Fresh Hurricane Cherry Pie

Hurricanites know about these cherries. They ripen quick and the birds get to them so I've never had enough of them to do anything with except eat them fresh off the tree as fast as possible. Well, I just so happen to have a lot this year so before they got old, we decided to try a Hurricane Cherry Pie.

I used this recipe as my guide:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/fresh-cherry-pie

My changes:

I used apple juice because I don't keep cherry juice on hand. 

I halved fresh cherries and added 4 cups to the hot sugar mixture and let it sit while I made the pie crust. I also brought the whole filing with the cherries back up to a boil to make sure the filing would set up. 

I added 2 tbs olive oil to the pie crust. 

For the filing I did not use nutmeg. I don't like it :)

I did use vanilla, almond extract and cinnamon. 

I actually followed the baking instructions and let it cool for about an hour. Goes great with vanilla ice cream. 

Shrimp Pasta in Creamy Garlic Butter Sauce

Dinner time is always hard for my brain. I get stuck making the same things over and over again, so going out always revitalizes my creativity and some times sparks enough curiosity that I try something new.

I've never made anything like this, but after a trip to (insert nationally recognized pasta chain name here) I was left really disappointed. The pasta was dry, flavorless and the shrimp was soggy and sad. It really isn't that hard to make an easy copy-cat dish, so here's my attempt.

Shrimp Pasta in Creamy Garlic Butter Sauce

I bought frozen shrimp that was un-cooked but shelled with no tails. I threw those in my favorite frying pan and cooked them on low with 1/4 cup of butter until they were pink. \

In a separate bowl, combine 1 tbs flour with 1/4 cup heavy cream and 1 cup of milk. Whisk together in the bowl until well incorporated. Before adding the milk and cream mixture to the shrimp, I added green onions - I like a lot of them - and let those cook just enough to get the flavor settled. I added a dash of my favorite garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste. Combine the milk and cream in the warm pan over low heat stirring constantly. I upped the heat a little to let the sauce thicken. Then I added a chopped tomato to the sauce before poring the entire mixture into my pot of freshly cooked pasta.

Add a side of crisp sauteed asparagus with olive oil for more greens, and that was dinner. Refreshing, flavorful and some what healthy. Definitely better than (insert pasta chain).

My New Favorite: Coconut Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

These were a happy accident/ experiment. I needed a cookie, but I wanted something with substance. I found a recipe but being the impatient cook that I am I didn't do the one thing the recipe advised strongly. I didn't chill the dough. I mean, who waits to chill dough?! It didn't turn out too bad. I just made sure to press the dough in my hands and it was actually a very moisturizing process for my tired hands... And smelled wonderful.

Here is a link to the full recipe:

http://www.averiecooks.com/2013/12/soft-and-chewy-oatmeal-coconut-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

Here are my secret weapons for this recipe:

Sweet Home Farms Honey Nut granola for the "oatmeal ", Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips and Better Body Foods organic extra virgin coconut oil. 

I also baked them for 8 minutes at 375. They were a little crumbly but crunchy around the edges. I'm ok with that! This is my new favorite cookie recipe.

Chocolate Mousse

Confessions from a chocoholic require me to share this little discovery. Here's what you'll need:

1 Chocolate Pudding Package
1 Cup Milk
2 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream
1/4 Cup Sugar (to taste)
1 TSP Vanilla (to taste)

I really like my electric hand mixer and it has a whipping attachment. Whip up the pudding and milk, set aside. Start whipping up the cream until soft peaks form. Add the vanilla and sugar and whip it all together. My portions may be slightly off- I kind of wing it and add more of the things I'm craving like more sugar or more vanilla to taste.

Take the pudding mixture and add a layer in the bottom of a short glass. In your pudding mixture, add a couple of scoops of the whipping cream to the pudding, whip and then add a couple scoops on top of the chocolate pudding in the glass. Repeat adding cream, whipping and layering as you see fit. It should look something like this:

And it tastes like heaven :)

Broccoli Salad

I was on a quest for a yummy broccoli recipe. This recipe is always at any family function I go to it seems so I looked into how I go about making it. The recipe's I found called for 1 cup of mayo, 2 tbs vinegar and 1/4 cup of sugar for the dressing. Since I like to boycott recipe's I used a little less than a cup of mayo (because I don't really care for mayo), more than 2 tbs of red wine vinegar (because its yummier) and sugar to taste. Mix your dressing first then add sunflower seeds, craisins, chopped onion and mix together. Instead of just adding broccoli, I also added cauliflower. This makes a great side dish, but if you are me and you're looking for a grab-and-go lunch, add some already cooked chicken breast (I used the leftover baked chicken from dinner last night) and it's a complete meal. Filling, healthy and delicious. 

Spinach Quiche

I actually cooked from a recipe! I will have to post that later, but for now here is a photo recipe of very first Quiche. I'm so glad that it actually ended up tasting good. I wasn't sure if I liked Quiche or not until I made this and it's a keeper.

This first picture is to help demonstrate the consistency of the pie crust. You can see in the bowl it looks dry, but when you press it into the pie tin, its moist enough to stay in place. I used a basic oil-based pie crust recipe but also added a little shortening and water to get it the way I wanted it.

I don't like to roll pie crust out, because I prefer it to be thick. After I press it into a pie tin, I used a fork to stamp the outside edge.

While baking the pie crust, I prepared some grilled chopped onion, added bacon and sliced the spinach for the quiche. I made a mistake and should have lined the pie crust with tin foil when I baked it initially, it got a little too brown. Oh well, next time.

The other half of the recipe was the egg mixture complete with mozzarella and a dash of pepper. I reduced the amount of eggs that the recipe called for. I have had quiche once or twice in my life, and I always though it was too egg-ie. I know that's kind of the point of a quiche, it's an egg dish. However, the recipe I used called for 8 eggs and I only wanted to use 5. I think the taste was MUCH BETTER  this way.

Since I didn't want to burn the edges of the pie crust any further, This time I lined the outside edges with a double layer of tin foil. This makes it so that the crust doesn't burn. After I lined the pie, i mixed all of the ingredients in the bowl and poured it in the tin. I was able to make 1 pie from the recipe.

This is the result! Because I over cooked the crust a little, some of it crumbled off. I baked this for about 45 minutes and the recipe called for 50-60 minutes. I new it was done when I could insert a tooth pick in the center and it came out clean.

The recipe mentioned that a tomato would compliment this well, and it was right. It was so yummy! A little balsamic vinaigrette on the tomato and some rosemary and it was the perfect meal.

The recipe as they cooked it in the book I followed is about 410 calories per serving. With my version, we eliminate some of those calories because I only used 5 eggs instead of 8, but just be aware that this dish is high in calorie, but it also has lots of good spinach and protein.

I think some of the things that are IMPORTANT for this recipe that made it so good was the grilled onions and bacon. I didn't add a whole lot of bacon (only about 5 strips) but the flavor was so good. I also put 1 tbsp of sugar in my pie crust and it made it so yummy. I left the bottom of the pie crust a little thick too. Also, I like that the recipe had me add sour cream to the egg mixture, it gave it a great taste and consistency.

Fried Chicken & Biscuits

I discovered that biscuits are actually super easy to make. I don't know why I didn't know this! I also discovered that if you make too much biscuit dough that it makes an amazing batter for fried chicken with a little modification.

1. Pick a biscuit recipe from your favorite cookbook.

 2. Half of the dough make in to biscuits. The other half add some seasoned salt and parsley to. I also added a dash of milk to make it a little more runny.

 3. Bake the biscuits.

 4. Dip and fry your chicken.

 5. For good measure, I put the chicken in the oven for about 10-15 minutes to crisp them up and make sure they were fully cooked.

 The lovely chicken looks KFC worthy!

And the biscuits and chicken are ready for dinner.