Bread Machine Baking: Breadsticks

Bread Machine Baking: Breadsticks

1 recipe Pizza Crust (pg 45)
1 egg lightly beaten with 1 Tbsp. water
3 Tbsp. sesame seeds

Pizza Crust recipe;

1 Tbsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/4 c. cornmeal
3 tbsp whole wheat flour
3 c. unbleached white flour
1-1/4 c. water (plus an additional 1 or 2 Tbsp. if the mixture looks dry and crumbly after the first 10 min. of kneading)
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Have all the ingredients at room temperature.  Place all the ingredients in the machine, program for Dough or manual and press start.  Remove the dough from the machine and let it rest for 10 min. at room temp., follow the baking instructions on page 47.

We are not going to page 47 as that is the pizza dough baking instructions, go back to pg 52 for breadstick instructions.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, grease 2 heavy duty baking sheets or line them with foil, shiny side up.  Divide the dough into 12 pieces (large machines) or 8 pcs. (small machines).  On a lightly floured board, roll each piece to a 4 x 2-1/2" rectangle.  Cut each rectangle lengthwise into four 4" sticks. Transfer the sticks to the prepared sheets leaving 1/2" between the sticks.  Brush the top with the egg glaze and sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.  When the breadsticks are completely cool, store them in an airtight container.

Again, putting the ingredients in the machine is super easy.  I did not cut the breadsticks down to their measurements as I wanted larger breadsticks, more like what Olive Garden serves.  Working with the dough was quite easy and shaping them into the size I wanted was easy as well.  Baking them for 10 minutes was perfect.  These were delicious and I would make them again, but I would probably add a flavored glaze or cheese to bring out more flavor, such as italian seasoning or garlic depending on the meal I was serving them with.

Bread Machine Baking: Garlic French Bread

Having a bread machine, one should use it to bake bread. Throwing all the ingredients into a pan and having someone (or something) throw it all together, knead it gently, watching it rise and baking it all in one fell swoop and then calling it your own is a dream come true! However, my favorite recipe and almost the only one I use for my bread machine is Pizza Dough.  I have tried several recipes for bread in my machine and not been impressed with most of them. So, I decided to try a bread machine cookbook, "Bread Machine Baking".  The cover says perfect every time, 75 foolproof recipes for every bread machine on the markiet including yours. Well, this is almost an uncertain challenge, isn't it? The first recipe I tried was Garlic French Bread. My family loves french bread and garlic bread, so this recipe has the garlic baked right in.

Garlic French Bread

1 Tbsp Yeast
3 c. unbleached white flour (plus an additional 1/4 c. if the dough looks very wet after the first 10 min. of kneading
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 to 2 tsp chopped garlic
2 tbsp butter
1 c. warm wter
2 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Have all the ingredients at room temperature.  Place all the ingredients except the egg whites in the machine. Program fro French bread or if you want to form a baguette, then program for Manual. Press Start and follow baking instructions on pg 39.
Baking instructions; After all the ingredients are incorporated by the kneading blade, add the beaten egg whites.  Bake bread in the machine or if programmed for Manual, remove dough, then lightly grease a baking sheet and sprinkle it with cornmeal.  Shape the dough into a baguette about 10-12" long.  Place the dough on the prepared baking sheet, cover with a clean towel and set in a warm place to let it rise and  double in size. Preheat oven to 425 degrees, brush with egg glaze and bake for 10 min in center of oven, lower temperature to 350 and bake another 10 to 15 min. Bake until top is light brown and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.

 Very easy to throw everything in the machine, and I did have all my ingredients at room temperature.  I added 1-1/2 tsp. of chopped garlic as I wasn't sure how "garlicky" it would be. The baking instructions said to brush with egg glaze, but it also had already said to put the egg whites in the machine.  I assume adding the egg whites was only for baking the bread in the machine but recipe did not make that clear.

  I baked mine in the bread machine, so as you can imagine it turned out like bread and not the fancy baguette in the store.  I could hardly taste any garlic, so next time I would add more garlic.  I wasn't that impressed with the bread recipe as I thought it would be much softer inside, while it was quite condensed.  It was too stiff for sandwiches the next day, while it was stored well, but it did make great paninis!  Not a bad recipe, just not the greatest.  Definitely needed more garlic and I am not sure 1/2 tsp. more would have done the trick.  

Perfect Italian

Perfect Italian: Spaghetti and Meatballs

Perfect Italian: White Bean Soup

Perfect Italian: Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

Perfect Italian: Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

On any given day I love a big bowl of pasta. It’s warm, buttery, salty and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like pasta. So when I saw this recipe for pasta in a cream sauce with bacon and then topped with parmesan cheese, it practically screamed to be made. But poor directions or “methods” as the book so lovingly refers to it led to a not so tasty result.

Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

1 lb. dried spaghetti

1 tbsp. olive oil

8 oz. rindless pancetta or lean bacon. Chopped

4 eggs

5 tbsp. light cream

4 tbsp. freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper

Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil. Add spaghetti and cook for 8-10 minutes or until al dente. In the mean time, heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the chopped pancetta and cook over medium heat, stirring often, for 8-10 minutes. Beat the eggs with the cream in a small bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper. Drain the pasta and then return to pan, add bacon and then add the egg mixture and half the parmesan cheese. Stir well, and then transfer to a warmed serving dish. Sprinkle with remaining parmesan cheese.

I don’t typically carry cream on a regular basis in my house. It’s a treat so when I do I make every recipe I know that contains this ingredient so I don’t waste any. I definitely had a lot to work with after buying the smallest container I could find and I was surprised that this recipe only called for five tablespoons. The ratio of cream to eggs was completely off. To only have five tablespoons of cream to four eggs became an overwhelming amount of egg and I have never seen a carbonara sauce with the ratio so in favor of egg.

So here are the difficulties I encountered. The ingredients list calls for the bacon and the pasta to be by weight. Not everyone has a food scale to be able to work with this so it would’ve helped to have back up measurements. For most people spaghetti comes in 1 lb. boxes so it shouldn’t be too difficult there. But finding pancetta was not possible at any of my local grocery stores and bacon had to do. It would’ve been nice to have an estimated number of slices for the bacon. I ended up using about 8 thick cut slices of bacon which leads me to my next difficulty. Chopping bacon is not easy. Either chop it frozen or crumble it after cooking, but attempting to chop fresh bacon was a chore.

As I’m cooking and following directions I encounter where the recipe calls for me to season the sauce, before cooking it, with salt and pepper to taste. I put it a good amount of salt and pepper but I was not about to dip my finger in a bowl of cold cream and raw eggs to see if it was salty enough. I ended up adding more after cooking and serving, which was more than fine. My other problem was that the recipe wants me to drain the pasta and then return it to the same pot and pour the sauce in. They make it convenient that the pasta and bacon are done at the same time so the time transition was smooth but now they’re asking me to pour the sauce, dominated by raw eggs, into a hot pot with pasta and to simply “stir well”. In my mind I’m thinking, this is wrong, there isn’t enough cream and the eggs will scramble under that much heat so quickly, but I followed directions and did it anyway. Guess what? The eggs scrambled. I kept that mixture moving to try to keep the eggs from scrambling but the heat was too much.

I was left rather disappointed with my not so pretty result but I do have to say, even with the strange texture from the scrambled eggs, it was still really tasty. I would recommend heating the sauce separately and slowly before adding it to a hot pot of pasta. I would also recommend a different cream to egg ratio. This was my first time experiencing carbonara (I’ve always been more of an alfredo girl), but I think next time I’ll go for a different recipe.

Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Cooking

If you have ever seen Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade’s tv show on Food Network, you would know what Sandra Lee is all about. Her cookbook is a definite extension of herself. Her point? Make delicious homemade food that looks like it took hours in a very short amount of time. Her shortcuts are to incorporate store bought items (like the pre-made sugar cookie dough I sprinkled over my berry cobbler). By buying particular items that would take a good amount of time to make you cut down your recipe time but achieve the same amazing result! I was initially fearful that having so many store bought items in a recipe would make it difficult to complete but everything sounded at least semi familiar to me and I think I could find all of these ingredients at my local grocery store. The amount of each ingredient was precise so I had no trouble determining the size of each item to purchase.

I adore looking at photos with a cookbook and I am proud to say this cookbook has gorgeous tantalizing full page color photos for most of the recipes. I need visualization to see how the recipe is going to look to judge whether I should take the time cooking it and these photos do the recipes justice!  The first 16 pages are discussing introductions and real basics in cooking. For most cooks you will bypass that.  An entire chapter is spent on breakfast, which for me, I would rarely use as breakfast in my house is always a quick fix.  Then the book carries on with typical chapters such as lunch, dinner, desserts, and appetizers and so on.  What did surprise me was the pet food recipes chapter at the end of the book. I rarely expect to see pet food recipes in a typical cookbook. Given how pets have become such a member of the family now, I would think it would be widely advertised or even given their own cookbook! Granted, this chapter is going to be subject matter that will not appeal to everyone. 

The layout of each recipe is extremely easy. Recipes are kept on a single page so there is no need to flip back and forth and possibly dirty up your cookbook! Also, each section is classically divided in a way that you just can’t go wrong! There are more than 100 recipes in this book and the ease of each recipe is enticing. Between that and the gorgeous pictures I hope to continue making recipes out of this book!

If you have seen Sandra Lee’s show, you know that presentation as in how you set your table, music and wine are part of the deal in making a meal entertaining and the book goes on to portray this.  A few pages on wine and music are also in the cookbook, but it wasn’t really much instruction.  However, the chapter on cocktails had some awesome simple recipes for delicious looking cocktails.  The book in its entirety was a good inspiring cookbook and picking out recipes from this is fun with the photos and ease of the recipe with store bought items added.

Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Cooking: Sesame Chicken Drumettes

Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade Cooking: Sesame Chicken Drumettes

Sandra Lee describes that she knew of a restaurant in Santa Monica, California, that served the most amazing drummettes and that was all that they served.  She says that when the restaurant closed up, she created her own recipe to take their place.  She says they are “full of flavor, the outside is always perfectly crispy and the inside is always tender and juicy”.  I love chicken appetizers, especially ones with an asian flavor as my palette is a wee bit too gentle for hot wings.  Will these chicken drumettes stand up to any restaurant appetizer and are they really that easy to make?

Sesame Chicken Drumettes

1/3 c. teriyaki sauce

1-1/2 Tbsp. dry sherry

1-1/2 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

1-1/4 lbs. chicken drumettes (about 12)

1-1/2 Tbsp. bbq sauce

1-1/2 Tbsp. honey

¼ tsp. oriental sesame oil

Combine the teriyaki sauce, sherry and sesame seeds in a resealable bag.  Add drumettes to coat with sauce.  Close bag and refrigerate for at least ½ hr. or up to a day.  After marinating the drumettes, preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Using a foil lined cookie sheet, transfer drumettes to cookie sheet and throw away remaining marinade.  Bake until drumettes are golden brown, about 15 minutes.  While chicken is baking, mix bbq sauce (preferably a dark bbq sauce), honey and sesame oil in a small bowl.  After chicken has baked for 15 min., brush drumettes with honey mixture and bake 5 min. more.  Turn them over, repeat brushing and baking an additional 5 min.

This was a very easy recipe to make and drumettes were so easy, you will wish you had bought several packages.  Her recipe says serves 4 as an appetizer, but with drumettes being so small, you will definitely want more.  Excellent flavor with all of these ingredients and although most people don’t have cooking sherry and possibly the sesame oil in their kitchen, these items are worth getting as they really add to the flavor and make the recipe a success.  Besides you will want to make this again and again and then you will have those items on hand. My grocery store had just one brand of cooking sherry in the vinegar aisle and it worked fine.  We always have sesame oil on hand for stir fry so that was easy, but you can fine sesame oil in the “asian” aisle of your local grocery store.  I only marinated the drumettes for 30 minutes and they were full of flavor.  You will definitely want to line the cookie sheet with foil as the honey will tend to burn and be a nightmare scrubbing the sheet.  Use a dark barbecue sauce such as KC Masterpiece for a much better flavor as well.  An easy yummy recipe that will impress your guests!

Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Cooking: Berry Cookie Cobbler

Food network stars have enticing cooking shows to lure you in, watch their fabulous cooking and ease in the kitchen and then…buy their products.  Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love shows on the Food Network, and the chefs who started with cookbooks,  followed up with selling cookware, utensils and even kitchen appliances.  So,  I wanted to try a few recipes from a Food Network host to see if they stand up to how she portrays them on television.  Sandra Lee, host of the Semi-homemade cooking show is in my book, brilliant.  Take the base of items you buy in the store, add your own ingredients and less time to come up with a recipe that looks homemade and says you did it all yourself.  Unless you tell the truth, no one will know you didn’t slave for hours.  I started with one of her original cookbooks, “Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Cooking”.  The first recipe I chose was Berry Cookie Cobbler. She says “this is easy, easy, easy, delicious, delicious, delicious”…is she right?

Berry Cookie Cobbler

2 bags (12 oz ea) frozen mixed berries, thawed

1 container (21 oz) apple pie filling

1/3 c. sugar

1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 roll (18 oz) prepared sugar cookie dough

   Optional: add vanilla ice cream with the baked dessert

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, mix all ingredients except the sugar cookie dough.  Place the fruit mixture in a 8 x 8 x 2 baking dish.  Crumble the sugar cookie dough over fruit, covering it completely and thickly.  Then bake uncovered until cookie crust is a crispy golden color and juices are bubbling, about 45 min.

Was this an easy recipe? Was it delicious? The answer is sort of and yes!  Mixing the berries and fruit was of course a no brainer.  Crumbling the sugar cookie dough is quite sticky but still easy enough.  She didn’t mention placing the dish on a cookie sheet if the juices were bubbling, which, luckily I did.  Place the dish on a cookie sheet or you may be cleaning your oven! I watched the dish after about 30 minutes to follow up with the time and 45 minutes was really right on the money for the crust to get a nice golden brown.  Everyone loved the dish and it was great with ice cream, but even cooled off, it was a bit runnier than I would have liked.  I think I may drain just a bit of juices off next time I make it.  I also don’t think you need that much sugar, I might reduce it to ¼ c. next time for my waistline.  The frozen berries we bought were a fantastic mixture of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and strawberries. This was a store brand and by using frozen, when it thawed you had lots of juice. The canned apple filling I got had lots of cinnamon in it, so not sure that you needed a full 1-1/2 tsp of cinnamon either.  The mixture of fruit was a delightful party in your mouth! A keeper!

365 Favorite Brand Name Slow Cooker Recipes & More

365 Favorite Brand Name Slow Cooker Recipes & More

It’s that time of year. During the fall and winter my countertops receive a designated spot that my slow cooker rarely leaves. Who wouldn’t love the idea of buying a cheap tough piece of meat, putting it in your magic machine before you leave for work, and returning home to find the most tender, juicy and flavorful piece of meat you’ve ever tasted?

I’m always looking for new ways to expand my slow cooker’s talent and I love a good slow cooker cookbook. But I can not in good conscience recommend this one. Do not let yourself be fooled. When I look at this lovely long title I interpret it that this book will contain 365 recipes using my slow cooker that will contain brand name ingredients and there will be some bonus recipes on top of those 365 recipes. It does contain 365 recipes, no more, no less. It does contain slow cooker recipes, 174 slow cooker recipes to be exact. The second half of the book contains recipes done on your stove top or using your oven while your sad little slow cooker remains unused. Clearly their use of “& More” means that it will use your slow cooker “& More”.

As for the rest of the title “Favorite Brand Name” not many recipes featured brand name items which I was actually relieved about. Recipes that did contain “brand name” ingredients I had never heard of and could not obtain at any of my local grocery stores. So when a recipe specified one package or one can followed by a brand name, I was left puzzled, with no means of substituting because no actual measurements were given. Had they given how many ounces that can was or cups were in that package, I might’ve been able to continue. But I was actually frustrated picking out some recipes I could complete without improvising.

There is a great little section on slow cooker basics so if you’ve just purchased one and have no idea how to work it, it’s worth glancing at. The rest of the book is divided into your classic cookbook sections such as appetizers, main dishes, side dishes and desserts. It’s then followed by another set of sections that seems to repeat itself and this is of course because it contains a set of recipes that do not use your slow cooker. It does feature a standard layout for recipes, having the recipes in bold and never flowing onto a second page. This does make it easy to read and you never have to flip back and forth between pages.

You can find full page size photos on every other page, suggesting that this cookbook was well tested and you can see the end result for half of the recipes that you intend to make. I am all for having photos as it is certainly more appetizing than words! Since half the book is essentially photos I would’ve been even more pleased at two half page photos meaning that every recipe gets a photo. But I do have to commend this slow cooker book as it contains more photos than most cookbooks do.

The book was not a total loss. I did manage to find an awesome barbecue sauce that had a great mixture of both sweet and smoky. I also managed to find a great beef stew that I will no doubt make over and over. But I say to copy these recipes down and move on. For how big this cookbook is I definitely expected to be able to find more and in my small bookcase of worthy cookbooks, this one does not qualify.

365 Favorite Brand Name Slow Cooker Recipes & More: Favorite Beef Stew

365 Favorite Brand Name Slow Cooker Recipes & More: Favorite Beef Stew

How can you go wrong with a recipe titled: Favorite Beef Stew? This stew is pictured in this cookbook and it looks mouth watering, savory and delicious! This is one recipe I am happy to say does not disappoint!

Favorite Beef Stew

3 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces

3 celery ribs, cut into 1 inch pieces

2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into ½ inch pieces

1 ½ cups chopped onion

3 cloves garlic

1 bay leaf

1 ½ tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

¾ tsp. dried thyme

¾ tsp. dried basil

½ tsp. black pepper

2 pounds lean beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 can (about 14 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can (about 14 oz.) reduced-sodium beef broth

¼ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup cold water

Layer all of these ingredients in the slow cooker with carrots, celery and potatoes on the bottom followed by onion, garlic, bay leaf and Worcestershire sauce. Follow with thyme, basil, pepper beef and tomatoes and finish by pouring the juice and broth on top. Cook for 8 to 9 hours on low setting.

Remove all beef and vegetables and discard the bay leaf. In a small bowl combine flour and water and mix thoroughly. Add mixture to slow cooker and cook 15 minutes covered. Pour sauce over meat and vegetables and serve.

What I love about this recipe is that you don’t have to brown the stew meat before tossing it in the slow cooker. The meat comes out tender and flavorful and falls apart on your fork- it is perfect. What I also love about this recipe is that I am more than likely going to have all of the ingredients for this in my cupboard and can throw it together on a moments notice. I do have to reiterate that the recipe calls for reduced-sodium beef broth. I had trouble finding this in the store and went ahead with normal beef broth. It was a bit too salty for me but my husband who puts salt on everything I make, thought it was perfect.

What I didn’t love about this recipe was that it wanted you to thicken the stew at the end which I thought was a bit unnecessary. I accidentally put the flour in at the beginning of the cooking process and felt the stew was plenty thick and looked possibly even a little thicker than the stew pictured in the book. If you’re missing onion or don’t have beef broth, a can of French onion soup is a great alternative. If you don’t have a recipe for a great, easy slow cooker beef stew, consider this a new staple in your winter menu!

365 Favorite Brand Name Slow Cooker Recipes & More: Barbecued Meatballs

365 Favorite Brand Name Slow Cooker Recipes & More: Barbecued Meatballs

Barbecued Meatballs are a game day and party favorite right alongside barbecued smokies! Everyone has their own variation and sauce recipe so I thought it was time I try my own.

Barbecued Meatballs

2 pounds lean ground beef

1 1/3 cups ketchup, divided

3 tbsp. seasoned dry bread crumbs

1 egg, slightly beaten

2 tbsp. dried onion flakes

¾ tsp. garlic salt

½ tsp. black pepper

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste

¼ cup reduced-sodium soy sauce

¼ cup cider vinegar

1 ½ tsp. hot pepper sauce

First, preheat your oven to 350. Combine the ground beef, bread crumbs, egg, onion flakes, garlic salt, black pepper and 1/3 cup of ketchup in a large mixing bowl. Mix lightly but thoroughly (I opted to use my hands) and shape into 1-inch meatballs. Please meatballs on shallow roasting pans and bake for 18 minutes or until browned. Transfer meatballs to slow cooker. While meatballs are cooking, mix 1 cup ketchup, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, tomato paste, and hot pepper sauce in medium bowl. Pour over meatballs and cook in slow cooker on low for 4 hours. Serve with cocktail picks.

This is what the book offers as far as directions go. This recipe was a little bit of a disaster for me so here are some tips so that you don’t have the same problems I did. First of all, I have never made meatballs before. You can space them fairly close together on a cookie sheet or roasting pan and not only will they not go anywhere but they won’t grow like cookies do. Giving them space is not necessary. Secondly, spray your pan with non stick spray! I can’t stress this enough. I used a shallow, non stick roasting pan and after 18 minutes they were so stuck to the pan that I had to scrape them off with a spatula and I had a few break and several rip off a layer of meat. Lastly, four hours is merely a suggestion. After 4 hours the sauce started to burn on the sides of my slow cooker and became lumpy and chunky as you can most likely tell by my picture. To top it all off my slow cooker did the job it set out to do- make meat tender. So of course getting the meatballs out of the slow cooker without breaking them was only accomplishable by tongs and sometimes even then they couldn’t be saved.

I do have to say the sauce for these meatballs was amazing. While they were cooking I had a hard time stopping myself from swiping my finger across the old mixing bowl. I would keep the recipe for the sauce and use it on smokies in the slow cooker, or just cooked meatballs. I would only put the meatballs and sauce in my slow cooker again if I was using it for warming purposes only. I never thought to wonder if meatballs and slow cookers would mesh well but as a novice meatball make I guess I didn’t know any better and neither did this cookbook. You’ve been warned- meatballs and slow cookers do not mix.

365 Favorite Brand Name Slow Cooker Recipes & More: Country Chicken Chowder

365 Favorite Brand Name Slow Cooker Recipes & More: Country Chicken Chowder

This chowder is one of recipes that are pictured in this book. It looks creamy, savory and deliciously filling. As winter months always seem to drag on forever, I’m constantly looking for new soup or stew type recipes to keep my stomach and my taste buds happy.

Country Chicken Chowder

1 pound chicken tenders

2 tbsp. margarine or butter

1 small onion, chopped

1 rib celery, sliced

1 small carrot, sliced

1 can (10 ¾ oz.) cream of potato soup

1 cup milk

1 cup frozen corn

½ tsp. dried dill weed

First, cut the chicken into ½ in. pieces and cook until no longer pink (about 5 minutes). Add carrot, onion and celery; cook for 3 more minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients. After all the ingredients are added together you only have to cook it for 8 minutes.

Yes, you read it right… 8 minutes of cooking time. By now I think you’ve caught on that this recipe is not done in your slow cooker. But it is from a cookbook entitled slow cooker recipes. Was I sincerely disappointed after picking out this recipe that my slow cooker was not going to be used? You bet I was. While quick and easy chowder can be a blessing it certainly wasn’t what I was expecting or ready for!

When the winter months roll around there are a few things that I always keep stocked in my fridge and freezer. When I buy an onion or celery I chop the entire thing at once and freeze it. Chances are I will not use the entire thing fresh before it goes bad and most of the time I use it for soups which calls for it to be diced anyways! I also keep on hand a bag of baby carrots. They’re good for snacking, never have to be peeled and when going in the slow cooker, rarely need to be chopped, sliced or diced! They also are likely to be tenderer than full size carrots and there is nothing I hate more than a soup with under cooked carrots. Is it a quick and easy recipe? Absolutely! But my fridge and freezer shortcuts just made it that much easier.

As I was cooking it I was reminded of a very similar recipe that I use when making chicken pot pies. Especially since at the bottom of the recipe a serving suggestion is given to serve the chowder in bread bowls or with bread of some kind.

I became a little eerie about this recipe being able to stand on its own and my fears were confirmed. It smells great, it looks great, and it tastes… okay. It might replace my current recipe for the insides of a chicken pot pie but there was no denying that this recipe was lacking depth. It was indeed hearty chowder fit for the winter months but it is too bland to stand on its own.

Cooking With Mickey Volume II

Cooking With Mickey: Volume II

For those of you who have had the pleasure of experiencing the world of Disney at one of their major parks around the world, you know that Disney excels at many things and they’re never afraid to pull out all the stops. They’re food is no exception. For a West Coaster like me, Disneyland is a common stop for me and I’m pretty sure I’ve tried all the food they have to offer at every restaurant. They have classic theme park food like churros, corn dogs, hot dogs, burgers, fries and the like. But they also have just about any food you can imagine whether it be fried chicken and turkey legs or po-boys and gumbo; chicken and beef skewers or prime rib and roasted turkey!

I love Disney cuisine and it’s always fun to look through the cookbook to bring a little Disney home.  There are a few more recipes I would try in the book, but overall, most of the recipes in this cookbook do not fit the general tastebuds of my household. 

There is a good variety of chapters, thirteen to be exact, and most of the recipes are from Disneyworld. This book certainly covers all the bases and the chapters are very specific, making it easy to find what you’re looking for. They have one chapter dedicated to all of the breads in Walt Disney World and Disneyland. They also have one chapter dedicated purely to sauces! They make sure each recipe fits on a single page so you don’t have to flip back and forth while cooking. This certainly helps to keep your cookbook clean!

Many of the recipes require a lot of ingredients and are not exactly simple to make. These are recipes that need to be planned in advance to ensure that you have all of the ingredients. The instructions are quite clear but there are no pictures of any kind throughout this book; so you have to envision for yourselves the presentation of the recipe. If you’re recreating a food that you’ve had before it might not be a problem but it may be difficult for someone to see the true light if never having been to a Disney Park. 

This cookbook features well over 400 recipes. It’s impossible to not like at least a few things in this cookbook! It’s hard to believe there can be such a variety of foods just between the two parks but they continue to reinvent themselves as they open new restaurants and invent new recipes. While I think the cookbook would obviously appeal more to someone who has a love for a Disney Park, a glance at the recipes is just enough to bring Mickey in the kitchen while cooking for your family on a dreary rainy day!

Cooking With Mickey Volume II: Chocolate Mousse

Cooking With Mickey Volume II: Chocolate Mousse

When you think of Chocolate Mousse, do you picture yourself eating a luscious bowl of Chocolate Mousse at a sidewalk café in France?  How about Florida?  Yes, Mickey Mouse puts out his own cookbooks with many shared recipes from the restaurants of Disneyworld, Disneyland and even the Disney Cruise Line.  You can always get the regular fast food in the Disney Parks like the turkey legs, corn dogs, and of course hamburgers.  But go a step further and step outside the box for the Disney Cuisine that is some of the tastiest and classiest in Disney recipes.  

Disney shares their best recipes in several cookbooks and if you have had food at a Disney Park or a Disney restaurant and love it, don’t be shy to ask for the recipe.  I have the coveted recipe for the chicken skewers at Bengal Barbecue right across from the Indiana Jones ride in Adventureland, Disneyland, (with 2 other recipes on it; the beef and the sauce). I have also asked the chef at the United Kingdom restaurant; Rose & Crown Pub & Dining Room in Disneyworld for the leek sauce recipe on the chicken and the chef came out to tell me how to cook it! Never be afraid to ask a chef, the worst they can do is say no! Many chefs, in my experience, have found it to be the highest compliment!  

Chocolate Mousse

From Boulangerie Patisserie France

EPCOT Disneyworld

5 oz semi sweet chocolate, melted

2 egg yolks, lightly beaten

¼ c. heavy cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 egg whites

¼ c. sugar

You can melt the chocolate chips in the microwave watching them carefully or in a double boiler over boiling water.  Mix together egg yolks and cream and gradually add to melted chocolate, stirring quickly, then add vanilla. Set aside.

Beat egg whites with sugar until whites are stiff and peaks form.  Then gently add the chocolate mixture into the egg whites, stirring gently and mix together.  Spoon mousse into serving bowls and chill for about 2 hours until firm.

This is one of the best and easiest Chocolate Mousse recipes; we all absolutely loved it and will make it again and again! I do recommend that your whipping cream NOT be cold directly from the fridge as your melted chocolate will start to solidify with the cold cream forming small little chunks, (which isn’t actually bad tasting, it just doesn’t make for a smooth texture).

Cooking With Mickey Volume II: Nacho Cheese Dip

Cooking With Mickey Cookbook Volume II: Nacho Cheese Dip

I think I dream of nachos in my sleep and wake up drooling on my pillow!  The best recipe for a cheese dip is my mom's Texas Cheese Dip, but I search for an even better recipe constantly.  I chose the Nacho Cheese Dip from the "Cooking With Mickey Cookbook Volume II" in my quest for the ultimate recipe...did it surpass my own mothers?

Nacho Cheese Dip

from the Fiesta Fun Center Snack Bar

Disney's Contemporary Resort Disneyworld Florida
 
1/2 lb. provolone cheese, grated
1/2 lb. american cheese, grated
3/4 c. heavy cream
8 oz. cream cheese

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

3/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/8 tsp. yellow food coloring
 
Melt provolone cheese in a double boiler over boiling water.  Add american cheese till all melted, then stir in heavy cream.  
Add cream cheese to the mixture and stir until all is melted and smooth.  Remove from heat and then add seasonings, worcestershire sauce and 
food coloring.
Serve with chips, crackers or veggies.
 
 
The only american cheese I know of are the "singles" you put on sandwiches and burgers.  I asked my local deli who had local cheese and imports and she said she didn't carry American cheese by the pound.  So, instead of unwrapping alot of cheese slices, I did substitute Velveeta Cheese.  First, let me explain that melting provolone over a double boiler is not easy.  This cheese has a lot of elasticity to it and is a royal pain to melt.  Adding the Velveeta actually made it easier and smoother. 

Once it starts cooling off the cheese wants to solidify, making it difficult to continue mixing it all together.  Once I forgave the cheese for at no fault of its own wanting to become a huge blob and got it all mixed together, the dip warmed me up with its flavor but had to be constantly reheated to serve.  The cayenne pepper gave it a good kick and you could taste the cream cheese come through.  I did not add the yellow food coloring as it still had a nice color and didn't feel it necessary to add more artificial ingredients.  Would I make it again? No.  Does it surpass my own mothers? Absolutely not!  Although good flavor, this was a frustrating recipe for any cook!

Betty Crocker's Cooky Book

Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book

It's been named, dare I say, the baking bible. This classic Cooky Book features over 200 cookie recipes. This is a wonderful cookbook for the every woman. It features both easy and difficult recipes but clearly caters more towards the ease of making cookies.

The table of contents leaves some to be desired. In a typical cookbook you would find the recipes separated by appetizers, side dishes, main courses and desserts. But, in a book of only desserts, they resort to separating the cookies into quite a few different categories. You can find their cookies separate by type (refrigerated, bar, rolled, molded, etc.) or separated by the occasion in which you would use the cookie (holiday, travel, teatime, special dietary needs, etc.). There is room for quite a bit of overlap which the cooky book takes advantage of by using different recipes of similar cookies.

The book eases you into the idea of baking cookies for someone who might be overwhelmed. It offers a two page introduction on how to store cookies, freeze them, utensils you will need, baking tips and how to prevent and correct disastrous dough.

The layout features two recipes per page, giving each recipe their own column. It makes it easy to read and follow and several of these recipes feature variations that can easily be found underneath the original of each recipe.

Many pages feature a picture border on the bottom of cookies throughout the book. These cookies are clearly labeled with the name of the cookie and the page where the recipe can be found. They feature so many cookies on each page that pictures become farther and few between as the book advances, substituting full page photos featuring several different types of cookies at once. What I do like about these rather vintage photos is that they are accompanied by a diagram that clearly outlines each cookie and where to find the recipe. While not every cookie has a photo, the cooky book makes a strong effort to give visual ideas whether it is through photos or illustrations of what your end result should look like.

An interesting part of this book is the gingerbread style house made entirely of cookies. It gives a great layout using a cardboard box and good suggestions for your walls, roof, windows, etc. The most surprising thing about this cooky house is that it features all store bought cookies. While they may have chosen this approach for ease and precision, I was disappointed that they don’t even suggest or offer a recipe for a single cookie used on this cooky house.

My favorite part of this book is the section featuring their best cookies. They offer favorite cookies listed by a ten or five year period starting with 1880. I found this section to be the most entertaining featuring variations of the favorite recipe, tips, historical moments during this time period and historical information on a featured ingredient.

The index makes up for where the table of contents lacks. You can search by a particular ingredient, like a cookie containing almonds, or by more specific types of cookies like ones that contain fillings. I found this helpful when I wanted to make a type of shortbread.

Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book is a superb standard when it comes to making cookies and it’s an absolute classic in the baking world. Some of these recipes are the generation to generation best kept secret recipes, some are the original recipe that invented this type of cookie (doesn’t always mean it’s the tastiest) and some are a little off the wall in my opinion. This cookbook will help to expand your cookie horizon whether you’re looking to start baking or have been for years.

Betty Crocker's Cooky Book: Butterscotch Shortbread

Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book: Butterscotch Shortbread

When I think Shortbread I think of the red plaid box containing Walker’s shortbread. I think of a sweet, buttery and crumbly cookie. This butterscotch shortbread recipe did not meet my high Walker’s shortbread expectations. It also didn’t meet my “butterscotch” flavor expectations. It doesn’t contain vanilla flavoring or butterscotch flavoring of any kind, relying solely on brown sugar for flavor.

This recipe is clearly geared towards a beginner cook as the recipe only contains five ingredients. The recipe is simple and so is the cookie.

Butterscotch Shortbread

1 cup shortening

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix together the shortening and both sugars. In a separate bowl mix the flour and salt and then combine the two bowls. Roll the dough out to ¼ inch thick and use cookie cutter to get desired shape. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

This was another recipe in this book that called for a cup of shortening and then specified that you could do part butter or margarine. With a high anticipation of a buttery flavor as my end result, I was really surprised to see the recipe actually give you the option of using only shortening. I went for half butter and half shortening.

As my cookies reached 20 minutes it was quite clear to pull them out. But for having golden brown cookies in the oven the smell was rather bland. I opted for a star shaped cookie and found the ends of each star to be significantly more cooked than the middle. Now I know why most shortbread I have seen is in such boring uniform shapes.

A signature move for shortbread is to have that little salty kick at the end. This cookie did deliver on that salty kick. While crispy and sweet, the cookie had some softness to it that didn’t provide the crumble I was looking for. It also had very little butter flavor. This could have been the shortening or the fact that I used margarine and not real butter. Either way it was considered to be following the recipe and didn’t have quite the same taste I thought it should.

It’s a simple cookie in terms of ease in execution and with brown sugar being your star flavor; it’s simple in terms of taste too. If you’re in a crunch for a cookie and you’ve just found out your eggs have gone bad, then give this recipe a try.

Betty Crocker's Cooky Book: Snickerdoodles

Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book: Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles are an American favorite that often gets cast aside by the ever popularized chocolate chip cookie. Finding a great dough that is easy to roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture and will puff up to form those great little crack lines can be difficult. Is this recipe the winner? Maybe.

Snickerdoodles:

1 cup shortening

1 ½ cups sugar

2 eggs

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. soda

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

After preheating the oven to 400 degrees, mix together the eggs, sugar and shortening. In a separate bowl mix the flour, soda, cream of tartar and salt. Mix the two bowls together. Scoop the dough and roll into 1 inch balls. Roll the balls in cinnamon/sugar mixture and place on ungreased baking sheet. Cookies should be finished baking in 8 to 10 minutes.

The recipe calls for 1 cup of shortening and in parenthesis states part butter or margarine. I’m guessing the recipe is implying that you can use butter, margarine, shortening or a mixture of these to make up 1 cup. Anyone who has made the exact same cookie with all shortening versus all butter knows that this can make a significant difference in how the dough sets up and the all around taste of a cookie. I suppose the deciding factor is your taste buds but it would’ve been nice to have the ingredient list a bit more specific. I ended using half shortening and half butter in an attempt for the best of both worlds.

The recipe calls for rolling the dough in two tablespoons of sugar and two teaspoons of cinnamon. Judging the dough in my mixing bowl I did not think this cinnamon sugar mixture was going to be enough, but it worked out to be a perfect amount. It wasn’t difficult to roll each ball but there wasn’t so much mixture leftover that I felt like I was wasting any.

I had to question the recipe’s call for a 400 degree oven. I rarely make cookies at such a high temperature but stuck with the directions for at least the first batch. I felt like the cinnamon was going to burn before the cookie was finished and ended up lowering the temperature to 375 degrees.

Pulling them out of the oven yielded beautiful results with only one challenge: getting them off the pan. Spraying my cookie sheets with non stick cooking spray is not a common occurrence for me, but for these cookies it was entirely necessary.

After conquering the cookie sheet most of the cookies made their way to the cooling rack and eventually a storage bag for optimum freshness. A select few made it to my mouth and they were sweet. They were soft but a little crumbly. The texture was almost cake like and the second cookie required a glass of milk. I’m not a huge fan of cinnamon but this cookie contained just enough to smell fantastic without being overwhelming.

The next day I packed a few into a bag for a snack and noticed a significant difference in my cookie. The cookie seemed to dry out and harden in as little as 24 hours. It had become extremely crumbly and crispy; not nearly as delightful as it was the evening before.

If this is the recipe you want to work with I suggest freezing the dough and breaking it down into smaller portions unless your family can devour the batch in just a couple of days. For a small family like mine this recipe does not hold up to our week of freshness standards before becoming hard enough to break a tooth. My search for the perfect snickerdoodle recipe continues.

Betty Crocker's Cooky Book: Mary's Sugar Cookies

Mary’s Sugar Cookies

This recipe, found in the early pages of Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book, is the ultimate melt in your mouth sugar cookie recipe. This recipe is extremely versatile with endless possibilities. They are sweet, light, and fluffy and a perfect addition to any holiday given the unlimited potential of shapes this dough can take on.

Mary’s Sugar Cookies:

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

1 cup butter or margarine

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

½ tsp. almond flavoring

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cream of tartar

All of the ingredients are mixed in order from top to bottom.

There are two secrets that separate this sugar cookie recipe from the rest. Mary’s sugar cookies do not use gritty granulated sugar but rather the sweet smooth alternative of powdered sugar. The recipe also calls for equal parts cream of tartar and baking soda instead of the 2:1 ratio found in baking powder. This is to compensate for the texture change in our sugar.

The result is a sweet vanilla smell with a melt in your mouth taste that can not be matched by any recipe with granulated sugar. Depending on your sweet tooth these can be paired with or without frosting. I find vanilla frosting with festive sprinkles to be a perfect addition. This is how one of our Halloween themed cookies turned out, lovingly decorated by my four year old niece.

This delectable sugar cookie recipe can be tinted, frosted and sprinkled to fit in with any holiday celebration. They can be cut thick for a soft and airy texture or rolled thin for a crisp crunch. No matter how you remember your favorite sugar cookie, this sweet soft recipe is sure to deliver.