new recipes

As many of you already know I'm obsessed with Pinterest. If you haven't already signed up do it do it, the more people the more fun. Click here to see my pins and sign up! 

Pinterest has become my source for new meals or treaties in our house. I have tried these three recipes. Some disasters and some delicious. 

Disaster. First of all I started making this at 4:00pm and realized it had to cook for 6-8 Hours, what the heck! I love fruit leather but this didn't turn out at all. I only let it cook for 6 hours at 170 cause my oven wouldn't go to 150. After 6 hours it was crispy and not eatable. Maybe I'll try and find another recipe. 

1. Purchase strawberries.

2. Feel sorry for yourself that you no longer live in California, minutes from a strawberry stand, where you are convinced sells the world's best strawberries.

(step 2 is optional)

3. Wash berries

4. Hull and half berries.

5. "measure". You don't need to measure at all--I just did this for he purpose of telling you how much I used (about 5 cups). But use however many you have. 

5 cups of strawberries = about a pan and a half of fruit leather.

6. Cook on low heat for about 15 minutes. Give them a few good mashes so the juices come out. 

Add a bit of honey (few TBS) if you're not using those amazing strawberry-stand berries.

7. Puree.

8. Pour and spread onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

9. Put in the oven at 150° for 6-8 hours, until leather peels away easily from parchment.

10. Using kitchen scissors, cut into rectangles, and roll them up. (you can even leave them on the parchment and roll them) 

11. Or just eat them right away.

YUMMY. One of the best desserts. The only thing I would recommend is making it the night before. 

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

Crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened 

Cheesecake Filling:

3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons, divided

3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Apples:

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Streusel topping, recipe follows

1/2 cup caramel topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry blender (or 2 forks) until mixture is crumbly. Press evenly into a 9x13 baking pan lined with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with 3/4 cup sugar in an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Then add eggs, 1 at a time, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Pour over warm crust.

In a small bowl, stir together chopped apples, remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Spoon evenly over cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle evenly with Streusel topping. Bake 40-45 minutes, or until filling is set. Drizzle with caramel topping and let cool. Serve cold and enjoy!

Streusel Topping:

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened 

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. I like to really combine it by using my clean hands to thoroughly combine the butter into the mixture.

OK. Wasn't as great as I was hoping. We added tomatoes, maybe that made it not as good, doubt it. It was good just felt like it was missing something. 

 Roasted Garlic Chicken Pesto Pizza 

1 perfect pizza crust 

1/2 cup prepared pesto (store bough or homemade)

1 bulb of garlic

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, 

cooked Mozzarella cheese Parmesan cheeseDirections:

1. To roast the garlic: Peel away the outer layers of the garlic bulb skin, leaving the skins of the individual cloves intact. Using a knife, cut off 1/4 to a 1/2 inch of the top of cloves, exposing the individual cloves of garlic. Place the garlic heads in a baking pan; muffin pans work well for this purpose. Drizzle a couple teaspoons of olive oil over each head, using your fingers to make sure the garlic head is well coated. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 400°F for 30-35 minutes, or until the cloves feel soft when pressed. Remove garlic gloves and smash with a fork.
2. Spread roasted garlic over pizza dough. Do this to taste. I used almost the whole (small) bulb, but I LOVE roasted garlic.
3. Spread the pesto on the pizza.
4. Add the sliced, cooked chicken.
5. Sprinkle with mozzarella.
6. Top with fresh grated Parmesan.
7. Bake on preheated pizza stone for 8 - 12 minutes.

Beautiful Monday

Today has been a great day. Nothing particularly different or exciting happened, but I just had a new outlook on life. Yesterday Greg and I were able to go to a fireside that Jenny Phillips put on, if you don't know, she is a singer and song writer. It was amazing!! I felt the spirit so strongly and I think it totally changed... or I should say ... helped me remember why I am here. The theme of the night was Remember the Journey. The quote that stood out to me the most was

" The joy is in the journey, the joy is in becoming like him"

We all or should I say I ...get so distracted in having cute clothes, trying to be great at everything, caring what other people think of me, blogging :) but when it comes down to it all we need to be doing and worrying about is working to become more like our Savior and being able to return home. As I have been able to refocus, I feel so much happier.  

As a result I had a beautiful Monday. I had dinner ready for my hungry husband when he came home from work and made this delicious cinnamon bread from mrs. harding cooks website. (click for recipe)

while listening to Mindy Gledhill's new song on repeat (my fav at the moment). I felt inspired, uplifted and so happy. I wish I always felt like this.

Red Curry

You have to try this amazing curry recipe. The only issue is some of the things you can't find at a regular grocery store so you will have to find a local Thai store, but it is so worth it. My one tip is to not add all the curry paste. I normally only had 2 Tb because if you add 3 Tb I think it is way to spicy, but you will have to figure out what your preference is.

2 Tb Veggie Oil

3 Tb Red Curry Paste

1 Can Coconut Milk

1lb chicken (slice thin)

3 Tb fish sauce

31/2 Tb sugar

2 cups Thai pumpkin ( peel, cut into 1' thick)

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves

3-4 Kaffir lime leaves ( tearing off the middle stem)

Tips and Substitution:

The texture and color of the Thai pumpkin go very well together with red curry. You can use canned bamboo shoot strip or slice, or Thai or Chinese eggplant instead of Thai pumpkin.

The fresh basil can be substituted for non-fresh basil just check the conversion.

The Kaffir leaves are meant not to eat just to add flavor.  

1. On medium heat, put veggie oil in pot, then add red curry paste, stir fry for 2-3 minutes.

2. Add 1/3 can coconut milk stir fry for 4-5 min until they are bubble red

3. Add chicken slices, stir fry for about 5-8 min

4. Add the rest of coconut milk and 1/2 can of water ( using coconut milk can)

5. Add Thai pumpkin

6. Add fish sauce, sugar, kaffir lime leaves

7. Simmer for 30 minutes. If curry sauce is too thick, add a little water. But if it is too much liquid, simmer longer to thicken it.

8. Add fresh basil leaves, then remove from heat.

9. As always, if you find the recipe to be too mild,add more fish sauce or sugar to suit your personal taste. If it's to spicy use less curry paste next time

Enjoy!

Pickling

On Saturday my mother and sister in law canned pickles. We had tons of fun and decided every year we want to get together and  can one thing for our food storage. The recipe was really easy, didn't take very long and didn't make a huge mess. You should try it!!
 I'm excited to see how they taste. I will be the only one in my family surviving on pickles if we have no other food source :) Greg doesn't even let me kiss him after I have eaten a pickle :). My sister and I love them so much we usually not only eat a pickle but have to drink some of the juice too :)

Dill Pickles

12 Cup Water

4 Cup Vinegar ( apple cider)

1 Cup salt ( non-iodized)

Dill ( 2 or 3 Stalks) per qt. bottle

1 button garlic per qt. bottle

Grape Leaves 1 per qt. bottle

Cucumber ( we like the little ones)

While you are getting things prepared sterilize your jars and lids in boiling water for about ten minutes. Heat Solution of water, vinegar and salt. Fill each jar with cucumbers, clove garlic, dill and grape leaf. Pack the cucumbers tightly, but make sure they are not popping out from the top. Completely submerge jars in Canner Pot after it starts boiling, process for half an hour. Make sure the lids pop and are completely sealed. If not throw away that lid and reheat them in the canner pot with a new lid. Once completed place them on your shelf and a month later (this time frame is possibly shorter, but we couldn't remember so we went with the longer amount of time) they are ready to eat.

Looks Yummy! Enjoy..

Fat Free Chicken Dip :)

Tuesday my cute pregnant sister in- law...aka Valerie had a baby shower. We had lots of fun and she got some super cute stuff. Baby Lusvardi  is due August 8, he is coming so soon...yay!! Valerie is going to be such a good mommy.

For the shower we  decided to make a recipe that I had previously had at a family party. It is delicious, so I thought I would pass the recipe along for those of you who want to try it out for yourselves. I wouldn't necessarily recommend cooking it for a home meal cause it is probably not the healthiest, but it is great for parties, when you don't care what you are eating as much :)

6 Chicken Breasts

1 Cup Ranch

1 Stick of Cream Cheese ( I believe its 8oz.)

Frank's Hot Wing Sauce to your liking (We found it at Smiths, but I'm sure anywhere has it)

Boil the chicken until it shreds easily. Shred the chicken and mix all ingredients in pan over the oven. We tripled the recipe and ended up putting in the entire bottle of Hot Wing Sauce in, to give you an idea what we thought was good. Once all the ingredients are mixed and nice and hot we put it into a crock pot to keep it warm throughout the shower. Serve with bread or pita chips. Its delicious!!

Apple Chips

We went to Costco on Saturday and I discovered one of my new favorite things...Bare Fruit Granny Smith Apple Chips. They are amazing... and not only that, but they are healthy! I was snacking on them all day. They were a little pricey so I looked up a recipe and I'm determined to make them. So I'll keep you posted. If any one has a good recipe please let me know otherwise here is the recipe I'm going to try out....

2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp cinnamon

4 apples (Granny Smith, Fuji, Winesap --choose your favorite), cored

 

Preheat oven to 250. Slice apples as thinly and evenly as possible, using a mandolin or sharp knife. In a large bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar. Add the apples to the bowl and toss until all the slices have some sugar and cinnamon on them. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and cover with apples, in a single layer. Bake about two hours, until browned and just crisp. Let cool (they will be crispier after cooling.)

Store in a covered container or Ziploc-style bags up to one week.

Oreo Truffle Experiment

For FHE on Monday night we decided to experiment with a recipe I found on Better Homes and Gardens, which is one of my favorite websites. I get daily emails from them with awesome recipes, cute decorating ideas and one day garden ideas that will be useful. If you are interested in making the truffles here is a link to the site: Oreo Truffles Recipe

So this was the goal.... they were fairly easy to make but mine didn't turn out quite as pretty as theirs.



If you are interested in making these I would suggest a couple things that I think I will do next time to get a better turn out. If you have a blender use it to blend up the Oreos before you add the cream cheese. Also I would recommend covering the whole Oreo ball with chocolate. I think that way they would look prettier. We had a lot of fun, its a fast and easy recipe, and they taste delicious.