Stovetop Popcorn!

I received an amazing Back to the Basics Popcorn maker as a wedding gift. Sadly, I hadn't used it until last week. I thought it was going to be a little more difficult which is why it took me a year to use it. I was AMAZED at how simple and quick it popped the popcorn! It was cooked within a minute! I'm never buying bags of popcorn again! Seriously, this pan made it so easy and fun!

You just need a popcorn pan ($20 at Target or Walmart). Pour in about 1 Tablespoon of oil and place 2 kernels on the bottom. Turn the stove on med high. Once the kernels pop, add in 1/2 cup of kernels and turn the handle as they pop!

Once it was finished we sprinkled a little salt and pepper on top. So yummy! 

 

Cool facts:

• Popcorn is a really healthy snack (just don't add extra butter)
• It's full of fiber and low on callories
• You can season it with salt, pepper, parm. cheese, sugar and cinnamon... the list goes on!
• Selena Gomez likes her Texas style: about 10 drops of tabasco sauce, salt and dipped in pickle juice!
• It's SUPER easy to make!
  

Tomato Basil Soup

About a year ago my husband and I enjoyed a nice fancy dinner at Ottavio's, an Italian restaurant in Provo, UT. We were very impressed with their Tomato Basil Soup. It was rich, creamy and held unique flavors. I have been on the search for that recipe and of course, have not found it.

I have however found a handful of "creamy tomato basil soup" recipes online. This is my latest project. I'm going to try this soup and try to find the best! This week, I'm going to test this recipe:

Rich and Creamy Tomato Basil-Soup (The recipe was found on All Recipes)

I'm going to search out the best recipe and report back soon!

Recipes from an 8 year old

I created a blog (Bayli Bop- Recipes for kids) for my 8 year old sister, who also loves to cook! I told her that I would love to share her ideas if she had any and quickly received the following email:

"hello here is some resipes that i want you to put on our blog!

               flippy funny pancakes!

first make a pancake then buy a can of whipped cream

a bag of choclate chips and some other candy get the

pancakes then get out the wipped cream make

wiskers eyes and ears and make a little tounge

sticking out if you want you could evan

sprinkle a little bit of candy on it.

         summer cool

 first you go to the store and buy vanilla

and sugar if need (milk) go home and

get a cup out of the pantry or coberd

poor milk in a cup get ice and put it

in the cup put one drop of vanilla

put one spoonfull of sugar in it then

done. "

Enchiladas

Enchilada's are one of my favorite foods! YUM! I love all kinds too; chicken with creamy sauce, beef with red sauce, beef with green sauce, chicken with red sauce... you get the point.

This weekend I had my in-laws over for dinner. With two extra men (one being a teenager) I needed to make a lot of food. The first thing that came to mind? Enchiladas!

With a busy Sunday ahead, I wanted to get as much done as I could the night before so I made 3 pounds of hamburger with one large onion.  We ate one pound as tacos for dinner. I saved the other two pounds for the enchiladas. Then I made the sauce. I hate to admit, I used 2 McCormick packets rather than learning how to make it from scratch. I put 1/2 cup in the hamburger and put the in the refrigerator.

Sunday, around 5:00 I pulled out my sauce and hamburger, got the tortillas and cheese out and preheated the oven to 350. I poured the sauce onto the pan, filled tortillas, covered with sauce and cheese and threw them in the oven for 40 minutes. Ta da! There you have 12 enchiladas! It fed all 5 of us and we still have plenty of leftovers!

Chicken Tacos! (Thanks to my husband)

The chef!

I was out of food. Walmart was calling my name. I went shopping. I then stood in line for over 45 minutes! Yes, I was angry. Why there were only 4 out of 36 registers open when there were more than 60 people waiting in lines, I don't know. Anyhow, I didn't get out of the store to go home until 8:00. My poor husband knew of the situation and my frustrations and was sweet enough to take it upon himself to make dinner out of what we had laying around.

I walked in the kitchen and saw two chicken breasts cooking on the stove, nicely covered in spices (looked like Canadian Chicken mixture, chili powder, garlic powder and some salt and pepper). He was cooking it in butter which I never do... I use E.V.O.O. and it smelled delicious! I looked on the table and found a plate of grated cheese. "Ok" I thought "we are having a piece of chicken and some cheese".

Wrong. My brilliant husband was putting together what would become the best chicken tacos ever! He cut up the chicken into bite sized pieces, threw in some sauteed onion, cut up tomatoes, got out some salsa and sour cream. After warming up some La Favorita corn tortilla shells, we enjoyed this amazing creation!

Yes, I knew chicken tacos existed. Yes, I have made them many times. However, I forgot they existed and how easy they are to make! Whala! I have a new dinner idea.

Clone of a Cinnabon

This past weekend was General Conference for our church. This means we watch the general authorities speak to us for 4 two hour sessions that we watch on tv. There are 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday, each session is different so a lot of people watch all four. As you can imagine, we get pretty hungry just sitting around on a Saturday (or Sunday) morning so I decided to make some cinnamon rolls! I had been planning this all week and was really excited!

The recipe I used (and followed with exactness!) is called "Clone of a Cinnabon". I was a little skeptical about the dough rising since I didn't use bread flour and I wasn't sure the yeast was still up to par. To my surprise, the cinnamon rolls turned out perfectly!!! I really wish I would have taken pictures but I'll just have to make them again soon so I can get one up!

On a scale of 1-10 I would rate this recipe a 10+!! Even though my ingredients weren't the highest of quality, these rolls were devoured by 5 of us within 4 hours!

(The frosting on the recipe was amazing!!! I loved it! But I just found this recipe that also claims to be Cinnamon's frosting recipe, looks good! )

Couscous!

As you all have heard, I LOVE to try new foods. Yesterday while shopping at Target (which happens to be my favorite store!), I found myself in front of some couscous. I then realized that I needed to make some to see how I like it! It was just the box variety, like Pasta Roni, but I figured it would be a good place to start.

Since we were introducing one new food, I decided to also make Pigs in a blanket. They aren't my favorite but Gary hadn't tried them before and I loved them as a child.

It sounds like a silly meal... Couscous and pigs in a blanket? (Oh excuse me, Gary corrected me and told me that the correct name is "smoked sausages in croissants" ).HA HA! It was delicious non the less.

The couscous had an amazing texture! The flavor was sun dried tomato, which I don't particularly like but if I buy the plain couscous I can make it any flavor I want! Gary liked both dishes a lot! He even went as far as saying he "Loves" them both!!!

Wahoo! We found two new dishes that we like! It was a successful day in the kitchen!