Slow Cooker Chex Mix

Ahh Christmas season.  It is one of my favorite seasons.  I get to make so many of my favorite things in such a short time! Like this weekend, in which I made ALL of my Christmas goodies.  Nothing like getting it all done in one shot and then popping it into the freezer to store until it is needed!  Over the next few weeks I will be posting all my secrets.  Christmas is only in 32 days away you know!  I needed to get all of my baking done so I could focus on shopping... which I have not even thought about yet. Great.  Maybe I still have time to get everything online? Express shipping it is.

Since I don't want to stress anyone out with complicated recipes, I thought I would start out nice and easy with Chex Mix.  A salty little snack that keeps for weeks.  Chex cereal at Christmas is like a unicorn.  You will be lucky if you can find it at your first three grocery stores.  Luckily for me, I stopped at Superstore and got the last two boxes! Score!  Chex Mix is easy, and even easier with the slow cooker, it means you have the oven empty for other treats!

The first step is really hard.  Dump all your cereal in the slow cooker.  Recipes have measured out cups, but that is not the way I roll with this one.  The Chex and rice snacks are my favorite part so I add more of them, and then just whatever else fits!  Pour them in and then gently mix them all up.

Carby carb carbs!

The seasoning is also pretty easy, and does not have to follow a strict recipe.  Melt some butter or margarine, stir in the salt and seasonings, pour it over the top, and stir up well!

Butter and salt!

Pop the lid on, set it to low for 3 hours, and stir every hour and twice in the second hour to keep any from burning.  If your lid is not vented, place a tea towel on top to catch any condensation.  You don't want soggy Chex! 

Mmm, smells delicious!

Once your three hours is up you need to pour it all out in  a thin layer to cool completely.  Throw down some parchment paper and spread it thin!

Chex Mix as far as the eye can see!

Once it is completely cool, pop it in to bags and you are done! I promised it would be easy!

Now for the rules!

Ingredients

- 9 Cups of Chex cereal
- 2 Cups of rice snacks (Bulk Barn is where I get mine from)
- 1 Cups pretzels
- 1 Cups Cheerios
- 1 Cups Shreddies

Seasoning

- 1/3 Cup butter
- 1 Tbsp seasoning salt
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp cayenne (optional for some kick)
- 1/4 Cup Worcestershire sauce

Directions

Add all the cereals to your slow cooker (you can use a roaster in the oven if you don't have a slow cooker).

Melt butter in the microwave.  Add the salt and seasonings and mix until salt is dissolved.  Add the Worcestershire and mix again.  Pour mixture over the cereals and mix gently.  Mix until the pieces are well coated.  I usually mix up a little extra seasoning if it looks too dry still.

Cook on low for 3 hours.  Stir after the first and second hour and then twice in the third hour.  If your slow cooker lid is not vented, place a tea towel under the lid to catch extra condensation.

Once done cooking, spread thin on parchment paper to completely cool.  Seal and it should keep for 3-4 weeks.

Enjoy!

Love,

Jen

Party Pizza Muffins

Muffins per serving: How many can you eat before they are all gone?

This recipe is one of everyone's favorite when they are invited to a Chris and Jen party.  Or even when we are invited to "feel free to bring something when you come over".  Let me tell you a secret.  These are probably the easiest thing to make.  They start with a tube of Pillsbury Grandes or Country Biscuits.  I don't usually like to cook with food that comes out of a tube, but they just turn out so fluffy and perfect, practically impossible to mess up.  Grab a tube or two of the biscuits, a small can of pizza sauce, pepperoni (I like pepperoni sticks, but Chris prefers the shredded kind), and shredded cheese.  Thats it! How easy? 

Chris wins this round.

Pillsbury is already pretty full of lard, but to be on the safe side I like to lightly spray a muffin tin with cooking oil.  Better safe than sticky!  Each tube of 10 will make you 10 Pizza Muffins so plan accordingly.  Take all of the pre formed biscuits out of the package.  How do they do that anyway?  Have all these pre cut and shaped biscuits jammed into a tube for however long.  I would probably rather not know.  It's a good thing they turn out delicious.  I digress.  Cut each biscuit in half.  Right down the middle.

Caution: Not pierogies.

This next step involves a little more work. You need to take 10 of your 20 halves and turn them in to little circles. One at a time, press them out flat (pulling the corners together) and press it in to the muffin tins. It should cover the bottom and come up the sides just a little bit. 

Time to play pizza dress up!

Now build little pizzas! I believe in you! A teaspoon of sauce onto each (hot sauce if you want a little kick), pepperoni next, and top with shredded cheese.  You can add something a little extra here, there isn't a ton of room but it's all up to you.  Just cheese is always good too.  If I ever have a little left over sauce I usually just add more on top.  Saucey Party Pizza Muffins are one of the best kinds!

Almost there!

Once you have little pizzas made in the bottom of the muffin tins you take your remaining 10 dough halves, turn them in to little flat circles as well and place them on top of your pizza toppings. I give them each a little tuck around the edges so they are mostly sealed up and then top with a little more shredded cheese. Perfect little packages of pizza goodness. Bake according to the dough's packaging instructions.  They should just pop out once baked.  Allow to cool a little bit and then get one before they are all gone!

Cool down... but just a little bit.

The Rules!

Ingredients

- One tube of Pillsbury Country Biscuits

- Can of pizza sauce

- Hot sauce (optional)

- Pepperoni

- Shredded cheese

Directions

Preheat oven according to Pillsbury instructions. Lightly grease a muffin tin. Open biscuits and cut each biscuit in half.  Take 10 of the halves and flatten in to little circles and place in the bottom of the greased muffin tin. Spread a teaspoon (roughly) of pizza sauce, top with pepperoni and shredded cheese. Flatten the other halves and set on top on the pizza toppings. Tuck the ends of the lid down the sides of the muffin tin and top with shredded cheese. Bake according to package instructions. 

Immediately remove from the muffin tin and allow to partially cool before serving. 

These are best served with friends and maybe a few beers!

I hope you all enjoy!

Love,

Jen

Sweet Sautéed Nectarines

I find that when I try to eat healthier - banana breakfast muffins, veggies and salad for lunch, lean meat and grilled vegetables for supper - I crave sweets in the evening. I really don't want to undo a whole day of eating well just so I can have a cookie or chocolate bar in the evening. My go to, other than dipping an apple in some whipped peanut butter, is sautéing fruit. This week I had a whole package of nectarines. Chris likes to tell me that I buy and waste too much fruit.  Not this week! I was determined to use up all the fruit while he was away on the farm!

This is probably the easiest non recipe to whip up when the sweet tooth hits. Warm up a frying pan and add a little bit of corn syrup to the bottom, just a drizzle. Cut up your fruit (I have done this with apples, pears, peaches, and now nectarines and usually use two of whatever I choose) add to the pan and sprinkle about a teaspoon of brown sugar on top. It does not take a long cooking time. You are just warming the fruit, you don't want a mushy mess. 

A little bubble and then throw them in a bowl and top with cool whip!

Serves one!

Paper Flower Wreath

I was a little late on the fall wreath making train, but this one turned out so pretty that I may use it all winter too!  It took a few hours to make and more than a few gluesticks, but I love the rustic chic outcome!

I started by buying a wreath form at Michaels.  Since I was so late I got it at a great price, $4.99!  I had a bunch of half cut up scrap book pages from previous crafts, failed or otherwise, so used up every bit of those.  I started by cutting circles out of all the scrapbook scraps, various sizes because I knew I wanted both big and small flowers.  From there I spiral cut all the circles.  Get good sharp scissors for this, it will make a difference.  Also doesn't hurt to get some movie theatre popcorn and sit on a friend's floor while they make their own wreath.  I would highly recommend it!

Circles and Spirals!

The spiralling part takes a little practice.  My last ones were were a little nicer than my first ones, and took less time to make as well.  You roll from the outside to the inside.  Start with a little hot glue and twist tightly.  I found that I needed to use a little bit of glue every couple of rolls just on the first few inches.  Otherwise you end up with a big whole in the centre of your flower.  Fine, but I found a little dot of glue worked best.  

Roll, glue, roll, glue, roll, glue.

After you have a few inches spiralled and glued, just roll the rest of the paper around it very tightly until you get to the end.  After you have the whole thing rolled up tight, release it and let it unwind until you are satisfied with the size.  Some I left quite tight, some I let completely unwind.  You will have the very centre of the spiral left over and that is what you will glue the rest of it to.  Fold the centre back and apply a generous helping of glue around the bottom of the spiralled paper.  Wrap the centre around the bottom and voila!

You're very own paper flower!

Now repeat the previous steps until you have a truckload of paper flowers.  Scientific unit of measure of course.  Make however many you see fit.  If you want to cover a whole wreath you will be making a lot more than I did.  I knew I wanted to just do a portion of my wreath so I made as many as the scraps of scrapbook paper would allow.  Turned out to be more than enough, but I just filled and filled.

Find where you want the top of wreath to be and place your "hanger" there.  I used burlap ribbon, folded it over on itself and glued the heck out of it.  I thought I had too much going on for a bow so just did a very basic ribbon.  Take creative authority here, folks!

Prepare to glue!

The next step is a little random.  Take all your paper flowers and start glueing them to your wreath!  Lots of glue and get them as close as you can to each other.  I started with the biggest flowers and then added all of the smaller ones after.  I bought some paper baby's breath from Michaels and I used that as a filler, just sort of placing throughout.  They had really long ends on them so instead of glueing, I threaded them through the wreath and glued them at the back of the wreath.  After it all looks the way you want it, get some clear sealant and spray the heck out of the whole thing!  Front, back, sides.  Give it a couple of coats, especially if it will live outside like mine does.  It has not starting snowing here yet, and my door is covered so no rain on it either.  I am not sure how it will hold up once the snow starts, but I can always respray it if need be! Check the details!

There is no right and wrong here.  I used mixed scrapbook paper, some flowers were perfect, others weren't, the general experience will be the same.  Beautiful.

Shopping List

- Scrapbook paper (various sizes and patterns is great!)
- Scissors
- Glue gun and glue sticks
- Wreath form
- Ribbon
- Filler (optional)
- Clear Rustoleum (or any sealant)

Have fun!

Love, Jen

Slow Cooker Korean Short Ribs

Chris went out and got us a Moose.  Such a provider!  I am new to moose meat, but am excited to learn how to cook with it and I hope that I like it!  Only problem, we still have an entire deep freeze full of beef.  Now, this may not seem like a problem to anyone "Oh you poor thing, you have two deep freezes full of meat.  Life must be hard" you may say.  I mean problem in the sense of "How the hell are we going to eat all this meat?!" Well, in organizing said deep freezes, I came across a pack of beef short ribs.  I had no idea we even had those!  Off to the internet to look for recipe ideas.  What I decided on was Korean style.  Delicious and super easy!

I'll take 6 please!

I knew I wanted to do a slow cooker recipe so I could have them ready after work and super flavorful from cooking all day.  One thing about slow cookers is that there is generally quite a bit of prep before you can toss it all in the crock.  I wake up with about an hour before I have to be at work, and that includes walking my dog, packing my lunch, and usually leaving the house late. I dont have time to brown meat or mix up sauces and chop vegetables in the morning!  In this case, no veg were needed, just a sauce that I decided to make the night before.  This sauce calls for soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, brown sugar, red pepper flakes, and fresh garlic and ginger.  I had most of those things... but I had to replace the fresh garlic and ginger with dry stuff and the red pepper flakes with Siracha (I know it is not the same thing, but some times you have to improvise)!  I think it would have been a lot more flavorful if fresh ingredients were used though, so buy your ingredients BEFORE you start cooking.  Mix all the goodies up and that's the sauce!

Check out my whisk! Thanks Chris!

Start with a package of thawed short ribs.  Mine were in ribs of three and I decided I wanted each done individually.  More sauce that way!  I ended up with 8 ribs, and the sauce seemed like just the right amount to cover them half way.  Place them in the slow cooker so that you have one layer of them.  I knew Chris would be home at lunch to flip them over so I started bone side down.

Pour your sauce! Make sure you coat all sides of the ribs.  No one wants to be left out of a good saucing.

Mmm

Cook on low for 8 hours!  My slow cooker has this great warm feature.  After the cooking time is done it switches itself to warm to keep the food at a safe temperature for 2 hours.  Always ready to eat after work, but I don't have to worry about rushing home to turn it off.

Look at the meat fall off the bone!

Once the cooking is done you want to thicken the sauce.  It is pretty much flavored water and fat at this point, doesn't coat very nicely.  Take the ribs out, put them in a dish, and cover with foil to keep warm.  I transferred my liquid to a saucepan and then put the container of ribs back in the hot slow cooker.

Has anyone seen my sauce?

I was not at all thinking at this point and I made a roue to thicken... I ended up with Korean gravy.  Don't do what I did.  If you need a thickening agent use corn starch which will be less gravy like, or you can just reduce the sauce without adding anything.  Once you have the sauce consistency you like, pour it back over those naked ribs!  To dress them up even more, top with sliced scallions and toasted sesame seeds if you have them.  Serve over a bed of rice and enjoy! I know we did!

Ah, the sauce, it sticks!

The Rules!

Ingredients

- 1 package beef short ribs (about 8-10 ribs)

- 1-2 green onions (garnish)

- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds (garnish)

Sauce

- 1 cup soy sauce 

- 1 cup light brown sugar (I didn't have enough so I mixed half light with half dark)

- 4 tablespoons sesame oil

- 4 tablespoons rice vinegar

- 4 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

- 8 cloves minced fresh garlic

- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or a decent amount of Siracha... I didn't measure)

Directions

In a medium bowl combine all of your sauce ingredients.  Feel free to refrigerate if you are not cooking until the following day.  

Cut ribs into individual pieces and set in slow cooker in a single layer. If you have more ribs you will need more sauce! You want your cooking liquid (sauce) to come up the side of the ribs about half way.  Pour sauce over ribs and stir to coat.  If your ribs are thawed the night before, feel free to pour your sauce over the ribs and marinate in the fridge overnight!  Set slow cooker to cook for 8 hours on low and if possible, rotate in the middle of the cooking process.

When ribs are done, remove from cooking liquid and set aside in a covered dish.  Transfer liquid to a small saucepan and reduce to thicken.  Add cornstarch if necessary.  Pour sauce back over ribs and serve over a bed of rice.  Garnish with green onions and sesame seeds.

Make sure to have plenty of napkins for these yummy, sticky ribs!

Love,

Jen

Banana Oat Breakfast Muffins

Well hello again my friends. Lately I have been skipping on breakfast. The most important meal of the day (they say). I have not been doing it on purpose, but sleep has been calling me. That and I don't want to buy breakfast before work every morning. So this weekend I made a huge batch of muffins that I can grab on the way out the door and skip the drive-thru line up. 

They turned out wonderful and hopefully filling. 

Now these babies can be made more healthy by skipping some of the sugar and replacing it with applesauce (would also make them more moist, double bonus) but I went traditional. If you are anything like me, you buy bananas and never eat them. At any given time I have 10 bananas in the freezer that never got eaten. That's why I went with a banana recipe. And I doubled that recipe and got rid of ALL my frozen bananas! Eight made it in to the muffins, two into the garbage. The original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups so I doubled it to 3 cups mashed up. 

In a seperate bowl mix all your dry ingredients up. Like I said, double it up! Flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, salt (not quite doubled), cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set this big bowl aside. 

In your mixer, get your mushy bananas, melted butter, vanilla, eggs, and I added some smooth peanut butter all combined. 

Now, you are supposed to add wet into dry, but I already had my wet in the mixer so I just went and added my dry and mixed it on low until it was just combined.  I sprayed my muffin tins with cooking oil and then just dropped some mix about 2/3 of the way up the tin. My recipe made just under three dozen muffins, so have three tins prepared if you have them available. 

Pretty stiff batter, could probably use some applesauce to sweeten and moisten. I baked at 375F for 8 minutes, rotated my trays for even cooking (did two trays at a time), another 8-9 and then  they were all done. Poke with a toothpick or wood skewer to make sure it comes out dry and you are all done. I could see a bit of browning on the sides of the muffins so I knew I didn't want them in any longer. 

I like my muffins to have big muffin tops. They are clearly the best part. Dump these puppies out (with the cooking spray they should slip out nice and easy) and set on a cooling tray to rest. Make sure to eat at least one warm. 

Delicious. 

Here's the rules!

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup Quick Cooking Oats

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 cup Brown Sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

2 cups Flour

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1/2 tsp Salt

1 1/2 cups Mashed Bananas

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

1/3 cup Butter, melted

1/2 cup Peanut butter (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F and grease muffin tins. 

Mash your bananas (three to four depending on size). 

In a seperate bowl, mix all of your dry ingredients. Set aside

In mixer, mix all other ingredients. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Drop mixture in to muffin tins and bake for 15-18 minutes, until toothpick comes out dry from centre of muffin. 

Remove from muffin tin and cool on cooling rack. 

Gma's Super Sticky Cinnamon Buns

Yesterday was a very wasted day off.  I didn't get out of bed until 11; it was pretty alright.  I did however decide that I would be making cinnamon buns today.  I went out with a flat tire last night and bought all the secret ingredients to make my Grandma's famous sticky cinnamon buns.  Okay maybe they are just famous to me.  They are my favorite.  Sticky, soft, sweet. *Drool* I even surprised her with a phone call to get her "recipe".  I say "recipe" because she doesn't measure anything.  Her baking still turns out perfect every time. I was determined that mine would be as well.  I did not disappoint myself.  Usually I like to bake and then bring treats to my coworkers. Not with these puppies! These are all mine! Well, and maybe Chris can have some too.  Maybe.

So this is what food porn looks like

You ready?  Let's do this.

I think the only thing that my Grandma does different than most recipes that I looked at online is that she uses a generous helping of corn syrup.  Then of course I added my own twist. A twist called Skor bits.  You honestly can't ever go wrong with Skor bits.

For Gma's recipe she said to start with her regular bread dough recipe.  Her bread and buns are always so fluffy so bread dough I made.  I will let you know now, if you only have an hour to kill then you CANNOT make these. Bread takes time and love.  So give it both.  I use my Kitchenaid stand mixer with the bread hook to mix my dry ingredients (flour, yeast, sugar, and salt) and then a separate small bowl to mix up the wet (egg, milk, butter).  Mix the wet into the dry in the mixer for about a minute and then get your hands dirty! Isn't my mixer beautiful? Thanks to my Dad, it is very beautiful.

Knead on a floured surface for 3-4 minutes or until the dough feels elastic.  After this, you will realize that there is a muscle in your forearm that is used specifically for kneading and it will let you know that it exists.

Not ready to eat yet.

Put some oil in a large bowl and return your round, elastic, dough ball to that bowl and cover with a tea towel.  You need it to about double in size before you can move on to the next step so find a warm spot in the kitchen, place your covered bowl there, and find something to do for the next hour or so.  In my case, it was taking the tire off my vehicle and patching it up (with the help of Chris).

Ready for the secret step?  Its the corn syrup.  After the dough has risen enough start dressing up a non stick 9x13" pan.  Generously cover it in butter, including the sides.  Give it a sprinkle of brown sugar and cinnamon.  And now the magic.  Drizzle the bottom of the pan with corn syrup.  You don't need to cover the bottom or anything, but if you want sticky this is the trick.

That's the ticket.

Time to cover another counter with flour. Dust some flour out, pop your fluffy dough out of the greasy bowl and roll it out to a roughly 10x18" rectangle. Now, mine was not a perfect rectangle.  The two end pieces looked a little derpy, but I tasted one of them first and they were just right.

Rectangle Enough

In a bowl, mix together your brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and cut in some more butter for good measure.  Melt more butter (because no one ever said cinnamon buns were good for you) and brush it all over your almost rectangle.  Take your sugar and spice bowl and dump that shit out on your butter covered polygon. Make sure to distribute it evenly so no crevice of your bun is missing out on the party.  You can add extras at this step as well.  Like I mentioned before, I chose Skor bits as my surprise.  Some people like raisins.  It's up to you, my friend.

Cinnamon, sugar, butter, Skor party!

Now we roll.  Start on one of the long sides and roll it as tight as you can, pinching the edge together to it stays closed.

Almost ready to eat

Cut from the end about 1 1/2" with a super sharp knife.  You should get twelve buns.  Mine weren't all the same size, but I did manage to get twelve out of it.  Another success! Have the corn syrup concoction close by and place your cut buns in its gooey mess as you are slicing.  Should go without saying, but they go face up. They will not be touching on all sides yet, but that is okay! Place them out 3x4 evenly spaced.  Once they are in the pan, find that warm place and cover them with the tea towel again.  More waiting.  This time Chris and I went to Canadian Tire and spent too much money. When I returned, about an hour later, they were lovely, fluffy little swirls.

Before: boring

After: Amazing

Ready to bake!  Preheat your oven to 325 Fahrenheit.  Corn syrup is the magic, but it burns very easily.  Bake this on one of the upper racks.  It should take you about 20-25 minutes, but I flipped my pan half way through so I had even cooking.  Once the dough feels cooked and has a little colour to the top you are done.  Get a cookie sheet and flip your buns upside down onto it.  That way all the ooey gooey sugar butter can soak all the way back up to the top. Just for a couple of minutes.

The "re-goo"

And now for the big reveal!

Ready to eat!

I also may have scraped all the gooey stuff from the pan back on top of the buns.  No wasting here!  Want another picture? Yeah I thought so too.

A perfect morsel

Now for the rules!

Ingredients

Dough
- 4 cups of flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- 3 tablespoons melted butter

Filling
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 4 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons of butter (plus 2 to melt)
- Skor bits
- Corn syrup

Directions
In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt.  In a separate bowl, mix together melted butter, milk, and egg.  Pour wet ingredients into the dry and beat with an electric mixer on low until just incorporated.

Transfer dough to a floured surface and knead for 3-4 minutes, until dough is elastic.  Place dough in to a well oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel, and let rise for 1-2 hours.

To make filling, combine brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter and set aside.

Prepare the 9x13" pan by covering with butter and then sprinkling with brown sugar and cinnamon before drizzling with corn syrup.  Set aside.

Once the dough has risen, roll it out on a floured surface to a 10x18" rectangle.  Brush the melted butter out on the surface and cover with filling mix.  Roll tightly width-wise, sealing the ends.  Use a sharp knife to cut the dough roll in about 1 1/2" pieces and place in the prepared pan.  Should get 12 buns.

Cover buns with a tea towel and allow to rise again.  About one hour.

Once dough has risen again, preheat oven to 325 F and bake on upper rack for 20-25 minutes.  Remove from oven and flip upside down on a cookie sheet for 5 minutes.  Remove pan and let cool.

I hope you enjoy my Gma's recipe!

Love,

Jen