Perfect Pumpkin Seeds

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I mean to post this yesterday, but the day got away from me....imagine that!

I love pumpkin seeds.  

They are so yummy if done right...

I have had them come out a little chewy or under done in the past.  Not my favorite.

I found a trick a few years ago online...coupled it with a few of my tricks...and the seeds turn out perfect every time!

I didn't take step by step pictures, but it really is simple.

Perfect Pumpkin Seeds

goopless pumpkin seeds

salt

Season Salt

garlic powder

olive oil

parchment paper

cookie sheet

strainer

1.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

2.  Fill a sauce pan with water, turn the heat up and get the water boiling.

     I added about a Tbs of sea salt to the water - you can use more or less :)

3.  Remove the goop from your seeds.  I like to rinse them first in the strainer, but 

     it isn't necessary.

4. Once your water is boiling, add your pumpkin seeds and boil them for about 10 

     minutes.

5. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the contents of the pan into your strainer.

6. Run cold water over the seeds while they are in the strainer.

7. pour the seeds into a bowl.

8. add a tbs of olive oil to the seeds and stir around to make sure all of the seeds 

    are coated.

9.  I like to season mine with finer grain salt, a little garlic powder and season 

     salt.  Aunt Cora's Soulful Seasoning is hands down (IMO) the best!  I like to 

     add a little of each, then sir it around..and then add a little more to make sure  

     they are evenly seasoned.

10. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper  and spread your seeds out all over 

      then pan.  Make sure that it is a thin layer...if they are piled on top of each 

      other the seeds underneath will not roast. (I sprinkled a little coarse sea salt on 

      them once they were on the pan.

11. Stick them in the oven and bake them for 20 minutes.

take them out, let them cool a few minutes,  and enjoy your perfect pumpkin seeds!

Happy Halloween!

Jacki

My Easy Mac Will Never Boil Over Again!!!

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I'm not proud of it but my 7 year old is a Carb-O-Vore.  It's terrible.  She actually calls herself a vegetarian however, getting her to eat a vegetable is worse than pouring salt into a wound and there is absolutely no way on earth she would ever put any form of meat into her mouth.  That being said, there are some nights that I simply can not cater to the craziness. Those nights call for something quick and it's usually Easy Mac (don't even judge me...or do...whatever) 

I actually hate easy mac. I hate it for many reasons but, one of my top reasons is because whoever designed it had clearly never actually cooked it and/or doesn't have to clean the microwave at their house because it never fails that the tiny little 5oz. pot of easy mac somehow boils 10 gallons of sticky, starchy, sludge all over the inside of the microwave as it cooks.  Soooooo annoying!!!  Those of you who do not believe in modern day revelation, I hate to burst your bubble because, today I had a revelation.   Have you ever seen the trick where you put a wooden spoon on top of your pot to keep it from boiling over onto the stove top? WELL...I thought to myself, "I bet that would work in the microwave".  I don't own a wooden spoon, nor do I think they make one small enough to balance on top of my easy mac so I grabbed a skewer and broke it in half.  (I bet a Popsicle stick or craft stick would work too).  Sure enough, it worked like a champ!  Absolutely no slimy sludge spilled over into my microwave. In fact, I made 6 packages (don't ask) and it worked every time.  Yay, for being a genius!  lol

Happy Sunday Everyone!

~DeLynne

Lasagna Nachos = heaven

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Have you ever made something new that you though would be good..but then blew you away with yumminess? 

I just did it. Lasagna nachos. 

I saw something similar at some point somewhere on the web..but I don't remember where...I tried looking this afternoon, but couldn't find it.  So I winged it.

That's pretty much how I roll in the kitchen anyway.

I just wing it or make do with whatever I have.

I will likely be five pounds heavier in the morning, but I don't even care. 

I didn't take pictures of the steps -  but these were so easy to make.

first i took some bulk sausage and browned it with a couple tablespoons of minced garlic and about half of a chopped onion.

I made some sauce the night before and had some left over...about 2-3 cups I think.  I mixed that in with the sausage.  You don't want it soupy...just enough to coat the sausage plus a little more 

(you can use ground turkey or beef - whatever you choose - i just happen to think sausage adds more flavor to sauce)

I took the lasangna noodles and broke each one into thirds and boiled them for about 8 minutes.  You want them to be not quite done..a little chewy.

Heat a skillet with oil.  I used canola oil because it is what I had..maybe you like to fry stuff in another type of oil.  I don't try stuff very often..but this tasted great.

I kept the heat on medium and tossed a little noodle in there to see if it was ready...little sizzle and I knew I could get started.

I took the noodles and friend them until they were golden brown - and then put them on paper towel to cool and soak up some grease.  i sprinkled them with a little salt while they were still wet with the oil so it would stick.

Once they were done, I put some parchment paper on a cookie sheet and preheated my oven to 350.

I did a layer of noodles, some meat sauce, lots of mozzarella cheese, more noodles, meat sauce and cheese.  I stuck them in the oven for about 10 minutes to melt the cheese..took them out and topped them with chopped tomatoes and tore up some fresh basil.

These are seriously sinful...but worth every bite.

YUM.

Let me know if you try them!

~Jacki~

Easy Summer Dessert - Fruit and cream and pound cake trifle

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Don't you just love summer desserts?

I do...especially those that don't require me to turn on my oven in this blazing heat.

This light and fresh dessert looks like I slaved over it for hours, but it really was quite easy.

I have to mention, you can make this even easier by using cool whip or even canned whipped cream and leaving out the pudding.  I just happen to love fresh whipped cream..and thought the cake would taste good soaked in the pudding.

this is what you will need for this recipe:

Heavy Cream

Powdered Sugar

Vanilla Extract

Instant Pudding

Milk

zip lock bag

fresh fruit of your choice

pound cake or angel food cake

Fresh Whipped Cream

first, put your mixing bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer

to make sure it is really cold.  

the recipe that I use for whipped cream is simple.

1cup heavy whipping cream

1 Tablespoon powdered sugar

1 table spoon of vanilla extract

Measure your cream

I multiplied this by 4 and it was just enough for my trifle bowl.

maybe I would have had a little left over if I had some self control and didn't help myself to a few heaping spoonfuls while making this!

Mix the cream until peaks form.

I start off slower and then gradually move to full speed when the cream starts to thicken.  Otherwise it tends to splash.

This is what "peaks" look like with a stand mixer.

add your powdered sugar and mix

add your vanilla and mix.

Be sure not to over mix the cream...otherwise it will get lumpy...which isn't good!

Stick the whipped cream in the fridge while you get your other ingredients prepared.

I used strawberries and blueberries to make a red white and blue 4th of July themed dessert - but I am sure this would be tasty with all different kinds of fruit!

Wash and slice your fruit.

I soak berries and grapes in this fruit wash for awhile.

Lots of times you can find it in the produce department...otherwise, look in the laundry detergent - dish soap area of your grocery store.

this is what the bottle looks like of the brand that I use.

(I probably should have taken a picture of the bowl in the background.

You know those things that you never knew you needed until you get it?

this is one of those things!

It is a bowl with a handle on one side, and then you can see the gary part is a strainer.  I soak my fruit in there, and then just pour the water out.

I bought it on sale when the company was featured on 

Zulily.  

I absolutely love it.

Wanna see something gross?

this is a little sample of the water I poured out after letting the strawberries soak for awhile.

EEEEWWWWW.

Okay - moving on.

Grab your pound cake or angel food cake.

I love angel food cake, and it is dreamy with this.

I chose to use pound cake because I was cutting stars to go with my 4th of July

motif..and it looked better.

Use whatever you like best.

I cut the pound cake lengthwise to get the most stars out of each piece.

I cut it about this thick.

then i used a small star cookie cutter

to make my shapes.

the leftover pieces I cut into cubes

to use in the layers of the trifle.

1 pound cake was all I needed.

Get your cream out of the fridge and scoop some of it into a ziplock bag.

Cut off the tip to use as a piping bag.  You can use a pastry piping bag if you like...but you have to clean it.  This one you can just throw away!

I piped a layer of cream into the bottom of the dish to give the strawberries something to stick to.

slide in your sliced strawberries (or whatever fruit you choose)

add in your cubed cake

get your pudding mix out and 2.5ish cups of cold milk

I used sugar free fat free instant pudding.

Yes, this in my mind justified the mounds of real whipped cream..lol.

I pour the milk into the bowl and slowly sprinkle in the mix with one hand while constantly stirring the whisk in the other to avoid lumps.

I used the recommended amount of milk at first, but then added more after it set while putting together the second layer.

top with a layer of fruit 

and then pipe a layer of whipped cream.

I forgot to take a picture of adding in the pound cake stars.  Sorry about that.

I just put them on after the cream.

Repeat the layers until you fill your bowl

and do your final layer of whipped cream.

Since it was the 4th - I wanted to make a star on the top.

You can wing it of you like.. I used my large star cookie cutter to give me an outline to follow.

(you can buy them online HERE - but I think I got mine at Wal-Mart.  that or JoAnn's)

place your berries on top

and enjoy your delicious summer treat!

~Jacki~

Sugar Cookie 101 (for the non caterer)

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Have you ever wondered how those bakeries make those perfectly glazed and decorated sugar cookies?  We have a great bakery in the little town next to ours that makes the best sugar cookies.  Word must have gotten out because the price has gone up from .50c each to $1.50 each over the past two years.  Fifty cents was pushing the limit for me so when I found out they had gone up to $1.50 that was all it took for me to figure out how to make them myself.  I scoured the internet searching for the different ideas and tried a lot of recipes until I finally tweaked things enough to call these the Perfect Sugar Cookies.

THE COOKIE

The Sugar Perfect Cookie Recipe

1 1/2 C. softened butter

2C. Sugar

6 eggs

2 T. baking powder

7C. flour

1/2t. salt

3t. vanilla extract

2t. almond extract

**this recipe makes 50 cookies using a 3" cookie cutter

Soften butter.  I like to get mine about half melted so it creams really easy.

Add your sugar and mix until creamed

Add your eggs, vanilla and almond extract and mix until creamy

Next, I don't know about you but I hate dishes.  I also can't seem to wrap my brain around how on earth that 2T of Baking powder and 1/2t of salt finds it's way into every cookie so I like to add my dry ingredients together in a gallon size ziploc so I can shake it all up.  Plus when I'm done there's one less dish to do. With 4 kids, I'm all about 1 less dish!! :)

measure your flour and place into your ziploc bag

Mix your salt and baking powder.

I always mix my small amounts of dry ingredients in an already dirty measuring cup.  

add it to your flower bag

Zip the bag shut and shake it up.  

You should use two hands...I couldn't take the picture and use two hands. lol

Mix your dry ingredients with your creamed mixture. I usually add about 3/4 of the bag using the mixer.

I like to add the last 1/4 and mix by hand.

Once it is all mixed together place the ball of cookie dough onto a piece of wax paper and wrap it up.  Then place the wrapped dough ball into your ziploc bag that you used to mix your dry ingredients.

Place your dough in the refrigerator.  Refrigerate for at least an hour.

Here's a random picture of the box from these melamine bowls that I bought at Costco.  THEY ARE AMAZING.  If you have a Costco membership, GET THEM!! I have either bought a set, or made people get a set of these bowls. They all have lids that seal tightly and a rubber bottom so they don't slip around on your counter when you are trying to mix.  They are light weight and the outside of the bowl is graduated making it so easy to grasp.  UH-MA-ZING.

Ok, back to baking.  

This is my favorite picture... 

This is my sink after making these cookies.  Only 4 dirty dishes!!  

....moving on.

While your dough is in the chilling, you can make your glaze.

THE GLAZE

The easiest glaze you'll ever use recipe

1C. powdered sugar

1T. corn syrup

3 drops of lemon juice

3t. milk

additional milk to thin

**This makes enough to outline and glaze ten 3" cookies

place your powdered sugar in a bowl

add your corn syrup

add your milk

and a few drops of lemon juice

Now mix until it looks about like toothpaste.

**This is important**

Make sure you use GEL food color

Add your desired color.

 add a little at a time until your glaze is the color you want.

At this point your glaze should feel pretty thick because you are going to use it to pipe on the outline of your cookies.  You want it to be thick enough to hold it's shape until it dries.

Add some to a piping bag.  I am cheap and by cheap I mean frugal ;) I always use ziploc bags.

This is what you are going to use to outline your cookies. 

Add additional milk to your glaze.  You don't want it to be too runny but you want to be able to manipulate it easily and have it spread to the entire surface of your cookie.  I usually add about 3t. of additional milk. Cover your glaze with a tight lid so it does not dry out while you bake your cookies.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Remove your dough from the fridge.  Place a hand full onto a piece of wax paper.

Cover with another piece of wax paper and roll out the dough to 1/4" thickness.

Cut out your cookies

This is how thick I like mine to be :)

Place your cookies on a cookie sheet.  You can grease the sheet if you want to make it easier to remove the cookies.  I didn't.  lol

Bake for 12 minutes

(Baking times will vary with your oven.  gas may take a little longer than electric, quicker if you are using convection.  Play around with it until you get YOUR perfect cookie.)

Remove your cookies from the oven.  They will not be brown but they will be cooked.  Let them sit for a minute before removing them from the pan.  Allow your cookies to cool completely.

I always cool my cookies on a double layer of paper towels.  I'm sure some baker somewhere is cursing this blog post but, hey, it works for me.

Pipe on the outline of your cookies. Let them dry for at least an hour.

Spoon on your thinner glaze.  Use a plastic spoon or a toothpick to push it to all corners of your cookie.  If you see any bubble appear, you can use the tooth pic to pop them if you want.  I was too lazy to pop any on mine.  lol

Aren't they pretty?  Let them set for several hours until the glaze has dried.  

Pipe on your decorations.  

And there you have it.  The Perfect Sugar Cookie.  Now go get busy.

Mother's day starts in 2 minutes.