Thai Chicken Soup

SOUP INGREDIENTS:

• 2 (14 oz.) cans lite coconut milk
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 (4 oz) jar red curry paste OR 1 cup Trader Joe’s Thai Red Curry Sauce
• 5 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 pound shredded or sliced grilled chicken breast (or raw chicken placed in soup and shredded later; allow for enough tie to cook thoroughly)
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 cup diagonally sliced carrots
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup sliced or diced mushrooms
• Salt as necessary

GARNISH:

• lime juice
• chopped cilantro

*Delicious served or rice or rice noodles

DIRECTIONS:

1. Whisk together coconut milk, broth, peanut butter, curry paste/sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic and red pepper flakes in crockpot
2. Add in chicken, onion, carrots, peppers and mushrooms
3. Stir to combine
4. Cover and cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours or low 6-8 hours
5. Remove chicken and shred if you went the whole breast route, and then stir back in
6. Taste test and add additional salt, curry and red pepper as needed.
7. Serve as soup, over rice/ noodles and garnish with cilantro, peanuts and lime juice.
8. This soup can be quite brothy so thicken to desired thickness with corn starch.

Harmony Ridge Lodge Raised Waffles

The mixing is done the night before and all you need to do in the morning is add a couple of eggs and some baking soda.  These waffles are crisp on the outside and delicate on the inside.

½ cup warm water

1 package of dry yeast

2 cups milk, warmed

½ cup (1 stick) of butter, melted

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

2 cups of all purpose flour

2 eggs

¼ teaspoon baking soda

Use a rather large mixing bowl…the batter will rise to double the original volume.  Put the water in the mixing bowl and sprinkle in the yeast. Let it stand for 5 minutes.

Add the milk, butter, salt, sugar, and flout to the yeast mixture and beat until smooth and blended (we like to use a hand mixer).  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temperature.

Just before cooking waffles, beat in the eggs and the baking soda and stirl until well mixed.  The batter will be thin, pour about ¼ to ½ cup batter into a very hot waffle iron. Bake the waffles until they are golden and crisp. The batter will keep well in the refrigerator for several days.

Meltaways (Ty's Grandma's Recipe)

I think I did mine for like 8 or 9 minutes, but my oven seems to be on the faster side for baking.

Dough:
1/2 pound soft butter (two sticks)
3/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup flour Cream butter until fluffy.

Add cornstarch and powdered sugar and blend well. Beat in flour until thoroughly mixed. Drop by small teaspoons onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Cool and spread with frosting.

Frosting:
Blend together 3 oz. soft cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Add food coloring as desired.
You probably already do this, but here are some tips: - To shape the cookies, I make small balls of dough and place them on the cookie sheet. Then, I spray the bottom of a glass with cooking spray and dip the glass in flour; I use this to gently flatten the cookies so that they are about a quarter inch thick. -I try not to overcook-if even one cookie looks a little bit golden brown on the edges, I take the whole tray out of the oven.

The Best Copy Cat Swig Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup Butter room temperature
• 3/4 cups Vegetable Oil
• 1 1/4 cups Sugar
• 3/4 cup Powdered Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Water
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Cream of Tarter
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 5 1/2 cups Flour

Sour Cream Frosting

• 1/2 cup room temperature butter
• 3/4 cup Sour Cream
• 2 cup Powdered Sugar

Instructions

1. Cream together Butter, Vegetable Oil, Sugars, Water, and Eggs.

2. Combine dry ingredients and slowly add to butter mixture.

3. Mix until everything is combined.  Your dough should be a little crumbly and not sticky at all.

4. Roll a golf ball sized ball of dough and place it on your cookie sheet.

5. Now its time to give these babies their signature rough edge.  Put 1/4 c of sugar and a pinch of salt in a dish (this is in addition to the sugar and salt listed above.)  Stick the bottom of a glass in it.  This is going to be your cookie press.

6. Firmly press it into the center of your dough ball.  You want your dough to spill out over the sides of the glass.  If there is a lip its even better.

7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes.  They should just barely be browning on the bottom.    Move cookies to a cooling rack.  Once they are cool put them in the fridge.

8. Start by creaming together butter and sour cream and salt.  Slowly add powdered sugar.  When it gets so thick its not frosting like add a splash of milk.  Alternate this process until your frosting is the desired consistency.  Add 1 drop of red food coloring and whip on high for 1 minute.

9. Keep cookies in a sealed container until they are ready to serve.  The magic of a Swig Sugar Cookie is that the cookies are cold and the frosting is room temperature.  Frost right before serving (if you make them in advance and need to refrigerate the frosting make sure you give it time to warm up before serving).

(Says to refrigerate the cookies and then frost with the frosting at room temperature. I tried that but didn't like the cookies cold. They weren't soft and crumbly. I just bake them and then frost when cooled and store them at room temperature. Obviously if there was extra frosting, I would store that in the fridge :) I also add a drop of vanilla to the frosting. I bake them for 8 minutes if I use a regular cookie sheet and 7 minutes if I use a dark cookie sheet. I like them on the softer side. Other than that, I follow the recipe exactly! It makes around 4 dozen. And yes, you will use almost an entire 2lb bag of powdered sugar for the frosting! The frosting makes a ton. You could really do 1 1/2 recipes and one batch of frosting.)

Homemade Granola Bars

What You Need

1/4 cup Coconut Oil
1/4 cup Raw Honey (Or if you are the type of vegan that doesn't eat honey, you can use maple syrup or agave)
1/3 cup Almond Butter
1/3 cup Crushed Raw Almonds
1 cup Gluten Free Oats
1 tablespoon Chia Seeds
1 tablespoon Raw Cacao Powder
1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Coarse Sea Salt

What You Do

-In a large frying pan on medium heat melt together the coconut oil, raw honey and almond butter. Use a spatula to mix together and press lightly on the raw honey to help it melt. Melt these until it all becomes one thin batter. Lower the heat a bit and continue to stir. The honey is likely to burn if you don't keep stirring.
-As you stir add the vanilla and raw cacao powder. Stir until all the ingredients come together into a thin "milk" chocolate colored batter.
-Stir in a half cup of your gluten free oats. Stir until the batter coats all the oats. Now turn off the heat.
-Stir in crushed raw almonds.
-Now stir in the last half cup of gluten free oats. Stir until the everything is coated. The batter now should be thick with coated oats and almonds.
-Sprinkle in the chia seeds and stir on last time.
-Pour your batter into a small baking dish lined with parchment paper. Use the spatula to press into all corners of the pan and smooth out the top.
-Sprinkle the coarse sea salt on top.
-Place in the refrigerator over night. Or until the bars harden.
-Once the bars have set, cut into small bars and store in an air tight container and keep in the refrigerator. These can keep for about a week.

Simple But Easy Cranberry Sauce (With No Pulp) for Thanksgiving

1 package cranberries

1 ½ cups of water

2 cups of sugar

Wash Cranberries and put in a large sauce pan, add 1 ½ cups of water.  Bring to a boil and boil until the cranberries are all popped open.  Then you mash it with a potato masher until they are all mashed while you are still cooking on medium heat. Once all mashed, remove from heat and use a strainer to seperate the juice from the pulp.  The juice will be thick. Push it all through the strainer so that all that is left is the skins (or the pulp is left--small amt). Put back in a sauce pan and add 2 cups of sugar to juice. Cook it without boiling until sugar is dissolved (medium-low heat) stirring continuously. When it almost looks like it is going to boil it is done (and there is a better chance of setting up).  Pour into containers and refrigerate.Can make it a week or more ahead of the holiday. 

Pecan Pie

1 C. white corn syrup               1 C. dark brown sugar

1/3 C. butter (melted)               3 eggs (slightly beaten)

1/3 tsp. salt                              1 tsp vanilla

1 heaping cup shelled pecans (whole or cut in half)

          Combine syrup, sugar salt, butter vanilla and mix well.  Add slightly beaten eggs.  Pour into 9 inch unbaked pie shell.  Sprinkle pecans over all.  Bake in pre-heated 350 degree oven for approximately 45 minutes.

(Note:  I usually use a 10” pie pan so I add one more egg, 1/3 Cup more brown, 1/3 Cup more corn syrup, 1 ½ Tb. more butter, and a little more vanilla and dash more of salt.)    

 -Recipe courtesy of Barbara Leary

Easy Peesy Breadsticks

Ingredients:
* 6 tbsp butter or margarine
* 1 loaf of white bread dough, if you use a frozen loaf, let it rise on a plate until doubled in size, This usually takes a couple of hours.

Directions:
1. Put the butter into a 9x13 glass pan, place into cold oven.  Turn oven to 400 degrees F. while the oven is preheating, roll out dough on a floured surface into a long oval/rectangle (about the size of the pan). 
2. Cut the dough into 12 strips.  Remove pan from the oven when the butter has melted.  Take the strips of dough and place them in the butter and flip over to coat both sides with butter. 
3. Optional: sprinkle on seasoning such as seasoned salt, Italian seasonings, garlic powder, or Parmesan cheese to your liking.  
4. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown. 
Serve warm and enjoy!

Side note: If you make the bread dough from a bread maker, you don't need to let it rise any other time. Just roll out, cut, and bake.

Fresh Peach Cream Pie By Armelle Blog

{Fresh Peach Cream Pie}

Serves 4-6

For the Crust:

2 packs (a little less than 3 cups) graham crackers, crushed (I prefer the Honey Maid Honey Graham Cracker.  I did NOT like the Keebler brand graham crackers.  I also like Trader Joe’s Graham Crackers if you can find them.

1 1/2 sticks of butter, melted
3 tablespoons powdered sugar

Combine crushed graham crackers (I place mine in my food processor and I like to pulse them not totally fine, but just a little coarse), melted butter (enough for it to hold together well when pressed), and powdered sugar, and mix well (or pulse together in food processor).  Press into the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate. (You may have extra)
*If the crust is having a hard time holding together, you may need a little more melted butter.

For the Cream Filling:

1 cup heavy whipping cream, whip until Medium to Stiff Peaks. (you don’t want it runny)

1 cup powdered sugar                              

4 oz cream cheese (1/2 brick), softened at room temperature. *it must be room temperature or it will be clumpy

1 tsp vanilla (I prefer vanilla bean paste!)

1 tbs fresh lemon juice

2 tbs milk

Whisk heavy whipping cream until it forms medium to stiff peaks, and set aside.
Mix together in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment room temperature cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon juice, vanilla bean paste, and milk.  Mix until combined well.  Next, carefully fold the cream cheese mixture into the whipping cream, and layer unto the bottom half of the graham cracker crust, and let it set up in the fridge. *You may have a little extra cream cheese filling

For the Peach Sauce:

1-2 medium peaches, peeled and sliced
1/4 cup water
1/2 tbs fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbs corn starch

In a blender.  Add peaches, water, lemon juice,  corn starch and sugar.  Blend together well, until smooth.  Pour mixture into a small saucepan, and bring to a boil.  Whisk until the sauce thickens. Careful not to burn it. Remove from heat, and allow to cool in the fridge.

For the Fresh Peaches:

4-6 medium peaches, peeled and sliced

Place the sliced peaches in a bowl, and then cover with sauce just until well coated, (you may have extra peach sauce, which is good since it’s yummy on pancakes and waffles!) Spoon the peach mixture over the cream cheese layer, then allow to set up in the fridge for a few hours, then serve!  

Be sure to keep it stored in the fridge!