New Recipe for Week of Dec. 29, 2013

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year.  Perhaps you all have  been cooking right along with us and will find the time to post your results and reviews soon.  In looking through the cookbook I see we have cooked a lot of the recipes.  Lets try the Mini Puffed Oven Pancakes with Easy Berry Sauce on page 12.   

Jacki and Leslee's Pepperoncini Beef and Spinach-Walnut Salad

I made these two recipes on the day Leslee and her family came in to town for the Christmas holiday.  First up is the review on the Pepperoncini Beef Sandwiches.  All I can say is YUM! We all liked it.  In the recipe book she has a tip about the different brands of pepperoncinis.  I bought the spicier  one - Marzetti because that is what the store had.  It made the beef perfectly tasty.  I think you could do this with pork and even chicken.  So good and easy.  Some of us had the beef on sandwich rolls and others had it on rice - very good both ways. I forgot to take a picture with either the roll or rice so I just put some of the meat on a plate.
Next is the review of the Spinach-Walnut Salad with Fresh Citrus.  It was also delicious.  I really liked the fresh oranges in it.  For the dressing I only added half the oil and made up the difference with water and it was fine. 

New recipes for week of Dec.15th

I chose two recipes and one craft for this weeks picks.
1. Pepperoncini Beef Sandwiches pg. 222
2. Spinach-Walnut Salad with Fresh Citrus pg. 214
3. Tin Can Treats pg. 130
I'm looking forward to trying the sandwich and salad recipes as they look simple and tasty.  I've also been saving my tin cans for this craft project and thought that it would be something fun to hand out at Christmas time.  Have fun :)

Tarin's Beignets and Hot Chocolate

We had the missionaries over for dinner last night and they are always my best guinea pigs. I made these for dessert. They were really good. I followed the directions exactly, except I cooked them in normal veggie oil. Everyone enjoyed them, but I felt like they tasted more like the scones that we make with bread dough. But they were easy and fun so I'll probably make them again.

As far as the hot chocolate it was a pretty good/basic recipe. I really liked the toasted marshmallows on tops with the chocolate sauce, but something about the graham cracker bits on the side just kind of weirded me out, but they looked really pretty. (Sorry I forgot to take a picture!)

New Recipes

Sorry everyone that I am so late posting the recipes this week! Thank you Jackie for the reminder! The last couple weeks have been crazy with travel, remodeling our kitchen, and office Christmas parties...oh and a week of negative degree weather! 

So with all that in mind lets do the:

S'mores Hot Chocolate on pg 202 

Beignets on pg 44

Jenny's Caesar Salad

This week I made the caesar salad.  I used it as a side salad, so I didn't do the chicken, although I would love to try it that way too some time.

After reading Leslee's review I cut down on the oil too.  I would say I did about 3/4 a cup, instead of the full cup.  When I first tasted the dressing I thought it was a tad too lemon-y.  But after I tossed the salad I realized I was wrong!  I thought it was great!

I am usually not a crouton gal, but these homemade ones were delish.  I made them just as the recipe states, except I forgot to toss them in the parmesan cheese at the end.  The whole time I was making them it was running through my mind, "Don't forget the cheese at the end...don't forget the cheese."  But it didn't matter.  I still forgot.  They still tasted great though!

I would definitely make the salad again.  I want to try it with the chicken.  It would be a fun salad to make for a luncheon.  And I thought it would taste great with some purple onion, tomatoes, and black olives...but I guess then it wouldn't quite be a caesar salad ;)

Jacki's Pumpkin Muffins and Chicken Caesar Salad

I made both of these recipes today and they were good!  I followed the recipe for the muffins as directed except I didn't have pumpkin pie spice so I made my own by mixing up cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg.  Easy and delicious.  Of course I forgot to add the chocolate chips until after I had filled the muffin cups for baking but at least I had not topped with the streusel yet.  So, I added some chocolate chips to each muffin and stirred them in with a chop stick.  The whole bag of chocolate chips the recipe asked for seemed like a lot so I didn't add it all but I should have.  What was I thinking?...too much chocolate?! Never.  Anyway, good, tasty recipe.I only needed to cook the muffins for 20 minutes.  Having said all that I recently made a much easier pumpkin muffin courtesy of Pinterest where I just mixed yellow cake mix and canned pumpkin and the above mentioned spices and I loved it - dense and moist. 
The Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad was also very good.  I did make a mistake though.  I remembered Leslee said she only added half the oil so I did as well, but......I didn't add milk or water in place of the rest of the oil and the dressing was SO strong.  So, good to add less oil but be sure to make up the difference with water or milk.  The croutons were so tasty and a fun addition to the salad.  Another good recipe. 

New Recipes for Dec 1st

This week I have chosen:
1. Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad pg 82
2.Streusel-Topped Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins pg 140

I have actually already made the Chicken Caesar Salad so I will give my review:) I made the homemade croutons and those were a hit and a nice addition to the salad. I cute way back on the olive oil in the dressing since 1 cup seemed like a lot and it didn't make too big of a difference. It was a yummy salad that surprisingly my whole family liked!

Jacki's Tortellini Sausage Soup

I made this soup a few weeks ago and loved it.  I followed the recipe exactly except I used apple juice instead of apple cider because the store only had 1 gallon jugs of cider and I don't love it that much.  The recipe was easy to put together and made good leftovers for a few lunches.  I would definitely make this again.

Jacki's Dulce de Leche and Butternut Squash Pasta

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, and good food!  And, maybe you were able to catch up on a few recipes from our blog too.  A couple of weeks ago I made the Dulce de Leche and the Butternut Squash Pasta with Pumpkin Sauce. Both were good.  The Dulce de Leche was super easy and made a nice dip for sliced apples.  I followed the directions exactly and wasn't disappointed. 
For the Roasted Butternut Squash with Pumpkin sauce I made a few minor adjustments to the recipe.  The store I went to didn't have any fresh butternut squash (I know, strange for this time of year) but they did have frozen butternut squash so I bought that instead which was easier since I didn't have to peel and dice it.  I omitted the sage and rosemary.  I was wondering if the sauce would have too much of a pumpkin flavor but it didn't - very tasty.  Next time I would probably omit the onions or dice them fine and saute them first.  I like onions but the roasted ones were still a little firm for the dish where everything else was soft and creamy.  I wasn't in love with this recipe but I thought it was good and glad I tried it.   A different twist on pasta.
                                         
                                         Dulce de Leche

                                          This is what it looked like all ready for the oven

                                          Above is the Roasted Butternut Squash with Pumpkin Sauce.

PaleOMG – Paleo Recipes – Eggnog Pumpkin Pie with Gingerbread Crust

PaleOMG – Paleo Recipes – Eggnog Pumpkin Pie with Gingerbread Crust

New recipe

Sorry this is being posted so late. I've picked some recipes that look delicious!

Cheesy tortellini spinach bake on page 30
Homemade dulce de leche on page 135

Enjoy!

Kim

Jenny's Vegetable Beef Soup and Mini Tostada Salads

 I've been trying to catch up this past week and I made a couple of recipes from way back that I missed and wanted to try.  The first was the Vegetable Beef soup.  It was SO good!  I am not usually a big fan of this type of soup, but this soup was fantastic.  It was super easy to make and it tasted great.  I ended up using potatoes instead of barely or quinoa.  The potatoes were delish in it.  And I used a can of green beans instead of frozen/fresh.  Other than that I followed the recipe exactly.  It made a ton and I enjoyed eating the leftovers for lunch over the days.  It was a pretty guiltless meal in my opinion.  I would definitely make it again!

The other night I made the tostada salad.  I opted not to make the tortilla cups, but made the salad as the recipe called for.  I added some rotissere chicken and some avocado.  I loved this salad.  It was another hit...with me :)  My kids are really picky, so they didn't want to touch it.  My husband isn't a huge salad eater either, but he did put some of the salad mix in his tortillas with additional chicken and cheese and he really liked it.  I loved the flavor of the dressing and the cilantro.  I would for sure make this salad again.  It was healthy and fresh and right up my alley!

Kim's review

I also don't have pictures, sorry about that, I know it's way more fun to read a review with pictures.

Chicken and wild rice soup- we loved this!! The only problem is I used a rice medley I had on hand which takes much longer to cook than normal. So I decided to cook it before hand and then add it to the soup, which resulted in very overdone rice, other than that it was delicious!

Butternut squash pasta- this was so good and didn't take that much time to make. My kids actually ate it and my 6 year old said it was amazing. Next time I will cut the squash a little bigger, I made the chunks pretty small and they became much smaller after baking them. They had the best flavor though! The bacon added to the dish! Also, I didn't have fresh herbs so I used dry herbs and just halved the amount they were asking. It tasted so good, and I will for sure make it again.

Kim

New recipes: week of 11/10

Since it's going to start cooling off where I am at I'm going to stick with the soup theme.  Let's try tortellini sausage soup on page 148.

Jenny's Chicken and Wild Rice Soup and Mummy Dogs

I am lame and don't have any pictures!  Sad!

I made the Chicken and Wild Rice Soup a couple of weeks ago and we loved it!!  I will definitely make it again.  That night was our ward's Trunk or Treat and my husband was working late.  It was just sort of crazy cooking dinner and getting everybody ready...which is why I don't have any pictures :)  But when my husband met up with us later I asked if he liked the soup and he said he ate 3 bowls of it.  So...that is a pretty high endorsement from him.

I made the soup just as it says.  I agree with Audrey that you could definitely leave out the last step and have a more broth-y soup and it would be good too.  But the roux gave it such a great texture.  I thought it was kind of strange adding artichokes to soup, but I love artichokes, so I went ahead with it.  I thought it added a great depth of flavor, but I can see how some might not like it.  I used a rotisserie chicken too and I thought it added a lot to the soup as well.  I served the soup with some rolls and some fresh fruit.

I made the Mummy Dogs on Halloween Night.  Again...no pictures.  But they were cute and easy and my kids thought they were awesome.  Next year I will try to plan ahead better for Halloween dinner and get more into the Halloween foods!  Or make them the night before when it isn't quite so hectic.  Fun recipes!

All of these reviews look so delish!  I have had company in town for the past couple of weeks, but I'm hoping to catch up on some that I've missed.  Now that it's finally cooling off here in Houston these fall and winter recipes look so appetizing!

Apple Butter Pork Chops, Caramelized Onions, Halloween Food

Pork Chops - my husband requested pork chops the week I made these but this wasn't what he had in mind:)  I, on the other hand, really liked these and I am not a pork chop lover. I liked the flavor of the sauce and the caramelized onions. My onions didn't turn as dark as the ones in the cookbook picture but I really liked them. 

For the Halloween Party Food I chose to make the Mummy Dogs and the Monster Jaws.  They were both really easy and good.  I used pine nuts instead of slivered almonds on the apples and peanut butter for the eyes.

Jacki's Wild Rice Soup

Ok, I absolutely LOVED this soup.  It was nice and chunky and hearty - just like I like my soup! I cut the recipe in half because there is only the two of us but I ended up making another half batch a few days later because I loved it so much and wanted it for lunch.  I used button mushrooms instead of the baby bella and a brown rice/wild rice mixture.  I also added the flour milk combo but I agree with Audrey that it could be left out too and still be good.  I think they also mentioned they didn't care for the artichokes in it but I really liked the flavor it added.  I will definitely be making this soup again. 

Jacki's Vegetable Beef Barley Soup

Good soup!  I used ground venison in place of the beef and quinoa in place of the barley.  It had a good flavor and was easy to make.  Also made good leftovers.

Jacki's Swedish Meatballs and Apple Pear Crisp

I liked the Swedish meatballs - I thought the mustard gave them a really good flavor.  I omitted the capers and used ground venison in place of the ground beef but other than that I followed the recipe as directed.  Oh, I also omitted the optional cream.  I served this with mashed potatoes instead of the boiled red potatoes. 

I liked the Apple-Pear-Cranberry Crisp as well although I substituted dried cherries for the cranberries because I didn't have any.  I cut the recipe in half and used an 8 inch Pyrex dish.  I really liked the combination of the pears and apples but the cherries didn't quite go - maybe the cranberries would have been better.  I served it with vanilla ice cream - yum!

This weeks dish - Week of Nov 3

Roasted butternut squash pasta with pumpkin sauce.....Pg. 172

Homemade dulce de leche....Pg 135

Rutter Kitchen- Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

 Dana and Ashley finishing up the soup

Dinner is served!

 

We Followed the recipe and got all the veggies chopped up and sautéing in the big pot.  We used less onion and more carrots and celery and sautéed the mushrooms on the side as not everyone likes them.  We used some chicken broth and also some chicken base and that tasted good.  I could only find quick wild rice at our store, so that decreased our cooking time for the soup which was actually nice.  I had some rotisserie chicken that we cubed up and used and that gave the soup a good flavor also.  We could probably have lessened the amount of broth that we put in since the rice was the quick version, but it still was good.  Also, it you prefer more of a broth soup, you could skip the butter, flour and milk that you mix up and add to the soup at the end.  I think that it would still taste good.  We did add the chopped artichoke hearts and we won't add those again.  We thought it was kind of strange in the soup.  It was a nice and easy meal to put together.  We served garlic rolls with it.  I would probably fix the soup again.  Great for cold winter nights, which we are just starting to get :)

Rutter Kitchen- Swedish Meatballs & Apple-Pear-Cranberry Crisp

 Combining meatball ingredients

 Ready to broil

 Sauce ready for the meatballs

 Ready to serve

 Ready to bake

 Fresh out of the oven

 Dinner is served!

Dessert time :)
 

Ashley and I followed the recipe for the Swedish Meatballs and it went really well.  We did add the optional cream and also added more beef broth as it got a little thick.  I think we needed even more though.  The meatballs and gravy had good flavor and we served them over the big egg noodles.  I thought it tasted very similar to beef stroganoff, so if you like that dish you should like this recipe.  We had cranberry sauce and peas on the side and that tasted good.  For the Crisp we used the five granny smith apples, a mixture of different kinds of pears and the cranberries.  It was pretty simple to put together.  Slicing the fruit took the longest in prep time.  Even though it called for a 9 x 13 dish, I wanted to use an oval dish that I had because it had a glass top we could use.  It was deeper and so as a result the crisp took a long time to cook ;(  I think it took as least 1  1/2 hours.  I had to cut some foil and cover the top of the dish partway though as the topping was getting too brown.  I would recommend sticking with the size of pan that they suggest!  It does make quite a bit, so I would probably half it if I make it again for our family.  We liked both dishes, but I probably won't make the Swedish Meatballs again, as we don't eat a lot of that kind of food.  It was fun to try though :)  We did like the crisp, so we might do that again. 

Rutter Kitchen-Mini Tostado Salads, Tomatillo Salsa & Monster Munch Snack Mix

 Roasted veggies were very simple to do for the salsa and then we just blended them up in the food processor.

 The salad mixture ready to mix up.

 Ashley finishing up the salad.

 We decided to cook up some precooked fajita meat and let people add it to the salads if they wanted it.

 Here's the finished meal.  We thought it was very good! Pretty simple to make.  We also fixed some zatarains black beans and rice to go with it.   

 Johnny sampling the candy popcorn and he liked it!

Here's the Monster munch ready to munch.  We liked it, but its a bit too rich, so we will probably stick with our regular popcorn.  It was fun to have for a special treat though.  We liked all the recipes, but liked the Mini Tostado Salads the best :)

Ok, I am filling in for Nika this week and since my husband requested pork chops appear on the dinner menu this week I will chose APPLE BUTTER PORK CHOPS (152). Since this recipe calls for CARMELIZED ONIONS (117) I will select that too. And, since this is Halloween week lets go with any of the HALLOWEEN PARTY FOOD listed on page 174-175. You can just pick whatever works for your family. I have been cooking and have several reviews to post but computer issues need to be resolved first. Hopefully soon!

New Recipe, Oct. 21

Hey ladies,

I've fallen a bit behind!  I am going to try to catch up these next couple of weeks.  Because I'm behind I am only picking one recipe this week :)

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup, pg. 146

I have a friend that raves about this soup, so it's time for me to see if it's as good as she says ;)

Kim's review

I haven't posted a review forever but I have been cooking the meals. Also, my 4 year old son was playing with my phone and let me know that I had too many weird pictures of food and so he did me a favor by deleting them! Awesome! So, I don't have pix to go along with my reviews.

Vegetable barley soup- I really liked this! The whole family liked it too. It made a ton, but it reheated really well. I used quinoa and like someone else said, If I make it again I probably won't add as much, it seem like the quinoa was dominating the soup.

Whole grain crescent rolls- These were pretty good but not my favorite. My little boys wouldn't even eat them because there was so much stuff on top and that weirded them out. They also took a really long time to make and sometimes if something takes too long I get turned off by it. I could also taste the flax pretty strong. I will probably add less if I ever make them again.

Weeknight chili- Yummy! And super easy. I followed the recipe perfectly and it turned out delicious! I'm going to make it this Friday for our wards trunk or treat and chili cook off.

Lemon cake- This cake turned out really delicious and I am not even a super lemony person. Everybody liked it the only problem was my cake wasn't perfectly level so when I poured the glaze on top a lot of it gathered in the middle, making the middle extra moist, borderline soggy! It tasted delicious with cream on top though!

Thai coconut soup- I loved everything about this soup! The entire family ate all of it! I used leftover rotisserie chicken and the whole thing came together very quickly. I will make the soup again, probably a lot!

Hopefully I don't get so far behind again. These recipes are all so yummy!

Kim

Recipes for Week of Oct. 13th

Swedish Meatballs    157

Apple-Pear-Cranberry Crisp     190

Due to recent travels I am behind on my cooking so I hope to catch up a bit this week on all the recipes I have missed.

Jacki’s Weeknight Chili

I made this when I was at Nika’s house taking care of the grandkids while she and her hubs were gallivanting around Italy of all places!  (I actually had a really fun time). Anyway, it was quick to throw together and I cooked it in the crockpot so that made it really easy. I thought it was really good and all of the kids ate it so  it was a success. I didn’t have beef broth so I substituted chicken broth.  The chili had a mild flavor so if I made it again I might add a little of  Tabasco sauce or cayenne pepper.  Served it with cornbread and applesauce.

Leslee's Recipes

Okay well as usual, lots to report on!
Mini tostada salads: I was planning to make this whole recipe on day but Sean was going to be working late so instead of making the cute little tortilla bowls I just threw it all together into a salad bowl for myself. I knew the kids wouldn't appreciate it:) Anyway the dressing was SO GOOD! I really liked it. I halved the oil to make it a little healthier and it worked great. I have used it several more times on various salads.
Monster Munch: Sweet and Crunchy Autumn Snack Mix: I had made a similar popcorn mix a few weeks ago to take to the ladies I visit teach but instead of the mix ins I just used m&ms. It was delicious so Summer and I decided to try it again and take some to her teacher and student teacher at school. The kids helped me make it one night and it was super quick and easy to make. The candy corn, peanuts and Reese's pieces were a fun addition! 

Glazed lemon cake: I made this cake with a gluten free yellow cake mix so I could try it and it turned out delicious. I followed all the other directions and ingredients. We had the sister missionaries over for dinner that night and so we had that for dessert. Everyone loved it and went back for seconds! The kids called it the lemonade cake. I actually preferred eating it with some cool whip on top to balance out the richness of it. 

Weeknight Chili: This was a good easy recipe to make. It came together nice and quickly and we ate it with fritos and cheese on top. We all liked it but I do prefer the Anita's Chili recipe we made way back when we first started this blog and I will probably stick with that one. 

I haven't made the complete S'mores cupcakes yet but I have use the marshmallow frosting recipe several times and it is so so good! It is definitely my favorite for frosting cupcakes with! 

Jenny's Weeknight Chili

On Sunday I made the Weeknight Chili.  It was actually a cooler day in Houston, so it was the right day to make it!

What was great about this chili is that it was SO fast to make.  I made the recipe just as it says, except I added an extra can of beans because one can just didn't sound like a lot.  We ate the chili with some fritos and/or rolls, and a side of fruit.  I thought the recipe was good.  But I have another chili recipe that I've been using that we really like and I would probably keep using that one.  It has a bit more kick/flavor to it.

New Recipes- October 6th

Well since we are still having some warm days here in Oklahoma, I chose recipes from Spring, Summer and Autumn.  I'm not ready for the cold weather yet!  Hope that you will all enjoy them :)
Mini tostada Salads pg. 18
Roasted Tomatillo Salsa pg. 73
Monster Munch: Sweet and Crunchy Autumn Snack Mix pg.  176

Rutter Kitchen-Vegetable Beef Barley Soup and rolls

This soup was such a nice easy recipe to make and we really liked that.  I did the prep work for the recipe, like getting everything chopped and measured and set out ready to put in the pot.  I also cooked up the ground beef and drained and rinsed it like we like it and then cooked the onions with it.  Ashley then put everything together and then kept an eye on it while it simmered.  We added 1/8th tsp. of the red pepper flakes and think that next time we'll add 1/4th tsp. instead as we would like a bit more heat.  We had time for it to simmer for about an hour before we were ready to eat.  We put in what the recipe called for and we chose the barley to use.  We added the barley as stated 1/2 an hour before eating.  I didn't have time to get all the ingredients for the crescent rolls and to make them ahead as we had a busy week, so we will cook and post about them another time.  We chose the Rosemary rolls from the Pioneer Woman's last cookbook instead and they tasted great!  We really liked the soup and the rolls and will be cooking both recipes again.  Hope that you have a chance to try these recipes out :)

 Soup assembled and ready to cook.

Ready to eat :)

Jenny's Thai Coconut Soup

This is long overdue!  But a couple of weeks ago I made the Thai Coconut Soup.  It was really good!  I thought that it was going to be super coconut-y with the can of coconut milk in it, but it had such a mild flavor.  I thought the soup in general was just a nice twist on chicken noodle soup.

I cooked my chicken in the crock pot earlier in the day, so it was really tender and moist.  After reading Jackie's review I added all of the liquid the recipe called for.  Even so, the noodles really sucked up a lot and there wasn't a lot of extra broth.  I also used the cilantro from the tube and thought it tasted fine.  My kids ate it great, so it was definitely a successful recipe.  And the soup came together so quickly.  Seriously, one of the fastest dinners I've made.  You could easily add some vegetables to it, but my kids probably ate it because there weren't any in there :)  In one of the little side notes it suggested using rice instead of noodles.  I love noodles, and thought they were fun, but I think it would be yummy with the rice too.

Tarin's Veggie Soup and Crescent Rolls

Let me start out by saying that we LOVED both of these dishes. I made a full batch of each Tuesday since the missionaries were coming to dinner and I had no leftovers. Well 2 crescent rolls, but between 4 adults and 2 toddlers, I was certain I had enough for lunch the next day.

Here were my awesome helpers :)

I made the soup with quinoa and I wish that I had done half that amount...I also put in potatoes instead of onions, and omitted the dry onion soup mix (my allergies). The flavor was delicious and I will definitely be making this again.

Now my only complaint about the crescent rolls was getting all of the ingredients. I had to go to a couple stores to find everything! But they were really good! I didn't quite half the dough evenly so half turned out normal size and as you  can see the second batch turned out monster size, but no one seemed to mind :)

New Recipe

So I've been MIA on Blogger the last couple weeks so I might have just noticed today that it was my week to choose so sorry that this is going up a little late.

Since it's starting to get cold over here I've been in soup mode! So let's try the Vegetable Beef Barley Soup, pg 220 with the Hearty Whole Grain Crescent Rolls, pg 138.

I'm hungry just looking at the pictures! Yum!

Rutter Kitchen-Weeknight Chili

We fixed this recipe on our usual cooking night.  We decided to cook two versions of chili, since our guys aren't real crazy about beans and veggies in their chili ;) Ashley cooked the Weekend Chili and I cooked our usual version of chili.  They both turned out great and everyone was happy! Ashley started out by cooking the ground beef and then drained it and did a quick rinse under hot water.  We don't like meat fat floating on top of our chili ;)  She then put it in a big pot and followed the rest of the recipe.  Very simple and I already had most of the ingredients.  This would be a great recipe to do in a crock pot or in the oven.  We surprised our guys and they liked the chili! They did like the fact that we fixed both of our versions just in case.  Doug even ate the leftovers a couple days later.  We topped our chili with shredded sharp cheddar or mozzarella cheese.  We also had Frito's for those who wanted them in their chili.  This was a successful recipe and we will fix it again :)  

 Johnny having a taste test.  He actually ate most of it. 

 Our usual version of chili.  Meat, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, Williams Chili Seasoning etc...

Weeknight Chili :)