Maple Glazed Brussels Sprouts

(Original recipe from Stonewall Kitchen; some edits made by me)
http://www.stonewallkitchen.com/recipes/side-dishes/vegetables/R100222.html

Maple Glazed Brussels Sprouts

1 lb. fresh Brussels sprouts
1 t. salt
2 T. bacon bits
2 T. butter
1/3 c. Vermont Maple Syrup
2 T. pecans, chopped
2 T. slivered almonds

Trim ends of Brussels sprouts off. Remove any discolored outer leaves. If large cut in half.

Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil. Add salt and Brussels sprouts. Cook until they are just tender, about 5 minutes. Do not over cook. Drain well and set aside. Dry pan.

Fry bacon over medium to medium-high heat until crisp and brown. Set aside on paper towels. Discard bacon fat.

To the same pan add maple syrup over medium high heat. Add butter and simmer until sauce thickens. Add well drained Brussels sprouts and toss. Add bacon, pecans, and salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

My notes:

I had bought about 1/2 pound of fresh Brussels sprouts. Also, I used turkey bacon, and cooked it in the microwave.


I didn't parboil the sprouts first; I just threw them in my big wok, hoping to brown them up a little:


Then I added the bacon, and the maple syrup and the nuts. Do yourself a favor and buy some real Vermont maple syrup, because the cheap stuff will not truly bring out the flavors in this dish. The first time I made this, I used some REAL maple syrup that Uncle Kevin gave us, and it was much better.


We had this with some chicken stirfry...

Cheesy Chicken Strudel Thing

This is a take-off on my Cheesy Crumbled Meat Thing recipe; using canned chicken for the filling.

Cheesy Chicken Strudel Thing

dough:
1/4 c. warm water
1 pkt. yeast
1 egg
3/4 c. sour cream
3 c. flour
1 t. salt
3 T. sugar

filling:
2 cans (9.75 oz.) white meat chicken
marjoram, poultry seasoning
1 c. cheddar, shredded
1 c. mozzarella, shredded
2 T. melted butter

1. In medium mixing bowl, combine with seasonings.
2. Mix yeast packet with warm water; stir well.
3. Blend in other dough ingredients; mix well.
4. Set dough aside to rise for 20 to 30 minutes.
5. Roll out dough to about 18" long by 14" wide.
6. Brush surface w/ melted butter, allowing for edge margins and seam.
7. Sprinkle meat evenly over buttered dough. Top with cheese.
8. Roll dough to encompass filling. Seal seam edge w/ water. Be sure it sticks!
9. Place on well-buttered cookie sheet; allow to rise, covered, for 30 minutes.
10. Bake at 350˚ for 30 minutes. Slice and serve immediately.



Notice the burnt cheese puddle on the ends? Mmmm...

Crockpot Chicken with Baby Limas

I saw something similar to this in a recent magazine (unknown at this time; not looking for it!)...I used baby limas, chicken thighs, celery, onion and carrots to make mine. It was super yummy, and a great belly-warming winter meal.

Crockpot Chicken with Baby Limas

1 bag dry baby limas
3 - 4 c. chicken broth
1/4 c. brown sugar
6 chicken thighs (I used bone-in chicken)
3 or 4 stalks of celery
handful of baby carrots
1 small sweet onion, quartered
1/2 t. marjoram
1/2 t. paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Cook in crockpot for about 6 hours, or until beans are tender. You may need to add more liquid, if the beans soak up too much of the broth as it cooks.

random amusements

Thumper in the sunlight.

random amusements

GO BEARS!!!!!

If I had more people coming over, I would make a Bears cake with this pan.
Maybe for the next game...? :)



LINK:
Wilton Helmet cake pan

2 year bloggerversary

So, another year has gone past, I joined FaceBook to try to get more people to visit my cooking blog, and it seems like I'm just spinning my tires. Still.

I would say that I'm becoming discouraged, since even less people post comments here than ever, but it has really been a lack of overall free time that keeps me from adding to the content here.

I have a back-log of food photos from October to current time, and I just can't seem to make the time to post new recipes to go along with the photos. The big hang-up, timewise, is that I can't copy the MS Word document and paste the text right into the blogger text box; it does funky things with meta tags and crap. So, then, just like I did last night, I've got to search through the "edit HTML" view and delete all the meta tag shit, so that my post will be accepted. See, I forgot that I have to copy the Word doc and post it in my "text edit" generic program, then copy and paste the text from there.

So, yeah, if I didn't have to jump through so many hoops, I'd probably be more active here.

I'll never stop cooking, of course, and the camera stays on the kitchen countertop, but transferring that into a blog post takes me more time than I'd like. AND, I should be working out at night....which I'm not doing, either... See? It's complicated.

Plus, I want to re-do the header of the site, and add some of my food photos, like Bob does on his blog, but I have not taken the time to figure out how the hell to do that. There's a really cool shot of my cookbook shelf that'd make a great image under the "Confessions of a Serial Baker" title. One day I'll get around to it...

So, yeah, I'm a little bummed, but I'm still constantly thinking of recipes...CONSTANTLY... I couldn't sleep last night, so I picked up a MS Everyday Food magazine from my bedside table...there were several things in it that I wanted to try! LOL!

Thanks to all my readers who....ah, hell, it's Auntie D, Amy, and Anne.... Thanks, girls, for sticking with me. :) Oh, and Bob. Thanks, Bob!!! I have more recipes to post, and I'll try to get to them soon.

Kind regards,
Goldie The Serial Baker



RELATED LINKS:
http://confessions-of-a-serial-baker.blogspot.com/2010/01/random-amusements.html

Cornbread-Stuffed Meatloaf

This is an interesting recipe...I forget where I got the original concept, but I made so many changes that now I consider it my own.

Cornbread-Stuffed Meatloaf

stuffing:
1 medium onion; finely chopped
2 c. fresh cornbread crumbs
1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, chopped (optional; I didn't have any fresh ones)

meatloaf:
2 lb. ground meat (I used ground turkey)
1/2 c. dry bread crumbs (regular)
2 eggs
1 t. salt
1 t. marjoram
1/2 t. oregano

topping:
1/4 c. parsley leaves
1 can tomato sauce
1 c. shredded cheese (any kind)

In large bowl, combine ground turkey, regular bread crumbs, eggs, and seasonings:


In large frying pan, sauté onion (and mushrooms) until tender. Remove from heat; stir in cornbread crumbs; mix well. Set aside to cool.


I made a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix in a 8" square pan, then let it cool. I ended up using a little less than 1/2 of it for the stuffing, probably about 1/3 of the total cornbread. Mix the onions with the crumbled corn bread in a bowl (and mushrooms, if you choose).


In the bottom of a greased large loaf pan (metal or glass) layer 1/2 of the meat mixture, then top with the cornbread mixture, pressing it in, trying to keep it away from the sides of the pan:


Put the rest of the meat on top, to form the loaf, and enclose the stuffing.




Place the pan on a cookie sheet (in case it bubbles over) and pour tomato sauce over the top; sprinkle with parsley flakes. (I omitted the tomato sauce, because I didn't have any in the pantry.)

Bake at 350˚ for one hour. Remove from oven, top with cheese, and bake an additional 10-15 minutes, until cheese is melted and/or browned to your liking.


Serve with a side salad, grilled veggies, or boiled potatoes.

Sudden Apple Crisp

There's no recipe for this. I made it up as I went along. The only "different" thing about it is that I added some shredded coconut to the crumble topping.

Look at the pictures and see if you can follow along...

Pseudo-Roni

This came about because I was hungry for Rice-A-Roni, and we didn't have any in the pantry. So I thought, "well, I can probably make some..." And I did.

Pseudo-Roni

2 1/2+ c. chicken broth
dash of parsley flakes
2 c. instant rice
a handful (about 1/8 c.?) orzo pasta
1/4 c. (estimated) Asian rice noodles (or you could use angel hair pasta), broken into small pieces
2 T. butter
salt and pepper to taste
1 T. toasted pine nuts (garnish)

In a small frying pan, melt butter; add orzo and broken noodles to pan, and allow to brown slightly.

In a medium saucepan, heat chicken broth to just about boiling. Add rice, parsley flakes, and browned noodles and orzo. Stir well. Simmer about 5 to 10 minutes, until liquid is absorbed. You may need to add extra water, if the noodles soak up too much and it starts to get too dry. Keep an eye on it as it cooks. Taste it, and add salt & pepper as needed.


Serve with toasted pine nuts on top:

Pseudo Twix Bars

Okay, these didn't turn out as well as I had anticipated. My first mistake was that I made them in an 8x8 pan, and I should have used a 9x13. Don't get me wrong, we did eat them, but I think they could have been better.

I didn't have a recipe to work from, I just used the base from my "Christmas Bars" and piled caramel and chocolate on top. But, the cookie base sunk in the middle, presumably under the weight of the caramel; or, because I didn't allow it to cool long enough. Or maybe the edges climbed up the sides too much because the dough was too deep in the smaller pan? I'm not sure...

Pseudo Twix Bars

1 c. butter (2 sticks)
1 c. brown sugar
1 egg
2 t. vanilla
2 c. flour

Beat butter and brown sugar together until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat well.
With mixer, beat in 1 cup of flour; then stir in a cup of flour by hand.

Spread evenly into UNGREASED 9x13 baking pan. Bake 15 minutes at 350˚.


Melt 24 caramels with 1/3 c. heavy whipping cream.


Pour over cooled crust. (I then put it in the fridge to help set the caramel layer.)

Melt some chocolate...can't recall how much this was...just guess!


Spread melted chocolate evenly over caramel layer.


Caramel layer was too thick, and kinda oozey...
(maybe cut back the cream to 1/4 c. or even less.)


See how the center sunk down and the caramel pooled there? :(