Grampy Brownies

I'm NERVOUS!

Today is the day.

I have put it off long enough.

I am attempting my Grandfather's "world famous" brownie recipe for the FIRST time!

Have I mentioned I'm nervous?!

This is a big moment.

I need to relax and just do it.

I am not sure if I will end up sharing the recipe but I will share the end results.

Here are 2 ingredients though:

I didn't say it was a healthy recipe!  (It also includes 8...count them....8 eggs!  YIKES!)

I am going to follow the recipe exactly this first time around, then I will see if I can make them in a way so as to not clog any arteries.

Wish me luck!

Freezer cooking for November

Well folks, Dr. Bob and I have been busy this past weekend prepping our freezer for the coming month.

All last week I was scouring recipe blogs looking for yummy new recipes to try.

I really liked all the recipes we made last month, but it gets old after a while.  You can find all those yummy recipes here and here.

This month we are attempting to make more of a variety (without running out of freezer containers...proving harder than we thought!)

Too make this cooking weekend possible, we did the bulk of our basic shopping at Aldi, meat shopping at Kroger, and 2 quick back-up trips to Publix and a different Kroger (ask Bob about that story, you should get a giggle!).  We ended up spending $182.48 and we got this:

So far we have made:

~ 34 turkey meatballs

~ 7 turkey burgers

~ BBQ chicken calzone (leftover BBQ chicken in the freezer for later use). Dough recipe can be found here.

~ Sloppy turkey joes - in the freezer to be used later

~ 7 or 8 individual containers of turkey chili.  I will have Dr. Bob write up this recipe some time soon.  Sooo good!

~ 4 individual containers of Corny Chicken Bake

~ 8 individual containers of a Creamy Southwestern Chicken Soup.  Basic recipe can be found here but we made some modifications:
              added diced jalapeno to onions while sauteeing, and added about 2 tsp cumin, 1 tbsp paprika, 2 
              tsp garlic powder and 1 tsp cayenne pepper.  Chicken was cooked with garlic, cumin, paprika, 
              cayenne, salt and pepper.  Added a can of black beans with the potatoes.  During the final 
              boil/cook, added about 3/4 cup shredded cheese.  Note: increased all measures (in initial recipe; 
              what's written here was as used) by 50%, to use the full 12 ounce can of evaporated milk

~ 6 individual containers of Buffalo Chicken Lasagna (Good guess Leslie!) (And thanks for the recipe Susan!)

~ 3 turkey and feta quesadilla's (more to be made this week)

~ 6 individual containers of a Deconstructed Burrito Bake: Rice mixed with salsa, can of refried beans, some taco seasoned turkey chili and cheddar cheese- layered in that order and then baked at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted.

~ Teriyaki seasoned chicken - this will be packed with fried rice eventually.  (Our rice cooker died yesterday so we purchased a new one today and have yet to make the rice due to football...ugh!)

~ Cheesy chicken paired with Cheesy potatoes

Still to come:
~ Pierogie lasagna
~ Fried Rice
~ Cheeseburger soup
~ Baked pumpkin ice cream glazed donuts

Here's everything ready for the freezer....look at all those containers.

That's over 40 meals ready to go for this month.  I am so excited about all of the above!  We have been taste testing it all and I can't wait to dig in!

Luckily I found more recipes than we could possibly make this month so we already have a list going for next month.

Any recommendations or suggestions to add to our list??


How was your Halloween?  Did you dress up?

BOO!  Happy Halloween Everyone!

What is it about kids looking like food?!

So cute!

What are you and/or your little ones dressing up as??

And the winner is...

... Leslie!!!

Currently in the oven - the newly named "Leslie Varney Buffalo Chicken Lasagna"!

My feet are killing me...

...from spending the last 9 hours cooking. 

There'll be more details coming later, with recipes, pictures, helpful hints (I'll give one away now - make sure your rice cooker hasn't $#!t the bed before you go to make a ton of rice for freezer meals of teriyaki chicken and fried rice).

So far, there's been meatballs, turkey burgers, a new taco casserole concoction (because of the need to not waste too much of the rice that didn't survive the attempt at regular stove top cooking), chili, BBQ chicken calzone, cheesy chicken, chicken with cornbread stuffing.  That doesn't include the sloppy joes still simmering in the slow cooker or the teriyaki chicken in the skillet, or the rice pudding that is an attempt to salvage even more of the aforementioned rice.

Total casualties for the day - rice (started with 2 cups uncooked), the rice cooker, the OXO "slap chop" thingy (Thanks, cheap plastic for breaking so the spring could go BOOOOOIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGG), and a thumb knuckle from a knife washing incident. 

Time for a glass of wine.

Dr. Bob out.

Menu planning...help needed

Dr. Bob and I are getting ready to plan out another big freezer cooking day so we have meals for the majority of next month.  While all of our food was delicious this month, we want to take a break from some of them...you can only eat so much mac&cheese and chicken&rice soup!  We are looking for some new things to try out and would like to hear what some of your favorite recipes are!

I am pretty sure we are going to make a turkey chili of sorts, baked potato soup, and I just found an interesting chicken spaghetti casserole.  

What do you recommend?!

An apple a day....

....tastes delicious!  :-)

Apple picking has been a long time fall tradition for me.  It was a little bittersweet this year though.  I have had a tradition with two of my very dear friends since we were in college where we would have an apple picking weekend in a place I deemed "Cow Town."  Really it is in Washington County, NY not too far from Lake George.

Here we are in 2003 at the orchard.

Please don't judge my TERRIBLE haircut!  
I was trying to grow it out after some horrific trims!

And here we are enjoying some yummy treats from our harvest.

Fast forward to 2009 where we are all married and keeping the tradition alive!

There were even 2 little ones joining in the festivities!

Man I miss those days!

I was absolutely going to make sure that the tradition lived on even if I couldn't be with my favorite apple pickers.  I guess this guy will have to do:  :-P

Apple picking farms aren't as common in GA as they are in NY so we had to drive an hour and a half to find the first one.  It was a bit more commercialized than I am used to, but it had what we were looking for and that's all that mattered!

So we brought our dozens of apples home, scrubbed them clean,

 and got to baking!

We ended up making:

2 apple crisps (not pictured):

Recipe comes straight off my old Hick's Apple Orchard picking bags:

Peel and slice 4 or 5 large apples into a baking dish.  Sprinkle with a crumb topping of 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup butter, 1 tsp cinnamon.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1/2 hour. Serve warm with whipped cream.

Note: I often find that the amount of butter in this recipe is too much for the flour, sugar, and cinnamon amounts so I will often double the amounts of sugar, flour, and cinnamon...because really, the crisp is all about the topping!
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apple dumplings (too yummy to remember to take a picture and I highly recommend you giving this recipe a shot!),

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3-4 apple breads (it is a zucchini bread recipe but they give you the option of making it into an apple bread), 3-4 apple cranberry breads (follow the same directions as the apple bread and add some cranberries),

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apple sauce,

Recipe: (I will warn you, it's a typical Dr. Bob recipe...Megg you can start cringing now!)

Chop apples, put them in a pot with a little water on the bottom, add sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg (and cranberries if desired; use whole berry canned sauce).  Cook until softened enough to mash.  Taste and adjust spices.

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apple chips.  They totally didn't work out for me which is sad because I was excited to give them a try.  I think I cut them too thin because everyone else that has tried the recipe has had great success.  I will have to give them another go next year.

Pre-baking disaster

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And 5-6 bags of apple slices all seasoned up and frozen ready for a fresh apple pie or crisp on those dark, dreary days of February.

Directions:
Cut apples into desired size as you would for a pie or crisp.  Measure them out to fit in your baking dish.  Put in freezer bag.  Add a hearty "splash" of lemon juice (helps apples not to brown in freezing process), cinnamon and sugar.  Mix so that all slices are covered.  Pop in freezer.

We specifically made some breads for the freezer so that we could enjoy them in the months to come, so we wrapped them in paper towels and put them in freezer bags.  We will eventually take them out of the freezer, let them thaw on the counter and then enjoy as we would had they just come out of the oven.  Yum!

So that was our apple adventure for 2011.  All this apple talk is making me crave some apple bread.  It might have to happen soon!

What are you favorite apple recipes??