Brushetta with Balsamic Drizzle

This is one of those recipes I've tinkered with for a few years now. I think I finally have it the way I want it. It's a great appetizer or snack. You can make the bruschetta the day before so it's great for a party where you have a lot to make. Just toast the bread at the end and top with tomato mixture and you're set to go. Plus it's red and green...perfect for Christmas! Give it a try!

Bruschetta with Balsamic Drizzle:

Bruschetta:
6-8 roma tomatoes- chopped (firmer tomatoes are better for this recipe)
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
2 cloves fresh garlic (minced)
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
2 T. Balsamic Vinegar
1 T olive oil
salt and pepper (to taste)
1 long skinny baguette sliced thinly (I used sourdough...but any kind of baguette would work. They often have them pre-cut in the bakery)

Mix all ingredients (except for bread) in a medium sized bowl. Allow to chill in fridge for at least 2 hours for best flavor. (I like to make mine a day ahead if I have time). When ready to serve slice bread and toast bread slightly in oven. Top each piece of toast with bruschetta and drizzle recipe below.

Balsamic Drizzle:
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 T. corn starch

Stir all ingredients together in a small saucepan. Boil until slightly thickened (add extra corn starch if needed). Let cool 5 min. or until thickened to consistency you would like (don't let it get too thick). Drizzle over bruschetta and toast. Enjoy!

Butterhorns

Here's a great roll recipe I found in one of my Taste of Home cookbooks. So thanks to Kelley Kirby of Westville, Nova Scotia for these yummy rolls! I even decided to make them for Thanksgiving this year! I usually just do Rhodes rolls because up until this recipe I hadn't found a recipe that I thought tasted better than Rhodes. That may have changed now though because these were super light and fluffy, PLUS now I get to brag about making homemade rolls and maybe someone will bring me a gold star or something! :)

The actual making of the rolls didn't take much time at all but since it's yeast it takes all day. Do a step and let it rise. Do another step and let it double...you know the drill! I just always forget to plan it into my day and then I start to make dinner and realize I should have started the rolls 3 hours ago! Luckily I did remember to plan it into Thanksgiving so we had fresh from the oven crescents! Give it a try and earn your gold star too!

Butterhorns
1 T. active dry yeast
1 tsp. plus 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
1/2 cup butter, softened (I'm pretty sure I completely melted mine and it turned out fine)
1/2 cup warm 2 % milk (110 to 115 degrees)
1 egg
3/4 tsp. salt
4 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 tsp. sugar in warm water. Add the butter, milk, egg, salt, remaining sugar and 2 cups of the flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured; divide in half. Roll each portion into a 12 in. circle; cut each circle into 12 wedges. Roll up wedges from the wide end and place point side down 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Curve ends to form crescents.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks.

Pumpkin Pancakes with Apple Cider Syrup

Thanks to the snow day we had this week, I got a chance to make a fun breakfast! I got this pancake recipe from a church cookbook my Mom gave me from her ward. It says that it's IHOP's recipe. I don't know if that's true or not but they were super yummy! A lot better than anything I've had at the IHOP in Santa Fe :)

I also got the apple cider syrup recipe from the same cookbook. It was very easy to make and my kids loved it. They pretty much wanted to drink it! I didn't have any apple cider so I ended up making some with a spiced cider packet I had in my pantry. That seemed to work fine but I'm sure it would taste way better with fresh apple cider!

The syrup tasted really good with the pumpkin pancakes. I have another recipe for an apple cinnamon topping that I think would taste better with the pumpkin pancakes that I will probably try next time.

Pumpkin Pancakes
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
4 tbl. melted butter (half a stick)
3 T. canned pumpkin
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. allspice (I didn't have this so I used a little nutmeg and ginger instead)
1/4 tsp. cinnamon (I used more)

Preheat skillet to medium heat. Blend first 6 ingredients together in a medium bowl with an electric mixer. Mix remaining ingredients in a small bowl and add them to the other ingredients. Blend until smooth.

Drop onto griddle in 1/4 cup portions. Cook until edges are a little hardened (1-2 minutes) Flip and cook on the other side. Serve with apple cider syrup or your favorite syrup!

Apple Cider Syrup
2 T. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. cinnamon (again I used more than that)
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 cups apple cider
2 T. lemon juice
1/4 cup butter (melted)
(note from the cookbook: If you like sweeter syrup you can add sugar to the cornstarch mixture. The apple cider sweetens it already though.)

In a small saucepan, mix sugar, conrstarch, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir in apple cider and lemon juice and turn heat to medium high. Stir constantly until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and stir in butter. (Makes about 2 1/2 cups syrup)

Monkey Bread

Does it seem like everyone is talking about Monkey bread these days? I had never even heard of it until a few years ago but apparently it's been around forever! I have several friends who have this every Christmas, or on birthdays, etc etc etc. I had seen it at many a potluck, Christmas treat swap, and in recipe books. Yet I'd never made it or even tried it. It looked delicious but I was convinced that it was going to be hard to make. BUT then I found out that you can make it with canned biscuit dough...and suddenly I was on board!

There are about a million recipes around for it, so I figured I'd give the Pillsbury recipe a try since they were supplying the main ingredient. I changed it around a bit as I usually do. You can see the original recipe at pillsbury.com.

So, I feel like I'm the last person to hear about this yumminess. But just in case there is another lost soul out there trying to navigate this world without Monkey bread, I thought I'd stick it on the blog. Better late than never! I even got fancy and took pictures of each of the steps! So fast, so delicious, so pretty, so dangerous...I give you Monkey Bread! You're welcome :)

Monkey Bread
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
3 cans refrigerated biscuits (cut into 1 in. pieces) Only use 2 cans if using the Grand or Jumbo size
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter (melted)

Cut biscuits into fourths and place in a gallon sized ziploc bag.

Add granulated sugar and cinnamon. Close bag and shake until biscuits are coated.

Arrange biscuit pieces and pecans in a bundt pan. In a small bowl mix melted butter and brown sugar together. Pour brown sugar mixture evenly over biscuit pieces.


Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. (Mine took around 42 minutes before it wasn't doughy in the middle). Let cool 10 minutes. Invert onto plate and serve warm!

Poppy seed Chicken

I love trying new recipes. My friend Bonnie made this for us and my girls loved it! So I got the recipe from her and made it this week.

Not only is it super delicious, it was quick and easy to get on the table. I used a rotisserie chicken from the store which made it even faster! I think it would be great with shredded chicken from the crock pot too. And of course crushed up ritz crackers makes anything great!

Poppy Seed Chicken
3 cups cooked chicken (diced or shredded)
1 can cream of chicken
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
1 sleeve Ritz Crackers (crushed)
1 1/2 T. poppy seeds
2-3 cups cooked rice

Place cooked chicken in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Combine cream of chicken, sour cream and milk. Pour over chicken. In a small bowl combine butter, crushed crackers, and poppy seeds. Sprinkle cracker mixture over chicken mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until bubbly. Serve over rice.

Blueberry Breakfast Cake

So, here's another yummy Pinterest find! The original recipe is from Alexandracooks.com. I chose it based totally off of the pictures! Check out her website to see some awesomely delicious looking pictures of this recipe and rest assured it was as good as it looked!

It seems like lately I've been making everything with buttermilk! Every time I eat something delicious and wonder what is making it so good...the answer is always buttermilk! It was kind of funny because I was already thinking this when I read her blog and realized she was feeling the same way.

This recipe was quick to throw together. Plus I used frozen blueberries that I had on hand...so it really wasn't very expensive either. I was making it for a large crowd so I doubled it to make a 9x13 pan size and it turned out great! I will definitely be making this the next time I have a brunch or something to go to. It was great the next day too...so you could definitely bake it the night before and have it ready to go for breakfast!

Blueberry Breakfast Cake
½ butter, room temperature
2 tsp. lemon zest or more — zest from 1 large lemon
7/8 cup + 1 T. sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
½ cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Cream butter, lemon zest and 7/8 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.

Meanwhile, toss the blueberries with ¼ cup of flour, then whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk. Fold in the blueberries.

Grease a 9-inch square baking pan with butter or coat with non-stick spray. Spread batter into pan. Sprinkle batter with remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake for 35 minutes. Check with toothpick. (Note: Baking for as long as 10 minutes more might be necessary.) Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

NOTE: Since I doubled the recipe and used frozen blueberries it took my cake about 55 min. before it was done. Just keep checking your cake and you will know when it looks ready to come out because it will look like this...

Southwestern Crock-Pot Chicken Wraps

So this is one of my favorite recipes that I have from my sister-in-law Beth! I make it all the time...but it had been awhile since I'd made it last. I checked her blog to double check I remembered it right and found that she'd updated it! So I made it the updated way and it was super yummy as always!

I love crock pot meals any day...but they are especially awesome on a Sunday! We tend to always have extra people floating around on the weekends and crock pot meals are always great for feeding a crowd. This recipe is no exception! It makes a nice big pot full of food to feed a large group. If you want to make a smaller portion it is pretty easy to halve...or Beth recommends freezing the extra chicken.

She also makes it often to take to people when they need a meal brought in. (Then you could use half for your family and half for another family) I am always in need of new ideas of meals to take to people so I thought it was a great idea! Those of you who live close to me...maybe this will end up on your doorstep someday...try to act surprised :) Anyway, she has some great suggestions on her blog of how to transport it neatly and you can see those by clicking on this link: Beth's Southwestern Crock-pot Wraps.

I'm going to re-copy the recipe here too though. I hope you don't mind Beth! Hope you all enjoy it as much as my family does!

Southwestern Crock-pot Chicken Wraps
Crock Pot Chicken:
2 lb. frozen chicken breasts or tenderloins (a whole bag)
2 cans Rotel (Do not drain) (any brand diced tomatoes with green chile will do)
1 chopped onion (I usually only use about 1/2)
1 package dry chicken gravy mix
Spices (Beth doesn't measure them and either do I. Just give a few shakes of your favorites: garlic powder, marjoram, parsley, etc. or an Italian seasoning blend will work great)

Other Wrap Ingredients:
6 cups cooked rice
2 cans corn (I used 4 cups frozen corn and it worked too!)
shredded cheese
1 package flour tortillas

Combine all crock pot chicken ingredients in a crock-pot. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. Shred chicken and leave in crock-pot until ready to serve.

When ready to serve, cook rice and corn. Heat tortillas. Layer rice, corn, chicken and cheese on a flour tortilla and wrap into a burrito. Enjoy!