FNCCC 14 – Pork Chops+

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If you look at my picture, you will notice that the sugar snap peas look a bit odd. It’s because sugar snap peas are not in season here, so I used green beans from my mom’s garden.

Here’s the recipe.

We are fortunate enough to live in an area with a LOT of local orchards. We have apple blossom/apple butter/apple harvest festivals around here like crazy. Right now every local farmer’s market has apples, CHEAP. We buy them in large boxes and bags. Peaches are also abundant. Addy’s favorite apple is the McIntosh, and when I saw that this recipe had it, I figured I would give it a try.

I had all the ingredients except the parsley and the juice, which I picked up after work at the store. This meal says it takes 15 minutes prep time and 15 minutes to cook, and I’d say that is pretty accurate. The potatoes took the longest, because I only had large red potatoes. I had chopped them up into chunks but it still took awhile, probably closer to 20 minutes.

I’ve made cooked apples before, but never with the cranberries. The cranberries and juice gave it a nice flavor and color.

This was a good meal. I don’t usually make a lot of pork as it’s not a meat I really prefer, but the kids ate all of theirs and I think Addy did too. The potatoes went well and I think everyone liked the cran-apple sauce…Addy didn’t even try it, however. So much for making it with his favorite McIntosh apples and thinking he’d eat it. He’ll probably post on this thread that the only proper way to eat a McIntosh apple is cut up with caramel apple dip, and that I shouldn’t mess with something that’s good enough without having to “fancy it up.” Overall, this was a good, well-balanced and nutritious dinner, and it didn’t take me hours to make. I give it a 4 star rating (it would get a 5 if I liked pork more).

FNCCC 13 – Sweet and Spicy Kettlecorn

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I wasn’t too thrilled with the recipes this week, but when I saw this Sweet and Spicy Kettlecorn, I knew I had what I wanted.

Last summer our family went to Hersheypark in Hershey, PA. Right inside the gates of the park there is a little shop with the BEST aroma. (I’m not too crazy about chocolate, so this aroma appealed to me more than it would to most people, maybe.) There are guys out in front of the shop who are making old-fashioned kettlecorn in big kettles. They bag it up in enormous bags and sell it for a mere pittance. Seriously, this stuff is cheap. I can’t tell you how much of it I ate, but I didn’t share and the bag was gone by the next day.

Secondly, this recipe was so easy and fast I figured I could do it even with my limited time.

I popped my popcorn, being careful not to burn it like I usually do, and started cooking the sugar. This makes me a bit nervous because I don’t want to destroy my non-stick pan by burning it, but it liquified nicely and turned the light brown that the recipe described. It looked like caramel that was melted. I wonder if that’s how they make caramel? /ponder.

Anyway, I removed it from the heat and put in the butter. I think this is where the problem started. The cold butter made the caramel syrup start to set up. I had my popcorn in a bowl already, so I mixed up the caramel/butter and quickly poured it over the popcorn before it could cool any more.

The caramel did not spread out nicely over the popcorn. It stubbornly stayed right where I poured it, despite massive amounts of shaking. I put the spices over it and they wanted to cling to the hot caramel and nothing else. I dumped the whole mess onto a cookie sheet and took this picture before sampling the kettlecorn.

The pieces of popcorn with the caramel were really, really yummy. The spice was a bit much. In fact, if I’d make this again, I’d completely omit it. The rest of the popcorn tasted like…well…popcorn. No yummy caramel and very little spice mix. I’m a little disappointed at how this turned out, but it isn’t stopping me and the kids from scarfing it down.

FNCCC 12 – Guy Fieri’s Baked Potato Salad

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Now that I’m back to school I am finding it harder to have time to actually cook real things. I’ve been living off string cheese, salads, and fresh fruit this week and I know next week will be the same. I need stuff I can grab really quickly with no preparation time. After the first month of school, I hope things will have calmed down enough that I can actually cook again (besides on the weekends).

Since I’m a little behind, I went ahead and made my Guy Fieri recipe that I’d planned on doing last week. The picture looked appealing, it was gluten free, and there were no really exotic ingredients. Oh, and it got a 5 star rating from the people who reviewed it.

Baked Potato Salad.

This recipe was really easy. I started boiling the red potatoes on the stove this morning as I multitasked around the kitchen. It doesn’t tell you to cut the potatoes into chunks before boiling them, but I used regular sized potatoes and they were taking quite awhile to cook. If you make this and use bigger potatoes, cut them in half and save yourself some cooking time.

While the potatoes were boiling, I went ahead and cooked the bacon. This aroma attracted swarms of vultures in the kitchen but I kept them away with my trusty fork. Mixing the dressing was quick and painless. When I poured the dressing over the boiled/fried potatoes, I felt like maybe it was too much. My potatoes looked like maybe they were in a stew rather than a potato salad. I shrugged it off and took the potato salad to my guinea pigs for the day, my parents.

The recipe tells you to save the green onions and bacon for serving time, so I kept them separately in a plastic baggie. My mom was pleased to see that I’d brought a side dish to go with lunch so she wouldn’t have to make one. At lunchtime, I poured in the baggie of green onions and bacon, stirred the bowl a few times, and realized that my potato salad now looked appropriately like potato salad and not like a soup. Yay!

We had it with hot dogs. At the first mouthful, my dad (who’s pretty picky) said he could eat the WHOLE bowlful. He had seconds and thirds, large servings. Then he announced that I should take this to every potluck, reunion, and church dinner. It was THAT good. My son, who never eats regular potato salad, ate it and loved it. Mom and I ate all of ours. Cady refused to try it, of course. More for the rest of us.

I could see my dad eyeing what was left, so I graciously divided the remaining potato salad into three bowls. One went to my grandma (another unsuspecting guinea pig), one for Addy to try, and one for my parents. I am sure my dad will eat it all if he hasn’t already and won’t share with my mom. I gave her the recipe.

I brought the small bowlful home for Addy and he liked it too. This potato salad is NOT like a typical potato salad except for the texture. The taste is really like a baked potato with “the works.” I will be making this again.

Editor’s Note:  This was attached to the bottom of the email, “(Xeo I’ll send a pic later if Addy doesn’t eat the rest before I can snap one!)”  You’ll notice there is no picture…

FNCCC 11 – Drinks n Wings

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This week I made one recipe of my aunt’s and two that I found on Sparkpeople.com and tweaked a bit.

The ones I found on Sparkpeople are both chicken recipes–Crispy Ranch Chicken and Boneless Chicken Hot Wings.

I had planned on doing the Crispy Ranch Chicken recipe for dinner until Addy commented that he’d like wings. Now when Addy says he wants wings, he means Buffalo Wild Wings. However, I am a good wife and I try to look out for his health… and those wings are pretty unhealthy. I did a little searching and I found the Sparkpeople recipe and thought I’d surprise him by making those too. Wish I’d picked up some celery and bleu cheese dressing at Walmart earlier, but oh well.

The Boneless Chicken Hot Wings were really easy to make. I just mixed up the bread crumbs and other spices in a dish. Then I dipped the chicken bits (I cut up a few chicken breasts into “nugget” sizes) into the Tabasco sauce and then into the crumb mix. I removed them with my dry hand, which as stated in the recipe quickly becomes coated with the crumb mix. I put them on a non-stick foil lined cookie sheet.

Once those were in place, I started my Crispy Ranch ones. I looked at all the comments on this recipe and decided before I even started that I was going to modify it. Instead of Rice Krispies, I crushed up Rice Chex (it’s gluten free and Rice Krispies aren’t). I put in about 3/4 of a 1 oz. packet of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix and put both ingredients into a big bag. I opted not to do the egg and parmesan cheese. Instead, I decided I’d dip those pieces of chicken in Tabasco sauce too before coating them with the crispy stuff. The Tabasco sauce made the crispy stuff stick better and I didn’t have to waste eggs (I’m on an egg preservation kick after last week’s Ten Egg Cake).

I put both kinds of chicken into the oven at the same time for 25 minutes at 360 degrees. The hot wing chicken was supposed to be flipped halfway through cooking, but when I tried (as you’ll notice in the picture), the coating started to come off. I decided to leave the rest of them unflipped after turning about half of them.

While the chicken was cooking, I mixed up my aunt’s Summer Citrus Drink. I think it took about 3 minutes to make. Here’s the recipe:

Summer Citrus Drink

1 packet of Kool-aid lemonade, mixed up (or one can of frozen lemonade concentrate, mixed up)
1/2 carton of orange juice (about 1 quart)
1 liter of Sprite/ginger ale

Mix it all up. Done.

And now the verdict on the three recipes…

Boneless Chicken Hot Wings: These tasted good but were a bit too hot for me and the kids. Cady did eat several but she “cooled them off” with ketchup. Addy and I dipped ours in ranch dressing. It was a nice combination. He ate a bunch of them and said they were “OK.” I wonder if they would have tasted better with buffalo wing sauce instead of the Tabasco sauce. Maybe I’ll try that another time.

Crispy Ranch Chicken (modified): The kids and I loved these. We liked the crunchy texture from the Chex cereal and the Tabasco sauce was just enough flavoring to complement the powdered ranch seasoning. We gave it a 5/5. Addy didn’t try them.

Summer Citrus Drink: I’ve had this before but never made it myself. Both kids declared that I should make this every day. Addy said it was “fine.” He’s not a fruity-drink person so this is probably a good compliment. Jordan said it would be really good if you put a scoop of rainbow sherbet in it too. Good thinking, kid!  By the way, we were sucking this stuff down after all those spicy nuggets.

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FNCCC 10 – Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf and German Chocolate Cheesecake

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Addy was going out of town this week for several days and he’s mentioned Paula Deen to me before, so I figured I’d let him pick the recipes for this week. He picked Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf and German Chocolate Cheesecake.

The meatloaf was incredibly easy to make. I substituted gluten-free breadcrumbs instead of the regular ones, and I left off the french-fried onions at Addy’s request. I cannot even describe to you how divine this smelled as it was cooking. There may be “lick marks” on the oven door. I think I lengthened the cooking time by 10 minutes or so because it wasn’t quite done in the middle.

The verdict on this one was a “5 star rating” across the board. Both kids ate all of theirs, Addy had several pieces, and I ate all of mine. When we were done, there were 2 slices left. We delivered them to my parents. Apparently my dad ate both pieces the next day for lunch and didn’t share any with my mom. He loved it. This probably isn’t the healthiest recipe…a nutrition tracker has it for about 323 calories a slice, but for an occasional thing, this was really good.

When Addy returned from his trip, I had prepared the German Chocolate Cheesecake Style Cake for him. This cake will henceforth be known as the Ten-Egg Cake. Yes, you read that right. TEN eggs for this recipe. Nearly a whole box. Fortunately, I couldn’t eat this cake even if I wanted to, so there was no temptation. I don’t like coconut anyway. This cake was also very easy to make. It’s basically a cake mix with a layer of cream cheese mix baked in the middle, and then topped with homemade frosting.

While the Ten-Egg Cake was cooling, I cooked the frosting and had to use a baking thermometer to check for when it was the right temperature. Addy didn’t want pecans in his frosting, so I omitted them and just put in the coconut. It looked pretty gross (imo) but apparently that’s the way it was supposed to look.

I made him take a picture of it before he ate it. He gave the overall recipe 4 stars…he liked the cake part (5 stars) and the frosting (6 stars he says!) but the cheesecake layer was a mediocre 3 stars. He liked it so much, he called his dad to tell him about it, and then his godmother (who’s German) to rave about it. Then my parents stopped by and he made them both sample the frosting before sending them off with several pieces. Apparently I did well. Jordan liked the cake, but Cady immediately spit out the little bit she’d tried. She doesn’t like coconut either.

There is more than half of the Ten-Egg Cake left now. I didn’t even try to figure out how many calories per slice there were in this thing. Let’s just say it’s probably REALLY unhealthy. You should make and eat this cake if you have a serious egg deficiency in your diet. For those with egg allergies, just looking at this cake may kill you. View the picture at your own risk.