Cookie Dough Dip

My new favorite thing to serve for pretty much any event is a dessert dip!  I have 4 recipes that I will be posting over the next week or so.  These dips are so good and so much fun.  Every time I've served one at a party people just flipped over them.   It's great for a big crowd and very easy to throw together quickly. Original recipe found here at Add a Pinch

 

 

Ingredients:

 

1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1 cup toffee bits

 

Preparation:

 

In a large bowl with a hand mixer (or a spoon with a lot of muscle) beat together cream cheese and butter.  Add sugars and vanilla and beat to combine well.  Next add chocolate chips and toffee bits and mix until incorporated evenly.  Transfer to a smaller serving bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to set.  Serve with pretzels, graham crackers, cookies or whatever you would like to dip into it.  Honestly EVERYTHING would taste good dipped into this.

 

Meatloaf Sliders

A fun and delicious take on a typical hamburger slider.  I just made my favorite meatloaf recipe and formed the meat mixture into small patties and baked as usual.  Top with some crispy fried onions and YUM! Great little bite for cocktail party or just a fun dinner idea.

 

Ingredients:

 

1 lb. meatloaf mix (beef/pork/veal)

1 package onion soup mix

1 egg

1/2 cup ketchup (plus extra to brush on top)

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Crispy fried onions

slider buns or dinner rolls

 

Preparation:

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix meat with onion soup mix, egg, ketchup and breadcrumbs. Mix together until combined, be careful not to over mix.  Form into small patties and place on a lined baking sheet.  Brush the top of each patty with about 1/2 teaspoon of ketchup.  Bake for about 25-30 minutes.  On bottom half of bun place one patty and top with a teaspoon of crispy fried onions, place on top bun and Enjoy!!

Perfect Pumpkin Pie

For some reason, my family has NEVER made pumpkin pie as part of our Thanksgiving. We always opted for a delicious pecan pumpkin pie instead. I have always wanted to make a traditional pumpkin pie. This recipe is just perfect. So simple and soooo delicious.

Ingredients:

 1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin (about 2 cups)
 1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
 2 large eggs
 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
 1/2 teaspoon salt
 1(9-inch) unbaked pie crust

Preparation:

Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, and eggs together until well combined. Add spices. Pour into an unbaked pie crust. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes. Allow to cool completely.

Pumpkin Corn Fritters

I saw this recipe posted by Daphne Oz of The Chew and it looked so easy and delicious. I thought it would make for a perfect appetizer for Thanksgiving. Very simple using canned pumpkin, canned corn, with a few spices and some self rising flour and Voila! Fritters!!

Ingredients:

1 15-ounce can Pumpkin Puree
1 7-ounce can Whole Kernel Corn (drained)
2 Eggs
1 1/2 cups Self-Rising Flour
1/2 teaspoon ground Cumin
1/2 teaspoon Paprika
1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper
Vegetable Oil for frying

Preparation:

In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin, corn and eggs and whisk to combine. Add the flour, cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, and season with salt and pepper. When the oil is to temperature carefully drop in heaping tablespoons of batter, making sure not to over crowd the pan. Gently flip when the bottom is crispy and allow to cook on the second side.

Cranberry Pomegranate Martini

Thanksgiving is right around the corner or for many of us Thanksgivukkuh.  So here come some great recipes and ideas for our favorite two holidays!!

 

Every Thanksgiving my sisters and I like to create a new signatiure drink befitting of the season.  Susan found a recipe for cranberry simple syrup, picked up some pomegranate vodka and we were set.  As a granish we skewered whole cranberries on a drink pick and froze them.  It was a great extra touch and it really did make a good stirrer that kept our drinks cool. 

 

 

Cranberry Simple Syrup

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries (8 ounces)      

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

 

Preparation:

In a medium saucepan, bring cranberries, sugar, and water to a simmer over medium. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until cranberries are tender but haven't burst, 10 minutes. Let cool, then strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Discard cranberries.  Pour simple syrup in a small pitcher and reserve in the refrigerator until cocktail time.

 

Cranberry Pomegranate Martini

Ingredients:

1 oz Cranberry Simple Syrup

4 oz Pomegranate Vodka

ice

whole fresh cranberries skewered on a tooth pick or short skewer

 

Preparation:

Fill a cocktail shaker or anther container with ice.  Pour in 1oz of premade cranberry simple syrup and 4oz of pomegranate vodka.  Put on lid and shake for 15 seconds until nice and chilled.  Pour alcohol mixture without ice into a glass and add cranberry skewer for garnish.

 

 

Apple Fig Fruit Leather

My fig tree seem to produce about 10 ripe figs every few days so this is perfect for my blogging needs LOL.  Most recipes call for 8-12 figs and you have to use them within a day or so or they will go bad so this has been working well for me.  This recipe for fruit leather I have always wanted to try and it was soooo super easy and really delicious.  My kids ate it all in a matter of minutes.  One batch really didn't yield very much so next time I will have to double or triple the recipe so I have more to store for a few days.  Also next time I will dry the fruit leather on parchment paper so I can cut it up including the paper and roll it up so it won't stick on itself when it's stored.   I can't wait to try other fruit versions of this, so great and no added sugar (honestly with the figs I didn't even really need the honey at all).  You can find the original recipe at Mama.Papa.Bubba

 

Ingredients:

10 ripe figs, washed and halved
2 apples, cored and peeled
1 cup of water
1 tablespoon honey

Preparation:

Preheat oven to the lowest setting.  Mine oven only goes down to 170 degrees F but 125 degrees F would be better.   Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper (paper should cover all edges of the pan) or you could cover the entire pan including edges with foil an then place a silpat liner on top of the foil. 

Place figs, apples and water in a covered pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer fruit, covered for about 30 minutes, or until very soft and water is absorbed.  Pour everything into a food processor or good blender and purée until smooth.  Pour fruit mixture out onto parchment-lined baking sheet and use the back of a spatula to spread the fruit purée out so it covers the entire base of the pan. Shake the pan make the purée as even as possible.  The edges tend to be much thinner and will dry out fast than the middle if you don't get it spread out evenly to the edges.
Put pan in the oven for approximately 8 hours if on 125 degrees F.  I set mine for 7 hours and check since my oven temp is higher and it only actually took 6 hours at 170 degrees F so definitely check yours around 5 1/2 hours. 

You want to remove the fruit leather from the oven when it’s still sticky to the touch, but not at all wet.  You may find that part of your fruit leather will be done earlier than the rest.  In this case,  you’ll need to remove the fruit leather from the oven, cut off the finished part, and return the still wet to the touch part to the oven for another hour or two.  It's done when the leather will peel easily off of the liner and the bottom side will be shiny.

When finished, simply remove the large sheet of fruit leather from the baking sheet, cut of the excess parchment paper around the edges, and cut directly through both the remaining parchment and fruit leather to create strips.  Roll strips and store in an air-tight container.
Enjoy!

Quick and Easy Fig Preserves

 

I absolutely love fig jam and preserves served with cheese, so delicious.   So when I picked a few more figs this morning this was the first thing I wanted to make.  Not sure if this technically classifies as jam or preserves because there is no pectin in this recipe but it's sweet and thick and perfect to spread on toast so in my book it's close enough :)  It definitely won't have the shelf life of the preserves that you buy in the store so make it just a day or so ahead of the time you want to use it.

 

Ingredients:

 

1 cup fresh figs, diced

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon pure vanilla

Juice from 1/2 a lemon

 

Preparation:

 

In a small saucepan combine all ingredients.  Cook over medium heat until thickened, about 10 minutes.  Use an immersion blender directly in hot pan to puree the fig mixture into a smoother (but not completely smooth) consistency.  Pour into a small bowl and refrigerate until completely cool.