A Yummy Treat For My Yummy Man!

My Man and I make a great team! One of the areas that we work well together is the kitchen.  Even though The Man rarely does any cooking or baking, he helps. By help I really mean he is the one who brainstorms the ideas and I do the work to make it happen.  I love it when I can make his ideas come true. This treat is one of the results of our great teamwork. ;)

Berry Burst Cookies 'N' Cream Bark

 Ingredients:

1/2 a package of almond bark

and 

about 1/2 a package of Berry Burst Ice Cream Oreos

 The steps:

Chop and melt almond bark

 (this can be done in the microwave or on the stove top in a double boiler)

Let almond bark cool for a minute or two

Chop Oreos to desired size

Mix melted bark and cookie pieces

Spread on a lined (wax paper, foil, etc.) cookie sheet

Cool in refrigerator for 15-30 minutes

Break into pieces

EAT!!

Caramel Apples = Yummy Fun!

Who doesn't like caramel apples?  I came across this yummy recipe last year in a Rachael Ray magazine.
Making homemade caramel apples has been on my to-do list for a while now.  When I saw this recipe I knew this was the one I wanted to try.  Well a year later and I finally got a round to it.  These taste delicious!  The kids love them, the hubby loves them, I sneaked a quick taste and I love them.  The honey-vanilla caramel flavor is wonderful.  The only down side to this recipe is that it takes a while to cook the caramel.

Now that i have your mouth watering for these yummy apples, here's the recipe.


Honey-Vanilla Caramel Apples:
Recipe states that it makes 6 apples, this all depends on the size of your apples and how much caramel you put on each apple.  I made 6, but have enough caramel left over to make about 6 more.

6 medium red apples chilled (braeburn, cortland or fuji)
Ice water
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups honey
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Skewer each apple stem with a lollipop stick or thick bamboo skewer. Fill a large bowl one-quarter of the way with ice water.
2. In a 4-quart, heavy saucepan, heat the cream and salt over medium-high heat until steaming hot. Stir in the honey and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Lower the ehat to medium and continue to boil, stirring constantly, until the mixture registers 260 degrees on a candy thermometer, 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and add the vanilla. Place the pan in the ice water, stirring the craeml with a wooden spoon until it"s thick enough to coat the apples without running off, about 5 minutes. (If the cramel thickens too much, return the pan to the medium heat and stir.)
3. Wipe the chilled apples dry. Working with 1 at a time, hold the apple by the stick and dip into the caramel, tilting the saucepan and twirling the apple to coat all but a 1-inch border around the stem. Place the caramel apples on the prepared baking sheet (if you want to add toppings now is the time to do it) and refrigerate for 20 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits and Gravy

Today I made The Man one of his favorite meals, homemade buttermilk biscuits and gravy.  He has been such a big help and blessing to me these past weeks.  I had some extra energy today and wanted to say "thank you" in one of my favorite ways, cooking and baking for my family.  Now biscuits are not my forte. I have tried so many times and more often than not ended up with hard flat discs.  Not this time.  I have found my new go-to biscuit recipe.  They came out just perfect.  I followed a suggestion on one of her other posts about baking the biscuits in an iron skillet.  Loved it!  I found my recipe at Mommy's Kitchen.
I don't follow a recipe for my gravy.  I just kind of eyeball it.

Yogurt or Jello...That is the Question

Our family loves coconut. Well I am always trying to find new ways to save money and make our food healthier.  I had been interested in making yogurt for a while, but all the ways I had seen either required a yogurt maker or were just too involved for me to take the plunge, until recently.  I was googling (my favorite pass time, it seems like there is always something to google) and came across this crockpot recipe. I made it, we loved, I kept making it.  Then I started thinking can I make coconut yogurt?  How would I make it simply add coconut flakes and honey or use coconut milk?  Of course I had to google and here is what I found a coconut milk yogurt recipe. I was excited to give it a try and surprise The Man with what was sure to be his favorite homemade yogurt yet.  What I didn't count on was being surprised myself.  So we are told that coconut milk yogurt will not firm up on its own and we need to add 3 packets of gelatin. When its time in the crock pot was up everything seemed right on so far, smelt like yogurt, but still runny.  I put in the fridge to cool and here is where the surprise came in.  When I came back to scoop some out it was a solid block of gel. Oops!  It taste great and I am definitely going to be tinkering with this recipe until it comes out like yogurt, but for the time being the kids and The Man are enjoying their coconut yogurt jello. Maybe I'm onto something.