October's Secret Recipe Club - Avocado Dressing, and Balsamic Vinaigrette

Here's to another month of The Secret Recipe Club! This is my fourth time participating... my first month I brought you some tasty Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Avocado Bacon Dressing. In August, I opted for a dessert... Chocolate Chip Pecan Blondies. And for September, another dessert, and my first time making Molten Lava Cakes. All fantastic picks!

This month, I was assigned the wonderful blog, Get Healthy with Heather... which I so need to do lol! It was fun perusing over her healthy recipes. I was intrigued by her vegan recipes, and many recipes that called for recipes that I'd never heard of before. I finally decided on two dressing recipes, because I like the idea of making my own dressing and controlling what ingredients are going into it. I chose her Avocado Dressing, and her Balsamic Vinaigrette.

I'm obsessed with avocados, and PJ is too, so we both enjoyed the avocado dressing. I decided to add a dash or two of hot sauce to cut the tartness. It added just a hint of spicy that we both liked. And we were nervous about using raw garlic in the dressing at first, but after a quick google search I felt comfortable knowing that eating pureed raw garlic is perfectly fine  :)  

This avocado dressing works great as an actual salad dressing, as a dip, or a spread on any sandwich or taco/burrito.

Avocado Dressing

slightly adapted from Get Healthy with Heather

• 1 avocado
• 1.5 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 small cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup of water
• a dash or two of hot sauce

Combine all ingredients in a blender and whirl until smooth. 

Printable Recipe

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The balsamic vinaigrette was tasty as well. I could always use more onions though, that's just me. Next time I'd maybe up the red onion amount to, say, two tablespoons instead of one, which I reflected in the recipe below. We also added a pinch or two of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Balsamic Vinaigrette
ever so slightly adapted from Get Healthy with Heather

•  1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2.5 tbsp dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp red onion, minced
• pinch or two of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bottle. Shake until combined.

Printable Recipe
 

So yay for more dressings to add to the repertoire! And once again, it was so much fun being in The Secret Recipe Club this month, as well as getting to know Heather through her wonderful blog :) Hopefully some of her healthy habits have worn off on me!




Peace, and bacon grease!

Salted Candied Pecans { Week 3 of The 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies and Sweets!}

We're another week closer to Christmas, people! Here we are at Week 3 of The 12 Week of Christmas Cookies and Sweets challenge, hosted by Brenda at Meal Planning Magic.
 
I chose a super simple recipe that I could throw together in just minutes. Salted Candied Pecans.


Mine weren't as coated as Peabody's, I'm not sure why, but they were still spectacular! And super easy. The sugar did start to dry up and harden and I wasn't able to coat them very well, so I just added a bit more water to get it workable again. You really can't mess this up.

Salted Candied Pecans

slightly adapted from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

• 1 cup unsalted raw pecans
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

In a medium or large saucepan, combine pecans, sugar, and the water over medium heat. When the sugar begins to liquefy, begin stirring. Continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the sugar crystallizes.

Decrease the heat to medium-low and continue to cook, stirring, letting the crystallized sugar on the bottom melt and brown slightly.

Use a spatula to scrape up the liquefied sugar and continuously coat the pecans with it, tilting the pan to help the sugar coat the nuts evenly.

Once pecans are a bit glossy and coated with syrup(there will be some sugary crystals on them still, which is normal) sprinkle the seas salt and cinnamon over them Stir the pecans a couple of times, then scrape the candied pecans onto a baking sheet and let cool completely.

Printable Recipe


Make these. Quick! Top them on some ice cream, substitute them for regular pecans in recipes that seem fit, or just eat some as a snack or light dessert. Basically, eat these any time you can. Now I'm off to indulge in some of these sweet, nutty sensations for lunch! :)

And don't forget to check out the other Christmas goodies in the blog hop below.

P.S. Sorry for the subpar photos.... man I can't wait to get a dslr one day!!

Peace, and bacon grease!

Online Bake Sale is Open at Foodness Gracious :)

Hope everyone's having a fun, relaxing weekend. Weather is BEAUTIFUL here, I'll take it in October :)

Why don't you guys head on over to Foodness Gracious and bid on some delicious items in his online bake sale. You'll help out his daughter, as well as many others. 

Going on now until Oct. 11th. Don't miss it!!

Peace, and bacon grease!

Online Bake Sale at Foodness Gracious!!!

Hey blogging friends! You all probably know how vast and yet how connected the food blogging community is by now. So many genuine people out there who show they care even though they've never met you outside of a computer screen. Through this blog, not only do I get to showcase delicious recipes, I also get to meet the nicest people. Like, genuinely good people. 

One of those good people I've met is Gerry over at Foodness Gracious. I haven't known him for too long, but in the short amount of time I have he has been nothing but kind! I love the chance to return the favor to deserving people, and he is definitely one of them. His daughter has Type 1 Diabetes, and every year they participate in a walk to raise money for The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). Starting October 8th until October 11th, Gerry will be hosting an online bake sale on his site. All of the proceeds will go to Team Miranda, and all bids start at $10. 

Let's help find a cure for Juvenile Diabetes! Let's help Gerry and his daughter, and millions others out there who suffer from this disease. Go buy something from the bake sale, I'm offering up a fun package:

• A Taste of Home Desserts cookbook
• The Flavor Thesaurus
• a Recipe Journal
• Wilton 9-piece cake decorating set

If you want this (and you know you do), go forth and bid! If not, there's other tasty baked goods for sale :) I just may bid on something myself!

Peace, and bacon grease!

Maple Cookies { Week 2 of The 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies and Sweets!}

Yes, yes you read that right. I am posting a recipe for Christmas in the beginning of October. That's cuz I'm playing along in a blog hop called The 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies (and Sweets!), hosted by the lovely Brenda at Meal Planning Magic. Every Thursday for 12 weeks leading up to Christmas, we link up a holiday cookie or dessert recipe. I really want to start baking more so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity, plus I love themed goodies! We're in week 2 of the 12 weeks, I missed the 1st week but it's all good :)


I found this recipe over at Big Flavors From A Tiny Kitchen some time ago, and finally found the perfect opportunity to make them. 

The batter was actually very sticky and hard to manage. Definitely couldn't roll it into balls like Ashley did (dunno what I did wrong!) because it just got stuck all over my hands and would NOT form into a ball. So after I had to wipe all the gunk off and wash my hands, I decided to just scoop the balls by the spoonful onto the greased baking sheet, and then attempt to flatten it with a spoon, again with not very much success as it kept sticking to the spoon. Mess fest! And since I couldn't form balls I also didn't roll it in sugar, so I just sprinkled some granulated sugar on the top of each glob. Next time I'd try chilling the batter first and seeing if that makes it more roll-able.


I thought they turned out pretty good. I wasn't blown away by them, as I didn't think they were sweet enough. Maybe they needed more brown sugar or more sprinkled sugar on top? But then again, I didn't measure out the granulated sugar, I just sprinkled some on top of each cookie before baking. So maybe I needed to sprinkle more on. They also came out to more of a cake-like, blondie-like consistency... maybe because I didn't and couldn't flatten them very much? PJ wasn't too fond of them because he doesn't like thick, super soft cookies that taste more like cake than a cookie. Also, there was a hint of maple flavor but I could definitely up that amount too! 

So for next time, I would up the sugar and maple amount, as well as attempt to flatten them more somehow so that they don't bake so thick but more thin and possibly less cake-like. But I love the idea of it, because I really do love maple flavor. 


I cut the recipe down quite a bit since I didn't need to make 60 cookies! I only made 15 cookies so I pretty much cut all measurements down by 1/4th. Also, the original recipe calls for one egg, so I just tried to add about 1/4th of an egg, which obviously isn't an exact measurement. Maybe this could have possibly contributed to some of the mishaps? But how the heck do you measure out 1/4th of an egg?! I also didn't bother measuring out the granulated sugar because the original recipe called for 1/3 cup and there was no way I was going to try to measure out 1/12 cup lol! Again, that may have been a reason they weren't sweet enough.

Maple Cookies

ever so slightly adapted from Big Flavors From A Tiny Kitchen

*Yields: 15 cookies

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 of an egg
• 1/4 cup real maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• granulated sugar, for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheet with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add the egg, syrup and vanilla. Mix until well blended. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda. Stir into mixture until well blended. Chill the batter for 5 to 10 minutes at least to make it moldable. Shape into 1 inch balls or scoops with a spoon, placing on cookie sheet about 2 inches apart and flatten slightly. Sprinkle cookies with granulated sugar.

Bake 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

Printable Recipe

Though this recipe is for a Christmas-themed linky, you sure can make these cookies any ole time. They feature maple, so they're also perfect for fall and Thanksgiving as well. 


My blogging friend, Kristen, suggested that I maybe add some kind of frosting. Well that's genius! I've still got some cookies left... maybe I'll find some kind of maple frosting to put on top to make them even sweeter and to bring out more of the maple flavor. Thanks, girl!

You can check out all of the other delicious holiday treats below! And feel free to contact Brenda if you wanna join in on the fun :)

Peace, and bacon grease!

 

Menu Planning - Week of 10/3/11

Hey yall :) What's crack-a-lackin? I hope you all enjoyed your weekends. I did, always do, but man does it always go too fast. Who ever thought of having only a 2-day weekend? I think it should be reversed... a 2-day work week and a 5-day weekend. Who's with me?  :)

Anyways, my Mama had a great birthday. Thanks again to everyone for wishing her a nice birthday, she deserved it! Me, my Mama, PJ, and my brother all enjoyed some yum food at Benihana, until the waitress charged us for chicken fried rice at the end of the meal and we didn't ask for that! Then she refused to take it off the bill. Ooooh I got so mad. I'm not usually a confrontational person, but I just can't stand when someone is rude. The customer is always right, even when they aren't, and in this case we were definitely right. So that irritated me a bit but I wasn't gonna let it mess up my Mama's birthday. I was glad I could help make her day special!! 

Then PJ and I went home and watched a free UFC fight. Snoozefest! Sunday I just caught up on some blogging and reading blogs, and a bit of cleaning. 

And now here we are, back to Monday, back to work, back to menu planning. We didn't end up making the honey lime enchiladas from last week's menu plan because when it came time to make them,  PJ  somebody (not naming any names!!) had used up all of the tortillas making one of his delicious quesadilla concoctions. We had everything else, I just had to stop at the store and pick up some tortillas for tonight.

We made the stuffed pork chops but man oh man were there problems! The cheese just kept spilling out during the entire cooking process, to the point that there was barely any left when time to eat. I always have problems with stuffed recipes. Grr!!! 

We finally managed to squeeze in a much-needed date night at Quaker Steak and Lube which I have yet to review on this blog. Let's just say I was unimpressed, maybe because I had such high hopes?

Our work party went great! So much more fun than I expected it to be :) Can't beat getting drunk with the bosses lol! The food wasn't as good as I expected, except for these delicious truffle quesadillas. I die. And though the rest of the food wasn't impressive, the free beer and fresh-made margaritas made up for it :)

Oh, and we didn't make the pork fried rice, or the skillet lasagna. What else is new?!

Monday 10/3/11:  Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas with rotini

Tuesday 10/4/11:  PJ works late, pick something up

Wednesday 10/5/11:  I have a groupon to Hugo Restaurant that expires the 6th!! Date night again :)  *Note to self: STOP WAITING UNTIL THE LAST DAY TO USE MY GROUPONS!!

Thursday 10/6/11:  Skillet Lasagna with ciabatta bread

Friday 10/7/11:  Fleming's Prime Steakhouse Chipotle Cheddar Macaroni and Cheese with Cheesy Ranch Potato Bake

Saturday 10/8/11:  Mexican Chicken Strips 

Sunday 10/9/11:  Beer Bacon Chocolate Chili



Um, it's October. OMG.

Peace, and bacon grease! 

THE. Best. Soup. Of. All. Time.

Brace yourselves.

I'm about to tell you guys about a favorite of mine.

Quite possibly, my favorite meal to eat right now.

No matter if it's 100 degrees outside, I'm still craving this masterpiece.

It's a little something called Zuppa Toscana. You've heard of it, I'm sure. Probably scarfed down a bowl or two at Olive Garden with some breadsticks. But have you tried Reeni's version? Because it completely blows Olive Garden's outta the water! I'm all for recipes that turn out better homemade than from the restaurant.


This soup is everything. 

Spicy. 

Creamy. 

Hearty. 

Filling. 

Satisfying. 

Meaty. 

Comforting.


The perfect fall and winter food. But like I said earlier, I can eat this soup when it's burning hot out!

Zuppa Toscana

from Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice

• 4 slices bacon, diced
• 1 lb ground hot Italian sausage
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 cups (32 oz) chicken stock
• 3 cups russet potatoes, cubed
• 3/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups kale, in bite size pieces
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• parmesan cheese, grated
  

In a large pot, cook the bacon until crispy. Drain the grease. Add the sausage, breaking it apart as it cooks. Once sausage is browned and crumbled, drain off grease leaving a tbsp to saute the onion.

Push the sausage and bacon to the edge of the pot and add the onion to the center; saute until translucent; add garlic; saute until fragrant.

Stir in the stock and potatoes, season with salt and pepper, and simmer for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Add kale and heavy whipping cream. Bring to a simmer. Top with parmesan cheese, when serving. 
 
Printable Recipe







































I am contributing this to Souper Sundays over at Kahakai Kitchen.


*Notes: I have tried this soup using mild sausage, and it's just not the same. You've gotta use the hot stuff. The first time I made it, I also used hot sausage links, and had to remove the casings. If you can get ground hot sausage instead of the links, that's really better.


I can't say enough good things about this soup. Just make it, and you'll see for yourself what I'm talkin about :)

Perfection.

Come join SoupaPalooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dish sponsored by KitchenAid, Red Star Yeast, and Le Creuset!!!

Also linking to:  Savory Sunday, Just Something I Whipped Up, Nifty Thrifty Sunday, Hunk of Meat Monday, Homemaker Monday, Melt in Your Mouth Monday, MAFF Monday, Mangia Monday, Sharing Monday, Made By You Monday, Recipe Sharing Monday, On the Menu Monday, Makin' You Crave Monday, Tuesday's Tasty Tidbits


Peace, and bacon grease!