Brown Sugar Chewies

Dave is out of town and I am bored.  So, what do I do?  Bake - and I don't want to go out for ingredients.  So, I am a little limited - that never stopped me before........

1/4 cup butter 
1 cup packed light brown sugar 
1 egg, beaten 
3/4 cup all-purpose flour 
1 teaspoon baking powder 
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract - I used 1 teaspoon
1/4 cup chopped pecans - no pecans in the house, so used toffee chips
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8-inch square pan with vegetable oil cooking spray.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Turn off the heat, add the brown sugar and stir until smooth. Stir in the egg. Stir together the flour and baking powder and stir into the brown sugar mixture. Stir in the vanilla and pecans. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes. When cool, dust the top with a sifting of confectioners' sugar.

Nancy's Take:  Not great, but I've eaten 3, so they must be good.  Super easy to make, but did take longer than 20 minutes to cook - more like 27.  Thankfully, I'll be giving them away this evening at dinner club.  Better on their hips than mine.

Orange-Apricot Pork Chops

6 pork chops                                                   
1 cup apricot preserves                                        
3 tablespoons brown sugar                                      
1 teaspoon salt                                                
1/2 teaspoon black pepper                                      
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon                                          
1/4 teaspoon ginger                                            
1/4 teaspoon cloves                                            
11 ounces mandarin orange segments - plus juice!               

Put pork chops into your crockpot. In a small bowl, combine jam, brown sugar, and spices. Spoon over pork chops. Add the entire can of mandarin oranges evenly over the top.

Cover and cook on low for about 8 hours, or on high for about 4.

Serve with rice to soak up the yummy juice.


Nancy's Take:  Okay - major problem here.  I made this dinner for my "dinner club".  It was so bad I had to throw it all away - yep - what a waste.  Who knew I could turn perfectly fine pork chops into hockey pucks.  TERRIBLE!!  But, I think it was me - not this lovely recipe.......

Buttermilk Pancakes

These are the best pancakes ever!!  The recipe is from Cooks Illustrated and there are a few twists that were different from any pancake recipe I'd ever made - which was probably off the back of a Bisquick box.  But, last year our pancake eating went up significantly and these became my specialty!  They are good with syrup - my girls prefer them with jam or preserves.  Sometimes to save time in the morning I would gather all my dry ingredients ahead of time so things were ready for a quick prep.

2 cups flour                                                    
2 tablespoons sugar                                            
1/2 teaspoon salt                                              
1 teaspoon baking powder                                       
1/2 teaspoon baking soda                                       
2 cups buttermilk                                              
1/4 cup sour cream                                             
2 larges eggs                                                  
3 tablespoons melted butter                                    
1-2 teaspoons oils                                             

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 200 degrees. Spray wire rack set inside baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray; place in oven.

Whisk flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in medium bowl.

In second medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, sour cream, eggs, and melted butter.

Make well in center of dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients; gently stir until just combined (batter should remain lumpy with few streaks of flour). Do not overmix.

Allow batter to sit 10 minutes before cooking.

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Using ¼ cup measure, portion batter into pan in 4 places. Cook until edges are set, first side is golden brown, and bubbles on surface are just beginning to break, 2 to 3 minutes. Using thin, wide spatula, flip pancakes and continue to cook until second side is golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Serve pancakes immediately, or transfer to wire rack in preheated oven. Repeat with remaining batter, using remaining oil as necessary.

Kool Aid Play Doh

Why make play doh when you can buy it?  Not sure.  But, the girls preschool teacher asked me to make it and here is the recipe.  I've actually made it twice and it was much easier and less sticky the second time.  So, I'll make sure to give you those tips...

2 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 cup salt
2 packages dry unsweetened Kool-Aid
2 cups boiling water
3 tablespoons oil

Mix the dry ingredients (minus kool-aid) together in a large bowl. 

Mix hot water and kool-aid together in a measuring cup.  Pour over the dry ingredients. 

Add oil.

Stir the mixture until it forms a ball (this may take a while - keep stirring). As the mixture cools, it will become less sticky. After the mixture has cooled, take it out of the bowl and knead it until it is smooth.  


I used a silicone spatula and the whole mixing process was simple and clean.


Nancy's Take:  Easy to make - probably cheaper than store-bought.


Erin & Evie's Take:  They love it!  They love the different colors!!

Leg of Lamb

Dave loves leg of lamb!  We don't have it often, but he loves it!  I wanted to make it, but had no idea how and did not have too much patience to try something fancy.  So, I went with the good old crock pot - having no idea what to expect.  I think this is a pricey cut of meat to use in a crock pot, so I hope it is good!

1 Leg of Lamb (fresh or frozen)

1/2 cup Water

Veggies of your choice - onions, potatoes, carrots, whatever............

Run hot water over the frozen lamb package, just so it thaws enough that you can cut open the package and peel it away from the meat

Plop it into your crockpot along with veggies of your choice.

Add a half cup of water

Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours.

you don't need to add any additional water as long as you keep the lid closed and don't futz with it.

*If you are using fresh leg of lamb with a dry rub, cover the meat with the 1/2 cup of water and cook on high for 4-6 hours.*

Dave's Take:  Again, he is out of town.  But, he LOVED it.  Ate it like he had not eaten in a LOOOOONG time.  Total and complete hit!

Nancy's Take:  I don't like leg of lamb too much, but this was yummy.  Super easy to cook and tasted really yummy.  I'd make it again - I am sure that would make Dave happy.

Corned Beef & Cabbage

Well, Saint Patrick's Day has come and gone.  And, that means corned beef & cabbage!  Yummy!!!  I wanted to try something different and this recipe looked very different.  So, I gave it a go!

Corned Beef:
3 lbs corned beef (in package)
10 whole cloves
1/4 cup hot sweet honey mustard
2 Tbsp brown sugar


1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Drain the corned beef from the package and discard the spice packet. Lay corned beef, fat side up, on a large piece of heavy duty, wide, aluminum foil (you may have to get creative with the way you wrap the beef if your foil isn't wide enough). Insert the cloves into the top of the slab of corned beef, evenly spaced. Spread the top with the hot sweet honey mustard. Sprinkle brown sugar over the top. 


2 Wrap the corned beef with foil in a way that allows for a little space on top between the corned beef and the foil, and creates a container to catch the juices. Place foil-wrapped corned beef in a shallow roasting pan and bake for 2 hours. 


3 Open the foil wrapping, spread a little more honey mustard over the top of the corned beef, and broil it for 2-3 minutes, until the top is bubbly and lightly browned. Let rest for 5 to 10 minutes, then place on cutting board and cut at a diagonal, across the grain of the meat, into 1/2-inch thick slices.
Serve immediately.

Cabbage:
Olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 cloves garlic, minced
1 large head of cabbage, sliced into 3/8-inch to 1/2-inch wide slices
Salt

1 Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil (enough to well coat the pan) on medium high to high heat in a large, wide pot (8-quart if available) or large, high-sided sauté pan. Add chopped onions, cook for a couple of minutes, then add garlic.
2 Add a third of the sliced cabbage to the pan. Sprinkle with a little salt and stir to coat with oil and mix with onions. Spread out the cabbage evenly over the bottom of the pan and do not stir until it starts to brown. If the heat is high enough, this should happen quickly. The trick is to have the burner hot enough to easily brown the cabbage, but not so hot that it easily burns. When the bottom of the cabbage is nicely browned, use a metal spatula to lift it up and flip it, scraping the browned bits as you go.

3 Once the cabbage in the pan has browned on a couple of flips, add another third of the cabbage to the pan. Mix well, then spread out the cabbage and repeat. You may need to add a bit more olive oil to the pan to help with the browning, and to keep the cabbage from sticking too much to the pan. Once this batch has cooked down a bit and browned, add the remaining third of the cabbage and repeat.
Serve with the corned beef. Serve with boiled new potatoes. Can be made ahead and reheated.C

Nancy's Take:  Total bummer.  Apparently you have to cook it forever - and 2 hours is not nearly long enough.  How was I supposed to know?  But, I did like the cabbage... a lot!

Dave's Take:  Dave is out of town, so I'll let you know his thoughts.  He'll eat a shoe.  So, he did not think the beef was as bad as me.  But, he did not want more - and he said to toss the leftovers.  But, he really liked the cabbage.

Microwave Popcorn

Well, the girls wanted to watch a movie and I wanted to make them a healthy snack.  Hence, make your own microwave popcorn!  No chemicals - no additivies - just good old fashioned popcorn!

1/2 cup unpopped popcorn
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste 

In a cup or small bowl, mix together the unpopped popcorn and oil. Pour the coated corn into a brown paper lunch sack, and sprinkle in the salt. Fold the top of the bag over twice to seal in the ingredients.

Cook in the microwave at full power for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes, or until you hear pauses of about 2 seconds between pops. Carefully open the bag to avoid steam, and pour into a serving bowl. 

Nancy's Take:  Well, it took me twice to make it without burning it.  But, that was no biggie - it takes no time at all!  It was tasty - I missed the fattening butter!  Thankfully, the girls didn't!

Erin's Take:  YUMMY!  It smells like popcorn!  Mom - this is good.

Ev's Take:  Mom - can you make this again?


Success!