Food Networkers... My turn!

 Well thoughout the course of this challenge, I first thought everyone was just going to drop out, when it was MY turn, which made me upset, then everyone was just late posting blogs. All was good, I had thrown my tantrum and gotten my way. We did all agree we needed more time than 2 weeks and added an extra week, and then guess what little miss tantrum went and did??? I FORGOT! Totally FORGOT the last 2 recipes I Picked. I forgot to make the apples and I forgot to make the calzone.

 Steena, has since realized she just does not have time at all. Laurie has went on vacation and forgotten pictures, so I guess, gosh darnit, life somehow got in the way for ALL of us! I do however have my 2 recipes done, and I do plan on doing the other 2 this week sometime, and i will post that blog (late) and seperate.

 So here's my take on our recipes

 I wanted to choose things that were not hard to find, that were "normal" and had maybe a new twist. So EVERYONE likes burgers and fries right??? So I came up with

 This Burger Recipe, and Potatao Cakes. Both are by Rachel Ray. I love her, although I wish she'd stick her hands in her pockets or something!!!

 So first the burgers.

 Just like you would make a burger. Nothing new so much. It has taco like seasons it it and RICE and BEANS though. I used Refried beans to disguise them, since my kids do not like beans. Heidi actually gave me a chili recipe that uses refried beans and I tell my kids its "beanless" They believe me. Heh. Anyway

 So I mixed it all together and I was SO impressed with how well this burger formed into patties. EXCITED even over the fact. They looked like wonderful sticking together burger patties!!!

 So I popped them babies on my stove top grill with some oil and started cookin!

 I am not sure if it was because I used the grill... Or maybe I turned the burgers too soon... but I had a bit of a problem, and I ended up with this

After being SO pleased with how well they stayed together, they just fell apart. Totally. So I had another mini tantrum and just mashed it up, and cooked it through that way. Whatever.

The topping was good. Spicy. Some Jalapeno, avocado, sour cream... MMM MMM.

This would be my finished "Burger" Everyone enjoyed them, although with it being "loose meat" they kind of fell apart. We took our flat bread buns and folded them in half and this was almost like a chalupa!

 When I make them again, I will use the flat side of my grill and see if that helps. I wonder if Heidi or Laurie's stayed together??? Well and even though Steena is no longer challenging with us, she still blogs, so you can check on her too!

 The next time I may make them a bit more like a taco as well, adding some black olives for on top, a tomato and some cheese would be nice for sure. Except for falling apart, I enjoyed this recipe.

 Now Along with my "burger" I made the Mashed potato cakes. I had never made potato cakes before and It seemed like it went with a burger fairly well, since its like fries.

 It was easy to make, mashed up some potatoes with some cream cheese onion, lemon zest and an egg.  I for some reason skipped salt and pepper totally. Not sure where my head was while cooking today.

 Once its mashed up you add it to your pan of oil. My first  pan was very soggy. I used WAY to much oil, thinking they needed to almost fry. Nope. They too fell apart on me.

 By the second batch I had lowed the oil and they crisped up much better, they were turnable. Although they still were not crispy like I thought a potato cake would be... So while I made more, I put the done ones into the oven hoping to crisp them a bit more.

 By this point I was a little overwhelmed that my 2 recipes were a big flop. They did taste okay though. The potatoes the kids dipped into ranch which makes almost anything edible for them. I had to put a LOT of salt and pepper on them, because I had forgot to put it inside.

 I might try potato cakes again, but not this recipe. Maybe like a twice baked potato type or something. I think they could have been much better, for sure.

Involve your kids in the kitchen!!!

 I think it really makes an impact on them. Not to mention it helps to give them life lessons for when they are on their own. This way they do not live off of Top Ramen for the first 5 years after moving out!

 Last weekend the kids and I baked a few things. The chex stuff and perogies and things. I think it was a good memory for Hannah. Because today I seen her homework

 Assignment:

 What did you do this weekend?

 This made mommy All warm and fuzzy inside :)

 SOUP. The most wonderful fall time food. Its warm, its comforting, it can be good for you and it can be made in no time at all, or simmer all day long in a crock pot and be ready for you when you get home. Most soups are good reheated, frozen, and always go well with a grilled cheese!!!

 I was more than thrilled to come across the blog called 1000 soups she has a recipe (which I linked) that is called EGGROLL SOUP. Ok. First off. I LOVE eggrolls. So does my family. I normally get the stuck to make them and make like 200 at a time, freezing most. I do not fry my eggrolls I bake them, and I feel that the way I make them, they are pretty healthy. They beat the grocery stores frozen version ANY day. However they are time consuming (even if you do not make 200 at once) The rolling, that is the hard part.

 Well EGGROLL soup is all the goodness of an eggroll, but NO ROLLING! This is a recipe I will make again and again, and again and again! Hubby ate 2 bowls and did not even have any sesame chicken because it filled him up! I did however change the recipe some, to be like the eggrolls that I make at home.

 To make it the way its been posted again go HERE Yum. Look at that photo! I wish I had taken a picture of mine, but it looked nearly the same, just trust me! Here is how I made my very similar version. Again I am SO thankful for this idea!!!

 1TBS sesame oil

1 pound lean ground pork

4 garlic cloves - minced

1 small head cabbage - shredded (about 6 cups)

2 small carrots - shredded (about 1 cup)

1 small bunch green onions - sliced (about 1/2 cup)

5 cups chicken stock, 4 cups vegetable stock

1 TBS freshly grated ginger

1/4 cup soy sauce - plus more for serving

10 egg roll wrappers cut into thin strips

 

 Oh this is so simple your going to think its not good. But it is. Trust me. Its like an eggroll, but soup. Seriously!

 Ground up your pork meat in the sesame oil with the garlic and the grated ginger. Once your meat is cooked through and the garlic and ginger are smelling super good, add your cabbage carrots onions veggie stock and soy sauce, thats right just stuff everything into the pot. I also added some salt and pepper to this.

 I cooked this for about 30 min then realized I never started the rice to go with dinner, and so it simmered another 30 before being served. The cabbage was not crunchy at all which I Loved!

 About 10 min. before I was ready to serve the soup, I cut up some eggroll wrappers, into thin strips. I put them in the oven at 400 degrees sprayed with some spray oil over them, and on the pan. 

 Dish your soup into bowls and top with your now crunchy eggroll strips!

 Add ANYTHING you would like in an eggroll. Chicken, shrimps, bean sprouts, water chestnuts, you can make this your own recipe VERY easily. No need to limit yourself. 

 My hubby stated this was good today (the day after) reheated, even better, he said, than the first time! MMM. All of my kids ate this, and said they liked it. I will make it again, did I say that?

Banana Bread

 I did not take pictures or do any sort of step by step story board for the recipes, but they are none the less darn good recipes . Simple enough I am sure you can figure it out without pictures! I have the faith!

 My first recipe was banana banana bread. I got the recipe from All Recipes. Love that site!!

 I have used this and several other banana bread recipes before but this one is my favorite, of course I change things a bit. If you want the original recipe, click the link above, if you want my version of this same recipe, keep reading!

 First off I always double this. I have 4 kids. All love banana bread. It also freezes well and pretty much ANYONE would be happy with getting a loaf for no special reason! :)

 Tip: when I have bananas fixing to go back I stick them, peel on and all that into the freezer. The day before I want to make banana bread I take all the bananas and put them in a large bowl in the fridge to thaw. When you need the bananas you just squeeze and banana slips right out of its peel!

INGREDIENTS (this is not doubled)

• 1 cup flour, 1 cup wheat flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup applesauce INSTEAD  of butter!
  
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten (sometimes I use egg beaters to make it lower in fat, works fine)
  
• 2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas ( never measure I just add lots of banana!)
• 1 Tsp vanilla
• 1tsp cinnamon
• walnuts or pecans can be added (1 cup)

       TOPPING (OPTIONAL)

        1/2 cup oats, 1tps cinnamon, 4 TBS packed brown sugar (mixed well)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together applesauce  and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas cinnamon and vanilla until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. If using topping, sprinkle on top of loaves now. You can also use muffin pans and make muffins!
   
4. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.
   

SO then we still had chex mix left!

 After our muddy buddies, there was still a half box of corn chex left. Not to be mean, but I do not care for chex, with milk as a cereal. Not even with sugar. Ick. So I wanted to make something else with what we already had on hand with what was left.

 I found Cheesy Ranch Chex Mix

 I had everything needed, and we all like cheese, and ranch (who doesn't) so it was a go!

For this you need, chex mix (or generic) Cheddar crackers (or goldfish would have been yummy I think) Butter, parm cheese, ranch packet (I have a big deal like a parm shaker of ranch) and pretzels I used stick pretzels and just crunched them up a bit, because that is what we had on hand.

 This too is simple. You melt your butter, pour it over your chex, crackers and pretzels and then you sprinkle with the ranch and parm. you heat it up in the microwave for 3 min. Stopping every min. to stir. Lay out on wax paper to cool.

 We all agreed this needed more ranch, and so we added more! Super good, just as good as those 3.00 bags of chex mix you buy at the store!

 As you can see my hand model could not keep his hands out of it! 

Kooking with the Kids :OP

 So last weekend, I did a few snack foods things with the kiddos. They wanted to help and I told them if they cleaned their rooms, they could. So they DID! Go figure!

 Our first creation was Muddy Buddy's an old favorite

 Not hard at all to make. Although my camera is taking rather crappy pictures (or I am) today. So I apologize in advance for the blurry photos.

 You need

Chocolate chips, peanut butter, butter, powder sugar, vanilla and of course, your chex mix (or off brand as we used since you can get the recipe online now)

 You will also need a spoon, microwave, BIG bowl, and gallon ziplock baggies.

 This is simple. You take your chips, butter and peanut butter, microwave until creamy. Add vanilla, pour over cereal in your giant bowl. Place mixed cereal into bags, add sugar and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE. Dance around a bit, shake some more....

 This part is fun. Just make sure you have ZIPLOCKED your bag. :)




 When I was a kid this was called Puppy Chow. I guess Purina sued them for the name, and so now its muddy buddies. Either way its GOOD!

We kept this in the bag, I made a double batch and froze one bags worth not sure why because the first bag was gone that same day! I did, however, learn its very tasty cold!!! :)

Trying a few new things!

 Besides my "Food Network Challenge" recipes this week, which by the way were doing every 3 weeks or monthly now, I am unsure of which. We are all busy moms who have run out of time so we gave ourselves more.... Anyway besides that, I am trying a few new dishes, and a few old favorites in the next 2 weeks.

 Since I had luck with home made rolls finally, I am being very adventurous, I bought Yeast in a little can even, and I plan on making french bread, crusty rolls, buttermilk biscuits, and also corn bread and pizza and perogi dough. Wish me luck there, that is a lot of meals to SCREW up if I do not do it correctly. But feel good knowing you will be there every step of the way with me, good or bad.

 What made me think of Perogies? Well I found THIS

 At a local thrift store for .75 cents and I thought heck, WHY NOT! You roll out your dough over the circle thing w/ all the holes, poke it down, fill, then roll  another sheet of dough over top and it cuts it AND presses it for you!!! Sounds simple right? Again you shall see. I think its funny it says "as seen on TV" because I HAVE NEVER even heard of one, let alone seen it on TV, then again I was not alive in the 70's which is when I think this was created. Heck its nearly antique!

 So wish me luck tomorrow. Busy day. Cleaning then baking and cooking and freezing. Hopefully this all works out and I really do save money!







 Fun things I am making that you can look forward to seeing a blog about:

 Perogies
 Pizza Rolls
 Granola, and granola bars
 Puppy chow (made with chex mix)
 Split pea and Ham soup
 Stretch a buck turkey and bean burrito burger


 Probably more as well, like rolls and french bread and pizza dough, which I still really hope turns out right!

 Stay tuned tomorrow!!!!

Simple, Easy, Cheap

 No I am not talking about what type of date I am....

 I'm talking about dinner!

 Sometimes you just don't have the time to go all out and make something extravagant. Sometimes you just simply shouldn't have too. That is when stuff like hamburger helper and the like come in handy. I try to stay away from the super processed crap (I mean food) like that. Although I do have to admit to having several boxes in my pantry, its not that we DONT use it, I think its good in a pinch and its better for you than McDonalds or Pizza delivery (cheaper too) but tonight Hamburger Helper was the plan.

 Today were having Sausage and Sauerkraut... 2 of 4 kids hate it. But that is okay, they just don't eat the sauerkraut. This is super simple and cheap to make. In fact I had coupons for the Kielbasa a while back so I stocked up (It was also on sale) and just froze them for later use!

 If you have a big family as I do, you will need this much, you can always half the recipe if you have less to feed!

 2 packages Kielbasa sausage (I get the skin free turkey kind)
 1 bag fresh sauerkraut (or 2 cans)
 3 cans new potatoes, whole or sliced you pick!
 1 onion, chopped (optional today I used onion powder)
 pepper
 Garlic powder (1tsp or so, just sprinkle some in)
 1-2 TBS butter or margarine

 So that is it. You take your ingredients, plop them out into a pan, Normally I cut up the sausage but it was still frozen so today it will be whole links! Heat this on low on your stove an hour or so, OR for even more flavor put this into your crock pot around 12 and heat on low 4-6 hours until dinner (this way works best if your adding fresh onion)

 Once its hot and the flavors have melded its ready to serve. We normally have it with bread and butter, tonight there will be some cranberry sauce (canned too lol) along the side. MMMM MMM good. Simple, cheap and easy! What more does a lazy (I mean busy) mom want?!

 

What do you do when Life (or work) tosses you apples??

 Well you make APPLESAUCE of course!

 My boss bought about 300 pounds of apples to put on our salad bar, but did not think about how they, well turn BROWN when cut up and exposed to air... So needless to say there are like 290 pounds of apples still in our back cooler. She told me to take a few bags home.

 I sat there thinking I already HAVE apples at home, but I am NOT one to turn down food for free... I know I have a kick ass recipe for Apple Pie Muffins, but I will eat like 300 of them and get fat(ter) having made them. So I started trying to think of something fairly HEALTHY to make with them... and applesauce came to mind! So I went to my most favorite site for recipes http://www.recipezaar.com and found THIS RECIPE. Looks simple enough to make and I have ALL the ingredients on hand... Love that! So guess what I am about to do?

 Yep, make applesauce!

 Since I had SO many apples, I quadrupled the recipe as follows. This only made about a large jar, and a half worth, not more than my family of 6 will be able to polish off within a few days I am sure!

 16 apples, peeled and cored, cut into pieces
 2 cups water
 3/4 cup sugar (Should have been 1 cup but I lowered it, since I had sweet "gala" apples
 Cinnamon (just sprinkle some in there!)

 Thats it? YES THATS IT!!!!

 So you go and you peel and core your apples. This is probably the hardest part, and its not really hard!

After that cut the apples into chunks, about how you would cut potatoes to make mashed potatoes. Add the cut up and peeled apples to your 2 cups of water in a sauce pan, and cover on high heat, bring to a boil.

Boil about 20 min or until your apples are mushy and breaking up, and its starting to look like a chunky applesauce. If you want your applesauce to have less texture, then use a potato masher, or a blender at this point to puree. Add your sugar and cinnamon and continue to simmer until the sugar has dissolved.

 I let this cool on my stove top a while, and then I put it into a tuperwear bowl with a tight closing lid and put it into the fridge. I tried it warm, and it was very good. Better than store bought, and So much better for you!

So when life tosses you Apples. Make Applesauce. It's simple, healthy and TASTY! :)

Baked Potato... Pizza?

 I work at a pizza place, have now for nearly 7 years, and I have never heard of such a thing until recently. Somewhere in Little Rock there is a place that offers it. I heard it was good. Never really gave it much more thought than that. Frankly, after 7 years of looking at pizza, its usually the last thing I want to make, at home!

 Until yesterday when I was thumbing through a friends recipe book and in it was a recipe for this thing called baked potato pizza. I figured it was a sign, and I noticed that I had all ingredients on hand at home, so I thought okay. I will make it!

 Just in case you would like to make it too, here is the recipe. Well MY version of it. The one in the cookbook varied a bit, it asked for mozz cheese and parm, which I did not have, but CHEDDAR goes on a baked potato anyway right? I also used more bacon since its the meat. Tim does not like a meal if there is not meat in it. So I added in more bacon, it is turkey bacon anyway so no harm right???

 Baked Potato Pizza: 12 pieces

3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch slices
1 pound pizza dough (store bought or home made will work)
3 TBS butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup cheddar/jack cheese, shredded
1/2 package of turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled
green onions, chopped

 Sour cream (if desired)

 Directions

 Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

 Boil potatoes until tender.

                                


  Meanwhile spread out dough,












                                                                                              melt butter in microwave with garlic in it.

Spread garlic mixture over pizza dough.

                                                                                Once potatoes have cooked and cooled off enough to touch, spread out over pizza dough in a single layer.










                                                                                 Salt and pepper to your taste and then top with cheese.

 

 Place pizza in oven until crust is done to your likeness, about 22-28 min

. Once out top with bacon, and green onions and if desired sour cream!










This pizza was a HIT with 3 out of 4 kids. I liked it, as it did NOT taste like pizza, because frankly, I am tired of pizza. This tasted JUST like a loaded baked potato! It was fairly simple to make and if your not counting carbs, its not too bad for you either! I used a pre-made pizza crust from Pilsbury and it served the 6 of us with a couple of slices left over.

 I would save left over mashed potatoes to use for this recipe in the future. I think that would work just as well, if not better than the potato slices. I will make this again, because as I said 3/4 kids liked it and those are odds you just don't mess with!

 If you try it, please comment and let me know your thoughts :)

 We served ours tonight with a salad, that I brought home from my work places salad bar (talk about easy) I cannot think of anything better to serve it with!

Another First

Acorn squash! On a whim at the grocery I seen the pretty squash and thought heck, for .88 cents I can stand to try one (or two) of them!

 So I built my meal around this. I thought what do I have that will go with squash? I made pork chops and "hot crash potatoes"  they are good! Along with that I reheated frozen "edward style" green beans and carrots that I had forgotten to heat up the other day with dinner!

 I have made porkchops, the potatoes, and green beans for dinner before though. This was more about the squash. I did not have a recipe, really, so I just did what the sticker on the squash said to do. I added butter, and some brown sugar (I also sprinkled on cinnamon) and then I baked them, along with my potatoes in the oven.

Looking at them now, cooked and finished, I am pretty sure I could have went MUCH lighter, on the butter part! :OP Having less butter would have made a nice crust of sugar on the squash. Either way this tasted good. I, of course, was the only one who really ate it, the other kids did give it a try though.

 Anyway dinner tonight was good and easy. I just sprinkled the chops with Mrs. Dash and garlic and popped them onto my oven top grill. Voila! Dinner! :)

week 3, Second set for me!

 This week time around it was Heidi's turn to pick a chef and menu. I think she did a great job, aside from choosing a recipe with FIGS which I can find nowhere!!! I still have time, I will get that one made, eventually, although like the lemon bars, last time, I am not really looking forward to them...  Who knows right?

 So the Main course this week is: CHICKEN my hubbys favorite meat! The side dish, which again I chose to make at the same time as my  main course was ONIONS. Go figure I could not find Cipollini onions anywhere. I could not even find pearl. I found some small onions I thought were pearls eventually but upon ringing them up, she called them scallions, so I am unsure of what the heck I actually bought! Either way its what I got.

 So the chicken I was most excited about. I, unlike Tim, LOVE chicken, and I love to try it different ways! This chicken has a stuffing that adds the flavor for you.

  This is onions, thyme, salt, papper, and a lemon quartered up with some olive oil tossed around. Just that smelled great. I did not have fresh thyme, so I opted for the easier, dried variety!













After you have mixed the stuffing, you get your chicken all ready for baking. I like to rinse mine off, and then dry it with paper towels. Mine did not have any gizzards inside. I felt cheated!

 Once your chicken is prepared, you stuff it with your mixture, and you tie it up. I do not normally tie up my chickens, but because this recipe said to do it, I did it. Do not look at my picture as an idea for how to do it, because I more than likely did it the incorrect way. Oh and once its tied up and stuffed, you top it with BACON!!! You cant go wrong there!!!

 As you can see, I popped in the oven all excited, almost forgetting it needed its picture taken!!! I was maybe a bit hungry?

 SO once its cooked for a while 45 min I believe, you add your mushrooms. Oh my goodness. The aroma of the mushrooms cooking... Well you might drool! MMMMMM.

 Mine took much longer to bake than the recipe says. I probably had a bigger chicken, and I probably hung the door open too often wanting it to hurry.Either way, it smelled delisiouso and I had high hopes, but before I get to the end of that, I had to make the onions!!!

 So you put them into hot water, to get the skins to come off easily. This did not work for me, but then again I was using the wrong kind of onion, so that might be why! I had to cut the ends off most of them and peel and it was not easy (I might have cursed Heidi a bit) Once they are peeled, you toss them with the other ingredients. Once tossed add them to a pan and sizzle. MMMMM




Once they have sizzled a while you put them into the oven to cook, or caramelize. Like this They looked and smelled FANTASTIC! I think they were super pretty! The pan, however, was NOT fun to clean out. I may have said bad things about Hedi again, under my breath :OP







 So although during my shopping process, and my starving waiting for the chicken to be done which by the way looked pretty good when finished, although I think my bacon got a bit overdone

 The mushrooms were everyones favorite part (well except my 2 that dislike mushrooms) they tasted like the kind at the chineese buffet we often go to. MMMM. I will make it again, if nothing more than for the shrooms! Very good A++ for those, the chicken was moist, and had a nice flavor, but I mean it was nothing extrodinary to me, tasted like chicken, for the most part. The bacon did help it stay juicy though.

 The onions I liked the idea of the onions. I think had I used regular onions and cut them up, I would have liked it. The onions that I used, were very strong flavored in the middle. I did not so much care for them, but want to try it again, for sure, if I can ever find the correct onions!

 I served this dish along with my Rice pilaf recipe. I thought it was a great meal, and I am glad I had the chance to make it!!!

 check out the blogs of Heidi, Laurie and Steena to see how the recipes turned out using the right ingredients!

Appetizer Time!

 The Appetizer Heidi picked this week is prosciutto roasted figs. I must say going into this one, I am wondering what Hedi is thinking? I have never had, a fig, seen a fig, and I did not find FRESH figs anywhere!!! I settled for the dried variety which BTW is in near the raisins. Thanks for that info  Laurie!!!

 Next I sent my hubby out to do my dirty work, buying the ingredients. He came home with Pancetta NOT prosciutto, I thought OH wonderful, here I go again, screwing up yet ANOTHER recipe by NOT adding ingredients, losing them or getting the wrong thing...  So I googled, Google is my friend. I asked it weather it was okay and I got this It IS okay no harm were its exact words!!! So I am currently soaking my figs, and I will go on to try this recipe, with an open mind.




 The kids, however, minds are closed. They all asked me WHY I was making this. Why anyone would stuff cheese into something that tastes like a raisin, and then wrap it in bacon. They have said they MIGHT try it. I just pulled them out of the oven (the alarm is going off) so we'll see what we all think here soon.

 My six year old, who was just set up with a yahoo account by her sister, and I, had this way cute conversation:
My Baby Girl: wht als do you wut to tacka balt
Clorie NoneYA: I dont know
Clorie NoneYA: I love you.
Clorie NoneYA: Are you going to try one of the figs I am making?
My Baby Girl: i dot no olley if u tri owe fist
Clorie NoneYA: ok Ha ha

 So if you do not know what a fig is... Like me, this is what it looks like:

and stuffed with cheese, like the recipe says to do

 After you have slit each one, and wrapped it in the bacon(y) ham type stuff...  and then you pop the bad boys in the oven for about 15 min.

So the figs come out of the oven, Once they have cooled a bit you put them onto a serving platter, drizzle with honey, and sprinkle with pepper and then serve!

   So they looked pretty, they smelled nice. Taste. Hmmm. Well they tasted like a raisin wrapped in bacon, with blue cheese inside of it. Not my idea of  yummo. Not horrible. I will not make them again though, unless someone says Hey can you make me bacon wrapped cheese stuffed figs? Which I doubt anyone would ever ask me to do!

 Oh and since I have 6 "reviewers" in house:

 Destiny: She did not even try one she just texted on her phone. 13 year olds. Sheesh.
 Promise: She had one in her hand, licked her fingers, and decided she did not want to try it
 Hannah: She had to see me eat one first, I took (another) bite, and handed her the other half, she said EEEEEWE After a bitty taste and asked where the trash can was at.
 Bailey: He asked "Are those things good?" Licked one and said NO WAY.
 Tim: Tim liked them. He's a freak. Promise took one back to him and he popped it into his mouth and said MMM Pretty good. She took him more and apparently he ate them as well. Hmmph.


 So there you have it. Another recipe down. Although I did not care for it, I did learn some things. Blue cheese tastes different when melted, and I like it. And I like that bacon(y) ham stuff! I will buy more and use that again! So I am not upset that I made this. I also learned that I am pretty sure, figs, do not appeal to me. Not even in a "newton".

A Simple Classic

So who would believe, I have never, in my life made, from scratch, chocolate pudding!? Any pudding in general actually. I am not sure I have ever even EATEN pudding made from scratch. I always thought that is was something that was difficult to do.

 When I seen Heidi has this chosen as dessert, I was happy (because it was a "normal" food) and also a bit nervous it was going to be hard. I had it in my  mind, that it was going to be similar to making fudge, which for some reason I cannot do!

 Checking out the recipe it actually looked fairly simple. I got very excited to make it! Why it was the last one I made, I am not sure! This morning though I made an awesome Pot Roast, I figured while I was at it, I would do up some of this pudding so that it would be set, and ready for the kiddos to eat for dessert.

 So I assembled everything needed, which is NOT much!

  All that is needed is Milk, sugar, cocoa, egg  yolks, cornstarch and vanilla and oh yes, not pictured, salt. That is awesome! I bet most the time all of us have those things on hand. Who needs to buy a box to make this stuff???

 So you take 1.5 cups of your milk, your sugar, your cocoa and your salt and you  whisk while you heat it up, simmering.

 Meanwhile you mix the other .5 cup of milk with the egg yolks, cornstarch, and vanilla. Once your hot mixture is mixed well, you S L O W L Y add it, to your cold mixture (the one with the eggs) while stirring. This has to be done SLOWLY so that you do not COOK your eggs. I remember this from "food network" I knew watching would come in handy!

 ((I used my leftover egg whites to make myself an omelet))

Once you have heated your mixture and it has thickened, you put it in bowls. The recipe says to put it into 6. I tried that, but my bowls were kind of big and it looked like nearly nothing was in them so I poured the pudding into 4. Hoping the kids would share, at least a bite with mommy.

Once this is done you put them in the fridge to set. Overnight is suggested, but mine sat from 9am-8pm and that worked for us!

 Once your ready to serve, you take your whipping cream, and well... You whip it! I added a bit of splenda, to my whipped cream, because it seemed well not sweet!

Top your whipped cream onto your pudding and ENJOY!

By the way I did get to have a taste, or two. The kids loved it. I loved it. Tim loved it. I swear I will not make the boxed kind again. This is JUST as easy, well almost. and its VERY very good.

 So this challenge was a bit harder on me. I had a hard time finding several ingredients near me. I did not like the figs AT.ALL. I am not sure what anyone was even thinking coming up with that idea. I did hear that Heidi, and Laurie enjoyed them. I am unsure of Steena's response yet. Be sure to check out their blogs to find out how they did. 

 Of all the recipes this time I have to say the dessert was my favorite one. 

The chicken was good, but I really REALLY loved the mushrooms in the dish the most there.

The onions, I think if I would have had the right kind I would have liked. I will make them again, maybe using just "normal" yellow onions.

The figs, well I have spoken my feelings about the figs already. I just do not like figs. 

So. 

 This challenge was fun, and I am super excited because this following week its MY TURN to pick the chef and the recipes!! I need to get going on picking them out!