Chocolate-Peanut Butter Fudge

I found a recipe for fudge from www.recipegirl.com that looked so delicious and easy, I had to try it! It only takes around 30 minutes to make - and that's factoring in my usual bumbling about in the kitchen. I'd say someone who was a bit more comfortable being in a kitchen could get it all done in 15. Easy, fast fudge? Let's go!

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter chips

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

2.25 cups granulated sugar

1 (7 oz) jar marshmallow creme

1 (5 oz) can evaporated milk

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Did you get all that? You just know you can't go wrong with those ingredients...

Directions:

1. Line an 8" X 8" pan with foil and spray with nonstick spray.

2. In 2 separate heat-safe medium bowls, place 1 cup peanut butter chips in one and chocolate chips in the other.

3. In a 3 quart sauce pan (you can do it in a 2 quart one like I did, but you need to be careful because the marshmallow creme expands a lot), combine sugar, marshmallow creme, evaporated milk, and butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil and continue to stir for 5 minutes. Then remove from heat and quickly stir in vanilla.

4. Quickly stir half of the hot mixture into the peanut butter chips and the other half into the chocolate chips. Stir the peanut butter mixture until fully melted and quickly pour into prepared pan. Stir the chocolate chip mixture until fully melted and carefully spread over top of peanut butter layer. Be sure to do this all quickly because the mixture doesn't take long to set.

The peanut butter layer.

And now with the chocolate layer.

5. Refrigerate until completely cool. Cut into small squares.

Yields 36 pieces of fudge (each around 145 calories).

Lessons learned: Don't just dump in the chocolate layer on the top and expect it to spread evenly over the peanut butter layer. It actually melts and displaces the peanut butter fudge so that the center is mostly chocolate while the outer edges are mostly peanut butter. If you want variances in the chocolate/peanut butter composition though, then by all means, go for it! I also found that the texture was slightly grainy when I tried letting the fudge cool at room temperature and then eating it. My dorky engineering background came into play trying to figure out if it was due to not heating it long enough to allow the sugar to dissolve or if I heated it too long and something akin to grain growth occurred. Turns out it just needed some refrigeration for a smoother texture.

Verdict: I'm definitely making this again! But I need to make sure there are plenty of people I can give this away to so I don't end up eating as much all by myself. Everyone that tried it (from my research group to my college friends to Joseph) loved it so I highly recommend the recipe!

Baked Kale Chips

First off, the question is: what is kale? I wasn't too sure when I stumbled upon a baked kale chips recipe on allrecipes.com, but I figured I'd give it a shot because I love chips but was trying to eat healthy while training for a half marathon. Turns out, it's a type of cabbage and looks a little something like this:

Not too appetizing looking when raw, huh?

My cat sniffed it and then left. And that's saying something coming from a cat that eats paper. Yes, my pet has eaten my homework before. No, that excuse does not work on professors.

So the ingredients list is short and the directions are very simple.

Ingredients

1 bunch kale

1 tbs olive oil

1 tsp seasoned salt (I used Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and dry thoroughly with a salad spinner (I don't have one of those yet so I just dried it with a paper towl). Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt.

3. Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.

Lessons learned: Spread the kale out in one layer on your baking sheet so that it'll all get crispy. The kale will shrink a lot after baking. Also, watch the time carefully. I only baked mine for 7.5 minutes, but I think it was still overdone. Reading through some of the reviews online, it seems that there's about a 30 second difference between it being done and it being burnt. And mine tasted like super crispy (not crunchy) charcoal, which is super appetizing.

Verdict: I only had time to make one batch so there's still half a thing of kale sitting in my fridge. I'll probably make this again to finish it off and cut down the baking time to see if it tastes better. If it doesn't, then this recipe's out for me.

Rum Cookies

Quick background: So one of the vets at Joseph's clinic just got back from a cruise and brought everyone Caribbean Rum Cake. Joseph picked out an amazing pineapple flavored one and it was absolutely delicious. I've been craving rum desserts ever since so I went off in search of an easy recipe that I could make with ingredients in my kitchen. Thank goodness for the internet because I found this cookie recipe fairly easily. I halved the recipe since I was only making cookies for 2 people, but here's the full one:

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter

1.5 cups granulated sugar

4 cups self-rising flour (you can use all purpose with 1 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt)

2 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

2 tbsp rum

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Mix butter, sugar. Add eggs and mix. Add flour, baking powder, and rum and mix.

3. Drop 1 tbs portions and press with fork.

4. Bake 8-15 minutes. Makes about 5 dozen cookies. (With my half recipe, I made small cookies and ended up with around 40 of them. The baking time was also shortened to around 6 minutes.)

Reaction: They turned out... interesting (family code word for "not so great"). They both looked and tasted like biscuits, although very sweet biscuits to be sure. I don't know if it's because I used the all purpose flour substitution or that I used light margarine rather than butter. Then there's also the fact that I lost count of the amount of baking powder I put in and may have put in an extra teaspoon... But the dough was very thick and sticky, which made it difficult to work with. And I didn't enjoy using my hands as much as I usually do because the batter was too rum-full to lick off my fingers. However, they lost the rum flavoring while baking :(

Lessons learned: If the dough doesn't look right, then the cookies probably won't turn out right.

Verdict: I'm giving up on cookies. I've only had success with one type (peanut butter), but I like the Girl Scout peanut butter sandwiches more. I also like Oreos a whole lot. My advice is that if you want a rum dessert, go for a cake.

Easy Chicken Jambalaya

Background: My mom got this recipe from her local HEB and recommended it to me since it was easy and tasty. I set out to buy ingredients on my next grocery shopping trip (I buy what's needed for one dish each trip) and here we are!

Ingredients:

12 oz cooked chicken

1 tbs olive oil

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

2 to 3 tsp Cajun or Creole seasoning, as desired

2 cups chicken broth

1 can (14.5 oz) stewed or diced tomatoes

1 cup uncooked white rice

1 dried bay leaf

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large skillet. Saute celery, onion, and bell pepper for 5 minutes; add Cajun-style seasoning and cook 3 minutes until vegetables are tender.

2. Stir in broth, tomatoes, rice, and bay leaf; bring to boil. Reduce to low; cover and simmer 20 minutes or until rice is tender.

3. In the meantime, cook chicken and cut into bite-size pieces. Toss chicken with cooked rice mixture.

This should be enough for 4-6 servings. If it's for 6, it'll be around 215 calories per serving.

Verdict: Easy peasy. And I love it! Joseph had two heaping helpings of this so I know it's good. This will definitely be part of our everyday meal rotation from now on!

Chicken Marsala

I made chicken marsala for dinner tonight and it was delicious! The recipe came from my pink Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It was pretty simple, but still took me forever to make (it usually takes me 2 to 3 times the amount of time the recipe suggests). I think I spent around an hour on it, but it can definitely be shortened to about half that time if you plan it correctly.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms

1/4 cup sliced green onions

3 tbs butter or margarine

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup Marsala (I got a small bottle of cooking wine from HEB for around 2 or 3 dollars)

Hot cooked pasta like capellini or linguine (optional)

Directions:

1. In a shallow bowl stir together flour, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp black pepper. Place a chicken breast half between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and pound chicken with meat mallet until its about 1/4 inch thick (I don't own a meat mallet being a beginner cook and all so I used a hammer... Just be sure to pound gently and have a couple layers of wax paper between the hammer and the chicken.) Lightly coat chicken pieces on both sides with flour mixture; shake off excess.

2. In a 12-inch skillet cook mushrooms and green onions in 1 tablespoon of the butter over medium-high heat until tender; remove from skillet. In the same skillet cook chicken in remaining 2 tablespoons butter for 5 to 6 minutes, turning to brown evenly.

3. Remove skillet from heat. Return mushrooms and green onions to skillet. Carefully add broth and Marsala to skillet. Bring mixture to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer chicken to a serving platter. Spoon mushroom mixture over chicken. If desired, serve over pasta.

Lessons learned: Tenderized meat = goooood. Also, boiling the chicken and letting it simmer for two minutes was great. The flavoring was tasty and it really got soaked up by the chicken. I think next time, I'd serve this dish over rice or with potatoes because the noodles just didn't seem to fit to me. It'd also be good to eat it on a plate for easy maneuverability of your knife to cup up the amazing chicken.

Verdict: Delicious! I'm definitely going to be making this again. Joseph absolutely loved the chicken and has requested it already.

Sugar Cookies

Another day, another craving for sweets. Plus a chance to use the mixer I got from my parents for Christmas. This time I went looking for a recipe for sugar cookies! They didn't turn out so good:

According to the Chewy Sugar Cookies recipe I found on allrecipes.com, they were supposed to turn out looking a little something like this:

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cup margarine

2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup white sugar for decoration

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients until just blended. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls and roll the balls in remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. Place cookies 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets and flatten slightly.

3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until light browned on the edges. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 30 cookies (about 100 calories per cookie).

Edits: So I didn't follow the directions exactly... First, I made half a batch because I didn't want too many cookies (I'll eat them if they're there!). Then I didn't have baking soda and vanilla extract so I just omitted them. I also saw that someone used the recipe to make snickerdoodles (adding cinnamon sugar as the topping) so I figured I'd just put nutmeg and cinnamon directly into the dough (1/8 tsp and 1 tsp, respectively, for the half batch). I'm really glad I added that because I love the flavor of the cookies! They're pretty unusual tasting, but I guess they'll be Joanna cookies. The dough was super liquidy so I couldn't roll them into balls, rather I just spooned the dough onto the baking sheets. Hence, the odd shapes of cookies pictured on the right hand baking sheet. I also didn't roll the dough in sugar because I figured they had quite enough in them already.

Lessons learned: For future attempts at these cookies, I recommend using even less sugar. They're a tad too sweet even for my sweet tooth. Maybe cut down the butter too to keep it from being so liquidy. Perhaps invest in some baking soda because that might help the consistency. And if you use an old cookie sheet, grease it! I used a brand new pan, which worked great, and an old one. The old one ended up with the bottom half of the cookies, which made my tummy sad.

Verdict: The cookies didn't turn out as expected, but the still tasted good! How could they not with a lot of butter and sugar? While they had low viscosity in batter form, once baked, they really were chewy and I loved the texture. I'd make these cookies again if I was really craving sweets.