Pie crust cookies

I saw this recipe on Pinterst a few weeks back and I thought I would give it a try to see if I liked it enough to possibly make and take it somewhere. It was o.k., but not great. I can see where improvement could be make.

You start with two refrigerated pie crusts sprinkle a little flour on your board and lay out the first crust. slightly roll it to get rid of any wrinkle and make it lie flat (wish I could slightly roll my forehead and get rid of any wrinkles).

spray the top of the cookie sheet with a little baking spray and sprinkle with some finely chopped, dried, sweetened cranberries, finely chopped walnuts or pecans and some cinnamon and sugar.

Take the second crust and place it on top of the first covering the cranberries and nuts inside. Slightly roll them together until they form a single crust with the filling showing through. Spray the top with some more cooking spray and sprinkle additional cinnamon and sugar on top.

Then the fun part. Get out your cookie cutter (metal works best) and cut as many possible shapes from the pie crust round. You can wad the pie crust up and roll is out a second time if you need to.

The fun part! Place cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake like you would pie crust.

They turned out fairly good, but if I had them to do over (and I will do them over) I would brush on melted butter instead of spraying cooking spray, brown sugar and cinnamon instead of white (maybe even drizzle a tiny amount of honey, a little fresh orange zest would go a long way in this recipe. The cookies worked but the flavor was lacking. I am not sure if using homemade pie crust would be doable because store bought pie crusts are more resilient.

I have been busy lately and haven't had time to sit down and really think out a recipe and get it together with photos. The bf and I are expecting a (you fill in the blank), and so we are trying to settle or nest rather. Katsu is doing well, but has had his moments where we just look at him and shake our heads. The last episode involved him eating a plastic cone off his head...I didn't blame him, those are not a great fashion statement, but it caused me extreme stress and worry while he slowly but surely passed all of it. My daughter moved out so we have redecorated her old bedroom into my new office/sitting room. We still have a few things to acquire, but it is coming along really well. I refinanced my house, so it looks like the bank is stuck with me for the next 30 years give or take. So between my daughter moving, house refi, dog acting crazy you can see why I didn't have time. Looking forward to the next few weeks to get things completed...Samhain is just around the corner and in case I don't get back here between now and then I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.

Garlic Chicken

I made another super easy dinner last night that was really tasty and super fast to prepare.

About 30 minutes before you want to eat start a pot of rice and fifteen minutes into the rice cooking salt and pepper both sides of six boneless, skinless chicken thighs and peel one whole head of garlic. See that isn't so hard! Place about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil into a skillet and heat over medium high heat (you have to judge this) place the thighs in the hot skillet and brown on one side for four minutes then turn over and brown on the other side for four minutes more. Pull the chicken out of the skillet and add the whole garlic cloves and stir them around and caramelize them. Don't burn them you want them to have a nice toasty color.

Then put the chicken back into the skillet with the garlic and add about 1-1 1/2 cups of white wine (depends on how much sauce you want) and put a lid part way on the pan. Cook for another four minutes check the liquid in the pan...That's it! Your done!

Make a nice healthy green salad and serve it with the chicken and rice.

Yum! This was another winner, or so I was told.

I hope everyone's week got off to a good start, and I hope the rest of your weeks go smoothly.

Sunday Soup

Yes I know it was Super Bowl Sunday yesterday and I should have been somewhere watching the game and stuffing my face with little meatballs cooked in chili sauce and grape jelly and slathering queso on corn chips, but to be perfectly honest...I don't like football, and thankfully the bf doesn't either. Instead we tackled a home project that I have wanted to get done for some time...Hopefully we will get closer to being done tonight. In the midst of trying to get some work accomplished yesterday I had to make dinner and since we had a very hearty dinner the night before I decided to make soup for dinner.

What you need to make this simple soup are 1 pound bulk hot Italian sausage (or sausage of your choice), 1 large onion, diced, 2 garlic cloves, minced, 1 large carton (32 oz. or 48 oz.) chicken broth or stock, Pinch of crushed red pepper (optional), 4-5 small red potatoes skin on, cleaned and cut into cubes 1 cup half and half, 3/4 of a bag of baby spinach, stems removed, 8 oz. of prepackaged sliced mixed mushrooms sauteed before adding to soup. Shredded Parmesan and Romano cheese (optional).

In a large pot, cook the sausage over medium high heat... breaking it up into pieces as it cooks. drain fat.. removing all but about a tablespoon. If your sausage doesn't have much fat add a little olive oil. Dump the onions on top of the sausage and stir... cook until the onions are almost soft ... about 4 minutes or so... add the garlic and stir well.. cook for another couple of minutes. Add the broth and bring to a low boil... add the potatoes and bring to a low boil again... reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are fork tender... about 15-20 minutes. Then add the spinach in handfuls and the mushrooms... stirring gently. When the spinach cooks down. Add the half and half and let soup get hot, but do not boil! Serve immediately with shredded Parmesan and Romano cheese at the table.

I had made a some bread yesterday in anticipation of this dinner along with a mixed baby greens salad with dried cranberries and goat cheese dressed with a light balsamic & honey dressing.

There would have been more photos to go along with this meal, but I was cooking with a little headlight strapped to my head and it just wasn't happening. Hopefully that hole is gone this week...tonight preferably.

Have a great week everyone.

Happy New Year

Around here the new year started with a quiet little bang. We stayed up until midnight which has got to be a first for me in many years. We were watching a movie it didn't end until 11:30 p.m. we figured "Hey while were up we should ring in the new year" The neighbors were still lighting off fireworks when we crawled into bed around 12:05 a.m. The funny thing I was back up at 5:30 a.m. the next morning I guess I have plenty of time to sleep when I am dead.

Time to get back on track with my portion control and eating. I swear during the holidays I misbehaved every way possible and had absolutely no self control. I have reset my goals (bumped things up a bit) and am back on track starting today and for the new year. Now if the weather would just cooperate with me and be less cold and wet I would happily be out riding.

I did roast a beautiful chicken for our New Years Day dinner, and it was all made possible by being able to have fresh herbs straight from the garden even this time of year.

I heated the herbs up with some butter to infuse their wonderfulness into the butter, so when I basted the chicken it got the full flavor of the herbs.

Roasting a chicken is easy you basically season it and slide it into a well preheated oven (I roasted mine at 350) for a hour and a half to two hours depending on your oven and temp and size of bird.

I wanted to make a dessert on New Years Day, but we went for a hike to enjoy the frosty air and sunshine.

Two of my favorite guys! I let them lead, that way I can take photos of obscure ice formations that don't turn out.

Is that not one of the cutest faces on the planet? Right now those eyes are beseeching me to let him off the lead so he can follow the scent of a deer, coyote, squirrel, rabbit, chipmunk, slug to the ends of the earth...That's a big not.

We hiked for roughly three hours, which was about all my poor feet could handle.

It really was a perfect day for a hike.

For my delayed dessert I made a slab pie, and I was impressed at how simple it was. No recipe was needed for this. Basically what you do is make a pie crust for a two crust pie and add some filling (I used some of my home canned jam). It worked like a charm and the bf was amazed at the flavor.

So you put all your butter, shortening, salt, sugar (I added some raw sugar) flour into the bowl of your food processor and give it a whirl until you have crumbs.

Add your liquid.

TaDa!(should be a word) you have pie dough.

My kitchen helper today is Katsu!

Cut the dough so one chunk is a little larger.

Roll the larger half of dough out first. I did a circle, but you could do a square or oblong it doesn't really matter.

spread your fruit filling onto the dough leaving about an inch of edge. I used 2/3 cup of my homemade and canned jumbleberry (this is a word in my world) jam. I could have used just a smidge more, but decided err on the side of caution the first go round.

Roll out the top of your slab pie.

Place the top on and fold over the edge and crimp it with a fork. Poke some fork holes in the top (being careful not to poke all the way through to the bottom) Brush the top with some milk (or egg) and sprinkle with some additional raw sugar.

Bake in 400 degree oven until the bottom is golden brown.

It was wonderful and easy to make and tasted like a poptart should. As a matter of fact if you have kids and they like poptarts don't let them anywhere near this or you will be cranking one of these out of the oven every morning.

I have spent the long weekend going through things and getting a box of odds and ends together for the consignment shop, working on a healthier menu for next week, cleaning, sorting and throwing away things. I purchased this years day runner yesterday and I need to work on that. I am currently sorting through recipes some I have collected with good intent only to decide that I am never going to make/bake this or that. I have a brand new shiny recipe box (thanx again K.B. I love it) that I need to organize and fill. I read my first dyed in the wool romance novel in over twenty years this holiday break...Fiola, I loved it! Keep up the good work. I don't do resolutions because in my opinion that is a sure fire way to jinx yourself. What I am going to do is try and be kinder to myself and others...lets see how that works out.

Cat Door

In the midst of baking and cooking and doing what we do on the weekends housework, work from home and home projects (you should see the list). The bf finally tackled a project we have been wanting to get to for some time. A cat door from the hallway to the spare room (we use as a giant walk in closet) for the cats to come and go and not be harassed by the resident chupacabra.

Step one...cut hole in wall. I love being a homeowner for this reason. I can cut a hole in the wall, and no one can stop me.

Cutting and fitting the the trim around the outside of said cat door.

Cutting and fitting the inside trim.

From the other side.

It turned out great. The cats love it...and sometimes the my adorable chupacabra lets them use it.

If you were expecting measurements and angles for a how to tutorial on the cat door...sorry but around here I don't mess with the bf power tools (unless its used to carve a jack o lantern)and he doesn't mess with my immersion blender.