Chili topped w/ Cornbread in a Mason Jar

Chili & Cornbread

Here is a fantastic Pinterest idea which I was really excited to try for my family that was coming over for dinner. I made my chili up ahead of time then made the cornbread batter. I put in the chili in the mason jars about halfway up and then topped it off with the cornbread batter. The more cornbread on top the better. The presentation of these little jars made it so fun and the cornbread on the top was by far the icing on the cake. Bake these in the oven on a baking sheet for 20-25 minutes at 350-375 degrees. Here is the recipe for the cornbread:

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
Mix until combined. 

Whole Wheat Pita Bread

Whole Wheat Pita Bread

I've always wanted to make my own bread. Now that I have a Kitchen Aid mixer, it makes everything just seem easy! I found a recipe to make some pita bread, but the recipe was actually made for a bread machine. I always like to read the reviews and the first one I read was about someone who made theirs in a mixer so I am going to share their comments on how to make the dough using the mixer. As far as any tweaking, I did one cup of whole wheat flour and two cups of white flour to make whole wheat pita bread. It made about 8-10 pieces and I served it with a side of hummus. Delicious...

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/peppys-pita-bread/detail.aspx
"For those of you without a bread machine, put dry yeast in warm water with the sugar. When foamy add oil and pour into the flour that has already been mixed with salt. Knead by hand or machine until it's smooth and elastic. You should have a moderate dough (not soft and not firm, in the middle). Don't worry if it's a little sticky. You'll need to roll it out with a little flour."

Ingredients

• 1 1/8 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in bread pan of your bread machine, select Dough setting and start. When dough has risen long enough, machine will beep.
2. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently roll and stretch dough into a 12 inch rope. With a sharp knife, divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll each into a smooth ball. With a rolling pin, roll each ball into a 6 to 7 inch circle. Set aside on a lightly floured countertop. cover with a towel. Let pitas rise about 30 minutes until slightly puffy.
3. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Place 2 or 3 pitas on a wire cake rack. Place cake rack directly on oven rack. Bake pitas 4 to 5 minutes until puffed and tops begin to brown. Remove from oven and immediately place pitas in a sealed brown paper bag or cover them with a damp kitchen towel until soft. Once pitas a softened, either cut in half or split top edge for half or whole pitas. They can be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for 1 or 2 months.

Linguine Alfredo w/ Garlic Butter Salmon

Linguine Alfredo w/ Garlic Butter Salmon

My favourite fish is a nice fresh piece of Atlantic Salmon! Here is a super easy and fantastic way of preparing this Alfredo dish. First, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and get some water boiling in your pot for the pasta. Put your salmon pieces in a glass baking dish and add some cracked pepper, dried dill (or fresh), a few squirts of lemon juice (or squeeze some from a fresh lemon) and then take a thin slice of garlic butter and put it on top and put in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Put on your pasta once your water is boiling and add some salt to the water too!

Now for the Alfredo sauce you use a package to go the easy way or you can make your own from scratch. For the twist, I added a tablespoon of the garlic butter (instead of just butter or margarine) along with the milk to make the sauce as directed on the package. This adds so much flavour! 

Enjoy this easy version of Linguine Alfredo and be sure to put on extra pasta because you will be wanting more!

Deep-Fried Oreos

Deep-fried Oreos

I had a request from a pregnant friend of mine asking me to make these deep-friend Oreos. She had them before while vacationing in Maine last summer and told me over and over how much they were to die for. Well, I decided to fulfill that request today and give them a try! It's true, they are to die for! Maybe not the best way to kick off the new year if you are watching your calorie intake, but they're fun to give away. If you want to give them a whirl, here's what you do!

Use either a boxed pancake mix or make your own... I made my own using this recipe:
PANCAKES:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Get your vegetable oil heated up either in a pot or a high sided frying pan. Coat the Oreo cookies in the prepared pancake batter and drop them slowly into the oil, flip them when browned on each side and then take them out and place them on paper towel. When they are cooled, you can dash them with some icing sugar. When they are fresh they will be crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. Enjoy!

New Year's Cupcakes!

Rainbow & Oreo Cupcakes

Happy 2012 everyone! My best friend and I kicked off the new year by making some amazing cupcakes. We were so involved in the whole process that we didn't take many pictures (our apologies!). But, they are very easy to make so let's start with the beautiful Rainbow Cupcake!

All you need is a box of white cake mix (prepared as directed on the box) and some neon food coloring. Grab 4 bowls and divide the prepared cake batter into the bowls then add the food coloring until you have a nice bright batter of colors! Add your cupcake paper liners and start with one color. Just add a small spoonful to cover the bottom layer, then then next color and etc. Have some fun with the colors! Bake as directed and cool. For garnish we used small colored candy dots.

For the frosting we used a pre-made buttercream frosting. There are different ways to make the neat effects when pipping the frosting. We took a few bowls with the white frosting and added the food coloring and then 'painted' the inside of the pipping bag with strips of the colored frosting and then filled up the rest of the bag with the white frosting.  Here is another site about doing this process you can check out: http://www.inkatrinaskitchen.com/2011/10/5-minute-fancy-frosting-giveaway.html

Onto the Oreo cupcakes! These were really easy and super yummy. All you need is a box of Oreos (or President Choice's Eat the Middle First), white cake mix, crushed Oreos or if you have some Oreo crumbs lingering in your pantry. Prepare your white cake mix batter. Add cupcake liners and place a whole Oreo cookie to the bottom of each liner. Pour in the batter (about 2/3 of the way up). Bake as directed and cool.

For the frosting. Again, we used the prepared buttercream icing from the grocery store bakery. We added some crushed up Oreos to the frosting and had some leftover for the garnish. When pipping the icing, be sure to use a round tip because the Oreo chunks need to make it through. For garnish add some Oreo crumbs and of course some more crushed Oreos! The best part of these cupcakes was the whole Oreo cookie at the bottom. I love cupcakes that have a little surprise with them!

I've also hit the 2 year blog-a-versary mark back in December and I'm super excited for some new foods, meals, and baked goods to share! A special thank you to my best friend Somer who is always sending me lots of fun recipes and to my hubby who is always showing his appreciation (I love my Kitchen Aid Pro 600 from you... always reminds me of how much you support and love me!) xoxo.

Happy 2012!