Sampling the deep fried chicken

HOLLY’S MASHED POTATOES

YOU NEED

1 stick of butter melted

8 or 9 large Yukon gold potatoes

1 ½ cup of milk

2 tsps of dry mustard powder

2 to 3 squirts of ranch dressing

Salt and pepper to taste

If too watery, add instant potato flakes

Boil potatoes. Drain. Remove most of the skins. Mash with milk, butter. Add more liquid or potato flakes as needed. Add dry mustard, ranch dressing and salt & pepper. Put mashed potatoes into baking pan and bake on 350 degrees until golden brown crust begins to appear. Serve immediately.

YUM.

Then it’s lit up for all to see…and next day, it’s a sad, charred mess.

This year, we bought 2 sweet pumpkins & 1 Cinderalla pumpkin.  We roasted the sweets.

Next we browned the seeds in oil on high heat and then transferred them to a 350 degree oven to finish off. Then sprinkled with salt. You can also sprinkle with chili powder, cumin or paprika.

The question remains: What to do with all this roasted pumpkin?

Cookies? Pie? Ravioli?

The first thing you see when you walk through the doors is the chocolate fashion. 

We tasted lots of good chocolates, including passion fruit chocolate, bark, little chocolate rounds and more.  Holly did not like the apple or pumpkin pie chocolate truffles.

We also watched a demonstration on making caramel popcorn balls drizzled with gourmet chocolate.

They also hold this show in Paris, Moscow, and Sinapore.  We’d like to go to Paris.

We had over our little friends Nina & Theo to help.

Friends waiting on meat to cook for pizza pasta

Off the grocery store to get this list of ingredients:

- 1 lb ricotta cheese
- 1 jar of spaghetti sauce
- 1 bag of shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 lb Hamburger
- ½ lb Sausage
- 2 boxes of penne pasta
- Oregano to taste
- Basil to taste

Then back home and the cooking began.
Brown the hamburger and sausage. If the sausage is links, cut it into slices after it is cooked. Drain fat. Add spaghetti sauce.
Boil the pasta until slightly underdone. Drain it.
Add basil and oregano to the ricotta and stir. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Get a huge ovenproof bowl or casserole dish. (Deep bowl really works best.)

Layer bottom of bowl with spaghetti & meat sauce. Layer 1/3 of the pasta on the bottom of the bowl. Add a layer of ricotta cheese. Sprinkle on mozzarella. Spoon on pasta. Add layer of ricotta and mozzarella, etc. Do this until you’ve reached the top of the bowl or the end of the food. Save some sauce to cover the top of the dish. Sprinkle very top with mozzarella.

Back for 40 minutes or until top layer of cheese is really oozy.

Well, we made it and it wasn’t quite right. Seems we forgot something….hmmmmmmmmm….we forgot the ricotta. Still, it was good – but not good enough.

Oh well. We’ll check our grocery cart next time.

Check us out at twitter @52recipes

Recipe courtesy and copyright © Holly P 2010

Ingredients
3 lbs chicken quarters
water + to cover
½ red onion, quartered
2 carrots, roughly chopped
3 celery stalks, roughly chopped
1 sprig fresh rosemary
3 bay leafs
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp vinegar
¼ tsp lemon rind
1 T poultry seasoning

2 T unsalted butter
2 T olive oil
1 fennel bulb, sliced
3 shallots, diced
4 carrots, sliced
4 stalks celery, small-diced
1 large red pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
¼ tsp lemon rind
¼ tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp salt

1 package abc noodles

Instructions
Place the chicken in a large stockpot and cover with water.

Add the onion quarters, roughly chopped carrots and celery, rosemary, bay leafs and seasonings. Bring mixture to a boil, partially cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 1 hour. The chicken should easily pull away from the bones.

Using tongs, remove the chicken from the broth and set aside until cool enough to handle. Strain the cooking liquid through a fine-meshed sieve, discarding the vegetables, coriander seeds and peppercorns. Reserve the stock.

Pull the chicken meat off the bones, discarding the bones, skin, and any fat. Shred and reserve meat.

In hot pot, add veggies (2nd grouping except shallots & garlic), 2 T butter & 1 T olive oil and cook until beginning to turn transparent. Add the shallots and garlic cook until the vegetables are softened, about 2 minutes. Stir in reserved cooked chicken. Add reserved chicken stock and bring to a boil over high heat.

Season the soup with salt and pepper and hot sauce, as you like. Add abc noodles, bring to boil and then simmer, 7 minutes. Remove from the heat. Serve hot.

This is the best soup ever. The fennel and lemon make all the difference. See the happy pictures of Holly chopping carrots & adding celery to the pot.

We used 2x as many chocolate chips and added more sugar than the recipe called for. Then we cooked them as a bar on a full cookie sheet. They were crunchier than usual, darker and de-li-cious.

Special note from Holly:

If you’re aiming for a shape for your cookie, be prepared to perform surgery. The cookies expand.

Here is the original recipe:

INGREDIENTS

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large egg
1 (12 ounce) package NESTLE® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 cup chopped nuts

PREHEAT oven to 375 degrees F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.