Rice Cooker Dessert Success!

For some reason, fruits seem to cook best in my little rice cooker. The other fruit recipe I've made was with apples. Though I must admit that I have found out that if I add extra water to my rice recipe, then that comes out great as well.

This sweet dessert recipe is simple, and old. I made this years ago on the stove top, and I pulled it out again because I wanted to see how it would work in the rice cooker.

Poached Pears, Vanilla Ice Cream, and Chocolate Sauce

2 pears, peeled and cut into quarters. I use the hardest pears I can find. I like them tart.
2 1/2 cups of water
3/4 cup of white sugar

Cinnamon to taste!

Place all ingredients in the Rice Cooker and turn it on. Allow the rice cooker to work its magic...

While it is working, melt some chocolate chips in the microwave (or you could use pre-made syrup).


When it is done, the peaches should be soft but not mushy (NOT falling apart), and the water should be syrupy. Delicious!

Place a small scoop of ice cream into a bowl, place some of the peaches beside the ice cream, scooping the syrup into the bowl as well, and then drizzle the entire thing with chocolate!

I had forgotten how amazing this was! Again, I'm still not sold on my rice cooker, because frankly it didn't do anything for me that my stovetop doesn't do... but it was fun to give it a try.

You can tell I'm not one to give up on something, can't you? lol

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

Yummy Valentine's to All...

Happy Valentine's Day!

I made these treats to bring in to the office of my new job, and to send to my kid's schools, and for my neighbors. They are Red-Velvet Cake Balls. You might remember my discovery of the recipe for Oreo Cookie Bites. I went crazy over those! I saw them in a magazine and made them several times in one month.

You will also see a chocolate covered strawberry in that box. Yes! That is what it is, I made those as well. My kids were going crazy! I told them they had to wait until Valentine's dinner to have theirs!

This recipe is basically the same - except instead of crushing Oreo Cookies, you bake a 9X13 pan of cake mix. You really can use any flavor. The recipe I found & adapted was on Bakerella.com. She calls for store-bought cream cheese frosting, but mine is a little different, closer to the Oreo Cookie Bite recipe.

Bake the box of cake mix. When it cools, crumble it into a bowl. Stir in one 8oz box of cream cheese. Add 3/4 of a cup of powdered sugar. Mix together.


~ Even though I'm not a baker, there are only a few reasons I ever buy store-bought frosting, so I rarely have any on hand. Because Bakerella.com had called for the frosting instead of just plain cream cheese, I worried that maybe it wouldn't be sweet enough. Thus my addition of the powdered sugar.~

NEXT...

Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls. I laid mine on wax paper over a cookie sheet. Then place the cookie sheet into the fridge, to let the cake balls firm up.

Once they are firm, melt some chocolate bark, chocolate chips, or chocolate rounds and drop the balls into the melted chocolate one at a time. Using a spoon, place the balls back onto the cookie sheet and, once filled, place the sheet back into the fridge.

At this point you can decorate them with other types of chocolate (or, like me, you might burn the white chocolate in the microwave, creating a dry crumbly substance that looked and smelled NOTHING like white chocolate...)

I had tiny little muffin papers and I placed mine in those, and then placed them into some Valentine boxes that I got on sale long ago.

Of course, I didn't make these M&M's but I DID make the little table runner beneath them. I thought the fabric pattern was pretty funky.

I can't wait to show you what else we've been playing with around here! We've really been crafty. Have a great day!!

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

Simple Chicken Burritos

I love a simple recipe. Sometimes the list of ingredients just looks challenging, even if its not. The following recipe is VERY simple and needs only a few things.

These picture are terrible, despite my pretty Fiesta plates. Sorry, but the burritos still taste great!

I throw this together based on what I have in the cupboard. It reminds me of a restaurant burrito, which may not mean much to you, but I LOVE Chipotle Mexican Grill (and a little unknown Mexican place in Boston, Mass. which makes them even better than Chipotle's!). After making them so many times, I have a preferred plan for putting things together.

Simple Chicken Burritos

Package of soft flour tortillas
One whole green pepper, sliced
1/3 to 1/2 of a medium sized onion, sliced
Olive Oil
1.5 pounds Chicken Breast, sliced thinly
Taco Sauce (see below, OR use a package of Taco Seasonings)
One can Black Beans

I put about 3 T of Olive Oil into my pot and heat it up, then throw in my peppers and onions. After they've started to soften, the chicken goes in. At this point I sprinkle a little sea salt and pepper on top.

While the chicken is cooking I make the sauce.

1 T Chili Powder
1 t Sea Salt
1 t Garlic Powder
2 t Onion Powder
1/4 t Cayenne Pepper
1/2 t Paprika

Whisk these ingredients together and add them to 3/4 of a cup of water. Heat gently to boiling while stirring, then turn down the heat and keep an eye on it for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. You can probably just do this right in with the chicken, but I haven't done that just in case I have to drain the chicken.

By the now chicken should be done, so drain the can of beans and add it to the chicken pot. Add the cooked taco sauce as well.

This should simmer for a bit, while you stir occasionally. At this point, if you didn't notice that you needed (or wanted) to drain the chicken broth from the pot, you can go ahead and add corn starch to thicken the liquid in the recipe. It won't change the flavor.

You're done!

I enjoy this on flour tortillas. My family likes to add cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, and guac to this, but honestly I think it is so good just on its own!

I hope you get a chance to be creative today!

Giving the Rice Cooker its second try

Here is the second recipe I have tried for my Rice Cooker. I found this recipe on Food.com. I have still been trying to conquer the basic rice recipe and I have found that adding a little extra water has helped.

Apple Rice Pudding

I wasn't looking for something with this many ingredients but it looked simple enough and of course, delicious, so off I went. Our youngest peeled and diced the apples and we watched it cook together.

It was terrific!

Apple Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

• 2 cups apples, peeled, cored, and diced
• 1 cup short-grain white rice (Carolina Gold is recommended)
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla

Combine the first six ingredients. Start the rice cooker and let it roll. When it says it is done, add the remaining ingredients and start the rice cooker again. After it finishes then check the ingredients in the cooker. If it needs to cook again, then go ahead, otherwise add cinnamon and eat.

We didn't have to cook it another time, our apples were diced pretty small. And it tasted wonderful.

One nice thing about the Food.com website is that you can change the number of servings and get an updated recipe.

I'm still not sure if I'll end up loving the rice cooker, but I can see some possibilities. I'll keep you posted!

Enjoy!

Oreo Cookie Bites

~ KIDS in the KITCHEN ~

Plus: More Adventures with my Magic Bullet!

I have a new recipe I'd like to share. I spotted this in a magazine last weekend and I can NOT remember where I saw it, or I would happily give credit. The recipe is very simple and AMAZING. Its also fun to make with KIDS!

Oreo Cookie Bites:

* 8oz softened cream cheese

* one package of Oreo cookies

* Milk Chocolate Chips

* White Chocolate Chips

Prepare your work area. You will need to place waxed paper onto two cookie sheets. You'll also need either a plastic bag and mallet or a food processor.

Crush the Oreo Cookies. I used my magic bullet, trying both blades, but it took some time and didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped. If you don't have a food processor, I would recommend putting the cookies into a plastic Ziploc bag and crush them with a mallet. I used the Magic Bullet because I wanted to be sure the cookies were finely crushed. I don't really know if it was worth using that particular machine to blend them. Either pressing the button or crushing them in a bag, the kids will like this part.

After you have crushed the cookies, blend them with the softened cream cheese. You can use a wooden spoon or your food processor for this part. Both you AND the kids can do this.

I have a picture to show you of the crushed Oreo cookies mixed with the cream cheese but really, it doesn't look that great. You don't really want to see it. It looks like mud. But I assure you it tastes great!


Now for this step you will find that your kids either love or hate to do this: Use a spoon to take a small amount of the cookie mixture from the bowl. Using your hands, form small bite-sized balls out of the cookie mixture and place them on the cookie sheets. Place the sheets into the freezer to sit for a bit while you prepare the melted chocolate. Your hands WILL get messy!

Wash your hands for this next step. This step involves heat so an adult should do this. Melt the chocolate chips. You can do it on the stove or in the microwave. I melted the milk chocolate chips on the stove but melted the white chocolate chips in the microwave wave. Even food cooked in the microwave can give a severe burn, so be sure to be careful! Plus, overcooking chocolate is never a good idea.

One you have the chocolate melted, dip the cookie balls into the chocolate and allow them to sit on the cookie sheets until each ball is coated with milk chocolate. Melt the white chocolate and use a spoon or a fork to drizzle it on top of the chocolate covered Oreo balls. The white chocolate drizzle is a fun thing for the kids to do.

Place the cookie sheets back into the freezer or into the fridge until the chocolate is firm. After the chocolate has hardened, you can remove them from the cookie sheets and store them in the fridge for a while or even freeze them for a few months.

Enjoy!

Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas

Last night after work I was exhausted, so I grabbed a shower and when I got out my sister-in-law called. I was feeling relaxed, so I started to chat. An HOUR later I mentioned that I had to make dinner! We started talking about ingredients and she listed some for a recipe she loved. It brought to mind one of my favorites and I KNEW I'd have to make it for dinner as soon as I got off the phone. Easy and delicious!

Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas!

I got this recipe two years ago from my friend Barrie, who, at that time, had maybe 3 recipes to her repertoire, they were complex but excellent. This was a new one she was adding because she wanted to try some fun new quick recipes to share with her significant other.

If you haven't made these before, they are super easy. Barrie makes it even more easy by using rotisserie chicken from the grocery store!! I was fortunate in that I had defrosted my chicken the day before, so it was ready to cook.

Here is the recipe, which you can tweak and make your own by adding things like sour cream, cream cheese, refried beans, rice, vegies, or ???

Okay, you start with cooked chicken, and use 2 forks to shred it. If you have to cut it, that's fine. Or you could cut then shred. :-)

Mix your hot sauce to taste - Barrie recommends about a half cup of buffalo sauce or hot wing sauce. I usually add lots more, then I think its still not hot enough, so I add more, and then I'm surprised when its SUPER hot! But we all still love it like that!

Anyway, add shredded cheddar cheese to the chicken and sauce mixture.

I'm sure you are following here how I just sort of throw things together!

Now at this point you just spread this onto a tortilla and make your quesadilla...

To make basic quesadillas I spread one side with margarine and lay it (spread side down) on a pre-heated griddle, then I spread on shredded cheese, and top that with another tortilla that has margarine on the top. Heat until the tortilla on the bottom gets toasty - they are better with a little browning - then flip. Be careful if you are using large tortillas!

I usually keep a can or two of refried beans in my pantry, and I often mix that in with the hot wing chicken, but last night I just added sour cream. They were delicious!

Just a note - sometimes I also use cooking spray instead of margarine.

Sharing here:

Egg Free Cookies

One of the blogs I follow is The Baking Bookworm and I hope its okay that I put it up here as a link, because she's got some fun recipes and book reviews. And yesterday's post was about cooking for people with allergies.

As a person with a SEVERE nut allergy, I constantly have to be aware of what is in my food. Often I don't eat the yummy treats set out at school or church activities because I can't trust what is in them. Of course, I do make my own, but its always nice to get a taste of something that another person has made.

Well, Laurie's post about finding an egg-free treat took me right to a recipe that my 19 year old daughter has been baking whenever she comes home from college (I've made it but for whatever reason it tastes better when she makes it!).

The recipe is called Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies and it contains NO EGGS!

The original recipe calls for icing to put on top of the cookies, but honestly we've never made it that way, there is no need - the cookies are so great without it. I will include the icing recipe anyway, but believe me, simple is just great (and less work).

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned works just as well as fresh and = less work)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat over to 350º and grease your cookie sheets. Personally when I can I love to use parchment paper because its so easy for clean-up.

In a medium bowl, cream the shortening and the sugar, then stir in the vanilla and pumpkin.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Stir this dry mixture slowly into the creamed mixture. Add the chocolate chips.

Drop dough onto cookie sheets, bake 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool one minute on the cookie sheets before putting on wire cooling rack.

The cookies don't look like much, and they don't rise a lot when they are baking, but wait until they are cooled off (really, even warm they don't taste as good) and they are amazing!

Now, if you want to make that icing I mentioned, its just a simple recipe you might have used for something else. You need:

1 - 8oz package cream cheese

1/2 cup of butter

1 pound of powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

dash of salt

Mix this all together and spread it on the cooled cookies!

This is a terrible picture so I will have her make some more this weekend and I will update this post. Sadly for my waistline, these cookies disappear quickly. Its really hard to stop eating them!!! But it will be a lovely weekend for eating cookies, I'm sure. With my cappuccino from my Magic Bullet, I'll have a delicious weekend!

Milkshakes & Smoothies

Last night we were away on a one day trip. I made a happy mistake a few weeks ago and booked a night at the Hyatt in Arlington, VA through Priceline (love that Name Your Own Price). At first my hubby couldn’t get the night off so I wasn’t sure whether I was going to just take the kids myself or maybe give the stay to someone else. Happily he was able to take off work after all so we were all in our cozy hotel room.

We have four kids, ages 22, 20, 16, and 13. It is the oldest's 22nd birthday today!! It is so nice to see the kids laughing and talking and getting along so nicely. I pray that they continue to get along when they are grown. While on our overnight trip, we walked to a McDonald’s and ate and acted silly. All of us. And I have the pictures with which to blackmail them!

So today I was jonesing for the lovely cappuccino I have been making, but I wasn’t home for much of the day before we left on our trip. So now I’ve made sure I know where the nearest coffee-bars are near the hotel! Its not the caffeine I’m looking for, because I order decaf most of the time, but I love the comfort from the sweet sugar and coffee smell. I know, sounds crazy.

Anyway, I was thinking about what else I have made with the Magic Bullet. Yesterday we made smoothies, milkshakes, and I used it to blend the cream cheese for the frosting for my carrot cake.

For the smoothies we used some fruit I had in the fridge: cherries and blueberries. I also had bananas. Into the bullet cup I threw one banana and a handful of the frozen blueberries. Then I added 2 handfuls of ice (which looked to be about one cup). Then I added about 4 tablespoons of orange mango juice (all I had in the house). I blended them and voila! My first smoothy.

Next I used the cherries instead of blueberries and then instead of the orange mango I used cranberry juice (I was out of the orange mango) and while it sounds crazy – it was awesome! The texture was perfect, you could drink it or even use a spoon. Delicious.

For the milkshakes we still used ice, but used milk and sherbet. Basically I guess you can add anything you want to the blender and enjoy it. Hopefully. There are some things I can imagine my kids might throw together that I wouldn’t want to touch.

Fun Stuff

Hi! Welcome to my blog. I've started this because I wanted to document some of the fun things I have envisioned I will cook in my kitchen in the upcoming year. We have a lot of plans for our kitchen in 2011, from cooking and crafting to remodeling, so I'm really excited!

I was already thinking about doing this when *Surprise!* on Christmas Eve my mother-in-law gave our family The Magic Bullet. My 2 youngest children SQUEALED with delight but since I have made a commitment to turning off the television whenever an infomercial comes on, I had never seen exactly what it can do.

My Magic Bullet Christmas present.

The only blender I have ever owned was a $40 Oster that couldn't even crush ice. I swore I would not buy another blender until I could put out the money for a fancy one.


Two days later I decided to open up the box and try out a recipe or two. A friend had given me some finely ground Italian coffee, so I decided to make cappuccino. It was so simple, there was no way to mess it up.

If you're not aware, cappuccino is espresso coffee with hot milk and milk froth. The froth is what looks like soap bubbles on the coffee in the picture. While I don't have an espresso machine, using the finely ground Italian beans in my coffee maker produced an amazing flavor.

After I brewed the coffee I poured a small amount of milk into the short cup (from the Magic Bullet kit) and closed it with the Cross Blade. Following the easy directions from the Magic Bullet package I blended (pushed down on the top of the "bullet") for about 10-15 seconds and then took the Cross Blade off and put the short cup into the microwave for about 55 seconds (remember, microwaves vary).
Once hot, I poured the liquid into the coffee, then used a spoon to put all of the froth that I could onto the brew. It was delicious! And while I know that I'm a very enthusiastic person I swear I can see myself doing this in the morning before work, and saving myself my trip to Starbucks that I take one or two days each week.

Until next time...