BBQ Pulled Pork

We are buried in 3 feet of snow.

Yes. Three feet of snow.

Okay, okay, so we were buried, but not so much any more. Life went mostly back to normal today, except I had another snow day from school. From Monday night into last night, we watched the snow just pile on. If Lana was a fan of the snow, we would have lost her in it. Meanwhile, Tess bounded through it, making her own pathways through the blizzard.

Good thing we have 2 more storms coming out way this week....

We lucked out here. There was a lot of damage predicted due to the high wind speed with the blizzard, but it didn't seem as bad as was predicted. We were worried about losing power, but all was well. I was able to make some chowder and dog treats Sunday night, and then threw some pork roasts into the crock pot yesterday so we had pulled pork for the day.

How do you all like your pulled pork? Dan likes it with the just the dry rubbed pork and spices in it, while I like mine smothered in barbecue sauce. I added in a little sauce at the end but not as much as is called for in the recipe. I added more sauce to my own sandwiches when I ate them (with a little ranch dressing too!).

This was the biggest blizzard we've had in YEARS and the most depressing part was that I couldn't bake. We still don't have an oven. I don't even want to talk about it anymore....

BBQ Pulled Pork
from Easy Slow Cooker Meals

2 medium onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced or sliced
1 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp. dark brown sugar
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 tbsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
4-5 lbs. boneless pork shoulder (I used two smaller ones)
2 cups barbecue sauce (if using)

1. Place onions and garlic in the bottom of the slow cooker and pour stock over it.
2. Pat the roast dry with paper towels.
3. Combine the brown sugar, chili powder, salt, cumin and cinnamon and rub over roast. Place on top of onions and garlic.
4. Cook on high 6-7 hours or low 8-10 hours.
5. Remove pork and shred. Discard fat. If you don't use barbecue sauce, save about a cup of the stock in the crock pot and discard the rest. Return to pork to the crock pot and pour in stock. If you do use barbecue sauce, discard all stock, and return pork to crock pot. Add in the 2 cups of barbecue sauce. Let cook another 30 minutes for either option and serve.

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dog Treats

Not having an oven is KILLING me. For meals, using the stove and crock pot is perfectly fine, but for baking...

I looked through my recipes to see of I had anything small-batch that could be made in the toaster oven. I came across this recipe and figured with the snow coming (and boy, it came) the dogs might like some homemade treats.

Well, we are at just about 3 feet of snow since last night, and it's not quite slowing down yet. School is off for tomorrow as well, and the road bans haven't been lifted. I'm just glad that Dan got to be home with me for this one, we've never gotten an actual snow day together.

This recipe is really easy and contains ingredients I have in my house at all times. Other than taking to small amount of time to roll it out, it was done and baked in under an hour.

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dog Treats
from Will Cook For Friends

1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 eggs
pinch of salt
2.5 cups whole wheat flour (if your dog can't have wheat, use brown rice flour)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a large bowl mix together the pumpkin, peanut butter, eggs and salt.
3. Mix in the flour with a spatula or your hands (hands is WAY easier).
4. If it's too dry add in small amounts of more pumpkin, or small amounts of water.
5. Lightly flour some counter space and roll out the dough to 1/4" or 1/2" thickness. Cut into whatever shapes you like.
6. Bake for 20 minutes, then flip over and bake another 10 minutes. Let cool completely.
7. Make your dog do tricks for them.

She tucked a whole bunch in her mouth for fear I would take it away

Tess likes to parade around with her treats before she eats them

Toaster Oven Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread

You may have read my last post, the one where I mentioned that MY OVEN BROKE. I have been wallowing in that sadness all day today. After some thought, I decided to try and make it positive by looking up some toaster oven recipes. My toaster oven is relatively small, so I had some thorough research to do. I finally found this recipe that seemed perfect.

Well almost..

When you make this, I recommend baking the bottom layer of biscuit for 10-12 minutes to let it start cooking. I baked mine for 35 minutes, and the bottom biscuits were not cooked, barely at all, and the top was going to burn if I left it in any longer. If it had all come together the way it should have, it would have been great. I was only able to pick off some pieces from the top to eat. If you try it with my recommendation, let me know how it goes. I'll try this again sometimes and hopefully update this post with the right way to do it.

Toaster Oven Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread
from Zag Left

1 can Pillsbury flaky buttermilk biscuits (I used 6 of them)
1 Granny smith apple, peeled and diced
2 tbsp. butter, melted
2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. white sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

For the topping:
1 tbsp. butter, melted
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat toaster oven to 350. Butter an individual ramekin.
2. Break 6 biscuits into quarters and roll into balls.
3. Pour 2 tablespoons of melted butter into a large Ziplock bag. Mix the brown sugar, white sugar and cinnamon in a second large Ziplock bag.
4. Place the dough balls into the butter bag and shake to coat with butter. Transfer to the sugar bag and shake to coat with sugar.
5. Press a few dough balls into the bottom of the ramekin. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
6. Cover with diced apples. Cover those with another layer of dough balls.
7. Mix together the tablespoon of melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and pour on top of the biscuits.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until browned and cooked through.
8. Flip over onto a plate and watch the brown sugar mix melt down to the bottom. Eat!

Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake

Where do I begin? How about with how I was all excited for my first time making meringues...and how they came out great...and then were ruined. OR, about how I got my positive vibes back from the failed meringues and decided to throw this Vanilla Bean Bundt cake into the oven at 9:30pm, only to return to it to find my oven WASN'T HEATED. And not because I forgot to turn it on or anything like that, but because it's broken. MY OVEN IS BROKEN.

More on how this cake was a miracle later on...

OR, we could talk about non-baking related issues, like the sound on my TV suddenly not working???

Can I just hide in a cave for a while, and when I come out, I will have a brand new gas range, double ovens (maybe just a whole new kitchen), and I will know how to bake everything, and I can do so while watching my 60" 4K Ultra HD TV. Is that too much to ask??

Okay, okay, first things first. The meringues.

So, I was all pumped because I had found an easy starter recipe for meringues. I know meringues can be finicky things, so I read the recipe about 4 times. And, I even researched some more on meringues. I made my meringues, baked them for 2 hours, let them sit in the oven another hour and they were all dry and peeled off the Silpat mats with a couple of sticky ones just to make it more of a challenge. I then let those sit for a while. I made sandwiches with them and some chocolate ganache. I then boxed them up and set them aside. So where did it go wrong?

Setting them aside meant moving them to some open space on the counter. That space is over the dishwasher. When I run the dishwasher, the counter gets warm. Warmth causes humidity and humidity ruins meringues. I ended up with sticky, chewy meringue cookies.

What else did I learn from this? When piping meringues, your hands really heat up the meringue, which makes it lose it stiffness and not pipe as pretty. See my photos below.

First sheet all piped out

See the difference in the top, which was piped early, and the bottom which was after the heat from my hand softened the meringues?

All baked

Sandwiched with chocolate ganache

Boxed up...before they were ruined

To redeem myself from this meringue failure, I decided to throw a cake in the oven at 9:30 last night, just because I needed to feel accomplished. So, I preheated the oven...it beeped...I put my cake in (not fully paying attention that it's not particularly warm, let alone 350), and then set the time. I return in 35 minutes to find a cold oven and a pan of cake batter.

Panic sets in. Dan gets up to investigate. After laughing at me for looking like I was about to cry, he tells me to bake it in the toaster oven, and he will see about the oven tomorrow. Except he's gone Sunday-Wednesday from 7:00am to 10:00pm. So when I remind him of this, he says if we need a new one, we'll get it Thursday.

No oven for 3 days (or longer)?!?!?!

I was able to salvage my cake in the toaster oven. It came out a little denser than it would have in the regular oven, but it was still pretty good. I cut into it just to be sure it was okay before I dusted it with some powdered sugar.

Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake
from Tartlet Sweets

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, room temp
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp. vanilla bean paste, or one vanilla bean scraped
1.5 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
powdered sugar for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a bundt pan.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing between each egg. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
3. Add the flour, milk, vanilla, baking powdered, and salt and mix until very smooth.
4. Pour into the bundt pan and smooth the top of the batter. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Let sit in the pan for 10 minutes, then flip over onto a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Dust with powdered sugar and eat!

Slow Cooker Sweet & Sour Meatballs

Let's talk about the AFC championship yesterday and how the Patriots dominated that game. Let's also talk about how I decided to have a playoff party at my house, and spent my day cleaning and cooking to prepare. Now, it's well known, I'm not much of a football fan. I mean, I'll watch a game, and be into it when I'm watching, but I don't actively plan my Sundays around football. That was like the second Pats game I watched all season. I will, of course, watch the Superbowl, and enjoy that, but I more enjoy the food for football games.

Now, if it's the Bruins, I plan my life around their games.

Yesterday, Dan worked all day, so I knew he wouldn't be home until right after the game started. I made our famous buffalo chicken crescents, which we get asked for every time we go anywhere. I also tried a couple of new things I found. One are these sweet and sour meatballs, and the other are these loaded baked potato rounds. Everything was a hit. We also had some friends bring brownies, lil' smokies, baked and breaded jalapeno poppers, queso dip, and some other chips and dips.

What's even better than all that? I have today off for Martin Luther King day. So aside from blogging today, I'm also trying my hand at making some meringues. Fingers crossed they come out alright!

The meatballs are great because they're SO easy to make. Chop up some veggies, then throw your meatballs, veggies, pineapple, jar of sauce, some brown sugar and soy sauce in, set your crock pot, and walk away. I wish it had a little bit of a thicker sauce to it, and I almost debated buying two jars of sweet & sour sauce for that reason, but trying to be budget friendly I just grabbed the one. Either way, they're great, and the veggies and pineapple are a nice extra. Usually cocktail-style meatballs are just meatballs and no extra goodies.

Slow Cooker Sweet & Sour Meatballs
from Six Sister's Stuff

2 lbs. frozen meatballs
1 (20 oz.) can pineapple chunks, drained
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 (10 oz) jar sweet & sour sauce

1. Place meatballs, pineapple, and veggies in the crock pot. Cover with brown sugar, soy sauce, and sweet and sour sauce. Mix everything together.
2. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 7 hours.

Sorry for the not-so-appealing picture. I use crock pot liners for easy cleanup, but that makes for not-so-great pictures of anything cooking in there.

Cinnamon Stout Glazed Muffins

A headache can really kill your day. This headache started during cheer practice (yeah, try having a headache, but asking 15 kids to "be louder"), and continued until I could lay down and take a semi-nap. I wanted to go to the grocery store after practice to make some dinner tonight, but my headache won that battle. For dinner I had an egg sandwich on a bagel and a slice of frozen pizza later on. I guess I'll cook tomorrow night.

I was however, feeling better later on and decided to bake. I feel really let down when I plan on being in the kitchen and don't cook. I have also learned certain staples to keep on hand in my kitchen so I can bake a lot of things without needing to go to the store. Most of these are things you will tend to have a lot of over time, so you don't have to restock as much:

Flour (I go through a lot of it)
Granulated sugar (also go through a lot)
Light brown sugar
Powdered sugar (I go through A LOT, especially with cupcakes)
Baking powder
Baking soda
Cinnamon
Pure vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste, or vanilla beans)
Eggs
Milk (this one is iffy, we don't drink a lot of milk, so it sometimes goes bad before we use it all)
Chocolate Chips
Baking chocolate (semi-sweet, bittersweet, and white)
Cocoa Powder
Butters (salted and unsalted, I go through a lot of these as well)
Applesauce (not always needed, but lasts a while and comes in handy)

Most of the time, you can make a lot of dessert with just these ingredients. Sometimes you need a few extra things. I have all sorts of baking things, like all sorts of "chips" (chocolate, white chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch, caramel, Andes mint, etc), sprinkles, caramels, caramel sauce, graham crackers (for crusts!), cream, extracts (raspberry, lemon, almond, red velvet, mint, peppermint, etc).

So basically, I'm pretty stocked. I had two bottles of stout left from my Shepherd's pie last week, so I looked into my Pinterest and low and behold I had a recipe for some Guinness muffins. Well my stout isn't Guinness, it's Narwhal, so I renamed the recipe and added a glaze to it. The glaze is just my own recipe, replacing milk in a regular glaze with stout. Other than the stout (which you could use another liquid for), you just need flour, white and brown sugar, salt, baking powder, eggs, milk, applesauce, and cinnamon.

There was a pretty decent stout flavor from these. The stout I used was a little more bitter than I would have liked. When I bake with stout, I usually a sweeter stout, like gingerbread, chocolate or milk stout. If you want your muffins a little sweeter, add in some vanilla extract. These were a bit blander.

Cinnamon Stout Glazed Muffins
muffins from Confabulation in the Kitchen

1.5 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp.salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 large egg
1/4 cup plain applesauce (I just used a whole single serving cup)
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp. vegetable oil
1/2 cup stout
1 tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 375. Line a muffin tin with 12 liners or spray with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugars, salt, and baking powder.
3. Add the egg, applesauce, milk and oil and stir until just combined.
4. Add the stout and cinnamon and stir until combined.
5. Divide evenly into muffin tin and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

If you want to glaze them:

1 and 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup stout

Whisk the sugar and stout together until combined and there are no lumps. Dip each cooled muffin into the glaze, let sit a few minutes, then dip one more time.

Chicken Parm Baked Pasta

I suppose starting a post at 10:00 at night isn't such a great idea. I'm tired and uncreative, and have a bit of writer's block, so this post won't be long.

Or clever.

Or amusing.

Sunday I was busy most of my day with grocery shopping, baking, cooking and cleaning. Yesterday I had an MCAS conference (snooze) and then basketball games in the afternoon with my cheer time. That was followed by a Pop Warner meeting until 10pm. Today was school, basketball games, and my end of season banquet with my Pop Warner cheer team. Even though it was only one month and 4 days ago that they won Nationals, it feels like forever ago. Maybe the holidays and starting things up with my winter cheer team kept me so busy that time is just flying by.

When we have basketball game days I don't get home until 6:30 or so. I don't really want to cook a full meal at that point, so the past couple of days I relied on leftovers or tonight was my banquet dinner. This recipe was simple to make, with a few preparations ahead of time, and was great for leftovers for Dan and I. I recommend cooking the chicken ahead of time, it saves time when you want to throw this dish together.

Chicken Parm Baked Pasta
1 (28 oz.) can whole peeled tomatoes
1 tbsp. olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
2 cups water
1.5 cups chicken broth, divided
12 oz. pasta
1 cup grated parmesan, divided
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and cut into cubes
2 tsp. chopped basil

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a small food processor, add the tomatoes, garlic, oregano, red pepper and salt and pulse a few times until tomatoes are chopped well.
3. Set an oven-safe 12-inch skillet over medium-high eat and heat oil. Add the tomato mix, water, chicken broth, and pasta. Mix and bring to a vigorous simmer. Turn down heat a little and cover, stirring occasionally, until pasta is tender, about 13 minutes.
4. Stir in half of the parmesan cheese, black pepper and chicken. If it seems thick, add the 1/2 cup of chicken broth, a little at a time until you get your desired consistency.
5. Cover with mozzarella cheese and the remaining parmesan and bake for 5 minutes or so until the cheese is melted and the edges are bubbly. Sprinkle with basil and serve.

Easy Chocolate Chip Danish

The Christmas decorations are finally all packed up and put away. This is late for me to keep them hanging around, and yet Christmas feels like it was months ago. Where has the time gone? Now that school is back, that means cheer is back and in full swing. That means I've got to finish choreographing their competition routine, I'm about 80% done. I don't think Dan appreciates the HOURS I spend listening to music clips, writing out 8-count sheets, and choreographing everything. Only a month and a half more then I get a cheer break until planning for the fall starts all over again.

I have become a crazy cheer coach...

However, I still get my baking in. Today was something easy that I had everything for already. This is an easy version of a Danish. You can basically change it up however you'd like. Add berries, jams, raisins, nuts, etc. I chose the chocolate chip version featured in the original recipe. This recipe was put together and baked in 30 minutes.

Easy Chocolate Chip Danish
from Pillsbury

1 can Pillsbury seamless crescent dough
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Roll out the crescent dough and roll it out a bit more to make an even rectangle. I recommend doing this on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat mat so you aren't trying to move it later.
3. Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until combined and smoothed. Spread along the middle of the dough, the long way. Sprinkle on chocolate chips.
4. Use a SHARP knife to cut about 1.5 inch diagonal cuts (see pic below) on each side.
5. Pull one side of over the cream cheese mix and pull the opposite side over that, making a criss-cross pattern. Repeat with each strip and cut off excess at the end.
6. Bake for 20-22 minutes until golden brown. Let cool and serve.

Peppermint Brownie Cookies

Winter break has come to an end. Twelve glorious days of freedom (minus one due to the stomach bug), and tomorrow I have to go back. Remember last year when we had one extra day off due to storm the night before we went back? I'll take a freak storm right now...

I ended my vacation today with baking 40 White Russian Cupcakes for a going away party for a friend. I'm glad to say they were a hit. I even got to finally use a couple of my displays that were gifts from family. The tiered "tree" was a gift from my Gram, and the ferris wheel was a shower gift from Kim. So cute!

I then came home to make one of my favorite meals in this household, my Shepherd's Pie with Stout and Shallot Gravy. Since the first time I made it, which is what I posted a while back, I have changed it up each time. Now when I make it, I make the gravy in a medium saucepan as I brown my beef, and I pour half of it into the ground beef and mix it all in with some corn and carrots. I make my pie as usual, and while it's cooking, I transfer the gravy from the saucepan to the saute pan that the beef was in and let it continue to cook down on low to form a thicker gravy that I then drizzle on top of my serving. Why do I this? Well, for one, it's awesome. Also, Dan doesn't like gravy, so I mix it in with the beef to give it the flavor and then Dan doesn't have to drizzle (or drown as I do) his serving in the gravy.

Also, as the pie was cooking, I started to make these cookies that I was supposed to make before Christmas. I can't believe Christmas was only last week, it already feels like it was forever ago. I had a box of milk chocolate brownies on hand, but I recommend using dark chocolate. They need just a bit more richness. I also would prefer just the plain cookies without the frosting and peppermint candies, but that's just me, I'm not a sweets person anyways. I also don't make cookies often, so that's an item I want to work on making some more of, especially checking out sugar cookies and royal icing. I'm not so sure I'm going to have the patience for it. This recipe made about 28 cookies, but my sheets allowed for 24 to be made at a time, so I ditched the dough for the last 4. The frosting was about twice as much as I needed, so a lot was wasted. I recommend cutting back, maybe even half, so you don't end up with so much frosting.

Peppermint Brownie Cookies
from Cooking Classy

1 box brownie mix, preferably dark chocolate
1 and 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 tbsp. milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. peppermint extract

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
6-9 tbsp. heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
**This makes a lot, maybe cut everything in half

About 1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies or candy canes

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease two cookie sheets.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the brownie mix, flour, brown sugar and salt. Add the eggs and milk and mix until combined. Add the butter and mix until well combined. Mix in the vanilla.
3. Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of dough onto the cookie sheets, you should be able to fit 12 on a sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and let cool.
4. For the frosting, beat together the butter, powdered sugar, and about 6 tablespoon of cream. Add the vanilla and beat again. Add more cream, one tablespoon at a time, to soften it to your desired consistency.
5. Frost cupcakes and sprinkle with peppermint candy pieces.

 

No, I did not make this cake, but it was awesome!

 

Cool Ranch Chicken Tenders

Is it really Friday night already? Did my whole week off just pretty much come to an end already? I suppose when there's a holiday smack in the middle of your week it makes it go by faster. I was pretty busy all week as well. I still have 2 more days before I go back to work, but they're busy days, so I'll be back before I know it.

I wanted to bake some cookies today. I started some laundry and then decided to vacuum after laundry. When I was finishing up vacuuming, I got some ideas for a cheer routine for my team in my head, and sat down to write them down. Once I sit an do anything cheer related, it turns into 2 hours of cheer.

Speaking of cheer, we have our final fundraiser for my Pop Warner team tonight. A last hurrah and opportunity to raise some more money for the families that sent their girls to Disney for Nationals. I needed a quick dinner so Dan could eat something after a side job before we get ready to head out for the night. This is a great and quick weeknight dinner. I threw the chicken to marinate in the buttermilk when I got home from the grocery store and did all that stuff that kept me from baking. I threw some crushed up chips into my mini processor with some flour and coated the chicken with it. Threw that into the oven and some fries into the toaster oven and dinner was done. Between the holidays and busy schedule this week with many restaurant meals, it was nice to actually cook something and have a meal at home.

Cool Ranch Chicken Tenders
from Cookies and Cups

1.5 to 2 lbs chicken tenders
2 cups buttermilk
3/4 cup of flour
a few handfuls of Cool Ranch Doritos, crushed*
1/2 packet of ranch seasoning

1. Marinate chicken in buttermilk for 2-3 hours at least in the refrigerator.
2. Preheat oven to 400 and line a baking sheet with foil. Spray with cooking spray.
3. In a food processor, add the flour and a few handfuls of crushed Doritos. *I did about 4 handfuls, crushing them with my hands as I added them into the processor. Add the ranch seasoning. Process a few pulses until the chips are crushed to Panko-sized crumbs.
4. Place crumbs into a shallow dish.
5. Remove chicken from the buttermilk, letting the excess drip off. Dredge through the Dorito crumbs and place on a baking sheet.
6. Bake about 25 minutes until chicken is cooked through.

**So I started this post yesterday, but my pictures decided not to send, so I was finally able to upload them today. And they are terrible pictures at that....