Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats

Here is my entry for the chocolate contest. I've been puzzling over what to enter since I'm not much of a chocolatier. Then today I came up with these on the fly and I thought, "Why not?" They're not very sophisticated, but simple and easy is good too. You can vary the recipe quite a bit and still get the idea. Not to mention, they should be easy to judge since most of you should be able to get the ingredients and have the time to make them.

Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats

1 can sweetened condensed milk
10 oz marshmallows
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (could do more or less; also could probably do unsweetened chocolate because of how sweet everything else is...bittersweet was the least sweet that I had)
1 cup dried cranberries
5 cups Rice Krispies cereal

1. Heat sweetened condensed milk and marshmallows on the stove in a large sauce pan. Stir until marshmallows are melted. Remove from heat.

2. Stir in chocolate chips completely. Then stir in cranberries and cereal.

3. Press mixture into a 9x13 baking dish that's been coated with cooking spray and allow to cool. Tip: Wet your hands first and they won't stick.

These are a fun way to get a chocolate fix. I went with the bittersweet chocolate and cranberries to cut through the sweetness of the marshmallows and sweetened condensed milk. You could add anything that you like to it really; especially if it's unsweetened. Things like coconut and nuts would be particularly good. Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas to improve it.

Rosemary

Love me some Baked Oatmeal

Amish baked oatmeal is one of my favorite breakfasts. It's warm, comforting, and tasty. It's a nice variation to the usual bowl of oatmeal. You can prep it the night before; the only down side is that you do need to wake up early enough to bake it before the kids get cranky. Here's my favorite recipe so far (thanks food.com) with my tweaks in parentheses.

Amish Baked Oatmeal

1/3 cup butter, melted (when I doubled this, I made almost half of it butternut squash puree; you can also use applesauce or some other fat substitute if you like and I'm sure you could completely replace the butter, I just haven't vetted that theory yet)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg (it says 1 tsp nutmeg but I'd use 1/4 to 1/2 if subbing for cinnamon)
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup + 2 tbsp milk
3 cups oatmeal, regular or quick


1. Spray an 8"x8" baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Beat eggs well.
3. Add brown sugar, baking powder, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt and mix well.
4. Whisk in butter, milk and then add oats.
5. Stir well, pour in pan and refrigerate overnight (or bake immediately if you didn't plan ahead).
6. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 35-45 min. or until set in the middle.
7. Serve hot with milk poured over (and fresh or dried fruit) (also good cold if you don't want to trouble with reheating the leftovers).

This feeds the kids and I for 2 or 3 days at least.

Rosemary

P.S. I made this with steel cut oats once. Turned out great, just chewier, which is fine as long as everyone at the table can chew well enough.

Slow Cookin' Tortilla Soup

I had some beans and ground beef to use and I really wanted to do a crock pot dinner tonight so it wouldn't take too much of my time. I glanced at a couple of recipes and improvised this version of tortilla soup. Please feel free to glance at this recipe before improvising your own!

Slow Cookin' Tortilla Soup

1 lb (2 cups) dried Anasazi beans (they're not too far off of pintos if you were wondering)
6 cups water
2 cubes bouillon or 1/2 tsp or so salt
1 lb or so uncooked ground beef
1 med/large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 snack bag of frozen green chiles, peeled, seeded, and chopped (more wouldn't hurt)
1 can diced tomatoes
3 cans broth
1 carton of grape tomatoes (I don't like them raw, so this is how I use them up)
1 can corn kernels (I would have preferred frozen)
2 tsp or so chili powder
1-2 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste

Top with your preference of:
tortillas cut into small strips
shredded cheddar cheese
reduced fat sour cream
chopped green onions
chopped avocado (sadly I used all mine up earlier in the day)

1. Sort and rinse beans. Put in the crock pot with 6 cups of water and 2 bouillon cubes or salt. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or until beans are tender. Drain most of the liquid off before adding other ingredients. (Also just a great way to cook beans for any application without the hassle of soaking).
2. Brown ground beef in a pan. Add onions and garlic and a dash of salt and cook until translucent. Add beef and onion mix to the slow cooker. (Drain beef before adding to pot if it's not lean or if that's just your preference.) (If you decide to go for chicken instead or a pre-cooked beef or pork or just go vegetarian, make sure you add some oil to cook your onions and garlic in.)
3. Add the rest of the ingredients (minus the toppings) to the slow cooker. Cook on high for 2 or so hours or until you're ready to eat and the tomatoes are cooked.
4. Serve topped with tortillas and other condiments that you desire.

Rosemary

P.S. My 3-year-old who has never seen a [non-jelly] bean that he liked said that he loved these beans. It's either a miracle, a con, or a really tasty soup. :-)

As Promised: Peanut/Cashew Butter Balls

So, we had a Linger Longer after church today in which we were supposed to bring easily prepared finger foods to share. I thought I would take the opportunity to make a few batches of experimental chocolate candies to take and see how they went over. Running the risk of sounding prideful, they were a big hit.

So, full disclosure, this recipe is modified from a version found in the red Better Homes and Gardens cook book under peanut butter balls. Their recipe is as follows:

1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar
3 Tbsp butter or margarine (softened)
Chocolate for coating (I think the recipe calls for 6 ounces, but I might be wrong)

Cream the butter and peanut butter together until smooth. Add sugar and stir, forming a stiff dough. Roll into balls approximately 1 in diameter. Melt chocolate and dip balls in it.

Pretty simple. Now, since our youngest has allergies to peanuts, I've been experimenting somewhat with different nut butters. I've been interested in cashew butter for some time, but I had never tried it. However, I decided to try my hand at making it, since I've had some success with sunflower seed butter in the past. The cashew butter is, for lack of a better description, one of the easiest things I have ever made. Basically, you need cashews, a food processor, and maybe a little bit of oil. Put the cashews in the food processor, pulse it until they are pretty fine, then turn it on and let it go. It will start forming a solid ball of cashew goo within about a minute. Depending on how thin you want it, you can then add your oil, but don't overdo it. Since the cashews are pretty oily themselves, a little veggie oil (I think I used canola, whatever you want) goes a long way. Keep processing it until it gets to the consistency that you want. Easy peasy.

So, using this cashew butter, I modified the above recipe by substituting half of the peanut butter with cashew butter. Everything else remained the same.

Now, truth be told, I couldn't tell a whole lot of difference between the straight up peanut butter ball and my modified chocolates. Mine were a touch saltier and had a little bit more mellow of a finish, but not enough to really be sure why. However, I did also make a batch of normal peanut butter balls but then, before the chocolate could harden, Thyme and I rolled them in chopped cashews to give them a kind of Ferrer Rocher look. These I am quite proud of. I liked the crunch and salt that you got right off the bat, and then the sweet. I think I may have to start making them that way every now and then, at least as long as I have cashews.

-Mint

Chocolate Fudge Sauce

So, I don't recall hearing anything other than the announcement from Rosemary that she wanted to do a contest for holiday baking items, but I thought it was a good idea. Truth be told, I forgot about it until last night when I made up some of my chocolate fudge sauce that I invented about 4 years ago. Then I was reminded by my awesome wife Thyme that I should put something up for the contest, and here we are.

Mint's Chocolate Fudge Sauce

3/4 cup Evaporated Milk
1/3 cup Sugar
1 Tbsp Butter
2 1/2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder

Optional

1/3 cup Unsweetened Raspberry Herbal Tea or Mint extract (to taste)

If using the raspberry tea, combine all ingredients in a small or medium saucepan and boil, stirring constantly until you reach your desired thickness. Usually, I will have a spoon next to the pan so I can check the cooled thickness from time to time, since it will be thicker cooled than hot. If you want to omit the tea and add the mint, wait until the end then boil for another 30 seconds or so to get the alcohol boiled out.

You can either use the sauce hot, which is great, or you can chill it overnight in the fridge and use it cold, which is equally as great. The choice is yours. Either way, you get the requisite too many calories that a great holiday treat requires. If you don't know what to put this on, ice cream and brownies are a great place to start.

A preview of future posts

So, I still have to actually figure out the recipe that I use, but soon I will be posting both a regular and a dairy free hot chocolate recipe, as well as a chocolate peanut/cashew butter ball. Stay tuned.

Mint

Cashew Chicken - Mali style

I found a random little "around-the-world" type cookbook at a yard sale a couple of years ago (by American University, with contributions, I'm assuming, from students and faculty), and drooled over it at the time, and then put it up to never look at it again. Until today! I was trying to find my granola recipe, and dug this little recipe book out of the stack and decided to look through it since several different ethnic cuisines are naturally allergen-free. And it didn't fail me. We found a peanut chicken stew from Mali that was easily adaptable and very good (the grownups really liked it, at least).

Tiga Degue
(modified from Tales of Taste: Famiy Recipes Around the World. Senem Baker, American University, June 2008)

2 lbs beef, lamb, or chicken, cut into small pieces (we used chicken)
2 bags frozen chopped spinach (we used about a pound of fresh chopped kale)
5 medium tomatoes, diced (we used about 5 tiny roma tomatoes from the garden and a can of diced tomatoes)
1 large onion, chopped (half an onion left in the fridge from something else)
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups smooth peanut butter - the real stuff (we used homemade cashew butter, since our boy is only allergic to peanuts, not tree nuts)
salt to taste
pepper to taste (we also used some red pepper flakes to give it a bit more kick)
2 medium carrots, cut in 1" pieces (I have no idea how close to 1" my pieces were)
1 bag from chopped okra (optional - we didn't have any, so none for us)

Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot (I think I used a little less than that, since I also had a little less meat than it called for, and a little less of everything else, too, come to think of it - maybe about 3/4 of the full amount). Add meat, salt, black pepper, and tomato, and let cook at medium heat for 10 minutes (I'll admit I didn't precisely time any of the simmering/cooking times - I just tossed the next round of stuff in when I was ready).
Add nut butter, stirring with wooden spatula to combine. Add carrots.
Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook uncovered for 15 minutes.
Add greens, onion, garlic, and okra (if you have any). Reduce heat to medium low. Cook for 1 hour, uncovered. Stir occasionally.

Serve with steamed rice.

-Thyme

Gumbo: The gluten-free, slow-cooker version

We were hankering for some gumbo the other day, and attempted a gluten-free version. And, since I'm a slow-cooker kind of gal, I went ahead and tried to modify it for that, too.

So...I made up the roux with sorghum flour and canola oil (although I don't think I got it quite dark enough), and sauteed the onions, garlic, celery, and peppers quickly in it. Then, I added a couple of teaspoons of cornstarch (since I wasn't sure how well the sorgum would thicken things up) and stirred in about a quarter of the needed broth - just enough to get roux and broth incorporated nicely. Then I tossed it and everything else (including the uncooked meat) straight in the crockpot (except the rice). I tried not to add as much liquid, but still ended up with too much and had to simmer it with the lid off for an extra long time. I think all told, it was cooked on high for about 3 hours, and then with the lid off for another two or so.

Verdict: It worked! Next time I'll only use a quart or so of the liquid, and increase it if needed. And the sorghum/cornstarch mixture worked great in place of the all-purpose flour. We'll definitely make it again.

-Thyme