Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry

Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry

Ingredients:
1 tbsp. cornstarch
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 lb. beef stir fry
5 tbsp. oil ½ c. beef broth
¼ c. onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
½ c. carrot strips
2 c. broccoli flowerets
¼ tsp. red pepper, crushed, dried

Directions:
In bowl stir cornstarch and soy sauce. Add beef to coat. · Cover and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Drain, reserve marinade. · In large skillet or wok, heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium high heat. Add onion, garlic and red pepper. Stir fry 2 minutes. · Remove with slotted spoon to large bowl. Add mushrooms to skillet. Stir fry 1 minute. Remove to bowl. Add 2 tablespoons oil. Add carrots and broccoli. · Stir fry 2 minutes or until tender crisp. Remove to bowl. Add 1 tablespoon oil. Add beef. Stir fry 3 minutes or until lightly browned. · Add broth and reserved marinade (If you dont have any leftover Marinade, mix 1 t. cornstarch with 2 t. soy sauce.) Stir constantly bring to boil over medium heat and boil 1 minute. · Add vegetables. Cook 2-3 minutes until heated. Serve over rice.

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Moist Pumpkin Spice Muffins

I made these muffins last Monday. They were Delicious! There is a Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe, but I didn't use it...trying to eat a little healthier. I found these beauties at Pioneer Woman Cooks. Check out here site...she gives great step by step instructions and has amazing pictures.

Muffins:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1 heaping cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup Walnuts or Raisins (optional!)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously grease 12 muffin tins.

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Cut in butter with two knives or a pastry blender until all incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix together pumpkin, evaporated milk, egg, and vanilla. Pour pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Add raisins. Fold gently until mixture is just combined. Pour into greased muffin pan—batter hardly ever fills all twelve unless you keep it down to 1/2 full. Sprinkle generous amounts of cinnamon-sugar over the top of each unbaked muffin.
Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove and allow to cool. Ice with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/4 cup softened butter
4 ounces cream cheese
1/2 pound powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all ingredients on high until soft and whipped. Spread onto completely cooled muffins, or place into a large pastry bag with a large star tip and go crazy!

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Famous Chicken Wings

This recipe comes from my dad's mom, Grandma Sharron. They are surely famous in our family. My mom made them for us while we were growing up. This was the first time I had made them on my own. They turned out pretty yummy. This is the only recipe that I have where I fry something. I normally dont like fried food.

Famous Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

2 ½ lbs. chicken wings or drummets

2 tsp. garlic salt

Cornstarch

Eggs

Oil

¾ c. sugar

½ c. rice vinegar

¼ c. pineapple juice

3 T. ketchup

1 T. soy sauce

1 T. accent

Directions:

Sprinkle in garlic salt, let sit for 2 hrs in the fridge.

Roll in cornstarch, then eggs(whisked together) then fry in oil till medium brown.

Mix everything else Together. Lay chicken on pan. Cover in sauce.

Cook at 325 for one hour. Turn 4 times (To cook each quarter). Every time I turn them I get a spoon and spoon the sauce onto the chicken.

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Halloween Treats

I spent the other night cooking some sweet Halloween Treats for some neighbors and for a party we were having. These White Chocolate Covered Strawberries make cute little ghosts.

I dont really have a recipe. I used Bakers white chocolate squares, melted in the microwave and then dipped the strawberries. then I used milk chocolate chips and melted them with a little vegetable oil (to make it thinner) and made little faces on them.


Here are all the Halloween treats on a plate. I thought they all turned out great.

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Eric's Hot Wings

The first thing that my husband said when I took a picture of his wings the other night was.."Sweet, I made the blog". These were a hit at our BYU Football party.

• 3 1/2 pounds chicken wings, tips discarded
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (add more if you can stand it)
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 1 cup honey
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup hot sauce

1. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium heat and lightly oil grate.
2. Wash the wings well and pat dry with paper towel. Season the meat with cayenne, salt, and pepper.
3. Cook the chicken wings on preheated grill until cooked through and juices run clear, 20 to 30 minutes depending on the size of the wings. Brush the wings liberally using 1/2 cup of honey while they are cooking.
4. Melt the butter, pour into a large bowl and mix in the remaining 1/2 cup of honey and hot sauce. Remove the wings from the grill and immediately toss them in the hot honey butter sauce to coat. Serve the wings 'wet' or return them to the grill for 1 minute per side to set the sauce.

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Pumpkin Pie Bites

I found these sweet bites at Bakerella. She is amazing and I always love her ideas. I even used her recipe for the pumpkin pie...they were delicious and really not that hard.

Roll your premade crust a little thinner than normal. Use a pumpkin cookie cutter or a round cookie cutter and make the stem out of scratches. Cut them out and place them into mini cupcake pans. You can try to fill them all, but make sure the crusts are not touching. I left a couple of empty spaces in the pan.

This is what they look like before you bake them. Make sure you brush the crust that is showing with egg white.

Looks good, now lets finish them off...

The finished product looks great and tastes great.
I think hubby downed more than a handful of these.

Pumpkin Pie Bites

2 refrigerated ready-to roll pie crusts

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter

Optional (for the choc. drizzle)
1/2 cup chocolate morsels
vegetable oil
re-sealable plastic bags

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Use cookie cutter to cut 12 pumpkin shapes from each pie crust. You will need to roll the dough thinner than it comes out of the box.
Press dough shapes into a 24 cup mini muffin tray. (Make 12 at a time, alternating cups to make sure pie crusts don’t overlap each other.)
Apply egg whites from one egg to the top edges of each pie.
Mix cream cheese, sugar, canned pumpkin, remaining 2 eggs, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice together until thoroughly combined.
Spoon mixture into each pumpkin-shaped pie crust. Brush the crust with egg white.
Bake for 12-15 minutes.
Remove pies to cool and repeat with second pie crust. Place the muffin tray in the freezer to cool it quickly for re-use.

Makes 24 pies. Keep refrigerated.

To decorate, melt chocolate in a heat-proof bowl in the microwave on medium. Heat in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until melted. Add a little vegetable oil to make the chocolate more fluid. Transfer to a re-sealable plastic bag and cut the corner off. Drizzle or draw faces on pies.

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Pumpkin Pie Pops

I was in the mood to be in the kitchen yesterday, so I have lots of things to post. Here are some pumpkin pie pops that I made. If you love pie crust, then you will love these.

First you buy pre made pie crust, roll it out with some flour. I made the crust a little thinner than normal, and next time I might even go a little thinner. Use whatever shape cut out you want and cut as many as you can.

Lay one pumpkin down and put a Popsicle stick onto the crust.

Dollop a little pie filling (whatever filling you LOVE) right in the center. Wait...dont put too much or it will squeeze out of the sides. Then take another pie crust and set it on top.

Then you need to push the sides down with the corner of a Popsicle stick...Like this. Oh, and then take an egg white and brush the top of these so they don't burn. Then Bake them for 12-15 minutes at 375.

Dont they look yummy...(one tip...make sure you push the crust tightly around the stick...otherwise they will be loose when they come out).

Use a little melted chocolate if you would like to dress them up a little. And then enjoy!

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Cream Cheese Bacon Chicken

My husband loves Chicken Cordon Blue, so I figured I would try this next recipe that I found at Sunday Baker.

Cream Cheese Bacon Chicken
4 chicken breasts
1/2 block soft cream cheese
fresh chives
bacon strips (about 10)
salt to taste
2-4 T. butter

Cream Sauce
1/2 c. water
3T. butter
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 c. heavy cream
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan
salt and pepper to taste
1 T. cornstarch

Put the chicken into a gallon-size Ziploc and pound to about 1/8" thickness:



Mix together the chopped chives (about 2 T.) and the soft cream cheese. Spread about a T. or so onto each flattened chicken breast. Top with a few small pats of butter:



Roll up the chicken and wrap a couple of bacon slices around. Secure with a toothpick:


Lay the rolls in a greased baking dish and sprinkle with a dash of salt. Put into a 375 degree oven for about an hour, or until juices run clear, uncovered. (you can broil the last few minutes if you want the bacon really crisp).


While that's baking, it's time to make the sauce. In a saucepan, over medium heat, add the butter, water and chicken bouillon cubes. Heat to a boil, dissolving the cubes. Add the heavy cream, bringing back to a soft boil for about 1 minute. Add the cheese, garlic, salt and pepper. If you would like your sauce thick, in a small bowl mix together 1 T. cornstarch with 4 T. hot water. Add this mixture to the cream mixture, whisking over the heat. It will immediately start to thicken. Remove from heat.


When the chicken is done, serve with the delicious sauce poured over the top. I also serve linguine pasta on the side with the sauce. Ohhh, so good!

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Chocolate Pumpkin Pie

If you haven't already noticed. I love Fall, and the main reason...pumpkin flavored desserts. I have been searching for something similar to this for a long time. I am going to try it this weekend. I will let you know how it goes. I found this one on Baking Bites.

Chocolate Pumpkin Pie
Graham Cracker Crust*:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon
1 tbsp sugar

Filling:
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 - 15-oz. can pumpkin puree (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice)
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup milk (low fat is fine)

Preheat oven to 350F.
Combine all crust ingredients into a medium bowl and stir to combine. Press wet crumbs into the bottom and sides of a 9 or 10 inch pie plate. Bake 12-15 minutes, until just beginning to brown at the corners.
Set aside to cool completely before filling.

Turn oven up to 425F.
In a large bowl, beat eggs with a whisk until slightly foamy, about 1 minute. Whisk in all the remaining ingredients, except the milk, and beat until smooth. Then whisk in the milk.
Pour mixture into prepared, cooled pie crust (you can also use a pastry crust or a store-bought pie crust) and bake for 15 minutes at 425F. Reduce the temperature to 350F and bake for about 30 more minutes, until the pie filling jiggles only slightly and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool completely on a wire rack before cutting and refrigerate if storing leftovers.

Serves 8-10.

*While I typically like graham cracker crusts with pumpkin pie (and the one pictured here has a graham crust), this pie is also excellent with a regular crust. Use the instructions for this single crust pie to make and prebake the shell, then fill it with the pumpkin filling and bake as directed above.

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Pumpkin Pie Swirled Brownie Tart

I found this one at Picky Palate. I figured I would try it out today. I didnt try the topping. I thought I had everything for it and I didnt, so I just used whipped cream. I would rate this one an 8. Worth trying.

Pumpkin Pie Swirled Brownie Tart

2 rolls Pillsbury pie crust, thawed (or use your own pie crust recipe)

2 boxes brownie mix (8×8 inch size)

1 Cup pumpkin, from can like Libby’s

1/4 Cup granulated sugar

1/4 Cup evaporated milk

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 egg beaten

______________

4 oz softened cream cheese

1/2 Cup powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon milk

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Unroll pie dough from packaging and press into 2 tart pans with removable bottoms or 2 pie pans work just fine too. If you are using a pie pan make sure it’s not a deep dish style, the brownie mix will not fill to the top. With a fork, poke holes into the bottom of each crust then bake the pie crusts for 15 minutes then remove from oven. Prepare each brownie batter according to package directions. Pour each of the mixes into your tart or pie pan.

2. In a large bowl beat the pumpkin, sugar, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg and egg until well combined. Divide into 2 equal parts and dollop spoonfuls over each brownie pie. Take a knife and carefully swirl pumpkin pie into brownie batter without over swirling. You should see swirls. Be careful not to run your knife too far down tearing the crust. Bake for 35-38 minutes or until a toothpick comes out nearly clean when poked in the center of the brownie pie. Remove and let cool completely before slicing.

3. In a large bowl mix the cream cheese, powdered sugar, milk and cinnamon until smooth and creamy. Place dollops over each slice of pie. Serve with a tall glass of milk, enjoy!

8 slices

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