Buffalo Chicken Dip

This is my absolute favorite dip...mmmm good! It's spicy with a great blend of cheeses and oh so creamy. Unfortunately I do not have any ooey gooey good pictures because our camera decided this would be an excellent time for the battery to die. Of course our back-up battery was also dead. Trust me when I say this is an amazing dip even though the pictures we have do it no justice.

In case I have not mentioned this little tidbit before, I do not like spicy food. I love the taste, but I'm a huge wimp and cannot handle the heat. However, I can handle this dip and I calm it down by eating my dip with celery as my delivery vessel. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Buffalo Chicken Dip
2 C shredded chicken (I use rotisserie chicken which makes this super simple)
2 - 8 oz. pkgs. cream cheese*
1 C GOOD ranch*
1 C buffalo wing sauce (I prefer Texas Pete)
1- 1/2 C shredded sharp cheddar

* I used light cream cheese and light ranch, and it turned out just as wonderful as the full-fat version!

• Heat chicken and hot sauce in a skillet over medium heat, until heated through. Stir in the cream cheese and ranch dressing; cook, stirring until well blended and warm.
• Mix in half of the shredded cheese, and transfer mixture to a 2 qt. Crock pot. Sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese over the top, cover, and cook on low until bubbly!
• Serve with celery, tortilla chips, corn chips, or whatever your preferred dipper is.

In the crockpot waiting to get all bubbly warm and ready for dippers!

“Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for fewer problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenges, wish for more wisdom.”- Earl Shoaf

Snickers Cupcakes

So, I'm not really sure why, but I got bit by the bug this weekend and ended up baking and cooking a whole bunch of things. Oh yeah, this is Matt by the way. I started with Snickers Cupcakes, courtesy of Food Network Magazine, continued with some tasty Chocolate Malt Cookies, and just finished the weekend with some homemade Carolina BBQ sauce. So, here is the deal for the Snickers Cupcakes. I have to say that parts of them are phenomenal, but with a couple tweaks, they'll be perfect. So, let's go....



For the cupcakes:

2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
2-1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 large eggs at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
10 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole milk
2 cups chopped salted roasted peanuts (we'll talk about this later.


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Separately, beat the eggs and both sugars until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Gradually beat in the melted butter and vanilla. With the mixer on low, add half the dry ingredients, then the milk, then the remaining dry ingredients. Fold in the peanuts, but do not overmix.

Divide the batter evenly into the 12 muffin cups, filling each about halfway. Bake 20 to 22* minutes (I disagree) until a toothpick comes out clean.

*Salted nuts tend to dry out a batter drastically, which causes the cupcakes to end up a lot drier than I like. I would start checking the cakes at about 17 to 18 minutes to ensure they do not get dry. If you would prefer, you can omit the nuts and bake them as directed, but the nuts really
added a yummy texture to the cakes.

For the frosting:

6 ounces chopped milk chocolate
4 ounces chopped semi sweet chocolate
2-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup whole milk
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt

Put both chocolates in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on 50% power for 1 minute. Stir and continue to microwave until melted. Add the sugar, milk, butter, vanilla, and salt and beat until smooth and creamy.

*This frosting really is the star of this recipe. It is chocolately, smooth, and delicious with the whole milk. Use good quality chocolate for this one. I used bars of Ghirardelli, which is really my favorite baking chocolate.

For the nougat:

2-13 ounce jars marshmallow creme
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
Pinch of salt

*The nougat is very good too! The leftover frosting and nougat are in our fridge being eaten on the end of a spoon whenever we need a sugary pick me up!

Flourless Chocolate Cookies

I am not a chocolate fan...I mean it's okay, but not my favorite. I'd prefer a fruit pie or a vanilla cupcake with white frosting....or a deep fried pickle. However, Matt loves chocolate, so I'm always trying to satsify his "chocolate" tooth. I came upon this recipe in an amazing chocolate cookbook by Francois Payard called Chocolate Epiphany. I have made these cookies several times and fall in love with each new bite. They melt in your mouth and you want to eat them until your tummy hurts. If these were the only cookies I'd ever get to eat again for the rest of my life, I would be content. These cookies have turned a corner for me...a chocolate corner. I hope you love them as much as I do.

1/2 C plus 3 T (68g) Dutch-processed cocoa powder

3 C (350g) confectioners' sugar

Pinch of salt

2 - 3/4 C pecans (the original recipe called for walnuts...go the pecan route and you won't be disappointed), *toasted and coarsely chopped

4 large egg whites, at room temperature

1 T (15g) pure vanilla extract

• Place a rack in the upper and bottom third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

• Combine the cocoa powder, confectioners' sugar, salt, and pecans in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed for 1 minute. With the mixer running, slowly add the egg whites and vanilla. Mix on medium speed for 3 minutes, until the mixture has slightly thickened. Do not overmix it, or the egg whites will thicken too much. (pay very close attention...I did this once).

• With a 2-ounce cookie, ice-cream scoop or a generous tablespoon, scoop the batter onto the prepared baking sheets, to make cookies that are 4 inches in diameter. Scoop 5 cookies on each pan, about 3 inches apart so that they don't stick when they spread.

• **Put the cookies in the oven, and immediately lower the temperature to 320 degrees F. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, or until small cracks appear on the surface of the cookies. Switch pans halfway through baking.

• Pull the parchment paper with the cookies onto a wire cooling rack, and let cool completely before removing cookies from the papter. Store in an airtight container for up to two days.

*To toast the pecans spread on a cookie sheet in a single layer; place on the middle rack in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Watch carefully and shake during baking several times. Nuts burn easily and you can smell when they are toasted perfectly. Let the nuts cool and coarsely chop - I use a knife b/c the toasting softens the nuts and my knife easily runs through them.

**I have never followed these steps and my cookies have turned out wonderful; except that one time I overmixed the batter.

This batter was so very yummy when I licked the spoon! Mmmmm!!!

The cookies turn out very beautiful. They'd be great wrapped up in some clear cell0phane with a cute ribbon and given as a gift.

This picture is a little blurry, but I love it. It really makes me wish I had a cookie in my hand right now!

Jalapeno Popper Dip

This is one of my most requested recipes, and is very adaptable with the "heat"! I love to serve this with Frito scoops, but Matt loves to use the bagel chips. Is the delivery aparatus really as important as what is being delivered? I think not. I do not have an excellent picture of this, and plan on taking a better one next time I make it. I have over a dozen recipes I need to post...I need to get better at keeping this updated. ;)

2 - 8 oz. pkgs. cream cheese at room temp
1 C Helman's Mayo
1 1/2 C shredded cheddar (I prefer sharp)
1/2 C grated parmesan cheese
1 - 7 oz. can chopped green chiles
2 - 4 oz. cans sliced jalapenos (for mild use two mild, medium use one mild and one hot, for hot use two hot cans)

Topping:
1 C panko bread crumbs (you can also use regular bread crumbs, but I've never tried that way)
1/2 C grated parmesan cheese
1/2 stick butter, melted

In a food processor combine the cream cheese and mayo until smooth. Add in the chopped green chiles and jalapenos and pulse until the little bits of green are distributed throughout. Then add in the cheddar and parmesan cheese. Pour into a 2 quart greased cassrole dish. In a seperate bowl mix the panko crumbs, grated parm, and melted butter; sprinkle over cream cheese mixture. Bake in oven at 375 degrees until the top is brown and the edges are bubbly! ENJOY!

Reflection for the Day:

"I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they are right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together."

Food, Love, and Travel

OK, well, it's Matt again. There is no food prepared in this post, but there's definitely food to talk about. On our Thanksgiving trip to Georgia, we made another stop at a Diner from the Food Network show Diner's, Drive-Ins, and Dives. I just wanted to recap the tasty places we've been and urge everyone reading this to hit the road and find a place you love!

To recap our food travels, we've been to 5 places from Guy's Triple D show between the two of us. Rosie's Diner in Grand Rapids, MI, Four Kegs in Las Vegas, NV, Marietta Diner in Marietta, GA, South Side Soda Shop in Goshen, IN, and Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger in Ann Arbor, MI. In addition, we've been to 4 other places featured on Food Network. Mad Greek in Solon, OH, The Lady and Sons in Savannah, GA, Lynn's Paradise Cafe in Louisville, KY, and Bubba's Oyster House in Savannah, GA. You may recognize The Lady and Sons and we even got to meet Paula and Jamie Deen! The food at all these places was phenomenal and there's a reason they are all on television shows.

My favorite foodie memory of all time though involved a tiny cafe on St. Thomas during our honeymoon last December. We ate great food while the local island lady who owned the cafe sang Christmas carols from behind the bar in a way only a Caribbean islander can.

I post this to encourage everyone reading this to blaze a foodie path. Find a small cafe or diner that serves great food and make some great memories.

Food is love and we love to build memories around food and travel......

Happy Holidays to all!

No food post today, but lots of food in store for today and tomorrow!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Matt and I traveled to GA to celebrate Thanksgiving this year, and are having a fantastic time. The weather is beautiful and we went on an 18 mile bike ride with my father-in-law, and I'll be making lasagna for dinner (post coming soon). I wanted to take this time to say why I am thankful. I am thankful for an amazing husband, parents, grandparents, in-laws, friends, and for God blessing my life so richly.

Super Easy Italian Beef

No picture for this post, and I have about seven other recipes to add. School started and my life has been consumed by it. It is not crock-pot season, so we have been using it, and enjoying it. Here is a quick easy italian beef recipe that is delicious.

Super Easy Italian Beef
3lb. Sirloin Tip Roast
1/2 C Brown Sugar
1 Bottle Kraft Light House Italian Dressing

Spray your crock-pot with nonstick spray. Put your roast in, and pour the brown sugar on top of it. Shake your dressing bottle, and empty the contents into the crock-pot over the roast. Set the crock-pot on the low setting for 8-10 hours. After that time has elapsed, pull the meat out, and with two forks shred it. Put the beef back in the crock-pot, and serve between your favorite roll, hoagie, bread, etc. I also enjoy eating it by itself. YUM!!

For a good side dish - Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Wash and prepare brussel sprouts. Cut them in half, and place on a baking pan sprayed with non-stick spray. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper, and a little bit of maple syrup (optional). Bake in the oven for 20 minutes and enjoy!! The possibilities are endless with this dish because the seasoning combinations are all up to your imagination!! Experiment!