Hot Mummies

This is a fun, festive Halloween meal I saw on Pinterest a few weeks ago and was very excited to make for my son (he's very into zombies and mummies right now). It was super easy and turned out great!

Hot Mummies (or Mummy Dogs)

Preheat the oven to 375.

You'll need:

Hot Dogs
One can of crescent dough

1. Slice the hot dogs using 3 cuts to look like little people (see picture).
2. Unroll the can of dough. With a knife, cut each rectangle lengthwise, into 7-10 long pieces.
3. Wrap the strips of dough around each hot dog to look like "bandages," stretching dough slightly to completely cover hot dog. About 1/2 inch from one end of each hot dog, separate "bandages" so hot dog shows through for the "face."

4. On ungreased large cookie sheet, place wrapped hot dogs; spray dough lightly with cooking spray.
5. Bake 13 to 17 minutes or until dough is light golden brown and hot dogs are hot. With mustard, draw features on "face" (I didn't do this part because we don't care for mustard).

 

Buckeyes

Ingredients

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, at room temperature or softened in microwave
 (who has time to let it sit!)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl, beat together the sugar, peanut butter, butter, and vanilla (or you can mix it with your hands). The dough should end up slightly crumbly.
3. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheet and stick a toothpick into each ball.

4. Place in the freezer and chill for 1 hour.
5. In a double boiler, or in a bowl snugly on top of a pan with a few inches of simmering water, melt the chocolate chips, stirring until smooth.

6. Holding a ball by the toothpick, dip it into the hot chocolate, leaving a small hole of the peanut butter dough showing at the top of the ball as the “buckeye.” Let the excess chocolate drip back into the pot. Put the buckeye to the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining balls.
7. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

8. Enjoy the delicious buckeyes with a nice glass of milk! Yum!

Chex Mix

   Do you have certain foods or treats that you like to make only at certain times of the year? I know I do. One of those treats that shouts winter to me is Chex Mix. When I was little, it was tradition for my whole family to get together at my Grandmother's house on Christmas Eve. Everyone usually brought some kind of snack food and they usually always brought the same ones each year. One of those items I always looked forward to was my Aunt Kelly's Chex Mix. She didn't do anything special to it, it was just homemade and delicious and I could count on it being there every year! Now, every winter, I look forward to making Chex Mix for my own family and continuing the tradition with my own child.

   For my Chex Mix, I pretty much follow the recipe on the box like my Aunt did (Once again, I do not claim to have invented this recipe, I am simply sharing it. You can thank the General Mills or Ralston Purina people or Betty Crocker for creating it. Better yet, you could write to them to find out who invented it!). However, I have a small family so, I've made a few adjustments here and there. I also don't like certain ingredients so I've added some things and excluded others. Anyhow, the recipe I use for my small family is as follows: 

1 1/2 cups Corn Chex cereal 
1 1/2 cups Rice Chex cereal
1 cup Cheerios
3/4 cup peanuts
3/4 cup pretzels
5-6 Tbsp butter or margarine
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tsp seasoned salt (Lawry's)
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder

1. Mix cereals, nuts, and pretzels and put them in a glass rectangle Pyrex dish.  
2. Melt butter in a glass measuring cup or bowl in the microwave for about 40 seconds or until melted, taking it out to stir about ever 20 seconds. Add Worcestershire sauce and seasonings to the butter, stir, and then pour it over the cereal mix. Mix well. 
4. Microwave the mix in the Pyrex dish uncovered for 5-6 minutes stirring every 2 minutes. 
5. Remove from microwave and spread on paper towels to cool. Store in airtight container.

   The other great thing about making a small batch is that you have plenty of leftover ingredients for other tasty treats, such as Puppy Chow (or Monkey Munch for my East Coast friends)! You can click here for that delicious recipe!

   For the Original Chex Party Mix full recipe, please visit http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/original-chex-party-mix/2c7708d0-f7ba-423c-954c-128da4606f02.             

Crunchy Pumpkin Seeds

  
   One of my favorite parts of Halloween is baking all of the pumpkin seeds I get from carving my pumpkin. When cooked properly, these crunchy, salty seeds can be quite addicting! Here's a simple recipe on how to make your seeds a tasty hit with any crowd!

You'll need:

A Pumpkin
Butter (or margarine) 
Salt

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 330 degrees.
2. Carve a hole at the top of your pumpkin to remove the insides.

3. Separate the seeds from the "guts."

4. Melt 1 stick of Margarine (or butter) in a glass measuring cup or bowl in the microwave until it is melted. Remove it about every 15 seconds to stir. (NOTE: You may need more butter depending on how many seeds you have. I use this amount for the seeds from 1-2 giant pumpkins.)
5. Pour the butter into the bowl of seeds and stir well.
6. Measure 1 Tablespoon of salt and pour into the bowl of seeds and stir well. (NOTE: Again, you may need to adjust how much you use depending on how many seeds you have and how salty you want them.)
7. Pour the bowl of seeds onto a baking sheet and spread them out so that they are all mostly flat on the sheet.
8. Bake for about 55 minutes.

A few extra tips:

1. We also included the seeds from a butternut squash we had used for making soup from the day before. These seeds are much smaller and harder to separate, but they turn out very tasty and can be used to add some crunch to your soup.
2. Another tasty seasoning to add to your seeds once they are on the baking sheet is Lawry's Seasoned Salt. Yum!

Olive Oil Roasted Eggplant with Lemon and Garlic

   I've never really liked eggplant, but we've been getting it in our weekly farm share for a few weeks now so I figured I needed to find something to do with it. The obvious dish most people tell me to put it in is eggplant parmesan, but I wanted to do something different with it that didn't involve hiding its flavor with tomatoes/tomato sauce. After doing some research, which involved chatting with a guy at the farm and googling recipes, I combined all of the information I found and was able to create a little slice of eggplant heaven.

   WARNING: This is not my recipe. I do not know the how's and why's of this recipe, I merely did as I was told. So if you read the recipe and develop questions, such as, "Why do we have to let the eggplant sweat?" or "Why do we cut the eggplant skin into stripes?" I'm sorry, I can't help you. Consult with someone who knows what they are doing in the kitchen (and has experience cooking with eggplant).  

Olive Oil Roasted Eggplant with Lemon and Garlic

Ingredients:

• 1 large eggplant

I was told that the eggplant on the left is an Italian Eggplant and the one on the right is an Asian Eggplant. I used both for this recipe and although they both tasted delicious, I think I prefer the Asian Eggplant.

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• Basil
• Minced garlic

Directions:

1. Peel Eggplant in stripes with peeler. Slice the eggplant in half lengthwise, then cut each half into quarters lengthwise. Sprinkle Eggplant with salt and let “sweat” for ½ hour. Drain, rinse with water, pat dry with paper towels.

Eggplant sweat.

2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease.

3. Peel garlic and mince in food processor.

Peeled garlic.

4. Cut eggplant into small flat strips. Place the eggplant onto the baking sheet with the skin side down. Brush each piece with olive oil and season with minced garlic, basil, and pepper.

Minced garlic and olive oil mix.

5. Roast in the preheated oven until softened and the garlic is golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven.

6. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Serve hot.

  What makes this dish so delicious for me is the contrast in the crunchy garlic and the soft eggplant. I also really love the citrus element of the lemon squeezed on top. Without it, I think the garlic would be too strong. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did!

   To see the original recipe that inspired part of this recipe, visit http://allrecipes.com/recipe/olive-oil-roasted-eggplant-with-lemon/.  

Broccoli Rabe (Attempt One)

   Tonight, I have for you a sad story, a tragedy. The title of this tragedy: Lisa In the Kitchen. Most who know me know that I am not a good cook (there are infamous stories that I will not share from my newlywed days of my attempts to impress my husband with recipes that went awry from a Barbie cookbook). I've come a long way, but I'm always learning...and making mistakes in the process. Well, today was our farm share pick up day and I was delighted to discover that our share included Broccoli Rabe.

   For those of you who are not familiar with broccoli rabe, it is a somewhat bitter leafy green with little yellow flowers. The last time my husband cooked it, it was amazing! So tonight, I got brave and thought that I would try to cook it by myself. Well, the whole process took a turn for the worse the minute I turned on the stove. I couldn't figure out how to lock the food processor to chop the garlic, I overboiled the broccoli rabe, I didn't check to see if we had lemons (a necessary ingredient) before I started, and I diluted the soy sauce, which I wasn't supposed to do. Major fail. Luckily, my husband came to the rescue and managed to turn it into something edible.

   I will not share my husband's recipe (mostly because I don't know the details/amounts of the ingredients he used the first time), but I will share a recipe that I found on www.myrecipes.com that is very similar.

Ingredients:

2 pounds broccoli rabe (rapini), trimmed

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Directions:

1. Cook broccoli rabe in boiling water 6 minutes or until crisp-tender.
2. Drain and plunge broccoli rabe into ice water; drain. Coarsely chop.
3. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Stir in broccoli rabe, salt, and peppers.

   I was hoping to be able to share more of a success story along with a recipe with specific instructions, but unfortunately this will have to do. I plan on watching more broccoli rabe get cooked later this week, so hopefully I will have a better recipe to share later on. Until then, enjoy!