Pumpkin Puppy Chow

While at Bible study this semester, our wonderful hostess Melissa made us some really good treats to have while doing Beth Moore's James.  Great study by the way!  Well, she made Pumpkin Spice Puppy Chow and it was like crack, couldn't stay away!

Recipe from Melissa, but unsure of where she got it!

**kisses were found at Target!**

Pumpkin Puppy Chow

Ingredients

6 C. Rice Chex Cereal

1 bag Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses

3/4 C. powdered sugar, 1/4 C. more if needed

Directions

1. Place cereal into a large bowl.

2. In a microwave-proof bowl, place all Pumpkin Spice Kisses (unwrapped).

3. Microwave Kisses for 30 seconds, remove and stir. Continue to microwave in 10-second increments and stirring until smooth.

4. Pour melted Kisses over cereal and gently fold until coated.

5. Place powdered sugar in a large plastic bag. 

6. Dump cereal into bag and shake until coated. Add more powdered sugar if needed.

7. Pour out Puppy Chow and let cool on a cookie sheet.

French Bread--stand mixer

Tonight I felt like changing our menu after finding this recipe on Pinterest last night.  It was so easy to make and cooked really well.  We baked for 20 minutes,  it it needed 5 more!

**I did add whole garlic cloves throughout the loaf before the rising.  Yummy.  This is one bread you could definitely make your own with a few add ons!

Taken from the homemade homestead

KitchenAid Recipes: KitchenAid French Bread

Author: Mary Ward

Recipe type: Fast Yeast Breads

Cuisine: French

Prep time:  55 mins

Cook time:  20 mins

Total time:  1 hour 15 mins

Serves: Makes 2 loaves

A fast and easy way to have delicious French Bread to accompany your favorite meals. With this stand mixer bread recipe your mixer does all the heavy work for you!

Ingredients

• 1½ Tablespoons Instant Yeast (or Bread Machine or Rapid Rise)
• 2½ Cups Very Warm Water (120 F)
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Oil
• 2 Teaspoons Salt
• 6½ Cups All Purpose Flour

• Cornmeal (for baking pan)
• 1 Egg White
• 1 Tablespoon Water

Instructions

1. Place flour, sugar, salt, oil, and yeast in mixer bowl.
2. Using the flat paddle, run to combine, about a minute on “stir”.
3. While running, add warm water, just until combined and dough begins to form a ball.
4. Stop, remove flat paddle, and replace with dough hook.
5. Run on setting 1 or 2 for 8 minutes to knead the bread dough.
6. After kneading, stop, remove dough hook, and let dough rest in bowl for 10 minutes.
7. Divide dough into 2 even balls.
8. For each ball, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and stretch to about a 10×15 rectangle.
9. Roll into a loaf shape, starting with the long side (loaf should be about 15 inches long when rolled). Seal seams and place seam-side down on greased cookie sheet that has been sprinkled with corn meal.
10. Cover with damp towel and let rise until doubled, usually about 45 minutes.
11. Beat egg white with a fork, add water, and brush to coat bread loaves. 
12. Bake in 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.

Pancake Squares

This is one of those recipes I saw on Pinterest, and then my SIL made it and gave it good reviews so we tried it this morning.  Andrew loved them and can't wait to try different variations.

Didn't change anything!

Recipe and picture from Big Red Kitchen

Pancake Squares 
3/4 cup milk
2 T. melted butter
1 large egg
1 T. sugar
1 cup flour
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt

Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease an 8×8 baking dish. In a large mixing bowl, beat together milk, butter and egg. Add sugar, then gradually beat the flour in. Carefully stir in the baking powder and salt. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Serves 4-6.

Back at it!

After a long lag of really cooking, we are ready toget back to the kitchen.  I have planned a month of meals, started shopping and stockpiling again and am ready to cook.

Crockpot Chicken and Stuffing

This is for Jen! We had "game night" at our house a few weeks ago and thus was dinner, because I needed something easy! There are lots of recipes online for this, but is so simple!

Crockpot Chicken and Stuffing

Ingredients:
4-6 pieces of chicken
Box of stuffing
1/2 cup sour cream
1 can cream of anything soup

Directions:
1. Mix the sour cream and soup
2. Put defrosted chicken on bottom.
3. Pour stuffing on top. (Leave dry)
4. Top with soup mixture.
5. Cook for four hours on low.
6. Fluff and serve!

Corn Casserole or Scalloped Corn

This is a classic recipe from the Newby household.  This was one of the many recipes that I was given the first Christmas in my recipe book from recipes from Brian's upbringing.

Since we were doing potluck Christmas party, I knew this would be a great side dish for the ham that was being provided.

The main difference between the two is that in the orginal recipe, you are not supposed to drain the corn.  I did drain the corn!

Corn Casserole or Scalloped Corn

Ingredients:
1 can regualr corn (drained or undrained)--I drain
1 can creamed corn
1 stick of butter (melted)
1 cup sour cream
1 package Jiffy corn muffin mix (or any 8.5 ounce corn mix)

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

**This is great to double and place in a 9x13 for potlucks or for bigger crowds!

Bread Machine Rolls

Cooking has taken a back seat this past month as we have been traveling like crazy for the holidays.  We are now home for a while and we are looking forward to cooking a little bit more.  This doesn't mean we haven't been cooking, but sticking to more simple meals!

Tonight we have a potluck Christmas Party and no one had offered to bring any bread, so instead of going out and buying rolls, I thought I would give it a try and actually make them from scratch.

Right now, I only have them proofing, but they look really good, so we are going to call it a success in our book.  I will update later if they need to be changed!\

A year or two ago, my mother-in-law gave me her bread machine that she wasn't using and becuase I wanted one.  I have to admit, today is the first time I have actually used it.  I think it will start to get a whole lot more use from now on!

Bread Machine Rolls

Orignial recipe from here.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup milk, heated in microwave for one minute
• 6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened and cut into pieces
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 3 cubs bread flour (I used regular AP flour)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Directions:
1. Place all ingredients into bread machine in order by your machine. (normally all wet or all dry first)
2. Set machine to dough cycle and let the machine do the work!
3.  Cut dough into equal portions (you should get 18 rolls)
4. Place into muffin tins or on a pan.
5. Cover and rise for thirty minutes or until doubled in size. 
6. Brush with melted  butter and then place in the oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.