Cookie Dough Truffles

Tastes like real cookie dough minus the raw eggs wrapped in chocolate. If you like cookie dough, this is going to hit home like no other comfort food.

Ingredients:
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
2¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
1½ lb. semisweet (or bittersweet) chocolate, coarsely chopped
Mini chocolate chips (for garnish)

Servings: 30-40 truffles

Instructions:
Combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up enough to form balls.

Shape the chilled cookie dough mixture into 1-1½ inch balls. Place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Cover loosely, transfer the pan to the freezer and chill for 1-2 hours or until very hard and frozen.

When ready to dip the truffles, melt the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water (double boiler). Removing only a few truffles at a time from the freezer dip each chilled truffle, one at a time, coating in chocolate, use a fork to remove and tap gently to remove the excess. Use a fork and the edge of a knife (I use a fondue fork) to slide the truffle onto a silicone sheet or wax paper.

If at any point during dipping, the cookie dough balls become soft and less frozen, return to the freezer to chill for 30 minutes.) If using mini chocolate chips for garnish, sprinkle on top quickly after dipping each truffle before the chocolate sets. Once all the truffles have been dipped, store them in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Recipe From: Dainty-Chef.com

I was stunned at how much these tasted just like cookie dough. Right down to the gritty butter sugar texture. If your one to eat raw cookie dough, this is going to hit the spot. The one warning I have is that they have the texture of cookie dough too. You will need to freeze these in order to dip these. Then your going to have to really keep these in the fridge or they will start to sweat after they are dipped.

But another good recipe to add to your truffle collection!

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Truffles

There might be better peanut butter truffles out there, I am not sure, but there wont be easier. These come out creamy and packed with peanut butter flavor. This recipe is just a modification of the Oreo Cheesecake Truffle recipe.

Ingredients:
1/2 package Nutterbutter Cookies
1 (8 ounce) package Cream Cheese, softened
2 (8 ounce) packages BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate or Chocolate Almond bark (what ever chocolate you want to use really)

Servings: ~30-40 truffles

Instructions:
Crush the heck out of ~36 cookies or so, your looking for about 3 cups of crushed nutterbutters. I did this with my little mini chopper, but you could easily do this with determination, a rolling pin and a bag. While the recipe is forgiving a few chunks are not so bad, you want the bulk of the cookies to be down to coarse sand size. Feel free to blitz a few extra cookies and set aside if you want to sprinkle the cookie bits on top.

With the ~3 cups of cookie sand, add in the 8 oz package of cream cheese and blend until smooth. I did this in my kitchen aid as blending it smooth with a spoon was proving unwieldy. You want this to be smooth, really smooth and well mixed. Don't worry about crushing the cookies more, get out the hand mixer or use the stand mixer and mix well but don't whip, no need to get air in there.

You should end up with something the consistency of play dough or a little thinner, this stuff should be thick (hence the difficult to mix). If it seems too thin to work with or your house is too hot, put it all in the fridge, covered and let it chill for a bit. Then take it out and roll it into balls. I used my 2 tsp cookie scoop* leveled (found this to be a good 2 bite truffle size) to measure out the "dough" and then rolled it into balls using my hands.

Once these are in ball form, chill them! Heck if you want freeze them. Your about to dunk them into melted chocolate and the colder they are the "cleaner" your chocolate will stay. So if you don't want crumbs in your chocolate, chilling is crucial and if you don't want a mess, it is still important.

Pop these in the fridge or freezer for an hour or two or over night. When your ready, bring the ~16 oz of your preferred chocolate up to temp in a double boiler**. Don't cheat and use the microwave your going to end up going back and forth warming and stirring and wasting a lot of time. Once the chocolate is melted, take some of the truffles out (do this in batches and keep the rest in the fridge or freezer).

Drop one truffle at a time into the melted chocolate, turn over gently to coat and then remove with a fork, tap the ball on the edge of the boiler to remove excess chocolate. Carefully use the edge of a knife (I used a fondue fork) to slide the ball onto waxed paper or a silicone sheet. If your going to sprinkle cookie bits on top, do it now before the chocolate cools. Repeat, for what seems like ever, with all of the cookie balls.

Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store leftover truffles, covered, in refrigerator.

Recipe From: I made it up, tried it out and found it to be satisfactory. Try it with any cream filled cookie and it should work out well.

Some notes
*I used to think people who used cookie scoops were Nancy pants who didn't like to get their hands dirty. I bought the set of 3 after seeing so many sites using them, and now feel I should kick myself for waiting so long. Well worth it, use them all the time now.

**I cannot stress enough the importance of the double boiler on a project like this. The microwave method is going to be a huge pain, don't skip this part. You have 30-40 of these to do. Just get a a medium sized pot and a glass bowl. Fill the put 1/4-1/3 full of water and place the bowl on top. The water should not touch the bowl. Turn the heat onto medium, you want the water to simmer. Toss all the chocolate on top and stir as it melts. This will keep your chocolate the perfect temperature. And don't spend money to buy one, glass bowl and pot work great and you already have them.

I thought these were easy and the best part, oven free. I wont say super quick, dipping all these guys took a bit of time though you get faster after your first few. Using a silpat was perfect and any extra chocolate around the base could easily be broken off after so don't worry about a little waste on the silicone.

Easy, almost no bake (only melted chocolate) and they had a strong peanut butter flavor while still being creamy and smooth.

Eggnog truffles

Soft creamy boozy eggnog goodness. Over the top rich and strong eggnog flavor

Ingredients:
130g white chocolate, finely chopped *
1 ½ tablespoons heavy cream (or commercial eggnog)
1 ½ tablespoons rum – or to taste
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg – or to taste**
cocoa powder, for rolling the truffles

*I used Godiva, you MUST use good quality white chocolate in this recipe. No white chocolate baking chips!
**I used a dash or two more, but my nutmeg is old and low quality

Servings: This made 8 (2 tsp) truffles

Instructions:
Place chocolate and cream/eggnog in a small heatproof bowl and melt over a saucepan of simmering water (Double boiler), stirring until creamy and smooth. Remove from the heat, add the rum and nutmeg and mix to combine. Taste! See if you need more rum or eggnog. If you want a more boozy taste add a bit more with a little bit more chocolate. If you need more eggnog taste add more nutmeg.

Set aside to cool, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours or overnight. Using a small cookie-scoop or a small spoon, make truffles with 2 teaspoons of ganache per truffle and roll into the cocoa powder.

Place in fluted paper cases. Keep refrigerated. Truffles can be refrigerated for up to 5 days.

Recipe From: TechniColorKitcheninEnglish.blogspot.com

I found these truffles to be amazing, my favorite truffle recipe of all time. No really, doesn't get better than this. I don't think I will ever try another eggnog truffle recipe, this one was perfect!

I used Godiva white chocolate, commercial store bought eggnog (super thick stuff, not all homemade eggnog will work, use heavy cream if in doubt), Captain Morgan Private Select Rum and rolled them in Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder.

They did come out a bit soft, in a good way, but these need to stay refrigerated or you will need to add in some more white chocolate. The same thing if you want to dip them, they will need more white chocolate to firm up. I would not however recommend dipping them, they came out perfect rolled in cocoa powder.

Popovers - Success!

I've always wanted to try making popovers and have had the King Arthur Food blog recipe saved for a while. Now I had just had a conversation with TWO people the day of making these where they mentioned they have never had good luck with popovers and have given up. These worked perfectly on the first try. I don't think I can take credit for my success, I think it is all due to the recipe. It worked really well and I used a regular muffin pan.

Ingredients:
4 large eggs, warmed in a cup of hot water for 10 minutes before cracking
1 1/2 cups milk (skim, low-fat, or full-fat), lukewarm
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour
3 tablespoons melted butter

Servings:
17-18 popovers, you will need two muffin pans!

Instructions:
Fully preheat the oven to 450 degrees F! <-- This is important to make sure the oven is fully up to temperature before starting. Position a rack on a lower shelf. Grease muffin pan thoroughly (I used Pam). Thoroughly whisk the eggs, milk, and salt. Add the flour all at once, and beat with a wire whisk. There shouldn't be any large lumps in the batter, but smaller lumps are ok. Whisk in the melted butter, combining quickly.

Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake the popovers for 20 minutes without opening the oven door! Reduce the heat to 350°F (again without opening the door!), and bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until they're a deep, golden brown.

If there is a little bit that isn't browned, you run the risk of collapse. The first pan I cooked till every visible spot was a very deep golden brown and I thought this made them a little overcooked. But the second batch had a few small spots that hadn't turned golden brown yet and there was a smidge of collapse, but nothing resembling full collapse. They were still hollow in the center. They even made their own holes on the bottom so I didn't need to make holes in them to prevent sogginess.



Not having cooked popovers before, I would not have guessed they were finicky based on this recipe. I highly recommend it for your next bread making experience. Next time I will be trying variations with adding powdered Vermont cheddar, herbs, and may favorite I have seen - corn and chive (Smitten Kitchen but with the King Arthur Baker's Banter recipe).

Recipe From:
King Arthur Flour Baker's Banter Blog

Whirl Cookies

Whirl cookies are a source of great controversy in the Bechberger household. You either fall on the side of white swirl on the outside or chocolate swirl on the outside. There is a difference! This year I just made the white on the outside, but I secretly doubled the chocolate in the chocolate recipe and I love how it came out.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (if you used unsalted butter)
4 squares/ounces melted chocolate

Servings:
Makes about 30 cookies

Instructions:
Mix all the wet ingredients then add the dry ingredients. The dough is often soft enough to add the chocolate to half the batch at the end if you would prefer.

I find it easier to either make two batches; one all white and one all chocolate or halve the recipe and make each separately. The half batch proportions are 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt and if chocolate 4 oz melted chocolate.

Roll out each dough between saran wrap. You could chill the dough if you want to roll it with a rolling pin, but I am impatient and roll it freshly made between two pieces of saran wrap. Roll each to 1/4 inch thick in roughly the same shape. Rmove the top layer of saran wrap on each and lay dough side together. Again remove one side of saran wrap and roll up like a jelly roll.



You can chill the dough to slice, but I find it so much easier to just go ahead and slice with dental floss. place the floss under the log and cross over the top. Pull on the floss in opposite directions and you will get a nice perfect slice no matter how warm the dough is.



Place slices on parchment paper and bake for 8-10 minutes (just barely starting to turn golden on the edges) in a 400 degree F oven.


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Oreo Cheesecake Truffles

A soft chocolaty center en-robed in milk chocolate that come together quick. These were huge hit at the Christmas exchange and didn't suck up my oven!

Ingredients:
1 (16 ounce) package OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, divided
1 (8 ounce) package Cream Cheese, softened
2 (8 ounce) packages BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate or Chocolate Almond bark (what ever chocolate you want to use really)

Servings: ~30-40 truffles

Instructions:
Crush the heck out of ~36 cookies or so, your looking for about 3 cups of crushed Oreos. I did this with my little mini chopper, but you could easily do this with determination, a rolling pin and a bag. While the recipe is forgiving a few chunks are not so bad, you want the bulk of the cookies to be down to coarse sand size. Feel free to blitz a few extra cookies and set aside if you want to sprinkle the cookie bits on top.

With the ~3 cups of cookie sand, add in the 8 oz package of cream cheese and blend until smooth. I did this in my kitchen aid as blending it smooth with a spoon was proving unwieldy. You want this to be smooth, really smooth and well mixed. Don't worry about crushing the cookies more, get out the hand mixer or use the stand mixer and mix well but don't whip, no need to get air in there.

You should end up with something the consistency of play dough or a little thinner, this stuff should be thick (hence the difficult to mix). If it seems too thin to work with or your house is too hot, put it all in the fridge, covered and let it chill for a bit. Then take it out and roll it into balls. I used my 1 tbs cookie scoop* leveled (found this to be a good 2 bite truffle size) to measure out the "dough" and then rolled it into balls using my hands.

Once these are in ball form, chill them! Heck if you want freeze them. Your about to dunk them into melted chocolate and the colder they are the "cleaner" your chocolate will stay. So if you don't want crumbs in your chocolate, chilling is crucial and if you don't want a mess, it is still important.

Pop these in the fridge or freezer for an hour or two or over night. When your ready, bring the ~16 oz of your preferred chocolate up to temp in a double boiler**. Don't cheat and use the microwave your going to end up going back and forth warming and stirring and wasting a lot of time. Once the chocolate is melted, take some of the truffles out (do this in batches and keep the rest in the fridge or freezer).

Drop one truffle at a time into the melted chocolate, turn over gently to coat and then remove with a fork, tap the ball on the edge of the boiler to remove excess chocolate. Carefully use the edge of a knife (I used a fondue fork) to slide the ball onto waxed paper or a silicone sheet. If your going to sprinkle cookie bits on top, do it now before the chocolate cools. Repeat, for what seems like ever, with all of the cookie balls.

Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store leftover truffles, covered, in refrigerator.

Recipe From: Everywhere! This seems to be all over the internet, in pretty much this exact form. I think it is even on Nabisco and Philadelphia's web site. You will find almost no variation from site to site other than the kind of chocolate on the outside.

Some notes
*I used to think people who used cookie scoops were Nancy pants who didn't like to get their hands dirty. I bought the set of 3 after seeing so many sites using them, and now feel I should kick myself for waiting so long. Well worth it, use them all the time now.

**I cannot stress enough the importance of the double boiler on a project like this. The microwave method is going to be a huge pain, don't skip this part. You have 30-40 of these to do. Just get a a medium sized pot and a glass bowl. Fill the put 1/4-1/3 full of water and place the bowl on top. The water should not touch the bowl. Turn the heat onto medium, you want the water to simmer. Toss all the chocolate on top and stir as it melts. This will keep your chocolate the perfect temperature. And don't spend money to buy one, glass bowl and pot work great and you already have them.

I thought these were easy and the best part, oven free. I wont say super quick, dipping all these guys took a bit of time though you get faster after your first few. Using a silpat was perfect and any extra chocolate around the base could easily be broken off after so don't worry about a little waste on the silicone.

You can really use any cream filled cookie for this, though chocolate is every ones favorite it seems. I plan to try them out with Nutterbutters in the near future. I also adapted this recipe using gingersnaps, but I will post that on a separate blog as there are a few more nuances that I discovered.

Easy, almost no bake (only melted chocolate) and they seem to be a hit with the chocolate crowd.

Dijon Braised Brussels Sprouts

Made these for Christmas this year and the sauce is incredible. If you don't think you like Brussels Sprouts, try this recipe. Of course, I love Brussels Sprouts when done properly and this is going into regular rotation. They are in season this time of year and was able to find a whole fresh stalk to use.

Ingredients:
1-2 lbs brussels sprouts, halved and any wilted outer leaves removed
1 tablespoon olive oil to coat the pan
Salt & pepper to season
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup broth (chicken, beef, or vegetable)
2 to 3 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced (I skipped due to time, but would be a good addition)
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon smooth dijon mustard

Servings:
I think we got 4 servings out of a whole stalk of Brussels Sprouts.

Instructions:
Trim sprouts and halve lengthwise. Oil a sheet pan and place Brussels Sprouts cut side down and season with salt and pepper. Roast at 450 degrees F for 10-20 minutes until golden brown (or fully cooked). If they didn't brown the oven wasn't hot enough or there wasn't enough oil in the pan. I like the caramelized flavor the browning gives them. When done, make the sauce by adding the wine and stock and reduce by about half. Lower the heat and add the mustard and cream. Either add all the Brussels to the pan or spoon over the top in a dish. Voila! Quick deliciousness and relatively healthy.

Recipe From:
Smitten Kitchen

Christmas Dinner of Mustard Glazed Lamb Ribs, Herb Popovers, and the Dijon Braised Brussels Sprouts. Rest of the recipes coming...

Quick Sour Cream Cheese Bread

Flavorful fluffy cheese bread that will taste like you worked on it for hours but comes together in a mater of minutes.

Ingredients:
3 cups (750 mL) all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. (15 mL) baking powder
1 tsp. (5 mL) salt
1/4 tsp. (1 mL) cayenne pepper (optional)
1 cup (250 mL) grated old cheddar or other intensely flavored cheese
1/2 cup (125 mL) grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/4 cups (310 mL) milk
3/4 cup (185 mL) sour cream or plain yogurt
3 Tbsp. (45 mL) butter, melted
1 large egg
*few Dashes of powdered garlic
*Sprinkling of herbs

Servings: 9 x 5 inch loaf pan

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray an 9- x 5-inch loaf pan with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and cayenne pepper. Stir in the grated cheeses, tossing to blend and get rid of clumps.

In a medium bowl, stir together the milk, sour cream, butter and egg. Add it to the dry ingredients and gently stir with a spatula just until combined. Don’t overmix, or your bread will be tough.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. If you like, sprinkle the top with additional grated cheddar or Parmesan cheese. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the loaf is golden and the top is springy to the touch. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

Recipe From: Babble.com/family-kitchen

I can't stress enough use good cheese! I also added a bit of garlic powder to mine and thought this was great but this recipe would lend itself to a little more or even some herbs. Really flexible.

It is a soft moist bread that whips together really fast but tastes like you worked on it for hours. The bread will sweat a bit inside the pan, so I recommend making sure you remove it from the pan for a bit before serving or serve warm.

Chocolate Filled Pretzels for the holidays!

These looked so much cuter in the Pinterest post where they were actually circular pretzels, but I couldn't find any round ones! And just filling two holes looked like eyes. They are as delicious as chocolate covered pretzels, but don't give you messing fingers. These were also REALLY easy to make!

Ingredients:
Bag of pretzels
Bag of chocolate chips
Christmas M&Ms

Servings:
Made about 40 or so pretzel cookies

Instructions:
Heat your oven to 200 degrees F. Place pretzels on parchment paper on a cookies sheet and fill holes with chocolate chips. Be careful to keep the chips inside the holes. Place in the oven for a few minutes, watching the chocolate melt. Careful, this slow heat the chips will keep their shape and you risk burning them. Give the cookie sheet a good jolt and that will flatten the melted chocolate. Pull the pretzels out and place an M&M in the center of each hole (I prefer the look of M side down). Cool and enjoy!

Recipe From:
Not sure, I saw this on a Pinterest site and most others use the stripped Hershey kisses to fill the pretzels. I liked the symbol of the wreath much better.

Rugelach - My favorite Holiday Cookie

Rugelach is my favorite holiday cookie. The dough turns out incredibly flaky and moist filled with cinnamon and nuts (raisins optional). Just be careful too cook them long enough in the middle to be fully cooked. I used to make circles, then roll them like croissants, but found they don't cook as evenly as cylinders.

Ingredients:
Dough
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter, cubed
1 - 8 oz package cream cheese
1/3 cup sour cream
Filling
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tblspn cinnamon
1 cup finely ground walnuts
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Servings:
about 30 cookies

Instructions:
In mixer cream butter and sugar, then cream cheese, eggs, salt, sour cream, and last flour. If it's too wet to handle you could add more flour, but it will be a sticky dough. Adding too much flour will make it a tougher cookie. Chill if it is too difficult to roll out.


Flour the work surface and the dough if needed. Roll out in a cylinder and top with the filling. Press filling lightly into the dough. Begin rolling the cylinder from one end, about 3 times. Cut along the cylinder and set aside. Keep rolling and cutting till it is all rolled. Then cut each cylinder every 1-2 inches. Place each cookies an inch apart on parchment paper. Bake a few cookies to start to get the baking time down (open up to check center is done). Depending on home much you rolled it they can bake from 20-35 minutes. Luckily, this is a forgiving dough and the sugar is the first thing that will burn on the bottom of the cookie. If you find you can't cook the center without burning the bottom, lower baking temp or roll thinner. Cool and store in airtight container.



Recipe Modified From:
Allrecipes.com

Heaven - aka Nutella Swiss Buttercream Frosting and Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Two recipes here. One for "Heaven" frosting which is a swiss buttercream frosting; ideal for those who hate the sugary buttercream frostings almost all cakes have. When I added Nutella, I literally cried out "Heaven," hence the name. The other is for ice cream cone cupcakes - cake baked in an ice cream cone. The picture above is of a cake I made for 3 friends' 30th birthday party (myself included). The cake is made out of structural elements inside and Little Debbie and Hostess goodies outside. The top layer is actually a spice cake covered in the Nutella Swiss Buttercream. Spice cake was forgettable, but the frosting was "Unforgettable... That's what you are. So unforgettable..."

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
26 tablespoons butter,
softened (3 sticks plus 2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup nutella

Recipe for the Ice Cream Cupcakes below (soooo easy!)

Servings:
For a 9-inch cake (plus filling, or some to spare)

Instructions:
Whisk egg whites and sugar together in a big metal bowl over a pot of simmering water. Whisk occasionally until you can'€™t feel the sugar granules when you rub the mixture between your fingers. Transfer mixture into the mixer and whip until it turns white and about doubles in size. Add the vanilla. Add the butter slowly a couple cubes at a time and whip, whip, whip. It may look curdled at one point, but keep whipping until all the butter is added. Then taste. Lick fingers clean. Taste again. Add the cup of Nutella. Whip. Taste. Tell the guests to go away the frosting is all yours. Threaten them with the licked clean spatula. Call a help line, you have a problem...

Recipe Modified From:
Smitten Kitchen" for full instructions. Some people report this was tricky to make, but it came together so easy for me. I had never made swiss buttercream before and had some Nutella I wanted to use up before moving. I searched for a frosting I thought would have a similar consistency and handle adding Nutella to it. Little did I know how wonderfully this frosting would come out even without the Nutella. Adding the Nutella just took it over the top - hence the name "Heaven." If you don't have to ice shapes on your cake, you just need to add more deliciousness, I would recommend swiss buttercream frosting above any other (unless it has to sit out in the sun - it is mostly butter after all).



Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Ingredients:
One box mix and necessary ingredients (I used red velvet for the holidays)
One box of ice cream cones (yes those cheap flavorless ones...)
One batch Nutella Swiss Buttercream Frosting

Put ice cream cones into a high sided pan (so they can't fall over when you move the pan). Mix together box mix cake with needed ingredients. Pour batter into ice cream cones about 3/4 full. Too full and they will run over. Bake according to cupcake cooking times. When done pull out and cool. Frost. Decorate. Easy and delicious!

I was so shocked as a young teen the first time I had these. It was amazing to me that you could bake cake in the ice cream cones and it comes out better than either of the two alone. I was glad to find out the other day that others have similar reactions when a group of friends had them for the first time. Need to make cupcakes for a class, want less mess? Try these!

Ginger Glazed Beef Short Ribs or Shanks

Short ribs are all the rage now, but I find that using beef shanks results in a lot less greasy fat with the same amount of flavor and shanks are usually a very cheap cut of meat. Any stew meat should work in this recipe. While I did not end up with a glaze, I did end up with a very flavorful sauce (lick the bowl clean!) and tender meat (fall off the bone) with gingerized vegetables (yes I am inventing words now). The vegetable soaked up a lot of the ginger flavor and were a real treat. Enjoy my adaptation.

Ingredients:
2 cups dry red wine
4-5 pounds bone-in beef short ribs, cut into individual ribs
1 tsp salt
1 head garlic (I used roasted garlic)
5 large fresh shiitake mushrooms (I skipped this)
1 large onions, peeled and quartered
1 cup baby carrots
2 inches fresh ginger, grated
8 allspice berries, freshly ground
2 tsp cinnamon
12 sprigs fresh thyme or other herbs on hand
3 cups low-sodium chicken stock
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Instructions:
Put all ingredients in a crockpot and let cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. The original recipe called for beef short ribs, but I find these too fatty and the grease needs to be skimmed off. Using beef shank, there is a lot less fat and just as much flavor. When completely cooked, pull meat out and strain the liquids. My vegetables were still crisp (not mush like most long cooked stews) so I retained those and served them with dinner.
Take the liquid and reduce significantly in a pot till sauce thickens. Add cornstarch or flour if you want to make a gravy but I enjoyed it as a nice sauce with some crusty bread to mop it up.

I reduced my liquids down to about 2 cups of liquid and it could have reduced more. Since I used too much vinegar the first time, I added a ¼ cup of brown sugar to cut the acidity. This liquid was supposed to make a glaze for the meat (if braised) and I thought adding the sugar would help make it into a glaze. But after reducing the liquid and braising the meat in the oven for a while it did more to dry the top layer of meat than to create a glaze. So, I will skip this step in the future and just serve the reduced liquid over the crockpot cooked meat.

Serves 5-6.

Nutritional Information:
Estimated using Recipe Calculator

Amount Per Serving
Calories 589.6
Total Fat 15.1 g
Saturated Fat 5.5 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1.0 g
Monounsaturated Fat 6.4 g
Cholesterol 218.0 mg
Sodium 697.2 mg
Potassium 1,895.2 mg
Total Carbohydrate 8.6 g
Dietary Fiber 1.2 g
Sugars 2.0 g
Protein 87.7 g

Recipe Modified From:
Kitchen Konfidence

Cream Cheese Stuffed Pumpkin Monkey Bread

The perfect fall breakfast or dessert! Sweat sugar and butter combine to make a sticky coating on fluffy pumpkin bread bursting with cream cheese. Best served a little warm but still excellent cold.

Ingredients:
Pumpkin Yeast Bread
1/2 cup warm water
2 Tbsp SAF instant yeast or 2 packets of rapid rise yeast
2/3 cup warm (NOT HOT) whole milk (or 2%)
2 large eggs, beaten
1-1/2 cups canned pumpkin (This is *almost* the entire 15oz can. I was tempted to just use it all. If you do, you'll just need to adjust the amount of flour needed.)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 heaping tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 - 1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg
4 cups bread flour
2+ cups whole wheat flour

Filling*
8oz (1 pkg) cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
*May need to double, see notes*

Coating*
1/3 pumpkin bread dough
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
dash nutmeg
any other spices you like - ginger, cloves, cardamom - go crazy
1 stick butter, melted
*May need to double, see notes*

Servings: One large bundt pan

Instructions:

Pumpkin Yeast Bread
In bowl of stand mixer, add 4 cups of bread flour, yeast, salt, spices. Mix until blended. Add water, milk, eggs, pumpkin, oil, and sugar. Beat well about 2 minutes. Add whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup at a time until the dough comes together and switch to the dough hook. Knead until the dough clears the sides (you'll need to scrape them down once or twice) adding just a little bit of flour at a time. The dough will eventually clear the bottom as well. The dough should be slightly tacky but not sticky and should be fairly smooth. This will take about 10 minutes all told.

Put dough in a large, oiled bowl, turning once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and put int a warm spot to rise and double, about 1 hour.

Filling
In medium bowl mix all ingredients until smooth. If you use room temperature cream cheese it mixes easier. You can mix it by hand, with a hand mixer or in your kitchenaid.

Coating
Melt butter in small bowl. Mix sugars and spices in another small bowl. Grab a slotted spoon and a large regular spoon.

Assembly
Spray bundt pan with cooking spray, coating entire insides well.

Roll dough to approx 1/4" thick with a rolling pin or carefull stretching and pressing with your hands but not more than that. Thinner is ok. Take a pizza cutter and cut the dough into squares (I did roughly 2x2 inches) covering dough with a barely damp towel as you work.

Place a dollop of cream cheese mixture in the center of each square then pull edges of dough around the filling, sealing as best you can. Roll into smooth-ish ball shape repeating as needed and covering the completed balls with a damp towel.

Then dunk each ball into the melted butter, remove with a slotted spoon and roll in the sugar mixture. Place each in prepared bundt pan. Repeat with remaining dough layering the coated pieces as you go.

Drizzle a little bit of butter over the pan of dough and sprinkle on a bit more sugar, too. Cover and let rise about 45 min.

Bake in 350°F oven 40-45 minutes or until internal temp is 190°F. Cover the pan with foil if it's getting too dark.

Remove from oven and let cool for a bit on a wire rack, when the bundt pan is still warm but not too hot and run knife around all the edges. Grab a large plate or serving platter. Place on top of the bundt pan. With one hand on the bottom of the plate and the other holding the pan (with an oven mitt or towel) flip them together keeping bundt pan on top of the plate. Let the weight of the bread pull it it from the pan. You might need to tap it a bit. Slowly pull the pan off the bread careful not to force it and break up the bread.

Let cool about 30 minutes before eating. It really does get better when it is warm but not too hot. And molten cream cheese is not fun.

Recipe From: SomethingShinyblog.com

This recipe was awesome! Sweet and pumpkin with awesome cream cheese centers, it was perfect for fall. It makes a good party food, looks interesting and shares well. Makes a sweet breakfast or an nice dessert.

I used the proportion of spices listed in this recipe however eyeballing it is just fine or replacing the total used with pumpkin pie spice will be just fine. If you like more or less of something, go for it. The recipe will be very flexible.

The original recipe said that I would have left over cream cheese mixture, butter and sugar but I ended up needing more. I guess I over filled mine. So feel free to double the recipe if you want a lot of filling (then you might have some leftovers) or be stingy with it if you want less filling. I wanted mine to be -filled- with cream cheese, and loved how they came out. I thought they were perfect!

The original recipe has you unmold this as soon as it is out of the oven but I don't think this is needed. Let it cool a little bit so you can handle it, but don't let it get cold. You want all the butter and caramelized sugar to stick to the dough, not the pan.

Watch out for under cooking! I under cooked this the first time even with a temperature probe so be careful of the center. The bottom and top were cooked to perfection but the center had a few doughy ones. So make sure to use a temperature probe and poke it in a few places focusing on the center. It will look done but might not be. It was still good, even a little doughy but not as good.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cookie Bars with homemade Apple Cider Caramel Sauce

An over the top sweet fall treat filled with apples and cinnamon drizzled with apple cider flavored caramel on top of cheesecake and a crunchy buttery crust.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cookie Bars with homemade Apple Cider Caramel Sauce

Ingredients:
Dough:
1 cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter

Cream Cheese Filling:
2 8oz packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
2 eggs

Apple Filling:
2 Large apples (firm)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp white sugar

Crumb Topping:
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (room temp)
1 cup all purpose flour

Apple Cider Caramel:
3/4 cup apple cider
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp maple syrup
3 Tbsp corn starch
1 tsp ginger powder
Dash or two of cinnamon
2 Tbsp lemon juice
pinch of salt (opt’l)
**You will only use about half of this for the Cheesecake bars, so half the recipe if you don't want any left overs, but trust me, you will.

Servings: One 9x13 pan or two 8x8 pans

Instructions:
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cookie Bars

Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C).

In a bowl, combine the flour (1 cup – 140 grams) and brown sugar (1/2 cup – 100 grams). Cut in the butter (1 cup – 230 grams) with a pastry blender (or a fork) until the mixture is crumbly, kinda. If your butter is closer to room temp, just toss all that together and cream it in the mixer, you will end up with the same thing. A gooey dough.

First with lightly floured fingertips, then with the bottom of a cup (or a glass), press the dough evenly into a 13 × 9-inch (33 x 22 cm) baking pan or a cookie sheet with edges. Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned. It will look wet and under baked, you will think you have screwed up, it is fine.

In the meantime, in a larger bowl, beat the cream cheese with 1/2 cup sugar until smooth (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time (beat about 20 seconds after each addition). Next add the vanilla and mix until combined.

Peel the apples and chop them into 1/2-inch chunks. Mix the apple chunks with the cinnamon and two tablespoons white sugar. Add a dash of pumpkin pie spice if your so inclined.

Pour the cream cheese batter over the warm crust. Spoon the apple chunks evenly over the cream cheese mixture. Or place them evenly over the cream cheese if your a bit anal about it like I was.

In a smaller bowl, combine the flour (1 cup – 140 grams), oats (1/2 cup – 60 grams), and brown sugar (1/2 cup – 100 grams) for crumb topping. Cube the butter (1/2 cup – 115 grams) and using a pastry blender (or a fork), create a crumbly mixture.

Crumble over the cream cheese mixture. Bake 30 minutes, or until the filling is set. Reduce the temperature to 300 °F (150 °C) for the last 5 minutes.

Cool these over night in the fridge. You might be able to cool them for 5 hours or so before slicing but they need to be cold in order to cut them! Drizzle with the Apple Cider Caramel sauce listed below when they are fully chilled. You can make the sauce the same day as the cheese cake and just rewarm prior to drizzling.

Apple Cider Caramel sauce

Dissolve the corn starch into the cold apple cider.

Add the cider/starch to a sauce pot with the other ingredients. Bring the mixture to a boil – stirring constantly. When the bubbling becomes intense, reduce to medium heat and continue stirring until the mixture thickens a bit. Remove from heat. Pour the sauce into a bowl

Recipe From: Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cookie Bars from ZoomYummy.com and Apple Cider Caramel Sauce from Family-kitchen

I think next time I want to try the crust with a 1/2 cup more flour. The whole thing had too much butter and was too wet in my opinion, when chilled this isn't a big problem but some of the butter had congealed on the bottom when I sliced them and I found that to be an indication of too much butter. I have seen other recipes for this call for 2 cups flour which I think would be fine but lead to a more dense crust. I think 1.5 might be perfect but I have not tried it yet.

The original recipe called for regular caramel sauce, with an implication of store bought. So not skip the apple cider caramel sauce. You will get so much more apple goodness out of this recipe. I think it takes it from food to wow. The apples are a bit faint without it, this brings them to the forefront.

This recipe is also very sweet and very buttery. It is not diet friendly. If you have someone who doesn't care for sweets, don't make this. You could possibly cut some or most sugar from the cheesecake layer since the caramel and streusel topping carry enough sugar to make up for it to cut down on an overly sweet taste. Better still would be to cut some from the caramel but tinkering with sugars in caramel gets complicated and might take some trial and error.

The left over cider syrup would be great on pancakes, waffles, ice cream, apples, crisps, crumbles, pumpkin cakes and breads... just about anything fall flavored!

Caramel Apple Cider Cookies Recipe

Super easy sweet fall treat. Strong apple cider taste with gooey or chewy caramel in the middle.

Caramel Apple Cider Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar**
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (7.4 ounce) box Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink Mix (*not sugar free*)
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 (14 ounce) bag Kraft Caramels, unwrapped

**I used 3/4 of a cup, should have used 1/2 cup or none at all. The drink mix is sweet enough on its own!

Servings: ~45 cookies

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Line cookie sheets with parchment or a silpat. (The melted caramel may stick to the bottom if you just use cooking spray on a plain baking sheet.)

In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. With an electric mixer, cream together butter, sugar, salt and all 10 packages of apple cider drink mix powder, until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix well. Gradually add flour mixture to butter/egg mixture. Mix until just combined.

Scoop out cookie dough ball about the size of a walnut (about 2 tablespoons). Flatten the ball of dough slightly in the palm of your hand. Press the unwrapped caramel into the center of your dough and seal the dough around it, covering it completely. Shape the dough into a ball, and place on parchment covered cookie sheets about 3 inches apart.

Bake 12-14 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the edges. Once the cookies are done, carefully slide the parchment or silpat off of the baking sheet right out onto the counter. Allow cookies to partially cool on the parchment/silpat. When cookies are cool enough to be firm but still slightly warm, carefully twist off of parchment and allow to finish cooling upside down (either on the parchment/silpat or on a rack).

Recipe From: Gimmesomeoven.com

These were pretty quick and easy to whip up, however they also taste a little quick and easy to whip up. The drink mix doesn't "dissolve" in the cookie, which keeps the strong apple flavor going but leaves it all a little "fake". This recipe could do with a small bit of tinkering. Right now it tastes like a "box mix" but I think with some improvements it could be made awesome.

As it is now, kids will love it, adults will like it, health nuts will cringe. Eat these warm (but well cooled, molten caramel burns!) from the oven to get gooey caramel, eat these cold and get chewy caramel (but not in a bad way).

Baked Spiced Pumpkin Mini Doughnuts

Little pumpkin treats for breakfast! Moist, tasty and easy. If you don't have a mini doughnut pan, just use muffin cups and only fill them 1/4-1/3 full.

Ingredients:
For the doughnut holes:
220g all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
½ tsp ground gloves
Pinch of salt
1 egg
75ml vegetable oil
100g brown sugar
185g tinned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
120 ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the coating (optional):
130g granulated sugar
2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice

Servings: 48 mini doughnuts or 18-20 holes

Instructions:
Spray the mini doughnut pan or 18-20 holes in a muffin/cupcake tin (depends on whether the muffin tin is for normal-sized or huge muffins). Pre-heat the oven to 175°C.

Sift the flour, baking powder, spices and salt into a medium-sized bowl and mix together.

Lightly beat the egg in a large bowl (I actually used 2 small organic eggs), then add the oil, brown sugar, pumpkin, milk and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth. Gently mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined (like with muffins, don’t over-mix!).

Divide the batter between the muffin holes or moulds (don’t fill them too much – these will puff a little bit as they cook) and bake for 10-12 mins until a toothpick comes out clean.

If you cook these the night before, by morning they will be moist from all the pumpkin, you can just roll them in the sugar and it will stick. The original recipe has you dunk them in melted butter and then roll them. I thought the extra calories wouldn't add all that much and this method worked just fine for me. However you need to do this right before you serve these doughnuts or they will just absorb the sugar and wont look as cute.

Recipe From: Sharkyovengloves


These came out nice and moist and quite good. Honestly I would like to try some glazed and some with spiced pumpkin cream cheese. I think I will be later with some of the left overs. Before you toss these in sugar, I think they would even freeze well so you could make a big batch and then same some for later.

Quick and easy to make, tasty and over all healthy.

60 Calorie Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin bread in cookie form. Chewy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside. Full of fall flavors this cookie whips up fast and requires no eggs or butter.

Ingredients:
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1/4 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 Maple syrup
1tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice
1/2 unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 tsp of Almond Extract
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup of canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
Cooking spray

Servings: ~22 cookies

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a cookie sheet with cooking spray or use a silpat (no spray needed)

Cream sugars, Maple syrup, applesauce, pumpkin, almond and vanilla extract together. mix in baking soda, baking powder and pumpkin pie spice. Add four and stir until just combined.

Drop cookies in ~1-2 tbsp mounds, a cookie scoop makes pretty cookies and helps you achieve your perfect 60 calorie cookies but is not needed.

Bake 15-18 minutes, you can even use a toothpick to check doneness like pumpkin bread if your nervous. That's what I did when I left out some of the original recipes flour. 

Nutritional Information: With 22 cookies you get - Calories: 60 Total Fat: 0.2g Cholesterol: 0.0 Sodium: 80.2 mg Total Carbs: 14.7g Fiber: 1.1g Protein: 0.9g Recipes.sparkpeople.com

Recipe From: Nutritionfor.us

The basic recipe on this took a major change when I flat out forgot to add the other cup of white flour. But I already had some of them in the oven, so I pressed on to see how they would come out, and they came out perfect. No need for the added flour at all!

I am also not sure how the original recipe came to 42 calories a cookie, my calculations came out to 60 calories, and that was with a cup less of flour. But I think 60 calories a cookie is still perfectly acceptable in my book.

I think you could cut some more sugar out and not miss it, but I have not tried it yet. I think you could use 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup maple syrup (use light and cut out some more calories) with no white sugar at all and still get amazing cookies.

These came out chewy on the outside and soft and moist like pumpkin bread on the inside. Fantastic flavorful treat, and close to guilt free!

New England Clam Chowder

I wish I had a better picture but I forgot to take one!
A rich creamy New England Clam Chowder that even the non-chowder fans will enjoy Plenty of clams for the clam fans and enough clam taste, but plenty of creamy bacony goodness to satisfy everyone else. Because everything is better with bacon

New England Clam Chowder

Ingredients:
1/2 - 1 Package thick sliced bacon
3 (6.5 ounce) cans chopped clams
1-2 small bottles of clam juice
1 cup minced yellow onion (roughly 1/2 a large onion)
1 cup big celery chunks*
2 cups cubed potatoes (not too small, nice bite sized)
1 cup diced carrots (not too small, nice bite sized)
3 tbs butter
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 quart half-and-half cream**
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
ground black pepper to taste
3-4 Chives***

*Your going to fish these out of the pot, so cut them big
**You could easily go half skim milk and half half-and-half to cut some calories!
***Optional but nice color! Good flavor

Servings: Make one big pot full of soup so ~6-8 servings

Instructions:
Drain juice from the clams into a medium sauce pan over the celery, potatoes and carrots. Add clam juice to cover, and cook over medium heat until tender. Crumble or chop 1-2 sliced of the bacon into the pan as soon as they are ready (next step), no rush but it helps get some of the bacon flavor into the veggies.

Meanwhile fry the bacon in a pan to desired crispness (over cook slightly if you like very floppy bacon). Set the bacon aside, reserve bacon fat (all of it).

If you have the burners for it, also sautee the onions with the 3 tbs of butter until they are mostly translucent.

As soon as the bacon and onions are ready... in a large pot, add the bacon grease (all of it - you should have about a 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of fat in the pot, add butter if you do not have enough fat) to the pan and warm. Whisk in flour until smooth, cook for a minute or two. Things may get clumpy, don't panic! Whisk in cream in about three additions stirring until smooth before the next addition. Stir constantly until thick and smooth, bring just to just before boiling, do not full boil, to take out any "flour" taste.

Remove the celery from the vegetable and broth pot, discard. Stir in vegetables and clam juice to the cream mixture. Add onions and any remaining butter in the pan with them. Heat through, but do not boil.

Chop or crumble the rest of the bacon and add with clams right before serving (really, -right before- serving or the clams with get tough). Keep soup warm for 5 minutes or so, so that the clams heat through. Stir in vinegar, and season with salt and pepper. Add chives and serve.

Nutritional Information: You probably don't want to know

Recipe From: AllRecipes.com

If you really like celery you can chop it up into bite size pieces and keep it in your chowder, but I hate the stuff. It does add good flavor to a stock, so don't skip it but it is your choice to keep it or toss it.

I also think this would be fantastic with some corn! If you like chunky soup, add some corn, maybe some peas anything goes and it will be fantastic. If you don't like chunky soups, leave this good stuff out.

If your Dad, don't skip the onions. I know you don't like them but they add a lot of the soup. Your really not going to taste them, when you cook them up in all that butter and then drown them in a delicious creamy bacon soup they add so much flavor but don't at all taste like onions.

This soup is rich, so if you want to cut out some fat, don't skip the bacon or the butter, skip some of the half and half. I think you could use half skim milk and still have a very creamy soup. It might thin it out a little so if you like thick soups add a little more than the 3/4 c flour if subbing skim milk. This soup is pretty thick and creamy as is, so no extra flour if you like them thick.

KFC Coleslaw

This is a rip off of KFC's Coleslaw which is a sweet tangy and little bit creamy slaw that goes well with BBQ, well, and fried chicken. It wont over power the rest of your food, but will compliment it.

Ingredients:
DRESSING:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

SLAW:
1 head of green cabbage
1 medium carrot (about 1/4 cup)
2 tablespoons minced onion

Servings: 10-12

Instructions:
Chop cabbage into chunks and shred with a mandolin, or chop it fine by hand. Do the same with the carrots and onion. In my case I used the larger size shredder on my mandolin for the cabbage but used the smaller size for the carrots and onion. Combine them all in a very very large bowl.

Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a large bowl, whisk well. Pour dressing over the slaw and turn to coat well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving to allow the cabbage to soak up the marinade. Overnight is best.

Recipe From: AmandasCookin.com

Make sure you use a HUGE bowl (or Tupperware) for the initial shred and marinade. One head of cabbage, once shredded, turns into a LOT of cabbage. And you will need to turn and stir etc. I ended up dirtying more than one bowl discovering I was out of room. Once you let things sit over night it will condense down some, but at first you have a LOT of slaw.

I also made up a second batch of the dressing for my own slaw. I would advise, for a more tangy flavor, making the slaw and dressing the night before. Mixing and letting it sit in the fridge turning it over occasional to keep it well mixed. The next morning, drain out the excess dressing and then "reapply" fresh dressing (so you make two batches of the dressing) before serving. This step is not needed, but I thought it gave it a more tangy, less watered down feel to it.

When I made it, I forgot to drain the old dressing off and just added the new, leading to a lot of dressing. I think the drain and redress will produce the best results. If you want to go the extra step redress the slaw but this stuff is tasty without doing anything else at all!

I accidentally used white wine vinegar and not vinegar, because that is what I had, so I guess less of an accident. The slaw still came out fantastic but with a little less bite to it. So if you want to tone it down, white wine vinegar works great, want to kick it up, use regular.

Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella salad with Basil Vinaigrette

This is pretty much a caprese salad by another name. The basil Vinaigrette that is in this recipe will become a staple in my house from now on. Very easy and very fresh. The dressing would go well on any salad or with steak, chicken and possibly fish.

Ingredients:
For the dressing:
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
3 large basil leaves, chopped
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp fresh black pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

For the salad:
1 large ripe tomato, or 2 medium tomatoes
4-6 large basil leaves
1/2 lb fresh mozzarella cheese (regular or buffalo mozzarella)

Servings: serves 2 as a side

Instructions:
In a blender, combine the mustard, vinegar, garlic, chopped basil leaves, salt and pepper. Process until fairly smooth. Then, add the oil in a stream (through the hole in the lid of the blender), until all is well incorporated.

Cut the tomato into 1/4-inch thick slices. Wash and dry the basil leaves. Slice the mozzarella into 1/4-inch thick slices. Arrange the tomato, basil and cheese on a platter.

Pour as much of the dressing as you like over the top. Season with additional black pepper, to taste.

Recipe From: ThePerfectPantry.com

I love a good caprese salad, but it is something I have never tried to make at home. I also usually don't make my own dressings, just as easy to go out and buy one that is pretty tasty. But todays culinary adventure has me rethinking that strategy.

I used my immersion blender to whip up the dressing really quick instead of a food processor. Tossed all the liquids in the chopper attachment and rough chopped the garlic and basil. Pulsed the heck out of it until it was all nice and "whipped" up. No pesky streams of olive oil or anything like that. The chopper gets going so fast it all comes together just the same.

A great quick no fuss side. Comes together in maybe 15 minutes and tastes like you slaved over it. And make sure to use the best mozzarella you can find along with the best tomatoes, the dressing is amazing but the salad is simple and needs good ingredients for the base.

Basil Hummus

An awesome basil twist on traditional hummus. If you have a basil fan in the house this is going to send them over the moon. Full of flavor and an excellent party dip that will surprise everyone. It would be good with most chips and also veggies and cheese.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 cups sweet basil leaves, packed
~3 cloves garlic, smashed then minced
2 15-ounce cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (1.5-2 lemons)
1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons salt
Several dashes Tabasco**
1 teaspoon tomato paste
**Optional but Jason says it kicks it up a lot

Servings: Almost 2 cups of hummus

Instructions:
Heat the pine nuts in a small skillet on medium high heat. Stir them when they start to brown. When most of them have lightly browned, remove them from the pan into a bowl to cool. (Reserve a few pine nuts for garnish.)

In the bowl of a food processor (I used an immersion blender), place the basil leaves and the garlic. Pulse until finely chopped. Add the rinsed and drained garbanzo beans, most of the pine nuts, olive oil, water, lemon juice, salt, tomato paste, and a few dashes of Tabasco. Pulse several times, for several seconds each time, until the hummus is smooth. Add more Tabasco and salt or lemon juice to taste.

Serve with pita wedges, crackers, bread sticks or rustic bread. Veggies and cheese will also go well with this dip.

Recipe From: SimplyRecipes.com

I have a dirty secret, I love... or perhaps I should say I am obsessed with basil, well and garlic. There are just no better tastes out there, hm, well and cheese. But I love basil and this recipe pretty much takes hummus and makes it awesome by adding a basic pesto.

I think, but have yet to try, adding some parmigiana cheese to this dip which might make it even more awesome. If your a garlic fan, add a few extra cloves, I think I tossed in about 5 of them. I also left out the Tabasco sauce but Jason added some to his little private dish of the stuff and said it made it for him. But then he thinks everything needs hot sauce, everything. It disgusts me.

I also whipped this all up in my immersion blender. I rough chopped the basil and the garlic and then pulsed it a few times. Then I added all the liquids and pulsed this into a liquid. Added one can of beans, mixed it well and then added the other can of beans and blended it well. Thick and fantastic.

So if you have the space for a food processor, more power to you, but you can do pretty much anything a food processor can do with the Kitchen Aid Immersion blender and chopper attachment. Saves a LOT of space, also replaces a blender unless you make a lot of drinks.

Marinated Tuna Steaks

An easy tasty marinated that works well with tuna or any other white fish. Keeps thinks tender and flavorful without over whelming the fish.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup soy sauce (I used low sodium)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano (I used dried "Italian herbs")
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 (4 ounce) tuna steaks

Servings: 4 Steaks

Instructions:
In a large non-reactive dish, mix together the orange juice, soy sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, garlic, oregano, and pepper. Place the tuna steaks in the marinade and turn to coat. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat grill for high heat. Lightly oil grill grate. Cook the tuna steaks for 5 to 6 minutes, then turn and baste with the marinade. Cook for an additional 5 minutes, or to desired doneness. Discard any remaining marinade.

Recipe From: AllRecipes.com

When Dad came out to visit he went fishing with Crystal, deep sea fishing. They had a blast out in the sun flinging about fish and guts while I sat home in the AC. But when they returned they brought back some amazing fresh tuna steaks and I was lucky enough to get some!

Now that my freezer was filled with tuna steaks I needed to figure out what to do with them. I love to eat fish but I am not one to cook it, I just smother it in garlic and lemon with some butter and it never comes out very special. So with these amazing cuts of super fresh fish I needed to do something different. This recipe has great reviews so I thought I couldn't go wrong.

I followed everything pretty much to the letter, though I followed the advice of others and marinaded for 2 hours not 30 minutes and this came out fantastic. Flavorful but not overwhelming, so it goes well with almost any dish. Not too sweet or salty, just right.

The tuna was thick and took about 4 minutes per side and didn't stick too bad too the grill. We put it skin side down first and all seemed to go well. Beautiful fish and very tasty. In the future I would let this marinade over night on super thick steaks, make sure go for at least 2 hours! Nothing less!

Creamy Artichoke Orzo

A fantastic side or a comforting main dish this rice is a hit. The rice still gets creamy like risotto but stays firm and plump, a little less melt in your mouth and more like a good solid meal.

Ingredients:
2 cups vegetable stock (good stuff, not cheap stuff)
2 cups Chicken stock
1½ cups orzo
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (or mixed Italian cheeses)
6 large artichoke hearts, chopped (14 oz can)
3 tablespoons finely chopped chives
Black pepper, to taste
Optional herbs**

**You could easily add any number of fresh herbs and this would go well. So when your finished, give it a taste and if you have something on hand, feel free to add it.

Servings: 4 meal sized servings, 8 side dish size servings

Instructions:
In a small saucepan, bring vegetable stock to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer.

In a saute pan, add orzo, olive oil, salt, and 2 cups of simmering stock, over medium-low heat. Continue adding stock, ½ cup at a time, stirring often for about 25-30 minutes, letting each addition be absorbed before adding the next until orzo is tender and creamy.

Turn off heat and stir in Parmesan, artichokes, chives, and walnuts. Season to taste with pepper and nutmeg. Serve immediately.

Recipe From: www.babble.com

This is a fantastic main meal or as a side to a nice herbed chicken. It is also much easier and a bit less time consuming that risotto. Even Jason enjoyed the combination of simple flavors, though he did add a tiney drip of Blairs Hot Sauce, but he puts that on everything. I am beginning to be less grossly insulted by this, I just assume his tongue is retarded. He also enjoys crap food as much as he enjoys good food, sometimes I think I married the wrong stomach. In any case this rice dish would even be fantastic without the cheese if you want to please a vegan crowd.

I used my homemade vegetable stock that I had in the freezer and reduced sodium chicken stock from a carton. I think if you used crappy stock alone you would end up with mediocre rice. So make sure your stock tastes good. Even if you just doctor up some canned stock from the store, make sure it is tasty stuff.

If you have access to frozen artichokes, which I do not, this might work out even better than canned. But the canned ones in water worked just fine for me. Don't leave out the chives, they do add something to this dish more than just a splash of color.

Avocado Blue Cheese Dressing

This heavenly dressing combines all the creaminess of avocados with the sharpness of blue cheese in every mouth watering bite. Goes well on a plain salad or kick up a main course salad with this dressing as it goes well with chicken and beef. Heck, using it as a sauce on steak or chicken to dress up the grill meat, fantastic all around.

Ingredients:
3 oz. blue cheese, crumbled
1 avocado
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallots**
2 tbs. light sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or white wine vinegar
1 tsp. red wine vinegar
salt, pepper, olive oil

Servings: 2 generous servings, 4 if your stretching it

Instructions:
**Saute the shallot with a tsp. of olive oil until soft and fragrant. Let cool for a few minutes and transfer to a small mixing bowl.

Add all ingredients except avocado to the bowl with the shallots and mash/stir them together. It’s up to you how chunky you want it to be.

Slice the avocado and add to the mixture. Mash/stir to your desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper. If it’s too thick, another tbs. of milk.

Recipe From: PinchOfYum.com

**I have made this 3 times now and never have I been able to get the shallots when I got around to making this. Everyone is out of shallots, every time. I think the shallots would make a great addition, but if you don't have them, don't let this stop you. It also cuts down on prep and makes this a no cooking at all recipe.

I also often throw all the ingredients into my KitchenAid immersion blender chopper attachment and pulse a few times. The blue cheese will be in small chunks but the avocado pretty much liquefies. I never need to add more milk when I make it with this method. But this recipe could just as easily be done with a potato masher or a fork!

Once this stuff is made, eat it right away. It has avocado in it, and even with the lemon juice and vinegar it is going to turn disgusting poo brown in a bit where it meets the air. Still tastes great when it is poo brown, but doesn't look all that great.

This stuff is sinfully delicious, melt in your mouth amazing. Best dressing I have ever made. You can also use it as a steak sauce, also, amazing. But I don't want to know how many calories are in it, no one ever tell me that fun fact.

Ham and Cheese Bread

A flavorful quick bread that works well as a side or a main dish. The meat and cheese can easily be swapped out in this recipe for increased versatility.

Ingredients:
5 tablespoons extra- virgin olive oil, plus extra for oiling the pan
1 1/4 cups unbleached, all- purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup plain yogurt (I used Greek)
5 ounces aged Extra Sharp Cheddar cheese, cut into 1/4- inch cubes
5 ounces best- quality cooked ham, cut into 1/4- inch cubes
2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped

**1/3 cup best- quality black olives, pitted and halved

Servings: 1 Loaf pan

Instructions:
Center a rack in the oven. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly oil an 8x4 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, olive oil, and yogurt. Stir to blend. Add the cheese, ham, and olives, and stir just to combine the ingredients.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Place the pan in the oven and bake until the bread is firm and golden, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool. Once cooled, unmold and serve the bread at room temperature. (Store at room temperature wrapped in foil for up to 3 days.)

Recipe From: Projectfoodie.com

The original recipe called for the olives, but I left those out, because I hate them. It also called for aged French Comté cheese, which I didn't have. So I just used some of my extra sharp cheddar and thought this came out great. You could easily use turkey and Gouda, roast beef and provolone. Go crazy with it, it should work out perfect.

I baked this in a 9x5 inch pan and wished that I had used a 8x4 as this came out as a very squat little loaf of bread. Still tasted great, but not quite as pretty. It also came out very dense, but not too bad, I might try tinkering with leavening agents next time.

Also make sure you cube the cheese and not shred it, otherwise the cheese will sort of disappear into the bread and you wont get those awesome cheesy chunks inside. This is best served warm, but still good cold in my opinion.

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

A quick tasty peanut butter banana muffin, with an option of adding a bit of nutella if your looking for an extra treat. Filling and not too sweet.

Ingredients:
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup Whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup granulated sugar**
1/4 cup unsalted butter, soften
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
3 large bananas, mashed (1 cup mashed banana)
1 banana, sliced for garnish

**Replace with 1/4 cup and 2 tbsp Splenda 1/2 and 1/2

Servings: 12 Muffins

Instructions:
Preheat over to 350F. Grease muffin tin or line with muffin liners.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In another bowl, cream together sugar and butter until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in peanut butter. Add in the eggs, one at a time. Then mix in mashed banana.

With the mixer on low speed, beat in the flour mixture until just combined.

Evenly distribute batter into the muffin cups. Top with sliced banana. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.

Nutritional Information: Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

Recipe From: LululuAtHome.com

I tried to make these muffins a bit healthier, but only shaved off a few calories in the end. But you wont notice the loss of those calories at all. Using a better peanut butter might also help shave off some calories and fat. I used Skippy Supper Chunky because that is what I had on hand (left over from making some cookies).

Now if you want to go indulgent I added about 1 tsp of nutella in the middle of half of them for Jason. However, he said it would have been just as good "frosted" on top instead of baked inside. When baked inside it came out like when you put a Hersey kiss inside a muffin, so nothing too special. I was hoping it would keep its creaminess inside, no joy.

Banana Zucchini Cranberry Almond Bread

Healthy, flavorful and goes together in less than 20 minutes, this zucchini bread will satisfy all of your cravings without all of the guilt.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar**
1 1/2 cup grated zucchini
2 cup bananas, mashed (3-5)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 cus all-purpose flour
2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp ginger
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup dried cranberries
2/3 cup slivered almonds
**I subbed 1/2 cup splenda for baking

Servings: 2 loaf pans

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8x4 inch bread loaf pans.

In a large bowl, beat eggs until light yellow and frothy. Add oil, apple sauce, brown sugar, white sugar, grated zucchini, bananas, and vanilla; blend together until well combined. Stir in the flour, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, baking powder and baking soda. Mix in the cranberries and nuts. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared loaf pans.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Allow to cool in the loaf pans on a wire rack before removing and serving.

Recipe From: AllRecipes.com

I made quite a few modifications from the original recipe in order to make this more flavorful and make a few healthy improvements. I exchanged most of the all purpose flour for whole wheat, cut out most of the oil and replaced it with apple sauce, cut out a lot of the sugar (which you wont miss) finally I added extra zucchini and banana to keep it all moist and pack in some extra flavor.

I made a few tweaks with the spices but that will all be up to personal taste in this recipe and can be modified as you like. Don't have pumpkin pie spice? Add in nutmeg, cinnamon, all spice, cloves etc. Prefer walnuts to almonds, make the switch. Don't like craisins, use raisins. But I would recommend keeping some sort of sweet dried fruit in there or bump up the sugar a little bit (unless your going to slather this in cream cheese and then you wont notice).