Cornbread

I love expanding my cooking repertoire and lately I've been looking at making some favorites from scratch, rather than from a box or a mix.  Enter cornbread.  Corn muffins were definitely a favorite in my family growing up.  My dad and brother and I would often scramble to grab as many muffins as we could when they were hot out of the oven. 

We always used a box to make our cornbread muffins and I'd never made any from scratch.  Recently, I decided I wanted to change that, when I had a craving for cornbread.  This recipe turned out really nice (though would probably work better when we have company - an 8x8 pan was definitely too much for my husband and I to share! However, the leftovers were also delicious when warmed up in the microwave for 15 seconds).

Homemade Cornbread

Adapted form Caramel Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 baking soda
• 1 cup buttermilk (can substitute 1 TBSP lemon juice or vinegar and enough regular milk to make one cup)
• 3 eggs

Directions:

Let your butter cool for a moment so that it won't scramble your eggs!  When it has cooled, whisk the melted butter, buttermilk, and eggs together.  Add in dry ingredients and stir well, but do not over mix.  Mixture will be a little lumpy.

Heat the oven to 400 degree.  Pour the mixture into a well greased 8x8 baking pan (9x9 may also be used for a thinner bread)

Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool for 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Enjoy!

<--- click the magic button for nutrition info and a printer friendly version!

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Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

I'm back to blogging and I have this awesome sweet treat to share with you, just in time for Halloween!  I saw this recipe in several different versions floating around Pinterest and new that I wanted to try it. You all know that I love a good sugar cookie.  And holidays are a great time to bake :)  So enjoy these Candy Corn Sugar Cookies!

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

Recipe adapted form Six Sisters

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 4 cups flour
• orange food coloring
• yellow food coloring

Directions: 

Begin by creaming the butter, eggs and sugar.  Mix in the baking powder, vanilla, baking soda, salt, and sour cream.  Mix until well blended.  Slowly add in the flour.  The dough should not be too sticky, if it is sticky, slowly add in a little more flour.  Divide the dough into 3 equal parts.  Leave on part plain.  Dye one part yellow with food coloring. Dye the final part orange.  (Hint, use your stand mixer to color the dough.  If you do the yellow first, then you can do the orange second and use yellow and red to make orange)

Line a bread load pan with waxed paper.  Dust your hands with flour to keep the dough from sticking to them. Layer the bottom of the pan with the plain colored dough.  It should be about an inch thick.  The dough may not reach all the way down the pan and that's ok.  Next, layer in the orange dough and spread evenly over the plain layer.  Smooth the dough as best you can.  Finally add the yellow layer.  Fold the edges of the wax paper across the top and place the loaf pan in the feezer.  Freeze at least two hours (or for better results, freeze overnight)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. 

Remove from the freezer and pull on edges of wax paper to get the dough out.  Slice the dough into quarter inch slices.  

Then cut triangles back and forth.  You should be able to get at least six triangles from each slice.

Keep dough that you are not working with in the freezer to make it easier to handle.  

Place triangles on a cookie sheet and dust with sugar.  Bake for 9-10 minutes. 

For nutrition information and a printer friendly version, click on the Magic Button!

 

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Oatmeal and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know I am a strange girl. I don't really like chocolate that much.  Or at least not most things with chocolate - no chocolate chip cookies, brownies or fudge, or candy bars or things like that.  Pretty much the only chocolate I do like is plain Hershey bars and M&Ms.  However, I do like white chocolate chips.  Weird I know, but that's what I like.  When I saw this recipe on Pinterest, I was like - those look good - and made them the very next day - go me!  Why don't you give them a try!  I highly recommend them :)

Oatmeal and White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe adapted from Six Sisters

Ingredients:

• 1 cup softened butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extra
• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
• 2 cups white chocolate chips

Directions:
Cream together the butter and sugars.  Add in eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla and beat well.  Stir in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and beat well until thoroughly mixed.  Slowly add in the oats and white chocolate chips.  Using a cookie scoop, drop onto a greased cookies sheet.  Bake for 9-12 minutes at 350 degrees.  Let cool for two minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

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Roasted Red Potatoes

I know I haven't posted any recipes for awhile.  January was a pretty hectic month in our household with M working nearly non-stop (nights and all weekends included).  I was busy taking care of other things, so didn't have much time for blogging, plus I didn't feel like cooking just for one.
But in any event, that is behind us and I have a couple of recipes to share with you coming up, starting with this easy way to fancy up some potatoes.

Ingredients
3 medium round red potatoes
2 Tablespoons Oil
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 clove garlic, minced

Take 3 medium size potatoes (about 1 lb), wash them and chop them up into bit sized pieces.  Place potatoes in a greased 9x9 pan.
In a small bowl, mix oil, onion powder, and garlic.

Drizzle the oil mixture over the potatoes and stir to coat.

Roast in the oven at 325 degrees for 45 minutes.  Stir, and then bake another 10 minutes until the potatoes are tender.  

Enjoy!

*Tip - if you are in a  hurry, you can roast the potatoes at 425 for 25-30 minutes, stirring two or three times to ensure even cooking.

Recipe adapted from : Better Home and Gardens cookbook


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Chicken Enchiladas

Mmmm
Love having a freezer full of food so that I don't have to cook every night (or can have something quick for lunch besides a grilled cheese sandwich).
I really enjoy these enchiladas because they are super plain the way I like them, but still healthy and filling.
I usually make them up in batches of about 50 and freeze them in Ziploc bags and store them in the freezer.  They'll keep for months, but 50 usually only lasts about 3 months around here

Ingredients (can be changed depending how many enchiladas you want to make)
10 lbs of chicken
50 8 or 10 inch flour tortillas
3 lbs of Colby jack shredded cheese

Steps

1. Cook the chicken - I boil it in a big pot for 30 minutes and then check it with my meat thermometer to make sure it has gotten to 180*
2. Let the chicken cool
3. Chop the chicken.  I use a food processor, but if you don't have one, you can cut it by hand, it just takes longer and your chicken bites will be bigger
4. Get your assembly line ready!  Line up all of your ingredients.
5. Put a handful of chicken and a handful of cheese in the middle of a tortilla. 
6. Fold the edges of the tortilla into the middle, then fold in the ends (or close your tortilla however you want to)
7. Place in a Ziploc bag and smooth out as much air as possible.  Place in the freezer
8. Repeat until you run out of ingredients.

Thursday night we made 59 enchiladas, with a little more than 3 lbs of cheese.

When you want to eat one, head them up in the microwave for about 2-2:30 minutes.  In my microwave 2 1/2 minutes on 70% power works perfect.  You want to cook them so the chicken gets heated all the way through, but you don't want the tortilla to turn crunchy or the cheese to burn.

I know I know, I should have taken more pictures.  However, it's hard to take pictures when your hands are full of chicken and cheese!

So here's a picture of the finished product.  Maybe next time I make them, I'll remember to take pictures of all the steps. 

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