Dilly Beans

First I'd like to say I am at a loss. I have misplaced so many food photos I could cry. Or, what I actually did, throw a fit and not blog for two weeks. But I digress. I must share these with you because I can't stop eating them!

So what is a dilly bean? It's a "pickled" green bean spiced with cayenne pepper. It is a great add on to a relish dish or a snack with beer. I also eat them with a sandwich in place of a pickle. 

Before you start, make sure you are using clean, sanitized jars and lids. Make sure to keep the mouth of the jar clean and try not to touch the mouth with your hands. Have a large pot of boiling water ready for the jars (that possibly holds all four quart jars.)

INGREDIENTS (makes four quarts)

(for each jar)
2 pounds trimmed green beans
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cloves garlic
2 heads dill

5 cups water
5 cups vinegar
1/2 cup course salt

1. In each quart jar put the beans, 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, garlic cloves and heads of dill.

Please note that I went way too light on my first batch here. The beans should be packed as tightly as possible.

2. In a sauce pan, boil the water vinegar and salt.

3. Fill the jars with the liquid. Put on the lids and process in boiling water for 15 minutes.

See how these jars above shrunk up so much? And he ones below stayed packed? That is the difference. 

In two weeks you can refrigerate and enjoy your dilly beans! My fav!!

Holy Guacamole!

I pretty much love any kind of dip. Especially mexican inspired. I have to hit up the farmer's market this weekend to get some great tomatoes and jalapeños to can my own salsa but since I have no patience, I had to whip up some guacamole!

INGREDIENTS

2 avacados, halved, pitted and scooped
Juice of two limes
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 teaspoon diced garlic
a palm full of fresh diced cilantro

Put all ingredients in a bowl and mash together with a fork. I like mine pretty chunky.

This recipe is simple and tasted great. I also like to put a bit of salt and pepper in the guacamole and some people like to add some diced tomatoes. It's soooo goooood!

This lasted a half hour. Now I'm focused on how much veggies a single person can carry through a farmer's market without falling over. I might have to enlist my BF to help carry some tomatoes!!

5 Ingredient Brown Butter Banana Bread

Yes, I'm using my 5 Ingredient Fix cookbook again. I had no choice! I had bananas going bad!!!!

INGREDIENTS

1 stick butter
4 ripe bananas
1/3 cup honey
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups self rising flour*

* I don't have self rising flour and you may not either but you can make it! For this recipe, mix 3 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt to 2 cups all purpose flour and use only 1 3/4 cups of it. Easy!

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the it turns a golden brown and smells nutty. Remove from heat and let cool.

2. In a bowl, mash the bananas well. Stir in the honey and egg. Slowly whisk in the butter then fold in the flour. 

3. Pour into your muffin pan, mini loaf pan or bread pan (pre-greased of course).

4. Bake for 15-18 minutes.* I baked according to direction which was 25 min and they were way too dark and crispy on the edges for me.

I love that these aren't too sweet. In the morning I don't want a piece of cake so these are great. A little butter or peanut butter and I'm in love. Definitely keeping this recipe!

Next time, I might add mini chocolate chips or chopped walnuts... the possibilities are endlessly yummy!

Red and Green Popcorn with Chocolate Dipped Rice Krispies

These are two of my favorite Christmas treats to make because there is hardly any work to do. Plus, who doesn't love something covered in chocolate?! 

Chocolate Dipped Rice Krispies:

You can guess the ingredients. 

I start with one of those large sheets of rice krispie treats... 

And cut it into sticks. I got about 50 out of this one sheet.

Melt some milk or dark chocolate using the glass bowl/microwave method. You can always use a double boiler if you have one. Dip and sprinkle. Or not. Thats the great thing about these. Drizzle with red chocolate or cover in candies or crushed cookie... the options are endlessly delicious ;)

The Red and Green Popcorn is a favorite of many of the recipients of my treats. My brother tried it for the first time this year and he took a big bag home after dinner.

INGREDIENTS:

2 bags of buttered microwave popcorn
1/2 pound red chocolate
1/2 pound green chocolate
2 brown paper bags, grocery size

1. First pop the first bag of popcorn and pour in a bowl. Put the popcorn in the paper bag and leave the kernels in the bowl.

2. Melt the red chocolate in the microwave in a glass bowl. When melted through, pour in the bag with the popcorn. Fold over the top and shake!!!

3. Spread over a sheet pan and let cool.

4. Do the same with the green chocolate, the second bag of popcorn and the second brown bag.

Once it's cooled you can break it up a little bit and mix the two colors together. The sweet and salty is so good and looks really cute in a bowl. And, again, you can do any colors you'd like for any holiday you'd like!

Too cute! I bet little kids would love this!

Halloween Candy!

I know I know. It seems like Halloween was forever ago. Especially with retail stores completely skipping Thanksgiving and already decorating for Christmas and "leaking" their holiday super sale items. 

But, I had to share this simple treat I made for Halloween. I've seen it all over the foodie blogs and some people are using it as a way to get rid of their left over candy. Either way, it's yummy!

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 melting chocolate
Any candy or cookies

1. Melt your chocolate either in a double boiler or in a glass bowl in the microwave using 30 second intervals.

2. Just before your chocolate is completely melted, chop up your treats. I used three Oreo cookies, one king size Butterfinger, one king size Reese's, and half of a large bag of fall colored M&M's.

3. Cover a baking pan with foil like in my first pic. Pour in completely melted chocolate and spread over the entire bottom. Immediately sprinkle on your candy.

4. Let cool completely and then break into bite size pieces! 

Here is a complete view of the Halloween treat table we had at my mom's! Yes that's my birthday cake in the middle. :) Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting!

Chocolate covered peanut butter balls made into spiders and green witch fingers!

And for dinner we made monster face pizza for the kids and...

Scary pizza for the adults!

Too cool right?!

Anywho, save for next year or change to fit your next event. With a cookie cutter you can make any shape cheese cutout and with a change of candy you can make peppermint chocolate bark or call it Thanksgiving bark. It works! The colors fit! Get rid of that Halloween candy!

Who doesn't love candy, chocolate and pizza?!

Apple Walnut Raisin Cookies

Yes, it is that time of year. Just last week I went to the apple orchard, had some cider, ate a donut and dreamed of all things apple.

I found this recipe at Food.com which is one of my favorite spots to look for new recipes.

Here is my overindulgent version!

INGREDIENTS

3 cups crisco
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups quick oats
1 cup peeled and diced apple (I needed about an apple and a half but the other half was already diced so it went in the batch as well!)
1 cup raisins
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Combine crisco, egg, milk, sugar and vanilla in a mixer until creamy.

2. Add in cinnamon, salt, soda and nutmeg. Slowly add in the flour until well combined.

3. Fold in oats, apples, raisin and walnuts by hand.

4. Drop onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes for a softy doughy cookies, 12-13 for firmer cookies.

These definitely smelled like heaven when they were baking. Next time I might press them down a little bit. They didn't spread very much, but they tasted amazing!

They were naturally sweet, had a crunch with the nuts and the oats made a nice firm "muffin" type cookie.

The best way to eat them... microwave them for about ten seconds and enjoy with your morning tea... or coffee!

PS Isn't my cookie jar too cute?!

A Grilling Snack

Sorry for the delay. Lots going on here. I'm going to be doing two wedding cakes, a going away cake (or maybe cupcakes!) and I've been sick.

Madness aside, I wanted to share a really good snack I discovered searching google images for bbq ideas.

Grilled Potato Slices

INGREDIENTS

Sliced Raw Potatoes
Olive Oil
Seasoning Salt (I used a garlic herb mix with extra garlic salt)

1. First slice the potatoes and place in a bowl.

2. Cover with enough olive oil just to coat and sprinkle on seasoning.

3. Place slices on the grill at a medium heat (if your grill does that) Once the potatoes start to brown, flip and finish grilling.

These were surprisingly good. I wasn't sure they'd make it to the blog but they were addictive! I dipped mine in a bit of ranch and served with burgers. The outside has a nice flavor and crisp and the inside is soft and creamy.

Delish! An easy side dish!

Chewy S'more Granola Bars

I love these! And even better, my BF, who won't eat granola bars, LOVES these!!

These are quick and easy and soooo tasty!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups plain granola
1 cup rice cereal
2 TBS graham cracker crumbs
1 cup mini marshmallows
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. First, melt butter and honey together over low/med heat.

2. Add the brown sugar and stir until dissolved.

3. Take liquid off heat and add in granola, cereal and crumbs. Stir until coated.

4. Next, add in the marshmallows and fold in.

5. Press mix into a 9x13 un-greased pan. Sprinkle the top with chocolate chips and press in with a spatula.

6. Put in the fridge or on the counter until cooled and ready to cut. I swear these were easy to get out of the pan. They fell right out! Cut and eat!

Here is the original recipe with some other versions too!!

Chips!

If there's a bag of chips in front of me... I'll eat them... all. That is why I keep no chips in my house. When I was trying to come up with something to make as a side for my BLTs I thought how nice it would be to have some chips... so I made some!!

Baked Potato Chips

INGREDIENTS:

Washed potatoes
Olive oil
Salt

1. First, slice the potatoes nice and thin. I used this mandolin I have. Super easy. Oh, and preheat the oven to 400 F.

2. Then blanche the slices of potato in a bowl of water for five minutes. 

3. Place the slices on a paper towel to drain. 

4. On a large baking sheet, toss the slices with just enough olive oil to coat and spread out into one layer. Sprinkle with salt. 

5. Bake in the oven at 400 F for 12 minutes, half way through you'll need to flip the chips. (Sorry about that Paul! Hope you enjoy the chips!)

I found that the tray placed on the bottom browned up nicely and the little bit of brown meant the chip was perfect and not soft in the middle. These were crispy and tasty and irresistible and they were all gone quite quickly! I used three potatoes for two people and threw away one tray of too brown chips and there was still enough to share. :)