Tag: recipe

Cookie Experiments

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Have you put the heat on in your home yet? We have been trying to resist turning on the heat as long as possible.

I have been doing more cooking and baking in the evening and that seems to be all we need for now. My cookie dough experiments have been keeping us warm.

The end results of this experiment are some sort of cookie bars that happened when I tried to figure out the proportions of wet to dry ingredients.

I tried one recipe that called for 1 stick of butter and 1 egg. The dough was impossibly dry and the cookies never flattened out. They stayed in nearly the original dough ball shape.

Another recipe called for 2 sticks of butter and 2 eggs. I gave this a try next

The results were a dough that was way too wet and the cookies flattened and spread too much. It was a disaster.

Here is a picture only halfway through the baking

They were practically crepes…

So I made a makeshift baking pan out of some nonstick aluminum foil and I ended up with cookie bars.

These are not what I planned to make, but they are pretty good. A cake-like cookie.

My experiments will continue, and when I figure it all out, I’ll share the recipe. Until then I am like a mad scientist, creating cookie monsters in my lab.

Crispy Halloween Sweet Potato Fries

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What could be more fun and festive than a Halloween pumpkin patch of your own, right on your dinner plate? These little cuties are made from sweet potatoes, baked to crispy perfection! Fun, delicious, and the perfect comfort food on a chilly Autumn day!

These little cuties are made from sweet potatoes, baked to crispy perfection!

I don’t like to share a recipe that I have not yet tweaked to near perfection, but I’m sharing this one early because it’s a Halloween recipe. At the end of the article, I will talk about how I will be changing and hopefully improving this process for next time.

So here are the basics of how to make them!

Ingredients:

  • Sweet Potatoes, the bigger the better!
  • Cooking oil. Whatever oil you prefer. I used Avocado oil.
  • Seasoning. Whatever combination of seasonings you prefer. I used 2 teaspoons of Old Bay in this recipe, but in the future, I will be using my custom “Gadzooks” seasonings instead. These would probably also be great with pumpkin-pie seasonings as well….and maybe even marshmallows for a sweet treat!
  • Cornstarch: 2 Teaspoons, (though I am not yet convinced this was necessary (more on that below.))

Instructions:

  1. Buy some nice plump sweet potatoes, the bigger the better.

2. Slice the sweet potatoes about a quarter or a third of an inch thick. A mandolin slicer is the safest and quickest way to go.

Soak the slices in water to remove the starch so that they get nice and crispy when baked.

3. Use pumpkin-shaped cookie cutters on each sweet potato slice.

4. Cut faces into the pumpkin cut-outs.

5. Toss the slices in oil, making sure to cover all slices completely. (make sure the slices are nice and dry before adding the oil. This will help them crisp better.)

6. Add Seasoning to the oil-covered slices. I suggest doing this in a plastic bag, shake and bake style.

7. Bake 425 degrees. On parchment paper or non-stick aluminum foil. 15 minutes on one side, then flip and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Don’t overcrowd your baking sheet! They need some space to get properly crispy.

That’s it! Enjoy!

Notes, Fixes, and Updates:

Slicing: This is the first spot where my plan needs some improvement. I used a mandolin slicer to do this which should be quick easy work, but it was not. The sweet potatoes were so firm that it was difficult to slice through them. Maybe pre-cooking them slightly would make this work better.

Soaking: I soaked the slices in water to remove the starch so that they would bake to crispy perfection. After scouring the internet, for tricks and tips to get sweet potatoes crispy, some sources seemed to say that the key to a crispy sweet potato is removing the starch by soaking, while other recipes claimed that the key was in adding corn starch to the seasonings. Why remove the starch and then add it back in again? I am not sure, and need to do more experimenting!

Cookie Cutter: When I used my cookie cutter on each sweet potato slice, again, the slices were so firm that this was quite difficult. I had to use my meat tenderizing rubber mallet to get the cookie cutter to cut through the slices.

Faces: When I cut faces into the pumpkin cut-outs, once again this was difficult because the raw sweet potatoes were so firm.

Oiling and Seasoning: I used Old Bay seasoning, but I am not a big fan of the celery salt in Old Bay seasoning, so I think I would change the seasonings to my custom “Gadzooks” blend of:

  • 1 tsp Oregano
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
  • 1/4 cup shredded parmesean cheese.

Baking: I ran out of parchment paper, so I had to use aluminum foil. I think they would be better on parchment. I pulled mine from the oven 5 minutes early, but I think they would have been better and more crispy if I went the full time. Also maybe a little blast from the air fryer setting would probably help as well.

Mini Derby Pies – Kentucky Derby Soiree

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Mini Derby Pies



This recipe is a family favorite that we have been making for at least 25 years. 

Our traditional recipe uses Walnuts, but to celebrate Kentucky Derby, we wanted to make mini pecan pies — so we swapped the walnuts for pecans.

Some folks call these Tassies, others call them Tartlets but today we are calling them Mini Derby Pies because they are part of our Kentucky Derby Soiree!

Read more about that here – where you’ll find lots of Kentucky Derby decorating inspiration and some winning recipes for yummy treats like Benedictine Spread and Kentucky Hot Browns!

Here’s the Recipe! (sorry, no pictures of the baking process here — my hands were too buttery to hold the camera)

3 oz Cream Cheese
1 Stick of Butter
1 Cup of Flour

Combine all and mix well.
Shape into balls approximately 1 inch in diameter.
Shape Balls into cups by inserting a finger into the center of each.
Chill 15-20 Minutes

Filling:
3/4 cup of Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla
3/4 cup chopped Pecans
1 Teaspoon Butter
a pinch of Salt

Mix Together.
Fill each of the muffin cups with filling.
Bake 30 Minutes at 350 degrees
Sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

In my family, we always made these for the big fall and winter holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, and we always doubled the recipe so we would have enough for the whole house full of guests – I miss those days a lot.

I doubled the recipe this time and was shocked that it yielded a whopping 79 mini pies. 

I believe the original recipe yields 24, so I should have only had 48 — I may be making them a lot smaller than the recipe says, but that is how we have always done it!


The original recipe says to use a mini muffin tin, but we have always just used the mini muffin cup liners and placed them all on a cookie sheet. 

It would just take way too long cooking them in multiple batches.

I’m not sure if we’ll get to the Mint Julep Brownies I had planned to make, so that will have to wait until next year. That brings our very first Kentucky Derby celebration to a close.

We had lots of fun trying new things and look forward to discovering many more reasons to celebrate!

For more Kentucky Derby check out the links below to other Magical Giggles articles packed full of Kentucky Derby decorating inspiration and winning recipes for yummy treats like Benedictine Spread and Kentucky Hot Browns!

Kentucky Derby Decorating Inspiration  
Benedictine Spread Recipe 
Kentucky Hot Browns Recipe
Mini Derby Pie Recipe

Pssst….Hold on to your sombrero — Cinco de Mayo is next! 

Festive fiesta festivities are in the works!


 

 

 

 


 

Benedictine Spread – Kentucky Derby Soiree

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Benedictine Spread Recipe

This Kentucky Derby staple was brand new to us, and it definitely received rave reviews from all in attendance at our Kentucky Derby Soiree!

I didn’t take any pictures of the process of making the spread or the canapes, but I’ll do my best to describe it all!

The ingredients were just the basics:

1 block of Cream Cheese
1/4 cup of Sour Cream
1 whole Cucumber, finely grated
1/4 of a White Onion, finely minced


The key to this recipe was the draining of the excess moisture from the Cucumber and the onion. 

The way we accomplished this was by pressing in a fine mesh colander lined with paper towels. 

It was a lot of pressing and squeezing, because cucumbers hold a tremendous amount of water, but it was well worth it in the end!

Combine the Cream Cheese and the Sour Cream and then add the well drained minced onions and cucumber  — that’s pretty much it! 

We made ours the night before to give it some time for all the flavors to mingle.

The canapes were made by spreading the Benedictine Spread between two slices of soft fresh white bread and then stamping them out with a canape cutter. 

The garnish is thinly sliced cucumber.

In my research I found that many people make this spread with green pepper Tabasco Sauce, which gives it both a little kick of spice as well as it’s signature light green coloring. 

We didn’t have any of the green Tabasco Sauce, and it just didn’t feel right to add green dye, so ours is in it’s natural white. 

I slightly regret the lack of green now because it makes it very difficult to see the spread between the slices of white bread (especially in pictures) — it still tastes fantastic though!

In my research about this Derby Day treat, I found that Benedictine Spread was created in Louisville Kentucky by a fellow Jenny (Jennie Carter Benedict)– so you know I had to give this recipe a try!

For more Kentucky Derby check out the links below to other Magical Giggles articles packed full of Kentucky Derby decorating inspiration and winning recipes for yummy treats like Benedictine Spread and Kentucky Hot Browns!

Kentucky Derby Decorating Inspiration  
Benedictine Spread Recipe 
Kentucky Hot Browns Recipe
Mini Derby Pie Recipe

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kentucky Hot Browns – Kentucky Derby Soiree

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Kentucky Derby Hot Brown Bake Recipe

In our home, when we find a new event to celebrate we are always very excited. 

We love all the research and exploration of the traditions or customs behind any event we are about to celebrate for the first time. 

We love the decorating and all of the creative challenges that come along with it, but one of our family’s favorite parts of a new celebration is trying new foods.

It feels so adventurous to try new things, even if it is from the safety of your very own dining room!

At the same time, we often find that the original or traditional recipes can be intimidating! That is where more interpretive ‘quickie’ recipes come in handy.

We planned on combining a few of our favorite recipes, hoping to cross a Monte Cristo recipe with our favorite Stuffed French Toast Bake recipe. 

Then we found  this awesome recipe on Pinterest which seemed to do exactly that, so we gave it a try (with just a few very minor alterations) and it was exactly what we were trying to create, and it made a perfect festive treat for our Kentucky Derby Soiree.

So here’s what you’ll need!

1 Roll of Crescent Rolls (8oz)
1lb of Turkey Breast (lunch meat)
10 Slices of cooked Bacon
8 slices of Swiss Cheese
3 Roma Tomatoes
4 Eggs (beaten)

We found all of these items at Aldi, so the prices were great!. 

The grand total is $11.55 if you don’t have any of the ingredients already, and there will be lots of extra ingredients left over (8 eggs, 5 tomatoes, and some bacon, turkey and swiss cheese.) 

Here’s how to put it all together!

First, line an 8 inch pan with foil – it’ll make clean-up time a breeze! 

Then open up the crescent rolls. I always scream when I do this. That explosion when the can bursts scares me EVERY time!

Unroll and separate the dough into two large squares. Place one square on the bottom of the pan and reserve the other square for the top(pictured above).

 
 
Layer half the ingredients and pour half of the beaten eggs over it.
Repeat and layer the remaining bacon, tomato,cheese and turkey — then top it with the remaining dough square and pour the remaining eggs over the top of the dough.
 

 

Cover in foil and bake for 20 minutes.
 


After 20 minutes, remove foil and bake an additional 20 to 40 minutes – until the top is a lovely brown color.
 


Let it sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes to allow it to set before cutting or serving.
 
Here it is plated and ready to eat!

It is sooooo delicious! We’ll definitely be making this one again!

For more Kentucky Derby check out the links below to other Magical Giggles articles packed full of Kentucky Derby decorating inspiration and winning recipes for yummy treats like Benedictine Spread and Mini Derby Pies!
 

 

 

Groundhog Day Celebration

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Happy Groundhog day!
 

This year is the first time we are attempting to ‘celebrate’ Groundhog day.

So here we go!

To start with, we made Coco Krispy Groundhogs!

It’s just the standard Rice Krispy Treat recipe only we swapped out Rice Krispies for Coco Krispies so that our groundhogs would be brown.



Here’s the recipe:
——————————————
INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons butter
1 package (10 oz., about 40) Marshmallows
OR
4 cups Miniature Marshmallows
6 cups Coco Krispy Rice cereal

DIRECTIONS
1. In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat. 

2. Add Coco Krispy Rice cereal. Stir until well coated.

3. Release your creative side and start forming groundhog shapes!
——————————–

We had some candy eyes left over from Halloween baking, and the teeth are made from mini marshmallows cut to shape and size with cooking sheers.

As you can see in the picture, we tried several approaches to the overall design of the groundhog. Let me tell you, when you look up at this motley crew of slightly deranged looking weather forecasting rodents, it makes you giggle.

We used a piece of a green plastic tablecloth for the ‘grass’ and some dry Coco Krispies around the base to simulate a dirt mound around the groundhog burrow hole.

Clearly Coco Krispies and marshmallow do not create the most cooperative sculpting medium, but this is not meant to be fine art.

Creating them was a fun and silly break from reality and they taste dee-lish!

On the absolute MUST-DO list for today is to watch Groundhog day! 

Unfortunately it’s not available for streaming on Netflix. If you don’t have the DVD, Blu Ray or digital copy, it’s on AMC several times on Groundhog Day so fire up those DVRs!

Here is the schedule:

Monday February 1st at 10:00 AM
Monday February 1st at 12:30 PM
Monday February 1st at  3:00 PM
Monday February 1st at  5:30 PM

Enjoy!

UPDATE:
I added links below for The Groundhog Day Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital Download, respectively. 

I also added a link for the CUTEST stuffed groundhog! I want to buy him and put him right in the middle of our dining room table as a centerpiece next year!

Parmesan Crusted Chicken

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Parmesan Crusted Chicken Recipe
We saw this recipe idea in a Mayonnaise commercial, so you know its not the healthiest of recipes, but we tried it once and it soon became the favorite chicken dinner of everyone in all the land (or at least in our house).

Pictured here, we served it with peas and red potatoes, but this chicken goes great with all veggies.

Here is the recipe along with our extra tips!

1. Cut chicken breasts to thin cutlets. We like to plan it out so we can buy a big package of whole chicken breasts at only $1.99 a pound or less — then as soon as we get home we fillet the chicken into tons of nice THIN cutlets that we slip straight into ziplock bags and pop them into the freezer.


When we need the chicken we just pull out the already pre-prepared chicken to use in all sorts of different chicken dishes. The chicken is safely frozen so it won’t go bad, all the prep work is done, and we are set for about a month worth of chicken at a time.

2. Preheat oven to 425 F degrees

3. Lightly oil (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) a baking sheet. We like to use Release foil that REALLY cuts down clean up time.

4. Mix a half a cup of mayo mixed with a quarter cup Parmesan cheese

5. Spread mixture on the chicken fillets

6. Sprinkle lightly with Italian Seasoned bread crumbs

7. Pop in oven for 20 minutes 

8. Hold onto your socks because it’s so moist, delicious and flavorful that it’ll knock yer socks off. Seriously, everyone we served this to LOVED it and we’ve served some very picky eaters!

Pepper Pumpkins and Mashed BOOtatoes

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Pepper Pumpkins and Mashed BOOtatoes! 
I actually made them this year, and here are the pictures to prove it!! (and illustrated six step how-to guide and recipe below)
Every holiday season I start decorating and preparing just a little bit earlier than the start of the season — which lulls me into falsely believing I have plenty of time to prepare and create all the fantastical holiday projects that dance through my head.  Yet somehow I go from being the early bird planner to the last minute loser every year without having any idea what happened to all the time between.
For YEARS I have planned to make stuffed peppers carved as Jack-O-Lanterns and mashed potatoes in the shape of ghosts that I rename mashed “BOOtatoes” but somehow Halloween passes before I can bring my Halloween dinner visions to life.
Well this year it finally happened! We made my Halloween dinner dreams come true! It was fun, festive and most importantly DELICIOUS.
So, here is the recipe we used and the step by step pictures along the way. This is recipe was created and tweaked to be more healthy by my mom, the lovely and talented artist Peggy Hickey.
Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
Peppers
3 Orange Bell Peppers
1 half pound (85% lean) chopped beef
1/4 cup dry uncooked oatmeal
1 half a small onion diced
1 tablespoon Gravy Master
Sauce
1 can (16 oz) tomato sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Steps illustrated below!
Preheat the oven to 385 F degrees.
I started with the lovely orange peppers that I see in the store every year, only this time I bought them early, forcing myself to make this meal before the peppers went bad. 
I treated the little orange peppers just like pumpkins — cutting around the top as a ‘lid’ just like when carving a Jack-O-Lantern.
This made it quite easy to pull all the seeds out in one easy step.
Cut the seeds off the ‘lid’ and clean out any stray seeds inside.
Toss the seeds, but keep the ‘lid’ for later.
Then the fun part of carving the ‘face’.
Channel your inner child and give each pepper it’s own playful or spooky personality.
Don’t make them too scary or you’ll be afraid to eat it!
Make the stuffing by combining:

1 half pound (85% lean) chopped beef
1/4 cup dry uncooked oatmeal
1 half a small onion diced
1 tablespoon Gravy Master

Fill each pepper pumpkin with the meat mixture.
Don’t pack it too tightly or it may not cook evenly.
Put their lids back on and pop them in the oven!
Bake for 45 minutes at 385 F degrees.
I DARE you not to smile back at them when you see their little faces smiling out from the oven –it’s not possible.
While they are in the oven, start the sauce by combining the following:

1 can(16 oz) tomato sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Combine tomato sauce, brown sugar and apple cider vinegar in a small pan. Heat until the sugar dissolves and it’s nice and hot. Don’t overcook.
Serve with mashed potatoes spooned into ghost shapes and use peppercorns as eyes and mouth. 
You could use a pastry bag for the ghostly mashed BOOtatoes, or you can artfully dollop the potatoes – snowman style.
I used a plain ole spoon and placed a large dollop on the plate, then a medium one on top of that and a small one on top. Pay extra attention to the peak on the top dollop because that will make the ghosty head. 
Open the top of the pepper pumpkin and pour sauce inside the pepper so it oozes out creepily.
This sauce is tangy and sweet and a perfect compliment to the peppers.
And thats it! 

I’ve wanted to make this meal for so many years, and we finally did it! 

Okay…full disclosure. We made these on November 4th !! 
But in all fairness, the Halloween decorations were still up, and being after Halloween meant no trick or treaters to interrupt dinner, and we had lots of leftover candy for dessert!
Also, we are always looking to create healthy meals, and ground beef does not typically make it into our meal plans. Peggo had the great idea of adding the oatmeal to the stuffing with the rationale that the beef may raise cholesterol, but Oatmeal lowers it, so they cancel themselves out! While that science may or may not be completely sound, the oatmeal does bulk up the meat filling so you get a nice big portion without feeling too terribly guilty!

Oh My Gourd! What is a Spaghetti Squash?

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Have you ever heard of Spaghetti Squash? 

During the Halloween season, the name alone may conjure up images of a mad scientist splicing together the DNA of a pumpkin and a plate of pasta, but the reality is a lot less spooky. 

So, where do you land on the spectrum of Spaghetti Squash knowledge?  It’s likely you fall into one of three groups;

Group A – You do not know what Spaghetti Squash is and I could easily convince you that it involves a plate of spaghetti and a blunt object, or that it might be some sort of strange fetish that involves sitting on pasta.

Group B – Not only have you heard of Spaghetti Squash but you have made it yourself. Perhaps you consider yourself a bit of a Spaghetti Squash expert and under your clothes you wear a leotard with a giant S on the chest, denoting that you are a superhero of squash.

Group C – Something between the extremes of group A and Group B – in other words, a normal person.

My goal in this article is to either introduce you to this venerable veggie and be right here with you at the moment that you say to yourself “OH MY GOURD!! spaghetti really is coming out of this squash!” Or to distract and disorient you before you come to the conclusion that I might be a Spaghetti Squash Stupidhead — which I totally am.

If you are like me, you probably have seen Spaghetti Squash at the local market and thought that they were just slightly anemic pumpkins that stayed indoors reading while the other pumpkins were out in the sun running around the pumpkin patch.

Compared to a plump orange pumpkin, Spaghetti Squash are pale and thin, but they are not just nerdy undernourished pumpkins. They are packed full of nutrients, vitamins, antioxidants, fiber and all sorts of other healthy stuff that makes health food bloggers and nutrition experts quiver with delight.

Also, if you are shaped like a pumpkin, and looking to slim down, Spaghetti Squash is a great way to painlessly cut calories. It has about 40 calories per serving, compared to pasta at about 200  (in other words, about 160 calories saved at dinner to spend later on cookies). So you can have a huge guilt free plate of spaghetti without any fears that someone will carve a face into you when you wear orange clothing. 

Most importantly, it tastes good and is easy to make. What more could you ask for? (Cookies. You could ask for cookies). 

So let’s get started!

Step 1:  Don’t be afraid — go buy a Spaghetti Squash. Gather up your courage and walk boldly to the spaghetti squash display at your local market. When choosing a squash, pick a nice firm one that feels heavy for its size and is free of blemishes and soft spots. While choosing, pick up several to feel and compare them. Thump them lightly also, because it will make you look like you know what you are doing.


Step 2: Cut the squash in half from top to bottom. Easy-peasy — should be just like carving a pumpkin on Halloween, right?  Not exactly. 

As you can see in the picture, the shell is thicker and more dense than a pumpkin. My knife got stuck a few times, and once I had cut all the way around the entire circumference of the squash, the two halves did not gracefully fall open into two perfectly cut halves. 

What worked best for me was working my way around the edge slowly, patiently and carefully  — then reaching the end of my patience and prying the halves apart like a she-beast while making overly dramatic grunting sounds reserved for use only when splitting a Spaghetti Squash, opening a jar with a tight lid, and when crowning without an epidural.  


Step 3: Scoop out the seeds and stuff – just like when making a Halloween Jack-O-Lantern! This is fun! We can go trick-or-treating later right? 
#IGotARock


Step 4: Tis the season for seasoning. You can drizzle a little bit of EVOO (EVOO= Extra Virgin Olive Oil — It is important that you don’t use the kind-of-still-a-virgin olive oil, or Olive Oil that is dating Popeye or other sailors). Sprinkle salt and pepper or any spices you like. I am pretty sure these steps are optional though if you prefer not to sacrifice any virgins when you cook.


Step 5: Flip them over (open side down) to cook on a baking sheet.
We used parchment paper, but only because Martha Stewart peer pressured us into doing it. It probably isn’t necessary but we had some in the house and using it made us feel very fancy.

Step 6: Cook for about an hour at 425 F degrees, or until you can’t bear the building anticipation any longer.

Step 7: Remove the Spaghetti Squash from the oven, flip it over and freak out when you don’t see any spaghetti. When you calm down, grab a fork and lightly drag it over the surface of the inside of the shell and see the spaghetti strands forming. Squeal with delight and call friends and family members over to watch as you dazzle them with your new found Spaghetti Squash skills. 

Step 8: Scoop out the spaghetti and serve! We paired it with our favorite tomato sauce and some Parmesan cheese — just like regular pasta. 

That’s it! You’re done! There are lots of tasty and adventurous recipes out there to try (which I will share here when I try them), but for a first try this very basic approach is quick, easy and will give you your first taste of Spaghetti Squash Success.

I hope that this article has helped to squash any fears you may have had about trying Spaghetti Squash!

Don’t forget to take lots of pictures and post them on your blog and all over social media so you can show the world you are trying new things, living life to its fullest, creating spaghetti squash celebrations just for the heck of it and that you are NOT a Spaghetti Squash Stupidhead!