POLISHING OFF. . .

PW's Blackberry Cobbler

2010-09-08T06:17:00.000-07:00

Your eyes do not deceive you! I am back again!!!

I planned on posting this next week, but after reading Ange's comment from yesterday's pie recipe, I HAD to go ahead and post this today! Hope you like berries hun!

So you all know Pioneer Woman right? well if you don't you should! Her recipes are amazing and her site is too!

This cobbler is from the one and only Pioneer Woman, and it. is. AMAZING!

I absolutely adore it! I make dessert every Saturday and for weeks and weeks this is what Rob wanted every weekend!!! Not only is it absolutely delicious...but it also couldn't be easier! Click HERE to go to her tutorial and print the recipe!

Ready to dive in?

Ingredients:

1 stick Butter melted
1-¼ cup Sugar
1 cup Self-Rising Flour
1 cup Milk
1 and 1/2 bags frozen Blackberries, thawed(I use the store brand!)
(PW calls for 2 cups of fresh or frozen, but I like alot of berries, so I use the above measurement)

Step 1: Mix Flour and 1 cup of Sugar:

Step 2: Add milk and whisk:

Step 3: Add your melted butter and mix:

Step 4: Butter or spray an 8x8 pan and dump in your berries!!!

Step 5: Pour on the batter:

Step 6: Add a few more berries to the top (optional):

Step 7: Sprinkle the top with the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar:

(uhhhh....sorta forgot to take a pic of that! sorry!)

Step 8: Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees, or until golden brown!

I want some NOW!!!

I like to scoop it out and serve it while it's still nice and hot with a big old scoop of vanilla icecream:

or ya know...2 scoops!

I was hungry!!!!

This stuff is just so amazing! It's warm, and gooey on the inside, and the outsides get nice and crisp from the added sugar....just wow!

I hope you all enjoy as much as I do!

{{{HUGS}}}

Christy

Rich, Decadent and EASY Coconut Cream Pie!!!

2010-09-07T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hello All!!! Long time no see!!!

Boy do I have something special to share with you today!

Ever have a craving for coconut cream pie, but the thought of making it from scratch exhausted you just thinking about it?

Yet, instant pudding and Cool Whip gross you out?

I have the perfect compromise for ya!

Are you ready for this?

Ingredients:

Store Bought Frozen Pie Crust

2 boxes Cook and Serve Vanilla Pudding

1 can Coconut Milk (NOT Cream of Coconut!)

1 pint Whipping Cream

Powdered or granulated Sugar

Milk (whole or 2%)

Coconut flavoring

Shredded Sweetened Coconut, I used almost a half cup, but use as little or as much as you want)

a bowl and beaters stashed in the freezer!

Step 1: Cook 2 packages of Vanilla Cook and Serve pudding, following Directions BUT when you measure out the milk needed, start by using the coconut milk and just add enough regular milk to give you the volume you need. Once cooked, add 2 teaspoons of coconut flavoring, and stir! Place in fridge to cool, stirring ever 15 minutes to prevent skin from forming.

Step 2: Bake empty pie shell, making sure to prick the bottom and sides with a fork to prevent bubbling. Cool on wire rack.

Step 3: While pudding and crust is cooling, sprinkle coconut on a foil lined sheet pan and place under a broiler to toast. WATCH CAREFULLY! Once it starts getting warm, it goes from snow white to burnt in no time!!!

Step 4: Beat Whipping Cream and Sugar (to taste...I like it not very sweet, so I use about 2 TB) in chilled bowl, on high, until peaks form. Stash in Fridge til ready to assemble!

Step 5: Once your Pudding is totally chilled, add it to your crust. Top that with your Whipped Cream, and finally sprinkle on your toasted Coconut!

Almost from scratch taste, with very little effort!!!

This stuff is DIVINE!

Make some today!

Enjoy!

Christy

FONDANT SERIES - PART 1

2010-07-28T08:50:00.001-07:00

If you have been following along, you know that my Nephew's (Oliver) First birthday is coming up (August 1st) and I am making the cupcakes for the occasion. Oliver's mom's birthday is just a few days before that so they are having a joint birthday party, to which I'm making the cupcakes for that too.

I decided I really wanted to give fondant a try. Not having EVER done anything with fondant I was quite a bit intimidated by it. While doing some online research I found an awesome website CAKE JOURNAL. This website run by Louise is so awesome, she has wonderful tutorials with lots of pictures and really took the intimidation of fondant away and gave me hope that it was something that I might be able to do. So this is my fondant journey!

I got the recipe for marshmallow fondant from CAKE JOURNAL and you can find it HERE.

I started off by generously greasing my bowl.

I then added the marshmallows and water

Basically you heat, stir, heat, stir until all melted. Once melted you add about a cup of powdered sugar and stir.

Turn out onto a clean surface with more powdered sugar. Here I added my color and flavor, and then kneaded away until thoroughly mixed and no longer sticky.

I then placed my fondant in some greased saran wrap and placed in the fridge. It says it is best to use it after letting it refridgerate overnight.

I made three batches in blue, purple and green.

I was surprised that it was easy to make, MESSY but easy. I would suggest having someone help you if you can. My mom came over and it was a big help to not have to wash my hands off everytime I needed to add more sugar or coloring & flavor. She also got the saran wraps greased and ready too, it was a big help and made making 3 batches go pretty quickly. I think it took around an hour from start to finish to make all three.

I have a few ideas on how I'm going to use the fondant, but I have to practice first. I plan on doing that tonight and will share my results with you all.

PICTURE CUPCAKE TOPPERS

2010-07-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

These are some cupcake toppers I made that are going to go on the cupcakes for my nephew's first birthday party this weekend. Me and my sister made them and they were really easy to do. I'm going for an animal theme for the cupcakes I'm making, so we cut out animal shapes and put a picture of Ollie on them. I think they turned out cute and can't wait to see them on the cupcakes!

CUPCAKE CRAZY!

2010-07-26T07:32:00.000-07:00

(Not my picture, one I found on an image search on google)

Hello, my name is Brooke and I am addicted to cupcakes!

I have a growing cupcake obsession! I love making and eating cupcakes. I have volunteered my services to make cupcakes for both my sisters birthday and her son, Ollie's first birthday coming up. They are having a joint party since their b-day's are only a few days apart.

In addition, I am also going to work with fondant for the first time!! I'm a little nervous and going to do some practicing this week. I'm keeping it simple (I think!) and hoping that they turn out cute. I will update with pics soon!

PRODUCT WATCH: CRICUT CAKE

2010-06-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you all have seen those info-mercials for the Cricut machine that makes doing craft things super easy. Basically you can make all sorts of cool things by using this machine with the cartridges that contain programed designs in them, and the cricut will cut out the shapes, designs, words for you to use on all kinds of craft projects.

Well I just got an email from Michael's about the new CRICUT CAKE machine! How cool is this? This will let you cut out intricate designs from sheets of frosting to add to your cakes, cupcakes, etc! I wish I decorated enough cakes to justify the price for this thing because it is capital C - cool!

Normally priced at $399.00, but Michael's has it for $299 for a special limited time only. Check out all the info with videos HERE.

Does anyone have one of these?

PS CRICUT - if you need someone to review your product I'm your girl! lol (shameless I tell ya!)

EATING OUT: BIG TRUCK TACOS

2010-06-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

Going to start a new segment called Eating Out, and it will chronicle any restaurants that I eat out at. So while it won't have any recipe's, it will show lots of pictures of good food.

BIG TRUCK TACOS
530 NW 23rd Street
Oklahoma City, Ok
405-525-TACO

It is located in an old drive-in style restaurant, with lots of outside seating available, parking - not so much.

They also have big trucks (duh!) that go to different places in the city where you can order from.

Wow, was this place hopping! Met my mom and son there for lunch at 1p.m. on a Friday and the line was out the door. Granted the inside of this place isn't just huge, but I think we waited about 15 minutes before we could place our order.

Can you spot the Little in this pic??

After our orders were placed, it didn't take long for our food to get ready, maybe about 7 minutes but no longer than 10.

The Rancher - 3.25
Slow-braised brisket with sautéed mushrooms and onions,
HQ potatoes and escabeche (pickled relish)

The Prairie Dog - 5.99
All beef dog stuffed with cheddar cheese, wrapped in bacon,
and topped with Bison Picadillo, queso fresco, and green onion

5th Amendment - 3.25
We’re sorry…we plead the 5th we’re not at liberty to tell
you- trust us!

Everything was awesome! The prices were great, food was great, service was great. You even get a cool plastic cup that you can take home with you (at least I HOPE I was supposed to take that home!). Would definitely recommend this place and will be back again.

RUBIO'S FISH TACOS

2010-05-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

Don't let the name Fish Tacos scare you away from this, ok! The ingredient list isn't what you find on a regular taco, so please give it a read through before making any snap decisions.

Rubio's is a restaurant found mainly in the west, in I think about 4 or 5 states. There isn't one here in Oklahoma, but luckily my momma was a rolling stone and has done quite a bit of traveling in her time. She is where I first learned of these yummy tacos and I am addicted. It is probably good that there isn't a Rubio's near me!

RUBIO'S FISH TACOS

12 Cod or favorite whitefish
-fillets (1-1/2 oz ea.)
12 Tortillas, corn, as
-thick/fresh as possible

--------------BEER BATTER----------------
1 c Flour
1 c Beer
Garlic powder, pepper to
-taste

--------------WHITE SAUCE-----------------
1/2 c Mayonnaise
1/2 c Yogurt

------------------SALSA----------------------
1 Garlic clove, peeled and
-minced
6 Tomatoes, ripe, peeled,
-seeded and diced
1/2 Onion, minced
2 tb Cilantro leaves, chopped,
-stems removed
2 Jalapeno chilies, seeded and
-chopped
1 1/2 ts Salt
1/4 ts Pepper
Oil for deep frying

-----------------GARNISH------------------
1 Head cabbage, green,
-shredded
1 Lime, cut into wedges

*DIRECTIONS *

Mix flour with favorite spices such as garlic powder, red or black ground pepper. Stir the flour mixture into the beer and mix until well blended. Wash fish by dipping in cold, lightly salted water or water with a little bit of lemon juice added. Be sure fish is completely dry before dipping into batter.

Prepare salsa; reserve.

Put the vegetable oil into a deep skillet and bring to 375F. Place fish in a single layer--do not let pieces touch each other. Cook fish until batter is crispy and golden brown.

Heat corn tortillas lightly in a skillet or Mexican comal until they are soft and hot.

To assemble, on each tortilla layer the fish fillet, white sauce, salsa and cabbage. Top it off with a squeeze of lime. Fold tortilla over to serve.

(CLICK HERE for the post on my Mom's nails pictured above.)

How many have had a fish taco before? Anyone here had an authentic Rubio's Fish Taco? How many will give this a try?

IRON SKILLET CHEESE BREAD

2010-05-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

Tell me that picture didn't just make you melt right then and there in your chair?? Just imagine actually tasting it!! I made this over the weekend. I used my favorite pizza dough recipe and just doubled it so that we would have a pizza and cheese bread. I also just got this really cool (and heavy) iron skillet from my Mom for my birthday that I was dying to use.

Below is the basic pizza dough recipe I use. What is awesome is you don't have to let the rise you can use it right away or if you have time, you can let it rise. So it is great to use on weeknights when there isn't always extra time to wait on something like bread dough rising.

Ingredients

* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 tablespoon white sugar
* 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
* 1 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Directions

1. Combine flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Mix in oil and warm water. Spread out on a large pizza pan. Top as desired.
2. Bake at 375 degrees C (190 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

When I make this I like to melt butter and add garlic powder to it and brush it all on the dough, it adds a really great flavor.

After making the bread dough, I pressed it in the bottom of my iron skillet. Sprinkling a little cornmeal in the bottom will give the dough something to grab on to and stick and not keep shrinking back.

Next I layered on two kinds of cheese, mozzarella and colby. I sprinkled the top with garlic salt and pepper. I think this baked for about 15-20 minutes.

Look at this right here! Looks like a pillow of cheese!

Cut into bars and serve warm!

One thing I would have done differently that I didn't do this time, was I think I should have greased my iron skillet, stuck some butter in the bottom or something to crisp up the bottom a little. Next time . . . .

GARLIC PARMESAN CROUTONS

2010-05-21T07:23:00.000-07:00

3 CUPS 1/2-INCH CUBED BREAD (ITALIAN, FRENCH, SOURDOUGH, ETC)
1 STICK BUTTER, MELTED
1 TABLESPOON PARSLEY
2 TEASPOONS GARLIC POWDER (NOT SALT!)
1/2 TEASPOON SALT
3 TABLESPOONS PARMESAN CHEESE
Preheat oven to 350

Melt butter in microwave. Add to large bowl, butter, parsley, garlic powder, salt and cubed bread. Toss and stir to make sure all bread is nice and coated. Once bread is coated, toss with Parmesan cheese.
Spread evenly on jelly roll pan in a single layer. Bake for about 15 minutes. Watch and make sure they don't burn, they are done with they are nice and golden brown.
Store in a Ziploc bag until ready to use.

This recipe is great to use for any left over bread you have. Especially to use those round ends that are on french and Italian loves that are so hard to use. Store the ends in a plastic bag in your freezer until you have enough to make a batch of croutons with. Don't be afraid to mix flavors of breads either. I used two kinds of breads to make these croutons shown.
Old dry bread is great to use to make croutons too, so don't throw it out! Add it to your bag of bread ends in the freezer until you get enough to make a batch. With summer salad season coming upon us, its a great time to have a bag of fresh croutons on hand :)

TOFFEE BREAD PUDDING W/ CINNAMON TOFFEE SAUCE

2010-05-19T06:29:00.000-07:00

Well since we had a tie between two desserts in my recent poll, I am going to make them both. I started off with the bread pudding recipe since it said it was best the day it was made. Which turned out NOT to be true, I think it tasted even better the next day... and the day after that!

I went off and left the actual recipe at home, so tonight I will add the recipe to this post.

3 CUPS MILK
4 EGGS
3/4 C SUGAR
3/4 TEASPOON GROUND CINNAMON
3/4 TEASPOON VANILLA EXTRACT
6 TO 6 1/2 CUPS 1/2 INCH CUBES FRENCH, ITALIAN OR SOURDOUGH BREAD
1 CUP HEATH BITS-O-BRICKLE TOFFEE BITS, DIVIDED

CINNAMON TOFFEE SAUCE (RECIPE FOLLOWS)
SWEETENED WHIPPED CREAM OR ICE CREAM (OPTIONAL)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13x9x2-inch baking pan.

2. Mix together milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and salt in large bowl with wire whisk. Stir in bread cubes, coating completely. Allow to sit 10 minutes. Stir in 1/2 cup toffee bits. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup toffee bits over surface.

3. Bake 40-45 minutes or until surface is set. Cool 30 minutes.

4. Meanwhile prepare Cinnamon Toffee sauce. Cut pudding into squares; top with sauce and sweetened whipped cream or ice cream.

CINNAMON TOFFEE SAUCE: 3/4 C Heath toffee bits, 2/3 C whipping cream and 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon in medium sauce pan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until toffee melts and mixture is well blended. (As toffee melts, small bits of almond will remain).

Let me start off by saying this is THE BOMB BABY!! No diggity no doubt! I am a fan of bread pudding to start with but this was the first time I have ever made one. This was just so awesome, I really hope you guys make this. If you have never had bread pudding before, I strongly suggest you try it. I didn't eat it for a long time because I thought the name was gross sounding.

I picked out a loaf of french bread to use.

You need to cut it into little 1/2 inch squares. I didn't end up needing the whole loaf, so don't cut it all up unless you want to make croutons out of the left over pieces. It doesn't have to be perfect. I was concerned about leaving the crust on, and honestly it doesn't "stick out" like you think it might when it is cooked. Sometimes the crusts on these types of bread can be so tough and have a stronger flavor, but it wasn't noticeable in the finished dish.

Next add the milk and eggs and cinnamon and sugar mixture to your bread and let it soak for about 10 minutes.

While the bread was soaking I decided I wanted to add a little butter to this recipe. I mean butter just goes with bread and cinnamon - right!!?? So I added a stick of cut up butter to this recipe :) I just left it in little chunks and mixed it in with the toffee bits.

Pour it into your greased dish and you are ready for the oven.

How good does this look?? This smelled SOOOO good cooking in the oven. I am super glad that I added the butter, it really helped crisp up the edges and added a really good flavor. I had to pull a corner off and taste it and I almost melted into a pile right there on the kitchen floor.....it's that good!

Now you are ready to make the sauce for the pudding. It is three simple ingredients - heavy cream, toffee bits and cinnamon. This sauce will knock you off your feet girls! This would be a great sauce for lots of stuff not just this dessert!

And since I had quite a bit of the heavy cream left over, we made homemade whipped cream (Thank you Sir Mix A Lot!!!). We put the cream in a chilled mixing bowl, added some sugar and vanilla and let it mix for several minutes. This cream lasted several days in the fridge. I just left the left overs in the bowl and placed some wax paper over the top, pushing it down to touch the top of the cream and it has held up very nicely.

This was so simple to make and honestly one of my favorite dishes I have made. I will be making this quite a bit from now on. I really hope one of you all tries this and lets me know if you feel as strongly about this as I do. Enjoy!

YOU PICK IT - I MAKE IT!

2010-05-10T09:45:00.000-07:00

I'm starting a new fun little thing here. I'm going to list several choices for what I should make next, let you all vote on it and then I will make it. So please check out the poll at the top of the blog and make your selection!

MY BIRTHDAY DINNER

2010-05-07T07:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my birthday :) My Mom made me a most excellent (Bill & Ted's shoutout!) dinner. And Little really helped her get it prepared too. Little added the cut strawberries to my cake:

For dinner Mom prepared Reuben Sandwiches, Scalloped Cabbage, Green Beans and new potatoes and corn on the cob. It was as tasty as it looks in these pictures!

Thanks for the great dinner MOM!

EASY STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKES

2010-05-05T07:36:00.001-07:00

Sometimes the best things only need a couple of components. This is one of them. Simple. Easy. Cheap. TASTY!

Strawberries
Sugar
Pound Cake (or angel food)
Whip Cream

Cut the hull off the berry and then cut into fours; put in a Tupperware bowl or bowl with a lid. Pour sugar over the berries - the amount depends on how many strawberries you have - just eyeball it. Mix well and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, enough for the sugar and berries to make a nice syrupy liquid.

Place your sliced cake of choice on a plate, spoon strawberries over top, finishing with a dollop (or several) of whip cream.

It doesn't get any easier or tastier.

WHITE CHIP LEMON & CHERRY STREUSEL BARS

2010-05-04T07:08:00.000-07:00

1 Can (14 oz) Sweetened Condensed Milk
½ C Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon peel
1 (12oz) pkg White Chips, divided
2/3 C Butter, softened
1 C packed Light Brown Sugar
1 ½ C All Purpose Flour
1 ½ C Rolled or Quick-Cooking Oats
¾ C Toasted Pecans*
1 ½ C Frozen Cherries, roughly chopped, divided
¼ C Sugar
1 C Toasted, Shredded Coconut
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoon Salt
1 Egg
½ teaspoon shortening (don’t use butter, margarine or oil)

*To toast pecans: Heat oven to 350◦F. Spread pecans in thin layer in shallow baking pan. Bake, stirring occasionally, 7-8 minutes or until golden brown.

1. Heat oven to 350◦F. Lightly grease 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Combine sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice and lemon peel, sugar, and 1 cup of the chopped cherries in medium bowl; set aside. Measure out ¼ C and 1/3 C white chips, set aside. Add remaining white chips to lemon mixture.

2. Beat butter and brown sugar with electric mixer on medium speed in large bowl until well blended. Stir together flour, oats, pecans, baking powder, coconut and salt; add to butter mixture, blending well. Set aside 1 2/3 C oat mixture. Add egg to remaining oats mixture, blending until crumbly; press onto bottom of prepared pan. Gently spoon lemon cherry mixture on top, spreading evenly. Add reserved 1/3 C white chips, and the remaining ½ C chopped cherries to reserved oats mixture. Sprinkle over lemon layer, pressing down lightly.

3. Bake 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool in pan on wire rack. Place remaining ¼ C white chips and shortening in small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at HIGH 30 seconds or until chips are melted and mixture is smooth when stirred. Drizzle over baked bars. Allow drizzle to set; cut into bars.

********************

I got this recipe out of this book:

I changed the recipe a little bit though, and the recipe above reflects the changes I made. This turned out super yummy and was actually pretty easy to make.

Start off by getting your oats mixture ready, butter and brown sugar - what a combo, right!

I just toasted my shredded coconut on the stove, it only takes a few minutes, so watch it closely to keep it from burning.

Mix the flour, oats, pecans, baking powder, coconut and salt.

Add the oat mixture to the butter and brown sugar.

After dividing mixture according to the above directions, you will mix in an egg to the reaming mix. This will resemble a cookie dough like consistency.

Press this in the bottom of your prepared baking dish.

Now mix your lemon juice and sweetened condensed milk together.

These are the cherries I used. I got them from the frozen food section.

Add the sugar, white chips and the roughly chopped cherries to the lemon mixture.

Pour over the top of the oats mixture in your baking dish.

Add the remaining chopped cherries and white chips to oat mixture.

Sprinkle over the top of the lemon mixture in your dish. Lightly press down.

Drizzle with melted white chips and cut into bars. I found it was easier to score the bars while they were still warm, then refrigerate and let cool before removing the bars from the pan.

COMING UP....

2010-05-03T13:13:00.001-07:00

I have recipes coming up for these two desserts plus a recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Be prepared for a week of Dessert postings :)

Low Carb (virtually no carb) Chicken Fingers!

2010-04-20T05:34:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you guys something.....But it's a secret ok?

Ready?

While I LOVE what my diet has done for my figure....

I MISS CARBY FOOD!

There, I said it.

So, when the craving hits, I have no choice but to figure out a way to make whatever I am craving a Low-Carb craving!

Enter Chicken Fingers....what is it about chicken fingers that makes them so darn delicious? I have no clue! If you ever figure it out, please clue me in!

So here it is, Low Carb Chicken Fingers!

Start by cutting up your chicken into long strips, and seasoning them well. This time I used salt, pepper, garlic powder, and rosemary. But it changes depending on my mood!

Next, scramble an egg in a bowl, add a touch of water to thin down the egg just a touch. A tablespoon or so should be about right. Now, just dump your strips in!

Now...Here comes the low carb alternative! Rather than breadcrumbs, I use nuts as my crust. This time I used Almonds and Pecans. Most of the time I add ground Flax Seeds to the mix, but forgot! I just grind up the nuts in a coffee grinder until they are bread crumb consistency. (Note: if you wanna avoid coffee flavor nuts, simply stuff a slice of bread into your grinder and grind away, shaking the whole time. The bread sweeps out the grinder and leaves it pretty much clean and ready to go!) Once you have your breading mixture ready, dump a bit on a plate, keep the rest separate, this way, any leftovers can be put in a ziploc baggie and stored in the freezer til your next craving! Throw your strips on the plate and coat them well!

Now (yes I forgot to take a pic!) gently place them in a pan with a bit of butter, to cook. You want to really watch these. You need to find a medium to medium-high heat level. Too low and they will get soggy and the breading will fall off, too high and your coating will burn FAR sooner than your chicken is done. Just watch it and if it's getting too brown, lower the heat, and pull it off the burner for a few seconds to let it cool down a bit. Now here's the secret. Turn them GENTLY! and avoid messing with them too much. The more you mess with them the more likely the breading will fall off.

YUM!!!

Rob had BBQ chicken on the grill, so I sliced up a yellow squash, rubbed it with a bit of Olive Oil, sprinkled it will salt and pepper and garlic powder and grilled it up. Very tasty!

But...somethings missing....what's chicken fingers without the dipping sauce!

I have two favorites. A curry dipping sauce my mom got me hooked on when i was little (it's GREAT with pork chops) which is simply Curry powder in mayo. it's mighty good!

the other I had with these:

Mix mayo and Sriracha (I use a ton cause I like it HOT) and YUM! spicy, creamy, garlicy deliciousness!
I get my Sriracha at Walmart, so I bet you can find it there too!

Hope you guys enjoy my low carb chicken fingers!

{{{HUGS}}}
Christy

Christy is M.I.A!

2010-04-15T07:54:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!

Remember me? Yeah, me...the one who's supposed to be posting and hasn't in forever?

I'm Sorry! Do you forgive me?

I just wanted to drop in and leave a little note about what to expect of me in the coming weeks.

See, I cook all my breakfasts and lunches for the work week in one massive batch on the weekends. I find this is not only a huge time saver, but it ensures I am meeting my dietary needs. It also keeps me from running through a drive-thru and consuming WAY too many calories! Some weeks I do more extravagant things like curries or soups, others it's super simply stuff like a greek salad or egg salad. So, I will being showing you fun, low carb options for lunches and how I make mine in bulk, as well as a segment I think I'll call "quick lunch", which will be less involved and just showcase how I might take a "normal" lunch and turn it low carb friendly.

I apologize for my absence again and hope you forgive me!

I also hope Brooke and Helen forgive me too!

Luv ya guys!

Christy

JASMINE RICE W/ BACON & VEGETABLES

2010-04-12T08:07:00.000-07:00

People - this is sooooo good. I think I say that about everything I have posted so far, but it's true! What's even better is that this is so easy to make and so easy to adapt to what you have on hand. There is no "real" recipe since it can be changed to match your own personal likes. The quantity can also be easily adapted to how many people you need to feed, just change up or down the amount of rice, meat and vegetables you use.

Start off by cooking your bacon. If you have never cooked your bacon in the oven, I HIGHLY suggest you give it a try. I will never fry bacon in a skillet again. I line a baking sheet with foil (for easy clean up) and lay the bacon out in a single layer. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 15-25 minutes, depending on the thickness of the bacon you are using.

While the bacon is cooking, start some butter in a pan (I used 1/2 stick for 1 1/2 cups of rice).

This is the rice I use. Jasmine rice is really so wonderful, please don't substitute minute rice with this dish, use Jasmine rice!!

Once the butter is melted and foamy, add your rice.

Your rice should look like this:

Once your rice is nice and brown, add the required amount of liquid according to the rice package directions PLUS 1/2 cup more. The vegetables with soak up some of the water, so you will need a bit more. Also add any seasoning you like. I used salt, pepper & hot sauce. Cover and cook rice.

You are ready to add the cut vegetables of your choice now. I used purple onion, zucchini, celery & carrots. Again - this is so versatile, add what ever veggies you have on hand or that you like.

Add these to the rice while it is still cooking, re-cover and cook until rice is done (about 20 minutes). Make sure to check and see if you have enough liquid, if it looks a little dry, add a little more in 1/4 cup amounts until the rice and veggies are nice and tender - but NOT RUNNY!

This is what it should look like. Looks good, huh?!

Now you are ready for the bacon. Any sort of meat will work for this, left over chicken, sausage, ham, turkey, shrimp - the possibilities are endless! I recently did one with bacon and leftover chicken strips from KFC and let me tell you - I couldn't stop eating it.

Chop the bacon. I like to keep my pieces fairly large, I want to be able to taste the bacon when I'm eating it, not just get a hint of it.Add the bacon at the very end and give it a good stir and you are ready to serve it!

Spoon it in a bowl and you are ready to go. This is great because I think it works well as a side dish OR a main dish.

Now quit trying to smell your computer screen and go make you some!!

WE HAVE A NAME & A WINNER!!

2010-04-08T13:45:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all who took the time to not only submit a name, but vote on a winning name. By popular choice the winning name for my mixer is:

SIR MIX A LOT

Wooot!! So glad this one won, it was my personal favorite :) Teresa, I have sent you an email, so please respond as soon as you can!

TIME TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE!!

2010-04-02T12:25:00.001-07:00

Please take a minute to vote for your favorite name for my new Kitchenaid mixer! The winner has several prizes riding on this - including some yummy cookies made by none other than ME!

This poll will be up for the next several days, and I hope that you all take a short minute, glance through the names and then vote on your favorite!

You will find the poll at the top of the blog, before the posts :)

Thanks :)

FRIED CHEESE = HEAVEN!!

2010-03-15T20:27:00.000-07:00

I had a serious craving for some fried cheese Friday - like serious craving!!! So I decided to do something about it and make me some! It's really simple and delicious.

You need:
Cheese
Flour
Beer Batter
Oil for frying

I went over to my Mom's to make these - fried cheese is best when shared. We used three types of cheese:
Mozzarella
White Sharp Cheddar
Swiss Emmentaler Cheese

After trying all three, we both really like the Swiss the best. This can be found in the specialty cheese section of your store. I was a little leery of trying the Swiss - but the taste was spectacular - so much better than mozzarella. I strongly suggest you try the Swiss when doing this.

Cut your cheese into sticks or bite size pieces. I did small squares and strips - either worked well, so it is just your preference.
It is important that you let your cheese get to room temperature before going on to the next step.

Once your cheese is a room temp, dust lightly in flour. When your cheese gets to room temperature it allows the oils to come to the surface thus making the flour stick to it. The flour is what causes the batter to adhere to the cheese and fry up nicely.

I just used a box mix of beer batter and it worked just fine. Just make it to package directions. You need to have your oil nice and hot - around 350-375 degrees. You need it hot enough to brown the batter before melting your cheese. If your cheese starts melting out before your batter is brown - your oil is not hot enough, stop and let the oil get hot enough.

That's what I call FRIED FOOD PORN and I'm not ashamed to say I look at it!

Here it is fancied up on a nice plate! These are best eaten warm! And in case any of you are worried, we did dip and fry some cauliflower too, so it wasn't ALL cheese! (not that there's anything wrong with that)

THE EASIEST & YUMMIEST LEMON COOKIES

2010-03-11T11:01:00.000-08:00

Before we start - let's take a look at my new baby, shall we?

Ok, now that that is out of the way - let's get started. First here is the basic recipe:

Ingredients

1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Pour cake mix into a large bowl. Stir in eggs, oil, and lemon extract until well blended. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into a bowl of confectioners' sugar. Roll them around until they're lightly covered. Once sugared, put them on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for 6 to 9 minutes in the preheated oven. The bottoms will be light brown, and the insides chewy.

______________________

I changed it up just a little. I doubled the recipe and used a Lemon and a Strawberry cake mix. You can really use any flavor of cake mix you want - the sky is the limit with this easy recipe.

A cake mix and three ingredients, does it get any easier???

Dump all ingredients into you new, marvelous, fabulous mixer!! I know, I'm excited, bare with me!

See how excited I was - I didn't even have the right attachment on my new mixer - whoops! Ok, here is where I had to look for my book and figure out how in the heck to change attachments!!

Ok, there we go - attachment changed and all mixed up.

You can see that this dough just sticks together, which is the perfect consistency for having to roll into balls by hand, which we will do in just a minute.

I like to get my little station set up. I have my bowl of dough, a bowl of powdered sugar to roll my balls in (hehehe) and my pan all set up with my cookie liner. We are ready to rock and ROLL (I know, I kill me too!).

You can either use a spoon or just pinch off the amount you want to roll. Using a spoon helps you keep the cookies in a more consistent size, but who measures finished cookies to see if they are all the same size?? I know no one in my family does, we just eat them!

Take your ball and drop it in your bowl of sugar.

You can taste it already, can't you!? Roll your ball around and get it covered in the sugar.

There is no need to flatten these balls out - they will do it on their own. See, I told you this was EASY! Since they will flatten out, make sure to leave enough space between them to do so while in the oven.

Once baked, transfer them to a cooling rack.

The powdered sugar not only looks awesome on the cookies, but it tastes so good too. I mean like finger licking good. No really, you will have to lick your fingers to get all the yummy powdered sugar off of them.

Also, a little tip to keep cookies moist:
Put a piece of bread in the container you are storing your cookies in. I promise you - they will stay nice and moist!

I'm working on a variation of these cookies that I hope to share with you all really soon - let me just share with you two words:

Chocolate
Cheesecake

let THAT marinate for a little while!!

PRIZES IN MY NAME MY MIXER CONTEST

2010-03-11T06:43:00.000-08:00

Hey girls! Wow, I have already gotten a good response to my little contest I am having - so thank you!

I got some pictures of the Cupcake cook book I told you all about yesterday, and added a few more prizes to the pot as well. So far the prize list stands at:

(1) 500 Cupcakes Cookbook
(2 DOZ) Cookies made fresh by me!
(1) Brand New Helzberg Diamond's Cultured Pearl "I Am Loved" Bracelet
(2) Bath & Body Works Scented Anti Bacterial purse size hand gel
More prizes could be added so check this list often :)

Since I have "upped the ante" on the prizes, I am going to require that every one who enters must be a follower as well. I want to give these great prizes to someone who is going to hang with us on our blog and not just scouring the Internet for free "booty" - lol! So please, if you have already made a guess and are NOT a follower, please make sure that you change that now.

Also, BEFORE making a guess, please check the running list I have of already submitted names. You can not submit a name that has already been done, or your entry will be deleted. I will update the list daily to keep it as current as possible! There are already some really great names submitted.

Thanks again girls - I think this is turning out to be much funner than I had hoped!

TADA!!! & A CONTEST - WOOOOT!!

2010-03-10T13:01:00.000-08:00

I finally have a Kitchen Aid Artisan stand mixer!! I have wanted one of these for at LEAST 8 years. I kept thinking the price would eventually go down to a more affordable price range - needless to say it never did. But thanks to my tax return I finally took a leap and ordered it! I got the exact one shown above, the color is called Ice - it matches my new Paula Deen blue speckled cookware I got for Christmas:

I have had my mixer for about a month now and haven't even used it! But I am breaking her in tonight!

I thought it would be fun to have a Contest to name my new mixer. That's where all of you come in! Here is what you need to do:
*Make sure to check the list of names at the top of this blog, these names have already been submitted. In order for me to pick a winner, I am taking the name from the first person who submitted it!

Email me your name choice to Brookiebaby0506@yahoo.com.
The subject line MUST say "NAME CONTEST".
Make sure I have a valid email address to be able to contact you back with.
Depending on how many entries I get I will either post all the names or a shortened list (picked by me) for you all to vote on the winning name.
This is open to all US & International readers.
All entries must be rec'd by: MARCH 26th
You MUST be a follower of Polishing Off . . .!!!

Now for the good part - what do you win:
I'm still working on what and how big I'm going to make the prize.

2 Dozen cookies made especially by me and my new mixer!!***
Cupcake Cookbook
I will add a few more kitchen/cooking type items. As I find them, I will update the prize list at that time. If I get a lot of interest in this contest, expect the prize list to grow! :)

***If the winner is international, I will send the dry mix and directions on what wet ingredients for you to add, since I don't think the cookies would stay fresh through shipping.

ALL APOLOGIES....

2010-03-09T06:25:00.000-08:00

Hey there! First - a huge apology from Helen, Christy and Brooke for the lack of posts here. We started this thinking that between three ladies we could keep this going - guess we needed like three more ladies to join us, lol.

Seriously - we all do apologise for the lack of posting here and I personally (Brooke) am making a promise to post here more often - I think I could at the very least do one post a week, that isn't too much to ask. So thanks for hanging in there with us this long ladies - don't give up on us yet :)

I have some wonderful cookies I plan to show you all how to make this week and I can unveil at little gift I gave to myself that I have wanted for at least 10 years.

Thank you!

Brooke, Helen & Christy

CHERRY 'O' CREAM CHEESE PIE

2009-12-30T12:04:00.000-08:00

Good googly is this pie gooooood! This is basically a quick and easy cheesecake substitute. It doens't taste just like cheesecake, but it is along the same lines. My son helped me make this, that is just how easy it is.

Ingredients:

1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling

Directions:

Place softened cream cheese in a mixing bowl; add condensed milk, lemon juice, and vanilla.
Beat until well blended.
Pour mixture into the pie crust.
Chill for 5 hours.

DO NOT FREEZE!!!

I prefer to serve the cherry topping in a seperate bowl, instead of putting directly on top of the pie. Some people prefer the pie with out the cherries, so by putting it in a bowl people can add the cherries if they would like. I think the tartness of the cherries really helps add to the taste of this pie, though. This pie is the perfect mix of sweet, tart and creamy!

PLEASE NOTE:
This recipe must be followed exactly for it to
work correctly. No low-fat substitutions or
omissions of the lemon juice.

Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes and Other Recipes I recommend!

2009-12-10T06:07:00.000-08:00

Is that Title long enough for ya?

LOL!

Is everyone beginning to think of your Christmas dinner menu like me?

Well let me share a few things I LOVE along with my Cheesy Scalloped Potato recipe!

First, the potatoes!

Start by making a white sauce. Put about a half stick of butter in a sauce pot over medium heat. Once that is melted, add all purpose flour a spoon at a time, mixing after each addition. Keep adding until this forms a soft dough that will immediately spread out and start to bubble as soon as you stop stirring. It should take about equal amounts of butter and flour. Let this cook for just a few minutes to cook out the raw taste. This cook time will also bring out a nutty flavor that will really add depth later!
After a few minutes add in some heavy cream that you have brought to room temp. I used a pint. Whisk this all together until smooth. Having the heavy cream at room temp makes this WAY easier. If it is cold, it will cause the butter to stiffen up and you will have to fight clumps!
Now add Milk. I used 2%, but you can use whatever you like. How much depends on how much sauce you need. I used about 4 cups, sorry didn't measure! Add salt and pepper to taste.
Let this simmer, slowly, until nice and thickened.
While that is simmering, slice up your potatoes into thin slices. You can use a knife or a Mandolin.
I also chopped up 6 Green Onions.
Once the sauce has thickened taste it! Add more salt and pepper if it needs it. Keep in mind that the potatoes will suck up alot of that salt while baking, so be sure that the sauce is nicely seasoned.

Next comes assembly...
Start with a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of the pan.
Top this with a layer of potatoes.
Drizzle sauce over the potatoes.

Then Add the cheese! I used Colby Jack, for it's melty-ness!

Sprikle on some green onions...

And repeat until full!

Cover with foil and bake at 375 until a knife inserted in the middle slides into the potatoes easily. This took about an hour. When it's close to done, take the foil off and add a bit more cheese. This will brown and become a nice crust!

This was SOOOOO GOOD!!!

Now, here's the rest of what we had!

From closest to farthest:

PW's Stuffing

Good 'ol Green Bean Casserole

Mom's Lasagna (to die for!)

PW's Sweet Potato Casserole

...lets change angles for the last two.

Fresh Corn Casserole

And my Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes!

I wanted to try out some new recipes and loved them all, so here they are for your tummy's enjoyment!

(click the name for the recipe)

Pioneer Woman's Stuffing

Pioneer Woman's Sweet Potato Casserole

Pioneer Woman's Fresh Corn Casserole

Noticing a trend? This woman has AWESOME recipes!!!

Enjoy!

Christy

MEXICAN STYLE PULLED PORK

2009-12-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

This dish is one my mom made for my little sisters birthday a few years ago. It was a hit! Usually you see pulled pork done up BBQ style. I really liked this twist and it is really versatile. I made enchiladas with this too and they turned out great.

I cooked my pork roast in the crock pot. I cooked it until the meat was basically falling apart. If you touch it with a fork and it doesn't start to peel apart, it hasn't cooked long enough.

INGREDIENTS:
Can of Green Chilies
Cumin Powder
Onion Powder
Salt
Pepper
Chile Powder
(all are to taste, depends on the size of meat and your personal tastes!)

This was my meat straight out of the crock pot. See how it is falling apart - that's the way you want it.

This was the liquid I had left. Be sure to strain out your green chilies to add back to your pork.

Once you pull the the pork apart using forks or fingers, put it back into the crock pot.

I added some onions and mushrooms I had on hand. I sauteed them in a pan before adding them to the pulled pork in the crock pot.

I also added some butter to help feed my butter addiction. What??? Like you don't have one too??
Turn the crock pot on and heat thoroughly, it shouldn't take long.

I like to fry my corn tortillas. You can use which ever you prefer, flour or corn.

VANILLA EXTRACT - OVERRATED OR ESSENTIAL?

2009-12-08T17:00:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make, I ran out of vanilla extract. Not only did I run out of it, but I haven't used it in the last three recipes that called for it, and I DON'T MISS IT! All three dishes have turned out tasting very good, and I honestly didn't feel like the flavor was lacking in the least.

So I took to the all mighty internets, and found this Q & A:

Q: Almost all of the baking recipes I have used have called for vanilla extract. Is vanilla only included to add to the sweetness of a dessert? If I choose to substitute another kind of extract, such as almond extract, will the recipe not turn out correctly?

A: Have you ever tasted vanilla? If you have, you know it does not add any sweetness. In fact, it is one of the best smelling/foulest tasting items in your kitchen.

What it does add is an indescribable quality, a poetic quality, a depth, a richness – we would say a "je ne sais quoi," if it didn't make us blush so visibly.

You might have to compensate in the dish for the small amount of liquid your vanilla represents, but just leave it out of a recipe and you should be able to tell the difference right away. Or do as you suggest and substitute almond extract – we think you'll be shocked by the difference. It may turn out wonderfully and you may love it, but the difference between using vanilla and almond extract can be bigger than the difference between using butter and margarine. (We're not making any value judgments, just noting that there is big difference.)

On the one or two occasions we have forgotten to add vanilla extract to our semi-weekly batch of chocolate-chip cookies, we noticed right away that something was missing. They're still delicious, but they're much more one dimensional.

Vanilla functions a little like salt – it makes the other ingredients in your dish more interesting.

Hmmm, really? Are my taste buds failing me? If I ate two cookies, one with vanilla and one without would I be able to tell which was which? Would you? I don't know, but the next batch of cookies I make I'm going to be really tempted to put it to a test. Er, that is if I ever get to the store and buy me another vanilla.

* * * * *
So I ask you all to leave your comments on vanilla and take a moment to answer the poll on vanilla in the upper left hand corner of this blog.

CANDIED WALNUTS

2009-12-08T11:40:00.000-08:00

I made these to go on top of my CARROT CUPCAKES I made. But these can be made to just put in a bowl and let people snack on too. This is the first time I have ever made these and they were surprisingly easy and good. This didn't take anytime at all to make. You could use any kind of nut you wanted with this too, not just walnuts.

DAWN'S CANDIED WALNUTS

Ingredients

1 pound walnut halves
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spread nuts in a single layer over a baking sheet. Roast for approximately 8 to 10 minutes, or until the nuts start to turn brown and the smell of roasting nuts fills the kitchen.
Stir together sugar, cinnamon, salt, and milk in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage of 236 degrees F (113 degrees C). Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla immediately. .
Add walnuts to sugar syrup, and stir to coat well. Spoon nuts onto waxed paper, and immediately separate nuts with a fork. Cool, and store in airtight containers.

Start the walnuts in the oven and watch them. I set my timer for 10 minutes and it was too long, luckily I caught them before they burned at all. Also, I halved this recipe since I just had a little bag of nuts, so that might explain why it didn't take as long to roast my nuts.

Start cooking the sugar mixture. Get a thermometer for this, no if ands or buts, just get one. They are cheap and easy to find! This didn't take hardly any time at all to reach the required temp. When it does, add your roasted nuts to the pot and stir. I could see that I had more sugar mixture than nuts so I kind of just stirred it in the pot for a few minutes letting the mixture cool and coat more of the sugar on the nuts.

This is where I didn't follow the directions. I dumped all my mix out when it says to spoon the nuts out of the pot and place on wax paper. You really don't want to just dump it because then you have a pool of sugar mixture.

While they are still warm, separate the nuts and let cool.

Ta da! You now have candied nuts made in the span of about 10-12 minutes.

The best part though, you can have lots of fun saying things like, Keep your hands of my nuts or Get off my nuts, or Get my nuts out of your mou......well you get the idea. Believe me I had tons of fun last night with my nuts, see, there I go again . . . lol :)

CARROT CUPCAKES W/ CREAM CHEESE ICING

2009-12-08T06:47:00.000-08:00

Not everything has to be home made, besides Martha Stewart, who really has the time? So I took a page from Sandra and made these cupcakes semi-homemade. I used a boxed cake mix but made the icing from scratch.

So to start off, I made the cupcakes according to the package directions. I used a Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe cake mix. My review at the bottom.

I picked it because it had a pouch of real carrots and raisins. You had to rehydrate the carrots and raisins in hot water. There really weren't all that many in the package either. If I used this again I would definitely add more real carrots and raisins to the mix.

They cooked up really nice and the house smelled really good and Christmasey from all this baking I was doing!

Next, it was time to make the icing. I changed up the original recipe I found for this, and I have to say I personally liked the changes I made.

Ingredients

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tbl Milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy.
Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

Really simple recipe and it tastes so much better than store bought. This recipe has a nice strong cream cheese flavor. If you don't like a strong cream cheese flavor, simply add more confectioners sugar and a little milk if it is too thick.

All you have left to do now if frost those cuppies and enjoy! I used an icing bag and tip to decorate mine and it is so much easier than trying to ice them with a knife in my opinion, plus it looks a ton better. You just squeeze it right on and you are done. I added sprinkles and CANDIED WALNUTS to the tops of my cup cakes.

MY REVIEW OF DUNCAN HINES MOIST DELUXE DECADENT CARROT CAKE:

3 out of 5 Spoons

I think it is a nice base mix, but could really use a little sprucing up with a dash or two more cinnamon, maybe some nutmeg. I also think the package of carrots and raisins were nice, but needed more, so I would add those next time I used this mix.

However, this is how my boyfriend feels about them, and I quote "it tastes like heaven ,i thought about them n my sleep".

Christy's Cajun/Creole Turkey

2009-12-02T06:13:00.000-08:00

Hello All!

Today I'd like to show you my absolutely favorite way to make turkey! I've always liked turkey but never found it particularly exciting. 2 years ago we decided to fry our turkey for the first time and let me tell you it was DIVINE! Sadly, the peanut oil costs around $30 to $40 bucks, and I just dont like spending that much money on something I get to use then throw away. So this year I decided to flavor the bird the same way, but instead to just bake it.

Here, we have your 2 new best friends:

Last year I used the "Cajun Injector" Brand, but this year all I could find was Tony Chachere's.

Doesn't matter really, just get Creole or Cajun Butter and an injector!

Fill the inject and go to town! I used just shy of the whole bottle. When I inject, I do it every 2 inches or so and I do it at 90 and 45 degree angles, to make sure I am really getting alot of flavor in there!

(please disregard the obxoniously delicious Pumpkin Cinnamon rolls in the background. My sister made them and they were criminally delicious!

Next part freaked my Mom out! I separate the skin form the meat so I can add more flavor in between in a second. Gently slide your fingers between the skin and the breast, and loosen it up.

I got distracted trying to keep my arm out of the way and ripped the skin a bit, don't be like me, be careful! LOL

Next, slide your fingers down the side of the breast and loosen the skin on the drumstick too.

Now comes the fun! Melt a half stick of butter just until soft, mine got a bit too runny. Now add a TON of the Creole or Cajun dry spice mix. If you think you've added enough, add more. Seriously, I bet I used about 1/4 cup. Massage this between the meat and skin like so(yes, you get a video!):

So odd, none of us actually sound like we do in the vid! That doesn't even sound like me or Rob or Mom!

Now, it should look like this:

Now dust on a very generous amount of that creole spice. Yes, really, add more, trust me here!

It probably could have used twice this much!

After baking it should look like this beauty:

It was De-lish!

Hope I gave you guys another idea on how you can zest up your next bird!

If you feel like going the fried route, I HIGHLY recommend it! Just be sure to dry that bird out with about a half of a roll worth of paper towels before you fry and you will be fine!

I'll fry mine next time, maybe Christmas, and Share the pics!

ENJOY!

Christy

The best BLT

2009-11-30T13:18:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

I'd like to share with you one of my favourite ever comfort foods - the BLT with a twist. I have proven on many occasions that you can eat this at any time of day, and it never fails to hit the spot.

You need:

A bagel, two rashers of bacon, half a tomato (sliced), two slices of processed cheese, and a handful of rocket. Or if you're really hungry, double it up.

Grill the bacon rashers, and after a couple of minutes, add your tomato slices to the grill. I have a George Forman grill and I adore it. I love the way the fat ooozes out and away from the food.

At the same time, toast the bagels (sliced in half). When they come out of the toaster, immediately place a slice of cheese on each half.

Then add a handful of rocket to two of them, and the grilled tomato slices on the other.

Top with the bacon slices and piece together your halves so each contains bacon, rocket and tomato.

Slap it all together.
Yummmmm. I forgot to take a picture of the finished article, but rest assured it tasted fabulous!
Oh, and if you're feeling really decadent you can add some avocado. Even better!

BROOKE'S HOT WAAANGS

2009-11-25T07:54:00.000-08:00

Hot Wings is one of those things that took quite a bit of trial and error until I got them down pat. One of the first mistakes I made was cooking them in my deep fryer. When I cooked my wings in my deep fryer the skin didn't crisp up enough to be able to stand up to the sauce. So I thought I needed to cook them longer, so I ended up with over fried chicken with squishy skin hot wings - not good eats!

So I will tell you what I do to make Brooke's Hot Waaangs (yes, you must say "waaangs not wings). Please note that I did not include amounts, it just depends on how much you are cooking and it isn't an exact science.

INGREDIENTS

Chicken Wings
Flour
Oil
Wing Sauce
Butter

DIRECTIONS

Add enough oil in skillet to fry chicken wings, I figure enough so that half the chicken is under the oil, and when flipped the other half will be completely under oil. Just use your eye, it's not that hard :) Let this start heating up, I set my burner to med high.
Rinse chicken and PAT DRY with a cloth. Dry chicken makes for a crisper skin.
Dredge chicken in flour until lightly coated, place on wire rack until ready to add to the frying pan.
In small sauce pan add butter and hot sauce and cook until heated through.
Once your oil in your skillet is nice and hot, start adding chicken wings. Don't over crowd your pan!!
When chicken is golden brown, flip and cook the other side till golden brown. Remove and let drain on another wire rack.
Place cooked chicken in bowl and drizzle with hot sauce and butter mixture. Swish chicken around in bowl until thoroughly coated with the sauce.
Using tongs, place chicken on plate and pour the remaining sauce in bowl back into sauce pan to be used on the next batch of hot wings.
Serve with celery sticks and ranch or blue cheese dipping sauces.

I just packages of whole wings. You can purchase the drummettes, or cut your whole wings down. I usually will cut my own wings up since it is cheaper, and will do it if I am fixing them for others to enjoy. If it is just me and Ricco eating them, I don't bother separating the wing from the drumette and just cook them whole, and we just separate them while we eat them. Don't eat the wing tips though. It's really just your choice.

Sprinkle enough flour in a bowl over the wings and toss to lightly coat rinsed and PATTED DRY wings. Don't skip this step, it really helps to crisp up the skin which makes for a really good hot wing.

Just a light coating of flour is all you need! I don't add any seasoning to the flour since the wings will get plenty of flavor from the sauce.

Transfer to a wire rack until ready to cook. This just helps keep the flour on the wings from getting gunky and turning to a white sticky mess. If you don't have a wire rack, place them in single layer on some paper towels.

While the oil is still heating up and I have all the wings floured, I start the sauce going. I like Franks brand Hot Wing sauce, or another I like is to pick up the sauce from Buffalo Hot Wings. You can purchase these online or direct from the store. My favorite is the Parmesan Garlic, I could eat those until the cows come home! As far as how much butter, it depends on how much sauce you are using. For about the two cups I used, you need at least 1/2 to 3/4 of a stick of butter, just depends on how much you like the taste of butter. This only has about 1/2 a stick since it was the last of the butter I had, otherwise I would have used a bit more.

For some reason I forgot to get pics of the chicken cooking in the skillet! Whoops! But I think most of you know what that looks like anyway. Just add the chicken, making sure that there is room between each wing, don't over crowd your pan. It just takes them longer to cook and they just don't crisp as well. Mine took about 7 minutes on each side to cook through.

Once your chicken is cooked, transfer the cooked pieces to a wire rack to drain off any excess oil, this will also help keep the skins nice and crisp. As you can see, I just put my wire rack direct in my sink, that way any oil just drained right there for easy clean up. Again, no wire rack, just drain on paper towels.

Steam Vision!! These waaangs were so hot they fogged up my camera!

After letting the wings drain for a few minutes, place them in a bowl and drizzle with the hot wing sauce. Swish the wings around in the bowl until covered. Don't get to wild with the swishing, or you will end up with little red dots all over. I even use my tongs to get in there and turn the wings in the sauce. When you are ready to plate the waaangs, take them out with tongs, don't just dump them, too much sauce left on them will soften the skin up and ruin the crispiness we have been aiming for. Then just transfer the unused sauce back into sauce pan to reheat and be used on the next batch of wings to come out of the skillet.

While my wings are cooking I like to make my ranch dipping sauce. I just use a package of Hidden Valley Ranch mix and a container of sour cream. This time I added some cut up green onions since I had them on hand.

I also like to have cut celery to serve with my wings. One trick I do to keep celery nice and juicy is to cut the stalks into small sticks and them keep them stored in a Tupperware container filled with water. the celery just soak up the water and are crisp and juicy when I am ready to use them.

Now, you are ready to eat Brooke's Hot Waaangs! Enjoy!!

THE BEST SWEET POTATO PIE

2009-11-24T08:39:00.001-08:00

Sweet Potato Pie is what my boyfriend likes, he won't eat pumpkin pie. I personally don't think I could really tell the difference if I was blindfolded and given a bite of each and asked which was which. They both taste pretty similar to me. Anyway, since being with my boyfriend I usually get sweet potato pies since that is what he likes and it doesn't matter to me. Last year was my first attempt at making one and it turned out just ok. I wasn't impressed and neither was he, lol. So this year I went with a new recipe and I think I have a winner winner chicken dinner here! Here is what you need and how to make it:

Ingredients

1 (1 pound) sweet potato
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup evaporated milk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 (9 inch) unbaked DEEP DISH pie crust

Directions

Boil sweet potato whole in skin for 40 to 50 minutes, or until done. Run cold water over the sweet potato, and remove the skin.
Break apart sweet potato in a bowl. Add butter, and mix well with mixer. Stir in sugars, milk, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, flour and lemon juice. Beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth. Pour filling into an unbaked pie crust.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 55 to 60 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Pie will puff up like a souffle, and then will sink down as it cools.

First, you need to boil your potatoes. I started doing this and forgot to take pictures as I was going along, whoops! I just buy frozen pre-made crusts. They turn out just as good without all the headache of making your own. It's one of those things that I don't really have an interest in perfecting, I guess because I don't make enough pies to warrant it. Since I bought a two pack of crusts, I doubled this recipe.

After you get your potatoes peeled, put them in your mixing bowl with butter and mix them up. This smelled really good!

Dump in the rest of the ingredients. And give them a good mix. Pour mix into an unbaked pie crust.

My pies in the oven ready for baking. I place my pies on a cookie sheet to catch any spills, which I most definitely had. I usually line the pan with foil for easier clean up. I forgot to last night - oops!

You can see I fill my pies pretty full. When it cooks, the tops do puff up, but it doesn't cause the liquid to spill out over the sides too much, so I fill em up and try to use all the mix I made. The amount of mix can sometimes vary depending on the size of your sweet potatoes. Also, please note I use the deep dish crusts. Last year I only got the regular crusts and two potatoes made four pies. Which was too many for just my family. So unless you are bringing the pies somewhere and need several, I would go with a deep dish crust.

Also, to keep the crusts from getting to brown while cooking, when they reach the color I like, I put a large piece of foil over the tops of the pies. This keeps them from browning any more while baking. I just place the foil on the tops, don't press down or even try to get the foil "wrapped" around the pies, just lay it on top.

Take the pies out and let them cool on a wire rack. I taste tested some of the spillage from the pie on the cookie sheet and gave a bite to Little, who said "Good, tastes real good". When I tasted my little nibble, it really was good. Very sweet and tasty. I was getting excited that this recipe just might be "it".

So while the pie was still just a tad warm me and my son had some. It was really, really good. I thought it was sweet enough to NOT need whip cream, which to me has always been a problem with pumpkin pie, it needs whip cream to sweeten it up. Of course that didn't stop me and Little from topping our pies off with just a bit of whip cream! We actually even went back and had another slice each! What you see missing from the pie above is the damage just me and my 7 yr old son did to one pie.

As far as passing the boyfriend (Ricco) test - I think I got an "A". He says that I did a damn good job and even wants to be sure and save some to compare it with against his moms! He is off work today, so I am curious to see how much pie will be left by the time I get home tonight . . .

BACON & AVOCADO STUFFED GRAPE TOMATOES

2009-11-24T06:41:00.000-08:00

Yum, Yummy yum YUM!! That is what these little babies are! These are super easy to prepare, use very few ingredients and are tasty.

I saw a picture of these ( a little different version) on some blog or website and thought they looked yummy. When I wanted to make them, I couldn't remember where I saw them or what was in them.

So after a little searching, I came up with my own recipe for these.

INGREDIENTS:

2 Pints Grape (or Cherry) Tomatoes
2 Avocados
1/2 Pkg of Bacon (about 8-10 slices), cooked crispy
1/2 C Mayo
Salt & Pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Cut a small slice off the top of the tomato.
Using a knife, core out the seeds from the inside.
Turn cored tomatoes upside down on a paper towel to drain and dry, about 30 minutes.
Chop the avocados into small chunks. Remember to cut them small enough to fit inside your little tomatoes. Place in bowl.
Cut your crispy cooked bacon into small chunks, like the avocado. Add to the bowl.
Add your mayo to the bowl.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and mix it up.
Transfer mixture to a small zip lock baggie, and cut the tip of the bag off.
Squeeze mixture into tomatoes.

I chose Grape tomatoes since they were bigger than the Cherry tomatoes that my local Walmart offered. I wanted the biggest opening I could get to stuff these with, which makes it easier.

I actually did this step a day in advance. After cutting and letting them drain and dry I placed them in a Tupperware container and placed them in the fridge. They held up great.

This is only one avocado cut up. Make sure your avocado is nice and ripe.

I can almost taste that bacon through the screen!!! I cook my bacon in the oven. It is fast and I don't have to babysit the bacon in the skillet when I cook it on the stove top. I preheat the oven to 350 and lay the slices (in a single layer) on a foil covered baking sheet and cook for about 30 minutes, it depends on how thick the bacon is cut. This bacon was thin and done perfectly in 30 minutes.

Again with the closeup, what is better than bacon?? Chop this bacon into SMALL pieces! I didn't cut my bacon small enough and it kept trying to clog my bag up when I was ready to squeeze. So please make sure to chop that bacon up small!

Toss all ingredients (minus the tomatoes, of course) into a bowl and mix with a spoon.

Looks yummy doesn't it? Believe me, it tastes as good as it looks!

Spoon mixture into a sandwich size zip lock baggie.

Cut off a small corner of the bag. I tried to keep it about the same size as the opening of the tomatoes I cut, so that it would squeeze right inside them and not all over them. Again, like I said, if the bacon or avocado's aren't cut small enough, they will clog your bag, and then you have to pull the chunk of bacon out and eat it. . . . that's what you're supposed to do, right?

Tada! Finding a way to make these stand up is the real challenge. I did see where someone had used the green leaf lettuce to cover the plate and that helped hold the tomatoes in place. I just crinkled up some foil since I wasn't serving these at a party or anything, I was just making them for the family to eat. It worked pretty good for holding them up.

I can honestly say I ate about 6 of these before I even had 2 plated, lol.

My Stash!

2009-11-23T11:37:00.000-08:00

Hello all and thankyou for following us! Very exciting!

Before I get started with the main event, I wanted to show you a couple of things that are very important to me. My fridge, and my storecupboard.

I always thought a storecupboard was something only grown-ups had. But regardless of maturity, I seem to have acquired one along the way. And here it is.

You can see various essentials here. Ketchup, BBQ sauce, rock salt, vinegar, Marmite, soy sauce, Golden Syrup, and other good things. I'd like to say though that the Bisto is nothing to do with me.

The bottom shelf has all our herbs and spices. I could not live in a world where there was no flavour and I regularly find myself adding the contents of many of these in a lot of my recipes. You probably can't tell here but there are about fifty jars of spices and herbs here. Everything from garam masala to garlic salt.

And onto the main event! The fridge!

Here you can see the fridge after a weekly shop and before we put the beer in! This is everything I need to get me through a week. All the things I love: beef, bacon, mushrooms, cheeses, mayonnaise, water, avocado, peppers, broccoli, butter, bread and creme fraiche. You'll see a LOT of creme fraiche in upcoming posts.

So there you have it. When I'm not painting my nails or blogging, you'll find me here, scavenging around for a snack, or embarking on some sort of dinner mission. I hope you enjoyed having a nose in my cupboards!

NON-TRADITIONAL THANKSGIVING MEAL

2009-11-23T08:22:00.000-08:00

Between my sisters and I and our boyfriends, husbands, etc, spending Thanksgiving with everyone can be difficult, so my Mom planned a Thanksgiving meal for this past Sunday. She decided to go with a non-traditional theme, on the menu she had:

Brie with Apricot (or peach, can't remember) fruit preserves and toasted almonds
Brisket
Green Bean Casserole
Roasted Potatoes
Roasted Red Onion
Rolls
Italian Creme Cake

I just love this picture of Ollie looking up at Ricco.

If you see anything here you would like the recipe for, please let me know in the comments and I will post it up for you!

Thanks Mom - it was a great meal! Mom asked us if we would like to name one thing we were thankful for in the last year, and I would like to share what I have been thankful for.

I am thankful for my Mom! Without her, this past year would have been very hard on me, she has unselfishly helped me out even when it meant that she would have to do without things for her. Thank you Mom - I don't know where I would be without you! I love you!!!!

Cheesy Cauliflower

2009-11-20T15:56:00.000-08:00

Good Evening Ladies!

Tonight I am gonna share with you what I made for dinner the other day.
While looking at various recipes for Thanksgiving, I spotted one for cauliflower Au-Gratin.
Given the fact that on all days, except Saturday which is my carb-up day, I cant eat any carbs really, any recipe that gives me a substitue for Potatoes makes me a very happy girl!

Knowing that we were kinda in a hurry to fix dinner at my Father-in-Laws and get hone to lift, I decided to scrap the whole baking idea, and instead just winged the whole recipe. Here is what I came up with:

It was DEVINE!!!

So let's get started shall we?

Oh, and this is a Low-Carb recipe, it is most definitly NOT Low-fat! :)

Here's what you'll need:

Parmesan, Half and Half, Butter, Heavy Cream, Salt and Pepper

2 16oz Bags of Frozen Cauliflower

Colby Jack Cheese, cute up into small cubes

Start by putting 2 Tablespoons of butter in a skillet.

Add the half Pint of Heavy Cream, 1/2 Cup Half and Half and season with salt and pepper.

Let this reduce over Medium heat until it reduces by almost half. It should be nice and thick, like alfredo, once it's done.

While this is reducing, Microwave the Cauliflower.

Make sure to cook them until they are warmed through, but not mushy.

Cut a tiny hole in the corner of the bag, and gentle squeeze to get the water out.

I kinda forgot this step, and wound up with my sauce way to watery! So please don't be like me!

By now it should be nicely reduced! So dump in your cheese!

Stir this around to get the cheese down in the sauce, then just let it sit for a few minutes!

After a few minutes the cheese should be nice and melty. Stir it around and get it incorporated.

Dump in the cauliflower and stir until it's all coated and yummy!

I served it along side grilled strip steak topped with sauted onions!

See, the watery cauliflower ruined that nice thick sauce! Don't forget to squeeze!

Now Rob isn't a big Parm fan, but I LOVE it. So rather than stir the Parm into the sauce, I left it out and just topped mine with it.

The dark brown you see is yet another boo-boo I made. I left the pan too high and ran outside to get the steaks off the grill. Well the cheese in the sauce got WAY brown against the bottom of the pan. But luckily it wound up being a delicious mistake. Browned cheese is fantastic!

I hope you all enjoy it!

Ingredients:

2 TB Butter

1/2 Pint Heavy Cream

1/2 C Half and Half

Salt and Pepper to taste

8 ounces Colby Jack cheese or your cheese of choice.

2 16oz bags Frozen Cauliflower, microwaved and drained

Parmesan Cheese, Optional

Add the first 4 ingredients to a skillet and reduce by half.

Once reduced, add Cheese and stir to combine.

Add Cauliflower and toss to coat.

Top with Parm and Enjoy!

{{{Hugs}}}

Christy

I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE

2009-11-20T10:15:00.001-08:00

That my friends is a nail polish cookie cutter and I really need this in my life, don't you??

SUGAR COOKIES - BAKING THE COOKIES

2009-11-19T10:30:00.000-08:00

First I want to share with you all the cookie cutters I got. I found these at Michael's craft store for around $9. The box contains 20 Christmas cookie cutters, not bad, making them around .45 cents each. Plus they have some really cute ones, I am excited about the little present and the peppermint candy ones! They are all really cute and not just the normal ones you always see either.

Now on to the baking. I used a recipe from All Recipes and made some minor changes to it. You can find the original recipe HERE. Below is the recipe with the changes I made last night.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Directions

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Here is the butter and sugar I creamed. You need to let your butter reach room temperature before starting this to make the mixing much easier.

Next add the eggs and vanilla. For the vanilla I used something a little different. My mom had a bottle of infused vanilla that she made. You basically pour vodka in the bottle with the vanilla beans and let it infuse over several months.

This is the bottle of infused vanilla I used.

This is what it should look like after adding the eggs and vanilla.

Next, you need to add the dry ingredients. I started out by doing it a cup of flour at a time.

Now you are ready to cover your dough with plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.

I have one of those silicone cooking mats that I used in place of parchment paper. I sugared the surface and rolled the dough directly on this mat. Then I used the cookies cutters and cut out my cookies and removed the scraps.

After about 7 minutes, my cookies were done. You really need to watch your first batch to see how quickly your oven will cook them. You don't want brown cookies, you want them to be white, these make for softer cookies.

I only did two pans of cookies last night, and the reason why is my silicone mat. I thought it would be great to use in place of parchment paper, but it was not. I had to wash the mat in between pans of cookies and that was going to be too time consuming. So tonight I will continue baking the rest of my cookies after getting parchment paper.

As far as the taste of the cookies, I was pleased. They were soft and sweet. I thought it was a good level of sweetness without being overly sweet, I will let the icing handle that. I thought the cookies also held up really well and didn't crumble or break when I moved them to a plastic bag after cooling.

Tonight - let the icing begin!!!!!

SUGAR COOKIE TRICKS OF THE TRADE

2009-11-19T09:48:00.000-08:00

SO far in my quest for easy, perfect AND professional looking sugar cookies I have come across several really handy tips that I wanted to share with you all.

TIPS FOR WORKING WITH THE DOUGH:

TIP 1
Work with really chilled dough! Only take out enough to work with at a time and leave the rest of the dough in the fridge.

TIP 2
Use powdered sugar instead of flour when rolling out your dough - it makes for sweater cookies.

TIP 3
Roll dough out on parchment paper, then use your cookie cutters, making sure to leave plenty of space between each cookie. Tear away the scraps and slide parchment paper directly onto your cookie sheet. Doing it this way eliminates the need to move your cut cookies which can damage their shape.

TIPS FOR ICING THE COOKIES:

TIP 1
Using thick Royal Icing pipe the outlines of your cookie. Then using a thinner Royal Icing, "flood" the cookie. Below is a video I found on YouTube that demonstrates this tip:

TIP 2
Use a squeeze bottle with your thinner Royal Icing that you will flood the cookies with.

TIP 3
Icing prep - figuring out what colors of icing you will need, how much and where it will be used on your cookie. I found all this in really great detail at Bake at 350 ( Thanks Colette for introducing me to this site!) . You can read all about her tips HERE, and find out a ton more info on the small details that make really nice looking cookies by searching through all her posts labeled "the details".

There are, I'm sure, a ton more tricks and tips that I didn't even touch on, but these six tips were the ones that I think I will find most useful when I get ready to start my sugar cookie adventure.

IN SEARCH OF: THE PERFECT SUGAR COOKIE

2009-11-18T13:31:00.000-08:00

I am about to embark on a sugar cookie journey. I will be soon trying out a couple of different recipes for sugar cookie doughs and icings. I have always wanted to make really pretty sugar cookies for the holidays (all holidays, not just Christmas). And as easy as that sounds it never seems to work out for me. The dough is never right, or by the time I get to icing the cookies I am just done with the whole process.

So this year I am taking a new approach. First I purchased several items at Michael's craft store, searched the Internet for recipes and watched hours of YouTube videos of people making cookies, icing them, making icing - you get the picture! I am also planning on taking a little more time for the whole process than I have in the past, which I think has been my biggest failure in achieving the perfect sugar cookie.

So I hope you all look forward to this little series of posts I will be doing in the coming weeks, I know I am.

HAVE A TIP??
If anyone has any tips, recipes or idea's for sugar cookies, icing or decorating techniques, please be sure to share them with me in the comments section!

OVEN ROASTED CHICKEN

2009-11-16T07:01:00.001-08:00

Wowser!! Did this turn out pretty or what? This weekend was the first time I used this recipe and it really turned out great. I found this recipe where I find a lot of the recipes I use, on All Recipes.

There are a couple of reasons why I love All Recipe's website the most. The first being that the recipes are actually rated by people like me and you who have tried the recipe out. I find that really helpful in cutting down on "bad" recipes, and believe there are several of them out there. I also find it an easy site to navigate and search. One handy tool is the ingredient search. I love to search by whatever specific cut of meat I have. The other day I had chicken thighs, I searched by the words "chicken thighs" and got a whole list of recipes that call for chicken thighs. I ended up making teriyaki chicken that turned out wonderful! One last positive point for All Recipes is that you can read peoples reviews of the recipes, which usually contain handy tips on small changes they made to the recipes that made them work.

For this particular recipe I pretty much followed the recipe with a few small changes. If you would like to see the original recipe, please CLICK HERE.

INGREDIENTS:

1 (3 pound) whole chicken, giblets removed
salt and black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon onion powder, or to taste
1/2 cup butter, divided
1 stalk celery, leaves removed
5-7 whole garlic cloves

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Place chicken in a roasting pan, and season generously inside and out with salt and pepper. Sprinkle inside and out with onion powder. Place 3 tablespoons butter in the chicken cavity. Arrange dollops of the remaining butter around the chicken's exterior. Cut the celery into 3 or 4 pieces, and place in the chicken cavity. Place the whole garlic cloves in the cavity of the chicken as well.
Bake uncovered 1 hour and 15 minutes in the preheated oven, to a minimum internal temperature of 180 degrees F (82 degrees C). Remove from heat, and baste with melted butter and drippings. Cover with aluminum foil, and allow to rest about 30 minutes before serving.

My rinsed chicken, free of the giblets. Dinky always loves when I cook a chicken, cause she knows the little pan boiling on the stove of giblets will soon be cut up and added to her little dish!

The chicken fully seasoned with the salt, pepper and onion powder. I didn't measure the onion powder, I just sprinkled until the chicken looked like it had enough. Don't forget to season the inside too.

Next I added my butter, garlic and cut up celery to the inside of the bird. No special order, I just shoved them all in there! :)

Next, I used the extra butter and stuck it all over the chicken. This chicken had butter in places that even I'm a little ashamed to say, lol!

After cooking for an hour, I took it out and basted it with all the yummy juices. I then stuck it back in the oven to cook another 15 minutes. I then pulled it out and did a second basting of the bird.

You then cover with foil and wait 30 minutes before eating...........wait!! Did that really say wait 30 minutes, ohhhhh this is going to be hard. This is a good time to make any little sides though to keep your mind off tearing into the chicken. Since the oven was already warm I made a box of scalloped potatoes, which take 20 minutes to bake. Take a look at this beauty:

Can't you just taste that crispy, buttery skin and juicy chicken melting in you mouth?? Very easy prep recipe and I highly recommend this as a great way to cook a whole chicken, even for those new or inexperienced cooks in the kitchen. The chicken was super juicy and perfectly cooked. The leftovers also made excellent chicken salad sandwiches!

Hello from Helen, Christy & Brooke

2009-11-16T04:55:00.000-08:00

Well, hello!

Oooh the first post on a new blog - always going to be tricky (especially when you are used to Wordpress and haven't used Blogger before!)

You readers will probably recognise Brooke, Christy and I from our respective nail blogs. However, something we have realised we all have in common, aside from a living, breathing need for all things glitter, is that we love to cook.

So here you have a blog for all the foody things that we create in our spare time. Worry not as the nail blogs are going to continue as usual, but we thought it might be nice to have a place where we can share our creations, recipes and ideas - like a one stop shop for any of you looking for some foodie inspiration.

One small warning. It might not be advisable to read this blog if you're feeling a little bit peckish!

<3
Helen, Christy & Brooke