Classic Caramel Recipe

This is adapted from Joy of Cooking.

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 cup butter
2 cups cream
1 tsp vanilla

Heat sugar, corn syrup, butter, and 1 cup of the cream in a medium saucepan. Stir continuously until caramel reaches temperature of 244 degrees F. Remove from heat.

Stir in the remaining one cup of cream very gradually. Put back on the stove and heat again until temp reaches 244. Add vanilla (careful, it will sizzle a bit!).

Use for whatever you like at this point--caramel popcorn, caramel nut squares, caramel apples, etc.

I poured it into a buttered pyrex pan and then stirred pecans into it. Cut into square when cool. YUM. Caramel is basically the best ever.

Grilled Chicken Pasta Salad

The other night I made this recipe. Except I changed it a little bit.

1- I didn't put any mangoes in it. I wasn't really in the mood.

2- Because we don't have a grill and because all our chicken was frozen solid and I didn't have time to let it thaw, I used the pressure cooker. I just put in two chicken breasts, sliced up some onions, sliced up some lemons, put in 1/2 cup water, and cooked it for about 15 minutes and it was done. And I liked the tiny hint of lemon flavor.

3- I hated the italian dressing I put in the salad. The flavor was weird (I think it was because I bought homestyle?). So I ended up  not putting  much in and I tried to save the flavor by adding some vinegar. That worked semi well, but then I found cream cheese in the fridge and decided to put that in. That made it so yummy! The flavor was much better after it sat for about an hour in the fridge.

4-  Because I wasn't sure about raw zucchini and raw broccoli, I decided to steam it for a few minutes. I liked it better that way. It just had to cool a bit before we ate it.

If I made it again I would buy regular Italian dressing, put in more cream cheese, and add some vinegar. And I think I might add olives. But it actually turned out really well :)

Scotcheroos

I made these last night for some friends who came over for games. They turned out AWFUL, so I wanted to post a couple warnings (mainly for myself to remember) that will help you with this recipe. Normally these are delicious. The recipe comes from allrecipes.com.

• 1 cup Karo® Light Corn Syrup
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 6 cups crispy rice cereal
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup butterscotch chips

1. Cook corn syrup and sugar together in a large pan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Bring mixture to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter; mix well. Add cereal; stir until evenly coated.
2. Pour into greased 13x9-inch pan and pat into place.
3. Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips together in saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Spread over cereal.
4. Cool at least 45 minutes, or until firm. Cut into bars.

Here are my notes of warning:

#1) As soon as the sugar mixture boils, REMOVE FROM HEAT. Don't let it cook a single minute--that will make your scotcheroos super hard! You may even break your tooth!

#2) Don't use expired butterscotch chips. They are gross!!! (I didn't notice until it was too late.)

#3) Use high quality chocolate chips! Nothing cheap! Cheap is nasty!

#4) Grease your pan with butter, not PAM!

#5) Use 1 pack of chocolate chips and 1 pack of butterscotch chips. You won't regret it!

Coconut Chicken Curry

I made this for dinner Monday night. It was delicious. I made a few changes.

First, I didn't brown the chicken before hand. That takes all the easy out of crock-pot cookin'. I feel just fine about plopping it in the crock-pot frozen.

Second, I followed the user reviews and added more salt and more curry. Two heaping teaspoons of curry. I didn't measure the salt precisely, but I'm guessing there were at least two teaspoons in there. Instead of peas, I used carrots. Fresh baby carrots that I put in at the beginning. They were delicious. And I had no flaked coconut, so I just left that out.

I served the dish over rice, and had strawberry-spinach salad on the side.

This meal was a winner--easy, tasty, and different.

Cinnamon Muffins (cupcakes)

I made these this morning. They are delightful. More like a cupcake than a muffin I think :). I used my new mini muffin pan I got for Christmas (from Kathy!) and baked them for 11 minutes. Also, I didn't have fresh nutmeg, but I bet that would've been delicious! And I made my own "buttermilk" with lemon juice and milk.

Three bites of scrumptiousness!

Elise's Spaghetti

Dan used to dislike spaghetti. Now, he loves it. Here's why.

Noodles: ALWAYS use Angel Hair instead of Spaghetti. Cooks faster, feels less rubbery, holds the sauce better. Well I guess you don't HAVE to, but everyone in my household greatly prefers it.

Serve with this sauce:
1 tbs. olive oil
1 large onion (white or yellow), chopped
1 large clove of garlic, pressed or finely chopped
1 lb. ground beef
1 12 oz. package of white mushrooms, sliced
1 red or green bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow or orange bell pepper, chopped
OPTIONAL--1 small zucchini, grated
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
2 fresh tomatoes, diced OR 1 can of PETITE diced tomatoes
Italian Seasoning
Salt

Saute the onion, garlic, and beef in the olive oil in a LARGE skillet. You don't want to use a deep pot--you need room for the mushrooms!

I like to add some Italian seasoning and salt here so the meat has plenty of time to soak in the flavor. But you can also do it at the end if you forget. I am very generous with my seasoning. Probably like 1-2 tbs. (My mix of Italian Seasoning has Basil, Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary, Marjoram, Garlic.)

Add the mushrooms and cook until they are browned. This feels like a lot of mushrooms, but go ahead. Add the whole pack. They really shrink down.

Add the bell peppers (and zucchini), cook to desired softness.

Add tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. If I'm using fresh tomatoes, I turn off the heat after just a minute--I like them still fresh and firm. With canned, it doesn't really make a difference. Just heat them through.

Serve with Parmesan cheese, or any of your favorite cheeses.

Chicken-Mango-Pineapple Salad

I sort of forgot about this blog. Did you?

Today I made a chicken-mango-pineapple salad. I cooked the chicken in lime juice and honey.
Here's my recipe:

• 1 lb chicken breasts, sliced and sauteed with juice from 1 lime and 2 Tbsp honey. I didn't use any oil.
• 1 head romaine lettuce, broken into bite-sized pieces
• 1/2 fresh pineapple, peeled, hulled, and chopped
• 1 mango, peeled and chopped

I used this dressing here. It was delicious. Even Violet liked it. I'm not sure why they called it a vinaigrette dressing though. There was no vinegar in it. Dan called it "restaurant-worthy."

I do wish I'd had some avocados to throw in the salad. Then it would've been perfecto. Next time for sure.