Crockpot Refried Beans

1 onion
3 cups dry pinto beans, rinsed
1/2 fresh jalenpeno pepper, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 3/4 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
9 cups water

Place everything in crockpot and stir to combine. Cook on high for 8 hours.

Once the beans have cooked, strain them and reserve the liquid. Mash the beans with a potato masher, adding the reserved water as needed to attain desired consistency.

--These beans were really good. The recipe originally included 5 teaspoons of salt, but they turned out REALLY salty. It was fine because they went into burritos that were topped with guacamole, so it wasn't that noticeable, but you definitely couldn't eat them plain. So next time I won't add it at all. Well, maybe just a little, but not 5 teaspoons. Plus my mom told me that adding salt can sometimes make your beans turn out hard, so maybe just salt to taste at the end.

Mexican Rice

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
half a packet of taco seasoning
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup tomato sauce
2 cups chicken broth

Directions:

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and add rice. Cook, stirring constantly, until puffed and golden. While rice is cooking, sprinkle with taco seasoning.

Stir in onions and cook until tender. Stir in tomato sauce and chicken broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

Triple Chocolate Pie

A thick layer of silky chocolate cream sandwiched between a crunchy chocolate crust and thin chocolate shell

Ingredients:

Crust (alternate: two 8" graham cracker pie shells)
1 cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs *
2 Tablespoons sugar
4 Tablespoons butter, melted

Filling
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup chocolate syrup
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
8 oz. (1 package) cream cheese, room temperature
1 3/4 cups milk
3 oz. (1 package) chocolate pudding
8 oz. whipped cream or whipped topping

Topping
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 Tablespoons butter

Instructions:

Crust
1. If making your own crust grease a 8" or 9" springform pan. Mix the graham cracker crumbs * and sugar; add butter and mix. Flatten ** in your springform pan. Bake for 7 minutes at 350 degrees. Set aside to cool.

Filling
2. Place sugar, chocolate syrup, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and cream cheese in a sauce pan on the stove (preferrably with the cream cheese on bottom) and cover for 15 minutes.

3. In a separate dish mix pudding mix and milk.

4. Stir the cream cheese mixture until fairly homogenous; add cream cheese mixture to pudding and mix with electric beater.

5. Add whipped cream -- but do not overbeat!

6. Well grease the sides of the springform pan again (this helps prevent the filling from sticking to the pan).

7. Pour mixture into springform pan or pie crusts.

8. Freeze for 4 hours, or preferrably overnight.

Topping
9. Add butter and chocolate chips to a small sauce pan on low. Stir.

10. Once mixture is melted and smooth remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

11. Pour over the top of the triple chocolate pie and spread evenly over the top using a spatula.

12. Return to freezer for at least 10 minutes to allow chocolate shell to harden.

13. You may need to use a thin, narrow spatula around the edges to help loosen the pie from the springform pan.

14. Once removed from the springform pan you can return any leftovers to the freezer. Simply cover in plastic wrap.

So- I totally didn't have enough chocolate chips to make the chocolate shell! Oops. I think I like it better with out it though. I topped the pie with a little chocolate syrup and caramel. But I think I won't even put anything on the second pie that's in the freezer. I love it just the way it is! Perfection. It might be too sweet with the chocolate shell.

Mesquite Chicken and Bacon Bowtie Pasta

8 oz. Farfalle pasta
1 c. heavy whipping cream
3-4 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
2 to 3 cloves garlic, crushed OR garlic salt (I do a spoonful of crushed garlic)
1/2 tbsp pepper
1/2 c. butter
1 lb. bacon, crumpled**
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese
1 (12 oz) Lawry’s mesquite marinade with lime juice

**We like to cook our bacon in the oven (400 degrees, convection). Way less messy. And it’s crispy every time. Time varies, so you just have to watch it. I think it’s usually around 30 minutes. Allow to cool and then crumple.

[ directions ]

Crock pot chicken and bottle of marinade on low for 6 hours. Pull marinated chicken out of the juices, allow to cool a little bit, and shred.

Set this aside.

About a half-hour before serving, boil the pasta. In a small saucepan, melt butter, add garlic, whipping cream, pepper, parmesan cheese, and crumpled bacon. Whisk together on low heat for 3-4 minutes. In a large bowl, pour over cooked, drained pasta, add chicken and stir through. Sprinkle a little bit more shredded parmesan cheese on top.

--This recipe was soooo yummy. Dustin doesn't like cheese so I did not add the cheese to the sauce. It was still amazing. But I bet it's about 5 times more amazing with the cheese.

I baked my bacon in the oven just like she said. I lined a cookie sheet with tinfoil (easier clean up) and put it in the oven for 30 minutes. It came out burnt! I should have watched it more. But--it didn't ruin the recipe at all. It gave it a nice smokey flavor.

This pasta had such a unique flavor. I absolutely loved it! I will DEFINITELY be making this again.

Easy Sugar Cookies!

This is my go-to cookie recipe. It's so good and so easy! I LOVE them. Maybe a little too much.

Man, this new hobby isn't so weight-loss friendly is it?

Oh well. On to the cookies!

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

In a small bowl stir together flour, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.

In large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla.

Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded spoonfuls of dough into balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.


Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Let cookies cool about two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks. Or whatever you have. I use tinfoil on my countertop.

I let my cookies cool and then topped them with The Best Buttercream Frosting recipe that I had posted a couple weeks ago.

These are also really good plain! I usually do not frost them!

This is Dustin's plate. Don't be jealous of my mad frosting skills.


I'm sure that you could also refrigerate the cookie dough and then roll it out for cut-out cookies. I don't know though, I've never tried it. I don't have cookie cutters!

I'll just add that to my ever growing list of things-I'm-saving-my-money-for.

Apple Ladder Loaf

This week I decided to try this recipe on found on Tammy's Recipes.

Yield:

2 loaves (10 slices each)

Ingredients:

Basic Sweet Dough:

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 packages (1/4 ounce or 2 1/4 teaspoons each) quick rise yeast
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup butter
2 eggs

Apple Filling:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
4 cups thinly sliced and peeled apples

Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons orange juice
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Melt butter in a sauce pan, and then add milk and water just until warm (105-115 degrees). Gradually add milk mixture to dry ingredients; beat 2 minutes at medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally. Add eggs and 1/2 cup flour; beat 2 minutes at high speed. With spoon, stir in remaining flour to form a stiff batter; grease top. Cover tightly with plastic wrap; rerfigerate 2 hours or up to 3 days. Remove dough from the refrigerator.

2. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Roll each half into 12-inch x 9-inch rectangle. Place each on a greased baking sheet. Spread with butter.

3. Combine the brown sugar, flour, and spiced in a large bowl. Add apples and toss to coat. Spread filling down center third of each rectangle.

4. On each long side, cut 1-inch wide strips about 3 inches into center. Starting at one end, fold alternating strips at an angle across filling; seal ends. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 45-60 minutes.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown. Combine icing ingredients until smooth; drizzle over warm loaves. Serve warm or at room temperature.

This was good. I halved the recipe. I've been such a sweet tooth lately, so I figured it best to not have two loaves hanging around! My math skills are seriously lacking, so trying to figure out what half of 3/4 was was my biggest challenge. I ended up just estimating a lot.

I think that I followed the directions well, but for some reason my dough had a difficult time rising, so it turned out not so fluffy in the end. I think my mistake happened here "With spoon, stir in remaining flour to form a stiff batter " It was almost impossible to keep stirring that dough so in order to get all the flour mixed I kneaded it by hand a little. Next time I won't do that.

It was still very yummy though!

Mashed Potatoes and Ranch Style Chicken

Have you guys heard of the Pioneer Woman? If you haven't you must go to her site and try out some of her recipes. They are so yummy!

This week I tried her Ranch Style Chicken, and her Creamy Mashed Potatoes.

If there are mashed potatoes in heaven, it's these mashed potatoes. I guarantee it. And they'll be even better, because there are no calories in heaven.

The chicken was delish as well. It was still a little on the dry side, but way better than normal for me. I ALWAYS overcook chicken. I guess I'm just afraid of food poisoning or something. I'll have to get over that.



Mmmmmm. I loved this meal. I'll definitely be making this again!

Mini Angel Food Cakes

On Saturday I took a trip to one of my favorite places. The Farmer's Market. I bought 2 watermelons, a cantelope, a honeydew melon, apples, bananas, potatoes and strawberries all for $11. That's right. It's a magical place. I bought 2 cartons of delicious strawberries, and I said to myself "It's time to learn how to make angel food cake!"

It was always my favorite cake growing up. I'd ask for it every birthday. Angel food cake topped with whipped cream and strawberries. And that's what I attempted to make today.

I found the recipe on one of my regular go-to sites. Allrecipes.com It had gotten 5 stars out of 140-something reviews, so I knew I couldn't go wrong with it.

INGREDIENTS


* 12 eggs
* 1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Separate eggs; discard yolks or refrigerate for another use. Measure egg whites, adding or removing whites as needed to equal 1-1/2 cups. Place in a mixing bowl; let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, sift confectioners' sugar and flour together three times; set aside. Add cream of tartar, extracts and salt to egg whites; beat on high speed. Gradually add sugar, beating until sugar is dissolved and stiff peaks form. Fold in flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time. Gently spoon into an ungreased 10-in. tube pan. Cut through batter with a knife to remove air pockets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Immediately invert pan; cool completely before removing cake from pan.

I had my plan. And I began to bake!

I seperated my eggs.


It didn't take a full 12 eggs to make 1 1/2 cups.
Then I sifted the flour and sugar together tres times.



Basically it was all going wonderfully until I turned on my mixer to beat the eggs. Then Kate started to cry.

Lately loud noises like my hair dryer and the vacuum scare her. Today, it was my hand mixer. I beat the eggs. She cried. I continued beating the eggs. She cried harder. I felt like a horrible mom, but I had to get those peaks to form!

After they did I quickly folded in the flour and proceeded to spoon the batter into the pans. I overlooked the part in the recipe where it says "fold in flour mixture 1/4 cup at a time" so it took me awhile to get it all mixed. So I messed up a little there.

One of the reviewers on allrecipes said that they had put their batter into muffin tins instead of a tube pan. I thought "Great! That's perfect because I don't have a tube pan" Well, after I spooned the batter into my large muffin tin, there was still a lot of batter left! So I spooned the rest into a 9 inch cake pan. I should have gotten out my little muffin tin, but hey-- there was a crying baby! It was very distracting.

I also overlooked the part in the recipe where it says "cut through batter with a knife to remove air pockets". Oops. That turned out to be important too.

Even with all the mistakes I think they turned out wonderful. Next time I make them I'll just be sure to either buy a tube pan, or buy another large muffin tin so I don't have my weird little round cake. Oh- and I will make sure Dustin is home to watch the crying baby.

Buffalo Ranch Chicken Sandwiches

The main purpose of this blog is to motivate me to find new and challenging recipes to make. But sometimes I'll post a couple quick and easy recipes.

These are my favorite sandwiches. They are oh-so-yummy and there is no possible way to screw them up. Perfect for college girls looking to impress some RMs. Ashley, Tawni, Lacie? Are you paying attention? Good.

You will need:

A crockpot
2 chicken breasts
1/2 12 oz bottle of Franks Red Hot Wing Sauce (buffalo flavor- you don't want it any hotter than that, trust me!)
1/2 package dry ranch dressing mix
2 tablespoons butter

hamburger buns
lettuce
mayo
ranch dressing

yield: approximately 6 sandwiches

Place frozen chicken breasts in crockpot. Pour in wing sauce. Add dry ranch dressing and butter and cook on low for about 5 hours or on high about 3. When the chicken is cooked enough to shred apart easily, do so. Then continue cooking the chicken in all those good smelling juices for about another hour or until your ready to eat. Like I said, it's hard to screw this up. Maybe that's why it's my fave.

When ready to serve, scoop out chicken with a slotted spoon. It's very juicy and messy. Delightfully messy. So try to get rid of as much of the juices as you can and serve on hamburger buns. Just keep some napkins handy. You'll need them. I like to use some ranch dressing and mayo on my hamburger buns, I think it really adds to the flavor and helps combat the spicy-ness of the buffalo sauce. But eat it however way you choose. It's your sandwich.

Also add cheese. I bet that's good. Dustin doesn't like cheese, so I didn't think to add it, but I bet it's yummy.

Also I would have taken a picture of these sandwiches, but my camera batteries died yesterday :( I feel....incomplete.

Gnocchi

My husband Dustin served his mission in Argentina. He's always talking about the amazing gnocchi he had there. I've made gnocchi in the past but it was always pre-packaged gnocchi and I served it with Ragu. So I got courageous and decided to make my gnocchi by hand, and make a sauce from scratch (see below).

Gnocchi

INGREDIENTS

* 2 potatoes
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 egg

That's it! That's all you need. Putting it all together is a little trickier though.



1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Peel potatoes and add to pot. Cook until tender but still firm. Drain, cool and mash with a potato masher. This didn't get my potatoes mashed enough, so I got out my mixer and mashed them even more.
Get them as finely mashed as you can. It's very important.
2. Add the flour 1/2 cup at a time. The actual amount used will vary every time, becuase not all potatoes are the same size, and the amount of water absorbed during the boiling will be different. Knead it all together until dough forms ball. It needs to dry but soft enough to roll it into snakes.
Cut snakes into small pieces. Press pieces with a floured fork, and make an indentation with your finger in the middle. This helps hold the pasta sauce.
3. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Drop in gnocchi and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until gnocchi have risen to the top;

drain and serve.

Dustin's grade: B
Erin's grade: B

There were a couple problems I encountered with this. First, I don't think I mashed the potatoes enough. I should of beat them with my mixer for even longer than I did. Second, I didn't realize that the gnocchi would get bigger when I boiled them. Next time I will cut them even smaller. Third, it was a little bland. They were great with the sausage sauce I made (see below), but if you got a bite with more gnocchi than sauce...it was lacking a little. I don't know what I would add to them, but they definitely needed a little something extra.

Lastly- I made the mistake of making the gnocchi first. I should have waited until after the sauce was made. They sat out too long and I had to re-heat them in the microwave, which may have added to their blandness.

Italian Sausage Marinara Sauce

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound Italian sausage links
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 (14 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon salt
another 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

Directions

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and add the sausage links. The sausages I purchased had skin on them so I removed them first. Cook until nice and brown on all sides. Remove from pan and cut into small slices. Place them back in the pan and continue cooking until no longer pink. Drain and set aside.

In a medium sauce pan, saute the onion until translucent. Add the garlic and 1 1/2 teaspoons italian seasoning. Cook until tender. Add the crushed tomatoes, water, salt and remaining italian seasoning and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Combine sausage and sauce and cook until sausages are re-heated.

This sauce was awesome! I loved it! The only thing I might have done differently is cut the sausage even smaller than I did, or just brown it all together, like you would ground beef.

Dustin's grade: A
Erin's grade: A

The Best Buttercream Frosting EVER!

This frosting was so SO good! This will probably be my standard frosting recipe from now on.

Ingredients:

1 cup shortening (crisco)
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

In a mixing bowl, cream shortening until fluffy. Add sugar VERY SLOWLY (seriously! there was powdered sugar all over my kitchen!) and continue creaming until well blended. Add salt, vanilla, and whipping cream. Blend on low speed until moistened. Beat at high speed until frosting is fluffy.

Dustin's grade: A
Erin's grade A+

I love this frosting. My mouth is salivating just thinking about it. I think I'll go cut me another piece of cake :)

Dangerously Delicious Chocolate Cake

Revision: I originally gave this an A- because I thought it was too sweet. Well, half-a-cake later I've decided that I wouldn't change a darn thing. Not a thing. It's so good! I'm completely addicted. In fact, please come over and have some cake. I really shouldn't eat this whole thing by my lonesome.

Or should I?

I saw this recipe a couple weeks ago on kevinandamanda.com and I've been dying to try it out ever since. I paired it with The Best Buttercream Frosting, and it was soooo delicious!

Ingredients

1 box devil’s food cake mix
1 package Jello instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Grease and lightly flour two 9 inch cake pans (or whatever pan you so choose)
3. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together except for the chocolate chips. Batter will be thick.
4. Stir in the chocolate chips
5. Scoop the batter into pans


6. Use the directions on the back of the box as a guideline for your baking time. It will take longer, so check it every five minutes after the allotted time with a toothpick. You might get chocolate from the chips on your toothpick so don't let that fool you.
7. Remove from over and let cool completely.


Dustin's grade: A

Erin's grade: A-

This cake is so incredibly delicious. It's so divinely rich. Just a little too sweet for my taste, so next time I might half the chocolate chips, or leave them out all together.

Mmmmmm.....

Introduction

I've never been a good cook. I can cook, but I don't think I can cook well. I regularly burn things and always overcook my chicken.

I want to be a good cook. A REALLY good cook. The kind of cook that makes people ask me for my recipes, or ask me to cook for them. I want to be included in phrases like, "Have you tried my wife's chocolate cake?" or "My mom makes the best macaroni and cheese". I want to be confident enough to have friends over for dinner, instead of going to dinner.

So I've decided to start making more complicated meals at least once a week. I'm not saying I'm going to cook duck or frog legs, I just want to amp it up a notch. Instead of plain spaghetti, I'll make spaghetti with homemade marinara sauce and meatballs. Then I will blog about what I do.

My first project: homemade gnocchi with a made-from-scratch italian sausage marinara sauce and chocolate cake with buttercream frosting for dessert.

I'm going grocery shopping tonight and I will make this meal on Wednesday.

Are you excited?

You should be.