Zombie Popcorn!

Hey y'all. Those of you that know me, (or follow me on Facebook), know that I have decided to get my head wrapped around my new job and not worry about blogging for a while. Well, it's time that I got back on the horse. I think I have the perfect story for you too.

Anyone that pays attention know that Halloween is my favorite holiday. I could spend an entire post telling you why, but I think I'll save that for now. My family and I decided, in August, that we would go as Zombies. It's trendy this year, but it turns out we were ahead of the pack. We liked it before it was trendy and all, (so picturing myself in hipster glasses right now). I love to make costumes out of random finds from the thrift store. That's how my mother raised me I guess. A few accessories, a couple t-shirts, a big bottle of blood, etc., and we were good to go. The gorier the better too. Keep that in mind as I go off on a slight tangent for a moment

My new work friends have turned me on to Pinterest. It's a great way to card catalog your recipes and crafty things all in one place. Your friends and family can check them out too. What else is there to want? I decided since no one was going to get on the Stumble Upon train, that I would just move my stumbles to Pintrest. During this move, I found the funnest recipe for Zombie Popcorn. Yeah, that's right. See? I told you it would tie together. Zombie popcorn and zombie costumes. It's so cheap to make massive amounts too. I think including the popcorn kernels, I think I only spent about $0.75 a person. Don't forget to price match to bring that price even further down. Okay so let's get crackin'! For the original posting, click here.

The recipe calls for:


16-20 cups of popped popcorn
1/2 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon green food coloring (I used about 6 drops of dye and it looked fine)
1 teaspoon baking soda

I couldn't find my salt so I didn't use it. I honestly don't know if it would have tasted any better with it, so I guess that could be optional for anyone who needs to cut their sodium.


Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (95 degrees C).

Place your popcorn in two large shallow baking dishes. For me, shallow was my 13x9 casserole dish. I think it worked fine. You don't really need "shallow."

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Bring to boil while stirring consistently. They are NOT lying about the stirring. Boil without stirring for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and green food coloring until the mixture is evenly colored and combined. Stir in baking soda. Mixture will double. Pour the mixture over the popcorn and stir to combine and evenly coat. Don't freak out too much if it doesn't coat evenly. You will be able to coat it much better once you get it into the oven. Basically just get it one there and stir it until it cools too much to stir anymore.

Get the pans into the oven.. Stir the popcorn every 15 minutes for 1 hour. Remove from the oven. Let cool for about 5 minutes and then break into pieces. Be careful popcorn will still be hot.

It's going to turn into a sweet, kettle corn style popcorn. If there is one thing to stress about this recipe is PORTION CONTROL! You will eat about half of it while you are stirring it. It's that good. Check out these pictures.

I did mention my camera was broken right? Well, with the vanilla it looks very Zombie-esc.It tastes so fabulous too!  I am making this for work and I think it's going to be epic. The original poster has some "Zombie bags" it her etsy story for sale if you want to complete the effect. Enjoy peoples!

Farmer's Market: Day 3

Hey guys! How was last week's recipe? I don't love tomatoes, but I loved that.

For this week's recipe, I decided that I was going to try to use corn in a way that is rarely thought about. I wanted to use corn as a dessert. No, that's not a typo. I got the idea from Master Chef (Fox, check your local listings), when they had people making desserts using beets, corn, or bacon. I thought, "Hey, if they can do that, I can do that."

So I went surfing the web. I'm not great at writing my own recipes, but I AM great at tweaking a current recipe that I find. I'm great at making it low cal or skipping a step to save you time, whatever. In the course of my research, I found this site, "She Knows Food and Recipes," that has a section on savory recipes with corn as a primary ingredient. You can view her blog here.

So the recipe I really wanted to try was her Sweet Corn Panna Cotta. It seemed easy enough, and her pictures were so pretty. So here's what you'll need:

1 Large Ear of Sweet Corn, Husked and De-Kerneled.
4 1/2 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream (try it with the cream first and if you don't love it, sub out Whole or 2% milk for a lower calorie version.)
1 (.25 oz) package of unflavored gelatin. If you can't find this next to the jello, try the Mexican aisle.
1 TSP Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup Sugar

Combine the corn with 3 1/2 Cups of cream in a sauce pot on the stove until it simmers. Take off the heat and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.
Once the corn is cooled, puree it in a blender. Then strain it back into your pot.
Pour the rest of the cream (1 Cup) and your gelatin into the sauce pan. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Then heat the mixture over medium heat until the gelatin is dissolved.
Add your vanilla, sugar, and gelatin mixture to your corn puree. Stir over low heat until your sugar is nice and dissolved, and strain again.
Finally, get your mixture into 4 - 6 ramekins or custard cups. They need to chill for 4 to 6 hours. This is NOT a suggestion. If you don't chill them, you will be upset. Once they're nice and cold, I sliced some fresh local fruit (red peaches) on top. You could also do berries and whipped cream if you want as well.

So there you have it. I hope that this recipe is as good for you as it was for me.

Farmer's Market: Day 2

Hey folks. How many of you tried my recipe from last week? Was it yummy?

Okay, so for this dish my ingredient was tomatoes. My cherry tomatoes were TINY. They were better used as a snack then a ingredient. Because they were so small, I made Spaghetti sauce. Not the epic recipe I was planning on, but it's a good one. The trouble is, when I cook, I don't measure. This ingredients are going to be aproximate. I would start small and work your way to the full amount.

3 Pounds cherry, pear, or other tomatoes
1 TBS Basil
1 Onion Chopped small, but not minced
2 TBS Garlic Powder or 1 1/4 Garlic Salt
1-2 TBS Cayanne Pepper (Optional if you like heat. I don't)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Like I said originally, this is just to your taste. Feel free to edit this. So, first thing's first. Stem your tomatoes, and steam, boil, blanch, or saute them until they are soft enough for the peel to slide off easily but not mushy. Peel the tomatoes and mash with potato masher. Place your mushy tomato mixture back on the stove on medium to low heat. Let it simmer until it resembles tomato sauce. Add your spices and stir WELL. If you're not going to use this right away, I recommend you bottle or freeze the sauce right away. It will only keep a few days to a week in the fridge. Freezing is most convenient because A) most people don't know how to bottle (unless you come from my family), and B) you just have to pop the frozen sauce in hot water or the microwave and you're ready in minutes. Makes 1-3 Cups depending on how far you reduce it.

Okay, now, this is NOT where I am leaving you. Because this posting did not go live until Monday (for whatever reason), I am throwing in a FREE RECIPE. Aren't you special? This recipe I first discovered via the Nintendo DS and Cooking Chef. After EXTENSIVE searching, I cannot find the exact recipe. There is a massive amount of varieties on this recipe, so feel free to Google another one if you don't like mine. From the best of my memory...

Stuffed Tomatoes

4 Slicing tomatoes, medium sized and firm
1 LB Ground Beef/Pork/Turkey/Chicken/Tofu (there will be leftovers)
1 Small Onion, chopped well
2 TBS AP Flour
2 TBS Oregano
2 OZ Cheese This recipe calls for a french cheese I have NEVER heard of. Mozzarella or a mild cheddar work well in my opinion. Mozzarella is best.
Salt
EQUIPMENT:
Paper towels
Plates
Spoons
Baking/Casserole Dish
Preheated Oven to 400 Degrees

First things first. Wash your tomatoes and remove the stems and stickers. Take a sharp knife and slice an inch or less off the top. It HAS to be the top. You're making it's hat. Set aside "hats," and with spoon, scoot out the pulp. The recipe calls for you to just toss it, but that's such a waste! I preserve my pulp in a medium container and make omelets with it the next day. Sprinkle the inside bottom of your tomatoes generously with salt. Take your paper towels, place on a plate, and turn your salted tomatoes upside down to drain.

On to the filling. Brown your protein, drain EXTRA well, set a side, and do your BEST to keep it warm. Caramelize your onion, and add your cheese and warm until melted. Reintroduce your protein, and add your flour. The purpose of the flour is to hold the filling together so it does not fall apart. Depending on your protein, you may need more or less. Add your spices and pepper to taste. Notice, I didn't say salt. If you add more salt here, it will wind up over salted because of the salt you added in the first steps.

With your spoon, add one compacted spoonful of mixture to your tomatoes. Keep going until you either are out of filling, or your cannot possible add more for fear of exploding tomatoes (joke). Add back the tops of your tomatoes and place into your UNGREASED casserole dish and into the oven for 9 minutes. 9 minutes will keep the tomatoes firm. I like mine slightly un-firm, so start at 9 and cook longer depending on your personal texture likes. Once cooked, let rest NO MORE than 5 minutes. Serve with a fork and knife. Serves 4.

Okay folks. On to more recipes. I hope you enjoyed day 2!

Farmer's Market Recipes: Day 1

Hey guys. Glad some of you liked my post from last week. So let me tell you about some of the stuff I made this week.

Now, I know Random.org dictated on Sunday that I was going to use apricots in my next recipe, but there was a snafu. My husband and son discovered them before I had the chance to tell them they were being saved. When I woke up in the morning they were gone! Oh well. That stuff happens on occasion. So I used Random.org to determine what I should do now. "Oh essence of randomness, what be-ith your all mighty plan?" No, not really. It did spit out a different option for me though. Zucchini. Well that works for me.

If you'll remember from last week, I said the worst part of a vegetable in which you get a large harvest is the repetition. Most people that get zucchini will slice it for a stir-fry, grate it for zucchini bread, or maybe throw a few on top of a salad. BORING! I was determined NOT to allow this to happen! I believe I have acheived this goal. During my research, I discovered a great website that I want to share with y'all. It's called "Not Your Usual Zucchini Recipes", and you can view it here.


While there were TONS of recipes that looked fantastic, (from zucchini soup to chocolate and zucchini cake), the first recipe really caught my eye. The author called it "Zucchini Mock Crab Cakes," but I like the term "Vegetarian Crab Cakes," or "Veggie Cakes" better. It's more true to what it actually is; crab-less crab cakes. Now, I'm not a vegetarian, but I loved these crab cakes. Keep in mind, they are NOT vegan because of butter and eggs. However, they are vegetarian so that should give you some peace of mind. And I think that they could be a great way to get your family to eat healthier. Here's the recipe for ya:

2 cups grated zucchini

1 egg, beaten

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup minced onion. I used the bottled, dehydrated kind but fresh would work. 1/4 cup is about 1 small onion

1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup vegetable oil for frying. I used olive oil; just as good.

In a large bowl, combine zucchini, egg, and butter or margarine. Stir in seasoned crumbs, minced onion, and seasoning. Mix well. Shape mixture into patties. Dredge in flour, and dredge WELL. In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium high heat until hot. Fry patties in oil until golden brown on both sides.

Now, I didn't have Old Bay Seasoning, and you need it to make this taste like it's supposed to. So, I made my own seasonings. Here's the recipe:

2 1/2 TBS Paprika

2 TBS Salt or Celery Salt

2 TBS Garlic Powder

1 TBS Pepper

1 TBS Onion Powder or 1/8 - 1/4 Cup Dry Minced Onion, to taste

1 TBS Cayenne Pepper (optional)

1 TBS Dried Leaf Oregano (I used basil and if you half it, it's not bad)

1 TBS Dried Thyme

You want to put everything into a air tight, seal-able container. It will make about 2/3 Cup, but I found it makes 2 batches of Veggie Crab Cakes perfectly. I think I over did the seasoning just a little though.

Here's some tips for ya. Do NOT assume that you can put one crab cake on the stove while you form the others without it burning. It burns FAST especially on high heat. If you're going to work as you cook, put your stove on low-medium heat. My stove is electric, with a 9 max. To cook these right, I had it on a 4 or 5. That should give you an idea of how low you should go. 

Another tip is to keep a prepared plate with a napkin or paper towel near by. As is common with frying food, there was extra oil left over. I found that the napkin soaked up the excess oil so my kidneys didn't have to do it for me. I made this recipe twice, once with me preparing the veggie cakes and once with my husband. He didn't put a paper towel down and he didn't have the same problem. He also commented that my crab cakes seemed a little dryer than his. I couldn't tell the difference, so, to each their own.

If you don't know how much 2 cups of zucchini will equate to in uncut vegetable, I have a rule of thumb for you. If the zucchini is thicker than your wrist (and I'd say I have a pretty average wrist), you want about 6 inches or so of zucchini to grate up. That's about half the distance from your middle finger to your elbow. It's not terrible if you go over slightly though. If you go UNDER, you will have some issues as the zucchini is a basic building block to the entire recipe and your cakes WILL fall apart. You do have the option to compensate with more bread crumbs, but the result will be dry veggie cakes. Crab cakes in general are a little dry for my taste, so I would NOT go that route. 

Finally, I squired a dash or so of fresh lemon and lime juice on my finished veggie cakes. (Ha HA! Another ingredient from the list!) Personally, lime gave it a better flavor, but I do also believe that lemon juice and zest is over done these days. It helped to give it a better depth of flavor. Keep in mind that I would serve these as a side dish, NOT a main course. The reason behind this is that they were small, even when I thought I was forming them kinda on the large size. Also, they went FAST! If you are going to attempt to serve them as a main dish, double or even triple the recipe. Then, form the veggie cakes to the size of a pancake (my sides were about the size of two silver dollars), and you might want to adjust your cooking time a little. The small ones will literally take just a minute or two before their done.

Now, I did take pictures of this. Good ones. The problem is, my camera broke (you may remember this from an older post), and I took all my pics on my new camera phone. Can you guess where this is going? That's right; I haven't yet figured out how to get the pics off yet. DOH! As soon as I can, I will get them posted up on here for y'all to see. Until then, be patient, and try sending me any pictures you have of your own veggie cakes. The more the merrier. 

Before I end this post I want to answer one question. Would I make this again? Yes. 100% yes. I love the fact that it has the great crab cake flavor and no crab. My son is allergic to shell fish, and I haven't had crab, oysters, or shrimp in 3 years. I could give this to him without having to worry about a reaction. This makes the worried mom in me a little calmer. So go out and make your own and experience what I did first hand!

Yumminess in a Bowl!

Hey all of you out there in blog land. I have the best salad to share with you today. I know this recipe because my mother used to make it all the time. We usually don't eat the dinner salad my mom prepared so there was always leftovers. Mom would take the salad and spruce it up. The best thing is you can do anything with it and all the ingredients can be found in your cupboard tonight. So, here we go.

Get your self a salad. A salad kit you have to use before it goes bad, the leftover salad from your lunch that your wojust didn't want the waiter to take, or the salad from last night that your kids just wouldn't eat. Whatever you have it will work. Now you're gonna want to add 1-2 cans of tuna. If you don't have tuna, you can add left over turkey from Thanksgiving, or lunch meat, or even chick peas or tofu for a vegetarian option. Add more veggies if you see fit. Now you want to add 2-4 tablespoons of mayo or dressing (aka Miracle Whip), and give it a quick toss. If you have tuna with oil (which I do NOT recommend because of the calories and what not), don't bother draining it. The oil from your mayo will blend with the oil from the tuna and it will give you a better coat. Like I said though, use the tuna with water in it because it works better, calories aside.

Now that everything is tossed up, you're done right? Nope. Grab yourself some nuts or crackers. Whatever you have will work. I've used saltines, ritz, cheez-its, pistachios, chocolate covered pecans, whatever. Give t he nuts a quick chop, and toss them on top. If you opt for crackers, (like I usually do), crush them with your hands and top your salad with them. If you want, now's the chance for a quick toss. And you're done! Serve with garlic bread, or by itself. I made this the other night, but my camera was broken so no pictures. If you try this, send me some pictures. I'll post them here for you. Enjoy!

Recipe to Try

Hey guys. I'm glad you stopped by. I have a great recipe for you to try. It's called, "Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic." Now, I know what most of you are thinking. It's not a ton of garlic; only about two bulbs. And it's not strong at all. Once you've added all the rest of the ingredients, the flavor becomes more mellow.

Now, I've done this recipe twice already. Once a couple days ago, and the other about 2 years ago. It's not time to dictate the recipe to you, because you can find it here. This is the original post and I love, LOVE the fact that this one is for chicken breast not an entire bird. AND it has no alcohol at all, (because I don't drink and the alcohol does NOT completely cook away despite of what they tell you). If you want one with stuff like cognac or sherry, you can check places like the food network. Okay, so what I AM going to do is give you a list of cooking tips, (and maybe a few pictures), so when you try this recipe you won't make the same mistakes I did the first time (or the second).

1. Difficulty level: Advanced. If the most difficult thing you do is add oil and eggs to a powdered cake mix, you're not going to want to try this. 
2. Read the ENTIRE recipe before you begin. If you quick scan it like me, you'll miss some important steps. Honestly, I cannot stress this enough.
3. Peel the garlic first thing. I got in touch with the original poster and she gave me a few great tips for peeling garlic. If you don't have a garlic peeler, you can buy one at your local kitchen gadget place or what not for around $9.00 or less. Here's the link she sent me. She said it is quote "...amazing and super easy." You just roll it around and it takes care of the rest. If you don't have a garlic peeler, I found a great way to peel without it. You take your largest kitchen knife, like a chef's knife, and squish the little cloves. The skin will break and be easier to peel without you smelling like garlic down to your pores. Check out the video she sent me. If you can't get the clove out, tap the tops lightly with your knife and the top will pull right off. The squish and squish. That's it. 

4. Use paper products when transfering your chicken around. This recipe calls for a lot of "season then move" kind of thing. The last thing you want is cross contamination. For those that don't know, cross contamination is where, for example, you get raw chicken juice on cooked chicken, or veggies or something. And just one more thing to add 'cause I can, Tongs. Tongs are going to be your bestest friend in this recipe. Not only will it help prevent cross contamination, but you won't be running to wash your hands every 10 minutes. (My hands got, uh..."Chicken-y" and I had to wash a LOT!) 

5. The recipe calls for that chicken to be pounded within a 1/2 inch of it's life. Or...uh...thickness rater. My meat tenderizer did NOT do the job right. If you're grocer is lucky enough to still have the onsite butcher, you can ask that they pound your meat (no pun intended) before you purchase it. No fuss, no muss. 

6. When the recipe calls for browning, don't take it lightly. This is where the most cooking takes place for the entire recipe. You'll get about 20 minutes in the oven later on, but that's not enough time if you haven't browned your chicken well enough before hand. Check out the next two pictures. If you meet is pink on the sides like the one in the first one, keep that sucker in the skillet. Once it gets that brown sear mark on it, (like the bottom one), you're good to go. And just to be safe, your chicken juices should run clear before you pull them out.

7. A place for everything and everything in it's place. Something my mother-in-law always says to me when she comes to visit. I wonder why.... Oh well, back to business. You will be moving cooked breasts to plates, maneuvering your baking dishes, and skillet around, etc. while making this recipe. You really need to have enough space cleared before hand so you have a spot for everything. Things WILL be hot and if you don't prepare, you will be sad just like I was.

8. Brown your garlic. The recipe calls for you to add your garlic cloves straight to the broth/stock, and that's not a bad thing at all if you want to. I just find that I like to eat the cloves, and the ones that were added to the broth weren't as tender as the ones that I had browned gently before hand. Still good, so personal preference here. You just want a nice, simple sear on your garlic cloves before you add the broth, but again, you don't have to.

9. 2% milk, or not 2% milk. The recipe calls for 2% milk, and if you had read if before hand, you'll have noticed that 2% is what she happened to have in her cupboard. I can't drink milk with a high fat content because of my lactose intolerance, so I just stuck with my skim milk and I think it turned out fine. The 2% does give it a little bit more of a creamy texture, so again, personal preference.

10. Parsley in the oven isn't bad. The fresh parsley is for garnishment at the end, but if you add it to the chicken while it's still in the oven, say about 5-10 minutes before you take it out, it wouldn't hurt. I think it adds a better flavor because parsley that hasn't been cooked has such a bold flavor to it. Parsley with a bit of heat behind it makes that flavor seem more gentle and for some, easier to take. 

Well, them are my tips for y'all. I hope you get as much use out of them as I did. The first time I did this recipe my husband and I spend hours just peeling the garlic. This time it was like an hour tops. So good luck and enjoy. As always, I am a comment junkie, and I would LOVE to hear how this has gone for you. Keep me up to date. LOVES!

I Choked on the Chokes

Hey blog. I think you'll like the post for today.

Late one night O was browsing the channels, and landed on PBS. They were doing a show called "Glenda's Italian," and she was stuffing artichokes. My husband and I love artichokes, but I didn't know they were Italian or that you could stuff them either. So I sought out a recipe that I could actually

make. My cooking still have been on pause when I took on a cooperate roll and my husband became Mr Mom. Honestly, not only was I scared to try this, but I hate making recipes that call for wine or beer or alcohol

because my family doesn't drink. Glenda's recipe called for white cooking wine, and there's just not a great way to duplicate that.

Using my extreme Googling skills, I found a recipe for stuffed artichokes that does not call for wine. Plus the fact that it has garlic in it makes me drool. Check out the name of this guy's blog. It's called The Italian Chef. He has a video on how to do it so you can check that out, follow along, etc. OR, you could watch see what I did.

I assume that if you're reading this paragraph, you've decided to at least see what I did. Okay, so I started by mixing up the stuffing like the recipe called for, EXCEPT, I didn't have the right cheese so I used Parmesan cheese instead. It's the same type you'd use for spaghetti or something. Also, at the last minute, I had to find a sub for my garlic. I didn't know mine had gone bad, so I just looked up emergency substitutions for garlic and went with that. After everything was mixed up, I grabbed my artichokes ad washed them up. It's not a challenge when they say to wash in cold water. It WILL turn your artichokes brown and/or black. Not pretty.

See how much more the top one is opened?

So, everything is mixed, everything is washed, and my husband reads me the next step. "Spread out the artichoke leaves and put them in a pot to boil." Okay, I take the palm of my hand (which is best for this kind of thing), and spread the leaves. Then I follow the recipe and put them in a pot with oil and garlic to boil. After 45 minutes, I'm done right? Well, you didn't hear about the part where I stuffed the artichokes. It wasn't a mistake; it didn't happen. NOTE TO READERS: If your husband helps you by reading recipes or what not, make sure he's not sick, sneezed, and missed something. Yep, that's what happened. They looked SO pretty too. I those spinney little knot-heads and stuffed the crap out of them making sure I got a little bit in side every layer. I popped them in my oven at 350 for about 5-10 minutes. They got brown on the top, but never really "fused." The parts that did fuse looked great, and it was obviously supposed to happen, and it was supposed to go down to the edible part of the artichoke. It was good though.

In the pot boiled and pretty without stuffing.

On my pan, stuffed. The taste better than they look.

For next time, I will double check my recipe. Also, I will remove the choke. The recipe didn't say to, but it REALLY needs to be gone. It's too painful to get the spinney parts off of the yummy stuffing. The white thing in the middle of the picture below is the choke. Also buy artichokes that are close to each other in size. Makes cooking easier. And keep that size as close as you can when you trim them. That way you don't have to worry about flooding one choke versus another when you add more water. My spaghetti pot was just barely too small for the chokes, and I think that had something to do with their success. Some of the leaves had to get squished back together in order to fit in my pot. Make sure that doesn't happen to you.

Do you see the choke yet?

So that's my post. If you try this, please let me know how it turned out for you. I'd love to know from someone that actually followed the directions. Your results can get posted up here too. That'd be cool right?