German Chocolate Pops

My favorite homemade Popsicles are made from the below recipe. The recipe comes courtesy of the Mott's applesauce jar.

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Motts Apple Banana Breakfast Shake
2 c applesauce
1 c skim milk
1 large banana
1/2 c creamy peanut butter
1 c crushed ice

Whirl all ingredients together in a blender until smooth.

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Normally, when I use this recipe I fill the Popsicle molds 3/4 full, then carefully add in mini M&M's to the top. I poke them down with a long handled spoon, or chopstick. If you mix the candy in before you put the shake mix into the molds, the color from the candy coating will come completely off. The Popsicle then turns a nasty puke-y gray. Not tasty looking at all. Adding the M&M's at the end eliminates a lot of the bleeding. If the color from the candy coating comes off, it is in streaks, which is much more fun.

The breakfast shake recipe makes a lot more than my 6 tiny Popsicle molds can handle. I freeze the leftovers and thaw it on the counter or microwave when I want to make more. This time I had the idea to make German Chocolate Popsicles. I added a bit of coconut to the defrosted shake. I eyeballed everything so I'm not sure how much I used. I added just enough coconut to make the mix look wispy and scraggly like a teenage boy's beard. I spooned in 1-2 teaspoons of shake into the mold. Next, I added 1-2 salted roasted pecans that I broke up by hand, and a small bit of mini chocolate chips, just enough to cover the pecans. I continued alternating layers of shake and pecan/chips, ending with shake.
You can see I didn't try very hard to make the layers nice and even. Some of the chips sank. I assure you my taste buds didn't mind one bit. The only thing that would make this better was if I made the shake with chocolate milk, or chocolate syrup, or added a layer of fudge after the pecan/chip layer.

Zesty Italian Crescent Casserole

This is another one of those ugly but good recipes. I like that you can see all the different layers through the side of the dish. That's about the only nice thing about this photo.

I had a bit of difficulty with Taste and Tell's Zesty Italian Crescent Casserole, but it had absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the recipe. The recipe was great, my ability to make sure I have everything I need before I start making something is not.

My first mistake was not having the proper size baking dish. The recipe calls for a deep dish pie pan. I only have the regular kind. So I used this lovely gold baking dish. Doesn't it look like it is from the 70's? (I got it second hand so it probably is.) Any food photographer will tell you the more yellow tones in a food picture the more appealing it is. NOT! (I'll use any excuse to justify a bad food picture.) Anyhow, the circumference of the dish was smaller than a pie dish so I had to overlap the crescents to get them to fit. That's why the top looks so bumpy.

Mistake number two came when I grabbed the container of sour cream and realized Mrblocko used a nice big dollop on his chili he took to work that morning. I opened the sour cream to discover only a scant 1/4 cup remained. The recipe called for 1/2 cup. I think the casserole still tasted fine, but the cheese wasn't as gooey as it should have been. This may have worked in my favor because Blockette does not like gooey cheese. Hopefully, she will grow out of that. There is something terribly wrong about not liking gooey cheese.

The third mistake came when I realized we were still out of Parmesan. I guess that's what happens when you don't buy any at the grocery store. It doesn't magically restock itself in your fridge. Yet again, I substituted Parmesan from the *GASP!* green jar. Please forgive me. You know what? It wasn't that bad. The top didn't brown up as nicely as it could have, but it was OK in the taste department. I think mixing the parm with melted butter reduced the powdery grittiness you usually get from the green jarred stuff. It would have been better with the real thing though.

I don't know if this was a mistake, but I used reduced fat crescent rolls. For some reason the reduced fat turn out more doughy than flaky. I prefer the flaky version. (You are what you eat right?) The next time I make this I'll remember to use the original crescent rolls, or at the very least bake the dish longer if I use the reduced fat.

Blockette said she didn't like this dish and begged me not to make it again. She ate all of what I put in front of her, so I'm guessing she was just saying that to be contrary. Shocking! I know!! A three year old being contrary. What is this world coming to? Too bad for her, she has been over ruled. I will make this again. Mrblocko and I both liked the casserole and it was super easy to throw together. Although, for some reason Mrblocko thought this was a Mexican dish and put hot sauce all over it. What is wrong with that boy? Sometimes he is sooooo broken!!!


Zesty Italian Crescent Casserole from Taste and Tell
1 lb. lean ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup tomato pasta sauce
6 oz. (1 1/2 cups) shredded mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1 (8-oz.) can Pillsbury® Recipe Creations (Or Crescent Dinner Rolls)
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Heat oven to 375°F. In large skillet, cook ground beef and onion over med for 8-10 min til beef is thoroughly cooked, stirring frequently. Drain. Stir in pasta sauce; cook til heated. Meanwhile, in med bowl, combine mozzarella and sour cream; mix well. Pour hot beef mixt into ungreased 9 1/2 or 10" glass deep-dish pie pan or 11×7"(2-quart) glass baking dish. Spoon cheese mix over beef mix. Unroll dough over cheese mix. In small bowl, mix Parmesan and butter. Spread evenly over dough. Bake at 375°F 18-25 min til deep golden brown.

Mediterranean chicken burgers

As the summer winds down I start to get tired of the usual grilled fare. These Mediterranean chicken burgers from elly says opa! were a nice change of pace.

I had the hardest time finding the ingredients at my grocery store though. I didn't think Kalamata olives and sun dried tomatoes were specialty items. I had to ask 4 people where they were and no one seemed to know. How does that happen? You'd think that the kalamata olives would be with the rest of the olives. No, they were in the Greek section. OK, I can see that, but why did none of the employees know that? I found the olives after my "helpers" had abandoned me.

The "helpers" did assist me in finding a $8 jar of sun dried tomatoes in oil. Um, no. There was no way I was going to pay that much for a teeny tiny container. Oh, but they were ORGANIC so that totally justifies the insane price. Yeah, right. I opted for the $2 jar of sun dried tomato pesto instead. The tomatoes were going to be ground up in the food processor so I guessed it would be a sufficient substitute.

I thought the olive-tomato tapenade was a bit on the salty side. That was most likely due to the olives rather than the pesto I used. Mrblocko thought it was good though. He wished we had made more. He also suggested the burgers might be more moist if we mixed in the tapenade into the burger before grilling. He is right, but the burgers would be too salty for me. Keeping the topping separate allows me to control how much goes on my burger and therefore the saltiness.

I'll have to think some more on a solution to make the burgers more moist. Maybe an egg? I'm open to suggestions.

Mediterranean Chicken Burgers from Elly Says Opa! Makes 4 burgers
1 lb. ground chicken (alright, alright…or turkey)
3 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1.5 tsp. dried oregano
12 kalamata olives, pitted
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil, drained and chopped
1 Tbsp. olive oil (or oil from the tomatoes)
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper

Mix chicken, feta, parsley, oregano and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl. Shape into 4 patties. Lightly spray a grill/grill pan with oil and cook burgers til done, about 5-6 min per side. Meanwhile, make tapenade by putting olives, sundried tomatoes, garlic and a little ground pepper in a food processor, pulsing til combined. While pulsing, drizzle in oil. Top burgers with tapenade.

Seasonally Confused

I figured, since my body doesn't seem to know you aren't supposed to get sick in the summer, I would stitch something from a season more appropriate for having a cold. Happy Halloween everybody!

This is a free design from Brooke's Books Publishing called Stitchie Witchie.

Cake Mix Cookies Take Two

I wrote about my first run in with cake mix cookies here. Not to get discouraged, I tried Once Upon a Gourmet Gin's Vanilla Toffee Crinkles. Yay verily they did not suck. Them was good. No...GOOOOOOOD. Sit down and eat the whole pan good. Holy cow. They are buttery and chewy and airy and light and num-o-riffic.

The only bad thing about this recipe is that it calls for 1/2 cup of oil. Wowza that's a lot. Eat too many of these things and you will feel it in the end. Literally. Next time, (oh yes there will be loads of next times) I'll try substituting half the oil with applesauce. If that turns out just as tasty as the original version, I'll try subbing all the oil for applesauce.

I don't know if it was all the oil, but my cookies didn't get that nice crinkle look to them. I wound up sprinkling powdered sugar on top of them right as they came out of the oven to get that crackled effect.


Vanilla Toffee Crinkle Cookies from Once upon a gourmet gin
1 (18 1/4 ounce) box white cake mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 bag toffee bits
confectioners' sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 350°. Stir dry cake mix, oil and eggs in a large bowl til dough forms. Gently fold in Toffee Bits. Dust hands with confectioners' sugar and shape dough into 1" balls. Roll balls in confectioners' sugar and place 2" apart on non stick cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 min til center is set. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks.

Chicken Cacciatore

Yeah, ain't that a whole lotta ugly? If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. Me, red sauce and the camera just aren't friends. While she won't win any beauty contests, this baby was gooood. How timely, after my previous post, that this recipe for Chicken with tomatoes and mushrooms, more commonly known as cacciatore, comes from Martha.

This is the first thing that I've made from Martha, the first thing I've wanted to make, to be more specific. Her recipes have always seemed too difficult technique wise or contained some impossibly rare ingredient. This seemed so simple, I thought it might be too good to be true. Maybe she's got some real people working for her in the kitchen instead of the Stepford automatons I think she had creating her recipes in the past.

The chicken was so juicy and tender, but not so tender that it was falling apart. The mushrooms soaked up the juices and were even more delicious than a plain old sauteed button mushroom. (Which happen to be top drawer in my book.) I think I enjoyed this more than anyone else in the house, because I could not shut up about how delicious I thought this meal was. It's not that Mrblocko and Blockette didn't like it, I was just very vocal about my taste bud's reactions. Perhaps it was because I had low expectations? Who cares. A good meal is a good meal is a good meal.

I think my substitutions were what made this meal fantastic. I don't really care for stewed tomatoes, so there weren't any in the pantry. I did have several cans of diced tomatoes, and why go out and buy stewed tomatoes when you've got plenty of something so similar. I noticed that one of the cans of diced tomatoes had basil, garlic and oregano already in it. That was pretty similar to the flavors that the recipe called for so it seemed like a no brainer. We love garlic so I added the 2 cloves of garlic stated in the recipe, but didn't add the dried oregano. I don't know if diced tomatoes contain less juice than the stewed variety, or if the meat and mushrooms just soaked up a lot. As this was cooking, Mrblocko and I thought this dish could use more sauce, so I added a splash of chicken stock.

Mrblocko and I thought there should be more mushrooms and Mrblocko thought there should be more tomatoes. Next time I'll double both, and add more chicken stock. The sauce was so good over rice, we pigged out. Consequently, the sauce was a tad on the stingy side for the leftovers. With two cans of tomatoes, I think this recipe requires at least a cup of stock, if not two to meet our sauce requirements.

The comment section for Martha's recipe has several suggestions for additions including: wine, peppers, and zucchini. I'm not a fan of peppers so I don't think I'd try that version, but the wine and zucchini sounds tasty to me. I bet with more veggies and liquid this would be a great stew for a cold winter day. Add ins aside, I can't wait to try this recipe with fire roasted diced tomatoes, or the diced tomatoes that come in balsamic vinegar.

Hey mom, didja ever think I'd be so enthusiastic about cooking with tomatoes? When you come to visit and I catch you lookin in the closets, I'll know you are searching for the pods.

Chicken Cacciatore from Martha Stewart
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, about 1 1/2 pounds
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound mushrooms, trimmed and quartered
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (14.5 ounces) stewed tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

Season chicken with salt and pepper. In a large (5-quart) saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, heat oil over med-high ; swirl to coat bottom of pan. Cook chicken, turning when it easily releases from pan, til golden, 4-6 min. Transfer to a plate.
Add mushrooms; cover, and cook til softened, 5 min. Add garlic, tomatoes, and oregano. Reduce heat to med-low; cook, covered, til tomatoes have broken down, 10-15 min. Return chicken and any accumulated juices to pan; cover, and cook til chicken is opaque throughout, 4-6 min. Turn chicken to coat with sauce, and serve.

Dark Chocolate Cherry Cookies

I got the recipe for Katie Lee Joel's Dark chocolate and dried cherry cookies from GOOP, Gwyneth Paltrow's website. (The recipe is the 2ND one from the top.) These cookies almost didn't get made. I originally saw them on Cookie Madness. If not for her blog, I would never have made them.

Before I get into the recipe, lemme talk a bit about Miss Paltrow. I used to be a huge fan. Stress the used to. I love Love LOVED her movies. Then one day, several years ago, I saw her on Oprah . She seemed so self righteous in her new agey macrobiotic ways. I'm sorry lady, you ain't better than me cause you won't eat white flour or sugar. Her attitude repulsed me so much that when I tried to watch some of my favorite movies, (Emma and Shakespeare in Love) I turned the TV off in disgust after 5 minutes. Obviously, if she is featuring cookies on her website, she has relaxed her dietary regiment. I just can't get it out of my mind that she is some sort of wack-job when it comes to food.

When I first went to the link Cookie Madness provided on her blog, I decided to peruse the GOOP website. I was turned off immediately. The main page has six icons that you can click on that say "Make, Go, Get, Do, Be, and See." I must still be extremely disenchanted with Miss Paltrow because my initial reaction was, "Gee, that seems pretty bossy." and "Kind of presumptuous, assuming I am going to follow your demands/instructions." Needless to say I will not be subscribing to the weekly newsletter. I'm definitely not going to fall in line as one of the patrons of her B.S.

I've heard people referring to Gwyneth Paltrow as the next Oprah, or Martha Stewart. That's great, but I'm not one of their disciples either. So to me that statement gets a big ole "whoop-de-do."

Anyhow...the recipe was good. I didn't have any unbleached flour so I substituted regular bleached all purpose flour. They turned out just fine regardless of the "White" sin I had committed. I know ten thousand baby seals were killed in the bleaching process of the flour, but I'm sure that just added to the deliciousness of the cookies.

Mrblocko liked these cookies best while they were still warm from the oven. At that point I thought they were mediocre. I couldn't even taste the cherries and the dark chocolate was extremely bitter. I was correct when I guessed the flavors would improve once they had cooled completely. Dark chocolate and cherry is a great combo. The only bad thing about the cookies was that they didn't have a great shelf life. After about 4 days they started to lose freshness. I put some in the freezer at that point and they freezed OK. Sometimes when you freeze cookies, they taste better once they are thawed. These tasted exactly the same. I ended up sending most of them to work with Mrblocko rather than see them go stale. Even though they were beyond their best, everyone thought they were delicious.

Would I make these cookies again? Maybe. I think if I got in a cookie rut and wanted something different I'd turn to this recipe. The cookies were good, but I wouldn't eat the entire pan in one sitting. I could stop at two. Hmmm...maybe that's a good thing eh?


Dark Chocolate Cherry Cookies from GOOP
2 1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (be sure to use a high-quality chocolate with more than 60% cacao)
1 cup dried cherries (about 6 ounces), coarsely chopped
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375º F. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter with sugars til light and fluffy, 3 min. Add eggs, one at a time, beating til incorporated. Beat in vanilla. On low speed, add flour mix. With a wooden spoon, fold in chocolate, cherries and pecans. Scoop by heaping tablespoonful onto 2 cookie sheets. Bake til golden and chewy, 12 min, rotating after 6 min. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool and repeat process with remaining dough.