Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal

Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal:

1/2 C. quick oats (or old fashioned, I prefer quick oats myself)
1 C. water
3 Tbsp pumpkin puree
1/4 tsp apple pie spice
sugar (as much, or little, as you'd like)
hazelnut coffee creamer, optional

Method:

Basically all you're doing here is making oatmeal. Nothing fancy. Microwave your oatmeal and water for one mintue, take it out, stir in the pumpkin puree and spice, then finish microwaving (about one minute more).

Swirl in the sugar and coffee creamer, and even more spice if you'd like, then simply enjoy it's simplicity.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

This was my first time roasting chicken legs, but I knew they would roast better than chicken breasts and I was really in the mood to roast something (maybe just so I could scarf the accompanying vegetable, roasted carrots.....mmmm yummy!).

Roasted Tarragon and Garlic Chicken,
with carrots and mashed potatoes

For the roast chicken and carrots:
4 chicken legs
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tsp olive oil
1/3 C chopped fresh tarragon
1/2 yellow onion, medium-sized
1 lb carrots, peeled and cut into equal-sized pieces
1 (14oz) can chicken stock, with 2-3 chicken boullin cubes dissolved into the stock
salt and pepper to taste

For the potatoes:
10 potatoes, washed,peeled, and quartered
4 Tbsp butter
milk
garlic salt, salt, and pepper to taste

For the gravy:
chicken drippings
3 Tbsp flour
salt and pepper, if needed, to taste

Method:

Heat oven to 350 degrees F
Trim excess fat. Rinse the chicken legs and pat them dry with a paper towel. Be sure they are dry! Wet skin=yucky wilty, not crispy skin. Run your fingers under the skin on each chicken leg to create a pocket, this is where you will stuff in the herbs.

Grate the 1/2 onion. Mix with tarragon. Heat the olive oil in a pan, saute the minced garlic until softened and fragrant, let it cool a bit, then add it to the onion and tarragon. Stuff the herb mixture into the pocket you made earlier on the chicken legs. Season the skin with salt and pepper and pat some of the herb mixture on top.

Place in a roasting pan with the prepared carrots. Roast 15 minutes, then pour in the chicken stock. Continue roasting 10-15 minutes more, until internal temperature is about 165 degrees F and the juices run clear.

Meanwhile, put the potatoes in large pot, cover with water, add some salt, then put on the stove and bring the water to a boil. When the potatoes are done, a fork will slide through them easily (about 10 minutes). Drain the water. I like to put the potatoes back in the pot, then mash them, then add the butter and milk till they are smooth and creamy. I season with salt, garlic salt, and a bit of pepper. Then I put a lid over them and keep them on the stove (heat off) to keep them warm. When it's time to serve, they may need more milk to make them creamy again.

Once the chicken is done, pull out the legs, put on a plate, cover with foil, and let them rest while you make the gravy. Remove the carrots from the pan, and cover those as well. If you are cool like me and roasted your chicken in a stainless steel roasting pan (or if you used a dutch oven roasting pot), you can make your gravy on the stove. Super cinch.

Just turn the burner on to medium, add the flour, one tablespoon at a time, whisking after each addition. Then watch your gravy thicken and oila!! Gravy is ready. (If you want to be finicky, you could strain the juices prior to adding the flour, but I LOVE the tarragon and garlic and in my gravy. So I don't.)

Plate up and enjoy!

Snookums Snickerdoodles

I think "snickerdoodles" is just one of the most fun words for my mouth. I have a bunch of words that I love to say, like snoochums, snickerdoodles, muffin, ma cherie (which might be more of an expression), sushi, supercalafredjulisticexpealadocious, and many more which might actually be better than these, but when I put myself on the spot, I just can't remember them all.

What I can remember is that these cookies are T-A-S-T-Y tasty. I love snickerdoodles. And I like my snickerdoodles fat and soft, pillowy even. I'm not one for those thin, crispy ones. If you're like me you're gonna want to try these little babies.

They're in need of some tweaking, next I'm going to try making them with butter instead of shortening and with a little less cream of tartar, but I thought I'd share the unmarred recipe and then you will be free to try them yourself, or wait and see if I can make them better. The choice is yours.

Ingredients
1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Method
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

In a large bowl, mix together the shortening and 1 1/2 cups of white sugar until smooth. Stir in the eggs one at a time, blending well after each. Combine the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt; stir into the batter until blended.
Roll the dough into balls the size of small walnuts. Roll in a mixture of 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake in the preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned, but still soft.

One side note: I was a bit startled by the dryness of the dough. When I try this recipe again, I think I might decrease the flour by a smidge, but not much. I figured that the dough was wet enough for the cinnamon sugar to stick to it, but not so wet that the sugar melted and burned during baking. That is a good thing. Trust me, no one really likes that burnt sugar flavor.

And another one: cook these 8 minutes...no more!! Possibly 7 minutes. I tried various times and anything over 8 minutes equals one hard cookie after it cools. Not cool. :)

**Amendment!!! 10/18/2010**
I tried this recipe again, but I only used 1/2 tsp cream of tartar instead of 2 tsp and 1 cup butter instead of 1 cup shortening.
Results: USE 1/2 tsp cream of tartar unless you like tart cookies!! 1/2 tsp = perfect. 2 tsp=WAYYYYY too much.
As for the butter, it made my cookies more flat, but still very soft. So they were tasty, just not pillows like I like 'em. So I think I'll stick the shortening 'cause goodness know I love me some pillowy cookies.

Mango Salsa

Mango Salsa

This is lovely on top of fish or with grilled shrimp, but also quite delicious with tortilla chips. Oh and we also ate it with pulled beef tacos and, well, that was scrumptious too. The jicama gives the salsa a satisfying crunch and adds texture, but you could use a seedless English cucumber instead.

Ingredients:

2 mangoes, peeled and seed removed

½ small pineapple, skin removed and cored

½ small jicama, peeled

2 roma tomatoes

2 green onions

1 large orange

1 small jalapeno

1 avocado

¼ tsp garlic salt

¼ cup chopped cilantro

½ lime

Dice the mangoes, pineapple, jicama, and finely dice the green onions and put in medium bowl.

Cut roma tomatoes in half, remove the seeds and juicy stuff, then finely dice those as well and add them to the bowl.

Remove the peel and pith of the orange by cutting it away with a knife (cut off the top and bottom of the orange, then, starting at the top and working towards the bottom, cut away slices of the peel making sure to remove all white stuff (the pith)). Section out the orange, cut each section in half and put in bowl. Squeeze the section-less orange for about 1-2 Tbsp of juice.

Next, seed the jalapeno, and if you’re a wimp like me, remove the membrane as well. Very finely dice the jalapeno and depending on how much heat you like, use one half to the whole thing (I only used half).

Add the cilantro the bowl.

In a small bowl, mash the avocado and season it with ¼ tsp garlic salt, then add to the salsa and mix all of the ingredients until well distributed.

Squeeze in ½ lime, give one final mix and….enjoy!

PS- I made this up all by myself :)

Basic Addition

What do you get when you combine giant, ripe strawberries

{strawberries, large ones}

with luscious dark chocolate?....

{super delicious dark chocolate chips}

A whole lot of yum!

{yumminess}

However, when you happen to accidentally drop yummy dark chocolate chips on very nasty gross carpet, nothing yummy happens. You just lose the chocolate chips in the splotchy sea of brown.