Kale Chips

So these are definitely not going to replace potato chips, peanuts or pretzels on my snack list but they make an interesting addition. Addicting in a way. First taste was very strong greens but then it sort of grew on me. A friend of mine had raved about kale chips and she said I should try making kale chips in my quest for healthier eating. So I thought I'd give them a try. Took a whole ten minutes. Add any spices you like. I used salt, cayenne and garlic. Nice kick. But there is a fine line between crisp "chips" and burned. My track record is burned but I caught these in time. Exactly 11 minutes for mine at 350 degrees F, they were fine. My son prefers the Roasted Seaweed Snacks from Trader Joe's. I liked the kale. They sort of grew on me.

Handle carefully or you'll have flakes everywhere. Found that out quickly. And just don't sneeze near all those flakes!

Interesting could go either way, these were very good interesting. I wonder how it would work with spinach. I'll try that next. And cut them in smaller pieces. Live and learn.

Baked Kale Chips

adapted by There's Always Thyme to Cook

Printable Recipe

1 bunch of kale, washed and dried really well

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper. to taste

cayenne pepper, to taste

garlic powder, to taste
or any other flavors you like

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Chop the kale in large bite size pieces (like the size of a potato chip) and toss well with the oil salt, pepper and whatever spices you choose. 

On a single baking sheet, lined with parchment or Silpat, arrange the kale in one layer then bake for about 10-12 minutes. The edges should be browned and the kale will be crisp. Watch carefully so it doesn't burn. 

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 Mosaic Monday  at the Little Red House

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April Fool's Flashback!

Joining Suzy from Kitchen Bouquet for another Flashback Friday!  

This time for April Fool's Day, I'm flashing back to Fushi! 

FAKE + SUSHI = FUSHI!

My original post is here.

I must have made thousands of those treats over the years because for a long time I was a baking counselor in a day camp! So one year we decided to change it up a bit and make Fake Sushi, we called it Fushi. It's fun to make, fun to eat and it's really easy. Not to mention sticky. All you need is marshmallows, butter, Rice Krispies cereal, green fruit rollups or any color really, and some Twizzlers pull-n-peel candy, gummy worms, you can get as creative as you like. It's a fun, gooey mess, but the kids love it! And so did one or two adults :)

Fushi
Source:  FamilyFun Magazine
adapted by There's Always Thyme to Cook

Printable Recipe

Makes 4 to 5 dozen

1/4 cup butter
4 cups mini marshmallows
6 cups crisped rice cereal
20 to 25 gummy worms (or Twizzler's Pull-n-Peel)
1 to 2 boxes fruit leather

Grease a 12- by 17-inch baking sheet. Melt butter in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the marshmallows and stir until smooth.

Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the rice cereal until it's evenly coated. Turn the baking sheet so that the shorter ends are at the top and bottom. Then press the marshmallow mixture onto the sheet, distributing it evenly.

Starting at one side an inch up from the lower edge, place gummy worms atop the mixture end to end in a horizontal line. Gently roll the lower edge of the marshmallow mixture over the gummy worms.

Then stop and cut the log away from the rest of the mixture. Use the same method to form 4 more logs. Slice each log into 1-inch-thick "sushi" rolls and wrap them individually with a strip of fruit leather. Garnish with julienne slices of dried apricots!

Join Suzy's Kitchen Bouquet for Flashback Fridays

Joining in on the fun at Sweet as Sugar Cookies for Sweets for a Saturday!

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Caramel Apples!

After the candy apple success, the kids wanted Caramel Apples and I just happened to have a bag of them. I'm not ready to do caramel from scratch again just yet. There is an issue with me and scorching, actually full out burning, and the last time I tried making homemade toffee, I went through a big bag of sugar and no one liked the flavor of my completely burnt toffee candy. Kraft caramels will work out fine. And it did. Except what I didn't know is that they come individually wrapped. WHAT??? That took time. Not to mention I kept eating them as I unwrapped them. So it was supposed to make 5 five apples, we got three and a spoon full to scrape out at the bottom of the pot.

Might as well go for the whole joyful experience, so I rolled it in crushed up heath milk chocolate-covered toffee bits and drizzled the top with melted bittersweet chocolate. One tip is to make sure the apples are really dry or you'll get bubbles in the caramel when it hardens. Just put chocolate chips in a dish and nuke it for about a minute, stir, then another 30 second burst and stir, until most have melted. Then drizzle on top of the caramel covered apple. Let it cool in the frig for about an hour. Unless you can't wait. Like me :)  You can either just bite into it or cut it in quarters with a sharp knife. I sliced it and I'm still wiping the chocolate off my fingers and my camera.

It'll look much better if you actually keep it in the frig and wait the full hour! But it tasted so good anyway, it didn't matter, at least not to me or the kids!

Kraft Caramel Apples
Source: Kraft Foods
Printable Recipe

5 apples (1-1/2 lb.), washed, well dried

1 package (14 oz.) Kraft caramels

2 tablespoons water

Insert a wooden craft stick into stem end of each apple. Cover large plate with waxed paper; grease paper with butter.

Cook caramels and water in large saucepan on medium-low heat until caramels are completely melted, stirring constantly.

Dip apples in caramel; spoon additional caramel over apples if necessary to evenly coat apples. Let excess caramel drip off. Scrape bottoms of apples; place on prepared plate. Refrigerate 1 hour. Remove from refrigerator 15 min. before serving; let stand at room temperature to soften slightly. Refrigerate leftovers.

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Joining Mary's Mosaic Monday. For more mosaic's stop by the Little Red House!

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Wordless Wednesday: Back to school lunch?

More Wordless Wednesday can be found here!

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Am I seeing spots before my eyes?

This month's Rachael Ray Everyday magazine, the Halloween issue, had lots of candy. and this really easy recipe for candy buttons. Unless raw egg whites scare you, these taste just like the ones I remember as a kid. I still buy them when I see them, my kids still like them, too! There's a bit of Peter Pan in all of us around here! I remember eating bits of paper with my buttons but who cared?

If you have egg issues, you could also use powdered egg whites, or pasteurized whites, instead. But then you couldn't use this silly egg separator I got online a while back. It just makes me laugh. It's pretty gross, but I used to work in a nursery school and do baking with the kids and they got a big kick out of Boogerboy Boris, the egg separator!

Ok, it's gross, but you laughed? It's definitely a conversation piece!

Then the recipe called for using ziploc bags to do the piping for the buttons. That's where I ran into trouble. I cut the hole too big, and I got colored egg white goo all over.

and I am sure it would have worked out perfectly, just like it did for Rachael ray in her magazine had I snipped a smaller hole. All I got was mess. But I did have one more thing to try. A friend sells Pampered Chef and she had given me a decorator bottle set, thinking it would be good for the nursery school kids. Well, it worked out really well for this 49 year old, too!

Perfect buttons...

Rows and rows of them!

Candy Buttons

Source: Rachael Ray Everyday, October 2010

adapted There's always Thyme to Cook

Printable Recipe

1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

1 egg white

3 drops food coloring, any color

3 drops food coloring, another color

2 zip lock plastic bags

Cut white paper into twelve 2 X 11 inch strips

Using an electric mixer, mix the egg whites and the powdered sugar until it becomes white, thick and creamy. Divide the icing into two small bowls and add three drops of color to each bowl. I used pink in one bowl and blue in the other bowl. Stir well and cover each bowl with plastic wrap until you are ready to use them.

Scrape the pink (or whatever color you use!) icing into a ziplock bag and squeeze all the icing to the bottom of the bag. Squeeze to get all the air out and then when you are ready, snip one very small corner off, but a very small tip of the corner. Pipe the icing out onto the paper in very small dots. About 3-4 dots across in even rows. When about a quarter of the pink icing is left, add the blue icing to the bag and continue piping dots. Let the candy buttons dry at room temperature until they are hardened, for about 12 hours or overnight. 

If fresh eggs are an issue in your area, you can use pasteurized egg whites from a carton, or powdered whites! Just follow the instructions for measurement on the package.

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Joining Sally from Smiling Sally for Blue Monday. My first time!

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Flashback Friday: Vanilla and Pops!

Ina Garten once was doing a show and she was using a vanilla bean. She pulled out a jar of vanilla beans that were soaked in vodka. Hers were nice and plump and pliable. I looked at my sad little beans from the pantry. Brittle and dry. So I used up the last my poor, sad, dried out beans and bought some nice, fresh new ones. I already had a bottle of homemade vanilla extract going from a recipe from Martha Stewart, so now when I get new vanilla beans, I cram them in that bottle of extract. And look at that, just like Ina said, they were plump and pliable. Not to mention totally bent from being squished :) but a good way to preserve the beans if you use them like I do. Once every year? Just keep adding vodka to the extract. And more beans!

Miss Picky and I spent the day together and we ended up making ice pops! Not the kind you make when they're little, some fruit juice in a pop mold and freeze it! Nope, Miss Picky wanted the kind that leads to work. Usually for me! So we picked out a recipe using ingredients we had in the house. Or somewhat close!

She picked a recipe from a book we had gotten at Williams-Sonoma. Ice Pops Cookbook. I drew the line at getting an ice pop maker that freezes in minutes. We could definitely wait a few hours. No heavy cream in the house, that let out a lot of the recipes in this book! We settled on Vanilla-Toffee Chip, but of course we didn't have any toffee chips. But we do have at least ten kinds of chocolate. This is a vanilla custard pop, calls for whole milk, we subbed 1% milk for the whole milk. and milk chocolate chips and dark chocolate sticks instead of the toffee. So I guess we can't call it a Vanilla-Toffee pop any more.

The trick with using a custard based ice cream pop is you have to watch the mixture, and stir. The recipe probably was invented when they didn't have texting and you need two hands to text, so the stirring took a back seat. and then they must have invented strainers to compensate for the 16 year olds who need to text while stirring, so the curdled part was strained out and no one will be the wiser. Hopefully.

After straining out the curdled bits, you'd never know that texting and stirring didn't mix!

and if you need reading glasses, wear them, I used 1/2 cup of sugar instead of 3/4 and it was actually fine. It was plenty sweet with a half cup!  and nothing wrong with using a whole vanilla bean, even if the recipe calls for half. I think the curdled is what got us. This recipe tasted really like custard, and kind of eggy. We liked it, but chips are definitely easier to eat frozen, than a stick of chocolate. and definitely next time we'll try the toffee, use whole, not curdle the eggs, and basically follow the directions. Otherwise they were pretty good. And we had a fun afternoon making them!

Vanilla-Toffee Chip Pops
adapted from Ice Pops by Shelly Kaldunski
Printable Recipe

2 cups whole milk (I used 1%)
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 large egg plus 3 yolks
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips or morsels, or chopped (or as in the original recipe, toffee bits!)

In a saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups of milk with the cornstarch. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has thickened. In a bowl, whisk the remaining 2./2 cup of milk with the eggs, sugar and salt. Using a knife, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add the seeds and the bean to the egg mixture. Stirring constantly, add the egg mixture to the milk mixture and then cook, whisking continuously over medium-high heat. Remove from heat when it begins to boil.

Pour the custard through a fine sieve into a bowl, then cool over an ice bath. An ice bath is a large bowl filled with ice and water, and a smaller bowl with the custard fits on top, to cool off the custard. Stir in toffee or chocolate chips when the custard has cooled.

Pour into ice pop molds and freeze for at least six hours.

Flashing back to the vanilla extract. The original recipe from Martha Stewart can be found here. The original post can be found here.

For more Flashback Fridays, visit Suzy at Kitchen Bouquet.

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Pretzels and Smoothies!

Oh how I love to bake. NOT! and the last attempt at baking was interesting. Two loaves, same recipe, same oven, same time. One was somewhat perfect. The other inedible. and so goes the history of my baking. Hit or miss. Mostly miss. But when my daughter, Miss Picky, went with me to Crate and Barrel and said let's buy this pretzel mix, we can do it together. Who could resist?

So off we went with our packages, me with lots of fun gadgets for the kitchen and Miss Picky, who stopped at a few, or what seemed liked hundreds, of clothing stores all along the way! When we got home, I put the package of pretzel mix way in the back of the pantry, hoping she'd forget! I was so wrong. She didn't forget and today on a beautiful, sunny morning, Miss Picky said, let's bake the pretzels together. and so we did. And we lived happily ever after.

The end.

Actually Miss Picky turned out to be a very good, and very patient baker. Unlike her mother :) The pretzels came out really good. Better than good. They were fantastic. The mix was good, just pre-measured flour with salt and sugar, yeast and pretzel salt! I could probably measure it out myself. Maybe. We just added melted butter and water! Miss Picky kneaded it by hand. and we rolled them out.  Pain in the neck. That dough is elastic and no matter how much we rolled, they shrunk went back to being small! So we dropped them in the boiling water anyway and then baked them! For 12 minutes and they ended up being the best pretzels we've had! A very big hit. So I looked for a recipe online for next time, because these were so good, there has to be a next time. and I found this one by Alton Brown. It looks extremely close to the mix we used!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/homemade-soft-pretzels-recipe/index.html

We started with fruit smoothies. Frozen strawberries, bananas and some strawberry sorbet! A little cup of berry yogurt, a fresh apricot and some granola. A little bit of apple juice to thin it out. Whizzed in the blender, it's really good with a side of pretzel!

It took a couple of tries, but we finally got the hang of rolling out the dough!

Some ended up as pretzel sticks!

Not too bad. A little crusty crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. They were great, better than the ones from the mall!

This is our finished product!

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Mosaic Monday: Breakfast Granola

We love granola, we don't always agree which kind so we end up with all different kinds, chocolate granola, banana granola, apple granola. It's endless. So is the collection of bags and boxes cluttering the pantry! We love it on frozen yogurt, unfrozen yogurt, ice cream, fruit, on it's own. So I thought how hard could it be to make that at home? Not hard at all. The hardest part was settling on a recipe. and not burning the whole thing. Ended up taking what I liked from a few recipes I found on the internet and some ideas from my friend, Cindy5NY. Made it plain this first time. The biggest deal is making sure you don't cook it too long. Fine line between good and burnt! I was this close. Ended up with a really good batch, but it was close! Not even a peep from the smoke alarm, also known as the timer!

GRANOLA BEFORE BAKING

AND

GRANOLA AFTER BAKING

Breakfast was vanilla yogurt and blueberries!

It made about four or five cups of granola, or at least that's what we have in the container. I couldn't help but grab some tastes right out of the oven. A scoop of ice cream would have been a great accompaniment for the warm, freshly baked granola.

Granola
Source: compiled from different recipes on the internet
Printable Recipe

3 cups rolled oats (old-fashioned oats, not quick cooking)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup sunflower seeds
3/4 cup shredded sweet coconut
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons canola oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
dried fruit, optional
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, optional

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients.

In another bowl, combine honey, oil, and salt. Drizzle the honey mixture into the bowl with the oats and mix it all together. Pour onto a large, rimmed sheet pan. Bake for about 30-35 minutes, stirring every 10 or 15 minutes. It should be golden brown. Be careful not to burn it.

Remove from oven and cool completely. Add raisins or dried fruit, if you like, and mix until combined. Let cool. Store in an airtight container.

You can use any nuts you like or leave them out, use maple syrup instead of honey. This is just a basic recipe, make it any way you like. Add vanilla extract, add some orange zest, cloves, anything goes!

Joining Mary from The Little Red House for another Mosaic Monday!  Stop by the Little Red House to see lots of fantastic Mosaics every week!

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Flashback Friday - Cocktail Party

Flashback Friday! I'm joining Suzy at Kitchen Bouquet for another flashback! A while back I took a couple of cooking classes with some friends. Girls night out. So much fun. These were from the Cocktail Party class. Even better than a cooking class with cocktails is a cooking class with cocktails and a pregnant lady who can't drink so you can have her cocktail, too! I nodded out for dessert but these are so worth repeating...

Spicy Vanilla Pecans
source: Viking Cooking School - Cocktail Party 2006
Printable Recipe
Makes 1 pound

1 (4-inch) vanilla bean
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more!)
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 1/2 quarts water
1 pound pecan halves
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons neutral-flavored oil (grapeseed or canola)

Preheat oven to 325ºF.

For the seasoning mixture: Split the vanilla bean in half and scrape the seeds into a small bowl. Add the salt, cayenne, coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, stirring to combine. Set aside until needed.

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the water to a rolling boil over high heat. Add the pecans and boil for 1 minute. Drain the nuts well; immediately place them in a bowl and toss with the sugar and oil. Let the sugar-coated nuts stand for 10 minutes.

Arrange the nuts on a rimmed baking sheet and cook for 25 to 30 minutes, turning every 5 to 10 minutes until the nuts are light brown and very crisp. Remove from the oven.

While the pecans are still very hot, place them in a clean bowl and toss with the seasoning mixture. Spread in a single layer to cool.

Serving Suggestion: These nuts are delicious served by themselves as a snack or served over ice cream with caramel sauce. Great for gift-giving!

Make It Ahead: The pecans may be prepared up to one week in advance and stored in an airtight container.

Variation: Substitute walnut halves for the pecans.


Cobb Salad in Endive Spears
source: Viking Cooking School - Cocktail Party 2006
Printable Recipe

1 ounce blue cheese, crumbled (about 1/4 cup)
3 slices bacon, cooked until crisp, cooled, and crumbled
2 ounces chicken or turkey breast, finely diced
1/2 small avocado, peeled and finely chopped
1 small ripe, red tomato, seeded and finely diced, divided
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 to 2 heads endive, separated into spears

2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

For the Salad: In a medium mixing bowl, gently toss together the blue cheese, bacon, chicken, avocado, and half of the diced tomatoes. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the sour cream and mayonnaise.

Gently fold the mayonnaise mixture into the chicken mixture, then season to taste with salt and pepper; chill at least 1 hour before serving.

To Assemble: Arrange the endive spears on a platter. Spoon a small amount of salad into each spear, then sprinkle with the remaining tomatoes and the chopped parsley; serve immediately.

Note: Have your deli cut a thick, 2-ounce slice of turkey or chicken breast for you; when you are ready to make the recipe, simply dice that slice.


Pomegranate Martini
source: Viking Cooking School - Cocktail Party 2006
Printable Recipe
4-6 servings

1 wedge of lime, for moistening rims of glasses
sanding sugar for garnishing rims of the martini glasses
pomegranate seeds for garnish
2 cups cracked ice
8 ounces (1 cup) chilled vodka
4 ounces (1/2 cup) Triple Sec (or Cointreau)
3 ounces Pomegranate syrup
1 1/2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lime juice (juice of 1 lime)
orange twists, for garnish

Moisten the rim of each chilled glass with a wedge of lime; gently press the rim of the glass into the sanding sugar. Drop a few pomegranate seeds into the bottom of each glass.

Fill a metal cocktail shaker with cracked ice; place the top back on the shaker and shake for about 15 seconds. Add the vodka, Triple Sec, pomegranate syrup and lime juice and shake for 15 seconds. Strain the drink into the prepared glasses, garnish with an orange twist and serve immediately.

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An April Fool's party...

We're having an April Fool's Party and you're all invited to have some Fushi...fake Sushi, Candy Sushi, call it whatever you want, it's a lot of fun to make, actually it's a pain, and kind of sticky, but the kids liked it! I made this recipe in a summer day camp I work at with tons of kids a few summers back. Fun project. Thought it would be a fun April Fool's so I made it again! My other choice was a birthday cake made from meat and potatoes over at marthastewart.com!

Of course I went with the candy!



From Family Fun online, Crispy Candy Sushi, but we just called it Fushi, or fake sushi :)

Instead of gummy candies, I used Twizzler peel n pull! and a microwave instead of the stove. The marshmallows puff up HUGE, so watch it. Usually done in three or four minutes and you have to stir it really well. I garnished the plate with chopped dried apricots.

Crispy Candy Sushi Snacks
FamilyFun Magazine

1/4 cup butter
4 cups mini marshmallows
6 cups crisped rice cereal
20 to 25 gummy worms
1 to 2 boxes fruit leather

Grease a 12- by 17-inch baking sheet. Melt butter in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the marshmallows and stir until smooth.

Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the rice cereal until it's evenly coated. Turn the baking sheet so that the shorter ends are at the top and bottom. Then press the marshmallow mixture onto the sheet, distributing it evenly.

Starting at one side an inch up from the lower edge, place gummy worms atop the mixture end to end in a hortizontal line. Gently roll the lower edge of the marshmallow mixture over the gummy worms.

Then stop and cut the log away from the rest of the mixture. Use the same method to form 4 more logs. Slice each log into 1-inch-thick "sushi" rolls and wrap them individually with a strip of fruit leather.

Makes 4 to 5 dozen.

















Join the party and give us the link to your April Fool's post! Here's our list of April Fool's blogger's so far, you can check out their blogs for their food pranks on or before April 1st! If you want to join in, add a comment with your url and I'll add your blog to the list!

Happy April Fool's Day to everyone from...

Kathleen at Cuisine Kathleen
Jayne at A Grain of Salt
Susan at Savoring Time in the Kitchen
Barb at Foley's Follies
Suzy at Kitchen Bouquet
Debbie at Mountain Breaths
Marsha at Marsha's Kitchen
and Cynthia, who is a great sport and follows our blogs, I'd call her an honorary Fool, LOL, but it just doesn't come across well! Cynthia, you know what I mean!

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