Tag Archives: Food

Sep20

Baron Bars

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Baron Bars are a yummy snack when you need a chocolate fix.  They are very simple to make and require very few ingredients.  The hardest thing about making them is having the patience to wait until they have hardened long enough in the refrigerator. 😉  Trust me, at my son’s insistence last night, I tried speeding them up by placing them in the freezer.  After listening to him ask me every 10 minutes, “Are they done yet?”, I decided to take them out.  They were nice and hard on the top, but sticky on the bottom.  This lot turned out chewier than usual because I rushed them, however, they tasted as good as always.  For this recipe you will need:

1 1/2 sticks butter (3/4 cup)

1 cup light brown sugar

35-40 Saltine crackers

1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a large cookie sheet with aluminum foil.  Spread butter on the entire piece of foil.  Make sure you cover the foil good so the crackers will not stick to it.  Arrange Saltine crackers, salty side up, on the buttered foil.  Put as many as will fit without overlapping them.

  

In a medium-sized sauce pan, combine butter and brown sugar and bring to a boil.  Boil for one minute, stirring constantly.  Pour mixture over all of the Saltine crackers.  Spread evenly with a butter knife and make sure crackers are thoroughly covered.  Place cookie sheet in oven and bake for 8 minutes.

    

Remove cookie sheet from oven and pour chocolate chips over the crackers.  Spread chocolate evenly with a butter knife.  The chocolate chips will melt quickly and can be spread like frosting. 

   

Refrigerate cookie sheet for several hours until completely cool and chocolate is hard to the touch.  Break the Baron Bars into pieces as you peel it off of the foil.  I store mine in an airtight container or Ziploc bag in the refrigerator so the chocolate doesn’t melt.  The saltly, chocolately, sugary mix is YUMMY! 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Sep16

Sassy Potato Corn Chowder

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Two of my favorite foods are corn and potatoes.  I also love a bowl of nice, hot soup so if I can combine those three things I ama happy camper.  Cooler temps will arrive tomorrow, it will be a great time to sit down to a yummy bowl of comfort food.

For this recipe you will need:

4 slices bacon, chopped

3 cups cubed potatoes

1 (13 1/2 oz.) chicken broth

1 (10 oz.) package  frozen corn

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 TBS. flour

1/2 cup mayonnaise (or Miracle Whip)

2 cups whole milk

In a large saucepan, cook bacon until crisp.  Drain and return to pan.  Stir in chicken broth, potatoes, onion and celery.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

   

In a medium-sized bowl, mix flour and mayonnaise together.  Whisk in milk until well blended.  I like to use my Mickey Mouse whisk for this part.  Everything tastes better when Mickey helps, right?  Add to potato mixture and stir until thoroughly blended.  Cook 3 to 5 minutes until heated through.  I like to turn the heat back up a notch for this part.  Just until it bubbles again.  Then I turn it back down and let it thicken. 

 Today I used scallions in my chowder instead of  yellow onion.  I also used them as a garnish, along with a sprinkle of sharp, cheddar cheese.  It never lasts long in the pan once it is finished.  This soup is a big hit with my son.  Today he hugged me and asked me if I would write down all of my recipes for him so he could cook them when he grows up.  That was way better than any bowl of comfort food could ever be.  I hope you’ll give this a try and will enjoy it as much as my son and I do.  As always, thanks for reading!! 🙂

 

 

 

Sep14

Peanut Butter Cookies

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I was in a baking mood today! As I was flipping through some of my favorite recipes, I came across one for Peanut Butter Cookies.  These are the most moist peanut butter cookies I have ever eaten.  I’ve had some in the past that you could use as weapons if you threw them at someone!   My family loves these so much, they never seem to last long once they’ve been made.  Since the holidays are just around the corner, I thought I’d share these with you.

For this recipe you will need:

2 cups All-Purpose Flour

1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

1 Cup Butter

1 Cup Sugar

1 Egg

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter

     

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a medium sized bowl, mix flour and baking powder and set aside.  In a large bowl, ( I used my Kitchen-Aid mixer here) beat  butter until softened.  Add sugar and beat together until fluffy.

    

Add egg and vanilla, beat well.  Add peanut butter and beat until thoroughly blended.

  

Add flour mixture a little at a time and blend until all of it has been mixed together.  At this point you know to start out using your mixer on low unless you want your kitchen (and yourself) to be covered in flour!

  

Take a tablespoon full of dough and roll into a ball.  Place ball on cookie sheet and use a fork that has been dipped in flour to flatten out the cookie.  I like to make a criss-cross design on mine.  Remember to dip your fork in the flour each time you press your cookie so it won’t stick.  Cook on the top rack until cookies are slightly brown. 

Remove cookies from the oven and let them sit on the cookie sheet for a few minutes so they will firm up a bit.  Then remove cookies with a spatula and place them on a cooling rack until thoroughly cooled.  Store in an air tight container.  I like to put a piece of white bread in the container when I store any kind of cookie.  The next day the slice of bread will be hard as a brick, but your cookies will be nice and soft!  You could easily add chopped nuts to this recipe or maybe a few Reese’s Pieces on top if you like.  I hope your family likes these cookies as much as mine does.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Sep8

Some yummy eats at Disney World

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The yummy eats at Disney World is going to be a tough thing to blog about.  Not because there isn’t enough to choose from, but because there is way too much!!  For any of you that have ever visited that magical place, this is something you know all too well.  Today I’ll just choose a few things that are some family favorites.

  

A must have for my son and myself are the Mickey waffles.  It just isn’t the start of a Disney day for us if we don’t have these wonderfully, yummy Mickey eats before we head into the parks.  Most days we like to do a counter service meal for breakfast.  Disney World does have some fabulous restaurants where you can have a scrumptious  breakfast with your family.  My favorites are the character meals…but that is another post entirely.  My husband usually likes to get an omelet or a platter that comes with scrambled eggs, sausage, a biscuit and fried potatoes, one of his favorite things to eat.  My daughter is just not a breakfast person.  She almost always eats a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast.  Yes, a peanut butter sandwich folks.  I am forced to bring a jar of peanut butter with us on vacation and buy a loaf of bread once we get there.   With all the yummy breakfast foods at Disney I can only think of two she eats, bacon and grits, and she very particular about her grits!  I thought for sure I had more pictures of the breakfasts we ate on our last Disney trip but I can’t seem to find any. Hmm, guess we were in too much of a hurry to eat them!  Okay, moving on…..

   

One of our favorite places to eat lunch is at Flame Tree BBQ in Animal Kingdom.  There we usually get a nice turkey sandwich, crispy french fries, crunchy onion rings (oh, how I love those!) or a barbecue sandwich.  Allison’s favorite meal to eat here is the roasted chicken.  It comes with some  delicious baked beans and creamy coleslaw.   Alas, Allison eats neither of those sides, so we must order some extra french fries for her.   I know, I know…you are glad this picky eater belongs to me and not you, right? 

 Ah, a visitor.  No Disney counter service meal is complete without one.  I love all the different kinds of birds and squirrels that come up to you as you eat.  You  know they are down there thinking, “Please, lady, I’ll take anything you drop!”   There are signs posted everywhere that ask you not to feed the wildlife and we don’t.  Yes, we do drop the occasional fry or bite of something, but not intentionally.  I like the fact that Animal Kingdom doesn’t allow plastic straws in the park.  A sturdy paper straw comes with your drink when you get one there.

 

  Another reason we like to eat at Flame Tree BBQ is the view.  There is a ton of seating for this counter service restaurant, but we usually go all the way to the back so we can watch people ride Expedition Everest.  Oh, and hear them SCREAM!!!  I am a wimp and have never been on that ride.  Just listening to them yell is enough to give me butterflies in my stomach.  My nine year old son keeps telling me, “C’mon Mom, the Yeti isn’t even scary when he jumps out at you!”  Um, no thanks, I’ve seen the part where the track comes to an end on that thing and you go roaring backwards.  I’ll just sit here and enjoy my onion rings while you adventurous folks enjoy the ride.  It does make for a lovely view, though. 

                                                                                                    

I bet you thought I was going to talk next about our dinner at Disney World, didn’t you?  Nah, I’m skipping straight to dessert!  I could do several posts alone about the sweet treats you will find all over Disney property.  Everywhere you turn there is something yummy to be had.  You see my son here trying to tackle a cinnamon roll that is too big to fit in his mouth.  One of my daughter’s favorite thing to eat are chocolate chip cookies and here she has found a winner!  Who wouldn’t like to eat a cookie in the shape of Mickey Mouse?  You  know, when it’s Mickey-shaped it tastes so much better.  For those of you who like rice crispy treats, you can get the mother (or should I say Mouse?) of all rice crispy treats here.  My daughter put her hand next to this one so we could show you how big it is.  Hey…did she coordinate her nail polish with that dessert without me knowing? 

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing a few of the yummy things Disney World has to offer.  If you’ve never been, you have no idea what you’re missing, and I’m not just talking about food.  It truly is a magical place.  Thanks for reading along, you have no idea how much I appreciate it.  I’m thinking somewhere in the near future you may see a blog on another “Magical” place in Florida.  I am afraid to mention it by name in the same post as I believe it will be breaking some sort of Disney law, or close to it.  So, until next time, I’ll just slip on my Invisibility Cloak and disappear. 😉

 

 

 

Sep7

Mickey Mom’s Club Red Box Party/Disney Luau

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Being a member of the Mickey Mom’s Club, I was lucky enough to host one of their Red Box parties in 2010.  As soon as I knew I had been chosen to host this event, I waited every day for Fed Ex to get here with that yummy box of goodies.  I think the Fed Ex delivery man thought I was going to mug him the day it finally came!  I grabbed the box and couldn’t get in the house fast enough to open it.

    

As I dug through the box I found some red Mickey Head balloons, brightly colored confetti, Disney Parks paper plates and napkins to decorate with.  There were also some small Disney totes, magnet boards, magnets and Mickey straws to fill them with.   There were  games for the kids and a trivia game for everyone.  We added our own trivia questions and split the guests up in to teams, guys against the girls.  I had gone out in the weeks before, as I had decided to do my party in a luau theme, and bought Disney and luau themed pencils, coconut mugs, hurricane glasses and toys to give out as prizes.  The girls came out victorious!

My favorite item to give to the lucky attendees was a limited edition, signed print of the Disney Princesses welcoming Princess Tiana to the royal family.   I think that was a very special gift for Disney to put in that box and I truly appreciate mine.

Mickey Mom’s Club also sent me this great little tote as a special gift for hosting the Red Box Party.  I love it!!  Thank You MMC!

      

Decorating for this party was almost as fun as hosting it.  You see, we LOVE to have luau’s.  We had our first one about 5 year ago to celebrate our daughter turning 13 and my husband turning 50.  We enjoyed it so much that we have had several more since then.  The fact that we had tons of luau decorations was another reason why I went with this theme for the Red Box party.  That meant I could spend more money on prizes and food.

     

 Ahhh, the food!!!  The YUMMIEST part of it all!  I had a fabulous time making it.  I had Mickey/Minnie and luau themed candy molds.  The candy and suckers were a big hit with the kids and the adults!  I also found some Mickey sprinkles for the cake, just the right touch for it.

   

I called Disney Shopping and ordered some pretzels that were Mickey heads, some Mickey shortbread cookies and some Mickey pasta.  These were some really fun additions to the food.

   

I used my Mickey egg form to cut out PB&J sandwiches and to make rice crispy treats with.  We left some plain and dipped some in chocolate.  It was just like getting a Disney treat straight from the parks!

  

  Here is a shot of our table top decorated with confetti we cut out with a Mickey punch.  Check out the wonderful picture of my nephew all decked out in his best luau attire.  My niece, who loves sweets, had her eye on the cake! I thoroughly enjoyed hosting this party and I would jump at the chance to host another.  I mean, who doesn’t love Disney???!!!  It is absolutely YUMMY!