Flavored Butters

These are three favorite flavored butters I made for a dinner at my house. Cranberry butter, Honey butter, bacon chive butter. I like to use Land O Lakes whipped butter. It's really easy to mix and light.

Cranberry Butter:
I mixed 3 T. or so of cranberry nut relish from Harry and David's into 1/2 a tub of softened whipped butter. Mix well and spread in a crock or pipe for individual servings. I piped these on tiny butter plates as well. Remove 30 min. before serving to soften. If you can't get a hold of Harry and David's any cranberry chutney that is slightly sweet would work. I love the little nuts in this one though.

Honey Butter:
I like Cox's creme honey. My sister got my hooked on it last Thanksgiving when she made killer Honey butter.
Mix 3 T. or so of cremed honey with 1/2 tub softened whipped butter. Spread in container or crock and chill. Remove 30 min. before serving to soften a bit.

Bacon Chive Butter:
I use turkey bacon because it's not greasy. Microwave 3 strips of Oscar Meyer turkey bacon until crispy. Chop into tiny pieces and stir into 1/2 tub of whipped butter. Stir in 1 T. or so of chives or finely diced green onions.

These all keep up to a week covered in the fridge. You can mix any flavors, using the whipped butter makes it super easy and quick to make.

Fall Salad

I LOVE this salad. I could eat it everyday right now. It has nuts, cheddar cheese, grapes and pear etc.. It's a nice fall to winter salad. In this picture I served it with grilled chicken for more of a main course salad.

Ingredients:
1 head romaine
1 head red leaf
1 pkg. baby spinach
3 cups walnuts (sauted in 2 T. butter and a sprinkle of sugar)
1 package Oscar Meyer turkey bacon- cooked and chopped up
3 cups red grapes- halved
1/2 red onion sliced into thin pieces
2 red Anjou pears (opt)
1 cup or more of English Coastal Cheddar shards (or your favorite cheese, Gorgonzola would be great)

Raspberry Vinaigrette
1 cup olive oil
1 cup raspberry vinegar
1/8-1/4 cup splenda or white sugar
4 t. Dijon mustard
1/2 t. ground black pepper
2 t. finely minced garlic
salt to taste
Grilled chicken (opt)

Put ingredients (except oil) into a container or large tall glass and blend with immersion stick blender . Add oil slowly to emulsify. The mustard acts as an emulsifier anyway, so if you don't have a blender, just put everything in a jar and shake. Add more of any of the above ingredients to taste. Sometimes it needs a bit more garlic or mustard or sugar according to your taste. Chill.

Mix washed salad greens together and place on individual plates or on a serving platter or in large bowl.

Top with red onion slices, (I slice the onion into quarters then turn on it's side and slice thin) grilled chicken if you choose, nuts, grapes, bacon and then the cheese shards.

Chill until ready to serve. If you want pear on it, slice them thin and top salad right before serving. Or- gently saute and warm slices in a pan with a little butter then top salad. Shake vinaigrette and serve.

I love love love English Coastal Cheddar. The only places I can find it are Costco or Trader Joe's. Costco has nice big packages. If you can't find it, you can use Dubliner Irish cheese or your favorite cheese. (One of my favorite lunches is a chunk of Coastal Cheddar, a handful of cashews and sliced apple, pear or grapes)

Popcorn Bar

Here's some fun popcorn recipes. This was a dessert for a dinner I had at my house. I like the idea of everyone helping themselves. I put scoops in all the containers and served retro popcorn boxes from Hobby Lobby. It was a fun do ahead, no mess dessert, and it was fun!!

Cinnamon Bun Popcorn is already listed in the dessert section. I served Trader Joe's brand white cheddar. It's great and didn't have to make it. Here are the other recipes.

Snickers Popcorn (I LOVE this-new favorite)
8 quarts of microwave buttered popcorn
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 t. salt
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 t. baking soda
2 cups salted peanuts
30- yes 30 fun size snickers chopped up

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Over med heat boil butter, sugar and syrup for 5 minutes. Remove and stir in baking soda. Pour over popcorn in BIG bowl and stir to coat. Stir in peanuts really well. Transfer to baking sheets and bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove and stir in chopped snickers. Return to oven for 3 more minutes so snickers begin to melt a bit into the popcorn. Pour out onto waxed paper to cool Drizzle melted chocolate over the top if you want. Let set, then store in bags or containers.

ZEBRA Popcorn
Ingredients:
12 cups popped corn (approx 1/2 cup un-popped) or use butter flavored microwave kind.
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup of light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 ounces dark chocolate (approx 1 cup)
6 ounces white chocolate (approx 1 cup)

Method:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Lightly butter a large baking sheet or two 9x13 pans, set aside. Place popped corn in large mixing bowl.
Place butter in 2-qt microwave safe bowl; microwave on high about 1 minute or until butter is melted. Add brown sugar and corn syrup; microwave on high, stirring frequently, until mixture comes to a boil. Without stirring, continue to microwave for 3 minutes. Stir in vanilla and baking soda.
Drizzle syrup over popped corn; mix well to thoroughly coat popcorn with caramel. Spread popped corn on prepared pans. Bake 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Remove popcorn from pan, spread out on parchment paper or wax paper far enough apart so pieces do not touch. Cool.
On low heat, slowly melt dark chocolate (in double boiler, microwave, or according to package directions). In a straight thin line, drizzle dark chocolate across caramel corn (see tips below). Cool while melting white chocolate, drizzle as for the dark chocolate. Cool completely and allow chocolate to harden.
Notes:

To make even consistently thin lines place melted chocolate in disposable cake decorating bags or freezer bags; close bag tightly. Clip a small hole in the tip of the bag and squeeze or pipe chocolate across popcorn.

Snowflake Peppermint Bark

I have to credit the blog "Baked by Rachel" for this recipe and idea. It's one of those Pinterest ideas that became obsessive to me. We love peppermint bark and I thought these looked like they could have come out of Williams Sonoma.
After seeing the idea I searched everywhere for the mold. There were lots of silicone snowflake molds, but I wanted that EXACT one, with the pointed ends. And so the obsession began. Rachel had found them at the Christmas Tree stores back east, a store I've been to before and loved. Lynn had just been by one a few weeks earlier before I saw this idea-darn.
Anyway, finally found one on Ebay for $12, waited 3 weeks for it to come from China. I was thrilled! The DAY it came I was at Target and found them in the dollar section.... So what's a girl to do? I bought several more. Now I can bark in bulk ;)




Ingredients:
8 oz. dark or milk chocolate. I like Hershey's dark
8 oz. white chocolate
2 t. veg. oil, divided
1/2 t. peppermint extract, divided
crushed candy canes (I used the candy sticks that come in a box. I like the deep red color)

Any silicone shaped mold you like. Hobby Lobby has several cute ones. Or you can just spread out onto waxed paper and make like regular bark.

Place dark chocolate in bowl with 1 t. veg oil. Melt in microwave at 30 second intervals. Stire well in between. When fully melted add peppermint extract. Stir well and taste. Do you want more? Add another drop of two if you do.

Divide chocolate between the 6 molds with a spoon. Spread evenly and make sure it gets into all the corners. Gently tap on counter to release air bubbles. (You can sprinkle a little candy cane on top if you want) Chill for at least 30 minutes or until chocolate has set.

Repeat process with white chocolate. and evenly pour and spread into corners top of dark chocolate. Sprinkle with crushed candy. Let it stay in the fridge for at least 2-3 hrs. Remove when fully harden. They peel right out.

Package or store in fridge.

Mini Cheese Balls

I really like this size. Your family or guests can take one and put on their plate along with crackers or breads. The toppings are really fun, nuts, chives, bacon, really whatever you'd like.
Directions:
Mix 8 ounces softened cream cheese with 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest and 1 cup shredded firm cheese (like cheddar, parmesan, pepper jack or gouda); season with salt and pepper. With moistened hands, form into 1-inch balls, chill 4 hours, then roll in toppings. Here we used chopped pistachios, chives, tarragon, hulled pumpkin seeds, bacon with paprika, almonds, and black and white sesame seeds.

Give Thanks Subway Art

This was a free download (8x10) from the site Craftily Ever After. It's also linked up on Pinterest. I loved it and it inspired me to design some Christmas ones of my own.

Bacon Bark

I made this for a party without trying it first, but I guess if you make anything with bacon, you don't have to worry! The only problem I ran into was baking it on a foil lined cookie sheet. It stuck to the foil and was hard to peel off. Next time- no foil. It's called bark, because you break it into chunks. I made it the day before and it was great, but you could serve it warm out of the oven as well. That was good too. ;)

Bacon:
1 pkg. of good quality bacon, chopped
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2-1 t. Hungarian Paprika (if using reg. paprika, use 1/2 t. and add 1/4 t. or more of cayenne pepper to taste) I ended up adding cayenne pepper anyway just to give it more of a kick.
Sprinkle of salt and pepper

Heat oven to 350 degrees and toss everything in a bowl to coat well. Pour out on a non stick cookie sheet and bake until bacon is almost ready and sugar is bubbling- about 8-10 minutes. Take out of oven and add nut mixture.

Nuts: (mix while bacon is cooking)
1 cup walnuts
1 cup pecan halves
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 T. maple syrup
1/2 t. Hungarian Paprika
Pinch of salt and pepper

Mix all in bowl until well coated. When bacon comes out of oven, add nut mixture onto the pan and stir and mix well. Spread evenly out on pan and put it back into the oven for another 15 minutes or so. Stir half way through.

Serve warm or cool and break apart into chunks.