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

Brownie Fix Without A Mix

I found this Easy Brownie Recipe in a CHOW email.  

They are very easy and have the box brownie look, with homemade deliciousness!

I used semisweet chocolate chips, but will make with bittersweet chips next time.

I did not use the salt in the recipe, but of course, had to sprinkle a little sea salt on top.

These do not have the intense flavor of my regular brownies, but are a great brownie!

They would be perfect with vanilla ice cream!

http://www.chow.com/recipes/30376-easy-brownies

Brownies

Tea Room Food

For my Book Club's 11th Anniversary Dinner I made tea room type food.

The pictures are not great, but I took the pictures in a rush and they get the idea across.

I made a pumpkin bread which is fantastic.  My dear friend Kady gave me the recipe and told me I didn't even need to Test Kitchen it - she has tried many and this is the best.  I agree!  Of course, the first time I made it, I did modify it a little with Oat Bran Flour - did not turn out near as well as the 2nd time.  I had purchased Oat Bran Flour for another recipe and was looking for ways to use it up.  The bag said you could substitute the Oat Bran for up to half of the regular flour.  So, I tried that - the flavor was really good, but the bread was so soft and moist that it fell apart.  That was the first time I substituted a different kind of flour - I may do it again, but just use a teensy bit of Oat Bran flour, not 1/2.   The recipe makes 2 loaves, so I made one in a regular loaf pan and one in a bundt pan.  For Book Club, I sliced the loaf made in the bunt pan, and made sandwiches filled with cream cheese that I had mixed with a little powdered sugar.  Yum!

I was going to make bread for the other sandwiches, but decided to save that for another day.  I used Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse White (something like that).  It was the perfect bread to cut for mini sandwiches - was moist and did not fall apart.  I cut flower shapes and filled them with Pimento Cheese Spread (April Southern Living Recipe).  With the extras from the flower shapes, I cut squares and filled them with an Avocado Green Pea Spread.  I was intrigued when I saw this recipe in the April issue of Better Homes and Gardens.  It was so simple - 2 avocados, 1 cup of thawed frozen green peas, and 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice - mash together and spread on the bread!  Everyone was a little skeptical at first, but they all loved it!

I also served a fruit salad of grapes, bananas, mango and nectarines.

For dessert I made half of the cover recipe from the May issue of Better Homes and Gardens.  I was going to make the full 4 layer cake, but not everyone was going to attend and I didn't want to be left with a huge layer cake.  The idea of the cake is great - lemonade cake, four layers, 2 different pink colors, tons of frosting.  Since I was only making half, I just marbled a darker pink in to the light pink cake.  Both the cake and the frosting call for frozen lemonade concentrate.  The problem I ran in to, which was my own mistake, is that I read the full icing recipe which called for 2 jars of marshmallow cream, but neglected to note the size of the jars.  I just assumed it was the normal 7oz jar, but no, it was supposed to be a 16oz. jar.  I made the half recipe for the icing and tasted it - all I could taste was butter with a hint of lemon and sweetness.  At this point, I had not figured out my error, so I just added more lemonade concentrate, lemon extract and powdered sugar until I got it sweet enough to pass as frosting.      I think I re-read the recipe 15 times, looking for the problem, before I figured out the marshmallow creme jar size difference.  Who knew!?!?  It wasn't until I read a little note that said - if you can't find this size in your area...- ugh!  My guests all ate the cake and seemed to like it.   Little C said she loved it and had a piece the next day.  I  tried the cake by itself and it was good, but I threw the rest away.  I want to try to make the full cake with the tons of marshmallow cream and see how I like that.  It could be a perfect party cake, if it turns out like I thought it would.  So frustrating when a little oversight makes such a huge difference.  

Overall, the food was a success and we had a nice Book Club Anniversary Celebration!

Lemonade Cake 

Lemonade Cake Slice

Pumpkin Cream Cheese, Avocado Green Pea Spread & Pimento Cheese Sandwiches

Peach Gelato

You know the peaches that you buy, with high hopes that they will ripen a little more and be the perfect, juicy, sweet peach?  Well, I had those hopes, but these failed my expectations!  I watched them go from almost ripe to starting to shrivel.   They were not really sweet enough to eat on their own, but had a mild peach flavor.  They did not peel easily or separate from the pit well, so I assume they were just picked too early.  I peeled and cut them the best I could.    I used the same gelato recipe that I have used for strawberry and made a peach gelato.  With the sugar, the flavor was quite nice.  It still lacked the perfect juicy peach flavor, but was good.  I used 2% milk instead of whipping cream, so the gelato was much lighter.   The lower fat content of the milk did not take away from the gelato flavor or composition.

I am keeping my eye out for some perfect peaches, to try a few more peachy desserts and maybe can some.   When I was a kid, we would go to the peach orchard and buy the peaches - they were sooooo good.  Now, it is just a gamble at the store or fruit market, but I will keep trying!

Peach Gelato