Food Lush

Hot Chocolate in the Crock Pot

By Ariel

I told you my work does a lot of snack days. In honor of our team Christmas party today, one of the girls came up with doing a hot chocolate bar with all the fun trimmings. While we were skeptical, she totally rocked us all with an amazing hot chocolate brewed (do you brew hot chocolate? mix? create?) in a crock pot.

(Picture courtesy of Target.com, as well as my damask-loving wish list!)

Ginny's Crock Pot Hot Chocolate:

1.5 cups heavy whipping cream
1 14oz can condensed milk
2 cups milk chocolate chips
6 cups milk
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

That's it! Mix it all together over low in a Crock Pot, stirring every few minutes to melt the chocolate chips and to keep them from sticking. This was a HUGE hit at work and I'm pretty sure some other coworkers who were not on our team snuck a cup or two. I plan on making this for a New Year's Eve gathering with Bailey's and Whipped Vodka on hand, but this would also make a charming Christmas morning treat. If you're feeling extra ambitious, why not throw together a few Chocolate Peppermint Marshmallows?

This is the last you'll here from me in 2012. I hope everyone has an AMAZING holiday season filled with delicious food, spiked hot chocolate, and of course, PLENTY of champagne!

Easy Vegetarian Sausage Stuffing

By Jessica

This was my second Thanksgiving as a vegetarian or possibly even my third? I'm not totally positive, the years seem to just be rolling by in one big blur lately. At any rate, I know that I haven't made myself vegetarian stuffing until this year. I'm not sure why, it's not like it'd be that big of a deal to sub veg stock for chicken stock with even the usual suspect of Stove Top stuffing that my brother likes and have something that we both can eat, I've just invested more of my time on whole dishes like vegetable pot pie. 

Right before Thanksgiving, I became obsessed with having vegetarian sausage stuffing and ran down to Central Market to grab some Field Roast. I chose the Apple Sage variety, it just sounded more "fall" to me. For the bread part of the stuffing, I went with Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned Cubed Stuffing Mix.

This could not have been simpler to use. The instructions, on the back of the bag, call for the addition of onion and celery but as I don't care for celery in my stuffing I used onion and garlic. I also used veg stock instead of chicken stock and I used Irish butter but I could've easily used Earth Balance and had vegan stuffing. 

Super quick, very tasty and has reheated well! I definitely will be making this again.

A New Tradition: Friendsgiving

By Dani

I'm convinced that all food tells a story. Most homemade recipes have love behind them - the dessert your best friend loves, the green beans your grandmother made, the scrambled eggs that taste just like Saturday mornings with your dad. Even when we try new recipes, I'm convinced that we're drawn to flavors based on the people and feelings they remind us of, even if it's subconcious.

This year, we got together with some of our closest friends and had a "Friendsgiving" a few weeks before the real thing. We're from all over the country, so our foods and stories were diverse: Turkey brined "St Louis style", vegetarian stuffing from California, sweet carrots from Michigan, homemade ice cream from Kansas, green bean bundles from Texas, potatoes from South Carolina, a relish tray from Oklahoma. We all had reasons for our foods, a memory or a special person who gave us our inspiration, even if the recipe wasn't exactly "the way mom made it".

It was one of the most fun (and tastiest) evenings of the year. It's nice to know that you can take your family and your traditions with you wherever you go, and we'll definitely be making "Friendsgiving" a priority every year.

Have you ever had a Friendsgiving? What's your signature recipe?

Crockpot Cranberry Sauce

By Ariel

Almost a year ago to the day I came to you with a plea for help; I was hosting my first-ever Thanksgiving dinner and wanted to make extra special not-from-the-can cranberry sauce.  Reader Sarah Lena suggested making it in the crock pot and pointed me to this recipe.

Cranberry sauce in the crock-pot? I gave it the shifty eye but because I love all things crock pot I decided to try it out. It was golden! I am done. I've made the recipe about six times since then, mostly as a sauce for pork and chicken. I'll be making it again for Thanksgiving dinner, and these bad boys are on sale everywhere so it's time to stock up:

(Photo credit: google images)

Thank you Sarah Lena and all you Food Lush readers! What special sides are you making for Thanksgiving?

Unorthodox chili ingredients

by Katie

photo from: me

Everyone has their favorite chili, but some people can be downright fanatical about it. The purists (beef only! only chili powder! get off my lawn!) scoff at the adventurers (ground turkey! chopped peppers! add some cumin!). Because I did not grow up with a family chili recipe, I fall into the “sure, I’ll try anything” camp. Different strokes, different folks, etc.

All this to say: please do not throw things at me for what I am about to say, chili purists. Because my two new favorite things to put into chili are:

cocoa powder and sweet potatoes.

I know! Blasphemy! But the former adds this lovely rich undertone and the latter adds a mild sweetness that helps soak up the richness a little and it is SO GOOD (particularly in vegetarian chili, which can get a little boring and gastrointestinally intense, what with all the acidic tomatoes and fibrous beans and that’s it.)

Plus: slow cooker. Bonus.

Slow cooker chili with sweet potatoes and cocoa powder

1 pound ground turkey or beef (optional)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes with juice
1 14-oz can tomato sauce
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 Tbsp of your favorite chili powder
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1-2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1-2 tsp smoked paprika
1 Tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp salt

1. Brown meat, if using. It truly is optional- I’ve made this vegetarian a bunch of times and it’s got plenty of flavor and heft without the meat. (You do not, strictly speaking, have to brown the meat, either. I’ve skipped it, but I get a little nervous about foodborne bacteria and ground meats and slow cookers so I usually do it to be safe. I will often throw the onion in the skillet, too, because why not?)

2. Add all the ingredients to your slow cooker, stir it up, and cook on low 8-10 hours. Serve with shredded cheese and sour cream, if that's your thing. 

 

Is there anything else I should be adding to my chili? I'm all ears!

Afghan Pumpkin (Kaddo Bowrani)

by Elissa

So I've been in a cooking rut lately. The thought of getting dinner on the table each night feels like a terrible burden, and I'm struggling to come up with ideas. In an effort to get things moving again, I was thinking about some of my favorite restaurant dishes, and I thought back to a pumpkin appetizer that I love at an Afghan restaurant called The Helmand. There's one in Cambridge, Massachusetts and one in Baltimore, Maryland--I think their ownership is related--and I've been lucky enough to eat at both of them.

This pumpkin dish sounds pretty weird--it features a base of braised, sweetened pumpkin. Then there's a layer of garlic yogurt sauce, followed by a dollop of tomato meat sauce. But the combination of flavors is sublime. I had all the ingredients (I substituted kabocha squash for the pumpkin), found a recipe online, and decided to give it a try.

And the results were pretty good! Next time I might try increasing the tomato in the meat sauce, but this was a fairly good approximation of what I remember from the restaurant. Amazingly, my kids even liked it!

So if you've ever enjoyed this dish, or if you are looking to mix things up in the kitchen, give this recipe a try. And if you're near Cambridge or Baltimore, definitely check out The Helmand--the food is amazing.

Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispies Treats, AKA Homemade Pumpkin Flavor for the Time-Challenged

By Dani

Is it just me, or is October whizzing by? Honestly, I usually relish October as a calm before the holiday storm, but if my entire fall/holiday season is going to be like this month has been, I might just find a nice closet to hide in until 2013.

Anyway, my point is that I usually take some time to bake special fall-flavored treats, and this year I'm lucky if I remember to eat lunch. The other day I was wandering through the grocery store looking for dinner inspiration and found these:

Yeah, that's right. Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows.

I bought them because I'm obsessed with anything remotely pumpkin-y, and then stared at them wondering what possible use I had for them (other than gorging myself, obvy. re: forgetting to eat lunch).

I decided to make Rice Krispies Treats with them, and let me tell you: it was fantastic. It made my house smell yummy like real baking was actually happening, the taste was incredible, and I felt, for a few moments, like I'd actually reclaimed my supposedly-relaxing October. I actually used a couple of handfuls of regular marshmallows in order to mellow out the pumpkin-y flavor, and that was a good move. If you really love pumpkin, go full-force, but I thought the blend was perfect.

Maybe next time I'll use cookie cutters and drizzle a few melted chocolate chips on top to turn my treats into party-worthy snack (even for the time-challenged).

(Picture (with review!) from Baking Bites)

The Perfect Apple Pie

by Elsha

I love homemade apple pie. Served warm with vanilla ice cream; it may be the perfect fall dessert. Apple pie was the first pie I learned how to make, and I haven't found a better recipe. Here’s how you make it:

You’ll need a two crust pie crust. I make mine using this recipe. 

6-8 Granny smith apples, peeled and sliced (about 6 cups). Make sure your slices aren’t too thick or they won’t cook all the way and you’ll end up with crunchy pie.

3/4 to 1 cup sugar 

2 Tbsp flour

1 tsp cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

2 Tbsp butter

Stir the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg into the apple slices. It will seem dry at first, but as you stir the juice from the apples will dissolve the sugar. Pour the mixture into the bottom crust in your pie pan. Add a few dabs of butter to the top of the mixture before placing the top crust. Put on your top crust and pinch the edges together. (Or watch an instructional video on how to make pretty crust edges and do that.) Cut a couple of vents in your top crust for steam to escape. Sprinkle it with sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes. 

Also, here’s a tip: make an extra batch (or several) and freeze it! Then the next time you want pie you just have to thaw some filling. Throw in a refrigerated pie crust and fresh pie is ready with little work and less clean up. How awesome is that?

Easy Crock Pot Beer Brats

by Jess M

This time of year always has me yearning for some nice, heavy, delicious German food. And some nice, heavy, delicious German beer to go with it. So, with football on the TV (Baltimore Ravens!), I wanted something easy and fairly hands-off. I didn’t want to spend my Sunday standing over a pot frying schnitzel.

Last week we made Cook’s Country’s Slow-Cooker Beer Brats. The recipe is pretty simple and doesn’t require a whole lot of prep work. Onions and brats go in the crock pot with a simple mustard mixture and beer. At the end you remove the brats and heat up some sauerkraut. The Test Kitchen recommends you use a light-bodied American lager, but we used a heavier Marzen beer for fuller flavor.

After 4 hours on high, by halftime we were enjoying brats with sauerkraut and mustard and a side of soft pretzels.

(Photo from: Cook's Country)

Roasted pumpkin seeds

by Elsha

On Monday we took the kids to the pumpkin patch, because what is October without some pumpkins? After some serious deliberation they chose a couple of nice ones, which currently reside on our porch. See?

Anyway, it occured to me that if we're carving pumpkins, there will be pumpkin seeds to roast! It's been a LONG time since I had roasted pumpkin seeds, probably because the last time I carved a pumpkin was in high school. I’m definitely excited to make some this year though! I have a weakness for salty snacks and these crisp little bites fit the bill. I’ll be using this recipe from The Pioneer Woman, because I’m pretty sure the last recipe I had was written on a napkin. And that was 11 years ago. Not likely that it’s still in my recipe stash.

Will you be roasting any pumpkin seeds this year? What's your favorite pumpkin see recipe?