Happy Halloween


It's about an hour and a half away from when we expect to hear high squeeky voices yell, "TRICK OR TREAT" at our front door.  That's our candy bowl above.  I think it's actually a punch bowl, but I use it as my trick-or-treat candy bowl.  The saying is just too cute, so I make the bowl multi-task.  :)

I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween night!

Sounds Like Halloween

For some odd reason, I've been slightly obsessed with having a Halloween playlist this year.  So yesterday at work in my spare time, I put together a list of possible songs to include in my Halloween-worthy playlist.  Shockingly enough, I had most of these in my song collection already.


I'm sure I'll get some weird looks from my darling husband, but I plan on playing this while we pass out candy on Sunday evening.

How about you?  Are there any songs you HAVE to hear around Halloween?  I think Thriller is a given, but I may have  possibly missed a few songs that are essential.  In fact,  I'm sure I missed some!

Birthday Pie

No, I didn't mis-type.  There's no such thing as birthday cake for my dad.  For as long as I can remember, he has always had an apple pie at his birthday celebrations.  My mom used to make it, but over the last few years, I have been given the task of baking her famous pie. 

I posted the recipe and a photo last year, so I thought this year I would give you my tips for making pie crust.

Please excuse the poor quality photos.  It was night time when I made the pie.


Normally I use a pastry blender to mix my flour and shortening, but I decided to try using my food processer instead this time.  HELLO??  Why haven't I been using this all along?  It took about a mintue for my dough to be perfectly ready to go.  If you have a food processor, USE IT.  I told my husband that the food processer is my new BFF.  He asked about my Kitchenaid mixer.  Oh yeah.  Food processer, you're a very close second!


One of my mom's tips for great pie crust is to touch the dough as little as possible.  We always roll our dough on our Tupperware Silcone Mats and use plastic wrap over the top.  Just go ahead and roll right on top of it.  I usually use two pieces and cross them like a plus sign right over the top of the dough ball.


One the dough is flat and as big as I need it for my pie plate, I take a knife and gently run it between the dough and the silicone mat.  Then I fold it in half and then in half again and transport it to the pie plate.


Once that's done, peel off the plastic wrap and fill with the pie filling of your choice.  We like apple around here.


I then top the filling with the second pie crust and attempt to make the edges look pretty.  I'm not very good at fluting them, but it doesn't stop me from trying.


Don't forget to cover the edges with aluminum foil so they don't get too crispy or burn.  Remove them when there's only 15 minutes left to bake.


Oh, and then top your birthday pie with birthday candles!  Dad turned three this year apparently...  ;)


Happy birthday, dad!

Crispy Herb Baked Chicken

I'm back with another recipe! 

The last two weekends have been wedding filled.  Last weekend was my cousin's wedding in Virginia, and this weekend was the wedding of our good friends Marcin and Jessica.  I feel like I haven't stopped since we left for our roadtrip last Friday morning.


I figured that since I haven't cooked or posted in over a week, that I would make something that hasn't been featured on the blog yet.  Tonight we had Crispy Herb Baked Chicken.


Crispy Herb Baked Chicken
Recipe courtesy of my Hungry Jack Mashed Potatoes box


Ingredients:
  • 2/3 cups mashed potato flakes
  • 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 4 chicken breasts - boneless, skinless
  • 2/4 tsp garlic salt or powder
  • 2 tsp parsley flakes
  • 1/3 cup butter or margarine
Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. Line bottom of 9 x 13 pan with foil.  Melt margarine and brush/dip chicken in margarine.  Mix parmesan cheese, parsley flakes and garlic salt together and dip chicken.  Coat chicken with remaining potato flakes.
  3. Bake at 375 degrees F for 45 to 60 minutes or until chicken is fork-tender and juices run clear.

I love this recipe.  It's simple, quick, and tasty.

Cookies in action

Here are a few photos my cousin took of the tea cup cookies "in action" at the bridal shower.  :)




Looks like I managed to get the colors right without having anything to match them with.  Sweet!

Beef Stew

It's been pretty chilly here in Michigan the last few days, pretty far below the normal temperature averages for this time of the year.  When it gets this chilly I think of two things:  the cider mill and comfort foods.  A trip to the cider mill wasn't in the cards yesterday, so I decided to make beef stew instead.  :)


Beef Stew
Recipe courtesy of McCormick


Ingredients:
  • 1 pkg. McCormick® Beef Stew Seasoning Mix
  • 2 lbs. stew beef, cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 3 tbsp. flour
  • 2 tbsp. oil
  • 3 cups water
  • 5 cups cut-up fresh vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, onions and celery
McCormick's Directions:
  1. COAT beef with flour.  Heat oil in large deep skillet or Dutch oven on medium heat.  Add beef; cook until browned on all sides.
  2. STIR in Seasoning Mix and water.
  3. BRING to boil; cover.  Reduce heat and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Add vegetables; simmer 45 minutes or until beef and vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.  Thicken stew with additional flour, if desired.
My Directions:
  1. COAT beef with flour.  Heat oil in large deep skillet on medium heat.  Add beef; cook until browned on all sides.
  2. STIR seasoning mix and water together in a crock pot.  Add beef and vegetables.
  3. COOK on high for 5 hours or low if you're going to have it on all day while you're at work.

This time I only used 1lb of stewing beef.  That's all I had in the freezer.  I used carrots, potatoes, and onions.  I didn't have any celery, so that was axed.  Even with the slight changes, it was really good!  The broth was nice and thick, no need to add extra flour.  I paired the stew with whole wheat bread and butter.  The perfect dinner for such a chilly day!

Just my cup of tea

Yesterday I spent the whole afternoon (and most of the evening) baking and decorating sugar cookies for my cousin who is throwing a tea themed bridal shower today.  You can find the sugar cookie recipe here and the icing recipe here.

The shower will have a retro-style to it, complete with 1950s-ish aprons.  The colors are yellow, red, and teal.  I had a bit of a hard time deciding how to decorate the tea cups, but I think they turned out alright in the end.  :)

Tea cup cookie

All packed and ready to go!

Each cookie is in its own clear favor bag and tied with a ribbon.  I ran out of red ribbon, so I used some polka dot yellow ribbon I had on hand.  I think they turned out really cute.