chocolate covered potato chips? yes!

Recently glancing through Picky Palate's Facebook page and came across this post.  It took me less than a second to respond.  Chocolate covered potato chips are 100% of awesomeness.  You may ask how it is that someone gets to a point where they even know the answer to this question.  I suppose you are right to ask.  It isn't like potato chips are included in chocolate fondue parties.  A potato chip is not your typical dipping option for a pot of melted chocolate.  That said, if you are looking for a scrumptious little salty sweet treat than I would highly suggest chocolate covered potato chips.

Anyway . . . just my opinion. :)

Mom's Cornbread (with a twist)

I don't make it often, but tonight I whipped out my mom's Ranch Style Corn Bread recipe to go with chili. Now I love this corn bread, but I wanted to mix it up a bit so I made some additions and it ended up making it even more fabulous. So I decided to share it with you all. Enjoy!

Preheat oven to 425* Sift together 1 c flour, 1 c cornmeal, 1 t salt, 3 t baking powder. Add 1 egg and 1 c milk. Combine until moistened. Stir in 1/4 c melted shortening, 1 c fresh roasted corn cut off cob, 1 - 4 oz can diced green chilies & 1/8 c chopped green onion tops. Stir until combined and pour into greased 8" round cake pan. Bake for 20-25 min. Yummmy!

Maggots in Flour.

As I sit and type this I have a total feeling of disgust for flour. I have just gone through a process of throwing out all the flour in this entire house which included white flour, whole wheat flour and whole wheat bread flour. It is all gone. You may ask why, or maybe you wouldn't and you are applauding my action. Either way, what I am about to tell you will most likely disgust you.

This afternoon my youngest got the fabulous idea that I should make a pie after she had a talk with my sister who exclaimed she was making a pie or had made a pie. Either way, the result of the conversation was Ellie explaining to me that I "needed" to make a pumpkin pie for her. Once home from our day of run around, I decided that since I had all the ingredients for a pumpkin pie, I would go ahead and make her one. Together the two of us put all the ingredients for the filling into a large bowl and with great care and decisiveness...wait, who am I kidding? Let me rephrase that. With great speed and vigor, Ellie proceeded to stir the filling. If you had ever wandered if Evaporated milk, sugar and pumpkin can fly...I assure you it can. We cleaned up the mess and continued stirring. She was slightly slower this time. The filling was ready.

I gathered the ingredients for the crust, opened my flour (having just purchased it one week ago) and started to measure it into a measuring cup. As I was doing this, I saw something in the flour. I looked into the bowl and realized that I didn't just see one something but a whole lot of somethings. As I began to scoop these somethings out of the flour and put them into a bowl to better analyze them, I realized what they were. This is where my stomach started to churn and my hate for flour started to build. They were some sort of maggot like wormy thing. And there were at least twenty of them that I had scooped out of the flour. I don't even want to know how many more were in there. Then I started to wander how they got in there and were they in there the last time I used the flour? Most likely. . .OK, sick feeling getting stronger. Then I got to thinking that they were probably little eggs in the bag of flour and they had recently hatched and were eating the flour as their food.

I really can't type anymore or I may vomit. The result of this discovery is that I decided I didn't want to take a chance on any of my flour and I threw it all away. You may be wandering what we did with the pie filling....we baked it in the pie plate without a crust. It turned out wonderful. I may never make a crust again.

Candy Disaster

Not sure what I was thinking but I decided to have a wonderful day with my two beautiful daughters shopping for the groceries and stuff that we are going to need for this weekends birthday party. Michaels was our first stop and it went rather well. Then to Gymboree to exchange something and you could tell they were getting a little more difficult. My mom was with me and thought of the awesome idea to bribe them with the fact that we would be going to Costco and they could snack on all the samples for lunch. They were excited about this and that managed to get us out of the store and back to the car without any huge arm flailing instances.

Once at Costco we discovered that there were no samples to be had anywhere. Great! So, to get through Costco we tell them we are going to Central Market next and they can have a tortilla when we get there. We manage to get out of Costco with minor disagreements and we are headed back to Poulsbo.

At Central, glad I had a list, we make our way through the store rather quickly except for the candy isle. We are on the bulk candy isle for over 20 minutes going through the different lists I have of the specific candies I need for the cakes, counting out the candies, labeling them and closing each of the bags. All the while fighting the girls from climbing on the bulk bins, pulling candy out of the bulk bins with their hands, pushing the cart into me, into grandma, and into strangers. By the time we were done and at the checkout I was ready to be home. We get the groceries paid for and head to the car. As I am unloading the groceries into the car I notice that there is no candy anywhere. I check all the bags two or three times and once assured that there are no candies anywhere leave my mom at the car with the girls while I run back into the store to recover my bag of candies. I get to the checkout to discover that there is a different bagger there. I ask about my candies and it is as if I am talking to a wall. The checker helps me by translating what I thought was a perfectly understandable question. "I just bought a bunch of bulk candy but it didn't get put into my grocery bags. Is it here?" After some assistance by others around him it is learned that he put it into the cart of the guy that was behind me thinking it was his candy. He is told to see if he can catch the guy in the parking lot so he heads outside. He then stands outside the door looking completely lost. I head back to the car to get my receipt. By this time I am livid, but trying to keep calm reminding myself that this is a learning experience for my girls. So I calmly explain that I am very frustrated because it turns out that the candy we spent almost a half hour picking out is gone. I take my receipt and head back into the store. I ask the checker what I am supposed to do since i paid for all this candy by weight and it is now gone, all while I am fighting back the tears that are welling up in my eyes. She says to just go and try to get what I thought I had and "we'll call it good."

And so I blaze back to the bulk bins, like going faster is going to make the process easier. So there I was crying in the bulk food candy section recounting all the candy. It was a pitiful site. I now have what I think is what I started with as best as I can determine from my receipt. I just hope I didn't forget anything. It sure would be interesting if the bunny cake had no eyes or the horse cake had no ears. I guess we will see on Saturday.

Pickled Herring. . . Yum?

When I was dating Robb I was introduced to many new things. One of the most unpleasant of these was pickled herring. The sound of it alone was horrible enough to know that I never wanted to try it, but to smell it. Goodness, I was pretty sure there wasn't any food that smelled quite so bad. The only time we ever have to be around this appetizer was during the holidays when at his family's Christmas gatherings. Robb himself does not partake thankfully so I don't have to worry about kissing pickled herring mouth. Yuck!

You might ask, where does this story take me? This year we spent Christmas evening at Robb's mother's house with his mom, grandparents, aunt, cousin, dad and his dad's wife. His dad and Dee were invited last minute when they had to cancel coming to Poulsbo at the last minute because of the snow. Robb thought it would be a great idea to bring some pickled herring with us and I agreed. Little did I know that later in the evening some might actually touch the inside of my mouth. If I had known, I never would have agreed.

Long story short, later in the evening Lindsey, Robb's cousin, was being coerced into trying some. In a last chance to get free from it she exclaimed, "If Jessica does it, I will." She figured she was pretty safe since the chance of me doing it was right up there with the possibility of the moon falling out of the sky. We all watched as her mother tried it.






Now Robb couldn't be shown up by his aunt so he ate one.

A little less harsh of a reaction almost made me wonder if he actually liked it. Thankfully, he assured me he did not.

His grandfather was very proud and was still trying to convince Lindsey to partake. She was still holding strong to her statement that if I did it she would, but they were still trying to convince her to do it.

I just couldn't take it anymore and said "Lindsey, you just can't think about it, you have to do it" and I stabbed a piece with a toothpick and popped it into my mouth, swallowing it whole. There was definitely not going to be any chewing. Now she was stuck. There was no option but eating a piece now that I had. and so she did only she chewed it. Brave girl!

Chocolate, Marshmallows & Peanut Butter, Oh My!

A few weeks back I sent my mom an e-mail booking a date to bake. I knew that I wanted to bake a bunch of goodies this year and it seemed only right that I do so with my mom. You might ask why I want to do this? Especially given past baking experiences with my beautiful copper tops. The reason is because I want them to have as many fond memories of baking as I do.

With the date set, the girls and I anticipated our day of baking more and more as it got closer. Saturday morning with the day finally here and the ingredients loaded in the car, I headed to my mom's house just before 9am. I made it about 2 miles when I realized I had forgotten all my baking pans and cooling racks. Yes, my mom has some. However, with the amount we wanted to accomplish we needed mine as well. So I turned around heading back to the house. I get to the house, go upstairs and begin going through the cupboards and pulling out anything and everything I think I might need. I had three cooling racks, two cookies sheets, 1 glass 9x13 and 1 metal 9x13, 2 loaf pans, 1 metal 8" square pan, 1 glass 9" square pan, four large rectangular tubperwares, plastic wrap, and . . . I think that was all. So I have all these things in a large stack in the middle of the kitchen floor and I think to myself "I can carry these, easy!" Using my knees and not my back I lower down, scoop under and stand back up, leaning the stack ever so slightly towards my upper body to ballance it. I head for the door.

Luckily I had left the door open so I didn't have to open it but I realize I have no way to shut it. I try to grab it with my foot and pull it shut with no success. I decide to come back up the stairs after I load these into the car. Uh, oh! How am I going to get this gigantic stack of pans, racks and tubperware into the jeep? At this point I have still not headed downstairs, so I could have placed half my stack onto the table and come back for it. But no. I decide I can figure it out when I get down there and down the stairs I go.

Once down the stairs and to the back of the jeep I raise my right leg to a 90 degree bent angle, ballancing the stack on the top of my leg while then using my foot to pulll open the latch on the back door. Once the latch releases, I let go with my foot. My leg, however is being used now to help me ballance the stack of stuff and if I move it the stuff will most likely fall to the ground. I can't let go with my hands because my hands are keeping the stack all together. So with the back of my arm and shoulder I crouch down (keep in mind my leg is still lifted and bent in a 90 degree angle - it is not touching the ground) and try to catch the edge of the back door and hopping forward pull the door gradually until I can ballance it onto my shoulder. Once onto my shoulder I am able to bounce backwards and get my head under the door. At this point I fling my head back to get enough momentum under the door to push it all the way up. I am successfull. I then put my foot (of the lifted legg) into the back of the jeep, lower the stack into the back softly, take my leg back and shut the door. I then look around wishing someone had just seen this amazing accomplishment - no broken bones, no broken dishes.

I then get back into the car and begin to head out of the driveway towards my moms. I then remember that I had left the front door open because I had no free hands. I circle the driveway, run up the stairs and shut the door, and then head out.

Although the day started off a little scary, it was a success. I found that I was looking forward to it moras much as my girls if not more. Although they both love to bake and especially loved the process of shredding chocolate, they did not care too much for the waiting necessary to make almond roca. They wanted immediate results. They ended up playing and watching Christmas movies most of the day with a few sneaks to get some goodies.

Sugar Cookies - Olyvia & Ellie Style!

My hopes were high and came crashing down as the sprinkles flew through the air and the dough became ground into the clothing of my sweet innocent children.

I think my first mistake was waiting to make the dough. I should have made it the night before so I wouldn't have to go through the bombardment of "is the dough ready?" questions while the eagerly waited to cut and sprinkle. Also, the recipe said it only had to be in the fridge for 1 hour when in reality it took a couple hours for it to reach a firm enough texture to survive rolling. So, we suffer through the wait and I call the girls to let them know that it is time to roll. As I am getting the rolling pin, Olyvia has climbed up onto the counter on her arms and has both of her arms resting in the pile of flour I have on our island. Not just hands mind you, but flour all the way up to her elbows and as I turn around I can't control what comes out of my mouth and I shriek "Olyvia - what are you doing? " She flings her arms out of the flour and the kitchen (along with her sister sitting next to her) become white. Maybe I should have spoken slower and not so high pitched to allow for a slower retraction of the arms from the flour. Oh well. I have a slight heart attach but realize it is most likely only going to get worse. I push the flour to the side making sure to leave an adequate amount on the area I put the dough and I begin rolling and cutting out our orange and white halloween sugar cookies.

They both had little ramekins for them to put their sprinkles in. They decided that the best course of action was to dump as much of every color of sprinkles that we have into their "little sprinkle bowls" and then dump their entire bowl onto the cookie sitting on the cookie sheet. My mistake was not watching them more closely. Oh well. So I would cut the cookies out, place them on the sheet and then hand the sheet over. They would then dump their "little sprinkle bowls" out onto the cookies. I would then take the cookie sheet which now looked like it had a series of sprinkle pyramids on it, give it a little shake over the kitchen sink and place it in the oven.

This procedure was repeated over and over until all the dough was cut out and cooked up. There was one point where I finally had to put a halt to them taking the dough I was still cutting cookies out of because they had grabbed ahold of the same piece and then proceeded to play tug of war with it until there was no longer any cookie dough in their hands to hold onto because it had all squished out onto their laps and into their clothing.

Now, if you can get over what they look like and like the taste of baked sugar coated sugar cookies, they actually didn't taste too bad. Yum! Yum!

Did they have fun? I hope so. I had to keep reminding myself that it doesn't matter what the cookies look like and the kitchen can be cleaned up. While I was reminding myself of this however, I had not yet traveled around the other side of the island to see what the floor looked like below them. All I can say is WOW!

I think next time I will stick to something that doesn't involve decoration for at least another year.

Baking for the holidays.

I am so excited for the holidays to be just around the corner. This year we are going to do a bunch of baking. We haven't baked really since before our girls were born. When it was just Robb and I we would make Almond Roca every year and send it to friends. We loved doing it and I am looking forward to getting back into the spirit of baking. The girls and I sat down tonight and picked out all the recipies we are going to make. We decided to start tomorrow with a warm up to make sure we aren't too rusty. We are going to make some halloween sugar cookies. We bought some cookie cutters earlier today. I will have to share with you all how the baking with a 5 and 3 year old goes. It should be a wonderful experience.

Garlic Leek Double Baked Potatoes

This evening I threw together some potatoes and thought I would share the recipe with all of you so you could give them a try - they were delicious. (This recipe serves 10)

5 large baker potatoes
1 T coarse ground salt
1 medium leek, cleaned and diced
1 1/2 T Smart Ballance
2 lg cloves garlic (~3t) crushed
1 cup Tofutti sour cream
2 T Tofutti cream cheese
3/4 c Silk
1/4 t white pepper
1/4 t celery salt
4 oz organic white cheddar, shredded

Preheat over to 400*. Wash potatoes, prick with fork and rub with salt. Place in preheated oven and bake for 50 minutes or until knife easily stabs through middle of potato. Once potatoes are done, remove and place on cutting board. Decrease oven temperature to 350*. Slice all potatoes in half lengthwise and let sit. While potatoes are cooling, prepare the leeks. Cut off the green ends of the leek and the root end, slice in half, wash and then dice. Place into a large mixing bowl. Peel 2 large cloves of garlic and run over a zester into the large bowl. If you do not have a zester, a garlic press will work as well. With a large spoon scoop out the meat of the potatoes into the bowls, leaving the skins in tack. Mash up the potatoes with the garlic and leek. Once all large chunks are broken up, add the remaining ingredients through the celery salt. If you prefer a wetter consistency, feel free to add an additional splash of milk or two. Lastly, add 3/4 of the shredded cheddar to the mixing bowl and combine. Divide the potato mixture filling up each of the shells. Place the shells into a large glass baking dish. Take the remaining cheddar and sprinkle over the top of the potatoes. Bake for 20 minutes in the oven until cheddar is melted. Serve with pepper steak, green beans with onions and garlic, and green salad.

Enjoy.