I'm In Love With A Food Processor

I never knew I could like a food processor so much!
If you have a been reading for awhile, you know that I first used a food processor this year.  Mr. SBQ had an older model when we got married, and I just used it when a recipe called for it.  A month or so ago, I was going to make cole slaw and we discovered that the adaptor for the slicing blades was no longer around.  So, much to my delight, I got to order a new food processor.  I can tell you all kinds of food processing information because I read reviews for 2 weeks.  I decided on a Kitchen Aid KFP1333 and I have totally bonded with this appliance!  The picture below is the quick pic I took to send to Mr. SBQ when it got here, to show how huge it was compared to the little white dinosaur we had.

If you are a long time food processor user, you are probably thinking, "well duh, of course it's wonderful," but this is still new to me and I am super excited!

I used it four times in the last 2 days.  First to make an amazing Cole Slaw, then to grate the zucchini for the cake.  I thought I would use the regular grater for the zucchini, but after grating a little bit, decided to use the food processor - wow!  Yesterday I used it for the energy bars (I used almond butter this time and they were great) and then for the healthy yummy meatloaf.  It's incredible!!!

About the cole slaw.  I never really considered myself a fan of cole slaw, but I do like some varieties.   We had some cabbage and so I consulted my chief cooking resource (Mom) and she told me she uses a recipe from Grange Cookbook.  So, below is an adapted recipe from the Pennsylvania State Grange Cookbook.  We love this Cole Slaw and I have made it several times already - it's actually pretty healthy.  If you need a side for the last weekend of summer, it would be a perfect one!

There isn't a picture of the cole slaw - the food processor picture is more exciting than a dish of cole slaw. (plus I didn't take one).

Cole Slaw
2-3 cups of grated cabbage (about 1/2 head)
1 carrot grated
1+ Tablespoon of dried parsley (or 1/2 cup fresh)
6 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
6 Tablespoons sugar
4 Tablespoons olive oil
Sea Salt and Pepper (I used a few grinds of each)

Mix/blend/shake the vinegar, sugar, olive oil, salt & pepper.
Stir in to the cabbage, carrot and parsley; chill for several hours.
Enjoy!

Kitchen Aid Food Processor & The Antique It Replaced

The Best Zucchini Cake

Now this is what I call Zucchini Cake!
So moist and delicious - the best!

I told my mother about the Zucchini Cupcakes and how they were good, but not what I had in mind.  She gave me the Zucchini Cake recipe that she uses, which came from her Amish friend.

It is very simple and I will share:
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 cup oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

Mix it all together and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
I started testing the cake at 25 minutes, and then checked it every 5 minutes.
Mine took about 40 minutes which I assume was due to the amount of moisture from the zucchini.

My alterations were that I used extra light olive oil, and 2 whole eggs & 1 white.
Any time most recipes call for over 2 eggs, I just use whites for the additional eggs.

I frosted  the cooled cake with cream cheese frosting.
I used 1-8oz package of cream cheese, 1 stick of unsalted butter, 2 teaspoons of vanilla, and 4 1/2 - 5 cups of powdered sugar.

Little C said it was so good she wished she could take the whole thing to her room. :)

Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Muffins You Can Feel Good About

I am always looking for something interesting and healthy for breakfast and mid-morning snacks.   I found this recipe for Banana Nut Oat Bran Muffins awhile back and finally made it.

It is very healthy with oat bran, walnuts, bananas, egg whites, and agave nectar/honey.  (Click the recipe link for the full recipe).  The biggest hurdle I had, was did the recipe mean Oat Bran Flour or Oat Bran Cereal.  (Remember that Oat Bran Flour I had plenty of?)  I had never bought Oat Bran, so I had no idea!  The first time I looked for it, I poured over the grains and flours in the baking aisle.  The only thing I could find was the flour, so I bought it.  This didn't look right with the other recipe ingredients, so of course I consulted my mom.  After that I went to the cereal aisle and found a box of Oat Bran Hot Cereal.  I then had a package of super fine Oat Bran Flour and a package of extra coarse Oat Bran Cereal.   These muffins are quite easy to mix up.  I used a large cookie scoop to fill each muffin liner and I had more than 12 muffins.  I think it would have been better to distribute the extra batter between the 12 muffin cups, for larger muffins.  Next time I will test them at 10 minutes rather then 12.  They are very good, but crumble if you are not careful about how you eat them.  I think by making each muffin a little bigger and baking less, that will solve the crumble issue.  There is a lot of chewing required with all that oat bran, but the flavor is wonderful and you feel like you have eaten something that was good for you.  Even Little C loves them, so it adds healthy variety to breakfasts.

Banana Nut Oat Bran Muffins

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.....Frozen Yogurt

"Don't eat the cookie dough, you don't know if the egg is OK"
How many times have I heard and said that!?!  I wondered, without going any further, how recipes had raw chocolate chip cookie dough in them without poisoning anyone.  Well, I came across this recipe for   Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frozen Yogurt and the mystery was solved!  No eggs, almost as simple as that!

It looked rather interesting - cookie dough, a little yogurt, and a few hours in the freezer.  No ice cream freezer needed.

I had finally purchased mini chocolate chips (Ghirardelli) so that I had them for this recipe and did not have to create my own as I normally do.  I made the dough and it tasted pretty much like chocolate chip cookie dough.   I gave Little C a sample of this part of the surprise dessert I was making - her eyes got big and she made this squeal of delight that she does when something is very good.   Either that, or she was in shock that I was giving her raw cookie dough to eat!  I then folded in a cup of Vanilla Greek Yogurt until it was smooth.  The one recipe I looked at had used Chobani Vanilla Yogurt, so I tried that too.  I had never eaten Chobani and it has a bit of a tangy flavor.  I think next time I will use Fage Greek Yogurt since it has a smoother flavor.

Once the mixture was nice and smooth, which at first didn't seem like it was going to happen, but all of the sudden did, I put it in the freezer for a few hours.  I think mine was only in the freezer for about 3 hours and it was frozen solid.  I didn't get fancy with my presentation.  I was just scooping out servings for dessert and snapped a quick picture.  

The yogurt looks and tastes like big scoops of chocolate chip cookie dough!  It is very rich and was enjoyed around our table!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frozen Yogurt

Zucchini Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

I have been eyeing up different zucchini recipes, trying to find the perfect one to make before the summer is over.  I found a good one, but I will keep looking!

These Zucchini Cupcakes from Taste of Home, are very tasty.  The cake is moist and has a nice spice flavor, and the homemade caramel frosting is good.  The recipe called for baking the cupcakes 20-25 minutes, I set the timer for 20 minutes and I think 18 would have been better.  I boiled the butter, brown sugar and milk for the frosting; and then let it cool before adding the powdered sugar.  It smelled so warm and yummy!  I used the full 2 cups of powdered sugar and it may have been just a little too much.  I was having trouble spreading the frosting, so I formed it in to balls and pressed it on each cupcake - turned out much better!

Although these are very good, I am not a huge fan of caramel, so that may be part of why these are not winning me over as the best zucchini dessert ever.  I am still partial to the super moist zucchini cake my mom always made with cream cheese frosting.  

Happy back to school!

Zucchini Cupcake

Health Nut

Something healthy today!
The Trivita VitaJournal newsletter had a Homemade Energy Bar recipe recently.  I finally bought the ingredients and have made them twice.  Once with dates and once with figs.  I think I prefer the dates.  It calls for any kind of nut butter, so for the first batches I used peanut butter since I have plenty of that on hand.   Ideally I would use natural peanut butter, but I used Peter Pan for the experimental batches.  I would like to try it with different butters to compare the tastes.

The recipe sounded good, but I was shocked at how delicious the bars are!   They are a perfect little pick-me-up snack!

I made the first ones in to balls, using the small cookie scoop.  This method made about 18.  The second batch was pressed in to a 9" square dish, and it only filled up about 1/2 the dish.  The bars may look better too, but either way they are good!

Homemade Energy Bars
(from Trivita's VitaJournal)

1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried figs or dates
1/2 cup nut or seed butter (recipe calls for almond, I used peanut)

Place the first 4 ingredients in the food processor.  Chop until everything is ground together.
Add the nut/seed butter and mix until combined.  Roll in to balls or press in to an 8" round cake pan.
Keep refrigerated. (makes about 2 dozen, if cut in to 1" squares)

Warning: they are a bit addicting! :)

Energy Bars with Figs

Energy Bars with Dates

Book Club Directories

My Book Club celebrated it's 11 year anniversary this summer and I made books for each of the 5 members.  I had made little directories in the past, but this time I wanted to include the books we have read over the past 11 years.   I knew I wanted to make a book from scratch and use each member's favorite color, but that was it.  

The biggest thing I needed to come up with was what to use for the inside pages.  One morning, I got the idea to use pages from an actual book.   I thought I would start with the dollar store (not my favorite place), and to my great surprise, there was a hardback Jan Karon book for $1!!!  I was thrilled because 1. it was only $1, 2. there would not be any chances of inappropriate words, 3. it was the right size, and 4. it was only $1!!!! :)   I used a craft knife to slice the pages out of the book, used Yes paste to glue 2 together for each book page, and then trimmed them to all be the same/right size.  If I do this again, I will glue the pages to card stock to make a sturdier page.  I punched the holes and used hole reinforcers for each page.

I looked at just about every piece of paper at the scrapbook store, trying to come up with the right cover paper and color combinations.  This was the 3rd one I debated and it was perfect.  I wanted the favorite colors of each member on the cover and in the book.  We have 2 pinks, 1 orange, 1 blue/aqua, and 1 yellow.   They were all in this AND the background has notebook page lines!

The first thing I had purchased several weeks earlier when I got this idea were the library card pockets. I figured I would use them one way or another.  I ended up mounting the pockets inside the covers and it was perfect for the book theme!

I cut chipboard for the front and back covers, and covered it with the scrapbook paper.  I used pink card stock for inside the covers.   The pages started out with our order of choosing books (by seniority) and the list of birthdays.  The next few pages are not pictured, but each page has a member's contact information mounted on their favorite color.  All other items were mounted on black.  The rest of the book has a list of books for each year.  Due to the number of books I was doing, I used both the front and back of each page, and put 2 years on each page.  For the finishing touch, I tied ribbons on the binder rings that hold the books together.  I had found a flower ribbon that matched the cover paper, and then had light pink, dark pink, aqua, yellow and orange ribbons to tie on the rings.  

The BiblioChicks loved their books!

Book Club Directory Front Cover

Book Club Directory Inside Front Cover

Book Club Directory Inside - Lists of Books

Book Club Directory Inside Back Cover

Book Club Directories

Sugar Cookie + Sprinkles = Fun

Funfetti Cookies!

No relation to the cake mix.  These were pretty good, however after making them, I realized I made them much smaller than the original recipe.  They would be extra fun as a large cookie!  I had decided to make them at the last minute, for a Book Club Birthday, so I was limited on the types of sprinkles I used.  (I only had time to go to one store)  The recipe calls for both nonpareil and jimmie sprinkles.  The jimmie type sprinkles are stars, and the colors matched the nonpareils.  They were fun and birthday-ish!  

I may either make this recipe again, or modify my own favorite sugar cookie and load it up with sprinkles.  I also want to try it with different colors/sprinkles.

This is a cookie that has fun and happy sprinkled all over it!

Peach Jelly

Not much to write here, except I made a batch of peach freezer jelly that turned out really well.  This is the first jelly I had made that wasn't strawberry!

Peach Jelly

Peach Jelly

Vanilla Gelato with Peach Sauce

I had been looking at gelato recipes, again, and found a Vanilla Gelato that looked simple and tasty.

I did not have any cream, nor did I want to use heavy cream, so I just used whole milk.   The recipe used a vanilla bean which gave it a wonderful vanilla flavor.  I used 3 cups of milk, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 vanilla bean.   It takes a little time because you cook the vanilla bean in the milk, let that cool, chill in the refrigerator, then put it in the ice cream maker.   I only left mine cool for a few hours because I wanted to have it that evening, but even though it was a little soft, it was very good!

I had some peaches that I needed to use and I was looking for something good to go with the Vanilla Gelato.  The gelato mixture was chilling in the refrigerator and I was reading all kinds of peach recipes hoping to find something before dessert time.  I found this Peaches in Brown Sugar with Rum Sauce recipe that looked like it would be the perfect match to my gelato.  Butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, rum......yummy!  

(If you want the recipes, just click on the underlined names)

Vanilla Gelato with Peach Sauce

S'mores - No Campfire, No Problem!

As we start this last week of summer vacation, I am going to try to get caught up on my blogging!

Last week, I vowed to do the same thing and the week flew by without a single post.  Yikes!

We recently went to Pennsylvania for a visit to my family, and made a visit to Hershey.  I had two Hershey Bars sitting in the pantry, from our Chocolate Tasting Class (fun! & yum!).  I thought I might make something with them, rather than just enjoy them plain.  I was reading food blogs and stumbled upon a recipe for S'mores Cookies!  So, thanks to Two Peas & Their Pod, I had my solution for what to do with the two Hershey Bars. 

I don't normally have mini chocolate chips in the house, so I used a chef's knife to make my regular size  chips at little more mini.  I only used 1 cup of regular chips and they could have used a little more chocolate - next time I will use the 2 cups of mini chips.  I also used 2 cups of flour rather than the 1 1/2 that the original recipe called for.  I started out with 1 1/2 cups of flour and the batter looked too thin/sticky, so I added a 1/4 cup and baked a few cookies.  The cookies were a little flat, so I added another 1/4 cup and they came out much better.  They all tasted the same - delicious.  I baked about 2/3 of the recipe and used the 2 Hershey Bars.  I froze the remaining dough and baked them a couple days later.  I used another 1 1/2 Hershey Bars (another trip to the store) for the rest of the cookies.  These tasted just as good, if not better, as the first round.  They don't last very long though, the first and second days they are moist, then they dry out.

So, any time you have an urge for S'mores and there isn't a campfire in sight, these will hit spot!

S'mores Cookies

Perfectly Delicious Roast Chicken

Long time, no post!  Where did July go!?!  I thought summer break would be a time to post a lot and get caught up on many things.  It's more of a break from everything in the regular schedule!  Little C and I are having a great time with our summer days, and blogging always gets pushed back.

A recipe in Better Homes and Gardens had caught my eye a few months back.  It was for a Honey Glazed Roasted Chicken.  I didn't really like the roasting method, or the rest of the recipe, but I loved the sound of the honey tarragon glaze.  So, I combined that with an olive oil roast chicken my mother told me about, and came up with a delicious roast chicken - super easy too!

As I have probably mentioned before, I don't really enjoy buying and handling poultry, or any raw meat for that matter, but once I got past the quandary of which organic, grain fed, blah blah blah chicken I needed, it was quite simple.  After rinsing and patting dry the chicken, I rubbed olive oil all over the chicken (inside too).  I felt like this chicken was at the spa, not being prepared for dinner.  Then I sprinkled sea salt and black pepper in the cavity.  This is where my mom's recipe ended, with baking the chicken, uncovered for 4 hours at 275-300.  I took about 10 garlic cloves and put them in and around the chicken.  (Jamie Oliver says you don't have to peel them, so I didn't.)  I also trussed the legs in a non-professional chef kind of way, but it worked.  I baked the chicken for at 300 for 3 1/2 hours, then brushed the honey and tarragon over the chicken and baked for another 20-30 minutes.   When I first put the chicken in, I mixed 1/4-1/2 cup of honey with about a teaspoon of dried tarragon and let that sit until I was ready to glaze the chicken.  The chicken was so golden (photo doesn't do it justice) and smelled wonderful.  I got thumbs up all around the table.  

I have not made a gravy/sauce with this, but I will next time to see what it is like with the honey.   Also, the first time I tried baking the chicken at 275 and it didn't seem to be hot enough, so I had to crank up the heat for the last hour.  It may just be my oven, but I prefer to start with 300 degrees and turn the oven down towards the end if I need to.

Lots more to post, soon, I hope.  I have been baking and crafting, so I have pictures waiting to be blogged about.

Happy August!

Roasted Chicken with Honey Tarragon Glaze