Versatile icing

This is a really simple icing that won’t compare to the beautiful cakes here, but I like that it does on anything, and a little bit of food coloring it can be any color that you want. It’s a simple way to make cookies look a little bit brighter. It works really well with sugar cookies. It really works well if, like me, your baking skills are less than stellar and you accidentally burn cookies, it works well as a cover up. Or, if you have better cooking skills than mine you can use it to design your cookies to make them more festive.

No cook icing

1 cup white sugar

1 unbeaten egg white

1 tsp vanilla

¼ tsp cream of tartar

½ cup boiling water

Mix all of these ingredients together, and add any food coloring you want. For me the food coloring is essential, the plain white icing can be a little bit much, so even adding a couple drops of red really helps. I recently used this icing on some cookies that I made for a baby shower and I did add red to half the mix and blue to the other half, with just a couple drops the icing turned a nice shade of baby blue, while the red made a nice shade of pink.

Supper in a Rush

This chicken recipe is easy to whip up if you’ve got something else to do. It does take an hour to cook, but prep time is only a few minutes. As long as you have the ingredients at home this makes a great meal on week days that can be hectic with homework. As long as you stay relatively close to the kitchen, you can multitask while making dinner! If you feel like changing it up, feel free to substitute. Just make sure to adjust the cooking time accordingly.

Chicken “hurry”

1 pkg onion soup mix

½ cup ketchup

¼ brown sugar

¼ cup water

cut up chicken

Mix together and spoon over chicken. Bake 1 hour uncovered at 350° F.

I love this chicken on days when I’ve got a million thing to do and just want something than can basically make itself, and it tastes pretty good too! Let me know what you think!

The best chicken wings you will ever taste!

This recipe for wings is famous in my family. It’s sure to make you want to stay home to watch the game. Wings make a great finger snack, as long as you have a napkin near by. These wings need a lot of attending to, and if you’re someone like me you should probably have a chaperone, I’ve burned myself more than once while flipping these wings over. I must say that it worth it though, they really are delicious! So, I’m eating these wings, managing to get my keyboard sticking and soaking my burn hand. Now that’s what I call multitasking! Don’t take my example, be careful flipping these wings, and get ready for a treat!

Chicken Wings:

3 lb chicken wings

1 cup soy sauce

½ cup water

½ cup sugar

¼ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp salt

cut tips from wings and discard. Divide winds at joint into 2 pieces. Place in a large baking pan.

Mix next 6 ingredients well. Pour over chicken. Bake uncovered for two hours at 350° F. Turn Chicken every 15 min.

This chicken is pretty labor intensive, so you can’t stray far from the oven. The sauce will start very water, but as the wings cook it will thicken up and stick to the wings. Things wings aren’t spicy at all, and unfortunately the flavor doesn’t go well with hot sauce, but they are great for people who like a milder flavor. Enjoy!

Canning Bonanza

This post is inspired by my grandmother; who just sent some pickles and jams for my family and I to enjoy! I’ll admit, because of my Grandmother I’ve been pretty spoiled with great Jam. It sounds lame, but I’ve never had to buy a jar of jam, or pickles!

I love homemade jams, they go well with anything, and they make a great housewarming gift. If you make the jam yourself, you can pick up jars that have fun designs and are a little bit fancier than ordinary jars you would put jam in for your own home.

I recently tried making some jams of my own, but the didn’t turn out the greatest. (Hence, the arrival of jams from grandma’s). One frantic phone call with Grandma later, I’m assured that there is an instinct component in making jam; one that I’ve been assured will come with time. That being said, I’m not looking forward to how many trial errors I’ll have to go through before I work it out.

Pickles, especially homemade pickles are my absolute favorite thing. Dill pickles can be time consuming, but well worth it if you ask me. What do you think, are pickles a food or just a condiment? That’s a debate that my bothers and I have been having for years.

Here the recipe that are my favorite. Try them out yourself!

Dill Pickles

1 qrt vinegar

2 qrt water

¼ to ½ cup pickling salt

2 cups sugar

1 clove garlic

Dill

Raspberry Jam

4 cups cleaned but not washed raspberries

4 cups boiling water

4 cups sugar

Juice of ½ a lemon

Pour boiling water over raspberries in colander and drain well. Put berries in a pot and add 2 cups and sugar. Bring to a rolling boil for two minutes, stirring constantly. Add the other 2 cups of sugar and the lemon juice. Ring to a full boil for another two minutes. Pour into sterilized jars and seal.

This Jam has a reputation as being an easier one to make, and I’ve heard it sets well. In my own attempt it didn’t go so well, but I wish you the best of luck!

You’ll have to eatmore!

This recipe comes with a warning; you may need someone to help you stir it. The bars become very thick and hard to stir in the bowl, and even harder to put in the pan. The final result is well worth it though. You’re bars will be homemade but just as good as any store bought chocolate bar!

Are there any recipes you use that are homemade versions of chocolate bars? I love making things at home as an alternative to buying something. These bars are great for lunches just for a quick snack; but are careful! Make sure you don’t over indulge, these bars aren’t the best calorie wise option, so maybe share with the guy you got to help with the stirring?

Eatmore Bars

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup corn syrup

1 cup rolled oats

2 cups crushed peanuts

½ butter

(If you want some variety the crushed peanuts can be switched for sun flower seeds, or used as a combination)

Melt together chocolate chips, syrup and butter. Add rolled oats and crushed peanuts (and/ or sunflower seeds). Spread on greased cookie sheet and refrigerate. Cut and Enjoy!

Maybe my favorite part of this recipe is that you don’t have to bake anything at all. I’m a klutz; the oven and I don’t always get along, so as long as I have someone to help me stir I can enjoy Eatmore bars without ever using the oven!

Snow days!

It must be Christmas because the weather is awful. But why brave the storm if you don’t have to? Staying inside can be great too, and you might as well get a start on that Christmas baking, it is December after all.

Every family has their own favorite Christmas traditions, and baking. Cookies and special kinds of cake always come out during the holidays in my house. My Mom and I have been baking like mad to get ready for our big family Christmas. The holidays are a great time to enjoy family time and great food, no matter what you’re celebrating. It’s nice to take some time from the frantic shopping and crazy malls and just enjoy time at home. For my mom and I there’s nothing like spending time baking and belting out the carols (even if they are very off tune). What’s your favorite Holiday tradition? Or, Even better yet, what’s your favorite wintertime recipe? What’s better, spending warm cozy time inside, or do you prefer to go play in the snow?

Hands down the best part of my holidays are always these chocolate raspberry squares, they’re like brownies but with a fruity twist, why don’t you try them out these holidays?

1 ¾ cups flour

1 cup margarine

1 cup white sugar

1 beaten egg

1 cup raspberry jam

1 cup chocolate chips

¾ sliced almonds

Heat oven to 350 ° F. Grease 9 by 13 inch pan. Combine flour and sugar. Add margarine and mix until crumbly. Add egg and mix well. Set aside 1 cup of mixture and press remaining into pan. Top with raspberry jam. Then mix the 1 cup of remaining mixture with almonds and chocolate chips. Sprinkle over jam. Bake for 40 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Soup, Glorious Soup

So I've been on a real soup kick lately with the weather being cold and all, and been the adventurous type i decided to make some from scratch. It seems super intimidating to me to make ANYTHING from scratch, but it turns out soup is super easy to make. You basically boil, bake, or roast the hell out of something, throw it in a blender and then mix it with some stock and spices. Delicious every time, low sodium (unlike the can stuff), and super health. I've tried it with squash, roasted red peppers, and cauliflower. All the recipes online are pretty easy to follow, and all of them are practically the same, but i do have a couple secret ingredients that i like to throw in.

Secret ingredient number one: Beer.It seriously can go in anything!
Secret ingredient number two: Curry. I've only tried it in my squash soup, but it was amazing! just be careful, you don't need a lot. You just want a hint of it. It compliments the sweetness of the squash perfectly.
Secret ingredient number three: nutmeg. If you can get fresh stuff it's amazing.