Monster Mash

I’m not a big fan of trail mix.  I mean, I am, but I don’t know that it’s the best bang for your buck when you’re trying to eat healthy.  Case in point, take a look at the ingredients for Target’s Monster Trail Mix:

Yep, you got it.  Nuts, candy, fruit, candy, candy.  Now, I know there are healthier trail mixes out there, but really.  Who doesn’t want chocolate and peanut butter chips in their trail mix?

So, back to my original statement:  I’m not a big fan of trail mix (when you’re trying to eat healthy).  When you want an indulgent snack, I’m all about it!  You see, I can’t stop at the recommended 1/4 cup serving size.  My serving size is more like 1/2 cup 1 cup.

Of course, this didn’t stop me from grabbing a bag of the Monster Trail Mix a few years ago when I was looking for a “healthy” snack.  After all, it’s healthier than a candy bar, right?  Anyone?  Anyone?  That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

The first thing I thought when I popped a handful of mix in my mouth was, “OMG how delicious is this?!”  The second thing was, “This would make excellent cookies!”  The idea was born.  It only took me two years to make the cookies though…

Monster Mix Cookies
(adapted from the Nestle Toll House base recipe)

2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 package Archer Farms Monster Trail Mix

Preheat oven to 375º.  In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.  Mix well.  In a second bowl, cream together butter, sugar, and brown sugar.  Add the vanilla and mix well.  Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.  Add the flour mixture slowly, scraping down the sides as necessary.

Once your batter is fully mixed, add the bag of trail mix.  You can also add extras if you’d like.  I prefer adding an addition bit of peanut butter pieces if available, but then, I love peanut butter almost as much as I love Jakey.  Almost.

(Is this not the cutest picture?!  I giggle every time I see it.)

Once mixed, use a small scoop to portion out the cookies onto a baking sheet.  Bake for 9-11 minutes or until lightly golden on the edges.  Let cool and enjoy, preferably with a glass of cold milk.

Tip: You can also scoop the dough out onto a silpat or piece of waxed paper and freeze unbaked.  Once frozen, move them to a Ziploc bag and store in the freezer.  When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven or toaster oven and bake frozen until desired doneness is achieved.  Works beautifully!

Make sure to save some to take to your pregnant friend along with chocolate milk.  I forgot.  Bad friend.  Next time, girl!  Next time!

This Little Piggy Pancakes

Peanut butter and jelly.
Macaroni and cheese.
Oreos and milk.
Pancakes and sausage.

Some things just go together!  A while back, I hosted a game night.  Some of the game players partook in a little too much wine and, being the responsible hostess, I offered them my couch to sleep on.  The next morning, I decided a breakfast of pancakes and sausage might help soak up the remnants from the night before.

I had planned on just making sausage patties and pancakes, but then I had a light bulb moment.  Put sausage in the pancakes!  This Little Piggy Pancakes were born.

This Little Piggy Pancakes
(makes 8 pancakes)

1.5 cups milk
4 tbsp white vinegar
2 cups all purpose flour
6 tbsp white sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 pound sausage, browned and crumbled
cooking spray

Combine the milk and vinegar in a small bowl and let “sour” for 5 minutes.  You are essentially making buttermilk.  I promise, you won’t taste the vinegar or any sour taste.  The mixture just adds another dimension to the dish.

While the milk is souring, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Combine well.

Once the mixture is finished souring, wisk together the milk mixture, flour mixture, and eggs until just combined.  Be careful not to overmix here.  You want the pancakes to be nice and fluffy.  Let sit while you are browning the sausage.  You may notice the batter start to foam up.  This is a good thing!  Don’t stir it!

While the batter is sitting, brown your sausage in a saucepan over medium heat until cooked through.  Break it up into very small pieces while browning.  Once browned, drain on some paper towels.

After the sausage is removed, wipe the pan with some paper towels and decrease the heat to medium low.  Spray the pan with cooking spray and put about 1/2 – 3/4 of a cup of batter into your pan.  The amount of batter used depends on how big you want your pancakes.  Add about 1/8 of the sausage to the pancake.

Cook on medium low until you start to see bubbles appearing at the edges of the pancake.  This will help you determine when to flip the pancake.  I learned this trick during the many Sundays I spent making pancakes for our Pancake Breakfast at church with my friend, Beth.  (Hi, Beth!)

Once you see those bubbles, use a spatula to check the underside of the pancake.  You want to see a nice, golden color.  When you see this, it’s time to flip.  Put your spatula under the cake and just go for it!  100% commitment required!

Cook on the opposite side until it, too, is nice and golden.  If I had to guess at the time, I would probably say 1-2 minutes.  I honestly never time it.  I just go by feel.  One thing you want to avoid at all costs is flipping it over and over again.  You should only flip pancakes once.  Flipping more than that can result in tough, chewy pancakes instead of soft, fluffy ones!

Serve your piggy pancakes with warmed maple syrup.

If you have any left, let them cool to room temperature and store in a zip top bag in the freezer.  When you are ready to serve, you can warm them in the microwave or, my favorite way, in the toaster!  They get a nice little crust on them and they are just as delicious as the first time.  In fact, I often make double batches of pancakes, waffles, etc just so I can store some in the freezer for a quick, easy breakfast.

Easy to view recipe found here

Salad Zinger

Lately, I have found myself eating a lot of salads. One of my favorite salads to eat is romaine topped with cranberries, pistachios, and grilled chicken. I typically use a light ranch or something like that, but I’m trying to eat less creamy dressings and instead reaching for more vinegar based dressings.

Yesterday, I used Ken’s Steak House Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette. It was good, but a bit too sweet for my liking. Then I realized what was missing…cheese! Bleu cheese to be exact. I don’t love bleu cheese, so I don’t keep it in the house that often, but it would have been a yummy addition.

Instead, I decided Parmesan cheese would have worked great too.  That reminded me of something the food network talent is always making…Parmesan crisps!  They are a great addition to most anything from salads to mashed potatoes to steak!  Very versatile, they could even be a “cracker” of sorts.

First, you preheat your oven.  Then, if you haven’t already, chunk up a block of Parmesan and grind it with the regular blade in your food processor until small, fluffy pieces.  If you don’t have a food processor, you can always use a hand or box grater…it will just take you a little longer.

Next, on a silpat (or cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray), spread the Parmesan in 1 tbsp mounds around the pan.  Try to flatten out the mounds a bit so they can get gold and bubbly.

Top with whatever you like.  I did black pepper, Garlic Gold nuggets, and smoked paprika on mine.

Bake until nice and golden.

Play with kitties in the morning sun.

Remove from the oven and let cool, then serve or store in between paper towels in a zip top bag.  I’m not sure how long they are good for as I tend to gobble them up quite fast.  I’m guessing they would be OK for a day or two, but much longer would be pushing it.

Parmesan Crisps
6 tbsp Parmesan Cheese, grated
Black Pepper
Garlic Gold nuggets
Smoked Paprika

Preheat oven to 400º.  Spread tablespoons of Parmesan in even layers around on a silpat lined or cooking spray prepped cookie sheet.  Bake until golden brown (about 5 minutes).  Keep your eye on the cheese so you don’t burn it.  Remove from the oven when baked and let cool.  Crumble over salads, mashed potatoes, or anything else that could use a little zing!

What are your favorite salad fixins?

Pumpkin Muffins

If you’re a food blogger, you may have noticed a common theme circulating throughout the blogosphere lately.  One word:  PUMPKIN!

I am not a huge fan of pumpkin.  I like it, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t look forward to pumpkin flavored everything like many of my blogger friends do.  My husband did ask me to make pumpkin bread this morning and, since I have two cans stashed away in my pantry, I gave in.

I do love a thick slice of pumpkin bread toasted up so it’s slightly crunchy and slathered with some Brummel and Brown.  The warmth of the flavors and the sweetness of the butter always reminds me of fall.  This morning, however, because my loaf pans are covered in rust and need to be pitched in an attempt at portion control, I made muffins instead of a loaf.

As the muffins sat cooling in their pans, I threw together a little cinnamon butter as well.  It was the perfect morning snack!

Pumpkin Muffins with Cinnamon Butter
(adapted from allrecipes.com)

1 can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil (would have done 1/2 oil 1/2 applesauce if I had had any)
2/3 cup water
3 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger

Preheat oven to 350º and grease your muffin tins.  My batch made 21 muffins.  In one bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs, oil, water, sugar, and vanilla.  Combine thoroughly.

In a separate bowl, wisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.

Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture slowly.  Mix until just combined.  When all the flour has been incorporated, (in the words of Alton Brown) WALK AWAY.  JUST WALK AWAY! Yes, there will be lumps.  Yes, you will want to keep stirring to break some of them up.  DON’T DO IT!

Just grab a small ice cream scoop and scoop the mixture into the prepared muffin tins.

Pop them in the oven for 30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

While your muffins are baking, let some butter come to room temperature (or grab a tub of Brummel and Brown, which mixes well even straight from the fridge).  Combine the butter with some cinnamon (the amount is up to you) until well mixed.

You could wait for the muffins to cool or do like I did:  grab one with your fingers mere minutes out of the oven and slather on some cinnamon butter.  The warm muffins will melt the butter and the combination tastes like dessert.

You could also whip up a batch of Jenna’s Brown Sugar Italian Buttercream to top said muffins for an even more devilish dessert.  The choice is yours.  But I know what I’d choose…

Snickerdoodles

“It tastes like fall!” Jeff exclaimed, with a giddy, boyish grin on his face.  He returned his attention to the open container of cinnamon-scented cookies, stuck his whole head in the opening, and inhaled deeply.  “Ah…fall!”

Rewind 24 hours.  I was talking with my coworker, for whom I had been promising to make cookies.  When asked what his favorites were, he responded “Chocolate chip…or Snickerdoodle.” Perfect, I thought.  I had been craving Snickerdoodles, so Snickerdoodles would be made!

I don’t know about you, but I think Snickerdoodles are one of the best cookies on the planet.  The smooth, buttery cookie coated with a mix of cinnamon and sugar makes my knees week.  Just the thought of the cinnamon cookies tucked away in the kitchen makes me nearly want to stop typing this post and run, wild-eyed for the container.  But I won’t, because then where would you get the recipe for yours?

I find the majority of my recipes online, with my favorite online recipe website being Allrecipes.com.  They have an extensive database with tons and tons of options and choices for searching for your perfect recipe.  My favorite is the ability to sort by rating.

I typed “Snickerdoodles” into the search engine, sorted the results by rating, and looked for the highest number of rates.  Sometimes you have to skip over the ones with five stars, because, yes they have five stars, but they only have 2 ratings.  The recipe I chose was given 4.5 stars with 2580 rates.  Sounded good to me!  So without further ado…Mrs. Sigg’s Snickerdoodles!

Snickerdoodles
(adapted from allrecipes.com)

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened (NOT IN THE MICROWAVE!)
1.5 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract (the real stuff, please)
2 3/4 cup all purpose flour*
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp white sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400*.  Cream butter and together until just combined.  I learned from Jenna that over beating your butter and sugar can make cookies spread and not stay fluffy.  I never knew what did that.  Thanks for the explanation, Jenna! After your butter and sugar are nicely creamed, add your eggs and vanilla and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together your flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.  Combine slowly with the butter mixture.

*You would think there would be a picture of the prepared cookie dough here.  Guess I got a little anxious to put the cookies in the oven…

In a small dish (I used a cake pan), combine the sugar and cinnamon.  Confession…I didn’t actually measure out the sugar and cinnamon.  I just dumped a bunch of sugar in the dish and then added enough cinnamon to my liking.  I wet the tip of my finger, dipped it in the mixture, and tasted it.  I was looking for a sweet, yet spicy flavor, and I was pleasantly rewarded.  It’s your choice: measure or don’t measure.  But make the cookies.  Your friends, family, and stomach will love you for it.

Using a mini ice cream scoop, I scooped the dough into balls and dropped them in the cinnamon sugar.

I rolled the pan around, even doing the little frying pan chef wrist flick (you know what I’m talking about) at times.

Just make sure the dough balls are evenly coated, then transfer them to a cookie sheet.  Don’t forget to either line your sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper, or spray with cooking spray.

I fit 16 mini balls on my cookie sheet.  I baked them for exactly 8 minutes in the 400* oven and they were PERFECT!  My ovens have generally yielded fantasticly moist and golden brown cookies after 8 minutes.

You want to avoid overbaking.  That will leave your cookies too chewy.  Well, that’s my opinion anyway.  You may like your cookies like that.  Who am I to judge?

I got over 5 dozen of these bad boys out of this recipe, but my cookies were smallish.  OK, quite reading this.  It’s over.  Go set out some butter so you can make these cookies!

*I only had about 3/4 cup all purpose flour, so I substituted bread flour for the rest.  The cookies (as you can tell) turned out great!  According to a little research, all purpose flour and bread flour can be interchangeable, though I think I’d prefer to use AP flour when it’s called for.