Easy Potatoes

Mom made these for me on, I think, Wednesday night. They were the best things ever. I used to hate potatoes because they were bland, but Mom has a way of working magic in the kitchen, don't even ask me how she does it. If you asked me right now, I'd have to say I have no idea except for a few vague things because I didn't watch her make these potatoes, but I recreated them (or something similar...it might have just been a replica) and I think I did a lot better than I thought I would, but either way here they are in all their glory.

Ingredients

• potatoes (as many as you think you can eat)
• cheese
• sour cream
• green onions
• salt

Directions

1. poke lots of holes in the potatoes, wrap them in damp paper towels, stick them in a potato baker thing (you know those things). If you don't have one (or time), just stick them in the microwave. This worked for my dad who started making them and apparently worked for Mom, who finished the job (lucky for me, probably, because Dad's the only one I know who can burn water -- and I'm only mostly joking and I love Dad to pieces so I don't care what he does to my food). Microwave for 2 minutes.
2. take them out, slice in half from top to bottom, but slice them along the longest side. I don't really know how to make myself clear, but cut it in half. Fish out all the insides, put them in a bowl for later. Scrape like you would scrape burned toast. Get everything out like cleaning a deer -- you don't want to leave anything in that might make it not-so-great later. 
3. now stick just the "shells", potato skins, in the oven, turn on the broiler (on "HI"), and leave them there. Go back to your bowl full of potato guts.
4. get the sour cream, cheese, onions, and salt. Put in the sour cream until it's creamy and looks like mashed potatoes. Throw in some cheese, mix up, then chop up a couple green onions, throw them in too, and mix up some salt. Taste it and see if it agrees with your taste buds. Adjust as needed.
5. pull out the skins, put in the "filling" -- whatever you call that. Sprinkle lots and lots of cheese on the top, and try to avoid getting any on the pan (unless you've lined it with foil) because it will be a major pain to clean that pan off, trust me!
6. stick back in the oven until cheese is melted and potatoes have that great look where it's browned on the tips of the potato...mmYUM!
7. take out, eat!
8. and enjoy ;)

have a great...winter! Only 12 days until Thanksgiving and 43 until Christmas!

Biscuits for One (Or Two!) + Monkey Bread

Google "monkey bread single serve from scratch" and all you get are pages and pages (and pages) of recipes with packaged, store-bought dough.

Huh?

How is that from scratch?

I was raised with a mom who just pulled stuff out of a hat. Or, her brain. She just knew what would go together, what tasted good, and how to make it.

The opposite of me.

So tonight the church had a 25th anniversary dinner and so she and Dad went with my two sisters went and I made apple crisp for people who stayed at home.

Well, one thing I don't like is apple crisp. It's "eh" for me.

So Mom said I could eat anything I wanted, so I decided to get a little crazy and go for something pretty ambitious (for me). Monkey bread.

We have never carried store-bought dough, ever, I don't think, because Mom doesn't like the taste (I've never had it, so I don't know what it tastes like).

But that meant I was sunk. Without store-bought stuff or bread, how could I make the recipe?

Simply put: make the dough. Google "biscuits for one" and there you go.

Here's what I did. It takes, like, twenty minutes. But it's supposed to take seventeen. Oh well, words can be deceiving.

For the biscuits:
followed the recipe. When she says it should resemble course sand, don't believe her. It resembles flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar with some butter chunks that aren't mixing in well. But keep at it until you can't tell what's butter. Or just play by ear. You'll be fine.

And then, if you're going to just make biscuits, do it now. And enjoy, because it goes really well with tea, which is why I added the "tea" label. Just because.

If you're not making biscuits, get a custard cup and put some dough in it (dough is a little too wet for monkey bread), and add two spoons of flour and mix until, when you rip open the dough, it isn't wet and sticky. It should be a little bit stickier than pizza dough.

Then melt 1 Tbsp butter and mix 2 Tbsp sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Then roll the pizza-dough-biscuit-dough (PDBD) in the melted butter, until it's covered, and then plop it in the cinnamon-sugar-mix until it's well-coated.

If you run out of PDBD, and you don't want to go through the whole dough-"thickening" process a-gain (it's a huge pain), just get some wet dough, roll in butter and cinnamon sugar and there you go. It will be more like a cinnamon-sugar-biscuit (with the deceiving appearance of a sugar cookie), and become flat because the extra flour will stabilize it and keep it upright and more monkey-bread-like. So. That's the monkey bread. Bake it with the biscuits, if you're doing both (like me), at the same temp (400 degrees F), for the same time (10-12m...I did 11m).

And that's it.

Apple Spice Dump Cake

Hi guys! Long time, no see, right?

Yeaaah, don't get me started.

Anyway, I found this recipe from a long time ago when I went on an overnight hiking trip (which was really fun by the way -- it was very pretty). The food wasn't all that fantastic, but the best of it was the dump cakes we had. My favorite was this one -- apple spice dump cake. It's not terrific, but it'll get you by on a camping trip.

Me, I was starving, so it was great.

But it probably wouldn't be if I had it again. Besides, I was younger then and was willing to eat anything set before me. Now...not so much.

So, the cake.

DIRECTIONS FOR CAMPFIRE APPLE DUMP CAKE

You'll Need

• 1 can apple slices
• 1 bag/box spice cake mix 
• 1 stick butter, unsalted

Directions

1. dump apple slices into dutch oven
2. dump in cake mix, dry. Smooth over apple slices
3. cut butter into slices abt 1/2 inch thick, put them in dutch oven, checker-board style, starting in center and moving out
4. put lid on dutch oven, put on fire for 30 min
5. take off, serve, and

Enjoy!

Or you can do it at home.

DIRECTIONS FOR HOMEMADE DUMP CAKE
Note: this isn't homemade if you don't make the batter from scratch. Just so you know.

You'll Need

• as many apple slices as fit in 6 oz. can (1-2 small apples, I'd guess)
• 1 batch batter (I'd make my batter from scratch because that will boost the yummy but you do what works for you)
• 1 stick butter, unsalted

Directions

1. do steps 1-3 in the directions for campfire apple spice dump cake
2. put lid on dutch oven, put on stove for 30 min on 6 or set oven to 350° and bake for 30 min, checking to see if it's done (I say check it because I've never made this at home, so I have to guess)
3. Take out/off, serve, and

For additional flavors, you might want to try these combinations below. You can switch out the fruit for any other fruit you like. You can also switch out the cake mix, but make sure it doesn't clash with the fruit!

The first ingredient is the fruit, the second is the kind of cake mix. For example, "apple and spice". "Apple" is the fruit, while "spice" is the kind of cake mix.

1. peach and spice
2. raspberry and chocolate
3. blueberry and chocolate
4. apple and lemon
5. apple and white
6. peach and white
7. lemon and lemon
8. raspberry and lemon
9. pineapple and spice
10. strawberry and spice
11. raspberry and rhubarb

Mix and match, test the waters, and see what you like!

Aussie Bite Comparison No. II

Yesterday we tried yet another recipe for Aussie Bites!

I'm going to just jump right into the comparison right before I start talking about anything else because I'm already starting to forget all that I liked and didn't like about just the recipe. Just the recipe, I've not yet started on the website.

Just wait.

It'll come later.

Sweep Tight's: 
let's see if I can remember everything.

Taste: it tasted almost exactly like Costco's - exception being the quinoa taste was a little bit too there. But you can hardly tell.

Look: it looked almost exactly like Costco's (not to be repetitive or anything), except that there was a lot more quinoa in the copycat ones, and they were darker.

Instead of canola oil, we used coconut oil for both the canola oil and the coconut oil. We didn't have any oat flour, so we ground up the oats in the food processor. Instead of coconut sugar (I don't even know what that is, but I'm sure Mom does), we just used plain ole light brown sugar, and we did use the sugar that was optional because we found that the other recipes weren't as sweet as Costco's and we wanted this recipe as close as Costco's as possible.

Result: it was almost identical to Costco's, but unfortunately, only in taste. These were much darker than Costco's, were much wetter and more crumbly, so next time I would grind my oats much more finely and I will also reduce the amount of quinoa, since the amount was noticeably much more than Costco's. Overall, they were very similar and I will definitely use this recipe next time I make Aussie Bites (which will probably be very soon).

And I know I didn't do pros and cons, because I feel like I end up repeating myself when I describe everything. But they were (con) wetter, and more crumbly. I could hardly get them out of the pan! It was not very nice.

Also, another thing is that the people who run the blog don't sound like very nice people.

You'll notice in the little "about me" paragraph at the bottom, Shelley talks about her accomplishments and her BS in science. Jennifer was married in a casino by a pirate pastor.

Just doesn't seem like the "Kate Middleton" sort of classy.

Seems more like -- I don't know -- Kim K?

Nothing against her, there's just not a whole lot of class going on.

Not to mention their blog's banner which spells "matress company" to me, not "food blog".

Is it just me, though? What do you think the banner looks like to you?

Aussie Bites Recipe Comparison

Recently I've been yearning for Aussie Bites from Costco.

They've got a de-lish recipe that I absolutely adore!

So, to quench my "thirst", I went online to find a suitable recipe, one that was just as good as Costco's, but easy to make at the same time. Also, not such a hassle. We don't live too close to Costco, so going there just for the Aussie Bites seems a little extreme. So I also wanted one that was easy so that I could just make Aussie Bites -- no big! -- at home.

I found and tried both the Aussie Bites from Bad Girl's Kitchen and the Aussie Bites from Stay-at-Home Chef.

Note: I put some words in boldface so that you could skim and just read the words in boldface and not the extra, fluffy words. If it's hard to read with some words in boldface, please tell me for future reference! Thank you!

First, the Aussies from Bad Girl's Kitchen.

Taste: these didn't taste the same as Costco's, and they were drier.

Look: they didn't look very much like Costco's, but they looked like Aussies! They also had the same size and shape, being cooked in a mini muffin pan, just like Stay-at-Home Chef's and Costco's.

Pros: they tasted really good. The coconut was a bit strong, but once you got eating, like really eating, you didn't really notice that much. I really really liked them. I have to say, I think I liked them more than the ones from SHC (Stay-at-Home Chef). But I'm not sure. I also liked the fruit taste. It was very there.

Cons: they were dry, and the Costco ones stick together more -- they're not sticky, but they stick together. These, when I ate them, I found that I was automatically holding my hand under them as I ate them. That wasn't a great feeling, but they stuck together pretty well. Also, they had bigger chunks of fruit and oats, and Costco's don't. They also had a stong coconut taste in them that I didn't like at the beginning. At the beginning of eating one, I mean. At the end I had a craving for another one which isn't bad in itself, but it's horrible when you want them to last as long as they can! They also don't have the same things as Costco's do.

Now onto the Aussies from The Stay-at-Home Chef.

Taste: they did taste pretty much like Costco's, and I found them to be a bit wetter than Costco's, but not that much.

Look: they did look a lot like Costco's, with more seeds and less fruit showing, and in the size and shape.

Pros: they looked like Costco's, they felt like Costco's, they tasted a little bit like Costco's. Overall, they were pretty similar to Costco's. They were also really good, but I'm not sure if I like them better than BGK's (Bad Girl's Kitchen) or not. The ingredients were very similar to Costco's.

Cons: they were a bit wet, wetter than Costco's, but they stuck together really well. The seed flavor and quinoa flavor was a bit strong, but like the coconut in the BGK ones, you didn't notice it after just a little while.

Which do I like better?

I have to say, the SHC Aussies were very close to Costco's, both in taste, texture, appearance, and ingredients, unlike BGK Aussies which had things that Costco's don't have.

They both had some strong flavors, the BGK ones being mainly coconut and SHC's being quinoa, but SHC's was less apparent than BGK's, which was really nice.

Overall, I think SHC's was more accurate, but they were both just as tasty.

If I had to choose between which one to make, I would probably go with BGK's because they tasted delicious, even if they weren't like Costco's (which they were - to a certain extent).

Which one was easier? I think they were both the same level of simplicity. I'd have to make them again to make sure.

Latkes

A fancy word for "fancy potato pancakes". Don't stop reading because it sounds gross. Because it really isn't, trust me. Potato pancakes are made out of 100% potatoes that you buy at your local grocery store. But these are fancier than potato pancakes, which is why they're called something fancier than "fancy potato pancakes" or "yummier than potato pancakes". This is simple and easy. Not to mention quick. I love quick and easy, don't you?

Update: after I had these, I decided these weren't my thing. They made me feel a little queasy, even when I think about them they do. So, if you get a little nervous about the idea of being queasy or not liking them but making too much, cut this recipe in half and make just a small batch. This recipe makes a lot of latkes, and you may not like that (I think around 20). But if you like latkes, then enjoy.

Ingredients

•  2 c potatoes, grated
• 1 T onion, grated
• 3 eggs, large
• 2 T flour
• 1½ t salt
• ½ c oil, for frying

Directions

1. peel potatoes, then grate them and put in medium-sized bowl.
2. peel and grate onion, put them with grated potatoes.
3. break three eggs into potato-onion mixture.
4. stir until well-mixed.
5. put in flour and stir, then salt and stir until all of the ingredients are well-mixed in with the other ingredients. Do not over-stir (you don't need to stir as often if you don't want to), or the eggs will get tough.
6. pour oil into frying pan or non-stick skillet.
7. once boiling or has bubbles, scoop out about ¾ of a cup of latke batter and pour onto skillet, about the shape of a pancake.
8. if you can fit three, do three at a time, flipping them over like pancakes. Latkes are potato pancakes, so if you don't know if you're cooking them right, just pretend they're pancakes because they are...they're just not made out of the same ingredients and they're a little bit more lumpy. Whatever you do, make sure you don't burn them, and make sure you enjoy them, which leads us to the last step...
9. Once you've used up all the batter, put them on a plate or platter, serve and

P.S. got this recipe from my sister. I have no clue where she got it, but if you see a pin on pinterest that has good-looking latkes, that may be where she got the recipe. Also, I wasn't a huge fan of this...it made my stomach feel a little queasy and I'm even queasy thinking about them. So, these may not be for you, so let me forewarn you that this recipe makes a lot of latkes, so cut the recipe in half and you should be good. ;)

5 Minutes or Less: Coffee Cake in a Cup

So I tried out the "Top 25 Microwaveable Dessert Recipes" and though I didn't try each and every one of them, I randomly chose (well, ok, looked at the pictures and said, "Which one looks most appealing to me?") and picked the Coffee Cake recipe! So, here's "5 Min or Less: Coffee Cake in a Mug". Enjoy!

So, basically, what I did here, was follow the recipe. I used a custard cup instead of a ramekin, I used a small red mug (about...errr...7 oz?) instead of a large mug, because I really wanted to have the top like overflowing. It lived up to my expectations, that's for sure! Anyway, so just click on the link below and you should have it. Mmm, I give it all to them. It was good. It wasn't as moist as I would like it to be, but then...coffee cake never is. :) Enjoy, though! It's pretty quick.

5 Min or Less: Coffee Cake in a Mug (and in a microwave)

5 Quick and Easy Recipes

...including breakfast. Enjoy!

NOTE: these are not supposed to go together. That's why lunch and snack are both pizza. Don't worry, though - lunch is a more filling pizza!

- BREAKFAST: oatmeal -
ingredients: oats, hot milk, sugar, fruit

• oats
• hot milk
• sugar (opt)
• fruit (opt)

directions: put rolled oats in bowl. Put milk in microwave, warm it until it's hot. Pour it over oats until oatmeal is clumping together. Don't add more, don't add less. It shouldn't be floating in milk, it should be clumped together. If you put in sugar, put it in until it's sweet-ish. If you put in fruit, put it in now and eat up! (warning: to those of you who don't like oatmeal, you won't like this.)

- APPETIZER: yogurt parfait -
ingredients:

• yogurt
• maple syrup
• fruit
• granola

directions: put yogurt in wineglass. Put granola on. Put fruit on top of granola. Drizzle maple syrup over fruit. Eat up! (warning: this is better with granola, so do not leave it out or sub something like rolled oats over it - that's gross.)

- LUNCH: bagel pizza -
ingredients:

• bagel(s)
• tomato/pizza sauce
• cheese (preferably mozzarella)

directions: put bagel in toaster or oven until lightly toasted. Put on tomato sauce and put on cheese (I use shredded cheese because it will melt evenly over bagel, but if you use cheese sticks or slices of cheese, it may not melt evenly). Put in microwave (oven will brown your bagel even more, and your bagel may burn before cheese is melted) until cheese is melted and golden brown on top. Take out and enjoy! (warning: bagels aren't pizza dough, so you can also buy dough that comes in little circles and put pizza sauce and cheese on and then put it in the oven until either cheese is melted and golden brown or the dough is cooked and golden/lightly brown.)

- SNACK: mini pizzas -
ingredients:

• tortilla(s), large if you're making more than four or five
• tomato/pizza sauce
• cheese (preferably mozzarella)

directions: place can as close to edge of tortilla as possible without going over it. Push down - hard - on can until you have cut out a circle with the edge of the can. You can also use a glass and a knife, but a can is easier. Cut out as many circle as is fitting for you (remember, as you're cutting this out, this is just a snack, not a full on meal. Only make enough to make your hunger pangs go away). Put tortilla circles in muffin tin (mini muffin tin, not those normal-sized ones - those are too big!). Put tomato or pizza sauce on/in. Sprinkle cheese over it. It has to be grated (or, pre-grated, for your convenience), not sliced because sliced will pool at the bottom once melted and cheese sticks you can't put on the edge - the cheese should be all around the tortilla circles. Then put muffin tins in oven and wait until cheese is melted and golden brown and then take out. Slide knife underneath tortilla and remove carefully. May burn you, so be careful! Put on decorative plate, if having guests over, or just put on normal plate if it's just normal you. Serve to either guests or normal you and enjoy!

- DESSERT: cookie in a mug -
ingredients:

• 1 T butter
• 1 T dark brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 T granulated sugar, white
• 3 drops vanilla extract (or, a dash)
• small pinch salt, kosher
• 1 egg yolk
• scant 1/4 all purpose flour (slightly less than 1/4 flour)
• 2 T semi-sweet choc. chips (heaping)

directions: melt butter in microwave, add sugars, vanilla, and salt. Put in yolk, stir. Add flour, stir. add choc. chips, stir (it should now look like cookie dough. Cook in microwave 40-60 seconds, and start checking for doneness at 40 seconds (time may vary for different people's cookies). Do not cook past one minute, because like all other cookies, it will continue to cook in the mug until it's cooled off. if the cookie is dry and cake-like in texture, you've cooked it too long, so shorten the time the next time you make a cookie in a mug. Serve warm and enjoy! (note: if you like your cookies slightly coffee-like - add 1-1/2 t inst. coffee, stir until well-mixed, and then put in microwave.)
Thanks for reading and

Summer Smoothies: My Own Recipe

What's a better summer treat than smoothies? Milkshakes, but that's not the recipe I'm going to give you.
How good is this recipe? (1-5 stars) ★★★★★
Prep Time:* 1-3 min
Total Time: 5 min?
Ingredients:

• 2 cups strawberries (chopped if you want, but since you're just going to put it in the blender, why waste time on that?)
• 2 cups mango chunks
• 1-2 cups mango nectar (sub: apple juice but really this recipe was made with mango nectar, so it's a lot better with mango nectar)

Optional Ingredients:

• 1 cup pineapple
• 1 cup mango

But...I used 1/2 cup pineapple and 1/2 cup mango nectar, so if you want, use that instead. The reason I did only one cup of each (instead of the usual two) was that the pineapple enzymes cut into your tongue and if you use more than one cup, it can hurt to drink more so instead of hurting your guests' tongues, just reduce it to 1 or 1/2 cup of both. ;)

Also, another ingredient I put in was a banana. I chopped it up and it came to about one cup. So put in

• 1 cup banana, chopped

I'll tell you what to do next soon. But first; make sure you put all the ingredients in at the same time, otherwise you'll have the problem I did: chunks of fruit on the sides of the blender so that when I poured the drink into cups, you got little chunks of fruit in the cup, too. So dump all the ingredients in (one by one or all together if you put all the ingredients in a cup) BEFORE you blender them all together and make one shebang of a drink. Now comes the directions.

Directions:
Uhh...blender, serve, and drink? At least, that's what I did. But if you want to know what exactly to do (or, if you always follow DIRECTIONS), read below.

REAL Directions:
Pulse all the ingredients in a blender until the fruit begins to break down (about 5 pulses), then blend on high until completely smooth. And then you serve. And that's all there is to it!
Thanks for reading.

P.S. You can add a few things, take off a few things. Bananas, it seems, don't exactly add anything to the drink, so if you want, you can just take them/it entirely out. Doesn't matter to me.

Broccoli Muffins

These muffins will get your kids to eat broccoli. Maybe not like broccoli, but they'll eat it. I know, because I don't like broccoli at all, I dislike it a lot, but my Mom baked the muffins, all warm, and so we had them for breakfast. :) Anyway. Here's where she got the recipe: www.snackinginthekitchen.com
(c) Snacking In The Kitchen May 9th, 2010

Here's the recipe:
Ingredients
1 pound Italian Sausage (sweet, mild, hot variety depending on your preference)
1 cup broccoli florets
8 large eggs
1/4 cup milk (or half and half depending on how you're feeling that day)
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp baking powder
salt & pepper to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan Cheese as needed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In a large saute pan, over medium high heat, brown Italian Sausage for about 5 minutes, or until the sausage is no longer pink. Remove from heat and stir in broccoli.
3. Whisk together eggs, milk, oil and baking powder. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Lightly spray a 12-cupcake pan with oil.Spoon out the sausage and broccoli mixture evenly into each cupcake.
5. Ladle the egg mixture over sausage and broccoli.
6. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes.