Homemade Apple Butter

It's that time of year again...Christmas!! The season is here again and it's time to bring out new recipes and give them a try.

Today's delicious creation is apple butter; now not to confuse anyone but apple butter is not your typical dairy butter with an apple flavor. Apple butter it is actually cooked apples to the point where they caramelize and turn deep brown in color and gives the apples a much deeper flavor profile. You can serve this warm or cold but either way it's delicious.

Here's my recipe for this delicious spread! Hope you enjoy!

Homemade Apple Butter in a Crock-Pot

Ingredients:

6 pounds of Pink Lady apples- peeled, cored and sliced
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice


Directions:

Placed sliced apples and vinegar into large crock-pot.
Set on HIGH and cook for 8 hours.

After 8 hours, stir in white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, clove and allspice and cook for another 8 hours on LOW.

Once it has completely cooked, you can enjoy warm or let cool and store in an air tight container.

Enjoy on some warm biscuits or cornbread!!

Crock-Pot Minestrone Soup

It’s soup time!! Now that the weather is changing, it is time to stock my freezer with yummy soup for those cold winter days ahead. 

Minestrone soup is a one of my new favorite soups to make. Minestrone typically has tomatoes added and no potatoes but I am not a tomato fan so therefore I used tomato paste. Potatoes I just love to of coursed I added them to my soup.

Here’s my recipe so enjoy!!

Ingredients

4 cups reduced-sodium vegetable or chicken broth

1 lbs. sausage, browned and drained

1 (12 ounce) can, tomato paste

1 (15 ounce) can, white navy beans, drained

2 cups potatoes, peeled and chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

½ tablespoon Italian seasoning

2 bay leaves

2 medium zucchini, chopped

2 cups ditalini pasta

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon pepper

Directions

In a crock-pot, combine broth, sausage, tomato paste, beans, potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, Italian seasoning, bay leaves, salt and pepper.  Cover and cook LOW for 6 to 8 hours or HIGH 4 to 5 hours.

About 45 minutes before soup if done cooking, add ditalini and zucchini. Cover and cook for 45 more minutes. Remove bay leaves and season to taste with more salt and pepper.



Crock-Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

I have recently been experimenting with some new crock-pot recipes for my family. Cooking in the crock-pot is so convenient, it allows you to make dinner while you are at work and come home to a ready cooked meal.  Since the season has changed soup was sounding really good for dinner. So I researched some chicken tortilla soup recipes and gathered the ingredients I wanted to put in my soup and went to the kitchen.

Here’s what I came up with!

Ingredients:

3 to 4 chicken breast meat, shredded

 1 can (15oz) reduced sodium black beans, drained

1 can (15oz) whole kernel corn

1 taco seasoning packet

1 can (15 oz) chicken broth

1 jalapeno pepper, diced (remove the seeds)

How To:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Season your chicken breast w/ salt and pepper and bake for 30 to 45 minutes depending on the size of the pieces. Once finished, let rest and cool and then shred.

In your crock-pot, combine the rest of your ingredients. Set your crock-pot to low and let cook for 6 to 8 hours. 

Enjoy your soup w/ some tortilla chips, shredded cheese, sour cream or maybe some salsa!!

Slower Cooker Pinto Beans w/ Smoked Sausage

Happy Fall Everyone!

Now that Fall has arrived it is time to pull out those new recipes and get to cooking! I have lots of yummy recipes to share with you so let the cooking begin!

So my first recipe of the season is at the request of my fiance. He is a meat and potatoes kind of guy so pinto beans were right up his alley. I asked if he would rather have seasoned canned beans but no, no dried beans were what he wanted. I did some research to figure out how to prep the beans and recipes recommend for cooking time. After my research I gathered my ingredients and went to work.

Here is what I decided on:


Slow Cooker Pinto Beans w/ Smoked Sausage


Ingredients:
1lbs. dried pinto beans
3 celery ribs, chopped
2 green bell peppers, chopped
1 sweet onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp Creole seasoning
2 cups of chicken broth
1 package smoked sausage, sliced

How To:
Soak dried pinto beans in a stock pot overnight. Pour beans into the pot and fill up with water to completely cover the beans with a the water line about half an inch above the top of the beans.

Once beans have soaked, combine all ingredients into your crock-pot and add 1to 2 cups of beef or chicken broth to mixture.

Cover and cook on HIGH for 8 hours or until beans are tender

Serve with rice if desired!

Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts

I’m sure when you hear the word brussels sprouts your  thinking “yucky”, “stinky”, “never going to eat that.” I had the same reaction until I actually took a bite.

Soap Box Moment: Brussels sprouts have many healthy qualities that some may not realize. They provide you with some special cholesterol- lowering benefits when they are steamed; brussels sprouts will bind together with the bile acids in your digestive tract thus helping come you out! Brussels sprouts also have cancer preventative components due to the specific combinations of amino acids as well as they provide for a healthy thyroid function.

You can look up recipes for roasting brussels sprouts and a lot of them are the same, they include olive oil, salt, and pepper so I used the same ingredients but when it comes to salt and pepper to each their own. 

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

1 lbs of brussels sprouts

3 tbsp olive oil

Sea salt

Black Pepper

1 medium onion, cut into large slices

Pinch of Brown Sugar

How To:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cut off the ends of the brussels sprouts and pull off any yellow/dirty outer leaves. Cut up onion into large slices.

In a bowl, mix together with olive oil, salt and pepper and onion.

Pour them onto a sheet pan and roast for about 40 minutes until crisp. Shake the pan about 20 minutes in to evenly roast.

Once done, sprinkle w/ more sea salt and pinch of brown sugar. Serve immediately and enjoy!

 



 

Easy Homemade Salsa

So it's the middle of the week and it chilly outside so lets spice up the day a little. Let’s talk salsa…some folks like it chunky, some folks like it smooth, some folks like it hot but some folks like it not. No matter how we like it, it’s best homemade.

For those of you who do not know, I do not like tomatoes. Sounds weird since I am making salsa but the only way I will eat a tomato is via tomato sauce, ketchup, or once it good and pureed. Needless to say this salsa will not be chunky.

This recipe is very simple and would be wonderful for dinner parties, for your consumption, or to us as a complement for another dish.

Please enjoy this recipe and share it with others!!

Easy Homemade Salsa

1- 15 oz can diced tomatoes

1- 14 oz can mild Rotel

½ small onion, chopped

1 garlic clove

½ jalapeno, no seeds

2 tbsp honey

Small handful of cilantro

Salt to taste

Juice from ½ a lime

How To:

Combine all ingredients into food processor, except salt

Pulse 3 to 5 times depending on the consistency you want for your salsa

Add salt to taste

Creamy Italian Herb Polenta w/ Maple Bacon

To round out my weekend of cooking, I decided to make something I had never heard of until one night last week on my favorite TV channel “Food Network.” Polenta for those of you who do not know is either coarsely or finely ground cornmeal boiled in water or a stock into porridge. You can eat it as porridge or you can bake, fry or grill the finished product.

So I did my research and figured out what ingredients I would need for the basic polenta and then added some extra flavoring of my choice.

This recipe makes a ton so if you want to experiment with baking, frying, or grilling your leftover give it a whirl!!

Ingredients:

4 cups of chicken stock

4 cups of milk

3 tbsp butter

2 tsp salt

2 cups of corn meal

1 cup Philadelphia

1 medium onion, minced

5 strips Maple Bacon

1/3 cup Parmigiano- Reggiano

How To:

1) Fry up your bacon in a skillet. Drain off part of you grease. Mince your medium onion and place pieces in the skillet and sweat until onion pieces are translucent. Set the skillet aside.

2) In a stockpot, bring stock, milk and butter to a boil. Once at a boil add your salt to the water. Whisk in your corn meal. Whisk constantly for 5 minutes to prevent clumps.

3) Simmer mixture for 30 minutes and stir every 10 minutes until polenta is thick, smooth, and creamy.

4) Add your 1 cup of Philadelphia, onions and bacon. Stir until well-combined.

5) Check for seasoning; add salt or pepper is necessary. If the consistency needs to be adjusted you can add additional milk or water.

Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

This weekend I have been on a cooking frenzy so the second recipe of the weekend is a cookie recipe. Traditionally, you the combine oatmeal and raisins but I do not like raisins, so chocolate chips it is.

Growing up my dad always talked about a recipe my great-grandmother Ruru made called Cowboy Cookies; Ruru’s first name was Ruth and for those of you who do not know that is my middle name. With her recipe in mind I decided to find my own recipe I could call my own. 

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar, packed

¾ cup granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup quick cooking oats

1 cup chocolate chips

How to:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugars until well-combined

Add eggs and vanilla and stir till well -combined

Once well -combined, add baking soda, baking powder and salt. Gradually add in your flour a half cup at a time. You will want to make sure combine ingredients fully but do not over mix.

Add your oatmeal and chocolate chips.

Now that your cookie dough is ready take a small spring loaded squeeze handle ice cream scoop or a tablespoon scoop out the dough and place on a greased cookie sheet.  A spring loaded squeeze handle ice cream scoop will help ensure evenly portioned cookies.

Place the cookie dough about an inch apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges are lightly brown. The center of the cookie will be puffy but it will ensure a very chewy cookie once they have cooled.

Easy Homemade Sticky Buns

Friday after work I had a hankering to make something sweet for breakfast Saturday morning. I knew cinnamon rolls just would not do; even though they are yummy I wanted to make something different. So I decided to go to the grocery store and seek inspiration as I walked up and down every aisle. As I was walking around the store I thought about sticky buns. They are a little different than cinnamon rolls but still had the sweet factor I was looking for. I picked up my ingredients, checked out and headed home ready to get up Saturday morning to experiment with the idea in my head.

Ingredients:

1 can Pillsbury Biscuits (8 count)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 stick butter melted

3 tbsp cinnamon

Honey

Baking Utensils:

1 Loaf Pan

How To:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a bowl mix sugar and cinnamon together and set aside. Also melt butter in a bowl. Arrange an assembly line of your butter, sugar mix and your loaf pan.

Take the individual biscuits coat them in butter and then coat generously in the sugar mix. Place coated biscuits in loaf pan, stacking one on top of the other forming a “loaf” of biscuits.

Bake for 17 to 20 minutes. Once biscuits have been cooked throughout generously coat the biscuits with honey. Best when served warm!

Taste of Home: Three Potato Salad

So a few weeks ago at work we had a farewell luncheon for a lady who has worked in our accounting department for sixteen years. The accounting department was going to provide the meat and a cake and everyone else wanting to attend was asked to bring a side dish to help contribute. I love potluck lunches because you always get to see what other people bring and get to try a variety of food.

As I was thinking of what I was going to bring the perfect dish popped into my head, potato salad. Yes, I know it is sort of generic but this potato salad is like no other; it is the Taste of Home Three Potato Salad Recipe. It is not your traditional potato salad as it is made up of three different types of potatoes: russet, red, and sweet potatoes. It does not have mustard, pickles, or eggs. It is just simple with potatoes tossed in creamy dill dressing. I absolutely could eat the entire bowl in one sitting!

So my recipe today may not be one of my own but one I absolutely love and want to share with you today!

Taste of Home Three Potato Salad Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 3 medium unpeeled red potatoes, cubed
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon dill weed
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions

• Place all of the potatoes in a Dutch oven; cover with water. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cook for 20-30 minutes or until tender. Drain and cool.
• Place potatoes in a large bowl; add onion. In a small bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. Pour over potato mixture and toss gently to coat. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Super Moist Banana Bread

So I have recently been inspired to pick up baking again. When I was in grade school I participated in 4-H and always entered the baking competitions and would make cookies, muffins or cakes. Outside of 4-H I started to make cheesecake and would like to make them for holidays, birthdays or just because. When I went away to college, my desire for baking was replaced with studying and late nights of cramming for exams.

Now that I am settling down and have a home to call my own, I have wanted to pick back up a hobby I loved so much. Something my mother made often for my sister and I growing up was banana bread. I asked my mom for her recipe but she does not have a specific one she follows so I decided to create my own.

 After much research and trial and error I found my super moist banana bread that falls apart in your mouth.

 Hope you all enjoy and don’t be afraid to dust off that mixer and do little experimenting of your own.

Banana Bread

2 ½ cups of all- purpose flour

1 ¼ cup granulated sugar

1 ¼ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 ½ cup applesauce

6 ripe mashed bananas

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Tools: Stand/Hand Mixer

In A Mixing Bowl: Combine first six ingredients.

In A Medium Bowl: Whisk together eggs, applesauce, bananas, and vanilla.

Pour wet ingredients into mixing bowl with dry ingredients, turn on mixer and gently fold ingredients together.

Grease two 8x4 in loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 to 65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

(Mini Loaves: I baked four mini loaves at 350 degrees for about 30 to 45 minutes.)

How To: Keep Asparagus Fresh

Growing up, asparagus was a vegetable we did not have often for dinner. On the occasion my mother would buy some, we always seemed to eat it right away or else it would spoil in the fridge. Well I am here to tell you a little secret on how to keep your asparagus fresh, some of you may know this but some may not.

The helpful tip came from a very special lady my family stayed with when our house flooded back in 2010; Mama Betty is her name. She shared this secret with my mother who then passed it down to me.

The secret: You stick the woody/ fibrous ends of the asparagus in water.

  

Simple I know but you must change out the water every couple of days to help keep the asparagus fresh.

Here’s what I do to keep my asparagus fresh.  Take a tall, slender vase or bowl and fill it up with about an inch or two of cold water. With the bunch of fresh asparagus you purchased at the grocery store, clip the ends off about a ¼ of an inch, place in water and put vase/bowl in fridge. You can keep your asparagus for up to a week after purchase in the water.

**Be sure to change out the water every couple of days to ensure the freshness of your asparagus**

Easy Flatbread Pizza

I find myself sometimes in the grocery store looking to see what ingredients I can throw together and create a new dish. A couple of days ago I found myself doing exactly that; I was in Kroger picking up a few things and had walked by the frozen pizza aisle and had a bright idea: pizza!!

Usually, I keep a frozen pizza in the freezer as a quick meal but the downside is sometimes it’s just me at the dinner table and a whole pizza I will never eat. Yes, I know they have personal size pizzas but I never buy them. So as I walked down the pizza aisle I started to look for the ingredients I wanted to use.

I ended up founding some flatbread which you could use pita bread, naan, or even a tortilla if you wanted a crispy crust. For the rest of the pizza I picked up a jar of pizza sauce, a bag of turkey pepperonis, and a bag of pizza cheese. You could very easily make any sort of pizza you prefer but I decided to stick with a red sauce with meat and cheese.  So with my ingredients I whipped up a super easy flatbread pizza…hope you all enjoy my recipe!!

Easy Flatbread Pepperoni Pizza

1 package flatbread, (I used Patissa Savory Garlic & Herb Flatbread), makes 2

1 ½ tbsp. pizza sauce

10 turkey pepperoni slices

¼ cup pizza cheese, (you could use Mozzarella or any other cheese you prefer)

Tools:

Cookie Sheet or a Pizza Stone

Directions:

1)      Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and place your flatbread on cookie sheet/pizza stone

 

2)      Spread your pizza sauce onto the flatbread, then spread out your layer of pepperoni and sprinkle with cheese

3)      Bake in oven for 8 to 10 minutes until cheese if bubbly all over.