Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Kiss Filled Cookie

Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Kiss Filled Cookie

Yes you read it right!!  Sounds complicated?  Well, it is not.  I would never ever call myself a master cookie chef, so anyone can make these and make them turn out perfectly.  I originally got the recipe here: http://www.inspiredbycharm.com/2013/09/1991.html and changed it slightly, mostly cutting the recipe in half just in case I didn't like them.  This recipe makes approximately 24 cookies.

Preheat oven to 350*

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened.

6 tablespoons brown sugar

1/8 cup sugar

1/2 a package of instant chocolate pudding (if you measure it out, it equals approximately 3 tablespoons)

1 egg

1 teas vanilla

1/2 teas baking soda

1 1/8 cups flour

1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 bag of pumpkin spice Hershey Kisses unwrapped (in this case, I used 24 kisses)

Instructions: 

In a medium sized bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda.

In a larger mixing bowl, mix butter and sugars together until smooth.  Add the pudding mix.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth.

Add the flour mixture in and mix.  It will be fairly thick.

Roll the dough into 1" balls. 

 Flatten each ball, put a kiss in the middle and form the dough around the kiss and re-roll in the palm of your hand until it is a ball again.  

Place on un-greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 9-11 minutes.  It took mine 11 minutes to bake.  

Cool for about 5 seconds before eating :-)  Enjoy!

My Loaded Veggie Chicken Alfredo

Loaded Veggie Chicken Alfredo

Why, yes...I did come up with the name all on my own...aren't you impressed?

So, this isn't really a "recipe" as there isn't much to it.  However, it is just a simple idea if you're stuck in a rut like I was last week, and wanted to try something new.  Plus I had gobs of zucchini, green beans, and tomatoes coming from my garden.  So, here we go:

Ingredients if you're using a whole bag of pasta:

Bag O' Noodles, of any kind.  I used "garden noodles"...

Jar  O' Alfredo Sauce....any kind you like, you can even make homemade if you're feeling up for it!

1-2 cups of Shredded chicken, more or less depending on how carnivorous you're feeling (night before I boiled chicken breasts and shredded them to use for random things)

3/4 cup Cherry Tomatoes, sliced in half

1 cup of Zucchini, sliced and then quartered

1 cup Fresh green beans, cut into 1"ish pieces

Any seasoning you like...I didn't add any seasoning since Alfredo can be overpowering sometimes.

First....in a skillet pan, place the green beans, zucchini, and shredded chicken with a few tablespoons of water so you don't burn it (do NOT add the tomatoes yet).  Simmer until the green beans seem somewhat tender/getting soft. Also during this step, start your water for the noodles, since boiling water seems to take FOREVER!!!

Once you feel it is the right time, add in your tomatoes and Alfredo sauce and whatever spices you wish to add.  Simmer while you wait for your noodles to be done.

Once the noodles are al dente, combine the sauce and noodles for a spectaular firework show in your mouth!  Enjoy! :-)

Homemade Huckleberry Pie Recipe

If you know me, which....you may or may not....you know that I LOVE making (and eating) pies...Usually, I only make pies for holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter...) so on the off chance that I have the opportunity to make one for no special reason, I get excited :-).  My specialty pie has been apple, using the recipe out of the good ole fashion red Betty Crocker cookbook, but here we have a first for me...Huckleberry Pie. My fiance and I went up into the mountains of Western Montana and picked a bunch of huckleberries, in hopes to get enough to make a pie (being late in the season, we weren't sure what to expect).  

I originally got a recipe from http://blogs.kcrw.com/goodfood/2010/08/huckleberry-pie/ but I adjusted it slightly.  Here is the recipe I used:

First, you need to get your pie crust ready.  You can either use pre-made shells or make your own.  We forgot to buy shells (because, personally, I think making your own shells is a royal pain in the butt...even if they taste better).  So I appointed my lovely fiance to read the recipe for pie crust and gave him that task...he was successful :-).  When your pie crust is done, put it in the fridge until you're ready to use it.

Ingredients: 

5-6 cups fresh huckleberries

1Tbsp lemon juice

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 Tbsp quick tapioca (I was confused at this, so I found a box of tapioca by "Minute" brand to be used for pie fillings and whatnot, and prayed it would work---it did)

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp ground ginger

butter to "dot" the filling before putting the crust on

Instructions:

First things first: wash, rinse, de-stem and de-leaf your huckleberries.

In a small bowl, mix together the following: white sugar, brown sugar, tapioca, cinnamon, and ginger.

In a larger bowl, combine huckleberries with lemon juice.

Add the dry sugar mix to the huckleberry mix and stir until well mixed.  Let sit and "marinate" for 45 minutes.

Next, fill your crust with the huckleberry mixture and dot the top with butter, as seen above.  Place the other shell on top and crimp the edges together.  Cut slits into shell to allow for breathing.

 Preheat oven to 425*.  Put foil on the edges and bake for 15 minutes.  After that, lower the temp to 375*, take off foil, and bake for an additional 25 minutes or until crust is browned and juice is bubblin'.

Freezer Spaghetti Sauce

Here it is!  Freezer Spaghetti Sauce.....I found the recipe here: http://www.aturtleslifeforme.com/2011/08/freezer-spaghetti-sauce-and-my-garden.html

But just tweaked it a bit to fit my needs and tastes...here it is:

Spaghetti Sauce

4-5 medium sweet onions, diced 

8-10 cloves garlic, minced

2-4 tbsp. vegetable oil

Throw that in your crockpot on low heat until onion is transparent (1-2 hours or so)

Next:

Add the following and cook on low heat for 4-5 hours, stirring every hour or so:

16 cups peeled and chopped tomatoes (can be fresh or canned- I used 5 cups fresh and the rest was canned diced tomatoes)

4 tbsp. dried oregano

3 tbsp. dried basil

3 tbsp. dried parsley

1/4 cup white sugar

2 tbsp. salt

2 tbsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. black pepper

24 oz. tomato paste

This recipe made more than my crock pot would hold so I put the remainder in a saucepan and cooked on low for 4-5 hours. 

After it’s cooled, divide into quart size freezer containers/ziplocks.  Store in freezer.

If you use fresh tomatoes, the easiest way to peel them is to first slice an X in the bottom (opposite where the stem would be) and drop into boiling water for 30 seconds and immediately drop them into a bowl of ICE water.  The skins slide right off.

Enjoy:-)

Huckleberry Banana Zucchini Bread...The best of all worlds!

Here we have it...the most amazing bread you'll ever have.

Huckleberry-Banana-Zucchini bread....a-mazing

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup ripe banana, mashed
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups zucchini, grated
2 cups huckleberries (frozen or fresh, drained)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325* and grease just the bottom of your bread loaf pans.  I used mini loaf pans.

In a large mixing bowl beat together eggs, vanilla, sugar, brown sugar, and mashed banana. Add flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon to the mixture.  Beat well. Stir in zucchini until well combined. Gently fold in huckleberries. Pour batter into prepared pans. Sprinkle sugar on top of raw batter before baking if desired.

Bake 50-60 minutes in oven or until center comes out clean on toothpick.  Cool before removing from pan.

Enjoy!!

Huckleberry Freezer Jam Recipe! YUM!

Huckleberry Freezer Jam

I found this handy recipe here: http://www.justapinch.com/recipe/kelly-williams/huckleberry-jam-freezer-jam/jam   but I will retype it for ya to make it easier on you.  

Ingredients: 

5-6 Cups of fresh huckleberries (3 cups crushed huckleberries)

5 1/4 cups of sugar

1 box of sure*jell fruit pectin (1.75 oz)

3/4 cup water

First things first, pick a TON of huckleberries.  Okay, maybe not a ton, but to make this specific recipe you will need approximately 5-6 cups of fresh huckleberries (3 cups when crushed).  Plus a few to eat along the way.

 Next, crush the berries.  I used a potato masher tool, mashing one cup of fresh berries at a time in a shallow cake pan.

After crushing the berries, add the berries to a large bowl that has your sugar in it (5 1/4 cups of sugar).  After stirring the sugar and berry mixture, let stand for 10 minutes.  After letting it stand, stir 1 box of pectin and 3/4 cup water in saucepan.  Bring it to a boil and boil for 1 minute while stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat and stir into the fruit/sugar mixture.  Stir until sugars dissolve and is no longer grainy.  If it is appearing grainy, you can put it in a pot and bring it to a boil while stirring.  This happened to me and I boiled it for probably 5 minutes until I was happy with the look.

If your containers aren't new, be sure to sanitize them.  I used little plastic tupperware containers.  Set them all out.  Spoon the jam into the containers leaving 1/2 inch to allow for expansion.  Put the lids on right away and let set for 24 hours before placing in freezer or refrigerator.  This jam will keep in the fridge for 3 weeks or so.

ENJOY!!

The pallet headboard bench!

The Headboard Bench

Today...my lovely fiance and I build the long awaited headboard/pallet bench...I have been begging him to help me with this after he brought me some pallets a month or two ago as I had THE PERFECT headboard/footboard for the project :-)  So, today it happened.  Here is a simple tutorial that will give you an idea of how we made it happen! 

Step 1: Set your headboard up so you know how big you want your bench, or how to make your pallet work for your headboard.  You can cut it down to size if your headboard is longer than the pallet (like ours) but we took the easy route.  Gather all materials, such as saws, drill, hammer, screws, level, etc. etc. etc.  Make your plan (in your head...)

Step 2:  Cut your pallet in half so that you have boards nailed to two support beams...see above.  IF that doesn't make sense, sorry. :-)  We used a sawzall for this...awesome tool.  Measure the width and depth of your newly cut pallet bench seat for future reference, as in the next step.

Step 3:  Cut the footboard so that you have two "arm rests" that are the length of your pallet bench's depth (sides...)...see my end result if this is confusing.  We had about 18" of in unusable footboard in between....

Step 4:  Next you can screw your bench seat into the headboard, depending on your headboard this picture might look different...ours happened to have a perfect rail right there.  Make sure to screw in enough screws for it to be sturdy.  We did I think 12 total back there.

Step 5:  Align your arm rests with the headboard backing and make sure it is level with the ground and your bench will be straight and not uneven...we had to chop off about 3 inches from the headboard feet to make it even.  This is a learning process so always measure twice before cutting and line stuff up before screwing and level level level!!

Step 6:  There are no pictures of step 6 because I had to kind of help :-P.  BUT here is where you screw in your arm rests.  Hold it into place, make sure it is even on both sides and that you can screw in your footboard arm rests into the pallet (and not into nothing--it happens :-P ).  Make sure that it is level and even.  We added extra supports to the bottom of this pallet, but that is only because some boards were rotted out, so that is optional.

Step 7:  You are done and just have to paint!! We added a piece of thin plywood to the top of the seat just so it would be a tad more sturdy in certain spots, but that is optional especially if you got an awesome and strong pallet.

Add a nice cushion and enjoy your new bench!!!