This Blog's Not Dead...

...but it's spitting blood.

Actually, I think about it all the time, but circumstances have made it difficult for me to update lately. Here's the scoop if you are wondering where I have been.

A) I got a new job. So, I am working part-time in the afternoons and evenings. Which means I make dinner (the recipe I usually document) about half as frequently as I used to.

B) I got the flu. And that sucked bad. The flu caused me to lose my appetite. My sense of taste still seems off to me. Things just don't taste right yet.

C) And this one's the big one: We have been eating a lot of frozen food for the past few months. Not the kind that you buy in the freezer section of the store, but stuff that I froze during the growing season. And frankly, pulling frozen bags of vegetables and sauces that I made a few months ago just isn't glamorous enough for a blog entry. Frozen foods definitely lack sex appeal.

So I sit here, staring out the window at the patch of ground where my garden grows, patiently waiting for spring. When there will be gardening, and CSA boxes, and farmers markets. In the meantime, if I do something exciting in the kitchen, you'll be the first to know.

More Treats and Things

I love me some Cap'n Crunch. I am not a cereal eater though. I'm more of a white toast for breakfast kind of person, so Christmas is the one time of the year when I get my fix of the Cap'n. I make rice krispy treats, but substitute Cap'n Crunch Crunch Berries for the Rice Krispies. The recipe is on the back of the mini marshmallow package. I cut them small so that they are just a bite or two. I like to leave 'em wanting more.

Now on to some real cookies. I was babysitting my nephew one day and my mom suggested that I bake cookies with him. I must have expressed that I didn't think he would be interested in the process because my mom said something like "you don't have to make them from scratch, she's got cookie dough in the freezer." So I checked out the freezer and there it was. A box of pre-formed cookies. You just take the amount that you want, pop them in the oven, and bake for 10 minutes. Yummy homemade cookies.

I thought about this frozen cookie dough idea and how genius it was. Me and The Captain (not Crunch) cannot eat a full batch of cookies. Try as we might, we either get bored with them, or they get too dry after they have been sitting around for a couple of weeks. I thought I could freeze cookies like I freeze berries during the summer. So I tried it. I made a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough and portioned it out on waxed paper. Then I put the cookie sheets in the freezer overnight.

The next day I had frozen cookie balls. I portioned them out into little bags. 12 cookie balls per bag. Then I tossed them into the freezer.

I then baked some to see if I needed to make any adjustment because they were frozen. I wanted mini-cookies, so I cut the frozen balls in half, put them on a sheet pan, and put them in the oven as soon as it was preheated. I cooked them for about 8 minutes at 375 degrees. They took less time than regular cookies because they were smaller.

Here's the finished product. I didn't notice any difference in taste due to the freezing.

Yay to having fresh cookies whenever I want in just 8 short minutes.

The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts (Chocolate Coated Heath Encrusted Pretzels)

I was watching last night's Top Chef and one of the judges said "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" about one of Kevin's dishes. I was thinking, "I know a recipe like that" which is actually timely because this is one of The Captains holiday cookies. If you invite him over to your house during the holidays, chances are good that he will bring you a cellophane bag of full these bad boys. I remember the first year we were together baking cookies for the holidays, thinking that these were a little to plebeian for my taste, as I tend to like my recipes complicated. But these guys, for all of their store-bought-assembled-cheap-ingredientness, are really good. Like can't stop eating them good. And simple to make.

Melt a half of a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Nuke em for about a minute, give em a stir, and give them another 30 seconds or so.

Then take mini pretzels, hold them by one of the top loops...

...dip them in the melted chocolate...

...then put the chocolate side into a bowl of Heath bits (available in the baking section by the chocolate chips)...

...and lay them on some foil or parchment paper until the chocolate hardens back up.

The funny thing is, is that I am not really a Heath person either. But when you mix all of these guys together, you get some kind of salty, sweet, buttery, yeasty creation that is seriously hard to resist.

Bacon Wrapped Herb Stuffed Chicken Breasts

This is another one of those use up what I got around the house/garden recipes. I started by grabbing some sage, green onion, and parsley out of the garden. I chopped it up with some garlic.Then I took a couple of chicken breasts, and sliced them horizontally from the thick middle to the outside (both sides, not going all the way through) to open them up like a french doors. Then I covered them with plastic wrap, and pounded them flat(ter) with a piece of marble. I don't have a mallet. I should lie and say I used a mallet for the sake of simplicity. Who pounds chicken with a marble sample?

Anyway, once they were flattened out a bit, I seasoned them with some salt and pepper...

and put some butter and my chopped herbs in the center.

Then I folded them up like a burrito, wrapped them each in a couple strips of bacon, and toothpicked them up to hold them together. I put them in a hot pan that had a little bit of olive oil in it to start the cooking.

I browned on all four sides, to give the bacon a head start on crispiness and then put the pan in the oven for about 20 minutes to finish cooking.

Here's what they looked like, just out of the oven.

After a few minutes of resting time, I sliced them up.

I have to say that they were pretty good, except for the fact that they garlic still had a raw taste to it when I ate it. I have since made it again and used roasted garlic for the herb stuffing (didn't take pics that time, sorry) and it was much more tasty with the roasted stuff.

Grandma Nancy's Sweet Potatoes

This Thanksgiving season, I am thankful for the fact that I still have both of my maternal grandparents. I am also thankful that my maternal grandmother doesn't have access to the Internet. Here's her super awesome sweet potato recipe. It's sweetened mashed sweet potatoes topped with a brown sugar/nut crust. They are fantastic. Just don't tell her that I gave you the recipe.

(As you can see from the pic, I truly intended on making some of these to photograph for the blog. I just ran out of time. The potatoes are from Chartrand Farms -they have a sign "Sweet Potatoes with Dirt". I love it.)

Anyway, here it is:

Sweet Potatoes:

2 lbs sweet potatoes

1/4 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 t salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 t vanilla

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

2 t cinnamon

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

Boil potatoes. Drain and mash with butter. Add sugar, salt eggs, milk and vanilla. Pour into a greased 9 inch baking dish. Mix remaining ingredients except pecans. Stir in nuts. Spread on top and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

I Got Some Oil

Well, I finally ran out of olive oil, so I went up to DiGregorio's to investigate the propane exchange-like oil thing they got going on. I decided upon the 32 ounce version. So for $16.99, I got the bottle you see on the left. Refills are only $11.99. As you can see, I've already used some and I think it's really good. Definately better quality than the stuff I normally buy (which is usually whatever is on sale.) It's really fruity. If I had three thumbs, I would give it an enthusiastic three thumbs up. One for the nice flavor, another for the value, and a third for its recycle-y nature.

Yikes I Didn't Realize Thanksgiving Is Next Week

So I need to share a couple of our special Turkey Day recipes with you. Today its the cranberry sauce. Hands down, the best cranberry sauce you will ever taste. My grandmother apparently plucked it from the pages of Better Homes and Gardens back in 1994 and tweaked it. It is awesome and it will make a cranberry eater out of anyone.

Cranberry Conserve

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup butter

2 tsp vinegar
1 large onion, chopped

1 12oz bag of cranberries

1/4 cup apple juice

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp ground cloves

2 1/2 cups sugar
1 jalepeno pepper, chopped

In skillet: Combine brown sugar, butter and vinegar over medium heat stirring constantly - 2 minutes. Add onion and cook on low until tender. Remove from heat. In large pot: Combine all other ingredients and bring to a boil for 5 - 7 minutes stirring contantly. Add skillet contents and cook on low heat. Let cool and chill for 24 hours.