Trick or Treat

For Great Grandma and Meme.

Cheesy Garlic Bread

I found this on that website that shall 

remain nameless. 

Well, alright, 

Pintrest.

Basically you take an Italian loaf

cut it diagonally in both directions

so as to make diamonds across it. 

I think an extra pair of hands could be helpful

as the bread gets pretty wobbly

when you are making the second 

side of cuts.

Then you mix up 

6 T. of melted butter,

2T. olive oil, 

fresh minced garlic, 

dried minced onions, 

dijon mustard and

parsley 

and put it over top, getting down into

all those nooks and crannies you've created.

Then take a mix of shredded cheese and shove it all 

on, in, and over.

Wrap it all up in foil and bake for about 20 min. 

What's not to love?

Well, maybe not the dried minced onions and 

dijon mustard the recipe calls for

but that is easily remedied.

Next time.

Because there will be a next time. 

You hear me Christmas Eve?

Maddies' Room

And a gramar lesson. 

Shanna congratulated me for proper

 use of an apostrophe.

It was a mistake.

BUT NOT THIS ROOM!

WooHoo!

Someone's been having too much fun!

Turkey Onesie

 Did I mention  Pintrest isn't just for recipes?

The best thing about making this myself is

that I could match the feathers to

the pants I found.

Here's hoping Maddie doesn't outgrow 

this before 

Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Spice Bites

Another entry in my

"Can I Call You Pumpkin"

board.

These were really good but I was very surprised at 

the steps that were troublesome.

One might think forming the cups of cookie

would be difficult but given the right tools, they were

a piece of cake. 

Or cookie.

Finding the pumpkin cookie mix was a problem.

After three stores I decided sugar cookie mix

with a healthy dose of pumpkin pie spice would 

suffice. 

And it did.

Mixing pumpkin pudding (not hard to find)

with a cup of heavy cream proved to be an issue.

It turned to cement.

Immediately.

The recipe called for you to whisk it till smooth.

Can you see the folly in that?

And then it said to put it in the fridge so it 

could set up enough to pipe.

Set up enough to pipe was NOT a problem.

Piping cement pumpkin pudding

was.

But I persevered.

24 times.

http://www.createdby-diane.com/2012/10/pumpkin-spice-bites.html

Donuts or Doughnuts

Either way, 

I baked them this morning.

It was wrong.

Donuts should be fried. 

In the evening. 

As a social event.

With wine.

And messy friends.

That is all.

Brisket Bowls

It's what Rachel Ray calls it but really, 

there should be a more descriptive name for it. 

But as I have already established, 

I don't have the recipe naming skill.

Apparently neither does Rachel.

But I digress. 

This was really good.

The recipe has you cook it in a dutch oven but

you really could do it in a slow cooker too. 

There is a little asian hint of flavor to it but

not overpowering.

You are supposed to serve it with a slice of 

lime that you drizzle over and believe it or not, 

it was really good.

I did change up one thing in the recipe.

You were supposed to line a bowl with rice

that you have added spinach and cilantro to, 

making it *green* and then spoon the meat and 

sauce into the middle of it. 

Hence the name. 

But we are on a rice moratorium at the moment.

Thank you Consumer's Reports. 

It seems there is arsenic in our rice.

The Chinese have found yet another way to

yank our chains. 

Remember the red dye/paint in kids toys?

Well, now it's arsenic. 

It's running off fields from the pesticides and 

into the rice patties.

Mike thinks we should get rice made in the 

USA.

Are there rice patties in the USA?

But I digress yet again.

I used mashed sweet potatoes. 

So far they are arsenic free. 

And maybe even grown in the USA.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/brisket-bowls-recipe/index.html

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cobbler

As you can see I could not wait

to try this before it's beauty shot.

What you can't see is that I burned my mouth

in the process.

I found the picture for this on 

Pintrest, 

but where I got the recipe is anyone's guess.

Here's the link:

http://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/pumpkin-cheesecake-cobbler/1/

As best I can tell it's a recipe site.

I think someone named Diane created it

and in this world of bloggers

being so concerned they get their credit, 

there.

Here's what I have to say about Diane's recipe;

while the ingredients make for a tasty

treat, her process is whack.

In my humble opinion.

The recipe calls for you to grease a pan

and then put canned pumpkin and evaporated milk in 

it and mix. Then add a dry cake mix and 

graham cracker crumbs and mix.

 Again. 

Not the easiest way to accomplish this task. 

Next time I'm using a bowl. 

Call me a renegade.

But here's the hardest part, 

next you mix softened cream cheese with powder

sugar, making in essence frosting/cheesecake

that you are supposed to *spread* over this

raw cake batter consistency layer in the pan.

Yeah, not gonna happen.

I made little blobs and dropped them all over.

Eh, not perfect.

I think next time I will try warming the cream cheese

and see if it gets thin enough to pour.

Oh, 

because there will be a next time.

As I said, 

her ingredients make for a tasty treat :o)

Sweet and Spicy Sauce

Or glaze. 

Or something. 

It would seem the hardest part of creating

a recipe would be naming it.

You know how 

pork is the *other* white meat?

Well, I'm not a big chicken fan so in this house

pork is the white meat. 

My favorite cut is the tenderloin. 

America's Test Kitchen gave me the 

perfect way to cook it. 

I use an oven safe fry pan, 

brown the tenderloin on all sides

 on the stove top

and then put it in a 375 degree oven for  

about 25 minutes depending on 

the size of the tenderloin.

I check it for doneness by how much

give it has when I poke it with my tongs.

I like it a little pink in the middle.

Over done pork is the pits.

Pork tenderloin is a perfect vehicle for any 

sauce you want. 

We are big on teriyaki, BBQ

and a cranberry sauce.

I got creative the other night and came up with this:

It is:

1/2 cup apricot preserves

2 T. soy sauce

1 clove garlic, minced

2 t. fresh grated ginger

1/4 t. red pepper flakes

When I took the tenderloins out to rest

I deglazed the pan with a hit of chicken stock

then added the sauce components and

heated them through. 

PS, those potatoes tasted pretty good

dunked in the sauce too. 

Yum. 

Pumpkin Cheesecake Trifles

In my effort to create all things 

pumpkin from Pintrest I submit

the Trifle.

Mini-ized.

This was so easy that it gets to be a 

keeper.

Here's the link to the recipe:

http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/pumpkin-cheesecake-trifles/

Here's where I went renegade:

the recipe calls for 

"Biscoff cookies",

yeah, I don't know what those are so I used 

ginger snaps.

Could be the same thing for all I know. 

Could GTS, but naw.

It also called for 

pumpkin pie spice.

I had a chai spice blend sitting around from

those chai cookies with the pumpkin kisses

and while I wasn't a fan of the cookies, the spice 

blend was pretty nice.

One thing I didn't do but will in the future is

to put a layer of the crushed cookies 

in the middle. 

It's just too far a distance to get down to 

that crunchy layer.

Here's the spice blend formula:

1 1/2 tsp. cardamom

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. cloves

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Enchilada Pasta Casserole

Yep, Pintrest.

This was really good and not terribly difficult.

Maybe a little prep-pan intensive

but in the end worth it. 

I'm always on the look out for a good recipe

to take people and this one fits the bill.

And true to my last post,

here's the link:

http://www.tablefortwoblog.com/2012/08/29/enchilada-pasta-casserole/

There IS Value in Pintrest

There's a new movement out there

among Bloggers.

They are all up in arms that people are crediting

Pintrest with ideas.

They argue Pintrest does not create the idea,

Bloggers do.

Well, that is true, however, I was never

gonna find that recipe or craft idea on my own.

I don't have the time to cruise the internet *that* much.

I love Pintrest as a clearing house of good ideas.

So, I'm gonna tell you where I

 found that idea or recipe. 

Pintrest.

Give credit where credit is due. 

I do, however, and will continue to,

provide links to where the recipe etc. can be found. 

Because it's true, Pintrest didn't create it,

they just provided the vehicle to know the 

idea is out there.

And there is value in that.

 PS, can I tell you how many Blogs I have found

thanks to Pintrest?

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

I started out thinking I would make

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread.

Sounds good, huh?

I saw it on Pintrest and when I went to the recipe

I found it was all in metric.

Not gonna happen. 

Did I mention it was 4:30 AM?

I'm not sure I've got what it takes to convert

measurements and temperatures 

at 4:30 PM, 

I can guarantee I

DON'T

have it at 4:30 AM. 

But I can 

GTS

any time of day and I came 

upon this recipe.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spiced-Pumpkin-Bread-840

I had the presence of mind to peruse the

comment section.

It seemed unanimous that the 3 cups

of sugar was a little excessive.

So I cut it back to 2 1/4 cups.

There were suggestions of altering the spice

combination as well as adding

dried cranberries.

So I did both!

I left out the cloves and put in

cardamom instead

and added cranberries.

All thoughts of chocolate chips melted away.

I will say it is not overly 

pumpkin-y tasting

but it is very good.

Maybe next time swapping out the spices

for a chai spice blend?

Maybe some time I will get around to those

chocolate chips.