Clam Chowder

It has been SO cold here the past two days! This clam chowder is sure to warm and satisfy you! I got this recipe from a lady that I used to babysit for. It is simple and SO delicious! It is especially good served in these yummy bread bowls.

I forgot to get a picture when we originally ate these, so this picture is after being nuked in the microwave the next day(not quite as pretty, but just as tasty!).

Clam Chowder

Ingredients:

• 2 (6 1/2 oz.) cans clams(chopped or minced, depending on the size of clam chunks you like)
• 1 c. chopped celery
• 1 c. chopped onions
• 2 c. diced potatoes
• 3/4 c. butter
• 1/2 c. flour
• 1 qt. half & half
• 1 1/2 t. salt
• 1/2 t. pepper

Directions: Drain clams, save juice. Combine vegetables, clam juice, and enough water to cover vegetables. Simmer till vegetables are soft. Add clams and cook 2 minutes. Melt butter, whisk in flour and cook to make a roux(2-3 minutes). Add half & half, salt and pepper. Cook till thick, then add to vegetable mixture. Serves ~8.

Mini Bundt Mint Chip Brownie Cakes with Hot Fudge Sauce

My sister gave me the funnest pan for Christmas. It is a mini-bundt pan. It makes little bundt cakes about the size of a regular muffin pan. These little brownie bundt cakes are SO yummy!! The hot fudge sauce is a recipe I got from my husband's Aunt. It is SO yummy, I could seriously just sit and eat this stuff with a spoon(but I wouldn't do that;)) Of course, if you don't have the mini-bundt pan, you can cook the brownies in a regular brownie pan and serve with the hot fudge sauce.

This would be wonderful served warm with ice cream.

Mint Chip Brownies with Hot Fudge Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 family size brownie box prepared according to box directions for 'cake-like' brownies
• 1 cup mint chocolate chips

Directions: Prepare brownie mix for cake-like brownies. Add mint chocolate chips. Pour into greased mini-bundt pan(I use my ice cream scoop to fill the pans) or pour into a 9x13 greased baking pan. Cook according to box directions. Allow to cool, remove from pan and top with hot fudge sauce(below) and dust with powdered sugar.

Hot Fudge Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1 cube butter
• 3 cups sugar
• 1/2 c baking cocoa
• 1 t vanilla

Directions: Place ingredients in medium saucepan and cook, stirring on high until it begins to boil. Let it boil for 1 minute and remove from heat. Add vanilla. **if you mix the sugar and cocoa together first it will help get any lumps out of the cocoa.

Wheatberry Bread

This recipe is adapted from a recipe(Honey Wheatberry Bread) that I got from, A Year in Bread. They have some WONDERFUL looking bread on their site and I can't wait to try more! The recipe posted below is with my modifications. To see the original recipe go to A Year in Bread.

A friend of mine helped me make this and we used her silicone bread pans. I LOVE them!! They are a little larger than my pans(8x4), they measured 9.25x5.25. I really like the larger loaf and they popped right out of the pan with no cooking spray!! We placed the pans on a baking sheet to let the dough rise and also to cook so that we didn't disturb the dough.

Sorry these are not great pictures! I am really going to work on my photography skills this year:) I cut into the bread right out of the oven(couldn't wait to taste it), it would have been a prettier picture of the 'inside' if I could have waited a little longer.

Wheatberry Bread

Ingredients:

• ~4 1/2 cups of water, total
• 3/4 cup wheatberries
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 T instant yeast
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 5-6 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 T salt

Directions: Soak wheatberries in 3 cups of water for one hour. After an hour, leave the wheatberries covered and cook on medium heat until the wheatberries are soft and are popping open. Let cool. Puree in the blender until desired consistency, you may need to add a little more water.

In the bowl of your mixer, combine the pureed wheatberries. 1 1/2 cup warm water, yeast, whole wheat flour, and brown sugar. Stir together, cover, and let sit for 10 minutes. Next add the melted butter and enough flour for the dough to begin pulling away from the bowl. Let this sit for another 10 minutes. Then add salt and enough flour to form a soft, slightly sticky dough. Knead in your mixer or by hand for about 5 minutes. Place the dough in a greased bowl, turn and cover with plastic wrap, then towel until doubled, about 1 hour. Divide into two loaves and place in loaf pans, cover. Let rise until doubled again. Bake at 375 for ~45 minutes. I like to put my loaves in the oven while it is cold and let them continue to rise as the oven heats up.

Homemade Corn Dogs

When I was a kid, the closest public swimming pool was about 30 minutes away from our house. We loved to go there to swim, BBQ by the creek and we especially loved to order the corn dogs there. I THINK I got this recipe from my grandma(I've had it SO long I'm not sure). I'm not sure if she got it from the people at the pool, but we have always claimed they are the same. Maybe there is someone in my family that reads this blog and can correct me, if I'm wrong:)

I used some of this batter to make some onion rings and they were fantastic too.

Unfortunately this is NOT a pretty picture! These little babies were getting snatched up faster than than I could cook them, so I finally just took a quick picture of them while they were draining on the paper towel.

Corn Dogs

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup complete pancake flour
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup corn meal(I used white corn meal)
• 3/4 cup milk(I used a little more ~1 cup)
• hot dogs, we use Ball Park All Beef Franks
• sticks

Directions: Stir all ingredients together and let sit for 20 minutes. Batter should be consistency of cake batter. Pat hot dogs dry, this is important or the batter will come off when it hits the hot oil. Put sticks in hot dogs(I didn't use), coat with batter and deep fry until golden brown.

Steak with swiss cheese and mushroom gravy

We make green chili burros a lot around here. My husband LOVES sauteed mushrooms. When I was buying mushrooms to saute for the green chili burros, I went a little crazy and had a lot of leftovers. So, I went searching the Internet for a good Swiss and mushroom burger recipe and found this. We tried the burgers(with a few modifications) and they were fantastic(next time I make them I will try to get a picture before they are devoured and post them here). That recipe inspired this recipe for steak and gravy.

Steak with Swiss Cheese and Mushroom Gravy

Ingredients:

• Steak
• Lawry's seasoning salt
• Pepper
• 1 can Campbell's cream of mushroom soup
• 2 T Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup beef broth
• 8 oz sliced mushrooms
• 2 T butter
• garlic salt
• sliced Swiss cheese

Directions: Salt(Lawry's) and pepper steak to taste and grill to desired 'doneness'. Top warm steak with Swiss cheese. For the gravy: saute mushrooms with butter, garlic salt and pepper(to taste). In a medium saucepan combine soup, Worcestershire sauce, beef broth and 3/4 of the mushrooms. Cook until hot. Pour the gravy over the steak and cheese, then top with additional sauteed mushrooms.

Chicken Taco Salad

I used more of my shredded Crock pot Chicken for this recipe. A friend of mine gave me a recipe for chicken tacos that is similar to this that I can't wait to try. I adapted the taco recipe for this.

Chicken Taco Salad

Ingredients:

• 3 slices bacon
• 1 1/2 cups shredded chicken
• 2 T brown sugar
• 1 cup salsa
• lettuce
• toppings: sliced olives, chopped avocado, black beans, salsa, ranch dip(sour cream with the ranch powder mixed in), fried corn tortilla strips, a squeeze of lime

Directions: Cut the bacon up into small pieces and fry in a large frying pan until cooked. Drain bacon reserving 2 T of the bacon grease in the pan. Add the chicken to the bacon grease and cook until warm. Add the brown sugar, salsa and bacon to the chicken. Place the chicken mixture on top of each bowl of lettuce and top with your favorite toppings. I liked using the ranch dip rather than regular sour cream.

For the tortilla strips, I cut corn tortillas into strips and fried them in my 'cool' new frying thing my husband gave me for Christmas, then put them in a zip-loc bag with some cumin and garlic salt. Shake and serve. I have also(before the cool new frying thing) cooked them on a baking sheet. Spray them with cooking spray, sprinkle with cumin and garlic salt and bake at 425 until they start to brown and crisp up. I turn them once or twice with a spatula.

Multi-Grain Granola Bread

I found this recipe in a "Bee Prepared" book that my mom sent me. It is full of recipes using food storage. I used a maple cinnamon granola recipe that I made. I forgot to take a picture of the granola, but next time I make it I will get a photo and post that recipe too. This bread was SO yummy though and next time I make granola, I will be making this again too.

Multi-Grain Granola Bread

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup honey
• 3 T active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup almonds, coarsely chopped
• 2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 2 eggs
• 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3 1/2 cups milk, scalded
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup rye flour(I used dark rye)
• 1 cup granola
• 2 1/2 t salt
• 2/3 cup oil

Directions: Into a medium size bowl, pour the honey. Add the scalded milk and let stand until lukewarm. Stir in yeast, and let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.

In a large mixer bowl(I used my kitchen-aid), combine the oats, cornmeal, rye flour, almonds, granola and whole wheat flour.

When the yeast mixture is foamy, add the salt, eggs and oil. Beat well with a whisk. Pour the yeast mixture into the mixer bowl and stir manually to mix. Then using the dough hook attachment, begin adding the flour 1 cup at a time until 3 cups have been added, forming a heavy moist dough.

Transfer the dough to a floured work surface. Add a little more flour and knead it in. Knead dough slightly, 4-5 minutes, adding a little more flour to bring the dough to barely beyond tacky.

Place the dough in a large oiled bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise just to about doubled in bulk, about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Punch down the dough, and divide into 2 loaves* and place in oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Let rise a second time until doubled, 40-60 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375. Bake for 20 minutes, then lower the heat to 350 and bake until crusty and deep golden brown, about 20 minutes more.

*I actually made 2 'regular' size loaves and 4 mini loaves with this recipe. The loaves you see in the pictures are all from one batch.

Win a Silhouette craft cutter

I LOVE to cook, but I also LOVE to craft!! I would also LOVE to win this Silhouette craft cutter. Christie over at Simple Finds is giving away a Silhouette craft cutter. Go check out Simple Finds and leave a comment to be entered to win.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

This is one recipe I made from my shredded crock pot chicken.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Ingredients:

• 12-15 corn tortillas
• 3 cups mashed pinto beans
• 2 cups shredded chicken
• 3 T oil, plus more to fry tortillas
• 1/2 onion, chopped (1-2 cups, my onion was large and was 2 cups)
• 1 jalapeno, chopped
• 4 tomatillos, chopped
• 1/3 cup green chili, chopped
• 1 T garlic powder
• 2 t cumin
• 2 t chili powder
• 1 t basil
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 t black pepper
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 3 T cornstarch
• 2 oz. cream cheese
• 2-3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• garnish: shredded lettuce, sour cream, salsa, lime wedges, cilantro

Directions: Saute onion, jalapeno, tomatillo and green chili in oil until soft. Once they are soft puree them in the blender or food processor until smooth(you can leave them chunky if you like). Add the puree to a large pot. Mix cornstarch with the chicken stock and add to the puree. Add seasonings and chicken. Cook until the mixture begins to thicken. Add the cream cheese and cook until melted. Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with cooking spray and layer the chicken mixture, then tortillas, beans, cheese, chicken mixture.(I did 3 layers) Top with 1-2 cups of salsa and cheese. Bake at 375 until it starts to bubble and the cheese begins to brown, approx. 25 minutes. I only used a small amount of cheese, but adjust for your taste. I fried my tortillas in small amount of oil and then patted the extra oil off with a paper towel before layering the tortillas. Serve with shredded lettuce, sour cream, salsa, cilantro and a squeeze of fresh lime.