Tonight's Dinner - Scrumptious!

I didn't try any new recipes but I could not stop eating what I made for dinner tonight. If you do not have one of these:

get one ASAP! I have the Deep Dish Chicken Cooker (linky). They make the juiciest chicken, ever. Tonight, I smeared the rinsed and dried chicken with olive oil and made a dry rub of Tex Joy Original, garlic powder, onion powder and pepper. In the well I put some of the rub, a chicken bouillon cube and filled with water. I usually use beer but I didn't want to waste 3/4 of a beer. It's alcohol abuse! I also dropped in 2 fresh cloves of garlic into the chicken cavity. I think I baked it for about 2.25 hours. It was 180 degrees when I pulled it out.


I also made roasted red potatoes tossed in olive oil, kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, oregano, basil, garlic and onion powders. I baked them for 40 minutes, stirring twice. I served those with a hollandaise sauce (the McCormick brand sauce mix). This is the part I could not stop eating...and the chicken skin.


And last but not least, mom's squash. 3 quartered and sliced crook neck yellow squash, 1/4 of a large onion chopped, 3 small garlic cloves minced. I melted 3 big spoon fulls of bacon grease in a skillet then dropped in the garlic and onion. Once that was soft I added the squash, and lots of pepper. Pop a lid on it and cook til soft. I don't know how my mom makes hers but I think it tasted like hers.


I can't wait until leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Stay tuned for the Tortellini Florentine Soup I am making with the leftover chicken. So easy and delicious!!

(Addicting) Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

I got this recipe from my mom and I always look forward to making these in the fall. I make them sometimes throughout the year. I stock up on pumpkin puree and freeze bags of whole, fresh cranberries so I always have them on hand. For whatever reason the stores around here don't stock pumpkin puree until at least October.

So here it is! I hope you enjoy them as much as my mom and I do!

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cooking oil
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 1/4 cup flour
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup chopped cranberries (when I used frozen cranberries I put 2 cups in a bowl and let them thaw. This yields about 1 1/2 cups chopped)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all wet ingredients with sugar. Combine dry ingredients in a separate larger bowl.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and mix in wet ingredients. Do not over beat. Fold in cranberries.

Spoon into muffin tin filling each cup 2/3 of the way.

Bake for 30 minutes. Test doneness with a toothpick.

**Note**Sometimes I use liners and other times I don't. I don't like to fuss with the wrappers when I'm ready to eat them so I prefer my muffins without the liner. Also, my mom freezes some muffins after they are baked for a treat later. I prefer to eat all mine at once...

Bon Apetite!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I feel like I've been so busy. I've been cooking new recipes, and lots of old recipes, and crafting. I can share the craft I did last night but you'll still have to wait for these other 3 things I've made!!

Goal # 95: Create 10 things found on craft blogs (1/10)

So I'm going to a birthday party for a 2 year old girl next Saturday. I figured I'd handmake her something since she'll probably get tons of toys anyway. I decided to make her a fleece blanket.

I found several sites and videos of how to make a no sew fleece blanket but here's one of them...No Sew Fleece Blanket Video

The fleece print choice this lady made reminds me of those t-shirts people, especially older men, wear that have wolves or deer on them. Ha!

When I bought the fleece and the girl was cutting it I decided to go with 1 yard instead of 1.5 yards. I wasn't thinking of the width of the bolt of fleece. Obviously it was folded in half on the bolt. The blanket is a little long compared to the width but I'm sure a 2 year old won't mind. It's so cute though. I want to make a giant one for me to cuddle up in when I watch TV!

Here's a picture of my finished product. This project took me about and hour and a half.

Goal #  : Cook 75 new recipes (4 and 5 of 75)

YUMMY, YUMMY, YUMMY!!!!!

Last week I made Chad's Slow Cooker Taco Soup. I put the crock pot in the garage so I wouldn't have to smell it cooking all day. Last time I made something in the crock pot I didn't want to eat what I made for dinner because I was sick of smelling it. Keeping it in the garage worked great!

The soup was delicious! The only thing I did wrong was putting Miller Lite in it instead of a dark beer. I should've just used beef broth. I could taste the beer the first night but the second day for lunch I couldn't taste it at all.

This past weekend I made some pumpkin pancakes. They are called Candied Ginger Pumpkin Pancakes. I didn't have the crystalized ginger but since the pumpkin pie spice had ginger in it I didn't worry about it. If you make these, thin the batter down more with buttermilk. My batter was too thick and the center of the pancake was just a little gooey. They were still outstanding!! Jimmy kept saying "Wow, these are really good!"

I made some for Ryan without the pecans before I stirred them in. He ate it but I think it was a take it or leave it for him. Jimmy dipped a few pieces in my lower sugar syrup and he really liked them then!  

Goal #11: Try 75 new recipes (3/75) & Halloween!

On Saturday we carved our pumpkins....

 Since Jimmy had never eaten pumpkin seeds I told him I'd make some. I was in search of a sweet recipe for the seeds. I found this one: Sugar and Spice Roasted Seeds.  I didn't have allspice but I did have pumpkin pie spice. I subbed the pumpkin pie spice for the allspice and nutmeg and reduced the amount of cinnamon and once they were on the baking sheet I sprinkled just a little bit more sugar on top. I guess I really didn't use that recipe at all... I made 2 cups of seeds and they were very good!!

Ryan was enjoying himself while we carved.

Jimmy took Ryan Trick-or-Treating with our neighborhood kids on Sunday night. He said that Ryan did really well. He walked some, got carried some, and rode in a wagon some. 

It was bed time by the time they got back & he was pooped!

Rewind back to Saturday. Our town had a fall festival with lots of vendors and stuff for kids to do like bounce houses and rides. This was one of the 2 rides that was small enough for Ryan.

He just kept staring at the motor in the center. I know he was getting dizzy. This ride was not going very slow!!

Then we took him over to the petting zoo. He saw a miniature horse, or pony. What's the difference?

Then he saw the goats.

There was a llama that didn't look too happy. I was waiting for it to spit. All I could think of was that line from Napoleon Dynamite where he goes out to feed their llama and says "Tina, you fat lard, come get some DINNER!... Tina, eat. Food. Eat the FOOD!"

Rabbits.

And the sweetest cow. A little sour towards the end. She got up and pooped everywhere.

  

I guess my child has that effect on animals.

 One thing is for sure - he's not scared of animals.

Teaser:
I have been working on some crafts recently for a friend's baby shower. I would love to post the pics and tutorials but I'm not sure if she reads this blog. I want it to be a surprise! After her shower I will post all of the things. Check back after the beginning of December for all of that fun stuff!!