Christmas Candy

I love making candy and baking during the Holidays. I guess I love to do that all year long but during the Holidays I have a reason too. I am always on the look out for new candy recipes that are simple and turn out! You don't want to know how many batches of toffee I have thrown away in my life, because of it crystallizing on me... My sister shared this recipe with me today. She found it on a blog that she reads. After I saw the few ingredients I made it. I can see why she loved it. It has such a great flavour and is so good. It takes 3 minutes to make! What a great teachers gift this will be. I made just a few changes. I added some butterscotch chips in with the chocolate and used smooth Peanut butter instead of chunky.

Rocky Road

8x8 pan

line with wax paper

3 cups semi-sweet chips

3 T butter

3/4 cup chunky peanut butter

1 package marshmallows

Melt together chocolate, butter, peanut butter. Add small amount to pan. Fill pan with marshmallows and pour remaining melted chocolate over the top. Refrigerate 2-3 hours. Turn onto cutting board and cut into squares.

Weekend Trip to Chicago

An indoor Christmas festival at Navy Pier!
They had tons of trees decorated in themes and

Santa's from all over the world dressed in there

traditional costumes. It was very interesting reading about the Christmas traditions of other

Countries.

This last week we celebrated our 11Th Anniversary. Nothing could beat our 10 year Anniversary trip to Paris (did I mention our friends kept our kids) so we decided to take a family trip to Chicago. The last time we got to see Chicago was when we drove through on our way to Germany over 3 years ago. It was so much fun to spend the weekend in the "Windy City". We stayed downtown and enjoyed a beautiful view of the city. We had a list of places to visit on our short trip. We did make it to the American Girl Store for Anna. She loved seeing it all. We strolled Michigan Avenue along with hundreds of other shoppers. What a fun place to window shop! We also got to see Navy Pier all decorated for Christmas. On our walk to the Pier we found the coolest gourmet market called Fox & Obel Market Café Catering Gourmet Chicago. We had great Chicago deep dish pizza at Giordanos for dinner. Our picky son loved it and claimed it to be the best pizza ever. It wasn't as far as we thought and took 4.5 hours to get there. We have missed vacations since moving back to the States. It was a great family weekend.

Chocolate and more

It is now Winter in Ohio! Our kids were so excited to shovel the side walk in front of our house.

I received a special package in the mail yesterday from my Mom. Among the many goodies she sent, there was also enclosed a huge bar of melting chocolate. I guess she knows how much I love baking. I needed to make a dessert for our Home Group tonight. I chose Ina Gartens Outrageous Brownies. I halved the recipe since it makes so many brownies. This is one of the fastest recipes to make and you don't even need the Kitchen Aide! I did add the nuts to half the pan of brownies. I hope I can remember which side they are on.... I also chopped up some Chocolate covered Espresso beans and added them to the batter. I find they are best served cold with a tall glass of milk or 3 if you are my kids. I hope you enjoy these like we do : -)

OUTRAGEOUS BROWNIES
Ingredients
1 pound unsalted butter
1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, divided
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
6 extra-large eggs
3 tablespoons instant coffee powder
2 tablespoons real vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided (1 cup for batter and 1/4 cup in the chips and nuts)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cups diced walnut pieces
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 13 by 18 by 1 1/2-inch sheet pan.
Melt together the butter, 1 pound chocolate chips, and unsweetened chocolate on top of a double boiler. Cool slightly. Stir together the eggs, instant coffee, vanilla and sugar. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture and cool to room temperature.
Stir together 1 cup of the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chocolate chips with 1/4 cup flour to coat. Then add to the chocolate batter. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for about 30 minutes, or until tester just comes out clean. Halfway through the baking, rap the pan against the oven shelf to allow air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Do not over-bake! Cool thoroughly, refrigerate well and cut into squares.

Sugar Cookies

Tuesdays come around so fast! Ulrike of Küchenlatein is hosting this weeks and she chose Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies . The recipe looked easy and I was excited to try this cookie but after hosting a cookie exchange on Sunday I was a little burnt out from making cookies. I made and sampled way too many. I decided to do them for my BS class on Tuesday morning. I loved this recipe. I had the same problem with the dough being too soft but I kept freezing it. These were easy to work with and tasted great, I thought they had the perfect balance between buttery and crisp. I made an almond butter cream and used lots of sprinkles. I hope everyone else had fun with these too!

Fridays with Florence

Chicken salad with chunks of celery, apples, and finely diced onion.

I decided to join yet another cooking group called Tyler Florence Fridays! I get to choose the recipe each week and post about it. I have lots of his cookbooks and need to start using them. I thought this would be a good way for me to try new recipes from his books. I am hosting a cookie exchange on Sunday and was looking for a good recipe for the chicken salad. I found this and couldn't wait to try it. I didn't poach the chicken with his recipe but used my own recipe. I made the cranberry sauce and chicken salad (am adding nuts on Sunday) but will finish these before my party.
Poached Chicken:
3 chicken breast

1 quart water

Bring to boil and then put lid on pan and turn off burner and let sit for 30 minutes.
For the Chicken Salad:
1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
Kosher salt
About 1 cup mayonnaise
1 heaping tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 celery stalks, small diced
2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley leaves plus sprigs, for garnish
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cups shredded chicken meat, roughly chopped
8 slices sourdough bread, cut 1/2-inch thick
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup cranberry sauce
1/2 pound brie
1 green apple, thinly sliced
For the Poached Chicken:
Directions
Shred the chicken meat.
For the Chicken Salad:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Roughly chop the walnuts and then gently toast in a dry skillet over medium heat until they brown and are slightly fragrant. Season walnuts with salt once they are finished toasting. Add the walnuts, mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, celery, parsley, olive oil, and salt and pepper, to taste, in a large mixing bowl and combine. Fold in the shredded chicken and set aside while you prepare the bread.
Toast the bread in a hot oven until golden. Smear each piece with a little butter and then a tablespoon of cranberry sauce over 4 of the pieces. Lay the 4 cranberry-smeared pieces out on a sheet tray and top each piece with 2 to 3 slices of thick-cut brie. Pop this back in the oven for a minute or 2 so the cheese is slightly melted and creamy. Remove from the oven and top with a few slices of green apple. Top with a scoop of the chicken salad and cover with the other half of the bread to complete the sandwich. Serve.

Mexican Soup

The Mexican Soup from Barefoot Bloggers was a keeper. Our family enjoyed the flavours of this soup. Judy of Judy’s Gross Eats chose Mexican Chicken Soup for this weeks recipe. I am so glad it was a soup after all the heavy foods that I have eaten over the last week. The only major change that I made to the soup was to leave out the jalapenos and the cilantro. We had it on the side. My brother-in-law doesn't like spicy foods. Thanks Judy for the great recipe. We loved it!

Mexican Chicken Soup (serves 6 to 8)
4 split (2 whole) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on

Good olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 cups chopped onions (2 onions)

1 cup chopped celery (2 stalks)

2 cups chopped carrots (4 carrots)

4 large garlic cloves, chopped

2 1/2 quarts chicken stock, preferably homemade

1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes in puree, crushed

2 to 4 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander seed

1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

6 (6-inch) fresh white corn tortillas

To serveSliced avocado

Sour cream

Cheddar cheese

Tortilla chips
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the chicken breasts skin side up on a sheet pan. Rub with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until done. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, discard the skin and bones, and shred the meat. Cover and set aside. Meanwhile, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the onions, celery, and carrots and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, or until the onions starts to brown. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the chicken stock, tomatoes with their puree, jalapenos, cumin, coriander, 1 tablespoon salt (depending on the saltiness of the chicken stock), 1 teaspoon pepper, and the cilantro, if using. Cut the tortillas in half, then cut them crosswise into 1/2-inch strips and add to the soup. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Add the shredded chicken and season to taste. Serve the soup hot topped with sliced avocado, a dollop of sour cream, grated cheddar cheese, and broken tortilla chips.

Thanksgiving is over?

We have been very busy in our house. I am behind on everything including blogging my recipes this month. I can't believe that December is in a couple of days. We have had company since last Monday. It is great having my sister and her family staying with us. I did make the Tuesday with Dori Twofer pie this month for our Thanksgiving dinner. I did not like the texture at all. I cheated and used a store bought crust. There is a big difference in homemade crust versus storebought! It didn't turn out like I had pictured. I thought it would have the texture of pumpkin pie on the bottom and pecan pie on the top. It mixed together and was too sweet for us. I guess I prefer warm Apple Pie with ice-cream instead. Vibi from La casserole caree chose this week's recipe. You can find the recipe on her blog. And please check out what the other TWD bakers thought as well. We had a lovely Thanksgiving with family and friends! Our neighbor made the most amazing Pumpkin Cheesecake. I think he needs to share the recipe. I also bought a 21 pound turkey and we are still eating the leftovers.