Hard Candy

This was ALL my husband! After a peanut brittle fiasco, he decided I would do well to have a candy thermometer. (He was right. I thrive on accuracy.) With our new instrument came watermelon flavor oil. He instantly wanted to make hard candy. We brought home our findings and he set to work. The result was perfection! Way to go, Babe! (ps. we halved the recipe and it made about 2-3 cups of broken candy.)

Ingredients

3-1/2 cups sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup water

1/4 to 1/2 tsp cinnamon or peppermint or other flavor oil

1 tsp red or green (or desired) food coloring

Prepare a cookie sheet with a coating of oil and a dusting of powdered sugar.

In a large heavy saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup and water. Cook on medium high heat until candy thermometer reads 300 degrees (hard crack stage), stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in oil and food coloring, keeping face away from mixture as odor is very strong. Immediately pour onto an oiled cookie sheet. Cool; break into pieces. Store in airtight containers.

Yields: about 2 pounds

Pumpkin Nut Bread

In preparation of our 2nd annual Pastors' Christmas Open House party at our home I have been baking up a storm. Lots and lots and millions of cookies. I figured some people might appreciate a loaf of deliciousness. A change from the cookies. I found this recipe from Good Things Catered and new I had to try it. Katie's recipes have been very big successes for me in the past and this just sounded too delicious.

It is.
You will love it.

Perfectly moist.

Perfectly spiced.

Mmm.

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/3 c. milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

4 Tbsp oil

2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1 c. granulated sugar

1/3 c. packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 c. pumpkin puree

1 c. chopped walnuts, plus more for topping

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare loaf pan (or mini loaf pans)

-In medium bowl, combine flour, soda, powder, salt, spices and whisk to combine.

-In large bowl of mixer beat oil, butter and sugars until creamy until lightened in color and texture, about 3 minutes.

-Beat in eggs one at a time.

-Add pumpkin puree and beat until combined; scrape down sides of bowl.

-Add milk and vanilla and beat until combined; scrape down sides of bowl.

-With mixer on lowest setting, add flour mixture just until barely combined.

-Remove bowl from mixer and fold in 1 c. walnuts.

-Scrape batter into pan(s) and spread evenly.

-Top with extra chopped walnuts and place into oven.

-Bake about until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour for regular loaf and 35-40 minutes for mini loaf.

-Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 20 minutes.

-Turn out onto wire rack and let cool completely.

Unstuffed Green Pepper Soup

My mom passed this recipe along to me from an awesome soups cookbook. (I'll let you know the title as soon as I can remember it.) It sounds (and tastes) a lot like a hearty chili and my dad told me it was "awesome." (Which is a really high compliment from him!) Kevin and I were both big fans!

The "hardest" part of this soup is probably preparing all 3 green peppers or opening all the cans. :)

Also, I might recommend leaving the rice out of the pot of soup and adding to to individual bowls at the time of serving. Otherwise most of the liquids are absorbed into the rice (meaning you might have to add some extra liquids to eat this as leftovers...which there are a LOT of when you're serving 2. I would say this could serve 5-10 people depending on serving sizes.)

Ingredients

3 green peppers, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

salt

pepper

1-1/2 pound ground beef (I used only 1 lb--half lean ground beef, half lean ground turkey), browned

1 (4oz) can mushrooms, drained

2 (14oz) cans tomato soup

2 (14.5 oz) cans beef broth (I used 3 beef bouillon cubes dissolved in 3 cups water)

1 (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes

crushed red pepper flakes (Optional)

chili powder (optional, I used 1-2 Tbsp)

1-1/2 cup uncooked rice (cooked separately to yield 3 cups)

In a large dutch oven heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook onions and garlic until beginning to soften (5 minutes). Add green peppers, stir occasionally and keep covered until softened.

In the meantime using a separate skillet brown ground meat.

Add salt and pepper to the onions and peppers in the dutch oven as desired. Stir in mushrooms. Stir in ground meat. Add in crushed tomatoes, tomato soup, beef broth. Stir to incorporate. Heat to a low bubble, stirring frequently. Add in crushed red pepper and chili powder as desired (or leave out altogether.) Add the rice when ready to serve (or leave out of the large pot and add desired amount to each individual serving.)

Swirled Cinnamon-Apple Bread

If you have a bread machine, this recipe is a must! It's perfectly delicious and (I believe) tastes just like the cinnamon swirl bread you can buy in the store. It's amazing as toast, but if you like apples and you like cinnamon than you should like this bread any old way. Kevin was a huge fan...as was I!

This recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens: Bread Machine Bounty.

Ingredients

1/3 cup milk

1 egg

2 Tbsp butter or margarine

2 cups flour or bread flour

2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp active dry or bread machine yeast

1/2 cup peeled, shredded apple (about 1 apple)

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3/4 cup peeled, finely chopped apple

1/4 cup toasted chopped walnuts or pecans (this would be amazing, but we had none and it was fine without!)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 Tbsp butter or margarine

Powdered sugar

Add first 8 ingredients to machine according to manufacturer's directions. (Always add liquid ingredients first, then dry ingredients (should be floating on top of liquids), then make a small well in the dry ingredients and add yeast LAST--being sure the yeast never comes in contact with the liquids or it will be activated too soon.) Select dough cycle.

When cycle is complete, remove dough from machine. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Meanwhile, for filling, in a medium mixing bowl stir together the chopped apple, walnuts, brown sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

On lightly floured surface roll dough into a 14x9 inch rectangle. Spread with 1 Tbsp margarine or butter and filling. Beginning at both short ends, roll each end up jelly roll style to the center (I totally missed this and rolled it all one direction...it worked just fine). Place loaf, rolled side up (or down if rolled in one direction like I did), in a greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Cover and let rise till almost double (about 30 minutes).

Bake in a 350 oven for 30 minutes or till bread sounds hollow when top is tapped with your fingers. If necessary loosely cover with foil the last 10 minutes to prevent overbrowning. (I ended up baking it for almost 20 extra minutes and it still wasn't sounding hollow as most loaves do, but it looked done so I called it done and it was fine.) Remove from pan. Cool on wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.