Sugar Bombs

I started making this sweet when I had to make a dessert for the staff party, but didn't have eggs or flour. Time was a bit rushed so I decided to try and experiment with some of the materials on hand and came up with a delicious chocolate peanut butter combination. I shared them at the staff party, and later made them again for my students. I led an after-school Russian club for the some high school students and brought some of the candy in as a treat. Such giddiness followed the consumption of these sweets that the teens dubbed them "sugar bombs" and warned that they were fairly dangerous. If you need a sugar rush, these are for you!
The great thing about this recipe is even if you mess up some on the directions its not really a big deal - its all going to the same place!


Sugar Bombs
Ingredients:
one package semi-sweet chocolate chips
one package peanut butter chips (unless you mess up, then you'll need another cup or so)
2 cups or so of mini-marshmallows (more is generally better, I do it by eye honestly)
1 cup or more of broken up peanuts (more if you like peanuts a lot, less if you don't like them)

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave (make sure not to burn if in microwave). Remove from heat and let cool a moment or two. Stir in peanut butter chips-- the idea is to have about half of the chips melt and the other half stay fairly intact. If you mess up and they all melt, just let the chocolate cool some more and then add another cup of peanut butter chips.
Stir in mini-marshmallows and peanuts.

Pour mixture into foil-lined baking pan (13x9 for very thin candies or 8x8 for fat candies- I like 'em fat).

Cool in fridge till hard. Cut into chunks and enjoy-- but beware overindulging!

Couldn't get any easier, hmm?

Magic Bars

These bars are incredible!!! Growing up I ate something like this at Bruegger's Bagels down in Raleigh, NC. I'm not sure if Brueggers are still selling them, or if they are the same bar. Some people call this a "seven-layer" bar, but since I've ditched the nuts it doesn't quite make "seven" layers! You can play around with this recipe substituting one kind of baking chips for another, etc., but my favorites are chocolate and butterscotch. Keep a glass of milk nearby while eating these!


Magic Bars

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 stick of butter
1 can sweetened condensed milk
handful of toffee chips (if desired)
1 bag of butterscotch chips
1 bag of chocolate chips (semi-sweet or dark is best in my opinion)
1 1/2 cups coconut (or so)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 13x8 pan with aluminum foil. Melt the stick of butter in the baking pan in the oven.
Sprinkle the graham cracker crumbs onto the butter, mix and press to make a firm-ish crust with butter evenly distributed.
Pour the can of sweetened condensed milk over the top of the crust.
Sprinkle a handful of toffee chips over the milk.
Follow suit with the bag of butterscotch chips, taking care to evenly distribute the chips.
Do the same with the chocolate chips.
And also with the coconut. :-)

Back for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

Try not to keep them all to yourself!

Millionaire's Shortbread

Well holiday cooking has started, with the first family party this weekend. I've made a few treats to bring along, and thought I would post the recipes and pictures. This shortbread is delicious, but you almost want to enjoy the shortbread separate- I'll have to make plain shortbread soon. The chocolate and "caramel" make this a very decadent dessert, but the shortbread keeps it from being overwhelmingly sweet (for overwhelmingly sweet see "Sugar Bombs" and "Magic Bars" :-).

This was easy to make, but it takes a while since you have to let each layer cool completely.

Millionaire's Shortbread

Ingredients:

for shortbread bottom layer

1 1/2 cups flour

1 stick butter

3 1/2 tbsp light brown sugar

for caramel center

4 tbsp butter

3 tbsp light brown sugar

can condensed milk

top layer

6 oz dark chocolate chips or bar finely chopped

Directions:

Grease a 9 inch baking pan and preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl rub bits of the butter into the flour and mix with your fingers until it looks like bread crumbs.

Add the brown sugar and mix with your hands, pressing together to form a more firm dough. Press the dough into the greased pan and use a fork to prick in a couple spots.

Bake in oven for 20 minutes, bottom layer should be lightly golden. Let this cool completely.

For the "caramel" middle layer, cook butter, sugar and condensed milk over a gentle heat. Make sure to keep stirring until it comes to a boil. Lower the heat and keep cooking until the caramel is coming away from the sides of the pan and is a light golden color. Pour over the shortbread bottom layer and let cool completely.

When the middle layer has firmed up enough, melt the dark chocolate in a double boiler (or in the microwave I suppose).

Spread the melted chocolate over the caramel and then refrigerate the whole thing. Later cut into squares (like bars) and serve!

Yum, I wish I had one right now!

Red Cabbage and Apples

This is a delicious side dish to make if you happen to have a red cabbage and want to be creative. It tastes great and is reasonably quick and easy to make. Everyone loved it! With cinnamon and brown sugar, who wouldn't love this vegetable?

Ingredients:

1 red cabbage

1 large apple

1 tsp cinnamon (or more)

2 tbsp brown sugar (or more)

1 mug water

cooking oil, butter, etc.

Cut cabbage into thin slices while you heat the oil in a deep frying pan. Add the cabbage to the oil (with butter if desired) and saute for five minutes or so, making sure to stir so the slices cook evenly.

Peel the apple and slice strips or grate. Add the grated apple, cinnamon, brown sugar and water to the frying pan with the cabbage.

Stir while you simmer until most of the water has evaporated. Or just drain after five minutes if its already dinner time!

Serve hot and enjoy!

Polish Chicken Bitki (pictures were all terrible- sorry!)

This is not a family recipe for ground chicken, but one I have discovered in cookbooks. On the web there are multiple listings for "bitki," some Polish, some Ukrainian, some Russian . . . all different! I finally decided to try it, but wound up overcooking just a bit. They were still very tasty, so I can only imagine they would taste better if not overcooked :-)

I served them with an option of ketchup or sour cream. The women chose sour cream and the men chose ketchup. Go figure!



Chicken Bitki

Ingredients:
16oz ground chicken
2 eggs separated
3 tbsp butter
7oz mushrooms, diced
1 1/4 cups bread crumbs
1/2 tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper
3tbsp flour
4 tbsp cooking oil (I tried with enova, canola and olive oil- it all tasted good)





Melt the butter in a frying pan and saute diced mushroom until soft and most of the juices have cooked off. Let the mushrooms cool while you mix the chicken, egg yolks, breadcrumbs, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Then mix in the mushrooms



Whisk the egg white until stiff (using a hand mixer would really help!), and stir half of the whites into the chicken mixture. Then fold the rest into the mixture.



With clean hands shape the chicken mixture into small long meatballs about three inches long and one inch wide. Dip meatballs into the flour and give them a good coating.



Heat your cooking oil in a frying pan and fry each bitki on each side until golden brown and cooked through. You may need to add more oil as you go through batches of meatballs.



Enjoy!

Winter Squash with Maple Syrup

I was assigned the task of cooking a few baby pumpkins we had lying around, and I decided to do some research. In a vegetarian cookbook I found a recipe that suggested baking with honey and butter, in another I found a suggestion for soy sauce. I put some different ingredients together and came up with a delicious recipe to cook pumpkin or other winter squash, like butternut. The squash tastes so good that it is now a regular request at our house.

Ingredients

squash (multiple baby pumpkins, butternut squash, or other)

1/2 cup melted butter (or as my grandmother says, "buddah")

1/2 cup maple syrup (real maple syrup, NO high fructose corn syrup!)

1/3 cup tamari soy sauce

salt and pepper

paprika

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Spray a large baking dish with flour or oil baking spray.

Prepare squash by removing ends, any gooey innards, seeds, etc.

Slice squash into crescents (half-moon also alright) and place in baking dish.

Drizzle melted butter over the squash making sure to distribute evenly. Do the same with the maple syrup and then the soy sauce.

Sprinkle with some salt and pepper, season generously with paprika.

Cover the dish tight with foil and back for 30-50 minutes (keep checking) until the squash is tender to a fork.
Remove foil, raise oven temperature to 500 degrees and bake uncovered 10-15 minutes until lightly browned.

Enjoy!

Concord Grape Pie

Across the street from our house we have delicious Concord grapes that grow wild. There were so many of them this year, we harvested them and tried to find a good recipe. We were about to start making jam when we saw the idea of a grape pie. Even though it sounded strange, this pie tastes amazing. It is both sweet and tart, soothing and instigating- a terrific pie. I've made it twice so far, and both times it has been a pie with a shockingly delicious full taste. I didn't get a picture of a slice of the pie, because it was eaten much too quickly. If you have Concord grapes- make this pie!





Concord Grape Pie

5 cups Concord Grapes, gently rinsed
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp flour
juice of half a lemon
2 tbsp butter


For topping

3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup melted butter




Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Remove skin from grapes, but save the skins for later. This is the lengthiest part of the preparation! Remove any gross or rotten looking grapes and skins.





Simmer grape pulp on the stove for about five minutes. When pulp gets nice and soft and squishy transfer to the food mill. Press through a sieve or food mill, which removes the pits.



Mix skins and pulp together in a bowl.



Combine the cup of sugar with the 4 tablespoons of flour and then add to the grapes, stirring well. Squeeze out the juice of half a lemon into the mixture, or use 1 tbsp or so of lemon juice. Add 2 tbsp butter (this is easier if you've melted the butter).


Pour the mixture into the pie shell (it is fantastic if you've made your own pie shell, but I definitely did not).



Now its time to make the topping which is crucial to the overall taste of the pie.





Blend 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/3 cup melted butter. With clean hands sprinkle the mixture over the top of the pie until covered loosely with all the topping.




Bake at 350 for 40 -45 minutes. This pie will make your whole house smell delicious!