Peach Toast

I'm still living off avocado toast most of the year, but in the summer, this is my breakfast of choice! 

The inspiration came from here: https://avocadoskillet.com/air-fryer-peach-cottage-cheese-toast/ but mine is simpler. 

I buy sourdough bread at Sam's Club. It's less than $5 a loaf and it's really tasty. I toast a slice in the toaster (takes two turns to get both ends toasted). Then I spread that with cottage cheese. Then I line up thinly sliced peaches across it. Sometimes I fill in the gaps with raspberries, which we always have on hand. 

I put it in the air fryer at 400* for seven minutes. 

Then I drizzle honey over it. And it's delicious! 

Fresh Caprese Sandwich

My social media feed has been full of varieties of fresh mozzarella, tomato, basil, balsamic glaze and breads. Sometimes it shows fresh peaches, sometimes it shows prosciutto, sometimes they also use brie. Sometimes it's a dip or a sandwich or a tooth-picked appetizer... So many yummy suggestions!! 

I don't want to forget this one, so here you go! 

I bought a loaf of sourdough (from Sam's Club- inexpensive and yummy!) fresh mozzarella (happy to discover it was already sliced), beefsteak tomatoes, and some fresh basil. I also bought prosciutto and fresh peaches, but those weren't part of the first plan. Then the prosciutto was suggested and I still forgot to pull it out. 

My husband did a balsamic glaze, according to The Pioneer Woman blog HERE. 

I put all the slices of bread on the pampered chef baking stone (circa 2000- not dishwasher safe!) and drizzled some olive oil on the top side. Then I broiled it in the oven for about three minutes.

(above shows before the went in the oven. You can kind of see the oil drizzles...)

That single slice was cut in half for my kiddo. To the toasted side, I added fresh sliced beef steak tomato, then fresh mozzarella, then topped it with the other half of the bread.

It went in the air fryer for four minutes, at 400*. (ours has a pull out basket)
For the half sandwich, I added just a few drops of the balsamic vinegar glaze, and just a little bit of torn fresh basil leaves.

Below is my husband's dinner.

It was SO good!! 

My husband said it would have been even better with the prosciutto, he really wanted that hit of salt. Honestly, it could have stood a bit of freshly ground black pepper, so why not salt too? But it was so yummy and I am glad that was our dinner tonight! 

My kiddo asked if we could have pancakes next time. hahaha! 

~~~
Another day I made this open face version

And another day, I used up the French Emmental cheese that we're not fans of, that comes in a cheese platter we ARE fans of, haha.... 

It's all delicious!! 

Safe Hot Chocolate

Where we live, winter gets cold! We have three brands of hot chocolate in our house, and none of them are safe for the whole family to enjoy. Thank goodness there are options to make your own! We tried THIS ONE from Mel's Kitchen Cafe, and it is a winner! Check that link for her notes and instructions.

I'm recording it here, halved, because it makes a lot, and really, it's just one person who 'needs' it. Half is plenty at our house. And I'm recording it halved because the second time I made it, I started with the full ingredient list and panicked at the six cups of milk, ha. 

Ingredients: 

1/3 cup cocoa

2/3 cup sugar

>1/8 salt

1/3 cup water

3 cups milk

1/2 tsp vanilla
half and half

Whisk the cocoa, sugar, salt and water in a sauce pan.
Bring to a simmer for 2 minutes, while stirring constantly.
Add milk and vanilla, and heat to very warm, but without boiling or simmering.
Add a little half and half (or milk) to cool when you serve. Or don't! 

This photo was after it cooled and had started to separate. It is rich and delicious! 

We talked about making whipped cream to top it with, but I also found some safe marshmallows- which amazed me. Marshmallows are made of corn syrup and dusted in cornstarch...and my person can't have corn! but these are okay, so I stocked up! I hope it gets us thru the winter! 

They don't look anything like the packaging which is...cool...but they taste good and they're safe. Fine. ha.

Fried Mashed Potato Patties

No photo of today's dish- we were too hungry and just ate it. 
This is something my dad used to make when I was a kid and I always remember really liking it. I feel like I tried to make it once and it failed miserably and I had to toss it...... but honestly, I'm not THAT bad of a cook so I'm not sure how I would have messed it up so much?

Yesterday (Thanksgiving) when we were making the mashed potatoes (my job) we were discussing the leftovers. One of my kids loves mashed potatoes more than just about anything, but only freshly made. Once they've been refrigerated, this child doesn't want anything to do with it. sigh. 
My dad said "but leftover mashed potatoes are great. You can also make the potato patties." YES. Tell me how!! He said to mix some egg into it and fry it in a little butter. 

Today, after a lot of nibbling on mostly sweet Thanksgiving leftovers, we needed some dinner! I decided to make the potato patties, and have everyone get some left over meat (we had turkey, ham and pork kabobs) and some kind of vegetable and made a potato patty for each of us. 

I googled "how do you make fried mashed potato patties". I got a dozen results and I read four recipes before deciding to proceed. 

Ingredients: 

Leftover (cold) mashed potatoes (mine already have sour cream, salt and veg broth)

1 egg, beaten

2 Tbsp all-purpose flour

Heaping handful shredded cheddar

Butter 

I put approximately a serving of mashed potato, per person, into a mixing bowl. I beat an egg with a fork in a small bowl and poured that over it. I added the flour and some cheese. Then I mixed it up like I do with meatballs- with my bare hand. yum.... I shaped it into five patties and then melted some butter, enough to cover the frying pan. I could cook three at a time, in the pan and I added butter as needed. I just cooked them maybe 7 minutes on each side and voila! Dinner! 

They need to cook longer than you think, to get brown and crispy, but everyone seemed to like it a lot! 

Apple Pie Spice + Chex Mix!

In an on-going attempt to have "normal" foods while still avoiding "issue" foods, we've been eating some chex mix! I forgot how much I LIKE sweet chex mixes. Personally, I really don't care for savory mixes...... 

This is a blend of several recipes, and is the faster variety, ha, so here you go: 

Apple Pie Chex Mix!

Ingredients:

9 cups Chex - any variety

1/4 cup melted butter

1 tbsp Apple Cider 
1 tbsp apple pie spice

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Instructions: 

Measure the chex into a large, microwaveable bowl. 

Melt the butter, add the sugars and spices, blend thoroughly. 

Pour butter mixture over cereal, stir to coat as much cereal as possible.

Microwave for five minutes- stirring every minute. 

Spread onto a cookie sheet to cool.

Store in an air tight container.  

*I have thought about adding chopped dried apples, but I forget every time...

To make Apple Pie Spice: 

1/2 cup cinnamon

2tbsp allspice

4 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cardamom (which I don't have, so I just leave that one out.)

"Safe" Cheesy Potato Chowder

This is a version of THIS potato soup that is safe for our entire family now. 
It is lacking corn, chicken bullion, and the canned cheese sauce that uses wheat, corn and soy.

~~~

Soup Ingredients: 
3 slices bacon- all but burned
onion - minced
potatoes - peeled and cubed    (I do 1-2 potatoes per person, depending on size)
carrots - peeled and cut into coins     (I do 3-4 carrots)
1 part milk to 2 parts water
1 tsp Better Than Bullion for each cup water
minced garlic
black pepper
celery flakes
shredded cheddar, or other melty cheese (we used shredded cheddar, swiss, mozzarella and asiago)
chives

Thickening Sauce:

4 tbps heavy cream

2 tbsp tapioca starch

4 tbsp butter    - all mixed together for a gloppy paste

Instructions:

Cook the bacon in the soup pot. Set bacon aside for now. Pour off excess grease.
Put vegetables in pot, cover with liquid. Add spices and allow to boil/simmer til potatoes are soft. Smash a few times with a potato masher for a creamier texture.
Remove from heat and add the thickening "paste", mixing in thoroughly.
Add shredded cheese gradually, stirring and allowing it to melt.
Add chives and crumbled bacon, serve! 

Homemade Ketchup

A member of our house is dealing with some health issues and was advised to completely avoid some standard foods for a time. The list is long and one of the most critical foods to avoid is corn. Sigh. So even when we think of something "safe" we continually discover that actually, it has corn syrup or corn starch or corn fiber or or or or or!

Ketchup is one of those.
Every single bottle of ketchup in my local store had either corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, or both. Barbeque sauce was the same. (altho I think I did find one that was corn free, but it had something else on the list instead. Likely soy....) 

I found a recipe to make our own BBQ sauce, but it calls for ketchup. *face palm. 

Soo my husband found two recipes to make our own ketchup! 

The first one we tried is based on a recipe by America's Test Kitchen, buuut of course my husband changed some things up. That is what I am recording here: 
~~~
Ingredients: 

1 6oz can tomato paste

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

6 tbsp sugar

1/4 cup water 

1 tsp table salt

1/4 tsp dry mustard

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/8 tsp granulated garlic

1/8 tsp paprika

Pinch ground allspice

Whisk all ingredients into a medium saucepan. Bring to low simmer, over medium low heat. Stir & scrape bottom of pan occasionally, about 10 minutes - until mixture thickens and measures about 1 cup.

Strain ketchup through a fine mesh strainer, extracting as much ketchup as possible. Discard solids.
Let cool to room temperature.  

Can be kept in a fridge for up to one week. 
            ...I intend to push that limit. As my husband points out, the only thing that "needs refridgerated" is after you open the can of tomato paste....

Anyway, we used this in the meatball recipe we enjoy, found HERE.
I doubled the batch.

Peachy Chicken

This is one of those recipes that at first glance I thought miight be too weird, but I was intrigued and wanted to give it a try. It was a hit, so we'll be keeping this one too! 

Barbeque Peach Chicken found HERE. 

I made some adjustments, lol. For one thing, when I showed my husband-the-cook the recipe he said that our grill has two temperatures- nuclear hot and almost nuclear hot. I suggested we bake it a while and then grill it at the end? He suggested we bake it and then broil it, so that is what we did. 

I had some leftover peach "jam" that had been made for a dessert. I wasn't sure it would work, and my husband said it didn't quite- the cinnamon and nutmeg didn't quite work with the bbq sauce for him. But everyone else liked it so it worked okay! 

I thawed two huge chicken breasts and cut them into sections of all sizes, lol... I made the marinade as directed: 
 - 1/2 cup peach jam

- 1 tbso apple cider vinegar 

- 1 tbsp ground ginger

- 1/2 tsp salt

- some black pepper

- 3/4 cup bbq sauce (we have Sweet Baby Ray's right now)

- boneless, skinless chicken breasts

I let it marinate in the fridge for about 8 hours. 

I put a cooling rack onto a foil covered baking sheet, and baked it at 350* for 8 minutes, then turned them all over, basting it as I went. Then baked it 8 more minutes. It wasn't very close to temp yet, so I turned and basted again, and baked it another 5 minutes before turning it up to broil. We broiled it 5  minutes on one side, basted again and broiled another 5 or so minutes til it reached about 165*. 

We served this with a quick pasta-roni mix, and vegetables and the whole family enjoyed it! 

Updated Oreo Pie Recipe

Recipe refreshed and updated! Makes two 9-inch pies.

The idea for this pie was the result of my 9 year old self trying to come up with a pie idea for a ward dessert contest. I made it that once and didn't make it again until after I was married to take to Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws. Since they were all Oreo obsessed, it became a staple of Thanksgiving dinners, some birthdays, and other special occasions. It is a whipped cream (or cool whip) and pudding pie with crushed Oreo cookies sandwiched between the layers and placed on top. I have made it so much throughout the years that I can barely eat a slice. Too much of a good thing.  --Burt

This pie is made with mostly instant stuff that you get at the store, but it could be made completely from scratch if you are feeling adventurous. The only thing that probably would have to stay store-bought is the Oreo cookies. I have never used other Oreo like cookies for this pie and since I usually only make it once or twice a year, I stick with the name brand.

Ingredients

• 2 9-inch pie crusts that have been blind baked 
• You could swap out the pastry pie crusts for a Oreo or chocolate graham cracker crust, but I think a regular crust offsets the overwhelming sweetness inherent to the pie filling.
• 1 3/4 cups Oreo crumbs plus some cookies cut in half to put on the top of the pie for decoration
• You could buy a box of pre-crushed Oreo crumbs, but why? Take 30 cookies and run them through the food processer. Much better and you don't have to have leftover crumbs that you will go stale before you use them again.

Chocolate Layers - Chocolate Dream Pie Filling

• 2 (1 1/3 ounce) envelopes dream whip brand whipped dessert topping mix
• 2 3/4 cups cold milk, divided
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 (3 1/2 ounce) packages of chocolate instant pudding 
• I recommend Hershey's or another really good dark chocolate pudding. I used to use a chocolate mousse pudding mix, but they got hard to find and were never enough mousse to really do a full two layers of chocolate filling.

Whipped Cream Layers - Ingredients yield 1 batch. You will need two batches.

• 1 8 oz block of cream cheese
• 1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• Pinch of salt

Make the Filling Layers and Chill

The chocolate filling is just the dream pie recipe found on the back of the Dream Whip brand whipped topping box. I recommend making the chocolate filling the night before and letting it chill overnight before assembly so it is good and solidly set-up. At a minimum, the chocolate layer has to be chilled for at least 4 hours before it can be used, as per the Dream Whip instructions.

Here are the directions from the box for the Dream Pie filling:

• Beat whipped topping mixes, 1 cup of the milk and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on high 6 minutes or until topping thickens and forms peaks.
• Add remaining 1-3/4 cups milk and pudding mixes; beat on low speed until mixed.
• Beat on high speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.
• Divide the filling in half (by weight if you can) into two gallon size freezer zip lock bags.
• Refrigerate at least 4 hours.

To make the whipped cream filling do the following. You will need to make two batches of this:

• In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla. 
• Beat until smooth, then keep beating for about 2 to 3 more minute. Scrap the bowl about every minute during the process.
• Add heavy cream and mix until the heavy cream and the cream cheese mixture is incorporated and smooth. Scrap the bowl to get any unmixed bits, then turn your mixer to high and whip it. 
• Whip until stiff peaks form. It should look dryish and a little bit like a frosting, but will still be quite light. 
• Put the batch into a zipper lock gallon bag and into the fridge to chill until you are ready to assemble your pies.
• Now do it again and make a second batch the same way.

The cream cheese in the whipped cream keeps it stable. The whipped cream won't deflate for several days so you don't have to worry about making the pies a day or two ahead. Just make sure to keep them cold!

Assembling the Pies

Prep your pie crusts and blind bake them. Whether you make them by hand or buy them frozen from the store, follow the instructions for blind baking the pie shells. You want them completely baked and cooled before assembling the pies. Once the crusts have cooled completely, do the following:

• Put 1/3 cup of the crushed Oreo crumbs into each pie shell. Smooth the crushed cookies out so they are a nice flat layer in the bottom of each pie 
• Take one bag of chocolate filling, snip off a corner of the bag and squeeze the filling into each pie shell in swirl pattern, using half the bag per shell. 
• Use a spatula to smooth out the layer over the crushed Oreos. Be gentle and patient as the crushed cookies make doing this tricky if you try to go too fast. 
• Take out one bag of the whipped cream filling, snip off a corner of the bag and squeeze the whipped cream into each pie shell in swirl pattern, again using half the bag per shell.
• Like before, use a spatula to smooth the whipped cream layer over the chocolate layer.
• Sprinkle another 1/3 cup of crushed cookies per shell onto the whipped cream layer evenly so the crushed cookies makes another smooth cookie layer.
• Use the second bag of the chocolate filling, squeezing out half the bag of filling in each pie in a swirl pattern, and smooth it out into an even layer. Again be patient and gentle when working the chocolate filling over the cookie layer. Gently push down as you smooth if you need to and scrap your spatula against the edge of the pie shell. 
• Use the last bag of the whipped cream filling, squeeze out half a bag per pie, swirl and smooth. If you want, save a couple of dollops of  chocolate filling to swirl in the whipped cream layer as a decoration. The filling should dome up a little over the pie shell, unless your pie shell is deeper than the standard.
• Sprinkle any remaining crushed cookies over the top of the pies and decorate with Oreos cut in half on the top. 
• Chill at least two hours before serving. The moisture in the filling will make the crumbs go all soft and allow the layers to bind together.

Ham & Cheese Crescent Rolls

I saw the pizza calzones while looking for dinner ideas one frustrating afternoon, ha. I tried to think of something I had the ingredients for, and knew I had seen something like this before, and honestly I think many times! ...but on that day I couldn't find anything to tell me if I needed to adjust the baking time or anything. No recipes like this to be found on the whole entire internet that day. What?! Sooo now there is!! 

I had all of these ingredients already in my fridge, so I put them together and it made a great dinner! I actually used two cans of crescent rolls, to make enough food for us.

I rolled out each crescent roll a bit...then laid half a slice of muenster on the edge

then half a slice of ham

and finally half a slice of swiss cheese

and rolled it up! 

When I had four left, I ran out of Swiss cheese slices, so I used a small handful of shredded cheddar instead. It worked great!

I asked a friend if she knew how long to bake it. I really wondered if the meat and cheese affected the baking time! She said to follow the instructions on the can, so I did. It said to bake at 375* for 9-12 minutes. I am pretty sure I broiled them a couple minutes to get some good browning, but everyone liked these! 

a close up of the melty cheddar....!

Calzones

We tried this recipe this week, and it was a good one! It came from HERE. 

I want to keep this one and make it again. 

I don't make bread, other than quick breads, like banana, so I bought two cans of Pillsbury pizza dough. I made "custom" calzones for my family. One wanted black olives, and another wanted olives and green pepper. They all had sauce, pepperoni, mozzarella and parmesan. 

As the instructions say, I cut the dough into six pieces, so I made two sets to feed the five of us. We had some leftover but people ate those too! 

For the sauce, I combined one can of tomato sauce with a little basil, oregano, parsley, garlic powder and olive oil. 

For the calzones, I did in fact roll out one can of pizza dough, and cut it into 6th. I added a small spoonful of sauce, topped that with a little shredded mozzarella, diced pepperoni, shredded parmesan, and then if requested- sliced black olives or diced green pepper. 
I folded them in half (had to pull/stretch most of them), then crimped the edges with a fork. Then I brushed melted butter over all of them an sprinkled them with Italian seasoning, which I mixed myself with oregano, basil and garlic powder. 

Finally I baked them at 400* for about 15 minutes. 

We served it with more of the pizza sauce for dipping, and carrot sticks and raspberries on the side! 

Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes

A really long time ago, my friend walked me thru how to make mashed potatoes in the instant pot. It is still the only thing I know how to make in the instant pot, but don't worry, my husband uses it frequently. 

So for the most basic but clear instructions, here we go! 

Peel and slice or cube potatoes
    (I do one per person, plus an extra or two depending on size)
Put the cubes in the pot.
Cover them in water.
Can add 1/2 tsp salt -sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, sometimes my husband uses bullion in place of salt.

Cook on manual for 8 minutes 
In my case, I push "pressure cook" and then the up/down button til it says "high" and "00:08" and then it starts. This is my machine: 

Eventually it comes to pressure, then it counts down from 8.

Then, I pour off most of the water, but save some in a glass measuring cup. 
I add butter, sour cream or plain greek yogurt, and salt if necessary, and the potato water, and I use the beaters/hand mixer to "mash" them. 

voila! 
Mashed potatoes! 

Pasta Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette/Mayonnaise Dressing

Pasta Salad Ingredients - Feel free to swap out or add ingredients to your liking. Amounts below are a guide, not a requirement.

•  16 oz cooked rigatoni pasta
• 1/2 cup of chopped celery 
• 1/4 cup of chopped pepperoni
• 1/2 cup of chopped pickled banana peppers/pepperoncini
• 1/2 cup or 1/2 of a chopped white onion 
• 6 mozzarella sticks sliced into thin discs 
• 3/4 cup of black olives sliced in half 
• 2 large tomatoes chopped 

Dressing

• 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar 
• 1/4 cup of olive oil 
• 1 tbsp of oregano 
• 1 tbsp of basil sweet 
• 1 tbsp of parsley 
• 1 tsp of onion powder 
• 1 tsp of garlic powder 
• 2 tsp of salt 
• 2 tbsp of Dijon mustard
• 1/3 cup of mayonnaise

Garnish 

1/4 cup of shredded parmesan 

1 tbsp of freshly ground black pepper 

Whisk dressing ingredients to combine, pour over salad, and gently stir in so as not to break up the pasta. Let salad marinate and chill in the fridge for at least 5 hours before serving. Add garish of parmesan and pepper right before serving.

Grape Salad

This was shared at a RS Activity - it was delicious and I'm not allergic so YEAY! The person who brought it was vague about the ingredients so I googled and selected the following recipe, as pretty darn close! 

 Ingredients: 

• 4 pounds grapes a mix of red and green seedless grapes (I use red or black)
• 1 8 ounce bar of cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup light sour cream
• 1/2 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
• 3 tablespoons confectioners sugar
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons crushed pecans (I leave this off)

• Wash and dry the grapes and remove the stems. Set the grapes aside.
• In a large mixing bowl add the cream cheese, sour cream, Greek yogurt and confectioners sugar. Use an electric mixer to beat the mixture until it is completely smooth. Use a spatula to scrape down the edges and beat for an additional 20 seconds.
• When the cream cheese mixture is light, fluffy and completely smooth stir in the grapes.
  
• At this point you can transfer the mixture to a serving dish (if you aren't serving it in the mixing bowl). Sprinkle the top of the grape salad with brown sugar and crushed pecans
  
• Chill the salad 30 minutes before serving.

Link: https://farmlifediy.com/grape-salad/

Homemade White Cake - AP Flour

 White Cake
            - Gayla Harvey            
 3/4 c Shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar 
3 eggs
3 tsp Baking Powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp Vanilla
2 cups whole milk
Flour. 3 1/2 to 3 3/4 c

Mix the shortening and sugar until fluffy.
Add eggs and beat until smooth.
Stir in the vanilla put in half a cup of flour, baking powder and salt and mix well. Alternate the flour and the milk, stirring in until you’ve put in 3 1/2 cups of flour.
Now comes the tricky part the way to tell if this batter is what it’s supposed to be is you dip a big spoon in and turn it to the side and the batter plops off it doesn’t run off in
If you need to add more flour add 2 tablespoons at a time.

If you are using a cookie sheet, use shortening and flour on the pan.
Waxed paper fitted into a 9x13 cake pan works great. 
Oven temp 350 degrees. Bake for about 40-45 minutes.
Watch and when it starts to get a pale brown on top check with a tooth pick.  
~~~
My daughter used this recipe from her aunt, to make Strawberry Shortcake from scratch. She served it at a Mother's Day event, because it was her grandma's favorite dessert.

Skippy Truffle Cookies

I first found this recipe at least 21 years ago, but in the last 8 years we just use one chocolate chip cookie recipe, haha. But today I really wanted peanut butter too.

It's a simple recipe and a little bit finicky, but so yummy! 

Skippy Truffle Cookies
Ingredients: 
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips 

Preheat oven to 350*

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except chips. With electric mixer, on medium speed, beat peanut butter mixture 1 minute. Beat in chocolate until just blended.

On ungreased baking sheets, drop 1 tbsp dough two inches apart.

Bake 9 minutes, or until cookies are puffed. Place baking sheet on a wire rack to cool for five minutes. Remove cookies from sheets and cool completely.

They really need that five minutes of resting, or they will absolutely shatter into a million pieces and you will have to eat it off the pan with a spoon, ha.

They are very crumbly if you eat them before they are totally cool. Once they cool, they take on a creamy kind of texture, which is a fun change.
They are small, but rich and so yummy! 

Chocolate Peanut Butter (cheesecake) Pie

It's PI DAY! I came across this recipe that I thought might be a hit, and gave it a shot. 
You can find the original HERE and below: 

I do not have a mile-high pie pan, just regular pans, ha. So I ended up with two pies! And I made some slight variations, based on what I have and what we prefer.

Crust:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup almond flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

    put in food processor til it was combined and very fine

5 tablespoons melted butter

Combine dry ingredients with melted butter in a small bowl, press into pie pan. 

Freeze while preparing the filling.

Filling: 

2 1/4 cups heavy cream

12 oz cream cheese, softened

1 1/8 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

2 tbsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp molasses

In a large bowl, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Refrigerate while preparing the rest of the filling. 

In another large bowl, beat the cream cheese til smooth. Add the sugar and mix til combined. (scraping down sides as needed.) Add peanut butter, blend until incorporated. Add vanilla and molasses, mixing til smooth. 

Gently fold in the whipped cream until fully incorporated. 

Pour filling into the crust, and smooth the top. 

Chill in the freezer 30 minutes, or in the fridge 4 hours, before adding the ganache.

Ganache Topping:

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Microwave the chocolate chips and cream for 1.5 minutes, then stir til smooth. 

Cool to 70* before pouring over the chilled pie, and spread evenly.

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or freeze for 30 minutes before serving. Serve chilled.

*ice cream-like texture from the freezer, creamier texture from the fridge. 

Corn Salsa

At our house, we don't sport. So we don't watch the Superbowl.
But sometimes it matches up with Groundhog Day and we do observe that, haha!
A few years ago we started making "game food" to eat while we watch the movie Groundhog Day. 

This year, we decided to try some new recipes, that ended up worth keeping. And making notes of. 

First up- Corn Salsa! The recipe came from HERE. 

That link will tell you that you need: 
- 2 cups cooked corn, or 3 cobs worth (which can be grilled, or fresh, or frozen)

- 2 small tomatoes, seeded and diced

- 1/2 cup red onion, diced

- 1 scallion, diced

- 1 jalapeno, diced (and seeded for milder flavor)

- 2 tbsp chopped cilantro

- juice from one fresh lime

- salt and pepper to taste 

My husband knows how to cook and cannot just follow a recipe without doing his own thing, haha. He started by broiling the frozen corn. He broiled and tossed til the corn started getting a bit of char on it.

He used two limes worth of juice. He also added some olive oil and this Mexican seasoning to it.  

His only complaint was that it was very dry. Maybe next time he won't seed the tomatoes, and just include the whole thing? However, it was well received, so we'll keep the recipe. 

Very easy, just a lot of chopping. 
And we just ate it with tortilla chips. 

Glazed Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

I made these in 2020 and 2021 for sure.... and this is a keeper! 
~~~

Found here: https://www.laurenslatest.com/soft-glazed-pumpkin-sugar-cookies/
(also pinned to Tried & Approved)

Ingredients

• ▢1/2 cup softened butter
• ▢1/2 cup vegetable oil
• ▢1/2 cup pumpkin puree canned pumpkin
• ▢1 cup granulated sugar
• ▢1/2 cup powdered sugar
• ▢1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• ▢2 large eggs
• ▢4 cups all purpose flour
• ▢1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• ▢1/2 teaspoon salt
• ▢1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ▢1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• ▢pinch of cloves
  
  

for the glaze-

• ▢3 cups powdered sugar
• ▢4 tablespoons water
  1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat and set aside. In a large bowl, stir butter, oil, pumpkin, sugars, vanilla and eggs together until incorporated and smooth.
• Slowly mix in all dry ingredients until completely incorporated.
• Scoop onto prepared baking sheet using 1 1/2 tablespoon scoop and flatten to 1/2 inch thick using the bottom of a glass. If the dough is sticking to the glass, press the bottom of the glass in granulated sugar before flattening. Bake 8-9 minutes.
• While cookies bake, stir all ingredients together for glaze until smooth.
• Once cookies are finished baking, cool 3 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to cooling rack. Spread 1 1/2 teaspoons glaze over each warm cookie. Let glaze harden 2-3 hours before serving. OR eat them warm with lots of runny glaze
• 
  
  Yeah, soo my cookies baked 9 minutes. They were too puffy to put the glaze on top, so I flipped them over and glazed the bottom!! My dad's grandmother did that with her sugar cookies so why not? It worked great! 
• Also my glaze was 2 cups powdered sugar, 4.5 tbsp water and at least 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice... Next time i'll use milk or cream.
• I got 57 cookies, plus dough out of this batch.  69 out of the second batch (smaller for sure)