Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Broccoli Cheese Soup



I had a bunch of broccoli that needed to be used up and with the cold weather hitting us this week, soup sounded really good. I found this recipe on All Recipes. It's really simple and makes a lot; we ate it for lunch again today as leftovers and I think it was even better. My 18 month old gobbled it up, an awesome surprise!

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter
1 onion, chopped
1 (16 ounce) package frozen chopped broccoli
4 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
1 (1 pound) loaf processed cheese food, cubed
2 cups milk
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2/3 cup cornstarch
1 cup water

DIRECTIONS
In a stockpot, melt butter over medium heat. Cook onion in butter until softened. Stir in broccoli, and cover with chicken broth. Simmer until broccoli is tender, 10 to 15 minutes.

Reduce heat, and stir in cheese cubes until melted. Mix in milk and garlic powder.

In a small bowl, stir cornstarch into water until dissolved. Stir into soup; cook, stirring frequently, until thick.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Peach Crisp

Peach Crisp with Maple Cream Sauce


Our peach tree had it's first production of peaches this year and WOW, they were good! After eating quite a few fresh peaches I began digging around for a good Peach Crisp recipe to finish up with the rest. I'm no expert but when you see Maple Cream Sauce tacked to the end of a sentence, it's gotta be worth trying. And when you hear that it came from THE PIONEER WOMAN, you know she won't disappoint! The one thing I will probably add next time around is a sprinkling of tapioca over the peaches to add as a thickener.

INGREDIENTS
5 whole To 6 Whole Fresh Peaches (best When Not Overly Ripe Or Soft)
1 cup Flour
1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Light Brown Sugar, Firmly Packed
1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Ground Nutmeg
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 stick Butter (1/2 Cup)
1/2 whole Lemon
7 T. Real Maple Syrup, Divided
1 1/2 c. Whipping Cream
3 T. Light Corn Syrup

DIRECTIONS
In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, light brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt using a fork or pastry cutter. Cut butter into small pieces and gradually add to flour mixture until evenly mixed.

Peel peaches into a bowl. Add the zest from half a lemon. Squeeze juice from lemon half and stir in with peaches and zest. Add 2 tablespoons real maple syrup to peaches, stir well.

Pour peach mixture into a small pan (8” or 9” square) and cover evenly with crumb topping. Cover with foil and bake at 350ºF for 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 20 to 30 minutes or until crisp and brown on top.

Maple Cream Sauce:
Pour whipping cream into a saucepan. Add 5 tablespoons real maple syrup, 3 tablespoons corn syrup and stir over moderate heat until thickened and reduced by about one-third, approximately 15 minutes. Refrigerate mixture until it is cold and thick, or set the saucepan into a small bowl of ice (the ice will melt and turn into ice water). Stirring your mixture, it will cool and thicken in about 15 minutes. Drizzle sauce over peach crisp. Serve warm.thicken in about 15 minutes. Drizzle sauce over peach crisp. Serve warm.

JELL-O Magic Mousse



Everyone will probably think I'm weird for posting such an easy recipe but this is a fun little variation to regular jell-o and the thing that bugs me the most is that sometimes you'll find it on the side of a jell-o box and most of the time you won't. It's hit or miss, you never know which flavor of box is going to have the recipe. So I decided to post the recipe so I wouldn't have to rely on the box anymore :)

INGREDIENTS
3 c. boiling water
1 pkg. (6 oz.) JELL-O Brand Gelatin
1 tub (16 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, frozen or thawed

DIRECTIONS
Add boiling water to gelatin mix in large bowl; stir 2 minutes until completely dissolved. Whisk in COOL WHIP until blended. Refrigerate 8 hours or until firm.

Sour Cream Apple Bars


This recipe came from Your Home Based Mom. This time of year we have lots of apples to eat up and this recipe jumped out and me when I saw the combination of sour cream and apples, I love these to ingredients together. My bars turned out slightly different from your home based mom's; I realized halfway through the bake time that I had forgotten the pecans so I hurried and sprinkled them on the top. It worked though and they were delish!

INGREDIENTS
Crust:
1 c. butter, softened
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
2 c. uncooked quick cooking oats
1 c. flour
1 c. chopped pecans
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice

Filling:
1 c. sour cream
3/4 c. sugar
2 T. flour
1 egg
2 medium (about 2 cups) apples, unpeeled, shredded

DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine butter and brown sugar in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until creamy. Add remaining crust ingredients and beat until well mixed.

Press HALF of crust mixture onto bottom of ungreased 13 x 9 pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until light golden brown.

While crust is baking combine the filling ingredients; mix well. Gently pour the filling over the hot, partially baked crust. Crumble the remaining crust mixture over the top of the fill and press down lightly.

Bake for an additional 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the center is set. Cool. Cut into bars. Store refrigerated