Tuesday, November 15, 2011

French Toast with Buttermilk Syrup


Last week I made the french toast with buttermilk syrup. It was so yummy! And very sweet! It was like eating donuts. But it was definitely good french toast. My family loved it too.

I actually ate it without the syrup to begin with and I thought it was great. It's already sweet enough. But the syrup is good too. The syrup gave me a little grief, but it was my fault. I started cooking it in a pot that was too small. All of a sudden it boiled out everywhere. It was a mess! So I transferred it to a bigger pot and things went much better. I think I might have cooked it a little too long...but it was still tasty.

I froze half of the french toast like the book said. We pulled it out yesterday and it tasted really good. So it is good to know that that is an option.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Jacki’s Review of Double Chocolate Waffles.

These were absolutely delicious!  Nothing better than dessert for breakfast:)  Actually, I made these for dinner and served them with an egg and some sausage but just the waffles and some milk would have been plenty because they are so rich.  At first I was a little disappointed because they came out of the waffle iron soggy but they crisped right up after just a minute or two.  I like a crispy waffle.  I made the berry sauce to go with it and it was good but I think next time I would just use cut up berries and skip the whole jam and hot water part.  Of course I also added some fresh whipped cream – divine!

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Jacki’s Smoky Bean Soup and Banana Cream Pie.

I made both of the recipes a few nights ago for dinner and they didn’t disappoint.  I followed the Bean soup as directed but added just a little bit less broth than called for.   I also used white potatoes and peeled them.   I thought it had a really good flavor and it made good leftovers.  I served it with corn muffins and sliced pears. 

The store I went to didn’t have the Nilla Wafer pie crust so I just bought some Nilla Wafers and made my own.  The filling was very good but quite sweet so I think the next time I will just use a regular pie crust to counter the filling sweetness since the cookie based crust was quite sweet also.  It was still really tasty though.  One of the best banana cream fillings I have had.  I would also add more bananas next time.  I used the vanilla flavor pudding.   Also, I made the recipe as directed and used a 9 inch Pyrex glass pie plate and all of the filling fit into it.  So if you want to get two pies out of the recipe I would use the 8 inch pie plates.    I would make both of these recipes again. 

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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Puffed French Toast

From 2011-11-02 (by Eye-Fi)
This was really yummy (Jake loved it so much I thought he was going to cry). I served it with bananas on top and that was so good! Somehow I missed that we were suppose to make it with the syrup recipe :( which sounds really good. I probably will only make this on special occasions from now on though since there isn't a ton of nutritional value. But definitely a keeper!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Jenny's Sort Of Catch-up





This is my sort of catch-up. I'm still behind on a few recipes! But I will make them soon.

I actually made the greek cous cous salad a few months back. I thought it was really yummy and a good salad to take to a potluck. I made it without feta, because Al doesn't like feta, but I missed it. I think next time I will just add feta to mine and keep Al's plain. I thought I had taken a picture of the salad, but I can't seem to find it...

The waffles were yummy! And the whole family liked them. I actually made the strawberry syrup that is in the book to go with them because I had a lot of strawberries, and not the berry syrup that was on the same page as the waffles. Anyway, the waffles were easy and we love to have breakfast for dinner here, so I will definitely make them again.

I thought the pumpkin shakes were delish! And again, the whole family loved them. We added mini chocolate chips to ours and left off the graham crackers. The chocolate was good, but I think I would have like it even better without. They really hit the spot and were a fun seasonal treat.

Recipes For Week Of 11/6

Smoky Bean Soup with Ham and Bacon    101

Banana Cream Pie                                                224

Puffed French Toast and Syrup

I made this breakfast this morning and it was a success.  They syrup gave me a bit of a hard time but I think I just needed to use a bigger pot. It turned out really tasty though, just like candy! For the french toast I used french bread because when I was looking for Texas Toast they only had garlic flavored and I didn’t think that would work out. The french toast worked out well though.  I didn’t have enough oil to really fry them but they turned out nice and golden brown.  Sean isn’t a big french toast fan but he thought these were really good!

 

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Friday, November 4, 2011

Jacki and Nika’s Chicken Tortilla Soup and Grilled Taco Chicken

I have been traveling so I am waaaay behind on my cooking and postings.  Hope to catch up soon.  While I was visiting Nika and family we made the Grilled Taco Chicken one day for dinner and used the leftovers to make the Tortilla soup the next day.  Both recipes were excellent.  The Grilled Taco Chicken had just the right amount of spice and bite and the soup had a very good flavor.  For the grilled chicken we followed the recipe as directed except doubled it.  Served it with a lime/cilantro type rice and salad along with some pineapple.    When we made the soup we added a can of black beans to give it more substance and if we had any we would have added some corn.  I would also add less of the broth next time.    Nika fried up some corn tortilla strips to go with it which tasted really good as well.  Grated cheese, diced tomatoes and avocados were toppers.   Definitely two recipes to make again.

The Grilled Taco Chicken – delicious.

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Chicken Tortilla Soup – delicious.

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Thursday, November 3, 2011

Tarin's Puffed French Toast & Syrup

We loved these recipes! They were both easy and delicious. Just a few comments:

The syrup was definitely worth it. I was really concerned when I started making this because I couldn't see how this:

Would turn into this...

But somehow it did :) It did take longer than 7-9 minutes and then if you really want that thick syrup texture you need to really wait for it to cool. But everyone agreed that it was so much better than store bought syrup.

For the puffed french toast, if you try to fry these at 375 for 3-5 minutes on each side you will be eating burnt french toast. I fried them at about 350ish for 30-40 seconds on each side and they were perfect. Crispy and brown without the burnt flavor!

Here's the batter for your bread...it reminded me of a thin pancake batter.

Heating up the oil.

And frying up the toast. I would also recommend for those of you who haven't done a lot of frying to make sure not to try and overstuff your pan with the bread slices. They cook quicker, more evenly, and are easier to flip when it isn't packed.


And the completed dish. My brother Jack (14) said that this was the best french toast in the world. Score!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Recipes this Week

Hey everyone, sorry to be posting this so late! It's a crazy week here so I decided to only choose 2 things:

Puffed French Toast, pg 64
Buttermily Caramel Syrup, pg 70

Happy Cooking!
Tarin

Recipe Catch Up

I have a few recipes I tried lately from the last few weeks.

First up is the Double Chocolate Waffles.  These were delicious! I served them with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. I made a gluten free and regular version, both really tasty!

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One night last week I made a big batch of the grilled taco chicken.  The first night we had it in tacos.  That was good and I preferred the taste of the seasoning to the packet of taco seasoning.  The next day I used the extras to make the Taco Soup.  This was easy to make and tasty.  It more liquid then some other versions I have made but still good.  Sean appreciated that there wasn’t beans in there but I think they would be a nice addition.

I made the Stovetop Kettle Corn for our little Halloween Preschool Party and it was a big hit, especially among us moms! It was pretty easy to make and was really good!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Kim's review

Last week I made the 3 recipes I chose.

First up, the pumpkin shake... yum!!! I was a little hesitant when I was adding the pumpkin puree but mixed with the ice cream and everything else it was yummy and delicious. I made it for my kids who quickly gobbled it up.


The chocolate waffles (this is my husbands attempt to try and take a "pretty" picture! I thought these were really good. They are really sweet and you fill up on them fast. When I fisrt started pouring the batter to make the waffles I thought we weren't going to have enough for everyone but since they are so rich, it's hard to eat a lot. I think we even had a little left over. We didn't have any cream, that would have tasted yummy on them but probably made them even sweeter.


I LOVED the Greek couscous. I didn't add the olives or parsley. Also, I threw some chicken on our George Foreman and tossed it in. I didn't chill it for 2 hours either. We actually ate it warm and thought it was delicious. It all came together in just a couple of minutes and tasted fresh and light! YUM!! I ate some for leftovers yesterday and it was still really good but I think I kind of preferred it warm.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Since it is starting to feel a little bit like fall here I thought we should make a soup..
Chicken tortilla soup pg. 100
with the Grilled Taco Chicken pg. 114
And Stovetop Kettle Corn pg. 256

Happy cooking!



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Location:New recipes

Friday, October 21, 2011

Leslee’s Recipes

Last week we made the Cookie Sundae Cups for dessert.  I too had to cook mine for awhile and I think I might have cooked them a tad bit too long.  They were still nice and soft though when we ate them hot with ice cream and the toppings on top.  Very yummy!

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Last night I made the Greek Couscous Salad but made a few changes.  I can’t eat couscous so I used quinoa instead.  It seemed like the best substitution.  Everything else I followed except substituting the cucumbers for broccoli (Sean doesn’t like them!).  I also just used regular olives because I wasn’t feeling too adventurous to try the other ones.  I guess I took a lot of the Greek out of this salad!    I thought the dressing was just a bit too oily but I didn’t end up using it all anyway.  Overall I thought the salad turned out great and it was light and fresh tasting. We ate it with some grilled chicken.  It was a good alternative to rice or potatoes!

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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Tarin Playing Catch Up

So I while I don't have any pictures I have done a couple of our recipes so far...

I loved the cookies in the cups. I've done this before in a bigger sized container and was glad that I tried it in the ramekins, they are officially called pizookies but I know that there is a restaurant in Utah called The Chocolate that calls them cazookies which is where I saw them for the first time.   I also had to cook them longer, I don't know if it's because I put more dough in than I was supposed to but they turned out yummy.

The other one I just did was the white bean chicken chili. I haven't really had many chicken chili's before and I figured that this would just taste like a soup, but when I took my first bite I really thought chili. I made it on the stove top and let it just simmer for about an hour before serving it. I also thought the lime at the end was the perfect flavor! We also crumbled up tortilla chips and I tried it with some sour cream and cheese and it was just delicious. It was so easy, healthy, and yummy. Even Jack liked it and he hates all things chicken. Definitely a keeper.

Monday, October 17, 2011

New Recipes!!

Please excuse my crazy pregnant mind. I think these recipes are a little random, but they each sound so good to me right now!

Double Chocolate Waffles with Berry Sauce (pg 63)

Pumpkin Pie Milkshake (pg 244)

Greek Couscous Salad (pg 79)

I know these things don't go together, but don't they all sound so yummy?! Happy Cooking everyone!

Kim's review


I made the white chicken chili and it was delicious. The first time I made it I did it in the crock pot and the second time (yes, it was that yummy!), I did it on the stove. Each time it was perfectly tasty and a winner at my house. It is easy but so delicious. A keeper for sure!



I made the cornbread and I liked it. Like everyone has said (and the cookbook too), it makes A LOT!! I thought the taste was perfect for me. They were just a little crumbly for my liking. It made a huge mess when my little boys were trying to eat them. They loved them by the way because they each thought I made cupcakes for dinner!


This apple dessert was easy and good... not delicious for me. It's one I'm not sure I will make again. We all liked it, but it didn't make anyone fly to the moon! By the way, I was watching a friends kids while she went to an ultrasound to find out if she is having a boy or a girl, so that is why my icing is pink and blue.... it's a boy!!!

Jacki’s Cookie Sundae Cups

I made this recipe last night for dessert and it was REALLY good – you  can’t go wrong with chocolate chip cookie dough and ice cream:)  I followed the recipe as directed except it took about 20 minutes to cook the cookie dough instead of 12-14 like the recipe said.   The dough had been chilling in the fridge since I  made it earlier in the day so maybe it took longer since it was still cold.  It was all pretty simple and straight forward.  My dough didn’t rise all the way to the top of the ramekin like in the cookbook picture so maybe I didn’t add enough but it seemed like plenty.  Very tasty!

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Thursday, October 13, 2011

Leslee’s Recipes

 

White Chicken Chili- This was so easy to fix and turned out very tasty! I used canned chicken, so I just dumped everything into the crockpot and let it cook for several hours.  I forgot to add the cilantro but it was still delicious!

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Apple Streusel Bars- I made these on Sunday and took most of them to a church function. Sean sampled the rest of them and said they were delicious! They were pretty easy to make and smelled good!

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Cornbread- I made the cornbread as well last week and I loved it! I used a package of gluten free cornbread mix and a box of gluten free yellow cake mix.  Both boxes called for a lot of eggs, butter, oil, etc so I felt like I was adding a ton of stuff.  I ended up with a lot of corn muffins!! I thought they turned out really tasty.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

A quick recipe

Since we don't have a new recipe up this week, let's just try the Cookie Sundae Cups (pg 213). They look delicious and any excuse to whip up some cookie dough (or buy some:) is fine by me!
This should also give us a chance to catch up as well. I know I have a few recipes I need to post about.
Also I will put up a new selection schedule since we are all finished!



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Monday, October 10, 2011

Jenny's Guiltless Alfredo, White Bean Chicken Chili, and Cornbread




This week I made the Guiltless Alfredo pasta and the chicken chili.

I made the alfredo pasta without the chicken. I just added a little more bacon than what it called for. I think it would be good with chicken and next time I would add more artichokes since I am a fan. I didn't have quite as many as what the recipe called for. I also thought it would be yummy with sauteed mushrooms and maybe a white or yellow onion sauteed instead of the green onion. My husband really liked the pasta a lot. I thought it had a good flavor. I am wondering though if next time I would bake it. I'm not sure why that step was in there, except maybe to melt the cheese more. But it was creamier before the baking and I thought it looked great! Either way I am sure it would be good.

I made the chili yesterday and it was the perfect day to make it! It was rainy and stormy and on the cooler side for Houston. I really liked this recipe. I have another white bean chicken chili recipe I had been using, but this one is better. The other one is just kind of peppery and this one has a great flavor with the cilantro and the lime juice. Yum! I read at the bottom of the recipe, after the fact, that avocado would be a good thing to add. I agree. I think a little diced avocado would be a good addition, but again...I am a huge fan. I was wondering how the chicken would turn out in this soup. Sometimes I think chicken gets tough when it's cooked in soup, but this chicken was so tender. I had some leftovers for lunch today and the chicken was still really tender.

The cornbread I actually made a few months ago. I made it before we officially started the cookbook and I made it along with their red beans and rice recipe and their honey butter. I wasn't so much a big fan of the cornbread. I kind of like a more savory, corn-y type of cornbread. It was also during my first trimester and their is no accounting for what does or doesn't taste good at that time! Part of the problem maybe too was the honey butter. It was really, really, really sweet. I thought honey butter was just...honey and butter. But their recipe adds a fair amount of powdered sugar to the honey and butter. So it was super sweet honey butter on top of sweet cornbread/cake. Oh well. Maybe I will have to try it again under different circumstances :)

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Audrey's BBQ Chicken Cobb Salad & Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream

Here's the Chicken Cobb Salad. We really liked it and it was easy enough to fix. We already eat a lot of these meals during the summer, so I knew that they would really like this recipe. I didn't fix the blue cheese dressing, as they didn't want to try it :(
Here is my version of the ice cream, courtesy of Jacki's suggestion. I did use the full fat vanilla ice cream after reading her review and it turned out great! I let the ice cream soften up and then added chopped up cherries that had been frozen and then thawed. I stirred them in and then added the grated dark chocolate. Put the mixture in a freezer safe container and let it refreeze. It tasted really good. I did like it best when it was still soft. I don't have a ice cream maker, so it was fun to try and make my own version of it.
Here is the mixture after adding the chocolate.
We liked both of these recipes and I will fix them again. Hope that those of you who haven't tried them will!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Jacki’s White Bean Chili, Cornbread and Apple Streusel Bars

I made all of these recipes last night for dinner.  The White Bean Chili recipe is very similar to others I have tried.  It was really easy because I used canned chicken – the only work was dicing the onion and opening cans.  It turned out really tasty.  I did end up adding a few drops of Tabasco sauce to kick it up a notch.  I also added a little less broth than the recipe called for.  I thought the addition of the lime juice at the end was very fresh tasting.  The cornbread tasted good and I like it sweet but I prefer a more dense and  rustic texture – more ground corny rather than yellow cake mixy so I will not use the recipe again but it was fun to try it – I will just stick with the Jiffy mix.   The apple streusel bars were very good.  I thought I had almond extract for the icing but didn’t so I used vanilla extract but I definitely think the almond flavor would have been excellent.  I was lazy though and just put the frosting on with a knife instead of squeezing it on with the baggie so it doesn’t look as nice. 

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Monday, October 3, 2011

Recipes for Oct. 2, 2011

It is rather chilly here on the east coast so let’s make some Chili this week (har har:) 

White Chicken Chili             102
Corn Bread                                43
Apple Streusel Bars              212

Kim's review

Some of the things I made I totally forgot to take a picture of.

I made the thai noodle salad and thought it was really good. Next time I will half the recipe and add WAY LESS dressing. I added the whole recipe and my meal was swimming in dressing. It wasn't a very "kid friendly" meal at our house at least but I thought it was really good.


I also made the french dip sandwiches. I followed the recipe exactly except I added provolone cheese instead of swiss (not a big swiss cheese fan). It was delicious. The meat was yummy, the au jus was delicious and the whole family enjoyed it. We used the left over meat to make the taquitos the next day... YUM!

I made the dinner rolls the other night. I wasn't a huge fan of them. Mine were pretty heavy. I thought they were going to turn out light and fluffy, but mine weren't. Maybe I should have added less flour, let them raise longer... I don't know. Any suggestions??? They tasted yummy but I didn't love the heaviness of them.


When I made this dessert I don't think I have ever seen my husband SO HAPPY!! He was literally in heaven. It was delicious and we will make it again for sure. My husband claims this will be a recipe that will be passed down for generations in our family!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Leslee’s Chicken Bacon Alfredo and Dinner Rolls

I made this meal today for lunch and it turned out well.  I ended up using canned chicken which made things a little easier. I also omitted the artichoke hearts and green onions. I was a little skeptical of the white sauce and didn’t think it looked very good as I put it into the oven but I was surprised at how tasty it was. At the ending of the baking time I let the cheese brown up a bit under the broiler.  I am glad it turned out well because I made a double batch to put some in the freezer:) The rolls were relatively easy to make but I only ended up adding about 6 cups of flour to mine.  I was worried that wouldn’t be enough but they turned out great.  I made half of the batch into cinnamon rolls and Sean said those were very tasty too.  For myself I tried out the Gluten Free dinner roll recipe that was featured on the Our Best Bites Blog.  They turned out okay…

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Earlier this week I re-made the Chipotle Beef Tacquitos since I didn’t really end up following the recipe the first time.  I opted to use the spice instead of the canned chilies. These were really good! They were a little bit dry but dipped into guacamole or salsa they were prefect! 

Audrey's Taquitos, Salsa and cookies

Here is the meat mixture for the Taquitos. It was pretty simple to put together, but I think I'll follow Jacki's suggestion of using the spice instead of the pepper next time. I still have the rest of the peppers in the frig :(
Here is the finished Taquito meal. I didn't have all the ingredients for the salsa and cookies at this time, so we had fried okra and some toppings to go with them. I didn't find the cheese it called for in the store, so just used a Mexican cheese mixture and I found that it really melted down. I think the Taquitos would have looked better with the asked for cheese :) Also I cooked mine a bit too long and will probably skip the salt on top or else use less. All in all, I liked these.
Here are the main ingredients in the salsa.
Here's the finished product. I couldn't resist a snack after making it. Soooooo good! I really enjoyed all the fresh ingredients.
Here is the cookie dough partly mixed up.Here's the dry ingredients. I sure like just putting all the ingredients in a bowl and using a whisk to lighten them up.
I found the dough pretty dense, more so than my usual chocolate chip cookie recipe.
When I baked the dough up they were great! Very tasty and chewy, which I really like. I did substitute semi-sweet chocolate chips for the white chocolate chips, since some of my family don't care for it. Next time, I will use it instead of the peanut butter chips. I think that I would like that better. I still liked them, but like the option of switching out the different flavors.
On the whole, I liked all 3 recipes, especially the salsa :)