Christmas S'mores!

I love love love s'mores, but they are so messy!  Plus, when I toast my marshmallows on the stovetop, they taste really funny!  Tonight my Air Force Spouse Support group had a cookie exchange, but I went a little rogue and made these bars instead!  Originally I got the recipe here, but I tweaked it a little bit to fit what I had.  Here it is!

Christmas S'mores

15 Graham Crackers
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
3-4 cups mini marshmallows
2 cups holiday M&Ms
Half Sheet Pan

1. Line the pan with parchment paper (or aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray) with an overhang of at least an inch.  Lay the graham crackers down next to each other with sides touching.

2. Melt butter and sugar together in a pot until just boiling ( I didn't have brown sugar, so I just threw some extra molasses in there - tasted just fine!)

3. Pour over the graham crackers (spread fairly evenly) and bake at 350 for roughly 5 minutes until it's bubbling

4. Sprinkle the mini marshmallows on top, put back in the oven for another 2 to 3 minutes until they're soft, then take out of the oven and sprinkle the M&Ms all over

5. Let it cool completely (or else all that yummy goo will spill) and then you can cut it into bars!

This seriously took no more than 15 minutes to make and they were so yummy!!

For Dinner Tonight

Tonight, I am very excited about my dinner.  Usually, I just post recipes here without much personal input. Tonight is not that night!  Now, I love a good chowder (clam, crab, corn...a lot of c's, right?), so I make it fairly frequently.  I am usually limited to corn, because of budget, so I was so excited to hear about this new recipe!  It's a roasted corn and potato chowder, instead of just a normal corn chowder!  Roasted corn is probably the 9th wonder of the world, so I am hoping this dinner is amazing!  I remember once in girl scout camp, we had a dinner with other troops, and they had roasted corn on the cob, wrapped in tin foil.  I think I ate 4 or 5 cobs! So far the soup smells amazing, and I have about 10 minutes left for the flavors to get to know each other.  My usual corn chowder recipe doesn't have potatoes, so I am also excited about that addition!  I'll let you know about the final result!

Side note: I would make seafood chowders all the time if we had more money...nothing like some seafood in chowder!  One of the best combinations is one from Whole Foods...blackened salmon, crab, and corn chowder...AHMAZING!

Mini Lemon Meringue Pies

Tonight I made little bitty individual lemon meringue pies.  They were time consuming, but rewarding!  They only make 6, so it's really the perfect amount, and the pan fits perfectly into my mini oven! (it calls for a muffin pan with 6 cups).  I highly suggest this recipe.  I had a little issue with the pie crust, and they certainly didn't look pretty, but at the end there's a bunch of stuff heaped on and you can't even tell.  Also, the lemon filling took longer than the recipe estimated...instead of whisking constantly for 3-4 minutes, I think I probably whisked for 10 minutes or so.  Here's the link! Mini Lemon Meringue Pies

My final product!

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Made Fried Chicken for dinner on Thursday night.  I also made mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans...yummy!  I marinated the chicken for about 3 hours in a buttermilk mixture.  Here's the recipe for that:

2 cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme

Basically just milk that all together and put the chicken in! It's supposed to be in an airtight container, and you let the chicken marinate in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

After the chicken has marinated for the amount that you want it to, take it out and dredge in a cornmeal/flour mixture! Here's the recipe for that:

2.5 cups all purpose flour
.5 cups yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons salt
2 teaspoons pepper

I used a whole chicken, cut up into parts.  2 thighs, 2 breasts (each cut into 2 pieces), 2 drumsticks, and 2 wings.

Heat about 6 cups of canola oil in a large pot (I used my dutch oven) to 350 degrees F.  After you've dredged the chicken in the flour/cornmeal mixture (make sure it's in all of the little spaces) drop it into the  oil skin side first, and fry it on that side for 7-8 minutes.  Flip, and cook on the other side for another 7-8 minutes.  Take it out of the oil. Let some of the excess oil drip off into the pot before taking it to a paper bag to drain.   You won't be able to fry all of the chicken at once, so you'll have to do it in 2 batches.  DELISH!

the orange sauce on the right plate is a honey-hot sauce for the chicken.  mix about half a cup of honey with as much hot sauce as you like...very good! kicks up the chicken.

I got the recipe from the Clinton St. Baking Company cookbook.  The chicken and honey sauce are their recipes

delicious blueberry muffins!

I made these amazing blueberry muffins this morning! Well, morning for me...early afternoon for everyone else! I found the recipe on foodnetwork.com, Ina Garten of course! They are so light, moist, and yummy! Here's the link to the recipe:

Ina's blueberry muffins

I sprinkled a tiny bit of sugar on top of the muffins before baking to create a nice little crunch on top of the muffins...it was a good choice.  Here's a pic of the finished product!

Beef Stew

We had a ton of extra beer left over from Jake's birthday this past weekend, and since neither of us drink beer I wanted to use it to make something!  I thought Jake would love a good beef stew, so I made Pioneer Woman's Beef Stew with Beer and Paprika tonight.  SO DELICIOUS! Here's the link to her recipe:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/01/beef-stew-with-beer-and-paprika/

it's the first time I've used these bowls and saucers! they're from France, I guess they were my Dad's Mom's? Either way, they're perfect for soup!

birthday cheesecake

For Jake's birthday I made this cheesecake:

It was delicious! A good thing that we had a big party, so most of it got eaten, and not by me! Here's the recipe from food network...thank you Ina Garten!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/raspberry-cheesecake-recipe/index.html

I didn't put the lemon zest in, because I didn't have any.  BEST CHEESECAKE EVER! It didn't even crack!  Also, I only cooled it for a few hours because I was a bad baker and didn't read the directions all the way through...but it turned out fine! 5 out of 5 stars