Taco Soup

One of my many reasons for loving the Autumn season is that I get to dust my crock-pots off and put them back to work after months of resting in storage. There's nothing more pleasing than to arrive home from church on Sunday and smell the aroma of dinner cooking away. Isn't it great to know that dinner will be ready in the evening without any more preparation responsibility from you? I LOVE my crock-pots!! This soup recipe is another simple one and is thrown together in just minutes. We first tried this soup at our small group from church and I knew immediately that I would ask for the recipe and would be preparing this over and over for our family. It's a great combination of ground beef, tomatoes and beans and topped with sour cream and cheddar cheese it tastes similar to a taco. I serve Frito's Scoops alongside for an added crunch. Who wouldn't love that combination?

Taco Soup

2 pounds ground beef-browned
2 cans black beans
2 cans Rotel tomatoes (I use the mild-the original is too spicy for the kids)
2 cans whole kernal corn
2 packages Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing
1 package taco seasoning (I use half of the packet to make it less spicy)

Place all ingredients in a crock-pot and stir to mix. Cook on low 5-6 hours. Serve with sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese and corn chip.

Source: My wonderful friend Lori Roberts

Glazed Pumpkin Bread

Here's another fantastic fall recipe that I actually bake throughout the year. I love to enjoy a slice of this bread with my coffee in the morning and it's a favorite after school snack for the kids. This bread is incredibly moist and tastes even better the day after baking when the flavors have had time to merge (merge?, mingle? socialize?..take my word, it's just better after 24 hours, but yummy eaten the day it is baked too). The original recipe came from a great, little pumpkin cookbook that I picked up at our local apple orchard. I added a little extra appeal for the kids' tummies and glazed the bread with a confectioner's sugar glaze. Mmmmmm. The recipe is so simple to prepare and is mixed together by hand so you're ready to pop this loaf into the oven in just minutes. Couldn't be easier!!

Pumpkin Bread

2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup cooked pumpkin
1/4 cup water

Sift dry ingredients together. Blend sugar, oil, eggs, pumpkin and water and add to flour mixture. Mix well. Pour into greased, floured 9x5" loaf pan and bake in 350 degree oven 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Source: Old-Fashioned Pumpkin Recipes-Bear Wallow Books

Glaze

3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Mix well and pour over cooled bread.

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

"Just like Grandma used to make". That's what the commercials for canned soup say to get you to buy their products. Well, after you make this soup, you'll never again want to eat canned chicken noodle soup, and depending on how good a cook Grandma was....this may even beat her's! Typically, when I fix a large pot of soup, we have a few meals worth of leftovers. But the we loved this soup so much that there was barely any for me to heat up for lunch the next day. Bummer!!

I purchased a whole chicken to fix because I wanted some leftover meat to shred for chicken salad and economically, it was certainly cheaper that way. Boy was I glad I did, the flavor of the chicken was amazing! I experimented a little with the broth as I boiled the chicken. I added poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, celery leaves and chicken base (something I read about on Pioneer Woman) to the water with the vegetables and cooked on a medium-low temp for a couple of hours. You can just imagine how that smelled while cooking! The chicken literally fell off the bone as I removed it from the pot. As I was pulling chicken into bite sized pieces, I couldn't keep little fingers from grabbing chicken strips to munch on. "Mom, this chicken is so good!!" "Well, if you keep eating it I won't have any left for the soup, now out...all of you." Never thought I would have to shoo the kids out of the kitchen for eating CHICKEN. Yay-what a success.

The creamy base of the soup was incredibly creamy and delicious and added the extra "pop" I was looking for. I love a soup base that makes you savor it's texture and flavors slowly. Yum.

This is the soup that I fixed my baking soda biscuits for (otherwise known as hockey pucks) and that Marty drowned in the creamy soup base. I was so pleased with how the soup turned out that it almost made me feel better about my failure with the biscuits. ALMOST. I'll conquer those biscuits one day.

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

1 whole chicken
1 cup sliced carrots
1/2 of medium onion-chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
1/3 cup chicken base
4 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons flour
5 cups chicken broth
2 cups whole milk or light cream (I used the cream)
2 cups medium egg noodles
parsley

In a large pot cover the chicken with water. Add onion, celery, carrots, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning and chicken base. Cook chicken on medium low for 1-2 hours until done. Remove chicken from pot and tear or chop into bite sized pieces.

In a large saucepan melt butter. Stir in flour. Add chicken broth and cream. Cook and stir until thick and bubbly. Stir in chicken, veggies and noodles. Cook until noodles are tender. Garnish with fresh snipped parsley.

**I prepared this earlier in an afternoon so I added the chicken and veggies and let simmer on the stove until near dinner time and then added the noodles. I didn't want soggy noodles in our soup!!

Source: Christy's Kitchen Creations

***Don't ask me why the text is different..I've tried like heck to fix it and can't figure it out, so I'm posting as is. If there is a blogger geek squad out there, please HELP ME!!

TWD Caramel Peanut Topped Brownie Cake

Today is my first Tuesdays with Dorie post. Tammy from Wee Treats by Tammy chose this week's selection. Be sure to check out her website @ http://www.weetreatsbytammy.blogspot.com/. I had a great time adapting this recipe to fit our family's personality. Tomorrow is our baby girl's 6th birthday and I thought it would be fun to have individual sized cakes instead of one large cake. I've also been dying to use my new Wilton pan, so this fit both wishes perfectly.

I didn't use the peanuts called for in the original recipe because of allergies and after reading many posts about the caramel topping burning easily, I chose to top my cakes with a white chocolate glaze. This also made these perfect for our birthday celebration.

This cake was so simple to put together. I didn't even have to get my Kitchen-Aid mixer dirty for this one, everything is whisked together by hand. Couldn't get any easier. I filled the pans a little too full and had cake everywhere on the pan, so the kids had tidbits of cake to munch on while I glazed the cakes. Personally, I didn't taste the cake, but the kids all gave it a huge thumbs up. Thanks Tammy for choosing this fun recipe.

Source: Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Apple Crisp

Last weekend we took the kids to the local orchard to pick apples and to enjoy a beautiful Autumn day. We handed a bag to the boys and another to the girls to pick to their hearts content. Marty and I had a ball watching as the kids climbed tree after tree to pick the perfect apple. We ate and picked and picked and ate apples for over an hour and had such a great time. We also brought home more than enough apples for me to bake with...yay!!

The first thing I wanted to prepare with all these yummy apples was an apple crisp. I've had several recipes that have been my favorites over the years and wanted to try my hand in combining the best of all and see how it turned out. I used a mixture of Jonathon and Red Delicious apples, not typically the best to bake with

but it's what the kids picked. I increased the ingredient amounts for the topping and drizzled maple syrup over the top before baking. OH MY WORD...this was divine. The apples were sweet and juicy and full of cinnamony flavoring and the topping with the added maple syrup was thick and crunchy and perfect. If only we had ice cream to top it off...well maybe next time.

Apple Crisp

Enough apples to fill a 9x13 pan 2/3's of the way up

1 cup sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/4 cup flour

3 individual sized packets Cinnamon Roll flavor oatmeal (about 3/4 cup)

1 cup (1 stick) salt free butter cold

maple syrup

Line a 9x13 pan with sliced apples until 2/3 full. Combine sugar and cinnamon and pour over apples. Cut butter into flour and oatmeal with a pastry blender and crumble over the apples. Drizzle with maple syrup. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Sources: Granny (Edna Harris) and Zandra White

Honey Ham Quiche

Sometimes on busy nights, we love to have breakfast for dinner. When the kids were younger this meant only pancakes or waffles. They would never try anything that looked slightly different. But, thankfully times have changed and my precious little ones' tastebuds are beginning to venture out to new and exciting recipes. Whoo-Hoo!!

Not too long ago, I was craving something different. I had a ready-made pie crust in the fridge and decided to see what the family did with a quiche for dinner. If the kids didn't eat it, there was always cereal for them to eat.

I was so pleased with how this quiche turned out. With the artichokes and red peppers "in" the dish, the kids never suspected what they were eating and the swiss cheese was just the right amount that the kids recognized it and loved it. What kiddo doesn't like cheese? The sweetness of the honey ham went incredibly well with the eggs and the crispness of the pie crust completed the quiche to make a perfect dinner!! I have made this several times since that first time and I'm thrilled that our breakfast-for-dinner now includes a new recipe!!

Honey Ham Quiche

2 c. all-purpose flour

1 t. salt

3/4 c. solid shortening

4 T. cold water

1/3 c. sweet yellow onion, chopped

1 sweet red pepper, chopped

2 T. butter

7 eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 c. sour cream

1/3 c. milk

3 T. parsley, chopped

4 oz. honey ham, chopped

14-oz. can artichoke hearts, chopped

4 oz. Swiss cheese, shredded

In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Blend in shortening until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle with water, one tablespoon at a time, if dough is too stiff. Roll dough out thinly and place in a quiche dish. Bake crust for 10 minutes at 450 degrees. Remove from oven and reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. In a skillet saute onions and red pepper in butter until tender. In a mixing bowl beat eggs, sour cream and milk thoroughly. Add parsley, ham, artichoke hearts and onions and red peppers. Pour over crust and sprinkle cheese over top. Bake until quiche is firm. Allow to stand 5 minutes, cut into wedges.

**I have used ready-made crusts the many times I've made this.

Source: Gooseberry Patch: Backyard Gatherings

Baking Powder Biscuits

Before I post any further successful ventures from my kitchen I had to share my first major FLOP since starting my blog.

Yesterday afternoon I fixed this amazing Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup (post to follow soon). I was pondering what I could serve alongside my soup that would support the flavors of the soup but not detract from it. "Maybe an herbed biscuit", I thought to myself. I haven't tried to make biscuits from scratch for awhile and I'm determined to master this "skill". I went to my trusty Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook to find a simple biscuit recipe and found one for baking powder biscuits. Sounds simple enough, right???

Step 1-cut the butter into the flour with a pastry blender. "Check" - my bowl of dough looks just like the picture of Martha's.

Step 2-pour cream into flour mixture and fold in with a spatula. "Check"-again, my dough looks like Martha's...Yay!!

Step 3-plop onto a lightly floured surface, pat into a circle and cut out biscuits. "Check"...this is fantastic,I can't wait to taste these yummy biscuits that I made with my own hands.

Bake...blah, blah, blah. They smelled so good while they baked. My taste-buds were waiting to savor these herbed biscuits with my soup. Oh biscuits, please hurry and finish baking!!

I reach into the oven to pull out my culinary success and...........they didn't look like Martha's biscuits at all!!! Mine were 3 inch diameter FLAT, hockey-like disks while hers looked all browned, puffy and perfect!! CRAP!!! Where did I go wrong???? Mine were still flaky like a biscuit and didn't taste ALL that bad....Marty still ate 3 of them, actually he drowned them in his soup...but I'm very disappointed. Was my baking powder too old? Did I work the dough too much? HELP!!!

So, all you perfect bakers out there, please help me out. Any pointers you can offer will be greatly appreciated by my family. Otherwise I'm contacting our local boys' hockey team and supplying them with brownish colored, very flat, 3-inch diameter disks to practice with. And to all of you who were waiting for me to post my first failure, you've got it, baking powder disks.

Here's to posting more successfull, fun, flavorful recipes and enjoying our culinary adventure together!!!!