for about five minutes or until the yeast has activated. (It will look slightly foamy.) Next add 2 Tablespoons of olive oil followed by all of the dry ingredients (sugar, salt, flour.)

The cheese, garlic and herbs come next. I use sharp cheddar and mozzarella, but you can use any cheese you want. Add 2 Cups of grated cheese (you can grate it yourself or use the pre-grated stuff) and garlic powder to taste. I use just over 2 teaspoons. For the herbs use whatever you like; for our house this is basil, oregano, parsley, rosemary and even though it isn't an herb, crushed red pepper. Like I said, use whatever you like. Add the herbs and/or spices to taste, I use a sprinkle of everything.

Once everything is added to the bowl mix and knead. I do this all by hand but you could easily use a stand mixer. If kneading by hand it takes about 3-5 minutes. Knead until smooth, adding flour as needed. 

Grease bowl with either olive oil or cooking spray. Cooking spray works great and doesn't make the dough all oil, which means less of a mess on your hands later. Return dough to greased bowl and cover. Keep the dough in a warm part of the house, for me this is pretty much everywhere. (Thank you California.) Let the dough rise until doubled in size, usually about an hour, but the longer you let it rise the better it seems to taste. (If something comes up and for some reason you can't bake the dough on the same day you make it store in the fridge over night and just let it rise again before baking.)

If you are going to let the dough sit for more than an hour come back about half an hour to an hour before you want to bake the bread to pre-heat you oven to 450. You can wait until just before you bake to turn the oven on but it takes longer for the bread to bake this way.

Once the dough as doubled in size turn it out on a lightly floured surface and roll it out. I use a rolling pin but you can do this by hand just like pizza dough (which is what it is). Roll the dough until it is about an inch thick and place on a greased baking sheet. (Cooking spray is the way to go.) Once the dough is on the sheet sprinkle with olive oil and remaining cheese. 

Bake at 450 for about 15 minutes (longer if you don't pre-heat your oven). You want the cheese on top to be melted and the bread to be slightly golden brown.

Let cool slightly and cut to size, this makes about 14 bread-sticks. Serve alone or with marinara sauce and enjoy!