Tasty Tuesday: Skillet Chicken Thighs

Weekly, if not daily, The Stay At Home Chef posts recipes that even my tasteless palate is drooling over. And every so often I get up the guts to try a new recipe. I had it on good authority that chicken thighs are quite tasty, so I hauled our family out of our boneless-skinless chicken breast comfort zone to try Skillet Chicken Thighs and we were not disappointed.

The recipe is simple and straightforward. I felt awesome when I plated the chicken, as most of the time when I cook this way it either ends up burned or underdone. I followed the recipe exactly (other than forgetting to turn down pan #2* to medium heat at one point) and I was totally successful!

Everyone liked it except one kid (who is not a meat eater unless it's bacon, a hot dog or a burger.) And the only comment on flavor other than "yummy!" was that maybe I should have spiced under the skin as well as on top. That may have been my error. I plan on asking the chef. :)


* I cooked 4 thighs in 2 separate pans to feed our family of 6.
 

Pattern Test: The Lucy Hobo Bag

I did a challenging pattern test this week. :)

 This is the Lucy Hobo bag, designed by the very fun and awesome team at Clover and Violet.
They put out a call on Facebook to get help emergency testing the pattern. I think, the issue was that n ad came out before they were expecting it to and the pattern was not ready to put in the shop. I had a fairly low key week ahead and most of the supplies so I was happy to help out.

SOOO much work goes into writing patterns and the more I test the more respect I gain for those who produce them. It makes me even more adamant about not photocopying/email sharing purchased patterns around. Those pattern designers don't deserve that after all the work that goes into the pattern.

This pattern had a bunch of new to me techniques, such as an inset zipper pocket in the lining, a bound edge, a button loop, a side and bottom panel, curved corners, and pleats.

I cheated on the binding. It was supposed to be hand-stitched down, but instead I stitched in the ditch on the front, and since there was a  fair amount of  edge inside, I turned it back on itself, which hid my sloppy stitch in the ditch and topstitched the whole thing.

This bag is a little stiffer than the bag should be, since I had to use fusible fleece instead of interfacing and flannel. I had to use what I had on hand, not purchasing anything, and it was okay to substitute. It is supposed to be really "slouchy".

While I am not happy with the quality of the construction of this bag, (I made tons of errors and it's somewhat shoddy, rushed workmanship) it is still cute and should be a functional purse.

Thanks to Jennie at Clover and Violet for  trusting me!

Tasty Tuesday: Pinterest Reviews

I have been trying to use my Pinterest pins once in a while, so this week you get not one but two recipe reviews from my Pinterest Boards. One is originally from my "Breakfast Recipes to Try" Board but got moved, and the other one is from my "Desserts To Try" Board.

Crockpot Breakfast Casserole from All Kinds of Yumm







As you can see from the pin photo caption, this was not a hit. 5 out of 6 of us ate it. 1 out of 5 liked it.
I moved the pin to my "Pinned Recipes Tried - Just Okay". I have since wavered a little in my original decision to likely not try it again. I might try it again with bacon and a different style of hash brown. Maybe some onions. :) And probably on a camp-out in the dutch oven.

Kiss'n Cupcakes (these didn't have a name so I named 'em) from http://foodtalk.pinapic.co/?p=200






This one went over a little better. I mean, cupcakes? It's hard to ruin those.

I used a Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge cake mix and Hershey's Kisses.
I followed the very difficult directions of baking the cupcakes for 5 minutes then setting a Kiss (unwrapped of course) on top of the mostly raw batter, then finished the baking.

I served them warm. They cooled for 5 minutes tops. Probably not even that. The one I cut open to photograph was still exceedingly hot. :)

As you can see, the kiss held it's shape (no surprise to me, since they do that with Peanut Butter Blossoms.) One of the pins I saw for this described them as a "molten" center. It was not exactly "molten" as described in that particular pin, but they were very soft and warm. Definitely not the gooey fudgy type liquid I expect in a Molten Chocolate Cake.
This pin was accurate in that it does sink to the middle, though closer to the bottom and even all the way to the bottom and create a chocolate center. A soft chocolate kiss center. :)

I think overall they are a fun treat, and I will make them again. I am going to get the mini kisses though and sprinkle 3 or 4 on each one to spread the chocolate around a bit more.

Have a great week!

Miscellaneous and random: Coconut Oil

This post is about coconut oil and how I use it.

This is the brand I use. I use it because it is the first one I found to experiment with.

You see, last year, every so often, my husband would mention to me how he had read that shaving with coconut oil worked really well. I should try it sometime. I guess he said it enough times because I finally did. And guess what? It does work well.

I found some coconut oil at the grocery store. It seemed like an awful lot to keep in the bathroom, especially if it didn't work out. I didn't want to be cooking with something I had been dipping into in the tub. You know? :P

So I did a little recycle with a Gelato Container (delicious and FYI, Target carries it) and I keep that little tub in the tub.

 A few things to note:

• Wet your legs (or face men) first. I tried a "dry" run and had mild razor burn. Nothing like I normally get shaving with shaving cream and water, but there nonetheless.

• Use a good razor. I have tried about 6 different razors and the cheapest ones 1 or 2 blades still left razor burn. If I use a good quality 3 blade or more razor I rarely get any burn. I can buy the Up&Up Brand "Women's Razors/Five Blade/Compare to Venus Embrace" and be fine. They are on the pricey end of the "cheap" razors. :)

•  Be generous. I probably scoop about 1-2 tablespoons onto each leg. Rub it around well for a minute or two.

Pros:
(I like this much better than shaving cream because:)

• The coconut oil lasts way longer. I think I started using it in October or November of last year and I am still on the same little tub and am about halfway through it. (NOTE: I only shave once a week or if we are going to the beach or pool.)  

•  My skin is softer and I use less lotion and rarely get razor burn, which with shaving cream was a frequent occurrence.

• There is no odor.

• I rub it into my feet while I shave and they are nice and soft when I get out. Sometimes I use it as lotion after I shower as well.

• You can cook with it! Just don't get it from the same container you shave with.  :)

Cons:

• It will leave residue in the tub/sink. Use something that cleans oil to clean it up.

• If you are allergic to coconuts you can't use this (I assume).

• It makes the tub slippery! Be careful!

 

Roasted Peeps? Yes please!

http://www.marshmallowpeeps.com/product-detail/easter/original-peepssup-sup-marshmallow-chicks

Last night my husband and kids went to the beach for a cookout with their cousins. While I was at the store picking up the marshmallows to roast, I saw the enormous display of Peeps and thought, "Hey those are marshmallow...I wonder how they would roast?"

 I sent a text to my husband and he also thought it would be fun to try, so I bought four colors of Peeps chicks for them to roast over the coals. (I was hoping for some different color reactions to the heat. I don't think they noticed anything though.)

What they did notice was that they were delicious! Apparently the sugar coating caramelizes and contains the gooey goodness and tastes fabulous as well. They also said the centers seemed to cool a little faster. I don't know how true that is but it sounds nice! :)

I am going to give it a try over the stove today. I must taste them!

Let me know if you try this!
Happy Easter!

 

Pistachio Bread

A gal who works at Fat Quarter's Quilt Shop teaching classes also has a blog where she shares about her life and what goes on at the classes and things of that nature. It is called Tattered Threads and Willing Hands (but the URL is http://julieisa.blogspot.com/).This week she posted about a class and she shared links to recipes she used for the food.

One of the recipes was Pistachio Bread, which in reality is cake, but  I guess if you make it in a bread pan...?  My husband enjoys pistachios so I asked him if he wanted to try the recipe. I have never eaten a pistachio so I probably would have passed this one by if he had not wanted to try it.
And well, it's delicious! It makes 5 mini loaves or 2 regular loaves.

You have to  post a comment on her blog where you can leave your email for her to send you the recipe.
 I am going to respect that and not post the recipe here. But seriously, go ask for it. D-LISH!

 

Tasty Tuesday: 2 Recipe Reviews

We have tried 2 new recipes this month so far,  Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup and Secret Ingredient Mac and Cheese.

 Both were a hit with the majority of the family and will be staying in the recipe rotation.

With the soup, I put the cooked and crumbled bacon directly in the soup before I served it, just because it would make a more fair distribution. :) Some of us like our bacon a LOT and would leave little for anyone else.

The Mac and Cheese got a substitution due to the cost of the Frank's Hot sauce being $4+ a bottle and the store brand $0.97. One of these days I will get the Frank's just to see how it compares heat-wise.
Everyone liked this one a lot, even the Mac and Cheese hater who said it was okay. Everyone that is, except the boxed Mac and Cheese lover, who would not even taste it.

Give them a try and if you like them, give the chefs some love!

 

A Pinterest Recipe Review: Slow Cooker Chicken

Source: get-on-the-floor-0.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

First of all, let me say that the original link to this recipe seems to be bogus, but the details are in the pin itself so I went with it.  When I cooked it, It DID NOT look like the pin photo. In any way. At all. (The pin chicken obviously had been browned in some way, grilling or something. That does not happen in a slow cooker.)

See:

And it doesn't have a very descriptive name, so I added a word to it.

 My Review:
The flavor of the sauce is good, but the chicken did not really need to cook for as long as it did. My chicken was dry-ish. If it was bone-in or full chicken breasts, maybe it would need that long to cook.
That could have been because I just put frozen tenders in the slow cooker. I am going to make this again with fresh chicken and cook it less time.

I also may make a second batch of the sauce and simmer it to serve with the chicken. The sauce left in the slow cooker looked kind of gross. :) (See above photo)

My kids found it to be just okay. I want to try it again with the above mentioned tweaks.

The recipe/pin had no title, just the ingredients and basic instructions.
I fleshed it out a little but this is the recipe as given in the pin.

 Slow Cooker Sweet Chicken

1 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup light soy sauce

2 pounds chicken breast tenderloins

Whisk first 3 ingredients in a small bowl to combine.
Add 2 pounds chicken breast tenderloins (I use 2 -3 tenders per person I am serving) into the slow cooker.
Pour sauce over the chicken in the slow cooker.
Cover and cook on low 6-8 hrs.

 Serve with rice.

Feel free to pin this recipe from here to start a new pin with a link that works. :)

I served this with homemade Fried Rice that my friend DeLaine gave me the recipe for.



Delaine’s Fried Rice

2-4 cups precooked rice (leftovers work well) 
2-3 Eggs
Oil
Green onions, diced
¼ tsp garlic powder
Vegetables (diced carrots, peas, broccoli, pineapple etc.)
5 TBSP Soy Sauce divided
1 TBSP Oyster Sauce
1/8 - 1/4 tsp Asian Chili Sauce

Scramble 2-3 seasoned eggs.
Add 2 tbsp oil and sauté green onions, ¼ tsp garlic, carrots, peas, and broccoli and 1 tbsp soy sauce.

Add cooked rice, then make a funnel in the center of the rice and pour in 3-4 tablespoons of soy sauce, about a tablespoon of oyster sauce and a little squirt of Asian Chili Sauce.  Cook at medium high heat stirring frequently until lightly browned.

*Amy's notes:
  I don't have a wok, which is highly recommended (apparently) for fried rice. To make enough for my family I have to do my batches in a large pot. Mine always ends up kind of steamed and the veggies overdone while I am trying to get the rice to brown up. I have made small batches for lunch that work fine in a frying pan. Also, taste the rice and add more of the sauces to taste. More rice = more sauce. (Ask me how I know. :P)


 

Tasty Tuesday: Fudgy Brownies

Friday night, my son asked me to make brownies for movie night. I had not yet found the perfect brownie recipe. I still really like Betty Crocker boxed brownies! (I know some of you are cringing.)

But now, even though they are a tad pricey to make, and calorie intense, and make enough to feed an army, I bring you a truly fabulous brownie. My ENTIRE family of 6 all agreed these are the best homemade brownie we have had yet.

Fudgy Chocolate Brownies by Nikki Elkins for the Martha Stewart Show

Ingredients
Makes about 48 2-inch brownies
•    Nonstick cooking spray
•    6 ounces unsweetened best-quality chocolate, chopped
•    2 1/4 cups (4 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
•    1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
•    1 1/2 (12-ounce) bags mini semisweet chocolate chips
•    6 large eggs, room temperature
•    3 cups sugar
•    1 1/2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
•    1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
Directions
1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13-by-18-by-1-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and line with parchment paper; spray parchment with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
2.    Melt unsweetened chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water; remove from heat and let cool. In a medium bowl, mix together flour and chocolate chips; set aside.
3.    In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt on high until ribbons form, 7 to 9 minutes. With the mixer on low, slowly add melted chocolate. Fold in flour mixture.
4.    Pour batter into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 28 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. Brownies may seem underbaked, but will continue to cook as they cool.
5.    Transfer brownies to a wire rack to cool. Transfer cooled brownies to refrigerator; chill at least 2 hours. Invert chilled brownies to remove from pan and peel off parchment paper. Reinvert brownies and trim edges. Cut as desired. Brownies will keep, wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated, up to 7 days. Brownies may be frozen for up to 3 months.
From The Martha Stewart Show, February 2011

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Fudgy Chocolate Brownies - Martha Stewart Recipes

 I am sure any neighbor would love a few of these added to a holiday goodie plate!

 

Check out Tuesday at the Table hosted by Debbie!

* Edit to add a half recipe.

Fudgy Chocolate Brownies (halved)

Ingredients
Makes about 48 2-inch brownies
•    Nonstick cooking spray

•    3 ounces unsweetened best-quality chocolate, chopped
•    1 1/8 cups (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

•    3/4 cups all-purpose flour
•    3/4 (12-ounce) bag mini semisweet chocolate chips

•    3 large eggs, room temperature
•    1.5 cups sugar
•    2 1/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
•    3/4 teaspoons coarse salt

Directions
1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and line with parchment paper; spray parchment with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
2.    Melt unsweetened chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water; remove from heat and let cool. In a medium bowl, mix together flour and chocolate chips; set aside.
3.    In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt on high until ribbons form, 7 to 9 minutes. With the mixer on low, slowly add melted chocolate. Fold in flour mixture.
4.    Pour batter into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 32 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. Brownies may seem underbaked, but will continue to cook as they cool.
5.    Transfer brownies to a wire rack to cool. Transfer cooled brownies to refrigerator; chill at least 2 hours. Invert chilled brownies to remove from pan and peel off parchment paper. Reinvert brownies and trim edges. Cut as desired. Brownies will keep, wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated, up to 7 days. Brownies may be frozen for up to 3 months.
From The Martha Stewart Show, February 2011

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Fudgy Chocolate Brownies - Martha Stewart Recipes

 
 

Tasty Tuesday: Homemade Cranberry Sauce

A friend of mine, who loves cooking, has a new blog, The Stay At Home Chef. She has already posted several great sounding recipes and as a bonus, she includes cooking tips a the bottom of each post. I have already learned a few new things. Such as, you don't just dump the bag of cranberries into a pot and cook them. Kind of like dried beans, there is the prep work of rinsing and sorting.

 My kids have always loved eating the jellied cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, so I never really made any attempt at making my own. This year, though I had to try Rachel's sauce after hearing her talk about how 2 gallons of it disappeared at a church function.

I served both and the only reason the jellied stuff was touched at all was because I was teasing my kids about how much they loved it in the past.

Everyone, including me, the non-cranberry sauce person, thought it was delicious. I did not use the jalapenos in mine, but I imagine that it is pretty darn tasty too.

Here is the link for the sauce recipe, Jalapeno Cranberry Sauce,  and I hope that you will take a minute to peruse her site and leave a comment (and let her know I sent you.)

I am linking up at Debbie's blog, A Quilter's Table Tuesday at the Table feature.

 

Tasty Tuesday: Cider Donuts

A few weeks ago, I cam across a recipe for cider donuts, from the King Arthur Flour website.It looked good so I pinned it on my Pinterest board for breads to try. Then Debbie, at A Quilter's Table mentioned she was getting a donut pan after seeing another recipe for cider donuts. She suggested that we make our donuts and then share the results this week in her link-up party, Tuesday at the Table.

So, this weekend, I made Cider Donuts, with King Arthur Flour's recipe.

They look delicious right?

Well, I will admit they were more edible than this batch of donuts that was made with my fabulous Wilton Pan.
 

My son made these donuts using the recipe from the package and they had an odd flavor and dry and chewy. They looked delicious though!
We do want to try these again because I was out of cake flour and buttermilk so we did substitutions and my son pretty much made them without me looking over his shoulder, so there may have been errors. Has anyone else used the Wilton recipe with success?

The Cider Donuts, upside down, cooling.

Now, the Cider Donuts, also looked promising and smelled really good baking. But they were a disappointment as well. Not nearly as much as the first ones, but still nothing special.

The donut part was pretty good, with a good texture and fairly moist, though it could have been a little more so. The flavor was just a little too subtle for me. It needs to beef up the spices I think, to really pack a punch and there was really no cider flavor that I could taste.

BUT here's the caveat. The recipe calls for Boiled Cider, and is linked to their online store where you can purchase said item. I checked one local store for anything like what they linked to and came up empty. So I Googled a how-to and made my own by boiling down some cider. I may have needed to let it reduce even further to get a flavor like the store-bought kind, which may have caused my cider donuts to be less than cider-y.

On the left is the boiled cider, on the right is regular in the amount I started with.

Okay, so that is the donut part of the review.
The glaze was another matter entirely. Here are the ingredients.

    3 tablespoons boiled cider or thawed frozen apple juice concentrate*
    1 1/2 cups sugar
    2 tablespoons corn syrup or honey
    1/4 cup water
    *If you use apple juice concentrate, add 1 teaspoon lemon juice; the concentrate isn't nearly as flavorful as boiled cider.

You can see that boiled cider makes another appearance, as I expected it to. And I chose to use honey, which I would not do again, because that was almost all I could taste. If I concentrated I could taste the slightest hint of apple. But I am thinking that I should not have to concentrate to taste apple in a cider donut. So honey is out.
And then:

To make the glaze: place all the glaze into a saucepan.

Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar is dissolved.

Bring the mixture to a boil, cover the pan, and boil for 3 minutes

Remove the cover and boil for a few more minutes, until the syrup reaches soft ball stage, 240°F on an instant-read thermometer.

Remove from the heat, and cool slightly.

Carefully dip the doughnuts in the warm syrup; reheat the syrup if it's thickened too much. If you dunk them completely, place them on a piece of greased parchment or waxed paper, to set. If you dip just the tops, place them on a rack. Top immediately with chopped nuts, if desired. Note: any extra syrup will hold for up to a week, covered, in the refrigerator.

See my highlight there in the directions? That threw me. I have made candy, so I know what soft ball stage is, and I could not reconcile that with what I normally see on a donut. But, in the interest of being as true to the recipe as I could, I did as directed.

It is not a pleasant thing to bite into a donut, only to have the topping stick to your teeth and rip away from the rest of the donut. And as I said, it really just tasted of honey. So, the glaze was a total disappointment.  After a few hours out in the air, most of the glaze melted into the top of the donut, which was far more edible, except for a small ring where the donut crisps at the edge of the pan. It remained sticky there.

So, what this all boils down to for me, is that this recipe is not a keeper. I would rather try a new recipe than continue to tweak this one until it is delicious.



I hope Debbie had better luck with hers.

She will have a link-up up for anyone to post their recipes for donuts, so please nip over and check them out and add one your self!

And lastly, if you have made or are going to make this particular recipe, I would love to know what you think!

Tasty Tuesday: Strawberry Yogurt Cake

With my birthday looming and my usual cake seemingly unavailable, I saw this cake and decided to give it a whirl.
But, alas it did not make it out of the pan in one piece. :) Too many strawberries maybe?

 

However it was DELICIOUS! Oh yeah! This one is staying in the file for sure!

Linking up at Tuesday at the Table

Girl's Night Out

Friday night was girls night out, or in actually as we all gathered at a friend's house for an St. Patty's themed movie night. The plan was to watch Brigadoon and I made some green treats to share.
I was going to bring a large version of my pot of gold, but in the end decided for something even more delicious, Carmel Pretzel Bites made with Rolo candies and M&Ms.

Carmel Pretzel Bites

Ingredients:

Square, bite sized pretzels
Rolo Chocolate Carmel candies
M&M candies
Pecans

Preheat oven to 250
Unwrap a bag of Rolo candies.
Line a baking sheet with parchment, foil or Silpat.
Lay out square pretzels on the cookie sheet.
Put a Rolo on each one.








Put in the oven for about 4 minutes or just until the Rolo are soft.  You will probably have to sacrifice one and press on it to see how soft they are. Take them out of the oven and press an M&M or pecan into the top of the Rolo. Let cool completely before serving.

Of course I took all the green M&M's out of the bag to use in mine.

The other treat I made was green cookies that I found on Pinterest. (I finally jumped in and joined.)
They were surprisingly tasty, although they seemed a little salty. That may have been because I used salted butter and didn't take that into account. Or it may have been the Jell-o messing with my taste buds.
They are St. Patrick's Day Jell-o Cookies.

Here is a picture of mine. I didn't have cute sprinkles, or good lighting. ;)

Here is the Pin.

Source: gwennypenny.com via Amy on Pinterest