Homemade Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

Have you every thought about Reese's peanut butter cups and how they are made?  Maybe I'm weird, but I have often thought of how I could recreate them at home.  I searched a few different recipes, and using bits and pieces from each of them, I figured out a delicious little snack thats impressive and pretty!  I think these are just a good if not better than Reese's.  I The filling is creamy, the chocolate has a little crunch and salt on top adds an awesome touch.  I didn't get the Reese's brand peanut butter, but those probably would made them taste even more legit.  My only complaint is that unless they are eaten immediately from the fridge, they will get soft and crumbly while sitting out at room temp for a while.  

Homemade Reese's

Adapted from multiple places, but mostly missanthropistskitchen.com

1 cup creamy peanut butter (Reese's brand, if you'd like)

1 1/2 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

1/2 tsp salt +more for sprinkling on top.

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

4 milk chocolate candy bars, (1 1/2 oz each), coarsely chopped --I used Hershey's.

Combine 1/2 cup peanut butter, butter, confectioner's sugar, and salt until smooth.

In the microwave or a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips, chopped up chocolate bar, and remaining 1/2 cup peanut butter.  Stir together until smooth.

Drop a few teaspoonfuls of the chocolate mixture into the bottom of paper-lined muffin trays.  Top each with a dollop of the peanut butter mixture (I found this easier to do by putting the peanut butter in a pastry bag, and piping it out into the middle of the chocolate).  Top with another teaspoon or 2 of the chocolate mixture, enough to cover the peanut butter.  Put in the fridge to chill until set firm.  About 45 minutes into chilling them, remove them from the fridge and sprinkle large salt crystals (like fleur de del or kosher salt) onto the top of the cups.  

That's it!

Southwest Egg Rolls

These were one of those really-easy-throw-together-at-the-last-minute type of meal that always surprises me and ends up tasting sooo good.  We had a really long day with extremely fussy and refusing-to-nap babies, and we didn't have a bit of time to make anything for dinner.  As soon as they went to bed, I raided the fridge and came up with these delicious rolls.  They're more of an appetizer type dish, but we ate enough of them and just made it our meal.  I had some leftover shredded chicken, corn, a can of fire-roasted tomatoes, black beans, a jalapeño pepper, a bell pepper, and some mexican cheese.  So I concocted a mexican egg roll.  Here's how:

Mix all the filling ingredients together in a large bowl.  Take an unrolled egg roll wrapper, and place some filling in the middle.

Roll up one side, tucking the corner in under the filling.

Fold over the top corner onto the roll. Dip your fingertip in water and rub over the corner.

Fold up other corner, repeat the fingertip-water step.

Fold last corner all the way around to the underside of the roll.  Again with the fingertip-water deal.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes until rolls are golden brown and crispy!

Serve with your favorite salsa.

Brunswick Stew

Brunswick stew brings back good memories for me.  Butterflies in my stomach and that rush of feelings that you have encompass you while starting a new relationship with someone you love.  When Jeremy and I first started dating, we had Brunswick stew together often.  During school, we would take weekends and go down to visit his parents in Huntsville, Alabama.  Many times while we were there, we got take out from a place called Dreamland BBQ.  Their BBQ sauce is the vinegary type, and it's so good that it's delicious on its own, on a plain piece of white bread.  Or at least, that was our favorite way to eat it.  They also have a killer Brunswick stew.  Once I saw a recipe for this soup in a Southern Living magazine, I knew I had to try it out.  

It turned out delicious!  I don't know if it is quite as good as Dreamlands, but it's pretty dang good.  We gobbled up the entire pot in just a day or two.  It's warm and spicy.  One of our comfort foods for sure!

Brunswick Stew

Adapted from SouthernLiving

2 large onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 Tbsp jarred beef soup base (I didn't have this, nor could I find it, so I used a packet of beef onion soup mix instead)

2 lbs chicken breasts

1 (28 oz) can fire-roasted crushed tomatoes

1 (12 oz) pkg frozen whole kernel corn

1 (10 oz) pkg frozen creamed corn, thawed

1 (9 oz) pkg baby lima beans

1 (12 oz) bottle chili sauce

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp yellow mustard

1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp pepper

1 Tbsp lemon juice

hot sauce for serving (optional)

Saute onions and garlic in hot oil in a dutch oven or large pot over medium-high heat 3-5 minutes or until tender.  Stir together beef soup base and 2 cups water, then add to pot.  Stir in the chicken and the next 9 ingredients and bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally for about 2 hours.  

Uncover pot , remove and shred chicken.  Stir in lemon juice.  Return shredded chicken to the pot, cover and cook 10 minutes more.  Serve with hot sauce.  

Baked BBQ Onion Rings

In my college chemistry class, we extracted the fat and oils from a few different fast food snacks.  One of them was a french fry from Mcdonald's, and one of them was an onion ring from Sonic.  I loved sonic onion rings, and I was beyond grossed out when I saw how much oily disgustingness was hiding within the crunchy, breaded rings.  I can't remember how much it was exactly, but I remember it being a ridiculous amount.  That made me steer clear from french fries and onion rings for a while (until I forgot exactly how much fat they contained, which I then continued to eat them).

Sorry for the awful pictures, these were taken at night, with my older camera.

These onion rings are a bit healthier than Sonic's version, and I like them about just as much.  They're crispy on the outside, soft on the inside with a hint of BBQ sauce mixed in.

Baked BBQ Onion Rings

from JoyTheBaker

1 medium onion, sliced into rings

1/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 paprika

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1 egg

1/8 cup buttermilk

dash hot sauce

1 cup panko breadcrumbs

1/4 cup sour cream

1/8 cup BBQ sauce

Preheat oven to  400.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, paprika, chili powder, red pepper flakes and garlic powder.  In a separate bowl, Whisk together egg, buttermilk and hot sauce.  In yet another bowl, dump the breadcrumbs.

separate sliced onion into individual rings.  Dip rings first in the flour mixture, then the egg mixture, and then the panko.  Line up on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.  

Bake for 10 minutes, flip onion rings and bake for another 10-12 minutes, until the rings are golden brown and crisp. 

Mix together the sour cream and bbq sauce.  Serve with onion rings.

Homemade Potato Chips

One of my Christmas presents this year was the KitchenAid Food Processor.  This thing is awesome.  It does so many things!  It kneads, chops, slices, puree's, dices, minces, shreds, and more.  I typically am a pretty slow cooker.  Because I make almost everything from scratch (starting with fresh veggies/fruit instead of pre-prepared/canned, etc), most of the time that I spend making meals is because of chopping/slicing up things for the meal.  Well, my new food processor can do all that for me, and is a huge time saver.  It's really easy to use, safe, and extremely efficient.  

The first thing I made with my new kitchen toy is potato chips.  We put the slicer disc on the thinnest setting, and it made perfect potato chips.  

The top part of the FP has an adjustable size lid to fit big or small foods in.

Slicing the tater...

Raw chips.

Fry em' up!

season with salt 

Perfect!  They're crispy and very potato-y.  Sooooo good.

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Family Christmas Meal

We had family dinner with Jeremy's parents the weekend before Christmas.  We took the boys down to Huntsville, opened lots of presents, and ate lots of food.  I helped with dinner, and I thought I'd share some of the delicious things that we ate.

Caprese Bites.  Mozzarella, tomato, and basil leaves, held together with toothpicks.  We drizzled some sun dried tomato pesto on these, and they were delicious.

Mozzarella Sticks.  These were super easy and yum.  Mozzarella string cheese, wrapped in egg roll wrappers and baked.  Dipped in marinara sauce.

Asparagus & Ham Roll-ups.  These were surprisingly really good.  Asparagus spears, deli ham, and mustard rolled up in a crescent roll.

Veggie Ratatouille.  I've always wanted to make a ratatouille, because it looks so pretty.  It was very colorful and delicious!

This little guy had just had surgery and was still not back to his normal happy self, so I had to help make dinner with him attached to me.  No problem!

The night before, I had made some cookies for everyone to enjoy, and that they did.  Everyone loved them.  They are Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with Malted Milk Chocolate Buttercream.  

Here are all the recipes!

Caprese Bites

Log of Fresh Mozzarella, sliced into 1 inch slices

1 bunch basil leaves

1 Jar sun-dried tomatoes

1 jar sun-dried tomato pesto (regular pesto would also be delicious)

toothpicks

Place a tomato, piece of mozzarella, and basil leaf together on a toothpick.  Drizzle with pesto!

Homemade Mozzarella Sticks

1 pkg of Mozzarella String Cheese

1 pkg Egg Roll Wrappers

Marinara Sauce

wrap string cheese in egg roll wrappers.  Bake at 425 for 15 mins, until cheese sticks are golden brown and crispy.  Serve with marinara.

Asparagus & Ham roll-ups

1 bunch asparagus

1 pkg deli ham

1 pkg crescent rolls

mustard

Roll out and separate crescent rolls.  Spread a tsp or so of mustard on each roll.  Place a piece of ham and 2 asparagus spears and roll up in crescent roll.  Bake at 375 for 10-12 mins.

Veggie Ratatouille

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1 green bell pepper, sliced

1 medium sized potato, sliced

2 small zucchinis, sliced

olive oil

variety of herbs

salt and pepper

line up slices of veggies in a round casserole dish in a concentric pattern.  Drizzle with olive oil, and then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and whatever herbs you have on hand.  (I believe I used oregano, basil, marjoram, and garlic powder).

Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with Malted Milk Chocolate Buttercream

from Loveandoliveoil.com

for the cookies:

1 1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp instant espresso powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temp

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

for the cream filling:

3 1/2 oz milk chocolate, chopped

1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temp

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted, plus more as needed

2 Tbsp heavy cream, plus more as needed

1 Tbsp malted milk powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

pinch salt

preheat oven to 375.  Sift together the cocoa, flour, espresso, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  In another mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.  gradually add in the dry ingredients, until everything is combined.  Drop by Tbsp-fuls onto a parchment line baking sheet.  roll each dough into a smooth ball, and lightly flatten it into a disc with the palm of your hand.  Bake 8-9 mins until cookies are puffed and set.  let cool 5 mins on baking sheet, and then completely cool on a wire/cooling rack. 

For the filling, melt the chocolate in the microwave or double boiler until smooth.  Remove from heat and let it cool to room temp.  In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until fluffy.  Add powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.  add the cooled milk chocolate, and mix until combined.  Combine heavy cream and malted milk powder in a separate bowl and mix until smooth.  Add  to the chocolate mixture, along with the vanilla and salt.  Beat until light and fluffy.  You may need to add more cream/powdered sugar until the mixture reaches a spreadable/icing consistency.

To assemble, spread icing on the bottom of one chocolate cookie, and top with another cookie.  Press lightly until filling spreads to the edges.  

Favorites from 2011.

I love that food is always a constant.  No matter how different or exciting or chaotic you life becomes, there will always be food.  That doesn't change.  The type of food might change, yes.  But it's still food.  This past year has been a very crazy one for us, indeed.  But it's been awesome, and there has always been food.  Even while taking care of twin babies, someone in my house manages to make dinner, and it's lovely.  Not to say that we don't eat our fair share of take out or quick freezer meals, because we occasionally do, but way more often than not, we make dinner at home.  I love when I find recipes and dishes that we love and make over an over again.  We have found many so far, and I'm excited for more in this upcoming year.  

Here are our top ten recipes from 2011: 

1.  Homemade doughnuts.  These are soooo good, and I highly recommend them for making on a rainy day.  

2.  Inside Out Apple Pies.  These are also amazing.  My favorite part is the different textures.   The soft baked apple filling, the flaky, buttery crust, and the crisp apple shell.

3.  Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies.  1 of 2 of our favorite cookies ever.  Please make these.  You'll also make new friends with them.

4.  Banana Cream Pie with Cookie Dough Crust.  Pregnancy craving over-load.

5.  Salted Vanilla Caramel Sauce.  I seriously ate this stuff by the spoonful.

6.  Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling.  Perfect muffin.  Perfect filling.  These were gone so fast.

7.  Southern Style Chicken and Dumplings.  Warm Comfort.

8.  Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Our other favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.  It's just as awesome.

9.  Sweet Potato Breakfast Hash.  Best spontaneous thrown-together-in-a-flash meal ever.

10.  Christmas Turkey Tacos.  These were amazing.  Just plain amazing.

Happy New Year!  Hopefully it will be filled with lots of yummy food!