Green Bean Casserole

Any holiday meal can be made complete with this tasty side dish. I love this stuff! My dad doesn't like it much at all but I have always liked it. And it was definitely hubby-approved (he flipped over it).

What You Need:

• 1 can (10 3/4 oz.) cream of mushroom soup
• 1 tsp. soy sauce
• 2 cans (14.5 oz.) cut green beans
• 1 package French fried onions, divided

How to Do It:

First, measure out 1 1/3 cup fried onions. Set remainder aside for topping. Combine all ingredients, except separated onions, and place in a greased baking dish. Top with remaining onions and bake on 350°F until hot and bubbling. Serve hot.

Original recipe found here.

Baked Brie with Apricot Preserves

As a delicious appetizer for Thanksgiving this year, I made a recipe I found on Pinterest. This is something I've never made before but it turned out rather beautifully. Although there was a lot left over, the hubby liked it an awful lot!

What You Need:

• 1 tube of crescent rolls
• 6 oz. block of brie cheese
• apricot preserves (or another fruit you prefer)

How to Do It:

First, unroll and flatten out crescent rolls. Place cheese into the center and top with however much fruit preserves you like. Wrap rolls around cheese and pinch any seams together. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake according to crescent roll instructions, until golden brown. Serve with crackers and/or fruit.

Original recipe found here.

Gingerbread Cranberry Cake

This year for my neighbors, I thought it would be nice to bake a little something special. I also wanted to try something new so I looked through my recipe books and found a pumpkin cranberry cake which sounded interesting. Then I found a gingerbread cake that also sounds interesting. So I thought, "Porque no los dos?"

So anyways, tried out the new cake and it was delicious! So I'm wrapping them up in pretty cellophane with a candy cane to look festive and what-not. I know, getting all crafty and stuff. Yes, I am also a crafter. Okay...getting back to it now...

What You Need:

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 3 Tbsp. brewed coffee, cooled, or milk
• 1/3 cup butter, soft
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup molasses
• about 5 oz. cranberries
• powdered sugar to garnish

How to Do It:

First, in a small bowl, combine flour, ginger, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and cloves; set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together sour cream and coffee or milk (I used milk); set aside. Next, in a medium bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, beating until combined. Gradually add molasses, beating until smooth. Add flour and sour cream mixtures alternately, beating after each until just combined. Beat on high after all combined for 20 more seconds. Add cranberries and fold in gently. Spread batter into a lightly greased pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes on 325°F, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Sift powdered sugar over the cake when cooled. Enjoy!

Chicken Stroganoff

Tonight's dinner was taught to me by my sister-in-law, Simone, who has made the dish for us a couple times and showed me how to make it tonight. I was glad to learn a new recipe to add to my portfolio and I killed two birds with one stone because we had a delicious dinner to eat as well. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Stroganoff? That's always made with beef, isn't it? And it's a Russian dish? Why are Brazilians making a Russian meal?" I thought the exact same thing when I first tried chicken stroganoff. And I'm here to tell you that I love this and I am not a fan of beef stroganoff. Totally different tastes. Enjoy! And Simone, obrigada pela ajuda.

What You Need:

• 1 pound chicken breast, chunked
• 1/2 large onion, diced
• 5 medium mushrooms, diced
• 1 packet Goya Sazón
• 8 oz. tomato sauce
• mustard (not measured...sorry...) to taste
• 1/2 pint (more or less) heavy cream
• rice, cooked
• shoestring potatoes

How to Do It:

First, put a small amount of oil in a large skillet and heat. Add half of the diced onion (a quarter of a large onion) and cook until fragrant, or about 2 minutes.

Season chicken with garlic powder to taste and add to the skillet. Toss with Sazón and a small amount of pepper to taste.

Fry chicken until lightly browned. You don't want the chicken too fried because it has to be tender for it to be stroganoff-y enough (we'll get to that later...).

Add in a small amount of mustard (it looked to me to be about 2 tablespoons) and tomato sauce.

Stir in diced mushrooms and about a cup of water. Cover and let cook for about 10 minutes.

Finally, add in heavy cream (she used a little more than half) until you have the correct coloring. Turn heat to low, cover and allow to cook for about 10 more minutes.

This looks a bit more brown than it looked in real life.
It's more an orangey-red color than appears here.

Serve over white rice, with shoestring potatoes* and enjoy!

* If your local store doesn't have these, they are simple enough to make. Just shred some potatoes, like you would for hashbrowns, and deep-fry until golden brown. Remove onto a paper towel-lined plate and crush to the size indicated in the full dish picture at the top of the post.

Scotcharoos

Last night after dinner, I made scotcharoos. Although we didn't get to try them right away, because they take awhile to cool down and set up, I knew they're delicious because my mom makes them often and they are one of my favorites! I know my in-laws love them too because my mom made scotcharoos for them one year for Christmas and they flipped over them. So delicious and easy, you'll want to make them all the time! I love putting some with different cookies on a plate for an easy holiday gift for anyone. So now we've tried them and I think my mother would be proud of my first attempt at scotcharoos.

What You Need:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup light Karo syrup
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 6 cups Rice Krispies
• 12 oz. chocolate chips
• 1 cup butterscotch chips

How to Do It:

First, boil together sugar and Karo syrup until you've reached a hard boil.

When boiling, remove from heat and add peanut butter. Stir and when melted, add in Krispies. Put the mixture in a greased 9x13 pan and set aside.

In a double boiler*, add chocolate and butterscotch chips and melt.

When smooth, pour the melted chocolate over the Rice Krispie mixture in the greased pan.

 

Chill until chocolate is completely set. Cut and enjoy!

*If you do not have a double boiler (like me) simply put a small amount of water in a sauce pan. Find a bowl that you can heat and fits the top of the pan but doesn't touch the bottom. It works the same way!

Lasagna

Tonight for dinner with the Brazilian family, I made lasagna. My mother-in-law comes from an Italian family and so the whole family loves Italian food (as do I, I'm sure you've noticed). Thinking of this, I wanted to make something that I could pop into the oven and not have to worry about while it bakes. It does take a lot of work, depending on the recipe you use or if you decide to make your own sauce, use noodles you have to cook first, etc. My recipe comes from several different recipes I've seen over the years so I can't tie it to just one. 

What You Need:

• 12 oz. oven ready lasagna noodles

Meat Filling

• 2 lb. ground beef
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 oz. mushrooms, minced
• sauce (see recipe below)

Cheese Filling

• 4 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 32 oz. ricotta cheese
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp. salt

Sauce

• 4 cans tomato sauce
• 2 cans tomato paste
• 4 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. dried basil leaves
• 4 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 4 Tbsp. dried parsley
• 2 tsp. minced garlic

How to Do It:

First step is to cook the onion and garlic in a small amount of oil until fragrant. This usually takes about 2 minutes on medium heat. Add in the hamburger and brown. Finally, add in the chopped mushrooms and cook until soft. When meat filling is cooked thoroughly, set aside.

Next, combine ricotta cheese with lightly beaten egg. Add in mozzarella and parmesan cheese and mix. Finally, add in salt and mix again. Set aside.

For the sauce, you can totally buy canned sauce but I prefer to make my own. So to make your own, you can use my recipe. In a large sauce pan, combine tomato sauce, tomato paste, and tomato juice. Add in brown sugar, basil leaves, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, parsley, and minced garlic. Mix all together and pour over ground beef mixture.

To make things easier, you can always just add all the sauce ingredients to the ground beef instead of mixing them all together before adding them to the beef.

Now, I used oven-ready lasagna because I didn't want to waste time cooking the noodles and it makes things much easier! So to layer your lasagna, start off by greasing a large lasagna baking pan. In the greased pan, place a layer of ground beef and sauce. Top with a layer of lasagna noodles then one of the cheese mixture. Alternate until you have run out of noodles. Finish off the a layer of beef mixture. Finally, top with a layer of parmesan cheese over the whole thing.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350°F for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes so parmesan cheese gets lightly browned. Cool for 10 minutes before serving. 

Clearly I didn't let mine set up long enough before serving....Oops...Who could resist?!

Pecan Pie

One of my absolute favorite pies to have for the holidays is pecan pie. Really, I love it any time, not just for the holidays. It's also one of my dad's favorite pies as well! I won't go on a rant about how you absolutely must serve pecan pie at your holiday meal, like I did for pumpkin pie. But I seriously encourage you to try out making this pie for your Thanksgiving dessert. The recipe I have that follows comes from my Grandma Francis.

What You Need:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup light Karo syrup
• 3 eggs, slightly beaten
• 4 Tbsp. margarine
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup pecans, broken

How to Do It:

First, boil sugar and syrup together for 2 minutes. Pour slowly over beaten eggs, stirring vigorously.

Add margarine, vanilla, and nuts and stir.

Pour into uncooked pie shell and bake at 350°F for 50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for at least 2 hours. Refrigerate if not serving immediately.

Cranberry Sauce

An easy and delicious addition to any Turkey Day meal is fresh cranberry sauce. I love to eat it on my turkey. The sweet and sour of the cranberries really adds flavor to a delicious turkey. Usually, my family does the whole canned-cranberries thing or we have cranberry salad (Aunt Carlene's recipe which I will hopefully get this Christmas). Anyways, I thought about just making the homemade stuff this year because I'm trying for a mostly homemade Thanksgiving meal.

What You Need:

• 1 pound fresh cranberries, washed and dried
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 cinnamon stick or 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 orange, zested and juiced

How to Do It:

First, combine the cranberries, sugar, and water in a medium pot. 

Stir to blend and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce to a simmer and add the cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg. 

Stir to blend and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes. Add the orange juice and zest. Stir and cool.

You can refrigerate this recipe for up to two days before serving so it's an excellent make-ahead dish to save time.

Original recipe found here.

Pumpkin Pie

An obvious dessert during the holidays is pumpkin pie. Watch any movie that involves a Thanksgiving meal and you will see pumpkin pie. It's a staple for any holiday meal. No matter if you like it or not, pumpkin pie is needed for a true Thanksgiving meal! Everyone else coming to your meal is going to be severely disappointed if you do not have pumpkin pie waiting for them. 

Okay, maybe I'm being a little overly dramatic. But seriously, pumpkin pie. Yum.

What You Need:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 2 large eggs
• 1 can pure pumpkin 15 oz
• 1 can evaporated milk 12 oz
• 1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell

How to Do It:

First, mix sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves in a small bowl.

Beat eggs in a large bowl.

Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture.

Gradually stir in evaporated milk.

Pour the mixture into pie shell and bake in preheated 425°F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350°F and continue baking for 40-50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for at least 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. 




Original recipe found here.

Deviled Eggs

Another favorite appetizer of mine are deviled eggs. I absolutely love them! I can never get enough every time my Aunt Carlene brings them to holiday dinners. So hopefully you enjoy eggs because deviled eggs are delicious, delicious, delicious!

What You Need:

• 6 hard-boiled eggs
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tsp. yellow mustard
• 1 tsp. vinegar
• paprika for garnish

How to Do It:

First, peel and halve the eggs lengthwise. Remove and reserve yolks in a bowl. Set whites aside. Mash yolks with a fork and add mayonnaise, mustard, and vinegar. If desired, you can season with salt and black pepper. Mix well and place mixture in a piping bag. Stuff egg whites with yolk mixture. Cover and chill until serving time (up to 24 hours). If desired, garnish with paprika for a pretty holiday appetizer.

Pie Crust

This crust recipe comes from a close friend of mine who uses this recipe for delicious desserts such as her apple danish. Always a favorite at family reunions, the crust recipe is fairly easy and is generally fail-proof. This is the recipe I will be using for my Thanksgiving pies.

What You Need:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup shortening
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg yolk

How to Do It:

First, mix together flour, shortening, and salt. Next, add in milk and egg yolk. When everything is mixed together and your dough has the right consistency, divide and roll out to fit pie plate. Depending on whether you need to bake the crust before the pie or bake the pie and the crust at the same time, I suggest using a pie crust shield to save your crust from browning too much.

Thanksgiving Menu

This year, I am making my first Thanksgiving dinner for my family! My parents are coming in to town for the holiday and I'm cooking for them. Some of the dishes I'll make are new to me and some are ones I've never made before but are favorites of mine. I'm incredibly nervous about it but I have more confidence in my cooking now so I think everything will turn out well. Here's hoping, anyways! 

So I'll share with you my menu plan and for the next couple days I'll be blogging about the food I'm preparing. I'm making so much food! So I'm going to start fixing a couple things ahead of time to save me some time on Thanksgiving day. We plan on going to the Macy's parade in the Big Apple so I'll need all the spare time I can get! Many of my recipes are easy to freeze or can be refrigerated for a couple days and still come out beautifully.

Le Menu

• Deviled Eggs
• Baked Brie with Apricot Preserves
• Cranberry Sauce
• Mashed Potatoes with Turkey Gravy
• Stuffing
• Green Bean Casserole
• Candied Sweet Potatoes
• Roast Turkey
• Rolls
• Pecan Pie
• Pumpkin Pie

So, as you can see, I will probably have a lot of leftovers! But I can think of a couple people who would be into a Thanksgiving leftovers dinner. I will post tons of pictures of the meal and parade when the day comes. Directly after my family leaves our little town, my husband's family arrives and I will be cooking some for them as well. So expect lots of pictures and recipes over the next two weeks!

Baked Apples

Tonight after dinner I needed something a little sweet. I had apples. I thought, "Baked apples!" And thus, I present to you, baked apples! There are specific types of apples that are preferred for baking and not all apples work well for baking. So, in the case that you don't know which apple to use, click here for a helpful link.

What You Need:

• 5 baking apples (I prefer golden delicious)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. granulated sugar
• 5 tsp. butter, sliced
• 5 regular sized marshmallows

How To Do It:

First, butter the bottom of a baking pan.

Next, core your apples and place them in the buttered pan.

Mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and granulated sugar and fill each apple.

Place a teaspoon of butter on each apple.

Bake on 350°F for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven.

Put one marshmallow on top of each apple and return to the oven for 10 minutes.

Serve with a garnish of any remaining sugar mixture and enjoy!

You'll notice that my apples have the skin on them. When I removed the finished product from the oven, the skin came off very easily so if you're not one for apple peel, they are easily removed from the baked apples.

(Nearly) A Month-Long Break

So this month I went to Ohio for 3 weeks and did not do any cooking at all. Instead I went to the county fair to see the Budweiser Clydesdales (really big horses) with my dad and my best friend, Fri, went to the Pumpkin Show in Circleville to watch the OSU marching band, carved pumpkins with my friends Kim and Brandi (then went to the movies), went out for a girl's night in Columbus and eventually got home in one piece. 

Anyways, next couple of weeks are not going to be full of cooking either. There is so much going on right now that I have either no time to do the cooking or we have plans and we end up going out instead of staying home.

I am cooking. But most of the things I'm cooking are re-runs and so I'm not going to post a repeated recipe. When I have a new recipe to add, I will be posting it! But for now, be warned that the daily posts are most likely not going to happen very often. 

Eventually I will get back to my cooking routine and I will be my same entertaining self. However, for the time being, things are a little different. But here's some news about me and our life right now:

• I'm reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and it's intense
• I saw Gone Girl (the movie based on the book) twice and talk about intense...
• Our 2 year wedding anniversary was October 13th
• We're preparing our costumes for the company Halloween party on Friday
• We will be making a return trip to Ohio in a couple weeks
• My husband's 25th birthday is coming up quickly
• For Thanksgiving I plan on making a huge, fantastical dinner and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade live in NYC!
• My husband's parents, brother, sister-in-law, and niece are all going to be visiting us in New Jersey at the end of November (right after Thanksgiving)

So, as you can see, busy couple of months for me and the hubby. But like I said, eventually everything will slow down and be back to normal! 

Happy cooking and happy Halloween!

Fall Dirt Cake

This recipe comes from a family friend in Ohio and is an easy-peasy dessert that you can make on the fly with just a few simple ingredients! My guest chef on this recipe was my mom, Mykela!

What You Need:

• 1 pkg. golden Oreo cookies
• 1 stick margarine
• 1 pkg. cream cheese, soft
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 16 oz. Cool Whip
• 2 small boxes pumpkin spice pudding (seasonal item)
• 2 ¼ cup milk

How to Do It:

First, remove the icing from the inside of the Oreo cookies and place the empty cookies in a plastic bag so you can crush them. I used a rolling pin to crush my cookies. Reserve ¼ cup for topping.

Re-combine the removed icing with the crushed cookies. Melt the margarine and mix with crushed cookies. Press this in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.

Mix together cream cheese, powdered sugar, 8 ounces of Cool Whip and spread over the crust.

Mix pudding with milk and let this set up for a little bit. Do not let it set up completely. Spread over cream cheese mixture.

Spread remaining Cool Whip over the pudding mixture and top with the remaining Oreo crumbs.

Chill overnight and enjoy!