Peanut Butter Pie

 

PIE!

It's been awhile since I've posted a yummy recipe that I love, so today's the day for a new one!

Today's recipe comes from my amazing grandmother! This recipe is one of the ones that I can already taste in my mouth at the mere mention of it - trust me it's that good. Another plus side of this recipe is it's really easy to make! I have only made on slight variation to this recipe, which I'll explain in a sec.

Using the ingredients pictured above (as you can see I like to use the Fred Meyer brand products because on top of making yummy things I like to save myself some money :-) ) The first thing you'll want to do is make the crust, and this is my variation. My grandmother's version calls for a graham cracker crust, but I decided to alter that and do an Oreo (or Kidd-o crust if you shop at Fred's) because it my opinion there is no better combination that chocolate and peanute butter! Making the crust is really very simple whether you use the crackers or the cookies - you crush them up (if doing the coookies no need to scrape the cream filling out) then you melt some butter or margarine and mix the crushed ingredient with the melted butter until you have a thick paste texture. Once you have the right consistency you simply place into the pie pan, you have to use your hands!!!! Next you take the rest of the ingredients and mix together, but you don't want to use all the whipped topping because you'll want to save that to serve on top of the pie! After everything is mixed together you put it in the pie pan and then let chill for a few hours so it sets!

As you can tell from my pictures I has my favorite assistant chef helping me!

Mexican Lasagna

It occured to me today that I forgot to share this creation, and trust me it literally is a creation because I pretty much made it up as I went along.

My family LOVES tacos, and that is actually an understatement it's one of our favorite meals.

I decided why not take taco ingredients and serve them in a different form.

The ingredient list is really anything you like to put in tacos, so it could be shells, meat, tomatoes, onions, cheese, peppers, tater tots.....you get the idea.

The first thing I did was fry up the taco shells in oil to get them nice and crispy.

Next I browned up some meat, with the meat I put in garlic & cillantro for some additional flavor.

To get a mexi-nugget flavor in some tator tots I fried them up with some taco seasoning and then broke them up so it was essentially little cubes of pototes.

Next came time to layer in the pan, I started with the taco shells in the bottom, then cheese, then meat, then veggies, more cheese, another layer of taco shells, cheese, potatoes, cheese, taco shells - I repeated the layering until the pan was full. You could also put salsa or pica de gallo in the layers, but not everyone in my house likes the same salsa spiciness or pico de gallo so those were added on as a topping when people got their servings.

I'm happy to say it was DELICIOUS!!!

Pulled Pork

 Greetings from the chef!

So this week's "make something I've never made before" task was Pulled Pork (I think you probably could have guessed that from the title of this blog!)

So once again to start I searched my favorite recipe sites, and my good old trusty friend google. A recipe I saw mentioned caught my attention was one that called for Jack Daniels whiskey (anything with good whiskey can't be bad right?) Well it took some digging but I did find a good recipe (one that I will include in the blog)

Never having made pulled pork I had no idea what to expect. I made sure I had all my listed ingredients, then I had to finda good pork shoulder - which I did! Thank goodness Top Foods was having an awesome meat sale!

Since this was something completely new to me I wanted to follow the recipe exactly (alterations can always be made at a later date, however this recipe was so good I probably won't need to). I had lot of fun making this for some reason. Another plus with this recipe the whole time it's in the slow cooker the house smells AWESOME!!! I had everyone's mouths watering all day (including the dogs)!!!!!

Here's the recipe:

1 Onion (chopped fine)

2 TBSP Garlic (chopped fine)

1 TBSP Tomato Paste

2 TBSP Dijion Mustard

1/4 Cup White Vinegar

1 TSP Paprika

1/3 Cup Ketchup

2 TSP Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 Cup Jack Daniels Whiskey

1/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar

1 TSP ground black pepper

1 Bay Leaf

3 LBS Pork Shoulder Roast

First thing you do is combine ALL ingredients (except the meat) into the slow cooker

Once they are all mixed you drop the meat in

Cover the meat with water

Place the lid on the slow cooker

Bring to a boil

After it boils reduce to a simmer

Let simmer for 2 hours (I actually let it simmer for almost 4)

Take meat out

Take roughly 1/3 of the liquid out

Pull meat apart and place back in slow cooker

*I actually did vary from the recipe on this part*

The recipe said to let it stay in for an hour, then serve, I however added a some Jack Daniels BBQ sauce and let it sit for the rest of the afternoon (another 3 hours) then all day the next day before we had it for dinner that night. Added a little bit of BBQ sauce every once inawhile for some flavor.

Favorite Appetizer

Thought I would share with you all one of my favorite appetizers and the best part is it is SUPER easy to make!!!!

What you'll need is the tubes of cresent roll dough, a block of cheese, margarine, chopped garlic, and italian seasoning.

First thing you do is take your cheese and make a bunch of small cubes, the type of cheese doesn't really matter it's really your preference. You'll need one cheese cube per serving so the number of cubes you have will depend on how many you're going to make. Also, the size of your cube is up to you, a bigger cube will make a cheesier appetizer.

When you open the package of dough you're not going to separate all the triangles, normally the triangles are paired up to make a rectangle (4 rectangles per tube). You want to keep them in the rectangles. Since there is a bit of a perforation in the rectangle you'll want to squish the triangles together to make it so there is no seam.

You will then take your rectangle and cut it into 4 equal strips.

Take your cube of cheese and place it at the top of the strip and then roll the strip down so you have a bit of a square shape. After that you'll want to press the sides together so they are closed off.

As you finish each one place on a greased cookie sheet.

Once you have made your desired amount melt butter.

Add minced garlic to butter.

Spread garlic butter over squares.

Sprinkle italian seasoning on top.
Bake at temperature on cresent roll tube, you may have to cook a couple extra minutes than tube says.

They should be a nice golden color when they are done.

I can't tell you how many times I have served this and they have always been a crowd pleaser!!!

Quiche!!!

So one of my new goals is at least once a week to make something new and delicious for dinner (I have 2 weeks of previous experiments and recipes to post on a slower blog day!!!

Last week I decided that this week's challenge would be quiche, since I have never made one.

My first step was to find a recipe that not only I would like but would also be a fan favorite for the fam! I of course went to my favorite recipe webiste (http://www.myrecipes.com/) and searched for quiche. I found a couple on there that looked good, however being my grandmother's granddaughter I altered them! Here are the recipes for both (the altered versions of course)

Bacon, Ham, & Swiss Quiche:

6 - Eggs

1 1/2 Cups of Half & Half

1 - 9" Pie Crust

1/2 Lb. Cubed Ham

1 - Pkg. Cooked Bacon

1-2 Cups Shredded Swiss

1/2 Cup Chopped Onion

1/4-1/2 Cup Chopped Cilantro

1 - Cook Bacon & Chop

2 - Beat Eggs

3 - Add Half & Half to Eggs

4 - Add Onion, Cilantro, & Bacon to Egg Mixture

5 - Place Pie Crust in Dish

6 - Sprinkle light layer of cheese into pie crust

7 - Put Ham on top of cheese

8 - Pour Egg Mixture of top of Ham

9 - Top with remaining cheese

10 - Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, or until done (to test if done stick toothpick in center and when you pull it out and nothing is sticking to it that is how you know it's cooked all the way)

Crab Quiche Florentine:

12 oz. Crab Meat (in small pieces)

1-2 Cups Mozzerella Cheese

1/2 Cup Onion (chopped)

1/4 Cup Garlic (minced)

*Tarragon

*Nutmeg

*Old Bay

*Pepper

1 - Cup Evaporated Skim Milk

6 - Eggs

*Spice Quantities are subjective, add as much or as little as you want

1 - Saute Onions in butter or margaine for roughly 4 minutes

2 - Add Garlic saute for additional 2 minutes

3 - Add Tarragon, Nutmeg, Old Bay, & Pepper and saute for 2 more minutes - Set aside

4 - Beat Eggs

5 - Add Milk to Eggs

6 - Place pie crust in dish

7 - Sprinkle light layer of cheese into crust

8 - Place Crab Meat on top of cheese

9 - Pour Egg Mixture on top of cheese

10 - Top with remaining Cheese

11 - Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until done

I'm happy to report that both quiches turned out AWESOME!!!!!! Personally I like the crab one a little better than that ham & cheese, but both were delicious. Everyone went back for seconds! I guess the sign of a good meal is the lack of leftovers!!!!