Scalloped Potatoes (aka Cheesy Layers of Goodness)

All summer I had been avoiding adding any unnecessary heat to the kitchen by using my crock pot, microwave, toaster oven, pressure cooker and of course the grill. The summer's unbearable heat was finally replaced with cooler temperatures when it rained last week. That meant I could pull out the dutch ovens and turn on the stove again.

Can you say happy?

Even though I've gotten quite creative with the toaster oven (meatloaf, muffins & chicken tenders respectively) I was dying for a real meal with something that had been baked low and slow to get the flavors just right. After a quick scan of the fridge & google I found the perfect side dish solution.

Scalloped Potatoes using PHILADELPHIA Chive & Onion Cream Cheese Spread.

To die for.

I omitted the bacon* and cut the recipe in half because hello it was only 4 of us eating dinner and we did not need 18 servings. Anyway, I put it all together and stuck it in oven. I *wish* I had taken a picture. The cheese was ooey, gooey right on top and the onions had literally melted into the potato layers while the Philly cream cheese gave it an oomph of flavor.

It was YUMMY good. So good in fact it's going to be the first thing I make next time the temps decide to dip back down.

*No bacon just because I was too lazy to fry any but I'm certain it would have been even more delicious with a little salty pork. Salty pork makes everything better right?

Nothing Says Lovin' like Something from the Oven

Especially when you share!

















*Click on the recipe to enlarge & print.

Sadness, Glee & Fuggs

**Yesterday morning I read that James "The Rev" Sullivan had passed away. He was the drummer of my much beloved band Avenged Sevenfold.



I'm sure most of you don't know who he is and that's okay. Just imagine a member of your favorite band suddenly dying & you'll get it.

The Rev will be greatly missed.

**I'm so ready for TV to come back to life. It seems everything went on hiatus for the holidays and now there is absolutely nothing on. You would think that during this time I could find more productive things to do. If so, then you would think WRONG.

I need TV time to relax and refresh.

**S gave me the Glee Soundtrack Vol 2 for Christmas. I already had Vol 1 and LURVED it. It's one of those albums where I can sing along with every track and I fully expected to be enthralled with this one too.

I'm not. It's good, but not as good as Vol 1. There are a few songs that I belt out to but I don't love the entire cd so I find myself going back to the songs I like over & over.

**Pictures of my gifts as requested:

<--My boots. Or as I call them, my "Fuggs" aka fake Uggs.
<--Cute socks from Sis. There was a black pair too but I wore them. And now they are in the laundry.
<--It looks pink but I swear it's red. S likes to call it "hooker red". Either way I love it.
<-- My new Kathy. ♥

**I also got a cast iron pan so if you have any advice and/or recipes please let me know. I'm a cityfied girl that has never owned a cast iron pan & had to call Lula to find out if "pre-seasoned" really meant it was. Her advice: Don't believe the hype.

Easy as...cake?

When Mama Kat asked for a favorite recipe it was really hard to narrow it down to just one. Ya'll know I heart food. But after a lot of consideration I decided on dessert.

This cake is so worth all the effort you put into it. It's worth all the time you'll spend making it. It's worth every calorie when you finally get to eat it.

Promise.

First take any cake mix. I heart chocolate so that's what I used, but any ole' cake mix will do. You see how hard this is? Decisions, decisions.


Then take any soda, even diet soda, especially diet soda, and mix 12 ounces into the cake mix.

Ta-da! You're done!

Well...not really since you will need to bake it. Or not. I can testify that the batter is pretty tasty.

If you decide to bake it, then heat your oven to 350 degrees and bake for 35-40 minutes for cupcakes. Maybe a little longer if you are actually making a cake.


Make sure to let it cool completely before trying to eat it, otherwise it will fall apart. Or so I heard.

Easy peasy, chicken greasy. You got cake!

Home Ec wasn't the only class in session this week - go HERE to see what other homework was turned in this week.

Snowball Cookies

Saturday I didn't do anything but lay on the couch taking numerous naps throughout the day. To make up for it, I had a bake-a-thon yesterday.

Here's what I made:

Eggnog Bread
Preacher Cookies
Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies
Sour Cream Pound Cake
Peanut Butter Balls
Snowball Cookies

I still need to make:

Mexican Pinwheels (not a cookie)
Sausage Balls (obviously not a cookie)
Potato Chip cookies (You convinced me to try these!)
Fudge
more Peanut Butter Balls (My first batch won't be enough to last through Christmas)
And anything else that I come across between now and Wednesday.

Today I'm sharing my Snowball Cookie recipe.

Here's what you need:



1 1/2 cups butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups (12 oz pkg) semi-sweet chocolate mini chips
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
Extra powdered sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375.

Beat butter, vanilla extract and salt in a large bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in flour.



Stir in the chips and nuts. (Batter will be stiff.)



Shape tablespoons of dough into 1 1/4" balls. Place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are set and lightly browned.



Remove from oven. Sift powdered sugar over hot cookies on baking sheets. Cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.



This recipe is supposed to make 60 cookies but I think I made mine a little bigger so it wasn't quite that many. Snowballs have a shortbread texture, with the added bonus of chocolate and walnuts. They are one of my favorite holiday cookies.

Hot Pockets from home

This is one of the recipes on my sidebar that I've wanted to make since forever. I had some a lot of deli ham sitting in my fridge so I decided to make ham and cheese pockets. Now that I know how easy it is I regret not doing it earlier.

Here's what I did. (Original Pizza Pockets recipe from Happy To Be @ Home)

Step 1 - Make dough

Step 1 1/2 - Buy Kitcheaid mixer. Well, not really but it does make life easier. I've had mine since last Christmas and I'm still completely in love with it.

1 pkg of active dry yeast
1 c warm water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp oregano
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 c all purpose flour



I added my yeast right into the dry ingredients because I always purchase INSTANT yeast. This yeast will be your BFF because it enables you to skip the "let soak" phase of yeast. I then added all the wet ingredients and mixed with my beloved kitcheaid.



Once it was mixed I scraped the sides and then proceeded to add an additional 1/2 c all purpose flour until my dough was no longer sticky. (Add in 1/2 c increments if you need additional flour.)

Then turn your fabulous kitchenaid back on and let the dough hook do it's magic for the next two minutes. Or if you really want to, you can knead by hand for two minutes.

Put the dough ball into a greased bowl turning to oil the top. (I used a tablespoon of olive oil.) Cover and let it sit for at least one hour.



This is where it expands like my thighs.

After an hour or so, punch down the dough and divide into 10 balls. Then roll each ball into an 8" circle. Or something that resembles a circle.






Fill one side with whatever you like...I used some sliced deli ham and cheese for 6 of them and then pizza sauce, pepperoni and cheese for the last four "circles".





Fold and use a fork to seal. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.



According to the ladies over at Happy To Be @ Home these freeze really well wrapped in foil or a ziplock. I doubt they stick around long enough to find out.

Hello! A teenage boy lives here.

Applelicious

This weekend was absolutely beautiful in my neck of the woods. And it's supposed to be in the 80's today and tomorrow...so while it doesn't feel like fall, I started on my seasonal cooking Saturday.

Applesauce & Applebutter - Crockpot style

First thing I did was core and quarter a peck of Rambo apples. No, not this Rambo...



...THIS Rambo


After I quarted them I peeled each piece and plunked them in the crockpot. I know it sounds weird to quarter and then peel but I read this tip somewhere else and it really did seem easier to me.


So after I had a crockpot full of apples (I was using my 6 quart Nesco) I added a cup of water and about 1/4 cup of lemon juice. Then I sprinkled a generous amount of cinnamon over the top. I didn't use sugar at this point because I was still debating on what to use my apples for.



I let them cook on low overnight. The next morning I discovered the apples were cooked through but there was a significant amount of "juice" in the bottom. Next time I will omit the water and just toss the apples with the lemon juice.

I scooped my apples out and poured all the liquid from the crockpot.



Next I took about 3 cups of apples and put them back into the crockpot in order to make applebutter. Since it was a pretty small batch I just added vanilla, brown sugar, white sugar, ground cloves and more cinnamon to taste. No exact measurements needed. I left that mixture in the crockpot for another 3 hours.

The remaining apples were smooshed (yes thats the techinical term) into applesauce and I choose not to add any sweetner because I will be using it for baking. If I were eating it plain, then I would have definitely added some sugar.

I put a cup of the applesauce into freezer bags and pushed the air out while flattening the bag. In all I had 4 cups of applesauce to put into my freezer and 3 cups of applebutter that I divided into two containers.





Why did I lay them flat?



As you can see my freezer stays a bit on the full side. And the chest freezer downstairs is just as full as this one so it helps to save space.

Remember the "juice"? I used it to make pancakes and topped mine with a few of the apples.

Punkin' Cake - My version

Here is the original recipe. I've changed it to make a *bit* healthier and moist.

Be aware this is how I do it. You are more than welcome to read the original recipe and follow her steps. I just cut a few corners to save time and dishes. :-]

Pumpkin Cake

1 can (15 oz) Pumpkin
2 c sugar
1 c applesauce (instead of oil)
4 eggs
1 c all purpose flour
1 c whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon (I usually add heaping teaspoons cause I like cinnamon)
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)



Preheat oven to 350; grease 13x9 pan. Mix pumpkin, sugar and applesauce. Add one egg at a time and beat well after each egg. Gradually add both cups of flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Beat well and be sure to scrape the sides of your bowl halfway through. Fold in the chocolate chips and pour batter into pan. Bake 35-40 minutes. (Mine took closer 45 minutes.)



Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz cream cheese, softened
5 tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 c confectioners sugar
3 to 4 tsp milk (I've never needed more than 1 tsp)



Beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth. Gradually add sugar, mixing well. Add milk to mixture until frosting is the desired consistency. Frost cooled cake.

I've made three in as many weeks and each one has been a little different. The first time was with no chocolate chips. Second one had chocolate chips on top of the frosting as suggested in the original recipe. The last one I put chocolate chips in the batter. It was to die for. I think that chopped walnuts would make a good addition too so I will try that next time.

And there will be a next time. Maybe then I can get a picture of it before we start eating. Or not.

Whats your favorite fall food?

Meet the band & my punkin' cake

Saturday was our first competition of the season and we placed 2nd overall. Not bad considering we moved up a group and we have a lot of new students this year.

Let me introduce you to the Marching Cavaliers.


Here is our main stand; we also have one on the back side for the 2nd drum major. Notice that nifty keyboard stand in the back. The VP painted our "logo" for the season on it.



Marching in...


...onto the field


Pit and color guard setting up


Second tuba belongs to me-it's SS.


Colorguard getting a little risque with the chairs.


Oh yeah!


Sassy, but classy ladies!


Pit crew loading up; see the design on the back of the shirts...yep it matches.

Oh and I baked this scrumptiouslicious dessert yesterday....Pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting so I thought to snap a picture before we ate it all.



Mmmm...it was even better tonight!