Peanut Buttercups

By total accident, I happened to run across "How To Make Homemade Peanutbutter Cups" at The Hungry Mouse.

And i couldn't resist. She made it look so simple and wonderful and I had to go out to the store that very minute and get the ingredients to make this.

There are four. yes FOUR ingredients to this amazing creation.

They are:

Chocolate Chips (2 medium sized bags)
Peanutbutter ( 1 cup )
Powdered Sugar (1/2 a cup)
Vanilla. (1 tsp)

(Plus cupcake liners.)

That's it! I swear!

For the filling:
mix the peanut butter & sugar well. Add the vanilla & set aside.

For the chocolate shell, melt the chips in a double boiler, mircowave, or like me, go all ghetto & put one small pot with the chocolate in it , resting on top of a slightly larger pot with boiling water inside.

I don't have a double boiler, and this was the first time I've worked with chocolate. But hey, it worked! I set the water in the larger pot on high & once it got to a good rolling boil, I placed the smaller pan of chocolate chips on top & turned down the heat a little. I stirred it constantly until it was totally melted

Once the chocolate has melted, spoon a little bit into each cupcake liner. Then, spead the chocolate up the sides of the liner & leaving a healthy dolop of chocolate in the bottom of the liner. It should look like this:

Once all the liners are totally coated, place the muffin tin in the refridgerator for about an hour until the chocolate has become solid again.

Then remove the shell-filled muffin tin from the fridge & fill each shell at least half way full of the peanutbutter mix. More or less depending upon how you like your peanutbutter to chocolate ratio.
Then start the water boiling again & put the chocolate back on to get it warm and soft again. And at this point, if you're like me, you'll need to add more chips so you'll have enough chocolate for the covering.

Then spoon the warm chocolate over the peanutbutter in each shell. Be sure the peanutbutter it totally covered & that the chocolate completely touches the edges of the cupcake liner so that a seal is formed over the peanutbutter.

Then put the muffin tin back in the fridge so that it all becomes solid.

Technically, I suppose you should probably wait at least a good 2 hours for it to totally solidify. But i just couldn't wait that long. I waited for about 45 minutes & just couldn't stand to wait one more minute.

They were mostly solid. Solid enough.

And this is what it looked like when I took a bite.


Now, please note, these are NOT for diabetics. In fact, about half way through, I thought was going to go into a sugar coma. Even my daughter couldn't finish a whole one. My teeth hurt. But, dang!! It was worth it! And yes, ohhh yes, I will be making these again!

Rosemary Garlic Butter

I found this idea over at Feed Yourself, bookmarked it & promptly forgot all about it.

Until this morning. I was sifting through my bookmarks & came across this & thought, 'yeah i could totally do that right now!'.

So i did. And it came out great! Two thumbs up from my husband. We're both big fans of rosemary, so pretty much anything involving rosemary will be a hit in our household.

The best thing about this, is that it's so unbelievably easy and versatile and yet so incredibly good.

Here's what I used:

1 stick of earth balance left out to soften
a bunch of rosemary, minced
some garlic poweder
a pinch of kosher salt (yes, i DO put it in just about everything)

mix all the ingredients in a bowl

Then spread into the shape you want onto a sheet of waxed paper & wrap.
Place in the fridge until it's solid again
Then spread on toast & enjoy

As you can see, the toast didn't last long enough for me to get the picture. My husband attacked it before I could grab my camera.

In his words "That butter is the bomb!"

ie: it's very good.

since it is caturday...

this is my well-fed feline friend, Tiggs curled up with my apron.
technically, he's a stray. maybe. my daughter says that someone in the neighborhood told her that he belongs to a house a couple of streets over.

but he decided he likes our house better, apparently, and has moved in with us. i'm a sucker for strays, so i've fed him & let him have the run of the house.

he's super sweet, docile & extremely affectionate. and he likes to be carried around like a baby. which i do, frequently.

Righteous Tomato Soup

I was inspired by Pink Peppercorns tomato soup a week back and have been toying with the idea of it ever since.

Then one day I went to grocery store & the clerk accidentally rang up 2 cans of diced tomatoes that belonged to the person behind me. I didn't notice until I got home & figured this was some sort of sign to go ahead and try the tomato soup.

I dug around online to find a recipe that included all of the ingredients I had in mind and came across this little beauty from The CD Kitchen.

And let me tell you

This soup is the bomb diggity! I'm in love & it's my new favorite, and best soup I've made yet. hands down! It's definitely in the OHMYGOD THIS IS SO GOOD!! category.

I make all my soups in my crock pot because I'm busy & have a very short attention span. So it's better for me to make soup slowly when I don't have to constantly keep watch on it. So I could smell this one cooking all day & I could barely stand it! As soon as it was done, I poured my self a big bowl & dug in.

And I ate every last drop. It was *that* good. Seriously.

So here's what you'll need:

1 stick of unsalted butter
1 medium onion, diced
2 stalks of celery chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons unbleached whole wheat flour
4 cups vegetable stock
2 cans (14.5 oz size) tomatos
1 can of tomato paste
1/4 tsp of dried red pepper
2 bay leaves
fresh orgeno to taste
2 teaspoons of fresh basil
¼ cup of soy milk (totally optional. i usually leave it out entirely & don't notice a difference)
1/2 tsp of lime juice
kosher salt & cracked black pepper to taste

Put the crock pot on the "High" setting.
1. cut the butter into pats & place in the crock pot on to melt
2. While it's melting, chop up the onion, garlic & celery & add them to the pot.
3. Stir well & to coat the veggies with the butter
4. While they are simmering, chop of the fresh Oregeno & Sage and add to the pot.

This was the first time I've used fresh oregeno & it was wonderful.

5. Stir all ingredients well and add the red pepper, kosher salt & black pepper to taste.
6. Still well & cover pot. Switch the crock pot setting to "Low" and allow to simmer for 15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.

At this point, the mix already smelled so good I was practically drooling. I was very seriously considering eating this as is. Maybe over pasta or on bread. It smelled that good.


It should look something like this. All veggies should be coated in the butter and simmering .

7. Add the flour and stir well
8. Stir in the canned tomatoes
9. Stir in the can of tomato paste, and you'll have a nice happy mixture like this.
10. Add the vegetable stock and lime juice. Stir well and place lid back on pot.
11. Leave this to cook for about 4 hours, stirring occasionally.
12. Put the soup in a blender until it comes out with a creamy consistency.
13. Pour in the soy cream and stir well.
14. Serve and devour!
I put some of this in containers in my freezer for work. But I also set some aside in my fridge because I know I'm going to want another bowl tomorrow.

Or maybe even later tonight...

Spinach Potage with Dill And Lemon

This is one of my new favorites. And yes, at first glance, the ingredients in this sound like an odd combination, but trust me, this really is delicious.

The best thing about this recipe, is that it's easy and versatile. You can play around with the consistency, the amount of spinach, lemon, and you could even add cheese if you were of the lactose tolerant kind.

I've made this both soupy and very thick with a whipped potato-like texture & have gotten rave reviews either way. Personally, I like this to be soup-like, because I don't liked my potatoes whipped. I found the original at BetterRecipes, and have of course, modified it to my own liking.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  

• olive oil

• 6 cups vegetable stock
  

• 1/4 cup lemon juice

• 5 medium red potatoes, peeled and diced

• 8 ounces washed and ready to use fresh baby spinach

• 1 cup soy milk

• 1/2 of an 8 oz container vegan sour cream
  

• kosher salt & cracked black pepper
  

Method:

Turn the crock pot on to HIGH and cover the bottom with the olive oil.
Add the chopped onions and garlic and sprinkle with cracked black pepper and kosher salt to taste. While the onions & garlic are simmering, wash, peel & chop the potatoes and add to the pot. Add the lemon juice and let this simmer for about 10 minutes stirring every few minutes.

Add the vegetable stock, and turn crock pot on the LOW setting, and let simmer for about 5 hours, stirring occasionally.

When the vegetables have softened, put the contents into a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth.

Stir in the vegan-sour cream and soy milk

Garnish with fresh dill and lemon zest & serve.

perfect biscuits

As I've mentioned before, I'm not the best baker in the world. But, I try.

Specifically, I've been trying biscuits for about a year now. With no success until today.

Last week I found an old recipe card for "Sky-High Biscuits". The card is probably from the early 70's. Way back in the day when my mom collected these things & even had a little holder for them and everything.

Some of the recipes on these cards were pretty good.

Most, however, were fairly horrific. Monstrous combos like 'Coffee Jello' and 'Tomato Frappe', 'Tongue Aspic' (i don't even want to know what that involves) 'Poached Trout' and 'Ox Tail Ragout'. Those were some of the more tame ones. I am eternally grateful to my mother for NOT making these trauma-causing creations.

But, the recipes that are keepers are the basic, old fashioned kind that you can't really screw up. Too badly, anyway.

And again, my picky hubby issue comes into play for this. He loves biscuits, but they have to be made just so or he can't eat them. The kind from fast food joints are too heavy, and the ones from the store-bought cans are too oily for him.

So today, I decided to put on a brave face & try this recipe.

And, you know what? He LOVED them! W00T!!

They're light, fluffy, and dry without being too dry. We were all very pleased with how they came out.

So here it is, the 1970 biscuit recipe from my moms collection

Prep Time: 15 min.
Baking Time: 15 mins
Oven Temp: 450

For about 20 you will need the following:

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour (King Arthur Preferably) (because it's the best)
1 Cup Whole Wheat Four
4 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
1 Cup of milk

1.) In a bowl combine the flours, baking powder, sugar, salt and cream of tartar.

2.) Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. (ie: dry and crumbly)

3.)Add egg and milk, stirring quickly and briefly. Knead lightly on floured board.

4.) Roll or pat gently into 1 inch thickness. Cut into 1 - 2 inch biscuits. Place in a greased 10 inch iron skillet (not) OR (as I did) on tin foil brushed with olive oil on a cookie sheet.

5.) Bake at 450 for about 15 mins.

Both my husband & daughter loved these. We had them with scrambled eggs & meat-less veggie sausage.