Shutting Down

Hello all two readers!

I've decided to move/shut down this blog. I'm continuing to post recipes, and my new site is:

www.caitlin-petersonfood.blogspot.com

I'm creating it as a "page" to my family blog, and have imported all recipes and whatnot to the new blog. It's easier administratively (is that even a word?) for me to do it this way. Thanks for following along for this short time I've been TKBD. Head on over to the new site and keep up with me here!

-Caitlin

A Seasoning Must Have

I just fixed a completely mundane dinner (eggs and blueberry pancakes) and I thought instead of sharing a recipe (as if you all need step-by-step directions for pre-made pancakes!), I'd share the wonderfulness of this seasoning. I first used this on my scrambled eggs, and boy oh boy.. I'll never go back to regular eggs ever again. This can be found in any grocery store (I hope) in the spice aisle and comes in a yellow container. Try it on your eggs first, and see what ya' think. Then you can progress to using it on all meat products, pasta dishes and anything that calls for seasoning of any kind. I promise, you won't regret it!

Basic Pizza Dough

Hmm.. I love homemade pizza! In our house, we do 1/2 chz (for plain ol' jane me) and 1/2 ham & pineapple for The Hubby. I've tried several pizza dough recipes and this one is my favorite. Not only does the dough taste good, but it only takes 45 minutes to rise! How wonderful. This recipe was taken from my top food idol, Paula Deen.

Basic Pizza Dough

1 3/4 c. warm water
1 1/4 ounces pkg active dry yeast
2 tsp. salt
4 1/2 cups bread flour
3 tbsp. olive oil

Measure out 1-3/4 c. warm water in a bowl (it should be pleasantkly warm on your wrist). Sprinkle the yeast on top of the watr and allow it to activate, about 10 minutes.

Put the salt and 2 cups of the flour into a food processor. Pulse 5 times to blend. Pour in the yeast and water and pulse 5 times. Add the olive oils. Add the remaining flour 1 cup at a time, pulsng and scraping the sides of the bowl until well blended. As soon as the mixture is combined, dump it out onto a well-floured board and knead for 15 turns. The dough will become smooth and elastic-like.

Place the dough in a greased bowl and turn to coat all sides. Cover with plastic wrap or a tea towel. Allow the dough to rise in a warm place for 45 minute, until doubled in size, and then punch it down.

I roll my dough out and place it in one cookie sheet, or you can cut the dough in half and it makes 2 12 in. round pizzas. I bake mine at 425 deg. for 15 minutes and we love it!

Rotisserie Style Crock Pot Chicken

Wow! It's been awhile. It's not that I haven't been in the kitchen creating wonderful yummy goodness.. I just haven't been blogging about it. I have also though about closing this blog down, but haven't come to a conclusion yet so I'll keep posting! I have a few recipes to share, but sadly.. no pics :-(. I promise though, that all recipes I share are exceptionally good even without visual confirmation!

This recipe I received my from aunt, and boy am I thankful she sent it. It's so incredibly good! Normally when I want rotisserie style chicken, I just pop on over to the grocery store down the street and buy one that is already done. But I love this even better, since it makes my house smell delicious from cooking all day and it's already at home when I get home from work. The other great thing is that if you don't have all the spices on hand, throw in something else.

Rotisserie Style Crock Pot Chicken

1 whole chicken (4-5 lbs.)
3 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. onion powder
½ tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
½ tsp. cayenne pepper
½ tsp. black pepper
Pinch of chili pepper

Remove all the innards of chicken. Mix the spices together and rub it all over the chicken (even under the skin), and throw it in the crock pot (essentially the spices combined together makes a rub).

Low for 8 hours (I left mine in for 9ish and the meat practically fell off the bone!), or high for 4-5.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

By Jove, I think I've found it! By "it" I mean the ultimate oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe. I've tried a few different ones, but this one is by far the best. You can literally whip up this recipe in less than 10 minutes and have gooey yummy cookies fresh out of the oven in less than 25. Don't get me wrong, I love me some plain ol' chocolate chip cookies. But once in awhile.. it's nice to have a twist. Shake things up. Go crazy and wild.. I'm sure you get the picture.

This recipe comes to us from a pretty cool lady named Amy. Have never actually met her, and she probably doesn't even know I exist but I love following her blog. Plus, we have tons in common. We share the same last name, love to bake AND live in the same state. Wowza's! So go on over and visit her blog, peruse through her recipes and if you keep up with her.. she has some pretty cool giveaways. Anyway, she doesn't know I'm advertising her blog but I figure if I do it to someone else, maybe someone will do the same thing for me someday. Hope you all enjoy your ultimate-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies!!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 c butter, softened
1 c brown sugar
½ c sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 ¼ c flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 c Quick Quick-Oats
1 c chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325. Cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Slowly beat in eggs, then add vanilla. Add flour, baking soda and salt to creamed mixture, mix well. Then add oats, and chocolate chunks. Stir together and drop spoon sized balls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake 12 minutes, edges should be slightly browned, and centers slightly gooey.

Trifle

We had a few friends over on Monday night for dessert and games. We had SUCH a good time! The best part, as always, was the dessert. I'm not boasting here.. but this trifle was good. It also looks beautiful! There are many variations to trifle. I've had chocolate trifle (never made though, and not sure I ever will. It was too much chocolate for me), and I also have a recipe for pumpkin-gingerbread trifle that I can't WAIT to try out in the fall. Trifle can be made so many ways to fit whatever your theme or cravings are. I've seen a red, white and blue theme with blueberries and strawberries. You could do a berry themed trifle. And it's also fun to mix up the pudding flavors to get different colors or tastes. I've always wanted to try something with white chocolate pudding. Yum!

By far my favorite trifle though is strawberry-banana. It's light, it looks beautiful on the table and will always be an instant hit! If you don't have a trifle bowl, it can also be made in a punch bowl. Make sure that it's clear though, that way everyone can admire the beautiful layers and will think you put more work into it than you actually did!

Trifle

1 store bought angel food cake, torn up into little pieces
1 large package vanilla pudding made according to directions
One package fresh strawberries
3-4 bananas
1 large container Cool Whip

Take half of angel food cake and place in bottom of trifle bowl. Spread half of pudding on top of that, covering completely. Layer half of fruit on top of pudding. Spread half of Cool Whip on top of fruit. Repeat with remaining half ingredients with Cool Whip ending on very top layer.

Tips and Tricks:

• Like I said, trifle is malleable to whatever your occasion might be. Experiment, have fun!
• For the strawberries, I sprinkled a little sugar and mashed them a bit to get the juices going. Makes them a little sweeter I think.
• Keep refridgerated until ready to serve. The whole process of cutting fruit and putting it together takes less than 30 minutes.

Sugar Cookies

Okay. Okay. I procrastinated BIG time on this post. So not only are they not decorated pretty, these cookies picture here are a few days old. Yikes! Please forgive my food blogging faux paux. I guess I'm just trying to say, don't let the picture fool ya'. These cookies really are good! The best part is that they don't require cooling. This recipe is perfect for all those impatient bakers out there that want their treat right now. Or am I the only one that feels like that? This recipe is courtesy of my M-I-L. She's been making these for years, but I was introduced to them over Christmas when she made them for Santa. I ate everything that Santa didn't. I've heard people rave about a store bought brand, I think it's called Lofthouse (or maybe Granny B's? Not sure), and these are BETTER. So fluffy, so soft, so good. And of course, so versatile! Can be used for any holiday or event.

a

Sugar Cookies

2 sticks of butter
1-1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
4 c. flour

Melt butter. Add sugar and stir. Let cool slightly. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Roll out in desire shape. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes (adjust time for chewy vs. crunchy cookies).