Sesame Ginger Brittle

I love peanut brittle.

I love ginger.

I have no aversion to sesame seeds, and in fact, it's my favorite type of bagel.

So when I saw Martha's Stewart's recipe for ginger-seasame brittle in her holiday edition of Living magazine last year (or maybe the year before?), I knew I would have to make it.

I covet Martha Stewart's food stylists.

Thus started my hunt for reasonably priced sesame seeds.

I hunted for more than a year. Obviously I wasn't hunting very hard. But all I kept finding was the small bottles in the spice aisle, and those are ridiculously over-priced.

I finally found a bag at a reasonable price in the bulk food aisle at Jungle Jim's Eastgate. Near the oatmeals, rices and flours, behind the tea aisle. It was so much more affordable! I think I paid less than $3 for a half pound instead of $6 for a little jar.

So, I went to make the brittle. I had already purchased a candy thermometer for the fudge, so I'd be able to get it to the right temperature without a problem. I roasted the sesame seeds first, chopped the ginger while that was happening, and got all the other ingredients together so I wouldn't be scrambling while the substance was boiling. I do so hate that.

Then I followed the directions, brought it all to a boil, let it boil and boil and boil until it FINALLY got to the right temperature, and then followed the directions some more.

I didn't have the parchment paper just on the counter top to pour the brittle out all free-form and what not. No, I put the parchment paper on a cookie sheet and poured it that way.

Then let it set for quite a while. I don't even remember how long, I just know I wanted it to harden and I didn't want to burn my fingers.

Eventually I came around, broke it up, packaged it up for gift-giving. And, of course, eating.

Turns out, I don't care for it so much. I don't mind the ginger giving it a bit of spice. I dislike the smokiness that toasting the sesame seeds created. I don't care for smokiness in general, I just had no idea toasting seeds would have such an affect.

I didn't hear any rave reviews. I won't be making this again.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with all those sesame seeds.

Fantasy Fudge

I have had this fudge many, many times. This is the recipe my mother uses and she makes it every year.

I comes right off the side of the container of marshmallow fluff.

But while I have eaten this many times, I've never had to make it myself.

Until this year.

I no longer live at home (yay!), but I still needed to give some to my lawyers as gifts. The previous year I had just taken some Mom had made.

So I went out and bought a candy thermometer. Because I don't trust/remember Mom's tips for determining when the fudge has reached "soft tack". I don't even remember them. Something involving a glass of water. Or velvety texture. Don't know. I bought the thermometer.

So I followed the directions almost exactly. The differences being, I did  not line the pan with foil. In our family, we take the wrapper from the butter needed for the recipe and and smear the pan with it. There is enough residual butter on the wrapper to make the pan adequately non-stick. DO NOT USE SPRAY! (Although I don't know why, I just assume Mom has made that mistake before and the results were so unpleasant she can't talk about them.)

So I make it according to the recipe, other than how to prep the pan. I wait until the thermometer reads the proper temperature, although it takes longer than the amount of time given as a substitute for a thermometer.

I dumped it in the gorgeous green pan that was a birthday present, and let it set.

I think maybe a day later, when I was cutting it up to package it as gifts, is when I tried it.

And the fudge was great.

Success.

Later attempts were less successful, i.e., I tried with almonds and it tasted fine but looked odd, and then I made it a few weeks ago and didn't let it boil long enough and it had a gritty texture.

Coupon Spotlight: Pringles at Remke bigg's

I'm going out of town this weekend. A road trip to Chicago to be a good girlfriend and support my boyfriend at a gaming convention. Also known as, If I go this once, I can say I've been and don't ever have to go again if I don't like it.

Yes, that's one heck of a pseudonym.

Either way, I'm driving up myself, so I wanted to pick up something salty and crunchy for the car. Knowing that if I didn't pick something up before I actually left, I'd spend twice as much money in a gas station, I checked the grocery store circulars for a deal.

There's one on Pringles at bigg's.

Now, if you don't like Pringles, this obviously isn't a good deal. I like potato chips. A lot. Which is why they usually aren't in my house. But I'm running out of salty and crunchy things to pack for work, so I figured it would be okay this once.

Pringles are on sale, Buy 2, Get 1 Free. That's not a bad sale. Doing the math, a 10/$10 would be better, but how often do you see that on Pringles?

So, Pringles puts coupons out myabe every two-three months. Always the same three coupons. $1 on two reduced fat, $1 off four regular cans, $1 the snack size ones.

I still had the coupons that will expire April 21.

Now, if you're brain has jumped ahead, you'll note that for the sale, I have to buy a number that is divisible by 3. And you'll notice that if I use the first two coupons, that's a total of 6 cans.

So I went to the store with the intention of buying 2 reduced fat varieties and 4 regulars. It doesn't hurt at all that I think the reduced fat taste pretty darn good.

So, here's the math:

Usually, one can is $1.69. $1.69 x 6 = $10.14.

This week's sale means I only paid for four cans, and there were coupons. $1.69 x 4 = $6.76. $6.76 - $2 (in coupons) = $4.76.

That's a 53% savings on Pringles.

Reindeer Feed

My best friend was going to D.C to visit her sister who just gave birth.

I felt the need to send something sweet.

So I made reindeer feed.

I'm assuming the name is a take on "Puppy Chow". I have no idea why they call Puppy Chow, Puppy Chow, either, but this has peppermint, so I guess it needed a holiday name.

Anyway, I made it. I didn't particularly care for it. The combination of rice cereal and peppermint did not do it for me. So it was a very good thing most of the batch was going on a road trip. I think I took the rest to work, where it was eaten, probably without much comment.

Pineapple Orange Blossoms

I've started couponing. (Don't worry, that's relevant.) So when I see coupons lying around in the grocery store, I generally pick them up.

Much to the dismay of my friend who thinks it's really nice that they're left behind for someone else. I've read too many blogs in which couponers are warned to not leave coupons behind on the shelves because it creates more work for the people cleaning and stocking the grocery store. Not to mention, if you leave them in the frozen section and they fall, they can damage the drain system.

Not cool.

I generally file them with all my coupons and when I don't use them and they expire, I send them to someone who donates them to military families. Did you know the military commissary takes coupons up to six months expired? Yeah, I send all my expired coupons their way.

Anyway, so I'm at Target, checking out the price on Glade candles, when I see a coupon booklet. A whole, Target Easter coupon booklet that someone has left behind on the shelf.

Of course, I take it.

Glad I did, too, because I found a recipe I decided to make for Easter.

Mom was hosting this year, and I told her (before she started assigning things) that I was bringing something sweet.

Specifically, pineapple orange blossoms.

I had already purchased the cinnamon rolls, which were a steal at Target (on sale for $1.66 a tube, 40c off manufacturer coupon, 80c off Target coupon, so $2.12 for two tubes). The only thing I needed to buy was orange marmelade. Yes, I do keep crushed pineapple in my pantry. What?

I drained the pineapple in one of my new mesh strainers instead of on paper towels, but other than that, I believe I followed the recipe exactly. I let them bake a the whole time the recipe estimated because when I opened the over the first time, the dough just didn't look done enough.

I took them to Easter, created a label, and let the family have at them.

I thought they were all right. Not something I need to make again. They weren't necessarily bad, I'm just not the biggest fan of cream cheese in my breakfast pastires, so matter how often I try. And, the whole time I was eating one, I just kept thinking, "I wish this were just a plain cinnamon roll."

My family all liked them though. I think Mom sent some of the leftovers home with an uncle. (I doubled the batch, but there were so many coffee cakes, it looked like some people were taking just half of one to try it.)

No-bake Soft Mints

I got this recipe from the booklet that came with my KitchenAid mixer. It looked easy and tasty, so I thought it would be a good idea for holiday baking.

I was wrong.

Not only did I neglect to read the part that says these require refrigeration, but they need to be super, super tiny in order for the richness not to smack you upside the head.

I made them. I made them too big. They didn't harden up AT ALL. And then they tasted like toothpaste.

Won't be doing that again.

Resurrection Rolls a.k.a. Hocus Pocus Buns

You can call this deliciousness whatever you want, but I was finding holiday themed titles. My friend and her brother called them yum-yums when they worked at day camp and made them with the campers.

Whatever, they're tasty.

I followed the directions exactly except for the type of marshmallow. I had small ones, so I just used those instead of going out and buying big ones. Because I really don't use marshmallows.

Now, I need to practice sealing up Crescent rolls, because some of the gooey deliciousness seeped out, but they were still very, very good. All my friends enjoyed them.

White Pizza Dip

I have a friend who doesn't like chicken.

So when I make a chicken dish, and I know she's coming, I try to make something else that I know she'll like.

Enter, this time, white pizza dip.

And also my inability to count.

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I started writing this blog months ago. I can no longer remember what I couldn't count exactly, only that I messed up the cheese somehow.

Anyway, I made the dip, my friend loved the dip. I rattled off the ingredients, she looked at me and said, "You put everything I love into a pan and melted it. You're awesome!" The dip was pretty good, although not as gooey as the picture implies.

It did not rehead well.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chip Pretzle Cookies

In addition to making something savory for my man's party, I wanted something sweet(ish), too. I like to have balance.

So I made cookies.

My man loves cookies.

These multi-chip, pretzel cookies looked really good on Pintrest, so that's what I went with. I followed the recipe exactly, including the parchment paper. I know better than to think you can do without the parchment paper.

I followed the directions exactly. I crunched up the pretzels in a small bowl with the wrong end of my new muddler. Super useful. I used my spiffy cookie scoop to make the cookies.

And that's where I might have gone wrong.

See. the cookie scoop is deep. Which means the cookies are tall. This isn't a problem with moist batters like the strawberry cake cookies, those spread out.

These did not.

So when I took them out of the oven, they were pretty well still balls.

Now, they were tasty. People were surprised by the salt, but everyone enjoyed them.

Next time, though, I'll smoosh the cookies down a bit.

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Yes, definitely smoosh the cookies down. As Much at the pretzels will allow.

Slow Cooker Sausage Breakfast Casserole

This recipe is also known as Proof My Slow Cooker Runs Hot.

I was having the girls over for dinner, and I like to use my crock pot on those nights since it makes everything so much easier when I get home from work. So I decided to go with breakfast and make this egg, sausage, potato casserole.

Yum, right?

I cut the recipe in half because it claims to yield 12 servings, and there were only going to be four of us.

I prepped everything the night before. I put everything in the crock pot except the eggs, which I beat up and put in a separate container, covered in Press'n Seal, which I think it just fantastic. It sticks to metal and plastic bowls so much better than plastic wrap.

Anyway, I get up in the morning, pout the eggs over the other ingredients, turn the crock pot on low, and go to work.

I come home to burnt eggs.

I'm so not kidding, I walk in the door and can smell something burnt.

I go over to the kitchen and before I even lift the lid, I can see the blackened bits. I turn the crockpot off (I figure I can turn it to warm in 45 min when my friends' arrival is imminent). I take off the lid and the whole casserole is pulling away from the sides of the dish, half of it's obviously burnt. The other half looks almost salvagable.

Well, this is what I'm serving, I though, better make more biscuits.

I also figured the eggs were probably dry, so I put a bunch of egg-appropriate condiments on the table (think salsa, hot sauce, etc.).

We tried it. My friends ate it but agreed it was not my most successful dish ever.

They ate more biscuits.

I think I also busted out a block of cheese, cottage cheese and pretzels. It really was not filling.

Even if I hadn't burnt it, though, I don't know that I would have liked it. I had forgotten that I'm not the biggest fan of potatoes in egg casseroles. I prefer bread. Maybe I can find a egg-sausage-bread crock pot casserole?

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Published without my pictures because they were pretty bad anyway. Seriously. The food did not look good.

The Soup Pot

For as long as I can remember, my mother has kept in her freezer a tall, cylindrical, pale green tupperware container. The lid has a hole in like, like you can pour stuff out, but Mom has never kept liquid in it.

It is her soup pot.

Sure, it's not a pot. But in this pale green plastic container goes all the leftover she will eventually use to make her "vegetable soup". I say "vegetable" because while there are veggies, there's also usually some chicken, occassionally ham, and it's usually a chickeny broth.

Mom collects her leftover in the freezer. Vegetable leftovers, where there's not enough to be a side dish for one person in a meal, but there's enough that you feel bad throwing it away.

Once the container is full, she throws everything in a pot, usually with an extra onion and whatever leftovers happen to be in the fridge, and simmers it on the stove all day. It's different every time, depending on what veggies and meat had been left over, and what spices she felt like using up. I could have sworn she threw in a bay leaf, but she told me last month that she never had. Oh well, I used a bay leaf.

My cousins love this soup. I...I like the corn bread Mom usually serves with the soup. And I like making the soup because I dislike waste.

Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings

I was having six people over for an evening and wanted to make something in my crock pot so I could focus on appetizers when I got home from work. And it would keep it warm, as I knew a couple people would be late.

I decided to make this chicken and dumplings.

Reheating: Not to great. It really kinda needs the dumpling to balance the dish and there were no dumplings left. Next time, just save the leftovers for the soup pot.

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All right, I remember I really liked these. I wish there had been more dumplings. And like I said, reheating did not work well. Next time, I'll just throw the leftovers in my soup pot.

You all do keep a soup pot, right? No? Is that seriously just my family?

That's gonna have to be another post...

No pic of mine because I remember it mostly showed burnt stuff on the interior sides of my crockpot. Because it runs too dang hot.

I fail miserably

So I read a thing a while ago on how to keep a successful blog. I have no idea where I read it, or I'd give you a link. But I remember it said, Never apologize to the readers.

Well, in this instance, I think that's a pile of manure.

I have probably a dozen half-started blog posts that I've never published. Because I'm lazy. And I'd like to fix that.

Well, maybe not fix being lazy, but at least get these drafts out of my queue. Then perhaps I'll start fresh again?

I'm going to keep them short as I don't remember most of what I was thinking when I made these recipes anymore. There may or may not be pictures. We'll just have to wait and see.